Behind the Horizon News

Behind the Horizon LIVE

On the occasion of the Steam Festival for farming games, I have decided to broadcast some live streams for you, in which I play my game and thus give you a better overall impression of the gameplay.

There will be at least five live stream events in total and each one will be about an hour long. Some will have a bit of commentary, but the main point is to show the game as it is.

Here is the overview of the times (Central Europe Time) and the topic :

Friday 3.5 -> 7 pm Farm life and quests in endgame
Saturday 4.5 -> 8 pm Excursions to the caves and Preview to the Monster Hell (Update June)
Sunday 5.5 -> 7 pm Tutoriial New Game (tutorial) in survival mode with german commentary

You can either watch the broadcast on the game's store page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1453430?beta=0
or in the community area:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1453430/broadcasts/

[h3]Highlights:[/h3]

In this update, 2 alternative farms and starting areas and the survival mode are added to the game.

All three farms play differently and offer a new gaming experience. Ideal for a second or third playthrough. Details below!

Survival mode can be added and changes the gameplay even more. It can only be selected at the start of the game and only works in connection with the "Volcano Farm". This mode is intended for experienced players and is full of challenges. It should be chosen with care.


[h3]Patch notes V3.3[/h3]

Game:

When starting a new game, you can now choose one of three starting areas.

All three play very differently and invite you to play Behind the Horizon again. The new maps cover the entire area around the farm. The following options are available:

- The Standard Farm:
The standard farm offers a balanced landscape with lots of good farmland and enough woodland and water. There are large areas available for stables and pastures. This farm is ideal for a cosy, not too difficult game.

- The river and woodland farm:
Here the farmland is divided by rivers. Bridges lead to the various islands. There are fewer large areas, but more forest and water. The land is more varied overall, but the planning of the farm requires more care and there is less space. There are some fertile areas where farm plants grow right at the beginning that can be harvested and there are also many fruit trees in the forests. An interesting alternative to the standard farm.

- The Volcano Farm:
The Volcano Farm is dominated by rocky areas. There are two dormant volcanoes to the north and south. There is less space and less fertile soil. To compensate, there are more ore and stone deposits. This farm is a real challenge, especially at the beginning, as it prevents rapid growth because the soil has to be upgraded first. A good choice for a second, more challenging game.

- The survival mode:
Survival mode can be activated in connection with the Volcano Farm. There are numerous gameplay changes that greatly alter the game. In survival mode, Behind the Horizon plays like a survival game, especially in the first few years. This should provide a great challenge even for experienced players.

A list of all gameplay changes in survival mode:

1) Inhospitable conditions, poorer soil around the farm and two active volcanoes in the north and south
2) the plantable area around the farm will grow more slowly than usual
3) permanent energy and life essence boni are only half as large
4) using tools and weapons costs more energy
5) Monster portals can control more monsters at the same time
6) Monsters have increased vision
7) The two volcanoes on the farm erupt at irregular intervals and spew lava flows or rocks
8) Storms such as floods, droughts, hail, thunderstorms, etc. cause more changes in the world
9) Positive weather events are less frequent or weaker
10) Buying and selling prices at all traders are increased
11) When harvesting, the player does not get any seeds back
12) There are fewer quarries in the world
13) Extreme weather events can occur immediately after starting the game
14) Trees from the player are as affected by hail and lightning as wild trees
15) Locust and vole infestations occur more frequently
16) There are more locusts and voles in a plague
17) Monsters have increased energy regeneration. This allows them to use their special abilities more often
18) Monsters cause more damage with normal and special attacks (this is independent of the difficulty level set for the battles)
19) The player consumes more food per hour
20) More floods can occur one after another, which can lead to larger inundations
21) Farm animals are less frequently reproducing
22) Reduced frequency of gifts from NPCs

In addition to the new starting areas, the old farm has also been improved in many places.

In the "Start new game" menu you can now also select the difficulty of the battles. This can still be changed in the settings menu during the game.

The cutscene when you first enter the farm has been redesigned to fit all three farms.

An error in a quest description in an early quest of the main game has been corrected.

The damage to trees during a hailstorm has been reduced

All small iron deposits can now be mined with the copper pickaxe

The recipe for the anvil has been changed slightly so that you can build the forge without having to buy an iron pickaxe first

Lowered some damage values for certain weapons to improve balance


Manual:

New section: Update V3.xx: All changes to the game after the release of the 2nd DLC, the Sky Fortress, are summarised here.

