Sep 2, 2022

Voxel Tycoon - Voxel Tycoon

GAMEPLAY
— You can now rotate and scale decorations — it's time to get creative!
— Inputs and outputs in devices are now fixed
— Made renaming cities significantly more affordable
— Trains that have both electric and diesel/steam engines now able to move on non-electrified rails

IMPROVEMENTS
— Builder window: Improved with categories, search, filtering, sorting, and view options
— Builder window: Scroll to last placed building on open
— Conveyors: Improved conveyor direction prediction logic — now it should require much less manual direction changes
— Conveyors: Mismatching directions will be highlighted with special indicator, clicking on it will automatically fix direction
— Conveyors: Devices now can be build closer to each other without need to demolish conveyors
— You can now choose what budget items should contribute to displayed total
— Fleet window: Added ability to mass release vehicles from depot
— Fleet window: Added ability to mass cancel send to depot
— Fleet window: Vehicles are sorted by name in the way human would expect
— New game window: Added search by mods
— New game window: Added ability to toggle all mods
— Mass replacement: Added ability to pause/resume and remove all current replacements
— Mass replacement: Added ability to pause a replacement
— Mass replacement: Replacement will preserve cargo if possible
— Mass replacement: Reduced notification spam if vehicle can't find a depot for replacement
— When placing a signal, distance to closest neighbors will be shown
— Added highlight of non-electrified parts of the track when using electrification tool
— Added option to configure world grid step
— Added possibility to rename depots and labs
— Added hint for supporter (yellow) drivers, mayors, etc.
— Hitting F1 now will leave indicators on screen and hide other UI, to hide indicators too hit F1 again
— Clicking on the current research name in the Lab window will reveal the research in the tech tree
— Vehicle units which is not compatible with the current consist won't be hidden but instead grayed out with informative message
— You can now teleport to the passengers destination by clicking on their icon in the station window
— Passengers weight reduced from 1t to 150kg
— Hotkeys on loading screens are now reflect user changes to bindings
— Loading screens now show arbitrary messages instead of listing loaded assets
— If game fails to load to main menu because of a mod, the mod will be automatically disabled, and game will be restarted
— New asset load error window added providing extended info and actions based on context (like Verify files integrity or Go to Workshop page)
— Added debug console ( Ctrl + `)
— New red banner will be shown at the top of the screen on critical errors, clicking on it will open the console
— Improved windows auto-layout to prevent them from being partially obscured by other UI as much as possible
FIXES
— Fixed coupling issues with DB ICE 3 and other MUs
— Fixed flipped engine with tender are displaying incorrectly
— Fixed task units can't be changed after other units were removed and task became locked to unexistant unit
— Fixed Plant trees tool always places only the first possible decoration for this biome
— Fixed game freezes when selling huge amount of vehicles at the same time
— Fixed modern vehicles can be sent or copied to tier 1 depots
— Fixed vehicles can be replaced to modern ones in tier 1 depots via mass replacement
— Fixed 0-sized buildings can be placed in closed regions
— M1 players: please give this build a try and let us know if there're memory leak problems or crashes

MODDING
— You can now choose what pack to load in Asset Editor to significantly improve load times
— Added .category asset which is used by builder to categorize builings
— Decorations now can be animated
— Spot lights now can be rotated
— Added smokes support for trucks and buses
— Conveyor max length now can be set in asset
— Direction of devices inputs and outputs are now strictly set in assets
— Asset URIs are no longer case sensitive
— Fixed rare case where StorageNetworkBuilding siblings not marked dirty on built (thanks Nebruzias!)
— 0Harmony.dll updated to 2.2.2
— Added Font Awesome 6
— Unity updated to 2021.3.9

May 2, 2022

First year recap! 🎉

Voxel Tycoon - Voxel Tycoon

It's been a whole year already since the Voxel Tycoon arrived to the Steam Early Access.

Wow!

We remember that mix of excitement and fear boiling inside our souls on the day when we hit the Release button like it was yesterday. And we are not sure what of those feelings were prevailing at that moment!

Fortunately, you liked what we've created. You gave us amazing reviews, bringing the Voxel Tycoon to the Very Positive overall review level. You wrote a ton of helpful feedback on our bug and suggestion trackers. You made guides and videos to help other players. You created lots of creative mods, expanding the game with new content and gameplay. You helped to make the Voxel Tycoon what it is today.

