Release 0.9.8 : Final Early Access Release
Hi there!
Long time not seen. I know, I know. I sorta disconnected from the internet to get ATC finished. And yet, I'm super late. I'll explain what's going on after describing this final "pre 1.0" release. I'm not going to be active online until right before my work is done. At this point, there's no feedback you guys could give me which would influence the development until I'm done with this part of the development.
[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
[h2]Tutorial / Story Mode[/h2]
The "tutorial" scenario has been replaced by "Story Mode", it defines the official world setting (and yes, it ties in my previous game, because it's the same universe), with an intro cutscene. In this version, you only have access to the tutorial part itself.
It's a complete rewrite of the previous and outdated one. It teaches new players how to optimize production by placing & editing depots adjacent to crafting stations. It explains how to assign skills & jobs to people who should be doing them. And that's on top of the basics.
More advanced parts of the game (expeditions, diplomacy, and world map interactions) are taught in Act 1 which is only available in the nightly build. I do not recommend playing the nightly build unless you want the story to get spoiled early with no guarantee that your saves will work properly in 1.0.
[h2]Food & Farming[/h2]
As much as the system was functional. There was no way for a new player to know how many farms they should build compared to their population. And it's not a simple matter, given that farms produce ingredients, ingredients which can be used in a variety of recipes, which can be modded/added/removed, it was kind of a headache.
I made this a lot easier to understand for the player.
1) Each farm got a new button telling you (depending on the selected crop) how many calories they can produce compared to your population's consumption. It's taking into account all the available recipes, and the min & max amount of ingredients each tile can produce. It's not super precise, but it will tell you roughly how many people it should be able to feed.
2) In the faction menu, a "farming report" button has been added. It merges the information from all your farms, evaluates your whole population, and compares your food production to your food consumption. It's even taking traits into account in the calculations.
Of course, it's not perfect, traits change all the time, bad weather can fuck things up, and it's assuming that your kitchen is working as efficiently as possible. Still, overall, it's giving you a piece of information that was missing very much.
And that information was not lost on me either. Food production and consumption have been rebalanced and made more interesting. Potatoes are more reliable but still boring, rice is still a net upgrade but more fragile. Pumpkin pie is no longer the be-all/end-all of food production. And more importantly, all "annoying to produce" food items like omelets, cheese, tomato cans... give large bonuses to whoever consumes them (like passive healing, strength/speed boost, and so on).
[h2]Dual Wielding[/h2]
Your survivors got a new weapon slot. One for melee one for ranged. If the ranged weapon is out of ammo, they'll use the melee one instead. The reason for this upgrade is not combat-focused, though. Even if it's a nice perk. It's to reduce the micromanagement some of you were doing for expedition and job specialization.
You no longer have to choose between a gun & a crowbar for your expeditions, you can get the scavenging benefit from the crowbar and the ability to defend yourself in combat from the gun at the same time. The same goes for other stats-boosting melee tools like pickaxes and shovels.
Do not expect the combat AI to automatically switch between weapons depending on the situation. It might happen later down the line, but right now, that'd be way too time-consuming to alter the combat scripts accordingly.
[h2]Relocate the base[/h2]
Tired of playing on a map you've fully mined out? Need a challenge? Well, this is for you. The new option in the Faction menu allows you to move somewhere else. It can be on a completely new world map or within the current world. Some scenarios disallow this feature.
The game will move all your survivors, pets, cattle, tech, and inventory to the location of your choice. It is very costly in gasoline, though. 250 units to move within the same world, and 500 to move to a new one.
There are a few limitations. Your prisoners will be lost. Your production centers will be kept if you stay within the same world map but will be lost if you don't. Your old base is forfeit, the game cannot keep track of the old structures you've built.
Be warned that moving 50+ people with a ton of animals to a completely new location with no infrastructure will be a challenge in itself.
[h2]User Interface[/h2]
I put a lot of care into standardizing everything. For instance, auto queuing of building, zone, and such is the default method. You no longer have to keep shift pressed to keep placing those. Just right-click to get out of build mode.
Feedback sound effects have been added to specific situations, like expeditions needing player input, enemy spawners being revealed by someone digging into a rock, and survivors getting attacked while offscreen. Speaking of which, there's a new Gameplay checkbox (default: true), that will pause & center the game when an offscreen survivor gets targeted by an enemy.
Traits can be clicked (in the survivor info panel) to display a much more informative description panel. Sickness and Wound type traits inform you of the item(s) which can remove them too.
There's a lot more but you get the idea.
[h2]Other Notable Improvements[/h2]
Other factions have set preferences regarding pet ownership. In short, it means that in both raids against you, and map locations you attack, some of your enemies will be escorted by dogs, mutant hounds, or even combat drones depending on who you're dealing with.
