Village Monsters News

Hello villagers!

Today marks the release of the first major update to Village Monsters. You'll notice the version number is now set to 0.5 - is this officially the halfway mark?!

This update was guided by players like you! Last week I asked what I should work on next and you weren't shy in giving me an answer: bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and improvements to Odd Jobs.

Part of these changes were already released last week, so this week's patch is meant to cap that one off!

The next planned major update is for Friday, December 6th. I've yet to send out a poll on what that should include, but I should have that out later this week.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow US villagers!

NEW

• Something is causing villagers to suddenly misplace items. If you find a lost item you should return it to its owner for a nice relationship boost.
  
• A large number of new villager conversations have been added to the game
  
• Fish and Critter ratings now alter their price - the higher the rating, the higher the sell price
  
• Tutorial Odd Jobs have been added to the game.
  
• A new option has been added to make dialogue text instant
  

IMPROVED

• Made the first attempt at re-balancing the economy. In general: individual items are worth a great deal more money, but you'll see fewer of them per day. For example, critters spawn less, it's harder to fish, and so on.
  
• System Options (Music levels, sprint toggle preference, etc.) are now properly saved
  
• Caught critters are now given a rating like fish
  
• Doubled the rate in which you gain relationship points with villagers
  
• The day and season of your save is now displayed under the Continue option
  
• The dialogue box now fades away a bit slower when you walk away from the speaker, and fades up a bit faster when you walk back toward them
  
• Notifications now trigger for additional actions (like giving away an item from your inventory) to make it clear something triggered
  
• Stamina only decreases during the Attack phase of fishing. Bad attacks expend more stamina, while critical attacks are free
  
• It now requires more stamina to clear weeds from overgrown garden plots
  
• All available Odd Jobs are now listed at the Job Board. You can still only take one one job a day (for now)
  
• Odd Jobs that have a timer will now give out partial rewards when the timer runs out
  
• Certain Odd Jobs will stick around for a bit instead of changing out each day to give you a chance to take them
  

FIXED

• Fixed issue where music levels would reset themselves when changing areas
  
• Fixed crash related to checking Critter / Fish traps after loading your save
  
• Fixed crash when placing a Critter trap
  
• Fixed crash with the Weeding job
  
• Fixed issue where mushroom plots would appear to "switch" on area transition
  
• Fixed issue with trap visibility
  
• Fixed issue with music sometimes changing to the wrong track on area transition
  
• Fixed potential performance issue in Town Hall
  
• Prevented occasional issue where you can act (and cause errors) as an Odd Job finished
  
• Adjusted controller deadzone to prevent certain movement errors
  
• Fixed notifications from spawning in strange spots
  
• Stopped casting your fishing rod when fishing traps are equipped
  
• Stopped controller rumble while fishing when a keyboard is being used
  
• Fixed issue preventing a few fish types from spawning
  
• Tweaked collision of a number of items to make them easier to pick up
  
• Fixed a few issues related to foraged items spawning incorrectly
  
• Cleaned up collision on Three Wall Island
  
• Cleaned up collision on a number of external objects
  
• Stopped fish from incorrectly stating you could eat them for stamina
  
• Stopped Seaweed from appearing in freshwater
  
• Fixed Komatoa collision in Overflow
  
• Fixed collision issue in Baba's Bakery
  
• Fixed issue with Odd Jobs not sending you back to the right place
  
• Fixed flavor text issue for tamed critters
  
• Fixed issue with "flavor critters" spawning in incorrect locations
  
• Fixed occasional issue with teleporting home at end of day
  
• Stopped critters from spawning when time is paused
  
• Improved Odd Jobs in general to be less error prone
  
• Usual misc. fixes, performance and stability improvements
  
• Usual misc. typo corrections
  

I was originally slating for an update this Friday, but I've seen quite a few bug reports that would be fixed by the version I'm currently working on. I figured there was no reason to wait - being in Early Access means I can be flexible!

