Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Against the Storm
Against the Storm is Steam Deck Verified
Greetings, Viceroys!
We’re happy to share that Against the Storm has received the Steam Deck Verified status from Steam.
This is the result of multiple readability and control improvements we introduced to the game over the last couple of months. We’re grateful to the Steam team for recognizing the changes and positively re-reviewing the game.
What we changed
Among the many changes we introduced to meet the Steam Deck Verified requirements, some of the more significant ones were:
The Steam Deck version can now read gamepad input and display controller glyphs.
Changed UI elements so the game is more readable in 16:10 resolutions, with maximum supported UI size enabled.
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.
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, embarkation panel, etc.).
The virtual keyboard is now automatically invoked when selecting a text box on the Steam Deck.
Added the “Input Auto Focus” setting to the in-game Options. It’s enabled by default and it allows you to start typing values immediately on the PC keyboard and opens a virtual keyboard on Steam Deck. If you don’t like the virtual keyboard appearing automatically when opening panels with text fields (e.g. in the Trading Post panel), you can disable this option.
What about full controller support?
Please bear in mind that having a Steam Deck Verified status doesn't necessarily mean that the game plays like a console game. We introduced a very early and rudimentary version of basic controller functionality (for Steam Deck only), and you can control everything with a gamepad, but some UX features specific to console games (e.g., radials or snapping) aren't present in the game.
Control Layouts
We created a dedicated gamepad layout for Steam Deck which is loaded by default, but it’s by no means perfect and might even be considered a bit less intuitive the the legacy one - 'Keyboard and Mouse (Legacy)'. If you don’t find the current layout easy to use, we recommend giving the legacy layout a try. It utilizes track pads and additional Steam Deck buttons.
Here’s how to change the Control Layout on Steam Deck:
While in-game, press the Steam button.
In the game panel, select ‘Controller settings’.
Press the ‘Controller settings’ below the controller layout.
Browse available layouts and confirm your choice.
The recommended layout is 'Keyboard and Mouse (Legacy)' available in the Community Layouts section.
What’s next
As we teased in recent announcements, we will continue to improve the controls on Steam Deck, but we can’t confirm whether the game will ever have the console-like UX features mentioned above.
Nevertheless, we will expand on this functionality and try to make the Steam Deck experience even smoother. Keep your eyes open for updates!
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
Against the Storm 1.0 Available Now!
Reclaim the wilderness and rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic storms. Against the Storm version 1.0 is out now!
Against the Storm is a roguelite city builder where every run is a bite-sized city-building experience with a distinct variety of problems to solve. As the Scorched Queen’s Viceroy, you’re in charge of Humans, Beavers, Lizards, Harpies, and Foxes who stand united against hidden dangers and never-ending rains.
With six mechanically distinct biomes, dozens of gameplay modifiers, and hundreds of perks, each new settlement feels as novel as the first and poses a different set of challenges to deal with. And that’s what you’re here for, Viceroy!
Queen’s Hand Trials
The 1.0 Update features the Queen’s Hand Trials – an ironman mode in which you start from scratch and have one Cycle to reforge the Adamantine Seal – the game's most challenging endeavor. Those who emerge victorious will be awarded the title of Queen's Hand and will be granted a rare audience with the Scorched Queen herself.
On this exciting day, we want to thank all the players who picked the game up during early access and supported us along the way. We’re grateful for every single review, piece of feedback, suggestion, and bug report. With your help, we were able to deliver 29 content updates every two weeks during Steam Early Access.
Some of the major changes include a new playable species, new biome, new modes and systems, new buildings, perks, and much more. We hope you’ll keep having an exciting time with the game and wish you lots of fun while reclaiming the wilderness in Against the Storm!
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games & Hooded Horse
In this last Early Access update, we bring you the Queen’s Hand Trials - an ironman mode in which you have one Cycle to reforge the Adamantine Seal. We’re also introducing various smaller balance changes and fixes.
Check out the full changelog below.
