We have some important news to share with you today about the ongoing development of the game.
The final gameplan and core game is now at a stage where we can work towards a full release of the game. All of the major features still to come are being worked on simultaneously and are in most cases intertwined. Due to the way these features are reliant on each other it no longer makes sense to continue with our previous plan of releasing smaller updates that ultimately won’t work well as standalone features.
Due to this we have decided that the next major release will be the full release. This will allow us to focus on integrating all remaining features into the game and delivering a more polished, higher quality game. It will also have the added benefit of reaching the full release sooner so that you can get the best gaming experience and enjoy Foundation to its fullest.
We know you will all want to know how soon, however, we don’t have a release date to announce at this time as we still have plenty of work to do, but do know that development is progressing well. Foundation is an ambitious game, and we will of course keep you updated with any news as soon as we have more to share.
Early Access Adopters
For all our Early Access backers, this doesn’t mean we won’t be releasing any updates before the full release. On the contrary, we will continue to work on bug fixes as well as Quality of Life (QOL) features and improvements, based on community feedback, so that we can improve on the core game experience in preparation for the final release. With this in mind, we will be announcing our next QOL update soon!
A BIG Thank You!
Foundation’s development journey has been an unbelievable experience made so much better by all of you, the fantastic community, that has helped us along the way. We would like to thank every Early Access adopter for supporting us and helping us deliver a high quality game that we wanted to create and also one that you want to play for many years to come. We continue to welcome all feedback from the community and we can’t wait to unveil the full release of the game for you all to enjoy!
Hello everyone and welcome back to Devlog’s! Today we present you with Devlog #17 and news from the team. We know it’s been a while since the last Devlog but now is a perfect time to update you all on the current progress of upcoming updates and what we have been working on.
First, we would like to take a moment to thank everyone for their feedback on the recent updates. There have been a lot of changes to the game which we have been happy to see very positive feedback for. We are aware of some needed quality of life (QOL) improvements highlighted by the community, such as the sub-building flow which we are working on improving for the next update. Please do keep your feedback coming as it helps us improve the game as we continue development.
Fall Plan
With the now expanded team we are working on multiple updates concurrently. These are namely the upcoming 1.9.6 update which focuses on Housing Desirability & Beautification, the new Safety system and the Kingdom update. Let’s take a closer look at what we have been working on…
Though not a major update, calling it a minor update doesn’t do it justice. Update 1.9.6 brings some significant changes that will pave the way for the Kingdom update. More on the Kingdom update in a moment.
This update will bring a change to the Desirability system. Where currently houses will be allowed to upgrade if a housing area is desirable enough based on a single factor, with the new system houses now have different requirements in order to upgrade to the next tier. Essentially, Beautification will be an additional and separate factor when it comes to housing upgrades.
With the new system, houses will only upgrade from low to medium quality if all of the following criteria are met:
Desirable neighborhood – Build away from undesirable buildings
Beautification – Build within a Beautification area
At least one villager of Commoner status or higher looking for medium-quality housing
Note: Removing a house requirement will eventually result in the house being downgraded or its occupant moving away.
These changes will allow you to have better control over where you wish housing to upgrade as well as potentially downgrade housing.
Desirable Neighborhoods
Houses need to be built in pleasant neighborhoods, away from noise, bad smells and grime and hence undesirable environments. Some buildings will now have a clearly defined undesirable area based on the building’s footprint. These will include buildings such as the Lumber Camp, Sawmill, Gold Smelter and all types of Quarries. Medium-quality housing needs to be outside of this undesirable area.
Beautification
Beautification is now becoming a Desirability factor in its own right. For houses to upgrade they must be in an area of Beautification, i.e. within a clearly defined Beautification area created by decorations or buildings that provide Beautification.
The range of the Beautification area will be based on a decoration’s Beautification value combined with its footprint. The overall Beautification area will increase if placed next to another similar area.
Information Layers
In order to accommodate the above changes we will be updating the visibility layers.
The Housing Desirability layer will now show residential areas, undesirable areas as well as any medium-quality housing areas.
