Exploration Update available!

Dear Viceroys!

The brand new Exploration Update is live! Hard to believe it’s the 4th content update already. Enjoy the new features including:

• Exploration revamp
• New glade events
• Expanded service buildings
• Lore tablets
• And more!

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

Check out our Update notes for an in-depth overview of the major changes and the full changelog below.

DEVELOPER NOTES

In this update we focused on two main things: exploration of the forest, and the mechanics behind service buildings (such as the Tavern, Library, Temple, etc.). Through these changes, we tried to address some very frequent and insightful points of feedback that were floating around in the community. We would like to once again thank you for all the reports and suggestions put our way through Discord, Reddit, and the in-game reporting tool.

Exploration revamp

Our main goal with the exploration revamp was to introduce more variety and challenge to some Glade Events, as well as give more time and agency as to when and how the players solve them. We also wanted to nudge players into discovering more Dangerous Glades and discourage them from only expanding into safe spaces around the starting area. Additionally, we improved the way the map is generated, so that the actual resource pool would correspond with the info given to players before a run starts in a given biome.

When it comes to the second big change – the service building iteration – our main goal was to make these types of buildings more varied and introduce some meaningful gameplay tied to the more specialized types of needs, such as Brotherhood, Luxury and Education. We also wanted to support more diversified builds and return to a state of the game where production chains were once again important in the context of service buildings. That is why we removed free need fulfillment, and in its place we implemented a feature that activates different unique effects based on the amount of workers that are assigned to a given building. So, for example, the Teadoctor no longer gives free Luxury, and instead has an effect called “The Green Brew” which reduces Hostility of the Forest.

Service buildings iteration

And just before we go into detail with all the changes this update provides, please remember – the changes introduced today are by no means the final version of these systems. There is still more to come in the future. We’re counting on your invaluable feedback and we hope you will enjoy this new update to Against the Storm.

CHANGELOG

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.

New content and features

• ⚡ The new exploration revamp has been introduced. This is a massive update to almost every aspect of this system – how glade events work, how resources are spawned, how glades are sized and distributed in the forest, etc. 
  • All glade events in the game have been changed – they now have different effects and requirements, ranging from simple good delivery to surviving hostile effects for a period of time. Rewards have also been adjusted and more events allow for a “send” or “keep” reward choice. 
  • A new requirement type has been added to Glade Events – working effects. Working Effects are penalties or challenges that trigger when an event is being worked on. The player’s objective is to adapt and survive them in order to solve the event. 
  • Added 3 new Glade Events and replaced 2 older events with completely new ones. 
  • Added Lore Tablets – a new extremely rare type of object found in glades. They contain lore snippets and hints about the world of Against The Storm. And more of them are coming in the future. 
  • Added new types of structures with positive effects as rewards for solving some Glade Events (for example “flipping” a Totem to become a decoration with a Resolve boost). 
  • The way glades are generated has changed – now there are no longer “free” big glades, and there is now a bigger difference between Normal and Hard difficulty.
  • There are no longer three different values for Hostility when exploring. All glades, regardless of size and threats, now give the same amount of Hostility points.
  • Resource generation has been adjusted to better reflect what is stated in the biome preview displayed before each game.
  • All ruins have been rebalanced – they now cost a bit more and give fewer rewards. Ruins spawn rate in glades has also been adjusted.
  • There are now more than double the amount of unique glades that are possible to appear on a map.
  • Rebalanced glade rewards and resources. There are now fewer things to find in regular Glades, but much more treasure in Dangerous and Forbidden Glades.
• Service buildings have been changed. Now all structures such as the Tavern, Temple, Teadoctor, etc. are mechanically more distinct.
  • Added unique effects to all service buildings in the game. These effects are activated based on the number of workers assigned. There can be one or more effects per structure (the only exception to this is the Common Hall). 
  • Removed the “free” tier of needs in service buildings. Now all needs require goods to be fulfilled.
  • Rebalanced the costs and worker slots of all service buildings in the game.

