Vectorio News

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well heading into the later half of this year! I know this is a busy time for many, so hopefully many of you are able to find time to take breaks, keep healthy, and play some games :)

Following up on the last post - I am now moved into my new place and have my new studio area setup. This means I'm now back to work full-time, with my main priority this last week being on the upcoming v0.2.4 patch, which is shaping up to be quite a large content-focused update!

[h3]Get Vectorio 20% off (September 6th - 13th)[/h3]

Before we dive into it this is also just a heads up that the game is currently on sale this week for 20% off, so if you like what you see here and have been thinking about diving in, now's a good time to pick it up!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2082350/Vectorio/

If you're still not convinced about the current state of the game, or are waiting for it to be fleshed out further, wishlisting & following it on Steam helps immensely. It improves the chances of Vectorio being shown to other people, and keeps you updated & in-the-loop on the latest news. A win win!

Alright, I've said my piece, let's dive into what you can expect in the upcoming v0.2.4 patch!

[h2]What's coming in v0.2.4[/h2]

This update is mainly focused around actioning initial feedback from v0.2's live release, as well as iterating on more gameplay systems that have been long-overdue for some love. Let's dig in...



[h3]Claim Mechanics[/h3]

One of the bigger changes to this update is how the claim mechanic works, which has been a big point of contention in the past with many players finding it annoying & difficult to work with. I agree, so in this update it will be receiving some large changes to help make building bases less of a pain...

No Building Restrictions

You will now be able to build anywhere without needing to worry about the area being claimed beforehand, which should make expanding much much easier!



Unclaimed Penalty

The caveat to this is unclaimed buildings will receive an "unclaimed" penalty stat, When a building has this penalty, it will operate at a drastically reduced efficiency. This makes reclaimers act more as "power poles", except they don't require tethering across any power network. (yet, still in consideration)

This penalty is still being worked on, and will be visible in a buildings info panel.



Removal Of Claimer Explosions

When a claimer is removed, it will no longer destroy all the surrounding buildings. The buildings will receive the unclaimed penalty stat, but besides that they will remain. Again, this change is done in the hopes of making adjusting your base & expanding a much easier process!



[h3]UI Improvements[/h3]

As always with any update comes a host of new UI improvements, and this time my focus has really been on establishing a consistent design theme & quality-level that I believe would be more representative of what the UI would look & feel like at 1.0.

Right now I've been establishing this design theme for the top bar, which includes your heat, power, and region overview. A good example of this updated UI is the heat element specifically...

New UI design for heat:



You'll notice there's a bunch of new details in this UI element, including some background smoke, animated embers, reduced border width, cleaner text, and a more pleasing text layout.

This is the type of quality I am hoping to achieve for 1.0 across every UI element in the game. I want different parts of the UI to feel unique to what it's displaying, whilst still retaining a design that is easy to read and fits the overall theme of Vectorio. It's a challenge, but one that is doable!

Going back to this top bar specifically, this is the new design (still WIP) for this entire bar...

Top bar design update (WIP):



You'll notice that the same smoke texture is repeated on the power side; this is not final and is very much placeholder, as I still need to design a small little animation for the power that does a better job at representing that strategic resource. Right now the idea is for this to be little sparks!

This is all I can show you for right now, but you can expect more improvements & updates to the other parts of the UI around the game similar to this when the update goes live!



[h3]Resource Tree[/h3]

For those that haven't been keeping up on Discord, this is an entirely new tech tree dedicated to resources, where you slowly research new information about resources that enable you to be more proficient with those resources inside of your base.

This not only includes previously hidden details like "power value" and "burn time", but also the rate at which these resources are collected, transported, and stored throughout your base.

New resource panel with revealed info:



Below was an early mock-up of how I figured this tree might progress, where you'd input more of a specific resource to find out more details about it, as well as upgrade the efficiency of it inside of different logistical buildings. More of a passive upgrade path using pre-existing lab resources.

