Other Announcements
Our Thursday stream should happen as usual this week at 6:00pm PST. Artist Malley is working on a bunch of animations; let’s see what he’s got for us next!
Desktop Tuesday SHOULD happen next week as usual, but we are moving offices down the peninsula over the weekend, so there’s a chance it may be delayed depending on what happens to all the equipment, internet connectivity, etc. Stay tuned!
Man, this next alpha will be big!
Water reworked, building reworked and more!
That’s not guaranteed. On last week’s stream @not_owen_wilson said not to expect any major changes in A22 as the work will take longer than that. We might see some small bits, but don’t plan on seeing the building rework until at least A23.
Small question. Is there an option (in options, debugtools or console) to turn these polygons that are shown in this video on/off? This would help by showing when a room is big enough, without the need of paying close attention to the hearthlings emotions.
Hi,
Quick Question; Since the change will effect buildings, will:
a) Custom templates
and
b) Existing buildings (from A21 saves) be effected.
I base these not on the prospect of the changes coming in A22, but rather what effect they would have on these things which will become the predecessors of the new systems
I think it’s in user_settings.json, inside the stonehearth mod settings (be careful with the commas):
...
"mods" : {
"stonehearth" : {
"show_open_space" : true
}
}
...
But I don’t remember if a console command was needed to be run before enabling this option.
HUGE DISCLAIMER: As far as I remember, if I saved with this option turned on, and later on I decided to turn it off after saving, the polygons would still be present where the hearthlings were last standing after loading that savefile, but they wouldn’t move/update from there, leaving an ugly sight in your town (this option was to help with debugging, after all). That might have changed, but just to let you know in advance.
@LordGovernorGeneral exactly which “changes” are you questioning? Personal Space or the “building rework”?
Want to expand on exactly how to be careful with commas. Your stonehearth section likely has more keys already in it. For example, mine currently looks like this:
"mods" : {
"stonehearth" : {
"enable_speed_three" : true,
"default_storage_filter_none" : false,
"auto_loot" : true,
"show_hearthling_paths" : true,
"building_auto_queue_crafters" : true,
"max_citizens" : 30,
"tutorial" : {
"hide_camera_tutorial" : true,
"hide_intro_tutorial" : true
}
}
},
If I were to add "show_open_space" : true to the top of the list, I would need a comma. If I were to add it below the tutorial section, I would not need a comma as it’s the last key in the section. To check if your user_settings are OK, copy and paste the entire file into http://jsonlint.com/, and correct any issues it tells you about.
Building Rework, not the Personal Space change
(Thanks for the quick reply!)
Cool.
So the building rework is currently focused on how buildings are constructed, with potential work on “renovations” (modifying an existing building). None of the work will affect currently standing buildings, nor do I expect it to break templates. Since Alpha 15 the team has worked hard not to break save compatibility and has said they would only do so if there was a really, really good reason. @not_owen_wilson would need to chime in to give you a 100% answer, but that might not be possible until he gets deeper into development.
They shouldn’t be affected. Although probably your existing buildings and templates might get into read-only mode, but if you save them again, they should convert to the new template format (I think, none of that is done yet, but it’s the intention).
Building rework will take a long time. Not sure when will we be able to release a first iteration of it, since it needs new UI and everything, or if we’ll prefer to finish most of it first and then release it and expand it.
So hyped!!! This will be so much better for hearthling hapiness!
I have a question about the water. He is working with it… At what extent? What will be in Alpha22 exactly? I don’t want to get too hyped for something that will take time to come aha 
Thanks for the quick reply. Just tested this and adding this line indeed enables the polygons (and removing it again makes the polygons stay in place in my test save file). This will be a great help in determining which houses (or in my case, paths between houses) are to small for me and probably a lot of other players.
Huh, i’m credited to giving feedback on spaciousness? How come i not remember giving any?
Hm… maybe i talked about it on a stream…(i have a faint sense of it…)
Exited though! Water was easily one of the features i was eager to see updated to a more stable and capable state
Now it’s time to wait for implementations to farming and building!
Personal Space II: Attack of the $ git clones
Sorry.
I really hope the eventual water changes allow mods to drain/add water. Just one more of the many things I want for my mods that probably will never happen 
I believe your post [here] (DT: Personal Space) sparked them to think about “squishing” the polygon into any available space, which was one of the mock-ups shown in the video. Although I suspect you’re also right about commenting on the streams; this was one topic that got a lot of ideas flowing.
It’s really interesting to see how all of the different suggestions came together on this feature – while ultimately only one can be seen directly in the finished result, the consideration of the benefits of the other options proved a valuable exercise all the same. It helped to better define how the gameplay should feel; e.g. allowing rooms without windows to still feel cozy, and making narrow tunnels always feel cramped no matter how long they are.
I’ve got to say though, I’m also excited about water improvements! I reckon that’s another area we’ll both be able to provide plenty of ideas and feedback for hahaha! 