Hi Everyone!
The next release for Clockwork Dawn (0.5.0) is now live! The main focus for this update is the expansion of the playable area outside of Europe to now include all the Old World, along with all of the countries that makeup the new area and new mechanics for colonization. This included a total of 702 new provinces, 94 new sea provinces, and 46 new countries!
Colonization
Because the playable area now covers over half the world's land, new mechanics needed to be made for global colonization/imperialism. For now, the previous imperialism mechanic has been removed (it's planned on being added back for arctic/other colonization) and replaced with colonization on a provincial level.
Overall, colonization is now based on province colonial claim strength and pacification actions in the area. To establish a colony the province must either be coastal or adjacent to an owned province, sending an army to the province will increase claim strength and pacification over time while attrition will be taken by the army depending on the province hostility and unit makeup of the army. More advanced units (namely Airships) will take much less attrition than basic infantry. Once pacification crosses a threshold, only the country with the strongest claim can create a colony.
Other Changes
- The AI is now able to much more intelligently embark units
- Timestop bug (hopefully) fixed
- Minor countries economies' able to be balanced by AI better
- Non-linear administrative cost added to reduce the power of large countries
- UI Improvements for displaying resources
- Banner displaying resources updates in more cases after resources are spent
Looking Forward
The next update will most likely focus on the economy and add more options for interacting with and developing provinces beyond buildings. The main idea is to have a differentiation between places that are low in development and those that have embraced machines/the more fantastical elements of production. Additionally, I would like to start adding in many more events and more flavor reflecting the decisions that are made, the technologies researched, and how the world is changing in this setting.
That's it for now, thanks everyone for following along and hope to be back soon with more!