King under the Mountain was a pretty nice colony-building game from Rocket Jump Technology, and it was going through a huge upgrade. Sadly, their publisher cancelled on them so they're having to re-release as Mountaincore.
It's a bit of an odd one this. The developer went from working on it solo, to having a publisher come along to help fund further development allowing them to build a small team. The plan was to continue working solidly on it for 9 months, then do a brand new release under the publisher. Just as work was coming to an end the publisher backed away.
Thankfully, they've been allowed to just carry on, including with all the work funded by the publisher (who they won't name). So it's getting re-released anyway now independently as Mountaincore and all original owners will get the newer game too, so no one needs to re-buy anything. Sounds like a win-win for all involved.
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Originally inspired clearly by Dwarf Fortress, it also mixes in elements from other games like The Settlers, Prison Architect and Dungeon Keeper with an aim to be more approachable. Some of the new features due to arrive in the updated and renamed release include:
- A completely redesigned UI - no more placeholder UI.
- Skill levels so your settlers can develop over time.
- Weapons, military management and a detailed combat system.
- Monsters to deal with in the caverns of the mountains.
- Invasions by hostile Orcs (other races to come soon).
- Trading with merchants to plug the gaps in your industry.
- Animations and general graphical improvements.
You can follow it on Steam. It's due to release into Early Access on May 18th.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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7 comments
I'd love to get into these games, but the AI just does my head in. Rimworld, Prison Architect, Oxygen Not Included, Rise to Ruins, man I've tried a lot of these, and they all have one problem - I'm not a very good god. Every single time, I get to some stage of the gameplay and I need one thing done immediately, or the colony will fail. One thing, or you all die. Stop what you're doing, and do this one thing. The thing is priority 9, chopping trees is priority 1. Why are you still chopping trees? And... you're dead. And that guy inside, cooking? He's dead. That clone running out of oxygen over there? Yep, dead.
I don't get why AI in these games is so frustrating. But it is, so I kind of gave up on them.
I don't get why AI in these games is so frustrating. But it is, so I kind of gave up on them.
4 Likes, Who?
I'd love to get into these games, but the AI just does my head in. Rimworld, Prison Architect, Oxygen Not Included, Rise to Ruins, man I've tried a lot of these, and they all have one problem - I'm not a very good god. Every single time, I get to some stage of the gameplay and I need one thing done immediately, or the colony will fail. One thing, or you all die. Stop what you're doing, and do this one thing. The thing is priority 9, chopping trees is priority 1. Why are you still chopping trees? And... you're dead. And that guy inside, cooking? He's dead. That clone running out of oxygen over there? Yep, dead.
I don't get why AI in these games is so frustrating. But it is, so I kind of gave up on them.
LOL, you are so right!! I can't speak for all, but in RimWorld, the early/mid game is totally this! I also tend to think of it as the most difficult/challenging part of the game because the colony is so fragile. Once you get past it, the have difficulty goes way down because the colony is so resilient.
1 Likes, Who?
I'd love to get into these games, but the AI just does my head in. Rimworld, Prison Architect, Oxygen Not Included, Rise to Ruins, man I've tried a lot of these, and they all have one problem - I'm not a very good god. Every single time, I get to some stage of the gameplay and I need one thing done immediately, or the colony will fail. One thing, or you all die. Stop what you're doing, and do this one thing. The thing is priority 9, chopping trees is priority 1. Why are you still chopping trees? And... you're dead. And that guy inside, cooking? He's dead. That clone running out of oxygen over there? Yep, dead.I have little experience of this kind of game, but I just played a little bit of The Wandering Village and I've been having exactly this kind of problem.
I don't get why AI in these games is so frustrating. But it is, so I kind of gave up on them.
