We're coming up to the end of the Next Fest demo, but don't worry – Moonstone Island will be out this Summer, so you won't have long to wait for the full game (and we won't boot you out after two weeks, either!)
Today, we wanted to show off some of the cards in our game. We're really influenced by games like Slay the Spire, where individual cards can make or break a deck, but you can also create decks that center around one particular mechanic.
Turns out deckbuilding is really hard! You have to focus on balance and creating mechanics and systems that tie into each other in a really satisfying way. We like it a lot, though, and we're really proud of the cards we've created. We know that not all cozy gamers are versed at card-games, so let's break down our cards:
Title: The name of the card! If it has a little + next to it, it's the upgraded version. Type: Skill or Attack. Pretty self-explanatory! Element: This matches the type of the Spirit it belongs to. If the enemy Spirits are weak to it, it does extra damage and removes their Armor! Cost: How many of your Energy points the card costs. Some are free, others cost all your Energy! Rarity: This rating tells you how rare and also how powerful a card is. The rarity scale goes up to 9! Description: Tells you what the card does.
So, this card is called Calm Spirit, and it's not very rare at all. It costs 1 Energy, as you can see in the top-left corner, and it has three effects: it draws one card, removes one Armor, and inflicts Calm on the Spirit, which stops it from playing Attack cards for one turn.
Here, you can see three Tackle cards, each doing different damage based on the Spirit's Attack stat, and whether or not the card is upgraded. Tackle cards are the basic cards that all Spirits have, along with Bash cards, which reduce Armor. You can get rid of these cards if you want, but we hear there are cards out there that work well with a Tackle-filled deck...
Here's a slightly rarer card – it's Burgloon's 'Flip Switch', which costs 2 Energy, and deals 8 Electric damage, three times. Combine this with the Attack-boosting Charge buff, and take the Armor off the enemy, and you could be doing massive amounts of damage, because Charge increases the damage of each attack. Instead of hitting for 8 damage, you could be hitting for 15 damage... three times.
We can't wait to hear what kind of decks and strategies you've figured out! The exciting part of making a deck builder is that the power is in the player's hands – there are combos out there that we don't even know about!
Hah! Bet you were expecting Anchor to waltz back today and tuck you in with some 'everything's gonna be fine'? Well, tough break! Turns out, my last update didn't exactly tickle his fancy, not that I'm surprised. But guess what? I couldn't care less. Park yourselves and lend an ear, because things are about to get even rougher from here on out.
Shops, shops, and more shops...
We used to have a bunch of shops, and you'll need to get them back on their feet - Mayor Renard keeps yapping about how it’ll be worth it, but that guy just wants to start getting some of that sweet tax money in his pocket, I’ll betya.
Get that tinhead Copperbottom to do some dirty work as well. I walked around the main square today and let me tell you, it doesn’t exactly scream five-star holiday destination! Still, even I have to admit it could start looking a little better around here with a slave, uhh, helpful citizen to fix things up.
Here’s a list of what needs to be done:
Bait shop: Fresh fish smell worse than you, which is saying something. Fishing gear might help get more food.
Tavern: Everyone loves a good drink and gossip, plus some occasional brawls to liven up the weekends.
Salon: Maybe it'll convince you to change your face or something.
Clinic: For those sensitive wimps who need more than a bandaid for their boo-boos.
Clothing shop: Change those filthy rags; style doesn't cost anything.
Café and bakery: Food and drinks, duh. Basic survival stuff.
Museum: Boring, but apparently crucial for tourism. Fill it up with exhibits or whatever.
Workshop: That oily mess is all yours. Do your crafting stuff there, far away from me.
Furniture shop: Get furniture and some crafting recipes to save a buck.
School: Some less bright folks here need all the help they can get, so fix that school for them.
Lighthouse: No idea why we need it. I guess to keep those fools from shipwrecking all the time.
[/h3] [/list]
Oh, and we already have the post office and Renard's shop up and running, but that place doesn’t exactly sell luxury items most of the time. I swear I saw him selling a broken treadmill in there the other day.
Do people here work?
What happens when there’s no business? Well, nobody really does any work, right?
