Hey everyone!
After alluding to it a few times already, we want to take some time today to elaborate on our plans for coop and specialisations.
While we have been testing the co-op map we are working on, we have noticed how much more engaging it is for us to play together when we need to rely on each other's economies and production in order to progress with the game.
The map that is currently available to play, Spike Ridge, was created as a versus map, meaning that we made each player location relatively equal and removed from the other player locations. When playing this as a team, it can create some interesting dynamics (where does each player start, and how do we secure the resulting “joint” area from pirates), but for the most part, it feels like you are just playing the game “next to” each other.
Consequently, we have been developing a slightly asymmetric map with a coop vs pirates focus in the past few weeks. There are trees for player one in abundance as well as space to build farms, but little rock and no ore nodes. On player two’s side there are few to no trees to cut for wood and precious little space for farms, but there is an abundance of rock and mining possibilities. We also want there to be more exploration for player two to offset the fact that the side of the map appears more barren. We have hinted at this in previous updates by indicating that there will be pathways through the hills, leading to potential discoveries. ‘Potential’ due to the randomised node placements, so there will be a large chance of something at the end of a path - but what you get (and if anything) is never certain.
This has, as mentioned before, helped our feeling of playing together, rather than developing separate villages next to one another and remaining mostly independent, and was further aided by us disabling the ability to purchase goods. Waiting on food deliveries to be able to expand more in order to mine Iron to send back to your ally so they can further develop their food production, has made the experience more symbiotic and we have really enjoyed that.
With that in mind, we have been putting some thought into how we could further this more and we are thinking of using specialisation for each player. For instance, we are thinking of breaking the buildings down into trees of research. The starting branches would need an investment and once unlocked, would enable cheaper construction. So for instance, if it takes 1,000 Coin to unlock the Sawmill, it will make less sense for player two to invest into this building with so few trees on that side of the map. By the time that they expand further into the map and eventually find trees, player one should be so specialised into the Sawmill and it’s associated wood production buildings that it still should make more sense for player two to rely on their ally, rather than now unlocking sawmills for themselves. This should make the games feel more unique per playthrough, depending on what minerals you find, and how you wish to develop your specialisation, while also allowing for a more harmonious development (where it will make sense for one player to grab a newly discovered mineral vein over the other, rather than this becoming a “first come first serve” competition).
Unlocking building specialisations can obviously be further expanded by making efficiency improvements and additional manufacturing processes unlockable as well, but we will go into that in more detail in a future development update.
As always, let us know what you think!
Until next week!