According to most voices on the Steam forums, this beta branch update dramatically decreases the game's loading times, in some cases from over 7 minutes to under a minute.

Although I usually like playing city building games that focus on realism or sandbox creativity, I actually really enjoyed this game's puzzle-like building mechanics. You work with (and around) building effect ranges to figure out optimal placement for your infrastructure, because depending on a building's surroundings, it changes what type of building it is. For example, a generic residential building might become a gentrified yuppie bloc if there's enough entertainment businesses around. A farm will upgrade if there's enough silos nearby, so figuring out the perfect pattern for farms, fields and silos is a whole puzzle.

It's a lot of fun.

I wanted to be able to skate for years, because two of my girlfriends are super cool hanging out in places with their boards and skating, and it's a regular activity that they do but I always kinda felt left out from. I tried to skate a longboard two years ago, but I just failed miserably and I gave up for good. Or so I thought!

Today, I was out with the girls and I did manage to convince myself to at least try my best, and it actually worked after an hour or so! I managed to relatively consistently roll out on a skateboard without supports and without losing my balance! :)

… Now for practicing actually pushing while on the board. But that's the next step! For now I'm super happy about my progress.

I personally think they are really cool and made this whole drop quite a bit more interesting! They introduce new decorative elements for animated builds like fountains and steampunk pipes and stuff, and they can be used in entity transport of all kinds.

My only disappointment with them so far is that they're so random to trigger, I wish we had a way to trigger them manually somehow. Perhaps the first time they're formed, they could immediately spit out a geyser? That would make them piston-activatable.