We're back with another update to whisk you away from the gloom, darkness, and cold – unless we're just projecting some Swedish weather your way. Regardless, we've got a treat for you: The Challenge Accepted update!
As always, we've brought a smorgasbord of goodies to the pixelated table, including bug fixes, map editor additions, and a handful of tweaks. But this update caters a bit more to those who savor the single-player experience and love a good challenge. For example, we've added five brand-new Challenge Maps!
Three Roads and Get Out! are old classics but the rest are new for you to discover!
Now, what's a Challenge Map, you ask? Well, it's not your typical Conquest map. It's a specially designed map crafted to test your skills, often with a unique goal in mind. Can you beat our AI's record of 50 turns to complete Three Roads? We challenge you to surpass that!
To show this mode, we’ve improved the Main Menu even more, making all our different Map Types equally accessible.
Are you up to the challenge?
Of course, we haven't forgotten our classic Campaigns. In this update, we've revisited Arleon! The Song of Stoutheart was our first campaign, and oh, how things have changed since its creation. We've armed our map editor with new tools, and our AI has learned some new tactics. Every mission has seen updates – from fresh visuals to new story elements and difficulty tweaks. We're eager to see how you enjoy this revamped (or should we say, new-ish) experience.
With our new map Tools, we had the opportunity to make the story even better!
For our Cartography Community, we have also introduced new improvements. These are designed to help you craft a more vibrant story when creating your own campaigns – think triggers that unleash special effects or the option to ban specific building levels.
You can now control Wielder respawn rates, shaping maps that limit how often the AI can resurrect enemy Wielders after you've defeated them! Perfect for those looking to embrace a more casual gaming style.
Sometimes dead Wielders need to stay dead
And bugs? We've dedicated a substantial amount of time to squashing them, and this bug-squashing mission will continue until our 1.0 release. Say goodbye to that annoying bug that led to an infinite loading screen when playing offline. Now you can enjoy Songs of Conquest anywhere, anytime!
But all those smaller things are better suited for our Changelog, so do what our Wielder Peradine does and go read them, they are filled with both small and major additions!
Jealous of his cap? Focus on the changelog pun instead!
With an array of new maps and updated campaigns, we're itching for you to give them a try. Share your conquests on our new Challenge Maps and let us know your thoughts on the improved Arleon Campaign! There's a lot of new content in this update, making it the perfect time to jump back in and play!
Turn to Conquest Wielders, you deserve it!
/Everyone at Lavapotion
Read the changelog! It's cool! https://www.songsofconquest.com/changelog092
Fixed common error when cancelling an ongoing construction in a town
Fixed error occuring when opening the inventory while using a gamepad
Hotfix patch 0.91.6
Fixed additional issues that prevented AI from completing its turns on the second Rana campaign map on Hard difficulty
Hotfix patch 0.91.5
Fixed issues that prevented AI from completing its turns on the second Rana campaign map.
Initiative Improved
Important note Due to internal serialization changes, some of the (mainly) campaign saves will be invalidated with this version. Either restart the map or use our new Beta branch called 0-90-classic- version to solve this!
Greetings, Wielders!
Lavapotion is back from our winter holidays, and we couldn’t be more excited! 2024 promises to be a very interesting year for us and for Songs of Conquest.
As we draw closer to the 1.0 release (date to be announced soon-ish), our updates will focus more on fixing issues and polishing our game than on releasing new features. After all, we don’t want to bring you something broken! There are some very interesting exceptions to this rule, but we don’t want to spoil the surprise.
Not every update can be a world-shaking phenomenon. Despite that, we are proud to introduce Initiative Improved! It might not be our biggest one yet, but it still brings quite a few things to the table.
They bring faey things to the table instead
This wasn’t the first initiative rework we’ve done, and it might not be the last. These tweaks and changes are, after all, the bread and butter of strategy games like this. It's all an intricate web. Most units have had their initiative changed in one way or another. We hope you discover this in the best ways!
Those Pikeneers wish they had a Wielder backing them up!
Improving AI behaviors sometimes means giving them firm guidance, especially in Campaign maps, for example. Creating tools for this makes it easier for everyone. Waypoint behavior is a handy instrument for when you want the enemy Wielders to behave in a certain way in your carefully crafted maps. It's perfect for when you want that imposing adversary to walk to a specific place!
Take this as a sign to learn our Map Editor!
Our AI keeps learning, and now it is better than ever at using portals and settlements as a way to get out of harm's way when faced against unsurpassable odds. Sometimes charging straight into a powerful force just isn’t the smartest thing to do after all.
Always remember to pack your holy hand grenade!
There are many more things in the works. For example, we are currently reworking our campaigns, making difficulty adjustments and fixes. After all, our game has changed a lot during the year, and some of the campaign missions have gotten a bit harder than intended because of AI improvements. These changes are made based on your awesome feedback, so thank you! We look forward to sharing more news with you soon. There are a lot of interesting things in the pixelated pipeline.
