Solace Crafting
Beta v 0.7.1.4 - New potions, drops, & sounds
I've also added attack, damage, and death sounds to the 3 new types of goblins in the goblin dungeons, as well as given each of them a special type of loot... Now that I think about it, some of the loot is not set up as intended, I left it in a bit in "test mode," but these drops will open up opportunities for more enchants and potions to be added in.
I've also added 4 new buttons to the start screen: Twitch, Patreon merchandise, and tipping. Twitch is just a link to my Twitch channel, where I stream development live Tuesday-Friday. Patreon is a subscription based site designed to allow people to support content creators. The merchandise page is a work in progress, but has some hooded t-shirts, t-shirts, a mug, and a mousepad for now, all of which I get a cut for each sale. The tipping page is simply that, a way for people to offer one-time monetary support via credit card or PayPal, of which 100% goes to Big Kitty Games, none being gobbled up by the host site Streamlabs, which is the software that I use to stream. Of course none of these things are mandatory, and provide no benefit in-game, they're just good to have as options, as some people are better off financially than others, and are capable of supporting development they agree with directly, if a simple way to do so exists. In short, please don't hate me, I need money to survive too, and some people really are very generous such as our lovely Patreon supporters! Which really does help out very much.
It's a bit tough to come up with new loot and new potions to be honest, all ideas are welcome! I've got a lot of general "Strength Potion" and "Breathing Potion" and things like that lined up for tomorrow.
v 0.7.1.4 2021.01.20
- Added links to Twitch, Patreon, merchandise, and tipping to the start screen
- Added sounds to goblins, hobgoblins, and the goblin warlords.
- Added new drops: Orcish Charm, Goblin Penny, Hobgoblin Iron
- Added new potions: Minor/Major Healing/Energy/Mana potions
- Changed the recipes for potions a bit
- Potions are now unlocked via alchemy
- Potions can now be crafted at different rarities
- Fixed some animation problems with the goblin warlord
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta.
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Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
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Patch v 0.7.0.23
v 0.7.0.23 2021.01.19 (beta v 0.7.1.3)
- Added tree render distance slider to video options
- Added more descriptions for how to transfer water between container
- Added Essence of Beast as uncommon drops to all animals
- Disabled the transfer buttons from improperly turning on with fluid containers
- World encounter resources are now checking for saved stats within an error margin of 1m instead of 0cm
- Changed some town building loading code, hopefully fixing disappearing buildings
- Fixed several errors caused by meeting another player within a world encounter
- Fixed a harmless error on dedicated servers
- Fixed a harmless error in the start menu when starting with a non-english language
- Fixed an error being thrown when loading tilled ground in some cases
- Fixed an unexpected error being thrown during facility interaction
- Fixed a harmless dedicated server specific Steam error during startup
- Fixed a harmless error when getting disconnected due to a server restart or kick
- Fixed "ResetPath" errors on monsters/animals when using charge and/or on death
- Fixed floating island temperature not working in single player
- Fixed farming planters not saving/loading properly on floating islands
- Fixed "harvest essence" via the radial menu not working in single player
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
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Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
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Patch v 0.7.0.22 / 0.7.1.2
I've also found a way to allow more control over tree quality that will allow users to turn up or down the level of detail distances that should offer some pretty serious performance improvement for those lower end systems that need every little bit. I wasn't able to patch it in today as there are some safety hooks I need to setup as it involves altering the original tree prefabs in runtime, changes that will persist even in the Unity editor while I'm testing them. I'm also looking into most likely doing away completely with a type of tree called SpeedTrees that I use quite a lot of, which, out of the box, are really just not cutting it.
v 0.7.0.22 2021.01.06 (beta v 0.7.1.1)
- Crosshair given an outline and a transparency setting under video settings
- Improved rain and snow collision
- Added a number of shadow quality control settings to the in-game video settings
- Fixed snow not colliding with anything
- Fixed world preview not showing up
- Fixed loading premade structures in caves not working
- Fixed Charge not stunning mobs
- Fixed watering cans throwing errors when filling or emptying them without opening them first
- Fixed equipped watering cans duplicating into the inventory when emptied or filled
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
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Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
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Happy New Years + Hotfix
I recorded a video reflecting on 2020 and looking forward to 2021. It's a bit long, so for those more interested in the cliff notes I will summarize below.
[previewyoutube="Vp9bPB1V3gA;full"]
In short, 2020 was a rough year for me. In Q2 I tried to hire on some part-time help but ended up just wasting a lot of time and money that really put me a negative spot. In Q3 I decided to take on re-writing a major chunk of the main engine and got really burned out just coding day after day for months. Putting those two together had me really demotivated in Q4, and I was finding myself really lonely and having a hard time focusing.
