Here's the first (and obligatory) patch for the 0.9 update. It's fixing the most urgent problems with the 0.9.0 build. As usual with this kind of patch, you don't need to start a new game, save-games and mods are compatible under the same limitations as with 0.9.0 proper.
I fixed 2 typos which caused nasty side effects. One in code prevented survivors from efficiently dealing with stuff left on the ground (bug introduced in 0.9), making bases not taking full advantage of storage containers a lot less efficient. Another typo in a data file caused an exponential growth of zombies on the world map. Basically infected buildings would spawn new hordes every 2 hours instead of every 2 days, completely overrunning the world map in a matter of weeks. As much it could be a thing in a specific scenario, this wasn't intended to work like that in the main game.
There are a few more fixes in the changelog, nothing as game-breaking as those two bugs, though.
Expect 2-3 more weekly patches in the same spirit, fixing and balancing the 0.9 release before the next large update. In any case, I hope you all had good holidays, and I wish everyone a happy new year.
Cheers!
Full Changelog
Balance: Reduced spawn rate and max spawn of shamblers / infected buildings, also reduced value in auto combat
Fixed: A problem introduced in 0.9.0 where the retrieval of tiles' inventory wouldn't work reliably
Fixed: Infested buildings spawning enemies every 2 hours instead of every 2 days (that's what a misplaced number does to my carefully planned balance)
Fixed: Laws not applied to all newly recruited settlers when clicking the "recruit all" button (for good this time)
Fixed: Possible crash in debug/dev/creative mode in a specific menu
Fixed: Pets and cattle could (incorrectly) be assigned to expeditions, production centers and patrol zones
Fixed: Turret parts recipe listed twice in Tinkering Station
Fixed: Robots couldn't be assigned to expeditions, production centers and patrol zones
Fixed: Missing recipes to repair the damaged Magnum .44, FAMAS G1 and FN-P90 weapons
Fixed: Missing Recycling station information for most pipe weapons
Fixed: Infected buildings could technically spawn hordes while being in combat with the player (or other faction) leading to weird effects
After The Collapse 0.9.0 Released
Hi peeps! Here's the promised 0.9 content update!
This is the first draft for the 0.9x dev cycle. It contains most of the promised core features outside of the map/building editor and handcrafted maps (they go hand-in-hand). As with all milestone updates, despite a lot of testing, it might not be as polished or stable as the previous version, but all bugs and oddities will quickly be addressed.
I'll talk about the future of the 0.9 branch later, but for now, let's focus on the new features and changes. As usual, full changelog at the end. I'll only cover the major changes in the article.
TL;DR
Devlog: 0.9 Progress Update
Hi there!
To make up for the lack of weekly patches while I'm coding the 0.9 update, here's a devlog instead (I know, technically, I did patch ATC a couple times to address random/rare issues found by people but still, nothing major).
Oh before i start. I know it's unusual, but i'd like to advertise Piecewise, a chat-bot making tool made by a friend of mine who also did a lot of work on ATC, including the Steam workshop integration. If you're enjoying ATC mods it's in great part thanks to her. It would mean a lot to me if you gave a follow or considered buying it if it's something you'd be interested in.
Anyway, to summarize, progress toward 0.9 is going well, several of the features I talked about in the previous devlog are fully or at least "mostly" implemented, and the rest is being actively worked on. There are a few technical problems and bugs I had to deal with, but nothing really major.
So, let's see what I have done so far. Comments are welcome, obviously :)
Assign survivors to a specific job
This was one system that ATC didn't have until now. While 9 times out of 10, it really didn't matter who was working on what station, it still made it more difficult than it should to assign someone competent to a particular task. It also limited what I could do with the game. This is fixed.
I'm still feeling ambivalent about this feature. On one hand, it makes it a lot easier to assign the correct person to the research station and it gives more control to the player. On the other hand, 9 times out of 10, work stations being public is way more effective (when a worker takes care of their needs, their job can be resumed by someone else). And I fully expect to get forum posts complaining about inefficiency, production not being executed (because assigned worker is sleeping/sick), or settlers not working (because the work station has no job it can complete). But welp, it's the price of progress, i guess.
To counterbalance that risk, the feature is going to be put in an advanced sub menu (as shown in the screenshot) alongside the "high priority" checkbox, and where additional "non newbie friendly" filters like "minimum skill" will likely be added in the future.
Patrol Zones
The menu is still very "beta" looking, but it's complete feature-wise. Simply put, it allows you to assign settlers to guard a particular location (like the entrance of your base).
It comes with a lot of useful settings. The most important one being that you can select if you want the people assigned to the patrol zone to guard it at all time (they'll still leave to eat/sleep/.. unless you specify otherwise) or only when combat mode is toggled on.
This is super useful as you can pretty much automatize your base's defense using this system. Setup a few patrol zones in non permanent mode, assign your soldiers, disable military skill on everyone else, and poof, the second you press the "combat mode" button, your militia will automatically move to their designated defensive position and deal with the incoming threat.
It goes without saying that this will replace the cumbersome "save/load patrol point" system we had before. There's a few more settings to talk about but they aren't written in stone yet, and I still need to have something to write about in the release post :D
Mental Breakdown
This one, I didn't talk about in the devlog, but it felt like a necessary addition. This is an entirely optional feature, and can be tuned up/down/disabled in the difficulty settings.
