Another week, another patch.
We fixed more bugs, adjusted access positions, and added multiple recipes to a few objects.
Access Positions
We adjusted positions of all the access positions so that they work better with the new 1x1 pathfinding system. This prevents colonists from “doubling” back when they reach their target object.
Objects now have twice as many access positions
Recipe Selection
The Ore Refinery and Mining Probe now have 3 recipes that you can select.
With the refinery, you can now select between: balanced (a little of everything), metal only, and fuel only.
Similarly, the probe now has: balanced, ore only, and ice only.
You can now specify the produced resources in the refinery and mining probe
This should solve some balancing issues where you end up with way more ice and fuel than you care about.
By default, balanced is always selected, so you don’t have to micromanage.
Crop Stages
We reduced the amount of crop stages from 10 to 5.
We did this so that it’s easier to add more crops in the future. We still have to balance the growth rate, but for testing it’s much more convenient when crops grow fast.
Crops now have fewer growth stages
Colonist+
This month we’ll be focusing on improving colonists. Our intent is to make them feel more human and less robotic.
You can see our entire roadmap, here
Relationships
We want colonists to form relationships, where some colonists are friends, and others are enemies.
If we have time, we’ll escalate colonist interactions as relationship levels increase or decrease. So as a colonist likes another colonist the escalation might be:
Talk more frequently
Follow during free-time
Move in together (pick a bed near the other colonist’s bed)
Get upset when not near their favorite colonist (after an extended amount of time).
Relationships will only be in 1 direction, so Bob might really like Tony, but Tony hates Bob. Bob will follow Tony around, because he loves the guy so much. This annoys Tony, decreasing how much Tony likes Bob. Eventually, Tony gets so annoyed with Bob that he hides under his bed and stabs Tony while he sleeps.
Perks
We want colonists to feel unique, with 3 randomized perks, like:
Charismatic - Everyone likes this colonist
Anxious - Gets extra upset from negative morale modifiers
Mute - Does not talk
Mean - No one likes this colonist
Insomniac - Requires less sleep
Lunatic - Enjoys when bad things happen to people
Sabotage, Theft, Murder
Our intent here is to expand what happens when a colonist has low morale. Eventually we’ll add an “insane” perk. This could be a perk that a colonist is born with (maybe because of instabilities in the bio-tank growth process) or acquires when morale remains too low for too long.
Sabotage is when a colonist deliberately breaks an object, like a generator or Oxygen Recycler.
Theft is when a colonist steals resources, like biomass.
You probably know what murder is, if not, you probably shouldn’t be on the internet. The difficult thing with murder is that it requires the target to (internally) act somewhat complicit in the interaction.
Internally I want to implement some sort of “choreograph” system, where colonists fight in a predetermined sequence, but one that looks spontaneous to the player.
What I mean is that right before a fight I’ll force a victim to walk to the bathroom. The victim is never meant to reach the bathroom (and never will). The target will intercept the victim on course, and some sort of violent exchange will ensue.
Patch Notes
What is New:
- Beds now have access positions on the top and bottom
- Items are now removed from an object before it is deleted
- Ore refinery now has three selectable recipes one metal and one fuel, two metal, ore two fuel
- Mining probe now has three selectable recipes one that returns with three random items, one that returns with three ore, and one that returns with three ice
- Crops now have 5 different stages until fully grown instead of 10
- Colonist speech bubbles now follow colonist heads around
- Machines take roughly thirty minutes before they can become broken
- Mechanics now attempt to maintain a machine every twenty four minutes
Bug Fixes:
- Colonists no longer clip into table when sitting in a chair at the table
- Fixed an unresolved agent reference when loading colonists
- Incinerated colonists are now correctly removed from the game
- Food recycler no longer requests too much food causing it to be unable to create Biomass
- Adjusted access positions of various objects to stop colonists from walking past the access position and the doubling back to it;
- Colonists no longer clip into floors while sleeping on them
- Toilet doors now open before a colonist exits the toilet
- Escape menu can no longer be toggled in the main menu
- Crop spot lights no longer have colliders for selection
- Fixed sleeping position of toilets
- Removed excess table slots from small tables, this would cause four colonists to be able to use the small table
- Scrolling over background of build menu now correctly scrolled the entries
- Fixed an issue that would cause tool tips to become small and follow cursor around when the UI was refreshed
- You can no longer press “Grow Colonist” button when the Bio Tank is offline
- Adjusted food positions on tables so food does not clip into tables
-Tyler
