Unclaimed World
0.8.2.0 Trapped characters can escape
- Fixed an issue with characters becoming trapped in tiny areas in the terrain. Characters can still become trapped, but they will now be able to escape from most of these situations, if the area is below a certain size.
- Fix to items becoming blocked when structures are built on top.
Structures can still be ordered on top of items, but construction will no longer start before the area is cleared. Characters should do this automatically. If the area is not cleared, a message is displayed in the task panel.
- Gathering will now show progress in the task panel.
Gather tasks are grouped and summarized in the task panel, and previously they would not show progress. Now the average progress is shown for all the grouped tasks.
0.8.1.0: Continuous farming and hunting. Cookhouse.
GUI: 'BUILD' OVERLAY
When you click BUILD, you will now see an overlay which makes it easier to place structures by showing which areas are blocked:
CONTINUOUS FARMING AND HUNTING
'Standing order' functionality is now available for these actions as well:
Farming
Instead of planting and harvesting manually, there is now a toggle action that sets the crop type to grow. After selecting it, planting, tending and harvesting will happen in a continuous cycle until you stop it again.
Hunting
Hunting has some improvements to make it more useful in sustaining a colony. It is now possible to specify the type(s) of creature to hunt. Also, hunting zones can now be made permanent - when the padlock button is clicked it will work the same way as Gather, with a slider for the number of carcasses of each type to keep in stock. You can use either direct order or standing order. Each failed hunt attempt increases the time before the next hunting trip is attempted.
COOKHOUSE
You can now build a customizable kitchen from the Basic Food tier. It appears in the 'Making Headway' scenario where it replaces the Canopy house and can also be built in 'Fields of Tau Ceti'.
The cookhouse has many 'slots' which can be upgraded with a stove, smoke oven or drying shed. Since the cookhouse will be a meeting site for the colony, it can also be expanded with a community building (whose functionality is still work-in-progress; it'll be used for 'entertainment').
AI
-Characters who are boxed in by threats and unable to return home will now try to escape through the danger zone after a while (25 secs.)
-Characters will now move into homes more swiftly even if there are other high-priority tasks.
-Food will now be moved to vermin protected structures like the granary, if possible.
UI
-Improved the upgrade window to show what upgrades are currently installed in the building.
-When setting priority in the Task Manager, 'Gather' job types are now split in 3: Gather food, gather materials and gather fuel.
Design tweaks
-Removed 'tool handles' from tool recipes to simplify production of items such as axes and spades.
-Reduced threat radius of 'field quadite' nests.
-Made the simpler structures more durable.
-Now possible to have a standing order of 99 items.
Bugs
-Corrected a bug where cancelling a construction task on a mineral deposit while in the FOW would disable the build option permanently.
-Corrected a bug so that structures can now be placed as close together as it was designed.
-Made some changes to reduce the risk of running out of memory when saving on the largest map.
-Fixed an issue where a tool like a smithy or clay pit was still in use even though it was broken
Hope you like this update and we're looking forward to your feedback!
Working on: Cookhouse. Continuous farming/hunting. (June 24, 2016)
This is what we're working on:
Cookhouse
This is the customizable kitchen building that you will build on the Basic tier. It has many 'slots' which can be upgraded with oven, smoke oven and drying shed. Since the cookhouse will be a meeting site for the whole colony, it can also be expanded with a community building which can provide entertainment (the 'need' for entertainment is a planned feature).
Automated farming and hunting
We are adding the 'standing order' functionality to these actions also.
FARMING: Instead of planting and harvesting manually, there is now a toggle action that sets the crop type to grow. After selecting it, planting, tending and harvesting will happen in a continuous cycle.
HUNTING: Permanent hunt zones (set with padlock) - same principle as for gather, with a slider for the number of carcasses of each type to keep in stock. Either direct order or standing order. Each failed hunt attempt increases the time before next hunt is attempted.
