Last week, we introduced our new perk-based progression system and showcased the first two paths to enhance your experience. Now, it's time to delve deeper. This week, we’re excited to reveal additional paths that will boost your combat abilities and spiritual growth. These new paths will offer unique skills and benefits, empowering you to master both the art of battle and the depths of spirituality.
Way of the Warrior
This one focuses mainly on two aspects -- hunting and combat. You will level it up by defeating enemies and killing animals, which will make you more efficient in skinning (something you may already be familiar with). And as we introduce our new combat system, you will also get perks that unlock new fighting moves, make your weapons and knives more efficient, and make you more deadly in general.
Way of the Monk
It’s more than a tribute to Japanese spirituality. In medieval Japan, monks were also warriors and administrators, so this path would include some jack-of-all-trades perks. One could focus on inward perfection, boosting your stats and making you more impervious to the dangers of the natural world, while another would improve your relations with traders and make exploration easier.
Additional features
As a general principle, we wanted perks to feel meaningful, and make specific playstyles more tempting. Since it is impossible to make all perks equally powerful, we also want to balance them with two small features.
Apart from the current progression mechanism that allows you to unlock higher-tier perks only when you have unlocked a certain number of lower-tier ones, we want some perks to have other specific perks unlocked as requirements, so that you never waste a perk point on something that is not yet effective for your character.
The second improvement will make some perks upgradeable -- you will be able to invest in specific bonuses, making them better, as an alternative to dipping into other aspects and unlocking completely new perks.
As you can see one feature introduces necessary limitations while another expands the flexibility. You can expect dozens of perks and their upgrades in each Way of Life to be gradually added to Sengoku Dynasty in the coming updates.
We hope you will be here with us for the ride!
PS: Please also have a look at our No Better Neighbourhood Contest on Discord. We are looking for beautiful villages in screenshots and/or video clips! Prizes to be won!
From Peasant to Legend Part 1
Our next update will be called Ikigai, which is Japanese for “a sense of purpose” -- and that’s exactly what we hope it will offer, with the introduction of a more complex progression system based on perks!
You may have already seen our Legend tab, currently just a proof of concept that we always intended to greatly expand upon. The time has come to shed more light on how it will work.
First of all, we want to support all of the four paths you may wish to take to turn your character from a rag-tag peasant into a legendary figure. And today we will present two of them.
Way of the Leader
Players focused on their Dynasty will be able to level it up by acquiring Dynasty XP, which unlocks benefits for all players in a co-op session. As you progress, expect to gain perks that provide new and unique crafting recipes, lower villagers’ consumption of resources, and modify their happiness or productivity. Additionally, you can earn various other permanent global bonuses that enhance the overall experience for your entire community. These benefits not only improve individual gameplay but also foster teamwork and collaboration in co-op sessions, making the Dynasty system a central aspect of the game’s progression and strategy.
Way of the Craftsman
As a hardworking person in medieval Japan, you’ll be able to level up by crafting, building, and acquiring resources. As you progress, you can expect to receive rewards that enhance various aspects of your productivity. For example, you'll get boosts to wood production with supercharged axes, access to richer mining deposits, faster construction speeds for building, and improved yields from harvesting and farming. These rewards will make your efforts more efficient and fruitful, helping you thrive in the challenging world of medieval Japan.
Next week, we will unveil two additional paths that will enhance your combat abilities and spiritual growth. These new paths will offer unique skills and benefits, allowing you to master both the art of battle and the power of spirituality. Stay tuned for more exciting details!
See you there!
PS: Read more on our Discord in #sengoku-announcements - https://discord.gg/toplitz
Lighting up the faces!
A Character Editor is one of the most requested features of Sengoku Dynasty. We plan to add it this year – but in order to get there, we must lay some groundwork first. Some of the necessary changes are already visible in the game.
First of all, in Kaizen Pt. 2, we made significant improvements to the lighting system. Getting the light right is especially challenging in a game like ours, which features a day-night cycle, various weather conditions, four distinct seasons, and unique lighting conditions in specific locations like caves. Ensuring consistent and well-lit environments across all these scenarios requires meticulous effort. Hopefully with improved scene colors the game will better reflect the atmosphere of Sengoku-era Japan.
We've also undertaken a major character overhaul. Completely new, optimized skin materials provide more freedom for future character customization. You'll see significantly more detail on bodies and, most importantly, faces. Currently, this rework applies only to male characters, but female characters will receive the same treatment soon.
