AETHUS - July Development Diary
Greetings, Pioneers!
Summer always feels a bit slower development-wise than normal, and the Pawsmonaut Team have been trying to take a little rest here and there over the month, but work on AETHUS continues at full steam!
This month, I wanted to focus on two areas - one based on feedback from the Demo, and one entirely new feature!
One concern that some of you had in the Demo is being unable to always tell where you are in the world, or having a poor sense of direction.
The Compass at the top of the screen is intended to be the main navigation method through the world and aid you in discovering new points of interest, as well as finding your way back to things you've already discovered (or back to the Surface!), but I felt there was still room to improve.
One thing I've tried that is feeling good so far is the addition of a Radar.
Pairing nicely with the Suit Scan ability (X), the Radar is a new feature that displays points of interest in the world, in small-scale, directly around the player.
As in the Demo, a tap of X will Scan the area around you and highlight resource nodes, items, and other objects of interest, but hold X for a little longer and you'll also bring up the Radar.
Points of Interest shown on the Radar are located in the exact direction they're shown around the player, just at a smaller scale, meaning you can easily know which direction to head in to find them.
The Radar will show cave entrances, Task locations, oxygen areas, Glowsticks you've deployed, datapads for unlocking new crafting plans, construction blueprints, journal logs, etc.!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
I feel that the addition of the Radar will really help those of you who struggled a little with navigation, but I'd be really keen to hear what you think of the feature before you get a chance to play with it yourself - drop a message in the comments below or join the Discord and provide your thoughts!
In the Demo, you got a taste of one aspect of Power in the building system of AETHUS - Power Slots.
In the full game, Power has expanded to become a more feature-rich system that you will manage in order to keep your Outpost running efficiently.
Power Slots now provide Power to facilities in your habitats, drawn from an Outpost-wide pool (no need to connect things with wires!), and facilities are automatically powered if the Power value remains above zero.
As you can see from the image above, there will be several different options for powering your Outpost (which will unlock over the course of the game) including Solar power! Different Power Generators will have different trade-offs, so choose wisely!
As Power is not intended to be a micro-management system, you don't need to worry about things like fuelling generators, using batteries because the sun isn't shining, etc.
Remember, I'd love to know your thoughts on this feature, as well as what you like or dislike in other similar games when it comes to this type of Power system!
Drop a message in the comments below or join the Discord and provide your thoughts!
That's all for this devlog!
A wee reminder that AETHUS has a Kickstarter notification page which you can sign up for with no commitment! The more followers we can get, the more likely the campaign will happen and raise some money to make the game even better!
Hope you're having a great summer, stay safe out there!
- Alex
Summer always feels a bit slower development-wise than normal, and the Pawsmonaut Team have been trying to take a little rest here and there over the month, but work on AETHUS continues at full steam!
This month, I wanted to focus on two areas - one based on feedback from the Demo, and one entirely new feature!
Compass, Scanning and the Radar
One concern that some of you had in the Demo is being unable to always tell where you are in the world, or having a poor sense of direction.
The Compass at the top of the screen is intended to be the main navigation method through the world and aid you in discovering new points of interest, as well as finding your way back to things you've already discovered (or back to the Surface!), but I felt there was still room to improve.
One thing I've tried that is feeling good so far is the addition of a Radar.
Pairing nicely with the Suit Scan ability (X), the Radar is a new feature that displays points of interest in the world, in small-scale, directly around the player.
As in the Demo, a tap of X will Scan the area around you and highlight resource nodes, items, and other objects of interest, but hold X for a little longer and you'll also bring up the Radar.
Points of Interest shown on the Radar are located in the exact direction they're shown around the player, just at a smaller scale, meaning you can easily know which direction to head in to find them.
The Radar will show cave entrances, Task locations, oxygen areas, Glowsticks you've deployed, datapads for unlocking new crafting plans, construction blueprints, journal logs, etc.!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
I feel that the addition of the Radar will really help those of you who struggled a little with navigation, but I'd be really keen to hear what you think of the feature before you get a chance to play with it yourself - drop a message in the comments below or join the Discord and provide your thoughts!
Power
In the Demo, you got a taste of one aspect of Power in the building system of AETHUS - Power Slots.
In the full game, Power has expanded to become a more feature-rich system that you will manage in order to keep your Outpost running efficiently.
Power Slots now provide Power to facilities in your habitats, drawn from an Outpost-wide pool (no need to connect things with wires!), and facilities are automatically powered if the Power value remains above zero.
As you can see from the image above, there will be several different options for powering your Outpost (which will unlock over the course of the game) including Solar power! Different Power Generators will have different trade-offs, so choose wisely!
As Power is not intended to be a micro-management system, you don't need to worry about things like fuelling generators, using batteries because the sun isn't shining, etc.
Remember, I'd love to know your thoughts on this feature, as well as what you like or dislike in other similar games when it comes to this type of Power system!
Drop a message in the comments below or join the Discord and provide your thoughts!
Wrap-up
That's all for this devlog!
A wee reminder that AETHUS has a Kickstarter notification page which you can sign up for with no commitment! The more followers we can get, the more likely the campaign will happen and raise some money to make the game even better!
Hope you're having a great summer, stay safe out there!
- Alex