These are all found thanks to the ingame system and your help guys! Let's move on like this!
Solved the problem with Krovan attacks starting from conquered provinces, attacking already lost provinces, or entering strange deadlocks.
If the province where the HQ was being sent is lost, the HQ will return automatically to the starting province
Added the Food bonus to HQ province modifiers
Fixed a bug due to losing HQ province to the the enemy and then reconquering it and having multiple HQs.
Fixed error thrown by a tower being sold while taking damage
Fixed a game breaing bug when you try to cancel Heimer moving provinces in certain specific conditions
Riot notification once riots are finished. Time to Next Riot in notifications
Cheers, Dr.H
DevLog Helps us deciding what feature to develop next!
Hello guys, how's everyone doing! We had a hell of a week because we did release our latest published and produced game (developed by Vikerlane), Headbangers in Holiday Hell, and now we're back full power onto Empires in Ruins. We're still fixing a handful of the latest bugs or recommended polishes received from you guys, and it's now time to take a decision on the next month of development.
We have two main big features to take on, and we'd really like to hear what you think about it, so that you can also contribute to what's coming next on the game (Full release is being planned for the second half of march, so it's not that far away at all anymore!)
The decision is between a big feature(s) for the Arcade branch, or for the Campaign/Sandbox branch. Mind, both will be done anyway, we are just deciding in which order!
Arcade branch
Tech tree tailored to Arcade mode (using victory stars to unlock upgrades)
Leaderboards (global and per map)
Campaign/Sandbox branch
Settlement HOMM-like visual development
Additional information from pre-battle scouting
That would mean, shall we add Tech Tree and leaderboards to the Arcade mode first, or shall we instead add the visual development of the settlement (HOMM-style) and the additional scouting to Campaign and Sandbox? Production-wise, it doesn't make much of a difference for us, so that's why we'd love to go with you guys might like best first!
Let us know don't be shy, we want you to be part of all this! Cheers, Dr.H
Build 0.906.09 a few fixes
A handful of fixes, thanks to everybody that keeps on reporting bugs and providing feedback, it's incredibly useful for us, keep on rocking guys!
Fixed a bug that prevented the selling of Resource buildings in some conditions
Fixed a bug that prevented the unlocking of the Builder's Tent in the campaign
Fixed the incorrect naming of Batchka in the parchment main map
Fixed the missing technology icons in the main map research marker
Fixed the missing Zeppelin description
Fixed the bug that caused all the province details in Arcade mode to report the incorrect province name
Cheers, Dr.H
Early Access Build 0.906.08 - Getting there
Yes, this is a big, not big, a huge step. This build, while for you it might not mean much, is the first build with the fully tested localization system. What does that mean? It means that from now on adding languages is going to be just a matter of producing the contents, and the game will fully support them out of the box. The first language, already included in this build, is Chinese, and it's the beginning of our collaboration with our Asian Partner: Whisper Games (that just to mention some, are taking care of the localization of Disco Elysium, Endzone, Wartile, Rising Lords, etc).
It's huge, isn't it? First language planned is Italian, already halfway ready. To follow, in order to be decided, its gonna be Portuguese, Greek, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Korean and Japanese. We wanna make sure that by release time, all these will be available for the game. It's a huge effort, in production and costs, but we think that it was due!
Ah, and we also got some new promo art done by the legendary Giacomo!
That said, let's get onto a few of new fixes, that are always pleasant to show off!
Fixed text layer position compared to background in Victory panels
Added tooltip and specifications on Tributes UIs
Fixed a bug that displayed Lumberjack research updates on the Quarry and Iron mine panel
Fixed a UI bug that caused spritesheets bleeding into towers and buildings portraits
Fixed missing fonts for the in-battle scout reports
Fixed wrong mouse-over on Management and Luck on Heimer's panel
Fixed post-riot impact on both Campaign (1 dialog and then automatic) and Sandbox (automatic)
Fixed an issue with wrong keys to activate the battle cooldown abilities
Fixed one bug with reinforcements being recalled but the modifiers persisting
Fixed one bug with reinforcements being cancelled from the actions but not resetting the status in the sending province
That said, now that this is done, off to some new cool stuff that you will see in game VERY VERY Soon!!
Cheers, Dr.H
Early Dev Diaries #11 - Strategy guides and localization
Wow wow wow, more than once month already passed since the last big update? You shouln't worry about our silence, we're still full time on this!