Thank you very much for that 💜

However, our ride is far from over. There're a lot of things yet to be done on the way to the full release (aka 1.0). And we hope you will find it joyful to experience this adventure together with us.

The first year in numbers

Not bad, but not enough. We want to do more in the Year 2.

What's next

The second year of the Voxel Tycoon Early Access promises to be more feature-rich and productive. Hopefully, over time we gain a better understanding of how to properly manage the development process. The hustle and bustle of the release have settled down, and now we can speed up our work without compromising quality.

In the coming months, you can expect the release of features that were discussed in the previous post: the demands rework (aka Contracts) and the vehicle obsolesence. And later this year we expect to introduce the long-awaited rails and roads rework, including level crossings. Of course, this is not everything that we've prepared for you in the Year 2, so stay tuned!

Bonus: the first image of Voxel Tycoon ever known

Hello World!

Mar 31, 2022

Development update

Voxel Tycoon - Voxel Tycoon

Starting from now, we'll go back to writing regular posts on what's going on with the Voxel Tycoon development. We hope this will make the development process more transparent for you. Thank you!

At the moment, we are working on several things that will find their way to Voxel Tycoon over the next several updates.

Vehicle wear and obsolescence

With the previous major update, we've introduced mass vehicle replacement. That feature finally prepared the grounds for something we wanted to add for some time already: the aging of vehicles.

Vehicles will wear over time depending on their usage. As they become more old, they will start require more often maintenances, resulting in increasing costs and idling times.

Besides that, vehicle obsolescence will be introduced. When you progress through the game and unlock newer vehicles, using older ones will become more disadvantageous than it is now. We'll talk about how it will work closer to the release of that feature.
Of course, both wear and obsolescence could be turned off in gameplay settings for more relaxed gameplay.

Demands rework

Another thing that requires some attention is how demands work. Demands are part of the core mechanic of the game, and it's pretty important to have them entertaining: not shallow, but not too complex at the same time.

Demands already have several mechanics: their economy is based on the demand/supply balance, they grow if you supply them well, or degrade if you don't. Also, they go bankrupt if you don't supply them at all for some time.

The last bit became a source of frustration for players. Initially, the idea was that saving a business from bankruptcy will serve as a motivation to extend your transport network. However, players quickly get overwhelmed with a lot of businesses here and there, all demanding to be saved.

A bankruptcy of a business currently has no direct effect on your company and it's actually often expected: for example, you have no access to required resource yet and plan to gain it later. Still, it gives players feeling of failing to keep up with the game.

To improve this situation, we are working on something we call Contracts. With contracts, you are not obligated to deliver everything everywhere by default. Instead, you explicitly decide if you want to supply a specific business. By signing a contract with a business you're committing to satisfying its needs long-term. This way, you may no longer care about other businesses until you are actually ready to supply them.

Another related change is that now you're in control of when to upgrade your contract to the next level of demand, so you can do it only when you're sure you want to increase goods flow.

On another side, violating a contract — ie. not supplying a business for a long time — will result in a penalty. We'll talk about it in one of the next posts.

Also, with this rework (or shortly after) we want to introduce a window where you'll be able to see all your demands and corresponding information at a glance.

Addressing community issues

While many of you love the game in its current state — thank you 💜! — we hear those voices who expected to get more in a shorter periods of time.

We keep working to make the rate of updates more frequent and consistent. Our team consists of just 2 guys, and right now we are in the process of hiring more people. This has a delayed effect since new members need some time to get comfortable with the development flow. We'll make everything possible to speed up this process.

Another major issue is the lack of new information from us between updates, resulting in the feeling that the game has gone dead. First, we want to assure you, that Voxel Tycoon by no means is going to become abandoned. This game is the project of our lives. We have a big roadmap that reflects what we want to see in the finished game.

As mentioned in the intro to this post, we'll do regular posts on the current state of things from now on, to make the development clear and transparent for you, our beloved players.

Oh, and one more thing that bothers many of you: when the level crossings will appear in the game. We are working on it! As we mentioned in previous posts, level crossings depends on the rails and roads rework which is currently in active development in parallel with the features described above.

That being said, this is our first game, and it's pretty complex in both technical and management ways. We are constantly learning the better approaches on how to handle all the things. There's a lot to do, and we are committed to making it real. Thanks for taking this journey together with us! Please Join our Discord and share your thoughts.