Hello again everyone!

This release is mainly focused on bug fixes. I know the 1.0.0 release was way more buggy than it should have been, but the game will continue to improve in the future. Thank you to everyone who submitted bug reports for the 1.0.0 release.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

- Fixed issue where players could not mine titanite
- Hotbar is now saved in between saving and loading
- Fixed issue with destroying transport tube when your inventory is full
- Buildings will now request from cache chests first if they can, starting with the logistically closest chest
- Orbit Launcher/Orbit Lander requests now work
- Keyboard rebindings now working
- Entering and exiting vehicles can now be rebound
- New items can now be added to cache chest filters (space panel, titanite, refined titanium)
- Fixed issue where zoom was active while the full screen map was showing\\
- Fixed an issue where typing in the cache menu would activate the hotbar

[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

- Added "Press F to enter vehicle" on the Armadillo and launcher/lander
- Added "Produces a small amount of power" to the habitat tooltip

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

Moving forward I'm currently working on the 2022 roadmap, when that is finished I will publish it as another steam update. Thank you to everyone who submitted feedback and reviews for the game, I read all of the feedback and reviews to help make the game better.

Happy New Year,

Boppy

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwEkbpmzIaxdEfdVTQEINw
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/boppygames
Website: https://boppygames.gg

Hello everyone!

I'm excited to announce the 1.0 release of Boppio! There is still a lot to do, but the game has been ready to leave Early Access for quite a while now and I think its a great time to make the transition now.

I want to also make this clear: I'm still actively developing Boppio, this 1.0 release is not the final release. There is a 2022 roadmap in the works right now, when that is more developed I will post a link to that in a future steam update.

Thank you to pops and other members of the discord who helped test the build before sending this out. If you are on the beta branch you will also receive the Technology Tier 3 update.

[h2]Lets build in space![/h2]

Take off from Ondor and expand into space! Build new buildings, construct new items and finish the tech tree in the Technology Tier 3 release!



There are new items and buildings that can only be constructed in space, including the space ship. Expand into space and complete the construction of your space ship!

[h2]Stacker[/h2]

The stacker allows the player to stack multiple transport tubes on top of each other. The player is also able to walk under tubes attached to a stacker, making it easier to keep your base clean.



[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]

I have spent quite a bit of time balancing the game this time around. I'm hoping these changes are enough to get people to Catador more quickly. There will likely continue to be more balance changes in future patches.

- Blast Furnace power requirement 12500W => 850W
- Steam Engine power output 12500W => 16250W
- Module rubber requirement 15 => 5
- Rebar crafting speed 2/m => 10/m
- Rebar steel requirement 3 => 2
- Reinforced Concrete crafting speed 1.5/m => 6/m
- Rubber coal requirement 3 => 2
- Rubber oil requirement 15fl/m => 30fl/m
- Steel crafting speed 4/m => 10/m

[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

- Alumina changed to Bauxite and model was improved
- Ctrl + clicking an item will transfer all items of that type to storage, building, etc.
- Hotbar added - you can now drag + drop tools and buildings onto the hotbar
- New items added that can only be constructed in space

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

Thank you to everyone who has helped test out this patch before sending it out. I'm sure there will be some bug fix patches over the next few days for this release, but it should be completely stable in the next few days.

Happy Holidays,

Boppy

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwEkbpmzIaxdEfdVTQEINw
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/boppygames
Website: https://boppygames.gg

Hello everyone,

This is another bug fix release, available on the beta branch. Here I mostly focused on issues preventing players from getting to the late game because of frustrating issues. Thank you again to pops for reporting so many issues, that's helped improve the stability of the game immensely.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where rerouted items would cause hangups in the item delivery system, this would cause buildings to just never receive items even after rebuilding them.
  
• Fixed a weird issue with the portal transition
  

• Oil per resource space 100 max => 1000 max
  
• Deuterium 200 FLI => 150
  
• Deuterium Crafting Speed 2 => 1.75
  

• There seems to be a common crash on integrated graphics, I am still looking into this. Likely an upgrade to the unity engine version will fix this.
  

Hello everyone!

This is yet another bug fix release for the Technology Tier 2 Extended patch. This is still a beta release because I haven't had the time to run though a proper multiplayer test and its likely there are still some remaining multiplayer issues. There are quite a few issues here I wanted to have fixed before the weekend, so thank you everyone for your patience as I put this release together.

