Update 0.5.0

Regions

With 0.5.0 we introduce regions to the Overworld! Each of these regions has a distinctive feel, defined by unique landmarks and resources to be gained.

- Added 4 Regions to the game; the Polluted Woods, Rural Ruins, Highways and City regions.
- Created new landmarks for each region.
- Created new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for each region
- Added a scouting landmark for three regions; Watchtower for the Polluted Woods, Church for the Rural Ruins and Skyscraper for the City.
- Regions can now be revealed by using the scouting landmarks.
- Added a handmade overworld map with all regions.
- Added a choice between handmade map (regions) and random spawning (0.4.2 and down) game modes when starting a new game.
- Adjusted the Overworld view's map visuals to correctly reflect the region.
- You can now use WASD to move around on the Overworld view and sail freely.
- Buoy markers and landmark projects will no longer be cancelled upon overworld movement. This will only occur once they breach interactable radius.
- Rebalanced the entire game to smoothly work with new region functionality.
- Fishing Chair now handles fish per region and does not require you to be near a fishing spot.

Behind the Scenes

- Worked on the World Editor, allowing us to craft a handmade map.
- Added region functionality to the World Editor.
- Added underwater highway functionality to the World Editor. This was used to test if underwater roads can lead players to city regions.
- Made and improved landmark creation and testing tools, allowing us to more rapidly create landmarks.
- Improved Salvageable and Non-Interactable prop handling, allowing leftover pieces and unique animations.
- Made tools to balance each region's resources.
- Correctly textured and re-imported older props, increasing performance but destroying older saves in the process.
- Fixed input handling. Key-binds for each player will be reset upon playing 5.0 and up.
- Adjusted how camera dragging works.

Visuals

- Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Polluted Woods region.
- Made new Landmarks for the Polluted Woods region.
- Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Rural Ruins region.
- Made new Landmarks for the Rural Ruins region.
- Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the Highways region.
- Made new Landmarks for the Highways region.
- Made new Salvageable and Non-interactable props for the City region. (unfinished)
- Made new Landmarks for the City region. (unfinished)
- Remade the Solar Still visual

Fixes

- Various fixes were made to be able to correctly implement all new features.

Update 0.5.0p1

Fixes

- Fixed a bug where drifters would get stuck on landmarks.
- Fixed a bug where resources would get reserved and never unreserved whenever a drifter tried to queue a project for a vital for which it already had a project queued. In other words, stuck drifters will not cause resources to clog storage or export inventories.
- Fixed bug where the 'Main Menu' button that would appear in the loading screen when something goes wrong would not load the Main Menu.
- Fixed build-states of the Solar still, drifters will no longer float in the air when constructing it.

Misc

- Made shadow distance dynamic, allowing shadows in map view.
- Townheart movement is now triggered with double-click instead of single-click. Any other way of moving the town has not changed.
- Camera to Townheart movement toggle can now be set in the input settings.
- Added town-name support for longer Townheart names.
- Increased Canned Food at start from 4 to 9.

UI

- Made some changes to the HUD, equipping the bottom bar with the important UI elements.
- Rescaled some UI elements.

Update 0.5.0p2

Fixes

- Fixed issue where saves would not load.

0.5.0p3: Stuck drifter/item fixes

Early Access 0.5.0p3

0.5.0p3 fixes various bugs where drifters could get stuck and unresponsive. As well as items that got stuck in boats and storages.

Fixes

- Fixed a bug where drifters would get stuck in a transition between the water and the walkways.
- Fixed a bug where drifters would get stuck while salvaging landmarks with a boat but swam to it instead.
- Fixed a bug where food or water items would get stuck in storage/building inventories. Loading save files with this bug should fix the save files.
- Fixed a bug where double-click movement on map would stop working after going back to the main menu.
- Fixed a bug where enabling the energy overlay would not have it display the energy lines.

0.5.1: New Inventory!

Hey Drifters!

We reworked the inventory panel to a more clear, concise bar at the top. With added functionality, this bar allows personal preferences to be set using the filter tools.

What's next?

The Expertise patch is nearing a state where it's ready for testing. You can expect to see drifter levels, stat increases, morale and more coming in everything 0.6.0 soon :)

Enjoy the new update!

Patch Notes

New Inventory

- Moved the inventory into a new top bar that can be opened/collapsed.
- Added category filters for each type of resource, allowing personal preferences to be set in the inventory panel.
- Added a new resource category: Ingredients. The categories are now as follows; Raw, Construction, Fuel, Ingredients, Food, Water, Special.
- Updated the inventory visuals slightly to make the categories clear.
- Behind the scenes: Refactored item code.

Fixes

- Fixed a bug where a drifter could get stuck in the jumping transition.

Misc

- Re-scaled other UI elements, such as the speed buttons.
- Townheart water storage capacity increased from 15 -> 20.

0.6.0: Expertise is OUT NOW!

Heya Drifters!

The Expertise update is here!
It brings depth to the drifters with Expertise, Morale and Knowledge.

Your drifters will now gain experience and level up by doing tasks. This will give them knowledge, which replaces books as requirement for research. With the introduction of morale, your drifters will have wishes that affect their levelling speed.

Coming with this update as well is a look at the issues with boat abandonment. Mooring Points now detect if they are blocked and will communicate a warning to the player. Boats returning to blocked Mooring Points will teleport back.

What's next?

With knowledge being the new requirement for research, we will now take a look at reworking the current research screen towards a tree with clear progression. This includes "researchables", which allows you to unlock more than buildings, like town-wide upgrades, recipes and more!

Enjoy the new update!

Changes

Drifter Expertise

- Drifters can now gain experience and level up by doing tasks.
- For each drifter level up, you can assign an attribute point, raising their expertise.
- For each drifter level up, you gain knowledge.
- Each level gradually needs more experience.
- Drifters start with some attributes increased, which adds to the total expertise. This allows those stats to go above the maximum (10).
- Drifters start with attribute Affinity, which increases their morale when using those attributes. (and thus, their learning speed)
- Updated tooltips of attributes to correctly give all required information.
- Updated the attributes. The attributes are now as follows; Construction, Athletics, Liquids, Crafting, Research, Cooking, Fishing, Salvaging.
- Each attribute can be levelled to 10.
- Added the school, where drifters can use books to gain experience.
- On level-up, a drifter will spawn a little celebratory effect.

Drifter Morale

- Drifters have morale. Their morale will affect their levelling speed.
- There are 5 states of drifter morale with each an effect on levelling speed; Very Low (25%), Low(65%), Neutral(100%), High(135%), Very High(200%).
- The morale is outlined in a bar in the drifter panel.
- Drifters now have affinity for certain attributes. When they work tasks using those attributes, they will work at increased morale.
- Drifters will now prioritize tasks they have an affinity for, then by their attribute amount.
- Added various morale modifiers such as; new community, new friends, wet, etc.
- Added thought bubbles, drifters will now show thoughts of what morale is affecting them.

Research and Drifter Knowledge

- Researching now requires knowledge instead of books.
- Updated the research station; it does no longer have an eel-ectricity requirement. The footprint and cost has been reduced. The visual has been updated.
- Research is now done per knowledge, rather than the whole progress at once.
- You can now research one knowledge at a time without requiring the full amount of knowledge.
- Research UI will now show progress per knowledge point.
- Renamed "cancel research" to "pause research" so it gives the correct information.

Drifters

- Updated the drifter Water, Food and Sleep panel, lack of sleep is now tracked in the Morale panel.
- The debuff of not eating or drinking has now merged with the morale modifier.
- Morale modifiers can now affect other things, such as drifter attributes.
- Drifters not drinking, eating or sleeping will get stackable debuffs that reduce certain attributes.
- Drifters will now inform players if they are unable to perform their duties and why (mostly for blocked salvaging tasks due to unavailable storage space for resources)
- Hauling affinity now correctly shows in the drifter duties panel when a drifter has affinity for athletics.

Food and Resources

- Food now has a quality level: Icky, Ordinary or Yummy. Each give a different morale modifier.
- Updated tooltips of resources to correctly give all required information

General

- Added various icons for new features.
- Changed localization keys for new features.
- Removed pollution bar on the portraits.
- Updated some of the UI elements.

Mooring Points and Boats

Boat abandonment was a long-standing issue, we looked into fixing annoyances and communicating the issues to the player.

- Mooring Points now detect if they are blocked. These will show a warning.
- Boats moored at blocked Mooring Points will not be used by drifters doing tasks.
- Boats returning to blocked Mooring Points are no longer abandoned. These will teleport back to their linked Mooring Point.

Fixes

- Fixed an issue where the polluted woods scouting tower didn't have a selection circle.
- Fixed Seagull giving a morale debuff for leaving when they haven't left.
- Fixed Mooring Point signaling it being blocked when it was not blocked.
- Fixed a bug where a drifter could get stuck while salvaging a landmark by boat and a resource was toggled off.
- Fixed a bug where reassigning boats between Mooring Points could break their connection to the Mooring Point.
- Fixed broken Seagull panel.

Update 0.6.0p1

Localization Fixes

- Fixed issue where google translated suggestions from Localizor would import over top voted suggestions. (this sometimes caused weird translations such as % DAY%)
- Fixed issue where some keys would show as [] instead of the correct key.
- Fixed issue where pre-Early Access launch translated keys would not be imported.
- Fixed issue where suggestions not meeting the like threshold would get imported over the top voted suggestion.
- Fixed issue where linking to untranslated terms inside tooltips of non-English languages would state REFERENCED TERM MISSING instead of defaulting back to English.
- Fixed several keys to correctly link to their corresponding terms.
- Removed old Survival Guide keys still present in Localizor.

0.6.1: Woodworking Split

Woodworking Shed Split

Hey Drifters!

We've got a small update for you all before the research tree goes into beta. We've split the Woodworking Shed into two different buildings; the Sawmill and the Chopping Block. The original Woodworking Shed was meant to be a toolshed for a different feature and as such, felt a bit off-key visually. Now that we're working on the research tree, we took some time to split these into two different constructions. This way we can properly introduce fuel creation with research later on in the game, as well as look into a streamlined UI for single-item-workshops.

We also fixed some issues, most importantly; in certain edge cases a construction that was being deconstructed could cause a save to break. This is now fixed, and old saves with this issue can be loaded up again.

What's next?

We're testing the Research Tree internally and will have it ready for testing soon. After that, we're looking at scouting upgrades to work towards objectives.

