Features
What the game does today. The rules behind all of it: nobody fights or dies, there is no magic, and crafted gear is bound to whoever makes it.
A living world
12 towns, 21 timed roads, 43 goods. Stock is produced and consumed over time, prices follow stock, and shortages and gluts are real. A game day is a real day, with a sun and moon, lanterns at dusk, and weather that matches the notice board.
Lords, kings and trouble
Every town has a ruler with a character, taxes, a guard pot and a road pot. Unrest becomes elections and rebellions; one king rules them all and can fall. Harvests, blights, festivals, storms and a roving bandit gang change the map from day to day.
Nine trades and custom builds
Pedlar, porter, wayfarer, guardsman, clerk, teamster, factor, provider, journeyman, or your own mix of five traits. Levels, six crafting skills, books and trainers, a dog, and needs that slow you down but never kill you.
First-person towns
Walk a walled 3D town with gates for every road, shops and workshops you step into, keepers dressed for their trade, townsfolk and guards, and a modular character look with outfits, skin, hair and dyes.
Trade, contracts and standing
Buy low, sell high, and take delivery contracts for towns that run short. Build standing in a town to unlock its best wagons and upgrades, and to pay less trading tax there: 5, 10, 20 or 30 percent less as you become Known, Trusted, Respected and Honoured. Coins in the bank cannot be robbed; the bandits take at most a fifth and never hurt you.
Gear and crafting
Dozens of kinds of item, five quality levels from Common to Legendary, durability and repair. Craft at six workshops; crafted gear is bound to its maker, and the best version of each item is made in the town famed for it. A whip for a burst of speed on the road, a riding crop for a steady edge, a night cap, pillow, blanket and teddy bear so you rest better. Teamsters, factors and providers each make gear nobody else can. Hover over any recipe to see what it does at every quality.
Caravans
On foot, with mules, with horses. Carts, wagons and covered wagons with upgrades, wear and a hired driver. Each animal wears its own harness, saddlebags, horseshoes and lure. The caravan travels at its slowest unit's pace, and your mileage is counted.
Ledgers
Five ledgers, one worn at a time: haggling; price trend arrows; price charts; a route book of what each road earns per hour; bulletin clippings that double the notice board's reach. Crafted at the library, or on the shelf now and then.
Merchant Companies
Charter, signatures and a founding fee; a hall in every town; ranks, dues, a bank with permissions, a storeroom and workshop that grow, team-built projects, a mutual fund, standing, tabards, and great contracts for loads no one trader can carry.
Roads and maps
The map starts hidden and fills in as you walk. Roads are places: lamps lit at dusk by lamplighters on horseback, benches to rest on, other travellers. The world map is the real province: roads wind as they do on the ground, with their true lengths; click a road or a gate for its card, zoom and drag, and see other travellers on the roads by name. Plan a route, send a carrier pigeon for a private market report only you can read, and keep a route book of what each road really pays.
Your first ten minutes
Old Bram, a voiced caravan master, walks you through the square, your pack, the market and the road, and a first trade that always ends in a profit. You start with a pack mule, a cart, hay and a purse.
A town you can read
The market cart shows what the market really holds: goods vanish from its counter as stock runs out and come back when it fills. Smiths walk between the forge and the bench and swing real hammers. Everyone in a place sees and hears the same thing at the same moment, from the hammering to the town clock.
Rest and comfort
Sit on a bench or the ground to recover faster. Standing around in town costs you nothing, so you can stay and talk. Board your animals for a night to send them out fresh.
At a glance
Icons with a coloured border for item quality, hover tips for the words, a buff panel for what is helping you right now, and an action bar on the number keys.
Sound and music
Recorded ambience for town, indoors, road and night; weather and crowds; crafting and wagon sounds; hoofbeats for each kind of animal; footsteps on the ground you walk; church bells for the hours; a music playlist; and a guide with a voice.
Open development
One developer and an AI pair-programmer, with a test suite for every system, a world simulator that plays thirty traders through the real game, and a public development log.
In the game
Coming
- Clothes and hoods that change how your character looks, and more head, neck and finger gear
- Company emblems on the tabard, and a warning before a hall is locked
- More ledgers: prices you last saw in other towns
- More music and more voiced lines
- More of the province: the new map has room for the remaining towns, a sea coast and boats