The 1.9.4 Progression & Balancing Update Is Now Available! Hello everyone,
After weeks of testing and refining, we are happy to merge Foundation’s latest experimental version to the main game. This update brings significant changes in the form of game balance and added features. As such, it is advisable to start over; while previous saves will indeed load, some of the work introduced in this update will undoubtedly disrupt villages’ productivity, happiness and more. That said, there’s a lot to be excited about with
1.9.4. Read on for all the details!
New Meat Production Chain And Additional Food Need The Butchery, a brand-new building unlocked in the first tier of the common progression path, has been added to the game! This means boars are now much more useful as a resource: after placing Hunter’s Huts near dense forests, you will be able to capture the animals. Then, butchers will turn them into meat to be consumed at your markets or sold to traders.
Such a change fits nicely with the fact that villagers—including Serfs—now require two different food types to be happy.
Tavern Overhaul And New Entertainment Need The Tavern has undergone significant changes in this newest version of the game. You are now able to create berry brews—a special drink made of berries and water—at the Berry Brewery. Served alongside a delicious meal,
this is sure to be a hit among your people!
Introducing a new drink serves two main purposes: adding variety and perhaps more importantly, letting you deal with the fact that commoners, citizens and soldiers now require to be entertained! This new need affects happiness, so you want to make sure concerned villagers can quench their thirst.
Progression and Balancing Changes Overview Update 1.9.4 features a trove of progression and balancing-related changes. Here’s a quick glance at what you can expect:
New Features • Butchery workplace and meat resource
• Entertainment need, berry brews and berry brewery workplace at the Tavern
• Levy mandate
• Kinstone Abbey trade route
• Discoveries
• New advice
• New action bar shortcuts for mandates and village aspirations
• Quick promotions
• Resources linked to some workplaces are now displayed on click
Balancing Changes • Tax Office was moved to the Labour progression path
• Additional food need for villagers
• Villagers have a chance to leave starting at -25% happiness
• More workplaces now require higher villager statuses
• Removed residential availability from immigration factors
• Trade routes have added resources to buy and sell from
• Adjusted plenty of building construction costs
• Events have been improved across the board
• Several unlockables have been moved around
• Your second territory no longer has an upkeep cost
The exhaustive list of changes can be found in our game design changelog on our
official website.
Levy Mandate Update 1.9.4 adds a new way to access “emergency funds” with the
Levy mandate. Activating this mandate grants you a large quantity of coins at the cost of villagers’ happiness. The debuff is applied for a set duration (currently: 30 days) and stacks should you activate the Levy multiple times. Use with caution!
The Levy mandate has been added as a result of the Tax Office function now being exclusive to the Labor progression path. Our design goals with this change is to further associate taxes with this estate and encourage better decision-making regarding early to mid-game profit.
New Trade Route: Kinstone Abbey A new, Clergy-allied trade route has opened! Merchants from
Kinstone Abbey sell a variety of useful and rarer resources such as gold bars, gems or marble. They’ll be looking for herbs, honey and planks to name a few. Unlocking this trade route requires you to produce manuscripts at the Scriptorium.
Enhanced Transport Our engine team has been hard at work developing behind-the-scenes optimizations for Foundation. Chief among them is our rebuilt transportation system that is being rolled out as part of this update.
Before, villagers sometimes had to travel long distances to satisfy their needs and seek resources, which was more obvious while facing shortages. This led to scenarios where villagers would cross the whole map—so to say—just to reach a market or specific building like a warehouse or a church. Not good.
From now on, our transport algorithm further favors local management of resources and needs. To put it in more concrete terms, villagers will associate with markets or buildings near where they live. The same principle applies for production chains: a weaver hut requiring wool will get it from the closest available warehouse stocking some, itself linked to the closest sheep farm—effectively giving a whole new meaning to “hubs” within your villages. They will operate in a much more satisfying and natural way.