Starting with this version your game will now automatically backup your saves. Here's how it works:

- Upon selecting "Continue" the game will load the data in your save
- At the end of the day your old saves are moved to the "bak" subfolder. Only the previous day is kept as a backup
- The game then saves the new data and the next day begins

This won't impact many users, but if an update breaks your saves then this is one way to get them back. It's still a good practice to manually backup your saves if you want to be extra super sure they aren't lost

NEW

• Your save files are now automatically backed up before each day's autosave
  
• Inventory items now group themselves together when possible. This does not apply to items that can have unique attributes, like fish or critters
  
• You can now view your Patchling and Battery balance directly from the inventory screen
  

IMPROVED

• Odd Jobs board is now located by the inn
  
• Greatly improved look & feel of Odd Job: Weeding for Valentine
  
• Added concept of timers to some Odd Jobs to reward quick completion (and penalize layabouts)
  
• Various graphical changes and improvements
  

FIXED

• Fixed major issue in which the items in your inventory would appear to change into other items or objects. This fix only applies to new items. Old items should be safe to sell or use despite their strange appearance, but you may want to dump them if they give you problems
  
• Fixed major crash related to the last item in the Patchling Goal section
  
• Fixed various crashes related to the Capricious Cumulus critter
  
• Fixed crash when going to sleep when a critter is following you
  
• Fixed critter names resetting themselves each day
  
• Fixed collision issue with the "Sleep" / "Nap" prompt
  
• Fixed large number of collision issues with geometry
  
• Fixed various typos
  
• Fixed various technical issues
  
• Disabled Buzzsaw Mode which was erroneously available
  

Today's patch brings a whole host of fixes and improvements. My focus was mostly on Goals and Patchlings (aka how you progress through the game), but also I changed plenty of other things based on player feedback.

The next patch is planned for November 22nd. You can vote on what you want to see included in this patch right here!

NEW

• Many big changes have been made to the Patchlings / Goals system
  
• All successfully completed Goals grant a minimum of two Patchlings
  
• Many Goals now have levels and grant even greater Patchlings as it "levels up"
  
• Several new Goals have been added to the game, including Patchlings related to hobbies, meeting all the villagers in town, and more.
  
• All unearned Patchlings now display a description so you can find out how to unlock them
  
• Added new notices for unlocking Goals and earning Patchlings
  
• You can now sort your inventory by Item Name by pressing C (keyboard) or X (gamepad). Press again to reverse the sort
  

IMPROVED

• Improved the loading of various data structures to make them more robust
  
• Improved the look of Main Street
  
• Added a number of schedule changes for rainy weather
  
• Double the rate relationships improve
  
• Added a note to better explain why holidays won't working
  
• Various economy tweaks
  
• Various fixes to villager placements
  
• Various misc. graphical and UI improvements
  

FIXED

• Fixed occasional crash related to opening your inventory
  
• Fixed issue preventing villager schedules from updating
  
• Fixed issue preventing some stats from being saved
  
• Fixed issue that sometimes resulted in notifications overlapping each other
  
• Fixed issue related to relationship levels not properly being calculated
  
• Fixed issue with scrollbar placement in the inventory
  
• Fixed holiday description placement
  
• Stopped the mayor from sending you blank letters in the mail
  
• Fixed scheduling issue that occasionally prevented Mock from showing up
  
• Further fixed issues with "meeting" Jaclyn
  
• Fixed various typos etc.
  

Another quick patch tonight. Mac and Linux versions are now properly uploaded and supported - though let me know if you have any trouble with those versions specifically. It's not as easy to test for me.

Also fixed a number of bugs + improved a few things based on feedback.

• Enabled Mac and Linux versions
  

• Renamed "Exit" to "Quit Game" and added a note about Autosave to the system menu
  
• Lowered the volume levels of music across the board
  
• Improved a number of art assets
  

• Fixed occasional crash related to the title screen
  
• Fixed issue preventing you from reaching Quit Game by pressing down
  
• Fixed issue where you couldn't adjust volume
  
• Properly paused time during the intro "cutscene"
  
• Fixed issue where you couldn't properly "meet" Jaclyn
  
• Fixed various typos
  

I know I shouldn't be excited about a patch (especially for one that's mostly bug fixes), but it's pretty cool to push out an update that actual players will benefit from! Having a released game feels pretty cool.

Here are the patch notes for version Early Access 0.48.8.

• Added an option to toggle Sprint / Walk instead of hold
  
• Improved save model for mushroom plots and "workshop" objects (spore extractor, etc.) to fix crashes and be more robust. However! Any item you had in a mushroom plot or workshop prior to this save is lost :(

• Adjusted spawn rate of forageable items
  
• Adjusted spawn rate of treasure items
  
• Adjusted growth rate of mushrooms

• Fixed major crash related to mushroom plots in Agrarian Acres
  
• Fixed major crash related to spore extractor in Agrarian Acres
  
• Fixed occasional crash with the town garbage
  
• Stopped mushroom plots from reporting erroneous overgrowth
  
• Fixed issue where a mushroom would not disappear upon harvest
  
• Fixed collision of merchant table in the general store
  
• Corrected a number of typos
  
• Misc. technical cleanup and fixes
  
• Properly updated version ID