Think about this. Like civilization or rise of nations.
You and your settlers start on “primitive-era”. They can make houses, basic warriors, etc but cant do so much more. When they grown from 4 houses to “village” with more people and more materials, they can past to other era, like “stone-era”.
Then you can grown and grown, improve your warriors, start to research some things (like better houses?)
When you reach some requeriments, you go to “mechanic-era”
More and more evolution… and, finally… maybe… (its just a idea)… reach other planets… take other resources (other colours and materials), fight or allied to other races… etc etc.
It sounds like a good idea, and perhaps a great idea for a mod.
I think the devs want the core game to occupy a certain ‘time period’ if you like. The problem with having multiple eras, or at least something I view as a problem, is you then lose the depth?
By this I mean, you’re then focussing on progressing to the top ‘era’ and you don’t really have a rich and deep experience in every one, or at the very least it would be extremely difficult to do so.
I mean, the amount of work that would have to go in to have every faction, not only have their own unique stylings, but then changes in building style, clothing, weaponry, armour, literally everything, as you progress through the eras would be monumental.
My thoughts on it anyway. This idea though is something I can see coming out of the modding side of things.
im split half of me says it would be cool at least to have some progression but not too much otherwise people will spend the game getting the most modern tech possible and not enjoy the early game which is what i personally like. especially like rise of nations who ever got to modern first won as guns owned archers etc and it made it pointless to have aarchers for the later half of the game. it would take too long to get it done correctly as mentioned it would be perfect for a mod…
It’s breadth vs depth, depth being the long narrow tech tree that works off a goal and breadth the short wide one that works off variation. Long wide is generally bad anyway by being overwhelming and badly paced in that you barely spend time on anything due to speed of advancement or you spend a good amount of time and it takes forever to reach high levels.
That’s why a steampunk/medieval/fantasy style works, it allows for progression through breadth instead of depth if done right so you get feeling of advancing by being able to do more while not having anything go obsolete.
For modding though I can see depth becoming a bigger issue as it does inherently change the nature of play and unless done carefully could result in something that makes the game less fun to play which is clearly bad. The better options would likely be either massive content boosts or breadth over depth.
That’s why we’ve got planes, as for the other stuff it’s mostly in the game from what I’ve seen even if it’s not so specific but the job/tech tree does simulate that advancement somewhat.
But this game have others forms and plans for play. You dont reach modern era for guns and tanks, you reach modern era because you have a nice civilization, with constant supplies, nice defenses and you want to expand more and more.
If you can reach other planet, you can have more materials, others tecnologies… and more.
But that is totally huge and difficult, i know. For this reason is only a idea!
i see ur point if it wasnt so much different eras instead just research say u start with gold and research coins they still fit into the ‘era’ but researching credit cards wouldnt it is along those lines i mean
I believe this kind of gameplay would require a whole different direction than I think they’re looking to go with Stonehearth. What I imagine is that they do intend to have the progression of warriors like you spoke about, and of course they’ll have a bit of the development of the civilization, but going from the stone-age to “mechanic-era” and later planet exploration would not encourage the exploration, city developing, civilization conquering they’re after. Maybe your ideas would be better suited for an expansion or mod.
I agree, I think you’re idea would change the mechanics for too much. If you had wanted to redo the world of Stonehearth in another era, but leave it in that era then that would still keep the spirit of the original I think. For example say you wanted to focus on a World War One Era. Then your tech should be limited to that area and so should the diplomacy and economy. I don’t know it just feels you’re asking for an RTS Civ or an Age of Empires. Those games exist in many different flavors today, I feel Stonehearth is fairly unique as it is and should stay that way (In Style I mean).
I’m not sure about necroing this topic, but it really caught my attention, the amount of work is staggering but seems like a fine idea; anyone out there?
Do you not think that different planets would be a game changing development that may completely alter the base game? My point is that in going to a different planet you are essentially starting anew but with the experience of many (Stonehearth) months of progression I.e. Craftsman levels on Earth. This would be odd and I feel that, from past experience of games trying to do this, a complex game cannot change planets effectively without it being a simple game already or a game set in travelling space. Stonehearth is neither. However please don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great idea. If a mod was made I would try it, definitely! I just don’t really want it to be implemented in the main game, if you get my drift…
