Q&A #3 and Patch Notes #41
Hello everyone!
This week we are releasing a small update while we work on some important features and try to catch up a bit on some of the things we are behind on. Next week's Update is going to be about magic improvements and will be coming sooner than usual.
By the way, this announcement contains our Q&A #3, so make sure to scroll down if you're interested!
First, here are the Patch Notes:
[h2]Version EA_0.46 and hotfixes since the last announcement:[/h2]
- Slag Recycling: New way to acquire additional greenstone powder out of slag.
- Whetstone: New tool for sharpening more efficiently.
- Pottery Improvements: Pottery now has a skill and clay and some clay objects now have quality (jars and crucibles for now).
- Doors built inside your hut will show different art depending on what type of room they lead to (an indoor room, cellar or enclosure).
- Added some new wound types for the bear.
- Hideout can now be used for sleeping.
- If you max out your rectal pressure while having loose stools you no longer expel solid excrement.
- Clothing Equipment Research now unlocks after making cloth of any size.
- It is now possible to prepare ghost bronze crucibles with ghost bronze nuggets.
- Fixed a bug which let the player mix and match nuggets of different metal types in the same recipe.
- All Path building actions should now reduce sharpness of metal Axe or Shovel used.
- Dying of wolfsbane poisoning now displays the proper message.
- Furnace can now heat up Lumps of Metal.
- It is now possible to use Mortar and Pestle to grind Malted Rye into Rye Grist.
- Fixed Bug which caused Tools and Weapons to lose their enchants when sharpened.
- Metal Shovel blueprint now shows the proper picture.
- Boars should no longer be pushed out of triggered pit traps.
- Typo fixes.
- Fixed a bug which caused 3 minute actions not to spend any ingredients.
- Fixed a bug which would sometimes incorrectly calculate metal nugget and metal lump quality.
- Crucible Research mode unlock condition now has proper text.
- Dead Witch Stone can now be ground into dust.
- Added a Blueprint shortcut for the "Bake a Breadloaf" Quest.
- Flax seeds can now be used as trap bait.
- Dying of Witchstone Poisoning now displays the proper message.
- It is now possible to wash dressings in River Ice Holes.
- Peeling and cutting a fireroot now takes a minimum of 3 minutes.
- Soothing Ointment now displays the correct message when it spoils.
- Fixed dyed underwear's name.
- Building an outside enclosure now also finishes the "Build an Enclosure" quest.
[h2]Q&A #3:[/h2]
1) Will we getting any kind of 'wooly' animal in the future? Like wild sheep/mouflon since FF has much more focus on proper clothing?
Yes we will be adding them along with spinnable wool and clothes. A wild woolly animal is planned for the more mountainous regions of the map and the trader will also be bringing sheep in the future.
2) Will TI cooking pot recipes make a comeback? Or with there be some new system for making new 'special' dishes?
We will be adding more special recipes like the ones in tropical island but it won't be the main system like before. We want these recipes to be mostly used for more specific things like breads, pastries or candy. As we want to give players more creativity and choice when it comes to cooking.
The flavour system is a step in that direction and the cauldron stews are another. We will soon be adding an important feature that lets you create your own recipes from plates. So you can store and name your favourite dishes, and easily access them later.
Oh, and this feature will include customizable pies!
3) How are yall feeling about the games progress so far? So many new things added in such a short while since launch!
We are very happy with our rate of progress so far. It's been intense but very rewarding!
Here are some of the things in the works that will hopefully be released over the next couple of months:
- Magic Improvements: Including spirits for all existing missing animals, rebalancing tweaks for all types of magics and spiritual awakening events and rituals.
- Recipe Making: Giving you the ability to create your own food recipes in plates, bowls, flatbreads and pies.
- Butchering Improvements: introducing a butchering skill, blood, organs and sinew among other things.
- Swamp Areas: Introducing alder trees (red dyes), leeches, peat, mosquitoes, more diseases, paths that flood and freeze and more.
- More Metal Stuff: Tin Bronze, White bronze and Jewelry.
- Cabin: A sturdier, larger and more comfortable home that can support a second floor.
- River Action: Log river transportation, log booms and Water Wheels for automated milling.
- Lake Area: Introducing ducks, cattails and a lake island.
4) Are there any plans to modify the map exploration? Will there be changes to provide higher exploration benefits to encourage players to explore? Exploration in the first game felt more like uncovering a world.