Turn to Conquest, Wielders; it is going to be a great year!
It's that time of the year, folks! The moment when we all take a breather from the daily grind, ditch the office desks, bid farewell to school benches, and momentarily escape the clutches of factories. Why? Well, it differs from person to person, but for us? To gaze proudly at our Indie games roadmap and flex a bit!
For Lavapotion, 2023 has been quite the journey. While much has unfolded behind the scenes, we thought it'd be fitting to share what we've been up to. Let's dive into the nitty-gritty of our progress and see what we have done!
This year saw the introduction of a new campaign, significant AI enhancements, and the inclusion of gamepad support, among other things. We've been hard at work, and we're excited to fill you in on the details.
Spoiler: It's a lot
Back in April, we launched our third Song, the Barony of Loth campaign. The Necromancy-themed faction finally got a chance to tell their side of the story. During the campaign, we learned not just why they fight and who they are but also a loth about rats. We got to follow the troubled Baron Aldus but also meet the mysterious Unseen Society.
He wants to bring back the old days, and he means it VERY literally.
Let's look at the AI! Significant strides have been made in enhancing its capabilities. Our AI has become quite the scholar, now proficient in more spell combinations, and quicker pathing, and it utilizes portals. It's like we've given it a crash course in wizardry!
But that's not all. The AI has also adopted a multitasking approach, assigning different roles to various Wielders. And remember that agonizing wait between turns? Fear not! The AI now breezes through its turns a lot faster, sparing you the nail-biting anticipation.
The AI now has a few more tricks up its sleeve. It’s not as cool when the spell “Swap” happens to you as when you do it to the AI!
With each update, we're committed to fine-tuning and improving the AI experience. The journey doesn't end at 1.0—heck, we’ll keep going beyond that. We want to give you an opponent that feels not just challenging enough but downright surprising and innovative. Because, let's face it, where's the fun without a worthy adversary?
This year we also introduced Sim turns to speed up multiplayer games. And if that wasn’t enough we also made sure that you can explore the map and manage your resources and settlements while others are occupied in battle.
It's futile, but you would probably attack anyway you brave lunatic!
The game recently gained the addition of Achievements, something that a lot of you have been looking forward to! There are 54 of them right now out there for you to earn, but beware, some of them are outright tricky.
What should have earned us an achievement of our very own was the nomination for best 2D visual during the Unity Awards. We didn’t win but being up there with such names as Dave the Diver and Cult of the Lamb is humbling in a good way!
Marvel Snap won this year, but we’ll get them next time!
This year has been good for all map lovers out there! We have put a lot of effort into improving and adding features to the Random Map Generator (or RMG). We’ve stamped out bugs and added options for starting positions and important themes like rain and music. We know a lot of you play on RMG and you deserve our very best.
There has also been a bunch of new Conquest maps, ready for everything between two to six players. We can’t wait to show you our biggest one yet, but we have to leave something for next year as well.
It’s massively important, a huge deal. You get the picture.
While we could talk endlessly about the exciting developments, we can't wrap this up without delving into our modding news. We released a new mod resource website designated for the modders and level designers in our creative community. The brand new custom Robin Hood campaign was released at the same time, to fully showcase our tools and what you can do with them.
Embarking on your journey as a storyteller with Songs of Conquest has never been more accessible. The stage is set, the tools are in your hands, and the possibilities are boundless. Ready to weave your narrative magic? Let the modding adventures begin!
Your creations could be right here alongside Robin Hood, isn’t that cool?
We normally end with us telling you to read the changelog to delve deeper into what we’ve done, but on an endeavor like this it’s hard, you’d have to read through a lot of text since we have been very busy.
So instead we will just wish you the absolute best, and we can’t wait to show you what's still in the works. The year 2024 will be great for Songs of Conquest and we hope that you will be along for the ride.
Turn to Conquest everyone, you’ve earned it.
It’s the festive season at the office! Some of the team members are missing but that’s most of us!
We're thrilled to share some fantastic news! We've not only fine-tuned controls but are now proudly sporting the Steam Deck Verified badge! Your invaluable feedback played a crucial role in refining our controls, ensuring we passed every one of Valve's tests.
We are proud of every single thing on this list!
We have worked closely with our friends at Bitwave to get this verification, they are experts in the field, and working together with them has made this process a lot faster than if we had tried it alone.
There's been a complete overhaul of controls and menus, ensuring native integration with Steam Deck and gamepad controls. A major part of this includes adding a large-font UI, guaranteeing no awesome dialogue or tooltip goes unnoticed.
In the game of fonts, we play to win, bigger is better!
