Title: I am 35 years old, I made $67,665 gross last year (between multiple jobs) and live in Buffalo and work in higher education and retail.
This is my 5th MD update. Previous MDs in June 2019, October 2019, February 2020, and July 2020.
Ref29 questions:
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Absolutely. Both of my parents have bachelors degrees, and it wasn’t even a conversation of “if” I was going to college, but “where”. I ended up going to a private 4-year college, with a 75% merit scholarship. I was able to pay for the first semester with savings bonds/general savings, but took out loans for the remaining semesters. I worked 2 on campus jobs (tour guide and TA), plus at a coffee shop - this was more for spending money/gas etc. Looking back, I wish that I had put more of that income aside for paying for school, but I was definitely headlong into the student loan trap of “it’s ok, this is good debt….blah blah.”
I thought that i had the exact idea of what I wanted to do for a career - and that basically required a masters degree - so I went straight to grad school after undergrad. Private - and took out the maximum student loans for both years. I cannot stress what a terrible financial idea this was. The last half of my MA was in DC, so I used the loans for rent/food, as I had a full time unpaid internship. Long story short, what I thought was my career goal wasn’t.
I am FINALLY nearly done paying off my loans. If I had to go back and give my past self advice, it would have been to not go to grad school directly after undergrad. I still might have gotten my masters, but I would have done it in a much more financially responsible way.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
We had conversations growing up - but it was much more of a conversation now that I’m an adult. I’ve noted in past MDs, but my parents have told us that they regret not being able to help us all more as teenagers/college/young adults, so they’ve been extremely supportive of my focus on debt repayment.
Did you worry about money growing up?
Not really. I remember being conscious about it - we didn’t have new cars (EVER - like it’s still a thing), and we used coupons/budgets/bulk freezer meals for shopping, but I think a portion of that was that there were 4 of us kids. We were all involved in a variety of extracurricular activities as well, but I don’t remember even being like, limited or restricted from doing anything.
Do you worry about money now?
Absolutely.
While I am noting that I’m making progress, it is still very overwhelming. It’s really hard for me not to beat myself up when I either buy “treats” or things that aren’t really treats, but are just home comforts. I finally bought myself 2 sets (!) of decent sheets this past month after having 1 set of crappy sheets for the last 2 years lol. I still have so much work to do, on debt repayment, fully funding my emergency fund, and (massive goal here) saving for a down payment on a house.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I would say I was financially responsible for myself when I moved for grad school in the fall of 2008 (so when I was 22/23).
That being said, I definitely have had a financial safety net - my parents always assisted with grocery money if I needed it - when I was married, that definitely was not only a safety net, but also got me in a lot of bad habits.
Since my divorce, my parents have assisted with cell phone, car insurance, and letting me live with them for a few months when I moved back to the US. I know that if something happened, they would absolutely assist with a place to live if I needed it.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
As previous MDs have noted, my parents have assisted with assorted checks when my dad got a bonus, and they have always been extremely generous with holiday $.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance (and how you got there): $33,194.67 (up from $23,800 in February 2020)
This is a combo of Stash Retire ($1721.52), 401K from a previous job ($17,330.01), retirement accounts from my current job ($2807.58 in my optional IRA to which I contribute extra; $2947.46 in the basic retirement plan, to which my employer contributes 7%), and TSP from a previous job ($8,388.10).
Savings account balance: $1000
Checking account balance: $1381.07 (at the start of the money diary)
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it): $7,558.08 (focus has been more on student loans, plus I am a bit guilty of using it at random points) (down from $19,556 in June 2019).
Student loan debt (for what degree): Current remaining balance is $972.57!!!!! This is down from $23,645.37 in June 2019) (combined loans for undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Relations. To give you an idea of how much I’ve paid off - I’ve paid $118,297.81 off up to this point).
*note: December was a PHENOMENAL debt payment month for me (just over $4k).
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $2847.53
*after using the IRS refund calculator, it became clear that I was expecting a much higher refund, so I stopped having extra withheld. Eventually I’ll get the hang of it.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: $1442.72 (average monthly take home August-December 2020)
My retail job fully reopened, and I also applied for, and got a promotion, which meant both an hourly raise and more hours)
Any Other Monthly Income Here:

• Christmas $ from Mom & Dad - $1000
• Stimulus Checks - $1200 + $600 (Both of these went mainly to debt repayment)

