Accepting a feature in your game is fundamentally flawed is a tough pill to swallow. However part of the joys of open development is being able to iterate on features in an attempt to deliver a better game at the end. So what is this wonderful feature in question? Crafting.
The current crafting system in place is quite clunky, confusing, cumbersome, and not only poorly documented but also poorly presented. There is no need for such a system in a city-management game such as SoR. Well it's about high time we stopped living in denial and started reworking the system.
We wanted to create a crafting system that was easy to use and understand right from the get-go. One that would be more functional and make more sense in a city-management game like SoR.
I suppose we should break down what your seeing.
Top: The item being crafted.
The end result when requirements for Middle and Bottom have been met. Whether it be chair, wall, trap, or mushroom soup. In this particular case a sandwich.
Middle: Materials required to make said item.
Sandwiches just don't form out of thin air. Bread, lettuce, and ham are required to make a proper sandwich.
Bottom: Prerequisite required before item can be created.
These can be require a certain item built, specific job, or tools required to to bring all our ingredients and turn it into a sandwich. In this wonderful example, kitchen stove and a Grand Master Chief.
Once all the prerequisite are complete you guys should end up with a wonderful ham and lettuce sandwich for consumption. Unfortunately for you guys Dwarven women don't exist soooo... sandwiches are a logical impossibility within SoR.
To further go into more detail we settled down on a more traditional list system. You'll be able to navigate through a wonderful designed menu and see what items you can create and place in the game world.
We imagined it would look something very similar to this...
Players should be able to navigate easily and efficiently through the interface. Craftable items are organized into categories and can be added to the quick-slot bar below.
If a player is short on materials a red outline will indicate which material the player does not have enough of.
With certain items on the list being locked until requirements are met. In this case an Expert Carpenter is needed to unlock reinforced chest.
Redoing crafting in this fashion will take quite some time. However we feel this is a much better approach to constructing items then our previous approach and will hopefully make SoR feel more like a game. To get this implemented this means features such as stockpiling will have to be implemented before starting work on the new crafting system.
Half the fun of still being early in development is being able to iterate and drastically change game mechanics. Although you guys are usually much smarter than us when it comes to how the game should function so we would love to hear your opinions on what you think of this new system. More importantly if you guys have any feedback on what we can improve on or what we should implement we will more than gladly listen!
So now that's all thoroughly(?) explained let's move on to This weeks update. We have implemented dwarf jobs, stats, and inventory finally into the game!
-Added 'Stats' for Dwarfs.
-Added 'Equipment' for Dwarfs.
-Added Jobs UI.
-Added 'Pause' button.
Also because flying pigs were soooo last year... and the fuel for their jet-packs were quite expensive we thought we should celebrate the 'Year of the Dragon' in style. So whether you feel it's your destiny to rid the world of these terrifying beats or your dream soar across the skies on the back of these majestic creatures we are letting you do just that!
Unfortunately we won't be giving away these little guys like we did with our pigs! (Dragons are quite difficult to catch.) However we will be supplying Dragon Capture AND Slaying Kits for this year! So get 'em while they last! And believe you me, if these things are anywhere near as popular as our flying pigs you'll want to grab them fast before we end up packing our kits with rope and sticks.
And of course as everyone knows this would not be a proper Alpha release news post without a wonderful new Dwarven Parenting!
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