Regions
The game map is divided into regions, organically shaped areas of terrain that often follow natural borders like rivers, shorelines, or mountain ranges. Your nation will be composed of multiple regions, and your Forces move from one region to another based on your orders. Multiple Forces can occupy the same region, and a city’s improvements (like farms or banks) are built within zones inside these regions.
You start with your capital city in a single region, with a small number of zones. One zone contains your first improvement – your great hearth. This small settlement will grow into a large metropolis over time.
Biomes
Each region has its own biome, determining the types of flora and fauna that can be found, as well as the resources available. Biomes include savannah, tundra, ocean, desert, and more. To view detailed information about the regions on the map, select the mountain icon in the upper left portion of the HUD.
Zones
A region may contain one or more zones, which are specific locations where resources like coffee, uranium, or sheep can be found. Zones also determine how many improvements you can place within a region. You can see zones when you click on a city banner, and you can build improvements on any unused zone that isn’t occupied by dangerous wildlife.
Resources
Every region yields some amount of the four core resources of Ara:
Food – which is used to feed your people and grow your cities.
Timber – the organic materials used to build a significant number of improvements and units, as well as accelerate your crafting.
Materials – the mineral wealth of the earth, used to build improvements and units, as well as accelerate crafting.
Wealth – a measure of your nation’s riches, which can be spent in almost all cases to help supplement an activity in your nation whether rushing the production of an improvement, or accelerating the crafting of an amenity in the absence of its unique ingredients.
The map is dotted with various unique resources, representing special riches the world has to offer. Some resources, like sheep, are visible once you’ve cleared the fog of war, while others, such as underground ores, require specific technologies to be revealed.
Controlling a region will begin the passive harvest of its resources, but building certain improvements can greatly speed the harvesting of resources if built in the right location. For example, you can harvest cattle by building a farm on a cattle resource after researching animal husbandry. However, if you build something like a library in that spot, it won’t yield any additional cattle-specific resources.
Caches
Caches are the remnants of lost tribes, nomadic peoples, or previous fledgling nations – as piles of goods that can be collected by your scouts. These caches might contain resources, ingredients, or even consumable items that can provide an immediate boost to your nation or your capital.
Tribes
Some regions start the game inhabited by independent tribes. You can interact with these tribes in various ways, from conquest to befriending them and helping them for valuable bonuses. If you are able to fully befriend a tribe, they will immigrate their people to join your nation – and free their lands for further development. However, be warned: tribes may build Forces and attack you if they perceive you as an enemy.
Dangerous Wildlife (aka “Predators”)
Groups of wild animals, ranging from hyenas to wolves and bears, inhabit the world. These predators prevent your nation and its cities from utilizing the zones they occupy. They can be dangerous, and only units with the ability to hunt can clear these wild creatures from the zones. Hunting wildlife can be dangerous for your scouts or military units – but can yield beneficial resources in addition to simply freeing up the territory.
Political Boundaries of Regions
At the start of the game, you only control one region, but you’ll soon begin claiming additional territory for your nation. Regions can be:
- Unowned: No one owns it. Adjacent regions to your city borders are claimable, costing 1 claim.
- Owned: A region claimed by a nation, either yours or someone else’s. You’re free to wander into another nation’s region unless they have closed their borders to you. Owning a region allows its citizens to produce taxes, harvest resources, build improvements, and craft goods.
As your population grows, your cities will gain tiers. With each new city tier, your city may gain more claims and even special experts that can be placed in your improvements for additional bonuses.
Fog of War
Much of the world is hidden from you at the start. You’ll need to send scouts to explore. There are three levels of visibility:
- Visible: You can see what’s happening in a region if you have A Force there or own the region. Some special units and improvements allow you to see into other regions.
- Uncovered: One of your Forces has passed through this region, but you no longer have direct visibility. You can still see the biome and any resources or improvements that were last visible to you, but you won’t know the specifics of any current Forces or developments.
- Covered: You’ve never seen this region. All you know is any prominent terrain features like mountains that would be visible to your people from their position on the map. Send a scout to explore it—it could contain caches, or even other nations.
Looking Around the Map
You can change your viewpoint with your mouse and keyboard. The default controls are:
- Left Mouse Button: Drag to move your camera north, south, east, or west.
- WASD: This will also move the camera north, south, east or west.
- Right Mouse Button: Drag to change your viewing angle and rotate the camera.
- Scroll Wheel: Use the wheel to zoom in and out.
- Home Button: Press to recenter your screen on your capital city and reorient your view so that north is up and south is down—useful if you’ve spun the map around too much.