Atralane's Antics (7/22/2016): Argo Tonitruous!

wow, that’s a clever design for the pike rack, cant wait to see the entire place :smile:

1 Like

Well, I did say I would give you guys some pictures tonight…and even though it’s not done yet, I want to show what’s been completed so far! Since I’m treating this as the first reveal, I’ll need to do it properly. (ahem)

Alpha 11

Diadem Depot!

Without any hesitation, this has become the most in-depth project I’ve ever done for Stonehearth. Even more impressive, I’ve somehow avoided killing the lua and pathfinder, as the screenshots show! I’m now nearly past Rainmun; up until now, the farthest I ever got was Rainmun 6 or so.

So, here’s a little tour to show off the completed sections!



Market District

Overlooking the depot area is a series of comfortable homes and businesses, including the Weaver and Cook. Numerous stands line the street, offering goods brought in by the freight from the railways. There are also several classy-yet-simple streetlights, leading the way out of the city towards the farming grove.


Industrial District

A bridge crosses over the rail lines, leading to a lovely plaza with an ornate centerpiece of lights, torches, and flowerbeds. A freight crane moves cargo from the train’s flatbeds to the storage lot, where the Mason’s warehouse is also located. On the opposite side of the plaza island is the Carpenter and a high-quality inn for travelers.


And, of course…

The Diadem Harbinger

The Harbinger is a full-sized, heavy freight work train that runs on the Diadem Depot line. According to Whyte notation, it is classified as a 4-6-0 locomotive and offers a reasonable amount of power with limited drawbacks. Its need for coal as a fuel for its steam engine may lead to more mining operations in the area in the near future…


Anyway, that’s what’s been finished for now! I’m still planning to make several more buildings, as well as a mine with mine carts (as I mentioned above), a streetcar line (opposite the inn from the current lines), and–if I still haven’t killed the game by then, I’ll try an airship with a docking tether. Yeah–there’s no way out for this game. It will crash and burn before I say it’s over!

So, here’s a list of planned things to do (feel free to suggest more!):

  • Blacksmith shop (likely a foundry style with smokestacks)
  • Complete freight rails
  • Add commuter rail and corresponding streetcar
  • Town center (more housing and plazas near the commercial district
  • Airship and tether?
  • (pray the save holds)

See you all soon!

14 Likes

I’m stunned! This is an epic project for sure. I love that crane in the industrial district and also the train must have been a beast to make. I can’t wait to see where you take the rest of this project.

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HOLY COW! I mean, seriously! This seems like a chunk of a late-game city! Also, love the detail you put on the Harbinger, as well as the fact you brought back the name Diadem, even though the Diadem Chateau seems weaksauce size-wise compared to this one! And further more, the fact that your still willing to go on further impresses me.
Also, perhaps you could put the town standard in the train to make it seem like the train is delivering your goods?

CONCLUSION:
Best build since Haru-jo.
Eleventy-seven/10

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I also just uploaded a snapshot of the current process on Steam, but who knows if it’ll get seen there :sweat_smile: . (Look, first emoji used here!)

I was thinking of that, but the problem is that I’ve been needing the wood and stone from Rufus and Norm (the traders) for a lot of the structures now since I’ve cut down most of the trees nearby and want to avoid more mining (it might make the game chug more). And those railcars and rails sure confuse the heck out of the pathfinder–if I didn’t have roads all over the depot, I think I’d lose a few down there…

I’ll likely move it down by the station at the very least, like an unloading dock (or somewhere by the airship if that ever comes around!).

I figure I’ll also mention a few of the bugs I’ve hit so far (most of which are known, but I felt it wouldn’t hurt to mention). Some of them might only be for extended games and not fresh ones.

  • Curtains and Tapestries drop to bottom of wall when deployed
    As it says. Place one of them, and they go through the floor to the top of their model. Repeatable, and the reason I couldn’t use them for the build.
  • Doors and Windows stolen
    Yep, this one reared its head again. Possibly tied to the confusing layout for the pathfinder, and the Hearthlings somehow getting approval from the coding to take them instead.
  • Combat Music loops indefinitely
    Not sure when this one started, but I believe it was the first encounter I had with a settlement (reloading does not solve). I had to mute the music (sorry, @Raj! I just couldn’t take it after a few hours!) It could be due to the continuous presence of the goblin’s camp (or more specifically, its old “location” in the world). Personally, I’d like to hear different themes for the camp and the thief encounters, since those are less about continuous action and more about sneaking, nervousness, and figuring how to deal with the problem eventually (in the case of the camp).
  • Scaffolding stuck inside constructions
    Technically just a current drawback with the build system. Build a structure out of slabs with a crisscross/waffle pattern (like train rails), and the scaffolding that’s made oftentimes can’t get deconstructed (especially when it’s a 1X1 space lower than the hearthling).
  • Scaffolding inside structures
    Possibly intended, but I’ve had a lot of my buildings get filled with scaffolding as the hearthlings attempt to build it. It might be due to my cutting of the upper floor to make way for a future stairwell. Occasionally causes scaffolding to be stuck, but very rare.
  • Recurring bug at startup
    Not sure what this one is. It could be related to the fact that I used console a few times to force delete a few of the aforementioned scaffolding sections to keep the pathfinder and lua from killing itself. Here’s the popup I receive (the same messages repeat):

