Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
First of all, I would like to thank the community. Your effort and suggestions help me to make the game better!
Next, I would like to share some important upcoming updates.
For those who don't want a long read, here's a quick summary:
- There will not be a patch this week, but the next one in the new year will have significant improvements.
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I'm planning to migrate to UE 5.5; this will break save compatibility. - New packaging of the game will be used, which will increase performance by up to 50%.
- Full rebalance for crafting recipes and constructions.
- Rework of research and craft system.
Now, let's proceed with a more detailed read and explanations.
Migrating to Unreal Engine 5.5 may fix some engine-related crashes and improve game performance. Additionally, 5.5 has significant improvements in the lighting system, which will allow me to attempt to improve the visual aspect of the game. However, a downside is that each UE version change breaks save compatibility. Also, the new version may introduce new bugs, but let's believe in the better :)
UPD: I've tested the migrated version. It's unplayable... Maybe later I'll give migrating another try, but not now...
UE has several "modes" to package the game for play. The current development mode is good for testing and finding bugs, but lacks performance. For the next update, I'll use the shipped build. Tests on my PC show a 50% improvement in FPS between them. It's significant, so I'll sacrifice testing options to make the game more performant.
By analyzing crashes and saved games sent to me by players, I've realized that the fortress management aspect isn't as critical as I had hoped. There's a noticeable lack of strategy in many constructions. Moreover, as the game allows for a variety of strategies, it leads to the neglect of some important buildings and researches. Consequently, other tier researches and crafts, which aren't ignored, end up requiring an excessive amount of time because they are often handled by one or two low-level scientists or craftsmen.
So, the most important change in the next patch will be a strict separation of researches and recipes into tiers and introducing a required threshold. Research/craft will not be able to start without proper buildings/proficient workers. Players have flexibility in how to achieve this. Also, once the research/craft has started, it will not require the threshold for proceeding, but lowering research/production points will lead to an increased amount of time (up to infinity :) )
This change should also make game progression smoother, without overpowering player characters too early.
I will introduce new resources. Existing recipes will be rebalanced, and new researches and building upgrades will be added.
In the nearest plans, there are mutations for starting creatures, which will improve their attributes for the mid-game. It will not be just hidden changes in numbers, but visual adjustments as well. However, I don't know if I could do it in the next update (most probably not).
Thank you all!