Early Access 0.6.1: Woodworking Shed Split

Sawmill and Chopping Block

- Removed the Woodworking Shed. Loading saves with Woodworking Sheds built will still have working Woodworking Sheds in the town.
- Added the Sawmill, a construction that makes Planks.
- Added the Chopping block, a construction that makes Firewood.
- Added new animations and effects for the Sawmill and Chopping Block.

Fixes

- Fixed issue where schools would not list any drifter beyond the ninth drifter you rescued.
- Fixed several language key issues.
- Fixed issue where you couldn't salvage highway landmarks with boats.
- Fixed issue where you would start with the functionality of a watchtower if you built one, went back to main menu and started a new game.
- Fixed issue where a buildable that was being deconstructed wile the game was saved could cause the save to break. Saves that were broken this way will now load properly.

0.6.2: Research Tree

Research Tree

Hey Drifters!
We've got another small update for you all; The Research Tree
It brings dependencies and nodes with multiple unlocks, giving research a clear structure and progression path. It's a small adjustment to a more familiar research system.

What's next?

The Research Tree allows us to move forward with what we're building towards; objectives and end-game content. Next update will introduce a first step in that direction with the Hub.

Early Access 0.6.2: Research Tree

Research Tree

- Research is now contained in a tree of connected research nodes.
- Research now has branching dependencies. (E.g a construction that needs Metal Plates requires the Scrapsmith to be unlocked.)
- Research nodes can contain multiple unlocks. (E.g the Salvaging Boat and Mooring Point unlock in one node.)

Expertise

- Added icons for each attribute.
- Changed drifter duties icons to more accurately reflect the corresponding attributes.

Balancing

- The Desalinator no longer requires Metal Plates.
- The Unbottler no longer requires Eel-ectricity.

Localization

- Updated Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

Fixes

- Fixed some tooltips displaying the wrong text.
- Fixed some tooltips not displaying properly.
- Fixed issue where you could not use the duties icons to increase all drifter priorities for that duty.
- Fixed missing terms on landmarks.
- Fixed some UI elements that had localized text not displaying their localized text.

Early Access 0.6.2p1

- Fixed issue where research progress would get lost upon saving and loading.

0.6.3

Hey Drifters!

Just a quick and small update: we added some Survival Guide tutorial pages. These explain basic controls and give a quick overview on starting mechanics. In addition, this update brings some small changes to the UI for better readability.

What's next?

We're still continuing work on the next major update that will introduce objectives (other than survival) and more. Stay tuned.

Early Access 0.6.3

Survival Guide

- Added 5 tutorial pages in the Survival Guide to guide players. Basic Controls, Salvaging Flotsam, Moving the Town, Managing Drifters and Interacting with Landmarks.
- Created Survival Guide subsection for the Tutorial pages.

UI

- The Research Tree is now locked until a Research Station is built.
- The Producer Management is now locked until a workshop is built.
- The Eel-ectricity Overlay is now locked until any Eel-ectricity construction is built.
- Added an outline to the Eel-ectricity Overlay to more properly show the overlay is active.
- Added Grid Size and Energy Requirement to construction tooltips.
- Added Knowledge counter to Research Tree.
- Added upgrade icon to upgrade unlocks in Research Tree.
- Clicking a notification or Drifter Portrait no longer makes the camera jump to that drifter.
- Double-clicking Right Mouse will now close all open panels.

0.6.3p1: Quick fixes

Hey Drifters!

Just another quick update: we fixed some small bugs and localization errors.

What's next?

We're still continuing work on the next major update that will introduce objectives (other than survival) and more. Stay tuned.

Early Access 0.6.3p1

UI

- Storage filter panel is now closed by default.
- Added error tooltips for the disabled Salvage Boat Buoy and Fishing Buoy buttons.

Fixes

- Fixed issue where some terms would come up as *MISSING LOCALIZATION TERM* in non-english languages.
- Fixed issue where the energy overlay would get stuck if you closed the energy grid panel.
- Drifters can now return from landmarks if a bug caused them to get stuck on landmarks without a project.
- Turning a building on/off will now check if there's any items that aren't referenced by any recipe and move those to the export inventory.

Early Access 0.6.3p2

- Fixed issue where food items would be counted twice.
- Fixed issue where default resolution setting is on very low.

0.7.0 The Doctor is OUT NOW!

Hey Drifters!
The Doctor update is here!

With this patch we introduce the first specialist: The Doctor.
Specialists are unique drifters that unlock specific content. In this patch, The Doctor offers a way to cure drifters from their pollution diseases.

Additionally we took time to look at the current game features and improved them. Improved diseases. A new large handmade map that goes from West to East, which is a step into the direction of procedural generating an infinite map. A look at morale, with increasing drifter needs. A look at resource progression using tools and much more!

What's next?

If you want some extra insight into this patch, the original intent and development process for it is explained in the previous post. As for the future, currently we're working towards the next couple of specialists. Soon you'll meet the Botanist. Who'll bring plants, parks and town beautification to increase drifter morale :)

Enjoy the new update!

