It's been quite some time now since the Interface Update; a month or more now. The Content Update and Music Update are going to be rolled into one, but what exactly is the Content Update?
Well, this update is bigger than even The Update That Changed The World (prior to our Steam release) where the entire game's aesthetic was recreated in lavish 2D. Unlike that update however, these additions and changes aren't inherently visual (though we most certainly have done some new artwork).
Let's talk about what was bad and what we're doing to change it for the Content Update.
Back wall generation is ugly. Because of it being an automated process, when the game generates back walls of castles it lacks creativity and nuance. Holes may be present where you wanted walls, walls may have been created where you intended there to be holes. We thought of numerous ways to fix this. Do we add rule after rule to the automatic back wall generation? We could, but it still wouldn't be perfect and would also not account for what you were going for when you made your custom map. Indeed, even the built-in maps have this issue.
Welcome to the revamped map editor.
(Click here for full size.)
There is now foreground and background editing modes; build the background walls of your dreams! (Well, implying you dream of background walls.) Not only does this allow the creation of new back wall types, starting with wood, but no longer will the game automate this process and do something ugly to your level design.
The editor redesign comes with a few other new features, the most important being map validation. Previously you could make any map you wanted and exploit or break the game with them. There are now strict rules based on certain aspects of level creation so that you must more or less adhere to the same rules we used when building the internal game maps.
When you start on an empty map, the validation text at the top of the screen will likely tell you that this isn't a valid map because there aren't enough blocks. After you add some blocks, it may then tell you that the map isn't valid because there aren't any resource crates in the level. Once you add some, if no other rules were broken, the map will be valid and is able to be saved and played. In that sense, map validation can actually seamlessly walk you through the creation of an "acceptable" siege map and every time you break a rule, that rule will show you how to get your level back in check. Keep in mind the rules are slightly loose, as we encourage creativity over tyrannical control, but allowing cheesy custom maps was something we really needed to reel in.
If you're a veteran user of the map editor, you also have noticed that something else is entirely new. Let's break into a separate discussion regarding that change.
Sieges are too small and the cannon is too close. We did some soul searching and we felt that the maximum building size in Blasted Fortress was too small. Even without increasing the maximum size, the cannon always felt a little too close. Remember that Blasted Fortress was originally created 3 years ago now, and if widescreen wasn't an absolute back then it certainly is now. Indeed, the cannon was so close to account for those with 4:3 displays, but everything is now spaced out to appear optimally in 16:9. The maximum firing strength of the cannon has been improved so that you can clear this new distance.
We don't yet have a flattering screenshot of this to show off, because...
Pixel perfection is serious business. And right now, the game is shimmery and weird. In order to maintain that old school feeling, we're finally taking pixel perfection seriously. This will mean that you will no longer see oddities such as sprites "shimmering" (when a pixel can't figure out whether it should be 1 or 2 pixels wide/tall so it fluctuates; though this is funny to see a tribe dude's eye spaz out, in general it's not pleasant). We're also taking this opportunity to adjust the interface further, which is why it isn't quite ready for primetime.
Random is good, but sieges are too random. We think having sieges be random is healthy from a gameplay perspective because you're forced out of your comfort zone and into a potentially challenging position, but are they too random? The answer we're leaning toward is yes. It's time we got serious about siege selection, and that's why we have implemented the battle map.
(Click here for full size.)
Instead of sticking you with a totally random level, you now select from a handful of random levels. We can also do cool things, like guarantee that one or two levels that appear on the battle map will be a custom level from the editor (provided it's valid, of course!). Each blip on the map has a difficulty icon, and mousing over it shows you information on the level you would be playing if you selected it.
So many other things are on the plate for this content update that it would be crazy to go on as this announcement is already enormous... lore scrolls, campaign mode, etc. and so for now we'll just leave you with a preview of the brand new Beast sprite that will coincide with the overhaul of Beast battles.
We have no ETA on the Content Update's release yet, but if you have any input about what you would like to see in it, please let us know in the comments here or on the forums. We do read them!
