How I made Automatic Crafting! Exo Colony Devlog #10

[@e_buffturtle]

It’d be interesting if when placing 4 small solar panels together in a 2x2 then they’d combine to make a large solar panel and produce extra power So like some buildings have a kind of adjacency bonus to eachother

[@ObviousDev]

Uh, that's a very good idea!

[@Visuwyg]

For the power system: add a bicycle hometrainer thing that the player can jump on and mash a button in case they are in need for some emergency energy! ;) Or make that their first energy option, so they feel a sense of accomplishment once they are able to automate it with solar and wind

[@ObviousDev]

Haha I love the idea! :D I'll think about that!

[@ziero8546]

Crafting! HELL YEAH!!!

[@Shubhyduby]

The game is already looking great! Can't wait to see more development!

[@yekware]

lets goo

[@nichegames9590]

For 6 months this thing looks really good.

[@ObviousDev]

Thank you very much :)

[@doutle0091]

WOOHOO EXOCOLONYY DEVLOG!!!!

[@danielinverso5869]

The automated solar panel factory looks so satisfying!

[@cannac6995]

Suggestion: Batteries... they can keep the power for other uses

[@DolphinDev]

Love the pixel art!

[@ObviousDev]

Thank you :)

[@KotieDev]

I really enjoyed this devlog. You have a lot of water in the world. Maybe a water mill would work for the power generation? :D

[@ObviousDev]

That's a really good idea :)

[@scoopydevy]

this game is beautiful!

[@ObviousDev]

Thanks!! :)

[@puzledpenguin5676]

The aesthetic and artwork is beautiful. Great work and looking forward to further development. Good luck!

[@ObviousDev]

Thank you :)

[@nicolasL009]

Love your art style!

[@ObviousDev]

Thank you so much :)

[@SoloCodeNet]

nice job and cool develog Pouce Bleu !

[@ObviousDev]

Thank you :)

[@TylerGreen]

Stacking items on the ground is a nice addition!

[@JustinTheDev]

All the new features flow really well, great job

[@ObviousDev]

Thank you :)

[@nathandane452]

Ay, I have 2 ideas The first one is because I noticed there's still a bit of pain with animals getting in the way. I got 2 ideas for that. Either there could be something you can press where you swap places with the animal when you're next to it so it's out of the way, or the other idea; a tool you can use to push it 2-3 units away. If there's a building behind it that's small enough (such as a conveyer belt) it could launch the animal over that (without hurting it... somehow). The other idea is for the new generators. It would be pretty annoying to continually feed them, so of course, you could have conveyer belts going into them, but then it would get too crowded and not space-efficient at all if you needed a conveyer belt for each generator. So I thought you could make each generator share fuel with all adjacent furnaces. I thought of 2 methods of distribution: The first one is whenever an item enters one of the generators, it calculates all the generators attached to itself and all the generators attached to those etc. then it divides the item evenly between all of them. The other idea (which I think is a bit better) is when an item goes into a generator, it just fuels that one. If that generator becomes full, the next item that enters it gets split between all the adjacent generators. This means the generators furthest away from the conveyor input are most likely to run out of fuel. so this means when you build your area of generators you need to keep in mind how to get the most even distribution of fuel possible as you can have multiple inputs. a square grid of generators, for example, would be best to have one input at each corner and (if the square is big enough) a conveyor going to the center generator, too. Thanks for reading, and good work!

[@ObviousDev]

Thanks for this very detailled commend :) The animal swapping is a real good idea! Works the same in littlewood and is actually quite important. I'm sure I'll implement something similar. And I did not think about some other kind of distribution when it comes to the generators so this is really helpful! Not sure when I'll come back to work on this feature but your ideas are noted! Thank you so much :)

[@nathandane452]

@@ObviousDev no problem, thanks for reading this really long comment!

[@akaalkiratsingh]

It was a pleasure to craft the centurian(100th) comment on the crafting devlog

[@GamesBySaul]

Pascal, as always your videos blow me away! Great work! :D For the Input and Output have you been considering accessibility options with them? Some people may not be able to distinguish the colours too well, which is why maybe a symbol to say Input/Output could be added? Either permanently or in an options menu? Also from what I've seen in the Discord, if I remember correctly you mentioned that you don't really plan on animals being attacked or anything, which could also tie into energy perhaps? You could try and push more benefits of using Green power over non-green power? Such as more animals appearing if you use green power and less appearing using wood burning for example :)

[@ObviousDev]

Thanks for the feedback as always

[@GamesBySaul]

@@ObviousDev of course! You put out the top quality videos I'll give my best feedback I can! And yeah! Even if it's just an option to toggle on and off! :D

[@Kevkf]

The game looks very good and i hope you7 keep actively keep working on it, as a very cool idea would be a watermill or in generell more water-based stuff (Bridges, Boats and lots more)

[@TitanLordofPizza]

looking great!

[@KurTilingOfficial]

I have a idea for the batteries where its animated like it well start to light up do bottom to top

[@ThisIsVini]

This is looking pretty good. Have you considered adding a generator with an input pedestal? This would allow the player to also automate feeding the generator by having a conveyor belt that would bring coal or whatever material the generator requires.

[@ObviousDev]

Uuh, that's a really good idea! Thank you :)

[@mikl3e]

Power from water wheels/mills could be another option :)

[@ObviousDev]

Yes, that's a great idea :)

[@BlueGooGames]

Supercool, i just started playing factorio and this seems very familiar yet unique. We’re making a cooking game with automation and machines so Exo Colony is very inspiring :)

[@guestdoygames7959]

Good job on the design in the gameplay

[@ObviousDev]

Thank you :)

[@b3nn3wman95]

The crafting looks so good. The game is currently looking great!