When you finally manage to fix those shops, you'll need someone to run them, and let's face it, this place is as lively as a graveyard right now. So, it's your job to cruise around in your lousy bathtub boat and find some stranded idiots to scam—ahem, I mean, to convince them to join our delightful island! I'm sure they'll be thrilled not to spend their nights sleeping on the sand.
Once you've got the shops up and running and a bunch of Critters running around sucking up the oxygen, it's time for the hard part: carefully selecting your workforce. Brace yourself; most of these Critters are good-for-nothings.
So, if you want to avoid having your customers served coffee with a side of Critter spit, sour milk soups garnished with dead flies, or leftovers mixed into fresh orders, you'd better think long and hard about those choices. Or don’t, of course. The chaos would at least be pretty entertaining.
On the rare occasion that you miraculously find a Critter enjoying their work, well, the customers might actually leave with a smile. And if we play our cards right, Checkmark might grace us with a tiny pat on the back in his loser clipboard. Piece of cake, right?
Alright, that's enough for today. Anchor asked me to tell you to keep an eye out for some important announcement coming soon. I don't know, and I don't care. Now, leave me alone, I need my beauty sleep.
We're excited to invite you to the Experimental version of the upcoming Sealed Forest Update. It will introduce the proper Sealed Forest biome with unique visuals and gameplay mechanics.
This Experimental Update features only the mechanical aspects. All the visual assets are placeholders that will be replaced when the proper update goes live.
Important: as with any other Experimental Update, the upcoming changes are not localized, there can be bugs, and the balance is likely to feel off. If this doesn’t sound fun to you, we recommend skipping this experiment.
We finally have a solid release date for the Sealed Forest Update. It’s going to be available on the main branch on August 31.
It’s going to happen later than we teased during our Twitch livestreams but we made this decision for a few reasons. Mainly, our team is going to the gamescom fair in Cologne only a few days after the update would go live. We’re worried we wouldn’t be able to properly support the update post-launch and fix the issues that might occur.
Nevertheless, we hope it will be worth the wait!
Now, let’s dive into the changes introduced in the update.
What’s new?
So far, the Sealed Forest was just a placeholder biome with placeholder effects. Now, we’re introducing a fully-fledged Ancient Seal mechanic that is unique to this biome. Your goal is to find the Ancient Seal and collect Guardian Parts necessary to summon the Ancient Guardian.
The Sealed Forest
Somewhere in this thick and dark forest, an ancient seal is hidden. Even the Ancients, with all their might and glory, could only contain the creatures slumbering below, so they just imprisoned them. Over millennia, their sinister power gradually seeped to the surface, infecting the fauna and flora of this region. Viceroys don't embark here to establish settlements or gain reputation, their main goal is simply to find and close the Seal.
Sealed Forest trees
The flora in this region is bizarrely mutated. Overgrown trees with a lot more resource charges can be found in the forest. Abyssal trees (regular) contain 2 charges, while overgrown trees (large) contain 20 charges. By chopping the trees, you can acquire:
Wood (100% chance)
Meat (10% chance)
Sea Marrow (10% chance)
Leather (10% chance)
But beware! Your woodcutters don't increase Hostility but every 10 felled trees add 2 Hostility points (scaled based on the difficulty level).
A broken Ancient Seal is hidden somewhere in the Sealed Forest. To find it, you must first look for clues in the surrounding glades. Every glade contains a Destroyed Guidance Stone that points to the location of the Ancient Seal.
Destroyed Guidance Stone pointing south-west
The Ancient Seal
Evil has survived. The Sealed Ones enter our realm through the broken Seal. Terrible plagues are sent to destroy us. Collect the lost fragments of the Ancient Guardian to summon it and close the Seal.
Ancient Seal
This game can't be won by earning Reputation Points. To succeed, you must find and close the Seal. You can still get Blueprint Bonuses and Forsaken Altar activations for reaching certain Reputation thresholds, but reaching the limit won’t finish the game.
Ancient Seal panel
The Ancient Seal panel consists of different elements:
The Seal Keeper dialogue box.
Plague description and countdown.