Section Three: Expenses
Rent / Mortgage $980.00/month (+ $3.95 service charge when I pay online) (no change)
Retirement contribution: $115.58/month Roth IRA from work + $80.00/month into Stash Retire (no change)
Savings contribution: $0/month (Debt payments are the priority)
Investment contribution: None
Health/Dental/Vision Insurance: $76.38/month (Through work, it gets taken out biweekly)
FSA contribution: $27.78 biweekly (I set my annual contribution at $750 this year, up from $600)
Debt payments
Student Loan minimums: $55.54 is strictly the minimum for my FINAL (!!!) student loan, but as you all know by now, I have been attacking these with a vengeance and plan on this being gone no later than March.
Credit Card minimums: Avg. Monthly Payment $300. (as mentioned in the debt section, I have slipped slightly on allowing myself to use the credit card, but still have been able to lower my overall amount)
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $64.99/month
Cellphone: Still on the parental plan, but will be transitioning off. I’m shopping around and have started to budget.
Subscriptions: Apple storage - $2.99/month; Netflix- $8.99; (even though I’ve been able to be at home much much more, we still get a monthly barkbox for the toys; Spotify Premium - $9.99/month. Headspace - $14.99/month. Renaissance Periodization - $16.19/month
Laundry (if you pay per load): $40/month. I put aside $10 per paycheck.
Gym membership $75/month - I budget this much for my ROMWOD and Movement Vault monthly subscriptions. This also covers my monthly subscription for my WHOOP band. My retail side gig also provides $225/month to work out. This covers my monthly membership to my crossfit gym, as well as extra megaformer classes. $32.63/month for WHOOP; $13.95/month for ROMWOD; $9.99/month for Movement vault
Pet expenses: $150/month - includes pet insurance. This is what I put into my budget for insurance, food, grooming etc.) Barkbox 31.54/month; Pet insurance $79.24
Car payment / insurance / average gas:$100/month (as my dad plans on retiring within the next year, he will be signing over my car to me, meaning that I will be taking on my insurance. I fully acknowledge that this has been nice to not have to worry about, and that my parents have been absolutely amazing. The current annual insurance for my car looks like it will be around $450. Future money diaries will take this into account.
Renter insurance: $12.50/month
Average groceries / household supply spend; Looking at YNAB, my average spend has been just over $700/month. This seems insanely high for one person, but I do also follow a RP meal plan, meaning that I tend to eat A LOT to fuel my workouts. I also haven’t gone out basically at all ….
Regular therapy: N/A
Charitable Giving: $75/avg. August-Dec 2020 (Much of this was “rage” donating in the run up to the election)
Annual Expenses:
YNAB (You Need A Budget): $83.99/year
NB: Anytime I leave my house, I am masked, including gym visits. It’s honestly not terrible once you find a mask that works for you!
Day 1: Friday
5:45am: Alarm goes off and I get up to put the kettle on to start coffee. Today is a weigh in and weekly review for my meal/training plan, so I enter my numbers and see what my upcoming week will look like as far as my macros. I notice that my chest/shoulder are sore, and hurt when I take a deep breath, but assume that I just slept on my arm wrong. I take out the dog, feed him, and head out to my weightlifting class.
7:30am: Nope, not just sleeping on it wrong. I make it through the lifting portion, but when we start the metcon, I have to stop because it hurts too much to take a really deep breath, instead stretching and cheering everyone else on. Annoyed, but hopefully it’s nothing too crazy. I think it’s just a strain from my muscle up drills the day before. Once I get home, I make breakfast - a savory oatmeal with oats, cheese, chicken sausage, egg whites, and mushrooms, topped with a fried egg and za’atar seasoning from Trader Joe’s. YUM. I log into work and get settled in for a 2 hour (ugh) staff meeting.
11:00am: Finally done with that. Thank goodness for my camera getting to be off. I take a shower and get into “work” clothes - aka lululemon from top to bottom (align leggings, ebb to street crop tank, and a sit in lotus wrap). Back to work until it’s time for lunch, which I have just after noon (rice, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, and ground beef, topped with avocado). Work continues afterwards.
2:00pm: Time for work #2! It’s a fairly uneventful (and slow) afternoon/evening, which is ok after the craziness of the holiday season. And I only have to tell 2 people to put their masks on over their nose and they don’t give me an attitude - woohoo! Around 5 I eat my food on my 10 minute break - another taco-ish bowl, just without the avocado from earlier. I get out from work at 7:30pm.
8:00pm: Home, take the pooch out and feed him and make my casein hot chocolate (casein protein is a slower digesting type vs. whey and it’s my evening “meal” most of the time) plus a couple dark chocolate peanut butter cups. I facetime my Mom briefly and then we each put on our respective Star Wars shows - she and my Dad are watching the Mandolorian (they just got Disney+), and I’m deep into season 4 of the Clone Wars. Bedtime routine starts at 9:30 with a couple of melatonin gummies and I brush my teeth and wash my face (eye makeup remover, then Neutrogena foaming cleanser, and a nighttime moisturizer from Aldi). Snuggle up with the dog and a heating pad with a Headspace night sounds playing.
Daily Total: $0
Day 2: Saturday
5:50am: NO. It’s like 30 minutes before I want to wake up...NO.
6:10am: Uggggggh
6:20am: FINE. Dog outside, then fed. I make coffee and another savory oatmeal (AMAZING - same as yesterday, just no bell peppers). Catch up on podcasts and my YNAB budget. In happiest news, I can take a full big breath without that weird pain from yesterday! Yay!
10:00am: Home from my workout, which went amazingly - I love a good long chipper of a workout! I take the dog out for a little cold weather walk and then make my post-workout meal - Kodiak chocolate chip pancakes with blueberries! (use 1 egg and almond milk to make the pancakes and it fits my post-workout macros: 35P, 10F, 65C). I follow this with a cuddle session with the dog while watching Marple episodes and drinking coffee. I also add items to my lululemon shopping cart and exit out of it before I can spend money. While I get a great discount (especially on markdowns), I know I don’t really NEED anything, so I don’t get anything.
1:00pm: Off to the mall for work. I stop on the way to fill the gas tank ($25). It’s a busy day, but a good one - during my break I eat my taco bowl (rice, sweet potatoes, ground beef, peppers and avocado). I work until 7:30pm.
8:00pm: Home, dog out, casein hot chocolate - the usual. I’m nothing if not a creature of habit. I pull out a Trader Joe’s chocolate croissant to prove overnight in the oven. Bedtime is around 10pm.
Daily Total: $25
Day 3: Sunday
7:50am: Whoooops, I intended to wake up around 7:15, but I didn’t actually set the alarm. Luckily the dog wakes me up with a polite whine - I take him out, make coffee and a bowl of oatmeal (oats, almond milk, egg whites, topped with blueberries), and head to my workout around 9.
11:00am: 2 workout classes later, I’m home - post workout meal is the aforementioned chocolate croissant, and a little egg scramble of egg whites, mushrooms, chicken sausage and broccoli. The afternoon is spent with old Miss Marple episodes on Amazon Prime, combined with laundry and apartment cleaning.
3:00pm: I made a quick loaf of bread (2 hrs of rising, then shaping) and put it in the oven. Happily it turns out pretty damn tasty - I make Trader Joe’s Cippino (seafood soup) and have that with toasted fresh bread around 4/4:30pm. A Clone Wars marathon ensues - the Bills are playing in the AFC championship tonight, so the city is basically a giant ball of nerves. I don’t watch the games (and haven’t all season - mostly because I don’t have all the apps/cable), but I follow the score on my phone while watching many (MANY) episodes of Clone Wars. I facetime my mom and dad around 7 after they finish the Mandolorian and we can all squeal with excitement.
9:00pm: Melatonin gummies, contacts out, teeth brushed, face washed, bedtime.
Daily Total: $0
Day 4: Monday
5:45am: Awake, coffee, take the dog out, head to crossfit.
7:30am: Home, dog out again, then breakfast (homemade toast, everything but the bagel smoked salmon, scrambled egg+egg whites) and more coffee. I login to work at 8am, and get the morning podcasts going (Up First, the Daily, Post Reports, the Intelligence).
10:00am: I place a Target pickup order for the snacks for our break area at the mall (seltzer, peanut butter crackers, cookies, granola bars - all single serving packs). I will be reimbursed for this by the store. ($39.57 - I get a notice that an item isn’t available after I place the order...oh well)
