We were forced to rewrite parts of the saving and loading system to fix bugs related to it; thus, old saves will NOT be compatible. You will not see unsupported save files in your list of games to load. We apologise for the inconvenience!
In the future, if you want to avoid this problem, you can always turn off automatic updates of the game through Steam and wait to update until you are confident that you won't need to load any save files anymore.
We will do our best to inform you when new updates break old save files.
About Faction Update (update 08000)
This is the third milestone that we've released during our Early Access journey.
We hope you're enjoying TFC and the improvements we're adding to the game!
If you haven't already done this, please consider leaving a review on Steam. We'd love to know what you think!
3 Bronze Age Civilizations
Whereas TFC so far has only offered one faction to play, that's about to change! We're finally adding 3 Bronze Age civilizations for you to pick between: The Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians.
The Bronze Age civilizations have a unique look for all their buildings and military units. They also cater to different playstyles, with 4 unique technologies and a unique Wonder bonus each.
Select Civilization Mid-Game
In most RTS games, a faction is picked before starting the game. This is not the case in TFC. Instead, every player has an even starting field. To select a Bronze Age civilization, you need to research 3 Early Age technologies. From there on, you can select the civilization from the new Technology Tree at any point!
Assyrians
The Assyrians were military pioneers, known for their organised armies and being the first to develop a system for conscripts. During the Bronze Age, they grew wealthy from setting up trade colonies and controlling important trade routes.
Conscripts
Villagers within any Neutral Settlement influence range gain melee damage, ranged damage, armour, and ranged attack range (does not stack with Militia). Outpost gains hitpoints, vision and influence radius.
Logistics
All military units consume less food.
Organised Warfare
All military units gain melee attack damage. Faster military training speed for every Food Surplus Level.
Trade Colonies
Each claimed neutral settlement Improves all villager resource gathering speeds.
Babylonians
Babylon was the world's largest city during the Bronze Age, renowned for its gardens and as a Holy City. They had to fortify their city since its location was without many natural barriers to keep enemies at bay.
Code of Law
Villager training speed bonus from Food Surplus Level increases. It also reduces the penalty to villager training speed from having a larger population of villagers.
Renowned Gardens
Gives access to unique building: Garden, which can be worked by a villager to provide knowledge and faster villager training speed. The gardener does not require housing and reduces food consumption. Must be placed on fertile soil.
Fortifications
Adds siege armour to all buildings and hitpoints to Watchtower, Wall and Gate.
Defensive Tactics
All military units within the influence range of the Village Center or Palace have extra armour.
Egyptians
The Egyptians were known for their many grand monuments and mythologies, and for their rich agriculture, thanks to inventions like the sickle. They were also keen innovators in areas like cosmetics, hygiene and medicine.
Medicine
Plus health regeneration for any units within the influence radius of the Village Center, Palace, or Temple. Adds hit points to villagers.
Monument Builders
Plus construction and repair speeds for each Food Surplus Level. Unlocks the Temple, a unique building for the Egyptians that can be worked by priests and provides an influence radius.
Sickle
Improves farming speed.
Papyrus Scrolls
Priests generate more Knowledge. Each priest improves farming speed.
Civilization Information Panel
From the Technology Tree, you can click to see information about each Bronze Age civilization.
New Soundtrack
We've added a totally new soundtrack for the Skirmish Mode!
Now, what does this entail?
Every faction has unique music, and multiple tracks each.
Not only that, but the music now reacts to gameplay! As your village develops, so will the music. As you enter a battle, the music will react to this.
General Improvements
Redesigned Technology Tree
We have made space for more technologies and the Bronze Age Civilization Picker. All the technology buttons have been redesigned for this purpose.
New Early Age Technology: Potter's Wheel
This technology is required for constructing Outposts to claim neutral settlements.
