Farmer's Dynasty
0.60, 2018 01 28 (Maintenence Update)
Squeezed in maintence session was sucessfull and with this patch the game will be much more stable and bug-free. Here's the changelog:
- Rebuilt resource manager for thread safety.
- Rebuilt engine object manager thread synchronisation cues.
- Fixes and new cue order for terrain thread synchronisation.
- Smaller memory imprint due to new texture memory manager. Memory imprint can actually decrease during gameplay as resources are being resorted and streamed further out.
- Rebuilt animations mechanism (characters & animals) for smoothest possible animations and animation interpolations.
- Tracked and fixed mysterious triangles flying temporarily over the world during movement.
- New internal mesh manager, robust and properly handling mesh creation from different threads (building manager compiling and decompiling buildings from parts happened to not be entirely thread safe).
- Properly cuing and handling mesh creation and destruction routines from outside of main thread management loop; this should fix crashes related to building compression/decompression functionality.
- Crashes related to threaded streaming of new meshes conflicting with building parts being decompressed in yet other thread.
- Fixed all the missing building parts.
- Fixed bad building parts appearing in bad places.
- Fixed building parts scale and rotation problems.
- Fixed other random memory parts being overwritten by wrong data, including problems with animations blinking.
- Fixed rare errors of wrong objects appearing in place of other objects (parts of building in place of tires, or tires missing entirely).
- Fixed physics params and mass for Rauch TWS fertilizer. It handles better, allows to drive faster and fits into the garage.
- Better and more quiet Lindner tractor engine.
- Added rear lights to Fliegl ZPW100 bale trailer.
We're planning the next update with fresh content by tuesday - so please say stuned. :)
Your Toplitz & UMEO Team
0.59, 2018 01 17 (Interim Update)
- Added auto save on quest finish option in Options Menu. If on, game autosaves after each quest is finished
- Fixed chainsaw sound on fishing rod
- Removed back beep sound for player's old vehicle
- Fixed cars tires terrain deformation params
- Fixed bug of pulling weird objects out of the water after catching a fish
- Fishes have to actually catch a hook every time, not catching up automatically after the first one
- Bus stops are only accessible on foot, not working when driving
- Fisherman achievement operational (100 fish to catch)
- Improved baalnce of catching fish inside or outside visible fishing groups
- Fixed bug of random work mode when getting out of the vehicle
- Fixed controlling map bus stops via pad (and bus stops vs other modes as well)
- Placement for greenhouse is now green instead of red
- Proper tank sizes for both cars (old pickup and mini van)
- No running if condition smaller than 30%, also on a pad
- Pickup: lower exhaust, also moved a bit to the back
- Old tractor: higher exhaust pipe and exhaust itself to not put smoke in player eyes
- Fixes for trees in the air
- Better placement for bus stops - in important map places
- Restored old (better) fixing and painting for planks
- Possibility to paint playground objects
We'll move to a week of maintenance now. Please check the roadmap thread for further info.
Best,
Your Toplitz & UMEO Team
0.58, 2018 01 14 ("Fishing Update" - Part 1)
"Fishing Update" - Part 1
- Vehicles get dirty, depending on driving terrain and weather
- Wheels get dirty independently, again depending on driving terrain and weather
- Wheels get wet in water (visually)
- Vehicles are cleaned up in player home fuel station (we plan adding hand cleaning in the near future)
- New vehicles (bought in stores) can be repainted in player home fuel station
- Vehicles get wet after cleaning and repainting (visually)
- Washing and fixing machines works for the machine inside player home fuel station (garage)
E.g. if you want to clean or repaint a plow, you should attach it to the tractor and drive with plow inside the garage
- Bus stops operational and shown on the map
Note: However to actually use bus stop, you have to approach it - cannot use bus stops from anywhere on the map. Only bus stop <-> bus stop. Bus stops can be used either on foot, or in a vehicle.
- Actual fish swimming in waters (they need at least 1m depth though)
- Fishing rod operational.
