Version 0.3.0 Knowledge, culture and nature
- Battle scene and new moves: Fighters form lines, trade spears and stones first, then charge and fight one on one; thrusts, overhead blows, dodges and taking a hit are all acted out. The beaten fall or flee, the winners cheer. In camp people eat at mealtimes and warm their hands at the fire when it is cold; the hunter's spear throw now plays to the end.
- Sledges put to work: Hunting, gathering, wood and fishing parties take a dog sledge when a dog is free (parties of four or more take two); each dog hauls 45 more load. Only the idle dogs and empty sledges wait in camp; a party's panel shows its sledges.
- Hide tents and structure surfaces: Tent panels sag between the poles, with visible seams and bold sinew stitches, sooty tops and earth-stained hems; neighbouring hides are close in tone. Poles show wood grain, hearth and hem stones show stone texture.
- Realistic smoke, paths and traces: Hearth and tent smoke rises in soft puffs, drifts with the wind and thins out. Where people walk a lot the grass first flattens and yellows, then bare earth shows; paths have ragged edges, no grass grows on them, and in winter they stay as trampled tracks in the snow. A camp that packs up leaves its hearth spot and tent rings behind for a while.
- Refreshed models: People now have rounded shapes and stand out with their tunics, belts, shoulder furs, fur boots and hair; everyone's fur is a slightly different shade. Red deer, wild goat, wild boar, aurochs, wolf and dog were redrawn with horns, ears, tails and pale bellies. Bushes got the same leafy look as the trees and thin out in winter. Tents, structures and ornaments gained surface texture and sit into the ground.
- Add-on structures: In Arrange mode, select a structure and attach a part beside it with Add-on; it sits on the side you tap, and moves and turns with its structure. A side shelter (2 more people) and a windbreak (slower wear, warmer) for tents, a roasting spit (meat and fish fill more) and a knapping stone (faster crafts) for the campfire, a drying rack (food keeps longer) for the storage ground, an extra rack for the smokehouse, a feeding trough and a flock shelter for the pen.
- Arranging: With Arrange in the Build menu, pick any structure or decoration in your camp one by one; move, turn or dismantle it. A moved structure goes up again at its new spot with a little labour and no materials; turning is instant. You can also set the facing while placing (R key). Seven decorations were added: Banner, totem, sitting logs, hide frame, torch, antler post and standing stones.
- Shared map: A member with a seat in the shared world founds a new game on the same map as everyone else; each civilization enters from its own edge. Neighbours' camps show on the map with their name, tents and banner; the world panel gives their direction and distance, and one tap looks there. Trees and herds are counted separately for each player for now. A game on an old map stays where it is; found a new world from the settings to move to the shared map.
- The map is four times larger in new games. The edges end in dense forest all the way round; mountain ranges are very rare, single mountains turn up now and then. Resource sites, herds and lakes grew with the area.
- The forest is renewed: Up close, trees show their leaf clusters and branches, pines their needled boughs; every tree differs a little in height, width and tone. Deciduous trees shed their leaves in late autumn and stand bare in winter.
- Water and mountains: Rivers, lakes and the sea are coloured by depth; glints of light ride the current, with foam and wet soil at the shore. Mountains have rocky slopes, sun-facing shading and a snow line that moves with the seasons.
- Account and shared world: If you are a member your save is written to your account (the newer of browser and account wins) and you take a place in the world; three real players for now. The age gauge is now computed on the server from the share of all active civilizations in this world; the World panel shows civilizations, seats and the gauge. Without an account the game runs in your browser as before.
- Office guide: Each office says what it looks for; candidates are scored by skill, knowledge, temperament, age, job and family and listed with reasons, and the suggested one is appointed with one tap. Hovering over a person in the scene shows name, age, family, job, office, the three best skills, knowledge and traits on a card.
