September Progress Update

Hey everyone!

It's been almost a month since Allumeria has hit Early Access now. You may have noticed that the past 2 weeks I have stopped putting out bugfix updates, and the reason why is that I am currently working on a new content update!

Towards the end of the last post I made I discussed working on some side systems and trying to have some fun with it. The two systems I ended up picking to add/improve were weather and fishing.

Weather

Weather is something I wanted to add very early on but was also one of the first things on the chopping block when I wanted to cut scope down. This first iteration of the weather system will likely be very simple with minimal gameplay impact, although I would really like to add a lot of depth and complexity to it over time.

The way it's currently implemented allows for individual biomes to override or control their own weather conditions, and is very modular. New weather types can easily be added by mods or myself and custom biomes can choose what weather they will have.

Registering Global Weather

Registering Local Weather

The weather system itself is quite modular and its behaviour and the effects it has on the player can easily be overridden. As an example, acid rain that damages the player would be possible, or extreme wind that pushes you. (Not saying these will happen, just that these are possibilities within the system)

The things I have left to work on are:

Saving the weather state to the save file Syncing weather state in multiplayer Muffling rain sound when indoors Thunder storms

I originally wanted to add some unique content to this system, such as new monsters and items related to rain, storms etc, but I want to prioritize update frequency in these early days so that you don't feel like I've left you hanging. So for now, it's likely going to be visual + audio only, but the door is wide open for hooking into this system and adding new things down the line.

Fishing

The current fishing system in Allumeria was made in a single week, so I wanted to show it some more love. One of the features that needed work was the fishing log in the compendium. I've added about 14 new fish and overhauled the mechanism that decides what fish you catch and how rare it is. It can now be based on biome, day/night, the fluid you caught it in, the y level you caught it at, and the current weather.

You will now find unique fish in the desert and snow biomes. I've also added a new tier of fishing rod and more difficult fish to extend the progression. You can also unlock a new armour set that is more powerful than cobalt but a little weaker than palladium.

There are also some new fish with some fun/silly uses

Building

Corner Stairs

Currently these are not automatic, but the upside is you can place them in any configuration you want. They appear in the radial menu after you enable the "advanced shape menu" option. I think any additional shapes I add will be under this menu too, as I don't want to overwhelm people with the amount of options.

Marble

I added this new block based on feedback. I think it's useful as it has a near-white texture and works really well with paint. Great for large, grand, and ornate architecture.

Counters and marble furniture set

For a long time I have wanted to do furniture sets. I think there's still a lot of work to be done to make it a better system, but for now I have added marble versions of all the wood furniture. I've also added a new "counter" block which is kind of like a kitchen counter. It has an inset base and the top can be painted without changing the base colour, just like lamps.

Hedges and flowers

I've also added a new hedge block so people can make hedges. These are completely solid and cant be walked through like leaves. They can also be shaped like regular blocks, so you can make more unique builds. You can also see two new flowers, the purple one will be found in the snow biome and the orange will be found in the desert.

Failed Experiment

I also tried to upgrade my engine to use a 3d texture per chunk for the lightmap rather than baking it in vertices. This would help solve the issue of lighting on stairs or more complex models looking kind of weird and ugly. As I worked on it, I did get closer to a solution but there were so many edge cases and things I had to fix that I decided to scrap it for now.

Please Wrap It Up

That's about it for the main meat of the update. I'm working on some fixes and other QoL stuff based on feedback that I didn't get around to while doing the many bugfix patches after 0.15. One thing is the tool system has been reworked a little to be much more balanced, making axes actually useful and more powerful pickaxes actually deal more "damage" to a block rather than just swinging faster.

One thing I want to say is, if I don't get to something you personally want to be added or fixed, I truly am sorry. It's a challenging job trying to balance the expectations of so many, and make sure I am focusing on what people want, what I am able to realistically do, and how to allocate my time. Everything in this log so far has been done in the past 2 weeks, so I am trying to work quickly. Ideally this update will be out within the next week or two, but will see what happens; I don't want to overwork myself.

What's next?

I have some ideas for what I'd like to do after this update, and I'd like to hear what you think about it. Since October is right around the corner that means I could potentially do another spooky themed update. Perhaps something farm related, as farming is another undercooked system that needs work. But another idea that I have been dying to try out is doing weekly mystery updates. If you know your history this might be a little on the nose as me larping, but I do genuinely think it could be fun. The plan would be that over a few weeks I put out one update every week but without a changelog, so it's up to you to figure out what got added. Then I will reveal the previous changelog when I put out the next update. No idea if I will follow through with this idea or not.

Thank you

I'm really thankful that everyone has been so kind and positive about the game so far. It's been a LOT of work to get to this point. I don't want to let you down, so I've been working hard on continuing to make the game better.