To checkout this release, switch to the beta branch. There is no longer a password for the beta branch, but instructions for accessing the branch can be found here: https://boppygames.gg/?page_id=658

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

- Transport Tube filters and storage caches do not have Deuterium and Fusion Cells as an option
- The player's position is no longer reset when loading a save file.
- Fixed an issue that would prevent save files from loading when placing down many extenders
- Fixed an issue where the Armadillo will appear in Catador even if its spawned on Ondor

[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]

- The portal and filters no longer require full power to transport items

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

A special thank you to Pops in the discord for reporting so many issues. I believe all major issues are now fixed, I should have time next week to address more polish issues. My main focus at this time is working on Technology Tier 3 content but I should have time for small bug fixes so another release soon is possible.

Thanks again everyone, have a great weekend,

Boppy

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwEkbpmzIaxdEfdVTQEINw
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/boppygames
Website: https://boppygames.gg

Hello everyone!

I know this release took a lot longer than expected but its finally here. Thank you everyone for the patience as I got this release together. This will be the final some-what large release before the final release in December. I will still release bug fixes here and there before the final 1.0 release.

This originally was not going to be a beta release, but lots of small issues have cropped up and delayed this release by quite a bit. I like to test each release for at least a few days without any major bugs, but unfortunately this release kept experiencing some pretty strange major issues. I seem to have all of the bugs ironed out, so this release should be stable but just in case I have opted to just make it a beta release for now.

For those of you who want to checkout this beta release, you can follow these instructions to install the beta branch: https://boppygames.gg/?page_id=658

Warning: You may want to backup your save file before you checkout the beta branch if you want to be able to revert. Once a file is upgraded to the beta, it cannot be reverted back to 0.4.8. This release is backwards compatible with all 0.4.X releases so you should be able to automatically upgrade any recent file.

[h2]Armadillo[/h2]

I'm proud to announce the long awaited launch of the Armadillo, a vehicle that can be used to traverse Ondor and Catador more quickly. The Armadillo also comes with additional storage for the player to use to store items while building outposts and structures.



The Armadillo cannot be used to kill enemies, for now you kind of just bounce off of them. The Armadillo is also a lot of fun to drive and I think its a great addition to the game.

[h2]Fusion Reactor[/h2]

One of the most unbalanced parts of the game up to this point has been the power. There has only been a single way to produce power through the steam engine and that has remained the only power source into Technology Tier 2. With the launch of the Fusion Reactor, this changes the mid game and late game power source for players. Now you can combine Deuterium and Catacalysmite to produce power through the Fusion Reactor.



The Fusion Reactor can be unlocked after the Portal to Catador is unlocked. This release is also backwards compatible with older saves so you should be able to unlock and build it now.

[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]

- Centrifuge power requirement 2.5kW => 20.15kW
- Lava Pump power requirement 0.25kW => 24.25kW
- Powered Miner power requirement 0.55kW => 1.55kW
- Powered Furnace power requirement 8.25kW => 1.825kW
- Item Transport Hub power requirement 3kW => 8.1kW
- Oil Derrick power requirement 1.75kW => 2.25kW
- Fusion Reactor produces 31.5kW

There were more balance changes planned for this release, but I don't want to introduce a bunch of changes in such a small release. I am going to aggregate the more major changes to the 1.0 release.

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

- There seems to be a common crash on integrated graphics, I am still looking into this. Likely an upgrade to the unity engine version will fix this.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

Thank you everyone who has submitted bug reports and hangs out in the stream. Again, the next major release will be the 1.0 release coming in December. If you want to see me work on it live on stream, checkout the link to the twitch stream below.

Thanks again everyone,

Boppy

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwEkbpmzIaxdEfdVTQEINw
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: boppygames
Website: https://boppygames.gg

Hello everyone!

This is another bug fix update. I know its been a while since the last update and these issues have been hanging around a long time but I have been really busy. Thank you again to everyone who continues to report bugs and checkout the stream from time to time. I hope everyone is doing well :)

Quick update: Technology Tier 2 Extended patch has been pushed back to November 1st. Official 1.0.0 release of Boppio has been pushed back to December 20th. The roadmap has been updated to reflect these changes: https://boppygames.gg/?page_id=440

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

- Load times have been substantially improved
- Coop through steam is now working again
- Fixes to network culling related to multiplayer
- Fixed audio slider in the main menu
- Keyboard shortcuts not being disabled while in the save screen
- Autosave not working after first autosave
- Fixed an issue where client players could not chop trees

