It took a bit more time than anticipated, but I think I got most, if not all, of the 0.5 bugs under control and added some of the most requested features. I've been playing a 10h game with this patch (with multi-threading enabled) and it's stable. I've also fixed the path-finding issue that was preventing players from having multiple separate underground areas. We're also back to pre-0.5 performances after another code optimization pass.
While i could speak about bug fixing for a while, let's get to the more interesting parts:
Lasso Selection
Firstly, lasso selection during combat has finally been implemented. You can lasso select your units (in combat mode) to move them in group. No more awkward 1 by 1 unit selection. It however makes most encounters trivial to deal with. I might need to re-balance events or prevent settlers from shooting & moving at the same time when under player control. I'll leave it as is for now.
Weapon Strength vs Material Integrity
That's something I have explained in multiple locations already. Simply put, the general idea is that a weak attack like a punch or an arrow shot shouldn't do the same amount of damage to a soft body and to a metal wall.
To that effect, each weapon has a "strength" value and each armor/object/target has an "integrity" value, both ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). The bigger the difference between the 2, the higher the damage reduction (by 20% increments).
For instance a very low strength (punch) attack versus a very high (metal wall) integrity target will lead to a 80% reduction in damage. The opposite isn't true. High strength vs low integrity won't increase the damage.
It's still a bit experimental, but all in all it's working. Strong doors last much longer, but they aren't going to hold off a horde of shamblers indefinitely either.
Tool-tip System
I slightly extended the tool-tip system. Clicking an object will no longer show that cumbersome center-top panel. Instead it will display a transparent popup providing more information and less visual noise. It also has the handy side effect of showing the content of your containers / storage buildings with a single click.
I will continue to improve that system, replacing some of the large menus by more dynamic tool-tips when it makes sense.
Changelog
Balance
Collecting water from well is 33% faster
Purifying water at a camp fire is 25% faster
Reduced wall and tile building time by about 33%
Combat
Lasso selection for multi-unit selection during combat
Ability to give move and attack orders to whole groups of survivors
Weapons, objects, armors have a strength and integrity variable influencing damage (low strength vs high integrity lowering damages)
Engine
More code optimizations, which should put us back to pre 0.5 performances, give or take
Job Dispatcher is now thread-safe which should make the multi-threading option safe'ish now
User Interface
Slightly tweaked panels so menus look a bit better
Replaced the top panel for furniture, walls and player owned constructions by the new tooltip system
Tooltips look better and deliver more information
Added weapon strength and armor/object integrity info to contextual right click menus
Updated tooltip and tutorial to account or multi unit selection in combat mode
Added keyboard shortcut info to main menu button tooltips
Bug Fixes
It was possible to build (buggy) stairs over blackened walls when the intented behavior is "only above empty cavern"
Potential crash when the colony collapses
Weird french sentence in exploration monitor menu (me deplace vers)
In caverns (invisible) walls marked for deletion could keep the tile colored in red after being deleted
Survivors would appear near a stair instead of on top of it when changing scene, potentially blocking them into a wall
Combat mode circles showing even when in the wrong floor
Bug that could teleport someone in the wrong floor
Regression bug (0.5.0) preventing job priority settings to be restored when loading a savegame
Pathing errors when having multiple and separated underground locations
Damaged palisades would show the default wall damage sprite that's larger than the palisade
Epidemics are not checking for faction, causing spiders and lizards to catch the flu
Camera centering via menus would not switch to the proper scene
Automatic change of layer (events, menus, etc.) would not always properly update the lighting
Traders could appear in the underground (and stuck to boot)
Repair job not working properly
RaiderAI could take forever to start if the majority of the base is underground
Underground Update 0.5.0 Released!
Underground Update 0.5
As promised, and only a week late, here's the Underground update for After The Collapse. This is quite a massive update including both the promised underground layer and multiple new features.
I wrote a long article detailing the changes on our official website. I strongly urge you to read it, especially the last part regarding performances and known issues.
