Another month, another update. This time we’ve focused on the map editor in an effort to make level creation just a bit easier for everyone! It is an important feature of Songs of Conquest. Not only it is the tool that we use to create our maps and campaigns, but it’s also something that you, the community use to create awesome maps
So what have we been up to this busy spring month? As we mentioned we have been focusing on the map editor, making sure it’s easier to work with, and updating a bunch of its features. For instance, you can now search for entities and crop maps and we have added drop-down menus for your convenience.
It’s ever so convenient!
We have also added more features for those of you that want to create story-driven maps with objectives, just like how we create our campaign maps. Our fantastic artists have created more portraits for custom dialogues and we have thrown in an “objective group” field to story objectives, making it easier to create a series of objectives when you create your own maps. We look forward to what you will create with these new tools.
And speaking of community-created maps, to celebrate our new map editor we have just launched a competition together with mod.io, be sure to look it over on its very own steam post. You have the chance to get your map into the official Songs of Conquest map list and win some money too!
We also gave some development love to one of our experimental features, co-op. Although we aren’t done yet we made sure this got some much-sought-after improvements. For example, you can now ping each other on the mini-map and send resources.
Get in there and do things together!
There has also been more work done on AI, both for adventure and battle. We are proud of all the improvements made with last month's AI update and community feedback has been important for those extra additions and fixes. One of those fixes has been to change the AI behavior during sieges, now we force AI attackers in sieges against players to always be the aggressor.
We have worked a lot with unit roles and behavior and that work will continue to be important for us. This update introduces many small changes, fixes, and updates and as always we recommend reading the entire changelog down below, we promise it’s a rewarding experience.
Notable additions Added a new hierarchy view in the map editor, where all the placed map entities are listed and searchable. Most objects in the map editor now have tooltips and better English translations 33 new Random Events for the Rana faction
Notable bug fixes Fixed issue causing passive AI on randomly generated maps Fixed bug where upgrading Eth’dra could cause Dragons to exceed their max Troop Size Fixed bug where upgrading troops could cause upgraded troops from the pool to disappear Fixed bug where the AI could do actions on the adventure map while stashed in a town Fixed a bug where towns sometimes could not get attacked, which was also a cause for AI freezing on their turn. Fixed bug related to Rapid Fire spell, Onslaught spell, or Double Strike trait, where you could get stuck in Battle after killing a troop and still having attacks remaining.
Adventure Tweaked scouting thresholds (hostile threat levels can now be seen one tile further away than previously) Fixed text size problem on post adventure stats menu Fixed team color glow on the mini menu. When ejecting a wielder from a town or settlement it is automatically selected Don't close town interaction menu when the enemy is storing wielder in sim turns Updated behavior for how the camera follows wielders Slowed down building in progress smoke effect Updated cursor notification pivot to show notification left of the cursor if it's too far to the right of the screen Invisible “story actor” map entities no longer block movement Fixed being able to exceed stack size limit when upgrading troops Add overflowing scouted troops in pre-battle into the tooltip instead of the cover grid Allow aborting forced camera movements by pressing WASD or begin panning with the mouse Refresh town list when initiating a raze/convert the town Fixed town wall gates being placed underwater Fixed color tinting map entities not being active at map start If a research building is banned on a map it no longer shows up in the research menu Show building cost even if players don't have any available build site Fixed the issue of not generating an alternate valid path for the wielder when the optimal path goes through unexplored parts of the map The behavior is now always the same when capturing neutral settlements no matter which faction the capturing team belongs to Fixed showing “pillage” mouse cursor and tooltip for neutral buildings that could not be pillaged Fixed wielders sometimes unnecessarily move when the ground underneath them changes appearance Show level-up menu before joining popup after the battle
Battle Add retaliations to melee attack preview Stop reload animation after troop has ended turn the second time after firing Fixed battle outline null reference exception Increase damage of most spells Lower cost of Biting insects to 4 Increase the cost of Earth block to 5 Increase the cost of Repel to 8 Only show equipped artifacts in battle on the wielder tooltip Update wielder tooltip layout Fixed being soft-locked after killing the initial target with troops that have additional attacks left Remove troop essence section in battle tooltips for troops without a wielder Add notification to troops that can hit again