We hope you’ll enjoy this first step towards character customization. We’ll be taking many more very soon!
Steam Summer Sale has started!
Youkoso!
Summer will be over before you know it, honestly! Be prepared for autumn!
That's why we recommend medium and long-term provision with games! So it's handy that the huge Steam Summer Sale starts today and numerous bargains await you! Stock up on games!
In Sengoku Dynasty it's also nice in autumn, in winter too and spring and summer either. Build one or more villages, ensure the utmost happiness for the villagers and get involved in the development, because we are in the middle of Early Access and would love to hear your ideas!
Use the power of the Wishlist and put Sengoku Dynasty on it OR get it DIRECTLY at the STEAM SUMMER SALE!
Edit: Epic users can enjoy the latest update 0.3.4.2 - Games can be hosted and joined from both sides again.
Fixed the female NPCs eyeballs and the misplacement of the lower lip
Fixed the visible holes in some male NPCs
Fixed old body material of elite villagers
Fixed some items are not free to build in creative mode
Fixed game mode settings set to zero when starting a game from an older saves
Fixed the RT and LT misleading prompt placement in the Dynasty tab
Fixed missing localization
Fixed gamepad issues in new game menu
Fixed texture tiling in cobblestone path
Build a Path to Happiness with Kaizen Pt. 2
Gravel, sand, dirt or stone? Lay scenic roads down and mark your territory with a variety of fences and walls, using our brand-new system of building with splines. And don't forget to keep your villagers happy while you're at it! Their smiling faces will guide you to success as you build your dream village.
Inspired by Kaizen (改善), the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement of production processes, this series of updates brings you some of the most requested features related to village building and management. Hope you’re enjoying them thus far. Rest assured more improvements are coming soon as we continue to listen to your invaluable feedback!
Build roads, fences, and walls
You can now easily build long-form structures by using a handy new tool: splines! Choose from a selection of materials and shapes and unleash your creativity to make your village really stand out!
New building models and decorations
Build new, visually striking torii gates and decorate them with elaborate shimenawa, stone foundations, and even moss. Rebuild your kitchen and fisherman buildings from the ground up to give them a new, more elaborate look. And give your village a more authentic feel by covering some of the buildings with traditional Japanese straw roofs.
Happiness system
We’ve reworked the way we calculate the needs and happiness of your villagers. Angry and smiley faces in the Dynasty Summary tab will now be a reliable indication of how good of a leader you are. We also made a series of UI changes, so that you can get better feedback about the consequences of your decisions:
We added a new tooltip system for displaying contextual information in the Needs panel, to better explain the needs and happiness system.
Warnings related to villager needs will now be displayed as red exclamation icons in the Dynasty Needs panel (in the Dynasty Summary tab).
The Needs Priority tab should be more useful and understandable now after we:
swapped positions of values to be consistent with the Needs panel.
removed the display of item storage for service jobs, as they don’t store anything.
stopped displaying and including needs in calculations for specific items when the consumption toggle is off.
Improved new game and game modes experience
There’s a new, better-looking New Game screen for choosing your game mode and a more intuitive custom game settings window. Also, game modes will now impact more systems, including item sell costs, crafting costs, and a range of consumption modifiers. That means your choice of game mode now carries more weight.
[TAG-20]
IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED TO KEEP THE GRAPHIC CARD DRIVERS UPDATED!
Other additions and improvements
New weapon: Longbow
New exploration music tracks
Improved skin textures for the player character
Improved all lighting, including sun & moon, and overall scene colours
Added interaction with water, like foam and waves
Added trader encounters on rebuilt small bridges (special projects)
Rebalanced refugee camps in villages – they will now spawn a varied number of refugees
Rebalanced how wells and buckets interact – when interacting personally, you will use one bucket to get much more water over a longer period
Improved neutral village looks with new asset compositions including furnishing some empty houses
The autosave interval was changed to 15 minutes
In the radial menu, an additional option has been added to rotate selections using the right analogue stick
For keyboard users, there is now the option to move selections (such as inventory items) or adjust UI sliders (such as craft amount) using the WSAD keys
Improved Dialogue UI
Minor adjustment of furniture - some have been reworked to occupy less space, and we have added an arrow pointing to the front of the furniture
Added a tutorial tooltip for camera modes (you can switch between TPP and FPP with “V” by default)
Added Dynasty Management warnings displayed on HUD for clients
Improved recipes for debarking logs showing both items that they produce (bark and debarked log)
Fixes
Fixed Owl SFX being too invasive during the night
Fixed multiple bodies of water and terrain bugs on the map
Fixed NPCs roaming aimlessly when the player entered a loading location
Fixed Animals and NPCs getting stuck between rocks, trees, props, etc.
