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After the Collapse News

After The Collapse 0.9.0 Released

Hi peeps! Here's the promised 0.9 content update!

This is the first draft for the 0.9x dev cycle. It contains most of the promised core features outside of the map/building editor and handcrafted maps (they go hand-in-hand). As with all milestone updates, despite a lot of testing, it might not be as polished or stable as the previous version, but all bugs and oddities will quickly be addressed.

I'll talk about the future of the 0.9 branch later, but for now, let's focus on the new features and changes. As usual, full changelog at the end. I'll only cover the major changes in the article.

[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
  • Deeper world map mechanics
  • Patrol zones
  • AI/Hostile hordes roaming the map
  • AI Factions sending their own expeditions
  • End-game's Genetic Horrors faction overhaul
  • Mental breakdowns
  • Content, engine, UI, and balance pass


[h2]Patrol Zones[/h2]

Patrol zones are a new type of zone you can define. It's relatively self explanatory. You can assign survivors to a patrol zone, either as a permanent job or as a rally point when you switch to combat mode. People assigned to a patrol zone will attack any hostile in range automatically. This is a great way to reduce pre-raid micro management, as your soldiers will automatically go to the locations you've assigned them to. Additionally, setting up a permanent zone near your base entrance with a couple guards is a great way to defend against pesky animals.



Note that unless specified otherwise, people will still go to sleep, eat, drink and take breaks. You can prevent them to by checking the appropriate checkbox, just make sure you don't forget, because they will starve to death otherwise.

[h2]Assignable Factories[/h2]

It is now possible to assign a particular worker to a single factory or research station using the new advanced tab in the factory menu. Most of the time, this won't be nearly as productive as just letting the survivors pick their jobs on their own (as you know, if there's a single worker assigned to factory, that factory won't be producing anything while the worker is on break). That being said, it synergize very well with robots as they don't take breaks.



That warning out of the way, it works very well for research stations. Simply assign your best science guy to the research station and you're all set. Before, you'd have to disable science on everyone else, which was pretty tedious.

[h2]World Map Combat Update[/h2]

Until now, all the game had to work with to generate opponents in manual combat maps (or run automated battles) on the world map was just a single number per tile dubbed "opposition strength". I had to extrapolate, from that single number, the number and type of enemies and what would be the result if you opted to do the combat automatically instead of manually. As you can guess, it didn't make for a good or accurate representation with difficulty/results between manual and automated battles being completely disconnected from each other.

So, I rewrote the whole system completely, including AI factions' logic, how the data itself is handled, how you reinforce your productions centers and how "offline" combat works, all that in a way that wouldn't break mod or save compatibility. Now factions and the world map generator is using proper NPC to populate the map. Factions no longer send "points" to a production center, they send people. They don't grow by points, they grow by adding new soldiers to their roster. Each faction grows at a different pace and have different thresholds when it come to select an action.



The first visible result is that instead of having a very vague pre-battle screen when looking at a hostile location, you'll have the exact list of who you're going to fight against. The offensive and defensive stats are shown both for you and the opposing party. And, finally, the automated combat results are a LOT less in your favor. Even a 100% victory chance might still mean that half of your party will be on the brink of death (when the combat is roughly balanced number-wise). It's not very well balanced yet, but now, i have actual data to play with to improve the results.

Factions no longer teleport always winning "numbers" to a location they want to invade, instead they send their own expeditions with a given amount of soldiers (deducted from the people at their base), which might or might not succeed. You can intercept AI expeditions with your own but I will cover that later.

Additionally, you no longer "build defenses" at your productions centers. Instead you recruit mercenaries. While in practice it serves the exact same purpose: boosting your ability to defend the location; in the near future, it'll make you able to manually control your military forces during the defense of your production centers. It's something that I will improve during the follow up 0.9x patches. For instance, it would be fun to have the ability to recruit different mercenary types you could unlock through diplo, quests or tech.

[h2]Hordes and AI Expeditions[/h2]

As explained in the previous devlog, your expeditions are no longer the only things roaming the world map.

AI Factions will send expeditions to capture production centers. Expeditions that you can intercept with your own and potentially fight against. They aren't using this system when attacking your own base yet (troops still get teleported and rely on the random event system), but this will likely happen in the next patch.



Additionally, naturally occurring hordes will gradually spawn in the world map, it might be infected hordes or herds of giant animals. They move slowly, aimlessly but grow over time in population (within limits).  They might take over or attack map locations, even capturing places you've cleared in the past. If they come across your base, this will automatically trigger a raid. Likewise, they can be intercepted by your own expeditions before they become a nuisance or for their loot. Hordes can be fought manually or automatically. Right now it's using the same setup as with production centers, meaning that they'll hide in buildings.

Finally, some large infected hordes (and a faction, more on that later), can "infect" a building. Infections are a special type of conquest. They change a location into another one, generally with the ability to spawn additional hordes. So, if a large horde infects one building in a cluster, the rest of the cluster will likely follow within a few days. Infected buildings can be cleared the same way you attack locations normally.