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

- GPU instancing is now supported on most terrain cosmetics. GPUs that don't support instancing will fallback to combining meshes.
- Tons of performance improvements
- Fixed issue with 100% GPU usage on newer cards
- Better culling for offscreen objects
- The player is now prevented from saving over an autosave file
- Trees now show up in minimap generation in the terrain generation preview in the main menu

[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]

- Steam Engine power output changed from 12.5k -> 3125W
- Power input requirement for Blast Furnace 800W -> 12.5kW

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

- There seems to be a common crash on integrated graphics, I am still looking into this. Likely an upgrade to the unity engine version will fix this.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

Thank you again everyone who stops in for the twitch streams, and thank you to everyone who reports issues in the discord. I would not be able to fix so many things if people did not help with testing the game. Also, the best place to report bugs is either the steam discussions or the discord. Thank you to everyone who continues to report bugs :)

I will again be out of town this weekend, but I can respond to bug reports and suggestions in the steam discussions and in the discord.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Boppy

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwEkbpmzIaxdEfdVTQEINw
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/boppygames
Website: https://boppygames.gg

Hello everyone,

This is another bug fix patch. This release fixes the well-known Catador/Ondor generation bug where your world generation is lost either between loads or between scene transitions. This bug was extremely hard to track down and was debugged entirely on stream. Thank you to Pops for sending in the save file that replicated the issue consistently.

If your save file has been affected by this bug, it should at least be consistent now. If you need a save file fixed for whatever reason, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Discord. This bug did not affect everyone and typically only affected Catador. Its also likely that you experienced this bug but it was relatively harmless and it went unnoticed.

I am also working on improving the testing procedures to try to cut down on simple bugs like this in the future. The Technology Tier 2 was increasingly hard to test and the fact that the game has a lot of content now makes it hard to test all of it. I'm continuing to develop an automated testsuite to make sure that the game is functioning properly with each release.

There will be at least one more patch for this release to fix issues - but other than that I am excited to start working on the new Technology Tier 2-Extended update. A roadmap for the feature updates can be found here: https://boppygames.gg/?page_id=440

Thanks again everyone,

Boppy

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: boppygames
Website: https://boppygames.gg

Hello everyone,

This is yet another bug fix patch. Several users submitted some game breaking bugs that were somewhat common, so here is another fix for those users. The list of bugs is definitely decreasing by the day and it seems like this release is on its way to basically being completely stable. I am unaware of any existing issues that could break save files and also I have implemented a new in-game save system which gives users more control over the file they are overwriting.

Fixed

- Improvements to the item delivery and routing system, this was causing extremely low FPS on large factories. You should now see a substantial improvement.
- Fixed an issue where hitting the cancel button in the audio settings would hard crash the game
- Fixed an issue that would prevent users from entering Catador.

Improvements

- The save menu has been updated, you can now change the name of a save in the in game menu. You can also delete saves from the in game menu.
- Better checks for preventing broken save files. All known save file issues are now fixed.

Known Issue

- There is an issue with the item transport portal, this is the next highest priority on my todo list.
- Load times for large factories can take up to 5 minutes, this will be fixed in the next bug fix release.
- Several coop bugs are still known, these will be fixed as well.

Thank you to everyone who has reported issues and sent me save files for reproducing issues. Special thank you to the user Pops in the discord who kept on top of issues and sent many save files.

Thank you again everyone,

Boppy

Hello again everyone!

This week has been crazy with the Technology Tier 2 launch. A lot of my time has been spent updating the trailer and marketing material, but now I am back into 100% game mode. I am currently spending most of my time just working on fixing bugs, which should be obvious based on this patch.

This bug fix release is backwards compatible with 0.4.1-beta, 0.4.2-beta and 0.4.4.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

- Fixed an issue that prevented the player from extending fluid pipes using the extender
- Fixed an issue that prevented the player from extending fastr transport tubes using the extender
- Fixed an issue where the quadruped would not enter the running animation while targeting a player
- Oil is now shown in the resource preview for oil derricks
- Miners no longer preview oil resource when hovering over an oil patch
- Fixed an issue where direct inserting items wouldn't remove items from the player's inventory\
- Powered miner is now working properly
- Fixed an issue where "phantom" patches would spawn after the initial generation. These patches would not be mineable until you saved and reloaded. These patches don't hurt your save file.
- Fixed an issue where you could unlock the powered buildings earlier than you should be able to
- Fixed an issue that prevented players from unlocking in the item teleportation module
- Fixed an issue where a save file can be loaded in and all of the resource patches are missing
- Fixed an issue where the bug report screen soft-locked the game

[h2]Changes[/h2]

- Transport Tube 1 module changed to 10 copper ingots (removed iron requirements)
- The Steam Engine's power output has been doubled - this is due to the fact that there is only one way to create power right now and coal requirements are super high

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

Unfortunately there are still some issues that need to be addressed that I have not quite fixed. These issues are my top priority.

