Hello Elders! I come here today after a lot of work to share very exciting news! Folkways, the first expansion for dotAGE, is ready and will be out in just two weeks on Steam!
I'm very happy to finally show you what I've been working on during the last months! My goal for this was to make a good old expansion, adding a lot of new content and expanding the game mechanically to provide higher complexity and many more hours of content by exploring a new angle. Let's take a look!
Pipfolks reach the village!
The first major addition to the world of dotAGE is the presence of different Pipfolks that can join your village! Folkways introduces 5 different folk types, each with their own mechanics and culture.
Pipfolks will be hinted with special events during your story, which signal their presence in the wilderness. Once that happens, there are two paths depending on your choices. Pipfolks have their own preferences and culture, and might be happy with your presence, or get very annoyed by it. For example, Leafkins are protectors of the woods, so they might scorn at you cutting down trees!
Folkway events are affected by your resource stashes, so try to study the Pipfolks and learn how to better satisfy them! Will you be able to lure all of them to your village? Also, look out for the audio cue, as Luigi has created a new track with dedicated variations for each Folk!
Pipfolks have various differences:
- They grant bonuses to the production of specific resources. Dwarves are obviously apt at mining ores, for instance.
- Each different Pipfolk has special food requirements, such as Dwarves eating only Stone, and even requires specific Bourgeoise food (you know how picky they can be!)
- Beware: Pipfolks react differently to events compared to the usual Pips! For example, Fishpips are immune to burning but love getting wet, Leafkins are terrified of fire, and Cats mourn when wet (of course they do!)
- Each Pipfolk comes with unique buildings, from special dwellings, to specialized production chains (Leafkins really like trees!), so make sure to employ them to the best of their abilities!
- Pipfolks will also unlock various events tied to their culture once they are in your village!
Once a specific Pipfolk has joined the village, you can send them to work, and you can even make them mate with Pips to produce additional folk Pippins!
Folks might appear in all your games once you unlock them in the memories, which means they will be available for Matus and other elders, but you can always disable the Folkways content if you prefer the base game experience.
Justice for all!
Folkways also introduces special 'justice' buildings that add a new angle to the gameplay (even though their concept of justice can be... left to interpretation)
Prisons allow the village to temporarily get rid of problematic Pips. An Imprisoned Pip won't be able to work, but they won't produce any bad domain values as well.
Exile posts allow you to permanently remove a specific Pip from the village, and Gallows do the same... but with a little more blood involved. Of course, you can expect events to be a bit more fiercer on some Pips as a result of this!
I don't remember very well, but I think there was even a building that allowed you to get rid of Pips in a... *creative* way, if things get very dire. You will have to live with the consequences, however.
Meet the new elders!
Folkways adds *three* new elders to the game, with outrageous gameplay changes, so let's get to know them all!
Trisavolo: the Dwarven King
Rock and stone, my friends! Up above the clouds, the Dwarven King leads a handful of dwarves on the secluded mountaintop,
Much to the surprise of nobody, Dwarves need a lot of metal and stone for their needs, and they also love beer. Use the special Prospecting task to reveal ores inside the mountain, and build a lot of mines!
With the special Mountain Tunnels, Dwarves are able to appear at any point in the map, and thus expand their village in more creative ways.
Beware of the Summer, however, as Dwarves tend to get a bit lazy with the heat!
Ronomy: the Wise Cat
Rising from the ashes of a fallen world, a full-feline society has emerged! Old Ronomy is the wisest of the cats, the largest, and the oldest to boot, which earned him a lot of respect in cat circles.
Tasked with the goal to create a new fluffy village from the ashes of an old one, Ronomy Cats will be able to dismantle old ruins in a dry and unfruitful land in search for salvageable resources, before building their own small, cute, yet deadly village.
Cat society is founded on hunting as opposed to gathering, and they always get a thrill of joy when hunting rats!
Dad: the Jack-of-all-trades
Despite his age and a aching back, Dad still won't leave work to younger Pips! As they say, if you want something done right, do it your self.
Dad has the ability to work inside the village, which makes him invaluable as an additional free Pip. Beware, however, as the forest might get annoyed about you cutting down all those trees!
Dad can build Pipbots in his workshop, special mechanical Pips that can be quite brittle, but powerful. Instead of dying, Pipbots will break down and must be repaired. They cannot procreate, of course, but you can always build more!
So much new content!
Folkways also adds more than *one hundred* new buildings (yes, that's because I got a bit carried away with ideas, oh well), many tied to the new races, but others have been added to increase the game's variety, provide new strategies and challenges, and make each story more unique.
You will also find many new Boon, among which are some... questionable ones.
Here is a shortlist of stuff you might encounter!
- Gold and Coal mines!
- Vegetarian Pips!
- Scratching Posts!
- A new Hero VIP that appears juuuuuuuust in time!
- Racism, Disco-style!
- A lost princess!
- Sunflowers!
- Child labor!
- Ropemaking!
- Mice!
- Special Forests!
- Board gaming!
- Cannibalism!
- Actual live Zombies!
- A fishy Painter!
- Pips eating manure!
This is not all, but it should give you a taste of what is coming!
Version 1.6 Changes
While working on the DLC, I also did several changes to the base game. Thanks for the valuable feedback you've been sending my way, I try to read all of it and reorganize it, so you might find here some changes that we discussed a while ago, rest assured nothing gets forgotten!
Here are some changes you will see:
- A new Village Recap screen, with filters to find your Pips more easily
- Tweaks to starting map generation, especially tied to creatures
- Revised terrain differentiation in Agepedia to be cleaner
- All Boons now have unique icons, because I just could not stop myself and it looked really cool
- Dizzy is way less annoying, even if you can technically execute Dizzy Pips if you really want now
- Curing Contagious now grants an Immunized status to the Pip for a few turns
And these are just some of the many changes that will come with 1.6. I will list all balance changes when the update rolls out!
I also have the intention to start a new experimental version as the update comes, to test some stronger balance changes, and to gather feedback on the DLC, so keep tuned!
In the meantime, make sure to Wishlist Folkways to get notified when it comes out!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3384630/dotAGE_Folkways/
Until then, have fun!
- Michele