Well... after reaching my 0.4 Milestone i started to professionalize my changelogs and workflow ... and packing them into my overall project documentation.
Since i am now at a point where i can basically start the Kickstarter Campaign and my Steam Store page at any given time - still waitinng for Steam to check my credentials - i had to get into track and work on the project the way my dayjob mostly expects it from me.
Therefore this small devlog will get into a deeper detail on how this hobbyist project differs from project management at a larger company... I guess that this may be interestering to a few devs here who havent worked in "the industry" before.. so let me start here..
Overall in a big company you dont have as much freedom of choice that you may have at home. Be it ISO, DIN or whatever law-level rulebook you have follow, it dictates what you can do, use and - sometimes - think.
For example: When i work on Roots i use a Linux x64 Arch system to code. My CI runs on a raspberry pi4 with various cross compile options and stores the files on two NAS and offsite. My main tools are VSCodium, LibreSprite, Kate and others. VSCodium as it is, at least to me, a cleaner version of VSCode. LiibreSprite is a dead siimple sprite editor and Kate.. well.. Kate is somewhhat of a swiss army knife for Roots as it can handle Code as well as large JSON files. Sure VScodium would work, too.. but sometimes kate is just handier.
So as you can see i use a lot of open source tools just on the coding site.. left alone my home Git management as well as the NAS and other stuff running on PIs, old micro computers and in one case a repuprosed router. Or in other words: It is wild.
At my dayjob things are utterly different. Although, after spending a decade at my company, i have a certain degree of freedom it is more of a silvery (no. not gilden..) cage. I am bound to IT safety requirements, meaning thhat i have to use Windows 11 (or whatever windows is currently the one and only up to date system..). I absolutely must use Visual Studio and must not circumvent any of it. basically this boils down to certain decisions on manegment level. See.. I mostly work with the Beckhoff Twincat3 PLC eco system. And although Beckhoff is opening up to more, lets say, open source friendly ways it is still using microsofts Visual Studio as their one and only IDE. Since my company chose to use Beckhoff PLCs i have no other choice than to use that clunky piece of software for stuff that VSCode could do as well.. or, for that matter, any texteditor and a feww batch fiiles. (I skip the part of the addons like Motion etc.. that sure makes VS a requirement and cannot be substituted easily.. but that is beyond the scope of this devlog). And since i work with machines that pose a serious threat to people, imagine cranes moving 5+ metric tons on free X/Y/Z axis) I have to adhere to a ton of law-level guidelines and rules. This dictates using safety equipment and therefore one or more) safety PLC(s). These cannot be programmed freely as each and every module has a certain certification and therefore this has the consequence that you have to wrap your head arround the thoughts that this company put into creating these modules. In 9 out of 10 cases you cant just go and do whatever you think would solve a problem but you have to play a puzzle to solve your problem with the pieces given. In a way it is a kind of mental Tangram.
You only have oddly shaped pieces and want to build something beautiful - with no idea how to twist an turn those shapes at the beginning.
Once your Software is done, the machines run as intended you have to document everything. Since I live and work in the EU this documentation has to also follow a set of rules. At the beginning of a project i have to sign forms and use it as sort of a guideline marking date of each reached - we would call it - milestone and also getting signatures by union(s), supervisors, H&S staff and so on. .This whole programm is extremely structured from start to finish. And it also dictates how changelogs hhave to look... and since i now enter a phase with roots that come to a level of my projects at my dayjob i have to start going this way as well - not to make things more complicated but to make it more transparent for the end user. A good changelog and documentation is nothing you do for yourself - at least thats what my supervisor says.. no.. it is meant to be handed to the customer - and to safe oneself from questions. RTFM may be rude.. but the better your manual is, the less answers you get and the more time you have to spend on important stuff.
And now, without further ado here is my changelog for Version 0.4.4.11:
- **Fishing**: the fishing pier can only be placed right next to water. The new Fishing skill catches raw fish (slower in winter); the kitchen fries it or cooks a fish stew.
- **Expeditions**: send a squad of two or more gnomes off the map for four days. It comes back with loot, sometimes injured or short a member, and now and then with homeless gnomes who join the colony.
- **Fire brigade**: fire spreads to trees and wooden walls, rain dampens it. Civilian gnomes fetch buckets, fill them at water or a well and put the fire out, but stay clear of enemies.
- **Starting skills**: founders bring a speciality (main skill level 5, side skill level 3), newcomers one random skill at level 4.
- **Daily schedule**: a new window sets work, recreation and sleep hours per gnome and hour. During recreation gnomes only eat, drink, sleep and fight; sleep hours send them to bed even when rested.
- **Worn clothing**: clothing and armour wear out over time (shown in the character window). At zero the piece is gone; naked gnomes fetch the nearest garment from a stockpile.
- **Apparel policies**: assign each gnome a policy in the population window and choose in the policy window which pieces and materials, colours, durability range and quality range it allows. Gnomes take off anything unfitting and fetch a fitting piece from storage; worn pieces keep their wear when taken off. Templates: Anything, Worker (wool), Soldier. Policies can be renamed (click the name, type, Enter); templates follow the game language until renamed. One policy can be marked "for soldiers": soldier mode switches to it and back automatically. Open with **O** or the sidebar; the character window shows and cycles the policy. A naked gnome without permitted clothing shows a crossed-out shirt above its head. Dyeing a worn piece keeps its wear.