Card Survival: Tropical Island News

Hello everyone!

It's time for the update.

First a small announcement:

We have been working hard on improving the performance of the android version and making UI improvements that will make the experience on the phone (& pc) more pleasurable. Unfortunately, while we wanted to release the android version over the next few days we believe it's probably going to be better to wait one more update before doing so as we would like to test the new version we've been working on a bit more before releasing it. To those participating in our beta, stay tuned we will soon be updating its version!

On another topic, as stated on our update plan, Card Survival has received a new price increase. The game is now 16.99 dollars and will stay that way right until final release.
We'd like to take this opportunity to give a special thank you to all of you early supporters that have purchased our game until now. :)

That said, let's get to the content:


[h2]New Psychological System:[/h2]

Mental Structure:
This is a new hidden stat that governs how confident you are on your own worldview. A high structure stat makes you see the world as a predictable place you understand the rules of, a low structure on the other hand makes you see it as a chaotic and unpredictable place.
Structure will usually increase on its own while you are busy and relaxed, but intense emotions like euphoria, severe depression and severe stress/anxiety will tend to lower it. Feeling too lonely, not getting enough sleep or talking to Weston too often will of course not be the best for your structure either.
If this stat gets very low it will start causing altered mind states that can sometimes end in what some people would call psychotic breaks. The game currently has two of such episodes (although more will be added later) which can be triggered in different circumstances and have their own unique effects..

Stress:
Characters will now get gradually stressed when under pressure. Having wounds, being hungry, thirsty or having worries of any sort will now impact your stress levels. If you stress gets out of control you will start getting anxiety attacks which will make you waste time, damage your mental structure and demoralise you,
To combat this however, you have many options:
- Doing leisure actions such as swimming, playing the drums, carving wood, making sand castles or just plain relaxing.
- Keeping busy with varied tasks and avoiding doing the same actions too frequently in order to stay fresh and focused.
- Drinking Kava, Wine or the new Jasmine tea as well as eating sugary foods.

Morale Changes:
Morale has been tweaked to work with the new mental structure and stress stats. In addition to this, the effects things have on your morale will change based on how saturated you are of them. Therefore you might get some good entertainment out of playing the drums for 2 hours, but after playing them for 7 hours you won't be getting much out of it.
Depression has also been changed now, you will no longer get the event but instead will get a duration penalty to all actions.

Captain:
There is now an Anti-Weston: the Captain. He is a bad imaginary friend that should probably be avoided by most people, unless you are a masochist. The Captain is a very negative character that will try to get you down, lowering your morale in exchange for his company. There are many new features coming from him and Weston coming in the next few updates too!
By the way, the skeleton that used to be in the cave by the rocks has moved to a new location. :)


[h2]New Woodworking Stuff:[/h2]

The woodworking skill can now unlock a lot more things.
Here are some of those things:

- Shavings: These are now created with a blueprint that produces many at once.

- Wood Carvings: You can now create 5 different figurines out of wood which can serve as collectable decorations that you can use to make your house more comfortable by placing them on shelves. Making wood carvings will sometimes produce failed figurines depending on your skill but will also count as entertainment and be great training for your woodworking skills.

- Shield: You can now craft a wooden shield that lowers the chances of getting wounded by Monitor Lizards, Boars and Spitting Cobras.

- Bow and Arrows: These are now unlocked as part of the woodworking skill progression.

- Drum: You can now craft a drum with which to entertain yourself. Initially you will only be able to practice, but as your skill increases you'll unlock new rhythms with different effects. There are only two rhythms to unlock for now but more will be added in the future. It also doubles as decoration for your home.

- Wooden Bed: A new bed that can be crafted with planks, which includes a proper mattress and a feather pillow!






