State of the game - March 2026

[p]We asked for some questions for the Dev team. Thank you for taking the time to submit them. We tried to slip in a few useful answers between unrelated game development stories, way too many details and generally making fun of the Marketing team. [/p][p][/p][p]But before we go through them let’s talk a bit about what’s coming in this month’s update, and what’s next. [/p][p][/p][h2]New This Month [/h2][p]I already talked about both of these features deeply in last month’s State of the Game but I’ll cover them briefly here since they are now available. [/p][p][/p][h3]Custom Factions [/h3][p]We have already had thousands of custom factions created. 24% of all games played were as Custom Factions and 22% of all multiplayer games included Custom Factions. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Players really like pulling from the Last Lords for their custom factions. And players are REALLY good at finding OP traits, which is why so many of you are picking Mercantile (bonus damage based on your Dust income). The least popular trait picked was Force Truce. No one wants to spend points forcing the end of a war when they can spend those points on winning the war instead. [/p][p][/p][p]I made the Bloom who I envisioned as a synthesis between the Last Lords and the Aspects. [/p][p][/p][p]"The resurrections failed and the pit was littered with the bodies of fractured lords. They writhed in torment, dying in the dirt of Saiadha. Stacked upon each other like cairn stones. [/p][p]Slowly their essence bled into the world. They were a dark secret, best forgotten. Records were erased, and no one spoke of this tragedy. No one returned to the pit. [/p][p]But the coral slowly spread, it found the shattered forms, felt the life still suffering beneath the ground and slowly soothed it with the chorus. They grew together and these forgotten lords clawed their way out of the earth and began anew. "[/p][p]
[/p][p]I had a good time playing as them. Last Lord units, Aspect cities and I can even build Tahuk Observatories as in the screenshot above. (we do have a bug where you can’t upgrade the observatories unless you have the Tahuk affinity which we need to fix). [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]But the best thing about my custom faction was 5 bonus protectorate slots so I have a lot of minor faction bonuses and population.
[/p][p][/p][p]I didn’t even realize until Monsoon hit that having so many protectorates also meant I got a lot of councilors to choose from. [/p][p]We are excited to see what creations you come up with. [/p][p][/p][h3]ENDLESS Monsoon [/h3][p][/p][p]And the end of the world. We certainly can’t be accused of the game ending suddenly without notice. The entire world turns into a barren hellscape where roaming packs of feral marketing managers hunt for prey. It’s the warning to finish the game or else. [/p][p]
[/p]

Coming Soon

[p]Next month’s update will include two changes. We are doing an update on the Kin’s design and adding Anomaly districts.
[/p][p]To be honest, both of these changes are almost done. So, what are we really doing for the next month? Pour out a shot for our poor developers, for it is a debug month here at Amplitude. A time for reviewing bug reports and focusing on fixing things instead of adding them. And we will be watching the bug reports this month for any high priority issues we need to make sure to address. [/p][p]
[/p][h2]Community Questions [/h2][p]Community Dev incoming signal: Derek already shared the base, but if you were wondering where we asked the players, we mainly used our Community Hub, Amplifiers.[/p][p]You will notice that some players decided to "non-stop shooting questions", which is always nice ofcs[/p][p][/p][p]
If you like this section, about questions of the community, let us know in the comments, and we could try to do it more often 😊[/p][p][/p][p]Question 1[/p]

[p]“could you guys give us more clear terrain i really struggle reading tiles and i dont want to play the game like carcassonne tile indicator everywhere or always showing the fidsi” – shabbro96 [/p]

[p]We are working on improving readability, especially when zoomed out. In the following screenshot there isn’t much difference between the terrain here than in the public build of the game. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]But we are looking at hiding some of the details as you zoom out so it becomes this:
[/p][p][/p][p]All the grass and little bushes are gone as you zoom out. Coral is hidden, which makes the units and significant resources clearer. [/p][p][/p][p]I’m not sure about the specifics of when it should filter out, in our current internal build I think it’s happening too early. And I’m a little worried that the “popping” as the objects appear and disappear may be jarring and we will need to implement a solution where they fade in and out. But it does make the world feel “less busy”. I’m curious to see what all of you think. [/p][p][/p][p]We are also testing having the cliff edges come up higher, so they are easier to notice, especially when the cliff is on the opposite side of the camera. [/p][p][/p][p]Before
[/p][p][/p][p]After
[/p][p]It doesn’t perfectly solve the problem (especially when city walls and cliff edges intersect) and we are also adjusting the color of the cliff edges to have a higher contract vs the terrain (which works great in grasslands that are green and the cliffs are gray, but is harder to see in some other biomes).
[/p][p]Question 2[/p]