Updated the manual to the latest version

Bugs:

When starting a new game, the temperature and light values of the last few days were not set correctly. This has been fixed.

Fixed a bug on the starting map that could cause the player to be unable to reach the teleporter during a flood.

This update integrates the first four seasonal events into the game. I have greatly expanded the scripting language for cutscenes so that interaction within cutscenes is now possible.
The first 4 seasons events are 4 auctions that take place once per season, each with a different theme. Different items are offered in the auctions each year and I hope that you will have a lot of fun bidding skilfully in the auctions and getting good prices.
There will be more new events in future updates that make use of the new possibilities.


[h3]Patch Notes V3.2[/h3]

Game:
- Introduction of the first 4 seasons events. Contact persons for the quests are Tiffany, Alfred, Marco and Nira. The new introductory quests are available early in the main game. Further information on auctions can be found in the in-game guide in the "Trade" section.

- Monster training portals in the Star Forge have been made even more indestructible.


Bugs:

- Fixed a rare bug that can occur in old savegames , causing Star Forge training portals to stop working.

- The English translation of some items from the DLC The Desert was mixed up and has been corrected.

- Minor errors with some German item names have been fixed.


Ingame Manual:

- Added section about auctions (Trade section).

- Added section about the new info window when placing plants (section Plants).

- Various explanations in the sections Clues and Plants and Nature simulation updated.

[h3]Nature simulation[/h3]

For a better understanding of the nature simulation and the interrelationships in farming, I have integrated some changes and a new window into the game.

The new window opens automatically when you are about to plant seeds or plants in the ground and displays the values of the soil and plants and the local climate in detail and graphically. The game analyses this information and points out possible problems (for example: wrong soil, too few nutrients, temperatures too high, etc.).

An exclamation mark means that it is not advisable to plant this plant here at this time. A question mark indicates possible difficulties (such as a longer growth phase and stagnation over a few days). A cross indicates that the conditions are completely impossible and a green check mark means that everything is fine.

You can usually rely on this assessment. If you want to know more, you can get detailed information about the temperature and light of the last few days on the right-hand side of the window. You can also see what nutrients and water the plant currently needs to continue growing (please note that several plants in the same field add up their requirements). For temperature and light, the plant's comfort zone is shown as a green bar.

Of course, you can also plant a plant if the conditions are not right. As before, the exception is the soil, which must always be suitable.

In addition, the amount of experience the soil has already gained is also displayed. This was previously only visible in the farm overview (CTRL/Control).
The exact germination period for the seed, which also depends on the soil type, is also displayed, as is the minimum growth period of the plant.

If you have already read the relevant book on the plant or tree species, you will be rewarded with further information on the flowering time, the possible soil types and the growth period. This information can also be found on the seed packets.


[h3]Feeling plants skill[/h3]


I have removed the large speech bubble that was previously used for the "Feel plants" skill and instead the window with the detailed information is displayed. There are some additional details, such as how long the plant can tolerate the deficiency. If a tree and a farm plant grow together on a field, the tree is displayed on the right and the farm plants on the left.

If you also want to find out about self-planted ground cover plants, you also have to press the ALT key and then open the window as usual with the right mouse button. Since you rarely need this data in the game, I think this is a good way to further simplify operation (previously there were 3 regions on each field to be able to "address" the plants individually). In addition, it was rather annoying to always get the info mouse pointer on the pastures that you have planted with grass when you wanted to deal with the animals ;-) !


[h3]Game:[/h3]


Trees now provide half the shade for the field when they are not yet fully grown.


The plant feeling skill can now also be used on planted seeds. The remaining germination time is always displayed.


The player's awareness requirements have been reduced in order to learn Sophie's Sense Plants skill.


In spring, the snow cover now melts faster or slower depending on the temperature and weather.


The plant overview (automatically displayed after the farm overview is shown) no longer uses the current values for heat and light, but instead displays the current deficiencies (from the previous day). The reason for this is that the display in the plant info window and the overview should match. During the day, the temperature and light can fluctuate greatly due to different weather conditions. It is therefore clearer to use the values from the previous day.


[h3]Tutorial[/h3]


I decided to use the window in full even in the tutorial, although you don't have the skills to analyse water and nutrients precisely at the very beginning. However, I think it is important to understand how farming works in the game right from the start. This may save some people a lot of frustration :-) ! The Plant Feeling skill still has to be learnt in-game.



