Siberian Dawn News

Today is the day we have all been waiting for as the road to 5.0 reaches its destination and the update that I have been talking about for a while is now live.

I have covered in detail the content of this update in 3 "5.0 The Final Approach" news posts on here so check them out if you want to find out more, but I have included below a list of the changes taken from the Update Log in game.

Hope you all enjoy the new additions to the game and any feedback is appreciated, which can be posted here or in the 5.0 Discussion thread.

Winterflood


- Siberian Dawn 5.0 Update / 24th November 2022 -
● Added in the Graphics section of the Options menu a button to adjust
the brightness level of the game
● Current Round number is now displayed within a mission and Mission
briefings will show the Average Time in Rounds to complete a Mission
● 3 new V Missions added to the base game that are full missions using all
the Union and Guild cards previously not available in base game
● Skirmish Mode added to game and this is a mode where missions are
played against a Round timer and the Objective is to kill a set Rank
worth of Hostile enemies based on the Skill level being played
● Skirmish Mode displays on the briefing screen the best time taken
to complete that Skirmish at the chosen Skill level
● Added the ARK to Siberian Dawn, and in this section are several
clusters that can be unlocked with ARK points, and contain content
pods that hold information and artwork for most of the cards in
the game and other mysteries to discover
● ARK points are now displayed in the ARK and Overseer Data
● Added Echoes to the ARK, which if activated will give the option to
replace the All Systems Normal event with an event to pay for Glory
● Added Nemesis to the ARK, which can be activated when a Boss is killed
in Skirmish Mode to add a Nemesis card to a mission, which when killed
will give 16 ARK points
● Removed the need on PC to own Mission Pack 1 to play Mission Pack 2
● Optimised organisation of sprites to improve game transitions
● Altered artwork for Peacock card to make it fit better with other Animus
Guild cards and also adjusted the brightness on some other cards to
make them a closer match with the others
● Expanded load warning to now include Skirmish missions and menu
● Various corrections to game text and code to improve the game

With 5.0 just around the corner filled with lots of lovely new content and all the updates I have brought to the game since its release in 2018 it has been a bit of a labour of love you could say, and now is your chance to nominate Siberian Dawn for just such an award if you agree.

Just a short news update today to say Siberian Dawn is in the Steam Autumn sale along with the 2 DLC packs and also to give big news that might be of interest to some of you for when the 5.0 update will launch.


[h2]5.0 Update Release Date
[/h2]

Currently doing the final testing on the update, searching for any extra features that shouldn’t be in the game. Added all the ARK content pods mentioned in the last news post, along with a few extras, bringing that total to 89 pods for the 5.0 release, so plenty to keep players interested.

Didn’t want to release the update when the Autumn sale started as the store goes a bit crazy at that time so the release date, subject to any circumstances outside my control, will be Thursday 24th November.

Not long to go and I hope you all enjoy what 5.0 adds to Siberian Dawn.

Winterflood

[h2]Intro[/h2]

And so we come to the third part of our final approach to the release of 5.0, which is on course for this month, and this time I am going to focus on the ARK, the big button that has been sitting at the bottom of the main menu for a few years tempting us with the mystery of just what it holds.





[h2]ARK Points
[/h2]
Right from when the game released back in 2018 if we finished a mission we were rewarded with up to 5 Stars for our performance but what wasn’t known was that we were also rewarded with ARK points. The amount of ARK points we got from succeeding at a Mission was based on the number of Stars earned multiplied by the Skill level we had played the mission at, so if we got 3 Stars from a Mission we could have earned between 3 and 15 ARK points depending on the Skill level chosen. With 5.0 the total ARK points we have earned will be shown in the ARK and also on the Overseer Profile.


[h2]Meta Game
[/h2]
So what is the ARK and what does it bring to Siberian Dawn? In the previous 2 Final Approaches I mentioned how we need to win Mission V3 to unlock the ARK and how beating a Boss in Skirmish mode unlocked the Nemesis in the ARK and these are examples of how the ARK stretches over the whole game to give the Meta game.

Playing Siberian Dawn is like we are playing the memories of the Overseer going through these missions over and over uncovering the past but with recollections changing slightly with repeat play. The ARK is an extension of these memories giving us ways to alter our memories and also offering clusters of these memories to unlock.





[h2]The Memory Clusters
[/h2]
The main portion of the ARK is made up of Clusters containing several content pods that can be unlocked using ARK points, although some will be already open for free. These content pods will vary in what is inside but with 5.0 these will be Lore for the game, so will take a card from the game and show the original painting for the card along with where we can find the card and a narrative text about it. I have nearly finished adding these into the game for all the character cards in Siberian Dawn and this will come to 84 unique content pods, so a lot of content to be unlocked with playing the game.





[h2]Echoes
[/h2]
The other type of content in the ARK are things that modify the game and this is where the Echoes come in. Turning on Echoes replaces the "All Systems Normal" event with an Echo event where we are given the choice to pay 2 ARK points to gain 8 Glory or just resolve it as an "All Systems Normal" event where nothing happens. Echoes let us get a helping hand in the mission and as this will always be the first event in a Mission we can get an early boost, and they are more likely to be drawn again at lower skill levels. So if we want to get that elusive 5 Star ranking or get a better time in a Skirmish then Echoes could help for a price of ARK points.


[h2]Nemesis[/h2]

And the final feature that the ARK adds with 5.0 is the Nemesis. When we defeat a Boss in Skirmish mode their Nemesis will be unlocked in the ARK, and if we activate Nemesis mode then one of the Nemesis we have unlocked could turn up in a Mission or Skirmish. When we then kill a Nemesis we will earn 16 ARK points along with the normal Glory for killing a unit. A trophy wall is also contained in the Nemesis section of the ARK where it will show all the Nemesis we have unlocked and the number of times we have killed them.



And there we have the ARK, a big addition to the game that offers you ways to change the game or to unlock content relating to the lore of Siberian Dawn. Post 5.0 the ARK could expand as new content is added but there is a considerable amount there when it opens. I could have decided to only do a few content pods covering a handful of cards but thought it was better to try and get all of the character cards in there with 5.0 regardless of how many there were, I just wasn’t expecting 84 at that point, but I am nearly there.

The ARK adds a lot of replay value to the game and to unlock all the content could be over 50 hours. So that ends the coverage of what is coming in 5.0. I hope you are all getting excited about these additions and that you enjoy playing Siberian Dawn when it gets this update soon.

Winterflood

[h2]Intro[/h2]

Continuing our final approach to the release of 5.0, in a few weeks time, today I wanted to focus on the second big addition to Siberian Dawn in the 5.0 update, a new game mode called Skirmish that brings a few different things to the way a mission works.


[h2]An Idea
[/h2]

Normally each Mission is made from a fixed set of defined Objectives that tell the narrative of that Mission. The first time we discover an Objective we have that surprise and possible change of the tactics we were using at that point but, reflecting the memory theme in the game, every time we replay the mission we now have this memory of what came before. During a Mission we will be playing through this set of Objectives and they could be widely divergent in what we have to do, but always fitting the narrative.

With Skirmish mode I wanted to present a way of playing the game that had simpler Objectives, with a clearer goal from the start and more of a focus on combat. Initially this was going to be a set of dynamic objectives that changed as we went through the mission but this was going to be too random and chaotic, so that idea got scrapped when a much more simpler idea was struck upon.


[h2]Skirmish Mode
[/h2]

Skirmish mode is a game variant for Siberian Dawn that uses the standard mission structure we already know well but with 2 very important changes. The first change is that there is only 1 Objective, and this will always be the same for any Skirmish, to kill X Rank worth of Hostile units. The second change is we are up against the clock and only have 30 Rounds to complete the Objective.

With the objective of killing X Rank of Hostile units this is not having to kill a set number of Hostile units but a Rank total. Using Rank as a target we are given the choice of killing lots of lower Rank units or maybe going for fewer of the tougher higher Rank ones to get to the target. There is also the additional twist that if we have a unit killed their Rank is deducted from our progress, so we have to watch how we treat our higher ranking units as losing them will be costly.

The time limit of 30 Rounds gives a new challenge to the Skirmish mode because this is a defined end, we still have the normal way of losing a mission if Vitae hits 0, but with the addition of a time limit we now have the pressure of getting to the target kills in time. Whichever skill level we are playing at the time limit will always be 30 Rounds but the target value of Rank kills will change so we can pick our challenge level. We will also be shown on the briefing screen what our best time record was at each skill level.

The base game will come with 2 Skirmish missions and each DLC Mission pack will add an extra one. These Skirmish will be built from the cards of the set of missions they are based on so each Skirmish will be a different challenge with a distinct group of Hostile units and events. There is also Skirmish 0 which is a Skirmish that is built from all content we own, so every mission mixed together in an epic Skirmish.


[h2]An Extra Challenge
[/h2]

And the final surprise that each Skirmish mission holds is the Bosses. Every Skirmish will have 2 unique Boss cards of which 1 will be randomly selected towards the end of the Skirmish based on skill level. These Boss cards are powerful Rank 8 cards, so will add a lot to our progress at a vital point if we can take them out, but they might be better to avoid if we are close to our target. Killing one of these Bosses not only gives us the Rank reward but will also unlock their Nemesis variant, which we will cover in Part 3.



So Skirmish gives us a simpler alternative game to the normal Missions but provides a number of additional mechanics that make it still a very challenging addition to Siberian Dawn. We will also still be getting stars awarded for our performance so getting that perfect 5 stars and completing the goal is another challenge all together. But you might be thinking what is so important about these stars, well that will become clearer in the next part of our final approach as we uncover the ARK and the big additions that brings to Siberian Dawn.

Winterflood