Basic character functions: gather resources from deposits or forage, refine resources, travel, craft and build, chat with other characters in the same location, drop/pick up/store in containers, wear clothes/armor, toggle vacation mode.
More specific character functions: ability to make babies, describe items, cook food, dye clothing (and other items), build boats and other items that allow you to travel to locations with special requirements, fire clay items in a kiln, brew beer.
World specifics: 250+ item/resource types, 130+ craftable items, 49 outdoors locations, 13 types of random encounters.
Clothes turn into rags when they reach 0 health.
Locks for containers and buildings. Ability to force a lock to open by bashing it repeatedly.
Hand carts - pullable containers, which allow transporting up to 40000 in weight.
Characters enter vacation mode automatically if they haven't loaded the location page in 7 days. (18.6.2023)
Containers on the items and inventory pages have a badge showing how many piles are inside, or if they are empty. (18.6.2023)
Points store - earn points by completing quests, then use the points to purchase useful items for your characters. (21.6.2023)
24.6.2023. AP-based crafting system.
28.6.2023. The intimidation mechanic has been restricted to commanding children that haven't yet been claimed by a player. Characters can no longer intimidate other players' characters because it was over-powered.
6.7.2023. Trader mechanic. There's a character named Charlotte, who can sell you items in exchange for coins, and also purchases advanced items and certain resources. Charlotte can be found in Zone 2.
14.7.2023. Lost souls are ethereal creatures, who can't travel independently. If you lead them to their desired destination, they give you some coins.
The base mechanics related to domesticated animals were added, including harvesting eggs and milk. Location descriptions were added.
14.8.2023. Troughs were implemented, making it easier to feed domesticated animals. (Previously you had to put the food in each animal's inventory, which quickly turned out to be tedious.) Animals also get more nutrients out of food than people, so effectively they require less food. Ability to use wicker for cooking or baking in addition to (or instead of) wood.
15.8.2023. Quests up to 39 have been added. There might be more eventually but currently that's all I can think of.
1.9.2023. Gathering resources was changed so that you no longer have to define in advance how many ticks to spend, instead you just click a button to start. The higher your level, the longer the character will remain busy without requiring player input. It's possible to quit early if you don't need that many resources.
2.9.2023. Characters level 7 and higher became able to edit location descriptions. Coincidentally, buildings can have a different description for the interior and exterior (since they're stored in different tables).
3.9.2023. The craft menu shows how much of the required resource is available and whether required tools and machines are present. It updates the availability when the multiplier is changed.
9.9.2023. Horse carts were implemented.
10.9.2023. Unlocking craft menu items based on character level. Every AP spent translates to 1 XP, and once you gather enough XP, you level up. Using timers also gives you XP. Characters can still work on projects started by someone else even if they weren't high enough level to start the project themselves. The craft menu shows items that have been unlocked by your current level, but you can select a different level from the dropdown menu at the top to view what to expect in the future.
12.9.2023. Cooking/baking/firing clay now updates the timer in real time with javascript instead of showing a static number. Baking and cooking timer durations were increased because good things are worth waiting for.
13.9.2023. Cooking and baking timers show their results without a page reload if the timer is finished while the player is idling on the page.
14.9.2023. Resting furniture (bed, chair, bench, sofa) were implemented. Their effects are applied automatically to natural healing.
29.9.2023. The zone based travel system was implemented. (Previously, the travel system used paths similar to Cantr.) New characters start at either Zone 1 (the tutorial zone) or Zone 2. Once you pass from Zone 1 to Zone 2, you can no longer go back, but the rest of the zones do not have this restriction, allowing two-way travel. Each zone has individual unlock requirements, which are visible on the Travel page. You can unlock zones in any order when the requirements are filled, but you can only scout locations in either your current zone, or the one after that. Scouting reveals the travel requirements (such as wading boots, climbing hooks, or a boat). If you can fill the requirements, you can explore the location and travel to it. After a location has been explored, any of your characters can travel to it at a reduced AP cost.
