Progress Update 11/08/2025

Just last week we released Thrive version 0.9 including our new terrain system, and a significant amount of work this week went into post-patch support. Patch version 0.9.0.1 was published this Tuesday, fixing several bugs in the new saving system and a few exploits that allowed infinite MP in the editor. But work is also already underway for version 0.9.1 and 1.0. draws ever closer!

As for what work was done for 0.9.1: A GUI pop-up screen was added that will show up when you encounter an unhandled error. This will hopefully explain to you, the player what went wrong, and help us to see what needs to happen to fix it. Additionally, the new terrain system was fixed and improved, which means terrain pieces can now be spawned closer together. Mod loading was also fixed, which has ben broken since the upgrade to Godot 4. Auto-evo received upgrades, fixes and optimisations, with more on the way.

The Development Forums were also quite active this week, with a lot of that activity being focused on future stages. Everything from world design, to the macroscopic stage editor and music was discussed. So take a look if you are interested, or see the highlights in our update list below.

Programming

• Thrive 0.9.0.1
  • Fixed loading a save where endosymbiosis was started or completed
  • Fixed 3 reported ways to exploit the microbe editor to get infinite MP
  • Fixed loading a save made in the multicellular editor where the player had a grown colony before entering the editor
  • Added a new system where known compatible save versions can be marked and those can be loaded without any warning popup
  • Updated translations
• New build of the day (BOTD):
  • Added a new GUI error popup that opens when the game runs into an unhandled error to make sure players can more accurately report these and not continue playing for a while without realizing which can lead to very strange bug symptoms
  • Fixed distance checks being mathematically wrong in the terrain system and added sliding terrain around when it doesn't fit to result in much tighter packing being possible
  • Fixed code mod loading not working ever since we switched to Godot 4
  • Fixed major bug with auto-evo tolerance changes not actually working at all
  • Fixed fog of war and a few other settings resetting in custom difficulty on loading a save
  • Fixed loading saves where there are fired toxins
  • Increased auto-evo strength on the player species in all difficulties
  • Buffed hydrogenosome by 20% to make it a good upgrade again
  • Made global glaciation trigger slightly earlier
  • Fixed some dependency updates in Arch that broke some build tools
  • Fixed the no longer eligible for achievements text appearing in freebuild as those games are not eligible anyway
  • Updated BenchmarkDotNet from 0.15.5 to 0.15.6
  • Updated test SDK version
  • Updated System.Text.Json from 9.0.9 to 9.0.10
  • Updated System.IO.Hashing from 9.0.9 to 9.0.10
  • Updated translations

Graphics

• Nothing substantial.

Gameplay

• Increased auto-evo strength on the player species in all difficulties.
  • This will make the player species' population numbers act a lot more like the AI species, which is important since population numbers affect the production and consumption of compounds in the environment.
• Buffed hydrogenosome by 20% to make it a good upgrade again
• Made global glaciation trigger slightly earlier.
  • The slowing down of oxygen accumulation made it trigger later than intended.
• Continued discussion on how to assign land-based biomes in the world.
• Starting proposals on how long the day/night cycle should be in the Macroscopic and Aware stages.
• Ongoing refinement of Multicellular Stage plans.
• A proposal for procedural parts design for the macroscopic stage to be demoed.
• Discussion on Thrive's balance philosophy, and difficulty in particular.

Sound

• An effort to track which parts of the game will still need new soundtracks to fill them.

Theory

• The start of a collection of the current state-of-the-art theory relevant to the multicellular stage.

Outreach

• A discussion on whether the price of Thrive on Steam should be increased.

Other

• Nothing substantial.