Path to Prosperity · published
First of all, my apologies for the LONG time since the last post and update. As I finally found some time to work on the game and post again, I have some balancing changes, a new warehouse model, and a new upgrade to the inventory system I want to talk about.
Starting with the long pause, as I had mentioned last year, I am trying to wrap up a very long-term project, so I have more time to focus on Path to Prosperity. At the end of last year, I spent a lot of time trying to sprint to the finish line with that project, which.. partially worked. Unfortunately, as with most projects, there were unexpected hiccups and issues that ended up taking more time. As a result, things are still not done, and it will take yet longer to finish, meaning that it will take yet longer before I can dedicate my full attention to Path to Prosperity. In good news, however, I have done the lion’s share of the remaining work on the other project, so I will be able to get back to doing a reasonable amount of work on the game development – expect an update and a post maybe once a month or so.
With that out of the way, let's get into what I have done since the last post: I have found a number of balancing issues (now that research is in the game), and I have addressed them as far as possible. For one, players will start off with some more coin, allowing them to build the commander’s residence earlier, or alternatively invest in more economy early on. Additionally, the requirements for the commander’s residence and the general goods store have changed, meaning you can start getting Prosperity points for your research earlier than before.
In addition, I have added a new model for the warehouse (today’s image), which fits in better with the newer models. This felt fairly needed especially since I found myself building warehouses to increase my village’s range more frequently in my last playtest, and putting the old models all over the place felt… out of place.
Finally, with this new warehouse model, I created different models for the amount of inventory in storage:
An empty warehouse inventory
Medium filled warehouse inventory
A full warehouse inventory
These models/inventory states are relevant for a new system I have been tinkering on, connecting the state of the inventory to visible models in the buildings. These visible inventories will come in two “types”, the first, like the warehouse, will simply assess how full the storage is generally, across all goods types in the inventory, and give you a general sense for whether the storage is empty or full. The second type will be present in more dedicated production buildings and linked directly to the input and output inventories – showing you if a building has enough goods to be operating or whether there is a full output inventory that no one is taking care of, without having to even click on the building.
While I have some of this working already, it will be a little while longer before I upload it to the experimental steam branch, as I try to be cautious about any changes to the inventory and logistics system, including cosmetic ones. Any “bad” change I did not foresee can lead to massive performance issues as well as potentially game breaking bugs, so the system will need a lot more testing and improvements for stability before I put it out in the proper game.
Expect an update with the new warehouse model and the balancing changes in the next two weeks (I am travelling with limited internet access), and more frequent posts from now on.
Until next time!