Greetings, Viceroys!

We have a new update or two coming your way. Here’s what’s new in today’s Explorer’s Choice Update:

• Event Choices system (glade events revamped)
• Objective icons in Orders
• 3 new decorations
• New music track
• New event working animations

But that’s not all. Tomorrow, we’ll release the Sentinels of the Forest (aka Foxes Update) to the Experimental Branch!

So without further ado, let’s dive into all the exciting updates we have for you.

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DEVELOPER NOTES

In today’s update, we bring you a revamp to almost all existing glade events (in the form of a new Event Choices system), some order UI improvements, a new perk, new decorations, a new music track, new character animations, and of course – bug fixes. We also have some spicy news about the new playable species at the end of this dev note, so without further ado, let’s get into it.

First off, let’s talk about the Event Choices system. For a while now, we saw two unresolved issues with the current implementation of glade events. On one hand, there was not enough decision-making involved in solving them, and on the other hand, the existing choices (the reward options) were very limited in their flavor (e.g. what does “send to the Citadel” even mean in the context of the Mole?). On top of that, there was also a range of smaller problems: a limited time window to start an event on Prestige, over-representation of tools in events, the overall similarity of event requirements, and poor reward balance.

Altar of Decay choices

Let’s look at an example. You just found an Altar of Decay in a glade – a vile place, where the Sealed Ones are worshiped by those who eagerly await their return. You can act morally and tear it down, for which you will be rewarded with some loot and a Loyalty point. But you can also perform an old ritual, sacrificing one of your villagers to obtain the Altar’s power. This action will earn you a Corruption point, and convert the event into a beneficial decoration in your settlement. Both choices have different requirements, so now you will have to weigh both the rewards and the costs.

The “points” mentioned above are a new pseudo-resource awarded for solving events by making decisions tagged with a keyword. There are 3 types of tags right now (Empathy, Loyalty, and Corruption), and they influence some perks and orders in the game (to be expanded in the future).

Because of the new system, almost all events have been rebalanced or changed in some way. The amount of required goods has gone up in general, and the number of different types of resources suitable for any given slot was decreased, but on the other hand, there should now be more options overall (each event decision requires something else), threat timers have been extended by ~30%, and exploration should now rely less on tool production (we also removed Infused Tools entirely, as they were just a better version of Simple Tools, and a very niche and rarely used resource).

Cleansing Corrupted Caravan

Cleansing Corrupted Caravan

But the Event Choices system is not the only thing coming in this update. We also took a closer look at the Order UI and tried to improve it a bit. As you might have noticed, if an objective requires you to do something with a resource (like sacrifice it, sell it, or deliver it), its icon is always the same – it’s simply the asset of the required resource itself. This creates a problem – it’s difficult to distinguish the different types of requirements at a glance. So with this update, we decided to introduce an additional marker next to the objective icon for the following objective types: deliver goods, sacrifice goods, sell goods, produce goods, change ingredients, satisfy a need, and satisfy a need simultaneously.

This update also brings with it one new Stormforged Cornerstone (Seal Fragment), three new decorations (Thorny Reed, Chest, Cages), a new music track in the Coral Forest, new event animations for scouts, and numerous bug fixes.

And now, let’s get into the thing you’ve all been waiting for – news about Foxes! We finally have a release date for the update, and it’s April 13th! But wait, there’s more – tomorrow (Friday the 31st of March), you will be able to test the new playable species on the Experimental Branch! Unfortunately, all the fox assets will be hidden (the sly little bastards will be disguised as humans), but the balance and systems will be in place and ready for your feedback. There is quite a lot to go through, and we will share a more detailed note on the Experimental version moments before it goes live.

Fox villagers

Thank you for providing us with feedback and suggestions for the new update. If you’d like to share your ideas for upcoming updates, here are some useful links:

• Steam Discussions, Discord, Reddit – discuss the game with the community and share your impressions
• Feature Request Tool – suggest specific new features

We hope you’ll enjoy everything we prepared for you and as always can’t wait to hear your feedback!

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games

CHANGELOG

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by community.

