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From the very beginning I said that a core feature of My Colony 2 was going to be modding, and today I am ready to show off the start of the MC2 modding engine, which will eventually be fairly powerful. First though, you are going to need the latest MC2 build for this, so if you are on the Launcher, delete/reinstall it. If you are on your browser, clear all caches and service workers and reload. Then you can download this, the very first MC2 mod:


That's right, it's the My Empire mod for MC2 😄, quickly thrown together using assets from My Empire, of course. It's just a small mod to start letting people see what is possible with MC2 modding.

To activate the mod, open My Colony 2 and select Activate Mod from the title screen options menu. The game will transform right before your very eyes, with a new custom title screen, theme, and everything! Fire up a game, and you will notice it looks a bit different:


The game has been entirely transformed, all units, structures, terrains, worlds, and even some UI icons have been replaced. It's an entirely different game.

And now for the cool part - other players can join your modded game, even if they don't have the mod package installed on their system!

Anyway, this is just the beginning, but I am pretty excited about the modding capabilities in My Colony 2. Eventually, starting a mod will be as easy as double-clicking on a *.c2m file on your desktop, so creators will be able to basically distribute their own total game in a single file that My Colony 2 players will just have to download and double-click on to start.

During development, the modding capabilities are open to everyone, but Premium will be required for the final release. Until then though, check out the My Empire mod and let me know what you think!

#mycolony2

that looks like a major theam to be added I must admit you will keep life in this game with this kind of content .
The modding idea could be expanded on were a person can define resources a building produces and well frankly any in game basic thing along with buildings . NOT network modding though ) transport walk that much to complicated for most .
It took a special team doing ONLY that to have it come out right .
Me and many others who I hang with all enjoy stats ( aka resource )modding as much as adding new buildings wich we did not even consider modding .Now textures we did consider mods .
Building were player created content the rest was mods .

Ovesly this type modding would be offline only . Wich we also implanted as well ( accutly we had them as separate files so we could just drop them in downloads folder and take them out when ever we wanted .

But this only was workable for resource type mods removing a building caused a blank box to be on the tile .
Your game is a step ahead on that as removing a texture ( building mod it reverts back to original no problem .
anyway a few good points in wich your system is a improvement over most .

What happen with the plans to incress modding ability's ?
Humans world frankly is full any thing you add now is just eye candy .
LIS is close
Adding bugs to be able to use resources they can harvest was is needed true enough .
But your talking about expanding modding could be the add in that keeps popalatiry higher ( my spelling sucks )
You add enough modding in and you get the group of people I hang with .
1000s of us btw Modders . I just dont do 2 d well lol .
And most of them are passionat about modding .
They will do half the work for you lol .
anyway still nice you added stuff But I believe your key to long term downloading if the game will revolve around the ability to mod .
Simcity 4 is over 12 years old now and still strong the main reason is Modders keep adding new stuff at this point probably a total of ten gigs worth .

PS adding modding makes it possible for modders to expand the game for you one or two buildings ?
More like redoing ( as you your self say ) the entire faction .
Ill link a site to your message box as adding a link here well not sure the mod would aprove lol

colbya said:What happen with the plans to incress modding ability's ?
Humans world frankly is full any thing you add now is just eye candy .
LIS is close
Adding bugs to be able to use resources they can harvest was is needed true enough .
But your talking about expanding modding could be the add in that keeps popalatiry higher ( my spelling sucks )
You add enough modding in and you get the group of people I hang with .
1000s of us btw Modders . I just dont do 2 d well lol .
And most of them are passionat about modding .
They will do half the work for you lol .
anyway still nice you added stuff But I believe your key to long term downloading if the game will revolve around the ability to mod .
Simcity 4 is over 12 years old now and still strong the main reason is Modders keep adding new stuff at this point probably a total of ten gigs worth .

PS adding modding makes it possible for modders to expand the game for you one or two buildings ?
More like redoing ( as you your self say ) the entire faction .
Ill link a site to your message box as adding a link here well not sure the mod would aprove lol

I think he likes mods and wants more mods for his mods.

Yo Dawg, I heard you like mods. So I got you some mods to mod onto your mods so you can mod your mods. Oh, he also wants more mods.

All,

I have modified several textures in Inkscape and would like to store them in an mct file. I have yet to find this function, and I am under the impression that this is something the game does via a modding tool available to users who have a premium subscription. I have obtained this premium subscription, however the only options I have for modding are to enable/ disable a mod, import a mod, and visit the modding community. Have I missed something in the purchase process, or am I completely wrong in saying the game has a modding tool that packs the image files?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Here is a collection on concepts that I am leaning towards for My Colony 2 as of today (20200624). This is all subject to change and I can be convinced by the community of anything, so keep the suggestions and feedback coming. This is going to be a super long post featuring all of my thoughts on MC2 thus far. Feel free to criticize anything and everything here. My feelings will not be hurt and nothing is set in stone. This is a starting point for community discussion to help make MC2 the best game it can be!

Relationship to My Colony 1
MC2 is an entire new game, not an upgrade to the original, or a version 2.0. It may use completely different concepts. It will not be tied in to the same server. Game files will not transfer over, as MC2 will probably have completely different buildings/tech tree, etc.

This does not mean that MC1 will be going away. I will continue to support the original and the server indefinitely. I realize that a lot of people like the style of game that MC1 is and do not want anything to change, so the original is staying where it is. It may continue to receive new content as well as bug fixes, but I do not plan on any further changes to the gameplay mechanics or core engine going forward.

That said, as long as MC1 remains popular and people keep playing it and paying for it, I will keep the game going.

Business Model/Monetizing
This is the least fun part of development, but a necessary one in order to make creating a game feasible. The business model for MC1 was tacked on as an afterthought, and reflecting back I do not like the concept of certain structures and units being premium.

None of this is set in stone, but here are my initial thoughts on the business model. My Colony 2 will be a straight paid app on all app stores, with everything unlocked at the base price, no in-app purchases. No advertising anywhere. The exception is on Ape Web Apps and the Ape Market, where it will be free, everything unlocked, but with no access to multiplayer or custom content. Maybe only one map type available.

Current My Colony 1 is basically already like this on Desktop, with the mobile client being free with additional IAP, so this change just makes the mobile version match up with what is already on desktop.

Now, I do anticipate the dissatisfaction of Android players not having the free version in the Play Store. However, Android support for Progressive Web Apps is sufficiently advanced now that you can just install the Web version to your homescreen like an app and it's hardly any different. Same with iOS. And MC1 will still be available for free like it always has been.

No free version on the mobile app stores will likely mean less players, and I understand this. But I like the idea of just buying a game and having the whole thing, not worrying about IAP's and not having any advertising.

Client/Server Structure
The biggest change to MC2 is it's design from the ground up as a multiplayer game. This does not mean that you cannot play single player, but it is being designed specifically for multiplayer.

