Next Fest Update
Greetings Pilgrims;
So, the next fest is over, and we got some fantastic feedback. I have been compiling a list of players' requests, and this update brings the more minor but impactful changes into the game. Some of the larger ideas will be worked on this month, with the hope of dropping them in April. A huge shout out to everyone who tried the demo, and especially to those who took the time to give amazing constructive feedback on Steam and Discord.
Here is a list of changes found in this patch;
That is it for this patch. Some of the more enormous suggested ideas will be worked on this month, as well as some optimization and anything that arises from Beta feedback. Thank you so much to everyone for their interest and support in the game. The feedback has been very positive, which is the only thing that matters to me. We may never find that many players, but if the players who play the game have fun, I can live happily with that. Stay tuned for more updates as we head towards the 1.0 launch.
So, the next fest is over, and we got some fantastic feedback. I have been compiling a list of players' requests, and this update brings the more minor but impactful changes into the game. Some of the larger ideas will be worked on this month, with the hope of dropping them in April. A huge shout out to everyone who tried the demo, and especially to those who took the time to give amazing constructive feedback on Steam and Discord.
Here is a list of changes found in this patch;
- We have added an option to allow players to invert mouse Y (up and down) and mouse X (left and right).
- We have added an option to use low-flashing VFX. Some players found harvesting at night a bit bright, so this option adds a variant to those VFX that reduces any bright flashes. I also reduced a couple of facility VFX with this option. If any player encounters a VFX they find too bright, let me know, and I will include it in this system of alternate VFX.
- We completely reworked mission objective/tip texts and data pad texts, adding critical information and giving all of these texts a serious polish pass for grammar and clarity. We still need to do this for the help texts found in the help wiki, but these critical mission texts have been seriously improved.
- We added some names to the colonist name generation pool that players requested in the discord SC_Project channel.
- We added a couple of new posters for content creators who have been showing the game some love: DarkSky and Drayus. I am not in a position to offer sponsored videos, but I am happy to reward creators who promote the game through in-game posters.
- We have reworked skylighting, light shafts, and lens flares. Overall, the aim was to increase visibility at night in the early game, which we have achieved. This is a tricky aspect that we will continue to examine as we develop, but I am happy with the current lighting and hope that players who found it a bit dark on Ceres feel better about the nighttime visuals.
- We added an iron and ice deposit to the starting rocket area. This was a suggestion to help players learn about deposits and push them not to build beside the rocket but to locate the large flat area for the base building. I am not 100% sure how I feel about these nodes being there. I might switch them to rocks or something else that denies placing a HUB beside the rocket, but for now, there are nodes. After players see the new landing spot, I would love to hear feedback on this issue.
- We changed Register Storage to Name Storage. It was register due to colonist logisitics, but some of that was pulled back as it added complexity that didn't benefit the game. This new name the storage fits the use better.
- Changed the overweight penalty to limit speed in a flat linear way instead of a percentage-based penalty. If you had good moving speed, this penalty was too low; now, it will always slow you down enough for you to care about weight management.
- We added an auto-turnoff feature for basic farm irrigation systems. When the water runs, if it senses no active plants growing, it will automatically turn off, saving you ice.
- We did a bit of recoloring to the main inventory/player stats HUD. I made the scroll bar black to make it pop out, and I recolored all the stats to match their colors displayed on the primary HUD bottom left panel. I stick to a small color palette of only a few colors I know work together, as my color theory is not expert-level. However, it was suggested that I color the stats, and after doing so, it looks good. Let me know what you think.
- There were also a couple of fixes for the beta client that I won't bother to list as this was mainly focused on next fest feedback, but everything that has been reported as an issue in the beta has been sorted out as well.
That is it for this patch. Some of the more enormous suggested ideas will be worked on this month, as well as some optimization and anything that arises from Beta feedback. Thank you so much to everyone for their interest and support in the game. The feedback has been very positive, which is the only thing that matters to me. We may never find that many players, but if the players who play the game have fun, I can live happily with that. Stay tuned for more updates as we head towards the 1.0 launch.