11:00am: I’m traveling out of state for a couple of days - it’s a long awaited tattoo coverup (don’t get a tattoo for a significant other….I knew not to do this...and yet I still did), so I make my list of items to pack and things to remember to do (take out trash, do all my dishes, etc). I will be driving to my destination (Indiana), staying at a hotel by myself, going to the tattoo shop (masked), and back to the hotel. Not telling friends I’m there, not going out anywhere. And I’ve scheduled a test for 4 days after my return, per NYS rules. If I could make the drive nonstop, I would, but your girl isn’t giving herself a UTI lol. I’ll be masked and sanitized anytime I step out of my vehicle. Still super nervous, but getting this tattoo covered up is like….the final FINAL step. I also take a shower (finally, yes I’m gross and have been sitting in my workout clothes since I got home - god help me if I ever live with a human again lol).
2:00pm: Time for head out for work! On the way, I pick up my previously mentioned Target order, and also pick up meals for my trip from a local meal prep place - I get a bunch of great stuff (2 breakfasts, 2 dinners, 1 lunch plus energy bites for the car), plus it means that I can just hermit it up in the hotel room apart from the actual tattoo appointment. ($62.68). I get to the mall early before my shift starts - since I know I’ll have a tub in the hotel room, and I don’t have one in my apartment, I get a couple of bath bombs and lotion from Lush ($25.93) and a whole bunch of sheet masks from Sephora ($25.01). Then time for work - It’s a fairly quick shift, which is nice, not too terribly busy and we get a lot done. And people at the mall are generally not pills today - epic win!
8:15pm: Home from work - take the dog out and have a little evening meal of homemade soup from my co-worker (it’s a kale sausage soup her husband makes and it is AMAZING) and the rest of my homemade bread. I finish packing up and the poor pup definitely knows something is up. Bedtime around 10pm.
Daily Total: $153.19
Day 5: Tuesday
5:45am: Alarm, dog, coffee. Rather than dirtying dishes, I heat up one of the prepped breakfasts I brought (a breakfast sandwich with chicken, which is actually quite tasty - plus some blueberries). I get the car loaded up with my stuff and the dog - he’s staying with my parents while I’m gone - and head out by 7:15am. After I drop him off I top off my gas tank ($14.10), and also get a couple of bubly waters and a can of death wish coffee for the road ($6.25).
12:00pm: Lunch stop at panera - fuji apple chicken salad and a cup of chicken noodle soup - drive thru and eaten in the car ($10.94, but I have a gift card). Road Trip Podcasts: You’re Wrong About and Noble Blood.
3:00pm: Gas stop (there’s also a few bathroom stops, but since I didn’t spend anything, it’s not terribly relevant, right? :) ) ($27.01).
5:30pm: Arrival! Check in to the hotel - masked front desk employee, check. Bring my stuff up to my room, and jackpot - biiiiiiiiig tub. Looks like those bath bombs were a solid choice! Open up the work laptop to see if there is anything urgent - nothing crazy - and decide which meal I want for dinner. Bourbon Chicken with Broccoli and Sweet Potatoes it is. Plus a Sparkling Apple Cider vinegar beverage (ginger and lemon) from Trader Joes. Before I eat, I do a lower body focused stretching routine from ROMWOD since I spent so long in the car.
7:30pm: Bath Bomb, Face Mask, Feet Mask, and finished Night Stalker on Netflix. Since I’ll be quarantining until I get a negative COVID test after my trip, I order 10 meals through the same meal prep company that I got my travel meals from ($88.43 - includes both delivery fee and tip). They will be delivered on Sunday.
Daily Total: $146.73
Day 6: Wednesday
6:00am - I had intended to sleep longer, but my body is like - nope, you’re waking up at the same time no matter what. Coffee (keurig in the hotel room - ick) plus a prepped breakfast (a goat cheese egg white scramble with sweet potatoes - which is delicious). Morning podcasts and I open up the work laptop. Since I’m awake I guess.
7:30am: Hotel room workout - I do yesterday’s workout from my gym, with a few modifications, but it still feels great to move after sitting in the car for so long! Shower afterwards, then food (Mexican Taco Bowl!) and work.