MC1 has limited multiplayer, which basically consists of chat and trading/gifting resources. You can play together on a multiplayer region, but all you are really doing is sharing atmosphere and seeing thumbnails of other players' colonies. Not really very multiplayery (is that a word?). The MC1 multiplayer is also global and centralized, meaning everything has to go through the global My Colony server.

My Colony 2 multiplayer will be decentralized, meaning no global server that everybody plays on. Why am I doing this, because it seems like a downgrade? Look at every game out there with real global multiplayer, not just chat and trading. That takes massive infrastructure, and you pay for it with either a monthly subscription or endless IAP's. That's the only way it's really possible, and I don't think anybody wants that if you really stop and think it through.

The only realistic way to add real multiplayer to the game without investing in a massive infrastructure and charging big money for the game is to decentralize it. And since I am not Blizzard and do not want to spend my whole life maintaining MC2 servers, I am adopting a decentralized approach.

What does this mean? My Colony 2 will actually be designed as two separate applications in one, the client and the server.

The game client will be fairly light weight. It's job is to receive data from the server application and render it to the screen, and pass instructions as to what the player wants to do onto the server. That's pretty much it, and it should be fairly performant. Even though the game is moving to 3d, I still expect it to perform better than MC1, simply because 3d hardware rendering performs better than 2d software rendering.

The game server is much more interesting and is where all of the game mechanics take place, but since the server does not have to worry about handling the UI or making drawing calls, it actually has a bit more overhead to work with than on MC1. The two most expensive operations in MC1 are the rendering and the pathfinding. In MC2, the server is eliminating the rendering, and I also want to greatly reduce the pathfinding, leaving more headroom for actual fun stuff, like game mechanics simulation.

So in MC2, the game relationship is between client(s) and server. Whenever you create a new game in MC2, you are creating a new server, and then connecting to it with a client. The server is saved and retained between plays, where the client only exists while it is in use, and is not saved. So the point I just want to get across is that the client is really not that important, the server is.

The server and client code are both included in the My Colony 2 game. You will have the option of starting a regular game or creating a dedicated server. When you start a regular game, you are spinning up both a client and server and creating a 1-1 connection between the two right on your device. You can also make your game joinable by friends or others on your local network for multiplayer.

You can also create a dedicated server. When you create a MC2 dedicated server, you will be presented with a special server GUI that allows you to be in full control of the game. The server will continue to process game data as long as it is running, even if no players/clients are connected. A dedicated server will be able to establish custom game rules and parameters, and have mods installed that will be transferred to any client who connects. You will be able to make a dedicated server open to the public, or by invite only, or by specifying a list of accounts who are able to join. It's up to the server. A dedicated server will be able to moderate it's players however they want, the server can adjust resource levels, ban players for cheating, or anything. It's all up to the server owner.

The game data is saved only on the server, and the server owner will be responsible for making backups. I expect game files to be a lot bigger than MC1, so I am not going to be implementing Cloud Sync, which is known to cause corruption on larger files anyway. The ability to export and backup data will be built right into the game as usual.

Because of the way it's designed, even if you only want to play single player, it still may be desirable to set up a private dedicated server. For instance, you could run a private MC2 dedicated server on your powerful home PC that is always on/connected to the internet. Then you can connect to your server from your tablet/phone/laptop/another window on your computer, wherever you are, and your game is always there waiting for you, and all of the processing is being done on the more powerful computer.

The Game World/Game Files
In MC1, the game world is divided into cities and regions, and each city is a separate game file. In MC2, there are no cities and regions, there are planets.

This is something I am aping from Minecraft. A planet is like a regular city file in MC1, except is extends out in every direction to infinity, so you do not have to worry about running out of space for your city. A planet can have multiple cities and multiple players building cities at the same time.

Planets will be procedurally generated, and new areas will be generated in real-time as needed. Each planet type will have different biomes like in Minecraft, so that different environments and different resources are available in different parts on the planet.

This system means that you will have to build up trade networks with other cities or make additional settlement outposts across the planet in order to bring more resource types back to your colony. In MC1, practically every resource in the game is available with a square mile of your lander. This doesn't really make sense. In MC2 you will have to go out and find resources, and then build up a network for bringing them back into your city.

Technically, the MC2 world is still a big 2d grid like in MC1, but each tile does have an elevation, a z-index, for varied terrain elevations. Different resources might be found at different elevations and in different biomes. You will also be able to adjust the terrain in-game, like building up dirt to level out construction areas. There will be flat areas good for building, low canyons, and hilly or mountainous areas.

Also like in Minecraft, the terrain is generated on the fly and only transferred to the client in "chunks" as needed. So your client will only contain the data for the area that you are currently looking at, and the immediate surrounding areas. As you scroll around the map, areas you are no longer looking at will be disposed from memory as new areas are loaded from the server.

Construction / Resource Gathering and Rovers
I would really like to get rid of Rovers completely and simulate everything. It's not that I hate rovers, they are so helpful and adorable. The issue is with the pathfinding. Just driving rovers around the map takes up a huge percentage of the MC1 processing time, for what is essentially a visual effect.

Pathfinding is both CPU and memory intensive on anything larger than a medium sized MC1 map, and in MC2 the map sizes are being expanded infinitely larger. It's not just as simple as "only path finding around a certain area from the rover." Before you can even calculate pathfinding operations, you first have to generate a pathfinding map and load it into memory. The maps will be more expensive than in MC1 owing to the introduction of terrain elevation, as there will now be cliffs to work around. Each time a new structure is placed the pathfinding map needs to be recalculated. With the game being multiplayer, this will have to be taking place on a larger scale. It is one of the features holding MC1 back, due to all of the CPU time that must be dedicated to solving rover paths.

The issue of course, is that everybody likes rovers. Even I like rovers. Would the game be less fun without them? I don't know. If you could just turn off Rover Rendering in the engine settings and you didn't even see them, but everything continued to operate as normal, would it make a difference to the game, or would it matter? Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't.

Everything a Rover does can be simulated for a fraction of the CPU and memory cost.

This is the largest part of MC2 that I don't have an answer to. I can't just remove rovers because that would be a blow to the fans of MC1. I also cringe thinking of all of the months wasted on optimizing path finding and the 1 star complaints about performance, all relating to a path finding feature in what is essentially a city building game.

There are options.

I could always just keep rovers in the game as they are and just keep working around the processing issues that come with it. In a single player game or a server with only a few active players at once, it probably wouldn't be a very big hit.

I have also considered just simulating rovers, sort of like colonists are just simulated in MC1. For example, you don't even have to build your own rovers. But when you place a new construction order, little rovers drive up onto the construction site and build your building anyway. These rovers do not exist on the server, but you see them building on the client. Same way for moving resources around. On the server it is just simulated, but on the client, you see a rover driving around doing all of the work. This would still require path finding, but each client would be doing their own path finding on the visual rover effect, and the player could turn it off if it became a performance issue.

If the client could just visually simulate things like rovers, colonists, police cars, busses, etc, they would all still be there visually making your city look alive, but the server wouldn't even have to worry about them.

