The Minerals & Craftmanship Update will be released on Tuesday, July 14
The 1.6 preview build has now been thoroughly tested and the additional content is coming together. All this means we can today announce the release date for the upcoming Early Access 1.6 update.
Announcing a New Addition: The Masterpieces
In addition to the content previously announced we have also been working on a new feature coming in the 1.6 update… Masterpieces!
Masterpieces are unique sets of parts that will become available via inspirational events that will occur during gameplay. Once obtained the masterpiece parts set will be available to incorporate into any monument, transforming it into a unique monument.
Each Masterpiece can only be built once and will make full use of the new minerals and crafting stations now available.
There will be a total of 9 Masterpieces for you to discover and build in the 1.6 update release. All 9 Masterpieces will come with their own exclusive effects such as the work in progress, Shrine Masterpiece pictured below.
Pilgrims visiting the Shrine
The Shrine will be unlocked via a miracle event and once built will become a place of pilgrimage for people far and wide and will come with the added effect of increasing immigration to your settlement.
New Achievements
To complement the new Masterpieces, each one will unlock a related Steam achievement. This will take the take number of achievements available in the game to 21.
New Animations
As well as all the new content coming in the new update we have also been working to increase the immersion. The 1.6 update will additionally come with new workstation animations to bring the new buildings and content to life.
The Jeweller checking the quality of her workA builder scrutinizing new plansA new statue takes shape
Finally…
If you hadn’t already seen the previously news, here is a brief summary of what you can expect in the Minerals & Craftmanship Update, coming on July 14!
New feature: Masterpieces
New discoverable mineral resources
Bailiff Mandates (Including prospecting for minerals)
Just in time for the weekend, the Minerals and Craftmanship Preview Update 1.6.0.0522 is now Live!
We are looking to gather focused information and feedback on the new content. Therefore, for testing purposes, only the Valley map is available to play in the preview build. To get the full experience of the preview build we have also limited the save files on the preview build so you will need to start a new game that you will then be able to save and load as normal in the Preview.
Note: Custom maps are still available however these will not currently contain the resource nodes that are part of the update.
Mods will also require updating by the mod creators and modding community and will not be immediately playable.
Let us know what you think…
We hope you enjoy the Preview and we would love to hear what you think.
If you would like to send in your feedback you can do so via this feedback form.
You are, of course, also welcome to discuss the game and report bugs as usual on the Steam discussions forums or join us on our Discord server.
Thank you in advance and we look forward to hearing from you and reading your feedback!
Changelog
We have a bunch of new features and content included in this preview build of the upcoming update. You can find a changelog below and more detailed information on some of the new content can be found in our previous announcement here.
Gameplay
New features
New minerals sources that can be prospected and extracted
New production chains related to minerals
Buildings can now have multiple placeable parts
Builder now has his workshop
Builder’s workshop can be extended with crafting extensions
New unlockable builder’s workshop parts
New crafting feature: craft sculpture, stainedglass and jewels (not all available yet)
Bailiff can have mandates assigned like prospecting minerals and influencing estates
New notification panel
Pathing can now go through buildings that have multiple entrances
New customizable fountain
Improvements
Parts that are built instantaneously activate its function, thus, no need for an entire monument to be built before it becomes usable
Church capacity is now considering multiple cores
Gold has been separated in two new resources: Gold Coins and Gold Bars
Improved performance when editing a monument
Transporters will now carry materials to construction sites
New uniformized build flow between buildings and monuments
Art
Buildings
Builder’s workshop and artisan extensions: sculpture, stainedglass, jewelry (not all available yet)
New mineral sources and quarries installations
New Glass Smelter
New Gold Smelter
New customizable fountain, stainedglass
Characters and animations
New miner’s job outfit and animations
New Glass Smelter & Gold Smelter animations
Environment
New grass texture
New cliff texture
Modding
Add mods hot-reload with Ctrl+Shift+R
Add creation of new asset and data types, and extending existing asset, component and data types
Add creation of behavior trees and custom behavior tree nodes
If you would like to take a look at the Minerals and Craftmanship Preview build you can switch over to it via the Steam Betas in your Foundation properties.
Choose Foundation (Steam Library)
Click Manage (Cog)
Click Properties
Click Betas (tab)
In the “Select the beta” dropdown choose Preview
(If you don’t see the preview option restart Steam)
Preview build access instructions (GOG)
If you want to take a look at the Minerals and Craftmanship Preview build you can switch over to it via the GOG Betas in your Foundation configuration details.
We are excited to announce that we will soon be bringing you a new update, that we have named, the Minerals and Craftmanship Update!
The update is nearly ready and the full release will come in a few weeks but in the meantime, those of you eager to take an early look will be able to test some of the new features, in an upcoming Preview build!
More news on the preview build and how to gain access will be coming in the next few days.
Please note: Though custom maps are still available, we are looking to gather focused information and feedback on the new content. Therefore, for testing purposes, the preview build is focused on the Valley map.
If you would like to help out and share your feedback with us, then firstly, thank you! All feedback is very important and useful to us and in the development of the game.
Please let us know what you think of the preview build via this feedback form.
Minerals and Craftmanship Update: preview build 1.6.0
We are bringing a multitude of changes and improvements in this update and you can check out some of the highlights that will be playable in the Preview Build, below.