A new Beautification layer will show Beautification areas, items supplying Beautification and housing affected by Beautification.
Other Improvements
Update 1.9.6 will also come with more QOL improvements to the game as a whole including an improved Monument experience with improved sub-building flow and a new dedicated Monument tab in the Build menu, and more. You can check out the full changelog on release.
The 1.9.6 update is very close to an experimental deployment, so keep an eye out for further announcements if you would like to try it out before its full public release on the main branch.
Also In The Pipeline…
As mentioned earlier, we are working on multiple updates concurrently, so what else is in the pipeline?
Safety System
The Safety system will be a new way to control Housing Density via Patrols and Fortifications. The system itself requires a number of changes to integrate it into the game and work is progressing well. We will bring you more news on this in a future communication.
Walls
The current system for walls has always been a temporary measure and we are now working on incorporating walls into the construction flow. Walls will be integrated into Monuments with their own construction costs and visual building steps.
Kingdom Update
The Kingdom update is also being worked on and it is going to be huge! We won’t go into too much detail here but progress on this update is now well under way. The new Castle Monument is under construction (hype!) as well as a new system to create Companies and Battalions to send your Army off to war. Stay tuned for more news but we will leave you with this teaser…
Don’t forget to follow us on social media to keep up-to-date with future developments, teasers and more!
The main focus of this new version is the inclusion of a new, scalable system for quests and events. We are also introducing an important transport algorithm improvement, event snoozing, Hospitium pausing and villager portraits for all available jobs in the game. Without further ado, let’s get down to the details.
Scalable quests and events
Ever wished quest and event rewards would adjust according to your progression? With Update 1.9.5, we’re introducing scaling to Foundation: a new way to keep things engaging from the very beginnings of your village to the realization of a fully-fledged medieval wonder.
Here’s how it works: requirements and rewards associated with events or quests will now increase based on different progression tiers. For instance, a quest asking you to deliver wood would have a low resource objective early on and scale later—in tune with your Prosperity.
Here, tier 0 (floor) is available from the start, whilst the last tier is activated upon achieving a specific Prosperity threshold. The low, standard and high rewards are linked to negotiation opportunities with traders in this specific example.
Event Snoozing
Events now have snooze delays when a player dismisses them. Such delays are added on top of their recurrence factor, which have also been slightly reduced. You can expect snoozed events to add between 50-100% more days before they pop up again.
Hospitium Pausing
Update 1.9.5 also includes a new pause function for Hospitiums. When paused, such locations won’t welcome new guests anymore. Think of it as an added safety valve to better control your food supply as visitors tend to be quite hungry. You can resume Hospitium functionality—thus further guest waves—at any time.
Transport Algorithm Improvement
In addition to the three functions that have just been discussed, we took this opportunity to include our newest improvement with the transport algorithm. You may have noticed that previously, transporters would reserve specific amounts of resources before reaching their destination. The problem, however, was how this reserved quantity never adjusted to take into account fluctuations in availability.
From now on, transporters are able to dynamically adjust how many resources they carry before reaching their destination, all synced with workplaces. You will notice an immediate effect on productivity as transport becomes even more responsive.
New Villager Portraits
Our artists added villager portraits for every available job in the game. Before, villagers could have a mismatched portrait as we randomly picked one from the handful available. This will no longer be the case and should benefit the game’s coherence.
That’s it…for now!
We hope you enjoy these new features as we continue to work on the next milestones from our roadmap. You’re always welcome to share feedback here or on our official Discord server.
Changelog
New
Scalable quests and events
Event snoozing
Villager portraits for all available jobs
Update
Localization
Improvements
Newcomer notifications are now merged into a single, dynamic notification
Trade route: added a tooltip to the unlock button when the condition is fulfilled
The Hospitium sub-building now has a Pause button
Transporters dynamically adjust carried quantities according to availability fluctuations from workplaces
After weeks of testing and refining, we are happy to merge Foundation’s latest experimental version to the main game. This update brings significant changes in the form of game balance and added features. As such, it is advisable to start over; while previous saves will indeed load, some of the work introduced in this update will undoubtedly disrupt villages’ productivity, happiness and more. That said, there’s a lot to be excited about with 1.9.4. Read on for all the details!
