An update has been released with an overhauled tutorial and other improvements:

Release 1.080

• Overhauled tutorial:
• Added Work Area tutorial
• Split construction/building tutorial into two parts
• Rewrote various parts of tutorial
• Spawn a herd during Combat Mode tutorial in case there are no animals on the map
• When assigning building for construction, create query panel immediately
• Change amount displayed when designating water supply to amount of water in hex
• If stockpiles full, Pokians cancel store task job instead of walking over to material anyway
• Finished colour-coding query panels
• Added bruises and cuts to Pokian Death notification
• Added sleeping noises
• Increased relative volume of eating/drinking/sleeping noises

The game is releasing on Steam on the 23rd August, here’s the launch trailer!

It’s only 3 days away, so this will probably be the final Beta and pretty much what the Release version will look like. There’s actually quite a significant change to the endgame in this version.

Raw materials all have bacterial decay now. The decay is slow and varies depending on the environmental conditions and material type. This encourages the player to craft and build higher tier objects which don’t suffer from the same level of decay.

I’ve also added a pregnancy/nomad modifier to avoid the cases where lots of Pokians die but you get new ones almost immediately because of a high prosperity. Now if you get a death, there is a reduction in the probability of pregnancy/nomads appearing. This reduction disappears over time. I was actually surprised by how often people died in player’s games. I guess testing the game for hundreds of hours means I know it too well!

Lastly, the steam trading cards are done and the theme is animals! Here’s a look at the bear trading card:

And here’s the full list of changes for Beta 22:

Features

• New version releases will no longer overwrite user config changes on Steam

Gameplay

• Slightly increased chance of water evaporation
• Reimplemented puddles on game start so there is water present
• Added bacterial decay for many raw materials
• Added large water decay for dyes
• Changed decay effect to show up based on how fast object is decaying
• Increased default average foreign tribe starting prosperity
• Added modifier for pregnancy and nomads chance based on recent deaths

Bug Fixes

• Fixed priority task extract not listing whether ground or object
• Made destroying building from query panel and extract button do the same thing
• Fixed oversized buildings not disappearing completely when destroyed
• Removed redundant destroy building task
• Fixed Pokian trying to enter a building that has been destroyed getting stuck
• Added check for geovapour being too large and causing endless rain

Just a quick update! I found a few problems with some of the less obvious aspects of combat. Apparently humans were ignoring the cool-down timing of their weapons and swinging like crazy regardless of their weapon type. Also, armor values weren’t being applied correctly for different types of clothing. They’ve been fixed, combat should be slower paced and a lot less frantic now!

Full list of changes for Beta 21:

Features

• Added missing material name to task query panel for crafting/construction
• Added button for saving stockpile name on stockpile panel
• Allow longer typed tribe names on world generation page

Gameplay

• Slightly reduced buffalo melee strength

Bug Fixes

• Fixed game weapon cooldowns not being set
• Fixed human cooldowns defined in xml being ignored
• Fixed armor values of clothing not being applied correctly
• Fixed unable to select attack target in combat mode when animal pushed off hex

I’ve set a date for the Release 1.0 version, which will launch on Steam on 23rd August! Note that the Itch.io price will be going up about a week before. So get it now if you’re interested!

A new trailer is currently in the works and I’ve been focused on getting all the marketing materials updated and integrating the game with Steam. It’s a bit nerve-wracking doing this all by myself, but also exciting.

Here’s the full list of changes in the latest Beta 20, compatible with all saved games from Alpha 18:

Features

• Added forming a new family into tribe timeline
• Hovering over stockpile panel items gives description for item
• Added descriptions for all objects

Gameplay

• Reduced amount of animal fat from carcasses
• Reduced number of twigs from trees
• Reduced amount of wood for anti-nature request
• Increased cooldown of all weapons by 50%
• Doubled rate of water evaporation
• Improved tundra biome height profile for less flooding
• Adjusted tundra biome river pattern to flow during spring and stop during autumn

Bug Fixes

• Fixed when having lots of tribe members tribe panel getting out of line
• Fixed random new relation notification not updating the tribe name
• Added check to prevent negative animal dodge chance
• Side construction menu and stock list panel more responsive
• Fixed autosave tooltip appearing even when not autosaving

Firstly, check out the new Forces Of Nature Trailer to celebrate the move to the Beta phase of development!

