Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Against the Storm
Experimental Update 1.2.6E (Hub rewards, Blight Post upgrades)
Greetings, Viceroys!
We've just released a new iteration of the Hearth upgrade changes to the Experimental Branch. In a nutshell, we're scrapping the idea of Species Hubs and instead, we're making more granular changes to the existing Hubs system, mainly by giving each Hearth level a +1 Resolve bonus (instead of keeping the +2 Resolve only at level 1).
Before we dive into the full changelog, we'd like to thank you for giving the Experimental Update a try. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas with us. This makes things a lot easier and helps us read the room better before pushing something into the live version of the game. That is what the experimental branch is for.
What was the issue in the first place
Let's start with a quick reminder of why we wanted to change the Hearth upgrades. We've regularly received reports that micromanaging Hearths is tedious and boring, and we've always felt that the system lacked something in terms of meaningful and interesting choices. We set out to find an elegant solution that would reduce unnecessary micromanagement and possibly even open the door for more variety in gameplay styles. This is how the idea of Species Hubs was born.
Feedback and thoughts about the Species Hubs
During this short experimental period, we received a lot of accurate comments about the new Species Hubs, and we got to see a lot of insightful gameplay footage/commentary. As we analyzed the feedback, some inherent flaws were brought to our attention:
The early game is much more difficult because now it's much harder to get that initial +2 to resolve.
The early meta is much more difficult now, as new players are yet to unlock the essential houses for each species.
The system makes the Queen’s Hand Trial mode significantly harder.
Higher Hub tiers are too hard to obtain.
The last tier rewards don’t bring enough to the table considering how late they’re unlocked.
For some players, the Species Hubs don’t fit the game thematically.
The system solves one particular issue we wanted to address, but introduces a variety of new design and balance problems at the same time.
While some of these issues could be easily solved with balance tweaks, others require extensive or risky redesigns of multiple systems. That's why we decided to go back to the old system and try a smaller change. In the future, we may revisit this issue and try a different solution, but for now, we feel there are bigger fish to fry.
New changes
We decided to return to the original hearth upgrade system and modify the rewards for each level:
Encampment (Level 1): Gathered around the blazing fire, folks keep each other's spirits high. Global Resolve is increased by 1 and the Ancient Hearth's resistance to corruption is increased by 150.
Neighborhood (Level 2): Some viceroys say aesthetics don't matter out in the wilds, but you know better than that. Global production speed is increased by 10% and global Resolve is increased by 1. The Ancient Hearth's resistance to corruption is increased by 150.
District (Level 3): The town is booming with activity and industry thrives. Workers have a 10% higher chance of producing double yields and global Resolve is increased by 1. The Ancient Hearth's resistance to corruption is increased by 150.
While this doesn't solve the inherent problems of the Hubs system, we think it's a small step in the right direction. We hope this will make upgrading Hearths beyond level 1 more attractive, and reduce the need for micro a bit.
You can test the new changes in the experimental branch. We have also added a small number of additional improvements.
Changelog
Removed the Species Hubs system.
Changed the rewards for each Hub level:
Encampment (Level 1): Gathered around the blazing fire, folks keep each other's spirits high. Global Resolve is increased by 1 and the Ancient Hearth's resistance to corruption is increased by 150.
Neighborhood (Level 2): Some viceroys say aesthetics don't matter out in the wilds, but you know better than that. Global production speed is increased by 10% and global Resolve is increased by 1. The Ancient Hearth's resistance to corruption is increased by 150.
District (Level 3): The town is booming with activity and industry thrives. Workers have a 10% higher chance of producing double yields and global Resolve is increased by 1. The Ancient Hearth's resistance to corruption is increased by 150.
Changed some of the Blight Post upgrades.
Upgrades are now a lot cheaper, but require pipes (other metal options were removed).
The upgrade costs are lower for the first level and higher for the second level.
Upgrades have been reshuffled slightly.
Mobile Sparkcasters increase speed by 30% instead of 25%.
The Triple Ignition System upgrade also affects Blight Automatons now.
Alchemical Forge no longer increases production speed, but adds a 50% chance of producing double the amount of Purging Fire.
Manned Lookout now decreases Cyst generation by 10% per worker instead of 5%.
Rebalanced a few additional perks: Crowded Houses (Stormforged), Prosperous Settlement, Protected Trade. Tweaked the early Cornerstone drafting in favor of some early-game effects.
Buffed the Forest Offerings and Leakage Forest Mysteries.
Changed the objective text for trade route multiplier orders - it now states the exact value of the multiplier.
Improved perk sorting on the HUD.
Perks and orders mentioning glades now have dangerous/forbidden icons in their description to make things clearer.
Added a keybind setting for the World Map Seal Overlay.
