Major Updates with Brand New Features

Hi everyone,

Urban Ascend just received a big round of improvements driven directly by your feedback. Here is what's new:

Persistent Incidents Window

Incidents are now impossible to miss. When something goes wrong, the game pauses and a clear, focused window appears showing:

• What happened and which buildings are affected
• What you can do about it (for example, “Build more fire stations”)

Close the window when you’re ready and continue building. If you prefer a more idle style, you can toggle this off in Options to use the original quick notifications that fade automatically.

Improved Visual Alerts

Buildings affected by an incident now flash with a pulsing red highlight, making them much easier to spot in busy cities. This pairs with the new incident window to help you respond faster and more confidently.

Incident Logs

The new Incident Log (accessible from the main menu) lets you keep track of everything happening in your city:

• View all incidents at once
• See which ones are still active
• Review details and recommended actions

Perfect for staying organized during late-game cities.

Citizen Needs Display

Citizen needs such as Safety and Happiness now appear as dedicated bars on screen. Each bar shows how many needs you’re currently satisfying out of the total. This makes it much easier to spot shortages and keep your population thriving.

Proximity Bonus System

Building placement just became a lot more strategic. Many structures now gain bonuses or penalties based on what they’re built next to:

• Power stations operate faster near roads
• Farms get production boosts near water reservoirs
• Some buildings slow down if placed too close to incompatible structures

These bonuses directly affect production cycle speed, rewarding clever layouts and meaningful city planning.

Proximity Hints

A new consulting system helps you uncover proximity bonuses as you grow your city. You can now hire Mr. Consultant to reveal helpful placement tips whenever you need them:

• Spend gold to buy a hint from Mr. Consultant

• Each hint explains a specific synergy or placement bonus

• All purchased hints are saved in the Consulting Log for easy reference

Discovering optimal building pairings is now part of your progression, and Mr. Consultant is always ready to point you in the right direction.

Menu Button Palette

A new on-map icon palette gives you quick access to important tools. With one click, you can open:

• Incidents Log
• Unlock Hint
• Hints Log
• Progress
• Cash Out

Less digging through menus, more building.

Optimization Bar

The new Optimization Bar shows your city’s overall performance in one place. It takes into account:

• Resource production and efficiency
• How often your buildings are working vs. stalled
• Population growth
• Gold reserves
• Upgrades unlocked
• Percentage of buildings with proximity benefits

It’s your all-in-one score for how well your city is running. Try to push it to 100% if you’re aiming for city-building perfection.

As always, I welcome your feedback to polish the game even more. The demo should be up on Steam very soon!