Hello Elders!
If you had told me a year and a half ago, before I released dotAGE, that I'd be able to work on an expansion next, I would not have believed you! I must thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to focus more on the game, as I have so many ideas I've been caressing during the troubled development and today you can finally play some of the wackier ones!
There is a lot to talk about, so bear with me as we walk thru what is being added, and I'm happy to reveal all the details now!
Folkways is here!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3384630/dotAGE_Folkways/
New Memories!!
Once you have Folkways, when you start the game, you will notice that new memories have appeared in the memories menu! These memories are placed , but many are towards the end of the memory tree due to the increased complexity that the expansion brings.
Beware: to provide a better sense of progression, the game will now ask you if it can reduce them, as points are now capped. You can just ignore that if you want to unlock everything at once, but just like the base game Folkways has various separate pieces that can be unlocked and work independently, so if you add everything at once it might be a bit jarring!
However, do note that new Elders come a bit later due to all the new added mechanics that are needed beforehand, so it takes a while to unlock them!
In order, the DLC adds Pip Production Traits, Pipfolks, the new Prison mechanics, and then the new Elders one after the other as more resources and buildings are unlocked.
Pip Production Traits / Ailments / Bonuses!
To expand on the game's mechanics, Folkways introduce different production capabilities for Pips.
This appears in the form of new traits that can change Pips production capabilities, as well as two new ailments: Drowsy will make your Pips produce 50% less, while Overload will make them produce 50% more for any resource!
Thanks to some UX upgrades in the last year, having Pips that produce different values has become much more manageable and I was finally able to add them!
Pipfolks!
The titular feature of this expansion is Pipfolks! This is something that has actually been in my prototypes since 2016, so it took a while for it to be added.
Pipfolks are not so different than other Pips. They eat, they procreate, and they also die (sometimes even more easily!). However, Pipfolks like different food, as well as different preferences for their bourgeoise needs. They also react differently to events, and might be thus more risky to have around when a fire starts! They also have proficiencies towards specific resources, as well as many dedicated buildings they can bring to the village if you manage to make them join!
Prisons!
Among the memories of Matus, we now finds prisons, cages, and even some more worrying solutions to your village problems! Prisons grant the Imprisoned ailment to a Pip, which negates all maluses generated by them, such as VIP maluses, trait maluses, or ailments. Yes, you can place a burning Pip into a prison to avoid heat rising, but it won't stop them dying inside! This also stops contagion.
This adds a new layer to village handling, allowing you to decide whether you want to run and cure an ailment, or temporarily get rid of it!
The new elders!
I know many of you are eager to try the new elders! I worked a lot to make them interesting and different, and hope you like them as much as I do! Take a look at the announcement of a couple of weeks ago to see more details on them: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/638510/view/508448342467937273
I will however share a cool thing, Dad is obviously another nod at my own father, and is modeled after his behaviour, so that's why he can work even as an elder! :)
With all the new resources and elders, I could just not stop myself from adding more stuff, so you will find more than 100 new buildings waiting for you! Some of them are tied to Pipfolks, while others are designed to add more variation to the game thanks to the new resources!
Oh, lest I forget, with all the new stuff that is in the game now, I am also working on some new achievements that will come later this week, so keep an eye out for those too!
Version 1.6: UX
Could I work on a whole expansion without getting annoyed at the UI? Could I? Of course, not. So I went and also made a few UX changes, and especially two of the more requested changes!
More can be found in the complete changelog here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/638510/discussions/0/599647681450632590/
Agepedia Filtering
Every now and then, somebody comes and asks to be able to search buildings by, or to see all boons, or find all buildings worked by a Watcher. Fear not, as I added a new filtering UI to Agepedia, which lets you do that and even sort everything based on your preferences!
I must confess this took more than most Folkways features, so yeah... let me know how it works!
New Village Recap Screen
The village recap screen was often reported as being a little too clunky, and hard to navigate, so I went and redesigned it to be cleaner! It now has a grid on the left, and details on the right, so that clutter is greatly reduced especially if you have many Pips.
Also, this supports the new filters too, so you can sort and filter Pips at your whim!
Other UX changes
I also added a few new cool UX additions!
- All Boons now have unique icons, because I could just not stop myself from doing that!
- Terrains in Agepedia now have better icons, and Additions (such as Bounties) are now also shown
- You can now hold CTRL (force-action) while clicking Change Exchange to cycle to the next Exchange directly.
- Added a new panel to see event chance modifiers in the Prophecy
Version 1.6 New Content
Juggler Stage
There is a lot to talk about, so bear with me as we walk thru what is being added!
