May 31, 2022

Timberborn - Miami_Mechanistry

Hello everyone!

It’s finally time to unveil that big (and futuristic) thing coming to Timberborn in the next patch. In Update 2, we will add a new category of advanced beaver dwellers, collectively called golems. These artificial beavers are mechanically unique for each faction, they use new buildings, and change how Timberborn is played, especially closer to the endgame. Dive in to learn more!

What are golems?

Golems are mechanized beavers that perform most duties of regular beavers. They’re very efficient and don’t worry about mundane things such as food or sleep. On the other hand, they need to be assembled, powered and maintained in special buildings. Golems of each faction have unique strengths and life cycles, and if not cared for, they pose a danger to their masters.

Golems made by Folktails are called Barrelbots. They run on biofuel, a new resource created from spare food. They cook, plant and harvest crops at higher rates, and they move faster when wet. After reaching their lifespan, they start rotting and spilling toxic waste (*). You will need to dispose of (and recycle) the old golems fast. And yes, you’ll get some materials back.

Concept arts for Folktails' golems

The Iron Teeth counterpart is a Coghead. It’s a clockwork contraption that works faster when placed in a factory but you should avoid exposing its metal body to water. To keep it operating efficiently, you also need to create a grid of Control Towers. Properly maintained, Cogheads work indefinitely, but neglected, they may break down and explode violently (*).

Concept arts for the Iron Teeth's golems

(*) We are still working on the end-of-life mechanics, and they're subject to change. We'll need your feedback on what works best here when the update hits the Experimental Branch.

Why golems?

We’ve heard your requests for a more engaging and branching endgame. Golems and related buildings are just that. We expect them to come into play in mid to late game. With their superior performance, golems are invaluable in the largest cities and during the harshest of droughts.

At the same time, they make Timberborn more sandbox-y. Want to build a dedicated district that specializes in metal production? Send your golem crews to the mines and see the production skyrocket. Do you feel like building a beaver utopia with maxed out well-being numbers? Let the golems do the hard work 24/7 while their beaver overlords just chill in the mud bath.

Concept arts for (left to right): Maintenance Station, Disposal Facility, Golem Factory

We’ve had a rough idea for golems for a long time now but their current form was shaped after the Update 1 release in December. In the end, golems turned out to be a larger feature than originally anticipated but it was made possible by gradually expanding our team. For context, while we shipped Update 1 as a team of six, Mechanistry is now a team of twelve.

A larger team means we could try many different concepts for this feature. We brainstormed and scrapped multiple ideas for golem-related features, such as the Tree-D Printer that would manufacture all types of resources (too OP), a farm where Barrelbot parts grew in garden-like vats (too elvish), or the mechanic with golem buildings draining the surrounding areas (too easy to avoid). What we have gone forward with feels much more coherent and fits the gameplay.

An early prototype for Folktails' Chassis Farm, later replaced with a Golem Parts Factory

What do the golems bring to the game?

You’ll learn more about the new buildings and golem mechanics when Update 2 comes to the experimental branch, but here’s a quick rundown of what to expect.

The main building additions are related to the golems’ life cycles.

To assemble a golem, you need Limbs, a Chassis and a Head. All parts are made in a Golem Part Factory (using different recipes) and turn into a golem in a Golem Factory.

Golem Factory and Golem Parts Factories for the Iron Teeth

You will need to take care of the power for your golem. Barrelbots are refuelled at Biofuel Tanks, smelling of a new resource produced from spare food at the Biofuel Refinery. Cogheads need to be wound up in Charging Stations.

Biofuel Refineries and a Biofuel Tank

Barrelbots have a finite lifespan, and you need to recycle the worn-down ones at the Disposal Facility before they poison your beavers. And to prevent Cogheads from blowing up, ensure they can visit the Maintenance Station every now and then.

Disposal Facilities at work. Look how happy the Barrelbots are to be recycled!

Golems allowed us to add multiple new Science Point sinks to Timberborn. You need to unlock the new buildings (duh) but also only select workplaces are available to golems right away. Assignment slots in other buildings need to be unlocked first. Also, Control Towers – the buildings that allow Cogheads in range to operate quickly and efficiently – constantly consume the SP.

As soon as a Coghead enters the range of a Control Tower, its efficiency gets a huge boost

Golems themselves cannot work at the Inventor and the Observatory, which makes sense lore-wise. We’re giving each faction a new, golem-friendly way of generating the SP, though.

Needs rework, new effects, and more

We have mentioned that rotting Barrelbots spill toxic waste, making beavers sick. That’s yet another big thing coming with Update 2. We’re reworking some of the existing needs and expanding our system to include more temporary effects as well as ways to interact with them.

Multiple new beaver statuses are coming, and since Timberborn is a post-apo game, guess what, most of them are negative! For example, lumberjacks will break their teeth, bees from beehives will sting, and during a drought, overheating will become a real risk. Yay!

