Against the Storm News

[h3]Greetings, Viceroys![/h3]
It’s time to venture into the Sealed Forest - a mysterious and hostile biome with unique mechanics and a completely new victory condition.

Withstand terrible plagues and use the new Beacon Tower to summon aid directly from the Citadel. Find and collect the lost parts of the Ancient Guardian to summon it and close the broken Seal.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

What's new:

• Sealed Forest biome
  
• Seal reforging mechanic
  
• Plagues
  
• Beacon Tower building
  
• 12 new music tracks

Continue reading for the detailed Ancient Seals guide and the full changelog.

P.S. Steam Strategy Fest is in full swing. If you haven’t picked up Against the Storm yet, you can get it with a 35% discount until September 4:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/
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[h2]CESSATION MINI ALBUM AVAILABLE[/h2]


We have a little surprise for you! We just released the Against the Storm mini album titled "Cessation", composed by Mikołaj Kurpios. The album consists of 6 tracks (including the brand-new music from the Sealed Forest) and is available on major streaming platforms. Enjoy!

LISTEN TO THE NEW ALBUM

The remaining tracks will be released as Part 2 of the game's OST in the future. Stay tuned!
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[h2]PLUSH CAMPAIGN ENDING SOON[/h2]


Due to the success of the Beaver Villager crowdfunding campaign, we were able to extend the campaign's period by 10 days to give you more time to get your very own limited-edition plush!

The new end date is September 12. It will no longer be possible to obtain the plushie after that day, so don’t miss it:

GO TO THE PLUSHIE PAGE

Each plushie comes with an exclusive "Beaver villager in peril" background art.

You can learn a little more here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/6347313345428050770
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[h2]DEVELOPER NOTES[/h2]
The day has finally come, the revamped Sealed Forest is here! As this massive update is solely focused on the new biome, we have decided to forgo the usual developer note structure and instead jump right into a detailed summary of all the new features, and a recap of how this new addition ties into the World Map.

[h3]What are Ancient Seals?[/h3]
Ancient Seals are old, intricate structures built to hold a primeval, malevolent force at bay. As time passed, they became weaker, causing the mysterious Sealed Ones to slowly reclaim dominion over our world.

Your task as the Queen’s Viceroy is to settle the lands and journey to the heart of the Sealed Forest where you must reforge the Seal to imprison the evil gods.

There are 8 different Seals. The farther away they are, the higher their difficulty and the more Seal Fragments are required to repair the shattered Seal. You can acquire Seal Fragments by establishing settlements, overcoming negative Modifiers, and solving World Events encountered on your caravan's journey.

Ancient Seals on the World Map

[h3]Your Caravan[/h3]
At the start of every Cycle, your caravan departs from the Smoldering City. You can upgrade your Caravan permanently with Smoldering City Upgrades that add new Embarkation Bonuses, increase the Embarkation Range, and much more. You can also modify the Caravan temporarily with Royal Resupplies and World Events.

Royal Resupplies are special rewards awarded for settling near negative Modifiers. You can choose from three different one-time bonuses: increased Vision and Embarkation Range, Reserve Embarkation Points, or additional Seal Fragments.

Royal Resupplies

Reserve Embarkation Points are a separate pool of non-rechargeable Embarkation Points that can only be used during a single Cycle. You may want to save them for the most challenging endeavors. You can also improve your Caravan by solving World Events. But tread with caution, your decisions often come with a trade-off or can present a unique challenge.

World Event - Wandering Eremite

[h3]The Sealed Forest[/h3]
Once you gather enough Seal Fragments, you can travel to the Sealed Forest - a grim, uninhabitable biome, where the Ancient Seals lie and where your governing skills will be put to the test. A game in the Sealed Biome can only be attempted once per Cycle.

Ancient Seals spread corruption around them making the Sealed Forest an extremely hostile environment. The flora in this region is bizarrely mutated, with overgrown trees containing extra resource charges.

Sealed Forest Trees

A broken Ancient Seal is hidden within the depths of the Sealed Forest. You must search for clues in surrounding glades to locate it. Every glade contains a Guidance Stone that points to the location of the Ancient Seal.

Guidance Stone

The sooner you reach the Seal, the better. Viceroys don't embark to the Sealed Forest to establish settlements or gain Reputation. The Queen expects them to reforge the Seal… or die trying.

[h3]Reforging a Seal[/h3]
To reforge the Seal you must reconstruct the Ancient Guardian by obtaining its heart, blood, feathers, and life essence. There are three different variants of each part. Acquiring one of them will require a display of remarkable finesse in a certain aspect of managing a settlement.

Ancient Seal Panel

Once you obtain a part, you will be rewarded with an Epic Cornerstone and a new array of objectives will be revealed. After assembling all four parts, the Scorched Queen will breathe life into the Ancient Guardian - the only entity capable of closing the Seal.

Ancient Guardian

But beware! The mere presence of the Ancient Seal summons foul plagues on your settlement. Every Storm, a new plague will be unleashed, hindering your efforts to resurrect the Guardian.

To oppose the tormenting force of the plagues, you can construct a Beacon Tower - an ancient structure that allows you to summon aid directly from the Smoldering City and choose from 9 temporary support abilities (with a limited number of charges).



Reforging each Seal will not only grant you the Queen's appreciation and extra resources. It will also push back the Blightstorm and prolong the Cycle permanently.
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[h3]The future[/h3]
The Sealed Forest was one of the largest items on our Early Access roadmap. Now that it’s finally out, the only things left on there are the tutorial improvements, Steam Deck verification, and (as always) community-inspired changes. But fear not! We also have plans for yet another big feature, although we are not ready to reveal anything substantial about it just now.

In the very near future, we will most likely focus on a few smaller size updates again, with more UX and UI changes, bug fixes, and smaller gameplay improvements. And once we’re ready, we will show you the next big and exciting thing coming to Against the Storm.

As always - thank you all for providing feedback and suggestions for the new update. If you’d like to share your ideas for upcoming updates, here are some useful links:

• Steam Discussions, Discord, Reddit - discuss the game with the community and share your impressions
  
• Feature Request Tool - suggest specific new features

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games

P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!
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[h2]CHANGELOG[/h2]
Number of changes: 56
Inspired by community: 91%

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.

[h3]New content and features[/h3]

• ⚡ Revamped the Sealed Forest biome. It now has a unique mechanic, new visuals, and a new win condition - a hidden Seal that needs to be found and reforged in order to win the game.
  • The Sealed Forest is a special biome only present around Seals on the World Map. It’s accessible only once during each Cycle, as a “final boss encounter”.
    
  • Deep inside the Sealed Forest, an ancient, broken Seal is hidden. To find it, players have to look for Guidance Stones in surrounding glades and triangulate the Seal’s location.
    
  • To win a game in the Sealed Forest, players need to successfully reforge the Seal. This can only be done with the help of an Ancient Guardian.
    
  • Ancient Guardians are old, magical constructs created by an old civilization. However, thousands of years of being exposed to the Storm and the influence of the Seal have taken a toll on them. To make use of them again, players have to reconstruct them.
    
  • To reconstruct a guardian, four parts are needed - the heart, the blood, the feathers, and the life essence. To acquire a part, players need to complete special, challenging objectives.
    
  • All objectives can be seen in the Seal panel. Each guardian part has 3 objectives assigned to it, testing the settlement’s performance in different aspects (industry, well-being, exploration). To acquire a part, only one of these objectives must be completed. After collecting a guardian part, the next set of tasks for the next item will be shown.
    
  • Completing a Seal objective not only awards a guardian part but also gives players a free Epic Cornerstone choice.
    
  • Seal objectives have two difficulty settings - for games at the Settler/Pioneer difficulty levels, and for games at Veteran and above.
    
  • The mere presence of the Seal causes terrible plagues to appear in the settlement. Plagues are randomly generated every year and are only active during the Storm. They can be anything from a simple production speed decrease to a powerful curse that spawns a dangerous or forbidden glade event near the Hearth.
    
  • To help players survive in this harsh environment, a new building is at their disposal - the Beacon Tower.
    
  • The Beacon Tower is a powerful ancient structure that allows players to summon aid directly from the Citadel. It gives access to three types of temporary support abilities: supplies, bells, and miracles.
    
  • Support abilities are active only for one season and have a limited number of uses per category.
    
  • Hostility works differently in the Sealed Forest. It doesn’t increase with assigned Woodcutters. Instead, it grows by 2 points for every 10 felled trees.
    
  • There are two types of trees in the Sealed Forest - small and big ones. Small ones have only 2 resource charges (like normal trees in all other biomes), and big ones have 20 charges.
    
  • Trees in the Sealed Forest give wood, meat, sea marrow, and leather. Wood is guaranteed, the other resources have a 10% chance of dropping.
    
  • The Sealed Forest has the following resources:
    • Berries
      
    • Mushrooms
      
    • Roots
      
    • Meat
      
    • Insects
      
    • Reeds
      
    • Clay
      
    • Sea Marrow
      
    • Copper Ore
  • Although the Sealed Forest has a different win condition than all other biomes (reforging the Seal instead of collecting all Reputation points), Reputation points can still be collected as usual and will unlock blueprints and lower Impatience.
    
  • The Sealed Forest has new unique visuals - terrain, trees, seasonal effects, fog, camera effects, etc.
    
  • There are 12 new unique music tracks available only in the Sealed Forest. There are also numerous new sounds and ambient effects.
    
  • The Seal is tended by a Seal Keeper, Rahatiel, who guides Viceroys through the process of reforging it. Every time a new guardian part is acquired, he will offer a bit of additional context. Every guardian part also has a lore description when hovering over it.

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• ⚡ Changed the objective of the Great Expansion Timed Order from having one level 3 and one level 2 Hearth to having two level 2 Hearths.

[h3]UX/UI improvements[/h3]

• Changed the wording in the French version of the Decadence stat tooltip in the in-game Encyclopedia to make it clearer.
  
• Improved the wording in multiple places in the French version of the game (decadence stat tooltip, all mentions of ancient seals).

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused some buildings to break if a worker got killed the moment they got assigned.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Game History tab sometimes closing on its own.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Seal Contract UI sometimes incorrectly labeling the Bronze Seal as “Gold”.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused stacked bonuses from Cornerstones like Exploration Expedition to disappear after the first timer ran out.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with tracked goods not immediately appearing on the HUD after being added to the storage for the first time.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with a missing tooltip in the Into the Ruins order.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Unbearable Smell effect from the Blight Filter Cornerstone now displaying its tooltip correctly.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an incorrect description in the tooltip of the Inspiring Work effect.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with a duplicated reward in the ruined Provisioner building.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Worker’s Rations Cornerstone being given to the player after catching a Treasure Stag.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with some forbidden glades not uncovering correctly.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with resources being incorrectly ordered in the Crystalized Dew recipe.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with resources being incorrectly ordered in the Purging Fire recipe.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a few typos in the Polish translation of the game (Beanery Worker profession name, glade event tooltips).
  
• ⚡ Fixed multiple typos in the Traditional Chinese version of the game (profession names, mining tooltips, upgrades, alerts, dialogue, intro).
  
• ⚡ Fixed a typo in the Thai version of the Royal Resupply reward.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a typo in the German translation of the Roaming Swarm World Event curse.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a few typos in the Korean translation of order objectives tied to rainwater usage.
  
• Fixed a visual glitch on some brick wall textures.

[h3]Other[/h3]

• ⚡ Added 12 new music tracks to the game, exclusive to the Sealed Forest biome.
  
• Improved the sound performance of the game and changed how effects are loaded into memory.
  
• Changed the main menu background.

