Greetings!

After two weeks of testing the level editor and the workshop, we are glad to announce that it’s finally ready. Thank you very much to all the players that joined the editor testing group and shared their feedback with the developers. Right now there are more than 80 levels to enjoy, and we’re sure there are many more to come soon.

The editor and custom levels access is now available with the new version of They Are Billions: V.0.10



It’s very easy and straightforward. Just start the game and press New Game. There are now more options to play: Survival, Community Challenge and Custom Levels.

Select the Custom Levels option to access the Levels Dashboard. You will find there the list of all the levels you are subscribed to. Just select the one you wish to play (in some of them you can configure the map type) and good luck! :)




In the custom levels dashboard there is a link to the They Are Billions workshop. Select the levels you like and press the Subscribe button.

You can do it directly from the workshop steam page here:

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=644930

Press the update button in the dashboard for a refreshed list of levels including the new subscribed ones.

Every workshop item has its own steam page, go there to give feedback or any other info to the level creator.




One of the features of the level editor is that you can make the game generate a random Survival map and then modify the events, scripting and narrative to bring a new survival experience to the player.

We have created "The 50 Days Challenge" which is a survival game with just 50 days to build your colony before the Final Swarm arrives. But don’t despair, you will not be alone in this task. The neighboring colonies and the New Empire will try to keep you from joining the hordes of infected by sending help periodically.

Hope you like it! It’s a super fast game and a real challenge!.


There are three ways to launch the Editor:
- From the game main menu, go to More => Launch Editor
- Or just press and hold the SHIFT key when starting the game and the editor will be launched automatically.

- In the installation folder you have a LaunchEditor.bat you can use to launch it directly.

These are the main features of the level editor:

• Map creation can be manually crafted or let the game generates a random survival map when the game starts.
  
• Custom events.
  
• Custom scripts to enhance the narrative.
  
• Advanced ZXCode language (variables and functions) to create complex gameplay mechanisms.
  
• Multi-language support.

Of course, it will be updated periodically to include more features to create. One of the upcoming big features will be custom modding of game rules (units, structures, stats...).

Before playing with the editor we strongly recommend you read this short guide we have prepared. Here it is:
TAB Editor Guide


Please, use this forum for all related info about the editor and workshop, comments, feedback, new features or bugs reporting. Also we will update there the development progress and version changes log.
They Are Billions Workshop Forum



Now it the editor is ready we think it can expand a lot the content of They Are Billions so we can focus on finishing the campaign mode. We know all of you are asking us for the estimated launch date but we cannot give an answer yet. We would like and we will try with all our workforce to release the campaign on next Spring 2019. At the same time we will improve the Survival Mode with two new Map Themes and expanding the features of the editor to allow you to create even more awesome levels.

And that's all! We hope the editor will bring lots of fun and surprises for the great community of They Are Billions players.

See you soon!

This is a quick update for the players that wishes to test the Editor and Workshop features of They Are Billions. For the rest of players, please ignore this update, and wait to the public release. We will announce it here as usual.

Before releasing the Custom Levels Editor and the Workshop integration we would like to test it further with the community. So, for this reason we have enabled the Editor features under the Test branch of They Are Billions (v.0.10).


To access the Test Branch you just have to open the properties panel of They Are Billions on Steam (right click on the game, select properties option). Then, under the page Betas, select the Test branch and let Steam update the game.

This version hasn't been completely translated to all languages yet. That's why you will find some English texts in some parts of the game. We are planning to release The final version on November 25th that, as we always do, will be translated to all languages.


There are two ways to launch the Editor:

• From the game main menu, go to More => Launch Editor
  
• Or just press and hold the SHIFT key when starting the game and the editor will be launched automatically.

As we are planning to heavily update and expand the editor, the interface will only be available in English for now. Our intention is to have it translated to all the languages that They Are Billions currently supports when the game is finished. Nevertheless, you can create levels in any language you like,. Indeed, the editor allows you to create multi-language levels.


Before playing with the editor we strongly recommend you to read the short guide we have prepared. Here it is:
TAB Editor Guide


You can test your levels locally in your computer before submitting them to the Workshop.

The Workshop is still private and only accesible for the members of this group. If you wish to test the Workshop now, please join to the Numantian Games group here.


Please, use this forum for all related info about the editor and workshop, comments, feedback, new features or bugs reporting:
They Are Billions Workshop Forum

And that's all for now. We expect to launch the Editor & Workshop to the public on 26th of November.

See you soon!