Broken teeth? Nothing a bit of grinding wouldn't solve!

Of course, there will be countermeasures to that… but if you think you can handle these new hurdles easily, think again. We’re also changing how basic needs (food, water, shelter, sleep) work. They will now hit negative values. No longer can you keep your workers hungry for extended periods of time and then magically fix that by tossing them a few leftover carrots.

The basic needs rework will go live on the experimental branch alongside the golem content. Additional statuses and related buildings will be added a little later.

When can I play this?

As always, we don't want to give any dates until we're sure the new stuff works but Update 2 is coming to the experimental branch soon. No, really, you’ve waited long enough. In the meantime, feel free to ask your questions on our Discord.

~Team Timberborn

May 31, 2022

Bleakfyre Harrows - New Beta Build Release

Venture Seas - VirtuousDevelopment

Edit 1: Reuploaded build with progression fix for existing save files.
Edit 2: Uploaded another progression fix to Itzayula town...
(restart Steam to force update)

A new content update is now live on the Steam Beta Branch!

If you wish to play this build, make sure to switch your game version to the Steam Beta Branch!

The [Bleakfyre Harrows] update features a whole new story chapter, with a new town, dungeon, and lewd animated scenes! (see full changelog list below)

Please list your found bugs and issues to the appropriate channels in the official discord!
http://OFFICIAL DISCORD

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I'm compelled to explain why this particular update took an unusually long time to be released.

The TL;DR of it is that I had been suffering from a debilitating mental depression from an unclear physical cause, which I believe I have now overcome after many lifestyle changes/experiments.

I feel inclined to apologize profusely to everyone who has supported the project to date, even if in retrospect, the depression turned out to be outside of my immediate control.

I have been a powerhouse of work and motivation for these past two weeks and am very hopeful that I'll be able to continue at this pace!

I'm very sorry that I left you all waiting so long for new content and fixes to Venture Seas. Moving forward, I'm genuinely excited to be working at my maximum ability/enjoyment again!

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CHANGELOG

Content Additions

Main Story - Chapter 5 added
New dungeon - Bleakfyre Harrows
----New unique artwork race - Greblins (Warrior and Shaman versions)
----New unique artwork race - Emberkin
----New boss - Minoguar
----Reworked Voidling/summon visual design
----New items - Food, Armor, Weapons, Materials, Treasures, Cosmetics
----New Runes: [Incinerate], [Flaming Target], [Ashes to Ashes], [Cleanse]
New town - Itzayula
----New unique artwork character - Priestess Akna
----New character/animated still - Goddess Kisin
----New repeatable lewd artwork featuring Akna and Kisin
New side content - Grindhouse Coffee (futa coffee shop)
----New unique character artwork - Nadia
----2 new repeatable animated lewd scenes with Nadia
Added several new transformation items
----Dubious Blue Pill - Penis size increase
----Frigid Essence - Penis size decrease
----Brotox Injection - Change face to masculine
----He-Shea Butter Facial - Change face to androgynous
----Sizzling Salve - Change body type to lean
----Felidan Pheromones - Ball size decrease
----Fun Juice - Ball size increase (Updated info and text scene)
----Siren's Breath - Reduces breast size (Updated info and text scene)
----All items above can now be crafted or purchased (from limited vendor inventory)
Added new clothing items
----Tribal Armor
----Breezy Top (supports custom color)
----Tribal Tasset
----Tribal Gloves
----Tribal Sandals
New 'Eye-Shadow' type functionality
----Can change at 'Nyaura' town alchemist trader - [Flirty], [Tribal] added
New voicebanks for giantess and quirky feminine
----Added giantess voice to Hydra and Yeti
----Added quirky feminine to Mariel and Alexis
Added environmental color 'tinting' system to characters (Averages pixels from bg image)
Added particle-based weather system
----Added new 'snowfall weather' particle effect to appropriate scenes
----Added new 'rainfall' particle effect to appropriate scenes
----Added new 'foggy' particle effect to appropriate scenes
Several new environment artworks
All slime enemy designs have new unique artwork reworks
Several new special scenes to various existing dungeons (future lewd scenes)
'Tribal' makeup alternate for aurelia (will be an unlockable special costume in future)
Added many new travel/journey blurbs to show after completing a ship journey
Added a few minor NPCs into the game for more variation in existing content
New sex looping sound system (currently only on new scenes)
New ambiance audio tracks (added appropriately throughout the game)

