Expeditions Update is here!

Dear Viceroys!

We just released the 5th Early Access update titled Expeditions Update. Among all the new changes, here are the most essential ones:

• Daily Challenges (aka Daily Expeditions)
• New perks & orders
• UX improvements
• Balance changes
• And more!

You can find the full changelog below. For an in-depth overview of the major changes, please check our Update notes. 

Please consider rating Against the Storm on Metacritic if you enjoy the game and the new changes!

DEVELOPER NOTES

In this update, we mainly focused on three things: a new type of challenge for our experienced players, more variety in perks and orders, and an overall better balance. That’s why we decided to implement a new feature called Daily Expeditions, as well as add 12 new perks and 8 new orders, and completely rebalance trading.

Daily Expeditions are a new game mode you can unlock in the Smoldering City after you reach level 6 of the Obsidian Archives. Through this mode, you get a new challenge each day – a special map on one of the game’s biomes, with pre-generated embark bonuses and 3 modifiers (one positive, two negative). You can also choose the difficulty before you embark, and the rewards will scale accordingly. But fear not! We designed this feature specifically to avoid FOMO (fear of missing out) – you get the same amount of resources for an Expedition as you would for winning any other settlement built near a modifier, and there are no unique unlocks or rewards for playing this mode. 

When it comes to balance, we mainly wanted to tone down trading a bit. From what we observed and what was mentioned in the community feedback, it felt a bit too powerful and was a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card in way too many scenarios. We also spotted some inconsistencies with pricing – selling some items in the game (I’m looking at you, Pack of Trade Goods) was simply too profitable for the amount of effort and resources needed to produce them. That’s why we decided to rebalance the costs of all items in the game (perks included), and also change some of the recipes (mainly the amount and time requirements). 

We also took a look at perk balance (shoutout to Arckmage and his amazing tier list!), glades, glade events, food gathering, and more. Our aim was to make the game feel overall fairer, as well as compensate the trade nerfs with some slight buffs in other areas (mainly the number of nodes on small glades and food gathering speed). 

With the holidays season at hand, we wish you a wonderful time full of happiness and joy. And let 2022 be full of great games, unforgettable moments, and pleasant surprises. May the storm be gentle on you!

You can download the 4K version of the wallpaper and read our 2021 summary here: Happy Holidays from Eremite Games.

We also intend to take a short holiday break to recharge our batteries and fill our tummies with mush soup and pie. We’ll be a little less active, but you can always catch us on Discord. We plan to retain the bi-weekly delivery of updates but due to the break, the next one might be a little less extensive.

In the meantime, we hope that Daily Expeditions will keep you engaged and provide new experiences. Have fun!

Daily Expeditions – Score table

CHANGELOG

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.

New content and features

• ⚡ Daily Expeditions – a special challenge map generated once per day, with predefined embark bonuses, unique modifiers, and selectable difficulty. You can access Daily Expeditions after reaching level 6 of the Obsidian Archives in the Smoldering City. 
• Each day, a map is picked (on a random biome) with a set of Embark Bonuses and three Modifiers (one positive and two negatives).
• Every player has the same Daily Expedition.
• Daily Expeditions reset at 00:00 GMT.
• Added a brand new scoring system (only accessible in Expeditions), where your performance during the game is evaluated and scored after you finish the challenge. 
• Added 21 unique gameplay modifiers dedicated to Daily Expeditions.
• After winning a game, the settlement from the Daily Expedition will appear on the World Map, just like any other settlement. 
• Rewards for the Daily expedition are the same as playing any other settlement near a modifier. Rewards are granted only once a day. 
• Deeds are disabled in Daily Expeditions. 
• Added 8 new perks to the pool of Cornerstones given to the player at the beginning of the year, and 4 new perks available to buy from traders.
• Added 8 new Orders with 3 difficulty levels each.
• Added a new Deed – winning a game in the Coral Forest.
• ⚡ Changed the way the Reputation Reward Pick Upgrade works – now the additional blueprint choice is always a wildcard, and no longer belongs to the same thematic set as the other choices.
• ⚡ Added a third Trade Route to the Citadel, to make the first settlement in a Cycle a bit easier to complete. 
• ⚡ Added a new decoration – the much-awaited Fence Corner!

