TAR DevLog #6: Plants, Crops, Switches and Zoom - Experimental Version coming soon!

Hello there, Gabeux here. Welcome back to the Tech Age!

Status Report

We've been working on the current update for a while and have finally begun to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It definitely took more time and work than we expected, but the end results are also becoming more and more impactful than we predicted.

This update will feature multiple developments and enhancements, with improvements to all areas of the game. Internal improvements, like cleaner code and project organization, makes us extra happy, too!

New stuff!

As mentioned before, Flora & Farm will feature new crops and crafting tables. Although this isn't an Industry-focused update, we wanted to give you something to do with the new resources that are obtainable from the plants, like Pigment and Cloth: both can be used to build carpets. And of course, all the new foods.

All crops, plants and trees will also require seeds to be planted. Crafting seeds is done in the Crafting Table, which requires some research as Rebels get acquainted with their new surroundings.

Additional New Stuff!

As we've been taking our time with development, we decided to add a few extras that don't really fit the theme of the update. These include: 

• New power switches to control your electric grids, and a new Advanced Solar Panel that tracks the sun (animation may look wonky in the video as the game was running at 50X Speed)! A third switch, named Power Level switch, is also in the works and may make it to this update.

• For the first purely decorative item in the game, here's the Flower Pot: it will allow you to decorate your rebel colony by planting an Aeraki Fern or a Tegan Flower!

• We've also worked on adding a smooth camera zoom. Experimentally, we've also added the ability for the camera to follow the mouse cursor when zooming in or out (which will very likely not look like the video below). Zoom sensitivity can be configured in the settings, and zooming to cursor can be toggled on or off.

We'll be fine-tuning the camera in the future based on player feedback - especially the zoom-to-cursor feature - as it's surprisingly difficult (and subjective) to tell when the camera movement feels right. Even internally, some of us like it, and some of us feel like it's really weird!

More?

Really? Okay. A few more examples of things we've decided to include that we haven't mentioned before:

• Overhauled Filter screen - set what is allowed to be placed in Stockpiles and certain machines/tables much quicker than before.
• Addition of search bars on both the Filter screen (can also search by Category) and Storage screen (can also search what items are crafted by a crafting table).
• Crafting Tables now have a 'Crafting Orders' interaction button that opens up the Storage screen with an applied filter to show only recipes craftable by the selected crafting table. We used the filters to apply the filters.
• Notifications when a research project is complete. Clicking on the notification opens the Research screen.
• Improved behavior of power production machines - solar panels power production varies based on time of day, coal generator takes some seconds to heat up and reach maximum power production. An animation of sorts is now in place, bringing production up and down gradually over time, rather than instantly.

Experimental Version --Kirthos

In order to collect feedback for Flora & Farm, we'll be releasing an experimental version for interested folks in trying it out. More info, from Kirthos:

Like we used to do before the itch.io release we are going to publish an experimental version for the new update. We are doing that for people that can't wait for official release and want to help us test the game and find bugs. The experimental version will come in the next week. Expect a lot of issues. If you decide to play the experimental version, don't be afraid of the possibility of losing your save due to issues.
If you want to test the experimental version, come over on our Discord and send a message in General Chat asking for the Experimental Tester role.
You need to have the game to be able to use the experimental version. More info are coming over the next weeks on our discord.

Release Predictions but not quite

Given the nature of development, and especially the nature of how TAR is developed (not working in offices 9-to-5, and so on), it's hard to give accurate predictions or release dates. But we are all at the end of our To-Do lists for the update, with nearly all of it being things that we wanted to add right now rather than later (admittedly, some of those can take a bit long to add).
We also hope to have a good time-frame to let experimental testers check it out, and fix anything bad that may come out of it.

We are hoping it will be worth the wait, and expecting it to be ready sometime this February.

We're happy and excited to be sharing with you the next step in the Rebellions' journey, and hoping to hear your thoughts on the new additions once you get your hands on it.

Thanks for reading and believing.
- CG