Greetings, Hogardians!
Version 0.21, our third major update for Cataclismo, was deployed last week. Among other features, it included major adjustments for warehouses and resource-gathering. We made those changes with long-term improvement in mind but inefficiently explained why and how, resulting in some confusion and disagreement within our fanbase.
After paying close attention to your feedback, we understood that warehouses were functional and entertaining in their own way. Therefore, we are releasing a hotfix with a focus on taking the best out of the warehouses and adapting them to our current design vision.
Here are the changes along with a few bug fixes:
- Workers can bring resources to warehouses again.
- Warehouses are now unlocked at Prosperity III.
- Warehouses now cost Mistfuel*, and their other costs have been adjusted accordingly.
- Hardware supplies now also provide their buff to tiles vertically.
- Hardware supplies are now unlocked at Prosperity I.
- Warehouses and hardware supplies are now introduced on levels 4 and 6.
- Warehouses and hardware supplies have their own unlocking nodes in Endless.
- Quarries and Sawmills have updated production values.
- Adding workers to Quarries and Sawmills does not cost wood anymore.
- The production values for quarries and sawmills have been updated.
- The description of economy buildings has been fixed.
- Fixed a bug causing some waves to never end even if all enemies were defeated.
- Fixed a broken entry in the language settings.
*It is possible that existing playthroughs are affected by this change, causing the economy to be in negative values. It is easily retrievable by building mist gatherers, but you should be aware of it.
Aiming to be as transparent as possible, we feel we owe you a proper explanation of the reasons behind these changes.
How this new system works
First and foremost, we have always thought that warehouses acted as an exploit as they were the only way to solve the economic puzzle for the whole level. The solution was as simple as placing a warehouse close to a gathering building. This removed almost every strategic decision from resource-gathering. Now, the economy works differently.
There are two ways of reaching optimal production values for Quarries and Sawmills:
- Assigning more workers. It is inexpensive, although leads to long paths that take time to provide resources to and might not be enough to cover gatherers too far away from the Citadel.
- Placing a warehouse nearby. Warehouses are pricey but time and workers needed can be significantly reduced by placing them in strategic positions.
Actually, there is even a third option: a mix of both! Those two systems are not incompatible and, in fact, work best when combined. Well-placed warehouses can significantly reduce the required amount of workers and speed up your economy in the process.
Admittedly, we were too punishing with warehouses in the aim of trying to minimize the exploit. We have concluded that turning warehouses back into storage buildings does not compromise our vision and that they can add more layers to our game’s strategy.
This approach rewards smart shortcut building and optimized worker distribution, as well as strategic warehouse placement. Early Access is flexible by nature, and it is only natural that we take your input to ensure that Cataclismo is steered in the right direction. After all, you are the foundation of this castle!
Please continue giving us feedback through Steam and Discord so we can keep improving Cataclismo!