The current game version is 0.58.2.
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[h2]COMMUNITY CORNER[/h2]
Check out some of the best community screenshots, artwork, and memes from recent days. Click to unfold:
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https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3024531673
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3024531673

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023663856
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023663856

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023077911
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023077911

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3022505917
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3022505917

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023580842
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023580842

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028161399
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028161399

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3026446048
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3026446048

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028358127
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028358127

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3025357998
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3025357998
[/expand]
For more artwork, memes, and screenshots visit Steam, Discord, and Reddit.

We wish you a great time with the new update and a happy weekend!
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[h2]PREVIOUS UPDATES[/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3650783611399924712
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3658663641148118403
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3650781073918695896
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3658660471449381227

From now until September 4, you can save 35% on Against the Storm at the Steam Strategy Fest. Come check the game out!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/

[h3]Greetings, Viceroys![/h3]
At the time of writing this article, it's so hot out here people have started calling it the Smoldering City. Take our advice: grab a glass of cold water, turn up those soothing rain sounds, and enjoy the new Against the Storm Update.

Here's what's new:

• Seal Contracts - pick the Seals for the next Cycle
  
• 3 new World Events
  
• Custom resource category
  
• New Prestige 15 modifier (Longer Storm was moved to Viceroy difficulty)
  
• Rebalanced Timed Orders
  
• and more!

Before we move on to the design notes and the full changelog, please bear with us for a few smaller announcements.
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[h2]LIMITED-EDITION PLUSH[/h2]

We recently launched the crowdfunding campaign for the Beaver Villager plushie - Against the Storm's first-ever official merch!

They are only around for a limited time and you have until September 3 to order. After that, they'll be gone forever.

You can get your own plush here:
GO TO THE PLUSHIE PAGE

Each plushie comes with an exclusive "Beaver villager in peril" background art.

You can learn a little more here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/6347313345428050770

P.S. The campaign has already been successful and reached its minimum threshold! Huge thanks to everyone who already supported the campaign. Take good care of our lovely little woodworkers!
[hr][/hr]
[h2]MEET US AT GAMESCOM[/h2]

We're heading to gamescom! You can meet us at the Hooded Horse booth on the show floor in Hall 10.1. from August 23 to August 27. If you're attending, come say hi!
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[h2]DEVELOPER NOTES[/h2]
Today’s update is the last one… before we finally give you the revamped Sealed Forest biome in two weeks (you can already test the new mechanics with some placeholder art on the Experimental Branch)! So to make this wait that much sweeter, we bring you some new content, balance changes, and UI improvements. We’re talking Seal Contracts, new World Events, difficulty changes, timed order balance, and much, much more. Let’s dive into it!

First off, the namesake of this update - the Seal Contracts. Since releasing the overhauled World Map a few updates ago, we’ve gotten quite a lot of feedback about players wanting to reset their Seal progress or being able to play a closer Seal in case they can’t make it to a distant one. To address this, we came up with the Seal Contracts feature. This new system allows players to choose the Seals they want to see on the World Map each time they finish a Cycle (up to 3 types at once, so 6 Seals in total per Cycle). For example, you might want to have your most recently reforged Seal on the map, as well as the next one in line, but also the one you completed a long time ago just in case you decide to have a more relaxed session.

Seal Contracts

Three Seals

This system also works the other way around - you might want to attempt the Cobalt Seal very early on in your playthrough, even though your most recently reforged Seal is the Lead one. This would of course be a very difficult endeavor, as Cycle length is still determined by the highest reforged Seal, but no one’s going to stop you from trying.

But Seal Contracts aren’t the only big thing coming in this update. We also bring you 3 brand-new World Events. They are mostly centered around exchanging Citadel Resources (as a way of helping players in their Smoldering City progression) and spawning selected modifiers (as a way of combating some bad RNG when hunting for Deeds). Additionally, we also changed how the World Map is generated. From now on, after reforging the Gold Seal (Viceroy difficulty), there will be more modifiers and events in general and spawn rates will be shifted more in favor of negative modifiers rather than positive ones.

