Songs of Conquest News

Important note
Due to internal serialization changes, some of the (mainly) campaign saves will be invalidated with this version. Either restart the map or use our new Beta branch called 0-90-classic- version to solve this!



Greetings, Wielders!

Lavapotion is back from our winter holidays, and we couldn’t be more excited! 2024 promises to be a very interesting year for us and for Songs of Conquest.

As we draw closer to the 1.0 release (date to be announced soon-ish), our updates will focus more on fixing issues and polishing our game than on releasing new features. After all, we don’t want to bring you something broken! There are some very interesting exceptions to this rule, but we don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Not every update can be a world-shaking phenomenon. Despite that, we are proud to introduce Initiative Improved! It might not be our biggest one yet, but it still brings quite a few things to the table.

They bring faey things to the table instead

This wasn’t the first initiative rework we’ve done, and it might not be the last. These tweaks and changes are, after all, the bread and butter of strategy games like this. It's all an intricate web. Most units have had their initiative changed in one way or another. We hope you discover this in the best ways!

Those Pikeneers wish they had a Wielder backing them up!

Improving AI behaviors sometimes means giving them firm guidance, especially in Campaign maps, for example. Creating tools for this makes it easier for everyone.
Waypoint behavior is a handy instrument for when you want the enemy Wielders to behave in a certain way in your carefully crafted maps. It's perfect for when you want that imposing adversary to walk to a specific place!

Take this as a sign to learn our Map Editor!

Our AI keeps learning, and now it is better than ever at using portals and settlements as a way to get out of harm's way when faced against unsurpassable odds. Sometimes charging straight into a powerful force just isn’t the smartest thing to do after all.

Always remember to pack your holy hand grenade!

There are many more things in the works. For example, we are currently reworking our campaigns, making difficulty adjustments and fixes. After all, our game has changed a lot during the year, and some of the campaign missions have gotten a bit harder than intended because of AI improvements. These changes are made based on your awesome feedback, so thank you!
We look forward to sharing more news with you soon. There are a lot of interesting things in the pixelated pipeline.

Turn to Conquest, Wielders; it is going to be a great year!

/Everyone at Lavapotion


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Greetings Wielders!

It's that time of the year, folks! The moment when we all take a breather from the daily grind, ditch the office desks, bid farewell to school benches, and momentarily escape the clutches of factories. Why? Well, it differs from person to person, but for us? To gaze proudly at our Indie games roadmap and flex a bit!

For Lavapotion, 2023 has been quite the journey. While much has unfolded behind the scenes, we thought it'd be fitting to share what we've been up to. Let's dive into the nitty-gritty of our progress and see what we have done!

This year saw the introduction of a new campaign, significant AI enhancements, and the inclusion of gamepad support, among other things. We've been hard at work, and we're excited to fill you in on the details.

Spoiler: It's a lot

Back in April, we launched our third Song, the Barony of Loth campaign. The Necromancy-themed faction finally got a chance to tell their side of the story. During the campaign, we learned not just why they fight and who they are but also a loth about rats. We got to follow the troubled Baron Aldus but also meet the mysterious Unseen Society.

He wants to bring back the old days, and he means it VERY literally.

Let's look at the AI! Significant strides have been made in enhancing its capabilities. Our AI has become quite the scholar, now proficient in more spell combinations, and quicker pathing, and it utilizes portals. It's like we've given it a crash course in wizardry!

But that's not all. The AI has also adopted a multitasking approach, assigning different roles to various Wielders. And remember that agonizing wait between turns? Fear not! The AI now breezes through its turns a lot faster, sparing you the nail-biting anticipation.

The AI now has a few more tricks up its sleeve. It’s not as cool when the spell “Swap” happens to you as when you do it to the AI!

With each update, we're committed to fine-tuning and improving the AI experience. The journey doesn't end at 1.0—heck, we’ll keep going beyond that. We want to give you an opponent that feels not just challenging enough but downright surprising and innovative. Because, let's face it, where's the fun without a worthy adversary?

This year we also introduced Sim turns to speed up multiplayer games. And if that wasn’t enough we also made sure that you can explore the map and manage your resources and settlements while others are occupied in battle.

It's futile, but you would probably attack anyway you brave lunatic!

The game recently gained the addition of Achievements, something that a lot of you have been looking forward to! There are 54 of them right now out there for you to earn, but beware, some of them are outright tricky.

What should have earned us an achievement of our very own was the nomination for best 2D visual during the Unity Awards. We didn’t win but being up there with such names as Dave the Diver and Cult of the Lamb is humbling in a good way!

Marvel Snap won this year, but we’ll get them next time!

This year has been good for all map lovers out there! We have put a lot of effort into improving and adding features to the Random Map Generator (or RMG). We’ve stamped out bugs and added options for starting positions and important themes like rain and music. We know a lot of you play on RMG and you deserve our very best.

There has also been a bunch of new Conquest maps, ready for everything between two to six players. We can’t wait to show you our biggest one yet, but we have to leave something for next year as well.

It’s massively important, a huge deal. You get the picture.

While we could talk endlessly about the exciting developments, we can't wrap this up without delving into our modding news. We released a new mod resource website designated for the modders and level designers in our creative community. The brand new custom Robin Hood campaign was released at the same time, to fully showcase our tools and what you can do with them.

Embarking on your journey as a storyteller with Songs of Conquest has never been more accessible. The stage is set, the tools are in your hands, and the possibilities are boundless. Ready to weave your narrative magic? Let the modding adventures begin!

Your creations could be right here alongside Robin Hood, isn’t that cool?

We normally end with us telling you to read the changelog to delve deeper into what we’ve done, but on an endeavor like this it’s hard, you’d have to read through a lot of text since we have been very busy.

So instead we will just wish you the absolute best, and we can’t wait to show you what's still in the works. The year 2024 will be great for Songs of Conquest and we hope that you will be along for the ride.

Turn to Conquest everyone, you’ve earned it.

It’s the festive season at the office! Some of the team members are missing but that’s most of us!

/Everyone at Lavapotion

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It's nearly the holidays, which means some of you might be looking for something to play on your Steam Deck while you're away visiting family. The choice just got a little harder: beautiful early access tactics game Songs Of Conquest and clever fantasy citybuilder Against The Storm are both now Steam Deck verified.

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Greetings Wielders!

We're thrilled to share some fantastic news! We've not only fine-tuned controls but are now proudly sporting the Steam Deck Verified badge! Your invaluable feedback played a crucial role in refining our controls, ensuring we passed every one of Valve's tests.

We are proud of every single thing on this list!

We have worked closely with our friends at Bitwave to get this verification, they are experts in the field, and working together with them has made this process a lot faster than if we had tried it alone.

There's been a complete overhaul of controls and menus, ensuring native integration with Steam Deck and gamepad controls. A major part of this includes adding a large-font UI, guaranteeing no awesome dialogue or tooltip goes unnoticed.

In the game of fonts, we play to win, bigger is better!

We've also introduced new tooltips specifically designed for Steam Deck. Due to our traditional mouse interaction, as within most strategy games, we have added a new control scheme. Making it easy and natural to move your precious Wielders across maps and through their adventures.

However, fixing menus and D-pad control settings hasn't been the only challenge. To ensure the game runs smoothly on your Steam Deck, we've done significant tweaking and optimization, benefiting the game as a whole! For example, we've streamlined terrain rendering and implemented a battery-saving system.

And do you need to bother with all these cool and improved settings? Of course not! We've ensured that the optimal settings are set as defaults the first time you start our game on your sleek machine. After all, we want you to play it as soon as you can!

Now you can really play our game wherever you are!

Adapting a game for that precious Verified check box involves a ton of considerations. While the entire list is too long to mention here, our focus has been on making sure the game feels as fun to play on the Steam Deck as it does on PC and Mac, and we truly believe we've succeeded! But if you want to read that before-mentioned cool list, there will of course be a link just below.

So enough words, get out there, and bring your Steam Deck to that family event! Instead of awkward small-talk with relatives you hardly know, you can lead armies and cast powerful spells, literally in the palms of your hands.

Turn to Conquest Wielders and have an awesome day!

A very proud Lavapotion Gang and our Bitwave Friends!

https://www.songsofconquest.com/changelogsteamdeck

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