Update 0.6.7 - The Arrival of Willpower Fragments

I'm excited to announce our newest regular update, version 0.6.7! In this update, I've added various new game mechanics, animations, quality-of-life improvements, and bug fixes. Thanks to the feedback that many of you have shared with me privately and here on Steam, I was able to find various places where improvements could be made while making the game more fun.

Without further adieu, let's hop right into the newest update!

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[h2]The Arrival of the Ancient Willpower Fragments[/h2]

Long ago, the ancients of Creo created curious tablets infused with powerful willpower. They would use these tablets to power their ancient machines, while also using them to transmute matter to whatever they needed. Over the years, these fragments became buried under the ground of Creo, but sensing your presence as the new Creostrider, they've begun to rise from the ground. Collect these ancient fragments to grow your power, gain valuable resources, and unlock powerful ancient technology!

Willpower Fragments are a new gameplay mechanic I've added that performs (and will perform) a variety of functions, such as:

• Will allow the player to gain resources (gold and metal) at any time if one is found and clicked
  
• Will help prevent the player from accidentally soft-blocking themselves in the early game
  
• Will be collected and used as a form of currency to unlock certain ancient technologies that will add big improvements to the resource management of the player's city
  
• Will be used as a target resource to collect for quests
  

These new fragments will appear regularly around the map, and it's up to the player to find them. At any time, there are no more than two fragments on the map. Additionally, these fragments only exist for three minutes, after which they disappear, opening a slot for another to appear elsewhere on the map.

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[h2]Placing Buildings Now Create Building Supports[/h2]

Several members of our community have asked for some sort of indicator to show where buildings have been placed that are under construction. I certainly agreed with the suggestion and went forward and created 34 unique voxel model construction supports for each structure in Creo.

These supports appear to show where buildings are under construction, but additionally, they also appear when buildings are being repaired. Though this a purely a quality-of-life improvement, I love the look of them, and would love to hear all of your opinions too!

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[h2]Buildings Can Now be Rotated by 45 Degree Imcrements[/h2]

You read that right: no more trying to gently rotate buildings to get the perfect angle! You can now hold the shift key while pressing the building rotation buttons to rotate buildings by 45 degrees! This was another solid community suggestion, and I was more than happy to get it added in since it makes things much easier.

In a future update, I plan on adding 45-degree angle snapping for roads as well, so you can have straight roads too, and set up solid city grids!

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[h2]What's Next[/h2]

As I've mentioned in the previous update posts, I want to keep a regular cadence of updates every 2-4 weeks. For the following update, I've been thinking about a few items that I think I would be able to accomplish in the update timeframe:

• An updated inspiration/tech tree, with more of a shop feel. I would like to have unlockable techs and items where some are useful, and others are purely aesthetic but can be placed to customize your city!
  
• The addition of cosmetic city items, such as placeable trees, parks, fountains, benches, etc.
  
• The creation of a new quest system, where a handful of new quests will be created, such as collecting a set number of Willpower Fragments, getting to a certain population, etc.
  
• A new Large Willpower Well, so that players don't have to build so many small wells
  

I'm trying my best to make time in my evenings to work on Creo, and your support has been crucial to my work on the game. Thank you all again for taking the time to play Creo: I look forward to continuing to make it an outstanding gaming experience!

- Esteban

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[h2]Creo Changelog for Version 0.6.7[/h2]

[h3]Big Changes[/h3]

• Added new Willpower Fragments game mechanic - up to two of these ancient relics spawn in the world lasting up to 3 minutes, and if found and clicked, will give the player willpower and either gold or metal. This is to prevent softblocking in the early game, and will have lead into additional gameplay mechanics in the future.
  
• Added construction supports that appear when structures are being built or repaired: this is to help better gauge what things are being built.
  
• Added ability to snap rotate buildings by 45 degrees by holding left shift key and pressing rotation buttons.
  

[h3]Small Changes[/h3]

• Added lumberyard sound effect.
  
• Updated images playing in the main menu background slideshow.
  
• Added a new section in the tutorial covering building construction, and how it can be accelerated.
  
• The main Creostrider Plaza now provides 10 additional population capacity.
  
• Added ability to pause game speed in-game.
  
• Fully opening the pause menu actually pauses the game, rather than making it run in very slow motion.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Major bug fixed where upon loading, certain villager jobs would be filled multiple times over, exceeding the workplace's job's open limit.
  
• Major bug fixed where when turning 70, retired elderly villagers were not being registered as retired in their workplaces, and would still take up a slot even though they were not working.
  
• Fixed bug where rain collider was messing with villager colliders unnecessarily.
  
• Fixed bug where homes under construction would still apply their addition to the population cap before finishing construction.
  
• Fixed bug where saving and loading were broken due to the timescale being 0 during a pause.
  
• Fixed bug where clouds and rain clouds would spawn outside the bounds of the map.
  
• Fixed bug where the player couldn't resume the game from the pause menu after tabbing out of/unfocusing the game window.
  
• Fixed language bug where god power willpower costs were incorrect in Spanish.
  
• Fixed a small typo in the tutorial.