Alpha 5 is now available for download! The full change log is at the end of this post.

Devlog

Phew! We managed to get it all stable just in time for this months Alpha update. Somehow this update felt like the trickiest and most exhausting one so far, even though the changelog is shorter than usual.

Garret made some more medieval props. This concludes the work on the medieval set for now.

Changelog

- added resource and trash transport system
- added beginnings of the scenario editor
- added deco object pipette tool (easily clone any deco object)
- added shop and attraction sales stats
- added restocking shops from the back
- added a bunch of deco objects (medieval props, awnings, scaffolding)
- added czech translation (thanks Jan!)
- performance improvements (overall, reduced terrain loading times)
- fixed weather not updating after one year
- fixed guests being confused about where they want to go after using a transportation ride
- fixed path attachments sometimes not being built in the same position that’s shown as preview
- fixed not being able to select objects through path tunnels

We got the crate transportation to and from the depots working:

As described last week, the Depots have to know for which shops they are responsible. We reused parts of the UI for synchronising attractions for setting this up:

All shops got updated with doors in the back. If possible employees prefer using those instead of entering the shop from the front, even if it means taking a detour.

Garret made some nice new awnings:

Tim made good progress with the scenario editor. Scenario files can be saved now and it’s possible to place park entrances and guest spawn points.

There’s a bunch of polish and UI work left to do but it’s starting to become usable :)

So here’s how trash and deliveries will be handled in bigger parks:

A new “Deliveries” building will replace the current crate and trash stacking tiles. It can be connected through pneumatic tubes and conveyor belts to “Depots” that can be placed throughout the park. Shops can be associated with a Depot; if they are, crates will automatically travel to that Depot, from where they then get picked up by Haulers and manually transported the final meters to the shop instead of all the way from the crate stack. Inversely, trash can be dropped off at a depot and then gets automatically pumped to the Deliveries building.
This might sound weird and unrealistic at first, but at least the Disney parks are known to really use a trash disposal system that operates like this (AVAC)!
I’m not aware of a park that uses an automated system for transporting goods, but there are warehouses and airports that operate huge conveyor belt systems like that, so it’s not entirely unrealistic at least - and it should be fun and makes sense for gameplay reasons to have this, so we’re taking that small liberty here.
So far I’ve got the tube/conveyor building working (it works like building paths).

Luuk continued with the scenario editor and made progress with creating tools for defining the owned park area:

Tim added tracking of shop and attraction revenue:

Still lots to do to get all of this operational! Usually we break work down into much smaller tasks that don’t all necessarily have to be completed at once, so even if some tasks aren’t done in time for the monthly alpha update we can ship whatever is ready at that point and it’ll still work… but with these things either the whole system is complete or the entire feature needs to get delayed.
We have a couple weeks left to make it happen but it still makes me a bit nervous…we’ll see!