Plus a few additional small changes under the hood. More details about specific changes will be shared once 1.3 leaves the experimental branch and goes live.
The current Experimental Branch version number is 1.2.6E.
We recently celebrated a major milestone for Against the Storm (thank you all for your love!), but we're not resting on our laurels. We're currently working on the next free update teased in the post-release roadmap - Update 1.3 - and it's finally time to share some sneak peeks with you.
Here's what's coming:
New glade event
Hub system iteration (read more below)
Precision Tree Marking Mode - cylinders on the grid
New perks
Balance changes
And many more
The update is expected to arrive sometime in May. Yes, that's a long time to wait, but to sweeten the deal, we've just released an experimental update that lets you try out some of the new features coming in Update 1.3.
The biggest change is the introduction of the Species Hubs system - an enhancement to the existing Hubs feature. We're particularly interested in hearing your thoughts on this system once you've tried it out.
But first, let's take a look at why we're making this change.
Experimental Update - Species Hubs
From the moment we implemented the Hubs system in version 0.28, we were aware of two inherent problems with the system.
First, from a gameplay perspective, all hubs were the same and offered almost no interesting choices (other than when to pursue the next hub and when to upgrade the old one).
Second, there were several scenarios where the hub system actively encouraged very tedious and boring micromanagement in the form of manually distributing population and decorations between hubs. There were many instances where the best way to get a few temporary resolve points was to dismantle a large and vibrant hub and spread the population all over the map.
This set of issues merged with our ever-going efforts to make runs as different from each other as possible. With new species on the horizon, we are also looking for new ways to further differentiate species.
Thus, we’re introducing Species Hubs - a way to fix existing problems within the Hub system while providing more ways to plan and build around the species in each settlement.
From now on:
The population requirements for hubs will be slightly lower.
Each species can be assigned its own hub.
The last Hub upgrade (Level 3 - District) has been replaced with a species-specific effect that reflects the specialization of a given species.
Only the population of a matching species housed in advanced houses will count toward the hub's upgrades.
While this makes the hubs a little harder to level up early on, the changes introduce deeper strategic decisions about which species to focus on and when to move from shelters to advanced housing.
Significantly stronger, last stage upgrade also helps to further differentiate between species and provides additional rewards for aggressive specialization.
The first iteration of Level 3 species-specific effects are:
Human District - All farms produce more goods.
Beaver District - All trade routes are faster.
Lizard District - Gatherers have a higher chance of producing double yields when harvesting resource nodes.
Harpy District - Every fulfilled service need grants more Resolve.
Fox District - Increases the chance of doubling event loot (this doesn't apply to perks and blueprints).
Equally important, since there can only be one hub per species, these changes ensure that there's never an incentive to tear down big hubs and micro-optimize by constantly moving houses around the settlement.
This also opens up avenues for further improvements in areas that are still lacking and are often cited as weaknesses of the game, such as decoration management.
We realize that these are pretty big changes, and while there are new opportunities in the mid- and late-game, they do make early games a bit more challenging. That's why we decided to test them with the community and discuss them openly.
Additional changes
Aside from the Species Hubs, the Experimental Update also includes other features from the upcoming Update 1.3, such as:
Embark Points and Caravan rebalance
Blight Post upgrades rebalance
3 new perks
Perks balance changes
Housing Status tooltip (for the villagers summary panel in the left upper corner)
Precision Tree marking mode (hold Shift while in tree marking mode)
Seal indicators on World Map (hold Alt)
Goods tooltip improvements
The current Experimental Branch version is 1.2.5E.
Marking Modes
Seal Indicator (hold Alt)
Full changelog
You can check the full list of changes below after unfolding the section. Please bear in mind that some of them are still work-in-progress and may change before Update 1.3 goes live. The list is not final and you can expect more changes to be added in the actual Update 1.3.
[expand type=details] Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
Changed Hearth upgrades and the way they are progressed.
Hearths can now be assigned to a specific species. Every species changes the upgrade requirements of a Hearth and the last bonus at the District level.
Hearths can no longer be upgraded with Shelters. Instead, they require villagers of a given species housed in advanced housing.
Only one Hearth per species can be upgraded. Additional hubs will no longer be upgradeable.
The species-specific bonuses at the District level are:
Human District - All farms produce more goods.
Beaver District - All trade routes are faster.
Lizard District - Gatherers have a higher chance of producing double yields when harvesting resource nodes.
Harpy District - Every fulfilled service need grants more Resolve.
Fox District - Increases the chance of doubling event loot (this doesn't apply to perks and blueprints).
The previous two levels (Encampment and Neighborhood) are the same for all species.
The population requirements for Hearth upgrades have been lowered slightly because of this change.
⚡ Added 3 new Legendary Cornerstones.
