Greetings scientists!
I won't waste your time with preamble, lets get straight into Part Two with CEO & Gameplay Lead, Andrzej Blumenfeld and Creative Director, Tomek Wlazlo!
Lets begin!
Will we see new types of towers added?
From: Plum [Discord]
[TW] Yes! We will absolutely add additional location types, and not just variants of the current types. These will be story locations and we look forward to sharing more of these with you in the future.
Will we get ranged weapons other than the crossbow? and what will they be?
From: Plonk [Discord]
[AB] We're planning to expand the use and need of the crossbow more before adding new stuff. New types of bolts, possibly an upgraded version, etc. So for now, we don't have any plans for other ranged weapons but this doesn't mean we won't add it in the future. If the gameplay warrants more ranged weapons, then we'll add them.
I've seen hammocks left from previous inhabitants on locations. Can we get these on our airship as an alternative to the bed please?
From: Mobin [Discord]
[TW] We understand some of you really want to feel like sky pirates so ok, we'll consider it. :)
Are there any plans for weekly or biweekly game development updates? something with bit of news, maybe showing off a screenshot or two of new models, technical challenges overcome, that kind of thing
From: Dingo [Discord]
[AB] Im glad you asked! Not weekly, but Greg our Community Manager will start a monthly round-up YouTube video. We plan to start it with the first large update planned for October. In the video we will cover whats happening in the studio, the community, any events happening and hopefully more! We also plan to post in Steam and on socials when the latest video goes up.
What's the next priority based on the items on the flight map? Can you share an anticipated timeline with us?
From: Entirago [Discord]
[TW] Next priority for us is "threats". That includes viruses, methods of dealing with threats and some enemies that will come somewhere around October. You can see a sneak peek in our latest Steam post.
What are we most looking forward to in terms of unreleased content?
From: Ematai {Discord}
[AB] Without a doubt, co-op. It is a tough nut to crack development-wise, but the reward of getting to push each other off the airship is what keeps driving us.
When can we expect Accessibility options such as increased text and icon sizes?
From: Marcus Perry [Steam]
[AB] We know that text on some of our windows is on the smaller side and we do plan to deal with is in the future, however we don't have a date set for it yet. We already tried to address this once but found out the biggest hurdle here is languages that use other alphabets as they react a lot differently to the the Latin alphabet. So we need to find a moment in our development plans where we can assign someone to this with more time to problem solve and test.
Any chance of getting a ship-wide energy system like solar panels for example?
From: Illuminia [Steam]
[TW] It is an idea that has been floated around a few times but actually works counter to other ideas we had, so for now it's not something we are thinking of.
Will the difficulty settings of the game expanded beyond hunger and thirst meters depletion rate?
From: [UA]Ramiel [Steam]
[TW] They already kind of do. Currently, the difficulty settings also impact the penalty for your character dying with the amount of resources you lose, and the viral infection effects. But overall, yes we do plan to expand that list when it makes sense once we continue adding more features into the game that can impact difficulty.
Would you be willing to give the public access to a Trello board in a similar fashion to what Unknown Worlds did while subnautica was in development. This would give us insight into things that are currently being worked on as well as future plans.
From: Diavel [Steam]
[TW] This is something we actually talked about internally for a while now and we're currently looking at some tools that will allow us to both share the roadmap as well as gather feedback from community about planned features. Unfortunately we don't have a timeline for when it would go live just yet.
Can we please be able to move a storage crate around without emptying it?
From: KGI [Steam]
[AB] We've heard this quite a few times and it's a feature on our internal to-do list. There are a lot of underlying systems that need to be reworked to get this functioning properly without breaking the game or opening up the possibility for resource glitches. So rest assured, we're on it, just give us some time to figure this beast out. Eventually, the nightmare of moving objects from one box to another will hopefully just be a distant memory.
Will the world change when you progress in the story? Like dust disappearing ect.
From: Konna84 [Steam]
[AB] Yes, we have plans to create world progression. The world will change in terms of environment and locations as you achieve certain points of progression. One thing worth noting and this is something we have said from the start - our story is not going to be about you saving the world and undoing the ecological collapse of the world. The fate of the world was sealed by humanity’s actions and inactions. So this won’t be some Hollywood-style, hero-saves-the-world deal. Your goal is to try find a cure for the remaining human population who as a last-ditch effort, fled into orbit but did so not knowing they were infected with something that evolved due to the highly polluted environment.
Will there be QoL features? for example, instead of crafting 1 of each material, can we get a crafting queue for fabricators etc?
From: DankMeme_sys [Steam]
[TW] Yes of course. We will be introducing multiple QoL improvements throughout the EA period. The main thing is rememeber is to talk to us. The more we see a certain request the more we know this needs to be looked at.
Would putting in a 3rd person camera for building be an option?
From: Alpha_pyxis [Steam]
[AB] We've seen this request a few times but as of right now, we have no immidiate plans for this. This may seem like a simple change but there is so much that this impacts and until we a re closer to being feature complete, I don't think we will be dealing with this.
I'm an absolute sucker for some good lore and secrets, will there be any expanding upon the scribbles Noah left on the walls? Will this connect to something greater that we can look forward to uncovering, or was this just some visual spice?
From: Kampko [Steam]
[AB] 100% more story and lore will be added as we progress with the development. We ourselves our fans of survival games with story and lore so Forever Skies was always going to have an overall story to keep driving the player. Actually, the next update will have a bit more story revealed in it, but we will likely finish the story at the end of Early Access.
In the early game, dealing with food and water is excessively time consuming and altogether too frequent. Do you have plans to adjust this or put settings in the game to allow players to adjust it?
From: Hydroculator [Steam]
[TW] We'll be balancing difficulty levels more for sure, but also we will giving you more ways to get food and water intake - like more efficient cooking devices for example. So the hunger and thirst will eventually become a challnge you beat through gameplay.
Could we get a lightning rod attachment and then have a station inside our airships to recharge depleted batteries?
From: SteelThunder [Steam]
[AB] We prototyped a lightning rod early on in production, so yes theres a chance it might see the light of day in the future, for sure!
Would you consider adding some more verticality of movement when on foot? Such as a grappling hook to ge to harder to reach areas
From: VENGEANCE [Steam]
[AB] No plans just yet but never say never. It's definitely possible in the future.
How will the current gameplay loop be affected by multiple players?
From: MoriartyAvalon [Reddit]
[TW] It's a bit too early for us to reveal any significant information about co-op. But because the game was always going to have co-op, every design decision we make at some point goes through the “Ok, but how will this work in co-op” gauntlet of discussions. So things at this stage are still changing and adapting based on these conversations and checks.
Coffee update when?
From: K.C.Wiley [Twitter - you won't catch us calling it "X"]
[TW] Unfortunately, you can't make coffee out of the coffee nut. Spoiler alert, that's actually the big reveal at the end of our story. The world ended because coffee couldn’t grow anymore so everyone just gave up :P EDIT: I have been told by The Fun Police some people in marketing I need to point out this is a joke.
Thank you again to our community for all of your questions. We will hold another AMA in the future!
Thats all for now, have a great weekend!
- The Far From Home Team