Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had a wonderfully festive holiday!
We are thrilled to present to you today, an updated roadmap that contains information on many of the new features and content coming to Foundation this year.
Updated Roadmap & Release Schedule
Our objective is to release 3 major updates over the course of 2021. The first of which will be the much anticipated new UI.
This will be followed by 2 Core Updates that will bring an array of new features and additionally continue to improve on the UI and UX.
We have set out below further information on what you can expect to see in these updates.
Update 1 will bring a major improvement to the game in the form of the UI rehaul. You can expect to see a new HUD, building menus, villager menu, information panels and of course much, much more.
The main HUD will see a plethora of improvements that will contain easily identifiable information on resources, events & quests as well as more information panels for quick overviews of your current village.
Many of the information and management panels will all be tied together in an easily navigable and streamlined “Book” (name subject to change). The Book will include tabs and shortcuts that will link directly to facets including: Villager information, Workplaces, Estates, Budget, Resources and your Army. Each tab will include improved ways to sort and search for information that you need, all at your fingertips.
A new main menu will include more detail when looking through saves, a new options menu, help menu, mod menu,... in fact every aspect of the UI will be new and improved and as such will also bring a host of UX improvements.
We will continue to build upon the UI/UX Update with further updates and improvements after its initial release.
Estate Mechanic
Core Update II will focus on improving the Estate mechanic. Your influence with an estate will vary over time, creating a choice of which estate(s) to invest in. Increasing your influence with one estate will have an effect on other estates and as such will affect the path you choose when building your village.
Building Decay
A new feature will be introduced with Core Update II in the form of Building Decay. Every placeable building will require maintenance and if not maintained the building will decay over time.
In order to maintain buildings within your village, you will need to place and staff a maintenance workshop. Each workshop will prioritize and maintain buildings that require repairs and pull resources that are needed to repair those buildings.
As buildings decay, productivity and desirability will be affected and if allowed to decay too far, buildings will become unusable and will need to be dismantled.
Houses occupied by villagers of lower status than the house, or left uninhabited for too long will begin to decay and may require repair.
Further UI/UX Improvements
Core Update II will also continue to improve upon the UI and UX with more accessibility options and menu improvements, taking into account player feedback as we further build on the previous UI/UX update.
Core Update III will add a number of new features that will change the way in which your village population can vary as well as bring new and improved detail to maps.
Families & Aging
- A family mechanic will allow for the birth of children who will age, work, create their own families and eventually pass away, bringing a full cycle to village life.
Diseases
- Varying factors will increase the chance of villager disease that will come with consequences to your workforce if left unchecked.
Graveyard
- As your villagers now walk through the valley of death they will need a place to be laid to rest.
Map Visual Edges
- Map edges will be visually improved.
Terrain Biomes
- Varying biomes will add to the variety of map environments.
Resource Fertility
- Land fertility will differ, depending on environmental factors allowing for crop-specific fertility.
Cobblestone Roads
- A much-requested feature will see the introduction of cobblestone roads that will increase efficiency in your villages.
The updated roadmap can be found over on Trello where you can keep up-to-date with all the progress.
Up to Full Release
More features will be implemented up to the full release, including:
- A major expansion and overhaul of the narrative elements & events
- Vehicles - where appropriate, villagers will be able to own and use horses
- A third level of housing status and density
- A safety need will see more use for soldiers and defense structures
- New monuments
- Information map - a zoomed out map showing an overview of available resource nodes and layers
- Map generator
- Pastures - allowing for zoning of livestock areas
- ...and more!
Post Release
The full release will not be the end of development and we will continue to work on features not yet implemented such as a map editor, creative mode and a photo tool as well as work on further DLCs that were planned as part of our original Kickstarter campaign.