Common Fix localization of codex faction headers in the building category Fix some troop portrait positions Fix localization bug in the codex research section
Map Editor Removed old “Island” type random map generation Improved mirroring when drawing using “circular mirrored” mode Make it possible to disable the ability to build walls in cities Added “objective group” field to story objectives, allowing them to be grouped as a single entry in objectives HUD in-game Story actors now correctly get the color used by the team selected for it Added a way to add custom map editor names to entities to make them searchable. All lists and fields in map entity properties now have a different way of drawing themselves, so they should now be more responsive All dropdowns now have a search bar Fixed issue where the area trigger grid never disappeared from a wielder spawn point once added You can now see where roads and walls will end up around towns and settlements in the editor Added keybindings, most can be found in the tooltip for each tool. Keybindings added but not found in tooltip - cycle tool context, and set brush size, and to change height when drawing terrain height. Added 11 neutral personas to use in dialogues Added tools for padding and cropping maps
Multiplayer Show other players’ selected teams in the lobby when the co-op is enabled Exploration data is now shared between allies Scouting is now provided by allies’ wielders and map entities Added a tooltip for allies’ wielders showing level, skills, troops, and equipped artifacts Allies can now use each other’s Beacons as teleports in co-op games Allies can send minimap pings to each other during co-op games by right-clicking the minimap Allies can now recruit their own troops from each other’s rally points during co-op games Allies can now send each other resources during co-op games Prevent showing pillaging mouse cursor and tooltips when pointing at allies’ buildings
AI - Adventure Fixed exception bug that happened when AI rebuilt map regions Fixed some guarding issues to better help the AI abort thinking in transitions to/from battle, when an AI team dies, and when the game is over. Fixed a bug that made it possible for AI wielders to attack across the map even if they were stored in buildings Remove Option creation redundancy (optimization) Usage of portals entirely refactored Map loot pocket scoring tweaks Removed mismatch where the AI was braver when planning long routes, but chickened out when it got close. Map interaction improvements Changed how the troops are valued by the AI when recruiting or transferring troops
AI - Battle Tweaked when the AI uses the Aim ability Increased chance of AI casting a spell during a troop round Removed some restrictions on AI casting spells if is has 20 or more essence in total If AI can afford it, it will try to fill the path of a Repel spell with Explosive Fungi Made AI more restrictive about using the Aegis spell AI should be more willing to “waste” damage in order to use Ice Bolt and Rupture more often Defensive AI teams are more restrictive about using Sabotage spell Defensive AI teams are much more restrictive about using Destroy Essence spell Defensive AI teams are more restrictive about using the Lethargy spell unless very early in combat AI is much more likely to use Entangle spell if the enemy only has one unit left AI no longer should cast Pacify spell as often, and not as a must cast when one enemy left Defensive AI teams less likely to waste Onslaught spell on troops with support roles Rebalanced Wait ability to work like other abilities and actions to make it viable again Aggressive AI teams are much less likely to use the Wait ability Removed elevation scoring bonus for attackers unless they are in reach of an enemy Added an extra elevation bonus when occupying a hex next to an enemy Fixed the bug of troops not being able to just stay in place if they had a valid melee target that was too dangerous to attack Force AI attackers in sieges against players to always be the aggressor Increased the aggressiveness of a team without a wielder meeting a team with a wielder Added a “no retreat” penalty to discourage aggressive attackers to retreat toward the back edge of the map Added a “retreat” bonus to encourage passive defenders to retreat toward the back edge of the map for certain troop roles Tweaked down the fear of damage for troops with supportive roles for teams with high aggression
Audio Don’t trigger wielder death sounds from opponents in the fog
Random Map Generator Tweaked random faction chance for random hostiles and should now be more varied
Misc Change the percentage of beacons needed to win from 70% to 64%
Spring Map Making Contest
Hello, Wielders!
Our improved map editor is just about out and we are celebrating it in the best way possible, with a friendly competition! Together with Mod.io, we are launching a map-making contest. We’re even throwing in a 1000 USD prize for the best map maker out there, as well as adding the winning map to the official Songs of Conquest map pool. But don’t fret if you don’t win, the runners-up get some lovely prizes too!
So, who are Mod.io? They provide cross-platform mod support and host all the awesome player-created maps that our community has designed.
