Quality of Life Update out now!

Greetings, Viceroys!

In today’s update, we bring you some long-awaited gameplay and interface improvements, as well as some new features and balance changes.

What’s new:

• New small glade Event: Obelisk
• 8 new haunted ruins
• 15 new Stormforged variants of Cornerstones
• Games’ history tab
• Citadel Upgrades summary
• “Unassign all woodcutters” button
• Keybinds for selected buildings
• Event working time progress bar
• And more!

Continue reading for our design notes and the full changelog.

P.S. If you don’t own it yet, you can get Against the Storm 35% off for a limited time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/

DEVELOPER NOTES

Today’s update is a bit smaller than usual and mostly focused on quality of life, as in the background, we’re still hammering away at the new Cycle revamp (you can test an early version of it on the Experimental Branch). Although there is a moderate amount of new content, we think you will be happy to hear that we took some time in the past two weeks and implemented a lot of community-requested UI features. So without further ado, let's get into it.

First off, the new content. We added one new glade event - the Obelisk. It can only be found in small glades and can be salvaged or turned into a decoration which slightly lowers Hostility. This is part of our ongoing effort to make small glades a bit more interesting and balanced, and you can expect more small events in the future. What’s more, we also added new haunted ruins that can be found in Dangerous and Forbidden Glades. If you were unlucky enough to never encounter this type of building in the game before - it’s a unique structure that is harder to rebuild than a normal ruin but offers a big reward for doing so (for example rebuilt haunted production buildings have all recipes at a 3-star rating). We decided to expand the roster of haunted ruins (by adding 8 new ones) and slightly increase the chances of finding them in the forest.

Obelisk

With this update, we also bring you 15 new Stormforged Cornerstones you can buy in the Forsaken Altar. But unfortunately, this addition comes at a price (like most things tied to the Forsaken Gods), and we first had to remove 12 old perks. Why did we decide to do this? Because there were two main issues with the Altar. Firstly, the progress of Cornerstones with a counter (for example everything that triggers after reaching a production threshold) didn’t carry over. This was very frustrating, and extremely hard to fix due to technical limitations. Secondly, some of the perks were too conservative with their bonuses, and quite honestly, just uninteresting (especially considering how much they cost). So with that in mind, we decided to refresh the Altar a bit and make it more viable for Prestige players. As always, nothing here is final, and we will adjust the balance in the future.

Speaking of balance, there’s quite a lot of it in this update. We reshuffled level-up rewards (mostly Cornerstones) to create a better experience for low-level players (by moving more complicated perks higher up the level range and unlocking more straightforward bonuses at level 0). We also took a better look at service buildings in an effort to make them more appealing and viable. Most notably, by adding specialization tags (Warmth and Brewing) to some of them, changing the worker numbers in the Market, changing the passive effect in the Temple, and improving the wording in effect tooltips in the Clan Hall and Guild House. We also introduced an Amber reward for declining Cornerstones in the popup at the start of each year, so now if there is nothing interesting to choose from, you can always just take a small cash injection to help your settlement.

Finally, let’s talk about UI changes. In this update, we added several exciting new usability features, like a game history tab in the Smoldering City, a meta upgrade summary, a button on the HUD to remove all woodcutters, building shortcuts, a list of needs in species tooltips in the Embark View, an auto pause function on trader departure, and much, much more. You can read up on the details of these additions in the changelog below.

Game history and Citadel Upgrades summary

Unassign all Woodcutters

Building Shortcuts

As always - thank you all for providing feedback and suggestions for the new update. If you’d like to share your ideas for upcoming updates, here are some useful links:

• Steam Discussions, Discord, Reddit - discuss the game with the community and share your impressions
• Feature Request Tool - suggest specific new features

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games

P.S. If you've picked up Against the Storm and have been playing it, make sure to leave a Steam review! They help a lot!

CHANGELOG

Number of changes: 72
Inspired by community: 59%

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.

