Plans for v3.1 (16 May)
Added 2020-05-11 14:47:58 +0000 UTCThe first update of the v3.x versions will consist of various UI and quality-of-life improvements, many of which are long overdue anyway but especially needed now that the game is fully 3d and that actor interactions have been introduced. They will hopefully make the game more approachable to new players, and make gameplay feel more fluid to everyone (less repetitive clicking or scrolling for example).
- The action and interaction menus will now be dynamically sorted to minimize the need to scroll down / type in keyword - with your last action (if still applicable) shown first on the list, followed by the rest of the available actions sorted by how often you used them so far in your current save. I find this especially important for the interaction menu with NPCs, which involve a lot of scrolling right now.
- 3d camera with free keyboard + mouse control for the character creation menu and the inventory menu, replacing the old static Zoom and Rotate buttons, so that you can always get the perfect angle while editing / dressing your character and don't have to constantly move your cursor back and forth between the main editor menu and the camera buttons.
- Reduce the load time for maps (i.e. the long "Loading, Please Wait ..." thing after you select a city). The improvement is especially noticeable for the bigger maps.
- Replace the top-left-corner tutorial popups you get at the beginning of the game (which are outdated anyway with so many gameplay changes in the last year) with a separate "New Game with Tutorial" mode accessible from the title screen, which guides new players step by step through the various aspects of the game. This way, experienced players don't get bothered by those popups and new players have their own 'handholding' new game mode that is very easy to follow.
- The hotkeys to open the frequently used menus (namely Esc, Q, I & P) can now be simply pressed again to close such menus, instead of having to find the Finish / Resume button to click on.
- About half of May commissions from patrons, the rest will come in v3.2 (30 May).
- Bug fixes and other improvements
Estimated Release Date: Saturday, 16 May