Fixed season duration UI displaying the default values on the game load
Fixed equipping-unequipping holdable being laggy for clients when host performance is bad
Fixed marker for Segi quest changing position upon zooming in/out the map (and not being tracked properly)
Fixed hares making wrong sounds sometimes
Fixed fog getting very bright for clients
Fixed Nijo cutscene breaking the UI when played close to the season end
Switched position of gamepad UI prompts (RT and LT) in Dynasty Summary window
Known issues
You may need to open and close some full-screen UIs to refresh values. We plan to address this issue in the next update.
Consumption prediction is not precise due to not considering input items that will be distributed to workplaces. This will also be addressed in the next update.
Kitchen and Fisherman's Hut buildings will not be compatible with your save – rebuild them to enjoy their new models
Localizations are currently missing for some new Ui elements (affects all languages).
The sliders in the game customization settings do not yet behave as desired when the left stick of a gamepad is used for input.
Meet a slightly different dynasty!
Greetings!
Are you thirsty for more Dynasty?
Sangavia is looking for fresh blood! A comfy wooden box with all the amenities awaits your passage to the promised land of haemoglobin aficionados! Check-in here!
Fences, roads and happiness - New Features in Kaizen Part 2
Youkoso!
We are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of Kaizen Part 2! Here are its two core features you can look forward to:
The Happiness System: Introduce joy and satisfaction to your villagers' lives. Manage their happiness levels to boost productivity and harmony within your community.
Fences and Roads: Craft intricate fences and roads with our new spline building feature. Design your village infrastructure with greater precision and creativity.
This update takes another step towards making the village simulation aspect of Sengoku Dynasty more engaging and intuitive. We can't wait for you to experience the improvements and take your villages to new heights.
There's even more exciting content coming in this update, and we'll be revealing additional details in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned for the release date!
We also want to express our gratitude for your continued support and the valuable feedback you provided after the first part of Kaizen update. We're thrilled to have you with us on this journey!
Superkami and Toplitz Productions
Take Control with the Kaizen Update
Inspired by kaizen (改善), the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement of production processes, this update brings a streamlined storage system and adds a new Consumption Priority tab that allows you to decide exactly how your villagers use resources. Plus, new warnings will help you spot issues like homeless villagers or lack of tools. So, jump back into your village, experience much shorter loading times, and let us know what you think! We’re always eager to hear your feedback.
Shorter loading times
We have decreased the initial loading times by 73% (median). That’s what our internal tests suggest at least - the results may differ between different setups, so we’re all the more curious to hear about your experience. Did you notice a significant improvement?
Improved Dynasty Storage
No more will you have to build several storage structures at the very beginning of the game, in every new village, just to produce simple stuff, like water, or planks! General Storage will now accept all items by default and will meet storage requirements for production purposes in your village. Newly produced items will now automatically go to the proper (preferred) dynasty storage if they exist, and if not, they will go to the General Storage instead. The specialised storage will now mainly serve the purpose of organising resources and adding more dynasty storage space (as well as decorating the village)!
New Consumption Priority Tab
The new Consumption Priority (or “Needs” for short) tab should give you much better control over the production and consumption of items in your dynasty. It has many benefits:
Shows a comprehensive list of all items in the game that can be stored in your dynasty storage.
Shows how many of each item you have in storage.
Shows which items (and in what amount) are going to be consumed on a given day.
Allows you to change the order of consumption or disable consumption entirely to save more valuable items from being devoured by your villagers.
Multiplayer: for now, the Needs tab is only visible for the Host.
Service Jobs (Prototype)
We’re introducing a new type of job: service jobs, like guards. They fulfill needs without producing any tangible items. Service Jobs will use tools, and sometimes resources, to produce value for villager needs directly. It will be consumed by your villagers with the highest priority by default, which makes sense since Service Jobs results cannot be stored for later. To check it out, assign a worker to a Guard Tower, open the new Needs tab, and see how Security Jobs increase a sense of safety in your Dynasty (requires at least 18 villagers).
