Hello, everyone! This is a short but sweet update mainly serving as a way for us to inform you of some changes to the continued development of the game (it’s good news, so no need to worry). But first off, we’ll take a look at a short list summarizing the work that has been done since Full Game Progress Update 2 in July. This is what we have done since then:

• Expanded the character creator with new earrings
• Added new characters
◦ Added and finished Islynor, Rocca, Amelie and Marla Geraldine
• Added new buildings
◦ Black Market (includes generally better rates when trading), Vineyard, Bathhouse and a Town Hall (which reduces the number of months before you can lower taxes)
◦ Added all of the other buildings as well!
• Added particle effects to unbuilt lots so that they are easier to spot when you aren’t interacting with them
• Added particle effects to all sorts of buildings in the town view
◦ Chimney smoke (interactable and non-interactable buildings)
◦ Window and lantern lights (interactable and non-interactable buildings during winter)
◦ Unique effects for some buildings (Mage Tower, Alchemist Laboratory, Brothel, Bathhouse, Lighthouse)
• Added the option to turn off weather effects in the town view
• The game now starts in full screen the first time it is opened



The new characters that we have fully implemented since the last update are the following: the Black Market Supervisor, Islynor Ellona; the Wine Master, Rocca Riero; the Bathhouse Manager, Amelie Doneau; and the Town Secretary, Marla Geraldine “MG” Phavas. On our social media accounts, we have also revealed all of the 38 characters you can date and marry. There’s a picture of all 32 townsfolk for you to enjoy at the end!



Of course, the new characters come with new buildings as well. You can build the Black Market for Islynor, the Vineyard for Rocca, the Bathhouse for Amelie and the Town Hall for Marla Geraldine. The Black Market is sharing a lot space with the Marketplace, which we mentioned in the previous update. The Vineyard and Bathhouse also share a lot, whilst the Town Hall is on the same spot as the Bank. Now, this would usually be where I say we’ll add the Bank later, but we have at the time of writing already added the Bank and all other buildings! More on that later.

Building the Black Market opens up a new option in the trade menu, providing generally better trade deals over all, just as the Marketplace does. However, when you build the Black Market, you limit the town’s guard presence to medium at most, even if you have built both the Barracks and the Guard Tower. By building the Black Market, you openly invite traders of illegal goods to town and therefore accept a certain agree of criminal activity. This is further proven by the law which is signed upon building the Black Market. It might seem like this makes the Black Market automatically worse than the Marketplace, but I’ll leave it up to you to see its benefits in the game. The Town Hall also has a special feature, which is that the number of months you have to wait before lowering taxes is reduced from 3 to 2. These numbers haven’t been properly tested and may be adjusted in the future.

We have been saying for a long time that we are going to focus on fully implementing the remaining characters one at a time, starting with the townsfolk and ending with the foreign leaders, before moving on to monthly events, etc. This, however, will not be the case in the near future. Instead, we are going to partially implement the remaining 10 townsfolk simultaneously. By this, I mean that we will give them an inn-event, a negative reputation-event and hangouts 1 to 3. We will also add a third hangout and a negative reputation-event for all six foreign leaders. However, we will prioritize the townsfolk.

We have already started working on some of the other things we have planned in this shift of focus. Now, we have fleshed out the town view by making it possible to build all buildings. There are also some new visual effects that make the town look more alive. This is not the only non-character-related work we will focus on now. We also have plans to expand the character creator, and – probably most importantly – streamline the game’s intro. Streamlining the intro means shortening it, making it possible to skip certain parts entirely and making the tips-sections more intuitive by connecting the tips more to the free exploration of the gameplay than the game’s intro. We will also add new tips related to features that currently don’t have any, like marriage and taxes. These are just a few examples of what non-character-related things we will be working on in the upcoming months.

You may wonder why we’re doing this, all of a sudden. As you’ll probably see from the game’s page in a not-so-distant future, it’s partially about marketing. The game’s current trailer and screenshots show the original demo build, which was released over a year ago. A lot has changed since then. We want to make a new trailer and share new screenshots that better represent the game’s current state and the state it is fairly likely to be in when we get closer to release. As an example, we would like to include visual representations of the marriage and adoption features. We are also not that far from completing a fully 2D-animated trailer, featuring all the 38 romanceable characters, so we felt it might be neat to update all of our promotional materials in time for its release. That being said, I won’t confirm that the animated trailer and the other promotional materials will actually be released at the same time. We might hold on to the animated trailer a bit longer than the other materials.

