Hello Everyone!
It's been quite a while since the last update or Steam post, and while this post isn't gonna be visually showing off anything in the upcoming update, I still wanted to update everybody on where I'm at in the development of it and give a VERY brief overview of what you can expect to see in it.
The reason for making this is just to echo what I've been saying to other members in the community in Steam forums or on our Discord server, as not everyone reads these and is aware of what's going on.
What is coming in v0.2.0?
This is possibly the largest update I've ever put together across all my previous games in the past few years, and is jam packed with new features, improved systems, and a ton of iterations on pre-existing content based on all the feedback I've received over the past few months. This update is HUGE.
Without going into too many specifics in order to let everyone experience this update with fresh eyes, here is a very VERY shallow overview of what you can expect to see in this update...
- Multiplayer - join forces with friends (or strangers) on a shared base!
- Steam lobby & matchmaking support, play with others from around the globe.
- Vastly improved simulation stack - higher entity performance across the board.
- Entirely new database system, drastically reduced initial loading times.
- New animation & sound system, some buildings will feel more interactive and alive. (WIP)
- Multiple stability passes on individual entities, most reported bugs in v0.1.4 fixed.
- Heavy balance changes to mid-late game, improving power vs. heat growth.
- A completely redesigned initial region, with a vastly improved generation algorithm.
- Logistics V2 - new tools for setting, applying, and viewing drone routes across your base.
- New enemy mechanics, including base-reconstruction & outpost core connections.
- Completely redesigned user interface - all new windows with more intuitive navigation.
- Many new aesthetic tools - apply colors & place decoration tiles; make your base yours!
- An entirely new region - Phantom Plains, with a new research tree & unique challenges.
- And more!
Without going into too much more detail, this is a brief overview of what you can expect to see in this update when it releases on experimental. (and this isn't nearly everything coming in this update)
Why is the update taking so long?
If the sheer amount of new features coming wasn't obvious enough, the reason is that I am trying to cover a wide range of improvements across the board to bring Vectorio up to that next level. While this is not the end all be all update for Vectorio, the size of it IS the main reason it's taking this long.
While I have been working on this full-time for the last 3 and a half months, I am still the only developer that is working on it. These types of improvements take time and cannot be rushed.
When will the update release?
I don't know, but hopefully soon. A majority of the work is done, and over the past week I've been mainly play-testing and improving little bits of it where I can. I've also been gearing up for the first multiplayer test, which will include all of the aforementioned changes except for the new region.
As much as I'd love to give a date, every time I try to predict it I end up making myself look like a fool and completely missing it because of the varied amount of work required to make this update happen.
With that said, I can 100% confirm that a majority of this update is done at this point.
Why aren't you showing anything in this update?
Mainly because the first 2 months of work were on systems that I can't really show. I can tell you that I've improved the entity simulation or reduced loading times, but there's a difference between my telling you it and you experiencing it. The only reason I've come out and given a brief overview of it now is because it's been a considerable amount of time since the previous Steam post, and I've seen an increase in concerned players wondering why there hasn't been any updates in a long time.
With this all said, I certainly have a lot that I could show now with all the new content that I've been adding to the game over the past month. But, because I am now in the final stretches of this update, I'm sticking to my gut and choosing to stay quiet about it until the full update is ready to go. I truly believe experiencing this update with relatively fresh eyes will make it far more special.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Let me know!
While I haven't been super engaged on the Steam side of things lately, I have continued an open line of communication with the player base over on our Discord server.
There's a GitHub log channel that lets people stay relatively up-to-date with what's being worked on, and I constantly answer questions or engage with new discussions pretty much every day. If you want to stay in the loop, this is the absolute best place to do it, and I highly recommend joining.
Discord: https://discord.gg/Vectorio
With that said, I will try to keep up with questions or comments made in the Steam discussions as well. If you'd like to discuss anything about this update, please let me know either below or by making a post on the forums - while I may not respond to them all, I still read all of them.
Thanks for reading
~ Ben