Mark of the Sealed Ones - A faint image of an underwater landscape shimmers inside the ancient jewel. While the Ancient Hearth is being corrupted, resources sacrificed in it burn 50% longer.
From the Shadows - Confused, empty-eyed creatures emerge from the Hearth. Each time Voice of the Sealed Ones triggers after the Hearth reaches 100% Corruption, 3 new villagers appear in the settlement.
Blightrot Pruner - Blightrot spores aren't technically eggs, but they taste the same. You gain 5 Eggs when a Blightrot Cyst appears in your settlement.
Balance
⚡ Rebalanced some Embarkation Bonuses.
Additional Villagers - changed the cost bracket from 1 - 2 to a constant 2.
Royal Permit - changed the cost bracket from 2 - 3 to 1 - 2. The Royal Permit now gives 3 rerolls instead of 1.
Amber - changed the cost bracket from 2 - 5 to 3 - 5.
Wood - increased the base amount of Wood from 30 to 40.
Packs of Provisions - changed the cost bracket from 2 - 4 to 3 - 4.
Parts - changed the cost bracket from 3 - 5 to 3 - 4.
⚡ Added two new items (Sea Marrow and Porridge) to the random item pool in Caravans in the Embarkation Screen.
⚡ Increased the base amount of Oil in starting Caravans from 10 to 20.
⚡ Lowered the cost of Blight Post upgrades by around 30%.
14 Pipes > 10 Pipes
12 Tools > 8 Tools
4 Parts > 3 Parts
⚡ Changed the Manned Lookout upgrade in the Blight Post.
This effect no longer gives a flat global bonus of 25% slower Blightrot Cyst generation. Instead, it now gives a 10% bonus for every worker assigned to the upgraded building.
⚡ Rebalanced several Cornerstones.
Alarm Bells - the chance for double yields is now based on Corruption per minute instead of the Corruption percentage.
Market Shift Plan - lowered the number of trade routes required to disable this effect’s drawback to 3 (from 5).
Overexploitation - added a 30% gathering speed boost and lowered the node charge bonus slightly (from +15 to small nodes and +40 to large nodes, to +10 to small nodes and +25 to large nodes). Also changed this effect’s drawback - it no longer increases hostility, and instead spawns one Blightrot Cyst every time a resource node is depleted.
Queen's Gift - this effect no longer gives 250 Hearth Resistance for every 2 woodcutters. Instead, it gives 150 Resistance for every woodcutter.
Counterfeit Amber - this effect no longer has the drawback of increasing the Blightrot Cyst generation rate. Instead, traders will now have 1 less blueprint or perk on sale.
Cannibalism - increased the amount of Meat gained for villager deaths from 30 to 40.
Cheap Construction - this Cornerstone has been removed from the pool.
Driving Water - this Cornerstone has been removed from the pool.
Because of these changes, some Stormforged variants had to be adjusted as well.
Other perks - work in progress.
⚡ Changed the balance of the Sadrath the Wise World Event. Players will now get 40 Food Stockpiles instead of 25 for 10 Artifacts.
⚡ Rebalanced the Untapped Wealth Forest Mystery. It now doubles the amount of secondary goods gatherers bring back from harvested nodes.
Previously, this effect was described as an increase in crit chance, but under the hood, it just increased the number of secondary yields by a small percentage… which did absolutely nothing, as the numbers were too small. So this change is more of a bug fix.
⚡ Disabling a recipe in a service building now automatically opens up the Consumption Control panel.
It’s no longer possible to disable a service while having the same need enabled in the Consumption panel.
Disabling a service need in the Consumption Panel will stop the service building workers from transporting goods related to that need.
Changed the first World Map layout after the tutorial. It now should have a few more modifiers and more biome variety.
Changed some level-up rewards.
Level 9 - unlocks the Blightrot Pruner Cornerstone instead of Cheap Construction.
Level 12 - unlocks the From the Shadows Cornerstone instead of Driving Water.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ Changed how the precision tree marking tool works (the smaller pointer activated by holding Shift).
Going into “precision mode” now changes the pointer to a 3D cylinder instead of a flat circle.
The cylinder is the size of one tile and snaps to the grid, making it easier to select single trees.
⚡ Added a “housing status” tooltip that is displayed when hovering over the homeless icon in the top left corner of the HUD.
This tooltip shows the number of homeless villagers, free spaces in shelters, and free spaces in advanced houses.
⚡ Changed the resource tooltip layout. The “produced in” building list was moved to a separate line to make the entire tooltip more readable.
“Flawless” building variants have been removed from the list to keep it shorter.
⚡ Added species names to resource tooltips for Complex Food and Consumable Items, so players will know at a glance how a good might be used.
⚡ All goods on the resource bar in the top part of the HUD can now be clicked. Clicking a resource will open the Recipe Panel.
