Status report news

As I said before, I'm keeping my head down for a while so I can get some serious coding done. So not many updates or forum presence from me, I better give you guys another progress update.

So I'm still working on the big big 0.40 update. In a previous post I talked about the new research, mining, farming and brewing features. Since then, I have added some more stuff.

Electricity

Certain buildings need power to operate, and this is supplied by your generators. In 0.40 there will be simple generators but in later updates they will consume fuel, which you will either import from other towns or mine it yourself. There will also be an alternative option of building wind turbines instead. This will give you the option of 2 alternative research paths. Wind generators will be less powerful and a less reliable source so you will also need to build batteries to smooth out your supply, but the plus side is you don't have the dependance on fuel supplies.

Generators can break down or be sabotaged, leaving a town more vulnerable to assaults. When I eventually add sneaking to the game, this will give you a good approach for attacking bases.

Shopping

The AI traders and civilians now actually shop around to buy food and drink in the towns. You can set your own town to be open to traders who will come by and buy stuff.
Also you can buy a building in an existing town now, and open a shop there, or just use it as a safehouse.

Starting Situations

When you start a new game now you will have a choice of starting situations. You can start as a retired soldier, who has decent combat skills but is enemies with the Holy Empire, meaning he has to watch his back and protect his teammates.
You can also start with a group of characters and a supply of building materials. This sets you up to start with a base right off the bat, if you prefer the RTS side more. It still won't be easy mind.You can also mod your own in quite easily. Later on I will be adding lots more starting options, like a farming village in the grip of bandits, a slave, a farmer, a group of refugees, fun things like that.

Shadows

Finally the game will have a proper shadowing system.

ART

And of course, all the new artwork is still coming along, although only the buildings will be in the 0.40 update:

I'm sure you all want an estimated release date, but I'm not sure. It depends how much I want to add in before release, I know people like the regular updates but I work very fast when I take the time out to do a bigger one like this. I would guess around 2-3 weeks from now. I will release a test version first on my forums, which I will call 0.39, and then that will probably give me another weeks worth of bugs and fine-tuning to do.