Maybe there are other options too that I am not thinking of? All feedback on Rovers is welcome. I want the game to be performant, but I also don't want to go against the fans, so please let me know what you think either way.

Graphics
MC1 is a software rendered game using the HTML5 canvas element, arranging .png and .svg tile images onto a 2d isometric grid. Most of the graphics processing is done by the main CPU and not the graphics card, so graphics performance is largely defined by how good your processor is. This is why the game runs a lot better on desktop vs mobile, or even on iPhone vs android, and iPhone processors tend to be a bit better.

The problems is that the CPU also has to process the game, so trying to do everything at once gets expensive, especially on mobile devices.

My Colony 2 is moving to WebGL for graphics processing, which is a javascript based implementation of OpenGL that handles rendering on the GPU. This should lead to far better performance on most devices.

My original idea was to use Blender for all of the games building models. The graphics were going to be awesome. But when I dug into Blender and started working with it, I remembered how I am not actually a graphics designer, and it was going to take me forever to make all of the models for this game.

My other idea was to make blocky pixelated type graphics using my own Voxel Paint application (https://www.apewebapps.com/voxel-paint/). This means lower quality visuals but much higher output and probably better rendering performance as well. It's also so easy to use that anybody could make their own MC2 models, my wife even offering to help design structures for the game (she is a big Minecraft fan).

At the end of the day, My Colony 1 was never known for high quality graphics, but I thought that with MC2 I could really make it look great. After putzing around with Blender though, I have to acknowledge my own personal limitations. Basically, I can either spend months learning how to make great 3d models in Blender, or I can spend months working on the game code. I know which one I'd rather do. So I am probably going to go with the pixelated look, simply because it is something that I can actually do myself within a realistic timeframe, and it will also go well with the next point I'm about to explain, which is modding.

I know some people will not like a pixelated looking game. This is one of those areas where I have to say "tough," unless somebody is willing so supply me with hundreds of 3d models free of charge, which is what it is going to take in order to do this properly.

Modding
Customization is going to be huge in MC2 compared to the original. Given the global online multiplayer in MC1, custom content could not realistically be allowed in the game. The decentralized nature of MC2 changes everything though, and modding and customization, as well as all of the tools needed to make it happen, are going to be baked right into the client.

In MC2, the basic "unit" of the game is the building. Everything is going to be pretty much based on buildings, and their relationship to each other. This is basically how MC1 works as well, so this is nothing new. What is going to be knew is My Colony 2's build in Building Editor.

I am going to be creating MC2 using the games' bulit-in editor, and so the same editor I use to make the game is going to be available to all players.

Each building in the game is going to be stored as a building file, and the base game will ship with all of its standard building files, which will be loaded at runtime. This differs from MC1 where all building data is stored in a single JSON file that is shipped with the game, which cannot be easily edited.

A building file will contain three parts.

The first is the JSON formatted definition data, with information about the name of the building, what it does, what it generates, etc. All of the properties that a building can have will be stored in that data.

The second part is the model information, which will essentially be an embedded Voxel Paint file.

The third part is a small (maybe like 64x64 pixel) thumbnail or icon representing the building, which will show up on the construction sidebar and various places throughout the UI.

The three above parts are all packaged into a single file which can be added to the game client, posted online for easy sharing, or what have you. A dedicated server can include custom building files that will automatically be distributed to clients when they join the game. Each building file will have a unique UUID and version information, so if a client already has the same version of a building file that a server does, it will not need to re-transfer the data upon connection.

This system is actually a very powerful change over the original My Colony, and unlocks essentially limitless possibilities for the game. This also makes it a lot easier for the community to participate in development of the game. A creator who makes a great building idea can distribute it online where it is tested out and balanced by the community. If it works in practice and everyone likes it, the file can be included in the base game.

If you want to host a crazy dedicated server with a bunch of custom buildings that totally change the game, you can do so.

I have no idea what kind of buildings people will dream up, but including the content creation tools right into the base game will be huge, I hope. And I plan on making the process as easy as I possibly can, so that anybody can create a building. Using Voxel Paint, if you have an idea and the ability to build a house in Minecraft, you should be able to make it a reality. And being able to make something and then instantly import it into your game makes it simple to test out concepts and balance them right there on your own device.

It's possibly that nobody will care about modding or making buildings, but it still doesn't hurt to add the tools right into the game. If nothing else, it will still make it easier for me to create new content for updates, versus having to go through and edit JSON data manually.

However, it's also possible that everybody will be making custom content and the game takes off in crazy directions that we never even imagined!

It could even be possible to allow mod creators to somehow sell their mods in-game and get paid in real money, maybe through PayPal or something. That is a thought for another day though, and not a current actual plan.

Conclusion
These are my current thoughts on MC2 as of this day. Like I said, nothing is set in stone yet and everything is subject to change. I wanted to put everything out there so that the community knows what page I am on and where I am headed, and has time to stop me if I am about to drive over a cliff.

Remember that I am open to all feedback, so if you have ideas, please don't just be quite about it, or don't just complain about them in a Discord chat somewhere, because I probably will not see them. Part of being a game developer is getting hate e-mail on a regular basis on why my games suck, so believe me that your being critical of the above ideas will not hurt my feelings, and will be nothing new to me.

The whole purpose of doing all of this beforehand is to get real feedback from the community so that MC2 can go in a direction that we all like and we will all have fun playing. Once I start getting into the code, it gets harder and harder to make changes, so if there is something you don't like, now is the time to mention it. Think of all of the things I could not effectively implement in MC1 because they would require massive time-consuming changes to the entire engine. So getting ideas in right now is how we avoid that.

Like MC1, I'm trying to make something fun that I myself want to play, not a game that is going to just nickel and dime players with constant ads and IAPs so I can sit on a yacht somewhere. I think the new decentralized play model will allow the game to outlast the original. Basically, if I get in a wreck and die, the MC1 server will be forever down within a few weeks. With MC2, once players can make their own servers and create their own content right from within the game, what happens to me becomes more irrelevant, which is the way it should be.

Anyway, if you got this far, then thanks for reading my small novel. Please give some thoughts to where you want to see the game go, or discuss it with other players and really think about all of the concepts I laid out here. I want to start working on the game soon, maybe as early as mid-next month. I plan to start with the world-generating engine and the in-game building creation tools first, so people can start testing that out and seeing what it is like to make their own content.

So between now and then, if any of the above ideas are way off the mark, I need to know now. So think about it, let me know, and thanks for helping me create the follow-up to My Colony. I think it's going to be fun!

The soon-to-be-released v0.18.0 update for My Colony 2 will be bringing a couple of fundamental changes that modders will need to be aware of, but ones that will make the modding situation for the game a bit better overall.

Previously and currently, both Structures and Units have properties saying what they can build. For instance, a Rover object says it can build a Solar Panel or a Greenhouse, while a Construction Yard says that it can build a Builder Bot or an Ore Miner. This is the way things have been set up since the original My Colony was released in 2016, but I am preparing to depreciate this relationship starting in v0.18.0 of MC2 and moving forward.

