Merchant of the Skies Early Access 1 patch and Coldwild Games report
Hey Merchants!
Thanks for your support during the release! Your bug reports and ux requests make a difference, so today I wanted to address some of these in patch 1, which went live just now.
Changes:
UX: ctrl/shift stacking (ctrl = x100, shift = x10). Now you don't have to press those pesky Z and V keys (note that they still work).
Cursor is not locked in windowed mode and resolution changes does not break it
Map generation / naming overlaps: isle names reduced in size a bit. Map generation algorithm changed slightly so islands won't have overlapping names anymore. Thanks Lukalot
Scouting the island for resources is made a bit more clear: the tip / request for needing the right tools is not shown (because it is irrelevant for first visit)
Don't wear off same modules on resource gathering
reduce turtledove spawn rate a bit
Shovel module icon is no longer missing
Under the hood performance improvements for navigation screen
Typo fixes
Apart from that, since I like to keep it transparent, here's a video (with a thumbnail where I look like a stalker) on how Coldwild Games doing and what to expect next:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfCoMo2luUE
In short, the quest system adjustment and rework is our #1 priority right now (apart from the ux/ui fixes). Don't hesitate to keep the reports coming and make sure to join our discord if you want to hang out :)
Best,
Vladimir
Merchant of the Skies is out in early access! Coldwild Games discounts
We are happy to launch our game, Merchant of the Skies in early access!
In this game, you'll be able to explore the world, have a few mystical encounters and establish your own trading company. In its current state, the game has about 8-10 hours of gameplay which we hope you'll enjoy.
This is our best game so far and our second early access title. We are 100% confident that we'll be able to bring it towards the successful full release together with you.
To celebrate it, we are setting the discount on Lazy Galaxy, Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story and Frequent Flyer. Grab them cheap while you can!
Jump into our discord channel if you have any questions or just want to hang out with us.
Best,
Vladimir & Helen, Coldwild Games team
Development Update #6, what to expect from early access launch
Hello Merchants!
Since the early access launch is approaching, I'm going to describe what are you going to get on July 30th. Here's a brief summary of the current state of the game:
Right now the game is split into separate missions, each has a different goal. Rebuilding the lighthouse is the longest mission that is also started by default, requiring you to rebuild the ancient lighthouse building from the ruins. It will mainly focus on establishing resource production chains which could take 5-10 hours.
Next, the Fish God feeding mode that just asks you to grow tons of apples :) Can be very short (400 apples, ~30 minutes) to very long (10k apples, ~4 hours, requiring you to build _lots_ of apple productions and delivering it all to the fish).
The money goal is self-explanatory, you can set it to be from 2000 (veeery fast) to 20k gold which would require you to become a bit more savvy with money / establish advanced production.
However, the final version is going to look like this:
The goals are going to be mixed and interwined in one map playthrough. Each goal will unlock something / affect all other goals and ensure you progress more smoothly. It's also going to be connected by plot which we are not going to spoil yet :)
The final game might be a slightly different experience with more content, but we're confident that you'll get at least 8-10 hours of fun from the current game. See you tomorrow, on July 30th at 5PM GMT launch, accompanied by a stream on the store page, courtesy of Rocknight Studios.
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!
Best,
Vladimir
Development Update 5, New Trailer and In-Game Trade Posts
Hello Merchants! First of all, we've updated the steam page and made a new trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lRVkJWQY9Y
Second, we wanted to give a glimpse into how early-game trading works. The global map is split into islands, some of these are city type islands. Most of the cities have trade posts: buildings that will let you buy and sell basic resources.
Here's the price table: it shows the list of towns and goods that can be bought there. The trade posts in the game only allow for basic level items to be traded, more advanced item sale require bazaar visit. Advanced item acquisition can only be done on your own base via the means of production.
As you start the game, the map is unexplored and you don't know what's out there. Another thing is that you can't evaluate the prices properly without seing and comparing them to other towns, so the initial version of the table is flawed, the unconfirmed price levels will be shown with question mark in trade posts. Here's an example:
In this picture, you can see the price mini-table on the right. While the prices for the stone is figured out correctly, you still can't be sure whether the price for the wood and wheat is accurate. You can only deduct that you have seen it higher and lower in some places, hence the question sign because your perception of the price can change. The expensive wheat might not seem as expensive anymore after you visit a city with higher wheat price than here.
You have to visit other towns to figure out the pricing, at least comparatively. When you visit the towns, their prices and info is added to the table and you can compare the costs more accurately and plan the trade routes accordingly.
Hopefully this gives a better insight on how trade works in the game. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions :) See you at the game release in 5 days, July 30th 5PM GMT!
Development Update 4, Carrot Minigame
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIuwy4cL4sM
As you know, you'll have to travel quite a lot in Merchant of the Skies. On your travels, you'll get to encounter different sorts of islands. One of those is going to have this. Nothing out of ordinary, just a singing carrot.
