The next major update will include a complete overhaul and rework of the Journey gamemode. The goal of these changes is to expand Journey with new features that give a better feeling of progress and motivation to continue the journey. There are several things that will make Journey a more complete and engaging mode.
First is improving the persistence of the player's actions and the results of every game across the journey as well as making that progress visible. Next, the player can choose from what they have earned in previous games to bring to the next journey game. Instead of being isolated each game, everything done previously contributes to the strength of your tribe.
Managing, growing, and drawing from your tribe's population and resources creates a higher level strategy across the entire Journey. This requires a strategic layer that has its own logic and challenges; it has to make Journey more meaningful without being to involved.
The final goal is to give more life to the AI opponents by making them persistent rival tribes. They will have the same strategic options as the player and will be actively competing against you and other AI. Thus every game not only affects the player later on, but also the AI.
The new Journey will have a strategic map layer that shows a randomly generated continent with varying terrain and resources on which all the tribes live. This world map allows the player to view their progress in the journey and decide how to advance. The world map is turn-based; each game you play advances the rest of the world.
Every time you win a game, either by meeting economic objectives or defeating the enemy, your tribe can start a new settlement at that location. Settlements are where your population lives, and they must be managed and protected. They gather resources for your tribe, grow their population, and can be upgraded. They can be destroyed by starvation and enemy attacks, and can suffer mild to severe natural disasters.
A defeat in a game of the new Journey is not the end; you can continue playing if you fail to establish new settlements and lose existing ones. As long as you have one settlement remaining your struggles continues. You will still have the option to reload the game and try again.
In the new world map layer, you choose where to expand, what your objectives will be, and what you will bring on this expansion. You also decide where to attack the enemy, or if you want to expand to unclaimed land. The terrain of the world map defines the quality of farmland as well as the density of wood, stone, and ore. These will impact the game map and a settlement's resource gathering permanently, so choose your new settlement's location carefully.
Before starting a game, you can now choose what resources, skilled humans, warrior equipment, domestic animals, and siege weapons to bring. You may take a fraction of your tribes global resources and population, calculated to maintain game balance. When fighting an enemy tribe, the AI will use the same rules for their starting strength.
Enemy tribes can attack you as well, each turn the AI might decide to attack one of your settlements, prompting you to defend it. If you fail, your settlement will be lost; however, if your defense is successful, the attacker will lose everything they invested.
The new Journey aims to be highly replayable through randomized world maps, tribe staring points, and unpredictable AI decisions. Expansions involving only AI tribes will be simulated, giving random results that approximate a real game.