Against the Storm News

• Changed the Ashen Thicket biome passive effect.
  • The Royal Mining Operation effect no longer increases the double yield chance in mines for assigning workers. Instead, it now spawns a hauling cart at a warehouse every time 80 Copper Ore, Salt, and Coal is used in crafting.
• Added pre-built Woodcutters’ Camps to more starting glades when playing the Forsaken Town World Event.
  
• Some essential buildings and more camps can now spawn in maps with the Forsaken Town effect.
  
• Increased the amount of Artifacts given for winning a Forsaken Town map.
  
• Changed how payments are applied to a Forsaken Town. There is now a % chance of having an outstanding payment when starting a game. The chance is lower in the easier version of the town, and higher in the harder version.
  
• Tweaked the difficulty of the easier version of the Forsaken Town world event.
  • Increased the chance that some blueprints will be available for the player to select (instead of being already selected).
    
  • Slightly lowered the maximum number of Impatience Points players can start with.
    
  • Increased the chance of having more orders to pick at the start of the game (instead of having more of them already selected).
    
  • Reduced the maximum number of already opened small glades.

• Changed the name of the Abandoned Settlement World Event to Forsaken Town.
  
• If you have more than one Stormforged Cornerstone to choose from in the Forsaken Altar, the UI will no longer disappear after each pick and stay on the screen until you have selected all available Cornerstones.

• Fixed a bug where the Budget Cuts modifier was not applied to Prestige 16+ games.
  
• Fixed a bug where some pre-built buildings in a Forsaken Town map were supposed to be in the blueprint pool but weren’t.
  
• Fixed a bug where the in-game “Forsaken Town” effect had no name.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Paste recipe still required only 2 Salt instead of 3.
  
• Fixed a bug where paths could be placed on trees.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Forsaken Town World Event popup.
  
• Fixed a bug where open glades in a Forsaken Town map were counted towards order completion for active orders like “discover glades” or “discover glades in time”.
  
• Fixed a bug where a Forsaken Town game would start in Clearance, but have Storm visual effects.
  
• Fixed a bug where the wrong music track was playing when starting a Forsaken Town game.
  
• Fixed a bug where the ruined Frog and Harpy houses had the wrong building materials assigned.
  
• Fixed a bug where the sound effect for the cancel event button would loop endlessly if the event was resolved before the cancel was applied.

• Added a new World Event with a unique effect.
  • Abandoned Settlement - As you ponder your next move, a group of commoners approaches, their faces etched with worry. They tell you of their relatives stranded in a settlement abandoned by their Viceroy, who has fled, leaving them to face their fate alone. Their pleas are filled with desperation as they beg for your help.
    
  • This World Event requires players to play a settlement that is already in progress, started by another Viceroy. This means that there are already some blueprints selected, some cornerstones picked, some orders active, some glades discovered, a few buildings built, etc.
    
  • The choice in this world event is to go immediately or to negotiate the price. Choosing the “Negotiate the price” option will cause the settlement to deteriorate further, but the reward for completing it will be greater.
    
  • This event has a slightly higher spawn rate than other events. Our main goal with it is to add more variety to Blightstorm Cycles, shake up the early game, and create more interesting games that can lead to trying different strategies.
    
  • IMPORTANT: If you want to test this new World Event without searching for it, simply hover your cursor over an empty tile on the World Map (the first ring of tiles around that tile also has to be empty) and use the following command in the dev console (~):
    

    worldMap.spawnWorldEvent "Adopted Town 1"

• Slightly increased the overall number of events spawned on the World Map.
  
• Changed the amount of Salt needed to craft Jerky (from 1 to 2).
  
• Changed the amount of Salt needed to craft Paste (from 2 to 3).
  
• Rebalanced a few triggers in the Cornerstone Forge.
  • Slightly increased the requirement of the “sell goods” trigger.
    
  • Slightly increased the requirement of the “complete trade routes” trigger.
    
  • Slightly increased the requirement of the “complete trade routes of value” trigger.
    
  • Increased the requirement of the “produce rainwater” trigger.
    
  • Increased the requirement of the “expected corruption” trigger.
    
  • Added a new trigger to the pool - “every level of standing”.
    
  • Removed the “build geyser pumps” trigger.
• Rebalanced a few rewards in the Cornerstone Forge.
  • Slightly lowered the global double production chance bonus for tiers 1 and 2.
    
  • Slightly increased the double production chance bonus for specialized chains (metal, building materials, food) for tier 1 and 2.
    
  • Lowered the number of random raw resources (food and building).
• Slightly decreased the spawn rate of Salt Veins in favor of Coal and Copper in the Ashen Thicket.
  
