MEMORIA POLIS News

Welcome Builders,

You've just arrived here, perhaps intrigued by an image you spotted in an article, or on the advice of a friend who told you this game was worth a look.

Either way: welcome!

Memoriapolis is a City Builder, a game for building and managing cities. In it, you'll construct buildings, make political decisions, manage resources, open trade routes and deal with the various factions that move in. In short, everything you'd expect from a game of this genre... but with a few special features.



[h2]Three elements that make Memoriapolis unique[/h2]

[h3]A city through 2500 years of history[/h3]
Your city will evolve from Antiquity to the Age of Enlightenment.

[h3]Autonomous inhabitants[/h3]
You don't control everything: your citizens decide for themselves where and how they settle. That's why we call city development “organic”

[h3]A real possibility of failure[/h3]
You can lose control of your city... and therefore the game.

Your goal: to stay in power until the end of the Age of Enlightenment.

Easier said than done!

[h2]Watch out for rebellious neighborhoods[/h2]
The biggest danger? Neighborhoods that become independent. There are several reasons for secession:

• A faction becomes too powerful and wants its own autonomy.
  
• Residents' representatives feel you're not meeting their expectations.
  
• Too many incidents disrupt the city.
  
• The population's level of satisfaction is falling dangerously.
  

Keeping control of your city will require political finesse and good management of everyone's expectations.

[h2]A dynasty at the head of the city[/h2]
You're not immortal! You're running a dynasty that has to survive the centuries. Each age lasts a certain number of cycles, and history doesn't wait for you.
To progress to the next age, your city must reach a certain level of development. If you get there early, the cycles you've saved will be carried over to the next age. Otherwise, you'll advance without any particular bonus.

This mechanism rewards players who optimize their development, while letting those who take their time play without penalty.

[h2]A new start at each age[/h2]
At each age change, you'll have to choose:

• Which of your city's buildings to keep
  
• Which dynasty to embody, each with its own advantages.
  

This is a key moment, as your decisions will have a major impact on the rest of the game.



One of the special features of the game is that, at each age, you build a new Residence for your Dynasty. This allows total freedom in the way your city evolves, and avoids being limited by the old structure.

Finally, some buildings evolve from one age to the next and influence the surrounding neighborhoods, allowing for a smooth transition between eras.

Ready for the challenge?

Hello builders,

From the very beginning of the development of Memoriapolis, our objective has always been clear: to offer a city-builder that traces the evolution of a city through the ages, with a visual identity marked by history.

Today, we're approaching the long-awaited moment: the final release of the game. And finalization means fine-tuning every detail, including the game's visuals.

[h2]A world in the making[/h2]

As early as early access, we took the first step towards a different rendering by integrating a paint effect, giving the game a more drawn look. Today, we're taking it a step further by further accentuating this effect to create a true visual signature.



Among the works we've taken to heart are architectural drawings, sketches that bring ancient or medieval cities to life. Like these historical sketches, we want Memoriapolis to resemble a living model, where each building seems to have been drawn by hand, with fine lines that give it relief and character.

This choice is not just aesthetic. It also enhances the game's legibility and optimization. It's a natural evolution for our team. Of course, this change may come as a surprise, but we're convinced that it reinforces the soul of the game and makes it more unique than ever.



These visual changes will be activated by default at launch, because we believe it's in the spirit of the game. However, if this doesn't suit you, it's entirely possible to revert to the classic visual look. You'll find this option in the game's graphics settings.

[h2]An interface to match your city[/h2]

Another major project we've been working on is the user interface. We've known for a long time that it could be improved, but we wanted to surround ourselves with the right people to get it right. So we collaborated with experts in ergonomics and user interface to review the way information is displayed and made accessible.



The objective?

• To make all important data immediately understandable,
  
• To make navigation more intuitive
  
• And to make managing your city even smoother.
  

Thanks to these improvements, following the evolution of your city and making the right decisions will be much more pleasant and natural.

[h2]The home stretch[/h2]

When we look back, we realize just how far we've come. Memoriapolis is the fruit of years of work, experimentation and questioning. We've learned an enormous amount from your feedback, and every adjustment we make today is a proposal to make the game better while remaining true to our original vision.

So, a big thank you to all of you who have followed and supported us on this incredible adventure. The final version is just around the corner, and we can't wait for you to see it.

A city is never static; it evolves over time... just like our game!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hello everyone,

Reading player feedback is always an enriching experience, even if it can sometimes be a difficult exercise. Some opinions are expressed with passion.
That's why we always strive to go beyond words to understand the substance of your criticisms and suggestions.
We're fortunate to have an involved community, which often shares detailed, well-argued feedback. These discussions help us to better understand your expectations and refine Memoriapolis accordingly.

Of course, we're not immune to mistakes 🙂

For example, it turned out to be a bad idea to display an end-of-early-access panel after the medieval period. We've always envisaged the game as a coherent whole, with a beginning and an end. However, the systems we've put in place struggle to work well when they only cover half the game. We're actively working to improve this aspect!

Today, we'd like to take a moment to address the concerns raised by some of you. It's not a question of justifying ourselves, but of explaining our design choices and responding honestly to comments that we feel need to be explained.

[h3]QUESTION: Why an age-based city center?[/h3]

💬 REVIEW : “Because I had to place the medieval and renaissance city centers so far away from my previous settlement even the main idea broke down - the settlements of the different ages didnt really grow into each other, instead I built three separate, segregated towns.”

💬 REVIEW : “After all, there is no one city passing through the epochs. Because when you move to a new one, game suggest you build a new city center and, de facto, a new settlement. And you can't redo the old (see the first part)”

OUR APPROACH: We explored several options before making this choice:

• Have a single town center that changes with each age.
  
• Build a new town center at each age.
  

We opted for the second option, as a single town center would have posed several problems

• With each age transition, the new city risked completely obliterating the old one; both for cultural buildings and residential areas.
  
• We wanted your past to remain visible, whatever decisions you made over the ages.
  

The city center is a trace of the past that you must preserve throughout the game. You can also anticipate its evolution by leaving room for the next town center.
What's more, certain cultural buildings, called “mixed” in the game, can evolve from one age to the next and transform neighboring districts.
The choice is yours:

• Either mix the neighborhoods to form a single large city.
  
• Or develop a new part of the city next to the old one, as in many European cities.
  

[h3]QUESTION: Why can't I destroy everything?[/h3]

💬 REVIEW: “Not being able to erase roads or fix them, makes it really chaotic and annoying.”

💬 REVIEW: “To begin with, there is no way to redo a section of the city, which means that the pottery workshop, which becomes obsolete almost immediately, is with you until the end of the game.”

OUR APPROACH: Memoriapolis is based on an algorithm that autonomously generates neighborhoods to recreate complex, coherent cities. It's not perfect, and it can sometimes produce unexpected shapes, but its aim is to prevent each city from resembling an overly rigid grid.

We've already modified elements of the game to address these issues:

• The player can destroy cultural buildings, which was not the case in earlier versions of the game.
  
• The player can position a building on a road, and the road will automatically adapt to the player's needs.
  

If everything could be freely modified, the risk would be to spend your time redoing everything, without ever being satisfied-which would run counter to the experience we want to offer.
Finally, no building becomes obsolete, especially production buildings.

[h3]QUESTION: What are my objectives?[/h3]

💬 REVIEW : “No challenge, and you end up just sitting and waiting for your numbers to be big enough to place the next mildly impactful building while your city grows "organically"..”

💬 REVIEW : “The gameplay simply consists of placing a building, waiting for houses to be placed around it, then placing another building and waiting for houses to be placed around it.”

💬 REVIEW : “I feel I have no control over the development of my city, and I don't like the race against time and timed objectives,”

OUR APPROACH: This subject has come up a lot, and we've put a lot of work into it. Memoriapolis spans four ages, but for the time being, only three are available in early access. This can make it more difficult to understand what's at stake in the long term.
Nevertheless, we've taken your feedback into account: the game lacked intermediate objectives and clear feedback on the impact of the player's actions. Here's how we've reworked it:
The objective is to remain at the head of the city until the end of the Age of Enlightenment. To do this, you have to prevent too many districts from closing, or risk being deposed.

How to avoid these closures:

• Factions must not become too powerful.
  
• Citizen satisfaction must remain high, as unsatisfied needs provoke incidents that can lead to neighborhood closures.
  

Finally, the Esplanade plays a key role. It's a gathering place where certain groups express their expectations. At each age, they intervene 4 times. If you meet their demands, you'll get a valuable resource to make your city unique at the end of the game.

[h3]QUESTION: What kind of game is it?[/h3]

💬 REVIEW : “I've been ripped off, so don't do the same, move on and come back to Ages of Empire.”

OUR APPROACH: Memoriapolis is not a real-time strategy (RTS) game, nor is it a war game. It contains no combat. Unfortunately, we seem to have miscommunicated certain elements, leading some players to believe that Memoriapolis contains combat.

The fact of changing age may also have misled some players, who thought that this mechanic would enable them to evolve their units, a bit like in a famous 4X game which has just released its seventh opus...

Not so.

Memoriapolis is a City Builder, where the main challenge is to maintain balance and control over your city over the centuries. Every choice you make influences its future, not through war, but through the management of factions, neighborhoods and historical events.

If you like management, urban planning and building a city that evolves organically, then Memoriapolis might surprise you.

🙏 Thanks for your feedback and happy playing!

Hello builders!

As you've no doubt noticed, the latest updates have transformed many aspects of the game. Today's patch refines these improvements, while also bringing a number of corrections.
We're now entering the home stretch and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the next patch will mark the arrival of version 1.0!

[h3]A final update before the big leap[/h3]

In fact, for several weeks we've been working on two versions of the game:

• The current version, available on Steam and regularly updated.
  
• The complete version, which incorporates all the elements of the final game.
  

With so many changes, it was impossible to maintain both versions in parallel indefinitely. From now on, we'll be concentrating all our efforts on the full version.

[h2]What's new in this patch?[/h2]

[h3]All destiny effects are now available[/h3]
There were still a few destiny effects (which you choose at the start of an age) that weren't activated in-game. This time they are.

[h3]The esplanade is displayed during age change[/h3]
Whether you change age manually or automatically, you'll now have a summary of Esplanade evolutions during the age change and before the end-of-game panel.

[h3]Factions can reopen their districts during an age change[/h3]
In Memoriapolis, your greatest fear is that the factions present in your city will secede. When a faction is unhappy with your management, it can close all the neighborhoods it owns. And if the number of these closed districts exceeds a certain number, there's a good chance you'll be removed from office....you'll no longer be in charge of the city....you've lost what....
These closed quarters remain closed throughout the current age. When the age changes, you can reopen them in exchange for memory points.

[h3]Renaissance: the zone of attrition extends to the entire map[/h3]
Renaissance marks the start of real development freedom across the entire map. Just be careful to anticipate how you develop.

[h3]Thank you for your feedback[/h3]
Your feedback, whether positive or critical, is essential to fine-tune the game. A huge thank you to everyone who takes the time to share their experiences and suggestions! It's always very important to us.

Next step: version 1.0. Until then, enjoy the game!

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

• New features and improvements
  
• Age transition: add possibility to reopen factions in age transition
  
• Attrition: improve POI when creating a new building
  
• Badges: add district selection when clicking on defeat badge
  
• Badges: improve tooltips
  
• Customization: add a reset button to the 'Customization' screen
  
• Destiny: add new destiny effects are now available
  
• Faction tooltip: add faction power in tooltip
  
• Endless mode: age transition is not blocked by faction power anymore in endless mode
  
• Endless mode: add a confirmation popup when selecting endless mode on a new game
  
• Esplanade: display esplanade during age transition and before end of early access panels
  
• Faction settlement proposal now requires a culture building of the same culture and age to be already built
  
• Plaza: add attrition impact
  
• Rampart now use workers for construction
  
• Renaissance: expand attrition area on the entire map
  
• Renaissance: improve houses rendering
  
• Renaissance: improve attraction filter
  
• Ruin: add a money gain when demolishing a ruin
  
• Timeline cinematic: add wonders in the timeline
  
• Tutorial: improve resource filter in tutorial
  
• Wonders can now be placed in the downtown area
  
• Remove deep forest construction constraint
  
• General balancing
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Age transition: fix remove power POI over barricaded factions in age transition
  
• Age transition: fix faction power POI position
  
• Age transition: remove redundant age transition protected state
  
• Age transition: fix faction power deduced 2 times in age transition
  
• Age transition: exclude faction properties from wonder protection
  
• Age transition: disable save during timeline cinematic
  
• Age transition: disable panel shortcuts
  
• Building selection: fix Level 5+ wood cutting with food production was not displaying the wood production
  
• Building selection: fix Mines and quarries' second resource could not be modified after being emptied
  
• End Early Access: game was displayed for one frame before returning to the main menu
  
• Esplanade: disable esplanade objectives in tutorial
  
• Esplanade: resources from ruins now count in the Esplanade
  
• Faction: fix taxation was doubled
  
• Farm: the farms 'Insufficient free space' message for field construction wasn't reappearing after disappearing once
  
• Filters: fix Faction Icons overlapping with the top buttons in the Faction Filter and District Filters of the Filter Mode
  
• Horreum: charcoal and lime were not showing up in the horreum
  
• Library: know-hows from the evolved cultural buildings were not unlocked instantly
  
• Main menu: new game choices, were not reset when returning to the main menu
  
• Rendering: fix an offset in the paint filter
  
• Rendering: fix increase the size of boats in cultural buildings (so they no longer float in the air)
  
• Rendering: reduce TAA flickering on buildings
  
• Rendering: fix constructible area overlap
  
• Rendering: animation was missing when increasing the workers in the field using Field Management for Farm
  
• Security Station: fix when selected, only shows buildable area, no more the area outside the attrition area
  
• Settings: Setting's drop-down lists were failing to get closed when using the 'ESC' button
  
• Settings: fix Drop-down icons failing to reset for Upscale and DLSS under settings
  
• Sound: fix some mix cultural buildings sounds
  
• Fix leaks