The road ahead.

• Needs and trustHunger over a week, sleep, recreation, belonging and warmth, with Trust in You above them; injury, care and death, and a safety pause.
• Building and homesBlueprints, hauling, rooms, roofs and room quality, beds people choose and claim, hearths and fuel.
• FoodCrops in their months, cooking stations, four meal grades and the feast, foraging, spoilage, drying, preserves and cold storage.
• Careers and companiesHats in fifteen lines that make their wearers better at the work, expectations, apprentices, shifts, foremen, and companies with rooms of their own.
• Briefs and crewsBuild briefs carried through in stages by volunteer crews, inspection, and recurring stock targets.
• The living worldGenerated maps in three sizes, places to visit, a growing territory, mining, seasons, regrowth and weather.
• WildlifeHerds that graze, breed and migrate, hunting and fishing, butchering, crop raids, fences and scarecrows.
• The dossier and gearA dossier for every resident; clothes, tools and trinkets they choose themselves, made from hides, flax and iron.
• WolvesWinter packs, taking cover, defenders, the night watch, the watch post and the alarm.
• A crisis shared outFishers and foragers who spread out over shared ground, a dead hearth relit first, and carcasses turned into meat as survival work.
• The work gridNormal, Focus or Off for each kind of work and each person, with hats, companies and shifts doing the finer sorting.
• Hungry wolves and rough weatherWolves that eat by weight and come back to their kills, a pack that arrives hungry, people wary rather than hiding, and a watch that keeps to the light and stands down in a blizzard.
• Buildings to scaleEvery building at its real size, from a two-metre bed to a four-by-four solar array, turned in four directions, with rooms judged by the space each sleeper has.
• Winter foodDeer and boar that move on for the deepest cold, lakes that freeze and are fished through holes, snares, drying that stops in rain and frost, and a smokehouse.
• Finishing the winterA catch kept in the cold, rivers that freeze, ice fishing for the warmly dressed, fishing by target, a hide cloak with no tailor needed, no work at a pack's kill and no one-strike deaths.
• OpinionsReasons for liking someone that only go so far and fade, friends made by shared events, and friction from crowded rooms and the last meal.
• A research queueTechnologies in order, with what each one needs queued in front, and researchers who lead with assistants at other desks.
• Shared worksThe well, the bath, the palisade, gravel paths and bridge decks, and prestige pieces that open as the colony grows: the paved square with the village, the colony bell with the town and the banner with the city.
• ExpectationsOne ladder from no hat to grandmaster, a housing checklist met rung by rung, and an Expectations tab in every dossier.
• Work that takes timeBuilding five to six times slower and paced by skill, storage filters and priorities, and buildings that wear and need repair.
• Fields and growersNamed fields held by a growers' company through a field post, crops chosen by its lead, harvest crews, and crops that grow better tended.
• Personal projectsA project of their own for everyone: hobbies, friendships, gardens and herb patches, keepsakes, furniture, gifts and huts, asked for by letter.
• Safer nightsHolds that end with the sun, the colony kept in after an attack in the dark, a watch that stands down near a pack, woodlots and the rush floor.
• Huts and homesA hut with a hearth that counts as a private bedroom, laid in one go for whoever asks; a say in people's own projects, set aside or suggested; house walls that close a ring; night drawn from rooms, doors and lights.
• Rescue by free willGuards and carriers who choose to stand by someone down, Rally, one dusk for the hold and the clock, bedrooms people move into on their own, and perishables kept out of the warm shelf by the player's filter.
• Work in orderFocus work first, planks pulled for the building that waits on them, the hut plan, and bedtime and the night hold put before Urgent work.
• Wood as in lifeBigger, denser forests, logs by species from six for a hazel to twenty-four for an oak, logs that burn twelve hours, builds that leave the woodpile alone when it is low, and warmth judged by what a person would feel there.
• The ring, honestlyA ring overlay that shows the stakes, the rock, water and walls that stand in for them and the wild's way in; any piece over a tree or boulder orders its clearing; moves between rooms that weigh the way's danger; caution that fades; Frequent wolves all year.
• Arrivals that follow capacityNewcomers by a daily chance over free beds, days of food, open work and reputation, a letter that counts the cost before and after, applicants drawn to the waiting work, and pairs: friends, a teacher and pupil, or a couple who share a room.
• Events that ask for decisionsLetters that carry their choices as buttons, a lost traveller taken in or turned away, promises on requests kept or broken, a better tool, a day off or a hat asked for, and fire fought with water from a well or the shore.
• Fire, promises and couplesWhoever sees or smells a fire raises the alarm and sleepers wake; a piece laid for a request is adopted at once; double beds for couples; travellers who convalesce for days.
• Deposits and mining companiesCoal, iron, copper and gold hidden until struck, seams cleared cell by cell, mine heads worked for good by a miners' company, and prospectors with a hunch.
• Tunnels and honest storesTunnels laid as tunnels, food days that count only what will be eaten before it rots, supply alerts that name the real blocker, and the brazier.
• Fire without water, and cold that actsA well at the landing, cold people who light a fire of their own, a collapse that wakes the sleepers, and priorities that pull for real.
• Bronze, iron and steelA tin seam, the smith's ladder, a casting bench, three sets of tools, arms and armour, windows, books, lanterns and jewellery.
• The caravan and tradeCaravans in their seasons, a purse and prices by reputation, the Market and the trading post, manuals, news at the stall, and residents' own trade.
• Illness and medicineColds that spread between roommates, pneumonia, infected wounds and food poisoning; herbs made into medicine, the clinic and Sick rest.
• Livestock and herdingHens, goats and sheep in pens with coops and troughs, eggs, milk, cheese and wool, hay for winter, herders, and wolves and foxes at the pens.
• The society treeA ladder from tribe to city founded at gatherings, institutions that need a building and a holder, and laws put to a council of the residents.
• Councils that sitGatherings and councils that outrank work for their hour, votes split by what a law costs each person, a trade the band may take up early, and the meeting hall.
• The agesResearch as ages with a keystone each, tools that wear by the hour, a stone age of its own, and a starting age to choose.
• Three ways inA title screen over the live map, the Tribe, the Town and the North, a slot for every colony with a Load page, and a Settings page.
• Help without askingFood and firewood counted in days with a Critical letter under five, the oldest meal eaten first, two tools on every belt, specialists first for new bedrooms, a closed ring that keeps its inside, fighters who answer a call without Rally, and hats that improve rather than permit.
• Fields and the larderSeventeen more crops and herbs, orchards and vines, soil that tires and rotation the growers plan, the ice house and salt, porridge, soup and stew, a varied table, condiments, bakes, the grill and the cauldron.
• Drink and the tavernTeas and coffee with effects that last for hours, ale, wine and spirits by the age, the evening drink and its hangover, the tavern and the pipe.
• Fish, herds and houndsSeven kinds of fish by water and season and a salmon run, fishing spots, pigs, cattle, geese, ducks and bees, oxen, horses and carts, dogs and cats, taming, and bears, elk, lynx and grouse.
• Rites and justiceFour festivals a year and feasts the council calls, graves, burials and funerals, five values, three offices, the moot, and cases that run from a warning to exile.
• Defence and eventsTraps, ditches and earth banks, the watchtower, the signal fire and horn, arms for every age, and an event deck from blight and rats to lost children, a bard and rabid animals.
• The later ages filledPlough tips and the balance scale, the bloomery, the water mill and the trip hammer, the steel saw and the strongroom, the radio and the medical scanner, sunlight by day and stored power by night, and statues, cloth, flowers, music and games.
• Mercy, malt and the bearAn alert the moment someone is shut in, an open ring as a standing alert, the Resources window with each chain's narrowest step, research that says how long, the malting floor and small beer, winter wheat, rye and garlic sown in autumn, the watch fire, the bear as a decision, slower justice with mercy, the band's own laws and a council at dusk, strays and small letters from the wild, lit fires and crowds that move.
• A ring round the housesA ring that goes round the houses and the gathering places and is built stretch by stretch from the houses out, research at the research spot without the School, the gathering ground, a festival's food and drink kept for it, feasts indoors on a wolf night, crowds spread over their ground, bears that raid in autumn, no dangerous hunt while hurt, a quieter dog, drink by need, votes that split at high trust, winter-sized firewood, the iron stove and cuirasses.
• Bills, lists and room plansOne Bills window: each station's queue as cards, a searchable recipe tree with a red slash over what the colony lacks, recipes hidden per station and queues copied between stations; every list scrolling with pictures and search; and room plans that lay a bedroom, two or three in a row, a workshop, a bath room or a store room in one click.
• Storage and a closer lookStockpile cells that hold one kind each, zones laid in one drag, shelves and crates linked into groups, a Storage tab with a folding tree of what each store takes, a card for every store under the pointer, a building inspector that shows what a piece does now with its condition in colour, buildings drawn in a three-quarter view with soft shadows, rock that rises as mountains, and people who glide from cell to cell.
• The build menu and farmlandFourteen build-menu tabs with every order and zone under Orders, one search box that finds a station by what it makes, and farmland created crop by crop: pick a crop, drag over the land, and the field joins its neighbours of the same crop, up to 2048 growing tiles washed in light green.
• Readable windowsButtons in plain words, labelled rows and one picker for every setting, the Resources window as one list by supply chain, a field's own panel with a plant picker that weighs each crop, buildings named by kind, Shift-click to select several and Link to copy one's settings, and Move for small pieces.
• Gathering by targetForaging, fishing and hunting as stock targets with a bill's modes, tents that keep a sleeper warm through a hard frost, simple meals over the fire pit, a heavier bear, autumn colours, and fields white under snow.
• The AI's mandateAuthority you spend and care refills; powers that open rung by rung: Press, rewards from a public budget, company bounties and a weekly wage, direct orders and emergency law; the sponsor's seasonal review, revocation and Independence; and residents' own coin, saved and spent at the stall on clothes, art for their rooms, treats and gifts.
• Care and coinGuests kept warm, cold alerts that name a working fix, a review that sees cold, illness, lives lost and growth, one Food target counted in days, an evening off in everyone's hours, a midsummer caravan and a pedlar, small home requests allowed at once, a hungry pet fed on request, and five days of grace before hungry wolves close on a new colony.
• Goals and the charter in viewGoals the residents ask for from the society and research trees, backed up to three at a time and feasted when reached; the Charter window with the laws, the council's votes, the powers, the budget and every review; an evening off that people keep; and spares bartered at the stall.
• Winter, kin and neighboursDraughts, hearths stoked in the night and frostbite; seasons that harden with the years, a hard winter and a summer fair; a couple's child who grows up; three neighbouring towns with their own regard and requests; a copper seam in every claim and Prospect Here; the hurdle fence and the spit roast; music by season and mood, sound where it happens, and people and animals redrawn.
• Kin, neighbours and hard timesCouples who court and share a room; children who take after their parents, ride on a hip, sleep in a cradle, are brought home at dusk and grow up through chores and apprenticeships; elders and old age; families who ask to join. Neighbours who ask for goods, a guest, workers or company at their festival and answer the colony's own asks, their news, and hired hands. Hard times told as stories, Quarantine and Rations, each age's aims and moment, institutions held by an office, a crew size for every brief, and Bronze casting before the School.
• Arrivals, claims and storiesAdmission by policy and by the council's vote; companies joined freely, recruiting and those who leave, write and come back; claims settled up a ladder of cases, respect held apart from liking, ambitions and rivals, gossip that can be wrong, crushes, affairs and weddings. Honest night heat, a kitchen counted in every food letter, evenings out, draught teams at the plough and lit fires that keep wolves off.
• Houses, clans and the Industrial ageDwellings and private gardens, a ladder from cottage to mansion with grades and standing, Give House, and clans that pass a house on; the Population window and a bar of those who need you; one ladder each for heat, cold, storage and light, and an Industrial age with the river generator; default bills, the hide line, town work, folded asks and winter's own events.
• Great works, power and a food voiceFresh and preserved days, the food chain in Resources and the colony diary; threats with a forecast and a cost; a School that speeds research, great works and civic aims; bigger maps with every early seam in the claim; one power pool with priorities, and the goods of the last ages; family names, feuds and alliances, lessons, heirlooms, widows and orphans.
• Work that takes its real timeFurnaces and kilns tended for the whole run, tools from bare hands to powered, slower cloth, milling and tanning, clothes that wear out and the daily bread, expectations that wait for the technology; great works kept past their age and raised with a feast, the City at 100; wolves with nerve, the hedge ring, ore signs near the landing and steel at stations of its own.

