Beta 55 of Clockwork Empires, "ONWARD! FOR QUEEN AND EMPIRE", is now available on Steam. Major player-facing additions this month:

• implemented an Office Supply system to replace the upkeep system
• added biome unlocking
• redid guns & ammo (pew pew)
• added madness and enraged states
• and made enormous improvements to UI all over the place

Begin the full Beta 55 changelog! UI

text input boxes now have a caret

keybinding widget now works in Configuration screen

added Serpent Bell icon

UI for all offices has been given a polish

UI for all offices now has various alerts for reasons why work cannot be performed due to lack of overseer/modules/supplies

mine UI now displays more information

added visual cue to indicate that a module must be affixed to a wall

all recipes should now grey out correctly depending on your materials

all modules in the game now have sort IDs and will display in the Modules Menu in a much more logical order

added/improved tooltips on a large number of constructions and buildings

renamed some office UI to try and make it a bit more clear

added more info to character panel tooltips

fixed order strings so they now also work on the filter buttons on the module placer UI

added randomized start backgrounds

added command tooltip details

did polish changes to where tooltips show up

made improvement to tutorial controls image

did major update to all tutorial text

redid a number of building tutorial images

wrote all Colonial Handbook help files

removed a mysterious sound that played when nothing happened

workshop button now turns red when commodities are unavailable for a production that is set for a job

area designation stamps now highlight what objects can be selected

“Designate Building” dialog now attaches to blueprint for confirmation once it is drawn out

lack of booze for Public House will generate alerts

Fishperson-related alerts should have sounds more consistently now

added product listing to mine tooltip

failure states for workshop jobs now show properly

added parent container code for office UI buttons

Quality of Life is now a first class element in the character info panel

Combat tooltips pared down significantly

building quality display improved

can now add widgets to the front of a container’s stack

scrollbar track clicks are now more useful (sorry track clickers, i never do it, didn’t realize what a sorry state that was in)

improved nametag code, incorporated alert icons into nametags

made interactive objects like rocks and trees have tooltips that are anchored and show up instantly rather than being on the cursor and having a delay. Some new players weren’t seeing them at all, so this should improve their visibility.

all instances of “work crew” have been changed to “overseer” to make difference between LC/MC chars clearer

you will now be alerted if you build a building with no door

FIXED: static buttons for work crews

FIXED: finally fixed our scrollable vert boxes so they don’t do weird things with scrolling too far and their padding isn’t horrible. Finally. After i think 2 years of this bug.

FIXED: edge cases for the building confirmation window

FIXED: offset so that modules menu isn’t below the screen

FIXED: progress bars with “0” percent in them still showed some percent

FIXED: lock up in character screen when character had maxed out skill tree or zero skill

FIXED: bug where unassigning an overseer wouldn’t immediately update the window.

FIXED: Tutorial FYI text boxes can now expand properly.

FIXED: tooltips being basically everywhere.

FIXED: image buttons not pushing their size appropriately

FIXED: gameSimRequireGameObject not working correctly for requirements; various other graying behaviours not working correctly

FIXED: a bunch of bad button typecasting

FIXED: a number of bugs in production menu grey-outs

FIXED: loading bay door claiming to add -1 quality in tooltip

FIXED: scrollbars not sizing correctly on OS X

FIXED: a number of buildings that displayed the wrong cost in the buildings menu have been fixed

FIXED: long-standing issue with wrapped text

FIXED: janky scrollbar movement while the game is unpaused

FIXED: wacky QoL tooltip offset

FIXED: workplace limit display not being reset properly on save/load

FIXED: crash in stamp area designation mode when an interactive object in the area is deleted (such as, say, setting fire to a mushroom)

FIXED: discrepancy of carpentry icon in command button vs. module category Economy/Offices/Workshops

