Improbable Island Message of the Day (MoTD)

New Monthly Memento, mobile improvements, Plains graphics, backend map stuff
Admin CavemanJoe – 2022-02-07 21:51:45 [Permalink]
Hey folks, the Monthly Memento for 2022-02 is the Slice Twice Device, because this month was brought to you by the number 2.

I've been making some improvements to the mobile skin these past couple of weeks! Mobile users can now see the flavour graphics, and there's a convenient button for switching between mobile and desktop. In the coming days I'm going to make a display menu for the mobile skin, similar to what desktop users see.

Speaking of flavour graphics, I've also made some new graphics for the Plains terrain, which respond to time and weather states; I was very pleased with how the Jungle and Outpost graphics reflected a really effective sense of time and place, but the moment you step out of the Outpost onto the map it's clear daytime everywhere, and that's a thing I want to fix, one terrain type at a time. It's a lot of work, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.

Speaking of the Map, and of mobile users, stay tuned for some interesting developments in that department. There are currently three places on Improbable Island where you move around in a 2D space (the world map, Down Below, and the beta 2D Outposts) and they all have their own display routines. Last week I wrote a unified map display function that should work anywhere, which will simplify development of future 2D map thingies. It's not yet live or wired in yet, but the main immediate benefits to you are going to be better mobile rendering and more consistent hotkey support (with options for remapping direction hotkeys). Also since there are some interesting developments going on in Squat Hole, I thought it'd be prudent to knock the dust off the 2D Outpost system. :)

Have fun!

~CMJ

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