Landnama News

Hi everyone!

We've just opened a beta branch for Landnama's v2.2 update! We'd love to get your feedback on the content patch over the weekend.

The update brings balancing changes, some visual improvements, quality of life features, two new clans to unlock, new daily trial modifiers and a new difficulty level!

The Mastery system has been changed to grant more points (from 3 to a total of 6 now). The design goal is to make the choice less restrictive, the power curve steeper and generally allow you to have more tools at your disposal to tackle challenging maps. You will be able to try more versatile builds depending on the needs.

Support production buildings (all except Shipbuilder) can now also be built on any biome type (except Glacier). With this change, we want to allow you to create more interesting and fun synergies by connecting production lines which the biome type hard requirement was preventing in most cases.

Let us know what you think about those changes and share your feedback to help fine-tune the update before the release!

Thank you for your support!

Mathias, Mario & Michael


[h2]Changelog:[/h2]

Added

• The Wise clan: Starts with an extra mastery point and completes upgrades twice as fast
  
• The Curious clan: Starts with a curiosity close to home and gets 10 maximum heart for each discovered curiosity
  
• New Daily Trial: Start with 6 mastery points
  
• New Daily Trial: Everything is completed instantly
  
• A new difficulty level where you have to scale production to 70 while fighting a more aggressive winter
  
• Inactive buildings are now highlighted on the map
  

Changed

• You now get 2 and 3 mastery points on the second and third upgrade respectively (for a total of six points!)
  
• Revamped the home and mastery menus for more clarity and better usability
  
• Kiln, Weaver, Carpenter, Shipbuilder and Tanner can now build on any terrain except Glacier
  
• The Winter's Toll screen now only ever shows either the Continue button or the Vegvísir button (if you still have one and would otherwise lose the settlement)
  
• Events which set buildings on fire now say which building and center the camera on it
  

Fixed

• Fixed a bug where building Houses next to the Gothi would mess up its production
  

[h2]Warning:[/h2]

• monthly saga / daily trial highscores are not sent
  
• switching to the beta branch will invalidate saga / daily / expedition, so they should move those somewhere else if they want to keep 'em (simply copy the whole folder or finish your in-progress games first)
  

[h2]How to test:[/h2]

1. Head over to your Steam library and right click on Landnama > Properties > Betas
   
2. Select "beta - Content Update v2.2 Beta"
   
3. Hit play! (you might have to restart the Steam client)
   

Hi everyone!

While we're already prepping the next content update, we have a smaller update for you, which brings some fixes, quality of life improvements and visual improvements we're excited about.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more soon!

Added

• All saga screens now have a button to access the monthly leaderboard
  
• Added visuals for each production building to be shown on adjacent bonus tiles
  

Changed

• Improved visibility of the focus highlight for buttons
  
• The Hrosskell clan ability's wording has been improved; when playing this clan, the Winter's Toll screen includes the clan ability
  
• The winter tooltip is more clear by showing "Last Year's Production"
  
• The mastery menu now automatically preselects the mastery with the most points
  
• The mastery menu buttons now highlights the selected one better
  
• Increased the fade duration between menu screen music tracks
  
• Improved the layout of the leaderboards for better readability
  
• Improved visuals and animations for several buildings
  
• Changed harvest pop effect visuals
  

Fixed

• Sagas with a lower score or hagalaz level no longer overwrite a better previous score
  
• Clans which build buildings instantly show the build time correctly
  

Hi everyone!

We’re thrilled to release the first major update to Landnama, and it’s a big one! We’ve overhauled the game quite a bit and are really excited to hear what you think.

One of the main areas we really wanted to focus on was how difficulty worked in the game. We’ve tried to move away from anything that felt too random or unfair, and changed events to allow more player choice with less punitive outcomes. Frequency of negative events is now tied to player chosen difficulty levels and the region selection has become part of the difficult scaling. Overall we wanted to give players autonomy around deciding what kind of challenge they wanted and when.