There is also another reason why we would like to update the promotional materials, but we will stay silent about that for the time being. I can at least tell you that the temporary shift in our focus will result in a bite-sized trial portion of the game that is a lot better and more representative of the final product than the one that is currently in your hands. At the very least, it will feature more hangouts and all characters and buildings. We will of course inform you when that bite-sized trial is available, if you would like to get a feel for the game before it is properly released.



This is where I will sign off for now. Thank you for your support!
//LevUNknown, lead developer

Join me as I play through the demo of my new game, Thrift Shop. You can follow along while I learn from my mentor, Papa Pinchpenny, and go on quests. I'll visit thrift shops to buy items, then use my workshop to clean, repair, scrap and appraise them before selling.

Excited to hear your questions and get feedback on ways to make the game even more fun before release.

Thank you!
-Steve

The Total War: PHARAOH Early Access Weekend is almost upon us! Here are the global times for everyone. 🌐
 
If you've preordered your copy, it'll be available in your Steam library from Sept 29th, 13:00 BST to Oct 2nd, 13:00 BST.
 
Prepare to journey back to the late Bronze Age! 🏺

—The Total War Team

On the 13th August 2013, EU4 was released to the public - and with it a small little event pack called “Purple Phoenix” for a country whose popularity was almost uncanny even back then. Over the ten years, this popularity did not stop but rose further and further, and now it is one of the main three focus points of King of Kings.

Welcome to today’s Development Diary which is all about the one country you guys have been looking forward to the most: Byzantium. Hardly in need of any more introduction on the country, as every single patch of EU4 has at least one video tutorial dedicated to the remnant of the Roman Empire. So without further ado, let us jump into the content we can expect for Byzantium in 1.36.

So first thing first: the setup of Byzantium. The province change has been somewhat spoiled already, but I will mention it here nonetheless to confirm it: yes, Mesambria is now part of Byzantium and it will have the Bulgarian core on it:


Another change is the adjustments on the stats of its heir, Konstantinos Palaiologos. Although the empire did eventually fall under his rule, it was not anything he could have prevented, and as such the stats he had were a bit unfair considering his experiences as the past Despot of Morea. He is now a 5/2/3!

Speaking of Morea, the area of Morea now starts with +25% Local Autonomy to represent the kinsmen of the Byzantine Emperors ruling over this part of the empire.

Another point of Byzantine adjustments is their ideas. While their +3 TotF and 3% Missionary Strength make them a strong religious country, the rest of their ideas are relatively underwhelming. As Byzantium is an end-game tag it felt kind of justified to balance their ideas a bit better out. Additionally, it is a nice reward for players who survive the early years.

These are the new ideas (Ideas with a # at the start are the modifiers that used to be there pre-1.36):

With that out of the way, let’s talk for a moment about the intentions for Byzantium. I mentioned in the Persia Development Diary that countries that receive content tend to become a lot easier than they used to be, hence Ardabil received explicitly nothing that could trivialize their early game.

Byzantium is another candidate where we explicitly want it to be a fight for survival. Because of that, the Byzantines will now start with 4 privileges which are more curses than blessings to you:

Note: That privilege increases the starting opinion of the Papal State of you by 125. More to it later.

Note: The Morale Reduction is only present if you have King of Kings active as the mission tree will give you Land Morale modifiers over the course of the campaign to counteract this privilege.



All of the privileges with the exception of 'Reliance on Republics' can be removed through decisions. Both the starting privileges and the decisions are part of the 1.36 update.

Additionally to the penalties, the privileges also cause certain events to happen to your country. Our first example is the Union of Churches. Roughly 3 months into the game you get greeted with the following event in regard to the union:


While revoking the privilege immediately would prevent the spawn of rebels further down the line, there is an argument to be made for keeping the privilege active as they can trigger the following event if you are in a defensive war against the Ottomans while having this privilege active:

I don’t want to spoil this part as this should be rather experienced in your own playthrough. But a little teaser: the second option allows for a very different religious path for the Byzantines!