Full Release
Against the Storm 1.0 is out now! You can get it with a 35% launch discount:
It's finally here! The 1.0 version of Against the Storm has arrived! Words really can't describe how happy and excited we are. The past year has been a hell of a ride and thanks to you, the Community, the game has grown and developed into something we can all be really proud of. Without you, Against the Storm wouldn't be half as good as it is today. We hope you have enjoyed this wild ride with us, and that you are as excited about the future as we are. For now, let’s just say this probably isn’t the last content update for Against the Storm.
But before we start celebrating, let's take a quick look at what today's 1.0 update brings to the table. As the name suggests, it's all about one big feature: the Queen's Hand Trial, a hardcore permadeath mode reserved for the most skilled Viceroys.
In the Queen's Hand Trial, your goal is to reforge the Adamantine Seal in one cycle without losing any settlements. A failed or abandoned settlement means the trial is over and you must start again. Restarting a cycle or not having enough Seal Fragments also means you have to start over.
You start at level 18 with no Citadel Upgrades and only a few fundamental gameplay unlocks (such as Trade Routes and Rainpunk). As you progress through the new game mode, you'll be able to gradually purchase new upgrades in the Smoldering City, but you'll never be able to have everything - that's because the upgrades are no longer displayed in a tree, but are drawn pseudo-randomly (like buildings or cornerstones). In total, you get 25 picks, each with 3 upgrades to choose from, and you can only buy one at a time. There's also a section called "Fundamental Upgrades", where the upgrades are not random (as they are crucial power boosts, mostly tied to higher numbers of Cornerstone/Blueprint options).
To begin the Queen's Hand Trial, you will need to create a new profile in the Queen's Hand tab of the Profiles window in the main menu. This new tab will only appear once you reforge the Adamantine Seal for the first time. The Queen's Hand Trial is meant to be a final, hardcore, and truly rogue-like challenge, and if you succeed, you will be able to claim the reward for the “Queen's Hand Trial” Deed on your main profile (the last piece of the Viceroy's uniform in your home - the Queen's Hand Pauldron).
We can't wait to see how you fare against the merciless odds in this new game mode. And if you just want to see others fail (or win!) at this new challenge, we have some good news - over the past few days, there has already been plenty of viewing material online as several content creators have competed in the Queen's Hand Trials competition:
As always, this update also brings some bug fixes and a lot of localization improvements for all languages (the list of changed lines is in the hundreds, so we spared you the details in the changelog).
Finally, let's talk a little more about the future of Against the Storm. As you probably already know, we will no longer be doing biweekly updates, but we will continue to support the game and release new content in the future. The 1.0 launch is a good time to slow things down and let players (old and new) enjoy the full Against the Storm experience without drastic changes every two weeks. It is also a good time for the team to take a short break, evaluate the game from afar, gather feedback, and plan our next move.
We will be sharing more about our post-launch plans in the future, but it will most likely be in a looser, more free-flowing form (without an exact roadmap). For now, stay tuned and enjoy the 1.0 release of Against the Storm!
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
CHANGELOG
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
Added the Queen’s Hand Trials to the game - a hardcore, permadeath mode available after reforging the Adamantine Seal.
In the Queen's Hand Trial, your goal is to reforge the Adamantine Seal in one cycle without losing any settlements. A failed or abandoned settlement means the trial is over and you must start again. Restarting a cycle or not having enough Seal Fragments also means you have to start over.
You will start at level 18 with no Citadel Upgrades. Some gameplay unlocks (such as Trade Routes and Rainpunk) are available from the start.
As you progress through the new game mode, you will be able to gradually purchase upgrades in the Smoldering City. However, there is a catch - upgrades are no longer distributed on an upgrade tree but are instead drawn (like buildings or cornerstones).
You will only be able to purchase a portion of all the upgrades in the Citadel. You will get a total of 25 picks, each with 3 upgrades to choose from, and you can only buy one at a time.
There is also a section called "Fundamental Upgrades". The upgrades there aren't random and are mostly tied to increasing the number of Cornerstone/Blueprint options.
Deeds, Daily Expeditions, and Training Expeditions are not available in Queen's Hand Trial. All Deed rewards (the Big Shelter, decorations, Dullahan) are available from the start.
To unlock the Queen's Hand Trial, you must first reforge the Adamantine Seal at least once. Once you claim the reward for the Deed associated with this Seal, you will be granted access to the new game mode.
