Empire Architect
Update 1.34: Reservoirs, Aqueducts, Fountains, and more!
I realize its been longer than normal between patches. This system took quite a bit longer than I expected... That being said you now need fountains which in turn need water from a reservoir in order to keep houses level 2 and above happy. I also added the Bath House (more health services coming soon), which will be needed for level 2 and above houses also. Having more health services than are required will gain you happiness (Formula: house level - 1 = needed health services). So a level 1 house with access to baths will have +1 happiness.
I also added a few storage alerts, as it seems that is a step people seem to be missing when they are having trouble with the game. A few debuffs have been changed, and a few buildings have been added to level 4 and 5 of the campaign that if used well should make both levels easier.
Localization:
I plan to have German and French in on Thursday, right before launch. These 2 languages are all I could afford at this point, but I hope to add more as time goes on.
Patch Notes:
- New Building: Reservoir, Reservoirs store water for use in your city. Reservoirs must be placed by water or attached to Aqueducts.
- New Building: Aqueducts, Aqueducts transport water between Reservoirs.
- New Building: Fountain, The Fountain provides clean water to a specific area. Clean water is good enough for all citizens. Needs access to Reservoirs.
- New Building: Bath House, Bath Houses provide better health through cleanliness, and waste waste disposal. Needs access to Reservoirs.
- New Alert: Low Storage, this alert happens the first time your storage is over 95% full. This alert should help you not forget to build storage (happens to me from time to time).
- New Alert: Low Food Storage, this alert happens when you have a few farms but no Granaries. This alert will only happen once, but it is designed to make sure people know they need food storage.
- Alerts should not longer bombard you right away when you load a game.
- False alerts should no longer go off right after a load.
- Fixed a bug when loading a game, that left people in a bugged state until their stamina ran out.
- The Dice House in now available to build on campaign levels 3-5 (everything after that has access to everything already). This should make it easier to get your happiness numbers up.
- The debuff for an undesirable home has been increased from -2 to -3 happiness.
- New debuff for level 2 houses: "Wants Clean Water", which means that they want water from a fountain. If they have access to a well the dubuff is -2, but if they have access to no water it is -4.
- New debuff for level 2 houses(and above): "Wants Health Services" which is a debuff of -1 happiness if there are no health services available to the home. You need 1 health service for each level home 2 and above.
- New Buff, "Healthy" which is a +1 happiness buff for every extra health service that a home has access to.
Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/batholithentertainment/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BatholithGames
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BatholithEntertainment
Update 1.33b: bug fixes and balancing
This one is on the smaller side, but its things that have been asked for recently. Most of what I am working on right now is getting the game translated. Its one of the largest requests and it will help with the game's launch.
I also put up this gameplay video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaWvfC30r-k&t=3s
Patch Notes:
- 2x2 temples, and the theater have had their spread distance raised to 5 from 4.
- The Gladiator pit has had its spread distance raised to 7 from 6.
- Students will no longer become unhappy when starving as subsisting on minimal food is normal for students :)
- fixed a bug where farms were producing 4x the food they should have been (all farms had this bug)...
- The AI now builds less barracks.
- The AI now builds less Constables.
- Fixed some mentioned text issues.
- level 5 balance changes that make it easier.
Update 1.33: Level 6 and Release Date
Well level 6 is in now, and it only requires level 4 to be completed to play it (meaning those that dont want to every play against an AI wont be forced to). The level gives you access to everything in the game, and had higher requirements than previous levels. There are also tons of bug fixes, and balancing tweaks in here that should help smooth out the game.
I Also want to announce that October 6th is the release date for the game. I still have quite a lot that I want to do with the game, but I also cant wait until after the holiday season to release the game. Before the release date I expect to have 2 more levels, the rest of the water and health system, t3 housing, and lots of balancing stuff done. If you want to help out on launch day there are a few things you can do:
1) Check the Forums and help to answer new people's questions.
2) Tell your friends :)
3) Put up a review for the game on or before the launch day.
Patch Notes:
- New Level: level 6, this level is a peaceful scenario and for the first time you have access to everything in order to complete the level requirements.
- New Achievement: beat level 6.
- All campaign levels have had their gold adjusted up for every difficulty below "very hard".
- Added a circular range finder for the Guard Tower.
- Added a circular range finder for the constable's offices.
- Increased Local merchants carrying capasity to 5 up from 4.
- Fixed a bug with last month's total. (hotfixed Wednesday).