Tropical Island was a relatively small island and used a more conceptual and blurry approach to its different areas. With Fantasy Forest we wanted to capture the feel of an expansive forest that is large enough for one to get lost in. We also wanted a world with NPCs moving around, and proper hunting and tracking.
This meant we had to move away from the more conceptual approach to a more spatial one resembling an actual grid. As a result of these changes, we now have a lot more areas and content is more spread out among them.
In any case, as you know, we've been adding lots of new content and the map is gradually filling out.
Greenstone, Witchstone, different tree types and vegetation, animal territories and the addition of new landmarks have all been helping on this front, and we'll continue to add more and more of them over time.
5) More questions on npcs, will they be able to do most of the things the players will be able to do like tending gardens, cooking, taking care of the animals, etc.?
NPCs have a "duty" system that will let them take care of farming, cooking, animal husbandry, foraging, hunting, cleaning and wood gathering among other things. Provided they're on good terms with you of course. Their traits and relationship with you will determine how effective they are at those tasks.
6) Can NPCs die, either from age, death from animals or other means? It'll be cool if we also have an age stat, to incentivise us to have children with npcs. Once these children grow up, having an option to play as the children may increase the longevity of the game and add some difficulty as everyone eventually dies of old age.
NPCs can die from wounds or disease but death from old age is not planned at the moment.
Can't promise anything here for now, but we'll see. :)
7) Whats your plans for after CSFF is finally finished and satisfied with everything about it, would you create a new game again? there has been rumors and talk about how you guys been wanting to make a arctic survival game and if so will you do something like that in the future projects?
We have a few games in progress that we started after finishing Tropical Island but we had to put on hold to focus on Fantasy Forest. The next title we release is probably going to be one of those. :)
I'm afraid there won't be any artic survival in the foreseeable future though, as the winter survival game we were working on is what gradually mutated into Fantasy Forest!
8) Will we be able to destroy / dismantle a old hut - or rooms inside the hut? To build something better?
Yes, but unfortunately this feature will take some time to implement. It's probably going to be some time until we manage to get it in.
9) How did Gwim and Plissken met / or how Winterspring games was born?
Plissken and I have been friends for approximately 10 years. We met while working at a big mobile game company. I had been trying to go indie for years and failing at it and when Plissken started working with me we instantly realized we had chemistry and started producing game prototypes in our free time.
We slowly worked on developing ways to exploit our strengths and weaknesses and found our own unique way of developing games. Before we knew it we were quitting our jobs and going full time on Card Quest.
While we were happy with the game, it did not make enough money to keep us afloat. Plissken had to go back to live with his parents and I had to stay with a friend, but we were fortunate enough to find jobs again relatively soon. Over the following years we kept our friendship going and we kept working on side projects together until we felt we were ready to give it another try. That's when we went for Card Survival: Tropical Island.
The game did well enough that this time we were able to stay full time, and when our Chinese audience joined, we were surprised to see that suddenly we were now not only able to recoup our costs but also secure our development for the next few years. It was also during this time that Neomare joined us, as he had been supporting the game for a long time and we got along well.
10) What made you jump genre from Card quest to Card Survival? Was Card Survival something you had planned before Card Quest? Or the game idea was born while developing Card Quest?
We have prototyped games of many genres over the years, from shootemups to metroidvanias or first person exploration games so we were never really tied to any particular genre and the transition felt normal to us.
Card Survival's ancestor was one such prototype. A menu-based survival game that had definite Card Survival vibes. The initial idea was abandoned at some point for some new idea that had excited us at the time, but it was later resumed, this time as a "prehistoric" survival card game that eventually turned into Tropical Island.
11) While drawing the maps I do see a lot of "Aha, this makes a lot of sense" or "This fits perfectly", How do you design the maps? You draw them? Create each area on the go? How do you determine where each resource is placed? I picture in my mind Gwim in a room with hanging papers and colored twine connecting them.
Haha. Close enough! :P I usually keep a big graph with lots of interconnected areas. I try to make it make sense and situate things where they would naturally fit, while also trying to keep gameplay in mind.
12) Do you devs have real life survival knowledge or you research something before implementing? Did you really had to google "How to make home-made dynamite" at some point?
I'm afraid we don't have much practical survival knowledge, only theoretical!