Just a quick update to talk about the new version published 0.92 and some news about the incoming Level Editor.

It is just a minor update. It fixes some problems and bugs and also improves the general performance. It also includes these new features:

Custom Keys

Now you can customize most of the keyboard commands available in the game. You can do it from the Options screen, under the controls section. You can even assign several keys for the same command if you like.




8 New Achievements



We have added some more achievements that make the Survival Game more challenging and spicy:

• Open Mind
  Win a Survival game (Score Factor >= 100%) without using walls, gates and towers.
  
• Soldier Wrath
  Win a Survival game (Score Factor >= 100%) with just Soldiers in your army. No Attack Towers allowed.
  
• Ranger Revenge
  Win a Survival game (Score Factor >= 100%) with just Rangers in your army. No Attack Towers allowed.
  
• Sniper Slaughter
  Win a Survival game (Score Factor >= 100%) with just Snipers in your army. No Attack Towers allowed.
  
• No Towers Needed
  Win a Survival game (Score Factor >= 200%) without using Attack Towers like Ballista or Executor.
  
• Peaceful
  Win a Survival game (Score Factor >= 100%) with no new units trained.
  
• Unstoppable
  Win a Survival game (Score Factor >= 100%) without pausing the game.
  
• Best General
  Win a Survival game (Score Factor >= 100%) with no casualties. No Attack Towers allowed.

We expect to release the game editor in about two weeks under Steam Workshop. With the game editor players can create and share custom levels. The editor will be updated from time to time, growing in added features.

These are the main features included in this first version:

- Full map creation: Theme selection, terrains, forests, mountains, ornaments...
- Adding any game elements: Buildings, Doom Villages, treasures to loot, ruins, units...
- Adding interactive elements, like displaying a message when a unit enter in a selected area, or creating Units (Infected) generators.
- Create your own story by customizing the start, game win and lose, game events, neutral characters that join your colony. All of these with your own style and writing.
- Full control of game events: Roaming infected groups, swarms, win conditions, send all infected to the Command Center, grant or remove resources to the colony...

What do you think? We are confident that you will create great and original levels with this first version. Here you have some screenshots:




And that's all for now. See you soon!


We have delayed some weeks the launch of the editor as we have been improving it heavily. The reason is because we want to make sure that all levels and content created with the editor will be always compatible with all future new versions of the game. Also we have added some cool features that were missing in the previous version:

• Custom Survival Levels: You can let the game to generate random maps (as the Survival Games) and just customize the narrative, events and scripts to offer your own Survival Experience.
  
• Custom Scripts: We have improved this part a lot. You can now interact much more with the player (dialog, menus to choose options...), and a lot of cool things to make very interesting levels.
  
• Multi language support: You can create multi-language custom levels to reach a wider audience.
  
• Custom Pictures & Sounds: Decorate your story and narrative displaying custom pictures and playing custom sounds.
  
• New Custom Level from Numantian: The 50 Days Challenge! A extreme and super fast survival game where you will need the help of the colony neighbors to succeed.

First we will activate the Workshop and Editor for the Test Branch. We will announce it here very soon. And after that (for 26-29th Nov) we will make it public for all players.


We have just published the Custom Levels Editor Guide.

I hope you’ve had a great summer! It’s been a while since our last update. It’s not only because even the most devoted developers need to take a break sometimes, but mostly because we’ve been working hard on the game, making big changes as we develop the Campaign Mode. This, unfortunately, has prevented us from updating the Survival Mode with new content for now.

So with this post, we would like to inform you on the game development and what we’re currently working on.


When we originally envisioned They Are Billions, the Campaign was the main gameplay mode and the Survival was just conceived as a quick game for fun, played in a random scenario, that allowed us to test and balance the game. We decided to release it in Early Access on Steam at the end of last year, as the players who played the Survival Preview (the backers) loved it. To our surprise the success of the Survival mode was so great that we decided to improve it over time, as you surely know, by continually adding content and putting a lot of work on it. But then... what’s happening with the Campaign?

We’re now in a paradoxical situation in which the development of the Survival takes time away from developing the Campaign and vice versa. And both modes need to grow together since they have the same core. Otherwise, we’d end up having two different games. So now, it’s the Campaign’s turn, which is also a good thing, as we’ll include many of the features implemented in the Campaign to enrich the Survival Mode.


The Campaign development has been much more time consuming than we anticipated. We’re committed to delivering a great Campaign and not just a bunch of survival scenarios that you have to play in sequence. We want to add there all that is lacking in the Survival Mode, to have a perfect and rounded experience.