Other Changes
Added validation code for active/completed quests arrays for existing save files
----This should fix some broken progression in existing save files
----Added main story event validation when loading a file
Improved 'product use' error checks and text alerts
Removed 'Dark Pit' Event in Ruined Alcazar
Improved paper-doll part coloring with darker skin tones
Dungeon info files can now have a 'default ambiance' track set
Slightly buffed dungeon exp gain from completing a zone
Expedition end panel will now always show, no matter how a dungeon has ended
You will no longer take backtracking damage during expeditions while on casual difficulty
Reworked some code in preparation for further modding support
Converted buttons in character info panel to tooltips
Functionality to add colored text to tooltips
Added option to surrender during Expedition Map screen
Can now only mark 1 target at a time during combat
Equipment and Outfits are returned to ship inventory when dismissing crewman/whore
Food item use now only shows active Expedition members
Replaced some Vinthal anger voice clips
Tweaks to mouth movement system for main characters
Enemy skins/body can now be set for combat encounters from spreadsheets
Optimized animated sex code
Changed some item descriptions/info
Slightly altered appearance of some existing NPCs
Updated functionality of old spreadsheet scripts & added a few new scripts
Minor tweaks to many scenes throughout the game (improved transitions, audio etc...)
Added cheat/debug skip to the start of each in-game chapter
----Provides relevant gear/levels for characters
Added hotkey rebinding menu for 0-9 (more hotkey support to come)
----Added keybinding for hiding/showing UI (num_5 default)
----Added keybinding for quicksaving (and new save slot) (num_0 default)
----Added keybinding for using kits during expeditions (hotkeys z|x|c)
Added buyback option from traders
----Can buyback any sold item (anywhere), at an increased cost
New ship upgrade allowing brothel workers to [Rest Up] quicker
----Ship upgrades now validate on load

Bug/Issue Fixes
Fixed progression issue after the end of Deepmount Caverns
Fixed dungeon zone slots not cycling as intended (causing progression issues)
Fixed issue where monk fight would be loaded instead of void behemoth in sakura jungle
Fixed major issues with scene transitions/fade system
Fixed coin not being removed for chapter 4 ship and outfit upgrades
Fixed Lai li fight incorrectly leading to void behemoth fight
Fixed food usage issue in dungeons, where crew selection wouldn't be prompted
Fixed Crewman and Whore prospects available in towns not saving/loading correctly
Fixed some issues with yeti fisting lewd scene
Fixed Town Requests progressing before player accepts them
Fixed duplicate town requests generated from town board
Fixed UI issues with animated UI when opening combat loot bags
Fixed issue with SexManager sprite skin changing code
Fixed default audio slider imbalance
Fixed issues with the silhouette system
Fixed issue with Aurelia footplay scene when the player has a cock
Fixed ball size not adjusted to match cock size in intro editor
Fixed 'Southern Eccentric' NPC having an unintended feminine voice
Fixed arms not being skin tinted in Aurelia sex scene
Fixed combat stat descriptions showing unintended letters/symbols
Fixed central continent showing the wrong name on the world map
Fixed wrong ambiance and music playing when leaving outfitter tent in Sea of Tents
Fixed some issues involving screen-wide particle effects
Fixed Troll NPCs not having a mouth in some expressions
Fixed Troll Hunter appearing at the edge of the screen during the pre-combat scene
Fixed unintended random Uthgar boss fight in Deepmount Caverns
Fixed crash caused by rudely declining Vinthal for sex after he walks you home
Fixed several reported typos in scenes
Fixed a bunch of other minor bugs that I neglected to note

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Please join the official discord to report any bugs or issues:
http://OFFICIAL DISCORD

Thank you so much for your attention and feedback!
Stay tuned for further updates.

May 31, 2022

Experimental Update - World Expansion I

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

We have just released a major experimental update for The Riftbreaker. It contains the entire free portion of the World Expansion that we originally planned to release on this day. It is the largest update since the launch of the game both in terms of new content and gameplay changes. Some of these new features have been in development for months and we can't wait to hear your feedback about them. Due to the size and complexity of the update, we decided that we have to run it through an "experimental" phase before rolling it out to everyone. Our recent decision to delay the open release of the expansion allowed us to keep all of the features that we originally planned to include, however, some of them are still in an unfinished state in this early experimental release.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1945600/The_Riftbreaker_Metal_Terror/

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

We would also like to warn you that the new Metallic Valley biome content that is contained within this update contains some spoilers for the story that will be included in the Metal Terror DLC. This is especially true if you're a modder and want to browse through all of the content files that are included within.

After joining the experimental branch and updating the game, you will be able to play Survival Mode on the new biome - the Metallic Valley. It is an entirely new area of the planet that features new enemies, new plant species, and even a new resource type. You will also gain access to new weapons, technologies, and buildings to use in all your survival runs.

Additionally, this update introduces loads of changes when it comes to the Survival Mode itself. The starting load-outs for each biome are now better suited for the kinds of enemies that you will be facing. We also grant you more basic technologies at the beginning of the game to allow you to be more flexible with the technologies you choose for your Survival run, as you are going to have more time to do the research you actually want to use in the late game. Moreover, the research items from the Alien Research tab of the tech tree no longer require the Laboratory in Survival Mode. You can start downloading them as soon as you get your first Communications Hub.

