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V70 - Riders of Doom Available Now

[p][/p][p][/p]
Greetings, mortals!
[p][/p][p]The time has finally come. Version 70 of Songs of Syx is now available and will bring a host of changes and additions to the game. The brunt is focusing on war, and the battles that are fought. It also includes a few changes/fixes I believe you will enjoy, including a much requested Lab/Library fix. [/p][p][/p][p]And to mark the beginning of an even greater era for Songs of Syx, we have created a new trailer about a silly peasant called Bob. You should feel sorry for him: [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p]
MAIN FEATURES
[h3]RIDERS OF DOOM[/h3][p]With the additions of spearmen and cavalry, war in Songs of Syx has changed forever. Watch banners flutter in the wind as you flank the enemy with fast and powerful heavy cavalry, or shore up your buckling center with experienced spearmen. [/p][p][/p][p]A new and enhanced AI awaits you on the field, who will make short work of an unworthy adversary. Battles are inspired from antiquity with emphasis on tactics and morale. Feel the weight of 20,000 troops pushing against your shield wall. This comes packaged in a new UI, Quick Battles and more.[/p][p][/p][h3]RESETTLEMENT AND LEVELS[/h3][p]Did you lose the decisive battle, with the enemy at your gates? Has your city’s situation become impossible? Pick up your stuff and leave for new pastures. But do not worry! You can bring a large amount of resources with you, including your levels with their additional bonuses that carry over and make your next city faster to build. Titles and how they work has also been improved. [/p][p][/p][h3]EXPANDED SOUNDTRACK[/h3][p]Made by brilliant composer Jasinka, 10 new songs have been added to the official soundtrack.[/p][p][/p][h3]Full patchnotes and devlog video. [/h3][p]Patchnotes may be found at the bottom of this post. As usual however, I have created a video log where I go through all of the features with terrible sound and video quality. [/p][p]Enjoy here: [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]The Riders of Doom Update marks a new beginning for the epic development that is Songs of Syx. In order to make this thing bigger than ever, I have employed the assistance of my new partner, Sterling. As a result, the following is happening: [/p][p][/p][h3]Daily Deal 25% Discount Starting 10AM PT (19.00 CET)[/h3][p]The Daily Deal will run for 24h, but the discount itself will continue for 14 days, until the Winter Sale, where we will also participate. [/p][p][/p][h3]Free Weekend Starting 10AM PT (19.00 CET)[/h3][p]For the first time in the history of Songs of Syx, we will host a Free Weekend. That means the entire game, including V70, will be available to play for free until Monday Dec 8. The demo will still be available of course, but this is so that even our demo players can experience the full game for a limited time. The green demo button will disappear (but the demo is still up of course), for the duration of the Free Weekend. [/p][p][/p][h3]PATCHNOTES[/h3][p]New quick battle mode
New unit cards, tooltips and QoL for divisions.
Division flags
Improved AI tactics, and division maneuvering.
Remade combat mechanics and stats (New battle engine)
Cavalry (livestock equip). Increases mass, offence skill, decreases defense skill
Spears. Increases formation defence (defence gained in the front of on guard divisions)
Visuals for all battle equips.
10 new soundtracks
Advisor.
Resettle option (start over but keep level + resources)
Labs and libraries have non-recource options, enabled by default.
Limits on techs in tech tree.
All titles can be unlocked per race for more effect.
More efficient janitors
Hunters effective for a bit longer, but diminishing returns per employee.
Autumn tree colors more prominent.
Lifebringer achievement fixed
Fixed stalled invasions
Fixed buggy caravans
Region delivery of farmed goods fix[/p]

V69 - final showdown

[p]Update, 25th of June

I'm now setting V69 on the main branch on steam and other stores. The older builds are still available as betas on all stores, use them to continue old saves. I will now take it easy for a bit, then work on V70, which will be even smaller changes, and polish heavy. It will focus on battles. After that I will work on 1.0. At least that's the current plan. Have a good summer!

/Jake

Old event:


Hello!

[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
This patch has mainly been about polish, very little juicy new things.