New content and features

• ⚡ Added a new event to small glades.
  • Obelisk - A mystical stone monument. Unknown runes are carved all over its surface.
    • The event offers two decisions on how to deal with it (tear down and make an offering).
    • The events can be restored to turn into a positive decoration (Aesthetics) that reduces Hostility.

• ⚡ Added 8 new haunted ruins.
  • Haunted Cooperage - with 3 three-star recipes (Barrels, Training Gear, Tea)
  • Haunted Leatherworks - with 3 three-star recipes (Waterskins, Fabric, Pack of Luxury Goods)
  • Haunted Druid's Hut - with 3 three-star recipes (Oil, Incense, Coats)
  • Haunted Smelter - with 3 three-star recipes (Copper Bars, Pipes, Biscuits)
  • Haunted Cellar - with 3 three-star recipes (Wine, Pickled Goods, Jerky)
  • Haunted Lizard House - with space for 6 residents.
  • Haunted Fox House - with space for 6 residents.
  • Haunted Harpy House - with space for 6 residents.

• Added 15 new Stormforged variants of existing Legendary and Epic Cornerstones.
  • Alarm Bells (Stormforged) - The Brass Order's newest invention - an intricate system of sensors that can detect Corruption before it spreads too much. Workers have a +30% higher chance of producing double yields when the Hearth's Expected Corruption Rate is 100% or higher.
  • Firekeeper's Prayer (Stormforged) - Glade event work speed increased by 30%. Resources you sacrifice in the Ancient Hearth burn 30% longer.
  • Firelink Ritual (Stormforged) - There is nothing the forest hates more than fire. Every 3 villagers with the need for religion fulfilled decrease the forest’s Hostility by -30.
  • Generous Rations (Stormforged) - Global Resolve is increased by 5, and villagers have a 10% chance of not consuming food during a break.
  • Mushroom Seedlings (Stormforged) - All farms can plant Mushrooms (3 stars) on farm fields during drizzle season.
  • No Quality Control (Stormforged) - Gain +2 to wood production. After each storm, all stored wood is removed, and you get 150 Insects in return.
  • Old Fedora Hat (Stormforged) - An old inscription on the bottom of the hat says: "Fortune and glory". Increases the chance of bringing back twice as much from Glade Events by 75%.
  • Queen's Gift (Stormforged) - A mysterious Amber orb with a magical flame trapped within. Increases the Ancient Hearth's resistance by +100 for every Impatience point you have.
  • Rebellious Spirit (Stormforged) - The people are feeling oddly rebellious. Gain +1 Global Resolve for every 1 Impatience Point.
  • Survivor Bonding (Stormforged) - The people in your settlement have survived many hardships, bringing them closer together (+20% villager speed, 3 Global Resolve).
  • Woodpecker Technique (Stormforged) - Gain 5 Insects every time woodcutters cut down a tree during the Storm.
  • Force of Nature (Stormforged) - The forest and the everlasting rain are connected somehow. Gain +4 to Storm Water production for every 2 Woodcutters in your settlement.
  • Secure Trail (Stormforged) - Royal Stormwalkers secured the trail to your settlement. Newcomers will arrive +33% quicker and bring 25% more goods with them.
  • Lost in the Wilds (Stormforged) - Gain one villager every time you discover a new glade. Villagers add less Hostility (-1).
  • Hidden Reward (Stormforged) - Gain 2 Ancient Tablets for every completed Glade Event. (the bonus is added retroactively)

Balance

• ⚡ Declining a Cornerstone in the yearly reward popup will now give Amber.
• ⚡ Rebalanced the Land Tax Prestige Modifier (Prestige 19). Opening small glades now costs 2 Amber, and opening dangerous or forbidden glades costs 6 Amber (previously all glades cost 5 Amber, regardless of type).
• ⚡ Added Resolve specialization tags to some service buildings.
  • Warmth (Lizard) - Clan Hall, Temple, Monastery.
  • Brewing (Human) - Tavern, Monastery, Forum.