10:30am: Squuuuueeee it’s time for my tattoo. I double mask up, drive through for a Starbucks order ($4.74 - paid for on my Starbucks app with previously loaded funds) and head to the shop! I already paid my deposit and took advantage of a gift card sale before Christmas so I don’t owe anything additional today. We do linework, shading, and partial color. It’s going to take 2 appointments to do the full thing, so we make my next appointment for May (augh, I cannot wait!). My coverup is over black text, so a cover up involves a LOT of layering of color. I’m impressed that I still have stamina after not getting a tattoo for nearly 3 years.This is going to be BEAUTIFUL.
2:30pm: After my tattoo appointment, I make a quick stop at CVS (still double masked!) to pick up aquaphor, orange dial soap, ibuprofen, and toothpaste (cause naturally that’s the one thing I forgot to pack - d’oh) ($22.00). I make a curbside pickup order for Panera - another soup and salad combo ($10.55 - again paid for with gift cards!). I head back to my hotel room, eat, put on more podcasts (Planet Money, Can He Do That, Code Switch) and log onto work. An uneventful afternoon follows.
6:00pm: Facetime call with my mom, then dinner and various true crime documentaries on Netflix and Pinterest browsing because as per usual, now I want allll the tattoos. I also put in an order for a grocery pickup on my way home (coffee, coffee creamer, fruit, etc) ($66.82). I try to make a testing appointment through NYS for my return COVID test on Monday, but the automated system keeps putting me in the first available, which is Friday….I’ll try to schedule again on Friday so that the timing works. Bedtime tattoo routine of wash, aquaphor and ibuprofen, as well as a sheet face mask. Sleep around 10:00pm.
Daily Total: $104.11
Day 7: Thursday
6:00am: Welp, up and at em! I finish packing all my stuff, check out of the hotel and warm up the car. I head out around 7:00am. Top off the gas tank ($12.80) and I also add $15 to my Starbucks card and drive thru a Starbucks (Spinach Feta Wrap + Cafe Misto with almond milk). Then it’s time for podcasts and lots of driving. My mom had suggested a podcast from Serial - S*%*Town. IT’S AMAZING and this drive has never gone so fast!
11:00am: (or sometime around this time) Stop for gas ($27.01) and another Starbucks stop ($15 reload) to get another misto, a bottle of water, and a fruit/cheese/hard boiled egg box.
3:00pm: I was going to try to make it all the way without stopping for anything else, but my stomach is about to eat itself. I stop at a Tim Hortons about 45 minutes away from my parents’ house and get timbits and a hot chocolate (which is gross) ($6.66 - eeep). I get to my parents’ house - my mom and dad stay upstairs and in the basement respectively while I use the bathroom and retrieve a very happy pup. Once I get everything out to the car, my mom and dad come outside (double masked, as am I) and we quickly wave and air hug from a distance. On the way home, I drive through the grocery pickup and get my groceries.
5:30pm: Finally home. The dog is very happy to be home too - my mom said when she would come into the bedroom where he was, he would look at her and be - “oh…..just you…”. Such a momma’s boy :) Dinner is actual food (the rest of the kale sausage soup). I also put together a batch of cranberry almond biscotti (based off the Ina Garten cherry pistachio biscotti) - the apartment smells delicious. Settling in for post-travel isolation lol.
9:30pm: Melatonin gummies, tattoo upkeep, and then bedtime with the dog!
Daily Total: $76.47
Weekly Total: $505.50
Food & Drink: $326.64
Fun & Entertainment: $0
Home & Health: $22.00
Clothes & Beauty: $50.94
Transport: $105.92
Reflections:
First, GODDAMN I AM SO EXCITED TO PAY OFF THIS STUDENT LOAN. Just paid another $200 on it this morning, so we’re under $800!! If you hear an excited scream from the Western New York area next month, don’t worry, it’s just me.
Second, this was a higher spend week than usual, but I’m really proud to have budgeted for all of it. I had basically prepaid for the tattoo (on the gift card) and there’s still leftover for my next appointment. I had also budgeted and saved for the increased amount of gas and food.
Third, hopefully this isn’t too boring. My life pre-pandemic wasn’t terribly interesting, and it certainly isn’t now lol. I’m hoping to continue my debt payoff progress by finishing paying off my credit card debt in 2021, and start saving my 3-6 month emergency fund before starting that house down payment savings! I’m even starting to allow myself to start actually looking at Zillow.
I have been isolating since I got back - just drove through and got my COVID test, so fingers crossed for a quick reply!
Lastly, the coverup tattoo is going to be beautiful. I can’t wait for it to be finished!
Thanks for reading this whole thing!

