A feature where pets scheme behind their masters’ backs to take over the town?
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First picture is about the new combat system, the cleric wields a scepter and a shield instead of his book.
Second picture … in the background, there are ducks. So … maybe more wildlife in general, so that especially forests don’t feel too empty?
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The first picture seems like a cleric rework, maybe the cleric has bonus dmg againts undead?
The second picture does not look like a gameplay. It has way too many creatures and plants on it and also DUCKS.
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First picture, the cleric can hold shields and can drive away undeads?
And are in the second lake roses in the water?
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1st picture: a rework of the combat system. The cleric is wielding different weapons. So maybe some new weapons. Also since the cleric now looks more like a paladin, maybe a new healer class or mage/wizard ?
2nd picture: The animals in the picture,… they look like they are having a deep conversation among each other. This may suggest a community, a society,…
Is this confirmation of a (playable) animal faction ? 
I always found it strange these critters would befriend my heartlings. Now I know, They were embedding their spies into my outpost, to prepare for an invasion and turn my heartling into mindless slaves to do their bidding. Farm crops for eternity to feed the animal overlord…
Or it could be the ducks in the background, so maybe some new animals…
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Changes to combat
New looks for animals
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The first screenshot has some interesting, subtle things going on aside from the new cleric loadout: the zombies are wielding new weapons (bronze maces – IIRC they previously used iron maces as well as tools like axes), which hints to me that there might be new “tiers” of undead warrior, much like the goblins have “proper” warriors with real weapons and armour once you get past the peons and the thieves and such. There’s also a zombie fleeing combat, but it has a visible buff/debuff particle, and there’s no polearm-armed infantry around… so it seems like there’s some kind of new intimidation debuff coming for one of our troops! That, or the cleric is getting a “turn undead” style of skill with their new load-out.
Now, as for the million-dollar-question of the second screenshot…
The mix of plants and trees here strikes me as really interesting – I’ve always been the kind to decorate my trapping grounds with a variety of flora to boost the wilderness score (even though, strictly speaking, it’s more efficient to just pack in trees around the edges and leave all the space clear for traps hahaha!); so I’m guessing and hoping that this is a hint towards a slightly expanded wilderness mechanic. I’m hoping it’s one that rewards having a variety of plants (especially if there’s some kind of “animal A likes berry bushes and similar, while animal B likes herbs and shade from trees” sort of bonus for attracting different animals), simulating a bit more of an “ecosystem.” I vaguely recall either you or Paul mentioning that just spamming trees to boost wilderness score wasn’t a very satisfying solution… is it cheating if I keep guessing based on things you’ve already tangentially talked about (but not on Discord) ? 
Also, I’d assume that if you’re adding to the wilderness mechanics to promote biodiversity, you’d take the opportunity to increase the fauna diversity at the same time – that’s * ahem * only natural * ahem *
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The first picture is showing off the new Truth system. The character on the far left has obviously been marked as a Liar. You can tell by the condition of his pants.
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Sheepgeant: …and then we move Scorpoyons to the front line.
Mooyor: I have bad feeling about that. Wouldn’t it be better to bombard with Trebusheep first?
Capoyotain: Moogonels should do the trick.
Ducks in the background: QUACK!
Also the last picture shows the pace of ACE upgrades, I remember getting my hands on that male duck model months and months ago. What is worth noting though is it seems ducks are mobs which stay afloat.
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It’s been said: 1) cleric combat and 2) ducks and water plants (+floating system I assume).
But, is it just me or do the animals in the second picture look placed like furniture? They’re looking all towards the cardinal directions. Why have animal furniture? It’s beyond me.
And here I am…
Once more late for today’s update, and feeling really sleepy (Almost 3:00 in the morning)
But by now we all already know that the “Thursday” in “Preview Thursday” is more like, uh… guidelines. It’s a state of spirit. An abstract concept. Something. 
But to not be a complete bummer, I’ll at least comment the guesses now - so I can just jump straight into the post later today (Friday) 
Now, that’s actually a funny campaign idea. But no, unfortunately this is not the case… for now.
