Hey everyone!
I have some news for today's dev log that I'm so excited to share with you all.
A lot of people have requested that they be able to change two settings for the game:
-Overworld map size.
-In-game map size.
I had held off changing the game to allow this because the defined map size was deeply tied to so many integral systems. This means that changing anything even remotely tied to this would result in adding a lot of work to my plate and further pushing out the update release. As well, increasing the map size introduced problems with the cost of pathfinding which, at the time, I didn't have a solution for.
I had planned on tackling this change in the next update because I've made you poor souls wait almost a year for this update and you've all been so patient with me. However, one issue with me changing the map size is that I can't easily maintain backwards compatibility for your save files. Players would have to start a new game. That said, I'd rather players make new saves for this version, a version so different you'd probably do so anyway, instead of the next, where you'll likely be more invested in the file you've put so much work into. I *hate* having to make you start a new game, so I apologize for that.
So, long story short, I've spent the last four weeks implementing the variable map sizes and you can now select from the following options when you start a new game:
Overworld map sizes:
- Tiny 64x64
- Small 80x80
- Medium 96x96 (Default)
- Large 112x112
Settlement sizes:
- Tiny 32x32x64
- Small 64x64x64
- Medium 128x128x64 (Default)
- Large 256x256x64
As well as these new options, I've totally updated how players exist in the 'Realm'. My intention as I go along in development is to have players forming their own faction, and having that as an entity on the overworld map which other factions will engage with. The first factions you'll see are nothing new: Humans, Ancients, Ardyn, Gwdir, and Tomek. Later I will be changing this to fit with the actual lore behind the game where factions can have one race or multiple races, as well as diverse relationships. So, you could have multiple human factions to select from as an example. As well, I want to give players the option of making their own from scratch, but this stuff will come in a later update because factions rely on the other races being implemented. But, the idea is you'll be able to create a faction with Ancients and Humans, for example. Anyway, this stuff is a ways out but I'm excited to share my plans with you all.
I've also updated the overworld map UI to be way more functional. Things like being able to zoom in and out and see which tile you're hovering over on top of a full UI pass for all the windows to clean them up and make them easier to understand.
Plus, you'll now be able to settle tiles which you had a game over at. If you do so, the map will be slightly degraded and overgrown to show that it was abandoned for some time. In the future, there will also be some fun events special for this type of settlement.
Oh, and settling on a friendly faction tile will now give you control of the entities and items at that tile. It's a cheeky way of starting the game out with some advantages, but I don't see a reason to keep players from doing this. Settling on a hostile faction will, of course, still have them attack you.
The last thing I wanted to talk about is that I've added a new biome variation call, 'hills'. Technically, I'm adding a 'plains' variation but visually you'll see a new hill tile. A lot of players have requested flatter maps, so that's now an option.
Ok, so with all that out on the table, I do want to say thanks for all the kind words you write in response to these. You folks are so patient and awesome and I'm happy to have a community like you. The update has a ways yet to go before it can be released, but I hope these dev logs give you an Idea of where I'm at and that I'm passionately working away.
Also, special shout out to one of our community members, Morin, for updating Odd Realm's wiki page. You are doing amazing work and I thank you and anyone else that has been working on it. :)
Thanks and have a great week!