Introducing building "free" mode! The default building method is now "locked" with a toggle for "free" available in the building menu:
Locked mode has a lot of benefits that anyone who's gotten used to it knows. You can build almost without looking, building tall walls and long halls without even moving. But it's just that "locked" and definitely detracts from the creative side in builders.
Free mode loses some of those benefits, but gains a whole ton of freedom. You can move and rotate freely on all 3 axis to get building pieces precisely where you want them. An easy to understand example lies in a fishing dock a player tried to create recently. The "wooden post" piece is aligned to the center of a "building area" whereas a dock would generally position it's legs extending downward from the corners. In "free" mode it's now possible to do that and much more.
The current snap settings are as seen above, though "Free" for movement and rotation aren't working as I was initially planning, I'm thinking I will change them to 1cm and 1d (degree) for extreme precision.
I've also been hunting for a 3D modeler to make better use of our Patreon funding, and should have new building pieces patched in in the near future. There are new Patreon goals setup, so please go check it out if you are interested in further supporting development. I'm already talking to some artists about adding original music to the game for next months Patreon spending.
This is definitely the first wave of this new tool and there may be some bugs. I've already found that leaving deconstruction mode (available in the general skills tab, the only way to remove freely placed building pieces) the "aimbox" doesn't clear properly, but it's only cosmetic and can be fixed by opening and closing the building interface. Just to be safe though I would recommend first testing the feature on new structures in case of a catastrophic error which could possibly render a structure unable to save. Just in case.
I have removed all forms of obstruction and attachment checks for "free" building pieces, and that might be best to leave things that way forever. We'll see how the system grows and if/how important that may be to building progression as a profession in the future.
v 0.5.6.0 2019.09.19
- Added building "free" mode
- Changed breath to require you to be slightly higher in water than before
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.
To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta. The beta is not available to 32-bit users.
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