Discoverable resources
One of the biggest and most exciting new features coming with the update are discoverable resources that will need to be prospected to know what kind of mineral they contain. Once prospected, you will be able to build a quarry over the mineral source to extract it. Some of these resources will be common and found in multiple nodes however some will contain more rare minerals.
New buildings capabilities
Prior to this update, there were two building types: single buildings and monuments. In this update, they now all have the same capabilities. This means a single building could have parts added to extend its functionalities. The first single building to exploit this new feature is a new one: The Builder’s Workshop.
At last, builders now have their own workplace! This building will be extendable to add new artisan workshops with crafting capabilities, like the scultpure or stainedglass workshop.
Artisan workshops
Parts that need more detailed, artistic work, like stained glass and sculptures will need to be first crafted in artisan workshops from the extended Builder’s Workshop. These artisan workshops will take advantage of the new resources that will be available to you in the discoverable resource nodes and the workshops themselves will allow you to create all new unique parts and Masterpieces for your village.
Masterpieces
Masterpieces are outstanding pieces of art that need to be crafted by artisans and that will provide a lot of splendor. More details on this soon…
New production chains
The workshops are going to require processed materials that will form part of new production chains. One such discoverable resource you will be able to find is gold ore which will require smelting into gold bars via a Goldsmelter before being used in your artisan workshop
An improved role for the Bailiff: The Bailiff Mandates
The bailiff will be introduced earlier into the game than previously and, for a cost, will be able to accomplish mandates for his lord. Among other things, he will be able to prospect for minerals and study blueprints.
Path inside buildings
One feature we have wanted to push for a while is the capabilities for villagers to use doors that communicate with one another. As such, villagers are now able to path through buildings by entering a door and going out from another. For example, Monks will be able to path through enclosed Cloisters, or villagers will be able to access enclosed courtyards via an inner courtyard entrance/exit but only through buildings that they are allowed to based on certain rules.
Multiple gameplay and feedback improvements
The Minerals and Craftmanship Update is a good time to consolidate on the work so far in the game and as such you will find many Quality of Life improvements some of which you will be able to see in the preview build.
There is now a new notification panel that will make it easier to track quests and keep an eye on issues in your village.
As noted above there are new building capabilities. To keep things consistent, all buildings will be placed and built in similar building workflow fashion to monuments. i.e. Placing a building will require that you also choose to start construction. You can still use shift + click to place multiple buildings which will bypass the requirement to click “start construction”.
We have also introduced another new change to the way you create monuments. You will first need to place a building marker before placing any parts to a monument. This building marker can then be moved and in doing so will allow you to move your whole blueprint before final placement and construction.
Grass has seen improvements in this update with a greater variety to shades and depth giving a more realistic look to grasslands.
Other improvements include cleaning up placeholder text, {img1} as well as new sounds and new animations.
New modding features
The new update will bring some huge features for the modding community which will allow modders much more freedom to create new assets, behaviours and also make changes and extend vanilla components and functions.
The preview build will include the ability to create custom behaviour trees and nodes. This will enable modders to use both our existing nodes as well as define their own nodes when creating new behaviours for villagers.
Custom assets, as well as custom structures, will now be available for use by modders. This means that modders will no longer be confined to using our asset types and can now define their own. Complex data related to these assets and components can then be stored in custom structures.
All of these additions and changes will allow much more flexibility for modding. As an added bonus we will also be opening up our own core components to allow some engine and game structures to be extended. This will allow, for example, new bridge building functions or workplace building functions to be assigned to core components.
Can you imagine the potential horrors, such as an “Antenna farm” mod?!
You will be able to see all the new modding changes in the release notes and changelog here, on release of the preview build.
More to come
Although the preview build is already jam-packed full of new content and improvements we will continue to add more as we work toward the full update release.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more information on the Preview build release coming soon.
… but first we would like to take this opportunity to thank every single one of you!
We have recently surpassed 200,000 sales of Foundation and thanks to all of your support and feedback we are able to realize the game of our dreams, and hopefully yours too.
From the whole team… Thank you!
The December Update
As you can probably tell from the title we are planning to release the next update before the end of the year. We will bring you more news and more details on the update once we are closer to release but in the meantime here are some of the things that will be making it into the next content update:
Villagers will move house when too far from their workplace. The lord will also have the authority to force them to move.
Jobs will be directly linked with villager status where you as the Lord will have more control over status promotion.
Improved military system with stats, levels, and equipment.
New production chain with two new buildings; The Hop farm & the Brewery.
New buildings parts and function for the Wooden Keep.
New Character visuals including new job outfits.
New weather visuals.
New sounds including workplace animation SFX as well as UI SFX.
New modding capabilities: Custom components and behavior trees .
The changes to job roles and villager status will be major and due to this, we are planning to release a preview build in order to test and gather player feedback on the new feature. Keep an eye out for further announcements on the preview build release.
We have even more planned for the December Content update and we will bring you more information soon.
And finally…
We are excited to announce our attendance at MEGA & MIGS 2019 this coming weekend!
If you are in and around Montreal this weekend then you can check out more here.
We look forward to seeing you there! -The Polymorph Games Team