[h2]House Comfort:[/h2]

A new stat, called comfort, has been added. It only exists when you stay in your mudhut or cave base, and it can be increased by adding decorations or furniture. Comfort helps lower stress and raise morale and is a first step towards the new home ending that will be coming in future updates.
Some of the current things that can increase comfort are:
- Stoves
- Wooden Beds
- Drums
- Decorations such as wood carvings or flower jars when placed on shelves.
Some things will also lower comfort however, such as:
- Rotten remains
- Excrement like Manure or Guano
- Various Animal Carcasses


[h2]Jasmine Flowers:[/h2]

A new plant has been added to the jungle. Its flowers can be harvested and used to make jasmine tea, which has a relaxing effect that can help you sleep and lower your stress. In addition to this, jasmine flowers can also be placed on plastic bottles or clay jars to serve as decorations for your home. Make sure to water them if you want them to last longer.
Of course, Jasmine plants can also be grown on crop plots. :)


[h2]Other New Items:[/h2]

Harpoon:
The Harpoon is a new tool/weapon unlocked through your spearfishing skill. It acts as a fishing spear but can be used in the open seas during your raft journey.

Clay jar:
The clay jar is a new liquid container, it cannot contain much liquid but it has a lid that allows it to keep its contents safe from evaporation, making it a good container for vinegar, oil or other useful liquids.

Plastic Bottle:
Plastic bottles are now a rare find in the rocks. They can be used just like clay jars. Some perks will now make characters start with them.

The Hole:
There is now a new location in the highlands, a hole that can be climbed down into provided you have enough rope with you. There are some nice things inside, just make sure your climbing is high enough or you might get stuck down there with pretty bad company. :)

Fishing Lines:
Fishing Rods can now longer be unlocked by crafting a hook but instead will unlock once your fishing skill gets high enough. In the meantime you'll be able to craft fishing lines: cheaper and simpler fishing tools.


[h2]New Character and Perks:[/h2]

There is now a new experimental character: the survivalist.
While the Islander is still supposed to be the ideal character for newcomers, the survivalist is designed to be a more relaxing character for those who want to approach the game in a more relaxed way.
In addition to this there's a couple new perks:
- Loner: It takes longer for you to feel lonely.
- Supply Trunk: Makes you start the game with a chest full of supplies, including fishing lines and water purification tablets.



[h2]Tweaks:[/h2]

- Fish scraps now taste worse, lowering more morale than before.
- Metal Axes now get more wood from wood cutting actions.
- Coconut Water gives a bit less diarrhoea.
- Goats now drink more water.
- Stone Axe is now made with a blueprint and wood handle can no longer be made in the game.
- Some clay blueprints now take a bit longer to craft.
- Learning is now more efficient if done in short sessions.
- Made it a bit more likely for rain to take place in the first week.
- Aloe Vera no longer needs light to be harvested.
- Scarecrows scare seagulls a bit more.
- Shelfs can now carry a bit more weight.
- Woodshavings can no longer be crafted the old way, as they now come from a blueprint.
- Bows and arrows are now unlocked with woodworking.


[h2]Fixes and Hotfixes for the Update:[/h2]

- Fixed rotten coconut duplicating when cracking it on its last tick and other bugs of the sort
- Fixed a bug with cooking pots and other liquid containers moving to different inventories
- Fixed a bug where liquids would disappear from containers
- Fixed bugs where cards would get stuck being greyed out when quickly dragging things around
- Fixed some issues with clothes' durabilities.
- Made it so that smaller items give less food to the partridge feeder.
- Corrected a text that was appearing when the water filter runs out of water.
- Satiation stat no longer says not hungry while it's been filled.
- Cooked Fish should now give cooked fish scraps when eaten.
- Fish scraps are now less nutritious.
- Fixed an issue with the satchel.
- Fixed an issue with the military belt.
- Fixed an issue with sailing.
- Wine now expires faster.
- Tweaked the amount of woodworking skill gained with some tasks.
- Made sure all wood cutting tasks now increase woodworking skill.
- Fixed a bug where liquid containers stacked in inventories would disappear (for instance several waterskins in a backpack would disappear).
- Fixed a bug where environments that had Claypot Coolers in them would not load properly
- Fixed a bug where weapon options (attack with spear or with bow) would not appear in hunting or animal raid events
- Made the Claypot Cooler work with the new weight system


That's all for now. Hope you enjoy the new update! :)

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all well!
Let's get straight to the content list this time:

[h2]New Weight System:[/h2]

The new weight system is now live.
Its main features are:

Encumbrance:
This stat is now the primary limiting factor determining how many cards you can carry. Slots still exist, but play now only a secondary role, limiting only the amount of different items you can carry in your hands at a time.
Every item in the game now has an encumbrance stat, a mixture between weight and how cumbersome to move around the item is. Exceeding your encumbrance will give you penalties to movement and stamina, making it harder to move between locations while carrying excessive weight.

