AColony News

Hi everyone!

It's time for a new update and this one is about the material manager with a reworked building system, the new room detection system and the final parts of the main menu.

[h2]Material Manager[/h2]
The old building system had the problem, that with more different materials the menu got pretty fast overloaded with a lot of icons for each element which usually uses them - like floors, walls, stairs etc.

Therefore I've implemented a new material manager which allows the player to choose different materials for the fundamental parts of the construction system without generating new icons in the build menu. It only updates the existing icons with the images of the new material which keeps the menu clear and user friendly.

At the moment there are 3 materials:

• Wood
  
• Stone
  
• Brick
  

These materials can be used for the following construction elements:

• Floors
  
• Walls (includes window & door frames)
  
• Stairs
  
• Roofs
  
• Chimneys
  

In connection with this system I've also created 3 new models for the stairs, which is an updated one for the straight stair and 2 models for stairs which making a turn to the right or the left side.



In addition I've implemented a new way to build roofs. The player can select an area now, which automatically generates the right roof parts to fit a rectangular shaped building / room.

This makes it much easier to place roofs because in the past the player had to build them with all the single parts. I've also added a few more area shapes to create roofs over corners and other simple structures.



Here is my latest devlog about the new material manager:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ0MhtWNVcY
[h2]Room Detection System[/h2]
The room detection is an important part of the game because the colonists see the room, in which their bed is located, as their room. It's also a fundament for some mechanics which will be added in the future. (like the temperature)

The core mechanic of this system can detect:

• If connectors are open or closed (window & door frames)
  
• If floors are complete and closed correctly
  
• If roofs are complete and closed correctly
  
• If a room extends over multiple floors
  
• If a room is connected with another room. (open or closed)
  This means for example: A room can also be detected as outdoors if there is a missing door to another room which is already outdoors.
  

Rooms also have a beauty factor which can be increased or decreased if the player places furniture in it. In addition, particular furniture can change or define the type of a room.
At the moment the following types of rooms can be detected:

• Normal rooms (grey)
  
• Bedrooms (blue)
  
• Workshops (yellow)
  
• Science labs (green)
  
• Rooms which are outdoors (red)
  

Here is a video of the room detection system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMZzFr9_VQQ
[h2]Main Menu[/h2]
In the last weeks a lot of work went into the redesigning and finishing of the main menu.
Fortunately, everything is done and here I have listed the most essential updates and changes:

• The language manager is completely integrated now, which means that the entire menu is available in English and German.
  
• The menu is much more user friendly now and has a lot of info and error messages so that the player knows why and what happens or went wrong (mostly for networking and connection errors)
  
• A new and clear way to enter or load a game in single player or online-coop.
  
• An updated and finished new game menu with all required elements.
  

[h3]New Game Menu[/h3]
Here I have done the most functionality updates. To make the menu clearer I have divided it into 3 tabs which are the following:

Scenario
In this tab the player can select a scenario. It consists of 3 basic sections where the player can choose:

• The count of the start colonists
  
• The start resources
  
• How much technologies are already researched at the beginning
  

World
This tab was already implemented and here the world can be created and customized.

Start
Here the player can make the final adjustments for a new game. This includes the:

• Customization of the start colonists (name, age, haircut, clothes, empathy, skills etc.)
  
• The selection of the start items (if the given ones are not cool enough)
  

Here is the update video about the main menu if you want to see how it works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n3mUi57aoM
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Hi everyone!

In the last weeks a lot of things have happened and here are the new updates.
This time they're about the tree growing and respawning system, the sleeping schedule, a multi language manager and some changes in the UI.

[h2]Tree growing and respawning[/h2]
In the past, when a player has started a new game, the trees were spawned in all different grow stages and this was a problem because after a few days / weeks the whole map consisted of full grown trees with the same model. (Also, in large maps there were a lot of trees to update)

Therefore I have created an additional model for the pine tree which is a little bit smaller and has its own grow stages. Now, when a new games starts, 2 types of trees are spawned in their last grow stage so that they are looking different and have not to grow anymore.

Trees can also respawn now but only under the following rules:

• The position is not blocked by a construction element or blueprint.
  
