My thoughts on the Demo

[Fossa2]

I am a big fan of the regular Foundation game. I purchased it about 18 months ago and have put in almost 1000 hours. I just love it.

I have played the Demo version about 7 hours and would like to share my input.

I found the game much more challenging that the regular version. I will definitely purchase the game when it is released. However, I will always still play the regular version for it so relaxing.

I know I have a lot more to learn about the Demo version. However my first impressions are below.

Environment is much more realistic with lots of eye candy. Unfortunately buildings are hard to identify for they get lost in all the landscape clutter.

Buildings have a lot more embellishments and extra features to modify production.

With upper lever jobs (like tax collector) you can assign lower rake villagers, but there is a production activity decrease. I really like this feature.

You cannot turn off the messages that pop up after achievements. You have to wait till they disappear.

Progression is extremely slow and I felt trapped with needing to build things but not having the funds to expand to make room. Maybe outside of the tutorial, I will feel lest restrained. I wonder if it could also be because so much is not available in the Demo version.

Migration was more than I could handle. The houses do not build very close together and the game would complain about insufficient housing. I turned off migration often till I could expand and catch up with the population.

The game is not as relaxing as the regular version, but that can be a good thing for those that love to manage as I do.

Even with the negative input, this is going to be a great game to come. It could be I just need more practice with it. Thank you Polymorph!

[Coldfish East]

No matter how many people I put in granary they disappear. It keeps happening- I have great happiness so that isn't it. Also although it asks you to build a tax office I can't find anything called that to build. So i never have any money for my settlement. Seems very unfinished.

[Brendylyon]

The Tax office was under the Manor building options in the regular game. Build a Manor site, then build a small building, designate it as a Tax Office.

As far as people quitting in a specific location, how far do they live from where they work? That can effect their individual happiness as they dont have time to rest, or eat between work commutes. (kinda like real life).

[Mr Ash]

Originally posted by Fossa2:

I found the game much more challenging that the regular version. I will definitely purchase the game when it is released. However, I will always still play the regular version for it so relaxing.

I miss the "ctrl" key to rotate buildings before placing.

Thanks for the feedback. I just wanted to note that you won't need to buy the game again if you already purchased the Early Access. The EA version will automatically update to the full release version on release.

You can swap the Alt and Ctrl keys back around in the keybindings in settings.

Originally posted by Coldfish East:

Tax office I can't find anything called that to build. So i never have any money for my settlement. Seems very unfinished.

The tax office is a sub-building that can be built as part of your Manor. Open up the edit menu of your Manor and click on the + icon this will give you options of Great Hall, Tax Office or Free Build. I'm not sure what is happening with your villagers leaving jobs. Are they leaving the village? It may be that they were unhappy for too long and left.

[Fossa2]

I just wanted to note that you won't need to buy the game again if you already purchased the Early Access. The EA version will automatically update to the full release version on release.
You can swap the Alt and Ctrl keys back around in the keybindings in settings.

Oh! They moved rotation to the Alt key. I not really care what key, I just wanted one that did the rotate. Thank you! I removed the Ctrl key comment from my original post.

I thought they were 2 different games like City Skylines 1 and City Skylines 2. So, does that mean I will no longer be able to play the EA version after release. I like them both for different reasons.

[Mr Ash]

Originally posted by Fossa2:

I thought they were 2 different games like City Skylines 1 and City Skylines 2. So, does that mean I will no longer be able to play the EA version after release. I like them both for different reasons.

No same game :)
The current version might get moved to a beta branch for a short period but there would be no support for it and we would eventually have to close that branch.

However, on full release you will be able to select various options to change the difficulty of a game. So you would be able to have 2 saves running with different styles of playthrough.
You can see the options in the Demo but they are locked for the Demo.

[Fossa2]

Originally posted by Mr Ash:

No same game :)
The current version might get moved to a beta branch for a short period but there would be no support for it and we would eventually have to close that branch.

However, on full release you will be able to select various options to change the difficulty of a game. So you would be able to have 2 saves running with different styles of playthrough.
You can see the options in the Demo but they are locked for the Demo.

