Hello Polytopians!

As you know, we just released the Diplomacy update for Polytopia, and we've been seeing some questions about what it's about, how it works, and how to use the new things it adds. So, we thought to write up an FAQ to help demystify some of the new content!


A: The Diplomacy Update is the most recent update to Polytopia, which adds some new and exciting content to the world of Polytopia. Specifically, it adds the new "Diplomacy" tech after "Strategy" (formerly known as "Shields"), Peace Treaties, Embassies, Capital Vision, and Cloaks/Daggers, and we'll discuss all of those throughout this document.



A: Diplomacy is a staple of the 4X genre, and was a very common suggestion by fans. A lot of people have asked if they could befriend the AI and other players, both to gang up on winning players or just for the sake of role-play. From the perspective of mechanics, we wanted to address a few common complaints - snowballing and lack of catch-up mechanics. We wanted to add mechanics that would allow people to temporarily work together so they could take down a much larger foe without tripping over each other. Mutual star production through Embassies, no Zone of Control, shared roads, and etc. We feel that this new Diplomatic game isn't "necessary" to win, but it creates an interesting dynamic for people who want to use it, and makes the game harder for people who wanted more of a challenge, since enemy players can work together to stop them. The new Peace Treaties and Diplomacy tech are not necessary to win, and are just another set of tools at your disposal.

A: If you've updated the game recently, you already are! "Diplomacy" is a new tech after the "Strategy" tech (formerly known as "Shields"), and should be able to be researched like any other tech. Note, you'll only see the new Diplomacy features in new games, as old games won't be adjusted.

A: In short, no, you cannot, as this is where we'd like to take the game. With that being said, we're going to be watching how this update performs, and aren't opposed to making adjustments where necessary, such as balancing the new units, adjusting mechanics of treaties, and so forth. Diplomacy is here to stay, but it doesn't mean we're done playing around with it, and we hope to make something that's simple, light, flexible, and fun for everyone. :)

We'd also like to point out that we wanted to make sure that Diplomacy was only a means to an end, and not necessary for victory. It's fully optional, and you can win without utilizing it, and it's nothing more than another tool in your arsenal on your path to conquering the Square.

A: The AI were designed to react to things like a human player, and dislike things such as being attacked or having enemy units in their space, and like things like getting an Embassy or getting help fighting their enemies. Looking at the tribe's diplomacy screen will show a combination of red and green opinion modifiers which will explain specific reasons for their current opinion of you (which can be clicked on for more information).

A: In short, they'll need to have a "Great" opinion of you in order to accept your proposed Peace Treaty. Look above on suggestions on how to get to this opinion rating.



A: Because we improved them! The AI are now better at using their troops effectively, growing their empires, and being a greater challenge. Yes, it was fun to mock the crappy AI, but we're hoping to un-crap it over the next updates. :)


A: Peace Treaties are now a way to cooperate with other players, mainly to gang up on a winning player or just to ensure that one of your sides can't be attacked while you do something else. When a peace treaty is signed between two players, those players can't attack each other (or perform any hostile actions, such as capturing cities or converting units), can use each others' roads, can move past each others' units (also know as "no Zone of Control"), and will improve the income of any Embassies with each other. Peace Treaties are permanent until broken.



A: After you've researched the "Strategy" tech, you can offer a Peace Treaty to another player. To do so, you need to open up their Diplomacy menu, which can be accessed by either tapping their name bubble (that blue bubble that says "Imperius") or by tapping on their face in the "Game Stats" menus, and tapping the "Offer Peace" button. On their next turn, they'll be given a prompt to accept or deny the proposal.



A: Follow the steps for how to make a Peace Treaty (like, look 3 lines up), and you'll find an option to "Break Peace" instead of "Offer Peace". After confirming that you want to break the Peace Treaty, you'll be unable to attack your former ally until next turn, and they'll be unable to attack you as well. This way, you can still back-stab them, but they'll be given a chance to ready their defenses. But then, what monster would back-stab their poor, defenseless ally? :P

A: To help out a defending player during the breaking of a Peace Treaty, any of the aggressor's units in their territory are destroyed. The game will give you a reminder that this will happen so that you don't forget to move them first before you break peace with an ally.

A: In Might and Domination, yes, you do. Peace Treaties are meant to be temporary forms of mutual peace, and are meant to be forged and broken on your road to victory, as you'll eventually need to kill everyone to win those game modes. So, yes, you'll have to back-stab your allies eventually.

