Update 19 - Creativity, Planning, and Efficiency!

Update 19 is now live!

Hi Everyone,

Update 19 contains three sections: Creativity, Planning, and Efficiency. The focus for this update was to deliver a variety of long requested atmospheric and quality of life features.

Creativity:

Tables and Chairs:

• Clanfolk will now eat at the Tables if they have connected Chairs available.
• There is also an adjustable radius for each table to attract Clanfolk for meals.
• When a table is selected, all the chairs that are connected to it will also be shown with an attachment arrow.
• Clanfolk will prefer to sit in the chairs with higher desirability, but still obey priority preferring higher priority.
• Desirability is shown in the menu when picking which chair to build
• Reworked Serving Table such that the access point is now on the table instead of in the tile in front of it.
• Old style serving tables will remain, but all new serving tables will be of the new type. Destroy the old tables to retrieve supplies and build the new style.
• Added an "Ate At Table" positive affliction. This provides a bonus for having tables.
• More positive afflictions involving food variety and table activity are on the horizon as well.
• There will be work done on conversations at the table to make mealtimes a social event.
• The Cooking Pot will also work with Tables now.

New Floor Coverings:

• Added Straw and Tartan Floor Runners.
• These can be used to cover the length of a hallway and will grow and connect to neighbor pieces in the same direction.
• The floor runners are less wide than a tile, so the floor below can also be seen for a nice effect.
• Added 4x4 Straw and Tartan Rugs
• Added 3x4 Straw and Tartan Rugs
• Added 2x3 Straw and Tartan Rugs

Bigger Doors:

• Added two tile wide Barn Door and Wooden Door.
• Added three tile wide Reinforced Door.

Milking and Shearing Spots:

• These new objects provide a logical anchor location where Shearing and Milking will happen.
• This prevents Milk and Wool from being left in the fields.
• The Clanfolk will first grab the appropriate tool, then take the tool to the Livestock, and then lead the livestock back to the station and get to work.
• If a Livestock cannot reach the Milking or Shearing Spot, then they will still be worked on in the field. So stations are best placed where Livestock can naturally reach on their own.
• Note: The stations can be shared by multiple Clanfolk, so making more than one in a barn is not needed. They work like the signs, where multiple units can use them at once.
• I also added Chained hauling to the Sheering and Milking tasks, so even if the task happens in a field, a hauling task will trigger right away to bring the products home.
• Added a progress bar to the Shearing and Milking task.

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Steam Reviews: Your Thoughts Matter

I just wanted to quickly divert from the new stuff to mention how helpful reviews can be. Even a short review indicating what stood out to you or a new experience achieved can be quite useful in letting others know what Clanfolk is all about. Reviews also help me to understand what players are enjoying and how to prioritize my tasks.

So between the Steam Forums, Discord, the Testing Branch, and Reading Reviews is how I decide what I will be working on next, the long term shape of the Clanfolk, or find a new rabbit hole to fall into.

So if you do decide to leave a review, thank you! but also no matter how you get your ideas and experiences out there, I read them and they are all very useful and appreciated!

Back to the new stuff!
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Planning:

Planning Mode:

• Planning Mode allows you to place colored Planning Areas.
• These look similar to stockpiles, but do not interfere with item or object placement.
• Planning Areas can be increased in size by dragging similar to the stockpiles.
• Planning Areas can be set to only be visible only in Planning Mode or all the time.
• Added a Planning Grid that should help a lot with counting tiles and general layout. (Off by default)

Selected Blueprint Actions:

• The Planning Menu also contains controls for modifying blueprints using a drag select.
• Possible blueprint actions are: Start, Stop, Cancel Build, Priority +1, Priority -1, and Set Priority.
• The blueprint layers affected can also be set using the toggles for Roofs, Walls, Floors, Objects, and Decorations.
• Blueprint Actions can be used to move entire buildings in and out of stopped mode and also to change their priority.
• The color for stopped blueprints is now grey and the stopped icon is also grey to make them less intrusive when not actively being built.
• Note: Blueprint Actions do not work on Tasks or Items, but those functions can be handled using Smart Drag even outside the Planning Menu. Just click an item and then drag and all other similar items will be selected.