• ⚡ The Market Carts effect in the Market now activates if two workers are assigned (instead of one). The additional effect in the Holy Market now triggers if one worker is assigned.
  
• ⚡ The Market now has a maximum of two workers instead of three.
  
• ⚡ Changed the passive effect of the Temple.
  • Sacrament of the Flame - There can be nothing more sacred than a flame in a world soaked with rain. Every 300 seconds you sacrifice goods in the Ancient Hearth (multiplied by the number of active sacrifice stacks), Hostility is permanently reduced by 20 (the bonus is added retroactively).

• ⚡ Changed the requirements of the Fresh Breeze Forest Mystery to avoid overlap with the Invigorating Winds effect. It now requires Housing instead of both Housing and Food.
  
• The Hallowed Small Farm and Herb Garden (rebuilt haunted ruins) no longer have an additional recipe. Instead, they now have an increased number of worker slots (3 instead of 2).
  
• Removed 12 Stormforged variants of Legendary and Epic Cornerstones from the Forsaken Altar.
  • Over-Diligent Woodworkers
  • Small Press
  • Dye Extractor
  • Deep Pockets
  • Vineyard Town
  • Copper Extractor
  • Leftover Crops
  • Spices
  • Training Grounds
  • Mold Grain
  • Free Samples
  • Urban Planning
  • These Stormforged perks were removed because of two main reasons. Most of them were not too exciting, and all of them were progress-related (for example the bonus activated after reaching a certain production threshold). The latter was causing some confusion, as due to technical limitations, we didn’t carry over the perk progress between normal perks and their Stormforged upgrades.
  • To make up for removing 12 perks from the Forsaken Altar, we added 15 new ones (described in the “New content and features” section above).

• Rebalanced some Cornerstones.
  • Alarm Bells - lowered the Expected Corruption requirement to 150% and increased the double production bonus chance to 20%.
  • Deserted Caravans - this perk no longer blocks trade for a 50% production speed increase. It now slows down trader arrival by 50% and increases production speed by 33%.
  • Overexploitation - increased the bonus to small nodes from +10 charges to +15.
  • Force of Nature - increased the bonus to Storm Water production from +1 to +2 for every 2 Woodcutters.
  • Economic Migration - decreased the threshold required to trigger the newcomer speed bonus from every 2 levels of standing to every 1 level.
  • Prosperous Settlement - increased the amount of Amber required to trigger the bonus from 40 to 45.
  • Smuggler’s Visit - slightly lowered the drop rate.

• ⚡ Reshuffled some level-up rewards.
  • This change is mostly related to Cornerstones. We wanted to move some less exciting and complex perks to level 0 (available from the start), and unlock the more complicated ones (or the ones related to more advanced systems, such as Rainpunk) higher up the level range.
  • We also made one change to building unlocks - the Paved Road is now granted at level 3 (previously level 2), and the Mine is unlocked at level 2 (previously level 3).
  • You can view the full list of unlocks below:

UX/UI improvements

• ⚡ Added a game history tab in the Citadel.
  • You can now see your previously played games summarized in a list.
  • The game history is limited to the last 20 games.
  • The summary panel shows the following information:
    • game type (regular, custom, daily),
    • difficulty,
    • game time,
    • number of years,
    • biome,
    • player level,
    • meta progress,
    • species numbers,
    • cornerstones and perks,
    • blueprints,
    • modifiers,
    • forest mysteries,
    • victory or loss

• ⚡ Added a summary of Citadel Upgrades to the Citadel UI (in the Game History view).
  • The summary lists all numerical increases from the upgrade tree (like Embarkation Points, Caravan Slots, Building Storage, etc.)
  • The summary only shows bonuses, without the base value (because base values might change depending on the game type, modifiers, etc.)