To start the Queen's Hand Trial, you will need to create a new profile in the "Queen's Hand" tab of the "Profiles" window in the main menu.
Each Queen's Hand profile has a failure counter. Each valid failed attempt (with at least 3 successful settlements before losing) increases the counter and gives a tiny amount of Citadel Resources at the start of the next attempt.
Winning the trial will complete the “Queen’s Hand Trial” Deed and award you with the last piece of the Viceroy’s Uniform in your home - the Queen’s Hand Pauldron.
Added new conversations with Aunt Lori specific to the Queen’s Hand Trial.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed a bug where some tooltips would not be displayed correctly in the World Map view.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the Leather Gloves perk (+X to Reed production) would be offered in biomes without Reeds.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the planting and harvesting time indicators in the farm panels to have incorrect tooltips.
⚡ Fixed an issue with text scaling in the newcomer popup.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused embarkation Bonus tooltips to stay on the screen after closing the Training Expedition panel.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused UI issues after using the "Skip Tutorial" button in the main menu while in the middle of a tutorial scenario.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the worker panel in the Advanced Rain Collector was out of bounds.
⚡ Implemented numerous localization improvements to all languages and fixed dozens of typos and inconsistencies.
Other
Updated the demo version of the game on all platforms.
Changed the default recommended control layout for the Steam Deck version of Against the Storm from “mouse and keyboard” to “controller”.
The Steam Deck version will now read gamepad input by default and display controller glyphs.
Please note that this is by no means full controller support. This is just the first step in making the game more accessible on the Steam Deck.
In the future, we will expand on this functionality and try to make the Steam Deck experience smoother.
If you prefer the old controls, we recommend playing with the "Keyboard and Mouse (Legacy)" layout (it can be found in the recommended/official layouts for ATS).
There's a new hotfix ready for you to download. It deals with the issues you've reported over the last couple of days. We salute you for your detailed reports and feedback!
Changelog:
Fixed a bug where opening a UI panel twice (trade routes, consumption, etc.) would lock the camera in place.
Fixed a bug where some previously completed deeds would not register as achievements when loading the game.
Fixed a bug where the World Map tutorial would pause and not progress correctly if the settlement was closed by an update.
Fixed a bug where certain actions could not be bound to mouse buttons.
Fixed a bug where resource tooltip footers in service buildings would display a {0} parameter instead of a keybind.
Fixed a bug where clicking on services in the in-game encyclopedia would open the recipe panel.
Fixed a bug where the game had to be reloaded to unlock the Rainpunk & Blightrot tutorial scenario after unlocking the feature in Smoldering City.
Fixed a bug where Impatience gained from a Corrupted Caravan would display an incorrect prompt.
Fixed a bug where tooltip footers in the encyclopedia would display a {0} parameter instead of a keybind.
Fixed a bug where mines would not display a "no ore" warning when veins were depleted.
Fixed a bug where the Merchant Shipwreck was giving Bricks and Planks as rewards.
Fixed a bug where using the mouse wheel would not increase the number of goods offered in the trader panel.
Fixed a bug where the Input Auto Focus setting was not correctly remembered.
Fixed a bug where the Virtual Machine Mode settings were still visible when they should be disabled.
Fixed a bug where the Carved in Stone effect would not show the correct progress number in its tooltip.
Fixed a bug where the Carved in Stone effect in the Archaeologist's Office did not have "retroactive" in its description.
Slightly buffed the values of the Carved in Stone and Ancient Strength effects in the Archaeologist's Office.
Changed the way the end-of-cycle text is displayed on the world map HUD to make it clearer.
The Early Access news panel and Early Access roadmap button were removed.
Make sure to update the game to version 0.64.6. for the best experience.
With the start of the Autumn Sale, nominations for this year’s Steam Awards are underway and we’d like to ask for your support by nominating Against the Storm for the Labor of Love Award.
We recently announced that Against the Storm is leaving Early Access on December 8, so we decided to take this opportunity to look back at the past 12 months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsuCV86Pf5Y
Against the Storm has been out on Steam since November 1, 2022, and we’ve continued to improve the game with a number of consistent and regular updates every two weeks. In all, we’ve added 27 Steam Early Access updates so far (two more are coming!) and we never skipped a date.
