Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
World Turtles
Patch 3: QoL and UI Improvements
Good day, fellow Meeps!
Today brings some more UI improvements, and some quality of life additions.
I've made these changes/improvements since he previous update:
Added an "Auto: Balance" option to the Building UI, which will let the building always select the task with the smallest percentage experience, which allows you to have an automated balanced progression through the experiences and allow the building to upgrade as soon as possible. When all tasks' experience has run full, it falls back to the set task priorities.
Fields, Animal Camps and Shoals that have not been set are highlighted in red (on the terrain itself) in addition to the existing target icon on black background. The previous temporary warning message when deselecting a building with some unscheduled foodstuffs also remains in place.
"Game Saved as...." message does not contain full path anymore (privacy reasons).
Save/Load Menu contains a button to open the saved game path.
Border Flags display even when the terrain they're on is unexplored.
Slight tint on building floorplans makes it easier to know which hexes are occupied by buildings.
Added doodad models to some buildings to also make it easier to know which hexes are part of their floorplans.
Objective Target Icons are now created closer to the proposed area of application, rather than randomly around the Founders Hex.
The first time the game is run, the Personalize segment of the Game Options menu is loaded automatically, so that the player is aware of the available languages.
Disabled icons are not quite as dark anymore, to make them easier to distinguish.
More time between Fault Line eruptions, so there's more time to build "dam walls" to protect your realm.
When displaying the cost of buildings or tasks, values for which there aren't enough resources are printed in red.
All Tooltips now update their text every second to make sure these colored amounts reset back to white when enough resources are available, and all other functions displayed in the tooltip also update.
The temporary change in Tooltip that tells you which resource is lacking now remains for 3 seconds rather than just until the cursor is moved (which often caused the message to be missed).
Fixed a bug when loading a leader board without any current entries.
Changed the message when path-finding takes too long to not mention CPU speed (since that isn't technically the issue), but rather mention it's an unexpected path-finding issue. For reference, if none of these crop up, I can run the game at 18x speed for a long time before the CPU gets overloaded.
Added stand-in auto-translated German and Chinese phrases (as well as proper Afrikaans ones) for the few UI elements I've added. These will be updated in the next localization round.
See you soon with another update! Gideon
Patch 2: UI Improvements and a few small bugs
Good day, fellow Meeps!
I've been working on the UI functionality during the last week, and have made some good progress towards making the UI more intuitive and less clunky to get around to information / functions applicable at specific points. We've not updated the visuals /theme yet, but the upgraded Building UI panel will make it easier and more intuitive to give orders.
The Building UI panel now contains separate tabs, giving the player focused access to the information and actions specific to that building:
Tasks: As before, the player sets task priorities, order roads and upgrades the building on this tab.
Research: The research "wheel" (as currently on the Research Overview panel) is displayed here, but for this building type only, allowing the player to focus on, and change, the research of this building type in isolation.
Annexes: Displays (and links to) all currently existing Annexes commissioned by this building, and also shows how many Annex slots are still available. A list of all Annexes commissioned by this building type is also displayed and the player can order an Annex straight from this panel.
Resources: For Farms and Fishmongers, this panel displays all the workable hexes, as well as what livestock / seafood / crops are currently growing on them. The player can also schedule crops straight from this panel, and a color-coded frame around foodstuff icons now show the suitability of each crop given the climate of the specific building. When scheduling foodstuff on the map, these frames are now also present on the icons there.
I've also fixed a few minor bugs and made some small changes:
Some of the zooming on certain UI elements (especially when they appear) have been removed to make them snappier and feel less laggy.
Farming, Research and Combined Tutorial achievements did not fire.
Builder's Yard Achievements did not fire (this was a fix on the Steam backend, so they would have already started firing without the game update).
See you soon with another update! Gideon
Road Map
Patch 1 ... Fixing a few small issues
Hi all,
Thanks for the support so far! I've updated the game to fix a few small Gremlins:
I've noticed from YouTube videos that the Rain, Snow and Clouds are not switched on by default (you have to switch them on in the Game Options | Accessibility menu - people with simulation sickness could be bothered by them). This means you've been losing out on some ambience! I've corrected this that the setting will always be set to true when the game is started, and needs to be switched off if desired.
When performance is extremely low (huge Realms or possible difficult path finding), it can happen that another AutoSave gets "chained" before the first scheduled AutoSave could complete, leading to a string of AutoSaves in a row. This has now been fixed.
Some players have reported not being able to set 4K resolutions. It seems Unity does not pick up 4K as a viable resolution for their monitors. I've included a toggle in Game Options | Graphics to allow forcing 4K to try to be set, to obtain some feedback from the players with this problem. Please leave 4K untoggled if this does not affect you.
The Windows build has been updated. We'll update Linux and Mac soon...
That's it for now. Please log any bugs on our Discord server, so we have them in one place: Bug Reports Gideon
World Turtles Early Access Launch is here!