UI: Place Structures - visual guide
We're making an overlay which will make it easier to place structures by showing which areas are blocked.
ROADMAP
We are nearing release from Early access and as you can see from the Store page, there is now only one remaining feature on the list: Research.
We have decided to postpone this feature post-release because we would rather polish the existing features instead of opening a new area.
These are the areas we intend to finish before release:
-Randomized off-map sites. There will be differences in the goods and people offered for each playthrough. The sites will have profiles that describe them.
-New people and goods should appear gradually in the neighbor sites that you trade with.
-Market responds to you buying and selling. Demand goes down as you sell a big amount of goods.
(Possibly: 'Off-map' events such as natural disasters etc. which affect prices and availability of goods and cause influx of immigrants)
-Natural death of characters.
-More buildings and items which can contribute to comfort by satisfying needs for hygiene, entertainment, clothing etc.
-Improvements to the interface as we get feedback and suggestions.
Hope you like this plan!
0.8.0.0: Democracy. Continuous production.
FEATURES///////////////////////////////
Upgrades/customization of buildings
Some buildings can now be upgraded and customized. You select the upgrade from a new window that appears by selecting the structure.
An empty workshop (seen in the middle of the image) can be outfitted with machines, turning it into either a textile, polymer, carpenter's or machinist's workshop.
In the same way, you can furnish houses, increasing their comfort rating. Huts and shelters can be furnished with wingweed mats and houses in the 'Basic tier' can have beds added, which are made in the textile and carpentry workshops.
(Textile is made from cotton, which is a new crop available to grow. Also added the skills 'weaving' and 'carpentry')
Continuous production
You can now automate production and gathering by clicking the 'padlock' button that appears next to the order controls when moving the cursor there (see image). This allows you to give a standing order. You specify an amount of items to be stored - whenever the inventory is below this amount, the colonists will automatically gather or produce up to the specified amount (if the needed inputs are available).
This feature drastically reduces the needed micromanagement and changes the way you can play the game.
Clay pit, salt mine and bog ore pit
These are new structures that you can set up on certain locations (found by using EXAMINE). When established, they will give a limitless supply of materials that you order from the Production Manager panel.
Democracy/tech tiers
Your colonists' principles will now determine what structures and items you can make or buy. To acquire more advanced technology, your colonists need to vote in favor of 'raising the tech tier'. For example, if everyone is happy living in a simple hunter/gatherer camp, they will not want to establish farm plots. To do this, they must be unhappy with the present food conditions and vote for advancing from the 'Survival Food' tier to 'Basic Food'. The required tech tier for items is now displayed on their production tooltip.
You raise the tech tier using the new Policy panel, seen below. There are certain requirements and consequences of doing so, which are explained in the tooltips.
GUI
-Resources on blocked areas will no longer appear in the Gather window.
-Entity data tooltip now contains information about Effects.
-Personnel roster now has a column for character status, telling what they are doing.
-Tooltip window will now place itself down and to the right of the mouse cursor if possible. This should make it stay out of the way.
BUGS AND FIXES
-Memory leak fixed, which would cause an out of memory crash after a few saves or loads.
-Cancelling a gather task will now destroy the incomplete output right away. It was not possible to resume interrupted gather tasks anyway. This will get rid of many 'progress' indicators that could clutter the map.
-Characters will now move to a dwelling if they consider it better than their current one without the player needing to abandon/salvage the old residence.
-Corrected an issue where degraded parts would appear outside the structure.
-Fixed a crash that would happen when the game resolution was bigger than the game map itself.
-Colonists will now say goodnight.
NEW TRAILER
In case you haven't seen it already, this is our new trailer which we made recently:
https://youtu.be/aZKO57dd4wo
Hope you like this new update and talk to you soon!
Working on: 'Upgrades for buildings' (June 7, 2016)
UPGRADES FOR BUILDINGS
Buildings will be more realistic and flexible - with the new upgrade system, a house can be furnished with beds or sleeping mats to increase its comfort while generic workshop buildings can be outfitted with different machines or stationary tools. These will then determine what the workshop can be used for.
