Greetings fellow gods,
Today's update adds support for native Steam Deck navigation and the Xbox gamepad, with keyboard support for text input or a virtual keyboard while playing in Steam Big Picture Mode. While at it, I've made a lot of GUI improvements to better support the Steam Deck's native 1280x800 resolution. I've been testing and tweaking things on the Deck for a week, and I hope you'll enjoy this new way of playing Soulash 2 as much as I have.
When starting Soulash 2 on Steam Deck, make sure to use the gamepad + mouse trackpad button layout template to try the new navigation functionality.
Aside from Steam Deck support, we have a few more tweaks to improve overall navigation that some of you asked for, such as extra filters to find specific regions with discovered resources and an easier way to transfer items between party members.
Also, some new content, with new impossible locations and tweaks to the rewards of some existing ones.
Here's the full changelog for today's update.
Added
- Steam Deck and Gamepad support with keyboard or Steam Virtual Keyboard for text inputs.
- World Generation Screen - The "Delete World" button now includes an additional confirmation pop-up.
- You can now ask about your favorite people in settlements. If they are present in the region, they will appear on the list, and townsfolk will mark their location on your minimap.
- World Map Resource Filter: New button on world map which allows you to find regions with matchin specific number of resources (capped by 6 different).
- Two new Impossible level POIs in forest and mountain biomes.
- New resources in some of the previous Impossible POIs.
- Added hotkeys for transferring selected backpack items to a specific party member.
- Two new passive effects.
Changed
- Improved GUI display for Steam Deck native resolution.
- Improved game asset load times.
- Improved performance with many entities in the region.
- Changes to the POI generation algorithm to fill caps based on special locations' difficulty, making sure to spawn more difficult locations without the need to clear easier ones.
- NPCs can now learn new abilities and passives based on the skill levels they earn. Previously, they were limited to abilities defined strictly by occupation.
- Player Companions now unlock everything the Player does from skills: abilities, passives, crafting recipes, etc.
- Settlement Screen: Create beings icons (undead, bone wraith, etc) are now greyed out if we don't have enough materials to create even one.
- Killing Necrotyrant kills all skeletons in Bastion (not only military units)
- New normal (non-occupying) military companies will inherit all previous military buildings from other companies, originating from the same town.
- Some races can now field offensive military companies even when conquered (e.g., skeleton race)
- Glowing Sword and Black Scythe got their damage buffed.
- New sounds for abilities: Become Necrotyrant, Circle of Flame, Deadly Howl, Magma Spit, Summon Ifrid.
Fixed
- Fixed multiple entities incorrectly flagged as the Orc race.
- Fixed multiple entities missing proper race or tag assignments.
- Plundered POIs no longer remain visible when the Plundered filter is disabled.
- Fixed mouseover being captured by people/buildings under the settlements selection menu.
- Vampires from older worlds can now properly turn other beings into vampires.
- When playing as a descendant, they now correctly gain all unlocks from their race and skill levels.
- Descendant selection is now limited to Adult descendants only.
- Fixed landing on the edge map cell did not exit the region map
- Fixed trigger abilities (like Chain Lightning) to only trigger if within range 1 of the player. Now it will properly work on ranged/throwing attacks.
- Fixed bug with endless throwing of stones.
- Fixed Necrotyrant respawning after every game load once killed. Now he will properly respawn once every 20 years.
- The Settlement tab will now be available if we control any settlement, not only if we control any player race settlements.
- Undead Bastion will no longer state that it's controlled by the previous faction if we claim it as necrotyrant without creating a state first.
- Deceased actors will no longer be able to spawn on the region map, even when somehow present.
- Settlement collapse (via killing necrotyrant) will return family buildings to the settlement, not delete them outright.
- Bloody Necklace and Bloody Amulet are now two different items again.
- Some of the Impossible POIs have been rebalanced.
- Human Leatherworker now has access to a spinning wheel.
Modding
- Milestones can be marked as innate. Innate milestones are skipped during checking for skill level up/requirement, and can be used to grant, e.g., custom passives to specific entities via: Entity Editor → Skills → Milestones.
- Passives definition change: previously passives could be marked as: "only_party": true -> The field name and values changed, it's called "apply_mode" now, and supports values of: "party_only" or "solo_only" (or no value, in which it will behave as usual). "party_only" applies the bonuses only to companions, while "solo_only" works only if we don't have any companions.
Starting in March, I'm finally beginning work on v0.10 World Events, which is meant to make the world more dynamic. I expect to take a few months and have the new system supported in mods. In the meantime, during upcoming weekly and bi-weekly updates, we'll improve the economy aspect of the game, various improvements you shared with us on the s2-suggestions Discord channel, possibly extend leadership up to level 50, and add more end-game impossible locations with artifact tier materials.
If you play the game on the Deck or with a gamepad, let me know how it feels. Personally, it has become my preferred way of playing.
Have a fun weekend,
Artur