This update was focused on overhauling the pottery system. Almost every aspect of the pottery profession has been changed. And of course, the updates affect and improve almost every other aspect of the game.
There are too many changes to the pottery system to explain here, but you can find more information on the patch notes here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/342910/discussions/0/2969524751708431200/
One of the major updates for this patch is the completely upgraded "passive crafting" system. This system is where you do not have to actively be in the crafting window, and other items and actions perform the crafts over time. For example the "wood tipi kiln" for pottery now fires your pottery for you as long as you meet the requirements for what the kiln needs.
And to further making the passive crafting system easier, items like the "wood tipi kiln" have a new set of properties in their item tool tip called "Active Properties". Hovering over an item like the kiln will show you what requirements you need to make the pottery fire when you have a molded clay item in it.
This system will be greatly used in the coming updates to further make more crafting options passive, which makes crafting simpler and easier. And despite the word "passive" in the name, it makes crafting more interactive and fun too!
The next update will be focusing on overhauling the leatherworking system, adding passive crafts to some of the stages of development as well of course!
Enjoy!
Pottery Update Underway!
I thought I would just give a quick update about the Pottery Update. After taking a quick break after the massive previous update. I am already underway on working on the next update, and everything is going well!
Again, keep in mind that even though I am working specifically on pottery crafting, this affects all aspects of the game, and those aspects, and game mechanics also get major upgrades as well. So the work that is getting done is in a sense exponential, but it is in a good way!
For example: one new addition I will be teasing you with now is more in-depth crafting interaction with items. The "passive crafting" mechanics are being added to. For example: maintaining a fire at the right temperature while firing pottery or else the pottery items could get damaged. You are not in an active crafting window anymore, but you still have to check on your fire and your items to make sure everything is okay.
To make this even easier to manage, items will now have "active" properties in their tooltips to tell you what is actively happening to an item! For example: when looking at your tooltip for a piece of pottery you are firing in a kiln, it may tell you that the fire you are using is not hot enough.
Another example: Looking at a primitive fire's tooltip will tell you if it is burning normally, it is growing in size ( you put more fuel on the fire ), or close to going out. Also it will tell you the general temperature.
Of course I will post more information as I continue to work on this!
Major Update 1.5.0 is Live!
Its finally here! It has been an unbelievable amount of work, but it was all worth it!
This update is a very large one with optimizations and overhauls all across the board from game play, graphics and UI.
Here are some of the major highlights, the more specific explanations are in the update forum link below:
- The UI and inventory systems have had major improvements done to it, including many more features and optimizations.
- The brushworking profession has had a major game play overhaul. Nearly all aspects of the profession have been adjusted and improved.
- Core game play mechanics have been adjusted to encourage more engaging and enjoyable game play.
There are so many more updates to the game, and they are all listed in the massive patch notes link below.
I would go into more detail here, but I need some rest :)
With the exhaustive playtesting of the brushworking already completed, I am halfway done with the code upgrades for the new large update (that means I am approximately 75% done overall). I am excited to show you all new improvements I am making, and have already made! However, I will wait until I am finished with everything before start talking about the very long patch list that will be coming :)
As mentioned before, this will be one of the largest possible game updates I will be doing before I consider doing a full launch of the game. The amount of game mechanics overhauls, visual upgrades, UI/Quality of Life updates are many.
Since this is the first round of playtesting, I already have a list of all the large overhauls I needed to make with the game in regards to general game play. So I am getting them all done at once. This is a very long, very exhaustive process, but in the end. I hope you will notice the difference in the game!
Exhaustive Game Play Update
The first wave of the "Exhaustive Game Play" update is underway, and is going amazing well! The amount of changes I will be making will be quite large, even though I have just begun!
As mentioned before, this is a very slow and long process, and I am personally playtesting every aspect of the game. The main goal is to improve the game play mechanics of the game to be more engaging and fun.
And that is exactly what is happening. I am refining many aspects of the game, changing some of the core mechanics that players experience, and of course I am doing many optimizations and quality of life changes to many aspects of the game!
I already have a large development list from what "little" testing as I have done. I use the word little because I have technically only just begun to test all the crafts, skills, and items in the game. However, this is also the most crucial and game-changing part as the base mechanics used now affect the entire game play.
But to wet your tongue, here are a few of the major changes that are taking place! Keep in mind, these mechanics can be, and probably will be changing drastically over the course of this development process.
Also please note: The following changes are all being tested on "realism" difficulty. The changes for "normal" difficulties will be less severe and will not be as much of a change as the current play style (or that is general plan).
Focus Usage and Regeneration Overhaul:
The main crafting statistic is getting a large overhaul. Overall starting focus will be less, and will regen more slowly. However, primitive fires are now easier to create. Also, hunger and thirst slowly degrade more which allow you to eat/drink more frequently to restore your focus. The reason for this is to encourage players to explore, gather food/water and crafting materials, then return to your "base" to perform the majority of your crafting there.
Brushworking Overhaul:
This first wave of testing focuses on the initial game play basics, and the "first" profession most players unlock first, brushworking. Currently at this stage the brushworking testing is half way complete, and already major changes are underway. I will of course post more specifics when the update is released.
New Player Starting Tutorial Guide:
The "help ticker" will be replaced with a new tutorial section that starts up for a new non-tutorial character. This will be a general guide for players who start a new character, and will simply give them suggestions on what to do as their first actions in the game. It is a simple tutorial section that will list a step-by-step action plan for a new character who has already read the tutorial, but is still new to the game.