A: So, we're not entirely opposed to making a "Team Game" or "Shared Victory" option in the future, and consider the Diplomacy update a "stepping stone" toward these sorts of things. Why didn't we add them in this update? Well, there's a lot of things to consider with a shared victory, like "What sorts of benefits should teammates get over lone players?" and "How do lone players beat a team that outnumbers them?" We want to ensure that Diplomacy is simply a means to an end, and that there are both pros and cons to forging alliances or staying by yourself.


A: Capital Vision will reveal the tile of the capital city of each tribe you've met (and not the capitals of any tribes you haven't met). It lets you see extra stats about tribes you've met and reveals their capital, which is good for Might and Domination games. :)

A: Embassies are a new kind of building that are only built in the capital cities other tribes. They grant sight of the 8 tiles surrounding the capital, provide +2 stars/turn to both parties, and work as a positive diplomatic modifier for the AI tribes. They'll make +4 stars/turn for both parties if those players have a Peace Treaty. Embassies are destroyed if the two tribes attack each other, and will need to be rebuilt.



A: We wanted the Diplomacy tech to have something that was truly friendly, a genuinely good action between you and another tribe. We wanted to ensure that Embassies couldn't harm or disadvantage either party, and were mutually beneficial in order to forge a strong relationship between tribes.

A: You can build an Embassy in the capital city of any tribe from that tribe's Diplomacy menu. You can access this menu by either tapping their colored name bubble (That red bubble that says "Xin-Xi") or by tapping their head on the "Game Stats" menu. After you've opened up the Diplomacy menu, you can build an Embassy for 5 stars, which will automatically appear in their capital city, regardless of distance away.

A: No. The only way to prevent or destroy an Embassy is to be at war with that player, which can be accomplished by attacking them. Even though you can't say no to an Embassy, you'll still get +2 stars/turn, so at least you get some benefit, and you'll meet the sending tribe if you haven't already met them yet.

A: YES! Both you and them can send Embassies to each other, and those Embassies will individually create stars. You can get +8 stars/turn if you both have Embassies and a Peace Treaty between you.

A: The Embassy is destroyed and will need to be rebuilt. To make matters worse, you can't send Embassies to tribes who aren't in control of their capital city, so you need to hope your friend can retake their city! Their Embassy with you won't be destroyed, though.


A: Cloaks are a new unit added with the Diplomacy tech, and are unique in that they're currently the only unit with the power to become invisible. They're designed to sneak their way into an enemy's empire (i.e. they're invisible and aren't slowed down by enemy units) and incite rebellions in their cities (i.e. spawn Daggers). Cloaks have no attack, and only have 5HP, so they're not sturdy and are useless in a fight. They need their stealth ability to keep them safe.



A: It's simple, just move the Cloak next to an enemy city and you will see the normal red attack circle in the city, then attack the city like normal. An amount of Daggers will spawn equal to the infiltrated city's level (capped at 5 Daggers max). Infiltrating a city destroys the Cloak, and there's no way to stop a Cloak from infiltrating a city. Cloaks cannot infiltrate a city on the same turn that they become invisible. Infiltrating a city will put that city "under siege", and cities under siege won't make stars on the next turn.

A: When trained, Cloaks always begin visible, and they'll become stealthed after they move for the first time - this is so that they can be seen and attacked before they become a nuisance. Cloaks are then fully invisible until either an enemy unit attempts to occupy their space (which gives the enemy unit an opportunity to attack them) or they interact with a village or ruin. They'll be able the become invisible again if they are given an opportunity to move again.

Also worth noting is that Cloaks and Mindbenders can help detect enemy Cloaks. They won't bring them out of stealth, but a small dot will appear, notifying you that a Cloak is adjacent to that unit.



A: Besides using Mindbenders and your own Cloaks to help sniff out enemy Cloaks, Cloaks need to be adjacent to a city in order to use their Infiltrate ability, so preventing them from being adjacent to a city is effective. Patrols of units moving through your empire can also accidentally bump into a Cloak and attack, to which it has zero defense. Lastly, since Cloaks are visible the turn they're trained, you can easily kill them before they can move.

A: Daggers are insurgents spawned by a Cloak's Infiltrate action. They have the same stats as a Warrior, but they also get the "Surprise" trait, which allows them to attack enemy units without provoking a counterattack. You'll get an amount of Daggers from a city equal to the city's level (capped at 5 Daggers max). You can't train Daggers like other units, and need to use a Cloak to spawn them. Daggers will always spawn in places where they have a defense bonus first, like a mountain or forest, or on the water if they have nowhere else to go.



