1. - WISHING WELL COMES TOMORROW!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chronos-builder/chronos-builder-wishing-well?ref=card
This is our last chance to bring it up before the campaign goes live.
Don't forget to sign up so that you are notified once it starts! You don't want to miss out on those juicy early bird pledge levels ????.
Once again, we'd like to remind you that we will continue to support the current version of Chronos Builder and update it with all system updates unlocked via the Wishing Well expansion! The only exclusive content will be asset packs.
We can't wait to share with you all of the cool things we have planned for Wishing Well. See you on the other side!!
2. - New Alien Assets and Eastern Nature Props
The new Alien environment is here!
This too was one of the promised stretch goals from the original campaign...crazy how far we've come????. We put some extra love in the design of this asset pack and decided to change the way the floor tiles work: They are arranged in groups of 4 and have an emissive effect that animates across the entire plane. Perfect for video exports!!
New Eastern Nature Props
Something we planned to include in the latest patch but didn't have enough time to squeeze in. Thankfully, It's only been a couple of weeks since then so the wait wasn't as long.
You can access them through the Nature Paint mode inside the Terrain Tool!
3. - Export update: Print mode
The export systems also received some love in this update (this is becoming a trend now haha).
- New Print Mode: Added Print mode to the export menu. Export your maps so they fit in standardized pages according to your preferred tile size. The system will calculate the optimal page orientation according to the size of your map.
- Rotation and Zoom configuration: Simple as that! You can now use the sliders to modify the zoom and rotation of your capture.
4. - Quality of life changes
- Water under assets: Added a new system that prevents some assets from modifying the terrain. This will make it so that you can create liquid or modify the terrain beneath them. Assets affected include: Bridges, Ceiling Lamps, Plants, Rocks, Wood Logs, Sci-Fi Spaceships, Sci-Fi Evelated Pathways, Victorian Boats. We intend to expand this system in the future so you can manually configure which assets affect the terrain via the tweaks menu.
- Clickthrough System: This solves a common issue of multiple assets being stacked on top of each other, with one preventing the selection of the other. You can now continue clicking to select the item behind or on top of the current selection.
Note that this doesn't solve the known issue of regular assets preventing the selection of floor planes, something we intend to solve in the next patch.
- New Structure Replace System: The structure replace system has been updated. While previously it'd only replace an asset if it was highlighted with the cursor, now it'll check if it's either highlighted or close enough to the current asset being spawned. Additionally, You can also replace floor planes and columns now plus You'll now see a tooltip indicating whenever a replacement action is possible.
- New Background Plane: We decided to add a new background plane of a darker tone to help highlight your creations! You might have seen a preview of it already if you checked a recent mail we sent to all backers. Looks beautiful, don't you think? You can always disable it via the Terrain Tool menu.
5.- What's next? Chronos Builder's roadmap
Once again, we are starting our campaign for the new Expansion pack tomorrow, but that doesn't affect our current roadmap! Here are our plans:
- Regarding the last stretch goals: We are currently hard at work on the Sci-Fi Moon Base assets, which should be out in the next big content update we release around May. After that, there are only 2 Cyberpunk environment packs left which we intend to release through the summer.
Again, now that we are so close to completing all of the stretch goals set during the original campaign, we'd like to reiterate how thankful we are that you stuck with us through this journey!
Oh and if you are sad that we won't release any new assets after that, then worry not! The Wishing Well expansion pack is filled with lots of new cool Settings that we hope you'll help us fund!
- Regarding the Autobuilder: As we mentioned last time, we're planning a big autobuilder update which should release around the end of this month! We are focusing on creating an algorythm that will spawn more meaningful room compositions by focusing on the key central elements (such as a Bar counter in a restaurant) and spawning the complementary assets starting from that origin point.
- Regarding Bugfixing and Quality of life updates: There are still lots of changes we intend to bring that'll make map making even easier. There are some specific areas that need some extra work such as multi-selection movement and general system performance when loading the entire library. Our plan regarding this hasn't changed. We intend to continue to release regular updates every month or so!
- Regarding Linux: We have found several issues with the Linux version of Chronos. We are working very hard on them, but right now, we cannot guaranteed its release before May. We apologise for the inconvenience, and we ask you to be patience in this regard. Thank you very much.
6.- Patch Notes
Additions:
• Added new Alien environment Assets.
• Added new Eastern Nature Props.
• Added Print mode to the export menu. Export your maps so they fit in standardized pages according to your preferred tile size.
• Added Zoom and rotation options to Image and Video export menus.
• Added additional feedback to the export process.
• Added a new system that prevents some assets from modifying the terrain. This will make it so that you can create liquid or modify the terrain beneath them. Assets affected include: Bridges, Ceiling Lamps, Plants, Rocks, Wood Logs, Sci-Fi Spaceships, Sci-Fi Evelated Pathways, Victorian Boats.
• Added new Click-Through system: You can now select assets that are stacked on top of each other by clicking multiple times on them.
• Added new background plane. You can enable or disable it from the terrain tool.
Fixes:
• Fixed Export menu not showcasing which mode is currently selected.
• Fixed Community menu not showcasing which submenu is currently open.
• Fixed Tools buttons getting disorganized in expanded mode.
• Fixed non video export options not showing feedback after a successful export.
• Fixed “Restaurant Floor” and “Restaurant Floor (Square)” duplicating themselves when loading a map.
• Fixed “Restaurant Floor (Square)” preview icon.
• Fixed “Shelving” asset vertical position.
• Fixed multi file export on perspective mode so it generates all files with the same perspective.
• Fixed double walls and windows not having the same horizontal offset.
• Fixed Asset info not loading if you hold left mouse click over an asset slot.
• Fixed eastern garden walls and fences not being aligned at the edge of tiles.
• Fixed an issue that’d select multiple grids if an item movement action is cancelled with the Esc key.
• Fixed multi struct spawn rotation for initial and current assets.
• Fixed rotation and scale commands not always working correctly on Undo and Redo actions.
• Fixed an error that would constantly re-open the quick palette menu whenever the a new tool menu is selected.
• Structure spawn replace system fixes:
◦ Replace detection now checks if the target structure is highlighted by the cursor or close enough to the current spawn asset.
◦ Fixed floors not replacing each other.
◦ Fixed Columns not replacing each other.
◦ Added Tooltip feedback on replace actions.
◦ Fixed an issue that prevented 2x1 walls from being correctly replaced by 1x1 walls on certain rotations.
◦ Original desired rotation is restored after the replace after exiting the replace state.
Warning:
• Due to double walls horizontal offset fix, previous maps may have those assets moved from their intended position. Sorry for the inconvenience.
