The July update v0.6 is here! This update is about storage areas. Not silos, but rather what happens when your silos are full. In previous versions you could click on a slot in the inventory, and then on the ground, and a blueprint would appear for a stack of resources. Your colonists would then take items from a resource processor, and build the stack. This makes the resources unusable as they don't count towards your inventory totals and aren't picked up by factories, but you could later reverse the process when you needed to use the resources. This was a bit clunky - it often took new players a while to even realise that this was a thing that you could do, and it wasn't all that powerful as a resource management tool. In this version, you'll find six different "stacking areas" on the storage page of the build menu. They're actually all the same thing, if you create a metal stacking area then decide to store ore, you can change it. A stacking area is just a tile that is configured to store coal, ore, organics, stone, metal or compost. It costs nothing and can be any empty tile. It comes with a few different configuration options which you can experiment with in the game. I'm hoping that players will find this useful - I know when I was playing I ended up building a lot less silos, as I just set the target inventory level for each resource to 10 or 20, and the colonists would work to maintain this level. One thing I did find when developing this is that the AI decision process was much harder to get right than I expected. You can have many stacking areas configured with different settings, priorities, and resource types. A colonist needs to take into account which stack is closest, whether another colonist is already on their way, and a few other factors. As a result I ended up rewriting a big chunk of the AI code twice, then again to optimise it to keep the CPU usage down. I've spent several hours testing it and I think it's mostly working pretty well now, but do let me know if you have any problems.
I've also been working on improving the wildlife, and some other stuff. Here is the full list of changes: Changes - Added stacking areas, as described above. - The AI for colonists to carry resources has been completely rewritten. - Clicking on resource inventory slots at the top of the screen no-longer has any effect - use the new stacking areas for putting resources on the ground. - Total item counts on inventory tooltips now factor in items that are stuck in factory outputs when storage is full. - Activity description on colonist panel now has a bit more detail for some activities - e.g. "carrying ore to stacking area" rather than just "collecting resources". - Updated the graphics and AI for the red bugs - I made these more than two years ago and hadn't updated since. - Red bugs no-longer have male/female versions, I didn't really feel that this was adding much. - Added blue bugs. These are much smaller than the red ones, and normally found in or near wet areas. - Added a new type of bird which can sometimes be seen in small flocks flying from East to West, following the sun. - It's now possible to build foundations and conduit nodes in tiles that have a resource stack. - Made stacked compost darker, so it contrasts more with the ground and hopefully looks a little less completely unlike compost. - Added various optimisations to slightly reduce the CPU usage of some routines. Fixes - Birds stopped moving at night - not the intention! - When scrolling using RMB, mouse cursor now returns to normal immediately when button is released. - Algae pool UI was showing "not enough water" when the real reason for not starting was that it was too cold. - The "storage enabled" tickbox on the groundwater and shore pump UI could have incorrect status. - Groundwater pump UI was flickering when production was above 100% (in wet area) - Lighting was not getting updated on tortoises when they were asleep - quite noticeable in early morning. - Fixed a graphics glitch when deconstructing some pin-lodax plants. - Colonists will now make a bit less effort to avoid walking through each other, as this was causing them to get stuck sometimes. - Fixed a case where two colonists got stuck waiting for each other if they were both going to the same tile but for different reasons. - Made a small adjustment to walking AI to help colonists escape if they get stuck in a corner. - Game was speeding up for a few seconds after reloading. This was caused by a routine that tries to compensate for low framerates. - A roof can now be built over the lander - this was unintentionally disabled. - Now possible to build foundations and conduit nodes in tiles that have a resource stack - this was also unintentionally disabled.