Been hard at work on the next milestone of Alone - called Tribe. It's time to take a look at some of the major features that will be coming with that release. [h1]Summary[/h1] As always, this is all subject to change, and any screenshots are a work in progress. The main focus on this milestone is the inclusion of other tribes you can help, liberate, and work with, and in return they will help on your quest to free your people. The following main features will be added in this milestone: [list] [*] The player character has a story [*] Perform missions to Unite the Tribes [*] Recruit Blood Brothers to help around the island - or in combat [*] Visit the Tribehome to see how your efforts are progressing [/list] [h1]Motivation[/h1] The primary motivation for this milestone is to make the mid and late game more interesting. Currently, repairing the ship unlocks access to a number of islands, but what you can do on those islands is severely limited. Whilst there are 2 special islands (and 2 boss battles), the rest of the islands follow the same pattern - defeat goblins, and clear the blighted towers, defeat a small boss, and the island is yours. Additionally, whilst you can put buildings on the island to get you access to free resources, the amount of resources is limited, and returning to the island every time to add another building is a lot of effort for very little reward. [h1] In more Detail [/h1] [h2]The Story[/h2] The Player Character's story is more defined now, and with that a change in motivation. The Player belonged to a Tribe which was attacked by goblins, and enslaved. Having escaped during the raid, they find themselves shipwrecked on the island, and after the initial needs of survival and rebuilding are taken care of, the focus shifts on saving their tribe. However, theirs is not the only tribe that has come under attack from goblin raids, and there are other tribes shattered across the archipelago - which the player will attempt to unite. [h2]Uniting the Tribes[/h2] So how does one unite the tribes? After repairing the ship, the player character gains access to the islands that surrounds them, but instead of each island having Blighted Towers which they will need to cleanse, there is something different on each island. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/47ba09aa4bb71a24c0bd437013ba85ec7f27aa93.png[/img] Each of these "missions" will be different, but all will result in yet another tribe coming under your banner. The missions themselves will be hand-crafted, but the maps will still be procedurally generated - and so will change with each playthrough. The missions aren't all necessarily going to involve combat - some will be entirely peaceful - and some will require a mixture of both economy and might to overcome. By way of example, let's take a more detailed look at Mission 1. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/322a066f97929bec42a768567b7a2e7e81915438.png[/img] This is the first mission the player will unlock and it serves as a gentle introduction to the system - with an entirely peaceful mission. The Player visits a small rocky island which has the remains of a small tribe which are struggling to survive after also fleeing from a goblin raid. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/6ad512f2ab680ee99e7a251ed182b15a10a6857c.png[/img] By talking to the Village Elder, the player can discuss their predicament and offer to allow them to settle on their island - but to allow them to do so, the player must give them certain supplies to help them make the journey across. Doing so earns the friendship of the tribe. This is just one example of a type of mission that will be available - others might include raids to free slaves, or the assassination of a Goblin Leader. [h2]Blood Brothers[/h2] Instead of claiming the islands and putting buildings on them to gain resources, each tribe that joins unlocks a Blood Brother which you can then assign to help out. You can freely reassign Blood Brothers at any time, although the changes only take effect the very next day. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/95fc1e49b6532bab0a0bc77fa6f6b74d0ad539e2.png[/img] There are three things you can do with them. You can either assign them to collect resources of a specific type. This will give you free resources overnight, similar to the current implementation. As you unlock better metals and wood types, the resources they collect will also change. You'll be able to purchase upgrades to increase the yields you get, or you can assign more Blood Brothers to the same task. Alternatively, you can assign them to help out with a specific crafting task. The Blood Brother will appear next to the crafting workshop, and help out with any odd tasks that need doing. In practice this is an increase to the quality or speed (as appropriate) of the items produced, in a similar way to tool upgrades. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/8f2849700b21f13c21f5d531b2ebea1177e7692e.png[/img] The third task is companionship, and this is when the Blood Brother joins the player character in combat. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/f70795318205dd59b149227734d41d10af697267.png[/img] A couple of things to note on this assignment. The Blood Brother always uses a ranged weapon, is always out of harm's way, and enemies will entirely ignore them. They will help the player character by loosing their bow at any enemies which are attacking. How skilled they are scales with the player character level, but there will be upgrades available to help them deal more damage. In short, the Blood Brother system serves as the tangible reward for unifying the tribe, replacing the current system of Outpost buildings for something more flexible. [h2]Tribehome[/h2] The Tribehome is where the united Tribes live. It is a separate map which the player can visit using the crossroads, and represents a small village which slowly builds up as more Tribes join the player character. Like many other things, the map and the building placement is procedurally generated, and the amount of buildings and wandering tribespeople will expand over time. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/e20a7ff9d1f2053282d2fb00baa627ac2501068a.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42309538/4fca24e6995436992b0e96632ddfc57de34c6020.png[/img] The player character can wander around when they visit, and there will be special villagers they can talk to which might be able to offer certain services once the village is large enough. Unlike your own part of the island, this village grows on it's own, and you don't have any control over the buildings or their position. So that's about it. As mentioned always, everything is subject to change. You can follow development week by week here [url=https://devdiaries.alone.epicllama.games/]Alone Weekly Dev Diaries[/url]