Soulash 2 News

Greetings fellow gods,

Not without some hiccups, but we're back at weekly updates with a new skill called Stormthrowing that combines throwing weapons with electricity magic. It has some cool new mechanics around stackers introduced with Cryomancy and should give plenty of new options for modders as well. The big game changers are triggering abilities from basic attacks and after a stacker reaches max defined stacks.

Here's the full changelog:

[h3]Added[/h3]
- Added new skill Stormthrowing - combining throwing weapons with electricity-based magic.
- Added 12 new Throwing weapons.
- Flanking mechanic: Minimum damage dealt from the back is set at 6, minimum damage done from the sides (direct sides and diagonal back) at 3.
- Protection skill "Protected Flanks" negates the effects of flanking.
- Added Potato Farm building to player settlements.
- Added Blueberry Jam.
- Added Obsidian to natural resources.
- Added Temple of the Moon to tier 4 player settlements.

[h3]Changed[/h3]
- Thrown weapons are automatically picked up, same as bow/crossbow ammo.
- Claypit building changed to require at least 3 clay floor tiles.
- Bolt recipe no longer requires a woodcutter tool.
- Sand Wall counts for Mine building requirements.
- Candelabra, Acacia, and Fir logs can be processed by Carpenters in player settlements.
- Changed the "Requires one of" label under Passives to "Requires" for clarity.
- Goblins now have taverns with their own drinks.

[h3]Fixed[/h3]
- Fixed icon for Cranberry Farm building.
- Fixed wrong recipes in milestones - Death Scythe and Crown Legs.
- Fixed resource spawns for Cactus Fiber and Paralyzing Mushroom.
- Fixed crash related to Lizardmen building tooltip.

[h3]Modding[/h3]
- Stackers can be applied to the caster.
- Stackers reaching max stacks can trigger an ability cast. The ability may also be unlocked by passive.
- Multiple new passive effects: Range Bonus, On Attack Stack (Basic attacks may add stackers), On Attack Cast (Chance to trigger ability cast on basic attack)
- New Ability Effect: Damage Per Stacks (Adds damage to ability depending on all stack counts on target).


I've also updated the roadmap to accommodate the recent slowdown in my work. The next milestone update - the War update is scheduled for December, although parts of it will keep coming on Thursdays as part of the weekly updates.

Have a fun weekend,
Artur

Greetings fellow gods,

We're slowly getting back into the weekly update routine, and today, we have a new special location for you inspired by our community's new High Priest of Storkism - Draken (yes, the modding grandmaster Draken). I won't say much more, as finding it is part of the fun.

Additionally, we've begun reworking the building icons to make them fit better with the rest of the graphics and tackled two common issues - disappearing stashes and other entities on re-entering the region and improving the chance for at least one child for longer-living races.

Here's the changelog:

Added
- New extreme location: The Great Stork Temple.
- Added Cranberry Farm building.
- 2 new Carpentry recipes.
- 5 new Adventuring recipes.

Changed
- Remade building icons for humans, elves, and dwarves.
- Looted Chest can be destroyed.
- Beeseekers can be built with flower beds.
- Increased the chance for the first child and tweaked the birth rate depending on age.

Fixed
- Fixed disappearing region entities when reloading the game.
- Blocked region entry and world movement while working in a settlement building.
- Fixed crash related to Light Bringer building tooltip.
- Fixed Mulberry Garden to require 4 resting places and changed the category to food.
- Fixed some typos.

Things are still a little slow, but my mind is adjusting from thinking about one war to another. The school year has also begun, and the changes to kids' schedules require a new routine.

The good news is that with the recent sales spike, we'll be able to extend the game's scope beyond planned 1.0. We can focus entirely on making the game amazing without worrying about finances for a while. I'm considering looking for a programmer to help with the modding tools, as many of you are interested in expanding that aspect of the game. I'll let you know if anything moves in that direction.

It's great to see so many new players discovering the game and having so much fun.

The grind continues,
Artur

Greetings fellow gods,

As some of you may already know, I've been under attack by a political group that attempted to infiltrate our community and influence my game design. I took my stance against them with probably the strongest words I could craft in a single tweet, and the whole thing became a global character assassination attempt revealing the source of this attack.

Now that the fog of war has lifted, you can find the gist of this whole drama described in many sources, like:
- ITHardware.pl article - polish press
- Bounding Into Comics article
- Niche Gamer article
- Smash JT YouTube video - very fun to watch!
- Super Virgin's video - great quality, quick written interview, support small creators!
- Michał Chwistek's summary tweet (polish)

And more. You can find all my tweets on my personal Twitter account if you are still in doubt about what I said or what this was about after the lies created about me.

Edit: Here's a rundown of what led to my Polish flag tweet.
Edit 2: Some have begun to use the words "woke" and "anti-woke" concerning my stance, so I clarified I never used any of these words as I'm not an American.

The main source of these heinous attacks was the /r/roguelikes subreddit, which I revealed later came with support of their moderator group, including a popular YouTuber who added hate-inducing context while knowing no context and shared his tweet with over 4 million people.

I want to repeat what I said on Twitter. This is over. Please do not harass anyone. The group has lost all credibility and is powerless, and the right thing to do is not to play into any of their lies.

To address the allegations directly: I strongly believe in live and let live. I am not a bigot, and this was not against the LGBTQ community, but the extremist political group that has been hiding behind a rainbow flag and pretending they are fighting for good. To all the good people of any background, you are welcome to enjoy my games and join our communities. We're gathering here to share our passion for games, and any bad actors who will attempt to stir that into something else will be removed quickly and firmly.

Despite how the narrative was created around my Polish flag tweet, I made it very clear that it was about the suffering of my ancestors, what I've been through, and that the current attempt at inflicting social pressure to bend the knee to this ideology is nothing in comparison. And that was enough to trigger these extremists into thinking I slipped up in my anger and enabled them to go all in against me, which I proceeded to handle with calm explanations, addressing only good people like Xeloph here, who gave me some benefit of the doubt and simply asked for clarification of my stance.

But now this is over. As I said, we will be more strict in banning any attempt at stirring conversations away from our games outside the Offtopic channels on our Discord. Players who can't stand hearing "no" and keep pushing further to continue baiting the community in pointless directions will be removed.

While challenging for me and my wife, as well as people who work with us on our YouTube channel and art for the game, this experience will not change our approach to developing this game or prompt us to share our political views. We plan to get back to regular activity and discuss improvements for the game with you all very shortly.

I'm very sorry you had to watch it from the sidelines as it all unfolded, not knowing what was happening. This was a real information war, and it was my first experience with something like this. I do not plan to become a controversial figure for views and reach - the stress is way too high and I like my dark hair. I just want to play games, make games, and care for my family. But I will also take it upon myself to privately help other developers who may fear of being targeted in the same way.

Here's my last tweet from yesterday that perfectly concludes this weird event in my life. If you wish to discuss this topic any further, please contain it here. I will start moderating Steam Community soon and get it back on track to be about the game. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Valve for handling moderation during the most heated moments.

Thank you to everyone who helped me make my voice heard,
Artur

PS: I will do some hotfixing over the weekend to go through #s2-bugs list, and we'll resume regular update activity next week.
PPS: Please do not write to Valve to clear the review bomb. I want any troublemakers to know this is not a place for them.
PPPS: I haven't stopped laughing ever since I saw this today. Creativity at it's finest: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319272545

Greetings fellow gods,

As the old saying goes: "Plant a tree, build a house, and father a son." - now we can do all three in Soulash 2! Something to do that outlasts our characters, now also with the ability to continue the playthrough as one of our offspring.

This update finalizes the family system, which has been the most requested feature ever since Soulash 2 was publicly available as a demo.



We can now retire our character and let it reside in our settlement as we begin a new journey. But maybe the father of our new adventurer could join him on his quest as a companion? What about grandfather? A multi-generational squad of dwarves causing havoc in the world sounds tempting.

Here's the changelog:

[h3]Added[/h3]
- It's now possible to retire our character and let it live the rest of its life as controlled by AI.
- It's now possible to continue as one of our children or grandchildren after death or retirement.
- Added a few random encounters.

[h3]Changed[/h3]
- Carpenters in player settlements can process Mush Logs.
- Sheep and Goat ranches produce baby animals.
- Light Bringer requires mushrooms instead of spores.

[h3]Fixed[/h3]
- Fixed marriage simulator to respect racial adult age setting when connecting people.
- Removed the marry option from NPCs in special locations.
- Fixed persistent stash gold exchange state.
- Fixed crafter ping button sometimes not working.
- Thieves can now talk.

[h3]Modding[/h3]
- Player is considered a party member for the purpose of "ignore_party" property.

And now, the time has come to begin the work on arguably the most critical parts of this game - war, liches, and necromancy. I'm pretty sure that September will come too soon to finish wars, so we'll have a delay of about a month or two in relation to the initial Roadmap estimate.

Let the man fall, and the dead rise.

Artur

- Fixed rare lock during history simulation.
- Fixed rare crashes related to building.