Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Against the Storm
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!
We needed to deploy one more hotfix which deals with a couple of Reputation Bonus issues (missing blueprints, negative blueprint choices in the new tutorial scenarios, incorrect numbers on the reputation icon on the HUD) that occurred in the new tutorial missions.
Unfortunately, players who were affected by the issue will need to Skip Tutorial (in the in-game menu) for the fix to work and then play it again. The skipped tutorial games don't count as losses.
We're sorry for the trouble! If you need any additional help, you can reach out to us via support@eremitegames.freshdesk.com
Have a fantastic day and may the storm be gentle on you, Eremite Games
Hotfix 0.63.6 (World Map HUD, Reputation Rewards)
Greetings, Viceroys!
We're back with a small patch to fix the issues that you reported after the Tutorials and Tips Update. Thank you for your swift reports and feedback!
Changelog:
Fixed a bug with Harvesting speed being clamped to 150% instead of 1000%.
Fixed a bug with some non-interactive Reputation Bonus choices.
Fixed a bug with the Badge of Courage perk missing an icon.
Fixed a bug where skipping tutorial scenarios would remove the World Map HUD.
Fixed a bug with planting and harvesting times not being updated in the farm UI.
Fixed a bug where restarting tutorial missions would reroll caravan choices.
Fixed an issue where the reward popup after attacking a trader wouldn't have enough space for more than 6 rewards.
Fixed an issue with the Citadel being called "N/A" in some instances of the UI.
Fixed an issue where the Forest Mystery HUD would have too little space for 5 active effects.
Tweaked the text spacing in the tutorial panel in the World Map view.
Fixed a bug with the Beacon Tower and Forester's Hut sticking out of the ground when first placed.
Adjusted the experience rewards for all tutorial scenarios.
We wish you a great time with the update and a relaxing weekend.
Whether you're a newcomer, learning the ropes of Viceroy's duties, or a returning player seeking to refresh your memory, rest assured, we have you covered! The update introduces two new tutorials focused on trading, Hostility, and Rainpunk. But as always, that's not all!
What's new:
2 new tutorial missions
Replayable tutorial scenarios
48 new icons
Building counters
And more!
You can find the full changelog and our update notes below.
DEVELOPER NOTES
As we teased in the last update notes, we wanted to take some time before the 1.0 release to focus more on new players and their experience when first learning the game. Over the course of the last few updates, we’ve introduced a number of changes to this end (UI improvements, Aunt Lori dialog), but there was always one more thing that needed to be done - new tutorials that focus on some of the more complex mechanics of the game, such as trading, Hostility, and Rainpunk.
So that's what we did in this update! We added a new panel with all the tutorial missions in the world map view, and we added two new optional scenarios called "Trade & Hostility" and "Rainpunk & Blightrot". Both are very similar to the original two tutorial missions that every player gets to play at the beginning of the game. They introduce a topic in a short and concise way with explanatory text and camera movements, and then let the player explore the game freely in a custom scenario centered around a given theme (for example, in “Trade & Hostility”, most orders and blueprints are centered around trade, encouraging the player to try out that particular playstyle).
Now let's talk about balance. Some time ago, we stated that there would be no major, game-changing overhauls before the 1.0 release - and we still stand by that! But we do see some places in the game that need a little tidying up. So in this update, we took a look at the resource and reward distribution in some Dangerous and Forbidden Glades, and rebalanced some negative Forest Mysteries. In the next update, we will take a quick look at some other aspects of the game and try to clean them up a little as well.
So when it came to the balance of glades, we noticed that some Forbidden Glades had too few resources, and some Dangerous ones had too many. Some even outperformed their Forbidden counterparts. That’s why we decided to slightly reduce the maximum amount of goods a Dangerous Glade could contain and increase the minimum value of Forbidden Glades. This change might sound big, but due to the random nature of the game, there were only a few variations of Dangerous Glades that were way too generous (about 18%).
