Hey folks!

Brace yourselves for a massive update changelog. I've been grinding away on this for about 3 weeks, and I'll admit, I'm feeling a bit lazy tpday. So, you might not see too many screenshots this time around, but I believe the extensive list of changes will speak for itself, haha!

I'm hoping these new changes will be captivating enough to re-engage people who stopped playing and also keep new players hooked for longer. 😊

Hey, listen! Just a heads up before I proceed. This update, unfortunately, breaks compatibility with old saves. It's a one-time issue, and such breaks shouldn't occur in future updates as i have now put code in place to prevent this. However, to avoid any glitches or gameplay interruptions, it's wise to delete all your old savefiles, as their functionality can't be guaranteed moving forward.

If on windows your saves should be at:
C:\Users\(your user)\AppData\LocalLow\Untrustedlife\DR4X/PersistentDataPath/SavedGames

On linux its weirder
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/unity3d or $HOME/.config/unity3d. (Its probably in there /PersistentDataPath/SavedGames) (I really need to change this to be more DR4X specific lol)

Moving on...

Changes:

Introducing a groundbreaking new feature: tile effects!

I've added 30 different new tile effects.
Tile effects are unique "effects" that occur when units/buildings are deployed on tiles meeting specific criteria.
Some are semi-randomized, while others depend on adjacent tiles or the terrain type.

Some serve as significant new faction powers, like the kingdom's new ability to annex all adjacent capturables when constructing guard houses.

Others are simpler, like the Bandits' (who now possess major faction powers as well, but I won't spoil those) ability to boost their units' damage when deployed on certain buildings.

Some even provide units with little backstories and bonuses, adding a role-playing element. Others are more simulation-driven, influencing where it's best to construct mines, markets, and businesses.

All tile effects come with an icon, a color, and are color-coded on the map when deploying, similar to the red/green/white advantage/disadvantage colors. Essentially, it's an expansion of the advantage/disadvantage mechanic, making the placement of units/buildings even more strategic!

Curious about what else this update includes?

-All campaign missions have been slightly modified to drip feed you the new tile effects!

-Implemented multithreading in AI and various other game components.

-Added boats, complete with their own hard counter triangle!

-Introduced Galleons, which counter Fire Galleys!


-Unveiled Rammers, the bane of Galleons!


-Deployed Fire Galleys, the nemesis of Rammers and an excellent scout vessel!


-Enhanced the AI's naval tactics and its ability to deploy units/buildings on strategic tiles (a significant improvement from its former habit of building solely on its "main" tile).

-Added 3 new AI personalities and upgraded AI logic, enabling it to save resources for significant investments like ships.

-Certain terrains, like mountains, deserts, and proximity to towns, now yield more resources for mines, markets, and bandit buildings.

-Refined AI tactics to avoid deploying water-based units on land and to effectively leverage the new tile effects.

-Cached Building Build Ranges for each building and range, optimizing AI efficiency.

-Enhanced the door boss fight (for those in the know).

(ACE stands for About/Credits and Extras)

-Updated the ACE screen buttons with newer artwork for a polished look.

-Upgraded all saving and loading screens.

-Improved title visibility on the ACE screen for certain dimno values.

-Ensured the title on the ACE screen fits properly on screens with 1024x768 and 800x600 resolutions.

-Implemented Deploy Location Bonuses.

-Added informative and sometimes weird messages to the deploy popup when placing units/buildings.

-To enhance performance, the deployable cell list is now cached.

-Cultists now have a Deploy Range, allowing them to strategically place their hideouts.

-Cult Priests benefit from an extended deploy range.

-Boosted the deploy range for rogues and arsonists, facilitating optimal guild placement.

-Slightly adjusted Gremlins to make their first turn faster and more engaging.

-Guard houses in capitals can now be built instantly.

-Goblin legionnaires now enjoy a deploy range too.

-Introduced a new display mode for "teams," eliminating health bars and adding a tint to tiles, reminiscent of the conquest of Elysium style of telling you who owns what tile.

-Made unconventional victory more attainable in the goat mission.

-Revamped the goblin archer model, now featuring more expressive hands, aligning with the lore of goblins having unusual proportions and mutations.

-Reduced the size of leviathan pedestals for a clearer view during combat.

-Went through all in game dialogue and updated it to make sure speaking styles were consistant.

-Now all common popups have at least two options.

-Units with thief flag no longer detected when attacking buildings (but will be detected by all other means)

-All bandit subfaction bases are now categorized as "bandit hideouts," allowing any bandit to capture them. This change significantly expands the bandits' unit pool but requires strategic capturing based on proximity. (The new tile effects enhance this feature.)

-Rust spitter queens can now be captured, not killed, by bandits, aligning them with the faction's mechanics.

-Giant Rats are now "Good Swimmers" which through a series of little bits of code here and there means they can also now build their nests on water, its not ideal but the ratmen needed some way to navigate water. It also adds this sorta interesting dynamic to the game.

-Updated the codex to hint at things better. Hopefully driving more peopel towards the secretty secret stuff and the good/bad endings!

