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
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.
Today we are proud to announce that Foundation’s 1.8.1 update has just landed.
Following a successful and mostly incident-less preview version, we’re releasing this content a bit ahead of time.
Let’s take a tour of the new and updated features, shall we?
Resource Tracker
The biggest and most exciting feature added to 1.8.1 is without a doubt our brand-new resource tracker tool.
It allows you to see where resources are located in your village by right-clicking on a resource icon from the info module, located at the top of your screen.
Left-clicking on the same resource will bring you to its associated entry in the Book, under the Trade tab. We are confident that this addition will make it easier to manage your village and its numerous supply chains!
Understanding Resource Icons
As we pointed out earlier, the resource tracker tool adds useful icons above entities in the world. They’re used for construction, storage, transport and production (input and output).
Here’s a quick definition of each icon type you will see in Foundation:
Resource in storage
Resource in transit
Resource production input
Resource production output
Resource available for consumption
Resource used in construction
Enhanced Construction Step Bundles
Another goal we’ve set ourselves for the 1.8.1 update was to achieve better HUD efficiency.
As of 1.8, we’ve added construction step bundles to Foundation. Since then, most buildings are built progressively. This feature adds a lot to the immersion and can even help you plan ahead as each step requires different resources. But we felt like there was room for improvement about how we communicated this information to you.
If you take a closer look at the above building panel, you’ll notice we now display ready-to-build bundles in the progress bar (second background layer). One of the pitfalls or the previous iteration of this feature was that it involved too much guessing. With 1.8.1, we felt the need to share more information about construction steps—clear the fog, in a way.
Modding Additions
Foundation’s mod scene is still going strong years after we first entered early access. True to our habits, we’ve worked closely with the modding community to fix bugs and crashes related to 1.8.1. But that’s not all: browsing the changelog reveals the newly added exposure of single-property types. Combined with COMP_SOLDIER, we can’t wait to see what modders will create next. As a reminder, we share our favorite mods here every Monday. The talent at work is nothing short of amazing!
1.8.1 Changelog
General
Add: Resource tracker (resource icons are shown above entities when right-clicked in info module)
Add: Resource tracker windows open entity panels
Add: Resource tracking button in the book (resources list)
Add: Shortcut from resources in info module to book
Add: Resource row highlight in the book
Add: Ready-to-build bundles are now shown in construction progress bars
Improve: Construction and Bailiff progress bars are no longer shown behind prioritize and cancel buttons
Improve: parts list and jobs ordering
Fix: color when conditions are met from green to gold (quests)
Fix: missing tooltip on delete savegame button
Fix: buildings generating resources have duplicated descriptions
Fix: missing localization on Controls window title
Fix: crash after building the Village Center is the Build menu was already opened
Fix: if there is at least one incomplete part in a multi-part monument when a reload is performed, all the parts that were previously completed will turn invisible (monuments)
Fix: walls disappear upon reload
Fix: Market Goods and Luxury tables are not unlocking
Fix: crash when building a village center
Fix: crash no crane on mineral deposit
Update: community localizations
Update: rename good and luxury market stall part set category
A preview build of the upcoming, still-planned-this-December 1.8.1 update is now available via Steam and GOG (access instructions below).
We look forward to hearing any feedback and please let us know if you find any issues. Feedback and bugs can be posted on the Steam, GOG forums or alternatively you can join us on our official Discord server.
1.8.1 Preview Build Highlights
Here are some interesting new features included in this new version of Foundation.
Resource Tracker
Ever wondered where to find resources across your village? No more!
The resource tracker tool adds useful icons above entities in the world. Bread, berries, wood, rocks, name it: every resource is shown in real-time.
This feature is toggled on and off by right-clicking on a given resource at the top of your screen (info module).
Left-clicking on a resource will bring you to its book entry, under the Trade tab.
Construction Bundles Improvements
The 1.8 Fall update added construction step bundles to Foundation.
With 1.8.1, we wanted to improve upon this feature by delivering better HUD efficiency.
We’ll go a bit more in-depth with the official release later in December, but know that we put a lot of effort into making sure our whole construction progress is more accurate.
Preview Build Access Instructions
Note: Preview build saves will be compatible with the full release of the 1.8.1 update. Most mods will require migration for the full 1.8.1 release. We recommend starting a fresh save or playing vanilla (no mods) for the preview build.
Steam
If you would like to take a look or help test out the preview build, you can gain access via the Steam betas tab in Foundation properties.
Right-click Foundation in your Steam library
Click on Properties
Navigate to BETAS
Choose the ‘preview – Next Build Preview’ option
The game will automatically update but if it does not you may need to restart your Steam client
GOG
Open Foundation’s Options menu in your GOG Galaxy library
Select Manage installation, then Configuration
Select Preview in the Beta tab
Click OK
The game will automatically update. If it’s not the case, you may have to restart your GOG client for changes to apply.
