Alpha 4 is now available! This will be the last free alpha release, the basic gameplay loop/functionality is established and it's time to move on to the next stage. Thank you to everyone who has given feedback so far, you've been a great help in shaping the game. There's much more to do of course, and I will keep posting regular news updates.
Major changes:
- New designation system - Lots of experimenting went on with the designation system. I was finding the current system for marking trees to cut, water sources to use, etc inadequate. It required too much clicking and didn't suit the nature of the game. After a few failed attempts I went with a left-click-and-drag system, where the player can designate areas and tasks in any shape they want. To accommodate this, I had to change the previous left-click-and-drag to scroll the map to right-click-and-drag to scroll. A small annoyance, but I think it was worth it.
- First step towards shaders - The day/night cycle lighting changes were previously "faked", meaning I just drew a completely black sprite over the screen and adjusted the transparency depending on time of day. This was a problem because I couldn't make the areas where fires were burning brighter. I've switched to using shaders for lighting changes now, which should allow for more flexibility in the future.
- Pierce and slash damage - Animals now have individual pierce and slash damage values (e.g mammoths deal massive pierce damage while lions deal moderate pierce and slash damage). Clothing protection for each type of damage works properly now as well. It's based on the body part hit so a helmet will only reduce damage if the head is struck.
- Doubled length of 24-hour cycle - What a difference this makes! It feels like a better pacing and now when I reach winter, I am actually worried where the next meal will come from.
Other changes:
- First step towards animation - fires now flicker
- Options menu changes now saved on game exit
- Autosave function added to help with bug reporting (can be set to autosave every minute)
- Fixed zooming in/out causing most UI elements to zoom as well
- More tweaks to aggression system
- Snare traps working - immobilises animals
- Fixed music not looping
- Bug fixes
I want to call the player's tribe members something else besides "tribe members", but not sure what... Pokkians? Pokkers? That sounds a bit rude. Open for suggestions.
Such an interesting game concept reiteration, would love to try it out. As for the tribe member name suggestions, Pokkites, Pokkans, or simply just Poks.
I don't know why I didn't think of just Poks, nice and simple. Thanks for the suggestion