Heard of the Story? News

Lots of behind the scenes work these last couple of weeks to improve the quality of updates and dialogue management. Expect less bugs in the future and villagers to be saying many more things in the coming updates! :)

• Overhauled asking for help: there's now a small dialogue tree so that you can choose exactly what you want to know. I've also added a lot of new dialogue explaining how exactly all the important parts of the game work, based on commonly asked questions
  
• Changed some existing dialogue lines and what villagers consider a large town
  
• Improved performance by adding LODs for the most common decorations
  
• Added the ability to skip the intro tutorial with F1 or Select
  
• Added an icon for the game when shown in your taskbar (finally!)
  
• Added a back button to the new game screen and improved transitions on that screen
  
• Added a small sound when you begin a new game
  
• Improved visibility of fields and especially grown flax fields
  
• Fixed glitchy new skill animation
  
• Fixed visual glitch during sleeping if it's past midnight
  
• Fixed decoration rotation being frame-dependant
  
• Fixed pine trees not being semi-transparent when you're in front of them
  
• Improved tavern collisions
  
• Fixed merchants sometimes appearing / not appearing at the wrong times
  
• Fixed being able to use pickaxes without wear in the mine if switching tools
  
• Fixed placement of mine not finishing correctly
  
• Fixed jewellery and masonry signs not moving the wind
  
• Fixed tree particles moving with the tree as it falls and adjusted colours slightly
  
• Fixed villagers overwriting books
  
• Fixed settings sliders being unmovable in the title screen
  
• Fixed rebind overlay not covering whole screen
  

I've recently gotten around to watching a couple of full streams of the V11 update (including from the amazing Nookrium and RedToxon) and I've learnt a lot about what could be done to improve the early game and tutorialisation. In the coming weeks, I'll be addressing those things whilst working on the next big thing™️ in the background.

• Fixed changing the window mode using an old settings file breaking the game
  
• Allowed swords to be equipped as back accessories
  
• Allowed interrupting and taking over any equipment villagers are about to use (like the anvil, tailor table, and bakery oven)
  
• Made merchants always bring storage chests if you have not yet unlocked them
  
• Fixed interaction indicators overlapping with with the player speaking
  
• Fixed fields not showing an interaction hint when not holding a scythe
  
• Fixed wrong crafting animation playing if you craft outside of a workspace with a tool equipped
  
• Fixed a few button selection issues when it comes to crafting inside a building with a controller
  
• Fixed ESC cancelling paths / decorations AND opening settings
  
• Fixed building masterpiece signs being talked about wrongly
  
• Fixed bubbles in mine preview at night
  
• Fixed tool being visible while villager is using the pottery
  

Hey everyone 👋 I have an important poll for you all! I'd like to hear your thoughts on what should be the next major update for Heard of the Story? I've laid out a few of the key features which I think would be the most fun and make the most sense given the game's current state. But I want to leave it up to you all to decide! 😄 To cast your votes, please head to the Discord where you can react to this poll with emojis of the relevant features.

• ⚒️ Guilds & Fame: as you specialise into your favourite craft, find others with like-minded interests and establish your own guild. Likewise watch your villagers forge their own across different disciplines. Construct a guildhall and develop your collective experience to improve the items you produce. Rise to fame by developing your town's unique hallmark trade craft.
  
• 🌹 Romance & Marriage: connect on a much deeper level with more dialogue, gifts, and new shared activities. Unlock new mechanics and events such as having villagers follow you around, kissing, sharing houses, and more. Marry your favourite villager, and watch others find their own partners, or get into drama over toxic break-ups.
  
• 👑 Autonomy & Governance: raise a manor house to establish building and gardening zones for your villagers. Watch them start their own construction projects or beautify the town with well thought-out decorations. Establish more general rules and policies dictating villagers' overall conduct and witness just how exactly society will evolve.
  
• 🌾 Fields & Farming: purchase or gather seeds for various fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Plant any crop in any field, water it, and care for it. Finally, harvest the fruits of your labour and sell them for profit. Set up organic plantations by drawing the exact area in which you'd like the vegetation to grow, be it a big circle, small square, or a star-shaped farm.
  
• 🗺️ Towns & Conspiracies: open up a new world map showing a drawing demarcated by district lines, denoting towns, forests, mountains, and ancient ruins. Hear about events happening across the world - whether royal marriages or tough droughts. Uncover conspiracies, mysteries, relics, or ancient legends through stories from visitors.
  

• Added resolution options to the settings
  
• Added borderless and windowed mode (finally right?!)
  
• Improved UI adaptability for different resolutions such as the SteamDeck
  
• Trades will now show all written books and unwritten books
  
• Books now have colours and will be bound in a colour corresponding to the category of the book's content
  
• Fixed crafting panel partly blocking clicks on the prosperity bookmark
  
• Saved and loaded some additional state to prevent villagers from talking and remarking as soon as you launch the game
  
• Fixed merchants disappearing when re-loading the game after the market is over
  
• Fixed markets starting on wrong days
  
• A merchant will no longer arrive on your first day
  
• Fixed being able to walk through tailor beams
  
• Fixed and adjusted animations of the craft and sleep buttons
  
• Fixed getting stuck in the mine if opening inventory and using an action button
  
• Fixed banner being shiny
  

When using the controller:

• The last conversation option will now be re-selected after speaking
  
• Going up and down the dialogue options will now loop around
  
• Fixed no SFX for dialogue options
  
• Fixed tooltip being stuck visible when exiting a trade
  

A very tiny patch to fix a couple of rare crashes when:

• Certain villagers said something very specific
  
• Certain villagers tried to plan out their goals in a particular way