Engineer Alpha
Engineer Alpha's Log #59: The Ore Crusher
While playtesting I realized that I was missing something in the progression of mining resource gathering. In the early game the majority of mining is done by hand and as the player is the one choosing what to collect they will naturally go for more valuable things like ores over stone. But as you progress through the game you start to use automated forms of mining which are not as smart as the player and will just mine everything in their specified volume regardless of what it is. This leads to the player having an influx of stone that they did not previously. As I don't want to make the games mining machinery "smart" as that takes something away from them I was left with how do I let the player use all the stone they will be getting. The answer was of course the ore crusher.
The ore crusher was not planned for thins build and was something I had come up with years ago as part of the 'ore yield increase chain'. The ore crusher functions just like a furnace in that you do not need to set a recipe for it and will take ores and produce 1.5 crushed ores each. There will be other steps that will be unlocked in the future that will also provide a 1.5x gain for exponential growth with each step. I have now added a recipe to the ore crusher that takes 5 stone and has a 50% chance to produce 1 copper ore and a 25% chance to produce 1 iron ore. This give the player another use for their stone that they can automate and turn into more metals for making parts.
Engineer Alpha's Log #58: Lots of Little Things
I have set aside the next few weeks for playtesting with the majority of my development time and will be fixing and changes a whole lot of little things. Plans are to push out a version twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) that will have things like recipe fixes, balance changes, and other minor adjustments.
I know this will sound a little weird but this is actually the first version of Engineer Alpha that I have enjoyed playing every time previously when I would play I would get so caught up in what the game could be that I had a hard time seeing it for what it was. It really makes playtesting a lot easier. If you are playing and you stumble across a bug or there is just something you don't like how it work please write to me here or on Discord and tell me about it.
Version 0.5 Development Release
The patch notes for this build are as follows:
- Updated Technology discovery to to now be done with "science packs"
- Added the Engineering Lab
- Removed old labs
- Reworked the tech tree adjusting the locations of most techs
- enabled the block observation outline
- Added voxel collision out line to the Small tank, large tank, boiler and millstone. More buildings and improvements to this system will be coming in the future.
- updated model of the boiler, small tank, large tank, sawmill, furnace, trip hammer, chest, pipes, shafts
- And a bunch of other stuff that I forgot about
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated so if there is something you want to say about the game please feel free to drop a message here or on discord.
Engineer Alpha's Log #57: Holograms And Boundaries
The first change you will see when placing any building is that the hologram color has changed and is now completely opaque so you get the best sense of the shape possible.
Additionally I will be adding a "boundary" mesh to all buildings and placement buildings over time. They are not all finished yet and are a bit more work than the old overlapping boxes. However the ability to see precisely how things take up space in the world is well worth the effort.
This boundary will show up when placing down a new building. The white squares show the extent of the building while green squares also denote any places that will require an adjacent block in order for the building to be placed.
While placing down a building the ability to see the voxel boundary will also trigger on nearby buildings that have already been placed.
This also extends to placing blocks as well.
As you may have noticed the boiler and small tank got a visual update as well as the small tank being turned on its side. The large tank also got turned sideways in addition to a visual update. I Found that the tanks being vertical was not working out and being on their sides seems to be a little easier to deal with.
Version 0.5 should be out for development release later this week if things go according to plan.
Engineer Alpha's Log #56: The Constructor
For the time being the constructor will come in 2 variants with more in the future. The first is unlocked right after the windmill and will be capable of making all of the early game (tier 0) things and some of the copper parts. Also of note I have moved the trip hammer and sawmill to be earlier in the tree and they both can now be powered by the windmill.
A Constructor connected to a windmill.
As you progress through the tree you will unlock the copper constructor about half way through copper.
The copper constructor is capable of making virtually every final product in the copper and iron tier.
Engineer Alpha is meant to be first and foremost a game about automation and I felt there wasn't enough with how things were so I added more. Hopefully this will put things in the game in a better place and you won't have to do as much hand crafting.
Engineer Alpha's Log #55: Research & Technology 2.0
So I decided to to implement a technology system that you see in the game now. As I have worked on other areas of the game I have come to realize that the system I have is not living up to my own standards. It is time to rethink the system a bit and make some changes that will benefit the game into the future.
There are some aspects of the old system that I like such as the 4 different categories of research that will be staying the same.
First thing to go is the "Global Science Pool". As you may be aware there is currently a global pool that all labs add their research points to. Points from this pool are then added to the technology at a given rate based on the size of the current pool. This global pool is going away and labs will add their research directly to the active technology. As a consequence of this the "active technology" side of the technology screen has been removed as it was no longer needed.
"Research Points" are going away. They were an attempt at creating a universal value on things that did not work the way I intended. I could never force you to use multiple parts as you would just find what was the cheapest and keep using that. This is why I added things like the diminishing returns system and point cap that were added defensively to keep the system working the way I wanted.
In place of that system there are now 'science packs' that will be produced like any other part and put into a lab for research. There will still be the four types but there will be multiple levels of each type. A total of 18 different science pack but you only ever need to use 4 at one time which should hopefully keep things manageable.
Every tier will have a new level of pack that you will need to use. They will be unlocked individually within the tier and shortly thereafter techs will start requiring the more advanced pack. As you go up through the early tiers you will also add in a new pack type with each tier until you reach the full 4 at the steel tier. If you happen to miss any technologies on the tech tree any higher level pack may be used in place of a lower one of the same type (it might make it quite expensive however).
