Dev's Diary: Epic Workyard, Guild system improvements and new mail interface
Dear Settlers,
This developer's diary entry is related to a new set of buildings called Epic Workyards, guild system improvements (e.g. Guild Bank) and new in-game mail system interface.
Epic Workyards are a new type of building. They offer high-level players the opportunity to replace several existing production buildings with one single building. It's another way to acquire more space on the home island. There will be several Epic Workyard buildings and each of them will offer a particular production chain. Epic Workyards will be available for processing wood, ore, wheat, weapons, etc.
As a first step, the game will be enriched with the Epic Woodyard that handles various wood processing chains.
The Epic Woodyard
Epic Woodyard
This particular Workyard can handle wood-related production chains. It will surpass the production values of even the most powerful of your buildings and will provide more options that are not regularly available. Some of the available production chains are foresters, sawmills or coal manufacturers!
Click on the Epic Woodyard to open its interface where you can decide what it should produce.
Epic Woodyard: Main window
The Epic Woodyard provides 3 production slots. The player decides what kind of production will be active in each slot. Each slot can be configured in an individual way, hence it is possible to switch between different production chains. This flexibility allows you to adjust your production chains to your current needs. Of course, it is also possible to leave a slot unassigned or just stop its production.
Let's have a look at the productions chains:
Production chains
As mentioned before, the Epic Woodyard provides
wood related productions. There are 6 different production chains available through the Epic Woodyard.
Several production chains are inactive until quests related to them are completed. Production chains can be improved by completing corresponding quests. Only already-activated production chains can be assigned to production slots.
Important: After a new production chain is activated by finishing the corresponding quest, the current production chain will not be stopped or exchanged with the newly-activated one.
It will be possible to buff Epic Workyards:
Epic Workyard: Buffs
The productivity of Epic Workyards can be accelerated with special buffs. These buffs will affect all production chains that are assigned to 3 production slots.
Name: Magic bean soup
Costs: Magic beans
Effect: Increases production to 200% for 8 hours.
Name: Chant of Focus
Costs: Gems
Effect: Increases production to 300% for 8 hours.
Important:
Please keep in mind that all presented graphics/screenshots may differ from the final version.
Many players suggested that a Guild Bank feature would be very useful. The idea of a guild-wide storage that can be used by all guild members (depending on their rights) is indeed very nice, that's why it was developed further. Guild features are very important; hence, we plan to improve several aspects of the guild system in the near future. More details can be found below.
GUILD BANK
There will be a new building added to the game:
Guild Bank! The guild leader will be able to set the constraints for all guild members related to the Guild Bank feature. In order to access the
Guild Bank interface, you need to own this building:
Name:
Guild Bank
Limit: 1 per player
Building license required:
Yes
Description: Allows you to access the guild storage interface of your guild.
Guild Bank interface can have many tabs. By upgrading individual tabs, players can extend their capacity. One of them will be an "
Expenses" tab, where guild members can deposit only Guild Coins. The rest of these tabs can consist of resources, buffs, and even buildings! To make it easier to manage, the guild leader can customize the tab names. The amount of goods that a tab can hold depends on its upgrade level.
Every action is shown in the "Transaction History":
RANK CUSTOMIZATION
The guild rank customization will step into a new level. The guild leader will be able to assign rights to respective ranks.
Some examples:
- Possibility to deposit goods to the Guild Bank.
- Possibility to withdraw goods from the Guild bank.
- Possibility to invite new guild members.
- Possibility to remove guild members.
- Possibility to write guild mails.
- Possibility to cancel Guild Quests.
And more!
REPRESENTATION PAGE
Currently, when you open the list of all guilds and click on one of them, you will see detailed information (e.g. complete list of the guild members and their levels). This will be replaced with a brief representation page.
The in-game mail system will receive a new interface: There are many improvements planned. In order to give you a brief overview of upcoming interface changes, here's a screenshot:
Mockup - the final version will probably look slightly different
As presented above, the in-game mail system will be completely redesigned. It will be more intuitive and easier to use. More functions and information will be shown. New icons, expiration dates of mails and many more features will enhance the current mail interface.
More details about the in-game mail system improvements will be revealed in the near future.
Happy settling!
Your Settlers Online: Castle Empire Team!
