Thank you for all the feedback regarding the ongoing World Map Overhaul experimental. If you haven’t checked it yet, here’s the original Update news: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3726210660308443444 With today's new update, we want to test the changes that address the most prevailing areas of feedback from the previous Experimental Update, while still exploring the concept of Seals and the overall structure of Cycles.
Changelog:
⚡ Cycles are once again counted in years instead of games.
⚡ Embarkation Points are now split into two pools, base and reserve. Base points regenerate after each game and can be spent only on a particular run (basically they work like the Embarkation Points on the main branch), while additional points collected via activities on the World Map are added to the Cycle-lasting reserve.
⚡ The Cycle can be finished at any point now, be it to play the Sealed Biome early or to start fresh. To finish the Cycle, click on the End Cycle icon in the bottom right corner.
⚡ Fixed a bug that made Daily Expeditions unplayable on the Experimental Branch.
The future
For the next iteration, we want to explore the possibility of World Map events - encounters you can stumble upon while exploring the world map, as well as a new system of improving your Caravan throughout the Cycle, by completing activities on the World Map.
You can either start from the very beginning or simulate progress with those 3 commands:
meta.addEarly
meta.addMiddle
meta.addLate
What are we interested in?
If you decide to play the Experimental Update, please share your thoughts with us!
Primarily, we are interested in your answers to the following questions:
Do you think this update makes changes for the better or for the worse compared to the previous version?
Have you found the journey toward the Seals compelling?
Are the Seals a clear enough goal for you?
Did you feel there were interesting decisions to make on the World Map?
Is there anything about these new mechanics that makes the gameplay feel worse (especially more repetitive) or better (especially more diverse)?
We can’t wait to hear your impressions once you give the new Experimental Update a try!
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
Update Preview Livestream (Fishman Soothsayer)
Greetings, Viceroys!
We invite you to join us later today at 3:00 pm UTC on our Twitch channel for a preview of tomorrow’s Fishman Soothsayer Update which will introduce a new glade event and multiple balance changes.
We will also dedicate a large portion of the stream to the current Experimental Update in which we’re overhauling the World Map Cycle. In a few hours, we also plan to release a new patch for the Experimental Branch with significant changes to the system, so if you’re following the experimental changes, keep your eyes open for the announcement.
We hope to see you later today and as always we remind you to prepare for the upcoming update by finishing your current settlements. If this is your first Against the Storm update, please check out a short update guide below
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.
As we hinted in the last update notes, we decided to focus the next phase of the Early Access on the meta layer and World Map in particular. Today’s Experimental Update marks the very first step in that long journey and we hope you’ll keep us company as we stride.
Be advised! As with the Blightrot Revamp back in December, this Experimental is planned to be developed in the span of many weeks and we want to invite you to the development process in its very early stages. We are talking programmer art level of roughness, balance imperfections, and occasional bugs. If this is not something you would enjoy, consider skipping this Experimental Update.
What’s the problem?
In our opinion, the game currently has two large gaping holes:
a lack of any form of closure (a lack of overarching goals)
an unfinished World Map layer.
As we got the opportunity to prolong the Early Access period, we wanted to tackle both of these holes with a series of smaller but connected overhauls.
We decided to focus on Cycles first, as this is the starting point for any further changes to the meta layer. Their lack of structure, risk, and goals combined with a rather dull system of influence ranking was the main reason why the World Map felt insignificant and starved of meaningful choices.
Ancient Seals
The very first thing you will notice after launching the Experimental Branch is that the World Map is much larger and is filled with 16 special fields, visible above the fog. There are two such fields for each of the 4 basic difficulty levels, and two for Prestige 5, Prestige 10, Prestige 15, and Prestige 20. Each of these fields contains a Seal.
The Seals are surrounded by a Sealed Biome and are available only when a range of conditions are met:
The Blightstorm is almost there
A sufficient number of Seal Fragments were gathered (explained below)
The Seal is within the reach of your last town
If you meet all of the above conditions, you have one chance to embark on the map with a Seal and try to reforge it (in the current, first implementation, the Sealed Biome is a Cursed Royal Woodlands with a set of special modifiers). Winning that game will grant you regular rewards and a percentage of all meta resources gathered in the current Cycle.
The first condition is quite straightforward - you can only try to reforge a Seal at the very end of the Cycle. If for any reason you can’t or fail while doing it, the chance is lost and you will have to try again at the end of the next Cycle.