I personally don't have any real life experience in these things, besides some silly experiments trying to start fires with hand drills or some basic camping experience.
The content you can find in our games is mostly the result of lots of hours of internet research. I do put special attention in trying to make sure things feel deep and realistic within the constraints of our game.
13) Are there any HUD changes planned or more or less what we see is what we have? What is the locked icon on the right side?
We are currently experimenting with an improved HUD with an artist friend. So it is possible that we will be releasing more aesthetically pleasing and readable UI in the future. Nothing too crazy, just overall prettier and clearer.
The locked icon on the right side is the zoom out/in button. It toggles between smaller and bigger cards. The feature is quite buggy however so we currently have it disabled.
14) Is there any chance for the popular QoL mods to be implemented? I see the mini-cards and the detailed number mod images in discord and I wish they were in the game.
The mini-cards mod is technically already implemented (the zoom feature), we just need to fix a few bugs before we are comfortable releasing it, so that one's definitely going in.
Regarding detailed numbers, we don't have any plans to implement that at the moment.
What we do have plans for is to setup steam workshop so that people can more easily publish and install mods. :)
15) Will there be any possibility for including controller support/mouse and keyboard shortcuts?
Keyboard shortcuts definitely. Controller support is less likely. Maybe if enough people want it?
16) Will there be animal riding like boar/wolf as a mount?
There's definitely going to be animal riding. There are no ridable boars/wolves planned at the moment, but we could look into it. Maybe if you find a large enough animal, or if your character is small enough. :)
17) What do merchants expect to sell? More animals, such as cats, dogs, sheep, cows? Or plants, such as onions, peppers, chili peppers, rice and wheat? Or blueprints, such as weapons, water wheels, automatic sprinklers, automatic fertilizer spreaders, people (slaves), robots?
We have plans to improve the trader system considerably. Here are some of the things you can expect.
- Trader wealth will increase as you trade and fulfill special requests, unlocking new content and options.
- Eventually trader will start coming with additional more specialized traders, unlocking more content and eventually turning into a caravan and trading outpost.
- Farm animals (cows, sheep, chicken) and pets (dogs, cats) will eventually be available.
- Prospective husbands, wives, friends or workers can also sometimes comes with the traders and can also be requested. (the system will generate them randomly or allow you to create them through perks, like when you create your own character).
18) Are sometimes seasons particular harsh or dry, and does the game communicate that to the player afterwards? (Brain is bad in statistics). Is it just statistical weather, or are there some small differences in other details or mechanics too?
At the moment seasons are quite regular when it comes to temperature and most of the random aspects comes from cloud formation and rain. Our weather system has the capacity to be a lot more complicated though. The game has a feature that allows different winds to interact with each other, moving temperature, humidity and clouds around. Unfortunately we had to temporarily disable it as it was just too chaotic and impossible to predict. Hopefully we can switch it back on before too long.
19) Will there be a way to use the river to move stuff - like floating logs (or big carcasses?) downwards?
We have plans to use the river for transportation. It's actually going to be the main automated way for transporting large amounts of cargo.
Here are some examples of the river transportation things we'll be introducing:
- Logs: Logs placed in the river currents will gradually travel downwards.
- Rafts: Mobile structures that can carry cargo or the player, and also flow downriver like logs.
- Boat: Sturdier than rafts, they serve the same purpose but can travel faster than rafts.
- Oars: Will allow you to go upriver with rafts and boats (not through rapids or waterfalls though!)
- Log Booms: Chained logs that help catch any log, raft or boat floating downriver.
20) Do you plan to have any trans-gender specific plans? Like NPCs with their opinion on the matter of your character not fitting into the expected range, or them having different organs than what they present? I also am curious if queer people and relationships will be present or included in the “relationships” that are planned with npc’s. Will NPCs be playersexual?
NPC's will not be playersexual as they are systems with their own likes and dislikes, dictated by their own specific traits.
That said, most NPCs will be introduced into the game through a character creator screen giving players the ability to shape what they like or dislike.
You could make NPCs that would really be attracted to your character's every trait, or indifferent to them, or even repelled by them. The choice is yours. :)
That's all for now.
See you on the next announcement!
Reminder: All fixes and new content are added to the public beta branch first.
If you want to access them you can find the instructions on the link below. Be warned though, things are less stable there and are likely to undergo balance changes quite frequently! :)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2868860/discussions/0/600774299444324511/