Hi All,
It has been a very busy couple of months and it is time for another
Clanfolk Progress Update!
ALSO:
I’ve been solo developing Clanfolk full-time for over seven years now, and I still feel privileged to be able to work on Clanfolk every day. Clanfolk feels like the best game that I will ever create, and I am honored that you all have given me the opportunity to keep improving it.
There are of course daily struggles, but your support and ideas continue to be a great source of energy and inspiration. Clanfolk really would not be the same without all of you!
Looking back at the last year, Clanfolk received three major updates, and over 80 Testing Branch versions!
I will link these below for those of you who would like to look back on all the additions.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1700870/announcements/detail/3908625644157121814
(This one is kind of funny)https://steamcommunity.com/games/1700870/announcements/detail/4211503960779560034
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1700870/announcements/detail/4701284372241858926
I am going to delve into the
Clanfolk Progress Update now, and I hope you will consider nominating
Clanfolk for the
Labor of Love Award.
Thanks!
Andrew (Blorf) Hume
[h2]Clanfolk Progress Update! [/h2]
All the following changes are currently available on the Testing Branch, and will become available on the Default Branch once Update 16 goes live (after more additions and tuning)
(Note: The Testing Branch is always available to everyone under Steam/Clanfolk/Properties/Betas)
I am going to give a chronological list the major changes over the last two months since Update 15.
There is quite a lot to cover. :)
- Flooding - Increased Fertility, but also Increased Risk.
- Traditional Turnip Lanterns for Samhain - Spooky and Fun.
- Difficulty Modes - New Very Challenging Modes for Experts.
- Lightning Upgrades - Dangerous Lightning! (Off by default.)
- Baby Toys and Toyboxes - Cute, and more to come.
- Dried Berries - Preserve those Berries for Winter!
- Smarter Cats and Rats - Tom and Jerry mode activated.
- Missing Item Alert Upgrades - Alerts understand reservations now, better info, more quickly.
- Reservation Viewer - See exactly where Clanfolk are going and why.
- Customizable Pet Tombs - These work like the Human Tombs and have new Glyphs!
- Caves and Rocky Overhangs - Places to take cover and keep things dry early on.
- Smart Missing Supply Viewer - Makes it much more clear why some things are not being crafted.
[h2]Flooding:[/h2]
- Flooding will occur on Flood Plains when there is heavy rain for extended periods of time.
- Flooding will naturally decrease as the ground dries out over the course of a couple days.
- The Positive of Flood Plains is that they have better soil and provide a better growth rate.
- Floods also provide free fertilizer.
- The Negative is that when the Flood Plains are Flooded, the Deeper the water, the more damage will be done to some crops.
- Note: Some crops/plants are flood resistant. This is shown in the planting menu.
- So Flood Plains are excellent for growing crops, except then they re flooded, but that it the risk.
- A Flood Plains Slider is added to World Settings.
- Added a Flood Plain Overlay to the Map Preview Screen, to the Right of the New Map Button
- New maps Start with some Initial Fertility on the Flood Plains from previous floods, can be seen on the fertilizer overlay
- The Water Overlay will also show Flood Plains as Green Areas, but as they fill up, they will turn blue
- The Growth Rate Overlay, ALSO shows flood plains, but sometimes in Red, in cases where the ground is flooded, the growth rate will become negative and shown as red.
- Flood Plains will slow down movement when flooded.
- Anything built on the flood plain will be built on raised ground, aside from Tilled Soil which will get flooded.
- So Roads on Flood Plains can work like bridges in times of flooding when movement is otherwise very slow.
- The Grasses and Trees on the Flood Plains will show up greener due to the higher fertility, also clear ground on the flood plains will have some undergrowth to show the result of previous flooding.
[h2]Traditional Turnip Lanterns for Samhain:[/h2]
- These new lanterns can be used year round and work as a lighting decoration like Rushlights.
- There are 4 lanterns which will be picked randomly based on where they are placed.
