Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.
Heating Vat
As part of the continuing effort to build out the crafting economy at Homesteads, the Heating Vat is being introduced for processing one or more ingredients into materials through boiling, brewing, and melting. The Heating Vat requires water and a combustible fuel like Wood Planks to operate.
Ingredients are placed into the Heating Vat and are cooked over a period of time and converted into an output item. Temperature is an important gameplay factor in the heating process. The temperature of the vat is determined by the type of combustible fuel being burned. Different recipes have different optimal temperatures. When ingredients are being heated, the closer their average temperature is to their ideal, the higher the quality of the output will be. Temperature can be boosted further by attaching Bellows, which is required to achieve the highest quality materials for certain recipes.
One of the big goals for the visuals was to have as much feedback on the state of the Heating Vat and cooking be shown through VFX as opposed to UI. The concept art below shows how the combustible fuel, water volume, cooking state, and temperature are visualized on the structure.
Crude Resin & Rosin
Crude Resin can now be harvested from special trees that spawn near Bear dens. Resin is harvested with a Knife and can be converted into Rosin, which in turn can be used to craft Shields. The Resin conversion process requires the Heating Vat.
Homestead Interiors
One of the common requests from the last few tests has been to expand the functionality of the Family Homestead structure to make it more useful (beyond it being just a requirement for a Homestead Area). In the last Minor Test, an inventory and the ability to manage Families directly from the Homestead were added. To take things even further now, an interior has also been added to the Homestead so that initial Family members can build Beds and other interior structures without having to build separate Houses. By removing the additional pre-requisite of building a separate House, the process of joining the game and starting a Homestead is further simplified.
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