Hi all, It's been a while since I last posted future plans for the game. I feel it is time for me to provide some of my initial thoughts and I am looking forward to your feedback - since it is you, the players, who help the game evolve. Since the first release of Expansion Pack 1 back in March, I have added lots of new content to the expansion pack and the base game. Now it feels existing content in the game is stable and mature enough that I can plan for another expansion. Here is my initial plan for expansion pack 2. Even though most of them are still on the drawing board, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

"Competitive" City

• Everyone starts with the same Swiss Upgrades/Boost (most likely base level)
• Everyone has a fixed time (say 24h) of active playing time each run
• There's no offline earning, no player trading

The idea is to provide a level playing field for everyone to compete for production optimizing skills. Of course, some random factors (e.g. resource distribution and resource prices) will have some effect but they will hopefully be averaged out in the long run

"Random" City

This would be a new special city where the unique bonus (i.e. extra production) is rolled randomly when you start in the city - so you are completely subjected to RNGesus! There will be other unique mechanisms that favor this play style.

New Resource Routing Modes

I plan to add new resource routing mode to the game:

• Automatic: this is the same as current resource routing - each building chooses the best source each cycle.
• Automatic with override: this allows you to override the automatic resource routing for a specific building. If the source you selected doesn't have enough resources, it will fall back to automatic
• Semi-automatic: same as above, except that if the source you selected doesn't have enough resources, the building will skip resource transportation
• Manual: you have to manually choose a source for each input - no automatic routing will be used

This will significantly change the gameplay and allow "micro-optimizations"

Farming and Food

I always have plans to add farming and food into the game. However, they need to be carefully designed and balanced in order not to break the existing game play. Also, I want farming to have a slightly different mechanism from current mining and factory production. This is still very early and I need to work out the details

Tower Defense / Base Defense

The idea is in very early stage - there are still lots of question marks but I'd like to share what I know:

• It's either base defense or tower defense
• It will be optional (e.g. certain maps only, or can be turned off)
• The reward for defense will eventually help you expand your production

This is obviously a big change in the game. So it's likely that the final version might be very different from the plan.

FAQ

When will Expansion Pack 2 be available? No idea. As I said, most of the items are still in the design stage so it will take a while. I do plan to release it as soon as I feel there is enough content. As always, all expansion packs include at least 3 months of content update after the release so do expect some of the items will be shipped in subsequent updates How much will Expansion Pack 2 cost? No idea. But it's unlikely to be more expensive than Expansion Pack 1. My goal is to cover the running cost (e.g. server cost) of the game since this game is my hobby project, I'd like to focus on making the game fun, rather than trying to extract the last cent. That's why I don't plan to include micro transactions. Also I plan to make use of Steam's bundle feature so that it would be cheaper to get the "complete package" (both for new players and for players who already own Expansion Pack 1)

[ 2021-10-30 21:50:29 CET ] [ Original post ]