The second condition is Seal Fragments. The farther the Seal lies from the Smoldering City, the more damaged it is and more fragments are required to reforge it. Seal Fragments are obtained by winning games and can be picked as one of three rewards for playing near negative modifiers. Any leftovers at the end of the Cycle are bought back by the Crown and converted into meta resources.
The last condition is distance. You must be within the embark range of a Seal to start a game there. This sounds pretty obvious but it is also closely connected to the changes in a Cycle’s structure.
Cycle Structure
From now on, your Viceroy’s party has a physical representation and a location once it leaves the Smoldering City. While you can be resupplied in the Citadel, you can only embark from your current location, and your resources are shared throughout the entire Cycle. That means each cycle is one large expedition, one you must plan carefully if you hope to reach the next Seal and progress the world.
The Cycle’s duration is now counted in settlements. As you start the game, the Cycles are short and you can’t venture far, but each new Seal you reforge will reduce the influence of the Sealed Ones on the surface of the world and will prolong the periods between Blighstorms, allowing you to venture much farther. But beware, the farther you travel from the Smoldering City, the harder the games become.
Embarkation Points are now granted once, at the very beginning of the Cycle, and it’s up to you to ration them throughout your journey. To resupply, you can try to tackle negative modifiers. If you succeed, you can pick one of the three rewards:
additional Embarkation Points,
a temporary bonus to vision and range,
or a few Seal Fragments.
Factions & Influence Ranking
Now, let’s talk about the Influence Ranking. This mechanic was neither very intuitive nor fun to interact with. While neatly connected to the scoring system on a settlement layer, on a World Map layer it was but a small puzzle with one rather simple solution. Obscure to newcomers and pointless for advanced players, this system was standing out. For these reasons, we decided to completely remove it from the game. That was the easy part.
Unfortunately, without the Influence Ranking, there are very few reasons to keep the Factions in the game. While they ensure trade routes in the early phases of the Cycle and are an important part of the Against the Storm world, we feel any form of direct confrontation with them would require enormous changes (way beyond our scope, most likely). And what’s worse, it would go against the spirit of the game itself.
So while we do still hope that you will get a chance to meet Fendrit the Firestarter and Dorakric Smeltbringer in person, we are yet to find a role the Factions could play in your journey toward the Seals, as they are currently more of a minor annoyance, than anything else. For now, consider this a work in progress, while we keep ruminating.
Future
Our main goal with this experiment is to make sure the direction we picked with a new Cycle structure, Seals, and the final encounter is the correct one. It’s a foundation for a set of other systems and we can only move forwards once it’s solid.
If and when that happens, the next step is rather obvious - a proper Sealed Biome with distinct aesthetics and a set of its own unique mechanics to ensure the Cycle ends with a proper climax. Then, if there is still time, we have two other systems in store that should satisfy both high-prestige players looking for the ultimate challenge and everyone thirsty for lore, characters, and closure. But that is a story for another time.
We just released a hotfix that deals with the reported issues and adds missing translations. We again apologize to all the affected players for the delay.
Changelog:
Added the missing translations to the new content introduced in yesterday's update - German, French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to break when attacking a trader in the Trading Post.
Fixed a bug with the Rainpunk Drill not having the ore spawn effect attached to the "fix" decision in maps without fertile soil.
Fixed a bug with the Withered Tree working effect scaling off of Trading Routes instead of discovered Glades.
Fixed an issue with the Metallurgic Proficiency perk not affecting Tea production.
Thank you for giving the update a try and sharing your feedback. We wish you all a fantastic weekend!
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
Discover Forest Treasures in the new Update!
It's Thursday, My Viceroys!
Pack some jerky and put your favorite raincoats on - it's time to settle new lands! Remember, fortune favors the bold, and the forests hold many hidden treasures for those who dare to explore them.
What's new:
New small glade events:
Treasure Stags (3 types)
Wandering Merchants (3 types)
Rainpunk Drill
4 new perks
New timed order
And more!
Continue reading for our design notes and the full changelog.
PSA: Later today (at 5:00 pm UTC), TactiCon launches on Steam. It's a festival organized by our publisher - Hooded Horse - dedicated to all kinds of strategy games, filled with sales, demos, and talks.
IMPORTANT: Due to the fact that we didn't receive the translations on time, the update is not yet localized into German, Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese. The new texts are instead temporarily displayed in English.
