The latest update brings a big addition to the Missions in the game which gives you a bit more control over how you start a Mission a make a choice in the game now have a meaning.
Starting Modifiers
Previously when you started a mission you had to pick the first site you would unlock for free, but unless you had psychic powers and could tell what hidden hostile units were deployed then there really wasn’t any strategic choice for which site to pick. With this update each site will now have a random starting modifier card associated with them, and when you pick the first site the linked modifiers will be applied. Each modifier card will have a benefit and penalty on them so you will have to think about what changes you want to make to your starting game. One of the sites will always have a bonus card that makes no changes so if you want to play a mission as normal then you can always pick this site.
There are a total of 12 different modifiers cards that can be drawn along with the no modifier card and if there is a good vocal response from players then I might add more to this if people like it.
Feedback
Let me know what you think about this addition and if you are enjoying the game maybe let people know in a review. The more people get behind this game then the better it will do, and it also lets me know that I am doing things right with the game and the additions I am making. Have also started a discussion about the game skill level and should I change the default skill level, so If you want to say anything about that you can find the thread in the discussions.
20% Off Mission Pack 1 In Steam Winter Sale
In the Steam Winter Sale you can now get 20% off the first Mission Pack for Siberian Dawn.
Training Run in the free base game only scratches the surface of SIberian Dawn to give you a taste of the game but Mission Pack 1 gives you the full Core game with 18 extra unique units, 3 larger missions and the Bond system that gives you the choice of a Guild to have contact with and with that a whole new unique set of cards that you can gain. So much more than the base game, with the full tactical and narrative elements available for you to test your skills.
So get out there this Christmas and save the innocents of the Union from the threats of the Dawn.
Have a happy holiday and get ready for more to come in 2019.
Stephen
Training Run Update
Introduction
Another new update today. Currently busy redoing Orientation to make it easier for new players to get into the rules of the game but that is going to take a little while as I want to get it right and there are a couple of other changes beyond this that also need doing, but here we have a small update that adds a couple of things.
Training Run Expanded Objectives
Training Run now has 2 additional Objectives added before the final Objective to make the Mission path clearer, Recruit Grunt and Deploy Grunt. Just having 1 Objective originally might have left the layer wondering what they were doing and how to get to that Objective, but adding the new Objectives before that one will hopefully give the players a clearer path to start the Mission.
Updated Training Information
Orientation and Oversight have been updated so they match the various changes I made in the Intuitive updates, for things like the red pods and displaying Event recap.
Next
Still have more to add to the game but want to get the parts that help the player the best they can be first, then it is on with Mission pack 2 and beyond.
Intuitive Update Part 3 – Unlocking Keys
Introduction
The third and final part of the Intuitive Updates has been uploaded today and although it only adds two things they are the biggest additions so far and both make additions to the Information Display, along with a few updates to things already in game. The additions are all detailed below.
Action Summary Lines
When an action is ready to be resolved a line of text is now displayed at the bottom of the Information Display giving a summary of the cost and effect of the action so you can clearly see what it is going to cost you and the results of that action. Due to this I have removed Deploy details from Unit information as that is now replaced by Action Tag lines
Card Reference Pages
When a card had a keyword or term in their text it was hard to find details about that term in the Reference section, but now each card in the game has the relevant reference sections linked to the card. When a card is selected and it is displayed on the Information display you will see a couple of numbers in the top right corner split by a /. This is showing that the Information display has multiple pages of data for that card. If you click on the Information Display you can cycle through the data and see all the relevant terms linked to that card. So if for example you have a Scout selected you can now quickly find out what Recon or Stealth means but just clicking on the Information Display.
Unit Current Status Data
If the card is a deployable Unit then the second page of the above mention reference will be relevant to the current status of the Unit. So if they are Focused or in Light Cover it will tell you what benefits that gives the Unit.
Influence Bonus Art Update
The bonus circles that were added to the Influence display in the previous update have now had their art changed to make them integrate with the Influence tracks better.
Various Card Text Updates
Removed mention of Influence Conflict from Focus card and changed to Influence Bonus for Influence action or defence. Altered word order on cards where an action gives Bank a Ü amount. Corrected wrong text on Letalis Contact card. Changed Investment and Logistics “Resource” definition to “Asset” in Information Display.
Next Step
So the Intuitive updates are finished and I hope this improves your experience on the game, let me know what you think, but what is next on the updates? Well now it is time to have a good look at how I can help players get into the game from the start so that will be the focus of the next update.
Intuitive Update Part 2 – Smarter Weapons
Introduction
The second part of the Intuitive Updates was uploaded today and it brings another batch of upgrades to Siberian Dawn to improve the experience and expand the Hub. The additions are all detailed below.
Also let me know how you are getting on with the game, what you think of these additions, if they are helping, and what else you would like to see. Feedback is important as that lets me know if what I am doing is going in the right direction, and if there are areas I can pay a bit of attention on to help you enjoy the game more.
Distance Upgrade
Total Distance between one of your Units and the enemy is now shown in brackets next to Unit Distance on the Information Display. This includes any bonuses or penalties that might be applying to the Distance for that Unit, so the value of a Unit and the opposite Hostile might be different if they have different bonuses at that time.
Unit cards previously had their Distance value on the information display shown as Range, now it is correctly shown as their Distance value.
