Dev Diary #11 - Automation Features Are Here. New Demo Soon!

[p]Hey folks, the updated demo is almost here (we're hoping to make it live within the week). Here are some changes we have made regarding automation, and some of our plans for more automation in the future.[/p][p][/p][h3]Important: These changes are NOT live in the current demo (but will be in the upcoming demo).[/h3][p][/p][h2]Let's take a deeper look![/h2][p]Just a quick reminder, the best way you can currently support the game is:[/p]

[p]Wishlist it.[/p]
[p]Let your favorite YouTuber/Streamer know about the game.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Direct Control[/h2][p]We want to emphasize that direct control of characters is incredibly important to us for this game - just click a character and give them a command. It's pretty rare in colony sim games, but it lets you get more attached to your characters.[/p][p]It also adds more of a "survival crafting" game feel, allowing the game to appeal to players that don't typical get into colony sims.[/p][p]All of the automation features we have added work with this in mind, and are completely optional. [/p][p]But... this doesn't mean they are an afterthought. We've spent time implementing automation features familiar to colony sim players, and we will continue to improve on them (so keep the feedback coming!).[/p][p][/p][h2]Automation[/h2][h3]Challenges[/h3][p]Oceaneers has some unique features that add some extra challenges when adding automation, these features aren't frequently seen in sim games:[/p]

[p]Being able to directly control characters.[/p]
[p]Being able to send an expedition and fully control (and build stuff) in the expedition zone.[/p]
[p]Being surrounded by more water than land.[/p]
[p]Being able to have multiple rafts that you can move around with multiple drivers and crew.[/p]
[p]Islands that sink.[/p]
[p]Objectives and story features.[/p]

[h3]Goals[/h3][p]We established goals based on what we wanted the automated experience to feel like, and the actions players will be doing during the game.[/p]

[p]Keeping direct character control is a must, its unique and players love being able to just click a character and give them a command. It also makes you more invested in characters.[/p]
[p]We want your home colony island(s) to be, optionally, fully-automated.[/p]
[p]We want rafting around with a crew to be, optionally, semi-automated.[/p]
[p]We want automation to be optional, if you want to manually do everything and directly control all of your characters, go for it![/p]

[p]Looking at late game, we envisage players having several islands connected by bridges, with each island setup for specific tasks. E.g. a farming island, production island, butchering & fishing island. Islands will support this by the different island biomes, and specific modules they can get.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Automation In The Current (old) Version[/h3][p]If you've played the demo already, then you may have used the existing automation features, which don't fully reach our goals.[/p]

[p]The Island Workpost allows you automate tasks on the island (harvesting, crafting etc)[/p]
[p]The raft has a special Work in Area feature which is semi-automatic, the crew gets off, harvests things n the ocean the gets back on (and you can queue this up). [/p]

[p]You can't fully automate production lines though... Well, in the new version, you can![/p][p][/p][h2]New Automation Features[/h2][p]To take things to the next level we have added more automation layers.[/p][p][/p][p]Improved Character Jobs[/p][p]Characters can now set job priorities. When they are idle, they will check within their workpost area for jobs in the order of priority.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]New Marked Targets[/p][p]Previously characters would just harvest everything in range of the workpost, now you mark things you want to harvest or pickup. And, you can now also mark wildlife for combat as a sort of call-to-arms.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]New Fuel Automation[/p][p]You can now choose which fuel to automate, and set reserve limits. Campfires also turn on/off automatically (and can be manually forced on if you just want light/heat).[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]New Crafting Automation[/p][p]This is was needed to establish fully-automated islands. You can now set items to auto-queue at each crafting station. It allows you to set limits and priority as well.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]New Reserve Resources[/p][p]In order to have full control over crafting automation we needed to add the ability to reserve resources, which you can now do per-zone (home colony, each expedition zone). If you reserve 10 beachwood, then the automated crafting wont use it.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Fishing Post Bait Automation[/p][p]The fishing post can automatically use bait, or you can manually allocate it.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Putting all of this together allows you to set fully automated production chains (e.g. farm reeds > craft bait > catch fish > butcher fish > make food).[/p][p][/p][h2]This is experimental[/h2][p]This is all available in the upcoming demo which will be live later this week or so. If you encounter any bugs please let us know, and be aware that this is experimental and very subject to change, so your feedback is super important here. If we need to overhaul these systems to make it feel better, we will.[/p][p][/p][h2]More is planned[/h2][p]We also plan to add two other automation features.[/p]