The competition will run from April 3rd and will last until the 28th of April, giving you a month to complete a large map. Lavapotion will announce the Winners on 12 May 2023 via the Songs of Conquest Twitter account: twitter.com/songsofconquest
Can you create anything? No, but pretty close. Let’s list the requirements and go into everything in a bit more detail. Scroll down to the bottom to read the longer eligibility.
Here’s what we are looking for:
Large map size. We are looking for a large map, the map size we have the fewest of. That is the 125x125 size in our editor.
Stick to our default values when working with entities. (Don’t change the value of pickups, for example.) Don’t change default values when working with entities, that’s because the maps in our official map pool must work in cohesion with each other and represent Songs of Conquest the way that we designed it. Remember, your map could be the first map that a new player plays.
Winners' Criteria are; “Fun to play, good visuals, and best overall fit with the game.”
Just like the rest of our skirmish maps, we don’t focus on lore or story. As we mentioned above, this could be a player's first map and we don’t want it to break from Songs of Conquest lore. So although we don’t mind small story elements and fun little additions the focus should be on gameplay and good visuals.
Tag your map with “spring map contest” after uploading your map to Mod.io
How do you submit a map?
That part is easy. Start with creating a profile on mod.io, then agree to and not breach the mod.io and Lavapotion terms of use and privacy policy. After you create a large-sized map, upload it to mod.io with the correct tag and then you’re good to go!
… What are you waiting for, cartographer? We are looking forward to your awesome creations!
Enjoy your adventures!
/The Songs of Conquest Team together with Mod.io
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Eligibility
All eligible mods and creators will be automatically considered for entry into the competition. If you do not wish to participate, you can opt out by sending an email to support@mod.io;
For mods to be eligible, the creator must:
-Have a single active member account on mod.io when the Prizes are determined and on the last day of the relevant month. Duplicate accounts will be grouped or banned;
-Have agreed to, and not be in breach of, the mod.io or Lavapotion Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and any other policies as may be required by Lavapotion or mod.io from time to time;
-Not be employed or provide services for mod.io or Lavapotion or be related to or live with someone who does;
-Live in a jurisdiction where they can participate in unregistered competitions for games of skill; and -Be tagged with “Spring map contest” after being uploaded to mod.io; and -Be willing to have their submitted map featured in the Songs of Conquest official map roster.
For mod(s) to be eligible, they must: -Be your original creation; -Be publicly available and visible on mod.io; -Be active and not taken down from mod.io for any reason; -Be compatible with the latest version of Songs of Conquest; -Be correctly submitted by the submission date; and
Comply with the relevant Lavapotion EULA and any other policies required by Lavapotion from time to time.
Additional rules: Notwithstanding the above eligibility criteria, Lavapotion and mod.io reserve the right to exclude any creator or mod from the program for any reason; Creators who are found to have acted in bad faith, in mod.io’s sole discretion, will be permanently excluded from this and any future competitions; If a mod has been created through the contributions of multiple parties, only the primary creator, as credited on the mod page, is eligible to enter and win prizes; Mods that are obviously trying to "game" the system in any way to win will be disqualified from participation; and The decisions of Lavapotion and mod.io staff regarding eligibility, Winner Selection Criteria, and winners of the competition (Winner) are final and binding on all creators.
Update 0.82.6
Fixed broken bug reporter.
Update 0.82.5
Greetings Wielders!
It’s time for another update and yet again it’s filled to the brim with all manner of news and improvements. The focus this time has been on upgrading the AI and making sure that it offers you a more exciting challenge, especially when you are facing enemy Wielders in battle.
Even though AI has been the focus, it's far from the only thing worth mentioning in this update. The team has done some amazing things and we can’t wait for you to experience them firsthand.
With the new and improved AI, you might even learn a few things!
We are proceeding as planned, following our roadmap, and as always there are tons of things happening that are not listed in the update. We are looking forward to releasing stuff like more unit abilities and a whole new campaign in the months to come.
So let’s talk about AI. Our devs have been more than busy so it will be impossible to go into depth in every single detail. We recommend reading the full release notes by scrolling down. But let’s look at some highlights.
