Odd Realm News

Happy Friday all!

I've been working hard on finishing up a lot of the world/core system improvements. The rendering stuff I had been updating last week is pretty much good to go. When I had finished up the last of the main changes for that and seeing as I was already neck-deep in core code, I was inspired to jump onto some other things which I had been putting off in that realm. I figure that since I've been making my bed, I might as well clean the whole damn room. ;) These are largely QoL improvements related to blueprints and building and I think they reduce player headaches.

Here are some examples:

-Blueprints now act as holograms on top of a block. This means that they won't clear out previous blocks until they are built and IF the thing which was built needs to replace the previous block. For example, a floor blueprint won't clear out a zone which had been there.
-You can now mix floor and prop blueprints. Before, you had to place the floor blueprint under the bed blueprint after the bed was built. Now, you can put them both down and the settlers will try to build both if the items are available. If only one of the blueprints has items available, they'll build that one, leaving the other blueprint there until it can be finished.
-Settlers can move items from multiple block points. They could technically do this before when building blueprints but now they can also do this when just moving items into zones. The max carry amount is determined by skill (FINALLY carry matters). Professions like Laborers will be pretty good at carrying.
-Rooms will no longer lose their 'ready to use' status when you put a blueprint over a required prop.
-Settlers will no longer spill out items on a container when it had been filled while they were on their way to it.

These are some examples of the improvements I added this week and I'm currently adding two more which are pretty helpful, I think:

-Being able to build walls on previous walls. i.e., swapping out dirt blocks for stone wall blocks.
-Moving props.
-Zone priority.
-Zone copy. i.e., hold shift, left click a zone, that will now be your selected zone setting.

I want to get those in before I put out a beta update but hopefully I've got that in a good place next week so you folks can check it out. Then it's onto updating and improving rooms. :)

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

Waylon

Hey friends!

I'm still alive! I just wanted to give you a quick update so you don't feel like I've abandoned you.

I've been super busy fixing and re-writing a lot of world and rendering tech I wrote early in development. Since the beginning of early access a lot of bugs and minor issues or roadblocks popup from these systems, so it was passed time for me to clean it up. Unfortunately, this means nothing in terms of new content or features. However, with these systems written properly, I'll be able to implement things much easier and with fewer bugs going forward.

One example of rendering improvements is how I treat blueprints. Before, a blueprint would completely replace a previous block but create a facsimile of what was there. With the newer rendering system, I'm able to display two blocks occupying the same space. i.e., A dirt wall blueprint placed over a stack of wood logs.

Blueprints Example 1 Blueprints Example 2

Also, how I was handling transparency was a complete hack and kept me from having multiple layers of transparent textures. You may or may not have noticed graphical issues related to this but a lot of things (water for example) were really poorly implemented.

Some less interesting improvements are how I track items and other inventoried block points. Many a bug came from this area.

Anywho, no new or exciting features/content to announce but once I'm done this stuff, I'm hoping to jump onto improving and adding to rooms. I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Waylon

Hey fam!

Hope all is well with you amazing folks.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I won't be putting out any updates today. I'm currently working on a ton of stuff still and am nowhere near having a ready build.

This brings me to the topic of release schedules for builds and such. Up until now, I've generally tried to put out a new build each week with the alternating cadence of one week production, one week beta. I'm going to switch this to monthly themed production builds. Why the switch? Well, I'm finding it very difficult to complete bigger tasks within the two week window. I find I hurriedly put a feature in and push to the beta branch only to break things or to find out the feature was poorly designed. As well, I tend to lean towards working on smaller features out of fear of not being able to finish it within that time-frame. Aside from just being stressful, this often results in me having to scrap my weekend to put out hotfixes and, frankly, it's starting to burn me out.

So, with the new release schedule, it would look something like this:
-A new month begins (let's use September as the example) and I begin work on a themed feature set for that month.
-Week 1 and 2 of Sept. - focus on design, discussion with the community, and implementation of the feature set.
-Week 3 - Make changes and add content (by content I mean smaller things like items, props, art, etc - nothing huge) based on feedback, find bugs, focus on tuning.
-Week 4 - Nothing new is added to the build. Focus is 100% on bug fixes.
-Push new changes to production build on the first Thursday (so, I can potentially put out hotfixes on Friday if they are needed) of the next Month (October in this case).

