Alpha 2 released!

I guess when someone says “new content” for a city building game, first that comes into mind is new buildings and production chains. But instead of going the path of adding “more of the same”, I tried to fit as much as I can into existing buildings, improve what’s already there and fill in the missing parts.
I believe that attention to the detail is what sets Ostriv apart from other city-building games so I’m just refining its stronger points.
There’s a lot of interesting new stuff still on the road map, but I don’t want to add those before the game system is able to make them really meaningful.

Also this is the first update to feature some of the work not entirely made by me. With the funding collected during Alpha 1 I’ve been able to get a lot of help from some of my very talented friends.
Together we managed to get the game UI on a new level and break the silence with a unique soundtrack.

Although it was almost a whole year in development since last update and had some major improvements, keep in mind that it is still an alpha, so don’t expect it to be as stable as a finished game. This genre leaves no chance for quick development. Everything needs a lot of thought, testing, thought again.. So Alpha 2 is another iteration of testing. In which all of you are welcome to take part!

Let’s see what’s new.

Added/changed:

• Added pigs husbandry for production of pork and an iconic Ukrainian product – salo
  
• Substantially overhauled and improved the game UI
• Improved the look of water edge in winter
• Optimized performance (sounds way simpler than it is)
• Added a new farm crop – buckwheat
• View pitch is now saved to restore after zooming out
• Added a lot of sounds and music
• Can now exit world map or control panels with Esc key
• Added an option to disable edge scrolling
• Added hotkeys to open worldmap, economy & population panels
• Added an ability to modify all key bindings
  
• Can now set custom basic wage for laborers as well
• Reworked the way building footprints work. Now supporting concave shapes and reserved entry areas which are allowed to intersect
  
• Build queue:
  • Added buttons to pause/continue each construction + Shift to pause/continue all
  • Added tree removal counter
  • Added indicators for cause of construction stalling

  

• Added sit down and stand up animations for fishermen on boats
• Can now relocate boats to another fishing dock
• Added more tool models for citizens to carry
• Added several in-game options:
  • Showing connections between farms and fields, houses and residents, buildings and workers
  • Showing problems, like deactivated fields, families out of money, farms without manager etc.
  • Always show occupied space when hovering a building

  

• Can now pan view with mouse
• Eyedropper function to copy existing buildings
• Added nice marks for trees to be chopped
• Added skybox with some clouds which reflect in water. Also changes depending on season
  
• Improved texture effects related to snow, especially on buildings
• Added hotkeys to tilt camera
• Improved water shader for better freezing and melting visuals
• Smooth transitions between game speeds
• Added new cursors
• Better progress bar updating on game load
• Building areas under roofs don’t get as much snow as open areas
  
• Can now relocate ploughs between farms, also two more ploughs per farm allowed
• Showing more detailed help messages when ordered vehicles can’t be constructed
• Added visualization of vehicle or animal relocation directions (when dragging)
  
• Improved the way construction priority works, is more strict now
• Construction workers can now switch between build and resource supply tasks, making several deliveries during one workday
• Construction workers can turn back or redirect the delivery if priority changed or construction paused
• Construction workers are now constantly hired at a camp center or town hall
• Added sale stats in all selling points (currently market stalls and forestries)
• A minimap in the corner of screen can now be hidden when not needed
• Added option for big (48px) or small (32px) cursor
• Sorting game saves by time saved
• Can now choose a name for a saved game
• Added dust particle effects when demolishing buildings
• Added dust particle effects when plowing fields
• Added a hot key to rotate building 180 degrees (useful to place houses in front of each other)
• Improved the settings storage file, so you won’t loose your settings when the game updates (alpha 2 onward)
• Particle effects of falling snowflakes
  
• Can now choose if specific field should be plowed or not
• Improved plough model – покращено модель плуга
• Now using correct draft animal texture as it was before assigning to a plough
• Plough blade is now being lowered when plowing
• Cowshed cows can now die of old age
• Carts, ploughs and fishing boats gradually wear out and need to be repaired at a carpentry or a boatyard respectively
• Can now allow/disallow migration to the town in a town hall or a camp center
• Added delay before immigrants arrive after migration conditions met
• Showing floating icons over buildings with problems (families out of food, deactivated fields, farm without managers etc.)
• Farm fields can now be of any 4-sided form specified point-by-point. Can get back to previous point with right click
  
• Citizens now demand food variety, not just quantity
• Families now tend to have less kids if they’re not wealthy enough
• Added descriptions for all tasks performed by workers
• Slightly improved tree animation and some of the tree models
• Decorative tree placement now uses full-scale tree model during preview
• Amount of leaves on the ground depends on tree size now
• When harvesting, a worker can carry harvest on the way from field to a farm
  
• Newly created families get a starting budget based on their parents wealth
• Improved the localization system to recognize grammatical genders
• Citizens can now die of old age. There’s also an ability to designate burial plots for that cases
  
• New resource type: metal parts. Required for carts and ploughs production/repair
• New building: charcoal pile. Laborers will gather firewood and burn it to charcoal
  
• Smithy now requires charcoal in order to work
• Families can now also have grandparents living with them
• Improved the localization system to support numerals in some languages
• Added an ability to give families a financial help from town’s treasury
• Can see a family tree for all house inhabitants now
  
• Tweaked forest trees randomization to avoid overlapping
• You can now set storage limits for granaries just like warehouses
  