The computer is now much more efficient when it comes to planning their adventure map movement. The AI should no longer leave obvious low-hanging fruit, easy claimable map objects untouched. It will save up their money to buy bigger units of troops so that their expeditions can last longer and push deeper into your lands.
Now that’s what we like to call AI efficiency!
Do you know how you sometimes pat yourself on the back after using a successful repel and explosive fungi combination? Well now the AI knows how to use that ability too! This update brings many changes, including implementing repel and swap into the AI wielder’s repertoire.
It has also gotten a lot better at knowing if and when to use its spells, like keeping those dangerous damage spells to the end to really use them efficiently.
The AI also got a lot better at both defending and attacking. It will no longer needlessly attack its fortifications or obstacles and will try not to waste those high-damage class cannons before they get a chance to prove their worth!
It feels different when it’s happening to you.
So what's new besides all that awesome AI stuff? We added an option to pick where you want to teleport, this was created for Beacons but works for portals too if set in the map editor. This makes Beacons even more interesting to Claim, like cutting off an enemy from returning to their own area before you attack and more easily transporting across your realm.
Choosing where you teleport puts a whole new level to the larger maps.
Another skirmish map has entered the lists. Rags to riches is a small map for two players, designed to take you from poverty to wealth, competing for those precious resources.
Do you have what it takes to rise from rags to riches?
A cool surprise addition to the game is something we call spell dmg preview. Designed to help you plan spell usage better and to more clearly show the effect your spells will have in battle. It even includes and shows things like spell resistance!
Time to put away those calculators, spell review is here to stay!
But the list goes on. This is a huge update and one we are very proud of. Let us know what you think and tell us about your experiences with the new additions and the improved AI. The road ahead is packed with awesome content. We will have interviews with developers, a map-making contest together with mod.io, and more besides. We want to know what you are looking forward to!
Notable additions Add teleport functionality to beacons of power Allow teleports to have more than one destination using a teleport menu Add damage preview for spells in battle New Skirmish map: Rags to Riches
Notable bug fixes Buy button sometimes not working when recruiting units Common game-breaking exception when killing last AI wielder Aura abilities not doing anything Exception when killing final troop with acid cloud or explosive fungi Ai not able to pillage dwellings and gets stuck when interacting with them Dragons disappearing after upgrading in draft menu Can’t attack town with walls if occupied RMG maps should no longer have inaccessible loot areas or blocked roads Adventure - Can no longer walk through undiscovered tiles with wielders Fixed regression of “story actors” not being interactable in people’s custom maps
Adventure Fixed bug making it possible to pathfind through unexplored tiles Fixed not being able to interact with “story actor” map entities Fixed some invisible “story actor” map entities being spoiled by mouse over tooltips Fixed exception that happens when pressing “Accept” in the post-battle menu after defeating the last wielder and winning the game Fixed long standing bug whose most common symptom was when trying to claim a lookout tower using the wielder’s very last movement you would only get a message about the pretty view but not actually claim it (also you paid too much movement to do it) Fixed bug where artifact market close sound was played when ending turn Fix bug where player couldn't purchase troops after selling a building and building a new of same type Fix team color in movable troop UI when splitting troops Fix ESC/C hotkey not working after moving an artifact in the inventory Show team name in pre battle menu in multiplayer “Mini menu” (the menu when clicking owned buildings) is now closed when right clicking Add notification when destroying artifact in inventory Add move all buttons to defense menu Update lots of UI for elder dragons and trigger related tutorials Fixed incorrect wielder “race plus class” text combinations in some languages Add available troops (if any) to owned adventure map entity tooltips Add highlights to inventory slots of correct type when hovering artifacts Add highlight animation to newly purchased or equipped artifacts Show notification when trying to walk into unexplored terrain in adventure Show notification when trying to walk without a valid path in adventure A few Random Events will now reward you with Essence
