The release of 0.6.0 last week went well! There were no severe bugs, so we patched one in last Tuesday.
The most noticeable problem in the update was the changed ragdoll. As part of the NPC rendering optimization, the amount of simultaneously ragdolling monsters was scaled back. Multiple people started noticing monsters disappearing immediately after getting shot.
We improved the ragdoll system with a small patch. There's now a setting in the graphics menu where you can choose how many ragdolls you want to render! The patch also included a fix for the normal mapping. In the past, we would have chosen to either not number the update, or to number it 0.6.1. But now we decided to add a fourth digit: 0.6.0.1.
This worked fine on any system where Colony Survival was already installed. But it broke the game completely in fresh installs. Soon after releasing the update, we received confusing reports of menus without text and unexpected black screens. Shortly after midnight, we fnally realized our error. A new hotfix was released at 1AM, 9 hours after introducing the problem, to fix the problem. For some reason, the fourth digit made fresh installs unplayable!
We've made a rough outline of what we're planning to do during the coming months. We'd love to hear your feedback!
Stage 1: Small Improvements
0.6.1 and perhaps 0.6.2 will contain a number of small additions. We'd like to improve the server browser and add passworded servers. We want to solve the monster spawning problem explained here. We'd like to bring the inventory from the client to the server, so we can properly add shortcuts like transferring items from the stockpile to the inventory by shift-clicking.
Stage 2: Multiple Colonies
Later 0.6.* updates will contain a big new feature: the ability to start a second (and a third, a fourth, etc) colony. I expect the update to be split in multiple parts:
- Boats or small ships, so you can explore the world without having to walk everywhere
- The update where you can actually start a second colony with a separate stockpile and research
- A trader that you can use to send items from one colony to another, preferably with an option to automate it (send from A to B when item count in A exceeds X, or when item count in B drops below X, or send every day, for example).
- The overseer job: a special job so you can manage your colony remotely, without having to sail there yourself
Stage 3: 0.7.0, A New World
A huge overhaul to the world generation. New algorithms to generate biomes, hills, forests etcetera. New blocks, new trees and new biomes. Colonies in different biomes will have unique jobs, crops and research.
We want to add new monsters. Swarm monsters, armored monsters, boss monsters, perhaps even monsters that will use missiles to fight back.
Of course, there will be new guards to fight the increased threat. We'd love to add guards that require resources from other biomes to craft their missiles. For example, a guard with a blowpipe that can use poison darts could require poisonous plants that only grow in the tropics. A different guard could need special resources from the arctic to freeze and slow down monsters.
We'd love to know what you think of our plans! Suggestions for new guards and what resources they could need from other biomes are very welcome.
Bedankt voor het lezen!