Three weeks ago, in the last Friday Blog, we were at 0.9.0.6v2. We’re still delivering frequent updates, and we made it all the way to 0.9.0.13! An example of the fixes contained in these updates is pictured below. The testers are finding numerous small problems and rough spots, and we’re dedicated to polishing 0.9.0 to a high standard. If you want to test 0.9.0 in a less polished state, feel free to join the beta following the instructions here.
Most of these updates contain a bunch of small tweaks and fixes, but no major changes to the content of the game. But last week, we released 0.9.0.10, which contained a lot of new building blocks.
0.9.0 was rebuilt from pretty much zero, and at first we were completely focused on testing new gameplay features. Tools; outposts; traps; the “glider-launcher”; elevators; currency & the merchant; the new world generation. All of the colonies we built were highly functional and not ‘decorative’. The testers rightfully complained that 0.9.0 lacked a varied selection of building materials.
So, I’ve spent some time developing a bunch of new textures and building blocks. Some are completely new, some are new textures for old blocks. Some of the textures we replaced were quickly made 5+ years ago, and we believe the new textures have a significantly higher quality.
The Principles of the Farming Outpost
After releasing 0.9.0.10, I did a full playthrough of the beta, in preparation for adding the last new content before publicly releasing 0.9.0. I really enjoyed myself, and one thing really stood out to me. It’s now guiding my plans for the final batch of content, and I’d like to share it with you.
For my main colony, I had chosen a spot right in between a tall mountain, a swamp and a heath. I later started outposts in all these areas. My network of little towns was growing smoothly, but I was consuming quite a lot of food. I had of course regularly expanded my food supply, but it seems I needed a big expansion - and I didn’t have a lot of convenient space for that.
Standing on top of my 100-block-tall gliderlauncher-tower, I surveyed the surroundings. I quickly noticed a large, flat spot of fertile land nearby. I filled my inventory with building materials, bought an Outpost Banner and glided to the new area. My other outposts were relatively small, but I wanted to build this one big. I started building an extensive castle with complex defenses, specifically designed to conveniently incorporate traps, and spaces for colonists to reload those traps. It was a lot stronger than necessary for the small number of farmers living there, but I used Threat Statues to lure more monsters that way.
The entire project of building my Farming Outpost felt engaging and rewarding. But it didn’t directly access any new content. Indirectly, it did support the expansion of my network of colonies, which was working towards new parts of the tech tree.
When did I quit my test? When I reached the end of the tech tree. I was still enjoying the process of growing my network of towns, but there was nothing left to grow for. And when that happens, the game quickly comes to an end.
And these were the forces I was wrestling with. How do we…
1.) Extend the tech tree in a way that keeps players engaged as long as possible
2.) Do that in a way which doesn’t feel like repetitive padding, as uninspired busywork
3.) Develop that relatively quickly, without extending the beta for many months
That’s quite hard to optimize for! Adding a late-game tech that requires players to recruit 10.000 new colonists is easy but no fun. Thinking of amazing features that would be loads of fun to explore, but that require many, many months of development time is easy as well. Finding a solution that combines the best of both worlds without the drawbacks is hard - but I think we did it.
So the last couple of days, I’ve started working on the last batch of 0.9.0 content. It will introduce new content and features, like a failsafe machine that gives you one last chance if your colony is overwhelmed by monsters. Handcannons and explosive traps. A glider launched with gunpowder, so it doesn’t need a 100 block tall tower. A “people mover” (the horizontal elevator from here).
We'll also reintroduce some old content, like beekeepers, chicken and cabbage farmers, and musket guards.
But unlocking these endgame techs will require you to scale up. To extend your main colony and to found new outposts. To coordinate many hundreds of colonists. 0.9.0 currently doesn’t have “science bags”, but I’m working on an updated version of that idea.
0.9.0 currently has a separate menu for “points upgrades”. This menu contains upgrades that can be boosted again and again, like the colonist cap and the banner range. We’ve got an idea to quickly convert that to full “repetitive science” - upgrades that cost more than mere currency, but that could also consume for example the enhanced science bags.
We’re planning to subtly and smoothly integrate these systems. At the start of the game, when you’ve got a very small colony, unlocking things in the tech tree is cheap and only requires a few relevant items. In the midgame, these costs expand and add requirements like medium amounts of colony points/currency. That’s roughly where the current content ends.
Unlocking tech in the endgame gradually becomes more and more expensive. It’ll require large amounts of currency and “science chests”. There’ll be multiple kinds of science chests, filled with more and more costly items. These same costs can also be used for the “repetitive science”, to purchase “perpetual upgrades” for your colony.
The goal is to offer a smooth transition into the “postgame”. At a certain moment, you’ll have unlocked the entire tech tree, and you’ve received access to all jobs, items and weapons. Currently, the only goal left at that moment is earning currency for the points upgrades. In the intended postgame, your entire colony will still be useful. All your copper miners, hemp farmers, writers, researchers, chicken farmers and blacksmiths should be necessary to produce massive amounts of science chests, and throughout the endgame you should’ve been subtly encouraged to focus on that kind of production. Expansion is still rewarding, encouraging you to actually produce and use the technology at the end of the tech tree, at scale.
We’ve noticed a minor problem in the beta where people don’t actually use the tech at the end of the tech tree. They unlock elevators and gliders, but then the tech tree ends so they stop scaling up and don’t actually use those things. We think we’ve now got clear plans which can be developed relatively easily and that should fix this problem.
We’ll continue working on the endgame/postgame content and hope to be able to show and test a lot of it in a few weeks. When it’s tested and polished, 0.9.0 is ready for a full release!
In Dutch, we’ve got a saying de laatste loodjes wegen het zwaarst. It literally means “the last pieces of lead weigh the heaviest”, and apparently, English has a similar saying in “the last mile is the longest one”. It’s completely true, and we understand that some players are getting tired of waiting for the update. We’d like to remind them that they can join the beta, and we hope all of you will enjoy 0.9.0 when it’s completely done. We really believe it’s by far the best version of CS!
Bedankt voor het lezen :D