Changes

Specialist: Doctor

- New Construction: Med Pod.
- New Construction: Apothecary.
- The Med Pod and Apothecary Constructions can only be unlocked in the research tree if you have a Doctor Specialist.
- New Specialist: Doctor.
- The Doctor can be found by using the Radio Construction.
- New Resource: Medicine.
- New Resource: Mushrooms.
- The Doctor can make Medicine from Mushrooms in the Apothecary.
- Removed disease: Microbe Plastics.
- New disease: Spongehead. Drifters with Spongehead will drink twice as much.
- New disease: Musselmouths. Drifters with Musselmouths will eat twice as much.
- New disease: Smogbreath. Drifters with Smogbreath affect other drifters with low morale.
- Drifters now get a random disease when fully polluted.
- Drifters will be diseased for longer periods.
- Drifters can now be cured of their disease by going to a Med Pod when there's Medicine and a Doctor available.
- New Construction: Radio. This construction will be used to scout in future patches. Currently scouts for the Doctor specialist.

World and Region updates

- New Landmarks: Polluted Woods Mushrooms
- New Landmarks: Polluted Woods Dead Trees
- New Resource: Goods. Goods are a processed resource. It can not be crafted in the town.
- New Construction: Recycler. The recycler can scrap Goods for parts and create Drywood and Plastic Waste.
- New Landmarks: Rural Ruins Goods
- New Landmarks: City Goods
- Goods will now be available on landmarks with indication of former civilization.
- New resource: Tools
- New construction: Tool Maker
- Some landmarks now require Tools to salvage. Larger quantities of resources can be gained by using tools.
- New handmade map: First iteration of a corridor-type map.
- New Landmarks: Apothecary landmarks. This landmark contains Medicine.
- Apothecary landmarks can now be found in the Rural Ruins region.

Morale and Experience

- Knowledge is now gained by cumulative town-wide drifter experience rather than drifter level-ups. 1 knowledge point is obtained by getting 500 experience.
- Drifter level now decides their morale needs. Higher level = higher needs.
- Daily reports now contain the amount of knowledge gained that day.
- Daily reports now contain the amount of experience gained that day.
- Drifter overview panel now has notifications on the side. These allow the player to toggle different filters for the drifter overview.
- The Tech Tree is now in multiple rows. You can choose between multiple tech to research first.
- Updated housing morale effect to award more morale for higher tier housing.
- Added morale effect that awards morale based on the level of attributes a drifter has affinity for.
- Drifters can no longer share a House or Big House. Having a better house will make the drifter happier.

Balancing

- Large rebalancing run to accompany new changes. Some outliers:
- Fishing Chair and Fish Sticks now behind research.
- Chop Shop is now available from the start.
- Rebalanced weight tiers, Townheart now needs less fuel for travel.
- Rebalanced eel-ectric storage amounts and eel-ectric consumer/producer amounts.
- Changed cost of various constructions.
- Nerfed athletics attribute.

Misc

- Only scout landmarks of neighboring regions are activated when scouting a region.
- New Animation: Electro-Crafter
- New Animation: Food Truck
- New Animation: Fishwasher
- New Animation: Chop Shop
- The Doctor has a quirk that prevents them from getting polluted/diseased.
- Updated and cleaned up various new City and Highway landmarks that had test assets.
- Added dead wood salvageables to the Polluted Woods region.
- Drifters that did not eat nor drink in the morning will now eat/drink when it becomes available during the day.
- Drifters gain more experience when salvaging landmarks with tools.
- Updated survival guide with new and changed information.
- Added pages for the diseases.
- Changed the fish patches to specific fish patches. Each fish patch will now contain a specific fish. The type of fish will be shown on the map. Fish type spawning now based on region.
- Changed color of bottlefish from orange to blue to more accurately show it's the "starter fish". Changed Oil Gobbler color to orange.
- Producers can now have 10 recipes queued.
- Added Doctor idle animation.

UI

- Removed drifter level-up notification.
- Greatly reduced duration of marker and landmark completed notifications. Reduced duration time of various other notifications.
- Removed bottom bar art and tweaked spacing.
- Updated swimming icon
- Updated notification width and spacing.
- Improved the landmark actions UI.
- Improved the producer UI.

Fixes

- Reduced memory allocations caused by drifter portraits and drifter tools.
- The Unbottler now correctly uses the Cooking priority.
- Fixed issue where a tooltip showed of a construction when hovering over UI.
- Fixed issue where tools would not be removed when rerolling in the crew select screen.
- Fixed bug where the experience bar of a drifter would reset upon saving and loading.
- Fixed a bug where the patient of a Med Pod would break the save if it did not have a disease.
- Fixed issue where you couldn't select the Manual-Powered Generator due to the energy overlay.
- Fixed issue where you could no longer see experience or morale gained of previous days when loading a game.
- Fixed issue with scouting landmarks giving a notification that they were "salvaged" instead of the region being scouted.
- Fixed drifter duties panel tooltips giving wrong information about some constructions the duties were used in.
- Fixed issue where Medicine and Farming would show as possible attributes in the crew select panel, breaking the reroll functionality when applied.
- Fixed issue with shadow quality not being set correctly.
- Fixed issue where drifter portraits were being wrongly scaled with UI scale.
- Fixed flotsam LODs sometimes triggering faster than required, not showing any floating flotsam in the water.

Behind the Scenes

- Created a Voronoi map editor for map creation.
- Implemented a region based flotsam generator.
- Created a Query Tool to help with balancing.
- Added a region point-of-interest generator pass for the new voronoi maps. This allows us to more accurately balance what regions contain which resources.

Hotfix 0.7.0f1

Hey drifters!
Quick hotfix solving a few issues!

0.7.0f1

Morale

- Morale need is now capped at 10, as endgame did not have enough options to meet the needs.
- Morale bonus when drifters are doing jobs related to their affinity now set back to appear when they are doing the job. Levelling the affinity increases the amount gained.

