Conquest, Death, Famine and Man-Flu
Hello everyone,
after another month comes another update. This time I won't be able to talk much about what was done in these four weeks, but will instead look at what's going to happen shortly and view some of the fundamental features of version 0.11.
The main reason is I came down with annoyingly persistent flu for over 3 weeks (exchanging it with my son and wife) so this month progress was bad.
[h2]Beta Test drawing near[/h2]
Regardless of this delay I am now in the finalization phase for 0.11. That includes final graphical polishing, testing and re-balancing. There are some small features missing and there's massive amount of work on music and the Demo (both of which are somewhat non-critical though).
My original estimate (about a month back) was to do Beta in the second half of May, but for the reasons mentioned above I will have to reserve extra two weeks at least (which is about the time lost to the illness).
[h3]Current plan is to start beta in the week of June 2nd-8th (for at least 3 weeks before releasing 0.11 live)[/h3]
I will share my finalized plan on my next update in four weeks. As soon as we draw closer to this I'll also be able to provide actual release date. But this time I do not think I want to have too long beta. Instead I want to do more internal testing before. So optimally 0.11 would be out after 3 weeks of beta testing. According to my January Roadmap this still fits the Q2 release slot.
[h2]Rogue-lite Tier 3[/h2]
As soon as you finish the second Scenario of the game (will be added as part of 0.11 release) you will be thrown to the Tier 3 immediately. Lots of things will change for the time you're in it. To get out you need to do the usual things - gain Lotuses and buy out all the main Ascensions on the ascension tree.
Tier 3 is a fall-from-grace chapter of the game. Your civilization is fighting to retain its position among the living. This is not about culture or prosperity. This is about survival against the most merciless of opponents.
[h3]YOU are now a Tribal Village and THEY are now you.[/h3]
For this reason Tier 3 is going to be played in a slightly different style than Tier 1 and 2. This not to say the mechanisms will drastically change. No, 99% of the core concepts will be the same. The difference comes with some features temporarily disabled or weakened while some enhanced or made into primary gameplay.
[h3]New Map Resources[/h3]
Most of your early activities will be restricted to finite resource on the map. There will be new actions (Quests) you can do on the tiles. New Resources like Ancient Ruins or Foragable Berries will be your initial source of economy and progress. As you move to the end of the Tier you will slowly transition to your old play-style economy.
[h3]No Population-based research[/h3]
This is the first difference you will spot in Tier3. Your population is stuck with something called 'tyranny of custom' and you gain no free Research points. You will need to actively search for Ancient Ruins on the map to gain temporary Research bonuses.
Ancient Ruins will be the primary source of progress in general. However you will have to choose between Technological progress and Meta-game progress (Lotus and Secrets). You will also frequently have to fight your way to these ruins over Cannibal clans and Barbarians.
So getting Research will not be easy. But after all that effort you will ultimately unlock an ascension returning population and autonomy based research back.
Reflection Dilemma is the reward for exploiting Ancient Ruins on the world map. Each will offer you options to progress your civilization. This is also initially the primary source of Lotus at the cost of some of your heroes (future or present depending on the dilemma card).
[h3]No Workshops & Heroes[/h3]
With no permanent settlements there are no workshops. Discovering Permanent settlements is one of the last Technologies in the Tier 3 tree so it will take significant effort to reach it. For the majority of your time in Tier 3 you will not have to worry about workshops.
As mentioned previously - on Tier 3 you do not have sophisticated benefits as mythology and history. So your Heroes will not work. Or in other words you wont be able to equip them. Instead you will be using a new type of Idol heroes, which must be collected from scratch.
While both of these problems make your life significantly harder, they also make it far less complex.
[h3]Conquistadores [/h3]
These guys will be your ever-present Nemesis here. Conquistadores start on Level 1 like everything else here. That is about the only good news though. They will be re-spawning very quickly and gaining new powers mercilessly. Initially you won't likely survive further than their third raid.
As you unlock more meta-game features, Idols, technologies, you will be able to deflect them more easily.
Conquistadores never become Mortal here. You will have to crawl through the Ascension tree up to the special 'Nemesis Eradication Scenario' where you will finally be able to defeat them. This scenario -if won - will also permanently remove them from the Game.
