Well met, Merchant fans! I wanted to run through how things stand with the game, and the plans to take it through to leaving early access and into full release.
The current aim is to release the game late winter/early spring 2019. The cart parts update in version 0.6 was the last major new mechanic I wanted to get into the game before then, although there will certainly be additional, more minor mechanics added in future.
The key areas of focus from here are going to be:
- Story mode
- More content (specifically more events)
- Combat system improvements
- Full tutorial and ingame hints
- Minor systems additions and tweaks
- General polish & UI improvements
- Balancing
- Bug fixing
Story mode will be one of three modes available, along with Sandbox (the current mode) and Payback (an update of the previous game mode where you had to meet increasing payments each month).
Many of the new road events will only take place in specific regions of the map, to add more variety as you travel in different parts of the kingdom. They will hopefully bring more art as well!
Combat changes will be fairly extensive and include the ability to retreat, move fighters once deployed and do additional damage per turn.
The tutorials and hints will offer more of a starring role to your horses...
If you have any feedback or thoughts on the game as it stands or would like to make any suggestions, please feel free to do so in comments or in the Steam forums! Also, if you're enjoying the game and it's progress in early access, please consider giving it a review on Steam, it would be much appreciated!