From here on, the new preferred way to specify what gets built and where is about the opposite of how it is currently handled. Now, Structures and Units themselves must specify where they are built. For instance, the Greenhouse object will now have to say that it is built by the Rover and the Builder Bot, and the Builder Bot must say that it is built by the Construction Yard.

This is how I should have done it from the beginning, but if you are wondering the reason for the change it is this. Prior, say you wanted to add a new unit to the game. You would have to create the unit object, and then modify the Construction Yard or other building to tell it that it can build the new unit. Furthermore, if the game is updated and the Construction Yard gets new features, the new revision of the Construction Yard will over ride the modded version with the lower version number. With the new system, the new unit itself specifies where it is built, and so you don't even have to mess with the Construction Yard in order to add it to the game.

Moving on, I am going to be making it easier to package mod files up. Right now you basically have to export the entire game data in order to make a mod that contains multiple items. Going forward, you will be able to select which items to package into a mod and export only those bundled items.

Finally, after I publish v0.18.0, I am going to but together an online Mod Shop website where you can easily upload mods, receive feedback, and publish updates. Then in v0.19.0, this online Mod Shop will be tied into the game itself, and so users will be able to easily find and download mods, rate and review them, and can receive automatic mod updates when the author posts a new release or update.

So anyway, those are some of the changes coming soon to MC2 modding. I think that between making the game easier to package mods and easier for users to find/download/auto update mods, the whole modding experience for MC2 should be improving considerably over the coming weeks and months!

Hello everyone!
Since bast is now focusing on My Colony 2, the development of MC1 has slowed down, which is very much understandable - all games eventually get a sequel or just fizzle out in popularity. I don't mean that bast ignores the community of MC1 - he is just focused on the development of the sequel, which is completely fine.
But, over the last year or so, I was thinking about several changes that would take a while to implement to MC1 but could benefit the longevity of the game (or even games like Antiquitas, because some of these changes will probably apply to the engine itself). This is by no means a final request or demand from me, I'd be happy if any of these changes were introduced, and I'll still support the game if no changes will be made, because it's still a damn fun game after all these years.
These ideas are big changes that will probably take quite a while to implement, but could be very beneficial to making the Scroll2D engine games live practically forever. Please treat this post as more of a crazy idea dump more than an actual solid suggestion, as some of these ideas will probably not make sense to implement on a development time basis.
I'd also love to see feedback and potential cues on how these ideas can be simplified.
Anyways, here be thou ideas.

1. Advanced modding support
My Colony 2 was revolutionary in the terms of modding. For the first time we as a community could add our own buildings and resources, and later even events and technologies, which is awesome and definitely contributes to the overall ingenuity of the game.
In My Colony 1, there are also modding options, however these are limited to maps and texture packs. It's still better than nothing at all, but could be greatly improved.
My idea extends the modding system in a way that allows players to add their own buildings, resources, technologies, units, worlds, and even things like civilizations and custom building GUIs. This will probably require a lot of changes to the engine but can be implemented at least partially, benefiting the overall replayability of the game. These mods will probably have issues with charters and online games, so these could be limited to offline only, but will still be a very fun addition to the game, allowing the players to create their own after-end-of-life DLCs and such.

2. Bigger cities
This is a very straight-forward idea that I've heard from a bunch of other players in the community. This idea regards the sizes of the cities in region worlds. These are currently Small 51x51 (1x1 region tile) cities and Medium 101x101 (2x2 region tile) cities. This is okay, but it could probably be easily expanded to Big 151x151 (3x3 region tile) cities and Huge (4x4 region tile) cities. One problem to consider would be cloud disk space, however I'd assume that 9 Small cities would take up the same if not more space than 1 Big city.

3. Annexable regions
This is another idea I've seen other players talk about. While it is true that there is a lot of space on the region worlds already, some people are making absolutely huge bases and slowly outgrowing the region size.
Annexing regions would add the possibility to have several additional similarly sized regions under your command.
This could be implemented in several ways - either by adding several layers of regions, with a map of regions, and regions full of cities, or adding a submenu simply listing owned regions, and perhaps regions having green outlines that allows you to switch the one you're currently viewing, similar to region cities.
An obvious issue would be cloud disk space since now My Colony worlds would be essentially infinite, but there could be a limit of regions set or even a premium system where an Ape Apps Gold user has an increased limit of regions.

4. Multi-species colonies
The concept of multi-species colonies has always been very interesting to me and I've been pretty confused why it's not in the game. This would allow colonies to have several kinds of colonists - humans could live alongside bugs and aliens. This would also allow creating buildings previously exclusive to another race. I don't know if this conflicts with bast's vision for the game, but this could be locked behind an end-game technology to make the game way more interesting.

5. Expeditions
This would be a simple way of extracting resources that is an expansion of the WMD system (but this time more peaceful). This would include a special upgradeable building that would be an expedition agency, which would send colonists on a type of planet that the player can choose and establish a settlement to extract resources.
Now this settlement can either be completely simulated with resources just flowing in or essentially be a second temporary colony that the player can actually use just like their primary. Of course the latter would need a lot more coding to be done and is actually possible to a degree already with the use of charters. But one way that could be done more efficiently is to limit the number of colonial colonies to something like 3 at a time and limiting the map size to for example 50x50. However, this would be treated as an independent map, so the resources would be able to respawn.

So that's it. As I said, these would probably take some time to implement but they could really expand the game and make it way more replayable. Unless bast wants us all to migrate to MC2. I'll hold a grudge in that case. Cheers!

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Adding the mods (pc only)
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1. First open the my colony game and choose more options from the main menu.

2. Then choose modding from the left side menu, then texture mods, then create texture mod.

3. Next find the item you want to swap out, i picked the lander for this thread, now click import override then file and locate the graphic you just made and click it.

4. It should now appear in a box under then original if so click options top left and then click save.
(if you get the warning pop up stating the dimensions are wrong then you need to resize your artboard to the same sie as the item you'e swapping in my case the lander which is 64x64 px)

5. Now click options again then pick export and save it with a good name that won't get mixed up with names already in the game, save the file with the extension .mct

6. Close the editor and return to the game main screen, choose more options again then modding then texture mods but then choose import texture mod and find the .mct file you just created and it should return you cabk to the main screen.

7. Open a save game and giggle with glee as you see your very own creation in the game.

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Hope you find this useful and if so please feel free to comment below with your questions or wasssaps and also don't forget to vote on this thread.

A type of modding should be added that does more than just simple texture changes. I myself would enjoy being able to add my own structures to the game, with my own planet types and conditions, possibly even my very own race. So modding that allows us to alter the data, would be nice.

Bastecklein, do you have a function in your code that creates a building? If so, you might want to implement a way of creating new buildings in the Modding section.

Users could submit an .svg file with the artwork guidelines and submit all the details.

I think that the ability to create custom buildings would allow players to experiment wth different gameplay styles to see if their ideas would balance or unbalance the game.

