Apr 30, 2022

Forts - [DEV] Blammo

G'day Forts fans!

If you told us in 2017 that Forts would still be going strong in 2022 we would have told you to drop your core! On April 19th Forts turned five years old, and what a ride it has been! We are eternally grateful for all your fantastic support. The Forts community is a credit to the game, be it welcoming and helping new players on Discord or creating inventive and exciting mods and maps. We thank you all!

To celebrate we have initiated a sale across our entire catalogue, offering existing players with a great opportunity to expand their Forts library, as well as enticing players on the fence into the Forts fold. This sale runs from April 30th for ten days.

Forts Five Year Health Check

So what are the numbers looking like after five years? Let's take a look!

Community Numbers

EWG Lifetime Steam Units: 986,142
All-time peak players: 2583 (7280*)
Workshop Mods: 1,561
Workshop Maps: 17,471
Discord Members: 6,210
Updates: 57

In-game Numbers

Most popular commander - Overall: Architect
Most popular commander - Ranked: Pinchfist
Players completed Black Gold campaign on hard: 2602
Players completed Moonshot campaign on hard: 753
Players completed High Seas campaign on hard: 212
Battles fought: 54.2 million
Hours spent: 12.9 million

*Free multiplayer weekend

Forts Timeline

Let's take a look back at some of the notable events over the past five years.

1 - April 2017 - Forts Launched - 1,362 peak players
After 14 years of development, Forts finally sees the the light of day, on April 19th 2017.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/5262975441861685929

2 - May 2017 - Forts First Tournament - 1,079 peak players
Having found a small, but passionate player base, Forts' first community-led tournament is arranged six weeks after launch.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/5262975441861684005

3 - September 2017 - Steam Workshop Integration - 197 peak players
The first phase of Steam workshop integration arrives, allowing players the ability to upload their custom maps for other Forts players to try out.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/5262975441861681619

4 - October 2017 - Tons of Guns - 835 peak players
Six new weapons and two extra tech buildings are added in the free Tons of Guns DLC, expanding the tech tree significantly.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/5262975441861681194

5 - November 2017 - ADGA Award Winner - 424 peak players
At Melbourne International Game Week, EarthWork Games is recognised by their Australian game development peers at the AGDAs, receiving The Best Defence is a Good Offense award.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/5262975441861680990

6 - December 2017 - BPO Commanders - 543 peak players
The Commander roster is pushed out to 12 with the addition of three Black Penguin Oil characters: Scattershot, Seep & Shockenaugh in another free DLC.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/5262975441861679990

7 - May 2018 - Campaign Mods - 258 peak players
Players are granted the ability to create and share their custom campaigns with the campaign mod workshop upgrade.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/5262975441861678455

8 - June 2018 - Ranked Multiplayer & Repair Station - 7,280 peak players
The multiplayer scene receives a boost with the introduction of ranked multiplayer, allowing players to wrack up points in competitive matches and find appropriately skilled opponents. The Repair Station device is added to ease the APM demands, should players need it. A free multiplayer-only weekend brought in a slew of new players also saw the record of concurrent users increased to 7,280.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/5262975441861677709

9 - June 2019 - Forts - Moonshot DLC - 971 peak players
just over two years after launch, Forts first paid DLC is launched. Moonshot adds a whole new campaign, new faction, weapons and Capture Point game mode.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/2429044061346460933

10 - July 2019 - Ranked Season 1 - 626 peak players
The ranked multiplayer scene is reorganised and reinvigorated with the formalisation of seasons, complete with end of season leaderboards and medals.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/1593627410377653536

11 - December 2019 - Multiplayer Training Missions - 940 peak players
In an effort to help onboarding of new players into the multiplayer scene, training missions are added, complete with new environment set and drill instructor.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/3726097246760899467

12 - May 2020 - Forts Trading Cards - 776 peak players
Steam trading cards finally make an appearance for the owners of Forts.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/2198263022930076515

13 - June 2020 - Forts Pro-HUD - 775 peak players
A new Pro-HUD mini-DLC is launched, allowing players to support the game further with the purchase of HUD reskin and medal.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/2212902906123604321

14 - October 2020 - Commander Update - 741 peak players
The fifteen-strong commander roster is given an overhaul, with rebalanced abilities and new powers for many characters.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/2864810353838512443

15 - January 2021 - Welcome Romerolagus - 1,989 peak players
Dedicated community member Romerolagus is drafted into the EWG team to help moderate Discord and other areas of interaction with the growing Forts player base.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/2914357483128102177

16 - March 2022 - Forts High Seas Launched - 2,583 peak players
Almost five years after its' initial release, Forts second full paid DLC is launched. High Seas drastically expands its' appeal with the addition of water tech, ships, weapons and ammo.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/410900/view/3094542765846692775

Discord

If you haven't already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps and mods, and for more information on upcoming events.

Thanks for playing Forts, and here's to five more years!
EWG

Apr 30, 2022

New locations in progress – FRANCE - what do YOU think?

Espresso Tycoon - joanna_dreamwaygames

Dear Coffee Lovers,

Just imagine… you’re going to your favorite café. You meet your friends there and drink delicious coffee… Sounds great, right?

We want that in our game, too!

So here’s our next location in progress:

FRANCE

What comes to your mind when you think about the French café?

Our thoughts are:

great atmosphere
a lot of interesting people
unique design
beautiful buildings

So we started to try to recreate that in our Espresso Tycoon.

We want to have beautiful coffee shops there - but we know that you (our players!) are going to create your own amazing designs.

So we’re focusing on the outdoor view, too.

We have some new buildings and a new city layout and we need to adapt the lightning to that change.

Here you can see the day and night cycle - how lights and shadows are changing.
(BTW, do you like these little lamps hanging there? ːsteamhappyː )

We are going to add some more decoration items which will fit the typically French style.

Remember, that one of the new locations will be added to our Prologue (have you added it to your Wishlist already?).

Should we add France?
Let us know!

Your Coffee Enthusiasts
DreamWay Games

Apr 30, 2022

V0.61 Medium Update

Refactor - 棋猫KINGDOMJACK

Hi， I'm the developer of Refactor, Backhand!

Refactor has been loved by a lot of players since its launch, which gives me a lot of inspiration. Tower Defense is one of my favorite genres, and I'm glad to be able to share the joy I feel with you. At the same time, I received a lot of valuable feedback, and it made me realize that the game still has a lot of room for improvement. Here are some of my thoughts:

Game Balance

Most of the content is in a balanced position at the moment, but there are definitely some towers/element skills/technologies that are significantly stronger or weaker than others. In version 0.61, I will try to bring these deviations back to a reasonable range.

Endless Mode

The difficulty curve of the Endless mode is still tight in the first and middle stages, but once the turrets are formed, the difficulty curve becomes less challenging in the later stages, making the overall playtime very long. In version 0.61, the difficulty curve of the Endless mode will be much tighter, the difficulty will be significantly higher in the later stages, and the leaderboard will be reset weekly.

Future Plans

This update is still focused on improving the existing experience and fixing bugs, so it probably won't come as much of a surprise to veteran players. The adjustment is a slow process that will continue in the future. As for the new content, thank you very much for giving us a lot of ideas. We are also doing design planning and development based on our own considerations, so we will gradually add new content in the subsequent version.
If you have a unique design idea to share, welcome to join our Discord: https://discord.gg/EbMcRFB8.

Note:
After this update, the old save will be unavailable and you will need to restart a new game!

I. Optimization and Rules Changed

1. New: When selecting technology, you can spend tokens to manually refresh
2. Update: Endless leaderboards will reset and automatically reset every Monday at 00:00 UTC
3. Update: Increased difficulty in the middle and late stages of Endless Mode
4. Update: The relocation price of the refactor turret to reduced: 100 -> 50
5.Update: Base splash damage rate: 25% ->35%; Every 1 splash increases splash damage rate:25%->10%
6. Update: Balance Path now will trigger before other skills.

II. Art & Optimization

1. Simplified the bullet particle effect of Spinner
2. Fix Spinner's bullet blocking the grid and making them unselectable
3. Simplified the storm particle effects of Benemoth
4. Improved the scroll wheel sliding too slowly on the map/language/resolution interface
5, Support for refactoring, relocation, placement, and other operations to withdraw
6, Support in the selection of modules/technology, in advance on the field turret relocation operation

III. Adjustment of balance

Refactor Turrets
1. Update: Sniper, increase skill bonus and basic attack
2. Update: Rapider, decrease basic attack and skill growth cap, increased basic fire rate and skill bonus
3. Update: Spinner, increased bullet size, basic attack, and skill growth cap
4. Update: Coordinator, skills have been changed to gradually increase the attack instead of immediately
5. Update: Hrimthur, skill has added an additional freeze bonus
6. Update: Benemoth, increase basic attack, and storm area damage increases gradually
7. Update: Ultra, change the range to circle, increase basic fire rate, and attack
8. Update: IceBreaker, Ice breaker can now unfreeze other allied turrets

Element Skills

1. Update: BBB Balance Path, now only applies to elements it already has
2. Update: CCC Frozen Throne, will now freeze enemies entering the area based on the Chill of the turret, and will reset periodically
3. Update: DDD Transfinite Crit, increase the upper limit of random values, add a negative effect of increasing the freeze time of this turret
4. Rework: ABD Center base, continue to increase its attack while it can attacks
5. Rework: ABE Counter Bomb, increase their splash when fired a certain number of times or after being frozen
6. Rework: ACD Control Base, increases its chill based on the number of enemies in range
7. Rework: ADE Energy Base, increases crit based on the time interval from the last shoot