⚡ Added Seal indicators to the World map (Seal icons pointing at the edge of the screen where a Seal is located). To enable them, simply hold Alt while on the World Map.
⚡ Houses of species that are not yet present in a given run are hidden by default (until the first member of a species joins the settlement).
⚡ Added a “show house entrances” setting to the Options menu.
⚡ Changed the “use water” Order objective on the HUD to specify that the rainwater has to be used in engines.
⚡ All events that can be converted into a positive decoration now state the exact bonus (how much resolve, how many goods per minute, etc.) in their description.
⚡ Added a separate icon to worker slots to distinguish the “going to take a break” action from other “going to” activities.
⚡ To cancel an ongoing Glade Event, the “cancel” button now needs to be held (to make it impossible to do this by accident).
⚡ Changed the time information in the Glade Event panel. It now shows “estimated time”, to make clear that the timer is not exact and can be influenced by random events or worker behavior.
⚡ Added a “save warehouse limits” setting to the Options menu. Turning it off will reset the minimum values set in Warehouses at the start of every game.
⚡ The wildcard panel can now be searched by descriptions (so also produced items or rainwater types) and not just building names.
⚡ Changed the offer sorting in the trade route panel.
Offers are now sorted and displayed as available based on a base value (instead of the multiplied value after selecting a higher goods count).
The trade offer slot will now highlight why a given offer is unavailable.
⚡ The Demanding and Decadent species attributes in the in-game encyclopedia are now displayed as plain numbers.
⚡ Improved the wording in the tooltip for the Demanding species attribute in the in-game encyclopedia.
Added resource icons to a few perk descriptions that were missing them.
The last textbox of the first tutorial will now automatically disappear after a few seconds.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed a bug where the upgrades panel in the Blight Post had an incorrect tooltip.
⚡ Fixed a bug that prevented players from cycling between Dangerous and Forbidden Events.
⚡ Fixed a flow issue in one of the dialogue options with Aunt Lori (about Zhorg).
⚡ Fixed a bug with an incorrect label in the Vitality effect.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the Forbidden Ritual effect.
⚡ Changed the name of “Nauseous Spores” to “Nauseating Spores”.
⚡ Changed the wording in the trader assault popup.
⚡ Added some missing text (“this effect is only active when the corresponding glade event is being worked on”) to several working effect descriptions.
⚡ Renamed the “Lumber Mill Efficiency Test” Order to avoid confusion.
Fixed a bug with incorrect shading on some trees in the Sealed Forest.
Other
⚡ Added new custom icons to multiple places.
Ghosts
Haunted ruins
Two Order objectives
Blight Post upgrades
The “comfortable” Resolve effect
Citadel Upgrades - factions
Converted Glade Events
Five Legendary Cornerstones
⚡ Added an option to modify the game’s localization using a .json file.
To do this, simply create a .json file only with the string IDs and text you want to change.
The file structure should be like on the screenshot below ("ID":"text").
The file should be named with the language code, for example: de.json, cn.json, etc.
Then you need to create a "Texts" folder in the "Against the Storm_Data" folder in the game's installation location. There you just put the .json file and load the game.
And done, the strings mentioned in the .json file will be loaded instead of the original translation.
We will publish a more in-depth guide once the patch goes live.
Added credits to the game.
How to play the Experimental Update
We prepared a short guide that explains the purpose of the Experimental Branch, its limitations, and how to activate it: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3210939497 Inside, you can also find a list of the available commands for the developer console.
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:
How do you feel about the new Species Hubs? Are they fun?
How would you rate the challenges posed by managing the Species Hubs?
Is there anything that stuck out? Any moments that were especially memorable for you (good or bad)?
Is there anything about this new system that makes the gameplay feel worse (especially more repetitive) or better (especially more diverse)?
How do you feel about the Precision Tree Marking mode (its cylindrical shape and grid movement)?
We can’t wait to hear your impressions once you give the new Experimental Update a try! Let us know what you think in the comments section of this announcement or on the dedicated #experimental channels on our Discord.
We wish you a great time with the new update and look forward to hearing from you!
We've hit a major milestone with Against the Storm, selling over one million copies on Steam! This achievement represents the countless hours you've spent building villages, weathering storms, and overcoming the game's challenges. Each copy sold reflects a unique story of perseverance and strategy in our game's world.
Since we set sail on this adventure, the outpour of love, feedback, and the occasional plea for mercy from the Blightstorm has been overwhelming. It's as if every copy sold has laid another stone in the foundations of our Smoldering City, making it stronger, grander, and more alive.
To everyone who's ever completed orders for the Scorched Queen, puzzled over which crop to plant next, or cursed when the rain turned against them, we owe you our gratitude. Your stories have turned Against the Storm from a game into a saga. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey.
