It’s been a while since we’ve posted on the blog, but today marks an important milestone in the development of Foundation and we couldn’t pass up such an opportunity. From now on and for a limited time, all players can participate in the public playtest of our upcoming 1.9 update!
Over the past few months, we’ve worked tirelessly to redesign some of the game’s core features and improve the overall experience.
We encourage you to playtest the Clergy progression path, which has been reworked the most. In a few words, what this means is that we’ve focused on this Estate in terms of unlockables and narrative for the time being. The Monastery—crown jewel of this Estate—has undergone several changes. You can now build new parts such as the Hospitium (to host visitors) and the Scriptorium (to produce manuscripts with copyists). You can also build Nun Dorms and yes, even concede female villagers to your monasteries!
A crucial element of the 1.9 update is all about progression. Some buildings are now part of what we call a common progression path, i.e. without any investment towards a particular Estate. Others are linked to one of the three available Estates—Labor, Clergy or Kingdom—and require you to reach specific Splendor thresholds to be unlocked by spending Influence.
The dynamics between Estates are very important in update 1.9. The more you invest in a particular Estate, the harder it becomes to progress with others’. This is our way of adding weight to your decisions, but it doesn’t mean you’ll be handcuffed to the Clergy should you choose this progression path, for example.
Update 1.9 introduces sweeping changes to Foundation, including to its economy, which is now largely tax-based—something that was attributed to markets in the past. You can now tax your villagers and send a tax collector to collect the precious coins that will soon fill your coffers. Trade remains another viable avenue for accumulating wealth; the introduction of upgradable trade routes makes all the difference! Oh, and military missions are still a surefire way to get valuable resources, as always.
Edicts and privileges change the rules of the game in your favor. Once unlocked, these options can, among other things, mitigate a penalty or improve your trade with a neighboring village. Be careful though: if you change your mind about a specific edict or privilege, you will need the help of a Bailiff.
Players looking for an extra challenge will be pleased to know that we’ve added Village Aspirations. These are long-term goals that you can try to achieve, with some of them being pretty hard! Eventually, we’d like to tie these goals to GOG/Steam achievements and give them a bit more fanfare. At this point though, their integration is not final, but gives a good idea of our intentions with this system.
You will notice that narration plays a bigger role in Foundation than ever. Indeed, our Narrative Designer has been pretty busy and added a large number of interesting events and opportunities, ranging from hosting fairs to improving trades with neighbors and much, much more. In that same regard, players will feel they have more of a say as Lord/Lady thanks to the addition of more extensive narrative choices.
In order to better guide you through Foundation’s many interconnected systems, we’ve thought of a series of one-off (and entirely optional!) advice to guide you through your first steps as Lord or Lady—what we call Onboarding. This helps smoothes the learning curve and makes you feel more in control of your village’s development.
The 1.9 update includes lots of other new features and changes, but we want to leave you the pleasure of discovering them on your own terms. This post just skims over the scope of the changes to give you an updated look at Foundation.
You’ll soon notice that the game remains true to itself, but that its form has matured to a degree we’re very proud of. Expect a more detailed breakdown of the many new and improved features once the update is officially released to all Steam and GOG players around the world!
How can I participate in Foundation’s Update 1.9 Public Playtest on Steam?
- Open the Steam client
- Right-click on Foundation
- Click on Properties
- Click on BETAS
- Under Select the beta you would like to opt into, choose preview
- Launch the game
How can I participate in Foundation’s Update 1.9 Public Playtest on GOG?
- Open the GOG client
- Navigate to your owned games, then right-click on Foundation
- Click Manage installation – Configure
- Under Beta channels, choose Preview
- Launch the game
Where can I talk about Foundation’s 1.9 Public Playtest?
General discussions take place on our official Discord server, in the dedicated #public-playtest-1-9 channel. You can report bugs or technical problems in the #bug-report-public-playtest-1-9 channel. If you would rather write us, please do so using the following email: support@polymorph.games. It’s always a pleasure to read about what you have to say!
