Howdy Folks!

So it has come to my attention that there are a few issues with the new scheduling system. After running some tests, the colonist schedules are a bit too rigid. Colonists are not performing work actions during sleep/recreation times even if their needs have been met. This leads to a bit too much time where colonists are just wandering around aimlessly even though they could or should be performing work related tasks.

This patch update adds in some changes to how colonist schedules function to help make your colonists a bit more efficient. This should also help alleviate some confusion on why colonists aren’t doing their jobs.

Thanks for all the great feedback and bug reports. Certainly let me know of any issues with this latest update.

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Release Notes

Changes

• Sleep/Recreation periods increase priority of eating/sleeping, but now also allow for work actions if needs are met.
• Improved text quality of colonist and research subheader buttons
• Pinned inventory item tooltip now displays total count
• Robots now have a separate attribute handler. Any mod changes to GDColonist data will have to be updated.
• Robots now move at 50% speed when power is low or empty
• Changed formatting of shortened forms of long numbers to display only one decimal place. Example: 10.23k will now display as 10.2k
• Changed how text is displayed in story windows

Fixes

• Fixed: Pinned inventory items not displaying icon
• Fixed: Pinned inventory items not displaying text correctly
• Fixed: Robots idle during sleep/recreation/training periods

Howdy Folks!

The latest update focused primarily on content related to the facility. The next content update will shift focus to additional surface expansion, primary campaign goals and perhaps a bit more.

Update 30 Survey

If you have a few minutes and want to let me know what you think of the game and what you’re most interested in about it, then be sure to check out the survey link below.

Update 30 Feedback Survey

Objectives

The game is currently a bit of an open-ended sandbox. My plan has always been to include more story content as well as an overall goal to the game. This is something I’ve been working on for a long time and it’s now ready for some implementation. I’m currently working on a new mission system that will replace the getting started guide and add many new missions to direct the player towards story goals.

Missions will provide more information as well as trackable objectives. Missions will be used to guide the player toward story goals as well as provide, in some instances, new rewards.

I’m also looking into adding smaller side missions that would be generated by colonists. Colonists could make requests such as wanting a functional kitchen, an assigned bed etc.. These side missions could result in various rewards or positive/negative results depending on user choices.

Story Content

While I have a story system in place that is primarily used for expeditions, this system didn’t have a very good front end for creating these stories. Up to this point I’ve been writing content in a word processor and then manually setting up all of the functional data for a story to work in-game. This resulted in a few problems:

1. Stunted content: Due to not being able to see how a story segment flowed lead to writing shorter content with fewer options.
2. Errors: Manually setting up the data was more prone to errors from user input
3. Slower iteration: Testing stories was slower as I had to set up the data, load it in, test and repeat.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve completed a dedicated story editor to solve these issues.

With the new story editor, I can easily view the flow of a story, it’s less error prone in terms of having correct data structure and I quickly test a story to see how it’s working. An additional benefit is that modders will be able to use this tool to create story content as well.

Using the new story editor, I’ll be able to create story content much more quickly and easily for future releases. This means you’ll get more story content, as well as stories with more choices and depth.

The next update will focus on adding the first chapter of the primary campaign. This will include new expeditions, discoveries, research and surface side structures. Much of this is still being worked on so, unfortunately, I can’t go into too much detail on exactly what will be included. What I can say is that there are some big changes and additions in development. More information will be available as development continues.

Thank you, everyone, for the great feedback and support.

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