Update 11: Zones and Decoration

Hi Everyone,

It was Clanfolk's first anniversary in Early Access as of July 14th 2023. I just wanted to thank everyone for their support! I really love working on Clanfolk, and the community we have built together is awesome. There is much more to come :)

[h3]The Zones and Decoration Update has Arrived![/h3]

First off, I want to thank those on the Testing Branch for all their help over the last couple months testing/improving this new version as it developed. Their suggestions and tireless bug reporting are a huge help to me.

Note: Anyone can join the testing branch under Clanfolk/Properties/Betas. If you do join, expect bugs, and if you find any, please report them here or on Discord. It makes Clanfolk better for everyone.

Lets get right to the details :)

[h2]Zones System[/h2]

The new Zones System allows players to draw out areas where Clanfolk will limit their search for jobs or to fulfill needs. These Zones can be used to optimize crafting behavior or to create auto assigned home areas for separate families within the Clan.

Only members of a Zone are limited to that Zone, so NON Zone members can come and go as they need to. It is best to think of a Zone as leashing Clanfolk to an Area. Zones do not keep other Clanfolk out.

Zones are not required for the Clanfolk to function, and in general it is best not to use them unless you are after a very specific behavior. An example would be to keep a cook in the kitchen and also to only grab cooking materials from the kitchen storage. Other Clanfolk could still come and go from the Kitchen, but the cook would only do cooking in that small area, and would not cross the map for ingredients, leaving that up to a hauler instead.

Zones are very powerful because they limit what Clanfolk can see. If a Clanfolk is assigned to zones and behaving strangely, make sure the item they are expected to use is within their work zone for the related task.

Clanfolk can be members of multiple Zones and can even inherit membership as a family member, guest, or traveler.

[h3]Home Zones[/h3]

Clanfolk can define a Home Zone where they will try to stay to fulfill their personal needs like food, sleep, pooping etc. This is a method to define separated housing for different families
Home Zones can be toggled as auto assigned as well. New family members can inherit membership into zones when they are born or join the family.
Home Zones also allow automating the housing for workers and travelers, allowing for a more functional Inn.
If Clanfolk are Starving, Dehydrated, or Freezing they will leave their Zone to try to survive. Their self preservation will outweigh their zone etiquette. :)

[h3]Work Zones[/h3]

Work zones can be defined to optimize where Clanfolk will pick jobs and where they will go to collect building supplies.
Work zones can be defined per skill type so that the work zone for cooking does not interfere with woodcutting work for example.

Clanfolk do not require zones to complete tasks, and in general will be very effective without them, but work zones are another tool to tune behaviors.

[h2]Decorations System[/h2]

One of the most common requests has been for new methods to customize the Homestead, to really make it feel unique. The new Decoration System is the first step in that direction. There will be quite a bit of expansion in decorating options, but for this update I wanted to get the most difficult tech dealt with first.

Decorations are a new class of Item that have their own Stockpile Type, Storage, and Inventory Menu Section.
Decorations will increase the beauty of rooms, but in the future may also have side effects like wall hides providing insulation to a room, or a bed cover providing a little warmth boost.
The entire object system needed a rewrite to allow multiple objects on a single tile, BUT this was very worthwhile because this change allows us to place rugs UNDER objects, as well as connect decorations to walls without blocking the floor tile in front of them.
There are currently Wall, Floor, Fitted, Item, and Object type decorations.
Wall: They stick to the Wall, but don't block object placement
Floor: They draw under objects, but don't block placement
Fitted: These use special art for each object they are affixed to. An example of this is a Tartan bedspread. It needs different art to “fit” to each bet it lays on top of.
Item: These work like normal items in storages. So the art is the same in all cases as the item is put on a shelf.
Object type decorations take up actual floor space. An example of this are the new tables. These tables work as holders for Item, and Fitted decorations. Note: Tables are required for the placement of Rushlights.

