Hi everyone,
it's time for a new update and this one is about the enemy attacks, new animations, new items & constructions, menu updates and some stuff around the balancing and adjusting for a playable version.
Important
I've to say, this is probably the last update before the start of the Alpha Test Phase :p
Enemy Attacks
One of the last big parts was the reimplementation of hostile colonists, their attack events and the related AI functionalities. For the attacks I have divided the progress flow into 2 categories.
Strategy
The strategy part is connected with the preparing phase of an attack, which means that enemies are entering the world at the map border and doing one of the following tasks:
Default:
With the default strategy the enemies are simply waiting and walking around a point. If a certain time has passed, they will start their attack on your colony.
Siege:
With the siege strategy the enemies are entering the area with additional resources to build and use siege machines (like a ballista or an artillery) to take your colony under fire. If the projectiles are empty or a certain time has passed, they will start the attack on your colony.
Objective
The objective defines what the attackers are actually looking for. At the moment I have only added one type and I will add more in the future.
Destruction
The enemies want to destroy and damage you constructions until a certain threshold is reached.
This threshold is calculated by the sum of the remaining hit points of all relevant constructions and excludes elements like floors, walls, roof, windows etc.
For example: On the difficulty 'normal', they want to damage your stuff until 60% of the hit points sum is gone.
Additional points:
- If you attack preparing enemies and the sum of the applied damage is high enough, the attack event will be triggered. (This also counts when you take them with your own artillery under fire)
- If you fail to repel the attack event, the enemies will stop the fight and will go to the map border to leave the area. (this is related to the destruction objective and can change for future objectives)
- The count of hostile colonists, their combat related skill levels, their traits which boost combat attributes and the strength and type of their weapons are influenced by the difficulty settings as well as by the researched technologies.
- The enemy attack is repelled successfully when all enemies got immobilized or killed. (if immobilized enemies are stand up again, they will leave the map - even when the other members of the group are still fighting)
- When one of your colonists get immobilized and stands up, there is a cool down of 20 seconds (or 20 ingame minutes) where the enemies are not attacking this colonist. (except you start to attack them again)
Note:
I also plan to implement a threshold which stops an enemy attack when the sum of their remaining health is too low.
Animations
The colonists have a lot of different tasks to do and to make the execution looking better (and not only visualized by a progress bar), I have started to add a few basic animation to the game.
Work tables
For the work tables I have created 3 individual animations which are including the:
- Butcher Table
- Weapon Table
- Research Table
In addition I have also added the functionality that the tool is ported from the table to the 'hands' of the colonists when they start their job. For the remaining tables I have created a default animation and will replace it with the individual ones from time to time.
Hidden Tool Belt
In connection with the previous animations I have also created some ones for the basic jobs. Because there are no tools as items available in the game and it would be very annoying to always equip a certain tool for a certain job, I have decided to add a new item called "hidden tool belt".
Every colonist has this item at any time equipped and the purpose of it is only to give an explanation why they suddenly have a tool in their hand. These are the following ones:
- Hatchet (for cutting trees)
- Pickaxe (for mining stones and rocks)
- Rake (for seeding plants)
Note:
The colonists can not use these tools as weapons.
Alpha Test Preparation
In the last weeks a lot of work went into the preparation for the Alpha Test Version. While there were many small bugs to fix, there were also a lot of stuff around that like balancing weapons, balancing items, balancing technologies and updating menus.
Weapon Stats Menu
Actually I've created this menu for me as developer to see and balance the weapon values in the right way. But because it's looking not so bad, I have decided to let it in the game so that it's also available for the players.
The sections have the following meanings: (tool tips are already created)
- MD, MF (melee damage, melee force)
- RD, RF (range damage, range force)
- DM, DR (defence melee, defence range)
- RTM, RTR, BT (recover time melee injury, recover time range injury, bleeding time)
- DPM, BPH (damage per minute, bleeding per hour)
Note:
The recover times depending on which body part is hit.
New Items & Constructions
In the past my main focus was on the implementation of the core mechanics of the game. As a result, I gave a lot of items or constructions very basic or unrealistic properties which includes the resources you need to craft or built them.
I don't want to spoil all additions and adjustments that I've made, so I will take 3 things which I have added in connection with the production of machine components. These are:
- Oil Plants + related harvest
- Basic Brewery (new model and functionality)
- Machine Oil
Resource Overview Menu
As beside work, I have also updated the resource overview menu so that it has now the same category style like the item zone menu.
Burned plants
If a lighting strike hits a plant zone now, the effected plants are not only removed anymore, but also replaced with burned plants. That looks more realistic and the colonists have to remove them before they can seed new plants.
Note:
A burned plant is also rotting and gets removed after a while.
Additional Updates
- Added ballista (because the artillery is only available very late in the tech tree)
- Added rocks which are laying around
- Added fallen trees as an additional wood source and terrain beautification
- Added gun accuracy and damage attributes to the combat system
- Added more sound effects
I hope you have enjoyed this update,
Cheers!
Additional links:
Discord