Hi everyone,
With continued testing, I realised that one of the goals I had for 0.8, the more gradual progression of the game, is both working out well for now, and will get some needed upgrades with 0.9.
As some of you may remember from previous posts, the game’s switch from competitive to cooperative focus brought many challenges with it, and one of the things I addressed at the time was progression. Where there was previously a chance to get an iron mine close to the start, in the lead-up to 0.8, iron mines could only be found on the far side of the island - while stone was found from the middle on.
Through recent testing, I could once again confirm that this largely results in the sort of progression I had hoped for. As I got to the limits of the wooden tier, expansion to the middle became necessary. I had to decide whether I wanted to expand into a location that helped me defend my territory from the pirates, or preferred a more sheltered location that would give me access to more stone. Once I had access to stone, it became an important choice what to invest the first stone into: Improved food production (bread)? Towers and ammo production for defence? Improved healing infrastructure for my upcoming attack on the pirate fortress?
The choices and progression worked out well. Similarly, moving on from the stone area, the question of where to expand to next (Access to coal? Access to iron? A sheltered location with lots of food available?) became exactly as strategic as I had hoped it would. However, a lot of the progression seemed a little.. stark. Rather than having many small important decisions at each point of the game, there was some very tense moments with big important decisions I had to make, while I could coast on the outcome of those decisions afterwards.
This is something I am hoping to improve on for 0.9. With research, many more different resource nodes across the island, and additional construction materials (current ideas are linen, ceramics, and glass), the progression should already feel a little more gradual, and which type of industry to research next should be a continuous decision based on which resources one finds across the island. With that in mind, I am also intending to slightly reduce the abruptness of the stone/iron progression.
Rather than being able to only find iron at the end of the island, it will be “most likely” to find it there - while it will be possible to also find it in smaller quantities in the middle of the island. To make this possible, it will be necessary to reduce the yield of iron deposits, so instead of being set after finding a single iron mine, one iron mine (or iron rich rocks) will not be sufficient to sustain your village on the iron tier - instead, you will need to find multiple deposits, which will hopefully influence decisions on where to expand and where to place your defences even more.
I will likely finish my testing this week, and keep you updated on my findings.
Until next week!