1.0174, 09/02/2021

• Fixed an issue with demolishing a bridge right next to another bridge
• Fixed an issue with 'Fetch mode' for a building not being saved

1.0173, 29/01/2021

• Fixed a tooltip that was missing the name of the island/planet

1.0172, 14/1/2021

• Fixed a couple of issues with Light Towers

1.0171, 13/1/2021

• Fixed an issue where a redundant test in the code was doing something dumb

1.0170, 12/1/2021

• In Shipping Lane mode, dragging a resource between Ports sets up the lane with the correct default value for Maintain
• Fixed an issue where the wrong Peeps were being listed in the Peep Details Panel if you selected a different island in the dropdown
• Seasonal update is over

1.0169, 6/1/2021

• Cleaners etc. calculate their ranges correctly when going around water tiles
• Fixed Forest Construction sites being broken on load
• Fixed Aegis not covering the whole planet when the planet has 4 islands
• Construction preview cards now list full effects of adjacency bonuses
• Other small fixes

1.0168, 18/12/2020

• Seasonal update... 🎅

1.0167, 17/12/2020

• Fixed an issue where the Sphinx could destroy player-built Forests
• Fixed an issue where buildings upgraded to something that requires Power wouldn't then take that power from Power Lines

1.0166, 10/12/2020

• Fixed some translation issues, including long-stating errors in the Italian translation of the tutorial!
• Tooltip about rainforest bonus only appears for building on a rainforest island
• Cleaners whose range covers a polluted tile on another island won't try to go there

1.0165, 09/12/2020

• Possible fix for an issue where buildings don't appear when changing planets

1.0164, 08/12/2020

• Version number is now displayed on Main Menu
• Menu on Player-build Transmogrifier closes when you deselect it
• Ships arriving at Ports that are being upgraded behave better now
• Some tooltips corrected to show full number instead of "1K"
• Fixed some translations of rounding numbers to "1K"
• Improved question text when demolishing upgraded roads
• Fixed door shutting too early on animals entering a house
• Fixed issue where hovering over a new building to remove the New outline wouldn't then display it's hotkey number
• Animals don't float over unexplored tiles
• Prevented Stasis boxes from spawning on permanent resources (e.g. Oil)
• Fixed minor issue with pathfinding over bridges
• Fixed issue where ship didn't close up whale-removed sea tiles
• Fixed issue where Cleaners were returning home after each tile they cleaned
• Fixed an issue with power lines not appearing to connect to some buildings
• Mines/Quarries who use up their input resource no longer register as having Empty Posts

Changes to new games only

• Added new biomes (Swamp, Rainforest and Crystal)
  • Swamp biomes are like the Desert but reversed - you can only build smaller buildings on swamp tiles.
  • Rainforests are covered with trees. They give a significant bonus to the production rate of Fields, but that bonus drops the more trees you cut down
  • The Crystal Island... well, you'll see...
• SIGNIFICANTLY updated the game generation algorithm:
  • Fertilities now tend to cluster on the earlier planets, so that when you reach the edge planets for Purple research you still need to go back to earlier planets to get good food and other important resources
  • Some islands can have Iron+Electronics - no 'Mountains'
  • Things like Oil, Milk, Wool etc tend to be on more difficult islands
  • Tutorial games will always start with 1 grass + 2 desert islands, but non-tutorial games can now have other biomes for the 2nd/3rd islands on the first planet
  • Swamp/desert islands are slightly more common towards the sun
  • Snow/Rainforest islands are slightly more common away from the sun
  • Made lots of things controlled centrally instead of being completely random, so there should be less chance of weird/broken games (once we work out any wrinkles)
  • Added a bunch of new island shapes:
    • Archipelagos
    • Inverted islands (eg the Highlands on the coast, rather than inland)
    • Crescent shaped islands
  • Added a chance for ruined villages to be on islands
  • Added a chance for an extra-hard desert - no green tiles, less trees
  • Added coral reefs
• Added a difficulty option to change resource availability (Iron, Stone etc)
• Added a difficulty option for changing pollution rate
• Added a difficulty option to change how many resources constructing buildings use

Changes on all games (previous & new saves)

Gameplay

• Added something secret when you explore Ancient/Sunken Ruins
• Added cats and dogs and scorpions and cows and sheep and squirrels and toucans!
  • Peeps will sometimes 'pet' cats and dogs
• Added a Frog - how many times can you find it?
• You can plant forests now!
• Added Automation/Filtering upgrades to a bunch of buildings that were missing them
• Added a new "Research Institute" building, which:
  • Gives you a timer for the next Space Whale attack
  • Allows you to build things on any island on that planet without a Library
  • Generates a little bit of research in all colours.
• Peeps now use Luxuries more often (when they're below 'Normal' level happiness rather than below 'Sad')
• Added Boulders that you demolish for Stone. Demolishing a Forest no longer supplies Stone. Tutorial has been updated
• Tutorial gives a bit more information about Fatigue
• Shipping lanes created by dragging a resource in the main shipping view also start with Maintain set to 20
  • Except for Research, because generally you want to send *all* your research to another island
• Slightly reduced the speed that Pollution increases
• Buildings stop contributing to pollution once it's higher than their rating - so a Slightly polluting building won't cause any more pollution to a tile that's already at Slightly Polluted or greater
• Elevators and Bridges can now be built on islands without a Library, and by Peeps without a home, just in case the extra mobility is required
• Exploring an Ancient Ruin when you've already invented everything you can will now reveal a tech you don't yet have the right research for (such as Shipping on your first island if there's a Ruin on it)
• Refactored the code controlling Space Whales. It's now a bit more deliberate about progressing through stages as time goes on.
• When colonising a new Planet you can now choose your landing site on the first island
• When not playing the tutorial, your initial game start area sometimes isn't all nice and clear with the ring of roads around the shelter
• Mill, Baker, Kitchen, Smoothie Maker, Desalination Plant and Battery Power Generator have Automation Upgrade
• Smoothie Maker has Filtering Upgrade
• Roads can be upgraded through their card when selected
• Added 3 new music tracks and fiddled with when music plays
• Made it so that if an Island is attacked by a space whale, it can't be selected as the target for the next two attacks, unless it's the only option
• Defeated minotaur now falls over briefly
• After a building has been destroyed by the Sphinx, clicking on it will move to and select the destroyed building
• Player-constructed Shelters now produce a little bit of Potatoes and Water, like the original Shelter
• Improved behaviour when moving between islands when you've got a building menu open
• Scouting islands with Guardians after you've discovered Purple research (and so unlocked Museum etc tech) won't tell you that you've unlocked them anymore

