In this smaller update, I'm adding a bunch of wood-related changes, additions and tweaks.
Timber
The major change is that I "split" Planks item into Timber and Planks items, both produced at the Sawmill:
Timbers are now exclusively a construction material:
While Planks are exclusively a production input (currently, only Carpenter):
The reason for this is basically design simplicity - I want to keep long-term construction and input processing separate. I don't want one input to mess with the other input in weird ways. It's just more straight-forward to have these as different items with different proportions. Over time, I observed a few issues that would take disproportionately longer to fix "properly" than to just eliminate the cause altogether.
Trees
I added a new tree type/species - Birch. Functionally, all trees are still the same. But a new type adds some nice visual variety:
Trees will now produce 2 logs per tree. Chopping a tree will leave behind a felled tree, which can be chopped for another log:
This makes tree areas last longer, which is most important early game, especially if you lose track of it.
Saplings
Saplings are now tree species specific, that is, there are now Maple Saplings, Spruce Sapling and Birch Saplings:
Each can be grown at the Arborist's Tree Nurseries:
And the Forester will plant them independently by selection:
All three tree types can now be seen growing from sapling to full tree:
Charcoal
The other major change impacting production is that I "split" Coal into Coal and Charcoal. Charcoal is produced in a new Charcoal Burner building:
Coal is now used as industrial fuel:
While Charcoal (and not Firewood) is used for cooking and similar "light" production:
The main reason is that I did not want Firewood to be shared between residences and production buildings. Same as with planks - the issues I saw are easier to "dismiss" than fix. The other reason is that too many building are using (or should be using) coal, but I did not want the same item to be used everywhere. So now there's a hefty list for both. Adding fuel ingredient makes food production more involved, which is one of the goals. And it also requires more log production and thus bigger forestry areas.
Moss
I added a new tile type - Moss. Moss appears "under" forests and makes them look more distinct (here, cleared from trees to showcase):
Moss will decay into grass if nearby trees are cut down and no new trees are planted. Grass will also overgrow into moss after being surrounded by trees for a while.
Various
Export station now supports up to 4 exportable items. This was one of the more requested features for logistics.
I probably should have made it this way to begin with, but there's a bunch of extra complexity I did not have time to add at the time. (I think I spent a third of the time on it for this update.) Notably, there was no way to control which items are fetched or exported internally. And random selection did not work well, so I had to consider all these things.
I also added a simple cleanup tool, which marks items in a tile for prioritized removal. So these will get chosen over other items next time an item is needed.
Building and selecting houses will now properly show the range at which things affect it:
I also (finally) added an automatic deadlock resolution if there aren't enough available building materials to (directly) construct the material production buildings (i.e. Lumberjack, Sawmill, Saw Horse, Quarry, Mine, Mason). I thought a lot about how to best fix this, but I think the most obvious solution is best right now - I just spawn the missing items for the building in question. There are other concerns and issues with starting materials, but at least this fixes the main problem of getting stuck.
Future plans
My next large goal is to add a proper terrain generator to the game and I am slowly working on it in parallel. Depending on how it goes, I might make another smaller update or go straight for the generator. I still need to revamp and expand quarrying and mining logic and related production.
Full changelog
Changes
• Rename "Plank" to Timber, which is now used only for construction
• Add "new" Plank item, which is now used only in crafting/production
• Carpenter now uses "new" Planks
• Sawmill can now produce Planks
• Add Planer auxiliary building for Sawmill for Plank production
• Sawmill can now toggle produced item(s)
• Add Charcoal item
• Add Charcoal Burner and Charcoal Kiln buildings
• Bakery (and Oven) now also requires Charcoal
• Brewery (and Brewing Vat) now also requires Charcoal
• Smokehouse (and Drying Rack) now requires Charcoal instead of Coal
• Firewood is now only used for Residence supplies via Supplies Shop
• Add Birch tree variant
• Rename item "Sapling" to Birch Sapling
• Add Spruce Sapling and Maple Sapling items
• Rename planted "Sapling" to Maple Sapling
• Add planted Spruce Sapling and Birch Sapling objects
• Tree Nursery can now select whether to produce Birch Sapling, Spruce Sapling or Maple Sapling
• Forester now also accepts Spruce Sapling and Maple Sapling and can toggle used item(s)
• Planted Spruce Saplings become Spruce trees
• Planted Maple Saplings become Birch trees
• Add Sapling concept to refer to any kind of sapling
• Trees now produce 2 Logs each by leaving behind a Felled Maple, Felled Spruce or Felled Birch that can be harvested again for another Log
• Rename object "Stump" to Maple Stump
• Add Spruce Stump and Birch Stump objects
• Add Stump concept
• Chopped-down Trees now leave their species-specific stump behind
• Stumps now have a shadow
• Add Moss tile for forests
• Grasslands and its variants will turn to Moss if there are Trees and vegetation around it
• Moss will revert to Grasslands or its variants if there are few or no Trees or vegetation around it
• Export Station can now export up to 4 different items
• Export Station's HUD inspection shipment items can now be changed, added or removed individually
• Export Station will collect and ship items and Import Station will distribute items proportionally (using global item distribution weights)
• Add new "Cleanup" tool to construction tools menu that can be used to tag items lying on the ground for cleanup, which prioritizes them for deliveries
• Additional crafting recipe tooltip/Micropedia lines will now display as combined (like for Brewery)
• Selected building to not have blue tile overlay instead of green, which was intended for highlighting similar buildings
• Similar building highlight will have an "invalid" overlay texture for buildings that do not match production
• Adjust various sprites and descriptions to fit the new changes
• Houses needs with range (Socialization, Housing) with show the value in tooltips and Micropedia
• Houses will show need influence range tile "circle" and buildings that affect it will show an arrow icon (positive or negative, in range or out of range)
• Building issue indicators will hide if some other temporary/conditional icons need to be shown for the current interaction
• If there are no usable material production buildings (i.e. Lumberjack, Sawmill, Saw Horse, Quarry, Mine, Mason) and no usable material items (i.e. Timber or Stone Slab) that can be delivered to them, the game will gradually spawn in missing items at the construction site, thus preventing a "soft-lock" situation.
Fixes
• Buildings with multiple auxiliaries like Brickyard would always pick the first auxiliary from its internal list
• Rare case when an invalid entity would be selected when something would look for a closest entity matching specific criteria
• Some buildings and items were not listed in various tech unlock lists
• Selecting a building to construct would not switch UI to non-selection mode showing some incorrect UI/feedback elements
• Minor fixes to various descriptions
• Auxiliary building world sprites in various UI locations to have better vertical offset/centering
• Buildings listing missing auxiliaries before they are unlocked
• Tooltips with inner dynamic elements not correctly sizing
• Worker slot for not-yet-constructed building saying that no workers are available
• Change Smelting-based goal asking to deliver Tools (which cannot be delivered anymore) to Iron Ingots instead (for now)
• Fix a couple invalid labels
• Operation location selection not highlighting tiles out of range
• Tavern not consuming its stock (for new Houses)
• Adjust Tavern stock entry tooltip label
Balancing
• Brewery and Bakery now have 3 worker slots up from 1 and 2 slots respectively
• Charcoal extends processed food production chains
• Trees now grow twice as slow (but produce twice the Logs)
• Stumps remain for longer
Rudy
Snowy Ash Games