Adventurers! We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has supported Distant Kingdoms so far. Whether that was through playing the game via Early Access, giving feedback or reaching out to us via our Twitter and Discord communities.
We’ve been listening to all of your feedback and will be making some exciting changes to our Early Access Roadmap! Update 1 is only 6 days away and will be released on June 24th - just in time for the Steam Summer Sale, which Distant Kingdoms will be participating in!
Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the big changes coming to the Kingdom of Ineron soon...
Update 1
*Important!*
Please note that with Update 1, all previous saves will no longer work. You will have to start a new save file after the update. This is due to a number of changes including the new Prop System and Modding support.
- Placeable modular walls: available in two materials; stone and wood.
- 2 new map scenarios: new starting points and resource node placements.
- Decoration and Prop Tool System: all decorative objects (known as Props) placed will now have a ‘beauty value’ which will directly affect the happiness of surrounding houses within their radius. Players now also have much more control over the placement of props, no longer restricted by the grid system.
- Modding update: Modding tools for buildings. Check out dk.mod.io for more info coming on June 24th.
The dev team is also actively working on Loading, Memory and other Performance improvements. These will be rolled out on a regular basis, so keep an eye out on Twitter and Discord for patch updates!
We previously mentioned that new maps would be part of Update 1. Unfortunately this has been removed for now. But never fear! The team are still working on this, but it will be moved to later on in the Distant Kingdoms timeline. For now, we want to focus our attention on what the community is most eager to see; Adventuring & Exploration. All our design efforts have been shifted to delivering the best possible experience for all our eager adventurers. Which leads us on to...
Update 2
The main focus of Update 2 will be a complete overhaul of the adventuring and exploration system. Our goal is to incorporate much of your feedback throughout Early Access and to really meet our original vision and goals for this system.
However, as we are still in the pre-production phase, it’s highly likely that the following gameplay mechanics may change as we develop and polish them. We’ll update you nearer to the Update 2 release time, when we have more concrete details for you.
In the meantime, take a look at some of the ideas we’d love to bring to you in Update 2!
Turning adventurers into Heroes
We want to make our Heroes truly worthy of the name and have them interact with Ineron in meaningful ways, whether that’s through a more reactive exploration mechanic or adding greater depth to Heroes. Some ideas we’re looking at include:
- Interactions between Heroes and buildings within your settlement, and how the events system may affect them.
- Looking at the depth of exploration events by adding choices, consequences and rewards.
- Adding skill progression to Heroes and developing their characters.
Enhanced exploration
We want to make player decisions more impactful and have these lead to a variety of outcomes. Potential ideas include:
- Having exploration events and Heroes more closely linked, with the likelihood of success being directly driven by Hero actions and skills.
- Examining how your Heroes may earn boons or debuffs, based on how well their current adventure is going.
Masses of Loot! And somewhere to put it all…
Ideally, we’d like to add more depth to player interactions with the Taverns, so that they have a greater purpose within the settlement, as well as creating new and unique reward items from exploration. We’re exploring whether or not some of the loot you gather could have an effect on your growing settlement...
World building
We’ll be completely overhauling the exploration interface and how this is presented to the player. This doesn’t just include a polished UI. We want to add more history and lore to the unique world of Ineron, in order to further enhance the player experience.
One way in which we’ll do this is by moving away from the hex-based system and instead partition the map with organic regions which will add more character to each area. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even see your Heroes travelling across this new world…
Some further ideas could include:
- Redesigning the appearance of exploration events, the world overview and the party management interfaces.
- Injecting further lore via Hero biographies and exploration events.
- Watching Heroes traverse settlements and terrain as they explore.
- Replacing hexes with more organic regions to further accentuate the natural landscape.
Thank you again for all of your feedback and support since our release into Early Access. The future of our Kingdom wouldn’t be complete without your input, and we want to assure the community that we will continue to listen to feedback as we implement these game changes along our Roadmap.
We can’t wait to bring you more news and updates soon!