I've noticed over the years that new players with a doomed first (or second) base will often continue to play a very depressing game instead of restarting a new base, not because of the challenge but because the fact it's doomed hasn't been communicated very well.
Mental breakdowns can be seen is pretty much all base builders in a form or another because they address this very problem, they accelerate the process hopefully in an entertaining way.
I'm still tuning the system, but right now the rule is as follow. Each survivor has an invisible "mental breakdown" gauge. Each day, the survivor counts for how long they've been depressed (very low morale), and for how long they've been happy (very high morale). If they've been depressed more than happy, the gauge increases proportionally. Same thing in reverse for happiness. If they've been neither of those things, it doesn't move.
When the gauge is full, the settler will enter a "mental breakdown" state. They won't respond to any commands and will perform one (or a few) detrimental action(s). This action can be anything from deciding to leave the base, to punch furniture, turn hostile, attack someone they hate, mop in a corner for a few hours, burn down something, ... Not every action has been written yet, and it's fairly adaptive, i can easily add more. Assuming they survive and do not leave the base, this will reset the gauge.
It's not meant to be something you really have to manage, the gauge increases very slowly. Right now, on default settings, it takes 4-5 days of 24/24 misery for a survivor to have a breakdown.
But, beside accelerating the downfall of a base in an entertaining fashion, it's also meant to prevent experienced players from completely ignoring mood. As much as it's a common complaint from new players, the depressed state ain't really that bad. And once you've figured that out and start stacking up laws which reduce mood but improve everything else, it can even be beneficial (if you don't mind people punching each other all the time). Now, you can still do it, but a survivor might decide to burn down the barracks in protest. :D
This also introduces a concept of criminality to the game. To answer the obvious "can i arrest those people?", well not really right now. There will likely be a "convert to prisoner" button for the offenders, but that'll be it initially. I have post 1.0 plans to introduce special roles like sheriff and leader (think royalty in Dwarf fortress, but somewhat useful) to deal with those problems in interesting ways, but we're not there yet.
World Map: Animal herds, infected hordes, ...
For simplicity sake i'm going to call this system a "horde" no matter if it's zombies, animals or a group of bandits, as it's the name used internally anyway.
That's the big feature I'm working on right now. In principle, this is self explanatory: growing hordes of hostiles roaming the map. If they come across your base, it triggers a raid-type event (assuming they are hostile toward you). If they come across a point of interest they might attack it if defended, or take over it if it's empty.
They can be intercepted by expeditions. and can be attacked before they become a problem, or lured toward your base if you are itching for a fight. More contextual interactions will likely be added, as they'll be able to use the interactive event/quest system.
I'm quite happy with my implementation. And, due to the way they are written, the manual vs auto combat options are a lot more balanced. Manual combat generally being the less risky option, as it should (if you know what you're doing, ofc).
Last devlog, I wasn't sure if i could make AI faction use this system instead of using teleportation to do everything. Now I'm pretty sure that they'll be able to use it to capture production centers or send raiding parties. Maybe not on 0.9.0 proper, but soon after that. This will add a lot of mid/late game gameplay options, like the ability to intercept enemy hordes before they reach their destination so you can fight them in the open.
I'm still experimenting with the system, but so far so good.
World Map: Infection & spawners
That's part 2 of the above system. Probably won't be in the initial 0.9.0 release in any meaningful way, but i'm working on having the ability for a horde to "convert" a map location into something else that can spawn a configurable amount of additional hordes until it's cleared by another AI faction or the player.
It's a system i might use for abominations in the standard game, and for the zombies in a heavily reworked zombie survival scenario. Basically a horde comes across, let's say a farm and conquers it. The farm is morphed into an "infected building" that will spawn another horde every day until it has like 2 or 3 under its control. Those hordes will move toward other buildings, attack them, and if victorious, convert them. This is a situation that will need to be dealt with or it might spiral into something very bad for everyone else.
This should make for a way more interesting end game threat than the current version of the abominations. Might also give a strong incentive to keep other main factions alive as they might help against the threat.
Map/Building Editor
Okay, not going to lie. I'm struggling with this one. It's extremely time consuming to write (and boring, so... incredibly... boring...) and there's a lot of things I do while generating the map that aren't really easy to translate into an editor. I mean, yes, i do have the basics of placing walls, furniture and terrain in there and the ability to save/load the map itself. But it's peanuts compared to spawn points, hidden zones, faction attribution and many other systems.
I still need this as a feature, at least for me to use, but it is going to cannibalize a lot of time, and I can't say I'm happy about it. As I'm not entirely sure how long it's going to take me, and that it ain't exactly a key feature, the rest of the to-do list takes priority over it. What time left I have after the rest is done will be for the editor.
Random Stuff
As usual i just mentioned the big features. I've added/fixed/altered plenty of things. The game has a proper splash/load screen now, so people don't get confused by that white screen (in fullscreen mode) or the big delay (in borderless mode). Expeditions vehicles have their own HP pool, terrain and events can damage a vehicle forcing people to go back home for repairs. UI get tweaked, bugs get fixed, content get added. The usual :)
All things considered, it's going pretty well. Editor aside, for once, I'm quite ahead of schedule. This might give me some time to add some content I never got around to, like fertilizer for farms, additional mobs (and variants), training facilities, sprinklers to get rid of fires and/or take care of farms. Don't assume i'm going to do all that, the to-do list takes priority as always, but it's on the table :)
Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Comments and ideas are welcome, just understand that I'm not going to alter things much at this point until I'm done with that whole 1.0 release thing.
