Poly Skies News

Happy Easter all! Just a small patch for you today containing some fixes and minor tweaks.

CHANGED:
- Chickens now produce slightly more eggs, more frequently
- Chickens are now included in Creative Mode resource counter

FIXED:
- Chickens are now added to resources once traded
- Villagers will now check if a building has moved without throwing errors
- Villagers are less likely to get stuck in Watch Posts

UI:
- Fixed various overlap and layout issues
- Fixed some misaligned tooltips
- Added a minor shadow to text for readability

VFX:
- Updated villager firebolt

Don't forget, if you experience any issues you can report them on the discussions board or my Discord. The demo version of the game has also been updated with the above changes.

Thanks,
Matt.

Update 2.0 has arrived, woohoo! Let's waste no time with the change list...

ADDED:

• Dynamic weather system (sun, rain, snow) ☀🌧❄
  
  • Snow pauses Plot production
• Ability to rename islands in a new panel that lists unlocked islands
  
• Ability to see labor in a new panel that lists all workplaces
  
• Buildings:
  
  • Tavern (Tier 4)
    
  • Paddock (Tier 5)
• Animals:
  
  • Chicken
    
• Resources:
  
  • Eggs
    
• New achievement: "Cracking!" Have 100 eggs in storage.
  
• Trade panel now has 2 sections, for consumables and animals
  
• Added visual filters:
  
  • Standard
    
  • Asteroid City
    
  • Calm
    
  • Warm
    
• "Continue" option in the Main Menu to load most recent save
  

CHANGED:

• Changed how objects are highlighted
  
• Camera speeds at low zoom increased
  
• Moonlight colour now has a blue tint and is slightly dimmer
  
• Changed some post-processing effects affecting colour
  
• Thin path is now thinner
  
• Storage Barn collision box is slightly smaller
  

BALANCES:

• Arborist output amount reduced from 15 to 5
  
• Arborist output rate reduced from 20 to 30 seconds
  
• Arborist growth rate increased from 30 to 20 seconds
  
• Arborist can now grow up to 12 trees at a time
  
• Exchange rate of crystal changed from 25 to 50
  
• Exchange rate of metal changed from 5 to 3
  
• Exchange rate of wood changed from 2 to 1
  
• Villager skills now max at 30. A fully trained villager will be 1.5x as fast as a villager with 0 experience in that skill
  
• Villagers will now eat up to 10 units of food when hungry instead of 6
  
• Villagers now gain 3 happiness from being at home instead of 2
  

FIXED:

• [Crash] Fixed game crashing or deleting buildings if using "Repair" on a building not damaged
  
• Quest notifications will no longer show if already in the quest menu
  
• Arborist will no longer spawn
• lots* of trees nearby
  
• Trees will now correctly save/load if they are destroyed
  
• Villagers won't get stuck if a portal they need has moved
  
• Villagers no longer get stuck at certain buildings
  
• Fading effect between scenes now works correctly
  
• Fixed a rare bug where trees couldn't be manually felled, but counted towards a quest and achievements
  
• Fishery placement checks no longer offset
  
• Windowed mode toggle no longer uses Exclusive Full Screen option
  
• Plots will now show assigned villager count on holding 'Alt'
  
• "Notify" sound will no longer immediately play on new game
  
• Village name is now sent to Steam Rich Presence when loading save file
  
• VSync and Windowed toggle now work correctly
  
• Fixed UI camera rendering incorrectly
  
• Airship now docks at mooring with animation
  

UI:

• (Yet another) UI rework
  
• Contextually placed tooltips
  
• New UI sounds
  
• Sharper font
  
• Deleting a save file now requires confirmation
  
• Sliders can now be moved without selecting the handle first
  
• Render scale slider now matches text correctly
  
• Homeless and idle villagers counter now correct on new game
  
• Villager count now includes total housing room (eg. 6/10)
  