Fixes

- Fixed issue with upgraded houses not providing more morale.
- Fixed bug when moving biomes would cause resources to get stuck in boats.
- Fixed bug where Fishing Chair production limits were not persisted correctly.
- Fixed issue where item filters on landmark actions would not work.
- Fixed mesh glitches with bottlefish fish patches.
- Fixed issue with Medicine not counting correctly in inventories.
- Fixed issue with portrait-manager casting shadows on water surface.
- Fixed issue with seagull portrait showing as previous rescued drifter instead.
- Changed order in which agents and boats are recalled when moving the town.
- Removed salt resource from item filters as it snuck in there during testing.

0.7.1 The Botanist is OUT NOW!

Hey Drifters!
The Botanist update is here!

With this patch we introduce the second specialist: The Botanist.
A specialist who allows you to build parks, plants, and flowers! These have a level of beauty to improve your town's overall beauty score with. A positive beauty score can improve the morale of your drifters, while a negative score will decrease it. Achieving a high beauty score grants even bigger bonuses.

What's next?

Parks sure take up a lot of space.. So, for the next patch, we're going to expand the construction area!
As you actually travel with your little mobile town, expansion comes with a few "problems". Increasing the build radius from the start can make it difficult to maneuver around, and can even lead to getting stuck surrounded by landmarks. To mitigate this issue, we have been working on some designs and solutions that we are ready to implement in the next patch.

Enjoy the new update!

Early Access 0.7.1: The Botanist

The Botanist

- New Specialist: The Botanist unlocks parks and decorations.
- Constructions now have a beauty score.
- Added Town Beauty which counts all construction's beauty scores in your town.
- Added Town Beauty morale effects. A negative score will decrease morale, while a positive score will increase it, with higher scores granting bigger bonuses.
- New constructions: Parks in grid sizes from 1x1 to 5x5.
- New construction: Grassy Walkways.
- New construction: Tiled walkways.
- New decorations: Various new Plants: Sunflowers, Ficus, Flowerbushes, Moneyplants, Monstera, Plantbushes.
- New decorations: New Trees: Birch Tree, Pine Tree.
- You can now place decorations on decoration slots. The park holds decoration slots equal to it's grid size.
- Added a decoration remove tool.
- Added new resources: Birch Trees, Bush Seeds, Ficus Seeds, Flower Seeds, Moneyplant Seeds, Monstera Seeds, Pine Tree Seeds and Sunflower Seeds.
- New Construction: Seedbank. The Seedbank stores seeds.
- Added the Botany task, a drifter doing the Botany task will plant seeds in Parks.
- Added new overlay: Beauty Overlay, which shows the beauty score for all constructions.
- Landmarks with nature can now contain seeds. These can only be harvested once the Seed Bank is built.

Misc

- Split the town building category into Walkables and Town.
- Added new resource type: Seeds.

Fixes

- Fixed issue with energy producers not unloading correctly, keeping floaty drifters in the scenes even when loading a new game.
- Fixed issues with pathfinding targets that didn't have the correct type.
- Various fixes and changes to error logs to more properly debug log files in the future.
- Fixed issue with some of the pathfinding targets not referenced correctly.
- Fixed issue that would have drifters idle on landmarks for a while when loading a game.
- Fixed issue where a rescue project keep the screen blue upon returning from map view.
- Fixed issue with inventory filter not showing.
- Fixed pathfinding issue that resulted in a node that was found not being the closest.
- Fixed issue with upgrade button sometimes having the wrong functionality.
- Fixed issue where icons would not look directly at the camera.

Behind the Scenes

- Made various design tests to increase the town's buildable radius.
- Tested cobblestone/tiled parks for decoration variation.
- Adjusted pathfinding so diagonal paths are available.
- Implemented a Palette Color Picker.

0.7.2 The Engineer is OUT NOW!

0.7.2: The Engineer

Hey Drifters!
The Engineer update is here!

With the recent addition of parks and flowers, the current build radius quickly got too small. So, with this patch, we're changing up how building space and town movement works! Previously, a radius defined how close your town can move to landmarks, but now it's now based on your town's actual shape. This means that, if you build your town in the shape of a triangle, you'll be moving a triangle around on the map. If you decide to make a squiggly wave of a town, you can slither inbetween landmarks like a snake. All up to you!

In addition, the max building range has been increased from 50 to 150, allowing you to build 9 times as much as before.

What's next?

We're still working on the next map updates, forging it into a continuous experience. In the meantime, a Quality of Life: Housing update will add multi-drifter housing and other various improvements.

Enjoy the new update!

Early Access 0.7.2: The Engineer

The Engineer and Town Movement changes

- New Specialist: The Engineer.
- Updated town collision to use the town shape as a collider.
- Implemented Physics-based town movement.
- Maximum build radius increased from 50 to 150.
- Town now has a weight cap. Once the cap is reached, you can no longer build.
- New construction: Town Tugger. The Town Tugger adds 2000 weight capacity.
- The Townheart has 4000 weight capacity.
- Weight tiers are now based on a percentage of the total weight capacity.
- Removed double-click town movement.
- Improved click-and-hold movement to now support reverse movement.
- Energy Pole, Walkways and the Town Tugger can be placed regardless of weight capacity.
- Town Weight is now calculated using the sum of all constructions, not counting items any longer.
- Construction weight is no longer calculated from item weights.
- Re-balanced all construction weights.
- New Overlay: Weight Overlay. This shows the weight above each construction.
- Added a tutorial showing different ways to move the town.
- Town movement now has a cooldown when 0 energy is reached.
- Electrocrafter, Electric Scrapsmith and Electric Desalinator can only be unlocked if you have an engineer.
- The Electrocrafter can only be worked by The Engineer.