• upkeep removed as-such; it’s being replaced with Office Supplies!
• Naturalist’s Office now uses ammo for hunting, paper for surveying (scouting is free)
• Foreign Office now requires paper to do bureaucracy
• Foreign Office workers will prioritize use of modules that increase their work speed ie. Bureaucrat’s Desk
• Barbershop now requires Medical Supplies to do healing; if Sulphur Tonic is available, it will be used to make healing more effective and more pleasant
• Chapel now requires Iron Cogs as votive material to perform religious services
• Academy now requires paper to do training; if ink is supplied, it will double speed of training
• Mine now requires trusses to operate
• Laboratory now requires Science Materials to perform research
• added a number of new commodities and workshop recipes to support the new office overhaul
• added sugarloaf to traders
• added additional safety aborts to consume supply calls in fsms
• made artifacts tradeable
• added small vs. large stockpiles
• added a new mining tech
• clarified bric-a-brac display names
• “Workbench” is now “Assembly Workbench” and is used only to make modules, except in the kitchen
• added new module: Decor Workbench. Makes all relevant decor items for that workshop
• removed module recipes from ceramics/carpentry workbench
• removed decor recipes from all modules that aren’t Decor Workbench
• Mine now caps depth if you don’t have modules required to dig deeper
• removed basic brew, added back individual brewing recipes
• added Workplace system
• sulphur made more easily mined
• naturalist now requires musket locker to hunt
• “Explore” command now works (from Naturalist ui)
• Naturalist’s Office can now do targeted “Survey” and “Hunt” commands
• product of fishpeople butchering humans no longer (always) auto-claimed by player
• balance: Chemical Works has been moved earlier in the game progression (for ammo)
• balance: changed cost tiers of a vew buildings to streamline the early game
• balance: lowered quality bonus from rugs since they don’t block walkspace and are therefore superior to normal decor
• FIXED: incorrect Ceramics Workshop tech modifier display
• FIXED: you may now place the Lower Class Rug
• FIXED: foreign office error
• FIXED: trade bool on dormant spore
• FIXED: Boxed Macroscope constuction
• FIXED: increased range of Naturalist survey for minerals job so they wouldn’t get stuck in the middle of the map doing nothing
• FIXED: scientists will now only use equipment inside their own laboratory
• FIXED: added check so traders won’t leave and never come back, forever
• FIXED: Pub did not stock booze until ordered to
• FIXED: sometimes modules would suddenly stop working until demolished and rebuilt
• FIXED: Larch farms would grow orange cubes
• FIXED: various cost/quality display on various modules
• FIXED: Bureaucrat’s desks properly count as desks in the foreign office UI

Characters

• removed skill effects on tree chopping/foraging
• added better feedback to early safety Quality of Life rating
• made reactions to horrors more expressive
• foreign civilians will properly flee from horrors
• added “Cry over Body” job
• made Occult Inspectors slightly more expressive
• hunger emote now more expressive
• balance: QoL effects adjusted to have more effect but not be completely extreme
• balance: Immigration now takes longer between waves the later you are in the game (max immigrants increases as well, however)
• balance: Chapel effects now emphasize lowering despair
• balance: Pub effects now emphasize lowering anger
• FIXED: attempt_emote.fsm
• FIXED: scripterror in building name change
• FIXED: some food was tagged as both overseer and labourer-preferred
• FIXED: added check for scripterror when bandit group self-deletes

Jobs/Assignment

• construction assignments will now always be prioritized over other work assignments
• rewrote all flatten terrain code. flatten terrain jobs are now not listed in a giant bulky mess at the start of the assignment, but are assigned first-come-first-serve. this fixes lurching performance issues when a user has a lot of flatten terrain jobs selected, as well as… works…
• moved flatten terrain to assignment beacon, so it can be cancelled etc.
• Flatten terrain target height now displays in tooltip
• added a safety check for if you removed a worker from the academy while they were working
• removing forageables can be done via left-click, per object
• FIXED: assignment beacon drop zones now only show those beacons visible for the current selection mode
• FIXED: assignment beacons now correctly encompass all objects inside (Although it is a little conservative)