I will likely put out beta builds at an irregular cadence based on this new schedule. It will depend on the feature being added and when it's ready for public playtests. So, there could very well still be weekly builds, but there's no guarantee.

Regarding themed builds, I'm also going to put together a roadmap for development, highlighting what each month will focus on. I'll post an announcement for this when it's ready.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Waylon

Hey all!

Just uploaded the most recent changes to the steam Beta branch.

This update is likely to be pretty buggy, so, only get it at your own risk.

Why is it a risky build? I've made a significant change to how light acts underground. Before, lights produced by torches and other similar devices would not penetrate the ground. Now it does. This may or may not cause problems because visibility was a huge part of determining whether your settlers could do something. Is that mining job visible? No? Ok, we won't do it. Now, you can see much further into the earth. So this might have issues where settlers think they can do something when they really can't yet. I've gone through the majority, if not all, the instances where this comes up but, hey, it's easy to miss things.

Also, the load times are slightly bloated because I'm doing some extra work with lighting and path checks. This week I'm going to improve load times but I thought I'd mention this as it may be noticeable to you.

So why did I make this change to lighting? I really want people to explore underground and to be able to find ore and dungeons easier. Plus, without light penetrating the earth, the game felt a bit claustrophobic or cramped.

Aside from lighting, I've add some additional props to the game to spice things up a bit. Things like hatches and death spikes but also more aesthetic items like hedges.

OH, I've also tracked down a bug with Tin ore not generating. Many of you were mentioning how hard it is to find Tin and, well, it was barely being generating. So, there ya go.

Anywhozle, here are the notes:

-Fixed a bug where the icon for liquids wasn't showing up in the filters for blueprints.
-Added 'Nax Hedge' prop.
-Added 'Nax Hedge Lantern' prop.
-Fixed a bug where rotatable blueprints wouldn't align with other blueprints.
-Fixed a bug where damage had double output.
-Entities will now prefer to walk on paths. And some paths provide faster slightly faster movement.
-Lights will now reveal hidden underground blocks.
-Fixed a bug where jobs couldn't be started from the block below if it had a platform.
-Fixed a bug where the fx for torches and other props would not line up if you placed a floor blueprint under the prop and then it was cancelled or finished.
-Fixed a bug where tin wasn't properly generating in every block type.
-Tuned iron to be harder to find near the surface.
-Increased drop rate of wood logs from trees.
-Updated art for Kalite.
-Added wood and stone hatches.
-Added wood and stone trap doors.
-Added wood, stone, bronze, iron, steel and rutile spikes.

This week I'm going to do a pass on terrain art. Now that you can see them with lights, they definitely need some visual treatment. Kalite is the only one I had time to update, so you'll notice blocks like Ember Rock, Ridgestone, Sandstone, etc, look like butt. I'm going to fix that!
As well, I wanted to spend the week focusing on various issues people have been encountering. Mostly minor or QoL things that have been stacking up while I implement newer features.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

Waylon

Just a quick update to let you know that the production branch is now up-to-date with all the beta changes.

This update includes changes from:

0.8.11.0 Beta - Notif UI Update, Fixes, Events 0.8.12.0/0.8.13.0 Beta - New Room Actions Menu and Fixes

Additional changes/fixes:
-Fixed a bug where Ancients would take the last names of their companion.
-Fixed a bug where some of the human elder portraits were swapped.
-Fixed a bug where gooseberry wine had the wrong inline icon.
-Hitting 'f' will now have the camera follow the currently selected entity.
-Clicking a notif will now snap you to the event location.
-Brightened up workstation blueprint queue count text.
-Increased quality of props so rooms aren't all mediocre.
-Fixed another issue where ancients could starve while migrating.
-Migration carry amount now determined by carry skill of settlers on journey.
-Fixed a load hang bug.

Thanks!

Waylon