Coloring in the Lines - Development Log #315

Michi adds a bit of color to spice things up, Fabian tweaks taxes, and you've been invited to a special PrUn holiday event!

Avatar Michi

Michi (molp)

Today I want to share a work in progress video of the new universe map with you:

The first thing you'll notice is probably that I started to color the faction affinity of the star systems. I just added this functionality, so there is no button to activate or deactivate it in the control panel on the right. Not sure if I like the bright colors yet, or if darkened versions would work better. Let me know what you think!

Next, when the filter button representing the planetary resource water is clicked, it highlights all systems that have planets with that resource. We did show this in the past, and it is possible to select any of the existing resources by typing in the first letters in the input box. Back then a simple line showed the relative concentration of that resource. We now switched to a colored ring segment; the brighter and wider the segment, the higher the resource concentration.

Also, clicking the filter for oxygen combines the two resource concentrations and only shows the systems that have both resources.

The population filter almost works the same way as the resources filter: Where the resource filter shows the maximum resource concentration for the selected resource in any given system, the population filter shows the sum of the selected workforce in that system.

The filter view is then disabled by deactivating all filters.

Avatar Fabian

Fabian (Counterpoint)

Hey there! As you may have heard, we're working on a new AirlineSim project and there was lots of stuff Martin and I had to figure out in terms of core design decisions throughout the last month. However, I, of course, have been keeping up with all things PU as well and will get back to a couple design tasks this week. While the big politics rework is pretty much designed, it's been pushed back in our internal timeline for now, so we'll be trying to give you two more long-needed updates before the overhaul: government programs that will, among other things, (and along with an overall friendlier re-balancing) help you get high-tier workforces off the ground more easily; and another often requested option - tier-based taxation, i.e. governors will be able to specify taxes per workforce tier and no longer need to provide a "one-size-fits-all" tax value. I'll finalize the design of both those features before my end-of-the-year vacation, so that they're ready to be part of an update early next year.

Avatar Nick

Nick

I was fortunately able to get quite a few things done last week including grabbing some more YouTubers. We should have a video out today if all goes according to plan! I also updated the roadmap on the website and added Lena to the PrUn site since she will also be helping out with Prosperous Universe from time to time. Reddit ads are back up, and I hope to improve them this week with a few performance tests.

Most importantly, since the holidays are almost upon us, we wanted to end the year with a bang and announce our secret project next week on a live stream! Right we have set a date for Tuesday, December 21st. We haven't finalized a time, but be on the lookout for an update on social media and next week's devlog. We also want to invite a player to join us, please write me on Discord or send me an email if you are interested. We are requesting that you wear your favorite Christmas sweater if at all possible :)

As always: we'd love to hear what you think: join us on Discord or the forums!

Happy trading!