A: The biggest defense is making it difficult or impossible for an enemy Cloak to spawn Daggers in the first place! Assuming that the Infiltrate action was a success, Daggers are best countered by either Knights, Defenders behind a wall, or really any army that happens to be chilling inside your borders near the infiltrated city.

A: We did so for lore reasons - they're guerrilla fighters, designed for hit and run (on a small scale), making them hard to retaliate against. We also wanted to make sure that Daggers were able to actually be a threat, and didn't want them dying too fast, so they won't take any retaliation damage.

A: During development, we asked ourselves "What type of unit is the game missing?", and what we came up with was a unit designed for chaos, distraction, and something that would threaten the backline of an army or undefended cities. We then made the Cloak as a "transport" for Daggers, a unit that you had to skillfully use to drop a horde of units into the undefended back of an enemy empire. Cloaks and Daggers are designed to help break stalemates, cause chaos, and get larger empires thinking about keeping their back or inner cities defended. Even if the enemy can catch your Cloaks, the paranoia alone should keep them on their toes.


A: Knights were commonly understood to be some of the best units in the game. They were strong, fast, and effectively did everything, which meant that once you got your economy going, many games were decided by who could spam more Knights. Many fans complained that "Knight Spam" really isn't very fun or interesting, and we figured that the best way to nerf them without having them lose their purpose was to nerf their HP. This way, their offensive potential isn't tampered with (they're just as strong as before), but players will need to pay more attention to how they position their Knights. We moved them from a more general unit to more of a specialist unit.

A: We removed the changes because we didn't like how they were operating during the beta test. We haven't completely thrown out the ideas, though, and they might come back eventually.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading this FAQ! If you have more questions or comments, feel free to send us a message at feedback@midjiwan.com!

-Zoythrus

Dear operators,

Map editor is coming! Be patient, planned end of june...





Best regards,
Helios

The Necromancer’s Tale has a strong focus on the social aspects of RPG gameplay. The player secretly operates as a black magic practitioner in a medieval city (in 1733) where to be caught would mean certain execution. A lot of play revolves around the social aspects of conversation, coercion, blackmail - and even seduction - whatever it takes for the player to progress their cause. We wanted a game system which would involve decision-making during conversation as well as during more action-oriented play. In short, a system where choices matter - where the player wouldn’t feel that they could just mindlessly click through every conversation option without getting punished. Our system involves two related concepts: Trust and Tension.



Trust

Trust represents the attitude of the NPC townsfolk to the player. Through the use of ‘Trust Groups’ we simulate the behind-the-scenes gossip through which one NPC’s changing attitudes to the player propagates around their social network. For example, if the player acts cruelly to an NPC, then the Trust value will reduce for each of the Trust Groups that that NPC belongs to.

The Trust Groups are:
1 Workers
2 Educated
3 Military
4 Gentry
5 Orphans
6 Outsiders

The player’s uncle Jervase (militaristic baron of the city), for example, belongs to the Military and Gentry trust groups.



The overall trust of the city to the player is calculated from the average of each of the first four trust groups (since no-one really listens to orphans or outsiders). If this overall city trust value drops too low, the player will be tried in court, punished, and perhaps hanged. In the meantime, conversation options are affected by Trust values.

Transgressions

As well as conversation, the game also involves physical activity, of course. The player interacts with objects in the world, moves around, fights (on occasion), and sometimes drags dead bodies back to their home laboratory. Whenever the player is doing something illegal, line-of-sight arcs are displayed for all nearby NPCs. If the player falls within the arc of an NPC, then Trust is affected by the witnessing of the transgression (for the appropriate Trust Groups).



Tension

The second concept in our social system is Tension. This is a number which represents the overall atmosphere of fear in the city. Actions taken by the player which they were not actually witnessed doing will raise Tension but not directly affect Trust. So the player should be careful not to leave dead bodies lying around or bump off too many NPCs - even though they may get away with it at the time.

As Tension rises, the city becomes more heavily patrolled by guards, which in turn makes Transgressions harder to get away with. A high tension value also means that people are more suspicious, harder to deal with in conversation, and more likely to jump to conclusions if the player ends up in court.

Fixed the following bugs:



1: Some enemies may have a bug with HP of 0 but can not be killed;



2: Reduce the sound volume when getting new clothing and level up;



3: Fixed a bug that changed the princess's body shape to the initial body shape when the event playing;



4: Fixed a bug that may have dual background music when returning to the camp from the revenge road;



5: The blur intensity of the depth of field effect is appropriately reduced to see farther;



6: The keyboard x key function is deleted (the progress key in some events is actually the left mouse button or the handle x key, not the keyboard x key, which leads to misunderstanding)

Crashes

• Fixed a crash that occurred when all players but one disconnected during a matchmaking game.
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when watching an agent die in the first person.
  
