Microcivilization News

[p]Hi all, [/p][p]let me invite you to the beta-test of version 0.11 using the experimental branch pass-key: [/p][p][/p][h2]WelshCorgiPembroke[/h2][p][/p][p]Just go to the Steam, find Microcivilization in your library, go to its Properties, Betas and insert your key to the text box. [/p][p] The branch is already activated and should contain game version 0.11.0 [/p][p]Because of the update size this Beta will run for a minimum of FOUR weeks. Please if you have any feedback, check out the community forum or visit us on discord. In 0.11 you can continue with Tier 2 Scenario and fight through the third tier of the Ascension tree. [/p][p] [/p][h2]Tier 3 Mechanics[/h2][p]Here's a brief summary of what you may expect:[/p]

• [p]Tier 3 takes you to the ancestral times removing (temporarily) most your abilities for the duration of tier 3.[/p]
• [p]You will lose access to your Ascension upgrades you have earned (you will regain all the Lotus spent later and be able to reach all those ascension again in Tier 4 dont worry - this is not a reset)[/p]
• [p]You will have different types of Quests available on the map resembling a nomadic tribal play style with no permanent settlements (until you discover them).[/p]
• [p]You will be able to Adopt Technologies into your tech tree to avoid struggling through chaotic 'endless' tech tree.[/p]
• [p]You will be earning new types of Lotus to progress in Ascension tree[/p]

• [p]You will not be able to use your Heroes in Tier 3. Instead you will gain brand new type of heroes - Idols. You will later be able to infuse Idols with your old Heroes.[/p]
• [p]The current version ends with 're-emergence' from Tier 3 to Tier 4 and regaining your basic abilities. However you will not reach beyond Tier 4 Neolithic era yet - this is coming in 0.12.[/p]

[p]This generally covers the main areas. If you are interested you can take a look in my previous dev updates - all the new mechanisms are described there in detail.[/p][p][/p][h2]Changes to existing gameplay[/h2][p]For practical reasons most of the existing gameplay has been left untouched - mainly due to sheer volume of features for Tier 3 - they were enough for almost twice as long update.[/p][p]However a couple of small changes aimed to smooth the transition to Tier 3:[/p]

• [p]New 'White lotus' available in Tier 2.[/p]
• [p]Two White lotus 'Pledge' Perks available on Tier 2 (the mechanism to farm White lotus).[/p]
• [p]New ability to wipe Predicaments (via charges purchased for White lotus)[/p]
• [p]Slight changes to Hero traits balancing.[/p]
• [p]Introduced Easy and Normal Difficulty settings affecting combat (Hard & potentially Hardcore will be introduced later). You can change these mid-game without consequences (for now).[/p]

[p]I expect to address some small things during beta, but this update is mostly about the new 'chapter'. I will be focusing more on the existing balancing and QoL next time.[/p][p][/p][h2]Outstanding Work for BETA[/h2][p]This time it is worth to mention there are some tasks which I have decided to leave unfinished and instead launch the Beta earlier. The reasons are simply time constraints - It is more useful to run a Beta test while working on some features which do not directly affect gameplay mechanics and the beta testing process itself. [/p]

• [p]Sounds and Music - an update on sound effects and music is planned. Many actions are now without a sound and will need a proper update. My sound system is however quite messy and needs a focused redesign making the build slightly bigger than it may seem. Plus I've nearly finished the Main Theme which I'd like to add to the title screen.[/p]
• [p]UI & Visuals - this implies some bugs but there's also a plan to do update for some UI elements and rework some screens altogether (Starting position with Perk selection for instance). Icons on some areas are also outdated and need a polish.[/p]
• [p]Achievements - new achievements for tier 3 are partially prepared on paper, all of them will be added to the game during beta before official release.[/p]

[p][/p][p]That's all for now. See you soon (in the nearest patch notes :) ) Cheers,[/p][p][/p][p]Ondrej[/p]

Hi,

finally we're drawing close to the next Major Update. Last missing Features are getting added, gaps are getting patched, bugs fixed and the weight of every decision is growing.