If you've found a home within the tempest, consider sharing your story through a Steam review.
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
Hooded Horse Spring Sale
Hello! From now until March 21st, you can save 35% on Against the Storm, and get great deals on all other games published by Hooded Horse during the Steam Spring Sale. Come check the game out!
Hotfix 1.1.10 (Destroy tool)
Greetings, Viceroys!
Like a dungeon without loot, or a quest without rewards, what's a patch without its next-day hotfix?
We just released one that deals with the issues you reported:
Fixed an issue with reversed Dangerous and Forbidden Glade icons in order objectives.
Fixed a bug where the destruction tool stopped working after being deactivated once.
Fixed a bug where building destruction was not possible if a building was already selected.
Known issue: we had to reverse a fix for the front-facing arrow disappearing when clicking on a building twice as it caused other problems and we’ll need to take a bit more time to rework it.
We’re grateful for your swift reports and feedback and wish you a fantastic weekend!
Gather ‘round for a hefty dose of Against the Storm news.
In this article, we’re sharing the changelog for the just-released Patch 1.1.6, a small sneak peek at the upcoming Update 1.2, and a first look at our post-release roadmap. You heard us right!
Post-Release Roadmap: Road to Species DLC
Many of you have been wondering what’s next for Against the Storm. We don’t want to leave you in the dark, so we decided to share a fragment of a post-release roadmap that depicts our road to the upcoming DLC. Let’s dive in!
The roadmap is not complete and includes only the major confirmed features. As always, you can expect that each update will be accompanied by a solid portion of smaller UX features and improvements, balance changes, and fixes.
The contents of the Free Update 1.3 will be revealed in the future. In the meantime, we’ll continue to monitor your feedback and the ideas posted on our feature request board.
There's much to look forward to in the upcoming months! Stay tuned for everything Against the Storm on our social channels:
Let’s have a quick glance at the next free update from the post-release roadmap.
The big headline feature of this update is the Production/Consumption Trends window. It will include a 30-minute resource history graph and a 5-minute "latest" interactable graph with an option to select a point on it and check the log of resource operations.
We’re also working on Blightpost upgrades (with a new visual model), new working effect icons, a new supported language (Latin American Spanish), and unique art for each of our World Events. Here’s a sneak peek at one of them:
We aim to release the update in March and we’ll share more previews soon.
Patch 1.1.6 Changelog
Lastly, here’s the full changelog for today’s Patch 1.1.6:
Fixed a bug that would occasionally cause haulers and hauling carts to get stuck.
Fixed a rare bug that caused some settlement saves to get corrupted.
Fixed a bug where the numbers would sometimes disappear from the need icons in the species menu.
Fixed a bug that caused the Blood Flower spawn animation not to play when the game was paused.
Fixed a bug that allowed a map to be played with both the Ominous Presence modifier and the Flooded Mines modifier.
Settlements started before this hotfix will still have both effects active. The fix will only prevent this from happening in future games.
Fixed a bug that caused the entrance arrow to disappear the second time you clicked on a building.
Fixed a bug where the progress of a standing level would sometimes not update correctly.
Fixed a bug that caused some tooltips to scale incorrectly in the Thai version of the game.
Fixed a bug that allowed production limits to be set as negative numbers.
Fixed a bug where the camera would reset when the options menu was opened.
Fixed a bug that made it possible to have both the Unyielding Corruption Forest Mystery and the Monastery of the Holy Flame modifier in the same game.
Settlements started before this hotfix will still have both effects active. The fix will only prevent this from happening in future games.
Fixed a bug where the camera would sometimes behave strangely when going into tree marker mode while a building was selected.
Fixed a bug where a disabled recipe in the Blight Post would not cause the recipe slot to be greyed out.
Buying an automaton upgrade in a deactivated Geyser Pump will now automatically activate the building.
Please make sure your game is updated to version 1.1.6.
We just released a hotfix that deals with the issues you reported after yesterday's Update. We're grateful for your reports and thank you for your patience as we worked on resolving them!
Changelog:
Fixed a bug with missing minus signs in several remaining places (some negative resolve effects like Foul Taste, and some hostility reduction effects like Decryption).
Added information about the necessary upgrade level to order targets that require building upgrades (including Geyser Pump).
This is a temporary fix. In a future update, we will rewrite the objective text to be much clearer.
Fixed a bug with double spaces before numbers in some descriptions.
(Steam Deck) Fixed a bug where the Right Trigger would stop working when using the trackpad (when playing with the official controller layout).
(Steam Deck) Fixed a bug where the controller pointer would disappear in the embarkation panel and citadel.
Fixed a bug where order objectives related to discovering dangerous and forbidden glades would have old glade icons.