Appease it by playing the notes properly and get your hands on its gifts!
Development Update 3, Rebuilding a Lighthouse Game Goal
Hello Merchants!
The launch date is approaching, so I want to give more updates on what to expect in the initial version. Since I've covered the goal structure here, I wanted to introduce another goal into the line-up: this goal is going to be selected by default and actually involves rebuilding an ancient lighthouse used for airship navigation. Woo!
Rebuilding a lighthouse is done in 5 different stages. Stages one and two, you can simply gather resources if you don't want to expand your base.
Here's how the first two steps look like:
For stage one, you need sand and wood.
For stage two, you need rocks.
But afterwards, you'll need to purchase your own islands to establish brick, glass, lumber and gear production. Here's one of the built resource chains for glass production:
After that is done, you can safely upgrade the lighthouse further.
Stage three looks trickier, it needs both lumber and bricks. Lumber is produced by cutting wood at the lumber mill while bricks are produced from stone and sand in the oven.
Stage four requires bricks and glass. The bricks (ideally) you already have, but to get the glass, you will need to establish the sand digging and build a forge
Finally, the last stage requires tier 3 production of gears (iron -> ingots -> gears). You'll also need to buy dyes and gems (those can also be mined, but good luck finding them).
Congratulations, you've built a lighthouse! Overall, this goal playthrough takes 5-7 hours of trading, building, exploring and establishing logistics.
As usual, if you have any questions - feel free to comment here or join our discord channel. See you at the launch!
Development Update 2, a look into resources
Hello Merchants!
As the game early access launch is nearing, I think it's a good time to give a glimpse how trade and resource gathering in Merchant of the Skies works.
First of all, you start the game small. Really small. A boat and a few gold coins is all you have.
So how do you start? You fly around and search for valuable resources. Normally, your ship requires special tools (modules) to gather specific resource types. But whenever you discover a new island with natural resources, you can scout it to gather what you can. All you need is time.
You can also do quests: either bring basic resources or deliver letters, both give OKish amount of gold.
Taking on a quest
Of course, don't forget about the actual trade :) You'll need to buy low and sell high in order to survive. After you've revealed most of the map, it becomes quite a lucrative thing to do.
As you accumulate more money, you can purchase resource producing islands:
And then build buildings on them:
This starts the automatic production: as the in-game calendar runs, your warehouses keep stockpiling gathered resources. You can either sell them or invest into building advanced production chains:
The advanced production buildings create second and third tier resources that are used for quests and further base building, so you can't easily trade them in at the trade posts.
That's when bazaar comes into play (pun probably intended):
Bazaar is a special island where you can sell even the most advanced resources. There's a catch though: you are not guaranteed to sell them as you set your own prices. There are also a limited amount of visitors per day.
In the end, you might end up not selling anything. But that's usually not the case! Just trade wisely and don't be too greedy and you'll succeed. :)
Thanks for reading and make sure to follow the page for more in-game updates. Do you think this system will be enough for the trade mechanics? Let us know what you think!
Best,
Vladimir
Storepage update, new release date
Hey! As you might have noticed, we did a full page overhaul :) In addition to that, we've made a new trailer that shows the essence of the game much better.
With that, we also felt the need to postpone the early access launch for two months. Here's why:
https://youtu.be/_kFgsqW_YP4
We have the core gameplay, but we want to polish the game a bit more before early access launch. We enjoy both working on it and playing it, so we want to give much more content at early access launch. The new release date is July 30, it is set in stone and won't be delayed. We'll keep you updated.
Development Update 1, Map Adjustments and Game Goals
Hello Merchants!
Just wanted to give you an update on what I've been working on: this week has been spent on setting up the game objectives and working on the game map.
Here's how the normal game of Merchant of the Skies can go:
1) When you start a new game, you can pick an objective that you want to reach. This is going to be your winning condition. You can choose "no objectives" too for the infinite mode, but I like it when there are global goals. These will give you a purpose and alter your gameplay strategies over the gaming sessions. The goals vary by length which you can often customize (right now the estimates shall be about 20 / 40 / 60 / 90 minutes) - these estimates should give you an idea of how long the game can take. Of course it mostly depends on how you play the game, there is no hard limit as we want the game to feel relaxing :)
Afterwards, the game map is being generated with multiple points of interests and (depending on the goals) different islands. In the beginning, you don't know what these islands contain so you have to visit them. After your first visit, you'll get full information about the island (as shown on screenshot). This will help you navigate the map better and improve your trade route planning further on.
Coldwild Games is Happy to announce our new game, Merchant of the Skies! Become a captain of an airship, traverse the world of floating islands, trade, get rich, build your own settlement and establish your own trade empire!