- Slightly reduced the speed with which the constable streads its "Feels Safe" happiness buff.
- Fixed a wincondition on level 3 to say "Entertainment Coverage" rather than repeating religious coverage again...
- Muggings cooldown has been increased by 20%.
- Individuals build up "crime score" a bit more slowly (around 20% less).
- Fixed a bug in the campaign victory screen having to do with your name.
- Fixed a bug where a venus power was labeld as a minerva power.
- Fixed a bug where copper coins were not being deliveded to all Financial buildings (Forums in this case). Rather they were only being delivered to the Town Hall.
- Markets can now employ upto 5 merchants, 6 with upgrades (up 1 at both levels).
- Trading Posts can now employ 3 merchants down from 4.
- Clay is now produced faster.
- Pottery is now produced faster.
- Markets now store 100 resoureces up from 75.
- Food lasts people about 10% longer.
- Grapes are now produced about 20% slower.
- Sheep are now produced about 20% slower.
Update 1.32b: Last Month stats, and bug fixes
This is mostly a bug fix patch, with the addition of showing "last month" stats as well. Im working to get the water system and level 6 in on Friday, but we shall see how that goes.
Patch Notes:
- Added "Last Month" stats to the stat sheet.
- Added portraits for 2x2 temples.
- Fixed a bug that did not allow you to build temples of Venus or Minerva (the 2x2 temples).
- Fixed a bug that could make builders not build...
- Fixed part of a bug that caused briges to be slightly out of alignment (there is another one somewhere).
Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/batholithentertainment/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BatholithGames
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BatholithEntertainment
Update 1.32: Bridges, and Muggings
The Main bits today are Bridges, and the Mugging event. Bridges are pretty straight forward with the exception of you cant build 2 bridges right next to each other, and they can only go a maximum of 5 water spaces (also bridges may not line up 100% perfectly with each segment, I will try to get this worked out next week). Muggings happen when your people are unhappy (individual people not the average), and can not happen before the 20th day. Muggings also have a cooldown, so you wont just go from rich to bankrupt in no time. To see which areas of your city are unhappy I also added a happiness overlay.
The bridge will allow you to build on 2 sides of a river much more effectively, and the mugging event will finally give you a hard reason to keep your happiness up. Both additions should have a substantial effect on gameplay :)
Patch Notes:
- New Building: Bridge, The bridge will allow for faster travel over water. Bridges cost 25 per segment. People can still travel through water, but bridges make it much more feasible to build on both sides of a river.
- New Overlay: Happiness Overlay. The happiness overlay will give you an at a glance view of the average happiness of each home. Keep in mind that just because the average is good, does not mean their are not individual issues...
- Muggings of your tax collectors can now happen when your people are unhappy. This effect is lessened by Constables. The mugging severity scales with your city, and can not take place in the first 20 days.
- minor text changes in various places.
- Added a building collapse animation.
- Granary now shows how full it is by how many windows are filled.
- Fixed a bug where if you removed your builders before you built any houses, they would not retake their jobs and nothing could be built.
- New immigrants will no longer take jobs until they have a home. This fixes a bug that could make your people work infinitely without resting.
Next up:
I am currently working on the rest of the water and health system. I hope to have them done by Friday next week along with level 6.
Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/batholithentertainment/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BatholithGames
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BatholithEntertainment
Update 1.31c: Bug fixes and a bit of AI
This is a pretty small patch, but I wanted to fix some somewhat major issues that I broke in the last patch (Friday). Things should go back to being more smooth again now :)
Patch Notes:
- AI military units will now better defend their cities.
- Fixed a bug in the new rain display.
- Fixed a bug in the stamina use/gain for units.
- Fixed a rare bug with the happiness tooltip not sorting correctly.
- When fighting, Immigrants are less likely to come to your city.
- Farms produce about 10% less food now.
Update 1.31b: AI and CPU Optimizations
Today's list is mostly AI and optimization based. I want to continue to improve the AI, and in todays patch I worked more on their rallying. There is still plenty to do, but it has taken steps in the right direction. I also spent time reworking how the rain effect works, and reducing its footprint ALOT (like 80% reduction). I really hope this helps people who's computers are struggling with the effect.
Patch Notes:
- Fixed a bug where the Rally point for the archery range was not in the correct position.
- Rain has been completely redone. It now costs less CPU time (about 1/5 of what it use to), but requires a bit more RAM (about 50% more RAM useage, but still remains quite low tho).
