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For Russ and the Allfather!

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Greetings all!

It has been just over a month now since we had the pleasure of revealing Dune: Spice Wars to you all! Understandably, given the relative secrecy around the project so far, there has been a plethora of questions, queries, theories and rumours about exactly what can be expected of the game. So we're here today to answer some of the more popular questions we have recieved over the last few months and hopefully put some of your minds at ease.

Read on to find out more...

Dune Spice Wars is a real time strategy game featuring 4X elements based in Frank Herbert's Dune universe

We’ll announce a price point when we’re closer to release and we know how much content we have in the game.

It is both. The game is real time, but the pace is slower than in a typical RTS (and you can pause and fast forward). The game also features exploration, territory control, economic growth, combat, politics and spying, features that make it a true 4X game but do not detract from the core RTS experience that players would expect.




You can construct buildings in your base of operation (Arrakeen for the Atreides for exemple). This is shown as structures added to the base itself and it is interface based. You don’t manually place buildings on the ground as the game is at a much larger scale than your typical RTS.

Vikings are well known for their very bad water discipline, so no. All aspects of Dune: Spice Wars have been developed from the ground up specifically for this game.




We’ve announced House Harkonnen and House Atreides as playable factions. We’re planning to have 2 other factions at launch, followed by a 5th faction during Early Access (and more later!).

To stay true to the books. Many things in Dune have been represented differently in shows, movies, comics or games over the years. The Atreides banner and uniforms are described as green and black in the books so that’s what we went for in the game.

House Ordos was first mentioned in the Dune Encyclopedia and then in the video game Dune 2, but never in Frank Herbert’s works. We’re starting with what’s in the books, and we’ll see what would be best beyond that during the Early Access.




Both games are real time games with a slower pace. Beyond that the games are quite different. Dune Spice Wars is on a much bigger scale, featuring politics, trading, covert operations and a deeper resource management system. Game length is also 2 to 3 times longer than Northgard (although this could still change at this point).

We’ve played all the Dune video games (Dune and Dune 2 especially) and all board games as well so there will be some influence. That said, Dune Spice Wars is very much its own game with a unique take on the struggle for the control of Arrakis.




Yes the maps will be procedurally generated, with different options for size, wind strength, sandworm activity and many others. Deep deserts are used as a kind of blocking feature (like seas in other games), at least until you develop technologies to survive longer in the desert, or build a network or airfields. Maps will also feature unique places that readers of the book will recognize.

We had very good experiences with Early Access on our previous games. We were able to balance things better with player feedback and we changed our release schedule to fit player expectations on several instances. Our goal is to have a very good game on day one, but we still want the opportunity to tweak or change systems and add content depending on what the community feels.


Creating a game on a desert planet has quite a few challenges, one of which is making sure what you look at for a few hours is not bland even if it’s just rock and sand. We spent a lot of time working on the environment and even worked with a geologist specialized in deserts to create things that could exist on such a planet. The stylized art direction comes into play by adding things that bring a variety of colors and shapes so that the environment can stay harsh while not getting boring.




The final list will depend on metrics we’ll get before Early Access so it’s a bit early to say, but we’ll have at the very least English, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese and Russian.

We will definitely do multiplayer, but that’s obviously a big chunk of development and we prefer to focus on the core gameplay initially. So the short answer is yes, and it will be a major update during the Early Access.




The campaign will not be present in the initial launch build but like multiplayer, is planned to come to the game at some point during the Early Access period.

There are no firm plans on this front at this time, but should we see enough demand for mod support, we would be more than happy to look into the possibility.




There are no DLC plans at this time, as we are focused on Early Access and ensuring the core game is enjoyable, feature rich and complete ahead of the full release further down the line. If there is still demand for more content and we can find a good reason for DLC, it may be something we explore, but it's too early to think about anything like that just yet.

PC initially, we’ll be looking at other platforms during Early Access.




Things are simple: Shiro Games is in charge of the whole development process and Funcom takes care of publishing and marketing.

We’ll have a Steam release in 2022. We’ll also look at other potential distribution platforms in the coming months.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

So there you have it! Hopefully this has addressed most of your questions and cleared up any concerns or misconceptions, but if you have anything else you'd like us to touch upon or address, feel free to leave your questions in the comments and we'll do what we can to get you an answer asap!

