The last two weeks were very productive, and I decided to do a quick post to talk about some of the changes.
One of the changes of the last weeks was a change in the look of the HUD (today’s image). The previous purple with silver borders was a last minute introduction just before the initial release of the game, and I think it was falling a little behind the look of the other elements. I think the brass and charcoal look is a little less jarring compared to the bright colours of the world, so I think this works a little better. I am planning to bring the escape menu and main menu in line with this look over the next few weeks, so let me know if you have any feedback before I finalise things.
The main new introduction that made me want to work on the HUD is the new “Settlement Panel” (top left in today’s image). The settlement panel is only visible while the player is within the boundaries of a settlement, and shows the name, status, coin, prosperity, total food amount and available construction materials for the settlement. While my initial plan for the game was that players would need to check their warehouses and keep track of a lot of resources themselves, I think there is also a balance to be had here, and sometimes realism is a little too tedious. Let me know if there is anything you find to be lacking from this display, or how you feel about having it.
With the new panel, I also introduced some random names for settlements (and settlers). This moves away from the incredibly immersive naming of having villager 2 living in village 1, but I’m sure players will be able to adapt. I am intending to create a way of changing a settlement’s name in the commander’s residence eventually, though that is not (yet) a priority.
I also introduced a few quality of life changes such as ordering the save games by date, so your latest game will show up at the top from now on, and I fixed a ton of bugs, mostly related to game loading.
I am working on making some changes to the trade system and bringing trade relevant research into the game at the moment, so I will talk about that in the next post.
Until next time!