Greetings, Viceroys!

Much like Mariah Carey already playing from the grocery store speakers, we too couldn’t wait to bring holiday gifts early! Over the past several weeks, we’ve been analyzing your feedback and iterating behind the scenes. We’ve added new content and wrapped it all into today’s Brineworks Update. We hope you enjoy it!

Here’s what’s new:

• New farm: Brineworks (grows Salt and Insects)
• 2 new dangerous glade events: Lurker and Petrified Gargoyle
• New forbidden glade event: Small Stormforge 
• Special offers at traders
• 9 new Stormforged versions of existing Cornersones
• New legendary Cornerstone and 2 new perks
• Encyclopedia improvements
• Random main menu skin
• And more!

Continue reading for our design notes, full changelog, and information about settlement saves.

DEVELOPER NOTES

Our initial goal with today’s update was to address several frequently mentioned UX/UI suggestions that have been circulating in the community since the release of the Nightwatchers DLC. As development went on, however, we realized that this alone wouldn’t make for a substantial patch. So we revisited a few older content ideas we still felt were promising and sprinkled in some spicy balance changes to help freshen up the game.

Let’s start with the most exciting additions: the new glade events. We’re introducing three in total – two dangerous ones (the Lurker and the Petrified Gargoyle) and one forbidden one (the Small Stormforge). While we’ll leave their exact mechanics and lore for you to discover, we’d like to highlight a few of the rewards you can earn from them.

If you choose to purify the pond where the Lurker resides, it will transform into a Deep Pond, which has more charges than a Large Pond, yields more Fish per charge, and has a 50% chance to also provide Algae and Scales.

With the Petrified Gargoyle, you can decide to turn the possessed statue into a decoration, granting a unique new effect: cheaper Rain Engine installation and increased rainwater production.

And by using the Small Stormforge, you can upgrade one random Cornerstone to Stormforged rarity, or gain a new Stormforged Cornerstone if none of your current perks are eligible for an upgrade.

These rewards were designed to touch different aspects of the game: giving you fresh incentives to fish with the Lurker, making rainpunk-focused settlements easier to build with the Gargoyle, and offering something truly exciting to uncover in Forbidden Glades. The Small Stormforge also serves as a hint to players who haven’t yet tried Prestige difficulties that there’s a tier above Legendary Cornerstones.

Speaking of overpowered, mysterious perks of dubious origin, this update also introduces nine new Stormforged variants of existing Cornerstones, offering a fresh selection at the Forsaken Altar. Some of these are enhanced versions of less popular or more situational perks, and we hope that, by offering a much stronger, drawback-free variant, they will become more meaningful in the meta. So, even if a base Cornerstone isn’t usually the most compelling choice, its Stormforged version might make it worth the risk (or the wait).

But that’s not all in terms of new content. Update 1.9 also introduces the Brineworks, a brand-new farm building where you can grow Salt and Insects on farmfields. We added this building because, until now, both of these resources had very few sources despite being valuable ingredients in many recipes. The Brineworks should also introduce some interesting new options to the farming branch of the game, such as the ability to produce meat-based foods primarily using a farm (which wasn’t really possible before).

As you can see, much of this update is focused around making certain playstyles more appealing and making your runs more varied overall. That’s also the idea behind the new special offers available from traders. Once you unlock this feature in the Smoldering City, each trader who visits your settlement will bring one random perk or blueprint at a 50% discount. Sometimes it’ll be the exact blueprint you were desperately hoping for; other times it might be a niche perk you’ve never considered, but for just 5 or 10 Amber, it might be worth a try.

With the same goal in mind, we also rebalanced several Cornerstones in this update, focusing primarily on buffing some of the weaker ones. We’ve also added one new Legendary Cornerstone (that reduces the amount of Hostility added by Beaver villagers to 0), along with two new rare perks sold by traders (one that gives you the ability to remove hunger stacks, and another that reveals the location of a nearby Abandoned Cache).

This update also brings with it a lot of UX and UI improvements. Most notably, we’ve expanded the in-game encyclopedia to include more information about each playable species (by explaining how Dedication works or giving hints about the Cooperation specialization), by introducing category filters to buildings, events, and cornerstones, and by adding upgrade previews to building entries.

