Hey everyone,
Thanks to the playtest team and community for testing 0.26.0 and providing so much detailed and rich feedback as always. This update focuses on Fortress mode - making it much easier to pick up and play for newcomers to the genre. It also introduces a new style for the default font - a bit closer to the vision for the pixel art DNA of the game, while also balancing readability. You can always switch back of course!
Tim
A new font4
- Standard is the new default font. What you read stays in the smooth Readable font, and titles, tabs, buttons and labels use a pixel font.
- If you were on Readable, you've been moved to Standard and the game tells you once. To go back, pick Readable in Settings, Display, Font.
- Classic and Hyperlegible stay as you set them.
- The pixel font is Fusion Pixel by TakWolf.
Fortress13
- Starting a colony takes one press. Start your colony is the big button in the middle of the screen, and the world, site and settler options sit under Customise.
- If you have a colony saved, the start screen opens on its Resume button, so Enter or A takes you straight back in.
- Menu on the top bar, or Escape, opens a Paused menu with Resume, Save colony, Settings, Help and tutorial, Save and exit to title, and Save and quit. Resume carries on at the speed you paused at.
- When a save fails, the Paused menu says so in one plain line.
- Build has tabs now. It opens on Essentials, which holds everything a new colony needs.
- Demolish takes down anything built, cancels anything planned and refunds it, and takes roofs off. Click a tile and Demolish or Cancel order is the first thing offered.
- You can plan a whole sleeping room in one drag. The Sleeping room tool lays out the walls, a door, a roof and a bed for every settler, and Room does the same without the beds. Both work around walls that are already standing.
- The bed, kitchen and sleeping room lessons hand you the tool and outline the spot on the map. The sleeping room lesson also has Place it for me.
- Settlers stay out of the campfire. They gather round it on tiles of their own, and anyone with no work wanders the camp. Older colonies get this too.
- Planned things say what they are on their tile card, like Planned stone wall, and a roof waiting on walls you've ordered shows as queued.
- The top bar names its buttons when there's room for the words, the bottom bar has Log and More, and the ? button is called Help and tutorial.
- The Settlers panel opens on a short summary with the four bars, and the rest folds away underneath.
- An empty Gardens page points you to its Build garden button.
Keyboard and controller in Fortress3
- Choosing a Build tool with Enter or Space puts you on the map, ready to place it.
- When a lesson moves on, the keyboard jumps to its next button.
- On a controller, the Paused menu wraps top to bottom like the arrow keys do, and the D-pad reaches every site on the start screen.