New content and features

• Revamped most glade events by introducing a new system – Event Choices.
  • Until now, most events only had the same two options: keep the loot, or send it to the Citadel (or sometimes – convert a dangerous event into a positive decoration). The Event Choices system expands on that, creating more unique and flavorful decisions for almost all events.
  • From now on, you no longer select just the reward from an event, but you have to select the approach you’re taking to solve it first. Each approach has different requirements (goods or working effects), and the rewards are bound to it. 
  • Let’s take the Altar of Decay as an example – you can either act morally, tear it down, and be rewarded with some loot and the Queen’s gratitude, or you can perform an old, forbidden ritual, sacrificing one of your villagers, and convert the altar into a decoration that will benefit you. Each option requires different goods and has different working effects.
  • Another example would be Caches found in some glades. They can now be smashed and looted using some simple resources (like Stone and Resin), or sent back to the Citadel for Amber and Reputation (but at a much higher cost – for Tools).
  • Some decisions in events are marked by special symbols (for Empathy, Corruption, Loyalty). Solving an event with a tag like this will count as 1 point in Empathy/Corruption/Loyalty (for example sacrificing villagers at an altar will increase the Corruption count of your settlement). Right now these statistics only influence some perks in the game, and might be required by certain orders.
  • A vast majority of events have been rebalanced due to this new system being added. The individual changes are too numerous to list them here, but in general, almost all resource requirements are now different, and working effects are mostly tied to just one of the two available decisions (the other is often just resources). The number of alternatives in resource slots in a single option is also slightly lower, but that’s because there are now two options to choose from (so the overall number of alternatives should still be higher than previously).
• ⚡ Added 3 new decorations.
  • Chest
  • Cages
  • Thorny Reed
• Added a new Stormforged Cornerstone.
  • Seal Fragment – It was not you who removed this fragment, weakening the ancient seal, but you would still be executed on the spot if someone was to find it in your possession. Every Glade Event solved by making a decision marked as Corruption increases the chance of workers producing double yields by +5%. (the bonus is added retroactively)

Balance

• ⚡ Rebalanced the Shrine glade event in the first tutorial. It now requires fewer resources and has a slightly longer time limit.
• ⚡ Temporarily deactivated the Magical Rainwater Order. It will be reactivated after being revamped in a future update.
• ⚡ The Temple is now automatically unlocked after finishing the tutorial (instead of being unlocked at level 3).
• ⚡ Changed how far the Resolve threshold for generating reputation moves for Harpies after they generated a Reputation Point. Previously, every Reputation Point gained through Resolve moved the threshold by 2 points, and now it is moved up by 3 points. 
• Rebalanced a vast majority of events because of the addition of the new Event Choices system. The individual changes are too numerous to list here, but in general, almost all resource requirements are now different, and working effects have been reshuffled.
  • Working Effects are mostly tied to just one of the two available decisions (the other is often just resources).
  • The number of alternatives in resource slots in a single option is slightly lower, but that’s because there are now two options to choose from (so the overall number of alternatives should still be higher than previously).
  • More varied types of goods are now required by events. Simple Tools are now less prevalent in event requirements.
• Changed the difficulty scaling for goods required by all events. Overall, the resource scaling is now steeper than before. 
• Decreased the number of rewards given for opening Caches in glades. 
• Most orders and ghost requests asking for a specific solution to a glade event (like sending stuff to the Citadel or salvaging ruins) have been replaced by objectives tied to the new decision tags (Empathy, Corruption, Loyalty).
• Removed Infused Tools from the game. 
• Increased the production speed of Tools from 112/98/84 seconds to 90/75/60 seconds (T1/T2/T3).
• Increased the time limit for all glade events by around 30%.
• Changed the Calming the Forest perk. Now every Glade Event solved by making a decision marked as Empathy lowers Hostility by 40.
• Removed the Forest Mitigation perk and added Frequent Patrols instead. Every Glade Event solved by making a decision marked as Loyalty lowers Hostility by 10. 
• Removed the Infused Tools recipe from the Finesmith. Added the Simple Tools recipe instead (tier 3).
• Removed the Infused Tools recipe from the Rainpunk Foundry. Added a Wildfire recipe instead.
• Changed the rewards in 3 Deeds.
  • The Scarlet Orchard – removed the experience reward, added the Thorny Reed decoration.
  • Bandit Camp – removed the experience reward, added the Cages decoration.
  • Trade Baron – removed the experience reward, added the Chest decoration.
• Moved the Tool Hoarder Deed (win a game with Infused Tools in the storage) to the Legacy category (the Deed is no longer active).
• Moved the Meat Specialization perk unlock from level 2 to level 3.