• Fixed multiple crashes that occurred when a new player connected to a server.

Changes

• Restored player statistics that were achieved prior to the e1.7.2 patch (merged with the new statistics which means that no progress has been lost).
  
• The Ranked Leaderboard now shows all the players that have finished their placement matches.
  
• Added a notification that informs the player when the new "Auto-Follow" order is triggered (Captain mode).
  
• Matchmaking games now get immediately canceled if a player quits during warmup. The quitting player receives a time-out penalty for this action.
  
• AFK duration tolerance has been reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes for players that quit during the matchmaking game.

Changes

• Added a notification that displays additional information if the game crashes during the launch.

Known Issues

- Added option to disable lighting for performance boost
- Added health potions before all bosses
- Updated tar trap slow amount and duration
- Increased spawn start delay for all garrisons
- Increased movement speed and decreased dash cooldown
- Fixed enemies sometimes being unable to move through doorways
- Fixed getting stuck outside of sneak sections
- Fixed getting hit by enemies through turrets
- Fixed enemies not going through doorways sometimes
- Fixed losing input inside of crypt bc of pressure pads

Alchemy, creepy-crawlies and magic toys are waiting for you in CLeM. Now you can play the demo of the upcoming Psychotic Adventure for free.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1960960/CLeM_Demo/

Give it a try and let us know what you think! You can share your thoughts on our Discord server, post your feedback on the game's community hub, or just post about it on Twitter or Instagram. And don't forget to add CLeM to your wishlist if you enjoy the demo so you don't miss the release!

Hi Steam! We have updated the demo with minor fixes and features! Changes with the 🐲 icon in front of them are changes or additions suggested by the community.

We plan to leave the DEMO accessible on Steam for at least 15 days more. We hope you'll enjoy :)

New Features
- Quests marker under NPCs in locations are updated if you need to talk to them to advance in a quest! We hope it will clarify who to talk to at which moment :)
- Current player inventory is now also displayed under the stat UI. You can see what's inside your bag in a glance and hover items to check who need them!
- The map has been updated! New flowers, true vineyards, golden beehives, smooth grass and fluffy bushes... Everything is ready to welcome cute animals ;)

Quality of life
- 🐲 The 'end turn' button is now displayed in the locations UI when you don't have action/movement points left.
- A feedback has been added when you gain a characteristic !
- The last week is now notified at the right moment (being... at the beginning of the last week, yeah).
- Overall UI optimization.
- Tonneline has been buffed.

Corrections
- 🐲 The skin tone of the Luxomancer in the endgame slideshow has been updated to better match its tone during gameplay.
- Gold in inventory menu is now updated during player's turn.

Kickstarter update
Baladins is running a Kickstarter campaign at the moment. The project is funded at 250% with more than 1180 backers!!
We are entering in the LAST 48H of the campaign, let's goooo!

Check the campaign to learn more about it:
► SUPPORT ON KICKSTARTER
► TRY THE DEMO

Fixed:

• Demo Version is now on steam cost free
  
• Swap to non event headquarter works now with correct ui settings
  
• Economy teamboost bar now displays correct progress
  
• Prepared player info in headquarter for new mage / cast system and bigger texts
  
• Gastower now effects bullets correctly
  
• Destroy ui now on correct layer position
  
• Negative skillpoint amount on teamboosting when swap to other menus
  
• Tower destroy but recieve heal amount causes unbalanced adding
  
• Text font on upload to cloud popup / popup now removes correctly
  
• Waypoint movement trail now improved visuals
  
• Teleport trail now improved visuals
  
• UI improvements text fixings
  
• Objectpooling now works correctly without causing bulletstorm
  
• Scripts converted into once (gold, rubo & amne)

Added:

• Terrain smoothing on Deadhell world
  
• New effects: Shooting, Impact, Explosions, Fire, ... improved visuals
  
• New firemode selection on circletower: multiple / single

Changed:

• Arealtower: You can now set a new target with ONE button or remove the target.
  
• Protectbasemenu: Buttons now sorted to left side of screen
  
• Visuals of the targeter changed

Hello Everyone! We want to apologize for being quiet lately. We are very excited to announce that we have begun working on a new 3D survival game which we have decided to allocate most of our resources to. As a result, the development of Yōso Warriors will be delayed while we are working on our new project. We are still coming up with new ideas for Yōso Warriors and are also in the process of refining Yōso Warriors’ game mechanics. We will continue to keep you posted as we have more updates to share. Thank you all again for your patience and support.