State of the game - February 2026

[p][/p][p][/p][p]So many changes are coming in the next few months. As I write this, we are preparing to release two updates today. One for the January public build and another for the February PTB. Our production team is amazing and tracking all the changes for each build is a little like juggling knives. [/p][p][/p][p]We normally wouldn’t be updating two versions at once but we have a lot of changes in the next update so we wanted to start the PTB early. We don’t plan on making it public until March, so it’s going to be up and available for a while. [/p][p][/p][p]Let’s talk about what’s in it. 
[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]District View[/h2][p]
[/p][p]You got a little bit of this in the January update. But that was just at the strategic view. In the latest you can see it at all levels. As in the above in 3d mode. 

[/p][p]At this level in strategic view, where we switch to simpler icons (if you have District view enabled) to make it easier to read. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]As well as showing the color the farthest zoom. I’m not sure about keeping it at this level. Is it still valuable this far out? Or is it just making the interface look busy and difficult to read? Try out the PTB and let us know. [/p][p][/p][h2]Custom Factions [/h2][p]
[/p][p]​This is a major feature for this update. And a big part of why we are planning to leave this in PTB for a long time. Custom Factions require a lot of testing. [/p][p][/p][p]I had a great time creating my own. I wanted to create a mix of the Aspects and the Last Lords (with some extra tweaks). This is what I made 👇[/p][p]
[/p]

• [p]Leader Design: Consul Myerte Tyabana [/p]
• [p]Faction Affinity: Coral Chorus (this gives me the ability to spread coral. I did not select the Knightly Husks faction affinity so I will be using food to grow my population). [/p]
• [p]Population: Horatio. (because I believe in perfection) [/p]
• [p]Units: Lords of the Amber Plains (I like the look of the Last Lords units, especially their dragon). [/p]
• [p]Battle Affinity: Gifts of the Fallen (the Last Lords ability to be healed when adjacent units are killed). [/p]
• [p]Traits [/p]
  • [p]Cohabitation: Assimilation is free. [/p]
  • [p]Friend of Saiadha: +5 protectorate slots!!! [/p]
  • [p]Helping Hand: Additional resources available at the start. [/p]
  • [p]Ritual Astronomy: I can build Observatorys like the Tahuk. [/p]
  • [p]Trade War: Damage boosted by Dust Income. [/p]

[p]
[/p][p]My faction affinity sets my starting u​nits and city style. Though here you can see that I can build Coral and Observatories. [/p][p]
[/p][p]But all future units I build are “Lord of the Amber Plains” units. [/p][p]
[/p][p]​We included custom faction abilities that don’t exist in the main game specifically so you can try crazy things. I love all these protectorate slots. Combined with the free assimilation and I’m ready to go conquer the world one minor faction village at a time. [/p][p][/p][p]It may not be too balanced. We do try to make sure everything is somewhat reasonable. Different traits cost different amounts; we can adjust what the trait grants. But in general, we know there are going to be combos that are overpowered. And that’s okay. We would rather err on the side of providing fun toys to play with than making sure everything is perfectly balanced. [/p][p][/p][p]In this first update the AI can’t play with custom factions. But we will be allowing that after the AI team has been able to have more time making them play reasonably (not perfectly, but we also don’t want them to be useless). We will also allow hosts in Multiplayer games to decide if they want to allow custom factions or not. [/p][p][/p][h2]​Endless Monsoon [/h2][p][/p][p]Step one for the improved endgame came in the January update. The new victory conditions were more complex and interesting. The second big change has arrived in this PTB, the Endless Monsoon. [/p][p]
[/p][p]It occurs at the very end of the game, a monsoon, but one unlike all the others. The world changes and the Keeper of the Depths is spawned. It’s probably best to avoid him as he can wreck armies all by himself (but he doesn’t need to because he travels with an army of Doomwraiths). [/p][p]
[/p][p]And of course, the world has changed. It is full of blowing ash and red lightning. It’s our subtle indication that the world is ending and it’s time to push for victory. (okay, maybe not terribly subtle). 
[/p][h2]Easily Upgradable Resources [/h2][p][/p][p]And my favorite little Quality of Life Improvement in this update. All Resources in your territories now have pins on them when you are in city view. Clicking the pin adds it to the queue. No more having to search the district list for them (though that works as well). [/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p]🏂 A quick word from your friendly ComDevs, the following items are for the FUTURE (Soon™ and not that Soon™), as some of the changes are big and require more work to be done. So please, do not expect everything to be deployed in the next update or similar.[/p][hr][/hr][p] [/p][h2]Sneak Peek - Anomaly Districts [/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]​Anomalies are great early boosts for your city. But as your regular district begins receiving bonuses they become lackluster tiles by the midgame. To remedy this we are adding the ability to upgrade anomalies with the right technology. Doing so will double their bonuses, so it’s especially appealing for powerful anomalies in the lower depths. [/p][p][/p][p]Plus, the art team did a great job and they look amazing. [/p][p][/p][h2]Sneak Peak- Retaliation [/h2][p]
[/p][p]We want most units to counterattack when they are attacked. This allows players to develop more interesting attack strategies (a unit can only retaliate once a round so deciding which unit will draw that attack should play into your tactics). [/p][p][/p][p]More importantly it causes attrition, even if one side is more powerful than the other. We will have much fewer battles where an army escapes a battle unscathed and can therefore steamroll a war by themselves. Since every battle brings damage players will have to consider how far they want to push their armies before giving them time to heal. [/p][p][/p][h2]Sneak Peek- Writing Improvements [/h2][p][/p][p]We have been listening to your comments about writing and working on concepts and ideas internally. Our consensus is that the dialog display we currently use in the game isn’t sustainable, and the issue is systemic to the design (ie: we can’t make a change to it to fix the problems). [/p][p][/p][p]The core problems with this design is: [/p]