[h2]Genetic Abominations[/h2]

The end-game threat of genetic abominations got a lot more dangerous. It's taking advantage of all the mechanics explained above. Their numbers grow quickly, they send expeditions regularly and they infect conquered locations, spawning more hordes. They might spiral out of control in a matter of weeks if not dealt with. This should make the end game a bit more hectic.



I can't really say it's carefully balanced, as I didn't have much time to test this. I will adjust if need be.

[h2]Mental Breakdown[/h2]

It's also something I explained in the previous devlog, but here's the gist of it. The main goal of this feature is to make sure that experienced players can no longer completely ignore happiness. Contrary to popular belief, the "depression" trait has a minimal impact on gameplay and could be ignored while passing laws that would boost productivity and reduce food consumption at the cost of happiness.



Now, your survivors have an invisible gauge determining their sanity. Sanity slowly decreases when they are unhappy, and slowly gets back to normal when they are happy. If a survivor's sanity reaches zero, they'll have a mental breakdown. They won't respond to any command and pick a detrimental action from a list. They might break some furniture, light something on fire, or flat out turn hostile. Assuming they survived, their sanity will be reset and resume work as usual. Note that, occasionally, they will pick multiple actions. More possible actions will be added over time.

The feature can also be tweaked or disabled in the difficulty settings. Still, this is not a very punishing mechanic, it takes several days of 24/24 misery for a survivor to have a breakdown. The goal here is to prevent an exploit and accelerate the process when a base is doomed, not to punish small mistakes.

[h2]User Interface[/h2]

We have a proper loading screen now! Hopefully, this should help with people who [alt]+[tab] right at the moment where the game engine doesn't support losing focus (when loading graphical data). More mood and activity dialog bubbles have been added to the menus and game to give better feedback. A vehicle comparison table has been added to the encyclopedia. It's possible to remove people from combat mode using the multi selection panel. The "research completed" popup contains a button to open the research panel.

Oh, "forges" have been renamed to "smelters" which is more accurate, as someone mentioned recently.

Of course there are more minor changes, please refer to the changelog for a complete list :)

[h2]Balance Pass[/h2]

Your expeditions' vehicles have HP now. It decreases very slowly while traveling naturally (or not so slowly when going over some hostile terrains) and can be damaged during events. Notably, the minefield event will damage the vehicle on failure (or when ignoring it). When the HP pool reaches zero, your expedition will automatically head home for repairs. You do not lose anything in the process. I might add a difficulty setting in the future to make it deadlier.

Firearms have been tuned. They got better looking sprites, bullet speed has been increased and standardized, damage output slightly tweaked. There's 3 new guns: a revolver, a submachine gun and a combat rifle. Tomato cans, which was way too expensive to build have been tuned. You now get back the metal after consuming the can (it ends up in the inventory of whoever consumed it). Quartz is now used to build solar panels and CPU chips, justifying it's very high trading price.

[h2]Engine Level Changes[/h2]

I had to rewrite the whole way sound and music is handled, switching library. In practice, for 90% of you, it won't make any major change. The audio settings gained a "master volume" gauge which adjusts all sounds at once. Large battles with a lot of sounds being played at once sound better thanks to the much better mixing. That's about it. For the remaining 10%, your KN/N edition of Windows is now compatible right out of the box with ATC, no need to download the windows media player pack. And if you're one of the last 3 people on Earth who still install those codec packs, ATC is now codec independent and your setup should no longer interfere with the game's audio.

The low level DirectX interface / library has also been updated, I've not noticed anything really relevant in their changelog, but well, it'll probably fix some edge case bugs or graphical oddities.

[h2]Save-game and Mod Compatibility[/h2]

Old saves dating from 0.8.5 and later should be compatible, roughly, and believe me, given all the structural changes it's kind of a small miracle. Not all features will be present, and I cannot 100% guarantee that everything will be working with older saves. Don't yell at me if your save is not working, you can roll back to 0.8 from Steam (properties / beta tab) if need be.

Mods are generally compatible with 3 exceptions:
  1. Mods adding or editing existing factions are outdated, while they shouldn't break the game, they might prevent some of the improvements from taking effect. It's not possible to update or (fully) remove such mods mid game as faction data is loaded once when a new game is started.
  2. Mods altering existing firearms (beside purely textures) are outdated, but can be removed safely.
  3. Mods adding or altering sound effects MUST be in Stereo 44.100Hz mp3 files (also, music/effects are no longer compiled, ATC can read mp3 files out of the box).


[h2]Closing Words[/h2]

I think it's the first time I have so much of a branch todo list in the very first release, despite the time I had to waste replacing the sound library.

The obvious missing feature is the map editor (and all the content that would come from it), it's being worked on but it's nowhere ready, and I can't really rush it. Also, I sorta had to get those world map changes finished first. I'd rather dedicate an update to this feature so I can write it properly without worrying about the other 50 items in my changelog. Base relocation ain't there yet. It shouldn't be a problem, it just didn't make the cut. Same for manned turrets, all the underlaying mechanics are here, I just didn't have to time to implement it.

