Hi everyone,
Thanks for your patience while we plan and work on this big update. We’ve really tried to take in everyone’s feedback and evolve the game in a way that addresses how you want it to grow while maintaining the elements you enjoy. We wanted to share an overview of what we’re working on and get your feedback so we can make Landnama as good as it can be. So please, share any of your thoughts and feelings about this, we want to hear from you!
The main areas we are currently working on are making the randomly generated elements less punishing and not as much of a focus, and adding more depth and replayability. Here are some of the solutions we’re working on. We’d love to hear as much feedback as possible from you over the next week or two while we work on this update, then we’ll share a detailed breakdown with a version for you to test as soon as we can. We can then continue the conversation from there.
Difficulty
All difficulty levels will now be available from the start, with additional rewards gained from higher levels. The Althing won’t appear in the normal difficult level. Challenges are being reworked to feel less punishing and encounters to feel more rewarding.
World Generation
We’ve made a significant change with how tiles spawn, now appearing in clusters of the same biome. Each region's predominant biome spawns more often as well, and quality tiles can now be found on the sea biome.
Winter's Toll
We’re simplifying the calculation of Winter’s Toll. Instead of basing it on explored tiles, buildings and home upgrades, it will increase it by a certain amount each year that scales with difficulty. Winter’s Toll will also have a smaller range it rolls from.
Challenges and Encounters
Instead of having a guaranteed negative event every year, there will be an equal chance it’s a positive one, and positive events will now have a choice of reward much like the negative ones. Events you encounter while exploring then will no longer only be positive, but can be negative as well.
Masteries
Masteries in their current form have been removed with the most fun and powerful effects moved to clans so they can be accessed without relying on a random roll.
Buildings
This is probably the biggest change we’re working on. We've changed buildings to work with production as a system, and almost all buildings will have adjacency requirements and production multipliers. Buildings will retain their special abilities, but only if built on a quality tile.
Example:
- The Woodcutter functions the same as a production building
- The Carpenter needs to be built adjacent to the woodcutter and will add x1 multiplier, doubling production
- Another tier of buildings adds an additional multiplier, in this example the Smithy can be built adjacent to the Carpenter adding an additional x1 multiplier, tripling production
- Sacred buildings have had a big overhaul and now need to be built adjacent to the Gothi; they provide a separate path to a x1 multiplier, in this example the Sacred Grove would add an additional x1 multiplier, quadrupling production
Because of the shift in how sacred buildings function, the Providence chain will be removed. Canceling construction will work a bit differently as well; it will only be free if the action hasn’t started, once it has only half the cost will be returned.
Clans
We want the clans to feel more unique and offer different ways to play the game. We’re still working on these and will share more details soon, but we wanted to keep you in the loop on our approach. Each clan will have several abilities, including a unique alternative path to completing a settlement.
Another change we’ve made is that you must now choose a different clan for each settlement in a saga. This goes hand in hand with how new clans are now obtained, the first six clans unlock with each of the six settlements in a saga. Additional clans are obtainable through the new Renown system.
Renown (New)
For every settlement you play, you’ll gain Renown. Even if your settlement perishes, you’ll still collect some. You’ll gain more Renown the higher the difficulty chosen. Renown can then be spent on new clans, consumables, permanent upgrades, and cosmetics. It will take a bit of time to build this out, but we’d love to hear what content you would be excited about being able to purchase with Renown.
We think these changes will add more depth and replayability to a settlement while giving the player more control over their destiny, but we’re really curious to hear your feedback. Please know if these changes address what you want Landnama to be, and keep sharing ideas as there’s more to come and we want to know what you want!
Mathias, Michael and Mario / Sonderland