Visual

• Added rocky tile sides to high ground tiles that go right down to ocean
• Added some new tree models, including a super rare type (no in-game effect, just visual)
• Added fireflies!
• Added snow/sand flurries!
• Added Waterfalls!
• Added 'flow' effects to rivers

UI

• Fertility dropdown in the top bar includes text describing the biome rules
• Added a button to allow copying the game seed to clipboard
• Added confirmation dialogs for removing ships from shipping lanes and deleting shipping lanes
• Changed "New" to a star because some languages can't fit into the space
• Newly revealed technologies have a pulsing border in the technology panel
• Updated Smoothie Maker icon
• Added some tweaks to the technology panel so that when zoomed out it's more readable
• A bunch of notifications now state the island and planet where they happen.
• Fertility button in top bar now shows an icon depending on the biome of the island
• Added better icons to indicate differing efficiency of Wind/Solar power on different islands
• Colony (space)ship construction buttons now list the Food+Drink they require
• Added a line to the Shipwright and Launchpad descriptions to acknowledge the requirement for the island to have a certain population
• Clicking on "Could not unload ship as Port is full" notifications now takes you to the Port. It also lists the name of the Ship
• Holding your mouse over a "New" building's construction button will remove the New marking
• Top menu dropdowns close when you press Escape
• Fixed the zoom location for some islands
• Press '\' to close all notifications
• Removed full path for screenshots, to avoid revealing private info if streaming
• Ancient Technology deposits now state what colour they are in their title
• Updated the error message when trying to place an elevator on an occupied tile, to account for the occupier being a resource heap or ancient tech
• Highlight around selected Shipping Lane in Shipping Manifest is thicker
• Upgrading to a House/Apartment will remove the "New" border on their construction button
• When you first launch a rocket, when you get to space the rocket will be selected
• Children's happiness chart now has a line, and a thing in the key to say they're always happy
• Two-way arrow on ships in the Shipping Manifest now changes to a one-way arrow when the ship is moving, indicating the direction they're travelling
• Added an icon to building description for buildings that have to go on high ground
• If you discover gremlins/sphinx/minotaur after discovering purple research, the discovery should no longer mention that lighting/museum/training ground is unlocked now.
• Stasis boxes pick up the overlay colour of their tile
• Pending road upgrades can now be individually demolished in the road card
• You can now cancel a road upgrade from under an in-progress elevator
• You can now place an elevator over an in-progress road upgrade
• Added a red border around the unhappy workers in a building card
• Continuing a game will populate the save game dialog with its name now
• Technology queued up in another library should now show it's position in the queue.
• Made shipwright card taller when UI Scale is low, to avoid unnecessary scrollbar
• When adding a shipping lane, the Ports are now listed alphabetically

Settings

• Added an options slider for how fast the Space Whale difficulty ramps up
• Added a "High Contrast Cursor" option in Game Options
• We've started to increase the amount of data in the game-seed. It produces a new seed that encodes all the game settings rather than just the planet generation random seed
• Added an options slider for how fast the Space Whale difficulty ramps up
• Added a "High Contrast Cursor" option in Game Options
• We've started to increase the amount of data in the game-seed. It produces a new seed that encodes all the game settings rather than just the planet generation random seed

