It is time fellow settlers! I am happy to announce that as of today the new Update 0.0.16 is live!
With this update there will be sailable ships, new buildings and new gameplay mechanics arriving! Let's take a short dive into the new stuff!
The Map
First, let's talk about the new map! I have completely reworked how the world is set up. You have now much more smaller islands. Trees are scarce, you will probably have to rely on other source of harvesting wood! To settle on an island you now have to claim it first. You can do this via a cute little flagpost, situated near every islands dock!
Old Savegames
Since the way the game is played changes quite drastically, I have decided to remove the previous map from the game. Therefore your old savegames sadly won't work anymore. I will move the current state of the game to another branch, so if you would like to access your old savegames, you can downgrade your version. You can do so by right clicking Frisia Demo in your library and selecting the "Beta"-Tab. There you can choose the version "0.0,15" and select it. Not that this version is the old state of the game and does neither include the new feature nor will be able to load your new savegames!
New Mechanic: Fog
With Update 0.0.16 the whole map is covered in dense fog. You will have to explore the map by ship, activate buoys and place lighthouses to permanently uncover the map, Which brings us to the next major addition of the patch:
Ships!
You are now able to sail your very own little ship. You will need it to strive through the dense fog and uncover the islands who are ready for settlement around the map. But be aware: your ship can run aground if you are cought by the ebb at the wrong place. No need to worry though, as the next flood will free your ship and you will be ready to go once again. Don't forget, that you can customize your ship in terms of colors!
New Buildings
Now to the last big addition, the new buildings. Since most of the new islands don't host any trees you will need a new primary woodsource. For that I have added the Driftwood Collector! This building will passively generate wood without needing a forest nearby. It works much slower than a lumbercamp though.
Another new building is the new Simple Hut. It gets unlocked before the house that is currently in the game. It's comparibly cheaper but hosts less workers.
To keep your villagers fed, you can supply them now with a new ressource: mussels. You can gather them with the new Beach Fishing Hut. This building needs to be placed in the tidal flats, so you will have to wait for the ebb to place it.
Last but not least, our lighthouse gets a tiny litte friend: the Crossmarkfire. This unique maritime building uncovers a smaller amount of the map than the lighthouse, but is also much cheaper.
Various additions
Another part I have poured a significant amount of time into, is overhauling the UI. I increased the readability by changing the font, I changed the look and added new juicy animations! Let me know what you think.
As always I would be happy if you share your thoughts in the forum. If you stumble across technical issues also let me know in the Forum dedicated for bugs. Since I am a Solo-Dev every help is greatly appreciated.
The future
I would like to conclude this announcement with a small amount of info about the future: I am currently reworking the game in all of its mechanics, to keep the scope and development timeframe realistic. For that I am going back to the drawing board. I hope I can give some more details on the FRISIA will be moving in the following weeks!
Thanks for the input from all the people around me and especially you, the players who tried out the demo so far. I was able to get FRISIA to a point I could never have hoped for! So thank you all, I am really excited for the future and would be happy to have you follow me on my way there!
With that, happy settling, strong winds und immer 'ne Handbreit Wasser unter'm Kiel!* ;)
Best wishes
Rouven
*(and always a hand's breadth of water under the keel)