Note: When fishing, try fishing close to fish in the water. While fishing, further movement pulls the fishing rod. So does rapid rod movement and pulling the hook to shallow waters.
If the fish is caught, you must pull it quickly, or it will break free after a short fight. Catching a fish from outside of the visible fish group is also possible, just less probable (effectively will take a bit longer).
- Playground can be repaired
Additional
- Fixed shape of pad LS prompt
- Fixed fireplace FXs, should always burn when needed
- Thinner exhaust FXs
- Proper label for old bale wagon
- Improved loading hitched vehicles from save
- Wider inventory, more items will fit in
- Fixed old tractor should not attach modern 3P machines
- Improved terrain detail filtering and rendering distances for tessellation thresholds (need feedback)
- John the salesman has chainsaws, fishing rods and mowers more often
- Fixes for Oliver's barn
- Several level fixes - flying trees, etc.
- Removed stones near player farm
NOTE: You sure noted that a few features from the roadmap didn't make it in time. We'll inform about a feasible date for those as soon as we have sorted things out.
Best,
Your Toplitz & UMEO Team
0.57, 2018 01 10 ("Gamepad Update" - Part 2 / "Wildlife Update")
"Gamepad Update" - Part 2
- When driving with controller, LS forward/backward has no effect anymore
- Fixed walk vs. sprint on pad
- Fixed throttle/brake/reverse on pad, RT/LT is working fully analog now
- Introduced button icons for controller prompts
- Different map controls for controller, not emulating mouse any more. Quest mode and map mode are introduced instead, switchable with [Y] and [X]
In map mode, map objects are filtered and LS jumps directly between them
- Controller mode in map: Use LS/RS to remove/add a custom waypoint
NOTE: An additional update will be coming removing replacing mouse emulation in all menues and - if needed - further adjustments.
"Wildlife Update"
- Introducing player vehicle - old truck to roam around
- Introducing small chainsaw to cut away bushes and smaller trees
Chainsaw will NOT cut regular nor huge trees, only smaller ones
- Added ability to light a campfire in fireplaces
Campfire will die if player is away or if it rains, or after a longer time, it does not burn eternally
- New item added - Can of beer (probably non-alcoholic) :)
Animations of sitting down with 3rd person camera and enjoying will come in a later update too
- Added eagles, soaring in the sky
- Added storks, standing idle and looking for whatever they find tasty, but flying away as soon as player approaches
- Added deer and boars. These tend to stick into trees and forest areas, but can wander freely (and run away from player)
NOTE: Picking wild mushrooms and berries had to be moved to a later update, although they're already placed in the world.
Additional
- Much increased manure production by cows
- Different icons for different vehicle classes on the map
- A number of level objects improvements and bugfixes
- Small fix for English Voice Overs
- New set of German Voice Overs
Much love,
your Toplitz & UMEO Team
0.56, 2018 01 07 ("Gamepad Update")
"Gamepad Update"
- Game properly recognizes Xbox pads *together* with other analog device.
- Support of steering wheel, joystick and other analog divices.
- Only one analog device other than XBOX Pad can be plugged in
- Controls switch on any input detected. For instance if playing with keyboard and pad button is pressed, game switches to pad controls right away.
In this way player can freely switch between driving with steering wheel and walking/fixing with keyboard and mouse, without the need to unplug devices.
The only exception from the rule above is mouse movement while walking/driving while using analog controller (not pad).
Using mouse while driving with analog controller other than pad will keep driving with the controller, won't switch to keyboard and mouse - this way player can drive with a steering wheel and look around with mouse.
- Input device change is shown with selected input icon in lower left screen corner, both in game, and in menu.
- Analog input devices other than Xbox pad are detected and reiterated upon unplugging/plugging, game properly recognises not only XInput device changes.
- 3 distinct controls configs for 3 classes of input: keyboard and mouse, Xbox pad and other analog device, so these are configured independently.
- Xbox pad controls are predefined for 4 different modes: walking, driving, map and menu operations.
- Added distinct accelerate and brake keys for pad driving (RT/LT).
