Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Against the Storm
Hauler Station Update available!
Greetings, Viceroys!
We're introducing the Hauler Station - a new non-essential building - because even in a world tormented by apocalyptic storms, someone needs to carry the groceries. Your settlers can finally take a load off, literally!
Also, we recently created a video guide that presents the latest Ancient Seals mechanics and showcases the Sealed Forest biome:
While you’re there, please consider subscribing to our YouTube channel.
DEVELOPER NOTES
We’re hot off the heels of the Sealed Forest release, and jumping right into yet another update! This time we bring you a brand new non-essential building type — the Hauler Station — as well as a whole host of UI improvements inspired by you - our great community. And of course, as always, some balance tweaks and bug fixes. Let’s jump into it!
First off, the Hauler Station. As you might have guessed by the name alone, we’re finally adding dedicated haulers to Against the Storm. Though, we’re not overhauling the game’s logistics to do so. Everything still works the same as it always had - workers assigned to production buildings will still fetch their own ingredients and deposit production yields themselves. The Hauler Station is just a bonus, another way of boosting your settlement's productivity. Think of them as something similar to the automated mine carts in the Mine.
So how does it work? Simply put, you assign workers to the Hauler Station as you would to any other building. Once employed, the haulers will start transporting both production yields and crafting ingredients between buildings and warehouses, in a similar vein to how normal workers assigned to those buildings would. There is a small caveat though - the Hauling Station has a limited range, and haulers will only service buildings within that range.
Big Hauler Station Panel
There are two different Hauler Stations in the game right now - a small one and a big one. The Small Hauler Station has one worker and can only be found as a ruin in small glades. The big one has three workers and is given to players as a possible blueprint choice when gaining reputation (and can also appear in dangerous glades). We didn’t want to simply give these new types of buildings as essential blueprints, because this new system is not really an essential part of the game’s economy - it is really just another tool to increase the proficiency of the player’s settlement and to further optimize production chains. We also feel that having the Hauler Station in the same pool as other production buildings will create some interesting choices in the future.
Small Hauler Station
Let’s move on to some cool UI changes coming with this update. Most notably, we added the option to cycle between glade events of the same type (instead of just cycling through events with the same name), we changed the alert for depleted ore (it will now tell you if you can upgrade the mine), we improved the Citadel upgrade window (it now auto-scrolls to your last position and shows missing resource numbers in red), and we added a new in-game encyclopedia article about prestige difficulties and the Forsaken Altar. Of course, there are also multiple smaller changes, like wording improvements in World Events and a removal confirmation when deleting decorations.
Now, let's delve into balance. We changed the Essence of Corruption objective (burning Blightrot Cysts) in the Ancient Seal to be retroactive, and we added a new early Citadel unlock with Mine upgrades as a reward. This is by no means a new system, we just wanted to move this mechanic to a spot, where it would have to be consciously picked/purchased. By doing so, we hope that players will organically learn what building upgrades are and begin to play around with them during subsequent runs. Additionally, hiding this system behind a Citadel unlock removes some of the mental load beginner players might experience early on.
Lastly, this update also brings some new sound effects, custom-translated town names on the World Map (generated when players don’t name their settlements), numerous localization improvements, and a whole host of bug fixes.
But wait… in our last dev notes, we promised to give you some more information about our future plans and the next big update. While we can’t give you any specific dates or details just yet, we can reveal that the next big feature on our roadmap is “Guidance & Lore”. This will be another step in fleshing out the game's meta layer by adding more structure to it and giving new players a clear sense of direction. We also want to focus a bit more on worldbuilding, so that the lore enthusiasts among you will have more to speculate and talk about.
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:
P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!
CHANGELOG
Number of changes: 64 Inspired by community: 84%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
⚡ Added a new non-essential building type to the game - the Hauler Station.
Hauler Stations are special structures that employ haulers - a new type of worker who transports resources between buildings (including warehouses).
Haulers transport both production yields and crafting ingredients.
Haulers work only within a certain range of the Hauler Station. The connected buildings are indicated after selecting the station.
There are two Hauler Stations in the game right now - a small one, found only as a ruin in small glades, and a big one, given to players as a possible blueprint choice.
The Small Hauler Station has a range of 8 fields and can employ 1 worker. The Big Hauler Station has a range of 10 fields and can employ 3 workers.
The Big Hauler Station costs 4 Planks and 4 Bricks to construct.
The Big Hauler Station blueprint is unlocked after reaching level 12. Before that Hauler Station ruins can still be found in glades, and the blueprint can be bought from traders.
Added a new Citadel upgrade to the Dim Square branch.
The new upgrade was added to the beginning of the upgrade tree and is accessible at level 5.
The upgrade unlocks guaranteed Planks with every embark (moved over from Brass Forge Level 2) and a global production speed increase.
Due to this addition, the last upgrade in the Dim Square branch was pushed a bit higher up the tree.
Balance
⚡ Changed the objective for the Essence of Corruption in the Ancient Seal. It now requires burning 10 more Cysts, but the progress is counted retroactively.
⚡ Rebalanced trade routes for settlements established in the Cursed Royal Woodlands. Previously, these settlements would have the same desired goods as towns built in the regular Royal Woodlands. From now on they will have a unique mix of resources they are ready to buy.
⚡ Removed the longer storm modifier from the Viceroy difficulty level.
We’ve gotten quite a lot of feedback about the recent change made to Viceroy, so we decided to remove the storm duration modifier from this difficulty level. And while this effect didn’t really affect prestige players, people who were just starting to progress through the difficulty ladder experienced an unnecessarily steep difficulty increase (as they got a longer storm in addition to more hostility, harsher Forest Mysteries, harder orders, etc.).
The longer storm duration effect was moved to Prestige 2, and all Prestige levels above that were bumped up accordingly. There is no P21 however, as Prestige 11 was merged with Prestige 1.
Prestige 11 was merged with Prestige 1, resulting in a new combined effect: increased Reputation cap and Order difficulty.
We hope that with this change, we can smooth the difficulty curve a bit (at least before Prestige games), allow more relaxed games for players who up to the last update enjoyed them on the Viceroy level, and give players a better entry to the difficulty climb in general.
Changed the unlocks in the Brass Forge Level 2 upgrade in the Smoldering City.
The guaranteed Planks were moved to the Dim Square branch.
In place of the guaranteed Planks, Brass Forge Level 2 now unlocks Mine upgrades.
