After some delays, the beta-branch now has its first content update, testing some elements of the Weird update.
Marketing has been a little turbulent, but would could have predicted a major US protest movement would appear with the same name we chose over a year ago? Still, we should now have a path forward and hopefully things can get back to normal progress.
The update currently has two major gameplay additions. The first is an animal which has far more complex mechanics than the existing ones, the second is a set of buildings revolving around the concept of ‘weirdness’. Both are intended to explore aspects of capitalism and societal management.
The animal, the Dodocado, is a creature which eats, reproduces and dies of old age. It can be hunted to extinction, and its eggs can be harvested. If your villagers get too excited about eating Dodocado Egg Rolls or wearing dodo shoes you can find yourself with no more dodos. Since your villagers make their own life decisions, it can be harder than you might like to keep enough dodos alive to keep this industry afloat. Tax structures and secondary villages you deliberately keep small can both help the situation. The dodo itself is also harder to hunt, because it is able to run and hide if attacked. This then means that hunting using arrows and superior quality bows can be beneficial (but puts you at even more risk of running out of dodos in the long run).
The new buildings mostly revolve around the concept of weirdness. Weird villagers upset their non-weird neighbours, but can use their own unique foods and clothing options, and listen to you play weird music on the haunted harp. Villagers become weird by interacting with the weird buildings. Some are simply because their ‘strange compulsion’ has risen enough from being near it, but you can also place a healer tree and a tree to remove sadness. Both of these are limited (only usable once per day) but powerful, and turn people weird, which can be both useful and harmful.
If you want, you can use this to try to create a customer base. Rather than finding a problem and providing a solution, now you can create the need for your products in people to drive sales, as well as boost rampant consumerism (which in this game corresponds to people being happier). As long as your economy can fulfil yet more needs for people they can enjoy a higher standard of living.
Art assets are still being worked on for a number of these items, so expect placeholders, and probably a variety of bugs, but this update hopefully is leading to more complex optional gameplay which explores exciting capitalism phenomena.
To access this update and test it, just right click on the game in your library, then go to properties then select 'betas'.
Current changes in detail:
Gameplay
-New Magic plant: Weird Healer. Makes people weird (which has advantages and disadvantages) if they use it to heal (max one heal per day)
-New Magic plant: Tree of woe. Makes people weird (which has advantages and disadvantages) if they use it to cure dissatisfaction (max one heal per day)
-New Skill: "Sung Stories" allows singers to satisfy social need too, requires base level singing
-New Building: Haunted Harp. Lets you play music to satisfy 'strange compulsion' of weird people and give mood buff. Requires Sung Stories
-New Building: Icecream parlor. Requires a fruit taken from a freezeflower
-New Building: Apothecary. Lets you make potions of pain relief so your injured villagers can be kept happy while they heal up
-New Creature: the Dodocado. Flees when attacked, reproduces by itself but can be hunted to extinction
Art
-Mammoth animation complete
-Fixed some graphical positions being a bit offset from their true location
UI
-Islands names are adjusted in brightness and size to relfect inhabited vs empty