Big update 6 : The Sommelier (v1.2) is coming on the 28th of October!

Hi everyone,

We have some big news to share today! I’ll be showcasing some of the new content and features coming in the next big update: The Sommelier! Without further ado, let’s get started!

French translation

So the first thing I want to talk about today is one of the biggest projects we’ve worked on in the game: translating it into French. Along with choosing your temperature unit in the settings, you can now change the language. Translating the game was not an easy task, since there’s a lot of text everywhere. Moreover, sentences in French tend to be a bit longer, which made some translations and UI adjustments challenging.

Winemaker scenario

Along with the French translation, we could not resist adding a new scenario which tasks you with producing the best wine in the world! To do so, you need to find an optimal value for each of the options. Each time you restart the scenario, the ground humidity and ground type will change, forcing you to think and search a solution with what you have.

Steam post imageAs you can see, there are several options you can choose from:

• Grape variety

• Target humidity

• Aging method

• Aging duration

• Bottle type

• Wine type

It is like a puzzle where you must find the optimal values depending on the soil and the choices you’ve made. For example, Sauvignon Blanc is a grape variety typically used for making white wine, so it will produce a higher-quality white wine than red wine.

But don’t worry if you’re not very familiar with winemaking, there is an upgrade that gives you hints about what works well and what doesn’t. Below, you can see an example of one of the upgrades available in the building (out of a total of seven!).

Once you’ve finished producing the wine, this menu (see image below) will appear and display its quality. Depending on the quality, you will earn more or less money. Here, you can see the hint indicating that Sauvignon Blanc produces good white wine.

We also worked really hard on the map’s decor, it features a medieval castle (which we’ll let you discover for yourself) and a charming French rural village:

Reworked and improved progression

We received some feedback about the overall game progression: the Telegraph didn’t feel very useful, as it became available too late in the game. The late game also lacked excitement, with only a few upgrades available, while the Sawmill and Fishing Dock felt too powerful. Additionally, it was sometimes difficult to gather enough Knowledge to progress through the technology tree.

So, we got to work and reworked many aspects of the game. Here is the new technology tree: Steam post imageAs you can see, we’ve moved the Telegraph to be available much earlier. It now only requires the Basic Construction technology in order to unlock Baudot.

We also replaced the Wires technology with Modernization, a late-game technology that improves your port.

Finally, we added a new technology called Preservation. Once researched, you can build an Exhibition, which allows you to gain either daily Morale or daily Knowledge. The amount produced depends on the number of artifacts you own, while the cost scales with that number but has a minimum base cost. We hope this will help players obtain the Knowledge they’ve been missing.Steam post image

To address the balance issues with the Sawmill and Fishing Dock, we increased their wages to make them less overpowered. However, to counterbalance this change, we added a new upgrade that reduces wages, so in the late game their overall balance remains similar to before.

That’s three out of four problems solved! For the last one, we added several new upgrades, mostly aimed at the late game:

• Electrification: increase Morale

• Fountain pen: removes ink stains in inspection menu

• Auto report: Automatically fill the inspection report

• Dog training: Tell the player if insects are present on the ship when inspecting it

By the end of the game, inspecting a ship becomes almost an automated process, which feels like a satisfying late-game reward/progression.

Finally, we added a new building (not available in all scenarios): the Lighthouse. It increases ship speed and frequency, and also boosts the appearance rate of Floating Objects. However, floating objects can now be infected, so now you need to pay attention to any signs like myth holes or nests. On maps where the Lighthouse isn’t available, floating objects will be less infected, since you won’t be able to reduce infection through upgrades.

To sum up, we added 2 new technologies, one new building and 11 new upgrades.

Ship generation rework

We reworked our ship generator to allow for greater diversity when creating ships. Deckhouses and engines will no longer always appear in the same spots, and there are now more areas where decorative details like plants and objects can be placed.

Insects will also have many more possible spawning locations, making inspections more engaging and varied.

In addition, we’ve added a new boat type (see below) and several new ship parts.

The small things

We also have reworked the decor of all scenarios to make them feel more unique and engaging. We let you discover these changes by yourself as we already talked a lot!

A non-exhaustive list of small things we added or changed:

• AddedQolAdded an option to skip monthly pop changes and car broke down event

• Qol: Show the selling price in the Car/Horse cart menu

• Qol: In hiring menu, hovering a building explains what will do an employee in that building

• Qol: Pause at anytime option before starting a scenario

• Qol: Scenarios can now be continued after success

• Qol: Events choices are deactivated for a few moments when event appears on-screen

• New content: Can have female workers

• New content: Ship names, number and flags

• New content: A few events

• Bal: Fish Factory recipes use Scraps instead of Goods

• AddedBalAdded one more house in Sandbox

• Bal: Easier Peaceful city scenario

• Bal: Horse cart is a bit slower

• Bal: When low on People, player get a small Morale bonus

We also fixed a lot of bugs which I won't detail here, except that there were lots of problems with temperature units.

So that's it for today,

Thanks for reading and have a great day!