Oh, I *might* have fixed that elusive teleportation bug thing. I noticed that after loading a save-game, the game would load the map and start running before the pathing information is calculated. So, for a few frames (depending on machine), all the map would be considered impassible terrain. While in theory it's not a real problem, I suspect that under some rare conditions (lag), it might cause a survivor to run it's emergency "omg I'm in a wall and shouldn't be, I need to teleport somewhere else" script before the information is loaded.

Anyway, I hope you'll like this release! While I probably added more bugs than I fixed (which is sorta the rule with milestone updates), I doubt it's anything major or game breaking. Just report any problem you encounter and I'll get it fixed ASAP.

And with that, I wish you all a happy new year! I'll come back to Discord and stuff as soon as the year is over.

Cheers!

[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
  • AI: NPC and turrets using fire based weapons now take this damage type into consideration to determine which target they should focus on
  • AI: Several improvements to the other CPU factions' overworld AI
  • Balance: Quartz is now used to build solar panels and CPU chips
  • Balance: Some world map interactive events have been tweaked to take new features into account
  • Balance: Expedition vehicle speed bonus on roads increased from 20% to 25%
  • Balance: If set to NOT recover death-drop items, items dropped from crates destroyed by fires will also be marked as not to be retrieved
  • Balance: In expedition, manual and automated combat are more on par, with automated no longer being a free win
  • Balance: Increased healing rate of idle expeditions + added much smaller healing rate during travel
  • Balance: Consuming a tomato can gives back the metal that was used to pack it
  • Balance: Desert Eagle penetration from High to very high, increased base damage, decreased RoF (so the revolver can fit the high penetration slot)
  • Balance: Standardized / Increased bullet speed for all gun type weapons (very fast for real guns, fast for pipe weapons, medium for bows and crossbows)
  • Balance: Tweaked damage output, RoF and reload time of several rifles
  • Balance: Removed blood-thirsty tag from antisocial trait (translation: they won't ignore incapacitation settings anymore)
  • Content: Expedition vehicles have their own HP pool and can be damaged by events or during travel
  • Content: A vehicle with no HP will force the expedition to go back home for repairs
  • Content: Research and crafting stations can be assigned to specific workers (be sure to read related information/tooltips)
  • Content: Configurable patrol zones where people can be assigned to guard strategic locations
  • Content: Added internal "mental breakdown" meter to survivors which might cause a survivor to leave or do other more "fun inducing" actions
  • Content: Being happy reduces the "mental breakdown" gauge, getting/staying depressed increases it
  • Content: Added remote explosive collar pack (vehicle equipment), allows you to take prisoners instead of recruits during expeditions
  • Content: Added hordes/groups to the map: moving 'points of interest' which can appear naturally or as the result of random events
  • Content: Hordes grow over time and might trigger an attack when coming into contact with your base or another map location
  • Content: Map locations now inform you of their exact enemy content before battle (instead of a rough list of possible enemy types)
  • Content: New world map locations that will spawn hostile groups until conquered are making their appearance (either from start, or through random events)
  • Content: Large zombie hordes can infect a map location after a successful attack
  • Content: AI Factions send expeditions (which are visible on the map and which can be intercepted) to conquer map locations
  • Content: A couple new "random" events (horde spawn mostly)
  • Content: The defense of outposts is done using mercenaries that you recruit the same way you built defenses previously (work in progress)
  • Content: End game threat of genetic abominations turned up to eleven, able to infect buildings and spawn hordes on a regular basis
  • Content: Added Magnum .44, FAMAS G1 and FN-P90 weapons (just under slightly different names because copyright is a thing)
  • Engine: Minor code improvements and optimizations, update of the low level DirectX interface
  • Engine: New sound library, removing the need to use the unreliable windows media player library
  • Engine: Windows KN & N editions are now compatible with ATC right out of the box (no longer requiring the download of a media player pack)
  • Graphics: Replaced most of the older weapon textures by more detailed ones (handguns and most assault rifles)
  • Graphics: Added a couple faction leader portraits, replaced some older ones
  • Graphics: Exploding fat zombies have a new, easily recognizable, body
  • Modding: Ability to damage vehicle during interactive map events (see the minefield one)
