Rise Of The White Sun News

The latest patch includes:

• 5 new actions related to drought and famine management.
  
• A reworked 1920 AI, enhancing the defense of Shanghai.
  

New Famine Relief Actions

Responding to your requests for more options to combat drought, I've introduced 5 new district policies and actions. Most of these actions incur an upkeep cost and are unlocked via the Chamber of Commerce upgrade.

Temporary Relief Societies: Officials and philanthropists will participate in this initiative, undertaking charity and relief efforts. This policy will unlock additional options and reduce the number of bandits generated by drought.

Discounted Sales Granaries: An effective method to supply the district with grain and manage prices. These granaries will reduce the duration of droughts each turn and help restore vitality if it has dropped too low. Like the Temporary Relief Societies, these granaries also reduce the number of bandits created by drought.

Soup Kitchens: Easier to set up than granaries, they will reduce the duration of famine, albeit with lower efficiency and maintenance costs.

Dragon King Rituals: In the game, when the population implores the Dragon King for rain, it never works. However, this action will increase your Face (reputation), tradition, and influence over peasants.

Speculate on Grain: Another action that allows for quick, albeit unethical, earnings by exploiting a district's resources.

Another great change is that from time to time, private initiative will provide relief to a district in distress.

1920 AI Reworked

The AI in the 1920 scenario was ineffective at defending Shanghai. With this rework, the AI will now be more proactive and strategic in its defense.

What's Next?

I have started coding for the 1929-1932 DLC. While I cannot provide a release date yet, progress is underway.

Enjoy the game!

Maestro Cinetik

Hello!

I have been frantically patching the game recently to improve the quality of life, add new features, and release a free DLC. I hope you will be as satisfied with the result as I am!

[h2]The Yellow Way (Free DLC)[/h2]

This DLC unlocks a new faction in the Little Model China and 1920 Sandboxes. The Yellow Way society is very similar to the later Heavenly Gate Society, but its victory conditions are designed for bolder players.

In Henan, drought, floods, and banditry have led to a resurgence of secret society activities. Near Anyang, an alliance between a Yellow Way master and a mysterious man claiming to be a ninth-generation descendant of the Ming dynasty has sparked an outright rebellion against the Republic.

The rebels aim to restore the Ming Dynasty!

Though underarmed, their ranks are rapidly growing, and they are now able to besiege local garrisons. The rebels know the area well and have so far resisted all attempts by the authorities to take them down.

Why a free DLC instead of just new content for the game?

Two reasons:

-I made this faction stronger than it was historically for the sake of fun, so it does not entirely fit into the original game.
-I am experimenting with Steam DLCs for the future development of the game.

[h2]Quality of Life Improvements[/h2]

*I reworked the "Escape" navigate back feature so it now works as players expect.
*I fixed some issues that used to slow the game.
*I added some useful tooltips when you hover over armies on the map.

I plan to keep adding quality of life features between major content updates. Also, check the options menu—there are settings that may significantly improve your experience!

[h2]Achievements![/h2]

I realize now how silly it was to add them so late in the game's life, but here they are. ^^

I will continue adding achievements from time to time as completion scores rise.

Enjoy!

Maestro Cinetik

You may have noticed that the game now has some few achievements.

This is only the begining, as I am testing the feature.
There will be much more achievements (and they will be translated into Chinese)

Stay tuned, more informations about what is next will come soon.

Maestro Cinetik

你可能已经注意到游戏现在有了一些成就。

这只是一个开始，因为我正在测试这个功能。
将会有更多的成就（它们也会被翻译成中文）。

请保持关注，更多关于接下来内容的信息将很快发布。

Maestro Cinetik

Dear players,

I am pleased to announce a fantastic new update! Playtesters were highly satisfied with it, so I believe you will love it too!

The main contents of this update are:

• A better (by far) automation system
  
• A large new scenario set in 1923, called United Front
  
• A difficulty system reworked and balanced (thanks to 1 month of playtests)
  

[h3]A better (by far) automation system[/h3]

Tired of repetitive actions? Bored with province development? Overwhelmed by managing a large empire?

Just delegate these tasks to the AI!
In fact, you're not delegating tasks directly to the AI, but whole characters management.
While this feature existed previously, it has been enhanced and expanded.

What as changed?

1) Now, you can delegate even your active characters to the AI. This can be reverted at any time, and if the AI hasn't utilized all of a character's QI, you can still utilize them during your turn to complete actions with the remaining QI.

2) The loyalty cost of delegating a character to the AI has been significantly reduced, so you no longer need to worry about using this feature.

3) You can still delegate characters from your reserve pool to the AI, which is essential for managing large multi-province domains. However, I've introduced two useful improvements.
(For those new to the game, the option to delegate characters from your reserve pool to the AI unlocks when you have 5 active characters.)

