Clockwork Labs announced BitCraft’s next closed alpha test, along with some changes to expect, from revamped settlements, improvements to towns, and the return of creatures who are ready to eat you (and be eaten).
The team started off in their update talking about how, in previous tests, some of the early testers had a whole lot of trouble with creatures around their camps, some of them even taking to hiding behind walls of campfires. That was a little too hostile, especially for earlier experiences, so for testing purposes they took the creatures out temporarily. This let them build up towns, focus on character progression, and to introduce their empire system.
The creatures are back now. Or rather, they will be when Closed Alpha 3 starts on November 12th. In addition to the creatures, which are not just hunting you, but are also there to be hunted, they've made some other changes, with significant ones to settlements and towns. With their stated desire to have people not just stick to their own small groups and crafting gameplay to encourage getting past those boundaries, this impacted settlement design. Testers were making their own claims or joining a claim that one of their friends started, so everyone sort of wound up very separated.
Clockwork Labs aims to have fewer settlements than people, To allow settlements to grow and become social and trading hubs. Earlier design encouraged smaller, more siloed interaction.
Towns are going to be more public. What this means for early progression, when settlement structures are required for you to get a start, there will be ruined towns where you can find friendly NPCs that will help you with amenities you need. The early game will also push you into areas where you can socialize and trade with other new players. Making these changes also takes any pressure off for learning the claim system early, and puts the focus back on progression.
Player-made settlements are still important to progression, and visiting advanced settlements will be part of the progression journey. As you visit those advanced player settlements during your progression journey, they're incentivized to make them more useful–earning free currency as players use these settlements.
The full dev update goes into more details on Closed Alpha 3.
