Update 0.7 - The Tech Progression Update, Now with Decorations!

Hey there, Creostriders!

I'm very excited to announce Creo's newest update, the Tech Progression Update! This major update focuses on adding greater progression to Creo's gameplay loop through the unlocking of new technologies and godpowers. Many of these new technologies unlock extremely helpful powers and features that will make your job of growing your religion and city much easier.

Before continuing on to the details of the update, I wanted to acknowledge the time gap since our last update. I've been trying my best to squeeze time every evening/night to work on our beloved Creo. I think I've gotten into a very good development cadence recently, and I'm very excited for the next update I'm currently working on, which I'll go over more in detail at the end of this post.

Additionally, in this gap of time, I've been fortunate enough to have raised a small amount of money from extremely generous investors who believe in the future of our game. These precious funds are being used to write new music tracks which will be added in the next update along with new game art, such as the beautiful new game cover image you can see above.

With all this being said, let's now hop into what's included in this exciting new update!

[h2]The New Tech Tree and Progression System[/h2]



I've designed Creo's new tech tree to be more linear and better organized. I've also changed the technology icons to show exactly what is being unlocked with improved descriptions and playful animations that trigger when you click on a technology. These changes are not just visual: I've also made significant code improvements to make it easier to create new technologies and unlockable powers and buildings. This will allow me to add new buildings and technologies at a more regular pace.

This tech tree update is part of a broader set of game design updates which I believe will help in creating the feeling of progression in Creo: I want players to work towards goals and feel rewarded when they finally reach them.

As part of this major update, I've added various new buildings and a new God Power to the game which introduce new features and quality of life improvements which we'll go over below.

[h3]Decorations: Beautify your World[/h3]



In this update, I created a new decorations building category. In addition to this new building category, I've added the Basic Landscaping technology, which unlocks a set of decorative trees, shrubs, and flowers. I plan on significantly expanding the available decorations so that you can beautify and personalize your city!

[h3]Pressurized Willpower Storage: A Better Way to Store[/h3]



"In the world of Creo, Willpower is a physical manifestation of a sentient being's belief: being of a syrupy consistency, it needs to be stored physically to be used. The old wells we have cannot store sufficient amounts of liquid for our needs, so our scribes have developed a new way of storing vast quantities of it in a small space through the power of Willpower energy and steam!" - Priest Jan Vaktal

The new Pressurized Willpower Well increases your Willpower storage capacity by 2500, being more than twice as effective as the Small Willpower Well. This new technology will enable you to have enough Willpower to advance to the next tier of powerful technologies.

[h3]Accounting Science: When Production is Recorded, Production is Improved[/h3]



"How in the world did we use to get by without knowing how much food we were consuming and producing per day? No clue, but hey, who knew keeping track of things could be so powerful!" - Farmer Nel Supren

The new Accounting Center employs various talented bookkeepers who allow you to see detailed resource production and consumption numbers per day when hovering over resource amounts. This new ability helps you better manage your resources and reach your goals.

[h3]Tribute Collection: Let All Give that they May Receive[/h3]



"Every believer in the Creostrider must give their fair share. Gold is worthless to him who does not see what holds true value in this life." - Creolyte Salan Barunn

The new Tribute Altar employs a tribute collector who collects 1 gold from each of your followers every season (16 days). Though this tribute amount may be meager when you have a small following, over time, it can become a significant source of Gold.

[h3]Divine Conversion: Pure Willpower Will Change the Minds of All[/h3]



"How did I convert? To be honest, I was walking to the market when I suddenly felt a powerful, warm feeling in my head. At that moment, all I could think about was the Creostrider. I think it was a miracle, so I now believe!" - Miller Janess Kal Pun

The new Divine Conversion god power allows you to convert all villagers within a specific area of effect for a brief moment. Divine Conversion uses concentrated Willpower to immediately change the beliefs of all villagers who come in contact with its force.

[h2]Conclusion / What's Next[/h2]

Along with all of the new buildings and powers, I've made numerous gameplay improvements, balancing changes, bug fixes, and much more (you can learn about all of this in the Creo Changelog below).

So, what's next for Creo God Simulator? Quests and Dialog.

As part of my plan to improve the progression and gameplay loop of Creo, I'm now working on a new questing system that will include main quests and side quests you can complete to receive resources, willpower, and more. I also plan on upgrading the current dialog system to help improve the tutorial and questing experience, since the current tutorial is a bit "wall-of-texty" for my liking; I want to make the tutorial more conversational and natural.

I also plan on including three new music tracks for Creo (written by our talented composer Olivia Crawford), more art, buildings, technologies, powers, and events.

The future is very bright for Creo, and I have big plans for this game! As always, I'm honored to have all of you on this journey with me to create not only a game, but a new world full of lore, stories, and more.

- Esteban




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[h2]Creo Changelog for Version 0.7.0[/h2] - 10/28/2024

[h3]Big Changes[/h3]

• Did a complete UI overhaul of the Inspiration Menu, which is now easier to read and see what you will be unlocking. Also added locked and unlocked tech animations.
  