And what is YOUR favorite addition to Against the Storm? Let us know!
The total number of changes we introduced is 2,282. ⚡ And 66.74% of those were inspired by the community.
We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you, the community, supporting our game throughout development and with each update we’ve brought to Against the Storm. We are incredibly grateful for your support, and we know there will be a lot of competition for this award, so your nomination means the world to us. Please check the nominate button that’s part of this post if you would like to consider us for the Labor of Love award for the 2023 Steam Awards.
We just released a hotfix with a couple of fixes addressing the issues you've reported:
Fixed a bug where continuing a settlement after a victory would cause the camera to stop moving.
Fixed a bug where the Obsidian Archive level 5 upgrade was giving the blueprint reroll reward twice.
Fixed a bug where the resource tooltip footer was displaying a {0} parameter instead of a keybinding.
Fixed a bug where the resource tooltip footer was incorrectly displayed in the tutorial.
Fixed an issue with a missing space before the keybinding on the Reset button in the recipe panel.
Fixed a bug where the background blend was too small for some confirmation popups.
Please make sure your game is updated to version 0.64.5 for the best experience. Thank you for your support and have fun playing!
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
Hotfix 0.64.2 (Keybind issue)
Greetings, Viceroy!
We just deployed a quick hotfix that prevents a certain keybinding issue.
Changes:
Fixed a bug where some keybind changes would cause the game to break and get stuck during loading screens.
Brought back the missing "Roadmap" button in the main menu.
Fixed a small typo in German.
⚠ Important: If you experienced the keybinding bug (infinite loading after changing keybinds), please reset your bindings using a launch command: -resetkeybinds Here's how to do it:
Right-click on Against the Storm in your Steam library.
Choose "Properties".
A new window will open. There, you will find a textbox titled "Launch Options".
Type in: -resetkeybinds
Launch the game.
You can learn more here: https://help.steampowered.com/faqs/view/7D01-D2DD-D75E-2955
If you need any additional help with resolving the issue, please message us at support@eremitegames.freshdesk.com
Thank you for the reports and please accept our apologies for the trouble!
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
The current game version is 0.64.2.
Here comes the Modest Update!
Update: We just released a hotfix that deals with a certain keybinding issue that occurred in the Modest Update. If you experienced problems with the game loading when changing the keybinds after the Update, please follow the guide to resolve the issue: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3864713384562039150
Greetings, Viceroys!
The Cycle is nearing its end... Today's update is the last before 1.0 release. As we're wrapping things up, the update might feel smaller than usual and hence it's honestly dubbed "Modest Update". Despite that, we still managed to snag some new features for you:
New conversations with Lori
Rebalanced Ancient Seal objectives
Mouse buttons rebinding
Option to disable all ingredients and/or recipes by default
9 New Achievements (for already existing Deeds)
And more!
Before we continue with the design notes and the full changelog, we have a couple of small announcements.
Steam Awards & Sale
Steam Autumn Sale is in full swing and you can get Against the Storm 35% off!
The Sale also comes with The Steam Awards nominations and that's why we’d like to ask for your support by nominating Against the Storm for the Labor of Love Award. We know there will be a lot of competition for this award (we have a hard time picking one ourselves!), so your nomination means the world to us.
You can cast your vote here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/6187444440721555878
1.0 Release Date announced!
We recently announced that Against the Storm’s 1.0 version will be released next month on December 8!
The 1.0 update will include the Queen’s Hand Trial - a new mode designed for the most experienced of Viceroys. You can learn more about it here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/6187444621034882563
DEVELOPER NOTES
As you already know from the intro to this article, Against the Storm is leaving Early Access on December 8th, 2023! So because of this, today’s update is a very special one - it’s the last biweekly Early Access patch before the 1.0 update. So what can you expect?
First of all, "the last biweekly update" does not mean it is the final patch in the game’s history. We will still continue to support Against the Storm and bring you meaningful updates after December 8th! However, it does mean that the update cadence will slow down a bit. The 1.0 launch is a good time to slow things down and let players enjoy the full Against the Storm experience without drastic changes every two weeks. It is also a good time for the team to take a breather, evaluate the game from afar, gather feedback from all the new players, and plan the next move.
