Beta 12.1 - More Mines
Today's update includes the new mines system, an improvement to the townspeople UI controller support, and some fixes and tweaks.
New Mines
The new mine system allows you to place additional mines to get more miners and get access to better ore rather than from placing the Stonemason and then having to wait for the quests to unlock the next ore. Existing saves will automatically be converted to use the new system so you don't have to start over to use it!
New Saves
If you start a new game the tutorial related to the mine will be slightly different. Mainly, there is no existing mine on the map when you start out! So rather than asking a townsperson to clear the mine, the quest will allow you to place a mine.
Existing Saves
If you have a save that includes at least one assigned miner your save will automatically be updated to use the new multi-mine system. For example, if you have 3 miners, when you load your save with this build, the game will automatically place three mines and assign each of your miners to one of those mines. After that, you'll be able to place new mines to get more miners.
Placing Mines
The build system has been updated to add two areas to place mines. These are located at the top of the screen in the shot above. In that shot, I'm actually placing a fourth mine on the left side. The three mines on the right were auto-placed by the system because my save had three miners.
The tutorial mine requires one copper ore (along with wood and stone) to place. One of the things I have to add is a safety check to give you one copper if you use all of it crafting ingots.
After that, each subsequent mine requires one ore of the next type. So the next mine requires an iron ore and the one after that will require unrefined jade, and so on. As soon as you place a new mine you'll get a quest to clear out the mine. This new quest will appear even if you are at the open quest cap. After completing this quest you'll gain the ability to assign a new miner and you'll unlock the ore that the mine was built with. The ore unlock applies to all miners.
So, after the tutorial mine, if you place the next mine with iron ore, you'll get a second miner and you can assign iron ore to both of the miners if you want to.
You cannot place a mine will the quest to clear out the previous mine is active. Also, for existing saves, if you've already unlocked diamond and/or blood stone, you won't be reset back to gold ore because you only have four mines. You will however be able to place a fifth and sixth mine assuming you have the requisite diamond ore and/or blood stone ore to do so.
Here I just placed that fourth mine and have the quest to clear it out.
Note one big change is mines no longer have ore in them for the player to obtain. Quests involving caves and other mines will continue to work as usual. I did this for a few of reasons, mostly related to balance. Overall this system should allow you to get ore faster since unlocking new mines and assigning miners is way more predictable than it was in the current system where you had to wait for quests to get the next ore type. Plus you can now have up to six miners!
Townspeople UI
The townspeople UI has been updated to improve controller support. In the previous version, you had to use horizontal d-pad movements to use the toggles and press Y to activate them, while navigating the list of townspeople used vertical d-pad inputs and the A button. This was confusing. This update now uses all d-pad inputs to move around the UI and only the A button is needed to activate a toggle or press a button. Scrolling and navigation has also been improved.
This build also includes some fixes and balance updates:
I have some other small things that I want to get in the next build. These are almost done, but I didn't want to delay this update:
Thank you everyone for your support and feedback!
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]
New Mines
The new mine system allows you to place additional mines to get more miners and get access to better ore rather than from placing the Stonemason and then having to wait for the quests to unlock the next ore. Existing saves will automatically be converted to use the new system so you don't have to start over to use it!
New Saves
If you start a new game the tutorial related to the mine will be slightly different. Mainly, there is no existing mine on the map when you start out! So rather than asking a townsperson to clear the mine, the quest will allow you to place a mine.
Existing Saves
If you have a save that includes at least one assigned miner your save will automatically be updated to use the new multi-mine system. For example, if you have 3 miners, when you load your save with this build, the game will automatically place three mines and assign each of your miners to one of those mines. After that, you'll be able to place new mines to get more miners.
Placing Mines
The build system has been updated to add two areas to place mines. These are located at the top of the screen in the shot above. In that shot, I'm actually placing a fourth mine on the left side. The three mines on the right were auto-placed by the system because my save had three miners.
The tutorial mine requires one copper ore (along with wood and stone) to place. One of the things I have to add is a safety check to give you one copper if you use all of it crafting ingots.
After that, each subsequent mine requires one ore of the next type. So the next mine requires an iron ore and the one after that will require unrefined jade, and so on. As soon as you place a new mine you'll get a quest to clear out the mine. This new quest will appear even if you are at the open quest cap. After completing this quest you'll gain the ability to assign a new miner and you'll unlock the ore that the mine was built with. The ore unlock applies to all miners.
So, after the tutorial mine, if you place the next mine with iron ore, you'll get a second miner and you can assign iron ore to both of the miners if you want to.
You cannot place a mine will the quest to clear out the previous mine is active. Also, for existing saves, if you've already unlocked diamond and/or blood stone, you won't be reset back to gold ore because you only have four mines. You will however be able to place a fifth and sixth mine assuming you have the requisite diamond ore and/or blood stone ore to do so.
Here I just placed that fourth mine and have the quest to clear it out.
Note one big change is mines no longer have ore in them for the player to obtain. Quests involving caves and other mines will continue to work as usual. I did this for a few of reasons, mostly related to balance. Overall this system should allow you to get ore faster since unlocking new mines and assigning miners is way more predictable than it was in the current system where you had to wait for quests to get the next ore type. Plus you can now have up to six miners!
Townspeople UI
The townspeople UI has been updated to improve controller support. In the previous version, you had to use horizontal d-pad movements to use the toggles and press Y to activate them, while navigating the list of townspeople used vertical d-pad inputs and the A button. This was confusing. This update now uses all d-pad inputs to move around the UI and only the A button is needed to activate a toggle or press a button. Scrolling and navigation has also been improved.
This build also includes some fixes and balance updates:
- Fixed a bug that caused Fisherman and Hunters to get stuck at home after a Storehouse was infested.
- You can now open the options menu when underground.
- You cannot save the game while underground. The save buttons have also been updated to make it clear they are deactivated.
- Increased the amount of storage in the Storehouses for a variety of resources including most of the alchemy resources and handles.
I have some other small things that I want to get in the next build. These are almost done, but I didn't want to delay this update:
- 16:10 screen ratio support.
- Optimization updates for caves, dungeons, and the haunted mansion.
- Updated and much better looking Steam Achievement Icons (these are in progress and already look way better!)
- Improved up and down camera rotation.
Thank you everyone for your support and feedback!
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]
- My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
- Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco