Hi everyone!
In the last weeks a lot of things have happened and here are the new updates.
This time they're about the tree growing and respawning system, the sleeping schedule, a multi language manager and some changes in the UI.
Tree growing and respawning
In the past, when a player has started a new game, the trees were spawned in all different grow stages and this was a problem because after a few days / weeks the whole map consisted of full grown trees with the same model. (Also, in large maps there were a lot of trees to update)
Therefore I have created an additional model for the pine tree which is a little bit smaller and has its own grow stages. Now, when a new games starts, 2 types of trees are spawned in their last grow stage so that they are looking different and have not to grow anymore.
Trees can also respawn now but only under the following rules:
- The position is not blocked by a construction element or blueprint.
- The position is not blocked by an item zone or plant zone.
- The position is not blocked by an item.
- The position and the 8 blocks above it are not blocked by something (like a roof or balcony)
Sleeping Schedule
The colonist overview menu has an additional tab now, where the player can adjust the sleeping time of the colonists. It consists of an area which is divided in 24 sections for the hours of the day.
The sleeping controller (it calculates how tired a colonists is) works with a time span of 24 hours which is represented by a value from 0 to 100%. The value regenerates with x4 while a colonist is sleeping and a low value has a negative impact on the mood.
There is also an "oversleep" value which is activated when the controller has reached 100% and the colonist is still sleeping. It can be active for ~4 hours and forces the colonist to wake up when it reaches 100% (it will be always set to 0% when a colonist wakes up & has a positive effect on the mood)
The sleeping controller has also some thresholds which have currently the following relations to the schedule controller:
- Colonists go to sleep when the value is under ~83% and sleeping schedule = true
- Colonists go to sleep when the value is 0% and sleeping schedule = false
- Colonists wake up if the value is over 50% and sleeping schedule = false
- Colonists wake up if the value & oversleep value is 100% and sleeping schedule = true
Good questions about the current setup:
What happens if the entire schedule controller is set to sleep?
The colonist will go to sleep when the sleeping controller is under 83% and will sleep until its value and oversleep value have 100%. Leads to: ~5h sleeping, ~4h awake, ~5h sleeping, ~4h awake, ...
What happens if the entire schedule controller is not set to sleep?
The colonist will go to sleep when the sleeping controller has 0% and will sleep until its value is over 50%. Leads to: ~3h sleeping, ~12h awake, ~3h sleeping, ~12h awake, ...
Multi-Language Manager
In the last weeks a lot of time went into the implementation of the multi language manager.
A lot of parts are done and the following things are already connected and available in English and German:
- Entire technology system
- Colonist skills
- Items and construction elements
- Colonist command sentences
- The sentences of what a colonist is currently doing
What is missing:
- Main menu
- Settings menu
- Save & Load menu
- Smaller menus & systems which are not finished (like the colonist mood menu)
UI Updates
The UI is a little bit more compact and better structured now. Here are the changes:
- Colonist overview menu is now static (right upper corner)
- Added 3 new buttons for world, diplomacy & tutorial [?] (right upper corner)
- Transparent layer & temperature menu moved to the left (left upper corner)
- Removed black bar on the top
- Added an info panel to the main actions menu (left lower corner)
Update Video
I've also uploaded a new update video which covers the new stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FUhRDF-lfI
Hope you all have a good day,
Cheers!
Additional links:
Discord
YouTube
Reddit