Which is a pity, because otherwise I'm enjoying it--I kind of like the big lummox dinosaur-ish thing your village is on the back of as it lumbers along, and I like the issues raised by the fact that the village is moving through terrain which can be useful or dangerous and you have to worry about the health and feeding of your source of mobility. But the whole bit where you can't just tell the villagers to work on THAT, that thing I want done now, is definitely a pain.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 18 April 2023 at 5:44 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
I'd love to get into these games, but the AI just does my head in. Rimworld, Prison Architect, Oxygen Not Included, Rise to Ruins, man I've tried a lot of these, and they all have one problem - I'm not a very good god. Every single time, I get to some stage of the gameplay and I need one thing done immediately, or the colony will fail. One thing, or you all die. Stop what you're doing, and do this one thing. The thing is priority 9, chopping trees is priority 1. Why are you still chopping trees? And... you're dead. And that guy inside, cooking? He's dead. That clone running out of oxygen over there? Yep, dead.I have little experience of this kind of game, but I just played a little bit of The Wandering Village and I've been having exactly this kind of problem.
I don't get why AI in these games is so frustrating. But it is, so I kind of gave up on them.
Which is a pity, because otherwise I'm enjoying it--I kind of like the big lummox dinosaur-ish thing your village is on the back of as it lumbers along, and I like the issues raised by the fact that the village is moving through terrain which can be useful or dangerous and you have to worry about the health and feeding of your source of mobility. But the whole bit where you can't just tell the villagers to work on THAT, that thing I want done now, is definitely a pain.
I had this exact issue in Wandering Village too - I'd just completed a big building and literally seconds later, my dino walked into a smog zone and all my land started mutating. I had to build a smog recycler and none of my villagers particularly cared to do so, despite my usual panic reaction of putting every job at low priority and the smog recycler at highest. I didn't play past that point, tbh... I've learned my lesson with these games! They're just not for me!!
1 Likes, Who?
I don't get why AI in these games is so frustrating. But it is, so I kind of gave up on them.I have exactly this problem on so many other games, Hotline Miami or Cuphead come to mind. Love the stories, but i guess i am too old and my reflexes have gone down. But i know due to the real life time constraints i am not willing enough to put endless hours into gaming anymore, so it may be that.
Rimworld et al: i totally have the opposite experience. I seem to shine in the early/midgame and tend to lose focus in the end and get obliterated. On the topic of "pawn, wtf you are doing: you can draft/undraft pawns or even prioritize things by right-clicking there, so that should make him do his job.
1 Likes, Who?
not willing enough to put endless hours into gaming anymore
Pfff, what kind of crazy talk is this?? If you're not gaming, what the hell are you even doing with your life!?
Seriously, I'm not quite at the "do less gaming" stage, even in my early 50's, but I definitely have less patience for either a lack of quality, or a disrespect for my time. So I'm much more critical of what I play and more inclined to spend quality moments with games I know will deliver. Most recently, that's Noita, Gunfire Reborn, Remnant, and Last Epoch. In the past, it's been Grim Dawn or 7 Days to Die. In the very distant past, it included Killing Floor, and the incredible Tales of Maj'Eyal.
1 Likes, Who?
I'd love to get into these games, but the AI just does my head in. Rimworld, Prison Architect, Oxygen Not Included, Rise to Ruins, man I've tried a lot of these, and they all have one problem - I'm not a very good god. Every single time, I get to some stage of the gameplay and I need one thing done immediately, or the colony will fail....I agree on Oxygen Not Included, but I must say I had way better experiences in RimWorld and Rise to Ruins. I have 93 hours in RimWorld. ONI only 21 (actually more than I thought). Rise to Ruins is 19 hours, but that was only 1 or 2 villages if memory serves. I also don't know how well itch.io tracks gameplay between multiple devices.
I don't get why AI in these games is so frustrating. But it is, so I kind of gave up on them.
I know RimWorld has a do-this-now functionality that will override whatever they're doing at the moment. That's easily my favorite one of the bunch.
And that brings me to my main request to Mountaincore: describe to me how it stands apart from RimWorld, because the gameplay activities and even graphics are very similar. Why buy a Ford if you have a Lincoln.
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