But since we’re into it already, I feel really bad about that picture now. Once again I tried to confuse people with something really silly - this time it’s an attempt at an unsettling animal meeting inspired by something like Among Us - I guess? I’m not sure. I just popped some animals in, trying to hide the real culprits 
Hah! These are not entirely wrong at all… But hey, you do follow around the news and stuff on Discord a lot, Paldorien 
I won’t vote you out as the impostor just yet but I’ll let you share the winning title with others!
Damage against undead, hmmmmmm… Yes, that is correct.
And indeed that picture was posed. But yes, the focus are the ducks!
Yes, first line is correct
Second… well, these are lilies. And while they are being reworked on this update, they were already in the game!
Very profound!
As already made quite clear, yes – it’s all about a Cleric rework. And the second image is more about the ducks (new animals) but fun idea nonetheless
The end-game “Undead Hordes” in ACE already come better equipped 
That’s … uh…
Well, that’s a lot. I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you this time
Not a bad idea/guess, but I didn’t mean for it to mean that much - but I guess that’s the fun of the Surprise Sunday, going crazy on speculation
dunnar was not The Impostor
(1 impostor remains)
coughs
Well, there is already a floating system in (the Lily flowers and pads use them)
And… uh… no, no animal furniture. That would be quite creepy
Well, with all that said…
I hereby consider @Paldorien and @ThisDude the winners/first to guess it mostly correct!
Others have contributed with some other insights, but these two basically got it right first.
So, for the next post, expect:
Cleric Changes & New Cleric Role: Scepter & Shield
and…
New (Pasture) Animals: Ducks & Oinkers!
Good night, now!
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Greetings once more, fellow hearthlings 
It’s time for…
Cleric Changes & New Cleric Role
Something we’ve heard a lot since ACE implemented its major combat changes (like the swappable roles and the equipment overhaul) is that we didn’t give the same treatment to Clerics - which is true. The Clerics were basically untouched while the three other combat jobs were quite expanded.
Footmen received multiple roles, off-hand weapons and several buffs; Knights received a secondary role with a very useful AoE debuffer/tank arsenal, even Archers got an alternative with their new crossbows… But Clerics didn’t get anything - not even new gear since their only piece of armor, the Circle, already had 3 tiers.
But the main reason we didn’t touch Clerics back then is because we were still not sure about what to do with them. We knew we wanted to overhaul healing and medicine as a whole, making the Cleric less overpowered and giving some attributions and power back to herbalists and traditional healing, but we still didn’t know how, exactly.
Well, all of that is going to happen in the next update - which finally gave us the freedom to expand and work upon the Cleric. I present you the new Cleric role: Scepter & Shield!
Just like other combat roles, you can switch the Cleric between Healing Tome and Scepter & Shield now. The Shield is a light shield (same used by Footmen) however they are limited to the bronze and iron; and the Scepter is a whole new Blacksmith weapon that goes from Bronze to Silver and finally Gold.
Scepters themselves are not strong weapons in terms of damage.
The advantages of having a Scepter & Shield Cleric, however, lie in the realm of holy magic…
Scepters have a new combat buff called Rebuke that reduces the enemy courage and greatly reduces the healing received, giving you an alternative for dealing with enemy parties that come with pesky clerics of their own…
And both the Silver and Gold Scepters come with a new and very special debuff.
The Silver Scepter is capable of Turning Undead, a special effect that can only be applied to undead enemies and that will cause them to be burned with sacred energy, running away in fear as they lose health quickly - this is what could be seen on the image from Sunday.
The Gold Scepter, however, is where their sacred power truly shine… They can Smite Undead, and few of them will be able to stand against the bolt of divine energy that will struck them. A Cleric with a Gold Scepter is a one-person-army against a horde of undead.
All of these come with a price, however. A Cleric using the Scepter & Shield role will lose some of their Healing Tome abilities. For example, they will not be able to utilize any direct/single target healing spells (only their regular healing aura); They will also not be able to use their Strength Aura to buff their allies. They will, however, utilize a new debuffing aura on enemies:
So, as you can probably tell, a Scepter & Shield Cleric is a mighty new option for your army, one that will make undead encounters much easier thanks to their immense holy power. Never again you shall fear not being able to save a certain egg from a certain quest if you count with one of these - no huge skeleton will stand on their way!
But wait, there’s more!
You might have noticed in the pictures above that the Cleric is wearing a new armor! That’s right - there is now a basic piece of protection for their body that you can craft with a Weaver… Probably a wise choice now that they can go up close and personal!
