What's new in 0.4.1

Damn pigs break every time a new version comes out:) Pigstries are now fixed and pig-herds will no longer try to feed chickens with turnips. #gofigure

Tax & Employment section now shows how many jobs you have in total.

Thanks to Adam for the suggestions!

Savegames from 0.4.0 are compatible with 0.4.1.

What's new in 0.4.0

0.4.0 is another major update of Hearthlands and the initial version available on Steam.

Savegames from 0.3.2 or before are not compatible with 0.4.

Diplomacy

You can now conduct diplomacy with the rival cities shown on the world map. Each rival city has a leader, certain military power and wealth. Power and wealth may change as you play. Each rival also has two important parameters: opinion of you (visible) and fear (hidden). Opinion of you depends on your culture and actions. Fear depends on your relative military power.

The higher opinion rivals have the more likely they will send you gifts, fulfill your requests and the less likely they will attack you.

The lower the fear is the more likely rivals will attack you and request goods from you.

Sending gifts to someone gives you an opinion bonus with them. Only the highest opinion bonus counts, so you can't send tons of gifts (Hi, CKII!).

Requesting goods from someone gives you an opinion penalty (even if they didn't accept the request).

If a rival sends you a gift you get an opinion penalty as well (even if you declined the gift).

You get an opinion bonus if you fulfill their request or a penalty if you decline it. If you decline the request right away the penalty is lower than if you accept it and decline (of fail to fulfill it) later.

If you attack someone or someone attacks you, you get a massive opinion penalty (it goes away after the war is over).

If you managed to repulse your rival's attack or conquered someone you get an opinion bonus with them.

If your rival's merchant is killed in your lands (due to invasion or monsters) you get an opinion penalty with that rival.

Every opinion modifier lasts for 2 year and gradually decreases over time.

You can see currently active requests on Requests Panel (top-left of the screen).

You can specify the number of rivals at the start of a new game (from none to 12). Also, if you don't want to bother with defending yourself and dealing with AI's requests you can make the rivals passive.

New trade system

Each rival has a certain set of resources it needs (he may want to buy, request and/or receive them as a gift from you) or has in abundance (he may want to sell or gift them to you).

The number of trade routes available for you as well as the price of goods depends on the opinion you have with your trading partner. When at war with someone trade routes between you close.

Inactive trade routes may eventually close and be replaced with new ones. Active trade routes may have their trade limit increased.

Wars and invasions

Rivals may launch an invasion on you (if they feel powerful enough).

You can also attack your rivals. Squads that are abroad won't get reinforcements until they return.

After the attack if over survived troops get XP and you may get some loot (if you've won).

Marching armies are shown on the world map.

New buildings and Plague

Forester's lodge lets you plant trees, mushrooms and flowers in a certain area.

Herbalist's shop lets you make medicine out of mushrooms.

Apothecary distributes medicine between your houses preventing plague from happening. You need approximately 1 medicine per house per year.

Plague can happen if your houses don't receive enough medicine. A house with plague won't be able to evolve and will lose its population until it gets abandoned. Make sure to build an apothecary early in the game.

Immigration

Your city now has an overall desirability which affects the immigration rate. You can see it on the Economy Overview section.

Deaths, emigration, low housing levels high taxes, unemployment and the presence of an invasion army decrease the desirability.

Other things

Both local map and world map can now be scrolled using WSAD keys.

On Load Game screen you can now double-click a savegame to load it right away.

All of the resource icons are accompanied by the appropriate resource name, which makes it easier to tell what it is.

Thanks to Bjorn for suggesting those three!

Wells now have a limited amount of water per year that can be taken out. You will need approximately one well per every two buildings (bakery, beer brewery and cider brewery) to keep up with the demand.

Pine trees added (pine tree yields 2 logs instead of 1 for a normal tree).

Better coast and water objects.

Tons of other improvements, balance changes and fixes.

As always we would like to get as much feedback as possible, so please comment and send your thoughts to info@hearthlands.com. If you become our watcher on Indie DB or Desura, that also helps a lot! Don't forget to subscribe to one of our social network pages or YouTube channel. If you want to support the development — you can just purchase the game.

Thank you,
Sergio

First of all: Hearthlands 0.4.0 has been released on Steam as Early Access! Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/336300.

We did it, mom!

Mac/Linux platforms on Steam as well as Desura/Humble/Groupees updates are coming soon.

Also, I'll make Steam keys available for everyone who bought the game on Desura, Humble, Indie Gala or Groupees as soon as I figure out how to do that.

What's new in 0.4.0 post is also coming soon.

Here's what we've been doing this week apart from preparing the game for Steam release:

Forester now plants flowes and mushrooms as well as trees.

Successful attack on a rival now also results in some loot.

A house with plague can't evolve or attract migrants and will gradually loose population until it drops to zero and becomes abandoned. Make sure you build herbalist's shop and an apothecary early to prevent this from happening.