We deeply apologize for the inconvenience and we'll release the hotfix with the remaining languages as soon as possible.
ROADMAP UPDATE
When we launched Against the Storm on Steam last year, we aimed to stay in Early Access for around half a year.
Fast forward six months and we're here today with only one big feature left on the roadmap: Tutorial improvements.
And yet, we believe that there are still some aspects of the game that need our attention. What's more, the list of your suggestions keeps growing and we ourselves have some ideas for the new content.
That's why we decided to spend a couple more months in Early Access, delivering bi-weekly updates, and occasionally some bigger updates with major features. The next one is already in development!
The next big feature is the World Map Cycle overhaul. It is meant to introduce a goal, a failure state, and an overarching structure to each World Map Cycle. We will remove the Factions' ranking system (but not the Factions themselves) and encourage you to plan a “mini-campaign” at the beginning of each Cycle.
On the World Map, we will generate a set of special tiles, containing Seals. At the very end of the Cycle, you will be offered a choice: to either finish a cycle on the spot or try to close one of the Seals to which you have access. If you succeed, you will be rewarded with meta resources and progression. Your task is to plan the journey, reach the picked Seal, and win a final game in special, harsher conditions.
We are still working on the details so this is all subject to change.
For now, the remaining big features will remain a mystery and we'll only announce them one at a time. This is because the possible 1.0 launch date is to some extent beyond our control and we need to stay flexible due to unknown external factors.
Big content updates aside, we are also committed to providing better support for the Steam Deck and we'll try our best to reach the bar of Steam Deck Verified standard.
tl;dr Here’s the updated Roadmap:
DEVELOPER NOTES
Today’s update focuses on small glades as we’ve gotten quite a bit of feedback over the last couple of weeks about this particular area of the game.
The main highlight is the addition of new and unique event types that can only be found in small glades - Treasure Stags, Wandering Merchants, and Rainpunk Drills. All of them are beneficial (similar to caches and camps) and don’t pose a threat.
Treasure Stags - mythical beasts found in the forest. Once discovered, they flee to a nearby dangerous glade, where they stay for a short period of time. If you open the dangerous glade within the required time limit, you will find them and be rewarded.
Wandering Merchants - hermit traders not tied to the Merchant’s Guild. Once they are found in the forest, a trader icon will appear on the HUD, and you will be able to trade with them for a short while. When the timer runs out, they leave. Wandering Traders have fewer resources and perks on sale (compared to normal traders), but their assortment is unique.
Rainpunk Drills - abandoned pieces of machinery found in the forest. They can be disassembled or repaired. Repairing a Rainpunk Drill spawns a few Copper Ore or Coal nodes in close vicinity.
We’ve gotten quite a lot of feedback about small glades, mostly about how they are too punishing for the reward they offer, and one of the main propositions floating around was a decrease in the amount of Hostility gained for discovering them. While we agree with the need for improvement in this area, we don’t want to devalue dangerous and forbidden glades as a side effect (as they are the epicenter of interesting decisions and risks in the game). By design, small glades are supposed to be somewhat of a sub-optimal (but safe) choice.
Treasure Stag
Rainpunk Drill
Treasure Stag hidden in the glade
But that doesn't mean that they have to be boring. And that’s what we’re trying to address with this update. Our goal is to make small glades more interesting in general by creating new gameplay opportunities and giving more rewards for discovering them. That’s why in previous updates we introduced changes and mechanics that would make that a reality (and shift the balance around between different sizes of glades). Most notably, we added essential camps, gave small glades a high number of Drizzle Water Geysers, added event choices, rebalanced the tool economy, added new perks that rely on opening glades during the Storm, and gave Foxes special abilities tied to Hostility (check this thread for more information). This is of course an ongoing process, and you can expect more small events and general balance changes in the future.
Let’s now move on to some other changes coming in this update. We added four new perks, introduced a new timed order, changed the recipe balance in the Brickyard (three-star Brick recipe, yay!), adjusted event spawn rates in small glades (so there are now more events in general), and improved fuel consumption effect scaling. This last change is more of a technical fix than a big rebalance - to avoid situations in which a firekeeper is doing their best to deliver resources to the Hearth, but the fire goes out anyway (and a notification keeps appearing and disappearing constantly).
