DD #73 Planting a Seed One More Time
Hi, everyone. Welcome to another week's developer's diary.
Let's do things a bit differently this week.
First, let's a have quick rundown of the major content update of this week:
1, The Crazed Workers in the Unfinished Building and the Skeleton Cultists in the Secret Tunnel now drop skill books.
2, The main story continues.
3, Something is happening in Liu's PSB about a corrupted cop while he also has his own moral standards.
4, Gardening system upgrade.
5, The Commodity Market of Liu
Most things mentioned above are quite straightforward or hard to avoid spoilers if mentioning details.
Thus, let's focus on the gardening system and the Commodity Market of Liu in this DD.
It has been a long while since the original gardening system was released.
Based on our Incomplete Chronicle, that was on Mar.12, 2021. More than a year ago.
Thus, it can be a good time to enhance this system and bring more content in the future.
Previously, the gardening system was over-simplified,
Basically, you just need to place something you want to plant and wait a bit to harvest, and that's it.
We couldn't choose who to do all the work.
We couldn't interfere with the growing process.
We couldn't even know how much time was left before harvest.
All those problems have been solved in this week's updates.
As gardening is a life skill that every character can learn and gain experience when using, it's now possible to pick any character in your group to work on the gardening process. The more they use the skill the better they become as they accumulate experience and life skill levels along the way. The main character of yours does not have to be able to do everything.
You can now also be able to inspect plants to see details such as when will be the next harvest.
Meanwhile, a fertilizing mechanism has been implemented. Fertilizers can make plants grow faster and have the potential to gain some bonus when harvesting. You can use fertilizers on a plant multiple times while diminishing returns may apply.
But, let's not just stop there. Things can be a bit wilder. The Fertilizers can also heal the HP of plant characters. They can be used even when you are not working on fertilizing.
Want things to go even crazier? Sure.
Have you heard of a certain chemical compound known as Ammonium Nitrate (NH₄NO₃)?
It can be found in many different types of fertilizers.
However, the usage of Ammonium Nitrate is not limited to making fertilizers. It can be used to make explosions and ammunitions. (Just do not try it at home. ) During this week's update, we finished step one which is to acquire Ammonium Nitrate from fertilizers. Who knows what we will do with it in the future. Maybe there will be some blueprints to be discovered.
I loved chemistry back when I was in high school.
Unfortunately, when it comes to exams, I can always get a much higher score in physics.
A student can only prepare for one of them when taking the University Entrance Exam of China.
As a result, that became another story in my life of abandoning my habit to fulfill the expectation of others. A pitty.
Fun fact: most of the students in China just finished their University Entrance Exam a few days ago in a Sparta-style hunger game. Every year, I feel sorry as I know many will fail. It's the exam they prepared for their entire life. Yet, it's a competitive exam that many must fail. Is that even fair to put everyone to take such an exam without even considering every individual's diversity? Such is China. I witnessed a diligent girl fall right in front of my eyes 15 years ago. I will not deny that I had some strong feelings for her. I wrote her story in a previous version of the game. Maybe I will write again. But, that will be another story.
When I think about it, it always brings back some old memory. One of such memories is the Commodity Market of Liu. Yes, it exists in real life. But, the one I put into the game is likely how it looks like more than a decade ago.
As we live in a living world, I want to make it as dynamic as possible, just like the market I remembered.
The vendors come and go, the booths change owners, new goods can be found now and then, and some of them are even like anomalies. If you want to find a Bazaar in Liu, that's the place.
I am simulating this by making each one of the merchants in this market procedurally generated.
Each time, you pay a visit to this market, you may find vendors, and what they sell changes.
You can find normal goods such as clothes, seeds, and fertilizers here.
You can also sometimes find something strange such as vendors that sell coffins.
Sometimes, we may just see things we cannot understand in our lives.
That plants a seed for us to seek the truth, to open doors that previously we don't know were there.
Those past memories make us who we are right now.
And the seed we plant right now may also have an impact on the future.
Sometimes we succeed in this universe.
Sometimes we fail, but maybe in a parallel universe, we succeed.
But, a seed must be planted first to cause a ripple.
It may sound like a puzzle. But, there is no need to try to fully understand it.
At least, I hope you enjoy the improved gardening system and other new content this week.
That's for this week. Many things are happening beneath normal life right now and this is not just a game.
Today's changelog:
##########Content###############
The fertilizing level of a plant may now provide a bonus to the harvest.
Each plant can configure its own setting on the bonus.
When plucking up what you have planted, additional confirmation is required if the plant has any fertilizing level to avoid misclick.
New location: Commodity Market (It's in Liu's commercial street.)
This location will have different merchants be procedurally generated to offer different goods.
Current possible merchants: Clothes Merchant, Coffin Merchant, and Gardening Merchant
The gardening merchants sell fertilizers and plants. It shall provide a stable source of fertilizer.
##########System################
Added a configuration variable that can be used to wipe the default shop item list.