As is most often the case, when you love something and you don't give up on it, the hard times are surmountable, and on December 1st I tried streaming development live and found it extremely motivating for me. I took a break for the end of the year, which is a big holiday here in Japan, but have started streaming again today, and have really enjoyed it even if at times no one is watching =] It's been very uplifting and my productivity has greatly increased since it's long, slow decline during 2020.
The video though is above all else heavily focused on my determination to get Solace Crafting out of early access in 2021. That doesn't mean that I will publish it, and never work on it again, there are a lot of features that I want to add post version 1.0 after leaving early access. But the core aspects of the game are largely in place, and I plan to focus, improve, and polish the game as is, with minimal new "features," meaning instead to focus on content, community tools, and overall engine polish. For example, mounts could be a great addition to the game, but they're not a necessity. There's no reason that can't be the focus of version 1.1, but getting a solid and robust version 1.0 to take us out of early access and reach a wider audience is much more important.
2021 starts my fourth year of full-time solo development of Solace Crafting. I am no less interested in taking Solace Crafting as far as it can go, but I can't stay in solo early access forever. Releasing an unfinished buggy product is in no way an acceptable move, but spending another 4 years slowly adding more and more features by myself is not a smart move either. A best case scenario would be releasing a polished game full of content and community tools that will generate enough money for me to expand the small bits of outsourcing I currently am able to afford into a couple of full-time staff to help speed up development of new features.
Until then, I'm back to work at full throttle, and was able to answer the majority of the new bug reports added to the bug tracker over the past week. I have some 80+ messages here on Steam that I will be going through tomorrow, and will continue to prioritize bugs over furthering development, but wanted to reiterate a bit of my current thought process:
1. Add a number of new areas to add a variety of new enemies with new drops.
2. Use those new drops to create a lot of new recipes to add to the respective skill trees and town buildings for unlocking and improving, including potions, masonry, and enchants.
As always, input is greatly appreciated!
A huge thanks to everyone that continues to post bug fixes along with screenshots and videos.
One note, I've had a player report a problem with building it sounds like specific to Linux. I have yet to look into this myself on Linux, which has many versions, but will do so and would appreciate any reports from any other Linux players that can either confirm a similar or dissimilar experience.
v 0.7.0.21 2021.01.05 (beta v 0.7.1.1)
- Mushrooms can now be grown above ground as well as underground
- Crate boxes in vertical dungeons can no only be picked up after clearing the dungeon
- Fixed journal descriptions being dark grey
- Fixed "Cleric Robe" to read "Cleric Jacket"
- Fixed all boats reverting to common T0 whenever they are picked up
- Fixed herbs looting as T0 regardless of location
- Fixed leyline teleport range upgrade confirmation box displaying incorrect material requirements
- Fixed planters not placing properly in single player at distances beyond 8km
- Fixed picking up crate boxes in vertical dungeons throwing errors
- Fixed pressing "Interact" (default: F) while renaming, closing the solace rename interface
- Fixed a number of problems with tombstones, bags, and trashbins
- Fixed getting seeds from a vegetable in a bag not updating immediately in single player, or at all on multiplayer
- Fixed swamp map drawing as full ocean in places
- Fixed animals/etc duplicating in semi-rare circumstances
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
Follow development live on Twitch!
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
Hotfix v 0.7.0.20
This patch fixes a problem where walking far enough away from an area for it to despawn, but not so far enough away to have the entire terrain despawn, and then coming back would cause town buildings to revert to their mid-"reposition" state, wanting them to be placed again from the town menu.
v 0.7.0.20 2020.12.28
- Fixed a spawn management problem causing town buildings to revert into "reposition" mode
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
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Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
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Beta v 0.7.1.0 - Goblin Dungeons
Goblin dungeons are now capable of spawning complete with lots of nasty critters inside as well as a boss and treasure chest at the end. There are still a variety of plans for these dungeons including traps, secrets, more decorations including particle effects, unique drops, and an undead version.
Along with these "dungeons" a series of "planes" such as the fire plane are also in the works along with a new types of water cave, during which I'll be revisiting the current caves a bit more.
All in all these new locations are intended to provide a lot of new drops from a lot of new monsters, with which we'll then be working on lots of new recipes for armor, weapons, potions, and enchants!
v 0.7.1.0 2020.12.24
- Added first phase of procedural "Goblin Dungeons" for beta testing
To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta.
Follow development live on Twitch!