Wonder Is More Important
The Wonder is becoming more important for a few reasons:
Every Wonder Level constructed provides a unique bonus to your village based on the Bronze Age civilization that you pick in the Tech Tree
Even when Wonder Victory is disabled as a setting, you can still construct the Wonder and all its Wonder Levels to gain the bonuses
The Wonder is now available to construct in Horde Mode as well (but will not grant Wonder Victory)
Because it's more important, the top-left UI now always shows the Wonder Level you have constructed:
Unique Wonder Bonuses
Assyrians
+10% attack speed for all units per Wonder Level constructed (up to 40%)
Babylonians
+25% villager training speed across your empire per Wonder Level constructed (up to 100%)
Egyptians
+10% farming speed per Wonder Level constructed (up to 40%)
New equipment
We've added new weapon equipment so that weapons don't upgrade multiple units at the same time, which would cause balance issues.
Heavy Axe
The heavy axe equipment upgrades attack damage for Heavy Axeman.
Javelin
The javelin equipment upgrades attack damage for Javelinman.
Light axe and spearhead now only upgrades attack damage for Light Axeman and Spearman.
Range Displayer
You'll now be able to see the Influence Range of buildings like the Village Center and Palace. This is handy to see how far away your villagers can venture before losing their Militia status.
It also works on a building like the Watchtower to see the attack range of garrisoning units.
Improved Descriptions
Almost all descriptions in the game have been updated with glyphs.
Below is an example: these are little icons to help make connections between terminology and UI elements. In this case, this elite unit technology description, it also shows the icons of the unit being upgraded and what it will upgrade into.
Steam Achievements
We've started adding some of these! For now, there are 8 to achieve, one for each of the difficulty levels in Skirmish Mode and Horde Mode.
Skirmish AI
- Skirmish AI will only save up to expensive units that require wood and metal if they have sufficient villagers gathering those resources - Skirmish AI produces units more efficiently late-game and will make an additional military production building to train more units at once - Skirmish AI might target any enemy outposts (not just the one closest to its own base) - Skirmish Skilled and Brutal will now send priests into their Palace to generate additional Knowledge - Optimised Skirmish AI build orders - Skirmish AI generates knowledge slower on all difficulty levels except Master (previously Brutal) - Skirmish AI doesn't see enemy villagers as such a threat anymore so that higher difficulty levels will be more aggressive in trying to destroy the enemy economy before deciding to flee with offensive army - Generally improved AI defensive behaviour - Improved how AI deals with Watchtowers in certain situations (so it's harder to "tower rush" it, for example)
Map Generation
- Added threshold to how close to any player tribe that metal deposits can spawn - Regions that are empty (no tribes spawned there) no longer have extra fertility generated around their potential spawn points
Other improvements
- Early Age military units have new art and animations - Horde Mode on Beginner and Familiar is slightly easier to better accommodate new players - Clicking on the base of the building or resource will now always select the controller occupying it, even if there are other static controllers (building or resource) in front of it - Updated research icons for Archer, Elite Spearman, Swordsman, and Javelinman, so that they represent whether these units are affected by the helmet equipment or not - Updated art assets for Babylonian Wall, Gate, Watchtower, and Archery Range so it matches historical references a bit better - The vision range circle for units and buildings has been improved - The militia indicator no longer changes direction with the parent unit - Delivery point arrows take 0.25s longer to show over delivery points after hovering over the resource - When holding over the Wonder title or icon, the tooltip shows a description of the Wonder bonus currently accumulated - The building production panel now shows missing resources for training the next unit or equipment in the queue - Minor performance improvements - Villager indicators always show above buildings in placement mode - Updated art for priests indicator above Palace - Renamed hardest difficulty level to Master (from Brutal) - Knowledge Generation in buffs panel also shows while starving - Technology tooltip closes after clicking to research a technology - In unit info panel title will now begin with "Elite" if unit has elite upgrade - Villagers are easier to select (especially when they build, farm and skin animals) - Changed double-click unit to select all of the type time to max 0.25s (from 0.4s) - Added an additional zoom in level
Balance changes
Units
- Villager ranged attack rate is 1.5s (from 1.25s) - Slinger attack range is 12 (from 18) - Slinger consumes 1.5 food (from 1) - Light Axeman consumes 1.5 food (from 1) - Spearman has 7 move speed (from 6) - Spearman has 220 hitpoints (from 210) - Archer costs 45 food and 35 wood to train (from 35 food and 35 wood) - Swordsman has 280 hitpoints (from 190) - Battering Ram consumes 2.5 food (from 3) - Battering Ram has 6 base ranged armor (from 1 standard and 3 ranged)
Buildings
- Palace costs 150 clay and 125 wood to construct (from 150 clay, 150 wood, 75 food) - Outpost costs 50 clay and 25 wood to construct (from 50 clay, 50 wood, 25 food) - Wall has 1 base siege armour (from 2) - Farm has 75 hitpoints (from 150)
- Digging clay base speed is 15% slower - All Wonder stages cost more clay and less of any other resources - Constructing wonder stages no longer rewards technology points - Default health regeneration is 66% slower - Priests generate 0.3 knowledge each (from 0.4)
Bug fixes
- Pressing 'M' no longer desyncs a multiplayer game - Fixed building hotkeys - Fixed problems with hotkeys that could happen after playing one session without restarting the application - Fixed a problem that could happen when selecting a group of units, and all these units were garrisoned in a Watchtower or the Palace - Fixed problems that would occur when swapping between groups of multiple buildings - Fixed issues with showing rally point positions when adding and removing buildings from selected buildings using CTRL - All Leave command button no longer shows after selecting a unit while multiple Watchtowers were selected - Fixed a problem with Skirmish AI never attacking "insignificant" wall segments - Fixed a problem that could make horde groups stuck and infinitely circle around a neutral settlement - Fixed a problem that could lead Skirmish AI defensive forces to follow your units fleeing to the other side of the map - Fixed a problem that could lead to AI units getting stuck when attacking walls - Fixed a problem caused by selecting a group by NUM when all units in the group were garrisoning buildings - Fixed a problem with selecting multiple neutral settlements - Villagers foraging no longer trigger chop sound once - Fixed a problem that could break Skirmish AI and cause performance problems if AI unit was hit by a ranged units from a completely walled-in area
Factions Update Release Date: 20th of June 2023
Finally! The time has come for us to announce that the Factions Update will be released on 20th of June 2023.
The update took longer than planned, but we hope it will be worth the wait, as this will be the biggest update that we've ever released!
Here's a sneak peek
- Select one of 3 Bronze Age civilizations during the game: the Assyrians, Babylonians or Egyptians - A new soundtrack for skirmish mode with unique music for all the civilizations that react to your play - A re-designed Technology Tree - Total technologies in the game grows to 29 - Unique wonder bonuses - Improvements to Skirmish AI, balance changes, bug fixes, and more!
DEVELOPMENT UPDATE - INTRODUCING THE EGYPTIANS
Hello there!
While we work on the last bits and pieces for Milestone 3, we're releasing a video series about the upcoming 3 Bronze Age civilizations.
In this third and last video of the video series, we introduce the Egyptians. Who were they, and what will be unique about them in TFC?
Added Steam Cloud Saves Support
This is a small notification to announce that we have officially added Steam Cloud Saves support to the game.
Buying a new computer, or playing the game on different platforms? No problem! Your save files will now automatically synch across any device.
DEVELOPMENT UPDATE - INTRODUCING THE ASSYRIANS
Hello there!
While we work on the last bits and pieces for Milestone 3, we're releasing a video series about the upcoming 3 Bronze Age civilizations.
In this second video of the video series, we introduce the Assyrians. Who were they, and what will be unique about them in TFC?
Developer Stream with QA
We'll stream a game of us playing 2 of the upcoming new civilizations in multiplayer against each other, and try to answer all your questions!
While we work on the last bits and pieces for Milestone 3, we'll be releasing a video series about the upcoming 3 Bronze Age civilizations.
In this first video of the video series, we introduce the Babylonians. Who were they, and what will be unique about them in TFC?
Behind the Scenes: Origin Story
The 90s... the 'Golden Age' of RTS games. After being introduced to behemoths like Age of Empires, Warcraft, Starcraft, Command & Conquer, there was no turning back for us. Base-building RTS became our favourite game genre. The obsession became so strong that we dreamed about making our own RTS game one day! But then, somewhere in the mid-2000s, the number of RTS games released each year started to dwindle. What happened?
The Research
We spent about 10 years thinking about making an RTS game before TFC. We made a few attempts. It turned out that they are notoriously hard to make. So we hacked away at other projects, hoping that one day we would become competent enough to make one.