Roaming Fishmen Tribe

Balance-wise, this update brings a whole host of community-inspired tweaks. Most importantly, we decided to change the Prestige 15 difficulty modifier. Instead of prolonging the Storm, it now increases the threshold of Resolve required to generate Reputation after each earned point. However, this doesn’t mean the Storm will become shorter in Prestige games. We simply moved the Storm duration effect to the Viceroy difficulty, making it no longer a Prestige modifier, but a regular stat increase.

Now, why did we do this? Mainly because Storm duration effects are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they make the game harder, as players need to withstand hostile conditions for a longer period. On the other hand, at a certain point, a longer Storm is more of a bonus than a penalty (for example, by prolonging each year and making it easier to achieve certain objectives or postponing Hostility increases). That’s why we decided it would make for a good challenge on earlier difficulty levels, especially considering that a lot of recent updates have introduced various buffs and additional ways of dealing with setbacks, and there was always an effect missing between Veteran and Prestige 1 (both Veteran and Viceroy had the “Blight & Corruption” tag in the Embarkation Panel).

But that’s not all. In this update, we also took a closer look at timed orders (nerfing the hardest ones and trying to make them more attractive in general), rebalanced the Fuming Machinery glade event (it now has a smaller explosion before the main one, and has a longer timer), excluded roads from construction-cost-increasing effects, and revamped a few Cornerstones.

Lastly, as with every update, we took the time to improve the user experience and fix some bugs. Most notably, we added an option to track resources on the HUD. You can now simply click on a resource in the Warehouse panel to add it to a custom category of goods. It will then appear on the top of the screen, right next to all the other categories.

Resources tracking

Thank you for providing us with feedback and suggestions for the new update. If you’d like to share your ideas for upcoming updates, here are some useful links:

• Steam Discussions, Discord, Reddit - discuss the game with the community and share your impressions
  
• Feature Request Tool - suggest specific new features

P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!
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[h2]CHANGELOG[/h2]
Number of changes: 76
Inspired by community: 88%

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.

[h3]New content and features[/h3]

• ⚡ Added 3 new World Events.
  • Sadrath The Wise
    
  • Brass Order Engineers
    
  • Roaming Fishmen Tribe
    
  • Although we don’t want to spoil too much about these new events in this changelog, they revolve mostly around two design ideas: exchanging one Citadel Resource for another, and spawning selected World Map modifiers.
• ⚡ Added a new system - Seal Contracts.
  • Seal Contracts allow you to select which Ancient Seals you will be able to see on your World Map during a Cycle.
    
  • Seals can be chosen in the Cycle Summary View, after clicking the button in the lower right corner of the screen.
    
  • You can select between 1 and 3 Seal types at a time. The Seals will be visible on the World Map after the Cycle reset. Each Seal type will spawn 2 Seals (so up to 6 Seals in total in a Cycle).
    
  • Seal Contracts become available once you beat the Gold Seal for the first time.
    
  • You can choose any Seal you want. Even if you have beaten the Adamantine Seal, you can select the Bronze Seal to spawn.
    
  • To get more information about a Seal, simply hover your cursor above it in the Seal Contract UI. The tooltip will show the distance, the number of required fragments, and the minimum difficulty level.
    
  • Seal progression works the same way as it did until now - when starting from Bronze, you will naturally climb up to Gold. Once you beat Gold, you will select your own Seals every Cycle.
    
  • Cycle duration is still determined by the highest reforged Seal.

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• ⚡ Changed how the World Map is generated once the player beats the Gold Seal (Viceroy difficulty).
  • Increased the number of modifiers on the map.
    
  • Increased the number of events on the map.
    
  • Decreased the probability of positive modifiers spawning, in favor of more negative ones.
• ⚡ Changed the Prestige 15 modifier. Instead of prolonging the Storm, it now increases the threshold of Resolve required to generate Reputation after each gained point.
  • Malcontents - You took a very peculiar group of settlers with you. They seem perpetually dissatisfied. Each species' Resolve to Reputation threshold increases by 1 more point after every Reputation Point they generate.
    