Ancient Guardian parts progress
Part variants and conditions.
Part rewards.
Let’s take a closer look at them.
The Ancient Guardian parts
To reforge the Seal you must rebuild the Ancient Guardian by obtaining its heart, blood, feathers, and life essence.
Four parts are necessary to summon the Guardian:
Heart of the Guardian
Blood of the Guardian
Feathers of the Guardian
Life Essence of the Guardian
There are three different variants of each part. To acquire one of them, you must prove your proficiency in a certain area.
For example, here are three variants of the Heart:
Heart of Amber - Sell goods worth at least 100 Amber in a single transaction.
Heart of the Forest - Earn 3 Reputation Points from Events.
Mechanical Heart - Install at least 6 Rain Engines in production buildings.
You only need to obtain one of them to progress the Seal and uncover the objectives of the next Guardian part.
After acquiring each of the Guardian's parts, you will receive a choice of Epic Cornerstone from the Seal Keeper.
By collecting all four Guardian parts, the Seal will be reforged! The Blighstorm comes yet again, but the future looks a little brighter. You will receive extra Citadel Resources, the Cycle will be prolonged (only once per each Seal level), and new Seals will appear on the World Map.
The Plagues
The mere presence of the Ancient Seal summons foul plagues on your settlement.
Every year, during the Storm, one of 13 plagues will be unleashed upon your settlement. Some exemplary ones are:
Plague of Malady - The Sealed Ones have inflicted a mysterious disease. Villagers take longer rests and have a higher chance of consuming twice as much food during a break.
Plague of Darkness - Some say this is the beginning of the end. The Storm season is longer and sacrificing goods at the Ancient Hearth is blocked.
Plague of Blindness - When they lost their sight, they lost all hope along with it. All villagers move slower and have a chance of destroying a production yield.
And others.
You can check what’s the Current Plague and then what the Next Plague will be (and how much time you have left before it starts.)
The Plagues will activate every year, even if you haven’t found the Ancient Seal yet. Finding an Ancient Seal allows you to check which Plague comes next.
The Beacon Tower
A powerful ancient structure that allows you to summon aid directly from the Citadel.
Beacon Tower
The Beacon Tower is a new building, available only in the Sealed Forest biome. You must spend 2 Planks, 2 Bricks, and 2 Fabric to build it.
The Beacon Tower allows you to select up to five, free abilities at any time during the game. They’re divided into three categories: Supplies, Bells, and Miracles. They range from one-time packs of supplies to effects that are active for one season.
The Future
The proper Sealed Forest Update that releases on August 31 will include plenty of new visuals and audio:
Sealed Forest biome (unique trees, ground, and ambience)
Ancient Seal building
Animation of reforging the Seal
Beacon Tower building
Destroyed Guidance Stone building
Custom icons
Improved Ancient Seal panel
New music tracks
New sounds
In the meantime, we will also monitor your feedback and adjust the balance where necessary.
How to test it?
In order to play on the Sealed Forest Biome, you need to switch to the Experimental Branch. Here’s how to do it:
Open Steam
Right-click on Against the Storm in your library
Select Properties
Go to BETAS tab
Choose “experimental” from the drop-down list
Wait for the game to update the files
Launch the game
To switch back to the regular version, please repeat the steps above but choose “None” from the drop-down list in Step 5.
The Experimental Branch includes a developer console that provides various useful commands. You can open the console by pressing the ~ key on your keyboard.
Useful commands:
debug.worldMap 1 - Allows you to place finished settlements on the World Map by holding Shift and clicking on a tile.
game.win - after embarking, in the city-building mode, this command wins the game.
meta.addEarly - unlocks early Smoldering City Upgrades (up to level 4), completes the Silver Seal, and advances to level 4.
meta.addMiddle - unlocks middle Smoldering City Upgrades (up to level 9), completes the Platinum Seal (Prestige 5), and advances to level 9.
meta.addLate - unlocks late Smoldering City Upgrades (up to level 14), completes the Titanium Seal (Prestige 15), and advances to level 14.
meta.addAll - unlocks all Smoldering City Upgrades, completes all Seals, and advances to level 18.
worldMap.addSealFragments - add Seal Fragments.
worldMap.addModifiersRewards - adds Royal Resupply.
worldMap.addAllMC - adds 777 of each Citadel Currency.