In the past four weeks I had to make some very tough choices what features to include/exclude in 0.11. So let's have a closer look what the 0.11 release is going to look like.




Organizational things first. At this moment Beta looks to be starting during the week June 9-15th (i.e. in two week's time from now the earliest). If all goes well, full release of 0.11 would happen in the first week of July.

However this update is huge (not perhaps by added playtime, but rather by code change size) so I'll try not to be too optimistic here.

My time-capacity will also be a bit smaller during end of June, so the odds are this beta could take 4 weeks or more to get things sorted out. I also decided to add some small features to the scope last-minute so not exactly made my life easier now (but hopefully will make it better later)



I promised to give you more details about the Judgement System so here goes.

[h3]Judgements will be Crises fought while in the Ascension Tree. [/h3]

That's basically all. But of course there is a ton of little details that matter...

[h2]What will cause a Judgement to appear?[/h2]

Same as for Crises, there will be several ways of summoning a Judgement. The main method will be through 'Locks' in between Ascension Tree nodes. Remember how you have to face Neolithic Revolution before researching Division of Labour in the Tech Tree? Same way Judgements will have their own 'locks' in Ascension tree and their role will be the same as Era Crises in Tech Tree - A Boss fight.

But as with Crises there will also be other ways to summon Judgements later on, involuntarily...


Work-in-Progress Judgement combat screen.

[h2]Where will Judgement be fought?[/h2]

Judgements will always be fought outside of the normal game screen after Ascending. You will not typically fight one every ascension. Initially this will be limited to specific thresholds in the Ascension Tree. A more generic combat system will emerge in Tier 4 (v0.12)!

[h2]What are Judgements?[/h2]

Judgement represents an unnamed higher power. Its purpose (or hers, since I chose to illustrate the Judgement as a feminine form) is to test if you are worthy of the powers you have. If you are considered unworthy, you will be pushed back.

Judgement is not evil or good, friend or enemy .... it is an essential part of your civilization itself. The part of you which will punish you for your own failings even if nothing else does. You will never be able to completely destroy it. (If you would, you would have no way to measure your worth!)


[h2]How can you overcome a Judgement?[/h2]

Because they are fought outside normal game, Judgements cannot be destroyed by Military or usual abilities. Instead a brand new set of 'Units' will be added to the game - for lack of a better name now let's call them 'Meta-Powers'.

[h3]Horn of Resolve[/h3]

First meta-power is already known because it already is in the game. Costing 1 Gold Lotus to buy (owning up to 3 at a time) I have reluctantly introduced the Horn early on as part of a 'patch' for difficulty. Besides its current in-game use it will have its own special effect on Judgements as well. However Horn of Resolve is not going to be accessible in Tier 3 (because Gold Lotuses aren't). We will revisit it in Tier 4 in the future.

[h3]Consonant of Cognition[/h3]

A new damage-dealing meta-power purchased for Black Lotus. It will deal small amount of damage to a Judgement and Expend one of it's attacks. It will be possible to use it in-game with similar effect (also being able to expend unblockable attacks).

[h3]Hymn to the Dead[/h3]

Hymn is the third meta-power added in 0.11. This one will be bought for a White Lotus. It will be capable of reducing Judgement Health percentage. It will also be useful in-game with a different effect of wiping all existing Predicaments and lowering Risks.

These are an initial set of meta-powers introduced in the upcoming update. Because of the large number of new features introduced in Tier 3 I decided to limit the exposure to Judgements only to a bare minimum and I will ramp that up as soon as the player moves on to Tier 4.




Because we're now closer to a mid-game in Tier 3 I am starting to open cookie boxes with some of the good stuff I prepared along the way. Let's name a few.

[h3]Hero Slot 5 and 6[/h3]

Both the extra slots will be available in Tier 3. They will work the same - allowing Unique Heroes only. However with the Introduction of Idols and Infusion, it will introduce more ways to combine your builds.

