Greetings,

I made some fixes and improvements.

Daily challenge & Sandbox:

• After completing the daily challenge and returning to the leaderboard, the result wasn't properly highlighted. Now fixed
  
• 65 instead of 70 turn limit for daily challenge
  
• Added a slider in the sandbox for free terraforms frequency adjustment
  
• Added randomize map button in the sandbox which generates map settings using the daily challenge algorithm
  
• More resources on smaller maps in the daily challenge
  
• Easy terrain complexity is now harder in the sandbox
  
• Bigger maps in the daily challenge will have harder terrain complexity on average
  
• Sandbox and daily challenge panels position for various aspect ratios

Fixes:

• Added a description to the noise filter module that factories no longer dehydrate adjacent fertile soil
  
• The terraforms shop was sometimes not displaying the correct listings which led to the wrong terraform delivery

- Andriy

Greetings 🙋‍♀️,

I'm happy to announce a major Farlanders update together with the discount as a part of Ukrainian Games Festival (go see it!). Limitless play update introduces 2 new game modes that were promised earlier.


Customize level generation and game rules the way you want and play with no limitations. You can make a tiny map with super deep caves (up to depth -20) to play vertically; a giant map with flat terrain, no obstacles, and unlimited construction to test colony layout ideas without the need to worry about resources or terraforming; or just make a regular map, but remove some of the game rules (e.g. colony morale) to have a more chill game experience. The only limit is your imagination, and customization tools that I made 😜.


Once a day a new random map is generated for everyone. You have one try and a turn limit to compete with other players for the best score (colony population). I tried to make a big variety of possible maps in the daily challenge, some you might find unfair and too difficult, while others are more chill. My personal favorite is playing on a small or tiny map with deep underground caves, that's something that wasn't exploited during the campaign.

Be aware, that the Daily challenge is not currently working on MacOS, due to 3rd party tools limitations.


There are 3 new statues designed by our Kickstarter backers. Each of them has a unique description, so don't forget to read it if you'll have one.

Have fun,
- Andriy

Greetings,

I'm presenting you another QoL and fixes patch for Farlanders. Next, I'm planning to work on new game modes that were announced earlier: Sandbox, and Daily Challenge.

• Don't let building the base when there is not enough space for expansion
  
• In the campaign, a little delay after the typewriter effect was skipped, during which you can’t skip more text to avoid missing text by accident
  
• Setting to disable videos in the building preview panel
  
• Clearer description of the scanner effect
  
• Resize 'book interface' when its not fitting the screen on more square resolutions and larger UI size
  
• Change depth with shift+1,2,3... hotkeys
  
• Show ‘to be revealed’ text as an objective during the gameplay when there are more objectives to come

• Option to change campaign difficulty
  
• Added ability to set a specific RNG seed for campaign mission

• Dust storm sounds get quieter as you go deeper underground

• Added Crytivo splash screen
  
• Removed ‘Jack of all trades achievement’ it was buggy and also the process of unlocking it seems tedious
  
• Easier to unlock 'Not a Single Drop Wasted' achievement

• ‘Normal prices’ text was missing on the trading screen
  
• Do not show the winter announcement if there is no winter
  
• An error was sometimes not triggered when purchasing a terraform with no free slots available
  
• Remove terraforming infographics from the map when deselecting with a mouse click on a terraforming card
  
• Correct terraforming preview during winter, when there is a dome over water
  
• Missing localization words
  
• Hide building preview panel when deselecting building category
  
• Building preview panel was sometimes outside of the screen space in the technology tree
  
• Make sure that it's impossible to research technology locked by tutorial in-between animations
  
• Fixed cargo fall animation
  
• Modules description was sometimes displayed as unavailable when selecting a technology
  
• Factory had shadows underground
  
• Block hotkeys during the loading screen so that it's impossible to skip dialogue accidentally

Greetings, a new patch that I've been working on for the last week is now available. From now on, I will be making game updates using the normal procedure, meaning that first they will be tested on a beta branch. I'm making an announcement when an update is available on the beta branch on our discord[discord.gg].

