Concept-Art

All of the images shown here at the Coobico dev-blog show a work in progress, things will keep changing as we are retouching gameplay-features and game-graphics, to get everything as smooth and polished as possible. Currently we have revisited our Count Vrykulas, and he is back with 66 percent more evilness.
The character seemed to need that nudge after putting more details into the design of his habitat, the Haunted Mansion. The old model will stay in the drawer and probably be recycled somewhere else.

The Shattered Temple, found close to the Shattered Tower in the rough and ragged island’s south-west, is yet another entrance to Coobico’s diverse subterranean dungeons. The temple appears to be a few hundred years old, but was seemingly abandoned a long time ago according to its condition of deterioration. The original purpose of the site has yet to be discovered.

There are banks in Coobico, alright, but these will not enable transferals of money between players, like in other massive worlds. In Coobico they have a different function:
First of all, settlers who add a bank to their village will raise the productivity and land-value of their settlements. And, secondly, players can deposit their surplus of money and resources at a bank. Valuables are kept safe at the bank, that is, until the bank is destroyed – then all belongings are automatically transferred back to their owners. Deposits will even earn a slight interest, if the according settlement’s land-value is higher at the time of the withdrawal than at the time of investment.

New structures for your own settlement will come into play according to the needs of the non-player inhabitants of the village: in an early stage your townies will require a farm and perhaps a mine or a merchant. Later in the game, your settlement will probably need a bank or apothecary. In such case, a non-player-character will offer you an according quest to build the new structure. It’s up to you to place the new building where it suits your settlement best. You will need to keep a few factors in mind though, like power-supply – but don’t worry, it will be an easy and straightforward decision.

Upon placing the new structure you will see a construction-site of the yet to be finished building. A structure will need a few more resources to come into play, like rocks, and prefabs, according to the type of structure. You can pay these resources at once or invite your friends to invest a few of their resources into the new building. But beware: your competitors can use their resources to interfere with the construction, or even bringing it to a grinding halt alltogether. Once all resources are paid, the new structure comes into play immediately, raising the score of your settlement and probably offering new types of quests. When the new building is finished, everybody involved in its construction earn their share of gold and experience. 

Introducing the monster-hunter: whenever some hazard-spot or fiendish structure turns up near your village, the settlement’s wellbeing and productivity is lowered. To counter-balance this effect, it is possible to build a monster-hunter’s establishment nearby. At a monster-hunter’s you will also be able to buy useful adventurer’s gear.

Mineshafts, caverns and abandoned ruins hold a lot of valuable loot for venturous players. They can be kept as rare accessories or turned into cash at the local alchemist’s store (which also keeps useful adventurers’ gear on display). Sometimes a find will be obscure and unknown to the player and needs to be identified by the alchemist first before it can be sold – such finds yield more experience points and gold if a player has the temp-job “archaeologist”.
Take a glance at a few rare items to be found. 

This is a mine, one of the resource-spots in Coobico, where players can harvest. By working the mine, players can gather rocks – and of course find the occasional hidden treasure, if they are lucky enough.
The other two kinds of resource-spots are farms and water-mills.

This is a merchant’s shop where players can trade resources. Exchange-rates at such shops will vary duing the game, according to the productivity of the settlement to which the merchant belongs, and to just how well the merchant is familiar with the player. The exchange-rate of such “trade-quest” will be displayed after the trade-offer was picked up.
Since trades follow the same rules like all other quests, players can keep them on the backburner in their quest-roster for a while, possibly till they gathered more valuable resources to strike a favorable bargain. 

Hekate’s witches’ house can be found somewhere in Foggy Forest. Strangely, it appears to be much larger inside than its outside could possibly contain. Come to think about it, this is mostly the case with buildings in Coobico…
In her alchemist’s shop Hekate trades with useful adventurers’ gear. Essentially, she is going to be one of the non-player characters selling events to those settlers who can reach her house – the twisted Foggy Forest blights on the northern shores of Qubus’ Island and can be a somewhat dangerous place. It is in fact one of the dungeons in Coobico, stuffed with odd spots where treasures can be found, but also teeming with monsters.

Supply-Chains and resource-management are yet another key game-mechanism in Coobico, just like in other city-building games. Without supply, you can’t build new structures or pay for the upkeep of your settlement.
The following icons depict the resources in Coobico: Rock (left) comprises natural stone, clay, sand and cinder. The category Crop contains all renewable primary products like wood, cloth and harvest. Freshwater is neccessary for reclaiming, irrigation and fertilizing land. Prefabs (right) adhere to all materials for building new structures. 

Rock, Crop and Freshwater can be harvested and obtained at corresponding resource-spots – in case players are in need of Crop, they need to visit a farm, for instance. Harvesting automatically increases the settlement’s productivity to which the resource-spot belongs.

Prefabs (obviously) can’t be harvested, they can only be traded. To engage in trading, players need to attend a merchant. Merchants will exchange all types of resources into various other types. To exchange goods for gold, players need to visit a bank instead (more about the bank later on). Both trading and selling resources also boost a settlement’s productivity.