Today WotA is turning one month old, no longer a todler aye !
Today WotA exits its early bird pricing phase.
And today, WotA fullfils its promesses.
Roadmap was set to be challenging, and it was beaten.
Behold, the new facilities features to develop your empire by building on wasteland around your cities.
Technologies to strengthen your armies and including flamming arrows to bring havok upon your opponents.
The first iteration of achievements, while there are only 4 and simple ones, be assured many more are coming to challenge you.
A complete overhaul of all icons, getting rid of all the placeholders and improving the look and feel of the whole game.
On top of a bunch of visual improvements, new visual and sound effects, additional ambient musics, a ton of balancing, quality of life improvements...
Here is a condensed version of the change log, keeping only what might matter to you:
Gameplay
- Added crops facility, yields +1 food gain as long as both the crops and its owning city belong to the player (capturing grants bonuses)
- Added science lab facility, yield +1 science point once and only once after 60s
- Added defensive fort facility, double strength of stationned armies
- Added 3 new technologies to unlock placing facilities on wastelands
- Now revealing fog when army begin walking towards an area rather than when it arrives on the area
- Added support for merging army actions, so for example giving a new order to an army that is unstationning no longer resets it
- Added a visual and audio warning signal when food gain/upkeep balance turns negative
- Included facilities in the tutorial
- Setup WotA 4 first achievements ! Go through tutorial, Win in SP, Win in MP and a secret one for those who struggle getting started ;) There will be many more in the future of course
- Added new gameplay option to toggle the minimap
Technologies
- Added ranged back units technology, increasing army strength in battles by 0.5 per troop behind the first row, those troops fire visible burning arrow
- Added auto stationning armies when attacked technology
Balance
- Ensured smoother progression of erosion throughout the game with latest fragility tweaks
- Loosing a facility or a city now properly removes the relevant yields from its former owning player
- The city support army technology now lowers upkeep by 3 for each city to match recent army food upkeep changes (from 1)
- Faster stationning tech now 30% faster instead of 20% to compensate for loss of interest due to the auto station endgame tech
- Items in city production queue now take 4s to complete (instead of 1s)
- Replaced the food speed technologies by technologies to speed up city production queue, each tech doubles the speed so getting both can bring back to the time to 1s
- Now starting with positive food gains/upkeep balance, including the start army upkeep
- Now enforcing the 25 troops per army limit, merging more will now discard addtional troops
Visuals
- Full icon rework, new style on all icons, no more place holders
- Added kick attack animation to troops in battle
- Improved and fixed some issues with army battle animations
- Fixed armies not turning around immediatly after retreating in battle
- Fixed cases troop animation didn't reset properly after some actions
- Fixed a case of soldier not exiting battle mode and staying stuck in idle animation
- New more intense effect when a player captures an area to another player
- Territories display in HUD now shows the local player's color
- Duration texts in progress bars no longer show 0s remaining in between 0s and 1s (shows 1s instead)
- Now showing gain/upkeep balance in hud instead of both values distinctly
- Added icons to city placement preview to further help everyone visualize intent and space requirements, shows the new city flag icon in the center tile and dirt icons on the tiles around
- Added a spinner to the loading black screen
- Frontiers now render at terrain level instead of floating 2 meters above
- Frontiers are now slightly visible through scenery and props so it is easier to spot in middle of forests for example
Sound
- Added new sfx when researching technologies
- Added 3 new ambient musics from Lonie
- Ambient musics no longer have a very long break in between plays
AI
- AIs no longer tries to send more troops than allowed in an army to defend when attacked
- AIs now have a limit to how many units they can create based on their difficulty level, hard difficulty remains with the legacy no limit
- AIs now have a limit to how many units they can have in a single army based on their difficulty level, hard difficulty remains with the legacy 25 units (same as human players, from game rules)
- AIs can now place facilities in world when it has researched the required technologies
Bug fixes
- Fixed typo in tutorial saying shortcut to colonize is 3 while it is in fact 2
- Fixed area ownership & destruction not synced with clients whom it is on the edge of the fog of war for
- Fixed some typos in tutorials, a few improvements here and there
- Fixed action bar buttons not cleaning out old tooltips for unused slots
- Fixed action bar not refreshed when the selected tile type changes (for exemple, when placing a city, or when another player builds something or captures the tile)
- Fixed mountain tiles showing in green while chosing colonization target
- Fixed a rare case of order given to army that would teleport it back to an old position (orders given while army is unstationning)
I have so many people, great people, to thank for helping me through this gigantic push. I cannot thank you enough for the energy you've given me.
Thanks to you all I am not alone in this.
Ladies and gentlemen, Waves of the Atlantide EA v2.0.
_met44
Once I Sat Engaged and Rescuing Update v1.10
Hello Steam !
Today's patch comes in a bit earlier than planned, fixing an issue with specific types of keyboards.
