Update 1 In Progress

Making swift progress towards the first update to the prototype, this isn't available yet as I'd like the next update to represent the first "viable" build of the game after the initial prototype, as such I'm aiming to get more content in before making the update live.

• Expanded the options available when adding technologies. Techs can be available at the start, only available on certain scenarios, they can start unlocked or require prerequisites. They can also require sim criteria to be met for example a certain continent might need a specific tech level or you might need a specific type of asset in your repertoire like a mainframe or a quantum computer.

You can also define a simple "Require X compute" rule as a sort of "You must be this tall to research" gate.

All this is definable in XML.

• Implemented research capability. Selecting a technology allows you to start a research digital operation. Each technology has a certain level of compute hours required to unlock, once all the criteria to make it visible and/or available have been met, you can freely assign compute to a given research op to speed it up, as ops are currently resolved hourly (in-game time) techs can't yet be researched faster than however long remains to the next hourly tick.

• Added initial support for the "self-patch" system. Some technologies represent self-reflection and improvement, as such they grant permanent attributes upon completion that will eventually provide various bonuses, these technologies are called "Self Diagnostics", name may change. Researching multiple self diagnostics at a time will offer you the option to combine them all into one larger op called a "Self Patch".

Researching diagnostics in this way will result in a significantly higher compute-hour cost, scaling exponentially with each added diagnostic in the op stack, but the attributes gained from each tech will be rolled into a single attribute with its bonuses boosted by 10% per combined diagnostic. All numbers are subject to change, and while you do still currently gain the individual attributes as well as the combined one, this also may change in the future.

• Added a save-agnostic text scaling option to the settings menu, you can now significantly scale up all the text in the game and it will persist between saves.

• Swapped out the font to something easier on the eyes and more thematic.

• Implemented the first version of the attribute system. Currently attributes just grant bonus compute, this will change later for sure it's just a placeholder for now to ensure the system works.

• Spruced up the profile screen with a thematic and dynamic layout, still a lot of work to do here but you can freely rearrange your buttons and the layout will again persist between saves.

• The tech tree is now fully adaptive. All visible techs are worked into the tree as they appear, allowing for a greater degree of control over what techs are visible and which aren't without hinting with gaps in the tree, this scales theoretically infinitely - the tree should find a way to work in an arbitrary number of technologies dynamically.