Thank you!
Changelog
AI
New semi passive animal AI (move around designated area unless hostiles go near it)
Settlers are better at not getting stuck inside building locations (they get teleported out if need be)
Content
Procedural map generator for underground caverns
Stairs building to access the underground
Ability for your base to be built underground
New weather patterns, some of which might apply special traits
New underground (hostile, nasty) critters
Integrated the cotton mod (loom + cotton seeds for fabric production)
Ability to convert giant spiders' webs into cloth using the loom
Underground critters spawn meat on death that you can cook (preliminary step toward taming and meat production)
Stone chairs, tables, doors (masonry)
Added "Damaged Gear" item category for all damaged weapons, armors and headgear
Stone 'statue' crafting for trading purpose (Valuable item category)
Depressed trait no longer prevent people from hauling or fighting (as it leads to a downward spiral)
Some items can only be built in the outside (solar generators, rain collectors, that kind of things)
Tweaked skill gain for building and razing
metal smelting: increased stone cost from 1 to 2 to account for all the undeground stone
Hostile animals from raids no longer beeline toward your base, they'll use the less "active" FaunaAI module instead
Given the semi passive animal AI, the event system won't wait for them to be killed them before resuming activities
Water collector building time halved
Modding
Raid event files can select which AI module raiders are supposed to run (should normally be RaiderAI or FaunaAI)
Raid event files can select in which layer they want to spawn (overworld, underworld, any)
Windows, blood, and some proc gen data can be overwritten by data mods (wasn't the case until now)
Ability to set if an object can be built outside, underground or both (default)
Weather patterns can be altered/added/removed
NPC definition files contain new options: slight/full/no randomization of stats, and ability to generate traits or use those provided, etc.
Body data files (limbs sprite and placement) are now properly accessible through data modding
Bug Fixes
Disassembling some types of objects wouldn't properly clear the associated path, leading to blocked objects
Sealing off a part of the map (walling off a storage zone for instance) no longer blocks the AI
Multiple issues preventing a much higher use of multithreading (still experimental)
Cars, fauna, shamblers having randomized stats (leading to "fast" shamblers, weak giant crabs, etc.)
Cars and fauna having a "profession" (not visible to the user, but still a bug)
Setting up building locations for things that wouldn't normally block path (beds), would still block path until the item is built.
The same (wound type) trait could be applied over and over instead of being refreshed (causing people to have 20 broken arms for instance)
Engine not fully understanding ranged weapons that don't use or need ammo
Crabs and other animals could get depressed due to needs they should normally ignore
Dozens of barely significant bugs that were made obvious when adding the underground layer
Potential expedition + doctor related crash
Some more missing french translation strings
Winter Sale and News
Underground Update
Just a quick post to tell you that the Underground Update (0.5) will be released shortly after Christmas. As the name implies, it'll include underground caverns to mine, explore and colonize, among other surprises.
Price Change and Winter Sale
Additionally, as we previously announced, we'll be increasing our standard price to $9.99 as soon as the Steam Winter Sale ends. It means that our (currently discounted) price is the lowest at which you'll be able to acquire the game in the foreseeable future.
Cheers.
December Update
Hello there!
Here is our December update. It's talking about the recent Steam drama and policies, our current and future plans for After the Collapse, and our future projects in general:
I just received a crash report for something that I can't reproduce. I spent some time looking at the incriminated function, and while I'm not sure WHY it could crash, I'm still fairly confident I fixed the problem, hence this hot-patch.
Additionally, it's coming with a few improvements I was normally only going to release in a week, but might as well include them too.