  • Everlasting Hunger
    This one…actually makes me kind of sad. My Foot Soldier (now a Farmer), Raine Jondal, was accidentally left out in a field because I forgot to turn off the “rush to here” command when I found a small goblin camp about a game month ago. Needless to say, it was squashed, but poor Raine just stood out there at attention to the point that she was nearly killed (and that’s not an exaggeration–if I found her just a few minutes later, her health would have dropped to zero!).

Now, the problem is that she can never seem to be satiated, even if she has the delicious stews from the Cook promptly at lunch. So now she’s in some sort of eternal hunger status, and I continuously see her crying throughout the day. Please, @sdee! Help poor Raine out, so that these unfortunate hearthlings don’t go hungry like this!

  • Food items being consumed ‘flip’ while being eaten
    Another food bug–I think this one’s for @Tom (maybe?). I noticed when the heathlings eat a meal it looks like the sprite gets briefly flipped or rotated several times. Could be an animation issue? I’ve seen it happen with one of the stew types and one of the plate-based meals. Likely reproducible.
  • Undead never spawn
    This happened with Fasadd Village, too (see above in the thread). I haven’t gotten a single undead encounter up to this point (Rainmun 25), only many…many…invading goblins. I know others have mentioned this, so it’s possible this is already known by the team.
  • Spotty crate item observation
    This hasn’t been too bad (it’s much better than the previously releases), but I seem to have trouble with certain items. The one that’s stuck out to me the most is bread-related items, especially harvested wheat. I don’t think this is pathfinder-related, as the Cook originally was right next to the farms. Add to that that the Cook is now inside a building a few houses down, with a wooden fence between them and the crates, and they’re making stews just fine, I think perhaps it’s just some remaining issues with the new crop.
  • Small crates next to large ones cause hearthling confusion
    I can’t exactly say the configuration I had, but placing small crates next to large ones oftentimes caused hearthlings to sort of freak out and stutter. I believe it happens when they get on top of the small crate to restock the larger one, and it might confuse their pathfinding.
  • Heathlings just sort of…space out
    I know this one was mentioned on the Discourse. Fortunately, whenever this has happened (when it’s not due to pathfinder overload), it has been remedied by reloading the save (I think @Ponder mentioned something about it refreshing their status and resetting them).
  • Bunny Plushies are instantly undeployed
    I mentioned this in a dedicated thread. Put one down, and they seem to get packed up right away. I guess my hearthlings just don’t want to put down their toys…
  • Goblins Totems cause massive issues
    This was mentioned, but I wanted to stress this one, as it caused cascading bugs and crashed the game. Totems…aren’t don’t well this release, to put it simply. I believe they also suffer from instant undeployment, but I’ve had weird issues like heathlings picking up the ghost sprite, and in other cases freezing entirely when they reach the deployment zone.
  • Heathling dismemberment
    Again, known, but I got some weird occurrences this time around. I swear at one point a hearthling was using its own head as a shield.

Anyway, those are all of the bugs I can think of at the moment! I apologize for that huge list, but I figured it would be beneficial for Radiant as well as anyone trying to make some impressive builds this release to know what’s going on. Let me know if you need any additional data!

I’ll probably take a little break on building, since I have some work I need to catch up on. Here’s hoping we don’t have another release too soon, just so I can ride this project out and see how far it can go!

6 Likes

Whew… I’m going to need to take a hiatus after this one. It definitely outclassed Diluvium City!

Without delay…

Diadem Depot!

This… took a lot of time to finally put together! The total “building” count ended up being just shy of 380–this includes full structures, paths, walls, and “vehicles”. I’m happy to say I’ve buried the status bar in blue and yellow again, but even more so to say that despite all of this, the file is actually still functional! It’s definitely a testament to the improvements Alpha 11 brought along to the engine. Allow me to say that Alpha 12 should be even more glorious.

So, let’s get into the new things added!



Diadem Forerunner
(Here you go, @Soul!) The Forerunner is a commuter trolley system, bringing in travelers from the surrounding area. Like the Harbinger, it is a steam-powered craft, as seen by the smokestack and the coal bin sticking out of the back. I used Wooden Benches for the interior seating, as it seemed fitting ever since I saw those seats!



Residential House with Rooftop Gardens
A decent-sized structure right near the station for the Forerunner. Planters line the roof, adding some color and natural beauty to the industrial depot. (You can also see a crossing platform I added in front of the Harbinger from this angle.)



