March 2019 – Correcture Games

Atmocity progress update #28

March 24, 2019 Dispersing Minds

Hello!

The latest version will go up in a few hours and features quite a few new things:

V 0.48 Change log

– Nano structures plant implemented. Creates nano structures required for the top density buildings.

– Advanced circuitry plant implemented. Creates advanced circuits used for complex machinery.

– Complex machinery plant implemented. Creates complex machinery used in hospitals, the nuclear waste storage facility among other buildings.

This means all resources meant for the Early Access release version have been implemented. More resources might come post EA-release.

– University building implemented. Adds a city wide education bonus.

– Theatre building implemented.

– Movement option to shift camera up or down has been added – CTRL + W/UpArrow to shift upwards, CTRL + S/DownArrow to shift downwards.

– EA release welfare programs implemented. More tweaks to come in the following versions.

– EA release discrete policy options are all implemented and functional. These will be tweaked in upcoming versions.

– Music implemented. Currently it only shuffles the tracks. The system to trigger music based on events is in the works.

– Spanish localization updated.

– Budget calculation errors have been fixed.

Aside from the above, a handful of minor issues have been fixed.

I’m closing in on finishing all the buildings meant for the EA-release of the game. The remaining ones that will be finished in the upcoming few weeks are the atmoport and the vactrainstation.

The University is used to increase education levels across the city. They don’t need to be built next to specific buildings or anything.

The Theatre building is required to keep upper class citizens happy. In future versions, theatres will produce culture, which will be used to increase happiness across the city.

The nano structures plant produces nano structures that in future versions will be required to get the top density residential and commercial buildings.

Complex machinery is used in nuclear waste storage facilities, hospitals and in future versions is required for high tech industry.

Finishing off the production buildings set is the advanced circuitry plant, which produces components for use in the complex machinery production plant.

There’s been a lot of work put into value calculations, specifically into the discrete policy options added into the game recently. All of the policies now affect values in the game, from electricity consumption to health and education values.

This will receive further tweaks in the upcoming version, as the policies need to be balanced in cost and effect.

Music has also been added into the game finally. The music has been composed by Joshua Szweda and in my opinion fits the mood and theme of the game perfectly!

Currently the music is just randomized, but there will be a mode where tracks are picked based on context. Like if there’s an economic downturn etc. Currently, the system works, but the tracks are not linked to the events yet.

In the upcoming few weeks, aside from working on tweaks and balancing, I’ll be working on the vactrain system and implementing achievements into the game.

Atmocity devlog #27

March 17, 2019 Dispersing Minds

Hello!

Short entry this week, as I’ve mostly done fixes for minor issues (not really news worthy).

First bit of news is that I’ve postponed the release of the game by one month (from april to may). This is due to an overall heavy workload, but also because I want things to be really well functioning and polished when the game releases into Early Access. This grants me some extra time to add a good deal of fine tuning and polish.

I’m in the process of finishing up the last few buildings. The nuclear power plant has been finished:

The nuclear power plant outputs a lot of electricity at a fairly decent cost, but it also outputs spent fuel that needs to either be stored, or neutralized. The storage facility (second from the right) and the neutralizer (right) can be seen here:

Most of the remaining buildings will most likely be done next week and will mean I finish up resource production and education. The vactrain station includes a lot of new code, so that will be done after next week.

Overall, things are coming together, but as the delay suggest, a bit slower than I would have wanted. But I’d rather release a stable game than an unstable one. 🙂

Atmocity devlog – Entry 26

March 10, 2019 Dispersing Minds

Hello!

The 0.47 version will be up shortly!

Changelog V0.47

New features:

– Food processing plant added.

– Cisterns and water treatment plants added. This allows storage of water and cleaning ”used” water.

– Recycling center and trash incinerator buildings added.

– Trash “resource” added.

– Board of citizens added. When the city has more than 10k citizens, citizens will form a group that will make requests and demands similar to those of conglomerates (lower taxes, better services etc.). This will be expanded upon in future updates.

– Nuclear waste storage facility added.

Changed UI/UX:

– Issue where hologram shader would be nearly fully transparent when seen from certain angles fixed.

