Hi there, big fan of the game and concept.
One thing that really becomes stale for me on my playthroughs, where i usually run some kind of handicap challenge (e.g. no farming → go to 500 pop on vanquisher etc.) is, that seasonality & clothing tiers play little to no impact.
On a game mechanic aspect, the weather or temperature impact on your vills looses relevance massively after you’re providing them with t1 clothing and I feel this is a missed opportunity for both depth and replay value.
Yes, during early game not having any coats & shoes translates into your vill’s chilling in their huts for the better part of spring. However, once you’ve gotten them some basic clothing their is little impact felt (or punishment for the lack of) to go to hemp clothing (and potential wollen clothings, if they are implemented).
A nice way to make this system feel more impactful (and you can tweak it for the guys who like pain aswell) could be, that, given the right clothing (e.g. highest tier) your vills don’t need to hide for the better part of 2-3 months, maybe only on a extrem winter. HOWEVER, if you dnt have this kind of industry set up, make seasons even more punishing → 4-5 months of sitting around camp fires or that they can leave their huts, but can only endure the work outside for short amounts of time before they need to reheat. This would give you a real sense of urgency when it comes to your clothing industry and not just a slightly worse way of income than mining when you’re in early/mid tier 2.
To counteract this more punishing climate in early game you could implement some kind of “heating” building, like a big campfire → a t1 building similar to temp shelter but just for your vill’s to regain temperature, eats either coal or firewood of course.
Also, on a side note, you could think about introducing tier 4 clothing as luxury goods (e.g. use all relevant materials, even silk, incl. gold ore, to produce some fashionable garments for your vain t4 townspeople) → could be a decent alternative to using papermill’s as your hemp dump in the lategame
What y’all think?