You can now assign these characters to specific provinces. These characters will appear in the province HQ panel, allowing you to interact with them directly. Additionally, I've implemented actions to facilitate the transfer of resources to them effortlessly.

How to decide what kind of action the AI should perform?

The behavior of characters when controlled by the AI depends entirely on their roles. I invite you to read this Steam guide about roles.

If you aim for province development, employ a statesman character. For combating banditry, deploy a police character, and so on.

A warlord character will prioritize cultivating opium and building the largest army imaginable.

How competent is the AI?

The AI's competence level is decent.
Playtesters were generally satisfied with it.
However, it's worth noting that I deliberately toned down its capabilities to ensure it doesn't match the opponent's AI.
Additionally, characters in the reserve pool will exhibit less responsiveness compared to your active characters when delegated to the AI.


[h3]United Front scenario[/h3]

The new scenario spans from Sun Yat Sen's return to Guangzhou in 1923 until his death in 1925. Key events of this scenario include:

-The Beijing-Hankow railway strike
-The formation of the United Front between the Guomindang and the Communists
-The establishment of the Whampoa Academy and the presence of Soviet advisors in Guangzhou
-A merchant uprising in Guangzhou
-Conflict between Jiangsu and Zhejiang over control of Shanghai
-A new Zhili-Fengtian war leading to the collapse of the Zhili clique
-Feng Yuxiang's betrayal and the formation of the Guominjun

The Communist, Guomindang, and Zhili Clique factions are central to many events and dialogues in the scenario.

The Zhili Clique prompted me to extensively rework the automation system. Playtesters found managing large factions remarkably easy with the new system.

Navigating the challenges of holding together a large faction at its peak power and on the brink of collapse offers an engaging challenge. If you've ever been hesitant to choose a large faction, now is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Furthermore, the introduction of a new significant scenario necessitated adjustments to opponent AI. They should now be more proficient, especially those specialized in combating Communists in 1927. However, I'll rely on your feedback for further fine-tuning, as they may require additional playtesting.

[h3]Difficulty sytem[/h3]

I recently introduced a difficulty system, and after weeks of playtesting, I made some slight improvements to it.

There are now five different difficulty levels:

Green: Designed for a relaxing game experience. Bandit generation has been reduced, and the maintenance cost of your armies is decreased.

Seasonned / normal: he default difficulty level, perfect for playing as a small warlord in the warlords melee.

Elite: The AI will field larger armies, reflecting historical accuracy. This level offers a challenging gameplay experience, particularly when playing as a major faction competing with other major cliques. It's also the difficulty level used for playtesting the game.

Dare death: The AI will deploy even larger armies and may receive bonus resources at times.

Generalissimo: At this level, you'll really notice the AI's advantage with bonus resources.
It's intended for seasoned players seeking an extra challenge.


[h3]Next steps[/h3]

After such a big update, I will probably take a time to rest, coding smaller and more relaxing features.

In the to do list for next months (this is not an ordered list):

-Some more 1927 content.
-Some more guides and wiki entries
-Steam achievements
-Linking the event chains of the different scenarios
-A 1923 sandbox? (if you really need it)


Have fun!

Post Scriptum:
Don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Your feedback encourages us to keep improving the game, and we're excited to hear from you!

Hello,

The work on the 1923 scenario is progressing smoothly, and I am correcting bugs and adding features along the way. When I have cool stuff that can be published before the next content patch, I will release small updates like this one.

Today's update only applies to the Windows version. Versions for Linux and Mac will follow later.



Difficulty Levels

You can now select a difficulty level when you launch a scenario. There are four difficulty levels:

Green Difficulty Level:
This is the default difficulty level. It is perfect for playing as an underdog faction or for discovering the game.

Seasoned Difficulty Level:
This difficulty level is intended to raise the challenge when you play as one of the major factions. Your opponents will be able to grow and maintain larger armies.

Elite Difficulty Level:
Not only will your opponents be able to grow and maintain larger armies, but the game will also shamelessly cheat by giving random resources each turn to characters controlled by your opponents.

Dare Death Difficulty Level:
Not only will your opponents get all the bonuses of the Elite difficulty levels, but your troops will also have a malus at their morale checks during fights.

New Cheat Codes

"endwar" will disband a unit.
"flowerpower" will send all weapons of the selected unit into your faction stockpile.
"oneguntwoarms" will send rifles from the selected unit, but will leave 1 rifle per man (if there are enough guns).

For those new to the game: just press the "c" key to open the cheat console.

Annoying Bug Fixed

You won't be able to use [enter] to trigger the action buttons anymore. That will prevent a free multiple action exploit.

I hope you will have a lot of fun playing with this update. I also need your feedback about the difficulty setting, as it certainly needs balance.

Maestro Cinetik