Moving on, the 'Tax Exemption' privilege also fires an event that can be an early game boon with a long-term penalty.


Byzantium has been fitted with many early game events leading up to their eventual demise. While it would be lovely to showcase them all, we only have so much time. So here are a few:

Note: that event is firing for the Ottomans. The follow-up event is triggered for the Byzantines.



Also an event for the Ottomans in relation to the Byzantine content:


One final thing to mention to make the early game even more of a challenge - the starting reform for the Byzantines has been adjusted with a new penalty… and a new mechanic (more to it later):


There is nothing more Roman than falling in the back of your countrymen in time of need for a chance to seize absolute power for yourself.

Now that we have the events through, it is time to take a look at the new mission tree for the Byzantines for the upcoming DLC:

Note: with 55 missions in one playthrough, the Byzantine tree is the largest of the DLC.

First a few words about the general theme of the mission tree before going into detail: there are vastly different ideas of what is to be expected of a tree for Byzantium (a look into your local Steam Workshop is a fast way to see what I mean). Some would like to see the addition of Hellenism and a whole path revolving around it, others want a mission tree that revolves around the big “what if” questions of a modernized Byzantium that no longer tries to forge its own destiny independently from the Roman legacy.

While all of these ideas are great ones to explore, we have decided to focus on the one path which is generally the one accepted by the majority of the player base which is the ambition of restoring the Roman Empire. The goal was to keep the spirit of the Purple Phoenix mission tree and expand it with flavor so the reconquest of your empire feels like a bigger narrative than just good ol’ blobbing.

The mission tree is split into six parts:

• A small defensive part with three missions revolving around reinforcing the Theodosian Walls and constructing the Hexamilion Wall
  
• A large conquest part starting from “The Impending Doom”
  
• A small trade part of the two missions “Peloponnesian Renaissance” and “Monemvasian Merchants”
  
• An internal infrastructure part starting from “A Tarnished State” and “Promote the Emporoi”
  
• A part about the military and administrative aspects of the Empire
  
• And finally the religious part

As usual, I will start with the more obvious part which would be in that case the re-conquest missions. In this branch of the missions, you gain areas of permanent claims after another area of permanent claims. Notable within this branch is the theme of an evolving permanent modifier as a reward. Usually, you get the strong permanent modifier at the end of a mission path. Here, however, you get it early on, though in a very weak state:

This modifier will then be further modified through follow-up missions:

Finally merged into the finisher reward once you finish the conquest path of the mission tree which requests you to be the Roman Empire:

The final version of the modifier at the end of your long spree of conquest has the following bonuses:
Governing Capacity: +300
Global Missionary Strength: +2%
Yearly Prestige: +1
Morale of Armies: +10%
Morale of Navies: +10%
Stability Cost: -25%

Of course, this part of the tree has more to offer than just a growing modifier though. Here are some other great highlights of the conquest part:




Oh, while I am at it: the decision to form the Roman Empire has been adjusted.

Note: this will retroactively affect the achievement "Mehmet's Ambition" too. Also, we might add some key provinces to the decision to be part of the Empire - depending on how these changes play out.

In total, there are 475 provinces highlighted, and you will actually have to conquer MORE provinces than before. But at least you no longer have to subject yourself to the conquest of Mesopotamia anymore.

Moving on, the next part is about the walls of Constantinople:




I should talk about the elephant in the room here: yes, the Theodosian Wall is a permanent province modifier instead of a unique monument. This is a choice that has been made because we want to spread out the monuments and the Theodosian Walls would be put on a province that already has two static monuments placed on it.

Anyhow, the defensive missions are relatively easy to achieve early game which can give you some significant months to survive the Ottomans.

Now let us take a small look at the small trading missions:

Gemistos Plethon is the only, small nod to Hellenism you can expect from 1.36. For more information, I highly suggest checking out Third Odyssey.

With that out of the way, let’s continue with a more exciting part of the mission tree: the internal development and infrastructure missions:




And of course the map color in question:

It is the color of the Roman Empire.