Today is the day, fellow Meeps!
I hope you’re just as excited as I am!
Let me be the first to celebrate that World Turtles’ Early Access is now live on PC! 🎉
Thank you all for your support throughout development! I’m super excited to show you everything we’ve accomplished so far, and I hope you enjoy saving the turtles as much as I do.
You can follow us on Twitter and join our Discord to interact with our amazing community! 😉
Don’t forget, you can leave us a review (which really helps a lot), share part of your journey, tell us about a bug you’ve found, or just give some feedback in our Discord.
Save the Turtles!
De Chelonian Mobile! Gideon
But ... isn't this just a The Wandering Village / Discworld clone!?
Hi all,
There are, understandably, two very frequent connotations being made between World Turtles and existing popular culture. I wanted to address those briefly here.
TL;DR We all have a very positive relationship and mutual respect for each other’s efforts and intentions! 😊
The Wandering Village I have actually become online friends with Philomena (team lead of The Wandering Village), and she's been very friendly and helpful towards a noob solo dev. The two games' designs were done completely independently - we only found out about each other later, and became friends due to it. I've been working on World Turtles since 2019, long before I heard of The Wandering Village. I've also purposefully not played or watched TWV since I didn't want it to influence me. I actually have a YouTube channel with dev logs from 2019 (and there exists some early independent YouTube coverage as well) showing my progress, I'm just a lot slower than the TWV team! Many of World Turtles' Discord members came straight from the Discord of The Wandering Village!😊
Discworld I am a huge Sir Terry Pratchett and Discworld fan. It is indeed why I chose this setting. However, the World Turtle myth has appeared in various forms via various civilizations across earth and is, in itself, not a problem. I actually contacted Rhianna Pratchett about this very early on to make sure I would not be stepping on any toes. She is completely fine with me using the setting, as long as I don’t make it “Discworld-y” by basing my characters, places and ideas directly on those of Discworld.
To add to all of this, there's also Beyond These Stars coming out fairly soon, but I also know their team lead, Sam, and the situation is similar to the other two discussed above.
See you in the game! Gideon
NB: Linux and Mac users (and anyone else)
Hi all,
While World Turtles seems to be working well on most Linux and Mac machines, there have been a few exceptions (details below). To avoid disappointment and unhappiness, please test whether the demo runs on your rig before the demo is disabled, which will happen a couple of hours before release.
There will be support channels in the community hub after launch to help sort out specific issues on a case-by-case basis, so please join us there if you run into some problems and don't mind trying a few fixes. If you have the technical experience and capacity to help out, that would also be very much appreciated. As a solo developer I, unfortunately, don't realistically have hours to spend on individual, more obscure issues, although I'd like to somehow cater for as many as possible, with the community's help.
However, if you do have an issue and this sounds like too much of a drag, I completely understand. Also, if you have bought the game without having the opportunity to test the demo, and run into any issues that cannot be resolved in the amount of time you are willing to afford it, please feel free to refund the game - no hard feelings from my side, and I hope from yours.
Known exceptions:
I've had reports of the game crashing on the Title Screen on Apple Silicon machines, even though these binaries are included in the builds. I have not been able to determine exactly why. If you have an Apple Silicon machine I would appreciate it if you could send me Player Logs (on Discord) so I can try and figure out what the issues are.
Sometimes the game runs fine, but some of the shaders look weird. This can usually be fixed by adding the correct command line parameter(s) when launching the game.
Thanks for your time, Gideon
World Turtles Early Access Date Announcement
Good day, fellow Meeps!
I bet you’re excited to hear the news!
World Turtles launches into Early Access on May 1st, 2023 on PC! 🎉
Thank you all for your support throughout development! I’m super excited to show you everything we’ve accomplished since the last demo update, and I hope you enjoy saving the World Turtles as much as I do.
Make sure to join our Discord server and follow us on our Twitter for more frequent updates and to connect with other Meeps!
De Chelonian Mobile! Gideon
QoL improvements, Challenges, Map Maker and more! - April Devlog
Good day, fellow Meeps!
Welcome to the last update before the release date announcement! Although World Turtles is “Made with Unity”, it still feels “Unreal” that we’re almost at the Early Access release point. When I started tinkering with Unity 4 years ago, I had no idea what lay ahead!
The biggest updates for the last 5 weeks are discussed below. As before, some more Quality of Life improvements have also been added.
Join our Discord server for more frequent updates and previews! De Chelonian Mobile! Gideon
Voiceovers for all Four Tutorials
There is now a Meep voice guiding you through all four of the tutorials. There’s not much more to say about that!
Localization
Localization for German, Chinese and Afrikaans (my mother tongue) has just about been completed, and the process is working quite well! More languages will be selected based on the support for World Turtles in different regions. Personally, I’d love to just add 6 more languages off the bat, but it also has to make financial sense. Fan-based localizations are not off the cards, although any such endeavors must be properly managed and executed.
