Jan 29, 2020

Northgard - Brioche [Shiro]

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author
Hey everybody!
It's time to reveal the latest clan to grace the lands of Northgard... Please welcome the Clan of the Ox!

Led by Torfin, an ancient leader who returned to help his progeny, it is known for its tremendous might and unrelenting devotion to its ancestors. While they may not be the fastest starters, once they've gained some momentum, they can crush anyone and anything in their way.

Your Warchief is the powerful Torfin.
He can find Ancestral Equipment from Ancient Battlegrounds and equip them to become even stronger.
Your units are tougher, larger and eat 10% more than the other clans.
They have a +15% attack power and defence bonus.
Specialized civilian units have a +40% base production bonus, except loremasters.
Buildings can hold only one unit, and houses hold less people.

An imposing and unpredictable figure, with unmatched strength and an arsenal of Ancestral Equipment that served only to enhance his already devastating array of attacks, Torfin was considered by those who had not had the misfortune of crossing his path in battle to be an embodiment of tall tales and hearsay.

Now, having led the Ox Clan to becoming one of the most feared and respected in all of Northgard, there are few who question his legitimacy as he lies dormant, awaiting the day that his people call upon him and his immense power once more.

Even in death, Torfin continues watching you upon his Throne from his stone statue. It shows everyone the past, the future and the glory of your Clan, represented by the Clan of the Ox’s most amazing and powerful Warchief in its history.

Torfin isn’t recruited like a usual Warchief. Like a god avatar, you can summon him from his own Throne. His cost is as huge as his might (15

and 250

With centuries of battles behind him, Torfin is able to recall where he can obtain and equip the very same Ancestral Equipment that brought him and the Clan of the Ox so many battlefield victories in aeons past in order to considerably increase all of his abilities and heighten his already devastating array of attacks.

After being summoned, Torfin remembers ancient gigantic battles and where to find some useful equipment. Depending on your military experience, those ancient battlegrounds can appear everywhere in Northgard. Torfin can excavate buried Ancestral Equipment from there, and equip them.

There are 6 unique items of Ancestral Equipment dedicated to Torfin, who is able to wear only 1 equipment of each type, so you have to choose your equipment wisely before charging your enemies. You can change Torfin’s equipment at any time whilst in your territory if not battling.

Tyr's Ancestral Equipment

Heimdall's Ancestral Equipment

It is a terrific helm. It is said that Torfin stole it from the gods themselves with only his pure strength. Forging it back grants Torfin with the ability to “Ram” buildings. Target a building and Torfin will ram to it and destroy it in one headbut. A few buildings are immune to this attack : non-clan buildings, carved stone and Townhall.

In improved zones, specialized units get a +15% production bonus and buildings don’t have an upkeep cost.
Can be stolen by the Snake Lore “Stolen Lore”.

Idle military units in your territory gain Military Experience.
50% of Training Camp upgrade cost.

Weapons are +50% faster to forge and cost -50% less.
Warriors gain +100% damage after charging (10s cooldown).

Torfin gains +5% and for each discovered Ancestral Equipment.
Whenever a unit dies in the same zone as Torfin, his regenerates by 10% of the dead unit's max health.

Gaining military experience gives and .

By challenging the Ox Conquest, the Clan of the Ox gets specific Conquest-only bonuses:

11th Battle bonus

Ox clan has its own conquest map. If you manage to win Conquest mode with the Clan of the Ox, you will unlock the special Ox Townhall.

Conquest Map

Special Townhall

Unstoppable Force

Win with the Clan of the Ox.

Ox Master

Achieve 50 victories with the Clan of the Ox.

Ox Conqueror

Finish a Conquest with the Clan of the Ox.

I need more RAM!

Build the Aegir relic.

Destruction Derby

Destroy 4 different buildings in a single game.

This isn't even my final form!

Find all 6 Ancestral Equipments in a single game.

Who needs houses?

Win a game without reaching max population

"During the Kraken event, your clan is feasting." is unlocked at Fame 200 instead of Fame 500.
Howl from the Sea Master: the chance to become a spectral warrior is now at 20% instead of 10%.
No more cooldown for Warchiefs at the beginning of the game, except for Kaija.
New Sheep Master achievement can now be achieved
Stolen lore can steal all allowed lores, not only those from Clans that you own.
Svalinn's relic protects now your clan from "High Tide" and "Spectral Warriors" Kraken abilities.

