Hey Drifters,
This update is a big one! In 0.9 we’ve tackled a bunch of interconnected features to improve the overall play experience. It sets the stage for the narrative, improves key features like morale and town movement, and updates the entire world. There’s a lot to cover, so check out the changelog for the full list.

Only a small part of the narrative will be available at first. During experimental we'll be expanding the narrative, refining the gameplay and squashing bugs.

This patch will be on experimental for a while since the changes are huge. We’ll be listening to feedback and making adjustments as we continue developing this update.

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This patch is still in development and can be tested on the experimental branch to give feedback.

This is how you can enable the experimental branch of Flotsam. This will only work when you're not in a game:
1. Open Steam Library
2. Right click Flotsam
3. Select Properties
4. Go to tab 'Betas' at the top.
5. Select 'Experimental' in the drop-down.

This patch focuses on improving the overall play experience by tackling a bunch of interconnected features all at once. It sets the stage for the narrative, improves key features like morale and town movement, updates the world, and smooths out the gameplay. This patch is a huge step towards developing the game towards the 1.0 release. Note: only a small part of the narrative will be available at the start of experimental, more will be added in future patches.

• Did extensive work behind the scenes to implement scenarios, quests and narrative. This is the groundwork for the narrative as we develop towards 1.0.
  
• Without spoiling: Added an introductory quest that unfolds after rescuing a certain drifter with an idea to reach more people. This quest line will gradually expand during experimental and upcoming patches.
  
• Without spoiling: Added a first small 'encounter' quest that reveals more about the drifters you rescue. More of these will be added as development continues.
  
• Added various new landmarks tied to quests and specialists.

• Pollution has returned! Some regions now have pollution levels.
  
• Currently these regions are: Polluted Woods and City. Both of these regions will only come into play later in the game.
  
• Drifters swimming in polluted waters will gradually accumulate pollution.
  
• Certain buildings, like the Desalinator, will generate a pollution cloud when used in polluted regions.
  
• Certain resources, like Seaweed, will be polluted in these regions and must be cleaned before they can be used to produce non-polluted food.

• Scouting now reveals both the current region and it's neighboring regions.
  
• Scouting can now spot drifters and other notable landmarks in neighboring regions. The Watchtower no longer spots drifters during the night.
  
• The map now displays the town's maximum movement range.
  
• New Region: Shallows. A fully flooded area with no landmarks, contains flotsam and fish.
  
• New Region: Farmlands. Previously part of the 'rural ruins' region, now a distinct region with farmland landmarks and its own unique resources.
  
• Updated Region: Rural Ruins. Now a compact village region, where various goods can be found.
  
• New region: Polluted Woods. Previously part of the 'wood' region, now a pollution-afflicted variant with it's own unique resources.
  
• Overhauled all regions to better reflect their identity and have more logical resource distribution.
  
• Remade all maps applying new region structure.

• The time will now speed up by 25x when all drifters are sleeping, effectively skipping the night when nothing occurs.
  
• Reworked Drifter Morale:
  
• Morale no longer affects experience gain directly but now modifies their work and movement speed! However, drifters working with high morale (and thus work speed) will still result in more experience gain, as they finish their work quicker.
  
• Morale now ranges from 0 to 100, with 100 as the maximum. (Previously, morale could go negative 10 and positive 10) All morale modifiers have been adjusted accordingly.
  
• Drifters now have a morale modifier for Expertise. This is a morale modifier based on their level. Resulting in low level drifters having a high morale boost, which slowly becomes drops as they grow in level.
  
• Removed the "Exhaustion" morale modifier. Instead, drifters now have a negative morale modifier when they are without a home.
  
• Rebalanced the work-speed modifiers gained from the Drifter's attributes, as morale now also modifies work-speed.
  
• Drifters now prioritize tasks more efficiently. Additionally, they are more responsive to priority changes.
  
• Greatly improved efficiency for drifters doing workshop assignments.
  
• Additionally, you can now set priorities on each workshop.
  
• Adjusted the order of all drifter's assignments to improve base efficiency.
  
• Reintroduced level-based experience scaling: Higher levels now require progressively more experience to level up. Previously, every level required a flat experience amount.

• The Town Tugger now only increases the town's weight capacity, thus the town's movement range is now solely determined by the energy storage capacity.
  
• Due to this change, weight tiers now increase gradually and are never lowered by building additional Town Tuggers. The previous named weight tiers, like "light," have been replaced by 20 numbered weight tiers that increase movement costs at specific weight thresholds.

• Food has undergone a significant rework due to huge pressure on food production as the game progressed into mid-game. The pacing felt too harsh once 'ordinary' food was required, so we've aimed smoothed this out.
  
• All food recipes have been either rebalanced, removed or new ones have been created to create a more gradual progression.
  
• Wild Farmland landmarks now only yield potatoes by default, the only crop to survive the garbage floods. Tomato, wheat, and corn landmarks are now rare.
  
• Added a new food quality: "Tasty". This bridges the gap between "Ordinary" and "Yummy," easing the transition during mid-game.
  
• The Fishing Chair has been reworked to fulfill its original intended purpose. While previously it could slowly fish infinite Nibbler fish, it can now fish any type of fish within the town's swimming range.
  
• The Chop Shop and Fish Chops have been removed, as they no longer serve any purpose.
  
• The Unbottler now requires Eel-ectricity to function.
  
• Added new specialist: The Farmer.

• Goods have now been split into "Plastic Junk", "Wood Junk" and "Electric Junk". Each have to be recycled in the Recycler for their scrap variant.
  
• Tools have now been split into "Demolition Tools", "Chopping Tools", "Precision Tools", "Power-Tools", "Pumps" and "Ladders". Different tools now unlock different resources from landmarks.
  
• New construction: Power-Tool Maker. This building requires Eel-ectricity to make certain powerful Tools.
  
• Overhauled the Tech Tree.
  
• New construction: Wood Plaza(s). These are wooden Park Variants to introduce decorations earlier in the game.
  
• New decorations: "Simple Decorations". These are decorations made using Plastic and Wood Junk.
  
• Removed Seaweed Spores, Seaweed can now be grown using only Seaweed, similar to other crops.

• You can now directly report bugs in the game by going to the Pause Menu and using the bug-reporting tool.
  
• LoadWindow now displays the path to the saves directory when the explorer button is clicked on any platform other than windows.
  
• Greatly improved the overall performance of the game.
  
• And many more various small improvements and fixes.