1. [p]It puts a major focus on the characters. This works in a RPG where you are playing a handful of characters and begin to recognize and connect with them and their personality. But in a 4x the player is dealing with their empire, not their specific leader or hero, most of the time. So, they largely don’t know, or care, who these people are. The presentation focuses on the people (who aren’t as critical) and not the event (which is important), which is correct for an RPG, but backwards for 4x. [/p]
2. [p]Too many clicks. In the current style you click through every piece of dialog which is tedious, especially combined with the above point. This leads many players to feeling like the dialog is annoying and getting in the way of them playing the game. [/p]

[p]
Understanding the above we decided to trash the current presentation and start over. [/p][p]Instead we are moving to this 👀[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]​This is heavily Endless Legend 1 inspired and design to show off the 2d art that many of you requested more off. It also focuses on the event itself, though we maintained the dialog which will be animated in to make this interface more dynamic. Also this removes all the clicks between dialog by presenting it together more like Disco Elysium. [/p][p][/p][p]This is a big task to implement. Not only in creating the new screen, but also in going through all the data to make sure it meets the requirements of the new screen. [/p][p][/p][p]That is the biggest change we are making regarding writing, but not the only one. We are going through all the scripts and updating and improving them to make sure the language, tone, etc all fit. We updated the Quips (those cartoon bubbles that happen over characters sometimes) so that they display correctly, only happen 25% of the time, are randomized and fixed some broken ones. [/p][p][/p][p]We also have a major change coming through for: [/p][p]
[/p][h2]Sneak Peek- Faction Specific Victory Quests [/h2][p][/p][p] [/p][p]Currently we have a series of events that trigger in reference to the end of the game. You meet three characters, they represent the three victory paths you can choose and help give some context to the decision you will make later in the game. [/p][p] [/p][p]But, it’s the same regardless of the faction you play. We knew they would be used for all factions so they are relatively generic. And they make they make the world feel more generic since you encounter the same events in multiple games regardless of who you are playing as. [/p][p][/p][p]So we are removing them and writing these “victory quests” for each faction. Essentially the same thing is happening in the world for every faction, but they way that is revealed to them, and how they respond to it should be completely different. [/p][p][/p][p]Since this needs to go through writing, implementation and localization it will take a little time. We probably won’t wait for all of them to be implemented before releasing some (we’d like your opinion on them even if we just do 1-2 first). But it should be a great way to make each faction feel special. [/p][p]
[/p][p]​​ -- Derek Paxton,[/p][p]Game Director[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]If you are interested in the elements Derek mentioned for our next update> Echoes of Creation, then 👇[/p][p]Try the Public Test Branch (PTB)  😄 [/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink] [/p][p]Have a nice day ^-^[/p]