Svarn's requests for help during the Chapter 6 of the Story Mode now work as intended.
You can now build only one Altar of Kings at a time as intended.
Text chat no longer disappear when typing message with numpad.
Fixed display of resources obtained from imports.
It is no longer possible to use infinite amount of workers on Hörgr.
Clicking on Kraken’s spectral attack notification now redirects the camera to the attacked tile.
All giant's have an AoE attack that deal damage on every non-allied units.
“Near The Sea Spirit” correctly allows Trading Route when stolen by Snake.
In chapter 9 of the Campaign, Hrímgandr isn’t blocked anymore by watchtowers.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1223060/Northgard__Himminbrjotir_Clan_of_the_Ox/

Jan 29, 2020

Dev Diary: La Résistance Music and Art

Hearts of Iron IV - Addaway

Today's Development Diary by Podact

Hi everyone and welcome back to another dev diary for La Résistance. Today its time to cover the art and music part of the expansion plus showcasing some of our new historical operatives. I will also be sharing the rest of the diary schedule until release. Enjoy!

Music
Let's start here so you can listen to some samples while you read!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYVHAQ7ExSs

For La Résistance we got 4 new tracks:
“Imperterrita” - Our Spanish theme song. Really good buildup tune that I think will also fit well to the spanish civil war.
“A Storm Coming” - Kinda classic HOI4 axis-y march tune we use at war and for nations going fascist.
“Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” - Our french theme song. A great song for democracies with plenty of drums.
“Cloak and Dagger” - The “spy tune”. We play this when players are doing sneaky stuff. It's a pretty slow tension/thriller tune.

As you can see we try to cover new themes and theaters for each song so the game will not just play differently but also sound different with the new expansion :)

Art
Hi! We are artists on Hearts of Iron team, Irene and Albina and we want to tell you a bit about the production of 2D assets..

Since we are focusing on France, Spain and Portugal in this expansion, we have added portraits of generals, admirals and political leaders from these countries. These portraits were created by a number of different artists including us, Celine and Ahmed. Here is some picked favorites:

Two of them are illustrations of Military Junta and The Anarchist Commune, two committees that represented opponent parties in the Spanish civil war. It was challenging and interesting to work with leader portraits that are a bit unusual!

Our new feature - spies. We have made a lot of portraits of them. Male and female operatives of different nationalities, ages (and attitudes :p). You can see that the operatives share some outfit details, like glasses, suits and so on. In order to create the amount of portraits needed for this expansion we tried a new system of 2D modular portraits. As the system was new we took a bit of a risk but we feel it paid off in the end. Some of the biggest challenges were to create elements in the same camera angle and lighting conditions so they could be switched easily. In the end it turned out to be really fun to play with this character creator!

When it comes to unit models we already showed off both our armored cars and scout planes, so click those links if you wanna see more than the below sample:

For spain we also have a new light tank model as well as a plane model (the nationalists had their own licensed version of the German Bf109)

Historical Operatives

As part of La Resistance, we wanted to highlight some of the most famous agents that were active during the period. There are quite a few of them, but here is a list of personal favorites:

Otto Skorzeny:

Perhaps the most famous German small-unit leader of the war, Skorzeny was involved most famously in the German raid to liberate Mussolini (also available as a historical operation under the right circumstances!). Beyond that, he was involved in a number of other operations.

Jeannie Rousseau:

A French woman who gathered intelligence on the German V-weapon program through work in a French company supplying war material to Germany. Her reports led to the Allies becoming aware of the V-2 development taking place in Peenemünde and the allied air effort to destroy the site. She was later captured, but survived the war.

Dusko Popov:

A triple agent working for MI6, the Abwehr, as well as the Yugoslavian government-in-exile, he fed misinformation about D-Day to his German handlers, who were completely convinced that he was working for them. In between, he apparently chased a lot of tail and his lifestyle served as inspiration for Fleming’s James Bond (not to be confused with James Boned, who is inspired by Daniel).

Josephine Baker:

An American-born Frenchwoman, she would use her considerable fame as an entertainer to gain access to high-ranking diplomats and relayed secret information she overheard at parties to the French intelligence service. She smuggled notes about German troop movements written in invisible ink on her notation or pinned in her underwear.

Nancy Wake:

A native of New Zealand, the Fall of France found her, unfortunately, in France. She quickly began organizing an escape network for shot-down allied pilots before the Gestapo closed in on her and her husband. While she narrowly managed to escape to Spain, her husband was not so lucky. She later returned to France to organize the resistance, taking part in an unsuccessful uprising of the Marquis.

Upcoming diaries

As release approaches the dev diary content is getting pretty locked in so I figured I might as well show you the schedule so you know when topics will pop up (and so you can stop asking me for when we talk about AI and bugfixing… seriously guys it's pretty much always the last 2 diaries ;D). Here goes:

4/2 - Achievements
5/2 - Spymaster AAR
12/2 - AI & Feature changes
19/2 - Full Patchlog, Balance & Bugfixes
25/2 - Release!!!

That's it for today, don’t miss our stream at 16:00CET where yet again the anarchists will take over and continue showing Spain.

Jan 29, 2020

Update for “Gangsters 1920” on PC and SCILL-support

Gangsters 1920 - Sunlight Games

Today the retro-style adventure game “Gangsters 1920” gets an update for PC on Steam. In addition the game gets SCILL-Support.