Another big area we wanted to focus on was adding depth, especially with how a settlement played out. With this in mind, the building system has been rethought entirely and has been completely rebuilt around production. From there we streamlined how the upgrading system works, basing it on harvest thresholds for a more organic path to the objective. These two rethought systems work in tandem to make settlements feel exciting and engaging throughout.

The following is an overview of the biggest changes, but there have also been many more quality of life tweaks. This is a big shift, so please share with us what you think, what you want to see, and any feedback you have on these core changes. For those of you that would like an experience more in line with the launch version, there is Landnama Classic branch available on Steam. There’s more coming, but we want your help and ideas as we move forward, so please do continue to share your thoughts!

A massive thanks to our Discord community for providing crucial feedback and bug testing, especially with the recent beta of this update. We honestly appreciate it so much. Your feedback around what you like and what you would still like to see is crucial in helping us continue to evolve Landnama.

We’re excited to get this in your hands for feedback, thank you so much for playing our game and we hope you enjoy the changes!

[h2]Objective and Upgrade System[/h2]

• Rather than paying for an upgrade with heart, players now need to reach a certain level of production per harvest.
  
• Once the harvest threshold has been met, the upgrade automatically begins, but is only completed via player interaction.
  
• Heart capacity is now increased by building houses and is no longer tied to the upgrade system.
  
• Upgrade levels have been reduced from five down to four.
  
• Players will now need to build right up until the final threshold is met, creating a more consistent experience throughout a settlement with less waiting.
  

[h2]Difficulty[/h2]

• Now three main variables that impact difficulty: the player-selected Hagalaz difficulty levels, events that players choose when to interact with, and map generation that changes based on region.
  
• Hagalaz difficulty levels have been changed from five levels to three and streamlined for a more intuitive difficulty scaling.
  
• Hagalaz levels now impact the upgrade threshold requiring higher production.
  
• Effects are no longer time-based but now last for the duration of a settlement, and negative effects are no longer as punishing.
  
• The Althing has been removed entirely.
  

[h2]Events[/h2]

• Events no longer happen on their own, but are found when exploring unique tiles giving the players choice about when to engage with them.
  
• Events have a chance to be either positive (blessings) or negative (curses), with the ratio of positive to negative changing along with increased player-chosen difficulty levels.
  
• Hagalaz levels determine the ratio of positive blessings to negative curses, with more blessings than curses occurring at normal difficulty while scaling up to exclusively curses at Hagalaz 3.
  
• The challenge auto-pause setting has been changed to an event auto-pause that triggers for both positive and negative events.
  
• Special tiles like the Landmak
  

[h2]World Generation[/h2]

• The biome algorithm has been tweaked to make regions more distinct with a predominant biome that will feature more prominently.
  
• Glaciers are now unbuildable dead tiles with their frequency increasing based on the difficulty level indicated on the region selection screen.
  
• Higher difficulty levels make finding buildable biome clusters more of a challenge.
  
• Unique tiles are more evenly distributed and have been increased to 25 per map.
  
• Exploring unique tiles will reveal an event, curiosity, or the landmark, and more will continue to appear as you explore.
  

[h2]Buildings[/h2]

• Each production building now has two support buildings that unlock with home upgrades for powerful builds that grow with a settlement.
  
• All buildings now have adjacency requirements and synergies with adjacency being a core element of how the entire build system functions.
  
• Each building also has both a primary effect and a secondary bonus that is given when built on a quality tile.
  
• Sacred buildings have been reimagined as a separate, unique heart production group accessible.
  
• Caches have been replaced with Houses which are now the only avenue to increasing heart capacity.
  
• You can now open the build and home menus while the action is disabled.
  
• The building auto-pause setting now triggers not only when buildings are built but also when they're salvaged or destroyed.
  

[h2]Play Modes[/h2]

• There is now a quick play mode where the player can select a clan, region, and difficulty level for a single settlement.
  
