Dev Blog #34 - Farming and Weather are Coming to Nera
[p]Hello Voyagers! Stephanie / Stephiroth here. While we’re still working hard on the Tend, Build, Thrive patch coming in March, we wanted to share a bit of behind-the-scenes of two of the exciting features that will be debuting: Farming and Weather!
As a reminder, any content mentioned is subject to change as development progresses - so there may be differences between what we preview here versus the final patch release.
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As part of that, we have a lot of exciting features in development and we can’t wait to share more. Stay tuned for our Dev Streams to see the latest developments, but for now, let’s get to Farming and Weather!
[/p][h2]Farming 🌱[/h2][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][h3]Why add Farming? [/h3][p]Farming was one of our top requested features from players on our Feature Upvote Board, and we thought this would be a great addition to the game. Voyagers has a heavy focus on exploration and base building, and Farming does a great job of adding more interaction with the resources you’re discovering in the world, and creating new ways to build, customize and manage the base. We hope you’ll enjoy creating a beautiful Sanctuary while reaping the hard-fought rewards of exploration well-done.
[/p][h3]How does Farming work? [/h3][p]Tend to your base in an all new way with Farming!
While exploring and gathering in the world, any plant collected will have a chance to drop a seed. Bring this seed home, plant it, water and tend to it, and over time it’ll grow into a harvestable plant. Plants do not die when unwatered, but will stop growing unless they have been watered.
[/p][h3]Watering and Water Mechanics [/h3][p]There is a new item, a Watering Can. The base watering can is a simple vessel with lower durability and water capacity, and it certainly gets the job done. But as you progress through the game, you’ll be able to upgrade the watering can to get more water capacity, higher durability, and even higher spray radius to water more plants at once.
These are fresh-water plants, so you can’t just fill your watering can from the ocean. Fresh Water sources, by way of waterfalls, have been added to each biome. Go up to any fresh water source and fill the watering can; then you’ll be ready to water your plants!
As you progress in the game, you’ll unlock new buildables that will help with water production:
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[/p][h3]What types of things can I farm? [/h3][p]You’ll be able to farm nearly any type of plant you can think of, including plant fiber, vegetables, fruits and even biome-specific trees!
[/p][h3]Farming Efficiency [/h3][p]Over time, as you build up your Sanctuary and continue to level up, you’ll be able to place special buildables near your Farming plots that will help your plants grow faster as long as they are within a Sanctuary.
[/p][h3]Does Weather affect Farming? [/h3][p]Of course it does! Let’s talk about weather.
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[/p][p] [/p][h2]Why add Weather? [/h2][p]Not only is Weather a highly requested feature, but we’ve always wanted the world of Nera to feel alive - things aren’t static, things are changing. While we have a beautiful, sunny environment and eye-catching sunsets, we wanted to add more depth to how the world is experienced and what can happen within Nera. One day you could be smooth sailing and exploring under clear skies, the next day it’s mired in fog and you’re struggling to make it back to shore. These types of experiences make adventuring in Nera feel different from day-to-day, session-to-session and offer new gameplay opportunities and choices (“should I go out now, or should I wait for the storm to end?”, “oh no, our boat is being struck by lightning! hurry, repair!”)
[/p][h2]How does Weather work? [/h2][p]We’re still developing what types of weather states there will be, but we’ll have at least the following weather states:
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The world will cycle between those states, tracking which weathers you’ve had and trying to make sure you have a good balance and that you aren’t stuck in a perpetual rainstorm!
There will also be a server toggle to disable weather in the Server Settings; so if you want only clear skies, you’ll be able to have that - but you will miss out on any special gameplay mechanics from weather.
[/p][h2]What types of gameplay will Weather have? [/h2][p]We are still exploring all of the possibilities for weather, but to begin with:
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We are excited about the possibilities having Weather opens up, like storms where you need to dodge lightning strikes, windy days speeding up the boat, meteor showers that spawn special events - let us know what you would be excited to see!
