Siberian Dawn News

Over the first few month of this year I have been reflecting on what I am doing and looking at the big wall of negativity standing in front of Siberian Dawn that has existed since day one.

In the real world I have been working on this game on my own for the last 6 years in my spare time as I also look after my elderly mother who can’t get out, so especially at the moment my priority is 1,00 times more towards looking after her, as I am the only person she has to do this, than worrying about the wall of negativity.

So to put it simply I am not worried about the negativity on the game as it is not really important in my world. There are people who are not going to like this game, who seem to be the most vocal, but there are plenty of games out there that will appeal to them. I could spend months making changes to try to make them like the game and still have other people not like something I have done, and I expect their negative opinions will still sit on the game regardless of what changes I make. They posted their opinions and moved on elsewhere now so why should I expect them to return at some point?

Some who have played the free base game have said about simplifying the game and removing a lot of the stuff in it, but there are others who have paid for both expansions and I believe are enjoying the game so why should I then take parts of the game away from these people who have invested in it for a reason. I am focusing on positives for the game and how I can add not subtract from it, and if I change big parts of the game it would not be the same game any more and I might as well have made a new game instead.

During the last few months I have returned to my novel writing and continuing the series I started with the Last Mask Tradition but haven’t been able to do much on with working on Siberian Dawn, and I have also been working on a sequel to Siberian Dawn that will be another deep game, which will probably overwhelm the majority of people, but I don’t do simple as there is plenty of that out there already.

With Siberian Dawn I have also decided to scrap the Campaign mode as I don’t think it would offer enough of a different experience than just playing the missions on their own. But I have been working on a replacement mode called Crisis which uses a Rouge-Like structure and gives the player something different from playing the missions. Still a lot to do with it but I think it will be a significant addition that will give a lot of replay value to the game.

So I am not worried about the wall of negativity or people who this game is not right for, and instead I am focusing on keeping things positive and concentrating on what is really most important. It is up to you if you want to keep adding bricks to the wall of negativity or instead be positive, but I am not letting it drag me down any more.

[h2]Introduction[/h2]
Today Siberian Dawn receives it biggest update so far with the release of version 3.0 “The End Of The World Update?” giving you some big game updates along with the release of Mission Pack 2 with 3 new full Missions that complete chapter 1 of the Siberian Dawn story. Below I cover the changes 3.0 brings and what is in the Mission Pack 2 DLC, which is available now in store.


[h2]Fate Helix Sub Hub Added
[/h2]
Where previously you had to either have Overseer game sense or a piece of paper to judge what fates had been drawn from each pile of fate cards now there is a handy Fate Helix Data Sub Hub available. When you have to pick a Fate deck to draw from you will now also get a pod showing “?” and clicking on this will bring up the Sub Hub, or you can open this at any time from the Data Hub.

You will find in the Fate Helix Sub Hub two tables. The one on the left shows you the contents of each Fate deck and the values of all the cards in that deck, and the table on the right shows you all the Fate draws from each deck since that deck was shuffled. So you can now see what you have drawn since a reshuffle and using the other table what you could expect to draw. This brings a new tactical edge to the game and also gives a clearer picture of how the Fate mechanic works in Siberian Dawn. You can of course continue to play with just you game sense and not click on the “?” the choice is yours.


[h2]Status Cards Have Act Ability Added
[/h2]
At the start of a Mission you had very little to do in the Tactics phase until you deployed a unit but now each of the 4 Status Tactics cards now has an Act ability that will give you one of the resources in the game for the cost of C equal to the card Rank, 1 or 2.

Focus will give you 1 Ü in the Bank, Cover will give you 1 Vitae, Withdraw will give you 1 Glory, and Heavy Cover will give you 1 Influence on each flank. This expansion of the Status Tactics cards gives you new choices in the early game for increasing your resources but also offers a dilemma latter for using these card for the resource gain or the tactical option.


[h2]Threat Glows Red When Modified
[/h2]
The Threat Level track will now flash red when it has been modified to give you a clearer indication that there has been a change in the Threat.

[h2]Union Heroes Upgrade
[/h2]
The two Union hero units, Rank 7, had abilities that worked while they were in your hand and not deployed which wasn’t very useful, and they really needed to be more powerful units. So now Voetov has gained Shield instead of his making Union units cheaper to buy when he was drawn, and Secka has gained a new ability called Force instead of the Flock ability she previously had, which works in a similar way but at the start of each Round she gives +1 C for matching Bloc symbols with other deployed Union units.

[h2]Litalis Cards Upgraded
[/h2]
Each Guild in the game has a mechanic speciality, Animus is Flock, Conscientia is Draw, and Silentium is Echo, but the Letalis Guild didn’t have a clear speciality. Now they have their abilities based on the current Threat Level and the higher the Threat the more they will give you from their abilities making them far more interesting than previously and also giving you a new tactical decision for reaping a greater reward if you can handle a higher Threat Level.

[h2]Strategist Fixed
[/h2]
Fixed Strategist bug for if she was dropped as the last card in hand and she still activated her redraw ability. She always draws cards equal to those left in hand not including Strategist so the game now displays her drop action as with no effect if she was the last card in hand.

[h2]Mission Pack 2 Added
[/h2]
Mission Pack 2 gives you the second 3 Missions of the Siberian Dawn story, completing the first chapter of this tale. These missions bring a unique set of objectives to be completed that will push your strategic abilities to new levels beyond what has come before. With new cards, hostile units, and challenges for each Mission this pack takes Siberian Dawn and the Lore Engine to the next level.

The fight against the Dawn in IH54 comes to a conclusion with this update and the fate of the Union and Siberian Dawn is now in your hands.

Will this be the end of the world or the start of a new dawn?

Currently testing the new missions for Siberian Dawn and you can expect these to arrive in the next few weeks along with a number of additions to improve the game, and here are the highlights of what you can expect to see with 3.0


The four Status Tactics cards will each gain an Act ability with 3.0 that will let you use Command points to increase one of your other resource values, giving you more options in the mission for using Command and adding early mission choices for the Tactics phase when you don’t have any deployed units.


When you have to pick a Fate with 3.0 you will be able to open the Fate Helix sub hub and see a table showing the cards in each Fate pack, and also get a history of the previous draws for each Fate deck from the last shuffle. This will also be available on the front screen of the Overseer Data sub hub to view at any time.


The Threat Level track in 3.0 will flash red whenever it is modified to make a change more clearer.


Mission Pack 2 will be added with 3.0 giving you 3 new missions that cover the final half of Chapter 1.


And finally, with 3.0 Siberian Dawn will also be available on Android, with the same content released on PC at that point.

So if the testing goes smoothly 3.0 should be with you soon.

In the discussions I started a new thread today talking about feedback for the game for those interested in the future of the game and its current state.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/922880/discussions/0/1636416951447570744/

A short bit of new about another big addition to training

This update gives you a 4th tutorial that shows you some of the important things that the Core game adds to Siberian Dawn, including Anarchy and the Bond system. The tutorial also shows you some of the more powerful units you can use.

Now on to finishing the Android version, so any feedback is welcome.