Both previous version 67 & 68 has not been fully released. This is because they've been my attempt to balance the game, and make it more of a challenge. Problem is, this generally creates more frustration, and if the game itself is frustrating in other ways, there's simply too much frustration, and people calling for my head.

But now, V69 has had a lot of that functional frustration fixed. I've also balanced the game to be easier in general, allowing for more freedom and creativity. My only vision has been a game that doesn't snowball with progress, because I want a game that you can learn from for as long as possible, not quit because of boredom. I might, and I might not have succeeded with that currently, we will see.
V69 have been alpha tested, and is now going live on the beta channel. You know the drill, go to preferences in steam, select EA69, play.

V69 is a bit easier than 1.0 will be. The nobles, which you can currently use, have no perpetual cost, and that's something 1.0 will address. But we will see what you guys think.

Also, apologies, but the 1.0 launch is delayed. There are a few more things I want to fix and tweak before its release. For those who own the game, this means nothing for you. For those waiting on 1.0, you're simply going to get a better product. If you don't want to wait, get the game now.

In the future, there's a few systems I want to fix up, and some polish overall. I also want to spend some time on battles, and balance those to a great state. It would be a shame not to.

I'm also in the process of moving into a run down farm. So I will be a bit swamped this summer. Have patience. I'll try to respond to everything on discord:

discord

Patch notes (I'm fully aware I can't spell)