Early mock up of Resource Tree progression:



However, I've started to iterate on this idea a bit more, and I'm now considering moving it out of the research tree and into a separate proficiency tree. However, more testing is required on my side to determine the best approach, just know this sort of "resource upgrade" type tree is planned for v0.2.4!



[h3]Merging v0.2.3g[/h3]

This update was originally planned to be v0.2.3g Live, however since the update has grown quite a bit in size, it's been renamed to v0.2.4 to more accurately reflect what's in the update.

While v0.2.4 has it's own features with it, a lot of the improvements in this update stem from what was going to be in v0.2.3g, which is currently in testing on experimental. If you wish to read up on these changes, check out the update post linked below! It contains quite a bit of exciting stuff as well.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/2082350/announcements/detail/4267810371710625315



[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

While not directly related to new content, this is arguably just as, if not more important. A big point of this update is focusing more on quality of life, which mainly revolves around making the game easier and more accessible to play. Here's a list of all the QOL changes coming in v0.2.4!

Highlight QOL changes in v0.2.4 (not inclusive):

• Some entities can now be "replaced" (i.e. replacing walls with barriers)
  
• Power usage statistics, to help track what buildings are using the most power.
  
• Holding control in drone selection will let you select groups of storages, collectors, etc.
  
• Destroying a reclaimer will no longer destroy all buildings inside. (seen above)
  
• Area delete tool, letting you remove a large chunk of your base at one time.
  
• Turrets that require ammo will no longer require direct input, and will instead draw from your global storage bank instead. This is a VERY much a testing change and may not be permanent.
  
• Changes to some of the resource designs to make them look more unique and distinguishable.
  
• More ways to control the camera, including screen panning and a dedicated mouse drag button.
  
• And finally, at long last, a way to queue research techs!
  

Early example of building replacement:



[h3]Much more to come![/h3]

What we covered here is just a taste of what's to come, with update v0.2.4 being very focused on making the gameplay feel a lot more smooth. There's more to come with this update, and this is just the start of a long line of updates planned to come out over the course of the next year.

Just as one last reminder, Vectorio is currently 20% off on Steam for the next week. If you wanna stay up-to-date with what's being worked on, also consider joining the Discord server linked below!

Discord Server: https://discord.gg/Vectorio


Thanks for reading!
~ Ben

Hello again!

A new experimental patch is now available for testing! You can access it on the experimental branch by following the instructions below if you wish to get access to the changes and fixes now.

[h3]How to opt into experimental:[/h3]

1. Locate Vectorio in your Steam library
   
2. Right click and go to "properties"
   
3. Find the "betas" branch
   
4. Using the dropdown, select "Experimental"
   

[h3]Experimental Info:[/h3]

• Testing Cycle: ~2 weeks
  
• Experimental Saves: Enabled
  
• Backwards Compatible: No
  
• Update Type: Experimental Patch
  
• Contains Spoilers: Yes
  

Developer Note: Apologies for the delay on this patch. Last week I was sick, and in a few days I'll be moving locations and getting a new studio setup. It's been a bit chaotic lately, but come September I'll be settled in and back to regular updates, including some dev-logs to showcase what's going on BTS!

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

The following is a list of changes pushed to the experimental branch. While changes are usually tested beforehand, please note that some may require further testing to validate.

