Alliance of the Sacred Suns News

[h2]NEW FEATURES: This build adds/updates the following features:[/h2]
[h3]Military System Core[/h3]

• Added core functionality – Military Manager, Units, unit data reader
  
• Added basic UI – Planet/System Military Value, Military Power is now factored into House
• Power & your Power
  
• Added military academies and warship factories to planet UI
  
• Added military Pops to planet UI
  
• NOTE! This milestone only adds the underlying core functionality and data objects. As a player, you won’t ‘see’ anything amazing yet – next milestone will focus almost entirely on the military system.
  

[h3]Updated UI System[/h3]

• Further update of main UI system
  
• Added new event pics
  
• Added new nebula effects
  
• Added economic/overview planet panels
  
• Updated UIManager to update panels much quicker (you won’t have to leave a planet, then come to another planet, then go back to the same planet to see updates to planet/systems when something happens)
  
• Updated all system boxes except for military
  
• Updated all galaxy labels except for military
  
• Updated Story/Event UI, specifically with Prime effects on choices
  
• Updated all Comm UIs
  
• Start integration of new tooltip system that gives much more information about the ‘how’ for a number, also adding flavor quotes to most tooltips to expand universe immersion

[h3]Updated portraits/Unique Portrait System[/h3]

• 110 unique portraits in game, wrote system to prevent duplicates – now each character has a unique portrait in-game
  
• Working on layers with artist – currently only small layers such as facial ornaments work, looking to expand to clothes/hair

[h3]New Global Events[/h3]

• 20 Events in this build

[h3]Emperor System Updates[/h3]

• Personal Development System has been added, including the UI. This is a node system where you generate personal development points by interacting with characters through conversation, Events, Stories, and Projects. These let you select traits that slowly shape your emperor and give them bonus/malus to certain things, as well as determine the amount of guilt they feel when ordering negative Actions/Projects
  
• Tweaked other portions of UI
  
• NOTE: Still need to implement tooltips so that players can see the effects of the trait. Will add ASAP.

[h3]Celestial Council System[/h3]

• Added ability to ‘lobby’ characters to change their vote – hover over their vote and you will see how much Power it will take to change their vote by 50% - the more they dislike you, the more Power it will cost to change their vote
  
• Added concept of ‘negative’ bills – certain bills are harmful to the power of the Emperor (such as limiting power) and the Council will vote on these bills depending on their relationship with you and to a lesser extent the relationship their House has with your House
  
• Added alerts for when a bill is proposed
  
• Improved and cleaned up UI somewhat, including returning to the overview screen

[h3]New Actions[/h3]

• Heal Character – you can spend from your treasury to heal a character who is not at least Fine health. This will cost more if they are older, if you have done it before, and how unhealthy they are. It will result in a significant bonus for your relationship and a small bonus for the Emperor Reputation

[h3]Balance/Gameplay[/h3]

• Reduced significantly (by around 2/3) the number of characters generated at the start of the game and wrote new civilization setup process to only generate characters ‘on the fly’ as needed. This greatly focuses gameplay and allows players to focus on more specific character relationships as opposed to a cast of thousands
  
• Changed year from 9 turns to 4 and reset for seasons. This fits more in line with the timescale/theme of the game.
  
• Added a base build capability for planets that don’t have any staffed factories so they can at least build something
  
• Added ‘critical stop’ on turns where you can reset your science so players won’t forget to do so, similar to budget
  
• Revised Power calculations so that they are generally lower – House Leaders will now have a power around 250, Province/Sys Govs around 150, Viceroys around 100, and Courtiers around 50, plus a bonus for being on the Celestial Council. You will generally start off with a power around 250-300 depending on the size of the game

[h3]Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements[/h3]

• all reported bugs on Discord have been addressed in this build. Game is now stable through 10 year sessions, and save games are stable (fixed several issues with save games in preparation for an extensive LP series)

Hey everyone!

It’s been quite a while since I posted a comprehensive update, but with the holidays in full swing, and a clear path towards 1.0, I wanted to talk about where we’ve (and I’ve) been, where we are, and where we’re going.

To begin, I guess it’s telling to understand where we’ve been. Born Imperia, later Alliance of the Sacred Suns, or AotSS, has been a passion/hobby project for the last 4.5 years of my life, mostly done part time, and at the beginning it was not even a consideration that it would ever be anything that would make a dime, much less be my career. Before that, I’d designed mostly tabletop games, with a few computer projects that were basically done to help me learn programming languages – making games is a lot more fun than doing exercises in a book!

