It's me Lukas and I’m excited to delve into the biome features that are in the works for our Early Access release. Our aim is not only to offer visual diversity across biomes, but also to enrich gameplay by introducing unique challenges and interactive environments.
The three starting Early Access biomes are:
1. Grassland
2. Desert
3. Swamp
Each biome is designed to offer more than just eye candy, they integrate unique natural obstacles or events that compel you to adapt your gameplay strategies.
Grassland - Navigate Through Storms
In the Grassland biome, prepare yourself for heavy storms, accompanied by rain, fog, and lightning. These weather conditions are random and will sporadically occur as you progress through the map.
- Lightning Strikes: Not only do these add a visual spectacle, but they can also be dangerous for your city. Lightning can strike randomly across the map, causing damage to whatever it hits.
- Spread of Fire: To make things more challenging, lightning strikes can ignite fires. These fires will spread and last for a certain duration, posing a risk to both units and structures in their path. Fire damage is currently mild, as there's no fire defense mechanism in place. We plan on evolving fire mechanics in future updates.
More about Fire
Fire will play a larger role in the game. Our plans involve allowing you to use fire as an additional defensive line by igniting a flammable surface, such as oil, just before the undead wave reaches you.
One scene that comes to mind is the famous Battle of Winterfell in Game of Thrones, for those of you who have watched it:
In Darfall, each tile and object has a flammable level, which determines how quickly fire can spread to that tile if there is already a fire nearby. For example, grass tile has a flammable level of 1, while in the desert, it may be just 0.5, preventing the spread of fire on sand.
To recreate a flame wall similar to Game of Thrones, we can introduce buildable flammable oil tiles with a high flammable level, such as 10. Igniting just one of these tiles will rapidly spread the fire to the rest of the connected oil tiles.
Here is a quick preview of some flame wall tests we plan to integrate into the game in the future:
So for now, the only way how the fire can be created is via lightning strikes, as there are still unanswered design questions regarding the fire, particularly how to ignite it and how to combat it when it spreads into your city.
Any ideas will be much appreciated! Feel free to share them on our Discord.
Desert - Survive the Heat Waves
The desert biome has its own environmental obstacle: heatwaves. At any moment, the temperature can soar, affecting your workers' efficiency.
- Adapting to Heat: You can counter the impact of heatwaves by crafting specific building upgrades—a refreshing mug of beer for your workers. This innovative mechanism will negate the adverse effects of the heatwave entirely for that structure.
Swamp - Tread Carefully Through Mud
In the Swamp biome, mud is the primary natural obstacle. Although it doesn't trigger like other events, mud patches are present right from the start.
- Reduced Mobility: These mud patches slow down the movement speed of any unit—friend or foe—that crosses them.
- Counteracting Mud: You can build roads over these patches to eliminate the slowdown effect. Road construction becomes a strategic necessity in this biome.
What's Next?
That sums up the features of our initial three biomes. Post Early Access, expect to see even more biomes, each teeming with its own set of unique features and challenges.
So, stay tuned for more exciting updates from us!
- Lukas