  • Modding: Added horde data files
  • Modding: Added EventSpawnHorde event, function similarly to POI spawner event, see "data/events/horde_*"
  • Modding: Musics and SFX have respectively moved from Content/Music & Content/SFX to data/musics & data/sfx
  • Modding: All sound effects/music
  • must* be in 44.1kHz MP3, preferably stereo. Any bitrate.
  • Modding: Music and SFX no longer need to be compiled with the modding tools
  • Modding: mapgen/worlds files can define which hordes can naturally spawn on the map (and how many and often)
  • Modding: Spawn of events and hordes can be gated by variables set in an interactive event
  • Modding: Added ability for PoI to spawn hordes (see spawner_* poi files for details, technically same format as for spawner clutter or npc)
  • Modding: Faction data overhaul, all Strength* fields replaced, added new horde customization fields (see any main faction files)
  • Modding: Added "GiveItems" field to consumables, will add the items to the user's inventory on consumption, (see tomato can)
  • Sound: Much better sound quality when a lot of effects are played at once
  • Sound: Added "master volume" setting to audio settings (alter all outputs at once, practical when you want to keep relative levels intact)
  • UI: Proper loading screen (which will be less confusing that the blank screen in fullscreen mode on a non-ssd drive)
  • UI: Added more mood/activity dialog bubbles in various menus/situations
  • UI: Renamed "Exploring/I am exploring" by "Idle/I am taking a break" which is more accurate
  • UI: High priority and new assignment settings have been put into the new "advanced" tab in the factory screen
  • UI: Added expedition vehicle comparison chart to encyclopedia
  • UI: Added Hit Point information to every vehicle/expedition related menus
  • UI: Added mental breakdown difficulty modifiers
  • UI: Multi selection menu can release a group of people from combat duty when in combat mode
  • UI: Jobs button in settler info panel is no longer greyed out in combat mode (only the military skill checkbox)
  • UI: Faction leadership change event got its own interactive panel with the ability to contact the faction directly (if you have radio tech)
  • UI: Added difficulty toggle to enable/disable naturally spawning hordes
  • UI: Research completed popup got a button to directly open the research screen
  • UI: More information on the expedition combat screen
  • UI: Renamed a few things so they make more sense: "Former Military" -> "Army Remnants", "Forge" -> "Smelter"
  • UI: Popup message when a (player owned) production center gets taken/destroyed by another faction (optional, enabled by default, in game settings)
  • UI: Warning (in the log) just before a production center gets attacked
  • Fixed: Mood/Status dialog bubble were shown in menu displaying survivors
  • Fixed: Scrollbar occasionally placed off panel until panel is refreshed / mouse goes over
  • Fixed: The "yell for help" system (used when someone is attacked) could disrupt operations of nearby expedition goers or people trying to get to the hospital
  • Fixed: People selection menu in the garage had barely relevant and overflowing text due to change of description for scavenging skill. (regression bug 0.8.7.8)
  • Fixed: Long standing bug (no idea how it managed to stay unnoticed forever) which would lead to some mood/trait parameters to reset on loading a save
  • Fixed: Fairly large memory leak each time a savegame is loaded
  • Fixed: A couple extremely improbable (and never reported) potential crashes
  • Fixed: Stone tables and seats could catch fire
  • Fixed: Fire SFX would keep playing when the game is paused and the camera away from fire
  • Fixed: Recently introduced issue between with tile placement and savegames (was fixed in a non documented patch earlier)
  • Fixed: Possible crash on exit if a combat map contains an electric grid item (power relay and such)
  • Fixed: Mood modifiers from laws were not applied consistently
  • Fixed: Enemy faction soldiers would spawn with sub-par statistics
  • Fixed: A problem which could, in theory, teleport NPC semi randomly when loading a save-game (that might be the one that eluded me for so long, finally!)
  • Fixed: The last built path-blocking object, if 2x2 (or more), wouldn't update the map information correctly until something else is built, which could confuse survivors pathing
  • Fixed: The initial/starting depot (which initially contains more than it's allowed to) was interfering with the information given in the storage menu
  • Fixed: A couple minor issues in the user interface
  • Fixed: People being "force-pushed" when they are building/removing something while positioned at a tile with a door
  • Fixed: Couple small issues with animation selection (during combat, and yes, large melee enemies still look derpy when fighting, will be fixed)
  • Fixed: Some more typos (please report any remaining typo, suggestions for better sentences/descriptions are welcome now)
  • Fixed: [Ctrl]+[Right Click] wouldn't allow to attack incapacitated hostiles

