Dear players, after long time with no changes, I'm glad to introduce to you the newest update! As planned, the newest version provides a range of new changes, focused mainly on expanding availability.
Languages
The main change this version provides is option to choose language of the game and a range of localizations. Currently, beside english, there are 8 languages, all of the announced previously:
Polish
Italian
French
Brazilian Portuguese
Turkish
Russian
German
Spanish
As I have stated before, the localizations were made using the AI, therefore they might be a bit inaccurate or soulless, I'm sorry, but it was the only way to get them cheap and fast. In future I would like to introduce even more languages, such as Chinese, Dutch or Greek.
New game modes and settings
Since the beginning of Nations the game had two problems: one was that many players expected it to be a simple, easy to learn and dynamic strategy game, judging it by graphics and the fact of being an indie game. The second was me, not being sure either to go more into direction of simple game, or more into a realistic, complicated game. In result, many players found the game confusing and too overwhelming. To end this problem and let everyone play the way they like, I have decided to introduce two new game modes: simplified and lite.
Simplified game mode is generaly Nations as it was, but with several minor changes. Military supplies production and several buildings important for development are cheaper, alliances are not divided into several types, but work in a simple way, just as the diplomatic AI.
Lite mode, on the other hand, is a completely different game. It is unrealistic, disables a range of mechanics, such as demography, production or population managing. In this mode every non-represented population is automatically put to colonial population, you don't have to provide your people with food nor consumer goods, and military works only on money. Diplomatic actions are limited by political power and a range of laws is disabled, because they would have no use in this mode.
Since now, I would like to develop the game in a three different ways – standard mode is going to be more realistic and challenging, simplified mode is going to be more focused on gameplay and fun, and lite mode is planned to be just pure game with no care about realism.
Additionally, a range of new settings have been introduced in order to expand options to adjust the gameplay to different players. Since now you can change things like income multiplier, political power gain multiplier and many more. Moreover you can also turn on the “no limits mode” which pushes several development limits, allowing you to build up to 250 colonial units in one province and having no population nor economy limit.
In future, I would like to add even more game modes and settings.
Statistics
Among things many players suggested to add were global statistics and option to see the history of development of their nation. Since now you can compare your score in different fields with other countries of the world and see how different statistics of your country changed throughout the years.
Moreover, to make this system more useful, I have introduced a new tittles system. Tittles are rewards you can claim for achieveing the highest score in your region or in the world. Most of them give just some internal or diplomatic bonuses, but there is one giving special options – regional/global policeman. This tittle allows you to intervene against any aggressor in your region or in the world.
Tittles work in standard and simplified mode.
Changes in military
Altough military was not planned to be reworked in this update, I made a few changes to improve it:
armies will now allocate divisions in ALL regions of the zone bordering with their targets – formerly they assigned divisions only to regions bordering with regions controlled by their targets if they were in zone as well – you can change this setting however
armies will no longer stop their advance because of not enough divisions to cover the front –they will go further and it is responsibility of the player now to watch out for the front gaps
divisions will not attack now if they have suffered siginifant losses – they will not attack until their own destruction anymore
mobile units attack and bonus against enemy mobile units has been raised – since now mobile units are more useful in attack
heavy units bonus against enemy mobile units has been raised – since now they are important defence factor against enemy mobile units
taking over a sector will be a bit harder now – minimal power superiority to take over a sector has been raised
numerical superiority factor has been buffed – since now bigger losses are taken after exceeding the enemy number by 4 times (formerly it was 3). Army settings have been adjusted to this change. Also numerical superiority is now generally more useful, especially in lite mode
disbanding units in fight or cut off is now impossible
in standard mode reinforcing your army will now cost some amount of money, so you need to make bigger reserves to prepare for war. In simplified mode this is disabled and you still reinforce army with equipment only, however in lite mode spending money is the only way to reinforce army
changed the way military storages are calculated in favor of players
Other changes
This update provides also a range of other, minor changes, that will impact your gameplay:
since now instead of getting aggressiveness for annexing new lands, a warscore system is introduced. In standard game mode, your demands might exceed warscore – in this situation your aggressiveness will increase. In simplified mod your demands might exceed by up to 100% of warscore, and your aggressiveness will increase as well. In lite mode exceeding warscore is not avalaible. You can adjust maximum warscore multiplier at the beginning of the game
a range of new decisions were added – most of them are supposed to make it easier to play as minor states. Since now you can corrupt your politicians to get a big number of political power quickly, fund scientific and cultural grants and more
two new national features were added – useful for expansion focused gameplay
because some players complained that growing territorially is too easy and players often don't have to fight with serious consequences of high aggressiveness or low credibility, I have decided to add a negative internal bonuses for high aggressiveness or low credibility – they will now impact things such as political power, income or economy growth
AI should take new lands in a bit more reasonable way now
intelligence mechanic has been slightly reworked – it should be more useful for small nations and is better balanced now
seeing information about military of other countries will be now limited by intelligence efficiency
in standard mode players will now have to integrate (core) all new gained provinces – remember about that! Having too much non-integrated provinces will cause negative effects!
added plundering option to administrative tab – formerly it was avalaible only in sector menu
added new map modes
added mass-building for cities
improved balance of some buildings and laws
changed textures of production and society widgets
introduced a new lag reduction system – it might be a bit weird, but I hope you'll like it – many players complained about optimization and I think this system improves it
Also, a range of bugs were fixed, but I didn't spend as much time as I planned on fixes and testing new changes, so again this is going to be polished in small updates later. I didn't want to hold up the update any longer so please, be prepared, that there might be still some bugs needing to be fixed.
Also, I am planning to release some information about future of the game and way of development soon. I would like to share an official road map, so that every player knew what is planned or under consideration.
Thank you for your patiance and support and I hope you will enjoy the new update!