Town Center, with factory, houses (with overhead cables!), more vendor stands, and a mine with mine carts (*Told you I’d add them, @Sandwitch!) * The overhead power cables crossing the street were a little tricky (at least, the diagonally one!). The design mixes a little of both the lower depot and the main street from before. I included several residences, as well as another small park for social activity. On the level above is the main mine and its rail system, fueling the entire depot with minerals and coal.


Here’s a rear picture of the factory, showing off the smokestacks protruding from the structure (also hinting at the next attraction…)



Depot Airship Tether (with Cumulo -class airship)
I didn’t think I’d be able to get this one in–this was about the point I had to start leading settlers with the Party commands to make sure they didn’t starve at times (to be honest, I did have to use Insta-build for the last few rows of the balloon, but this was due to the current issue of the game slowing to a crawl when too many layers or stories are built in a single structure at once; I was getting tired and didn’t want to go back a few saves to redo the design in two parts! It is possible, though, with lots of ladder manipulation.)

The Depot isn’t designed for high air traffic, as there’s only one basic tower tether for crafts. The Cumulo-class is a perfect example of this, being a small, relatively durable craft for light cargo and transport. As you can see in the picture, one of the Hearthlings decided to have lunch on board the vessel!


And that pretty much wraps it up! This took a lot of time, but I wanted to try and see all of those stretch goals I set for myself realized. Eventually, I hope I might do some of these projects via video, since snapshots can only do a portion of justice to the sheer scope of this one (not any time soon, unfortunately!). I’d love to hear all of your feedback on the cityscape–what you liked, what you felt was missing, etc.

So let’s close up with some nighttime shots! Here’s one without lighting effects (the way I did the project; look at all of those lanterns on the perimeter walls!):

With Lighting:

I hope you all enjoyed, and see you later!

(Now for those reading assignments for my courses…)

18 Likes

My jaw has dropped. This is by far the best build you have done. The attention to detail is beyond incredible. I don’t even know how to express how epic this build is. I have no clue how you get your game to run that long either. My hat is off to you sir!

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Jesus Christ, it’s so beautiful!

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By the way, I forgot to mention…

…this build went all the way to the sixth game month. I’ve never even remotely gotten that far into the Stonehearthian year.

Deepmun, Dewmun, Rainmun, Growmun, Goldmun, Feastmun.

If I remember correctly that each month is 30 days (is this right, @sdee?), and I finished on Feastmun 12, that’s…

162 Game Days.

Wow. No wonder it felt like it took so long.

7 Likes

This is your best build yet, and the best one overall since Haru-jo! It’s your biggest, too! I have no problem imagining this as a chunk of a late-game city!
(Also, for the record, although that’s a VEEEEERY long time, you fall 23 days short of beating Haru-jo’s record of 184 days.)

I blame school.

I probably could have taken it farther, but I figure anything else I was considering to add could be used in an Alpha 12 project instead. Once we get some more colors for the slab tool and get more doors/windows/etc., I’d like to do more varieties of buildings and structures as well.

EDIT: Somehow I missed one of the snapshots I took. It’s just another shot of the Harbinger at sunset, but you can see it a little better and I thought you all might like it! Enjoy!

(Maybe I should add the Stonehearth logo to it? Crop out the bottom, and it’d probably make a nice shot! I’ll try it out later this week, if anyone’s interested…)

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Too bad that there’s no way as of yet to export a Stonehearth world as a bunch of 3D models. That shot’s as epic as any render I’ve seen, but imagine how much even cooler it could be if it was a render!

[Somebody really ought to look in to if decoding the save files is at all possible.]

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OMG!!! Love the logic and the build!!! Care to share the save? (@not_owen_wilson, for all your hard optimization work)

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I wouldn’t mind seeing a logo applied (that’s just me though).

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Thanks (especially @not_owen_wilson) ! I just went ahead and sent the file to you–let me know if there’s any issues that come up, or if you guys have any deeper questions about what I did or why.

I’ll extend that to everyone else as well–If you guys are interested in any of the structures/portions of the cityscape, I can discuss them a bit more.

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Quick little update!

No new project, but I gave a shot at doing a picture from Diadem Depot with the Stonehearth logo.

It’s certainly nothing like @Pandemic’s renders (it’s just a game screenshot), but I thought it might be something neat to try. The aspect’s a little strange since I had to crop the top and bottom off, so I’ll have to experiment with it in the future.

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Wow that looks so epic! I love what you did with the flowers, It all fits in well, Good job! (Although I may be a bit late saying that :stuck_out_tongue: )

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No worries! The old posts are still there for folks to see, and I’ve got no problem if people go back to like them… :wink:

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Still an awesome project!

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Just a notification about builds/projects for the future: Due to my upcoming German reading proficiency test later this month, I won’t be too active on the Discourse for a while. I want to make sure I do well on my studies, so I won’t be playing too many games until the exam’s over. Expect to see some nice things afterwards, since Alpha 12 will likely be out by then, and I’ve been meaning to get into a new project (I haven’t even tried the new workshop system yet!).

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