Game Mechanics

Clanfolk has many Game Mechanics

NB. Due to the nature of a Wiki, some of these have their own pages already, others will eventually. Some are detailed in part on other pages.

Affliction

A Clanfellow may have many different temporary Afflictions at once. (Contrary to contemporary English not all in game Afflictions are negative.) Contrary Afflictions may be in effect at the same time, e.g. Fireside as a positive beside Cooking Fires etc, but Sweating for being too hot.
Attributes / Stats will be impacted by the Afflictions. The most commonly impacted is Mood.

Age

Age will increase constantly and consistently; Babies become Juveniles, then Adults, and finally Seniors before death. Animals will pass through their life cycle faster than Clanfolk.

Animal

Non Clanfellow life forms. Three basic categories; Wildlife, Livestock, Pets.

Attribute

14 different statistics that will alter through the course of a day. e.g. the Sleep bar decreases while the Clanfellow is awake, and if it gets to zero they collapse.
Animals also have Attributes, but a much reduced listing, Wildlife have the least.

Auto-Jobs

When planting on Tilled Soil the Clanfolk will have some of the related Jobs assigned automatically. see Jobs#Auto Jobs

Auto Supply

Most Crafting Objects, including Clothing and Food Objects, have an Auto Supply option that can be used to try and ensure the Colony has at least a certain number of the Item in Inventory. e.g. A Cooking Fire can be set to Auto Supply 10 Cooked Eels and when there are only nine or fewer a task to cook eels is added to the Fire automatically.
The Auto Supply is common across all Objects that could be used to complete it. i.e. A Kitchen might be used to fulfil the aforementioned task.

Bed

Clanfolk and Animals needing Sleep will want to be on a comfortable Bed.

• Clanfolk beds have four levels of comfort available as the Ideas are unlocked: Sleep Zone > Sleeping Straw > (Double) Sleep Mat > Straw (Double) Bed.
  • Babies may also sleep in a Baby Basket.
• Tame Animals can sleep on an Animal Bed. Pets may also have a Pet Zone designated, or the CLanfolk can construct animal specific Cat Bed / Dog Bed.

Clothing Production

To remain warm enough (or cool enough during Summer) a Clanfellow will want to wear Clothing. Manufacture of such is a multi stage process in most cases.
Page details Objects involved, the inputs/outputs, and Warmth value of the Clothing.

Coin

Money is used to facilitate the exchange of goods and services... Within the player Clan there is no need for Coin as all the members work together for the common good. Visitors from other Clans will either pay for the ability to spend a night, require pay to work for the Clan, or use Coin to make up the value difference in traded Items and/or Animals.

Door Lock

All Doors can be set with Locks preventing certain Clanfolk from passing through. Curtains can't prevent any access.

Environment

Each tile on the Map has an Environmental rating depending on the surface and Objects/Items placed on it. A positive rating improves the Mood of nearby Clanfolk, negative reduces it. Several things have different ratings depending on whether they are inside or outside, e.g. a Dirt Path outside is neutral, flooring a Room with it is a negative.
The size of a Room is also relevant, 6-14 tiles is neutral, larger rooms are positive, smaller is negative.
To see the rating of an area the player can access an overlay at top right of the main screen, when toggled on Red is "ugly" and Cyan is "beautiful"

Expedition

Development / Testing A Clanfellow can be sent off the main Map to go and explore one of the nearby regions. Travel time there and back can be multiple days and is only undertaken with Rations that must be made at a speciality Object. Having this setting on during Game Creation alters the Tiers of Ideas due to altered unlocks.

Farming

Both Agriculture and Animal Husbandry are useful for ensuring food.
Planting Crops in Tilled Soil will allow the player to have a "hands off" to the colony growing food. Auto Jobs are cycled through on the fields, as long as the requisite inputs are available.
Maintaining crops for the feed of Animals will also allow the production of Meat when the Livestock are slaughtered. As well as some other benefits depending on the breeds of animals. e.g. Milk, Wool, etc.

Fire

Due to lightning during storms, uncontrolled cooking fires and torches, or intentional instructions from the player ( Start Fire), it is possible for Objects, Items, Buildings, or plants to catch on Fire. If this happens on soil ground it will be more fertile as a result of the fire. If uncontrolled fire happens in the colony many adjacent things may also catch alight causing much destruction. If there are Water Jugs available Clanfolk will use them to douse fires ( Fire Fighting), otherwise they have to resort to stamping out the fire ( Fire Stamp). The latter can be disallowed on all Clanfolk via a button toggle.
Cooking fires etc. that throw sparks will not directly light Roofing on fire, but if something flammable under the roof alights then the Roof may also catch on fire. (Sparks will go out not up.) Lightning strike may always catch a roof on fire.

