Hello! The current patch I'm working on is taking a bit longer than usual so I wanted to give players a status update.
Problem that needs solving
A core part of Factory Town gameplay is about transporting raw materials and goods around the map to keep your supply chains running at full speed. But the way the game handles spawning & placement of natural resources doesn't really work well for that purpose.
Fig. 1: A mess.
Currently, the map generation uses a random function for each resource that determines where patches will spawn and how big they are. But the way it works is a bit too random - you might have huge fields of carrots, or a tiny patch of just 1 or two. You might have a map that is totally missing some key resource, or it might be too far away from the starting area to be useful. And resources overall are so plentiful and crowded that players wind up bulldozing most of them.
Furthermore, once you get a basic Farming or Mining setup the natural resource spawns become completely irrelevant. You can place a full grid of any crop you want anywhere on the map, or Prospect for any mineral in any location. I want to give players creative freedom for sure - especially in the late game stage - but letting players generate whatever resource they want in any location means that many of the interesting tools for long distance transport (Trains, Minecarts, Packagers, etc) don't have a strong reason to use them.
Attempted solution
Both of these problems need to be solved together - if I limit the ability to place crops, but the natural resource generation is subpar, then the game would just be frustrating. Or I could greatly improve resource spawning, but if players can just bulldoze them & rebuild wherever they want, it's wasted effort. So, I am planning on addressing them both in this patch.
For one, I have rebuilt the resource generation algorithm from scratch. Instead of each resource having an independent random function, the game performs a first pass to determine where generic resource 'spawn zones' should be located. This helps me guarantee a good concentration of resources near the base, and spread them out as you get farther away. Then a second pass determines what resource should actually be assigned to those zones, and how big those zones should be.
Fig. 2: Generic resource zones before they are assigned a specific item.
This gives me very tight control over which types of resources spawn based on their location on the map - for instance, I can guarantee that the closest resource patch is always Wood, and the next one is always Grain. I can make sure that a certain resource is chosen if there isn't enough of that resource on the map. And I can independently control the size of resource patches and its frequency - so I can guarantee that Gold Ore is rare, always shows up in small patches, but still has enough locations on the map.
Fig. 3: How things are looking now (note that patches are more spread out and reasonably sized).
The second big change is to add 'specialty' or 'affinity' zones that are better at growing certain types of crops. By default these zones will show up where resources have naturally spawned on the map. You'll probably be able to change terrain crop affinity over time, but it'll either be very slow or very expensive.
Similar changes will occur with underground mining - you won't be able to prospect for any ore at any location, but the map will do a better job of creating a good balanced set of patches.
My hope with these changes is that resource availability will be more consistent and fair, natural resource patches will be more meaningful and valuable, players will have much more room to build without having to bulldoze a bunch of potatoes, and will have to think a bit harder about how to move resources around the map.
(A caveat to all this - I plan to allow more flexibility around this stuff in the late game stage, and also make it optional in case players like the total freedom of the old method.)
There's a bunch of other stuff too - some new resources, recipes, and buildings will be available. My guess is another week or two before it's all ready.
Cheers!
Erik