• Villager status image in the villager list panel is now updated correctly
  
• You can no longer open the villager list if in build mode
  
• World space UI no longer freezes when game is paused
  

AI:

• Improved accuracy of the Navigation Mesh on Islands
  
• General AI stability improved
  
• Villagers now avoid obstacles in the environment
  
• Villagers will now stop sharing the same positions at certain buildings
  

PERFORMANCE:

• Arborist tree pooling algorithm improved for less memory usage
  
• Tree animations optimized and culled when not visible
  
• Audio and music compression methods updated
  
• Minimap camera optimized
  
• Improved Occlusion Culling
  
• Lamp Posts no longer cast shadows
  
• Removed light source from mine
  

If you experience any bugs please report them on the discussions board or my Discord.

Thanks,
Matt.

Hello,

Thanks for your patience waiting for this next update. I'd like to give you a quick overview of what's coming up soon...

[h2]Where are versions 1.17, 1.18 and 1.19?[/h2]
Thrown under the bus. Forget about them. They don't exist.
Joking aside, the current goals of the project were initially being split up into smaller updates, these updates would have taken us from 1.16 up to 1.19, however I thought it would be best to combine everything into a larger 2.0 update.

[h2]What's coming?[/h2]
Really long paragraph explaining all the changes in version 2.0
Bullet points!

• Weather! (sun, rain, snow)
  
• Improved ambience (audio/visual)
  
• Reworked UI (again)
  
• New buildings!
  
• Name your islands
  
• Bug fixes and QoL improvements
  

[h2]Sneaky Peak![/h2]
Sneaky screenshot time! In this image you will see the new UI, the island list, new tooltips and rain.


That's all for now until the update drops, I still have quite a lot of work to do so I can't give a specific date. Don't forget to check out my Discord for more frequent updates and if you have questions, it's a great place to ask!

Thanks,
Matt.

This update is a little overdue, thanks for your patience. This update focuses on some visuals, a UI rework and some critical fixes.



ADDED:
- Vilagers now use a VFX when teleporting
- Fireflies now spawn near trees
- A minimap window used to quickly move between islands

CHANGED:
- UI rework, enjoy a cleaner more tranquil UI
- Resource requirements for constructions now turn red if you don't have enough
- Updated portal VFX
- Slightly improved skybox colours/environment lighting
- Slightly increased moon light intensity
- New optimized water shader (while maintaining a similar visual)
- Cloud brightness and fading is not as deep
- Auto-save is now every 5 minutes

FIXED:
- [Crash Fix] Fixed crash relating to portals and moving buildings while villagers try to access them
- Moving Portals that are being used should no longer cause Villager AI issues
- Various particles blurring with transparent materials
- Fixed an issue with lighting in version 1.14-1.15 (apparent at night time)

PERFORMANCE:
- Disabled pixel perfect UI, overall performance improved
- Motion blur intensity slightly reduced
- Improved performance for AI and UI updates

If you experience any bugs please report them on the discussions board or my Discord. The demo version of the game has also been updated with all recent changes.

Thanks,
Matt.

Hi all!

I'd like to take the opportunity to give a little update on what's coming to Poly Skies in the immediate future, although, this update may be a little delayed due to some personal reasons.

[h3]Update 1.16[/h3]
Here's a few changes coming to update 1.16...
- UI rework, a new, clean and transparent UI will replace the old version.
- Amongst other fixes, I have address various crashes.
- Multiple VFX changes and additions.
- Improved lighting and colours.
- UI performance improvements.
- And more...

[h3]UI Changes:[/h3]
I'd like to ask for some feedback regarding the UI changes due in update 1.16. Below, I have a comparison screenshot of the old and new, which do you prefer?
In-game UI:

Main Menu:


So far feedback is more towards the transparent UI, although various elements like the main menu I'm not 100% confident about. Your help will be a deciding factor here.

Thanks for your support, positive feedback and suggestions!
Matt.