Hello!
In the August update you will find:
More multiplayer scenarios
Intelligence projects
Slepper agents nerfed
some editor fixes
More multiplayer scenarios
Short scenarios are probably more suited for reasonably timed multiplayer games; but many of you requested longer experiences.
So I included larger scenarios like the great campaign, or the 1980-1989 second Cold war scenario.
If you own Pax Americana, you will also notice that you have access to the multiplayer scenario "millenium" (1980-2001).
Intelligence projects
They are available either at game start in your R&D screen, or during the game by event.
US projects:
Venona Project:
This counterintelligence program aims to decipher messages transmitted by the Soviet Union's intelligence agencies. Once this project is completed, all Soviet illegals in North and Central America lose 5 levels, and the US player will be able to see the countries where Soviet sleeper agents have been activated (but not those that are still dormant).
Gold and Silver
Digging a secret tunnel should enable the tapping of Soviet Army headquarters landline communications in Germany and Vienna, revealing their intentions and order of battle. Completing this project sets the regional intelligence focus in Eastern Europe to "Military Intelligence", with its cooldown reduced to zero, and grants the USA a +50 bonus when calculating the Soviet power ratio in Europe for 60 turns.
Operation Chaos: (gained during the game)
The project chaos soon grew to insane proportions, developing its own network of informants for the purposes of infiltrating various foreign anti-war groups, and extending its investigations to foreign groups. The conclusion of such a large deployement of means is that overall, there is no evidence of any contact between the most prominent peace movement leaders and foreign embassies in the U.S. or abroad... Anyway, these 7200 files on American citizens, and the 300 000 civilians and 1000 organizations indexed by computer gave us a deep unerstanding of protest movements across the USA.
-->All protests in USA decrease by 6
This project is specially interesting for players who have a protests problem, but don't want to use the Great Society policy.
USSR projects:
Service A (active mesures):
The First Chief Directorate of the KGB should develop an Active Measures service tasked with spreading disinformation abroad. Once this project is completed, the Soviet player receives a bonus to smear campaigns and organizing protest actions.
You get have a chance to gain the following projects in the 70's if the USA has developped the MIRV technology.
RYaN:
What if the United States were planning an imminent nuclear first strike?
The maximum amount of information should be collected to detect such an attack before it occurs! Once completed, DEFCON is set to 1. This project also grants the USSR a bonus during nuclear showdowns, but increases the risk of nuclear apocalypse.
Line X:
To keep pace in the arms race, the USSR should intensify its efforts to acquire technology from the West. This will be the purpose of a new section within the KGB First Chief Directorate residency organization. Once completed, this project grants a bonus to the Regional "Technological Intelligence" focus and a +10 bonus when calculating the Soviet power ratio in Europe
Ghost Trains (Combat Railway Missile System):
A nuclear missile carried by train would be much harder to destroy in a first nuclear strike, giving an advantage in a nuclear showdown. (The concept is simple, but the technical challenge is impressive.)
Sleeper Agents Nerfed
Until the July update the general balance of the games was perceived like that:
-Huge advantage to the USA according to new players
-A slight advantage to USSR according to seasonned players
Sleeper agents destroyed that balance, making things far too easy for the Soviet player.
They have been modified as follow:
These sleeper agents can remain dormant for years before being activated. Each year they remain underground increases their level by 1.
After one year, the Soviet player may activate them. Once activated, they provide a bonus to subversion actions equal to their level (capped at 5).
Once activated illegals will lose 1 level every turn.
However, if your opponent has the Counter-Intelligence focus, illegals will usually lose 5 levels instead of 1.
Yes, this means an agent left dormant for 20 years will grant only a +5 bonus to subversion actions, but he will last much longer than the level 5 agent.
This is still very powerful.
Your feedbacks will tell if further nerfing is needed.
My guess about the current balance (until i gather your insights):
-Pretty balanced for new players once they understand the basics of the game
-Clear advantage to USSR for seasonned players. (Service A, and sleepers are a strong combo)
Editor fixes
The main interesting recent feature is the introduction of cutom variables for countries.
Many small issues have been fixed as you reported them on the Discord (the full list is not that interesting).
I hope you will have a lot of fun with this update!
Post Scriptum: What's next?
The game has become pretty solid in the last few months, so It is possible I release it this September.
This does not mean I won't update it any more, because they are still so many cool features and ideas that can make it into the game.
From now and until December, I will mostly be working on one of my other games: Rise of the White Sun, for a 1930-1933 DLC.
Maestro Cinetik.