Solace Crafting
Big performance update incoming
Unfortunately I was not able to get the big update I've been working on up in time, but here's hoping today goes well!
I've been working a variety of pretty serious engine upgrades including upgrading from Unity 2019.4 to Unity 2022.3, switching from the Built-in Render Pipeline to the Universal Render Pipeline, and a handful of FPS improvements. Last time I checked FPS was up around +75%, but in order to do that I've had to update over 3500 materials, and rewire basically all of the video settings, weather components, all fluids such as waterfalls and lava, and quite a bit more. Sadly the new water shaders in particular are still giving me problems to the point that I was up till 1AM last night trying to get everything sorted out.
So things are not quite ready yet, but should be ready to go here very soon. I just wanted to break the silence and let everyone know what's going on.
Happy gaming!
Traders! v 1.0.5.4 now live
Coming off the beta branch now, a variety of traders offering to buy and sell different types of goods on an in-game weekly loot schedule can now be found scattered throughout the world. The "world" is actually an infinite plane by the way, if you were wondering... Complete with head tracking and dialogue bubbles.
I want to create custom buildings for each of the different types of traders, but I'd like to do so with building textures that are more fitting to their biomes. So, as an in-between step I'm going to start working on new building textures on the beta branch tomorrow.
As always, there are a number of bug fixes and small improvements to go with the new content as well.
v 1.0.5.4 2024.03.26
- Added Trader "General Store" to wild towns (random spawn) that will buy and sell basic resource on a weekly (in-game) rotation
- Added Trader variations: Weaponsmith, Alchemist, Herbalist, Fletcher, Arcanist, Armorsmith, Leatherworker, Tailor
- Fixed the ivy shader that seemed to have broken
- Added randomly generated NPC towns
- Added head tracking for friendly NPCs
- Added chat bubbles for friendly NPCs
- Added random animation logic to friendly NPCs
- Removed enchant stats decaying based on player level
- Resources attempting to respawn near player built objects will now check a 10m radius sphere instead of only a vertical line directly through their position, not respawning if anything player built is touched
- Fixed the proper harvesting tool not always showing when harvesting
- Fixed standard Cloth Armor English translations
- Fixed a typo for Smithing Melee Speed
- Fixed harvesting profession level up achievements decreasing swing speed instead of increasing it
- Harvesting profession level up achievements now reward 2% speed increase per achievement
- Fixed some facility interfaces overlapping when a new one is interacted with while one is already open
- Fixed the near terrain draw distance setting button in the main menu
- Fixed Strong Harvest skills not displaying a hotbar cooldown
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
Traders now spawning at wild towns (beta)
I also want to add other types of traders that can randomly spawn, including a weaponsmith, an armorsmith, an alchemist, etc. Adding new types and new loot tables is easy enough, once the tech of them and their towns are all working properly.
v 1.0.5.1 2024.03.18
- Added Trader "General Store" to wild towns (random spawn) that will buy and sell basic resource on a weekly (in-game) rotation
- Fixed the ivy shader that seemed to have broken
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.
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.
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
Beta v 1.0.5.0
NPCs will now notice you and others in-game, look at you, and often give a bit of dialogue. I've also added some animation changes to them, so they can randomly play a different animation here and there rather than just standing still all the time, but I do need to add more animations onto their capabilities still.
What I really want is to get them wandering around a bit, but this has its ups, its downs, and its dangers. For example if town NPCs can just wander freely all over the place, you might not know where your fletcher is when you need him/her. We already have it setup that interacting with a town buildings sign-post provides the same services, but there are a number of things like that that I am weighing against one another to figure out the best way to let NPCs move around at least to some degree; especially so for procedural towns.
Procedural towns are a new variable in world generation, so things may shift around a bit, but it would be very unlikely for a town to spawn somewhere you've already been building, for example. For safety still, I will push this to beta first and work some things out before I move it to the live branch.
I've also removed the math that makes enchants decay as players level up. The conversation was basically that a legendary enchant really isn't legendary after you've leveled up a few levels, which isn't a very difficult thing to do when you're actively out searching for resources in the big wild. There's also definitely some drop math regarding some of the components for certain enchants that I am looking into.
So, lots being worked on! Fishing also won the vote for what's next, though I am openly discussing how to best go about that as I'm honestly not much of a fishing fan myself. I have received some great input already though.
v 1.0.5.0 2024.03.11
- Added randomly generated NPC towns
- Added head tracking for friendly NPCs
- Added chat bubbles for friendly NPCs
- Added random animation logic to friendly NPCs
- Removed enchant stats decaying based on player level
- Fixed the near terrain draw distance setting button in the main menu
- Fixed Strong Harvest skills not displaying a hotbar cooldown
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.
