In Rebots, all jobs are procedurally generated, which means when accepting a job, the player should be aware of what kind of job they are accepting. The dynamic objective UI now adds each objective to the UI while the conversation is happening, so that players can be more informed about the job they are about to take.
Recycling Rebots Rework
Before this update, if a player wanted to spawn a new worker or supervisor, they would use the crew tool. In order to recycle them, they would have to move it behind the ship where they would be terminated. We wanted to streamline the spawning/recycling process, so we moved the recycling functionality into the crew
Partial Controller Support
We have added controller support to various places in the game - we specifically focused on the asteroid selection, shops, menus where possible and the codex when configuring supervisors. There are still improvements to be made on this front, which we will be addressing in a later update, but for now the game should be playable with a controller.
Improvements & Fixes
Improved the AI of all rebots - supervisors, workers and the storage hauler - to accommodate the new supervisors and mechanics
Added a new model for the codex and it can be viewed on the asteroid selection screen as well
Added new UI elements and animations for the Switchboard UI which shows up when connecting supervisors together
Improved the navigation on the menus to avoid incorrect selections
Reworked the 2nd tutorial level to accommodate the new way of recycling rebots
Reworked the circle of influences of supervisor to accommodate the new supervisors like the combiner and the hauler which have multiple inputs and outputs
Added scanning information for various flowers
Replaced the light green hologram with a white outline for rebots before they are spawned
Fixed a bug where connections would not go into the antenna of the dispatcher supervisor
Fixed a bug where the combiners face would show merryberries with no recipes selected
Fixed a bug where the combiner would collide with the ramp when in the hiring garage and would not disappear after hiring it into the crew
Fixed a bug where the Switchboard UI would show up behind the green pollution gas
Fixed a bug where the Trevor alien would spawn before the ship arrived through the portal
Fixed a bug where the player could not buy the scanner from Sybastian during the tutorial
Fixed a bug where the text highlighting would stop working after the 2nd tutorial level
Fixed a bug where starting a new game would disable some audio events
Fixed a bug with text breaks in the crew tool’s wheel selection
Fixed a bug where pressing Tab would not close the codex
Fixed a bug where hiring the new supervisors would trigger the wrong conversation
Fixed a bug where ship upgrades 3 and 4 were missing from the shop
Other misc. Fixes
DISCLAIMER: Saving & loading is not integrated yet into the new job generation. This means that once the player quits to the main menu/desktop, the state of the game will not be (entirely) saved. We are still working on this to have it integrated as soon as possible.
If you have feedback, let us know here on the Steam Forum or on our Discord Server.
Rebots Devs / @FlatPonies
Rebots - April Update
Rebots Update - April Update
In the last release (March Update) we introduced a variety of new features such as the storage haulers, the codex, multiple clients and more. A month later, we have another update and this one is really exciting because it sets up lots of possibilities for Rebots future. Let’s dig in!
Note: This Update is only available on the “rebotsplaytime” beta branch right now
New Features
Job & Asteroid Field Generation Rework
Based on the feedback on the previous release, we knew that we needed to improve how the jobs and asteroid field are generated - so that’s what we did. The first part of this process was to create constellations. Constellations are collections of asteroids. They are the neighbourhoods for the aliens. We’ll be expanding on these constellations in future updates. The second part was making our job generation smarter. This is very important because we want to make sure that the jobs are interesting, varied and challenging depending on where the players are in the game. Additionally, we needed to reduce the possibility of “soft locks” - where the player would get stuck with a job that is not completable with the available asteroids.
Added new constellations to the asteroid selection increasing the total of available asteroids to around 20
Created new job generation algorithms to ensure better variety and challenges
New Supervisors & Interaction Paradigm
Supervisors are one of the most important elements of Rebots. In this update, we are introducing 3 brand new supervisors to play with as well as we are updating the storage hauler from the previous release with a brand new model. With the introduction of these new supervisors, we needed to also adjust the interaction paradigm across the board.
Supervisor Interaction Paradigm and Configuring Supervisors
In order to support the new and future supervisors, we redesigned how the supervisors function from the ground up and we have created the following principles:
Each head of a supervisor is an input
A head can have multiple incoming connections
Some heads have multiple outputs. This requires 2 steps of interaction from the player and is solved by a brand new Switchboard UI
Players can configure supervisors by walking up to a supervisor by pressing [E]
All this new functionality streamlines how players interact with supervisors in Rebots and this modular approach allows us to iterate faster and create new supervisors faster going forward. Now let’s take a look at the new supervisors (and the upgrade hauler model)
Sorter The Sorter (originally called resource splitter) has an important function - it sorts workers based on the resource they carry. This supervisor supports 2 output connections and the true connection can be configured with the codex by pressing [E]
Dispatcher The Dispatcher (originally called the even odd splitter) opens up the automation aspects of Rebots. This supervisor supports 4 (yes four!) output connections and all its connections can be set up with the switchboard UI. Really handy when you want to send every n-th worker to a different direction and create a maze of connections.
Combiner The Combiner (as the name suggests) takes a variety of resources and combines them into brand new ones. It has 3 heads - 2 inputs and 1 output. It can be configured via the codex by pressing [E].
Storage Hauler Model Upgrade The Storage Hauler got a major facelift for this release - the feedback from the previous release was quite positive, so while the models have changed, the functionality is the same. Use it to transport resources between different asteroids. We are also moving the tutorial for the hauler earlier in the game to after completing the first generated job, so players get access to this crucial gameplay element as soon as possible.
Improvements & Fixes
Added new icons for the rebots in the crew tools wheel selection, the move flags and the tool description UI (bottom left of the screen when a rebot is selected)
Added white outline holograms for all rebots when replicating with the crew tool which replaces the old green hologram
Added a “Test Game” button for skipping the tutorial, so players that have already played through the tutorial can immediately get to the generated content
Shopkeepers now turn towards the player when the camera is grabbed in shop view
Added a feature where resources dynamically drop from the flora
Increased the stock of resources to 999 in resource shops to avoid soft locks
Fixed a bug where workers did not always put down resources around the PutDown supervisor
Fixed bugs with some decals of the rebot move flags and the delivery zone
Fixed a bug with the outline of the mintbush and the Trevor alien
Fixed a bug where returning to the main menu changed the color of the ground
Other misc. Fixes
Disclaimer: Saving & loading is not integrated yet into the new job generation. This means that once the player quits to the main menu/desktop, the state of the game will not be (entirely) saved. We are currently working on this to have it integrated as soon as possible.
If you'd like to give it a try let us know here on the Steam Forum or on our Discord Server.
Rebots Devs / @FlatPonies
PS. Here's a screenshot of a cute worker stuck on an orango tree ;) How did it get up there?
