AColony News

Hi everyone,

I'm still fully working on the new update and because it will still take a bit of time until I can publish it, I thought it would be nice to give you a quick news update about the upcoming prisoner system.

I have to say, this post will only focus on the prisoners system - so all other new stuff regarding the faction system, new clothes, skin colors & more will be said when I will finally publish the next version :)

[h3]Prison System[/h3]

The next update will finally bring the prison & prisoners system into the game and will also add a lot of new content which includes for example:

• Imprison immobilized colonists (hostile or neutral ones)
  
• New technology (prison)
  
• New furniture (prison door, prison window, prison bed, prison cell closet & the prison planning board)
  
• New clothes (convict clothes)
  
• Conversations / Interactions with prisoners
  
• New demoralization factor of furniture
  
• Sell prisoners to colonist traders
  
• New traits
  
• And much more
  

Note: all screenshots are still from work in progress



[h3]Prison Planning Board[/h3]

There will also come the new prison planning board, which will give you new functionalities to handle imprisoned colonists. You will also have the opportunity to talk / interact with your prisoners and the following options are already implemented:

• Set Free
  You can set a prisoner free. This will later have a positive effect on the faction whose member you imprisoned.
  
• Persuade to join you colony
  You can try to persuade a prisoner to join your colony.
  
• Break will
  You can also try to break the will of a prisoner. This is required in order to be able to sell a prisoner to the colonists traders.
  

The chances if a conversation / interaction with a prisoner will have success, will depend on a new morale system that will be affected by the way you treat your prisoners, but also by how the cells you put them in are designed. A positive morale will increase the chance that a prisoner will say yes to join your colony. A negative one will increase the chance that you can break his will.



[h3]New Job Section[/h3]

In connection with the new prisoner functionalities, I have added a new job section to the colonists overview menu, which handles all new jobs for a prison guard. As with the doctor job, this job also has a few sub jobs that you can prioritize with the prison planning board.



[h3]Prison Events[/h3]

The next point on my list is to add some new events to make the prison life more vivid. This includes for example:

• Prison break
  
• Fight between inmates in same cell
  
• Attacking prison guards
  
• Having a sharpened toothbrush as hidden weapon
  

I hope you enjoyed this short news and are already looking forward to the next update,
Cheers!

Hi everyone,

it's time for a new & short update (v0.1.030) and this one is about some changes in the food system and other fixes.

[h2]Updated Food System[/h2]

With this update, your colonists' food system and schedule will change. Your colonists now only need 2 meals per day, which allows you a better management of the meal production. (In the past, 1 colonist needed 3 meals per day which was with only 5 colonists already 15 per day - that was a bit too much)



In connection with the meal schedule, I've also updated many features related to the meals, such as production times, food values, textures, and more. I've also added a new function that allows you to set all schedules to the new system when loading a save file created before v0.1.030. All points can be found in the following section general patch notes.

[h2]General Patch Notes[/h2]

• added missing translations for french, japanese & simplified chinese
  
• updated food system
  
• colonists only require 2 meals per day anymore
  
• meals meat level 2 & 3 require wheat as second ingredient now (your jobs in campfires and kitchens will automatically update)
  
• meals bread level 2 & 3 require wheat as second ingredient now(your jobs in campfires and kitchens will automatically update)
  
• many jobs by player command having a timer to ignore schedule now
  
• meals level 2 and 3 are unlocked by tech 'modern machines' now
  
• plant zones having a checkbox now to prioritize seeding before harvesting now
  
• meals have now slightly higher food values
  
• updated meal textures & icons
  
• added positive mood effect for eating meals level 2
  
• added positive mood effect for eating meals level 3
  
• reduced negative effect of hunger & tiredness slightly
  
• added reset option for colonist schedule
  
• added reset option for colonist job priorities
  
• doctor jobs are chosen before schedule now
  
• increased max production & table limit to 999 before infinity
  
• fixed production limit also counted for upgrade jobs
  
• fixed production limit not counted when required resources already on table
  
• fixed quality +0 weapons stats in item info menu not shown
  
• campfire, weapontable, butchertable, furnace & basic sciencetable can be moved now
  
