This smaller-scoped update brings a bunch of smaller additions, changes and fixes. Mostly, I've added or changed various things based on player feedback.
The intent for the update was to do tasks that don't take more than a day or so (a rule I promptly broke). The sort of unrelated changes that are too small for their own update, but bloat feature-centric updates. I originally had the plan to do patches like these between larger updates (while taking a break from the sort of wide-scoped updates that the level generator rewrite was), but I ended just making larger updates even larger by bunching all the changes at once. I have since learned that this is not a good approach, as much as it might seem easier. Anyway, here is a bunch of... stuff.
Changes
The biggest change is the addition of a new variant of storage building - Mixed Storage. As the name implies, this building can store multiple types of items. It stores less of each item, but instead up to 3 different items:
As before, there are Warehouse, Granary and Barn variants, now in Small, Large and Mixed selection:
I also drew new sprites for the buildings themselves so they have some visual variety:
Building construction menu will now show the number of buildings already built in the world:
Buildings with auxiliary construction buttons will also show how many of those they have in range:
Mining Tools is now a separate tech:
Small, but technically challenging task - Butchers can now self-deliver Pigs - that is, units (like items) can now be self-delivered as inputs:
Tech tree tooltips now have a bunch more organization and explanation for what and how they unlock:
When selecting storage buildings, larger in-world HUD indicators now appear to show what item each storage holds so it's easier to see what is where:
This also applies to the new mixed - multiple item storage:
I changed villager shirt colors to match their main profession to make it easier to distinguish them - red for building workers/tradesmen, blue for carriers/idlers, orange for builders and gray for kids:
Houses now have even more minor clutter around them to add some visual variety:
Selected storage (for single-item storage buildings) can now be cleared:
Import Stations now have a button to drop items that no longer have incoming trade routes to allow easier management of items:
Villagers running along roads will now pick their lane (right side) of the road to run along, so that opposite "traffic" doesn't overlap, making is visually cleaner:
Villagers returning from export-import routes will now actually bring the empty cart back (this was a super-important critical immersion breaking bug fix haha):
I removed the "sub-toggle" production buttons from auxiliary construction and placed them as a separate obvious row:
I also significantly raised worker self-delivery weight, meaning that workers are way more likely to get their items themselves instead of waiting for a carrier. This is liable to somewhat disrupt existing villages - it's really impossible for me to predict this. But after seeing a lot of save games and feedback, it seems that in general players more often have carrier shortages than excess idlers. And I suppose it's more important to resolve problems during shortages than to worry about minor balance during "normal" times. Ideally, I would make a slider for this to have some sort of "low, medium, high" self-delivery preference, but I am not sure if I want to add another layer of complexity to this (considering there are dozens of variables that could be tweaked like this).
And a bunch of other tiny changes and fixes.
Future plans
Serious big picture time. The game has been in development for 5 years now. Barring various personal reasons, I have worked on this full-time when possible. I've taken a few breaks here and there, but it's my only project where I'm doing everything as a one-man team. This is both incredibly difficult and impossible to stay motivated and not burn out. There are still so many things I want to add and improve, but at some point I have to pick between working on it forever with diminishing returns or actually finishing the game. So the plan is to move towards the 1.0 release and to properly publish the game. Of course, this was the plan all along, but I was never in a hurry to get there. The game slowly changed from "small prototype" to something closer to a "dream game" for me, so I just couldn't "abandon" it. But to be fair, the game was more complete in its second year of early access than most games ever are. I could more or less transition from EA to 1.0 at any point, because the game is perfectly playable as a sandbox village builder. At this point, it's more about my own expectations of what a "finished MicroTown" is supposed to look like. I know there are players that would like to see many more features. And there are certain things I really wish to add still. Anyway, this is all to say that I have taken careful consideration of my plans and priorities. I am aware how easy games can go from EA to abandonware and this is the last thing I want to happen.