[h3]CONTROL SCHEME:[/h3]

• Added the ability to pan the camera using screen edge
  
• Scroll will always be calculated as long as pointer isn't over UI element
  
• Clicking on an empty spot in the screen will close the currently open UI panel
  
• Camera drag is now calculated in late update, to avoid accidental entity-clicking
  
• Added a new keybind for deselecting the current mode
  
• Options to adjust movement and zoom speed added to the settings
  
• Options to toggle edge panning and camera dragging added to the settings
  
• Movement now calculated in non-fixed update loop (will feel smoother)
  
• Some other minor tweaks to the default scheme to make it feel more intuitive
  

[h3]BALANCE CHANGES:[/h3]

• Increased Sweeper damage from 2 to 2.5
  
• Reduced Sweeper power from 10 to 6
  
• Reduced Generator heat from 35 to 15
  
• Reduced Pulsar power from 18 to 10
  
• Reduced Foundry heat from 12 to 8
  
• Reduced Manufacturer heat from 35 to 25
  
• Reduced Ammo Forge power from 25 to 15
  
• Reduced Bomber health from 15 to 12
  
• Reduced Fighter health from 12 to 10
  
• Reduced Reinforced Saw health from 15 to 8
  

[h3]OTHER CHANGES:[/h3]

• Added a max spawn value to hives, to prevent huge swarms
  
• Added headers to the settings menu, to help with organization
  
• Changed modifiers to show 1 digit instead of a whole number
  
• Temporarily disabled cloak checks on defenses, until Phantom Plains V2
  

[h3]BUG FIXES:[/h3]

• Fixed builder drones causing session errors in multiplayer environments
  
• Fixed filters not resetting after a drone gets object pooled
  
• Fixed some of the modifiers not applying correctly after an entity is object pooled
  
• Fixed all enemy modifiers not applying correctly to enemy units and buildings
  
• Fixed hub not spawning on a new region if the region switch process fails
  
• Some other minor bug fixes
  

[h3]TENTATIVE:[/h3]
These are additions to the update that have not yet been enabled in experimental, as they aren't quite ready for testing. This is usually due to lingering issues in internal tests or the feature being incomplete.

• New "Resource Data" tree, which can improve burn time & collection rate for resources. This will eventually contain infinite techs which slowly improve resource values the more you research them.
  
• New building "Resource Analyzer", which provides double lab value for the Resource Data tree.
  
• New decoration tile "Concrete", added to the Decorations research tree.
  

[h2]Year 2 - Roadmap Plans, Priorities, and more![/h2]

If you haven't already, check out what's coming in Year 2 (and a look-back at Year 1) in the post linked below; there's a lot of exciting stuff coming, and you can also vote on the features you'd like to see first!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2082350/view/4355629296435403976

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying v0.2 and everything new it has to offer. Well there's certainly some rough edges with the patch, I think it's still been a major success and is setting us up nicely for the next year of development, which is going to be a lot more action packed then Year 1!

Speaking of, this post is aimed at covering what we accomplished in Year 1, what the immediate priorities are moving into Year 2, and how the rest of this year is shaping up. So let's get into it!



[h2]Year 1 | A slow, but very important start[/h2]

The first year of development has been quite slow, with only 2 major updates during this time...

[h3]v0.1.4 (Power Rework)[/h3]
The first major update was back in December, which was v0.1.4 (Power Rework) and was aimed at remedying some of the initial feedback from launch.

Main Features:

• Complete refactor of the power and heat system.
  
• New generator mechanics, making them require resources to produce power.
  
• Removed collection mode and collector drones from the game
  
• Multiple hotbars, and the ability to quick scroll through them using left-control.
  
• Refactored gamemode handling to run everything through a central main scene.
  
• New backend stat system for handling entity stats
  
• Multiple refactors and updates to many of the manager scripts
  

Read more:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2082350/announcements/detail/3870345047346075562

This update was received relatively well, but also received some very fair criticisms which mainly revolved around the continued state of inconsistent stability and poor performance. These have since both been improved in v0.2, but clearly with still a lot more work to be done.

[h3]v0.2.0 (The Big One)[/h3]
The second major update was just released last week at the tail end of Year 1, which was the long-awaited v0.2. This is, and likely always will be the single most important update to the game from a foundational standpoint, laying the ground work for what will come next in Year 2 and beyond.

Main Features:

• Multiplayer, join forces with friends on a shared world with up to 10 other players.
  