What's sucking up most of our current dev time, is still the localization system, that is now really near completion. We found the spanish translators too, so for now the (seemingly) confirmed languages available at least at release time in march will be:
Italian
Chinese
German
Greek
French
Spanish
Russian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
And if you consider that EiR is more than 30k words, it's no small feat or least for a small studio like ours! But hey, we think to fully enjoy EiR, this is needed, specially for the campaign!
What else are we doing though? We're testing and balancing A LOT! Laurie, our chief tester, is spending hours in testing the balance of the new economy system features.
And, not only this, but me and her we're writing together the BIG strategy guide for EiR, that will also become the pdf manual of the game. Hey, every 90s-inspired game needs a manual!
If you have specific topics you would like us to tackle, don't hesitate to write it on the forum, or on the discord server, and we will make sure to integrate an answer to that as well. The guide covers both 4X and Tower Defense mechanics of the game, and will probably include a final units and towers encyclopedia, with stats and special abilities too.
Ah, and very last thingy, next week Giacomo will also finish the new banners, while you can alredy see here the new library and poster piece!
See you soon, and keep on being awesome! Cheers, Dr.H
0900.02 Optional tributes, better governors and tutorial in sandbox
0900.02
This was fast, wasn't it? We both built on last week feedback and applied some new fixes, and there you go! Only a few days after the big update, new stuff is in and in the main branch! So nobody is forced to have active tributes and deal with the economy to such a level, not even in Campaign mode!
Tributes are now optional in Campaign mode
A governor won't take building decision if the HQ is in the province
Added temporary tutorial to sandbox mode as well
Fixed a bug in which having less than 2 objectives achieved provided a +4 bonus to riot timer
Fixed the new tribute system such as existing old game saves have tributes deactivated by default
Upgrade 0900.01 is here!
It's finally online! The largest update so far is live, with the whole new economic system (Tributes, Marketplace and Instant buying), with the optional Riots and Tributes in Sandbox mode, and whole load of new stuff, balancing and features!
Check it out and don't hesitate to give us feedback about it!
v0900.00
New Features
Added Instant buy button to complete one province asset per turn instantaneously
Added Tribute System for Campaign and Sandbox
Added Market system to exchange gold and resources.
Added to Sandbox the choice for optional Tributes and Riots (in a new game only)
Balancing
Increased the wood cost of provincial assets (mostly for 2nd and/or 3rd tiers only)
Increased Infrastructures bonus to Resources production ( 3% >> 5%)
Increased Market bonus to Resources production ( 3% >> 5%)
Increased Logging Camp, Iron Mine and Quarry bonus to Resources production per Tier ( 10% >> 15%)
Changed all the provinces resource production, now based on the province and map geography
Increased the autoresolve success chance for Riots, based on game difficulty.
Increased the positive impact on combat autoresolve success for having already won battles in a province
Increase the positive impact of Heimer leading the battle in a province
Increased by approximately 10%-15% the timer between riots and the influence of modifiers in delaying it
Fixes
Fixed a null reference in battle caused by a single officer in board in position 0
Fixed a bug with tooltips showing #D variable instead than correct values
Fixed an exception with Witch curse applied to a tower multiple times
Fixed a placeholder #B and #C in case of hanging faction-less officers.
Fixed a placeholder #A in province resources tooltips
Fixed an exception-throwing bug on scouting UIs
Fixed a UI bug in which Resources timer tooltip needed more space in case of upgraded timer
Fixed a bug that prevented the correct rotation in the visualization of Officers (using the UI arrows)
Fixed a bug that did duplicate the officers cards in some specific cases (when assigning as governors mostly)
Fixed a bug in which in Sandbox mode it was impossible to lose a province due to a riot
Fixed a bug that did get the Heardquarters stuck in case of losing the HQ province. It will now relocate to a neighboring province if possible.
Fixed a bug in which at Sandbox mode start the Riot timer was locked on a too low value
Economic System and Chinese Localization
Listening to users feedback, we decided to slightly modify the roadmap of the game, in order to first enrich, polish, balance out and finalize the gameplay, and then localize it once ready.
You asked us for a deeper economic system, and we are finishing preparing it, with the Tribute System, the Marketplace and the Instant Buying of province Assets that are changing the gameplay of the main map completely. You asked us for a better balancing, and we now did a whole revising of riots, difficulties and balancing for all the 3 difficulty modes.
When we are done with the economy updates (they are entering public open beta today), we are gonna get the full team all-in on the localization final issues. Chinese and Italian translations are mostly done, they just need to be tested, adapted to some interfaces and polished. Between the end of October and the beginning of November they will be made public (on the Demo too). German and French will follow right after.
Portuguese, Russian and Greek will then follow together with Japanese and Korean.
