Dear players,

August is going to be a busy month for Scythe!
While the biggest changes (online mode, Hard AI, 5 new languages...) are being ironed out, today's patch introduces the Album, Promo Cards and several ideas from the community.


- Promo Cards & Album
All Promo Cards of the original board game are now implemented; a total of 36 Encounter cards, 18 Factory cards and 27 Objective cards. They're all listed in the new Album menu.
Most cards are ready to use, however you'll need to unlock Achievements to access to the whole collection. Check your Album for all the details! To use your unlocked Promo Cards, simply toggle the option Promo Cards when creating a new game.

- SFX
Player Mat actions now play sound effects. More are coming, and we're looking forward to your suggestions.

- Traditional resources models
As requested, a new option replaces the Digital Edition resources models such as bread loaves and white oil barrels with the official Realistic Resources models such as sacks of grains and blue oil barrels.

- Expandable Top Tracker
As requested, the top tracker is now easier to expand and shrink. No need to aim for the arrows - simply click anywhere on the tracker to cycle between its 3 states.

- Expandable Player Mat
As requested, the Player Mat can now be enlarged by clicking on the little arrow above its top left corner.

- Tooltips in Options window
The various parameters of the Options menu are now explained with tooltips. Simply leave your mouse for a second over any element to display a description.


- Fixed: all achievement conditions
- Fixed: Saxony's Underpass ability was sometimes blocked by a river
- Fixed: Combat screen issues when using the button 'Center on the Battlefield'
- Added: missing warning for maxed-out actions (e.g. when you can't deploy more Mechs)
- and a bunch of fixes for smaller issues

If you enjoy the game and would like to support it, feel free to leave a Review.

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

Bugfixers at work in the Factory, circa 1924


Dear players,

You may have noticed some strange bugs since last week's update. Today's patch is taking care of them and introducing a couple of requests from the community.

• Game start panel: [Randomize all Mats] & [Reset all Mats] buttons added in case you want to avoid certain Factions or Player Mats
  
• Game start panel: custom bot names are not overwritten when changing difficulty level (you can restore the default by deleting the name)
  
• Bonus inspection moved to Options window
  
• Score & Stars descriptions split into two separate tabs
  
• [bugfix] Industrial Rusviet prevention - rewrote the algorithm
  (the previous was a likely source of many other bugs due to allowing mat duplicates, eg.: workers displayed in wrong spots, weird Undo behavior)
  
• [bugfix] Combat: results were not showing up after being attacked by a bot
  
• [bugfix] Combat: restored enemy combat card number preview (got lost in the last update)
  
• [bugfix] Combat: (visual) sometimes Crimean mechs were replaced by Saxon mechs
  
• [bugfix] Nordic Seaworthy retreat after combat was missing info & a transport panel
  
• [bugfix] Achievements: were calculated for wrong players
  
• [bugfix] Endgame showcase was getting stuck/not cleared out when showing final score board
  
• [bugfix] Ending the game in multi-combat situation (was possible to get more stars or block the game)
  
• [bugfix] Saxony Underpass & Disarm abilities were not taking Mines into account
  
• [bugfix] Confirm window was wrongly displayed when playing with Confirms off & Warnings on and selecting a bottom action then answering 'no' (don't take that action) to the warning
  
• [bugfix] Camera was getting messed up when loading a game after winner showcase
  
• [bugfix] Camera zoom calculation during enemy move animation

Thanks a lot to the players who have helped us track these issues!

This patch doesn't affect our progress towards the next step of the roadmap which will introduce the online mode, promo cards, sound FX and interface upgrades.

Thanks for reading!
- Asmodee Digital & The Knights of Unity

Dear players,

Our first major update is here! The Early Access build 0.5.4 brings a host of changes and new options for the beginners and the veterans alike.


- Tutorial missions overhaul
All tutorial missions have been debugged and revamped to provide a smoother, smarter introduction to the game. In addition, completed missions are now marked as such so you can follow your progression.

- Current score preview
The scoring tab now includes a new button which displays the current score of each player.

- End game scoring animation
A completely new animation is now played at the end of the game to show the details of the scores, step by step: Popularity tiers, Stars, Territories under control, Resources under control, Structure bonus and Coins.

- Return of the Combat Cards
Exit Ammo! The game now uses the traditional name and icon for the Combat Cards. It's exactly the same thing.

- Power, Popularity and Triumph tracks
Here's a new option available any time from the Options window. It'll add the traditional panels around the map so you can quickly check the position of all players in the race for Stars, Power and Popularity.

- Industrial Rusviet combo ban
This new option is available when starting a new game. If turned on, it'll prevent the random pairing of the Industrial player mat with the Rusviet Union faction, as recommended by the FAQ of the board game.

- Round counter fix
Global rounds are now counted instead of individual turns.

- Camaraderie ability fix
Cheer up Polania, your Mech ability will now work as intended. Let's read the rule again: You do not lose popularity when forcing an opponent's workers to retreat after winning combat as the aggressor. This applies any time on your turn when your character or mechs force an opponent's workers to retreat after combat.

This patch also adds extra tooltips and numerous bugfixes, with additional bugfixes being worked on. As usual, if you stumble onto any bug please, please report it on the forum and we'll investigate.



As a small gift for your ears, here's a free DLC containing all music tracks currently in the game. It'll be updated with any extra tracks added to Scythe: Digital Edition in the future (yes, including new factions themes!). You can finally listen to these bone-chilling Nordic tunes while playing the original board game with your friends.