Food Desirability

Each different Food has an alterable Desirability that determines what foods each Clanfellow will prefer to eat. Values for each can be varied between %5 and 200% via the Inventory menu.

Food Production

Clanfolk, and Animals, require food to live. Many ways exist to produce that food; e.g. gathering Berries, cooking Eels, baking bread, etc.
Page details the cooking Objects and much of what can be cooked.

Hunting and Fishing

Snares and/or Bows can be used to kill Wildlife and bring Meat (and Hides) back to the Colony.
Eel Traps, and much later Fishing Spots, can also be used to provide food from the Lakes and Rivers.
IF the colony has Tame Cats they may go hunting Bunnies or Rats, leaving the carcasses at their owners bed. That meat can be cooked.

Ideas

The analogue of a Tech Tree in game. Ideas are the new Jobs, Buildings, Objects, that are discovered by doing certain things enough. Page mentions Idea Points, a game setting to increase difficulty.

Jobs

Instructions given to the Clan by the player. None will be given to a specific Clanfellow without convoluted use of Zones etc.
The priority of Jobs, which can be set between 1 and 10 (higher number being more important), and the Skills hierarchy of each Clanfellow, will determine which Jobs get done first. Should the player consider a Job particularly important they can Emergency Boost the Job and ensure it is chosen by the next Clanfellow to need work.

Terrain / Landscape / Biome

Depending on settings chosen at Game Creation the Map will have varying amounts of different types of Landscape.

• Lakes: also includes the Rivers; water that can be fished, home of Beavers. Will freeze during Winter.
  • On the edge of each Lake and River is a muddy area, often referred to as the Shoreline. Used for collecting Clay.
• Peat Bogs: Secondary source of Iron, as well as heating material
• Mountains: Primary source of Iron, may also have Gold. Can be hollowed out to make caves. Or removed entirely.
• Grassland: The rest of the Map surface, can be used for growing plants aside from Reed.
  • Flood Plains: A portion of the Grassland - Areas likely to become inundated with water after heavy Rain.

Each of the neighbouring Clans are designated as one of four Biomes: Coast, Forest, Mountain, Plains. That designation impacts the goods they will Trade with the player clan; see Trader page

Marriage

Workers from other Clans may enjoy working in the player Clan so much that they want to be a permanent part of the Clan (requires 100% Satisfaction, see below). If there is an unwed Adult of the other gender the worker may ask to marry into the Clan. The player is then given the chance to decline or accept the request, (potentially even choosing which of multiple potential spouses is to be wed).

• Join Family has the couple remain on the Map with the former Worker now a Clan member (appearing on the Family Tree and thus no payment is required any more.
• Leave Family leads to the couple departing the map to the home clan of the worker.
• Decline simply results in the Worker remaining a paid employee. Should they be kept Satisfied they may be wed later.

Reputation is also gained when Marriage occurs, 50 points is gained when the Worker stays with the player Clan. Should the new couple leave the Map the gain is 200 points of Reputation.

Pregnancy

The process by which Babies are (typically) created in game. Requires Marriage first.

Priority

Priority may mean a number of things during the game.

• Task Priority: Objects that have tasks for the Clanfolk to complete (e.g. Make a Sack, cook 5 Eel etc.) can have their priority altered to make the Clanfolk more or less likely to do things at that Object. Jobs placed on the Map can be prioritised in the same way.
  Setting the Priority to 1 (one) will make it the last thing considered, when set at 10 (ten) it will considered more important than anything not Emergency Boosted.
• Skills Priority: Each (non-Baby) Clanfellow has 16 Skills that the player can rearrange in a column. Whichever Skill is listed first will be the preferred type of Job/Task taken on when looking for more work.
• Blueprint Priority is in which order the build will happen should required components be available (a Roof with higher priority than its support still cannot be built first).
• Items Priority is the order they'll be Hauled to Stockpile/Storage.
• Storage Priority is which Storage/Stockpile will be filled first.

Strict Priority may be set for a Clanfellow; with the toggle set they will finish all tasks/Jobs of their first Skill before looking to find others, meaning they may complete a Priority 1 Job of their high Skill before a Priority 10 Job of their second tier Skill.