In the Campaign you’ll have a big World Map where you’ll be able to choose what kind of missions to play to reconquer a big territory from the infected. Every mission accomplished will unlock new missions, but be careful because infected swarms will block your path to new territories. You’ll have to destroy them with your personal Imperial Army.

These are the kinds of missions you’ll encounter:

- Colony Building: In this mission you have to build a colony on an outdoor map and achieve specific objectives (resist X days, get X colonists, get X resources...).

- Swarm Attack: You’ll need to grow a big army from the Empire using your Empire Points to hire your troops. Lead them against the swarm that’s blocking your advance on the map and reach new territories where you can establish new human colonies.

- Old Fortresses: This is a tactical-based mission. You’ll explore abandoned human fortresses with just a few units. In these Fortresses, you’ll discover secrets and valuable artifacts that will grant you advancements in Science, Technology and the Empire. These will boost your Colonies and your Imperial Army.

The Old Fortresses missions are themselves like a whole new game that we think will improve and enrich the experience. You’ll have to venture into these infected places with only a handful of warriors (and a Hero, but we’ll talk about heroes later). To survive, use the environment to your advantage. These fortresses hold the keys to you finding out how the world fell to the infection, with lots of lore and many other surprises along the way.

We have now new artists creating hundreds upon hundreds of new graphic assets for the game. Here’s a taste of what the Old fortresses look like. We hope you like the atmosphere:








We expect to release a game editor soon, so players can create and share their Survival maps with other players. This will be officially supported and will be integrated with the Steam Workshop too. We’ll talk about it more in the next update.



And that's all for the moment. Keep on fighting for the humans!

See you soon!

Greetings!

While we are working hard developing the Campaign of They Are Billions we would like to add some more spice to the current Survival Mode:




The Infected Giant is a very special enemy with some specific features. The Giant is a mutated infected that has grown without limit for years and years. It is so huge that the earth trembles under its passage.



When does the beast appear in the game?

From the beginning... They start roaming the outer border of the map, nevertheless, the Giants are so huge that you will always know where they are as their position will be marked on the minimap with a small icon. This is a great clue so you know where you shouldn’t expand your colony or move your units, at least not until you have a very powerful army to fight them.



The Giant(s) appear on the maps with the Infected Population set at “Challenging” difficulty or above. So, new players don't worry, you won't need to face this beast during your first playthroughs.

The Tiny Brain of the Giant

Giants are huge and powerful but with a tiny brain. They cannot hear so they are not attracted by nearby activity. Also, they are almost blind, they react slowly to your actions, but be careful, once it detects a target it will chase it with terrifying speed and there are no walls in the world that can stop them!

Their Deadly Attack



The Giant has the most powerful attack in They Are Billions. They have a very long reach and they hit everything in a 120º arc. Nothing can escape their attack, even other infected can be destroyed if they are within the Giants attack range.

I'm scared... What can I do?

Nothing. We recommend you avoid the Giants and don’t annoy them under any circumstance. But you can’t avoid them all game, you should kill them before the final horde comes for your colony, because they will join them as any other infected on the map. Believe us, last thing you want is to fight the final swarm and the Giants at the same time...


New Difficulty Mode: Nightmare!

Are you one of the pro-players that think TAB is a piece of cake? Congratulations and welcome to your worst nightmare!



This is a new value for the Infected Population, which increases the huge population of Brutal mode by 30%!!! And it also includes a gift of three Giants on the same map. We think it is almost impossible to beat the game on this mode but it will be great fun to try. If you can beat it in the desert, you will get a score factor of 800%!! Good luck!

Some technical info about this mode: We have optimized TAB even more in the 0.9 version, allowing the engine to move more and more units. That being said, this mode requires a good computer with many cores and a high speed. Using a lower spec computer can cause the game to suffer, dropping frames and running slowly when the big swarm heads towards the colony. However, the game will continue to be playable.

Armor System Refactored

In previous versions of TAB, the Armor value of the units are subtracted from the damage, for example, an attack of 8 against an armor of 3, deals 5 life points of damage.

Now the Armor decreases the damage as a percentage instead of an absolute value. For example, an attack of 8 against a 25% armor deals 6 life points of damage. This means that now, small damage attacks like the weak infected are not as reduced by the armor as before, but the deadlier attacks (Harpies, Chubies, Giants....) are much more reduced. Also, with the new armour values, Soldiers and Titans are much more resistant to damage than the Rangers and Snipers, which is more realistic.