- The load times are terrible, especially with very large factories. Load times up to 5 minutes can be normal for factories that are in the late game.
- Performance degrades after loading
- Several coop bugs are known including buildings not running on clients and construction animations not working - fixes for these issues is on the way.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

Thank you to everyone who has reported issues in the steam discussions and in the Discord. These users have saved me a lot of time by finding issues and sending me detailed bug reports, so thank you. If anyone has new issues they would like to report, either the steam discussions or the Discord is a great place for those reports. I look at each individual report on both the steam discussions and Discord.

Thanks everyone,

Boppy

Hello everyone!

First of all I would like to thank everyone who tested out the Technology Tier 2 content on the beta branch. There were a lot of bugs reported in the Discord which helped a ton in stabilizing this release.

The Technology Tier 2 release is finally ready to be released to the default branch. It has been available on the beta branch for about a week now, and after addressing a ton of bugs it is ready for everyone through the default branch.

Unfortunately for this release as well it is not backwards compatible with 0.3.X saves. This mainly has to do with the terrain generation system being rewritten.

[h2]Summary[/h2]

Major Features
- Catador is now available through the Portal
- New Terrain Generation Engine
- Technology Tree updated - tons of new techs and items
- New buildings, including the lava pump, centrifuge and item teleportation buildings
- New enemy on Catador
- New ingame tutorial
- New mineable resources
- Building context menus allow you to disable/enable certain building functionalities

Change List
- Major item routing refactor. Graph recalculations now happen within seconds rather than minutes.
- Minimap + Fullscreen map improvements
- Game now saves over 3 autosaves rather than just 1
- Linux now defaults to OpenGL, see this post for details on forcing Vulkan.
- Performance pass
- The Habitat can now request items
- Terrain Generation toggle for unlimited resources
- Terrain Generation toggle for disabling enemies
- New warning for loading incompatible save files
- Fixed an issue with Cache Chest placement size
- Resources now preview for Miners

There are also tons of smaller fixes and usability improvements.

[h2]Catador[/h2]



Catador has introduced a new liquid for processing: Lava. Lava can be put through the Centrifuge and converted to Sulfur or Silica and is also a component in Rocket Propellant which is made in the Laboratory.



Catador is protected by the Ancient Guardians who are able to float above lava and teleport to targets when attacking. For the time being we have slightly reduced the attack damage and difficulty of the Ancient Guardians as to not be a major hurdle in exploring Catador. In the next major combat refactor this will likely be changed.

[h2]New Buildings[/h2]



The Lava Pump can only be placed in Lava on Catador. It requires the use of some new items to build it, including Heat Shielding, which is also going to be used in space components in a future update.



The Centrifuge is primarily for extracting minerals from Lava. This can be used to create Sulfur and Silica, which go into higher level crafting materials.



The Item Teleportation Hub and Item Teleportation Portal are used to transport items instantly over larger distances. The portals themselves do not require power but the Item Teleportation Hubs require most substantial energy. For this update because there is only one way to make power we are temporarily reducing the power requirement for the Item Teleportation Hub.

[h2]Technology Tree Updates[/h2]

It took me a while to remember where we left off from the previous update. The new tech tree has a ton of new techs, ending with a new building that will remain locked until December. I am not showing off this building in the update as to leave it as a surprise to users.

The new tech tree contains new modules that unlock a ton of new items and 5 new buildings. The Steel Furnace has been renamed to the Blast Furnace because it can now smelt Aluminum. Originally I only was going to make the Steel Furnace produce Steel, at the time I hadn't even started thinking about Technology Tier 2 yet. Instead of making an entire new building to smelt Aluminum I decided to merge the functionality into the Steel Furnace (now the Blast Furnace).

Here is an overview of the new Technology Tree:



As you can see we have expanded past the portal technology into what will become space technologies at the end of the tree. The focus of the modules for Technology Tier 2 is expanding into Catador and preparing for buildings that will be required for Technology Tier 3, which will mostly involve constructing buildings in space.

