I found the game via Steam Greenlight voting. Just happened to pop up as one of the games that I should vote on, watched the brief intro, uber drooled on keyboard… the rest is mostly history. Luckily I found out about the game in time to contribute via Kickstarter!
I love city building games personally. First thing i did in Minecraft after mining several stadium sized fields for materials was to build an epic (albeit at the time un-populated) city. Was tickled pink when they added villagers, which ended up being mindless minions for me to toss into the moat for their insolence. Although I quite enjoy minecraft, it really just doesn’t fill that builders niche for me.
This game seems more like an epic combination of Settlers, with a more personalized relationship with your people (akin to Final Fantasy Tactics, as the developers have said). What draws me more to this game than the other similar genre games that are currently in various stages of release is the vision for the game. The graphics, though modeled on 16 bit, are epic, and the concepts behind the game seem so much more refined than their peers. If only it were December…
I love the open ended feeling of assigning my own goals. I had tons of FUN! in Dwarf Fortress. My main motivation was to create a stable economy. The current version of DF has the economy disabled :(. Most of my posts on these forums will probably be probing for responses on minting currency and creating an actual economy.
What makes Stonehearth interesting to me is City Management. Running a city/country always appealed to me. I love games like Tropico and Civ, but never really cared much for things like Starcraft and Warcraft because they don’t focus much on what the citizens thought. In games like Warcraft/Starcraft are solely military and I like to keep my options open so the game doesn’t get stale. I feel like this game would give tons of options which would keep gameplay fresh. Want to raid a neutral faction? Go ahead. Care to build magnificent buildings? Go for it. Want to be a major trading hub? Reach for the stars. The promise of periodic events (caravans/festivals) with different outcomes every year depending on your reaction would only add to the variation. Throw in co-op/PvP and I don’t think I could become bored even if I tried.
I’m a BIG fan of The Settlers, and the way I see it, Stonehearth just takes that game to the next level. I’m a sucker for macro-management, trying to make the most efficient village with regards to flow of goods and defense. My biggest grief with The Settlers was that you were limited to where you could build your houses (had to first expand your territory, etc.). In ST it seems you can build anywhere you want.
The single biggest thing that I’m looking forward to in Stonehearth is the way you will “upgrade” your buildings. Instead of clicking on the (pre-modelled) building and selecting “upgrade” (resulting in another pre-defined building…), I now get to tear down a wall and add a room or pull off the roof and add another storey. I can’t explain how excited I am about that. I want to build large, multi-storey warehouses, a central “town hall”, a fort/barrack, heck maybe even an appartement building. The possibilities seem endless.
I’m still very glad I donated to the Kickstarter and am looking forward to the beta in December!
