Hey everyone here is the latest Devlog from the team at Devs on a Boat. We recently released Alpha 3 of Buoyancy on Steam to coincide with the Summer Sale. Here’s what we have been up to this past June.
Decay System
Zomawia
I implemented a Decay/Health system for the buildings. Most buildings will decay over time. Higher decay on a building can slow production, increase chance of accidents, and have a building produce nothing. Decay can be repaired by a Villager and must be manually tasked by the player through the UI and Tools. Buildings require a certain resource to repair it. Fires now cause Decay as do lightning strikes.
To support the Decay system I made a new building, the Workshop. The Workshop takes in Metal and Plastic to make Tools and works similarly to the Medicine Hut. When a building reaches a certain Decay % threshold a Repairer at the Workshop will automatically go to the Decayed building with the Tools and repair it by a large amount.
Fire system changes
Zomawia
The Fire system in Buoyancy has been reworked. Fires do not destroy buildings if they are not put out; instead they will gradually increase the Decay level of the building. Fires also have to be manually tasked by the player, but the player can task as many Villagers to combat a fire as they wish. Water Cannons will always shoot out seawater if they have no Fresh Water ammo, but shooting seawater will cause Decay to go up. Fires can also destroy stored resources at the building or cause explosions in certain buildings, spreading more fires and killing villagers.
Pirate Concepts
Kevin
No buildings to show for this month but here’s some WIP concepts for pirate re-skins.
Exploder 
Cousin Tank 
Plague Doctor 
Skubassassin
Wonder Buildings in Pirate Cities
Zomawia, Elliott
The Wonders buildings are finally implemented in the game. You can find them in Pirate forts which are heavily guarded. Obtaining a Wonder building gives a unique feature to your city. Currently there are 6 implemented in the game. They can only be built once, and if they Decay fully something disastrous will occur!
Wind Turbine
The turbine design attempts to resemble a more eco-friendly solution to a city’s energy crisis, therefore it was made with mostly 100% recyclable woodÂ
Paper Factory
Need something to write down? Don’t worry, just supply wood and be amazed by paper. With exposed rolls of paper, you can check on the quality of your hard machine labor. Just remember to keep from getting wet, no one likes soggy paper.
Carrier
Wanting to go high in the boundless skies? Well, you need a Carrier first. Created from broken and deteriorated plane pieces, this long lost technology will surly amaze any villager with going high in the sky, surely nothing bad will happen despite no training on plane operation and controlÂ
Gulls Nest
This place is called home to ancient creatures called birds with the finest wood and prime nesting material. This place is the best in the world for bird luxury comfort.
Graphical Overall
Shawn
We are in the beginning stages of updating the rendering pipeline of Buoyancy. Updating our shaders is a big part of this change and those updates are coming; however, our main focus with this update is bringing out the detail in the environment and buildings. We now have a list of the graphical errors that this change has caused and are currently working on fixing the broken shaders.
Current Game
Working as intended…
Thirst stat
Zomawia
Another Villager stat to manage! Villagers will get thirsty overtime and need to drink Fresh Water or Beer if available. If there is none of that available the Villager will start drinking seawater, which will negative effects on other stats.
If Thirst gets to 100% the villager will perish. Some foods will give minor thirst quenching. Villagers working in wood-burning buildings will get thirsty faster. Rain will also relieve some thirst.