  • This change was made because the storm duration increase wasn’t really a significant difficulty increase on such a high Prestige level. In some cases, it was even a bonus - as it increased the duration of the entire year, making some objectives easier to achieve.
• Moved the increased Storm duration effect from Prestige 15 to Viceroy difficulty.
  • The Storm now lasts 4 minutes instead of 2 starting from the Viceroy difficulty.
    
  • We decided to move the effect to Viceroy because of a few reasons.
    • Viceroy was the only difficulty level missing a significant change (like the ones described below the difficulty selector in the Embark Panel).
      
    • A lot of recent updates have introduced various buffs and new ways of dealing with setbacks, so we wanted to gently nudge the game in a direction that is a bit more challenging again.
      
    • Storm duration effects simultaneously make the game more difficult and easier in some aspects. On one hand, players have to withstand hostile conditions for a longer period, but on the other hand, a longer Storm can also be a buff by prolonging each year and making it easier to achieve certain objectives, or by postponing Hostility increases.
• ⚡ Rebalanced the Fuming Machinery glade event.
  • Increased the time limit before the consequence triggers.
    
  • The first explosion is a smaller one - destroying only resource nodes and trees, and killing villagers in a radius of 5 fields (the second explosion is the normal one, and it removed the event with it).
• ⚡ Rebalanced numerous timed orders.
  • Reckless Viceroy - renamed to "The Source", moved to tier 3 from 4, requires players to use rainwater (all 3 types), time limit changed to 10 minutes.
    
  • Urgent Shipment - renamed to "Technological Progress", requires players to have 10 Rain Engines installed, time limit changed to 10 minutes.
    
  • Beaver Colony - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
    
  • Human Colony - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
    
  • Lizard Colony - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
    
  • Harpy Colony - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
    
  • Homes for Foxes - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
    
  • Large Parcel - objective to deliver Packs of Crops replaced by Oil (30), time limit changed to 10 minutes.
    
  • Construction Work - time limit increased to 8 minutes, changed rewards to Oil Delivery Line, Advanced Smithing, and 30 Planks.
    
  • Coal Fever - now requires players to deliver 100 Coal.
    
  • Copper Fever - now requires players to deliver 100 Copper Ore.
    
  • Trading Master - now requires players to finish 3 trade routes with a minimum value of 25 Amber, time limit changed to 15 minutes and 30 seconds.
    
  • Herbalist's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Herbs, reward change from Big Phials to Tea Infuser.
    
  • Scavenger's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Insects.
    
  • Trapper's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Insects.
    
  • Mushrooming - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Herbs
    
  • Stonecutter's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Roots, reward changed from Plantation Blueprint to Clay Pit.
    
  • Forager's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added a second objective to deliver Grain, changed rewards from Grill Blueprint to Plantation Blueprint, and from Bigger Ovens to Puffed Grain.
    
  • Fearless - time limit increased to 15 minutes.
    
  • Venturesome Leader - reduced the number of glades players have to discover by 1.
    
  • Lumber Mill Efficiency Test - now requires players to deliver Planks and Barrels (60), time limit increased to 8 minutes, reward changed to Reinforced Axes (30% woodcutting speed) and Grove Blueprint.
    
  • Greedy Merchant - now requires players to sell goods worth at least 80 Amber.
    
  • Time of Courage - reduced the number of glades players have to discover by 2, time limit changed from 20 minutes 30 seconds to 15 minutes.
    
  • Zealous Scouts - time limit increased from 11 minutes to 15 minutes
    
  • Beer Snacks - renamed to “Let it Rain”, now requires players to have 8 Rain Engines installed and to deliver Drizzle and Clearance Water (150), moved to tier 3.
    
  • Thirsty Trader - changed the objective from delivering Waterskins to delivering Wine (40).
    
  • Into the Ruins - reduced the number of ruins players have to rebuild or salvage 1, added the objective to complete a glade event by making a corruption decision, increased the number of Tools given as a reward from 20 to 24.
    
  • Great Expansion - changed the objective from having two Hearths at level 3 to having one Hearth at level 3 and another at level 2, changed rewards from the Smithy Blueprint to Temple Blueprint, time limit changed to 10 minutes.
    