I also fixed a large number of bugs and added some more variety to the building and map generation in the process of finalizing 1.0.
[h2]What's Up With The Delay[/h2]
I hate to talk about this kind of stuff but here we are. My personal life has been heavily impacted by family matters in recent months. I already deal with my mother's bone cancer, but since January, family infighting regarding the status of another elderly family member has been added to the pile of problems. While it only has a minor impact on my available work hours, it does take a toll mentally and on my performance. It's the main reason why I stay away from the internet at the moment, as I don't think I'm in the proper mood to interact with customers positively.
That's the gist of it. I will be back (and active) online in a few weeks, don't worry.
On the positive side, this is the last delay. After some growing pains, the Storyline scripting system is working fine. Act 1 is fully done and tested. Half of the second act has been written. Getting the two (and a half) final acts should take 2 to 3 weeks. After that, the game will be ready to be shipped.
This leads to a small problem. I'm not going to release in the middle of the Summer Sale, because new releases get practically no visibility during the sale. I still have to move the price to $14.99 which is scheduled for right after this very update is published.
As such, 1.0 should be out two weeks(-ish) after the Summer Sale. I might not be able to participate due to the price change and release discount setup. I'm not sure yet.
This is a blessing in disguise, I'll have time to make sure 'story mode' is working as well as it should. I might be able to jam a couple more of the features I wanted for the game and do some marketing for the release.
In any case, thank you for your patience.
Cheers!
[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
Long time not seen. I know, I know. I sorta disconnected from the internet to get ATC finished. And yet, I'm super late. I'll explain what's going on after describing this final "pre 1.0" release. I'm not going to be active online until right before my work is done. At this point, there's no feedback you guys could give me which would influence the development until I'm done with this part of the development.
[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
- Completely rewritten tutorial section touching on all important aspects of ATC's early game
- More interesting food + rebalance (the more advanced food source gives big and lasting bonuses)
- Ability to equip both a ranged and a backup melee weapon (bonuses stack)
- Relocate your base to another map or location (still in testing)
- Farming stats telling you how much food you consume/produce
- Enemies have their pets accompanying them in battle
- Many UI and feedback improvements
- All main remaining bugs fixed
- A massive amount of features for modding purposes
[h2]Tutorial / Story Mode[/h2]
The "tutorial" scenario has been replaced by "Story Mode", it defines the official world setting (and yes, it ties in my previous game, because it's the same universe), with an intro cutscene. In this version, you only have access to the tutorial part itself.
It's a complete rewrite of the previous and outdated one. It teaches new players how to optimize production by placing & editing depots adjacent to crafting stations. It explains how to assign skills & jobs to people who should be doing them. And that's on top of the basics.
More advanced parts of the game (expeditions, diplomacy, and world map interactions) are taught in Act 1 which is only available in the nightly build. I do not recommend playing the nightly build unless you want the story to get spoiled early with no guarantee that your saves will work properly in 1.0.
[h2]Food & Farming[/h2]
As much as the system was functional. There was no way for a new player to know how many farms they should build compared to their population. And it's not a simple matter, given that farms produce ingredients, ingredients which can be used in a variety of recipes, which can be modded/added/removed, it was kind of a headache.
I made this a lot easier to understand for the player.
1) Each farm got a new button telling you (depending on the selected crop) how many calories they can produce compared to your population's consumption. It's taking into account all the available recipes, and the min & max amount of ingredients each tile can produce. It's not super precise, but it will tell you roughly how many people it should be able to feed.
2) In the faction menu, a "farming report" button has been added. It merges the information from all your farms, evaluates your whole population, and compares your food production to your food consumption. It's even taking traits into account in the calculations.
Of course, it's not perfect, traits change all the time, bad weather can fuck things up, and it's assuming that your kitchen is working as efficiently as possible. Still, overall, it's giving you a piece of information that was missing very much.
And that information was not lost on me either. Food production and consumption have been rebalanced and made more interesting. Potatoes are more reliable but still boring, rice is still a net upgrade but more fragile. Pumpkin pie is no longer the be-all/end-all of food production. And more importantly, all "annoying to produce" food items like omelets, cheese, tomato cans... give large bonuses to whoever consumes them (like passive healing, strength/speed boost, and so on).
[h2]Dual Wielding[/h2]
Your survivors got a new weapon slot. One for melee one for ranged. If the ranged weapon is out of ammo, they'll use the melee one instead. The reason for this upgrade is not combat-focused, though. Even if it's a nice perk. It's to reduce the micromanagement some of you were doing for expedition and job specialization.
You no longer have to choose between a gun & a crowbar for your expeditions, you can get the scavenging benefit from the crowbar and the ability to defend yourself in combat from the gun at the same time. The same goes for other stats-boosting melee tools like pickaxes and shovels.
