Implemented the "Immediate roadmap" to replace the current upcoming patches system
Immediate roadmap can now be seen ingame
Backend improvements to the voting system including preparations to allow multiple votes per player
BUGS
Fixed several modifiers that were using incorrect multiplier formulas, including but not limited to: Sift, Delve, More, Less, Bunker, Naive, Efficient, Wasteful, Neverending, Specialized, Harmony
Continuous Loop can now do more than one extra cycle; e.g. 2 slots at 5/cycle now does two and a half loops. It was only doing one extra
Fixed goods production dialog appearing too far right
Fixed Powerplant bonus
Patch 4.24.774 (The Age of Pirates)
GAMEPLAY
Scout mechanic has changed
Scouts now have a chance to cause a treasure to spawn near the planet they're stationed on
The old buff from Scouts has been removed and they no longer affect Artifact rarity chance
More scouts decrease the time between chances to get a Treasure spawn, the decrease is multiplicative and diminishing, and can never reach 0
A new ship type, the Protector, has been added
The Protector will defend shipping lanes in the system, reducing the risk of NPC pirate attacks and lost cargo
Protectors will also try to defend the planet they are stationed on in case it comes under attack
Protectors are weak swarm-type craft and will not be enough on their own to defend against a fleet targeting a planet, but may supplement planetary defenses
Two new Artifact modifiers have been added: Suppression, and Conformity
Two new Artifact base types have been added: Astra, and Caelis
One new Creator Artifact has been added: Amber Fragment
One new Primal Artifact has been added: Amber Shard
One new Creator Artifact has been added: Amber Piece
Drop chance of Creator, Primal, and Nephilic Artifacts has been increased slightly
NPCs can once again attack any planet that has begun construction of, or finished, a Space Elevator
Slightly increased munitions usage by planetary defense installations
Shard transmutation mechanic available in Temples
Each finished Space Elevator now provide +3% to all production output on the planet, reaching +36% when all 12 elevators are complete
Each Powerplant now provide +3% to all production output
INTERFACE
Greatly enhanced the modifier overview when crafting Artifacts
Buttons for several features which are not yet in the game have been hidden to avoid confusion, ex. Planetary Ring
SYSTEM
Some improvements to startup time
BUGS
Fixed S.I.E.Ves not giving Ore if you sign in away from your Capital
Fixed S.I.E.Ves Ore bonus incorrectly multiplied by planetary Artifacts Ore production output resulting in very small values
Fixed Hermit's Boon appearing more than once on the same Artifact
Server patch (Looping Devourer)
GAMEPLAY
The Continuous Loop modifier can now spawn on Angelic in addition to Divine and Demonic
New Artifact modifier: Devourer
When placed in a building it will consume a random resource and over time has a chance to randomly increase the tier of a modifier on any Artifact in the same building. The Devourer modifier can not improve itself, is unaffected by all other modifiers, and has a limited number of uses before it becomes inert.
Increased the chance bonus per Scout from 0.1 to 1
Adjusted spawn weight of several Artifact modifiers
Patch 4.24.766 (Experimental buildings)
GAMEPLAY
New experimental buildings added
These buildings are experimental and may be removed in a future patch!
The idea is that these buildings will offer an alternative to Artifacts for certain mechanics
GRAPHICS
Light flashes toned down overall
Light flashes can now be turned off in settings
INTERFACE
Minor performance improvements overall
BUGS
Fixed crash on startup if desktop virtualization is enabled
Fixed a source of random disconnects
Patch 4.24.759 (Dev. voting)
HOTFIX 4.24.759
Several Artifact modifiers were erroneously left at 0% spawn weight after testing. The following modifiers were affected, but can now spawn once more:
Planet stats
Per City buff
Size
Defense damage reduction
Defense pillage reduction
Empty slot buff
Even or odd buff
Production bonus per planet stat
Artifact Rarity bonus
Artifact crafting bias
Treasure resource cache bonus
Artifact salvage bonus
Population Faith
Population Health
Population Joy
Just like the other modifiers, many come in "low" and "high" variants and some even contain "extreme" variants. Different variants can stack and have their own tier names.
