I guess when someone says “new content” for a city building game, first that comes into mind is new buildings and production chains. But instead of going the path of adding “more of the same”, I tried to fit as much as I can into existing buildings, improve what’s already there and fill in the missing parts.

I believe that attention to the detail is what sets Ostriv apart from other city-building games so I’m just refining its stronger points.

There’s a lot of interesting new stuff still on the road map, but I don’t want to add those before the game system is able to make them really meaningful.

Also this is the first update to feature some of the work not entirely made by me. With the funding collected during Alpha 1 I’ve been able to get a lot of help from some of my very talented friends.

Together we managed to get the game UI on a new level and break the silence with a unique soundtrack.

Although it was almost a whole year in development since last update and had some major improvements, keep in mind that it is still an alpha, so don’t expect it to be as stable as a finished game. This genre leaves no chance for quick development. Everything needs a lot of thought, testing, thought again.. So Alpha 2 is another iteration of testing. In which all of you are welcome to take part!

Let’s see what’s new.

Added/changed:

Added pigs husbandry for production of pork and an iconic Ukrainian product – salo



Substantially overhauled and improved the game UI

Improved the look of water edge in winter

Optimized performance (sounds way simpler than it is)

Added a new farm crop – buckwheat

View pitch is now saved to restore after zooming out

Added a lot of sounds and music

Can now exit world map or control panels with Esc key

Added an option to disable edge scrolling

Added hotkeys to open worldmap, economy & population panels

Added an ability to modify all key bindings



Can now set custom basic wage for laborers as well

Reworked the way building footprints work. Now supporting concave shapes and reserved entry areas which are allowed to intersect



Build queue: Added buttons to pause/continue each construction + Shift to pause/continue all Added tree removal counter Added indicators for cause of construction stalling

Added sit down and stand up animations for fishermen on boats

Can now relocate boats to another fishing dock

Added more tool models for citizens to carry

Added several in-game options: Showing connections between farms and fields, houses and residents, buildings and workers Showing problems, like deactivated fields, families out of money, farms without manager etc. Always show occupied space when hovering a building

Can now pan view with mouse

Eyedropper function to copy existing buildings

Added nice marks for trees to be chopped

Added skybox with some clouds which reflect in water. Also changes depending on season



Improved texture effects related to snow, especially on buildings

Added hotkeys to tilt camera

Improved water shader for better freezing and melting visuals

Smooth transitions between game speeds

Added new cursors

Better progress bar updating on game load

Building areas under roofs don’t get as much snow as open areas



Can now relocate ploughs between farms, also two more ploughs per farm allowed

Showing more detailed help messages when ordered vehicles can’t be constructed

Added visualization of vehicle or animal relocation directions (when dragging)



Improved the way construction priority works, is more strict now

Construction workers can now switch between build and resource supply tasks, making several deliveries during one workday

Construction workers can turn back or redirect the delivery if priority changed or construction paused

Construction workers are now constantly hired at a camp center or town hall

Added sale stats in all selling points (currently market stalls and forestries)

A minimap in the corner of screen can now be hidden when not needed

Added option for big (48px) or small (32px) cursor

Sorting game saves by time saved

Can now choose a name for a saved game

Added dust particle effects when demolishing buildings

Added dust particle effects when plowing fields

Added a hot key to rotate building 180 degrees (useful to place houses in front of each other)

Improved the settings storage file, so you won’t loose your settings when the game updates (alpha 2 onward)

Particle effects of falling snowflakes



Can now choose if specific field should be plowed or not

Improved plough model – покращено модель плуга

Now using correct draft animal texture as it was before assigning to a plough

Plough blade is now being lowered when plowing

Cowshed cows can now die of old age

Carts, ploughs and fishing boats gradually wear out and need to be repaired at a carpentry or a boatyard respectively

Can now allow/disallow migration to the town in a town hall or a camp center

Added delay before immigrants arrive after migration conditions met

Showing floating icons over buildings with problems (families out of food, deactivated fields, farm without managers etc.)

Farm fields can now be of any 4-sided form specified point-by-point. Can get back to previous point with right click



Citizens now demand food variety, not just quantity

Families now tend to have less kids if they’re not wealthy enough

Added descriptions for all tasks performed by workers

Slightly improved tree animation and some of the tree models

Decorative tree placement now uses full-scale tree model during preview

Amount of leaves on the ground depends on tree size now

When harvesting, a worker can carry harvest on the way from field to a farm



Newly created families get a starting budget based on their parents wealth

Improved the localization system to recognize grammatical genders

Citizens can now die of old age. There’s also an ability to designate burial plots for that cases



New resource type: metal parts. Required for carts and ploughs production/repair

New building: charcoal pile. Laborers will gather firewood and burn it to charcoal



Smithy now requires charcoal in order to work

Families can now also have grandparents living with them

Improved the localization system to support numerals in some languages

Added an ability to give families a financial help from town’s treasury

Can see a family tree for all house inhabitants now



Tweaked forest trees randomization to avoid overlapping

You can now set storage limits for granaries just like warehouses



Changed the way citizens choose benches to sit, now more evenly distributed

Showing when a family have settled in the town

Slightly improved citizens textures

Can now choose a starting camp location when starting a new map

New option for UI scale – 180%. Also can set UI scale in ostriv_settings.exe

When supplying resources to building, workers won’t take carts if resource amount is small enough to carry in hands