[/p]
  • [p] Misc:
    [/p]
  • [p] Overhauled the overlays. Moved a bunch to them to the tools that actually uses them for less clutter.
    [/p]
  • [p] Unite is more expensive
    [/p]
  • [p] Gifts are more generous.
    [/p]
  • [p] Age death renamed to natural causes.
    [/p]
  • [p] Armies can be supplied in any state, as long as they're in your territory. You get more artillery when fortified though.
    [/p]
  • [p] Workload for farms, and in general fixed.
    [/p]
  • [p] Rivalry returns after 8 years for vassals.
    [/p]
  • [p] Admin and overhead fixes and UI.
    [/p]
  • [p] Admin notification.
    [/p]
  • [p] Admin special automate employees function.
    [/p]
  • [p] Work-group UI enhancements
    [/p]
  • [p] Colors added to tech tree.
    [/p]
  • [p] Some missing techs added.
    [/p]
  • [p] Service proximity is square rooted, so more generous.
    [/p]
  • [p] Fixed factions suggestions for stance changes.
    [/p]
  • [p] Grain farms yields less, but bakaries are better.
    [/p]
  • [p] New events, bug fixes
    [/p]
  • [p] Two new levels to smooth out the progression.
    [/p]
  • [p] Changed the global boost buildings - the worker's guilds now multiply workforce, and the others have reduced effects and lower costs.
    [/p]
  • [p] Raider adjustments
    [/p]
  • [p] Difficulty settings enhanced. Now there is casual mode (default) selected.
    [/p]
  • [p] Immigration rate increased. Has no effect on population growth.
    [/p]
  • [p] Breeding limit of nurseries higher.
    [/p]
  • [p] Ex-convict is no longer a type. Types are now native, immigrant and former slave.
    [/p]
  • [p] Ex-convict is set when freed from punishment and will remain for a year.
    [/p]
  • [p] native population gets a boost to fulfillment.
    [/p]
  • [p] University rate doubled
    [/p]
  • [p] Stocks, execution block, graveyards are no longer services. They will be visited on the subject's spare time.
    [/p]
  • [p] Subjects will move around more and do fun stuff.
    [/p]
  • [p] Water access combines sweet and salt water into one.
    [/p]
  • [p] Clearing rocks is a lot faster.
    [/p]
  • [p] Workers always go to their place of work initially, so that they don't go fetching raw materials in the wrong direction.
    [/p]
  • [p] The convert tool for structures is instant
    [/p]
  • [p] Auto replace button for noble death.
    [/p]
  • [p] Rearranged levels, removed a lot of rooms into the tech tree. Spreading out innovation and nobles.
    [/p]
  • [p] Nobles have titles for each rank.
    [/p]
  • [p] Nobles boost 50 workers with +2, every rank the same amount of workers.
    [/p]
  • [p] Dynamic boosting system for faction, royalties and regions.
    [/p]
  • [p] Fixed alliance cost
    [/p]
  • [p] Some fixes to global prices. Leather products stood out in V68.
    [/p]
  • [p] Many title changes
    [/p]
  • [p] Argonosh training speed set to 1
    [/p]
  • [p] City hall tax removed
    [/p]
  • [p] Regions buildings with global boosts changed to give multiplicative benefits
    [/p]
  • [p] Shorter Dondorians
    [/p]
  • [p] Garthimi dislike torches
    [/p]
  • [p] Amevian tourists
    [/p]
  • [p] Woodcutters, mines, and bakeries changed to use the correct (reduced) maintenance
    [/p]
  • [p] Many new events
    [/p]
  • [p] Recurring events that destroy things are disabled for now
    [/p]
  • [p] Text fixes
    [/p]
  • [p] Ingame wiki updated
    [/p]
  • [p] Natural stone amount decreased.
    [/p]
  • [p] Subjects can perform blocked off jobs.
    [/p]
  • [p] City ore deposits richness has been retired. All deposits now have 100% efficiency.
    [/p]
  • [p] World deposits is scrapped. Instead, now each region have prospects for all industries semi-randomly distributed amongst them. Terrain matters in this distribution. For the player city, the terrain matters as to what prospects you'll have in raw production.
    [/p]
  • [p] Pushed natural deaths off a bit.
    [/p]
  • [p] Decreased player trade caps and added some UI.
    [/p]
  • [p] Decreased species boosts slightly. This and the above should encourage more generalisation.
    [/p]
  • [p] AI factions can attack your allies
    [/p]
  • [p] Betrayal for attacking after peace.
    [/p]
  • [p] Many bugs / suggestions
    [/p]
  • [p] Armies max amount of supplies changed from 24 days to 6 days.
    [/p]
  • [p] Armies can be supplied everywhere at all times (unless your capital is closed).
    [/p]
  • [p] Notifications for armies that have less than 1/2 supplies left.
    [/p]
  • [p] Walls gives roughly half the fortification bonus.
    [/p]
  • [p] Recruiting soldiers cost 6 days worth of health supplies up front.
    [/p]
  • [p] Disbanding armies does not return health supplies.
    [/p]
  • [p] Conscripts for the AI fix. The AI needs to wait for their conscript pool to regenerate before spawning armies.
    [/p]
  • [p] Redid army supplies. Improved UI and mechanics. Added Sithilon supply to Dondorians only for bonus morale.
    [/p]
  • [p] Foundation thing added. Gives you boost or malus to room maintenance depending on where they are built.
    [/p]
  • [p] Pre-generated road is special. Does not require maintenance and can not be repaired, only removed. No weirdness with maintenance on account of it.
    [/p]
  • [p] Degrade will become apparent sooner, from roughly 2 years to 8 days without janitors.
    [/p]
  • [p] Disabled rooms degrade x4 as fast.
    [/p]
  • [p]
    [/p]
  • [p] Logistics:
    [/p]
  • [p] Transports changed into mini-freight trains. Basically you need at least 6 employees and a distance of 100 tiles to make them more effective than deliverymen, else you're running them at a loss.
    [/p]
  • [p] Very effective transports that are fully staffed can be equal to 100-200 deliverymen.
    [/p]
  • [p] Transports only deliver to transport stations automatically. The stations also require minimum workers.
    [/p]
  • [p] Prioritized fetching. Enables warehouses and haulers to fetch from other warehouses without specific orders to do so. They fetch from those warehouses that are not prioritized.
    [/p]
  • [p] Market, eatery restaurant and in have warehouse-wroker carry capacity.
    [/p]
  • [p] Janitors also get warehouse-carry. Maintenance that require resources takes only one second to complete.
    [/p]
  • [p] Workers in rooms gets a "free" distance to fetch resources. The time fetching is separated from proximity, and called "input".
    [/p]
  • [p] Extensive copy-paste settings tool for logistics room.
    [/p]
  • [p] Export depots have priority-fetch and a global fetch limit as in olden times. This is enabled by default at 25%.
    [/p]
  • [p]
    [/p]
  • [p] Fertility:
    [/p]
  • [p] 4 soil types with different properties and nutrients for each map.
    [/p]
  • [p] Ground has moisture.
    [/p]
  • [p]Fertility = soil nutrients
  • moisture
    [/p]
  • [p] Natural moist maps will need very little irrigation
    [/p]
  • [p] Dry maps will depend on irrigation
    [/p]
  • [p] Dry maps has more nutrient rich soil.
    [/p]
  • [p] Moisture is essential to farms. You want 100% moisture for those, and perfect soil type. Pastures, orchards and woodcutters also needs moisture to some degree. Soil nutrients dictate density for these.
    [/p]
  • [p] Canal placement has helpful overlay.
    [/p]
  • [p] Canals radiate "stronger" fresh water.
    [/p]
  • [p] Hovering a canal / pumps tells you the pressure of the whole system.
    [/p]
  • [p] Pump changes. Different sizes, and easier to place.
    [/p]
  • [p] Region farms's once per year harvest can not be exploited.
    [/p]
  • [p]
    [/p]
  • [p] Tech
    [/p]
  • [p] Libraries now use leather instead of paper.
    [/p]
  • [p] Lab ratio halved. A quarter of innovation comes from your population itself (levels). Half comes from clay usage by the lab workers (clay tablets), which is then diminished to one quarter as you upgrade clay.
    [/p]
  • [p] Experience bonus decreased from +1.5 to 1.0.
    [/p]
  • [p] Max boost from tech increased from +5 to +6
    [/p]
  • [p] All production techs use innovation, while almost all others use knowledge.
    [/p]
  • [p] Laboratories produce twice the amount of innovation.
    [/p]
  • [p] The hammer value now shows how much workforce you gain from the tech, including upgrades and tool levels.
    [/p]
[p]