The experimental branch might contain severe errors and bugs. It's possible that the game will crash and you will lose your progress. If you are not sure if you want to accept that risk, we recommend waiting until the patch is confirmed to be stable and until it arrives on the main branch.

How to join the experimental branch:

create a backup copy of your save folder (Documents/The Riftbreaker)
disable Steam Cloud save backup
go to your Steam Library
right-click on The Riftbreaker
select 'Properties,’ then 'Betas,’ and use the following password: IknowWhatImDoing

After that, you will be able to choose 'experimental' from the drop-down menu. Download the update, play the game and let us know if you encounter any issues. We also have a channel on our Discord: #rb-experimental-feedback - we highly encourage you to join in and share your feedback.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Saves that you create on the Experimental Branch WILL NOT be compatible with older versions of the game like the current, default branch of the game. They will be compatible with future versions of the game. Please manually backup your save files if you plan on reverting to the default branch of the game.

The Riftbreaker Experimental Update, May 30th, 2022 - Package #191, Binaries #457

FEATURES:

Welcome to the Metallic Valley! Enjoy playing Survival Mode in this new biome - learn all the new tricks, discover the new creatures, and harness the power of Morphium.
Speaking of Morphium - it is a brand-new liquid resource. It is found only in the Metallic Valley and can serve as a power source and a building block (of sorts).
Several new species of creatures have been added:
Wingmite - a deadly, lightning-quick flying creature that swarms the player and uses melee attacks.
Bradron - a slower flying unit, capable of attacking from a distance with a powerful laser beam. It can also disable some of Mr. Riggs' equipment with an EMP blast.
Octabit - battering ram in the form of a weird, creepy, self-replicating cube. Will explode on contact. It can split into smaller versions of itself if destroyed.
Flurian - an enormous creature with a plasma grenade launcher fused within its body. Will try to rip you apart in close quarters using its giant, metallic claws.
Idapian, Brabit, and Stonger - new neutral, ambient creatures. Real cuties.

Quality of Life update: we have added Mass Upgrade, Repair, and Deconstruction tools. We have devoted an entire article to them, so click the link to learn more.
A new tool has been added to the building menu: the Power Switch. It allows you to quickly power buildings on or off, a handy feature when dealing with a power grid that is under heavy load. As with the other tools, you can increase the size of the brush.

New buildings: Liquid Compressor and Liquid Decompressor. You can provide the Compressor with any liquid resource to, well, compress it. That will allow you to transport that liquid over a large distance without using any pipelines. All you need to do is to build a Decompressor wherever you want to use the liquid you provided to the Compressor. Best of all - this works between maps as well! Magma Power Plants in the Jungle? You bet!
New building: Morphium Power Plant. This building requires only morphium to operate. In return for supplying it with enough of that resource, it will reward you with a nice and steady stream of power. Great for setting up resource outposts.
New building: Energy Walls. These are slightly more expensive than the regular walls. However, they are pretty great against melee attackers, as they deal damage in retaliation to being hit.
New Defenisve Tower: Morphium Tower. Boost your defenses with alien technology from beyond time! The tower commands the influence area around itself to form massive spikes that shred the enemies to pieces. Additionally, it does not require any power or AI hubs to operate - you only need to supply it with Morphium. Oh, and it can be placed on liquids and it generates shields for buildings around itself, too.
New Defensive Tower: Lightning Tower. This energy-based weapon will be a shockingly good addition to your arsenal. Yeah, I know, I'll see myself out.
New weapon: Lightning Gun. You can now cosplay as Emperor Palpatine. Unlimited power.
New weapon: Heavy Plasma Cannon. Shoots powerful plasma projectiles with high splash damage potential. The alternative fire mode changes the weapon into a portable shield, protecting you from projectiles.
New melee weapon: Laser Sword. It deals a bit less damage than its regular counterpart but can attack at a much faster rate.
New melee weapon: Chainsaw. Rip and Tear until it is done.
New skills: Orbital Bombardment and Orbital Laser added. These are the winning design of one of our previous competitions.
New consumable: Bioscanner Turret - another winner of our design competition. This consumable item can be deployed anywhere you find something interesting. It will scan all objects of interest within its range for as long as its battery lasts.
New consumable: Mini Miner. This consumable item can be placed on any ore deposit. It will mine resources for a short amount of time and automatically transport them to your storage.

Flying units can now navigate across bodies of water, as well as canyons and small rock formations. You thought you were safe setting up that base between a lake and a canyon? Think again!
Added liquid splash effects. When a physical object drops into a liquid pool it will now result in a splash. Purely visual.
Introducing 'Alien Influence System' - Whenever you place any of the alien-tech-based buildings in your base, it is going to surround the ground around itself with metallic, self-replicating plates. This is only a visual effect.
For all you crazy modders out there: we have added support for the creation of non-square maps. This can help make your missions more special, giving them a completely different feel than a standard survival or campaign mission.
We have added several new options to the gameplay settings menu: you can now adjust the amount of debris, parts, decals, and other effects. Turning these down will reduce the overall 'chaos' on the screen during battles. It can also positively affect your performance.
Added a set of new, hi-tech decorative structures to give your bases a nice, futuristic look.