[@AmalieKae]

Love the rainbow button animation! Super fun! The game is looking so damn good, and the continued complexity is really intriguing! : D Keep it up!

[@ObviousDev]

Thank you :D I try to keep it up!

[@Skeffles]

Brilliant to finally see you add crafting!

[@kairu_b]

Cool art style!

[@Johan-rm6ec]

No connecting with the character is key with a valid purpose.

[@ah8851]

looks good!, could I make one suggestion, have two cameras, one your main, and a second for electricity. Have the power lines only show through the electricity camera but are hidden on the main camera. this will make it easier to see how the power lines are structured, and keep your main game cleaner. You could also add a shader to the factory objects that will only show when you are viewing the electricity camera and add some post-processing to the electricity camera ( a blue colour tint for example ) to indicate what you are currently viewing. this will also help with performance because the game will not have to render the powerlines lines every frame, only when the electricity camera is being viewed. you could also use this method to create a production camera that will show everything being created on your production line. keep up the good work!

[@ObviousDev]

Thanks for the feedback! I think the two camera methods is a really good one :) I'll totally keep that in mind and also the shader idea. Maybe already for the next devlog. Thanks a lot!

[@saschajacob510]

Alien pugs! We need alien pugs °A° (Great video as per usual, of course)!

[@ObviousDev]

You know what? I think you're right!! :D

[@casualdutchman]

The be honest, I thought the battery would inidcate it's state with the 3 bars. Empty, no bar is lit up and with every 33% or so, a bar would light up, letting you know how full it is

[@ObviousDev]

Yeah, that was my first idea. Maybe I should change it to that :) Would be easier to read

[@siersh6934]

I think generators should use water to work, that will boil and rotate the rotor of generator, like in real life.

[@benjattkk]

Game's looking great, love these new features! Maybe for the power system, as an end game building, you could add a coal generator?

[@nocommentgameplays426]

Very interesting game.

[@erbsenfresser6806]

Maybe geothermal energy like in rimworld? And as a late game technology nuclear power :)

[@ObviousDev]

Very good ideas! Some kind of late game power source which has more or less endless power would be super neat

[@erbsenfresser6806]

@@ObviousDev Since we are on an alien planet you could maybe use some sci-fi technology that is only available on that planet. And you stumble upon it on the map or have to research it :)

[@aliengeo]

Looking at the battery, I can't really see any indication that it's being used or that it's charging. Given your asset, I would use the 3 glowing bars to represent battery charge level as x/3, with no glow at empty and the asset shown at full, blink the topmost glowing bar when battery level is changing, and turn the battery white or electric blue with an animation when it's feeding other devices. It is a neat crafting system, tho!

[@Dramakins]

Another type of energy could be water wheels!

[@ObviousDev]

Ah, that's a great idea :D I'll totally keep that in mind!

[@sechmascm]

You could add some logic to the power system so players have better control. Logic gates, filters, etc.

[@ObviousDev]

I totally want to add this later on in development :)

[@BloxedZ3R0]

awesum

[@memile]

Maby you could make a power source that uses water. It would produce a small amount of energy, but in a non-stop constant way.

[@ObviousDev]

That is a great idea :D I'll keep that in mind!

[@Asy18]

Will you make unique designs for ore rocks and bars later instead of just recoloring the ones you already have. I get it's not a priority now but it would make everything look much better

[@ObviousDev]

I totally want to make the items and ressources look less redundant later on! For now it's easier to have them this way.

[@Visuwyg]

One question: Wouldn't robot arms make more sense than drones? I understand the drones only fly 1 tile in each direction, otherwise there would be no use for conveyor belts. Just curious about your thoughts!

[@mikl3e]

He explained that in an earlier devlog. Robot arms are too complicated to animate.

[@ObviousDev]

Yeah it was just easier with drones and I liked them as much as I did like the arms. So for now I'll keep them this way :)

[@Visuwyg]

*plop*!

[@matthiasholm2107]

Will the batteries be portable? I think that could be a fun challenge: charge them and place somewhere where the normal energy-system doesn't reach

[@ObviousDev]

That's a great idea!! :)

[@williamwester223]

Many add a type of tree that produces rubber sap similar to real life you can use to create tires and make vehicles that will make you go faster than normal and carry resources in the back

[@eirik6502]

Maybe should the input and output colors be switched? Since the color red often symbolize that you cannot put items there while green shows that the player can. I at least think of it in that way.

[@joncrones8909]

Hydro power

[@totallynone621]

Can you make spaceship that can warp dive/drive to other planets?

[@ObviousDev]

That's a cool idea :) I have something like that in mind for some time in the future!

[@Combes_]

make sifi trains edit,maybye you could start with a stage coach and progressibly level up

[@JavaJack59]

So how are power gains and losses computed for all the connected items on the power grid? Like a cellular automata or something?

[@jezus5471]

I have question about crafting machine how can you craft it? Or maybe you start with it?

[@ObviousDev]

That's a good point :D I think the player will also be able to craft important items like this from inventory

[@imyasuka]

You meant every succesful survival game?

[@ObviousDev]

Yeah, that would be the more correct term ^^..

[@Radha24748]

Can we play this masterpiece

[@diligencehumility6971]

Why did you delete the video where you explain how you made the belt system?

[@ObviousDev]

I did not o.O

[@diligencehumility6971]

@@ObviousDev Maybe I miss remember. But didnt you make a video where you show how you made the belt system, with a debug overlay etc?

[@ObviousDev]

Mh.. I think you mean this video - that's the one with the debug overlay :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKC5npqGqrSfo8U

[@diligencehumility6971]

@@ObviousDev Yes that was the video I was looking for, thanks! :P

[@jbninjalit]

is this playable