• The Ruined Town modifier (previously Abandoned Settlement) can now spawn near the Coastal Grove biome.
  
• Changed the building category of the Cannery to Food Production instead of Industry.

• Increased the character limit for perks made in the Cornerstone Forge.
  
• Changed the name of the “Abandoned Settlement” modifier to “Ruined Town” to avoid confusion.
  
• Added a randomize button next to the settlement name text box in the Embarkation Screen. This text box will now also show a randomized name from the start.
  
• Updated the description of the Overexploitation Cornerstone to clearly state how many Cysts will appear (based on the difficulty level).
  
• Added an automatic scroll feature to the Deeds section of the Settlement Complete window (so it moves down when more than one row of Deeds is unlocked).
  
• If you have more than one Cornerstone to choose from, the UI will no longer disappear after each pick and stay on the screen until you have selected all available Cornerstones.

• Fixed a bug where workers would sometimes not carry or fetch resources from the closest warehouse and walk to one that is far away instead (for real now).
  
• Fixed a bug where multiple effects from the Cornerstone Forge would not show progress in their tooltip’s footer.
  • Gatherer walking speed
    
  • Production speed
    
  • Increased Resolve for needs
    
  • Planting and harvesting speed
    
  • Goods sold
• Fixed a bug where the “every x woodcutters” trigger was duplicated in the Cornerstone Forge.
  
• Fixed a bug where all species Resolve bonus effects in the Cornerstone Forge had Beaver-specific descriptions.
  
• Fixed a bug where species Resolve effects would cause the game to break when a retroactive trigger lost progress.
  
• Fixed several incorrect icons in the Cornerstone Forge.
  • Impatience rate
    
  • Jerky +2
    
  • Harpy Resolve
• Fixed a bug where some ruins and buildings spawned in glades would not appear or be placed correctly.
  
• Fixed a bug where deleting a building haulers were going to could cause the settlement to break.
  
• Fixed a bug where a locked species would be displayed as available in the Training Expedition panel.
  
• Fixed a bug where Rainpunk Drills could spawn veins under other objects in a glade (like a Rainpunk geyser).
  
• Fixed a bug where logistics lines would not appear between production buildings after a Recipe was added by a perk or Forest Mystery.
  
• Fixed a bug where searching for a non-existent building in the in-game encyclopedia would cause the encyclopedia window to break.
  
• Fixed a bug where hovering over an explosion icon in an event just as it was exploding would result in an error.
  
• Fixed a bug where the “moving to storage” had a wrong icon next to the worker slot.

• Improved the pathfinding of the Treasure Stag. It should now more reliably choose closer glades.

• Sometimes, the visual effects of the season might be mismatched. The effects should align with time. The correct season is the one displayed in the calendar on the top HUD.

Roguelike city builder Against the Storm is one of my favorite strategy games in recent years. The colorful dark fantasy world is a welcome alternative to the pleasing mundanity of Cities Skylines 2, and despite its post-apocalyptic setting, it feels much more warm and cozy than the harsh brutality of Frostpunk 2. As developer Eremite Games tests a new biome coming with the next update, you can hop into the experimental branch right now to try it out and offer feedback on how it works.

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• Added a new resource - Salt.
  • Salt is obtained in the Mine and requires Salt veins.
    
  • The byproduct of Salt veins is Sea Marrow (with a 30% drop rate).
    
  • Added Salt to multiple existing recipes.
    • Biscuits
      
    • Paste (as a substitute for Dye)
      
    • Crystalized Dew
      
    • Incense
      
    • Jerky (as a substitute of fuel)
      
    • Waterskins
  • Added Salt to some traders and trade routes for settlements in certain biomes.
    
  • Added Salt to reward packs from the Hooded Trickster and Strider Port.
    
  • Added Salt as a reward in some Glade Events.
    
  • Salt is now also a byproduct of Kelpwood Trees in the Coastal Grove and Water Strider Molt nodes.
    
  • Added Salt veins to the Ashen Thicket, Sealed Forest, and Coral Forest.
• Added 3 new orders related to Salt.
  • Salt Miner
    
  • Salty Delivery
    
  • Salt Fever
• Added a new perk related to Salt.
  • Salt Pick - +1 to Salt production. Gain an additional Salt every yield (from gathering, farming, fishing, or production).
• Added a new type of Rainpunk Drill that can spawn in small glades. It spawns salt veins after being repaired.
  
• Added a new biome effect to the Ashen Thicket.
  • Royal Mining Operation - This region is well known for its rich mineral and ore deposits. Every 2 workers in a mine increase the chances of producing double yields while mining by 3%.
    
  • This, combined with the addition of Salt, the change to the old biome effect, and the rebalance of resources (listed in the balance section below) should result in a more mining-focused playstyle in the Ashen Thicket. We hope that this will be a step in the direction of a more unique biome identity.

