Dear players,

Thanks a lot for your massive participation! Over 16 000 digital games have been disputed during this beta, leaving wrecked mechs scattered throughout Europa. It's now time to close the doors of the beta and let the meeples rest for a moment.

However the Factory will not stay idle. You’ve shared your feedback and suggestions, and you’ve been heard: we’re hard at work implementing many of your ideas. You’ll see the first results very soon in Scythe: Digital Edition.

Here are the next steps:

• The much-requested Undo button with 2 settings: Undo last action / Rewind to previous turn
  
• More challenging AIs available in 2 difficult levels: easy / medium
  
• Faster AI animations
  
• Tooltips turned on by default
  
• Highlight of completed objectives ready for validation
  
• Some confirmations removed
  
• Warnings when ending the turn with actions still available or when going into combat with 0 power
  
• New feature to visualize the opponents' mats and mechs abilities
  
• Better feedback for enlistment bonus
  
• Option to hide the combat panel to see the map context
  
• Faster update of factions stats
  
• Turn counter
  
• Localization: Polish language
  
• A wealth of bugfixes
  
• and more…

Please refer to the updated roadmap here for more details.

We're looking forward to read your feedback regarding these updates. We've been discreet so far, but you can expect to see us more often during the Early Access and beyond.

See you soon in Europa!
- Asmodee Digital & The Knights of Unity

It was a Friday evening at The Knights of Unity office, last weekend of January. The long-awaited game-jam event was about to start. Our team registered 3 participants: Sir Nolaloth, Sir Michael and me – Sir Koshik.

Sir Nolaloth asked one more time:

• You won’t ditch us like you did last time, will you Koshik?
  
• Just let me check one thing in Scythe and I’ll be back to jamming full speed – I answered.

48h later my team presented a cool FPS game where the player wanders through an old castle and fight skeletons with magic. My contribution to the app was around 0.0%.
I didn’t even show up at the finals. Instead I looked one last time at the new shiny dropdown list before hitting git commit button:
Default, Doom & Gloom, Moonlight, Black & White and my favorite Vintage 1920.
I… just…. couldn’t leave it unfinished.
My precious.




-----------------------

My name is Marcin Koszów [Koshik], I’m Scythe: Digital Edition dev lead and I’d like to tell you about the feature that you’re unlikely to find in other games: Dynamic Map Colors.
Token Visibility – those 2 words have haunted us from the start.
Scythe allows dozens of pieces to be placed on a single territory. That’s a lot of fun when you’re playing a physical game but becomes a real challenge when you want to show it all on a 2d screen and make it readable for everyone. Moreover, the map is full of details and it makes it extra hard for small pieces to stand out.

In order to tackle that together with Asmodee Digital UX team we decided to explore 3 directions:

• Territory layout
  (place the smaller pieces in front, pack the units as tight as possible, etc.)
  
• Tokens textures & shadows
  (emissive textures, exaggerated shadows)
  
• Map texture

The last one turned out to be quite a journey.
First thought was to replace the map with a custom-generated terrain. This, however, made the game lose its spirit and decision was made to stick with the original board texture.

Sir Adam (our tech art dev) came up with an idea to color each territory basing on its type. His prototype looked beautiful and resembled a stained-glass window from a distance. It worked great for far strategic view, but we needed something subtler for close-ups.



I took Adam’s shader and started playing with the parameters – the results were promising. 2 angry game jam buddies later I came up with 4 presets that were toning-down the map in various ways while maintaining its complexity at the same time. The base coloring formula is fairly simple:



The rest is about blending the output with original texture & applying adjustments to brighten or darken the final color.

The initial version of Map Coloring feature was static only. It was Asmodee Digital (the publisher) who suggested to add the Dynamic mode – apply the filters only at some distance. Initially skeptical, I’ve added the distance weight adjustment to the equation and it clicked!

In the meantime, the updates we’ve done to unit models aided close-range visibility problems, so the Dynamic Map Coloring could kick in only when needed - during mid-range zoom. Hex-type coloring shows up towards full zoom-out (both effects turn out to compose well together). Moving the camera all the way from the close-up to strategic view became quite a rich experience. All color transitions happening smoothly so that they won’t distract you from the game.

It took some effort, but I’m happy we’ve managed to solve the unit visibility while staying faithful to the map design. As an extra perk, we’ve got a nice visual effect where the map color gradually shifts towards the horizon:



There’s more to it though. I believe this technique has a bigger potential.
Imagine a game where the world is grey and your aura makes it colorful again!
Or, on contrary, as you get close to objects, they smoothly turn old and decayed.
You could also make a mirage experience where things just disappear in your presence. Going down the psychedelic alley: some things could change/disappear and some might not.

I’m definitely going to explore these ideas after Scythe is released!

It was a Friday evening at The Knights of Unity office, last weekend of January. The long-awaited game-jam event was about to start. Our team registered 3 participants: Sir Nolaloth, Sir Michael and me – Sir Koshik.

Sir Nolaloth asked one more time:

• You won’t ditch us like you did last time, will you Koshik?
  
• Just let me check one thing in Scythe and I’ll be back to jamming full speed – I answered.

48h later my team presented a cool FPS game where the player wanders through an old castle and fight skeletons with magic. My contribution to the app was around 0.0%.
I didn’t even show up at the finals. Instead I looked one last time at the new shiny dropdown list before hitting git commit button:
Default, Doom & Gloom, Moonlight, Black & White and my favorite Vintage 1920.
I… just…. couldn’t leave it unfinished.
My precious.