- When pad driving on tempomat, LS has smaller sensitivity - it has to be pressed to it's limits to cancel the tempomat.
- Menu can also be controlled with any device, and these can be changed at will during menu operation.
- Changing a device during controls menu will change the menu for the current device, so if configuring analog - don't touch keyboard, or you will switch your input control panel.
Additional
- Increased minivan rotation angle
- Dedicated memory ram treshold triggering alternate render decreased from 1024 MB to 920 MB, so videos with 1024MB of dedicated memory will also run on a default (better) renderer (need feedback if ok).
- Plowing and cultivating does not remove fertilizers (so field can be fertilized prior to both ground works).
- Added tempomat for a minivan.
- Mouse wheel for keyboard / Dpad UP Dpad DOWN cycle through available work modes - fixing, rebuilding, scaffolds.
- Fixed bug of turning on header while extending combine unloading pipe.
- Added tempomat info for harvester.
NOTE: Only one analog device other than XBOX Pad can be plugged in. If you have for instance a joystick and a steering wheel plugged in together, only the first will be operational. Plug in only the analog device that you want to use.
PS: We're sorry but the "Wildlife Update" part has to be delayed until the middle of Week 2. Please also note that the Gamepad controlls within the World map are not final and will get some love too ASAP. :)
Best,
Your Toplitz & UMEO Team
0.55, 2018 01 02 ("Building Material Update" - Part 2)
First official act in 2018: Today we found our game within the Top New Releases category of Steam's 2017 Best of. We want to thank you all for your love and support - please keep spreading the word. :)
Here's the changelog for the promised second part of the "Building Material Update":
- Default materials removed from the HDS Pickup. These have to be bought now and loaded/unloaded for transport
- Material objects can be lifted by HDS Pickup crane and placed either on the minivan, or on the ground somewhere
- Material objects can be placed on a van in specific places on the platform
- Rebuilding material that's already carried can be selected from material source again. Also can be bought again. Depends on player's choice
- Improved manipulation params and controller resolution for minivan crane
- Material sources on a HDS Pickup, ramp and anywhere in the world should be properly saved and loaded
- If dropped on the ground, material objecs have real world physics
- Improved priority texture settings, including quality of building materials and rebuilt textures for cards with 2GB and less VRam
- Fixed bugs in calculating loading progress bar
- Fixed barn element that was turning from airbricks into bricks
- Fixed bug of a wrong fov when enering a vehicle with ES on
NOTE: Materials are still very cheap to buy and unlimited from a source for now.
We wish y'all a great start into 2018!
Your Toplitz & UMEO Team
EDIT: Hotfix was rolled out:
0.55a, 2018 01 02
- Cannot lift materials from the world (so older material sources,
neighbours' material sources and so forth). Only bought material sources
can be lifted and transported
0.54, 2017 12 30 ("Renderer Update" / Partial "Bulding Material Update")
Here is the planned update for the last week of 2017. Unfortunately not all features we have planned for the "Building Material" Update did make into this weeks build, as we want to make sure all features are as polished as possible. Here's the changelog:
"Renderer Update"
- A number of render optimizations for lower-end videos, resulting in both higher fps and smaller (and fewer) hiccups
- Smaller video memory imprint, especially optimized for lower VRAM adapters (2GB and smaller, respectively)
- Game detects if video RAM is smaller than recommended (1GB). It switches to the alternate (smaller) renderer then
- In case of multi video card systems (laptops) game detects if it is run on the weaker video and informs player to switch the better video on. It should work still, but on the mentioned smaller renderer (until started with the better video on)
- Running with alternate render, video options are disabled (preselected automatically for smallest memory footprint)
- Added option for flat terrain for better optimization, automatically switched on for best performance preset
- Warning when playing with flat terrain option, terrain does not modify physics - for instance there will not be a plough groove if playing in flat terrain mode
- Restored (but smaller than before) bumpiness on the field introduced while working on the field. It does not get introduced with flat terrain option however, so it is optional (depends on terrain settings)
- Terrain detail density on highest terrain setting has been further increased (by 50%), so it may be a few FPS slower on lower video cards - but still it is optional, and better looking
- A bit optimized game loading time (at the crucial 90%). Need feedback on this one though.