• Ranger and Sniper: 5%
  
• Soldier and Titan: 40%
  
• Lucifer and Thanatos: 25%

New Map Features



You can find on the maps new elements to loot, food crates that add food to the Command Center and old batteries that provide extra energy to the colony. Also, we have added some more decorative elements.

Some more Balancing

• Traps life increased.
  
• Soldier and Titan damage increased.
  
• Veteran Soldier and Veteran Ranger attack range increased.

New Achievements
Four new achievements:

• Giant Slayer Level 1: When you kill your first Giant.
  
• Giant Slayer Level 2: When you kill your two Giants on the same map.
  
• Giant Slayer Level 3: When you kill your three Giants on the same map.
  
• The Most Wonderful Colony: When you build all the Six Wonders in your colony.

And that's all for the moment, we hope you to enjoy this new update. In the next one we will talk and show more screenshots from the Campaign.

See you soon!

Just a quick update on the game development.


We are working now in two fronts, the Old Fortresses, where the tactic missions will be played, and the Trains system. In the next update we’ll talk more about them and we’ll publish new screenshots with new content.

Trains on Survival Mode?

As we said before we want to keep on trying to enrich the content of the Survival mode with elements from the campaign. Therefore we are also considering including the Trains in the Survival mode, but just as new environmental element. There will be a railway line that will cross the map and, periodically, there will be trains passing through the map. It will not only be a nice touch for the maps, but also an important strategic element. Obviously you won’t be able build over the railways so you’ll have to defend that parts in a different way (without walls). On the other hand the trains will destroy all those unlucky infected who happen to be on its way. That’ll certainly be something worth watching!




These are the new features of the 0.8.2 version, which is available now:

New Army Buttons



Many times in the game, you want to select all the units of the same type, for example, "Select all snipers to defend the North wall....". There is a new button on the right part of the screen for every type of unit you have (Ranger, Sniper...) that also shows the total amount of each of them. Click them and all the units of that type will be selected.

You can combine the mouse clicks with the Shift key to add the units to the current selection.

Press F2 to select all the Army

You can use the shortcut F2 to select all units available in your army.

Power Plant Changes

Now the Power Plant uses 10 wood units instead 5 wood and 5 stone. Before, building sawmills in the late stages of the game was something superfluous and by contrast, if you built several power plants you could easily run out of stone which is so necessary as the game progresses. We think that works much better now, as it improves the resources balancing especially in the second half of the game.

Stakes and Blades Traps

Judging by the screenshots and gameplay videos from players, it seems that the traps are underused. We think they are currently very useful, as they not only harm the infected but also slow them down. Another advantage is that they can be placed on the floor without restrictions and don't block the movement of your army (as the walls do).

Also they would make more sense in real life, where a fortress would have one or two rows of walls with a gate protected by a series of traps. Building lots of walls randomly just to block the infected looks quite weird :)



So for all these reasons we have improved the traps:

- Stakes Trap: +20% Life. + 25% damage.
- Blades Trap: +30% Life. + 25% damage.

Pathfinding for Swarms: Improved Performance

There is a good reason why They Are Billions is clearly one of the games that manages more units in real time, units that are truly independent, every unit has their own AI and behaves always on their own. That's the reason why the infected swarms in They Are Billions looks so natural and organic.

The game engine is ultra optimized in every aspect, especially the path finding, which is one of the most costly operations.

In many other games with big armies, the paths are computed for a full group of units and generally those paths don't change with time as the environment is static and fixed. By contrast, on TAB every unit computes its own paths to reach its targets. This path is recomputed every few seconds to react to the changes of the environment (walls destroyed, structures built...). Thanks to that, the swarms can split in several paths or single units can leave the swarm if they have seen or heard something, as it would happen in real life.

Although the game system is already quite optimized, we have gone further. Previously, all paths were recomputed if anything on the map changed, which could lead to some frame drops when there are big swarms running to the colony. Now, only if something that can affect the current paths is changed the path is recomputed. For example, the infected don't care about walls; they ignore them unless they are blocking their movement in which case they will try to destroy them. So now, if a wall in their path is destroyed or built the path won't be recomputed.

What all of this stuff means to the player? We expect the game to run smoother, specially when big swarms are approaching the colony.

Survival Challenge: Score Factor fixed
It was an issue when computing the final score of the Survival Challenge. The Score Factor relative to the map type was not incorporated to the equation, so all score factors of the Survival Mode were 100% regardless the map type. Now that bug is fixed so your score will reflect better the real difficulty of the map.

And that's all for now. Thanks for your support and see you soon!