Until now, the village in Under the Elm was pretty quiet. Most folks stayed indoors through the day, and when you walked into town you'd find maybe a few people standing around. It never felt like a place people actually lived.
This update (hopefully) changes that!
Villagers have schedules now. Wren is out in her garden watering and weeding. Aldric works his field and keeps his chickens, and some evenings he's down on the bridge fishing. Rowan splits wood at the woodpile, and Elara goes looking for spores.
They run errands. Maren draws water at the fountain and does her shopping at Petra's. Bram and Silas haul crates between the shop, the inn and Aldric's gate. Rowan carries planks out to the farm, and Fern comes home from the woods with a full basket.
They visit each other. Wren takes a bench outside her garden in the morning, and neighbors stop by to chat. Aldric meets folks at his gate.
Each of them walks to their spot, gets to work, and faces the way they should - and they don't all show up at once.
The game runs smoother, too. Running through the clearing and the village used to hitch every so often - that's fixed. Leaving a building is much faster, down from several seconds to about half of one, and the game uses a lot less memory overall.
The thin lines are gone. On some screens - larger monitors especially - thin lines showed up between tiles, on house floors, and beside some furniture and plants. Those should all be gone now. Thanks to Mimikurai, our playtester, who found the issues and sent screenshots!
Also new:
- A loading bar under the logo when the game starts
- Petra's market went through a redesign.
- Villagers indoors walk in straight lines instead of zigzagging across the floor
A note on Petra's clothes: her costumes, hats and masks are off the shelf for now. They were for sale before their art was in the game, so wearing one showed nothing. They'll be back. If you already bought one, don't fret: it's still yours - it just won't show up in your closet until then.
Since last time (0.5.1, which slipped out without a post):
- Fullscreen works again (menu and F11)
- The Field Guide text scales with the book
- Rewritten recipe text
- A tidier storage chest
As always, feedback goes straight to me - in game via Esc → Feedback, or in the discussions here.[/p}