We hear you like to know what’s happening behind the scenes at our studio. So, as an early Christmas gift - on top of our largest discount so far, going live later today - we’d like to give you a sneak peek of some of the features coming to the game with Timberborn Update 7. Today, we’re proud to reveal the 3D terrain and the new transportation method, the Tubeways.
Please remember that what you’re about to see is still an early work in progress and only a part of the new content we’re working on. That means things will be added and changed before and after Update 7 goes live on the experimental branch.
The terrain also goes 3D
Thanks to your overwhelmingly positive reaction to 3D water physics, we follow up with a truly three-dimensional terrain. “Wasn’t the terrain always 3D?”, you may ask. Well, yes and no. While the in-game terrain has always been made of the little 3D cubes, they could only be placed one atop another. This applied to both the map creation in the editor and the in-game terraforming. With Update 7, terrain blocks go on all Solid surfaces - natural and beaver-made overhangs, platforms, and building roofs.
In Update 7, your builders can place terrain blocks on all Solid surfaces. So efficient!
This change gives you much more flexibility in reshaping maps and choosing where to grow your fields and forests. You will finally be able to cultivate crops on top of lodges and warehouses. You could create extra-compact hanging gardens where plants grow on multiple levels. And if the underwater cities of Update 6 were not enough, you might hide your beavers’ settlement in an artificial cave, with a river irrigating its green dome.
Work progresses on what will eventually become an underground shelter. Image courtesy of Beaver-tec.
When placed on beaver-made objects, the new terrain blocks act like regular terrain, transferring irrigation and contamination. And just like before, to put them up, you need to spin up your Dirt Excavators to gather Dirt. Then, you send in your building crews.
According to Ma' Ngonel, compact hanging gardens will revolutionize the farming industry. "I don't like that", she says.
We are looking into other possibilities the 3D terrain opens up. As long as it doesn’t break the game, we want to give you as much building freedom as possible.
Get into the Tubeway
What if there was a way to make long-distance travel far more effective for your beavers? In Update 7, there is. Your population will soon be able to cover the map with a modular network consisting of Tubeways and Tubeway Stations. Like in modern transport, you must decide where you want your Stations (the network’s end-points) to be. Then, you connect them with Tubeways. Beavers and bots treat them just like paths, but moving through them is much faster. Extra benefits include being water-sealed - even submerged in badwater, Tubeways ensure your beavers travel safely.
Beavers and bots go in, beavers and bots emerge. Wait, where's the guy with the log?
Tubeways are adaptive instead of using fixed shapes. If you attach a new line to an existing line, you don’t need to demolish an old module first and break pathing. Instead, the connected module simply becomes T-shaped.
Your beavers will quickly learn how to find the way home during late-night commutes, right?
In addition to the regular modules, there are also Solid Tubeways. By stacking them, you can make the routes go straight up and even cross vertically. You could also place some buildings directly over the line… or maybe even use the new 3D terrain to turn parts of the route into a subway!
There's more than one way to connect... a Tubeway.
Similarly to 3D terrain, the “better transport” feature is a work in progress. Most notably, we’re still exploring if and how we could make the feature more distinct between the two factions.
When can I play this?
As usual, we won’t share any dates until we feel the new features are ready for public testing. Keep an eye on the Steam page and our socials (including BlueSky) to be the first to know when Update 7 goes live on the experimental branch!
In the meantime, remember to participate in Build-A-Map Contest 4! You still have time - until December 29 - to submit your custom map. Three 1000 EUR prizes and Timberborn merch await.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1062090/view/4488495635124716402
And finally, from all of us at Mechanistry: we wish you all happy holidays!
