Greetings, Viceroys!

WHAT DID WE CHANGE?

We revamped the Rain Collector which now produces three types of rainwater (different during each season): Drizzle Water, Clearance Water, and Storm Water. We also added a new building blueprint: the Advanced Rain Harvester.

Advanced Rain Harvester

Water Pumps are now upgradeable:

• Level 1 (Automaton) – A rainpunk automaton will permanently occupy one workplace. It doesn’t eat, and it doesn’t need rest. Its sole purpose is to work. Automatons have no chance of producing double yields.
• Level 2 (Tank Capacity Increase) – Increases the global Rainwater tank capacity.
• Level 3 (2nd Automaton)

Geyser Pump Upgrades

We made changes to Greenhouse and Clay Pit recipes. The Greenhouse now uses Drizzle Water to produce Mushrooms and Herbs, while the Clay Pit needs Clearance Water to produce Clay and Reeds. We removed Rain Engines from both of these buildings.

The Blightrot generation system should now be easier to understand and control. We removed the Blightrot Footprint from Recipes. Based on our observations, it was hardly ever taken into account when making decisions and therefore didn’t fulfill its role.

Blightrot is now generated as a result of Water usage (and not goods production). There is a single conversion factor to calculate how many Water units are turned into Cysts: the Blightrot Progress bar. The Blightrot Progress bar in each building grows whenever a single unit of Water is used by their Rain Engine. When the Blightrot Progress bar is fully filled, it will reset and spawn a Blightrot cyst. You can track the progress of each Cyst in every workshop.

We made general changes to the Pipes and Water balance. Sparkdew was completely removed from the game. Recipes, Orders, Effects, and Events now use rainwater (or other resources) instead.

Lastly, we replaced the Prestige 2 Modifier with a new one:

• Blight Swarm – Large swarms of Blightrot Cysts migrate across the realm. Every third Clearance, Blightrot Cysts will appear in the settlement.

We will share a more specific changelog next week, with the Rainpunk Update (Part 2).

HOW TO TEST IT?

In order to test the new mechanic, you need to:

• Play on at least the Veteran difficulty level (or even better: on a higher one on which you’re usually playing),
• Fully unlock meta (with meta.addAll command),
• Play on the Experimental Branch (click here to learn how to switch to the Experimental Branch),
• Preferably in the English language, as it has updated texts.

WHAT ARE WE INTERESTED IN?

If you decide to play the Experimental Update, please share your thoughts with us!

Primarily, we are interested in answers to the following questions:

• How do the new Blightrot, Rainpunk, & Prestige changes affect your runs?
• How do the changes to the Rain Collector affect your playstyle after a few runs?
• Is there anything new that makes the mechanic feel worse (especially more repetitive) or better (especially more diverse)?
• Have you experienced any significant change in the difficulty?

We are grateful for all your invaluable help so far and can’t wait to hear what you think about the new changes!

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games

ABOUT EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH

The Experimental Branch is an alternative version of the game dedicated to testing new features. Upcoming changes are not localized, there can be bugs, and the balance might feel way off. The experimental version has extensive logs and assertions enabled which means degraded performance. It has a separate save file from the main version and your progress can’t be transferred from the Experimental Branch to the main version. You have access to the developer console but you won’t be able to unlock achievements.

HOW TO SWITCH TO EXPERIMENTAL

Steam

Switching to the Experimental Branch will require you to opt into the Beta branch on Steam. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open Steam
2. Right-click on Against the Storm in your library
3. Select Properties
4. Go to BETAS tab
5. Choose “experimental” from the drop-down list
6. Wait for the game to update the files
7. Launch the game

In order to switch back to the regular version, please repeat the steps above but choose “None” from the drop-down list in step 5.

Epic Games Store

The Experimental Branch on Epic Games Store is a separate product in your library. In order to play it, follow the steps below:

1. Open Epic Games Store launcher
2. Search for Against the Storm – Experimental Branch
3. Install it
4. Launch Against the Storm – Experimental Branch

If you want to launch the regular version, simply install and launch Against the Storm.

GOG

Switching to the Experimental Branch will require you to configure the Beta channel. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open GOG Galaxy
2. Right-click on Against the Storm (or use the Options button)
3. Select Manage installation
4. Select Configure…
5. In the INSTALLATION tab, click on the drop-down list next to Beta channels
6. Select Experimental
7. Wait for the game to update the files
8. Launch the game

In order to switch back to the regular version, please repeat the steps above but choose “Disabled” from the drop-down list in step 6.

DEVELOPER CONSOLE

The Experimental Branch includes a developer console that provides various useful commands.

If you want to test new changes with a fully leveled-up profile and all content/upgrades unlocked, feel free to use the “meta.addAll” command in the console when you are on the World Map. You can open the console by pressing the ~ key on your keyboard.

Here are some other useful commands:

• villager.spawn
• good.add
• good.addAll
• good.list
• Resolve.change
• Season.next
• game.win
• meta.exp
• meta.level
• meta.addAll

Check out the full list of commands:

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