Dynasty Management Warnings
In the spirit of allowing you better feedback and control, we implemented new warnings on HUD and in UI tabs. They warn you about many issues, to mention just a few:
Homeless villagers.
Unemployed villager.
Workplace lacking tools.
Workplace lacking storage access.
Wrong season for a recipe.
Resolve those issues to have a smooth production cycle. More warning types coming soon!
Improved balance
Thanks to your feedback and some long-awaited new features, we have greatly improved the overall game balance. We have mostly focused on the economy and dynasty management experience. Here are some of the highlights:
The in-game economy will now make more sense with the introduction of different buying and selling prices.
Sustaining villager populations should now be easier, with their needs adjusted for small, medium, and large villages.
Some recipes, including most meals and medicine recipes, have been reworked to be cheaper or more flexible to make them simpler at the beginning of the game.
Farming will be unlocked much sooner so that you can begin food production earlier and support larger populations easier.
The farm plants growth speed modifier has been added to Custom Game Settings if you want to speed things up even more.
Changes and Additions
Refugees will now come to the first player village in the same season, the day after it’s built (instead of next season).
Miko Chiyome in Sosogi is now a trader.
You can now build fences on steep slopes (with one exception -- the defensive fence).
New workshop building model.
Some basic buildings got a new floor type made out of logs.
You may now find some arrows at the Arrow Stand furniture each season.
Game Modes Ul in the in-game gameplay settings menu has been improved.
You can now provide tools to production slots directly from your inventory.
The production slot tool list was improved by adding the name of the source of the tool (player inventory or dynasty storage).
Tools are now automatically assigned to a production slot, choosing the most effective tool.
Reworked notifications to reduce spam and clutter when gaining rewards, unlocking recipes, and completing quests (including new SFX) - for example in the starting “Unfamiliar Shore” quest.
Improved Wooden Torch SFX.
Updated music system for better exploration experience, more tracks will play depending on weather and season.
Changed default TPP camera movement from 1 to 0.
Changed default FPP FOV from 90 to 100.
Optimised AI for better performance in villages.
Optimised winds and tree needles transparency.
Added warnings for village needs.
All icons now have a dark version.
Notable fixes
Fixed some item stacking in inventories and storage.
Fixed weapons and other items able to clutch not cleared from encounters.
Fixed the enemy marker not clearing after enemy death.
Fixed the camera behaviour after the player's death.
Fixed the Large Kagaribi lacking unlock options.
Fixed camera going under water for 3rd Person View.
Fixed area marker missing in "Find Yajiro (the runaway spy)" quest.
Fixed scroll not moving past the first 5 positions in the "Assign Home” list on the gamepad.
Fixed “Empty” bed status not being localised.
Fixed workplace tool list not refreshing automatically when another player is changing the global storage.
Fixed the DLLS option being visible on hardware configurations not supporting it.
Fixed hammer icon material in the empty exterior ghost.
Fixed issues with shitake mushroom
Fixed furniture ghost edges not replicating.
Fixed the wind in the sorbus tree.
Fixed collision with ginger plants.
Fixed showing the player counting as a worker in the Dynasty tab.
Fixed showing the player as homeless in the Dynasty tab.
The new roadmap
Youkoso!
Over the past couple of weeks, you've really helped us to take a closer look at the Kintsugi update and thus pave the way for the next update. Your feedback flows into the forthcoming update, which we have named Kaizen. Kaizen is a philosophy of life and work based on continuous improvement, and that's exactly what we intend to do now that Sengoku Dynasty has been put on a new foundation with the Kintsugi update.
In essence, the Kaizen update is about improvements to the management system: being able to regulate the consumption of the villagers better, to organize the management of the Dynasty storehouse in a more accessible way and balancing the economy in the game.
The subsequent update is called Ikigai (which loosely translates as "that which is worth living for"). With this update, we'll be tweaking the game's life and survival mechanics and focussing on status effects as well as character progression.
In addition, we are preparing further, yet unnamed updates for the future, including two that we believe will be of major interest to you.
The map will be reworked.
There will be fights and village defence.
The female player character is coming.
We have a lot planned for you. This is just a small fraction of what's coming and there are still a number of unannounced things that we'll let you know about as soon as they're scheduled to be released. Your feedback is always very welcome! Send us your observations, suggestions and ideas. We have received so much feedback from you and we hope you won't slow down! In return, we don't want to stop making the game better and better. So jump into the fray here on Steam, on Discord and our social media channels!
