Hello everyone,
today we have a lot to talk about. Version 0.11 is live, new ideas from players are flowing in and in the meantime i was busy with changes for 0.12. It's also time to update the roadmap for the next phase of developement and start talking about the 1.0.
So let's go one by one.
When is 1.0 happening?
Starting from the important stuff. While I can't yet announce actual date of 1.0 Launch, the scope of 1.0 is however getting clearer - that is I know WHAT HAS to be in 1.0, I have rough idea WHAT SHOULD be there, and vague idea WHAT COULD be there.
Yes I am deliberately using these three categories because for me, the next phase is all about deciding which feature gets in and has to be done in all circumstances, which feature probably goes in (but if something goes wrong is postponed), and which is right away discarded to a later post-1.0 update.
I have put all this information to the new version of Roadmap. But the general idea is this:
Step number one is to do all 'unfinished business' and build Major version 0.12. That will make all the 'missing knowledge' float to surface.
Release this version 0.12 live before end of Q3 (end of September)
Depending on early feedback of 0.12 estimate the 1.0 work and Announce that 1.0 is coming (Beta shortly after Announcement)
Version 1.0 would be released no sooner than 1 month after Step 3 Announcement (the actual release date depending on many other factors)
So to answer 'when is 1.,0 happening' - I will Announce most likely in October, the earliest possible scenario of 1.0 Launch is November.
Note: My wife is expecting our second baby in October, so definitely I won't be committing to 1.0 launch before my personal life gets to some 'stable flow' :) The game should be mostly ready for 1.0 by then, but I'll need to ensure some time capacity to support the release and beta. So we'll see how that goes and if there are still reasonable launch slots between Steam sales (that part of year is usually busy) ...
Version 0.12 BETA in September
To make the above possible I plan to start beta of the next major update very soon - hopefully around the time of our next update in 4 weeks.
The next update will be rather busy with changes of all kinds. My main objective is to review most of the older and deeper problems and do all the painful surgical procedures to either fix these problems or at least allow a solution to incrementally be added over following patches. Let's go through them.
Map Generation update
The core of 0.12 revolves around map generation phase - that is the screen where you choose your starting location. My primary objective is to tie various features to this area and make the initial choice of map affect not just your layout but also what challenges your civilization will be facing and what strategy would be useful to pick. There are four significant changes in this screen.
Various things will now be visible on the map generation screen allowing players to choose the best world suiting their play style.
1. Strategic Resources
The first change here is that Strategic resources will now be visible on the starting location. That has an obvious consequence - endless clicking on 'regenerate' until that optimal combo appears.
The second change is that there are new strategic resources to find (in fact there are three 'tiers' of strategic resources - each unlocked by ascension upgrade). Some of these new resources will bring you some cool stuff like an extra Wonder slot.
Third change here is that strategic resources are almost never all available. Only a subset of types is spawned on each map. On the other hand there is more instances of these resources spawning early on.
2. Predicaments
Predicament types are now fixed per map. Meaning on some maps you can't get Resentment or Industrial pollution (for example - I know these two are people's favorites). At the same time the number of predicaments added to the tree is also determined on map generation step.
This way you will see exactly which of these (and how many) pesky disaster types you can expect.
Sometimes you might get a good roll on strategic resources and map layout, but will have to face higher-risk disasters. The generator logic is generally that of 'higher benefits = higher risks'
There are also some new predicament types (more on that below)
3. Biome structure
Mountains now form more randomly. Specifically they sometimes erode away on some places and sometimes they grow in width in other places.
This way sou can sometimes have very flat maps with big or small hills, sometimes very hilly maps.
Strategic resources now also are tied to their respective biome and they generate clustered together.
4. Rare Technologies
Rare technologies have been given a little upgrade as well. Each technology now has a more significant impact to economy (I have also removed negative traits from them). They will now give you a very important new feature that can be central to your combat/economy build when combined with other features like strategic resources or perks.
For this reason the rare tech selection is also visible when generating the map.
Note: With Tier 4 you can adopt these techs, so you will eventually be able to always get them all. You will also be able to eradicate Nemeses, so these techs will not bear any disadvantage.
Theater update
Who doesn't love endless Hero farming right? I do. But the problem currently was that hero-farming became too easy at the end of tech tree (with proper upgrades you can generate thousands of heroes without active gameplay).
It's not that I want to prevent this altogether (why else would I add a meta-game farming workshop in the first place) but I need some more mechanisms to tweak the difficulty and 'gamify' the hero farming a bit. (as I mentioned in the beginning of this post - this is one of those problems I can't fix right away but instead I will introduce mechanisms to enable fixing over time). So here's what will change in 0.12:
Theater now has a 'Hero reserve' count (initially 3, adding ~3 with each theater upgrade)
After extracting all heroes from this reserve, theater produces secondary rewards (culture points)
This hero reserve can be increased and also refreshed in some ways
Theater no longer corrupts hero, instead it randomly spawns 'Social' Disasters (a subset of available disasters)
Social Disasters spawnable from Theater are limited to 'Resentment', 'Economic Depression' and two new disaster types 'Fear' and 'Chaos'. There will be a few more added later on.
These Disasters always respect the disaster types shown on Map Start. So if your map rolled only Chaos, theater will only spawn Chaos. (there's always at least one social disaster there)
Theater no longer spawns Common heroes (only Elite or Rare).