We decided to do this, because we wanted to make the unlocking of Mine upgrades a conscious decision on the player’s part. We realized that a lot of players didn’t even know upgrades existed and were confused when ore deposits would not disappear after depletion (they would stay on the map, as they could still be deepened using upgrades). We hope that with this change some of this confusion surrounding ore will dissipate.
The Rich Glades Cornerstone is now unlocked at level 2 instead of level 12. The Big Hauler Station has taken its place as a level 12 reward.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ Added a new in-game encyclopedia entry about Prestige difficulties and the Forsaken Altar. This article will automatically be linked in the “Read More” section of the HUD when a player starts a Prestige game for the first time.
⚡ Changed how cycling through glade events works. From now on, pressing the arrow buttons next to the event name or using the arrow keys will no longer go through all events with the same name, but rather through all events of the same type (for example all caches regardless of size).
⚡ Added a “perpendicular camera angle by default” setting to the options menu. Enabling it will automatically align your camera to a frontal view of your settlement when pressing H (reset camera hotkey) or starting a new game.
⚡ Added the removal confirmation popup to all decorations.
⚡ Improved the wording in the description of the converted Altar of Decay to better explain its effect.
⚡ Unified the naming of small glades across the game (they were previously called “regular glades” in some circumstances).
⚡ Improved the wording of the “order recipes by priority” setting in the options menu to now also refer to fuel priority in the Hearth.
⚡ Improved the wording for Reserve Embarkation Point rewards in some World Events (like Mosquito Nest and Forsaken Gods Followers).
⚡ Improved the wording in the description of the Secure Perimeter Cornerstone to clearly indicate that Hostility gains from Forbidden Glades are also reduced.
⚡ Improved the wording in the description of the Stormwalker Tax Cornerstone to clearly indicate that the effect only triggers when accepting newcomer groups from the Citadel.
⚡ Changed how “ore depleted” alerts work.
If an ore deposit is depleted, and the Mine can no longer be upgraded (or upgrades are not yet unlocked in the Citadel), the alert will simply say “Mine has no available ore”.
If an ore deposit is depleted, but it can be upgraded, the alert will say “Upgrade mine for more ore”.
⚡ Changed the ore tooltip. It now always shows the full number of charges for a given deposit (with all the upgrades).
⚡ Citadel Resource numbers on upgrades the player can not afford are now marked in red.
⚡ Changed the order of the buttons in the upper right corner of the HUD to reflect the order of tabs in an open UI panel.
⚡ The upgrade window in the Citadel now automatically scrolls up to the last purchased unlock.
Added a custom game result screen to Sealed Forest games (both when the game is won and lost).
⚡ Changed some UI elements so the game is more readable in 16:10 resolutions, with maximum supported UI size enabled (mainly for the purpose of playing on the Steam Deck).
The Steam Deck version of the game now automatically launches with the maximum supported UI size.
Increased the font size in numerous UI panels to help with readability on the Steam Deck.
Moved the upgrade section in the Ancient Hearth to a new tab in the building’s UI panel.
The virtual keyboard is now automatically invoked when selecting a text box on the Steam Deck.
Slightly changed the layout of the Embarkation Panel to not cover any vital information with UI frames when playing with maximum supported UI size and 16:10 resolution.
Adjusted multiple elements on the HUD to reduce instances of overlapping UI when playing with maximum supported UI size and 16:10 resolution (perks, species panel, resources).
Changed the NPC and dialogue in the “pick a cornerstone” window when getting an Epic Cornerstone for acquiring a guardian part in the Sealed Forest.
Added special labels to all building and event panels to more clearly state their type (for example “service building”, “production building”, “glade event (cache)”, or “dangerous glade event”).
Updated the encyclopedia entry about Ancient Seals with more up-to-date information.
Changed the location of the “move” button in the UI panel for all movable buildings.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed a bug with some dangerous glades not being revealed correctly.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Escaping the Shadows tooltip showing incorrect information.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the upgrade tab in houses having an incorrect tooltip.
⚡ Fixed a bug with a missing tooltip text in the Forsaken Gods Followers World Event in the Japanese version of the game.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Spiced Ale perk showing an incorrect Resolve value in its tooltip (1 instead of 5).
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Inspiring Work effect not stacking Resolve bonuses correctly after at least one stack has been removed.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Woodcutters’ Camp sometimes breaking when being moved.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Looming Darkness effect sometimes not being removed correctly after a Storm.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Unyielding Corruption Forest Mystery being drawn in games with the Monastery of the Holy Flame modifier.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Gentle Dawn Forest Mystery being drawn in games with the Forbidden Lands and Dangerous Lands modifiers.
⚡ Fixed a bug with glade events spawned by the Plague of Fishmen appearing in undiscovered glades.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Blood Sorcery working effect (Fishman Soothsayer) not displaying the number of killed villagers in its tooltip.
⚡ Fixed an issue with tracked resources not appearing on the HUD after being acquired for the first time in a given game.
⚡ Fixed an issue with duplicated Modifiers being pickable in the Sadrath The Wise World Event.
⚡ Fixed an issue with some Blightrot Cysts in the Brickyard spawning in the wrong place.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Stormforged version of the Flame Amulets Cornerstone having the flavor text mixed up in the description of the mechanics.
⚡ Fixed a bug with flickering ingredient tooltips in production building panels.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Twitch minigame UI overlapping the Orders HUD.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Herbs order being called incorrectly in-game.
⚡ Fixed an issue with a missing space before the percentage sign in the French description of the Frequent Caravans perk.
⚡ Fixed an issue with percentage signs in the Game History tab being displayed incorrectly.
⚡ Fixed multiple typos and inconsistencies in the Simplified Chinese version of the game. Most notably in building descriptions, Forest Mystery tooltips, World Events, update news, Seal Keeper dialogue, encyclopedia entries, and various UI elements.
⚡ Fixed a few typos and errors in the Japanese version of the game (Gambler World Event description, Exploration Expedition tooltip).
⚡ Fixed a typo in the Rainpunk Drill glade event description.
⚡ Fixed a bug with some resource tooltips having two dots at the end of their description instead of one.
Fixed an issue with inconsistent line spacing in the options menu.
Fixed a bug with builders taking twice the amount of goods when the game is reloaded during their trip to the warehouse.
Other
⚡ Added some new custom sound effects to the game.
When opening the UI panel of the Forsaken Altar.
When sending goods back to the warehouse.
When decision popups appear.
Changed the randomly generated town names that appear on the map when players don’t name their settlements. These names are now more unique, tied into the lore of Against the Storm, and translated into all supported languages.