Hand Changes:
Items can now be stacked in your hands too. This means that light weight items can now be carried in your hands in large amounts without much trouble and that this row is now a lot more practical buffer for the purpose of managing and organising your base row.
Large items, like long sticks, can also be stacked allowing to finally be able to carry more than 6 at a time. Logs can also be carried to other environments now, provided you have the weight.

Inventory Changes:
Cards now also stack in inventories and are limited only by weight, making them a lot more useful for organisational purposes. A chest can now be filled for example, by a few heavy items or lots of smaller items.
Portable inventories can also stack cards and allow you to extend the amount of weight you can carry by neutralising all of part of the weight of their contents.


Don't hesitate to give us feedback about the new system. We believe it works much better than the old one, specially after you get used to it. It is not just more realistic, but also a lot more practical for organising things and carrying them around.
Of course, we will be balancing it considerably over the next few updates to make sure the costs and benefits of inventories and card weights are appropriate. :)


Note on Clay Pot Coolers:
Clay Pot Coolers where a bit of a special case so we have left them with the old system for now to prevent some issues. We will be pushing a hotfix soon however, that should update this inventory to the new system as well.





[h2]Extras Features:[/h2]

Spindle:
A new tool that can be used to spin cord more efficiently than with your hands. It is unlocked automatically once your tailor skill gets high enough and allows you fill it with fiber, which can then be converted into 2 cords or 1 yarn for a single 15 minutes action. It is also able to make 2 cords out of 3 fibers instead of 4, making it an efficient tool in terms of not only time but resources as well.

Woodworking:
In preparation for some upcoming changes, a new woodworking skill has been added.
The skill can Initially be increased by cutting wood or felling large trees but once it's high enough it will start unlocking new blueprints which will also be able to help increase it.
At the moment there are only two blueprints, but many more will be following soon:
- Planks: Which can be crafted from logs and will be used for more advanced constructions and crafts.
- Shelves: A very cheap storage card for the upper row that can only be placed inside Mud Huts.

Vinegar:
Wine will now turn into vinegar when spoiled. This new liquid can now be used as a replacement for rennet so that people can make cheese without needing to have access to a dead baby goat.
Vinegar has no other uses for now but I'm sure that will change over the next few updates.

Credits:
We implemented a first version of the credits section. For now it can only be accessed in the options but we will plan to make it more accessible in future updates.



[h2]Minor Changes:[/h2]

- Edible multi-use items have now been made single use, but are now found in larger quantities.
- Milk can now last longer when stored in a clay pot coolers.
- Hyperthermia now takes considerably longer to kill you.
- Bedroll recipe is now divided into 2 shorter steps.
- Lactating goats can now be carried around.
- Goats now get stressed when there's too much poop in their enclosure. (make sure to keep it clean!)
- Increased the amount of snake grass produced by crop plots so it's a more viable way to feed goats.
- Sugar is no longer made with a blueprint, but simple by cooking sap (similar to how you get salt).
- Lemongrass now takes longer to rot.
- Depression events and sleep will now get interrupted if you're too hot.


[h2]Fixes and Hotfixes for the Update:[/h2]

- Fixed a serious bug that was teleporting containers from enclosure to enclosure.
- Fixed a bug that was causing the bedroll to lose durability over time.
- Fixed issue that would allow you to create ash water in any container.
- Fixed an issue with goat lactation.
- Fixed a bug related to goat kids growth.
- Fixed some issues with goat stress.
- Fixed an issue that was causing feeding troughs to disappear when multiple enclosures existed.
- Fixed a bug that was causing goat kids to turn into adults when killed.
- Fixed a bug that prevented starting fires with mirrors on some cases.
- Fixed a bug that was causing goat hunting events to drop partridges.
- Fixed an issue where excessive heat wouldn't interrupt your depression event.