Anyway, the point is that the development plan of Imperia/AotSS was basically unplanned and very ‘I do what I feel like doing at this point in time’ for a very long time, years really. It was only with time that I realized that the game could be something that I could potentially sell for money, and that was when I made the decision to basically restart development from XNA to C# and Unity, which probably (obviously) added several years to the development cycle but clearly in hindsight was the best decision I could have made.

So I started selling AotSS last February on a WordPress site for basically a ‘take a chance on this crazy project price’ and while it never made any great money, it made enough to pay the bills and keep KatHawk Studios solvent while I struggled to figure out just what I had with this game. The plan was to keep working on the game here and there while I concentrated on my primary job as a manager with a Fortune 500 company – it was a secure job with a great salary, excellent benefits, and perks like a company car and stock gifts yearly. Certainly I never dreamed that I could make enough with AotSS to leave, even though I had discovered that I had a passion for programming and designing games, especially complex and thought-provoking games that put you in the seat of… something, be it a fighter jet, a starship CIC, or an empire.

And then my publisher entered the picture.

I will be able to say much more about them and the opportunity soon (probably another month) but they gave me, and AotSS, the opportunity of a lifetime. They were giving KatHawk the financial ability to go full-time, and I had a life-altering decision to make: stay the course at my current job, and ride it possibly into retirement, or take the plunge relatively late in life (I’m almost 44) and jump into some notoriously cold and unforgiving waters?

After a lot of reflection, and talking with friends in the business, and especially my family, I put on my Speedos, strapped on my goggles, took a very deep breath, and jumped in full-throttle in August of this year.

And what a change it was! Now there were milestones and plans and content and my head was spinning taking a crash course in what it meant to develop a professional game – and what it means to be a professional game developer. I still don’t feel that I deserve that title – but technically, I am doing game design and development for a living, and I am backed by a publisher with significant resources that will allow the dream of AotSS to finally come to fruition, so I guess the title fits. I will actually be writing about this experience more extensively – the transition from working manager to indie game designer at my age is fairly unique and a journey that I think many may be interested in.

So that’s where I’ve been. Now let’s talk about where we are.

We’re making excellent progress with the UI update – we hope to have the entire UI swapped out by the middle of February 2020. It sounds like a lot of time, and it is, but we want this to be the definitive update and based on your early feedback, it sounds like we’re headed in the right direction with that! We’re also adding a lot of new art – we’ve got all new icons for events and Projects, new Characters (the first batch of 44 was just put into .8.2.1 – after that about 50 a month will be added until we hit our goal of 150 new base faces) – as well as some randomization with dozens of hats, tattoos, jewelry, coats, facial accoutrements, etc. While not a true ‘facegen’ system, this approach gives us the ability to create unique portraits while still providing a very high quality base facial experience!

Also, we are working on a new grand theme for AotSS, and it should be in by the .8.3 update. It’s really nice, and it’s done by a professional composer who has worked on numerous Hollywood projects. We think you’ll really like the direction of the music! We’re also working on new Story/Event and interstitial art that more accurately conveys the universe of AotSS, and that should be added in January.

For this update, the major add is the Celestial Council system. Here is where you can appoint (and fire) your advisors that create policy for the Empire, and determine which Houses will have the most influence over your Empire. You could always stack the deck with your own House, but the other Houses will resent this, and you will have difficulty maintaining order if you do this before you’re ready to face the consequences of having the other Houses refuse to work with you! There are also some new events that update Emperor skills.

We’re going to be expanding this system, including a way to repeal bills that have been passed, and a way to see all the active bills in the Empire. But it’s a good start. The other area that we continue to work on is the Emperor system. For next update, you’re going to see a lot of changes in what you can do, including the ‘Burden of Guilt’ system and the Personal Development system, which will take the game to have almost RPG elements. – you’ll have development points that you get each time you do something, and you can change your character’s skills and their personality traits.

What’s cool is that if you’re a happy, positive person to begin with, it will give you a huge guilty conscience to do Tyrannical or evil things, which will hammer your Spirit – but you can slowly change the type of person you are , to be capable of doing more tyrannical things and be OK with it.
Remember, the core of AotSS is that you are the emperor, and the game needs to make you feel like you’re a real person, not a gray eminence.

So that’s where we are. Now let’s talk about where we’re going.

By far, the largest challenge to a game like AotSS that bends the norms of what a 4X ‘should’ be is the different systems that come into play. Projects, Actions, Inquisitors, Emperor development, Events, Holdings, Claims… we’re absolutely breaking new ground on a 4X. This ain’t your father’s 4X, at all. That said, what we have found is when people actually understand what we’re doing and understand how to play – and realize that they can’t control everything, but they must go along to get along in many cases – that’s when they realize this is a special game. So we understand that a robust tutorial is critical to this game, along with extensive tooltipping and LP tutorial videos. By February, we should have a significant in-game tutorial that walks you through setting up your empire, how the UI works, and what you should be doing. I will also be recording several LP tutorial videos this week since we’re closing in on the full game being added (just military, the Xyl, and outside civs are to be added as far as core game play systems).