For example, a workshop can have an extrusion machine installed to make it able to produce polymer products. You can remove the machine later if you want to use the workshop for a different purpose. You will use the menu shown below to upgrade your buildings:
STANDING ORDERS: GATHER / PRODUCE
We're developing the functionality which allows you to set a specific amount of items that you want to keep in stock at all times. To do this, you click a 'padlock' button which appears next to the sliders; the slider will then get marked in yellow to indicate that it is now in 'standing order' mode. This will work for both production and gathering - see the image below:
PITS AND QUARRIES
We continue working on the new locations for resource extraction - below you can see graphics for a stone quarry, a clay pit, a peat digging site and a bog iron mine. When you have these sites established, they will provide a steady supply of materials.
Apart from this, we're currently doing a new gameplay trailer - so much has happened with the game that the old one from September is no longer representative.
We also continue implementing and balancing the democracy/tech tier system that we presented in the previous news post.
Talk to you soon!
Working on: 'Democracy'. 'Automation'. (May 23, 2016)
DEMOCRACY. TECH TIERS
The people in your colony have freedom to leave if they're discontent, but just like in real life, they will also have the possibility of improving conditions by voting. We're now setting up the feature where unhappy colony members will vote for raising the 'tech tier'. For example, if a person is unhappy about the 'Food' condition in the colony (because the colony's conditions are below the person's principles) you will see that person supporting a proposal to raise the 'Food tech tier' to unlock more advanced food-producing items and structures.
These votes are needed for you to advance your settlement from a bushcraft camp to a comfortable town. If all of your people are happy with a simple life as hunter-gatherers, you will not be able to establish farm plots and build nice houses. If you want to improve such a colony, you will have to attract or invite more ambitious people.
The voting screen will look something like this:
AUTOMATION
We want to minimize the amount of micromanagement and make your colony more autonomous. These are the ways we're doing that:
Standing/automated orders
We're now developing a feature where you can set a target amount of items to keep in stock. For example, you can target a stock of 20 smoked fish, and whenever your stock goes below this number, the colonists will automatically produce a new batch (provided they have the needed ingredients/tools).
Mines/quarries/pits
These are sites where colonists can extract a continuous supply of clay, stones, ore, rock salt, guano, sulfur etc. When you find such a location, you will not need to scour the landscape for scattered resources. You just have to setup the proper facility and then your colonists will continually extract the resources.
Some deposits can be exploited by just digging a hole in the ground while sites such as gold deposits require a gold dredge machine which needs fuel to run.
0.7.0.0 - The Clay Pit (Scenario). Maintenance feature. UI.
NEW SCENARIO: 'THE CLAY PIT'///////////////////////////////
In this scenario you manage a crew of workers who are digging clay and making mudbricks that they ship off to a nearby town. It includes a tutorial (which is optional) which trains you how to manage an efficient production. When the operation (and the tutorial) ends with the objectives reached, the workers can decide to make a permanent camp and switch to digging bog iron and blacksmithing.
To expand, the colonists will need to fend off a flock of dangerous animals called patricians that are guarding their fishing territory which also has large amounts of bog ore:
FEATURES///////////////////////////////
Repair (Maintenance)
As structures decay, they will now be fixed by your settlers and this can prevent them from falling apart. Your colonists will automatically go and fix up your buildings, provided they have the necessary tools and time to do it. You can use the Task Manager to set the priority of maintenance and make sure that the needed tools are available. Primitive structures require a lot more maintenance than good quality structures.
Task Manager - improvements
This screen now has notifications about production bottlenecks and allows you to set permanent priorities for different task types so you no longer need to set priority for each new task. For example, you can set all Maintenance tasks to have a High default prio.
UI improvements
-Tooltip hint windows are now more readable: White with colored text.
-Likewise, event screen texts now use icons and colors to better display information.
