The changes and fixes can be viewed here, with most importantly the fixed editor mode under Windows. The new editor really allows content creators to easily design scenarios and we are looking forward to many inspiring creations!
As all longtime fans of the Clonk series know, our favorite character the clonk can be witty and nimble, though only if skillfully controlled. With the upcoming release we are aiming to make the clonk even more nimble. Moreover, the player can use various tools to construct different solutions to the same problem.
For example the rope bridge is now an object which can be used by the clonk. Before it was only available for scenario designers as a decorative object. The clonk can place both ends of the bridge at solid ground to form it. Then walk over it for as long as needed and then retract it again at either end of the bridge.
The temporary rope bridge is connected between an airship and solid ground.
Also the rope ladder has become more useful as you can now jump off the rope ladder with more strength, like the wall jump with solid materials. Using this the clonk can now jump from rope ladder to rope ladder, making it a fast way to traverse dangerous lakes for example. But also to perform mining activities as shown in the video.
Last but not least in this blog post there is a new feature for the lorry, which can now be tilted up to 55 degrees to dump its contents. While holding the lorry pressing the left mouse key tilts the lorry to the direction of the mouse cursor and if tilted more than 45 degrees its contents will start falling out. This feature can be useful for massive bombardments in combination with the airship. More situations will probably come to mind, for example setting up traps along a large cliff or just dumping the lorry’s contents into a mine.
The contents of the lorry can be dumped by tilting it.
Together with all the rope fine-tuning the scripts also have been partially optimized which has lead to a slight reduction of the lag of objects using the rope library. Please report any suggestions, bugs and excessive amounts of lag in the bugtracker while testing these new features using the snapshots.
We have released the first bug-fix update for OpenClonk 6. It contains lots of bug fixes and a new fire system, which uses the new particles system to have more realistically looking fires.
Releasing it took us some time because nobody shares a big excitement to do the maintenance work connected with doing bugfix updates when such exciting stuff as what is currently in our pipeline is waiting to be developed. Finally however, Maikel and Isilkor pushed this through.
For the next release we are working on colored lights based on the new light system, new controls and an improved menu interface and providing more vegetation and animals to add to the atmosphere of the game. Below are some screenshots showing the progress on the colored lights and the new interaction menu.
Colored lights in an underground setting.
The new interaction menu which allows buying items at the flagpole, amongst many other things.
The new OpenClonk light system now sees the light of day! Download here!
The lights system active in a cave.
The main focus of this release is the new light system which casts realistic shadows on objects in the OpenClonk world. Moreover, the landscape’s visibility is greatly reduced while being underground. This really enhances the feeling of exploration in caves, see for example the screenshot on the right. The light system is complete but many more features will be added and the game will make use more and more of the interesting gameplay options it offers.
For example there is a new melee round called Dark Mine, where players are dropped in abandoned mine with lots of explosives. Due to the limited visibility a new strategic element of surprising the opponent has become available. A player can set up traps using explosives and ranged triggers like dynamite boxes or explosive arrows. You can try this out yourself by playing this melee online.
Battle in Dark Mine: Explosions and torches illuminate the dark caves.
The next big thing for the upcoming major version 7 is a complete overhaul over the controls and in-game interface which shall finally tackle the problem with the cumbersome menus in settlement mode. Teasers and previews will follow “soon”!
There will also be a bugfix release coming soon where we hope to iron out the last issues of the light system. So be sure to report any bugs in the bugtracker and feedback in the forum.
Happy playing!
OpenClonk 5 has been released, with lots of new stuff to enjoy, so download it here!
On top of Iron Peak
Finally, music has been added! K-Pone has contributed three exciting pieces which you can hear in the game if music is enabled (Press F3 to toggle music). Under the hood, our sound system has been migrated to OpenAL and big plans are in progress to improve the music even more.
The league has opened. Compete online for ranks and play against the best of the best. Just press the league button when hosting a game to sign it up to the league server, then use your forum username and password to join. If you prefer cooperative play, the settlement and adventure league are also soon to be opened.
For those who rather play offline, achievements have been added. Achievements are little icons beside the scenarios which you can earn by playing through scenarios. In some worlds, you can get special symbols for finishing them in harder difficulty and some missions contain special icons unlocked by finding secrets.
We have also added new scenarios: The Raid, Deep Sea Mining and Treasure Hunt are beautifully designed new missions especially targeted at new players. Chine and Flooded Veins are two new worlds which can provide a challenge for the more experienced Clonkers. Finally, Fight for Gidl is an action-packed, cooperative scenario where you defend against waves of attackers.
