Greetings, Newsbearers!
Dev Diary #2 is here, with an inside scoop!
Merely a couple of weeks since the first Dev Diary and we're already coming to you with the second edition! With good reason too, because the next update is already around the corner: planned for next week. This time, we're bringing you insider intel on the latest content development, so brace yourselves for priviledged information you will definitely not find printed anywhere else!
Hey, in a sense, coming here to read those words is top notch investigative journalism, wouldn't you agree? So good job to you!
...And now, let's deliver on the scoop!
We have promised GREAT intel, so.... What's coming in the next update?!
The main feature of the update is called Supplementary Desks. We'll explain what they are in a moment, but you can expect the following:
- Court Report (Crime)
- Legislative report (Politics)
- Stock Index (Economy)
- Obituary (Society)
- Horoscope (Entertainment)
- Baseball Report (Sports)
All of them come with their own distinctive reactive print visuals. Of course that is not it, the update will also bring you other features, such as a 6th Page module for your printer, another year, which is 1935, with its own news content, extra news items for 1934... We have also given employee AI a very deep overhaul, and there are some other additions which we will reveal when the update releases.
Going back to Supplementary Desks, what exactly are they? How do they work?
There is one desk for each of the categories mentioned. They are currently unlocked on the map via influence points. Once you assign a reporter with the right category skill to a desk, it will automatically generate a supplementary article every X number of days.
These reporters can still be used on news reporting, but this will halt their “automatic” work on the Supplementary article.
Supplementary articles come with one base tag (in their category) and some secondary attributes. These can be a silver tag, multiple bronze or even outright money or influence.
Once created at the desk, supplementary articles follow the chain just like other news items would.
What are the main benefits of this new feature? How does it impact the way we manage our newspaper?
There are two main benefits:
Combo setup
Our idea is that the player can “specialise” a bit more with these Supplementary Articles. Since they come with a category base tag it becomes a little bit easier to plan around one or two types of categories. The more you have of one type, the more affiliated Ads you get.
Automated “Filler” content
Another element is that over time we want to expand the number of printer pages.
These supplementary Articles are one way of gaining more content without overwhelming the player with lots of micromanagement, thanks to the automated element of creation.
And of course, their own distinct visuals make your newspaper look cooler!
The update also comes with the addition of the year 1935. Is there anything we should look out for from that particular year?
For now, this is just another added year with its own Breaking and normal news items. It is highlighting the big events of that year, such as the legendary Amelia Earhart becoming the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California, or some of the heaviest storms within the Dust Bowl that ruined the midlands.
In the future, more specific calendar events will trigger each year. So later on during early access 1935 will have more in store for the player.
Can you share any insights into the development process for this update? Any challenge you encountered?
The Supplementary desks part was fairly straight forward to design and implement.
Of course, we will monitor it for balance and such. We love the new combo setup and the visual variety within your newspaper.
The tricky part was the Employee AI rework.
We tried patching for quite some time to get things right but eventually had to rework lots of it from the ground up. We understand that for the players, employee AI can become a frustration since it directly affects on the production chain time.
In previous versions, when an employee was evaluating its options for picking a destination (e.g. which toilet to visit) it would take into account several factors (how busy, is it broken, etc…) combined with an approximation of the distance it had to walk to that destination. This system was easily fooled however if the tower contained closed off walls. The approximation did not take into account these walls and would incorrectly assume that a destination would be very close, while in reality the employee would have to walk several stairs to actually get there. AI decision making is never just about distance. It needs to take into account a lot of other stuff and weigh it off against how far it is. This was hard to reason about.
The new system solves this by actually calculating the distance that needs to be walked. A smart caching system is used to save on calculations. And when there is too much heat and the calculations can’t keep up, an approximation is used as a substitute and the approximation is soon after replaced by the actual distance. With this new system, the AI decision making is easier to reason about as certain priorities can be expressed in terms of: “How many seconds is this guy allowed to walk extra when there is a queue of 3 people at the coffee machine”.
Now that actual distances are used, the resource transportation also had a complete overhaul. You will notice resupply employees making far better decisions. Taking into account several factors such as distance, priority, storages and whatnot.
The AI now takes into account the status of an elevator and may pick a different elevator, or the stairs, if it is really crowded. Fingers crossed that the elevators now become way more useful! Of Course, inefficient placement will not help, so you still need to be careful when placing your elevators.
Are you already at work on future updates too, or do you typically work on each update one step at a time?
Always! We have these update deadlines but we usually also work on the bigger picture mechanics/systems.
The update after this one will be massive. We're working on a big NPC overhaul, a new continent, image supplementary desks and even a Pneumatic tube transport system. All of these elements are already quite far in, content and coding wise. At the same time, a lot of localisation pre-work is being done in the background.
So to be more precise, we always work on multiple updates at the same time. With a small team we need to be efficient with our time and planning. As the community knows, some features might slide from one update to the next, but there is a grander plan at work here.
That's it for Dev Diary #2! That was quite a lot, right? With that sort of knowledge, who wouldn't want to brag on Twitter or Discord?
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