Alliance of the Sacred Suns News

Hello everyone! Steve here with another exciting dev diary. This week, we’re going to talk about the military system’s macro level that you as the Emperor most interact with, called Warplans. Houses will also use them to prosecute Challenges, and they will be used in the Xyl end game.

Essentially, Players can create Warplans in order to execute war Actions such as conquer a planet, invade a system, destroy infrastructure, terrorize a system, etc. These Warplans are created with the help and advice of your War Prime on a special Warplan screen, accessed from the Military Tactical Mode.

Warplans can be as simple as sending a single Force to a planet to harass the planet/system defenses, or as complex as orchestrating the conquest of an entire Province. The beauty of the system is that it is all planned from a high level - remember, AotSS is not a war game, and as the emperor, you would not be responsible for calculating supply logistics or determining the best type of missile to use for a planetary conquest - that’s why you have Primes and Generals!

Warplans consist of 6 main elements: Scope, Stellar Target, Political Target, Lead Admiral, Priority, and Mission. You as the Emperor select these things, and based on your choices the War Prime will advise as to the best Force mix. Forces are grouped into a primary Task Force under the command of a senior Admiral, with smaller Forces that make up the mission requirements. Once you make your selections, the War Prime will let you know how well your current units and active Forces can implement this Warplan, and you will have a chance to modify the scale, target, etc. or simply cancel altogether.

The player can have as many active Warplans as the War Prime’s Administration Level - 1, with a minimum of 1 always.

There are 3 different proposed Scopes: Region, Planet, and System. The Scope determines the eligible Targets - Targets may only fit into the Scope of the Warplan or below if needed. For example, conquering a Planet may require that certain Regions are Targets if they contain sufficient Control Points to obtain military control of the Planet, but the System would not be targeted. Similarly, if a System is a Target, Planets of the House who is the Political Target would need to be sub targets to execute the Warplan properly. Note that a Region can not be directly targeted by a Warplan; it would only be a sub-target of a Planet Target.

Stellar Targets can be Regions, Planets (Outposts and Colonies), and Systems. The Scope determines what the eligible Stellar Targets can be in order to fulfill the Warplan Mission.

Political Targets can be Great Houses, Xyl holdings, or external Empires. Note that in most cases the player will need an active Challenge to set a House as a Political Target. Each Warplan can only have one Political Target - if the player wishes to target another House or Empire, they will need a separate Warplan for that.

The Lead Admiral is responsible for organizing the Task Force(s) that will be required to implement the Warplan. A Lead Admiral will be proposed by the War Prime once a Scope and Target are designated (higher-level Scopes will require Admirals with a higher ADM rating to effectively lead) but this can be overruled by the player at a 5-10% hit to the War Prime’s relationship score, as well as the passed-over Admiral)

Once a Warplan is started, Intel can be gathered on it by Inquisitors. You will be able to assign an Inquisitor to any known Warplan implement by another House or external Empires. This will allow you to know the Target, Sub-targets, which political entity is behind the Warplan (Houses or Empires), the state of readiness, and the expected Organization rating. This will allow you to send reinforcements to targeted Planets or Systems, or even make a preemptive strike on Shipyards or Planets during the Organization phase!

Missions can be the following:
*Conquer
This mission seeks to military occupy a Stellar Target with the goal of keeping it long-term.
Eligible Scopes: Planet, System

*Attrit Defenses
This mission seeks to reduce or destroy the defenses of the Stellar Target for possible future Missions.
Eligible Scopes: Planet, System (Provinces do not have defenses as such)

*Terror
This mission seeks to cause Devastation on a Planet that specifically targets Pops in order to reduce Happiness and cause Unrest on the Planet.
Eligible Scopes: Planet, System

*Scout
This mission seeks to increase the Intel Progress of the Stellar Target for either exploration or military intel purposes. Also used to allow Surface Expeditions of Planets.
Eligible Scopes: Planet, System

*Degrade Planetary Infrastructure
This mission seeks to reduce or destroy economic and industrial Sectors on a Planet in order to significantly degrade a Planet’s Economy and Industrial Output.
Eligible Scopes: Planet

*Degrade Orbital Infrastructure
This mission seeks to reduce or destroy orbital Shipyards, Starbases, and Trade Ports in order to significantly degrade a Planet’s military and trade capabilities.
Eligible Scopes: Planet

*Destroy
This is a special Mission that looks to destroy a specific Stellar Target.
Currently, the only eligible targets are a Region and the Xyl Recension Engine, but may be expanded to Planets if we decide a Planet busting weapon is necessary in the design

Warplans will be assigned a Operation Name that will be randomly generated, or the player can name it at no cost (this is just for immersion and serves no game play purpose other than to allow a reference to a specific Warplan) Warplans can be cancelled UNTIL the Task Force is set into motion (Execute Phase)

Warplans have 4 phases: Planning, Organization, Preparation, and Execution, and a special Status, Paused.