Cheers.
0.8.7.9: Maintenance Patch
This is just a small maintenance patch. It however might fix the issue with the game not always closing properly when launched from Steam on some systems.
As usual, no save or mod compatibility issue to be expected.
Full Changelog
UI: In population menu, skills are now sorted alphabetically
UI: Added option to pause game when research is completed (settings/gameplay)
UI: Zone/building/razing plans are now drawn over the rest of the game, making it clear what you're about to do
Fixed: People whose inventory is full of dirty water in a base with no dirty water storage wouldn't know how to get rid of it to get food.
Fixed: Changing an item in the top item resource panel wouldn't update the associated tooltip
Fixed: console window not being properly freed on exit (this
might* be the reason for the game not exiting properly on some systems)
Devlog: Road to 1.0
Hi peeps!
Here's the promised devlog, barely a few hours late.
So, let's start with the basics. This is a devlog, any new feature I am talking about here, no matter how detailed it is, is subject to changes, improvements, or even plain cancelation depending on how the implementation goes before it's actually being released. In short, don't assume that everything I'm going to talk about here is going to happen exactly as planned. It's still a relatively accurate guideline for the future. With this obligatory introduction out of the way, let's get to it :)
0.9 Major Update
The 0.9 release is the next major update for ATC. From an user perspective it probably won't be as massive as the Expedition overhaul or the Dig Deeper update. Still, it's going to introduce the final touches so everything else can be completed. From a modder's perspective it's going to be fun, though. Of course, I'm skipping the usual UI tweaks, minor improvements and bug fixes.
Map & Building Editor
As much as I'm happy with the current state of the procedural generator, I have to admit that a few hand-crafted maps and buildings wouldn't go amiss. This is where the editor comes into play. It'll allow me (and anyone else) to build expedition combat maps, spawn locations or scenario maps with ease. Additionally, I hope to be able to integrate the hand-crafted buildings in the generators proper: aka the ability for such buildings to spawn in city, roadside and village maps. This should pave the way for "building/map" mods.
And last but not least, It will allow me to design more interesting scenarios with very specific starting maps and I'm not gonna miss the opportunity to add a "trapped in a mall/prison/hospital surrounded by zombies" scenario.
Patrol Zones and Manned Turrets
One system that's currently missing internally is the ability to assign a survivor to a particular task and that task only (basically preventing them from querying the general job list while assigned to this task). Once implemented, I'll be able to add commonly requested features: namely the ability to setup patrol zones and manned turrets.
Patrol zones will be configurable, you'll be able to assign any amount of survivors there, and decide if you want to guards to stay there all the time (except when eating/sleeping, obviously), which is a good way to guard your gates against roaming critters, or decide to only make it active in combat mode (good for kill zones).
Same idea with manned turrets. Don't get me wrong, automated turrets are fine and dandy, but they probably should be put much higher in the tech tree (and require some beefier construction costs). Manned turrets could fill a mid game defensive role before you're swimming in modern guns, money and ammo, offering some decent firepower and some cover to whoever is assigned to it.
More Expedition Stuff
With the two above features completed, I will be able to put the finishing touches to the expedition system. Manual vs Auto combat will get (at least somewhat) balanced. The generic combat maps will be replaced by hand crafted ones. Some enemies will start patrolling around their base instead of all waiting in rooms. Expedition vehicles will get their own pool of HP, which might be impacted by travel, terrain and events. An expedition with a car out of HP will be forced to return home.
You'll also get more options when dealing with enemies attacking your production centers. You will likely be able to resolve those battles manually or bribe your way out of some of those encounters. I still need to think how I am going represent the money put into "buy defenses" in such combats, though. But, I'll figure something out or replace that sub-system completely.
World Map: Roaming mobs
Some of the mobs will also start to visibly roam the world map. They'll generally be relatively passive, but will still move from time to time. If your base or a production center is in their way, it'll trigger an attack. Herds will be interactive, you can send expeditions their way to either get rid of them remotely, or you might even be able to lead them toward your base intentionally. Why would you want to do that? Spider queen eggs don't grow on trees and the chance of a spider queen attack to happen normally is incredibly low.
Animal herds will be an introduction to "moving" map locations. It's likely that I'll expand the system to other things and couple it with "spawner-type" locations. It's also very likely that the abominations will be a prime candidate to mix all of those systems together into a proper end-game threat. That last part goes beyond 0.9 proper and extends into 1.0.
Base Relocation
Simple enough, the ability to pack up & leave the base for greener pastures, retaining all techs, people and some resources. It won't have a massive gameplay impact in 0.9 proper. Sure, it will be nice to be able to relocate in order to hunt for exoskeletons and other goodies only available in some biomes. But it's a feature that I will mostly need for the 1.0 storyline, so might as well implement it now.
1.0 Release Plans
First of all, I've said it already but it's worth repeating for the newcomers: 1.0 is not the end of the line. All it means is that I consider the game to be ready to get out of Early Access. That it's feature complete compared to the goals I've set years ago (and let's be honest here, we're already way past those goals :D). And that it's in a decent shape stability and performance-wise. Development will continue post 1.0, just at slightly more relaxed pace (and after getting a proper vacation). Those last few months have been really intensive, and it's probably not a healthy rhythm to maintain forever. But you can be sure that there will be more major updates after that.
Beside the addition of raw content (items, weaponry, armors, mobs and events), 1.0 will pretty much entirely focus on the addition of a main questline: Story Mode.