If this feature is already in the modding pack, let me know. The only feature I've seen so far is the ability to replace textures, which is still cool.

Also, it would be a very nice feature to be able to design your own planet with custom buildings. Although it wouldn't be an online feature, it would allow players to test their ideas to the fullest extent before presenting them to bast. I understand that this would probably be a lot of work for bast and I don't want to complicate things for him. I just think that this feature should be added in the long run, no matter how far in the future it has to wait.

So for the second part of your question, I do plan on having full modding capabilities besides just the current texture modding, including custom units/buildings/races/etc. That will be separate from the map editor though.

There will be randomly generated terrain including rivers, likes and cliffs and whatnot. You will also be able to design your own via the map editor.

As for Colony Wars, yes it will be sort of like Star Craft/Age of Empires. Actually, it will be almost exactly (gameplay-wise) like Command and Conquer Red Alert 2, which is what I am largely basing it off of.

Will be like this except with My Colony graphics and units.

The game does have a built in molding tool. In Windows and android there is a create texture mod option under the modding section of more options.

Once again that's More Options -> Modding -> Create Texture Mod. If there is nothing there then reboot.
Still not working then post your device and My Colony software version.

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Want to know how to add custom items/textures in the my colony game?
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Well here's how with easy to follow instructions.

The way the game uses mods is similar to minecraft, basically you are just redressing a building/item in the game with your own artwork, but the building/item will perform just as the building/item you swapped it for.
(so a tree will still only have 15 units even if you make it fatter graphically and so forth)

1. Create a graphic you want to add in the game using an art app or program such as one of these free tools.

www.gimp.org
www.inkscape.org

I use Adobe illustrator but also know how to use the other apps so if you have questions please ask.

2. Make sure the graphic is suitable for the item you want to swap with
(such as a lander with the same footprint as a stadium will not shrink down well once drawn).

3. It's best to set your clean art file/art board to the dimensions of the item you want to swap with, the dimension info for each game item can be found in the modding section in the game.

4. If you already have a graphic made my advice would be to create a new file with the dimensions set to 64x64 pixels. Copy and paste your artwork into the new 64x64 file you just created and resize it to fit.
(i leave a gap so there's some space between my art and the edge).[/size]

5. Save or export your graphic as a transparent background .png file name it well so it’s individual and easy to locate later.

How to import .mct files

1. Find a .mct file in the mod section of this forum, download and save.

2. Open the game in a pc then follow this route > more options> modding> texture mods> import texture mod> choose .mct file, you should then return to the main screen and ready to play.

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Welcome traveller i see you are not associated with a commonwealth charter?

Why not add ours as your charter code cwMXoAZ9 we will help with resources any way we can.

-----

You need not be a pro at this game all levels of citizen are welcome here, we have players who have been around since the game was in 0.20 beta and are always happy to help, we also have a discord channel for chat and tips.

Not only can we help with the game we also helped with some of the early graphics and continue to add our ideas in the game ideas forum, but we don't have to wait to see your ideas added to the game because we also have a very active modding group who are slowly modding the UE charter maps into the Expanse universe check the post linked below for more info.

( see here - https://www.ape-apps.com/viewpage.php?p=16093 )

plus we can help you use mods for this game on your computer just ask for help in the forum post linked above.

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I will fill this out more sooner but we have just been attacked by the UN and this weird purple mutagen called proto molecule was released into the mars colony so we are busy cleaning up at the moment so please feel free to leave a comment or 2 below and please vote in the poll.

Toddy - President of the M.C.R.

OFF LINE modding Only
The ability to ADD new buildings new roads new Bots and to mod excising buildings ( resource gains and timer .

I only ask this as now the 32 bit is out and the desktop version works ( again thanks )
I could mod it but that would mess up Updating and online .

BTW this could help you as well if we ( i make something you like enough you could have access to it and add it to the main game .

thanks for the great game and antiq as well ( waiting to see the new clicker based on my colony and colony wars ill defintly look see )

There are a couple of changes coming to the Texture Modding engine over the next few updates.

The first one is the support for .svg texture overrides. When you override a graphic using an .svg file, you get another added benefit. Any element in your svg file using the fill color of ff00ff will automatically change to the players' colony color (as defined on the Statistics screen) at run-time.

Coming in a future update is going to be the ability to upload your mods to the My Colony server right from within the game. The game will include a new mod browser where users can download and activate mods without having to leave the game.

After those two features are done, mod-chaining will be added, whereby you can have as many texture mods activated as you like. You will be able to define a preference order, in the event that two mods override the same texture, the one with the higher preference will take precedence.

Anyway, the .svg support is coming in this update, and the other two will be coming over the next two updates. Enjoy!

ok here is a idea to make texture modding much much better .
Blank Tile sets 1 b 1 / 1 b 2 / 1 b 3 / 1 b 4 / 1 b 5 /2 b 2 / 2 b 3 / 2 b 4/ 2 b 5 /3 b 2 / 3 b 3 / 3 b 4 / 3 b 5
4 b 4 / 4 b 5 / 5 b 5 /
Just add a drop down box to the building bar with the Blank tile sets all by them self then when someone mods one the blank tile set gets replaced by the new texture .
this lets us keep buildings and add new stuff or our own wile giving us a good range of lots to mod .
Lastly Make the UP TOP tall Size as tall as the investment bank ( not that someone needs to use all that room but if they do want a tall building they can make one . )
Ps this was done with another game that players added lots to .
Ps if someone places a blank tile in game the game would just show the grass or ground through it But maybe a small small box to let them see it so it can be dozed would be a good idea .

Also seeing modding is pay to play----- only pay to pay players would even be able to place even a blank lot anyway and most of us know enough to not have issues with it .

New release of My Colony has just been pushed out and should be heading out to all devices over the next couple of days. This is a minor update, as with the weather warming up I have been pretty busy with yard work and landscaping around the house over the last few weeks. Still though, there are some important changes, so let's take a look at what is new!

My Colony v0.64.0 Changelog

New Stuff

• Added a Delete All button to the building stats screen. Use with caution!
• New Research build category added
• Added new in-game texture mod downloader

Changes

• The in-game commonwealth chat now shows which colony each user represents
• Players on the Xbox One console can no longer play online 😕 (Microsoft requirement, nothing I can do about it)
• Added wheel storage to the Gravitational Compression Warehouse
• Increased Crystalling, Ore, Regolith, and Charcoal storage capacities for the Zolarg Mound
• LIS colonies can now build the Hall of Congress
• On Android and Windows 10, lighting effects are now turned Off by default, for performance reasons. Can be changed back in the Engine Settings screen
• Slightly improved Starship construction time
• Starships and Wheels have been added to the GBT
• Multiple texture mods can now be activated at once
• You can now upload your custom texture mods to the My Colony server in-game

Notes
As you can see, this update primarily focuses on cleaning up existing content and a complete rewrite of the texture modding system. If people utilize the new Texture Mod upload/download server, I will expand the feature allowing for in-app screenshots before downloading, and user ratings for the mods so you know what you are getting ahead of time.

