Creo God Simulator News

Please note that this update breaks savegames, please read to the end to see how to still use old versions' savegames.



Based on the reliable feedback and suggestions of the community, I've made a large number of balancing updates and bug fixes to Creo God Simulator. With the large number of players we now have experiencing the world of Creo, I've received a large number of insightful and helpful suggestions and bug reporting - I've done my best to address them, which I believe will improve your gaming experience dramatically!

[h2]Balancing the Game[/h2]

A major facet of creating a resource-management game is nailing the balance between challenge and playability, which I admit needed a lot of work. Based on your feedback, I've made several balance changes that I hope will improve your next playthrough in your quest for the first 300-villager city.

Some of these updates include:

• Reduced the cost of all structures by around 15-25% depending on the structure.
  
• Reduced the cost of all willpower inspiration unlocks.
  
• Increased the building resource refund amount when demolished to 1/4 rather than 1/6.
  
• Many more balancing updates (can be read below).
  

[h2]Resource Creation Powers[/h2]



That's right! After seeing the large demand for a solution to deposits/resources running out too quickly and being left with no resources other than trade, I've added in the ability to spawn forests and stone deposits! (To help improve resource balancing, I've also increased the number of resources stored in each forest/stone deposit/ore deposit, you can read more below).

I hope that you all make sure to use these new powers extensively, as they allow you to create new resources from Willpower itself. I've also got in mind several other randomized events that should help improve your access to resources.



[h2]Trade Menu Upgrade[/h2]

I also saw a need to improve the previous versions' trade menu interface, which was not very clear and was at times confusing and unwieldy. I've updated it to allow for push-button amount increasing and decreasing, so you can quickly change the quantities of resources you are transacting, in addition to improving the clarity of the "Buy" and "Sell" icons. I hope that these changes make it easier to take advantage of the trading system!



[h2]Moving Forward[/h2]

These are just some of the improvements I've made to Creo, though I'm confident that they will improve your experience overall. Please, let me know in our Steam Community if there's any additional bug or need for improvement - I try my best to respond to any earnest suggestion or report!

Coming up next, I've got in mind adding a few more game elements, especially structures that unlock certain god powers. These structures will be needed to "beat" the game, as I'm currently working on an "end game" of sorts, so that the Creo experience isn't solely a sandbox, though it won't be required to complete the challenges at all!

I'm still hoping to improve the balancing of the game, and adding gameplay elements and systems that make it a fairer, more balanced game, while remaining challenging.

On a personal note, I just finished my first semester back in University for my Electrical Engineering degree after being out of school for years - I was fortunate enough to do well and get good grades! I've got several years left in my degree, and I'm excited for all that the future holds.

Thank you everyone for your support and feedback for our little game. Please, continue to help me improve the game, and send your suggestions my way! And also, if you've been enjoying the game, please leave a positive review on Steam so others are encouraged to try it out as well!

Cheers!

- Esteban

PS. Here's a gif of our new vertically bobbing notification icons for your viewing pleasure:



[h3]Guide to Use Old Version Savegames[/h3]

As I mentioned earlier, this update breaks previous versions' savegames due to me changing my company name. To continue to use your old saves from the previous version, please follow the guide below (this is for PC users):

1. Enable seeing hidden files on your computer.
   
2. Find the "\AppData" folder on your file explorer, generally contained in the "C:\Users\USERNAME" folder.
   
3. Click the "LocalLow" folder.
   
4. Click the "MKSM Design LLC_" folder.
   
5. Click the "Creo God Simulator" folder.
   
6. Copy all of the numbered folders (0,1,2,3,4,etc.), these contain your savegames.
   
7. Return to the "LocalLow" folder.
   
8. Click the "Aviodrone Robotics LLC_" folder.
   
9. Click the "Creo God Simulator" folder.
   
10. Paste the numbered savegame folders you copied earlier into this folder.
    
11. Your saves will now appear in the updated version of Creo God Simulator (V.0.5.5).
    

[h2]Big Changes[/h2]

• Added "Place Stone" god power - can place stone deposits at the cost of willpower - will add tech unlock soon.
  
• Added "Plant Forest" god power - can spawn forests at the cost of willpower - will add tech unlock soon.
  
• Large trade menu UI upgrade - can now increase amounts with pre-set value buttons + more easily readable.
  
• Balancing - Reduced cost of all structures by around 15-25% depending on structure.
  
• Balancing - Reduced cost of willpower inspiration unlocks.
  

