A new major build of The Spatials: Galactology is now available! The main new feature in V3.3 is the item system. Your officers can now manufacture and wear items like pieces of armor or guns. These items have a variety of effects, like increasing the max officer health and causing more damage. And they increase in power the higher their level. A new factory, storage system and research tiers have been added to support the item system. As always other minor changes and features have also been added to the game. Check out the new galaxy visualizations for ships outside a system and for the star influence areas or the new right mouse button actions in a context menu. V3.3 is not save game compatible with v3.2 save files. But your saves are still there! If you want to keep playing them you can opt out of v3.3 by right clicking Galactology in your Steam library listing, select Properties, select Betas, then select the v3_2 branch. This will force your game installation to be v3.2 forever. When you are done make sure to go back to the default branch to keep getting updates and new features.

New fleet visualization in galaxy screen: "ship bubbles"

A major eye sore in the galaxy screen is the ship panel or toolbar, located in the lower left area. It also has UX issues, with duplicating the ship avatars and being a limit to how many ships can be in your fleet unless some complicated scrolling is introduced. But not anymore!
The new fleet display concept is "ship bubbles". In the zoomed out galaxy nothing has changed. It will still display all the ships next to their current system or en-route in a wormhole. But the zoomed in system view now displays far away ships in a circle around the planet orbits, in the same overall direction the ship is relative to the star system. This new visualization also has automatic layout code to handle ships in the same system or close to each other:
This is a practical and more usable solution to the problems posed by a static toolbar, and is flexible enough to also support NPC ships in the future. Finally, to make the screen even cleaner, a new mode that displays only the galactic bodies and ships has been added:

Civ clustering and influence areas

Civs are now distributed in clusters, and own the entire system. This radically simplifies the civ structure in the galaxy and feels a lot more natural. To support this a new visualization mode has been added to display the extents of civs domains over the star systems you've discovered:

Random patrols for robots

Robots will now have a new idle system that compels them to patrol much further than they currently do. This is still compatible with the patrol point, so you can combine both for optimal patrolling behavior.

Map interaction revamp

The big item for 3.3 is revamped map interaction and combat, plus the initial implementation of skills. Work has been started in this area with the interaction revamp. Now right click is devoted for giving direct walking orders (by popular demand, no more walk key!), and when the target area has multiple options, a neat popup menu is displayed:
It's easy to go overboard with this and start adding too many things to the context menu, so special care will be taken to only add options where it makes sense. In particular actions that have a subject-verb-object structure are prime candidates, as in the example ownership action. Combat actions will be better served by the dedicate action bar, which has been improved to display key bindings when they exist:

New item system

After devoting most of the version cycle to their design, the V3 item implementation has started. We've finally decided to go with on-map items and random loot, which exist as any other entity. Going with abstract skills felt too limiting and less interesting than V2. We will make sure the UX for equipping them is fast and smart, foregoing logistics where appropriate, so it doesn't become tedious to keep your staff gear up to date. Max has prepared a first batch of item art. We will need guns, lots of guns:
The data model for items is the first part code-wise, and it also will influence changes in the existing combat system. There's now a specific info panel for items:
There's a lot of pending work in this area and it won't be finished in v3.3, but starting this work is a very important step and a big part of the gameplay.

Work orders in context menus

Any entity capable of work can now be directly ordered to work, as long as the job giving object is not busy:
For now most work orders have been enabled as a direct context action. We will keep adding new actions if they make sense.

Logistics improvements: exclusive sources and restocking minimum

Shops and pallets can now be linked to other pallets or storage areas as their exclusive source:
For players that desire to micromanage their resource chains this allows for precise flow control to the consumer shops and for making intermediate pallets more useful. The "min stock" feature supported by pallets has been replaced by a "restock at" amount, and also enabled in shops. This means that shops and pallets won't advertise a restock task unless they match or go under the "restock at" amount. This will cut down on useless restocking jobs.