Story Mode will technically replace the tutorial slot in the new game menu. It will integrate a (probably optional) tutorial section, and give general tips during the whole playthrough, but it will also contain multiple quests similar in concept to what you've seen in the rise of the mutant scenario. Some quests will flesh out the lore, others will unlock techs or deal with the other factions or give you special bonus. All those quests will merge toward a conclusion.
I'm sorry if I'm being very vague on the actual details here as I don't want to write spoilers. Also, please, don't expect some revolutionary stuff here, I'm in no way a great writer (English is not even my primary language) and it's pretty much my first attempt at storytelling. I just hope it'll be entertaining to play through. :)
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, the first draft for 0.9 should be available before New Year Eve. I don't expect many problems with it. The editor will be the most time consuming thing to deal with. Not writing it proper, because you know, it's technically already there, being a base building game & all. It's the integration of those custom maps/buildings that will be more of a pain.
1.0 is scheduled for February/March 2022. I'm not entirely sure I will be able to keep this exact deadline, but it shouldn't be much later.
Price-wise. ATC will reach it's planned official price ($14.99) when I start working on 1.0 proper. Due to the way Steam works, it's not possible to change the price & discount the game without leaving a month in between those two actions. Given that I will apply a day 1 release discount, price has to be raised slightly in advance.
I think I've covered everything I wanted to talk about for now. :)
Cheers!
0.8.7.8: UI Improvements and Fixes
Hi there!
Here's the last weekly patch for this version of ATC, after this one, and barring any large problem, I'll switch gears toward the next major update which I'll talk about in a devlog tomorrow.
This patch includes several new UI improvements regarding the Raze button and the replacement of the Repair button by a multi purpose button. It's also getting rid of several bugs ranging from incredibly minor to very annoying.
As usual, saves & mods are compatible and the full changelog is at the bottom :)
Balance Pass
Fire has been tuned down. Wild fires will spread (but also die on their own) and damage 33% slower. The heat-wave weather pattern can no longer appear in the first 2 weeks, which should give you more time to prepare.
Additionally, got it, fire crabs are a bit too overpowered. Their range has been reduced by 2 tiles. The fireball they throw at you got its armor penetration value reduced from High to Medium, meaning that any medium+ integrity armor will offer its full protection (assuming it does something against fire damage). Fire vests also got their integrity increased from low to medium.
Raze Button
It functions exactly as usual by default. But, you'll notice that when pressing the button or keyboard shortcut, a row of buttons appears just above the bottom menu.
As you can see, you can now set what you want to raze exactly. For instance, using the "Clutter" button, It's a lot faster & easier to "clear up" a house while keeping the walls intact. Additionally, EVERYTHING related to removal is in this menu. You no longer have to go look deep inside the "Build" menu to remove roofs or tiles anymore.
Misc. Orders
The barely used "Repair" button has been replaced by a "Misc Orders" button (same icon), it works similarly to the new Raze sub-panel.
From there, you can still repair stuff, but you can also mass-assign butchering jobs or copy existing structures (and their settings) without having to use the build menu. Both of those options already existed but only in forms of keyboard shortcuts until now.
Additionally, the "Forbid Items" and "Allow Items" buttons can be used to manually allow or disallow your survivors to retrieve specific items dropped on tiles. This can be used to prevent survivors from going into a death trap to retrieve a piece of wood.
Misc. Improvements & Bug Fixing
After getting a lot of work done on the underlaying UI code, the keyboard shortcuts should also behave in a way more consistent fashion no matter if you're in combat mode or building mode. Esc should also escape from all situations properly (if you really don't like to right click for some reason).
As usual most, if not all, reported (and non reported) bugs have been fixed :)
Full Changelog
AI: Survivors are better with the retrieval of items on tiles (and stopping the job if the tile get forbidden or emptied)
Balance: Reduced penetration value for the fireball used by fire crabs (from high to medium) and reduced its range by 2 tiles
Balance: Reduced update rate of fires by 33% (spread & damage slower)
Balance: Increased integrity of fire-vest (from low to medium), making it a good early defensive armor against fire crabs
Balance: Heat waves can't appear for the first 2 weeks (instead of 3 days) to account for the fires it can now cause
Content: Items on the ground can be manually forbidden/allowed for retrieval
Content: Added and updated some screens in the tutorial to mention some recent/important features
Engine: Further hardening of the engine to prevent crashes from removing mods mid-game (never will be perfect, but it's pretty decent at it now)
Engine: Pass at the input code, keyboard shortcuts should work in a more consistent fashion, independently of the game's state
UI: Expanded the "Raze" button: the default option stays the same but you can click buttons to raze specific things (plants, clutter, wall, tiles, roofs...)
