Since releasing 0.5.2 last Friday, we've got a number of reports of small issues. Today, we'll release 0.5.3, which fixes issues like the stack size of stairs and adds a couple of small optimizations and updated translations. Thank you translators!
Next week, we're going to start working on 0.6.0 which will include the 'digger' feature. We've been thinking of how this feature should work. There already is an in-game 'savetool'. We used this tool to save the 'blueprints' of the trees that currently spawn in the world. You can see how it works in the screenshot below.
There's a group of trees in the middle, and I've selected them by clicking two blocks on opposite sides of the trees. The purple selection updates dynamically by hovering the cursor over blocks.
The final digger tool will not turn blocks solid purple, but give them a transparent colored overlay instead, like the banner tool currently does. That's step 1.
When you're happy with the area you've selected, you'll have to place 'job spots' similar to how you currently place miners or guards. These digger job spots can be placed on all the blocks that border the selected area.
Unemployed colonists will move to the job spots and start removing blocks from the selected area. They will move to crates regularly to deposit the blocks they've collected. When they're done and the entire area is removed, their job spots automatically disappear and they move back to the banner, like all other unemployed colonists.
In this approach, diggers will work pretty similar to most other jobs, which hopefully is the least confusing strategy!
Two weeks ago, we suggested a feature that could fix 'the bed problem'. We received a lot of enthusiastic replies and nearly all of you wanted to see the feature added. We'll work on diggers (and probably builders for 0.6.1 ) first, but there is a very big chance that job-specific beds will be added in 0.6.* or 0.7.*!
Another very common suggestion is melee guards. We've thought about this idea, but it results in a number of problems:
Balance. A guard that doesn't consume ammo seems very overpowered. Unless the guard would get in some kind of boxing match with the monsters which results in the guard getting hurt as well. But if the guard gets killed after fighting a couple of monsters, what's the purpose?
Animations. Because of the way we've made the game, it's hard to add items and animations to the colonists without overhauling them entirely. A melee guard pretty much necessitates that the guard wields a weapon and actually hits monsters with it. Working on that will cost a lot of time that could be spend on other features.
Feature creep. People have suggested adding medics and/or armor to make guards more balanced. What happens when a guard is put in the middle of a maze? It would look really weird if monsters walked straight through him, so we'd have to develop a new feature where monsters queue up when a guard blocks their path. Others think it's best if you could set an area where the melee guard freely roams, searching for monsters to slay. All of these changes require us to develop new systems, which takes time.
New gameplay? What will melee guards actually change for players? If they're balanced, they aren't significantly more effective than the current guard types, so it won't change a lot. If they're very powerful and can kill many monsters single-handedly without consuming resources for missiles, they totally break the balance of the game...
Our current conclusion is that adding balanced melee guards that look decent while doing their job will require lots of effort that just isn't worth it. For obvious reasons, we're not going to add glitchy unbalanced melee guards ;)
Another suggestion/complaint we hear regularly is 'idle wheat farmers'. Many wheat farmers spend one day planting seeds and harvesting wheat, and another day just waiting for the wheat to grow. We're regularly asked to 'fix this', by for example letting wheat farmers work other jobs if they're not planting/harvesting. We totally understand why people want this, but we run into multiple problems if we would try to fix this:
Other jobs would be performed inconsistently: you'd have part-time miners/guards/blacksmiths etcetera. Your farmers would just randomly choose a different occupation, which is going to be very confusing.
Wheat farming is already a more efficient source of food than berry gathering, but this would make it even more overpowered. Which means we'd have to adjust the balance again... which would make the entire change pointless.
The best fix would be to make growing wheat require some attention by the colonist. He could remove and prevent weeds, water the plants, etcetera. But that update would be nearly 100% visual in nature without any significant change in gameplay, so it doesn't have a high priority for us.
We read, consider and appreciate all suggestions, but we wanted to let you know why we're currently not working on some of those common suggestions :)
Miscellaneous info
- Berry bushes do not need to grow before the berries are ripe. The limit for the effectiveness of the berry gatherer is limited by the time he needs to gather one berry, the low food value of one berry, and the time he needs to travel to and from crates. The amount of berry bushes in one 'berry field' is irrelevant. Creating larger 'berry fields' than the bare minimum is not necessary. For wheat/flax/herb farmers, the biggest field possible is the best option.
- When scientists consume science bags, there's a 90% chance an empty linen bag is added to the stockpile. When musketeers consume gunpowder pouches, there's also a 90% chance an empty linen pouch is returned to the stockpile.
- A forester plants 9 saplings in a 9x9 field. He also plants 9 saplings in a 10x10 field. He can plant 11 saplings in a 3x33 field.
- Our recent review rating exceeded 85% positive for the first time ever last week! :D
Bedankt voor het lezen!
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