Howdy Pioneers!
A huge thanks for all the support and feedback. There are a lot of things on my to-do list, but I wanted to go over some of the targeted content for the next update and beyond.
Discovery Interface
The discoveries interface is undergoing a bit of a face lift. I added quite a few new discovery items in Alpha 0.15, and I plan to add quite a few more. I'm updating the interface to be a bit cleaner and more functional.
Discovery items will be listed on the left, grouped by category. Categories can be opened and closed to more easily find discovery items you're looking for. New discoveries will be highlighted in yellow so they are also easier to find. Category headers will show the category’s completion percentage, as discovery items will no longer show until they've been found. The category percentage will indicate whether more discoveries are available, or if the category is completed.
Improved Craft Queue
Something that has been on my to-do list for a while is improving the craft queue system. The current system doesn't offer much control, and its operation is confusing to some new users. The updated craft queue system will allow you to manage item orders.
Item orders can be setup to craft a certain number of items, or only to craft the item if there are fewer than a certain number of the item available. Instead of setting an item to infinite quantity, as in the previous system, you can set how many you want to keep in stock. If there are more items than the desired number you've set, the colonists won't craft the item again until the inventory drops below the set number. Item orders can also be paused and resumed at any time.
The sequence that items are crafted in still uses the round-robin method. Colonists will craft one of the first item, then one of the second item, and so on, until all item orders are complete.
Equipment Items
While working on the vehicle system for planetary exploration, I had planned to add vehicle upgrades. While that plan has not changed, the scope of it has increased to allow for a wider range of upgrade items. This new system will allow the creation and discovery of equipment items that can be installed into vehicles, colonists and machines to affect them in various ways. Machine equipment, for example, can't be equipped by a colonist.
Vehicle equipment will offer improvements such as faster movement speed, faster mining, the ability to cross water/mountains and more. Equipment for objects will affect power consumption, decor rating, double output for craft stations and more. Colonist equipment will improve various attributes.
I'm still hammering out the details of how this system will integrate into the game. I've made some good progress and this will add many more items to craft and find.
Surface Map Points Of Interest
A big item on the to-do list is to add more exploration opportunities to the surface map. Points of interest, or POIs, will be locations on the map that can be further investigated. POIs will need to be scanned by a DOGE and, in various cases, will need to be further investigated by an expedition party of colonists. POI investigations will function as mini stories/events that will offer the player a choice about how to handle them. The results will be positive or negative, depending on the player’s expedition party and choices.
This is a system I'm very excited about, as it will add more story content, as well as more ways to get rare loot and discoveries.
Game Events
Game events will add more flavor with positive and negative colonist and world events that are randomly triggered. This is something I've been wanting to add to the game for a long time, but I wanted to avoid completely random events that they player may find frustrating. Events can affect the world, such as crop disease, or affect a specific colonist, such as a stress reduction for a given time.
I'm very excited about the new content in development. Some of the features mentioned above won't make it into Alpha 0.17, but there is some great content coming. Be sure to let me know what you think of the new content in development.
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