[p]Character food restrictions (to control what they automatically eat)[/p]
[p]Behavior toggles for combat. Characters now flee if getting attacked, before returning to their task, but we want to add some options so you can decide on this behavior.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Demo Update Soon![/h2][p]Thanks for your patience while waiting for the demo update. We wanted to make sure we had a good set of automation features for players to try before we put it live. [/p][p]There are HEAPS of QoL changes, and pacing improvements as well which we are happy with, so getting your feedback on that would be amazing.[/p][p][/p][p]Anyhow stay tuned, we will post when the demo is released. If anyone made it this far, thanks for reading![/p][p][/p][p]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/p][h2][/h2][h2]And More...[/h2][p]Here's a few other things we are experimenting with, we should have more detail to share on these soon:[/p]

[p]Changes to how upgrades work in the research tree[/p]
[p]Changes to combat & related equipment[/p]
[p]Changes to the temperature system and how heat sources work[/p]
[p]Lots of QoL improvements[/p]
[p]UI Improvements[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Translations[/h2][p]On the translation front, we are still deciding the best way to handle localization. A lot of big titles went into Early Access as English Only and later added support for community translations (Raft, Subnautica, Oxygen Not Included, RimWorld, Satisfactory), so we may follow suit. With so much depth to the game there are a lot of objects and a lot of text, and we want the flexibility to make quick changes throughout the Early Access period.[/p][p][/p][p]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/p][p][/p][p]You can show us if you are interested in a language by:[/p]

[p]Wishlisting the game (we see wishlists per region)[/p]
[p]Let us know via forums/discord.[/p]

[p]The number of wishlists and interest shown for each region heavily influences the languages we will localize into, and we will be considering whether community translations are a good fit for the game.[/p][p][/p][h3]Controller & Steam Deck Support[/h3][p]Some players have already played on the Steam Deck, but we don't have official support just yet. We do plan to have it fully playable on the Steam Deck further into development (and we have our Steam Deck ready to test!)[/p][p][/p][p]Controller support is challenging for this type of game that has this much depth, and we don't want the gameplay to be limited by controller inputs. Our plan is to look into this once we have all of our features in to see what is possible. We have good experience implementing controllers and it is on our mind during development, but we are also aware of the limitations.[/p][p][/p][h3]Found a Bug?[/h3][p]Please report them! Whether it's a typo or something more significant please let us know via the forums or via Discord.[/p][p][/p][h3]Help & Guides[/h3][p]This genre of game naturally comes with a lot of freedom, and this includes freedom to make mistakes (e.g. not building water production for your colony). Figuring things out is a big part of the fun for these types of games![/p][p]Having said that, if you struggle to survive you can follow the progression guide shown on the side of the screen and there is a bunch of tutorials in the handbook.[/p][p][/p][h3]If Somethings Needs Better Tutorials[/h3][p]There is a lot of depth in the game and we already have a heap of tutorials shown in the handbook. We do have more tutorials planned so if you find something is not explained well enough or are still confused about anything, be sure to let us know.[/p][p][/p][h3]"What game is it like"[/h3][p]We like to ask players what game it reminds them of, and, "oh buoy", we have seen just about every game under the sun mentioned by now! [/p][p]It's been really interesting to see what type of games players have brought up - obviously this depends a lot on which games payers have played in the past. In no particular order:[/p]

[p]Don't Starve and Paper Mario (in relation to the art style).[/p]
[p]Oxygen Not Included, Rimworld, The Survivalist, Cult of the Lamb.[/p]
[p]Raft (and open world survival crafting games in general).[/p]
[p]The Flame in The Flood, Flotsam, Frostpunk & Sheltered.[/p]
[p]A hint of Fallout/Fallout Shelter.[/p]
[p]Monkey Island, The Sims, Craft the World, Clanfolk.[/p]

[p]We knew there would be comparisons to similar looking games (like Don't Starve and Oxygen Not Included), so we were extremely pleased to see players add comments to this comparison that Oceaneers is still very different and innovative, it's very much doing its own thing.[/p][p][/p][h3]What's Next!?[/h3][p]We are hard at work on the full game! Recently we have been improving crop farming, fishing rods and smelting metals - then tying all of the survival progression into the story/objective progression.[/p][p][/p][h3]Come have a chat![/h3][p]Our community is growing, and everyone has been amazing and really friendly. Come chat with the devs and other players in our Discord[/p][p][/p][h2]Leaving Feedback[/h2][p]If you encounter any bugs, or would love to discuss features please do so via the Steam forums or our Discord. It's really helpful to know about the parts of the game you enjoy, as well as anything you don't.[/p][p][/p][p]You can also check discord for a list of known bugs, community suggestions and upcoming plans![/p][p][/p][p]
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[/p][h3]⚡ Be sure to Wishlist Oceaneers, and stay tuned for the next dev diary and more announcements. ❤️[/h3][p]

[/p][h3]Join Us![/h3][p]Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
Join discord here

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Some recent Dev Diaries in case you missed them:
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