Microcivilization News

[p]Hi,[/p][p]yesterday I've started the 0.12 Beta test so it might be a good time to talk about some of the features in it (most of these features were mentioned in my previous update)[/p][h2]Trade Redesign[/h2][p]Trading has been a neglected feature for quite some time. Scaling of the trade values was isolated and I knew for some time that I need to somehow tie it to actual civilizations and map. [/p][p]The question was how to do this in a simple way so that we don't need an entire new trading mechanism with a special menu etc.. I did like using the trade with the toggle buttons (split by resource type) but I felt I want to make it more synergizable, similar to how workshops now can be enhanced. I also wanted to give players some control over what is traded and how.[/p][p][/p][p]New system of customizing your Trading goods via Trade Route tile upgrade. Note that all tile benefits enhance your trade route ability - so you can still toggle if you want to trade the resource or not at any time like before.[/p][p][/p][h3]'Borrowing' tiles[/h3][p]In the new version, Traded resource volume is no longer a single (growing) number. You directly control what you gain when the Trade toggle is active. [/p][p]You do so by adding 'Trade route' to other civilization's tiles (using a new 'quest'). Does your neighbour have a farmland with 6-points adjacency bonus (+35% food)? You open a trade route to this tile and your Trading toggle automatically gains all this tile's bonuses (example on the image above)[/p][h3]Costs[/h3][p]Trade routes do not cost workers like your own tiles. Instead every trade route costs gold and each new trade route increases gold cost for all existing trade routes (thus having a polynomial cost growth). [/p][p]Cost and discount system has also been updated so there are now some ways to lower your trade route costs.[/p][p]Trade now also generates profit as base values, so is affected by all your hero multipliers and other upgrades. This has a downside for Drought food trade relief because drought now affects traded food as well. Drought has thus been nerfed a bit.[/p][p][/p][h2]Balancing & Difficulty[/h2][p]Due to new Ability system (mentioned last month) I had to go through the entire game and do an overall rebalancing round. That doesn't mean the game is now perfectly balanced - I think the balancing is an iterative process and will need several more 'sweeps' - but right now I believe most of the difficulty spikes we had are ok.[/p][p]Since the changes made the Normal difficulty relatively easy and did not enforce players to utilize all features, I wanted to include a difficulty that is challenging enough to motivate players to strategize more and to use all abilities offered by the game.[/p][h3]Simple Hard[/h3][p]Hard difficulty is currently a very 'early-accessy'. This means you mostly have only numerical adjustments to crisis health and other variables. The result for now is sufficient for what I needed - you should not be able to carelessly rush through the gameplay without some degree of planning.[/p][p]For the near future I plan to extend Hard difficulty with some exclusive small features like Crisis perks, civilization behavior and more features to gradually motivate players to create multiple working builds for different situation, instead of just one that beats everything.[/p][p]For the moment there is also no Hard-exclusive Achievement. These will be done when the above features are finalized and balancing done at least once more (most likely in next major version).[/p][p][/p][h2]Auto-skill update[/h2][p]One task I didn't want to do but did anyway was Auto-skill revisit. This came as a convenience because I was already reworking Gold-based abilities with Hero skill and trade routes. So I looked at auto skills at the same time to bring them to a common 'mana' economy as gold.[/p][p]New compact overview of Auto-skill config. Each option affects autonomy costs, which are now non-trivially high. For simplicity's sake they are still only X per second, so micromanaging it in non-AFK can help reduce costs a lot.[/p][p][/p][h3]Logic update[/h3][p]First change is general update of the code backend. Auto skills are now all working slightly differently (hopefully more useful). Some (not all) known bugs were fixed especially in the construction. Auto skill now also have more Options to adjust behavior, they can use most abilities etc.[/p][h3]Price Economy[/h3][p]Second change was adjusting prices. I wanted autoskills to have a cost, they should not be completely free or void of risks. So their Autonomy costs have been raised substantially. To mitigate this I updated some Wonder effects and tweaked Library so that players can now make an actual 'AFK build'. This is planned to extend in the future to make AFK builds have more exclusive features, but for now I could not work on this much deeper (for time reasons).[/p][h3]Auto Quests[/h3][p]Third change was re-introduction of much desired Auto expansion toggle. This now allows you to explore territory, eliminate NPCs, Claim territory around your base and also add Improvements (in a very simplistic manner). There's a plenty of more work on this one, especially if we want to make it capable of rebuilding a fallen empire back to its previous state automatically.[/p][p][/p][h2]Other changes[/h2][p]There's also a number of smaller changes, here's a brief overview of some:[/p]