New Meat Production Chain And Additional Food Need
The Butchery, a brand-new building unlocked in the first tier of the common progression path, has been added to the game! This means boars are now much more useful as a resource: after placing Hunter’s Huts near dense forests, you will be able to capture the animals. Then, butchers will turn them into meat to be consumed at your markets or sold to traders.
Such a change fits nicely with the fact that villagers—including Serfs—now require two different food types to be happy.
Tavern Overhaul And New Entertainment Need
The Tavern has undergone significant changes in this newest version of the game. You are now able to create berry brews—a special drink made of berries and water—at the Berry Brewery. Served alongside a delicious meal, this is sure to be a hit among your people!
Introducing a new drink serves two main purposes: adding variety and perhaps more importantly, letting you deal with the fact that commoners, citizens and soldiers now require to be entertained! This new need affects happiness, so you want to make sure concerned villagers can quench their thirst.
Progression and Balancing Changes Overview
Update 1.9.4 features a trove of progression and balancing-related changes. Here’s a quick glance at what you can expect:
New Features
Butchery workplace and meat resource
Entertainment need, berry brews and berry brewery workplace at the Tavern
Levy mandate
Kinstone Abbey trade route
Discoveries
New advice
New action bar shortcuts for mandates and village aspirations
Quick promotions
Resources linked to some workplaces are now displayed on click
Balancing Changes
Tax Office was moved to the Labour progression path
Additional food need for villagers
Villagers have a chance to leave starting at -25% happiness
More workplaces now require higher villager statuses
Removed residential availability from immigration factors
Trade routes have added resources to buy and sell from
Adjusted plenty of building construction costs
Events have been improved across the board
Several unlockables have been moved around
Your second territory no longer has an upkeep cost
The exhaustive list of changes can be found in our game design changelog at the end of this post.
Levy Mandate
Update 1.9.4 adds a new way to access “emergency funds” with the Levy mandate. Activating this mandate grants you a large quantity of coins at the cost of villagers’ happiness. The debuff is applied for a set duration (currently: 30 days) and stacks should you activate the Levy multiple times. Use with caution!
The Levy mandate has been added as a result of the Tax Office function now being exclusive to the Labor progression path. Our design goals with this change is to further associate taxes with this estate and encourage better decision-making regarding early to mid-game profit.
New Trade Route: Kinstone Abbey
A new, Clergy-allied trade route has opened! Merchants from Kinstone Abbey sell a variety of useful and rarer resources such as gold bars, gems or marble. They’ll be looking for herbs, honey and planks to name a few. Unlocking this trade route requires you to produce manuscripts at the Scriptorium.
Enhanced Transport
Our engine team has been hard at work developing behind-the-scenes optimizations for Foundation. Chief among them is our rebuilt transportation system that is being rolled out as part of this update.
Before, villagers sometimes had to travel long distances to satisfy their needs and seek resources, which was more obvious while facing shortages. This led to scenarios where villagers would cross the whole map—so to say—just to reach a market or specific building like a warehouse or a church. Not good.
From now on, our transport algorithm further favors local management of resources and needs. To put it in more concrete terms, villagers will associate with markets or buildings near where they live. The same principle applies for production chains: a weaver hut requiring wool will get it from the closest available warehouse stocking some, itself linked to the closest sheep farm—effectively giving a whole new meaning to “hubs” within your villages. They will operate in a much more satisfying and natural way.
Map Generator Improvements
We are pleased to share an updated version of our map generator. When we first released this feature, we got a lot of feedback about terrain that felt a bit too bumpy, so we started iterating on a new version of this tool that would allow for flatter topographies. We took this opportunity to add several new configurable parameters as well, in order to have maps feel even better than before.