As usual, thank you all for your support since announcement and taking the time to read this article.

We can't wait to share some more info with you all (which we'll be doing VERY soon), so keep your eyes peeled for news...

- Shiro Games

Hello Riftbreakers!

In The Riftbreaker, your job is to explore and gain knowledge about Galatea 37, an entirely unknown planet in the far reaches of the Milky Way galaxy. While doing your research, you will discover a lot of new substances and chemical processes that were previously unheard of. This, in turn, will allow you to push the boundaries of engineering and construct new tools, upgrades, and, of course, weapons. Today we will take a look at two such toys that might prove useful during your mission to Galatea 37.



The first such weapon is the Corrosive Gun. A wide variety of Galatean creatures utilize various kinds of acids as their main survival mechanism. This naturally, inspired Ashley to look into adopting this unique form of defense into the form of a weapon, and then turn it up to 11. It turns out that if you shoot sticky blobs of a superacid that reacts violently with both organic and inorganic matter, you get some nasty, but highly useful results. Using the Corrosive Gun you can get rid of almost anything that stands in your way.



The next new toy in The Riftbreaker arsenal is the Cryogenic Atomizer. This device uses a combination of substances found only on Galatea 37 to create a powerful endothermic reaction, cooling down the surroundings in an instant. Its clever design allows the Riftbreaker to concentrate the area of effect of the Atomizer to a narrow cone that’s easy to control. Creatures affected by the weapon are not only slowed down but also take damage due to the sudden temperature drop.



As powerful as they might first seem, these brand-new weapons are not the ultimate tools of destruction that will wipe out absolutely anything. Galatean creatures have been evolving for millions of years before Ashley’s arrival, some of them acquiring interesting survival mechanisms in the process. However, if you have access to the Corrosive Gun and the Cryogenic Atomizer, as well as some conventional weaponry, you should be able to handle whatever comes your way.

That’s all we have for you today. Make sure to join us on Discord to learn more things about the world of The Riftbreaker and never ever miss another piece of news. - www.discord.gg/exorstudios

EXOR Studios

Hello Riftbreakers!

In The Riftbreaker, your job is to explore and gain knowledge about Galatea 37, an entirely unknown planet in the far reaches of the Milky Way galaxy. While doing your research, you will discover a lot of new substances and chemical processes that were previously unheard of. This, in turn, will allow you to push the boundaries of engineering and construct new tools, upgrades, and, of course, weapons. Today we will take a look at two such toys that might prove useful during your mission to Galatea 37.



The first such weapon is the Corrosive Gun. A wide variety of Galatean creatures utilize various kinds of acids as their main survival mechanism. This naturally, inspired Ashley to look into adopting this unique form of defense into the form of a weapon, and then turn it up to 11. It turns out that if you shoot sticky blobs of a superacid that reacts violently with both organic and inorganic matter, you get some nasty, but highly useful results. Using the Corrosive Gun you can get rid of almost anything that stands in your way.



The next new toy in The Riftbreaker arsenal is the Cryogenic Atomizer. This device uses a combination of substances found only on Galatea 37 to create a powerful endothermic reaction, cooling down the surroundings in an instant. Its clever design allows the Riftbreaker to concentrate the area of effect of the Atomizer to a narrow cone that’s easy to control. Creatures affected by the weapon are not only slowed down but also take damage due to the sudden temperature drop.



As powerful as they might first seem, these brand-new weapons are not the ultimate tools of destruction that will wipe out absolutely anything. Galatean creatures have been evolving for millions of years before Ashley’s arrival, some of them acquiring interesting survival mechanisms in the process. However, if you have access to the Corrosive Gun and the Cryogenic Atomizer, as well as some conventional weaponry, you should be able to handle whatever comes your way.

That’s all we have for you today. Make sure to join us on Discord to learn more things about the world of The Riftbreaker and never ever miss another piece of news. - www.discord.gg/exorstudios

EXOR Studios

Hey there folks!

