Thornfeld — Building a Ranch Simulator

[Curb]

It's been a few days since my last update here, which doesn't reflect our daily Discord changelog. I don't want to flood the thread with too many bumps.

But these were the latest significant gameplay changes in Thornfeld:

Launcher:
We now have a dedicated launcher (thanks to @oen432) for the game which has greatly facilitated the implementation of daily changes:
And in a much more beautiful, faster, and professional way, it must be said.

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Make it prettier:
Over 100 new buildings added, including those that make life easier on your ranch, such as larger animal troughs and new decorative furniture, fences, walls, and all the fancy stuff to make your farm look even cooler!

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Deposits:
I've added some deposit to the game so you can literally storage your resources to make life easier on the ranch.
Deposits can be used directly for construction and hold up to 1.000 of the most commonly used resources in the game.

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Meet the Donkey:
The donkey is like the duck of the quadrupeds.
Just like a duck, it doesn't do anything very well, but it does a little bit of everything!

It doesn't have the same strength as a bull, but it can help you carry loads, and it's not as fast as a horse, but you can still ride it!

The perfect partner to help you at the start of the game when it's time to gather resources to build your ranch.
Pre-tamed, no taming waiting period!

"300gp is a bargain".
Marlow Pell, the donkey seller.

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Overall:

8 new side quests that unlock right after the tutorial quest along with the npc quest indicator.
Many bugs have been fixed and performance improvements have been made, it doesn't make sense to post them one by one here.

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Overall, development has been a lot of fun and the feedback been very positive.

The number of players testing the game has also increased, and we're forming a nice community on Discord.
You can already see several ranches being built while walking around the city.

Anyone interested in getting to know Thornfeld and following it closely is very welcome!

I'll be back in a few days with more updates!

 

[Curb]

The mines have been opened in Thornfeld!

In the latest updates, I've released PvE in our game.

How does it work?

The combat system we know has been extremely simplified to maintain the game's dynamics.

Fist, axe, sword, club, distance, and shielding are unified into a single skill called Combat.

No matter what you use, they all advance your Combat.



Fire sword? Thunder hammer? Nope. A farming game deserves farmers' equipment.


Are you a farmer with good aim? Take the horseshoe off your horse and throw it at the others.


To defend yourself, follow the same principle: no heavy armor. A baking tray, buckets, or even a painting will do.|


How do mines work?
I didn't develop the mines with the goal of opening a hunting ground for the players. That's not the objective.

But rather, a place with an abundance of resources necessary for building the players' ranch.

The deeper you go, the greater the challenge, and the greater the reward.



Initially, 9 underground levels. Every 3 levels, a checkpoint. The next time you return to the mines, you can start from the last checkpoint you reached.


You can, of course, bring your animals with you to help you with the heavy load of resources.

As the mines are balanced, more floors will be added, we have no limits here.

Overall:
Several other functions/bug fixes have been deployed:

A Toolbox that can carry all your tools and centralize the function in a single item.
Find pet function: Highlight your pet among your herd to help the player organize them.
New crops, new recipes, and so on...

Check them all on our Discord server.

https://imgur.com/3yVg964

You are welcome to join us.

 

[iNux]

The mines have been opened in Thornfeld!

In the latest updates, I've released PvE in our game.

How does it work?

The combat system we know has been extremely simplified to maintain the game's dynamics.

Fist, axe, sword, club, distance, and shielding are unified into a single skill called Combat.

No matter what you use, they all advance your Combat.


View attachment 100453
Fire sword? Thunder hammer? Nope. A farming game deserves farmers' equipment.

View attachment 100454
Are you a farmer with good aim? Take the horseshoe off your horse and throw it at the others.

View attachment 100455
To defend yourself, follow the same principle: no heavy armor. A baking tray, buckets, or even a painting will do.|


How do mines work?
I didn't develop the mines with the goal of opening a hunting ground for the players. That's not the objective.

But rather, a place with an abundance of resources necessary for building the players' ranch.

The deeper you go, the greater the challenge, and the greater the reward.

View attachment 100456

Initially, 9 underground levels. Every 3 levels, a checkpoint. The next time you return to the mines, you can start from the last checkpoint you reached.

View attachment 100457
You can, of course, bring your animals with you to help you with the heavy load of resources.

