What's planned for Ascension Tier 2
Hi,
While we have the Beta of 0.9 going on, today I'm going to show some early designs of Ascension Tier 2 which is planned for version 0.10. We're going to talk about scaling levels, increasing difficulty and giving players more powers via new use of Secrets, so far only usable for Tech Locks.
[h2]Ascension Tier 2[/h2]
First of all let's make it clear what 'Tier 2' means. The existing ascension tree as you know it is what I call Tier 1. It contains a central 'grade' ascensions which unlock six technological Eras. It also contains secondary ascensions which boost your active and passive abilities. Tier 1 ends with the Babel tower scenario.
Tier 2 begins where Tier 1 ends - after Babel tower. Tier 2 will allow you to keep all ascensions from the previous one and continue further. It will offer one additional era - The Future Era. This era's tech tree will be structured in a slightly different manner than the other 6 eras - more on this on future updates - and will be technically longer.
Aside from new era Tier 2 will contain new Wonders, one of the locked Hero slots and a new mechanism for scaling your economy up.
Most importantly though, Tier 2 will increase global level of all crises and heroes. Together with Future era this will allow you to get up to level 80. This Increase in difficulty will be felt right from neolithic era. New Crises will join the repertoire and old Crises will receive new attacks and their own 'perks'.
Early mock-up of the Tier 2 Tree with some of its notable ascensions
Tier 2 will end with it's own scenario and continue to Tier 3. Current plan is to have 4 Tiers in total.
[h2]What is Magnitude[/h2]
If you ever felt like having two Lumbermills, then Tier 2 will offer a new toy to play with - Magnitude. Increasing a Workshop's Magnitude in principle means multiplying all economical effects of that Workshop 'as if you had two of them'. This virtually duplicates all the workshop's passive effects but also any effects granted to it from your heroes.
Workshop pop-up has been reworked to show a more in-depth breakdown of all it's effects (if you have them).
To increase workshop Magnitude you first need to unlock this ability in Tier 2 tree. This will allow you to use Secrets (the same secrets used to force-open tech locks) for increasing any workshop's magnitude.
[h2]Magnitude Limits[/h2]
You can only increase magnitude two times per Workshop. Magnitude will also increase the workshop's worker cost (unproportionally). As a bonus though, each Magnitude III. Workshop will be given a specific unique benefit (different per workshop type).
Secrets will have a fixed number for every run (random due to randomized tribal villages). There will be no way to farm them in Tier 2 - so you need to think carefully which workshop is the best for you. Some rebalancing and hero redesigns will also happen to give you the right amount of secrets per run (I'm looking at you Archimedes).
[h2]Map tile Magnitude[/h2]
In case your play style is more expansionist, you may also decide to improve Map tile Magnitude. This uses the same Secret pool, but otherwise works like workshop magnitude. A tile will duplicate all it's effects (including adjacency benefits).
[h2]Status of v0.9 Beta & future plans[/h2]
The Beta is currently getting to it's conclusion. There's still one patch planned at a minimum (during early next week). After this I am aiming for an October release (in about 2 weeks from now). However In case you're interested to participate in beta, feel free to join (see instructions here)
As soon as the release is finished, I'll be also updating the Roadmap. It is now a lot clearer what work needs to be done for Tier 2,3 and 4 and in what order.
That is all for today,
See you next time,
Ondrej
While we have the Beta of 0.9 going on, today I'm going to show some early designs of Ascension Tier 2 which is planned for version 0.10. We're going to talk about scaling levels, increasing difficulty and giving players more powers via new use of Secrets, so far only usable for Tech Locks.
[h2]Ascension Tier 2[/h2]
First of all let's make it clear what 'Tier 2' means. The existing ascension tree as you know it is what I call Tier 1. It contains a central 'grade' ascensions which unlock six technological Eras. It also contains secondary ascensions which boost your active and passive abilities. Tier 1 ends with the Babel tower scenario.
Tier 2 begins where Tier 1 ends - after Babel tower. Tier 2 will allow you to keep all ascensions from the previous one and continue further. It will offer one additional era - The Future Era. This era's tech tree will be structured in a slightly different manner than the other 6 eras - more on this on future updates - and will be technically longer.
Aside from new era Tier 2 will contain new Wonders, one of the locked Hero slots and a new mechanism for scaling your economy up.
Most importantly though, Tier 2 will increase global level of all crises and heroes. Together with Future era this will allow you to get up to level 80. This Increase in difficulty will be felt right from neolithic era. New Crises will join the repertoire and old Crises will receive new attacks and their own 'perks'.
Early mock-up of the Tier 2 Tree with some of its notable ascensionsTier 2 will end with it's own scenario and continue to Tier 3. Current plan is to have 4 Tiers in total.
[h2]What is Magnitude[/h2]
If you ever felt like having two Lumbermills, then Tier 2 will offer a new toy to play with - Magnitude. Increasing a Workshop's Magnitude in principle means multiplying all economical effects of that Workshop 'as if you had two of them'. This virtually duplicates all the workshop's passive effects but also any effects granted to it from your heroes.
Workshop pop-up has been reworked to show a more in-depth breakdown of all it's effects (if you have them).To increase workshop Magnitude you first need to unlock this ability in Tier 2 tree. This will allow you to use Secrets (the same secrets used to force-open tech locks) for increasing any workshop's magnitude.
[h2]Magnitude Limits[/h2]
You can only increase magnitude two times per Workshop. Magnitude will also increase the workshop's worker cost (unproportionally). As a bonus though, each Magnitude III. Workshop will be given a specific unique benefit (different per workshop type).
Secrets will have a fixed number for every run (random due to randomized tribal villages). There will be no way to farm them in Tier 2 - so you need to think carefully which workshop is the best for you. Some rebalancing and hero redesigns will also happen to give you the right amount of secrets per run (I'm looking at you Archimedes).
[h2]Map tile Magnitude[/h2]
In case your play style is more expansionist, you may also decide to improve Map tile Magnitude. This uses the same Secret pool, but otherwise works like workshop magnitude. A tile will duplicate all it's effects (including adjacency benefits).
[h2]Status of v0.9 Beta & future plans[/h2]
The Beta is currently getting to it's conclusion. There's still one patch planned at a minimum (during early next week). After this I am aiming for an October release (in about 2 weeks from now). However In case you're interested to participate in beta, feel free to join (see instructions here)
As soon as the release is finished, I'll be also updating the Roadmap. It is now a lot clearer what work needs to be done for Tier 2,3 and 4 and in what order.
That is all for today,
See you next time,
Ondrej