Fixes

- Fixed landmark UI error where it would state you're not in swimming range when you needed tools to salvage.
- Fixed issue where main menu would not load correctly because PlayerData was empty, resulting in the main menu consisting of only ocean.
- Fixed a 4 length tiled walkway sometimes showing as a grassy walkway instead.
- Fixed issue that caused a boat to not despawn correctly when moving away from the landmark it was moored.
- Fixed issue where closing a landmark panel would spawn an error.
- Fixed issue where game would give an error when generating a new world.

Performance

- General performance improvements.

Misc

- Added Engineer and Botanist idle animations.
- Various small changes and fixes.
- Wood walkways beauty score from 1 to 0.
- Grassy and Tiled walkway beauty score from 2 to 1.

0.7.2p3

Hey Drifters!

After an extensive amount of testing on the experimental branch, we've implemented walkway upgrades and fixed a plethora of issues :)

Early Access 0.7.2p1, 0.7.2p2, 0.7.2p3

Walkways

• Walkways can now be upgraded. Plastic -> Wood -> Tiled -> Grass.
• Walkway segments now decide cost, have beauty and weight instead of the pontoons.
• Balanced costs, beauty and weight of walkways.
• Increased beauty of the Townheart 15 -> 25.
• Fixed issue with deconstructing walkways resulting in stuck drifters and stuck walkways.
• Upgrading Grass walkways will result in a Tiled walkway, and vice versa. This does not cost resources.

Fixes

• Fixed issue where dead drifters would still need a home.
• Fixed issue where upgrading a producer with the required items to upgrade would be in that producer's export inventory, would bug out the upgrade process.
• Fixed issue where constructions with decoration slot did not have a description.
• Fixed issue with wrong amount of water shown in water storages.
• Fixed issue where a drifter could get stuck when loading a save when his boat was still moored at a landmark.
• Fixed issue where drying racks would not always show the resources being dried.
• You can no longer right-click to remove water from Solar Stills.
• Fixed issue where drifter portraits reverted to their default pose when opening the menu when the game was paused.
• Fixed issue where producers did not show an error when their export inventory was unable to be emptied.
• Fixed issue where a walkway wouldn't build.
• Fixed issue where you could no longer plant any decoration.
• Fixed issue where a drifter could get stuck inside plants.
• Fixed issue where save file couldn't load due to a broken plant.
• Fixed issue causing drifters to get stuck when upgrading a construction.

0.7.3 Endless Journey OUT NOW!

Hey Drifters!
The Endless Journey update has arrived!

This update has been in the making for quite some time, fine-tuning procedural and hand-crafted maps, testing various aspects like map feel, progression, town movement and more. With that, we're delighted to finally present the final version of the world map and the town movement! You can now travel eastward continuously forever, no limits!

What's next?

The Quality of Life: Housing update, featuring multi-drifter housing and other improvements, was temporarily postponed to prioritize this update. Now that 0.7.3 is live, we're shifting our focus back to the QoL update.

Enjoy the new update!

Early Access 0.7.3: Endless Journey

Version 0.7.3 introduces the 'Endless Journey', allowing continuous eastward movement without limits!

Endless Journey

• Implemented an endless map, where you can continuously move eastwards. This consists of continuous multiple hand-crafted tiles.
• Created various map tiles and map starting tiles.
• Removed the option to start in the handmade or procedural map, as these are no longer relevant.

Map

• Added table and paper map visuals to the map view.
• Plastic, Wood and Seaweed Map visuals now are scaled based on the amount of resources in them.
• Map landmarks now lose color and gradually turn grey/sepia when salvaged instead of spawning a green flag when empty.
• Added scouting markers above marked landmarks.
• Generators and Books will now be marked by rescued drifters as well.
• Various map visual polish and fixes.
• Scouting regions now scout regions on subsequent tiles.

Landmarks

• Added Shops landmarks: Electronics Store, Bike Shop, Book Shop. These have a low chance to appear in the Rural Ruins.
• Added restaurant landmark, a Rural Ruins food landmark providing a smaller amount of food.
• Added many variations to existing landmarks.
• Added twigs to some Polluted Wood landmarks that provide Firewood.
• Fixed issue where selection circle would not appear around selected landmarks.

Misc

• Various fixes and tweaks to landmarks.
• Various small tweaks to the map.
• Updated landmark names and descriptions.

Balancing

• Batteries storage 1.500 Eels -> 1.000 Eels.
• Townheart Beauty 25 -> 50.
• Removed negative liquids stat for thirsty drifters. Added negative liquids stats to hungry drifters. Reduced severity of hunger.
• Reduced Morale impact on levelling speed. Unhappy 0% -> 40%, Neutral 65% -> 75%.
• having -10 Morale will now cause 0% levelling speed for those drifters.

Performance

• Increased performance for particles.
• Removed unnecessary particles.

