Hello everyone! This year's last devlog is about presenting our new reworked artwork for the campaign map, plus other gameplay changes related to it.

Campaign art rework

Let's start with the flashy bit! Every asset on the map has been reworked, and their size and positions adjusted. Take a look at a few examples of how it looks.

Typical month

But not only the art change but the gameplay as well. In our previous devlog we talked about bases, and how they function, so if you are interested in that I advise you to check that out! Today we will talk about the invaders, what are their goals, and how they want to archive them. When the player clicks on their holy city, they will see an intelligence report which shows some vital information about their general resources.

You can see 3 important values:

• The first is their supply level. Its level will affect the number of units on missions, plus they can use it to activate stronger missions for their armies (like building a new base).
• The second is their research level and progress. When they reach a new level new they will receive new stronger units.
• And third is how dangerous they think the resistance is to them. While this doesn't have any immediate impact it does affect AI decision-making.

At the start of every month, the AI assigns missions for the armies, taking into account these 3 values. For example when the resistance is deemed not dangerous, they will more likely to choose high-risk high reward missions, while they choose a more slow and steady approach if the resistance put up a fight. There is a bit of randomization added to the choosing and assigning of missions so that the player can't accurately predict the exact missions.

But what are these missions? There are 3 common missions:

• The first is tax collection. If the army succeeds in it, the invaders will gain supply, and the region's loyalty value will be reduced by 1. How much supply will be gained depends on the region's loyalty value at the start of the mission. Generally speaking, they will receive a high amount at 4-5 loyalty, medium at 1-3, and low at 0.
• The second is abduction. This mission is nearly identical to tax collection but instead of gaining supply, the invaders gain research progress.
• And the third is a crackdown. This mission does not provide any resources to the invaders if successful but will reduce the territory loyalty by 3.

There are other missions as well but those cost extra supply to conduct. One such mission is to build a new forward base:

This mission can't be countered by the player and will build a new forward base for the invaders in a region which does not have one already. Besides in the first month, this can only be played on a territory that has 0 loyalty. An enemy forward base will provide extra supply and research progress for the invaders at the start of every month, and makes countering missions in that region harder. Later in the game, the resistance can learn how to destroy these, but till then, they will pose a big problem.

Throughout the month, these armies will conduct their given mission at a randomized time. When they start their mission, the player will be presented with a screen like this:

There is an important part, namely the enemy amount. The quality of the units on a mission will be defined by the army size, but the amount will depend on this value. You will get a summary of what modified this value, but in general, it depends on the enemy supply level, if there is a resistance/invader base in the region and the current loyalty value of the region.

Closing thoughts

So, that's it for today's devlog! As always, if you like what you see and want to show your support feel free to join our Discord here. Otherwise, I wish you a great holiday season, and see you next year!