Another update to cover some of the things currently being worked on for the alpha 0.14 update. There is a lot of new content in development and it's coming along very well. I wanted to focus on some additional details and changes that have occurred since the previous developer log.
Aquarium
As mentioned in the previous developer log I'm adding in the ability to grow fish for food. After getting the visuals setup for the fish tank I realized the tank looked a bit too small to represent proper food production. I still love the smaller tank, but I decided to create a new fish tank, called the aquarium, and will keep the smaller fish tank as a decorative item that can be placed anywhere. This is similar to how there are production crop objects as well as a plant pot for decoration. The aquarium will grow edible fish as well as bio-waste for generating botanical nutrients.
Machine Rosters
As part of allowing for more control of colonists activity, I'm working on the new machine roster system, as mentioned in the recent developer log. This new system will allow the players to setup a list of colonists that are allowed to work a given machine. The above image is a work in progress, but shows the new Colonist Roster section and management list.
The current plan on how the roster system affects the colonists is based on the following rules:
- A colonist will work at a machine with either an empty roster or a machine that has their name on it's roster list.
- A colonist will not work at a machine that has a roster list and their name isn't on the list.
Regular job role assignments still apply to what machines a colonist will work at, but an additional roster check will follow the above rules. By default a machine has an empty roster list which means it continues to work as it does now until you setup the roster list for that machine.
This allows for more control over what machines/objects a colonist can work at, especially when dealing with multiple machines/objects of the same type. For example, you could have two botanists that will only work certain crop fields by assigning them to the rosters of the crop fields you want them to work at. There is currently no planned preference for working roster assignments first. This means that a colonist is just as likely to work at a machine with an empty roster as they are to work at a machine that has a roster with their name on it.
Aeroponics Farm
The aeroponics farm is a higher level crop growing system that will grow crops faster as well as have improved yield. I'm still working on the process, but these machines, in addition to power/water, will require botanical nutrients when planting the crop. Botanical nutrients is a new item that is generated from bio-waste that comes from the aquarium when harvested. Certain crops can only be grown using the aeroponics farm. 5 new alien crops have been added in so far and there are more planned for the update.
Much of the development time right now is being spent on getting the core systems in place for some of the new content as well as the artwork for new items, crops and machines. Several new cooking recipes are also being added so that colonists can start eating a more varied diet.
Be sure to let me know what you think of some of the new content coming the next update.