I am thinking of implementing an entire in-game complete modding system, allowing the modder to start with a completely blank slate game file and build their own My Colony like game from scratch, defining their own civs, graphics, structures, and all related content. More information on that will be forthcoming.

Anyway, next update will probably be back to content again, unless something major comes up. Let me know if you have any issues with the new texture mod system, as I did rewrite the entire thing from scratch to allow for multiple mods to be activated at once.

That's all for today everyone. Much more to come - enjoy!

This goes along with my other post regarding graphics creation, but I am thinking of making a change to the way MC2 loads content, which should allow for more distributed development, but also easier modding.

Right now in MC1, all of the game parameters are defined in a single json file. My thought for MC2 is to have a "buildings" folder in the project directory that is full of individual building definition files. When the client is loaded, it will scan that folder and load each building file individually, instead of reading everything from the single json script.

This is more complicated, but it allows for adding new buildings to the game at runtime for modding/customization. It also allows for the community to easily create and submit their own buildings for inclusion into the main game. And since the files can be loaded at runtime, new building candidates can easily be tested out by the entire community before getting the go/no go for inclusion into the main game.

My thought would be to release an editor desktop application that would allow you to create a building, define all of it's parameters, and package it together with a 3d model file and a small thumbnail image for the construction sidebar. That way anybody could download the editor and start making content for the game. They can even load it right into their game and test/debug it.

Just wondering what people think of this model/concept, or if anybody would actually utilize it. It is a bit more work for me up front, so if nobody would take advantage of it I would not waste my time. However, in the long run I think it could greatly expand the content of the game and expedite development.

Let me know your thoughts!

I haven't worked out exactly how the modding will be set up yet @Sobeirannovaocc so I can't answer everything for certain.

My intention is that I don't want to have to fiddle around with a bunch of .JSON data every time I make an update. And it's not that JSON is difficult or anything, but in MC1, there are so many records in the file now, that if I want to add an additional property to a building, it takes all day of going back through the file and adding the new property to all existing buildings. Not fun.

So to me, the more the game can be created by using it's own built-in tools, the better.

Now, your ideas about having mods in their own folder or using a launcher are good, but here is the problem. Well, three problems: they are called Android, iOS, and Windows 10 (via the Store). Sorry, four problems: Web Browser. All of the big platforms require all applications to run in a sandboxed environment and severely restrict your access to the filesystem. The Web does not have real filesystem access at all, although this is theoretically changing by the end of the year, at least for Chrome and Edge (the chromium version). But I doubt it will be changing at all for Firefox anytime soon. Apple iOS is actually becoming a bit more open in terms of filesystem, but Android is going in the opposite direction and becoming even more locked down with every release.

So the biggest issue for modding like that is application sandboxing. But just because the customized files are stored within the application's sandboxed storage, does not mean they have to dirty the clean install of the game. Maybe modded content is only loaded on a per-game/server basis? So that when you start a new game, you can select which extensions you want to activate. And maybe also have an in-game mod panel where you can activate new mods or update existing ones after the game is already running. And maybe have a container file that groups a bunch of mods into one package, so that you can easily install an entire collection of things bundled into one mod package. I am just thinking of ideas here.

So anyway, hope that answers some things. I don't know if it will be just buildings until I kind of see the direction of the engine. I know that buildings will be the most important unit in MC2. To the extent that I have Rovers, I don't think they are going to have the same importance as they do in MC1. I suppose resources and map types can also be customized. We'll see!

Ok going off of some of the above thoughts, consider this. What if MC2 does not need to have all of the planned customization and everybody is playing the same game on the same server? The modding does sound awesome of course, but it does somewhat break the ability to have a global server. Additionally, all of the customization may just turn this game into something it's not, if that makes sense.

@Invincible said he is still in favor of the infinite map sizes, and so am I. Now an infinite map size does not necessarily have to be a multiplayer server. For instance, MC2 could simply do away with the Region concept and make all maps (planets) infinite in size (or at least, super large), and you would never run out of building space, and your entire civilization is still right there on one screen.

Now obviously with an infinite map, it would be easy to get "lost." I think there will need to be a way to "bookmark" locations on the map that you can easily snap back to.

@Luker124 hints at ways to change up trade, possibly requiring embassies or other ideas, and as @Ansom correctly points out, the economy in MC1 is a bit out of whack. That all said, I have been considering that the game is still fun to have a global connection, and I think the in-game chat does add a lot to it. However, some things need to change.

For example, if MC2 goes global instead of decentralized, I am not sure that chat-based resource gifting should even be a part of the game. It's not realistic at all. However, trading resources over the GBT instantly really isn't realistic either. Here are some possible solutions I have.

• A year or so ago, I brought up the idea of actually using Star Ships to build trade networks between colonies. I never implemented this, because with gifting and GBT it would be largely pointless. Maybe in MC2, Star Ships are the only real way to export/import/trade resources off of your planet. It makes logical sense. You build Star Ships and you can either then trade with Earth for rip-off prices bases on your starship cargo capacity, or you can set up networks with other players.
• I do not think that the GBT as it is really makes sense, however the concept is enjoyed by a lot of players who like the trading aspect of the game. Maybe this could be a compromise. Remember a few months ago when I was thinking that, instead of being a part of a government (UE/LIS/etc) you are a corporation trying to profit with a space colony? Perhaps that is the concept, and there is a global stock exchange in the game, where you can issue shares in your "company" to raise revenues, people can trade your stock, and you can issue cash dividends to your "shareholders" when your colony if profitable? There would need to be an in-game way to pull up all of the stats on a colony so traders know if they are a good buy or not, but it could serve as both a way to make money, and a side game that still has the trading aspects of the GBT. And it doesn't jack with resource prices. Of course, I could see the need for a resource based commodities market, but perhaps it would have a requirement that you need to load all of the goods onto a starship first, but I would also be fine with no resource based trading market.
• I had a thought for Embassies that still sort of keeps the "multiple players in one server" thing, but in a much reduced role. For Embassies in MC2, what if you grant another player a "patch" of land, like a 10x10 square or something, and they can build whatever they want there as their embassy, or maybe out of a certain sub-selection of decorative structures. So each embassy area would be unique, and when you establish an embassy in a new city, you get to design it how you want, make it look pretty, and depending on what buildings you put on it would decide what kind of capabilities the embassy had? This is just an initial thought, something to flesh out more later.
• Buildings that just generate resources out of nothing probably shouldn't exist in MC2.
• The modding is fancy, but it might really not be that necessary and might be more of a hassle than it is worth. Realistically I do not know how many people would actually take advantage of it, and it would eliminate that colony's ability to play online. Well I could go either way on this really.

Anyway, think about what I wrote and let me know your thoughts. MC2 is still in it's infancy so we can still throw ideas around and see what sticks. Possibly if you take MC1, tweak it with the ideas above, make it 3d, etc, that would be a pretty good new game too. On the other hand, I do like the idea of the decentralized servers and complete customization, but perhaps that is an idea for another game that isn't called My Colony 2?