Visit the DLC page below and simply press Download. The tracks will be added to your hard drive (by default in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Scythe Digital Edition\Scythe soundtrack) as well as your Steam client music player (available by hovering over the Library button).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/893130/Scythe_Digital_Edition__Soundtrack/
We hope you'll enjoy this patch and DLC. Feel free to leave a review to support the game.

Cheers!
- Asmodee Digital & The Knights of Unity

Dear players,

After reading a lot of feedback we've updated our plans for the next months. There's much we want to do!
We're of course looking forward for your suggestions on the forum.

• Tutorial missions update
  
• End game screen update
  
• Current score preview
  
• Traditional tracks for Stars, Power and Popularity (optional)
  
• Traditional name and icon for the Combat Cards, currently known as Ammo
  
• Industrial Rusviet combo prevention (optional)
  
• Turn counter fix
  
• Camaraderie ability fix
  
• Plenty of other bugfixes
  
• and a small surprise ;)

• Promo Cards unlockable by completing Steam achievements
  
• Sound effects for game events and interactions with elements of the interface
  
• Easier to use tracker on top of the screen
  
• Expandable player mats
  
• Traditional resources models (optional)

• Online multiplayer lobby with asynchronous and synchronous games, chat, friends list and ELO system

• Hard difficulty AI
  
• Action Assist Display
  
• Improved visibility on the map for the Encounter tokens and the black Saxony units
  
• Camera rotation
  
• Basic stats for local games
  
• Extra sound FX
  
• Keyboards shortcuts (press Alt to display them)
  
• Mac OS X support
  
• Steam Trading Cards
  
• 5 additional languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Traditional Chinese & Simplified Chinese

• Bribes (see page 26 of the rulebook)
  
• Spectator mode for online games
  
• Textured character models
  
• Drag & drop for the Move action
  
• More local game stats
  
• Camera customization (rotation, animations)
  
• More improvements to Hard AI

Thanks a lot for your support!
- Asmodee Digital & The Knights of Unity

Dear players,

Scythe: Digital Edition is now live in Early Access. It's time to gather your Mechs and claim the technologies of the Factory in the name of your faction!

We would like to thank all players involved in the beta tests. Your feedback has been very useful to catch sneaky bugs and note excellent suggestions. The best is yet to come. In the next days we'll update our roadmap for the next months, including the return of the online multiplayer mode.

If you've tested the game during the first beta, it's time for you to discover the Medium AI bots, the Undo button and the many other features added since April.

The Early Access build 0.4.1 also includes:

• The full list of Achievements now available
  
• Saxony Medium AI now able to complete two objectives in a single turn
  
• Fix for the Ammo not distributed to the losing side of a battle after spending 1+ Power or Ammo
  
• Fix for the Authenticating freeze
  
• Fix for the action log not appearing after loading a saved game
  
• Fix for a rare issue with corrupted savefiles
  
• Other minor fixes and localization updates

Keep sharing your impressions and suggestions on the forum. We look forward to building this game with you.

And now... cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!
- Asmodee Digital & The Knights of Unity

Dear players,

The Beta 2 of Scythe: Digital Edition ends today. Thanks a lot for participating and sharing your feedback: it's been extremely helpful!

The next build will include fixes for several issues reported by the community, including the Authentification freeze. Our plans for the coming months will be updated to include a series of players suggestions brought up during this beta test.

See you very soon,
- Asmodee Digital & The Knights of Unity

Dear players,

The game has received a lot of changes and tweaks since the Beta 1, thanks to the feedback of the community. You're now invited to test the progress accomplished and let us know if the game is on the right tracks.

1. Go to asmodee.net to log in or create an account
   
2. Visit the Beta Test page and join the Beta 2 on the Beta Test page to receive your Steam beta key: https://account.asmodee.net/profile/betatests
   
3. Redeem your key by clicking on + ADD A GAME in the bottom left corner of the Steam client.

Important: this beta test is limited to 3 000 testers and focuses on single players games against the medium difficulty level of the AI. The online lobby needs some more work to reach the level of quality the game deserves, therefore it has been turned off for this build and will be reintroduced in a later build.

• 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
  
• Option to hide the combat panel to see the map context
  
• Option to visualize the opponents' mats and mechs abilities
  
• Better feedback for enlistment bonus
  
• Highlight of completed objectives ready for validation
  
• Some confirmations removed
  
• Warnings when ending the turn with actions still available, when going into combat with 0 power, and other cruel mistakes
  
• Faster update of factions stats
  
• Turn counter
  
• Localization: Polish language
  
• A wealth of bugfixes
  
• and more…

This beta will run for one week. If the general feedback is positive, the game will enter Early Access soon afterwards. So make sure to test this build and share your feedback!

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

Dear players,

We've been very busy since the beta. It's now time for some fresh news from the Factory!


Look up, Wojtek: new AI difficulty levels and Undo options...

We're nearly done with the first batch of additions to the previous beta build. We plan to run a second, smaller beta test next week to confirm our progress with external players (more details next week). If this second beta goes well, it'll mean that the game is ready for release in Early Access!

We've reviewed the priorities and updated our roadmap accordingly. Below is the list of additions and changes you'll be able to experience in the next weeks:

• 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
  
• Option to hide the combat panel to see the map context
  
• Option to visualize the opponents' mats and mechs abilities
  
• Better feedback for enlistment bonus
  
• Highlight of completed objectives ready for validation
  
• Some confirmations removed
  
• Warnings when ending the turn with actions still available, when going into combat with 0 power, and other cruel mistakes
  
• Faster update of factions stats
  
• Turn counter
  
• Localization: Polish language
  
• A wealth of bugfixes
  
• and more…

See you next week!
- Asmodee Digital & The Knights of Unity

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!