The latest round gives work its real length: tended furnaces, slower cloth and bread, clothes that wear out, great works raised with a feast, and wolves with nerve.

• Arrivals and village growth

  Visitors, recruitment and departures, as one save grows from three people to eighty.

  Built in large part: admission by policy and by the council, recruiting, departures with their reasons, letters from those who left and returns, and one test colony grown from three to eighty-one.

• Wants, stories and social cases

  Wants beside needs, lasting memories, and disputes with proposals, consent and appeals that a coordinator can settle without you.

  Begun: values, offices, the moot, light justice, claims and cases, respect, ambitions and rivals, gossip that can be wrong, houses and standing, clans, feuds and goals the residents ask for.

• Incentives, authority and the first charter

  Funded offers, a spendable authority separate from trust, and a minimal charter with powers, a public budget and a review.

  Built as the AI's mandate: spendable authority, powers that open with each rung, rewards from a public budget with protected essentials, a weekly wage and the sponsor's review.

• Institutions and services

  Clinics, schools and social venues with staff, budgets and succession, grown from today's companies.

  Begun: institutions that stand on a building and an office holder who keeps it until a successor accepts, the School with its lessons and the clinic.

• Districts, industry and economies

  Districts with their own stocks, production chains with transport, and settlements run on rations or on markets.

  Begun: tended industry, one pool of power with priorities, and the town's own work.

• Research and the region

  Knowledge installed as improvements, neighbouring settlements, a trade route and the travellers on it.

  Begun: research by ages, the caravans and their news, manuals bought from them, the radio that calls them in, and three neighbours with their own regard, requests both ways, news, travellers, hired hands, workers lent and residents' own visits.

• Politics, threats and the mandate

  Petitions, bargaining and strikes; fire, disease, famine and outsiders; and the mandate review that ends in independence or revocation.

  Begun: laws put to a council, votes that follow the clans, cases and exile, fire, illness and rabies, traps and towers, a deck of events, threats with a forecast and a cost, seasons that harden with the years, and the sponsor's review that ends in revocation or Independence.

Human playtests decide whether it is fun and clear; long accelerated runs decide whether it is stable. Neither replaces the other, and the pitch is called playable only when both agree.