April 2022 - Week 136 - Latrine Pits

Summary

• Digging latrine pits
• Test exports for test-plans
• Hired: Athena Paradigm

Detail

On Saturday afternoon I'm in Levels Café catching up with some fellow game developers and working on constructing a latrine pit. The staff were not pleased.

The latrine adds complication because a pit needs to be dug first and trees can get in the way. Building over a tree will have the Dwergs chopping it down first. This chaining of jobs only goes one level deep and the latrine pit will need more. I spend Sunday afternoon trying to find a simpler solution but conclude multiple job chaining is the way forward.

Job chaining isn't difficult to add but there's only one case where it's needed and that is for latrine pits. It's a fiddle to get working and the code is a bit ugly. I'll refactor the next time something else needs it.

I'm almost finished the do-the-toilet job by the end of Tuesday. It just needs to be delayed a bit when no toilet is accessible otherwise the Dwergs repeatedly try and fail.

On Wednesday I'm doing some admin for the new hire and making the exported tests more readable. I'm not going to use TestRail for test-plans because of the cost. We'll figure out something with Google sheets.

On Thursday I am joined by Athena Paradigm who will be working with me for two days per week for the next three months. In her own words:

"Greetings, all! I'm Theenie, (she/her), I'll be helping out Jock with QA,  feedback and playtesting. While new to this genre of game, I have a deep fascination with all things emergent and systemic, and a background in design, QA and narrative. I'll be applying my arcane craft and wisdom beyond mortal comprehension to this noble game, Dwerg Saga, and ensuring that the experience is suitably safe, free from bugs, but most importantly FUN! 

You can find me on twitter @athenaparadigm where I am Very Professional, or you can find me in the corner of a dimly lit tavern, when your need is greatest..."

Theenie is doing a critical playtest and has already come up with great feedback on the tutorials and tool organisation.

For the next week I'll be finishing off the Bladder need, starting on additions for the Hunger need and defining future work for tutorials.