Key Feature: Day/Night Cycle Overhaul

The long-awaited day/night cycle has been fully integrated into NEO: The Game, bringing a dynamic and immersive experience to your planets. The new system now includes:

• A virtual sun that orbits around the sector to simulate a real day and night transition on each planet.
• Improved lighting effects that enhance the atmosphere, with a directional light system that dynamically changes based on the time of day.
• Planetary damage mechanics based on proximity to the sun, adding strategic depth as players manage resources and environment.
• Visual improvements that tie in with the sun’s movement and the shifting sky.

New Features & Enhancements:

• Building System Rework:
  • A complete rework of the building system now provides a cleaner placement logic and smoother interaction, fixing previous issues related to the building rotation and alignment with roads.
  • Building foundations have been updated to allow a smoother transition between different eras (Medieval, Modern, and Futuristic), with improved material handling and the introduction of nanite-based foundations.
• Advanced Research & Resources:
  • A significant overhaul in the research system: New dependencies have been added, and resources like Water are now correctly linked to their corresponding technologies.
  • The resource discovery mechanism has been updated to enhance the player experience during exploration and progression.
• Units & AI Improvements:
  • Units now spawn more reliably via the Unit Maker, with bugs related to AI spawning on planets being fixed.
  • Major improvements were made to the behavior of AI, ensuring a more realistic and engaging experience.
• Stargate & Space Travel Enhancements:
  • Fixed various issues with the Stargate feature, including bugs that prevented it from opening or listing correctly.
  • Space travel commands have been refined, preventing ships from moving out of bounds or in the wrong direction, ensuring more intuitive control over fleet movements.

Bug Fixes & Optimizations:

• Day/Night Cycle Fixes:
  • Issues related to the day/night logic were addressed, ensuring smoother transitions and better synchronization between visual effects and game mechanics.
• UI & Interaction:
  • Fixed various UI bugs, including the issue of the cursor being locked while in certain menus, and a bug that prevented the correct display of resources in some scenarios.
• Planetary & Visual Fixes:
  • A visual glitch on MacOS has been resolved by temporarily disabling Computed Shaders, improving performance and stability on affected systems.
  • Fixed errors with the planet’s visual display, including some glitches in rendering and the planetary atmosphere bug.
• Ship & Sector Improvements:
  • The ship movement system has been fine-tuned to ensure smoother transitions, especially when orders are given to ships already within sector boundaries.
  • Enhanced the sector map waypoint system, fixing issues where ships or commands pointed in the wrong direction.
• Miscellaneous Fixes:
  • Fixed several smaller bugs such as spaceship scanner not functioning, animal/villager/monster limitbeing incorrectly counted, and issues with building costs and road attachments.

Global Changelog:

• Fixed unlocking resource by name.
• Fixed medieval research progress and added mesh colliders for field harvest.
• Corrected ship orders, now preventing movement out of sector bounds.
• Networking improvements for smoother online play.
• Enhanced interest management to better handle distant entities.

Thank you for playing NEO: The Game! We are constantly working to bring you new and exciting features. Stay tuned for more updates!