• The daily challenge still exists but can now be played multiple times, though only the first play will count towards the leader board.
  
• The monthly leaderboard now only allows one entry per player.
  

[h2]Masteries[/h2]

• Once a player completes a home upgrade they receive a point to spend on a static mastery bonus tree.
  
• Each mastery has three tiers tied to a production type for choice based on need and strategy, and allowing the player to better adapt to map generation.
  

[h2]Clans[/h2]

• Clans now have a starting bonus and a clan ability allowing for different play styles and strategies.
  
• Sagas will now require settling each region with a different clan, though if a settlement fails that clan may be used again.
  

[h2]Winter[/h2]

• The winter formula has been simplified and is less punitive towards exploration and building.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could click the Vegvísir button after finishing winter.
  
• Vegvisirs now reduce both your Heart and Winter’s Toll to 0 when used.
  

[h2]Renown[/h2]

• Players now collect “Renown” after each successful settlement.
  
• Playing a Saga rewards more Renown (Saga multiplier) but you can earn Renown for playing both Expedition and Daily Trial modes.
  
• Renown can be spent to unlock new Clans as well as “Favors” which are permanent bonuses. The Renown menu can be accessed from the main menu.
  

[h2]General[/h2]

• The top UI has been redesigned to be more clear and intuitive.
  
• Added Production breakdown tooltip when hovering over the production per harvest number in the top UI.
  
• Exploration time is now capped between one and six months.
  
• The game no longer auto-saves at the start of the year but after the last harvest.
  
• In the settings you can now override the language chosen via Steam UI.
  
• The Steam Cloud now properly syncs between different platforms.
  
• The Demo was updated to allow to play an entire settlement (would previously end after 7 years).
  

Hi everyone,

We're excited to share our first big update for Landnama! It's been almost exactly two months since the release and we have been hard at work to address all your feedback, and we'll continue to listen so we can evolve Landnama into the game you want it be. While staying true to the core gameplay mechanics, we've overhauled many of the game systems to add more depth and strategy, reworked difficulty scaling, and removed a lot of the punishing random elements that didn't feel fun.

To play the beta version of v2.0.0 right-click Landnama in your Library and choose "Properties". In the following menu select the tab "Betas" and choose the branch "v2_beta". Please note the beta branch is fully localized only in English, German and French as of now.

We'd love to hear your feedback on the changes, it has been and still is crucial in helping us shape the future of this game!

Here’s what this update is bringing to the game:

[h2]Objective and Upgrade System[/h2]
We really wanted to streamline the game flow and have the upgrade system feel more organic. While the goal of a settlement is still upgrading the home tile to a great hall, the path there is quite different.

• Rather than paying for an upgrade with heart, players now need to reach a certain level of production per harvest.
  
• Once the harvest threshold has been met, the upgrade automatically begins, but is only completed via player interaction.
  
• Heart capacity is now increased by building houses and is no longer tied to the upgrade system.
  
• Upgrade levels have been reduced from five down to four.
  
• Players will now need to build right up until the final threshold is met, creating a more consistent experience throughout a settlement with less waiting.
  

[h2]Difficulty[/h2]
Something we spent a lot of time looking at is how difficulty works in Landnama. We tried to move away from anything that felt too random or unfair, and allow scaling in a way that supports player autonomy. We now have three main variables that impact difficulty: the player-selected Hagalaz difficulty levels, events that players choose when to interact with, and map generation that changes based on region. For example, a normal difficulty level in the first region will be a substantially different challenge than Hagalaz 3 in the sixth region.

• Hagalaz difficulty levels have been changed from five levels to three and streamlined for a more intuitive difficulty scaling.
  
• Hagalaz levels now impact the upgrade threshold requiring higher production.
  
• Effects are no longer time-based but now last for the duration of a settlement, and negative effects are no longer as punishing.
  
• The Althing has been removed entirely.
  

