Flotsam News

Hey Drifters,

A small update to 0.5.0 which mainly fixes the bug where rescued drifters got stuck. As well as other issues caused by this behavior like clogged inventories.

[h2]Early Access 0.5.0p1[/h2]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where drifters would get stuck on landmarks.
  
• Fixed a bug where resources would get reserved and never unreserved whenever a drifter tried to queue a project for a vital for which it already had a project queued. In other words, stuck drifters will not cause resources to clog storage or export inventories.
  
• Fixed bug where the 'Main Menu' button that would appear in the loading screen when something goes wrong would not load the Main Menu.
  
• Fixed build-states of the Solar still, drifters will no longer float in the air when constructing it.
  

[h3]Misc[/h3]

• Made shadow distance dynamic, allowing shadows in map view.
  
• Townheart movement is now triggered with double-click instead of single-click. Any other way of moving the town has not changed.
  
• Camera to Townheart movement toggle can now be set in the input settings.
  
• Added town-name support for longer Townheart names.
  
• Increased Canned Food at start from 4 to 9.
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Made some changes to the HUD, equipping the bottom bar with the important UI elements.
  
• Rescaled some UI elements.
  

Heya Drifters!

Over the past few months we have been working to improve the speed with which we can develop new content for Flotsam. As part of this development we created several tools that allow us to build the world of Flotsam by hand. This creates a more solid foundation for crafting, testing and balancing all the new features we have lined up for future updates.

One of those features is the addition of Regions!
The World Map will now have 3 distinct regions you can travel to, each with their own unique landmarks and resources to gather. Regions allows you to look for your specific needs and will act as a solid base for upcoming features.

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
Regions will see regular updates using handmade maps in the following weeks. It's a great system to build upcoming content onto that we're excited to show to you all soon :). You can expect region updates throughout 0.5.x and onwards. The next bigger update will be "Expertise" that will focus on drifter attributes and research.

Enjoy the new update!

[h2]Changes[/h2]
[h3]Regions[/h3]
With 0.5.0 we introduce regions to the World Map! Each of these regions has a distinctive feel, defined by unique landmarks and resources to be gained.

• Added 4 Regions to the game; the Polluted Woods, Rural Ruins, Highways and City regions.Created new landmarks for each region.
  
• Created new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for each region
  
• Added a scouting landmark for three regions; Watchtower for the Polluted Woods, Church for the Rural Ruins and Skyscraper for the City.
  
• Regions can now be revealed by using the scouting landmarks.
  
• Added a handmade world map with all regions.
  
• Added a choice between handmade map (regions) and random spawning (0.4.2 and down) game modes when starting a new game. Regions will only be present in the handmade map for the time being.
  
• Adjusted the World Map visuals to correctly reflect the region.
  
• You can now use the arrow keys to move around on the World Map and sail freely.
  
• You can now toggle camera and movement on the World Map, allowing you to move using WASD.
  
• You can now click to a location and the town will move there.
  
• You can now click and hold to move your town to your cursor.
  
• You now bump into landmarks on the map. You can not go closer than your building radius.
  
• Landmarks show their boundaries on the map.
  
• Buoy markers and landmark projects will no longer be cancelled upon World Map movement. This will only occur once they breach interactable radius.
  
• Added a visual to indicate where drifters will moor onto landmarks in the map view.
  
• A radial menu showing energy has been added around the townheart on the map so you can quickly glance at remaining energy.
  

[h3]Behind the Scenes[/h3]

• Worked on the World Editor, allowing us to craft a handmade map.
  
• Added region functionality to the World Editor.
  
• Added underwater highway functionality to the World Editor. This was used to test if underwater roads can lead players to city regions.
  
• Made and improved landmark creation and testing tools, allowing us to more rapidly create landmarks.
  
• Improved Salvageable and Non-Interactable prop handling, allowing leftover pieces and unique animations.
  
• Made tools to balance each region's resources.
  
• Correctly textured and re-imported older props, increasing performance but destroying older saves in the process.
  
• Fixed input handling. Key-binds for each player will be reset upon playing 5.0 and up.
  
• Adjusted how camera dragging works.
  

[h3]Visuals[/h3]

• Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Polluted Woods region.
  
• Made new Landmarks for the Polluted Woods region.
  
• Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Rural Ruins region.
  
• Made new Landmarks for the Rural Ruins region.
  
• Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Highways region.
  
• Made new Landmarks for the Highways region.
  
• Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the City region.
  
• Made new Landmarks for the City region.
  
