Greetings, Viceroys!
We just released a new update for the Experimental Branch with the new biome - Ashen Thicket - coming to the Keepers of the Stone DLC.
Check out the full announcement for more information and previews:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/4525647157467807753
Changelog
New content
- Added a new biome - the Ashen Thicket.
- Ashen Thicket - Once a thriving forest of giant spruce trees, this land has been ravaged by relentless industrial exploitation and the devastating Blightstorm. Now reduced to a barren wasteland, the forest is littered with broken trunks and remnants of its former glory. This region is infamous for its abundance of Thunderblight Shards - magically charged amber crystals, essential in the crafting of Cornerstones.
- In this biome, you start next to an ancient Cornerstone Forge. There, you can craft 3 Experimental Cornerstones in each game.
- To craft an Experimental Cornerstone, you will need a Thunderblight Shard - the crystalized sap of the legendary Giant Ashen Trees. You can acquire it by completing Dangerous and Forbidden Glade Events in the Ashen Thicket.
- To create a Cornerstone, you must choose a condition and a reward/effect. The effect stacks based on how many times the condition is triggered. Both conditions and effects have a random rating (stars). You can choose an optional penalty to increase the rating of either the condition or the effect (indicated by a line connecting the penalty to one of them). Finally, you need to choose an icon and name your new Cornerstone.
- The Ashen Thicket has the following resources:
- Trees: Wood, Resin, Berries
- Nodes: Grain, Vegetables, Eggs, Fish, Algae, Plant Fiber, Leather, Clay, Herbs.
- Ore: Copper
- All the assets in the Experimental Update are placeholders and will be replaced when the proper update is released.
- To generate the Ashen Thicket tiles on the World Map, you need to start a new Cycle.
- Added 2 new Forest Mysteries.
- Fish Flood (Drizzle) - +3 to Fish production. Gain an additional Fish every yield (from gathering, farming, fishing, or production).
- Shedding Season (Drizzle) - +3 to Leather production. Gain an additional Leather every yield (from gathering, farming, fishing, or production).
Balance
- Reduced the production times in the Mine.
- Coal - from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
- Copper Ore - from 40 seconds to 25 seconds.
- Changed how biomes are generated on the World Map. The distribution of all of them should now be more or less even, with the exception of the Cursed Royal Woodlands.
- Blightrot Cyst-related Orders now scale based on the Blight-related difficulty modifiers. This means that on higher difficulties, where more Cysts spawn, the Order requirements are harder, and on lower difficulties, the same Orders are a bit easier.
- Workers transporting goods will no longer choose the Warehouse that’s closest to them in a straight line, and will instead take into account roads and open glades.
- Idle scouts will now start walking from the Hearth to their assigned Glade Event as soon as the last resource/item is being brought to the event.
- Lowered the number of Beaver Houses required by the Beaver Colony Timed Order (from 6 to 5 on the Medium slot and from 8 to 6 on the Hard slot).
- Increased the Hearth Corruption Resistance bonus from 250 to 1500 in the Miracle of Strength buff in the Beacon Tower.
- Removed the Porridge recipe from the Apothecary. Added Dye instead.
- Removed the Dye recipe from the Cookhouse. Added Porridge instead.
- Changed the rewards for the Forum order. Removed the Advanced Press perk and Dye, added the Woodworking Tools perk and Reeds instead.
UX/UI
- Added a description explaining the possible reward choices when hovering the cursor over a Royal Resupply icon.
- When a trader arrives right at the beginning of Drizzle (because their arrival was previously blocked by the Storm), they will appear in the settlement before the auto pause triggers.
- Added a setting for the default fishing bait mode in the Options menu.
- World Event effects are now recorded in the Game History tab.
- Building entrances are now shown when selecting a ruin.
- World Map modifiers now show Hostility scaling values for all difficulty levels (in the form of X/Y/Z in the tooltip description).
- Removed the experience reward icon from various Queen’s Hand Trial elements.
- Added building categories to the in-game encyclopedia (displayed just below the name after selecting a building).
- The “Available Housing” tooltip now shows separate values for already built houses and houses under construction.
- The Blight Post entry in the in-game encyclopedia now also shows the Purging Fire recipe on the same page.
- The icon frame for not yet unlocked Hearth Level effects in the Hearth Panel is now gray (to indicate more clearly that a given effect must first be unlocked in the Citadel).
- Reworded the button text in the Somber Procession World Event to improve clarity.
Bug fixes
- Fixed a bug where the Furniture perk would not increase Frog Resolve.
- Fixed a bug where some new buildings were not targeted by destruction effects (like lightning).
- Fixed a bug where some normal and timed Orders would appear in the Coastal Grove, even though the biome's resource makeup should have prevented this (for example, Orders for copper, even though there is no copper in the biome).
- Fixed a bug where the Harmony Spirit Altar would not count the Holy Guild House as a viable service building.
- Fixed an outdated encyclopedia entry on building materials.
- Fixed a bug that was awarding Packs of Provisions twice for salvaging the Provisioner ruin.
- Fixed a bug where the Archaeologist’s Office was labeled as a decoration in its UI panel.
- Fixed a bug where the Beacon Tower building label was misplaced in its UI panel.
Other
- Ruins in special glades (partially destroyed settlements, etc.) will now spawn with their orientation adjusted to the road most of the time.
The current Experimental Branch version is 1.5.01E.
About the Experimental Branch
This Experimental Update features only the mechanical and balance aspects. All the visual assets are placeholders that will be replaced when the proper update goes live.
Important: as with any other Experimental Update, the upcoming changes are not localized, there can be bugs, and the balance is likely to feel off. If this doesn’t sound fun to you, we recommend skipping this experiment.
You can find more information about the Experimental Branch and how to access it in our guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3210939497
We look forward to hearing your impressions of the new changes. The best place to share them is in the comments section of this changelog announcement or in the #experimental channels on our Discord server.
May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games