My eye has mostly recovered, but I haven’t been able to finish any of my bigger to-do items to show off today, so I will just show you a couple of things that are currently in progress.
The first WIP is a remodel of the sailing boat that comes to drop off villagers and to pick up sales goods. We are planning a rework of how the sailing boat upgrade works for 0.9, and with that will come a redesign of the current boat, as well as two additional models. In preparation for that, I started with a rowing boat (main image) which will simply add some atmosphere to certain parts of the world, e.g. the port.
The above image shows the current state of the strategic map. In the last couple of months of work, a couple of issues developed for the map, which led to me wanting to rework some of it. As you may be able to tell, I have started by working on the representation of water, changing from a sketch of waves to the blue which I think works better with the plant and rock representations. The representation isn’t finished yet, as you can tell there are some issues with how it shows rivers and streams at the moment which I still need to fix - but I am overall happy with how this is starting to look. The map is currently also not representing walkable/non-walkable areas too well, so I will also rework that in the coming weeks.
Finally, the above image shows the current state of Opal Reef. John remodelled the terrain to be more in line with the design of Pirate’s Peak, and added the new mountain rocks. We haven’t created the humidity map for the island yet, and obviously the plants are missing, but there is already a lot more deliberate design to this map than there was to the old one. I will let you know how it develops.
Until next week!
Weekly Update 126 - Intermission
Hi everyone,
I am a little late on this post, and unfortunately it is only an intermission. I managed to injure my eye during some exercise last week, and am only starting to be able to read and use a monitor again, so progress was a bit constrained by that.
If the improvement of my eye continues at the same speed it has, I should be able to start working again toward the end of the week. In good news, John has been able to find some time to work on the tutorial map, so development has continued despite my issue.
Until next week!
Weekly Update 125 - Upgrading the Tutorial
Hi everyone,
Last week was mostly spent on working through the tutorial to bring in and explain the new mechanics of version 0.8.
While there have been a lot of smaller changes to the setup of Opal Reef to accommodate the new mechanics, I won’t bore you with the details, and will instead try to talk about the 2 big decisions we made to upgrade the tutorial. The first big decision was whether to make the tutorial short and streamlined to simply teaching mechanics (maybe even breaking it up into small lessons), or to create one longer tutorial that taught the mechanics in a more narrative style.
There are of course pros and cons to both. John in particular has a habit of rushing through tutorials quickly in order to get to the “meat” of the game, so he was in favour of shorter tutorials with a distinct lesson each. I on the other hand am more likely to play longer tutorials - or maybe the sort of games that lend themselves to longer tutorials. The decision came down to how we saw the mechanics, and by extension the lessons we needed to teach. In some games, mechanics are rather self-contained, and can be taught independently - but the mechanics in PtP are already pretty dependent on each other, and we are only planning to make them more interlinked.
As a result, we decided to go for a longer tutorial (maybe 1 - 1.5 hours), in which players are going to go through an entire, abbreviated game with many intermediate goals. Adding intermediate goals to the more “sandbox” game is also our goal with the addition of random quests with version 0.10, but the tutorial will give us the opportunity to lead new players through an entire game without getting lost (figuratively and literally), before rolling out the 0.10 update, and having the experience we are aiming for them to have in every game in the long run.
This decision has meant that we will also be in need of switching the map (Opal Reef) to accommodate a longer game, bringing it more in line with the style of Pirate’s Peak (big decisions #2). With that, we are able to better explain the new mechanics, and actually make the longer game on Opal Reef enjoyable - hopefully meaning that players will be tempted to stay a few more turns after finishing the main tutorial in order to explore the additional aspects of the game for themselves. As usual, I will keep you updated.
Until next week!
Weekly Update 124 - Networking Upgrade
Hi everyone,
When I mentioned last week that I had fixed all of the reported bugs, this included a bug where players got disconnected from the server when loading a coop game - the fix to which had actually broken a whole lot more things. As a result, much of this week was spent upgrading the networking system and fixing all of the issues this came with.
