Hey, Groundbreakers! We’re back with another weekly update for Techtonica.
Today, we’re showing off the new Save Slot feature that’s coming with v0.1.2. This update, in case you don’t know, is the second of two planned Quality of Life updates. We added these updates to our in-flux roadmap right after we launched as a response to our community’s feedback and requests.
Save Slots were a hotly requested addition, and they are officially coming very soon. When? v0.1.2 remains slated for a late October or early November release, so this stuff is only weeks away.
How do Save Slots work? Let’s dig in.
About the old, current save system
Before we get into how the new system works, let’s briefly touch on the current (soon-to-be old) save system.
There are no slots. It’s a pile of saves with, at first blush, hard-to-read names and time stamps. Yes, you have a pile of your saves organized from newest to oldest. You can, technically, access everything in this pile. The process, though, is really difficult.
The dev team didn’t like this one either, for what it’s worth! We often juggle lots of saves as we test and implement new stuff in-game. On the marketing side, we absolutely have unique saves with purpose-built layouts for screenshots, trailers, whatever. Our current save system makes it super, super tough to juggle this stuff.
Here is the new save system, featuring Save Slots
Instead of a pile of saves arranged from newest to oldest, the improved save system that’s coming with v0.1.2 features Save Slots.
Save Slots are started every time you create a new game. Think of each slot as its own world or instance in Techtonica. Every auto-save or manual save that occurs in that world or instance will stick to that single slot. We’ve also made some adjustments to how we store autosaves, keeping some older ones around longer so players can go back an hour or two in addition to the recent ones done every couple of minutes.
Oh, and your old saves will automatically merge into this system, too, with their own instance-based slots.
The Save Slots are sorted by the most recently accessed and saved, too. So, if you have an old slot that you re-visit, that’ll appear at the top of your list next time you go to load a game rather than sit buried at the base of the growing list.
What about naming saves?
It’s the obvious question, right? Players want to be able to name saves. It’s on our list, but it’s something we’re saving until we’re ready to overhaul the UX/UI for Techtonica.
It’s not as simple as adding a text field. We need to account for controller support on Steam and Xbox, and that’s not as quick and easy as this Save Slot upgrade was. It’s coming! But not yet.
More v0.1.2 detail added to the roadmap
If you check our store page, you’ll see that we’ve updated the roadmap to include some more clarity about some of the changes bound for the second Quality of Life update. Here’s a shot of that section in particular.
You’ll notice that we’ve included the mass gathering for plants that Lauren details list week, along with more bug fixes and news of thousands of new ore vein voxels. We’ll get into that information when we drop the full patch preview.
Heads up! You won’t hear from us next week…
That’s right! The Fire Hose team is hosting its annual summit next week. We’re a remote studio, and we don’t have the opportunity to connect in person too often. So, we make it a point to meet up once a year for a week of bonding, big team conversations, and in-person mockery.
That’s happening next week, so we won’t share an update.
However! We’re looking to share the complete preview for v0.1.2 when we return, so get ready!
Lastly, in community news, we officially have our first speedrun time for
Techtonica! Viktoriahhh made it through the freight elevator in just under 17 hours.
Think you can do better? Join our Discord and post your time! https://discord.gg/techtonica.
See you there!
