- New ballista model.
- Fixed sleeping positions for fancy beds.
- Fixed UI issue with colonist inventories.
- Hauling colonists who get interrupted now drop items immediatly.
- Colonists will now use best weapon in inventory when training melee combat.
- Fixed archers not shooting when they cannot find a path to target.
- Fixed arrows with no rounds left not being released.
- Fixed doctors not healing patients on double beds.
Embark
Update 0.912
Update 0.911e
- Fixed bug causing colonists to sometimes use random items as bandages.
- Fixed expanding stockpiles not updating correctly.
- Slightly increased priority of construction hauling jobs.
Update 0.911c
- Still hunting for reported issue with items disappearing. Any leads much appreciated!
- Fixed building of irregular shaped buildings (like water pipes).
- Slight nerf to item quality rolls when making items.
- Fixed bug with stat rolls causing stats to have a much lower effect than intended.
- Number showing items delivered for buildings under construction is back.
- Fixed colonist starting with job priority to do a job even though they are not supposed to be able to do it.
- Improved distribution of item orders to workshops, should favour higher priority workshops first, then higher quality workshops.
- Fixed alignment of banners.
Update 0.911
- Colonists should no longer shelter from the cold when no warm target can be found.
- Fixed colonists not checking for space correctly before taking items.
- Fixed colonists unassigning items when they fail to pick it up.
- Fixed bug when finding equipment for uniform.
Update 0.910/0.910b/0.910c/0.910d
- Fixed creatures still using stamina when sleeping.
- New models for saltworks and mechanical forge.
- Non-player corpses now forbidden by default unless slaughtered in animal pen.
- Fixed build wall hauling jobs not working if no materials outside of stockpiles.
0.910b
- Tweaked lighting to improve visibility.
- Fixed night and day lighting options.
- Added option to turn off fog.
0.910c
- Fix for rails.
0.910d
- Fixed tooltips in customize workers menu.
- Fixed position of loom mechanical connection.
- New models for steam engine, boilers, end game buildings.
- Fixed selection selecting things one Z level too high.
- Fixed alert and wear equipment toggle visuals for more than 3 squads.
- Fixed minimap in Factions panel.
Update 0.9
Rewrite of colonist task system.
This should resolve the remaining issues with colonists not doing what they were supposed to. It should also help with items and buildings getting stuck or broken. The new system also allows me to refine and add new behavior easily. Already I feel it also helps with the pacing of the game as things get done quicker.
Art overhaul close to completion
Hi, my name is Andrew and I have been called in to help with the art direction of Embark. The original 3D art in Embark was a combination of work from freelance artists and assets from the Unity Asset Store. While most of the 3D models looked fine on their own individually, the lack of a cohesive art direction was one of the weak points of the game when it was initially released.
When I began, my focus was on making visible, high-impact changes first. For example, about 95% of the screen space when you begin is taken up by trees, grass and sky. Changing these few 3D models first would create a very strong impression and allow us to quickly and easily figure out the rest of the art style.
In general, the new art direction is purposeful about using bold shapes and colours to make things in the game look more instantly recognizable. The human character models were overhauled in a previous update, and their stylized body proportions were used as a yardstick by which we based the rest of our aesthetic on.
Some workshops have been re-designed so that it is possible to tell what the function of each workshop is at a single glance.
In addition, some new decorative furniture have been added to the game.
Creatures were one of the more incongruent aspects of the original game as they were clearly taken from many different sources. Some of them had to be replaced to make them consistent with the body proportions of the human characters. Others have simply been re-textured to de-emphasize unnecessary detail for a more stylized look.
On the topic of textures, wall and floor textures have also been painted over. The textures were drawn in such a way that - with a little bit of imagination - players can construct elaborate bases with various decorative themes in mind. You can play pretend with the clay texture to make a red carpet, for example.
Other styles of bases you can potentially make include:
- Half-timbered cottages
- Log cabins
- Castles
- Hi-Tech supervillain lairs (using mainly metal)
- Checkboard flooring (using marble and obsidian)
Progress-wise, art is about 70% done. I am almost done with the buildings and my remaining duties are to finish the item models, check the remaining UI (the direction was set by me while Adam has since been taking over) and update the Steam Store page with new screenshots and promo art. It was quite a major task to get the art in Embark to an acceptable standard so I hope players would enjoy coming back to the game.
New UI
The UI has also been completely redesigned. This is also still a work in progress, but I think it is already a lot better than the old version. Not just the visuals, but the information presented and the way it is presented should be a lot better now.
In addition to the UI, the camera controls have been improved. The camera should now be smarter and easier to control. There are also new overlays to view the temperature, light levels, and ventilation status of rooms. It is also easier to click on multiple objects which overlap each other now.
Other Improvements from task system rewrite
- Combat positioning should be smoother.
- Colonists can now use ponds to fight fires and be better at it.
- General performance improvements, larger colonies should run more smoothly.
- Performance improvements for fire/moving water visuals.
- Updated to latest Unity version (DLSS support).
- Better colonist job selection logic.
- More efficient pathfinding for creatures.
- Better reporting of colonist tasks and any issues they are having with tasks.
- Fixes and improvements to the advanced power generation buildings.