[h2]Events[/h2]
Something that was important to us was to try and give players more choice around when events happened and have the outcomes feel less punitive. We also wanted to have events be a part of the difficulty scaling to add a more substantial difference in the experience between normal difficulty and Hagalaz 3.

• Events no longer happen on their own, but are found when exploring unique tiles giving the players choice about when to engage with them.
  
• Events have a chance to be either positive (blessings) or negative (curses), with the ratio of positive to negative changing along with increased player-chosen difficulty levels.
  
• Hagalaz levels determine the ratio of positive blessings to negative curses, with more blessings than curses occurring at normal difficulty while scaling up to exclusively curses at Hagalaz 3.
  
• The challenge auto-pause setting has been changed to an event auto-pause that triggers for both positive and negative events.
  

[h2]World Generation[/h2]
We wanted the regions to feel more distinct from one another while also allowing for more diversity in difficulty between them. If a player chooses to play the regions in order of difficulty through a saga they will have a noticeably increasing challenge.

• The biome algorithm has been tweaked to make regions more distinct with a predominant biome that will feature more prominently.
  
• Glaciers are now unbuildable dead tiles with their frequency increasing based on the difficulty level indicated on the region selection screen.
  
• Higher difficulty levels make finding buildable biome clusters more of a challenge.
  
• Unique tiles are more evenly distributed and have been increased to 25 per map.
  
• Exploring unique tiles will reveal an event, curiosity, or the landmark, and more will continue to appear as you explore.
  

[h2]Buildings[/h2]
We wanted to change the building flow from the start to the end of a settlement. With this in mind, the building system has been rethought entirely and has been completely rebuilt around production.

• Each production building now has two support buildings that unlock with home upgrades for powerful builds that grow with a settlement.
  
• All buildings now have adjacency requirements and synergies with adjacency being a core element of how the entire build system functions.
  
• Each building also has both a primary effect and a secondary bonus that is given when built on a quality tile.
  
• Sacred buildings have been reimagined as a separate, unique heart production group.
  
• Caches have been replaced with Houses which are now the only avenue to increasing heart capacity.
  
• You can now open the build and home menus while the action is disabled.
  
• The building auto-pause setting now triggers not only when buildings are built but also when they're salvaged or destroyed.
  

[h2]Play Modes[/h2]

• There is now a quick play mode where the player can select a clan, region, and difficulty level for a single settlement.
  
• The daily challenge still exists but can now be played multiple times, though only the first play will count towards the leader board.
  
• The monthly leaderboard now only allows one entry per player.
  

[h2]Masteries[/h2]

• Once a player completes a home upgrade they receive a point to spend on a static mastery bonus tree.
  
• Each mastery has three tiers tied to a production type for choice based on need and strategy, and allowing the player to better adapt to map generation.
  

[h2]Clans[/h2]

• Clans now have a starting bonus and a clan ability allowing for different play styles and strategies.
  
• Sagas will now require settling each region with a different clan, though if a settlement fails that clan may be used again.
  

[h2]Winter[/h2]

• The winter formula has been simplified to depend only on the settlement's production.
  
• The Vegvísir now lets the player survive winter at the cost of all available Heart.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could click the Vegvísir button after finishing winter.
  

[h2]Renown[/h2]

• A new rewards system for unlocking boosts, clans, and other game elements. The player accumulates renown by playing the game, with increased difficulty providing higher payouts.
  

[h2]General[/h2]

• The top UI has been redesigned to be more clear and intuitive.
  
• Exploration time is now capped between one and six months.
  
• The game no longer auto-saves at the start of the year but after the last harvest.
  
• In the settings you can now override the language chosen via Steam UI.
  
• The Steam Cloud now properly syncs between different platforms.
  

This is an overview of the biggest changes, but there have also been many quality of life tweaks. There are a lot of changes, so please help us test, find bugs, tell us what works or doesn’t, what you want to see, and any feedback you have on these core changes. There’s more coming, but we want your help and ideas as we move forward, especially with content for the renown system.