• Changed the way citizens choose benches to sit, now more evenly distributed
• Showing when a family have settled in the town
• Slightly improved citizens textures
• Can now choose a starting camp location when starting a new map
• New option for UI scale – 180%. Also can set UI scale in ostriv_settings.exe
• When supplying resources to building, workers won’t take carts if resource amount is small enough to carry in hands
• More intensive house chimney smoke in winter
• If the harvest is left on a field for winter it gradually spoils
• Same goes for hay left on a dryer
• Slightly improved the look of the pine forest
  
• Crops like wheat, sunflower and buckwheat require additional processing (threshing) by farm workers
• Can’t plant decorative trees too close to each other anymore
• Decorative trees are now planted by foresters
• Forestry workers made a bit smarter when it comes to deciding what to do now
• Can now specify regions for tree replanting by foresters
  
• Added snow on trees in winter
• Added a plantable dog-rose bush for bush lovers
  
• Added an icon in building properties indicating that production limit is reached
• Trade wagons and shepherds delivering cows are now distinguishable on the world map
• Slightly improved birds animation
• Improved the look of grass and other vegetation, added more defined seasonal changes
  
• Added an option to empty all building’s storage. Workers and laborers will try to move resources elsewhere. It also works for resource stacks left on the ground
• Can only demolish emptied buildings now
• Improved fishing spots selection. Not cluttering boats on each other, respecting fish population depletion
  
• People buy shoes and clothes only if they can afford it
• Trade deals from outer towns are changing over time now
  
• Added a detailed resource statistics in economy panel
  
• Added one new map
  
• Added a button if field properties to manually switch to next culture (if farm has manager)
• Can specify in farm properties if hay and water for oxen should be supplied
• Added supply options in farms
• Other minor changes and additions. Hard to track everything

Fixed:

• Foresters teleported with white lines to closest tree if it’s on the other side of the river
• Some houses had wrong floor collision model making people levitate near the door
• False positive inaccessibility when placing buildings
• Improved game timing system to avoid things like inconsistent construction speed or worker salary at different game speeds
• Game could get stalled after spent more than 20 in-game years
• Traders will now choose from available trading posts, not only the first built
• It was impossible to send messengers if there’s no manager on first-built trading post, but present on other
• Some buildings were not on center of the screen when focusing on them
• Doors didn’t get highlighted when a building is selected
• Crash when trade wagon leaves the town (in some cases)
• Mysterious door-shaped objects appeared in water reflection sometimes
• Smithy created smoke forever (even after demolition)
• Migration status reported water is ok even if it’s only available for production
• Vertical scrolling in lists with mouse wheel didn’t always work
• Now correctly restoring pause after going to main menu
• Stuttering when turning windmill body
• No snow on carts under roof
• Fishermen standing in boats after game loaded
• Fishing boats catch was invisible
• It was possible to order extra boat/cart on a slot in some cases
• Now citizens buy food in front of the market stall, not inside of it
• Shadow artifacts outside map borders
• Some shadows were detached from objects, creating a feeling of levitation
• It was possible to change game speed with keys from the main menu
• Anisotropic texture filtering on terrain was broken in last patches
• Citizen lighting was incorrect in some animation poses
• Cart relocation have always been choosing the first hovered recipient, even if mouse moved away
• Carts stayed as if someone holds them while loading/unloading
• Construction graph didn’t work correctly for bridges
• Autosave_previous always had the same modified time as autosave
• Saved games list had broken scrolling if accessed second time
• Tooltips were partially covered by cursor on certain UI scales
• Order box in carpentry always showed 0/2 animals regardless of real number
• Boatyard getting stuck if wood amount is between 17.5 and 20
• Another reason to crash when a trading wagon leaves the map
• Crash during chicken relocation
• Houses selection now uses fences form, not just rectangle
• Autumn leaves kept showing up on the ground each year even if the tree was removed
• It was possible to build partially outside map borders which led to undefined behavior later in game
• Siblings are no longer allowed to marry
• Fishing dock workers tended to teleport randomly underground
• Newly created families immediately moved out
• Windmills and hay dryers didn’t select by underlying circle, just by model geometry
• It was hard to select a worker during construction because of picking code used finished building’s geometry
• Fathers could be too young for their kids
• Fishing boats looked like there’s water inside when viewing from certain angles
• Cowshed pasture was “during season” from start, preventing it from demolition & reassign
• Laborer icons, when too many, could cover other buttons in farm properties
• A new game could still have economy panel buttons from previously loaded game
• Log carrying was a bit weird in latest patches
• Water platform was too sensitive to terrain flatness
• Grass could disappear in the corners of screen
• Various crashes when demolishing water sources
• It was possible to build fishing docks on too thin rivers
• It was possible to build a fence across the river
• Chickens were immune to thirst
• Crash when getting resources from previously demolished building
• Some other bugs may have been fixed by reworking some of the systems, but need to be checked

So that’s it. My mailbox is fully ready to be destroyed by your bug reports and feedback! yevheniy@ostrivgame.com

Reminding that if you own Alpha 1, you can just download the updated version from Humble with the same link they sent you when you purchased the game. Unpack Alpha 2 archive separately from any previous versions.

If you have lost your link, you can use this tool to regain access: http://humblebundle.com/resender

If you’re new to Ostriv, you can get it here https://ostrivgame.com/buy

If you want to further support the development, you can always get another copy for your friend. Just check “This purchase is a gift” and you’ll be sent a unique gift link to download.

Also don’t forget to spread the word: there’s a whole lot of online communities where no one ever heard of Ostriv.

Thanks for staying to the end of this longest release notes in history! Enjoy planting bushes!