Looking Back

What a slow week… Pollen attack! Fucking hay fever, lack of sleep and too many distractions. The task UI is still just a concept. It required a semi-functional conversation system beforehand, anyway, which I can claim to have implemented at least.

Prototype of conversations in game

The options are already wired to actions, such as ending the conversation and triggering the currently empty task view. The selected option in the screenshot (“How are you doing?”) will at some point provide insights into settlers’ needs, which should inform a player’s priorities or even create new player tasks directly.

The task UI will be quite a beast. I have tried to imagine how it would look, but it turns out that I need to make it work for two work flows. Firstly, tasks can be given directly to settlers, as seen in the screenshot (first option). This consequently requires opening a task view where the current settler is the default and unchangeable assignee. The direct approach should be used by players for high-priority tasks which they need to have reliably completed. As a second and more commonly employed approach, tasks will be given out indirectly by posting them to the settlement at large. Any settlers willing to work for a given reward will then sign up for the task and start working on it. Thus, one way focuses on a settler, while the other emphasizes the task. At the same time, the implementation and workflow is reversed for each case. I will need to draw up an actual flow chart for this. The task UI is eventually going to be the most viewed menu within the game (probably rivalled only by the building mode), so it must be done properly.

Looking Forward

Well, this is easy: keep going on the task UI. The conversation system will also need some more work. I am still deferring the management of text strings (messages, menu labels, atc.) to a later time. I might need to get that in sooner, though, since yanking out all text into a suitable repository does not become more pleasant with time. I hope I can show off a little video sequence of the task UI in action next week. Getting one of those guys to gather some firewood is still the goal.

Thanks for reading and until next week.