About SCILL
SCILL™ Play, 4Players' latest innovation project, adds a new layer of engagement to existing and future games.
The second-screen app, developed for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, integrates seamlessly into supported games and allows players to challenge their own performance in real time. Successful challenges are rewarded with achievements, leaderboard entries and exclusive rewards.
SCILL™ Play opens up new possibilities for players and publishers alike and deepens their gaming experience even further.

Explore the gloomy roads of the surreal 1920s underworld and find the relevant hints. Together with detective Lake, you will be able to hunt down the gangsters responsible for the national bank robbery. Better be safe than sorry – find out who your friends are before encountering your foes. The right people will do you a favor and give you the two clues, the wrong people will kill you.

Thanks to the great and positive Feedback to all players...
Changes:
- View-problems with surreal dog fixed
- Music at the end added
- Player, change direction optimized
- Glow effect is now only on item, not in front of the player
- Problems with the bullet of Gangsters fixed
- Performance optimizing’s
- Small bugfixes

Jan 29, 2020

Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack – Coming to DiRT Rally 2.0 on March 24

DiRT Rally 2.0 - PJTierneyCM

In 1995 Colin McRae achieved the ultimate honour in rallying and added his name to the history books as a racing legend.

Re-live his momentous career this Spring with the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack, coming to DiRT Rally 2.0 on March 24 and FREE to all Season owners.

Take on 40 challenging scenarios from Colin McRae's career

From humble beginnings to glory on the world stage and epic battles beyond, the stories of Colin McRae are legendary and DiRT Rally 2.0 will celebrate these moments with 40 all-new scenarios.

Relive Colin’s illustrious career from his early experiences in a MINI Cooper S, Peugeot 205 GTI and Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500, all the way up to his championship battles in the blue and gold of SUBARU, and the battles against said SUBARUs later on in his Ford Focus RS Rally 2001.

New Location: Perth and Kinross, Scotland

Head to Colin McRae’s homeland and tackle the Scottish gravel roads of Perth and Kinross.

This is far more than simply “Wales but further North”, this is the most challenging location in all of DiRT Rally 2.0, a location worthy of Colin’s legend. Narrow roads with deep drains on either side, logs outside of turns and frightening high-speed sections make this the true “final boss” that players must overcome to succeed.

New Car: SUBARU Impreza S4 Rally

In 1998 DiRT was born, with the release of Colin McRae Rally on PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. 1998 was also the year that one of the most famous rally cars of all time came to life, the SUBARU Impreza S4 Rally.

Colin McRae battled with eternal rivals Tommi Mäkinen and Carlos Sainz throughout the entire 1998 rally season, taking five podiums and three victories in this car. The S4 and its predecessors would also go on to inspire the creation of the iconic SUBARU 22B STi road car, one of the finest cars ever produced by the Japanese manufacturer.

New Car: SUBARU Legacy RS

Prior to his exploits in the Imprezas, Colin McRae made a mark on the world stage with the SUBARU Legacy RS in the early 1990s.

With strong results in the few rallies he competed in (including victory at New Zealand in 1993), Colin’s drives in the Legacy were a preview of what was to come. Fellow legendary drivers Richard Burns and Ari Vatanen also drove the Legacy during these years, further helping SUBARU to build the foundations of their domination in the Imprezas in the mid 90s.

FLAT OUT and Free to All Season Owners

DiRT Rally 2.0 has been on an incredible journey since its release in February of 2019, and the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack is the culmination of the game’s evolution providing you with the most authentic off-road experience around.

This game wouldn’t be what it is today without the support of a passionate community of players, and as a way of saying thanks to our most loyal fans, the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack will be FREE for all DiRT Rally 2.0 Season owners when it releases on March 24.

Still wondering that FREE means? Here’s an FAQ:

I bought the DiRT Rally 2.0 Deluxe Edition, do I get the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack?

I bought the DiRT Rally 2.0 Super Deluxe Edition, do I get the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack?

I bought the DiRT Rally 2.0 Deluxe Content Upgrade (Seasons 1 and 2), do I get the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack?

I bought the DiRT Rally 2.0 Deluxe Content 2.0 Bundle (Seasons 3 and 4), do I get the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack?

I bought the DiRT Rally 2.0 Year One Pass (Seasons 1-4), do I get the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack?

I bought the DiRT Rally 2.0 Standard Edition, do I get the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack?

The Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack will be available as a separate purchase.

I bought DiRT Rally 2.0 DLC content (individual cars and locations) but did not buy a Season bundle, do I get the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack?

The Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack will be available as a separate purchase.

Can I buy the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack content pieces individually?

All contents from the Colin McRae: FLAT OUT Pack come as a complete package and cannot be bought individually.