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:
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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)
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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”!