- Each lantern also has unique lighting to match the face on the turnip :)
- Enjoy the spookier nights!
[h2]Difficulty Modes:[/h2]
- Difficulty modes have been added to provide new themed challenges for long time players.
- These new modes can be opted into in currently running games via Settings/Difficulty.
- After starting a new game, difficulty settings become Locked. (until unlocked via Settings/Difficulty)
- To Unlock Difficulty, double click on the lock icon at the top of the Difficulty Panel.
- Once Unlocked, Difficulty cannot be Re-Locked. This is to preserve the integrity of future achievements.
- Difficulty toggles are built such that turning them on or off will not break your play through, the most important thing is to have fun.
[h3]New Modes[/h3]
- Clanfolk Classic - This is the Clanfolk you know.
- Nature's Wrath - Nature is out to get you. Mistakes are deadly.
- The Long Haul - This is more of an epic pacing to suit a double lifespan.
- The Lean Years - Resources and trade are more scarce. Starvation is likely.
- The Works! - This mode activates ALL other difficulty modes. It is likely very difficult.
- Custom - This mode is set whenever you set toggles yourself.
[h2]Lightning Upgrades:[/h2]
- Lightning is highly attracted to Mountains (but people are safe inside)
- Large Trees will attract lightning more than roofs
- Roofs will attract lightning more than people
- People will attract lightning more than base ground
- Non Flammable Roofs will not transmit lightning damage or catch fire (Mountain, Stone, Tile)
- Flammable Roofs will transmit lightning damage, but will not kill a unit protected by the roof (Unit at strike point will be knocked out)
- Livestock under flammable roofs can still die when struck, but it is less likely than out in the open.
- Units in neighbor tiles under a Flammable roof will be hurt, but will not be knocked out. (they will have a fire to fight most likely too)
- Units outside can die from a lightning strike, and the further from the strike point, the less likely a fatality will be.
- So the higher the point on the map, the more likely lightning will strike it, BUT a strike is not guaranteed at that point, just more likely.
- Building between mountains or in forests can provide decent lightning protection. (But beware of forest fires)
- Straw roofs are very dangerous out in the open.
[h2]Baby Toys and Toyboxes:[/h2]
- There is now a Straw Doll that can be used by babies to increase their fun.
- The Straw Doll can be stored in a Toybox (or a tool stockpile if nothing else available)
- Babies will not put away toys when they drop them near a toybox. This was added for increased realism :)
- Work on this new baby toy system is still in progress, but I think it is too cute to not show it now.
- I am hoping to add a cranky state to the babies for them the babies fun gets too low. This could potentially cause mood loss to those around the cranky baby.
- I am also thinking of adding a variety of toys which can each provide an early boost to skill experience for related skills.
- These are just ideas right now though, but could be fun gameplay wise.
[h2]Dried Berries![/h2]
- Berries are dried in the Tile Peat Stove and last 12 days. Preserve those berries!
[h2]Smarter Cats and Rats:[/h2]
- Cats are now much more persistent in catching rats. They can dig them out of hiding if they see them hide and can also chase them room to room.
- Rat logic upgraded to try to find hiding spots where the cats cannot see them.
- The Cat/Rat chases can go on for quite a while sometimes all over the homestead. It can be fun to watch now.
- Also added bite and threaten noises to the cats to give audio queues when the chase begins.
- Fixed Rats in houses sometimes getting an X on them after the cats caught them.
[h2]Missing Item Alert Upgrade:[/h2]
- Items that are being carried or that have been reserved are now considered used by the alert system.
- What this means is that the missing item alerts (red icons on jobs, and right side of screen alert) are much more responsive.
- This means an increase in work efficiency as we will know items are running out sooner.
- An example case is: 10 wall sections to build, but only 5 bricks available, in the old system all 10 sections show as ready to build until those 5 bricks are used up somewhere.
- In the new system, once one of those sections has the bricks reserved, ALL the other 9 sections show that they are missing bricks.