We just released Hotfix 1.1.2 which fixes some issues that occurred with Update 1.1. Thank you for your swift reports and we're sorry for the trouble!
Changelog:
Fixed a font-loading issue which caused some languages and main menu button texts to not appear.
Fixed an issue with a missing minus sign.
Fixed an issue with the Enter key not committing changes on the Steam Deck's virtual keyboard.
We temporarily reversed the recent changes to the default Steam Deck controller layout to avoid the cursor issues.
Known issues:
We're aware of the issue that prevents Steam Deck players from starting a new settlement from the World Map. We're looking into this and we'll release a hotfix as soon as possible (possibly tomorrow). We apologize for the trouble and thank you for your patience as we work on resolving the issue.
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
The current version is 1.1.2. The update is live on Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store and will be released on PC Game Pass once the build passes certification.
Update 1.1 available!
Greetings, Viceroys!
We’re excited to be back with a new Against the Storm update! With the dust settling from the 1.0 release, we have been able to spend some more time working on new features and improvements.
What’s new:
Unique portraits for all traders
New decorations
New orders
New sound effects
Notifications with auto-pause reason
New Forbidden Glade icon
And many more!
You can find the full list of changes and our thoughts below.
DEVELOPER NOTES
Let's start with a huge thank you to you, our community! Whether you just started playing with the 1.0 release or have been with us throughout Early Access, we are grateful for putting your trust in us and investing your time in Against the Storm. We appreciate all your suggestions, reports, and reviews. They help us a lot! It's been a great launch, and we're excited about what the future holds.
Today's update isn’t as spectacular as we hoped it to be, as we spent most of our time after launch helping community members who were experiencing issues with the PC Game Pass save system (plus we had a short holiday break where we ate tons of pierogies!). But now that things have settled down a bit, it's time to bring you some new features and improvements! We're talking new custom trader portraits, new event icons, new orders, new decorations, and a whole bunch of UX changes!
First, let's talk about the new orders. With the recent addition of the Queen's Hand Trial (QHT) mode, we've noticed that there's a slight imbalance in variety between the early orders and the later ones. And it's not just in the QHT - it's also visible in the regular mode, especially if players haven't unlocked all the content yet (some orders don't show up if a prerequisite isn't met). So with this update, we decided to add more low-level objectives to make the early stages of a settlement a little more interesting. As always, the balance may be a little off in some places here, but this is something we will continue to work on in the future.
Secondly, trader portraits and new icons. You may have noticed that not all traders have unique assets associated with them, and most of them use the generic portrait of their species. With this update, we are replacing them with new custom illustrations (both for the merchants in your trading post and for those found in the glades). Similarly, we took a closer look at glade events and decided to replace their consequence icons with new art. In one of the upcoming updates, we’ll also add new art for World Events. Another visual change you may notice is a new Forbidden Glade icon. We changed it to make Dangerous and Forbidden Glade icons more distinct as they were sometimes confused with each other.
New trader portraits
1 Forbidden Glade and 3 Dangerous Glades
Let’s now move on to the new decorations. Some players have rightly pointed out that there are no buildable 2x2 Harmony decorations in the game, and that there could be more beautiful things to build. We couldn't agree more! That's why we're adding 4 new decorations in this update - the Marble Fountain, the Town Board, the Bonfire, and the Overgrown Well. All of them can be unlocked by completing Deeds.
New decorations
Finally - UI and UX improvements coming in this update. We've cleaned up the Options menu a bit (by splitting the Gameplay tab into categories), added an auto-pause notification, changed the brush colors on the tree markers to indicate which mode is selected, added a new tooltip to the minimum reserve button in the Main Warehouse, added the option to show a difficulty preview on the HUD mid-run, and rewritten a lot of tooltip and perk descriptions to improve clarity. There are many more tweaks listed in the changelog below, and almost all of them were inspired by suggestions we've received from the community.
New sections in Options
Paid Move and Free Move icons
As usual, this update also brings a number of bug fixes, localization improvements, a few balance changes, and some stability enhancements.
Thank you all for providing feedback, reporting bugs, and giving us suggestions for new content. 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 game developers 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: 91 Inspired by community: 90%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
⚡ Added 18 new orders to the game.
All of the new orders have been added to the lower tiers to increase variety in the early game.
Some new order objectives are often tied to mechanics that were not utilized in the early game before (like rainpunk) or were rarely present (like trading).
The balance of the new orders might be off in some places, but as always - this is not the final version. There will be balance passes in the future after players have had a chance to try out the new objectives and give us feedback.
⚡ Added 4 new decorations.
Marble Fountain
Town Board
Bonfire
Overgrown Well
Added a new lore conversation topic with Lori.
