Update 1.1.1! Alternative names for the Elements
Colonials Programme Patch Notes — February 6, 2021
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
Hello! This is just a quick patch to the game which adds alternate names to the elements' tooltips. Hopefully, it'll make things a little easier for those unfamiliar with the game to understand them.
I understand that a lot of people find the names of the elements weird and confusing! And I just wanted to clarify my intentions and explain where they came from.
So, the names of the elements are just snippets that I took from words in a language called Basque. If there are any Basques reading this, I'm really sorry for this! The elements were the very first thing that I came up with after conceptualizing Colonials Programme. I wanted the elements to sound strange and exotic. CP was initially an exploration game of sorts. Where you will harvest elements from the world, then combine them to form strange compounds with different properties. I was really into organic chemistry at that time, and that's where the concept of the game arose. This was the first table of elements I designed: (Yes, my handwriting is terrible)
Of course, it eventually morphed into a building game, and the whole combining elements thing took a back seat to this all. But, each element did have an English name and represent an aspect of something. They still do! 'Ikat' is coal, 'Hez' is moisture, and 'Lioa' is oil. There are also some weird ones; 'Inda' was meant to represent 'Strong', and 'Horm' represents 'Wall'. I opted to rename these two, Iron and Steel respectively for simplicity sake. So hopefully, this will make things a little easier for everyone!
EDIT: I'm working on two new sequences, akin to the current one teaching the grid mechanics. These will teach the fundamentals about generating power, Inda and maintenance costs. You can expect the update very soon!