Songs of Syx News

V64 What is best in life?

[h3]A new era dawns. The greatest gaming event of 1999 is here. Song of Syx has a new patch.[/h3]

Oh, where to begin, it's been so long, and I've forgotten what I've done, and lost the patch-notes in a game of poker. But basically, it's been all about the world map, and adding a sort of 4X experience to go along with the city builder. We now have proper generation, proper factions that are alive, proper everything world related on steroids!
No video this time, my mic broke. But here's the thumbnail:

Here's a neighbouring king, and his heirs. He will like you differently depending on his characteristics, and your history together. You can interact with him through diplomacy.

You can also send emissaries to keep him and his heirs happy. If he makes a fuss, assassination is an option.

You now have much greater control over your realm, with proper buildings, shamelessly ripped from the total war franchise (before they had the good sense of streamlining it).

I've also added a few things to the city building experience, features, fixes and quality of life. Orchards for instance.

There's still a bit missing that I didn't have time to add to the World. Most notably anything regarding armies. That's on the to-do list for the next version.

Next up, I want to do another polish update, focusing on the city map. I have a lot of plans, you can see them here: Trello

Overall, I'm exited, we're closing in on 1.0. I have only nobles left as a major feature, and of course a mountain of polish and balance.

EA 64 has to be checked out manually in steam for now, as a “beta”. I'm very curious about the balance late game, and how the AI conducts diplomacy and decides to take you on, so let me know, I'll be here, and on the Discord

The previous version is now available as the demo, for those of you who are still waiting for a sale or whatnot, so have a look at that.

Now go forth and conquer the world!

Version 64 progress

Hi everybody!

I just want to say, that you never have to worry about the state of the game. It's going to be finished, I've got enough funds to keep at it now for another decade, and I've already been at it for about a decade, so it would be a bit silly for me to stop now.

I'm working on the game every day, sacrificing PR and community management for the sake of coding, that's why I'm not super active on the forum ATM.

Work on V64 has been a bit frustrating and slow, and it's going to be the longest wait you've ever had to endure, so I made a little video on the current state of it. Excuse the quality and the cohesion of my scattered thoughts.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Dwarf Fortress too retro? Songs of Syx is worth looking at with another big Beta update

Songs of Syx is a fantasy city-builder that in many ways could be compared with Dwarf Fortress, only with a graphical style that's just a bit more modern. A new Beta release went up recently and it's another big one.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/dwarf-fortress-too-retro-songs-of-syx-is-worth-looking-at-with-another-big-beta-update

V63 - Tourism

V63 is now stable and on the default branch of steam. To continue V62 saves, you must check out the EA62 branch as a beta in the steam client.

Hello!

I'm finally done with the new patch.

The patch is currently in the beta branch on steam. To enable it, right click the game -> properties -> betas. Select "ea V63". It might be unstable, but has been alpha tested.

With it, I'm pretty happy about the city building experience of the game, and now feel ready to start on the world map and its mechanics that I've promised.

I kept notes this time!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]New Stuff[/h2]

Sweet and salt water are now environments.
Blight and bountiful harvest events added. (+2 years playing) 25% chance per year
Droughts events. (+4 years playing) 6% chance per year-
Fishing events for improved/decreased fish output.
Upgrades for all mines + small fixes
Difficulty settings for random game.
New resource: Machinery. Used mostly to upgrade rooms.
Outdoors added as a building preference.
New workshop added. Makes the machinery resource.
New UI for individuals. Added a gimmic that generates biographies to each subject. Also added opinions as to what individuals want improved in the city. Each race can have their own template, and there are templates for scared, normal and confident subjects. Can be easily modded to add infinite flavour. If someone do, please let me know.
New thing - tourists. Tourists can come to see the marvels of your city. They're attracted by large scale industries that have a high work preference with the race of the tourist. Tourists will leave some cash and a review. You must build an inn to be able to accept tourists.
Thanks to Victor Baker, who wrote a lot of tourist review texts.
Strikes added as an alternative to emigration and riots.
Two new monuments. Flower beds and humidifier.
New road: festival square
New thing: Benches. Idle subjects will search out benches to sit on in a small radius. Useful for letting them absorb the environment.
Fullfillment from tourists.
Individual crime statistics.
Micro and macro actions for your people. Free drinks, money handouts, day off work and arrest. Can be used to temporarily boost happiness.
New growable resource 'Herbs'. Used in the ration maker. Will be used in cooking services for the nobility in later updates.
Serial killer event
3 scripts added

[h2]Reworks & Improvements[/h2]