Battle Fixed abilities buffing nearby troops not having an effect Fixed bug where it was possible to select an invalid target hex for troop abilities and ending up in a weird UI state Fixed movement outlines briefly flashing before troop attacks Fixed a bunch of buffs not showing up as “buff arrows” in troop stack panels Add looping scaling to entangle VFX. It was very hard to see on some troops Common Removed subtitle text that was mistakenly showing at the beginning of all cutscenes Multiplayer Fixed exception when clearing “random seed” value in map settings
AI - Adventure Enabled usage of movement buff entities Enhanced terrain analysis to detect “pockets” in the map in order to clear out the map better Should not turn home as often (unless threatened) to recruit but instead be better at saving up for bigger purchases less often. Fixed bug related to neutral dwellings and pillage Barya AI has more efficient build plans for their towns Fixed Adventure AI sometimes ignores unclaimed towns and settlements Troop recruitment improvements Fixes for AI becoming too passive in later stages of large maps
AI - Battle Added implementation for spells Repel and Swap Added implementation for a Repel into Explosive Fungi spell Should now be much better knowing when to use, and not to use most spells Should use more damage spells to kill off enemy units, especially towards the end of a battle Tries to avoid attacking or moving in battle if it would result in instant death when it’s better to just stand still Split the AI roles of attacker and defender into five different ones to better represent different play styles based on troop composition and wielder stats Added specific roles to all troops to help differentiate and balance their behavior Melee are troops now much better at defending ranged troops when playing defensively Deadly but weak troops should now be better at keeping safe until they can strike first Should be better at actually defending a siege if the AI sees it as the best option Should no longer attack blocking map entities in sieges when AI wants to defend behind them Should smash through blocking map entities in sieges when AI do want to make a sortie Should no longer attack random map entities that make no sense attacking Add ability to cast Entangle spell
Audio New Barya building sounds added
Random Map Generator Fixed issue causing paths to sometimes be blocked by spawned entities, this should now be less frequent Fixed issue causing some areas being inaccessible due to environment edges Updated blueprint, entities should now be more varied overall and starting areas have been balanced for a better experience. A new region has also been added to the blueprint, treasure_low.
Update 0.81.5
Greetings Wielders!
Version 0.81.5 is released and it brings some new exciting features. The update has been on the public test realm for a week and we are eager for everyone to experience the additions and improvements that we have done.
Some of the things described in the roadmap have already been implemented and we hope you enjoy them. It’s quite the list so we won’t go through it all but if you want to read every little bit of detail just scroll down to below the signature.
So what’s new? We have added gates on adventure maps and started to discuss how we want to implement sieges in Songs of Conquest. If you want to join that discussion, comment here or join our discord!
Keep your friends close and your enemies at bay!
We have also added something we call Raider’s Market although that name might change later. Somewhere to sell your ill-gotten loot when the inventory of your Wielder might seem a little packed. This mysterious market has already appeared in some of our maps, ready to sell you both powerful and less impactful items, depending on the size of your wielder's coin purse.
Do you really need three pairs of boots? Probably. You should also buy a new hat, the one you have doesn’t go well with those horns.
Three new skirmish maps have entered the lists with more on the way in the coming months. Another sought after content and our own cartographers have been hard at work creating these for everyone’s enjoyment. The new maps are called Triad Pass, Proving Ground and Divided.
Our opinions on this map are far from divided, we all agree it’s great!
There used to be a time when ranged units couldn’t use melee attacks if they were reloading but that time is now over. Those pesky militias can now still pose a threat even though they are cranking up their trusty crossbows, redying themselves for their next shot!
Another absolute highlight is that we have changed the rule where enemies stopped after just getting blasted by one effect when pushed back, something that our community has been asking for. Now the battlefield is open for even more complicated and sneaky maneuvers.
It reminds us of the old expression, “when push comes to shove”.
We have also added some UI quality of life improvements, like a button that upgrades your wielder’s troops without having to go into the upgrade menu! Sometimes it’s those little things that we only find after playtesting that makes all the difference.
Like we said, the list is quite long, filled with big and small things. We feel great about this update and we are happy to say that there is much more on the horizon and the road towards full release is filled with awesome updates.