3. Technologies

1. New: Recycle Plan
2. New: Lightweight Technology
3. Update: Element Overload, increase the number (1->2) of refactor turrets with 4 skill slots
4. Update: Cold Environment, change the data exception effect to increase turret's frost time
5. Update: Joint Fighting, damage bonus reduced by 1%; Change data exception effect to decrease all turret's damage bonus
6. Update: Ice Bullet, change the data exception effect to increase the number of layers required to freeze enemies
7. Update: Prism and Amplifier, change the data exception effect to freeze adjacent turrets once a while
8. Update: Management Garu, add new effect: add 1 shop recipe
9. Update: Tiny Map, damage bonus increased by 10%, distance reduced by 5

IV. Bug Fixed

1. Fixed: Non-tutorial level may prompt "please follow the instructions of the tutorial" tips
2. Fixed: An issue where quitting in combat could retain the bonus of Coordinator
3. Fixed: Part of the sound disappeared after loading a save
4. Fixed: The attack range of the selected turret may automatically be closed
5. Fixed: The enemy's immunity freeze time does not take effect when frozen for a long time
6. Fixed: Execution trap damage calculation error
7. Fixed: Can't save the technology selection while exit during selecting technology
7. Fixed: If the damage to the Supply Truck is too high in a single attack, it may cause the wrong number of tokens taken

Apr 30, 2022

0.8.19 PATCH RELEASED

Soldat 2 - MM

Bug or feature? :)

Just kidding, it was a bug discovered while testing the new netcode. But it's fixed now (hopefully). Would be a fun bonus pickup though? :)

NETCODE REHAUL

Because there were a few network issues I decided to do the equivalent of replacing an engine in a running car. And thanks to that, the network code turned out to be much smoother, faster and reliable. This should fix disconnects, ghost players and other issues. But there might be some new bugs, because this is very fresh. So please report!

Ping times are much LOWER now and it's visibly easier to dodge rockets like this:

2 ORIGINAL NEW MAPS

I'm happy the mapping community is thriving! So most likely with each patch there will come a new map. The ones added in this patch are:

ctf_tyrus by darDar
(it was inspired by ctf_ash somehow)

ctf_dopamine by MM
(inspired by ctf_hormone)

OTHER NOTABLE CHANGES

* Weapons have been tweaked:

crouching and prone will decrease gun spray (and bink) by half
movement spray works now like in s1 (depends on velocity not on keys pressed)
autos bullet speed is higher + higher accuracy
less bink on m79
overall less bullet knockout (decreasing player speed)

* Added voting keys (F9, F10, F11) + vote close key (F12):

* Ranked mode fixes

Norbo and I have been sweating a lot to fix ranked issues.
Multiple issues have been fixed for good I hope.
Reconnecting should work better.
Matches should be a lot more stable now!

CHANGELOG

[expand type=details]
[30.04.2022] 0.8.19a
added gamemode and modifiers in next map loading screen
default solo lobby map is ctf_laos
fixed chat moving towards right each match
quieter Agar sounds

[29.04.2022] 0.8.18t
added F keys for voting or closing vote
more net stability
ctf_dopamine: improvements
weapons: changes
fixed error on flag cap

[28.04.2022] 0.8.17t
added ctf_dopamine, ctf_tyrus
rehauled low-level network code:
fixed disconnects/ghost players issues
better ping times
much more stable handling of lousy connections
crouching/prone decreases gun spray by half
removed teammate superman dash collision
increased change weapon time slightly
movement spray is affected by player speed not just by movement keys
added 20 sec remaining sound countdown
voting tries not to pick maps that were in vote previously
ranked: fixed bot disconnection issues
ranked: fixed rejoin button
fixed rich presence joining local server
fixed lobby tooltip staying after map change issue
fixed autobalance threshold on join 2->1
fixed bullets showing in HUD when ammo unlimited
public CTF match 8 mins -> 10 mins
fixed selfkill adding kill to score
ping in scoreboard and servers list is now "latency" not roundtrip
scoreboard: fixed too narrow ping text
Agar modifier: a bit less damage resistant giant
Space modifier: less speedy
SniperOnly modifier: added grenades
server: retries on port blocked instead of shutdown
server: retries websocket port blocked
server: added duplicate name check
server: fixed GameServer.AdminPlayfabId
fixed disconnect when joining a finished CTF match
ctf_ash: added gap in middle passage
weapons: various changes
[/expand]

WHAT'S NEXT?

Norbo is planning on adding ranked 1v1 DM and 2v2! + web stats!
Still some annoying bugs to squash like the RPG rocket desync.
Moderation and competitive features are needed like: mute function, team chat, taunts etc.
Other than that there's hundreds of community suggestions which I'll try to implement in the next weeks like cornerboosts etc.

In the long run... when I'm happy with the stability of Soldat 2 there will be free weekends and promotions to bring in more players!

Remember to have fun!
MM