• [p]Number of Gold Lotus Scores were removed, some new (e.g. unused Secrets) were added[/p]
• [p]Ceremonial wonders no longer have negative effects on them (Red lotus ceremonies still have production decrease though)[/p]
• [p]Hurry quests is now always available and rushes the entire duration on one use. It's expensive though. So you need to be filthy rich to overuse it the way you probably want to.[/p]
• [p]New White lotus pledge perks added. Some might be annoyingly difficult.[/p]
• [p]Some Workshops now have some additional traits for early game flavour.[/p]
• [p]Two of the Economy hero abilities can now mitigate Predicament explosions (freezing a number of predicaments, preventing their explosion)[/p]
• [p]Some wonders have changed their effects and moved along the tree to be available sooner/later[/p]
• [p]New Wonder Oracle can actually predict the future and try to remove predicaments.[/p]
• [p]Statue of liberty wonder was added providing Autonomy 'mana-shield' and an ability to integrate vagabonds.[/p]
• [p]Perseverance rewards from Disasters are now transferred between civilizations (up to 20 of them). They are only lost if you fall. [/p]
• [p]Disasters now give a bit better perseverance rewards. [/p]
• [p]Risks from Vagabonds and Empty houses has been reduced (we now have other more annoying things to worry about so their role is no longer that important)[/p][p][/p]

[h2]What comes next[/h2][p]I would like to run beta until September 29th and release 0.12 live on that date. This is an optimistic scenario but I am hoping 2 weeks will be enough (If I keep my discipline and don't do any invasive changes mid-beta). [/p][p]This is as far as I can see...as mentioned previously, we're expecting a little baby due in October, so I am hesitant to make any work-related plans for late October or early November.[/p][p]My intention is to complete the next version 1.0 before the end of this year and finally leave Early access. There are still many questions unanswered as to what will and what will not be part of 1.0 so nothing is certain yet. [/p][h3]Save compatibility for 1.0[/h3][p]As per discussion here I have decided that Save games will have 'limited' compatibility from Early Access to Full game in 1.0. This goes against my prior announcement (ages ago) that 1.0 will have a full wipe.[/p][p]The reasoning is mostly due to game becoming a lot bigger than planned and the extended Early Access period (yes I am aware this takes twice as long as planned). It will be recommended to start from scratch after 1.0 goes live, but generally I want to ensure players can keep the long-term stuff like lotuses and heroes if they want to. Thanks to Ash for useful insights.[/p][h3]Demo[/h3][p]I'm also planning to release Demo version for the game as soon as 0.12 is stabilized. Demo will allow save transition to full game so I will have to synchronize versions between demo and early access when that happens - which is why I want to wait for fully stable 0.12 - to save myself from managing bug reports of the same issue from two sides.[/p][p][/p][p]That's all for today,[/p][p]cheers,[/p][p][/p][p]Ondrej[/p]

[p]Hi,[/p][p]I have just released a small patch addressing various crashes reported.[/p][p]Cheers,[/p][p][/p][p]Ondrej[/p]

[p]Hi all, [/p][p]let me invite you to the beta-test of version 0.12 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 0.12.0 [/p][p][/p][p]I will be releasing a regular Monday update tomorrow covering what's new in 0.12 (continuing from what was said in August Update). But as a quick summary here's at least some headlines:[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Tier 4 ascension tree is now accessible up to Modern era. Besides retaking old upgrades lost in T3 there's a number of new upgrades and also 4 new Artist heroes and several Judgements to be fought.[/p]
• [p]Artists system has been extended - creating something like a 'meta-economy' allowing you to generate some of the rare Lotuses for 'free'. They can now also Infuse with Idols.[/p]
• [p]Black lotus capture system was redesigned to be more intuitive (replaced with a new lotus color)[/p]
• [p]Starting location on map has overview of new Strategic resources, rare techs and Predicaments. The map geography is also more varied and some tile mechanisms updated.[/p]
• [p]New Strategic resources types (including Chocolate!)[/p]
• [p]Trade route system completely redone now based on other civilization tiles as the primary mechanism (technically you can now 'claim' their tiles for gold instead of workers)[/p]
• [p]Hero abilities for Gold and Autonomy have been updated allowing more usability across levels, better scaling and synergies with workshops and wonders.[/p]
• [p]Predicaments have now been updated (with some new ways to counter them)[/p]
• [p]Theater hero farming was updated.[/p]
• [p]Crisis reward system updated (more varied in-game rewards dropping)[/p]
• [p]Hard difficulty with extra tough crises combat.[/p]
• [p]Updated Auto skills system with new Auto-Expansion ability.[/p]
• [p]Various existing mechanisms updated and rebalanced.[/p]

[p]Hello everyone,[/p][p][/p][p]today we have a lot to talk about. Version 0.11 is live, new ideas from players are flowing in and in the meantime i was busy with changes for 0.12. It's also time to update the roadmap for the next phase of developement and start talking about the 1.0.[/p][p]So let's go one by one.[/p][p][/p][p]Starting from the important stuff. While I can't yet announce actual date of 1.0 Launch, the scope of 1.0 is however getting clearer - that is I know WHAT HAS to be in 1.0, I have rough idea WHAT SHOULD be there, and vague idea WHAT COULD be there.[/p][p]Yes I am deliberately using these three categories because for me, the next phase is all about deciding which feature gets in and has to be done in all circumstances, which feature probably goes in (but if something goes wrong is postponed), and which is right away discarded to a later post-1.0 update.[/p][p]I have put all this information to the new version of Roadmap. But the general idea is this:[/p]

1. [p]Step number one is to do all 'unfinished business' and build Major version 0.12. That will make all the 'missing knowledge' float to surface.[/p]
2. [p]Release this version 0.12 live before end of Q3 (end of September)[/p]
3. [p]Depending on early feedback of 0.12 estimate the 1.0 work and Announce that 1.0 is coming (Beta shortly after Announcement)[/p]
4. [p]Version 1.0 would be released no sooner than 1 month after Step 3 Announcement (the actual release date depending on many other factors)[/p]

[p]So to answer 'when is 1.,0 happening' - I will Announce most likely in October, the earliest possible scenario of 1.0 Launch is November.[/p][p]Note: My wife is expecting our second baby in October, so definitely I won't be committing to 1.0 launch before my personal life gets to some 'stable flow' :) The game should be mostly ready for 1.0 by then, but I'll need to ensure some time capacity to support the release and beta. So we'll see how that goes and if there are still reasonable launch slots between Steam sales (that part of year is usually busy) ...[/p][p][/p][p]To make the above possible I plan to start beta of the next major update very soon - hopefully around the time of our next update in 4 weeks.[/p][p]The next update will be rather busy with changes of all kinds. My main objective is to review most of the older and deeper problems and do all the painful surgical procedures to either fix these problems or at least allow a solution to incrementally be added over following patches. Let's go through them.[/p][p][/p][p]The core of 0.12 revolves around map generation phase - that is the screen where you choose your starting location. My primary objective is to tie various features to this area and make the initial choice of map affect not just your layout but also what challenges your civilization will be facing and what strategy would be useful to pick. There are four significant changes in this screen.[/p][p][/p][p]Various things will now be visible on the map generation screen allowing players to choose the best world suiting their play style.[/p][p][/p][h2]1. Strategic Resources[/h2][p]The first change here is that Strategic resources will now be visible on the starting location. That has an obvious consequence - endless clicking on 'regenerate' until that optimal combo appears.[/p][p]The second change is that there are new strategic resources to find (in fact there are three 'tiers' of strategic resources - each unlocked by ascension upgrade). Some of these new resources will bring you some cool stuff like an extra Wonder slot.[/p][p]Third change here is that strategic resources are almost never all available. Only a subset of types is spawned on each map. On the other hand there is more instances of these resources spawning early on.[/p][p][/p][h2]2. Predicaments[/h2][p]Predicament types are now fixed per map. Meaning on some maps you can't get Resentment or Industrial pollution (for example - I know these two are people's favorites). At the same time the number of predicaments added to the tree is also determined on map generation step. [/p][p]This way you will see exactly which of these (and how many) pesky disaster types you can expect.[/p][p]Sometimes you might get a good roll on strategic resources and map layout, but will have to face higher-risk disasters. The generator logic is generally that of 'higher benefits = higher risks'[/p][p]There are also some new predicament types (more on that below)[/p][p][/p][h2]3. Biome structure[/h2][p]Mountains now form more randomly. Specifically they sometimes erode away on some places and sometimes they grow in width in other places. [/p][p]This way sou can sometimes have very flat maps with big or small hills, sometimes very hilly maps.[/p][p]Strategic resources now also are tied to their respective biome and they generate clustered together.[/p][p][/p][h2]4. Rare Technologies[/h2][p]Rare technologies have been given a little upgrade as well. Each technology now has a more significant impact to economy (I have also removed negative traits from them). They will now give you a very important new feature that can be central to your combat/economy build when combined with other features like strategic resources or perks.[/p][p]For this reason the rare tech selection is also visible when generating the map. [/p][p]Note: With Tier 4 you can adopt these techs, so you will eventually be able to always get them all. You will also be able to eradicate Nemeses, so these techs will not bear any disadvantage.[/p][p][/p][p]Who doesn't love endless Hero farming right? I do. But the problem currently was that hero-farming became too easy at the end of tech tree (with proper upgrades you can generate thousands of heroes without active gameplay). [/p][p]It's not that I want to prevent this altogether (why else would I add a meta-game farming workshop in the first place) but I need some more mechanisms to tweak the difficulty and 'gamify' the hero farming a bit. (as I mentioned in the beginning of this post - this is one of those problems I can't fix right away but instead I will introduce mechanisms to enable fixing over time). So here's what will change in 0.12:[/p]

• [p]Theater now has a 'Hero reserve' count (initially 3, adding ~3 with each theater upgrade)[/p]
• [p]After extracting all heroes from this reserve, theater produces secondary rewards (culture points)[/p]
• [p]This hero reserve can be increased and also refreshed in some ways[/p]
• [p]Theater no longer corrupts hero, instead it randomly spawns 'Social' Disasters (a subset of available disasters)[/p]
• [p]Social Disasters spawnable from Theater are limited to 'Resentment', 'Economic Depression' and two new disaster types 'Fear' and 'Chaos'. There will be a few more added later on.[/p]
• [p]These Disasters always respect the disaster types shown on Map Start. So if your map rolled only Chaos, theater will only spawn Chaos. (there's always at least one social disaster there)[/p]
• [p]Theater no longer spawns Common heroes (only Elite or Rare).[/p]
• [p]Unique heroes are no longer spawnable from Theater by default (this will be possible, but not 'for free' and not right away)[/p]
• [p]Instead of Autonomy/Gold costs Theater now has a positive passive effect when active - improving Hero abilities cooldown and costs (more on this below).[/p]

[p][/p][p]You may still remember the first two major updates - 0.7 and 0.8. Both have added one category of abilities - Gold and Autonomy. Together these features should have formed a complementary/alternative mechanism to unit-based combat. However these features were never properly balanced to fill this role properly.[/p][p]As part of 0.12 I made some changes how the Hero abilities work, how they scale damage and costs and how these are presented also in the game.[/p]

• [p]Most of the Triggerable (belief/law) abilities now also deal damage to crises.[/p]
• [p]Ability costs and damage now scale not just with hero level but also with technology (similar to units).[/p]
• [p]Base Ability costs were lowered.[/p]
• [p]The two points above mean that high-level-hero abilities are now more easily affordable in early tech eras when gold/autonomy is lower.[/p]
• [p]Some Workshops, Wonders and Heroes now boost ability power (e.g. Theater reduces cooldowns/costs).[/p][p][/p]

[p]After some 'marination' time it became obvious that the mechanism behind Black lotus acquisition for Ascension upgrades is 'weird'. Meaning needlessly confusing without justifying its complexity with much.[/p][p]Before I tell you how I decided to change this I would like to share the thought process behind the original design (very simplified, I have about 20 pages of different designs I sketched over the last year or so):[/p][h3]What does black lotus represent?[/h3][p]Black lotuses up until Tier 3 were generic 'punishment' for careless play (causing death). After introduction of Tier 3 Idols, the black lotuses could be further generated by using the idol powers (representing types of 'malevolent' or 'ruthless' powers founded on survival instincts and ancient adaptive cultural/genetic behaviour). This was okay.[/p][p]Simply put - if you play evil, you get in-game power (idol effects) but a meta-game disadvantage (evaporated lotuses).[/p][h3]The 'Luke Skywalker' principle[/h3][p]What I needed to introduce in Tier 3 was 'something' representing 'restraint to use dark powers'. The reasoning behind this is quite archetypical - Hero having a predisposition to the 'dark side' but being disciplined enough not to use it - and also powerful enough so he doesn't need it). [/p][h3]What should serve this role?[/h3][p]So to avoid introducing 'new something' (attempting to make things simple) I thought I could use the Black lotus too. After all it makes sense to 'control' the thing that represents evil. Sure. [/p][p]But the result was this same 'thing' would now represent two different forces on the screen. And it would have to be visualized differently in different contexts. Which created need to add various explanatory texts and indicators (which is usually a bad sign).[/p][h3]Indigo Lotus[/h3][p]So after doing a patch or two I decided to revisit this mechanism from scratch and reconsider the alternative design I had in the design phase. That is really bring the 'new something'.[/p]

• [p]Instead of being collectible, Black lotus will retain their original single purpose - punishment for careless actions. You can no longer capture Black lotus.[/p]
• [p]Nothing will ever cost Black lotus, no Black lotus can be 'owned'. They always 'explode' at the end of ascension, destroying other lotuses or evaporate.[/p]
• [p]Idols (when not used) will Generate new type of Lotus (Indigo - keeping some contrast in opposition to white, and keeping the color consistent with the Idols)[/p]
• [p]Indigo lotus will be Transient (the same as captured Black lotus in v0.11) so you lose them if you can't spend them.[/p]
• [p]Indigo lotus costs will be used where Black lotuses costs we used in v0.11. [/p]
• [p]As result there is no positive relation between Black lotus and idols - you no longer need to 'farm black idols' in order to gain Indigo.[/p]
• [p]Indigo lotus can be evaporated by Black lotuses like other lotus types if things go out of hand (you now first eliminate Red, then Gold, then Indigo and White last)[/p]

[p]Along with redesigns, missing eras will be opened in 0.12 along with some new upgrades mixed in.[/p][p][/p][p]To summarize the Idol Lotus change:[/p]