Additions Artifact market added Added gates on adventure map plus garrison when buying town walls New skirmish maps Triad Pass, Divided, Proving Grounds Option to enable End turn confirmation popup. This will be shown if any non defending wielder has lots of moves left 7 new random events for Rana faction
Notable bugfixes Fixed several issues with troop auras Fixed bug where pause menu could become bugged if left open while exiting battle Fixed a bug where buttons could become unresponsive in the pre-battle screen Fixed a bug where artifact inventory could get full and cause index-out-of-range exception Adventure Fixed dialogue bug where game couldn’t find nearby enemy wielder that was in a town Battle Ranged units that are reloading can now still perform melee attacks Repel spell now continues pushing the target even if it triggers mines, attacks of opportunity, etc Acid Cloud spell now deals damage on each step If turn timers are active, show the time left for your opponent when it’s their turn
UI Add small entry transition to kingdom menus In all game lobbies, human players now default to a randomly selected faction, while AI players default to “unknown random faction” Fixed exception when deleting numbers using backspace when editing turn timer settings Missing trait bonuses in research codex should now appear Missing info for garrison in building codex should now appear Prevent host migration popups after player has reached win/lose screen Allow double clicking rewards in “select one menu” Added a convenience button for upgrading vanilla troops within the troop pool in the troop purchase menu Added upgrade button in wielder interaction header for troops where whole stack can be upgraded Beacons of Power indicator on player banner in queue in Adventure (shown only if Beacons of Power is a part of the map objectives) Threat level colors has been reviewed and updated Visual update on the partnership-picker (teams/co-op) in lobby Added faction based backgrounds to menus where wielder is interacting with an owned map entity (town, troop producing entities, rally points) Added Spell Damage Power attribute to Wielder sheet, Level up menu and trading menu when it has modifications (is not zero) Added wielder class label to each wielder in Codex Added Win condition to map select menu Re-layout of wielder trading menu Fixed issue with rally point menu endlessly switching towns
Multiplayer Added map settings option for affecting initial size of neutral hostile enemies Fixed issue with online save games and host migration that could lead to exceptions later on because of ID collisions on entities in the game Fixed issue with gamestate checksum mismatches after host migration Fixed bug in hotseat where it was possible to see names of items that should be hidden under fog on parts of the map explored by other players Fixed bug where a team might lose a round of progress in construction of their buildings when simultaneous turns was turned on
AI - Adventure Fixed a bug that made the AI think that going through a teleport is always closer than just walking Fixed bug related to using the wrong distance, in some cases, when comparing length/cost between two positions to target. Fixed issue with creating too many recruitment options for the same cities/settlements Fixed bug where the retreat option was scored unreasonably low, making it not selected as often as it should Added prototype improvement for hostile/choke detection Improved usage of pathing to create more efficient traversal Improved interaction logic resulting in more consistent behavior when interacting the with adventure map Added support for Artifact Market interaction Added budget system to enable a thrifty AI Random Map Generator Added wide connections for layouts. Used by adding “wide” : true to a connection node. Added guard tier for layout and blueprint. Current tier levels are Random (default), Low, Medium and High. Added guard tier settings for layouts. Used by adding “guardTier” : “Random” to a connection or child node. Added guard tier settings for blueprints. Used by adding “guardTier” : “Random” to an entry in the blueprint. Added guard chance for entries in blueprint. Used by adding “guardChance” : 0.5 to an entry in the blueprint. Any value between 0 and 1 is valid. Fixed guards in groups not having the same gold value Fixed static objects spawning inside of towns and settlements resulting in blocked paths
Misc Updated and reviewed all tutorials Added tutorials for Visiting town Added tutorials for Rally point Removed lowest terrain quality setting
Roadmap 2023 reveal!
Greetings Wielders!
2023 is going to be a big year for Songs of Conquest and for everyone here at Lavapotion. Not only is this the year when we will launch our full game (at the end of Q3) but there are many exciting features and things planned throughout the year that we are thrilled over!
Fully refreshed after a Swedish winter holiday we have dived into 2023 with vigor. Plans have been drafted and a new roadmap has been finalized for your enjoyment!
Try clicking it to get a bigger, cooler image.
Now, we want to emphasize that this is a living document. Things might be added to the plan as we move forward, but the things listed are the key elements towards the full release.
So what exactly are the key elements?
In the first quarter of 2023 we are introducing a much asked for feature with the new artifact market where Wielders can buy and sell their hard earned items. We are also improving the Beacons so Wielders will be able to use them as portals and travel across the adventure map.
The artifact market. Your one-stop-shop for everything artifacts. Graphics, implementation and name in the image above is still tbd. Tbd is an abbreviation for “to be decided” btw. (see what we did there?)
