Hello all, it is, of course, time for an update on the progress of the game. I’m staring at my clock and realizing we are already like 2/3rds of the way through the year which is wild to me. I’m also realizing that I probably need to start writing down what I do as I do it so I have a better list to go from for these updates.

As for what happened this month, a lot I’d say. Scanning the previous update, it looks like I had just started trees the last time. You could chop them down and collect the wood. Apparently, I qualified that as “half the battle” which future me can now attest was incorrect. As with farming as it turns out trees are like one of the most complex things on the map. This is by virtue of them growing for the most part. Turns out things that are alive and change have a lot more to handle.

So, at this point trees are done, or at least I can’t think of anything I missed. I’ll be doing a comprehensive comparison between this and the old version before it goes live just to make sure I didn’t miss something. At this point you can plant trees, chop them down, they grow correctly, record themselves between rooms, change with the seasons, you can uproot the stumps, the ones in the wild grow back, fruit trees will bear fruit, you can shake trees to gather the fruit, and lastly you can tap trees to get sap and resin. As you can probably tell from that list being able to chop down trees was in fact, not half the battle.

One change before moving off trees, tree taps. In the current version they are one time use. In this version they have been altered so that you stick them in a tree and they give the resources accordingly after a set number of days. The only reason this wasn’t the case originally was because of how z ordering worked in the old engine. In short, it didn’t really allow for this, at least not without ripping out a ton of other stuff.

Other minor change, you now get resin and sap. You can also tap any non-fruit tree in any season besides winter, assuming its on your farm. This is basically less restrictive. While I won’t divulge a ton right now maple sap is still used to make syrup. Resin is the change, and is a refining product used in a few other systems that I’ll get to eventually.

Alright so, now that I’ve droned on about trees, what else? Tools can now be charged up. For those unaware tools like the watering can and hoe have upgraded versions that you can use to water/till multiple tiles at once. This is all working. Precision aim has been added again. That’s the system that lets you put your mouse close to your character and aim at the tile you want.

A room transition system that isn’t just me pressing an admin command to move rooms is done. Last, mining is in. Note that doesn’t mean that the mines exist. That’s going to be a doozy. But the player character can mine nodes of rock in the world and collect appropriate resources. These nodes in the overworld also spawn and respawn appropriately each day and all that good stuff. Aside from that there were a variety of bug fixes applied to previous systems. For instance you could water a hole and turn it into a tilled tile. So lots of little stuff like that was fixed.

As for what was done this month that about covers it, I think. Like I said I need to start writing down what I do. All the base tools in the game work at this point which was the goal from a while back. Next on my list is fishing just to knock that out. There are a few complications with that, but I don’t expect it to be too much as its basically just a drop table and a minigame. After that I’m currently looking at getting a shop system back in.

The only other thing I wanted to mention was something I’ve been rolling around in my mind for a bit. That thing is fermenting, or I guess basically brewing. I don’t expect there to be too many drastic changes to the games systems. There are some rough edges I’d like to smooth out but most things are planned to remain relatively the same. I’ve been giving some thought to fermenting however and I think it will be very different. For those unaware the current system allows you to make custom drinks. You do this by adding whatever you want into the brew and matching complimenting flavors. What you add determines the buffs the brew gives when you drink it as well as the selling price. These buffs are enhanced based on the strength of the flavor composition.

It’s a system that I like in some respects however I think its far too complex and it steps on the toes of other systems. The buffs tend to step on cooking and alchemy and the volatile selling price can honestly step on just about every other product. The concept of custom-made items in a game like this is also something of a nightmare.

I’ve been kicking around a few ideas because I’d like to retain some level of freedom that the system gives to allow you to make different brews. I think the current version gives a bit too much however and that complexity is self-defeating. I won’t go into tons of detail here but I’ve been debating things revolving around having a setup that’s more than just a fermentation barrel. Instead, you’d build more of a setup of multiple stations, or upgrades to one station that allow for more customization. What you can create would ultimately be based on what type of brewing setup you have and what ingredients you chose to add which would be a bit more restricted or specific to certain recipes or brewing station parts.

The hope is that all this would still allow for some expression on the player end, but with a bit more guidance to help people actually use the system without getting lost. It’s still pretty early days for it all in general but like I said this was just something I was kicking around this month. I like to mention these things incase there is some large unknown consensus of people who secretly love brewing the way it is. That should be it for now. There will be more to come next month of course. Thank you all for taking the time to read, and give feedback and all that. As always it is very appreciated.