Lastly, there are some UX and UI improvements coming with this update. Most notably, we added the biome summary tooltip to the trader panel, the order pick pop-up, and the wildcard panel, and we changed the resource tooltip in order objectives that require you to sell goods (the tooltip now informs you about the buildings that can create said goods). We also fixed a lot of bugs, as is tradition with every update.
Biome summary at Gex Runescale
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. If you've picked up Against the Storm and have been playing it, make sure to leave a Steam review! They help a lot!
CHANGELOG
Number of changes: 45 Inspired by community: 73%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
⚡ Added 3 new types of glade events dedicated to small glades.
These events are not dangerous and are designed to increase the overall attractiveness and viability of small glades. For now, there are 3 categories of such events, and more are to be added in the future.
Treasure Stags (3 types) - mythical beasts found in the forest. Once discovered, they flee to a nearby dangerous glade, where they stay for a short period of time. If you open the dangerous glade within the required time limit, you will find them and be rewarded.
Wandering Merchants (3 types) - hermit traders not tied to the Merchant’s Guild. Once they are found in the forest, a trader icon will appear on the HUD, and you will be able to trade with them for a short while. After the timer runs out, they will leave. Wandering Traders have fewer resources and perks on sale (compared to normal traders), but their assortment is unique.
Rainpunk Drill - an abandoned piece of machinery found in the forest. They can be disassembled or repaired. Repairing a Rainpunk Drill spawns a few Copper Ore or Coal nodes in close vicinity.
Added 4 new perks. They are only available in Dullahan’s Mystery Boxes and can be bought from the new Wandering Merchants.
Badge of Courage - A famous Viceroy emblem passed down from generation to generation. Discovering a glade during the Storm lowers Impatience by 0,5.
Lucky Charm - A strange talisman made from an extremely rare gemstone - blue Amber. Grants 1 additional cornerstone reroll charge.
Firekeeper Letters - The exchange of knowledge between firekeepers can be very beneficial. The maximum number of sacrifice stacks in the Ancient Hearth is increased by 1 for every 2 ongoing trade routes.
Makeshift Water Tank - Increases the tank capacity for every type of rainwater by 50.
Added a new timed order.
Supply Thy Neighbor - with the objective to complete valuable trade routes. This order was added in place of the old Outerwear order (which was disabled after the addition of species abilities in the Sentinels of the Forest update).
Balance
⚡ Changed the recipe tiers in the Brickyard.
Bricks - from 2 stars to 3 stars.
Crystalized Dew - from 2 stars to 1 star.
⚡ Increased the overall spawn rate of beneficial events on small glades (caches, camps, and the new types - traders, rainpunk drills, and stags).
⚡ Slightly lowered the arrival time of traders that were immediately called to the settlement.
⚡ Rebalanced all effects tied to fuel consumption rates, and changed the minimum fuel levels in the Ancient Hearth. The maximum possible value for fuel consumption effects was decreased by around 20 percentage points.
Previously, if players had a particularly unlucky set of modifiers and effects, the game would show notifications about insufficient fuel reserves even if there was enough wood/coal/oil, and a Firekeeper was working without taking breaks. This was because FIrekeepers would refill fuel after reaching a certain threshold, and that threshold was too low.
Humid Climate - changed the fuel consumption rate increase from 25% to 20%.
⚡ Moved the Vanguard Spire Level 5 Citadel Upgrade to level 10 (from level 8). This was done so the essential Fox House wouldn’t be unlocked before having access to Foxes.
⚡ Changed the requirements in the Advanced Outpost Order to avoid repetitions (it now requires a level 3 Hearth instead of level 2 on higher difficulties).
⚡ Changed how the game chooses workers when assigning them to a workplace. From now on, the algorithm will look at two factors to find the optimal worker: the distance from the workplace and the time left before taking a break.
Changed the rewards for the Brotherhood order. Removed the Working Hard and Smart perk and added the Vessel of Incense perk instead.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ Added the biome summary tooltip to the order pick menu, trading panel, and the wildcard panel. You can now hover over the round resource icon next to the NPC portrait in these windows to see what resources are potentially available on your map.
⚡ Changed the name of the “Sheltered” need to “Basic Housing”.
⚡ Added a list of buildings that can produce a given resource to the “sell goods” order objective tooltip.
⚡ Changed the name of the Human Resolve order to avoid confusion.
Improved the wording in the Guild Catalogue perk description (to state clearly that traders can have more perks or blueprints, not Cornerstones).
Changed the description and name of the Resolve effect applied by the Converted Harmony Spirit Altar to avoid confusion.
Changed the name of the Experienced Scout perk to Scout's Toolbox.
Changed Xiadani’s title from Wandering Merchant to The Guild's Outcast.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Makeshift Extractor (a decoration created by converting the Fuming Machinery glade event) not adding rainwater tank capacity.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the “move” button in the Trading Post now working in maps with the Levitating Monument modifier.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the “move” button in the Trading Post not working when another building was selected before clicking on the Trading Post.
⚡ Fixed an issue with perk timers resetting after reaching more than 59 minutes.
⚡ Fixed an incorrect label for the Degradation working effect in the Petrified Tree glade event.
⚡ Fixed a bug with scenes loading twice and breaking the game in some rare cases.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the game crashing when Twitch auto-login was enabled and the initial chat connection failed.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the construction mode breaking when double-clicking on a Geyser Pump.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the construction mode breaking when placing multiple buildings one after another and selecting villagers at the same time.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Trader indicator not changing positions after moving the Trading Post.
⚡ Fixed an issue with species portraits being slightly off-center in the Consumption Control panel.
⚡ Patched up some holes in the Clan Hall building model.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Embark Screen having inconsistencies between UI elements.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the Family Gratitude perk description in the Japanese version of the game.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the “use any rainwater” objective description in the Korean version of the game.
Improved overall stability and fixed numerous smaller bugs behind the scenes (these errors had no real visible representation in the game, but once they occurred in the background, they would influence mechanics and systems in weird ways).
Join us later today on Eremite Games’ Twitch channel for our regular Update Preview Livestream. We’ll show you the upcoming features of tomorrow’s Forest Treasures Update, including the Rainpunk Drill - a new small glade event that can spawn up to three Coal or Copper ores (if Fixed).
That’s not the only small glade event coming in the update, but we’ll keep our secrets until the livestream. See you later!
In the meantime, please make sure you’re ready for the new update and finish your current settlement before the Update goes live on Thursday (May 11 sometime between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm UTC).
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.
The dust has barely settled after Foxes joined the game, but we're already back with the new content update in which we're introducing:
New glade event: Merchant Shipwreck
8 new Deeds
6 new Ghost encounters
7 new Orders
New language: Thai
and more!
Continue reading for our design notes and the full changelog.
RECENT CRASHING PROBLEMS
With the Sentinels of the Forest release, we decided to update our (rapidly aging) Unity engine version. Despite picking the most stable version available (polished by the creators for over a year), the number of crashes in Against the Storm sadly increased. While a large part of the reported issues was solved by updating hardware drivers, we are aware that for some of you the problems still persist. Unfortunately, the source of these crashes is far beyond our reach, and we have a very limited set of tools we can use to fix them.
That being said, the Merchant Shipwreck Update contains a few under-the-hood changes that, while slightly degrading the game's overall performance, will prevent the Unity engine from deadlocking itself. In case that won’t be enough, we will continue looking for a solution with more frequent builds on the Experimental Branch.
DEVELOPER NOTES
The last fourteen days were pretty intense - the reception of the new playable species was very positive, and we’ve received a lot of cool feedback and suggestions. Our community has also grown immensely after the game was recently featured on the front page of Steam. Thank you all for your invaluable support, and please give a warm welcome to all the new Against the Storm players!
With Sentinels of the Forest Update, we finalized the majority of the Early Access goals that we set on the roadmap. So, what else is there in the pipeline for Against the Storm? Worry not, we still have a lot to add to the game, and our usual bi-weekly updates won’t stop anytime soon! We will share a new roadmap in the coming days, so stay tuned!
Let’s now jump right into this newest update. This time, we bring you a variety of new content - a new glade event, new orders, new ghost encounters in the Cursed Royal Woodlands, new deeds, decisions for some previously overlooked events, multiple balance changes, numerous UI improvements, two new music tracks, and official support for the Thai language.
Merchant Shipwreck
Ghost of a Lizard Elder and Ghost of a Fox Scout
First off, let’s talk about events. The most exciting thing is of course the new addition - the Merchant Shipwreck. It’s a destroyed ship found in the middle of the forest. It has two decisions, a working effect tied to trading, and a nasty consequence if it’s not solved (I’ll let you discover that for yourself). We also looked at some older events and added new decisions where there was just one option (like in the Noxious Machinery or Corrupted Caravan). This way the only events left without multiple decisions are the smallest ones, like the Fishmen Totem or Living Matter.