1. [p]'Lotuses from Idols' are gained as before (they just have different color)[/p]
2. [p]you no longer need to also farm Black Lotuses to farm Idol Lotuses[/p]

[p][/p][p]Obviously the most important content of 0.12 will be the 'almost complete' Ascension Tree with all that comes with it.[/p]

• [p]Remaining tech eras will again be available in new higher difficulties.[/p]
• [p]More Judgements to fight with new abilities and Perks[/p]
• [p]More Artist Heroes with new Meta-combat and Meta-economy abilities.[/p]
• [p]New mechanism to expand Artist cap (Enlightenment)[/p]
• [p]New Idol type available from Red Lotuses (including possibility to Infuse Artists)[/p]
• [p]Gold/Red lotus economy update[/p]
• [p]New Idol types available from new 'Generic' Judgements.[/p]
• [p]New World wonders,[/p]
• [p]Nemesis eradication scenarios[/p]
• [p]Fifth 'Ultimate' Meta-power to combat Judgements (costing multiple Lotus types at once)[/p]

[p]There is a couple of things I am considering to exclude from 0.12 for practical reasons (and add them to 1.0):[/p]

1. [p]Final scenario (99% this will not be in 0.12)[/p]
2. [p]Some nemesis eradication scenarios (99% at least some will be missing)[/p]
3. [p]Future era extension (I plan to add more techs to the future tree as well as improve the whole late game)[/p]
4. [p]Future era itself (considering the above it would be economical time-wise to do the revisit of future era 'once-and-for-all' instead of switching context to it twice)[/p]
5. [p]Some World wonders, Artists and Idol types (most likely I will need to get feedback on the late game first before I add some of the 'cherry-on-the-top features')[/p]

[p]Overall I would like version 0.12 to be very close to the 1.0 gameplay experience in terms of length, difficulty, variability and depth.[/p][p]So there we are, plenty of changes are coming . This will also need a lot of balancing (finally) and bugfixing. So big plans. Let's see how it all goes.[/p][p][/p][p]That will be all for today. I'll see you in 4 weeks[/p][p][/p][p]Cheers,[/p][p][/p][p]Ondrej[/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello,[/p][p][/p][p]as promised to many of you I am releasing a patch addressing all known blocking issues reported including some bugfixes for annoying stuff.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Fixed a couple of issues blocking players in a blank ascension screen when save load failed from older unsupported versions.[/p]
• [p]Autoresearch should no longer crash the game or spawn duplicate era bosses.[/p]
• [p]Sound of Resolve (Horn) should no longer be buyable in Tier 3 (there were still some corner cases when this was possible)[/p]
• [p]Foundation Stone lotus cost is now automatically covered for wiping out Conquistadores just as a failsafe solution in case people accidentally end up with less than 50 lotus (which can happen as a result of older version migration or corrupt save)[/p]
• [p]White lotus ascension on Tier 2 should no longer be hidden.[/p]
• [p]You no longer pick starting location in Tier 3 until unlocking the first ascension there.[/p]
• [p]Added additional hints to Tier 3 welcome popup (regarding Idols and Tech adoption)[/p]
• [p]Fixed Tech adoption requirement message to point to correct Tech name.[/p]
• [p]Starting screen should now only show relevant Lotuses[/p]
• [p]Artists should no longer show in Autonomy menu[/p]
• [p]Added description indicating Red lotus can be gained from Ceremony Wonders (after unlocking Great Ceremony) to the Ascension screen popup and added a Tutorial hint about this.[/p]
• [p]Tech adoption costs now start at 1 and increase by 1 for every single tech adopted[/p]
• [p]Particle Kiln should now be rebuildable when destroyed (though it is stil regarded as a Wonder for destruction attacks purposes and most other effects)[/p]
• [p]Fixed a workshop dialog descriptions overlap[/p]

[p]Cheers,[/p][p][/p][p]Ondrej[/p]