The current game version is 0.59.2.
COMMUNITY CORNER
Check out some of the best community screenshots, artwork, and memes from recent days. Click to unfold: [expand="more" type="show"] We were joyous to receive a fanart from Armin, who appreciated Damian's (graphic designer) work on the game's visual aspects. Thank you!
The Artwork and Screenshots sections of our Steam Community Hub were also filled with fantastic creations and inspirational designs!
We invite you to join us today at 3:00 pm UTC on our Twitch channel for an Update preview livestream during which we’ll walk you through the changes coming in tomorrow’s Hauler Station Update:
As you might have guessed already, the main feature is a new non-essential building type: Hauler Station. It comes in two versions:
Small - a ruin found in small glades
Regular - a possible blueprint choice
Once employed, the haulers will start transporting both production yields and crafting ingredients between buildings and warehouses, in a similar vein to how normal workers assigned to those buildings would.
As usual, we also sprinkled the update with various balance changes and UX improvements which we’ll present live later today.
If you can’t join us, the recording will be later uploaded to our YouTube channel, where we keep the Livestream Archive playlist with the recordings of all our streams.
We can’t wait to see you and kindly remind you that as usual, all the ongoing settlements will have to be force-finished (more information below) when the update goes live tomorrow.
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
How to prepare
We release new content Updates every two weeks on Thursdays around 1 pm – 3 pm UTC. As we make multiple changes to the game’s systems, balance, and content, the game needs to force-finish any settlements that are in progress when you download the update. This aims to prevent various game-breaking bugs that could occur otherwise.
IMPORTANT: If you have a settlement in progress, it will have to be force-finished when you download the Update. You will be reimbursed with Citadel Resources but you will have to start a new settlement. Your meta progress (that is: Experience, Level, completed Deeds, unlocked Upgrades, Citadel Resources, etc.) will remain intact.
In the main menu, under the “Play” button, there’s a countdown to upcoming Updates. Please finish your current settlement before the update day if you don’t want it to be completed automatically.
One day, we'll release an update that doesn't require a hotfix. But it's not today!
Despite our great efforts, some bugs slipped our attention, but they should now be corrected when you download the latest hotfix:
Fixed a bug that caused the Seal to sometimes not appear in the correct glade. Unfortunately, this won't fix the current Sealed Forest game.
Fixed a bug with a missing objective description in the Into the Ruins timed order.
Fixed an issue with the working effect of the Drainage Mole glade event not applying to the Harvesters' Camp.
Fixed a small typo in the in-game update news section.
If you were affected by the Seal generation error, you can message us at support@eremitegames.freshdesk.com and we'll try to manually finish the game for you and recreate the conditions for the Sealed Forest run in the next Cycle. The reply time may vary depending on the number of messages we receive. We're sorry for the trouble!
Thank you for your swift reports and support. We wish you a great time with the new update and a relaxing weekend.
Sealed Forest Update out now! New biome available!
Greetings, Viceroys!
It’s time to venture into the Sealed Forest - a mysterious and hostile biome with unique mechanics and a completely new victory condition.
Withstand terrible plagues and use the new Beacon Tower to summon aid directly from the Citadel. Find and collect the lost parts of the Ancient Guardian to summon it and close the broken Seal.
What's new:
Sealed Forest biome
Seal reforging mechanic
Plagues
Beacon Tower building
12 new music tracks
Continue reading for the detailed Ancient Seals guide and the full changelog.
P.S. Steam Strategy Fest is in full swing. If you haven’t picked up Against the Storm yet, you can get it with a 35% discount until September 4:
We have a little surprise for you! We just released the Against the Storm mini album titled "Cessation", composed by Mikołaj Kurpios. The album consists of 6 tracks (including the brand-new music from the Sealed Forest) and is available on major streaming platforms. Enjoy!
The remaining tracks will be released as Part 2 of the game's OST in the future. Stay tuned!
PLUSH CAMPAIGN ENDING SOON
Due to the success of the Beaver Villager crowdfunding campaign, we were able to extend the campaign's period by 10 days to give you more time to get your very own limited-edition plush!
The new end date is September 12. It will no longer be possible to obtain the plushie after that day, so don’t miss it:
Each plushie comes with an exclusive "Beaver villager in peril" background art.
You can learn a little more here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/6347313345428050770
DEVELOPER NOTES
The day has finally come, the revamped Sealed Forest is here! As this massive update is solely focused on the new biome, we have decided to forgo the usual developer note structure and instead jump right into a detailed summary of all the new features, and a recap of how this new addition ties into the World Map.
What are Ancient Seals?
Ancient Seals are old, intricate structures built to hold a primeval, malevolent force at bay. As time passed, they became weaker, causing the mysterious Sealed Ones to slowly reclaim dominion over our world.
Your task as the Queen’s Viceroy is to settle the lands and journey to the heart of the Sealed Forest where you must reforge the Seal to imprison the evil gods.
There are 8 different Seals. The farther away they are, the higher their difficulty and the more Seal Fragments are required to repair the shattered Seal. You can acquire Seal Fragments by establishing settlements, overcoming negative Modifiers, and solving World Events encountered on your caravan's journey.
Ancient Seals on the World Map
Your Caravan
At the start of every Cycle, your caravan departs from the Smoldering City. You can upgrade your Caravan permanently with Smoldering City Upgrades that add new Embarkation Bonuses, increase the Embarkation Range, and much more. You can also modify the Caravan temporarily with Royal Resupplies and World Events.
Royal Resupplies are special rewards awarded for settling near negative Modifiers. You can choose from three different one-time bonuses: increased Vision and Embarkation Range, Reserve Embarkation Points, or additional Seal Fragments.
Royal Resupplies
Reserve Embarkation Points are a separate pool of non-rechargeable Embarkation Points that can only be used during a single Cycle. You may want to save them for the most challenging endeavors. You can also improve your Caravan by solving World Events. But tread with caution, your decisions often come with a trade-off or can present a unique challenge.
World Event - Wandering Eremite
The Sealed Forest
Once you gather enough Seal Fragments, you can travel to the Sealed Forest - a grim, uninhabitable biome, where the Ancient Seals lie and where your governing skills will be put to the test. A game in the Sealed Biome can only be attempted once per Cycle.
Ancient Seals spread corruption around them making the Sealed Forest an extremely hostile environment. The flora in this region is bizarrely mutated, with overgrown trees containing extra resource charges.
Sealed Forest Trees
A broken Ancient Seal is hidden within the depths of the Sealed Forest. You must search for clues in surrounding glades to locate it. Every glade contains a Guidance Stone that points to the location of the Ancient Seal.