That is all for now.
See you in the next update! :)

Hello everyone!

It's time for the update. Hope you are all well!

[h2]Android Release:[/h2]
First, we would like to start by telling you that we are going to be releasing Card Survival: Tropical Island on android phones very soon.
Our plan is to first release a beta version so that we can make sure the game is as stable as possible before it becomes available to the public.

Edit: Thank you to all the ones who wrote to participate in the beta! We have all the testers we need for now. We will make an announcement in the future if we see that we need any more. :)

[h2]Patreon:[/h2]
Second, we wanted to let you know that we have created a Patreon account for those of you who can and want to help support us and our games.
We will be adding a Credits screen to the game on the next update and it will include the names of all our patreon supporters as well as the names of other people that have been supportive of us, both in the steam forums and elsewhere. :)

https://www.patreon.com/winterspringgames





[h2]Card Survival Release Plan:[/h2]

Lastly, since Card Survival has been out on Early Access for almost 6 months now, we thought it might be a good idea to share our plans for the future of the game with all of you, so that you can get a better idea of what to expect. Things could change of course, but I think this is as accurate a plan as we will ever get. :)

Update 24 : Weight Systems
This update will be introducing the new weight system which will make transporting and storing things easier and more realistic.

Update 25: Mind Update
This update will introduce new mental systems to deal with morale and loneliness as well as new mental features that will play larger roles the more time you spend on the island.

March 16th - Android Release - Price Increase

Update 26 to 29: Mid/ Late Game & Endings
These updates will focus on adding new content to make the mid and late game sections of the game more meaningful and interesting, including new animals, environments and other features. In addition to this, we will also be implementing the home and secret endings.

Update 30 & 31: Polish and Quality of Life
While we will continue to add new content on these updates, focus will mostly be placed on fixing bugs, making things prettier and polishing existing features. We'll make sure to get the survival guide completely up to date too!

June the 8th - Game leaves Early Access - Final Price Increase

Update 32+: Localization and Extra Content
Once the game is out of early access we will continue releasing updates albeit at a lower pace. These updates will continue adding new content like animals, perks and other features. Localizations will also take place at this stage.


Now, let's get to the new content:


[h2]Goats:[/h2]
Goats can now be found in the highlands. They can be hunted as normal or captured live with trapping pits.
Once captured, goats can be released inside enclosures and kept fed and hydrated either manually or with the help of feeding and watering troughs to better automate the process.

Goats can also be bred if you manage to get both females and males and act as a renewable source of leather, meat and milk.
Milk is a new product that is not only nutritious and hydrating but can also be used to make cheese and butter, which acts as a new alternative for fat.

Goats also have some few extra uses. They can be petted to lower their stress as well as to reduce your own loneliness and are also able to produce manure, which can be used to create crop plots or to fill compost bins.




[h2]Hydration and Temperature Tweaks:[/h2]
Temperature has been tweaked considerably and is now affected by a lot more factors than before.
All in all, the whole system has been tweaked to make you sweat more and increase your rate of hydration loss.

To compensate for this however, it will now take longer to die of dehydration. This means that you will now have to drink more often but death from hydration will be less aggressive.
Here are some of the things that can affect your temperature/sweating rate:

- Clothing: With some clothes being hotter than others.
- Exercise: Getting tired or exhausted will increase your temperature.
- Fires: Burning fires will increase your temperature when indoors, some more than others.
- Season: With the dry season been hotter and the wet season colder.
- Time of the day: Hotter at noon, colder at night.
- Wetness: Being wet lowers your temperature.



[h2]General Tweaks:[/h2]
- Added a loading screen.
- Added a news hub section to the main menu.
- Tweaked hunger stat visibility to make it easier to predict how much you can eat before getting full.
- Trapping Pits now take 2 less hours to rearm.
- Trapping bits now have slightly more chances to catch prey and can also catch prey with no bait, although their chances then are lower.
- You can wash cobra spat on the sea now.
- Sea Krait is now a bit more dangerous.- Diving in the sea no longer shows chances since that was a bit confusing.
- Airplane Truck now has 12 slots.
- Lemongrass can now be harvested without a cutting tool.
- Bows blueprints are now split into 2 shorter steps.
- You can now also sharpen stones with heavy stones.
- Tourniquets can now be dismantled.