  • Advanced Cuisine - changed objective from producing goods in the Cookhouse to delivering Skewers, Jerky, and Porridge, changed rewards from the Rain Mill Blueprint to the Tavern Blueprint.
• ⚡ Slightly lowered the spawn rate of the Merchant Shipwreck glade event.
  
• ⚡ Construction cost for roads no longer scales with effects, modifiers, and perks (so a Stone Road will always cost 1 Stone, even on Prestige levels).
  
• ⚡ Shuffled a few Citadel Upgrades around.
  • Training Expeditions are now unlocked with the Obsidian Archive Level 8 Upgrade, and the Daily Expedition unlock was moved up to Obsidian Archive Level 10.
    
  • The Stocked Caravans Upgrade was moved down to Dim Square Level 6, and the Extra Merchandise Upgrade was moved up to Dim Square Level 10.
• Villagers will now move slower when going through buildings.
  
• Re-enabled and rebalanced a few previously disabled Cornerstones and Forest Mysteries.
  • Exploration Expedition - You took some of the best explorers from the Smoldering City with you. Gain +5 to Global Resolve for 180 seconds every time a new glade is discovered, but woodcutting is 33% slower until you open at least 2 glades.
    
  • Woodcutter’s Song (previously Thrill of Exploration) - "It's off to work we go". Every 20 felled trees, Global Resolve is increased by +3 for 120 seconds.
    
  • Frequent Caravans - The Crown is very forgiving, as long as the goods keep flowing. Impatience grows 30% slower for 180 seconds every time you finish a trade route.
    
  • Gentle Dawn - New year, new challenges. Every small glade discovered grants +10% to planting speed during Drizzle (this effect is added retroactively).
    
  • Previously, Cornerstones such as Exploration Expedition, Thrill of Exploration, and Frequent Caravans gave timed bonuses that didn’t stack (only their timer extended as the perk kept triggering). From now on, time will not be added, but the effects will stack (no now you can get a powerful, but short +20 bonus to Resolve for opening 4 glades, instead of getting an almost 10-minute long +5 bonus).
• Removed the Food Stockpiles reward from the Untamed Wilds World Map Modifier.

[h3]UX/UI improvements[/h3]

• ⚡ Goods can now be tracked using a custom resource category on the top HUD.
  • There is now a new resource category on the top HUD, called “Tracked Goods”.
    
  • To track a resource, simply click on its icon in the Warehouse building panel.
    
  • You can untrack a resource by clicking on it again.
    
  • Tracked goods are marked with a small checkmark in the corner of their icon.
• ⚡ Stormforged Cornerstones are now displayed in the Game History tab.
  
• ⚡ Changed the wording used in the description of the Hidden from the Queen Cornerstone to make it clearer that the Impatience penalty starts at the beginning of year 8.
  
• ⚡ The Decadent attribute in the species tab in the in-game Encyclopedia now shows a numerical value instead of a tag.
  
• Changed the wording used in House Upgrades to make it clearer where bonuses on the perk HUD came from.
  
• Improved the wording in the Followers of the Forsaken Gods World Event description.

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Blight Filter Cornerstone increasing Cyst generation rate instead of lowering it.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with some workers getting stuck on trees when trying to reach Abandoned Caches.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused perks tied to trade routes to be drafted for players who haven’t unlocked this feature yet.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused some areas to become blocked when moving a building.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the newcomer timer showing time offset by 30 seconds.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Makeshift Extractor water tank expansion bonus not stacking.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with trade routes not being sorted correctly based on distance.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the Purified Human House to have Beaver-specific upgrades.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Obsidian Runestone effect listed in the Hearth UI not having an icon and name.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Blight Filter effect being incorrectly listed in building UIs (under a wrong name).
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused won games to be marked as a loss if players decided to continue a settlement and lost all their villagers.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Twitch integration blocking choices when one is set to “automatic”, and the other to “opt-in”.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the iCUE Lightning integration sometimes not working correctly.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with some starting glades having trees on top of fertile soil.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Flawless Rain Mill using Drizzle Water instead of Clearance Water.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Cycle summary listing failed towns even if there were none.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with wrong profession names being assigned to workers.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an incorrect description in the Encyclopedia entry about sacrificing goods during the Storm.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with Training Expedition settlements having an incorrect name in the Game History tab.
  