Another thing we did during this period was trying to figure out what made big publishers steer away from RTS games. Was it MOBAs? Too little innovation? Maybe 3D graphics are too hard for the brain to process when so much is happening at once? We looked up discussions about what players like and dislike about RTS games. Maybe the learning curve is too high for most casual players? Maybe it's too niche?
After doing all this research, we decided we wanted to go back to the roots of what made the classics so fun. However, they are still masterpieces. There’s no need for us to remake them. So we wanted to make something different that stands on its own. We also wanted to make a few changes that could streamline the genre a bit.
Humble Beginnings
In 2017, we started our next attempt at developing an RTS game, and we decided to merge our love for RTS games with our interest in ancient history. We knew that there is little attention paid to the Bronze Age in contemporary media, and with our fascination for that era, we decided it would be a good fit and a unique setting for the game.
Knowing how challenging it can be to make an RTS game, especially for a small team, we initially developed it for a small scope. We didn't actually have a grand vision for the game at this point. The plan was just to make something. To tick off the fact that we were able to make an RTS game!
Saying that, we also wanted to see if we could make a small game that includes the best bits of what makes RTS games fun to play while also trying to innovate it somehow.
Pixels
Our first choice for the game was for the art style to be in 2D and with isometric tiles. This would ensure that TFC has that 'classic' feel.
Next, we decided to draw the game in pixel art. And we'll be honest about the reason here: we are not (or at least didn't see ourselves as) artists! Pixel art is something we could do. Also, we thought it would be a bit unique for an RTS. We saw that games like Stardew Valley and Terraria had major success, being in pixel art, so why not try the same for an RTS?
To make sure it would work, we produced a mockup image to showcase what it could look like:
You can see our inexperience as artists here: there is limited shading, and the environment is completely flat. However, we received good feedback from an art director we had previously worked with, and we thought it looked cool.
Prototyping Interconnected Food Mechanics
After defining the art style, we went straight to work! We made a few crude design documents, but mostly we just wanted to enjoy playing around with different ideas to see what was fun and would stick.
The screenshot below is the first we took during development. You can see a lot of “random” ideas in the top UI.
As we started implementing basic RTS mechanics, like a villager moving to a construction location to construct a building, we pondered on what would be the main focus of the game. We read history books about the Mesopotamian Bronze Age, seeking inspiration for game mechanics.
Back then, even after metallurgy was invented, the economy was largely a barter economy. Coins weren’t a thing until the Iron Age. It was a food surplus that was the main driver of the first large-scale urbanization in human history, and food surpluses were used as a sort of currency. Empires often thrived or declined on the basis of their food stores.
Above: landscapes with different soil fertility were one of the first features we prototyped.
Thus, history books inspired us to prototype interconnected food mechanics. We wanted land to have soil fertility so that it matters how you lay out your base, and people should consume food, so that a village can crumble by starvation. You need to continuously maintain your army. Like barbarians pillaged the lands of civilized people back then, having your farms pillaged in TFC means you might lose even if your army is the strongest. And just like how food surplus led to specialization back then, in TFC it leads to increased village growth and knowledge generation.
As we continued prototyping, the food mechanics became closer to what you can play in the newest version of TFC. You can see different variations of the top UI as we progressed:
After a few months of prototyping, we finally landed on “Food Surplus Levels” that would affect knowledge generation and villager training speed:
Iterative Development
It’s worth mentioning that at this point in development, TFC was a hobby project. We had day jobs, and so we worked on TFC at night and during weekends. We have also never completed an RTS prior, and so there has been a lot of new concepts that we had to learn. This is part of the reason the game has been in development for so long (since 2017), in addition to us being a small team with (now) large ambitions.
We also make sure we spend adequate time experimenting with different mechanics and features, that what we end up implementing is fun and works well with the rest of the game, and that we keep iterating upon those mechanics. It is a meticulous process and has been a long (and at times painful) grind for us. However, we think it has been worth it!
Above you can see an early version of the Technology Tree.
As you can see, if we stopped at the first iterations, TFC would be a very different game!
We have learned a lot from working on this project. We’ve become better game designers, better artists, and most importantly, we keep getting better at making RTS games!
