Terra Nil news & patch notes

Hi everyone!

We've been hard at work and we're excited (even if slightly sad) to announce our final update for Terra Nil. We're incredibly proud of the game it's become and the beauty all our players have brought to the world 💖

🌱 You can now restore ecosystems from wherever you are with your Steam Deck, or sit back with a controller and watch a wasteland come to life on your big screen! 🌱

This has been a quiet goal of ours for some time. Thank you for sticking with us while we worked toward it!

Terra Nil is also 60% off as a part of the Steam Spring sale.

Go forth and heal the wasteland, we'll see you around.

~ Free Lives

Hi folks,

This small patch fixes a bug that seemed to occur only on some AMD graphics cards.

• Fix a bug where some tiles would show the wrong ground textures

• Fix an issue where solar panels could burn infinitely
• Fix a map generation issue that made continental outskirts unwinnable because of a pylon being unrecyclable

• Fix an issue with eagles getting stuck that was having negative effects on performance in Flooded City and Canyon Peaks.
• Make the photo scorecard better account for string overflow
• Disable all highlights correctly on level end
• ERW1N can now move on water hyacinths as well
• Correct the handbook icon for the rocket silo
• Numerous small animal/photo mode fixes

• Give ERW1N the ability to move on river and wetland tiles with a little dinghy to prevent softlocks
• Add a better UX flow where you need to recycle the factory in floodplains to continue, to help with it being confusing
• Fix the action shots for catching animals in cool poses, and fix the action shot achievement.

• Fix various memory leaks
• Fix the credits playing every time the world map was opened
• Fix an issue with ERW1N not being able to recycle or use bridges

• Fix an error where ERW1N could sometimes not recycle
• Fix an error where ERW1N could sometimes not use wildlife bridges

Hi all, A quick hotfix to address some of the most glaring issues that have come up with v1.2.5.

• Fix the credits playing everytime you complete a mission

• Fix a memory leak which particularly affected Volcanic Glacier

Thanks for your feedback and patience, we'll get to the less serious bugs next.

• Fixed an error where sometimes you'd be unable to place hydroponiums
• Fixed an error where aqueducts would cause you to be unable to load saves on Parched Dunes
• Fixed an error where you couldn't control ERW1N after restarting a phase
• Fixed a softlock where ERW1N could be built on a cliff
• Allowed ERW1N to be able to move on wetland
• Fixed a bug where sparrows required the incorrect atmospheric convection
• Fix an issue with photo slot overwriting
• Fixed a bug where you couldn't take full map screenshots of finished levels

We’re overjoyed to let you all know that Heatwave, our newest free content update, is now available on Steam!

Deserts and Savannahs on the Far Side of the World

In Heatwave, we’ve added the brand new arid region to the game with never before seen flora and fauna in the world of Terra Nil. We have sandy deserts, salt pans, canyons and floodplains. You’ll be populating these landscapes with some of the world’s most famous animals: elephants, lions, giraffes and rhinos to name a few. 

Parched Oasis

In the first arid map, you’ll be restoring an inland delta, inspired by the real world Okavango Delta. You’ll need to burn alien vegetation to restore the rivers, before creating savannah and alluvial vegetation. Savannah has a special interaction with elephants, based on the mutually beneficial relationship they share in real life.

Canyon Peaks

In the second arid level, inspired by the famous Grand Canyon, a massive gorge bisects the map. On one side, you’ll need to deal with oil fires which lower your resources if they get out of control, and on the other, a radioactive city needs to be cleansed. This map also introduces our new favourite character, ERW1N.

ERW1N is our very own recycling rover, who can combat radiation, recycle buildings, and scan for seeds. ERW1N is controlled with a joystick minigame.

Fracked Floodplain

The final challenge of the arid region is a floodplain decimated by industry. You’ll need to use creative methods to clean the oil, before restoring life to the watering holes on the edge of the desert. Finally, create a biofuel-powered rocket to reach your existing spacecraft in orbit.

