Imp City v0.26.1

Despite best efforts, bugs keep slipping through and the v0.26, which first seemed to work nicely, required a patch release, the v0.26.1

Downloads:

https://github.com/Varkalandar/imp_city/releases

But lets start with the better news. Here the combined changes in v0.26.1:

Changes since v0.26

• Fixed several mistakes in the new room management code.
• Fixed a thread synchronization problem.
• Saved games with ‚JobFetchItem‘ AI jobs can be loaded now.

Changes since v0.25

• Tried to fix a random crash in the party selector dialog.
• Made the treasury and lab floors a bit darker.
• Improved the lab equipment graphics.
• Conians only work in forges if there are resources available.
• Creatures on expeditions get their banner shown again on their lair after loading a game.
• Tried to fix the new room furnishing code to avoid overly bright
  lights and missing furniture (plus, restore all the pillars).
• The expedition book now states the artifact name instead of the quest location in case of artifact quests.

The new room management code still needs some more work, but that will come with the v0.27 release.

Imp City v0.25

It’s been a while since I posted here. Much work went into a new feature, treasure and artifact quests. Treasure quests will help to attract more powerful creatures. In the dungeon forges, at least initially, only bronze coins can be made, but some creatures demand silver or gold, which can only be won through treasure quests.

Quests will appear randomly if creatures work in the library, where they can find treasure maps and ancient notes. Be warned, not all mas and notes are true, quite some might be fake as well. But you never know until you sent an expedition there.

Similarily to treasure maps there will be quests to collect rare artifacts which the creatures learn about in books.

In v0.25 the player starts dungeon building in an enclosed area. One needs to collect 4 artifacts to lift this border.

The last major change was new furnishing code for the rooms to solve the path finding problems. In many cases furniture in rooms was too tightly spaced and larger creatures could not pass through. Now the spacing is more relaxed, so that at least along the walls there is space for creatures to move. But this also means that the smallest functioning room is a 2×2 square. Creatures will not work in room without furniture or equipment, but several creatures can use one bookshelf for studies.

Last but not least, creatures gain experience now, both through work and expeditions. They gain a 30% bonus to their base stats per level.

If you want to try it, there are downloads for Windows and Linux on Github:

https://github.com/Varkalandar/imp_city/releases

Imp City v0.19

Years ago I had been working on a simulation game in the spirit of dungeon keeper, just without the idea to fight another keeper with your creatures, but to raid the upper world for rare artifacts and valuable items.

Recently friends encouraged me to continue the old game project, and so I did. The start was a bit rough, but now it’s been three releases and I think I should tell about it here too.

The v0.19 is still a cleanup release to get code and graphics in a good shape for future development, but a new room type was added, the laboratory, and a new creature type to work the labs, the hat mages.

Imp City v0.19

If you want to try it, there are downloads for Windows and Linux on Github:

https://github.com/Varkalandar/imp_city/releases/tag/v0.19

Sadly there is a problem in the v0.19 that I noticed too late – the equipment in the labs blocks too much space so most creatures but the hat mages cannot move through. So if you want to access room behind a lab, you’ll have to build a bypass. This is already fixed in the published code and will be part of v0.20.

pak72.Elegance v0.07 for Simutrans

I’m late with the announcement, after a time of energy and motivation i just hit a down phase. Still trying to blog now and then.

So there was an update. Most of my free time back then went into coding for Simutrans, so there are only some small news. Mostly a test to chnage the industry chain setup. Have big and low traffic connections, and more small shops in town which sell goods and get moderate amounts of good delivered by truck.

this is still mostly an idea, because compact bus-top like truck stops are missing and even small shops require the player to build a freight yard nearby. But a beginning has been made.

Changes since v0.06

• Fixed some gaps in the wooden sleeper railroad track graphics
• Changed the metal works to produce hardware
• Added two hardware stores which also sell china and glass ware
• Added a first steam engine

Downloads for Linux, Windows and MacOS are available here:

https://github.com/Varkalandar/pak72.Elegance/releases/tag/v0.07

A graphical pak selector for Simutrans

If someone has more than one graphics set installed, Simutrans greets them with a choice right after program start.

It irked me that there was neither a preview of the sets nor a explanation of the features of a particular set. It was pretty much trial and error for new players who installed everything „just in case“.

Last week I’ve been working on a graphical choice. Still, no tool tips or such with explanations, because there just isn’t anything written like that, and the icons are the loading screen logos of the graphics set.

If the maintainers of the sets like the idea, I’ll add support for additional icons, made particularly for the pak set selector.

