The First
Explorers

FAQ

Game & Lore

In what kind of world is "The First Explorers" set?

The game is set in the time of antiquity in Europe. The antiquity and late antiquity serve as a template for the factions, the game world, artstyle and goods. However, historical accuracy is not a focus of the game.

What is special about "The First Explorers"?

You'll experience an atmospheric, settler-like game that offers the perfect mix between building and real-time strategy. Look forward to a bustling world with an aquarium effect, i.e. every good and every inhabitant is graphically represented and you can follow every production step. Only by observing the game world will you be able to see where your fortunes are needed.

Will there be fantasy elements?

No, fantasy elements are not planned. There will be no fantasy peoples, wizards, werewolves or anything like that.

Will there be different factions?

Yes, it's planned to add the Romans, the Carthaginians and the Gauls.

Gameflow

What is the objective in the game?

You will land with your ship and your crew on an island and have to build a thriving settlement from scratch using the available resources on the map. To successfully complete your game, you must defeat all opponents on the map.

What will be the victory conditions?

Victory by military success is firmly planned. However, there will also be other victory variants, which depend on the map or game mode. Friends of peaceful victories should not miss out. There are plans for victory through economic success or through the construction of special building projects.

How long will a game last?

A game can last between 1.5 hours and 4-5 hours and depends on how the players play. The game mechanics offer a lot of flexibility here.

What game modes are planned?

Currently, the focus is on skirmish against the AI and human opponents, i.e. PvE and PvP. There is also a story campaign planned, but that depends somewhat on the development process.

Gameplay

How will building work?

Buildings and roads can be placed on a granular hex grid within your territory. The granular grid is the perfect size to awaken the puzzle urge in you, but still makes building an organic settlement possible.

You'll find yourself trying to squeeze out every last bit of open space in your settlement! There will also be hilly terrain that will increase the construction time of your buildings, so the properly chosen building site is golden.

Can civilian buildings or civilian settlers be attacked?

No, civilian buildings or civilian settlers cannot be attacked by any unit. Only military buildings like watchtowers can be captured.

Do civilian settlers flee from enemy units?

No, civilian settlers will continue to transport goods and will not flee.

Is there a direct unit control?

Civilian residents such as carriers or construction workers are indirectly controlled by your construction orders and production tasks.

Soldiers, geologists, etc. are controlled directly. Look forward to raising huge armies and commanding them in battle!

How do I expand my territory?

The territory is delimited with border stones. The border can be expanded by placing military buildings like watchtowers.

Will there be settlement upgrades?

Yes, by building special landmarks the settlement will level up and unlock new buildings and units in the game. The settlement will start at the hamlet level. Currently, 3 settlement levels are planned: the hamlet, village and town level.

Will there be mines and mining?

Yes, there will be real mountains where you can build mines.

How does the food system work?

Miners work only when they get their basic food.

Production buildings basically work without meals. However, production efficiency can be massively increased with meals. Meals are prepared in residential buildings by cooks. The cooks get the food from market stalls. The higher the settlement level, the higher quality meals are possible.

How to get new inhabitants?

Currently, it is planned to recruit them via a port. The inhabitants will then come by ship from the homeland.

Will there be walls?

Yes, wooden palisades and stone walls are planned.

Can soldiers be positioned on towers and stone walls?

Absolutely.

Will there be a combat power system?

Definitely, especially at the beginning of a game the soldiers on their home territory will have a massive combat power bonus over opponents. This effectively prevents rush tactics. In the course of a game you will be able to influence the combat power.

Community

Is mod support planned?

Yes!

Modsupport is planned.

How extensive this will be, will be decided in the further development. Mods should be able to be searched, installed and activated directly in the game as plugins. Self-created maps should be possible.

Will there be interaction with the community?

Absolutely. The developer is looking forward to a lively exchange on the official Discord server. There, development progress will be shared and discussed with the community at regular inlefttervals. I'm looking forward to your ideas and feedback!

Behind The Scenes

What stage of development is the game currently in?

Currently, the development is in the prototype phase. The game mechanics are being tested and iterated.

Once the prototype phase is successfully completed, a Steam page will be created for the game and it will move to the next development phase.

Is there some kind of roadmap?

Yes, there is a plan here for the current development phase.

However, this only serves as an orientation for the community and is not as detailed as the internal plan.

Which engine is used to develop the game?

Unreal Engine 5 is used for development.

Will there be handcrafted or procedural maps?

Currently, the focus is on creating hand-crafted maps for the time being. However, since the beginning of the development, it has been ensured that the use of procedural elements is possible for later. So procedural maps are definitely in the realm of possibility.

Who is behind "The First Explorers"?

The project is a one-man-project by Buchwald.Interactive. Behind the nickname is Sebastian, who lives in Germany and develops the project in his spare time.

For which platforms will the game be released?

Currently a release for Windows is planned. Other platforms may be added in the course of development.