- The smokehouse is now a work area: Meat or fish is hung on the racks and cures in five hours while someone tends it and burns wood; its panel shows what is hanging, hours left, firewood use and workers. A smoker job was added and the smoke removed. On slopes the ground under buildings is terraced, so buildings no longer sink into the earth. The food, firewood and hide chips in the top bar open their own windows; the food window lists each kind with amount and half-life.
- Work: Every adult can be given a fixed job (hunter, gatherer, woodcutter, fisher, builder, crafter, farmer, shepherd) or left free. People with a job go to it by themselves and put it first in camp; "Share out by skill" suggests a balanced spread; you can change it any time. Everyone idle hauls and builds. The bottom bar is simpler: Tasks, Work, Build, Hearth, Rule, Migrate. Parties on the road walk loosely, ground wear fades when no one passes, and tapping a pile opens the pile's panel.
- Tame flock: Hunters who track learn taming. Build a pen and have young caught from a deer or wild goat herd; they grow up in the pen, pairs breed, the flock gives milk every month and can be slaughtered when needed. It needs grain in winter and wolves may creep into the pen at night. The age gauge's domestic herd requirement and the Central Asian origin's herd condition are met through this system. People without a home no longer vanish into tents at night; they stay by the fire.
- Hunting scene: Spear carriers no longer hold them for show; they throw when close, the struck animal collapses with meat beside it, and on the way back the load on their backs matches what they carry (meat, basket, bundle). Tapping a pile or basket in the stores shows the amount, this season's half-life and what makes it last. Dogs and people no longer pass through tents or tree trunks. The migrating group walks loosely and naturally instead of in ranks.
- Walking fix: People now walk at the pace of their target, no more stop and go on the road, and catch up when they fall behind; in fast forward they appear to run. Dogs roam the camp, follow someone, sit, lie by the sledges and trot when they move.
- A living scene: Tree crowns, reeds, bushes and grass sway in the wind, harder in a storm; the hide panels of tents breathe in the wind. The campfire gives warm light around it even by day, with a flickering glow on the ground. People have eyes and a mouth and hair on their heads; most women wear it long, the old go grey.
- A softer look: More sky light, a gentler sun, translucent shadows; tree crowns, bushes, heads and smoke use rounded shading and limbs are cylinders instead of boxes. Post-processing has less saturation and vignette with a light soft focus; the ground brush and the tent soot panels are lighter. People now turn smoothly instead of snapping, and poses blend more slowly.
- Age gauge: The age's progress sits in the top bar. The gauge is the greater of the time ratio (at most 30 days) and the requirement ratio; fields, a permanent village, domestic herds, pottery and population count with their weights. At 80% the herald phase begins and at 100% the age closes. Because the prototype world holds one civilization, the ratios look only at yours; the First Age content does not exist yet.
- Origins: At the first permanent settlement you choose a historical origin for your people (Central Asia, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Nile, Mediterranean, Northern Europe, East Asia or the common style). An origin only changes the look: Yurt, mud brick house, reed arch, stone hut, longhouse or curved-eave house; hide and wall tones, band motifs, the names of children and a short tune. Each origin has a condition tied to land and way of life; all are free in the prototype.
- Terrain types: In nearly half the worlds one edge is sea; lakes, marshes and fertile plains. Plains make fields richer, marshes slow you and bring sickness, high ground and forest shelter the camp; lakes and the sea never flood, you can fish on their shores, and the mountains hold flint beds.
- Ankle and hand joints were added to the skeleton. When walking the heel lands first, the foot plants, the toes push off; the hips turn with each step, the shoulders counter-turn and the torso sways toward the standing leg. Tools sit in the hand.
- The parchment map that opens as you zoom out shows settlements and a border: The camp name and culture, old camp sites and known places as ink labels; the edge of explored land as a dashed ink line.
- The art style now covers the whole camp: The smokehouse, stores, sledges, piles, lookout, wall and gate are drawn with toned hide panels, seams, rope lashings and stone skirts too.
