Very early comments on Alpha 5+

HavenCraft General Discussion
1

Absolutely great to see flower, bushes and butterflies, the environment is definitely coming to life. Will there eventually be wild animals, birds and fish?

I notice that beauty upgrades ask for potted plants so I am really looking forward to being able to place them.

Having the villagers beginning to come to life is great. One small problem as an offshoot of this is the new arrivals can, if you build anywhere near them, invade your buildings making it hard to locate them when you need to. I had to restart because of this, though, later I thought it may have been possible to at least partially mitigate this by providing the camp with more seating. Moving the village was another option, but, I was not keen on tackling that as a project.

In a similar vein, the villagers themselves will make themselves “at home” in any comfortable space. The table and chairs in “my” cottage seem to be especially favoured. :grin: I also had a long search for the villager I recruited before I actually had her workplace ready. This could be a real problem in a large and busy village. She was not in her assigned cottage. (I do not yet have any “public” buildings.

When starting a new game I became quite frustrated by the newcomers camp landing right in the middle of my planned village area. It took me several restarts to find the best place to build my shelter and have the camp in a suitable place. It would be good, in my opinion, if we could have some limited control of the positioning (for example being able to place plots which exclude the camp) or prior knowledge of likely sites (for example, the camp will always be on the coast).

Buildings, some nice cosmetic changes such as the plastered walls though I have not tried them yet. Eventually, I would really like some narrow roof edge pieces and shorter eve’s pieces. I am hoping to for a greater choice of windows and window pieces. I know they are coming, btw, so just mentioning, my son keeps nagging me about the missing doors. :upside_down_face: It would be lovely to be able to build complex roofs. (Example, as in “The Sims” where right angled roof junctions can be built.) Early days yet, too early for such complex additions, but, will we get them eventually?

Will our villagers eventually have skill sets? It would add to game complexity and make them more real. In addition it would allow for a training element.

Are you planning on having that doctor statue provide some sort of benefit? Or, will it always be just decorative?

I still have a lot to do on this update so that’s it for now. Thank you for a great update. The game is coming along nicely.

3 Likes
2

Yes, also had a few game restarts due to newcomers setting up in my backyard :rofl:
I’ve started to guess where they will go, but not always successful. It would be nice if they took a coastal area.

Doors: reading of comments, doors will come later. Low priority.

I guess the doctor statue is probably an homage to FF or a bit of fun for players of FF :slight_smile:

HavenCraft_2026-06-07
HavenCraft_2026-06-071639Ă—945 286 KB

and
FoundersFortune_2026-06-07
FoundersFortune_2026-06-07960Ă—496 119 KB

For those who haven’t played the game :upside_down_face:

2 Likes
3

I am gonna hop on and add my feedback here, too. :wink:

agreed. :+1:
Really nice to see new stuff in the world.

I have already tried them in my own savegame and really enjoy the new look they give to homes. :heart_eyes:
Having them in the workshops is also great. :+1:

I enjoy placing them and trying out the different pots to put them in.
Already a great new feature. :partying_face:

I have encountered the same “problem”:
The arrivals go into all buildings, that are close to them.

This does not feel “right”, since they are not yet part of the town.
I guess the arrivals could need some custom AI behavior,
that allows to them to explore the streets of your town,
but not the inside of the buildings.

I would even consider a checkbox on each plot-sign: “allow arrivals to visit this area”
and if it is unchecked, then they avoid that place and just walk by / in front of it.

Already talked about this in another topic :+1:
This will become easier, as soon as we have the ability to access the tasks from the plot-sign. :wink:

Would be awesome if we could decide where to place the camp.
And even better if we could move it again, later.
(hard to plan ahead, when you don’t know what other buildings are coming later) :sweat_smile:

This does fit the setting of the game :+1:
However, I also want to point out that this should unlock later in the game.
Because complex things like this can easily turn players away from the game,
when they get overwhelmed by it, in early stages of the game.

my point is:
Instead of giving the player the ability to increase the work speed
and NPC stats/skills right from the start, it should instead unlock
over time (by certain milestones) as a big goal to work towards.

Right now I actually enjoy not having doors. :sweat_smile:
Makes it easier to access the building and I am sure the NPC AI
could also get confused by doors or take additional time to open/close
them, when they are on their way to a storage area. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Currently the NPCs are still warping up to the roof, for a few frames,
while going through the doorways. Adding doors will also add complexity
to the AI source code. (poor devs, I feel you) :sweat_smile:

Overall I am happy with the additions of Alpha 5. :heart:
Well done, devs! :+1:

1 Like
4

Thanks everyone for all the info!

I don’t wanna promise too much future stuff, but suffice to say a lot of the things that you’re saying are also on my priority list :slight_smile:

Thanks for mentioning the annoyance of the traveler camp being put up in unforseen locations, didn’t have that on my radar until now.

About villager skills: yes, there are many things to do before we take a look at that. Tutorials for the existing mechanics is one thing, but the other is growing and maturing the village economy systems and village life a bit more first. :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

Good to know. Thank you. You are doing a great job.

2 Likes