Unique heroes are no longer spawnable from Theater by default (this will be possible, but not 'for free' and not right away)
Instead of Autonomy/Gold costs Theater now has a positive passive effect when active - improving Hero abilities cooldown and costs (more on this below).
Hero ability update
You may still remember the first two major updates - 0.7 and 0.8. Both have added one category of abilities - Gold and Autonomy. Together these features should have formed a complementary/alternative mechanism to unit-based combat. However these features were never properly balanced to fill this role properly.
As part of 0.12 I made some changes how the Hero abilities work, how they scale damage and costs and how these are presented also in the game.
Most of the Triggerable (belief/law) abilities now also deal damage to crises.
Ability costs and damage now scale not just with hero level but also with technology (similar to units).
Base Ability costs were lowered.
The two points above mean that high-level-hero abilities are now more easily affordable in early tech eras when gold/autonomy is lower.
Some Workshops, Wonders and Heroes now boost ability power (e.g. Theater reduces cooldowns/costs).
Black lotus Capture Redesign
After some 'marination' time it became obvious that the mechanism behind Black lotus acquisition for Ascension upgrades is 'weird'. Meaning needlessly confusing without justifying its complexity with much.
Before I tell you how I decided to change this I would like to share the thought process behind the original design (very simplified, I have about 20 pages of different designs I sketched over the last year or so):
What does black lotus represent?
Black lotuses up until Tier 3 were generic 'punishment' for careless play (causing death). After introduction of Tier 3 Idols, the black lotuses could be further generated by using the idol powers (representing types of 'malevolent' or 'ruthless' powers founded on survival instincts and ancient adaptive cultural/genetic behaviour). This was okay.
Simply put - if you play evil, you get in-game power (idol effects) but a meta-game disadvantage (evaporated lotuses).
The 'Luke Skywalker' principle
What I needed to introduce in Tier 3 was 'something' representing 'restraint to use dark powers'. The reasoning behind this is quite archetypical - Hero having a predisposition to the 'dark side' but being disciplined enough not to use it - and also powerful enough so he doesn't need it).
What should serve this role?
So to avoid introducing 'new something' (attempting to make things simple) I thought I could use the Black lotus too. After all it makes sense to 'control' the thing that represents evil. Sure.
But the result was this same 'thing' would now represent two different forces on the screen. And it would have to be visualized differently in different contexts. Which created need to add various explanatory texts and indicators (which is usually a bad sign).
Indigo Lotus
So after doing a patch or two I decided to revisit this mechanism from scratch and reconsider the alternative design I had in the design phase. That is really bring the 'new something'.
Instead of being collectible, Black lotus will retain their original single purpose - punishment for careless actions. You can no longer capture Black lotus.
Nothing will ever cost Black lotus, no Black lotus can be 'owned'. They always 'explode' at the end of ascension, destroying other lotuses or evaporate.
Idols (when not used) will Generate new type of Lotus (Indigo - keeping some contrast in opposition to white, and keeping the color consistent with the Idols)
Indigo lotus will be Transient (the same as captured Black lotus in v0.11) so you lose them if you can't spend them.
Indigo lotus costs will be used where Black lotuses costs we used in v0.11.
As result there is no positive relation between Black lotus and idols - you no longer need to 'farm black idols' in order to gain Indigo.
Indigo lotus can be evaporated by Black lotuses like other lotus types if things go out of hand (you now first eliminate Red, then Gold, then Indigo and White last)
Along with redesigns, missing eras will be opened in 0.12 along with some new upgrades mixed in.
To summarize the Idol Lotus change:
'Lotuses from Idols' are gained as before (they just have different color)
you no longer need to also farm Black Lotuses to farm Idol Lotuses
Tier 4 minus Scenarios
Obviously the most important content of 0.12 will be the 'almost complete' Ascension Tree with all that comes with it.
Remaining tech eras will again be available in new higher difficulties.
More Judgements to fight with new abilities and Perks
More Artist Heroes with new Meta-combat and Meta-economy abilities.
New mechanism to expand Artist cap (Enlightenment)
New Idol type available from Red Lotuses (including possibility to Infuse Artists)
Gold/Red lotus economy update
New Idol types available from new 'Generic' Judgements.
New World wonders,
Nemesis eradication scenarios
Fifth 'Ultimate' Meta-power to combat Judgements (costing multiple Lotus types at once)
There is a couple of things I am considering to exclude from 0.12 for practical reasons (and add them to 1.0):
Final scenario (99% this will not be in 0.12)
Some nemesis eradication scenarios (99% at least some will be missing)
Future era extension (I plan to add more techs to the future tree as well as improve the whole late game)
Future era itself (considering the above it would be economical time-wise to do the revisit of future era 'once-and-for-all' instead of switching context to it twice)
Some World wonders, Artists and Idol types (most likely I will need to get feedback on the late game first before I add some of the 'cherry-on-the-top features')
Overall I would like version 0.12 to be very close to the 1.0 gameplay experience in terms of length, difficulty, variability and depth.
So there we are, plenty of changes are coming . This will also need a lot of balancing (finally) and bugfixing. So big plans. Let's see how it all goes.
That will be all for today. I'll see you in 4 weeks
Cheers,
Ondrej