Each map type has its own set of parameters you can adjust to your wishes. For instance, the Fluvial map type lets you modify the following parameters:
River
Island
Slope
Cliff
Promontory
Hill
If you are particularly happy with one of the procedurally generated creations, here’s another bit of good news: you will be able to easily share them thanks to a unique map code system! Input the alphanumeric code into the designated space, click the confirmation button and voila: you have a new world to settle in!
Adjustments to Job Requirements
Several jobs now require more advanced villager statuses. In previous iterations of the game, you could (mostly) ignore promotions and still manage to get all production chains going. However, we feel like some jobs should require a bit more investment and decision making before your villagers can access them.
Two examples of jobs adjusted to the new reality of higher status requirements are the Tax Collector and Bailiff, which now require Commoners at a minimum.
Important Changes to the Promotion System
As you will now spend a lot more time dealing with promotions, it no longer made sense to limit this function to once every 30 days. Hence why with 1.9.4, we’re introducing two important quality of life changes regarding promotions:
You can now use the promotion mandate at will
You can now promote villagers directly from their detailed information window
Advanced Resource Tracking
This update also introduces easy identification of resources in the world from select workplaces such as the Hunter’s Hut. In this example, selecting the building reveals where boars live on your map. Using the Extraction paint tool produces a similar result, displaying available berry and stone sources, so you can plan your village accordingly.
New Take on Immigration
Immigration waves will now feel more rewarding and steady across the board. Previously, passersby would take into account multiple factors before deciding whether or not to join your village. One such factor, housing, has been completely removed from the equation, effectively softening the difficulty associated with immigration.
Another change we made is that unless your immigration rate is nil or disabled, you will always get a minimum of one newcomer per immigration wave.
Discoveries
Foundation is a city-building game with quite a lot of interconnected systems that you learn to master over time. We want to make sure this doesn’t hamper your fun nor prove too daunting, so we thought of an additional tool to help you learn the ropes: discoveries.
Crucial systems or concepts are now accompanied by one-time notifications whose stated goal is to provide assistance in a concise way. We are confident this new feature, in addition to help topics, will answer most questions that may arise while playing.
General Changelog
New
Meat production chain with the Butchery
Entertainment need
Berry Brews at the Tavern
Levy Mandate
Discoveries
Environmental Resource Display
Berries
Fish schools
Stone nodes
Boars
Advanced onboarding
Food diversity
Enacting the Mandate Levy
Leaving villagers
Improvements
Auto-assigning higher status villagers to workplaces will not demote them anymore
Transport behavior has been enhanced, a change that will be most noticeable with larger villages. The algorithm now focuses more on local ‘resource hubs’, which should fix workers traveling great distances to do their job
A new update has just been released. The two main features are decorations availability and action bar (HUD) improvements. Without further ado, let’s see what this means for Foundation.
Common Decorations
Starting with 1.9.3, common decorative parts are made available for all monuments regardless of their previous limitations. In other words, you can now customize monuments with more freedom. Decorations have been grouped into different categories in the build panel for better understanding. The intended goal is to open up more customization possibilities for your villages.
Common Decorations in the build menu
Decorations grouping in the build panel
As a reminder, common decorations are not only for looks either: they provide a very useful desirability bonus, encouraging villagers to upgrade their houses. Furthermore, common decorations provide beautification, which is taken into account for prosperity—a score that represents your overall progress in the game. Estate and monument-specific decorations, on the other end, provide splendor instead of beautification and desirability.
In summary:
Common decorations are available for each monument and from the build menu
Estate decorations are available across all monuments from the same Estate
Monument decorations are for parts that only work for a specific monument
Action Bar (HUD) Improvements
In past versions of the game, mandates were enacted at the Manor House with the help of a special button. Alternatively, you could click on a specific opportunity in your quest module to enact mandates. Starting with 1.9.3, a shortcut for mandates has been added to the action bar at the bottom of the screen. Clicking this icon will bring up all available mandates, allowing faster access to this feature.
While on the topic of action bar improvements, we also added a shortcut to village aspirations. Clicking on the trophy icon brings all available village aspirations—optional objectives you can aim for while building your medieval village. Village aspirations will appear in the quest module once you start tracking at least one of them. Please note that the Village Aspirations shortcut previously found in the system menu has been removed.