Speaking of Living Matter - it’s no longer called that, as it’s now named “Blood Flower”. We decided to completely change this event’s flavor, description, and model because for a long time now it was causing some problems. Its visuals were simply a particle effect, and due to this, we needed to use an uglier fallback asset for older hardware that couldn’t compile complex shaders/FXs. Plus, quite honestly, the original Living Matter visual representation wasn’t too appealing in the first place. The new Blood Flower on the other hand is prettier, easier to maintain, more unique, and doesn’t require any special treatment for low-end machines.
Blood Flower
This update also fills a few gaps in terms of content. We added 8 new deeds, all tied to the new modifiers introduced a few versions earlier, and we added new ghost encounters to the Cursed Royal Woodlands (you can now find a few Fox ghosts). There are also 7 new orders with new objective types (completing high-value trade routes and discovering glades in quick succession).
We also took some time to improve the game’s balance in a few places. This time it wasn’t just numerical changes though, but rather mechanical adjustments to some smaller systems. Most notably, we changed how Standing is gained in trade routes (it now progresses based on Amber traded, not the number of transactions), and how Cysts are spawned during the Storm (previously, they would always appear opened. Now, if they spawn after the last open cyst was destroyed, they will appear closed). We also adjusted the spawn rates of ghosts in the Cursed Royal Woodlands to minimize the chances of having two or more of the same ghost on one map.
Last, but certainly not least - UX, UI, technical stuff, and other additions. We added the “move” button to the Trading Post, added the option to increase production limits by 5 or 10 (using Shift/Ctrl), and introduced a color-coding system to tooltips (owned blueprints are now highlighted in resource tooltips). We also fixed a ton of bugs, improved the overall stability and performance of the game, and introduced yet another language - Thai!
Trading Post
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. If you've picked up Against the Storm and have been playing it, make sure to leave a Steam review! They help a lot!
CHANGELOG
Number of changes: 85 Inspired by community: 72%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
⚡ Added a new dangerous glade event.
Merchant Shipwreck - How powerful must the storm surge have been to carry this shattered wreck all the way here? Perhaps in the distant past, there was a sea in this place? It looks as if it had been lying here for centuries. Strange voices can be heard from below the deck...
⚡ Added 8 new deeds. All of them are tied to the new modifiers that were introduced into the game a few updates ago.
Frosts - Win a game near the Frosts modifier.
Abandoned Settlement - Win a game near the Abandoned Settlement modifier.
Untamed Wilds - Win a game near the Untamed Wilds modifier.
Land of Greed - Win a game near the Land of Greed modifier.
Petrified Necropolis - Win a game near the Petrified Necropolis modifier.
Gathering Storm - Win a game near the Gathering Storm modifier.
Overgrown Library - Win a game near the Overgrown Library modifier.
Ominous Presence - Win a game near the Ominous Presence modifier.
Added 6 new ghost encounters in the Cursed Royal Woodlands.
Ghost of a Lizard Elder
Ghost of a Lost Scout
Ghost of an Old Merchant
Ghost of a Murdered Trader
Ghost of a Fox Elder
Ghost of a Teadoctor
Added 7 new Orders. All of them make use of new objective types introduced into the game - completing trade routes with a given minimum value, and discovering glades in a short time span.
Profit Margin
Profitable Trade
Fair Exchange
Export Hub
Into the Unknown
Hasty Explorer
All at Once
Balance
⚡ Rebalanced the spawn rates of ghost encounters in the Cursed Royal Woodlands. The chances of coming across two identical ghosts on the same map should now be minimal.
⚡ Changed how cyst spawning during the Storm works. Previously, every Cyst that spawned during the Storm was immediately open. Now, after the last open Cyst was burned, subsequent cysts will appear closed.
This means that if you are in the middle of burning Cysts during the Storm, and a new one appears, it will be open. But if you burn all Cysts, and a new one appears only after the last one has been destroyed, it will lay dormant until the next Storm (or until awakened by an event, like the Infected Mole).
⚡ Changed the Land of Greed modifier effect. It no longer removes event rewards.
Land of Greed - The strange totem causes you to only focus on your wealth... And the Crown is worried. Impatience grows 50% quicker, but every ongoing trade route reduces Impatience generation speed by 20%.
⚡ Added new decisions to 5 already existing glade events.
