I've written a lot about the upcoming diplomacy update for Airships, but have so far refused to commit to a release date. Estimating how long software takes to write is hard, and I didn't want to produce a string of broken promises. Now I'm finally close enough to everything being ready that I can do so:
The diplomacy update will come out in August 2022. It's tentatively called "Airships: Conquer Together".
So that's in about five months, nicely two years after the 1.0 release. It will be a free update revamping conquest mode and adding a large number of features. A more financially savvy person would be selling this as an expansion pack or calling it "Airships 2". But it's free, because it's where I want the game to be at. After the release, any future major features will come in the form of expansion packs.
Why another five months? I want to make sure I have enough time to test, polish, and balance the game.
What does the update contain?
Co-op combat and conquest: You will be able to fight with any number of players and AIs to each side, each controlling your own ships. You can set up individual multiplayer combats with multiple players on both sides. And if you're allied in multiplayer conquest mode, you can fight alongside each other.
Full diplomatic system: You can conduct diplomacy to determine war, peace, and a number of levels of alliance and cooperation. You can send ultimatums to demand diplomatic concessions. And the AI is able to do all of this too, including a detailed numerical explanation for why it accepts or rejects a deal.
City upgrades: You can now upgrade your towns and cities with shipyards, factories, police stations, pleasure palaces, labs, and more. Balance your expenditures between building up your empire and conquering more of it.
World ages: As the game progresses, the world enters different ages that change the rules and balance of the game. An age of storms can make it harder for airships to navigate. An age of piety will see empires racing to control holy sites. An age of exploration lets you send out your ships to seek out strange new lifeforms to study and, er, plunder.
Fleet supply system: Logistics are a very important part of warfare. Yes, you can still assemble a doom stack of dozens of ships, but it will be a lot more cumbersome than a careful deployment of forces.
Reputation system: Breaking treaties and committing atrocities will decrease your standing, while defeating pirates and slaughtering monsters increases it.
New additional victory conditions: Instead of conquering every city, you can also amass enough power and reputation to have yourself declared emperor - though other players may interfere with your coronation going ahead. Or you can forge an alliance strong enough to dominate the world. Or, if you're a cultist, you can make worms erupt from everyone's eyes. That's a kind of victory, too.
New espionage system: An entirely new set of spy actions and mechanics that reward long-term planning and produce more interesting results.
A prettier map: Inspired by renaissance maps, featuring landmarks and marginalia drawings, and a clearer presentation of information.
Revamped tech tree: Based on player feedback, and adding in new technologies for city upgrades.
Revamped coat of arms bonuses: Also based on player feedback, and taking advantage of the new features in the game.
Various other balance and user interface improvements: Too many to number here individually.
So what's left to do in those five months?
Networking: This is the big show-stopper right now. Multiplayer games still have weird lag problems and failures. I really really really want to fix those before releasing an update that's about co-op combat and diplomacy. So right now, I'm doing regular test games and updates to figure out those problems and fix them. If you have had network problems with the game such as crashes or failed reconnects, please get in touch and volunteer for those test games, so I can figure out what's wrong.
Refining AI logic and performance: The new AI code for diplomacy is mostly complete now, but it simply needs more testing as well as some performance enhancements. Turns out that considering every single treaty you could sign with every single other empire in the game is kind of time-consuming!
Updating tutorials: Because the game - and especially conquest - has changed, I need to update the tutorials. As an existing player, you may not care about this, but the game needs to be accessible to new players as well.
User experience polish: With all those new features come a lot more user interfaces that have to be made usable.
Testing and balancing: Finally, an update this big simply requires a lot of testing to make sure it actually works and is reasonably balanced! There will probably be a closed beta followed by an open beta in the months leading up to the release.
And a hundred other small things. :)
1.0.23.7
Additional fixes for rare/theoretical networking bugs.
Version 1.0.23.6 - Performance, Networking, Stability
Fixed a bug where the game would crash on startup due to corrupted preferences. This should mean that the "full reinstall" procedure as documented in the troubleshooting docs is no longer needed. At worst, your preferences will reset.