Changelog
Additions
Survivors are much less likely to interrupt a task when they get slightly hungry/sleep/thirsty
Survivors are more likely to satisfy their basic needs on their free time
New menu for the Expedition Manager
Improved rendering and standardized buttons in tabbed menus
Military base destination for expeditions
Savegames are more robust when dealing with missing content (for instance: uninstalling mods mid-game, don't expect miracles, tho)
Additional logging to catch occasional weird bugs
Expeditions destinations & loot tables can be modded/customized
Fixed
Fairly large memory leak when restarting or reloading a game
Possibly fixed a crash (NullReferenceException in PublicJobDispatcher.Request) we can't to reproduce for now
After The Collapse 0.4.9 Massive Update
Summary: Update 0.4.9
Here's a massive update for After The Collapse. It includes a lot of new content which we will be detailing in this post. But, first of all, a short summary:
Interactive Tutorial
New weapons, armors, crafting stations and technologies
More balanced difficulty settings (with more events)
Construction skill & progress
Fixed all the crashes on the french version (our deepest apologies)
Interactive Tutorial
While it was initially planned for the 0.5 branch, it was made obvious to us (from your feedback) that a proper tutorial was needed quickly. This is now done. It introduces the game's basic concepts while telling a short story. It also gives some information about the game's world and story-line.
It took a lot of time to write, more so than all the rest of the update combined, by far. Yet, it's probably far from fail-proof and bugs are likely present.
Feedback is more than welcome, as it's very difficult for me to evaluate a tutorial for a game I built.
Weapons and Armors
We added mid game weapons and armors to fill the gap between the early "stone age" equipment and the modern one. Those weapons (with ammo) and armors can be produced locally after you have researched the associated technologies and built the appropriate crafting stations.
The weapons are home-made pipe weapons. Like those two:
Simply put, they are less efficient counterparts to the gun and shotgun. Their advantage is that they can be both produced with metal, wood and charcoal and the ammunition is simple to make.
Same goes for the armors. 2 variants (standard and heavy) of a metal armor. Doesn't require much to build, they offer decent protection for their cost.
This is part of our first pass at balancing weaponry, equipment and pacing.
Difficulty / Event System
Another response to feedback:
The Standard difficulty has been tweaked: bandits with modern weapons will no longer spawn until you have the Electronics tech. Other events have been slightly tweaked to even things out.
The Hectic difficulty level has been renamed to Difficult. The above requirements for Electronics are no longer present, but outside of that, it's generally less "hardcore" than before. Which makes it a decent option for experienced players.
We added 2 "tribal raid" events for the mid and late game. You'll also notice that bandits, settlers and tribals carry much more varied gear.
Settlers
To reduce confusion about some skills, we renamed Carpentry to Construction. It's, now, used only for building purpose. Building speed is now influenced by the construction skill and settlers gain experience as they build more stuff. All crafting recipes using that skill have been moved to "Crafting" instead.
In a similar fashion, the previously unused Mining skill is now used when survivors are breaking rocks and boulders (instead of Disassembling).
While at it, we added a few more traits and jobs.
General Notes
There's a lot more stuff under the hood, making the game more stable, more moddable and generally speaking easier to use.
Full Changelog
Additions
Interactive Tutorial (it was supposed to be a 0.5 feature, but due to popular demand we had to tweak our roadmap a bit)
Building furniture/walls/etc increases the builder's skill at construction
Building speed of furniture/walls/etc proportional to their construction skill
Raiders with modern gear won't attack until you've researched the "electronics" tech in standard difficulty
2 new weapons: Pipe Pistol and Pipe Shotgun
1 ammo type: pipe weapon ammo
3 new armors: Spec Ops (top tier, loot/trade only), light and heavy metal armors (buildable)
Armor Forge building (build basic tier armors, no electricity needed)
Weapon Forge building (build pipe weapons, no electricity needed)
A new armor related technology (Basic Armors)
A new weapon related technology (Pipe Weapons)
Increased equipment variety on bandits and tribals
The axe gives a bonus to the 'disassembling' skill
Zone size is displayed during placement
Pathing to moving agents is much more reactive, which will improve combat behaviors
Gametip for 1st time building placement (explains rotation)
5 new achievements (techs + tutorial)
New traits and jobs for your survivors
2 more tribal attack events for the mid and late game.