UI: With the expanded raze button, options to delete zone, roofs and tiles have been removed from the build menu
UI: Renamed "fixed strange scar" by "fixed early pandemonium symptoms" to clarify that the Pandemonium cure is working as intended
UI: Rewrote the descriptions of all the stats and jobs/skills, giving a lot more information
UI: Replaced the "Repair" button by a "Misc Orders" button, which reveal a row of useful stuff (repair, mass butcher, copy item, forbid/allow item retrieval on tile)
UI: Added encyclopedia article listing all stats & skills and what they are used for (it's basically the same as the new tooltips, but in an article)
Fixed: Hostile animals could follow people through stairs (regression bug from 0.8.6 performance pass)
Fixed: Minor UI fixes (text overflowing in some menus)
Fixed: top resource bar not aligned properly when the UI size is not 1:1 after quitting & reloading a savegame
Fixed: All farms had the same name which could lead to confusion in some of the encyclopedia menus
Fixed: Putting someone at a doorway wouldn't reveal the room on the other side
Fixed: Missing tooltip for survivor statistics in New Game / Settlers menu
Fixed: Can't rebind Esc key in settings menu
Fixed: Possible issue with LUA mods after loading a save
Fixed: Raiders and new recruits would occasionally spawn in an area in which they can't path toward your base
Fixed: It was technically possible for suppliers and traders to spawn at a location where they can't path toward your trading zone
Fixed: After opening some of the main menus via keyboard shortcuts in combat mode, the combat shortcuts might no longer work until mode is reset
Fixed: Made Fullscreen mode a lot less crash prone on load (or just don't check other windows while the game is initializing, Monogame doesn't like that at all)
Fixed: One weird crash that someone had consistently despite the fact it would imply using a combination of keys at the very first frame when the game is launched
Fixed: Survivors under your direct control wouldn't fire back at enemy turrets in range on their own
Fixed: A case where the UI would start at the wrong scale (menus going off-screen) on first launch with some screen resolutions (and stay that way until fiddling with settings)
Fixed: The tutorial stage where player is asked to raze 10 things was (wrongly) expecting the user to raze everything at the same time
Fixed: Supply Left info not updated in New Game / Customize Equipment menu when loading it for the first time
0.8.7.7: Maintenance Patch
Hi there!
Here's the third weekly maintenance patch. It's fixing reported issues (and non reported ones). It's also adding a few tweaks and improvements. Save-games and mods are compatible as usual.
Expect a proper devlog detailing my plans for the next major update either at the end of this week-end or during the next week.
Cheers!
Full Changelog
AI: Improved efficiency of crafting stations by trying to give the work job to whoever brought the required goods
Balance: Added weight to some items which had none (ammunition, basically)
Balance: Increased the amount of ammo people will take with them (mostly with rifles and handguns)
UI: Added tooltips to resource panel at the top (naming what's up there), it can also be right clicked to show detailed info about the item
UI: Jobs/Skills can be sorted by competence in the individual survivor menu
UI: Added clickable "assigned" field to factories, showing who is working at a given factory or if it's queued
UI: Color code for the queue in factories: green (ok), orange (condition not met), red (no resources)
UI: Main menus (encyclopedia, save, settings, stats, mods) can be closed with [Esc] like any other in-game menus
UI: Added DPS info to weapon tooltip
Fixed: Some of the weapon "turrets" on enemies (scorpion & spider queen, and several low tier enemies) were not working
Fixed: The "small gun turret" was available (and free) in the "new game - customize equipment" menu
Fixed: After the generation of some uncommon types of map, bonus deposits would no longer drop from mountain/cavern walls until the game is restarted
Fixed: Faction logo selector not behaving correctly when the UI scale is not set to default
Fixed: Farmers not clearing wild plants, small rocks and other decorative clutter when building a farm
Fixed: People could rarely path to (0,0) instead of the correct destination, generally when trying to work on cattle
Fixed: Game spamming incorrect "I can't find a depot to unload [item] ([quantity])"
Fixed: Weightless items would interfere with inventory clearing tasks
Fixed: Problems where a keyboard shortcut would interfere with a text box (rename things, depot presets)
Fixed: If someone scheduled for an expedition dies before the expedition is launched, the garage would end up being stuck
Fixed: Prisoners would try to sleep outside of their cells
Fixed: People still trying (only on some map types) to use non faction beds
Fixed: Minor logic issue when checking if a need can be satisfied
Fixed: If for some reason someone was dedicated enough to stay in the tutorial until electricity tech, the game would likely crash
Fixed: More random typos
0.8.7.6 Maintenance Patch
This is a relatively small maintenance patch, it won't interfere with existing saves or mods.
While hunting for that elusive teleport bug, I came across several issues which are now fixed. I also tweaked a few things and further improved performances on very large / gigantic maps.
Full Changelog
AI: If a survivor has their inventory full before trying to eat, they'll try to clear some space (either by dropping in a depot or, if unable, on the ground)
Balance: Pastures' auto butchering setting will skip old animals while they are pregnant (and until they are not anymore)
Balance: Standard beds fill the "sleep" need faster than tribal beds and sleeping bags (might only apply to newly constructed beds if continuing from save)
Engine: Very slightly improved performances when loading a save-game
Engine: More improvements to general performances (economic and general pathing/region calculations)
UI: Double click on an outpost in the faction menu will open/center map on outpost
UI: Locations on the map which have been fully looted are shown in red
UI: Made it clearer that you can click on loot left (in map location menu) to see what the location can drop
Fixed: Small display glitch in the expedition's "members" panel where health was written 2 times
Fixed: Issue in the people selector when assigning people to a production center
Fixed: A problem, possibly tied to the teleportation bug, that could cause people not to recognize walls in extremely specific situations
Fixed: AI logic issue with pickup jobs, which could prevent people from grabbing food (when hungry) directly from the ground
Fixed: Logic issue when loading save which was the underlying cause for the inventory sometimes going into the negative
Fixed: When a savegame doesn't have an associated screenshot, and oversized icon would be displayed
Fixed: A survivor could (again, super rare) get stuck in place despite being marked as moving toward a target
Fixed: (modding) "Leash" field for spawners had no effect, they would always spawn as leashed to the spawner
Fixed: If a creature following a spawner (like baby/mother spider) is separated by impassible terrain, it would freeze and waste CPU cycles (it'll just remove the leash now)
Fixed: Newborn animals spawn (or after loading a save) full size for a few seconds
Fixed: Requested traders from other faction aren't announced in the log or via sound
Fixed: If the game UI somehow displays characters not handled by the font, it would become very laggy
0.8.7.5: Tweaks and Fixes
Hey, I hope you enjoyed the scenario released for Halloween :)
This new update goes over a lot of reported problems, while improving the UI and the game's economy, rebalancing a few things in the process. It's not a very large patch but it's featuring improvements which should have been made a long time ago.
