Dwelvers Journal - 2018.01.07 - Dwelvers 0.11.18 is now released

[Rasmus]

2018.01.07 - Dwelvers Journal - Dwelvers v0.11.18 released

Hi all

First of all let me just say Happy New Year! I hope that this new year will bring you all as much fun and excitement that I hope it will bring myself

So Dwelvers v0.11.18 has now been released on the website and on Steam! This new version has filled some gaps in the old UI, I've mentioned earlier that I got some suggestions on remaking the resource bar in the top of the window that showed some of the items in the game. I thought these suggestions were really good because one issue with the old UI was that it was tedious for the player to get information about how many units of a item type they owned. Usually it required the player to go into the items menu and search for the item type, and this is something I really wanted to avoid. I want the player to have all the information they need right in front of them so that they can make quick decisions without having to click around, and the old items menu counteracted that purpose. So since the last update I've been working on getting rid of the items menu and making its options available in a new improved resource bar instead.

Besides from the resource bar I've also changed the trading system in a way that will make it much easier and fun to use

New resource bar

As you can see in the screenshot below the whole resource bar has been changed! Instead of just showing a part of the total amount of item types in the game I've categorized the items so that the player now can click on a category and then find the item type he or she wants information on.
So to break it down - I've made 11 different categories that is not only item related:

• Basic items - Lists items that can be found naturally in the dungeon and don't need to be crafted in a production chain.
  
• Advanced items - Lists items that can only be produced by combining other items in a production chain.
  
• Consumables - Lists items that can be consumed by creatures.
  
• Weapons - Lists equipable weapons and other items that can be crafted and used for inflicting damage on enemies.
  
• Armors - Lists equipable armors and other items that can be crafted and used for defending against enemy attacks.
  
• Trades - Lists available trades that can be made in exchange of gold.
  
• Rooms - Lists owned rooms.
  
• Floor constructions - Lists owned floor constructions.
  
• Wall constructions - Lists owned wall constructions.
  
• Hydraulics - Lists owned hydraulics.
  
• Fluid related buildings - Lists building that can be built on different types of fluids.
  

Resource bar - Item category

When choosing a item related category you will get a sub menu showing the items that fits the category. As shown in the screenshot below you can see the amount of items owned by the player and by hovering an item type you will get more detailed information about that item type. Also, by left clicking on the item type the camera will zoom in on the items belonging to that type one by one, this is a great way to locate items that there are a shortage of and make sure they get delivered to the right place.

Resource bar - Craftable items

When choosing an item related category with item types that are craftable the sub menu will look a little bit different. As seen in the screenshot below you now have the amount of items owned in the bottom right corner in each item type sub menu, and above that the amount of items that are queued for crafting. When hovering the craftable item type a 'plus' and a 'minus' button will appear, and by clicking these you will add or remove crafting queues.

Resource bar - Trading

This is the biggest feature upgrade for the game mechanics, we now have new way to trade items. When I started working on the resource bar I had the intention to replace the whole items menu, but I didn't know exactly what to do with the trading system. It was way to complex to just add into the resource bar. I've also been thinking for some time that I wanted to simplify it a bit because usually players tend to ignore it when playing the game. The reason for this may be because it was way to complex and hidden away in the items menu.

So to list the changes made to the trading system:

• Trades are no longer fixed for each portal, you can now make all types of trades with all portals.
  
• The trading option you will get by claiming a portal is no longer yours to make, instead the trades that gets unlocked are fixed in a random order that is decided when starting a new game.
  
• Items are no longer traded with items. Instead we use gold as a currency.
  
• You no longer add or remove trades by hand. Instead you set conditions for when to buy a certain item and when to sell a certain item.
  

You can now for example buy bread for gold or buy gold for bread, but you will always make a loss when selling items. In this scenario you can get 6 bread for one gold, but to buy one gold you need to sell 12 bread. In another example you can sell 30 rocks for one gold, and then buy 6 bread for one gold. In this way we can get rid of the huge amounts of rocks and other items the player tend to collect when playing the game for too long.

So by looking at the screenshot below you can see how the new trading system are implemented into the resource bar. By hovering a trade with the mouse and by clicking on the plus or minus button you set the trading condition for that specific item type.

• By clicking the plus button you set a value for when to start buying this item type. So if the value is 30, then you will start buying this item type when you have less than 30 units of this item type stored in the dungeon.
  
• By clicking the minus button you set a value for when to start selling this item type. So if the value is 30, then you will start selling this item type when you have more than 30 units of this item type stored in the dungeon.
  

In this way you don't have to micromanage the trading.

Resource bar - Buildings

When choosing a building type related category such as rooms, wall construction or hydraulics the sub menu will show the building types matching the category. Besides from just showing the amount of buildings of a certain type owned by the player, the player can now also get detailed information of each building type by hovering the sub menu. And by left clicking a building type the camera will zoom in on the buildings belonging to that type one by one.

Final words

I also made some promises to add an extra button to the resource bar where the player can setup his own items, so that the player only sees the items that are of interest for him or her. But I decided to put this option on hold for now so that we can see how this new resource bar plays out first.

So I really hope you like this new version, and if you have any questions or suggestions please let me know in the comment section below


Dwelvers Alpha v0.11.18 is available for download at the Dwelvers Website and on Steam.

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