• ⚡ Added an “unassign all woodcutters” button to the main HUD.
  • The button is located next to the Hostility meter.
  • Left-clicking it will unassign all woodcutters.
  • Right-clicking will assign one new random woodcutter to a free worker slot.
  • Hovering over the button will display an explanatory tooltip with the number of assigned woodcutters and overall worker slots in Woodcutters’ Camps.

• ⚡ Notifications on the HUD can now be closed with right-click.
  • Please keep in mind that there are still a few “state alerts” (notifications without an “x” symbol next to them, informing about potentially devastating issues in the settlement), and these are still non-dismissible (they only disappear when a threatening state is over).

• ⚡ Selecting a house will now display the Hearth range indicator.
  
• ⚡ Added a tooltip when hovering over the “x” button above ingredients in a building’s internal storage (stating that they will be returned to the main storage if the button is clicked).
  
• ⚡ Added building shortcuts to the option menu.
  • You can now assign any building to a key on your keyboard.
  • Pressing said key will automatically select the building for construction (if you own the blueprint).
  • There are 10 building shortcut slots in total for now.

• ⚡ Hovering over a species in the Embark View will now list its needs in the tooltip.
  
• ⚡ Added a progress bar to the worker overlay (ALT by default) for glade events that are being worked on.
  
• ⚡ Added the option to set an automatic pause right before a trader leaves the town.
  
• ⚡ Changed the description of the Treasure Stag to more clearly explain how it works.
  
• ⚡ Changed the tooltip of the Rotting Wood Forest Mystery. It now has its lore section before the effect description.
  
• ⚡ Changed the wording of the Ancient Ways effect in the Clan Hall to avoid too much thematic overlap with Foxes.
  
• Changed the way some perks and service building effects work (The Crown Chronicles, The Guild's Welfare, Vitality, Prosperous Settlement). They no longer add Resolve in the form of a new effect on the perk HUD (for example as a stack of the Wealth effect), but instead show gains in their tooltip.
  
• Resource tooltips will no longer list rebuilt haunted ruins. This change was made to reduce unnecessary clutter, as haunted buildings have the same recipes as their regular counterparts.
  
• Game stats (games won, lost, etc.) were moved to the new Game History tab.

Bug fixes

• ⚡ Fixed a bug with villagers getting stuck trying to reach a cache near the edge of a glade.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with fertile soil sometimes being located under trees when spawned together with farm ruins in undiscovered glades.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with effects spawning fertile soil sometimes placing it under objects (like geysers).
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with Wandering Merchants causing old trader notifications to reappear on the HUD.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the reveal effect icon (from species abilities) being partially covered by glade markers.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with some need-based Cornerstones (like Well Rested Workers) being offered to the player even if there is no species with a given need in the settlement.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with Geyser Pumps and Rain Collectors not displaying production times influenced by perks and bonuses.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with extinct species showing all needs as met.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with Distillery and Tinctury being named the same in French, Italian, and Spanish
• ⚡ Fixed a typo in the description of sacrifice duration effects in French.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with some effects being called the same in Japanese (Steel Pickaxes and Steel Mattocks, Rotten Rain and Corrosive Rainfall).
• ⚡ Fixed a typo in the name of the Burnt to a Crisp Cornerstone in Spanish.
• ⚡ Fixed a typo in the description of the Beacon effect in German.
• Fixed a bug that caused the entrance icon to stay visible after closing a building panel with ESC.
• Fixed an issue with text being incorrectly formatted in the specific tooltip in some languages.
• Fixed an issue with missing decoration tags for the Harmony Spirit Altar in some languages.

Other

• ⚡ Added unique short descriptions to all types of trees in the game (previously they all stated “a perfect source of wood” regardless of biome).
• Rebuilt haunted ruins now have a faint glow to show that the building is of higher quality.

The current game version is 0.52.1

COMMUNITY CORNER

Click to unfold:

Have a fantastic weekend and enjoy the new update!

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