One aspect which I've always felt Embark is lacking in has been the lack of direction in the art and UI. I am excited to announce that Andrew will be working full time on turning Embark into a game with a cohesive art style and modern user interface. In addition to this I will also have less distractions from working on Embark this year starting from Q2, so look forward to a much more regular update schedule. The goal will be to make sure Embark is in a fun polished state by the end of this year.
First look at the new art direction
Batch of new plants and trees. This is still very much a work in progress, but we felt that it has already made the game look a lot better. Grass rendering is also back in the game.
Room system
Fixed a few bugs with the room system introduced in 0.800. Lightning and room/wall quality were not being calculated correctly. Ventilation of rooms is now also taken into account. Fireplaces, all creatures, and rotting items all contribute to poor air quality which causes a penalty to room quality. To avoid this fireplaces need ventilation two tiles behind. For now, the penalty is not very significant and will not cause any other problems. Lighting calculation has also been improved to properly take into account windows and is transmitted between rooms better.
Water system
Improved the performance of water and other liquids. So far the idea to try and simulate water pressure has been a nightmare, but I think it should be mostly stable now. Please upload any saves of broken/buggy liquids. Fixes to water pressure system and water pumps.
Other Fixes
- Fixes to the end game buildings and items required to build them.
- Improvements to rendering of pipes/mechanisms shading in construction mode.
- Fixes to terrain rendering so selection tools are correctly rendered near water.
- Tweaks to conversations to make it slightly harder to make everyone like everyone else.
- Made research artifacts cheaper and increased drop rates for them.
- Increased time until later factions interact with the player.
- Fixed powered workshops making items instantly.
- Fixed saltworks and oil processor not working correctly.