Biomes

• added new ore distribution – varies based on climatic zone
• added locking and unlocking of embark locations by biome type
• removed the Alone loadout
• added details for unlocking biomes
• balance: added more high ground in temperate swamp biome
• balance: added more guaranteed starting surface clay/stone

Military/Combat

• Barracks now displays weapon stats & otherwise has a useful UI
• Barracks now used to supply ammunition to soldiers; different weapons use different types of ammo. If ammo runs out, soldiers will default to using pistol
• weapon power/damage/range rebalanced
• military may now do “cull troublesome animal”
• Steam Knights made more reactive to threats
• gave better icons to most military techs
• updated/improved costs of all gun lockers (can now build “Improvised Muskets” in Carpentry Workshop, can build “Ceramic Tripistols” in Ceramics Workshop)
• “Rally” command now works (from Barracks ui)
• balance: fishpeople made weaker
• balance: bandits given worse weapons
• FIXED: obeliskian_melee error
• FIXED: military culling of bad animals
• FIXED: civilians will now only consider melee/ranged attacks if they are not within some distance (X) of a military character

Events

• balance: increased starting food amounts
• a huge number of events now trigger sounds on firing
• made significant improvements to Meteor Shower event arc
• fix to Event Arc-related science jobs
• fix to Event Arc-related selenian AI
• added airdropcrate pos test
• minor cosmetic improvement to Artist event arc
• added more cult stuff
• improved more cult stuff
• added additional safety checks to Rogue Stahlmarkian start
• supplies requested via the foreign office will now take a bit of time to arrive
• balance: changed arc point build + some arc mindays + costs
• FIXED: added safety check for scripterror in fishperson cult arc
• FIXED: added safety check for scripterror in rogue stahlmarkian
• FIXED: Mysterious Ore drop position
• FIXED: issue in tutorial that prevented it from progressing
• FIXED: player didn’t get ownership of bar of gold gift
• FIXED: incorrect action text on bandit spawn FYI alert
• FIXED: incorrect Novorusian text
• FIXED: bug where minimum number of immigrants could be 0
• FIXED: crashed airship event weirdness
• FIXED: dead cultists will no longer offer assassination services

Engine/Renderer

• crash DMP reporter now correctly reports crashes when triggering MSVC internal error or SIGABRT
• rewrote assignment beacon rendering code to fix floating outline ugliness
• added terrain decal scene graph to render assignment beacons and other “zone-like constructions” after terrain but before objects
• FIXED: crash deleting a stockpile
• FIXED: crash deleting a house
• FIXED: crash deleting a workshop
• FIXED: in the event that the game didn’t crash while deleting a thing, it would appear with a graphical artifact glitch
• FIXED: on rare maps, all characters and everything in the world will suddenly start sliding into the lower left corner of the screen
• FIXED: disappearing modules
• FIXED: crash deleting farm and building new farm
• FIXED: misc other crashes
• FIXED: crash deleting modules (again)

As always, the full development report is available on http://www.clockworkempires.com - feel free to give us feedback on our forums at http://www.gaslampgames.com/ or here on Steam. No Time for Love, Dr. Jones, -- Gaslamp Games

[ 2016-09-30 21:12:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Take on the role of a Junior Bureaucrat (Colonial Grade), sent forth to seek fame, promotions, and natural resources to feed the ravenous maw of Imperial Industry & Commerce. Build a prosperous colony, fill it with magnificent factories worked by oppressed labourers, and harness the awesome power of steam through fearsome machines invented by determined men and women of Science! History is yours to seize for fame and fortune, for Science, and for the Queen and the glory of the Clockwork Empires!

Features

• Colonists are simulated with individual personalities, memories, and will be happy or miserable depending on your management.
  
• Free-form building: Design your own floorplans & arrange machines, furniture, and decorations as you see fit. (Or stuff everyone into bunkhouses.)
  
• Mine ore, chop trees, farm cabbage, brew beer, tin weird caviar and try to keep your people from eating one another!
  
• Weird horrible things: Menacing Fishpeople, cults, cannibalism, and more await your colonists.