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Foundation

A New Era of Organic City-Building Simulation!

by Polymorph Games on Dev News

A Look at Foundation’s Future

Hi everyone!

Now that the holidays are decidedly behind us, it’s time to think about what the future holds.

There’s little doubt that 2022 will be a pivotal year for Foundation. We know you’re eager to learn more about the game, hence why we’re sharing an exclusive look at what’s going on behind the scenes…and hopefully answer some of your burning questions!

Laying down the cards

After three years in Early Access (time flies!), we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Looking back, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, but acknowledge that there’s still a lot of work left to do. Still, we’re confident that we’ll cross the finish line before long.  

Our current focus is on Core Game II (1.9), which we’ve actually already talked about last year. We can’t stress enough just how much of a game changer this new release will be. We’ll have more details to share about it very soon. In the meantime, here’s some up-to-date info about the new features being worked on right now by the team for this massive update:

Gameplay Types & Progression

Prosperity

As part of our overhauled progression system, your village will now score points according to various metrics (territories, population, etc.). We’re calling this system Prosperity (which is not to be confused with Splendor). The idea behind it is to allow you, the player, to progress in the game without imposing a specific playstyle. For example, you will be able to progress by focusing on a large populated city, but you’ll also be able to progress by focusing on a prolific monastery. Aiming for higher scores isn’t just for bragging rights: you’ll unlock new buildings and put in place new politics (edicts) along the way.

Estates

The Estates are evolving and will be closely tied to different gameplay types. Each Estate will have their specific advantages over some core features of the game. For instance, the Labor Estate will fare well in villager taxation, the Clergy Estate on luxury resources and the Kingdom—you probably guessed it—on military campaigns. Also, get ready as having a high Splendor with an estate will negatively impact influence with other estates. This is just a quick overview of our intentions. More on that later! 

Victory conditions

We know several players would love to see endgame content added to Foundation and 1.9 will deliver on that front. Victory conditions are late game objectives you can complete to score rare player celebrations in Foundation—and their own achievements. Pick one or more victory conditions to track and try to complete all the prerequisites…if you dare! 

Narrative

If you’ve been following us on social media, you know we hired a talented narrative designer a couple of weeks ago. Core Game II will be the first occasion to see his work applied to the world of Foundation. What does that mean?

Well…we’re not ready to spill the beans quite yet, but here’s a nugget of information for you: our new narrative events aim to make your experience more open-ended. Since 1.9 redefines our global game progression, we wanted to establish the first step of what we could describe as a “dialogue” between players and Foundation. In that sense, the game will feel a lot more responsive by serving events tailored to your play style.

New onboarding

Core Game II is an opportunity for us to review Foundation’s early game and more precisely its onboarding. Since we’re introducing a lot of new features to the game, it’s important that our tutorials and in-game messaging are on point. We’ve put a lot of effort into explaining our systems and helping players understand the steps they need to take in order to build—and maintain—successful villages. 

And more! Look forward to our new blog series that will delve deeper into upcoming features included in 1.9

The Core Game II (1.9) update is scheduled for release in the first half of 2022.

Looking even further

Apart from the work being done on Core Game II, our team is working in parallel on other important additions that will see the light of day before/at release. Here’s a few of them:

Residential Revamp

We are rehauling the residential experience to make it more fluid and informative while improving the game’s overall organic layout. Villagers will still build and upgrade (up to a 3rd level) houses by themselves but through blood, sweat, and tears, they’ll be better at it than ever!

Gone are the days where unused space could really hinder your village’s development. Improvements to our painting tool will help determine more precisely where districts are formed and ensure residential space (as defined by the player) is sufficient. The tool will be able to predict how many villagers can be housed within a specific zone.

Map Generator

We already gave you a glimpse of our Map Generator. Work on this feature has progressed steadily since then and is already showing promising results. We know this is one of the most anticipated features and we want to make it right, hence why we’re keeping things a bit under wraps for now.

