Hey again, exofarmers! We’re back at it with more to share at the kickoff of Gamescom! This update’s important, as we’ll be talking about a key aspect of life itself on the Lightyear Frontier: Sustainability! Taking care of your environment is absolutely essential on the Frontier; without a healthy ecosystem, you’re in for a literal world of hardships. Your crops will struggle, flora and fauna will disappear, and the barren landscape will have nothing to give, in terms of resources. Put in effort to restore the balance, and you’ll be rewarded with a wealth of resources, more beautiful environments, and who knows what else? Read on, and we’ll give you the details!
A World of Hurt
When you first *ahem* land on the Frontier, you’re greeted with lush, green grasslands and dense foliage! Deeper in this idyllic environment, though, lies a sickness that takes its toll on your surroundings. These puddles of mysterious slime plague the various regions, stripping the environment of its health, as well as its stability and resources. A region that’s heavily afflicted by this mysterious slime can even present hazards in the form of an outbreak of weeds, not to mention trapping critters in their nests, unable to roam freely. So, how do you cure this mysterious malady? With some care and elbow grease, of course!
Scrub-a-dub-dub
For starters, your mech’s sensor readout includes environmental health analysis, shown in the form of a health bar. As you journey through a region, the environmental health bar appears, showing you the overall health of that specific region. Now, here’s where you come in! Using your mech and your crops, you’ll restore that region with handiwork, such as removing weeds and spraying away the slime puddles. Healing a region isn’t a one-and-done process, though; it takes a dedicated hand to make sure it’s restored to balance, but the reward is great!
Critter-cal Role
Once a region is fully restored, the flora comes back in full, giving the fauna a chance to make their own homes! As they settle into their environments again, by building a fodder oven, you can make critter food, feeding them to gain a small amount of resources and increase their level of happiness! The happier the critters, the more resources return to the environment, leaving you with plenty to pick up and use how you please.
And One to Grow On
In the process of your regional cleanup efforts, you’ll notice gradual change as the environment’s health increases. The craggy, lifeless thickets regain their foliage, resources become plentiful once again, and critters start munching on their regional greenery more! Fully healing a region rewards you with bountiful, new resources, happy critters, and even discovering more about the secrets of the Frontier itself…
Buried Treasure
Your work in making everything green and growing has more payoff than just loads of goods! By discovering new resources you gain from a fully-healed region, you’ll also discover new things you can construct with these resources! Build out your homestead with more advanced structures, find and research mech upgrades, and more.
There’s more beneath the surface of the Frontier, though! On your journeys to discover what came before you, who knows what ancient secrets you might find? A sealed door holds both questions and answers, but might be worth cleaning things up a little and seeing where that gets you!
Mechs-ing It Up
Gamescom is here, exofarmers! We’re back again, bigger and better, with a full-size booth and two stations for attendees to try out our playable version of Lightyear Frontier. Stop by, meet the team, get goodies, try the game, and give us your feedback so we can make Lightyear Frontier even better for its early 2024 release!
Speaking of the booth, we’ve got a few unique features we’ll be sharing with you throughout the show! Firstly, our one-of-a-kind MechsBox (or Xbox Series Mechs) makes its return to the booth! Get a gander at our fun take on an Xbox to suit all your farming needs! Secondly, for a sustainability-focused game and update, we’ve got sustainability-focused goodies, including biodegradable fliers with tomato seeds embedded in ‘em! Follow the instructions on the flier, and you’ll have your own crop going in no time.
Hang onto your straw hats, folks, next week’s gonna have a lot to share! Follow along, and we’ll share more with y’all as the show progresses!