Toggle factory recipes for global production

It's now possible to disable unwanted recipes in a factory to not make them available for global production:
This enables very precise control over production, even when using global stock automation.

Storage area filters

One of the most requested features is now in game:
The filtering is additive/substractive. Instead of selecting resource categories, you are always editing the resource list. But you can use the filters to make bulk editing. For example, to only stock food and drinks, you first Exclude->All, then Include->Drinkable and again Include->Edible.

First mod translation

XANA-Umbrella has provided a French translation and it is available in the Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=767491368 This is the first user-provided translation for Galactology and we want to say thanks!

Cooldown support for actions

Actions can now export a cooldown value, visible in the toolbar:
The teleport action was the first one to test, and it's here to stay, to balance it better vs. walking orders.

Active wearable items from squad members now display an action

A first new piece of the combat update was added to the UI:
The action bar will display all the available actions for the selected entity, plus the action of the active wearable item of the squad members, as long as they are in the squad selection. This makes it possible for the player to interact directly with those actions. Which leads to...

Auto and player mode for officer active items

It's finally possible for the player to disable the attack AI and take control of an officer attack. The player can shift-click an action to toggle auto AI behavior, or change the option in the combat info panel for the officer. The UI will also automatically pick a shortcut key for the manual actions.

Healing items and healing AI

Active healing items are now possible, both targeted and untargeted. The attack AI was adapted to also be able to track friendly hurting entities and to try to heal them, with the same support for range, line of sight and chasing behavior.

Combat exclusive mode for squad

Having an active squad doesn't mean they will *only* do what the player wants. The AI is still active and may make an officer go work on a nearby task, for example. This may be fine in peaceful times, but when there's combat going on in the station, it's better to make sure your squad focuses only on fighting invaders.
This new mode will prevent any officer currently in the squad from going away to work somewhere, or to satisfy their vital needs. Remember to disable it when the danger is gone!

More item art

Max has drawn dozens of new items:
The new art is meant to represent of implants (passive items that enhance damage or healing actions) and support active items (for healing and damage shields).

Starting work on the wearable inventory for officers

Officers can now equip passive items in addition to their active item:
This is very much a work in progress and there's still no formalized stat model for them, this goes next. But the basic model work and UI is now in a good shape. Hovering the mouse over the item slots displays a full info tooltip:

More items by Max

Max has drawn the last batch of items for this version, with sets of chest, feet and hands armor:
There's now 85 items in the game.

Random and scaling loot

Loot is now always instanced, with its stats based on its level and changed randomly over the default value. Different pieces of loot have a different roll bracket. Some of them can roll very high, almost doubling the normal power for an item of its level. They also have a rarity value, which will be used later on for random drops and manufacturing.

Directly equipping items from the map

The first equip capability is the most direct one:
Just select the officer, then right click an item. The context menu will offer the option to equip it, and also give you an error message in case the officer is unable to equip the item. Like in V2, items are forever bound to the officer who equips them, and destroyed when replaced.

Equipment matrix

Having to keep your staff equipped by finding items all over your station would be a nightmare. An efficient UI is required:
The equipment matrix displays all the current equipped items by your officers on the left, and all the items in your station on the right. To equip an item just drag it from the right panel onto the left panel. You don't even need to aim for the correct slot, the game will automatically recognize it and prompt you before the item is replaced. It still needs a bit more work, to add item filtering and officer sorting by item quality.

