Iron Log #15 - Back to work

Hi everyone,

Today I released a pretty big update v0.0.9. It contains a complete re-work of the early game progression. Skip to the end to see what changed.

Like I mentioned in the previous dev log I was on vacation the last few weeks. Travelling, relaxing, and just taking my mind of the game. But now I’m back working full time so progress should pick back up.

Resource Deposits

I made Resource Deposits larger so they are easier to spot and more visually unique. However if they spawned on a hill or cliff they would stick out of the ground by quite a lot.

So I could either try and prevent them from spawning on uneven ground or change the ground to match the resources. Preventing them from spawning would really limit where they could appear and I didn’t want to do that. Especially in biomes like mountains or canyons where there isn’t a lot of flat surface area. So the next solution was to modify the terrain height generation algorithms to flatten out the terrain under the resource nodes and blend the height to the surrounding terrain. I think the results are pretty good!

Oh and you can now scan for nearby deposits!

Electricity & Power

There is now a proper electricity system that has two types of buildings, Generators and Consumers. A generator like the new “Combustion Generator” burns coal and converts it into electricity. Then you need to connect consumers like the new “Electric Mining Drill” and it will draw power from the network. If a building is not drawing any power the generator will not burn fuel. I am really excited about this combustion generator because it’s going to serve another purpose later in the game 👀.

Full change log

Update v0.0.9 changelog

• Major rework to early game progression.
• Start a new world for ideal experience. No guarantee old worlds will work.
• You can now scan for nearby resource nodes with [V].
• Removed Scrap Metal. You can now get Iron/Copper Plates from debris in the world.
• Updated resource node visuals.
• Added Combustion Generator as early game power source.
• Removed Windmill for now (might come back as alternative energy).
• Added Electric Mining Drill to replace burner mining drill.
• Various recipe changes.

As always, thanks for reading and head over to the discord to learn more https://discord.gg/xmmPeZHj4T