Another productive week as we working towards the first public release of Hearthlands. Here's what has been done:
As usual, lots of small improvements and fixes
Pigstry mechanics slightly changed (shepherds now choose which pig to feed more reasonably)
Roadblocks removed; peddler and tax collector mechanics changed
After reading this post I realized that we actually don't need roadblocks and walkers (a concept you may be familiar with if you've played Zeus or Pharaoh).
Roadblocks/walkers is an interesting concept but 1) it is kind of outdated, 2) it works well only in city planning oriented games, 3) it is difficult to explain to non-experienced players, 4) we have only two characters which use this behavior (peddler and tax collector), 5) it makes the game look too much like Zeus or Pharaoh.
With this kind of behavior you need to fiddle around with your road system too much, which is ok for a game like Zeus, but in Hearthlands it may keep you distracted from other stuff, which we plan to add to the game later.
Peddlers and tax collectors now use the same mechanics as haulers - just target a specified building (where they are most needed at the moment) and go there using the shortest path. This is much more obvious and predictable for the player and makes building big cities less painful.
Fishing!
Different food resources in Hearthlands have different nutrition value and can be obtained using different mechanics. Unlike meat or grain fish is ready to eat, but is a little bit more difficult to get than apples or turnips (which also are ready to eat).
Before fisherman is able to catch fish it needs to build a boat out of 4 loads of planks, which means you will have to build a woodcutter's lodge to get logs and a sawmill to process logs into planks first. Fisherman catches from 1 to 6 loads of fish in one trip.
Different industries may now be turned off to stop production and free some workforce
Wild animals spawn and yield rebalanced (there were too many animals in general and they used to drop too many feathers and leather when killed by a hunter)
Graphics for tax office, storage yard, peddler's tent
There currently only two sources of money in the game: mints and tax collectors. Tax collectors use the same mechanics as peddlers.
Graphics for beautifications
Sounds have been finished (we're still thinking about adding some more, though), and yes, rabbits do make sound
It is probably safe to say that we're 1-2 weeks away from the first public release of Hearthlands. With the first four points from the feature list complete we need to focus on finishing graphics, playtesting and some technical stuff.
At this stage of the development it is really important to get some feedback and understand that people are actually interested in the game. So, if you'd like us to keep being motivated and carry on with the progress, if you're interested in the game — please, let us know. You can do that by leaving a comment, becoming our watcher on Indie DB, or subscribing to one of our social network pages or YouTube channel. You can also write us an email (info@hearthlands.com) or if you're super cool — make a donation.
We'd very like to grow our community, so if you can tell your friends about Hearthlands — it will be awesome.
Thank you in advance,
Sergio