Technical development notes

- remove the multi recipes for rations since it confuses the global queue - randomize freaking debuf a bit - bubbles around screen concept for ships in system view ships not in the zoomed system are displayed by using bubbles around the limits of the screen will need so scale down the system orbits bubbles appear in the rough direction of the ship, with an arrow code avoids bunching them up when too close this allows to remove the shelf toolbar and allows for a lot more ships while keeping the screen usable - separate civs icons from default galaxy view ("civs view") - random idle patrol system for robots like idle walk but for a random path 10 tiles away, for example as a busy system so it says "On patrol" watch for interaction with rally point - polish action interactions allow rmb for a single action (undefined results when more opt in) rmb drag still pans the map, click is assumed when the down-up distance is short identical logic to left click disable the sticky modal flag in the current actions make rmb cancel left click modals - robots must be able to be controlled by walk and teleport actions - key labels for actions - bug: it's possible to change crew assignments while the ship is not in home make checks more robust re-check after picker is done too as a last resort support disembarking straggled officers may come handy in the future for special missions - voronoi regions for galaxy map in civ mode change civ conquest model to use proximity to a point to decide the entire system civ add sanity check to at least have N systems for a civ 3 closest must have the civ. if already have civ, continue checking next closest after 3 for every civ, remaining systems use closest precalc voronoi polygon for every system GalaxyLayer::reset keeps a draw node for the polygons, discards and redraws, use color from most civ in system the filter reset must show or hide the draw node draw node must go with zoom, like other layers - enable fade and colorization for vector nodes - add darken layer for the more info heavy modes in galaxy - fix galaxy tutorial, still mentions fleet panel - scroller in galaxy for the act of loading and unloading cargo delegate for GUIListing now preserves scroll position during a change notification - missing shop component in robot recharger and consumerist shops - use new ray-grid hit testing, this new one actually works correctly - allow direct diagonal movement when there's no obstacles - change pathfinding no need to look up the current step, trust the internal index fixes to allow direct diagonals with more than 1 tile length automatic slowdown is now based on distance, not tile step remove some of the staircase pathing - support "fat" ray test by default (needed for combat revamp) - ModalPopup fix anchors and screen bounding right click should dismiss too - allow non-button actions on right click with context menu if only one action matched and is rmb-direct execute it otherwise build a context menu with all the options context menu options opt in by running its own entry validation and can keep a ref from an entity hit list highlight referenced entity for each menu option - fix: #@bar-served counter is broken - target actions work on many cancellation and stickiness issues add a busy check, allow only when workable is not busy on busy it displays scrolling text with error check work on proxies (hospital bed, bar, repair) introduce job-proxy-hint-component - lower patient prio to 20 - change pallet min amount to "restock at" amount means to not issue a restock job unless the amount is equal or lower than it and restore it for shops - support text edit keys in PC numpads - single source for pallets allow to select an entity as the source for any pallet entity allow exclusive or preferential link - fix must-have-findable-resource for pallets it wasn't properly using the sourcing preferences, even for pre-3.3 features - storage area: filter by kinds include and exclude buttons with popup for all + every category - block clicks passing thru in some overlapping UI areas - combine mind and vitals panel people are ignoring mind value and feelings, believe vital bars are the main view of officer status a reason they are so worried about aesthetics despite its influence being very minor - allow to enable or disable factory recipes in global mode keeps a separate list for this - item model: divided in blocks, shared by various systems kind tags (as current resource kinds) used to pick correct AI, action mapping and equipment slot Active Weapon, Crowd Control, Medical, Shielding Passive Armor, Implant common blocks bonus power mod block + damage + healing + absorb reqs block valid officer specs or none valid slot active-only blocks mechanics block actor pose fixed point cooldown cooldown-id power block damage healing absorb range block sight-range (allow #f for default value, override for things like snipers) attack-range near-range procs block proc-sym action-sym proc data (open structure) sprite speed sound duration color ... - registry and maker for item model metas - maker for item entities - update item info panel to support equipment items - aggressor sm and support code must be based on item model now port the test beam and projectile code too change make-aggressor and attack-model-component to carry item meta before actual equipable inventory - port melee, turret, beam to new item meta model - proc makers for each kind - add guns for all current projectile damage attacks - add per-world cooldown to