Demo versions can be downloaded from here:

https://github.com/Varkalandar/simutrans_ts/releases/tag/v0.06

pak72.Elegance for Simutrans

While working on the old pak48.Excentrique, and seeing what can be done, the idea grew in me, to also renovate the pak64, which I had once started. Much had been added, much had been changed during my absence, so it was not easy to get into it again. Initially I wanted to recreate all graphics in better quality and uniform style, but that turned out to be beyond my skills. So sorting, selecting, and touching up is what I actually do now.

Right now pak72.Elegance is a mix, a sort of „best of“ from pak64 but also with adapted goodies from other pak sets. The size of 72 pixels has shown to give good flexibility in both ways, to include from 64 pixel sets and from larger, like pak128 and pak128.Britain.

There still is much left to do. All ship related objects are broken at the moment, and very few vheicles are available overall.

More screenshots and development history can be found here:
https://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/topic,22199.0.html

For those actually playing Simutrans, downloads are available for manual install:
https://github.com/Varkalandar/pak72.Elegance/releases

pak144.Excentrique for Simutrans

For those not used to the terminology, a pak set for Simutrans is both, game graphics and a definition of the world to play in, with all goods, industries and other features.

Most of the other pak sets focus on regional specialties, British vehicles, Czech, Japanese, German and others.

I wanted to make something different and started a set called pak48.Excentrique. The 48 indicating the tile size. Colorful, surreal, fantastic and geared towards being easy to play.

Now 10 years have passed, high resolution screens are common and 48 pixel vehicles are just tiny. Very tiny in fact, because few can use the full 48 pixel size. So I started a renovation project, basically doing it all again, but with triple size.

Cities are made of crystals, inhabited by sparks and the world is colorful. The industries and goods are a bit surreal. The first, and so far only industry chain makes music. Melodies, fanfares, beats and rhythms are being produced and assembled into songs and tunes, to play for the city people. The next chain will be be about weather. Yes, in this pak you’ll be able to mix your own weather.

More images and the full history so far can be found here:

https://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/topic,22076.0.html

For those actually playing Simutrans, downloads are available for manual install:

https://github.com/Varkalandar/pak144.Excentrique/releases

Only one release there at the moment, the earlier verions have been offered through the Simutrans forum, but Github will be the official home.

The Interview

January last year a request reached me, for an interview about Simutrans. This came quite surprising, because about 10 years before I had been banned from the Simutrans forum in the aftermath of a failed attempt to return to development.

I decided to take the chance, figuring I can still cancel publication if it should go wrong. But it went surprisingly well, and now can be found online here:

https://blog.simutrans.com/?p=2430

Roboron, the interviewer helped me to get back to the forum and so I could become active around Simutrans again. I started with a UI theme, because the wish to make Simutrans look better always was with me, even during he time of the ban. A second theme followed, then updates to an old graphic set of mine, some patches for the program itself, and then the start of a new graphics set, all with the focus to give Simutrans better looks, be it UI, or in game graphics. And that’s what I’m doing now, and which the next articles will be about.

Auf ein Neues – A new Start

Nach langer Pause möchte ich wieder als Blogger aktiv werden. Krankheit, persönliche Problem und auch ein Mangel an Themen, über die ich schreiben wollte, waren der Grund für die Auszeit. Aber zumindest der letzte Punkt hat sich geändert.

Es geht um ein altes Software Projekt names Simutrans. Ich hatte das vor Ewigkeiten begonnen, dann an andere Leute abgegeben, und später einen Neueinstieg versucht, der grandios missglückt ist.

Inzwischen bin ich wieder dabei, und möchte auch darüber berichten. Und das ist jetzt auch schon die Überleitung zum nächsten Punkt – da Simutrans ein ziemlich internationales Projekt geworden ist, werde ich in Zukunft Englisch schreiben. Ich glaube mein Englisch ist dafür gut genug, und viele der Entwickler und Fans verstehen nur Englisch.

Das Norunshrengkt, v1.6

Zum Norunshrengkt ist jetzt noch ein Raumtor für den schnellen Transport der produzierten Metalle und Mineralien dazu gekommen. Zudem werden die Materialwürfel jetzt nach ihrer Produktion je nach ihrer Temperatur  in eine spiralförmige Anordnung einsortiert.

Das Norunshrengkt, v1.6

Das Nornshrengkt dreht sich während der Produktion langsam, so dass die Materialwürfel in der Spirale langsam nach hinten wandern und dabei abgühlen könnnen. Von der letzten Spiralwindung werden sie dann abgewickelt und von einem Zugstrahl zum Raumtor geleitet.