Important: We recommend playing with at least the early meta (meta.addEaly) as the Bronze (Settler) and Lead (Pioneer) Seals require additional balancing work.
How to report bugs?
If you encounter any issues, please let us know about them:
Describe the issue and frequency of occurrence.
(If possible) include a screenshot or a video of the issue.
Include the zipped contents of your entire Experimental saves folder:
%userprofile%\appdata\locallow\Eremite Games\Against the Storm - Experimental
Neverending Check-in: The Hotel Stories - mr.Kraken
Greetings to our amazing community!
We have some exciting news for you all. After months of development, testing, and refining, we're delighted to announce the release of our FREE demo version!
This demo offers you a sneak peek into the world we've crafted, showcasing some of the unique features, mechanics, and narratives you can expect in the full game. We believe this will give everyone a taste of the excitement and adventures that await.
Why should you try the demo?
Experience firsthand some of our game's core mechanics. Engage with a portion of the captivating storyline. Test out our gameplay and provide invaluable feedback. Your feedback is instrumental. After playing the demo, please consider dropping your thoughts, suggestions, and any bugs you might encounter in the community forums. Your input will play a significant role in refining the final game.
The journey has just begun, and we're thrilled to have you with us. Dive into the demo, explore, and most importantly, have fun!
Thank you for your unwavering support and passion.
We have worked hard on making some performance improvements to the game, and today’s patch is the result. We hope you.. Enjoy :) That said, if any performance issues arise in the future, please do keep in mind the game’s minimum system requirements.
Additionally, due to a lot of feedback, we have decided to re-balance Stamina usage and increase the duration of the day. Please do not hesitate to let us know how it feels now. Remember, we’re still in Early Access: the best way to communicate your feedback is to talk to us directly!
The full patch notes are as follows:
Bugfixes:
Mining nodes will now correctly respawn
Build Tool tutorial quest can now be completed correctly
Fixed photo tagging
Fixed the incorrect display of affection hearts on old save games
Fixed flower discoveries
Photography commissions will now correctly serialize after loading a game
Fixed “Photo of Hare” photography commission
It is now possible to take a photo of a Malamu Whale for a commission
Added a missing icon to Insect Calmer Potion recipe
Furnace crafting now has correct UI on old save games
Desert chests now correctly respawn with rewards
Fixed Urushu’s birthday date
Picking up mushrooms now correctly displays how many of them were added to the inventory
Removed collision from apple tree leaves
Items in the inventory are no longer undervalued
Fixed Instant Grow Potion icon
Radar SFX will no longer persist after turning it off
The player can no longer get stuck on tree branches
Temporarily removed unnecessary dialogues in cat quest
It is now possible to fish next to the waterfall
Major features and improvements:
Re-balanced Stamina by reducing cost for all actions
Reduced VRAM usage to prevent crashes; please note that minimum system requirements still apply
Reduced durability of wood and stones on the farm
Increased the day’s length
Added new keybinds
Added FPS lock to graphic options
View Distance now affects the number of visible tourists; this feature updates each time you change it and go to sleep
Rock Melting Potion can now be used to destroy rocks that bar our path
Reduced collision of roads, which will allow building closer to them
Food can now be put on the item bar and eaten with RMB
Adjusted the size of new plants; that way, they can be gathered after planting them on our farm
Blueprints that we have already learned are now marked in the store
Breaking down buildings is now possible even with full inventory; parts that can’t be picked up will be dropped on the ground
Minor features and improvements:
Completing a riddle on the desert now offers a more unique recipe as a reward
Exam UI adjustments
Toned down Cauldron UI SFX
Added new tags to photos
Added new spawn points for shiitake and oyster mushrooms
Changed materials required for building a beehive
We hope these changes will make your stay on the Fern Island more comfortable. Rest assured that your feedback is always heard, and is an important part of our workflow for future updates. Thank you for all activity so far, reporting issues and hanging out with us in Discord. We couldn’t have done this without you!