UX/UI improvements

• ⚡ Added small objective icons to some Orders.
  • Until now, objectives such as sacrificing, delivering, selling, or producing goods all had the same icon – namely the icon of the resource they were referencing. 
  • To help players recognize objectives at a glance, we added small, flat icons to the upper right corner of the objective icon.
  • There are 7 objective icons right now: changing ingredients, delivering goods, fulfilling needs, fulfilling needs at the same time, producing goods, sacrificing resources, and selling goods. 
• ⚡ Added a suffix to Hostility modifiers on the World Map and in the Training/Daily Expeditions UI, explaining that Hostility scales based on the difficulty level.
• ⚡ Added a progress tracker to the Petrified Necropolis modifier.
• ⚡ Changed the name of the Resolve effect applied by the Greater Threat Forest Mystery. It’s now also called “Greater Threat” to avoid confusion. 
• ⚡ Changed the description of the positive effect from the Converted Altar of Decay to also include leaving villagers (and not just dead ones). 
• ⚡ Updated the biome descriptions for the Royal Woodlands and Marshlands.
• ⚡ Added information about how to unlock Rain Engines in the Rainpunk entry in the in-game Encyclopedia.
• Updated the Glade Event entry in the in-game Encyclopedia.

Bug fixes

• ⚡ Fixed an issue that caused the game to sometimes crash/freeze when Twitch Integration was active.
• ⚡ Goods sold via trade routes are now correctly counted towards order completion (for objectives that require selling certain resources).
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Destroyed Caravan Glade Event’s negative effect being permanent.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the recipe panel not displaying the correct values after loading saved limits (while in search mode).
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Clan Hall rotating by itself when destroyed by lightning. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Master Archaeologist Deed not completing if the game was won by finishing the last Archaeological Discovery. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Blight Infection Forest Mystery being drawn in games without Corruptiona active.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with Orders requiring the fulfillment of certain needs simultaneously not taking unlocked buildings into account.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Night’s Embrace effect spawning lesser effects without a name or description on the game’s HUD. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with Advanced Herbalism perk being offered to the player even if they didn’t have the corresponding building.
• ⚡ Fixed a but with idle Automatons showing an incorrect water type being produced.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Corrupted Caravan tooltip showing incorrect values on the Prestige 10 difficulty. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Lightning Forest Mystery having incorrect information in its description.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the Large Baskets perk having an incorrect rarity assigned.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Blight Incantation effect showing an incorrect expected gain value. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Lightning Forest Mystery being drawn in biomes without copper deposits.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Converted Altar of Decay missing a “Harmony” tag (and the tag being present on the effect instead of the decoration).
• ⚡ Fixed holes in the geometry of the Open Vault Glade Event.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with debuff icons above villagers’ heads appearing too soon. 
• ⚡ Improved the Korean translation of the Move On button in the ESC menu. 
• ⚡ Improved the Simplified Chinese translation of multiple lines in the game (multiple perk descriptions, favoring, upgrade descriptions, etc.).
• ⚡ Fixed a few typos in the Portuguese version of the game (tutorial text, Hostility effect).
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with some Chinese characters not being displayed correctly in search bars and text boxes.
• Fixed a bug with smoke effects casting shadows.

Other 

• ⚡ Added a new music track to the Coral Forest (during Clearance).
• Added new animations (talking, carrying out rituals, fixing, threatening) to scout units when solving glade events. Also repurposed some existing animations to be used by scouts.
• Changed the name of Simple Tools to just Tools.

COMMUNITY CORNER

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