After a long journey, The Conquest of Go has finally exited Early Access and has reached the full release 1.0 version. Thanks for the support along the way! The game is at a point where I believe it fulfills a complete and stable game experience where Early Access is no longer necessary. To clarify, this doesn't mean that the game will never receive future updates, but rather, future updates will likely be less drastic and game changing than the major ones that occurred during Early Access.
Throughout Early Access there were a total of 33 major content updates and 48 patches. A full list of all changes can be found here. For those who haven't checked out the game since it first came out, in addition to general UI, usability, and stability improvements, here's a quick summary of some of the major changes that have occurred since then.
Expanded AI Opponents
The Casual AI was added to provide a more beginner friendly opponent and rely less on handicap stones for new players.
The KataGo Human opponent was added to give players an opponent that delivers a wide variety of skill levels/ranks and also behaves more closely to human-like play than the super-human level of the standard KataGo opponent.
Expanded Campaign
The ability to play campaign matches against players on the Online Go Server (OGS) was added. This includes both human opponents as well as the dozens of online AI that can be found on OGS.
The ability to create, share, and download custom stories to be played in the campaign mode was implemented. These stories include characters, dialogue, and battles all of which can be created in the in-game story editor. These stories can be downloaded from Steam Workshop.
Campaign fortification puzzles were implemented, which are life and death problems that periodically need to be solved for your conquered regions to keep them fortified. Additionally, puzzle options were added to optionally limit the number attempts at a puzzle and limit the time spent on a puzzle.
A full campaign tutorial was added to demonstrate the features and workflow of the campaign mode.
Campaign ally matches were created which allow you to team up with the AI and alternate turns against another AI opponent.
Collectable legendary records were added to the campaign mode, which are a curated set of match records from notable players in Go's history, ranging from the 1600's to present day. The match records primarily feature important events in the player's careers such as international tournament wins.
The option to convert a handicap advantage into reverse komi was added to give an alternate way to even the strength disparity between the player and the opponent AI.
New campaign invasions were added, which are matches that start from predetermined board positions when opposing nations invade your conquered regions.
Many new options which can be changed during the campaign mode are available to alter timing, difficulty, and review settings.
Customization
Steam Workshop support was added to the game to allow players to create, share, and download Go puzzles, matches, tutorials, and joseki. Thousands of additional Go puzzles are currently available through the Steam Workshop.
An imported content system was added to the game to import the same types of content mentioned above, which can be obtained anywhere, instead of only from the Steam Workshop.
A custom theme editor was added which allows the UI, boards, stones, and backgrounds to be set to preferred colors. These themes can be shared and downloaded from the Steam Workshop. Additionally, base themes of Toon and Simple styles were added to the game to increase the variety of themes which can be used and customized.
General Improvements
The macOS version of the game was released.
Controller support and Steam Deck support were added, including attaining the Steam Deck verified badge.
Localization of the game was completed for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Russian, and Spanish.
Opening guides were added to allow the player to explore viable moves and variations that take place at the start of the game.
The practice board was added to the game to allow players to freely place stones, setup board positions, and use AI analysis to evaluate moves.
The game review workflow was improved and numerous new AI and AI review options were added. The review system was also expanded to allow automated reviews to be able to be used on any match in the game as well as imported matches.
The game has been kept up to date to align with changes on occurring periodically on the Online Go Server (OGS) (e.g. rank recalibration, auto match redesign, etc.).
Difficulty presets were added which range from being a complete beginner to a professional level.
Steam trading cards and points shop items were added.