Greetings, Viceroys!

Unearth the secrets of Scarlet Orchard in the new bi-weekly update. Here’s what’s new:

• Scarlet Orchard visual revamp
• Scarlet Orchard’s unique biome mechanic
• New building: Archeologist’s Office
• New Citadel Upgrade
• Community-inspired changes
• Available on GeForce NOW
• And more!

We hope you’ll enjoy the new changes and share your impressions with us!

And if you’ve already picked up Against the Storm and have been playing it, make sure to leave a Steam review. Every opinion matters to us!

DEVELOPER NOTES

Let us start with a huge thank you to everyone who decided to join us in Early Access. We are grateful for all your suggestions, reports, and reviews. They help us a lot! This has been a mind-blowing week and we’re excitedly looking into the future.

Although we are not able to engage in every conversation, we do our best to read through all your messages and take notes. We shared an FAQ article in which we answered some of the most frequent questions. We also recommend using our community tools:

• Feature Request Board – suggest new features and vote for ideas you care about
• Public Bug Tracker – check the status of player-reported issues
• Knowledge Base – a growing list of troubleshooting articles

We hope that in a few days, things will calm down a bit and we’ll be able to interact more with you. Now, let’s move on to the overview of the Royal Archeologist Update.

Revamped Scarlet Orchard.

First off – the Scarlet Orchard. Until now, this biome was the only one in the game that had no unique mechanic and a very limited visual identity (it was way too similar to the Royal Woodlands in that regard). We decided to change that.

From now on, the Scarlet Orchard will be a region revolving around archaeology and exploration. When settling there, expect to stumble upon ancient excavation sites – big multi-stage events that require a lot of work and resources to be completed, but also give special and generous rewards. To help you find them, you can use a new upgradeable building that is only accessible in this biome – the Archaeologist’s Office.

Archaeologist’s Office.

Archaeological Excavation.

Our vision for this biome was to give players a “big archaeological project” to work on while establishing a settlement, as well as offer a glimpse at some more lore and information about the world of Against the Storm.

Excavation progress.

Other significant changes are numerous UX and UI improvements inspired by the community. During the last week and a half, we’ve been meticulously writing down all the feedback and feature requests we received on Discord, Reddit, Steam, and through the in-game reporting tool. We are extremely grateful for every single piece of feedback, and we are taking all of it to heart. While it’s impossible to implement everything right away, we will slowly introduce as many of them as is feasible over the coming months.

Some of the highlights for today’s update are:

• Changes to Citadel upgrades, 
• Copy building feature, 
• Rotate and move buildings without opening their UI, 
• Ore displayed in the resource overlay, 
• Hotkeys for inverting tree marking modes, 
• More info in the in-game encyclopedia,
• And more (full changelog below).

Last but not least – bug fixes. Although our launch was a rather smooth one, there were bugs that inadvertently cropped up over the last week and a half. With your help, we managed to track a lot of them down and fix them. We also improved how the game catches and communicates different error messages – for example when a file is corrupted after installation, the game will catch that and prompt the player to verify game file integrity on their platform of choice. 

We hope you’ll enjoy all the new changes!

Have fun and may the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games

CHANGELOG

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by community.

New content and features

• Revamped the entire Scarlet Orchard biome.
  • The biome is themed around archaeology and exploration. Every Scarlet Orchard map has archaeological discoveries hidden in its glades.
  • Archaeological discoveries are unique, multi-stage events that require a big investment to solve. They are not dangerous and will offer a very generous reward if fully reconstructed.
  • Added a new essential building – the Archaeologist’s Office. It can be upgraded to unlock special new effects (like showing the location of an archaeological discovery or boosting the settlement’s exploration capabilities).
  • There are three levels of upgrades in the Archaeologist’s Office, each with 2 different effects. Only one effect can be chosen per level.
  • Revamped the visuals of the Scarlet Orchard biome, as previously it was very similar to the Royal Woodlands. There are new trees, improved shrub models, refreshed ground textures, etc.
  • Added 3 completely new music tracks that play only in the Scarlet Orchard. 
• Added a new Citadel upgrade – More Farm Range. This upgrade can be unlocked by buying the First Dawn Company Level 6 upgrade.

