End of June Update - Working Logistics

Hello everyone,

First off, we posted a video to our Youtube page showing off the sprite tilting system in greater detail. If you haven't seen that yet, go do that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaOjgIA66fs

With that, all work relating to updating the game's sprite graphics system is essentially complete.

Now, to get to the meat of what was accomplished this month, we spent a lot of time actually fixing up and properly implementing the resource logistics system. While a lot of features have been implemented for a while now - namely the conveyor/pipeline system - a lot of the resource logistics system and related systems (such as basebuilding) were broken or in a half-working state and so for the longest time, resources and basebuilding were essentially unusable. As you can see from the video, a lot of it is now in a working state, with worker and logistics units now being smart enough to automatically seek out places to carry resources to and construct new buildings, without the player needing to wrangle these units directly too much.

Here are some notes on the video, which includes both new features and things that are currently bugs or oversights:

• Logistics and resource buildings have a visualized radius that shows where any associated units will gather from and deposit to. The position and radius can be re-assigned using the command wheel.

• Resource units can now automatically dump their cargo if there's nowhere to place it (this can also be ordered manually by the player). In addition to being convenient, this will hopefully lead to some interesting gameplay on the part of opposing players, where bad resource management means piles of refined resources can be snagged in raids. We also plan on making the fuel drums explosive, so enemy players can exploit that as well.

• Large junk piles and derelicts can now be salvaged from.

• While forklifts are shown as being the method of delivering supplies in this video, we'll likely change it so that initially, all delivery is done with the Engineers, which are responsible for building construction as well, while Forklifts are accessed after building a factory.

• Similarly, we'll also make it so basic infantry can harvest scrap, with those large scrap harvester vehicles being accessible once a factory is built, and thus essentially will be a major upgrade to your economy. This is not shown in the video as currently the game has issues with lots of infantry units harvesting scrap at once.

• This video doesn't reflect the finalized build order and speed of the game; the video is almost half an hour, which would be a pretty absurd amount of time to spend building up your base like that. The construction and gathering speed of many units still needs to be heavily tweaked and balanced. The final game will also include other activities for units to partake in (beyond combat as well, obviously), such as using your basic infantry to dig trench networks and other fortifications to better help defend your base.

• Those teal blocks on the righthand part of the UI are a bug.

• Other key resource features, namely the Recruit logistics/reinforcements system, are still on the to-do list.

• Buildings under construction won't use those ugly scaffolding sprites in the final game, and will instead have dedicated construction sequences for every building. The scaffolding sprites are just a placeholder.

• Most buildings will also be able to be rotated 90-180 degrees in the final game, so that the player can build more efficient base layouts based on the entrances and exits of buildings for resource units and produced units.

• You may be worried about how the tall buildings and pipelines will obstruct the player's view. We plan on solving this by including a system where units behind other large units and buildings will be shown as a team-color silhouette through the obstructing building or unit (other games like AOE2 and Starcraft 2 use this function). We may also include a Stronghold-like mechanic where pressing a certain hotkey will show only the foundations of buildings, giving you a clearer view of your base's layout.

• The automatic nature of worker units can be disabled with a UI button, in case you want to have more manual control over them.

• The forklifts using a very different looking sprite compared to the barrels/crates they pick up will be changed. While it wouldn't be possible to make the crate/barrels they pick up match the one they carry exactly due to how resource logic works fundamentally, we do want to at least make it so the sprite they carry at least distinguishes between carrying solid materials and fuel drums.

That's all for the resource system for now. Next month, the resource system should be largely completed, and we'll be able to show off systems like the Recruit reinforcements system, as well as vehicles that harvest by deploying their crews to pick up scrap and materials.

As always, thank you all for the continued support for this project.