Guidance Stone
The sooner you reach the Seal, the better. Viceroys don't embark to the Sealed Forest to establish settlements or gain Reputation. The Queen expects them to reforge the Seal… or die trying.
Reforging a Seal
To reforge the Seal you must reconstruct the Ancient Guardian by obtaining its heart, blood, feathers, and life essence. There are three different variants of each part. Acquiring one of them will require a display of remarkable finesse in a certain aspect of managing a settlement.
Ancient Seal Panel
Once you obtain a part, you will be rewarded with an Epic Cornerstone and a new array of objectives will be revealed. After assembling all four parts, the Scorched Queen will breathe life into the Ancient Guardian - the only entity capable of closing the Seal.
Ancient Guardian
But beware! The mere presence of the Ancient Seal summons foul plagues on your settlement. Every Storm, a new plague will be unleashed, hindering your efforts to resurrect the Guardian.
To oppose the tormenting force of the plagues, you can construct a Beacon Tower - an ancient structure that allows you to summon aid directly from the Smoldering City and choose from 9 temporary support abilities (with a limited number of charges).
Reforging each Seal will not only grant you the Queen's appreciation and extra resources. It will also push back the Blightstorm and prolong the Cycle permanently.
The future
The Sealed Forest was one of the largest items on our Early Access roadmap. Now that it’s finally out, the only things left on there are the tutorial improvements, Steam Deck verification, and (as always) community-inspired changes. But fear not! We also have plans for yet another big feature, although we are not ready to reveal anything substantial about it just now.
In the very near future, we will most likely focus on a few smaller size updates again, with more UX and UI changes, bug fixes, and smaller gameplay improvements. And once we’re ready, we will show you the next big and exciting thing coming to Against the Storm.
As always - thank you all for providing feedback and suggestions for the new update. If you’d like to share your ideas for upcoming updates, here are some useful links:
P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!
CHANGELOG
Number of changes: 56 Inspired by community: 91%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
⚡ Revamped the Sealed Forest biome. It now has a unique mechanic, new visuals, and a new win condition - a hidden Seal that needs to be found and reforged in order to win the game.
The Sealed Forest is a special biome only present around Seals on the World Map. It’s accessible only once during each Cycle, as a “final boss encounter”.
Deep inside the Sealed Forest, an ancient, broken Seal is hidden. To find it, players have to look for Guidance Stones in surrounding glades and triangulate the Seal’s location.
To win a game in the Sealed Forest, players need to successfully reforge the Seal. This can only be done with the help of an Ancient Guardian.
Ancient Guardians are old, magical constructs created by an old civilization. However, thousands of years of being exposed to the Storm and the influence of the Seal have taken a toll on them. To make use of them again, players have to reconstruct them.
To reconstruct a guardian, four parts are needed - the heart, the blood, the feathers, and the life essence. To acquire a part, players need to complete special, challenging objectives.
All objectives can be seen in the Seal panel. Each guardian part has 3 objectives assigned to it, testing the settlement’s performance in different aspects (industry, well-being, exploration). To acquire a part, only one of these objectives must be completed. After collecting a guardian part, the next set of tasks for the next item will be shown.
Completing a Seal objective not only awards a guardian part but also gives players a free Epic Cornerstone choice.
Seal objectives have two difficulty settings - for games at the Settler/Pioneer difficulty levels, and for games at Veteran and above.
The mere presence of the Seal causes terrible plagues to appear in the settlement. Plagues are randomly generated every year and are only active during the Storm. They can be anything from a simple production speed decrease to a powerful curse that spawns a dangerous or forbidden glade event near the Hearth.
To help players survive in this harsh environment, a new building is at their disposal - the Beacon Tower.
The Beacon Tower is a powerful ancient structure that allows players to summon aid directly from the Citadel. It gives access to three types of temporary support abilities: supplies, bells, and miracles.
Support abilities are active only for one season and have a limited number of uses per category.
Hostility works differently in the Sealed Forest. It doesn’t increase with assigned Woodcutters. Instead, it grows by 2 points for every 10 felled trees.
There are two types of trees in the Sealed Forest - small and big ones. Small ones have only 2 resource charges (like normal trees in all other biomes), and big ones have 20 charges.
Trees in the Sealed Forest give wood, meat, sea marrow, and leather. Wood is guaranteed, the other resources have a 10% chance of dropping.
The Sealed Forest has the following resources:
Berries
Mushrooms
Roots
Meat
Insects
Reeds
Clay
Sea Marrow
Copper Ore
Although the Sealed Forest has a different win condition than all other biomes (reforging the Seal instead of collecting all Reputation points), Reputation points can still be collected as usual and will unlock blueprints and lower Impatience.
The Sealed Forest has new unique visuals - terrain, trees, seasonal effects, fog, camera effects, etc.
There are 12 new unique music tracks available only in the Sealed Forest. There are also numerous new sounds and ambient effects.
The Seal is tended by a Seal Keeper, Rahatiel, who guides Viceroys through the process of reforging it. Every time a new guardian part is acquired, he will offer a bit of additional context. Every guardian part also has a lore description when hovering over it.
Balance
⚡ Changed the objective of the Great Expansion Timed Order from having one level 3 and one level 2 Hearth to having two level 2 Hearths.
UX/UI improvements
Changed the wording in the French version of the Decadence stat tooltip in the in-game Encyclopedia to make it clearer.
Improved the wording in multiple places in the French version of the game (decadence stat tooltip, all mentions of ancient seals).
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused some buildings to break if a worker got killed the moment they got assigned.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Game History tab sometimes closing on its own.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Seal Contract UI sometimes incorrectly labeling the Bronze Seal as “Gold”.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused stacked bonuses from Cornerstones like Exploration Expedition to disappear after the first timer ran out.
⚡ Fixed a bug with tracked goods not immediately appearing on the HUD after being added to the storage for the first time.
⚡ Fixed a bug with a missing tooltip in the Into the Ruins order.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Unbearable Smell effect from the Blight Filter Cornerstone now displaying its tooltip correctly.
⚡ Fixed an incorrect description in the tooltip of the Inspiring Work effect.
⚡ Fixed an issue with a duplicated reward in the ruined Provisioner building.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Worker’s Rations Cornerstone being given to the player after catching a Treasure Stag.
⚡ Fixed an issue with some forbidden glades not uncovering correctly.
⚡ Fixed an issue with resources being incorrectly ordered in the Crystalized Dew recipe.