Corrupted Caravan - with the option to either cleanse it or send contaminated goods to the Citadel (tagged as corruption).
Fuming Machinery - with the option to either tear it down or fix it (and be rewarded with a decoration with a special effect).
Withered Tree - with the option to either cleanse it or cut it down.
Petrified Tree - with the option to either cut it down or heal it (tagged as empathy).
Noxious Machinery - with the option to either cleanse it or tear it down.
⚡ If a player isn’t level 2 after the second tutorial map (because they skipped the tutorial, lost a game, or an update reset their settlement), they will be automatically promoted to level 2 after entering the World Map for the first time.
Changed the reward for the “fix” option in the Leaking Cauldron glade event. Instead of giving Reputation, it spawns fertile soil around.
Changed the way newcomer scaling works. Previously, the number of new villagers was based on the population of a settlement. Now the numbers are based statically on the number of years past. This change was introduced to allow players to recover more quickly after a negative chain of events wipes out a significant portion of their villagers.
Changed the way Standing levels progress when using Trade Routes. Previously, neighboring towns would level up after a fixed number of routes were completed. Now it’s the value of your transactions that counts. This change should introduce more variance into the system, and make it possible to gain Standing more reliably (with big transactions).
Increased the Complex Food requirement in the Vitality effect. It now requires 200 units (instead of 150) of complex food consumed to add the Resolve bonus.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ The Trading Post is now movable. The “move” button can be found in the Trading Panel after selecting the building (you can also move the Trading Post by hovering your cursor over it and pressing M on your keyboard).
⚡ Added an option to rebind the “copy building” function in the Options menu.
⚡ Resource tooltips now show which buildings a player owns (they are highlighted in the list of all buildings that can produce said resource).
⚡ Tooltips for goods are now formatted differently. They display building names in a list and show the star rating of a recipe next to the building name.
⚡ Need tooltips now show which service buildings a player owns (they are highlighted in the list of all buildings that can fulfill said need).
⚡ Holding Shift when changing production limits will now change the number by 10. Holding Ctrl will change the number by 5.
⚡ The clickable area for Woodcutters’ Camp settings has been enlarged.
⚡ Resources in the “related goods” section of the Recipe Popup are now separated based on which slot they are assigned to in the original recipe.
⚡ Clicking on a need icon in a service building will now open the Recipe Panel and automatically search for the good required to satisfy the said need.
⚡ Changed the name and icon of the Obsidian Shovels perk to avoid confusion.
Improved scaling for almost all tooltips in the game. Tooltips should now be able to resize more easily in all directions.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed an issue with the unique effect of the Converted Harmony Altar not taking the Teadoctor into account.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Automaton worker slot still showing the old icon instead of the new one.
⚡ Fixed some overlapping text in Resolve effect tooltips.
⚡ Fixed an issue with ghosts requiring the burning or spawning of cysts appearing for players without Rainpunk unlocked in the Citadel.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused Fox and Lizard icons to not be clickable in the Training Expedition panel.
⚡ Fixed a few outdated pieces of ghost dialogue (they were referencing requests that were no longer present in the game).
⚡ Fixed an issue with a handful of orders appearing in maps where they can’t be completed (like an objective to build farm fields in a map without fertile soil).
⚡ Fixed a bug with scouts not playing any animation when solving the Destroyed Rainpunk Foundry glade event.
⚡ Fixed a bug with scouts not playing any animation when solving the Altar of Decay glade event.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Sealed Vault glade event having an incorrect working effect on higher difficulty levels.
⚡ Fixed an issue with two-line order objectives sometimes cutting into other text on the HUD.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Blight Swarm Prestige modifier not being available in Training Expeditions.
⚡ Fixed a bug with recipes in the mine displaying a one-star efficiency. They are now correctly assigned a two-star tier.
⚡ Fixed a bug that allowed Cornerstones like Firelink Ritual to appear in a game without any species with the need for Religion. From now on, if a need is not represented in a settlement, Cornerstones tied to it will not appear.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the ESC key to sometimes not work correctly when trying to exit the Embark View.
⚡ Fixed an incorrect objective text displayed on the HUD for Orders based on delivering goods.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the visual FX of a completed Order to be displayed above other UI elements.
⚡ Removed an unnecessary dot in the tooltip header of Order objectives based on delivering goods.