We will share more of our post-1.0 plans and hopes in the future, so stay tuned! And for now, let’s move on to the details of today’s update.
With the aptly titled "Modest Update," we bring you a lot of balance changes (mostly to Seals and events), some much-anticipated UI tweaks (mouse keybindings!), and some new content in the form of new achievements and conversations with Aunt Lori.
First, let's talk about balance. As we said in one of our previous dev notes, the last few updates before 1.0 are mostly focused on cleanups - efforts aimed specifically at parts of the game that have not aged well in the face of the barrage of updates over the last year. So today, we bring you changes to three areas in particular - Seal objectives, Glade Event rewards, and Order rewards.
Since the Seal objectives were first introduced to the game, there hasn't really been a dedicated balance pass for them. As a result, there are some inconsistencies in this system - some tasks are too easy, while others are disproportionately difficult. This has led to a stale meta and an overall gameplay experience with only a few interesting choices. So over the past few weeks, we took a closer look at the Sealed Forest and decided to shake things up a bit. We completely overhauled some of the Seal objectives and adjusted the numbers on almost all of them in hopes of making the final settlement of a cycle a little more interesting and varied.
Moving on to the next balance issue - rewards. In this update, we wanted to address some of the issues with the resources given for certain activities (namely Glade Events and Orders). We found that there was a small bias towards certain goods in the game, most notably meat, insects, mushrooms, pottery, and biscuits. This is mostly because the first versions of Against the Storm were very dependent on these types of items, and only with time has the content become more varied. So now is a good time to change that and introduce some more variability.
But balance isn't the only thing coming in this update. We also tried to fill in some gaps in the game's content. That's why we've added 9 new achievements across all platforms (a few modifier achievements and the Fox Utopia Deed were missing), and we've introduced some new conversation topics with Aunt Lori (activated after you reforge the Cobalt, Titanium, and Adamantine Seals).
We also took the time to add some highly requested UI improvements. Most notably, you can now freely map mouse buttons to any action in the game, disable all recipes in newly built production buildings by default, see cycle effects in the embarkation panel, and stop all rain engines at once with a single button press. There are also numerous text changes, localization improvements in all languages, and bug fixes.
Phew, that was quite a lot to summarize in one short note... As always, you can see the full list of changes in the changelog below. And now, let's shed some light on what the near future holds for Against the Storm.
After today's patch, we're in full preparation mode for the 1.0 release on December 8. You can also expect the next update to arrive on that day. It will include the previously teased Queen's Hand Trial - a hardcore, permadeath mode reserved for only the most skilled Viceroys. You could call this the ultimate challenge for those who find Prestige 20 too easy.
Other than that, we only have one thing left on the Early Access roadmap, and that is to get the Steam Deck Verified status. Unfortunately, this endeavor has proven to be more difficult than we anticipated. Over the past few months, we have been slowly working on small improvements to the Steam Deck version of the game, but we never quite got there. Our initial plan was to make the game just a little more accessible, but it quickly turned out that that wasn’t enough, and our plans evolved into a big effort of making the game playable with a controller.
But we quickly realized that this was too big a task for our small team, and that we would probably not be able to come up with a good solution in such a short amount of time. So we decided to approach this like any other problem in the game - step by step, through iteration.
So with today's update, we are introducing a very early and rudimentary version of basic controller functionality (for Steam Deck only). This essentially means that if you select a gamepad control layout on the Steam Deck, the game should correctly recognize your inputs and display controller glyphs. Since this is a very early and barebones version, some features are still missing. We still recommend playing with the old control layouts created by the community (or the one we published, called "Keyboard and Mouse (Legacy)") for the optimal Steam Deck experience. We hope that in the future we will have more time to work on this and give you a much better solution.
Normally, this would be the place where we thank you for your feedback and link you to all the platforms where you can leave your suggestions, but we're going to do things differently this time. Today we just want to thank you all for your amazing support throughout the entire Early Access period. Without you, Against the Storm wouldn't even be half as good as it is today. We hope that you have enjoyed going on this wild journey with us, and that you are as excited for the future as we are.
