Oreworlds
Oreworlds 0.2.0: A New Grid for Every World
0.2.0 is out. The biggest change in this update can't be seen in any one building. It's the ground they all stand on: the building grid has been rebuilt from scratch, and it's the grid every world in Oreworlds will be built on from here on.
Why the grid had to change
Oreworlds is played on small round worlds. The game splits each world into building cells, and until now it did it the common way: take a cube, puff it up into a ball, and cut each of its six faces into squares.
That works well in the middle of each face. Further out, the squares get pulled into slanted diamonds. At the eight corners of the old cube, three faces met and the cells leaned by up to 30 degrees. Even at the landing site they were a few degrees off. Belts followed the slant and machines didn't, so a tidy factory never quite lined up.
No square grid can cover a ball perfectly. The real choice is where the imperfection goes. For 0.2.0 we moved it somewhere you'll hardly notice.
Rows that go all the way around
Worlds are now built in rows of latitude. Each row is a ring of square cells that runs all the way around, the way Dyson Sphere Program lays out its worlds.
- Every cell meets its neighbours at a true right angle, wherever you stand.
- Every cell is within a few percent of a perfect square.
- A building faces the same way on every cell, so a row of smelters is a straight row.
Because the grid is worked out from the size of the world rather than drawn by hand, it's ready for the worlds still to come.
Seam lines
A ring near a pole is much shorter than a ring at the equator, so every so often the next ring has fewer cells. Those places are seam lines.
- With a building in hand, seam lines show in orange on the placing grid.
- Belts, pipes and rails cross them with a small jog, and keep working on the other side.
- Buildings have to sit on one side of a seam. If one would cross it, its ghost turns red and says so.
- The first seam is about 18 degrees from the equator, and most of them are bunched up near the poles. Your starting area has none.
The poles
The two poles are open ground. You can walk there, but there are no cells to build on, so there's no ore or trees there either. On the map they stay dark until you explore near them.
A new place to land
You now land on grassland near the equator, with room to build and, in most worlds, a lake close by for your first steam power.
Also in 0.2.0
- Train couplers. Locomotives and wagons are now joined by couplers and drawbars that follow the cars through corners and over hills.
- Straight trees. Some tree models stood at an angle; they now stand straight.
- Quieter miners. Burner miners now run with a steady, lower engine sound that no longer revs up and down.
- Smoke and steam. Stone smelters give off smoke and coal boilers give off steam.
- Pipes across seams. Pipes connect to pumps, boilers and other machines on the other side of a seam line.
- A new icon. The game has a new icon on its window, shortcuts and installer.
Before you update
0.2.0 can't load worlds from 0.1.x, because they were built on the old grid. When you continue an old save, the game tells you, then starts a new world in a slot of its own; your old file isn't touched.
Playing together, everyone needs to be on 0.2.0.
Download
Already playing? Run the 0.2.0 update. New to Oreworlds? Grab the full installer. Both are on the download page.
Thanks to everyone who has been testing and sending feedback.