1.10.2023. Meet Rambutan, the new livestock merchant. Exchange coins for domesticated animals. Rambutan can be found at Euss Plains. If you don't have any coins, you can get them by leading lost souls or selling items to Charlotte.
8.10.2023. It's possible to make papyrus and parchment. Mushroom recipes got introduced today.
13.10.2023. In order to travel on a boat, you have to be in a location bordering the same body of water as the target location. Building boats in landlocked locations is disabled.
15.10.2023. Guest accounts were implemented. People can change their username, email address, and password through the Settings page.
17.10.2023. The game now tells you when you gain XP. Initially there was a bug that it erroneously told you you gained XP if you move from a low XP character to a high XP character, but that has been fixed.
18.10.2023. The first type of snare was implemented, enabling characters to ensnare animals in combat and prevent them from running away until they struggle enough to snap the snare.
22.10.2023. Ability to install loose locks on buildings, including locks that have been previously uninstalled.
23.10.2023. Wild animals were divided into zones. (Previously any animal could appear anywhere.) Gathering tools in the craft menu mention which resources they boost gathering, and by how much.
5.11.2023. Graphic avatars are here. Go to your character profile by clicking on the character's name in the side panel and create a personalized avatar. Note that all characters are human (except the wraith - which is debatable).
7.11.2023. Characters level 14 and up can start menial tasks for lower level characters, allowing them to earn some pocket money. Technically higher level characters can also work on these tasks, but why would you want to? Get ready to clean the outhouse or gut fish.
8.11.2023. The long-overdue search box for the craft menu was added
9.11.2023. Two kinds of cots, and the ability to make cheese out of milk with a cheesecloth. Cheese can be used to make pies combined with flour and pretty much any other ingredient.
10.11.2023. There is a more compact look for the items page on desktop. The items are now divided into predefined categories. There have been changes to foraging because it was possible to get too many resources from one project. The wraith can now command people to forage. Now every time you (or anybody) confiscates items from someone, they have a 10% chance of running and hiding.
12.11.2023. Two new items: campfire, which is like a miniature bonfire and allows roasting meat, mushrooms, and bird eggs; iron cauldron, which is a bigger version of iron cookpot, for those who are struggling with making all your stew fit in one batch. Fixed an oversight that mushroom bread was missing a nourishment value.
14.11.2023. Moving resources directly from one container to another. Click switch container and select a new container from the list. You can select to move just part of a pile.
15.11.2023. Max capacity for buildings. You can still enter even when it's over-crowded, but working on projects has a percentage of your AP go to waste, so for example, when the over-cluttering is at 200 %, you have to spend 2 AP to progress a project by 1 AP.
21.11.2023. All the forms in the game now load with AJAX. This has lead into several bugs and oversights, so if you discover a button that doesn't seem to do anything or the console says that something is not a valid json response, report it as a bug.
24.11.2023. New types of snares: wicker snare and jute lasso. Ability to see how much damage you and the opposing animal dealt in combat.
26.11.2023. It's now possible to build mines. Mines can be built in locations that have, or previously had, a stone, coal, or iron ore deposit. Mine tunnels can be built inside a mine entrance and each mine tunnel unlocks a new deposit. In the future, it is planned that mines can collapse, but this won't happen any time soon.
29.11.2023. There are now apples, but where? It's a surprise. There are also clay plates and bowls.
30.11.2023. Salt extraction pool is a new construct for seaside locations, which allows harvesting salt out of seawater. You can now copy keys through the inventory by spending 1 unit of iron and 25 AP.
2.12.2023. Harvestable icons are here! When you load the deposits page while outdoors, you will find 5 random icons. Clicking on them will reveal resources. Already harvested icons will be grayed out. 6 times a day, the entries are deleted, allowing new ones to be generated when the page is loaded next time. The tick runs at 8, 9, 15, 18, 20 and 21 Finnish time, at 1 minute past the hour. Currently harvesting the finds doesn't cost AP but it's entirely possible that later a small AP cost will be applied.