[h3]New Decorations[/h3]

Rushlight: This is a traditional alternative to candles (Which were very expensive and regulated) They provide only a very short range light (1 tile radius) but beautify a room.
Rushlights are made with Straw and Tallow (Tallow is collected as drippings when cooking meat now)
Rushlights really allow the lighting system to shine. :)
Tartan Coverings: This allows you to show your Clan colors as part of decorating. The Decorative Tartan can be used to create Rugs, Wall coverings, Bedspreads, and Table Coverings. It can also be used to create a standing Clan Banner.
Hide Coverings: These use the new Decorative Hide. And can cover Walls, Beds, and the Floor.
Heather Wreath: This is a new use for the collected Heather and provides a splash of color on the walls.
Straw Mats/Rugs: This is an early decorating option, but makes rooms look more homey

I plan to add many more decorations in future updates. For this Update I just wanted to get the hardest test cases in there and working.

By Default workers will auto decorate as decorative items are crafted, but this behavior can be turned off in Settings/Gameplay/Auto Decorate. All new decorative objects will have their slots blocked, but existing ones will remain as they were.

[h2]Ideas Panel Upgrade![/h2]

So as the Ideas Panel has grown and grown with the new items and objects added, it became near impossible to navigate. Some kind of search function has been a very common and very reasonable request. Well its in there now :)

The Ideas Panel is a self generated menu, which makes it 100% accurate when it comes to what will unlock what, and it also morphs itself as I make changes to recipe requirements etc, so that is great, but it is generated by a machine so was not really readable when it got large.

There was a really nice side effect of this machine generation though. I was able to add filters to how the menu constructs itself, so now there is not just a search window, but also Filters that will allow the player to cull things that they are not interested in seeing. You all had to suffer with the old Ideas Panel soo long that I wanted to make sure that using it now was very configurable/hopefully painless.

Search wise, there is a drop down, but if you click above that, you can also enter text and it will cull the dropdown entries to entries that contain that text. I use it all the time now.

[h2]New Clothing System[/h2]

Clanfolk had a nasty habit of daring each other to spend winter in their underwear. This should now be fixed. The old system was body temperature based, but in many cases the warm rooms offset the cold outside enough such that winter clothing was not added in time.
With the New System, Clothing is based on what would be normal to wear for a season.
The Clanfolk will try their best to maintain appropriate seasonal clothing based on what the average temperature and weather would be.
Clanfolk are still allowed to make adjustments to these seasonal templates as they need to keep warmer or cooler, but the Bare Chested Bearded Winter Scotsman should be a rare sight now.

[h2]Sparkless Iron Torches![/h2]

Calling this one out because it was without a doubt the most common request.

These new torches take iron to build, but will not throw sparks. There is a Wall and Pole mounted variety.

[h2]Baby Basket[/h2]

The babies now have the most advanced bed in Clanfolk. It is a 1x1 basket that they sleep inside of, instead of on top of.

This basket went through many iterations, one even apparently looking like an alien mouth eating the baby, from the perspective of the first two people I showed it to. I hope it is much better now. :) A little bit of twine in the wrong spot, and I end up with an baby eating alien.

[h2]Double Sleep Mat[/h2]

The New Double Sleep Mat will allow players to use that baby basket earlier. Babies used to come quite late game and generally players did not get to babies until they are already thriving, having the double Straw Bed.

It is important to note that for pregnancy, Both partners need to have 7500+ mood, not be hungry, and be in a private room. Happy baby making :)

[h2]Change Logs[/h2]

So for those interested in the full story of this update, please take a look at the Steam Forums here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1700870/discussions/0/3183488858470509508/?ctp=16

Update 11 starts with changelist 0.373. It is a pretty interesting read if you like fine detail! There are quite a few smaller changes in there that are not listed above.

[h2]Road Map[/h2]

There is a lot more to come! Please take a look at the Road Map for further long term details as well.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1700870/view/3388412789658793666

Diving back into the code now.

Thanks very much for playing Clanfolk!

Andrew Hume (Blorf)
MinMax Games Ltd.