Countryballs: Power Protocol News

[h3]Fixes & Stability[/h3][p][/p]

• [p]Resolved a bug in the battle system that caused the tutorial to hang and prevented it from finishing.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p]Our small team continues to improve game stability - even during the weekends!
Thank you for your amazing feedback![/p][p]Please share any other issues or suggestions you notice - your feedback helps us make Countryballs even better![/p]

[p]New Features[/p]

• [p]Expanded Timed Events: We’ve added a ton of new timed events across both Chapter and Default modes. Each one brings fresh surprises, strategic choices, and new ways to earn rewards.[/p]
• [p]Shift + Click Combo: You can now use Shift + Left Click to instantly max-upgrade armies or buildings, or buy all available units or structures in one action. A true time-saver![/p]
• [p]Gameplay Tips System: Brand-new tips now appear on loading screens and during gameplay, offering helpful advice for newcomers and uncovering hidden mechanics for veteran players.[/p]

[p]Reworks & Major Changes[/p]

• [p]Revolt Mechanic Reworked: The revolt system, based on religion, has been completely redesigned. It’s now more balanced, reliable, and immersive. Failed revolts will also reduce part of the religious influence, creating a more dynamic world.[/p]
• [p]Army Screen Revamp: We’ve refreshed the entire army unit view for better readability.[/p]
• [p]Main Menu Overhaul: The main menu received a full visual and functional makeover, with interactive screens and new animations. Just check it out and try to find all new features and Easter eggs.[/p]
• [p] Revamped Config System - We’ve completely reworked the internal config structure that controls game mechanics. This brings smoother performance, faster loading, and a much more stable experience overall.[/p]
• [p]Fresh Sound Additions - Added a huge batch of new sound effects across menus, buttons, and views, making every click and action feel more alive and responsive![/p]

[p]Localization & Accessibility[/p]

• [p]Added new terms localizations for multiple languages.[/p]
• [p]Fixed various translation issues to make the experience smoother for all players.[/p]
• [p]Added achievement tracking improvements to recognize earlier steps toward completion.[/p]

[p]Improvements & Balancing[/p]

• [p]Rebalanced all timed event durations and rewards for both Chapter and Default modes to create smoother progression and more exciting pacing.[/p]
• [p]Enhanced contrasts and visual clarity throughout the UI for a cleaner and more enjoyable experience.[/p]

[h3]Fixes & Stability[/h3]

• [p]Timed Events Fixed - A critical issue after loading a save could trigger instant game over or massive money boosts. This is now fully resolved, ensuring fair and consistent progression.[/p]
• [p]Dashboard Display Fixes - Fixed several issues where the main dashboard sometimes failed to properly update certain views. Everything now refreshes smoothly and reliably.[/p]
• [p]Production buildings – Fixed several problems in game map creating and loading, that could lead to dysfunctional production system.[/p]
• [p]Covered some situations, when you could start or load chapters mode from default game[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]Our small team keeps pushing forward to make every update feel alive and rewarding.
Thank you for your amazing feedback and continued support - you make this journey worth it![/p][p]
Please comment your requests, ideas, and suggestions on how we can keep improving the game. Every bit of feedback helps us make Countryballs even better! [/p]

[p]New Features[/p]

• [p]Keyboard Shortcuts for Everything: We’ve added full keybind support for all in-game interactions! You can now customize every control to fit your playstyle in the new Keybind Settings Menu.[/p]

[p]Gameplay Changes[/p]

• [p]Hard Difficulty Reworked: A complete overhaul of hard difficulty for both the base game and Chapters Mode, offering a much tougher and more strategic experience, for those who love a real challenge. Hard mode now offers smarter AI, tougher starts, and more intense strategic decisions - crafted for our hardcore players who asked for it![/p]

[p]Improvements[/p]

• [p]Chapters Mode Generation: Major improvements to how each chapter is created. Player and colony now start with properly balanced armies, resources, and buildings. It improves players experience and game balance in Chapters Mode.[/p]
• [p]Submarine Interface & Control: Enhanced UI and UX for submarine management to make navigation and control feel more intuitive.[/p]
• [p]Army Unit Visuals: Unit images have been refreshed for clearer, more polished visuals during gameplay.[/p]
• [p]Loading screen rework: We’ve completely refreshed the loading screen with new visual effects and a wider variety of images to make waiting more enjoyable and immersive.[/p]
• [p]War Battle screen: We have improved UI clarity and visibility of all battle sides information.[/p]

[p]Fixes[/p]

• [p]Trade Missions: Fixed multiple issues with trading missions and their re-initialization after loading a save file.[/p]
• [p]World Generation Stability: Addressed world generation bugs that could lead to corrupted saves or prevent access to newly created worlds.[/p]
• [p]Submarine Duplication: Fixed a rare issue in Chapters Mode where an extra submarine could appear on the world map.[/p]
• [p]Background Music: Solved an issue that caused background tracks to stop unexpectedly - music now plays smoothly throughout your sessions.[/p]
• [p]Achievements: Fixed several achievement triggers that failed to unlock correctly. Now, all Steam achievements can be earned as intended.[/p]

[p]Other Adjustments[/p]

• [p]General stability and balance improvements across multiple systems to ensure smoother and more reliable gameplay.[/p]

[hr][/hr][p]Our small team keeps pushing hard to make Countryballs better with every update. Thank you for playing and sharing your feedback - it truly shapes the future of the game![/p]

[p]New Features[/p]

• [p]New confirmation popup when loading the last saved game - no more accidental overwrites.[/p]

[p]Fixes[/p]

• [p]Fixed a major crashes caused by the Influence system’s exceptions bugs.[/p]
• [p]Corrected building church animations in the Influence screen.[/p]
• [p]Fixed rare exceptions with some internal libraries, improving stability.[/p]
• [p]The rocket system and air defense buy buttons updates pas intended from now on.[/p]
• [p]Fixed some issues with chapters loading.[/p]
• [p]Fixed savings in Chapters Mode in some chapters.[/p]

[p]Improvements & Optimizations[/p]

• [p]Prices now display with only two digits after the decimal, for a cleaner and more polished look.[/p]
• [p]Influence screen now opens with the Benefits tab enabled by default for quicker access.[/p]
• [p]Steel popup redesigned for clearer information and a better user experience.[/p]
• [p]Country skills screen refined with improved UX for smoother navigation.[/p]

[hr][/hr][p]We’re constantly polishing the experience and listening to feedback. Thank you for playing and supporting our small team. It keeps us motivated to deliver more![/p]

[p]Country Balls – Update Changelog[/p][p]This update is one of the biggest so far. We’ve introduced a brand new Chapters Mode, made important fixes to core systems like influence, armies, and submarines, and improved overall stability and performance.[/p][p] [/p][p]New Feature: Chapters Mode[/p][p]We’re excited to introduce Chapters Mode – a new way to experience Country Balls.[/p]

• [p]Players can now pick from various themed chapters, each with its own starting date, bonuses, and country positions.[/p]
• [p]This allows for different playstyles and scenarios beyond the regular sandbox progression.[/p]
• [p]Chapters include their own initialization logic to make sure countries, armies, and influences start in the right state.[/p]

[p]Fixes and improvements to Chapters Mode:[/p]

• [p]Chapters mode is now locked until the tutorial is finished, so new players can first learn the basics.[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiple issues with saving and reloading in Chapters Mode.[/p]
• [p]Fixed initialization problems where Chapters Mode sometimes started with incorrect game state.[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues in the chapters mode that prevented proper chapter flow and decisions.[/p]
• [p]Also, fixed various issues in Chapters Mode.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Influence & Revolts[/p]

• [p]Revolts now unlock at 60% influence (previously 75%), giving earlier and correct opportunities for rebellion.[/p]
• [p]Clicking the influence slider now opens the influence screen of the country.[/p]
• [p]Fixed several bugs where influence could freeze, not update, or display incorrect values.[/p]
• [p]Red influence markers now update correctly when planning revolt actions.[/p]
• [p]After an unsuccessful revolt, 20–30% influence is removed to increase risk and prevent spam.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Resources[/p]

• [p]Fixed a major issue with colony resources.[/p]
  • [p]Now your country and colonies share a single, unified resources types.[/p]
  • [p]All modifiers apply consistently to this resource, whether it comes from the main country or its colonies.[/p]
  • [p]Previously, modifiers only applied if the main country had the resource.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Gameplay Fixes & Improvements[/p]

• [p]Armies: Fixed a bug where the main player’s armies appeared too large compared to enemy countries. They now scale correctly and initial player capacity was decreased.[/p]
• [p]Submarines:[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where submarines sometimes showed as “already purchased” even though the player did not own one.[/p]
  • [p]Fixed critical issues where submarine interactions could break the game state or block further interactions.[/p]
  • [p]You can now remove submarine targets with the right mouse button.[/p]
• [p]Rocket & Nuclear Attacks: Improved calculation logic for rocket strikes, submarine attacks, and nuclear bombs. Combat results are now more consistent and accurate.[/p]
• [p]Colonization: Fixed a bug where defeated countries could still keep their colonies after conquest.[/p]
• [p]Unit View Slider: Default position is now the middle instead of the maximum for a better player input control and automatization of buying army.[/p]
• [p]War Animation Freeze: Fixed a bug where war animations froze at the start of battles because they were waiting on unfinished background tasks. Animations now play smoothly.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Tutorial[/p]

• [p]Fixed blocking issues in the Army step and Influence step, which previously prevented players from completing the tutorial.[/p]
• [p]At the end of the tutorial, you can now choose to continue the current game or start a fresh playthrough.[/p]
• [p]Various tutorial improvements.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]User Interface & Pop-Ups[/p]

• [p]Fixed incorrect pop-up positions when events or actions triggered.[/p]
• [p]Fixed placement of the “Enjoying the Game?” pop-up.[/p]
• [p]Main menu additions:[/p]
  • [p]Added a Review title button and button to encourage sharing feedback with us via Steam reviews.[/p]
• [p]Fixed inconsistencies in rocket and missile ui values for submarines, rocket systems, and air defense.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Missions[/p]

• [p]Exploring Missions: Fixed exceptions during initialization that caused crashes and issues.[/p]
• [p]Business & Steal Missions: Fixed scaling of resource icons to prevent them from enlarging with each new pop-up.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Saving & Loading[/p]

• [p]Load Last Save: Fixed a bug where it did not always load the most recent save file or load it with some broken/invalid data.[/p]
• [p]Country Colors: Fixed an issue where countries did not display the correct colors after loading a save. Colors are now properly reassigned.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Audio[/p]

• [p]Fixed rocket sound effects so they now trigger reliably.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]News[/p]

• [p]Reduced the scrolling speed of the news ticker, making it easier to follow.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Stability & Optimization[/p]

• [p]Improved army calculations for more stable performance.[/p]
• [p]Optimized influence system handling for more stable performance.[/p]
• [p]General improvements to game stability and performance across longer playthroughs.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Localization[/p]

• [p]Fixed broken translations in certain country events.[/p]
• [p]Improved overall localization quality throughout the game.[/p]
• [p]Improved multiple localization issues across screens and pop-ups.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Final Notes[/p][p]In addition to the changes listed above, we’ve also fixed a number of smaller bugs, made UI adjustments, and added further optimizations across various systems.[/p][p]This patch should make Country Balls more stable, balanced, and enjoyable to play.[/p][p] [/p][p]P.S.[/p][p]Our small team is putting a lot of effort into making Country Balls the best experience it can be. Every update is built with care and your feedback in mind. Thank you for supporting us. It really motivates us to keep improving the game for all players. See you soon ![/p]