Good news, survivors, We are incredibly excited to announce that [b]Robots and Guardians is out now[/b] on PC, PlayStation and Xbox for Stranded: Alien Dawn! It is time to join a rebel faction on the run from a manufacturing consortium after their rescue of Hope 9000, the galaxy's first sentient android. Collect resources, build out your base, and take control of automatic defences to protect yourself from robotic enemies as you protect Hope 9000's growing humanity and sentience.  Launching alongside Robots and Guardians is a free update with new gameplay features, recipes and items, which will be available for you to use in all of Stranded: Alien Dawn's scenarios. The biggest addition are resource Delivery Drones designed specifically to ferry items around your base, as well as the ability to build multistorey buildings. Check out the the trailer below and then read on, survivors! [previewyoutube=OcQs7SeKKuA;full][/previewyoutube] [b]A new scenario: Guardians[/b] Experience a brand-new scenario where you guide and manage a group of rebels under threat from a ruthless manufacturing consortium. The rebels are protecting the galaxy's first sentient android, Hope 9000, and her growing humanity, from the people who created her. Cut off and isolated, without immediate potential for reinforcements, you'll have to help the rebels build and manage their needs and defences in order to survive. Being a sentient android, Hope shares similarities with both humans and robots, while being distinctly different from both. At first she's a blank slate, and can only carry out manual labour and research tasks. As her sentience and skills continue to grow, she'll develop new traits and abilities. There's a lot of flexibility for you to shape and develop Hope as you want, whether it be as an intellectual farmer, or a quick and powerful soldier. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42850084/90fb352fb225df02efa8938558822ff104a94d82.jpg[/img] As the manufacturing consortium sends squads of attacking robots, drones and crawler turrets, the rebels will need to build robotic and automated defences of their own. These will be valuable assets in battle and should not be ignored. [b]New Items and Recipes[/b] Included in the DLC are new recipes and items that will be useful for your survivors. They'll be able to equip a new laser sword item, which can be crafted at a bench or looted from attacking robots. There's also a new automated surgical bed that can be used to heal wounds and illnesses, as well as other items like Service Robots, Battle Drones, Defense Bots, and EMP grenades, which you can read more about in the patch notes below. [b]New Survivor[/b] Say hello to Henry Caldwell! This brand new survivor is a battle-hardened war veteran whose missing limbs were replaced by robotic prosthetics. He's been travelling the cosmos on a quest to reclaim and rediscover his humanity, an inspiring testament to his resilience and unbreakable spirit. When deployed in combat he'll fight twice as fast with melee weapons (on account of his robotics), and his overall tolerance to cold and heat will be greater than other survivors. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42850084/92a6a4db32e1897d1371935affac34ab7033d2e3.jpg[/img] [b]Free Update[/b] In addition to the DLC, we're also rolling out a free update! The biggest new feature in the free update are the resource Delivery Drones. These will automatically zip around your base to collect and deliver resources wherever they need to go, from storage to newly established buildings sites. Their range is quite large, so even a single one can help keep your survivors' home and the surrounding area neat and tidy, as long as they have enough electricity to keep running. Everything in the free update will be available to research and craft in all of Stranded: Alien Dawn's scenarios. Another free addition we are incredibly excited about is the ability to build multistorey buildings. A new flat ceiling option will be available to let you create up to five interior levels and one rooftop level on your buildings, and new roof shapes gives you more aesthetic control over what your buildings will look like. Your survivors will be able to move between storeys with regular staircases, or you can add ladders or elevators for even more options! If you decide to use the flat ceilings as the top of your house you can place turrets, solar panels, and other useful items on it. There's even a dedicated "Solar Roof" which will provide your building with power. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42850084/edbae0fbf1192fbae3c52221e49ff61b901a107f.png[/img] New recipes and items also include the Advanced Furniture Set, a set of Carbon furniture that provides an increased happiness boost compared to other furniture, a new Carbon Crossbow, a new FLAC Cannon Turret, Improved VR Games, and Improved Carbon Armor. Don't forget to join the [url=http://www.discord.gg/vVThQ94zP3]Stranded: Alien Dawn Discord[/url] and you'll never miss any news! You can also follow the game on [url=https://www.tiktok.com/@strandedaliendawn]TikTok[/url], [url=https://twitter.com/strandedgame]Twitter[/url], [url=https://www.facebook.com/strandedaliendawn]Facebook[/url], [url=https://www.instagram.com/strandedaliendawn/]Instagram[/url], and [url=https://www.youtube.com/strandedaliendawn]YouTube[/url], or join the discussions on [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1324130/Stranded_Alien_Dawn/]Steam[/url] and the [url=https://forums.frontier.co.uk/categories/stranded-alien-dawn.436/]Frontier Forums[/url].  Now onto the changelog: [h1]Key new content[/h1] [list][*][b]Robots and Guardians DLC[/b] - Expand your Stranded: Alien Dawn experience with a new scenario, new items and features, and a brand-new survivor [list][*][b]Guardians Scenario[/b] - Take up the rebel cause as you dive into a gripping new scenario. You have liberated Hope, the first sentient android, and have been forced to take refuge on an uncharted alien planet in the Outer Worlds. Defend against the threat of the ruthless manufacturing consortium aiming to destroy her. Establish and upgrade your base and defences with powerful new technologies to help you and your fellow rebels protect Hope for long enough to achieve full sentience [list][*][b]Hostile Automated Machines[/b] - Overcome waves of armed automatons bent on recapturing the consortium’s priceless asset[/*][/list][/*][*][b]Service Robots[/b] - Craft advanced harvest and service robots, powered by advanced AI Cores, and utilise them to optimise day-to-day tasks[/*][*][b]Robotic Defences[/b] - Enhance your fortifications with Battle Drones and Mobile Turrets and research the tools your rebels will need to thrive in a more threatening Alien Dawn[/*][*][b]Surgical Automation[/b] - Automate and expedite your survivors' healing with new surgical automation [/*][*][b]New Items[/b] - Equip your survivors with new laser swords to help them dominate the battlefield[/*][*][b]New Survivor[/b] - Add a new survivor, Henry Caldwell, to your group. A battle-hardened veteran who defied the stars, the last pangalactic war claimed his limbs, but he emerged stronger with robotic replacements.[/*][*][b]New Steam Achievements[/b] - Which will you achieve first?[/*][/list][/*][*][b]Free Update [/b]- Stranded: Alien Dawn brings even more content for all players [list][*][b]Multistorey buildings[/b] - You can now build houses with up to 6 floors[/*][*][b]Delivery Drones[/b] - New Delivery Drones will help your survivors move resources to and from storage[/*][*][b]Carbon Crossbow[/b] - Equip your survivors with a new Carbon Crossbow to help them do more damage from a distance[/*][*][b]FLAC Cannons[/b] - Pesky fliers keeping you down? Give them hell with the new FLAC Cannons[/*][/list][/*][/list] [h1]The Free Update Includes[/h1] [b]Construction[/b][list][*]It's now possible to construct multistorey housing structures, featuring up to 6 floors (including the rooftop).[/*][*]After researching "Construction basics", the Housing category within the construction panel now includes sub-options for Ceiling, Balcony and Ladder.[/*][*]The 'Roof' entry within the construction panel now includes new styles and shapes that allow for more variety of roofs.[/*][*]Supporting floors/foundations are now required to be of equal or greater strength to what is constructed on top of them.[/*][*]Ceilings provide an effective flat base, so placing a roof now also places a ceiling of the same material underneath if there isn't already one in place.[/*][*]Stairs, ladders and later, elevators, can be placed to provide survivors with the means to move between different levels.[/*][*]Stairs now have higher construction priority than other devices awaiting construction on the same floor.[/*][*]Construction of stairs now also takes into account the minimum construction skill required to utilise higher-level materials.[/*][*]The rooms tutorial now includes a task to build a second floor, while taking support strength into consideration.[/*][*]It's now possible to construct 'Brick floors' and 'Brick stairs'.[/*][*]Fences, fortifications, fence doors and gates now allow snapping to more places on the tile and can be placed at the sides of floor tiles.[/*][*]Fences can now be placed on floors, under roofs and in rooms.[/*][*]Added minimum construction skill requirement for constructing metal floors and metal ceilings.[/*][*]A minimum Construction skill level of 3 is now required for building the Laser and Machine gun turrets.[/*][/list][b]Research and recipes[/b][list][*]Research now includes several new technologies in the following categories: [list][*]POWER > Delivery drones[/*][*]DEFENSE > Carbon armor (moved from Breakthroughs), Carbon Crossbow & Flak Cannons[/*][*]OTHER > Advanced Furniture, Solar roofs and Elevators[/*][*]BREAKTHROUGHS > Improved carbon armor and Improved VR Games[/*][/list][/*][*]Researching Toolsmithing now also unlocks the additional capability to craft Earplugs at a Workbench.