Balance
⚡ Rebalanced the Sacrament of the Flame passive effect in the Temple. It now gives a 25 point Hostility reduction for every 200 seconds of sacrifice instead of 20 Hostility for 300 seconds.
⚡ Increased the food production speed bonus from the Cooking Steam Cornerstone (from 10% to 15% for every 50 Drizzle Water stored).
⚡ The Lightning Forest Mystery has been redesigned. It now requires a different resource and has a different flavor text and name to make it a little more in line with the mechanics and world of Against the Storm.
Devastation - The storm in this region is extremely violent. Once this effect is activated, you'll have to pay 1 Pack of Building Materials (multiplied by the number of years). If you don't, 3 buildings in your settlements will become ruins.
⚡ The Secure Perimeter Cornerstone has been redesigned. Its Hostility bonus now triggers after solving a Forbidden Glade Event, rather than simply discovering a Forbidden Glade.
This is in part a balance change, but also an effort to make this perk a bit easier to understand (as previously the description was a bit misleading).
If you had this perk in your settlement before the update, it will still have the old mechanics and text. This change will only take effect in a new settlement.
Removed the Piercing Winds Forest Mystery from the game, because it was too similar to other already existing Forest Mysteries.
Note - if you have a settlement save from before this update, the Forest Mystery will still be there. It just won't be drawn in newly created settlements.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ Changed the Forbidden Glade icon to be more visually distinct from the Dangerous Glade icon.
⚡ Restructured parts of the Options menu to make it easier to find specific settings.
The Gameplay tab has been divided into sections: General Gameplay, Recipes, Consumption Control, Hearth Fuel, and Auto Pause.
Moved the Invert Building Rotation option to the Control tab.
Renamed the "Keyboard" section of the Controls tab to "Keyboard and Mouse" to make it clear that mouse buttons can also be assigned.
⚡ Added an Auto Pause notification that shows the reason why the game was paused.
To enable this notification, go to the Options menu and use the Auto Pause checkbox in the Alerts tab.
⚡ Tree marker brushes now have slightly different colors depending on the mode you are in (marking or deleting tree markers).
⚡ Added a tooltip explaining minimum reserves to the lock icon in the Warehouse panel.
⚡ Clicking on a need icon in the species panel on the right side of the screen will now open the Recipes Panel.
⚡ Clicking the trader arrival icon will no longer pan the camera to the Trading Post.
⚡ Changed the way cutscenes are skipped. Now you have to hold down a button instead of just pressing it.
⚡ Added an option to display the difficulty level on the HUD while in settlement mode.
To enable this, simply go to the Options menu and use the "Show difficulty on HUD" checkbox in the Gameplay tab (in the General Gameplay section).
Once enabled, the difficulty preview will appear next to the skull icon at the bottom of the HUD. You can hover over it to see a tooltip with details about the difficulty level.
⚡ Removed entrance markers from houses.
⚡ The move button in building panels now has a different color depending on the movement cost. It's blue if moving a building costs resources, and green if it's free.
⚡ Added a “retry” button to the failed save popup.
Also, the error message that appears when the game fails to create a save has been changed to make it clearer why it failed (due to insufficient disk space, another process locking the save file, or an error with the game files).
⚡ Changed the way the trackpad works in the Steam Deck version of the game when using the controller layout. Instead of acting like an analog stick, it now behaves like a real mouse trackpad.
⚡ When starting fresh on the Steam Deck, the game will now automatically load the medium graphics preset and have uncapped FPS by default for a smoother experience.
⚡ Biome resources in the Embarkation Panel are now sorted according to the order of goods on the HUD.
⚡ Changed the names of the "Wood" and "Cloth" specializations to "Woodworking" and "Tailoring" to make them consistent with other specialization names.
⚡ Changed the wording in the objective and description of orders that require the completion of a trade route of a certain value to make it clear that the value is per trade route, not summed.
⚡ Changed the description of the Greater Threat Forest Mystery to clarify that the Resolve penalty is applied based on all glades discovered from the beginning of the settlement, not glades discovered during the active storm.
⚡ Changed the descriptions of all effects blocking orders to make it clearer that they are affecting game mechanics and not just flavor text.
⚡ Improved the wording in the tooltip for Reserve Embarkation Points to better explain how they work.
⚡ Changed the description of Seal goals that require players to gain reputation points to clearly state that points are still counted even if you have a full reputation bar.
⚡ Updated the Seal Guardian dialog in the Sealed Forest to make it a bit clearer that only one of three objectives needs to be completed per Guardian part.
⚡ Changed the “Ethereal” tag on some Cornerstones and Timed Orders to “Ephemeral” to better reflect the actual meaning of it.
⚡ Changed descriptions of effects that turn buildings into ruins to clearly state that the buildings do not disappear completely and can be rebuilt.