Right now there is a separate lab type for each different technology type, this will also be changing. A single lab will take all 4 types of pack. The first lab (unlocked at the start of the game) will be able to use packs 0 through 3 and a second lab unlocked later will be able to use the later game packs 3 through 5.
Lab 1 will look something like this (texture and model not final). Each of the 4 sides will be for one of the different science pack types and can be connected to via conveyor.
The UI for the lab is similar to the old one however every pack type now its own inventory slot and there is a bar for each of the 4 science types.
Technology types are also no longer independent from each other. Most technologies will require packs from multiple types however they will all be consumed at the same time at a rate proportional to how many are required in total.
The tech tree now shows cost in the form of packs required and the shape of the tree has changed a bit but more on that later.
Pack recipes still have not been completely nailed down yet but expect them to use things that you will want to make lots of anyways.
Engineer Alpha's Log #54: Rotation Model Update
What really bothered me about how I did the 0.4 was in part the X-shape that holds the bearing in place but mostly the fact that it is in the center of the block so it makes it look just a bit off with how it lines up with the world block grid. The only solution that I could find that would work was if the bearing was split in-between blocks. I also did a little reproportioning of the parts so the shaft is a little bigger and the frame is much smaller creating a much less busy look with with more empty space that really helps the models appearance.
With the input and output shaft piece I significantly reduced the size of the arrow pieces which really helped them not be so ugly and obtrusive. With bearings being split I had to add a way that the input shafts model could change based on its connection state (another thing stolen from pipes) as the in-between for all the other parts have no back sides where they sit up against each other.
As you will also notice most everything got a nice bit of bevel to smooth out its sharp edges which really helps it not to jump out at you as not quite right.
Engineer Alpha's Log #53: BEAMS!!!
Beams are placed on the ground much like any other building to begin with and will take up a single block in the world to start.
Beams, unlike most buildings, are not limited to the 4 horizontal directions and can be rotated to face up and down as well.
Beams fall under a new sub-category of building I am calling 'single dimension extendable'. When you have the beam facing the direction you want a single click will lock it in place and start the extension. You can only extend in 1 dimension, so no turns, but you can go as far as you want in the chosen direction.
While extending you can use the mouse wheel to roll the beam around the extension axis.
While extending the beam is constantly tracing along the length of the beam and will not extend beyond any objects in the way even if the player points into terrain or other obstructions.
Just like a shaft every block costs 1 item and upon being removed with a wrench the correct number of items will re returned to the player.
Beams will be coming in version 0.5, planned for release on the 28th of March, 2023. This preview used copper beams but they will of course also be available in iron when released. Other materials added to the game will also likely get their own beams as well.
Engineer Alpha's Log #52: I Hate Trailers
I have not made a new trailer for the game in a while and my desire to do so is still quite minimal. I am sure I will make another eventually but I am not sure when it will be.
Because the best way to to get a feel for what the game is like is to play the game; I have decided to create a demo version of Engineer Alpha. It should be coming out within a week's time of this posting.
I have gone with a timed demo as I feel that is the best way for someone to get a feel for the game without feeling like they are playing some sort of chopped down and incomplete version. The Demo will have the full game contained in it but you will be limited in how much you can play within a single save file. Any save that reaches the limit of 7 in game days (2.8 hours) will be forced to exit to the main menu. The demo version is also not allowed to open saves that have a game length of longer than 7 in game days. This gives the great advantage that you can play the demo then pick up the same save in the full game.
Engineer Alpha's Log #51: Embracing the Verticality, Inventory IO, Funace 2.0
Embracing the Verticality:
Most Factory/Automation Games create their machines such that the inputs and outputs are, for the most part, at the same level. Also it tends to be at the same level as the building a lot of the time. This usually leads to building on a perfectly flat surface to be the "best" way to play the game. I don't want that
for Engineer Alpha; as it takes place in a fully editable 3D world you should have to use all 3 dimensions to your advantage. I have many tricks up my proverbial sleeves to make that happen. Whether it is like the windmill and forcing you build before you place it or like the new furnace having its inputs and outputs up higher (and at different levels) so it would be better to build it on sloped ground say. I have a few other plans for interesting and cool buildings that will make you think about how you place them in the world that will show up in the future.
Inventory Inputs and Outputs:
Engineer Alpha does not strictly define where you can connect to inventories. This creates an interesting problem because of instead of a model of say a conveyor input that I could add to a model and be done with it, the connection area is defined by a volume. So to create a clear and obvious marker to the player of where they can attach the conveyor to the building large areas of its surface would have to be be modeled specially as input/output. There was no way I could figure out how to do this without it being rather ugly and intrusive. I decided to go with the "you only see it when you need it" route. In 0.5 when you are placing down a conveyor segment (or any building that can connect to inventories) you will see around you all the places that the conveyor can connect to. There will be 3 different variations; input only, output only, and both, each with their own color.
Furnace 2.0:
The humble furnace is one of the most important building in the game and it pains me that it went neglected for so long. But the time has come for it to be as it was meant to be. I previewed it a month or so back and a few things have changed. Most notably it got a little fatter so instead of being a 4x4 base it is a 5x5 this happened largely because there was not enough space at the bottom for everything.
I have also added effects for when it is running; fire underneath, smoke above, and a looping sound effect. It is very probable that the texture on it will change before final release but for now I am quite happy with it.