[/*][*]Revised research times for the following:[list][*]Laser pistols and Pulse rifles decreased from 3 days to 2 days[/*][*]Railgun sniper increased from 12 hours to 2 days[/*][*]Nanotubes printing decreased from 7 to 4 days[/*][*]Camp management decreased from 24h to 6h[/*][/list][/*][*]Researching Laser pikes now requires having a survivor with Intellect 3 and Crafting 3.[/*][*]Technologies that unlock new recipes now require survivors with the applicable skill level to execute at least one of the recipes, for example:[list][*]Researching Wooden, Concrete and Carbon fortification requires the presence of a survivor with sufficient construction skill.[/*][*]Researching Laser pistols, Pulse rifles, Railgun snipers, Laser pikes and Laser swords requires the presence of a survivor with sufficient crafting skill.[/*][*]Researching Carbon armour and Improved carbon armour requires Tailoring to be researched beforehand, and requires the presence of a survivor with Intellect 4.[/*][/list][/*][/list][b]Resources and crafting[/b][list][*]After Dismantling an item, the resultant output is now proportional to the applicable item's shelf life.[/*][*]Laser pikes are now made of metal, instead of carbon nanotubes, and crafting them requires Crafting 3 (decreased from Crafting 5).[/*][*]Decreased the amount of Liquid fuel for Carbon nanotubes production from 20 to 10.[/*][*]Ore and Carbon nanotubes now decay when left/stored outside.[/*][*]Several resources now decay if they are left/stored under a roof, and can now be stored in fridges/freezers:[list][*]Vegetable oil, Animal fats, Sweet syrup, Distasteful flowers, Hides, Skinbark, Feathers, Raw smokeleaf, Buzzshrooms, Cactus slime, Healing balm, Antibiotics, Manure, Glitter Caps, Dandelion spores, Stimulants, and all beverages.[/*][/list][/*][*]Unfinished items are separated into categories by type and can be stored in storages corresponding to the finished items. [/*][*]Increased integrity of tools to prevent them from being destroyed too quickly due to combat.[/*][*]Increased range of Laser pistol from 15 to 20 meters, and Laser pistol 2.0 from 20 to 25 meters.[/*][/list][b]Survivors and Behaviour[/b][list][*]Survivors now have 2 equipment slots for tools.[/*][*]Survivors are no longer automatically assigned to a work area if they are within its perimeter when placed.[/*][*]When a Survivor is recovering it is now possible to select a sleeping spot or bed, and then directly order them to recover health in the selected bed/sleeping spot, even if they are also well rested.[/*][*]Survivors now additionally check if they have the appropriate clothes for the weather upon waking up and at the start of a cold snap or a heat wave. [/*][*]Improved task priority so survivors do not look for a new task during the time they are heading to a celebration, such as a wedding.[/*][*]Increased the priority of Eating, Relaxing, and Sleeping in accordance with Handling, mitigating cases where survivors handle fermentation barrels and furnaces, instead of taking time to eat.[/*][*]Survivors no longer claim shared beds, preventing other survivors from using them.[/*][*]Survivors will now venture out to celebrate New Year's Eve despite bad weather.[/*][*]Implemented new Happiness factors for survivors sitting on chairs and eating at a table depending on their underlying material types.[/*][*]Implemented new Troubles for the medical conditions of Brain parasites and Sleep parasites.[/*][/list][b]Disasters, Expeditions and Events[/b][list][*]Trees, crystals, and other resilient plant types no longer lose health during the Toxic Ash disaster, mitigating the outcome where all crops could be killed when Toxic Ash occurs during the winter.[/*][*]Limited the maximum number of Hungry pests to a maximum of 250 units to reduce their impact on performance.[/*][*]Tachyon source expeditions now have an expiration time and will no longer stack over time.[/*][/list][b]Trading outpost scenario[/b][list][*]Resources that are traded in batches can now be traded in smaller quantities when the player/trader cannot afford the whole batch. Making it easier to maximise the monetary amount of the trade deal.[/*][*]Buying the "Mech cores" tech now unlocks "Light mechs" and "Combat mechs" for research.[/*][*]Buying the "Fabricator matrices" tech now unlocks "Food fabricator" for construction.[/*][*]Dandelion spores are now marked for trading in batches of 10 instead of 1 by 1.[/*][*]Revised the costs for:[list][*]Researching Basic Carbon Armors - decreased the cost from 250000 to 150000[/*][*]Researching Pulse Riffles - decreased the cost from 150000 to 100000[/*][*]Carbon nanotubes - decreased the average trading value from 900 to 500[/*][/list][/*][/list][b]Game rules and options[/b] [list][*]Implemented a new game rule named 'Fast feet' that applies a 50% movement bonus to survivors.[/*][*]Added a gameplay option to allow the effect on game speed when animal attacks occur to be set to; Disable Fastest speed, Switch to Normal speed or Nothing[/*][*]Added a gameplay option allowing the player to increase the number of control circuits above 9, to a maximum of 49.