Diplomacy is Not an Option News

Good Lords, Fair Ladies!

Our audience is expanding, and we are very grateful for your feedback and suggestions. It is through constant communication "Diplomacy is Not an Option" reveals to us fresh, and sometimes, unexpected sides. For instance, there is no common opinion about the difficulty of the game. Some people find it unbearably challenging, while others consider it too easy. Moreover, receptions differ among both, strategy lovers and newcomers.

Therefore, we ask you to share your best tactics that lead you to epic victories in the comments. Or, on the contrary, tell us about the goals you set for yourself to make the game even more fun. Maybe you can give some tips for beginners? Or have you already experienced some particularly vivid moments and would like others to value your achievements?

So why are we writing this now, you may ask? Because it is essential for us that you exchange your experiences, thus developing the game community. Also, because apart from the Story Campaign, Diplomacy is Not an Option is getting Steam achievements on the full release. (That's right, guys, the achievements will appear in the game once it leaves Early Access). Yet the work on them has already started. So we came up with the idea that your unexpected tactical solutions and unusual strategic challenges could become a great basis for what players will get Steam achievements for.

For a dessert - one more thing to look forward to. A week has not passed since the Summer sale on Steam, and Diplomacy is Not an Option is once again discounted. If you wanted to buy our game this summer, but something stopped you, here's your chance. The offer is valid for one week, until the 24th of July.

Yours, the Door 407 dev team

Good Lords, Fair Ladies!

We again want to give you an update on what's coming to Diplomacy is Not an Option before it leaves Early Access.

As you may know, not all the foes and not even all the enemy factions are currently presented in the game. However, as time goes on, the nature of each of them is shaping clearer. This allows us to find solutions common to all factions and unique, applicable only to one of them. As we proceed with the story campaign, we decided to rework the mechanics that we call between ourselves "micro-waves" or "mosquitoes". With the next update, the Rebellious Peasants and the Royal Army factions will get several buildings where their units will spawn. On the one hand, this gives players more control (destroying such a building partly weakens enemy reinforcements). On the other hand, this feature helps to integrate the game mechanics into the narrative. Enemy units spawn at these buildings when meeting a certain condition or at every specified time interval. This feature will change the missions presented in the story campaign preview. Whether these buildings will appear in Challenge Mode or Endless Mode is still an unanswered question for us.

There have been many requests (and still counting) for an alternate source of Soul Crystals. In the beginning magic in Diplomacy is Not an Option was designed as additional mechanics to encourage the extermination of enemies and slightly increase the chances of withstanding subsequent attacks when your army has not yet recovered from the previous ones. It's quite simple: you kill enemies, get a resource with which you can annihilate them in a different way. The question about adding an autonomous source of Soul Crystals not related to military successes is a big question of balance. After all, if there is a shortcut to victory in the form of virtually unlimited spellcasting - it would devalue the need of managing the economy and the army. Nevertheless, after continuous experimentation, we are ready to announce a new building - the Alchemical Transgressor. With it, you will be producing Soul Crystals while spending a certain amount of Iron. And since this building is already tightly linked to the new economic balance, you can expect it to arrive in the nearest DiNaO updates.

We still can't announce a release date for the updates (nor can we give an accurate prediction of how many of them we'll deliver before the game's full release). Still, we hope the details about our work will ease the waiting time.

Thank you for your attention, and until next time!

Yours, the Door 407 dev team

Good Lords, Fair Ladies.

We're very pleased to hear that you enjoyed the large maps in Sandbox (even though they take a bit longer to load). There have been so many requests from you for map presets of similar size in other Diplomacy is Not an Option modes that we just can't help but comment.

Developing Challenges and Endless Mode versions takes some effort from the game designers. Yet they (the game designers) are busy right now with the story campaign. Nevertheless, having received feedback on the June update, we made an important (and fairly obvious) decision...

Ladies and gentlemen, large maps will show up in Endless Mode, as well as in Challenge Mode. The question is, when. We're not ready to announce the exact date yet. But certainly, before Diplomacy is Not an Option leaves Early Access.

Yours, the Door 407 team

Good Lords, fair Ladies!

The June update just recently arrived, and we're already about to announce what's coming in the next one! So why now, you ask? Simply because last time we didn't manage to do all the things we had planned. Also because we need to show that we value your feedback.

In the next Diplomacy is Not an Option update, you'll be able to place archers on Townhall and Barracks. The shape of the roofs of these buildings is not as plain as the square tops of the Towers. That is why we are adding a tab in the menu that will allow you to specify which cells will your troops occupy on the Townhall's or the Barracks' roofs.

This idea has been around for a while and has been mentioned by our fans a lot. To be honest, we felt that the presence of ranged units on rooftops was excellent mechanics. But it took us a while to figure out exactly how to add this feature to the game. Hope you enjoy it.



Yours, Door 407 dev team

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Good Lords, fair Ladies! A moment of your time, if you please.

Summer is here, with the annual Steam sale. This fact cannot be ignored, so Diplomacy is Not an Option is 20% off. The offer is active until the 13th of July.

And that's not the only reason to be excited. For today the June update arrives, alongside with a short story about its key features.

To begin with, Diplomacy is Not an Option expands the geography of localizations. From now on our game supports Chinese (traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Turkish. Breaking through several language barriers at once has been more difficult than we expected, to say the least. If you have any ideas how to improve the localizations, we’d be very grateful for your suggestions

In the June update the "Warrior's dance" section makes its debut in the Challenge mode. It will certainly be to the liking of players who do not want to be distracted by minor things such as economic and scientific development or like building a settlement. Naturally, this section is for those who prefer the good old-fashioned war. In the 'Warrior's dance" three challenges await you, where you will be countering enemy attacks, using the starting army and fortifications placed on the map.


Many of you said something like ‘we’re gonna need a bigger map’... Until today, we haven’t been able to make this wish come true due to technical limits. However, we managed to make significant progress in improving the performance of the game when processing attacking waves. As a result, the impossible has become possible. Large map presets appeared in the Sandbox mode. (Attention: loading large maps requires more time). As a nice addition we also made the presets with your Townhall located in the corner of the map; the preset with the flattest terrain possible (there is only one mountain to be found), and the preset with a narrow canyon that leads to your domains.

Moving on to the less important but still pleasant improvements. After the June Update troops under your control will no longer disappear from the selection if they are thrown into the air. You can also select them with a frame or using hotkeys, even if they haven't... landed yet.

The last thing we want to focus on today's story is fine-tuning the formation mechanics. In case you haven't used it before, here's a quick guide. After you select the troops holding down the RMB you can see the green circles indicating which formation your squad will have. With the keys Q and E you can change the length of the line and, therefore, the number of rows. After the June Update, you will notice that the formation looks more realistic. In addition, the width of the squad's row is no longer reset after loading a game. Also, when you create/re-create a Group, the width of the line is set and saved for the troops united in that Group.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's all we wanted to tell you today. The full list of changes, as usual, is attached below this very article.

We will never stop thanking you for your support. We hope that further development of Diplomacy is Not an Option pleases you in return. Thank you very much for staying with us! Until next time!

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Update 0.9.94

Features

• A brand new “Warrior's dance” section of the Challenge mode. In three challenges your goal is to protect the Astonishing monument using only your starting army, fortifications and traps already placed on the map (and, apparently, some spells). New challenges namely:
  
  1. Rebels' gambit - You must counter one attack of rebellious peasants;
     
  2. Triple Alliance - You need to repulse three attacks of enemy forces from three different factions;
     
  3. Storm of Swordsmen - A challenge in which you must fight purely with swordsmen.
• 6 new map presets for the Sandbox mode:
  
  1. Cosplaying 300 - Enemy can only get to your Townhall through a narrow canyon;
     
  2. Two corners - The Townhall is located in the corner of the map:
     
  3. XXL - The preset of a very large map (296x296 cells);
     
  4. Maze of terrors - The preset of a large map, the landscape of which is rugged with rocks and other obstacles;
     
  5. Fight on the beach - The Townhall is positioned in the corner of the large map, on the seashore;
     
  6. Plains are meant to be battlefields - The preset with almost no lakes and cliffs on the map (except for one special mountain with a stream).

General

• Language support has been added: Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Turkish.
  

Improvements

• Formation mechanics improvement:
  1. The formation of troops in a Group is now saved when creating a Group;
     
  2. The formation does not reset to the default configuration after loading a game;
     
  3. Improved UX of the formation change.
• When the fps limit is enabled, the Vsync option is set to 'Off', yet still available for adjustment. With Vsync option enabled, the fps limit automatically changes to 'Unlimited';
  
• Troops under Player's control thrown into the air do not disappear from the current selection. They also can be selected (using the selection frame or hotkeys), and may even take orders;
  
• Enemy corpses no longer disappear instantly from traps and farm fields. Bodies of large enemies (such as Nightmare generals) now smoothly disappear underground, just like the bodies of other foes;
  
• Improved game performance (when processing attacking waves behavior and controlling Player's troops movement/attack);
  
• Some UI and UX fixes and improvements;
  
• Some visual improvements and fixes (including new mountain models).
  

Balance

• Difficulty increased for the following Challenges:
  
  1. “Served up for dead” from the “What the…” section (for all difficulty levels);
     
  2. “Against royal forces” from the “Marathon” section (for all difficulty levels).
• Berry picker's house:
  
  1. Gathering Time: 4 -> 5 sec.
• Fishermen's hut:
  
  1. Fishing time: 0.12 -> 0.2 sec;
     
  2. Amount of food from caught fish: 1 -> 2.
• Population influx:
  
  1. House II: 3 -> 2 people;
     
  2. House III: 4 -> 2 people.
• “Burrdam Chimera”:
  
  1. Health: 80 -> 120;
     
  2. Movement speed: 0.9 -> 1 cell/sec.
• Ballista:
  1. Damage: 70 -> 65;
     
  2. Attack and target search radii: 16 -> 15 cells.

Bug Fixes:

• A rare bug with builders getting stuck after they became unemployed when got sick during the construction;
  
• Using the ‘Horse dose’ skill no longer can cause an attack notification;
  
• Some crash fixes;
  
• Multiple localization fixes.
  

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Yours, the Door 407 dev team