Fixes

• Fixed issue with drifters getting stuck after upgrading walkway pontons with electricity poles on them.
• Fixed issue with map landmarks not properly turning gray/sepia.
• Fixed crash caused by cleaning up landmarks when going to main menu.
• Fixed a mushroom landmark not being reachable by boat.
• Fixed issue where a drifter could get stuck unloading a construction before upgrading.
• Fixed issue where loading a save would crash when the town's polygon collider was updated.
• Fixed bug where doctor and patient would get stuck when patient would be cured because the disease time expired while the patient was still in the MedPod.
• Fixed bug where turning the MedPod off would not cancel all projects related to the MedPod (would not eject the patient).
• Fixed bug where loading a procedural save would result in the map borders not being setup correctly.
• Fixed issue with loading a save that has a death drifter still in the community. This could result in an instant Game Over on loading the game.
• Fixed issue where returning to an unsaved drifter on a rescue landmark would cause an error.
• Fixed issues with newly added simplified and traditional Chinese characters.
• Fixed issue where NavMeshNavigator wasn't repositioned correctly after loading a save with a drifter on a landmark.
• Fixed Navigator errors when moving drifter navigator after moving the town.
• Fixed bug where game could not be saved when Landmarks that had been saved gained additional actions.
• Restored morale need cap to 10.
• Fixed frozen flotsam rotation.
• Fixed map road and region lines intersecting, causing z-fighting.
• Fixed park tiling issue.

0.7.4 QoL: Housing OUT NOW!

Hey Drifters!
The Quality of Life: Housing update is here!

Changes to morale back in patch 0.6 unfortunately resulted in the removal of multi-drifter housing. However, we understand the importance to proper neighborhood building, so we set out to reintroduce it while keeping it in line with the new design. You now have the option to build solo and duo houses, as well as a boarding house that provides temporarily shelter to drifters.

Furthermore, we've implemented some other improvements, such as a small map movement update: Previously, clicking behind the boat on the map would cause the town to turn towards that location. However, we've made a change to make the town reverse to that spot instead. This option is in addition to reversing by holding both mouse buttons, and should smooth map movement.

What's next?

Next up is the Architect specialist! We've heard your requests for the ability to relocate constructions. It posed some challenges and had us flabbergasted for a while, given the game's setup, but we found a solution. Enter: the Architect, a specialist that allows you to go into 'Architect Mode' and completely re-plan your entire town, re-think pipelines,... or simply move a few buildings around :)

Enjoy the new update!

Early Access 0.7.4: QoL: Housing

Version 0.7.4 is a small Quality of Life patch that updates housing and offers new housing options.

Housing

• Changed housing constructions. Known houses are now: Solo Tent, Solo Shack, Solo Cottage.
• Added new housing for two drifters at once: Duo Tent, Duo Shack, Duo Cottage.
• Added new house: Boarding House. This house provides a home for 5 drifters but can not be upgraded.
• Solo Cottage, Duo Shack and Duo Cottage have decoration slots on them.
• Reworked all housing visuals.
• You can now assign drifters to different houses.

Town Movement

• Clicking behind the boat will now make the boat go in reverse instead of trying to rotate towards that location. This is in addition to holding both mouse buttons to reverse.

Animations

• Added animation for the Recycler.
• Added animation for the Toolmaker.
• Added animation for the Doctor treating a patient.
• Added animation for patients in Med Pods.
• Added animation for the Apothecary.
• Added animation for gathering dead wood.
• Added animation for collecting landmark salvageables from the ground.
• Fixed mishaps in reroll animations.
• Reworked Cooking Reroll and Idle animation.
• Reworked Research, Athletics and Construction Reroll animations.
• Fixed some animation mishaps.

Misc

• Shuffled construction categories a bit: There's now a 'housing' category and a 'storage' category. The 'Town Movement' category has been repurposed as a 'general/town' category.
• Updated some constructions to create more readability.
• Updated colors on some constructions to theme their purpose.
• Added icons showing the width of each park.
• Fishing Chair is now properly scaled at 6x2 as originally intended.
• Various improvements to the performance.
• You can now build upgrade constructions without building the base construction first.

Fixes

• Decoration are now correctly rotated as shown in their preview when placed.
• Drifters now stop constructing when it is night.
• Fixed issue where upgrading would take as much time as building the construction from scratch.
• Fixed issue where some particles didn't show.
• Fixed issue where loading a save before a drifter died resulted in errors.
• Fixed issue where loading a save where drifters were deconstructing caused them to sometimes get stuck.
• Fixed issue where deconstructing a building lead to export inventories of producers to exceed their maximum, causing drifters that deconstruct it to get stuck.
• Cancelled items now get moved to a producer's export inventory, resolving issues where items would either get lost or not be in the correct inventory.
• Fixed issue where items of cancelled production projects would be stuck in the import inventory after a load because cancelled recipes were not persisted.
• Fixed issue where processing a dead drifter would cause an error when assigning drifters to tasks.
• Fixed issue where deconstructing a walkway could remove a pathfinding target and not allow the game to save anymore.
• Fixed issue where drifter would not stop fishing while de fishing chair was deconstructed.
• Fixed issue that caused constructions to stay in place when immediately deconstructing them after placing them.
• Fixed issue that caused no paths to be found to decoration slots, causing stutters and making the plants appear instantaneously.
• Fixed issue where animations could sometimes take much longer to salvage dead and fallen trees.
• Fixed issue where the 1x1 park did not show an available decoration slot.