CHANGES:

Major Survival Mode rebalance/rework:

In order to give ourselves the flexibility necessary to introduce meaningful changes, the research trees for Survival and Campaign are now completely separate.
The player is now awarded more completed research items at the beginning of a Survival run: Liquid Resources Handling Level 1, Tower Ammunition Handling Level 1, Alien Research, all resource handling tech, and the entire tier one of Mech Upgrade Tree. Previously, after getting access to Communication Hubs, you would have to churn through some basic research options that you had no real use for (looking at you, cobalt handling) in order to gain access to technologies further down the line.
Each Survival Mode Biome now has a slightly different starting loadout for the Mech. We wanted to give you early access to weapons and tech that will give you a fighting chance against those biomes' enemies.
The Alien Research tech tree no longer requires a Laboratory to be built in Survival Mode. This means that you can start researching those technologies right away, giving you access to more tech to fit your strategy and playstyle. Yay nukes!
Volcanic Biome Survival maps have been tweaked to feature a little bit more of open spaces to reduce the 'tightness' of the map.
Volcanic Biome: big Magnetic Boulders now have a reduced amount of hitpoints for easier removal. Cryo Stations building time decreased.
Geoscanner and Bioscanner are now available in Survival from the start.
Changed most of the map tiles - increased the number of resource spawn points, player spawn points, and objective spawn points, plus some tweaks to prefabs and unit spawn points.

We introduced some changes to how building repairs work. Instead of being instant, a repair job will now take up to 10 seconds, depending on the amount of missing hit points. You pay the cost of the repair upfront, all at once. If a building takes damage while it is being repaired, the process is stopped. These changes were introduced to offset the ability to mass repair buildings in combat situations. It also opens up the road to adding a “repair all” button in the future.

We have introduced several significant balance changes based on the data available to us:
Plasma Towers damage has been reduced across all levels. Its splash damage has also been reduced.
Railgun Tower now has less damage per shot on higher levels but also a slightly higher fire rate to maintain the DPS level.
Minigun Tower damage has been reduced across all levels.
In order to eliminate energy spikes during combat situations, we have eliminated the energy cost per shot in energy-based towers. Instead, they consume a constant amount of power each second. Make sure to revise your existing power grids.
We rebalanced the ammo production rate of Armory and Tower Ammo Factories to be more reasonable. The previous increase rate was a tad too low.
Melee weapons have been rebalanced slightly. The spear’s effectiveness has been reduced by making the hitbox a bit more narrow (but just a little), and higher levels of melee weapons increase in scale much more than they used to.
Plasma Gun damage, fire rate, and splash damage have all been reduced.
Grenade Launcher ammo cost has been increased to avoid the 'infinite ammo' scenario that would happen at lower levels if a player built six Ammo Storage buildings. Shooting only one Grenade Launcher would consume less ammo than the Armory would produce.
Pipelines’ hitpoints increased.

The maximum number of Outposts you can control during one Campaign Mode run has been increased to 10.
Added the Super Moon event to both Campaign and Survival modes. It can allow your solar panels to work at night.
Various Campaign Mode difficulty tweaks.
The lights on all plasma projectiles have been slightly increased.
Localized events, such as tornadoes, can now affect only part of the map when it comes to wind speed. That means only the wind turbines within a certain radius from a localized event will be affected by it.
Lesigian is now able to travel across liquid pools and rock formations.
Aiming priorities changed for Sentry Guns. They will no longer try to shoot down air units.
We added a little effect that spawns at the end of the laser beam to mark its maximum range. Previously, beams would just end abruptly. Now they’ve got a nice little flare at the end.
Bioanomalies now have a bigger chance of containing something useful. Skins appear more often, too.
Changed the attack wave spawned when Bioanomalies are opened. It's a big one. Really. You have been warned. We want to make opening a Bioanomaly a conscious decision you have to prepare for. This change is currently implemented only in the Metallic Valley biome.
The Power Jump flight pattern has been changed to make it feel a lot more powerful.

Additional tweaks to underground mushroom detection. It should now feel more reliable and less based on luck.
The Geoscanner now reveals underground mushrooms more effectively.
Drilling animation begins faster and is quicker itself, resulting in a shorter time needed to defuse an underground fungal death trap.

We have completely reworked our audio system. Previously, it had the tendency to get a bit overwhelmed when there were a lot of things happening at once. Some sounds would get cut in half, and others wouldn't start playing back at all. All sounds should playback properly and stick to their limits with the new system.

