Plan B: Terraform News

Sorry for the long wait, here is the update! Production limit (click on the items quantity counter to set it) to very easily prevent useless resources consumption ; and a major performances increase on the depots. If you like building hundreds of depots, you probably saw that created a major framerate drop - it should be much better now!

Also, you now need to press Shift to overwrite a building by building over it, to avoid deleting some by mistake. Same when you want to delete a line full of vehicles. And finally, you can now rename your cities.

This was the last of the v0.6.x updates, now starting to work on v0.7.0 with very . Complete roadmap until the release is about ready and I'll detail it on the next news.

Update on 2023-06-03 : build 703 HOTFIX
- Fixed a bug with drones going very far away to catch a train.
- Fixed a bug/crash with factories

Update on 2023-06-03 : build 702 HOTFIX
- Fixed a bug with containers on trains


Plan B - v0.6.9 build 701

Improvements:
- items production limit
- depots performances optimization
- needs shift to overwrite an item, or to destroy a line with vehicles.
- depots & lines auto chose item at creation, if possible
- city renaming

Balance:

Bugs fix:
- added planet name length & characters limit
- fixed city population rounding (objective city pop could be different than city pop)
- fixed road/rail intersections display
- fixed issues with duplication and building interface
- fixed bug when vehicles id reached 32k

Minor:
- fixed help help arrows length if scale not 100%
- some text changes
- tutorial : added condition for factories recipe, texts changes.
- added detailed performances infos in log
- wiki updated
- use items codename as name if not defined in loc files
- localization update

Today, I would like to go back a bit to the origin of the game.

It all started with Factorio. What an incredible game (the best game in the world? or is it Subnautica? no, it's Outer Wilds of course)!
No subscreens everywhere, no transports complicated to set up (hello Transport Tycoon). Everything is visual, you can follow the resources from the beginning to the end... really great! But also so grey, so sad...

Add a bit of Mini Metro (for transports creation simplicity) and Cities Skyline (for its simple and efficient level structure), and you have the main inspirations for the game.

So, 4 years ago (and after working for 5 years on Dig or Die), I started this new game, Plan B: Terraform.

A "factorio but more pleasing to the eye, more chill" was only one aspect of what I wanted:

- After Dig or Die, I wanted to use my water cycle simulation engine again, but in a context that would perhaps make more sense: the terraformation of a planet. My interest was to have a progressive, slow terraformation, where influencing some parameters would naturally modify the world, relying only on the simulation. Just the opposite of an instant, artificial, "upgrade button" type of terraforming.

- I also wanted a very, very large terrain. Frustrated by some games where you build trains to connect cities that are 100 meters apart, I wanted to give an impression of gigantism, of vast landscapes to cross. An almost infinite playground, which would not be intended to be exploited to the maximum, but to convey this impression of gigantism, and the scale of the terraforming project.

- Finally, I wanted to insist on the "scale up" aspect of the population, of the industry. I wanted a game where the orders of magnitude at the end were really different from the start.
This goes hand in hand with the two previous points, to give the player the impression of a real evolution during the game, of a complete change.

And thanks to the income from Dig or Die, and a help fund from the CNC in France, I was able to start this project serenely, being accompanied (among others) by a 3D artist during two years, and a composer. I'll come back to these talents in another blog post.

Thanks for reading, and sorry for my bad english. And ok, ok, now I go back to the updates!

Gaddy

Today's update includes two strong requests from players: the range display and the auto rerouting of trucks & trains (after their path has been modified).

Next update should include the max number of items in inventory (to stop assembly plants when owning enough of a building), and the most needed containers performance update.


Plan B - v0.6.8 build 685

Improvements:
- display depots range when you build them
- automatic rerouting for broken ways, if a new path is found
- modified items groups, modified and cleaned some containers models and colors (preparation for containers perfs optim)
- smoother camera movement (for Locate buttons)

Bugs fix:
- fixed bug showing truck icon in trains selection panel
- cleaned the first visible images when launching the app
- fixed selection hex hidden when mouse was over UI
- fixed bug with city names on minimap preventing to click on the view filter buttons
- fixed a bug that teleported vehicles from another line on a newly created line
- fixed a bug with camera move around the 0 longitude

Minor:
- improved buttons to move camera to start/end of line
- show ground altitude in status bar, without adding water
- update localization

Plan B - v0.6.7 build 672

Improvements:
- added water overlay to show the risk of floods and better understand water movement - check new help page about it
- added loading tips
- unpause now goes back to previous speed
- improved status bar text
- improved water flowing (to get rid of remaining water much faster when you build a dam)

Bugs fix:
- fixed drones & trains still there after a new game
- fixed vehicles (& drones bugs) not working anymore (even when creating a new game), when reaching max vehicles count
- fixed UI Scale option not updated on click
- removed some web connexion (unity stats) that did some freeze at launch in very rare cases
- fixed some issue that reset the recipe of a building you try to duplicate
- fixed camera not moving to the target exactly
- removed SF6 / NF3 from recipe picker
- fixed water disappearing sometimes at new game

Minor:
- added a link to wiki
- opens credits at last level
- fixed animation pause on home menu
- texts updated from crowdin
- fixed green debug showed 1 frame at start
- improved lua security

Plan B has been released in Early Access for almost a month now, and I can't thank you enough for your support!

I've learnt that Plan B was among the top wishlisted games during the Steam Next Fest, so I've decided to put the demo back live for a week, for anyone who would like to give it a try. It will be live until March 20th

I have had time to release only a few updates during this time, not as much as I wanted, but now I should have more time to focus on the dev. Oh and I'm sorry about the Stops sudden removal: trust me, I got enough feedback about it to be sure to better alert & explain next time there is a big change!

And welcome back Romain, who had worked as an intern on the game, and is now back to help me.

In the coming weeks, updates should include :

• The water overlay addition (to see where there is a risk of water, and what direction the water flows), and some dam pump walls to have fun with water
  
• The vehicles auto-rerouting
  
• The production max limit for buildings
  
• The depots balance priority system
  
• Graphic options
  

I know, all of those are badly needed. And it's only some of the most urgent needed small updates. I've planned for some bigger updates with new content, but that will be for later!