We also tweaked a few things in the loot tables for various Glade events. It turned out that some Dangerous Events had resource rewards comparable to their Forbidden counterparts, and some Forbidden Events would give far too few perks and goods for completion. So we decided to balance things out a bit by reducing the number of goods in many Dangerous Events and buffing loot tables for a lot of Forbidden Events.
Finally, in terms of balance, we also looked at some Forest Mysteries, as many players pointed out that some effects were too easy, while others seemed too punishing. There aren't many changes here, mostly increases and decreases to the Hostility requirements, but there is one significant overhaul. The Stagnant effect has been changed so that it no longer increases break time, but instead reduces the time between breaks.
Let's move on to the UX changes. In this update, we added effect names ("Comfortable", "Proficient") to specialization tooltips, replaced 48 existing icons with new custom assets (for Sealed Forest effects, prestige modifiers, house upgrades, etc.), improved the wording in many places (especially for time-sensitive world event objectives), added planting and harvesting times to farm recipes, and added building counters to building cards in the construction menu.
Thank you for providing us with feedback and suggestions for the new update. If you’d like to share your ideas for upcoming updates, here are some useful links:
P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!
CHANGELOG
Number of changes: 93 Inspired by community: 92%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
Introduced a new “optional tutorial” system and added two new tutorial scenarios to the game.
Hostility & Trade - unlocked right after the World Map Tutorial. It's a custom scenario that explains Hostility and Forest Mysteries in more detail and focuses on building a trading-oriented settlement to familiarize players with the trading mechanics.
Rainpunk & Blightrot - unlocked after gaining access to the Rainpunk mechanic. This scenario explains how to use Rain Engines and Rainwater, teaches the player about Blightrot, and focuses on building a settlement based on heavy industry and metal production.
Optional tutorial scenarios can be accessed in a new pop-up window in the World Map view. The window is located on the left side of the screen and can be expanded or collapsed as desired.
When entering the world map for the first time, the tutorial pop-up will also list some additional "read more" topics. Selecting these will take the player directly to the in-game encyclopedia.
With this change, the "Replay Tutorial" button has been removed from the ESC menu. To replay a tutorial, simply select a scenario from the tutorial pop-up (the first two tutorial missions are also available there).
Balance
⚡ Slightly changed the balance of resources in Dangerous and Forbidden Glades.
There were a few possible variations of Dangerous Glades that had too many resources, and a few Forbidden Glades that had way too few. We tried to balance that out a bit by lowering the maximum possible resource count in Dangerous Glades and raising the minimum in Forbidden Glades.
This is not a huge change, but it should make Forbidden Glades a little more reliable in terms of resource gathering.
⚡ Balanced the rewards given for completing Forbidden and Dangerous Glade Events.
We noticed that there were some inconsistencies in event rewards. Some Dangerous Events were giving too much, and some Forbidden Events were giving too little. We tried to even it out a bit by changing the resource numbers for the outliers in each group.
⚡ Buffed the Parts recipe in the Rainpunk Foundry and added an additional worker slot to the building. The recipe now requires fewer resources and takes less time to craft.
⚡ Rebalanced a few Forest Mysteries.
Eclipse and Nauseous Spores - changed how the Stagnant debuff works for these Forest Mysteries. It no longer increases villager break time, it now shortens the time between breaks by 33%.
Unyielding Corruption - it now triggers after reaching Hostility 3 instead of 4.
Rotten Rain - increased the time between Blood Flower spawns from 70 seconds to 90 seconds. Increased the Hostility requirement from 3 to 4.
Devastating Storms - increased the Hostility requirement of this effect. It now triggers at Hostility level 6 instead of 5.
⚡ Slightly tweaked the distribution of nodes in the Marshlands. Egg nodes should appear a little less often now.
⚡ Removed all perks with negative side effects from Treasure Stag loot tables and added some new, purely beneficial perks in their place.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ When hovering over specialization icons, the tooltip will now display the effect name ("Proficiency" and "Comfortable") next to the specialization name.