There is now a new option in the Input category where you can chose between Qwerty and Azerty if the automated detection fails for your hardware.
And it is not all !
Battles UI has been extended to show health and amount of troops involved. While the design isn't final yet it should already be clear enough to showcase what is going on in battles for everyone !
Tutorial also got a significant lifting, making it better looking, with less text and more interactions ! Hopefully that will make it a more pleasant experience to all our fellow new players looking at learning the ropes.
UI
- Battle UI now shows defender and attacker troop health and count
Tutorials
- Improved look of tutorial, doesn't occlude whole screen as much and instead has a blue border arround elements it focuses on
- Lowered amount of text in several tutorial steps
- Added interactivity to several steps of the tutorial
Options
- Added Input option to set keyboard layout (in case automatic detection fails which can occur with some keyboard types)
Bug fixes
- Fixed selecting army through idle army shortcut not showing proper data in the selected element UI
- Fixed issue when the selected tile is a city next to the ocean that gets destroyed
- Fixed a case of forest tiles wrongly showing on edge of fog of war for mp clients
Big thanks to our fellow community member who shared his log file, which helped tremendously working out that keyboard issue.
Regards,
_met44
Roadmap & Pricing
Hello Steam !
I've been meaning to post this for a few days and so now that v1.9 is out, there we go:
Feel free to comment there if you have any question.
Regards,
_met44
In a Kingdom Full of Means Update v1.9
Hello Steam !
Today's patch ships with several suggestions from our fellow community.
First, please welcome the new member in the AI familly, the baby. That adorable baby AI will help newcomers familiarise themselves with their surroundings until they can hopefully take on actual challenges !
Exploring the world will now bring additional benefits in form of one time only resource loots that can be found on plains. This is a first pass and there will be more to it over time, for now when you see sacks of grain or gears on the ground simply visit the tile with an army to collect food or science. Also, first come first served so act fast !
AI military decisions are now affected by their difficulty which should contribute alongside the baby AI to offer an experience with a scallable difficulty for all tastes.
This also fixes several issues with food gain and upkeep, so even without being the needed overhaul this is already a great step forward.
There's also a new ambient music, the first of many more to come and a bunch of fixes, notably fixing some visual issues for multiplayer clients.
Gameplay
- Added a first pass of random resource loot system, you may now find food or science in plains when exploring the world that can be collected by armies, shows a visual effect with the player color when an army collects one
Visuals
- Improved accuracy of the fog of war effect to lower undesired leaking on surrounding tiles
Multiplayer
- MP Clients will now receive all relevant data needed to display world tiles on the edge of the fog of war
AI
- Added new "Baby" difficulty AI, slower to perform some actions, does more random things instead of optimal actions
- AI difficulty now affects its millitary decisions, lower difficulty AIs will tend to make more random calls
Sound
- Added a first ambient music in game on top of the forest rustling ambient sound, plays with a large interval currently to limit repetition
Bug fixes
- Fixed display of the food upkeep wrongly accounting the per city gain bonus of technologies
- Fixed gain and upkeep ticks wrongly doubled up, leading to massively confusing changes in food amount
- Fixed armies going in or out of view with camera staying still not properly refreshed visually
- Fixed MP clients sometimes getting false victory or similar player lost related event, for exemple when seeing the only known city of a player getting destroyed/captured
- Fixed several cases of world tiles visuals refresh issues on the edge of the fog of war, notably for MP clients
- Fixed a rare error in the colonization process client side that could break the frontier re-generation
- Fixed some cases that could break the frontier generation for MP clients when not having visibility of the whole territory island
Note: this version is not compatible with older versions in multiplayer
Thanks again to everyone who contributed, please keep providing awesome feedback it's really shaping the game for the best !
Regards,
_met44
Two Bold Uncles Jumping to the Beat Update v1.8
Hello Steam !
Today's patch will bring joy to all multiplayer lovers ! It focuses mainly on improving the multiplayer experience, fixing issues and adding some of the missing game data to clients.
Visually, aside from a last couple minor issues, the game will now appear to MP clients identical to the singleplayer, and all weird behaviours should already be sorted out.
There's also a few sens making changes recommended by our fellow community, fixing some ways to break the tutorial, and naming cities in such way that it can be kept track of.
And finally a healthy amount of fixes and improvements, all listed bellow !
