HammerHelm News

Beta 2.1 brings an update to the way finding coal and getting new ore type works. First, coal is now found when you find Iron, rather than Jade. If you already have Iron, but haven't gotten or completed the Jade quest, you will have coal automatically when you load your save with Beta 2.1.

In addition, the quest to unlock a new ore type is now more likely to be picked by the quest manager once you are eligible for it. In the previous system the quest was added to the quest list, but if you had say 25 quests, the randomness of it could result in getting 75 quests without getting the next ore. That's bad so I improved it!

Note, to unlock the next ore all you have to do is craft a full set of the ore you are currently using. You only need to craft one weapon (so not all three). The system can choose to give you the next ore before you do this, but doing this will engage the new system to make the quest more likely.

I'm also working on a change regarding how you get more Miners. Right now it's from placing a Stonemason. That's because in the long long ago (2017), Miners actually collected Stone. Since they now collect Ore, this makes little sense. I'm either going to make a simple change for how new minors are unlocked or make a change that makes the Mines a placeable building. So placing a new mine opens up a Miner job just like placing any other building. The latter is more fun but it might require some changes to the map and I'd have to ensure that it's compatible with existing saves - which might be really tricky. So I'll likely make the first, simpler change, and then work on the mine building change later.

This build also includes a number of other improvements and fixes:

• You can now cancel moving a building by pressing the ESC key. Doing this will put the building back where it was.
  
• Wide-screen monitor choices int he resolution drop-down will now save correctly when you close and re-open the Settings UI.
  
• The Metalworker now mentions that he can create potions.
  
• I turned off the wandering system for Alchemists and Herbalists as it was causing them to sometimes leave town. Once I diagnose the bug and fix it, I'll turn this back on.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the Stone Champion's house to be difficult to select and move.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the Blood Stone Weapons to sometimes not appear when equipped. This was the optimization system being a bit too aggressive.
  
• You will no longer get the message that a tree is not fully grown and can't be chopped after chopping down a tree.

I'm also making some more progress on the Town Manager UI after getting some great feedback on my initial mock-up that I posted on the forums. I'm hoping to post another mock-up today.

Today mark's the two year anniversay of HammerHelm's launch on Steam. In those 730 days, HammerHelm has had almost 400 updates. In fact, the next update will be number 400!

For those of you who have joined us recently, here are a couple of shots of what HammerHelm looked like in 2017 vs. now. :)

(click to see full size)

Still lots to do before I leave early access later in the year, but it's been a great time and I feel very fortunate to have such a wonderful and supportive community.

Thank you all!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• HammerHelm Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/helm_hammer
  
• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/8326Jef

What's this? HammerHelm in first person? Well.....sort of. :)

Today's build includes a bunch of improvements and some fixes.

• You can now zoom the camera in closer, which will remove the character from the screen and leave only the shield and sword. I added this at the request of someone in the Discord channel mostly to help make placing furniture easier but it could also be useful when fighting in tight spaces. Note, this is NOT a first person play mode, so don't expect it to look good in all cases.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the camera to go inside of buildings rather than moving closer to the character. This one has been eluding me for a long time and the fix was super easy once I figured out why it was going through the walls.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused quests to fail that ask you to collect items in dungeons or caves once you've picked up all of the items.
  
• When pressing left-shift to open a menu you will no longer be automatically put in sprint mode after closing the menu. The issue here was the system thought you were pressing shift to sprint but then ignored the release of the key because a menu was now open.
  
• Added wide-screen options to the drop down menu in settings. Keep in mind I don't have a wide-screen monitor so I can't test these myself. if you see any strangeness, send me a screenshot and I'll see if I can fix it. Everything should scale correctly though. The following resolutions are now supported:
  
  • 2560 x 1080
    
  • 3040 x 1080
    
  • 3440 x 1440
    
  • 3840 x 1440
    
  • 3840 x 1600
• Fixed a bug that caused Shaydee to be unresponsive after the Shaydee Problems quest.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused some NPCs to lose their job location, causing them to run straight into the ocean. Because that's what you do when you forget where you job is, right? This was one of the more amusing (and really strange) bugs I've fixed with HammerHelm.
  

I'm also going to be putting the new combat system on hold for a bit. I want to update and improve a few things before I get back to it. Most notably, the town management UI where you assign workers, swap jobs, and choose what resources NPCs should get. It's awful. It's one of the oldest UI in the game and I've added so much to it that it's just a mess now. Time for a redesign!

In fact, if you want to laugh a bit. This is the town management system from before HammerHelm entered Early Access. This screenshot is from April 2015, so it's already 4+ years old and as you can see, the menu layout is pretty much the same despite the fact that there are way more jobs and more things you can do with townspeople. The framerate is great though! :)



I'll get back on the combat system in a few days though so it won't be too long of a break. Also hoping to have the new Scarecrow in game soon too!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• HammerHelm Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/helm_hammer
  
• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/8326Jef

A quick build to make a change based on very popular demand. New grass and dirt footstep sounds. The old sound has been in the game for years and I've put off changing it out for too long!

The new sounds are less harsh than the previous one and there are multiple sounds so it's not always the same as you trek through the wilderness.

I also added a footstep volume slider so you can turn them down or turn them off if you want to. This is available in the in-game version of the options screen.

As some of you may have noticed, HammerHelm is getting some great coverage by some wonderful YouTubers recently. In addition to the exposure this gives HammerHelm, it also gives me a chance to watch someone play the game and see where things might be confusing or where I can improve something. So that is what this update is all about!

When placing a house and getting two new workers, rather than both of them starting out assigned to chop trees by default, one will now be assigned to gather stone. The only exception is the first two townspeople, who will still both get assigned to get wood as that's needed for the tutorial. Note this does not affect already assigned Workers, only new ones. I noticed a lot of people would finish the tutorial and have enough gold and enough wood to build something, but not enough stone and didn't know to change a worker to get stone. So they'd do a bunch of quests, not realizing they can also build! I think this change will help the early game as a player learns how everything works.

A few other changes:

• The townsperson creation system will now always have at least one male and one female Dwarf to choose from rather than sometimes giving you three of the same.
  
• I added a slider to the in-game options menu to let you control the overall saturation and contrast in the game. On some people's monitors, the game can look really blown out at the default settings. The screenshot at the bottom shows the difference between the default (which is the highest setting) and the lowest setting.
  
• A quick update to the Orc quest to use the new water rather than the old water around Orc Island.
  

Contrast and Saturation Settings Comparison

In addition to the above, I have the monster in the new combat test map attacking now. Next I want to add a couple of special situational attacks and then I should be pretty close to having it ready for you all to check out!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• HammerHelm Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/helm_hammer
  
• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/8326Jef