Homeseek News

Hi colonists,

We just made an update focused on balancing. Please note that These changes will not be present in old saves, so we strongly recommend restarting levels rather than loading them.

[h2]Update 1.02[/h2]

[h2]—[/h2]
[h2]Balancing[/h2]

• Increased starting water in wells
  
  Increased starting water in wells
  Chapter 1 14k 🠊 18k
  Chapter 2 5k 🠊 6.5k
  Chapter 3 5k 🠊 9k
  Chapter 7 5k 🠊 6.5k
  Increased Berry Bushes collection rate (10%)
  90/H 🠊 99/H
  Increased Scrap Piles collection rate (10%)
  60/H 🠊 66/H
  Increased Water Extractor collection rate (30%)
  135/H 🠊 175/H
  Increased Water Collector collection rate (30%)
  150/H 🠊 195/H
  Increased Warka Tower collections rate (33%)
  18/H 🠊 24/H
  Farm production has been modified based on the water quality
  Using poor water x 1.5 🠊 x 1.75
  Using clean water x 2 🠊 x 2.5

The above-mentioned changes make the first levels easier, provide a greater sense of player agency, and allow for more freedom of movement. Furthermore, they should encourage the construction of more buildings, especially converters.

• Reduced the max occupants by 1 in Medical Centers but increased the healing rate by 25%. This has no impact on the average healing provided per day but allows for faster cycling between the sick citizens. So essentially this means citizens spend less time getting treated, which consequently increases the amount of available workers at all times.
  
• Additionally, since the players will now have more resources we increased the damage from contaminated resources by nearly 40% but have reduced the amount of max damage a citizen can take while consuming said resources. This change aims to emphasize the importance of better water quality (and its use in the farm) and provide the player with a bigger reaction window for addressing the sick citizens.
  

To put it into perspective a single Medical Center in combination with poor water consumption (from the Wetlands or the Purification Center) is enough to sustain a community of 50 people without ever having someone die (Not taking into account damages from other sources like events or expedition events).
Using Poor Water instead of Contaminated for consumption and irrigation reduces the average daily damage to citizens by 66%.

• Chapter 3 events have been “slowed down” to allow for more player experimentation.
  
• Chapter 7 has been slightly extended so that it lasts longer and allows for more player experimentation.
  
• Chapter 8 minimum duration has been increased.
  
• We reduced the requirements for the Windmill-related questline in Chapter 9 from 4 to 2.
  
• Expedition traveling speed has been reduced by 10% to deemphasize their usage in the beginning. The Lay of the Land rule bonus has been doubled. (So effectively expeditions start slower but eventually become faster than they are now).
  
• Travelling Speed in Endless has been reduced by 66%.
  
• Canines, Equidae, and birds of prey provide less food when butchered, livestock provide more.
  

With the increase in the starting resources and collection rates, players can set up their bases faster before having to send expeditions. Additionally, this will allow players to pursue different avenues instead of feeling forced to “rush” expeditions. Finally, the increase in resource production makes preparations for expeditions easier.

[h2]—[/h2]
[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Made a fix where the resolution of the game wasn’t being fitted correctly. Players can now also choose their preferred monitor.
  
• Fixed a bug in Chapter 5 where the ship was never returning from the island (Chapters need to be restarted).
  
• Reseted the world map in a more appropriate starting position in scenario 4. Always remember you can rotate with Q and E.
  
• Fixed a bug where Laws were being awarded even though it was found.
  
• Fixed a text field that was providing wrong info about the type of law slots found.
  
• Chapter 4 last location had the same location as Chapter 3.
  
• Fixed a bug where default resolution was problematic on PCs with multiple monitors.
  

[h2]—[/h2]
[h2]Other improvements[/h2]

• Expedition parties now form instantly.
  
• Level 3 will now show when the next caravan will come.
  
• Quests for finishing scenarios 3 and 4 are now clearer.
  
• Building production and conversion on HUD tooltip have been separated to improve clarity.
  
• Improved the feedback when an event decision would max out the Vexation meters in Chapter 2.
  
• Pressing Shift allows for faster camera movement.
  
• Power Consumption/ Production can be seen outside of working hours.
  
• The game now autosaves when you quit a chapter.
  

[h2]—[/h2]
[h2]New laws[/h2]

• Equipped for Combat: Expeditioners will receive 5% less damage from all sources while exploring.
  
• Haste Makes Waste: Expedition parties explore locations 10% slower but find 20% more stuff.
  

[h2]—[/h2]
[h2]Upcoming improvements[/h2]

• We are working on a more advanced autosave system that can work as a failsafe in case you want to roll back.
  
• We are working on an improvement to make Happiness escalation more gradual so that players have more time to react, as well as better feedback.
  
• We are making improvements on all distribution modules in order to showcase more clearly issues that may not be functional.
  
• We are considering refactoring certain buildings like the farm, in order to make them more straightforward and improve their feedback.
  
• We are also making a change to streamline connection creations and automate them to a degree.
  
• We’ll be adding a bigger difficulty option.
  
• We also want to add more controls and options, like a toggle for edge scrolling, placing multiple buildings, etc.
  
• We are making changes to simplify the connection requirements for some buildings and also provide better feedback.
  
• We are working on improving the aesthetics of the expedition maps.
  
• Destroying storages should reallocate the contained resources to the other available storages.
  
• Steam cards will be released soon.
  

Thank you all for all your feedback so far.

We hope you have been enjoying Homeseek! If you have, please leave us a review on Steam!

Don't forget to follow our Twitter and join the Discord for more discussions, tips, and development updates:



See you in the wasteland.

Hi colonists,

We just made an update to address some issues you reported.

[h3]Hotfix 1.01[/h3]

• Added several improvements to scenario 3 quests (including a bug that prevented the completion of a quest related to the Advanced Research Center), events, and expeditions.
  
