Services and Illicit buildings - DevJournal #13

Hello, Rulers!

This time, instead of reviewing what’s new in the different areas of the game, we’re going to dive straight into one of our most recent reworks!

If you’ve played the game’s demo (currently available on Steam), you may have noticed that not all the buildings are available in this version. In our previous dev journals, we’ve introduced some of them: the Harvesters’ barn, the Ballroom, the Building site... But also, ones whose activity can greatly affect the well-being of the whole town: Services and Illicit buildings.

We noticed during our playtesting sessions that their meaning wasn’t clear to players, so it was necessary for us to rethink their behaviour and the way information is displayed.

Service Gauges

The town’s inhabitants’ overall service needs are displayed through four gauges: 🙏 Faith, ⚕️ Health, 🎭 Entertainment, and 🛡️ Protection. They can distribute temporary negative traits whose effects will amplify the lower the gauge is. It is thus extremely important to maintain them as high as possible, or else villagers will suffer the consequences greatly (and yes, that includes dying 💀)!

The Health gauge, for example, has a chance to distribute a simple cold to a random villager while it is in its highest tier, but that can quickly evolve into the flu, cholera or even the plague if players aren’t careful.

And the Protection gauge can have villagers go from Worried to Robbed if their need for safety isn’t satisfied.

These gauges will evolve based on several factors, one being the current population in town: depending on their class, villagers will have different service needs. Peasants, for example, have a greater need for health, while Nobles crave protection.

Specific buildings will also affect the service gauges, whether it be for the best or for the worst...

Illicit Buildings

As Lakeburg keeps on getting more crowded, the town develops a secret, darker side, and Illicit buildings will make an appearance... They work in a peculiar way: instead of being built, they will emerge seemingly out of nowhere as the size of the population increases, greatly affecting the overall well-being of the village! 😨

It’s difficult for the villagers to have their need for protection satisfied when there’s a Thieves’ guild in town... Indeed, each Illicit building will steeply decrease the value of the related service if left unattended:

• the Shack affects the villagers’ need for Faith.

• the Brothel affects the villagers’ need for Health.

• the Caravan affects the villagers’ need for Entertainment.

• and the Thieves’ Guild affects the villagers’ need for Protection.

The final Illicit building, the Assassins’ Guild, affects all service needs at once, making it particularly nefarious!

To lessen the Illicit buildings’ impact on the service needs, players can assign villagers to work there and keep Lakeburg’s illicit activities in check. Of course, there’s a trade-off in that the buildings will then unleash special negative consequences on the village, such as resources disappearing or villagers getting highly negative traits. It'll be up to you to find the right balance!

Service buildings

Fortunately, service workers are here to counter the effects of illicit buildings! When villagers are assigned to work in the Church, the Hospital, the Theatre and the Barracks, they can increase the current value of the associated service. The higher the value of their skills, the bigger the impact on the related gauge!

Of course, these buildings require **Gold **to function, and service workers will stop satisfying the villagers’ needs if you run out of money. 💸

What do you think? Did you enjoy this insight into one of the most challenging parts of the game?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1584940/Lakeburg_Legacies/

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