  

Devlog: 0.9 Progress Update

Hi there!

To make up for the lack of weekly patches while I'm coding the 0.9 update, here's a devlog instead (I know, technically, I did patch ATC a couple times to address random/rare issues found by people but still, nothing major).

Oh before i start. I know it's unusual, but i'd like to advertise Piecewise, a chat-bot making tool made by a friend of mine who also did a lot of work on ATC, including the Steam workshop integration. If you're enjoying ATC mods it's in great part thanks to her. It would mean a lot to me if you gave a follow or considered buying it if it's something you'd be interested in.

Anyway, to summarize, progress toward 0.9 is going well, several of the features I talked about in the previous devlog are fully or at least "mostly" implemented, and the rest is being actively worked on. There are a few technical problems and bugs I had to deal with, but nothing really major.

So, let's see what I have done so far. Comments are welcome, obviously :)

[h2]Assign survivors to a specific job[/h2]

This was one system that ATC didn't have until now. While 9 times out of 10, it really didn't matter who was working on what station, it still made it more difficult than it should to assign someone competent to a particular task. It also limited what I could do with the game. This is fixed.



I'm still feeling ambivalent about this feature. On one hand, it makes it a lot easier to assign the correct person to the research station and it gives more control to the player. On the other hand, 9 times out of 10, work stations being public is way more effective (when a worker takes care of their needs, their job can be resumed by someone else). And I fully expect to get forum posts complaining about inefficiency, production not being executed (because assigned worker is sleeping/sick), or settlers not working (because the work station has no job it can complete). But welp, it's the price of progress, i guess.

To counterbalance that risk, the feature is going to be put in an advanced sub menu (as shown in the screenshot) alongside the "high priority" checkbox, and where additional "non newbie friendly" filters like "minimum skill" will likely be added in the future.

[h2]Patrol Zones[/h2]

The menu is still very "beta" looking, but it's complete feature-wise. Simply put, it allows you to assign settlers to guard a particular location (like the entrance of your base).



It comes with a lot of useful settings. The most important one being that you can select if you want the people assigned to the patrol zone to guard it at all time (they'll still leave to eat/sleep/.. unless you specify otherwise) or only when combat mode is toggled on.

This is super useful as you can pretty much automatize your base's defense using this system. Setup a few patrol zones in non permanent mode, assign your soldiers, disable military skill on everyone else, and poof, the second you press the "combat mode" button, your militia will automatically move to their designated defensive position and deal with the incoming threat.

It goes without saying that this will replace the cumbersome "save/load patrol point" system we had before. There's a few more settings to talk about but they aren't written in stone yet, and I still need to have something to write about in the release post :D

[h2]Mental Breakdown[/h2]

This one, I didn't talk about in the devlog, but it felt like a necessary addition. This is an entirely optional feature, and can be tuned up/down/disabled in the difficulty settings.

I've noticed over the years that new players with a doomed first (or second) base will often continue to play a very depressing game instead of restarting a new base, not because of the challenge but because the fact it's doomed hasn't been communicated very well.

Mental breakdowns can be seen is pretty much all base builders in a form or another because they address this very problem, they accelerate the process hopefully in an entertaining way.

I'm still tuning the system, but right now the rule is as follow. Each survivor has an invisible "mental breakdown" gauge. Each day, the survivor counts for how long they've been depressed (very low morale), and for how long they've been happy (very high morale). If they've been depressed more than happy, the gauge increases proportionally. Same thing in reverse for happiness. If they've been neither of those things, it doesn't move.



When the gauge is full, the settler will enter a "mental breakdown" state. They won't respond to any commands and will perform one (or a few) detrimental action(s). This action can be anything from deciding to leave the base, to punch furniture, turn hostile, attack someone they hate, mop in a corner for a few hours, burn down something, ... Not every action has been written yet, and it's fairly adaptive, i can easily add more. Assuming they survive and do not leave the base, this will reset the gauge.

It's not meant to be something you really have to manage, the gauge increases very slowly. Right now, on default settings, it takes 4-5 days of 24/24 misery for a survivor to have a breakdown.

But, beside accelerating the downfall of a base in an entertaining fashion, it's also meant to prevent experienced players from completely ignoring mood. As much as it's a common complaint from new players, the depressed state ain't really that bad. And once you've figured that out and start stacking up laws which reduce mood but improve everything else, it can even be beneficial (if you don't mind people punching each other all the time). Now, you can still do it, but a survivor might decide to burn down the barracks in protest. :D

This also introduces a concept of criminality to the game. To answer the obvious "can i arrest those people?", well not really right now. There will likely be a "convert to prisoner" button for the offenders, but that'll be it initially. I have post 1.0 plans to introduce special roles like sheriff and leader (think royalty in Dwarf fortress, but somewhat useful) to deal with those problems in interesting ways, but we're not there yet.

[h2]World Map: Animal herds, infected hordes, ...[/h2]

For simplicity sake i'm going to call this system a "horde" no matter if it's zombies, animals or a group of bandits, as it's the name used internally anyway.

That's the big feature I'm working on right now. In principle, this is self explanatory: growing hordes of hostiles roaming the map. If they come across your base, it triggers a raid-type event (assuming they are hostile toward you). If they come across a point of interest they might attack it if defended, or take over it if it's empty.



They can be intercepted by expeditions. and can be attacked before they become a problem, or lured toward your base if you are itching for a fight. More contextual interactions will likely be added, as they'll be able to use the interactive event/quest system.

I'm quite happy with my implementation. And, due to the way they are written, the manual vs auto combat options are a lot more balanced. Manual combat generally being the less risky option, as it should (if you know what you're doing, ofc).

Last devlog, I wasn't sure if i could make AI faction use this system instead of using teleportation to do everything. Now I'm pretty sure that they'll be able to use it to capture production centers or send raiding parties. Maybe not on 0.9.0 proper, but soon after that. This will add a lot of mid/late game gameplay options, like the ability to intercept enemy hordes before they reach their destination so you can fight them in the open.

I'm still experimenting with the system, but so far so good.

[h2]World Map: Infection & spawners[/h2]

That's part 2 of the above system. Probably won't be in the initial 0.9.0 release in any meaningful way, but i'm working on having the ability for a horde to "convert" a map location into something else that can spawn a configurable amount of additional hordes until it's cleared by another AI faction or the player.