FIXES

The amount of fixes and smaller changes within this build is too long to list. We have fixed a number of obscure crash bugs, power grid problems, gameplay glitches, and UI bugs. However, this update is sure to introduce new problems in its experimental form. We encourage you to report everything that you notice and we’ll work hard to ensure a polished final release for this update.

KNOWN ISSUES & WORK IN PROGRESS

Morphium Shader - the current look of the Morphium liquid is temporary, we are working on a nicer visual effect, but it wasn’t ready to be included in this build yet
Morphium Tower - the current visual effects for this tower are unfinished. Attack animation is disabled and the spikes themselves are a placeholder model.
Compressor/Decompressor - the visual effects for these buildings are unfinished. We’d also love to hear your feedback in regards to the economy balance of this building in Campaign Mode. It is one of the most significant new gameplay mechanics and we’re sure it will need additional polish and bug hunting in complex scenarios.
Chainsaw - this weapon is currently not functional and can only be unlocked using cheats. It is work in progress both in terms of visuals and functioning.
Laser sword - the visual effects and balancing for this weapon is still work in progress
Lightning Tower and Lightning Gun - the balancing for this weapon is not finished, however, feedback is welcome at this point.
Metallic Valley Bioanomalies - some of the destruction models are missing and their animation isn’t final. Their attack wave strength is also not fully balanced yet.
Metallic Valley Biofactories - their destruction levels aren’t finalized yet.
Morphium Power Plant - visual effects for this building are still work in progress
Liquid splash effects - there is still a number of bugs in regards to this feature. We’re working on it.
Weather event lighting - some of the weather events may temporarily change the biome lighting
Flying unit navigation - this is a huge new feature and may still contain some bugs. This should be very rare but if you encounter some units stuck on the map - it would be great if you could send us a screenshot of that exact spot.
Survival Mode balancing - the changes that we’ve introduced have changed this mode dramatically. We’d love to hear your feedback about the game’s pacing and difficulty in this mode.
Online Multiplayer mode refactoring - while it is not possible to play the game in multiplayer yet, we’ve already refactored large portions of the game code to enable this in the future. We may have introduced unknown and obscure bugs in the process. This also highlights the need to test this update on the experimental branch before an “official” release.
All of the new in-game text hasn’t been translated into languages other than English.
Only Standard sized maps currently work in Survival in Custom Game - choosing a different size will cause the game to crash.

We hope that you will check out this Experimental Update, as we would like to hear your feedback on the changes we made. We plan to make this update public along with the release of the Metal Terror Expansion, so there is plenty of time to fix all the issues you find. We also expect to publish some additional updates in the meantime, containing some of the most requested QoL features.

Visit us on Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios and share your thoughts!

EXOR Studios

May 31, 2022

1.34 Denmark

Europa Universalis IV - PDXRyagi

Hej allesamen! Welcome to our next Development Diary for Europa Universalis IV! After covering the Baltics it is finally time to switch our focus to Scandinavia, so let’s get started!

As the 13th century drew to a close, powerful social mechanisms such as feudalism and manorialism had formed deep roots in the Danish Court. At the same time, the Christian church had, at that point, come to dominate religious matters all across the Scandinavian region. At home, the royal family, spearheaded by Margaret I, would finally place a singular dynastic head on each of the three lions’ thrones, during the last years of the 14th century.

As of the treaty of Kalmar in 1397 the Nordic Crowns of Norway, Sweden and Denmark are intended to be borne by one monarch. Since its inception this Kalmar Union has been led by the Danes, the strongest and richest of the Nordic powers, close to the continent with an ambition to control and dominate the Baltic Sea area.

Eventually however, the Kalmar Union fell apart when Sweden broke free from Denmark and established an empire of its own later on. The goal of the Danish mission tree is to avoid this fate. It also focuses on the ambitions Denmark had during the time period of EU4 and as such is a lot less experimental than the Teutonic and the Livonian Orders’ mission trees.

You will notice that the Danish mission tree is separated into two “blocks”. The first half is about keeping the Kalmar Union together with a few conquest missions on the side to ensure that Denmark is the sole maritime power in North Europe.
The second block on the other hand is a lot more about the Danish ambitions of colonialism, the question of religion, embracement of Absolutism and the usage of mercenaries as the army for Denmark.

We will focus on the Kalmar Union block first as it ties into the mechanics which are unique to Denmark with the upcoming DLC. When you start as Denmark while the DLC is active you will be confronted with this government reform at your start:

The Kalmar Union is a somewhat mixed bag for the player. On the one hand, the diplomatic relations and possible advisors are desirable to have, but on the other hand you are confronted with the fact that you can not manually integrate any kind of personal union (however, inheriting them is still feasible though). You also have to deal with the “Kalmar Election” which is a unique mechanic to Denmark.
As you might know neither Sweden nor Norway had a hereditary monarchy but an elective one. So whenever your king dies as Denmark while you have this government active you get the following event:

This will trigger the following event for your Scandinavian personal unions:

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It is important to note that the AI will make their choice based on your prestige, diplomatic reputation and how much Liberty Desire they have with the latter one being their biggest factor. As Denmark you really want to keep the liberty desire low of each of your personal unions or otherwise they might spiral out of your control and will easily find supporters for their independence.

