Let's begin with the latest progress picture:
There are a few notable changes in the upper left of the screen that I will discuss the reasoning behind.
How to research technologies with Knowledge
I've been considering numerous designs to how technologies will be researched. The former solution I landed on was taken from the Age of Empires or Warcraft games. Each building may or may not contain technologies that you can research. They cost a set of resources, and while you research a technology, you can't produce anything else from that building. I had this system implemented and ready to go.
In this update all that changed. I decided to implement a tech tree instead.
I like tech trees. It means you don't have to learn which technology is in what building. Instead, you open an organised list of technologies, and it gives you all the information you need at once.
You can only research one technology at a time.
The time it takes to research a technology is based on two factors:
1. The amount of Knowledge required to research a technology.
2. The amount of Knowledge you are generating.
You can research any technology from the beginning of the game. There is no "this technology requires this technology to be researched".
I don't want to set hard linear paths that dictate how you should play this game. If you want to research Mining straight away, so you can start mining metal before you have built up your economy in general, then that's your choice!
Knowledge icon
I've thought about the icon for Research/Science/Knowledge for almost a year. I started getting frustrated about this, so one day I just spontaneously asked my partner about this. She immediately suggested a sundial.
From Wikipedia:
A sundial is a device that measures time by using a light spot or shadow cast by the position of the Sun on a reference scale.
Generating Knowledge
The amount of Knowledge you generate is directly affected by your tribe's food surplus level. The UI for food surplus has been given a small update.
Also, you can see how much Knowledge your Tribe is generating in the Tribe Center.
I will also add other ways to increase your Knowledge generation. Stay tuned!
New unit: Slinger
I've animated and implemented a brand new unit, the Slinger, who can be trained at the Archery Range.
These units are cheap, fast moving, and have a longer range than archers, so they are perfect for hit and run attacks or to counter archers. They are also good scouts.
However, they are fragile and deal the least amount of damage of all units in the game.
Archer update
I've also updated the Archer to make them more easily seperatable from Villagers.
Balance changes
I'm also continuously working on the balance. All military units have been given an increase in health, archers have longer range, farms are less efficient, dwellings have one extra housing etc.
Playable build?
I'm thinking about uploading a build at some point to this page. But, I want to make sure the features I include are somewhat polished, so I can receive quality feedback, instead of a lot of feedback on issues I'm already aware of. Hopefully I will announce something in the next Dev Diary.
Wrapping up
In the last Dev Diary I mentioned my two or more months of total drought. Since creating this IndieDB page I've made good progress. This makes me very excited!
Thanks for reading!
imo:
slinger should be cheap, mid range, low damage
javelin thrower short range, high damage
archer long range, long shooting time [low dps/sec]
Slingers had historically long range and skilled ones were known to throw longer than archers could. But it's still early on and I might change their roles. I like the idea of a short-ranged javelin thrower. Thanks for the feedback!