We will be adding more skirmish maps of varying sizes continuously throughout the year. Some of them have been under construction for a while now and we are eager for you to try them. A coming highlight includes the launching of our largest skirmish map yet!
We anticipate this map taking a long time to complete. So get your snacks ready and get comfy, you are in for a long ride.
The second quarter of 2023 is all about the Barony of Loth. We’ll be releasing our third campaign and you’ll get the chance to understand how and why the Barony became the necromancers they are today. We are also introducing brand new unit traits and abilities for many of the faction units as well as more hostile neutral units.
Here you can see some of our devs hard at work with the new Burrow ability! Did you watch Tremors back in the 90's?
During the third quarter our eyes turn towards the sandy dunes of Barya as we introduce our fourth and final campaign. Our mercenaries, scientists and contract-following merchants finally get their time in the sun (literally!). You’ll get to follow their Wielders as we tie together the story that started with the Arleon campaign.
We will also be adding many new artifacts and introducing support for creating fantastic campaigns of your own through mods. Of course we will be adding achievements so that you can really brag about all that you have accomplished!
The icons above may, or may not, be related to achievements. If you squint hard enough you’ll see all of them perfectly crisp and sharp.
And what about AI improvements? For sure! They are on-going and will be portioned out with our monthly updates. Enhanced strategic reasoning, battle tactics and difficulty parameters are just some of the improvements planned before release.
Now thats a very friendly looking bunch! And look at those shirts!
We are overwhelmed over the love and support that we are getting and we hope you are as excited for the year ahead as we are! If you have any questions we recommend our active and fantastic Discord Community where you can ask questions, share tactics and hype. But do feel free to drop a comment here on Steam. We read it all and try to reply as often as we can!
Fixed error that could occur when venomous troops attacked non-troop targets (barrels, palisades, etc), which would stop the game progressing (could happen in quick battle as well, stopping progress in adventure mode)
Fixed error when you remove all digits in fields for turn timer settings in game lobby
Fixed the double and overlapping scrollbars in option menu dropdowns
The map editor gets a facelift!
Hello Wielders!
Today we are releasing an update containing a little bit of everything. We are about half way through adding lots of new unit abilities, and you can expect them to come early next year. So, a lot of the work done during the last few weeks is not really visible in this update, but one thing definitely is: the new map editor! To celebrate this release we’ve asked a few questions to our UI designer and Art Director, Christian. If you have any questions for him, don’t be shy to ask in the comments!
If you are looking for the Release notes only, simply scroll to the bottom.
Tell us a little bit about yourself please! – My name is Christian Knutsson – UI and visual design is primarily my thing on this project. If you want to know more about me there’s actually an old dev spotlight of me when I was a freelancer back in 2020: https://www.lavapotion.com/blog/2020/6/25/developer-spotlight-christian-knutsson (the text still holds up, but the artwork and assets have come a long way)
Why did you overhaul the visuals of the map editor? – The visual update was more of a result of that we wanted to make it visually a part of the Songs of Conquest game and experience. The Map editor is first and foremost a tool, but we also want the map creator to feel that they are in the Songs of Conquest world while creating. The biggest and most important part for me was to make a UX (user experience) overhaul, to make it a better editor from an interface perspective, how do we layout the tools, how do we categories the panels and make all the properties clearer to understand. The Map editor is something we use internally to create our own maps and entire campaigns so it has been great to make it something that we are also proud to release externally and have everyone be able to create maps for the game.
What are the main differences in this released version, vs. the old one? – I think the first thing you will notice is of course the new UI, with the Songs of Conquest colors, typography, icons and other graphical UI-elements. But the new layout of tools and properties is what makes the biggest difference. We have tried to follow standards and best practices of where to place elements to lower the cognitive load for a new user. Which basically means that things like the file menu, the tools menu, the draw tools, properties panel and the status bar are all placed similar to what you would find in Google Slides, Adobe Photoshop or similar creative software. Then we have used our visual style to create a clearer visual hierarchy that should guide the map creator in making beautiful and fun maps.