Balance

• ⚡ Merged the Embarkation Range and Citadel Vision upgrades into one.
  • Embarkation Range now allows players to move one field further, as well as see more of the map at the beginning of the cycle.
• ⚡ Rebalanced the cost of some upgrades in the Citadel.
  • Removed Artifacts and Machinery requirements from the earliest upgrades (Brass Forge Level 1, Pioneers’ Gate Level 2, Dim Square Level 2)).
  • Lowered the price of the Vanguard Spire Level 1 upgrade from 6 Machinery to 3.
  • Moved the cost (6 Artifacts) of the Pioneers’ Gate Level 3 upgrade to Level 4.
  • Removed Artifacts and Machinery from the Obsidian Archive Level 7 Upgrade, to make it easier to reach some of the most essential unlocks (like the Daily Expedition).
  • Increased the Food Stockpile cost of the Pioneers’ Gate Level 2 from 12 to 24.
  • Changed the cost of the First Dawn Company Headquarters Level 7 upgrade from 18 Artifacts and Machinery to only 24 Artifacts.
• ⚡ Slightly increased the rewards for some World Map modifiers.
  • Ancient Battleground – added 4 Machinery to rewards.
  • Corrosive Torrent – increased the number of Machinery from 3 to 4.
• ⚡ Added Infused Tools as possible payment for upgrading the Mine.
• ⚡ Increased the Hostility requirement for the Greater Threat Forest Mystery (-2 Resolve for Dangerous Glades during the storm) from Hostility level 1 to Hostility level 2. 
• ⚡ The Levitating Monument modifier now makes moving builds free.
• Coppervein trees in the Scarlet Orchard now drop pigment instead of resin (as an additional resource).
• The Workshop is no longer moveable.
• Removed Simple Tools from the first upgrade level in the Mine.
• Shortened copper ore mining time by 10 seconds.
• ⚡ Reshuffled a few upgrades in the Citadel.

UX/UI improvements

• ⚡ Added an option to copy existing buildings. Simply press Shift when hovering over a building.
• ⚡ Added an option to rotate buildings on the spot (for free). Simply press the rotation hotkey (R by default) when hovering over a building. The building must be moveable to perform this action.
• ⚡ Added an option to move buildings without needing to select them. Simply hover over a building and press the move hotkey (M by default).
• ⚡ Added a hotkey to change the tree marking mode. Simply hold Alt when marking trees, and you will start removing the markings (and vice versa).  
• ⚡ Ore deposits are now shown in the resource overlay. They are also highlighted when building a mine.
• ⚡ Added an option to change the volume of the intro voiceover in the settings menu.
• ⚡ Added a warning pop-up when a player decides to continue playing after a game has already been won. This warning occurs only once and informs the player that they won’t get additional experience points, citadel resources, or deeds.
• ⚡ Changed the wording in effects that stack Resolve modifiers (like Melancholy). It now states that “a stack of this effect is added every 60 seconds”, instead of “the Resolve bonus multiplies every 60 seconds”.
• ⚡ Changed the wording in notifications that appear when woodcutters can’t cut trees (to make it clearer that this can also be the result of settings in the woodcutters’ camp).
• ⚡ Changed the warning tooltip displayed when a blueprint is already a reward in an Order the player has (it previously only read “orders” without much explanation). 
• ⚡ Changed the objective text in orders that require fulfilling needs to avoid confusion. Instead of just showing the resource name, they now say “need for X fulfilled”.
• ⚡ Added information about building size to the in-game encyclopedia. 
• ⚡ Added information about whether a building is movable or not to the in-game encyclopedia.
• ⚡ Enabled the “right-click to look up in encyclopedia” function for all buildings in the construction menu.
• ⚡ Disabled the warning pop-up about leftover Embarkation Points if the player has picked all Embarkation Bonuses available. 
• ⚡ Added an option to the settings menu to turn off screen fog.
• ⚡ Added a biome preview button in the cornerstone selection pop-up. 
• ⚡ Added a warning pop-up when starting the demo after playing the full version.
• Locked difficulty levels are now displayed in the difficulty dropdown menu.
• ⚡ Disabled the “upgrade” section in the UI panel for buildings under construction.
• ⚡ Recipe panel search filters are now cleared after closing the recipe panel. This can be changed in the options menu.
• ⚡ Increased the limit for the manual FPS slider in the options menu to 144.
• ⚡ Alert options were moved to a separate tab in the options menu.
• ⚡ Added new tooltips to the move button in building panels. These show up when a building can’t be moved due to any reason.
• ⚡ Added a menu button to the World Map HUD.
• ⚡ Added the option to search for deeds by description.
• ⚡ Changed the warning that appears when trying to remove resource nodes and construction sites (when no resources are refunded).
• ⚡ Added a notification informing the player when they have a high Hostility level during the storm (and what they can do about it). It’s only displayed in the first few games after the tutorial.
• ⚡ Added a new entry about the Blightstorm Cycle to the in-game encyclopedia.
• ⚡ Added a confirmation pop-up that appears after selecting the “move on” option in the ESC menu (after winning a settlement and staying on the map). 
• Changed the default hotkey for excluding glade edges when marking trees. It’s now Ctrl instead of Alt.
• Locked difficulty levels are now displayed in the difficulty dropdown menu.