Clearer Defence
Extra Defence, from effects such as Cover or being Shielded, is now shown next to Unit Defence on Information Display. Units with the Shield ability in Cover now add the Defence bonus for the Cover to their Shield value.
Deployed Display Upgrade
Deployed Units with a Rank equal or higher than Overseer now display their Rank as red, same as cards in the market. They also now can’t be controlled if their Rank is not lower than Overseer and any abilities they give will be lost until the Overseer’s Rank can be raised. This brings it inline with how all the cards you control behave, and was how it should have been from the start.
Deployed Units cards now have sections glowing gold if they gain Union, Shielded, Support, or Recon from other Unit on that Flank.
Hostile Units also have the gold overlay if they have the benefits.
These new display options can be switched on / off in the Options with the Card Overlay option, which also controls the display of red Ranks for Market cards, and was previously called the Red Rank option.
Deck View Upgrade
The Deck view sub hub that can be opened by clicking Rank (R) has now been expanded. Previously the Resource deck view was the Resource draw deck and Discard deck combined as RP but now they have been split into the draw deck RP and discards deck DP. The draw deck is still arranged by card type but the discards view is arranged by card order in the deck with the most recent card to be discarded being number 1. This change is to help the player when they are using abilities like Recycle that take the top card of the discards and puts it back on the draw deck. Now the player can see what the card on top of the discards is.
Influence Track Bonus Display
For every 10 Influence a side has on a Flank their Units gain a +1 action bonus. Now on the Influence track these bonuses are shown as +1 overlays so the player can quickly see what bonuses a side is getting.
The display options for the Influence display have also been expanded to allow you to turn these bonus displays on or off with digit display, or to just have the Influence display clear of any overlays.
Mission 3 Fixes
Captives were showing a red Raze action at stages when they didn’t have the Raze action available yet, and the 10 minimum Influence Objective was not completing if Influence was on exactly 10.
Intuitive Update Part 1 – Seeing Red
Introduction
Today I have uploaded a new update for Siberian Dawn, this update is the first of the intuitive updates, aimed at making the game clearer, and presenting vital information in an easier to access way. Below I go through what is in this update, and I hope these additions help players enjoy the game more, and there are still several other improvements on the way, to make Siberian Dawn a more intuitive experience. Thank you to those who have provided the useful feedback that has helped with this.
Red Pods
Previously when you selected a card or another item in the game it would show you the actions currently available for it on the 6 Pods of the Control Hub, it wouldn’t show you any actions that were currently unavailable for the item due to something like not having enough Command or no Burn actions left.
Now the Control Hub will show the unavailable actions as red Pods and if you click one of these a screen will show why you can’t currently perform the action, giving you more feedback now on what you could do with an item.
Red Rank
You can only purchase cards in a Market if they have a lower Rank than yours, and previously if a card didn’t have a lower Rank this Rank was shown on the Information Display as red. Now if a card in a Market doesn’t have a lower Rank the Rank of that card is shown as red on the card itself as well as on the Information Display, making it clearer at a glance what can be brought due to Rank.
Help Overlay
If there are no actions to be resolved by the Resolve Button it will now show a “?” during the Resource and Tactics phases, if you click this it will bring up the Help overlay that shows what all the elements on the Hub are, along with some vital points about each one to help you understand what they do or to give a helpful reminder during a Mission.
Bond Speciality Area
The Bond selection section on the Mission menu now also contains the speciality of the Bond you are picking so you can easily see what area the benefits of the Bond are, and what sort of resources it affects.
Options Menu Expanded
The Options menu has now been expanded to contain the Help menu. This is where you can turn on or off the first 3 additions above depending on how you like your Hub to look. The Influence Display option has now also been moved there.
Event Recap Moved
Before you could click on the Information Display to get a recap of the current Event, this has now moved to the Vitae Pod [V] as clicking on the Information Display will soon do something else, which is mentioned on the Help Overlay.
Mission 2 Objective Fix
A small update was made previous to this one that fixed a bug where performing the requirement for the final Objective of Mission 1-2 didn’t trigger the completion of that Objective, this has now been fixed.
Winterflood
Questions?
Getting To Grips With The Dawn
Welcome to all the new Overseers that have joined the Union since Siberian Dawn launched.
Siberian Dawn is an intricate strategy game and to help people get to grips with the game there are other helpful sources of information outside of what is presented in the game.
Rulebook / Quickstart PDF
On the Siberian Dawn store page you can find the "View the Manual" link that has the PDF of the full rules for the game and also includes the QUick Start guide that gives you a 2 page overview of the game to get you up and running.
In the guide section you can find the very informative "Gameplay Basics Video Tutorial" by th_pion that does a great job of showing you all basics of the game and is well worth watching if you are looking to get grips with the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/922880/guides/
Overseer Oversight
And finally in the Discussions section you can find "Overseer Oversight" where you can ask any questions about Siberian Dawn and hopefully I can help.
After 5 years of development the day has finally come, Siberian Dawn launches today around 4pm GMT.
I hope you all enjoy this deck building game that adds in a good mix of war game strategy and crisis management to give you a card game with challenging depth.
It starts today, but this is just the first step on the road, and there is a lot more planned for Siberian Dawn, to take you into the world of the Union and uncover the secrets of the past that formed its foundations.
Good luck, Overseers, the Union is expecting great things of you.
