This week, we've implemented and changed some things that should be visible a lot of the time! Firstly, we changed one of our main fonts. It was kinda runic, and we thought it fit the medieval / Viking aesthetic pretty well. But it only had capital letters, so a lot of things in the UI were WRITTEN LIKE THIS. We experiment with a couple of different fonts that support both regular and capital letters, and we found one we were pretty fond of. It lacks the runic inspiration, but we really like how it changes the UI. Its more legible, and calmer - not like someone is screaming at you. Heres an example of the main menu with both the old font (on top) and the new font (below):
In the above example, it's just a simple font change. But in the next example, you can see how it combines with the other UI changes. We believe its a major step in the right direction, and that its both aesthetically and functionally superior. But we still love to hear your feedback!
And while were comparing old and new UIs, heres a final example. Apart from a complete revamp of the style, it also clarifies the old system by dividing it up into infinite and limited trades.
Theres another minor feature thats visible a majority of the time: the crosshair. We have never given it much thought, but are trying to improve it now. Were planning to turn it into a dynamic crosshair, one that changes slightly to fit different situations. For example, here are four states that could be reflected in the crosshair:

• Youre aiming at the air/distant blocks that cant be touched from your current position
• Youre aiming at a close block that will be removed if you click
• Youre aiming at a job block and right-clicking will open a new menu
• Youre aiming at the banner and right-clicking will open the linked menu

Its a subtle improvement, but it should make the game both more intuitive and feel more professional :) The major changes of 0.7.4 are finished now. Were stitching it up again. Zuns testing the game on Mac & Linux, and the updated eye adaptation seems to be wonky on Linux right now. Hes also got to check mods, and the way the game handles outdated ones. Were expecting this to take roughly two weeks, and hopefully the update will be released then!

Politics on Discord

Since shortly after the release of the game, weve hosted a Discord server, and we feel like it has been tremendously helpful. It has led to a lot of insightful discussions about the game and weve received hundreds of bug reports there. Some people have stuck around for years, even when they werent playing Colony Survival very actively anymore, and weve got to know them a bit more personally. Thats why weve also got off-topic channels, to discuss topics that arent directly related to the game (although anything could potentially lead to new features!). 2020 has been an intense year, with a deadly virus, deadly police brutality and deadly riots. This has led to some heated debates, which have caused more frequent discussions about our moderation policies. How best to deal with this? Weve discussed multiple solutions. A.) Ban Politics Its a relatively common suggestion. Politics can be quite inflammatory, and apparently, many other Discord servers forbid the discussion of it. But to us, this seems quite impractical. Take for example COVID-19 and climate change. These are subjects that have been politicized. Sharing any facts related to these topics could be construed as being in favor of or opposed to certain policies. This means wed have to ban any discussion of these topics. And the full list of topics that would have to be banned would be endless, because nearly any topic is tangentially related to politics. B.) Ban a list of Controversial Subjects So it seems its not practical to ban all political subjects. But not all political subjects are highly controversial! So we could ban only the controversial ones. But making that list of controversial subjects would be extremely subjective. Were Dutch, and whats controversial here isnt controversial in the USA, and vice versa. Every nation, every group, every individual has a list of subjects they consider to be controversial. Even relatively simple things like facemasks have become controversial! So The List of Banned Controversial Subjects would be very controversial and subjective itself, and will dissatisfy a lot of people. C.) Ban Partisanship Over the years, weve seen and moderated a lot of discussions. Weve seen debates about tricky, complicated subjects go very well. Weve seen debates about very benign topics go completely wrong and turn hostile. Of course, stay respectful of the people youre debating with is the foremost rule that prevents discussions from turning sour. But weve noticed something else that strongly correlates with debates going wrong. If we had to explain that thing in one word it would be partisanship. Especially in the US, many topics are tied to political parties, and each party is connected to a long range of judgements. Youd like to see more affordable healthcare? You must be a Democrat, and thus youre an evil commie who will lead the country to totalitarianism and collapse. Youre critical of unlimited immigration? You must be a Republican, and thus youre a fascist nazi who wants to physically abuse all minorities. Perhaps the other person actually does support that party, and perhaps giving that party power will indeed lead to bad outcomes. But weve now seen both sides vilify the other side plenty of times while skipping over actual, practical topics. That vilification itself, that refusal to talk about the details of complicated topics, seems to be the main problem leading towards bad outcomes. Words often dont mean what they mean at face value. We say things not merely to communicate the spoken facts, but to signal allegiance to X or opposition to Y. We say things, not because they are true, but to make friends - and enemies! And thats how we tend to interpret things as well. When somebody is critical, were quick to assume they dislike us. So this partisanship and tribalism comes to us humans very naturally. But that doesnt mean weve got to give in to these feelings, or avoid triggering them in all circumstances. We think the best approach to moderating our off-topic channels is to encourage some maturity, not to ban specific subjects. When youre discussing sensitive topics and run in some opposition, dont talk or read in the way mentioned in the paragraph above. Stick to the facts. When somebody advocates violence or extremely disturbed things, ping us, moderators and admins. But for other topics: dont read too much into it. Dont assume whats not stated. Dont widen the discussion to how you think their side is always wrong and immoral. Debate the specifics of the issue itself. When the guidelines above are followed by both sides, debates tend to stay relatively objective and respectful, and both active participants and passive readers learn something. But when these principles are ignored, things tend to escalate quickly towards a completely unproductive, unfun, hostile situation. In the last few weeks, weve tried to nip partisanship in the bud, whenever it occurs, from all sides of the political spectrum. This has displeased people both on the left nd on the right, so we feel like were acting pretty reasonably. We hope we can foster a culture of rationally and respectfully debating the facts on the ground", instead of hosting an ideological WW1-battlefield. This is a very complex topic, and political depolarization isnt something we as a culture seem to have figured out yet, so all of your feedback is welcome! Here are three useful articles that weve based our policies on: Reporting the Results of the Reality Die and the Tragedy of the Green Rationalists You need more Buckets Feel free to skip towards Part 2: Simulacrum Bedankt voor het lezen :D Reddit // Twitter // YouTube // Website // Discord

[ 2020-07-24 13:11:02 CET ] [ Original post ]