[h2]Small Changes[/h2]

• Updated company name from MKSM Design to Aviodrone Robotics, to reflect company renaming.
  
• Increased default wood resource amount per forest to 1500.
  
• Increased default stone resource amount per stone deposit to 1000.
  
• Increased default metal resource amount per ore deposit to 800.
  
• Gave locust swarms a max lifetime, now they will simply disappear after 3-5 minutes.
  
• Gave cat swarms a max lifetime, now they will simply disappear after 3-5 minutes.
  
• Added small vertical movement animation to repair and extinguishing icons.
  
• A destroyed building (not demolished) will not refund resources.
  
• Increased building resource refund amount to 1/4 rather than 1/6.
  
• Added Patreon link on the main menu.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed Steam profile image not loading on game start in main menu.
  
• Fixed bug where repair shop would not repair main plaza or large temple.
  
• Fixed issue where demolishing buildings did not refund 1/4 of resources.
  

With the recent change to making Creo free to play, I wanted to allow any aspiring Creostrider to help support the game's development by joining our community on Patreon! I've added a variety of different support tiers with their respective rewards, and I look forward to posting exclusive content and polls on the Patreon page!

--- Link to Creo's Patreon Page ---

Contributions received from Patreon will help me continue the development of Creo God Simulator, in addition to:

• Composing new songs to add to our original soundtrack.
  
• Hiring additional engineers to optimize Creo's code architecture.
  
• Contracting artists to create additional renderings, concepts, loading screens, and potentially artbooks for the game.
  
• Many more Creo-related improvements!
  

I'm excited to see that even over the course of a few days, we've gotten thousands of new players and Creostriders-in-training to our ranks, and I look forward to continuing to improve and update our little game!

All the best,
Esteban

Hey there Creostriders! I'm excited to bring you Creo God Simulator's newest update: The Willpower Update! This newest update introduces several new game mechanics to Creo, specifically regarding the willpower resource and how it is managed/obtained. It also adds a few new buildings and other small improvements that I'll cover in this post.

[h2]The Prayer System[/h2]

Yes, you read that right—your villagers can now have prayers that you're capable of answering. As a Creostrider, your goal is to help improve the lives of all the inhabitants of your town and Creo, and one of the greatest ways to do that is by helping answer the burning desires of some of your villagers!

You can easily tell which villagers have a prayer that needs answering by simply looking for a small blue flame above their heads: this indicates that they have a prayer in their hearts and are wanting an answer! Once you find someone with a prayer simply clicking on them will answer their prayer, and grant you with a randomized amount of willpower.

This mechanic has been added as a difficulty balancing aid in order to help you gain willpower faster while also keeping it random and not fully consistent—there may be times where many prayers will be available to answer, giving you plenty of free willpower, but there may also be times when barely anyone will have a prayer to answer!



[h2]Willpower Isn't Infinite![/h2]

I've been slowly developing the lore of the world of Creo—which I hope to one day formalize more into the gameplay itself—and I've come to realize that willpower is not some ethereal force that has no measure or value, rather, it is a physical force that must be conserved and used wisely.

On Creo, there is pure energy which the Gods have given mortals in order for them to reach them. This energy, when touched by a chosen mortal—known by many as a Creostrider—becomes obedient to the commands of the mortal, and can bend reality and perform incredible feats and miracles.

However, this energy we call willpower actually has a physical form: a light blue glowing liquid. Willpower being somewhat sentient must be contained within special structures that have been empowered and blessed to keep willpower in its place. These structures are simply referred to as willpower wells by many of the Creostriders before you. Though expensive, willpower wells are crucial in order to gain more willpower and unlock new technologies, powers, and continue on the quest to Godhood!



[h2]This all Sounds Cool, But Why?[/h2]

A good friend of mine and playtester pointed out an extremely destructive exploit in the willpower system of the previous updates, in addition to helping see how the system was completely broken as you began to grow your city. We found that it was too easy to accrue the most important resource in the game, so I began thinking of a better way of balancing our special liquid power.

By making willpower a capacity-limited resource, and decreasing how often it is received from every second to every 16 seconds (or a season on Creo), it has become a much scarcer and more valuable resource. However, knowing how much more valuable it has become, I'm devising novel ways of being able to acquire willpower outside of just having your believers generate it.

I created the prayer system to be one solution to help balance it, but I plan on having other randomized events and situations that will give you willpower if handled correctly.