• Added the new “Divine Conversion” god power, which allows you to convert all villagers to believe in you within a certain movable area of effect for 20 seconds. The power costs 3500 willpower to use.
  
• Added the ability to see detailed daily (per second) production and consumption rates for all resources. This ability is gained by researching the “Accounting Science” technology.
  
• Did a complete overhaul of the villager and job management system - now each villager you see actually represents a villager with a name, age, job, etc. This impacts things as you would expect: destroying a villager at a specific workplace will remove that villager from that workplace and open a new slot there.
  
• Added the new Basic Tree, Shrub, and Flower decoration sets, each with 4 new decorations to place, bringing the total decorations available in the “Basic Landscaping” technology unlock to 16.
  
• Added the new Pressurized Willpower Well building with the corresponding Pressurized Willpower Storage technology unlock, which increases your willpower capacity by 2,500.
  
• Added the new Accounting Center building with the corresponding Accounting Science technology unlock, which allows hiring Bookkeepers who, when all workplace positions are filled, allow you to see detailed resource production and consumption rates.
  
• Added the new Tribute Altar building with the corresponding Tribute Collection technology unlock, which allows hiring a Tribute Collector who collects one gold for each believer per season.
  
• Post-processing - added ambient occlusion, anti-aliasing, and slight bloom.
  
• A new “Decorations” building category was added, which allows cosmetic items to be placed.
  
  

[h3]Small Changes[/h3]

• Updated loading screen background image.
  
• Decreased mouse scroll wheel zoom speed.
  
• Farms are now capable of showing an estimated production rate per day - this calculates approximately how much food it produces per day, though the full amount is harvested once the crop is ready.
  
• Increased the damage to buildings caused by the meteor: the new damage varies between 500 and 1200 HP.
  
• Added a new animated pixel-art god hand cursor to the game.
  
• Added children (under age 18) to the game.
  
• Increased the birth rate at higher populations, and increased the maximum possible children able to be born at a time.
  
• Increased the Ranch’s food production rate.
  
• Changed rain power’s impact on farms to accelerate growth by a factor of 2.5. This accelerated growth will continue until the current crop cycle is harvested, regardless if the rain is still present.
  
• Improved initial Creostrider Plaza placement animation to better follow game particle style.
  
• Added new willpower building animation on mouse hover over a building under construction.
  
• Changed willpower fragment’s sprites to be small squares to match game style, and lowered glow intensity.
  
• Updated building placement positioning animation not to use green but rather, the original building color.
  
• Updated in-game UI menus.
  
• Set the building limit of the Small Willpower Well to 4 structures.
  
• Set the building limit of the Kitchen to 4 structures.
  
• Set the building limit of the Market to 3 structures.
  
• Set the building limit of the Small Temple to 3 structures.
  
• Set the building limit of the Large Temple to 2 structures.
  
• Set the building limit of the Pressurized Willpower Well to 4 structures.
  
• Set the building limit of the Tribute Altar to 1 structure.
  
• Set the willpower cost to unlock the "Repair" technology to 2,000 WP.
  
• Set the willpower cost to unlock the "Economics" technology to 4,000 WP.
  
• Set the willpower cost to unlock the "Pressurized Willpower Storage" technology at 4,000 WP.
  
• Set the willpower cost to unlock the "Forest Creation" technology at 4,000 WP.
  
• Set the willpower cost to unlock the "Stone Creation" technology at 4,000 WP.
  
• Set the willpower cost to unlock the "Divine Conversion" technology at 4,000 WP.
  
• Set the willpower cost to unlock the "Celestial Destruction" technology at 10,000 WP.
  
• Removed the Patreon link on the main menu.
  
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed bug on Ranch colliders where ranchers would collide and clip with ranch they were standing in.
  
• Fixed bug where when pausing the game, if a god power was selected and being placed, the power could still be interacted with from within the pause menu.
  
• Fixed bug where when placing a building, building limits would not be taken into account, and an unlimited number of buildings that normally have a building limit could be placed.
  
• Fixed bug where small and pressurized willpower wells would add their willpower storage capacity before they had finished construction.
  
• Fixed bug where the construction animation would conflict with the demolition animation causing jerky vertical motion upon demolition of a building under construction.
  
• Fixed a bug where a building under construction’s related construction particle effects and temporary colliders would not be deleted upon demolition/destruction of the building under construction.
  
• Fixed bug where striking a villager with lightning or meteor after they died would cause the death animation to start again (spawn a new spirit and scream).
  
• Fixed typo in English Ranch description.
  
• Fixed bug where language localization/translation was not working on build menu category information.
  
• Fixed bug in New Game menu when generating town name - it would simply assign the god name to the town. It now creates a unique town name.
  
• Fixed a bug where, when clicking on willpower fragments, they could reward the player with willpower beyond the willpower capacity limit.