As we are sure everyone is well aware, we are approaching the end of Spring. So we are going to get straight to the point: Farthest Frontier will not be hitting v1.0 in Spring 2025 after all (classic Crate, amirite?).
The reason why is perhaps overused, but in this case it is very valid: the team needs more time to polish the massive changes they have been cooking up over the past 6 months. We know we said the team needed more time before when we pushed the release back to this year, and for that we do apologize, but once we get into the details, you will (hopefully) agree that the extra months will be worth it.
What is different this time around is that we are now officially in feature lock. That means nothing is getting worked on that is not directly tied to shipping v1.0 features or polishing the existing gameplay. No more MOAR or any other surprises planned that will throw off the schedule. The team has some hard deadlines to meet, which we will get into at the end.
V1.0 is bringing massive changes not just to the endgame, but how you get there. So let us dive into it!
Table of Contents
We announced the Tech Tree in a previous State of Early Access. At the time, it had over 70 nodes, making it a pretty chunky layer of customization. However…as we iterated on the system and played around with it, we started to feel like the Tech Tree was not quite hitting the mark. For all its bonuses, it did not feel impactful enough for us and did not give the sense of agency that we were going for.
So, we went back to the drawing board and came back with Tech Tree 2.0. This one has (as of this write-up) 105 nodes, roughly divided between Agriculture, Economy, Civic, Military, and Industry, and fundamentally shakes up progression in Farthest Frontier. The major difference comes from the fact that we moved many building unlocks and upgrades from being dependent on the Town Center tier to the Tech Tree instead.
If you ever took issue with how we distributed the buildings progression, this will be your opportunity to take the proverbial reigns. Based on your own priorities, you will be able to unlock buildings in a different order, and enhance their production and bonuses as you see fit. Do you want to get the Blacksmith early for Weapons and Tools? With the Tech Tree, you can!
Consequently, getting some very powerful features such as Lancers will be a more significant investment than just rushing to Tier 4. You will want to balance your discoveries so that you are targeting technologies that will have the greatest impact on your settlement’s continued development.
But the Tech Tree will not just feature upgrades and building unlocks. As you master the various technologies, you will earn the means to construct Farthest Frontier’s monuments, which are more than just capstone structures to beautify your settlement with. In addition, you will gradually discover various Policies with which to manage your settlement’s growth. More on that below!
Monuments, as you might imagine, are the pinnacle of your settlement’s progression. They are symbols of mastery, whether civic, economic, or military. Originally, the idea was that you would progress towards one of these massive structures, but with the revamped Tech Tree 2.0, you will now have the opportunity to unlock all 3 in your settlements, should you so choose.
And you just might want to, depending on your aspirations, as each will bring significant additions to your endgame cities.
Civic Monument
The Civic Monument is a culmination of your desire to develop and beautify your city. After constructing this grand structure, you will find that your builders can construct and relocate structures much faster.
In addition, you will gain access to an array of new decorations to adorn your streets and public spaces. A settlement focused on civics will become a shining beacon in the frontier.
Economic Monument
If your aim is to maximize your economy, then this monument will stand as a testament to your business dealings. The construction of the Economic Monument will immediately increase the storage capacity of all your buildings. But what good is all that storage if you cannot turn it into money?
With the Economic Monument, traders will occasionally arrive with special orders. These lucrative deals will be limited quantity, but the trader will pay a premium price if you can fulfill them. Let the coffers overflow!
Military Monument
Lastly, the Military Monument will be a symbol of your settlement’s resilience. What better way to show invaders that you will not abide their presence than to taunt them? With this monument, you will have the opportunity to challenge your impeccable defenses with endlessly scaling raids. How far will you make it before your settlement is overrun and carnage ensues? With some of the creative solutions we have seen on the internet, we imagine some of you will get quite far!
Alongside the Tech Tree, you will find a new tab in the Town Center window: Policies.
As the name implies, this is where you will have the ability to set various policies to manage your settlement. All of these come with trade-offs, so you will want to be judicious in which you enable (or not!). While some policies will be available baseline to all settlements, most will be unlocked within the aforementioned Tech Tree. The policies we currently have planned are not mutually exclusive, so you will be able to mix and match them as you please in any combination.
Once toggled (on or off), a policy goes on cooldown for 12 months, so you will have to commit to those logistical decisions.
Some examples of policies we are playtesting:
- Overseeding: crop fields will have increased yields, but planted crops will have a higher impact on soil fertility.
- Rationing: villagers consume less food, but town happiness is significantly reduced.
- Munitions Distribution: Hunters and Guards are restricted from using Crossbows, which become military only.
This is another very modular system we look forward to building upon post-release.
We heard your calls to action and we are delivering. Bridges were not slated for v1.0, but we understand how important this feature is to you, so we are making it happen. Bridges will allow you to, well, bridge the gap across bodies of water and turn what was once a long journey around huge bodies of water into a leisurely stroll a just few meters away.
Bridge placement is fairly flexible along any coast line. They can be placed at any angle, with a generous min/max length. Really not much else to say. Bridges are coming at last!
Over the span of Farthest Frontier’s development, our animations team has gone from…0 to 3 full-time animators at Crate. So, we took advantage of our new resources and refreshed many of the game’s villager animations, which culminated in the introduction of villager idle behaviors in v0.9.7, a system that has made settlements feel much more alive instead of looking like just a cold efficient hive machine.
However, one thing we did not get to before was combat animations. With v1.0, we had our team do exactly that. You can look forward to polished animations across all of the game’s combat, from raiders to lancers.
Before
After
That rounds out the major features planned for v1.0, which are coming on top of our regular list of fixes, polish, and optimization. This is without a doubt going to be Farthest Frontier’s largest update, and it is going to take significant playtesting and debugging. This is a process that is already well underway internally, but we want to get v1.0 into your hands as soon as we can and the team is working hard to make that happen.
As such, we are aiming to begin public playtesting of v1.0 features starting in mid-July (tentatively July 15th). During this playtest, you can expect regular updates as we address issues, continue to balance the new systems, and get our final polish in for the big day. We want to make sure we get these features right, so we are planning to run this playtest for several months, leading up to…
Farthest Frontier is officially leaving Early Access October 2025. We do not have an exact day, as we need to discuss the details with Steam, but October is the month we are committing to. This is an announcement we are not taking lightly.
Leaving Early Access means we are confident in the foundation we have created for Farthest Frontier, and we can begin looking to the future, with post-release support and DLC content. There is no doubt we will again be turning to the community to let us know what kind of features and content would excite you most!
Thank you for being a part of this 3-year journey with us!
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