Black Forest
Who survives the winter map?
The last update included a brand-new map set in winter, Return to Endraville. This is the toughest map I have designed so far, and the inability to use fields makes even food a struggle.
Who can beat it?
Show me. Stream it or make a screenshot (F12 in Steam) of the victory screen.
I myself will be streaming my attempt to beat the map today evening (European time) on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO87uw8EBo4arsOS64iRuVw/live
Join me there to watch, or stream your own and let us know when and where!
Winter is Coming
This is a hard difficulty map, with no fields due to the weather, in which you are rebuilding a demolished village before your peasants freeze to death in their tents - can you do it?
Also in this update:
- Walls now snap to each other, for that perfect placement
- Game now shows you small icons of the monsters attacking. It's not very beautiful yet, but some indication. Let me know what you think about it or if you prefer it without.
- Windowed mode now available
- Added menu items for the next large updates, containing more buildings, tutorial and story mode - these aren't active yet, just put them in place already.
- Improved peasant info list
- Made it more clear which features are simply not done yet
- Started to add the tutorial
- Balance: Slightly raised the amount of wood gathered in the forest
Next Big Changes: Snapping and Saving
Snapping already works, look here:
[previewyoutube="WpuZ0cwabnk;full"]
And I am working on saving and loading games. This is the most complex single feature so far, and it is taking quite a bit of effort. I hope to have it ready in the next update.
even more bugfixes and small updates
- Some large monsters now walk through fields (without damaging them).
- Chicken pens now tell you how many eggs are waiting to be collected.
- Chicken pens now lose food when attacked by creatures.
- Fields now use up 2 food (seeds) for construction.
- More explicit difficulty selection on new games.
- Action cam is now less volatile.
- Monsters will now less often run past the village and concentrate more on where buildings actually are
- Peasants who are seriously wounded or starving (low on health) are now too weak to work and must be nursed back to health first.
- Some more manual pages added
- Bugfix: Difficulty now correctly controls which buildings and monsters are active
- Bugfix: Issue where defenses become impossible to build after some days should now be resolved.
- Bugfix: correct wetness display on fields
- Bugfix: destroyed fields will no longer claim they are growing or ready to harvest
- Bugfix: Fields finally grow and change colour properly
- Bugfix: Day counter now actually jumps to day 20 before it announces victory
more bugfixes and so on...
- Building buttons now also explain why a building is not available for construction
- Improved monster spawning
- Working on improved performance, please report to the Steam discussion forum if you see an improvement (and on which map(s)).
- Fields now show their current status (planted, growing, ready to harvest) as well as water status (drought, too dry, too wet) - so you know if you need to add a well.
- Bugfix: Workers now removed from buildings upon destruction (no more floating watchtower people)
- Bugfix: Remove a rare occasion where you could simultaneously win and lose a game.
Live Stream - Dev Playing
Follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/tanaziel if you feel like it.
small bugfix update
- Peasants assigned to wells will now stop at nightfall and not spend the rest of their life hauling water :-)
- Task buttons (the ones in the pie menu) will now tell you why you can't do a task
- Q and E now rotate the camera view. Rotate buildings with R and T now
- Game can now be paused/unpaused by pressing the space bar
- Game now starts in pause so that you can read the intro / manual in peace
- Bugfixes, including one that caused all buildings to suddenly disappear.
More levels, more graphics, more bugfixes, more everything!
- UPDATED GAME ENGINE - this might cause some unexpected bugs, please report in the Steam discussion forum if anything breaks.
- Fixed manual pages navigation
- Families can now be childless
- Game now pauses if you task-switch away from it
- Game now has different difficulty levels
- New level added: Karenfang - a river-side lengthy village with a church you need to defend
- New level variation for the test level: easy and hard difficulty
- More variation in models for houses
- Applied a bunch of performance optimizations to the buildings (not yet all of them)
- Better description for buildings not yet implemented
- Better description and placeholder image for levels not yet implemented
- Better visual indication of which fields are ready to harvest (they now turn yellow when ready to harvest, not the day before)
- Added little indicators so people don't miss that you can rotate buildings with Q and E
- Started work on functionality to save and load games (very early and incomplete, not enabled in the public version)
Devlog - Next Steps
More Levels
Different levels in the game are supposed to give you different challenges. I'm going to show that with a few levels to add. Later on, winning a level will unlock more difficult levels.
The first new level that I am currently working on is the village of Karenfang. It is blocked off to one side by a small river, which only flying critters can cross (yes, there will be a few flying critters, which will also go over walls, but they aren't in the game yet). This level also demonstrates that levels do not have to be square - Karenfang stretches along the river and is twice as long as it is wide.
The level also demonstrates another thing I am adding: Special buildings. Karenfang has a church at its centre. You cannot build this building, it is there on the map, and if ruined it is gone forever.
More Buildings
Due to your feedback, am I now designing new buildings for resource gathering. These will allow you to assign peasants to gathering tasks who will resume those tasks in the morning and whenever they return. This way you can have some of your peasants constantly on gathering duty.
Here is how I plan for it to work: First you build the respective gathering point (one per resource). This building has tasks (like the repair, demolish, harvest, etc. of other buildings) to assign or remove peasants. Each gathering point can have up to 8 peasants assigned. These peasants will gather in the forest just as if you had assigned them manually, but whenever they return, they will rest for one hour and then automatically go gathering again. They will also go gathering in the morning automatically, until you remove them from the gathering point.
Other Improvements
Aside from those visibled things, I am also working on improved code, better textures and general cleanup.
last but not least...
And finally, I want to thank all of you who downloaded and played, who wrote feedback or reviews. It makes me happy if you enjoy the game and all feedback is welcome. Some days I think that it would be nice if people didn't write a negative review saying the game isn't complete when it tells you that in no uncertain terms right on the start screen, but the many positive reviews who post that it has potential and they'll be following the progress make up for it. You guys got it exactly right: It's a work in progress, and your feedback shapes the development. I read every comment on the discussion boards and every review.
Small Updates and Bugfixes
- Wolves now attack in packs.
- Building task menu now has a link to the in-game manual
- Fields/Rain interaction considerably improved