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

Currently I know the loading times are pretty bad. I will continue to improve this over the next few weeks and by the time Technology Tier 2 Extended is here this issue should be resolved. If your save file takes longer than 3 minutes to load its likely another issue has occurred.

If you run into any new issues, please post in the Steam discussion or feel free to join the Discord and leave a report in the #bug-report channel. I look at every post on the Steam discussions and every bug report in the Discord server.

[h2]Technology Tier 2 Extended[/h2]

Technology Tier 2 Extended (TT2 Extended) is going to be a minor update coming around October 15th, 2021. This will include all of the content that didn't quite make into this update. This includes a vehicle for helping the player get around the map more quickly and also includes at least one other form of power generation. Its likely TT2 Extended will contain some accessibility improvements like color blind mode.

The roadmap, which outlines the development timeline, has been updated. It can be found here

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

Thank you again to everyone who has stopped by the Twitch stream and kept me company while I've worked on this update. Also thank you to all of the players who played the beta release, I know it was kind of buggy but without the beta players it would have been much worse.

Thanks again everyone,

- Boppy

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/boppygames
Website: https://boppygames.gg

Hello everyone,

First of all thank you again everyone for the support on Twitch. This weekend was pretty crazy trying to get all of the reported bugs fixed.

This release, 0.4.2, is another beta release and can be accessed on either the beta branch or the 0.4.2-branch. Instructions for enabling the beta branch can be found here.

Note: If you are running the game on Linux, the default graphics pipeline has been changed from Vulkan to OpenGL due to a large amount of compatibility issues. If you want to instead run on Vulkan you will have to pass -force-vulkan as a runtime parameter to the game. Instructions for doing this can be found here.

Fixes available in this release (0.4.2):
- All new Tech Tier 2 items added to the cache filter
- Fixed an issue in the tech tree where there were 2 techs with the name "Portal Transportation"
- Fixed an issue where Space Metal actually had the name "Aluminum"
- Updated some item descriptions for clarity
- Fixed pretty much all reported minimap and fullscreen map issues.
- Vulkan Out of Memory issue somewhat address
- Fixed an issue where you would just get a black screen on death
- Fixed an issue where pressing H or J would change your current world
- Tutorial updates
- Dragging items into the habitat to complete research didn't used to remove items, this is fixed.
- When loading games item filters used to not propertly, this is now fixed.
- Fixed an issue where items traveling in tubes in Ondor would show on Catador

Thank you to everyone who reported issues! Again, there will be a major update on Friday which I hope will have substantially less issues. The Friday update will be pushed to both the default and beta branch.

Thanks,

Boppy

Hello again everyone!

This release has been extremely challenging for me. I would like to thank everyone for your patience, I'm a solo developer and I needed a few more days to get the release in order. This release has been tested extensively by myself and it is ready to be experienced by most players. This release was originally going to be a full default-branch release, but there are some small features missing that I would prefer to have in the build before I upload the full build to the default branch. In order to play this build, please follow the instruction for accessing the beta branch. You can also lock to the 0.4.0-beta branch if you are planning on doing more long-form content on this release (like let's plays). I'm fairly confident that the current 0.4.0-beta release will be forwards compatible with the release coming next Friday.

Note: Save files for 0.4.0 are not backwards compatible with previous versions. If you try to load a previous version you will be returned back to the main menu without warning (this will be improved soon). This should however not damage your save file in anyway if you want to revert. You can revert back to a previous version in the game properties for Boppio (within the steam client).

A full list of changes will be available next Friday, its likely over the next few days we will have more bugs and features requests that will make it in before Friday and I want to take the time to complete a full change list. If you had played a previous version many of the new features can be found through the technology tree. Something easy to miss is buildings now have a context menu that can be expanded by pressing the cog in the upper right hand corner. There are also new terrain generation options, including infinite resources and disabling enemies.

There will be a larger event happening next Friday, which will be the release of 0.4.0 into the default branch. This event will be accompanied by updated steam page assets and an updated trailer.

One of the most challenging aspects of this release has been testing, this is probably the largest game I've ever worked on as far as content goes and its becoming extremely difficult to test balance changes in the game. Even small early game changes make a massive difference in how the mid game progresses. I have tested each part of this patch individually but I have not completed the entirety of the release myself from start to finish.

Thank you again everyone for your patience with the release today,

Boppy

Hello everyone!

First of all I would like to thank everyone for the support on Twitch! Its been great to see everyone in chat and I hope that you've all had fun watching the streams.