While the first and third options are rather self-explanatory, the second one is a choice that the AI can take when they are not fully convinced by your ruler - mostly when your ruler is quite the unfortunate one regarding his monarch skills - but do not desire to break out of the Kalmar Union yet. In this case the junior partners can suggest somebody from their own ranks to take over the Kalmar Union as your king:

This will of course trigger an event for Denmark where they can accept or reject to proposed regent:

Of course you can always reject the proposal, though this will result in your junior partner becoming slightly upset about your decision. Alternatively, you can accept the new king, but because your junior partners have to elect their king this will result in a new re-election:

However, this event will not allow your junior partners to propose another new king (otherwise you would end up in a loop of elections of new kings while hilarious for the first three or four rounds can become quite annoying really fast). Additionally, the one who suggested your new king in the first place will ALWAYS elect him to king, so you can reduce some liberty desire this way.

While the Swedish and Norwegian nobilities are a pain to deal with, you cannot forget your own. Historically, the Danish nobles did not support the Kalmar Union and attempted to exploit the divided attention of the Danish King. This gets represented in form of an event which triggers around every four years:

There are 11 demands in total and the nobility will pick one of them. Each one of them has some penalty to your country: be it from losing monarch power to losing Ducats to even getting the risk of a hunting accident.

Now let’s go back to Denmark's mission tree. The centerpiece of the mission tree focuses on resolving the conflicts with the other junior partners. By increasing the opinions of your Norwegian and Swedish subjects you can complete the missions “The Crown of Norway” and “The Crown of Sweden” which give you the following events respectively.

The first option allows you to receive a penalty to National Tax Modifier / Goods Produced Modifier by -10% and an increase of the Nobility’s Influence by +10%, but in return your two subjects gain a modifier which decreases their liberty desire by 10% and increase their Yearly Tax Income, which makes them to durable subjects during your wars with other European countries. The second option just gives some monarch power. On the other hand there is the third option which allows you to be more risky with your personal unions, giving the following effects:

Note: keep in mind that numbers and modifiers are NOT final.

The “Integrate Holstein” mission is rather self explanatory. However, “The Nobles of Sweden” is a little bit of a different story:

This whole mission is basically about a medium-long event chain (which also incorporates some of the vanilla Danish / Swedish events into it) where you can choose how to deal with the nobility of Sweden. For the sake of simplicity I will only highlight the two possible results of the event chains:

The event for Sweden when Denmark chooses to be more hostile...

After dealing with the Swedish nobility (by either defeating them on the battlefield which is Sweden or by executing them in quick succession in Stockholm), you can start working on the “Ratify the Kalmar Union” mission which triggers the following event for you:

Note: Modifiers and mechanic values are subject to change.

Keep in mind that you get this event ONLY when you complete the “Ratify the Kalmar Union” mission while having the Kalmar Union government reform. Otherwise you get +100 Monarch Points for each category. The military bonuses mentioned here are the following ones: you gain flat +2000 Manpower and +400 Sailors per Junior Partner + an additional +5% Global Manpower Modifier and Global Sailors Modifier. Meanwhile, your junior partners will receive the military benefits of Marches, so keeping them as your military buffer states.

You also unlock one decision which might be welcome to any roleplayer here:

Historically, only Christopher III von Wittelsbach styled himself as “Arch-King” while everyone else in Europe just used the normal title. In a time where Cristopher and his heirs might have managed to keep the union together it seemed plausible enough to us that future generations of Danish rulers might choose to follow Christopher’s naming fashion. It is, however, a purely visual title and you gain no other benefit than having an unique title.

Now that we are done with the Kalmar Union section let’s take a look at the remaining missions of the first block. The most right side of the missions are quite obvious what they are about: challenge the English navy, conquer England and gain dominance in the British Isles. These missions are referencing the North Sea Empire, but the mission descriptions make clear that the conquest of England is motivated by maritime rivalry and commercial dominance in Lübeck and the English Channel, not by the lost accomplishments of the Danish vikings centuries ago.

The most left branch of the missions is more concerned about a more important enemy Denmark is facing: the Hansa. Some of you, the community, already commented how the poor merchant republic of Lübeck gets bullied in this DLC and Denmark’s mission tree continues with this trend. The mission “Humiliate Lübeck” unlocks a decision for you which will be very much needed for the next mission:

The mission “The Cities of the Hansa” will require you to control all the important centers of trade in the Lübeck trade node - all lands in the HRE. Because of that, you will most likely know to appreciate this decision as this will trigger a DEFENSIVE war against the Hansa.
The rest of the mission branch is then about conquering Estonia and Novgorod and of course expanding the Sound Toll. Highlight here is a permanent +25% Trade Efficiency modifier.

