Hi and welcome back to the DevBlog!
This month we’re doing a text version of the recent video development update we shared a couple weeks ago, expanding on some of the topics discussed there!
This was actually the first time we had done a video update for TFC in a year and a half. That is much too long, and we’ll try to be a bit more frequent than that with our upcoming videos.
So yes, what has happened with TFC in the past year and a half?
Well, we’ve already talked about the new art! We are super excited about it. The game now looks like what we always hoped it would look like, and that is much thanks to our publisher and their very talented artists! They were able to take what we had in the game and extrapolate it into something really beautiful. We can’t wait to show you what they have done with the UI!
We have also added animals and hunting. This one was added a while back and provides a great food source, both early and late game. We have been experimenting with different flock behaviours. For those who have been playing the game on itch.io regularly, you might have noticed that when you start hunting a gazelle for example, the entire flock will flee.
After experimenting with making the individual animals flee instead of the entire flock, we ended up reverting back to the flock behaviour for a couple of reasons. Firstly, feedback from the community was that the animals feel more alive and dynamic when they behave as a flock. It also makes it much easier to herd animals to your own base, which is key. Another interesting effect of this behaviour is that it provides opportunities for running to your opponents’ base and chasing away their food source. Very cheeky!
The Palace for all of you!
Then there is the Palace! This had a huge impact on the gameplay and strategies of the game. The Palace now unlocks the second half of the technology tree (which really isn’t a tree, considering how flat it is). Initially, all the technologies were available to research from the very beginning of the match, what we would call a completely flat technology tree. This gave the players the opportunity to jump in and research more advanced techs like bronze smelting in the first few minutes.
At some point we realised this wasn’t especially useful, and there was no reason to have a flat technology tree just for the sake of it, and so we decided to try to split a match into two stages: the early game and later. Each player will obviously arrive at the stages at different times, and it provides an interesting strategic consideration as well; are you going to try to finish the match in the early game or will you place your bets on the late game, and try to defend against any attacks until then?
For this to make sense, we’ll have to explain the Palace first. The Palace is a fairly expensive building that, once built, will give you access to more advanced technologies as well as more advanced units. Initially, you can only generate slingers and light axemen. Both have one upgrade each, and can be very effective in early rushes, especially against an enemy who perhaps is saving resources to build a Palace.
However, once you have built the Palace, you’ll have units like archers, heavy axemen and spearmen, among others, available to you. And! You’re one step closer to the elite swordsmen as well, all with their own upgrades. By tying this to a specific building, it also makes it fairly easy to spot how far along your opponent is by scouting their base looking for their Palace.
Hand in hand with the Palace were also the changes to the way you use and generate Knowledge Points. It used to be that you would select a technology to research, and then a timer would start ticking before you had acquired that technology. After feedback from players, we decided to change this by implementing Knowledge Points, which will accumulate, and you can spend these to instantly unlock new technologies. This means that you can save up your Knowledge Points, scout your enemy, and then spec in a direction that gives you the best chance. This change has also had a huge impact on what a multiplayer match in TFC looks like, and we think games are much more exciting to play and watch now.
Spectator mode is wonderful just like... the Wonder!
Speaking of watching matches! We didn’t mention this in the video, but we have implemented a Spectator Mode that we hope you’ll have an opportunity to check out during the Multiplayer Beta that is available right now until December 5. This mode lets you swap between players and see what they see with regards to Fog of War, which technologies they have researched, and gives a breakdown of how many units they have as well as their resources. You can also turn off Fog of War and see the entire map, which is useful later in the match.
Another exciting thing we have added is the Wonder, and with it the Wonder Victory. This is exciting as it provides a victory condition for players (like myself) who prefer to turtle and build a big base with strong defences. There is an interesting aspect to the way we have implemented the Wonder Victory in TFC though, and that is that it is built in stages, with each stage providing you with extra Knowledge Points upon completion. This means that you can get the benefits from building the first few stages of the Wonder without having to commit to the Wonder Victory. For each stage you build, it will notify all the other players in the match, so that is something to consider.
Break down the walls!
Last, but not least, we have added walls and siege units. This has been a long time coming and is perhaps the oldest of the changes I have mentioned here. It is also among the new mechanics that has seen the most iterations. We are pretty happy with how they work now. They are fast and easy to place, you can connect them to each other easily, and they connect well with watch towers as well. Having walls in a base-builder like TFC is absolutely critical, and now that it is in and working well, it has had a huge impact on the efficacy of late game and turteling strategies. Like the Wonder.
But! It is important to have units that can efficiently counter walls, and so we have implemented two new siege units as well: The Battering Ram and the Sapper. The Battering Ram is what it sounds like. It is a unit on wheels that slowly rolls across the landscape. It takes little damage from ranged units, and so you will need to get up close and personal to defend against them. Seeing as they’re on wheels, they won’t be available to you until you research the wheel.
Another great use of the Battering Ram is to roll over your enemy’s farms. As the Battering Ram rolls over their farms, they take damage and are eventually destroyed. A really solid strategy to ruin your enemy’s economy. The Sapper is a unit that will run up to the enemy’s walls and/or buildings and start digging out the foundation from underneath them. This was a fairly common Bronze Age strategy to counter walls, and provides a less armoured but faster alternative to the Battering Ram.
There are of course a whole heap of other changes and updates we have added as well, like waypoints which let you queue commands for your villagers, and we have spent a lot of time on improving pathfinding. However, in the interest of brevity, we will have to return to those in a future DevBlog.
For now, thank you very much for reading, and we hope you enjoy the Multiplayer Beta! As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us either through the Discord or via email [email protected].
We should mention here as well, that if you are looking for people to play against in the Multiplayer Beta, the Discord is great for that!