Photography Mode

We’ve long since wanted to have a photo mode in Terra Nil, and now we finally do! This new mode allows you to take pictures of animals that you’ve made happy. Photos can be stored in your handbook (and on your hard drive). There’s also a scoring system - see how good a photo you can take!

Heatwave has been a labour of love for us. Both the arid region and the photography system were features cut from the original game to hit our deadline. So it’s fair to say that we’re incredibly happy to finally be able to share our vision of Terra Nil, complete with all 5 major climate zones, with all of you!

Thanks for all your support so far, and in the future.

-Sam and team Terra Nil

P.S. To celebrate this huge milestone, Terra Nil is discounted by 60% for a limited time (sale starting at 10AM Pacific). There's no better time to jump in than now.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The next major update for Terra Nil is just around the corner! Heatwave launches on August 7, bringing a brand new region to restore, consisting of three challenging new maps, new animals, new buildings, and a brand new photography mode.

Curious what’s in store? Then check out this Developer Overview video breaking down all the major new features, and more.

Terra Nil Heatwave is a FREE content update. Play it on August 7.

• Fix an issue where excavators would be invisible after loading a save
• Fix an issue where the map seeds would not result in the same map on Hill and Dale and Polar Volcano
• Add some missing localization characters

• Fix an issue where sometimes a building would not unlock despite the requirements being met
• Fix an issue where the animal observatory unlock would not be visible

• Update the localization for all of the additional text
• Improve the flying animation for the geese

• Improve animal movement
  • Fix animals turning on the spot
  • Birds no longer turn in mid flight
  • Animals don’t try to path over tiles they can’t walk on
  • Reduce animal foot sliding
• Improve the new game experience
  • Disable hints entirely
  • Stagger tutorials better
  • Remove the first animal tutorial
  • The first animal that spawns in each map looks for an ideal location
  • Make wildlife bridges and sonic pulse have unlock conditions
  • Make intro page appear correctly on game start
• Replace “>” character with an arrow in the Animal Needs panel to avoid ambiguity in the meaning of the icons
• Add an option to disable tooltips when using building abilities
• Add debug option to allow silos to recycle monorail pylons
• Remove the kelp forest hard requirement from sea otters

• Fix a map generation issue that allowed skyscrapers to spawn in impossible to build on locations
• Fix an issue that prevented progression with bamboo in Continental Outskirts
• Fix an issue that prevented certain buildings like the standalone recycling beacon from being placed on concrete with deciduous forest
• Game will no longer enter a lose state if you have almost run out of resources and are moving a building with the monorail vehicle
• Game will no longer enter a lose state if you have almost run out of resources and have restored the rain/snow
• Remove greenery requirement from boars
• Allow eagles to be happy with just one skyscraper
• Add new art for the standalone recycling beacon building

• Improve way monorail recycling works:
  • Monorail beacons snap to monorail pylons
  • Monorail recyclers will now wait before recycling if another recycler needs to path past them
  • Sped up monorail recycling station animations
• Add debug options to the options menu for players to customize their experience:
  • Option to enable the dev console
  • Option to enable recycling silo chaining
  • Option to recycle all buildings
  • Option to end the level immediately
  • Option to give player resources
  • Option to remove building unlock conditions
  • Custom difficulty now correctly enables all options
• Improve settings to do with game resolution:
  • Game starts up at the last used resolution (or the maximum resolution if the last used isn’t available) instead of only when the player’s profile is loaded
  • New setting added that separates out Refresh Rate from resolution
  • Add a borderless window setting
• Improve animal descriptions in the Handbook to be more precise about their animal needs
• Add a waving flag on top of shade pillars so that they are easier to see within tropical forests
• Add “Monk” as a difficulty preset
• Fix turning the volume down to 0 to actually mute audio
• Audio sliders better correspond with perceived volume
• Add a button to the Animal Info panel that allows cycling through to the next animal
• Change language dropdown to be a taller panel so that many more language options are visible at a time
• Make Relocate Animal button always visible, and add preview lines to better show where where the herd is moving from, and where they'll be moved to
• Fix a regression where animal herds could no longer be selected by clicking on the "sad animal" icon or their portraits