[h2]Fixes and Hotfixes for the Update:[/h2]
- Sand Castle can no longer be stored in bags.
- Fixed an issue where storms would sometimes affect the interiors of houses and caves.
- Fixed a bug that allowed you to make gel by cutting aloe vera leaves.
- Fixed a bug involving pinned clay vase stacks.
- Fixed a bug that caused destruction events to have the wrong titles.
- Fixed some boiling water bugs.
- Fixed a jerrycan bug.
- Made it so that you cannot fill alembics with safe fresh water any more.
- Made Solar Still unlock requirements easier.
- Fixed bug that stopped you from equipping some perks.
- Fainting events now give you back pain and count as sleep.
- Solar Still now appears in the camp filter too.
- Fixed an issue where the rain catcher was producing multiple plastic sheets when one attempted to dismantle it.
- Fixed the storm bug again.- Fixed bug that allowed you to place multiple wells everywhere in the island.
- Solar Still now gives stones when dismantled.
- Fixed bug that was causing storms to hit non coastal environments if you travelled at the right time.
- Fixed wrong name for woven basket blueprint.
- Sago and Yam now both have a greater minimum liquid requirement for soaking them in water.
- Puddles now have a greater minimum liquid requirement for extracting mud, and work with salt and toxic water too.
- Added woodcutting sounds to environments that were missing it.

That's all for now.
Until next time!

Hello everyone!

Update time again.
Before we go into the content list, I wanted to remind you that from this update on we will be switching to larger bi-weekly updates. The next update (which will be introducing goats) will be released on the 16th,
Let's start with the new content now:

[h2]Alembic:[/h2]

You can now craft a Clay Alembic that can produce fresh water out of any other type of water, including seawater!
Place it on a campfire, fill it with seawater, place a liquid container in its inventory and wait for it to slowly fill. While the Alembic uses a good amount of fuel to distil water, it is a very good option if you find yourself in a low water scenario with no rain in sight.


[h2]Solar Still:[/h2]

Another emergency water structure that can be crafted using a plastic sheet. Fill it with palm fronds, and the device will capture the water from the leaves and collect it into a container of your choice.
It can only be built on environments that get a lot of sun though, so no jungle, mangroves or wetlands.





[h2]Water Filter:[/h2]

A structure made of mud bricks, stones, charcoal and sand that is capable of filtering unsafe water with minimal work. Just fill it with unsafe water, place a container in its inventory and wait for it to fill over time.


[h2]Well:[/h2]

While it's expensive to build and can only currently be placed in the wetlands it can provide you with a practically illimitable source of (unsafe) water. The well will basically work as a larger version of the self-filling cave puddle that can also be filled with rain and can be perfect for wetland bases or farms.
Note: I had an issue with this card's art so its blueprint is temporarily disabled. We'll push a hotfix tomorrow re-enabling it as soon as we can. ;)


[h2]Urchin and Spider Wounds:[/h2]

These events have finally been updated to use the wound system.
Stepping on urchins will now create a wound that will make it almost impossible to walk until you manually remove the spines and will then behave like a normal wound.
Spider bites are now also a wound that needs to be kept clean and protected.


[h2]Minor Content and Tweaks:[/h2]

- Characters will now sweat more when hot.
- Diarrhoea now takes longer to heal, making surviving on coconuts harder.
- Enclosures are now re-nameable, in preparation for the new animals.
- Life Rafts container bags are now larger and come with more flares.
- Harvesting plastic from Life Rafts now takes longer and requires two steps.
- Islander Perk now makes you start with a gourd bottle filled with water.
- Deadfall trap is now again unlocked by finding heavy stones.
- Filters now deactivate when switching locations to avoid confusing players.
- You can now pin and bookmark liquid containers.


