Progress

Work on 2.0 is proceeding slower than I'd like, but the Trello Board has been updated. The "1.4 Feature Parity" list holds the remaining work to bring 2.0 up to parity with 1.4. Basic world generation is done, and I'm not working on creating and controlling the initial group of settlers.

Mod Support

Since 2.0 is a major rework of most of the core systems in Bronze Age, I've taken the opportunity to double down on mod support. Previously mods could only change graphics. In 2.0 mods will be able to specify unit types, structures, races, and AI. The base game content is being built as a mod itself, which helps with building out the capabilities of the modding api, and should serve as a handy guide.

Here is an example:

<biome name="Forest" map_image="t_lg_map_forest" large_image="t_lg_grass" is_walkable="true" is_swimable="false">
    <noise_mapping map_name="height" ideal_value="0.6"></noise_mapping>
    <noise_mapping map_name="rain" ideal_value="0.6"></noise_mapping>
    <terrain likelyhood="2" small_image="t_sm_tree" large_image="t_lg_tree"></terrain>
    <terrain likelyhood="1" small_image="t_sm_none" large_image="t_lg_grass"></terrain>
  </biome>

That's a definition of a biome for world generation, specifying the basic information and sprites for a forest area. Biomes are picked during world generation based on noise maps, per the "noise_mapping" elements. Those noise maps are created from simplex noise, which is also defined in the mod files.

<noise_map name="rain" min="0" max="1" octaves="1" scale_multiplier="20" amplitude="0.5" lacunarity="2" persistence="0.9" bias="none"></noise_map>

The structure has also changed. There are no longer any large sprite sheets, but sprites are each within their own image file. This means that mods can freely change just a few images without having to care about all of the others.