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Multiplayer development continues!
Skills and monsters are working 90% Buildings, facilities, and furniture are working 90% I still need to work on towers and caves and some small things, but the important part is the overlying system works well. We've successfully tested players simultaneously connecting from different parts of the world.

Unfortunately I lost a hard disk last week that I bought brand new specifically to hold the beta 0.3.3 branch. It completely corrupted the entire project after only three weeks of use. I was only planning to have that as a separate project for a month or two and hadn't made a full (45GB) backup in over a week. Long story short it would have been a fair amount of work to try and reinstate all the changes that are currently in the public beta, from the newest complete backup copy I have.
Instead I've been pushing through with multiplayer, and have tested the majority of systems in single-player mode to be sure nothing is bugged before I push the next beta patch.

Shortly after that my car broke down! So it's been a rough couple of weeks getting ready for Christmas and the New Year (New Years is a much bigger deal over here in Japan). I'll be busy off and on for the next few days with the holidays. After the Christmas glitter passes I'll be looking to start a multiplayer open beta and see if we can handle more than 2-3 players on a single low/mid-level server. I don't doubt a high end machine in headless mode could handle 16-32 players, but, all in good time!

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!

Just now I successfully tested connecting to a dedicated cloud server with my home computer as well as a friend's! Can't stop grinning! =D

This required me to first move all player specifics like inventory and skills to a per player system which was a big effort on it's own. Previously, anything could just say "add this to the inventory," but now we have multiple inventories connecting and disconnecting freely.

Next was to set up a server-client relationship where the server maintains authority over what players can and cannot do. This is necessary so that a client can't just say "I just dropped 500g." Instead they ask to, and the server checks to see if they actually have 500g before allowing it.

Then came building a dedicated server. A dedicated server uses no graphics and does not spawn a player of it's own, focusing entirely on supporting a game world for others to connect to.

I wrote a small program to act as a master server list, lost some sleep, and threw my back out once in the process, but phase one is cleared!



Phase two will be improving the hosting options, the server list, and getting everything like building and combat synchronized properly. Much easier than phase one.

The final phase three will evolve around enabling infinite terrain, so that players can exist across vast distances from one another. Not an easy task, but certainly not impossible! I'm still hoping to get everything working before Christmas, and will continue to post progress as it happens.

A few new features, and a few fixes while I continue development of multiplayer.

One great idea brought up by one of our players: opportunistic saving. Rather than just saving whenever the autosave timer goes off, it will now enter a state of watching for players to open a window, such as the inventory, before saving.

A deconstruct mode is now also available via the general skill tree and allows the rapid deconstruction of buildings. Be careful with it though as it does not ask for confirmation! I still want to add a label to make it more obvious when deconstruction mode has been activated.

This version will likely go live tomorrow or the next day.

v 0.3.3n - 2018.12.06
- Auto-save will now wait up to an extra 5 minutes for you to open a window such as the inventory before saving
- Added the option to craft/practice multiple items at once
- Crafting experience can now carry over to the next level
- Added a deconstruct general skill for rapidly deconstructing buildings
- Improved the methods used to add items to the inventory
- Fixed obelisks constantly targeting and untargeting any pigs in their range, slowing things down
- Fixed the + tier button in building resources window not using shift and control properly
- Fixed Stoneworker's not deconstructing

You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.

To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta. This version of the beta is open to all available platforms.

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!

A few fixes and upgrades to keep everyone from thinking I've forgotten about them! Best of all is the new stack button, a long requested feature.



Multiplayer Update
Multiplayer development continues! And quite well. The problem with multiplayer is you have player 1, player 2, and the server, each with their own copy of, for example player 1's current clothing. If he/she want to make a change, they have to ask the server to make sure they aren't cheating, and if the server is cool with it, the server tells everyone to change player 1's clothes. It sounds easy enough, but if you don't have all your dominoes in order it turns in a big pile of spaghetti.

I'm making a number of changes to the underlying code structure, as well as a variety of improvements to data management in order to create smaller save files, and overall transfer less data between clients and the server. This is where most of my attention is these days, though I will still do my best to fix anything that crops up on the currently available builds. A small closed beta test should take place in the near future, followed by open beta testing. Stay tuned!

v 0.3.3m - 2018.11.28
- Added "/autosavetimer [integer]" command to the console. 0 will stop auto-save functions. 60-3600 will set it to 1-60 minute intervals.
- Changed enchanting table "pickup" button to always show like other facilities
- Added a stack split input/button to the inventory
- Right-clicking over a viable slot while dragging a stack drops 1, now combined with shift = 10, control = 100, shift+control = 1000
- Changed +/- buttons universally to match the above method instead of control = 1000, control+shift = 100
- Fixed the elite button on the map not working
- Fixed the console auto-indenting the left
- Fixed the camera jerking behind small boat
- Fixed woodworker armor bonus aura not working properly

You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.

To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta. This beta patch is available on both Windows and Linux.

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!

The beta branch which was on 0.3.3k has been patched up to 0.3.3l, while the live branch which was on 0.3.3j has also been patched up to 0.3.3l.

I however forgot to change the in-game version number and date so it will still say v 0.3.3k, but the changes to 0.3.3l are minor and rest assured they are in.