May the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
CHANGELOG
Number of changes: 94 Inspired by community: 50%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
⚡ Added 9 new achievements.
Over the course of Early Access, we added a lot of new deeds to the game, but we didn't always tie them to platform-specific achievements. This led to some weird inconsistencies, like having deeds for all 5 playable species, but only 4 corresponding achievements (for Beavers, Humans, Lizards, and Harpies). So today we decided to fix that.
The new achievements are as follows:
Abandoned Settlement - Win a game near the Abandoned Settlement modifier.
Frosts - Win a game near the Frosts modifier.
Land of Greed - Win a game near the Land of Greed modifier.
Overgrown Library - Win a game near the Overgrown Library modifier.
Petrified Necropolis - Win a game near the Petrified Necropolis modifier.
Ominous Presence - Win a game near the Ominous Presence modifier.
Gathering Storm - Win a game near the Gathering Storm modifier.
Untamed Wilds - Win a game near the Untamed Wilds modifier.
Fox Utopia - Win a game with 30 Foxes, 15 x Fox House, 1 x Tea Doctor.
If you have already completed the Deeds listed above, you will automatically unlock the new achievements when you start the game after this update.
Added new conversations with Aunt Lori.
The new conversation topics are activated by reforging some prestige Seals.
The new dialogue with Aunt Lori should give some additional closure to players progressing past Viceroy and provide a background for the upcoming Queen’s Hand Trials.
Balance
⚡ Rebalanced the Seal objectives in the Sealed Forest.
We noticed several inconsistencies in the Sealed Forest objectives. Some were too easy compared to other options in the same tier, and others were way too hard. This led to a very stale meta and not much variety in decision-making. We decided to address this in this update.
Heart of Amber - now requires players to deliver packs of goods instead of buying perks.
Heart of the Forest - now requires players to solve Cache events instead of gaining reputation from resolve.
Golden Blood - now requires players to gain standing instead of trading.
Blood of the Stag - now requires earning Reputation from Glade Events instead of making Empathy/Corruption/Loyalty decisions.
Crystal Feathers - now requires delivering Amber instead of gaining a certain level of standing.
Queen's Feathers - now requires fulfilling needs simultaneously instead of over time.
Essence of Corruption - now requires using any type of water instead of all three types.
Almost all objectives (not just those listed here) have had their numbers adjusted.
We also adjusted the easier version of Seal objectives (only available for the Bronze Seal).
⚡ Decreased the time needed to make Porridge in the Field Kitchen from 168 seconds to 126 seconds.
⚡ Increased the amount of fertile soil spawned around Homestead ruins.
⚡ Renamed some perks mistakenly called “Reinforced Tools” to avoid duplicates.
⚡ Changed the name of all +X Insect production perks to avoid confusion with Meat production perks.
⚡ Changed the name of all +X Storm Water production perks to avoid name duplicates.
⚡ Removed an incorrect version of the Forge Trip Hammer perk offered as an Order reward.
⚡ The Acid Rain Forest Mystery now also affects Pipe production.
Revamped two Archaeologist's Office upgrades.
Ancient Strength - this effect now increases the carrying capacity and movement speed of scouts instead of increasing the carrying capacity of all workers in the settlement.
Carved in Stone - this effect no longer scales based on Ancient Tablets and now increases glade event working speed based on Reputation Points gained from completing glade events. The working speed bonus has also been reduced from 10% to 7%.
Changed the tier of the Pickled Goods recipe in the Beanery to one star instead of two.
Rebalanced resource rewards for almost all Glade Events in the game.
We noticed that a lot of events were biased towards certain goods (like meat or mushrooms) or could drop the same resources needed to solve them.
Some events also had very little resource variety (less than 9 types), while others were packed with different goods (for example, caravans had more than 30).
Based on this, we decided to go through almost all of the loot tables and adjust drop rates, add new goods, and remove over-represented resources.
While this balance pass is not meant to ensure perfect resource distribution, it should result in rewards that feel a bit more varied (and perhaps open up some play styles based on more exotic goods).