This update is going to be pretty short, I just wanted to let everyone know that we're running a few days behind on this patch. Originally this update was supposed to come on September 1st but now we're pretty confident we can get it released this coming Friday, September 3rd.

Technology Tier 2 has been a massive technical challenge that I underestimated and I haven't been able to finish everything that I wanted to get into it. I was going to push the existing content that didn't make it into this update into the Tech Tier 3 update which is coming in December but instead of this I am going to do another update coming October 1st which will be Technology Tier 2 extended. This will contain more buildings, resources and technologies that didn't quite make it into this update.

This is all reflected in the updated roadmap.

Also again, for anyone who wants to watch the live development of the game, I'm live almost everyday here: https://www.twitch.tv/boppygames

Thank you everyone for your continued support, and I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming update :)

- Boppy

The major release 0.4.0 is being pushed back until September 1st, 2021. This beta release is just the first of many releases which will constitute the actual 0.4.0 release.

The roadmap has been updated to reflect these changes: https://boppygames.gg/?page_id=440

To put it bluntly, the major parts of the game have been rewritten from scratch. I was pushing the terrain generation engine to its limit and the item routing system was slow and buggy. These two core features have a huge impact on the game and are also the biggest bottlenecks for performance. The new systems are faster and are expected to scale with the upcoming content.

[h2]Play Now[/h2]

If you want to checkout the patch right now, you can configure steam to download the beta version of Boppio. The instructions for which are here: https://boppygames.gg/?page_id=658

0.4.0-beta saves will be incompatible with 0.3.2, so just keep that in mind. If you want to go back to 0.3.2, you can check out the v0.3.2 branch directly or go back to default. The beta release is likely going to be very buggy for the time being, this will obviously improve over the coming weeks. You can expect frequent patches on the beta branch, especially as people continue to report more issues.

[h2]Terrain Generation Rewrite[/h2]

The entirety of the Terrain Generation Engine in Boppio has been rewritten from scratch. The old terrain generation had many issues and I was very much pushing the boundaries of what was possible with the old engine. These shortcomings were very clear in the map generation:



Here you can see that the starting area patches are perfect circles, which does not look good and was a common complaint from users. You can also see the patches are overlapping, which is really bad if a new user is playing the game and one patch dominates another patch.

The perfect circle patches look even worse in game, especially when they overlap:



It was also very common to get strange water artifacts like this:



In game, this just translates to having beaches with no lake, which can also cause other bugs like dead trees spawning on sand (they're not supposed to).



The new terrain generation engine makes it easier to modify and shape noise, and new algorithms allow us to prevent patches from overlapping and ensuring a uniform distribution of patches.

Here is a map created using the new generator:



It may not look *that* different, but this is a massive change from the old generator. Worlds created with the new generator are much more interesting from a gameplay standpoint.

The new map is also substantially more visually interesting:



Its pretty easy to add new foliage/flora/etc to the map generator, so you will notice new members of the Ondor ecosystem :)



[h2]Item Routing Rewrite[/h2]

The most CPU intensive task in Boppio in 0.3.2 is item routing calculations. There are actually 2 major algorithms here that have been improved:

1. Baking Links

This step is important because it determines which buildings can talk to each other and how. For example, two buildings may be in the same graph but they are not neighbors (not directly connected to each other). This means they have to pass items to another building so that the item can be passed along to its destination. Building this decision tree used to be extremely CPU intensive.

A member of Twitch chat, cakenotcake, told me I could use the algorithm for this. I had used this algorithm in college but I thought it would be impracticable to adapt the current data structures I was using to be compatible with this algorithm. After a few hours, I got this to work and implemented it using the C# Job System in Unity which allows it to be computed off of the main thread. This means the calculation finishes within ~2-5 frames even with an extremely large factory. This step now completes instantly instead of taking 2-3 minutes.

2. Determining Routing Decisions

The next major issue is determining where to send items. Originally I was just using a massive LINQ statement to figure out where items should go. This is slow and allocates memory every frame, which is a big issue.

The new algorithm itself is pretty complicated, but the major performance benefits have come from using lookup tables instead of lists. Instead of iterating over each building every frame we can just iterate over building that have a certain item in stock.

These routing changes should enable players to build much much larger bases.

