The airship is only available in the internal test branch, which isn't publicly available yet
We tested the first functional 'airship' this week! It's suitably called Prototype_Flying_Box. It's ugly, it's primitive, but it contains the basics of flight in Colony Survival. The flight mechanics will be improved next week, but we'd love to show you the current state of things:
https://youtu.be/I_6aKvzQaUk
Our original plan was to add some kind of zeppelin / hot air balloon. When we tested the first prototype, it felled more like some kind of powered glider. We realized we actually preferred that! It's more fun to glide over hills and treetops than to float at a stable high altitude.
The current 'airship' is pretty slow and we believe we can make the flight mechanics more exciting. But even in this primitive state, it feels like a game changer. Traveling the world by foot, dodging trees and climbing hills block by block, gets old and boring fast. It makes many 0.7.0 features, like the new world design, different biomes in distant areas, multiple colonies and trading, less fun and relevant than they ought to be. But now that we've got a decent option for transportation, it really feels like the update is coming together!
Here's our intended 0.7.0 gameplay, and how far these parts are done:
- Build a regular colony (98% done) Building your first colony will be pretty similar to the current state of things in 0.6.3. The basic mechanics of progressing from slings to bows and matchlock guns are still there. There is one important new feature though: happiness. Keep your colonists happy, or recruitment costs will skyrocket and the speed of scientific research will decrease dramatically. To keep your colonists happy, you'll have to produce and distribute "happiness items" like candles, jewelry and luxury meals. This is mostly done and thoroughly tested, we just need to dot the i's and cross the t's. Science needs better names and descriptions, some items need tooltips, minor stuff like that.
- Unlock transport and explore the world (80% done) After you've unlocked matchlock guns, you'll be able to research airships. These can be used to explore the world. The new world generation has long been finished, and as you've just read, the basics of airships are there. Now we need to improve the flight mechanics, and add ways to unlock the airship with research and produce them in-game.
- Settle exotic biomes and produce unique local items (90% done) Once you've arrived in a distant biome, you can start a second (or third, or fourth, etc) colony and use it to produce unique items like silk, porcelain, sugar or coffee. Most of this works. You can start multiple colonies, and the Far East, the Tropics and the New World all have their own unique content. We've also got functional traders. There are still a couple of things left to do. Some items still need icons and a decent place in the tech tree. And currently, there are no scientific or cost barriers to starting new colonies. We'd like to add "multiple colonies" as a scientific unlock after airships. We also like to add some kind of "Colony Starter Packages" which contain a decent amount of food, ammo, common crafting ingredients and building materials to kickstart new colonies. Obviously, these Colony Starter Packages have to be produced by the "mother colony".
- "The Pull Forwards" (0.7.1?) As discussed last week, we believe the game needs a good reason to build very large colonies with lots of colonists. We'll add some simple expensive scientific research for end-game colonies in 0.7.0, and perhaps even a feature like jetpacks. Later on, we'd like to add a better end-game with more industrial content.
We still believe we are on track for a June/July release!
Bedankt voor het lezen :)