Some new objects can be found in the scenarios: Underwater you can now find corals as well as fish both peaceful and evil. To secure your settlements, you can now also build basements available in all scenarios in the worlds folder.
We’ve started a big overhaul of the missions folder by connecting the scenarios with a thrilling storyline. The hero is sent all over the world of Openclonk in a great endeavour to kill the evil king. So far, the first five missions have been integrated into the story but more are yet to come.
Bombing in the Raid mission
The worlds folder has also been reworked significantly. Most worlds got parameters to adjust difficulty and map size before the game so both rookies and experienced players can enjoy these scenarios. Maps have been improved using better dynamic map generation and features such as regrowing gems in the Gem Grabbers scenario. Short intro sequences have been added to introduce the game goals. Goals have been made more interesting in Gold Rush and Iron Peak. Finally, player knowledge and base material have been improved in all the worlds.
Additional gameplay improvement has been targeted especially at settlement players. For example: You should no longer be afraid of solid, single pixels as they’re now removed before you can get stuck on them. Acid now corrodes coal and firestone. Snow and ice can be used to melt loam. Pumping pipe heads shouldn’t get stuck any more. And many more stuff you have reported in the bugtracker, which we hope you continue to do.
Attentive players will also notice some work on cosmetics. For example, ice and gem sounds have been tweaked and smoke graphics reworked. If the cool graphics run slow for you, there’s a new option to skip graphics frames if the game is lagging especially useful in internet games.
… and of course, as usual we have done lots and lots of smaller changes and fixes.
Finally some activity on the youtube channel again. We played Acid Gold Mine for the nth time and decided to capture the round since it is always very stressful and hard, luckily we succeeded!
The music in this video is made by K-Pone (Island Dreams, Motorway). We are very grateful for his contributions and the music will appear ingame for the next release.
And another video covering melee gameplay!
Thanks for everyone who joined in these many network games and Arnaud Condé for a nice music piece.
Even more great news after the 4.0 release, OpenClonk has been nominated for Project of the Month by the Linux Game Awards initiative!
Being nominated is one thing, winning is another … So we need votes, your vote to be exact!
You can vote here by either making a new account on the website, or by using your Google, Facebook or Twitter account. Many thanks for voting and increasing the popularity of our favorite game.
OpenClonk finally has functional screenshots again for the whole map, thanks to JCeasar and Sven2! One can make these screenshots in game in the chat mode (Return) by typing:
/screenshot X
where X can be any real number and determines the zoom level at which the screenshot can be taken. It is advisable to keep X between 0.1 and 10. This new feature can very well be used to view full landscapes and here is a teaser for a new World yet to come.
A full screenshot for a new scenario “Spiral” which is yet to come.
However, a lot of new settlement scenarios can already be played in the snapshots, among them Gem Grabbers where you need to collect gems from a series of sky islands. But there is many more to be discovered, so be sure to check the snapshots or stay tuned for the next release!
Grab gems from sky islands.
Researchers from the Delft University of Technology, in The Netherlands, are using OpenClonk for a project on dynamically adapting game interactions (example: rope gun length) to your play style. The first step of this project is to automatically collect anonymous data on how you play OpenClonk. This also involves analyzing data to figure out how players play the game, which is in turn very relevant for OC development. Therefore, they (and also we) need as much players as they can get, to compile big piles of meaningful data. More information regarding the research can be found on this blog or in this forum thread.
The research server is now up and running!
Interested in participating? The researchers kindly thank you. Just start playing on this server:
Server Name: TU Delft
IP Address: 131.180.123.41
Game Version: Latest release (5.3.3)
We will keep you posted on more developments about this project.
Hello World!
This is your chance to play OpenClonk with the developers, since from now on we will “organize” a regular evening to play OpenClonk rounds via internet. The basic ingredients:
We’ll play rounds like these
On the first night, which is this Sunday, I will organize things a little and we will mainly play some short arenas/races and will probably end with a nice settlement round. After that the night should become self sustaining and you should see it as a night where you can be sure to find other people playing this wonderful game!
Update: Now that the first night is over, I hope that everyone will also join next Sundays, cause I think we had a lot of fun and also gathered lots of feedback. Soon I will try to gather some material for a small gameplay trailer from these rounds, but more on that later.
So be sure to join next Sunday!