I think you hit a sweet spot with the stands - it looks a lot better with more folks inside - though this gives you an option for a nice bit of detail that 99% of people will probably ignore but would be cool - have the stands get fuller as you get to the end (no one wants to watch a less popular person, or the early stages, they want to see the juicer jousts where teeth are potentially being sprayed everywhere!) :-)
Yeah, that looks *vastly* better with the limit upped to 17, has much more the right feel now
I agree. Thanks for the suggestions!
I ticked off the big todo from my last post: I made and implemented an apothecary stand! This will sell tinctures and potions that help knights in events - although I didn't get around to putting the potions themselves in. However visitors do go over to it and buy invisible items.
I also added a ground texture for this and the beer keg outlet. I realised a ground texture was needed because otherwise it isn't clear why placement sometimes becomes invalid when you are trying to place something near them. The reason is that there is a space by the "vend point" that is forced to be clear of other buildings so that your punters can get there. Here's what it looks like:
It actually took a fair bit of time to remind myself on how the hell to make an outlet work and snap to the grid nicely, since it was so long since I did the beer keg. I came to the conclusion that I need to actually document how to do various things that I'll be doing multiple times, like setting up new outlets.
I also completed a bunch more UI elements. I included the main buildings group selection bar in the screenshot.
I did a lot of thinking and planning too, confirming a lot more details such as how many visitors will turn up, from where & how. I decided it made most sense to have a vehicle like a wagon and horse bring them (much like the bus would in theme park). Similarly I decided I need to add latrines (or would the best word be privy? or midden? Not sure).
I cleared up a few annoying bugs. The main one was if someones destination was where a building is placed, or if it's just plonked directly on their head then odd things would happen. Now they are teleported out of the way.
Some trees for the level 1 edge scenery have been completed and placed in the scene. I did some load testing and tweaking so it seems to perform ok with all the scenery, crowds and buildings. Despite being very careful I am still pessimistically expecting to notice a big game breaking performance problem I didn't account for right before completion - and have a big old cry.
Next:
Final level 1 "edge" scenery is going to be rolled out this month: a fence object and some ruins, meaning I can share some close to final looking screenshots.
I might finally have a track by the next update too
I also want to implement the system by which visitors are happy and sad about things. This will then lead on to making them want to leave, and adding a wagon which brings in new visitors.