UX, Quality of life

• ‘Undo turn’ button in the escape menu. I think it was the most requested feature, so I had to make it.
  
• In the migration popup highlight in red color the reason why new people can’t join your colony
  
• Videos in the building preview popup with explanations for Factories (Factories dry fertile soil nearby!)
  
• The building preview popup show info that plants require time to fully grow
  
• Tip in mission 4 about installing a Water Conveyor module after you are getting underground
  
• Button to show the next tip on the loading screen
  
• More loading screen tips
  
• Confirmation buttons for ‘abandon run’ and ‘restart game’ in the escape menu

Gameplay adjustments

• Slower happiness decay (decrease). This should make it easier to build and support bigger colonies.
  
• Leave sand tile after the silicon deposit is exhausted
  
• Slightly reduced income from life
  
• Added inflation for terraforming shop prices linked to the population size. It would slowly grow after your colony hits 200 population. This should make a late game, when you have a huge economy, a little more challenging
  
• Easier to scan solid walls (same speed as for regular walls), and harder to scan mountains on the surface
  
• Mission 7 changes:

- Mini objective to research the technology required for the artificial sunlight module
- Bigger breaks between dust storms
- More visible passages on the surface
- More good starting positions on the surface
- Instead of 1 big rare metal deposit, 2 smaller rare metal deposits on depth [-1]
- Bigger room with a passage to the depth [-5]
- Slightly fewer wastelands on the surface

Misc

• Keep running the game after switching to another program
  
• When failing to load a savefile, show a dialogue with possible solutions

Fixes

• ‘Max Power’ achievement is fixed
  
• ‘True Legend’ achievement extra check when in the main menu
  
• ‘And That's a Wrap!’ achievement extra check when on the campaign screen
  
• Save file corruption because of the wrong technology research objective serialization
  
• Hide UI when losing population
  
• Localization fixes and adjustments
  
• Mission 1 was in the sandbox after the restart

Greetings,

A new patch has been released to make the game more accessible and smooth out the learning curve. Among changes, there are improvements to mission 3 and 4 balance. More clear descriptions for colonists' migration popup, and terraforming buildings (they are 1-time use only). This patch should also fix most of the localization issues.

While Farlanders may appear to be a simple game at first glance, it does have its own complexities. If certain mechanics are missed or misunderstood, it can lead to difficulties while playing the game. For example, if players don't realize that they can create water by placing a water terraform into a canyon, and instead are creating ice by placing it on a flat surface, they will have a hard time providing food and water for their colony. Or if players don't build scanners underground, the exploration process becomes tedious and not enjoyable.

So my top priority, for now, is to improve the game balance and provide a better experience for everyone. If you have any feedback or questions, you can join our Discord server[discord.gg] where you can get a quick answer about the game. I'll also try to reply to the comments on Steam forums whenever I'll have a bit more time.

Overall, I'm happy that the game is finally released, even with some rough edges. Thank you all for the support, that means a lot to me!

Cheers,
Andriy

P.S. Here is an interesting video that I used as an inspiration for plants mechanic in Farlanders.

Dear Farlanders community,

I am thrilled to announce that Farlanders is officially being released! It has been a long journey, and I couldn't have done it without the support and encouragement of all of you.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you for being a part of our community and for your patience during the development process. Your feedback and suggestions have been invaluable in helping me create the best possible game experience.

I can't wait for you to experience the world of Farlanders for yourself. Thank you for your support, and I look forward to your continued feedback as we continue to develop and improve the game.

Sincerely,
Andriy Bychkovskyi

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/1318740/Farlanders/

We're happy to announce that Farlanders is going to be released on January 17th, 2023 on Steam. Lead the charge in establishing a colony on Mars in a new turn-based strategy game with a nostalgic loot but very fresh gameplay!

