http://www.stonehearth.net/dt-town-upgrades/
Other Announcements
Builder update: As Allie, Malley, Luke, and Max are working on this, what’s going on with the builder? Well, the UI is now in, and the build is actually out to a small group of friends and family testers. Thus far, we’re collecting lots of good feedback–for example, that moving from a floorplan model to a room model can be confusing for people who are used to the old builder, or that the voxel tool and it’s capabilities aren’t nearly obvious enough for people who have only used the new one. We’re also working hard on the UI widgets for tactile manipulation that have replaced all the colored blocks in our previous mockups, but grabbing them and pulling the isn’t yet as natural as we’d like it to be, causing people to create rooms and walls they didn’t want. We’re making good progress, though, and plan to slowly include more people in our tests as we fix bugs and get increasing confidence that the new if buggy interactions are indeed, more enjoyable to use than our awkward if well-tested old ones.
Streams: Due to a scheduling conflict, this week’s Thursday stream will start half an hour later than usual, at 6:30 instead of 6:00, www.twitch.tv/stonehearth . This week it will be me, so come with general SH questions or ideas for the Northern Alliance!
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I really like the expansion and deeper explanation of the lore that the team is looking into now. Some things that I think need revisiting is both the black cord and the orcish khan. Both have the potential for a much deeper lore that can coincide with the ancient Phoenix empire. Other than that good job TR! Keep up the good work!
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A thousand years ago, when the pheonic empire collapsed…
This is all fine and well, until you realise every ascendancy game starts the the following date: day 0 of month 1 of year … 1000.
So the ascendancy apparently count the years since the phoenix empire collapsed. Why is that, as it seems odd?
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my question would be if a second flag would bring extra effect
and as the game goes, how far the flag buff can affect. (the whole map? etc)
because currently the game only gives you control over 1 settlement small & big and no matter how far.
should the flag only affects certain area, it’ll be cool if for example, we can make many flags and outposts to not let enemy go close to the central village.
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Eeek a very cool DT! Loving the lore! Is there any plan to include “adventurers” in it? IIRC Stonehearth was also meant to feel like you’re building a town from any RPG game, so it would be cool to see that part of the purpose of your town was to help attract adventurers to the area who would then defeat monsters/tame the lands. Heh, the player could even eventually have to host NPC adventurers who would need accommodation, food, shops etc. They could even get into fights that your militia would have to stop…
Really loving the look of the hearths. Hopefully we can construct some nice structures to put them on, so we could end up with “lighthouse” style beacons instead of only using them as a statue on the ground.
The banner idea for initial buffs for the town is a really great idea for giving player agency! Though the current buffs do look a little OP. Starting bonuses should always be small so you have room to add more rewards later on!
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You made me curious, so I had to look things up. Here on Earth, the first records of A.D. are from 525, but it didn’t catch on as widely until the 8th century after Charlemagne adopted it in the Holy Roman Empire. But it still wouldn’t be used throughout Europe until the 15th century. So calendars take time to catch on.
Basing the calendar on Cid would have made some sense, mirroring the religious basis we use on Earth, or the older system of measuring years into a leader’s reign. But that’s not the case. So I’d assume either that that was too recent for them to change over, or that they already had an established calendar by Cid’s time.
My guess is that the fall of the Phoenix Empire was a new age for the world even beyond the Ascendancy - or at least that’s what the new Ascendancy historians want to convince themselves, now that that “dark age” is coming to a close and they have the luxury of writing history rather than having to fight to stay alive.
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They mentioned that the multiplayer team is making progress as well as the building team… I’d love to know about that, even if it’s just a tidbit.
As far as the update is concerned, looks awesome! I’m still wondering about building other “mini” towns away from your settlement, for example if you build close to a lake and then realize you have to send your hearthlings across the map to get mining supplies (I suppose you could always just build buildings near the mining source, but it’d be nice if you could figure out a way to send resources between your town and your village).
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From the lore that they stated, I think the calendar should be based on Cid for the Ascendancy and Rayya for the Children (though we don’t know Rayya’s story yet). With it being “Year 1000” at the beginning, looking over the lore, it now doesn’t really make sense unless there was another major event that happened that we don’t know about.
…Ascendancy anyway, is that a thousand years ago, when the Phoenix empire collapsed, it left a huge, monster-infested wilderness in the most fertile parts of the world. Hundreds of years later, Cid the Warrior (or Cid the Teacher, depending on which history you read) forged The Ascendancy…
If the calendar was based on the fall of the Pheonix Empire, then the calendar year should be 1200+. If it was based on Cid, then it should be far less.
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Great DT! And Northern Alliance was mentioned!!! thank you 
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Where did those extra 200 years come from, unless you mean the rise of the phoenix empire and not the fall.
As I said in my calender thread, the starting moment of timekeeping is important. I don’t really mind what the calender starting date is based on, as long as it makes sense within the lore.
Anyway, I forgot to mention that I’m loving the lore, before digging in and pointing out small things. Keep it going, radiant!
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Wait you’re right, I miss read how it was station. I was looking at
- Pheonix fell 1000 years ago + Cid rose to power 200 years later = 1200
I didn’t think of it that Cid was in that 1000 years. My bad.
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The moment Ascendancy lore started getting flushed out some, my reaction was, “Oh, I want more of this!”
If lots of lore could be rolled into quests, I know I would greatly appreciate that. There could be optional side quests that may vary from game to game. Maybe you could uncover artifacts while digging or recover velum from looted chests, either of which would trigger some sort of interesting quest chain and introduce some lore of hearth.
Can’t wait till these updates go live. Keep it up, dev team!
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