Building multi-level factories
Welcome to the latest Dawn Apart dev update, pioneers. For this post sky's the limit really, because we want to show you how vertical building works and how we are designing our build mode specifically for erecting multi-floor factory halls!
As the first month of new year comes to a close (already?), we appreciate you for wishlisting and following Dawn Apart as well as joining our Discord server! (Also there is The Base Builder Fest on Steam right now, in which we of course participate, but are kind of buried among other great games in the most wishlisted upcoming section. So please feel free to urge your co-worker, roomate or whoever may have a steam account to hit our wishlist button). But wait, what is this?
[h3]Look up in the sky! It's a…[/h3]
Giant factory! That's right - early on in development we decided to go vertical. Unlike in other automation games we want to give the player the choice to build factory compounds over multiple floors with conveyor belts going up and down as well as in and out factory halls. We also wanted to keep things realistic to a certain extent and avoid the shortcut of being able to place floating platforms that are not supported in some way by the surface.
Since Dawn Apart is not merely an automation game but also a space colony sim, you're in charge of sheltering both colonists and various machines, including industrial cutters, crimpers, steamers and washing plants. While the latter are pre-designed objects we opted for a sandbox-y approach when it comes to housing.
In essence we created a grid-based placement system that is both horizontal and vertical along with an intricate arsenal of modular floors, tiles, walls and staircases that will allow you to place machines over multiple floors - along with a staircase system for the colonists in charge of operating, maintaining and repairing those machines to reach them.
[h3]Raising the roof[/h3]
So, for example, according to specific room determinants, you can build a giant hall with quarters housing 50 colonists including bunk beds, kitchens and bathrooms on the first floor. The second floor then houses a distillery while various assembly machines operate from the third floor and so on. Conveyor belts and adjacent platforms placed on stilts connect various floors by bringing in raw resources from below and transporting refined metals out of your facility.
Because colonists (for overall well-being) and machines (for maintenance purposes) need a roof of their heads you have to enclose the top floor with roof tiles (roofs are excellent spots to place solar panels or gun turrets, by the way) To still be able to look into your factories to check if production processes go smoothly or to see if an engineer accidentally has fallen into the ore crusher again (yes, that's a thing) we adapted a system popularized by The Sims: You can hover with the mouse key over a roof and it disappears or use the shift key to switch between floors and access complete, level or foundation views.
The overall goal is to create seamless transitions between gameplay that takes place outside in the various biomes of the planet Aurora (e.g.terraforming the surface, getting attacked by humanoid aliens) and the automated production chains and the colony life inside of large factory compounds. Oh yeah and since all environments and objects are fully destructible, an attack on your settlement can make these transitions between in- and outside even faster.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Speaking of factories and machines: Make sure to join our Discord server or subscribe to our YouTube channel to check out our new video series #MachineMondays! Each Monday we preview one of the beautiful machines that will be ultimately part of your assembly line. Until then, see you next week!
As the first month of new year comes to a close (already?), we appreciate you for wishlisting and following Dawn Apart as well as joining our Discord server! (Also there is The Base Builder Fest on Steam right now, in which we of course participate, but are kind of buried among other great games in the most wishlisted upcoming section. So please feel free to urge your co-worker, roomate or whoever may have a steam account to hit our wishlist button). But wait, what is this?
[h3]Look up in the sky! It's a…[/h3]
Giant factory! That's right - early on in development we decided to go vertical. Unlike in other automation games we want to give the player the choice to build factory compounds over multiple floors with conveyor belts going up and down as well as in and out factory halls. We also wanted to keep things realistic to a certain extent and avoid the shortcut of being able to place floating platforms that are not supported in some way by the surface.
Since Dawn Apart is not merely an automation game but also a space colony sim, you're in charge of sheltering both colonists and various machines, including industrial cutters, crimpers, steamers and washing plants. While the latter are pre-designed objects we opted for a sandbox-y approach when it comes to housing.
In essence we created a grid-based placement system that is both horizontal and vertical along with an intricate arsenal of modular floors, tiles, walls and staircases that will allow you to place machines over multiple floors - along with a staircase system for the colonists in charge of operating, maintaining and repairing those machines to reach them.
[h3]Raising the roof[/h3]
So, for example, according to specific room determinants, you can build a giant hall with quarters housing 50 colonists including bunk beds, kitchens and bathrooms on the first floor. The second floor then houses a distillery while various assembly machines operate from the third floor and so on. Conveyor belts and adjacent platforms placed on stilts connect various floors by bringing in raw resources from below and transporting refined metals out of your facility.
Because colonists (for overall well-being) and machines (for maintenance purposes) need a roof of their heads you have to enclose the top floor with roof tiles (roofs are excellent spots to place solar panels or gun turrets, by the way) To still be able to look into your factories to check if production processes go smoothly or to see if an engineer accidentally has fallen into the ore crusher again (yes, that's a thing) we adapted a system popularized by The Sims: You can hover with the mouse key over a roof and it disappears or use the shift key to switch between floors and access complete, level or foundation views.
The overall goal is to create seamless transitions between gameplay that takes place outside in the various biomes of the planet Aurora (e.g.terraforming the surface, getting attacked by humanoid aliens) and the automated production chains and the colony life inside of large factory compounds. Oh yeah and since all environments and objects are fully destructible, an attack on your settlement can make these transitions between in- and outside even faster.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Speaking of factories and machines: Make sure to join our Discord server or subscribe to our YouTube channel to check out our new video series #MachineMondays! Each Monday we preview one of the beautiful machines that will be ultimately part of your assembly line. Until then, see you next week!