0.7.5: The Architect OUT NOW!

0.7.5: The Architect

Hey Drifters!
The Architect update is here!

We've heard your requests for the ability to relocate constructions and ways to restructure the town. It posed some interesting challenges and flabbergasted us for a while, given the game's setup, but we found a solution. Enter: The Architect! This specialist allows you to go into 'Architect Mode' and completely re-plan your entire town, re-think pipelines, or just move some buildings around.

We've also been working on improving performance, the game should run smoother now :)

What's next?

We are working on adding controller support to the game! We want to make sure it feels right to play on a controller and on the Steamdeck, and it’s also going to help us explore the possibility of bringing Flotsam to other platforms in the future. We'll start testing this on experimental soon.

Early Access 0.7.5: The Architect

The Architect! This specialist allows you to go into 'Architect Mode' and completely re-plan your entire town, re-think pipelines, or just move some buildings around.

The Architect

• New Construction: Architect Station. The Architect station unlocks the 'Architect Mode'.
• Added the 'Architect Mode', in this mode you can move or store buildings and thus re-structure the town.
• Updated the tech tree to implement the Architect.
• Added The Architect specialist.

Fixes

• Fixed issue causing salvaged landmarks to no longer be greyed on the map.
• Fixed issue where drifters could get stuck planting seeds after saving and loading.
• Various small fixes to inventories.
• Fixed issue where some seeds on landmarks would be null and not be salvaged nor shown.
• Fixed issue where drifters would only haul 3 items when doing import projects.
• Fixed issue where drying buildings would spawn audio errors.
• Fixed material memory leaks caused by the resource visual setup.
• Various small fixes to map movement.
• Fixed issue where construction variations wouldn't show.
• Fixed some items not showing the correct throwing visual.
• Fixed issue where the Decoration preview would get stuck when it was active while a park was being deconstructed.
• Fixed issue where birds would be destroyed when they were perching on an energy pole that was being deconstructed.

Performance

• Adjusted underwater tiles to have simpler geometry.
• Added LODs for Fish Sticks, Town Tugger and Solar Panels.
• Reduced resolution of various textures.
• Removed unnecessary foam underneath some constructions.
• Texture updated for large storage yards.
• Resource visuals no longer cast shadows.
• Changes to the physics so it stays consistent when changing the game-speed.
• Various other improvements to the physics.

Misc

• Wind streaks no longer rotate with the camera.
• Updated LODs for walkway pontons so they don't disappear on lowest settings.
• Various changes to the UI to make it more consistent.
• Changed the visuals of the Food Truck as the texturing style was outdated to the current game's visual style.
• Changed the visuals of the Water Container to increase its readability.
• Changed the visuals of the Solar Still to properly reflect it's boundary size.
• Updated the Townheart's propeller build-blocking area to more properly show the blocked building area, also allowing for some leeway.
• Properly tagged Goods, Mushrooms and Tools to sort in the top bar inventory.
• Made some changes and fixes to our sound editor.

0.7.6: Controller Support OUT NOW!

Hey Drifters,
Controller Support is finally here!

We've been hard at work implementing controller support to bring you the most optimal joystick experience. We will continue to improve this in future patches, so give it a spin and share your thoughts!

In addition, we've taken a look at the entire User Interface. Lots of the UI was either temporary or quickly built-up during Early Access. This is no longer the case as all of it has been reworked and mostly finalized :)

What's next?

Next up is the Farmer! The food pipeline has been lacking for a while. In the early game, food often came with the downside of pollution. Not being able to fix this doesn't feel great. In the late game, making yummy food is notoriously hard to keep up. At that point, there's a clear need for a farming setup. Thus, we're aiming to fix these aspects with our newest specialist.

Early Access 0.7.6: Controller Support

0.7.6 brings Controller Support to the game! While this is a big feature, the changelog is pretty straightforward:

Controller Support

• Added Controller Support: all features of the game are now playable with controller!
• Lots of the user interface was either temporary or quickly built-up during Early Access. This is now reworked and mostly finalized.

Fixes

• Fixed issue where returning to the default view from the map would result in a blue haze due to a rescued drifter not being able to disembark.
• Fixed issue where the Salvage Boat Marker could be placed without a boat being built.
• Fixed issue where the game would crash when using an incompatible proton version.
• Fixed issue where a certain game-state could prevent leaving the World Map.
• Fixed issue where salvaging icons on the map would not disappear.
• Fixed issue where Scouting Markers on the map would not disappear.
• Fixed issue where the game would no longer save because of a deleted boat.
• Fixed issue where centering back to the Townheart did not work in the map.
• Fixed issue where the portrait of a rerolled drifter would be wrong in the Drifter Overview.
• Fixed issue where Upgrade Tooltip would not disappear.
• Fixed issue where mouse movement on the map was blocked by open game panels.
• You can no longer deactivate Parks, Watchtower, Radio Tower, Architect Station, Town Tugger or the Battery.
• Salvage Markers no longer give notifications on finished.
• Revised the Architect Mode. Architect Mode no longer creates an 'Architect Save' file.
• Landmarks now give an error if you cannot perform any actions.
• Updated the cancel behavior so panels are now closed in order when cancelled. ESC now cancels by default.
• Birds can now fetch any Flotsam.
• Various small bugfixes.