It's a system i might use for abominations in the standard game, and for the zombies in a heavily reworked zombie survival scenario. Basically a horde comes across, let's say a farm and conquers it. The farm is morphed into an "infected building" that will spawn another horde every day until it has like 2 or 3 under its control. Those hordes will move toward other buildings, attack them, and if victorious, convert them. This is a situation that will need to be dealt with or it might spiral into something very bad for everyone else.

This should make for a way more interesting end game threat than the current version of the abominations. Might also give a strong incentive to keep other main factions alive as they might help against the threat.

[h2]Map/Building Editor[/h2]

Okay, not going to lie. I'm struggling with this one. It's extremely time consuming to write (and boring, so... incredibly... boring...) and there's a lot of things I do while generating the map that aren't really easy to translate into an editor. I mean, yes, i do have the basics of placing walls, furniture and terrain in there and the ability to save/load the map itself. But it's peanuts compared to spawn points, hidden zones, faction attribution and many other systems.

I still need this as a feature, at least for me to use, but it is going to cannibalize a lot of time, and I can't say I'm happy about it. As I'm not entirely sure how long it's going to take me, and that it ain't exactly a key feature, the rest of the to-do list takes priority over it. What time left I have after the rest is done will be for the editor.

[h2]Random Stuff[/h2]

As usual i just mentioned the big features. I've added/fixed/altered plenty of things. The game has a proper splash/load screen now, so people don't get confused by that white screen (in fullscreen mode) or the big delay (in borderless mode). Expeditions vehicles have their own HP pool, terrain and events can damage a vehicle forcing people to go back home for repairs. UI get tweaked, bugs get fixed, content get added. The usual :)

All things considered, it's going pretty well. Editor aside, for once, I'm quite ahead of schedule. This might give me some time to add some content I never got around to, like fertilizer for farms, additional mobs (and variants), training facilities, sprinklers to get rid of fires and/or take care of farms. Don't assume i'm going to do all that, the to-do list takes priority as always, but it's on the table :)

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Comments and ideas are welcome, just understand that I'm not going to alter things much at this point until I'm done with that whole 1.0 release thing.

Cheers.

0.8.7.9: Maintenance Patch

This is just a small maintenance patch. It however might fix the issue with the game not always closing properly when launched from Steam on some systems.

As usual, no save or mod compatibility issue to be expected.

[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
  • UI: In population menu, skills are now sorted alphabetically
  • UI: Added option to pause game when research is completed (settings/gameplay)
  • UI: Zone/building/razing plans are now drawn over the rest of the game, making it clear what you're about to do
  • Fixed: People whose inventory is full of dirty water in a base with no dirty water storage wouldn't know how to get rid of it to get food.
  • Fixed: Changing an item in the top item resource panel wouldn't update the associated tooltip
  • Fixed: console window not being properly freed on exit (this
  • might* be the reason for the game not exiting properly on some systems)

Devlog: Road to 1.0

Hi peeps!

Here's the promised devlog, barely a few hours late.

So, let's start with the basics. This is a devlog, any new feature I am talking about here, no matter how detailed it is, is subject to changes, improvements, or even plain cancelation depending on how the implementation goes before it's actually being released. In short, don't assume that everything I'm going to talk about here is going to happen exactly as planned. It's still a relatively accurate guideline for the future. With this obligatory introduction out of the way, let's get to it :)

[h2]0.9 Major Update[/h2]

The 0.9 release is the next major update for ATC. From an user perspective it probably won't be as massive as the Expedition overhaul or the Dig Deeper update. Still, it's going to introduce the final touches so everything else can be completed. From a modder's perspective it's going to be fun, though. Of course, I'm skipping the usual UI tweaks, minor improvements and bug fixes.

[h3]Map & Building Editor[/h3]

As much as I'm happy with the current state of the procedural generator, I have to admit that a few hand-crafted maps and buildings wouldn't go amiss. This is where the editor comes into play. It'll allow me (and anyone else) to build expedition combat maps, spawn locations or scenario maps with ease. Additionally, I hope to be able to integrate the hand-crafted buildings in the generators proper: aka the ability for such buildings to spawn in city, roadside and village maps. This should pave the way for "building/map" mods.

And last but not least, It will allow me to design more interesting scenarios with very specific starting maps and I'm not gonna miss the opportunity to add a "trapped in a mall/prison/hospital surrounded by zombies" scenario.

[h3]Patrol Zones and Manned Turrets[/h3]

One system that's currently missing internally is the ability to assign a survivor to a particular task and that task only (basically preventing them from querying the general job list while assigned to this task). Once implemented, I'll be able to add commonly requested features: namely the ability to setup patrol zones and manned turrets.

Patrol zones will be configurable, you'll be able to assign any amount of survivors there, and decide if you want to guards to stay there all the time (except when eating/sleeping, obviously), which is a good way to guard your gates against roaming critters, or decide to only make it active in combat mode (good for kill zones).