We think it's better to be first done with the features, so that when you will be able to finally enjoy the game in your native languages, you will already have most of the final game already available, balanced out and stable (a few more features will be added before full release in February, but the major ones will be done now).
Stay with us, we won't disappoint you!
Open Beta 0900.00b - New economic system, tributes and instant building.
It took us something like 2 months, but it's almost done. The largest update so far is now in open beta to try! We did finally expand the game economy system, give a meaning to those huge amount of resources you had around, and allow you to instant buy one building per province (if you have enough money).
How to play it? Follow the screenshots below to access the open beta branch, and just update the game! The game updates will be pushed on the beta branch only for 1-2 weeks and then at the end will all merge with main branch. Those that take part in the beta rounds, can have their names inserted into the lists of Officers and Governors names (they will get used to generate procedural officers ingame).
Now for the steps. Right click EiR in your client and click Properties.
Access the Beta tab.
Opt in the Open Beta branch. And then update the game!
What's in? Some more stuff will get added during the next week before it goes public, but there's already quite some stuff i would say!
0900.00b
Added Instant buy button to complete one province asset per turn instantaneously
Added Tribute System for Campaign and Sandbox
Added Market system to exchange gold and resources.
Increased the wood cost of provincial assets (mostly for 2nd and/or 3rd tiers only)
Increased Infrastructures bonus to Resources production ( 3% >> 5%)
Increased Market bonus to Resources production ( 3% >> 5%)
Increased Logging Camp, Iron Mine and Quarry bonus to Resources production per Tier ( 10% >> 15%)
Changed all the provinces resource production, now based on the province and map geography
Increased the autoresolve success chance for Riots, based on game difficulty.
Increased the positive impact on combat autoresolve success for having already won battles in a province
Increase the positive impact of Heimer leading the battle in a province
Increased by approximately 10%-15% the timer between riots and the influence of modifiers in delaying it
Fixed a null reference in battle caused by a single officer in board in position 0
Fixed a bug with tooltips showing #D variable instead than correct values
Fixed an exception with Witch curse applied to a tower multiple times
Fixed a placeholder #B and #C in case of hanging faction-less officers.
Fixed a placeholder #A in province resources tooltips
Of the new stuff, Tributes only work in new Campaign or Sandbox (loaded and new) games. Campaign games already started don't get the tributes. It's worth noting that I will probably make the tributes optional for campaign and sandbox games below Hardcore difficulty. Instant buying for assets and marketplace are present in all games instead.
If you're into design and docs, here's some of the design notes I took while preparing the economy system. There's a lot more coming, but start with this one now! Being in beta, we would love if you guys could try it and tell us what you think. If you find bugs, if you think it needs balance, etc etc, please hit F11 in game, or write in the forum, or come to Discord (we're there 24/7 basically)
Tribute System design notes
Description: In order to see the progress in taming the rebelling provinces, the Crown demands to see the tithes restored from the Western Marches. Therefore the Commander will have to send, periodically and in growing size, a tribute in gold and resouces to the capital. Succeeding at it will reinforce its authority and the morale of men, failing at it will have the opposite effect, up to leading to the removal of the Commander from the campaign lead and his hanging. After being introduced by a dialog with Sgt.Vunstenberg, a new recurring timer will be following the player for the whole duration of the campaign (In sandbox mode the timer begins on turn 10).
Timer: Every 30 turns (i.e. 15 days) the Player HAS to pay a tribute in Gold, Wood, Stone and Iron of growing entity with each iteration. Enity: To be decided yet.
Gameplay conditions: * IF a Tribute is paid timely, for the next 30 turns the player will benefit of a +5% to Authority in all the Controlled provinces, and a +5% Morale to towers in battle (Morale increases the chance of a tower of causing double damage with a hit). * IF a Tribute is not paid timely, for the next 30 turns the player will receive a -5% to Authority in all the controller provinces and a -5% Morale to towers in battle (Very low morale provides towers with a chance to cause halved damage in battle with a hit) * IF the player fails to pay 3(5?) Times a tribute, the campaign is over and the Commander is removed from his position. * Relations with the crown do influence the entity of the tribute ( above 50 each point provides a -0.5%, below 50% each point provides a +0.5%)
UI Elements: * On-screen UI timer to next tribute with clickable button. * Detailed tributes window (Accessible through the on-screen button) with details about: Current modifiers, Paid and Failed tributes, Entity of the Next Tribute and missing/exceeding resources. * Interactive UI to Pay or to Refuse to Pay (or to confirm the lack of resources and the failure in paying the tribute).