Bugfix: Fixed countdown to next dev. vote not being visible when hovering over the vote button
Bugfix: Fixed Bound/Unbound planet Artifacts not behaving properly when unsocketed
Performance: Huge performance improvement in Artifact Blueprint database loading, should reduce startup times and "not responding" significantly!
Patch 4.24.749 SYSTEM
New features
Voting system as described in the July 31st Developer update
EVENT
Soulless manifestations detected in multiple star systems. Caution advised!
GAMEPLAY
Balance changes:
Resource Cache Loot now has better distribution of resource
Artifact changes:
All existing Artifacts have been converted to Bound Artifacts
New Artifact type: Bound Artifacts
Bound Artifacts do not expire
Bound Artifacts can not be unsocketed, only destroyed
New Artifact type: Unbound Artifacts
Unbound Artifacts do not expire
Unbound Artifacts can be unsocketed and moved
New Artifact type: Timed Artifacts
Timed Artifacts are now very rare
Timed Artifacts spawn with much higher modifier values
Timed Artifacts can have unique modifiers not normally available
Timed Artifacts can have multiple unique modifiers
Timed Artifacts have less strict rules regarding modifier conflicts, allowing a much greater variety and interplay between possible modifiers
Timed Artifacts can not be unsocketed, only destroyed
Artifact timers/countdown are now enabled
Timed Artifacts have between 1h to 2h duration after which they are destroyed
Many old Artifact types have been deprecated and can no longer spawn, existing ones remain
Artifacts modifiers are now limited based on rarity:
This new limit does affect all existing Artifacts, but does NOT remove any existing modifiers. Existing Artifacts that are beyond the limit will only allow modifiers to be removed until they get below the limit
Common can have up to 2 modifiers
Uncommon can have up to 3 modifiers
Rare can have up to 4 modifiers
Angelic can have up to 5 modifiers
Divine can have up to 6 modifiers
Demonic can have up to 6 modifiers
A new modifier has been added that increases the max allowed number of modifiers beyond the natural limit
The absolute max is still 15 for all rarities
36 new regular Artifact modifiers
12 new Unique Artifact modifiers
Nine new Creator tier Artifacts
Seven new Primal tier Artifacts
Six new Nephilic tier Artifacts
INTERFACE
Major performance improvements to the stockpile window
Moved Empire and Artifact buttons out of the dropdown in the top left
BUGS
Fixed S.I.E.Ves not providing Ore in some cases
Fixed a bug that was affecting Artifact modifier randomization
Developer update
Patches and updates are changing As the scope of the upcoming patch grows it has become evident that it will take some more time to get ready. In order to avoid a repeat of the dreaded "Phase III coming soon!" I have decided to make some major changes in how I approach updates, as well as how to involve you deities more in the process.
The first major change is that upcoming patch notes will now be referred to as the Immediate Roadmap. All features and items on the Immediate Roadmap are actively being worked on. The second major change is that any feature on the Immediate Roadmap that becomes ready will immediately be pushed out as an update instead of waiting for the "whole" patch.
Some features rely on other features, and in those cases the base features simply have to become ready first.
Vote for the features you want me to focus on The third major change is that I am adding an ingame voting system, where you will be able to cast your vote for which feature (Or features) you would like me to focus on.
The duration the vote covers may change, but I am going to try to keep it weekly.
You can vote for multiple options, or several times for the same option. Every active player gets one free vote per week. Additional votes cost Essence. You will be able to make Essence ingame without spending any money, and I will be adding the ingame shop soon where you'll also be able to purchase Essence. You will be able to vote multiple times during the same period, regardless of if you buy Essence or gain it via gameplay.
Importantly, this is just a vote for what you'd like me to focus on, it is not a vote to discard features or adding one feature in favor of another. All features and options shown during votes will be things that are going to make it into the game, the question is just about the order of things.
