It’s great to see such major changes coming in this month’s update. Internally the team has been working hard on them and artists continue to focus on producing more amazing 2d art. We have shifted the programmers to working on bugs more than new content and the game designers are hard at work on balancing and pacing the game.
Maybe surprisingly for those that think the Aspects may be underpowered (their starting army is a little weak, especially if you don’t use the scout to help and take advantage of their battle affinity). But, they are definitely killing it in the stats here in Score, Win Ratios and controlling territories.
The AI is killing enemies right along with humans. Keep in mind that we only have analytics from games that are played, so when humans are losing and drop out the AI doesn’t get to continue its success (so we expect these charts to favor humans since if the game goes badly for humans they stop playing).
But, we do have more work to do on the AI in making sure it is making good tactical decisions, even if the higher level ones seem to be working out. Especially things like Defending too often which makes the AI look dumb. It knows it will do very little damage (especially units like the Xavius that are low damage and high defense) and are better off to just defend and retaliate than attack, but it’s not very fun and that logic is broken if you have archers you can kill them at a distance with.
The Retold Tales (June 2026) Update
It’s finally here! We took a torch to the old dialog system. Less clicks, more art. This affects every quest and event in the game. Of course, the new art is highlighted, but there are smaller touches as well to increase the usability. For example, notice that we leave the resource panel up and visible even when events are being shown. This is so you can more easily evaluate choices and rewards these events offer.
Updated Quests
Along with the new quest dialog we have redone the Kin of Sheredyn faction quest and the Necrophage quest. The Kin have changed so much in design since we first created their faction quest (which was the first one we did) that we wanted to update it to better tell their story, perspective and provide more fitting objectives and rewards. The Necrophage quest is similar in flow, but we really wanted to rewrite it entirely to capture their flavor and tone.
More Art
We have lots of new art in this update and the art team has been working on it for a while. But they aren’t done. We wanted to get the update in your hands so you could start testing the new flow and not wait until all the art was finished. So, you will see some placeholder images or shared images. Art is being produced for all the minor factions but for those that don’t have it yet you will see that they all share the same placeholder picture.
If you are curious about the process we go through in producing art you can check it out 👇
Market Panel Update
Sep 24, 2025, 101344 PM
“It would be nice to be able to set the buy/sell amount when buying/selling resources rather than having to do it one at the time. For example being able to say i want to sell 30 Klax in one go, rather than having to click sell 30 times.” - LunarLieutenantLeo
“We need a much more complex market, than only buy and sell. Previous games had pretty good systems for it, this one is very barebones. At least add a slider please, so if I'm selling 120 materials (which happens quite often during late game) I don't have to click 120 times.” - Surge
This has been a popular request from the community. They would like the ability to buy and sell resources in bulk instead of one by one and have the ability to set boosters to auto renew. Both are added in this update.
Surrender Rebalance
This is commonly reported as an AI issue, “The AI never surrenders”. I think we even put it in the changelog as an AI improvement because the end effect is that the AI is now reasonably able to surrender. But it actually wasn’t an AI problem, it was a balance problem. The cost to surrender was way too high. So the AI couldn’t afford it or was unwilling to bankrupt its entire empire to surrender, even in the worst cases.
With the rebalance in place surrender is a viable option for the AI to consider in cases where it is losing a war and it wants to pay off their enemy to make the pain end.
Larger Balance Changes
In the May update we added Lakes, and we were excited to get them to make the map more varied, help created chokepoints and to keep the map from turning into an ENDLESS plain by the endgame.
We liked the changed so much we may have created to many of them. We added lakes… and they were everywhere. This update reduces the amount on the default and “Few” lake setting so there is a little more open room. If, in world generation, you choose to have “Abundant” lakes then expect to see a lot.
We also increased the cooldown between random events triggering slightly. More importantly this cooldown is on each type of event and the larger change was to make it so that a cooldown on one event type can impact another event type. Previously even though there was a 15 turn cooldown on Map Based random events and Councilor random events (for example) they could still both trigger in the same turn causing turns where you could have 3-4 events all trigger at once. Since the random events now wait for each other they will generally be less frequent and more importantly, less likely to stack up together.
And so much more
Check out the Public Test Branch (PTB) 👇
What’s Coming fire 🔮
Faction Specific Awakening Quests
One of the issues we have with the endgame is that all the factions encounter the same events leading up to it. Something is happening on Saiadha, but we want each faction to experience it through their perspective. And we want to tell a different story around it when you play as different factions.
The Death of Simultaneous Turns
“To get the big one out of the way: simultaneous turns. This is my current #1 pet peeve with the game. Maybe there's some sort of internal logic behind it, but I honestly couldn't see it, and it felt (because it might not be so) like who reacted first got the upper hand.” - YakaAvatar
“Its a turn based game, if you aren't playing PVP, it shouldn't be simultaneous. You end up with a game that is the worst of both worlds of RTS and TBS. Its slow paced, but also you have to stay alert and clicking fast. Nothing I hate more than getting out-clicked by the AI... in a turn based game.”