Planning Phase is used when the Warplan is first organized and Targets, Mission, and Scope are set. This Phase is completed when the Warplan is authorized and the AP cost is paid (1 AP for each Scope level of the Warplan)

Organization Phase is used to determine what Forces and what organization will be required, and to build/create these Forces as needed. For example, if the Warplan calls for a Heavy Space Combat Force, and none exists, the War Prime will attempt to create one with a minimum Effectiveness level of 50%. If the Combat Force cannot be created, the War Prime will attempt to substitute the next-smaller size template Combat Force until one can be created. If none can be created, the War Prime will inform the player in a Organization Report generated the following turn of what is missing/less than the optimal plan. At that point, the player can approve the modifications or put the Warplan on pause while they build the recommended elements (usually by re-configuring Shipyards to build the missing size ships). This can also be automated and left to the War Prime. Once the recommended Forces are raised, the War Prime will send a notification to the player that the Warplan may proceed and can be unpaused.

Once all Forces are ready, the Preparation Phase starts. This is where depending on the mission, 1-4 Turns are used to run war drills, practice the mission, gain experience for crews, etc. The number of turns is 0 + Scope (where Region is 1, Planet is 1, System is 2, and Province is 3) + Total Forces / 3, rounded down (so that less than 3 Forces don’t add a Turn) - Lead Admiral Administration Rating / 2. There is always a minimum of 1 turn required, and a maximum of 4 turns (1 year) At this point, an Organization modifier is attached to each Force depending on how well the Preparation Phase was executed. This is a random % from -25% to +25% which is determined by Lead Admiral’s Military Skill * Lead Admiral’s Administration Rating / 40 for the upper bound and 25% is subtracted from the upper bound for the lower bound. This can significantly affect the performance of each Force and may be a reason to cancel the Warplan after this Phase.

Finally, once Preparation ends, the Warplan is Executed. At this point, the Warplan cannot be cancelled, but the War Prime will request your confirmation once the Task Force makes contact with the Target (in case the defenses are too strong, an unexpected issue arises, etc). The Task Force will take damage from the System Defenses, but will proceed no further until your confirmation is given.

After the Warplan Execution Phase starts, your War Prime will send a Mission Report each turn to inform you of the status of the Warplan’s mission and how close the mission is to success or failure. The War Prime will also give their current percentage chance of ultimate success of the mission, along with an anticipated ETA. You can cancel the Warplan from the Mission Report if desired and have the remaining Forces stay in their mission area, return to New Terra (or the nearest system with a shipyard) for repairs, or disband. You may also have the option to allow reinforcements to be used to support the Warplan on advice of your War Prime.

Longer post today, but feel like there’s some good information about how high-level war will be conducted in Alliance of the Sacred Suns!

Steve

Hello everyone! Hope everyone had a good holiday season, a happy New Year, and that 2021 is off to a better foot than 2020 for you! We have certainly kicked off the new year running, and that’s what we want to talk about today!

We wanted to touch on our timelines for the year, and our plans for the next few open alphas, as what we’re working on now. I want to have a new development diary go out about every 2 weeks, as those are the lengths of the development sprints we are working on in the studio.

First off, with the funding provided by HH, we’ll be able to add another programmer to the staff to work on things like UI scripting and data conversion, which will free me up to do a lot more with the AI, optimization, and game mechanics. We hope to announce their addition in early Feburary. Also, AotSS will now have a custom music score, done by Cody Still, who has composed for Hollywood trailers and movies for years and has already composed some amazing music for the game, including the main theme. If you’re on our Discord (and if you’re not, why not?!) I have posted a preview of the main theme there.

Now for our timelines. We’d like to do our next Closed Alpha II sometime in April, and our Closed Beta in late July. We haven’t finalized an EA release yet, but it would be at the earliest in August or September. Of course we’ll let you know when that happens!

Next, I wanted to talk about a concept of the game that is getting a polish - Scouting. Specifically, scouting systems and planets. Currently, you can either send a probe to the system that you want more information on as a Project, or a scout Force, and a scout probe will increase the intel level of the system by 25%, while a Force will increase the intel level by the Scouting value of the Force every turn. While it’s not a bad system, it had room for improvement. So this is how it’s going to work going forward:

First of all, and most important, planet intel is decoupled from system intel. In other words, you’ll have to individually scout planets if you want any information beyond ‘there is a planet here’.


There are now 5 levels of planet intel:

• None means just that; you don’t even know if there’s a planet in that slot or not!
  
• Low means that you know there is a planet, but nothing beyond that.
  
• Medium now reveals the type and size; e.g. Large Desert planet.
  
• High now reveals the habitability level of the planet - from None to Optimal.
  
• Max reveals the resource levels of the planet, as well as any planet traits.
  

You can obtain Low and Medium intel levels from just using probes, but to get anything higher, you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way, by sending down survey crews. That means you’ll need to have a survey Force in the system.



Scouting options can now be accessed directly from the Planet Box, and sending a Probe will no longer be considered a Project, but an Action that costs 1 AP, 100 Energy, 100 Heavy, and 5 Rare. Its ETA will depend on the distance to the system. If you have a Scout Force in the system, you will have the option active to send a survey crew that will automatically reveal Medium Intel (you need Low Intel to even know the planet exists!) and will scout the planet at a rate dependant on the Force’s Scouting rating.