Thank you all for joining our Dev Stream yesterday, it's been a real blast chatting with you - we should definitely do this more often (as soon as we have more time)! For those who could unfortunately not be there, here is a VOD link for you: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1263120461



Additionally, thanks to a brave soul named Mastani, we have a recap of all questions & answers in text form as well! So if you don't feel like sitting through 2h of me going off tangents, here is all the juicy info in a bite-sized format.


Q: Are you hiring?

A: As our current studio’s philosophy is to stay relatively small, we're not hiring at the moment. Also keep in mind that we are a French studio, so you would need live in France & speak French fluently to join us^^ That said we do have English partners so you could end up working with us on Solasta or one of our future projects!

Q: Will there be future opportunity for voice acting?

A: There will be new voiced lines in the next DLC, but we work with an audio partner when it comes to Voice Acting - so we rarely pick up specific voice actors ourselves (mostly due to logistical reasons). 

Q: Will you do a crossover with Amplitude to do an Endless Dungeon?

A: I don’t think so, though we never know what the future holds.

Q: Do you have any stats about the most/least popular classes/subclasses?

A: I don't believe we have those statistics. Unity is fairly limited in what we can collect :(

Q: Will the setting book that was part of the Kickstarter be available in the future?

A: As much as we would love to, we currently can't for legal reasons. That said if it ever changes in the future, we will make an announcement.

Q: Would you be open to community collaborations to improve translations?

A: We are aware of certain translation issues (in Russian for example) but due to potential complications with French laws regarding free labor we'd need to check that up first.


Q: What will be in the DLC?

A: Although we don't want to reveal too much about it for now, here is some information:

•    A full new adventure in the world of Solasta. The previous DLC focused on new classes. The goal this time is to offer more content.

•    The story will take place somewhere different than Crown of the Magister.

Q: When is the DLC coming out?

A: Hopefully in a few months, stay tuned to social media for the announcement.

Q: Will we be able to create quests in the dungeon maker?

A: It is something we are working on (quests, dialogues…), we hope to release it at the same time as the DLC.

Q: Will there be new races or classes in the new DLC?

A: No, there won’t be any new classes / races in the next DLC - as stated above, we focused our efforts on making a new adventure this time. That said there will be additions on the gameplay side in the character creator...

Q: Do you have plans on increasing the level cap?

A: Not for the next DLC. Just like adding new classes, adding new levels is very time consuming. We have 9 classes (all with sub classes) and it would require for each to add new effects, new features… 

Q: Is there a chance we can get some more magical weapons?

A: There will be some more magical weapons coming with the DLC, but ideally we'd like to make some more if we ever get some time to do that. 

Q: Can you consider adding random magic item drops from monsters?

A: Although it isn’t impossible, it’s very hard to balance between not enough and too much - remember that RNG also plays a large role in each player's experience. For the moment, we don’t plan on tweaking the main campaign (Crown of the Magister) because any small change can have cascading effects.

Q: Any information about multiplayer (possibly in the DLC)?

A: We won’t be speaking about multiplayer today. If there is anything regarding Multiplayer, it would be in an official announcement. 

Q: Do you have plans to add an option to stop your travel and turn back once starting a travel and / or the option to modify our equipment when we travel?

A: For inventory, it should work, as for turning around it has been asked for a lot but would require reworking the whole system. We thought about it but as it added a risk of breaking the campaign, we preferred to avoid it. 

Q: Are you still considering working on some UI QoL features, like showing attack/spell success odds when AC/stats are unlocked in bestiary?

A: That actually is more than just QoL, it would be a design choice. On tabletop you do not have percentage displayed when rolling against a goblin, if you know it has 11 AC - so adding percentage would make it more "video-gamey" (although there is nothing inherently wrong with that). 

Q: Are you planning to get the custom background displayed on Inspection panel?

A: We have talked about it; I’ll have to check where it’s at.

Q: Will multi-classing be a thing?

A: No, as it would create too many complications and would be too hard for Q&A. It will stay in the domain of mods.

Q: Any update on props/weathers/FX in the DM creator?

A: No, we don’t have active weather effects in game, the ones you can see (for example in the Dark Castle) are baked into the level. It might be possible for smoke to be added as a prop, but not rain on a whole level.

Q: Are there plans to bring more accessibility to the game like larger tooltips and UI scaling?

A: Would like to but it may require us to revamp part of the system. It's not a quick addition, but it is being discussed.

Q: Is there a plan for Apple M1 optimization in the future?

A: For anything Mac related, we had partners work on it so please send us a mail with as much details and information as possible so it can be transferred to Q&A.

Q: Will there be new voice acting for the playable characters in the DLC?

A: No, as it would require the new voice actors to record all the lines of the Crown of the Magister campaign as well - and that's very expensive!


Recap on the Dungeon maker module and future upgrades:

The dungeon maker started as just one map with multiple rooms. To make full campaigns and avoid the players having to download all the individual maps, the campaign tool was developed to allow the linking of maps. Coming up in the future is the ability to add custom monsters, NPCs, merchants and items. The goal is to add custom dialogues and texts but the goal is to keep the tool simple to allow the maximum of people to use it. The fear of making something too complex is that too few people will use it.

Q: Is it possible to add a way to create custom classes or races?

A: Might already be possible via mods, we don't plan to create such a tool ourselves.

Q: Why do you limit to tile set in the dungeon maker instead of allowing a mix and mash of everything?

A: The short answer is: optimization. The more assets you put, the longer the map will take to load. There are mods which allow you to that but as devs we have to ensure the game is stable and doesn’t lag out for people with the minimum configuration settings.

Q: Some spell requirements are tricky; would it be possible to add notes about them?

A: The problem for us was to strike a balance between giving the players the necessary knowledge in the tutorials without overloading them with tooltips and such. Also, D&D rules hard :(

Q: Have you thought about making the game more re-playable?

A: It’s a problem with RPGs, even if you make several branching paths and endings, few players will actually replay the game to see them all. Supergiant had this issue with Pyre when starting to work on their next game (the fantastic indie that is Hades). That is why roguelite games are huge right now, they are made with replayability in mind (instead of simply encouraging it).

Q: Why was the bright blue (aqua?) hair color removed when the game left early access?

A: The easy answer: it could have been removed by mistake. The other might be that our art director did a check before 1.0 and determined that it didn’t fit with the characters (remember things can change a lot while the game is in EA)

Q: Would a native Linux version be possible (or PS/Switch/…)?

A: Adding another version to maintain is extremely consuming (and more so with the multiple Linux OS). At some point the company has to make a business call between spending time to maintain the version and working on content.

Q: Would it be possible to add more verticality in the dungeon maker tool?

A: Yes, under the form of assets, but not in a “free build” mode as past experimentations revealed that it's fairly easy to “break” the camera. It still is a thing we watch out for when designing future content.

Q: Why did you design your dragons as they are in game?

A: We didn’t want to copy paste the dragons from the monster’s manual because our license technically doesn’t include that manual so we had to design our own.

Q: Would it be possible to add a world map maker in the campaign creator?

A: We are thinking about it but we haven’t decided to work on that yet.

Q: Why did you choose Unity over Unreal?

A: Unreal is much harder to work with and it isn’t necessarily adapted for the same things. While it would be possible to do Solasta in Unreal, it may not be worth the effort.

Q: Could we have a manual dice roll feature?

A: It would require too much effort for too few people.

Q: Could you add animals like bears or horses to be NPC in the campaign?

A: We currently can’t add monsters as NPCs but we're looking at it. As for horses, I don’t think we even have them in-game so... no.

Q: Can we have feature where NPCs can turn hostile?

A: Currently no, the reason being that that NPCs aren’t monsters (they don’t even have stats as far as I know), so even if they turned hostile they wouldn’t be able to do anything. We're trying to homogenize that. 

Q: Any chance the enemy AI can be updated to handle stealth better?

A: To make stealth work better (and less “cheesy”), we would have to overhaul the stealth system and that would cost us too much time… only for players to find new exploits, which would bring us back to square one. Most game with stealth can be cheesed if you look hard enough!

Following our roadmap plans we have focused this week on bugfixing, specially on the bug report feature which is in the 3rd iteration at this point, but should work properly now.

Phase 1 – Post Launch

Main Focus: bugfix, having more people play the game will expose bugs and problems we didn’t find ourselves, we expect to have plenty hairy bugs to fix in the following weeks after launch
Other Content: I will be adding new crops while my brother manages the bugs, if we need new assets or other UI QoL changes I will do that instead.



