Hello!
Today I'm going to show off some stuff related to migrating and saving. I get quite a few comments regarding these two systems and how they can be improved. Especially the migrating system which is pretty much just a prototype in the game. The save system also needed an upgrade, not only because it didn't have that many features, but because I literally had to upgrade all the tech for it to make it so players are able to go back to settlements they've abandoned or been killed at.
Before I get into that stuff, a quick note on where this sisyphean update is at. I'm getting closer each day to being able to put this out into beta. This save system stuff slowed me down a bit because it's so complicated to save out a player's session based on information that spans the game, and individual tiles you settle. So, I still don't have any hard date to provide as for when the update can go into beta. Thank you for waiting so patiently.
Alright, first up, migrating. I'd say a large majority of Odd Realm's negative reviews/comments relate to migrating and how punishing/wonky it can be. Which sucks because I added it in as a fast solution to let players leave their current settlement, not to be the final product. And, because I had to start working on it to allow for the re-settling of tiles, I figured I'd dedicate some hours to fixing it up.
Here are the main changes:
- I've made it so the overworld works with the game's timescale. This means that all the overworld stuff will move along with your current settlement time. Later on in development, there will be hundreds of entities moving around the overworld, and their movement will determined by this moving game time. Need to request a merchant to stop by? It'll take 3 days of game time to send out a messenger, then have a merchant arrive. Or, at least, that's the vision. For now, because time passes while at this map, your migrating entities will also become hungry and thirsty based on this too. Which leads to the next point...
- The migrating party no longer uses some bespoke system of food management for survival. They use exactly what they would while walking around your settlement. So, Humans will, say, get hungry and thirsty over time, then try and eat and drink items that you've brought with you. This means that the game is waaaaay more forgiving whereas, before, you'd lose settlers super quick to starvation and such. You now have a lot of warning to tell you someone is starving and about to die, rather than having a random party member die. Which was annoying because it could have been someone super important to you.
- I've done a complete overhaul on the UI to let you easily edit your party members and their inventories.
- You can now toggle the overlays to hide/show FX and UI which might obfuscate your view of the terrain.
- You can now return to a settlement you had previously played. Every tile now saves out its information.
- Many of the player settings are saved to the game session rather than to individual tiles as they were previously. This means things like uniforms, room templates, diets, and tech trees are maintained as long as you keep playing the save file.
- Added a time menu to the overworld screen to help you control game time.
- Players no longer have permadeath and can play previous tiles.
- Added overworld indicators to show things like current player settlement, and migration party position.
These additions don't mean that the overworld map is done by any means. As I've mentioned before, I want to add a lot of things like interacting with other kingdoms and travelers through the overworld map. And I'll start adding those things in later updates. For now, this is a huge upgrade to more easily allow the movement on the map.
As for the save system, here's what's new there:
- Unlimited saving slots.
- More info: Date saved, realm name, nation, population, biome, seed, in-game date, and world dimensions.
- Preview window to show what your settlement looks like.
- Ability to delete saves.
Some things I'll need to add in the next update because I don't want to spend any more time on this. Things such as:
- Copy, duplicate, overwrite, general editing.
- More info about the nation. i.e., total settlements and currencies.
Save slots are now auto-created and the game will auto-save at midnight without you needing to select a slot. The save folder now shows slots as the realm name + session ID:
That's all for now. Thanks everyone for the support and patience. Hope you all have a nice weekend!
Waylon