Developer Log #3

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on some new world generation as well as a new crafting system. I can’t seem to make up my mind when it comes to the world generation, but it’s a pretty important aspect related to the starting conditions of the game.

 

Starting Conditions

After reviewing a bunch of information related to what I have and what I originally intended, I realized that my initial plan for starting wasn’t going to work. The game has just naturally evolved in a different, and better, direction than where I started with my design document.

I originally wanted the game to start with only 1 colonist and grow from there, but given the way professions, and the new crafting system, work, it would mean a lot of micromanagement juggling on the part of the player. While the initial part of the game should be fun and exciting, I don’t think juggling professions is what I had in mind. This means that the starting condition will need at least 2 or 3 colonists as well as basic starting supplies. This is fairly standard for this kind of game and, after evaluating the other aspects of the game, is not a place I need to be unique.

 

World Generation

I keep poking at the world generation code to make it a bit more configurable. I did finally add in a world generation screen so that I can test various seed values. I keep bouncing back and forth between heightmaps and cellular automata. The latest iteration of the world generation is using layered cellular automata which I’m using for ore distribution. There is now iron ore, copper ore and anthracite in the map. There is also a nice mix of caves, but I still have to add water back in.

 

 

 

 

Crafting

In an effort to better unify the crafting system I re-wrote the whole thing. After setting up crafting for the cook station I realized that cooking and smelting worked differently. Ideally I wanted a better way to handle crafting in general that was more consistent across all stations.

 

The new system is more simple and straight forward, but allows for more management. Each craft station has recipes that can be queued up for crafting. Once a recipe is queued for crafting the appropriate colonist, based on profession, will gather the materials and craft the item at the station. The colonist will repeat this for however many is in the crafting queue for that station.

 

This means all craft stations work the same, but have different recipes. It also lead to a new profession. I’m also planning for additional recipes, for existing stations, to get unlocked via research.