What is in Early Access, and what comes next?

Early Access starts with the core city builder: upgradable buildings, several biomes and a world map that links your settlements. Three content updates are named on the official roadmap, none of them with a date, and the team expects Early Access to last about a year.

What does the Early Access version include?

The team’s own description:

“We will launch into Early Access with the feature scope layed out on the store page, this includes a variety of upgradable buildings, multiple biomes, a world map that interconnects multiple settlements, each of which populated with fully simulated settlers. Appoint citizen roles, set up expeditions to scout for new points of interest and make sure to lead your community to prosperity.”

In practice that means the Journey system for unlocks (see journey points and ideas), scouting the world map (see scouts and expeditions) and a story that runs alongside the building. The game is also easier to get into than the playtest was: the team cut the cost of every building available in your first two hours of play and adjusted Journey Points and tech tree costs to match. The first two hours guide walks through the opening.

One limit to know: each settlement tops out at 250 residents for now, so a town near that size stops getting new settlers. What you actually do has the details.

What are the three roadmap updates?

No update has a date, and the team says why: “We'll go into detail on what each update brings as we get closer to its release.” Patch notes and update announcements land on the update log as they are published.

What will the full release add?

The team gives a direction rather than a feature list: “for the full version, we are envisioning new production chains, more advanced buildings and structures, new means of transportation, random events and map variety.” The team also promises a lower price during Early Access than at full release; the numbers are on the price and editions page.

Will there be railways, bandits or Native Americans?

Each has come up, and each answer from the team or publisher is hedged. Here they are with the hedges left in.

Railways. In an early Q&A, the team wrote that “The railway will be important towards the late game, and you can connect far away outpost by rails.” Laying your own track was less certain: “We are working on a road/rail system that could allow you to lay your own tracks but that is not set in stone and definitely not yet worth going into detail.” Rail does not appear on the three-update roadmap; “new means of transportation” is in the full-release plans above.

Bandits. Bandits already turn up in the story, at a Bandit Camp location. Bandits as a combat feature are another matter. Toplitz said “We have ideas for bandits and we need to plan when we can deliver them.” and, on players who prefer peaceful building, “we’re considering making them optional but it isn't set in stone at the moment.”

Native Americans. Asked whether natives would be playable, Toplitz replied “This is not planned, but maybe a possibility for the future”. They are in the game as characters, though: “There are natives in the game, you will encounter them through quests and other aspects, with more planned beyond what is currently in the game.”

How long will Early Access run?

About a year, with room to move either way. In the team’s words: “Some features may be completed sooner, while others are more complex and finding the time to accommodate those features in quality will be essential for our design process.” The launch time itself is on the release time page.

Related: update log, what you actually do, price and editions and how the demo and playtests went.