teleport action - display cooldown in action bar buttons - action must respect cooldown and display error introduce AlertFlash - planet: disable all idling for officers - display active items in action toolbar for selection and squad selection add support for optionally delegated button model creation for actions it can return a listing of entire new action models to create 0 to N buttons - hook cooldown for actions - hook attack order for actions - flag in aggressor-component for auto mode for active items procs for control add shift-button callback for toolbar toggling - display AUTO for auto actions instead of keybiding - consider target-less actions for manual control add model in item meta button model proc must disable modal cursor - adapt "attack" sm for defensive skills (heal and shielding) healer mode introduces minimal branching pick the right entity aspect for matching targets make sure only hurting targets are picked proto a targetless heal - enable keybindings for multibutton declare a set of fixed action bindings use them on demand and in the same order of the action buttons - fix: auto flag is ignored - exclusive combat mode a toggle button, next to "All", with a binding makes all squad entities ignore all busy tasks under aggressor-sm priority natural with a busy system, but when aggressor-sm takes over it could leave a window open add phase 0 system to force a busy status - item inventory model at entity level display slots in combat info use rich tooltip for item info wearing-component for passive slots - item inventory model for officer model centralize equip procs to keep in sync 'item-active 'items-wearing - keep stat sum in wearing-component, including the active attack model - passive items must be able to raise health max value stat sum for health is applied on every item change, hp kept proportional - attacks must check the wearing-component bonus stat and change their power - vis for wearing-component stats - scaling item models procs for base values based on power law item-scale proc: given a level 1 item, scale all relevant values for the desired level item-meta-scaling rarity: for drops min-scale, max-cale: to roll a random factor after level scale has been applied - internal attack model for NPCs use a maker proc to apply a level scale to them also scale base-health update make-npc - simple test npc scaling for test invasions use number of opened planets as max value disable for now! - add npc scaling to match planet level - add some npc healers to test invasion fixed 1 healer, no more - temp balance make level progression curve much softer make station obj hp in the middle of it - declare a new item model for every item gfx, different names, using helpers, varying item-meta-scaling make some items clearly better in their scaling, but rarer - formalize slot model each slot has a kind ID and a locked flag pass data in make-can-wear-items proc for enabling slots depending on tier spec - item equipping on map right click action for equipping if item exists for the slot, prompt about replacing implants replace lowest level - formalize slot limits by spec tier - idea: equip matrix like job matrix, but the cells are the equip slots for each officers at the right of the matrix a station inventory of all items is displayed user can drag and drop to equip items all items have rich tooltip - equip matrix: save scroll pos for items - equip matrix: item filter by slot by power remodel the comps to allow this - equip matrix: item sorting - equip matrix: better align of item list - AlertFlash must have higher Z - RoomSpec make tilemapImage and tilemapColorLayerImage aliases - disable squad edit on planet - item storage storage pallet in station keep items inside as entities auto organizes as a 3x3 grid, so max 9 items per pallet make sure the limit is respected - allow tile recolor by rebuilding on top of it with same floor - item production in station: item forge one recipe for each slot times one recipe for each 5 levels bracket this makes it natural to increase both required skill and required materials item produced is random among available items in the slot, using the rarity value item level is random within the bracket - add flag to disable drops for some items - fix: rolls look bad add more mudflation - fix: too many recipes will cut the info panel in item forge use popup menu for recipe selection - fix tutorial for recipe menu - at game start only spawn 2 default officers with healing item - test level progression on invaders based on tech level for producing items - item disposal can set a min level in recycler, it will send out tasks to deliver and recycle all items at or lower than this needs special handling in the item finder for the recycler - new art for recipe gfx and pallet - goals and counters related to items production - goals and counters related to items equip on officer - equip matrix: sort officers by slot power - empty slot labels are wrong - fix vitals tutorial, no more mind tab - fix mentions to walk button in tutorials - bump save version number - gastrodisaster is interrupting too much officers with healing item remove periodic -delta - fix: interrupted job-transport-sm workers do not drop their held item - set vsync to off by default - fix: missing frame in item forge anim - test: enable right mouse button scroll - fix: autopilot can cause silent failure when replacing items in equip matrix - make xp gain faster (or lower xp tiers) for professions in general

[ 2016-10-14 12:14:55 CET ] [ Original post ]