Build Update 2024/02/27
Metropolis 1998 » Devlog
== Metropolis 1998 - Late February/March 2024 release ==
Major Updates:
- Units can now use sidewalks and can walk to work! Unit must be able to reach destination on sidewalk to walk.
- Added mixed-use zones & buildings! You can now create buildings with businesses and apartments
- Blueprint backend code is now in alpha! The goal was to get this work done so your blueprints are not lost when the game updates. This isn't a promise that it wont happen again, but it's very unlikely. Saving your creations is very important to me!
- Blueprint GUI preview is now outputted in isometrically when camera is isometric
- You can now export and import blueprints. Share your creations with other people!
- Filter blueprints by density
- Added camera rotation!!
- Wild object placement (place item outside zone too!)
QOL & Minor Updates:
- Apartment building blueprints now displays apartment total, not bedroom count
- Show which building and apartment a unit owns on click
- Added more hot keys for various action states. Pay attention to the tips at the bottom left corner of the screen!
- Blueprints search for road to connect to will only check driveway connection now, instead of any driveway tile
- Added hot key to output original blueprint as created by the player
- Blueprint items are now grouped and randomized as a whole. e.g. 10 same colored chairs will all change to a new random color
- Blueprint windows are now randomized in groups, in case player used more than one window type
- Started implementing backend localization for other languages.
- More assets added to the game
- Fixed loud wind noise on game launch
- Started replacing internal code names with read-friendly text when moussing over stuff in game
- Delete unit from game
- Units scheduled has a random delay trigger
- Cars wont be deleted when repathed while in an intersection (EXCEPT when loading from save file)
- Camera panning in isometric mode matches perspective
- Added pagination to both blueprint GUIs
- Replace all windows in buildings now replaces all windows of clicked on type
Bug Fixes:
- Centered current floor text properly
- Subdivision boarders output properly, and remain on top floor if active floor is higher
- Fixed inability to duplicate floor & update wall types when walls were partially visible
- Fixed wrong subdivision (i.e. apartment) count caused by deleting rooms
- When placing subdivisions after driveway is connected, they weren't registered by incoming units. Now they are!
- Fixed bug where zone_ids were being stored in incorrect road edge when blueprint touched 2+ roads.
- Fixed top down blueprint preview drawing order. e.g. floors were drawing over objects
- Fixed bug where stairs were not fully deleted when expanding room deleted existing stairs
- Fixed blueprint message spam when bad placement
- Added missing object variants. Some blueprints outputted the same object every time
- Fixed top down chairs being centered on tile, which did not match isometric version
- Fixed bug where zone_ids were erased when bisecting road from road edge, preventing driveway re-connection in some cases
- Fixed wall height issue when placing/deleting rooms
- Fixed curved pavement tiles not outputting
- Fixed pathfinding bugs
- Clicking on zone will now also pull up building UI
- Fix update interior/exterior E key toggle not updating texture
- Fixed room placement bug which may have prevented saved games from loading. When replacing an entire lower floor with new room, sometimes not all walls would delete
Files
Metropolis 1998 2024-02-27.zip 15 MB
Feb 27, 2024
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Metropolis 1998
Recreating childhood pixel by pixel. A beautiful throwback to the city builder & simulation games of the 90s/00s.
| Status | Prototype |
| Author | YesBox |
| Genre | Simulation |
| Tags | City Builder, Management, Pixel Art, sim |
More posts
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Comments
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I didn't have long to try it out but I tried to blueprint a building more similar to those where I live and I had some troubles, both related to that and in general, in order of importance:
No quit button?
When I placed the roof (by accident) I could no longer see the floor I was trying to place objects in, or the roof was that floor? (what about attics?) and I could not find how to delete a roof...
No basements? Basement shops and car parks are pretty common, if not ubiquitous here, even the centre of my small town has the main supermarket underground in the basement of the biggest building with the one next door having bar and restaurant in the basement...
No indoor windows... I tried to build a mixed use building with apartments above and shops below; the two ground floor shops were separated by a hallway that leads to the stairs to the apartments (very standard design here) but I wasn't able to make the walls between the shops and the hallway into windows as they would normally be, though I was able to use the same doors for inside the building and outside the building which was good :) - if I can't make indoor windows I don't know how I can make "galley" windows either... a window from the kitchen to the dining room to pass plates and dishes through (very common in older houses).
