We're just over four months since early access release. In that time we've been consistently putting out updates for the game, with new features, content and improvements.
After keeping a close eye on feedback, we've revisited the roadmap and expanded it with some extra features we think you will all enjoy.
There's already heaps to do in Oceaneers. The current game mode is the story-mode, allowing you to play the complete story from start to finish with a wide range of tech to research and build. Players have been getting 50+ hours just from this mode (many players surpassing 100, even 150 hours).
It's exciting that players are enjoying the game and getting so much out of it as there is still lots more planned!
Having said that...
Even though players are getting plenty of playtime out of the game, one aspect we want to improve is progression speed & resource gathering speed. We aren't aiming for this to be a super grindy game, so we still have some balance to do in this area. Ultimately we're just trying to find the right balance so that skill levels feel like they are impactful.
Please be sure to let us know of any areas that feel too grindy or tedious, your feedback helps immensely.
Below, we'll go into a little more detail on some of the items on the roadmap.
We are currently working on update 0.1.5 which introduces ranged combat, and it's feeling pretty good. We'll also be adding new automation options to give you more control over how your colonists behave when getting attacked and attacking.
To make the transition from ranged to melee combat nice and smooth, we also implemented unarmed combat. Then we went crazy and took this a step further, adding a new occupation based around melee combat, and changing the Tree Puncher trait so it now levels up!
If you've been dreaming about creating a colony of ocean dwelling warrior monks, you'll want to keep an eye out for this.
This is a new game mode that won't have a linear story to follow. It will be sandbox-like, and designed for longer plays and replayability. There's still be some story bunkers, and we're looking at interesting ways to expand gameplay beyond the region.
One of our goals is to give you different ways to play the game, so we're going to experiment with an optional quest system (supplying resources, exploring a bunker, clearing a zone). When combined with dynamic events and new wildlife behavior, this should introduce some levels of emergent gameplay that can give a lot of replayability to the game.
As you have no doubt noticed, the hygiene need is only partially in the game, and entertainment is "coming soon". We are looking to add colony progression, where your colony increases tier based on a set of criteria, and when that happens your colonists start having new needs (first hygiene, then later entertainment).
The progressive colony tiers allows new challenges to be introduced as your colony grows, without making the early game too difficult.
One of the new features we are most excited about is the medical system and how it might impact your colonists. We'll be adding new conditions, and conditions that can escalate if untreated, possibly giving you permanent new medical traits.
We know lots of players and keenly waiting for this one! We are taking our time with taming and letting some other features evolve. There's a base level of scope we want for this, but there's also a few ideas we want to try to see how they feel, and also where new wildlife will fit.
The roadmap doesn't list every little thing, we also have improvements planned for existing systems (e.g. further light improvements. bridge improvements, balance tweaks).
We're happy to confirm that we are planning some official translations for 1.0 launch. We have seen particularly high interest from the Chinese and German regions, so they are the highest priority initially.
There will likely be a few official languages at 1.0 launch, and from there we will look into which other regions have enough interest. With over 30k words in the game we do have to be a little more selective due to the higher cost involved.
We'll also be keeping the Community Translation Mod system (via the Steam Workshop) so that anyone can translate the game into their own language.
Note that the official languages will be done near the 1.0 release, so they are still a while off. We're still making lots of changes to text so it's not practical to do them just yet.
The roadmap is subject to changes, we're not afraid to scrap features that just aren't working, and try weird things on our path to finding what is the most fun for gameplay. A large part of this is based on your feedback which has been amazing so far, so please keep it coming! That said, we do have a pretty clear path forward with what we want the game to be.
The items in the roadmap are in no particular order, some things will take longer than others, but let us know what you're most interested in. The roadmap also isn't extensive, we have plenty of QoL updates planned as well, including new hotkeys, UI scaling options, and other little things we have mentioned on the forums.
Thanks for taking part in our Early Access journey, exciting times ahead!
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A huge thanks to all of the players helping each other out on the forums and in discord. It's really cool seeing tips being shared.
Keep your feedback coming as well, we read it all!
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Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
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