More intensive house chimney smoke in winter

If the harvest is left on a field for winter it gradually spoils

Same goes for hay left on a dryer

Slightly improved the look of the pine forest



Crops like wheat, sunflower and buckwheat require additional processing (threshing) by farm workers

Can’t plant decorative trees too close to each other anymore

Decorative trees are now planted by foresters

Forestry workers made a bit smarter when it comes to deciding what to do now

Can now specify regions for tree replanting by foresters



Added snow on trees in winter

Added a plantable dog-rose bush for bush lovers



Added an icon in building properties indicating that production limit is reached

Trade wagons and shepherds delivering cows are now distinguishable on the world map

Slightly improved birds animation

Improved the look of grass and other vegetation, added more defined seasonal changes



Added an option to empty all building’s storage. Workers and laborers will try to move resources elsewhere. It also works for resource stacks left on the ground

Can only demolish emptied buildings now

Improved fishing spots selection. Not cluttering boats on each other, respecting fish population depletion



People buy shoes and clothes only if they can afford it

Trade deals from outer towns are changing over time now



Added a detailed resource statistics in economy panel



Added one new map



Added a button if field properties to manually switch to next culture (if farm has manager)

Can specify in farm properties if hay and water for oxen should be supplied

Added supply options in farms

Other minor changes and additions. Hard to track everything

Fixed:

Foresters teleported with white lines to closest tree if it’s on the other side of the river

Some houses had wrong floor collision model making people levitate near the door

False positive inaccessibility when placing buildings

Improved game timing system to avoid things like inconsistent construction speed or worker salary at different game speeds

Game could get stalled after spent more than 20 in-game years

Traders will now choose from available trading posts, not only the first built

It was impossible to send messengers if there’s no manager on first-built trading post, but present on other

Some buildings were not on center of the screen when focusing on them

Doors didn’t get highlighted when a building is selected

Crash when trade wagon leaves the town (in some cases)

Mysterious door-shaped objects appeared in water reflection sometimes

Smithy created smoke forever (even after demolition)

Migration status reported water is ok even if it’s only available for production

Vertical scrolling in lists with mouse wheel didn’t always work

Now correctly restoring pause after going to main menu

Stuttering when turning windmill body

No snow on carts under roof

Fishermen standing in boats after game loaded

Fishing boats catch was invisible

It was possible to order extra boat/cart on a slot in some cases

Now citizens buy food in front of the market stall, not inside of it

Shadow artifacts outside map borders

Some shadows were detached from objects, creating a feeling of levitation

It was possible to change game speed with keys from the main menu

Anisotropic texture filtering on terrain was broken in last patches

Citizen lighting was incorrect in some animation poses

Cart relocation have always been choosing the first hovered recipient, even if mouse moved away

Carts stayed as if someone holds them while loading/unloading

Construction graph didn’t work correctly for bridges

Autosave_previous always had the same modified time as autosave

Saved games list had broken scrolling if accessed second time

Tooltips were partially covered by cursor on certain UI scales

Order box in carpentry always showed 0/2 animals regardless of real number

Boatyard getting stuck if wood amount is between 17.5 and 20

Another reason to crash when a trading wagon leaves the map

Crash during chicken relocation

Houses selection now uses fences form, not just rectangle

Autumn leaves kept showing up on the ground each year even if the tree was removed

It was possible to build partially outside map borders which led to undefined behavior later in game

Siblings are no longer allowed to marry

Fishing dock workers tended to teleport randomly underground

Newly created families immediately moved out

Windmills and hay dryers didn’t select by underlying circle, just by model geometry

It was hard to select a worker during construction because of picking code used finished building’s geometry

Fathers could be too young for their kids

Fishing boats looked like there’s water inside when viewing from certain angles

Cowshed pasture was “during season” from start, preventing it from demolition & reassign

Laborer icons, when too many, could cover other buttons in farm properties

A new game could still have economy panel buttons from previously loaded game

Log carrying was a bit weird in latest patches

Water platform was too sensitive to terrain flatness

Grass could disappear in the corners of screen

Various crashes when demolishing water sources

It was possible to build fishing docks on too thin rivers

It was possible to build a fence across the river

Chickens were immune to thirst

Crash when getting resources from previously demolished building

Some other bugs may have been fixed by reworking some of the systems, but need to be checked

So that’s it. My mailbox is fully ready to be destroyed by your bug reports and feedback! yevheniy@ostrivgame.com

Reminding that if you own Alpha 1, you can just download the updated version from Humble with the same link they sent you when you purchased the game. Unpack Alpha 2 archive separately from any previous versions.

If you have lost your link, you can use this tool to regain access: http://humblebundle.com/resender

If you’re new to Ostriv, you can get it here https://ostrivgame.com/buy

If you want to further support the development, you can always get another copy for your friend. Just check “This purchase is a gift” and you’ll be sent a unique gift link to download.

Also don’t forget to spread the word: there’s a whole lot of online communities where no one ever heard of Ostriv.

Thanks for staying to the end of this longest release notes in history! Enjoy planting bushes!