Changes
Renamed skill "Carpentry" to "Construction" (as it's what it actually does, after all)
The few recipes using "Carpentry" are now using "Crafting"
Breaking rocks properly use the "Mining" skill instead of "Disassembling"
Armor technology has 2 tiers now. One for the construction of basic armors (leather, metal), the second one for the maintenance of modern armors.
Reordered tech tree to make room for pipe weapons
Edited some jobs to account for the construction skill
Reorganized how and where armors are produced (leather armor and metal helmet moved to the armor forge)
Heavy metal armor and flamethrower give the "heavy duty equipment" trait while equipped (settler heavily slown down)
Increased base damage of the (rare) flamethrower from 10 to 25 per "bullet"
Increased bullet speed of modern firearms (pistol especially) and tweaked damage output
Rebalanced event managers: Standard is a bit easier, Hectic became Difficult (as in, it's playable if you really know what you're doing)
Modding
Events can go in their own files loaded by an event manager now, making the whole process much less annoying
Note that the "Construction" skill is still called 'Carpenting' (yes, with that typo) in game files for compatibility purpose.
Added "AutoSelect" flag to equipment presets. If set, the NPC will select one of each weapon/armor/headgear (quantity=probability) in file and automatically add required ammo if need be (see tribal_basic.json)
Events can be gated by specific technologies
Fixes
Extremely unlikely crash (clicking on an animated object at the first frame of the game)
Many crashes caused by the French translation (sorry about that)
Generally speaking the UI library is much more robust when encountering unexpected characters
Missing unique icon for armor technology
Issue where a raider would get "stuck" in place not finding their path toward the target
Bug where people would occasionally go "explore" (0,0) coordinates
Version 0.4.8 Released!
Update 0.4.8: Summary
This is a shorter update than usual as, internally, we've started working on the 0.5 branch. As usual with the 0.4.x updates, the goal here is to make the user interface more friendly while fixing the few remaining oddities/bugs. We've added more colorful and useful help tool-tips (more to come), added some feedback to show which zone/room is complete or not.
Additionally, we fixed a major issue on Turkish language systems which prevented the game from running at all. Thanks to the two users who reported the problem, it's not something we could have detected on our own.
General Notes
While we're still going to post additional patches for the 0.4 version, they will grow smaller in sizes as we're now focusing on the 0.5 version which will add a bunch of new features and content (underground layer, realistic farming, proper tutorial being the big ones).
The initial 0.5 version should be made available before 2019.
Changelog
Additions
Warning sign on incomplete rooms
Hammer icon over building locations
Build menu makes clear what can and cannot be built with what's in storage currently
Colors to the "building in progress" menu to show availability of materials in storage
Option to show or not the "room" or "farm" menu after building a new zone
Tooltips can now use custom colors and backgrounds
Building requirements in tooltips
Trait tooltips are nicer looking and explicitly show you can click for more info
Nicer looking equipment tooltips displaying left/right click help
Tooltips in research station's secondary panel
"Bored" dialog bubble
Small code optimizations
Changes
Reduced tooltip delay from 1sec to 0.5sec
Removed equipment panels from settler inventory as it's a duplicate from the settler info panel
Updated UI library to latest version
Fixed
It was possible to unintentionally "skip" recruitment events by clicking at the wrong place at the wrong time
Mouse wheel scrolling menus when the mouse is not on said menu
Middle click when reentering the game while the window isn't focused no longer move the map erratically.
It was possible to drag move the map while the input is supposed to be paused, causing display glitches
Settler Info Panel taking a frame to show all information, looking a bit weird
Cancelling building mode would leave the ghost on screen as long as the game is paused
Clicking multiple times on a piece of equipment in the settler info panel would open multiple copies of the equip menu
Trait panel was not draggable
Gun crafting station set as path-blocking, preventing users from reaching their proper work location.
Rare/potential crash in job dispatcher
Crash on startup with Turkish language systems (Alex)
