Looking at how Stonehearth is taking shape, getting new crafters seems to be the only goal to work towards. After you have them all and have built what you can with them, game over. Of course, you could build a bigger town, improve the aesthetics, but after a while, it seems like the game is going to hit a wall.
Granted, I’m sure that there’s going to be plenty of buildings to create, plenty of things to build, and raids to fend off in-between, but when you get to the point where you’ve built up your perfect bastion, what will be left for the player to do?
In addition to asking, I have some ideas:
Have the ability to hand-pick a migration team, and leave the city, starting anew with an entirely different city elsewhere, but still be able to interact with the other city/cities. I.e. request aid/troops, trade, ATTACK!, and so on. (Attacking would be more difficult to implement, but the others? They could be done)
Be able to send hand-picked groups of soldiers on expeditions/battles, (say, in caves, dungeons, or overworld) during which they would be individually controllable, (the city would be essentially paused “somewhere else” at this time) and must get some sort of treasure or raid a goblin camp/city. (Complete with siege weapons?) Would probably be considerably more work to implement.
Make the game INCREDIBLY difficult to win. Bear with me here, who wants to play through a game in one sitting and say, “I win!”? You didn’t win; you finished. There’s a difference between winning a game and finishing a game, and the way Stonehearth is going, it looks like a “finish” kind of game. Maybe end with building a grand monument, inciting the attack of thousands of goblins while you build it, defend your city from an erupting volcano, or some other grand way to either go out kicking, or claim your right to be called “City Managing Master”!
I see your thoughts and worries here, but after playing games likes Dwarf Fortress, the SIms, and even Minecraft to an extent, i’m not extremely worried.
With smart enough Citizen UI (Moods, fears, aspirations, insane tendencies to murder their friends…) That alone may be enough to keep things interesting.
Adding to that a Smart Event system that responds to how you play the game, you’re going to have plenty to worry about beyond the standard goblin raid. Imagine a flying Cthulu monster that turns the citizens it kills into zombies within your town? Or mole men that dig up through your citizens homes and attack them in their sleep? Assassin that can sneak over walls and take out your high end workers… There could be TONS of stuff to deal with that they’ve mentioned already as well.
HOWEVER, i do love the idea of a Biome with a Volcano you have to worry about, and a near never-ending wave of pissed off goblins sounds wonderful as well, especially if they are riding Stone-breaking trolls or something.
I also am a fan of your first option. Breaking off from the main group and starting fresh sounds fun… but you could probably just do that on the same map if you really wanted to, but i understand the desire, it’d be cool to expand your empire to other areas.
Think Dwarf Fortress. If by some miracle you create the Invincible Siege-Proof City of Awesomeness… do some mega-projects or just start anew.
More likely though, something will occur to knock you back down again.
I would like to be able to establish secondary settlements on the same map. Imagine building a functioning city-state on an island, with farm villages feeding the big city, mining towns in the mountains, and so on. Heck, if nothing else, you could just keep re-using the same map if you get bored with your current settlement(s).
Something like this is already planned . There will be various dungeons, scenarios etc you can go visit, and of course various things that can come visit you.
It’ll probably feel a bit like this if Cthulhu comes a-calling to be honest, whether or not you finished his monument .
Remember though, this is a sandbox game - which more or less means by definition that there is no “winning” involved at all - think Minecraft.
Adding to that a Smart Event system that responds to how you play the game, you’re going to have plenty to worry about beyond the standard goblin raid.
Is that Event System moddable? With a large enough community, that may be all that late-game needs. Heck, I might even take up modding myself!
I could really get into some megaprojects, but with the build system being as automated as it is, I don’t think there’d be a whole lot of variety in your projects, other than “It’s a really big house!” Is there anything planned to give players more control?
I haven’t seen anything to think otherwise. but maybe someone could confirm this. Adding in your own horrible event plagues/monsters/killer bunnies would be lovely.
Ha! Goblins are a part of the “Golden Conquering Arm” Kingdom. I’ve never been a fan of lua or json; I’m more of a C# and xml kind of guy, but I think I’ll pick it up pretty quick. Look out, Stonehearth! A new up-and-coming modder has arrived! And do I have some plans for you…
Well, I don’t know if it’s just you, but I do know it’s not me; Lego never appealed to me, and Stonehearth does. Then again, I can see your point. The core mechanics of the game, once they’re fully developed, will likely get me a long way toward enjoying the game long-term, as well.
If you arnt the sort who can enjoy a true sandbox than once the game is more mature you will proberbly see theme/challenge games devised by the community. This can be something as simple as no farming, go, to something like hermitville, every person must live in thier own house stockpiling there own food and goods and never have contact with anyone else, you may have 1 hauler who can move between the hermits on a ‘welfare’ check bringing goods the other hermits produce.
. There will be various dungeons, scenarios etc you can go visit, and of course various things that can come visit you.
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