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.
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 1.0.4.35
Also thought I would mention as this often gets asked when a larger patch goes live, but currently the beta and the default branch are on the same build. Once I'm done hotfixing bugs new content will be added for testing onto the beta branch before moving it to the live build. ːsteamthumbsupː
v 1.0.4.35 2024.02.21
- Fixed server join, host, and server list password input fields not responding to mouse clicks
- Fixed controller support for server join, host, and server list password input fields
- Fixed start menu warnings not self-destructing properly
- Fixed holding RMB no longer letting you move while building
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
v 1.0.4.34 Now Live
Having said that, I'm going to put down controller support for the next ten days or so to focus on some bug fixing and get some new features in. I started a poll yesterday on Discord asking for input on what players would like to see added in given a few choices. It's pinned in #general so go check that out if you like. The goal here being to add some small but impacting changes in the near future.
There are also a couple of discussion about the current controller support that I have not fully read through and responded to yet, though I hope to make sure I go back and review those before I sit down to finish the last 10%, as I'm really not a controller player myself.
Happy gaming!
The condensed patch notes are as follows:
v 1.0.4.34 2024.02.20
- Added controller support (90% working, some changes pending)
- Added an on-screen keyboard for controller support
- Added enchanting to multi-lingual system
- Changed the start menu version text to explain if an error has occured during startup
- Fixed basic attack and recall not being added to hotbar for new characters
- Fixed first time loading messages and other start menu messages breaking controller navigation
- Fixed single player and creative single player button translations
- Fixed cloth boots translating to cloth helmet
- Fixed inventory hotbar links throwing errors when empty
- Fixed start menu link popups not translating properly
- Fixed start menu current game mode not translating properly
- Fixed the in-game compass 'W' not translating properly
- Fixed the unspent points UI not translating properly
- Fixed the radial menu not translating properly
- Fixed facility names not translating properly when cursor'd over
- Fixed the quit menu not highlighting properly when using a controller
- Fixed Q and E to rotate and R to autorun triggering even when certain windows are open/input fields are focused
- Fixed dragging inventory slots to the hotbar not working
- Fixed certain monster abilities throwing an error
- Fixed recipes unlocked in multiplayer not showing up in the crafting UI immediately
- Fixed the initial loading screen not loading any text where it should say loading in at least English
- Fixed a number of harmless localization errors firing in the recipe details UI
- Fixed starting the game for the first time throwing a harmless localization error
- Fixed a harmless error that could fire from PlayerSkills when starting up
- Fixed an error caused by animal corpses sometimes being improperly added to misc save data
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
Beta v 1.0.4.30
It's been oddly warm over here every day, I'm a bit concerned how this years summer is going to end up, but a warm winter in and of itself is hard to complain about.
As previously mentioned, the multi-lingual system and full controller support got left in a sort of 95% finished state last year, so I'm going to wrap those up to more of a 99-100% state so I can push them live, and start getting into a few different things I've got lined up for early 2024.
This patch adds multi-lingual support for enchanting which was overlooked, as well as a few smaller areas that were missed. There's still a couple left, and I can certainly fix more if they show up as adding new words to the system is the hard part, not necessarily plugging things into the system.
v 1.0.4.30 2024.01.12
- Added enchanting to multi-lingual system
- Fixed inventory hotbar links throwing errors when empty
- Fixed start menu link popups not translating properly
- Fixed start menu current game mode not translating properly
- Fixed the in-game compass 'W' not translating properly
- Fixed the unspent points UI not translating properly
- Fixed the radial menu not translating properly
- Fixed facility names not translating properly when cursor'd over
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.
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.
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
Developer Update
I know it's been a long time since the last update, and I apologize for that. I went back to working on Solace Crafting full time in October, but ended up running into some health problems and decided to take more time off. In case anyone reading this doesn't know, I had some semi-serious health problems in July that forced me to take 3 months off of development. I was taking 3 pills a day during that time and am down to 1 pill every other day, so I'm doing a lot better, but am still not 100%.
During my time off I have spent a fair chunk of my time studying not only Unity and game design, but game production. The unfortunate truth as an indie developer is that there are 10+ professions you have to learn. Production manager is an important but not often talked about profession when it comes to indie games. The quite extensive paid course on design and production that I went through was well worth the money, and has me looking at things in a quite different light.