The military system will be the major add for the rest on .8, and I think y’all are going to love it. It ties so many of the core systems like power, system control, riots, unrest, and giving you additional ways to be a bad guy – remember, the ultimate goal of the game is to stop the Xyl from building the Rescension Engine, which means that you’ll probably have to upgrade your military significantly – but will your people (and other Houses) fear the buildup, or can you show them that you’re doing it for the greater good? Remember, they don’t know about the Xyl until very late in the game – and by then it’s too late to build your military if you haven’t already.

We're also working on localization, and while we haven't finalized the languages yet, we're trying to make the game as accessible to as many people as possible around the world. With a game this text-heavy, this is no small thing, but as with other aspects of AotSS, we want to do it right!

So that’s great, Steve, and when is all this going to be done so I can check out your crazy grand plan? Well, we’re still knocking that around with the publisher, but what we agree on is that this game has the change to be really special, a genre-changer, and we don’t want to rush it. So we should have some news on the final release date soon, but know that it won’t be released until it’s ready – that’s part of our KatHawk Studio Bill of Rights, and we’re passionate about working on games to a Blizzard-level shine and sheen. Not to say that it will be a AAA game like Blizzard, but the fact that they refused to release games before they were truly ‘ready’ and as bug-free as they could be made always inspired me to buy every Blizzard game I could, even if I didn’t really like them, just to show my support towards that kind of service.

So that’s the update! Lot of words, and I’m sorry I haven’t written more, but we’ve been busy, trust me! We think you’re going to like the changes you’ll see over the next few months, and if you have the game, keep checking for updates – we will be pushing updates out almost weekly going forward. We’d love your feedback, and we’ll be working on making the game as accessible as possible going forward. Also, look for more videos that teach how to play – and the UI will change with every update (in a positive way, we hope!) We really, really need your feedback on the UI – we think it’s going to a good place but we want you, the player, to give your say.

Until later – thank you for your support!

-Steve

Exciting news! We have released the newest update to AotSS - 8.1.0! This adds the following functionality:

•

• Global Event System added – Allows one-shot events to fire that can significantly affect the game. They share the Story UI, but have the following differences:
• o They resolve immediately – each event has up to 4 choices that resolve immediately
  
• o They have branching choice effects – each choice can have 2 node results that are each assigned a weight probability in the XML file for that event. In other words, a choice may have a 40% chance of triggering node A, and a 60% chance of triggering node B. This can be set by the event author. This means that each event can have up to 8 resolutions!
  
• o They tend to have significant effects on the game, usually affecting a planet, system, important character, etc.
  
• o They have a different XML structure that is similar, but not exactly, like Stories.
  
• • They can be written by anyone and the target/trigger/result tag elements mean that they can contain a lot of flexibility without outside scripting need
  
  
• • Emperor System Added – This system allows personal interaction with you, as you play the Emperor in the game. This first pass adds the following functionality:
• o New UI design
  
• o Unique Emperor Actions – currently 3 are implemented: rest, train a skill, and engage in a hobby.
  
• o Adds the Spirit mechanic – this is basically your mental heath and ranges from -100 to 100, where 100 is fantastic and -100 is despondent. This value affects your health and AP amount per turn, as well as Action effectiveness.
  
•  Can be improved by interaction with friends, allies, and mentors, or rest, or events
  
•  Decreases with failed events, interacting with enemies, and consistently maxing out your APs
  
• o Adds the Health system for the Emperor
  
•  Uses same levels as Characters (Perfect, Fine, etc.)
  
•  Affects APs available
  
•  Affected by Spirit, events, and consistently maxing out APs
  
• o Adds the Inner Circle mechanic
  
•  As you build relationships with friends, you may invite them into your ‘Inner Circle’ – these are the people you trust the most and rely on to run your Empire
  
•  Friends in the Inner Circle never decline an Action that is not harmful
  
•  You get a significant Spirit boost from interacting with people in the IC
  
•  You add a small amount of Spirit for each friend in the IC
  
•  Must be a friend to be in the IC – any relationship change will result in their falling out, which will lead to a significant Spirit decrease
  
•  Can add up to 5 initially, added as an Action
  
• • Must be a Friend and have a Trust level > 50 to be eligible
  
• o Adds Unique Traits – Intimidation, Social Skill, and Inspire
  
•  Intimidation can be used to Intimidate Characters during an interaction – reduces their Decision Score but increases their Grudge and Fear and reduces Trust
  