[h3]White lotus & Hymn of the Dead added also to Tier 2[/h3]

To reduce a big-bang introduction of three new types of Lotus in the same Tier I will add one of them earlier - The White Lotus will be added to Tier 2 Tree along with the Hymn Meta-Power.

This will give you an early tool against Predicaments before Tier 3 Idols.

[h3]Starting Research Level[/h3]

New Ascensions will be available increasing your starting Tech level. With each instance of this ascension you will automatically have one level of technology for free at the beginning of each game (all techs in the same vertical column). There will be limited number of this ascension obviously.

[h3]Extra Perk slots[/h3]
For an expensive price, you will be able to buy Ascensions increasing your Perk capacity permanently.

[h3]Wonder Magnitude[/h3]

You will be able to spend Secrets to multiply your Wonder effects (same as with Workshops). But be warned that your Tech era is limited basically to Neolithic in the Tier 3 so no Artemis/Zeus/Pyramid crazy stuff (yet).


[h2]Difficulty Settings coming[/h2]

After some contemplating I decided to introduce Difficulty settings to the game. But because I made this decision only about 2 weeks ago I'll have to do this in two steps. First I will add Normal & Easy difficulty in this update. Hard difficulty will be added in 0.12 hopefully along with a Hardcore option (perma-death).

My main reason to rush this feature in now is to let it settle down as early as possible. Because there's only 0.11 and 0.12 before full 1.0 there's only so much space to test this in real world.




So far the work on Tier 3 is on track of the January Roadmap and no significant changes were necessary. I will be doing my regular Roadmap update after 0.11 is out. But because this one update has been taking so long I thought it might be appropriate to talk about the long-term plan again a bit.

There's a huge amount of decision making still to be done. But there's a couple of points I can make already:

1. I intend to leave Early Access before the end of this year.
   
2. After leaving Early access I still have enough work in backlog for a minimum of two Major Updates (of about the same size as the quarterly major updates these days)
   
3. I have not yet made my mind which other features to add before leaving Early Access and which to add after.
   
4. Before version 1.0 (leaving Early access) there will still be another Major Update (v.0.12) roughly around September.
   

That's all for today. Stay tuned for the Beta and I hope I'll see you in two weeks time there.

Cheers,

Ondrej

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

Hello. In this update I would like to show one of the two meaty parts of upcoming verion 0.12: The new Lotus types and Idols.


[h2] The Ugly [/h2]

This is Red lotus. Red lotus will be your new best friend in Tier 3. (If you are not sure what happens in Tier 3 be sure to check january update )
In Tier 3 you can say goodbye to all the Gold Lotus mechanisms - No more rewards for population, workshops or anything of the sort. So in fact Red Lotus will be your ONLY friend.

Red Lotus represents Sacrifice. To gain a Red lotus, you will have to give up some bit of your progress (or progression speed). There will be several methods of doing that and you will unlock one by one as you go through the Tier 3 Tree.

Red lotus are special in that they can technically be produced infinitely as long as your civilization can withstand another sacrifice (there is an increasing cost).
They will also always be the first ones to clash with Black lotus making them a reasonable method of protecting more valuable Lotus types later.



[h2] The Good [/h2]

Meet the White Lotus. Unlike Gold lotuses, white lotus will be gained only from a new Pledges mechanism - something like optional objectives. The pledges will work similar to the old Bonus Star system (which has been removed last year).

At the start of each game, you will have the option to pick any number of Pledges (from among your Civilization Perks). Each Pledge has different condition which must be met but more importantly kept for the rest of the game. It works like a difficulty handicap.

If you complete the Pledge successfully each will grant 1 White lotus on your ascension.
The Pledges will be unlocked one by one as you progress through Ascensions. As a matter of fact I plan to introduce White lotuses back in Tier 2 so that Players have access to them earlier.

Also White lotuses will have a new feature - they will be 'Transient'. Meaning you cannot hold onto them in between ascensions. All White lotus you earned, you must either spend, or lose them.
Because gaining multiple White lotuses at the same time will be difficult (by having to complete multiple Pledges in a single run) - White lotus will lead to slightly different economy than grinding Gold Lotuses.