Is there any design element you are extra proud of? – I love the color palette and the typography of Songs of Conquest so it was really fun to be able to create a new interface based on those elements. I needed to expand the dark-red/blue/purple color palette (titled “Plum”-color by Robin) but otherwise I created very few new elements for the map editor. So I’m extra proud that we could build the updated UI using the game assets and style we already had established. However, one feature I really like in the new Map editor is something that Patrik added when he rewrote the menu system. I was working on the UX and UI, while Patrik was rewriting map editor code, fixing bugs and doing updates all over the place he added the Focus view mode. This will remove as much of the UI as possible and focus the screen area to the map. And if you turn off all the map gizmos you will almost get a clean fullscreen view of the map you are creating. I also need to mention another thing that is not a design element, and that is the the random map generation. It can be hard to start with a blank canvas and when you create a new map you can choose to use random map generation as a base – this is extremely fun to play with and makes getting started so much easier.
Can we expect more updates for the map editor? – This release is what we call a “Map editor UX/UI update”, we have been focusing on taking the old map editor and making it more beautiful and easier to use. We have fixed bugs, rewritten a few underlying systems and mostly rearranged and redesigned the UI. Even though it has been internally tested during our development I’m looking forward to having more people use it and help us improve it further. And of course we have a list of features we would like to add and there’s always things we would like to polish. So yes, 2023 will see more updates for the map editor.
That’s all for this update folks! Lot’s more to come during next year, including an updated roadmap (we know the current one is slightly off mark by now, but we’ll get to that soon enough!). Have a great Holiday and see you soon!
Added ability for Sappers and Artificers to select which adjacent hex they want to place their palisades/mines on
Notable bugfixes
Fixed issues with animations and positioning on troops hit by Faey Fire ability
Fixed threat level calculations often vastly overestimating a Wielder’s spell casting ability
Fixed confirm popup position when disbanding troops with large HUD
Fixed issue that caused modded random map blueprints to throw an exception
Fixed issue causing exception on some dialogue triggers
Fixed issue when multiple players in a simultaneous turns game tried to initiate battle at the same time
Gameplay changes
Dead wielders now drop a chest containing all their lost equipment instead of each piece of equipment separately
Map editor
Map editor has seen a major update in UX and UI
Map editor will be localized to all available languages, however that work is still in progress
UI
Added (dead) suffix to dead player names in team queue HUD
Show spell name and icon in battle when opponents cast spell
Hide leave lobby button while game hosting is in progress
Show troop income in town tooltip even if current amount in pool is 0
Show “out of movement” notification if trying to pillage without any moves left
Added new centered notification type used for major notifications, such as when player enter/exit battle in simturns
Updated world color when an opponent is in battle during simturns
Random events can now be closed with ESC
Added info about rounds left for a construction in town tooltips
Enabled double click on skill buttons in level up menu
Validate if spells have valid targets and update button state and tooltip
Allow loading saves from within battles
Move occupy details into a tooltip instead of the mini menu
Added cost to troop tooltips in build menu
Codex main navigation bar has been changed from text to icons to accommodate more options
Update minimap (and the ping) to be more responsive when enemy wielders are walking
Fixed graphical glitch causing the furthest battle water to look weird
Multiplayer
Once again allow a single computer to join multiple teams in online games
Fixed online game being softlocked if a player disconnects while fighting an AI team on the AI’s turn
Battle
Fixed graphical glitch causing the furthest battle water to look weird
AI Adventure
Fix underlying check for troop inventory that made the AI think it had room for troops when it did not
Generic fix for AI to avoid broken portals
AI Battle
Fixed AI troops too often choosing to use the Aim ability over shooting
Fixed AI troops not attacking and clearing blocking map entities
Made Hellroar cannons more likely to attack rather than wait for better opportunities
Random Map Generator
Fixed spawn issue for regions resulting in players being isolated from each other
Win conditions can now be specified in layouts using eg. “win_conditions” : [“Beacons”]
Win and lose texts can now be specified in layouts using “win_text” and “lose_text”
Optimizations
Known Issues
Sim-turns is at version 0.1
Co-Op (Teams) is at version 0.1
All traits and abilities for troops are not yet implemented
Update 0.79.10
This update fixes the bug reporting tool, as well as an issue with AI troops stopping in battle when triggering mines/entering gas clouds/etc and potentially softlocking the game.
Update 0.79.9
This update fixes an issue with The Lion's Den map which caused AI teams to get stuck and softlock the game.
(Note: Only applies to new games started on The Lion's Den map)