Illustrations Galore
Update 1.9.3 features plenty of updated–and in some cases, completely new–colorful illustrations to breathe life into Foundation events.
We hope you enjoy your time with this newest update. Stay tuned for more details on upcoming content for Foundation.
Changelog
New
Common decorations are now accessible for all monuments
An extensive collection (100+) of new and improved illustrations for events
Added two buttons to the action bar
Mandates
Village Aspirations
Added help topics in the Help (F10) menu
Hunting
Bridges
Motion sickness
Useful shortcuts
The game now has its own icon
Game Balance
Moved tombstones (decoration) from tier 2 to tier 1 of the Clergy progression path
Improvements
Advices from the quest module now display a New prefix, for example New Advice: Increase Taxation
When using more than one monitor, players can now choose which one will display the game (fullscreen mode)
Updates
Batch of unlockables’ icons
Localization
Modding
Villager statuses and profiles now have gendered fields. Therefore, we removed statuses and profiles related to nuns. To convert your mods, read the official documentation here
GAME_ACTION_DELIVER_RESOURCE now has a BudgetCategory property
Fixes
Removed a line from the Book which was displayed before Estates were unlocked
Switching tabs of the Book after deleting a privilege reactivated it and stopped players from removing it again
Death finds a way: right-clicking on tombstone window wouldn’t close it
Dead soldiers were listed as newcomers and still counted for the village’s total population
Bailiff selection window wasn’t closing on a right-click
Update 1.9.2 has just been released. This version of the game focuses on four key points: improving the budget breakdown, adding new construction steps to the Monastery, using right-click to close windows and hitting ESC to close (or open) the system menu. But that’s not all: we took this opportunity to introduce some quality of life (QOL) changes as well as fix multiple bugs—including one where villagers would trek far and wide to find the most comfortable benches!
Here’s more details of what you can expect in this update:
Budget breakdown
Understanding Foundation’s economics makes all the difference between running a thriving or a struggling medieval village. For this reason, we now offer a more in-depth budget breakdown. It should help you plan better, but more importantly, get a clearer picture of your expenses and income as they roll in.
Here’s an overview of what’s been added to the Budget tab:
Quantities for resources bought and sold
Upkeep costs per buildings’ categories and types, each with their respective quantities
Territory costs, including those purchased and maintained
Taxes per type, including how many villagers and/or buildings are affected
New categories for data previously displayed under Miscellaneous
Tooltips for all categories
Every single feature mentioned above will work with previous Foundation saves. You will also notice some quality of life changes included in the budget breakdown such as the possibility to collapse/expand data either individually or globally and better category grouping and visibility. On a related note, save files have been considerably shrinked thanks to the compacting of budget data.
Modders will be happy to learn the new, detailed budget breakdown leaves room for custom upkeep costs, i.e. something not called coins.
New construction steps for the Monastery
Last year, one of the biggest changes to Foundation was how players would progress through the game by specializing in different Estate paths. Clergy in particular was completely reworked with the addition of several new building functions and events. Back then, our art team laid out the groundwork for a new and improved vision of what the game should look like, previewed first with the Abbatial Church.
It’s not just about raising the visuals bar either: adding construction steps to the Monastery is something we had planned for a long time, which better reflects the evolution of this prestigious monument and helps bring it to life—complete with scaffoldings for all of its variants!
What you see from the Monastery in this newest update sets a new benchmark for the future of architecture in Foundation. In time, our goal is to apply the same principles to other buildings and thus bring them to higher quality standards.
User experience (UX) improvements
Part of being game developers is taking the pulse of what the community wants so we can deliver a frictionless experience. An oft requested quality of life feature has been added in Update 1.9.2 with the ability to close windows by simply right-clicking on them. In the same vein, we have added the expected behavior of opening (or closing) the system menu when pressing the ESC key.
This concludes the core features added or improved upon with Update 1.9.2. For more details, read the full patch notes below.
