Hello Elders!
I hope the Heat generation in real life these days is not giving you too many issues! Make sure to drink a lot of water!
I am happy to be here with the experimental version of the Delirium Update, which you can now find in the Experimental branch! Let' see what it brings to the tabletop!
(...sorry)
Speed options!
I heard you, the game can get quite *long* and this can vary enormously between different players, especially with it being turn-based not enforcing any turn length, and with choices having so much weight! With some players dozens of hours for a single won run, it was time to do something!
To make sure the game can be enjoyed by all types of players, I worked hard these last months on analyzing all game mechanics to obtain a full-fledged experience condensed into half the turns. The game's flow is maintained, so this is nust just a "cutoff" version, but a genuinely faster version. Good thing is that I like meddling with excel file! I am happy to reveal that the game is robust enough to support varying turns while still maintaining true to all mechanics so, inspired by Civilization games, I added a Fast mode (145 turns instead of 280).
I made sure that all the numbers balance out so that the difficulty is unaltered, but be warned that fewer turns make the game slightly harder as you have less space and flexibility to maneuver around mistakes, effectively making the cognitive load higher! I made sure to buff the starting resources to counterbalance that, so be sure to tell me how it feels to you!
Persistence Bonus
To incentivize not rerolling games until you find the perfect combination, I added a persistence bonus. This bonus is obtained by reaching Page 2 during a run and will give you a choice of a (small) starting bonus at the next run with that same elder!
Delirium Mode!
Now, with faster runs, I also took the opportunity to revise the Challenge mode to be more interesting, and thus enters the Delirium Mode!
This is a revision of the current Challenge mode that aims to make higher level play more interesting, so instead of a fixed difficulty scaling, you will be able to customize your difficulty settings by selecting modifiers that will increase the Delirium of the story told by the elder. The higher the difficulty, the higher the Delirium, and by winning a max-Delirium game it will allow you to reach higher Mastery Levels!
Save System Revision
This patch also introduces some revision to the save file system, and this is reflected in the game's save files being placed in sub-folders.
At the moment, this only means means that each Steam user will have a separate folder, so that you can now play the game with multiple steam users on the same machine.
This however allows me to do more with the save folders, and I intend to explore that a bit!
New Stats
The game will now also register all the attempts you make at a specific elder, and list how many wins you achieved alongside your best score.
The current Stats will be taken from your local highscores, so they might miss a few attempts and the win streak will not be initialized correctly, but the max score should be fine!
Miscellaneous
Version 1.3 will also bring some balance updates on some buildings, especially by taking a look at water production as too many people are finding the new Spring Well to be too convenient.
If all goes well, this update will be up in a couple of weeks on the main branch, so make sure to tell me what you think about these changes so I can tweak them if necessary before then!
(Oh, I was almost forgetting, dotAGE is 25% off with its lowest discount ever during the Summer Sales!)
Note that the experimental update is currently being translated, so it will be in English only
Here is the changelog for the experimental version: https://steamcommunity.com/app/638510/discussions/0/4409669041611862095/
I'll go get my gelato now. Have fun!
- Michele