• Fix the game entering a broken state when interacting with frogs in the Tropical Caldera
• Fix some issues with opening and closing the Animal Group panel
• Fix undoing to not cause cause animal herds to be renamed
• Fix animal herds to not get selected when clicking on the map while using a building’s ability
• Fix animal herds that appeared behind a UI element to not get selected when clicking on UI

• Fix the water recycler hitching, especially when vehicle speed was set to maximum
• Add animal observatory back into the game with an ability that allows animal herds to be relocated once about 70% of animals are happy
• Add ability to dismiss animal herds from the Animal Info Panel UI
• Lower default animal difficulty in Gardener and Environmental Engineer modes
• Fix power pylons to not be able to spawn on building rubble (and vice versa) during map generation
• Change the weather to only cause lava to turn into rocks in Tier 3 in the Polar Volcano level
• Change whales to prefer spawning in ideal conditions
• Fix bamboo tiles count in City maps
• Move transpirator to tier 2 in tropical caldera and enable cloud seeder
• Temperate quarry now requires less biome coverage in tier 2
• Monorail ability is slightly cheaper
• Building ability costs are now affected by difficulty
• Fix a bug where recycling unlock conditions were tracking animals instead

• Extensive improvements and bug fixes to the save system. It should be much less likely to lose any data, but in the event it does, it should handle it more gracefully
• Fix some issues loading a save with missing map data
• Fix the world map vine progress bar graphical issues
• The workaround for a rare graphical issue we've seen on macOS has been merged in. If you're seeing dark/black terrain backgrounds, you can opt into the fix in settings
• More fixes to animal spawning in T3
• Fix: undoing a monorail move should now refund currency
• Fix for screenshot crashes on GPUs with lower memory
• Other minor fixes and polish

• Much more likely for remaining animals to spawn in T3
• The T3 goal for animals is a bit easier on hard difficulty
• Wolves will use snow for water when it gets cold
• Whales' deep water need is a bit easier
• Make it easier for Snowy Owls to spawn, even if unhappy
• Fix for bug where animal territory over a wildlife bridge could get cut off
• Fix wildlife bridge positioning after loading from a save
• Fixes for various Steam achievements that weren't triggering reliably before
• Fix for some rare situations where a building cannot be unlocked
• Other minor fixes

New missions

New Animal System

3D World Map

Development Update

What’s next?

New Features

• New world map
• 5 new levels - Hill & Dale, Polluted Bay, Scorched Caldera, Subpolar River & Continental Outskirts
• 2 new biomes - Freshwater Lake & Rocky Scrubland
• 9 new buildings - Cone Filter, Pipe Hub, Carbon Compactor, Percolotrium, Mini Bamboo Nursery, Chaparrallum, Transpirator, Sonic Pulse & Wildlife Bridge
• Revamped animal system - Animals populations will migrate to the map when suitable habitats are available. To complete a mission, a certain number of animal populations will need to have ideal territories for their needs
• 1 new animal species
• 3 new climate conditions

Bug fixes

• Fix issues with scrolling the mouse and rotating buildings on Linux
• Fix invisible airship at the start and end of missions
• Fix airship to be in its “flying” state at the start of missions where it appears
• Fix airship to show correct placeable tiles in Temperate Bay
• Fix sunflower threshold being impossible to reach on the Island City on Environmental Engineer difficulty
• Fix overlapping text in the Seed dialog in the world map
• Fix recycling silos to no longer recycles standalone beacon
• Fix highlights drawing behind LOD objects
• Fix batched vegetation flickering for one frame at the origin
• Radiation cleansers and heliocages must be recycled before liftoff
• Setting the difficulty before starting a restoration will no longer show the difficulty select screen or incorrectly show tutorials
• A rare bug that causes terrain to appear black on Mac has a partial fix that requires changing a setting in the options menu. If you’re experiencing this, you can opt into an experimental build that has a fix for this using the password “blackterrain2”.

Rolled back version