You can expect at least one or two more before the next devlog explaining my plans for the future.
As usual, saves & mods are compatible, and the full changelog is at the end.
Production and Economy
First, a new setting has been added to all crafting stations (and water collectors) recipes, it allows you to produce a given recipe until adjacent (compatible) depots are full.
While this work for everything, this is especially useful with dirty water production/collection. You can now set your collectors and well(s) to produce only until your adjacent dedicated depot for dirty water is full, which is a lot easier than micro managing it or setting a global limit.
Regarding cattle management, butchering stations can now be paused and will detect adjacent compatible depots and the products will automatically be moved there, saving some travel time in well designed bases.
Additionally, animals can individually be moved from a pasture to another. Click on a pastured animal, and using the new "Relocate" button.
While this is not particularly useful when handling food or work cattle, anyone who has used sand crabs as a defense system will appreciate. It can also be used to separate "good" animals from "bad" ones when trying to do selective breeding.
Oh, and if you've played through the new scenario (or done any cannibal run), you probably would have loved a way to mass-assign dead bodies to butchering jobs. This is now possible! A keyboard shortcut has been added to b[U]tcher everything in the selection (which you place like a zone after pressing the shortcut). As usual with keyboard shortcuts, it can be changed in the settings.
Fire
Fire's effectiveness at ruining you day has been tuned down.
First, rain, on top of dousing the flames, prevents fire from spreading through grassy and other non constructed terrain. This should make it a lot more effective at killing large fires.
Secondly, survivors on low health (<50% right now) will no longer attempt to fight off fires without being manually ordered to. People who are already fighting a fire but got hurt to a point their health went below that limit will stop (and likely go seek a doctor).
Finally, and this is what I suspect to be the crux of the issue: fires will no longer be able to incapacitate whoever they hurt. I think that's what happened to players who got too many deaths or heavily injured people when dealing with fire. Due to the way fire damage is applied, very small damage but in a repeating pattern, it made wildfires the most effective way to incapacitate someone.
User Interface
A few nice QoL improvements.
First, those barebone popups shown during game events (raids, traders...) or weather changes are a lot nicer to look at now. Some of them are more informative or/and have additional functionalities.
This is also working when clicking events and weather changes in the log.
Additionally, HP information has been added to the "settler/animal selector" panel used in a lot of menus. This is especially useful when selecting people to send in an expeditions so you can make sure you don't send people with next to no HP.
The multi-survivor panel displayed when you have multiple people selected at once (generally in combat mode) now show who is using what weapon. This should make it a lot more useful.
Bug Fixing: Savegame Failure
Simply put, on very rare occasions, an auto/quick save would fail and give you a message. The game does not crash, and saving again would work as normal, but it would still rotate the quick/auto slots, making you lose the older version.
After looking at this bug for a few days, there's no real way for me to fix the failure entirely and definitely at this point without massively tanking performances during those saves. Given how uncommon it is and the fact it has no real impact on the game, it's not worth that cost.
So, I did the next best things: 1. I heavily reduced the likelihood of it happening at all. 2. If an auto/quick save operation still happen to fail, it won't erase any previous file anymore.
I really hate to leave a technical bug standing, but it's the closest I can get here. I might still be able to completely fix it later granted it triggers again in front of me while I am debugging the game, but that will have to do for now.
Bugs Fixed and Bugs Remaining
As usual there's a small list of reported bugs being fixed. Most notably, custom player-made equipment presets in the new game menu wouldn't always be displayed, some inconsistent / non working settings, nothing really game breaking or major.
This leaves us with one last remaining long standing bug I consider "major". The dreaded settler teleport bug. And I'm not talking about settlers walling themselves off when placing objects or a settler being force-pushed outside of a wall not exactly where it should, while annoying, it's just inherent to colony-sims. I'm talking about a survivor flat out "teleported" into the middle of nowhere in the underground.
Comparatively to the overwhelming majority of bugs I had to deal with, this one is really annoying to locate for due to its nature. Player reports are, understandably, way after the fact and can't really provide useful or reliable information (not your fault, it's just not that kind of bug). Even if I see it happen in one of my playthroughs, it's after the fact. And, of course, it's rare and irregular enough that brute forcing things doesn't seem to work.
