Instead of leaving us hanging on for another week, the team are kind enough to release a proper update.
I’ll get to reading it now instead of dying to be “first” to post something.
http://stonehearth.net/2014/04/02/the-real-desktop-tuesday-update-of-save-farming-and-combat/
So far this sounds like a mammoth update that’s got me excited all over.
first!
oh wait… we’re not doing that? heads off to read the entry
so, so fired. <3 <3 .
Saving? Saving! Hurrah!
As disappointed as I am that we aren’t going to be able to increase the game speed via in-game purchases, there are definitely some outstanding points to take from this update:
It’s great that there’s a working save system! The added screenshot will remind me not to load the save with the burning houses and the dying.
Excited to see farming in action, I imagine there might be some tweaking done after we all get hands on, but definitely great to get to try some new stuff!
UI Enhancement - Really excited to see this in action, definitely sounds as if you will no longer be yanked out of the immersion by garish blue boxes. Also sounds good that you won’t be confused as to what is clickable due to the UI changing depending on what it is you’re trying to achieve.
Combat - Another cornerstone that we’ll just have to wait with bated breath for 
Building - I can’t help but feel that as one problem is solved (saving) the next thing groans and mumbles will be heard around is “Why no roof?!”.
All in all - 9/10 would read again. A pretty substantial update that certainly paves the way for the next few months for the team!
Awesome! So much stuffz!
When you consider that it’s 4 months maximum left of development time before full release, at first it’s quite easy to say “Oh, they’ll never make it.” But I swear save was meant to be one of the big brutes that needs to go in and it’s taken what, 3-4 weeks? Props to Tony…
Really does make me feel like Radiant are well and truly on their way with Stonehearth. Other than combat and more advanced building, all the core engine stuff seems pretty much done. Now it’s just cranking out content, which has already stated to be not too gruelling of a process, even notably quick to do. These next few months are going to be pretty fantastic. 
YES YES YES! This is a desktop tuesday like the ones in my dreamz! 
Great work guys! Can’t wait, next few months will be exciting, hopefully you guys don’t feel too much pressure.
Would this be a feature in the game, @Tom? Maybe in the single player (as I don’t think it’d work with co-op)?
Pretty sure game speed has been mentioned at some point, but there’s so much stuff that I’m losing track 
Certainly with two player it could simply maybe just send a message to the other player to Accept or Reject the request of speeding them up, then if you needed to you could put it back in normal speed without needing to request (in case of emergencies) and pause too were that to go in (perhaps with a limited length of time for pause, I dunno, friendly co-op I guess you would probably be fine pausing it for any length of time). Definitely something I see could go in.
Whilst I’m not @Tom (surprising right?), I do believe that the ability to change the game speed has either been 100% confirmed, or something they would have to see about.
It has, I can’t find it, but it has.
Edit: Way back in the beginning of time this was asked and answered:
well, that was rather satisfying… 
kudos on the continued efforts on the save system… so far, it looks very slick… 
Here’s a quick shot of the Save Game dialog. … Look closely and you’ll see that the screenshot includes the GUI at the time that you hit save…one more bug we need to fix.
said GUI looks intriguing in an of itself! inquiring minds want to know more about the (very evenly) circled area below:
To facilitate the tuning, we’ve built a mammoth spreadsheet that simulates the farming system and a town of 6 hungry settlers.
a collective gasp runs over the discourse, as the n3rd elite visualize said spreadsheet… 
a dramatic re-enactment of Ai coordination
from which I will now build a web comic… so, thanks for that…
Add the ability to (indirectly!) control squads of units by making defend zones and patrol paths
this… sounds like all sorts of fun…
I hope that gives you a feeling for what’s going on in the team. As you can see, we’ve got a lot going on! The next two to three months should be particularly exciting as the “prototype with potential” that we have now develops into a real game.
one of the most informative blogs we’ve had in some time… lots of 10k ft perspective dialogue, which is excellent! cant wait to see where you all take us from here!
Yeah, I mean it just feels like such a sensible idea, especially with it being something so easy to toggle so different players can play their own way…super-micro, unbelievable-APM, top-tier StarCraft players can have it on normal mode and be zooming round their city at 200 APM whilst the less patient can speed things up when not too much is happening… 
Working already. Just needs some cleanup and UI. I think I showed it off in the last live stream.
I showed an early version of the spreadsheet for about 1 second in the last live stream. Just sayin…
I don’t want arrows, I want a line of facial expressions that start with calm and end with fear, nausea, and g-force induced flappy face.
Where’s @voxel_pirate and the CSI lab when you need them eh?
Edit: I will provide paint-mockups of the speed UI and said flappy face if required.
Looking forward to seeing them… 
Yeah… 
I was going to mention it. The UI was also shown there.
Definitely they didn’t watch the livestream, not even the archive…
Are we short on time or are there traitors among us?
One day, I’m going to kill you.
ohh… that spreadsheet… oh yeah I totally saw that…
I remember I was all like “no way!” and then I was all like “that’s awesome!”…
remember what Dr. Schwartz told you about this last time? out with anger, in with love… and always remember to apply your “internet filter”…
Hey, for some feedback, can you try making the World Generation faster?
Where can you get one of those?