When you select delete mode and then select a type of deletion the type submenu disappears which was unhelpful when I had to delete my building because I made the wrong initial zone... talking of which:
It was not entirely clear how to make a mixed use building - maybe if the user tries to add a floor with a different zone type then automatically make the building mixed use? (But better also to put up a message saying this will or has happen(ed)?)
Just my first few thoughts but other than the above I found it very good indeed and will try to play around with it more once I have more time to spare, apologies, I have to go now...
Hey JellyFish, thanks for all of your feedback! I appreciate you trying out the demo
You can hide roofs using the X key, or clicking the icon on the left side of the screen with the walls and roof.
Basements and attics will be added in the future!
Indoor windows are not possible yet, due to the way the GPU processes graphics, it requires extra work to make partially see through textures draw in the proper order on screen.
I'll add a over-mouse message stating what delete mode is active, if that's what you mean?
I'll also add clearer instructions on how to create a mixed used building. Basically you need to choose a building type, then click on the room menu icon and place the room in the zone.
Hey, thanks for the quick reply and it was fun to try out, will be doing more in the future (today even, if I get time!)
The delete mode thing is less to do with knowing which mode than being able to change which delete mode I was in; because the submenu disappears I have to open it again to change delete mode...
For mixed use it was placing the zones that was more confusing... you have to select mixed use when you place the original plot and then you can zone from whichever type you want and add things from rooms from whichever type but it was that initial choosing mixed use that was confusing since that zone has almost nothing in it - also that a good half of building here are "mixed use" by this games' standards! (Here many people would expect that the ground floor is a shop regardless if it is in a residential, commercial or industrial district!)
So I just wondered if you could automatically make a building mixed use if someone tried to add different zones to a building - that way there is no need for an error message and no need for the "zone" mixed use in the build menu, two birds, one stone ;)
I also wondered if maybe it would be better to have the roof as it's own separate zone so that roof furniture (e.g. solar panels, air conditioner units, solar heating units, wind turbines, TV arials, mobile phone masts etc.) could be added, also it would allow the player to decide whether an area should be roofed or not - e.g. roof gardens, balconies etc. shouldn't be roofed. It would be a zone every building could have but also would not trigger a building to be mixed use - kinda like the parking lots out front.
I also wondered if external pillars could be added that would allow a zone on the second floor to extend beyond the first floor zone? these pillars might not be necessary but they'd be nice to have architecturally... for example, to created a covered walkway under the side of the building or to create covered walkways and bridges in general...
Just my thoughts while I was travelling today - clearly I have been bitten by the bug to play more of your game! :D - I even considered creating a github for storing my blueprints! :D :) - we'll see I guess!
Thank you for your time and effort.
Im not able to make the delete submenu disappear. Curious if you recall the combination of clicks/key presses to make that happen?
Unfortunately I am not able to remove the zone option because at some point there will be auto grow zones. That being said, I understand that pain point. I'll play around with auto updating the zone.. but it may not be possible due to technical reasons.
I plan on adding pillars :). They are needed.
I am not able to make the submenu disappear either now... strange... apologies for a misreport (maybe I did something differently... I'll keep a closer eye in future and make sure to repeat it a few times before reporting it).
If there are technical reasons then I guess that's the way of it but thank you for trying :)
Pillars, indeed! :)
I also noticed that it is not easy to create a pedestrian area because buildings have to be next to roads... I can fake it by making all the buildings part of one building with a pedestrian area inbetween but that is annoying, especially for a pedestrianised town centre!! Would it be possible to create a road type that only pedestrians can use? (and are bicycles / mopeds / motorbikes planned in the future?)
Actually I guess I should be building delivery vehicle roads but then again a lot of deliveries here are by trolley so moking something up along those lines would be difficult... I guess I'll just stick to outside town centre for now...
I plan on making pedestrian only roads. At some point I'll start with allowing the placement of sidewalks anywhere, and the next step will be letting the player connect zones together so units can walk through them instead of using the road network. Will take some time though :)