“I'm kind of sick the AI moving an army 6 tiles in real time and hitting me with a folding chair due to faster reflexes in my turn based game” – Which-Worldliness556
Okay, that title may be overstated, we aren’t completely killing simultaneous turns, but we are taking away its legs. Meaning the AI can do everything it currently does EXCEPT move armies during a human players turn. The AI can still plan, start diplomacy, improve its cities, etc. But it won’t move any armies until you press the End Turn button.
No more rushing. Take your time, look at the map, decide where you want to go, issue your orders, the AI (AI players and Minor Factions, Tormented, etc) will wait.
If you have queued army movement when you press the End Turn button your queued movement happens first. If your units still have movement left after their queued movement completes (say they have 3 movement and you only had 2 queued) it goes back to your turn to decide what you want them to do with their additional movement (this is the same way it works now). It’s only when you End Turn and all human movement is done that you will see the player indicator lights start to flash as the AI does its army movement.
More Retroactive Quests
Retroactive quests is the term we use for quests that take account of what you have already done before the quest starts. We are going through and attempting to convert every quest that asks you to do something you might have already done. For example, the Aspect’s Major Faction quest ask you to build 2 Coral Spores. But if you just got done building a Coral Spore it feel like wasted effort. Also, since Coral Spores increase in cost as they are added the quest is now harder than it would have been if you did nothing.
So instead, quests won’t ask you to build 2 Coral Spores. They will ask you to have 2 Coral Spores. If you already built one then you are halfway there and you feel like you are ahead of the curve, instead of being punished.
You might have noticed in the above screenshot that the Necrophages quest to “Build 2 Burrows” has been changed to “Have 3 Burrows”. That’s because the Necrophage city is also a Burrow and counts toward the total. So, to keep the same type of requirement the number needed was increased.
Improved Minor Faction Asymmetry
We like the diversity of Minor Factions. They provide a wide variety of effects from Protectorate bonuses, new Units, Population, Heros, Councilors and Population Collection unlocks. We like that there are peaceful and hostile ones and that they all become violent during Monsoon. But we want to do more.
So, we are looking at each of the Minor Factions to see what can be done to vary gameplay, so that starting by one Minor Faction, or having a lot on one map will make games feel more diverse not only in bonuses, but in behavior.
As a system all Minor Faction villages spawn their first army on the same turn and spawn additional armies on a fixed interval. The first big change is that the initial spawn turn is being randomized (and generally moved back, the earliest that a village can spawn is where it does now with spawns being spread out over the following 7 turns). This keeps Minor Factions from suddenly appearing en masse in the world on fixed turns so it feels more gradual and organic. Also the respawns have been changed to be Minor Faction specific instead of the same for everyone. Some Minor Factions will spawn armies frequently, some very slowly.
This is what we are currently testing internally:
Ametrine- Slow spawn but you can earn strategic resources in loot from them. We want players to consider farming them for resources and see them as an interesting opportunity.
Blackhammer- Their population is changed from being exactly like Kin population (providing +2 Industry) to being complimentary with the Kin by giving +50 Fortifications per population. But they are now better at fortifying their own villages as well, so beware and expect Blackhammer villages to be harder to assault than other minor factions.
Consortium- As with the Ametrine we want players to see the rich Consortium couriers as an opportunity, so they provide more battle rewards than other minor factions and can occasionally have equipment. This is even better if you have invested in ability to increase your battle spoils.
Daughters of Bor- Their spawn rate is lower than average, and though they are hostile their limited numbers will typically leave their lands open and their threat low.
Gorog- Their units have been made stronger with a big hit point buff. But, they only produce single unit armies. Expect to see single unit Gorog armies exploring the map. If they become a protectorate you can have access to these high hit point units, but their training costs are higher than all other units. Also, their population is terrible, providing no bonuses and consuming more food than other population types.
Noquensii- Noquensii population have been switched from an Influence bonus to an Approval bonus. Their protectorate ability still provides an Influence bonus.
Ochlings- These are the rat hordes of Saiadha. Their units have been made weaker but they both spawn larger armies (3 unit armies right from the start) and spawn more frequently. Expect to find their lands infested with armies. If they are made into a protectorate their units remain weak, but they are cheaper to produce than all other Minor Faction units.
Sollusk- Their spawn frequency has been increased. They are already tough, now they are tougher. Beware the Sollusk.
The goal here is that you as a player feel something when you encounter them (even if that feeling is hatred) and that they impact your gameplay and make a game where you ran across a region full of Consortium feel very different from one where you ran into a lot of Sollusk.
Balance
Features need to stop changing so that real balance work can happen. Specifically we are looking at Hero power, victory conditions, unit strength (especially at the beginning of the game) and economy.
Personally, I’m also attempting to find every quest that asks you to produce X of something and doesn’t take account for the ones you have already built. The Necrophage quest that asks you to build 2 burrows, but doesn’t notice you have already built one, the Aspect quest that asks you to build 2 Coral Spores, the Tahuk quest that asks you to build some observatories. They are all a little frustrating if you just completed making some burrows/coral spores/observatories and the quest asks for more. We are trying to convert all of them.
Thank you for playing
The Retold Tales update is the biggest update so far (releasing really Soon™). We are excited to get you in and playing. Your support, feedback and reviews are greatly appreciated.
Let us know what you think!