Also, we now have a Wiki page where you can find helpful tips for playing the game!

The first new thing you will notice is the lightning. Lightning can cause wildfires which can spread when it’s not raining, so they can be particularly dangerous. Luckily lightning only happens when it rains, so usually the rain will put out the fire before it spreads too far. I have made it optional on the world generation page.

There are now two types of traps, the spike trap and the snare trap. A snare trap will immobilise any animals that walk over it, if they are under 100kg. Heavier animals will still set off the trap, but will not be caught in it. Once an animal is stuck in a snare trap, you can wait for it to starve and then collect the carcass, or attack it.

A spike trap works differently. Instead of trapping the animal, it does damage to all animals that walk over it. To reset a trap, there is now also a new button on the side menu which works similarly to the extract, gather and butcher buttons.

Also in this update are smoother animations when objects are created/destroyed. Below you can see the animation of a carcass disappearing and materials appearing when it is butchered. The same principle applies when crafting objects, cutting down trees, etc so everything should look better overall.

I’ve also improved the battle reporting for your Pokians. You can get a better idea of how damaged arms/legs are affecting a fight by opening up a tribe member’s query panel and going to the “Thoughts” tab.

So what’s next? I still have a few improvements to make in Tribe Of Pok, and maybe adding more content depending on how well the game does. With the new traps system the game can be considered feature complete.

Here’s a full list of the changes:

Features

• Turned off automatic trap resetting
• Added reset trap button to the side menu
• Added maximum weight variable for traps to work
• Added progress bar for resetting trap task
• Display animal weights and max trap weights in query panel
• Added checkbox on world generation page for lightning
• Added lightning strike news event
• Added previous name to carcass query panel
• Allow hiding lists on right side of screen
• Added battle reporting to include damage reduction due to appendage effectiveness
• Added note to harvestig tutorial to not assign too many tasks at once
• Smoothed spawning of objects animation when created on map
• Added ability to select stockpile border image
• Added ability to select work area image
• Added checkboxes for borders to designation side menu

Gameplay

• Added reward for decreasing precipitation by 100% and changed increasing precipitation to 100%
• Soil chunks decay over time
• Decaying objects animate away instead of instantly disappearing
• Lowered tundra biome base river height and added period of no water flow
• Added humanoid meat
• Added spike trap
• Added decay and durability loss for traps
• Halved time taken to reset trap
• Increased water decay of charcoal and added bacteria decay
• Modified average foreign tribe size increase to remain static
• Reduced animal stacking on same hex when fighting close quarters
• Modified scared check for animals to avoid mammoths running from humans
• Added borders to display stockpile and work areas
• Increased amount of time some news items stay in list
• Allow people to step on hex where pole fire burning, but not camp fire
• Added check to prevent trees/bushes growing on construction sites
• Add mention of waterskin to water tutorial

Bug Fixes

• Fixed rectangle select doesn’t work in combat mode for some orientations
• Fixed object shrinking not accumulating when it’s supposed to
• Fixed tool tip not appearing for gen world checkboxes
• Fixed statistics page chart positioning
• Fixed carcass buried in burial plot not having proper name
• Expanded shaman initiation notification to include how to activate
• Fixed can’t combat mode set move position where objects already present
• Changed the query panel status tab cuts/bruises tooltip to indicate effect of damage
• Fixed damage reporting so proper amounts are reported
• Fixed side submenu checkboxes alignment adjusting based on scale
• Fixed crafting objects being counted towards objective even when only probability of success
• Remove debug height from query panel
• Prevent resources from spawning over buildings
• Fixed tree saplings not appearing
• Fixed wild fire not going out when spreading to burning things under water

Twitter – ParsleyPWG
Website – PokingWaterGames.com