• New region, Phantom Plains, with an entirely new tech tree.
  
• Control schemes. with dedicated control modes. Supports click to drag camera movement.
  
• Strategic outpost mechanics, including internal simulations for each outpost.
  
• Variety of new resources with more complex recipes, requiring efficient drone networks.
  
• New settings menu, with many more settings to tweak the game to your liking.
  
• 50+ new stat modifiers to adjust, and a few new modifier presets to try and tackle.
  
• Drone route connection previewing, showing the specific route a drone will take.
  
• Predictive aiming for turrets, letting them lead shots to be far more accurate on moving targets.
  
• Defenses that require ammunition in order to fire. Used on stronger defenses.
  
• Resource x-ray utility, allowing you to see the resources stored in each building at a glance.
  

Foundational Work:

• New database & library system, replacing the old clunky library system. Whilst the old library system had it's benefits, it was very prone to errors and very inefficient.
  
• Component refactor; a complete overhaul to how entity logic is defined and applied. Will speed up the development of new content exponentially, and offer extensive modding support in the future.
  
• Vastly improved entity simulation, with the removal of the dynamic update rate in place of much more aggressive logic culling on certain entities. Reduces the active entity count substantially.
  
• New metadata system, which can capture entity metadata globally or locally. This will be useful when producing entity clusters (i.e. outposts) and be used heavily in the copy + paste utility.
  
• Update save system with better save-state capturing, storing entity conditions which were not previously stored in the old system (i.e. drone positions & action state)
  
• New sound system, creating more localized sound instances & interactivity by utilizing a simulated 3D environment based on spatial blending.
  
• Model animation system, for defining animation groups which can be interacted with from each entities script. Currently used by turrets, and will be expanded on in upcoming versions.
  

Read more:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2082350/view/4355629296426465953

While it's still a bit too early to tell, the reception to this update seems positive, with the main concern still being on the continued poor stability in game. This is something that I am well aware of on my end, and will be my main focus leading into Year 2. Speaking of concerns, let's discuss refund data!



[h2]Learning from reviews & refunds[/h2]

Below I have compiled a ranked list of the most frequent feedback & complaints in reviews and refunds, including some notes from myself on what steps I'll be taking to remedy them...

1. Bugs and Technical Issues

• Prioritize bug fixing, especially ones introduced in v0.2 relating to multiplayer
  
• Optimize rendering performance and reduce draw-calls
  
• Reduce load times when getting into a world
  
• Continue to iterate on general gameplay stability
  

2. Complicated Gameplay / Steep Learning Curve

• Streamline core mechanics and introduce them more gradually
  
• Add more context & information to the game (i.e. resource info)
  
• Redo the tutorial system, as many people find the current one frustrating
  

3. Unmet Expectations

• Clarify game description and marketing materials to illustrate differences from Classic
  
• Do a better job highlighting unique features that differentiate it from similar games
  

4. Lack of Content / Early Access State

• Communicate more clearly the current state of early access and what the planned features are
  
• Regularly update the game, instead of having these huge gaps between updates
  

5. Missing Multiplayer

• Done!
  

6. Repetitive or Boring Gameplay

• Introduce more variety in gameplay element, especially when it comes to logistics.
  
• Consider adding challenges or more bite-sized objectives to maintain engagement
  

7. Lack of Guidance

• Clearly define goal posts for the player to work towards
  
• Add more tooltips and general information to the game to help aid newer players
  

8. Visual Issues

• Offer more color palette options or a colorblind mode
  
• Do additional research on more accessibility options for the game
  

9. Control Scheme

• Continue to iterate on the control scheme for the game, making it more user-friendly
  
• Add more ways to customize the control scheme to the players liking
  

10. Balance and Difficulty Issues

• Fine-tune game balance, especially when it comes to heat vs. power scaling
  
• Implement more difficulty settings that can help players adjust the game to their liking
  

To me this indicates three main points of interest to improve upon immediately going into Year 2, which are Stability, Guidance, and Balance. That's why for the next few weeks I will be fully dedicated to fixing bugs, iterating on game balance, adding more contextual information, and redoing the tutorial.