I totally understand. I really love the game as is and would want to continue playing it. I will miss it. However, I am ready for a new challenge. I can pretty much play the current game in my sleep.

I got as far as I can with the Demo, so I will try to patiently wait for the release. In the mean time, I am going to overload on the current version. 8o)

[Mr Ash]

o7 have fun and we'll see you in January :)

[subjenna]

I found the "strategic menus" top right to be kind of convoluted. Why not put everything in the same layout? Some are fullscreen overlay, some are not.

[funababbit]

I have begun playing the demo with high hopes but then felt a chill as it dawned on me that the mods upon which I had built my early access would be gone. I remembered the early days of the early game with few maps,, and few resources. I don't look forward to going back to that. I have never thought of Foundation as a game - but a creative challenge, a city builder. I have downloaded the mods that let me play a sandbox game. Managing "gold" seemed like a dangling appendage of the game. I think Foundation is a great city builder and I that the modders who contributed share much of the credit. VJ Raymon, Batyushki, and Minotrorious created mods that I considered indispensable. There were others who contributed one or two game-changing mods. The screenshots of the full version look awesome but I don't think I'm ready to abandon the early access, to go back to playing Foundation like any computer game where the objective, at the heart of nearly every other computer game s levelling up.

[Fossa2]

I too will miss the EA version. I play it for hours ever day with just vanilla. I like the EA and Demo version. They both have great game appeal, but I love the EA version. I wish there was a way to keep EA when the game releases in January.

[Duck Dodges]

Originally posted by funababbit:

I have begun playing the demo with high hopes but then felt a chill as it dawned on me that the mods upon which I had built my early access would be gone. I remembered the early days of the early game with few maps,, and few resources. I don't look forward to going back to that. I have never thought of Foundation as a game - but a creative challenge, a city builder. I have downloaded the mods that let me play a sandbox game. Managing "gold" seemed like a dangling appendage of the game. I think Foundation is a great city builder and I that the modders who contributed share much of the credit. VJ Raymon, Batyushki, and Minotrorious created mods that I considered indispensable. There were others who contributed one or two game-changing mods. The screenshots of the full version look awesome but I don't think I'm ready to abandon the early access, to go back to playing Foundation like any computer game where the objective, at the heart of nearly every other computer game s levelling up.

Pretty sure there is a "Creative" preset in the demo that removes the economy stuff if you want to just have it as a sandbox design your city game, its just not unlocked in the demo.

[kingofpain]

I hope the EA version will not updated automatically, because of the performance issues I had with the demo. I am playing the EA version for more than two years now, I had no problems with it so far.

[City Builder]

Originally posted by kingofpain:

I hope the EA version will not updated automatically, because of the performance issues I had with the demo. I am playing the EA version for more than two years now, I had no problems with it so far.

I'm pretty sure that we still don't have control over updating or not updating our games on Steam and it will auto update our games at the very least when we try to play and there is a new version if you don't tell it to manually update the game first. I don't believe you can prevent that happening.

The only way I could see it working is if the developer is willing to leave the early access version as a version you can choose in the beta branch like some other games I play do.

[Mr Ash]

Originally posted by City Builder:

Originally posted by kingofpain:

I hope the EA version will not updated automatically, because of the performance issues I had with the demo. I am playing the EA version for more than two years now, I had no problems with it so far.

The only way I could see it working is if the developer is willing to leave the early access version as a version you can choose in the beta branch like some other games I play do.

We will most likely keep the early access version on a beta branch for a little while so that players can finish their older cities.

We are also looking into the performance issues that are affecting some players in the demo.

[markakeen]

I don't think you need worry. Come release, I'm sure there will be more options to enable the game to run on lower spec machines. Also, most mods will get updated to the newer version at some point, so you should be able to continue to play the new version in the way that you have come to enjoy.

Also, all new mods, will be targeted at the full version only. Any new developer enhancements/updates/bug fixes will only apply to the new version too.