Beyond that, we introduced a “random” option for main menu skins, added farming range indicators when placing Fertile Fields in the Bamboo Flats biome, implemented warnings for orders requiring buildings you don’t have, and added a setting that remembers internal storage preferences between settlements. These changes are just the highlights, though, and you can find the full list of improvements in the changelog below.

Lastly, as always, this update includes a variety of bug fixes, text adjustments, and localization improvements. Many of these were directly inspired by your feedback, and we’re extremely grateful to anyone who contributed to this update. Thank you!

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games

P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!

UPDATE 1.9 CHANGELOG

⚡ Changes inspired by the community.
🐸 Changes related to the Keepers of the Stone DLC.
🦇 Changes related to Nightwatchers DLC.

New content and features

• Added 2 new dangerous glade events.
  •  Lurker – A bizarre creature that dwells deep underground, in vast networks of water-filled caverns. On rare occasions, it finds its way to the surface, lurking in small reservoirs and preying on unsuspecting fishermen.
  • Petrified Gargoyle – A weathered stone statue that feels strangely… alive. It seems to shift ever so slightly when no one is watching.
• Added one new forbidden glade event.
  • Small Stormforge – This small ancient cornerstone forge seems to have been twisted by some malevolent force, now serving a much darker purpose.
• Added a new farm building – the Brineworks.
  • Using the Brineworks, players can grow Salt and Insects on nearby farmfields.
  • The Brineworks are unlocked after reaching level 15.
• Added special offers to traders.
  • Traders will now offer one random perk or blueprint at a 50% discount.
  • Special offers are unlocked via a new Smoldering City upgrade – Dim Square Level 13.
• Added a new Legendary Cornerstone.
  • Friends of the Forest – Though Beavers are an industrious and technologically minded species, they share a unique bond with the forest. Beaver villagers do not increase Hostility.
• Added 2 new perks that can be bought from traders.
  • Surveying Equipment – Reveals the location of an Abandoned Cache in a nearby glade.
  • Emergency Rations – You gain an Active Ability that removes one stack of the Hunger effect from all villagers. This ability can be used from the Main Warehouse and has 3 uses.
• Added 9 new Stormforged versions of existing Cornerstones.
  • Royal Guard Training (Stormforged) – A fencing instructor from the Royal Guard joins your settlement. Fulfilling the need for Brawling grants an additional +10 to Resolve.
  • 🦇 Crystal Cathode (Stormforged) – A fragile device that extracts energy from charged rainwater. Production bonuses in Rain Engines are stronger (+100% production speed, +50% double yield chance).
  • Overexploitation (Stormforged) – Global gathering speed is increased by 50%, and newly discovered gathering nodes have more charges (+20 charges to small gathering nodes, +35 charges to large gathering nodes).
  • Cooking Steam (Stormforged) – If you leave rainwater for a while, it will begin to release a pleasant and warm vapor. Food production speed is increased by +40% for every 50 units of Drizzle Water stored.
  • Deserted Caravans (Stormforged) – Global production speed is increased by 66%.
  • Exploration Expedition (Stormforged) – You took some of the best explorers from the Smoldering City with you. Global Resolve is boosted by +10 for 180 seconds every time a new glade is discovered.
  • Rooty Ground (Stormforged) – Strange roots spread across the land. Wood production is increased by +2.
  • Value Added Tax (Stormforged) – Specializing in a particular branch of commerce can bring a lot of profit. All packs of goods are worth 50% more when sold through trade routes or directly to traders.
  • Guild Catalogue (Stormforged) – Traders offer 1 additional perk or blueprint. You also gain an Active Ability that summons a trader to your settlement. This ability can be used from the Main Warehouse and has 5 uses.