Rebalanced resource rewards across multiple Orders. The goal here was similar to the resource changes in the Glade Event rewards - to spread out rarer resources and reduce distribution imbalances.
Garden Life - removed Clay, added Fabric.
Shelters - removed Mushrooms, added Berries.
Relics - removed Meat and Insects, added Eggs and Berries.
Advanced Trading - removed Bricks, added Leather.
Restoration - removed Meat, added Berries.
Risky Expedition - removed Insects and Stone, added Eggs and Plant Fiber.
Advanced District - removed Bricks, added Leather.
Human Relatives - removed Mushrooms, added Vegetables.
Lizard Relatives - removed Meat, added Skewers.
Rations for the Citadel - removed Barrels and Biscuits, added Waterskins and Porridge.
Harpy Villagers - removed Incense, added Scrolls.
Ruins - removed Barrels, added Pottery.
Coal Fever - removed Biscuits, added Porridge.
Copper Fever - removed Biscuits, added Skewers.
Knowledge - removed Incense, added Porridge.
Human Majority - removed Stone, added Planks.
Lizard Majority - removed Insects, added Skewers.
Slightly buffed traders found in Small Glades.
Increased the number of goods available in their inventories.
The base number of perks and blueprints offered by glade traders has been increased from 2 to 3.
Increased the amount of Amber available when trading with glade traders.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ Added the option to freely rebind mouse buttons to options other than just camera movement.
You can now rebind additional mouse buttons, not just the default three.
Keep in mind that it's possible to bind multiple functions to the same button, and this can lead to unexpected behavior.
⚡ Added an option to disable all ingredients in recipes by default.
⚡ Added an option to disable all recipes in production buildings by default.
⚡ Added a tooltip explaining why the Rainpunk & Blightrot tutorial scenario is locked for some players.
⚡ Ore veins can now be clicked to display a UI panel similar to that of resource deposits.
⚡ Cycle effects are now shown in the Embark Panel when selecting a field on the World Map.
⚡ You can now stop all Rain Engines at once by holding Shift and clicking on the Blightrot icon at the bottom of the HUD.
⚡ The Seal Contract UI now selects the next Seal by default when you finish a Cycle, unless you manually change the selection. If you select your own Seal at least once, the UI will no longer automatically progress through the Seals.
⚡ Added information about the duration of the Petrified Egg blessing gained from the Stormbird Egg world event.
⚡ The Gathering Knowledge biome effect now clearly states that the bonus does not apply to Woodcutters’ Camps.
⚡ The names of different standing levels in trade routes are now capitalized.
⚡ Resources listed in the “base goods” tooltip in the Embarkation Panel now follow the same order as on the in-game HUD.
Added 4 new custom icons in place of old existing art.
Seal Fragments
Caravan Wagons (modifier reward)
Supply Package (modifier reward)
Obsidian Box (modifier reward)
Improved the spacing in World Map Modifier tooltips.
Changed the keybind tips in some tooltip footers to display LMB/RMB/MMB instead of a generic “click”.
Main menu buttons are now responsive to cursor hover.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed an issue where the Land of Greed modifier would spawn next to the Bandit Camp modifier (and be drawn with it in Daily Expeditions).
⚡ Fixed a bug where certain Deeds could be completed after a settlement run (and given to the player in the next run).
⚡ Fixed a bug where players would get a "no ore left" message after disabling production in the Mine.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused some animations to glitch and produce strange artifacts when the game was paused.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the negative consequence of the Altar of Decay was not disappearing after solving the event.
⚡ Fixed an issue where the Commenda Contract world event still had an incorrect description in the tooltip ("before year 8" instead of "before year 8 ends").
⚡ Fixed a bug where the first caravan choice in the Embarkation Panel was not highlighted when selecting a world map tile.
⚡ Implemented a massive amount of fixes and improvements to almost all language versions of the game.
⚡ Fixed a bug where some perk descriptions in the in-game encyclopedia were incorrectly formatted in Simplified Chinese.
⚡ Fixed a problem with incorrect descriptions of fuel consumption effects. They all now clearly state that they reduce fuel consumption, not increase burn time.
⚡ Fixed a bug where saves imported from the demo were unplayable.
