With the next release coming in a few weeks' time - it's a good time to take a more in-depth look at some of the features that are going to be implemented. Building upgrades are a new feature that will be introduced in the upcoming release. Most buildings can be upgraded, with each building supporting multiple upgrade paths - so it's not a simple case of a "Level 1 XXX". Each upgrade improves the building in some way - and the best way to explain how this works, is to take a couple of examples - the Trade Post, and the Toolmaker. [h1]The Trade Post[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/88ca92faeb3ea874dd3ea2f000b1dd4513fa38c3.png[/img] The Trade post is a new building and is where you'll meet traders when they come visit the island. The basic building looks rather bare - although it can be decorated - more on that in the future, however it has two upgrade paths which can be availed of. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/34904b7203c9b6e56a0364443a7da830facdf07b.png[/img] The "Trader Comfort" upgrade path gives a bonus to the prices you buy or sell goods at, and that makes them a very useful set of upgrades for those doing a lot of trading. The "Access" upgrade path increases the frequency traders arrive at. Trade is going to be much more important - some items can only be accessed through trading - so this is something worth considering. Upgrades sometimes add new items or modify the building in some way - so here's what a fully upgraded Trading Post looks like. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/3cef03330c002dd0e9db403937d3fdc5e4cac682.png[/img] [h1]Toolmaker[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/cc06970f81905da8f5ad47213500591420b5d1bb.png[/img] The Toolmaker is another new building coming with the next release. The toolmaker is where you make all your tools - both stone and metal ones. This includes the hand-tools used for mining, lumberjacking and the like, but it also includes tools used to upgrade other buildings. If we take a look at the upgrades related to the toolmaker, we find there's quite a lot to go through. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/f5db5350c17a340e1a5f1876c16941135d57d701.png[/img] Many of the crafter buildings have similar upgrade paths. The four upgrade paths to the left - Stone, Copper, Iron, and Orium all work in very similar ways. Taking the Stone one as an example, each level requires you to have a specific tool in your inventory - made at the Toolmaker's - and once that is consumed and the building upgraded - will give you a bonus to quality, and speed of any stone goods created at this building. Apart from increasing one's Inspiration stat - this is the way to get the nicest and best quality items in the game. The Copper upgrade path is a little bit different, with the Anvil being the first upgrade - that will unlock an anvil and allow you to create metal tools - you're restricted to making stone ones til then. The rest of the path, and the Iron and Orium ones work exactly like the Stone one. Taking a look at the Furnace Upgrade path - the first upgrade adds a Smelter - allowing you to make ingots from raw materials. The other two upgrades will reduce the amount of raw material needed to make ingots - very useful especially since coal and ores are quite precious. And similar to the Trade Post - upgrades make some slight tweaks to the building itself - with the Anvil upgrade unlocking an anvil at the work table, and the Furnace upgrades adding the smelter. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/efe200bc20dfa8b9e4f5ea3b6f87f0757a8af594.png[/img] So that's all you need to know about building upgrades. In the next Feature Focus we'll take a closer look at how you can decorate your buildings and make them look unique.