That said, the rarest and most precious resource for any solo project is motivation. Frankly, I surpassed all my own expectations to have worked on this project for so long and not given up. But there's a limit to this and I'm approaching a point where I get less work done than if I just took a long break and came back with a fresh outlook. In hindsight, I should have done this 2-3 years ago and then probably every year. So that's sort of what I'm going to do now. Instead of forcing myself to do barely any work at all on MicroTown, I'll focus on something else and come back in a few months with a fresh batch of motivation. (Of course, I'm still around - answering questions, monitoring feedback, fixing bugs, etc.)
There are several big features still remaining that I think are required for the game to be complete: endgame trading and resource sinks, monument expansion to world wonders, and some sort of scenario/campaign mode. This is all several posts worth of details, so I won't expand on it all here. But in short, the game lacks play time, goals and larger game loops. So those are the primary future tasks.
Full changelog
Changes
• Add storage buildings for mixed item use - up to 3 items - Mixed Granary, Mixed Barn, and Mixed Warehouse
• Merge storage building HUD item display and item selection rows into a single row, new mixed storage is also a single row
• Villagers now have different shirt colors based on their occupation - blue for carriers, red for building workers, orange for builders, and gray for children and unassigned (i.e. dead)
• Selecting or building a storage building displays stored item icons above all the storage buildings in the world
• Group tech button tooltip's unlocked entries hierarchically and add additional labels explaining their "role" as well as notes like "already unlocked" and "also requires" for other techs
• Export Station workers returning from a route will bring the cart back
• Buildings with auxiliary toggles (Gardener, Farm, Paddy Farm and Ranch) now use "full" per-item/unit production toggles instead
• Villagers will now run slightly to the side of the mid-tile trajectory so villagers running in opposite directions won't "collide" as much visually
• Storage building item selection popup now allows clearing the stored item
• Stonecutter will now show an issue warning if missing Deposits
• Add "clear unused items" button to Import Station selection HUD to remove item stacks that don't have incoming routes
• Construction menu buttons will now show the counter of buildings in the world
• Building HUD inspection auxiliary construction buttons will now show the counter of available auxiliaries for that building
• Building HUD inspection production toggle buttons can be Shift-clicked to toggle production to only include the specified target
• Add more visual decals to Houses - random boxes and tools
• Patch notes window now lists major update numbers and names
• Removed starting Stockpile storage
• Items on the ground will now show as stacked items (same as in buildings)
• Forester won't have Wattle Sapling enabled by default (when Leatherworking is unlocked)
• Change sprites for inspection HUD buttons that toggle (I.e. have on/off states) to differentiate them from single-press buttons
• Building workers can now self-deliver input units (i.e. Butcher can bring Pigs)
• Item selection popup window will disable button that aren't usable/selectable
• Add separate Mining Tools tech for unlocking Mining Tools
• Workers will perform prop operations from random direction (left/right), e.g. tree cutting
Fixes
• In-world icons are now properly depth-sorted (e.g. Markers)
• Lumberjack would not show an issue for missing Trees when matching them against the toggled production
• Disabling sold item in a Shop would not prevent it being brought by workers from storage building and Import Stations
• Goal HUD expanding too far with many goals and overlapping operation/window button menu; added scroll bar
• Roast shown as unlocked with Fishing
• Kids would not idle around the correct buildings (would idle near adult-preferred locations)
• Crossing independent tech panel arrow lines won't "bleed" status color on each other
• Fix building inspection crop growth tooltip misaligned text
• Shift-copying a building for construction would not copy production item/unit toggles
• Rare bug where a fish near world edge would cause an error
• Boardwalks not buildable on new tile types - Beach and mineral-based Rocks - e.g. Coal Vein and Excavated Coal Vein
• Smith would unlock with Quarrying, but not having Smelting would mean it cannot produce anything
• Workers would fail to work on props too close to the coastline, e.g. lumberjacks couldn't collect felled trees and would get stuck waiting forever
• Lime Mine not collecting Lime
Balancing
• Increase worker self-delivery weight, making workers way more likely to self-deliver items
Optimizations
• Many items on top of each other on the ground won't be rendered repeatedly
• Faster lookup of tiles for idling units
Rudy
Snowy Ash Games