Thank you everyone for waiting so patiently. As promised, the big update has finally been posted! Without any ado, let's jump right into what's new!
Hot new menu design, including refreshed sprites, better organization, and lots of new settings!
The forging minigame has been completely overhauled. New tools, a fancy new layout, and all new sprites!
Order scroll requests have new alloy and craft requirement variants. The more specific the request, the more extra coin you'll earn!
Experimental localization is now implemented!!! You can now play the game in English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Polski, Português Brasileiro, Русский, 简体中文, or 日本語
(please note that some translations are still missing, the localization is actively being worked on)
As stated above, there are going to be some missing translations still. The localization project is a big big undertaking, and it's going to take a lot more work until it's perfect, but we're off to a great start! Please be patient while I work on finishing the implementation and while my trusty translators work on the new content that still needs translating. Polska Gurom!
But wait, that isn't all!~ Get ready to be spoiled, here's everything else that's been added to the game since the last big update!
new pegs added to the shop, can be used to store tools in the background layer
discovering a new alloy will now display a banner & play a fun little tune
you can now pin alloy recipes from the journal
discovering alloys will now reveal a fun fact about them in the journal
window resizing is now properly supported (no more black bars on the sides)
new save name suffixes (previously only "Smithery" could be used)
new gameplay setting to prevent the crucible from tipping over (unless using the tipper)
new 'dim-assist' setting darkens the background to help increase visibility of items
added setting that will sync the color of ores and their ingot counterparts
new setting can disable the automatic camera slowdown that occurs when holding "heavy" objects
new setting to control the speed of edge-panning
new settings to disable backgrounds and/or fancy liquids (can help improve performance)
several new chatling commands
the bucket now has a customizable label
cages and balls can now be purchased from the shop for chatlings
a new art piece has been added to the shop
adjusted values of all metals to reduce vast price variances
improved player character's penmanship (new font to support localization)
gameplay settings are now saved per-save file rather than globally across all save files
adjusted stone spawn rate and size frequency
metal now emits light when it is very hot
metal now glows different colors depending on how hot it is
added over 40 chatling appearance variants
a small fist is now displayed when chatlings grab something
updated various sprites and sounds
implemented many many changes to help reduce lag on different systems
you can no longer make "super-ingots" by placing the mold inside the crucible
improved functionality of cranks (they should stutter less often while being used)
lazy-bones should be much less finicky (no more zooming when you meant to crank)
fixed various chatling related crashes
added limits to certain chatling commands
updated chatling goops to no longer be burning hot
implemented new catch for potential save file errors
fixed various descriptions & spellings
Plus a whole bunch of little things here and there that I've already forgotten about.
Some bugs didn't get squashed, so you'll probably encounter these:
Resizing the window while in the main menu stretches the game (resize it again once you've loaded into your save to fix this.)
Audio only plays from the left side in the main menu.
Plenty of text in the game is not translated properly yet, but most of the important stuff is.
Despite my best efforts, I still get reports of some players experiencing terrible lag while playing, despite being able to run other games fine. Please be assured I am constantly looking into this and trying different things to resolve the issue, but I haven't seemed to fix it for everyone just yet. This update contains a LOT of changes that should help improve performance, but if not, please let me know so I can keep tackling the issue.
You may have noticed, the game has a new Library banner! Huge thank you to Blaffski for making it, it came out absolutely amazing. Check them out on their Twitter or Twitch if you have the chance, they're an amazing artist and you should buy art from them.
That's all for now! Thank you again for waiting while I cooked up this update. I'm the only developer on this project, so sometimes things take a while and life gets in the way of progress, but rest assured I still have a lot of plans for Alnico Smithery. I don't know when the next update will be ready, but it's gonna be pretty dang neat if everything goes according to plan. No spoilers though! You'll just have to wait and see what I have in store.
If you haven't yet, I strongly encourage you to join the community Discord if you want to keep up to date on the state of the game and my other projects! It's also a great place to ask questions, troubleshoot, and make friends who all like the silly smithing game.
Until next time, I hope you enjoy the new content. Adiós!
-Pinapl