⚡ Fixed an issue with resources being incorrectly ordered in the Purging Fire recipe.
⚡ Fixed a few typos in the Polish translation of the game (Beanery Worker profession name, glade event tooltips).
⚡ Fixed multiple typos in the Traditional Chinese version of the game (profession names, mining tooltips, upgrades, alerts, dialogue, intro).
⚡ Fixed a typo in the Thai version of the Royal Resupply reward.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the German translation of the Roaming Swarm World Event curse.
⚡ Fixed a few typos in the Korean translation of order objectives tied to rainwater usage.
Fixed a visual glitch on some brick wall textures.
Other
⚡ Added 12 new music tracks to the game, exclusive to the Sealed Forest biome.
Improved the sound performance of the game and changed how effects are loaded into memory.
Changed the main menu background.
The current game version is 0.58.2.
COMMUNITY CORNER
Check out some of the best community screenshots, artwork, and memes from recent days. Click to unfold: [expand="more" type="show"] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3024531673 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3024531673
At the time of writing this article, it's so hot out here people have started calling it the Smoldering City. Take our advice: grab a glass of cold water, turn up those soothing rain sounds, and enjoy the new Against the Storm Update.
Here's what's new:
Seal Contracts - pick the Seals for the next Cycle
3 new World Events
Custom resource category
New Prestige 15 modifier (Longer Storm was moved to Viceroy difficulty)
Rebalanced Timed Orders
and more!
Before we move on to the design notes and the full changelog, please bear with us for a few smaller announcements.
LIMITED-EDITION PLUSH
We recently launched the crowdfunding campaign for the Beaver Villager plushie - Against the Storm's first-ever official merch!
They are only around for a limited time and you have until September 3 to order. After that, they'll be gone forever.
Each plushie comes with an exclusive "Beaver villager in peril" background art.
You can learn a little more here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/6347313345428050770
P.S. The campaign has already been successful and reached its minimum threshold! Huge thanks to everyone who already supported the campaign. Take good care of our lovely little woodworkers!
MEET US AT GAMESCOM
We're heading to gamescom! You can meet us at the Hooded Horse booth on the show floor in Hall 10.1. from August 23 to August 27. If you're attending, come say hi!
DEVELOPER NOTES
Today’s update is the last one… before we finally give you the revamped Sealed Forest biome in two weeks (you can already test the new mechanics with some placeholder art on the Experimental Branch)! So to make this wait that much sweeter, we bring you some new content, balance changes, and UI improvements. We’re talking Seal Contracts, new World Events, difficulty changes, timed order balance, and much, much more. Let’s dive into it!
First off, the namesake of this update - the Seal Contracts. Since releasing the overhauled World Map a few updates ago, we’ve gotten quite a lot of feedback about players wanting to reset their Seal progress or being able to play a closer Seal in case they can’t make it to a distant one. To address this, we came up with the Seal Contracts feature. This new system allows players to choose the Seals they want to see on the World Map each time they finish a Cycle (up to 3 types at once, so 6 Seals in total per Cycle). For example, you might want to have your most recently reforged Seal on the map, as well as the next one in line, but also the one you completed a long time ago just in case you decide to have a more relaxed session.
Seal Contracts
Three Seals
This system also works the other way around - you might want to attempt the Cobalt Seal very early on in your playthrough, even though your most recently reforged Seal is the Lead one. This would of course be a very difficult endeavor, as Cycle length is still determined by the highest reforged Seal, but no one’s going to stop you from trying.
But Seal Contracts aren’t the only big thing coming in this update. We also bring you 3 brand-new World Events. They are mostly centered around exchanging Citadel Resources (as a way of helping players in their Smoldering City progression) and spawning selected modifiers (as a way of combating some bad RNG when hunting for Deeds). Additionally, we also changed how the World Map is generated. From now on, after reforging the Gold Seal (Viceroy difficulty), there will be more modifiers and events in general and spawn rates will be shifted more in favor of negative modifiers rather than positive ones.
Roaming Fishmen Tribe
Balance-wise, this update brings a whole host of community-inspired tweaks. Most importantly, we decided to change the Prestige 15 difficulty modifier. Instead of prolonging the Storm, it now increases the threshold of Resolve required to generate Reputation after each earned point. However, this doesn’t mean the Storm will become shorter in Prestige games. We simply moved the Storm duration effect to the Viceroy difficulty, making it no longer a Prestige modifier, but a regular stat increase.
Now, why did we do this? Mainly because Storm duration effects are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they make the game harder, as players need to withstand hostile conditions for a longer period. On the other hand, at a certain point, a longer Storm is more of a bonus than a penalty (for example, by prolonging each year and making it easier to achieve certain objectives or postponing Hostility increases). That’s why we decided it would make for a good challenge on earlier difficulty levels, especially considering that a lot of recent updates have introduced various buffs and additional ways of dealing with setbacks, and there was always an effect missing between Veteran and Prestige 1 (both Veteran and Viceroy had the “Blight & Corruption” tag in the Embarkation Panel).
But that’s not all. In this update, we also took a closer look at timed orders (nerfing the hardest ones and trying to make them more attractive in general), rebalanced the Fuming Machinery glade event (it now has a smaller explosion before the main one, and has a longer timer), excluded roads from construction-cost-increasing effects, and revamped a few Cornerstones.
Lastly, as with every update, we took the time to improve the user experience and fix some bugs. Most notably, we added an option to track resources on the HUD. You can now simply click on a resource in the Warehouse panel to add it to a custom category of goods. It will then appear on the top of the screen, right next to all the other categories.
Resources tracking
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:
P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!
CHANGELOG
Number of changes: 76 Inspired by community: 88%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
⚡ Added 3 new World Events.
Sadrath The Wise
Brass Order Engineers
Roaming Fishmen Tribe
Although we don’t want to spoil too much about these new events in this changelog, they revolve mostly around two design ideas: exchanging one Citadel Resource for another, and spawning selected World Map modifiers.
⚡ Added a new system - Seal Contracts.
Seal Contracts allow you to select which Ancient Seals you will be able to see on your World Map during a Cycle.
Seals can be chosen in the Cycle Summary View, after clicking the button in the lower right corner of the screen.
You can select between 1 and 3 Seal types at a time. The Seals will be visible on the World Map after the Cycle reset. Each Seal type will spawn 2 Seals (so up to 6 Seals in total in a Cycle).
Seal Contracts become available once you beat the Gold Seal for the first time.