As the mines are balanced, more floors will be added, we have no limits here.

Overall:
Several other functions/bug fixes have been deployed:

A Toolbox that can carry all your tools and centralize the function in a single item.
Find pet function: Highlight your pet among your herd to help the player organize them.
New crops, new recipes, and so on...

Check them all on our Discord server.

https://imgur.com/3yVg964

You are welcome to join us.

Very cool, I just wonder if the rain fills the water containers?

 

[Curb]

Very cool, I just wonder if the rain fills the water containers?

It does! It also fills the cistern used to water your crops in the irrigation system.

 

[Ezzz]

Is there some sort of sotry/missions in general ?

 

[Curb]

Is there some sort of sotry/missions in general ?

It does!

In short, there's this place called Thornfeld that used to be a great place to live until the Count died out of nowhere. Now this shady guy Roderic took over, calls himself Bailiff, and taxes the hell out of everyone.

Most people just packed up and left. You show up with literally only your clothes, and the idea is to grab a piece of land, build your farm, raise animals, and slowly turn this empty ranch into something worth living in.

The land is amazing though, super fertile, and there's a whole cast of characters in the village trying to survive under Roderic's rule. Everyone knows something about it, each with their own version and personalities.

Basically, all the missions revolve around it. Of course, there aren't many yet, but we'll get there little by little.

 

[lukatxd]

my wife saw the cow breeding stuff and now she really is expecting the server so we can play together xD

 

[Curb]

Another patch notes session that dropped in Thornfield last week.

- Rooster Fight:
Captain Harmon runs an open secret behind Grubb's pigsty. Bring a rooster on your halter, place a bet, and let the spurs decide.

How a Fight Works

• Death mode kills the losing rooster for real and pays the winner +1 fight DNA on his bird.
• Survival mode stops the fight when one bird drops to 20% HP, no deaths, no DNA increase, only the bet flows.
• PvE: sign up alone; the Cockmaster fields a matched-DNA opponent. House pays 1.8× your bet on a win, keeps it on a loss.
• PvP: open a lobby entry, get challenged (or browse open entries and challenge someone). Pot is double the bet minus a 10% house rake.
• Best of 3 rounds: first bird to win two rounds takes the match. Real birds are kept safe across rounds; only the MATCH ending counts.
  

Fight DNA

• Every rooster carries a fight gene from 1 to 10. Higher DNA means more HP, sharper attacks, and tougher defense in the pit.
• NPC sells fresh roosters at DNA 1. Breeding can match or lower the father's DNA, never raise it.
• The only way to climb DNA is to win a Death match. PvE wins count but cap at DNA 8. DNA 9 and 10 are PvP-only.
• The Climb Rule: winning a Death match against a LOWER-DNA opponent pays the bet but grants NO DNA bump.
  

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New faces in town + Outfit quests:

• Captain Harmon, Beric, Oswin, Thane, and Wulfric now patrol the castle gate and walls.​
• Egbert the tax clerk, the Bailiff's right hand, sitting in the office below Roderic. Twenty-one years on the ledger. Polite, pedantic, and impossible to fool.​
• Twelve town NPCs now unlock their personal outfit when you bring them a thematic requirement.​

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Cooking Expansion:



Fourteen new recipes join the existing ones. Cheese chain (Cheese → Soft Cheese → Golden Cheese Wedge), Brown Bread, Leberkassemmel, Mushroom Pie, Stockfish, Taiyaki, Taiyaki Ice Cream, Yummy Gummy Worm, Cookies (bake 12 at a time from a Baking Tray with Cookie Dough), Cheese Cookie, and three buff foods.

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Less Clicking, More Doing​

To make life easier for players and bring Thornfeld closer to other games in the genre, I added several hotkeys and auto-functions to make the game run more smoothly, for example:


Your toolbox now fits your inventory, it can consume the most frequently used tools in the game, and you can activate each tool's function simply by pressing SPACE (or the key you rather configure).
An so on:

• F: Interact with whatever is in front of you. Same effect as right-clicking the target.
• H: Halter (or unhalter) the animal in front of you.
• M: Mount the horse or donkey in front, or dismount if you are already riding.
• B: Toggle the Building Book.
• P: Toggle the Pet Book.
• Walking into an unwalkable tile now turns your character to face it.
  

