Daniel suggested that I should pick out some of the juicier fixes and additions from the change log of our latest internal test build and talk about them; it’s also probably instructive to show some of the feedback. Our internal test build of Clockwork Empires is now on Revision 18. We usually do builds about once a week, but this week we had to do an Old-Timey Dredmor-Style Hotfix for Revision 18 because it introduced a bug where people kept spastically trying to pick up and put down shovels, and so now we are at Revision 18A. Some edited highlights:
- The dodo is back in again. Yes! It now eats all your crops, but it doesn’t get stuck in a berry bush; additionally, hunting work crews will pick up any weapon that is suitable for them and will then go off and create a hideous, bloody dodo flesh massacre. This leads to enormous piles of dodo corpses lying around, including being found in houses and on the steps of upper class houses. Currently, you cannot do anything with a dodo corpse. (You now receive two Dodo Drumsticks if you butcher the corpse -David)
Dodos: The least dangerous game.
Some long standing bugs in the roof code have been fixed, which now enables us to produce exciting, old-timey structures like this:
Basically the Steampunk Winchester Mystery House. NOTE: Gaslamp Games is not affiliated any known Houses of Mystery.
- Also, as you will see, we cleared the distortion of textures on the roof up, and can now have structures with this sort of a layout (nicknamed “The Yogs Castle” in our bugtracker, as it was the Yogscast guys at GDC who first created it and managed to blow up the building code):
The Yogcastle.
Inside the building… why, it’s a dinner party:
“All we’ve got is this horrible bread left over from the journey from The Capital.”
Thanks to the new module code, chairs now work from a variety of positions, although we still have to do connecting logic to make the interaction between chairs and tables work better. Typically, players create a table and immediately surround it with four chairs; the work crews build the chairs, then are totally unable to build the table as there’s chairs in the way.
- We are starting to put mining back in. Previously, mining has been accomplished via stand-alone mineshafts; the new plan moving forward is that a mine is a building like any other, with mineshafts being part of that. You can additionally upgrade it with things like water pumps and steam distributors so that your loyal citizens may dig faster, further, and deeper.
Now we just need some volunteers to go down in it.
Much of what needs to be done now comes under the heading of “stuff I have put off for as long as humanly possible, but now have to do”: new road rendering code, finishing my part of the save game system, reliable job interrupts (eating can interrupt a job, attacking can interrupt eating, eating cannot interrupt attacking, etc.), and adding the ability to place modules in the corners of buildings. On top of this, there’s pile of obscure bugs and small bits of polish left to do, and putting in some more fun tonal details before we’re ready with an early access build.
Alea jacta est!
Now I want to pen dodos for a Dodo Petting Zoo.
The buildings remind me of the first Sims game. Hopefully you can add windows onto those bare walls later. I want to ensure that my loyal cannon fodder are able to have a nice view of both the dazzling shoreline and the Hovering Orb That Appears Once Every Full Moon.
You can add all sorts of things to the walls, including windows! We’ve got such plans… oh yes, such plans…
Pictures of llamas?
Oh come now, llamas? Diggles surely
Can we have cannons on the other side of the windows? ie: fortified canon towers?
Hmm…. can we have multiple levels inside a building to make said towers…. that would be really nice.
Ooh! ooh! ooh! Can we drop captured enemies off the towers into the canons and shoot them at attacking enemies?! (that would be amazing! unexpected, possibly unrealistic, but amazing nonetheless)
Purportedly dodos tasted foul. They were mostly killed for “sport” (though what sport there is hunting something that walks up to you I don’t know) and by imported animals.
it pains me how much I need this game in my life.
When the player designated ‘Daniel’ SAYS something should be done, other players must bicker over picayune details while completing the project. When Daniel SUGGESTS something must be done, it is to be done immediately or the failing player is Out.
nice so i hope i can play very soon 🙂
That picture outside the house looks like a proposition.
“Bed?”
“:D”
Unbeknownst to him, he’s about to sacrificed to Cthulu or…roped into a dinner party. The horror!
I’ve always wanted to shoot a dodo.
You are making my dreams come true.
In Latin it’s spelled “Alea iacta est” with an “i”. The “j” is only part of the phonics of it. Albeit, ancient romans weren’t too picky with the spelling of most things, often using abbreviations as well. But, this is of course a quote by Caesar and recorded by scholars.
On a more related note, I find that the jagged edges are a bit too obvious. Of course it’s nitpicking but higher resolution would be nice.
I wonder if it’d be possible to tame and construct an army of Dodo birds.
Will buildings eventually be multi-storied?
Just waiting for one of those modules to be some Diggle or Lord Dredmor repellent spray for when it inevitably turns out the town was built on top of an ancient dungeon and they dig too deep.
Digging too deep is the only thing mines are for as far as I can tell.
So wait, what ARE the rules for Daniel Says?
All the best civilizations have been built upon the piled corpses of dodo.
Silly suggestion: It would be cool if there was a small chance that, when you inevitably dug too deep, diggles would come flooding from the mining shaft.
Or tentacles. Your choice.
Any chance of having multiple floors in a building? That may help with building space too.
On another note, does food expire?
Regarding Dodos: Can we use the feathers for something too? Like hats? Or to tickle people with?
If your colony progresses through the years can you see your colonist families evolve like the first family’s who settle in your colony, can you see their future generations .
I’ve always wondered what Dodo would have tasted like.