First of all, the base game has some new buildings. These elements were designed to give a bit more flexibility late game, as well as addressing the fact that Altars are always the same tech.
You will find five new memories:
- The Good Boy: actually a Dog. I just added a whole *village* of cats, so I had to throw a bone to dog lovers! We are all friends after all, even if we have our differences.
- Herbal Love. This adds 2 new low-tech buildings to provide earlier focus on Seed or Flowers (Flower Picker and Seed Picker), as well as three new Altars as a variation to the Altar path.
- Medical Specialists. Adds a new slot with 2 new high-tech buildings that provide improved cures for early ailments during the end game, as well as more uses for Books and Antidote.
- Even More Boons. Adds four new boons (see below)
These are added for all players, regardless of Folkways, as they aim to improve the default game experience.
Version 1.6: Buildings Balance
While working on Folkways, i took the opportunity to create new tools for analyzing building balance, as the game has become quite complex (and Folkways with more than one hundred more buildings does not make it easier!). This, alongside player feedback (thank you so much, especially to all the players on Discord with which we had a lot of discussions!), helped me in determining where to act to make the game better balance wise.
You can find all the changes in the changelog, but these are the main ones:
- Soil now costs 2 Wood instead of 1
- Mines now get a x3 bonus, and copper/iron costs have been rebalanced
- Meat and Wool production has been rebalanced
- No more checkerboard pattern! Doctors, Hospitals and similar buildings now count the *number of Pips* and not the number of dwellings. Hopefully this makes Large Huts more interesting!
- Some early domain productions have been rebalanced
- Santa won't remove Mountains or Forests anymore
Version 1.6: Map Balance
Map generation has been revised to be more controlled, this should reduce non-playable maps (which were still pretty rare, but still!), so do report!
Animals spawning has also been rebalanced following the new map generation.
Version 1.6: Events Balance
I also did some changes to events, and these are the main points:
- Domain Threat level can now go above 7, and the UI will reflect that. This will also be useful later on because I have *ideas* (sorry)!
- Reduced wild animal spawn events (more details in the changelog)
- Chance-altering traits increase chance by 50% instead of 10% (yes, I know, it's a lot, but it does give more control to what event comes!)
4 new Boons!
These new boons have been added as they felt they were good for the base game, and did not use any of the new mechanics, so enjoy them!
- Longbows: Hunting and Fishing buildings reach 1 tile farther
- Balanced Diet: Gain 2 Nature for each different Basic Food you have above 10
- VIP Services: VIP Events +100%
- Trustworthy Neighbours (a new Weird boon): Overpipulation starts at 10, but all Pips produce double!
Absolute Zero!
Beware! The Apocalypse can now be Cold! A new Apocalypse event can now appear, so stop amassing all that ice!
So long, dizzy Pips!
This should make some of you very happy!
Dizzy now won't be so obnoxious. Instead of having a chance to become Stunned, the Pip will replace Stunned with Ill when he becomes Stunned.
I suggest you imprison them anyhow, as they deserve it for all damage they caused us for the last year!
Immunized Pips
I heard you, new players. The contagious ailment can be a bit annoying early on, especially if you do manage to cure Pips and then they immediately get contagious again!
So, I added a new ailment: Immunized. Pips get this Status when cured from Contagious (and thru an event), and will give Immunity to Contagious and Sick for 20 turns. I love elegant solutions!
Now go play, then report back!
Phew, that was a lot! And I just scratched the surface of Folwkays, I'll leave the rest for you to find!
As always, I appreciate all feedback, especially as the game with folkways becomes quite complex and there might be some very... extreme edge cases with all the combinations, so do come to Discord or to the discussion forums and share your thoughts!
Please make sure to report bugs here or on the Discord, I'll be monitoring the release this weekend and try to be swift with updates if something big slipped in! We already had a couple of obvious yet mysterious release bugs, so I already uploaded a hotfix! (of course, would not be a real release without any!)
New trailer!
I also made a new trailer to show some of the new content for the occasion, you can share it on socials or with friends, here you can find it, and help spread the word of dotAGE! Being solo, all help with making more players be reached by dotAGE is important and very appreciated!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HBnbcrG3hY
To celebrate the release of Folkways, the base game will also appear this Sunday the 23rd on a Daily Deal on Steam's home page, and will also be with its highest discount ever at 30% starting today (10 AM PST) for the next couple of weeks! So, if you have not yet played that, or if you have a friend that was waiting, go poke them!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/638510/dotAGE/
Have fun with Folkways!
- Michele