Roots of Harmony News

[h2]Hello harmonious people![/h2][p][/p][p]Today I'm very excited to announce the release of Roots of Harmony 3.0! It took months of work and the changelog is massive! It's actually so massive that I've decided to make a condensed version of it. Listing every little menu modification and every disciple stat makes no sense. The general idea is that everything has been overhauled![/p][p]If you haven't read the previous announcement, please follow this link, where I talk in details about the main changes of this new version.[/p][p]All previous savegames are incompatible with 3.0. If you want to finish a game, you can do so by using the Steam beta program.[/p][p][/p][p]Version 3.0 is also an opportunity for me to refresh the visuals of Roots of Harmony. New trailer, new screenshots, new capsule and new description are now live on Steam.[/p][p][/p][p]Play it, love it, share it! :)[/p][p]Guillaume - aka Joubarbe 🌳[/p][p][/p][h2]Changelog (condensed)[/h2][p][/p]

• [p]New feature: The user interface has been redesigned to be more clear and more pleasant to play with on the long term. Menus are also more coherent — with a lot of QoL changes — and the overall user experience is smoother than ever![/p]
• [p]New feature: Disciple stats have been overhauled. Initiative and range cooldown are gone, damage is divided into melee and range, and the impact of damage multipliers have been drastically reduced. All disciples have been individually rebalanced.[/p]
• [p]New feature: Blessings now act like spells. You have an Energy pool and you can cast as many blessings as your energy allows. New traits, perks, essences and blessings accompany this feature.[/p]
• [p]New feature: Perks are now buyable with resources at any moment.[/p]
• [p]New feature: Champions are now ascended from normal disciples at a Monolith. They no longer depend on perks.[/p]
• [p]New feature: Trait giving landmarks, such as the Banshee's Pool, are now conquered when the master is defeated. The trait is now given when you recruit a disciple on this landmark.[/p]
• [p]New feature: Altars are now used to summon a new set of creatures. Each of this creature is either a Construct, a Magical unit, a Demon or an Undead.[/p]
• [p]New feature: Trading Posts are a new landmark replacing the old trading feature. It is a place of work, and you can exchange one resource for another with other tribes.[/p]
• [p]New feature: Most non-tribe units now belong to "the Independents". They can sneak attack your bases if you leave them undefended, and they also prevent you to use some landmarks.[/p]

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• [p]Added: 2 new combat music tracks by Noel Malekar (links in credits).[/p]
• [p]Added: 11 new land encounters (POI) and new / revised events.[/p]
• [p]Added: New units, blessings and essences.[/p]
• [p]Added: A ton of new traits like \[Beastmaster] to tame Beasts, \[Daunting] to break your enemy's morale, \[Deafening] to stun your target, \[Barbarian] to hit adjacent enemies, etc. And of course, many old traits have been overhauled as well.[/p]
• [p]Added: Setting to hide the arrows on the exploration map.[/p]
• [p]Added: Group bar on the main menu where you can see all your grouped disciples and give them quick commands.[/p]
• [p]Added: Many menu shortcuts have been added here and there to make navigation easier.[/p]

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• [p]Changed: Malus associated with negative / excess resources no longer impact other resources. For instance, having an excess of Cruelty doesn't take Benevolence each turn, but creates a risk of desertion.[/p]
• [p]Changed: New starting scenario where you choose your first doctrine.[/p]
• [p]Changed: "Defensive mode" has been removed. You can now hide your disciples from the menu in a more clever way.[/p]
• [p]Changed: You can no longer buy Cruelty, Greed and Vanity from Markets. However, you can now buy Wealth from all of them.[/p]
• [p]Changed: Milestones has been revised, and new ones have been added.[/p]
• [p]Changed: The essence capacity is now 3 for everyone.[/p]
• [p]Changed: You can now exclude moving units when engaging combat.[/p]
• [p]Changed: You can now change combat style and combat target for everyone all at once in one click.[/p]
• [p]Changed: Enemies now return to their safe land whenever necessary.[/p]
• [p]Changed: Many other gameplay elements have been rebalanced and adjusted for the new features (less tribes per direction, more invasion units, better progress through exploration, stats of procedural disciples, etc). The game now feels a lot more balanced, and many exploits have been removed.[/p]

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• [p]Fixed: A ton of stuff has been fixed over months of work, and it wouldn't make any sense to list them all here (and I don't have the full list anyway).[/p]

[h2]Hello harmonious people![/h2][p][/p][p]One year ago, Roots of Harmony got released out of nowhere. No marketing, no hype; even my family was not aware. What was the point? I still don't know. I think I was willing to keep the project on its own track, scared of the idea that I would have to delay its release if the game wouldn't receive the feedback I was expecting. That's basically the poorest decision you can make when it comes to releasing a video game (or anything?). This is a saturated market, and having a niche project is not enough to attract attention. That being said, it has found its place. It's on a little shelf, next to Warsim, and there's a certain charm to it! [/p][p][/p][p]In one year, I have sold about 1000 copies, and very happily received 17 positive reviews. I also have about 1500 wishlists. Many times though, I just wanted to give up, or to switch to another project. In 2025, I made a few prototypes and I've worked on many new ideas, but a sense of unfinished work always brings me back to RoH. And I know the theory and the stats: they say that if you don't have at least 7000 wishlists at release (I had 0 of course), or if your game isn't successful after two months, you should forget about it and start another game. But I refuse to hear that, because financial gain is not everything there is about releasing creative content. What is success anyway? I could argue that having one player in this world who absolutely loved the few hours he spent on my game is success. Or that having maintained an unsuccessful game for one year makes me happy, for the sake of integrity. Even though I wouldn't dislike the idea of paying all my pizzas with money from RoH sales, I'm convinced that this game is rather good, and can even become better. So today ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to announce Roots of Harmony 3.0, the biggest update I've ever released! © (it's actually true)[/p][p][/p][h2]Improved UI and UX[/h2][p][/p][p]The most obvious change concerns the UI. It's been a long time now that I wanted to make things clearer, to increase contrast, and to bring more colours to a rather dull palette. It took a serious amount of work to improve the engine, as the whole idea of this engine, at first, was just to have a terminal that would offer a few features that the Windows terminal couldn't handle. I don't regret the decision of building everything from scratch (in PureBasic, "transpiled" to C), but it sure has proven a lot more complicated than expected. UI programming is tedious. Besides, all the other projects I've started were also based on this engine, so many improvements had to be made. The current engine is actually able to show real images, to handle ASCII maps, and to support complex mouse-based menus. Things that RoH doesn't really need because of its "keyboard-only" option and of its nature. Some of you might say: "why not implement a map in RoH? Or real images?" Well, I've tried both things, and it just doesn't fit the intention of the game. I've also tried to put a lot of new ideas from other projects into RoH, but it just doesn't work. Game design often works in mysterious ways...[/p][p][/p][p]Anyway, let's take a look at the new interface:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]As you can see, I've added and improved many things: all titles are now highlighted, what you select is more obvious, and navigation options are more coherent. And I won't even mention all the little changes I've made to both the English and French texts so the game can be easier to understand. Some of you might find the new design less old-school, but I think that it will be more engaging to newcomers, and it feels neater and more pleasant to play in the long term.[/p][p][/p][h2]Disciples Overhaul[/h2][p][/p][p]The most important changes of version 3.0 concern gameplay mechanics. When it comes to disciples, I always wanted the stats to be minimalistic and understandable. One of my main inspirations has always been the Dominions series, but I didn't want to fall into the trap of complex characteristics, as it can be extremely challenging to maintain in the long term. So, let's take a look at the new Militia:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Version 2.3[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Version 3.0[/p][p][/p][p]As you can see, things are even simpler than before! Initiative is gone (faster units play first), as well as minimum range and range cooldown. There are now two base damage types: melee and range, and they both have a range of min/max values instead of being a fixed value.[/p][p]Concerning the damage modifiers, they now disregard whether the attack is melee or range. The new line Dmg. mod. can now be read as "Damage added against Light, Medium and Heavy armours." Note that damage modifiers are now added, and no longer multiplied. The goal is to have less dramatic battles, because in 2.3, some units could often deal three times more damage, and the result of a battle was quite hard to predict. Now, you can pretty much ignore damage modifiers, and it won't be the end of the world. They're only necessary if you face a serious challenge, or if you really want to minimise your losses.[/p][p]Finally, Accuracy and Dodge are now expressed in percentages, making those stats easier to understand.[/p][p][/p][p]All disciples have been revised. Their stats have been rebalanced, and new traits have been added. I've added 36 new traits in total, and many different ways to acquire them. Traits have been one of the main focuses of this update: enemies have more of them, Champions have default ones, and Blessings can grant you temporary traits as well (more on that below). Note that the trait limitation per disciple has been completely removed.[/p][p][/p][h2]Landmarks Overhaul[/h2][p][/p][p]Speaking of traits, I've completely changed how the "trait giver" landmarks work, like the Necromancer's Tower or the Banshee's Pool. Before, you had to kill the owner and then send a disciple to meditate there in order for them to gain a new trait. Now, you can conquer the place by killing its owner, and all the disciples you'll recruit at this landmark will receive the local trait. Creatures in those places don't respawn anymore.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Prior to 3.0, landmarks didn't have much impact, and most of them could just have been random Points of Interest (POI) or special events. I tried to give a purpose to all of them so that you would have a real interest in moving one of your disciples to a landmark. Now you will ask yourself: "Is the new trait valuable enough for me to recruit a disciple there on this land, potentially very far from my main base?"[/p][p][/p][h2]Altars[/h2][p][/p][p]Another big change concerns the Altars. Before, they were mainly used to gain new essences. The problem with that approach was that this landmark occupied a land for no obvious reason. There was no reason for the player to move their disciples on this land, and the strategic value of this landmark was therefore non-existent. Now, in 3.0, Altars are used to summon new units! All those units have one of the following traits: \[Construct], \[Magic], \[Demon], or \[Undead], and there are a lot of new traits interacting with them.[/p][p]They don't cost any resources. Instead, you need to sacrifice one of your Disciples if you want to summon one of these 16 new units. There are only four altars per playthrough, and each one is associated with only one creature, making the game even more replayable.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Monoliths[/h2][p][/p][p]In 2.3, there was an additional landmark in New Game+: Monoliths. Now, Monoliths are accessible in every game, and they bring a major new feature with them: Ascension. [/p][p]In 2.3, each Champion had to be unlocked through the old Perks system, and you could recruit them anywhere you wanted. It was tedious and unclear, as you always had to keep track the number of disciples you had. Now in 3.0, each of your disciple can become a Champion through Ascension. If they have enough Wisdom, you can move them to one of the four Monoliths, and there you can ascend them, ie. evolve them into a better unit. Think of Champions as evolutions, like in the HOMM series, where you could upgrade your units at some places, like the Stables.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Trading Posts[/h2][p][/p][p]Last but not least, I've added a new landmark: Trading Posts. This landmark completely revamps how trading used to work before 3.0. All notions of commodities have been removed in favour of a more straightforward mechanic. Now Trading Posts are working places, meaning that you have to assign a disciple to it before it can work. When you do so, they will start trading one resource for another, with a tribe of your choice. Each tribe has a random resource they need, and another one they exchange.[/p][p][/p][p]In 3.0, some features are to be discovered through your playthrough and are not available from the start. Trading Posts are one of them. I think I've added so many features during this year that the game has become overwhelming for new players. It's still not easy, it doesn't hold your hand, but it tries to be more gentle![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Blessings Overhaul[/h2][p][/p][p]Prior to 3.0, Blessings were a unique buff you could apply only once per combat turn. Now, Blessings behave more like spells. There are many new ones, and you can cast as many Blessings as you want. The only limitation is the amount of Energy you have available.[/p][p]Energy is a new resource that is provided by three sources: perks, traits, and essences. That means your Energy pool can vary from one battle to another, because it's partly increased by your disciples. Now it can be very beneficial to group some of your disciples together, like for instance those with the new trait \[Spellweaver] that provides +5 Energy.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Perks Overhaul[/h2][p][/p][p]The previous perk system was tedious and confusing. Now, perks are what you would expect from any game: a bonus that you can unlock in exchange for resources. I've added and altered many perks, and also implemented new game mechanics to interact with them. For instance, the Independents (who are kind of a new faction) can "sneak attack" your bases at night if you don't defend them properly... or you unlock the Intimidation perk:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]New game start[/h2][p][/p][p]Starting a game should be engaging and pretty straightforward, and I don't think 2.3 is doing that, so I've changed a few things:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]New game scenarios that immediately unlock a first doctrine.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Quick summary of the doctrine you've chosen, the resources you get, and the disciple you unlock.[/p][p][/p][p]Note that all doctrines related to Cruelty, Greed and Vanity are not available during game start. The reason is those resources are harder to increase, and that can have a negative impact on your early game. The experience of the first minutes of the game should be smooth, and some of those resources are only available at higher tiers.[/p][p][/p][h2]Release Date[/h2][p][/p][p]And that's it for this little teaser! Although I've already implemented all the new systems I've described above, Version 3.0 has many new changes that require serious playtests. I cannot release it for RoH's birthday unfortunately, but it will very likely come out in November![/p][p][/p][p]Note that to celebrate the 1 year of Roots of Harmony, the game will be available at a 20% discount for a week![/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll like all the new changes! Stay tuned! 🙏[/p][p][/p][p]Chat on Discord[/p][p]Post on Reddit[/p][p][/p][p]Guillaume (aka Joubarbe) 🌳[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello Harmonious people![/p][p][/p][p]The Steam 4X Fest is here, and Roots of Harmony is celebrating with a 20% discount! If you're looking for a unique text-based 4X game with deep strategy, now's the perfect time to explore![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

• New feature: Tribe aggressiveness. The reputation threshold under which a tribe will declare war upon you now varies from -10 to -50, instead of being a fixed -30. Their aggressiveness is influenced both by their choice of doctrines and randomness.
  

• Added: More options for groups. You can now merge two groups together, split one group, put all disciples on land in a group, and set a homebase (+ additional order to move your group to this homebase).
  
• Added: At the end of a battle, you now have access to some combat stats where you see how much damage your units have dealt (melee, range, and trait damage).
  

• Changed: The tutorial doesn't put you in a situation of war anymore, and you can keep your initial Gem.
  
• Changed: Improved tutorial messages to give more information.
  
• Changed: You can no longer retreat from Outposts and Crossroads.
  
• Changed: [Booster] now increases the speed of all allies for 10 turns at the start of the battle. Before, it was only affecting one random ally, and would repeat during combat.
  
• Changed: "Phase" is now called "Tier" (only in English).
  

• Fixed: Invaders would stop their invasion when you attack them then retreat.
  
• Fixed: You could retreat even though you were not attacking.
  
• Fixed: You couldn't retreat to Crossroads.
  
• Fixed: Evolving buildings that were being built wouldn't evolve when you change tier.
  

• [p]Added: New challenge "Green Power". Be a Goblin, fight the Elves and the Undead! It's a "hard" challenge. I've completed it in 80 turns, try to do better![/p]
• [p]Added: The Challenge Editor is now more visible, with a new button in the New Challenge menu. The editor itself is in "beta", as it's not super end-user friendly, but if you want to craft your own little scenarios, it's all there.[/p]
• [p]Added: Groundwork for a future patch: implementation of "extraordinary units", which are units with one of the following traits: \[Beast], \[Construct], \[Demon], \[Magic] or \[Undead]. Those units cannot work, preach, investigate and meditate, and they cannot use consumables during combat. They also have different immunities.[/p]
• [p]Added: Two new buttons to set combat line for all units at once. "All front" and "All rear".[/p]

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• [p]Changed: The Exploration menu now directly leads to the "map" instead of showing an intermediary screen. You can hover over the different tabs to see information that was previously only accessible in this intermediary screen.[/p]
• [p]Changed: Land type is no longer written in the name of the land (only landmark is, when there's one). The "map" is therefore a lot cleaner and easier to use.[/p]
• [p]Changed: Invasion warnings are now only sent when the invasion force has been spawned. In previous versions, you were warned one turn before, but some conditions could change during the in-between turn, making the invasion impossible.[/p]
• [p]Changed: Many little UI improvements, mostly for concision.[/p]
• [p]Changed: \[Warlock] has now a chance to inflict \[Possessed] at each turn instead of only from passive turns.[/p]
• [p]Changed: Crippling now reduces dodge by 4 instead of 2.[/p]
• [p]Changed: Maximum trait limit removed.[/p]
• [p]Changed: ASCII picture for the Bandage inventory item has been updated (it was still representing a Balm).[/p]
• [p]Changed: Jewel is now named Gem.[/p]

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• [p]Fixed: Invasions could start from Outposts.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Invasions were not properly unregistered in New Game+. Also fixed rare invasion scenarios.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Some UI bugs here and there.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Censorship would also reduce Communication by 2 instead of just applying a permanent modifier of -1.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: It was possible to set a resolution lower than 1440*900, which is the minimum resolution the engine can handle.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Resource variation could show a double minus character.[/p]