You can choose any Seal you want. Even if you have beaten the Adamantine Seal, you can select the Bronze Seal to spawn.
To get more information about a Seal, simply hover your cursor above it in the Seal Contract UI. The tooltip will show the distance, the number of required fragments, and the minimum difficulty level.
Seal progression works the same way as it did until now - when starting from Bronze, you will naturally climb up to Gold. Once you beat Gold, you will select your own Seals every Cycle.
Cycle duration is still determined by the highest reforged Seal.
Balance
⚡ Changed how the World Map is generated once the player beats the Gold Seal (Viceroy difficulty).
Increased the number of modifiers on the map.
Increased the number of events on the map.
Decreased the probability of positive modifiers spawning, in favor of more negative ones.
⚡ Changed the Prestige 15 modifier. Instead of prolonging the Storm, it now increases the threshold of Resolve required to generate Reputation after each gained point.
Malcontents - You took a very peculiar group of settlers with you. They seem perpetually dissatisfied. Each species' Resolve to Reputation threshold increases by 1 more point after every Reputation Point they generate.
This change was made because the storm duration increase wasn’t really a significant difficulty increase on such a high Prestige level. In some cases, it was even a bonus - as it increased the duration of the entire year, making some objectives easier to achieve.
Moved the increased Storm duration effect from Prestige 15 to Viceroy difficulty.
The Storm now lasts 4 minutes instead of 2 starting from the Viceroy difficulty.
We decided to move the effect to Viceroy because of a few reasons.
Viceroy was the only difficulty level missing a significant change (like the ones described below the difficulty selector in the Embark Panel).
A lot of recent updates have introduced various buffs and new ways of dealing with setbacks, so we wanted to gently nudge the game in a direction that is a bit more challenging again.
Storm duration effects simultaneously make the game more difficult and easier in some aspects. On one hand, players have to withstand hostile conditions for a longer period, but on the other hand, a longer Storm can also be a buff by prolonging each year and making it easier to achieve certain objectives, or by postponing Hostility increases.
⚡ Rebalanced the Fuming Machinery glade event.
Increased the time limit before the consequence triggers.
The first explosion is a smaller one - destroying only resource nodes and trees, and killing villagers in a radius of 5 fields (the second explosion is the normal one, and it removed the event with it).
⚡ Rebalanced numerous timed orders.
Reckless Viceroy - renamed to "The Source", moved to tier 3 from 4, requires players to use rainwater (all 3 types), time limit changed to 10 minutes.
Urgent Shipment - renamed to "Technological Progress", requires players to have 10 Rain Engines installed, time limit changed to 10 minutes.
Beaver Colony - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
Human Colony - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
Lizard Colony - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
Harpy Colony - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
Homes for Foxes - time limit increased to 8 minutes (from 5 minutes 30 seconds).
Large Parcel - objective to deliver Packs of Crops replaced by Oil (30), time limit changed to 10 minutes.
Construction Work - time limit increased to 8 minutes, changed rewards to Oil Delivery Line, Advanced Smithing, and 30 Planks.
Coal Fever - now requires players to deliver 100 Coal.
Copper Fever - now requires players to deliver 100 Copper Ore.
Trading Master - now requires players to finish 3 trade routes with a minimum value of 25 Amber, time limit changed to 15 minutes and 30 seconds.
Herbalist's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Herbs, reward change from Big Phials to Tea Infuser.
Scavenger's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Insects.
Trapper's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Insects.
Mushrooming - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Herbs
Stonecutter's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added second objective to deliver Roots, reward changed from Plantation Blueprint to Clay Pit.
Forager's Trial - objective changed from “produce in camp” to “deliver goods”, added a second objective to deliver Grain, changed rewards from Grill Blueprint to Plantation Blueprint, and from Bigger Ovens to Puffed Grain.
Fearless - time limit increased to 15 minutes.
Venturesome Leader - reduced the number of glades players have to discover by 1.
Lumber Mill Efficiency Test - now requires players to deliver Planks and Barrels (60), time limit increased to 8 minutes, reward changed to Reinforced Axes (30% woodcutting speed) and Grove Blueprint.
Greedy Merchant - now requires players to sell goods worth at least 80 Amber.
Time of Courage - reduced the number of glades players have to discover by 2, time limit changed from 20 minutes 30 seconds to 15 minutes.
Zealous Scouts - time limit increased from 11 minutes to 15 minutes
Beer Snacks - renamed to “Let it Rain”, now requires players to have 8 Rain Engines installed and to deliver Drizzle and Clearance Water (150), moved to tier 3.
Thirsty Trader - changed the objective from delivering Waterskins to delivering Wine (40).
Into the Ruins - reduced the number of ruins players have to rebuild or salvage 1, added the objective to complete a glade event by making a corruption decision, increased the number of Tools given as a reward from 20 to 24.
Great Expansion - changed the objective from having two Hearths at level 3 to having one Hearth at level 3 and another at level 2, changed rewards from the Smithy Blueprint to Temple Blueprint, time limit changed to 10 minutes.
Advanced Cuisine - changed objective from producing goods in the Cookhouse to delivering Skewers, Jerky, and Porridge, changed rewards from the Rain Mill Blueprint to the Tavern Blueprint.
⚡ Slightly lowered the spawn rate of the Merchant Shipwreck glade event.
⚡ Construction cost for roads no longer scales with effects, modifiers, and perks (so a Stone Road will always cost 1 Stone, even on Prestige levels).
⚡ Shuffled a few Citadel Upgrades around.
Training Expeditions are now unlocked with the Obsidian Archive Level 8 Upgrade, and the Daily Expedition unlock was moved up to Obsidian Archive Level 10.
The Stocked Caravans Upgrade was moved down to Dim Square Level 6, and the Extra Merchandise Upgrade was moved up to Dim Square Level 10.
Villagers will now move slower when going through buildings.
Re-enabled and rebalanced a few previously disabled Cornerstones and Forest Mysteries.
Exploration Expedition - You took some of the best explorers from the Smoldering City with you. Gain +5 to Global Resolve for 180 seconds every time a new glade is discovered, but woodcutting is 33% slower until you open at least 2 glades.
Woodcutter’s Song (previously Thrill of Exploration) - "It's off to work we go". Every 20 felled trees, Global Resolve is increased by +3 for 120 seconds.
Frequent Caravans - The Crown is very forgiving, as long as the goods keep flowing. Impatience grows 30% slower for 180 seconds every time you finish a trade route.
Gentle Dawn - New year, new challenges. Every small glade discovered grants +10% to planting speed during Drizzle (this effect is added retroactively).