A preview build of the upcoming 1.8 Fall update is now available via the Steam betas option tab (access instructions below).
Whilst we continue to work toward the core updates, the 1.8 Fall update comes as a bonus that also enables us to add in some smaller features in preparation for the bigger updates.
We look forward to hearing any feedback and please let us know if you find any issues. Feedback and bugs can be posted on the Steam or GOG forums or alternatively you can join us on our official Discord server.
Preview build highlights
Two new production buildings
The Candle Workshop and Common Wares Workshop
Construction steps and bundles
More logical construction steps for buildings, including the addition of resource bundles for each step.
QoL and UI
New tooltips, improved layouts and a number of QoL improvements such as improved stockpiling feedback.
Modding
An enhanced mod browser, including direct links to mod.io to allow for easier communication with modders.
Modders also get some new stuff, including a debugging tool. More info can be found on the modding wiki.
Preview Build Access Instructions
Note: Preview build saves will be compatible with the full release of the 1.8 Fall update. Most mods will requiring migration for the full 1.8 release. We recommend starting a fresh save or playing a vanilla for the preview build.
Steam
If you would like to take a look or help test out the preview build, you can gain access via the Steam betas tab in Foundation properties.
Right-click Foundation in your Steam library
Click on properties
Navigate to BETAS
Choose the ‘preview – Next Build Preview’ option
The game will automatically update but if it does not you may need to restart your Steam client.
GOG
Open the Foundation game, options menu within your GOG Galaxy library
Choose Manage installation -> Configure
Within the Betas channels choose preview
Click OK
The game should automatically update but if it does not you may need to restart your GOG Galaxy client.
With the new UI out it’s a good time to take a look at what else we have been working on and where our focus is now headed.
Before we do though, we would like to mention our growing team here at Polymorph Games. As a relatively new indie studio we are always looking to expand the team and as such we have seen some new faces since the last Devlog.
We have recently been joined by a senior gameplay programmer that will help us as we move our focus to new and improved gameplay features. We also have been swelled in ranks by a new engine programmer as well as a gameplay programmer that is completing an internship with us.
Getting back to the team’s focus, the first thing of note is that in a revised change to our roadmap earlier this year, we are planning to bring you a game update in the Autumn/Fall whilst in the background we also work toward the bigger Core II update.
Let’s take a look at what the team has been working on…
Art
The art team have been hard at work overhauling the current buildings to create a more cohesive and detailed style throughout the game.
You can see an example below of the completed bakery revamp in all its splendor.
Before/after shot of the Bakery
You’ll see the majority of these as part of a larger update, most likely sometime next year, however we will be bringing 2 new buildings to the game much sooner that have been designed from the ground up with the new and improved styling already implemented.
Currently the focus is on these two buildings which will see both a Candle Workshop as well as a Common Wares Workshop added to the game in the Fall Update. Check out some concept art of the Common Wares Workshop below.
Common wares workshop concept art
Gameplay
In the longer term the gameplay team is now focused on Core Update II which will see a complete overhaul of the Estate system and progression. The final design of the Estate system overhaul is now almost complete and work has begun on its implementation. The team are also working on balancing tools to make for easier balancing as we add more content to the game.
In the more immediate future however, the team has also been working on implementing a new feature for the Fall Update that will bring more immersion when building your village. This feature will see construction step bundles implemented to the game.
These bundles will create a more logical construction process, where materials will be required on construction sites in a relevant order. For example a building’s foundation/basement will be built first and require a specific portion of the overall building resources on site before construction begins. The next step might be walls that require the next bundle of resources.
Construction step bundles essentially break down the overall resource requirements into separate bundles that need to be delivered to construction sites prior to builders starting work on each construction step.
UI/UX
We are still working to further improve the UI with subsequent updates such as the recent UI/UX patch. We still have many more improvements to come.
To this end, the UI/UX team is working on a number of important small improvements and fixes that will come in the Fall Update. Alongside this the team is also working on UX design for the bigger core update, in support of the Estates overhaul, which will require a number of new screens and information panels.
Game Engine & Modding
As you can probably imagine the Engine team is busy working to support any processes that the whole team are working on, such as new Hurricane editor tools for feature integration.
Furthermore the team continues to collate and analyse any crash reports coming in and fixing any instability as quickly as possible. Our crash rate is at an all time low with the biggest crash issue now being graphics drivers. Note: if you are experiencing any crashing on startup please update your GPU drivers with (importantly) a clean install of the GPU drivers.
Modding is also one of the larger projects for the Engine team which has seen them continue to work on exposing more features, such as exposing the mandate system to create custom mandates. They have also been looking to support modders even further with work on Lua debugging support.
In addition to this we continue to work closely with the modding community to gather modding feedback and suggestions, as well as look at ways to improve our feedback gathering to better support the modding community.
We will bring you more news as soon as we have it and keep an eye on our social media channels for more teasers, as we get closer to the Fall Update release.