Hello Colonists!

As mentioned in last week update, we will soon publish a big content update that will change a lot of things in ROKH, especially our main game feature: the crafting system.
From many comments we received, it appears indeed that even if many of you love the depth of the crafting system in ROKH, you need to craft many tools and machines before reaching a certain level of advancement in the game.

The impact of raw resources used in the game is also one the of strongest point in our crafting system. Each component built using specific resources will direct have consequences on the crafting tree: your end-product is conditioned by the crafting choices you made earlier (reversible of course using the salvage system).

The first main problem is the divided aspect of the current crafting UI system, especially when it comes to craft complex items. Each recipe is enclosed in specific tools (or machines), and you soon have to switch between them in your toolbelt. This is the only way to craft all the components you need for the desired end-product.
Some advanced players have quickly mastered the minimize and switching tool actions. But we noticed that even if you get used to it, it can still be a frustrating process, and needed to be improved.

The second issue was about the complexity of the recipes. Many players complained about that: they were too many intermediate recipes before reaching the end product. We felt it was important to simplify the recipes, allowing players to reach the building stage of the game faster.

The third problem we identified was related to the input slots while players look for the ingredients in their backpack. With all the various items you can get in ROKH, the backpack can quickly become messy, and finding the right input in the crafting UI using the right panel can be frustrating, even with the research function.

Remove frictions from the crafting experience

Improving the crafting UI is the first goal here:

On this screenshot, you can see that all crafting items equipped in your toolbelt are displayed on one single screen. You can select the tools using the icons on the left. Note that the UI takes in account only the crafting tools (tools with recipes).
You can launch a crafting process on the manufacturing tool and jump right away to the assembly tool by clicking on its icon. The experience is a lot smoother, and brings a great dynamic to the crafting experience.

Simplify the input selection

This new system also introduces a clever sorting function: no tedious scrolling to find your ingredients! Once you have selected a recipe, if you have the requested ingredients in your backpack, they will be automatically displayed on the right part of the screen. If you have multiple times the same parts made from various resources, they will also be displayed.

Reflect the stats and benefits on the crafted item

Finally, the impact of the resources or components used in the crafting process needed to be highlighted. It needs to be clear what benefits you will get with your end product if you select a part/resource with specific stats.
With the new UI, the most important stats of your end product are indicated clearly under the input slots. Based on that, each ingredient you could use has the respective stats highlighted.
It applies also a color system to reflect the optimization level of your choices.

Simplify the recipes, reduce the crafting steps

It was important to smooth the crafting process by reducing the steps required for frequently produced items. In the meantime, we needed also to maintain the crafting depth we already have, but making it more accessible.
Several choices have been made. The crafting is split into 5 disctinct tiers, instead of the 4 previous tiers which were less distinct. The size variations we had before (XS, S, M…) on many parts is no more, it means everything is easier to find, because there is less clutter in the inventory. We have also reduced the number of components and their ingredients. For that, we have converted many components to become parts. We thought that it was too complex, without adding valuable depth.
The goal here is to allow players to reach the advanced building stage, so they can get big bases with lot of machines, workbenches and concentrate on optimizing their shelter.

A new recipe system that will require a server wipe

For this crafting streamlining, we will change the data on basically every recipe, and some items will be moved or merged into others. For that reason, this update will require a server wipe.
We have always been reticent to wipe the servers since the launch of the game. Some players have spent a lot of time building their bases and we are aware that it is frustrating to lose his data after playing for a long time. But thanks to this crafting streamlining, players will be able to reproduce in a quicker and smoother way what they had built before. By highlighting the right stats when crafting, players will also do better choices than they initially done.
In conclusion, we are confident that this improved crafting system provide great value to ROKH, by opening up the gameplay surrounding crafting. We hope it removes constrains felt by many players and to let them build advanced bases.

By implementing this new recipe system, we are building a solid base for improved crafting UI. We hope you have noticed the improvements described above. Know that this is only the V1, and we are already working on a V2. Right now, this UI still relies on the toolbelt. But we are designing an even more advanced version that won't even require to equip tools in the toolbelt. This version will "scan" your backpack, displaying a single-screen crafting menu. You will get more info on it really soon.

Current situation Servers and Connections issues

We take the opportunity of this devblog to also let you know the current servers and connections situation. Some players are currently having some strong severs and connection problems.
One of the issues reported to be impacting some players related to when they attempt to connect to a server and are eventually kicked back to the lobby as unable to connect. We understand this is very frustrating and want to assure the community that we are working on solutions.
The issue is related to server performance and impacted by some other factors including:

• Hardware of the host machine
• Current server population and load
• Gameplay bugs that impact the server

With help from the community we have already identified some issues and are working to address them as a priority to improve overall server performance and reduce the frequency it occurs.
Also, some servers are down because of some corrupt databases (they are not appearing in the list), or in restart loop (they appear grey, then white in the list, but crash instantly). We are working daily to remove the various bugs which could cause these issues. In the meantime, we thank you all for your patience, and please keep reporting on the forums. When reporting a bug please follow the instructions here so we get the maximum of info to correct them:

How to report bugs

See you soon Colonists!