The ranch machinery and material gathering are now more "fluid".
You still spend the same amount of time, but less clicking!

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Building revamp.

• The building system has been greatly improved, now you see a ghost version of the item being built, with it snapping to the sqms.
• Roof construction mode now includes a hammer for easier removal, and shade on the lower floors.

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In addition to hundreds of other improvements and bug fixes to try and make the game more chill to play.
All of them are listed on our Discord.
I'll be back soon with more updates and I hope to see you in Thornfeld to test the game!

 

[Curb]

https://imgur.com/DEfyUQA

Seasons just dropped in Thornfeld and I want to talk about it

Enter Thornfeld today and you will see the map is actually alive now. Seasons cycle through the year, each one lasting 1 real day (or 24 ingame days), turning over with the daily server save. 4 seasons = 1 in-game year.

Spring (which is what we're in right now btw): Flower carpets pop up around every deciduous and fruit tree, plus 45 different wildflower varieties scattered across the open grass. The valley genuinely looks alive. And the best part: crops grow 1.5x faster. Wheat that normally takes 60 minutes per stage finishes in 40. Nice.

Summer: Heat blasting, a subtle bloom haze covers the world during the day, and dry grass tufts pop up here and there. Crop growth back to baseline (1h or 1ingame day).

Fall: Leaves drifting everywhere, green and yellow carpets around the trees, mature fruit trees drop their fruit on the ground, conifers shed pinecones, mushrooms cluster around the deciduous. There's a new shader with a warm autumn tint and falling leaves animated in two layers. Honestly the prettiest season.

Winter: Snow covers everything, deciduous go dormant, conifers turn into those snowy pine versions. HERE'S WHERE IT GETS GOOD: plants enter stasis. They do NOT grow, but they also do NOT die from drought. When Spring comes back, the elapsed time during winter applies all at once.

Spoiler: Strategy

Water wheat near the end of Fall, let winter pass with everything sitting frozen, and when Spring hits the plant jumps straight to the next stage on the first tick. It's like a seasonal "investment."

Other cool stuff :

• Every major NPC comments on the season. Say "season" after greeting any of them and they'll share their take.
• Your character occasionally reacts "Atchim!" with a little puff in Spring (pollen), "So hot." in Summer, "Cough." in Fall, "Brrr." in Winter.
• First time you log in within a new season you get a welcome message with the season's name, current year, and a one-liner like "Wildflowers bloom across the valley. The land wakes up."
• The watch now shows the date with season + year.
• Rain now fills your livestock metal water troughs too (+300 units per event). Bonus on top of cisterns and crops.

Well, that iss pretty much it! If you want to read it a little deeper: Discord.

 

[Ftilt]

Despite the general genre not being appealing to me the whole thread was a great read, good luck with your project!
a breath of fresh air in the community

 

[Gustinos]

Wow, just wow haha

Nice job!

 

[Curb]

Hello guys, I gave up on the public testing!

Thornfeld is a game I'm developing myself, covering all costs, and making it completely free for anyone interested.
This is a hobby for me, I have fun and enjoy doing it.

It'something I've always wanted to try: a farming simulator on our favorite platform, Tibia.
But I have a personal life too. The moment it stops being fun and starts feeling like working, it loses the purpose I always wanted.

And lately I've started hearing things on Discord as if I were obligated to deliver something I provide completely free. Well...

I'll continue working on Thornfeld locally, and posting updates here from time to time.
Who knows, maybe one day I'll make it available to everyone again.

Thank you to everyone who played and helped test it.
Until next time!

 

[lukatxd]

Hello guys, I gave up on the public testing!

Thornfeld is a game I'm developing myself, covering all costs, and making it completely free for anyone interested.
This is a hobby for me, I have fun and enjoy doing it.

It'something I've always wanted to try: a farming simulator on our favorite platform, Tibia.
But I have a personal life too. The moment it stops being fun and starts feeling like working, it loses the purpose I always wanted.

And lately I've started hearing things on Discord as if I were obligated to deliver something I provide completely free. Well...

I'll continue working on Thornfeld locally, and posting updates here from time to time.
Who knows, maybe one day I'll make it available to everyone again.

Thank you to everyone who played and helped test it.
Until next time!

oh noooo it was available to play!
This is why we cant have nice things