Instant Buying System for provinces
Description: Allow the player to use globally gathered resources to instantly buy a province asset already in production queue.
Gameplay conditions: ONE asset per turn can be instantly built in a province upon paying a fairly high cost in resouces (approximately 10 times the normal value of the asset).
UI Elements: * Button added to the building queue near the Currently Built asset * UI Panel with details on next/current payment, prediction of achieved resources with current economy, payment option and displayed failed payments.
Market System
Description : Once the player builds at least one Market in one of the provinces, he has access to the Marketplace to exchange resources for gold and viceversa.
Gameplay conditions: Only activates when the player has built at least one Market asset. The default exchange ratio is 3:1 (resources to gold) and 1:3 (gold to resources). With each market tier built, this exchange rate improves (in favor of the player) by -0.05 and with each 10 points of management by -0.1 to a minimum of 1.2:1.
UI elements : * UI button to reach the market from the main campaign screen, and from the Tribute system. * UI panel with buttons and methods to exchange resources (gold vs resources and viceversa)
Early Dev Diaries #10 - Tributes, Assets and Markets
We got asked a few times to add depth to the economic system of the game campaign and sandbox mode. We did gather a few months of feedback now, and here's what we boiled out of that. The instant-buying system was already planned for the province assets (btw, sneak a peek at the upcoming provinces management screens too!), but the Tribute and the Market, were designed during the last couple of months and they are now in pre-beta phase. 1-2 weeks and they will enter public beta and then go into the main branch soon after that!
If you guys are interested into being part of the design process, don't hesitate to contact us on Discord or write us on the discussions forum and we'll be super happy to hear your feedback/contributions/ideas (be realistic though, we can't apply everything we hear :heimer: )
Here's some of my design notes about what's coming! PS there will still be some changes in some details and specs, based on testing and feedback of course!
Tribute System design notes
Description: In order to see the progress in taming the rebelling provinces, the Crown demands to see the tithes restored from the Western Marches. Therefore the Commander will have to send, periodically and in growing size, a tribute in gold and resouces to the capital. Succeeding at it will reinforce its authority and the morale of men, failing at it will have the opposite effect, up to leading to the removal of the Commander from the campaign lead and his hanging. After being introduced by a dialog with Sgt.Vunstenberg, a new recurring timer will be following the player for the whole duration of the campaign (In sandbox mode the timer begins on turn 10).
Timer: Every 30 turns (i.e. 15 days) the Player HAS to pay a tribute in Gold, Wood, Stone and Iron of growing entity with each iteration. Enity: To be decided yet. Gameplay conditions: * IF a Tribute is paid timely, for the next 30 turns the player will benefit of a +5% to Authority in all the Controlled provinces, and a +5% Morale to towers in battle (Morale increases the chance of a tower of causing double damage with a hit). * IF a Tribute is not paid timely, for the next 30 turns the player will receive a -5% to Authority in all the controller provinces and a -5% Morale to towers in battle (Very low morale provides towers with a chance to cause halved damage in battle with a hit) * IF the player fails to pay 3(5?) Times a tribute, the campaign is over and the Commander is removed from his position. * Relations with the crown do influence the entity of the tribute ( above 50 each point provides a -0.5%, below 50% each point provides a +0.5%) UI Elements: * On-screen UI timer to next tribute with clickable button. * Detailed tributes window (Accessible through the on-screen button) with details about: Current modifiers, Paid and Failed tributes, Entity of the Next Tribute and missing/exceeding resources. * Interactive UI to Pay or to Refuse to Pay (or to confirm the lack of resources and the failure in paying the tribute).
Instant Buying System for provinces
Description: Allow the player to use globally gathered resources to instantly buy a province asset already in production queue.
Gameplay conditions: ONE asset per turn can be instantly built in a province upon paying a fairly high cost in resouces (approximately 10 times the normal value of the asset).
UI Elements: * Button added to the building queue near the Currently Built asset * UI Panel with details on next/current payment, prediction of achieved resources with current economy, payment option and displayed failed payments.
Market System
Description : Once the player builds at least one Market in one of the provinces, he has access to the Marketplace to exchange resources for gold and viceversa.
Gameplay conditions: Only activates when the player has built at least one Market asset. The default exchange ratio is 2:1 (resources to gold) and 2:1 (gold to resources). With each market tier built, this exchange rate improves (in favor of the player) by 2% to a maximum of 2:1.9.
UI elements : * UI button to reach the market from the main campaign screen, and from the Tribute system. * UI panel with sliders and methods to exchange resources (gold vs resources and viceversa)
