Devblog: Autonomy & Governance
[p]Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates recently, the summer holidays are upon us so I have been taking some time off to see family and old friends, but development progress should be returning to normal soon and you can expected regular updates in the coming weeks. In this blog post, I'd like to give you an update on the progress for the next major update.[/p][p][/p][h2]👑 Autonomy & Governance[/h2][p]Counting the votes across the Steam and Discord, it seems that Autonomy & Governance is by far the most preferred option from the last feature poll, so that will be the focus for the next major release! Thanks to everyone that chipped in and gave their feedback :)[/p][p]For full autonomy (and for the town to actually look good), the town layout planning is the most important step and something I've been recently tackling. This is essentially the villager's decision-making process behind the zoning and the placement of buildings and roads. I've created a nice visual tool for me easily develop and test this, so here's some nice sneak peaks from it![/p][p]![]()
[/p][p]Since this game is set in the middle ages, it would be fitting for this to function on the basis of medieval governance at the time, specifically feudalism and how settlements evolved and governance changed during this process. The following is a rough plan, so things may change and I'm open to feedback if you have better ideas or disagree with this approach - always looking for ways to improve things! :)[/p][p][/p][h2]📖 Beginnings[/h2][p]As you are thinking about starting a new adventure, you will gain the option to start as either a lord / lady (let's say Leader to be simple) or a serf. The development of the town will be in the hands of whoever is the Leader at the time. If you choose not to start as the Leader, one of the other adventurers will be appointed as the Leader instead. If you do start as a Leader, you will be able to appoint or unappoint a steward to handle the planning by talking to one of your fellow villagers.[/p][p][/p][h2]🏠 Village[/h2][p]![]()
[/p][p]The first building to construct as you start out will be the new manor house for the Leader. Inside, you'll be able to see the current plan of the town and the various zones. The land at the beginning will be split into housing, communal, and manor. Villagers will cooperate and work under the Leader, collaborating to complete any new projects. [/p][p][/p][h2]🏘️ Town[/h2][p]![]()
[/p][p]To turn your village into a town, you'll have to fulfil a few additional requirements. You'll have to construct a new town hall building, the initial infrastructure to attract a few more villagers to join you, and then erect a wall around your settlement. After you fulfil these, you'll be able to purchase your town charter. From that point on, you'll be able to hold markets and you'll be able to rent the land to prospective merchants or craftsmen in exchange for control over that land - if you wish, or you can continue as you were :)[/p][p][/p][h2]📜 Governance[/h2][p]Inside the new town hall, you'll be able to define the rules of living in the town. These can be area-based such as deciding on where the town square or the communal gardens will be. Meanwhile, the rules can also be about what villagers can and can't do, whether that's encouraging the collection and planting of tulips, forbidding the extraction of iron, or making stealing legal! One of the ideas here is to experiment with different rules in different worlds, and see what the consequences will be and how your civilisation will pan out.[/p][p][/p][h2]🙂 As always...[/h2][p]...small updates with bug fixes, quality of life things, and minor features will continue regularly in the coming weeks, meanwhile work on this major update will continue in the background.[/p][p]Thanks for listening to this story :)[/p]