• Remade the Solar Still visual
  
• Landmark Map Visuals now scale with camera movement.
  
• Energy bar will now pulse when you're low on energy.
  
• Re-implemented flag that shows completed landmarks so players can properly see it from a distance.
  
• Fixed missing resource visuals that showed as pink in-game.
  
• Increased shadow resolution on high(er) quality settings.
  
• Added an animation for drifters picking up resources while swimming.
  

[h3]Balancing[/h3]

• Rebalanced the entire game to smoothly work with new region functionality.
  
• Fishing Chair now handles fish per region and does not require you to be near a fishing spot.
  
• Drifters will now only be able to catch bottled fish when using the fishing chair. This change has been made in tandem with the daily limit that can be set on the fishing chair so the limit can be linked to cooking recipe requirements.
  
• Map movement now costs 2/3 as many Eels.
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Various fixes were made to be able to correctly implement all new features.
  
• Fixed issue where boats could be linked to multiple mooring points.
  
• Fixed issue where games wouldn't load due to a LandmarkBehavior reference not being restored properly.
  
• Fixed issue where games wouldn't load due to a bug with Energy producers.
  
• Fixed issue where arrow keys could not be bound as input
  
• Fixed issue where boats would moor at a mooring point to which they were not linked after loading a saved game.
  
• Fixed issue where region jump button was deactivated after loading a saved procedural game.
  
• Fixed issue where agents that were no longer on any pathfinding graph would be lost forever.
  
• Fixed bug where seagulls would not salvage Floaters from plastic patches.
  
• Fixed annoyance where drifters would fish all day long in the fishing chair. It is now possible to set a daily limit for fish caught in the fishing chair.
  
• Fixed issue where on low resolutions the main menu could get obfuscated by the road map visual.
  

[h3]Misc[/h3]

• Removed experimental camera as it was no longer worth it to update it during development.
  
• Removed cost per mile from World Map HUD as the information became obsolete with the new map.
  
• Removed resource counters and population counter from the HUD.
  

Hey Drifters!

Over the past few months we have been working to improve the speed with which we can develop new content for Flotsam. As part of this development we created several tools that allow us to build the world of Flotsam by hand. This creates a more solid foundation for crafting, testing and balancing all the new features we have lined up for future updates.

One of those features are Regions. The overworld view will now have 4 distinct regions you can travel to, each with their own unique landmarks and resources to be gained. Regions allows you to look for your specific needs and will act as a solid base for upcoming features.

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
Our first priority is seeing regions through solid player-testing and adjusting to feedback. As well as finish anything unfinished still present in the build. In the meantime we are working on features that will continue to build on this update. Such as the Scrapper, Boat update, Industry region and more,.. until we arrive at the Expertise update that will focus on drifter attributes and research.

[h2]How do I test this update?[/h2]
This patch is still in development and can be tested on its own branch to give feedback.

It can be played on the new separate branch ea_0.5.x_Region_Update, this is not the experimental branch. This is so we can still push minor updates to 0.4.x on the experimental branch if necessary.

This is how you can enable the Region Update branch of Flotsam. This will only work when you're not in a game:
1. Open Steam Library
2. Right click Flotsam
3. Select Properties
4. Go to tab 'Betas' at the top.
5. Select 'ea_0.5.x_Region_Update' in the drop-down.
6. The game will update automatically.

Enjoy the new update!

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

[h2]Regions[/h2]
With 0.5.0 we introduce regions to the Overworld! Each of these regions has a distinctive feel, defined by unique landmarks and resources to be gained.

• Added 4 Regions to the game; the Polluted Woods, Rural Ruins, Highways and City regions.
  
• Created new landmarks for each region.
  
• Created new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for each region
  
• Added a scouting landmark for three regions; Watchtower for the Polluted Woods, Church for the Rural Ruins and Skyscraper for the City.
  
• Regions can now be revealed by using the scouting landmarks.
  
• Added a handmade overworld map with all regions.
  
• Added a choice between handmade map (regions) and random spawning (0.4.2 and down) game modes when starting a new game.
  
• Adjusted the Overworld view's map visuals to correctly reflect the region.
  
• You can now use WASD to move around on the Overworld view and sail freely.
  
• Buoy markers and landmark projects will no longer be cancelled upon overworld movement. This will only occur once they breach interactable radius.
  
• Rebalanced the entire game to smoothly work with new region functionality.
  
• Fishing Chair now handles fish per region and does not require you to be near a fishing spot.
  

[h2]Behind the Scenes[/h2]

• Worked on the World Editor, allowing us to craft a handmade map.
  