• fixed error shown when attacking wanderer group after you sent them away
  
• fixed tree transparent mode collider layer
  
• fixed terrainrocks seen by tree cut, plant cut and hunt job selecting
  
• fixed solar generators not reacting correctly to tree shadows
  
• equip weapon command panel shows quality level now
  
• fixed coop new game error shown when connecting more often
  
• fixed accept coop invite during active game was possible
  

[h2]Plans for next Update: Diplomacy & Prisoners System[/h2]

The next point on the list (and also the next major update) is the diplomacy and the prisoner system (finally). This should add a lot of new content to the game like different AI player factions, many new events related to it, skin colors and new clothes for your colonists, the option to capture immobilized colonists, to demotivate & influence inmates and much more.

I've already started with making some models of a jail cell and have here a brief overview of how a prison cell can look like :)



I hope you enjoy this short update,
Cheers!

Hi everyone,

it's time for a new update (v0.1.025) and this one is about the new weapon upgrade system, a new technology + working tables, the production limit manager and some other fixes.

[h2]Weapon Upgrade System[/h2]

This update introduces a new system to the game - the weapon upgrade and quality system. This system is now implemented for all mechanics including resource burners, storage zones, the trading functionality and more.

[h3]Weapon Quality[/h3]
All weapons have a quality level now, that increases certain stats of your weapons to make them more powerful. The maximum quality level is +5.



[h3]New Upgrade Mechanic[/h3]
In relation with the quality system, I updated all workbenches which are designed to craft weapons and added a new option to upgrade your weapons there.

In order to upgrade a weapon to a higher quality level, you need 2 weapons of the same kind with a lower quality level by 1. For example, to create a weapon +2, you need 2 weapons +1.

In addition, I've added a modifier to the different crafting tables that defines the maximum upgrade level allowed.

• Basic workbench (max +2)
  
• Modern weapontable (max +4)
  
• Hightech weapontable (max +5)
  

Note:
At the moment, neutral and enemy colonists only spawn with weapons +0.



[h2]New Technology + Constructions[/h2]

In connection with the weapon upgrade system, I have also added a new technology - Hightech Machines - which unlocks 2 new constructions for the computer age.



[h3]Hightech Weapontable[/h3]
This new machine allows you to upgrade weapons to quality +5. It costs more machine & computer components and increases the work speed by +20%.



[h3]Hightech Workbench[/h3]
This new machine allows you to craft components and ammo of the computer & nuclear age (in the past this was possible on the modern workbench, but this has changed). It costs more machine & computer components and increases the work speed by +20%.

Note:
Looks currently very similar to the hightech weapontable.



[h2]Production Manager[/h2]

With the new update, the production manager is finally available, with which you can better control the production of your resources.

In the crafting menus I've also added a new icon to jobs that shows some information and automatically opens the production manager when clicked.



In the new menu you have an overview of all items that can be produced and can set the corresponding limits there. The limits apply to the number of items in all your storage zones.

For example, if you have the meal (meat) production limit set to 10 and you have a campfire (or more campfires) with a meal (meat) job with infinite, your colonists will discard that job if there are more than 10 Meals in your storage zones.



[h2]Steam Stuff[/h2]

I finally found the issue that was causing some players to experience very long loading times in the first splash screen (it could have froze for over 10 minutes). The issue occurred for players with a very large steam friends list - this is now fixed and the game should launch much faster.

[h2]General Patch Notes[/h2]

Important:
All missing translations of the new machines, techs & mechanics will come with the next patch.

