Added/changed:
- Improved a model of bricks in a wagon
- Updated sheep farm help
- Trade wagons and boats are now showing where they're from in properties
- Workers and vacancies overlay now shows managers too
- Minor UI changes
- Decolonized one of the town names
- Animals will now wait a bit longer before starving to death
Fixed:
- Metal parts delivery to cartwright could be delayed in some cases
- Couldn't demolish pigsty in some cases
- Not enough hemp reported in weaver when flax is available (and vice versa)
- Crash on placement of coastal buildings
- Crash related to cow slaughtering
- Trade wagons and boats could sometimes spawn at the same time, which made them look like one (same for imported animals)
- Could hire additional counselor in an empty town hall (using overlay)
- Saltworks animals could have wrong position
- Wrong "blocked" notification for coastal buildings built near bridges
- Some houses had wrong land tax calculation
How does the new alpha going you mignt ask. It’s going great, but also as with the most great things, it's going slow and steady.
As of the current state of development, Alpha 6 has 37 confirmed new resources and 21 new buildings, from which only 12 are from production category. I offer you a short glimpse into some of the planned new features.
We will be introducing a new concept of maintenance resources. Take baskets. You see them throughout the game, but as of Alpha 5 they just magically appear. In Alpha 6 you will need to have them in every building which uses them. Same goes for multiple other maintenance resources. Every relevant building will need to have a small stock of these resources and replace them as they wear out.
There will be a new building called supply shed, which supplies all maintenance resources to where they're needed.
Baskets are produced (you guessed it) in the basketry from dried willow rods called withies, which basketry workers will harvest from nearby willows in winter (finally something to do in winter). Willows will grow naturally near water. You can also plant some more if you need.
As the game is getting more complex with all the new additions, it's becoming easier to get lost, expecially for new players (which I explect quite a lot after Alpha 6 comes out). There are two solutions to this problem, which are being worked on.
Having an exhaustive in-game reference is becoming increasingly important. So more topics are getting their own pages and they start to include images and reference tables:
Writing these pages is surprisingly good for sorting out all the inconsistencies in code and finding weak spots in game logic.
The second solution is about options. I have no screenshot to share of this new feature yet, but what's being worked on will let you decide which features you want to play with at the game start. Some players didn't like food spoilage - not a problem: just disable it. Start with more/less money, settlers or resources - as you please. Lots of things can be made optional. This way players can match the game to just the exact amount of challenge and complexity they want. Of course, these options will have an effect on achievements once they become available.
Alpha 6 is probably the biggest milestone in Ostriv Early Access development. I know many of you are eager to get your hands on the new content, but Alpha 6 is simply too important to be rushed. It is a great chance to get the game on a higher quality level. Wasting such an opportunity by releasing a half-baked update would not be a wise thing to do.
Now back to work. Thanks for reading!