To learn more about weather, check out the VOD from our most recent dev stream!
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As a reminder, any content mentioned is subject to change as development progresses - so there may be differences between what we preview here versus the final patch release.
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Wait, there’s a patch coming in March? ‼️
[p]You bet there is! Check out our updated 1.0 Roadmap to see more details. But we have a big patch titled Tend, Build, Thrive coming in March, which is focused on adding more depth to managing the base, more purpose and motivation to build out a base, and making the base feel more like a living Spirit Sanctuary.As part of that, we have a lot of exciting features in development and we can’t wait to share more. Stay tuned for our Dev Streams to see the latest developments, but for now, let’s get to Farming and Weather!
[/p][h2]Farming 🌱[/h2][p]
[/p][h3]How does Farming work? [/h3][p]Tend to your base in an all new way with Farming!
While exploring and gathering in the world, any plant collected will have a chance to drop a seed. Bring this seed home, plant it, water and tend to it, and over time it’ll grow into a harvestable plant. Plants do not die when unwatered, but will stop growing unless they have been watered.
[/p][h3]Watering and Water Mechanics [/h3][p]There is a new item, a Watering Can. The base watering can is a simple vessel with lower durability and water capacity, and it certainly gets the job done. But as you progress through the game, you’ll be able to upgrade the watering can to get more water capacity, higher durability, and even higher spray radius to water more plants at once.
These are fresh-water plants, so you can’t just fill your watering can from the ocean. Fresh Water sources, by way of waterfalls, have been added to each biome. Go up to any fresh water source and fill the watering can; then you’ll be ready to water your plants!
As you progress in the game, you’ll unlock new buildables that will help with water production:
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- [p] Desalinator: When placed on salt water, it will gradually filter the water to be usable for Farming, as well as produce salt as a by-product for cooking
[/p] - [p] Wellspring: Powered by magical spirits, this buildable can be placed within any Sanctuary, and will produce infinite Fresh Water.
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[/p][h3]What types of things can I farm? [/h3][p]You’ll be able to farm nearly any type of plant you can think of, including plant fiber, vegetables, fruits and even biome-specific trees!
[/p][h3]Farming Efficiency [/h3][p]Over time, as you build up your Sanctuary and continue to level up, you’ll be able to place special buildables near your Farming plots that will help your plants grow faster as long as they are within a Sanctuary.
[/p][h3]Does Weather affect Farming? [/h3][p]Of course it does! Let’s talk about weather.
[/p]
Weather 🌧️
[p][/p][h2]How does Weather work? [/h2][p]We’re still developing what types of weather states there will be, but we’ll have at least the following weather states:
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- [p] Fully clear day
[/p] - [p] Light fog / Humid day
[/p] - [p] Foggy
[/p] - [p] Lightly Raining
[/p] - [p] Heavy Rain
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The world will cycle between those states, tracking which weathers you’ve had and trying to make sure you have a good balance and that you aren’t stuck in a perpetual rainstorm!
There will also be a server toggle to disable weather in the Server Settings; so if you want only clear skies, you’ll be able to have that - but you will miss out on any special gameplay mechanics from weather.
[/p][h2]What types of gameplay will Weather have? [/h2][p]We are still exploring all of the possibilities for weather, but to begin with:
[/p]
- [p] Rain will water the Farming plots in the base
[/p] - [p] Fog will occlude visibility
[/p]
We are excited about the possibilities having Weather opens up, like storms where you need to dodge lightning strikes, windy days speeding up the boat, meteor showers that spawn special events - let us know what you would be excited to see!
To learn more about weather, check out the VOD from our most recent dev stream!
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Stay Tuned!
[p]We’ll be sharing more sneak peeks at the features coming in the Tend, Build, Thrive patch, so make sure to look out for future Dev Streams and Dev Blogs to hear all of the latest updates; or catch us in Discord, and ask us directly in our ask-the-devs channel![/p]