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 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.