Process Chains

Because many Objects produce Items that are then used by other Objects it can be useful to keep particular Objects in very close proximity with appropriate Storage Objects (or Stockpiles) in between them. With a setting on most Objects that automatically stores the output if storage is close enough it can be possible to produce the first stage Item, have it automatically stored in the appropriate Storage, and then taken from that Storage to be used in a second Object, that will output to another (or the same?) Storage.
With a short enough chain, such could be done around a single support pillar and roofing to keep the Rain off the Objects. (Or along one wall of a Room.) e.g. This could be as simple as putting a Hide Rack beside a Butcher Block to automatically start the Hides drying, and having a Clothes Zone or Tailor Bench adjacent to the Rack for production of Fur Clothing.
See Food Production and Clothing Production above.

Rain / Snow / Weather

• Rain (and during Winter Snow) will fall frequently (even more so if the Heavy Rain game setting was chosen at Game Creation), many Items degrade faster when wet. While Rain is falling on such Items a water-drop icon will be displayed over the Item as a reminder. Some Objects are unusable while being rained on, they show the same icon.
• Even if protected from Rain/Snow fall thanks to Roofing, Items and Objects may also be impacted by the temperature drop brought about by Snow. A snowflake icon will display.

Reputation

A measure of how each of the four adjoining Clans feel about the player Clan, each tracked independently. A better Reputation will increase the visitation chance from each of the Visitor types, and how much Coin the Traders will have available to spend as well as how many different things they will bring with them.

Room

Roofing may be built over many tiles from a single support to provide shelter from the Rain/Snow but does nothing to alleviate temperature issues. Having Buildings#Walls (not fences) around an area with a Roof over all those tiles, and a Door for access, the Clanfolk can build a Room. During Winter it will retain heat while heating is in use.
Having a private Room is also one of the pre-requisites for Pregnancy.

Satisfaction

Visitor only Attribute. When returning to their own Clan Workers, Travellers, and Traders will alter the Reputation based on how Satisfied they were with their time among the players Clan. Having the relevant Signs in a dry, warm areas with good Environment can be a passive improvement to Satisfaction.

Season

Four Seasons exist in game, 10 days for each, with a gradual transition between them.

• Each game starts at the beginning of Summer, with Crops on the Map at full growth.
• Fall starts to see plant growth decrease in speed (and new planting is impossible), temperatures drop.
• Winter has snowfall, outside areas Freeze, and if the Colony has not stockpiled food, drinking water, and made warm clothing they will have a very hard time surviving.
• Spring has temperatures start rising above freezing again, plants start to regrow, the lakes thaw.

Skills

16 Skills exist in game, every non-Baby Clanfellow will have a level in each Skill. These determine how well the Clanfellow will do relevant tasks/Jobs, and for two of the Skills they will either gain or lose Mood if doing Jobs that use that Skill.

Temperature

Temperature is a measure of heat and influences the Warmth Attribute of a Clanfellow.

• During Winter unheated areas will almost always be below freezing, in Summer it may get too hot for comfort.
• Clothing can be used to mitigate extremes of temperature. All but Linen (which cools) and Plaid (which has no impact) will warm the wearer to some extent.
• Rooms will allow heating to be contained, allowing the Clanfolk to avoid freezing temperatures. They also never heat up beyond a certain point during Summer.
• Some Objects, especially the Cooking Fire etc. will heat the area around them even while outside, but more useful is heating a room.

Temperature is also a factor in which Objects may be used (e.g. it is hard to wash dishes when the water is frozen)
If food is stored in an area that is freezing it will cease to rot. Making a Freezer during Winter can allow long term storage of food.

Trait

Traits are (near permanent) conditions for a Clanfellow that will be one of two binary states, either positive or negative. Opposing Traits will not exist in the same Clanfellow but they can have multiple Traits.

Work Speed

How fast a Clanfellow will do a task/Job is dependant on their Work Attribute. With maximised bar they work twice as fast as normal. Higher Skills in the relevant task will also also serve to reduce time taken.
Tools have a Work Speed indication, Stone Tools are 60% while Iron Tools are 100%. So using an Iron Tool will take only a little more than half the time it would take with a Stone Tool.
Objects may have a Work Speed, which indicates how long the creation takes. e.g. A Kitchen can cook simpler foods in half the time a Cooking Fire can.

Zones

May be used to restrict the areas of the Map Clanfolk spend time, either Home Zones or Work Zones may be set. Overlap is possible and a Clanfellow may have one of each.