[h3]Remark:[/h3]


The average values of the last few days in the new plant info window are set to the current climate values at the first start after the update. A progression therefore only develops after a few days.

[h3]Remark:[/h3]

In this update I've addressed a lot of small bugs and details that have piled up on my notes during my playthrough. Except for one bug, everything is not game-blocking and I can say that everything worked fine during my complete playthrough (main game + both DLCs). If you notice any bugs, please let me know in the community forum :-) !
In the next update I will once again try to improve the clarity of farming, as I still see that many players take a long time to understand the simulation on which the game is based. The plan is to show the important data summarised graphically at central points during the game. Of course, farming will never be as simple as in most other farming games, but it shouldn't be. Let yourself be surprised :-) !


[h3]Patch notes 3.07[/h3]


Game:

Farm animals are now more intelligent in their search for water and automatically avoid salty sea water. They also prefer the water troughs placed by the player if they are in sight.
After some consideration, I have decided to reintegrate the option of caging large animals and pets. This is a bit unrealistic in the case of a full-grown cow, but let´s not forget it's a game ;-) ! In the case of pets, a note is also displayed that the animal must be re-tamed and possibly re-enchanted after being released again.

Unfortunately, there was no other way of doing this with the existing system. I don't think it would be worth changing the system for this one reason. In any case, this change means that you can sell all the animals that you have in excess so that you don't have to choose between killing your animals or spending the whole day feeding them ;-) !

During a cutscene in the sky fortress, the player is now placed in a new position so that the action feels more coherent.

During the day, the game now analyses exactly what is growing on each soil field every hour and will show which plants or trees are still suffering from a lack of water in the overview (CTRL/Control on the keyboard) when it rains, or whether the remaining amount of water in the soil is sufficient for the respective plants and trees on the field to grow. This does not take into account any magic water crystals or water channels that may be in place, as these release their water into the soil at night.

Fixed small logic errors in various places in the dialogues

In the intro of the DLC The Sky Fortress the picnic in the forest was forgotten :-) !
Fixed an umlaut error in one of Willi's speech bubbles

Wood's quest for more squirrels was not ended when handing in the materials. This has been fixed.
The purple mushroom could not grow on stone soil because it needed too much water. This has been fixed.

The display of the mature purple mushroom was incorrect. A seed was displayed instead. This has been fixed.

Melinda mistakenly had pots of purple mushrooms in her assortment, even though she doesn't know them (questline).

Maurice questlines from the DLC The Desert are now finished at the start of the DLC The Sky Fortress and the dialogues are skipped.

After the conversation with Liam in Sandheim, the quest hint regarding the magic mushroom spores is now deleted, as Liam no longer offers magic mushroom spores.

Voles and locusts will now appear in more locations in the world at the same time during a plague.
Dandelions should not be able to grow in pond water. This has been fixed.

The lupine had too strong an urge to reproduce, which has now been curbed.

A player chest has been added to the southern island in the DLC The Sky Fortress.


Starting map (these changes are only available in a new game):

In the DLC The Sky Fortress, a few ground fields in houses have been changed.

In the DLC The Sky Fortress, a small area of the southern fertile forest island has also been freed from the desert climate.

In the Sky Fortress DLC, an area around the NPC Drystan has been created on the northern island where no trees can grow so that he always remains visible.

In the Sky Fortress DLC, a few keys have been replaced due to poor visibility on the ground.
Some blocked passages in the southern fortress of the DLC The Sky Fortress were passable from the side. This has been fixed

A potion has been removed from a cave in The Sky Fortress DLC.

Some stables had a strip of rock on the side that was copied during construction. This has been removed.


Bugs:

A bug in a dialogue script of the Sky Fortress DLC could block the main storyline under certain circumstances. This has been fixed.

Battle companions could freeze in motion under certain conditions and were then useless until they were addressed or, in the case of the Dino, summoned again. This should be fixed.

Fixed a bug in the dialogues that caused Drystan to continue swapping with the player after the end of the Desert DLC.

Fixed a bug that caused the game to forget that Eleyne and Nira were already placed in Sandheim. This meant that you could not buy the incredible stables and the lion cub from Nira or Eleyne.

Lava was not cooled by frost crystals as intended in some cases. This now works as meant.

In the Sky Fortress DLC, an event trigger was "slipping" and you could unintentionally trigger it by walking close to the wall. This has been fixed (requires restarting the DLC)

The spell "Ice Mine" did physical damage in addition to ice damage, which was not intended. Now the spell only does ice damage.