Gameplay
- Cities are now named after their creator and number, will simplify keeping track of cities
- Tutorial now prevents erosion from occuring, runs without AI opponents, prevents from moving the camera or using shortcuts that could block progress in the tutorial
- Armies from another player occupying a neutral area now prevent colonization from granting that area
Multiplayer
- Now syncing battle defender and attacker strength to clients so it can be displayed over the battle widget
- Now syncing the erosion begin horn warning sound to clients
Bug fixes
- Fixed city visual not updated above 10 levels of average food and production
- Fixed some issues with city areas taken by another player
- Fixed city not cleaned up properly when liberated/destroyed by a player
- Fixed Selected element widget showing wrong data when opening the empire menu after having selected an area
Bug fixes Multiplayer
- Fixed client food not falling all the way to 0 when having a negative upkeep gain balance for MP clients
- Fixed MP clients not receiving all information about surrounding visible land they should be
- Fixed client not seeing army stationing when it occurs while army is in view
- Fixed client not always seeing the army stationing/unstationing widget
- Fixed armies not going all the way in to their target location during actions such as colonizing when viewed from MP client side
- Fixed cases of client receiving eroded area information not properly taken care of
Note: this version is not compatible with older versions in multiplayer
Big thanks to everyone who contributed to this great new version of WotA !
Regards,
_met44
The Giant Hat Update v1.7
Hello Steam !
Have some really cool changes ready for you.
The battle widget now displays attacking and defending strength ! This will help tremendously seeing what is going on with the battle.
While there is more to be shown, this first step is be a great improvement for anyone trying to get better at fighting in WotA. Based on feedback collected after this update, more might be added.
Defeating another player now grants all of his remaining territory. This will reward the best strategists who manage to score a hit before the ocean does !
UI
- Now showing attacker and defender strength over the battle widget
Gameplay
- Now gaining whole remaining territory when defeating another player
- Liberating an area from a player (attacking away from own territory, without capture) now destroys the city
Visuals
- Added a sample effect when capturing an area from another player
Bug fixes
- Fixed battles not terminated when the area it takes place on is destroyed
- Fixed battles between AIs showing up over the fog of war
- Fixed areas part of a defeated player territory not properly cleaned up and left unusable
- Fixed running battles not cleared out when a player is defeated
- Fixed input and visual issues due to army getting destroyed while being selected
- Fixed input locking up occuring when having an army both selected and hovered while it is stationing or unstationing
Keep the feedback coming !
Regards,
_met44
Found a bleeding fox on the road Update v1.6
Hello Steam !
Today, we're celebrating the first week of WotA's early access !
It is a great occasion to thank all our players, twitchers, youtubers, curators and fans from twitter who have been playing, commenting, reviewing and providing incredible feedback that is shaping up the game for the best.
One of the most anticipated change so far is being addressed by this patch. Each troop now requires 3 food units as upkeep and you no longer have to worry about the cost being exponential.
This is a first step of a series of changes that will streamline the game, and make it easy to understand and play.
As a result of this change, IA no longer splits up its armies to maintain a low food upkeep which should make it feel much more human like.
Balancing
- Army upkeep is now 3 food per troop
- Erosion is now better spread out throughout the course of the game (missing from 1.5 notes)
AI
- AI no longer splits armies to lower upkeep down to gains level
Bug fixes
- Fixed case of the selected element info panel not showing the right data
- Fixed city tutorial regression
Hope you enjoy the changes, feel free to share your feedback on the hub.
Regards,
_met44
Shone Like Swimming Goldfish Update v1.5
Hello Steam !
I've been watching how everyone is playing, and based on what I've seen so far came up with a new piece of UI to provide feedback about what you're interacting with.
When you select an army or an area you will now see information about it displayed, which clarifies both what you're currently interacting with and how relevant things work internally.
UI
- Added a new selected element info panel when selecting an army or an area
- Army info panel shows army size, strength and upkeep
- Area info panel shows land type and erosion fragility
- Added tooltips to resource stats in the game over screen
Bug fixes
- Fixed created food stat not showing the right value in the game over stats screen
- Fixed the city placement preview remaining active after selecting an army or city with shortcuts
Regards,
_met44
Never Eat Without Me Update v1.4b
Hello Steam !
This is really tiny patch but a rather important one ! Bigger stuff that's coming next isn't ready quite yet but this is, so I'm putting it out there for you right now as this will help anyone trying multiplayer tonight.
This new v1.4b bring proper time sync to multiplayer. Hopefully you wont notice it as the whole point for this technical stuff is to go unnoticed but if you've played several MP games in a row yet, chances are you know what this is for.
There's still a long road ahead to get the full multiplayer experience polished up but this is taking WotA that much closer to it !
Regards,
_met44
Shoot of a Demon Update v1.4
Hello Steam !
Here's a little patch to get us warmed up for the week-end.
Seen a lot of people commenting about the lack of stats in the game over screen, so I went ahead and did something about it. There will be a lot more in this regard later on, this is a quick pass to get it started !
This also ships with slight controls & AI improvements.
UI
- Now showing some stats when game is over, it shows how much you expanded, how much you produced and how well you used things you produced
Bug fixes
- Fixed a rare case of controls locking up on an army
- Fixed a case of AI no longer attacking
This is just the begining and there is some cool follow up in the pipeline, stay tuned !
