V0.9.13 - Villager Chronicles
The long promised Villager Chronicles feature is finally here! This feature is a direct result of all of you voting on which AI feature you’d most like to see in the game. We spent a long time fleshing out how this would look and all the details that go along with it, from new icons and dialogue, to new technical systems altogether - we hope you like it!
By talking to a villager, you’ve always been able to learn more about them, but that information was difficult to keep track of. Now, as you discover and learn about a particular villager, you will fill out your villager journal, scribbling down things such as their origin, interests, goals, achievements, as well as the general conversation.
[h2]🏠 Living location[/h2]
There is a new notion of a ‘living location’ which will always tell you where a villager lives, relative to other important constructions.
[h2]🏙️ Origin[/h2]
There is a lot of new dialogue relating to villagers describing their origin. They can describe where they’re from, how long they’ve lived, and their reason for leaving.
This reason for leaving is something new and describes why they left their home to come join your cause, whether that’s because they were bored, or because their town was infested with dark spirits (or so they’ll claim).
[h2]🍻 Interests[/h2]
As villagers do various activities around the town and in the forest, they gain experiences, which grow into their likes and dislikes. Your journal will keep track of their 3 most loved and 3 most hated activities.
We’ve drawn 27 new icons to represent each action a villager can do! Some actions are specific to certain items (like gathering wood, or drinking at a particular place), whereas others are more general (like exploring or laying down).
Just like in real life, these expectations can change over time due to bad experiences (like falling off a wall, or having one too many drinks).
[h2]🔨 New icons[/h2]
To match this new design, we finally got around to giving the inventory and object items a fresh clean look. Each such icon is now flatly shaded with an outline to help distinguish it from the background and other elements.
[h2]🌟 Goal and achievements[/h2]
When new construction projects start, or a villager gets motivation to craft something new, they can choose that as their next goal, towards which they’ll progress over time and aim to finish (some may be more motivated than others). This will be shown here as their current goal when you discover it.
After working on those goals and completing them, they’ll sometimes brag to you to about their achievement. This will show up in the stars next to their current goal.
[h2]📜 Notes[/h2]
Amongst the most requested features has always been a dialogue log and on the right page of your villager journal you’ll always find a history of the most recent discussions you’ve had with that particular villager.
This means you’ll also be able to refer back to the type of quest they gave when you’re out of town on an adventure. Additionally, this quest request will be specially highlighted with a golden pattern so it’s easier to identify!
[h2]🪲 Other small changes[/h2]
- Villagers no longer repeat what they just said and keep a short memory of their recent discussions too. This makes conversations much more fun!
- Changed founding villagers to come from different towns rather than the same one
- Updated look of villager background slot a little bit in the Townsfolk page
[h2]Closing word[/h2]
We planned for this to be just the first double-page of many, with further pages describing a villager’s family hierarchy, personality, and detailed specialisation expertise. So let us know what you think of this feature and whether we should continue in this direction in the future!
Finally, sorry for the slow updates recently. I’ve been on holiday and have just recently returned, so expect faster and more frequent updates in the coming weeks! :)
Finally finally, I'm planning to stream the game this Saturday at 5pm UTC / 10am PT. Feel free to join if you want to watch me open a new world and try to build something interesting!