Hello fellow steam engine experts!
A bunch of additional cosmetic, quality of life (QoL) and bug fixes have landed for Empire Water Works demo!
This updates takes the build to 20260706 (you can confirm this from the main menu).
Here's the details of the update:
Cosmetic: applied new coal textures to the coal (including when the coal is lit)
QoL: when resting, the player could previously hit 'Continue' immediately upon initiating the rest, and get a rather 'jarring' day/night transition. This wasn't a deal-breaker as the resting logic still got processed, but I have now mitigated this with a short 'Please wait...' message that lasts for about 2 seconds whilst the rest phase 'processing' occurs...and then you can click 'Continue' to skip the rest of the rest phase if desired (skip about 8s of the remaining rest phase delay)
QoL: added two arrows pointing to the valve gear gauges during the Starting Tutorial for adjusting valve gears, so that people are alerted to where the valve gear indications are
QoL: increased boiler water level default to 55% (from 50%) to speed things along in the Starting Tutorial!
Bug Fix: when reducing cyl jacket valves amounts (e.g. from 15% downwards) using repeated 'Q' key interactions to reduce by 5% increments, the final reduction from 5% to 0% would sometimes still not register the valve as 'closed' - the display would show '0%' but the valve would still be slightly open. This could be problematic for new players during the Starting Tutorial as the tutorial would not register the valve(s) as closed either (unless the player hit 'Q' once more). FIXED
QoL: improved the onboarding mention of Gatehouse. Some players would think it was located onsite and would go searching for it (fruitlessly). Now, when the Starting Tutorial is completed, a line of bold text indicates that the only way to reach the Gatehouse is via Telephone.
Cosmetic: revamped the Starting Tutorial dialogs for better text alignment and dialog sizing; also some other minor dialog optimizations (still lots of other misc. dialogs that could use some revamping. but this is a start!)
Cosmetic: changed the glowing start temperature of the coal pile to begin at > 125 degrees and not 25 degrees, so coal doesn't glow immediately upon lighting the coal
Once again, thank you to everyone who has been leaving feedback and kind words about the project! I appreciate you all and I do read all your messages! I hope you continue to have fun with the demo!
This is probably a good time to mention as well, that Early Access development has recently been well underway here at the Harman Motor Works! I am full-steam-ahead with Early Access development. As always, check out my socials for more info.
I also plan to have an announcement about Early Access release date soon, so watch this space!
Thanks for reading!