Hello guys!

My Colony 2 (MC2) is currently under development which will utilize the brand new 3D engine.
In other word:
MY COLONY INTO 3D!
notes: It is a different game, not a direct successor of the current My Colony.


About the new 3D engine and Voxel Models
The first practical 3D engine utilisation was first tested in another game by @bastecklein, My Empire.
You'll found the models and textures in the new 3D engine looks quite blocky which the blockyness (...?) can be compared to Minecraft. The style is called Voxel.
One of the reasons for Bastecklein adopting voxel models is that it is easier for players to build their own model brick by brick, instead of entering hundreds of parameters to produce a single model.

This is a footage of My Empire. Looks promising, right?


MC2 and Voxel Models
One of the innovative change of MC2 over MC1 is the game supports more possibilities of modding, allowing players to customize their game from resources to buildings, from their attributes to their in-game appearance.
The render for colonists, rovers and buildings will also be voxel models - You can even use your own!

A demonstration of how the game could look like. Not an in-game render.


How to make your own voxel model
Bastecklein has also prepared an app dedicated for creating voxel models for new 3D games, including MC2, and their modding features:Voxel Paint.
Easy to use, it is accessible to anybody at different platforms, from your mobile to PC and laptops, either the web version or you can download the app if you wish to edit them offline.
Currently it is just a simple app, there are lots of rooms for improvement. If you think of something that can make Voxel Paint better, don't forget to drop your idea in the official Voxel Paint forum!


Hopefully you'll find this post helpful!

in later updates to modding could it be possible to completely turn mc2 into a more linear story-based game instead of an endless sim?

i’m thinking of a more advanced scripting tool for modding that can rework a lot of the game
i’m currently creating a mod right now that would have more linear gameplay and I would like a text box to show up every time you find or do something that’s important to the story but i’m not sure if this would be possible in the future without some scripting tools or a sidebar category just for that purpose
hope that made sense

Today I have finished Epic Adventure v0.14.0 which should be hitting all platforms over the coming days. This update adds Charcoal which can be created by smelting a Log in the furnace. Also, pretty much all wooden items can now be used as furnace fuel. This update also vastly increases the speed at which logging/mining/attacking occurs.

Beyond that though, I wanted to discuss the future of Epic Adventure a bit. The truth is, there are a lot of really good ideas and things I want to do with this game, but they are all sort of hampered by some stupid design decisions that I made from the very beginning of development, making it exceedingly difficult and time consuming to add new features and content to the game.

Even the graphics are a hassle, as simple as they look. For instance, I have been wanting to add more walls to the game beyond the simple wooden wall that exists. However, each wall object in the game requires 48 different images which all need to line up together so that all possible configurations of creating a wall will properly connect. The same goes for rocks in caves and other terrain elements. This is a very annoying and time consuming process in and of itself.

The game world is split into chunks, which is fine, but I originally implemented this is having each chunk be a totally separate map, whose processing and entities are completely disconnected from the rest of the game world. What is happening in one chunk has no relation or impact on what is happening on the chunk next door, and changing this requires a complete reworking of the server side code.

For rendering, Epic Adventure uses the Scroll2d engine that I originally created for My Land. This engine does not lend itself particularly well to the chunk layout of the game, as it works on an x:y coordinate system that cannot go below 0:0, meaning negative numbers are not possible. This is why in My Colony 1, the map could only be expanded East and South when using the annex land option, and not to the North and West. This is an issue in Epic Adventure because I would like to make game "look like" it is not broken up into chunks, even though it technically is, similar to My Colony 2.

Because of this, I have determined to consider Epic Adventure a proof-of-concept or a tech-demo for a brand new game engine that I will be switching to, and to end development of the game at this point. I will be taking the best parts of Epic Adventure and reusing a lot of it's code, but pushing it into a brand new open-world RPG engine that I can use across several games, including Gone Rogue 2, as well as whatever will be the spiritual successor to Epic Adventure, which I am thinking about calling My World or something to that effect, in tradition of keeping with the "My" series of games.

So for the purpose of the rest of this post, I will be referring to the continued development of what is now Epic Adventure as My World, however there is no guarantee that My World will be the final name. But I need to use something to talk about what will be changing in the new engine, and what will be carried over from Epic Adventure.

To start with, the My World engine will probably straight-copy the game HUD/UI from Epic Adventure, including the crafting/smelting menu, as well as the "belt" inventory and so on. Not that these things don't need improvement, but copying what is already there will give a big boost to the development.

For rendering, I will be replacing the Scroll2d engine with the Scroll3d engine that is currently being used in My Colony 2. Scroll3d is vastly more advanced than Scroll2d and renders faster on more devices thanks to using WebGL instead of software rendering. My World .png artwork will be replaced with Voxel Paint graphics like in My Colony 2, and player characters will still use My Tokens characters thanks to the new Mini Voxel Tokens introduced in the latest My Tokens release.

The reason for this change is that it simply makes it way faster and easier to create graphics and assets for the game. For instance, I said that a wall in Epic Adventure requires 48 different images. In My World, it could be made with either 1 or 2 images, one for the sides, and optionally a different one for the top. Scroll3d was also build with chunk-type worlds in mind right from the beginning, again look at My Colony 2 for reference.

My Colony 2 has a complete game-editor and modding platform built in, and I want My World to have the same thing. Not only does this allow other users to create content for the game, but it allows me to work on the game from a web browser from anywhere. For instance, if we spend two weeks with family, I can take my laptop and still work on My Colony 2, because I have the game and Voxel Paint in my web browser wherever I'm at. It would be nice to be able to do that here as well.

I mentioned that I want this engine to also support Gone Rogue 2, which I've been wanting to make for a while now. This means support for other RPG style elements. It will need a full dungeon generator, as well as support for NPC's, shops, dialogs, etc. A lot of these things I was planning to add to Epic Adventure anyway, because I was originally going to use the Epic Adventure engine to make the Gone Rogue sequel. But to have this in the new engine, along with the game editor built right into the game, will actually give players the ability to create their own RPG adventure games as My World mods. There are a lot of possibilities here.

Anyway, this is a long term project. What I want to do is take what I've learned about crafting games from Epic Adventure, what I've learned about modding/endless worlds from My Colony 2, and what I've learned about multiplayer from a whole host of games, and merge them into a new Open World/Adventure Game engine. It might be called My World, and the first version will be pretty similar to the current release of Epic Adventure, except in 3d. It will be a lot like when I originally converted My Empire from Scroll2d to Scroll3d, except this requires more substantial changes than that one did. But for the first release, I plan to have everything that the current Epic Adventure has, and then move forward from there.

So there it is, I hope that this doesn't disappoint anyone, but I think that the new game has potential to really shine in ways that it would be hard to make Epic Adventure do so. But let me know what you think, and stay tuned for more!

Hey, I was wondering if anyone knows how to mod on iOS using the in-game modding editor, I recently used the mod editor to make a mod when I created the mod it was a world mod and whenever I try to use it doesn’t let me so I was wanting to know if I need to do something to it.