- Parties leave from in front of the hearth and return there, not through the tents. The logs at the hearth sit on the ground. Tapping the stores shows only the stores.
- Tents in the new art style: Hides sewn panel by panel, each panel its own shade, seam lines, a sooty top, leaning poles, stones and guy ropes at the hem; the family colour on a painted band. Movements blend smoothly and steps match the ground covered.
- Footpaths now form naturally: Every step wears the ground a little; where people keep walking, a path forms and walking there is faster. Unused ground grows over again.
- Shore and forest came alive: Sand and gravel along the river, pale shallows, a foam line, reed beds, boulders and wading birds. Ferns, bushes, mushrooms, fallen logs and stones in the forest; wood chips beside felled trees. The ground around the camp gets trodden and dusty over time.
- Footpaths now follow the way actually walked: The route out through the gate and around the wall gets trodden. Inside the camp, small paths appear from the fire to the tents, the stores and the sledges.
- Nothing happens at once: The material of a structure is first carried on backs from the sledges or the stores to the site, trip by trip, and only then is it built. People walk from place to place inside the camp too; no one teleports.
- People no longer walk through buildings, walls or each other; from a walled camp they leave by the gate and go around the line.
- Fortifications: Stake walls, gates, ditches and stake rows are drawn freely like roads and built piece by piece. Every piece has its own strength; wood rots, burns and is repaired. The gate is the weakest point; raiders can open a breach. Pit traps and lookout platforms can be built too.
- On the far map, unexplored lands stay dark; the world is drawn onto the paper only as it is explored. Places the trader tells of appear only as a rumour mark.
- Book of history: Leaders, discoveries, disasters, battles and the birth of the culture are kept in a chronicle that passes from age to age.
- A couple from different families founds a new family of its own; its roots and kinship show in the family tree. A child needs a mother, a father and a tent of their own.
- People are now jointed and alive: They walk, run, carry loads, sit, work by the fire, build, chop wood, bend to gather, reap, hunt, fight, stand guard and paint on cave walls.
- Each person carries what they know and every family has a memory. Those who know feed it, the young learn from it; the dead take their knowledge with them and the family keeps part of it. Whoever marries brings their knowledge to the new family.
- There are ten things to learn: Tracking, herb lore, the fishing net, fine knapping, star lore, the secret of the seed, ochre, and pioneering discoveries only a genius or a curious mind may make.
- Gatherers of wild grain may discover the secret of the seed. Then the choice is yours: Settle and clear fields, or stay nomads. Fields are sown in spring and reaped at summer's end; settled life is hard.
- Choose a storyteller at the fireside. Stories earn culture points; when your culture is born you give it a name. The culture map holds fifteen traits along five values.
- Scouts find caves, old ruins and sacred springs. Ochre is gathered from red earth; a hunting scene, handprints or a piece of knowledge can be painted on a cave wall. Knowledge painted in stone is never fully forgotten.
- The dead are buried in a burial ground at the edge of the camp; mounds are raised for leaders. Ochre burials feed the culture, and the ancestor rite is stronger near the graves.
- A wandering trader travels between tribes and calls at your camp. You barter for what is in his pack; listen to him and he tells of places he saw on the road. A coughing trader may bring a plague.
- Wandering families may come to your gate. Taking them in grows your people, but their loyalty is low; those turned away may become raiders. Shedding blood weakens faith.
- Plagues arrive with the trader, with newcomers or in a crowded camp. Separating the sick is a decision of rule; every form of rule takes it differently.
- Nature lives on the map. A spring flood can drown a camp by the river, in a summer of drought the river shrinks and the land turns yellow, storms bring lightning that can set the forest alight, and winter blizzards freeze travellers. Elders with star lore foresee disasters.
- Scouts sometimes get lost; you can send a search party or wait for them to find their own way back.
- A genius child is now very rare and is not born in every tribe. If one is, they make pioneering discoveries.