•  Social Skill gives a bonus to all Character interactions
  
•  Inspire gives a bonus to all interactions and a significant bonus to speech Actions
  
•  Can be improved over time or through an Emperor Action
  
  
• • Added and completed Story Manager – can now handle any number of stories, integrated with saves, and allows individual folders per story for ease of organization, and differentiates between Stories and Events
• • Upgraded Story/Event UI to follow the layout and text that UI 2.0 will have (just not using Doozy) – much easier to read and now has categories, more tags, and a clearer layout
  
  
• • Completed functionality of Reform system – over 50 reforms and practicals are now in game (more will be added as the Military system and Xyl system are added). Also UI for Reform System will be upgraded to UI 2.0 in subsequent builds
  
• • Upgraded Unity from version 5.6.12 to version 2019.1.14 (most current stable version) – has greatly increased performance
  
• • Upgraded C# from version 2.0 to 4.1
  
• • Integrated Doozy UI Manager 3.0 – will be retrofitting all existing elements to use Doozy system and upgrade to UI 2.0
  
• • Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements – all reported bugs on Discord have been addressed in this build.
  

It's a fairly big download, but the performance improvements alone are worth getting. From this point forward, we will be updating/retrofitting the UI at more or less weekly intervals between large point updates. The next part we will be updating is the main UI! Be on the lookout!

-Steve

Just wanted to post some update since we’ve been rather quiet getting the game ready for the .8 update! With this update, there are only a handful of major systems remaining to add, so here’s what we’ve been working on:

• SCIENCE – The Science System will now be fully functional, less some Reforms/Practicals, but the .8 will have about 15 researchable items, and have all systems functional! I will be posting a video after the release of .8 showing how the science system works, but it’s quite elegant and non-micro!

• STORIES – The beginning of stories in the game will be in .8 – there will be about 3-4 test stories that will showcase the system. Many more stories will be part of the game, and the best part is that they will be moddable – anyone can write a story and have it be part of the game!

• HOUSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER – Now Houses will start to consider their relationships with each other as part of their long-term strategy – if they are at war, they will act thusly, and if they are friendly, they will help each other. They will also have House to House specific actions that they will implement as they consider in much the same way you do – what will be the best for them?

• UI REVAMP – This will be a long-term update and one I’m very excited about! With the only really 2 major systems remaining to add being the military and the Xyl, we can start to finalize the look and feel of the UI. We have 4 major goals with this update:

• o SIMPLICITY – We have already removed or hidden over 50% of the items on the Main UI, and we are moving to prioritize only what a player really needs to know each turn. The information will still be there if needed, but it will be hidden until then.
  
• o ACTIVITY – The very best UI’s ‘move’ and do things, rather than be static. So be prepare to see opening windows, moving buttons, active frames, etc. in line with the game’s lore and tech!
  
• o DYNAMIC TOOLTIPS – If you’ve played Total War: Three Kingdoms, you know what wonderful tooltips that game has. That’s part of the first part of the revamp – if you mouse over something, you should have expanded information about not only what the number means, but how it got there (within reason). The ADM tooltip is an experiment in this direction, but it’s one we’re going to pursue!
  
• o PLAYER FLOW – An example of this is we are going to remove the project bar and replace it with buttons in the bottom-center of each view that are view and mode dynamic. Projects will now be in order of ‘most useful’ for that view/mode and will be clearly available (with expanded tooltips explaining their use/costs) similar to an RPG. By doing things like this, we will show the player what’s important wherever they’re at in the game, and as they are learning, we feel this will be a major aid in that direction.
  
• In the meantime, we continue to work with our publisher on adding new art throughout the game, including Facegen portraits that will be keyed to a character’s culture! All-new icons for Projects, Events, and Actions are coming!
  

As we are closing in on the major systems being added, the next step is balance and bugs. To that end, we will really need your help! We will be starting a closed alpha test soon, and we will need about 10 people to participate. In addition, if you already have the game we would love your feedback on the systems and UI changes we are implementing. We have dedicated channels on our Discord server for these items, and we only get better if we know what works and what doesn’t!

.8 will be available at the end of the week and gwill be updated on Steam!
-Steve

To those of you who bought AotSS early when it was barely a gleam in a system governor's eye, I thank you! By now, many of you should have your Steam keys and can now get the latest builds. I recommend that you also join the community group - hundreds have already joined, why not you? This will be the go-to place for news, announcements, patch notes, and more!

So don't delay - join today!

-Steve