New Terrain Biomes

One way to add more uniqueness to maps is by making sure biomes are different enough from each other. How are we going to do it? Well, for starters, we want to improve vegetation a lot—even going as far as having different vegetation depending on elevation. Think leafy on lower altitudes and coniferous on higher altitudes. What we’re not aiming for is to add tropical or desert biomes, as we feel they don’t quite fit with our design.

Accessibility

We strive to make Foundation more functional, accessible and enjoyable by all types of players. Expect even more accessibility options in the future, including improved colored text contrast and colorblind-friendly signs/feedback.

Modding

We will continue to support the modding community. One way to do so will be by exposing more real-time interactions, but we also plan to let modders edit the user interface (UI), among other things.

Quality of Life (QOL)

Delivering a smooth gameplay experience has always been a top priority for us. On that point, we can say this year will introduce a number of interesting QOL changes, included but not limited to: more tooltips, improved handling of panels and ESC key behavior, new Book shortcuts and UI customization (resize).

We are doing everything in our power to get Foundation our of Early Access before the end of 2022. We will keep you updated as we go.

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News

Patch 1.8.1.4 Is Now Available!

Lords & Ladies, it’s time for a new patch! 

Patch 1.8.1.4 fixes a number of issues that have surfaced lately. Here’s the complete rundown:

Changelog

General

  • Buildings using production recipes had doubled outputs
  • Ressource tracker: simple production buildings had the wrong input icon in certain cases
  • Cows walk animation was missing: they are back to being gracious while moving around!
  • Some mod.io mods were not fully displayed in the “Installed mods” window
  • Even more updated localizations for builders all around the globe!

UI

  • Work assignation dropdown could appear partially out of screen
  • Updated Tavern and Luxury needs descriptions
  • Updated Treasury description
  • Added description for public lounge
  • Restored unlockable button sound
  • Adjusted building description style
  • Adjusted time string readability
  • Adjusted Warehouse and Granary refuse icon color

Crashes

  • Fail to load corrupted saves instead of crashing
  • Avoid crash when unassigning the bailiff’s office part function from the monument while the bailiff mission window was open
  • Avoid crash when a quest instance is not linked to any asset quest anymore (on load of a savegame)
  • Avoid crash when inputting (way) too many characters in any text editor (villager name, monument name, quote, etc…)
  • Avoid crash when logging an error related to wrong building function type on workplace
  • Avoid rare crash while switching job
  • Avoid crash when starting more than one game with certain mods
  • Avoid a bunch of useless logs
  • Avoid crash when closing game during certain loading steps
  • Avoid crash with some usage of resource tracker from mods

Modding

  • Possibility to remove Need type per villager status
  • Expose COMP_AGENT:setProfile()
  • Gatherer can produce multiple resources even if one resource `isFull`
  • Call of parent function for extendable class in Lua
  • Mod components now have last priority (for init, update & enable order). This ensures core game components are ready to be interacted with from mods

As always, we are interested in reading your comments about this new patch. Feel free to come and discuss on Discord with us!

 
by Polymorph Games on Modding Mondays

Modding Mondays Episode 3: Day – Night Cycle

Hello builders and welcome to this third episode of our Modding Mondays series! 

Today we have the pleasure of showing off the very fresh Day – Night Cycle mod from Minotorious. 

If you’ve been hanging around on our Discord, you know just how involved Minotorious is in the community. With more than 10 mods under his belt, we felt like it was time to share one of his own creations here.

Adding even more immersion to Foundation

The Day – Night Cycle mod adds a new and immersive gameplay feature to Foundation. By using a sundial (see below), you’re able to adjust various settings:

  • Turn the sun on or off
  • Set the camera shader
  • Set the shadow direction (default: 12 o’clock direction)
  • Set whether you want dynamic simulation or not
  • Set the dynamic simulation’s speed

The sundial needs to be built like any other building in Foundation. Keep in mind that in order to use the Day – Night cycle mod, you’ll need to install the Foundation Extended Building Functions dependency, also from Minotorious. 

