It's been a busy few weeks since the last blog entry!
On a personal level, I've been moving home and learned that my soft computer hands are not made for operating drills and allan keys! :)
However the work continues, I am focusing alot of effort on one of the major systems in the game - Building area effects.
The system "should" work like this (disclaimer: Not actually tested all this out yet so the actual end product will change), buildings will have "effects" on other nearby structures - both positive and negative.
Examples
Power generators will irradiate nearby buildings.
This will make people sick if they drink irradiated water from an irradiated well placed too close to the power generator, BUT conversely, an irradiated farm will generate more food.
Wells will flood nearby buildings.
This will cause fires if placed too near a power generator, BUT conversely, people living in flooded dormitories are more resistant to disease.
I'm still working on alot of the details - but see below a screenshot of the new mouseover "peek" which you can use to check the status of your buildings. This will also provide a quick overview of the buffs/debuffs your building is getting.
As always, bug squashing remains a priority, but needs to be balanced against the need to move forward. Argh! who would be a solo developer?
In the next couple of weeks I'd like to have the building radius effect system working solidly, then I need to add security guards as a hard counter to the vandal AI.
After that, my next big project is the civics panel. This is a major piece of mid/end game functionality were you can (among other things)
- Ration Food and water
- Set punishment for crimes (Jail? Beatings? Death?)
- Control the birth rate
- Set shelter-wide policies to unlock special buildings and staff.
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading and look forward to any questions or comments!
Cheers.
R.