New glade events

Balance

• Hostility of the Forest has been rebalanced to fit with the new exploration revamp.
  • All glades now give a flat amount of Hostility points.
  • Increased the amount of Hostility coming from all villagers.
  • Increased the amount of Hostility coming from woodcutters.
  • Each Impatience Point now subtracts more Hostility points.
• Positive Hostility modifiers (such as Hearths and Impatience) will now always subtract the same amount of points and no longer scale with difficulty.
• Adjusted some Resolve bonuses to better fit the service building changes:
  • Biscuits and Pie now give 5 instead of 6 Resolve. 
  • Brotherhood gives now 8 instead of 5 Resolve. 
  • Education and Luxury now give 10 instead of 5 Resolve. 
• ⚡ Housing needs are now instantly fulfilled after a villager is assigned to a home (no more waiting for a villager taking a break to update their status). 
• ⚡ Increased the chance of Sahilda having certain goods for sale (like Eggs or Mushrooms).

UI/UX improvements

• ⚡ Added status icons on worker slots – it’s now possible to see what a worker is doing in a given moment (if they are fetching resources, resting, idling, etc.). All status icons also have a tooltip when hovering over with a description of the villager’s actions.
• ⚡ Added an “idle workers” icon above buildings in which no one is working.
• ⚡ Allowed tree marking without the need for a Woodcutters’ Camp being built (outside of the tutorial).
• ⚡ Greatly reduced the amount of fog around the camera.

Bug fixes

• ⚡ Fixed numerous issues with the world map fog not loading correctly or covering up the entire screen on some machines.
• ⚡ Improved the overall performance of the fog on the world map.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where sometimes Cornerstones would not be given to the player after starting a new year.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where the players would be rolled back into Phase I after a forced world map reset. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where some Coral Forest maps would have incorrect forest generation (some trees and glades were placed on water). 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where some Glade Event effects would not be removed after solving them.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where some tooltips would go off-screen.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Survivor Bonding Cornerstone giving the Resolve Bonus from the Ancient Artifact. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the Drainage Mole to appear on Dangerous Glades instead of Forbidden.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where Glade Events sometimes wouldn’t spawn in Dangerous Glades.
• Timers in Glade Events are now real-time and also update based on the number of assigned workers.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with Glade Info tooltips (from Cornerstones like Ancient Pack) covering regular glade tooltips. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with marked trees being difficult to spot on certain biomes (like the Coral Forest or the Cursed Royal Woodlands)
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with player settlements disappearing from the world map. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Small Farm being given to the player as a reward for completing an Order in a Barren Lands map. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with Embark Bonuses being rerolled each time the game is loaded.
• ⚡ Fixed a broken icon in the Leaking Cauldron Glade Event. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where the camera zoom would be interrupted when hovering over UI elements. 
• ⚡ Fixed a rare bug with negative resource numbers appearing on the HUD after selling goods to a trader. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the perk overview in the building panel not being scrollable.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with needs having different icons in different places (species panel vs villager panel).
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Clay Pit worker incorrectly being called a Greenhouse worker.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue where the trader Vliss Greybone had a visible color code in her description. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with incorrect resource numbers displayed in the Cycle Summary after a force world map reset.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where the Cellar Blueprint would give access to the Bakery instead. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Order icon frozen mid-blink.
• ⚡ Removed Reputation and Impatience tooltips from the Reputation Bar after a game was won.
• ⚡ Updated the names of perks increasing Barrel and Leather production to no longer be duplicated of other existing perks. 
• Updated the descriptions of Deeds requiring the player to win multiple games near a modifier to more precisely reflect the Deed’s meaning (that this should be done near different modifiers of the same kind).
• Fixed a bug where the “Trader Arrived” icon was still visible even if the Trading Post was destroyed. 
• Improved save stability.

Other

• Missing translations will now default to English.
• Slickshell Broodmother textures have been updated. 
• ⚡ If you take more villagers with you at the start of a game, they will now position themselves around the Hearth, and no longer be crammed into one spot.

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:

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: 0.13.1R

Continue reading…