6.12.2023. New item: fishing pole. Having a fishing pole enables you to create a new fish deposit at a location that borders water or is a boat, at the cost of 1 meat.
Yesterday there were two new items added: Baby blanket and wool blanket. The wool blanket can also be equipped. Today they also received price information, so it's possible to sell them to Charlotte or to buy them from her, if she has any.
8.12.2023. A fishing net works like a fishing pole but gives +20 to fishing.
There's a new random encounter, called the crazy cook. When defeated, he drops a knife and a page from a cookbook.
Mixable status for ingredients has been made more transparent.
9.12.2023. Oven mitts make the baking time 50 % shorter.
11.12.2023. There are now shoes and sandals in addition to the pre-existing wading boots.
12.12.2023. Bonus tools: Optional tools that when held, reduce the AP cost of starting projects. Scissors and pin cushion for making clothes, tongs for making metallic objects, trowel for making a stone building, oven and smelter, bodkin for making leather items.
13.12.2023. The formula for counting level has been changed to be more in line with the way the build menu unlocks. For xp less than 1700, level is the square root of XP+1 /7. For XP higher than 8100, level is log2 of (XP+15) * 1.5 - 5. For everything in between, it uses the old formula of (XP+700)/800+3.
14.12.2023. Gathering resources was switched to using AP instead of timers. Currently if the wraith orders you to gather, or you order your child to gather, it will still use a timer, but this will eventually be phased out. The duration of cooking and baking timers was changed.
22.12.2023. From now on, foraging will happen by clicking on the harvestable icons because these two systems were overlapping, and it was far too easy to keep yourself fed by eating berries.
27.12.2023. Resting was changed to instantaneous at the cost of hunger. It's also possible to rest to gain AP if your current AP is less than 250 and you're not starving. There are also 3 new types of backpacks: jute, linen, and wicker. The cloth backpacks have the same capacity as the older leather backpack. The wicker backpack has less capacity but it's large enough to hold a baby and a baby blanket.
28.12.2023. Drinking beer gets characters drunk now. Drunkenness varies from 0 to 100 and 1 unit of beer causes 5 points of drunkenness and adds 30 minutes to duration. Currently, drunkenness only affects speech. Currently drunkenness doesn't fade gradually, it just ends when the expiry time is exceeded. These will likely be addressed in the future. You can only drink beer when you're thirsty.
18.1.2024. The combat system was temporarily turned off because it was out of balance. It became momentarily possible to confiscate items from anyone who had been inactive for 5 days or more. Characters still enter vacation mode automatically if they haven't been active in 7 days, so this leaves a 2 day window during which you can confiscate items. You can enter vacation mode manually if you know you won't be playing for the next 5 days or more.
23.1.2024. The next experiment is a one hour cooldown on attacking. If this doesn't work out then it will be changed again. Read the details on the combat page.
1.2.2024. The inactive limit was switched to 14 days and distracted limit to 7 days. This means characters are vulnerable to robbing later but won't enter vacation mode as early as they used to. Also, there was a help page added recently.
3.2.2024. Animal encounters now have a chance of following the person who triggered them. They also attempt to attack when you leave the location and may deal damage even if you manage to run away afterwards. Also, now the minimum damage animal encounters deal is 10% of their max damage rather than 1. This can be lowered by shields and armor.
4.2.2024. There's now a 60 minute cooldown between lockbreaking attempts. It's no longer possible to roll a 1. The minimum damage is now 10% of maximum. The lock returns part of the damage to the attacker, ranging between 10 and 100%. The different levels of recoil have flavor text ranging from bruised knuckles to a broken hand.
Repairing locks is now slower, but it should take less than 2 hours to repair a fully broken lock. Timers for describing items were shortened.
Unrecorded date: If your hunger or health is below 700, there's a faint icon on the character list to draw attention to the less than optimal condition.
24.2.2024. After lots of debugging, the scrolling and uncollapsing on the craft menu should finally work the way it was originally intended to work.