-In-game dates are now formatted using a decimal system.
-Some settlers are now prohibited from leaving. For example, the clay pit workers cannot leave until their contract runs out:
Hope you like this update - looking forward to your feedback!
0.6.1.0: Some bug fixes
-Fixed a bug where the game would stop responding after task switching in windowed mode, or would show a black screen with only the mouse cursor active when alt-tabbing in fullscreen mode.
(Please note that task switching during the save process can still cause a freeze/not responding)
-Corrected an issue where the characters would sometimes haul tools like clay jars that were being used for collecting sap.
-Fixed a bug where the "NEW RUN" button on the Missions panel would not accept a mouse click.
-Fixed a bug where sometimes achieving the required ratings would not trigger the win condition on 'Making Headway'.
0.6.0.0: New Scenario - 'Making Headway'
NEW SCENARIO: 'MAKING HEADWAY'///////////////////////////////
The new scenario is focused on trade and introduces rubber production. You're tasked with developing the village 'Headway' which is competing with the neighbor town 'Eden Plains'. To earn money, the villagers plan to start harvesting sap from the nearby swamp and sell rubber parts. They will need to invite a family of chemists from the neighbor town and buy the necessary machinery for building a 'polymer workshop'. Sulfur is needed for vulcanizing the rubber, and this material has to be brought in by boat.
You're guided by a small tutorial in the beginning. However, this scenario is designed so that you can play it any way you like. If you find a better way to reach the objective (a high population and conditions) you are free to do it that way.
See this video for a walkthrough of the mini-tutorial:
VIDEO SHOWCASE (Youtube)
EMIGRATION - GROUP MEETINGS///////////////////////////////
Unhappy colony members will now voice their complaints in the form of an event screen where they try to convince the other colonists (that means you) that some aspect of the colony needs to be improved, either Food, Security or Comfort.
A colonist who is unhappy will consider leaving (have Emigration Risk) and when they've had enough they'll say goodbye and walk to a certain spot on the map which leads to the wilderness or a neighbor camp and disappear. This location is indicated on the World Map screen for each scenario.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS///////////////////////////////
Regrowing vegetation
Fruits, branches and other resources on trees and bushes will now regrow. Some resources such as saps and resins will replenish many times a year, while others, such as branches and fruit, regrow in the summer.
Still structure. Polymer workshop
-The still can distil brandy from wine. Alcohol, when consumed, increases the personal comfort rating.
-The polymer workshop is used to make rubber parts from marshcot sap.
UI improvements
-Icons added to Production Manager and Gather window to indicate missing prerequisites.
-Sliders now have increase and decrease buttons and respond to clicks in the trough.
-Sliders have notches to make batch production more clear. Each notch represents 'one task'.
-Added details about ammunition and fuel needs to data tooltips.
-Warnings added for missing fuel and for task spam.
-Bars added to crops section in side panel to show weeds and crop progress.
Changes and fixes
-Tweaked the eating behavior so that characters will only consume the amount of food that increases their need levels.
-Tweaked the farming processes so that farmers spend less time attending their fields.
-Tweaked the AI so that a single specialist will now be more attracted to the tasks they are specialized in, rather than going for more mundane tasks like patrolling, so there is less risk of bottlenecks.
-Marshcot sap now used for making rubber - no longer used for making spoak shingles.
-Changed the blueprints for simple kitchen and workbench.
-Fixed looping sound bug when pausing.
-Fixed a bug where characters would sometimes get up from sleeping in the morning, only to lay down again right after and nap some more.
-'Night vision goggles', 'Cloak' and 'Ground resource scanner' are new equipment types which affect various stats.
0.5.1.1 Bug fixes
- Degradation of unfinished items. Items will now degrade and be destroyed even before they are finished.
- Bug fix when eating from a carcass. Eating did not work properly when extracting meat from carcass, and too many flesh items were created.
- Priority fix for AI. A bug caused eating to sometimes be interrupted.