Now live on the default build, version 0.2.0 brings in a lot of new features, as well as a complete rework of world generation. With each new development branch I try to find a balance between new content and improvements. This build includes several changes to my development workflow, increasing productivity, and making it much easier to add in more encounters or points of interest in the near future.
The new desert biome is the only "brand new" biome, though ocean, mountain, and grass biomes have also received a lot of attention. These biomes are intended to each be a source of different animals and plants for cooking and alchemy in the coming weeks. In the grass biome for example we now have lemon and orange trees, that once picked will regrow their fruit after two days in-game. This mechanism will also help with farming and the harvesting of crops in future updates.
In order to allow further options than just "harvest," I've added a "radial," or secondary action menu to harvestables via shift+interact. This allows you to choose for example, harvesting an orange tree for oranges, or chopping it down for wood.
Because of the scanning features added in recently I've also added a "harvest essence" option to uncommon+ resources. This allows you to guarantee being rewarded an essence, at the cost of destroying the node.
One problem with changing world generation in any game is that it usually requires us to start fresh. To cope with this I've added in two new features: world updating, and ley line teleporters.
World updating will scan through a saved world's files and mark all structures and solaces for repositioning. This way even though a lake may have turned into a desert and an open field into a mountain, the game will automatically attempt to adjust the placement of all player built structures. Unfortunately it does not guarantee that your house won't end up half inside of a steep hill, but it will keep them out of water, and is a better alternative than starting over completely in most cases.
Ley line teleporters were added in to ease the burden of travelling back out to distant locations in the event that a high level character chooses to start a new world. They are limited to the four directions of north, east, south, and west, but can send a player up to 100km away provided you've got the rare stone required to upgrade them.
Seven different armor sets were also added in as possible drops from fire elementals. Over the next few weeks I hope to be adding in a lot more content in the form of weapons, potions, enchants, skills, and cosmetic items, as the majority of the "base" systems are in and working.
Solace Crafting has certainly come a long way in just four months of full-time development, though there is still a lot to do! I am going to be working on a new video starting tomorrow and will be running a modest marketing campaign over the next few weeks in hopes of raising enough money to hire additional help. I have grown into a decent programmer, though am still far from becoming an expert.
A big thank you to everyone on Patreon supporting development monetarily. It makes a big difference, and I hope I'm able to attract more support in the coming weeks. Patreon support starts as low as 1$/month and can add up to a major source or funding!
The complete patch notes for v 0.2.0 are as follows:
v 0.2.0 - 2018.05.26
- Complete rework of world and biome generation
- Added a desert biome
- Added flora to the mountain biome
v 0.2.0a - 2018.05.29
- Added a radial menu, for now to harvestable resources, via shift+interact (default f)
- Essences (ie: Essence of Plant) can now be extracted from uncommon+ resources that have not been touched yet via the radial menu
- Added lemon and orange trees whose fruit can be harvested via the radial menu
- Fruit trees will bear fruit again after 48 hours game time (2 day cycles)
- Fixed map colors and improved them to blend
- Fixed barrel cacti rewarding lumber
- Gems from ore nodes are now the same rarity as the node itself
- Turned on desert large rock colliders
- Prevented spawning of resources inside big rocks
- Fixed a grass bug cause grassese/flowers to spawn too little or not at all in areas
- Reinstated speedtrees to the grass biome
- Harvesting skill upgrades are no longer limited by player level
v 0.2.0b - 2018.05.30
- Added facilities to player ground detection, meaning you can jump and walk on facilities now
- Added Ley Line Teleporter craftable facility
v 0.2.0b2 - 2018.05.31
- Fixed two ley line teleporter bugs teleporting you away for just getting close them
- Fixed certain facilities turning into campfires when picked up
v 0.2.0c - 2018.06.01
- Added 6 and a half new armor sets: Cleric, Fighter, Wanderer, Hunter, Chainmail, Knight, Guardian
- Fire elementals now always drop a fire essense and have a 50% chance to drop an unknown recipe
v 0.2.0d - 2018.06.04
- Added tower icons to the map + an X over cleared towers
- Added guardian boots and helmet to possible recipe drops
- Interfaces opened with Interact (default 'F') can now be closed with Interact
- Fixed a bug caused by long range teleportation that could cause resources, monsters, and things to not show up where they should be
- Fixed pieces of the guardian set and cleric set not showing on female characters
- Moved the unspent skill warning above other windows
v 0.2.0e - 2018.06.07
- Doubled the width of the compass
- Added a marker to the center of the compass
- Added day count to the left of the compass
- Added day time to the right of the compass
- Turned down the yellow flowers in the grass biome
- Added grass settings high, medium, low, and off
- Added additional data to character and world slots
- The character and world lists will now sort themselves with the most recently played first
v 0.2.0f - 2018.06.12
- Towers, monoliths, and large rocks, in that order, now have a safety zone around them that prevents things from spawning
- Towers and monoliths now have a flattened area around them
- The starter platform has a flattened area around it once again
- Scaled down large rocks to a max of 150m diameter for better overlap control
- Improved distant tower graphic placement
- Added a backup button to worlds
- Added an update button to worlds of an older version
- Fixed cacti and mountain trees not randomizing their scale and rotation
- Adjusted grass biome and mountain biome tree generation
v 0.2.0f2 - 2018.06.12
- Fixed a bug improperly placing distant towers
- Fixed a bug not clearing terrains before recycling causing out of place objects to float and distant towers to throw errors
v 0.2.0g - 2018.06.13
- Increased tower spawn chance from 25% per square kilometer to 100% (if above water)
- Fixed towers not generating themselves
- Fixed the facility upgrade interface breaking
- Thinned/spread out grass and mountain forests
- Separated grass and mountain forests more pointedly
- Fixed mountain trees from being able to spawn underwater where ocean and mountain biomes clash
- Further restricted mountain ferns and rocks to the mountain biome
- Now preventing resources from spawning on slopes greater than 50 degrees
v 0.2.0h - 2018.06.15
- Starter "Broken Solace" is now re-nameable and upgradeable, and will now start as "Solace"
- Buffs can now be removed by right clicking on them
- Town buildings now require population to construct
- Solace population can now be upgraded to Outpost (5), Settlement (10), and Town (15)
- Fixed fog on the foreground camera
- Fixed underwater opaqueness
- Fixed solace upgrades allowing you to spend more light than you have
- Fixed wooden obelisks shooting above demons
- Added more info to the map and solace defense warning box
- Removed missing icon placeholder from building recipes
- Reduced building recipe slot size and padding
- Adjusted lighting
- Removed player light
- Fixed the recipe selector hiding behind recipes when using the arrow key to select a recipe
- Fixed solace power indicator (building interface "show power" toggle) sizing and positioning issues
- Thanks to OndeTv for help with the power indicator particle system
- Power indicator now turns back on when opening the building interface if the toggle is active
- Added visual effect for heal
- Added visual effect control system for buffs with an and effect for the protect spell
- Fixed buffs not correctly applying benefits after reloading
v 0.2.0i - 2018.06.16
- Added torch to known recipes
- Added torch slot next to backpack slot in adventuring equipment with on/off toggle (if equipped)
- Increased global lighting during storms
- Added gamma slider to video options
v 0.2.0j - 2018.06.18
- Fixed errors brought up by canceling a buff
- Fixed two inventory errors caused during drop 1 and swapping
- Fixed an error caused by clicking craft with no recipe selected
- Added more rigorous checks/catches to terrain save/load methods
You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.