Lay of the Land 0.14.0 The Progression Update

Hey everyone,

The Progression Update is here and brings an overhauled progression system, weapon upgrading, voxel simulation improvements and many other new changes, additions, fixes and improvements.

Game Scope and Road to a Steam Release

First a word on the games scope and the road to Steam Release. As a solo developer it is extremely important that I keep the games scope as manageable as possible. I am constantly tracking my progress and looking at what is remaining until the game is ready to be released.

As part if this review process and after much thought and deliberation I have made the difficult decision to cut procedural dungeons from the game. The two procedural dungeons that were already added were the Castle Ruins and the Tomb Ruins. These are very time consuming to make and in order for me to remain on target, deliver the game in a timely manner and to ensure all parts of the game are at a high quality I had to make this difficult decision.

Now in regards to a release date/plan. While I am not ready to reveal the date just yet I do have a date planned. I will announce the date when I am as certain as I can be that I will meet that deadline. When the game does release on Steam it will be a full release and not early access.

I hope you enjoy the update and thank you all so much for the support and understanding :)

Progression

The games progression system has been overhauled. You can no longer jump straight from flint to silver weapons and use any spell no matter how early you are in the game.

To smelt ores and craft weapons of higher tiers you will need to upgrade your Smeltery to the appropriate level. Smelteries can be upgraded when crafted with special items you receive when you defeat a boss.

Bosses are now summoned at their respective Obelisk with a Sigil. Sigils are made from various pieces that can be found in structures located in their respective biome.

To use spells of higher tiers you will need to upgrade your Wand to the appropriate level. Wands can be upgraded when crafted with special items you receive when you defeat a boss.

Weapon Upgrading

Melee weapons can now be upgraded with gems. Gems are found in various structures around the map. They can give a weapon one of two types of modifiers: an augment modifier or an elemental modifier. Augment modifiers affect the stats of a weapon such as attack speed, damage, knockback etc. Elemental modifiers are triggered when you attack a target and apply a magical effect such as setting the target on fire, striking nearby enemies with lightning etc. Elemental modifiers require and use mana when they are triggered.

Simulation

The voxel simulation system has been completely refactored and is now much more performant. The simulations also have in increased speed and look much more natural. Moving sand now makes sounds and can hurt you or enemies if they become buried.

How to Install and Play

Windows

• Download the .zip file attached to this post

• Place the .zip file into the folder where you want to install the game

• Right click the .zip file and click Extract All

• A window will open. Click Extract

• Open the LayOfTheLand_0.14.0 folder

• Double click LayOfTheLand.exe

Linux

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8lfMfjMVAE

Changelog

General

• Updated to Unreal Engine 5.6

• DLSS Support

• DLSS Frame Generation Support

• Nvidia Reflex Support

Weapon Upgrading/Repairing

• Can now upgrade melee weapons with gems on an anvil to give them special effects

• Weapons now require the metal they are made from on an anvil to repair

Weapon Upgrades

• Sharpness: Quartz. Increased damage

• Hardness: Diamond, Increased durability

• Lucky: Amber, Increased loot drop rates

• Heavy: Topaz, Increased knockback, increased dig area

• Swift: Apatite, Increased attack speed

• Flammable: Ruby, Chance to set target on fire

• Conductive: Amethyst, Chance to chain damage to nearby enemies

• Corrosive: Emerald, Change to ooze acid onto the target

Progression

• Removed crafting recipe unlocking as it harmed the new player experience

• Bosses are now summoned by placing their respective Sigils in their Obelisk

• Sigil pieces can be found in structures

• Combine sigil pieces with metal plate from that biomes progression level to make the Sigil

• Sigils indicate their Obelisk’s location by glowing when facing towards them while equipped

• Tin Plate replaces Iron Plate in most non tool/weapon crafting recipes. It cannot be used to make tools/weapons.

• Tin Ore can be found in all biomes except the volcano

• Spells now require a certain wand level to be met in order to be cast.

Voxel Materials

• Tin Ore

• Tin Plate

Structures

• New Stone Golem Boss Arena

• New Banshee Boss Arena

• Remove Castle Ruins and Tomb Ruins

Items

• Stone Sigil

• Stone Sigil Piece

• Sand Sigil

• Sand Sigil Piece

• Iridium Coil (boss drop)

• Osmium Coil (boss drop)

• Sturdy Wand

• Hardened Wand

• Mystical Vine (boss drop)

• Banshee Tooth (boss drop)

Useables

• Sturdy Smeltery

• Hardened Smeltery

UI

• New loading screen

• The loading screen now shows helpful tips

• New compiling shaders screen

• Faster returning to main menu and quitting to desktop

Simulation

• Greatly improved voxel simulation performance

• The Player/AI now take damage from becoming buried in sand

• Improved sand simulation

• Improved food tooltips

• Improved fire effects

Optimizations

• Improved gamethead performance

• More world data is now streamed to/from disk as you traverse the world, reducing memory usage

• Various voxel data memory optimizations

• Improved structure generation performance

• Improved cave generation performance

• Reduced lag spikes during world creation

Misc

• The SetGameMode command is now the SetWorldType command

• Removed metal plates from all structure loot tables

• Improved handling of edge of map. Can no longer walk off edge or edit voxels right up to the edge.

• Physics improvements

Fixes

• Fixed voxel physics being able to abort after floating voxels have been removed but before meshes have been updated and physics objects spawned

• Fixed candles, lanterns and campfires not being extinguished when entering water

• Fixed not being able to exit chest ui if the panel was the last ui interacted with

• Fixed tooltips clipping off screen edges

• Fixed varying width of world buttons in load world menu

• Fixed player quickly switching between sprinting/walking when stamina runs out

• Fixed crafting multiple items at once when crafting menu has multiple pages

• Fixed building preview move gizmos having incorrect rotation when preview is rotated

• Fixed being able to pickup items behind ui when moving an item and clicking in between inventory slots