- So those cases where there are people standing around for seemingly no reason should be hopefully resolved with this change. It will be apparent that resources are missing now.
[h2]Reservation Viewer:[/h2]
- For many jobs, they have multiple parts, either multiple wall sections get built for a wall, or ingredients are needed for crafting. Now we can see how these tasks chain together better.
- When clicking on a Clanfolk, their path will show as before, but in some cases, the next destination is also shown. This can be very useful information.
- Example: clicking on a Gatherer will show the item they are going to gather as well as the destination storage for after collection.
- Also clicking an item like meat, or clicking on an object like a cooking fire will ALSO show who has reserved these items. This will allow you to tell if someone is currently going to do something with the item/object.
- Even storages work this way, so if you click on a storage object and any of the items within the object are reserved, a line will be drawn to the reserver.
- So the end result is a lot more clarity on what is currently being done and how.
- I really wish I added this three years ago now as it is pretty handy.
[h2]Customizable Pet Tombs[/h2]
[h2]Caves and Rocky Overhangs![/h2]
- When generating new map, sheltered areas will now appear in the mountains.
- In most places, there will only be small rocky overhangs of one or two tiles, enough to place a fire out of the rain for example.
- More rarely, caves will also appear that travel deeper into the mountain. There is not a lot of space inside caves, but the there tends to be enough to set up a few bedzones out of the rain.
- The higher the Mountain slider, more and deeper caves will appear.
- This addition should also make Heavy Rain/Snow mode much more tolerable early on because it will be possible to find a sheltered place to cook meals.
- There can be quite a wide variety in how the cave complexes develop and there is no hard limit on size, so some world seeds may have some pretty spectacular ones.
[h2]Smart Missing Supply Viewer:[/h2]
- Logic to show missing critical supply ingredients on world objects that mimics what it looks like with missing build queue items.
- Right now I am limiting this system to the crafting resources like Branches, Coal, Hay, Logs, Stones, Straw, and Clay which tend to get overlooked.
- Using this system for complex foods is likely not desirable as it will probably always be showing something missing for one of the many food recipes, leading to confusion.
- Note, I will turn this on for Eels since it is a very early ingredient and this system will help new players a lot.
[h2]Other Important Changes and Upgrades[/h2]
- Major Optimizations to large clans (100-200+) Though please try to stay below 40 people. Homestead simulator, not city simulator :)
- Added 2 Extra World Building Points!
- Added Refrigeration State! (Cooled) state to food between 0-5C This halves the quality loss rate. Needs new cooling mechanic turned on in difficulty settings.
- Advanced Shader (Off) mode upgraded to allow Grass and Rock Shadows! (This makes playing on a laptop/pc without geometry shaders much more attractive to look at)
- Dried Mushrooms now last 20 Days instead of forever.
- Ice Jugs take 2x as long to freeze and thaw.
- Reworked the FPS cap so that it detects the native screen refresh rate and caps to a value near 60fps, but also a multiple of the refresh rate to prevent tearing. This means that on 144hz monitors, the cap will now be 72 and will look a lot more smooth. I have a 144hz monitor and noticed a big difference when capped.
I am going to get back to work on
Update 16 now.
Thanks for all your support!
Andrew (Blorf) Hume
p.s. Just a reminder after all that reading to please consider the Labor of Love award nomination. :)
Personality and Relationships: Clanfolk now simulates relationships influenced by personality compatibility, mood, past interactions, and family ties. Clan members form unique opinions about one another over time, leading to stronger or more strained bonds. These mechanics create a dynamic environment where relationships evolve naturally, shaping gameplay and storytelling opportunities.
Mourning and Memorials: The new grief and mourning systems provide meaningful ways to honor the passing of loved ones. Clanfolk now experience grief based on their relationship with the deceased, affecting mood and productivity. Players can set up customizable tombs or wake tables to address mourning, offering clan members a chance to say goodbye and gain long-term morale boosts.
