development update #11
Hello everyone,
This week went by very fast indeed but we have made significant progress in the water chemistry code. We are also exhibiting Fishery at HeroFest in Bern, Switzerland starting today (Friday) until Sunday. Due to this we have not had enough time to properly test this week's build before we upload it so it looks like it will be uploaded over the weekend or at the very latest Monday. I can however detail what has been worked on this week.
As I said earlier the previous way water chemistry was calculated was not done in a way that makes things fun for players. This is due to me over engineering certain aspects of the code design and having too many numbers displayed to players which ended up being confusing and not very informative. Most of these numbers are now gone and we have simplified how the water data will be displayed and calculated. Most of this will be fully fleshed out when we add the "plumbing mode" where players will have precise control about all aspects of water chemistry in a way that is not overly complicated or confusing and very soon there will be proper algae in the game.
Plant life is now more stable. In the above image you can see several hundred plants not dying. To anyone who has played previous versions of the game this is a rare occurrence indeed especially if I tell you that no pills have been added to the water to supplement C02 or nutrients. Lots of numbers are being adjusted and the way that data is calculated is quite different from before. When we have completed these changes we hope players can spend less time adding c02 pills into the water and more time being creative.
The next step is to propagate these changes to the fish related code so they don't die so much. Then we will re-work their ai so it can be modified and expanded with ease. The next few releases of the game should really change things around so players can have more fun and it hopefully starts to feel more like a game. We promise we will get there.
On Monday we hope to be posting a preview of some future art content. We are playing around with improving the art style whilst at the same time simplifying the maths inside the shaders. This reduction of complexity in some areas means we can add more complexity to other areas. This all sounds a bit cryptic but hopefully all will be explained in the next few updates. Exciting times are ahead.
The Fishery Team
This week went by very fast indeed but we have made significant progress in the water chemistry code. We are also exhibiting Fishery at HeroFest in Bern, Switzerland starting today (Friday) until Sunday. Due to this we have not had enough time to properly test this week's build before we upload it so it looks like it will be uploaded over the weekend or at the very latest Monday. I can however detail what has been worked on this week.
As I said earlier the previous way water chemistry was calculated was not done in a way that makes things fun for players. This is due to me over engineering certain aspects of the code design and having too many numbers displayed to players which ended up being confusing and not very informative. Most of these numbers are now gone and we have simplified how the water data will be displayed and calculated. Most of this will be fully fleshed out when we add the "plumbing mode" where players will have precise control about all aspects of water chemistry in a way that is not overly complicated or confusing and very soon there will be proper algae in the game.
Plant life is now more stable. In the above image you can see several hundred plants not dying. To anyone who has played previous versions of the game this is a rare occurrence indeed especially if I tell you that no pills have been added to the water to supplement C02 or nutrients. Lots of numbers are being adjusted and the way that data is calculated is quite different from before. When we have completed these changes we hope players can spend less time adding c02 pills into the water and more time being creative.
The next step is to propagate these changes to the fish related code so they don't die so much. Then we will re-work their ai so it can be modified and expanded with ease. The next few releases of the game should really change things around so players can have more fun and it hopefully starts to feel more like a game. We promise we will get there.
On Monday we hope to be posting a preview of some future art content. We are playing around with improving the art style whilst at the same time simplifying the maths inside the shaders. This reduction of complexity in some areas means we can add more complexity to other areas. This all sounds a bit cryptic but hopefully all will be explained in the next few updates. Exciting times are ahead.
The Fishery Team