What this means is that even systems that are near inhabited systems will not necessarily have planets that are revealed - you will need to scout the system (you can still send a survey probe to do a system scan) and when the system is at High or Max Intel all planets will be discovered. Medium or low might still contain hidden planets, so Scouting will be much more important when you’re trying to figure out where to build Outposts and Colonies! The cost to build Colonies will be adjusted significantly upward in conjunction with the revised Outpost system (coming next update, but Outposts now have 3 levels and can be ‘upgraded’ to a Colony at level 3) so having a solid scouting strategy will be very important!

Houses will also now be sending their own scout Forces and probes (previously you had to do all the scouting) but if you at a relationship level below ‘Neutral’ they will not share their scan data with you, so the Empire will not be aware of that information. However, as the Empire’s leading House, you will share your scan info with any House that is an active member of the Empire, regardless of relationship.

Note that while probes can be sent anywhere, Forces will still need to remain within the Logistical Network, so if you want to scan a planet in more detail, you’ll have to have a LGN connection to it. Fortunately, Scout Forces will now have 200% range from the normal LGN to assist with this requirement. In conjunction with this, Houses will now be able to make a request for a specific system to be connected to the LGN.

Note that you can still Colonize and build an Outpost even on planets that have not been scouted beyond ‘Low’ - but you will be taking a significant gamble that the planet will be appropriate for that use! We certainly hope that scan strategy will now be an important part of the game and will hopefully appeal to the eXploration part of the 4X formula!

Thanks for your time!
-Steve

Alliance of the Sacred Suns can be wishlisted on Steam and will release in 2021.

We am excited to announce that Alliance of the Sacred Suns will be published by Hooded Horse Inc. with guaranteed funding of $300,000, 10x our Kickstarter goal. Hooded Horse is also the publisher of Terra Invicta, another upcoming space strategy game, and we are over the moon about having the funding and resources to make Alliance reflect the vision we had for the project so long ago.

As we will need additional time to develop the project at our new expanded scale, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Kickstarter campaign. With over 350 backers, many of you wanted to see Alliance succeed, and we don’t want to forget about those who were willing to help in our time of need.

So all of our backers, regardless of pledge amount, will receive free access to the Beta when it launches towards the end of 2021 as a thank you for your pledge and your support! If you pledged, you will get additional information about how to get your key in an update email sent a short while ago.

We are very excited and grateful for this opportunity to bring the full vision of Alliance to the gaming community. We will make you proud of your support, and you will be pleased with the world we can bring to you.

Sincerely,
The KHS Team

Hey everyone!

So we've had a pretty good first week plus - we're right at 25% for the campaign with 21 days to go and theoretically that's right where we need to be as far as pace - but we're falling into the same curve that a lot of projects hit on KS - a strong start, which gradually flattens. This week we're going to be on some podcasts/streams and we're hoping to be featured on some industry websites, but we want to give people who want to spread the word and who have already backed a more tangible reward - our AotSS Kickstarter Referral Program! It's super simple:

1) Message us that you are interested in the program, or you can email me at [email protected]. If you email, please use the username/name that you submitted the pledge under.

2) You will shortly get a unique referrer link that you can post anywhere you believe you can get people interested in the project.

3) Anyone that uses that link to access the campaign and makes a pledge will add 25% of that amount to your referral pledge amount as a tier credit! That's it!

IMPORTANT NOTE: To be eligible for the referral tier credits, you can not reduce your current pledge.

So example: You pledge $40 and you post your referral link in 2 forums. 5 people end up pledging the project through the link, and they pledged a total of $220. You would get $55 added to your pledge amount for the purpose of calculating reward tier! So even though your pledge is still only $40, you would be able to choose a reward that is worth up to $95!

We wanted to reward people who take the time to refer and talk up AotSS beyond flowing words, and we thought this was a pretty neat way to show our appreciation for you taking your time to do so!

Again, thanks to all who have given and if you have already referred people, please let us know how and where in a message and we'll give you a special $25 tier credit just for doing that!

KS Campaign Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aotss/alliance-of-the-sacred-suns

Sincerely,
Steve

Through our first 24 hours, we raised over $4,000 (which is 13% of goal) and significantly above our expectations! The work's not done by a long shot - many campaigns have started strong and ended with a whimper - but we're seeing a steady stream of pledges even today. It's a marathon, not a sprint, but your efforts if you pledged or told others about the campaign - or both - have put us on a foundation for success, and we are very grateful!!

That said, word of mouth is by far the most powerful tool we have to spread the word. Forums. Discord channels. Reddits. Facebook. Twitter. BBS's. Please, if you believe in this project, tell others. Your words have weight in your own communities. The few minutes you take to relink our campaign could allow others to find the game they've been looking for! And it could make all the difference for us.

Regardless, this community has already done much, and we are truly thankful!

-Steve