After I have completed the brushworking testing. Then I move to the next step of implementing all of the new mechanics, code work, and graphical/UI upgrades. Which is the second half of the development for this first update. So when completed, this update will be quite large! It could quite possibly be the most important update for this final push. We shall see!
Enjoy!!!
Exhaustive Play Testing Has Already Begun!
When I finished my long list of technical upgrades for the game, it was a great relief, and the completion of a major milestone for myself and Vantage! Of course I will always be upgrading and working on the framework, code and game mechanics constantly, however I am now into the next development phase of the game, which I am calling "Exhaustive Play Testing".
What Does That Even Mean?!?
Well to make a long story short, it means I am now focusing on game play, player experience, and of course and most importantly, the "fun" factor! I will be testing the game by playing it as players would be playing it, and continue to develop the game and improve upon it starting from the player's perspective.
Instead of jumping deep into code first, I am now at a point where I play the game myself, and continue my development process from the "top down".
The "exhaustive play testing" phrase explains how I am going about this. Which is: Play the game! And test game mechanics over, and over, and over, and over........ and over again! As I do this, I get a new sense of what the player experiences, and I continue to improve the game from this perspective. For example, I will be crafting sharpened stones over and over again. And this means hundreds of times! I will get a sense of what game play mechanics need to be developed based off of this.
What Does This Mean For the Future of the Game?
I don't want people to get too excited about what I am about to say, but this is technically the last major development phase before I consider doing a full release of the game. But keep in mind, this is VERY SLOW and LONG process. I said I will be making hundreds of sharpened stones, then I must do something similar for EVERY craft in the game, and with every skill and item!
I will also be focusing on adding more content to the game as well. More crafts, skills, and items. The great thing about this phase of development is that game play and content is now the main focus again! But again, code framework and stability is of course a massive focus, and always will be.
Also, the plan is to get the final, more professional artwork into the game to replace all my "programmer art"!
Just wanted to keep you updated!
See you in the world!
Update 1.4.1 is Live! Massive Server Improvements, and No More Large Animals!
This update optimized a great deal of code and mechanics on the server side, as well as fixes several issues.
No more Large Animals!!!
The greatest news however is that the "large animal" bug is FINALLY fixed! I was finally able to track down the bug. Then it took me three whole days to find, understand, track down, and fix the issue! For those of you who have been playing the game for a long time you know this bug well :)
The problem was I was looking in the wrong direction for the problem, and I found out the problem was occurring in a completely different area of code! In fact, the bug wasn't creating "large" animals at all! In fact, it was manipulating animals, and they were actually *growing* and *shrinking* over time! The large animals were actually growing bigger and bigger! And there were other that shrunk to microscopic size!
I also made it so that any large animals that currently exist should get immediately removed.
Server Improvements Everywhere!
Aside from finally fixing that large animal bug, I actually did a massive amount of work on the server, optimizing, organizing, and doing many other things to make the code and server run more efficiently, and to create it so future update are much more quickly and efficiently done.
Of course, you read the patch notes here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/342910/discussions/0/2793873197768636681/
Enjoy!
Update 1.4.0 is Live! More Big UI Updates!
This update had many new UI Improvements, among other small nice things!
Slider Bar Overhaul
The slider bars got upgraded and greatly optimized! There were several issues with game performance when using slider bars, these have been fixed.
Also with a slight graphics upgrade, the slider bars now smoothly drag and scroll. And scrolling through large lists of items is much faster!
Key Commnads
Your remapped keys will now be permanent as of this update. Also, I added keys for item placement actions, as well as options to speed up and slow down the rotation speed.
Other Stuff
Fires now have a much larger light area, and last much longer. And some other small bug fixes you can read in the patch notes: https://steamcommunity.com/app/342910/discussions/0/2447091359071045754/
Enjoy!
Update 1.3.9 is Live! Lighting and Effects Overhaul!
This update includes many more optimizations, and I finally got to overhauling the lighting and effects systems for the game. This will allow for better, faster implementations of lighting and effects in the future, as well as immediate improvements of course!
I have finally overhauled the camp fire and torch fire objects and mechanics for managing them, as there were many issues with them. It may not look like it, but camp fires and torches are very complicated mechanics :)
I also fixed several lighting bugs. I somehow re-introduced a bug that caused the lighting of objects with fires to not work properly, so that has been fixed again! The lighting of all objects should now work correctly again. Your camp fire will actually light up the inside of your hovel again!
So whats next? Well, I keep saying this every time I release a new update, but the "Exhaustive Gameplay Testing" will hopefully begin very soon. Overhauling the lighting/effects, and fire/torch system in the game was the last major overhaul I knew that needed to be done. It was also one of the last overhauls because I knew it would be a complex one.
So after making sure all the little things are fixed for this update, I start looking forward to crafting 100 sharpened stones in a row! Then 100 sharpened wood etc... etc...
Enjoy!
Update 1.3.8 is Live! Many Improvements Everywhere!
This update has improvements on many aspects of the game. Many of them improving the UI look and functionality!
You can read about all the updates here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/342910/discussions/0/2250056952662922765/
Other highlights are a complete overhaul of the "right-click" HUD window, and fire light improvements.
