Hi Galactic Survivalists!
Weekend is coming, so time again for another progress report on Alpha 8.0! :)
We are still working full throttle on our Alpha 8.0 main topic "larger planets", but we can now say that the finish line is already visible. Said that, it might take still some time until the first Experimental version will hit. One of the reasons is, that the new planet generation leads to the need of rebuilding a major portion of all the adjacent mechanics, from placing plants down to temperature scaling - which needs to be readjusted from the ground up again. Same applies to the SolarSystemGenerator (SSG-editor), as these two topics are closely entangled with each other.
While the new planets become more and more tangible, we made progress in a lot of other areas as well.
1. New Game start
In the last dev Blog, you had a lot of questions about the new game start, suit constructor and sleeping. We will try to answer some of those, although this is still a work-in-progress topic.
- Sleeping -
Q: Are there limitations, like not being able to sleep when I am followed by enemies?
A: We are currently working on the details - especially on those conditionals what will or will not work or happen while you sleep. We'll update the details in a dev blog as soon as they are set in stone.
Q: How does sleeping work and where can I sleep?
A: For now only the Escape Pod has this feature. If this mechanic works, we can (and will) add the feature to other devices, like beds.
Q: Does sleeping work in Multiplayer or Coop as well?
A: No, this will remain an exclusive feature for single player in the near future. As a side note: To make this feature work in Multiplayer, ALL player would need to go to "bed" at the same time, as we cannot advance time if a player is still "active". We might possibly find a solution for this in the future, maybe for small-groups MP like Coop, but until then, this will remain a single player only feature
Q: When forwarding time aka 'sleeping' in MP does not work, what about having a 'save logoff' instead?
A: Yes, we already considered 'saving' your re-entry by using a Clone Chamber or similar. This is already on the list for future updates, but not in the scope for the initial Alpha 8.0 as a lot of side-effects that result from this need to be taken into account (like what happens if the ship is destroyed or captured or the device is removed and so on...).
- Suit Constructor -
Q: What can I do with the Suit Constructor?
A: We are currently evaluating what makes sense to add. We do not want to replace the Survival Constructor or move it just into the suit. Details are currently worked out, as the also take into account the latest changes to food recipes and new tech given at game start (Survival Tool)
Q: What is the Survival Tool?
A: This is a little helper that can be produced free of cost in your Suit Constructor. You can break some stones for ore and it has a low-power defense mode to scare away animals, but it is not suitable for a real fight. The Survival Tool is meant to be used in the very early game and situations where you have lost all your stuff and need to start over. It is not a replacement for proper weapons or drills.
Q: Does the Suit Constructor drain energy?
A: Most likely not - at least not in the Alpha 8.0. This is pretty much subject to change in the future when the overall topic of 'Suit energy consumption' will be addressed (also relates to Light, NV, Boosters etc).
2. Food Templates and Ingredients drop rework
In the last blog, we indicated that we will change the way how food templates and ingredients are handled.
The primary goals are
- all primary food items should be craftable form self-growable plants (excluding templates that need meat or eggs)
- all primary food items should be craftable on all starter planets without having to leave the planet
- all food items should make sense in certain use cases, what means having distinct benefits in some, but not all areas of food, health, stamina.
Now, there here comes the tricky part.
Right now, each and every plant is dropping exactly ONE specific item. Tomato drops Tomato, Pumpkin drops Pumpkin, Wheat drops Wheat, Corn drops Corn, Wormplant drops Alien Honey..you get the point. Same is true for the harvestable-only plants. If we want a playfield to offer a certain ingredient, we would always need to place the plant, which leads to the appearance of the same plants on different planets..or the inavailability of certain meals.
That's where the change happens: Instead of dropping unique items like Pumpkin, Tomato and so on, this plant-group now drops "Vegetables". Pearthing and Space Oranges are now dropped as Fruit. The templates will then ask for Vegetables and not specifically for Tomato or Pumpkin anymore.
This opens up other possibilities: Alien plants like Bulbshroom or the EggPlant now also can drop Vegetables, but we can freely place them in the biome where thy fit and on the planet they should appear without loosing the availability of a certain meal.
For the farmers, this opens up the possibilities that you can choose from a larger range of plants that provide you with the needed ingredients. As different plants now drop the same ingredient, we will balance those around drop amount and growing time to make them distinct.
More info coming in one of the next dev blogs.
On a side note: we will use the same approach also for medical templates.
3. Art Department
Last, but not least, our Art guys have something cooking for you.
Commander Chair:
Fallen logs for swamp biome:
New Alien plant:
Heavy pressurized window set (WIP):
New sentry gun (WIP):
New railings/catwalks (WIP):
Enjoy your weekend!
Empyrion Dev Team