Bug Fixes
-Resolved a bug that disrupted saving and loading when the command queue was loaded, due to the AI seeking new building placement.

-Addressed an issue where crime didn't always reflect in the "weekly gain" for bandits.

-Fixed a recurring bug that caused a dialogue popup to appear multiple times when toggling the terminal on and off.

-Fixed a bug that has been around for awhile that made tiles act weird if there was a enemy unit that was stealthed on top of a enemy building that was stealthed, where deploy mode would mark it as inaccessible when you shouldnt know anything was there.

-Rectified typos, including the misspelling of "gamblers."

-Amended a typo in the green gremlins' harvest poppet description, which contained an extra ')'.

-Eliminated a bug that occasionally inserted random '#' into generated names.

-Turns out there’s been this sneaky (And major!) bug in the game for probably years. It messed up saving and loading scenarios with triggers, making the triggers work only every other  time it was loaded. That is fixed now.

-Fixed a bug where the sentry icon didn't appear when a unit was in sentry mode.

Bella Update!
Had a bit of a scare last week with Bella when she started limping. Rushed her to the vet immediately, and luckily, it was just a pulled muscle. She's all good now, haha.

Ramble!
For those of you who've stuck around, congrats on making it to the end of this lengthy and, let's be honest, somewhat tedious changelog! Now, let me dive into some more details.

I'd like to clarify a few things:

First off, I'll point out which factions have undergone significant changes in this release and those that haven't.

Factions that received major game balance tweaks due to tile effects:

Kingdoms: The gameplay for kingdoms is now quicker and more efficient and more roleplayee, especially in world ages dominated by independent cities or under the control of a single large faction.

Bandits: I've nudged bandits (And all their subfactions) towards a more aggressive playstyle. They've received the most balance updates this time, significantly boosting their viability across various maps. This should dial up the fun factor when playing as bandits.

Goblins: The goblin bandit subfaction has access to Annex just like kingdoms do and also access to the new guard house tile effects on their fortresses. Which makes them play like a kingdom that also has bandit stuff.

Ratperson Pretender: The ratperson pretender bandit subfaction does (of course) have access to all the bandit stuff. But they will be getting updates too. (As none of their buildings have tile effects except blackmarket/gambling hall) but their units benefit from some of the rebalancing (Rats being good with water now/the change to the thief flag)

Factions that haven’t seen major changes:

Cults: Gameplay for cults remains largely unchanged for now. However, they can benefit from certain effects that provide rare resources and can exploit the black market dealings tile effect. I'm planning to integrate more tile effects specifically tailored for each cult, which will require some time due to their complex nature. This is also a great opportunity to throw in more references to RLDR, which I'm quite excited about. 😜

The flavor i want for them in the future is a risk/reward style where tileeffects could be good or bad depending on dice rolls. (Like what happens when you summon a relamling lol, i dont think they will always be your friend)

Dark Forces: No major updates for the dark forces yet, but they're on the list for future enhancements. I'm aiming to infuse their gameplay with more tile effects to mirror the "Shadows of the Forbidden Gods" vibe.

The flavor i want for them in the future is for them to be like an unseen force guiding the realm into darkness. Instead of just a snowballing enemy.

What about the campaign you said you would focus on?
I am indeed committed to progressing on this front, as i consider the completion of every chapter as the only definitive marker of DR4X's "level of completeness". However, it was crucial to introduce additional mechanics to maintain the campaign missions' intrigue and freshness (As long as im sticking to one faction anyway). I'm optimistic that the introduction of tile effects will significantly enrich the campaign experience in the future.

It will also enable me to infuse the missions with more intriguing and unique elements, such as exclusive tile effects that appear only in specific campaign missions and nowhere else in the game.

What's Next? In no particular order:

Enhanced Player Guidance: I'm planning to introduce new "hints" into the game. These will be offered by the Fyegrayed when a player is running low on specific resources, providing strategies and tips to improve gameplay (for instance, encouraging players to research technologies in towers if low on influence as a kingdom, etc.).

Bandit 'Assassin' Power: I aim to empower the bandits further by adding an 'Assassin' ability. This feature will allow their cutpurses to instantly eliminate adjacent units upon deployment, making them particularly formidable on densely populated maps. Of course, this power will come at a substantial resource cost.

Innovative Tile Effects: I'm keen on developing new and intriguing tile effects that activate every turn. (Oceanic storms etc) This addition, however, is contingent on maintaining a smooth and responsive framerate within the game.

Liminal Setting Enhancements: I intend to revisit and enrich the 'Liminal' settings. One specific goal is to integrate a new tile effect-based mechanic unique to those maps.

Cult-Specific Tile Effects: A significant focus will be on tailoring unique tile effects for cults, enhancing their gameplay and strategic depth.

Pirates.

And thats about it! Thanks guys!

I really, really need feedback on this release so, please give me all your feedback!
Is this a direction that you like that will keep you playing and maybe get you to tell your friends?
What do you think of the ships and tile effects?
What ideas do you have for mechanics/tile effects?
Let.
Me.
Know.