This update is about fleshing out our stretch goals. We made a similar post yesterday to get feedback from backers.
We've decided to make a lot more of them, make them smaller, and put them closer together. Multiple stretch goals now happen at the same price. We're excited to talk about our ideas, but we must be sure to avoid "feature creep." Keep in mind that most stretch goals will have to be handled after the core gameplay is in place. Here they are, organized by price:
$24,000
- New Creature: Kobold These are tiny, intelligent creatures which slip into your colony to steal random items from your stocks or from employees’ coin purses. They are nomadic, and difficult to catch.
$25,000
- Mac and Linux Port By porting the game from XNA to Monogame, we will be able to support a wider variety of platforms, including Linux and Mac OSX natively
- New System: Lockable Items These include doors and chests which you, as a player, can lock or unlock to allow or disallow access to them by your employees. Make sure not to lock any woodsmen out at night!
- New Room: Treasure Room Instead of existing as an abstract number, your wealth physically exists as a pile of cash and coins. As your wealth expands, you will need new physical locations to put it in. It is important to guard your wealth from intruders.
- New Career: Managerial Track Manager class dwarves improve efficiency and keep dwarves in line. Putting managers near other dwarves increases their efficiency. Additionally, all manager-class dwarves can be directly controlled by the player. Some manager-class dwarves specialize in accounting, and will improve your buying and selling power as a colony. The Manager track comes with the “office” room.
$26,000
- New Room: Graveyard When your dwarves die, their corpses remain on the ground. A worker may bury a dwarf corpse in a graveyard, where a tombstone will be left. Seeing the corpse of another employee will make a dwarf very unhappy indeed.
- New Creatures: Necromancers and the Undead Some number of “necromancer towers” will appear on the map. Necromancers are evil wizards who can raise corpses from the dead and send them at your colony as shambling zombies! Watch as your dead employees rise from the grave to feast on their co-workers. Necromancers will stop at nothing to protect their valuable research from grubby Dwarven hands.
- New System: Investments The stock market is more fleshed out, and includes things like the prices of commodities and rich investors. You may, if you wish, invest directly in the stock market or in commodities trading as an additional source of income.
$27,000
- New System: Mechanisms These are coal-fired or water-powered objects which interact with each other and the world to produce goods or automate things for you. These include machines which make manufactured objects from raw materials, blocks which push around raw materials, and certain automated traps.
- New Career: Artisan Track Artisan dwarves do whatever their soft hearts desire. You may commission them to make beautiful works of art, play songs, or improve the look of your colony. This generally improves the happiness of your workers. Some artists specialize in “public relations” and can increase your stock by writing press releases. The Artist track comes with the “studio” room.
- New Room: Furnace Room Coal may be thrown into a furnace to burn for fuel. This generates heat. Make sure the furnace room is connected in some way to the surface, or your dwarves will suffocate! Connect mechanisms to the furnace to power them. The furnace can also be powered by garbage.
$28,000
- New System: Weather Rain, lightning, snow, extreme weather events, and seasons will be implemented.
- New Creature: Dragons Rare and deadly, dragons were once thought to be extinct. Large quantities of gold and mana rock may attract them to your colony. Some dragons can be reasoned with, but most would rather just torch your colony and steal your stuff.
$29,000
- New System: Boats Dwarves can build boats to exchange goods in an ocean port (similar to a balloon port). The could also use these boats to transport themselves across bodies of water.
- New System: Guilds and Labor Unions Dwarves will spontaneously join labor unions or guilds. Each career track has its own union. Some Dwarves are more likely than others to wish to organize. If unionized employees are mistreated, they will go on strike if their pay is too low. On the other hand, by agreeing to the demands of unions, you can improve your company's union standing and morale. Depending on your play-style you may wish to be union friendly, or go about union busting by firing unionized employees.
$30,000
- New System: Domestic Animals You will be able to farm cows, horses, chickens, and other domestic creatures for their meat, fur, and other goods.
- New Mode: Skirmish Mode This pits you against an AI-controlled colony on the other side of a fixed, balanced, symmetrical map. The goal is to completely wipe out the other colony (RTS style). Skirmish mode will feature a map editor.
$35,000
- New Mode: Campaign Mode In the original “sandbox mode,” you need to make your own goals, and grow your colony in your own way. In Campaign mode, there is a set of pre-defined scenarios with NPC characters, voice acting, and concrete goals. There will be something like 10 campaign missions, with different concrete goals, and a story arc.
$50,000
- New Mode: Adventure Mode This just plops you down as a creature of your choosing in the randomly generated world, and lets you explore it at your own whims. You will have an inventory, be able to talk to NPCs, and will have stats of your own. This mode will not be very well fleshed out in comparison to the main mode.