My point for this long rambling is that I'm going to dedicate some more time trying to get rid of it, but it's going to be a pain and it might take a while. :)
Full Changelog
AI: People on low health (<50%) will no longer try to fight fires on their own (i'll make that a setting, alongside auto-engage combat, later)
Balance: Rain prevents fire from spreading through grassy and other non constructed terrain (on top of the droplets dousing the flames)
Balance: Animal hide from butchering mutants & humans (only apply to newly spawned ones if loading from old save)
Balance: Manual combat maps no longer drop any loot to prevent farming and flee/attack loop exploits
Balance: Fire damage can no longer incapacitate targets (so people don't fall "asleep" in the middle of a fire)
Balance: The game makes sure that the spawn location selected by default when starting a new game is not in a very hostile biome (or a location you can't settle into)
Content: Animals can be assigned/relocated to specific pastures via new button in their info panel
Content: Like factories, if there's an adjacent compatible depot next to a butchering station, the products will automatically be moved there
Content: Added option for crafting stations and water collectors to produce until adjacent container is full (in the recipe selection menu)
Content: Specific butchering tables can be disabled/paused
Engine: Heavily reduced likelihood of an autosave to fail (a bug that cannot be completely removed at this point without massively tanking save performances)
Graphics: Added some light randomization of water droplets placement during rain so they don't always fall at the right center of a tile
Modding: Added TexturePath to both Events and Weather effect, adds a specific image for their new improved panel shown when clicked (or when set to auto pop)
UI: Added weapon icons to the panel shown when multiple survivors are selected (making sub selection easier)
UI: Added HP information to settler/animal selector used in many menus (garage, room, prison cell, pet attribution)
UI: Added hotkey to butcher everything in a zone (U by default, rebindable)
UI: Queue in Factory screen is color coded to show which recipe can complete
UI: Nicer looking weather change and game event menus (for those who popup on screen, or when clicking them in the log)
UI: Events spawning map locations have a window showing an option to center & select the location on the map
Fixed: Quick and auto save wouldn't recognize when a save is already in progress. The game will now properly recognize it and skip the second attempt
Fixed: Auto/quick save file rotation would still be done on failure, deleting the oldest instance
Fixed: Reset speed settings in game options was inconsistent (both for raids and traders)
Fixed: In the RotM scenario it was possible for the "Leadership Change" event to fire for (the perma-hostile) Neo Roma, causing minor relation glitches
Fixed: Traders stuck in houses will self delete after a while, this ain't very elegant but it will serve as a temporary solution until i figure out the cause
Fixed: Clicking on events on the short log panel and the expanded window wasn't consistent
Fixed: Remove Tile job and Fire wouldn't update the game's internal map when destroying a bridge or other tiles allowing passage between 2 areas
Fixed: Disappearing player-made equipment presets in the "new game" menu
Fixed: Rare failure in "drop items" job
Fixed: A couple minor typos and glitches
Halloween Update 0.8.7: Rise of the Mutants
Hello!
This was supposed to be a small and fun scenario for Halloween, but I might have been carried away. Just you know, a bit. So, here is both a new scenario and a fairly chunky update for you to enjoy!
As usual, full changelog at the end, save-games and mods compatible.
Rise of the Mutants
Let's start with the main attraction. RotM is a new scenario for ATC where you play as a group of mutants in search of their origin. It's not just a quick reskin, this scenario is designed to showcase what can be done in a week of work (and testing) with my engine.
(a note before we start: this scenario features cannibalism and a quest with some non-kid friendly content, nothing that's out of character in a fallout-ish game, but I'd rather mention it.)
The scenario features:
A customized tech tree
A decently sized quest mixing research, combat, exploration and text based adventure
A playable race with unique mechanics (more on that below)
New and altered game events
A few new weapons, armors and items
So, the mutants, which are not inspired by any other mutant from any other franchise, definitely not, are big, green and mean. On the plus side, they have super human strength and endurance, an immunity to scorched biome and acid rain debuffs, increased melee damage, HP, and have a natural resistance to damage. They are excellent fighters and can one-on-one most mobs in the game even without fancy armors or guns. Oh, and they have no philosophical problem with eating humans, on the contrary.
On the negative side, they eat and drink more (20%), they are god awful at medicine and science. Most of the tech tree beyond electronics is closed to them. No robotics, no drones, automated kitchen, advanced turrets or modern weapon/armor repairs. They however start with exploration and animal care unlocked immediately and have access to unique bone melee weapons and armors. The weapons have a very high chance to incapacitate a target, and the armor is very good for its cost (better than the metal armor).
They also are quite asocial and will brawl and fight each other a lot. Keeping them content is quite difficult but it is not as bad as it sounds. The "depressed" mood doesn't apply to mutants. Instead, they become "agitated". An agitated mutant will brawl even more, but will also be stronger, get a military skill boost, and will be better at all jobs involving razing something, however they'll be slower builders in this state.
With a very slow research rate and no easy access to the high-end tier, they are meant to be played as a low tech faction relying on numbers and animals to defend themselves against raiders and other factions (speaking of which, Neo Roma is perma-hostile to you here, it's a feature, not a bug).
A few words of advice:
I would suggest to start on a large desert river/oasis village map, preferably with a special underground biome and/or bunker. It's not necessary, but it's a nice change of pace from the less interesting city maps.
Mutants need a lot of food and water, better make sure you have more farms and kitchens than normally. It is also a very good idea to allow them (Faction menu) to butcher sentient beings.
Take advantage of the fact that you can collect and grow giant eggs right from the start. Just make sure you have a wheat farm and access to animal food before growing them.
To start the quest, you'll have to complete the "Remembering The Past" research, which is just after Masonry. Pay attention to your (clickable) message log after researching it as it will reveal a world map location.
This is a combat heavy scenario, you'll be raided slightly more often than usual and you will lose people, especially when dealing with raids from other factions.
