Hello!

I've updated the game. There's nothing new content-wise, but quite a lot of fixes for minor bugs and tweaks to calculations.
On top of that, an early iteration of the wage level calculation has been added. Wage levels affect tax revenue from citizens currently, but will be expanded to also affect demand for goods and services.

The addition of wages might make it more difficult to run a profit and affect unemployment.

/ Dispersing Minds

Hello!

Like last week's devlog, this one will also be rather short. I'm currently under a fairly heavy work load and on top of that, most of the work that goes into the game now are to system tweaks and improvements.

Work continues on tweaking calculations. More or less all systems, such as health, wages, unemployment and happiness, are interconnected. As such, balancing these systems out and avoiding extreme results is a bit tricky, but it's getting there. The real test will come once the game releases into early access and a more diverse set of play styles is being tested.

I've also been polishing up the shaders in the game, adding vertex displacement to building footprints and making minor performance adjustments. I've also changed import settings for textures to decrease their size.



More localisation work has been done. Spanish has been updated, which means it's almost finished. A first iteration of the russian localisation has been added, but will require some work (text size etc.). I've also added the Swedish localisation into the game. Work on the german version is ongoing and the remainder of the french translation should be done fairly soon.



I will be trying to get some more buildings into the game before the EA-release. Primarily decorations, like this forest:



There's also been some minor stuff added. Cities can be named. The ui has gotten some minor adjustments and will continue to be improved in the upcoming week, especially the statistics panel which has been placeholder.

Hello!

There will be no extensive devlog this week, since most of the work I've done involves system stuff and generally surrounding systems already in the game.

I've continued working on the vehicle system and squashed a few visual issues. Moving forward I can now start culling vehicles properly to allow more vehicles shown in any given view without tanking the FPS.

I've now also implemented a proper calculation of the wage level. The wage level affects the demand for labour, so if wages are high, demand gets a slight hit. Conversely, if wages are lower, demand gets a slight boost.

With welfare systems such as unemployment insurance, health insurance and retirement, these are generally designed in such a way as to replace wages while a person cannot work. As such, the city's wage level is now a part in calculating the cost of these benefits. If the city has a high wage level, these benefits will cost more when people are unemployed for example.
The next step will be to incorporate the wage level into the tax income from residents.

Another thing that I've aimed to incorporate into the EA-release of the game is a vactrain system. I've started coding this into the game, and aside from registering stations, it's almost ready to be tested. For next week's devlog there should be a finished concept up for display.

There are still some bugs to be fixed here and there, and some UI adjustments left to make. But overall, what was intended for the EA-release is starting to get rather stable and polished. That means I can move onto doing some optimizations here and there to make sure the game runs really well.

/ Dispersing Minds

V 0.48 Change log

- Nano structures plant implemented. Creates nano structures required for the top density buildings.
- Advanced circuitry plant implemented. Creates advanced circuits used for complex machinery.
- Complex machinery plant implemented. Creates complex machinery used in hospitals, the nuclear waste storage facility among other buildings.

This means all resources meant for the Early Access release version have been implemented. More resources might come post EA-release.

- University building implemented. Adds a city wide education bonus.
- Theatre building implemented.

- Movement option to shift camera up or down has been added – CTRL + W/UpArrow to shift upwards, CTRL + S/DownArrow to shift downwards.

- EA release welfare programs implemented. More tweaks to come in the following versions.
- EA release discrete policy options are all implemented and functional. These will be tweaked in upcoming versions.

- Music implemented. Currently it only shuffles the tracks. The system to trigger music based on events is in the works.

- Spanish localization updated.

- Budget calculation errors have been fixed.

Aside from the above, a handful of minor issues have been fixed.

Hello!

I'm closing in on finishing all the buildings meant for the EA-release of the game. The remaining ones that will be finished in the upcoming few weeks are the atmoport and the vactrainstation.

The University is used to increase education levels across the city. They don't need to be built next to specific buildings or anything.



The Theatre building is required to keep upper class citizens happy. In future versions, theatres will produce culture, which will be used to increase happiness across the city.



The nano structures plant produces nano structures that in future versions will be required to get the top density residential and commercial buildings.



Complex machinery is used in nuclear waste storage facilities, hospitals and in future versions is required for high tech industry.



Finishing off the production buildings set is the advanced circuitry plant, which produces components for use in the complex machinery production plant.



There's been a lot of work put into value calculations, specifically into the discrete policy options added into the game recently. All of the policies now affect values in the game, from electricity consumption to health and education values.
This will receive further tweaks in the upcoming version, as the policies need to be balanced in cost and effect.

Music has also been added into the game finally. The music has been composed by Joshua Szweda and in my opinion fits the mood and theme of the game perfectly!
Currently the music is just randomized, but there will be a mode where tracks are picked based on context. Like if there's an economic downturn etc. Currently, the system works, but the tracks are not linked to the events yet.

In the upcoming few weeks, aside from working on tweaks and balancing, I'll be working on the vactrain system and implementing achievements into the game.



/ Dispersing minds

Hello!

Short entry this week, as I’ve mostly done fixes for minor issues (not really news worthy).

First bit of news is that I’ve postponed the release of the game by one month (from april to may). This is due to an overall heavy workload, but also because I want things to be really well functioning and polished when the game releases into Early Access. This grants me some extra time to add a good deal of fine tuning and polish.

I’m in the process of finishing up the last few buildings. The nuclear power plant has been finished:



The nuclear power plant outputs a lot of electricity at a fairly decent cost, but it also outputs spent fuel that needs to either be stored, or neutralized. The storage facility (second from the right) and the neutralizer (right) can be seen here:



Most of the remaining buildings will most likely be done next week and will mean I finish up resource production and education. The vactrain station includes a lot of new code, so that will be done after next week.



Overall, things are coming together, but as the delay suggest, a bit slower than I would have wanted. But I’d rather release a stable game than an unstable one.



/ Dispersing Minds

Hello everyone!

I've decided to, yet again, delay the game. The main reason for this is that I feel that it needs yet more polish even before entering Early Access.

The main goal has always been to release a very stable and well-functioning game into Early Access, and to have the EA period used for feature additions, overall polish and system adjustments. Currently the game is fairly well on track for this, but it needs just a bit more time before it lives up to my own expectations.

The new release is set to May 29th and this is the final delay for sure!

/ Dispersing Minds

Hello,
I've uploaded a new version that fixes a few value calculation issues, some minor bugs and also adds in the nuclear power plant.
There's now also a slider for resolution scale in the benchmark.

/ Dispersing Minds

Hello,

You can check out some more Atmocity gameplay here:

https://youtu.be/-WhH3JYksJw

https://youtu.be/dufhMgZlDoQ

/ Dispersing Minds

Hello!
I've now launched the new 0.47 build of the game.

This version features one of the soundtrack songs to start testing the music system.
It also features a bug with the decoration tile, so I advice against using that until the next version. :)

/ Dispersing Minds