The version of our networking service we were running was almost 2 years old at this point, which meant that upgrading it was not an easy task. It came with a lot of changes to the system that I needed to account for, and a very annoying reset to some default settings which I didn’t find for far too long. It took a little longer than I had initially anticipated, but I was now able to find all of the problems it created (I think), so the most recent update including all of these changes went live on Thursday, and should allow for far more stable co-op play.
After updating the game, I turned to updating the tutorial as I had promised, which has been proceeding quite nicely since. I should be able to get quite a bit more done on it this week, so explanations for the new mechanics should soon be in place.
Until next week!
Weekly Update 123 - End of the (Bug) Hunt
Hi everyone,
As of this week, I have managed to find and address every bug that has been reported since the launch of the 0.8 preview on experimental (this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any more, just that they haven’t been found yet!). As a result, I will be turning to adding more to the game again.
Discussing the bugs first, I was able to fix a few bugs that occurred when loading a game, as well as a bug with multiplayer synchronisation. One bug that may or may not be finally fixed at this point is widescreen support. After repeated attempts to fix this in various ways (it worked without issue in the Unity editor after the first attempt), I added a debug statement to the code last week which seems to have fixed things in the build - we will see how long that sticks.
I will of course continue to fix bugs as they come up, but my next priority will be to update the tutorial to the current version of the game. Considering the initial feedback was largely questions about how to use the map and concerning scouting and progression, I think an updated tutorial will help new players understand what is going on more easily. I will keep you updated on how that is going.
Until next week!
Weekly Update 122 - Some Fixes
Hi everyone,
Bug hunting continues, but I was also able to upload a couple of fixes this weekend.
The dreaded sawmill worker bug has now been fixed, and as I mentioned before, I have also added a little explanation of the chosen game mode at the start of a new game. There are also a few fixes of sound issues that have been reported in this update, so things should be a little smoother.
I have now moved on to some of the bigger bugs that were reported. Some of those I was unable to replicate in the Unity editor, but I was able to replicate in the compiled game - which was a great first step in figuring out what was wrong to start with. Hopefully I will have another update/fix for some of the issues by next week.
Thank you to everyone who has reported these issues!
Until next week!
Weekly Update 121 - Squashing Bugs
Hi everyone,
I will keep today’s update relatively short - I have a lot of non-game work early this week, and I will then try to focus on getting as many of the reported bugs as possible fixed in the later part of the week.
There still are many bugs, some of which have been fairly straightforward (including some things I had known about but missed to fix before release) and some fairly illusive ones that I have not been able to reproduce yet. Suffice to say that there is a list I will be making my way through.
In good news, there has also been very positive feedback. A lot of you enjoy the new island, and I am glad to say that the feedback about the more drawn out progression has been exclusively positive (and filled with ideas for what to add at different stages).
I will write a longer post next week, and you can expect the first hotfix around the weekend as well.
Until next week!
Weekly Update 120 - Feedback to v0.8
Hi everyone,
Welcome back after the rather short time since the last post! Last week saw some more helpful feedback from players, though my break obviously meant that I haven’t worked on implementing anything yet.
One of the bits of feedback we got was about pirate waves: Some of you thought that they were both too predictable in their timing, as well as too predictable in their sizes. We had already given the sizes some thought before, but we are also conscious of the fact that not everyone wants to play the game with crushingly difficult pirate waves. We will give this some more thought, but would love to hear more feedback from others - in any case, we will keep giving options for switching pirate waves off, as well as playing around with their strength.
Another bit of feedback was about the lack of introduction to Artefact mode. This was admittedly an oversight on my part, and something I will address pretty quickly. Artefact mode, which is the new default, means that an artefact spawns at the other end of the island, which the player needs to get to in order to win. We have always intended to have a few quests leading the player there with intermediate goals - but have not managed to implement this yet in the same way as we haven’t updated the tutorial yet. I will include an introduction to this goal (as well as score mode) when the game starts, and I will put in a few intermediate quests once I have updated the tutorial as well.
Before any of that, however, I will address a few of the bugs that were reported, including the sawmill workers mentioned in the last blog!