Previously, Cornerstones such as Exploration Expedition, Thrill of Exploration, and Frequent Caravans gave timed bonuses that didn’t stack (only their timer extended as the perk kept triggering). From now on, time will not be added, but the effects will stack (no now you can get a powerful, but short +20 bonus to Resolve for opening 4 glades, instead of getting an almost 10-minute long +5 bonus).
Removed the Food Stockpiles reward from the Untamed Wilds World Map Modifier.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ Goods can now be tracked using a custom resource category on the top HUD.
There is now a new resource category on the top HUD, called “Tracked Goods”.
To track a resource, simply click on its icon in the Warehouse building panel.
You can untrack a resource by clicking on it again.
Tracked goods are marked with a small checkmark in the corner of their icon.
⚡ Stormforged Cornerstones are now displayed in the Game History tab.
⚡ Changed the wording used in the description of the Hidden from the Queen Cornerstone to make it clearer that the Impatience penalty starts at the beginning of year 8.
⚡ The Decadent attribute in the species tab in the in-game Encyclopedia now shows a numerical value instead of a tag.
Changed the wording used in House Upgrades to make it clearer where bonuses on the perk HUD came from.
Improved the wording in the Followers of the Forsaken Gods World Event description.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Blight Filter Cornerstone increasing Cyst generation rate instead of lowering it.
⚡ Fixed a bug with some workers getting stuck on trees when trying to reach Abandoned Caches.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused perks tied to trade routes to be drafted for players who haven’t unlocked this feature yet.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused some areas to become blocked when moving a building.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the newcomer timer showing time offset by 30 seconds.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Makeshift Extractor water tank expansion bonus not stacking.
⚡ Fixed a bug with trade routes not being sorted correctly based on distance.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the Purified Human House to have Beaver-specific upgrades.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Obsidian Runestone effect listed in the Hearth UI not having an icon and name.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Blight Filter effect being incorrectly listed in building UIs (under a wrong name).
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused won games to be marked as a loss if players decided to continue a settlement and lost all their villagers.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Twitch integration blocking choices when one is set to “automatic”, and the other to “opt-in”.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the iCUE Lightning integration sometimes not working correctly.
⚡ Fixed an issue with some starting glades having trees on top of fertile soil.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Flawless Rain Mill using Drizzle Water instead of Clearance Water.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Cycle summary listing failed towns even if there were none.
⚡ Fixed an issue with wrong profession names being assigned to workers.
⚡ Fixed an incorrect description in the Encyclopedia entry about sacrificing goods during the Storm.
⚡ Fixed an issue with Training Expedition settlements having an incorrect name in the Game History tab.
⚡ Fixed an issue with some descriptions using regular hyphens instead of non-breaking ones.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the Japanese description of the Forbidden Seal Shard Cornerstone.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the German description of the Roaming Swarm World Event effect.
Other
⚡ Starting with the next update, Cycle blessings and bonuses will no longer be removed after a force-finished settlement.
Why doesn’t this work with today’s patch? That’s because we first needed to prepare the backend for this change and alter the save structure.
To make up for this, you will be given a free Royal Resupply for the settlement force-finished by today’s update.
Come join us later today at 3:00 pm UTC on our Twitch channel for a livestream during which we’ll present the changes coming in tomorrow’s Seal Contracts Update:
The main highlight of the Update is the new Seal Contracts feature that allows the selection of up to 3 types of Seals that will generate during the next Cycle. With this feature, we hope to satisfy the popular request to replay the early Seals or to play short Cycles.
If you can’t join us live, the recording will be later uploaded to our YouTube channel, where we keep the Livestream Archive playlist with the recordings of all our streams.
We can’t wait to see you later today and kindly remind you that as usual, all the ongoing settlements will have to be force-finished (more information below) when the update goes live tomorrow.
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
How to prepare
We release new content Updates every two weeks on Thursdays around 1 pm – 3 pm UTC. As we make multiple changes to the game’s systems, balance, and content, the game needs to force-finish any settlements that are in progress when you download the update. This aims to prevent various game-breaking bugs that could occur otherwise.
IMPORTANT: If you have a settlement in progress, it will have to be force-finished when you download the Update. You will be reimbursed with Citadel Resources but you will have to start a new settlement. Your meta progress (that is: Experience, Level, completed Deeds, unlocked Upgrades, Citadel Resources, etc.) will remain intact.
In the main menu, under the “Play” button, there’s a countdown to upcoming Updates. Please finish your current settlement before the update day if you don’t want it to be completed automatically.
In collaboration with Makeship, we launched the crowdfunding campaign for the Beaver Villager plushie. This is the first-ever official Against the Storm merch and we’re super excited to let you welcome those adorable lumberjacks into your homes.
They are only around for a limited time and you have until September 3 to order. Once it’s gone, it’s gone!
Every plushie purchase comes with exclusive digital background art (Beaver villager in peril) in two sizes:
Desktop: 3840x2160
Tablet: 2048x2732
The art will be distributed after a successful campaign ends.
As with all other plushies on Makeship, the Beaver Villager costs $29.99 plus shipping costs.
These limited-edition plushies only get made if enough people support them, so please help us spread the word and pick up your own while you can: https://www.makeship.com/products/beaver-villager-plush
We're excited to invite you to the Experimental version of the upcoming Sealed Forest Update. It will introduce the proper Sealed Forest biome with unique visuals and gameplay mechanics.
This Experimental Update features only the mechanical aspects. All the visual assets are placeholders that will be replaced when the proper update goes live.
Important: as with any other Experimental Update, the upcoming changes are not localized, there can be bugs, and the balance is likely to feel off. If this doesn’t sound fun to you, we recommend skipping this experiment.
We finally have a solid release date for the Sealed Forest Update. It’s going to be available on the main branch on August 31.
It’s going to happen later than we teased during our Twitch livestreams but we made this decision for a few reasons. Mainly, our team is going to the gamescom fair in Cologne only a few days after the update would go live. We’re worried we wouldn’t be able to properly support the update post-launch and fix the issues that might occur.
Nevertheless, we hope it will be worth the wait!
Now, let’s dive into the changes introduced in the update.
What’s new?
So far, the Sealed Forest was just a placeholder biome with placeholder effects. Now, we’re introducing a fully-fledged Ancient Seal mechanic that is unique to this biome. Your goal is to find the Ancient Seal and collect Guardian Parts necessary to summon the Ancient Guardian.
