It’s that time of the month again, fellow time-travellers!
We are back with our biggest update to this day! This time with lots of quality of life changes, new tools and performance improvements, right on time for you to get back to map making after the holidays!
Make sure to update your game on Steam: version 1.1.0.
And, meanwhile, how about you sit back and relax as we go through the key features of this new patch?
1.- Nature painting is here!
You can now access the nature painting mode from the Terrain tool! This is the last missing piece, you can finally bring your environments to its final form!!!
Use it to paint nature props such as trees, stones (or mushrooms) across your map. You may select as many of them as you wish to paint them in one go. Use a bigger radius to make props spawn randomly within the brush or instead go for a smaller one to finely select where you want to place that one pine tree! Brush intensity values also control the rate at which props will be placed.
Remember this map? It has trees now!!!
Rocks and desert vegetation go great with scifi settigns 🙂
Just one last thing…we’re calling them «nature props» but you can actually be a total meanie and place other things such as trash, fallen papers or debris!
Cuberpunk bar got real messy during the show…
…thankfully, cleaning up the destruction is easy too!
You remember you asked for it on discord, right? 😉
2.- MacOs version is ready!
Mac users can now download the latest version of the game through Steam.
We apologize for the delay as we had a lot of issues porting the game to this new platform. We have fought against all odds to achieve the quality you deserve. We hope your feedback and that the wait has been worth it.
This version is only compatible with Intel 64 processors, so you may have problems if you are using an older Mac. Those older versions can still run the game but online functionalities will be disabled. Please contact support if you run into any other troubles.
We want to thank the Mac community for being so supportive of us. Thank you very much indeed.
3.- Improved Translations
We heard you loud and clear! It’s about time we finally updated some of the text translations.
We worked with professional translators for the French and Deutsch texts! That means no more typos (hopefully….not until our programmers had new text tooltips…)YAY!
4.- Usability and Quality of life changes
Other than adding new features to the game, usability is our top priority right now!
We know Chronos Builder is not as simple to use as we’d like it to be. That’s why we worked hard to solve this as soon as possible! Here are some of the changes you’ll get to experience with the latest update:
– Advanced and Simplified autobuilder modes: We added two distinct autobuilder modes to let you choose how in depth you want to go with your procedural building! The simplified mode only asks that you select the setting, environment and type of room you want to create, while the advanced mode is the one you are already familiar with that lets you choose the floor, wall, pillar and room props.
– Autobuilder mode won’t override already placed elements (if you so wish): We heard your complaints that in multiple cases you only wanted to generate new floor tiles or walls for your rooms but the tool would override everything already placed within that space. Well, thankfully that is over now :). You may use the advanced autobuilder mode and it will only override that which you ask for it to place. You only want to spawn new floor tiles? Worry not, the already placed props, walls and columns will remain there!
How about changing the floor tiles of this bar counter and adding some new columns? All other assets remain intact ofc!
Or maybe we can chenge the floor tiles and add new walls to turn the counter into its own closed kitchen!
– Command Tips will be displayed on the menu while editing items: We realize some users didn’t know the commands to edit items and this was frustrating to them. We hope this is a change for the better and solves the main problems while we address the other issues with the control scheme! The editing controls are still not perfect and we are looking to change the rotation and scaling options but that will take some more time.
And please don’t hesitate to provide suggestions in our channel in Discord, we’re always listening to improve the system for you, the users!
– Item editing commands have changed so that they don’t coincide with camera movement commands: In a previous update we made it so that you could move your camera using the WASD keys and this would interfere with the «W» key that was used to enable to rotation command. This has been fixed now as editing commands have had new keys assigned.
– Tweaks menu won’t open up whenver you mouse-over items in the library: Thank the almighty spaghetti monster!! The tweaks menu is big enough for it to constantly pop in and out of existence as you browse through the library. Now we simply display the item name as a tooltip. The entire tweaks menu will still show up whenever you click on the item slot though, in order to let you place it and read its tags.
– You can rotate already placed items using the q/e commands: This was already an option in the item spawning mode and it didnt feel right that there was a divide between the commands while spawning then commands when editing already placed items.
You dont want your drummer facing away from the crowd!
– Camera movement works while placing items and while browsing the library: Previously it was disabled in both cases and, for example, you could not use WASD to move your camera while the mouse was over the item library. Fixed now.
– You can cancel item spawn mode while dragging it: It’s what feels most natural and again, something that was overlooked on our end.
– New loading screen: You’ll see we did a bit of a rework to some UI elements (more on that later…)! ! The loading screen is now different. We decided to go for a classic loading bar. It should also provide for a smoother transition whenever you load a new map.
Hey, this is junt and image… you’ll see it in action tin the game!
– General performance improvements: The game should run much smoother now whenever you scroll the UI and edit items. Let us know how it feels!
– Added Undo/Redo commands to the Effects tool: This was the last thing missing…nothing escapes Ctrl+Z now!!!! Feel free to change the color of the sun or the time of day as much as you want and then go back and forth between these versions.
Iterating through effect with the new Undo/Redo commands. Featuring «Backalley» map made by Dherian!
4.1- Other planned changes
There are a few other quality of life features that we couldnt get ready on time for this update but will be coming soon too.