Do not expect the combat AI to automatically switch between weapons depending on the situation. It might happen later down the line, but right now, that'd be way too time-consuming to alter the combat scripts accordingly.
[h2]Relocate the base[/h2]
Tired of playing on a map you've fully mined out? Need a challenge? Well, this is for you. The new option in the Faction menu allows you to move somewhere else. It can be on a completely new world map or within the current world. Some scenarios disallow this feature.
The game will move all your survivors, pets, cattle, tech, and inventory to the location of your choice. It is very costly in gasoline, though. 250 units to move within the same world, and 500 to move to a new one.
There are a few limitations. Your prisoners will be lost. Your production centers will be kept if you stay within the same world map but will be lost if you don't. Your old base is forfeit, the game cannot keep track of the old structures you've built.
Be warned that moving 50+ people with a ton of animals to a completely new location with no infrastructure will be a challenge in itself.
[h2]User Interface[/h2]
I put a lot of care into standardizing everything. For instance, auto queuing of building, zone, and such is the default method. You no longer have to keep shift pressed to keep placing those. Just right-click to get out of build mode.
Feedback sound effects have been added to specific situations, like expeditions needing player input, enemy spawners being revealed by someone digging into a rock, and survivors getting attacked while offscreen. Speaking of which, there's a new Gameplay checkbox (default: true), that will pause & center the game when an offscreen survivor gets targeted by an enemy.
Traits can be clicked (in the survivor info panel) to display a much more informative description panel. Sickness and Wound type traits inform you of the item(s) which can remove them too.
There's a lot more but you get the idea.
[h2]Other Notable Improvements[/h2]
Other factions have set preferences regarding pet ownership. In short, it means that in both raids against you, and map locations you attack, some of your enemies will be escorted by dogs, mutant hounds, or even combat drones depending on who you're dealing with.
I also fixed a large number of bugs and added some more variety to the building and map generation in the process of finalizing 1.0.
[h2]What's Up With The Delay[/h2]
I hate to talk about this kind of stuff but here we are. My personal life has been heavily impacted by family matters in recent months. I already deal with my mother's bone cancer, but since January, family infighting regarding the status of another elderly family member has been added to the pile of problems. While it only has a minor impact on my available work hours, it does take a toll mentally and on my performance. It's the main reason why I stay away from the internet at the moment, as I don't think I'm in the proper mood to interact with customers positively.
That's the gist of it. I will be back (and active) online in a few weeks, don't worry.
On the positive side, this is the last delay. After some growing pains, the Storyline scripting system is working fine. Act 1 is fully done and tested. Half of the second act has been written. Getting the two (and a half) final acts should take 2 to 3 weeks. After that, the game will be ready to be shipped.
This leads to a small problem. I'm not going to release in the middle of the Summer Sale, because new releases get practically no visibility during the sale. I still have to move the price to $14.99 which is scheduled for right after this very update is published.
As such, 1.0 should be out two weeks(-ish) after the Summer Sale. I might not be able to participate due to the price change and release discount setup. I'm not sure yet.
This is a blessing in disguise, I'll have time to make sure 'story mode' is working as well as it should. I might be able to jam a couple more of the features I wanted for the game and do some marketing for the release.
In any case, thank you for your patience.
Cheers!
[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
- Balance: Zombie type infected are a bit slower
- Balance: Many food items provide long lasting bonuses, making it rewarding to produce the more exotic ones
- Balance: Slight changes to food efficiency. Potatoes more reliable. Pumpkin pie no longer the ultimate food source (as i don't want to live in a world where it would be)
- Balance: First time "new recruit" event gets a larger selection
- Content: Added intro sequence (to main scenario/tutorial)
- Content: Completely rewritten/expanded tutorial, covering the use of depot adjacent workshops and how to deal with some common problems
- Content: Ability to relocate the base (not all scenarios allow it) from the Faction menu
- Content: Survivors can equip both a ranged and a melee weapon
- Content: Melee weapon will be used as backup if the ranged one is out of ammo, its stats modifiers are also applied (like work tools providing skill bonus)
- Content: Added mutant variant of dogs (larger, stronger) which can be found as mobs in various maps and accompanying mutant raiders
- Content: Raiders can come with their own pets: the type of pet depends on the faction (military can use drones, bandits have dogs, mutants have mutant hounds...)