There are also various smaller improvements to various jobs due to the new task system. Thanks especially to boxxykiller and Pepsisaurus for their tireless work reporting bugs with the beta branch. As with any major rewrite there are bound to be some bugs remaining, please upload any save games with issues.
Update 0.870
First look at the new art direction
Batch of new plants and trees. This is still very much a work in progress, but we felt that it has already made the game look a lot better. Grass rendering is also back in the game.
Room system
Fixed a few bugs with the room system introduced in 0.800. Lightning and room/wall quality were not being calculated correctly. Ventilation of rooms is now also taken into account. Fireplaces, all creatures, and rotting items all contribute to poor air quality which causes a penalty to room quality. To avoid this fireplaces need ventilation two tiles behind. For now, the penalty is not very significant and will not cause any other problems. Lighting calculation has also been improved to properly take into account windows and is transmitted between rooms better.
Water system
Improved the performance of water and other liquids. So far the idea to try and simulate water pressure has been a nightmare, but I think it should be mostly stable now. Please upload any saves of broken/buggy liquids. Fixes to water pressure system and water pumps.
Other Fixes
- Fixes to the end game buildings and items required to build them.
- Improvements to rendering of pipes/mechanisms shading in construction mode.
- Fixes to terrain rendering so selection tools are correctly rendered near water.
- Tweaks to conversations to make it slightly harder to make everyone like everyone else.
- Made research artifacts cheaper and increased drop rates for them.
- Increased time until later factions interact with the player.
- Fixed powered workshops making items instantly.
- Fixed saltworks and oil processor not working correctly.
Update 0.863
- Fixed major bug with water temperature.
- Fixed issue with having too many torches.
- Fixed some buildings not being clickable while under construction.
Update 0.860 Beta
Sorry everyone for such a big gap between updates. Part of the reason has been a big struggle with getting the upgraded liquid simulation system working nicely. Turns out trying to simulate water pressure at a large scale is tough. There has also been a major overhaul of the world generation system to use Unity's new jobs/bust system, generating new worlds should be a lot faster. This also allows the preview for maps should be a lot better and include fresh water spawns.
Oil and Steam
Oil should now spawn correctly on the map, oil can also be harvested and processed from some animals. Oil can be used to produce steam which can then be used for power. Refined oil is also required as an ingredient for the end game buildings. The salt worker job has been changed to cover all liquid processing jobs.
Water Pressure
More work is required here, but water now has pressure and should flow as expected. A new water wheel building allows for power from water flowing from higher elevations. Combined with the water pump this should allow power storage.
This still needs to be balanced properly, but power will be a lot more important for the mid/end game.
Pipes/Mechanisms
Improvements to the UI for placing pipes and mechanisms. Mechanisms now animated when active. Power system has been changed to allow buildings to keep a buffer of power. Power producing buildings will now only produce power if it is needed, and power for most buildings is only used when the building is active.
Terrain generation and difficulty Settings
I feel like one of the biggest problems with Embark now is the lack of balance as new systems have been added. It is hard to test since I have no time to play the game myself enough. There are now a lot of difficulty and terrain generation options to allow for customizing most aspects of pacing easily. Some options which were not working correctly before have been fixed. The hope is that the official difficulty can be tweaked based on settings players prefer. I look forward to your feedback!
Research time and item crafting difficulty has been reduced significantly for the easier difficulties.
More Combat AI Improvements
Further improvements to combat AI. Squads should be more responsive now, but I am still planning for a more major overhaul next update.
Terrain Rendering
The terrain rendering code has been overhauled to use the Burst jobs system too, maps should load a lot faster and moving the camera around the map should be faster.
Update 0.862
Oil and Steam
Oil should now spawn correctly on the map, oil can also be harvested and processed from some animals. Oil can be used to produce steam which can then be used for power. Refined oil is also required as an ingredient for the end game buildings. The salt worker job has been changed to cover all liquid processing jobs.
Water Pressure
More work is required here, but water now has pressure and should flow as expected. A new water wheel building allows for power from water flowing from higher elevations. Combined with the water pump this should allow power storage.
This still needs to be balanced properly, but power will be a lot more important for the mid/end game.
Pipes/Mechanisms
Improvements to the UI for placing pipes and mechanisms. Mechanisms now animated when active. Power system has been changed to allow buildings to keep a buffer of power. Power producing buildings will now only produce power if it is needed, and power for most buildings is only used when the building is active.
Terrain generation and difficulty Settings
I feel like one of the biggest problems with Embark now is the lack of balance as new systems have been added. It is hard to test since I have no time to play the game myself enough. There are now a lot of difficulty and terrain generation options to allow for customizing most aspects of pacing easily. Some options which were not working correctly before have been fixed. The hope is that the official difficulty can be tweaked based on settings players prefer. I look forward to your feedback!
Research time and item crafting difficulty has been reduced significantly for the easier difficulties.
More Combat AI Improvements
Further improvements to combat AI. Squads should be more responsive now, but I am still planning for a more major overhaul next update.
Terrain Rendering
The terrain rendering code has been overhauled to use the Burst jobs system too, maps should load a lot faster and moving the camera around the map should be faster.