Livestock Table:

• The Livestock Table shows Type, Sex, Age, and Slaughter status of all livestock.
• Slaughter Scheduling is also unlocked with the Livestock Table. This will allow you to set a slaughter time for Livestock to some future growth stage.
• Slaughter times can be set by selecting an individual animal or at the livestock table.
• Clicking on an entry on the livestock table will take you to that unit.
• The timed slaughter status for livestock will show only when the livestock table is selected or the unit itself is selected.
• The Axe/Hand icon will appear once the slaughter task activates.

Chief Laws:

• The Chief's Laws are set via the Clans panel.
• Chief Laws will be toggled rules that some Clanfolk will like and others will dislike.
• For now, the New Tables have provided a good test case for Clan Laws at eating times.
• Law: Clan Mealtimes: Everyone in the Clan will try to eat only in the morning and evening unless there is an emergency
• Law: Table Manners: Clanfolk at a table will wait for everyone on the way to arrive before eating. They will chat while waiting
• Law: Pets At Table: Pets are allowed to eat at the table and sit in chairs.

Efficiency:

Feed Range System:

• Most Crafting Stations now have an adjustable Feed Range. This allows you to ensure only items in nearby storages are used in crafting.
• The feed range by default is the entire map. This has been the behavior up until now.
• It is now possible to lower the feed range, such that only items close to the crafting station will be used. (adjustable range circle)
• This is good for cases where you do not want a Clanfolk to walk across the map to grab a stick to add to a fireplace.
• So if there is a branch pile nearby, and the branch pile is fully within the feed circle, only then will the branches be used.
• When using this tool, hauling becomes more important since crafters will only see items within the circle.
• Please let me know if you run into problems with this. It is a very powerful tool, but also a really easy way to break the crafting flow.
• If you don't touch the Feed Range Slider, then everything should work as it always has in terms of crafting.

Haul Priority:

• Added a Haul Priority slider to the Inventory Menu.
• This will allow you to set the haul priority of all current and future items of a type.
• Useful for cases like increasing the priority of branches, so all newly spawned branches get hauled first. Instead of having to select them and then raise their priority as they are spawned.

Crafting Priority:

• The Non-Strict Priority system has been rebalanced to prevent the default priority creep that had been happening with crafting stations.
• The Default priority of most entities has been lowered to 4 to give more headroom as well.
• Originally the priority of the crafting stations was used to dictate production flow, but with the addition of non-strict priorities, these higher priorities caused workers to be drawn into production chains instead of working on other tasks.
• Solution: Crafting priority Slider
• There is now a Crafting Priority Slider under the Clans Menu. (Clan Laws)
• Crafting Slider Settings:
• Materials: This will weight the workflow in reverse such that raw materials are given priority.
• Distance: This will turn off workflow weighting. So in this case the closest station (of the same priority) becomes the most desirable one.
• Products: This will focus on building the more advanced items as they become available.
• Note: Previous saves will have a mixture of the new and old default priorities, so it is best to reset object priority using the button on the bottom right of the screen.
  

Better Closest Item Find:

• Upgraded the Get Closest Entity logic - this is tries to figure out the closest entity to pick up, but walls and pathfinding can change what it means to actually be closest.
• It is a solve for the problem of a Clanfolk trying to grab something on the other side of a wall, when it would be better to just walk 5 steps in the other direction for the slightly more distant object.
• The new Closest Entity logic can "somewhat-smartly" scan for items up to 40 tiles away using pathfinding (vs 7 tiles in previous version)
• The new system can do up to 16 checks vs 5 checks to pathfinding per search, but as pathfinding distance increases the number of checks allowed decreased to keep the logic performant.
• The new system also caches similar searches, so in the old system a storage box could contain 6 items and use up all 5 checks, but the new system treats this as 1 search.
• The new system also estimates the pathfinding distance to neighboring tiles, so those also will not consume from the 16 possible checks.
• So all together the system should be better (but not perfect) at finding the closest entity, even behind walls.

Key Bindings:

• Found in the Settings Menu
• Note: Dvorak keyboard users will need to remap Z and Q

Road Map

There is a lot more to come! Please take a look at the Road Map for further long term details as well.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1700870/view/3388412789658793666

I am going to get to work on Update 20 now.

Thanks very much for playing Clanfolk!

Andrew Hume (Blorf)
MinMax Games Ltd.

Dogs playing poker (Clan Law: Pets at Table)