[p]“I have been following both the discord and forums regarding district costs. Currently, no matter what district you build, every district type's cost increases after building a district. City growth feels very limited, and industry as a whole feels really weak because of this. I always end up using dust to buy out construction because building districts cost a significant amount of industry and turns. They easily cost more than city improvements, and they even provide less yield overall. [/p][p] [/p][p]I was wondering if there were any considerations or future plans regarding district costs or the value of districts as a whole. I am aware of the upcoming anomaly district, which will be nice, but, my question is more so focused on any future plans to make workshops, bridges, or farms more viable - As building them feels wasteful since they will increase the cost of building laboratories, merchant houses, or forums.” - KLuebbert [/p]

[p]We will be balancing these. The goal of scaling costs of districts is to keep cities from growing out of control and incent players to want more territories and more cities rather than always going tall. There is scaling both on the number of districts and the district type. The biggest scale is on the district type so you are right that the farm increases the cost of your laboratories, but not nearly as much as a laboratory. The fact that you are struggling between building district type A or B is what we want. [/p][p][/p][p]Also, your Industry improves as the game goes on from techs, councilors, etc, so it isn’t linear. [/p][p][/p][p]But overall, yes, the game is trying to incent you to start a new city as it gets less efficient to invest in this one. We have wondered about making it a fixed limit. At city level 1 you can only put districts within 1 tile of your city center, then 2, then 3. Which would also meet the goal of constraining city size but takes away the decision of when to invest and when not to by making it Boolean. [/p][p][/p][p]To (finally) reply to your initial question I think the issue here is balance and not systemic. There should be good reasons to build workshops, bridges and farms as well as to specialize a city with laboratories, merchant houses and forums. The designer in charge of this feature has also mentioned that he’d like population to limit the number of districts (like 1 district per 2 pop) as EL1 did. But that sounds like a pretty radical change to make at this stage (and difficult to feedback on an already complex system). [/p][p][/p][p]Question 3[/p]

[p]“Is there going to be anything added to new lands (brought by tidefalls)? Currently, the terrain feels very Samey with the exception of biomes, wonders, and resources. Are there going to be any new features added that make new lands and expansions more intresting in addition to reducing repetition?” - Mormanade
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[p]The first step is to make the revealed land strategically interesting outside of new features, and I don’t think we are there yet.
We need: [/p]

[p]The AI to expand aggressively into these areas (outside of lower difficulty levels). We have made a lot of progress here, but continue to work on it. [/p]
[p]There to be a good reward for the AI and players to want these areas (we need camps to be rewarding because they take time to defend and we don’t want a ton of cities). This is why we added Dust from Camps. [/p]
[p]Soft and Hard targets. This is why we moved to Militia being city based and not empire based. So when you found other players cities you would have a variety of target to choose from with different difficulty and rewards. [/p]
[p]Blocking terrain to create chokepoints and not have the map end up as plains everywhere. We are currently working on making sure more and larger lakes appears (lakes aren’t impacted by tidefall) as well as mountain chains to give the map more strategic depth. [/p]
[p]We have talked about adding more specialized regions but we are much more focused on getting the four points above right before adding more to the mix. [/p]

[p]
Since you asked, let’s talk a little about AI expansion progress 👇 [/p][p][/p][p]Early Access – September 2025[/p][p][/p][p]Here you can see the number of cities being created on average between human and AI players on the September build. It’s a large gap with humans having double the number of cities by about turn 90. It was frequently reported by players as well as the AI not being very aggressive and not doing a good job of expanding. [/p][p]This not only handicaps the AI, but it removes pressure from the player in trying to expand, since the AI isn’t taking territories. [/p][p][/p][p]Steady Tides Update (February 2026)[/p][p][/p][p]Here you see the same information with the February build. Humans have come down and the AI has increased its expansion. There is still a gap from turn 20-120. Most notably the AI is reporting as having a harder time during the first monsoon (that dip both players make at about turn 20), possibly because human players that get wrecked at the first Monsoon tend to quit the game (and therefor drop out of the analytics) which isn’t something the AI can do. [/p][p][/p][p]Also, you see the human players’ city numbers drop at about turn 120. I don’t think that’s because they lose cities. I think it’s the fact that the most advanced players start winning the game at about that point so their data comes out of the analytics and the average drops. What that really tells me is that the AI is expanding at the rate of average players, but the advanced players that can win early are still way ahead.
[/p][p]Question 4[/p]

[p]“Is there ever going to be exclusive stronghold fights? Im talking about battle terrain, not the enemies itself. There is huge opportunity to make them more intresting and provide more of an "inside" battle feel to make them more epic. Currently, it just uses the terrain of the region which works but is also much more boring. It relates to the topic of art making the game better, similar to events.” - Mormanade [/p]

[p]“Inside” battles have been discussed as well. But, in general, we like that you fight on the map so you can choose where and how to attack. We need to do a better job of highlighting this to players. A number become frustrated when they don’t like the layout for a Fortress battle, but don’t realize they can attack the fortress from another direction to influence where their army starts. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 5[/p]

[p]“Are there any plans for blueprinting tools, to help players remember what they want to build and where? I'm thinking for tile markers, for example, similar to how Old World implements it.” - WiseChimp
[/p]

[p]There aren’t currently plans to implement blueprinting tools. We do want to implement more comprehensive recommendations (as in suggesting you should build a farm if your city is starving) and we are very happy with the new system that highlights placement to help players make better decisions, but no plans to “pin” plans.
[/p][p]Note: Our Lead Designer would like this as well and used Old World as a reference when suggesting the idea, so you are in good company. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 6[/p]

[p]“Your communication has been outstanding and, quite rarely, bi-directional! It's not often we get to see developers engaging with and even using their communities as sources of inspiration. How did this approach come about, and how do you find it works out? (Personally, I think your approach should be industry-standard. I can't applaud you enough for this).” - WiseChimp
[/p]

[p]Making games with the community is in Amplitude's DNA.. Personally, I can’t imagine making these large sandbox games without having the analytics and player reported feedback prior to release. We have well over 2 million hours of playtime on EL2 and that’s a goldmine of information that allows us to improve the game as well as all the survey, forum and discord feedback. Internally we have shifted from being as design focused and being more player feedback focused. [/p][p][/p][p]Every time a major update goes out, we have a meeting 1 week after with everyone on the team, we go through the analytics, the community managers talk about what they are seeing. We use that information to help prioritize changes for the next patch. It’s how we make games. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 7[/p]

[p]“Are there any features or plans that you would have wanted to implement, but had to scrap for one reason or another? Anything you can share with us on that?” - WiseChimp
[/p]

[p]There have been a few features that we cut. Amplitude likes to try out ideas, some work, and some don’t. One system we had early on was a “Decree” system basically like governments and laws from ES2. You could go in and configure your empire, you unlocked deeds through techs or accomplishing goals. It was okay, but would have required a lot of work to get right (players tended to forget about it, and having another list of “quests” to do to unlock options was confusing and overwhelming). [/p][p][/p][p]It’s not that the idea was bad, but it needed a lot of work to improve. At the same time we felt like heroes were military tools but didn’t have much impact on your empire outside of that. So, the idea for the Councilor system came from combining the two. Every hero had an associated “Decree” (as we knew it at the time) and the player customized his empire by choosing which he had on his council. [/p][p][/p][p]The system worked well. But I always felt particularly bad about the change because our GUI teams manager spends most of his time helping his team, and not much time actually implementing big things by himself. He has a thousand small improvements all over the game but there was actually only one screen that was his baby, and he implemented from start to finish. It was the decree screen that we cut. Sorry Aurélien! [/p][p][/p][p]Question 8[/p]

[p]“Is the studio doing well financially, or do I need to pester my friends more intensely to buy EL2?” - WiseChimp
[/p]

[p]We have everything we need to release a great game. But I’m going to take this opportunity to talk about supporting games. Nothing I’m about to say is specific to EL2. It goes for any game you enjoy and want to support. [/p][p][/p][p]It’s no secret that the gaming industry is rough right now. If you love a game and want to support it, then buying the game is an amazing gift in a world where you have LOTS of choices. Please don’t ever think you owe anything beyond enjoying the game, you paid money for it. [/p][p][/p][p]But, if you want to go further, then adding a steam review really does matter. Providing feedback especially during Early Access periods is incredibly helpful. And, of course getting your friends playing IF you think it’s the game for them is great. [/p][p][/p][p]And again, this isn’t just for EL2, but for all the games from developers you love, especially Indie titles that may have little marketing outside relying on word of mouth and the fickle goddess that is the steam algorithm. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 9[/p]

[p]“Anomaly Districts are one of the features I’m most excited about. Do you have an approximate timeframe for when they might appear on the PTB (Public Test Branch), and later in the main game?” - FabionFox
[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Spoiler: Anomaly districts are scheduled to be added in the April PTB. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 10[/p]

[p]“Are there plans to expand diplomatic trading options, such as: trading resources, exchanging territories/regions, possibly technology sharing between empires?” - FabionFox [/p]

[p]We want to improve diplomacy and make the AI more personality driven. There is also a few moments that drive me a little crazy. For example, the message you get from another faction saying they like you more because you both hate the same faction doesn’t tell you who the faction you both hate is. So, it feels static and impersonal rather than involving characters you are invested in. [/p][p][/p][p]We intentionally don’t allow trading resources because we feel like the system of going through each of your contacts to figure out who has the best deal for you to get the 6 Glassteel you need is tedious. We added the global market to cover that. We also don’t allow tech sharing/trading because it tends to undermine all other systems. So we only allow the small boost on research through the technology treaties (unless you find a Tahuk library). [/p][p][/p][p]Question 11[/p]

[p]“Do you have an approximate timeframe for community-driven content, such as the Minor Faction voted by the community or other co-creation initiatives?” – FabionFox [/p]

[p]The current plan is to have those available at release, but it could shift. The first priority is making sure the base game is great. After that, the community content is a great addition. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 12[/p]

[p]“You previously teased Faction-Specific Victory Quests. What is the current progress on this feature?” - FabionFox
[/p]

[p]We are currently going through each of the factions and pitching their perspective on what is happening in the world and how they would react to it. Hopefully we will have that locked down this week. After we have that structure in mind we: [/p]

[p]Come up with a high level plan for each. (we are here) [/p]
[p]Break down each of them into a couple of quest objectives we think are fun. [/p]
[p]Writing fills in all the text to make them narratively interesting. [/p]
[p]We implement them as a test. [/p]
[p]They go to playtest for feedback. [/p]
[p]We adjust based on the feedback. [/p]
[p]We send all the text to localization for translation. [/p]
[p]They get released in an update. [/p]

[p]It’s a lot of steps and takes time, but we really like the idea and think it’s going to be a big improvement for the game. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 13[/p]

[p]“I have read your comments on the request for your units to phase-through passive/allied units on the map, any updates on that front from the team?” – Glasscannon [/p]

[p]Yes, it’s on our list. It won’t fix everything, but being able to move through allied and neutral units will help. We did put in a change way back where we have the roaming armies of minor factions retreat to their villages and despawn when they are pacified, that helps clear out the map. But this isn’t that helpful for players that don’t aggressively pursue pacifying minors. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 14[/p]

[p]“Are there any plans for other terraforming options besides ridge removal? Fill in a tile of a lake, smooth out a cliff face border? (Or chisel out a 'stairway' perhaps?) Maybe ridge creation?” – Glasscannon [/p]

[p]More terraforming options could be fun, especially as a faction specialty. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 15[/p]

[p]“Any plans for visual eye candy on tiles like in Humankind how you can zoom in and see citizens traveling the roads and foundations?” – Glasscannon [/p]

[p]We do have this, and it used to be more prevalent. About a year ago our cities had a big distinct building on each tile. All tiles had citizens on them going about their day. These were fairly simple, you could see a guard hanging out on a watchtower, a couple talking in a plaza, etc. [/p][p]But with this big building the cities didn’t really look like cities, but more like a collection of 8 buildings. It made the world look small and didn’t have an epic feeling. So, we went through a big adjustment to change the ways the cities looked. The buildings were shrunk; smaller “house” buildings were used to fill the tiles and give the impression of streets and a more urban look. It worked. [/p][p][/p][p]Since the buildings shrunk, so did the citizens. We couldn’t keep them the size they were designed for or it would look very odd. But they are very small. We also don’t want to increase the zoom in distance because even though the original buildings would hold up at higher zoom, the rest of the world’s assets were never intended to be seen that close up. So, there are some beautiful details that has been lost. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 16[/p]

[p]“How are fortresses being received? Any plans for creating more challenging "raid" fortresses that could require bringing a reinforcement contingent or perhaps a gauntlet that require two or three rounds with a new, more challenging fight for each round?” – Glasscannon [/p]

[p]Not really. Fortresses are good but I feel like the challenge they offer is fitting for the reward you get. We have tougher ones as you get deeper in the world (more balance is needed here), but we want all battles to be relatively fast so you don’t forget about what is happening in the overall game. Which I think would happen if you had to fight a series of battles to win. [/p][p]Interestingly, we considered cutting Fortresses for a long time. And the decision to force them to be mandatory battles was also heavily debated. But we really like that they make conquest of a new region a different process, and that being forced to manually fight them made them feel different and more epic. It isn’t a universally loved decision, but understanding they aren’t a key feature of the game they are doing their job. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 17[/p]

[p]“Will anomaly districts 'level up' alongside regular districts or will they be more like extractors that count towards other tile districts leveling up?” – Glasscannon [/p]

[p]Yes! Anomaly districts are subject to the same rules as all other districts, except they must be built on anomalies exploited by a foundation. These districts will therefore level up, helping adjacent districts do the same while doubling the anomaly's gains. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 18[/p]

[p]“What are some features you wish to see added/changed on the diplomacy UI? Trading science, resources, dust, units, or even heroes?” – Glasscannon [/p]

[p]I don’t really want more features, I want more personality. I want the diplomacy system to offer interesting choices, but it feels too Boolean right now. For example, I think we are too quick to have the AI refuse to take a deal. For the right price ALMOST anything should be possible. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 19[/p]

[p]“Will hero equipment be added to the trading post? Right now you can purchase resources and heroes themselves, but any plans to add normal units and/or hero equipment?” – Glasscannon [/p]

[p]We talked about this and decided not to. We plan on having techs that gift some equipment but want the main source to be the world. Still, it might be fun but probably not for release. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 20[/p]

[p]“How are the hero load out screens being recieved? Anything you are looking to add or change?” – Glasscannon [/p]

[p]There are a lot of small quality of life changes we want to make here, especially around the equipment screen. Earlier this week I saw a player who thought there was a bug because he couldn’t equip anything because he didn’t realize you have to either double-click or drag and drop the equipment to get it to work. So, we made a change in this month’s update so that a single click equips and unequips. Little things like that. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 21[/p]

[p]“Can you give us any teasers for the next faction? Perhaps a unique twist like how Last Lords do not use food or how Necrophage morph their units?”- Glasscannon [/p]

[p]Maybe I already did? 😉 [/p][p]Also, on a personal note, I see your name all the time as I go through the bug reports. I really appreciate you taking the time to enter the issues you run into and commenting on other bugs too when you see common issues. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 22[/p]

[p]“Are any new mechanics planned to be introduced to reduce end game fatigue, an issue which has plagued 4X games left, right and centre? Or do you believe EL2's current dev scope is sufficient to address this issue?”– Pelinth [/p]

[p]I think the main cause of game fatigue is from the escalating number of decisions a player has to make per turn as the game goes on. It’s one of the reasons we have a fairly aggressive city limit and mechanics that discourage unit spam. [/p][p][/p][p]We currently have a fairly good “end game” rate (which is unusual for 4x, the dark secret is that few players ever finish a game). But this is mostly due to the fact that we let winning players win early instead of forcing them to go to the end turn or spend 100 turns marching across the map. [/p][p][/p][p]But we can always be better and we are planning to add a popup when you quit the game to ask you why you are quitting. Is it because real life calls? Because you think you have won or lost and don’t want to play through the inevitable? Because you are bored? Or because you are overwhelmed with all the decisions? [/p][p]I apologize in advance for the fact that you will get this question in game. There will be a checkbox in the popup to never see it again if it annoys you. But the information it is attempting to gather is to tell us if we are good here, or where we need to focus. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 23[/p]

[p]“Gameplay-wise, a point of frustration for me is movement. It si very difficult (emotionally) to play any faction but the necrophages, because I cannot quickly get from one point to another. Later in the game, I can navigate quite well in my territory due to advanced roads, but as soon as I step outside, it becomes a slog. In Endless Space 2, for example, we have a consistent way to increase movement points as the game progresses, but also at some point of research and hero progress, we can have fleets lead by explorers who can travel remarkably far in the empty space. [/p][p]Is slow movement a point of consideration, are there any plans to add late-game mobility? [/p][p]“I think the rifts were supposed to address it in part, but the AI keeps closing them, they don't work outside of monsoons, and the cooldown on the teleportation makes it very hard to jump more than once or twice per monsoon. I would really like some consistent end-game mobility options outside of our territory”- Tema726 [/p]

[p]We haven’t been too worried about slow movement. There is already equipment and hero skills to boost movement. And we want some friction when you are outside your borders to give advantage to players who own those lands. We don’t want you to be able to rush through chokepoints too quickly and want you to feel like you are risking something by having your army deep in unconquered territory when your capital is attacked. [/p][p][/p][p]But we are looking at making smaller scale movement easier. Specifically, in being able to pass through allied or neutral units. [/p][p][/p][p]Question 24[/p]

[p]“I want to ask about the reinforces in battle. I loved how this system worked in Humankind, and I was wondering if there is some posibility to include something similar here (I know it might be hard since in Humankind in battle turns and map turns were synced; I cant remember if it was 3 battle turns for each map turn; nevertheless, I really miss it)” – MiyuEditor [/p]

[p]Yeah, we are thinking about options. I made a post about it last month and it’s a pet peeve of mine as well. But we don’t currently have a good solution. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 25[/p]

[p]“How many croissants does the team eat per day? Which is the most popular croissant? Will there be an ES3?” – Do_You_Like_Owls [/p]

[p]I think they are legally required to eat at least 1 per day here in France. And they told me berets were mandatory when I first arrived but it was a LIE! Everyone’s favorite croissants are free croissants. [/p][p][/p][p]As we got close to Early Access I started talking about ways to celebrate it with the team. I asked about having a high school marching band come through the office playing music, beating drums and making a spectacle. A former company I had worked with (in America) had done it and everyone seemed to love it. They looked at me with HORROR when I mentioned the idea. They said, to the French, this would be torture, and they suggested I just order a bunch of pastries for everyone instead. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 26[/p]

[p]“Are we going to get some UI improvement that makes finding repairable villages easier? Same for extractors sometimes.” - Icy-Dragonfruit-8649 [/p]

[p]Yes! In the current build whenever you are in city mode you get pins over extractors and ruined villages. Clicking on them queues up the extractor/repair automatically. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Question 27[/p]

[p]“How frequently does the art team seem high? How often does the dev team day-drink? The art team obviously has vivid nightmares, do you know which are their favourite nightmares they've had? How many of the team have slept with one another? (Ballpark guess if the number is too high...) What was the most hilarious thing to happen at your last staff party and are there pictures? Who consistently tells the worst jokes on the team? What's the latest gossip that's made its full round through the company so far that, like a game of "telephone", it's become it's own strange twisted completely inaccurate beast? Will the marketing team engage in actual cannibalism if you tell us what the 6th faction is? How many times as the director have you wanted to put two team members in a cage fight to-the-death just to see who would win?”– Dalakaar [/p]

[p]This is my first job in France, I’d worked in America my whole life both in and out of the gaming industry. Amplitude is an amazing open and professional company. I haven’t witnessed any craziness, but when we all go out to celebrate a lot of drinking is done (but compared to the British we are just amateurs). As far as I can tell none of the things you ask about is true (except that everyone in Marketing are absolutely cannibals, though I think it’s more a religious than dietary thing). [/p][p]
We have had a few staff parties with live music and dancing, and people get up to dance together. No one talks about work at these parties and they look at me weirdly when I try to. [/p][p][/p][p]Hilarious thing at a staff party? We played a game at a staff retreat. Everyone was given a target (their prey) and a crazy thing they had to get that target to do. If you did this the target was “killed” and you collected their target and activity. The person that collected the most won. [/p][p]We had all weekend to do it. EL2’s lead producer Augustin had an impossible one. He had drawn my name and his activity was “get him to sing”. Remember, I just like to talk about work and video games at these parties, and I’m the last person you could imagine breaking into song. He was doomed. [/p][p]But he had an idea. I was just starting to learn French at this point and Augustin enlisted a coworker to help him. They came over and made polite conversation before asking how my French lessons were going. We talked about it, I said I was working on it, but struggling. And they mentioned that a good way to learn the language was to learn songs in the language. They sang a little song in French, and suggested I follow along. After a few prompts form both of them I did, and I was “killed”. [/p][p]Someday I will have my revenge! [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 28[/p]

[p]“what was are your favourite factions from the first EL and did that favourtism impact any of the newer factions in a way?” – Dalakaar [/p]

[p]The Broken Lords were my favorite faction in EL1 but they were always going to be in EL2, so I didn’t have anything to do with that. But I loved Horatio in ES2 so one thing I really wanted was to have a Horatio you might encounter somewhere in the world and we were able to add him. [/p][p]Outside of that every faction was given to a different designer to make sure they all had a very distinct and different feel. They were usually paired with the designers of features that faction was built around. The Necrophage were given to the design of the battle system, The Tahuk to the narrative designer, etc. And they all did great jobs. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 29[/p]

[p]“Will you change/add more global achievements. Can't remember what they're called, but the 25 district in a city and such. Having them as the same 12, with necrophages usually claiming about half in my games, makes it... samey? I guess. I quite liked how they worked in ES2, where the non wonder ones where random.” - ArgoTheSpaceShip [/p]

[p]You probably mean the Deeds. Probably not before release, maybe after. Right now there are so many objectives, quests and notifications that we are a lot more focused on making sure the ones we have are better paced, fun to pursue and rewarded appropriately than adding more types. [/p][p] [/p][p]Question 30[/p]

[p]“Addendum on necrophages. Why can they eat your land when in a non aggresion pact? Seems pretty aggressive to me.” - ArgoTheSpaceShip [/p]

[p]Because they are dirty cheaters. We have a bug for this that we need to fix. As well as the AI being mad at you when you start to devour their lands as the Necrophage. [/p][p][/p][h3]Thank you for Reading [/h3][p][/p][p]For a final little sneak peek into what it’s like working at Amplitude we had a modeling class for our artists this week. In the class we took them away from their precious computers and gave them clay so they could physically touch their art while learning and improving their skills. They also had a lot of fun. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Now I’m off to go beg the Marketing team to not promote this post by having a picture of a Gorog using my head as a loincloth. [/p][p][/p][p]\[Community Team: Challenge Accepted 😁][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]The coms team is taking back control here 🔥[/p][p]Last week, we released our latest major update, Echoes of Creation 😮[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]You can reach HERE all the details, but here are the main highlights[/p]

[p]🎨 Custom Factions[/p]
[p]🏗 District View[/p]
[p]🎃 Endless Monsoon[/p]
[p]🤖 AI improvements[/p]
[p]😎 and much more > Take a look at the section "Special Mentions"[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]Have a nice day ^-^[/p]