Now that we are done with the European affairs part of the mission tree it is time to go into detail for the second block of missions. The missions linked to “Colonial Ambitions” are the biggest branch of this mission tree and cover the colonial ambitions of Denmark with a big focus on colonizing valuable trade company regions and a lesser focus on the New World (which also gets updated if you happen to play with a Random New World).

The second biggest branch of the flavor events are the branching missions on the most right. These are focusing on the religious direction of your country: stay loyal to the Catholic Church, embrace the Reformation or become a state of Tolerance. Completing the mission “The Age of Reformation” fires the following event which unlocks your religious missions:

One notable mission from the religious ones are the “Spread the Reformation” / “The Religious League” missions which you unlock by either taking Reformation or Catholicism missions respectively. What makes them special is that they are intertwined with the Religious League War. You complete them by winning the Religious League War and the mission rewards you with +2 Military Skill for your monarch and +150 opinion of every HRE member which follows your religion, which makes becoming the next Emperor of the HRE more feasible.

One minor but important branch I want to go into detail is the one regarding the mercenaries. As some of you might know, Denmark is not really known for its own strong military during this time period. Instead of Danish soldiers, the kings of Denmark relied heavily on German mercenaries to do the monarchs’ bidding. The mission “The German Mercenaries” emphasizes it. By improving the opinion of several owners of homes of Germanic mercenary companies you can complete this mission and the following event fires for you:

The mercenaries you unlock are dependent on which owners of Germanic merc company homes have a high opinion of you. In this case Denmark increased the opinions of Saxony, Hesse, Wurttemberg and Switzerland.

And that was the Danish mission tree!

As we were working on the Danish mission tree the time for us has come to also revisit the Danish ideas. While the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden have unique and/or very powerful ideas, the Danish ideas fell flat on both fronts. We wanted to change this for the upcoming update and as such we decided to give Denmark an update:

DAN_ideas = { start = { navy_tradition = 1 #Prev: ship_durability = 0.05 global_manpower_modifier = 0.2 #Prev: global_tax_modifier = 0.1 } bonus = { global_naval_engagement_modifier = 0.15 #Prev: global_naval_engagement_modifier = 0.10 } trigger = { tag = DAN } free = yes #will be added at load. dan_kalmar_union = { #Prev: shock_damage = 0.1 liberty_desire_from_subject_development = -0.2 diplomatic_annexation_cost = -0.1 } dan_sound_dues = { global_own_trade_power = 0.2 #Prev: global_manpower_modifier = 0.2 trade_efficiency = 0.05 #Prev: global_sailors_modifier = 0.2 } dan_the_kings_sea = { naval_forcelimit_modifier = 0.5 #Prev: naval_morale = 0.1, disengagement_chance = 0.05 } dan_royal_mercenaries = { #Prev: build_cost = -0.15 shock_damage = 0.1 mercenary_discipline = 0.05 } dan_naval_heroes = { #Prev: naval_maintenance_modifier = -0.15 leader_naval_shock = 1 naval_morale = 0.15 } dan_colonial_ventures = { #Prev: naval_forcelimit_modifier = 0.5 global_colonial_growth = 15 } dan_danish_absolutism_idea = { #Prev: global_unrest = -1 global_autonomy = -0.05 max_absolutism = 10 } }

While we were updating the ideas of Denmark we also remembered another favorite of the community whose ideas were rather lackluster - even for its time back then:

VEN_ideas = { start = { trade_steering = 0.33 #Prev: global_sailors_modifier = 0.20 republican_tradition = 0.25 #Prev: global_trade_power = 0.1 } bonus = { galley_power = 0.25 } trigger = { tag = VEN } free = yes #will be added at load. venetian_arsenal = { naval_forcelimit_modifier = 0.25 ship_durability = 0.05 #Prev: galley_cost = -0.20 } printing_industry = { diplomats = 1 } stato_da_mar = { trade_efficiency = 0.2 #Prev: trade_efficiency = 0.10 } state_inquisition = { global_spy_defence = 0.3 yearly_corruption = -0.05 #New } conscription = { global_sailors_modifier = 0.33 #Prev: naval_maintenance_modifier = -0.2, sailor_maintenance_modifer = -0.05 } defend_the_law = { global_unrest = -2 #Prev: stability_cost_modifier = -0.1, justify_trade_conflict_cost = -0.1 } provveditori_ai_beni_inculti = { development_cost = -0.1 #Prev: land_attrition = -0.10, naval_attrition = -0.10 } }

Owners of Rule Britannia will also have access to more Naval Doctrines for more countries. These are the new ones added to the game we have so far:

It is unclear right now if we’ll add more naval doctrines or not, but we have an open ear for more naval doctrine suggestions.

And that’s it for this week! Next week’s DD will be about the most overpowered perfectly balanced country in Scandinavia.

Until then I wish you all a nice week!