The Stevia plant is halfway done, I took more creative freedoms in making this plant because I wanted it to look more bushy

Next week will be more of the same, the bug list is still quite long.

After we are done with the more serious bugs we want to implement new Crop traits:

-Pot Trained: the plant is adapted to vases, lower nutrient use while in a vase by 25/50/75/100%
-Adjacency effects: does not work in vases, affect all adjacent plots (companion plants)
-Auto-sow: automatically sow seeds in the same spot after a kill harvest, also speed first two stages by 10/20/30/40%
-Traits that affect tastes and nutrition of ingredients
-Traits that add ingredient effects or tags

After these we are either going to look into workshop support or a remake of the cooking UI

Also I want to thank everyone making content and posts about the game, even if this first week was very disappointing sales-wise I am glad that the few fans we have are so dedicated, It is very satisfying to know someone enjoys the game we are making.

Hello everyone, here are the updates of this week




1. Fixed the bug that Stolen Sun would consume itself

2. Fixed the bug that Cost of Xia HouYuan could not be correctly reduced by Cao Cao

3. Fixed the bug that you can't get gold coins after owning 9 mines

4. Now after defeating elite enemies, you can not only obtain treasures, but also obtain rewards for this type of level

5. Fixed the bug that the archers could not apply poison after using the poison bow

6. Fixed the bug that you can't draw cards if your draw pile is less than 5 cards

7. Fix the bug that the three color bag takes effect at the beginning of the game

8. Fixed the bug that cavalry card would report an error when it was unable to draw 2 cards

9. Fixed the bug that after obtaining 9 shooting range etc., the card fee reduction reward only takes effect in the next level

10. Fixed the bug that the enemy would disappear in battle

11. Fix the bug of viewing card errors in the map interface

12. Fixed the bug that Yan Baihu summoned the wrong enemies

13. Fixed the bug that Cao Cao still couldn't unlock his equipment after occupying 9 racecourses

14. Fixed the bug of recruiting generals in the event of 6 racecourse and 6 military camps of Cao Cao camp

15. Fixed the bug that clicking close on the close selection interface has the possibility of reporting errors

16. Fixed a situation where the map might be compressed and cause jamming

17. Fixed the bug that clicking the rewards button may obtain multiple rewards

18. Fix the bug that Yan Baihu will completely disappear

19. The card that has reduced the cost will not be reduced to 0 points twice now





1. The attack power of Zhang Jiao will increase with the buff, and the behavior logic has been updated.

2. The poison bow is now stacked according to the number of attacks and changed to an formation card

3. Enhanced several infantry cards and some generals of Liu Bei camp

4. When commander Xia Houyuan is in command, the armor obtained by discarding cards is increased




1. The number of attacks by Yuanrong crossbow soldiers has been reduced by 3 points

2. Reduce the number of cards drawn by Stolen Sun from 3 to 2




At present, the update frequency of the game is once a week. Due to the short time, there are still many parts and bugs that have not been updated, and I will improve them in the next few weeks.

Hi everyone,

[v0.1058]
- Robots Room notifications
(If your robots rooms haven't got enough chargers or lubricators, your robots will be waiting in the main-storage until there is an available charger or lubricator in the whole factory.)

A detail if you missed: "If you zoom-in your robots, you can see their Charge- and Oil- Levels on the screens of their both sides."

- Available robot skill points button (opens My Robots) added next to the Event Log

- Available R&D points button (opens R&D) added next to the Event Log

Please keep reporting if you see anything!
Thanks so much for all the support!

TR Games

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1755300/Smart_Factory_Tycoon/

Welcome in the New Year!

In the spirit of "new year, new me", our Draft Mode leaves early access, which means that some long awaited changes are coming to it!

Read more for details on that, and the upcoming balance changes below.

Seasonal modes in January

13.01. - 18.01. Switcheroo

After two turns players switch hands

18.01. - 25.01. Entrench

Each played unit has resilience

25.01. - 01.02. Plus One

Whenever you play a unit, spawn a 1-power copy of it at the end of it's row

01.02. - 08.02. Trial of the Grasses

Whenever a unit appears on the board, damage it by 2 then boost it by 4. If it's a Witcher, the damage is not dealt.