The Sealed Forest
Somewhere in this thick and dark forest, an ancient seal is hidden. Even the Ancients, with all their might and glory, could only contain the creatures slumbering below, so they just imprisoned them. Over millennia, their sinister power gradually seeped to the surface, infecting the fauna and flora of this region. Viceroys don't embark here to establish settlements or gain reputation, their main goal is simply to find and close the Seal.
Sealed Forest trees
The flora in this region is bizarrely mutated. Overgrown trees with a lot more resource charges can be found in the forest. Abyssal trees (regular) contain 2 charges, while overgrown trees (large) contain 20 charges. By chopping the trees, you can acquire:
Wood (100% chance)
Meat (10% chance)
Sea Marrow (10% chance)
Leather (10% chance)
But beware! Your woodcutters don't increase Hostility but every 10 felled trees add 2 Hostility points (scaled based on the difficulty level).
A broken Ancient Seal is hidden somewhere in the Sealed Forest. To find it, you must first look for clues in the surrounding glades. Every glade contains a Destroyed Guidance Stone that points to the location of the Ancient Seal.
Destroyed Guidance Stone pointing south-west
The Ancient Seal
Evil has survived. The Sealed Ones enter our realm through the broken Seal. Terrible plagues are sent to destroy us. Collect the lost fragments of the Ancient Guardian to summon it and close the Seal.
Ancient Seal
This game can't be won by earning Reputation Points. To succeed, you must find and close the Seal. You can still get Blueprint Bonuses and Forsaken Altar activations for reaching certain Reputation thresholds, but reaching the limit won’t finish the game.
Ancient Seal panel
The Ancient Seal panel consists of different elements:
The Seal Keeper dialogue box.
Plague description and countdown.
Ancient Guardian parts progress
Part variants and conditions.
Part rewards.
Let’s take a closer look at them.
The Ancient Guardian parts
To reforge the Seal you must rebuild the ancient guardian by obtaining its bones, blood, heart, and life essence.
Four parts are necessary to summon the Guardian:
Heart of the Guardian
Blood of the Guardian
Feathers of the Guardian
Life Essence of the Guardian
There are three different variants of each part. To acquire one of them, you must prove your proficiency in a certain area.
For example, here are three variants of the Heart:
Heart of Amber - Sell goods worth at least 100 Amber in a single transaction.
Heart of the Forest - Earn 3 Reputation Points from Events.
Mechanical Heart - Install at least 6 Rain Engines in production buildings.
You only need to obtain one of them to progress the Seal and uncover the objectives of the next Guardian part.
After acquiring each of the Guardian's parts, you will receive a choice of Epic Cornerstone from the Seal Keeper.
By collecting all four Guardian parts, the Seal will be reforged! The Blighstorm comes yet again, but the future looks a little brighter. You will receive extra Citadel Resources, the Cycle will be prolonged (only once per each Seal level), and new Seals will appear on the World Map.
The Plagues
The mere presence of the Ancient Seal summons foul plagues on your settlement.
Every year, during the Storm, one of 13 plagues will be unleashed upon your settlement. Some exemplary ones are:
Plague of Malady - The Sealed Ones have inflicted a mysterious disease. Villagers take longer rests and have a higher chance of consuming twice as much food during a break.
Plague of Darkness - Some say this is the beginning of the end. The Storm season is longer and sacrificing goods at the Ancient Hearth is blocked.
Plague of Blindness - When they lost their sight, they lost all hope along with it. All villagers move slower and have a chance of destroying a production yield.
And others.
You can check what’s the Current Plague and then what the Next Plague will be (and how much time you have left before it starts.)
The Plagues will activate every year, even if you haven’t found the Ancient Seal yet. Finding an Ancient Seal allows you to check which Plague comes next.
The Beacon Tower
A powerful ancient structure that allows you to summon aid directly from the Citadel.
Beacon Tower
The Beacon Tower is a new building, available only in the Sealed Forest biome. You must spend 2 Planks, 2 Bricks, and 2 Fabric to build it.
The Beacon Tower allows you to select up to five, free abilities at any time during the game. They’re divided into three categories: Supplies, Bells, and Miracles. They range from one-time packs of supplies to effects that are active for one season.
The Future
The proper Sealed Forest Update that releases on August 31 will include plenty of new visuals and audio:
Sealed Forest biome (unique trees, ground, and ambience)
Ancient Seal building
Animation of reforging the Seal
Beacon Tower building
Destroyed Guidance Stone building
Custom icons
Improved Ancient Seal panel
New music tracks
New sounds
In the meantime, we will also monitor your feedback and adjust the balance where necessary.
How to test it?
In order to play on the Sealed Forest Biome, you need to switch to the Experimental Branch. Here’s how to do it:
Open Steam
Right-click on Against the Storm in your library
Select Properties
Go to BETAS tab
Choose “experimental” from the drop-down list
Wait for the game to update the files
Launch the game
To switch back to the regular version, please repeat the steps above but choose “None” from the drop-down list in Step 5.
The Experimental Branch includes a developer console that provides various useful commands. You can open the console by pressing the ~ key on your keyboard.
Useful commands:
debug.worldMap 1 - Allows you to place finished settlements on the World Map by holding Shift and clicking on a tile.
game.win - after embarking, in the city-building mode, this command wins the game.
meta.addEarly - unlocks early Smoldering City Upgrades (up to level 4), completes the Silver Seal, and advances to level 4.
meta.addMiddle - unlocks middle Smoldering City Upgrades (up to level 9), completes the Platinum Seal (Prestige 5), and advances to level 9.
meta.addLate - unlocks late Smoldering City Upgrades (up to level 14), completes the Titanium Seal (Prestige 15), and advances to level 14.
meta.addAll - unlocks all Smoldering City Upgrades, completes all Seals, and advances to level 18.
worldMap.addSealFragments - add Seal Fragments.
worldMap.addModifiersRewards - adds Royal Resupply.
worldMap.addAllMC - adds 777 of each Citadel Currency.
Important: We recommend playing with at least the early meta (meta.addEaly) as the Bronze (Settler) and Lead (Pioneer) Seals require additional balancing work.
How to report bugs?
If you encounter any issues, please let us know about them:
Describe the issue and frequency of occurrence.
(If possible) include a screenshot or a video of the issue.
Include the zipped contents of your entire Experimental saves folder: %userprofile%\appdata\locallow\Eremite Games\Against the Storm - Experimental
You can send the report with files on Discord or via email: support@eremitegames.freshdesk.com
Big Hauler Station Panel
Small Hauler Station