Glitches/Bugs/Poor optimizations fixed:

– Threads moved to background threads to avoid garbage production upon starting the calculation and connectivity threads.

– Bug where vicinity check fails when building “bads” on the other side of blocks fixed. (Thanks to RedEventStudios for finding this issue!)

– Bug where roads built in the corner between two blocks would not connect to the rest of the road system fixed. (Thanks to TheGeekCupboard for this obscure discovery!)

– Bug where bugs built in the corner between two blocks would cause blocks to not be demolishable fixed.

– Worldsize variable added to templates.

Other changes:

– Crime calculations changed.

– French translation implemented. The translation is somewhat incomplete, so some text elements are missing.

– Spanish translation updated.

Known issues:

– Roads cannot be built facing other roads when the distance is only one grid unity wide. (fix scheduled for v. 0.48).

– Spanish translation missing a few text elements (scheduled for v. 0.48).

– Decoration tile causes a null reference error (fix scheduled for v. 0.48).

Pushed to later update (an outtake):

– Quicksaves (scheduled for v. 0.48).

– Additional concrete foundations, fancier concrete foundations.

– Fix for sun (currently breaks on build…) (scheduled for v. 0.48).

– Russian localization implemented (scheduled for v. 0.48).

– German localization (scheduled for v. 0.48).

– Nuclear power plant (scheduled for v. 0.48 along with the remaining buildings).

This week, I’ve mostly focused on various fixes, both bug fixes and performance fixes. A few issues remain to be fixed for the next version, but overall, the game should be more stable now. Aside from fixes, I’ve also added in a few more systems. These will be developed further for the 0.48 version.

Cisterns are now fixed, so that water can be stored and consumed later on. Having fixed storage for water, I have now been able to add the nuclear waste storage facility. However, there’s no use building it yet since the nuclear power plant hasn’t been added yet. But it’s a nice looking building. 🙂

I’ve started working on the translations more. I received the French translation and have started implementing it. Some things are still missing, but it’s getting there. The spanish localization still needs to be updated and the german localization is still behind schedule.

I’ve started finising up the policies available at the early access release. Some funding options are still missing, and some of the policy options are not fully implemented and tweaked yet. But most of these now affect things like labour availability or health.

I’m still working on fixing some value stability issues. At times, the economic calculations will cause things to spiral out of control (more so than I would like 😛 ). These issues should be fixed in the next update.

Aside from what has already been mentioned, the next update should feature the remaining seven buildings. Achievements will be added in the upcoming week. One of the big remaining features is the so called “retro” mode. Which is retro in the sense that cities are built on the ground. It’s still uncertain whether this will be finished for the next update, but I should have some more information about it in the upcoming weeks. The 0.48 version is scheduled to drop the 31 of march!

Atmocity devlog 25

March 3, 2019 Dispersing Minds

Hello!

This week I’ve started adding in the waste management system. Depending on the policy implemented in the city, goods and foods consumption generates trash which will need to be handled. This can be done either by recycling centers, or by using incinerators that produce electricity, but also a bit of pollution.

Recycling center:

Incinerator:

I’ve continued working on the conglomerate display and local economy panel. There will be quite a few additions to this moving forward, but mostly behind the scenes stuff like calculating construction speeds for zones and how conglomerates react to different types of taxes. There’s already quite a lot done on this system, but since there has been and will be quite a few more additions to policy it needs to be updated a bit.

For graph nerdiness I’ve added a graph displaying historic values of conglomerates. 🙂

I’ve also started working on the city stats panel. Currently it’s quite underdeveloped, but it should be finished up next week. This is basically just a breakdown of different city stats that the player might find interesting.

As a performance improvement I’ve also added cars being recycled when they move out of view and spawning new ones in view. This is basically a way to keep the number of vehicles down, while still making the roads look fairly busy. There will be many tweaks to this over time, but it’s good to have it working fairly well.

Next week I’ll be starting the music system, along with an adviser system to help players. Lastly, The board of citizens system will be started. This will be similar to the how conglomerates make demands for lower taxes etc. The board of citizens will ask for lower taxes, improved healthcare and welfare etc.