We’re excited to get this in your hands for feedback, thanks for playing Landnama and we hope you enjoy the changes!

Mario, Michael & Mathias - Sonderland

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your patience while we plan and work on this big update. We’ve really tried to take in everyone’s feedback and evolve the game in a way that addresses how you want it to grow while maintaining the elements you enjoy. We wanted to share an overview of what we’re working on and get your feedback so we can make Landnama as good as it can be. So please, share any of your thoughts and feelings about this, we want to hear from you!

The main areas we are currently working on are making the randomly generated elements less punishing and not as much of a focus, and adding more depth and replayability. Here are some of the solutions we’re working on. We’d love to hear as much feedback as possible from you over the next week or two while we work on this update, then we’ll share a detailed breakdown with a version for you to test as soon as we can. We can then continue the conversation from there.

Difficulty
All difficulty levels will now be available from the start, with additional rewards gained from higher levels. The Althing won’t appear in the normal difficult level. Challenges are being reworked to feel less punishing and encounters to feel more rewarding.

World Generation
We’ve made a significant change with how tiles spawn, now appearing in clusters of the same biome. Each region's predominant biome spawns more often as well, and quality tiles can now be found on the sea biome.

Winter's Toll
We’re simplifying the calculation of Winter’s Toll. Instead of basing it on explored tiles, buildings and home upgrades, it will increase it by a certain amount each year that scales with difficulty. Winter’s Toll will also have a smaller range it rolls from.

Challenges and Encounters
Instead of having a guaranteed negative event every year, there will be an equal chance it’s a positive one, and positive events will now have a choice of reward much like the negative ones. Events you encounter while exploring then will no longer only be positive, but can be negative as well.

Masteries
Masteries in their current form have been removed with the most fun and powerful effects moved to clans so they can be accessed without relying on a random roll.

Buildings
This is probably the biggest change we’re working on. We've changed buildings to work with production as a system, and almost all buildings will have adjacency requirements and production multipliers. Buildings will retain their special abilities, but only if built on a quality tile.

Example:

• The Woodcutter functions the same as a production building
  
• The Carpenter needs to be built adjacent to the woodcutter and will add x1 multiplier, doubling production
  
• Another tier of buildings adds an additional multiplier, in this example the Smithy can be built adjacent to the Carpenter adding an additional x1 multiplier, tripling production
  
• Sacred buildings have had a big overhaul and now need to be built adjacent to the Gothi; they provide a separate path to a x1 multiplier, in this example the Sacred Grove would add an additional x1 multiplier, quadrupling production
  

Because of the shift in how sacred buildings function, the Providence chain will be removed. Canceling construction will work a bit differently as well; it will only be free if the action hasn’t started, once it has only half the cost will be returned.

Clans
We want the clans to feel more unique and offer different ways to play the game. We’re still working on these and will share more details soon, but we wanted to keep you in the loop on our approach. Each clan will have several abilities, including a unique alternative path to completing a settlement.

Another change we’ve made is that you must now choose a different clan for each settlement in a saga. This goes hand in hand with how new clans are now obtained, the first six clans unlock with each of the six settlements in a saga. Additional clans are obtainable through the new Renown system.

Renown (New)
For every settlement you play, you’ll gain Renown. Even if your settlement perishes, you’ll still collect some. You’ll gain more Renown the higher the difficulty chosen. Renown can then be spent on new clans, consumables, permanent upgrades, and cosmetics. It will take a bit of time to build this out, but we’d love to hear what content you would be excited about being able to purchase with Renown.

We think these changes will add more depth and replayability to a settlement while giving the player more control over their destiny, but we’re really curious to hear your feedback. Please know if these changes address what you want Landnama to be, and keep sharing ideas as there’s more to come and we want to know what you want!

Mathias, Michael and Mario / Sonderland