1.9.2 Changelog
New
Budget breakdown overhaul
Monastery construction steps
Right-clicking on panels will now close them
ESC key will bring up the systems menu or close it if it’s already open
Improvements
The Daily Average Balance now displays more accurate information about whether you are making money or not
Save files’ size have been considerably shrinked—up to 70% less!
Updates
Housing help topic
Editing buildings help topic (refund)
Localization
QOL
The special panel style for buildings now only applies to the parent building, which should help distinguish them from sub-buildings
Added a confirmation pop-up when unassigning a slot with stocked resources (example: Warehouse)
Improved the resource refund feature when destroying parts to be more consistent across the board
Wealth calculation from the Book will now display a score after the first month regardless of your income status positive or negative)
Improved performance for densely populated villages
Fixes
Fix: in some circumstances, the game wouldn’t properly close on exit
None of the shortage events (except for service) were displayed in the Happiness tooltip
Villagers trying to fulfill needs spread too far from each other on the map would get stuck in a needs loop, which led to further issues
Added a distance limit so villagers won’t be traveling far and wide to use benches
Destroying a monument before its completion refunded too many resources
While a game rule that modified the trading price was active, the “Buy from village” price was rounded before calculating the quantity available for purchase
The Rustic Gate – Elevated part from the Monastery snapped inside the model, which blocked entry to the location
Multiple scrollbars could be displayed when building a Cloister
Modding
The Unlock Trade Route button wasn’t displayed when mods added new resources for trade. The GUI now handles up to 5 resources rows without a scrollbar
Switching a sub-building function in the Fuel mod (1.9+) crashed the game
Exposed the Hospitium, Monk Dorms and Nun Dorms functions for the Monastery
We have some important news to share with you about Foundation’s next steps. The team is pleased to unveil an updated roadmap! 📅
But first, a 2022 Retrospective
2022 was a big year for Polymorph Games, but also one of transition.
First and foremost, we have worked on our biggest update so far, Foundation 1.9, that has added the remaining systems and bound all of them to shape the core experience we intended for Foundation. We also have included and expanded the monastery gameplay, with a revamped visual, representing our work on the final Art Direction (see: GameDeveloper.com).
Another major feature that we were happy to deliver was the first iteration of the map generator, allowing you to have more maps to play with.
The second important change that happened last year was the expansion of our team, with the addition of team members filling important roles, such as an Art Director, a Lead 3D Artist, an Engine Programmer and a Narrative Designer. This is allowing us to work on multiple aspects of the game at the same time: improving our visuals, the game content, as well as the procedurally generated content like the map generator.
Roadmap Update
In the last couple of months, we’ve made the delicate and thorough exercise of reviewing and completing our game design. Every idea and planned feature has been discussed and questioned, and we aimed to leave no stones unturned. This process had us recenter on Foundation’s strengths, and the result is a better defined feature list.
Today we are pleased to share our updated roadmap – a glimpse of both our major and minor updates left to be released.
Upcoming Major Releases
We are planning five major releases until Foundation’s end of Early Access.
1 – Residential Density and Safety Concept
The next Major Update we are working on is about adding Safety, a tool players can use to control the density of housing in specific zones. Safety is also something that will be used and extended by the Castle in the Kingdom progression path. This will also integrate the walls into the construction flow. We will provide more details soon.
2 – The Castle (Kingdom Progression Path)
We know you are eager to get your hands on this one, and we are already working on it. In addition to the new Castle monument, expect more gameplay options from overhauled military missions (including squads!), and more interaction with the new safety concept.
3 – Labor Progression Path
This update will round off the final Estate gameplay and visual overhaul of the three estates. It will focus on giving the tools to improve happiness and taxation capabilities.
4 – Environment Rehaul
As you may know, we are working to revamp our building and environment visuals: environment biomes, skyboxes, lighting, map edges.
5 – End of Early Access Release
This one will have all the completed game content, with the improved residential zoning, and tier 3 housing.
Along the way toward Foundation’s full release, the team will continue to add minor features, to include new quality of life (QOL) changes as well as game content.