- Level 5 now correctly requires that you beat level 4 as oppose to just level 3.
- AI armies now rally to the closest side of their target. This small change has a large impact on AI's attacking efficiency against guard towers.
- Reduced CPU usage per unit by about 4-5%. Its not gonna fix all the lag but its a step in the correct direction.
Its a rather short list, but there is quite a bit of work that went into it :)
If you are liking the game, please take a minute and put a review up for it. reviews really help the game out quite a bit, and that allows me to spend more on art and sounds. Thanks in advance!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/batholithentertainment/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BatholithGames
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BatholithEntertainment
Update 1.31: Level 5, AI work, and bug fixes.
Sorry again for being a day later than I thought it would be... So level 5 is the first time you fight a AI player in the campaign, and that faction is Carthage. There are a few tutorial bits, but less than the other levels. After this mission the game will branch out into peaceful missions, and dangerous mission. So for those that dont like to play against an AI this is the only mission you will have to do in order to unlock all the other peaceful missions.
I have spent a ton on time working on the AI, and it really doesnt even feel that much better yet (AI is a very long and arduous process for me). But there are improvements, and it is a step in the right direction. I want to do quite a lot on this front in the future...
Patch Notes:
- Added an Achievement for beating level 5.
- Guard Towers health/upkeep has been increased to 350 from 250.
- Guard Towers damage has been increased to 12 from 9.
- Most of the text was proofed (thanks!).
- Fixed a bug where right clicking resources in the trading post was not stopping them from being received...
- Fixed a very rare crash bug in the resource management pipeline.
- Fixed a bug when your character changes homes, and was walking to their old home, they would sit that until their stamina ran out...
- Major changes to where the AI chooses to group up for attacks.
- Minor changes to when the AI attacks
- minor changes to how an AI approaches attacking.
- The AI will now sometimes stop attacking when it feels it is loosing.
- Fixed the shadow on the new Ceres temple.
- Fixed a bug where constables could end up with to long of a range.
- Dead units now lay around for 12 seconds up from 5, this will make it take longer for another unit to take their place.
- Constables now patrol a slightly smaller area (I will get a range indicator in soon hopefully).
A few links to follow me and/or help support me (I am gonna start including these on all announcements as other dev's have been on my case about not getting my social media stuff out there...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/batholithentertainment/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BatholithGames
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BatholithEntertainment
Update 1.30: Temples (2x2 ones), Trading Cards, and Alerts
Today I have a few things for you. I have all the medium sized (2x2) temples. Each has their own look, so it should be easier to tell them apart at a glance. I Also got Trading Cards up finally. Lastly there are alerts for needing Water, Entertainment, and Religion now.
I did not finish level 5 but I am really hoping to get that in by Tuesday's update.
Patch Notes:
- New Building: Temple of Ceres. This is a 2x2 Temple which has a range of 5 spaces.
- New Building: Temple of Minerva. This is a 2x2 Temple which has a range of 5 spaces.
- New Building: Temple of Venus. This is a 2x2 Temple which has a range of 5 spaces.
- Added more Alert icons
- Added a frame around Alert Icons (cus its prettier).
- Added an Alert for needing water in your city.
- Added an Alert for needing religion in your city.
- Added an Alert for needing entertainment in your city.
Thanks for sticking with the game everyone! I really hope you are all enjoying the game, I will keep working to improve it each and every week!
Update 1.29a: fixes, optimization, and AI
This patch is on the small side, as most of what I have worked on so far this week is not finished yet. Level 5 is progressing, but I ran into some AI issues that I am sorting out, as well as making the AI a bit smarter so I am not sure if level 5 will make it into Fridays patch or not... Some of the AI work is in this patch, but most of it is not really noticeable. I fixed a few crashes, as well as added some new icons for alerts.
Patch Notes:
- Added some new AI play elements (mostly groundwork stuff for later, but there are a few noticable bits).
- Started adding Icons for Alerts.
- AI Players should now be more efficient (cause less lag).
- Fixed a minor crash bug having to do with the weather.
- Fixed a crash on level 3 after loading a saved game (only affected level 3).
On Sale: the game is in its first sale period right now, and I do not think the game will be this cheap again till mid next year. So if you have friends or family that may like the game, now is a good time to tell them about it.
Lastly if you are enjoying the game please take a second and write a review for it. Positive reviews really help me out by gaining more traffic for the game, and that in turn allows me to purchase more art and sound/music.
Thanks!