First, we realize a big issue is performance: the project runs slow on some computers and there are stutters and times that cause some frustration. We know what’s the source of all this: mainly the huge asset library loading up all of the UI elements at once for you to browse. We will work towards fixing it ASAP, but in the meantime, we advice you to close the props tool if you are not using it or minimize the UI if you simply want to edit already placed items.
Another change is the item editing command scheme, we hear you loud and clear that its not the most intuitive and we will be working towards fixing it soon. With the latest update, the rotation and scaling modes may be the ones that need the most work put into them, but feel free to let us know how you feel about the movement mode and if it’s a change in the right direction!
5.- Your photo in the game!!
The portrait assets avaliable to Modern Pledge backers and above have been added to the game…with a cool new twist!!
As we promised during the kickstarter launch, we would add portrait assets using a single photo of your choice…Well, how about we let you edit said photo at any moment??! This feels like a way better deal 🙂
Featuring the amazing «Club House» map by Bobours!
Featuring the incredible «Dusk Manor» map by FrostiPanda!
To do this, just select the Portrait asset and click on the new «Set Photo» button. Simple as that!
6.- Wait, there’s a new logo? The future of Chronos Builder and transparency with you, the backers
Your eyes are not lying! We changed our older logo for a modern one that better fits the UI and has a more simplified look to it that will let us adapt to…coming changes heheHEHEHEHE!!
So, what do you think?
On another note, there’s been a lot of discussion in the community about how you wish we were more transparent with you. We’re finally addressing that!
For starters, we are planning to update our website with new tutorials and a blog, as well as looking into the possibility of opening an Upvoty site so that you can keep track of coming features and vote for the ones you deem more important!
Additionally, we will stick to releasing at least one game path per month, with a kickstarter update every other 2 weeks to let you know where we are heading :).
7.- That means…We have a Valentine’s day date!
That’s right!! Two weeks from now is more or less Valentine’s Day! We’ll be seeing you around 😉 Oh and I guess this also makes this an update warning about a coming update…DOUBLE COOL!
On that day we will have some surprises for you and hopefully release the planned performance improvements mentioned in 4.1.
As always, thank you so much for your support. Please, enjoy Chronos Builder… and stay tuned!
Cheers!
8.- Patch Notes
Ver 1.1.0
Additions:
- Added MacOS support.
- Added Advanced and Simplified modes to the Autobuilder tool:Simplified mode limits your selection to the setting, environment and room in order to make your experience easier.Advanced mode is the one you are already familiar with. It lets you customize every detail before spawning your room.
- Added Nature Paint mode to the Terrain tool.Use the brush to paint clumps of props such as pine trees, rocks, bushes, dirt…etc.Select multiple nature props at once for them to be painted together.Nature props will spawn at random locations and rotations within the brush radius.
Nature props will adapt to the terrain height and can be painted outside the grid bounds.
- Added Undo/Redo support to the Effects tool.
- Added option to only spawn props using the autobuilder.
- Added custom texture assets.To add your own texture, select the portrait asset and click on the custom texture button inside the contextual menu.
- Command tips will be displayed inside the tweaks menu whenever editing or placing an item.
- Added a command to rotate assets using the Q/E keys while moving or placing them.
- Camera movement has been enabled while editing an item.
- Added an option inside the Chronos Button menu to force an item replacement whenever the algorithm can’t find any coincidence.
Fixes:
- French and Deutsch translations have been revised.
- Fixed a bug that’d cause the Autobuilder tool to replace already placed assets.
- Item editing modes have been assigned to the Z,X,C keys so that they don’t interfere with camera movement commands.
- Fixed inconsistent light configurations whenever the map is exported to VTT format.
- Fixed a bug that’d change the screen resolution while using the Export menu.
- Fixed a bug that would prevent the cancellation of item spawn actions when pressing the ESC key.
- Fixed a bug that would close the search menu whenever the ESC key was pressed.
- Fixed the preview icons for multiple assets.
- Fixed a bug that would cause the contextual menu to move to the corner of the screen after de-selecting an item.
- Fixed a bug that would cause asset rotations to work in unintended ways.
- Tweaks menu won’t open up whenever the mouse is over an asset slot in the library menu.
- Asset names will be displayed as a tooltip whenever the mouse is over an asset slot in the library.
- Fixed a bug that would reset the light source color whenever the color picker menu was selected.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Smooth terrain mode from correctly working on the edges of the grid.
- Fixed a bug that caused terraform actions to be more intense than it was intended.
- Fixed a bug that would reset asset scale whenever placing multiple of the same.
- Fixed a bug that would stop camera movement whenever the mouse was on top of the UI.
- Disabled spawn rotation on all structural assets and all of those with a grid size bigger than 1.
- Added feedback sounds to the Effects tool and Terrain tool menus.
- Texture painting menu inside the Terrain tool has been re-structured.
- Taskbar won’t show while holding down the right mouse button (doing item editing or terraform actions).
- Terraform menu will be disabled if the terrain isn’t enabled.
- Fixed a bug that would cause issues with undo commands executed before Chronos Button commands.
- Fixed a bug that would cause errors whenever two distinct items were replaced by the same one after using the Chronos button.
- Fixed an error that’d cause problems with Industrial environment assets.
- Fixed an error that would cause items to move erratically while dragging them out of their initial position.
- Multiple performance improvements.
- Quick palette UI has been modified
- Main menu logo has been modified
- Loading screen has been modified
- Export menu has been modified to use the system’s native folder UI.