[/p]

Impressive colony building sim Songs of Syx is getting ready to leave Early Access with a big new Beta

Songs of Syx is a deep and engrossing colony-building sim from Gamatron AB that has steadily improved with new updates since the 2020 release into Early Access but the 1.0 release is finally approaching.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/01/impressive-colony-building-sim-songs-of-syx-is-getting-ready-to-leave-early-access-with-a-big-new-beta/

V68 - All in good time

[h2]Rejoice! Jake brings thee new hours to waste![/h2]

Note that initially, this patch will be in beta, meaning you need to manually check it out in the steam thing, "properties / betas" something. It will remain in beta until all fires are put out.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I spend some extra time on this video, probably 2, and the editing makes me appear surprisingly coherent. I hope you like it, because the ordeal was very frustrating.

Like usual, I don't really know what I've been doing. I should see a doctor about that, as some reviewers have insinuated. But you'll find the patchnotes I've scribbled down during the journey at the bottom.

What I do know is that this is the last batch of the Early Access period. Let me explain a bit what that means here as well, so that there's little confusion.

To me EA is a label that means:
"Some things are missing, or are a bit broken. Features will be added and removed and experimented with based on your input. As an EA player, you are a beta-tester". EA is like a pre-order for a game with some perks,

Now though, the fundamental systems are in place. They work. The balance is there, even though it will require possibly years to perfect. The only place-holder feature remaining is nobles. It is time. New systems will be added, but they will not be controversial. Things like Ports, sieges, pets, races, rooms, campaigns etc. are things that add to the game and have no negative side effects.
However, these things are plans, they are not promises. If you buy SoS after EA, you should be happy with its current state.

The 1.0 patch will be the fist patch of this nature. For instance, there will be:

  • water wheels to boost industry
  • Farmstead to boost agriculture
  • More monuments
  • More and prettier roads
  • Park room
  • Police building
  • Medical research fascility
  • New compact pasture variation.
  • Meaningful fortifications.


Note that there's just additions here, without fundamental changes to gameplay. What will change is:
Nobility overhaul, throne room overhaul

Some things I want you to be aware of:
  • Price might increase 25 -> 30$, although I haven't decided.
  • I might team up with a publisher for launch
  • There most probably will be sales.


