Alpha 4 – Giant Centipede Robots released

Posted June 1st, 2014 by Tynan Sylvester

Here it is, Alpha 4, featuring giant centipede robots and lots of other fun stuff. If you bought the game you should get an email with the update. If not, check out this forum thread.

 

I forgot to mention in the video: the map generator has more variation now and tends towards more verdant surroundings, so it’s a bit less of a desert. I redesigned the storytellers to focus on colony wealth more than combat strength in determining what to throw at you (no more avoiding turrets just to seem weak). The storytellers are also much better at handling near-death situations. If you’re almost dead, your wealth will be low and the raids will soften (since you have nothing worth stealing), so you may be able to recover instead of being guaranteed to get steamrolled.

Also, we now have tension music from Alistair Lindsay when a combat situation is in progress.

We also have good support for a wide variety of languages now: German, French, Polish, Chinese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch. If you speak any of these languages and are part of a non-English-language game community, let them know that this game will work for them!

Major improvements in this build:

  • Wood economy. Logs, sawing, planks, flooring, tree growing, and more.
  • More stuff to research.
  • Crematorium.
  • Slag refinery.
  • More map variation.
  • Mechanoids raids.
  • Tension music for combat situations.
  • More songs for normal gameplay.
  • Smarter AI storytellers that focus on wealth and let you recover from serious damage.
  • Region system for better performance.
  • Tons of AI and usability improvements to hunting AI, player tutor, alerts, etc.

You can check out my full work log for more detail on exactly what was accomplished.

Come chill with us on the forums if you have something to say!

13 Responses to “Alpha 4 – Giant Centipede Robots released”

  1. Li Pierce

    Impressive.

  2. Random Player

    CREMATORIUM!!!!!!!!

  3. Your fan!!

    I am so excited to play this update, Keep up the good work!

  4. Jay

    Maybe consider doing a spoiler warning type of thing before posts like these, though I guess only a small number of players read them. I’d say that one of the keys to a good story is not knowing everything that’s happening behind the scenes. For example knowing that you’re being cut slack after almost dieing could kinda ruin the tension a little.


  5. Yeah, I see what you mean. I think if you play the game you’ll find that it’s not that much slack. Mostly it’s just because you lose a lot of wealth when you get smashed up, which reduces raids automatically since they’re wealth-driven, which makes total sense.

  6. JKTD1919

    I swear, every update that comes out throws me for a loop. Every one of them hits me that much harder with excitement! Keep up the good work, Ty, Rho, and Al!

  7. Alex

    Man oh man, my guys are refusing to eat. Five straight games where everyone had a mental breakdown. Am I the only one? I never had this issue previously.

  8. Timo

    As a hobby programmer I find it really interesting to read about the development decisions in such a detailed way. Not only the game is story driven, but the development itself to me is also some kind of exciting story! 🙂

    Thank you very much!

  9. wittaker25

    I am ashamed to admit that I have been checking your dev blog at least twice daily for the past week hoping for the next update. Thanks for the amazing work you put in to make this game better!

  10. Tadao

    Lovely update, but I would not call those centipedes.. They look more like maggot tanks o.o

  11. Arimnestos

    Really like the direction the games taking Ty.

    Good job man.


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