Now that GDC is over and Mundi is back from his business travels, April's Community Questions is here. Huge thanks to the community for keeping Mundi on his toes and putting forth some exciting – and tricky – questions. Salute to you!





Dead Inside: Will Seed have specialized Seedlings, and if so, will some Seedlings have different abilities based on their training?





M: “The simple answer is yes. We have quite a deep skill system...and we will also have very unique abilities that are still being designed. Traits that can be passed down the generations are also intriguing to us.”





Dark_PT: Will there be some sort of land management so that the world doesn't run out of space?





M: “It's still being finalized, but there will not be an infinite amount of land on the planet. It will be finite to some degree, but I can't really go into detail at the mo.”





[AF] ProblematicMan: Will we be able to see who each Seedling belongs to, or will they be anonymous?





M: “You can click on a Seedling to see which family, what settlement, and which player they belong to. Regarding anonymity, we're looking into the possibilities of that, say for espionage.”





Greggory: Will NPCs be a thing? And if so, could a tribe of AI-controlled Seedlings spawn and attack players?





M: ”I don't want to say too much. There will probably be some NPC creatures. But in terms of NPC Seedlings, I can't say. If you think about it, Seedlings themselves are a hybrid between a player character and an NPC.”





Greggory: Could you set your Seedling to go to its job and work while you're offline?





M: “Yeah, that's the whole idea, haha.”





Leolecolo: Do you plan on developing a mobile app to give out simple orders to our seedlings?





M: “Yes! We'll fill you in more in the future about this.”





ConquistadorWill: Regarding setting up an efficient routine, I was wondering if you have to set it up manually, or will they do things for themselves? Also, would you be able to notify another player and ask them to look after your Seedlings?





M: “Players set up the routines. However, Seedlings will not follow routines if they are ill, hungry, or tired, etc. So, it's up to the players to set up an efficient routine. We're looking at ways of assigning your Seedlings to other players, but it's not on the roadmap until later. But, communication is vital with your fellow settlers.”





Wololo: Will there be a search filter in the game to help you find a suitable colony to join?





M: “Most likely at some point. We want players to be able to find suitable settlements right from the get-go, so we'll have something ready for factions to recruit new players.”





[AF] Lênon Kramer: Will players be able to name areas or structures - both natural areas or artificial?





M: “We are keeping the idea of that open. Let's see!”





J_spy: When selling or buying things will the product magically appear of will someone have to carry it to you?





M: “Logistics will undoubtedly play a factor in the distribution of goods. One of the major challenges will be transport. We may have some sort of teleportation system for distributing goods initially, but we'll see.”





[AF] DrunkRussianBear: Will we have tools to hold national surveys/census?





M: “We've talked about it, and we'd definitely love to do stuff like that...that would be cool, like public voting or referendums. We'd love to have systems like this to support these types of communications.”





[AF] DrunkRussianBear: Will we have tools to monitor things like population density within the various regions of a nations controlled territories (like a population heat map)?





M: “There will be something like that. We have variations of design around it, but we're not 100% set on it. We already have a list of players in a given colony; you can see that info in the game now. What we aim to do is to make all the data as transparent as possible.”





[AF] Ether: If respawning is a thing (which I assume it probably is), would there be a respawn timer?





M: ”Respawning will not be that simple. We're actually still debating about how and what happens around the total annihilation of all of your Seedlings.”





[AF] Dylan75015: During the first period of colonization, when factions will be in a tribalist society, can we protect our colonies from the wild world - or from other players - with wooden walls or other rudimentary defenses?





M: “Yeah, you'll be able to use simple raw resources in the beginning, like wood, for example. Then, by banding together with other players, you can build up bigger and better defenses.”





aidan_meek: Will the environment be dynamic?





M: “We're looking into it. It's a pretty massive task to undertake, to be honest. At some point in the future.”





[AF] Dylan75015: Is it possible for a child to die in-game or will they be immortal like in The Sims?





M: “We're not really prepared to get a definitive answer. But, let's say, in the event of an explosion, it's hard to imagine anyone surviving because everything can be destroyed. Unlike The Sims. Wow, it got dark real fast!”





[AF] Dylan75015: Can we send military support to a colony that needs help in a conflict?





M: “Yeah, I mean nothing is stopping you from doing that because it's a sandbox, so there are no invisible walls.”





[AF] Ether: Is there such a thing as actually claiming territory as opposed to having buildings, and the outer edge of that being your territory?





M: “You will start off very much like that, with territories being divided by buildings. But, exploring this with the Seed community is going to be crucial to designing a more precise system that makes sense. However, to start, it'll be pretty raw.”





A big thank you goes out to those who posed us questions! Is there something you want to ask us about Seed? Be sure to let us know in the comments below or join the Seed Discord server and post your questions there!



