v1.2
v1.2 is now available on Steam and Humble. This is the game's second big update, following v1.1's major improvements to the game's economy and balance back in May (see this post for more details). v1.2 focuses on improving the midgame, the Romans, and also adds a new 'clan list' screen which makes it much easier to keep track of your people.
The Romans
This is the main feature in v1.2, and makes the role of the Romans in the game much more prominent. Roman forts are now scattered throughout the map, and this ensures they have a presence pretty much everywhere and making it impossible to ignore them. Furthermore, they now visit you once per year after contact has been established, and behave a bit like an annoying older brother who expects you to bend the knee. You're welcome to ignore them, but fighting off their legions can be difficult in the early going, so don't be too reckless when treating with the emperor!
There's still some more work I want to do with the Romans, particularly with making it rewarding to befriend them, as well as adding some mechanics to reduce their strength over time in order to shift the strategic dynamic and making it ever easier to either ignore or conquer them as time passes. This will be my primary task in v1.4, which is planned for later this year (v1.3 will be focused on the AI).
Clan List Screen
This new screen can be opened by pressing F10 or clicking on a button in the upper-right corner of the world screen. It shows all of your clans in a big Excel-like grid along with a bunch of useful information, and is especially handy for keeping track of clans which aren't in your settlement. It’s also really useful for seeing who you can purchase upgrades for, and who’s in a bad mood and needs your attention.
Down the road I plan to make it possible to reorder the list by clicking on the various title categories, but for now the list order is based on when a clan joined you. I've also made some other small improvements to the UI, which you can read about in the in-game patch notes.
Other Changes from v1.1
In case you missed it v1.1 was a pretty big update, and in addition to the two items above I've also tweaked some things since it was posted back in May. That update made the game much tougher, and I've dialed things back in v1.2. I've also made some other balance tweaks, like adding a bunch more stone to the map and making it possible to buy a lot more food from the caravan.
I've also been steadily working on the game's bugs, particularly relating to out-of-memory issues and problems launching the Linux version. It's just me on the project at this point though and I'm sure there are still some problems out there. If you do run into any issues please let me know at contact@conifergames.com and I'll see if I can help figure out what's going on and find a solution.
Future Plans
The plan from here is to focus on improving the AI for a few months, then come back around to finishing up with the Romans. From there I'll be spending some time on diplomacy, and then finally adding some non-gameplay stuff like the ability to customize game setup options. I'll be posting on Steam, Kickstarter, and the AtG website every time a big update goes up, which I expect to be every couple months, although things will be a bit slower over the summer since I’ll be taking some time off.
I'm happy to answer any questions or help out in any way I can, so don't hesitate to reach out via contact@conifergames.com! Thanks for checking out AtG and I hope the continued support helps make the game better for you!
- Jon