Hello again!
It's been a few weeks since the last progress update, so I thought now would be a good time to update everyone on where Update 3 is at, and when you can expect it to go live. This is gonna be a bit of a lengthy post, so apologies for those that don't like reading!
As always if you have any questions, feel free to let me know!
Research Changes
I haven't officially talked about the changes coming to the research system in Update 3 yet, so I thought now might be a good time to do so.
I'm replacing the research tree with a new research system called "Essence Pumping". Essentially how it works is you'll have numerous different stats such as drone speed, collection rate, damage boost, etc. You can then use labs to pump essence into these variables and boost their effectiveness.
Now I realize this is a bit of a step down from the research tree, but the reason for this change is due to the addition of engineering. A lot of players have given me feedback on the research system saying each tech should be more unique then just some variable getting a slight boost, and I agree. But since engineering is largely focused on modifying your turrets to have unique characteristics, I feel a research system that also gives turrets unique characteristics would interfere with it.
So, this is my solution to that problem. I was never a huge fan of the research tree as I don't believe it fits Vectorio very well, and I think a system like engineering that gives more control to the player on how they wanna upgrade and modify their turrets is far better. And with that said, the new essence pumping system also isn't without it's benefits - you can now choose exactly what stats you want to boost instead of having to research some other arbitrary techs first, and on top of this I can balance the system by adding heat limitations on how much you can actually boost certain stats.
Let me know what you think of this change down below. Nothing is final yet, and I'd love to hear some feedback on it before I move ahead with the changes.
Refactor Progress
The refactor is now finished! After countless hours of redoing the base of the game, it's now much more stable and modular then before. This will be extremely useful as the game moves forward and starts to introduce more complex features, such as advanced base management, multiplayer, and modding.
Multiplayer Progress
With the refactor finished, work on multiplayer will now truly get underway. I've been experimenting with multiplayer on another project called Automa (https://discord.gg/XuZDADZWtn ), and we recently managed to get it setup through Steamworks. I'll be porting that system over to Vectorio when the time comes, and integrating it to allow people to play with their friends across Steam!
As for public server listings and dedicated servers, I can't give any guarantees on that now. Since I'm currently the only developer working on Vectorio and have limited experience with networking, it will be challenging to get those features supported. With that said though, I will definitely look into it and take some time to study more about multiplayer networking.
Update 3 Release Date
So with all that said, judging where the game is at I expect Update 3 to be out mid November. Originally I had said the Update would be out end of October, and that's still feasible, but after such a long wait I would like to spend a bit more time testing and tweaking the new systems coming in the update. Update 2's experimental phase was a bit of a mess, so I'd like to avoid that for Update 3.
I apologise for the long wait. I know a lot of you are itching for some new content, but rest assured the wait will have been worth it. We're almost there!
That's all for this progress update. As always, I encourage anyone who has Discord to join our server. We have a lot of great discussions on there and it's an awesome community to be a part of.
Discord: https://discord.gg/auDgRJqtT9
Thanks for reading!
~ Ben