Rise of the Settlement – Dev Diary Community Update #21

Greetings, Settlers 🏛️

Happy Easter!

Today I want to share details about version 0.0.11, focused mainly around one of the most important systems for the future economy of the settlement: Caravans.

This update introduces a new layer of logistics, trade and long-term progression by allowing your settlement to export excess goods.

Caravans

Caravans are unlocked after the settlement gains access to Coins and researches a dedicated technology node: Merchant Caravans.

The main purpose of caravans is to sell excess resources that your settlement no longer needs, helping you accumulate Coins and reduce the pressure on Settlement Wealth.

For now, caravans are created and operate for free, continuously as long as there are goods available to transport.

Caravans can level up from Level 1 to Level 30. With every level, they gain additional Cargo Capacity and Speed, making them more efficient over time.

If resource weight did not matter much before, it does now. Every resource now has a Weight value, and caravan loading is fully based on the total weight of the transported goods.

Caravans also prioritize their cargo based on the weekly needs of each trader, making exports smarter and more profitable.

Traders

With this release, traders become actual characters that belong to different communities, have different needs and are located at different distances from your settlement.

The Trade Agreement system remains unchanged from the Barter system. However, resources that have a Trade Agreement can now also be exported for Coins through caravans.

Each trader now has their own distance from the settlement and individual weekly needs.

Export Rules

For each trader, based on the list of resources that have a Trade Agreement, you can now define stock rules that determine how many goods should remain inside the settlement before exports begin.

This means you can protect your local supply while still allowing caravans to sell the surplus.

Each trader also has a list of weekly needs. Traders will pay 10% more for those resources during that week.

With this system, the debt of Settlement Wealth Coins can now be limited through exports and caravans, although it is not fully solved yet.

At the moment, the economy is still intentionally difficult and requires time to stabilize. Like any real economy, reaching a profitable and sustainable settlement takes time, planning and adaptation.

Improvements and fixes

• Iron Ingot production was incorrectly using Copper Lumps instead of Iron Lumps

• Add Worker button is now always focused in Building Details

• Edit Work Distribution button can no longer be used until at least 2 productions are active

• Improved saving game performance

• Improved end-of-day game performance by decoupling UI updates from backend processing

• Improved game prformance by decoupling UI Chronicle events from backend processing

• Improved load game flow with by adding loading messages to create a smoother experience

• Adjusted the Drying hut prodution

Final Note

Because of the large internal changes related to Traders, Caravans and Resource Weight, l oading savegames from older versions will no longer be possible.

Work on caravans has only just begun. This release is only the first step, and the system will continue to evolve in future updates.

Without spoiling too much, the next release will introduce even more caravan-related features and details.

As always — thank you for supporting the journey.

Your feedback shapes every update.

🎮 Join our community: 👉 Discord Server

See you in the settlement. — Luki