Additionally, the regular, Healing Tome Cleric has also been expanded!
You can now craft new and better tomes for them, improving their healing capability but also unlocking a new spell!
These tomes will grant new, awesome healing powers to your Cleric. There is one with a very short casting time but low healing effect - it will, however, leave a buff that will slowly heal them over time.
There is also one with a very long casting time but that will heal them almost completely.
And finally, the Legendary Tome will now unlock a special power called Divine Intervention that will provide a holy shield with 100% damage absorption for a while. Clerics will cast these on themselves if on danger or on the first hearthling to be damaged, so make sure to send the Knight in first!
Finally, as you can see in that short clip, there’s also a tiny ranged attack added to the Healing Tome Cleric. We did this to help players in keeping their clerics on a safer distance, instead of having them run towards the enemies to hit them with their sacred texts… Don’t damage books, folks! 
There are other minor tweaks and secrets in there, but we’ll leave some for you all to discover 
New (Pasture) Animals!
To finish this update off, I’ll give a short introduction to another fun new thing coming!
As promised, this second update is happening because of everyone’s good guesses
It’s a simple yet exciting one!
We have two new animals joining the game! Both will be pasture animals, which means that they can be raised by shepherds and provide your town with resources, but one of them also have a “Wild” version. (Both have… however the second one already had their “wild” version in the base game )
The first one, as spotted in the picture, is the Duck!
Why Ducks?
Well, duh…ck. Ducks are quite common and were very important for many, if not most peoples from older/medieval times that inspire the different factions in the game. Great egg producers and a nice source of flavorful meat, different types of ducks were highly coveted. Being such a common part of nature as well, it felt right to bring them in. The final push was a huge duck-loving talk that happened in the ACE discord and ended up with me and @Wouter_Sikkema making duck models and dreaming of ducks in the game. In the end, the mixture of both models resulted in the “top duck” that he sent and offered to ACE.
Raised ducks will be your typical white ducks while wild ones will be similar to mallards.
The main motivator for adding ducks is to provide the player to earlier eggs and feathers (although they’re not as efficient as poyos for gameplay reasons); and also to give the player an alternative to raising (and slaughtering) rabbits, something that some people have asked of us and we thought it is a genuine, reasonable concern
The second animal being added is the Oinker.
Oinkers are, well, pigs. However, like Poyos and Moo-moos, we wanted to give them a bit more personality on their naming.
Oinkers exist for a very simple reason, and come to fulfill multiple items in our checklist.
- They are a renewable source of “Pork”, now giving the player access to renewable sources of all big meats
- They will be the first/easier-to-access renewable fungus/mushroom. Yes, they will dig truffles
- They are also a “staple animal” for shepherding and since we added cows…
Finally, on a personal sidenote, Oinkers were also a promise. My girlfriend/ACE Community moderator/member made me promise that I’d add them and name them Oinkers, a name she came up with 
She’s also the great mind behind the bears and all the bone furniture (which she modelled herself) + helped with the Thorulf & Rattley quest… So kudos to her
Oof!
That’s all for this giant update!
Stay warm and safe, and see you all next sunday for the upcoming picture
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NONONO dani, it was PEAK DUCKYNESS.
admitting that we added ducks because the hybridised model was TOO DAMN CUTE is acceptable 
hahahaha.
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I mean, that helped in them being the chosen ones – but the motivation is real as well, and it stemmed from that big chat with @Jay_Carr about having alternatives to certain animals, etc…
I write down everything 
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Super excited for all these updates and ideas! 
I really adore Stonehearth and its wonderful community of players and modders. I actually am intending to learn modding myself! Complete noob to all things coding and modding but you guys have so many guides, tutorials, and suggestions around that it won’t be too difficult. I have a big idea as my eventual goal!
I haven’t tried any sort of modding since like Sims 3 where I made some simple re-textures xD
But any try is a good try~
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I hope you’re all having a happy sunday!
I’m just passing by…
…
…
SURPRISE SUNDAY!
May the guessing games begin… 
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Is that a giant rock golem buried in the ground?
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What are those two big fields? (bigger than farm fields)
And one of them is … turning into something else … ? O.õ?
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