Zun has worked pretty much non-stop since the previous Friday Blog, because he was having quite a lot of fun fixing some networking problems. In the past, connecting to other servers relied on a Steam Networking API. Zun rewrote it in such a way that we're not reliant on Steam anymore for networking. This has the following benefits:

• LAN support.
• Connecting to a server goes quicker
• A Steam non-public server is truly non-public now
• Network packets are now compressed and bundled, resulting in 10-30% less network traffic
• Useful preparation for improved co-op features
• Solved the biggest problem in porting Colony Survival to non-Steam platforms like GOG, Xbox and Playstation

I'm sure most of you had preferred to see progress on actual features instead of technical behind-the-scenes stuff, but it's pretty important to do this now. It needs to be tested thoroughly, so it should be finished before we start the beta. And because it breaks compatibility with older servers, we want to include in 0.7.0. Updates that break older saves and servers ought to be rare.

Mods

Luckily, modders are coming up with brilliant content. The update that we're currently working on, 0.7.0, has significantly improved mod support. Modders are already using these new tools to develop great additions. Pandaros, who started the Settlers Mod, has made good progress on two interesting features. The first new feature is a 'blueprint builder'. It allows you to choose a blueprint of a specific building and let your colonists build it. Because of a small error, my colonists built their first cathedral sideways, but it's still great to look at! Click here and here to see the cathedral while it's being built.
The second new feature developed by Pandaros is the Colony Management Menu. Lots of players have asked for a menu where they could see how many colonists worked a certain job, and the ability to recruit colonists to or fire them from specific jobs. 0.7.0 gives modders the ability to develop their own menus, and Pandaros developed exactly what was demanded before we got to it ourselves.
Fullscreen For those who fear that we're going to rely on modders to add content and finish the game: that's not going to happen. We're still committed to making the base game as good as we can, and that does include blueprint builders and better menus to manage your colony. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that I initially expected programming to be like magic, but that that turned out to be wrong. Well, I was wrong about being wrong. When you write code, followed by objects moving in 3D according to that code, it does feel like magic. And quaternion does sound like a magic spell! I made my first little game this week and I'm very excited about it. You can watch some gameplay here.

Transport

We've currently got automagical crates. Put something in a crate and it will magically appear in the stockpile which can be accessed by any other crate. This means you don't have to worry about transport while building your colony. It doesn't matter how you create your production chain, as long as all jobs have crates nearby. You could mine ores underground, smelt them in furnaces in a high tower moments later, retrieve the metals seconds later in an underground blacksmith and instantly send the new arrows towards your guards. This does help to keep the game fun and understandable. But it also dumbs down mechanics that could potentially be very interesting. If you actually have to transport items from one place to another, the layout of your colony suddenly has a lot of impact on your production. It could also make features like small trains that bring items for one place to another relevant. Imagine a train bringing ores from an underground mine to a factory, and transporting metals from the first factory to a different one. I believe this could potentially be a great feature. At first we were planning to do make the crates more realistic, but we ended these plans when we got feedback that the game was too complicated. We've tried to streamline the early gameplay, and these complaints have pretty much stopped. Now we're pondering about it again. A big update after 0.7.0 could potentially focus on it. So we'd love to have your opinion! What do you prefer? Easy, automagical crates, or more realistic transport demands that allow features like trains for cargo transport to be relevant? Bedankt voor het lezen :) Reddit // Twitter // YouTube // Website // Discord

[ 2018-11-30 17:01:32 CET ] [ Original post ]