I'll have more details to follow on this soon, but that leads us into the main point of this post...



[h2]Year 2 | What's the plan?[/h2]

Right now I am still laying out the general roadmap for this year, which includes what I want to achieve by the end of this year (that being, this time next year) and where I hope we will be.

[h3]What do you want to see first?[/h3]

However, It's important that I involve you, the community, in this decision. You guys are the ones that play the game, and that means I want to deliver the content & features you're most interested in. As such, below I've linked a poll which you can vote on for what you want to see first.

Poll: https://strawpoll.com/7rnzVmKMdnO




For those that wish to view this list here before voting, or simply not vote, these features are...

• Modular Gunships: Design, deploy, and direct your own fleet of hand-crafted gunships.
  
• Cargo Freighters: Adding new types of long-range transportation methods to the mix.
  
• Building Animations: Creating animations that will make your base feel more alive.
  
• Decorations & Colors: More decoration blocks and the color-brush utility tool.
  
• Logistics V2: An overhaul of the logistics system, with more tools & unique challenges.
  
• Enemies V2: Improving the enemy AI logic and implementing enemy outpost construction.
  
• Frigid Fields: The next region, which brings temperature management & obstacles.
  
• Phantom Plains V2: Updating the plains region with more content & FOW-based challenges.
  
• World Gen V3: The worlds are still missing little details that will make exploration more rewarding, and I believe one more iteration on this system will remedy that.
  
• Upgrade System: Adding the ability to upgrade buildings & defenses with different modules.
  
• Turret Labs: The new challenge-based game mode, something different from adventure.
  
• Cosmetics / Skins: New unlockable drip for your buildings and units.
  

This list is by no means inclusive of everything I want to achieve this year, but this is the general outline I will be following for delivering new content & features. I believe these will all drastically enhance the overall gameplay experience, and build on the foundational work done in Year 1.

Note: The goal is to deliver ALL of these features, the poll is meant for you to choose which features are more important to you and that you'd like to see first!



[h3]So what's next?[/h3]

The immediate priority is bug fixing. In order for these features to hit and be enjoyed upon their arrival, the game needs to, well... function. So over the next few weeks you can expect continuous patches and hotfixes to a lot of the current stability issues on live, as well as balance changes & additional UI info.

If anyone would like to discuss any of these planned features further, please don't hesitate to reach out to me below or on our Discord, Like always, I try to read every message, even if I don't respond!

Discord: https://discord.gg/vectorio


Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely rest of your summer :)

~ Ben

Hello everyone

Hotfix v0.2.3f has been deployed to the live environment! While this patch has been tested, further testing is required to ensure the issues fixed in this build do not reappear.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Let me know below or on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/vectorio

• Fixed builder drones occasionally freezing up and requiring a reload
  
• Fixed another small edge case where cargo drones could freeze up
  
• Separated drone-type update cycles so that each run independently of one another
  

The time has come!

The major v0.2 update is now available on live for all platforms. It has taken a tremendous amount of effort to get here, and while there's still a long ways to go this has been and will always be one of the biggest and most important steps for the game as a whole!

Watch the trailer:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This update is simply too large to try and cover all the changes, but here's a breakdown of the footnotes with the most notable changes and new additions...

[h3]Gameplay Enhancements (new to live release):[/h3]
A list of some of the gameplay enhancements coming in this update. These are changes or additions to the game you'll notice and interact with directly. (the below list is new to the live release)

• New region, Phantom Plains, with an entirely new tech tree. Challenge of this region mainly revolves around scanning, as there's a thick haze covering the region making the enemies in it hidden.
  
• Decoration tiles that can help you spice up your base and add a level of uniqueness to it.
  