-----------------------

My name is Marcin Koszów [Koshik], I’m Scythe: Digital Edition dev lead and I’d like to tell you about the feature that you’re unlikely to find in other games: Dynamic Map Colors.
Token Visibility – those 2 words have haunted us from the start.
Scythe allows dozens of pieces to be placed on a single territory. That’s a lot of fun when you’re playing a physical game but becomes a real challenge when you want to show it all on a 2d screen and make it readable for everyone. Moreover, the map is full of details and it makes it extra hard for small pieces to stand out.

In order to tackle that together with Asmodee Digital UX team we decided to explore 3 directions:

• Territory layout
  (place the smaller pieces in front, pack the units as tight as possible, etc.)
  
• Tokens textures & shadows
  (emissive textures, exaggerated shadows)
  
• Map texture

The last one turned out to be quite a journey.
First thought was to replace the map with a custom-generated terrain. This, however, made the game lose its spirit and decision was made to stick with the original board texture.

Sir Adam (our tech art dev) came up with an idea to color each territory basing on its type. His prototype looked beautiful and resembled a stained-glass window from a distance. It worked great for far strategic view, but we needed something subtler for close-ups.



I took Adam’s shader and started playing with the parameters – the results were promising. 2 angry game jam buddies later I came up with 4 presets that were toning-down the map in various ways while maintaining its complexity at the same time. The base coloring formula is fairly simple:



The rest is about blending the output with original texture & applying adjustments to brighten or darken the final color.

The initial version of Map Coloring feature was static only. It was Asmodee Digital (the publisher) who suggested to add the Dynamic mode – apply the filters only at some distance. Initially skeptical, I’ve added the distance weight adjustment to the equation and it clicked!

In the meantime, the updates we’ve done to unit models aided close-range visibility problems, so the Dynamic Map Coloring could kick in only when needed - during mid-range zoom. Hex-type coloring shows up towards full zoom-out (both effects turn out to compose well together). Moving the camera all the way from the close-up to strategic view became quite a rich experience. All color transitions happening smoothly so that they won’t distract you from the game.

It took some effort, but I’m happy we’ve managed to solve the unit visibility while staying faithful to the map design. As an extra perk, we’ve got a nice visual effect where the map color gradually shifts towards the horizon:



There’s more to it though. I believe this technique has a bigger potential.
Imagine a game where the world is grey and your aura makes it colorful again!
Or, on contrary, as you get close to objects, they smoothly turn old and decayed.
You could also make a mirage experience where things just disappear in your presence. Going down the psychedelic alley: some things could change/disappear and some might not.

I’m definitely going to explore these ideas after Scythe is released!

This FAQ answers most common questions about Scythe: Digital Edition.
If you cannot find an answer to your question here, you can submit your questions to https://asmodee.helpshift.com/a/asmodee-net/

Can you discuss the automata mode of Scythe? Can you talk about the AI development and what levels of difficulty exist and how challenging they are?
In the Digital Edition, the Automata is fully replaced by artificial intelligences with several difficulty levels. At each round the AI's algorithm evaluates current goals (e.g. "Build a Riverwalk Mech"), use them to assigns priorities for possible actions, then goes for the highest one. During development, we've noticed that each Faction evolves towards different optimum, e.g.: Polania gets the best advantage by building Mine as early as possible, then start exploring Encounters. Saxony is good at gathering power and attacking weak players. These strategies result from different Faction abilities and starting positions, and reflect the optimal strategies followed by human players of the board game. Currently the AI is balanced for beginners & mid-experienced players (the difficulty scales with the number of bots), however we plan to muscle it further during the Early Access thanks to the players' feedback and the next machine learning module for Unity. The goal is to make a victory in the hard mode a real achievement.

Will there be any promo content or expansions released for the game?
All 3 physical expansions (Invaders from Afar, The Wind Gambit and The Rise of Fenris) will be added to the game as DLC. The promo cards and the soundtrack will be included for free in the game. The promo cards will be unlockable through in-game achievements.

Is there any chance for exclusive digital content or digital tournaments in the future?
The excellent music score aside, there won't be any content exclusive to the Digital Edition. Digital tournaments however are certainly something we aim at!

Will leaderboard be available similar to the achievement sheets included in the physical game?
The achievement sheet of the physical edition is a key source of inspiration for the design of the leaderboards and the achievements of the digital edition, however we'll go beyond to build something really fitting for a competitive multiplayer video game.

Does the numbering system still apply on the cards for Scythe?
Yes, the Encounter cards of the Digital Edition use the same numbering system.

Will chat be integrated into the game?
Yes: in the lobby and online multiplayer games

Can you discuss how player matching and synchronous /asynchronous play will be set up?
We won't have an automatic match making system because it does not allow players to have a fine control on the games that they join and on the other players they play with. Instead, we'll have the simple and proven system that you can find in many other Asmodee Digital games that provide a multiplayer mode, like Ticket to Ride: a full lobby where our players see the open games they can join, and chat with other waiting players to set up new games if they want to. You can check the other players' ELO ranking against your own to select an easy or more challenging experience.
Online games created in Scythe are all asynchronous games and use a Player Clock. When a player runs out of Player Clock time, a Bot Hot-Swap will happen and the game will continue for the other players.

How much of the artwork is featured in the digital game?
Lots. In addition to the game itself, the out-of-game menus also include Jakub's artworks.

The game board for Scythe is very large and detailed, with each hex sometimes containing many resources, mechs, a hero, and workers. How will this be adapted to mobile without losing clarity?
We're working on solutions (some of them you'll discover in the PC/Mac version) to offer a good level of legibility on all screen sizes.

Will the game be available on Steam Mac?
Yes

Will the game be available on mobile and tablet?
Yes. We plan to bring the game to smartphones and tablets after the PC / Mac launch.

What about localization to another language?
The game will be available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Polish at launch