Against The Storm's 1.3 update is out now and it's one for the zoomers

Against The Storm's latest update adds a a River Kelpie, a "legendary water demon" that can mesmerise villagers in your rain-slick settlements. I've been mesmerised myself by another part of the update, however: the ability to zoom out 66% further than before.

Why does a big zoom compel me so?

Partly it's that I often find management games leave me feeling claustrophobic, never quite able to see all I want onscreen, and thus desperately flicking across the surface of the world in an effort to keep tabs on what's going on. Partly it's that Supreme Commander spoiled me in 2007 and now any game that doesn't let me move the scrollwheel until every unit is a speck feels like it's got a hand on the back of my head.

Against The Storm's new zoom isn't at Supreme Commander scale, but it's the consequence of performance improvements introduced with 1.3. It's also, ultimately, just one of many quality-of-life and balance improvements included in the patch. Resource tooltips have also been made more useful, trees can now be marked for chopping individually, and several upgrades now grant more powerful buffs. There are full patch notes on Steam.

Note that the update means that any saved but incomplete settlement will no longer be playable. Players will be granted Citadel Resources and Royal Resupply as compensation. Alternatively, if you really want to finish that settlement, you can open up the beta branch menu in Steam and revert your game back to version 1.2. This will only be available for an extra week, however, so finish it up fast.