Balance

• ⚡🦇 The Manorial Court blueprint is now unlocked from the start of the Queen’s Hand Trial.
• ⚡ Increased the trade value of Dye.
• ⚡ Rebalanced multiple Cornerstones.
  • Overzealous Architects – lowered the requirement for fully upgraded houses from 5 to 3.
  • Improvised Tools – lowered the number of Tools given per discovered glade from 15 to 10.
  • Work Safety Guide – changed the rarity of this Cornerstone to Epic (from Legendary).
  • Farsight – changed the rarity of this Cornerstone to Epic (from Legendary).
  • Borrowed Time – completely changed how this Cornerstone works.
    • The Crown can be persuaded to show leniency toward this settlement. Grants an Active Ability that removes 1 Impatience Point at the cost of 10 Amber. Usable from the Main Warehouse, up to 5 times.
  • Well-Rested Workers – increased the chance of doubling production from 25% to 33%.
  • Counterfeit Amber – removed the drawback of this Cornerstone.
  • Book of Water – this Cornerstone now also affects rainwater production and not only recipes that use rainwater.
  • Worker’s Rations – this Cornerstone was removed from the game.
• ⚡🦇 Changed the Fluffbeak’s starting wellbeing to 49% (from 50%) to prevent its positive effect from being active and displayed for a very short time at the beginning of the first year.
• ⚡ Added the Fishing Hut blueprint to Zhorg’s and Sahilda’s wares.
• ⚡ Changed the building category of the Forester’s Hut to Resource Acquisition (instead of Food Production).
• ⚡🦇 Removed the Soil Reclamation Forest Mystery from the Bamboo Flats.
• ⚡ Rebalanced the Stormforged version of the Mushroom Seedlings Cornerstone. It now adds a 2-star Mushroom recipe to all farms (instead of a 3-star one) and increases Planting and Harvesting speed by 50%.
• ⚡ The game now selects the starting Firekeeper from all species available at the beginning of a settlement, including those from the starting caravan and additional sources such as embarkation bonuses or cycle effects.
• ⚡ Added the Academy blueprint to Sir Renwald Redmane’s wares.

UX/UI improvements

• ⚡ Expanded the Species section of the in-game encyclopedia.
  • Added a Specializations section with tooltips. For most species, these tooltips show the name and type of specialization, while for Foxes they include a detailed explanation of how Cooperation works.
  • Added a Starting Ability section that provides more details about each species’ starting ability.
  • Added a Passive Ability section that explains passive traits in more detail (such as Dedication and the lack of favoring for Bats).
• ⚡ Expanded the Buildings section of the in-game encyclopedia.
  • Added a Category dropdown for easier filtering.
  • Added upgrade previews for buildings that can be upgraded.
• ⚡ Added a Rarity dropdown to the Cornerstones section of the in-game Encyclopedia.
• ⚡ Added a Category dropdown to the Glade Events section of the in-game Encyclopedia.
• ⚡ Added a Random option to the Menu Skin dropdown in the Options menu.
• ⚡🦇 The farm range indicator is now displayed when building Fertile Fields in the Bamboo Flats.
• ⚡ Added a warning to order objectives that require a specific building when the player doesn’t own the necessary blueprint.
• ⚡ Added a checkbox in the Options menu to remember internal storage settings between settlements.
• ⚡ Purchased upgrades in the Queen’s Hand Trial can now be previewed by clicking on them.
• ⚡ Changed the description of the Converted Altar of Decay reward so it’s clear that its effect is retroactive.
• ⚡ Changed the description of the “discovered glades add more Hostility” penalty in the Cornerstone Forge to clearly state that the effect is retroactive.
• ⚡ Updated descriptions of several orders that require fulfilling a number of needs to clarify that their objectives count retroactively.
• ⚡ Updated the icon and description of the final Seal objective reward. It now clarifies that the Seal is reforged after completing the last objective (while still granting an Epic cornerstone to players who wish to continue their Sealed Forest settlement).
• ⚡ Updated the descriptions of some perks that speed up fuel production to clearly state which goods they affect.
• ⚡ Updated the descriptions of all Forest Mysteries that scale with Hostility starting from level 0 to more clearly explain how their effects are calculated.
• ⚡ Updated the Advanced Rain Collector description to better highlight how it differs from the regular Rain Collector.
• ⚡ Updated the description of the Stocked Caravans upgrade in the Smoldering City to clarify that it also affects resources in starting caravans, not just embarkation bonuses.
• ⚡  Added the Forbidden Glade icon to the Secure Perimeter Cornerstone description to make it clearer that its effect scales with Forbidden Events, not Dangerous ones.
• ⚡🐸 Adjusted the color of certain trees in the Coastal Grove to make the tree marking effect easier to see.
• ⚡The hostility value in the Third Party and Memory of the Forest effect tooltips now shows how the effect scales with the game’s difficulty level.
• ⚡ Added a tooltip when hovering over an automaton portrait in a worker slot.
• ⚡ The “Too Far” and “Locked” options in the difficulty dropdown on the embarkation screen are now greyed out.
• ⚡ Auto-pause alerts no longer appear when loading into a Forsaken Town.
• ⚡🦇 The Tree Grazer icon now appears on the HUD when playing a settlement with that modifier.
• ⚡ Embarkation Bonuses that consume Reserve Embarkation Points now display their cost in orange.
• ⚡ Adjusted the position of the main resource number in the Fishing Pond and Gathering Node UI for better consistency with other resources in the panel.
• Changed the name and icon of the Value Added Tax perk awarded for completing the Trading Master Timed Order, as it duplicated an existing Cornerstone. The perk is now called Royal Subsidy.