• added weapon quality and upgrade system
  
• updated destroy, storage zone & trading functions for weapon qualities
  
• added production limit manager
  
• added new technology (hightech machines)
  
• added new construction (hightech weapontable)
  
• added new construction (hightech workbench)
  
• resource burner can now auto switch jobs too
  
• long steam init load times fixed when having a lot of steam friends
  
• the game requires steam client to run now (offline or online)
  
• fixed trading table bug (from colonist trader to player trading)
  
• fixed coop bug when mining blocks causing floors to collapse
  
• fixed coop bug that your own tech was shown in research table of other player
  
• fuel rods and hightech age ammo only available on hightech tables now
  
• added +10% work speed on modern workbench & weapon table
  
• craft job select menu has a back button now
  
• changed colors of some tables & some icons slightly
  
• fixed craft menu didn't always close item info menu
  
• balanced colonists spawn rate
  
• reduced general mood change factor by 10%
  
• reduced negative mood effect when colonist is hurt
  
• reduced negative mood effect of small or not beautiful room
  
• reduced negative mood effect of wood enthusiast & rainfriend trait
  
• reduced negative mood effect of eating raw stuff
  
• extended positive mood times for accepting new colonists
  
• reduced negative mood impact for dead colonists
  
• fixed coop error shown while exit game with tech tree panel open
  

Note:
Updated health of the metal door will come with the next patch. (is trickier to update that correctly with the savefiles than expected)

[h3]Postponed [Additional Coop Mode][/h3]

Unfortunately I have to say that I will add the implementation of the additional co-op mode later in the early access phase. While some tests worked well, some bigger issues occurred, like with the items & owner system (which will get a bigger update with the upcoming diplomacy system).

Therefore I have decided to postpone this functionality for the moment until more points of the roadmap list are fully implemented.

I hope you have enjoyed this update,
Cheers!

Hi everyone,

it's time for a new update and this one is about the steam spring sale, the updated demo, a new technology + constructions, a new soundtrack and more.

[h2]Steam Spring Sale [-25%] & Updated Demo[/h2]

On March 16th, AColony goes into its first season sale - the Steam Spring Sale - with a 25% discount! :)

In addition, I have finally updated the demo to the latest version since the old one had its last update in December. The new version now contains all the new functionalities and patches that were also made for the full version.

[h2]New Technology: Heavy Machines[/h2]
With this update, a new technology is added to the game, which unlocks machines to process different materials faster.



[h3]Meat Grinding Machine[/h3]
This new machine allows you to butcher / process corpses +50% faster than with the butcher table.



[h3]Modern Furnace[/h3]
With this new machine, you can extract ores 50% faster than with a normal furnace. Also, wood as fuel is no longer needed as this machine runs on electricity only.



[h3]Modern Brewery[/h3]
The modern brewery is the upgraded version of the normal brewery, and like with the modern furnace, you can craft materials 50% faster, and it's also powered only by electricity.



[h2]New Soundtrack[/h2]

This update also includes a new & additional soundtrack (Return to bygone days | by Karam Bharj) which is played in the background while playing the game.

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

- fixed coop bug with forbid function for constructions
- fixed that wanderers and traders got a negative mood when their event ended
- fixed wrong material impacts were shown on metal doors & windows
- a lot of smaller fixes

Note: with the next update there will come more patches, but some of them need still a network / coop test before I can publish them.

Hope you have enjoyed this update,
Cheers!

Hi everyone,
a new patch is out with some fixes (v0.1.011):

- added new scenario option with 15 unlocked techs on start

It's important to say here: a new game could be more difficult in the beginning with more start techs, because the event system, enemies, insect types and more are scaling with your progress in tech tree.

- some mental breakdown times are shorter now
- fixed very rare bug when dropping resources in storage zones
- fixed doctor priorities wrong saved
- fixed that nuclear reactor console cannot be turned on when set to off
- fixed hospital room expectation values not shown
- fixed that abandoned nest didn't despawn when loading the game
- fixed falling asleep from exhaustion while immobilized
- fixed centipede butcher job had no path when digging under it
- fixed more russian translations + reworked the minute/hour/day system there

Cheers!