Hi Everyone,
Beekeeping the the Secondary Settlement Part 1 has been available on the Testing Branch for three weeks now, and I wanted to review the changes.
But, The most important detail is that:
Update 18 will release to the Default Branch Early January.
If you are feeling curious, anyone can join the Testing Branch by selecting:
Steam/Clanfolk/Properties/Betas and it will be in there list there.
A very special thanks to everyone who has been participating in the Testing Branch and finding bugs and suggesting tweaks! You all have kept me very busy, but in a good way :)
Ok, I am going to dive into the changes since the other two progress Updates, which I will also link here for reference. They are both still contain a ton of useful info and images.
Steam :: Clanfolk :: Clanfolk Progress Update! (Towards Update 18)
Steam :: Clanfolk :: Clanfolk Progress Update! (Beekeeping Deep Dive)
So, as mentioned above it has been a very busy time since the Testing Branch was updated three weeks ago. The Bees and Secondary Settlements have had at least a year's worth of combined testing playtime now, and I wanted to call out the changes to both systems.
So the most interesting bit of this write up is likely a discussion on how I learned to better approach content delivery by understanding the different player types in Clanfolk. I will explain what I initially did wrong, and how it is now solved, so take heart, this was an important learning experience for me that will improve future systems. Testing Branch to the rescue!
If you want to skip this design discussion, the Solution is The Renown System, described below.
The original idea behind Secondary Settlements was that doing some kind of Challenge would unlock the Next Tech Tier. This delivered the new tech at the end of the tech tree instead of in the middle which is already very full.
So a late game Unlock Challenge seemed like a great idea to me. (it wasn't exactly)
I went on to build "The Brown One" in the Highlands as the gateway to unlock the next tech tier.
I was actually quite happy with the new system. I had a Highland Biome (Very Scotland), and was unlocking Beekeeping, which of course is closely related to Bears. So everything came together in a nice themed package with a pretty bow. Yay me... So, let's finally push it to the Testing Branch.
At first, many players were focused on (and mostly enjoying) the new Beekeeping. Many used the new "Beekeeper's Legacy" start, which gives the Beekeeping tech at map start for the cost of much Coin. So early on there were a lot of Beekeeping fixes but not much word on the settlements.
But eventually people did finally get to the Highlands Expedition which was unlocked by building the Stone Throne, a very late technology.
This is where the learning began. Three types of players emerged with comments on the new Settlements. One type was happy, one was kind if indifferent, and one was moderately horrified.
Here, I was trying to collect these reactions and solutions in one place.
Thinking on Bees and The Brown One flow. :: Clanfolk Gameplay Discussions
It turns out that the Settlement Update was having unintended consequences for two of the types above.
1) Challenge Oriented: (Challengers)
These players tended to like the new Settlement System and the Challenge of "The Brown One." It was something that made the game even harder than the usual difficulty tweaks and added some new flavor with an added reward (new tech.)
So here there were no problems. This is also the category the I tend to fall into, but I need to better think of the other two categories in the future.
2) Building Oriented: (Builders)
These players enjoy building up elaborate homesteads. The fun for them is to build up their long term vision for the current map over time. These players are also the ones who want the Planning Mode the most (it's still coming!)
So, here is where things went a bit sideways, and also why the Builders were less than thrilled with The Highlands. The Highlands are tight, really tight, mountains on all sides and no where to spread out. It is cold, wet, and you have to live in caves, potentially for years. So how do you bring your vision of the perfect homestead to life in the valley of desolate doom... Oops.
These players don't really mind having to move to get the new technology, after all it would be fun to start a new homestead with everything already unlocked! But... I put them in the worst possible place to build. (Don't worry, there is a solution)
3) The Nesters: (Nesters)
These are players that go well beyond the builders in developing a homestead. These are the players who invest hundreds of hours on a single homestead, growing it over generations, becoming personally invested in the family tree. These are the Nesters. They have a home, they built it, and they want to stay there to watch it flourish, maybe forever.
Annnnd... I dangled shiny new tech in front of their noses and said they can't have it unless they abandon their home. The Nesters were not happy at all, and I don't blame them.
Where Builders don't mind the move, because it is just a new opportunity to build, Nesters hate the move because it forces them away from exactly what they loved about the game.