This is not to mess with any of you. No $3.99 hat DLCs. It's simply to reach a wider audience, and yes, to make money. If I make more money, not only will I be happy, but I could also scale up the game and increase development pace without personally break myself.

[h2]Patchnotes[/h2]

  • New event mechanics & new and refined events.
  • Better and more error resistant saving
  • Baths consume coal at a predictable rate
  • Changing room materials do not crash saves
  • new and improved bonuses and stats for regions
  • new and improved road and path generation for the world.
  • new mechanics for world pathing and trade partners.
  • More state is saved when a room is copied or broken. Such as radius, and logistics settings.
  • Stage & Arenas now have fixed sizes, but come in different shapes.
  • Some visual candy for the woodcutter. Increased storage for them.
  • Mines and refiners have differently sized output storage, bigger in general.
  • Pastures do not get penalised for their surrounding fence, which will make indoor pastures better.
  • new sprites for dirt and blood for portraits
  • new tutorial cut scenes
  • new titles icons
  • Barber is more space efficient.
  • Hospitals need fabric to function, and give 10% recovery. Opiates is optional and gives an extra 40% recovery.
  • The import depot is now a potential pull source.
  • New list for room construction projects.
  • You can now easily swap punishments for captives, they will not go into exile. Also fixed some general weirdness with punishment rates.
  • Pools now need direct canal access and will suck water out of the system.
  • Woodcutters, farms, orchards and pastures now operate on base fertility, and will instead get an additive boost from sweet water.
  • The old boost to knowledge from libraries is scrapped. Instead Libraries have their own separate tech point system.
  • The tech tree has been remade visually with some new helpful information.
  • The tech tree has been remade and rebalanced, quite a bit of thought has been put into it: All industries now have the same possible maximum boost at the same cost, making it viable to specialise in whatever.
  • All industries have different times to shine, mimicking human evolutions. Farms are best at first, then comes mines, refiners and finally workshops that are best late game. In have all the same value.
  • Army supply depot has been remade. It no longer stores supplies, but instead loads carts depending on demand, and leaves for the edge of the map. Considerable logistics is needed for large armies.
  • Rooms no longer breaks when they are fully degraded. This is because I can now track monument degrade.
  • Awe, harmony, etc. is scrapped. Instead all monuments have their own aura. This is so that monuments can be expanded upon.
  • Some rooms like markets lets subjects register their surroundings.
  • Pools work the same way as roads in terms of fulfilment.
  • Improved rendering speed significantly, which will also increase game speed.
  • New improved work assignments. Plebs will automatically change workplace based on their building preference. There's also the possibility to assign individual rooms to specific races. This is not an absolute tool, more of a hint, but it's working pretty well.
  • Refactored the region development code. City hall is built with government points, generated by nobles.
  • Excess world workforce generates denari.
  • Growable taxes are only shipped on their harvest day.
  • Admins are repurposed. An admin combats mid/late game overhead that will come creeping. Overhead increases exponentially.
  • The old noble offices no longer exist. Instead, when you've appointed a noble, you assign them to an office manually. These offices are split between different industries and regional management. The former boosts a limited amount of workers. The latter will result in Gov Points that are used to upgrade regions.
  • Export depots have spoilage
  • Events for regions
  • Ores generate differently on the city map. You get 100% deposits, but only enough for 30 workers without world deposits. This is to make self-sustaining early games possible.
  • Consumption of edible goods added to the UI.
  • New world battle mechanics. Better and more stable engine, with more options, such as defending a city with an army on top, assist you allies, and more.
  • Got rid of the false virus flag.
  • Enhanced the tutorial.
  • REgion buildings rebalanced and fixed.
  • Organization in regions is gone.
  • Added 'Worth' to regions. It's a function of mineral deposits, fertility and area. It is used by the AI to estimate how much they want the region.
  • Showing your net worth in the treasury UI.
  • Showing a factions net worth in their UI.
  • net worth includes worth of your population as slaves. Each pop is worth their upbringing time x the cheapest food in Syx x 2. This was bugged before with the average price of food, which could be very high.
  • Fixed broken power calculations, which were a cause of raider and AI strangeness.
  • Retirement fulfilment based on your total amount of retires.
  • Threat is renamed into Rivalry, and is not counted towards your trade.
  • You get penalised bad for failing to protect your vassals.
  • Vassal tribute slightly decreased. Their armies will attack your enemies though.
  • You get a trespassing penalty from moving armies in un-allied territory.
  • If you have an army in a distant faction's territory, they are allowed to declare war on you.
  • Factions that are at war with you, yet can't reach you, will continue to be at war with you until you make peace.
  • When signing peace, you sign a peace with all factions you are at war with.
  • Peace deals are less powerful. To get some cash from it, you seriously need to threaten the AI by having armies in their territory.
  • Factions must break off their agreements until neutral before they can declare war.
  • Wars decrease the opinion of your allies over time, along with city loyalty and region loyalty.
  • Neutral factions will station their armies by your border.
  • Raiders may cross through any other faction to attack you.
  • Raiders will demand more unique and varied things.
  • Raiders will on occasion destroy a trade partner instead of you.
  • Minimum opinion is needed for trade, pact and ally. This is so you know what opinion is expected to upkeep your stance.
  • Factions with low opinion, that can not attack themselves will "poison" all other factions against you. Given enough time, war will break out.
  • Factions that can't reach you, but wants to kill you, can give their armies to a neighbour at war. They can not start wars though, other than "poisoning" your neighbours.
  • Increased flattery from emissaries.
  • Fortifications have different and better ways of being destroyed. Enemies can scale the walls if the outer tiles are broken. This means the thickness of walls is only used to station troops on.
  • Drastically decreased the strength of every structure that is not fortifications, to emphasise their important.
  • I have a hugely genius plan to improve the importance of fortifications for 1.0. Just wanted to mention that.
  • It could also be possible to shift the map when you are invaded to the invasion spot. That is, move all buildings away from the invasion spot, which would allow you to make better use of archers and artillery (think about that will you)
  • Friendly fire from archers reduced.
  • Trees only block 50% of projectiles, and are no longer a real obstacle.
  • Fertility changes. Fertility now goes from 0.5-1.2 in bonus. Irrigation goes from 0.5-1.0. So irrigation is mandatory for all maps. You get free irrigation close to natural water places.
  • Annoying sudden confusion of divs in formation fix.
  • Div movement 'stuttering' fix.
  • Defenders on walls get "high ground" advantage in melee combat. This is x2 on grand fortifications. This should give the defender a clear advantage.
  • Pathing for divisions improved
  • Intanglement for divisions improved
  • New setting for ranged units where they will not move to attack targets
  • UI for battle improved.