• The position is not blocked by an item zone or plant zone.
  
• The position is not blocked by an item.
  
• The position and the 8 blocks above it are not blocked by something (like a roof or balcony)
  

[h2]Sleeping Schedule[/h2]
The colonist overview menu has an additional tab now, where the player can adjust the sleeping time of the colonists. It consists of an area which is divided in 24 sections for the hours of the day.

The sleeping controller (it calculates how tired a colonists is) works with a time span of 24 hours which is represented by a value from 0 to 100%. The value regenerates with x4 while a colonist is sleeping and a low value has a negative impact on the mood.

There is also an "oversleep" value which is activated when the controller has reached 100% and the colonist is still sleeping. It can be active for ~4 hours and forces the colonist to wake up when it reaches 100% (it will be always set to 0% when a colonist wakes up & has a positive effect on the mood)

The sleeping controller has also some thresholds which have currently the following relations to the schedule controller:

• Colonists go to sleep when the value is under ~83% and sleeping schedule = true
  
• Colonists go to sleep when the value is 0% and sleeping schedule = false
  
• Colonists wake up if the value is over 50% and sleeping schedule = false
  
• Colonists wake up if the value & oversleep value is 100% and sleeping schedule = true
  

[h3]Good questions about the current setup:[/h3]

What happens if the entire schedule controller is set to sleep?

The colonist will go to sleep when the sleeping controller is under 83% and will sleep until its value and oversleep value have 100%. Leads to: ~5h sleeping, ~4h awake, ~5h sleeping, ~4h awake, ...

What happens if the entire schedule controller is not set to sleep?

The colonist will go to sleep when the sleeping controller has 0% and will sleep until its value is over 50%. Leads to: ~3h sleeping, ~12h awake, ~3h sleeping, ~12h awake, ...

[h2]Multi-Language Manager[/h2]
In the last weeks a lot of time went into the implementation of the multi language manager.
A lot of parts are done and the following things are already connected and available in English and German:

• Entire technology system
  
• Colonist skills
  
• Items and construction elements
  
• Colonist command sentences
  
• The sentences of what a colonist is currently doing
  

What is missing:

• Main menu
  
• Settings menu
  
• Save & Load menu
  
• Smaller menus & systems which are not finished (like the colonist mood menu)
  

[h2]UI Updates[/h2]
The UI is a little bit more compact and better structured now. Here are the changes:

• Colonist overview menu is now static (right upper corner)
  
• Added 3 new buttons for world, diplomacy & tutorial [?] (right upper corner)
  
• Transparent layer & temperature menu moved to the left (left upper corner)
  
• Removed black bar on the top
  
• Added an info panel to the main actions menu (left lower corner)
  

[h2]Update Video[/h2]
I've also uploaded a new update video which covers the new stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FUhRDF-lfI
Hope you all have a good day,
Cheers!

Additional links:
Discord YouTube Reddit

Hi everyone!

A lot of things happened in the last weeks and yesterday I've uploaded a new update video.

It's about the new injury system, the new skill system, colonist customization, an updated science system (core mechanics finished) and more. I've also written all important information in the blog below.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Injury System[/h2]
At first I've implemented the new injury & status system for the colonists which has some very basic mechanics for now and can handle 3 different types of effects.

Temporary Effects:

These are effects like starving. (It's only one in the game at the moment)

Injuries:

This effect will be added if a colonist gets hit by a bullet, an arrow or another projectile.
It does direct damage and has the ability to bleed for a certain time with a specific amount of damage per hour. If it stops to bleed or is medicated, it starts to recover.

Bleeding:

The bleeding effect is a summary of all bleedings which are caused by injuries and the bleeding damage is calculated and handled by this particular system. This means that if all wounds have stopped to bleed - then this effect is recovering. It can be seen as the regeneration of lost blood.