If you’d rather not toy with all these settings, you can instead install the automatic version which does the same thing only, well, without your input!

As is often the case with original creations, the Day – Night Cycle mod happened a bit randomly:

The Day – Night Cycle mod was more of a happy accident than something actually planned. I was checking what objects I could access inside the game that the developers had not exposed to modding yet when at some point I came across the game’s Sun. From that point on I made a little plan on how to implement the Day – Night Cycle and got to work. A few workarounds and 1-2 days later the mod and the little sundial controller started taking shape.

-Minotorious
The Day – Night Cycle mod in action

Empowering modders since day one

From the beginning, we’ve believed in community-driven content for Foundation. In fact, it’s a must for this type of game, as it adds a ton of creativity and replay value. As we’ve said in the past, we want our players to be able to let their creativity free and for them to have a platform with which they can share that creativity with the world. All of that begins with mod support.

That being said, we took the opportunity to ask Minotorious how his experience been like creating mods with Foundation.

With one word, amazing! Foundation is so simple to mod but also has so much depth if someone wishes to create something very new and very custom in it. Polymorph Games and especially Léo and Maxime are always eager to answer questions and help modders bring their projects to life. To be honest, the Day – Night Cycle mod is a prime example of the dev team listening to the modding community and implementing features we asked for. Without them implementing some methods related to attach nodes so quickly the Day – Night Controller wouldn’t have been possible at all!

-Minotorious

Aspiring modders are welcome to join our community at any given time. We have channels dedicated to mod development where members share tips and tricks along the way. Take a look, it’s worth it!

Download the Day – Night Cycle mod now!

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News, Update News

The 1.8.1 Update Is Now Live!

Greetings everyone!

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!

berries-3

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:

IconResource in storage
IconResource in transit
IconResource production input
IconResource production output
IconResource available for consumption
IconResource 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

Modding

  • Expose single-property types
  • Expose COMP_SOLDIER
  • Fix: crash when spawning immigrant with job
  • Update: modding documentation
 
by Polymorph Games on Modding Mondays

Modding Mondays Episode 2: Livestock Farms

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode in our Modding Mondays series. This is our way of highlighting popular, must-see Foundation mods created by the community. 

This week, our focus shifts to Livestock Farms from longtime fan and creator Batyushki.

Foundation is all about creating your own, custom medieval village powered by efficient production lines. In the base game (i.e. the vanilla version) animals act as resource producers in the dairy and sheep farm production buildings. Same goes for fishes in the fisher’s hut. Only horses aren’t bred or hunted for precious resources (phew!).

With his mod, Batyushki expanded upon the idea of farming in Foundation. As per the mod’s official description, it “adds more livestock types and provides the opportunity to raise them intensively or on pastures, with more realistic food and space requirements. You can also fully utilise each animal for meat, milk or wool.”

In this case, Batyushki took an already existing concept and pushed its boundaries, allowing players even more freedom in how they combine farming with their animals. 

Instead of being limited to producing only one specific resource, most animals now produce at least two. Cattle generate meat or milk, whilst sheep yield either meat, milk or wool. This is also true for the newly added goat, which produces meat or milk. However, there’s one exception: the pig only generates meat—but at a faster pace than any other livestock.

Livestock Farms is all about giving you more flexibility to create believable farms in your Foundation village. One way to achieve this is with the rail fencing available from the walls menu. Newly added buildings such as the butcher’s shop, the creamery and the chandlery all synergize very well to deliver a rich, fun experience. 

Livestock Farms is an excellent choice to bring more variety to the game and we can’t recommend it enough!

Download Livestock Farms now!

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News, Update News

Preview Build 1.8.1 is now live on Steam and GOG!

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.

 
by Polymorph Games on Modding Mondays

Modding Mondays Episode 1: Fantasy Decorations

Hello everyone and welcome to our new blog series focusing on popular mods created by the Foundation’s community!