⚡ Changed the wording of all Cornerstones and Forest Mysteries that increase the chance of double loot from glade events to make it easier to understand what they actually do.
⚡ Changed the description of the Pit Pony upgrade in the Mine to make it clearer that it doesn't affect resource transport, only the speed at which ore is mined.
⚡ Changed the flavor text in the description of the Box Crib upgrade in the Mine to avoid confusion about ore deposits being destroyed.
⚡ More information has been added to orders that require the rebuilding or salvaging of ruins. They now mention that haunted ruins also count.
Added custom tooltips for buildings in the settlement that were turned into ruins by an effect or event (they previously had the same tooltips as regular clearing events).
Bug fixes
⚡ Removed unnecessary minus signs in some effect descriptions.
⚡ Fixed a bug with inconsistent tooltip triggers when hovering over Rain Engine controls.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the Ominous Presence and Flooded Mines world map modifiers would spawn next to each other.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the production completion visual effect would be displayed on top of other UI elements.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the “time played” notification would show incorrect values.
⚡ Fixed a bug where unpausing the game after an auto pause would not preserve the original game speed.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the “quit” popup would appear twice when exiting the Embarkation View.
⚡ Tweaked some of Lori's dialogue to avoid inconsistencies (like her mentioning that the player has won their first settlement even if they have already completed more than one).
⚡ Fixed a display bug where Queen's Hand Trial profiles could change status due to clearing progress on another profile.
⚡ Fixed a bug that allowed players to increase the failure counter in the Queen's Hand Trial by resetting the progress of secondary profiles.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the "auto" button in the trade menu would not work when trying to use it with the controller layout on the Steam Deck.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the "other" Resolve summary in the species panel would not correctly display 3-digit numbers.
⚡ Removed some unnecessary periods from item descriptions in multiple languages.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the English version of the species selection view in the Training Expedition panel.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused Twitch voting to crash in German (when trying to handle perk names with special characters).
⚡ Fixed an issue with missing characters in Korean.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused some incorrect characters to appear in the Japanese version of the game.
⚡ Implemented a ton of fixes for mistranslations, typos, and inconsistencies in the Italian version of the game.
⚡ Fixed several mistranslations and inconsistencies in the Japanese version of the game.
Saturated Air Forest Mystery
Ghost of an Old Merchant event name
Followers of the Forsaken Gods event decision
Standing term in multiple places
Roaming Fishmen Tribe event description
Woodcutters’ Camp modes
Decoration descriptions
Lori’s opening dialogue
Drizzlewing Nest node description
⚡ Fixed several mistranslations and inconsistencies in the German version of the game.
All "Clear Marked Trees" tooltips
Cooper profession name
Incorrect forms in some loading tips and tooltips
⚡ Fixed several mistranslations and inconsistencies in the Simplified Chinese version of the game.
Blightstorm terminology
Lori’s dialogue
Several perks and Cornerstones (like Work Safety Guide)
HUD tooltips
Options
Encyclopedia entries
Queen’s Hand Trial contract
Flawless building variants
⚡ Fixed several mistranslations and inconsistencies in the Traditional Chinese version of the game (perks, Modifiers, Cornerstones, Crude Workstation).
⚡ Fixed several mistranslations and inconsistencies in the Russian version of the game (missing paragraphs in the Encyclopedia, broken style tags).
⚡ Fixed a mistranslation in the Spanish description of the Sacrament of the Flame effect.
⚡ Fixed a mistranslation in the Czech version of the Forbidden Fruit order.
⚡ Fixed a mistranslation in the French version of the Flawless Smelter building.
⚡ Fixed a few mistranslations in the Turkish version of the game (modifiers, buildings, biomes).
We have improved the stability and performance of the automatic backup system introduced in PC Game Pass patch 1.0.5. To recap what this system does:
Due to an Xbox Cloud Save bug that caused frequent save loss, we had to implement an additional layer of local backups as a workaround until the platform issues were resolved.
The game creates an additional local folder with copies of save files. This folder is ignored by the Xbox App cloud save system so it can’t be accidentally deleted.
Upon launch, the game now compares the dates of local save files with those provided by the Xbox App cloud save system. If the Xbox App loaded older save files or its redirection didn’t work and no save files were loaded, the game will load save files from the new local folder instead.
Fixed a bug where trade routes were accessible after the trading post was removed from the settlement.
Other
⚡ New custom portraits have been added to the game. Each trader now has a unique appearance (both those who come to the trading post and those who are found in glades).
Replaced all existing event consequence icons with new custom assets created specifically for Against the Storm.
Added unique sounds to all selectable nodes and ore deposits in the game. The sounds are played when a node’s side UI panel opens.
Added a new sound effect to the trade route expansion button.
Brought back the in-game news with update notes and links to changelogs.