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
Hotfix 0.7.0.19
I'm hoping to plug in the new dungeon generator into beta tomorrow!
v 0.7.0.19 2020.12.22
- Stalks and large cacti now drop have a chance to drop essence of water
- Added a blue fog to brighten up caves
- Added a fix to automatically catch and repair broken video resolutions
- Fixed a bug crashing the game when clicking "apply" to a video resolution prior to selecting a resolution
- Fixed some weather audio not obeying the ambient volume sliders
- Fixed some problems with the displaying and purchasing of long range leyline teleport upgrades
- Fixed essence harvesting in MP
- Fixed grass not updating immediately while terraforming
- Fixed a harmless error when entering caves
- Fixed bags not dropping properly into tombstones while in caves
- Fixed towns deciding on a different biome than the overlay biome indicator
- Fixed certain resources respawning with every reload and ignoring building collision checks
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
Follow development live on Twitch!
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Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
Now live v 0.7.0.18
v 0.7.0.18 2020.12.15
- Updated language files from crowdin
- Fixed a lot of animations going dead in SP
- Fixed grass patches going bald
- Fixed the math for multiple crafts that involve leveling up into new tiers
- Fixed animals that should not go rare, going rare
- Fixed crafting exp not scaling across levels as intended, but hard capping
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
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Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
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Survey results & roadmap update
[previewyoutube="GVDUmxsB6j8;full"]
I've tried several times to summarize the contents, but it's a long video for a reason, and am having difficulty giving a short explanation... I think the roadmap (below) speaks for itself quite well, and hope that people looking for a deeper explanation of why I think those are the best steps to be taking towards version 1.0 will be able to check out the video.
Some questions definitely remain, such as how to continue offering improvements to crafting, ie: new recipes for say a sword, without simply adding a different sword recipe every tier and just making it better just because.
The image themselves are as follows:
And my proposed revision to the roadmap is as follows:
0.7.1: Procedural dungeons/planes, more monsters (more drops).
0.7.2: Enchants -> sockets. Lots more recipes.
0.7.3: Deconstruction bench. Crafting and harvesting equipment.
0.7.4: Improve Monster AI. Add monster abilities. Upgrade combat math.
0.8.0: Rework adventuring skills. Add Job & Class skill trees.
0.8.1: Expand on town buildings and functionality.
0.8.2: Randomly generated towns.
0.8.3: Town quests and unlocks.
0.8.4: Nutrition, cooking, and fishing.
0.9.0: More dungeons/planes, more monsters, more recipes, more quests.
0.9.4: Villager equipment, clothing, naming, skills, AI.
0.9.5: Town attacks/defense.
0.9.8: Finalize language support, add full controller support.
0.9.9: Optimization.
1.0.0 Leave Early Access.
These are of course only the larger milestones. There is a lot of small improvements to be made to various aspects of the different inventory systems, the interface, audio and animation in general, etc.
I've also pushed the 0.7.0.17 patch to the live branch, which other than a long list of fixes adds:
- Added a biome indicator to the main overlay (lower left)
Follow development live on Twitch!
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Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
Beta v 0.7.0.17
The problem with bags in tombstones is that a bag is an item, and the items inside of a bag are items, but you can't allow items to be within items or you create a possibly endless loop that won't compile. Instead bags are actually "containers" which inherit from their parent "item" class, but are in fact not "exactly" "items" preventing this loop as containers can only contain items, not other containers. Unfortunately serialization, which is used to save data and to transfer it between computers in multi-player cannot tell the difference between a child and a parent class. This requires some special handling to get containers to exist within other list and arrays such as a tombstone's list of contents.
In upgrading that system I miscalculated some steps and ended up causing non-tombstone "facility" inventories to forget what type of contents they are and aren't allowed to deal with. This patch fixes up both problems to that tombstones and facilities should be working as intended in both single player and multi-player.
v 0.7.0.17 2020.12.11
- Fixed learned recipes being craftable at any rarity regardless of rarities learned
- Fixed sheathing/unsheathing in MP
- Fixed weapons and tools not automatically being brought out with use in MP
- Fixed armor colors and stats not sync'ing immediately after joining a MP server
- Fixed dropping multiple items duplicating them after returning
- Fixed "large towers" aka "vertical dungeons" not spawning in MP
- Fixed resources spawning too close to vertical dungeons
- Fixed animal rarity particles not spawning properly on MP clients
- Fixed the fullscreen toggle not loading it's initial state properly
- Fixed random snow beneath high elevations
- Fixed "Get seeds" not properly updating inventory in MP
- Fixed facility slots being improperly labelled in SP causing them to not accept items as expected
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta.
Follow development live on Twitch!
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker