Chapter 40 - Patch 1.1

I took off the VR helmet and I noticed that my face was a little wet around my eyes. I went to touch it when my eyes started to fill up with tears. I did not cry inside the game but now that I was out I guess the sadness and the guilt finally came out. I was different, I never cried when a character I knew in a game died but this time was different. I felt like I knew Oscar personally. He was a timid character at the start but slowly he was changing, trying to be more confident with his actions. He liked the fish his dad caught and hated vegetables. He would annoy Howard and then run off into the forest with Luke. He was a friend of all and he was still a child but now he is gone.

I sobbed a bit in my bed before picking myself up. I go to wash my face and start my daily routine. Since the start of the game I had exercised every day and now I am doing better for myself. I feel less tired at the end of my jog and started to implement push-ups, sit-ups and squats into my routine before having a light breakfast. I then went to my job at the convenience store before finally returning home at night.

I hop on my computer and went to the game page. On the home page, there was a message clearly labeled.

[ Server Maintenance

It has been an eventful month since we, Lotus, have released our new game Settlement. Hundreds of thousands of players have created their small village in the world and have touched the start of civilization but now we intend to spice up the gameplay. A player has interacted with the hidden main storyline of our game and has activated the next phase. The world as you know it will be changing drastically from now on. Civilization never rests!

Patch Highlights 1.1

Removal of Loyalty System - Replaced with Happiness System

We have found that the loyalty system has not been working according to the community since some players have too many NPCs and as one would slowly expand their power they would continue gathering more NPCs. Thus we have changed the loyalty system to a happiness system. Instead of each NPCs' loyalty, it will be the overall happiness of all the NPCs.

Negative Happiness will lead to revolt and rebellion.

Neutral Happiness will give no benefits.

Positive Happiness will boost production, stat gain and work ethic.

Increased monsters

We have found that most players are living a carefree life, building their village slowly with the resources around them. However, this defeats the purpose of being rewarded with no challenges, thus we have increased monster activities. There will be more monsters throughout the world and increasing attacks on players.

Travelers instead of Leaders

Some players do not like starting civilization so we have decided to give the players an option. Travelers or Leaders. Travelers can stay with NPCs and travel the world and eventually settle in other Leaders' villages. They will be under a different system where there is no happiness with the NPCs. The NPCs they are traveling with can decide to leave the Traveler at any point and live at another Leader's village. They are the solo players of Settlement.

Leaders are what the players are currently doing.

That is all for now and more will be added in the near future.

The player that interacted with the main storyline will be rewarded.

Have fun players! :) ]

I read through the patch notes and I could tell it was me that interacted with the main story. The main story will have to do with the Horde and the other three Kings. If their territory gets taken into account then every player will have to fight against one King at a minimum. The increased monsters will most likely relate to the King's army indirectly or directly and it will allow players to gain item drops as well as potential allies. They also changed the loyalty system which I can agree with. After maxing out the loyalty points of my NPCs there wasn't much left to do with the system becoming almost irrelevant. However, the happiness system has greater potential. It can signal the player that his NPCs are feeling happy or unhappy about their current living conditions.

The most interesting new feature is the Travelers. It can allow players that prefer a solo role to finally be allowed to just travel the world with a group of NPCs and see what the world has to offer rather than stay at a location slowly building their village. I prefer my current playstyle since I have invested quite a bit into it already. HavenFall is looking good with the wall, the moat and with the addition of the golden wolves the attacking power of HavenFall has risen significantly. Luke will also be actively performing in the upcoming battles since he has gotten a lot stronger after Aur has passed on the pack leader role.

What do I need to do next though? Creating an enclosed space for the wolf core takes priority since it takes 5 days for a wolf pup to spawn but then what is next?

Watchtowers to secure a higher ground for archers, the farm and finding new technology is just the start. The major problem is our lack of population, with six goblins killed and Oscar dying as well HavenFall's population took a hit. While the goblins will come back over time Oscar will never be coming back.

"Hopefully, there will be some encampments where humans were captured or maybe some travelers will come nearby and I can steal their NPCs."

I message Evan and Sabrina about the patch notes and to get their opinions.

"Hopefully, this patch allows me to see elves." - Evan

"Shut up, you waste of air." - Sabrina

"HAH! You can't kick me through a screen. Stupid Gorilla!" - Evan

"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU PILE OF HORSE SHIT!!!" - Sabrina

"Guys...How about we talk about the patch notes rather than yelling at each other?" - Ian

"See Sabrina, you need to calm down just like Ian." - Evan.

"OHHHHHH THAT'S ITS WAIT UNTIL I SEE YOU! YOU GONNA WISH YOU WERE BORN A GIRL CUZ YOU ARE IN A WORLD OF HURT!" - Sabrina

"IAN! HELP ME!" - Evan

"Like I said the patch notes…" - Ian

"Right! Some of the players I know are going to be travelers since their village was destroyed in the second event, they had a hard time recovering from that event." - Evan

"I think the monsters being increased will help me out. I have a lack of resources in my location. Monster drops might end up helping me a lot." - Sabrina

"Yea agreed, with the travelers going around maybe we could get some sort of world map going in the forum too." - Evan

"I do like the changes as well. By the way, the one who triggered the storyline was me." - Ian

"OH! Nice job! What is it?" - Evan

"The world is divided into 5 parts. 4 of them are in a territory of a 'King' and the last part is in the middle where its called a no-mans land. I can only assume the main story will have to do with either taking over their territory or fighting against them or something like that." - Ian

"Do you know which territory is which king?" - Sabrina

"No. I don't have that information. I do know that one of them is called Horde and two of the subordinates are called Blood Ogre and Casper. Blood Ogre is a massive red ogre with black tattoos on its body wearing some sorta shiny armor. Casper is a dragon that can turn into a human. His human form looks like a butler and his dragon form is black scales and wings with a white body." - Ian

"Wait...Did you fight them?" - Sabrina

"No...I just watched them attack a monster and almost kill me." - Ian

"I was about to say there was no way you fought one of those monsters and lived to tell the tale." - Evan

"Well if that is all then I will talk to guys another time." - Sabrina

"Before you go, just make sure to be careful the Blood Ogre was considered just a normal general of the Horde's army which means there are monster stronger than it and the Blood Ogre was a powerhouse." - Ian

"I will take your advice seriously and prepare my defenses." - Sabrina

"Me too. Gotta make sure everyone is safe." - Evan

I turn off my phone and have a light dinner before going back into the game.