Build 94

[rob]

Hello Brave Testers!

Tim and I just pushed build 94. Changes include:

* Remove crystal splinters and power crystals
* Remove some outdated /help info
* Remove total fortress kills leaderboard
* Lower minimum item price to .00001 coins
* Restrict prices to maximum 3 significant digits
* Replace all module recipes with simpler versions
* Remove recipes for housings, generators, regulators
* Rename cosmolyte to masstek
* Rename metacrux to betadyne
* Add new icons for uncommon and elite materials
* Sort items more logically in inventory and store screen

We finally ditched crystal splinters; the crafting system will supplant them. Tim's working on some interesting new craftable consumables for next week.

We haven't recorded the total fortress kills info for a few months, which is why the leaderboard wasn't updating. We decided to just throw it out.

I spent a little time today cleaning up prices, limiting them to 3 significant digits. You'll no longer be able to type in prices like 1.0000001. If you want to outbid a 1.0 buy offer, you'll need to offer 1.01.

We decided that the module recipes were way too complex and required too much space. The new recipes are build directly from materials (no housings or modulators) and each requires only 2 different types (one common, one noncommon). Module recipes now require 7 to 10 slots total. In an attempt to help with clarity I also renamed a couple of materials and changed some icons to reinforce the rarity relationships.

We are hoping that this week's simplification plus next week's new consumables will bring the crafting system into a more useful state. We really appreciate the feedback. Thanks for the help!

Rob & Tim
Jetbolt Games

[Crunch]

Is there a plan for existing housings, generators, etc? I really only ask because I would rather have the storage space than dead-end items.
Otherwise, I think that this is a good direction. Although, I'm sad to see the loss of the kills leaderboard...

[Jufda]

The item price restriction is good. The crafting system still needs a lot of work, but it's going towards better.

[rob]

There was a report in IRC that someone's hotkeys were nuked by this update. Anyone else see that?

[Justin]

RIP fortress leaderboard

Very excited for fuel (or whatever it will be named). I'm hoping temporary boosts will help make playing alone/in small groups feel less tedious.

Also expecting an improved 'potion' system if negative healing is added.

Now about the simplified crafting: can't check for awhile but I'm really hoping you stuck with the "elite material is required to make any module" idea. And although it's less complicated, it shouldn't be easier to make modules in terms of time rather than higher storage = easy peasy. So higher level requirements should compensate.

[Jufda]

Apr 16, 2014 14:01:31 GMT -5 rob said:

There was a report in IRC that someone's hotkeys were nuked by this update. Anyone else see that?

My hotkeys and other settings are fine. Maybe he had removed the LSO.

[Will]

minefield tank
Description
drops a series of mines over say 5 seconds

can poop them in a pile

or lay them in the path of a convoy

I'd like to have a tank that poops Rob. PLS. We need a pooping tank in this game so badly.

[trapped]

Apr 16, 2014 14:01:31 GMT -5 rob said:

There was a report in IRC that someone's hotkeys were nuked by this update. Anyone else see that?

Katagonit couldn't get his browser to refresh the flash cache and load the new build, so he cleared the cache manually (which deleted any eventual clientside bindings). He was disappointed of losing his keybindings, and someone said they should be saved serverside as well.

[rolnd]

The prices for mods are much better now, very excited for what you guys come up with in the future in terms of fuel and that sort of thing.

[amitp]

I had tried to build visualizations of the crafting recipes in build 93 but I couldn't get anything useful. The simpler ones in build 94 run in the layout algorithm but they're still not great. www.redblobgames.com/x/jetbolt/viewer/recipes.html

[Crunch]

Amit, at this stage of crafting, a pedigree model would work best, organizationally.



It's very similar to the final attempt on your page, but it cuts out the extraneous arrows redundantly linking the two "parents". Graphviz seems to support clusters and the linking between clusters/individual nodes. That could be one avenue to explore. 

However, this could still get really ugly, depending on future additions to the crafting system. It seems like it will need to be an iterative process to find the best models for the data. 

Also, I can't follow any of the links posted on that page. I'm getting the default nginx 404 page on them all. 

[trapped]

Apr 18, 2014 0:40:33 GMT -5 Crunch said:

Amit, at this stage of crafting, a pedigree model would work best, organizationally.



It's very similar to the final attempt on your page, but it cuts out the extraneous arrows redundantly linking the two "parents". Graphviz seems to support clusters and the linking between clusters/individual nodes. That could be one avenue to explore. 

However, this could still get really ugly, depending on future additions to the crafting system. It seems like it will need to be an iterative process to find the best models for the data. 

Also, I can't follow any of the links posted on that page. I'm getting the default nginx 404 page on them all. 

The links are broken; the original target is appended to the viewer's URL. In that case, what it should have linked to is this page.

[rob]

Amit, nice job figuring out the recipe tables. As specified now, each recipe has just one product. We are planning to make more recipes for next week fuel/powercell/energypod or whatever we end up calling them.

[Crunch]

trapped, thank you! It's so obvious... I really should have at least glanced at the URL. So much for being solution oriented, on my part... lol

amitp, now that I see you were going for exactly what I suggested, my only thought would be to link all the mod nodes to a single invisible node, in the case of redundant recipes. It seems that your algorithm is producing a separate intermediate node for every mod node, regardless of duplication, causing clutter.

[amitp]

Thanks Crunch! Yes, sorry, the links are broken. Something is wrong with the software I'm using to generate the page. I have the correct links in the original. I'll debug.