Why hello there.
So as some of you know, I've decided to not release Alpha 7 on its own, but rather integrate it with the full release of the game.
For the past few weeks, I've been working on polishing the game as well as adding in tons of new content. The biggest changes are 3 new biomes! There will be 2 new maps for each biome:
* Forest
* Grasslands
* Desert
* Arctic
Each biome comes with its own unique textures, wildlife and gameplay of course. Forest and grasslands biomes are very similar, with only a few changes here and there, such as less trees, different ground textures and slightly different animals (there will be ducks!). All maps have had their mountainous regions reduced greatly since mountains don't have any purpose in Gaia except to take up space.
The desert biome is challenging. It has a certain number of oases where you can find basic resources such as glowtubes and some food and animals. But most of it is quite barren, with the occasional cactus lying around, as well as a few rock formations and sand rompos. Temperatures are of course very high, rain almost non existent but at least the ocean has a cool, light blue Caribbean feel to it.
Arctic maps are extremely difficult and only meant to be played by veterans. There is literally nothing you can find on the surface, not even copper. The only thing you'll find are those immortal weevil and a few other predator creatures that don't care about the cold. Speaking of cold, temperatures can drop to below -50C (-58F for our american friends). So you won't be able to grow anything. However, there is one silver lining. Sea life is unaffected by the biome you choose. Therefore, you'll be able to find some resources underwater in the arctic, as well as fish. Lots of fish. The idea is to get what you can and trade for the rest, while suffering from a lack of... everything, all while always being threatened by space pirates and space rocks of course. So yeah, only for veterans.
Due to these new biome mechanics, I've made a few changes to some of the current mechanics in the game. Trade ships used to come every few hours of real life time and even then, they might not have what you need to buy. Now they'll come every few dozen minutes and they have a much higher chance of selling whatever you're lacking.
Raids will not trigger anymore when you go exploring or mining in somehow far lands because let's be realistic, you can't go explore beyond a few kilometers without having your base attacked and potentially losing all your stuff. So that has been fixed.
Those are the most notable changes. The game now contains all the content that's going to be delivered with the full release. I'm at the stage of polishing, balancing, filling in some blanks and fixing up the remaining bugs that survived Early Access (EA only kills about 99.99% of bugs).
In other news, Gaia just had its first fan art made! Many thanks to Lisa P. for her awesome work!
