As you may, or may not, have noticed, today the name has been updated from Merchants of Sol to Premonitions: The Merchants of Sol. This is to indicate the first of a series of changes to the game and its development. In this announcement, I plan to update you all on several things, including: whats new, whats being worked on, what to expect in the coming months. Its been a busy time for me, working on this project. Its seen a lot more popularity than I ever could have expected. First of all, Id like to thank everyone that has supported me so far on Steam and everywhere else. The growing number of wish lists and followers of The Merchants of Sol has been a huge inspiration for me and an incredible motivator that has kept me working hard. Its my only hope that the game will bring you all a lot of joy and entertainment. But, anyway, onto the announcement:

Why was the name changed?

Merchants of Sol was always planned to be the first of a series of games. The running title for this series is Premonitions, hence the change. The Premonitions series is the culmination of a decade of work and planning. Its an entire story of which The Merchants of Sol is only a small part. Youll hear more about that in the future.

I have a confession to make..

The store page is a little bit disingenuous. While the description is appropriate, the images do not reflect the work that has gone into the game. I will be updating these promptly and youll notice a particularly glaring change, the game is not in an 8-bit, 2D style. In fact, it is a 3D game. (Surprise!) Due to the amount of work that has been required of me in the development of this game, I have been using old images that referenced the original idea for Merchants of Sol. In fact, the screen shot from this announcement shows a (WIP) model of Mars that will feature in the game. A cool thing about Mars is that you can fly from space down onto the planet and land, seamlessly(!) On the surface is littered many interesting things from crashed ships to sectors (where people live).

Factories..!

A feature that I wasnt sure would make the final cut. However, recently Ive been quite passionate about the idea. Therefore, players will be able to create factories where they can hire workers and produce products to sell (or to use). These factories can be purchased on Mars and fitted with many different objects. This provides a lot of new mechanics to play with, including: power management, worker management, materials/recipes/products, logistics, and many more political and legal complications to navigate.

Lore

Perhaps you thought that the Merchants of Sol was a vanilla space trading sim. If you did, youd be wrong. Theres a lot of lore to unpack, both through play, and in the lore pages found by progressing through the game (No, you wont have to hunt for collectables). But, primarily, there is a story that will introduce you to the Premonitions time line and some important characters from the series.

Modding

This has been a particularly difficult part of designing The Merchants of Sol. Ive wanted every aspect of the game to be flexible for modding and I stand by what I stated in the store page. But Id like to provide more information on it, as much as that is possible right now. You will be able to mod almost every aspect of this game. Most of the games content (besides the core scripts) will be available to modify. Both through plain text files and through the games mod editor.

Achievements

Yes, they will be in the game. I wont say anything else about them now, but they are fully planned and implemented.

Press (review) copies

Available on request, one week before launch. Key requests will be vetted before being provisioned. You can reach out to me here on Steam or on twitter (@jessicawastaken) to express your interest.

That's all for today

If you have any questions, please post them here and if I have an answer then I will try to respond. For more casual (and frequent) news and updates on The Merchants of Sol follow me on Twitter (@jessicawastaken). Ill also be trying to be more consistent with news in the near future. Especially because there will be lots to talk about. Once again, thanks for all the support, Jessica