• Added region functionality to the World Editor.
  
• Added underwater highway functionality to the World Editor. This was used to test if underwater roads can lead players to city regions.
  
• Made and improved landmark creation and testing tools, allowing us to more rapidly create landmarks.
  
• Improved Salvageable and Non-Interactable prop handling, allowing leftover pieces and unique animations.
  
• Made tools to balance each region's resources.
  
• Correctly textured and re-imported older props, increasing performance but destroying older saves in the process.
  
• Fixed input handling. Key-binds for each player will be reset upon playing 5.0 and up.
  
• Adjusted how camera dragging works.
  

[h2]Visuals[/h2]

• Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Polluted Woods region.
  
• Made new Landmarks for the Polluted Woods region.
  
• Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Rural Ruins region.
  
• Made new Landmarks for the Rural Ruins region.
  
• Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Highways region.
  
• Made new Landmarks for the Highways region.
  
• Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the City region. (unfinished)
  
• Made new Landmarks for the City region. (unfinished)
  
• Remade the Solar Still visual
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Various fixes were made to be able to correctly implement all new features.
  

Hey drifters,

Early Access 0.4.2p1 is now live.
We fixed some pressing issues with Eel-ectricity and added thresholds so you can control when generators will start producing.

• If an energy grid has energy storage available, generators will now start producing energy when the energy grid falls below a certain threshold. This threshold can be set per generator in both the building panel and energy grid overview.
  
• Drifters will no longer jump out of the manual generators when another project has higher priority. This would cause them to get stuck running back and forth between a generator and a workshop that required energy.
  
• The Oil-Powered Generator now has a higher priority than the Wood-Powered Generator.
  
• Improved readability in energy grid overview.
  
• You can now select buildings from the energy grid overview.
  
• Added tooltip to maximum inventory slider in the item generator panel.
  

• Fixed workshops not always showing they are turned off in the energy grid overview.
  
• Fixed energy grid overview having small discrepancies in power production / consumption totals due to rounding.
  
• Fixed energy overview overlapping with borders when adding too many buildings.
  

Hey drifters,

On our road to the World Update II, we improved the placement of buildings and the walkways that lead you there.

We've added snapping functionality and a building grid to aid with the placement of buildings. For those who prefer the old type of building, both the grid and snapping can be disabled. This update comes with a couple of extra quality of life changes allowing you to smoothly build a nice little floating town.

[h2]Early Access 0.4.2[/h2]

[h3]Building Grid[/h3]

• Buildings where you can build at (such as the townheart and walkways) now generate a grid on each of their attachable edges where buildings snap to.
  
• Buildings will now show their grids when building around them.
  
• Grid visibility and Snapping functionality can both be disabled with 2 toggles found in the building menu.
  
• Walkways now display their boundaries.
  
• A visual is added for the propeller blocking buildings on the Townheart.
  

[h3]Building Improvements[/h3]

• Added a collision tolerance. This will reduce edge cases where it looked like you could build somewhere, but couldn't due to a small overlap.
  
• While placing a construction, it will now align next to another construction.
  
• Walkways are now built one segment at a time. You can hold shift or set a shortcut to continuously place walkways.
  
• Walkways now show building buoys when they are placed and ready for construction.
  
• Walkway lines will now look for the closest intersecting building it can hook to. This makes for more natural snapping.
  
• Walkway integrity has been added, this means that walkways are no longer able to be deconstructed when it would cause a part of the town to become disconnected from the Townheart.
  
• Individual walking segments can now be deconstructed.
  
• Reduced the snapping distance when building.
  
• Buildings marked for deconstruction will now display building lines around them.
  
• Producers will no longer wait for their recipes to finish before being deconstructed. This means that drifters will immediately stop working and the construction will be marked for deconstruction.
  

[h3]Misc[/h3]

• Producer recipes can now be cancelled, even if they are currently being produced.
  
• Overhauled the visual of the building radius.
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where a walkway could snap further than it's allowed angle if it snapped to another walkway.
  
• Fixed building buttons not starting a new construction when pressed.
  
• Fixed additional electricity grids being made when salvaging a building and cancelling it. This could cause certain buildings to never receive power, such as the research station, and thus not getting worked by drifters.
  
• Fixed floating worker position in the Unbottler.
  
• Fixed drifter name tags not updating correctly after reloading.
  
• Fixed bullet points not displaying in the update notes.
  

[h3]Behind the scenes[/h3]

• We decentralized the building so we can more easily test it in a separate environment.