NOTE: This is a first version of an alternate render, and working for DirectX11 cards with memory below hardware requirements.
A lot of effort has been put for it to work correctly, but there still may be a few bugs. Please report these, they will be fixed accordingly.
"Building Material Update" - Partially
- Crane minivan (HDS) has crane operational (rotation, extension)
- Building materials are bought in the store (cheaply for now - 10 Eur each set)
NOTE: That said as for a moment we are having bugs with transporting materials using crane and saving/loading these, so bugged functionality is locked for a time being. We should upload a patch with this fixed by Tuesday, January 2nd 2018.
Additional
- Increased harvester fuel usage.
- Fixed mouse vertical movement when in player TAB menu or in dialog choice with Invert Mouse enabled
- Introduced double check for old achievements to make sure older-made achievements are better synchronized with steam achievement system
- Condition shown as health and food altogether, but both health and food can be recognized separately
- Added weather forecast for the next 2 days
- Weather changes differently. If a forecast for a given day is stormy, it can still be sunny in the morning, but it will change later
- Weather for a given day shows the actual prediction for a given day, not the weather at a very given moment. If an icon shows rain and it is still sunny, it will be rainy soon - so the icon is not the actual state, it is a prediction for the rest of the day
- Tow truck can be called not only for a vehicle driven by player. If out of a vehicle but looking at one, tow truck can be called too. This way player can pull out his trailers, headers, ploughs and so on. Just look at a vehicle and turn on TAB menu
- Tow truck used to move to a road quite a bit from a current position. Right now it pulls a vehicle to a nearest point on one of main roads (not all roads, mind you, at least for now, before traffic is introduced)
- Map has railroads marked differently, also a bit more detailed (new compression)
- Increased effectiveness of a new harvester
- Fixed tree and a pole that were hanging in the air behind the Agro store
- Fixed floating fences on Lydia's farm
- Smooth terrain by the store entry
- All the walls in the cellar can be fixed and plastered
- Concrete ceiling in the cellar can be plastered as well
- Handrails on staircases are properly repairing
- Fixes to repairing woods by stairways to the cellar and to the roof
- Chimney in player home can be rebuilt
- Improved effects of plastering ceilings
- Fixed floating air brick wall in the barn (not hanging in the air after repair)
- Fixed glass in the cow barn (after impregnating)
- Dog house can be rebuilt
- Wall in the child room behind the wardrobe can be fixed
- Fixed upper wall in the garage, can be plastered
- Fixed Andrew's gate (it was causing the crash)
- Fixed Andrew's missing scaffolds
- Flat and smooth physics below the manure pump
- More belanced (and lowered) prices for several vehicles
- Better bounding box for HDS
- Proper names for new headers
We wish y'all a great start into 2018!
Your Toplitz & UMEO Team
0.53, 2017 12 22 (Interim Update)
We have pushed a Non-Roadmap Update live. Here's the changelog:
- Increased distance of seeing NPC names in ES
- Increased capacity of a new trailer (to 11,000)
- Old manure spreader capacity increased to 10,000
- Field price increased by 30%, cents eliminated
- Area seen as fertized is precisely the same as actually fertilized
- More strict and accurate calculations of field status. For example using manure for the whole field will result in 100% manure coverage (it used to lose a few percent in info display)
- Increased hungry animals death day to 9, to avoid them dying while player is in long rest (they will die however if have been hungry before the rest, just not while they actually get hungry while player is resting)
- Fixed bumping and shaking on a cultivated/sown field. It was felt especially with larger vehicles like harvesters. BUT these have to be cultivated/sown - old fields (loaded from save) will remain bumpy until worked on again
- New and additional English voice overs
- Added separate slider controlling voice volume only
Happy Holidays,
your Toplitz & UMEO Team