[h2]Twitch Streams[/h2]



Follow us on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/boppygames

I have been streaming basically the entire development of the game on Twitch. I have noticed this has slowed down the development of the game quite a bit, but I think this is actually a good thing. Update 0.4.0 would probably be on track if I hadn't streamed over the last 2 months, but the content that I would have worked on wouldn't have been as good. I would have continued using the existing broken terrain generation system and item routing systems not caring about user feedback as much.

I frequently take suggestions and bug reports from Twitch chat, so if you want to give live feedback, please consider following the channel.

Also as a solo developer, working alone a lot of the time also becomes pretty lonely and its easy to confirm your own self biases. Getting live feedback from users is great, especially when people submit constructive criticism. Hearing the genuine frustrations from users in chat has made me rethink what features I'm working on sooner rather than later. This has helped push forward the item routing fixes and the tutorial system.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

I will continue doing beta releases over the next few weeks until 0.4.0 is complete. I expect this to come biweekly but I'm just going to release them as they get done. I'm less concerned about hard deadlines and more concerned with completing the content and making the game as good as possible.

Again, the main 0.4.X release is scheduled for September 1st, but this date is somewhat tentative. My main focus is making the game a great experience, so if I need more time I will likely continue doing "beta" releases and push back the primary release. Even if these deadlines get pushed back, I'm going to do my best to make sure everyone has access to the latest version of the game. Once features get finished, they will likely be added to the beta branch immediately.

Thank you again to everyone who has stopped in on the Twitch stream, left comments in the Steam discussions, and participated in the Discord. It really helps keeping my motivation up to improve the game :)

- John

First of all thank you again to everyone who has reported bugs in the Steam discussions and in the discord. Also a special thank you to everyone who has helped me debug the game on stream! This is a particularly small patch but fixes some critical issues that many players have reported, so fixing these issues was high priority.

This patch is available now, you may need to restart steam to force the update if you want to upgrade immediately. Your game should read "Release 0.3.2" in the bottom left corner of the main menu.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

This patch contains the following fixes:

- When the hosting player dies in a multiplayer game, their screen doesn't fade in/out
- The feedback panel doesn't disable input when a text box is selected
- Issues with desync between host and clients (inventory not populating, etc.)

The following fixes will be available in 0.4.X (coming August 1st):

- Items not being sent or delivered in large factories
- CPU optimizations for large factories
- Clients are able to join a game with mismatched network code versions
- Fluids sometimes not syncing between a host and clients
- Wrong power calculations on clients (host power is correct)
- Client miners not showing "Out of Mineable Material" when miners cannot continue mining

Again, thank you to everyone who has reported issues. Unfortunately some of the issues that were reported are more complicated than just a simple fix, which is why they are only going to be available in 0.4.X.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

If you're curious about the progress of the game and you want to see me work on it live, check out our Twitch channel below! We also play new content together on the beta branch usually every other day or so.

Thanks again everyone,

- John

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/boppygames
Streaming Schedule: https://www.twitch.tv/boppygames/schedule
Website: https://boppygames.gg

[h2]Overview[/h2]

Hello again everyone! First I would like to thank everyone who has purchased the game in Early Access. The amount of feedback I have received over the last week has been insane and has helped me substantially improve the game.

In the past many updates haven't been forwards/backwards compatible, but I am now following the convention that all 0.3.X patches will be compatible. This means that these patches are likely to only contain bug fixes, all new major features will be added to the 0.4.X branch which I will start working on towards the end of this week.

Also I will start posting updates about smaller updates since a lot of people are curious what has changed. The last 4 updates have only contained bug fixes, no new major features.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

Anyway, here a short list of the fixes for 0.3.1:

- Save files are now ordered by the last time they were opened/played
- Fixes for ultra wide displays (up to 5760x1080 tested)
- Cache chest fixes, all known bugs fixed, cache requests should now be saved
- Fixed an issue with miners not mining the right ores when on a chunk seam
- Fixed an issue where the AOE indicator of power poles is generated incorrectly when placed over water
- Fixed an issue when 2 players try to cut down the same tree at the same time
- Fixed an issue that caused buildings not to render in the minimap after loading
- You can select a tech before building the habitat which breaks the game
- Items inside of transport tubes are now saved
- Tons of cache chest fixes (there are some bugs remaining, which I will fix)
- Transport tubes will be optimized properly after loading (not more mangled tubes after loading)
- An issue where items would go through tubes really slowly has been fixed
- Family Share + Cafe play enabled
- Fixed major network issues caused by a fluid pipe bug
- Fixed an issue where enemy health bars would remain on screen after death
- Transport tubes now use approximately 1/5 of the network updates compared to 0.3.0
- Error feedback when you try to destroy a tree/rock that is too far away

If you've watched the stream you'll know that I basically rewrote a large portion of the transport tube logic which allowed for some massive network savings. There are however still some known network bugs that I will continue to work on.