• Fixed a bug where the citizens sometimes got stuck in Advanced houses (failing to eat, drink, go on expeditions, or do anything else).
  
• Made the expedition getting disbanded while preparing to leave much rarer now (this exists as a failsafe in case a citizen gets stuck somewhere).
  
• Fixed a bug where food contamination was too high. This was most prevalent on level 3.
  
• Increased the deadline for scenario 4 quest called “Fever”.
  
• Solved a bug where loading was resetting selected difficulty.
  

[h2]—[/h2]
Thank you all for helping us locate these bugs.

We hope you have been enjoying Homeseek! If you have, please leave us a review on Steam! It will help us immensely with the game's discoverability.

Don't forget to follow our Twitter and join the Discord for more discussions, tips, and development updates:



See you in the wasteland.

[h3]Survivors, it’s here! Your chance to prove your worth in the parched wastes has come with the official launch of Homeseek![/h3]

Set on a dystopian, resource-strapped Earth at the beginning of the next century, Homeseek challenges players to utilize realistic technologies and manage a struggling settlement’s resources while embarking on dangerous expeditions into the wasteland. To survive, you must research, construct advancements, and make life-or-death decisions as you search for a place to call home.

[previewyoutube][trailer(?)]
[/previewyoutube]

With two campaigns spanning over nine scenarios, each of which can be played in Story Mode, Endless Mode, and Survival Mode and providing dozens of hours of gameplay, Homeseek offers myriad opportunities to challenge the best city-builder and resource-management gamers out there. Your survival decision-making skills will be put to the test like never before.

The cut-throat multiplayer mode allows you to compete against other players and will drive home the harsh truth that in Homeseek's world, only the strongest and most ruthless will rise victorious. Learn more about multiplayer in this video!

[h3]Homeseek is available now for $24.99 (regional pricing applies). See if you have what it takes to survive the harsh environment, violent bandits, and a world where the odds are continually stacked against you in order to lead your colony to a sustainable victory. With your guidance, survival just might be within reach.[/h3]




[h2]—[/h2]


The Homeseek official soundtrack is now available! Featuring original compositions by Manu Charitakis, these 9 post-apocalypse-inspired tracks are surprisingly soothing and at times hauntingly beautiful. Let their captivating sounds remind you of your accomplishments in the wasteland and serve as a stirring backdrop as you participate in your very own real-world survival story.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2504750/Homeseek_Soundtrack/


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Want to show off your survival skills? Twitch integration makes streaming Homeseek a community experience! When enabled, viewers can vote on the decisions you make while on expeditions. Will you let your community determine some of your most important choices in the game, or will you callously defy their feedback, sure that you alone know best—and which option is best for the survivors you’ve left back at camp?





[h2]—[/h2]


We’re not done yet! We still have plans to improve and adjust the world of Homeseek. and your feedback will be an important part of that process!

Our post-launch plans include updating online multiplayer based on your feedback as well as releasing the exciting second part of multiplayer mode. We will also be updating the game as a whole as we learn more about your play experience.

Additionally, you can join our Discord to be the first to know about future content updates! Be sure to follow us on Twitter as well!


[h2]—[/h2]


If you want to know more about Homeseek’s features and complex systems, check out our survival guides and tutorial videos available online.





[h2]—[/h2]

From the teams at Traptics and The Iterative Collective, thank you once again for your support. Without your enthusiasm for participating in the playtest, the helpful feedback you’ve given during the demo, and your dedication to reporting bugs, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Your kindness and devotion has helped us shape Homeseek for the better!

Good luck in the wasteland.

A new demo build is here!



[h3]Demo v.0.7.7 patch notes[/h3]

• Citizens now leaving work will automatically get replaced by available citizens. This covers the case where citizens go to medical as well (they get replaced by the one that just exited the medical). So no more going around to search who left from where!
  
• Working hours have been increased by 2 hours. This change fits the survival concept better and gives the player more time to interact and adapt to the settlement within a day.
  
• All buildings have been rebalanced based on the previous change.
  
• A few game-breaking bugs that were mostly occurring during save/ load have now been fixed.
  
• Consumption calculation on the tooltips of the HUD has been improved.
  
• Notifications will now display specifically the reason that citizens have left or died.
  
• Better quality of water than the requested will now be acceptable during expeditions and events.
  
• Citizens now get assigned to workplaces starting from the healthiest one. We still need to make an improvement here, since the way it is now if you assign everyone on work first, then the least healthy ones are the only ones that will go to expeditions.
  
• Some serious optimization was implemented, and you should see a major difference.
  
• More improvements for UX across the board.
  
• Speed will now resume at the same multiplier it was before pausing

These changes conclude the roadmap we released a few weeks ago after Next Fest. Let us know what you would like to be improved next!

[h3]Don't forget, the game is launching in 23 hours! We'll see you soon![/h3]


Join the Discord for more discussions, tips, and development updates:

[h2]Curious about multiplayer? [/h2]

ZiggyD got a chance to link up with Traptics co-founder and Homeseek’s lead game designer Mike to try out the cutthroat gameplay. Watch as they weigh their strategies and fight to survive in this fast-paced game mode that proves only the most ruthless will survive!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Homeseek’s multiplayer mode allows 2-8 players to compete for resources on expeditions while balancing the management of their bases as a timer counts down. [/h3]

Plan your expeditions carefully and you may encounter an opportunity to rob or attack a rival expedition party, but exploring also makes you vulnerable to attack as well! Strategically search enticing locations while you race the clock to acquire new citizens and sustain your colony’s increasing demands as resources dwindle. The player who maintains a higher population at the game’s end is the winner!

[h2]—[/h2]
Want to learn more? Head over to our Discord!