⚡ Added 48 new custom-made icons to the game.
Sealed Forest biome effects
Beacon Tower abilities
Species’ housing upgrades
Some Order objectives
Some rewards in the Smoldering City upgrade tree
Prestige modifiers
The Settler’s Luck difficulty effect
⚡ Changed the wording in the Rebellious Spirit Cornerstones. It now correctly states that the Impatience penalty is applied when a villager dies or leaves.
⚡ Changed the wording in all Deed and World Event goals that require players to win in a certain amount of time. All descriptions should now read "before year X ends" instead of "before year X".
⚡ Added visible planting and harvesting times to recipes in farm panels.
⚡ Added a building counter to the building cards in the construction menu.
Added several new loading tips that explain various aspects of the game.
Changed the “Effects and Upgrades” header in building UI panels to “Effects and Perks”.
Added tooltips to UI tabs in building panels to help players navigate.
Improved some text in several places in the UI where keybinds or controls are mentioned to make input hints a bit clearer.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed a bug where the negative effect from the Altar of Decay Glade Event would not disappear after the event ended.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the Golden Leaf Plant was not available after being unlocked through Deeds.
⚡ Fixed a bug where finishing the Infected Drainage Mole glade event without any active Blightrot Cysts would not remove the Cyst generating effect.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the "Tracked Goods" category was misaligned on the top HUD.
⚡ Fixed a bug where worker slots in the Mine were misplaced and out of bounds.
⚡ Fixed an offset slider in the internal storage UI.
⚡ Fixed an issue with incorrect rewards in the Untamed Wilds world map modifier.
⚡ The missing Trader Arrival statistic has been added to the stats section of the Game History tab in the Smoldering City.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the game would remember the consumption control settings and apply them when replaying a tutorial mission.
⚡ Fixed a bug where the list of tracked orders would cut into the "Read More" section of the HUD.
⚡ Fixed several typos and inconsistencies in the French version of the game (Seal Contracts, Export Specialization perk, dialogue).
⚡ Fixed several typos and inconsistencies in the German version of the game (Farluf, Survivor Bonding perk, Wildfire Essence, tutorial text, Pie).
⚡ Fixed several typos and inconsistencies in the Japanese version of the game (Earthquake effect, Noxious Machinery effects).
⚡ Fixed several inconsistencies in the Thai version of the game (a few descriptions, effects).
⚡ Fixed a lot of typos and inconsistencies in the Simplified Chinese version of the game, and improved the overall quality of the translation (biomes, tooltips, dialogue, buildings, upgrades, deeds, perks, events, general UI, encyclopedia, update news).
⚡ Fixed an issue where some accented letters in Italian were displayed incorrectly in the in-game encyclopedia.
Fixed an issue where the Rain Engine tooltip was incorrectly offset in building panels.
Fixed an issue where Aunt Lori’s “Queen’s Hand” title was incorrectly scaled in some languages.
Fixed an issue where the Smoldering City tooltip had the wrong label.
Other
⚡ Aunt Lori will no longer be giving early gameplay tips and basic lore information to veteran players. This was done to avoid odd situations where players who have already reached Prestige 20 are given very basic advice and lore that they already know or have deduced from playing the game.
⚡ Tweaked the phrasing in some dialog options and openings to make Aunt Lori sound a little more serious. Also added some new opening lines.
The current game version is 0.63.1.
Check out some of the best community city designs, artwork, and memes from recent days. Click to unfold: [expand="more" type="show"]
We’ll present the outline of two new tutorial missions coming in tomorrow’s update and talk about all the balance changes and UX improvements (building counters, anyone?).
As always, we’ll upload the recording to our Livestream Archive playlist on YouTube, so that you don’t miss out on anything new.
Lastly, we want to remind you that once the Update goes live, your ongoing settlement will have to be closed. You can find more details 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.
We released a small hotfix to address the issues that occurred after the last update. We're super grateful for your reports and feedback!
Changelog:
Fixed a bug where some players could not embark due to a missing world event requirement.
Fixed a bug where too many crops of one type would be sown when two farm recipes were enabled at the same time.
Fixed a bug where some world event effects would be applied multiple times to a save file and would not disappear after a cycle reset.
Fixed an incorrect meta-reward name for the first upgrade in the Obsidian Archive row in Smoldering City.
Fixed a problem with some Rainpunk- and Blightrot-specific Forest Mysteries appearing for players without those mechanics unlocked.
Fixed a bug with the "harder orders" modifier not being applied correctly in Prestige 1 difficulty games.
Fixed a number of typos and inconsistencies in conversations with Aunt Lori in the Thai version of the game.
Fixed a problem where the Fox House was available as a wildcard before the Foxes were unlocked.
Fixed a bug where some building UI panels were too small for the number of worker slots they had.
Fixed a problem where fertile soil was spawning under trees in the tutorial.
Fixed some visible
Guidance and Lore Update - Part 2 available!
Greetings, Viceroys!
With this update, we're diving into the world of home décor! Complete Deeds and progress your Viceroy career to unlock new collectible items that will cozy up your home.
What's new:
Collectible decorations
8 new Deeds (Seals)
New conversation topics
Idle farmers indicator
And more!
You can check the full list of changes and our design notes below.
DEVELOPER NOTES
As you might have guessed from the name of this article, today's update is the second part of the Guidance and Lore system. It brings new conversation topics with Aunt Lori, a bit more structure to the early game, and most importantly - collectible decorations for your home in the Smoldering City. So without further ado, let's dive right into the details.
First, the new collectibles. In the past, we've talked about how we wanted to add some new cosmetic rewards to the game, especially for higher-tier deeds. Up until now, many of them have only rewarded players with experience points - and while that can be a meaningful reward at lower levels, deeds like Prestigious Expedition 20 are completed by players who have long since reached max level.
With Guidance and Lore Part 2, we hope to change that by introducing a new type of decoration - collectibles that will be displayed in your home in the Smoldering City. These are purely cosmetic and are awarded for completing certain deeds. You can also get little snippets of lore by hovering over the reward icon in the deed panel. There are currently 27 items available, with more to come in the future.
We also introduce several new conversations with Aunt Lori. The most notable of these are unique interactions with her after the first few settlements and after successfully reforging each of the four initial Seals (Bronze, Lead, Silver, and Gold). The goal here was to provide some structure and to guide new players through the early game by giving them clear goals to strive for (as well as a sense of closure after completing the Gold Seal). In the future, we will add a similar interaction with Aunt Lori for the last 4 Seals.
There are also several new, more general topics of conversation when interacting with Aunt Lori. She can now tell the player a few new stories (such as about the Fishmen or the Foxes) and give more advice based on the player's actions in previous games. There is also a new dialogue option in the "There's something I don't understand..." branch that is meant to explain how the Blightrot mechanic works.
As with every update, this one brings a few community-inspired UX improvements, balance changes, and bug fixes. Most notably, we've added two new settings to the Options menu - "Idle Farmer Indicator" and "Species Panel Open by Default". We also changed the human farming specialization icon and improved the wording of several in-game descriptions. In terms of balance, we changed the penalty in the Master Blueprint Cornerstone (to count resource charges instead of nodes), changed the objective of the Obsidian Loremaster world event (to require Forbidden Events, not just Forbidden Glades), and added an option to control season length in Training Expeditions.
Finally, let's talk a little bit about the near future. As you may have noticed, this update mostly focuses on fleshing out the game structure and making it easier for new players to get started. That's because we're slowly approaching the 1.0 release of Against the Storm, and we want the game to be as polished and accessible as possible. At the same time, we’re avoiding any major core gameplay changes before it comes out of Early Access.