Every Monday, we will share a must-see mod that sets itself apart. In case you didn’t know, Polymorph Games maintains a close relationship with the modding community. This is our way of saying thank you and exhibit some of the most amazing work done by fans.

For our very first episode, we are glad to feature Fantasy Decorations from modder RaisinMuffin.

At its heart, Foundation is a game about organic medieval city building and customization.

The Fantasy Decorations mod goes a long way in enabling even more creativity within your village. It adds well over 30 decoration elements, ranging from weapon racks, gravestones, siege weaponry (see above), weapon targets and furniture to organic elements such as flowers and animals.

The sheer variety of decorations included in this mod is stunning, to say the least.

As if it wasn’t enough, almost every single decoration has height scaling. In other words, you can place them anywhere you want on your map. Some of them can also be snapped together, which enables a number of new variations.

The mod also includes other interesting options, for example the ability to remove grass in three different sized circles, draggable fences or even an Edit mode where you can freely move and delete decorations… even after they’ve been placed!

Fantasy Decorations is an impressive package. It currently sits at #3 of the most downloaded Foundation mods with well over 100,000 downloads. It also has been upgraded to work with the latest version of the game (1.8).

Download the Fantasy Decorations mod

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News

Patch 1.8.0.8 is now available!

The Polymorph Games team is pleased to share the details about Foundation’s newest patch, numbered 1.8.0.8. 

This is a minor patch until the 1.8.1 release planned this December. 

Here are all the changes included in this new version of the game:

Fixes

  • Expose military campaigns for mods
    (EVENT_ACTION_TRIGGER_MILITARY_CAMPAIGN)
  • Possibility that a resource cannot be gathered after changing a villager’s status to unemployed
  • Crash when rendering saves games’ thumbnails with big cities
  • Major hang when using the promotion system while a villager window is already opened, using specific mods

Add

  • Buildings, building functions, jobs and resources introduced in 1.8 are now available to modders

Update

  • Localizations

As always, we’ll be looking forward to your feedback with the release of this new patch. Please join us on Discord to share your thoughts!

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News

The 1.8.0.6.1108 Patch is LIVE!

Hello everyone! 

We have just deployed Foundation’s 1.8.0.6.1108 Patch!

This is a minor patch that aims to fix some of the most common issues encountered since the release of 1.8. 

Here’s what’s included:

Changes

  • CandleWorkshop: Extension now modifies recipe
  • Minor adjustment to the Candle Workshop model
  • Adjust building window to properly show recipe modifiers
  • Wait for a villager to finish his/her work shift before changing jobs

Fixes

  • Building Window refresh when building parts get unlocked
  • Church message tooltip 
  • Performance issue when unemploying a villager
  • Visual issue which doubled the maintenance cost in the preview building window
  • Resource depot causing infinite fuel bug with fuelmonger mod 
  • Building description update when building and part are built at the same time 
  • Top module not showing resources at 0 when loading a game
  • Some work interactive location could become locked after work shift switch
  • Crash on launch on Linux Proton

Modding-specific

  • COMP_WORKPLACE can now be instantiated
  • Fix: Crash when changing a particle emitter system at runtime

We hope you enjoy this patch and as always, we will be waiting for your feedback!

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News, Devlog, Release Notes

1.8 Fall Update is now live!

Consulter la version française de cet article

Greetings beloved builders,

We hope you’ve been enjoying the user interface update we pushed last June. We know you’re eager for even more Foundation content, which is why today should be of particular interest to you as we officially launch the 1.8 Fall Update to shake things up! 

New Buildings For All! 

One of the most widely requested features for Foundation is the addition of new buildings for your settlements. You’ll be glad to know that the team has been hard at work to introduce not one, but two fresh production buildings for the game: the candle workshop and the common wares workshop!

Candle Workshop
Common Wares Workshop

Sharp-eyed players will also notice “Citizen” promoted villagers now have a second “Goods” need under their status. In addition to common clothes, they will now require common wares to be 100% satisfied. Talk about being entitled!