[h2]Technology Tier 2[/h2]

Tons of people have asked about the Technology Tier 2 content. This content is coming August 1st and will substantially increase the content in the game. I'm estimating that it will about double the content in the game but I don't want to make any firm promises on this as that's a pretty bold statement.

I will say there will be a new world/region in this new update and there will be changes to the transport tube system. There will also be new buildings available to help increase tube bandwidth and more options for transporting items. This is obvious as well, but there will be new items to construct and new technologies to research.

Unfortunately its likely that bases built in 0.3.X will not be forward compatible to 0.4.X as the changes that are planned affect the terrain generation system which is not easy to backport to earlier versions. I think many players will want to start over anyway because there will likely be new early game content as well.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

Thank you again to everyone who has purchased the game and helped support me with this game. Also a special thank you to players who have joined the discord and given me feedback (constructive criticism is always appreciated!) Many of the requested features and fixes from the discord have been included in today's patch.

Also for anyone who is interested, I'm streaming most of the development on Twitch. If you are interested in seeing the progress on the game or you want to learn more about game development feel free to give me a follow!

Thanks again everyone,

- John

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/yY9wHNn
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/boppygames
Streaming Schedule: https://www.twitch.tv/boppygames/schedule
Website: https://boppygames.gg

Hello again everyone! First I would like to thank everyone who has stopped by the stream and kept me company while I worked on this release. If you haven't already, follow me on Twitch if you want to watch me work on the game!
[h2]Early Access[/h2]
Store Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1384030/Boppio/

Boppio is now available in Early Access! I am happy with the state of the game and I think it is ready to be experienced by a broader audience. The game is also launching with a 15% discount!
[h3]Content Creators[/h3]
Hello! Are you a Twitch streamer or YouTuber who wants to create content on Boppio? Check out the press kit! The press kit should provide you with some basic assets that you can use for thumbnail or overlay creation. Also, if there is something not included in the press kit that you would like (extra screenshots, etc.) please message me on discord and I will do my best to improve the press kit.

Small note: You can press the G key on the keyboard to toggle the UI in the game. This is useful for creating thumbnails or screenshots :)

I have had many requests for free keys for content creators. I have tried to be as fair as possible to all content creators and up until now I have only given out free access through the playtest. Now that the game is publicly available content creators are buying game keys to create content on the game. I think it is most fair to everyone if I don't give out free game keys to content creators (this includes Steam curators). If you have concerns about this please send me a DM on discord or send me an email to our support email address.

[h3]Playtest Access[/h3]
I will continue to let people in for playtest access. However, the playtest branch will likely be deprecated before the August 1st release. If you are waiting for access and want to play now, please consider buying the game (especially since the game is on sale). However, if you have signed up you will receive access over the next 2 months. The main way I plan to use the playtest is post-release when the influx of new users slows down a bit. Thank you everyone for your patience :)

[h2]Rebalancing[/h2]
Since I have not written an update post in over a month, there are a massive amount of changes here. I will quickly do an overview of the biggest changes:

• Buildings that produce items (miners, assembly machines) will only construct ~3-8 items and then stop until the output slot is emptied. This preserves resources so that they can be used elsewhere.
• Buildings that consume items will only request a certain amount of input items, instead of requesting the maximum stack size.
• The fuel burn time for coal has been increased from 12 seconds to 20 seconds (wood is unchanged)
• The mining speed of miners has been substantially reduced
• The crafting speed of the assembly machines has been substantially reduced
• Water pumps produce substantially less water per building
• Transport Tubes now require copper to build and have a maximum length
• Fluid pipes now require iron plates to build and have a maximum length.

• Valve
  • Valves are an early game item, these build into many other items including pumps and motors.
• Pump
  • The pump goes into the water pump and oil derrick and can also build into other items.
• Motor
  • Motors are typically used in building construction, but can also be used to craft other items. Motors go into many buildings that use electricity to create movement.
• Modules
  • Modules combine logic boards and rubber. Modules are used to construct many of the late game items.
• Catacalysmite (Resource)
  • This is a late game resource that is required to build Transport Crystals
• Transport Crystal
  • This item builds into the new portal building. The transport crystal will have other uses in the future, but for now it remains a mystery.

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