maxchill's been cooking some buildings now as well - this one is a bit spooky!

Hello and welcome to DevBlog #73!

While we're still busy working on the bigger stuff (like the content update & big feature(s)), we're preparing a smaller update now to be released before the end of the month that includes all of the recent QoL additions we've done, OTA system & a bunch of bug fixes to the game. Let's dive into what's been added on the QoL and bug fixing side during the last two weeks!

Over-The-Air system (OTA)

The game can now download assets over the air

This feature has needed a bunch of testing, and we're still doing some more tests to ensure that it's working properly. What this system enables is that we can send content updates, new localizations, and later on art too without needing to do an update to the app itself. We've created a bunch of internal admin tools to handle these content updates (and allowing Weasel & maxchill to create new updates without needing any involvement by me or myzozoz).

Another thing this system allows is us to run a bunch of game logic on the server side, as now the server also has the possibility of running game logic with the same assets the players have. This is crucial part for trading especially.

Also, with this system, we can publish fixes to different typos and extend localizations of the games more often without requiring an app update.

More QoL changes & bug fixes

We also have more small QoL changes and bug fixes added, and there will likely be a few more added before the release of this update.

Gear set reordering & renaming improvements

You'll find a reorder button from Gear Sets now, and you can change the names of your gearsets from this view as well

Reordering the sets can be done by drag & dropping

There's a new button in gear sets that allows you to reorganize them via drag & dropping. Also, I've added that you can rename them in the listing view and more easily in the full edit view.

Used saved steps notification

Used saved steps are now also visible in the While You Were Away screen

You'll now be able to see the amount of saved steps that was used in the while you were away screen.

Other small QoL & bug fixes

• WalkPedia quick button (the skill icon right of your profile picture) now takes you to the output item page in WalkPedia while crafting something
• Locations from unlocked rumors are now displayed correctly in WalkPedia
• Content only available in development builds are now removed in production versions of the game. This means that you should be able to get everything that's counted in WalkPedia
• In game fonts have been changed to new ones that support more languages (eg. cyrillic)
• Updated Health Connect Client to version 1.1.0, this fixes issues reported by Garmin users that were caused by 0 step entries
• Tab bars (inventory, crafting, leaderboards, achievements/profile page) has been reworked to be more "clean" looking and performant
• Optimizations to Gear Sets page
• Optimizations to Traveling
• Optimizations & fixes to the small "bubble" notifications while playing the game actively
• General optimizations to the game to make it a bit smoother
• A bunch of small issues, like overflowing texts, have been fixed

Garmin (and possibly others) 0 step entry issue on Android

Recently, Health Connect was updated, and Garmin Connect has been updated as well. One of the major changes in new Health Connect version is that it now forces Metadata & Device information to be included for entries, and also it allows app developers to create entries with values that are 0.

For app developers, they've released a new version of Health Connect Client API, version 1.1.0.

New Metadata & Device info requirements mean that it is likely some apps from manufacturers might no longer be reporting any step records as they're missing Metadata & Device info. Also, apps like Garmin Connect that now report 0 step entries, can break other apps like they've done with WalkScape.

As a temporary fix to this issue, you can delete those 0 step entries from your Health Connect data. I would recommend to use Phone as your source until this new version is released.

Until next time

Another new building art piece!

That's all for this devblog!

I'm hoping that we'll get everything needed tested out soon and some final polish added, so we'll be able to release this new update quite soon.

Once we're closer to the release of the new big content update & gameplay features, we'll be sharing more about those in the devblogs.

Stay hydrated and keep walking everyone! ❤️