[h2]Fixes and Hotfixes for the Week:[/h2]

- Fixed an issue with the clay pot cooler that was causing it to lose its name when it ran out of water.
- Fixed dying from cold message.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing making soap wet with most methods.
- Tents are now destroyed by storms.
- Fixed an issue that allowed you craft a broken fishing line.
- Partridges now get stressed when not in an enclosure.
- Boiling liquids no longer show a message saying ready in X minutes once they are already boiling.
- Fixed some issues that were causing rafts built in places other than the beach to teleport you to the beach.


That is all for now.
Have a nice couple of week everyone! :)

Hi everyone!

Hope you are all well.
It's time for our update and we'd like to start with an announcement.

Starting from update 23 onwards (the update after the next one) we're going to be switching to bi-weekly updates.
The reason for this is that we feel weekly updates are getting a bit small for us.
As the game continues to increase in complexity, we see ourselves with less and less time to test our new features and find ourselves more and more limited by what we are able to implement in a single week. So after much thinking we've reached the conclusion that it's time to switch to larger and more stable bi-weekly updates.
Here's a preview of what you can expect for the first couple of large updates:

Update 23: Goats
We'll be finally implementing the goats, which can be hunted in the highlands, captured and released in enclosures. You'll be able to breed them and they'll act as a source of leather, meat, and milk (which will open up many new recipes).

Update 24: New Inventory System
This will allow you to stack cards in inventories and your hand row so that you can carry lots of objects in a single slot, as long as everything is within your carrying capacity. This feature will give you a lot more freedom in what you can take with you, allowing you to finally carry more than 6 long sticks at a time, and even a log if you are strong and patient enough.

Now, to the content list!


[h2]Storms:[/h2]

The island can now be hit by powerful storms. This new weather type will have a chance to destroy objects and simple structures in the coastal areas as well as make it harder to travel around the island.
Storms will mostly happen during the rain season but you will also be able to occasionally find them during other times of the year. The extreme rain perk will cause a lot of storms too!
On a related note, moving through coastal environments now takes more time during heavy rain too, not just during storms.




[h2]Performance Improvements:[/h2]

We've work hard on improving performance this week and we believe the game is now in a much better state on that front. There should no longer be any issues with frame rate slowdowns during rainy weather and the whole late-game experience should now be smoother.


[h2]Backpacks and Storage Tweaks:[/h2]

We've added a couple of craftable backpacks to the game. A simpler smaller one that can be made with woven palm fronds and a larger more advanced one that can be made with leather.
In addition to this, we've also increased the storage size of both baskets and sacks.
Moving things across the island and protecting your food from animals should now be easier.



[h2]General Tweaks:[/h2]

- Leaves and roots no longer dry during the rain.
- Sacks and Baskets now have more room.
- You will now no longer be able to perform actions that take a long time if you are seriously or dangerously dehydrated.
- Mice now need more time before they can start raiding your camp.
- Tweaked seagull behaviour so that they are a bit less suicidal.
- Tweaked monitor raid chances.
- Clay Pot Cooler now gets filled in proportion to the amount of liquid spent.
- Wounds now get cleaned in proportion to the amount of liquid spent.
- Tweaked spearfishing balance to better reflect skill progress.
- Tweaked sailing wind mechanics.
- You can now work during the night in the raft, as long as the sky is clear.
- It is now considerably harder to gain weight at higher weights.
- Underweight perk now makes you start with a lower weight.
- Partridges are now stressed when initially captured.
- The quiver now occupies a belt slot.


[h2]Fixes and Hotfixes for the Week:[/h2]

- Fixed an issue with the dismantling button not appearing in the raincatcher when liquid was there.
- Fixed a bug that got the game stuck when mice raided your camp while you were climbing.
- Fixed issue with baskets destroying their contents.
- Fixed stress issues when feeding partridges manually.
- Fixed a sun allergy bug.
- Tweaked Extreme Rain perk to make it more extreme!
- Fixed blueprints that used eggs that they can also used fertilised eggs.
- Fixed partridges not eating from the feeder when offscreen.


That's all for now.
See you all next week!