Some studios out there take a longer break from updating their game right before the 1.0 release, just to come out of Early Access with a bang in the form of a huge, fancy new feature. However, our development philosophy has always been very different. We believe that our strength lies in extremely frequent and highly iterative updates rather than large but rare content drops. For this reason, we will still continue the bi-weekly update schedule as normal.
And while this may be sad reading for some of you, fear not - there will still be a yet unannounced surprise feature coming with 1.0. It just won't be as groundbreaking as fishing or a new species.
As always, we're grateful for all your support and feedback. If you’d like to share your ideas for upcoming updates, here are some useful links:
P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!
CHANGELOG
Number of changes: 62 Inspired by community: 87%
Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.
New content and features
⚡ Added earnable decorations to the player’s home.
Home decorations are special collectible items. They are automatically added to the player’s home in the Citadel.
Collectibles can be acquired by finishing certain deeds in the Citadel (the exact list of changes in Deed rewards can be seen in the “balance” section of this changelog).
There are 27 collectibles in total.
Each collectible has a small snippet of lore when hovering over its icon in the Deed panel.
⚡ Added 8 new Deeds.
The Bronze Seal - Reforge the Bronze Seal.
The Lead Seal - Reforge the Lead Seal.
The Silver Seal - Reforge the Silver Seal.
The Gold Seal - Reforge the Gold Seal.
The Platinum Seal - Reforge the Platinum Seal.
The Cobalt Seal - Reforge the Cobalt Seal.
The Titanium Seal - Reforge the Titanium Seal.
The Adamantine Seal - Reforge the Adamantine Seal.
The rewards for completing the new Deeds are all new home decoration items. Every reforged Seal will grant you one piece of the Viceroy’s uniform to be displayed in your home in the Citadel.
To complete the new Seal Deeds, you don't need to play all of them from the beginning. If you win a game near your most recent Seal, all the lower tier ones will count as well.
Added new conversation topics with Aunt Lori.
The main focus of the new topics is to add structure to the first half of the game and to give players a clearer sense of direction.
Aunt Lori will now offer unique conversations after reforging each of the first 4 Seals (Bronze, Lead, Silver, and Gold). She also has some unique dialog after the first games after the tutorial.
There are also numerous new stories she can tell, a new tip based on the player’s actions in previous games, and one new topic explaining the Blightrot mechanic (after selecting the “There’s something I don't understand…” option).
Balance
⚡ Changed how the penalty of the Master Blueprint Cornerstone works. Instead of requiring players to remove/deplete nodes, it now counts collected resource charges.
⚡ Changed the objective of the Obsidian Loremaster World Event. Instead of discovering 2 Forbidden Glades, it now requires completing 2 Forbidden Events.
⚡ Added the option to control season length in Training Expeditions.
Reshuffled a lot of rewards given for Deed completion.
First Steps - removed the experience reward, added the Standard Uniform home decoration.
The Scarlet Orchard - removed the Thorny Reed settlement decoration, added the Rosevine home decoration.
The Marshlands - removed the experience reward, added the Marshglow Fungite home decoration.
Coral Forest - removed the experience reward, added the Reefbloom home decoration.
Royal Outpost - removed the experience reward, added the Landscape Painting home decoration.
Against All Odds - removed the Dullahan trader unlock, added the Pipe Cross settlement decoration.
Crimson Soil - removed the Reeds embarkation bonus, added the Thorny Reed settlement decoration.
Sparkdew Crystals - removed the Pipe Cross settlement decoration, added the Sparkdew Crystal home decoration.
Fishmen Ritual Site - removed the experience reward, added the Fishman Skull home decoration.
Prosperity 5 - removed the experience reward, added the Plate of Food home decoration.
Dice with Death 4 - removed the experience reward, added the Dullahan trader unlock.
Thorough Exploration - removed the Golden Leaf Plant settlement decoration, added the Reeds embarkation bonus.