• Rebalanced multiple triggers, rewards, and penalties in the Cornerstone Forge.
  • The exact changes to the Cornerstone Forge are too numerous to count, so we will focus on the general direction and some notable examples in this section of the changelog.
    
  • Removed some uninteresting or incorrectly scaling triggers. For example: “ongoing events”, “workers in upgraded Geyser Pump”.
    
  • Removed some of the least interesting rewards. For example: Incense, Resin, Grace Period, trader arrival speed, newcomer arrival rate.
    
  • Changed the numbers in a lot of hooks to make them more appealing. For example: dead villagers, produce pottery, working engines, ongoing trade routes, and more.
    
  • Buffed some rewards. For example: trade route speed, hostility, goods in general.
    
  • Added new rewards to the pool. For example: Sea Marrow, species Resolve, chance for double rewards from events, Parts.
    
  • Added new triggers to the pool. For example: constructed geyser Pumps.
    
  • Rebalanced a lot of penalties. For example: impatience, resolve.
    
  • Removed some penalties. For example: destroy buildings, yearly Blood Flowers.
    
  • Added new penalties. For example: higher perk prices, impatience rate.
    
  • Reduced the number of penalty choices from 4 to 3.
    
  • Adjusted how some rewards are drawn with what triggers. For example: retroactive triggers should now have rewards that scale better with them.
• Rebalanced the resource makeup of the Ashen Thicket.
  • Removed Grain nodes.
    
  • Added Root nodes.
    
  • Added Coal and Salt veins.
    
  • Added Sea Marrow to trees.
    
  • Increased the spawn rate of veins.
• Changed how Thunderblight Shard acquisition works in the Ashen Thicket.
  • Removed the old biome effect and added a new one.
    
  • Deeply Hidden Riches - Gain a Thunderblight Shard for mining 50 Copper Ore, Coal, and Salt (combined). You can receive up to 3 shards, each requiring more resources to be mined.
    
  • Subsequent Shards require more mining. The second one requires 150, the last one 250.
• Biscuits can now be made using Eggs.

• Changed the description of the Cornerstone Forge biome effect to clearly state which Cornerstone choices (in which years) are removed when playing in the Ashen Thicket (rather than just vaguely stating that there are fewer choices).
  
• Updated the Mine description for clarity.

• Fixed a bug where workers would sometimes not carry or fetch resources from the closest warehouse (and walk to one that is far away instead).
  
• Fixed a bug where the Cornerstone Forge biome effect did not remove Epic Cornerstone choices from games in the Ashen Thicket, despite the description stating that it did.
  • After the fix, Epic Cornerstones will no longer be offered to players in Years 3, 5, and 7.
• Fixed a bug where random resource rewards were not being counted correctly in the Experimental Cornerstone tooltip.
  
• Fixed a bug where Experimental Cornerstone tooltips would stay on the screen after closing the forge window with ESC.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Big Shelter Ruin was still spawning in certain biomes.
  
• Fixed a bug where a DLC-locked biome could appear in a Daily Expedition.
  
• Fixed a bug where events were incorrectly displayed in the in-game encyclopedia.
  
• Fixed a bug where some rewards and triggers were being drawn twice in the same pool of options in the Cornerstone Forge.
  
• Fixed a bug where the ruined Fishing Hut had incorrect rewards tied to the “salvage” option.
  
• Fixed a bug where the “fulfill service needs” trigger had a missing tooltip.
  
• Fixed a bug that was drawing the wrong reward in the Cornerstone Forge instead of the Hostility reduction effect.
  
• Fixed a bug where the “workers in upgraded mine” trigger was not working.

Ashen Thicket
Once a thriving forest of giant spruce trees, this land has been ravaged by relentless industrial exploitation and the devastating Blightstorm. Now reduced to a barren wasteland, the forest is littered with broken trunks and remnants of its former glory. This region is infamous for its abundance of Thunderblight Shards - magically charged amber crystals essential in crafting Cornerstones.

The Ashen Thicket's unique biome mechanic is the Cornerstone Forge. In this brand-new building, you can craft your own Cornerstones (up to three per game) in exchange for Thunderblight Shards collected from Dangerous and Forbidden Glade Events.

Creating Cornerstones
To create a Cornerstone, you must choose a condition and a reward/effect. The effect stacks based on how many times the condition is triggered. Both conditions and effects have a random rating (stars). You can choose an optional penalty to increase the rating of either the condition or the effect (indicated by a line connecting the penalty to one of them). Finally, you need to choose an icon and name your new Cornerstone.

⚠️ The Ashen Thicket biome requires the Keepers of the Stone DLC.