12-08-2016, 06:36 AM
What's the overall theme of 1.7?
There isn't one.
...well maybe "cool stuff" [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/wink.png[/img]/emoticons/wink@2x.png 2x" title=";)" width="20" />
This may seem a bit strange considering we have often updated with a strong theme.
The journey up until Forge Awakens has been a long one. After 1.5 New Frontier, 1.6 was made on 2 strengths: Mining and metal refinement, and simplification of construction chains.
We had a very long beta test cycle and I think we were all worn out by the end.
For a long time we debated about metals, iron in particular. It took a lot of courage to change iron. It always came down to "well yeah but if you had a pickaxe you could never go for a walk and just grab ready smelted iron bars off the ground". And the need to use iron bars to construct buildings, ugh. So what do they do "here's my nice new stone house, excuse me while I just go and push these 5 iron bars into the walls". We couldn't allow that to go on, it felt stupid. "But maybe the iron is used for nails?" yeah, when? glad those times are over.
So, the entire journey leading up to 1.7 has been a long one. I feel we are at our limits as to how far from vanilla we want to push the main <abbr title="Colonial Charter">cc</abbr> download.
It's for this reason that we plan on going modular with future additions after 1.7
So, where does that leave 1.7?
Well, there are many things we've wanted in <abbr title="Colonial Charter">cc</abbr> for a long time. Much of the content being worked on now are modular town improvements, as opposed to giant chains of new products.
I have a feeling of making places feel "lived in", be they hamlet or city.
Think about it. There's no prams for the young or rocking chairs for the old. No kids playgrounds. Where's the life? You know, that feeling that people are more than cogs in a wheel of some production chain.
Some things I'm going to simplify, for example the production of salt. Right now there's a saltworks and a mine, but what about simple rock pools that use natural evaporation? Sure it'll be slow, but it's a method as old as the hills. Should be ideal for low production requirements. That's on a to-do list.
So what I'm saying is that 1.7 will seem fairly plain compared to previous versions. It won't alter your game significantly, but it will give more options for the look and feel of your towns.
