Cloudville / Wolkenhausen by JoeMan

This month, we've been working on implementing the plans described in the previous Friday Blogs. We've now got an internal dev-build with a system for consumable tools, used by jobs.

Colony Survival 0.9.0 is going to be bigger and deeper than ever before. It will change how you were used to playing the game. There will be new systems that will hopefully be interesting and engaging for many dozens of hours of playtime. But how are we going to introduce all these changes and new mechanics, in a way that is both clear and exciting, for new players and long time fans alike?

We tried to accomplish this by refactoring the tech tree and by changing which items are fundamental and how they are produced. But while trying to do that, we noticed that we couldnt accomplish it in a way that felt successful. With successful meaning that it will smoothly lead players towards the midgame and further. Weve often seen examples of players getting stuck in the early game, and we want to prevent that as much as possible. Without dumbing the game down, of course :)

So weve made a decision. 0.9.0 will include The Mission System. That means there will be a set of Missions that encourage you to, and reward you for, accomplishing certain goals. These goals will vary from setting up a self-sustaining colony, advancing to the bronze/iron age, reaching a 1000 colonists and other important stepping stones / milestones.

Experienced players can ignore the Missions if they want to. They shouldnt interfere with your plans, you wont be forced to repeat the same boring, artificial procedures every time. But theyll give new players some direction, and instructions on how to accomplish the most important steps. We really believe this will make the game a lot more accessible and fun.



While discussing the details of the Mission System, we ran into a new problem. Should Missions auto-complete when requirements are met? Or should players have to press Complete themselves, like Science currently requires? Whatever we choose, its important to notify players when requirements are met. Currently, weve got a system that feeds one-line warning messages to the chatbox, but thats not very sophisticated.

For loads of purposes, it would be useful to have a better Message System. Better, more detailed messages that are more easily seen and retrieved. Messages about Missions and Sciences that are ready to complete. Messages about harmed and killed colonists, messages about food and ammo running out, perhaps even Daily Reports. With bigger and more complex colonies, getting proper feedback of its functioning is crucial.

So, weve decided to implement a seriously improved Message System into 0.9.0 as well. Zun has been making good progress there! Lots of it doesnt have a nice UI yet, but well show more in future Friday Blogs.

Bedankt voor het lezen :D

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