Hi folks!
It’s about time we show you what we’ve been up to recently!
As you know, following the EA release, we addressed the most critical issues and added several quality-of-life improvements. Since then, we’ve focused solely on the bigger stuff - new content and mechanics that will expand your toolbox while helping you establish prosperous mountain cities. The first batch is close to being finished! So today, let’s take a look at what to expect from Laysara’s very first major content update!
But before we answer the "what," let’s address the "why" - what was our reasoning behind the choices we made for adding content to the game?
Genesis
In recent months, we’ve received a wealth of feedback—from Steam reviews, forum discussions, and our Discord server, to reactions from streamers and YouTubers playing our game. We’re incredibly grateful for this input and make it a point to read and analyse every piece of feedback we can find! It helps us identify the most important aspects of the game for you and determine where we should focus our efforts while developing Laysara during Early Access. This is exactly what guided our decisions here.
In Laysara, one of the key resources to manage is space. You may not notice it at first, as there’s always a new region to expand into - and that’s good, you should be expanding! However, as time goes on, things can become quite packed. Eventually, you may reach the physical limits of what you can do, with no way to harvest more resources or increase production output from any given district. Wouldn’t it be great to have the option to boost production efficiency and get a little more from a fully developed region?
Another issue frequently raised by players is that it’s natural to group buildings that produce or process the same resources into production districts. Organising your city this way makes it easier to understand where goods are produced and helps with the logistics and transportation. However, it doesn’t provide any real benefits in terms of production efficiency. This feels like a missed opportunity from a game design perspective - if that’s the most enjoyable way to play, the game systems should encourage it.
At some point, we realised that we could address both of these issues simultaneously! And that’s why we began working on…
New mechanic: Ice Altars
Ice Altars are a new class of buildings that can boost production efficiency within their range, provided they are supplied with ice.
(please note that building models have not been finalized yet!)
Production efficiency boost? How does it work, exactly?
It’s quite simple: buildings near Ice Altars will produce more output resources from the same amount of input resources. This means the number of workers, yaks, and upkeep remains unchanged, but the production output increases.
Supplied with ice? Where can I get ice?
Well, it’s not just *any* ice - Altars require ice made from avalanche snow. It sounds quite dangerous, but luckily, the Monks have come up with a clever way to scoop up avalanche snow and, with a little help from our friendly yaks, repurpose it into ice cubes! Which happen to be perfectly suited for an Ice Alter ;)
(please note that building models have not been finalized yet!)
Are there many kinds of Altars?
Yes, there are two: the standard Ice Altar and its more powerful counterpart, the Divine Ice Altar. The standard Ice Altar uses only ice as an input resource and provides a small production boost, while the Divine Ice Altar requires a special type of Sacred Ice and offers a larger production boost in return. How do you turn ice into Sacred Ice? It’s easy - just smoke the ice cubes with some burning incense!
(please note that building models have not been finalized yet!)
Other goodies
To give you a chance to familiarise yourself with the concept and optimal use of Ice Altars, this content update will feature a brand new scenario set on a new mountain, specifically designed to showcase this mechanic. Let’s experience how the Monk explains the idea to the Lowlander and the Artisan - and see how they react!
Of course, Ice Altars will be available in all other scenarios, allowing you to add them to your existing cities or start a new playthrough with this new tool in mind.
This update will also feature a brand new music track, enriching the soundtrack and making revisiting the world of Laysara feel fresher for all mountain city builders out there.
Additionally, we will include some bug fixes, tweaks, and balance changes - nothing revolutionary, so rest assured that the economy of your fully built-up mountain won’t crumble after the update!
When the update will drop?
Well… we don’t know yet! ^^’ We’re currently finalising the assets, and then we’ll move on to localisation and testing, so it shouldn’t take too long! Actually, speaking of testing…
We need you!
If you already have Laysara in your Steam library and would like to help us by checking out the update early and sharing your feedback, we’d love to hear from you! Join our Discord and claim the EA Tester role, and we’ll keep you updated on what happens next very soon :)
That’s all we’ve got for today, cheers everyone!
Quite OK Team