7.3.2024. Tools deteriorate when starting projects, based on how many AP the project costs to finish. Even if the tool breaks during the project setup, the project can still be completed without tools, because it's assumed that completing the project in question is what caused the tool to break.
Troughs are listed on the Animals page, to make it easier to see if fodder is available, and to add some if there's not enough in the trough.
It's possible to attach coins to a project. The person who finishes the project gets the coins.
8.3.2024. New feature: Protect domesticated animals from being butchered. Note: This does not currently protect against being lead, unfortunately. That will hopefully be added at some point. This suggestion has been on the board since October 2023.
15.3.2024. It should now be possible to rescue people from being kidnapped by the wraith. There's a time limit. While the wraith might not leave immediately if you run out of time, you only get XP if you finish the rescue mission before time is up. Missions don't have their own section at this point, so they appear at the top or bottom of half of the main pages if you have any undeleted missions.
There's an ongoing shift to using icons instead of text for action buttons. Currently, the change applies to ground items, inventory, and containers. Later it will be extended to animals and sublocations.
As a minor change, the describe page for items and animals now has a relevant icon displayed before the name.
16.3.2024. Graphics were added to the switch container page and the visual appearance was made less plain. (It used to be just a list with radio selections.)
17.3.2024. Several pages were changed visually to use graphic buttons instead of plaintext. Search belongings, loot animal, sublocations, Interact.
19.3.2024. Wild animals were given graphic icons. I drew them in a rush, so I might clean them up at some point.
22.3.2024. It became possible to buy a goat from the livestock merchant. They can be harvested for both milk and wool, and give mutton when butchered. Chickens can now be harvested for feathers in addition to eggs.
29.3.2024. Others can tell if you relocate something to or from a ground container. They can't see if you relocate items between containers in your inventory.
31.3.2024. The collapsible list of cookable and bakable items that's visible when viewing the contents of ovens and such is now sorted alphabetically.
1.4.2024. The way the mixing system was written was refactored. While this doesn't show up to users, it shortened the code by over 100 lines. In the future, it will be faster to introduce new mixing recipes.
3.4.2024. The visual appearance of the feed animals page was updated and now it's no longer a separate template after clicking the feed button. (They used to be two separate templates, even though the contents were 90% the same.)
8.4.2024. Major travel system update! In the previous version (29.9.2023), it was possible to jump to any location regardless of zone, as long as you had it scouted and explored. In the new version, certain locations have connections to other zones, and it's only possible to cross over in those spots. This should make traveling less linear, because usually the next connection doesn't start in the same spot where the previous one ends.
Please be noted, that eventually the connections marked as river or sea will only be possible to traverse in a boat. For now, you can still travel on foot if the end point is not an island.
20.4. After two days of work and many months of intentions, two new zones have been made available (zones 11 and 12). They come with 9 new resources (most of them for cooking). Find out ingame what's available.
28.4. Herbs and spices have been made available for cooking. Different zones have a different selection of herbs, and they can be discovered by clicking on the foraging icons. The tastiness level of mixing recipes depends on the ratio of seasoning used, ranging from bland to delicious.
30.4. Rafts were added. They can be found in the boats category. Rafts deteriorate upon usage and turn into a small shipwreck when they reach 0 health.
Leaving an island now requires either a boat or a raft, so you can no longer swim away accidentally and leave your boat behind. Note that if you are stranded on an island, you can get wood from the random finds icons even if the island doesn't have a wood deposit.
1.5. There have been a few changes to animal encounters. If the animal has 500 or less HP left, you can just walk away without risking to look like a coward. The overall chance of encountering animals at random has been lowered, so you have to actively search for them to find them. The run away chances have been increased for multiple animal types because they were too low. Now there's a reason to use snares again. The card for an animal encounter only says React, and you will select the action on the next page. I'm considering to show the run away and chase chances to make decision-making easier.
2.5. Characters level 10 and up can now demolish ground items. The limitations are: the item must be craftable, it must not be stackable, and it must not be an installed lock. You get 80% of the crafting materials back. The materials land on the ground.