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with some descriptions using regular hyphens instead of non-breaking ones.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a typo in the Japanese description of the Forbidden Seal Shard Cornerstone.
  
• ⚡ Fixed a typo in the German description of the Roaming Swarm World Event effect.

[h3]Other[/h3]

• ⚡ Starting with the next update, Cycle blessings and bonuses will no longer be removed after a force-finished settlement.
  • Why doesn’t this work with today’s patch? That’s because we first needed to prepare the backend for this change and alter the save structure.
    
  • To make up for this, you will be given a free Royal Resupply for the settlement force-finished by today’s update.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]COMMUNITY CORNER[/h2]
Check out some of the best community screenshots, artwork, and memes from recent days. Click to unfold:
[expand]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3021202570
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3021202570
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3020455572
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3020455572
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3020701964
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3020701964
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3019417527
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3019417527
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3020910202
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3020910202
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3019264381
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3019264381
For more artwork, memes, and screenshots visit Steam, Discord, and Reddit.
[/expand]

We wish you a great time with the new update and a happy weekend!
[hr][/hr]
[h2]PREVIOUS UPDATES[/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3658663641148118403
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3650781073918695896
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3658660471449381227
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3676674235050601004

[h3]Greetings, Viceroys![/h3]
Come join us later today at 3:00 pm UTC on our Twitch channel for a livestream during which we’ll present the changes coming in tomorrow’s Seal Contracts Update:

Follow us on Twitch

The main highlight of the Update is the new Seal Contracts feature that allows the selection of up to 3 types of Seals that will generate during the next Cycle. With this feature, we hope to satisfy the popular request to replay the early Seals or to play short Cycles.

If you can’t join us live, the recording will be later uploaded to our YouTube channel, where we keep the Livestream Archive playlist with the recordings of all our streams.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

We can’t wait to see you later today and kindly remind you that as usual, all the ongoing settlements will have to be force-finished (more information below) when the update goes live tomorrow.

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games
[hr][/hr]
[h2]How to prepare[/h2]
We release new content Updates every two weeks on Thursdays around 1 pm – 3 pm UTC. As we make multiple changes to the game’s systems, balance, and content, the game needs to force-finish any settlements that are in progress when you download the update. This aims to prevent various game-breaking bugs that could occur otherwise.

IMPORTANT: If you have a settlement in progress, it will have to be force-finished when you download the Update. You will be reimbursed with Citadel Resources but you will have to start a new settlement. Your meta progress (that is: Experience, Level, completed Deeds, unlocked Upgrades, Citadel Resources, etc.) will remain intact.

In the main menu, under the “Play” button, there’s a countdown to upcoming Updates. Please finish your current settlement before the update day if you don’t want it to be completed automatically.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Previous Updates[/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3658663641148118403
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3650781073918695896
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3658660471449381227
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3676674235050601004

[h3]Greetings, Viceroys![/h3]In collaboration with Makeship, we launched the crowdfunding campaign for the Beaver Villager plushie. This is the first-ever official Against the Storm merch and we’re super excited to let you welcome those adorable lumberjacks into your homes.



They are only around for a limited time and you have until September 3 to order. Once it’s gone, it’s gone!

Go to the Makeship store to get your own plush:
GO TO THE PLUSHIE PAGE

Every plushie purchase comes with exclusive digital background art (Beaver villager in peril) in two sizes:

• Desktop: 3840x2160
  
• Tablet: 2048x2732

The art will be distributed after a successful campaign ends.



As with all other plushies on Makeship, the Beaver Villager costs $29.99 plus shipping costs.

These limited-edition plushies only get made if enough people support them, so please help us spread the word and pick up your own while you can: https://www.makeship.com/products/beaver-villager-plush


Thank you for reading!

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games