My Colony 2 v0.20.0 is out now on Web, Windows, and the Ape Apps Launcher, and should be hitting Android and iOS sometime later this week. I don't have any new structures in this release, and instead focused on cleaning up some of the issues from v0.19.0, and started laying the groundwork for future greatness! So what's new? Let's take a look!

To start off, many of the video settings in the Engine Settings menu no longer require an app restart in order to take effect. Realtime Shadows, Antialiasing, and DOF effect can now all be toggled on/off while in-game. I am working on making it so that all engine settings can be toggled on and off while the game is running, so stay tuned for that.

I started adding initial gamepad support to the game. Right now the gamepad only controls the camera and the Player Mode controls, but eventually I intend to have the game 100% playable with the controller. This will allow be to publish the game to Android/Fire TV devices, as well as the new Steam Deck device for when I finally port the game over to Steam.

The top-right toolbar has been expanded, and I might have to start adding UI toggle switches to let players turn more items on/off as they see fit.


The new buttons (starting at the left) are the Player Mode toggle, and the VR Mode toggle, both of which I will expand on in a bit. The VR Mode button will only appear on the Windows 10 or the Web version of the game, and will only be there if you have supporting hardware (like Google Cardboard viewer on an Android phone, or Windows Mixed Reality headset, or if you are playing the game on an Oculus stand-alone device).

You will also notice on the bottom-right mini toolbar next to the Clear Chat button is a new microphone button:


My Colony 2 now comes with built-in voice chat support. This is not a global voice chat, just a group chat for the people online in the current world. This was added as a way to communicate in the new VR Mode, but also works in all modes of play for players who just want to talk to each-other instead of type. The icon will turn green if your microphone is active, and red if your microphone is muted. Click on the microphone icon to mute/unmute. You will also see an indication that tells you which player is talking while they are speaking.

In v0.19.0, I added a rudimentary "Player Mode" that allowed you to click on a colonist and walk around the city from their point of view. This feature has been expanded in this release, and will continue to be expanded as time goes on. In v0.20.0, you no longer have to try clicking on a tiny colonist, there is a new Player Mode icon on the top toolbar. The first time you click on the Player Mode toggle, you will be asked to place your token. Now instead of assuming the body of an existing colonist, you actually join the world as yourself. You can pick any starting location you want, but after your token is places, you will have to physically walk to wherever you want to go.

Right now your token just looks like a standard colonists, except whose space suit is matched to your player color in-server. I plan to allow players to also customize their guy buy picking one of their Tokens from the My Tokens app.

Your Player Mode player location and movements are now synced to the server, and all players can see each other's guys walking around the world. In the coming updates, each player will have a personal inventory attached to their Player Mode character, as well as stats, equipment, etc, and Player Mode characters will be able to interact with each other, and maybe even do joint quests, depending on how far I take this. I also think it will be cool to let Player Mode characters enter vehicles, whether land, sea or air vehicles, and travel around the world in that manner.

Eventually there can be a whole Player Mode game within a game associated to MC2, but I also want the modding tools to have the ability to create a game that is 100% based on the Player Mode, so there is going to be a lot more coming to this feature in the coming updates. As always, suggestions are welcome!

Somewhat related to Player Mode, a new Virtual Reality Mode has been added to the game! This one is an even earlier and more experimental state than Player Mode, but players with supporting hardware can test it out today and leave feedback.


Eventually, the entire My Colony 2 game, both regular build mode and Player Mode, will be 100% playable from both the Gamepad and the VR interface. Right now it's basically a tech demo, although Player Mode in VR is pretty much equivalent to the non-VR player mode at this time.

To test out VR Mode today, you will need some hardware. The cheapest way to get into it is to get a Google Cardboard viewer, or one of the many Android VR headsets that are cheaply available on Amazon (you would need the Google Cardboard app installed as well). You will also have to use the PWA version of My Colony 2 (https://www.apewebapps.com/my-colony-2/) as it does not work on the installed .apk. Playing on Android will also require you to have a bluetooth gamepad paired to your phone.

You can also try it from a stand alone VR Headset like the Oculus (meta) Quest 2. Just fire up the headset browser and navigate to the My Colony 2 web app. You will not need an extra controller on the Oculus, as the devices controllers work just fine.

There is nothing you can do in the standard build mode while in VR except scroll around, so you are best off switching your game into Player Mode before activating VR (as you can't do it while in VR yet). Once in VR Player Mode though, you can walk around the entire world as your Player Mode character. Even though you can't do anything yet, it's a pretty cool experience. With multiple players in a game with VR Player Mode and microphones activated, it can be a cool VR social experience. Especially in the future, if you can group up and go on a quest.

Keep in mind that more computing horsepower is required for VR Mode. On the Quest 2, I had to turn all engine settings down before starting up the game, as the Water World map in VR completely lagged my headset out, which was kind of disorienting. So if you are going to try VR Mode, please turn down graphics settings before entering the game!

If you have a VR Headset or Cardboard type viewer, give it a try and let me know! I think there is a lot of future potential for VR Mode in MC2.

Moving on, there are a few quality of life improvements in this update. Now when you click on the scrolling resources counter, it will switch to a static, non-scrolling list like in MC1.


I have also implemented one of the most long-standing feature requests to the game (besides pavement bulldozing), building progress bars!


Progress Bars were actually a lot harder than they seem like they should be, since MC2 is rendered in 3D unlike MC1, each resource bar has to be an object in the 3D world. To save performance, there is only 1 resource bar object that gets reused as you mouse around the world, and a new texture is redrawn with every tick update.

There are some modding improvements too. Mod Shop downloads are now checked for updates automatically on game launch and are automatically kept updated in the background. Also, support for Total Conversion mods has been unbroken, and these types of mods should be working again, both through manual import and from the Mod Shop.

So these are the major changes in this update. There is also a laundry list of bug fixes that I will not bore you with.

The next update will have to focus on content again since I did a non-content update this time. Moving ahead, I am going to expand Gamepad support to cover the full game, and get full building mode working in the VR mode. I also want to add new play experiences to the Player Mode, so if you have suggestions, feel free to let me know. Other than that, thank you for playing the game, let me know what you want to see next, and stay tuned for more!

#mycolony2

It would be cool if u had a library of all the building's .svg files so we can edit a bit and have our own custom images for texture modding. I thought it would be nice and it would expand the modding part of MC1.

While some games on other platforms might offer built-in modding tools, it's highly unlikely to find such features in iOS games due to these security restrictions.

Download the files where ever you want to store them
Open the game
From the first screen chose "More Options" to open the side menu.
Mash "Modding"
Mash "Import Texture Mod"
Find your mod. This will store a copy where it needs to go and should activate it. You can deactivate and switch back and forth from this menu.

All of this requires a premium license.

Not impossible with modding tho

This gives me the motivation to dive into modding... my beautiful arcologies are now being swamped by yellow towers...