Meanwhile, multiplayer development continues! =D

v 0.3.3l - 2018.11.24
- Fixed solace auras being upgradable beyond level 5 which then breaks them
- Added a temporary console command /checksolaceauras to automatically repair any solaces above level 5
- Fixed Essences of beast, plant, and wood reading as hide, stalk, and timber
- Fixed the English version explanation of how to use a campfire

v 0.3.3k - 2018.11.22
- Fixed the day display not updating post-load in some cases and reading "DayDay"
- Linux builds will no longer attempt to move files to the windows recycle bin, deleting them outright instead
- Added "Run in background" to gameplay settings
- Trashbin and campfire now display "Destroy" and "Craft" instead of "Refine"
- Holding the control key while clicking on a +/- tier button, +/- level button, or an upgrade skill button will perform the operation 1000 times (Shift = 10, Shift+Control = 100)
- Fixed Essence of water displaying as "unknown"

You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.

To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta. The beta is only available to Windows 64-bit users.

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!

Some bug fixes in-between my continuing work on Multiplayer. Note that this patch is "beta" but is available on all 3 platforms (Win32, Win64, Linux) as it is intended for a live patch. I will let it sit on beta for a day or two to be sure there are no unforeseen problems with it before pushing it live.

Multiplayer Update
Speaking of which, it's going well! I have successfully connected a client to a host, each with a unique character. I've set it up so that you can bring in a character design from your machine onto the server you connect to. Inventory, levels, and so forth will be unique to the server but the look of your character is better setup prior to connecting rather than trying to set aside a specific "hidden" area in the game world just for character customization.

I've got most of the basic concepts down now and just need to implement them into a server authoritative structure. Once that's all working I will run some beta testing. The real challenge will come after that where I have to create fake "pockets" of space for players in distant locations to move around in without getting too far from the world zero to prevent physics math errors. It's only a matter of time though!

v 0.3.3k - 2018.11.22
- Fixed the day display not updating post-load in some cases and reading "DayDay"
- Linux builds will no longer attempt to move files to the windows recycle bin, deleting them outright instead
- Added "Run in background" to gameplay settings
- Trashbin and campfire now display "Destroy" and "Craft" instead of "Refine"
- Holding the control key while clicking on a +/- tier button, +/- level button, or an upgrade skill button will perform the operation 1000 times (Shift = 10, Shift+Control = 100)
- Fixed Essence of water displaying as "unknown"

You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.

To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta. The beta is usually only available to Windows 64-bit users, but this beta patch is available on all 3 platforms.

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!

Due largely to a nasty bug found in 0.3.3b, 0.3.3j has now been pushed to the live branch. This primarily brings in 2 new features, world creation settings, and multi-lingual support.



Multi-lingual support is still a work in progress as some features are not translated, including item descriptions, enchants, skills, and the help menu. Thank you again to everyone helping correct translations!

Work on multiplayer continues!

v 0.3.3b -> v 0.3.3j condensed patch notes
- Improved terraforming to check "too steep up" and "too steep down" independently, preventing the ability to create irreparable shapes
- Added language select system with 30 languages to choose from (WIP)
- Town buildings can now be placed on top of buildings (foundations, floors, etc suggested)
- Added new world presets for difficulty and resources
- Added a world preview button to the World Settings list that will show roughly the first 60 square kilometers
- Added world settings setup menu to the create world interface with a wide variety of settings

You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!

This fixes the bug I posted about earlier today, as well as a couple other player reported problems. If all looks well I will push this version live tomorrow.

v 0.3.3j - 2018.11.15
- Improved terraforming to check "too steep up" and "too steep down" independently, preventing the ability to create irreparable shapes
- Fixed terraforming letting you go deeper than "too deep"
- Fixed placing items (except for ground torch and well) on the ground being possible, causing them to not save properly
- Fixed resources above ground not saving partial harvests properly

You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.

To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta. The beta is only available to Windows 64-bit users.

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!

Warning!
There is a bug going on that will eat anything you feed it! Placing things (storage chests, crafting tables, etc) directly on the ground (grass/dirt/rock) is unintended behaviour and will not save properly. This is a bug in the placement code where it's supposed to say "You can't place that there".

Please be sure to place your things on structures/floors/foundations until I can patch the problem. This bug is currently affecting both live and beta branches.

Sorry for anyone that has lost things!

Multi-lingual support has been furthered to include building and crafting. Three cheers and big thanks to those that have chimed in on Crowdin helping out with translations! If you've a moment to help correct any Google misses, please join us at:
https://crowdin.com/project/solace-crafting

Multiplayer Update:
In truth I have been primarily working on multiplayer. I have successfully set up and tested a dedicated server list for hosting and finding games around the world. Once multi-lingual support is finished I will focus on multiplayer.

There is however one difficulty known as floating point precision. A server cannot handle one player at 100km and another at 0km at the same time. Players need to be calculated within false "pockets" of math in order to keep their number beneath 10,000m. I only bring it up to point out that it's difficult, and it's going to take a while. I'm hoping to have less advanced versions of multiplayer ready for some closed testing in the near future, but the first live release may well take until around Christmas time. Updates will thus be less frequent for a bit, but I will post progress reports as things happen!

v 0.3.3i - 2018.11.13
- Fixed the character list loading twice on the first "refresh"
- Fixed the character list turning on behind the world list after leaving settings
- Fixed "Desert Biome Strength" slider accidentally setting "Desert Cacti Frequency"
- Furthered multi-lingual support to around 80%

You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.

To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta. The beta is only available to Windows 64-bit users.

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron!