The two weeks after the launch were quite difficult, as the game suffered from critical bugs that would only happen on very specific scenarios that were very hard to reproduce. But this is the past! Now that everything seems to work fine, it's time to look at the future, starting with version 1.1.
Version 1.1 adds two major features: New Game+ and Perks.
New Game+
If you're a newcomer, you might regard Roots of Harmony as a tough game. If you're too shy about capturing new lands, or if you're too aggressive, you can find yourself in difficult situations, sometimes unmanageable. But when you understand how to please other factions, and when you anticipate enemy waves, the game is not that hard, and can become not challenging enough. This is where New Game+ comes to the rescue!
New Game+ increases the challenge of the game in various ways:
- The island is slightly bigger.
- Threat from all empires increases when you reach a new phase. Building peacefully in your little corner hoping that no one will notice you is no longer possible.
- New set of milestones that forces you to ally to three different factions. This alliance will force you to explore more lands, and to deal with factions that do not necessarily share the same doctrines with each other.
- Doctrine instability: if you take too many doctrines, your people will lose their cohesion and start to disagree with each other. Fewer doctrines mean fewer disciples, so you'll have to use them even more wisely than before.
- Monolith: this new landmark, only available in New Game+, allows you to ascend your disciples. In exchange for their wisdom, their stats can be improved, depending on what Monolith they ascend to.
- You need more buildings to reach the next phase.
- Jewels and artefacts give fewer reputation points.
- You need to finish a standard game before unlocking New Game+.
Perks
So far choosing a doctrine would unlock a disciple, and also allows you to select more options during the events that occur at the end of the turn. But now in 1.1, doctrines also unlock a set of Perks. For now, there are two perks per doctrine, but there's obviously room for more.
- Each perk has a set of requirements. If you fulfil all of them, the perk is "active", otherwise it's "inactive".
- To benefit from the effects of a perk, it must be active. The reason behind that is that I'd like the player to face difficult choices, where choosing one option could deactivate one perk and then change the outcome of a battle, an event, or a strategic decision.
For now, each doctrine has two perks: one that offers a unique behaviour, such as Necromancy or Conversion; and one that unlocks a Champion. And because there are 12 doctrines, version 1.1 brings 12 new disciples!
Champions are special: they have a lot more HP, move faster and deal more damage. However, you are limited to 1 type of Champion at all times. In other words, if you unlock two doctrines, you cannot have more than two Champions.
Changelog
- Added: New Game+.
- Added: Perks.
- Added: a new menu to show all buildings from all phases.
- Added: information about the strength of the waves that your enemies can send at you. This information is available in the faction menu.
- [1.1.1] Added: mouse support.
- Changed: the Cultist is now more melee oriented.
- Changed: the Skirmisher is now more range oriented.
- Changed: the name of the Preacher to Sermoniser, to avoid any confusion with the "preaching" task. It won't change the name of your current disciples if you load a game after the update.
- Various fixes and typos.
What's Next?
Roots of Harmony has a lot of room for improvements and new features. If the game receives a few more good reviews, I will be able to continue updating it for quite a while :-) For now, I have plans until 1.4, and that includes a big new feature that will bring a totally new concept in the game, in the form of rituals and dreams. So stay tuned and enjoy this new version!