Fixes

• Added some variation to how many trees are on an island
• Added some optional data to an extra save file, so that more graph and overlay history is stored (but not transferred in Cloud Saves - they'll regenerate the data when you load on the other computer)
• Added borders to the editable numbers in the resource dropdown and Warehouse card to make it more obvious that they are editable
• Added Power Line functionality to Aegis
• Updated fatigue:
  • Added a timer to the info pin so you can see how long it'll last
  • At work, fatigued Peeps work (very) slowly instead of not working at all
  • Updated the Fatigue pin to be clearer it’s about being tired not sad
• On Islands with no Road Layer building the road upgrade buttons are disabled
• Colony ship tooltip updated when you're trying to colonise an island but over a tile it can't reach (in the middle of the island or over the wrong island)
• Peaceful Kraken should have their glowy ball back
• Zooming in on a laptop trackpad with two-finger-swipe should work now
• If a Port/Landing pad finishes construction while you're in Shipping Mode, a card for the new Port gets added
• If a tech finishes while you've got a building category open, new buildings get added to the category
• Rearranged the resource dropdown in the top bar to be more readable.
• Prevented starting an upgrade on a building that's doing assigned work (like a Shipwright constructing a ship)
• Dialog asking "Do you want to delete this game" appears over the load/save button like it should
• Landing a scout on a single low tile on an Atoll no longer makes the game freeze
• Suggested save name is now correct if you load two games in a row
• Prevented submarine from disappearing near edges of planet
• Fixed an issue where a Peep would sometimes list Gloom multiple times in their happiness summary
• Fixed a minor issue with helpful Minotaurs getting confused
• Fixed a bug that was breaking Peeps going to explore Ancient Ruins if they left before they were done
• Fixed a bug with Power distribution to some large buildings
• Fixed an issue that allowed you to build a bridge over a river with a Port on the inland side of it
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to click on controls underneath a question dialog
• Fixed a situation where the sheltespaceship wasn't releasing Peeps to fill empty housing slots because there was a homeless person working in construction
• "Similar building" icons now work better when a building is being upgraded
• Fixed an issue that was making placing a road fail if you did so very quickly after placing another road
• Fixed a French translation issue
• Fixed the names for upgrades in Ports and Whale Charmers
• Fixed a pathfinding issue if a Peep winds up standing on the corner of a bridge
• Fixed description of Gardening technology
• Fixed an error when moving a colony ship
• Ship, spaceship and guardian sounds now pause when game is paused
• "Space Whale ate stuff on the planet" notification now takes you to the planet when clicked on
• Fixed planet stated on "the kraken is now helpful" notifications
• Minotaurs no longer get stuck on terrain that should be inaccessible
• Fixed a pathing error if a ship is trying to reach the unexplored centre of an island when the very edge of the island isn't explored, but the central area is still surrounded with explored tiles
• Fixed Island colonisation action+tooltip if you're next to a valid island but not next to a valid tile
• Spam clicking on a planet while in space doesn't reset the zoom-in
• Peeps no longer open and close their doors repeatedly when a minotaur is nearby
• Minotaur card resized if it changes state while selected
• Fixed a couple of issues with the glass smelter step in the tutorial
• Fixed a bug that wasn't allowing you to enter shipping mode if your camera happened to be in just the right position
• Rearranged the Port-Ship Resource Transfer dialog a little to better fit long names
• Fixed an issue that would occasionally make ships appear to clip through land tiles at 4x speed
• Hopefully fixed an issue that was causing mysterious ship-moving sounds to play from nowhere after you load a second game in the same session
• Fixed a couple of things when you've got a destroyed building you don't have the resources to repair
• In Difficulty settings, Demolition resources doesn't go grey when it's at 100%
• Homeless peeps will no longer try to reach construction jobs they can't access
• When a Road tile is cleaned, it's card should update to show the changed pollution level
• Show Planets option is no longer visible before the first spaceship is launched
• Fixed an error if you click the Launch button for a spaceship while zooming from space to planet
• Improved the way the camera is controlled when tracking the first whale encounter, so it should stay onscreen better
• Fixed an error when launching colony spaceships
• Fixed "Space sound" not disappearing when you zoom back into a planet
• Reduced the size of the click area for planets in space, so that they don't cover spaceships that are near-but-behind the planet
• Hopefully fixed an issue where the first whale attack would be tracked by the camera on the wrong planet
• Port upgrade button no longer closes any time a ship docks
• Fixed an issue when clicking notification about Trade Spaceships
• Fixed an issue where ships appear to move through land tiles on 4x speed
• Fixed an issue where peeps wouldn't fetch from a Stepped Warehouse after all the nearby elevators were destroyed by a whale
• Fixed an issue where ocean/river tiles covered by a bridge didn't have the water shoreline texturing