Introducing: Challenges with Variability and on-line Leader Boards
You can now ply your trade against four challenges that need specific strategies to complete successfully. There are five difficulty levels to choose from. You also have the option of submitting your best score for any challenge-difficulty combination to an online leaderboard. The challenges introduce variability in the game parameters: Experience can be gained at different rates; Upgrade multipliers can alter the efficiency gained from levelling up; Goodwill can accumulate at different rates for different challenges. Tutorials and Challenges can also have different Research tech trees – the research items can be organized in any way that fits the data structures and the UI will automatically display and handle it correctly. There’s no reason why this feature cannot eventually make it into the Map Maker as well!
Helicopter Rides
In addition to Water Ways being constructed by Builders using helicopters, Meeps on Leisure tasks now also use Helicopters to fly over their homes, while Wanderers now use available helicopters to scout further, including across water.
The First Draft of a Detailed Map Maker (Tectonic Plates / Topography)
While you will not yet be able to play on these maps, you can now create your own maps by specifying Tectonic Plates (and the direction and speed with which they move) right on the map, or by applying Topographic Maps to determine land elevation. Then, you can select Climate parameters and even edit hexes individually. More options will continuously be added and eventually, you will be able to play on and share these maps.
Hello, World!
65 New Music Tracks
I’ve added 65 more of Alexander Nakarada’s wonderful tracks to keep the playlist fresh. His discography is an absolute treasure!
UI
The UI is constantly improving, although the additions this month are not as impactful as last month. However, I should be able to share some exiting news on this front soon…
Map Builder, Tectonic Plates, Demolition & More Update!
Good day, fellow Meeps!
The Early Access release of World Turtles is now thundering ahead like a starving World Turtle eyeing a juicy Space Cucumber! I may not reveal the exact release date yet, but I can say that there will be only one more update like this (after this one) before release!
The biggest updates since the release of the January demo are discussed below. The current build runs smoother with fewer little niggles and bugs than the demo, since we’ve received some good feedback and identification of issues via our Closed Beta and internal testing rounds. Quality of Life improvements have also been added and some more are planned.
Join our Discord server for more frequent updates and previews!
I have completely reworked the way the landmasses (before erosion and climate) are determined – it now uses a system based on Plate Tectonics to determine the layout of land and water. This leads to greater control over the characteristics of the created maps and much more natural looking worlds. The factors available in the revamped Map Builder each have a clear, focused impact on how the randomly generated world looks and plays. You can preview a map with a specific seed and then play on that exact map!
As an example, note how much more natural the continents and beaches (I’ve also added a more sandy look) appear when the water level drops, revealing more land next to the beach but not in the deeper seas, like before:
This also makes water a mechanic that actually influences gameplay, where water was previously very random and erratic. Finally, starting locations are a lot more dependable to be playable.
Demolition and Repairs
Buildings can now be canceled or demolished at any stage of construction, as long as they have not yet been upgraded or are special buildings that would lead to problems if demolished. Demolishing a building returns some of the resources and repairing a building now also costs resources. Repairs and Demolition are also progressive, with the building models updating a few times in the cycle. In addition, damaged buildings lose some of their functionality until they are repaired (for example Water Towers not providing water and having to be refilled from scratch).
Minimap and Meep Cam Control
The minimap can now be panned and zoomed, allowing you to focus on specific areas. The resources are also displayed more clearly now. The space minimap can also be zoomed, while the Meep Cam can now zoom and orbit around the Meep being followed.
Message Vault
All previous important messages are now saved in a Message Vault and are also available after loading a game. Note that we now also keep track of the day, not only time of day.
Space Resources
In addition to the basic resources, I have started adding Space Resources. The first two are crystals that are deposited by the Gas Pollution (Octavium) and Snow Comets crashing down (Niveum). These crystals dissolve/dissipate over time, so Meeps need to gather them before they’re gone after one of the natural disasters have deposited them on the terrain! This makes the Snow Comets and Gas Pollution more interactive, as they also bring opportunity with their damage, and the player needs to act fast to gather the resources before they disappear. There’s space for 4 more kinds of Space Resources, possibly with more than one tier each. Uses for Space Resources still have to be implemented, but I can reveal that they will have scientific and cultural / artistic uses.
Three New Shorter Tutorials
I’ve added the following three shorter tutorials, focusing on specific mechanics in more detail:
Resource tutorial, for gathering Wood and Stone and expanding borders.
Farming tutorial, for getting the most out of your Farms and Fishmongers.
Research tutorial, for understanding building-specific and realm-wide research. Some Research items now also cause Breakthroughs in other, related lines of study. These Breakthrough connections are randomized, so will play differently on different playthroughs.
These tutorials will also receive voice overs this month!
UI Additions
Among the UI additions are:
Icons that allow you to find damaged buildings and buildings that can be upgraded.
The option of switching off On-map Hints after becoming familiar with them. They will still be available in the Message Vault.