Same idea with manned turrets. Don't get me wrong, automated turrets are fine and dandy, but they probably should be put much higher in the tech tree (and require some beefier construction costs). Manned turrets could fill a mid game defensive role before you're swimming in modern guns, money and ammo, offering some decent firepower and some cover to whoever is assigned to it.

[h3]More Expedition Stuff[/h3]

With the two above features completed, I will be able to put the finishing touches to the expedition system. Manual vs Auto combat will get (at least somewhat) balanced. The generic combat maps will be replaced by hand crafted ones. Some enemies will start patrolling around their base instead of all waiting in rooms. Expedition vehicles will get their own pool of HP, which might be impacted by travel, terrain and events. An expedition with a car out of HP will be forced to return home.

You'll also get more options when dealing with enemies attacking your production centers. You will likely be able to resolve those battles manually or bribe your way out of some of those encounters. I still need to think how I am going represent the money put into "buy defenses" in such combats, though. But, I'll figure something out or replace that sub-system completely.

[h3]World Map: Roaming mobs[/h3]

Some of the mobs will also start to visibly roam the world map. They'll generally be relatively passive, but will still move from time to time. If your base or a production center is in their way, it'll trigger an attack. Herds will be interactive, you can send expeditions their way to either get rid of them remotely, or you might even be able to lead them toward your base intentionally. Why would you want to do that? Spider queen eggs don't grow on trees and the chance of a spider queen attack to happen normally is incredibly low.

Animal herds will be an introduction to "moving" map locations. It's likely that I'll expand the system to other things and couple it with "spawner-type" locations. It's also very likely that the abominations will be a prime candidate to mix all of those systems together into a proper end-game threat. That last part goes beyond 0.9 proper and extends into 1.0.

[h3]Base Relocation[/h3]

Simple enough, the ability to pack up & leave the base for greener pastures, retaining all techs, people and some resources. It won't have a massive gameplay impact in 0.9 proper. Sure, it will be nice to be able to relocate in order to hunt for exoskeletons and other goodies only available in some biomes. But it's a feature that I will mostly need for the 1.0 storyline, so might as well implement it now.

[h2]1.0 Release Plans[/h2]

First of all, I've said it already but it's worth repeating for the newcomers: 1.0 is not the end of the line. All it means is that I consider the game to be ready to get out of Early Access. That it's feature complete compared to the goals I've set years ago (and let's be honest here, we're already way past those goals :D). And that it's in a decent shape stability and performance-wise. Development will continue post 1.0, just at slightly more relaxed pace (and after getting a proper vacation). Those last few months have been really intensive, and it's probably not a healthy rhythm to maintain forever. But you can be sure that there will be more major updates after that.

Beside the addition of raw content (items, weaponry, armors, mobs and events), 1.0 will pretty much entirely focus on the addition of a main questline: Story Mode.

Story Mode will technically replace the tutorial slot in the new game menu. It will integrate a (probably optional) tutorial section, and give general tips during the whole playthrough, but it will also contain multiple quests similar in concept to what you've seen in the rise of the mutant scenario. Some quests will flesh out the lore, others will unlock techs or deal with the other factions or give you special bonus. All those quests will merge toward a conclusion.

I'm sorry if I'm being very vague on the actual details here as I don't want to write spoilers. Also, please, don't expect some revolutionary stuff here, I'm in no way a great writer (English is not even my primary language) and it's pretty much my first attempt at storytelling. I just hope it'll be entertaining to play through. :)

[h2]Final Thoughts[/h2]

Hopefully, the first draft for 0.9 should be available before New Year Eve. I don't expect many problems with it. The editor will be the most time consuming thing to deal with. Not writing it proper, because you know, it's technically already there, being a base building game & all. It's the integration of those custom maps/buildings that will be more of a pain.

1.0 is scheduled for February/March 2022. I'm not entirely sure I will be able to keep this exact deadline, but it shouldn't be much later.

Price-wise. ATC will reach it's planned official price ($14.99) when I start working on 1.0 proper. Due to the way Steam works, it's not possible to change the price & discount the game without leaving a month in between those two actions. Given that I will apply a day 1 release discount, price has to be raised slightly in advance.

I think I've covered everything I wanted to talk about for now. :)

Cheers!

0.8.7.8: UI Improvements and Fixes

Hi there!

Here's the last weekly patch for this version of ATC, after this one, and barring any large problem, I'll switch gears toward the next major update which I'll talk about in a devlog tomorrow.

This patch includes several new UI improvements regarding the Raze button and the replacement of the Repair button by a multi purpose button. It's also getting rid of several bugs ranging from incredibly minor to very annoying.

As usual, saves & mods are compatible and the full changelog is at the bottom :)

[h2]Balance Pass[/h2]

Fire has been tuned down. Wild fires will spread (but also die on their own) and damage 33% slower. The heat-wave weather pattern can no longer appear in the first 2 weeks, which should give you more time to prepare.