Itch.io and Community Feedback
One of the most valuable lessons of developing TFC, has been how valuable community feedback is.
The best decision we made was to release early builds on itch.io. This meant that we received feedback early on what worked and not. It also provided us with confidence that players enjoyed playing TFC and that there was huge potential.
Above: yet another iteration on the UI.
You can try out an early version of TFC on itch.io still here: https://lincread.itch.io/the-fertile-crescent
Multiplayer Came First
A Discord was quickly requested. So we created that: https://discord.com/invite/9nGpUe2
That’s when we held a community vote: should we focus on multiplayer or single-player content first?
Multiplayer won by one vote!
Thus, we released playable multiplayer all the way back in September 2018, which is a decision we do not regret. It means that the game is built for multiplayer from the ground up, and that we could add a feature like online co-op Horde Mode per community request.
However, since refining the core gameplay loop through multiplayer games and various tournaments up until recently, the time has come for us to focus more on single-player content. We can’t wait to release TFC with a Campaign Mode!
Several amazing artists from our publisher The Knights of Unity, have helped refine the art style. This is what the game looks now!
Did you enjoy learning about the origin of TFC? Let us know in the comments!
- Team TFC
DEVELOPMENT UPDATE - MILESTONE 3
Hello! It's time for a quick update on the development of TFC, specifically the Milestone 3 (M3) update!
The M3 release is delayed
Unfortunately, for several reasons, we will have to delay the release of M3. Chief among them is that we want to get it right. We want to make sure it works well and fits with our vision for this update and the "TFC DNA".
Those who have followed TFC for a while know that integral to our process is the careful and meticulous iteration on features and design ideas.
This means that we can't release M3 by the end of Q1 2023, despite the roadmap, and we apologise for any disappointment. Having said that, we are confident that this will benefit the release when it is ready and that you all will be happier for it long term!
We cannot commit to a release yet, but we will let you know that we have most of the work done already. In fact, we've been working on M3 since before M2 was released last year.
In the meantime, here's a little bit of info on M3:
An important update for TFC
For us, M3 is a very important update, as it's when we finally introduce multiple playable factions. Multiple playable factions are often one of the pillars of RTS games, as it provides asymmetrical gameplay, added variety and depth, and more content to learn and master. It's a moment we, as developers, have waited patiently for a long time ourselves!
It's also a chance for us to implement an idea we've had for a long time, which has to do with how you select your playable Bronze Age civilization. We'll talk more about the specifics later, but at least we can say that we're very excited about this! It's a feature that we think fits perfectly with the "TFC DNA".
3 Playable Bronze Age Civilizations
In the next milestone update, there will be 3 playable Bronze Age civilizations. Each of these will have unique looks for all their military units and buildings.
One of the new playable Bronze Age civilizations.
Exactly what these Bronze Age civilizations are named and what are unique to them will be revealed closer to the M3 release. However, we can tell that they have unique technologies, buildings, and wonder bonuses, that benefit them in a focused direction, like growing and defending a large population or expanding and taking map control.
A unique building for one of the new playable Bronze Age civilizations.
New Technology Tree
We're implementing a new Tech Tree from the ground up that, while still looking familiar, will provide us with more space in the UI for additional technologies.
We're also improving in-game descriptions to make it easier to make connections between terminology and UI elements.
New and re-designed technologies
8 completely new technologies
5 existing technologies are being completely re-redesigned
The Wonder is more important
In M3, the Wonder will provide unique faction-based bonuses that increase for each stage you construct.
You'll be able to construct the Wonder in Horde Mode as well to utilise these bonuses. Reaching the last stage won't win you the game, though, but it does increase the bonus further.
Since the Wonder becomes more important, how many stages you've constructed will be a part of the resources UI in M3.
And more...
Expect the usual compilation of general improvements, improved Skirmish AI, balance changes, etc.
We're grateful for the excitement around M3. Please know that we're not taking it for granted. We can't wait to share with you the rest of all the new ideas, designs and improvements that we've created for M3!
- Team TFC
Hotfix update 07094
Bug fixes
- Fixed a problem that could cause problems when going back to main menu from a game.