Later in tier 4 EVERY Nemesis type in the game (smallpox, inquisition etc. ) will have their Eradication Scenario to remove them from the game.
An overview of some of the unpleasant challenges of Tier 3 including the 'four conquistadors of apocalypse'.
[h3]Expanding Civilization[/h3]
Conquistadores are tied to their home civilization. In Tier 3 this civilization will always spawn hostile and with a large territory in its control. It will also expand this territory every couple of minutes limiting the free roaming space for your civilization's migratory economy.
You will not be able to defeat this civilization entirely nor be able to wage diplomacy with them. The only Quests available to you will be Raiding their territory which makes a single tile abandoned.
[h2]Swimming up to the surface[/h2]
All the Tier 3 challenges eventually get resolved permanently. Before you are out of this purgatory most of your lost old abilities will be back and the game mechanisms will return very closely to where they were at the beginning of the game.
The Tier 3 Ascension tree is currently pre-balanced to about 10-15 ascension cycles with a 'moderate playstyle' to complete it. With single ascension run beginning from 5 minutes slowly increasing to about 30 minutes (depending how long you can survive) we are talking about 3 to 5 hours play time to complete. If rushing it will likely be possible to reach Tier 4 in half this time.
As I said back in one of the other updates, Tier 3's purpose is to introduce a sudden change in the pace of the game and add all remaining pieces of the puzzle to it. At the same time it is meant to provide a relief from strategic complexity. It is an 'intermission' with different play style compared to the rest of the game and which serves as a contrast to the advanced future era civilization you achieved just before.
This means that once you are out of the Tier 3 you do not need to ever go through the same ordeal again. Tier 4 will resume back to the original play style, except combined with some of the newly discovered features.
Ok, that's all I have to share today. Next month I'll wrap these Tier 3 updates with the last one - about Judgements and what role high-tiered lotuses will play in this new meta-mini-game. Also I might share some stuff about the Tier 2 scenario (but I don't want to spoil much from that). That will cover pretty much all there is about 0.11. So let's hope all works out well in the finalization phase and Beta-test and that we can all get The Biggest Version Update live.
See you next time,
Ondrej
after another month comes another update. This time I won't be able to talk much about what was done in these four weeks, but will instead look at what's going to happen shortly and view some of the fundamental features of version 0.11.
The main reason is I came down with annoyingly persistent flu for over 3 weeks (exchanging it with my son and wife) so this month progress was bad.
[h2]Beta Test drawing near[/h2]
Regardless of this delay I am now in the finalization phase for 0.11. That includes final graphical polishing, testing and re-balancing. There are some small features missing and there's massive amount of work on music and the Demo (both of which are somewhat non-critical though).
My original estimate (about a month back) was to do Beta in the second half of May, but for the reasons mentioned above I will have to reserve extra two weeks at least (which is about the time lost to the illness).
[h3]Current plan is to start beta in the week of June 2nd-8th (for at least 3 weeks before releasing 0.11 live)[/h3]
I will share my finalized plan on my next update in four weeks. As soon as we draw closer to this I'll also be able to provide actual release date. But this time I do not think I want to have too long beta. Instead I want to do more internal testing before. So optimally 0.11 would be out after 3 weeks of beta testing. According to my January Roadmap this still fits the Q2 release slot.
[h2]Rogue-lite Tier 3[/h2]
As soon as you finish the second Scenario of the game (will be added as part of 0.11 release) you will be thrown to the Tier 3 immediately. Lots of things will change for the time you're in it. To get out you need to do the usual things - gain Lotuses and buy out all the main Ascensions on the ascension tree.
Tier 3 is a fall-from-grace chapter of the game. Your civilization is fighting to retain its position among the living. This is not about culture or prosperity. This is about survival against the most merciless of opponents.
[h3]YOU are now a Tribal Village and THEY are now you.[/h3]
For this reason Tier 3 is going to be played in a slightly different style than Tier 1 and 2. This not to say the mechanisms will drastically change. No, 99% of the core concepts will be the same. The difference comes with some features temporarily disabled or weakened while some enhanced or made into primary gameplay.
[h3]New Map Resources[/h3]
Most of your early activities will be restricted to finite resource on the map. There will be new actions (Quests) you can do on the tiles. New Resources like Ancient Ruins or Foragable Berries will be your initial source of economy and progress. As you move to the end of the Tier you will slowly transition to your old play-style economy.
[h3]No Population-based research[/h3]
This is the first difference you will spot in Tier3. Your population is stuck with something called 'tyranny of custom' and you gain no free Research points. You will need to actively search for Ancient Ruins on the map to gain temporary Research bonuses.
Ancient Ruins will be the primary source of progress in general. However you will have to choose between Technological progress and Meta-game progress (Lotus and Secrets). You will also frequently have to fight your way to these ruins over Cannibal clans and Barbarians.
So getting Research will not be easy. But after all that effort you will ultimately unlock an ascension returning population and autonomy based research back.
Reflection Dilemma is the reward for exploiting Ancient Ruins on the world map. Each will offer you options to progress your civilization. This is also initially the primary source of Lotus at the cost of some of your heroes (future or present depending on the dilemma card).[h3]No Workshops & Heroes[/h3]
With no permanent settlements there are no workshops. Discovering Permanent settlements is one of the last Technologies in the Tier 3 tree so it will take significant effort to reach it. For the majority of your time in Tier 3 you will not have to worry about workshops.
As mentioned previously - on Tier 3 you do not have sophisticated benefits as mythology and history. So your Heroes will not work. Or in other words you wont be able to equip them. Instead you will be using a new type of Idol heroes, which must be collected from scratch.
While both of these problems make your life significantly harder, they also make it far less complex.
[h3]Conquistadores [/h3]
These guys will be your ever-present Nemesis here. Conquistadores start on Level 1 like everything else here. That is about the only good news though. They will be re-spawning very quickly and gaining new powers mercilessly. Initially you won't likely survive further than their third raid.
As you unlock more meta-game features, Idols, technologies, you will be able to deflect them more easily.
Conquistadores never become Mortal here. You will have to crawl through the Ascension tree up to the special 'Nemesis Eradication Scenario' where you will finally be able to defeat them. This scenario -if won - will also permanently remove them from the Game.
Later in tier 4 EVERY Nemesis type in the game (smallpox, inquisition etc. ) will have their Eradication Scenario to remove them from the game.
An overview of some of the unpleasant challenges of Tier 3 including the 'four conquistadors of apocalypse'.[h3]Expanding Civilization[/h3]
Conquistadores are tied to their home civilization. In Tier 3 this civilization will always spawn hostile and with a large territory in its control. It will also expand this territory every couple of minutes limiting the free roaming space for your civilization's migratory economy.
You will not be able to defeat this civilization entirely nor be able to wage diplomacy with them. The only Quests available to you will be Raiding their territory which makes a single tile abandoned.
[h2]Swimming up to the surface[/h2]
All the Tier 3 challenges eventually get resolved permanently. Before you are out of this purgatory most of your lost old abilities will be back and the game mechanisms will return very closely to where they were at the beginning of the game.
The Tier 3 Ascension tree is currently pre-balanced to about 10-15 ascension cycles with a 'moderate playstyle' to complete it. With single ascension run beginning from 5 minutes slowly increasing to about 30 minutes (depending how long you can survive) we are talking about 3 to 5 hours play time to complete. If rushing it will likely be possible to reach Tier 4 in half this time.
As I said back in one of the other updates, Tier 3's purpose is to introduce a sudden change in the pace of the game and add all remaining pieces of the puzzle to it. At the same time it is meant to provide a relief from strategic complexity. It is an 'intermission' with different play style compared to the rest of the game and which serves as a contrast to the advanced future era civilization you achieved just before.
This means that once you are out of the Tier 3 you do not need to ever go through the same ordeal again. Tier 4 will resume back to the original play style, except combined with some of the newly discovered features.
Ok, that's all I have to share today. Next month I'll wrap these Tier 3 updates with the last one - about Judgements and what role high-tiered lotuses will play in this new meta-mini-game. Also I might share some stuff about the Tier 2 scenario (but I don't want to spoil much from that). That will cover pretty much all there is about 0.11. So let's hope all works out well in the finalization phase and Beta-test and that we can all get The Biggest Version Update live.
See you next time,
Ondrej