Bug fixes

• ⚡🐸 Fixed a bug where the “more Resolve for Religion/Treatment” effect in the Cornerstone Forge did not apply to needs fulfilled in the Commons.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the Bankruptcy Deed to carry over progress between games.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with overlapping difficulty settings for Raising the Stakes and Stacking Amber orders.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused Algae +1 perks to appear in biomes without naturally occurring Algae Ponds.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where the Lumbermill would rotate 180 degrees when mirrored.
• ⚡🐸 Fixed a bug where Experimental Cornerstones were not counted in town statistics.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused extra blueprint options to disappear after a reroll when playing with the Less is More or Stingy Archivist modifiers.
• ⚡🦇 Fixed a bug that caused the Crystal Cathode bonus to be incorrectly applied to worker stats in the building statistics tab.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where switching building panels while selecting recipe ingredients would not close the ingredient radial menu.
• ⚡🐸 Fixed a bug that caused the value preview to be missing when upgrading Harvesting and Planting speed effects in the Cornerstone Forge.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where canceling a forced delivery early didn’t stop workers from transporting the goods anyway.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused faction trade route tooltips to show incorrect resource icons.
• ⚡ Fixed a few translation errors in the Japanese version of the game (Gentle Dawn).
• ⚡ Fixed a few translation errors in the Russian version of the game (Under the Queen’s Gaze, feedback form, glade event UI, resolve effects, Stingy Archivist, storage upgrades).
• ⚡ Fixed a typo in the Spanish version of the game (order objectives).
• Fixed a few translation inconsistencies in the French version of the game (fishing ponds).

The current game version is 1.9.1.

SETTLEMENT SAVES INFORMATION

As with all major updates, numerous systemic changes require us to close the ongoing settlements to avoid potential issues. As compensation, you’ll receive extra Citadel Resources and a free Royal Resupply.

(Steam only) However, for those of you who weren’t able to finish their settlements and are desperate to do so, we also prepared a temporary Steam branch, where we’ll keep the previous version (1.8) available for two weeks. We recommend that you consider this option only as a last resort.

If you want to finish your current settlement, follow the instructions below prior to playing with the new Brineworks Update (1.9):

1. Open Steam
2. Right-click on Against the Storm in your library
3. Select Properties
4. Go to the BETAS tab
5. Enter the access code in the “Private Betas” section. The access code is: LegacyBranch18
6. Click on “Check code”
7. Choose “legacy_branch_1.8” from the drop-down list
8. Wait for the game to update the files
9. Once you finish the settlement on the Legacy Branch 1.8, follow the steps above, but select “None” to return to the main branch.

Warning: Legacy Branch 1.8 is not backward-compatible (returning to it from version 1.9 can cause loading problems) and will be closed within two weeks. Once it’s closed, Steam won’t be able to load the game unless you switch to the primary “None” branch, so we recommend doing it as soon as possible.

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