Diplomacy is Not an Option News

Good Lords, Fair Ladies!

A long time ago, when our game didn't even make it to Early Access, we showed you the first concepts of the warriors from the Sarranga tribal alliance. Since then you haven't heard a thing about who they are and what part they are going to play in the plot. As for Sarranga warriors... Well, they haven't even bothered to show up on a battlefield.

At this point we must warn those who want to see the single-player campaign "from scratch": minor spoilers are ahead. So if you feel like avoiding them, don't read the text below this article.

Why did we remind you about the ancient post? That's because the Sarranga got a renewed unit roster. And yes, it was already approved and tested. (We did mention that part of the campaign went through internal testing, didn't we?) Meet the new Sarranga tribal alliance!


Allow us to introduce: Sarranga's Accurate one, Sarranga Bombus, Sarranga's Mighty one, Sarranga swordtail, Priestess of the Bombus cult, Sarranga's nimble one, Sarranga's "Scorpio", and... Niniende Quartet.

If you guessed who's who, then our Artist and Writer did their job. If you haven't guessed - write about it in the comment section. It's never too late to give these two a session of full immersion into the game's reality by using authentic medieval torture.

But who is in the picture, you may ask? Where did they come from? The answers lie on the surface. For those who have gone through the campaign preview, they will not come as a revelation. You do remember that at the end of the preview part of the campaign, our protagonist Milord, is forced by circumstances to travel to a land far away?

Well, turns out those lands are inhabited. Sarranga live there, relatively well, and then the protagonist of the game comes to... There are possible options actually. So, to avoid more serious spoilers let's keep silent about the goal-setting, and return to the Sarranga themselves.

So, they lived on their own land until they met Milord. If they had any problems, it was only because of the undead hanging around for at least several centuries. That explains Sarranga's gloomy look (Yes, definitely that. The necessity to recognize in the game your troops and enemies from afar has nothing to do with Sarranga's look). Naturally, the best way to avoid being seen by a ghoul is to look like a real ghoul. Become a ghoul yourself. Be scarier than a ghoul (since you've seen ghouls already - you can guess what to expect from Sarranga warriors).

But there's more. In one of our trailers, you may have noticed Claire from Accounting. Thanks to her extraordinary looks and exceptional love for dressing details (especially hats), Claire became a source of inspiration for our artists to create the image of Princess Shankhar.


You can see that Shankhar appears in the videos that tell the tale of Milord's misadventures. Which means that her part in the story campaign is very much tangible. Moreover, we can confirm that in some cases she will replace the Counselor, who is familiar to most players. And some of you will even be able to see her in action on the battlefield.

The plot of "Diplomacy is Not an Option" often offers you to change the faction you play for. And now, without unnecessary spoilers, we declare: it is possible that the Sarranga tribe is not simply another opponent in our game...

Well, that's all we have to say for today (you do know the entire team acts under a Non-Disclosure Agreement here).

Thank you for your attention, Good Lords and Fair Ladies.

Until next time!

Yours, the Door 407 dev team

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Good Lords, Fair Ladies!

It's been two months since the last update, and we're already eager to share the first details about what will be added to the game in the near future. Specifically, let's talk about the new market box.

Not only have we brought visual improvements to it, but we've also added some features. "Why would you do that?" - you may ask.

Here comes the answer. The Market is an important mechanic that helps to manage the resource base wisely. Players who actively used it complained that the box was not exactly convenient. Some even found the trading annoying. In addition, during the game, you need to keep in focus many different points - from direct participation in military actions to strategic planning of the economy of the settlement. So it's easy to forget about an order placed on the Market. We decided to fix all the above-mentioned issues at once.

[h3]Allow us to introduce you to the way we see it[/h3]

Starting from the upcoming update, you will be able to track the path of the zeppelin (whether it is flying for cargo or already returning with it) with the help of eye-pleasing animation. Moreover, additional indication is visible both in the market box itself and at the bottom of the main screen. Of course, to make this tool blend seamlessly into the game's interface, we have visually redesigned the box. It became more attractive while keeping its simplicity and clarity.

With the upcoming update, the Marketplace gets two new features. Now its box may open automatically if an order is completed and/or if you have a shortage of the resource you are trading. (The game pauses when this happens). Combined with the ability to repeat the last order, these new features greatly reduce the complexity of trading, while giving you more control over it.

If anyone feels that all of the above is unnecessary, don't worry, you can simply leave all these options disabled.

The Market box transformation is just one of the improvements we're preparing for you in the next update. Next time we'll talk about more features to come. Thank you for being with us!

Yours, the Door 407 dev team

Bug Fixes:

• Game loading stuck on 70% for a long time on some machines. Improved game initial load times.
  

Good Lords, fair Ladies!

Diplomacy is Not an Option is 20% off this week. But that's not everything we'd like to tell you about today.

Last time we mentioned that killing a boss in the game could be a mission objective. This mechanic has already been tested in the Challenge mode (well, sort of, If you remember Nightmare Generals). But what you saw in Early Access is just a tiny bit of repetition.

You'll meet the real bosses in the story campaign. They'll be scarier, bigger, and stronger. Aside from the obvious, like powerful damage and huge health pools, we gave them active abilities. (For example, one of the bosses has vampirism, which means it heals itself while dealing damage to your warriors).

Right now, we can't tell how many bosses will be in the game. We want the appearance and abilities of each of them to express their individuality. We want players to see them not just as a strong enemy, but also as a character that can be encountered once during the "Diplomacy is Not an Option" walkthrough.

Thank you for your attention, see you soon.

Yours, the Door 407 dev team

Good Lords, fair Ladies!

We continue our story about the objectives of story missions in Diplomacy is Not an Option.

There is perhaps the most controversial game mechanic you may remember from classic RTSs of the past. We are talking about collecting a certain amount of resources.

We got it thanks to the plot. It's that rare case when the script got ahead of the game design. Later, while bringing this idea to life, we encountered something that the mentioned creators of classic RTSs probably encountered as well. Namely - this objective is absolutely boring.

But we really wanted to pay tribute to the games of the past, therefore we did our best. As a result, instead of the emotion you may have felt before, which can be roughly described as "When will this end already", you are going to feel something like "Haven't I collected everything yet? How am I going to get through the next day?".

To complete a mission, you must accumulate a certain amount of a specific, unique resource. A resource that is not needed by your economy and has no other function, but has some importance in the game's story. You can get it by killing certain enemies or destroying buildings of a particular type.

The key to figuring out how to make these missions fun lies in finding the balance. By tying the collection of this resource to combat, we made it more relevant compared to the regular mining of wood, iron, and stones. And of course, when, in the words of the classic, "people are dying for the metal", and the enemy continues to attack you (and your people are dying once again, but no longer for the metal), you begin to feel the value of the loot on your fingertips and can even express it in human lives. Speaking of which... Do you know who causes players to suffer the most casualties in battle? Bosses. But we'll talk about them next time.

Thanks for your attention, see you soon!

Yours, the Door 407 dev team