About windows defender warnings

Hello. Just want to quickly address a new issue that has popped up. The windows defender warning.

This is a peculiar thing. It started happening long after I had patched V67 for the last time.
I managed to find the offensive files in the game .jar, and remove those, and I thought the problem was solved.

But now it seems to have found something else to complain about.

The particular files it's nagging about is the framework "lwjgl", which is all about rendering things to the screen. This exact copy of it is also in V66, which to my knowledge passes the defender tests. With the files being identical, I can only surmise that this must be something about dates and modification dates.

My own personal theory, which is probably not correct, is that there are variations of SoS floating about on the internet, and some of them contains a virus/malware. The defender then sees all SoS copies of this and that modification date as threats.

I can only say that I have not uploaded anything dangerous. This I can prove with the fact that this started happening long after I had patched V67. (I have patched since to remove the offending malware warning. It was useless files in any case).

So, I'm at the mercy of the whims of windows defender here. Since I have no knowledge of the matter, all I can do is pray. And you can help me out by reporting the file to Microsoft. There should be a button somewhere when you get the warning.

I am 99.99% sure this is a false flag thing. I can't say 100%, because I'm not all knowing in the matter. I'm also not overly worried, since this only affects V67 beta, and I'll look into it seriously for V68.

Also, make sure you let steam verify the installation. Might be that you haven't gotten the latest version, and that this version is fine.

If you have any information about this, of things I can try to do, please let me know.

/Jake