Some Planned Minor Releases (not in release order)
Continuous Monument Experience Improvements
Continuous Map Generator Improvements
Continuous Quality of Life Improvements
Continuous Accessibility Improvements
Continuous Modding Improvements
Continuous Balancing Improvements
New Productions Buildings and Production Building extensions
Fertility
Scalable Quests
New Mandates
New Information Layers
Job XP Implementation
Paved Roads
Some shelved or on hold features
As mentioned earlier, the process of reviewing and completing our game design had us focus on Foundation’s strengths. But that also means that unfortunately, some features we have added to the roadmap during the Early Access won’t make it to the full release, as we realized that they will not add any significant fun to the game and will create more micromanagement than we wish to push on the player. We are thus shelving housing decay, aging and families, and graveyards from the roadmap. The disease feature and vehicles are also postponed, meaning they might become part of the game at some point, but not before the end of the early access. Steam Workshop Integration has also been dropped as we continue to focus on mod.io and its cross-platform modding capabilities.
We know some of you will be disappointed about this news, especially the aging and family, but the average village size in Foundation has a higher population count than first anticipated, and having a feature like this would have brought us on the path of survival, micromanagement and overcomplexity.
We have reasserted our inspirations – Pharaoh, The Settlers and Anno – all games that don’t feature aging and death, but are still unique in their own ways and most importantly, great city-building experiences. With that in mind, we are confident that we are on the right path with Foundation’s design plans.
Putting an end to the Trello and to Mantis Public Bug reporter
As many of you may have realized, the Trello board was not being updated often. It has shown to be a lot of work to maintain, and it also creates a divergence with our internal planning tool. Hence why we are closing the Trello, and will instead share updates and progress on the roadmap on posts such as this one.
We are also closing our Mantis Public Bug reporter. We realized that the most efficient way to track bugs and get feedback is through Discord or right here on the Steam forums. It is also a better way to filter what is a bug and what is not, because the community usually provides help as well. So don’t hesitate to join our Discord Server to share your bugs and feedback!
Experimental Builds
In 2023 we also want to give you access to experimental builds. Their goal will be to test new features and progression changes before they’re applied to the live version of Foundation. This is a way for us to get important feedback from you, that will help us deliver polished updates. The first experimental build will be the next minor update that changes a lot of the early/mid game balancing.
When are the next updates planned?
As of now, we are currently working on multiple updates:
1.9.2 is about an improved budget breakdown and multiple Quality of Life improvements, like the ESC and right-click handling (Estimated Release Date: February 2023)
Minor Update: We are preparing an experimental build that changes early progression in the game (In Progress, Experimental in March 2023)
Taxation will be moved to the Labor progression path
Tavern will become a need for the commoners
The early and mid game progression will be reviewed
Trade revenue will be more generous
Minor Update: Plains terrain type (flatter) will be introduced in procedurally generated maps (In Progress, Estimated Release Date, March 2023)
Major Update: Residential Core + Safety (Being prototyped, No ETA yet)
Major Update: Castle (Kingdom Progression Path) (In Progress, No ETA yet)
Note that this planning is subject to change along the way.
Conclusion
In 2023, we are full speed ahead to deliver consistent and substantial updates that will keep improving the overall quality of the game.
We thank you for your continued support, we are lucky to have such a loving and dedicated community.
Foundation’s Update 1.9 is finally available on GOG and Steam.
The team has been hard at work to bring you quality content as part of a new and improved gameplay experience.
Here’s a quick overview of what’s included.
Village Aspirations
A fundamental aspect of Foundation is the customisation of your experience, which is reflected in the game by the organic growth that makes each village unique. With 1.9, we wanted to go one step further and give you the ability to achieve Village Aspirations: optional objectives that offer different ways to play in order to nab sweet GOG or Steam achievements. Examples include building an Abbatial Church or having 100 citizens in your village
Village Aspirations are another way for us to not only increase the replayability of Foundation, but also to make it a somewhat more challenging experience.