We've also introduced new tooltips specifically designed for Steam Deck. Due to our traditional mouse interaction, as within most strategy games, we have added a new control scheme. Making it easy and natural to move your precious Wielders across maps and through their adventures.
However, fixing menus and D-pad control settings hasn't been the only challenge. To ensure the game runs smoothly on your Steam Deck, we've done significant tweaking and optimization, benefiting the game as a whole! For example, we've streamlined terrain rendering and implemented a battery-saving system.
And do you need to bother with all these cool and improved settings? Of course not! We've ensured that the optimal settings are set as defaults the first time you start our game on your sleek machine. After all, we want you to play it as soon as you can!
Now you can really play our game wherever you are!
Adapting a game for that precious Verified check box involves a ton of considerations. While the entire list is too long to mention here, our focus has been on making sure the game feels as fun to play on the Steam Deck as it does on PC and Mac, and we truly believe we've succeeded! But if you want to read that before-mentioned cool list, there will of course be a link just below.
So enough words, get out there, and bring your Steam Deck to that family event! Instead of awkward small-talk with relatives you hardly know, you can lead armies and cast powerful spells, literally in the palms of your hands.
Turn to Conquest Wielders and have an awesome day!
A very proud Lavapotion Gang and our Bitwave Friends!
Heavily reduce input lag in online games using simultaneous turns
Fixed issue with not being able to play Mission 2 on the Rana campaign on Easy difficulty
Gamepad Galore
Greetings Wielders!
Let’s start December by introducing our newest update! We never focus on just one thing but there has definitely been one or two focuses this last sprint. We are super proud to introduce gamepad support for Songs of Conquest, another step towards making sure you can play our game the way you want to!
And Gamepad support means an even better Steam deck experience. We want to thank our friends and neighbors over at Bitwave who have been working side-to-side with our devs on this project. Making sure the game looks great on smaller screens, utilizing larger fonts, design choices, and UI. We are now eagerly awaiting your feedback for the Steam Deck experience as we get ready to resubmit the game to Valve for that elusive green check mark and a true verification!"
Now doesn’t this look cozy?
But as some worked tirelessly on Gamepad others hunted down bugs reported by our fantastic community. We have also improved skills and starting troops of your favorite Wielders. More than a dozen of our brave commanders have had something altered, making sure that they are more varied. Be sure to delve deep into that changelog to learn all the new details.
Some of the frogs really leaped on the opportunity. Others just croaked.
The work on improving our menus and look n’ feel continues. We can reveal a faster, more fluid campaign menu, one that uses our faction-specific artwork to the fullest and with a new dotted line for you to follow when you embark on your next mission!
Follow the path, Adventure awaits!
The work on our AI never ends and with this update. It has gotten better at splitting tasks and tactics amongst each other. Just like you might make sure that one of your Wielder mostly acts as a mule, ferrying troops to the front and making sure that your economy thrives, well so does the AI after this latest patch. It now makes sure its different Wielders fill different roles and purposes.
This is one of the AI Mules, and you can tell she’s not meant to be at the frontline.
We can’t wait to hear what you think about our latest update, so update Songs of Conquest now and experience it in a new way! Why don’t you bring your favorite controller with you if you're going to one of those festive parties that everyone seems to like? And while you are at it you should enjoy our new wintery Main Menu to get you in seasonal spirit.
Even the Cultists are getting into the festive spirit!
We love getting your feedback so make sure to leave a response or dive into the discussions here on Steam. The only reason we keep getting better is because of you, our awesome community that tells us how we can improve our game even more.
We love feedback, it’s just the absolute best and our game is better with every update because of it. We are closing in on that sweet, sweet Steam deck and Gamepad support but we'd love some more input from users! So for those that can we'd love for you to try out how Songs of Conquest feels like from a different angle!
That text isn’t crooked, it’s just your imagination
So who has been making sure this is possible? Well, it is our fantastic friends at Bitwave! They are the ones who have been doing the heavy lifting when it comes to making sure that our game feels just as awesome in your hands as it does from a good old classic PC
Now you are probably wondering how you brave Wielder can join this esteemed crowd of testers. Well, our Bitwave expert has put together this very helpful GUIDE on how you can do just that!
Even Snout Spout is helping! (Yes we’re old)
So where do we want this awesome feedback? Well respond to his post, write in our pinned Steam discussions, or over our dedicated Gamepad feedback thread on Discord. We also accept strange puzzle boxes written in ancient languages.
We look forward to your feedback and making sure that our beloved game feels just as good on a Steam deck or when you use any Gamepad from the comfort of your couch!
Three Roads and Get Out! are old classics but the rest are new for you to discover!
Are you up to the challenge? 
With our new map Tools, we had the opportunity to make the story even better!
Sometimes dead Wielders need to stay dead
Jealous of his cap? Focus on the changelog pun instead!
We are 
