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Author Topic: Farthest Frontier Entering EA Soon  (Read 698 times)

axiomsofdominion

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Farthest Frontier Entering EA Soon
« on: February 28, 2022, 08:08:51 pm »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWnAItzIWtc

Here is a new trailer they just put out.

Why Early Access?
“We appreciate receiving feedback from a wider player audience to help us determine whether we've met our design goals and are delivering the quality of experience and fun we strive to achieve.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“Probably 4-8 months, depending on how much we feel the need to alter gameplay systems or add to the scope of the game before we're ready to call it finished.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“Protect and guide your people as you forge a town from untamed wilderness at the edge of the known world. Harvest raw materials, hunt, fish and farm to sustain your advancing town. Produce craft items for your villagers to trade, consume, equip and fight with as you battle for your survival against the elements and outside threats.

All listed features will be working when we release in EA.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“The core systems and features are currently working and there is 10+ hours of gameplay. Players start off with settlers in the wilderness and progress through 4 tiers of town-building and defense against raider incursions. We may elect to expand the game from here but all the features described in the "about" section are working in-game now, some just needing refinement to be considered release-ready.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“Pricing will probably not change.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“We will collect user feedback through our forum. We generally look through comments to get a broad sense of overall player impressions of various features or gameplay balance / difficulty and to see if something has been overlooked or is lacking.”
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Culise

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Re: Farthest Frontier Entering EA Soon
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2022, 08:40:58 pm »

I'm a sucker for city-builders.  It looks pretty, to be sure, but I'll definitely want to know more about how the gameplay shakes out in action before I pick up a copy for myself.  Still, I shall certainly be watching it closely.

EDIT:
Looking over the Steam page (link provided since it's not directly posted in OP) more closely, the first three bullet points definitely set the target tone.
Quote
  • Harvest, Grow, Craft - Harvest 14 different raw materials from wood, stone and clay, to metal ores, wild herbs, and honey. Grow 17 types of food, including forage items, fish and game, plus 10 food crops, each with different characteristics. Produce 32 crafted items and materials in a multi—tiered economy.
  • Build and Advance - Construct 50 different types of buildings as you grow your town from a fledgling settlement to a bustling city. Your town center and housing will advance through multiple building tiers as the prosperity and desirability of your town increases. Upgrade production buildings to increase efficiency and enable production of more advanced items.
  • Most Detailed Farming System Ever - Strategically select from 10 crops with unique growing characteristics and configure crop rotations to maintain soil fertility, avoid heat and frost damage, and prevent the accumulation of diseases. Cultivate your fields over time, removing weeds and rocks, raising fertility and adjusting soil mixture to achieve maximum crop production to keep your growing population fed.
  • Advanced Town Simulation - Villagers actively live their lives and perform their jobs in real time. Watch as villagers carry goods across town from remote work-sites to be processed into materials and crafted into items. See foods and goods delivered to homes, the trade post or stored for later use. Develop roads, transport wagons and improve storage methods to facilitate the efficient movement of goods through your town and prevent spoilage.
  • Randomly Generated Maps - Farthest Frontier is highly replayable and no game is ever quite the same with beautiful, completely randomized terrain generation and resource distribution. Controls allow players to specify the amount of water or mountains they desire, with extreme maps leading to unique challenges.
  • Idyllic to Brutal - Customizable difficulty options allow players to turn off features like invaders and disease, for a more tranquil experience or max out difficulty to truly test their town-builder prowess.
  • Environmental Interaction - Develop your economy based on which resources are locally abundant and produce items for trade to acquire that which you lack. Erect fencing to keep deer away from crop fields and stop bears from raiding food storage. Manage tree cover to prevent underground water supplies from drying up. Balance the need to clear land for agriculture around vital natural resources like wild growing medicinal plants and forage items.
  • All Them Old-Timey Diseases! - Ensure your villagers have clean water to stop outbreaks of dysentery and cholera. Collect berries and plant greens to avoid scurvy and ensure a healthy diet. Make sure villagers are properly shoed and clothed to reduce chances of contracting tetanus, rabies or frostbite. Build a healer’s house to quarantine the infected and provide herbs and medicine for treatment. Manage rodent populations by collecting waste, securely storing food and employing rat catchers to ward off the feared bubonic plague.
  • Fend Off Would-Be Invaders - Choose to play on pacifist and avoid combat altogether or engage with varying levels of raider difficulty to raise the stakes for your town’s survival. Progress from wood palisades to stone walls, build towers and barracks, recruit and equip soldiers in the defense of your town as rising prosperity attracts the attention of raiders and foreign armies seeking plunder.
Mind, I'm into all sorts of fiddly stuff, even if it ends up being a lot of fine detail with not enough practical difference to make mixing things up actually worthwhile: even in that case, it's still good for flavour.  There is always a risk of ending up with fake options, though: certain crops end up being sufficiently optimal that you end up with either the one true way or suboptimal traps.  A lot of fine detail also requires fine tools in order to handle that in the game, or you end up fighting more with the system than with the intended threats.  A lot of this does sound like fun to me, but it goes right back to my initial comment about seeing how it shakes out in action.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2022, 08:50:27 pm by Culise »
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