⚡ Fixed a missing icon for the Badge of Courage perk.
Fixed a bug that caused the camera to be positioned incorrectly on the world map after skipping the second tutorial.
Fixed a bug that caused Cycle effects to overlap with the Tutorials panel on the World Map.
Fixed a bug where one of the UI headers in the Tutorials panel said "Construction" instead of "Missions".
Other
⚡ Improved overall game performance in almost all biomes.
The Steam Deck version can now read gamepad input and display controller glyphs.
This feature is only available on Steam Deck and will only become active after you change the input type or control layout to a gamepad.
We have updated the recommended control layouts available in Steam Deck. There are now two: "Gamepad with Joystick Trackpad" and "Keyboard and Mouse (Legacy)". The first one shows controller glyphs, the second one shows mouse and keyboard glyphs (it's the same layout as before, controls are identical to PC).
Please note that this is by no means official controller support. This is just a way to enable basic controller functionality on Steam Deck, and a first step in a long (and probably painful) journey.
We still recommend playing with the "Keyboard and Mouse (Legacy)" layout for the best Steam Deck experience.
Tweaked some in-game sound effects and music tracks.
With the start of the Autumn Sale, nominations for this year’s Steam Awards are underway and we’d like to ask for your support by nominating Against the Storm for the Labor of Love Award.
We recently announced that Against the Storm is leaving Early Access on December 8, so we decided to take this opportunity to look back at the past 12 months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsuCV86Pf5Y
Against the Storm has been out on Steam since November 1, 2022, and we’ve continued to improve the game with a number of consistent and regular updates every two weeks. In all, we’ve added 27 Steam Early Access updates so far (two more are coming!) and we never skipped a date.
And what is YOUR favorite addition to Against the Storm? Let us know!
The total number of changes we introduced is 2,282. ⚡ And 66.74% of those were inspired by the community.
We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you, the community, supporting our game throughout development and with each update we’ve brought to Against the Storm. We are incredibly grateful for your support, and we know there will be a lot of competition for this award, so your nomination means the world to us. Please check the nominate button that’s part of this post if you would like to consider us for the Labor of Love award for the 2023 Steam Awards.
Thank you, The Eremite Games team
Leaving Early Access on December 8!
Greetings, Viceroys!
We’re thrilled to announce that Against the Storm’s 1.0 version will be released next month on December 8! To celebrate the occasion, we prepared a brand-new trailer:
If you haven’t yet, please consider adding the game to your wishlist to be notified when 1.0 releases.
Against the Storm entered Steam Early Access a little over a year ago and since then we’ve been regularly releasing new content updates every two weeks. It wouldn’t be possible without your continued support. We’re grateful to everyone who played the game in Early Access, shared their feedback, reported bugs, or helped us in any other way. Thank you!
What’s next?
Modest Update
As usual, we’ll release another bi-weekly update this week on November 23. As we’re wrapping things up, the update will be smaller than regular updates and hence honestly titled “Modest Update.” You can mainly expect various UX improvements, balance changes, and bug fixes.
Please remember that any ongoing settlements close when the update goes live, so make sure to finish them before then. The update will deploy between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm UTC on Thursday, November 23.
1.0 Update
Then the 1.0 Update will launch on December 8. It will feature the Queen’s Hand Trial - a new mode designed for the most experienced of Viceroys.
In the Queen's Hand mode, players have one Cycle to reforge the Adamantine Seal - the game's most challenging endeavor. You start from scratch and need to be strategic about your Upgrade choices - they are an expensive commodity and you won't be able to acquire the full set.
Permadeath is present at every step of the new mode. If you abandon a settlement, you lose. If you fail to reforge the Seal in time, you lose. Those who fail will be deprived of the Upgrades they acquired and their progression in the mode will be reset. But those who emerge victorious will be awarded the title of Queen's Hand and will be granted a rare audience with the Scorched Queen herself.
Q&A Livestream
We invite you to join us in just two hours - today (November 20) at 5:00 pm UTC - on Twitch for a Q&A livestream during which we’ll answer as many of your questions as we can fit in. Whether it's about the development of the game, which species is our favorite, or what are our favorite games, come join us and drop your questions in the chat!