The game now sends you a message when you level up. Note that if you switched characters and instantly gained a level for some reason, the game might not realize that you weren't already on the new level. Sorry about that.
9.5. Today's new feature is that you can buy oats and carrots through a trough if you have coins. It's just assumed that there's always some NPC merchant available with the resources. They charge 3 coins per unit, which is rather expensive, so you're better off gathering resources yourself, but if you have excess coins and lots of animals to feed, it can be used as a coin sink.
10.5. It's now possible to add a description when starting a project. It doesn't cost extra AP and doesn't use a timer. There was a mismatch because the projects table description can be null but items and inventory items table it couldn't, so I changed it so that it can also be null in items and inventory. This required fixing functions that detect color from the description, because string functions on null were causing a warning, since it's deprecated. These should all be fixed now. If you notice anything funny, report it.
26.5. Winter clothes were added. Since there is no weather, currently they are just for roleplaying purposes. Hopefully some time in the future, there will be weather types or cold zones that require protective clothing.
1.6. The following events now result in an event message: When someone starts cooking or baking, when an item is finished cooking, baking, or brewing, when someone buys from or sells to a trader, when someone gives food or water to animals, when an animal gets ensnared.
3.6. Now if you have a key to a building (or boat, or horsecart), you can enter and exit without having to separately unlock it. If you are leading others, it is assumed that you let them through and they follow you inside. Dragging items still requires unlocking the door.
15.6. New feature: NPC Buyer. NPC buyers are random characters that appear in a town for a day and are looking to buy certain resources - mostly types that are not normally bought by merchants. If a resource is not normally bought, the NPC buyer will pay 2 coins per unit. Additionally, character descriptions are now visible on the interact page.
3.7. Since there were so many cases of container contents getting lost when the container is dropped or picked up, I've turned off checking for capacity when moving container contents. Hopefully this will prevent the bug from occurring. As a side effect, it's possible that your character will end up carrying more than maximum. They won't be able to pick up more until they drop something.
6.7. Introducing the ability to restore exhausted resource deposits. The more AP you spend, the more likely you are to find a lost resource deposit but if you manage to find something, the AP is spent and gone. If you fail to find anything, it only spends a fraction of the AP, so you can basically gamble and take a chance of finding something with less AP. You can decide for yourself how much AP to invest.
27.7. New items: leather armor, wooden mug, unfired clay mug, clay mug. It should be possible to auto-drink from the mugs as well as a waterskin and both the regular and large barrel. Auto-drink is triggered when leaving a location (not when arriving).
The weight of wooden mixing bowl was increased to 400 and required wood from 4 to 10 units.
28.7. The mixing cookbook is now viewable on the Mixing page (accessible through the look inside page of any pot or mixing bowl).
New recipe: Scrambled eggs.
3.9. It's now possible to produce sugar beets by cross-breeding beets and turnips in a vegetable garden. Sugar beets can be used to boil sugar using a pot. Sugar can be used on recipes freely like herbs or salt. (Note: You cannot use sugar to flavor sausages on the meat grinder but if you want to make a meat stew with sausages and sugar, the system is not stopping you.)
7.9. User interface changes to make the game more mobile friendly: Location top banners are collapsed on mobile, making it easier to access the main content. The banner can be uncollapsed to read or modify the location description. On large screens, the banner is always visible.
Location info block is collapsed by default.
The side panel closes itself automatically when you click one of the navigation links.
The navigation links are shown 2 or 3 abreast so that users on smaller cellphones won't have to scroll to reach the bottom of the menu, making all links accessible at a glance.
8.9. Uses for machines can now be viewed through the ground items page. It's basically a snapshot of the related part of the craft menu, and you can start projects if you have all the necessary tools.
13.9. You can now build a market stall that works mechanically like a trough. When you buy items, they go into the stall, which acts as a container, and you can pick them up from there.
To read more about the development of Otherworld, including previous versions, download the History of Otherworld PDF.