Additionally, got it, fire crabs are a bit too overpowered. Their range has been reduced by 2 tiles. The fireball they throw at you got its armor penetration value reduced from High to Medium, meaning that any medium+ integrity armor will offer its full protection (assuming it does something against fire damage). Fire vests also got their integrity increased from low to medium.

[h2]Raze Button[/h2]

It functions exactly as usual by default. But, you'll notice that when pressing the button or keyboard shortcut, a row of buttons appears just above the bottom menu.



As you can see, you can now set what you want to raze exactly. For instance, using the "Clutter" button, It's a lot faster & easier to "clear up" a house while keeping the walls intact. Additionally, EVERYTHING related to removal is in this menu. You no longer have to go look deep inside the "Build" menu to remove roofs or tiles anymore.

[h2]Misc. Orders[/h2]

The barely used "Repair" button has been replaced by a "Misc Orders" button (same icon), it works similarly to the new Raze sub-panel.



From there, you can still repair stuff, but you can also mass-assign butchering jobs or copy existing structures (and their settings) without having to use the build menu. Both of those options already existed but only in forms of keyboard shortcuts until now.

Additionally, the "Forbid Items" and "Allow Items" buttons can be used to manually allow or disallow your survivors to retrieve specific items dropped on tiles. This can be used to prevent survivors from going into a death trap to retrieve a piece of wood.

[h2]Misc. Improvements & Bug Fixing[/h2]

After getting a lot of work done on the underlaying UI code, the keyboard shortcuts should also behave in a way more consistent fashion no matter if you're in combat mode or building mode. Esc should also escape from all situations properly (if you really don't like to right click for some reason).

As usual most, if not all, reported (and non reported) bugs have been fixed :)

[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
  • AI: Survivors are better with the retrieval of items on tiles (and stopping the job if the tile get forbidden or emptied)
  • Balance: Reduced penetration value for the fireball used by fire crabs (from high to medium) and reduced its range by 2 tiles
  • Balance: Reduced update rate of fires by 33% (spread & damage slower)
  • Balance: Increased integrity of fire-vest (from low to medium), making it a good early defensive armor against fire crabs
  • Balance: Heat waves can't appear for the first 2 weeks (instead of 3 days) to account for the fires it can now cause
  • Content: Items on the ground can be manually forbidden/allowed for retrieval
  • Content: Added and updated some screens in the tutorial to mention some recent/important features
  • Engine: Further hardening of the engine to prevent crashes from removing mods mid-game (never will be perfect, but it's pretty decent at it now)
  • Engine: Pass at the input code, keyboard shortcuts should work in a more consistent fashion, independently of the game's state
  • UI: Expanded the "Raze" button: the default option stays the same but you can click buttons to raze specific things (plants, clutter, wall, tiles, roofs...)
  • UI: With the expanded raze button, options to delete zone, roofs and tiles have been removed from the build menu
  • UI: Renamed "fixed strange scar" by "fixed early pandemonium symptoms" to clarify that the Pandemonium cure is working as intended
  • UI: Rewrote the descriptions of all the stats and jobs/skills, giving a lot more information
  • UI: Replaced the "Repair" button by a "Misc Orders" button, which reveal a row of useful stuff (repair, mass butcher, copy item, forbid/allow item retrieval on tile)
  • UI: Added encyclopedia article listing all stats & skills and what they are used for (it's basically the same as the new tooltips, but in an article)
  • Fixed: Hostile animals could follow people through stairs (regression bug from 0.8.6 performance pass)
  • Fixed: Minor UI fixes (text overflowing in some menus)
  • Fixed: top resource bar not aligned properly when the UI size is not 1:1 after quitting & reloading a savegame
  • Fixed: All farms had the same name which could lead to confusion in some of the encyclopedia menus
  • Fixed: Putting someone at a doorway wouldn't reveal the room on the other side
  • Fixed: Missing tooltip for survivor statistics in New Game / Settlers menu
  • Fixed: Can't rebind Esc key in settings menu
  • Fixed: Possible issue with LUA mods after loading a save
  • Fixed: Raiders and new recruits would occasionally spawn in an area in which they can't path toward your base
  • Fixed: It was technically possible for suppliers and traders to spawn at a location where they can't path toward your trading zone
  • Fixed: After opening some of the main menus via keyboard shortcuts in combat mode, the combat shortcuts might no longer work until mode is reset
  • Fixed: Made Fullscreen mode a lot less crash prone on load (or just don't check other windows while the game is initializing, Monogame doesn't like that at all)
  • Fixed: One weird crash that someone had consistently despite the fact it would imply using a combination of keys at the very first frame when the game is launched
  • Fixed: Survivors under your direct control wouldn't fire back at enemy turrets in range on their own
  • Fixed: A case where the UI would start at the wrong scale (menus going off-screen) on first launch with some screen resolutions (and stay that way until fiddling with settings)
  • Fixed: The tutorial stage where player is asked to raze 10 things was (wrongly) expecting the user to raze everything at the same time
  • Fixed: Supply Left info not updated in New Game / Customize Equipment menu when loading it for the first time