Welcome to another dev diary. Today I would like to talk more about settlements, their importance, and how they differ in Fate of an Empire – Age of War compared to the previous iteration of the game.

But first, I would like to thank you all for the warm reception of the video I posted last week. It was my first attempt to show some gameplay while also commenting and giving some tips about the game and UI. Some of you have commented that it was to quick and next time I will increase the length each subtitle is shown and also use a font that is easier and faster to read.

If you haven’t seen it here’s one more chance:

The video has also helped me by doubling the number of beta testers for Fate of an Empire – Age of War. Thanks to all of you who have signed up and help me test out my game.

What is a settlement? A settlement is fixed position and ranges from your starting capital to simple watchtowers to neutral spawn points. Settlements house your population and is used to build armies and fleets. As the population increases the settlerment will be able to construct more buildings to further boost many of its abilities, may it be tax collection or infra structure that helps against the plague.

Depending on the size of the population in a settlement it will have a base type. The base types range from small villages to major province capitals. The settlement type decides the sight range and also gives a base research output, among many other things.

If you’ve played the first Fate of an Empire this isn’t anything new. Why then do I, again and again, say that the changes to settlements will fundamentally change the game?

The above image is an example of the settlement data screen showing a young empire capital. It shows several sections with information. The overview section is new for Fate of an Empire – Age of War and shows some important information, like the settlement type. But it also shows if it belong to a province and what focus the settlement has.

Lets start with provinces, these are simply the area of influence of a capital or a province capital. If a settlement lies within 9 or less hexes from a province capital it will be restricted in maximum settlement type and may not become larger than a city, This will change mid to late game empires that before consisted of only province capitals to a diverse flora of larger and smaller settlements.

And now, let’s discuss the more complex settlement focus. Each of your settlements will have a focus. Some are very basic like these three default focuses:

• Capital – This focus can only be selected by a capital and does not give any bonuses or penalties.
• Settler – This focus can be selected by villages and towns. It does not give any bonuses of penalties and can be used while the small settlement grows into a city. When it becomes a city this focus will be automatically replaced by basic.
• Basic – This is the last of the default focuses. It do not give any bonuses, instead it gives a small penalty in all areas. It should only be used while deciding the long term use of a settlement.

Other focuses allow you to specialice your settlements to a high degree:

• Garrison – Gives massive bonus to the company construction value and increases the sight with 1. On the other hand it won’t generate much in other areas and will never grow larger than a city. But its small size is somewhat negated by using recruits from nearby settlements allowing it to pump out troops.
• Shipyard – Gives a massive bonus to the squadron construction value and increases sight with 1. On the other hand it won’t generate much in other areas and will never grow larger than a city.
• Trade – Gives a massive bonus to trade and tax income while being less efficient in all other areas.
• Development – Gives a massive bonus to research and some bonuses to building construction value while being less efficient in all other areas.
• Population – This is how you create a megapolis. It increases sight with 1 (food is collected from all sighted hexes) while also giving a bonus to the maximum population. You won’t build much troops with this settlement but if you have a garrison city nearby it would be a great combo.

All these changes, combined with the new terrain properties, will make settlements way more complex to handle than before.

Thank you for reading my dev diaries and supporting my game development!