But why? This accomplishes several goals, first it keeps me focused on the things you deities actually want to see, not just what I find the most fun to work on. Second, I hope this will bring in some much needed money that can be spent on artwork, models, etc (And of course programmer-fuel: Energy drinks) And most importantly it should hopefully produce more frequent updates of substance as I will push features live as soon as they become ready instead of as part of a larger update.
As always your feedback is important, let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
Server update (Lubricant)
SERVER
Huge server overhaul to improve performance and add backend systems needed for future gameplay mechanics and features:
All server database interactions have been rewritten and optimized
Optimized all database structures
Some gameplay features have been moved to other services to reduce data duplication
BUGS
Fixed some resources, e.g. Angelic Shards, not appearing as intended in Resource Loot
Restored the gains of the Men
Patch 4.24.721 (Loot and Springcleaning)
HOTFIX A
Fixed an issue with data node that was causing Resource caches to not work properly for some players
GAMEPLAY
Over 8'800 abandoned and unclaimed planets have been removed
More things added in preparation for an upcoming in-game event
Added Cargo ship-class, it currently does nothing but will be needed to transfer resources between your planets
Shipyard queue items can now be cancelled (No refunds!)
INTERFACE
Resource Cache Loot tooltip made much clearer
GRAPHICS
Slightly adjusted color of Artifact Loot to make it clearer what Tier it is
BUGS
Can no longer spend Congregation points beyond population limit
Fixed S.I.E.Ves not giving Ore
Fixed Scouts not affecting Treasures
Fixed crash when taking a screenshot after increasing the game resolution
Added missing textures that were causing Resource caches to be invisible
Patch 4.24.698
GAMEPLAY
Added temporary new mechanic:
A new ship type, the Exterminate class Marauder, can now be built and sent to invade hostile planets in the same system as it's built. Marauders can be destroyed by Planetary defenses or hostile Marauders. A Marauder will take out another Marauder resulting in both being lost. A Marauder will damage planetary defenses if it is destroyed by those. Many Marauders may be needed to penetrate planetary defenses if any exist. If the Marauder is not destroyed it will occupy one City center/Space Elevator. If all 12 are occupied the planet will switch owner to the attacker. Marauders are extremely weak, and should be easy to fight off for any active player. They are a tool allowing you to remove other inactive players from your star system, they can not be used to target planets in other systems.
ARTIFACTS
The number of possible modifiers on an Artifact are now shown while crafting
Possible Unlock Productions on an Artifact are now shown while crafting
Added Basic Artifacts for each and every producible resource
Patch 4.24.682
Fleet server remains offline, see dev. diary ingame!
BALANCE
All Food goods output has been increased by at least 200%
ARTIFACTS
New and crafted
Added more possible modifiers to Autoloaders
The rarest possible random modifier is now picked when adding modifiers to an Artifact (Notes A)
The highest possible random tier is now used when spawning new Artifacts (Notes A)
Added Rare and Angelic mass-salvage buttons to the Artifact vault (Be careful)
Added checkbox to ignore Infinite Artifacts while mass-salvaging (Checked by default)
INTERFACE
Shipyard buttons are now much more responsive
BUGS
Ship construction getting stuck with all resources showing fully complete
Fixed shipyard construction and queue not saving properly on server shutdown
Fixed missing defense building icons
Fixed Extra Shards modifier giving the bonus to the wrong Shard type
Fixed Fission and Fusion tooltips
Fixed goods not checking their archetype max stockpile (Charcoal)
Artifact slot limits are now properly enforced: Max 10 Planet slots and 28 per Building
Fixed missing Space Elevator icon
Accretions are no longer suitable locations for colonization
NOTES A) The old system would pick the first possible item, which meant that if the random weight rolled 0.1 it could still pick an item with a weight of 40 if it appeared early in the random list. The new system checks the entire randomly ordered list and picks the item with the lowest weight that is higher (or equal) to the random weight roll (0.1 in this example). If two or more items have the same lowest weight one of them is randomly picked. This change should help immensely with the spawn rate of the more rare Artifacts and modifiers.