Glad you asked! So I really need to keep these three groups in mind going forward. When working on systems, there needs to be a path for each of these player types to continue to enjoy Clanfolk in the way they enjoy it the most. Also, updates should focus on delivering features that improve the game for each type of player.
I also need to remember that a Nester today may be a Challenger tomorrow or a Builder the next, so jumping between these different paths and back needs to be supported.
1) Challengers:
Nothing changed here. The Brown One is a great new Challenge with the beginning of a new Story Scenario (Which will be finished in Update 19)
2) Builders:
Builders now have a New Secondary Settlement, called "The Perfect Spot"
So instead of being forced into the Highlands, Builders can now opt instead to start their secondary settlement in a more typical environment where they have control over all the terraforming sliders.
These players can continue their Clan's story in a new spot on the same world map, but build where they prefer and use technology they have already unlocked.
3) Nesters:
Nesters now have their own expedition training option called "Growing Renown."
After the Stone Throne is built, Nesters do not have to leave their Homestead, and they can now send an Envoy to one of the Castles to do some learning and to make connections. This is essentially a more political approach to gaining... Renown.
All three paths, "The Brown One", "The Perfect Spot", and "Growing Renown" will award the player with the first level of Renown (Well Respected).
Renown is what will unlock the next tier of technology, but also new story events and scenarios. So Renown is like a gateway into the next phase in the game. The Clanfolk are established and now they are either expanding their territory or making a name for themselves in other ways.
What it all boils down to though is Renown means new stuff unlocks, and unlocks at a time when it is not going to be overwhelming. This was even the idea behind the original system using "The Brown One." It does not make sense for me to continue to add more and more tech to the early game because there is already so much there that it can border on overwhelming for people.
I wanted to be able to continue adding new stuff to Clanfolk, but without destabilizing the feel of the early game. This is why we now have Renown.
What Renown means is that once you build the Stone Throne, you can pick when and how you want to step through that door to the next phase with your Clan.
For example, remember those year 2+ challenges? They don't make sense to add into the early game, but they make a lot of sense to add when the player has their first Renown level and they have proven that they know what they are doing.
With adding "The Perfect Spot" as described above, we now have two expansion settlements, and I did not like the idea of locking people into "The Brown One" or "The Perfect Spot" once they moved there.
So although it wasn't planned for Update 18, the Settlements will now be able to Chain for as long as their is room on the World Map.
It is safe to experiment with going to "The Brown One", because you will also be able to leave there and jump to "The Perfect Spot" or vice versa.
"The Brown One" currently stops (Story wise) once the Beekeeper arrives, but it is a fully working map and can be played for as long as you want. It also introduces Hard Stone, which will play more of a role in Update 19.
In the future, Scenarios like "The Brown One" will have completion conditions that will unlock other related world map events as well. Completion may also unlock a non-story version of the Highlands as an initial world building option.
Originally everything to do with Beekeeping was going to be unlocked with "The Brown One," but again in the Testing Branch this turned out to be somewhat disappointing for people who wanted to experience the Bees in some way right from the start of the game.
Initially, I didn't want to have bees at the first homestead because there was nothing you could do with them yet, so I thought it would be confusing or frustrating, but then I was reminded that there was something special about bees even early on.
Bees increase crop yield, even Wild Bees.
This adds a very interesting wrinkle to the first Homestead. It is actually somewhat interesting/strategic to look for the Wild Beehives, and then build farm plots nearby. This then makes some parts of the map more attractive than others, where the player can adjust their plans to best utilize the wild bees. I like this a lot.
Cutting down Dead Trees with Wild Hives will also produce a little bit of Honeycomb, but nothing compared to what can be achieved later once Beekeeping technology has been mastered.
So it has been a very eventful few weeks. The whole Renown system took quite a bit of me pacing around grumbling to myself, but I am very happy with the result!
I am going to keep an eye on the Testing Branch throughout the Holidays, but I am also going to take some family time to increase my Social meter.
This means that Update 18 will probably arrive somewhere early January. There is still a little tweaking and translation to do, and the translations will have to wait until the Holidays pass so people are back in their offices.
If you can't wait though, the Testing Branch is currently quite stable already.
Happy Holidays everyone and thanks for playing Clanfolk!
Andrew (Blorf) Hume MinMax Games Ltd.