CivIdle News

Finally, after two years of hard work, CivIdle is now available on Steam Early Access! This is not my first game on Steam (that would be Industry Idle), but man, nothing beats the feeling of pressing the "Release" button and bringing your creation to the world.

The release went alright: I was worried that the progress transfer between the demo and early access would not work but it did. I was worried that the server would crash but it didn't.

After the release, I was surprised to see lots of familiar faces in the in-game chat, from the early Industry Idle days. I'd like to thank all the moderators, playtesters, and players (whether you played Industry Idle or CivIdle) - the game would not be possible without your support. There were so many times I was questioning myself and was about to give up, it was your encouragement and feedback that kept me going.

Early access is only the beginning - those of you who've followed Industry Idle since the early days know that 80% of the content was added after early access. I have the same plan for CivIdle - I will post the content plan here as long as I put together something. But for now, enjoy the game and the friendly community, while I get some sleep - lots of work to do tomorrow!

Cheers,
FishPond

[h3]Achievement For Playtesters and Demo Players[/h3]

First of all, I want to say thank you to all of you who have played the game's demo during Steam Next Fest. Despite the technical issues with Steam Cloud and server crashes, you guys have been playing the demo and providing valuable feedback. As a thank you, every player who has participated in the playtest or has played the game's demo before the end of Steam Next Fest (Feb 12, 2024 10:00am Pacific) will be awarded with a special Steam achievement: "Founder"



This achievement will be awarded to you when you launch the game's release version after early access starts. There are still a couple of hours left before Steam Next Fest ends, you can still unlock this special achievement!

Update: I have received several feedback about time-locked achievement. I will later on adding ways to unlock this achievement by playing the game, more on that later

[h3]Demo Progress Will Be Transferred to Early Access Release[/h3]

It's always been my intention to transfer all the demo progress to release. However, the Steam Next Fest demo has been plagued with Steam Cloud issues. The good news is that after patch 0.1.129, this should have been resolved. The demo version will be available until the release and the release version of the game should be able to automatically pick up your demo progress. Obviously, this process can go wrong and it's impossible for me to test. So here are some extra precautions:

1. You can make a backup of your demo progress at %appdata%\CivIdleSaves\\CivIdle
2. In case the progress transfer failed, you can recover your progress by replacing the save file above with your backup when the game is closed
   

[h3]Early Access Release Is Only the Beginning[/h3]

If you've played my previous game Industry Idle, you will know that early access is only the beginning. In fact, more than 80% of Industry Idle's content was added after early access release. I have the same plan for CivIdle: currently, CivIdle has 100+ tech tree unlocks, 100+ buildings, including 30+ wonders, and 2 maps. And there are only more to come! I will announce the content plan after early access. Right now, my focus is to squeeze the last bugs from the game.

[h3]Help Spread The Word[/h3]

If you enjoy the game, I would appreciate if you can:

• Wishlist the Game Now
• Leave a Steam Review After Early Access Release
• Help Spread the Word

[h3]FAQ[/h3]

Is the game free? How do you monetize the game?

The game will be released on Steam as a free game. There will be no microtransactions. All content as of release will be unlockable for free.

At some point after early access release, I will introduce an optional Supporter Pack that provides extra content, perks, etc. All the income from the sales of the supporter pack will be used to cover the server bill and keep the server running.

Why is there a 48-hour active playtime requirement to rank up to Quaestor?

As mentioned above, I pay for the game's server currently out of my own pocket. The server has anti-cheat measures to ensure that cheaters do not ruin the game for everybody. However, the anti-cheat is very expensive to run. Because the game is free, according to my experience running Industry Idle, there will be lots of spam, bots, and cheaters. Running anti-cheat for everyone will make the game unsustainable (Industry Idle suffers a lot from this problem). The 48-hour active play time requirement is a cheap way to rule out spam, bots, and cheaters and keep the game free for actual players.

When the supporter pack is introduced, players who purchased the supporter pack will be able to skip this requirement.

Why Permanent Great People Capped at Level 2 When Upgrading To Quaestor?

As mentioned above, server anti-cheat is not activated for players with Tribune level. And to make sure everyone has a fair start, the server will only recognize Permanent Great People capped up to level 2, to prevent cheaters from ruining the game's player-driven economy.

What Will Happen to Industry Idle?

Industry Idle has been content complete for a while, even though it is technically still "early access". I will move the game out of early access when I get around to the paperwork. The server will be kept running as long as I can afford. In fact, the income from both CivIdle and Industry Idle will be pooled together to support both games.

In case, you miss the news, CivIdle will participate in the upcoming Steam Next Fest. I want the game to be accessible to a wide range of audiences - whether you've got the latest 4090 RGB water-cooled build, or you've got a toaster. Therefore I am working hard to add in the last bit of optimizations, so you can view every pixel of your empire:



If you are interested in some technical details, I will write a comprehensive article going through some of the details after I've gotten over my sleep deprivation.

0.1.119
QoL: You can middle click an empty tile to copy the building from the selected tile
Bugfix: Fix transportation indicators are sometimes not shown
0.1.118
QoL: Update Account Level
0.1.117
Bugfix: Fix wonders stopped working after upgrading to 0.1.116
0.1.116
Bugfix: Fix happiness from well-stocked buildings are not calculated correctly
0.1.115
QoL: Server will now track active play time. You can query the time by using /playtime chat command
0.1.114
QoL: Improve chat command
0.1.113
QoL: Added chat command support
Bugfix: Natural wonders will not be spawned on initial tiles
Bugfix: New deposits will not be spawned on tiles with Wonders

That's right, CivIdle will participate in the upcoming Steam Next Fest! There will be a demo available to try out! The demo is essentially the latest snapshot of the development version, with all the content available. The only limitation would be the restrictions on the player trade system and leaderboard.

To prepare for this, I am squashing the last bit of bugs and squeezing in every little performance optimization.

0.1.117
Bugfix: Fix wonders stopped working after upgrading to 0.1.116

0.1.116
Bugfix: Fix happiness from well-stocked buildings are not calculated correctly

0.1.115
QoL: Server will now track active play time. You can query the time by using /playtime chat command

0.1.114
QoL: Improve chat command

0.1.113
QoL: Added chat command support
Bugfix: Natural wonders will not be spawned on initial tiles
Bugfix: New deposits will not be spawned on tiles with Wonders

0.1.112
Bugfix: Fix wonders can be built several times

0.1.111
QoL: This patch contains a significant performance improvement. The save data will be automatically migrated but you might want to take a backup first
Bugfix: Fix Not Producing Buildings on the resource panel does not work

0.1.110
QoL: Now the map will show the trade route when you click on a player's tile
QoL: Shows each message's channel when receiving from multiple channels
Bugfix: Fix Statue Of Liberty not working correctly
Bugfix: Fix sometimes a building with full storage shows not enough resources icon
Bugfix: Fix player trade world map sometimes shows unnecessary detours
Bugfix: Fix chat not filtering the latest message correctly

0.1.109
QoL: Allow destroying partial resources in a building
QoL: Add support for different language channels in chat. You can subscribe to multiple channels
QoL: Add a simple tutorial for first-time players

0.1.108
Bugfix: Fix player trade routes are incorrectly drawn
QoL: Allow type in player trade fill amount manually
QoL: Add a button to set fill amount to the max available in the Caravansary
QoL: Show player flag on the world map page
QoL: Improve performance of offline production calculation

0.1.107
Bugfix: Grotta Azzurra will only upgrade buildings that are not being constructed/upgraded

0.1.106
Bugfix: Fix production priority slider resets after restart the game

0.1.105
Balance: Balance wonder cost based on resource value
QoL: Improve general performance, especially when calculating offline production and using Petra to accelerate

As the game is approaching release, this week is mostly about optimizations. For those of you who don't know, in the game, you can build Petra wonder that will collect warps for your extra offline time. You can use wrap to accelerate your run.

This is how fast the game normally runs:


And previously, the Petra allows you to spend 2 warps to run at 2x speed:


After some hard optimizations, now you can spend 4 warps to run at 4x speed:


And even 8 warps to run at 8x speed, if you've got a beefy computer (you know, with all that RGB lights!)


And here are the patch notes:

0.1.108
Bugfix: Fix player trade routes are incorrectly drawn
QoL: Allow type in player trade fill amount manually
QoL: Add a button to set fill amount to the max available in the Caravansary
QoL: Show player flag on the world map page
QoL: Improve performance of offline production calculation
0.1.107
Bugfix: Grotta Azzurra will only upgrade buildings that are not being constructed/upgraded
0.1.106
Bugfix: Fix production priority slider resets after restart the game
0.1.105
Balance: Balance wonder cost based on resource value
QoL: Improve general performance, especially when calculating offline production and using Petra to accelerate
0.1.104
Content: Allow setting default construction, upgrade and production priority
Content: Petra now allows you to accelerate your empire up to 8x
Balance: Increase School's science output: 88 -> 172
Balance: Increase Library's science output: 8 -> 16
Balance: University now produces 100 Science
Balance: Publishing House now produces 200 Science
Balance: Geography Technology now provides +10 Consumption and Production Multiplier to Library
Balance: Optics now provides +10 Consumption and Production Multiplier to Library and School
Balance: Each new tech age now provides +10 happiness (instead of +5)
Bugfix: Fix a bug where wonder construction cost fail to take resource value into consideration
0.1.103
QoL: Allow choosing player flag
QoL: Improve server performance
Bugfix: Fix Poseidon wonder is not functioning correctly
0.1.102
Bugfix: Fix a bug where wonders built at the map edge causes production to halt
Bugfix: Fix a bug where Turning on autopilot mode on a warehouse with full import causes glitch
0.1.101
Bugfix: Fix a bug where electrification cost is incorrect
0.1.100
Bugfix: Fix a bug where camera position is wrong after switching scenes
Bugfix: Fix a bug where St. Peter's Basilica causes offline earning calculation stuck
QoL: Add Timestamp in Chat. Add a special styling for your own messages