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Mines - Past and Future

Discussion in 'Clockwork Empires General' started by xragon, Jan 7, 2015.

  1. xragon

    xragon Member

    The latest blog post was a fun read as always, exciting to see mining will make it into the game very soon.

    But I was wondering if the devs would be willing to share how/why the mines design appears to have changed from some early images (screenshots?) and I think trailers. If I am recalling correctly the mines were depicted in that typical "western frontier" style. Cross beams defining the entrance with a mine cart and tracks etc. and possible "attaching", at least visually, to the map (eg. up against a cliff)

    Now a mine, from the blog post, appears to be a building with a module attached instead.

    This is not to say the new way is wrong or bad, but it is distinctly different to what you (the dev team) appeared to envision, and I am curious as to what changed and why?
     
  2. dbaumgart

    dbaumgart Art Director Staff Member

    Easy answer!
    Doing it this way lets us fit mines into our building/workshop/module systems for which we have a *ton* of code infrastructure already done. If we did mines the original way, we'd have to make special-case code for pretty much everything.
     
  3. AmblingAlong

    AmblingAlong Member

    Is there any way to do that while still creating more visual diversity (for example, by making the structure open, like a pit)? One of my (very few!) aesthetic gripes with the (early, obviously unfinished, additional disclaimers here) game is that every building ends up looking very same-ish no matter what's going on inside. Obviously attaching modules helps a little bit, but it still ends up pretty homogeneous.
     
  4. theseeman

    theseeman Member

    I love the mines. Old way could have required getting to the cliff face. This way we can drop a shaft anywhere.

    My goal for today is to make a prison mining colony. "Into the mines ye convicts!"
     
    potashcar likes this.
  5. dbaumgart

    dbaumgart Art Director Staff Member

    I hear ya, but it's Important and Responsible for us to flesh out the game mechanics before getting too deep into visual polish. Once everything works as a game (and is stable), then it's easier to make time to make stuff pretty, you know?
     
    Mr147 likes this.
  6. AmblingAlong

    AmblingAlong Member

    Oh, absolutely! I should have made clear (on this and my other threads) that basically everything I'm saying represents a hope for the finished product, not a whiny demand for immediate action.
     
    Viion and Mr147 like this.
  7. Mr147

    Mr147 Member

    Here here! I agree with ya man
     
  8. xragon

    xragon Member

    Thanks for the response (sorry for posting and vanishing). Totally understand where you are coming from and assumed that was probably the case but was interested in asking anyway. It was a bummer to see this change just because it felt like a loss of design character, but as noted above I think that just has a lot to do with the focus on actually making the game a game. Rather than say stopping and making everything look pretty every other day and not getting anything else done :)