Coral Forest Update available!

Dear Viceroys!

The third major Early Access update is out now! Enjoy all the new features, including:

• New biome
• Orders generation system
• Resolve balance improvements
• And more!

Watch the trailer:

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Read the Developer Notes below in which we share our intentions for this and upcoming updates as well as reflect back on the previous one. They are followed by the full, detailed changelog.

If you like the game and the changes, please consider rating Against the Storm on Metacritic.

DEVELOPER NOTES

In this update, we bring you the new Coral Forest biome – the winner of a previous Community Brainstorm. In this marvelously colorful land, you will encounter new unique types of trees covered by mysterious coral growth. Each tree will give different bonus resources when harvested, so prepare to shift some of your gatherings from Resource Camps to your woodcutters. Additionally, the new biome comes with a fresh set of new Forest Mysteries and an effect that increases bonus production the more Hostility you generate. So as you can guess, the Coral Forest is a bit more focused on exploration (just in time for the exploration revamp coming in the next update). 

Now let’s address the elephant in the room – our previous patch sparked a lot of controversy with a general Resolve nerf. In this patch, however, we try to correct the course a bit. Our original intention was to weaken an overpowered build and make it a bit more demanding to execute. We still feel that the direction was good in general, but we also understand that this change shifted the balance for Reputation generation too much into the late-game and made it almost impossible to execute a Resolve-focused playstyle for many players. With this new update, we tuned things down a bit and implemented a system that allows for earlier and easier “blue bars”, but also makes it harder the more Reputation you “siphon” from a given species.

Last but not least – the Order revamp. This is only the first step in a long way to generate more interesting and rewarding tasks, and we will be iterating upon this system in the future. Right now you should see Orders better tailored to your settlement and current meta progress. Impossible to complete orders such as farming on maps with Barren Lands modifier should be gone, and there should be in overall more variety (e.g. the game won’t ask for a Brewery all the time, but finally acknowledge that you have the Apothecary unlocked in the Citadel). We also broadened the general Order pool and added some new objective types (like discovering Dangerous Glades), as well as made them easier in Normal maps (so new players won’t feel like it’s impossible to complete them).

Our main goal with this update (besides giving you a new and exciting biome to play in) is to make the game’s difficulty curve a bit less steep and make the experience overall a bit more forgiving to new players – hence the further changes to the Resolve balance and the new Order system. We hope that this patch will bring you a lot of enjoyment, no matter if you are a new player or a grizzled Viceroy with tens of successful settlements under your belt.

CHANGELOG

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.

New content and features

• ⚡ Added a new biome – the Coral Forest. Besides the standard differences, like resource availability and visuals, this region also brings a set of new content:
  • three different types of trees with varying bonus resources
  • a new forest layout – trees are now clamped together into distinct “islands”, making it easier to mark the ones you want for a specific resource
  • an effect that boosts bonus production based on the Hostility level
• Added 6 new Forest Mysteries with unique effects to all biomes
• Implemented the first iteration of the new Order generation system
  • Orders should now generate based on settlement conditions and unlocked meta progress, without impossible tasks like a farm on Barren Lands
  • Added 20 completely new Orders and objective variations to existing Orders
  • Added new objective types (like selling goods worth X Amber, opening up Caches or solving Dangerous Glade Events)
  • Changed some objectives with the delivery of complex consumable goods to now require satisfying a need
  • The amount of available Orders and their difficulty is now based on the map that is played. This means that games played on “Normal” (close to the Citadel) will have 12 easy Orders, whereas games on “Impossible” will now have 9 very hard  Orders.

Balance

• ⚡ Changed the Resolve balance based on feedback from the previous patch
• ⚡ Added a system for dynamically moving the Reputation threshold (the blue bar) on the species Resolve indicator. It’s now easier to generate Reputation early on during the game, but the more Reputation is gained, the more Resolve is required.
• Stagnation no longer grows with gained Reputation.
• Stagnation is now a flat number and no longer a range. 
• Lizards now generate more Reputation after reaching the blue threshold.

Resolve tooltip

UI/UX improvements

• Added a new tooltip when hovering over a species’ Resolve bar. It now shows the current Resolve, Reputation gained from a given species, and the Reputation threshold.
• ⚡ Perks with unique effects (like Mist Piercers) will no longer appear in the Cornerstone selection window if the player has already picked it.
• ⚡ Perks will no longer appear in the Cornerstone selection window if they are useless in a given environment (like trading focused Cornerstones on a Trade Block map).
• In-game reports that were not sent due to network errors are now saved and possible to be sent again after reopening the feedback window.
• ⚡Added a biome summary screen with information about resources, fertile soil, and seasons in the ESC menu when playing on a map. 
• Added a new panel with a summary of a given biome’s effects underneath the “Forest Mysteries” section when starting a new game.
• Added labels to villager needs’ tooltips (like “services”, “clothing”, “complex food”, etc.).

Bug fixes

• ⚡ Fixed a bug where the Woodcutters’ Camp would go invisible when moving it after saving and loading the game multiple times. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where destroying a building wouldn’t return goods located in its internal storage. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where hovering over the UI would interrupt input while moving a building.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where opening up the construction panel would not close the building window of a selected building.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Important Matters effect lowering the Queen’s Impatience only by around 50% instead of 80%.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Devastating Storms effect incorrectly stating that it stacks with Hostility.
• Fixed an issue with missing minus symbols in descriptions of effects shortening season durations.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Prosperous Archaeology Cornerstone not giving Resolve for opened Caches.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Prosperous Settlement Cornerstone not correctly counting its Resolve bonus based on traded goods.
• Changed the Prosperous Settlement description to more accurately reflect its effect (it now only counts goods sold to the trader).
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with ingredients overlapping in the goods selection UI.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug where the Feedback Window couldn’t be opened when in the Citadel, Deeds or Upgrade view. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with incorrect tooltips and descriptions for alerts regarding idle scouts and freshly discovered Glade Events.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with resource tooltips still being visible when opening the ESC menu in-game.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the goods counter overflowing when the player has more than 9999 resources of a given type (seriously, how? Are you cheating?). 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Trade Route window not opening again after closing it.
• Fixed an issue with the Rebellious Spirit Cornerstone not working correctly.
• Improved meta save backup stability. 

Other

• Brought back the temporarily disabled seasonal effect Gift from the Woods.
• Removed the town preview in the biome summary view (we’ll bring that back in the future, once we iterate upon the entire world map system).
• Renamed the “Pan Camera Outside Main Screen” option to “Constrain Cursor”.

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

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:

ROADMAP OF UPDATES

You can learn more about the recent changes and upcoming updates in the detailed roadmap article:

May the storm be gentle on you!
Eremite Games team

Current Early Access version: 0.12.1R

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