Overall, I believe that by making gradual improvements in balance and resource management, I can help Creo become a much more satisfying gaming experience, especially when you can create a successful and thriving city!

I'm excited to have many more people try Creo as of today, since the game is becoming free. I look forward to getting much more feedback on how we can improve the game, and how we can really create something special and fun. So please, leave reviews and reach out to me with helpful feedback and suggestions for what you would like to see in the game! And please let me know if you find any bugs or odd behaviors—I try my best to keep improving Creo as much as possible!

- Esteban

P.S. Here's a look at a new shop model I added in this update—I felt that the shops were all square, and we needed a long boi to balance things out.






Big Changes:

• Added willpower capacity mechanic - players now need to increase the capacity of willpower storage available to them by building physical willpower storage structures.
  
• Added villager prayer system - you can now click on villagers who have a prayer to answer their prayer for them. This will give you a randomized small amount of willpower between 20 and 100.
  
• Balance - Modified willpower system to accrue every season (16 days). Each follower generates 1
• (faith
• 0.0025) willpower / season.
  

Small Changes:

• Integrated Steam API into main menu - will do more with this in later updates.
  
• Added tutorial section regarding the new prayer and willpower capacity system.
  
• Balance - Halved small and large temple's willpower production rate.
  
• Load slots now sort by most recent save to oldest.
  
• Added additional long shop model.
  
• Updated copyright year under MKSM company logo.
  
• Balance - Made it so only one instance of each power can be summoned at one time - this is to prevent power-spamming.
  

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed bug where two instances of powers could be spawned at a time due to async issue in monitoring toggle.
  
• Updated town background sound to remove discernable words in Español.
  
• Fixed save slot rendering issue due to incorrect usage of sorting using Linq library.
  

That's right! After months spent considering the best courses of action for the future of Creo, I've decided that the best course would be to make the game completely free. This will enable many people who haven't gotten the chance to play Creo to join our community and play our game. Creo God Simulator will become a free game on 9 March 2022, so please take this into consideration before purchasing the game!

[h2]Why is it becoming free?[/h2]

I will be completely frank with you, I have not been able to put the amount of time I have wanted into this project since I've recently started a new highly intensive degree program at a University. I am currently working on the next update, which will include several game-balance improvements, such as creating a "Willpower Capacity", and associated structures to increase that capacity. This will come in addition to various other improvements such as new buildings, events, and features.

I'm very excited to continue working on Creo God Simulator, but I feel that it is correct to make it a free experience. This does not mean that the quality of updates will decrease, or that production will stop. Production on Creo God Simulator will continue indefinitely, however, as it's been in development for so many years, I consider it a true passion project, and one that I plan on working on for a long time.

[h2]What can I expect?[/h2]

As I stated above, the fact that Creo is becoming free in no way will affect the quality or regularity of the updates I've been posting. I've got various updates and improvements in the works right now, which I hope to release shortly, but I've also got a variety of other things in my life that command my time and attention. Frankly, Creo has not been paying any bills for a long time, and I've got to work and study in order to provide for me and my family - I sincerely hope our community will be understanding of this.

Creo will continue to be updated, you will continue to smite villagers and learn new god powers, and over time, I'm truly excited to see all the incredible cities you all will get to build. I know that one day, my work will be considered "over" for Creo, but today is not that day, and it won't be that day anytime soon.

Again, please take this update into consideration before purchasing the game. I am giving a 2-week notice to any potential purchases to simply wait until the 9th of March 2022, to be able to download the game on Steam for free, and to hop on this journey with us! Please feel free to direct any questions to [email protected] - I will do my best to answer them in the order received. Thank you all!

- Esteban

Yes, it's really me! Yes, Creo is still in progress! I'm excited to bring y'all a new content update that adds a variety of new events, buildings, and other improvements. Before elaborating a bit more on this update, I'd like to thank those in the community who have been patient and understanding during this time of personal growth and change for me - regardless of whatever life tends to bring - good or bad - I always find myself being given direction and purpose thanks to Creo. We've really come a long way, haven't we? So thank you all for being a part of something that really helps me stay motivated and moving forward!

[h2]The Update[/h2]

[h3]Loot Drops[/h3]



The community has spoken - loot drops have been added to Creo! These fantastic little objects give you a random amount of resources when clicked, and appear when certain events are defeated or are created by randomized events. These new loot drop rewards really enable me to get creative with new events/powers, so stay tuned for some awesome stuff implementing these loot drops!

