Following up on our Alpha 4 Economy Release, we’re releasing the last build before beta,Alpha 5, Ecosystem Release.
This build focuses on building out the climate model, farming model, plants and animals, and player avatars. Things you’ll find in this build (enable pictures for screenshots):
- Climate model. Air pollution from human sources will contribute to the C02 content of the atmosphere, raising global temperatures (potentially destroying farms and biomes) and melting ice caps to raise the sea level.
- Farming model. Plants and animals now rely on temperature and soil moisture, which can be impacted by a number of factors, both natural and man-made. Farming becomes a lot more about planning and irrigating the land and understanding the impact and where crops will grow best.
- Irrigation model. Players can now build aqueducts to transport water over long distances to irrigate crops and supply buildings. This will be key for building the large-scale farms needed to succeed in the game. In the screenshot below you can see how water travels much further in an aqueduct than in an uncontained channel, and the spread of water into the surrounding land that results.
- World Layers. To support these systems and many others we’ve introduced a World layers system, where multiple layers determine values on the surface of the world, changing over time. We’ll be making these accessible to the player so they can view animations of how things like global temperature, animal populations, and pollution change over time and use it in arguments for laws. The image below is the new control panel on the server.
- New plants and animals. We’re adding a lot more depth to the ecosystem with a new set of plants and animals.
- Avatars. We’re creating player models and a clothing system which will give boosts to activities.
Alpha 4 is for sale now at strangeloopgames.com/eco and all buyers will get Alpha 5 (and all future versions including Steam) free when it comes out.
Thanks for supporting us, it was amazing to meet so many people interseted in the game at PAX, and having this kind of support while we complete the game has been extremely encouraging. Lots more to come and we’re excited to hear your feedback as we get there.
-John K
