Ratopia News

Hello all, it's Cassel, developer of .
September is already upon us. It feels like time is flying by. While we've been rushing to develop content, we've had little time to add the great ideas that the players have provided. Therefore, throughout August, we decided to focus on developing the features suggested by the players. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sent in their ideas once again.


"mamegatana" who suggested many ideas along with cute illustrations.


As we organize the various feedback we've received, we're realizing once again just how many compelling ideas there are. We are also going through a lot of discussions and decision-making processes within the team on how to best incorporate them into the game. In this journal, we will cover the Trading Post and Prosperity Reward Systems that are currently under development.


[h3]Trading Post[/h3]

The Trading Post is a new structure designed to temporarily alleviate economic difficulties by allowing players to sell unnecessary resources in the early stages of the game. It also helps resolve situations where players are unable to progress due to the unavailability of certain resources. Many players have consistently provided feedback about the difficulty of obtaining specific resources and the necessity of early-game trading. While we have worked on improving the exploration and trade systems to address this, there remained the issue that these systems were still not fully accessible in the early stages.

To address this, we decided to add a Trading Post where players can trade with wandering merchants right from the beginning. This way, the Trading Post can serve as a stepping stone before players advance to the diplomacy and trade stages. However, to achieve this, we first needed to establish the trading mechanics for the Trading Post, which led to several considerations.

The first consideration was the range of resources that could be purchased at the Trading Post. After a long development period, there are now over 150 types of resources in , and since the terrain changes with each game, it is challenging to predict which resources players will need. Allowing all in-game resources to be purchasable at the Trading Post would diminish the necessity of gathering or producing resources. On the other hand, if only a few resources were made available for purchase, it would not significantly reduce the difficulty of obtaining certain resources, which was the initial problem.


You can buy all these resources at the trading post—could this be a revolution in logistics?


To improve this, it was necessary to limit the types of resources that merchants could bring to the Trading Post. We first categorized merchants into different types, such as food merchants and gatherable goods merchants, and set it up so that a different merchant would visit each day. Each merchant would then trade only items that matched their specific category.

Even after categorizing the merchants’ goods, there were still over 30 types of gatherable and processed resources, which gave the Trading Post too much impact compared to the Trade Center, a structure available in the later stages. To maintain balance, we decided to limit the number of resource types a merchant could bring to a maximum of eight. Additionally, the types of resources they bring would change randomly with each visit. This way, planned trades could be conducted through the Trade Center, while more spontaneous trades could be done via the Trading Post.

However, adding randomness to the Trading Post introduced a new inconvenience: players now have to visit the Trading Post directly to check the resources brought by the merchants. While providing a notification message to inform players of the resources available for trade with the wandering merchants would be the most straightforward solution, there were concerns that if we displayed daily notifications about which merchant arrived and what resources they brought, the sheer volume of notifications appearing in the late game could become overwhelming.

To address this, we considered displaying the resources available for sale directly on the Trading Post building. We decided to indicate the type of merchant currently present by showing their appearance or emblem on the Trading Post. Additionally, we placed boxes with icons of the available resources around the building so that players could see what items are being sold even from a distance. We anticipate that this will reduce the instances of players making unnecessary trips to the Trading Post. However, we are a bit concerned that the size of the boxes might be too small to be clearly visible from afar.


We also paid attention to the details where surrounding decorations change depending on the visiting merchant.


The second consideration was the trading method. We wanted to avoid allowing transactions using Pia at the Trading Post. This was because we didn't want the Trading Post to become a building that generates Pia. We believed that if trading with Pia were possible, players would repeatedly exchange endlessly regenerating resources for Pia. Therefore, we thought it would be better to make transactions based on a barter system, allowing players to recycle unnecessary resources.

However, it was quite challenging to obtain Pia before building the Mint or the Trade Center, and we realized that the users who provided feedback likely wanted to acquire Pia through the Trading Post. So, we decided to allow players to earn Pia through the Trading Post as well, but we set the amount of Pia that could be obtained from merchants to be relatively small for testing purposes. Additionally, by designing it so that the more a player buys resources from a merchant, the more Pia the merchant has, we could still encourage the intended barter system.


Various UI mockups created to explore different ways of trading.


There were also issues with the UI design when trying to smoothly implement the barter system. For bartering to work well, both the items possessed by the merchant and the player, along with the items to be traded, need to be displayed on the screen simultaneously for easy use. However, adapting the existing UI resulted in insufficient space, limiting the number of items that could be traded at once and making the controls cumbersome. It became clear that we needed to create a completely new UI, but developing a new UI would take a considerable amount of time, making it challenging to implement. However, if trading was done with Pia, we could separate the buying and selling screens, allowing us to quickly test by adapting the existing UI. Although it was a bit inconvenient, there were no functional issues, so we decided to put the barter system on hold.

The final issue was that it became too easy to gain research points through trading. In **, players get research points when they acquire a resource for the first time. However, during testing with a somewhat finalized Trading Post, we found that it was much easier to buy items one by one from the Trading Post to gain research points than to painstakingly find or produce the new resources.

The original intention of this system was to encourage players to keep exploring their city for new resources to gather and produce, rather than idly waiting for research points to accumulate over time. However, as the methods for obtaining new resources became more varied and easier, the necessity for players to gather or produce resources diminished.

We seriously considered removing the system of gaining research points through acquiring new resources altogether. However, this seemed like too drastic a change to the game due to the addition of the Trading Post, and we couldn't make that decision lightly. For some players, the game could become frustrating if progress was suddenly blocked due to a lack of research points. We are still contemplating whether it's okay to leave this issue as is or if there is a good alternative to reduce this problem.


The final look of the trading post! The size of the trading post had to be doubled for the visibility.


It would be ideal if the Trading Post could serve its original intended purpose effectively, but we are both hopeful and concerned about whether it will fulfill its role properly. What do you think about this?


[h3]Milestone[/h3]

The Milestone system began as an idea from an email sent by a player who has long enjoyed playing . This player suggested that the Prosperity rewards in could be made more special and diverse, like "artifacts" in other games, to provide a unique experience in each playthrough. Appropriately, is a game that aims to offer a new experience each time, and because of its high difficulty and frequent updates, many players often start from the beginning. Therefore, we decided to actively consider and incorporate this player's feedback.

Coincidentally, the existing Prosperity reward system was in need of improvement. After reaching Prosperity Level 5, the maximum number of Ratizens in the city would no longer increase, meaning that raising Prosperity further only made enemies stronger without providing any significant benefits to the city. We saw this as a perfect opportunity to adjust the maximum Raitizen limit for each level of Prosperity, allowing the maximum population to continue increasing even in the later stages. By allowing players to choose their rewards, they could experience new styles of play, achieving two goals at once.


Engaging games that offer a change in gameplay direction through choices.


The Milestone system allows players to choose one of three predetermined rewards each time their Prosperity level increases. For example, when reaching Prosperity Level 2, the following rewards might be offered as choices:

- Path of Expansion: Increases the maximum number of Ratizens and the speed at which Ratizens are acquired, allowing for faster early expansion.
- Path of Gathering: Permanently boosts the gathering speed of Ratizens, making plant gathering a key growth driver.
- Path of Education: Enhances the abilities and growth speed of Ratizens, leading to improved overall efficiency as the game progresses.

However, having fixed rewards for each Milestone at different Prosperity levels made it challenging to design rewards for higher Prosperity levels. As the game progresses, it becomes difficult to predict the extent of a player's development based on their Prosperity level, increasing the likelihood of offering irrelevant rewards as Milestone choices.

For instance, we wanted to introduce a Milestone related to power usage to encourage players to start using power before they actually needed it. However, by the time this choice became available, players might have already developed to the power stage or, conversely, might be too far behind. This posed a risk where the Milestone system would end up reinforcing the current operational direction of the city rather than bringing about new changes in future gameplay.

To address this issue, we grouped the Milestones that could appear according to the player’s Prosperity level (e.g., 2, 3, 4 / 5, 6, 7 / 8, 9) and allowed players to choose one Milestone from a set of three randomly selected options within each group. Additionally, we introduced a refresh function that allows players to replace an unwanted Milestone a limited number of times, aiming to reduce the frustration of receiving an undesirable Milestone while still offering the excitement of discovering a desirable one.


Mockups designed to make selecting milestones visually more enjoyable.


Designing the effects of these Milestones required a lot of thought and a variety of ideas. The core concept was to offer rewards so appealing that they might inspire players to change the direction of their city management. However, features that could significantly alter gameplay became too technically complex to implement. It was disappointing that the system intended to offer a new experience couldn’t go beyond adjusting existing mechanics and stats.

Given the limitations of deriving features from the existing system, we experimented with various approaches. For instance, we tried adding higher tiers and conditions for the appearance of each Milestone, so that choosing "Path of Gathering Lv.1" would lead to the appearance of "Path of Gathering Lv.2" later on. We also tested allowing the same Milestone to be selected multiple times, thereby amplifying its effects.

However, due to the inherent randomness in the Milestone selection process, players might feel significant disappointment if higher-tier Milestones didn’t appear. This approach also tended to reinforce the initial city management direction chosen in the early game, which wasn’t the intention. Additionally, there was the problem that the appeal of individual Milestones was diminished when higher tiers or repeated selections were not utilized.


Police rapidly catching criminals thanks to the accumulated effects of the Paths of Law.


For now, we decided to provide significant adjustable values to create a more varied and enjoyable experience. During testing, I found that making choices at each Milestone stage led to more thoughtful and enjoyable gameplay. However, perhaps due to my own expectations, I felt slightly disappointed that the rewards were not fresh enough to drastically change the existing play style.

We are still brainstorming and adding more compelling ideas for Milestone effects, so if you have any creative ideas for these effects, please leave them in the comments. Your valuable feedback will greatly help us make the game more fun!


We plan to continue reviewing and incorporating the various feedback and ideas we have received. One piece of feedback that stood out to me was the suggestion for a reward system for defeating invading enemies. I hope to introduce related content in the next DevDiary!

Notice: Those with this icon(💌) are inspired by the players’ opinions. Thank you so much again.


[h2]Patch List[/h2]

💌 The "Pick Up" feature has been added to the Drone Hangar.

💌 A list feature has been added to the UI where you need to select Storage or Storage Battery.

💌 Papyrus seeds have been added.

Papyrus has been added as a cultivable item in the garden.

- The function to view the storage containing resources has been added to the resource category in the statistics function.


[h2]Bug Fix[/h2]

- 💌 Fixed the issue where food was not consumed during citizen relocation.
- 💌 Fixed the bug where the General's Victory achievement was not being achieved.
- 💌 Fixed the issue where the effects of the Rabbit Shrine were not being applied correctly.
- 💌 Fixed the issue where snails and silkworms were passing through doors.
- 💌 Fixed the issue where The Greed would disappear when mining tiles around The Greed.
- 💌 Fixed the issue where the reforging effect UI was displayed on Ratron.
- 💌 Fixed the issue where product inspection was possible in the Mint's work conditions.
- 💌 Fixed the issue where the job filter did not work properly when assigning citizens.
- 💌 Fixed the bug where it was impossible to enter the mission list after receiving a mission in the diplomacy room.
- 💌 Fixed the issue where enemy reinforcements were fixed to specific city troop types during invasions of other cities.

We will continue to work hard to make a better game. Thank you.

[h3]Hello dear leaders of Ratopia![/h3]
Thank you for waiting a long time for the update.
This time, we have added vassalization, reforging, and new shrines.
With this update, we have complemented the diplomatic features added last time and indirectly adjusted the difficulty of the somewhat challenging late-game content.
If you find any bugs or issues that need fixing, please report them via Steam and Discord.
We are always grateful and will continue to work hard on development.


Notice: Those with this icon(💌) are inspired by the players’ opinions. Thank you so much again.

[h2]Patch List[/h2]

**For convenient gaming experience, please begin a new game**

▶The vassalization feature has been added to the Diplomatic Office's invasion actions.

- The pillage mission can be changed to a vassalization mission.
- When vassalized, you can receive resources and monetary tributes in exchange for favor.
- Mercenaries recruited from vassal states are cheaper than allies and regular mercenaries.
- Favor with vassal states decreases every season.

▶The international situation UI in the Diplomatic Office has been changed.

Improved to output additional information that may be needed for diplomatic actions.

▶Diplomatic letter events and diplomatic sudden events have been added.

- Letter events can be carried out in the Diplomatic Office.
- Sudden events appear based on conditions and probabilities.

▶The criteria for increasing bundle quantities in trade have been adjusted from Prosperity levels 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 to 2, 4, 6, 8 Prosperity.

- Updated the trade quantity criteria for individual items.
- Increased the trade volume of items that were traded in small quantities.
　　　※ This may cause differences in existing trade amounts and graphs.

▶"Noble Sword" has been added to the Royal Forge.

▶The "Reforging" function has been added to the Royal Forge.

- Reforging is a function that consumes resources to grant new abilities to equipment.
- Since a random effect is granted among the possible effects, please prepare enough materials.

▶A Hell Forge has been added to the Volcanic Military Area.



▶The materials and stats of some equipment have been adjusted.

▶9 new shrines have been added.



▶Skills from shrines will no longer be interrupted when attacked.

▶The new structure "Surveillance Post" has been added.

- It is a structure that grants the 'Surveillance' effect to citizens working within its range.
- Surveillance buff effect: Efficiency +30%, Happiness -5.

▶The effect of the "Surveillance Camera" structure has been changed as follows.

- Grants the 'Surveillance' buff to citizens working in structures within its range.

▶Mercenaries and foreign soldiers have been given unit traits.

▶Unique skins have been added to foreign soldiers.

- The size of Foratstar Ratizens has been reduced by 30%.

▶Three new battlefield types have been added for the desert, ocean, and volcanic biomes.

▶Defense troops and shields have been added to the enemy command posts on the city-state invasion map.

- Defense troops stand guard around the command post and attack approaching targets.
- The shield consumes 1 health regardless of the damage taken when hit.

One-point breakthrough and guerrilla tactics by leader characters were originally planned strategies. However, due to the addition of the equipment reforging feature in this update, these strategies have become excessively powerful, rendering soldiers ineffective. Therefore, we had to take necessary actions.

▶The function of the Bell Tower has been changed to summon Ratizens around the Bell Tower.

- It is a function that calls all Ratizens within the area to the Bell Tower, so please use it with caution.
- Ratizens in certain states such as crime or rebellion will not be summoned.

▶💌A feature to call individual Ratizens has been added.

- Available through the Ratizen detailed view, and a global cooldown applies when used.

▶Three new achievements have been added.

- Age of Empires
- Tools Matter
- General Victory

▶The function to pick up soil resources from the Barbaric Palace has been modified so that they are picked up automatically when moving without pressing the pick-up button.

- When constructing soil walls, the resources in possession are automatically supplied to the blueprint.

▶💌 New glass structures such as Glass Fountain, Glass Bench, Glass Streetlight, and Glass Wall have been added.



▶💌 New decorative structures such as Fireplace, Drawer, Wardrobe, Wooden Window, and Stone Window have been added.




- 💌 Added a feature to set the range of structures with adjustable ranges during the blueprint placement stage.
- 💌 In the "Welfare law," more detailed settings for citizen conditions can now be set when configuring the 'Resource Subsidy' policy.
- 💌 Added an event to choose whether to remove lizards when all lizard nests are destroyed.
- 💌 Added a feature to target unemployed Ratizens with commercial laws and welfare laws.
- 💌 The profit cycle from the "Shadow cooperation" event investment has been doubled, and the interest earned has been doubled.
- 💌 Removed the unique building attributes of the Royal Wardrobe, Royal Forge, and Ratron Assembly Plant.
　- These facilities can now be constructed in multiple locations.
- 💌 Added natural ladders to each Biome to assist with movement.
- 💌 Removed the happiness debuff that increased as lizard nests accumulated.
- 💌 Added a skip function for the Royal Tunnel cutscene. (Press ESC during the cutscene)
- 💌 Added a per-item storage limit system to the Storage.
- 💌 Improved the resource selection UI convenience when using policy functions.
- 💌 Enhanced mouse interactions with in-game UIs.
- 💌 Added an alarm for the Starved status of Ratizens.
- 💌 Added a "Job" filter to the Ratizen placement UI filter.

- Modified so that soldiers from the indebted city visit when bank loan interest is overdue.
- Decorative structures can now be viewed regardless of the research stage and there are no areas where information cannot be checked.
- The additional loan limit of the Prodigal Noble leader trait has been increased from 1 to 3.
- Added shortcut keys to enable/disable each policy in the code of laws.
- Modified so that lizards react when the ladder of a lizard habitat is demolished.


[h2]Bug Fix[/h2]
- 💌 Fixed an issue where Ratizens assigned to the Maintenance Office were repairing lizard ladders.
- 💌 Fixed an issue where lizards were occasionally destroying indestructible tiles when creating paths.
- 💌 Fixed an issue where some animals were passing through blocked terrain after loading.
- 💌 Fixed an issue where the system price of resources was displayed incorrectly when changing resource prices with the Commercial law.
- 💌 Fixed an issue where doctors dropped patients they were transporting when their schedules changed.
- 💌 Fixed an issue where lizard tiles could be removed without destroying the lizard nests.
- 💌 Fixed an issue where food was not being consumed during invasions.
- Three new battlefield types have been added for the desert, ocean, and volcanic biomes.
- Fixed an issue where exploration and survey data were not being correctly recorded in statistics.
- Fixed an issue where all objects in the lizard habitat were detected by the dog skill passive.
- Fixed an issue where the health of soldiers with maximum health increase effects was reset upon loading.
- Fixed an issue where a bed became unusable when a Ratizen died while sleeping in it.
- Fixed an issue where dungeon progress was halted when entering with a soldier in a fainted state.
- Fixed an issue where drones were not performing mining actions correctly after loading.

Hello all, it's Cassel, developer of . July has been a month where many people's happiness levels have dropped due to the hot and humid weather. It's times like these when we need to strengthen our mental fortitude! So, in this development diary, I would like to introduce the new enhancement system in , the reforging system.


[h3]Equipment Reforging[/h3]

Equipment reforging is a system designed to enhance the influence of the player character, the leader. While the leader's skill system introduced in the previous development diary focuses on enhancing the leader's city management capabilities, equipment reforging is more focused on enhancing the leader's combat capabilities.

already has a system where the leader can craft and equip gear to increase combat power. However, to craft gear, the city needs to grow until the Royal Forge can be built. After crafting the gear, there were no further mechanisms for the leader to grow, leading to stagnation. Initially, when planning the gear system, the idea was to create forges and equipment available for the early, mid, and late game to solve this stagnation period. However, developing numerous new pieces of equipment required a lot of time, causing the gear system in to remain stagnant for a long time.

In this situation, with the addition of powerful enemies like the lizard invasion forces, soldiers from city-states, and the Pharaoh weasels in the general update, it became very difficult to progress through late-game battles with a stagnated leader. Players had very few options to act for combat other than strengthening the soldier citizens, which was disappointing for those who enjoyed using the leader in battles. There was a need for a mechanism to quickly enhance the leader's presence for late-game combat.


It takes forever…


First, I reviewed the initial plan of adding advanced equipment. This approach required planning, researching, and developing a lot of additional equipment, making it a difficult choice. It wasn't just about creating graphic resources; we also had to consider what materials to use, how to differentiate the equipment, the difficulty level of mini-games, and so on. Additionally, there is currently a tendency for only a few pieces of equipment to be used among the various available ones, leading to concerns that most of the additional equipment might not be used and would just be bypassed.

Adding advanced equipment in a short time was practically challenging and its utility was hard to predict. Therefore, we decided to add a reforging system that could enhance the existing equipment instead. This system could provide higher stats to the leader, aligning with our additional intentions, and allowed us to recycle existing resources, thus shortening development time. It seemed like a suitable solution for the current situation.

While it seemed easy to add a system to increase the attack or defense of equipment through reforging, it felt a bit disappointing to make the reforging feature merely increase the numerical values of existing equipment. We wanted players to experience different combat dynamics with advanced equipment as the game progressed. However, simply increasing the values of existing equipment would make combat slightly faster, but the experience would remain similar to the current one.

This approach felt too predictable and lacked the excitement that should come with equipment reforging. Therefore, we aimed to add new fun elements through the reforging system, allowing for diversity by granting the leader's equipment abilities from other soldiers, equipment, and structures. The idea of using a bow that shoots flaming arrows or delivering area attacks with a preferred weapon was exciting even in thought.


You guys are quite agile, aren't you?


The modified reforging system allowed for the quick development of applying existing attributes to equipment, but problems also quickly emerged. While we wanted to combine poison or stun attributes with area attack attributes for weapons, we found a disappointing issue: the area attack attribute was developed only to inflict damage, making it incompatible with other attributes. Additionally, the electric damage attribute from electric traps became problematic as it caused the leader to shock themselves with each attack.


Superconductor weapon?!


Other issues included the prolonged poison duration from past applications, making it too easy to defeat bosses, and certain fast-attacking weapons becoming overwhelmingly powerful due to their attributes. Many balance issues were discovered as a result.


Few pokes were enough for pork.


To resolve these system and balance issues, we undertook several modifications. Among them, some attributes like area attack remained challenging to fix. The best solution seemed to be creating different types and values of effects that could be applied to each weapon. Instead of redeveloping all attributes to be perfectly compatible, it was more practical to set incompatible attributes not to apply together and to develop new compatible attributes instead.

This approach required the tedious task of specifying which attributes each weapon could have. However, it also allowed the creation and addition of new attributes suitable for each weapon. For example, we developed and added an attack speed increase attribute for slow weapons like greatswords, and we could add attributes like critical hit or combo attack damage for some weapons.


I just wanted to increase the attack speed until my PC shouts, "Please stop!", but well..


Equipment reforging can be done by selecting a weapon you possess at the forge and providing the necessary resources. The reforging effect is applied randomly from a variety of effects designated for each piece of equipment. This was because it was difficult to develop a function that allows players to choose and be guided through the effects for each piece of equipment. While the random application of effects may not hold much significance since saving and loading are possible, it still offers the small joy of getting the desired effect and the chance to experience various effects.

However, I was somewhat worried that players might feel displeased if they did not get the desired effect due to the random application method. To address this concern, we simplified the required resources for reforging and made it possible to reforge quickly within one second. This structure made it inappropriate to include a mini-game since it would take up too much of the player's time. The effect selection itself felt like a mini-game, so the absence of an actual mini-game did not create much dissonance. If there is a need to revise the selection method in the future, it might be a good idea to include a mini-game, taking more time to do so.


Flame on! Not yet? Flame on! Flame on!


Initially, equipment reforging was only possible through the Hell Forge located in the volcanic biome. The Hell Forge was planned as one of the many objects to be placed in the yet-to-be-completed volcanic biome and was intended to serve as a valuable reward for players who explore the volcanic biome in the later stages of the game. This was also to limit the use of reforging with powerful enhancement effects in the early game.


Look like a piece of ... Crab...!


However, there were some concerns about only being able to reforge upon reaching the volcanic biome. Since is not a game that makes exploration and pioneering particularly convenient, I worried that players would be stressed out trying to find the Hell Forge. Given the difficulty of finding it, I was concerned that most users wouldn't experience the new feature even after it was added. Statistically, only 10% of the total users had reached the dungeon entry.

These issues were not unique to the Hell Forge alone. To make exploration easier, natural ladders were placed throughout the biomes, and events were introduced to reveal dungeon locations at certain stages to increase their utilization. However, I was concerned that revealing locations through events might diminish the fun of discovery and the need for exploration. I also wondered how to address this when more objects are added in the future.

For now, the content itself remains inconvenient to access, so I had no choice but to guide players to the location through events. In the future, it would be nice to improve the effects of the dog shrine to reveal not only enemy habitats but also special objects like dungeons. Another idea was to add structures that allow players to locate special objects, providing a solution to this issue.


Yeah this guys now fits with the name.


And upon further reflection, there was no need to push the equipment reforging system to the later stages of the game. The essence of what we wanted to position in the late game was the player's growth, not the reforging system itself. Unlike dungeons, the reforging system could be experienced by many users even in the early game if the growth rates were adjusted.

So, we made it possible to reforge at the Royal Forge with a slight increase in stats. This allowed players to lightly experience the reforging system at the Royal Forge while looking forward to the second-stage reforging. In the Hell Forge, the second-stage reforging was designed to enable significant growth. We also added achievements related to reforging this time, so I hope many people will make use of it.


In this way, we have completed the reforging system through trial and error. I believe it is content with even more potential as more equipment and abilities are added. Certainly, by enabling the leader character's influence to grow gradually through equipment reforging, the immersion and fun in the leader character have increased.

In addition to the reforging system introduced, we have also improved many requested features and addressed inconvenience issues raised by users. Starting this month, we plan to focus more on enhancing convenience and increasing the overall polish of the game. We look forward to your feedback!

Hello all, it’s Cassel, developer of .

June was a physically exhausting month as we undertook major updates, including new invasions, new dungeons, and new diplomatic systems. Immediately after the update, we focused on fixing the bugs reported by users and used any remaining time to review the feedback we received from them.

Among the feedback we compiled, there was a request to expand the content that can be performed with the leader, the player character. Although it will be challenging to develop this quickly as we are still preparing follow-up updates for the vassal and diplomacy-related systems, we have been working on the leader's skill system for a while now. In this development diary, we would like to introduce this system and discuss the considerations involved in its development.



[h3]Leader Skills[/h3]

Feedback indicating that there aren't many special actions available for player character has been collected since before the release. To address this, we designed the leader skills to allow player to use abilities that make city management easier and to add some variety to the repetitive nature of commands and tasks. By enabling player to exert significant influence over city operations through leader skills, we aimed to create a sense of satisfaction when overcoming frustrating or stagnating situations.

To seamlessly integrate these skills into the game, we borrowed elements from totemism. We thought it wouldn’t be unnatural for the rats to worship other animals, much like humanity once did. When deciding which animals to include, we chose the twelve animals of the East Asian zodiac, as they are familiar and their associated effects would be easy to design and to be understood. In addition, the imagery of the leader mimicking animal behaviors-chasing away enemies like a tiger or running swiftly like a horse-seemed charming even in conceptual form.

With the concept in place, we also needed to consider how players would learn these skills. Initially, we thought of constructing a grand temple in the city where players could choose an animal to worship. To prevent the use of multiple skills simultaneously, we decided to limit the number of animals that could be worshipped at one time to one. Additionally, when players first choose or later change the worshipped animal, they would need to offer tribute (Pia), providing a use for the accumulated Pia in the late game.


Initial Skill Acquisition Screen Using the Temple Research Tree


However, this method soon changed to one where individual “Shrines” for each animals were built and activated. This change allowed multiple shrines to be constructed in the city, prompting players to strategically consider the optimal placement for each shrines. Additionally, this approach provided the advantage of visually emphasizing the currently active shrine with effects such as lighting up. It also allowed us to stagger the construction phases of the shrines, thereby controlling their introduction and difficulty level within the game.


Design Process of the Lowest Tier, the Rat Shrine


Shifting from a single grand temple to twelve individual shrines increased the workload significantly. With critical tasks piling up each day, tackling the construction of all twelve shrines at once was overwhelming. As a result, we progressed with the planning and design of the shrines intermittently whenever time permitted. Now, after a year, we have finally completed the work on all twelve shrines.


We are excited to see which animal will become the most worshipped!



[h3]Skill Usage[/h3]

Since the rat, ox, and dog skills had already been implemented earlier, some players might already be familiar with these functions. When a player activates a shrine, a new button appears on the lower left HUD. Players can use the skill by pressing and holding this skill button.

The longer the player holds the skill button, the more potent the effect becomes, or the effect lasts only as long as the button is held. This design encourages players to consider the timing and location of skill usage, which is a cost I'd say, while also allowing them to watch the skill animation and plan their next actions.

However, since the skills become more powerful the longer they are held, player dependency on these skills might increase. If players become too reliant on these skills, they might use them regularly, potentially leading to player fatigue. To address this, we set a very long cooldown time for skills to significantly extend the interval between uses.


Additionally, determining how to display the remaining cooldown time for skills proved challenging. This was due to the inherent time concept within the game . For example, there was debate over whether to show the cooldown timer as '06:00' in time or as '72 seconds' in real-world time.




The Evolution of the Skill Use Button, It Hasn't Changed Much So Far


After lengthy discussions, we decided to display the cooldown in in-game time rather than real-world time, provided that we keep the clock UI that informs players of the in-game time. This decision was made to maintain consistency with the game's internal time concept. Although it may seem like a small feature, it was an incident that required deep consideration to determine what would be best for the game and the players.



[h3]Skill Usage Effects[/h3]

We wanted the effects of using skills to be beneficial to city management. Since this is a city-building game, we aimed for the skills to focus more on the Ratizens and the city rather than the player character. However, to clearly show the effects of the skills on the screen, it was necessary to restrict the usage effects to the area around the leader, who acts as the camera. We began to define the direction of the skills through a few initial skill ideas.

• Plants corresponding to the surrounding biome grow.
  
• Collect all unpaid taxes from nearby Ratizens.
  
• Increase the movement speed and abilities of nearby Ratizens.
  
• Distribute money to nearby Ratizens to increase their happiness.
  
• Create tunnels that allow Ratizens to teleport to nearby locations.
  
• Make nearby Ratizens follow the leader.
  
• Prevent nearby Ratizens from dying for a short period.
  
• Put nearby Ratizens to sleep.
  
• Instantly wake up nearby Ratizens from sleep.
  

Initially, we brainstormed ideas by focusing on the effects as listed above. However, after deciding to use the concept of the twelve zodiac animals, we rethought the effects to match the characteristics of each animal. We assigned specific traits to each shrine's effects so that they could handle important aspects of the city. For instance, if the monkey solves the city's entertainment issues and the pig helps the city survive during a famine, players can more easily decide which shrine's power to use in various crisis situations.

• Rat - Economy
  
• Ox - Labor
  
• Tiger - Attack
  
• Rabbit - Gathering
  
• Dragon - ???
  
• Snake - Healing
  
• Horse - Speed
  
• Sheep - Experience
  
• Monkey - Entertainment
  
• Rooster - Stamina
  
• Dog - Defense
  
• Pig - Food
  

Deciding and implementing the effect of the dragon was particularly challenging. As a mythical creature, we wanted to assign new and powerful effects to the dragon. However, developing additional systems to support these powerful effects would have taken too much time and many balance considerations. Reluctantly, we assigned a characteristic that could utilize existing effects, which felt somewhat underwhelming for the prestigious dragon. We’ll keep the exact effect a secret until the update since the dragon is too embarrassed to reveal it.

(Can anyone guess the effect of the Dragon Shrine?)



[h3]Unique Passive Effects[/h3]

After applying a very long cooldown time to the skills, we encountered an additional problem. Since players couldn't receive additional effects from the shrine during the cooldown period, they were incentivized to switch between different animals to use their skills alternately. Although there is a small cost associated with switching, we wanted to encourage players to maintain the effects that align with their management strategy rather than frequently changing shrine effects.

To achieve this, we added passive effects that apply to the city even when the skill is not in use. These powerful passive effects ensure that players don't need to switch shrines frequently and allow the city's design and management direction to change slightly based on the chosen shrine in each game.

Due to time constraints, we were only able to implement the passive effects for the rat, dog, and ox shrines before the early access release. However, we were very pleased when a user posted a strategy that leveraged the rat shrine's effect.




When the Rat Shrine is activated, Ratizens who collide with the leader automatically pay their taxes.



[h3]Skill Visuals[/h3]

It wasn't easy to determine if the skills' effects could be implemented and then actually implement them, but deciding how to visually represent the skills was another challenge. The initial idea of having the leader mimic animal behaviors to activate the skills, proposed during the concept-setting stage, proved difficult to apply due to limitations in animation production and expression, necessitating a new alternative.

After much consideration, we decided to have the face of the animal deity appear above the leader's head and have the leader perform an animation that matches the skill's effect. However, when we tested having the animal's face appear, we found that players were so focused on the character's actions that they didn't even notice the effect.




Hey hey! How would the players notice the effect if it's too cute~?!


There was more to the visual effects than just this. We also needed to work on displaying the skill's effect range and the effects that occur when Ratizens are impacted by the skill. Additionally, different sound effects were required for when the button is pressed, held, and released. Since the skills are based on the zodiac animals, we wanted to include the animals' sounds when the skills were used. Looking back, it seems we designed the skills in a way that made them incredibly challenging to develop.



[h3]Explaining Skill Effects[/h3]

Explaining the skills to players turned out to be more challenging than creating them. It was particularly difficult to convey that players need to hold the button to use the skill and to detail the additional effects without making the descriptions excessively long.

Despite multiple revisions to the text, longer explanations reduced readability, and the limited space for displaying text made significant improvements difficult. Realizing that short and precise explanations were too ambitious, we decided to make the descriptions more concise, even if it meant sacrificing some accuracy.


We apologize to our translators for the frequent changes.


We're concerned whether players will fully understand the abbreviated explanations, so we plan to continue monitoring and tracking feedback after making the changes.

Working on the leader skills over such a long and fragmented period has made it challenging to compile this development diary. In addition to the leader skills, we are also planning to add new content that players can perform with their characters, such as a system where the leader temporarily gains strength through food and a system for enhancing the leader's equipment. We appreciate your anticipation and support.

Thank you for reading this long article. Hope you have a wonderful July.