Progression revised from the ground up
Update 1.9 changes several elements of Foundation, including the way you progress into the game. Now, each EstateUpdate 1.9 changes several elements of Foundation, including the way you progress into the game. Now, each Estate—whether it be Labour, Clergy or Kingdom—has several unlockables of its own. Investing influence in and thus favouring one Estate makes it more difficult to progress with the others. This dynamic requires more planning on your part and adds weight to your decisions without restricting your ambitions.
In addition to Estate-specific progression paths, there is also a common progression path, which includes quite a few essential production buildings in Foundation, such as the Warehouse, the Stonecutter Camp and the Fishing Hut. In e
In addition to Estate-specific progression paths, there is also a common progression path, which includes quite a few essential production buildings in Foundation, such as the Warehouse, the Stonecutter Camp and the Fishing Hut. In either case, you will need to reach different tiers of Prosperity before being able to unlock some of the most desirable options. This new measure of your success takes into account six factors: wealth, territory size, trade, population, splendor and beautification.
Our next updates will focus on upgrading both the Kingdom and Labor progression paths.
Edicts and privileges
You may have noticed that the progression page has a tab dedicated to edicts and privileges. This is another new feature introduced with Update 1.9. The first case represents what may be described as laws that you enact in your village. The second case represents rewards given by the different Estates to their most loyal Lords or Ladies.
Edicts and privileges grant important boons such as reducing a Splendor penalty between two Estates, increasing the market value of certain resources or reducing the maintenance cost of production buildings by half. They are unlocked with coins or influence points. Afterwards, you just have to choose the edicts or privileges you want to activate.
Buildings and sub-buildings
The city-building aspect is at the heart of the Foundation experience, so we wanted to let you expand the capabilities of your buildings. You can now assign functions to a group of building parts (what we call sub-buildings) instead of individual parts. Each sub-building will therefore be linked to a single function (e.g. Treasury) which you can change should you desire so.
In a few words, this means that a Monastery can now be home to a Chapel, a Scriptorium, a Hospitium, a Monastic Garden and so on. The same goes for a Market, which you can expand by adding a sub-building associated with a separate function from the parent building if you wish, such as a Luxury Goods Stall. At any time, it is possible to browse each of the functions of a parent building thanks to the “Parts List” tab.
A glorious Monastery
Progressing on the Clergy path, you’ll soon notice important changes. For starters, there are several new functions available, including a Hospitium that will host visitors, a Scriptorium that will help you produce Manuscripts used to promote your faithfuls or a Cloister where they can medidate while fulfilling a new need. Moreover, you will have the pProgressing on the Clergy path, you’ll soon notice important changes. For starters, there are several new functions available, including a Hospitium that will host visitors, a Scriptorium that will help you produce Manuscripts used to promote your faithfuls or a Cloister where they can meditate while fulfilling a new need. Moreover, you will have the pleasure of building a prettified Abbatial Church: our artists have done a great job upgrading its visuals for your enjoyment!
Taxation
Previously, Foundation’s economy was largely tied to market stalls. With Update 1.9, taxation replaces the main way to fill your coffers. The Manor House now has a Tax Office function, which is combined with the Tax Collector job. Each house accumulates coins over time, and it’s up to you to decide how heavily your village will be taxed. But beware: people are not too keen on having to pay much, so there is a balance to be struck so as not to collapse your global Happiness factor!
Even more modding possibilities
In keeping with our commitment to the modding community, we’ve outlined several new features that are sure to have a snowball effect in the coming weeks. Without getting too technical, the major changes to unlockables, the progression system and narrative choices will certainly result in the creation of mods that we’ll be happy to share with you!
Looking forward to a bright future
Foundation’s 1.9 update is multi-faceted and marks an important milestone in our Early Access (EA) journey. We hope you will enjoy how we reimagined some of the existing systems while adding more depth to the core medieval city-building experience.
As for what the future holds, in the short term work has already started on a first patch to fix newly discovered bugs. At a later date, and after focusing a lot on the Clergy progression path—particularly the Monastery—we want to give the other two Estates the attention they deserve. We plan to overhaul the Kingdom and Labor progression paths, in that order.. We will let you fill in the gaps as to what that might entail.