Climate and weather redone. Now with fully simulated cycles. Snow and ice added. Terrain has been redrawn and will respond to weather and wind. Map generation improved. Wild growing things adjusted and remade. One should now no longer be able to support maximum 100 people through harvesting.
Water now increases fertility around it. Irrigation is scrapped.
Farms have been re-coded to make more sense. The coming harvest is the result of many factors, clearly listed.
Homes now need a structure, the ugly walls are gone. Easier to copy and handle. Poor isolation leads to more furniture degrade.
Animals now have fixed spawning points. These replenish at a slow rate. Animals will stick to these points. Animals will attack people near them, except for hunters. Once you build near a spawning point, no more spawning will happen.
Hunter room simplified. The rate is nerfed.
Corpses bleed.
Room rates have been improved, now showing produced per day per room.
Shape for rooms are now individual for each room, and it's possible to please everyone regarding squareness and roundness.
Refiners remade. Are now upgradable. Unlocked from start. Production lowered. Early survival tactics is to use grain + bakery.
Accidents more rare, but more deadly.
Workshops have been converted to the new sprite system. Visually improved. Has their own storage, same as refiner. Some have upgrades. They are more space efficient.
University has gotten a face lift and is more space efficient.
Upgrades for service rooms, although, I've only enabled it for lavatories so far. Lavatories got a facelift, with sanitary lids for the toilets.
The throne can no longer be instantly moved, but must be constructed. Trapped people can still function and find jobs in their vicinity.
Changed the trade controls a bit.
Reworked exposure to work differently. Exposed people will seek services or shelter. In shelter they are still exposed, but at a lower rate. Prior to death, that can also go insane.
Made trees and other growth be able to grow randomly when fertility is increased by irrigation.
Added different sizes to wells, and an upgrade. And emitting of sweet water.
Gave hearths the same treatment as wells.
Added fulfilment modifiers for all monuments, meaning you can get happiness from specific monuments per capita.
Law remake. More detailed and more options.
All punishment types affect fulfilment differently for races.
Stocks added as a compliment to punishment. This shortens prison time by half.
Guard post now come in different sizes. They now have a visible radius. The chance of arresting a criminal is based on distance to guard post.
The enemy kills stat increases neuroticism and crime rate.
Guard posts remade. Now work with a radius. The closer a crime is committed, the greater likelihood for catching them.
More crime, and more penalty from it.
Added stuff to the tutorial.

[h2]Bug Fixes & Quality of Life[/h2]

An attempt to fix shuttering mouses on certain PCs.
Buildings can be built next to deep water.
Overlays have gotten some love.
Minimap improved + flawless zooming in/out.
Copying items is easier.
Room panels and priority panels have been improved. Now possible to prevent employment by setting priorities to 0.
Lots of effort put into the new sprite system for room. Making it more moddable.
People will not try to fetch corpses that are in dangerous zones, such as a animal spawn point.
Workload calculations improved.
The use of walls when building rooms have been improved.
Huge refactorings, making the game less error prone.
New Housing panel panel with improved overlay and tools.
Oddjobbers will find homes faster.
Improved the top panel.
Remade and improved bottom panel.
Wiki improved + moved race info to new wiki and improved them a bit.
Fixed Maintenance overlay
Added a type swapper to room copying and saved blueprint placer.
Industry recipes will revert if the recipe is re-locked.
Added population to save game files.
Fixed buggy Workstations
Ability to set punishment for prisoners manually + better ui for managing criminals.
Fixed broken steam achievements.

[h2]Aesthetic[/h2]

An in-game palette that lets you change colours of roads and structures for visuals.
Unique sounds for all animals. sorry about the volume, WIP.
Sounds will play when fast forwarding.
3 new soundtracks
Made openings of buildings a bit clearer.
A light cycle toggle in the settings.
Improved overlay for minables
Added some visual help to room construction.
Made roads go diagonal next to diagonal walls.
Improved the text rendering engines, taught it some new tricks, and better looking text.

[h2]Modding[/h2]

New script engine. Now possible to inject java code, and package them as mods. See pdf in installation directory of how to get started.
Big refactoring with rooms. Room files now in folders. Modders, check out the new way of specifying rooms in other files.
Made titles be able to lock rooms (requested by modders).
Updated external libraries.

Cred to steam user FroshVII for formatting the notes!

What's cooking?

I shall tell thee a bit of what's going on and why.

The main focus of this update has been polish. I thought it was just a couple of things, but once you open one Pandora's box, it leads to others.

A lot of work has gone into a brand new climate simulation, that allows for snow, and a living world that looks much better. Wind stroking the grass for instance. Animals have gotten an overhaul, with fixed spawn spots, and hunters work more predictably. Animals are also quite dangerous, so heads up.

I've dug through all UI panels, rearranged them, fixed them up, added new ones, removed others. Adhering to countless suggestions and bad reviews.

A big thing has also been to refactor code, so all rooms use a new sprite system that allows for upgrades. All refiners now have upgrades and some of the workshops.

Other from that it's just been about refining systems, and make sure everything works well. When this update is done, I consider the city-builder game to be very close to 1.0. That doesn't mean it's done, but in an acceptable state.

Heck, I'm sorry, I'm not good at this, I refer just toiling away at the code. I realize polish might sound bleak to players who have already made the effort to understand the game, but I'm sure there's something here for you as well. And, I'm getting close now to checking the last item on the list, in which case I'll start adding some new content.

The new content will be the ability that, through choices, get a public image that is either tyrannical or beloved. Choices can be public handouts, buying subjects drinks, or have your guards shake down a neighbourhood. Being a tyrant will be good for law and loyalty, while beloved increases happiness.

There will also be tourists, which will rate your city and throw you a coin based on their experience.

There will also be a lot more monuments, decorations and benches for your subjects.

Now, unfortunately, this is going to be the longest wait you'll ever had to endure. I plan on releasing V63 in early January. The reason for this is I'm on a working holiday for a few months, and I don't have the equipment to make my technically marvellous release videos. I'd also like more time doing this update, In the long term, it's a good thing, since a release is a lot of overhead.

Alpha testing will start mid December though, so if you're up to that, keep eyes peeled for the call, and join the discord if you haven't already!

Next version is going to be all about the world map. Factions, diplomacy, trade, and region development. I'm looking forward to that.