Until next week!
Weekly Update 119 - Happy New Year!
Hi everyone,
The posts this weekend will be a little odd - I drafted this post last week, but then forgot to upload it, and only just realised as I was writing the new one. I could of course do one long post, but then my numbering will be off, and we’ve noted before that I get a little specific about the numbering…
So, without further ado: the first week of 0.8 experimental has worked out rather well. In addition to having to explain the map and how to work it quite a few times, we also got some feedback about the sawmill workers sometimes getting stuck, which I have started investigating, but haven’t found a solution to yet.
I will be taking a break next week (this was 1st Jan - 6th), during which I will be responding to feedback, but won’t be able to work on the game. I will try to get to the bottom of the sawmill issues as soon as I am back, and will upload the fix once it’s done.
Before going off, however, I will briefly give a FAQ on the map:
Where can I find the map?
The strategic map is available both in the port (go around the left from the entrance, you will find it behind the building, visible in today’s image), and in any scout’s huts you have built (right in the middle). The tactical map is available in your building book (the intelligence tab once you open it).
How can I use the map?
Both maps can be used in roughly the same way: If soldiers or scouts are visible on the map, you can select them by left clicking on the icon (you will select all units belonging to the same building), then you can send them to a destination of the map (including areas that haven’t been scouted yet) by right clicking where you want them to go.
What can the scout do?
Once you send the scout to an unexplored area of the map, the scout will slowly reveal the area around it. If the scout sees an enemy, he will also report their location on the map, which is useful as an early warning system.
Why is my scout not working?
If the scout runs into an opponent on his way to where you have sent him, he will stop walking and will hide until the danger has passed. If the danger is stationary (e.g. a pirate who is just hanging out in the jungle), the scout will wait until you have taken out that threat - you should see the scout not having reached his destination on the strategy map, and you should see the icon of a pirate near him.
I hope this helps, and I will continue to answer your questions this week!
I will upload the next post shortly!
Weekly Update 118 - 0.8 Preview Ready and Merry Christmas
Hi everyone,
Merry Christmas! I finally managed to upload a preview of 0.8 to the experimental branch today, so I will talk you through that today.
First of all: How can you access the preview?
To access the preview, you need to right click on the game on steam, and hit “properties”. In the properties window, find the “betas” tab. Here, you have to enter the password “NotEnoughCoin”. This should give you access to the environmental branch in the dropdown above, where you can now select experimental.
Once that’s done, the update should download, and you’ll be able to try it out!
Secondly: What’s new in this 0.8 preview?
Frankly, there are too many changes for me to state them all here. The major ones, however, are: The new island, Pirates Peak, which was designed for a completely different progression through the game - and with that, the new biomes. The new default game mode, artefact mode, replaces the still existing score victory, and means that fighting the pirates is now a much more important part of winning the game. Two new units of soldiers, including our first melee unit. Strategic and tactical maps, meaning you can get an overview of the island from your port or scout’s hut, and you can order your soldiers to move without requiring line of sight. Five completely new buildings, which are created in the redesigned, new style. Particle effects, more sounds, better optimisation, etc, etc, etc.
I will try to get a full changelog done when 0.8 is finished - but there is a lot to it.
Thirdly: What isn't in this preview?
This is a preview primarily because there are still a few things missing from the full version. First of all, we want to improve again on the military units, and add another 3. With that comes a much stricter difference between melee and ranged units, which we will try to make into a soft counter based on terrain. Additionally, the current game logistics make advancing along the island slower than it should be, so I am hoping to put in a pioneer wagon (as discussed before) before the full 0.8 release. General balance is also something still missing from the game at this stage, and while I am fully aware of lots of problems, I will welcome your input on how things should be changed.
Finally, and maybe this should have gone under what “is” in the preview: there will be lots and lots of bugs. So as with all other feedback, I am hoping for your many reports on what is wrong so I can improve it.
I am hoping that you will enjoy what’s been done on the game over the past year, and I’m looking forward to fixing all of the issues you’ll find.