Note: Most ascensions will not require White lotus. It's role is mostly reserved for rare upgrades and important milestones in the Ascension tree.


[h2] The Bad [/h2]

Finally the mighty Black Lotus that we all know already. As you probably noticed in the current system each Black Lotus destroys one non-black Lotus during ascension. Thus it works like a generic punishment for playing 'badly'. This mechanism stays, but there is a little twist. Tier 3 will actually need you to play a bit more 'naughty'.

With Tier 3 there are two main additions to the Black Lotus mechanism:

1. From Tier 3 There will be new powerful abilities which will generate Black lotus as a cost. Black lotus thus will also act as 'currency' (in a sense that for a special bonus also receive black lotuses)
   
2. Black lotuses can actually be 'Captured' and used to purchase some very powerful ascensions deep down Tier 3.
   
3. Black lotuses (along with other colors) will be used to purchase special abilities (or 'Instruments') used to combat Meta-Nemeses (codename 'Judgements') in meta-physical world (i.e. in the Ascension Tree itself as mentioned in the same january update mentioned earlier )
   

I'll share more details about points 2 and 3 next time hopefully. So for today let's look at point 1.



Idols are a new type of hero introduced in the dark times of Tier 3. They represent primitive cultural 'Spirits' and are interpreted as Animal idols. These spirits are the only culture your Micropeople have before inventing arts, religion, science, mythology, or comic books. You will need these powers to win the Tier 3.

Bull Idol will be one of the earliest available 'factions'. Besides having a random economical trait (from different pool than heroes) it will have a unique ability permanently increasing your unit damage.
Rat Idol will be available on later stage. Its special power will allow you to dispel Predicaments (finally). The exact mechanism is still being proven against the rest of the game.

There will initially be 6 Idol 'factions': Bull, Raven, Vulture, Hawk, Rat and Hog. Idols only have one economical trait (compared to up to 3 on Heroes) but each has a very powerful single-use ability (usable once per run).
This ability will grant you a permanent trait for the rest of the run but at the cost of generating Black Lotus over time. You won't be able to cancel that ability once used so make the decision wisely.


Ascension Tree Tier 3 work in progress. In here you can see main path through it beginning from its center. A number of secondary ascensions will be added too.

Using idols in all your four slots will grant you a lot of power. You will most likely be able to defeat any opponent and succeed in goals otherwise impossible. The downside is that you will also generate a plenty of Black Lotuses during this time, plenty of dead and thus jeopardize your ascension progress.
So the choice will be up to you how much of this dark power you will use.

Idols are simpler than old-school Heroes. They can only reach level 10 (though more expensively so) and only exist in one rarity (possibly a handful of Unique idols will be added in the future). They will be the only type of hero you can equip during Tier 3.

So you may be asking what happens with your Idols when you reach Tier 4?

[h2]Socketing[/h2]

Upon reaching tier 4 you can again equip you old heroes (and to gain new 80+ level ones). From this point Rare/Unique Heroes can be infused with your Idols (one per each). This will technically insert the idol to the Hero - creating a different frame around them. They will share the same space and can be equipped at once. You will also be able to 'unsocket' the idol freely via Salvaging.

Tier 4 will therefore again allow you to combine both your traditional Hero build with the new Idol-powered super-abilities. This will be necessary to confront the Tier 4 challenges and final boss.

More about that another time.


Have a nice day,

Ondrej

Hi,

i've just released a little hotfix. Mainly for a couple of regression issues caused by the big patch 0.10.11
[h3]0.10.12[/h3]

• 'Obsoletion lock' of Taj Mahal Should no longer crash the game when displaying first warning dialog and has a correct icon
  
• Babel tower should no longer generate Locks in the tech tree after loading a game
  
• Game should no longer crash when multiple ascension boosts are active (defeating multiple era bosses in short time)
  
• Game should no longer crash in some corner-cases with Storm debuff
  
• Game should no longer crash when having Autonomy higher than max 32-bit number.