Bug fixes

• ⚡ Improved how the game communicates in error situations.
  • Added a system that catches missing files when trying to play the game, and shows the player a message about the need to verify file integrity. 
  • Added contact info to all other error pop-ups. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that made it possible to open reward chests hidden in the fog on the World Map.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the farm UI counting fertile soil patches hidden in undiscovered glades. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with multiple UI windows appearing on top of each other when switching between trade routes, the trader panel, the recipes panel, etc.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused species-specific house ruins to spawn on maps when a given species was not present or unlocked.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the Forest Offerings effect to trigger even after solving a non-dangerous event (giving the player random food items).
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Clay Pit blueprint being offered in maps without Fertile Soil. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the S key to not work properly when holding down Shift. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with resource numbers on tooltips not matching the actual amount stored in a settlement’s warehouse.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with haunted ruins not counting as ruins in orders and perks.
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with the preview button in the recipe panel being inactive for some rebuilt ruins.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the game automatically unpausing after closing the feedback window.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused mystery box pop-ups to appear behind the trading window.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused some glade events to display an incorrect prompt when applying their Impatience penalty.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the minecart not disappearing when destroying a mine. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Flawless Rain Mill not having copper ore as an option in the Pack of Building Materials recipe. 
• ⚡ Fixed an issue with text in the score summary being slightly cropped. 
• ⚡ Changed the “WSAD” text to “WASD” in the tutorial.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the Wine Shortage daily modifier being drawn even if there are no Beavers in the game. 
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with some species having incorrect attributes in the in-game encyclopedia.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug with the camera losing focus when zoomed out.
• ⚡ Fixed a missing “no worker” alert above the Small Hearth.
• ⚡ Fixed a bug that caused farmers to restart their work after loading the game.
• Fixed an issue with mouse button prompts in building tooltips not being localized.
• Fixed a rare crash that occurred when quitting the game.
• Fixed the title displayed next to the trader Dullahan Warlander. It’s supposed to be Hooded Trickster and not Wandering Merchant.
• Fixed an issue with the Converted Harmony Spirit Altar and rebuilt haunted ruins not being present in the in-game encyclopedia.
• Reimplemented some missing UI sounds when changing building tabs. 
• Fixed incorrect UI sounds in the encyclopedia.
• Fixed a rare bug that caused sound effects to play on repeat when they triggered at the very moment a game was won.

Other

• ⚡ Improved the overall quality of text in English.
  • Fixed a lot of typos and errors.
  • Changed word capitalization for more consistency.
  • Changed “storage” to “warehouse” to avoid confusion between the structure and the internal storage in all production buildings. 
  • Changed “embark points” to “embarkation points” (same with bonuses and range). 
  • Changed “atlas” to “encyclopedia”.
  • Changed “invert mouse x-axis” to “invert mouse rotation”.
• ⚡ Changed multiple lines of text, fixed typos, and improved localization quality in languages other than English (mostly based on player reports).
• ⚡ The game is now available on GeForce NOW.
• Rebalanced default volume levels in multiple places in the game.
• Changed the color of the Scarlet Orchard on the World Map.

COMMUNITY CORNER

Let’s end with some of the latest community memes:

One of a kind by Jhazrun.

Absolute win by Flixor.

My Beloved by sebseb.

That’s it for today, have a great weekend everyone!

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