Also, you already can play the new Farlanders demo for free on Steam now!

Please, share your thoughts about the game in our Social Media channels. We always monitor them and do our best to improve Farlanders!

Twitter
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VK[vk.com]

Greetings 🧐,

I’m presenting you the final major update to Farlanders before the release. We have 1 more major update planned which will introduce Daily Challenge & Sandbox game modes but that’s after the release.


My main focus in this update was the campaign. This means implementing the story and working on actual missions. That’s a huge challenge to make missions not only interesting and diverse but also with the right difficulty and learning curve.

We will have 7 missions in the campaign, currently, 3 are available (I’ll be adding the rest soon). It would be the good old “desktoppunk” (my invention 😛) that you had a chance to experience in Farlanders: Prologue but this time with:

• Various media (chat messengers, emails, video blogs, video calls, and even actual offline meetings between characters)
  
• Good writing (thanks to Shervin)!
  
• Lovely characters drawn by Anna
  
• Mars colonization, mystery, secrets, and a little bit of drama 😏

Not sure why I decided to present info in this section as it is some kind of an ad, but I believe that’s a huge step forward to what was done in Prologue, and you will enjoy the story. And btw, some of the media would have a voiceover.


A lot of work was done on the game sound. So now we have a complete soundtrack and sound design, by which I mean:

• Visiting sounds for most of the buildings which is played when you select or construct the building
  
• Sound loops synced with building animations
  
• New SFXs and updates to old sounds so that everything sounds good together

That’s the first time I’m putting so much effort into game sound, but it seems it was worth it and I’m proud of the result. All credits to Danil Dunets[soundcloud.com] and Ivan Turmenko! Ah, and you can check the game sound yourself in the video below.


I decided to go back to the old building upgrade mechanic. This means that instead of gradual growth (wait for a few turns for the building to develop) buildings will be developed immediately if conditions are met. It just feels better and fits the nature of the game which is about direct dependencies between terrains and buildings.

But it’s not a simple revert to the old mechanic. First, we have a new animation for buildings upgrades.

And second, we took the good part from the old-new mechanic. Buildings might have more different bonuses from various types of buildings. For example, Greenhouse gets bonuses from both Greenhouses and Food silos, although Food silos give fewer points. This creates more possible interactions between buildings which leads to more possible game scenarios. Imagine you need to build a Spices greenhouse for which you need to have Greenhouse level 3. You can achieve level 3 by constructing 3 greenhouses nearby, but that might be tricky, so instead, you can build 2 greenhouses + 2 food silos nearby.


As the game gets closer to the release we get more and more tasks in the polishing area. I’ll try to mention the most important changes from what come to my mind:

• Complete revisit of the game text; new names and flavor text for buildings and terrains
  
• Robotics gallery, a new underground happiness building
  
• Adjustments to the plants (and other life forms) logic according to the changed buildings upgrade system. Plants require time to grow to the highest level
  
• Reworked technology tree; no more building level-ups in the tech tree, when you research a new building you get all the levels that are available
  
• Updated main menu; campaign difficulty selection
  
• Level generator improvement: rooms that are generated on the surface have softer edges, which means that there might be a passage between rooms that are not blocked by a canyon or mountain

I’ll be honest with you I feel burned out and tired of working on this game for so long. That’s mostly because the game scope become too big. Now I understand that it was too ambitious for the budget and experience that I had. When I started working on Farlanders I never thought that the game would grow so much. But my conscience is clear, I think currently every game mechanic is in its place. And we got the most out of the original concept.

As for the release date, it will be announced after:

• Playtests are complete and we’re sure that the tutorial is properly implemented and there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the game
  
• Trailer is complete
  
• The localization process is started

Also, I made a feedback and bug report thread on our forums. They would especially make sense after we release a new demo. And as always, join our discord[discord.gg].

Thank you for following and #standwithukraine[savelife.in.ua]!

Andriy