Solace Crafting was originally built within Unity 2018 and eventually upgraded into Unity 2019. Recently I've been playing with Unity 2021 and there are definitely some significant performance improvements to be had, though the conversion process to a scriptable render pipeline is likely a lot of work, but something I do want to attempt.
Prior to upgrading engines, or anything that serious, I need to finish the improved multi-lingual support and full controller support that were both left mostly finished in October. I've also got some things lining up for January that will hopefully turn into a great way to start a fresh year!
There are a lot of less than amazing decisions I made in regards to design and production in the early years of Solace Crafting, but the game has come a long way overall and I'm going to give it a few more pushes to see if we can't get it into a better composition all around.
Best wishes to everyone in 2024!
Kyle Postlewait
Big Kitty Games
Beta v 1.0.4.28 - Full controller support test
Currently the biggest problem as I see it for full controller support is choosing which is more important:
1. Being able to cycle between next and last targets with R2 and L2
or
2. Being able to cycle between next and last hotbars with R2 and L2
As I've been torn between this, there's currently not a pre-bound key for targeting, though using any offensive skill will generally try to target whatever is in front of you. Currently I am leaning towards putting next target on the far right button (B for me), and maybe putting last target on the select key, as something not generally used, but there if you need it.
One of the biggest challenges of this patch was actually merging the 3+ months of on/off work that were spent on the controller support branch and the 3+ months of bug fixes that were being done on a separate branch. I spent pretty much the entirety of the past three days just getting everything to come together properly, and still have some weird unanswered questions why git (version control) was behaving the way it was with certain files, but all's well that ends well.
There are still some oddities I'm ironing out though, the save and quit menu is not highlighting properly, even though it is technically being selected properly from top to bottom, as well as the solace interface, and some things here and there. But for the most past the game is fully playable with a controller, so again I wanted to get it onto beta in it's current state in hopes of some feedback or suggestions from more experienced controller users ːsteamthumbsupː
And of course there's a round of random bug fixes to go with everything.
More to come over the next few days.
v 1.0.4.28 2023.10.11
- Added controller support (90% working, some changes pending)
- Fixed Q and E to rotate and R to autorun triggering even when certain windows are open/input fields are focused
- Fixed dragging inventory slots to the hotbar not working
- Fixed certain monster abilities throwing an error
- Fixed recipes unlocked in multiplayer not showing up in the crafting UI immediately
- Fixed the initial loading screen not loading any text where it should say loading in at least English
- Fixed a number of harmless localization errors firing in the recipe details UI
- Fixed starting the game for the first time throwing a harmless localization error
- Fixed a harmless error that could fire from PlayerSkills when starting up
- Fixed an error caused by animal corpses sometimes being improperly added to misc save data
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker
v 1.0.4.27 Now Live
I'm still mostly going through the bug tracker reports that have built up over the past couple months during my absence, in order of severity. The game's definitely running quite a bit smoother with this patch though than it has been for a bit, my apologies for that. A mix of rushed changes and outsourced mistakes had a number of systems causing inter-related problems here and there.
Lots to do though, hoping to get town building features fleshed out a bit more, and more building textures in asap.
v 1.0.4.27 2023.09.09
- Added a check to reassign Basic Attack and Recall to the hotbar in the event of skills being reset
- Added mouse over text on map icons for Shrines, Monoliths, Rifts, and Totems (English only for now)
- Added solace names to solace map icons
- Reduced the spawn rate of Rifts outside of badlands
- Reduced the spawn rate of Goblin Totems outside of swamps
- Reduced the spawn rate of Monoliths outside of Grasslands and Mountains
- Fixed remaining adventuring skill points printing incorrectly for Jobs
- Fixed a storehouse duplication bug
- Fixed hold to walk and always run not working
- Fixed Spiritualist passive skill for Magic Damage awarding Magic Crit Chance (this will reset your skills if you had it)
- Fixed player skills in MP not downloading spent totals properly
- Fixed changing gatherer assignment not updating changes immediately in MP
- Fixed harvested Hornet Wax not showing properly for client in MP
- Fixed some Squire, Scout, and Apprentice skills that got messed up in version control
- Fixed storehouses changing resources to T0
- Fixed Masonry spent points showing Woodworking spent points
- Fixed shrines not properly awarding buffs
- Fixed Imps disappearing as soon as their rift is closed
- Fixed Rift Spawn Rate setting
- Fixed Monoliths and some other objects spawning at improperly low rates
- Fixed finishing drinking a stack of water in a container throwing an error
- Fixed several non animal specific items printing out animal specific names
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.
Join us in Discord!
Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!
Check out the bug / suggestion tracker