How to start the Daily Challenge

Balance

• ⚡ Changed prices for all items in the game – they are now based on resources used when crafting and the star grading of the recipe. This way, there should no longer be instances of converting low value ingredients into disproportionately valued items. There are too many changes to list here, but the highlights are as follows:
  • Food in general now costs more,
  • Amber is worth slightly less than before,
  • Packs of Goods (Trading Goods, Luxury Goods, Building Materials, etc.) are now sold for less,
  • Perk prices have been updated to better fit the current balance.
• ⚡ Slightly lowered the amount of goods some traders have.
• Added previously missing luxury goods to some traders (Training Gear, Manuscripts).
• Increased the amount of time traders stay in the settlement by 20 seconds. 
• Changed the Manuscript recipe – it now requires 1 Coal instead of 2.
• Infused and Simple Tool recipes now require less metal and wood.  
• Crystallized Dew no longer requires Resin.
• Packs of Trade Goods can no longer be crafted with Tools. They can now require Crystallized Dew or Copper Bars instead.
• Adjusted the amount of goods required when crafting Packs of Luxury Goods. 
• Increased the chance of dropping Mushrooms from Mushwood Trees in the Marshlands from 5% to 15%.
• ⚡ Adjusted the rewards and objectives of Orders based on need fulfillment to better fit the new service buildings introduced in update 0.13. 
• ⚡ Lowered the requirements for exploration based Orders (Ancient Tablets, exploring Glades) to better fit the changes introduced in the exploration revamp. 
• ⚡ Removed the Petrification Deed and lowered the requirements for the Blightrot Farmer and Ancient Vaults Deeds to better fit the current exploration balance.
• ⚡ All Dangerous Events with resource requirements now require more building materials to be solved.
• ⚡ Destroyed Buildings found in Glades now take half as much time to rebuild.
• Increased the Working Effect severity for Stonetooth Termite Burrows and Dark Gates. 
• Changed the consequence and time requirements of Fallen Villagers events. The event now turns into 4 Blightrot Cysts after 8 minutes.
• Increased the amount of Blightrot Cysts spawned after the timer of the Ancient Burial Grounds runs out.
• The amounts of resources and rewards on most Glades have been evened out. Previously, there were big gaps between the most abundant and empty Glades. Now all Glades of the same type should have a fairer distribution of nodes.
• ⚡ Cornerstones offered by traders now change price due to perks increasing or lowering the worth of Amber. 
• ⚡ Removed Sloppy Woodcutting, Efficient Brewing and Extraction Tools from the Cornerstone pool. 
• ⚡ A few Cornerstones have been rebalanced:
  • Increased the effect time in Thrill of Exploration to 300 seconds,
  • Improvised Tools now gives 5 instead of 3 Tools,
  • Leftover Crops now gives Packs of Crops every 16 Grain instead of 10,
  • Local Taxes now gives 1 Amber instead of 2,
  • Prosperous Settlement now requires 45 Amber instead of 30,
  • Moldy Grain Seeds now gives 3 Mushrooms instead of 5,
  • Lumber Tax now requires 40 Wood instead of 30,
  • Small Press now gives 5 Oil instead of 3 
• Adjusted the amount and placement of ore nodes on some Glades. They should now be less numerous, but spawned a bit closer together.
• Added a bit more resource nodes and fertile soil patches to small Glades.
• Food gathering time has been lowered by 15% for all camps. 
• Increased the penalty for villagers leaving or dying (from 0,2 to 0,3 Impatience)

UI/UX improvements

• ⚡ Forest Mysteries now take map modifiers into account. This means no more Clear Skies effect on maps with a Trade Block. 
• ⚡ Added a “stored” counter on goods tooltips. You can now see how many of a given item you have stored when hovering over a good.
• ⚡ Added the option to mute in-game audio when the game is in the background.
• ⚡ Added an option to disable lightning flashes during the Storm. 
• ⚡ A trader portrait is now displayed in the “trader arrived” icon above the Trading Post.
• ⚡ There are no longer two separate alerts when a trader arrives. Now a message appears with the trader’s name and disappears automatically after they leave. 
• ⚡ There is now a timer on the trader’s arrival progress bar.
• ⚡ Alerts about completed Orders, new Orders, Cornerstones and new villagers can now be dismissed.
• ⚡ The game now automatically detects if the player is using a QWERTY or AZERTY keyboard and adjusts keybinds accordingly. 
• ⚡ The glow around Working Effects will now disappear right after an event is finished. 

Bug fixes

• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Cursed Royal Woodlands not spawning on the World Map as often as they’re supposed to. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with effects from restored Glade Events not stacking (Totems and Termite Nest).
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where assigning workers to the Library would remove stacks of the Wealth effect.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where trees couldn’t be marked after loading the game multiple times.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with some perks displaying incorrect progress amounts after loading the game. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Hunter-Gatherer and Rich Branches Barren Lands effects not working correctly together.
• ⚡ Fixed a rare bug with missing text in the game’s UI.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Inspiring Pressure effect granting an incorrect production bonus.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with some ore deposits becoming invisible. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Farmer’s Diet perk not giving bonuses to all types of farmers.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where Mist Piercers wouldn’t give Impatience for some Glades.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Cycle Summary Screen not updating after spending resources in the Citadel.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where newcomers would sometimes bring 0 goods. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where the worker overlay (alt) would be displayed above the HUD.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where resetting progress would also reset the game’s settings.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with Rebellious Spirit doubling its effect after reloading the game. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with need tooltips having incorrect service buildings listed in their descriptions.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with buildings being marked as idle when workers were resting at a nearby Hearth.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with missing objective texts in Orders with requirements tied to needs (Luxury, Education).
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with a visible color tag in the trader window. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Farmer’s Diet being displayed as a negative effect in the villager window. 
• ⚡ Changed the position of some ingredients in recipes, so they are more consistent. 
• ⚡ Removed the out-dated worker amount from the Mine description in Russian.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with 3 digit numbers not displaying correctly in the Resolve Summary view.
• Fixed a bug with production speed effects (such as Contaminated Food) not working and not applying the speed modification.
• Fixed multiple issues with incorrect icons being shown in need and perk tooltips.
• Fixed an issue with incorrect text being displayed in the Russian version of the trader window. 
• Fixed incorrect labels for a number of perks and effects in the game. 

Please make sure to update the game! Also, you can always track the progress of reported issues on our Public Bug Tracker.

SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK

Update the game and let us know what you think about the changes. Many of the improvements were inspired by your direct feedback, so don’t stop sharing your awesome ideas!

You can always reach out to us on Discord, Reddit, or any other place that you prefer:

PREVIOUS & UPCOMING UPDATES

Discover all the features and improvements that we introduced in previous Updates:

• Exploration Update
• Coral Forest Update
• Quality of Life Update
• Cursed Update

Learn more about the upcoming updates in the detailed roadmap article:

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

If you want to help us grow the Against the Storm community, there are a few things you can do:

• Let your friends know about the game
• Share our content and announcements on social media
• Share our YouTube trailers on relevant subreddits like r/Games or r/PCGaming to get some karma (but don’t spam, moderators don’t like it!)

Truth be told, we appreciate all kinds of support. Be it feedback, words of encouragement, or casual activity on Discord. It helps a lot and we’re very much grateful!

Now, enjoy the new update and let us know what you think!

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games team

Current Early Access version: 0.14.2R

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