Hi everyone!
It's time for a new update and this one is about the material manager with a reworked building system, the new room detection system and the final parts of the main menu.
Material Manager
The old building system had the problem, that with more different materials the menu got pretty fast overloaded with a lot of icons for each element which usually uses them - like floors, walls, stairs etc.
Therefore I've implemented a new material manager which allows the player to choose different materials for the fundamental parts of the construction system without generating new icons in the build menu. It only updates the existing icons with the images of the new material which keeps the menu clear and user friendly.
At the moment there are 3 materials:
- Wood
- Stone
- Brick
These materials can be used for the following construction elements:
- Floors
- Walls (includes window & door frames)
- Stairs
- Roofs
- Chimneys
In connection with this system I've also created 3 new models for the stairs, which is an updated one for the straight stair and 2 models for stairs which making a turn to the right or the left side.
In addition I've implemented a new way to build roofs. The player can select an area now, which automatically generates the right roof parts to fit a rectangular shaped building / room.
This makes it much easier to place roofs because in the past the player had to build them with all the single parts. I've also added a few more area shapes to create roofs over corners and other simple structures.
Here is my latest devlog about the new material manager:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ0MhtWNVcY
Room Detection System
The room detection is an important part of the game because the colonists see the room, in which their bed is located, as their room. It's also a fundament for some mechanics which will be added in the future. (like the temperature)
The core mechanic of this system can detect:
- If connectors are open or closed (window & door frames)
- If floors are complete and closed correctly
- If roofs are complete and closed correctly
- If a room extends over multiple floors
- If a room is connected with another room. (open or closed) This means for example: A room can also be detected as outdoors if there is a missing door to another room which is already outdoors.
Rooms also have a beauty factor which can be increased or decreased if the player places furniture in it. In addition, particular furniture can change or define the type of a room.
At the moment the following types of rooms can be detected:
- Normal rooms (grey)
- Bedrooms (blue)
- Workshops (yellow)
- Science labs (green)
- Rooms which are outdoors (red)
Here is a video of the room detection system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMZzFr9_VQQ
Main Menu
In the last weeks a lot of work went into the redesigning and finishing of the main menu.
Fortunately, everything is done and here I have listed the most essential updates and changes:
- The language manager is completely integrated now, which means that the entire menu is available in English and German.
- The menu is much more user friendly now and has a lot of info and error messages so that the player knows why and what happens or went wrong (mostly for networking and connection errors)
- A new and clear way to enter or load a game in single player or online-coop.
- An updated and finished new game menu with all required elements.
New Game Menu
Here I have done the most functionality updates. To make the menu clearer I have divided it into 3 tabs which are the following:
Scenario
In this tab the player can select a scenario. It consists of 3 basic sections where the player can choose:
- The count of the start colonists
- The start resources
- How much technologies are already researched at the beginning
World
This tab was already implemented and here the world can be created and customized.
Start
Here the player can make the final adjustments for a new game. This includes the:
- Customization of the start colonists (name, age, haircut, clothes, empathy, skills etc.)
- The selection of the start items (if the given ones are not cool enough)
Here is the update video about the main menu if you want to see how it works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n3mUi57aoM
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