- Content: Enemy pets also added to manual combat maps
- Content: New hostile turret variants can be found in the relevant buildings (bunkers and other military bases)
- Content: Game start "box of stuff" replaced by a broken down vehicle for immersion purpose (+ free resources on disassemble) on surface start
- Content: All production centers fall back to some type of configuration featuring one or multiple buildings instead of empty maps
- Engine: Job/AI update rate increased: high ROF weapons will shoot as often as supposed to and survivors are more responsive
- Engine: Lowest level tiles (base terrain) can be altered in mass with little to no lag
- Engine: Ability for the game to use series of text/background combo scenes as static cutscenes
- Graphics: In farms, new plants' texture are larger so it's easier to see what progress has been made by the farmer(s)
- Modding: Added several fields to Faction files to determine the faction's ability to have pets (see most main faction files)
- Modding: Added identical fields to raid event files which can be used to override default faction settings (see raid_mutant_medium and others)
- Modding: Clutter data files got the GfxScale field (like NPC files) so their sprites can be scaled without editing the image
- Modding: Buildings' room list can now use "Variants". For instance, in "buildings/militarybase", all security rooms are handled in one spot
- Modding: Ability for world map files to setup hardcoded POIs locations (see the main_act1 map file).
- Modding: Added optional "SetWidth" and "SetHeight" to room definitions, allowing to set fixed Width and/or Height value for a room
- Modding: WorldGenData can override scenario data when it comes to selecting the faction that will be on the map
- Modding: New 'cutscene' system (background image slideshow + text) which can be loaded at the start of a scenario (instead of the introtext)
- Modding: Interactive events can load cutscenes and change relations between a faction and the player
- Modding: WorldGenData files can be hidden from start menu (so they are only used for relocation)
- Modding: Tech other than radio can unlock long range diplo so it's easier to build alternative tech trees (see radio tech for the change)
- Modding: Tech other than logistics can unlock map takeover (see logistic tech for the change)
- ProcGen: Water tiles removed from combat maps to avoid rare cases where the player couldn't reach a building or enemy
- ProcGen: Added "mountainside bunker" map generator (used for intro sequence and can be played in a custom game but will be sorta odd)
- ProcGen: Minor tweaks and improvements to building generation
- Sound: Added sound notification when an expedition needs help
- Sound: Added audio feedback when a spawner is uncovered by razing something
- Sound: Additional UI feedback sound effects
- Sound: Added audio feedback when someone gets hit and is near death while offscreen
- UI: Added pet information to the various factions' encyclopedia pages
- UI: All menus have been updated to take the new equipment slot into account
- UI: Added "Remove All" button to patrol zones
- UI: Added "Remove All" button to study zones
- UI: Wounds and other medical related traits display what item can be used to remove them in their associated tooltips/menu
- UI: The Traits' menu is more detailed and is consistent with the rest of the UI color scheme
- UI: Traits are clickable in settler info panel now
- UI: Hospital zone renamed to Infirmary so it's less confusing when the world map Hospitals are mentioned
- UI: Added "Goal" tab to Faction screen, shows either the IntroText of a scenario or what you're supposed to do during the main story
- UI: Added "Farming Report" panel to Faction menu, showing total farming production compared to your population's needs
- UI: Added "Food Efficiency" info panel to farms, showing roughly how much food they can produce compared to your population
- UI: Added button/panel to display a sorted list of all the locations in the world map (will make search of specific type easier)
- UI: Manually combat-activating people from their individual menu are auto selected (don't need to click them again)
- UI: Standardized zone and building queuing behavior, shift is no longer needed/used to queue multiple zones, roofs...
- UI: Added gameplay setting to center/pause on someone who gets hurt/attacked while offscreen and not in combat mode (toggled on by default)
- UI: Unlocked vehicle field in relevant tech info popups/screens is clickable
- UI: Expedition combat maps start paused and at speed 1
- Fixed: Some minor issues with animations (people continuing to use the walk anim when not walking for instance)
- Fixed: During some cutscene parts of the tutorial it was possible to still run commands, causing unpredictable results
- Fixed: Rare, possible placement problem when loading entities
- Fixed: Finally got rid of the rare occurrence where the game would initialize with corrupted menu or tile textures
- Fixed: The main menu is sluggish for a few seconds after it's loaded
- Fixed: Changing an agent's AI on the fly (which is a very situational case) was causing logic issues
- Fixed: Possible savegame failure when the game is unable to take a screenshot for a reason or another
- Fixed: Minor issues with ambient lighting
- Fixed: Placing a path blocking object next to another one could interfere with jobs/pathing until something else is built
- Fixed: Rare case where a survivor would get stuck in bed or using a play table despite having other needs to deal with
- Fixed: The "Seed" input during world gen wasn't functional (regression bug)
- Fixed: Player spawn location sometimes located in the middle of a mountain or within a minuscule island
- Fixed: The last reason why supply AI would freeze when trying to "feed" a building location
- Fixed: Issue where a faction would consider itself at war with another, but not the other way around
- Fixed: Issue about logs warning you that someone who's already dead was "hit & near death" during firefights
- Fixed: A bunch of minor issues I didn't keep track off
- Fixed: Oddity with the way menus and selection behave just after toggling combat mode
- Fixed: Many grammatical and spelling errors