This season is planned to end on February 8th, 10:00 a.m. CET.


Draft mode leaves early access!

• Tickets - Starting a new run in Draft mode will now require a ticket. Each player will be granted a free ticket upon login!
• Rewards - Players will now be rewarded based on the performance of their runs.

• Initiative changed to: Trigger this ability if you haven't used an Order this turn (Note: Leader abilities are also Orders)

• Fisher King: Power changed from 5 to 6.
• Knickers: Provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
• Roach: Power changed from 3 to 4.

• Mourntart: Armor changed from 1 to 4. Provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
• Old Speartip: Asleep: Power changed from 9 to 6. Armor changed from 0 to 2. Provision cost changed from 9 to 6. Ability changed to: After 3 turns, Summon Old Speartip from your deck to this row and increase its base power by 6, then Banish self. If Old Speartip: Asleep takes damage, Summon Old Speartip from your deck, then Banish self instead.

• No changes

• Uprising: Updated the tooltip to reflect the change from Hotfix 9.6.1.
• Istredd: Provision cost changed from 7 to 6.

• Invigorate: Provision bonus changed from 16 to 15. Ability changed to: Order: Boost 4 units in your hand by 1. Charges: 3.
• Milva: Sharpshooter: Order damage changed from 2 to 1.
• Sirssa: Deploy effect changed to: Damage an enemy unit by 2, then boost a random unit in your hand by 2.
• Dwarven Agitator: Power changed from 3 to 5. Ability changed to: Deploy: Give 1 Armor to 2 Dwarves in your hand. Whenever you play a Dwarf, give it 1 Armor.
• Hawker Support: Ability changed to: Deploy: Boost an allied unit in your hand by 1. If a unit was already boosted, boost it by 3 instead.
• Vrihedd Saboteur: Ability changed to: Deploy: Boost an allied unit by 1. If you control an Artifact, boost an allied unit by 3 instead.

• Ardal aep Dahy: Adjusted the wording of the ability. The ability itself remains unchanged.
• Rience: Power changed from 5 to 6.
• Tourney Shaelmaar: Provision cost changed from 8 to 6.
• Vilgefortz: Renegade: Power changed from 6 to 8.

• Fabian Hale: Provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
• Ignatius Hale: Tribute cost changed from 9 to 7.
• King of Beggars: Power changed from 4 to 3. Provision cost changed from 10 to 12. Counter changed from 9 to 12.
• Octavia Hale: Power changed from 7 to 6. Provision cost changed from 7 to 6. Has a new part of ability: Fee: 1: Boost an allied Witch Hunter by 1.
• Savvy Huckster: Added the Witch Hunter Category. Has a new part of ability: Fee 1: Gain Vitality (1)
• Scapegoat: Power changed from 7 to 1. Ability changed to: Disloyal. Profit: 6. Deploy: Place a Bounty on self.

• Regis: Reborn now correctly reacts to Bleeding on units with Immunity.
• Duchess's Informant and Emissary now correctly gain the Spying status, even if there were no targets for their Deploy abilities.
• Interacting with the Draft menu no longer causes the play menu to sometimes become partially unresponsive on Android devices.

Hi everyone.

Here's the changelogs for this week's update:

New features:
•New USMC marine uniforms.
•Added Fiat 626 truck.
•Added Jeep Willys with MG mount.
•Is now possible to switch squad member anytime holding Y (rebindable)
•Added higher max AI count for singleplayer.
•Added new buildings and props for Kos.
•Added visibility settings in Map Editor.

Fixes:
•Fixed M3 Half-Truck's MG.
•Improvements in AI movements.
•Improved vehicle's AI pathfinding.
•Improved Plane's AI fight behaviour.
•Fixed extracted bullet caliber in firing animation.
•Reoworked sounds in some weapons (many more coming soon)
•Improved castle props collisions.
•Fixed Aircraft refill zone indicator in Mission Editor.
•Better reload animation for static MGs.
•Improved Quadmount collisions.
•Other smaller fixes.

If you have suggestions and feedbacks, feel free to contact me on the Discord server.

Wish a great weekend to everyone,
Marco.