Construction Step Bundles for Added Immersion

While looking at ways to improve Foundation, it became apparent that the construction process for buildings needed work. We’ve asked ourselves how we could create a more logical and immersive experience. Before 1.8, builders would try to complete their tasks and stop if resources were insufficient. Now, they have to gather the required materials to the construction site beforehand. Only then will they be able to start working. 

To go into more details, materials will be brought following the bundles’ order, to complete them as fast as possible. If a bundle is missing a material that is not in inventory, then the transporter will start to bring the resources for the other bundles.

Building parts’ progression can be easily seen by hovering over the construction progress bar

Construction steps allow more flexibility for your city planning with the added benefit to be more in line with what you’d expect from working on buildings. You can start with the foundation of, say, a church, and come back to it later in order to complete work on the next step. This way, you’re never stuck in a rut! 

The Ins and Outs of Stockpiling

One feature we recognized as in need of improved communication relates to stockpiling. 

This feature allows you to prevent villagers from using resources by toggling the stockpiling function on or off in the resource panel. Or, alternatively, directly in the resource list of the Book. Very helpful when looking to complete delivery missions! 

With 1.8, we have improved this communication with a warning when there are missing resources in a workplace due to stockpiling. Additionally, the stockpile icon now shows over resource icons in other panels and windows such as workplace inventories.

New stockpiling presentation within workplaces

Even more QOL changes

Each new update is a chance for us to optimize the overall gameplay experience and refresh our existing systems. The 1.8 update is no exception. Here’s a preview of what’s in store for you the next time you launch Foundation:

  • Added related resources in the villager needs tooltips
  • Added tooltips on information module checkboxes
  • New trader blocked notification
  • Added inventory for all workplaces in condensed view
  • Improved inventory issues feedback
  • Building panels remember collapsed groups of parts
  • Estates layout is now more compact
  • Confirm renaming with Enter key
  • And more!
The new Needs tooltip in all its glory!

Continued support towards the modding scene

Modding is close to our hearts. We enjoy how imaginative some of you are with Foundation. Get your creative juices flowing, because 1.8 introduces custom mandates for bailiffs! You heard that right: thanks to mods, bailiffs are no longer limited to gaining influence or inspecting mineral deposits. We can’t wait to see what you’ll end up with! 

Previously, one of the only ways to contact modders was through the report tool—which proved to be a problem, as it’s not designed for this. Starting with 1.8, we fixed this by adding web links to all mods so it’s easier for you to connect with mod creators. The new link will open a browser where you can comment and get help directly from the mod creator.

Weblinks to Mod.io in Foundation

We also added a dropdown filter for your mods. Rejoice!

Mods dropdown in Foundation 1.8

We are eagerly looking forward to hearing from the community about the 1.8 update for Foundation!

1.8 Changelog

add: Common Wares Workshop
add: Candle Workshop
add: Additional parts can be unlocked for these buildings
add: construction step bundles
add: new tooltips
add: new resource icons
add: workplaces condensed view now displays a combined inventory (condensed view)
add: “trader blocked” notification
add: confirm renaming with Enter
add: collapsed masterpiece parts groups are remembered through all building panels
add: construction bundles topic in the help menu
add: tooltips and localization for building parts “Locate” and “Destroy” buttons

update: community localizations
improve: stockpile communication
improve: storage issues feedback
improve: hyperlinks style
improve: buttons (red/disabled/small)
improve: compacted estates layout
improve: now communicates max instance of a part
improve: dynamically update when unlocking building parts

fix: wooden keep doors
fix: info module buttons

Modding

add: custom mandates for bailiffs
add: debugging tools
add: weblinks to mod.io
add: mods dropdown sorting
add: expose wax resource

improve: minimized text cutoff in mod buttons that were too short

Modding Wiki

Modding documentation and changes can be found over on the modding wiki.

– The Polymorph Games Team

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