• New strategic outpost mechanics, including internal simulations for each outpost. (for example, attacking the resource supply chain to it's generator array will shut the outpost offline)
  
• Variety of new resources with more complex recipes, requiring efficient drone networks.
  
• New miscellaneous buildings to help with designing your base, such as beacons.
  
• A plethora of balance changes across the board, altering pretty much all building stats and costs.
  
• New settings menu, with many more settings to tweak the game to your liking.
  
• 50+ new stat modifiers to adjust, and a few new modifier presets to try and tackle.
  
• New route designer, with built-in filter settings and route previewing utility.
  

[h3]Gameplay Enhancements (previously mentioned):[/h3]
A list of some of the gameplay enhancements coming in this update. These are changes or additions to the game you'll notice and interact with directly. (the below list has been mentioned previously)

• Multiplayer, join forces with friends on a shared world with up to 10 other players.
  
• New control scheme with dedicated control modes. Supports click to drag camera movement.
  
• Improved drone logic, with better conditional checks and far more logical decision making.
  
• Drone route connection previewing, showing the specific route a drone will take.
  
• Redesigns on most of the UI, for better clarity & more intuitive navigation.
  
• Predictive aiming for turrets, letting them lead shots to be far more accurate on moving targets.
  
• Refactor of the resource storage & management system, removing resource restrictions in place of a locally shared repositories, as well as removing resource tier restrictions.
  
• New defenses that require ammunition in order to fire. Used on stronger defenses.
  
• Numerous shader improvements that will help overall clarity, notably on regional boosters.
  
• Variety of new sound effects to give your base more life (i.e. drone ports opening & closing)
  
• New resource x-ray utility, allowing you to see the resources stored in each building at a glance.
  
• And a variety of other smaller improvements, too many to list!
  

[h3]Technical Enhancements:[/h3]
A list of all the technical enhancements to the back end of the game. These won't be directly visible, but will be felt through general performance improvements and a far better development stream.

• New database & library system, replacing the old clunky library system. Whilst the old library system had it's benefits, it was very prone to errors and very inefficient.
  
• Component refactor; a complete overhaul to how entity logic is defined and applied. Will speed up the development of new content exponentially, and offer extensive modding support in the future.
  
• Vastly improved entity simulation, with the removal of the dynamic update rate in place of much more aggressive logic culling on certain entities. Reduces the active entity count substantially.
  
• New metadata system, which can capture entity metadata globally or locally. This will be useful when producing entity clusters (i.e. outposts) and be used heavily in the copy + paste utility.
  
• Update save system with better save-state capturing, storing entity conditions which were not previously stored in the old system (i.e. drone positions & action state)
  
• New sound system, creating more localized sound instances & interactivity by utilizing a simulated 3D environment based on spatial blending.
  
• New model animation system, for defining animation groups which can be interacted with from each entities script. Currently used by turrets, and will be expanded on in upcoming versions.
  
• Pretty much all reported bugs on the v0.1 branch have been fixed, either by addressing them directly or fixing them indirectly through other technical improvements.
  
• Upgraded engine from 2021 LTS to 2022 LTS. This was mainly done as Unity has dropped support for 2021 LTS, and I plan to continue supporting Vectorio well into the future, even after full release.
  

Thank you to everyone who has been patient during this time, letting me do this right and make the changes to core foundation of the game that are needed to support all future content. I know this has been a long wait, but moving forward you can expect updates on a more regular basis.

Finally, while this update has added, changed, and fixed a lot, I know there are still issues lingering from the transition to 0.2. I am working through these as quick as possible.

As per usual, if you want to get in touch the best place to do so is our Discord server. I respond to pretty much all messages and constantly review the bug reports / suggestions feedback channels. I do my best to keep up with Steam discussions, but Discord is still the best place to communicate with me.

Discord: https://discord.gg/Vectorio


Hope you enjoy the update!

~ Ben