⚡ Fixed a bug that allowed the Destroyed Rainpunk Foundry to be deleted with the destruction tool.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the Herb recipe in the Greenhouse to be affected by the Leaking Cauldron working effect.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Mine missing the worker count in the Encyclopedia.
⚡ Fixed an issue with Citadel Resource icons being inconsistently ordered below upgrades in the upgrade tree.
⚡ Fixed an issue with Twitch Chat Polls sometimes breaking after caravan voting.
⚡ Fixed an issue with Twitch Chat Polls breaking after two votes were started at the same time.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Consumption Control panel having a brighter background than other full screen popups.
⚡ Fixed a bug with ore not reappearing while moving a building placed on top of it.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Human Starting Ability showing the fertile soil marker on the edge of the map in games without any fertile soil.
⚡ Fixed a wrong translation in the Korean version of the Voice of the Forest effect.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused some numbers to be obstructed and unreadable in the Japanese version of the game (like for example in the Protected Trade Cornerstone).
⚡ Fixed a typo in house descriptions in the Spanish version of the game.
⚡ Implemented multiple fixes to the Simplified Chinese version of the game (biome descriptions, some effect descriptions, order objectives, etc.).
⚡ Fixed an incorrect translation of the Fungal Guide perk in the Ukrainian version of the game.
⚡ Fixed an issue with two buildings having the same name in the German version of the game (Distillery and Tinctury). Additionally, improved translations in the Embark View and the Carved in Stone perk description.
⚡ Fixed an incorrect translation of the Procrastination effect in the Russian version of the Game. Additionally, we implemented multiple miscellaneous fixes and improvements to the localization (deeds, descriptions, perks).
Fixed a few incorrect profession names assigned to new buildings (Distillery, Beanery, Tea House).
Fixed an issue with female Fox villagers carrying incorrectly rotated objects.
Other
⚡ Added 2 new music tracks to the Cursed Royal Woodlands (during Storm).
Added a new officially supported language - Thai.
Changed the visual representation, name, and description of the Living Matter. The event (and its clone) is now called Blood Flower. This change was introduced mainly to get rid of the old Living Matter model (which was simply a particle effect) and to ground it a bit more in the game’s lore.
Improved overall stability and fixed a few instances of CPU crashes that occurred after the last engine update.
COMMUNITY CORNER
Click to unfold: [expand type="showmore"] There are two types of Against the Storm players:
Those who love TonyShape’s comics,
And those who haven’t discovered them yet.
Here are the two new ones, dedicated to Foxes and they deserve all our Steam Points: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2962734405 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965761229 We’re also excited to see Fox buildings embellish your settlements:
First Attempt at Fox Town by u/JammyOriginal4 (Source: Reddit)
Second attempt at Foxton by u/JammyOriginal4 (Source: Reddit)
The tea doctor is all-powerful by u/chzrm3 (Source: Reddit)
Lastly, here’s a captivating short story that depicts the exciting yet daunting events of embarkation: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965902737
For more screenshots, check out the Screenshots tab in Steam Community (and award the ones you like!). [/expand] That’s all folks! We wish you an awesome weekend and a great time with the new update.
We invite you to join us later today at 3:00 pm UTC on our Twitch channel for a developer livestream during which we’ll shed more light on this week’s Merchant Shipwreck Update and talk with Mikołaj - the game’s sound producer - about the sounds and music of Against the Storm:
Please make sure you’re ready for the new update and finish your current settlement before the Update goes live on Thursday (April 27 sometime between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm UTC).
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.
Hotfix 0.48.3 (CPU crash, Input system)
Greetings, Viceroys!
We just released a small hotfix that deals with very specific instances of CPU crashing that started to occur after last week's Sentinels of the Forest Update.
We apologize to everyone affected by the issue and we are extremely grateful for your patience and willingness to help us test the fix on the Experimental Branch. Thank you so so much for your support!
What happened is that when we updated the Unity Engine to a newer version (as part of our continuous work on optimization), we inherited two issues. One related to the input system and one to the compiler that optimizes the game for different CPU architectures. We patched the input system bug and we partially withdrew from the CPU optimization. You shouldn't really be able to tell the difference in performance, but this will help with the crashing problem for players using specific CPUs.
For other players experiencing crashes, you may need to update the GPU drivers (as a result of the game moving to a new version of the Unity Engine). We've seen many such cases successfully resolved by performing a clean installation of drivers downloaded directly from the manufacturer's site instead of using the express auto-update option. You can download the drivers here:
