Jan 11

Make XP more important

Currently a large portion of the game is focused around gaining XP through eating better food and living in better homes, but XP does only one thing: provide you with stars. This very often stops being an incentive by the time high XP items are available, as people typically have more than enough to do with just 3 or 4 stars. If XP were used for more general gameplay, it would increase the importance of this mechanic and make better food and housing desirable to more people and for the entirety of the game cycle. One example of how this might be done is an XP upkeep for running workbenches (as well as their respective upgrades), so you are only able to have so many workbenches and upgrades in operation at a time according to how much XP bonus you have.

Completed

changed status toCompleted·Jun 24, 2026

Jun 24, 2026

This has been partly implemented in Update 13 through the star cost of talents and will be expanded in the upcoming Update 14 with a star cost for applying modules to work tables. Further uses will follow in future updates.

Jan 14, 2024

There should be something like special perks that you can buy with XP, so you can choose to delve deeper into specific specialization optimization as opposed to starting a new specialization. Examples: A Gatherer could spend XP on a Perk that gives them the ability to swim deep into the sea scour the sea floor for unique sea food ingredients. or A Carpenter could spend XP on a Perk that allows them to recycle furniture into some of its base cost. or A Farmer could spend XP on a Perk that allows them to craft special seed mixes that can mix 2 crops on a single tile. or A Smelter could spend XP on a Perk that allows them to [refine] tools to give them an extra layer of durability. Giving the player to make the choice to dig deeper into their profession or get a new star would encourage even more player collaboration too.

Jan 12, 2024

I do feel like part of this issue is the XP gain curve. I think if it would drop off more sharply it might encourage more late game XP optimisation. Maybe further splitting up late game jobs would be an alternative.