Hi everyone!
It's time for a new update and this one is about some graphical & functional changes in connection with the grass & plant system, the new decay system, the blueprint menu and some updates in the crafting mechanic.
Grass
In the past the grass was seen as a regular plant like every other one (fern, potato plant, etc.) and that led to the problem that it was not possible to place a plant and some grass on the same block.
Therefore I have implemented a unique and new system which can handle this.
The grass is more a visual part of the game now and has the following characteristics:
- It's placed on every grass block.
- It's invisible inside of item or plant zones.
- It gets invisible in the area when the player defines one with the cursor (like zones or floors)
- It changes its mesh when a power cables is placed in it (to make it better visible)
Plants
In connection with the new grass system I have also reworked the plants and their models.
At the moment there are 5 different types of plants in the game:
- Fern (can't be seeded in a plant zone)
- Potato plant
- Carrot plant
- Hemp plant
- Medicinal plant
In addition, every kind of plant can spawn randomly in the world now. (before only fern was spawned)
Because of that new mechanic I had to implement a new job which allows the player to select plants to be removed. This functionality is very similar like the option to mark trees which should be cut.
Plant Zones
Next I have finished all functionalities of the plant zones, the plant zone menu and all related translations in the language manager.
It works in the way that the player can select a plant for it and the colonists will seed them there.
If there are already existing plants in the zone (which are not defined in the zone menu) the colonists will remove them - regardless of their grow stage.
Here is my update video about the graphics update:
https://youtu.be/BGUqnlCp2qw
Decay System
In the past there was no way that items can despawn and therefore I have added a decay system which removes items if they are placed too long at a location where the decay function is active.
For now there are 3 different types of decay which only differ in text which is shown:
- rot
- decompose
- spoil
To avoid that an item decays the player has to bring it to the right place.
At the moment this can be defined by 2 rules:
- An Item must be placed in an item zone (robust items like wood, stone, steel)
- An Item must be placed in a closed room (sensitive items like computer components or food)
- (temperature-dependent rules will be implemented in the future)
In addition I have also created a new menu which appears if the player clicks on an item. It shows all important information about the decay status, temperature and other stuff.
Blueprint Menu
Next I've added a new blueprint menu which shows the player the progress and used / required items. I've also implemented the functionality that the job to construct something can fail if the colonist which is working on it has a too low skill level.
By default the chance of fail is 35% with a skill level of 0 and 0% with a skill level of 10.
If a construction job fails, 50% of the resources will be lost.
Note: All these properties can be set individual for every construction element
Crafting
At last I've finished a lot of functionalities in the crafting system. It's now possible to craft and dismantle items on the same table and I have reworked the menu so that its now much more user friendly.
The last part which is missing in the crafting system is the functionality to dismantle dead animals / colonists. This will be added with the next update which will be about the final combat system.
And here is the update video of the last 3 sections:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdQA77kss3U
Hope you all have a good day,
Cheers!
If you have any questions or suggestions - don't forget to join my discord server:
Discord
Additional links:
YouTube | Reddit