Hello everyone,
This is a joyous day! It's been 5 years since Judgment's full release and in celebration of the occasion, I have a wonderful surprise for you. I've just released a major update, as well as a new (FREE) DLC.
During these 5 years, we've released another strategy/building game (more about it at the end of the post), and I've learned a lot. I took all that gained knowledge and experience, and tried to think how to best improve Judgment, given the limitations (Technical limitations of my 8-year-old code, and time limit - I could only spend a couple of months on this update as I have another game in Early Access who's fans are expecting updates).
Saves from the previous version are supported (but not from before that as I explained in the previous update), however games started without the outposts DLC will not have the outposts content.
Here are the most significant changes in this update & DLC. You can find the full list of changes on our website. If you have some feedback or want to chat, come and join me at Judgment's Discord Server.
Outposts free DLC
Outposts is a free DLC that should be automatically downloaded when you install the game. You can choose to enable it when starting a new game (it will be disabled when resuming saves from previous versions).
This DLC adds outpost-building to the world map. When generating a new map, resource nodes will spawn all around (you can toggle to switch between viewing resource nodes and scavenge locations), and after researching the correct technology, you can build outposts to exploit these resources.
You assign survivors to outposts, which are self sufficient so you don't need to feed them or worry about them, and these survivors can be assigned to buildings that exploit the various resources, either gathering useful items or providing other benefits. Outposts with the right buildings can serve as forward bases for your exploration and scavenge teams, training centers, scouting points to reduce the demon threat, and of course for gathering resources.
The outposts DLC also includes some balancing changes and survivors assigned to outposts do not count towards the 35 survivor limit, so you can have a larger colony. Rescue missions occur more often, and their difficulty increases more slowly, allowing for higher populations earlier on.
Injuries and incapacitated survivors
Survivors that lose all their health in combat will now become incapacitated instead of dying. Incapacitated survivors receive lasting as they bleed out, but as long as their long-term health doesn't reach zero they can be rescued and will survive the fight, however they will suffer a temporary penalty in the form of an injury.
This change makes losing a survivor in combat painful but less permanent - as long as you can save them on time and don't let them bleed out. It makes fear of losing melee characters less debilitating, so that you can integrate them more effectively in your tactics. It also allows for tough raids on your base to do some serious damage but less permanent.
As a counter balance to this, healing of lasting damage is much slower. It can take several days for a survivor to heal completely, but you can build infirmary beds which allow survivors to rest in them and heal faster (at the cost of not being able to work while they heal).
Custom survivor portraits
That's right, from now on you can use your own images as portraits for survivors! When customizing a survivor's appearance, there is a new button to use your own images, and from there you can open a folder on your computer and copy PNG or JPG images to it. You can then select from these images in the game to use as portraits for survivors.
Play with your favorite friends, family members, heroes or even streamers/content creators as survivors, and try to keep them alive. Don't forget to share your best screenshots! Hint: this works perfectly with image generating AI!
Reroll new survivors
No more unwanted survivors! When a new survivor joins your colony, you can choose to "Re-roll" their stats. This works similar to the mutate soul ritual, and will generate a new profession and starting traits for the new survivor. Each re-roll costs some scraps, and the costs increase every time you re-roll (but will reset for the next survivor). Use this tool wisely, you won't be able to go back after you re-roll.
You can also dismiss survivors now if you find that you have some that are not carrying their weight, to lower your footprint and make future rescue missions easier.
Footprint and raid difficulty
Raid difficulty (which also affects various random events) previously depended only on the game time, so the more days passed the harder the demons got. In this update, the difficulty still depends on time passed, but it also depends on another variable - how many times your base was raided. Every time the awareness meter fills up and demons raid your base, the difficulty will increase. Since you have some control over how fast the awareness meter fills up, you now have some control over how fast the difficulty increases, and can strategize to manage it.
The awareness meter now fills up based on a new stat called "Footprint". Different variables that used to affect the awareness generation rate directly, now increase or decrease your footprint instead. In addition, footprint is affected by the objects in your base. Trees, for example, provide cover, so they decrease your footprint by a small amount. Mines, occult altars, farms and buildings, on the other hand, increase footprint, as well as the number of survivors you have.
These changes add a new strategy layer when you build your base and choose your survivors and skills, so you can go big & fast at the price of a steeper difficulty curve, or expand more slowly and play it careful. It's up to you!
Auto combat improvements
Auto combat now works more like real combat, simulated on a 1D grid in real time at very high speed. The main difference you'll notice is in target selection - enemies will spread their attacks to various survivors within their range, instead of focusing all fire on a single survivor. Having multiple defensive melee characters will now spread the damage between them, increasing their chance of survival.
You can also set the health point at which survivors will retreat from auto-combat, increasing their survivability or have them stay in the fight longer at the risk of serious injury and even death.
What's next
This update is for celebrating the game's 5th anniversary. I will continue supporting it as before, so please do share your feedback and any issues you encounter so I can fix and improve as necessary. My main focus, however, is going back to our second title Dream Engines: Nomad Cities which is still in Early Access. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1076750/Dream_Engines_Nomad_Cities/
Dream Engines is a flying city-building game, with automation, survival, city defense, and a lot of what you've learned to love from us.
Thank you all for your continued support over the years, and I do hope you enjoy this little bonus update.
Tomer @ Suncrash