Improved game performance, especially landship pathing, preventing pauses in large games.
Fixed a bug where opening the ship design list from refit mode in conquest would pause networking, causing horrible networking problems.
Version 1.0.23.5
Fixed a crash in the key configuration screen.
Version 1.0.23.4
Ability to set keys to nothing in key configuration.
Can now access key configuration from conquest menu.
Fleshcrackers no longer jump around like they're at a rave.
Fleshcrackers and other legged landships should no longer randomly hover in midair.
Bombers will no longer use their bombs to attack enemy boarders. It ends badly.
Can no longer place ships from the reserve to underground.
Cultist crew have reduced maintenance.
Brigands no longer spawn in monster nests without road access.
Fixed an exploit involving module replacement.
Special thanks to Discord user Towarish Broven who very professionally reported a lot of the bugs fixed in this update.
For future reference, here's how to optimally report a bug with the game so it can be fixed quickly and efficiently:
The optimal description for reporting an issue looks like this: Reproduce, Observed, Expected.
Observed Issue: The bad thing that happens.
Reproduce: The detailed steps required to make the bad thing happen. Include any relevant files, e.g replays, ship designs.
Expected: The thing that should happen instead.
Example fictional bug:
Observed Issue: The ship vanishes forever.
Reproduce: Start a combat in conquest with multiple ships on your side. Move a ship into the reserve during combat.
Expected: The ship shows up in the reserve list.
In addition, submit any save files or replays that make it easier for me to experience the bug myself. This makes my work much easier and faster.
Version 1.0.23.3
Fixed performance / freezing / corruption issues with mod crossloading.
1.0.23.2 - Performance Fixes, Better Tracks
As so often after a bigger release, we now have a flurry of smaller releases to fix and improve things. This update does two things: It improves performance in conquest mode, getting rid of pauses related to the road update, and it improves the ability of tracked landships to move across rugged terrain a bit.
1.0.23.1 Hotfix
Fixed a bug where the ship editor would crash to the main menu.
Landships: Conquer the Land (1.0.23)
I completely redid the way roads work to be prettier and more flexible. As a result, landships can now finally travel via multiple cities in one go. There are also more sea lanes.
Saves from previous versions can be loaded in too, but might not look as pretty. If you want to finish ongoing games using the previous version, you can switch to the "1.0.22.2-oldroads" branch in Steam.
Also, landships are now are 25% cheaper to build and maintain. Legs are up to 50% more expensive, relatively speaking. And there's the occasional AI player that focuses on landships.
Other fixes:
Option to display a clock in the corner.
Loading from autosave no longer targets the autosave file for quick save afterwards.
Fixed a problem where the wrong module would be selected in the editor.
The AI no longer sends out a zillion spies and bankrupts itself in the process.
Adding a keel in the editor now immediately has the right effect on module hit points.
Ships no longer try to shoot at targets that have been destroyed or that ran away into the reserve.
Guards now fight to retake captured ships and buildings.
Crew in captured buildings no longer treasonously fire on guards.
Crew no longer forget they're POWs when they leave a ship.
Fixed gaps and lines in ship rendering. Finally.
Added the letters Åå.
Upcoming: a technical post on the road update, and a post about diplomacy update progress.
Version 1.0.22.2: Bugfixes, Performance
I've mostly been busy with the diplomacy update - more on the state on that soon - but here is a minor update that fixes some crashes and visual issues, and improves performance:
Fixed combat performance problems caused by trying to play too many sound effects.
Fixed weapon beams not being drawn at certain angles.
Fixed crash at the end of LAN multiplayer combat.
Fixed crash on resuming combat setup with ships already placed.
Mod transfer is now faster, thanks to the ancient technique of "not transferring mods no one needs".
Fixed blazon (description) of coats of arms with scarpes.
Fixed fleet command bonus text.
When defeating a fleshcracker mad scientist, you're now more likely to discover fleshcrackers.
The combat performance improvements are thanks to a player sending in a recording of a problematic combat. So remember: if you encounter a bug or performance problem in combat, look up the recording afterwards and use the "Send Feedback" button in the recording to send it to me, so I can analyse it.