In connection with the injuries I've added a background system with body parts which have different chances to get hit and different impacts on the direct damage as well as on the bleeding effect.
At the moment there are these parts and chances:

• Body (55%)
  
• Stomach (10%)
  
• Liver (10%)
  
• Lungs (10%)
  
• Kidneys (10%)
  
• Heart (5%)
  

There are 2 other ways to hurt a colonist and the first is a hit by an explosion (which only adds a deadly and not bleeding injury on a random body part for now) and the second is a hit by a flamethrower. Both of them are not completely finished because they require some special network commands / managing and this will be added when I will implement the full network functionality of the combat manager.

[h2]Skill System[/h2]
The next point on the list was to create a skill system for the colonists and here are the 9 basic skills which are currently in the game:

• Forester
  
• Miner
  
• Farmer
  
• Construction
  
• Crafting
  
• Medicine
  
• Science
  
• Combat for range weapons
  
• Combat for melee weapons
  

Each skill has a max level of 30 and in addition a colonists can have a talent for one or more, which increases the amount of skill points they will get for a related activity by 50%. I've also added some kind of a skill tree and it works in the way that with every skill level a colonist gets an attribute point - with these points the player can select an attribute from the skill tree which has an effect on this colonist.

At the moment there are 2 different types of attributes in the skill trees to select:

Speed:

This increases the speed to finish a certain job - like tree cut, mining or researching speed.

Diligence:

This increases the amount of items which will be spawned if a colonist finishes a job - like harvesting a plant, mining a block or cut a tree.

There are also background attributes which will be added if a colonist reaches the 6th level of a skill and with every additional level the effects of them are increased by 1%.
For example with the skill Forester:

• Forester level 6 (+1% speed, +1% diligence)
  
• Forester level 10 (+5% speed, +5% diligence)
  
• Forester level 20 (+15% speed, +15% diligence)
  
• Forester level 30 (+25% speed, +25% diligence)
  

[h2]Science System[/h2]
In the science system I've changed the layout of the technology tree as well as of the technology panels and then I've integrated the 2 related attributes from the skill system which were the research speed and the chance of fail.

For now the chance of fail is calculated from the related skill level in the following way:

• Science level 0 (10% chance of fail)
  
• Science level 5 (5% chance of fail)
  
• Science level 10 (0% chance of fail)
  

One problem with the science system was, that the researching speeds of multiple colonists were summed up to the final speed. For example: If I had 3 colonists with 100% research speed on 3 science tables, then they researched with 300% in total which was much too fast.

Therefore I've added 2 modifiers to balance this issue:

Team Project Modifier:

This speed modifier is applied if 2 or more colonists are researching the same science point.
The calculation:

• 1 colonist (100% total, 100% per colonist)
  
• 2 colonists (135% total, 67.5% per colonist)
  
• 3 colonists (151% total, 50.3% per colonist)
  
• 4 colonists (162% total, 40.5% per colonist)
  

Cross Project Modifier:

This speed modifier is applied if 2 or more different science points are researched at the same time.
The calculation:

• 1 point (100% total, 100% per science point)
  
• 2 points (160% total, 80% per science point)
  
• 3 points (180% total, 60% per science point)
  

Note: The unique research speed of each colonist is handled by this system too.


With these updates the core mechanics of the science system should be finished.
In the future I only have to add more technologies and a few new types of science points.




[h2]Colonists Customization[/h2]
There is a new customization menu where the player can select a hat, a coat and a shirt for each colonist and in addition I've added the functionality that some clothes can have multiple colors. This means that if I have a shirt with a tie for example, I can select one color for the shirt and another color for the tie. It's now also possible to choose if a colonist should wear a shirt outside or inside of the trousers.

At the moment clothes can be changed as often as wanted without any costs - the player only have to select a new outfit and send the colonist to a commode or a wardrobe.




[h2]Additional Updates[/h2]

Tree Cut Functions:

Before this update the player had to select every single tree to mark it to be cut. Now it's possible to select an area.

Destruction Manager:

The destruction manager can now handle colonist job cancel operations - like if a job to destroy a construction element or to transport an item to an item zone became invalid by the collapse of a building structure.

Furniture:

I have added 2 new models which are the small commode and the desk.

Colonists Path Navigators:

The navigation functionality for the colonists can handle changes of the run speed over the network now. (this was added in connection with the skill system)



I hope you all have a good day,
Cheers!

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