Lots of balancing changes: chickens now drop 1 to 3 eggs, pigs need less turnips and less 3 leather instead of 4, boars yield 1 meat instead of 2. Lots of small changes in production rates, prices, ingredient requirements and trade.

I had to squeeze storage yard/marketplace screens a little bit since we have too many item types now.

A very old bug allowing you to have pretty much as many hunter lodges per one wild animal spawn point as you want is now fixed. Having 3 lodges per spawn is the most efficient.

As always we would like to get as much feedback as possible, so please comment and send your thoughts to info@hearthlands.com. If you become our watcher on Indie DB or Desura, that also helps a lot! Don't forget to subscribe to one of our social network pages or YouTube channel. If you want to support the development — you can just purchase the game.

Thank you,
Sergio

This week we mostly kept working on diplomacy/wars stuff, which is almost finished. Version 0.4.0 will be most likely released next week (if nothing goes wrong).

From left to right: forester, herbalist and pharmacist.

Attack button on a rival's screen opens a window with a list of your squads and their current status (at home, on the go, attacking someone, returning from someone). You can have up to 16 squads.

When you attack someone or someone attacks you, all trade routes between you two close and you get -200 opinion penalty until the war ends.

A squad that is abroad has an icon of the rival city it is attacking (or returning from attacking) shown on top of its shield.

Battle report showing casualties and the amount of XP each warrior has gained. It will also (probably) show the loot.

I decided to change opinion system a little bit. Instead of fixed bonuses/penalties for a specific amount of time, each bonus/penalty will gradually decrease over the two years after it's been applied. Trading with someone will increase the opinion, but if their merchant dies (to invasion army or monsters) you get a penalty.

Trade system has also changed. The number of trade routes you can have with someone depends on their relationships with you (so if you piss someone off they will stop trading with you and vice versa). The more they like you, the more types of goods you can trade. Inactive trade routes will eventually close, while the active ones may be extended.

That's a pretty big invasion:

Click to enlarge

Your city now has an overall desirability, which basically is a rate at which immigrants come to the city. Things like deaths, lack of resources, lack of jobs, low housing level, high taxes, high emigration etc. affect the desirability. If an invasion army is in the city desirability halves.

Pine trees now yield 2 logs instead of 1.

Bonus: a crowded city center:

Click to enlarge

As always we would like to get as much feedback as possible, so please comment and send your thoughts to info@hearthlands.com. If you become our watcher on Indie DB or Desura, that also helps a lot! Don't forget to subscribe to one of our social network pages or YouTube channel. If you want to support the development — you can just purchase the game.

Thank you,
Sergio

This week I continued to work on invasions, and there are some new buildings.

From left to right: forester's lodge, herbalist's lodge, apothecary.

Forester plants trees in a certain radius around his lodge. He will also (probably) plant trees and mushrooms.

Herbalist collects mushrooms and makes medicine.

Pharmacist delivers medicine to houses decreasing the chance of plague.

Invasions are almost done.

If you piss off your rivals they may launch an invasion on you.

Marching armies are shown on the world map.

To arms!

(Click to enlarge)

Planning a retaliation (my next task).

As always we would like to get as much feedback as possible, so please comment and send your thoughts to info@hearthlands.com. If you become our watcher on Indie DB or Desura, that also helps a lot! Don't forget to subscribe to one of our social network pages or YouTube channel. If you want to support the development — you can just purchase the game.

Thank you,
Sergio

This week we were focused mostly on fixes and tweaks, some of which were suggested by the community (thanks guys!). Here are some of them:

Unemployment is now shown not only as a percentage, but as an actual number (in parenthesis).

You can specify the number of rivals at the start of a new game (from none to 12). Also, if you don't want to bother with defending yourself and dealing with AI's requests you can make the rivals passive.

Opened panels and enabled overlays are now being saved between screens and save-loads.

Gifts and requests affect rivals' wealth.

Both local map and world map can now be scrolled using WSAD keys.

Before doing something that will change your neighbor's opinion you can see how exactly it is going to change (inspired by CKII).

On Load Game screen you can now double-click a savegame to load it right away.

All of the resource icons are accompanied by the appropriate resource name, which makes it easier to tell what it is.

Each rival city has a set of resources it needs, has (in abundance), is willing to sell or is willing to buy. The rival will accept gifts and make requests of resources he needs or buys, and may fulfill requests or send gifts of resources he has or sells. He also may want to start selling resources he has or start buying resources he needs.

Each rival's opinion is shown on the world map.

Pine trees!

(Click to enlarge)

Better coasts and water objects (WIP).

Requests panel shows all currently active requests. Left-click on it opens city screen.

As always we would like to get as much feedback as possible, so please comment and send your thoughts to info@hearthlands.com. If you become our watcher on Indie DB or Desura, that also helps a lot! Don't forget to subscribe to one of our social network pages or YouTube channel. If you want to support the development — you can just purchase the game.

Thank you,
Sergio