Discovery 6 - removed the experience reward, added the Mole Trophy home decoration.
Rushed Delivery 6 - removed the experience reward, added the Sparkcaster home decoration.
Export Expert 6 - removed the experience reward, added the Trade Contract home decoration.
Stalking Shadows - removed the experience reward, added the Storm Orb home decoration.
Unnecessary Burden - removed the experience reward, added the Ibex Rug home decoration.
Master Archaeologist - removed the experience reward, added the Inscribed Slab home decoration.
Prestigious Expedition 2 - removed the experience reward, added the Pipe Elbow settlement decoration.
Prestigious Expedition 5 - removed the Moss Broccoli Seedlings perk unlock, added the Ancient Artifact home decoration.
Prestigious Expedition 8 - removed the experience reward, added the Golden Leaf Plant settlement decoration.
Prestigious Expedition 10 - removed the No Quality Control perk unlock, added experience points.
Prestigious Expedition 14 - removed the experience reward, added the No Quality Control perk unlock.
Prestigious Expedition 17 - removed the experience reward, added the Painting of the Ancient Hearth home decoration.
Prestigious Expedition 20 - removed the experience reward, added the Duelling Umbrella home decoration.
Removed two Cornerstones from Deed rewards: Moss Broccoli Seeds and Steel Mattocks. Both are now available from level 1, without the need to complete any Deeds.
UX/UI improvements
⚡ Added an “idle farmers indicator” setting to the options menu. Checking it will cause the game to notify the player if farmers are idle on a farm.
⚡ The species panels on the left side of the HUD will now remember their state when the game loads. This means that if you leave them expanded and quit the game, they will still be expanded after loading.
We also added a “species panel open by default” setting to the options menu. Checking it will cause the species panels to always be expanded when starting a new settlement.
⚡ Changed the icon of the human farming specialization to avoid confusion with the forest specialization of foxes.
⚡ Improved the wording in the first dialog of the Seal Keeper. It should now clearly state that the player needs 4 different items instead of all Guardian Parts.
⚡ Changed the names of Copper and Coal deposits to “veins”, to make it clearer that they are different from normal resource nodes (and that perks affecting resource deposits/nodes don’t work on them).
Based on this, we updated all tooltips and descriptions tied to mine upgrades.
⚡ Added a footer to resources in the warehouse panel. It now explains that LMB will track a resource and RMB will open a tooltip where the lower limit can be set.
⚡ Improved the wording in the description of the Travel Rations perk, to avoid confusion in regards to its effect.
Bug fixes
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Prestige 11 Blight modifier being incorrectly applied to Prestige 10 games.
⚡ Fixed an issue with some parts of the forest being incorrectly generated in the Scarlet Orchard, leaving small empty spaces between glades.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the Ominous Presence modifier to be spawned near the Flooded Mines modifier.
⚡ Fixed an issue with coal veins spawning under trees in some glades in the Coral Forest.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the German description of the Fishmen Lighthouse glade event description.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the Russian description of the Rainpunk Drill effect.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the Simplified Chinese translation of the Home button in the Citadel.
⚡ Fixed a few typos in the Polish version of some dialogs with Aunt Lori.
⚡ Fixed some typos in some generated settlement names.
The current game version is 0.62.1.
COMMUNITY CORNER
Recently, we released the Official Against the Storm Steam Deck controller layout. It was inspired by a tremendous community layout made by Extant. Thank you for putting the time into creating and testing the layout!
We invite you all to share your suggestions for additional Official Layout improvements in this thread.
Now, check out some of the best community city designs, artwork, and memes from recent days. Click to unfold:
[expand="more" type="show"]
Recreation of the Bakery building in modded Minecraft by Mapet (Source: Reddit)
Fox Villager by 鳥（Tori）(Source: 
Stamping Mill: Modded Minecraft Edition by u/gap3t (Source: 