[/*][*]Added a gameplay option allowing the player to increase the number of levels for activities priority above 5, to a maximum of 9.[/*][/list][b]User interface and controls[/b] [list][*]Selecting the icons in the resources panel will now cycle through suppliers for the applicable resource selected.[/*][*]Added a new overlay to show/hide work areas.[/*][*]Survivors' equipment is now displayed as icons in their portrait rollover.[/*][*]Drafted and undrafted survivors are now separated in the info panel to make the selection of all drafted units easier.[/*][*]For stored resources, the tooltips now indicate the best way to store them.[/*][*]Storage devices now have the additional capability to provide further agency and information:[list][*]Limit the number of usable slots[/*][*]Limit to one slot per allowed resource[/*][*]Use this storage first[/*][*]Implemented red warning notification above the info panel for storage that is set to be emptied[/*][/list][/*][*]Production devices now have the functionality to Copy/Paste recipes.[/*][*]It's now possible to select multiple identical devices at once and then set them to mirror the same device.[/*][*]It's now possible to set devices of the same type but made from different materials to mirror themselves mitigating, for example, the Wooden fermentation barrel being unable to mirror the Scrap metal one.[/*][*]After selecting a field, the info panel now provides functionality to set a limit on crops to be harvested.[/*][*]Several adjustments to text, help/tooltips, consistency, and general GUI layout.[list][*]Adjustments to the "Tamed animals" UI to display more information and added filters.[/*][*]Added a new notification to inform when survivors lose skill level.[/*][*]Tooltips display icons instead of keys for hotkeys[/*][*]Tooltips provide additional information to explain the requirements for locked construction categories.[/*][*]The order of the craft buttons in the workbench and soldering bench info panels is now consistent.[/*][*]Increased consistency of crop icons.[/*][*]Added help dialogue tabs in the "Help" section (shortcut: F1) for unlocked/researched discoveries, recipes, and resources. [/*][/list][/*][/list][b]Mechs[/b][list][*]Mechs can now be renamed.[/*][*]The "Mount" button is now available in the info panel when selecting more than one mech.[/*][*]Survivors now gain Combat experience when killing enemies while operating a Mech.[/*][*]Reduced the damage dealt by the Light mech to be more consistent with the Combat mech.[/*][*]The EM Umbrella no longer activates when the survivor is in a mech.[/*][/list][b]Miscellaneous [/b][list][*]Added the ability to bury tamed animals that have died.[/*][*]Animals born from tamed animals receive a bonus "Domesticated" happiness factor[/*][*]Gravestones now specify the cause of death.[/*][*]Concrete tower and Carbon tower now have roofs[/*][*]Traps no longer activate through fences.[/*][*]Decreased the rate of malfunctions for 3D printers.[/*][*]Fixed a rare blocking issue when setting Relaxation time in the Schedule tutorial.[/*][*]Minor animation, graphics, VFX, and audio improvements and optimisation of dust/sand VFX.[/*][/list][b]Mod Tools[/b][list][*]Added the ability to create new mod items via code/script.[/*][*]New mod items added:[list][*]Robots - Allows editing and creation of robots if the Robots and Guardians DLC is installed [/*][*]Convert & Import Assets - Enables a number of asset types to be converted to the most suitable formats so that the engine can use the applicable asset and import it to the mod folder. In turn, saving time and improving organisation.[/*][*]Change property - Allows changing a single property in an already existing preset[/*][/list][/*][*]Mod editor options added[list][*]Dark mode choice[/*][*]Auto open documentation toggle[/*][*]Skip intro toggle[/*][*]Start paused toggle[/*][/list][/*][*]Fix for loading mod items (with compatibility for old mods) - Mitigates issues related to cases where a mod defines its own classes and then uses those classes for its items. For example, buildings do not place to-be-defined classes on loading, but try to reference them. This mimics the loading order of the base game.[/*][*]Localisation tables can be generated by the Mod Editor for the strings in the mod, allowing the mod to be translated alongside the Localisation Mod Item.[/*][*]Universal path for mod resources/files is implemented and the path remains the same without changing in any case, relative to the mod ID instead of the local path. This mitigates issues surrounding paths not being correctly set/removed.[/*][*]File extensions in all Caps/UPPER CASE for images are no longer supported and images require all lowercase file extension file format to be displayed. This is not explicitly enforced by the editor but is also mitigated by using the "Convert&import" assets mod item.[/*][*]Added a "Reset" button in Options created by mods.[/*][*]New large and more user-friendly PLUS button implemented for adding new mod items.[/*][/list]