Friday Blog 217 - The Old Elevator Is Dead, Long Live The New Elevator!
The last blog was quite controversial! We were very happy with the elevators, but they received quite some criticism. Two main points appeared:
- The teleportation between stations is stupid, you need to actually be physically transported from A to B
- Elevators aren’t historically accurate
The second problem needs some nuancing. Elevators are not meant for relatively small Bronze Age colonies that were started two hours ago. It’s more of an end goal, for large and advanced colonies that are nearing the Renaissance Age. It has an iron frame because producing it is intended to consume large amounts of iron.
With the elevator implemented, it was relatively easy to port this functionality to horizontal elevators. They are explicitly not trains: they can only travel in straight lines and they can’t go up or down or navigate corners. But combined with elevators and gliders, they should simultaneously present a rewarding goal for large colonies, and a practical means of navigating between outposts.
(For those who understandably haven’t read all blogs: we’ve implemented an Outpost Feature, allowing players to easily start nearby colonies that share the stockpile and science of the main colony. It’s a bit similar to the multiple colonies from 0.7.0, but without all the tedious problems of having to start from scratch / having to set up complex UI trading rules / having to travel excruciating distances by foot)
We’ve also overhauled the glider. Instead of being a VTOL motorised plane with difficult controls, it’s now a way more intuitive device which actually glides. Players will now place a permanent Glider Launcher, which is able to launch a glider everytime the player approaches it. Of course, the best place to do so is on top of a large tower or hill - which you’ll be able to scale quickly with the help of an elevator. Here’s a video of the full system in action:
https://youtu.be/K3i80CEm-Z0
This might seem like a feature that is not connected to the core of 0.9.0, but it is. Colony Survival is all about growing and expanding your colony, but it needs to have a purpose. And it needs to be something more unique, more ‘physical’, than merely repetitive new items with even higher numbers. The game isn’t fun if it’s an endless cycle of “Monster with 100,000 HP appeared, unlock your 100,000 damage weapon now! Oh no, a monster with 1,000,000 HP appeared!”.
The later ages need to unlock new features that change the way you play and the way you build your colony. And these things need to sensibly require advanced technology and lots of colonists. Simultaneously, we also need better ways to navigate between Outposts, which are a crucial part of 0.9.0 and a significantly cheaper way to access precious resources.
We think the Elevators and Glider Launchers fit these criteria perfectly. I’m working on filling in the rest of the tech tree and re-integrating content like the muskets and the printing press. We’re strongly looking forward to testing it and hopefully being able to open up the beta before Spring is over.
Bedankt voor het lezen!
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