I hope you'll enjoy this scenario and quest, it's still a bit clunky and the writing is, well.. mine (who isn't a native English speaker), but it should still give you a window to what will be done in the future. :)
AI, Balance and Content
Of course, it wouldn't be an update without the usual list of changes and improvements. I will list a few of the most notable ones here.
Previously, it was notably difficult to keep incapacitated enemies alive. I made that a tad easier: your survivors should be a lot faster at noticing they shouldn't shoot at their target anymore (assuming they aren't blood-thirsty) and newly incapacitated people get a few seconds of invulnerability so they can soak up bullets that were still flying at them (only if your faction menu is set NOT to attack incapacitated people).
Fire will also properly stop at walls now, no matter which tile those walls are built upon. It does make very large fires a bit more taxing on the CPU, though. Nothing dramatic, but it was the reason why it didn't work that way before. Speaking of fire, sand crabs are now immune so they stop burning themselves to death.
Oh, fun little fact, animals now get an unique name (well, from a list) the first time they get adopted by a survivor. Mutants also have their own name generator.
And as usual, I also included many new UI improvements and fixed a bunch of bugs.
Full Changelog
AI: Hospital patients will no longer starve themselves if a doctor doesn't come to visit for a long time
AI: Fighters under your control are better at not shooting at incapacitated targets (if incapacitate is set in faction menu)
AI: Survivors can detect when they can no longer pickup something from storage and will cancel their movement instead of traveling all the distance
Balance: Strengthened all active factions and increased their maximum range
Balance: Factions' main HQ have a minimal amount of enemies to kill an exploit where it would be way too easy to attack them in manual combat
Balance: Tweaked event frequency (reduced cough, increased some raiders, removed some technology gating for late game raids)
Balance: Fire will stop at walls, independently of the type of tile it's built upon
Balance: Incapacitated people, assuming your faction settings are set to keep them alive, get a few seconds of invulnerability after going down
Balance: Slightly reduced the time it takes to boil water at camp fire
Balance: Sand crabs are now immune to fire damage, because they really need to for their own sake
Balance: Most animals/people yield more bones when butchered and/or dying
Content: New unique "Rise Of The Mutants" scenario, see post for details
Content: Unique name generator for mutants
Content: Bone equipment (bone axe, club, armor and face mask)
Content: Added recipes to armor forge and crafting station for bone weapons (mutant scenario only)
Content: Lot of additional content added to the mutant scenario only
Content: Pets get baptized the first time they get adopted by a settler (only apply to newly created animals if loading from pre update save)
Engine: Many improvements to the interactive travel event system, allowing for much more complex quests to be built
Graphics: Additional leader faces for some of the factions
Graphics: Reduced the scale of survivors' footprints to be more on par with their actual size
Modding: Added "EventOnDiscovery" (string) field to tech files, will automatically launch the specified game event whenever the tech is discovered/researched
Modding: Ability for scenarios to override "happy" and "depressed" traits (see mutant scenario for all the new/recent scenario related features)
Modding: Added "EventTextDump" game event type, does pretty much what's written on the tin (seen events/scen_rotm_mutagen for example)
Modding: Travel events can set, increment, decrement and test global and persistant variables (GetVar Validator, SetVar/IncVar/DecVar Effects)
Modding: Added MinHostileCount to POI files (defines a minimal number of opponents in manual combat mode, assuming there is actual any opposition)
Modding: Footprint scale is moddable
UI: Minor tweak to faction list, longer descriptions, font the same size as the rest of the UI.
UI: More space in Population menu for settlers' names (so long names don't wrap into the text)
UI: Made sure the recruitment menu cannot be canceled by a misclick outside of it
UI: Added "required techs" to individual tech info panels/encyclopedia entries
UI: Minor improvements to the UI of the interactive travel events' menu
UI: Animal Nursery's menu got improved, species field can be clicked for info, and the egg selector menu got a facelift
UI: Added "Recruit All" button to recruit menu
UI: More minor changes not worth bloating a changelog with
ProcGen: Village maps can feature some surface mountains
Steam: Replaced the pictures of many of the older achievements
Steam: Added achievement for completing the 'Rise of the Mutants' storyline
Fixed: After loading a save, wild plants marked for deletion wouldn't be highlighted in red like they should (0.8.6.0 regression bug)
Fixed: Last stage of pandemonium would turn people into the hostile faction instead of the infected one
Fixed: Text being cut in farms' crop selection panel
Fixed: Sound effects coming from other layers would still be played
Fixed: A few of the debris/clutter already on the map could still be used by your survivors which goes against lore and gameplay
Fixed: Enemies waiting in ambush in building wouldn't fight back against anyone but the player
Fixed: Apple trees are invisible for a few days after being planted
Fixed: Fauna had a tendency to stare forever at doors they encounter (since 0.8.6.2)
Fixed: Plants would die in pastures and in other zone types where this effect wasn't intended (only apply to new zones if continuing from old save)
Fixed: (modding) Interactive event validators for Tech and NoTech were non functional
Fixed: (modding) Issue with traits causing npc to morph into another one if KeepTrait is not set
Fixed: Doors would "push" people who stay on the tile for too long, which could lead to unwanted teleportation
Fixed: Ordering soldiers to move on a tile with a door wasn't working as it should
Fixed: Recruited prisoners wouldn't have the law and job settings applied
Fixed: Minor rendering issue with doors copied using the shortcut