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[h3]Improved Building Selection[/h3]



I've reworked the building selection system, opting for a more visual method of outlining which building you've chosen. This color outline also makes it very easy to see area-of-effect structures, such as Lumberyards, Wells, and Repair Shops—as seen in the gif above!

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[h3]Bibanat & Porcudu Ranching[/h3]



World-building starts early, so what better way to begin creating the unique fauna of the world of Creo than by ranching it! The new Ranch building allows you to passively generate a constant stream of food, rather than the once-in-a-while nature of farms. Additionally, you get to farm the surprisingly aggressive Bibanat—a horned duck-like creature who is docile in small groups, but extremely destructive in large flocks—and its much calmer friend, the Porcudu—a wooly pig-like creature that's content to spend its days eating your villager's leftovers.

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[h3]The Actual Small Temple[/h3]



So, I may have made the original "Small Temple" a pretty large and impressive structure—a little too large and impressive. With this in mind, I created a smaller, more reasonably priced Small Temple which performs the same function as the original but has fewer priests. Additionally, the Large Temple now can be unlocked in the Inspiration Tree by researching the "True Discipleship" inspiration.

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[h3]Metal Meteors[/h3]



Another classic Creo dilemma: you're running low on metal ore, but you know you haven't experienced a random event in a while—do you wish for a potentially destructive meteor full of metal to come screaming down to Creo? Or do you wait your turn at the market? Well, lucky for you, I've made the decision for you! Metal meteors now can randomly fall down from the heavens anywhere on the map: and I mean anywhere... *We're not responsible for meteors crashing into the center of your city causing 500 damage to any structure in its blast radius*

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[h3]Rain Storms[/h3]



Running low on Willpower in order to water your crops? No problem! I've added randomly-generated rain storms that will periodically appear on the map and water anything in its path. They are generally harmless—there is a possibility that a rain cloud may create lightning along the way, but that probability is low (I hear it's around a 5% chance, but what do I know).

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[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

To summarize this update: new buildings, new technologies, new events, new gameplay improvements, and way more! I'm certain someone will find a new bug or issue with some of the wilder events I'll be creating/have created, so if you see them, please let me know in the discussion section of our Steam page! I'm very excited to continue working on Creo—here's a sneak-peek of what I'm eyeing for the next update (which I promise will be much sooner than the last one!):

• Conjuration God Power - Ability to convert willpower into a random resource - risky, but potentially very profitable!
  
• Trading Guild - a building that allows for a random resource to be generated, in exchange for gold.
  
• Stonecrafter's Workshop - a building that generates gold from stone, thanks to all the amazing crafts the stonemasons will create!
  
• Spontaneous Growth God Power - Ability to grow a small forest anywhere you see fit!
  
• A whole lot more...
  

Thank you all again for continuing to be on this journey with me. If you've been enjoying Creo, please make sure to leave a review on our Steam page—it helps others see and experience our small game! And if you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out to me here on our Steam Discussions page! Have a great holiday season everyone!

- Esteban

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[h3]Big Changes[/h3]

• Added new "Metal Meteor" random event, where a metal-containing meteor crash lands on Creo
  
• Added the "True Discipleship" technology in the Inspiration Tree, allowing for the building of Large Temples
  
• Added new small temple building, while also changing current temple building to be "Large Temple", which has many more priests but is a higher-tier unlock
  
• Added new ranch building with two different animal types, Bibanat, and Porcudu
  
• Added loot drops (wood, food, gold, metal, stone) for defeating certain events (locust/cat swarms)
  

[h3]Small Changes[/h3]

• Updated intro splash screen and decreased duration
  
• Slightly improve town center spatial sounds
  
• Improved rain/storm spatial sounds
  
• Added rain clouds to game: can increase crop growth, but can also create dangerous lightning
  
• Added 2 more shop models/building variations, bringing the total to 6
  
• Added 2 more house models/building variations, bringing the total to 7
  
• Removed Discord links due to server closure
  
• Made loot drops inspectable with inspection tool, to see how many resources they contain
  
• Added loot drop and selected building outline effect
  
• Removed old 3D model of small trees from market
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed rain clouds not spawning out by the end of the animation
  
• Fixed rain effect clipping through the map floor
  
• Removed Creobrine
  
• Fixed audio settings not saving correctly (mainly music and sound sliders auto-saving on game start)
  
• Corrected typo in "Organized Religion" inspiration unlock description
  
• Fixed navmesh placement issue on villagers where very rarely a villager would not be placed on navmesh surface