Continuing on with the religious part of the mission tree. Due to the Council of Florence and the religious policies enacted by the last Emperor, the public trust in the Patriarch and the government has crumbled. This mission branch focuses on rebuilding that trust, limiting the rivals, and eventually bringing the schism to an end. Beginning with the trust:


While also limiting the ever stronger Muscovy ambition:

Restoring the Pentarchy:



Note: this decision is usable every 25 years.
And of course, mending the Schism:

Note: the mending will be significantly more difficult though as you must ensure that 300 provinces in Europe are Orthodox and in Orthodox hands. Fortunately, many provinces are already Orthodox. They just need a Roman hand to free themselves from the heretics.

And at last the military and administrative missions. The “Sea Fire” mission lets one already guess what it is all about. So once you finish it, your galleys get +10% combat ability for the rest of the game under the assumption that they are once again using the Liquid Fire.

Now before we continue with the branching missions, let us take a short look at a new mechanic added for Byzantium which is the Pronoia. This new subject type is available to countries with the Byzantine Autocracy, Reformed Byzantine Monarchy, the Roman Empire, and the Roman Republic government reforms.

Nations with Pronoia available will be able to convert their Vassals and Client States into a new type of subject, the Pronoia. The idea of the subject type is to provide military support during your wars. Pronoia Subjects get military bonuses and do not cost a diplomatic relation slot, but are limited by a new modifier – Number of Pronoiars.
The sources of the above include:
+1 per 100 Force Limit
+2 for “Reform the Pronoia System”


+2-4 from Byzantine Missions and up to +6 from various idea groups (namely Offensive, Aristocracy, Espionage, Quantity, and Administrative)

As for how to establish and annex these subjects and what bonuses they give, I will let those images speak for themselves:



After you ‘Retract Right to Inheritance’, the Pronoia will be annexed on their monarch’s death. We are looking forward to the “Pronoia Swarms”!

Anyway, back to the missions. Let us familiarize ourselves with the Theme System:


As you can see, The Byzantine mission tree utilizes the same Preview System as Persia does: you can choose between a standing-army build or a mercenary, feudal build:

First, let us begin with the Standing Army Build. With this rendition, you will be able to take stricter control over the Pronoia subjects that you have, opting for their quality:

There is also a mission about the Varangian Guard, allowing you to bring this nearly-extinct guard back to life, making you into the real Lord of Varangian. Lastly, a final mission that gives your troops a bit more firepower while also making them cheaper by granting them +10% Land Fire Damage and -10% Land Maintenance Modifier.

The other branch focuses on building a military based on mercenaries and Pronoiar. The missions here will allow you to focus on the quantity aspect, while also providing bonuses to Mercenaries:


The final mission here gives an additional +50% Mercenary Manpower and +5% Mercenary Discipline.

Note: All the art is placeholder, as the new icons are currently WIP. All the numbers are also WIP and are subject to change.

That was it for this week. Thank you all for reading today’s Development Diary! My colleague PDXBigBoss will continue next week with a hefty DD on Georgia, Armenia, and the Qoyunlus!

We thought you'd enjoy a sequel to the most recent Byzantium Comic From FatherLorris:

Want to embrace your inner Purple Phoenix and talk about Byzantium with others? Join our Discord here: https://pdxint.at/45bfgP4

Greetings, Ravens!

We have pushed a patch oriented on Steam Deck fixes, but also the missing Spiderlings in Co-op! Check out the patch note down below for a detailed look at the changes:

• Spiders: Fixed a bug where some spiderlings were not visible to peers in multiplayer
  
• Steam Deck:
  + Fixed the Explosion/Attack indicators that were not displayed on Steam Deck
  + Fixed a crash when changing Chapter in multiplayer on Steam Deck

• Very long / Endless loading screen in Multiplayer
  
• Desynch / Random disconnection issues
  
• Can’t join with code / No code is showing
  
• Possible crash when changing texture quality in the Settings menu

Thank you all for sharing your beautiful artwork!

By @RevealYourSins

By @Slinaro

By @Mil


Visit Passtech Games website: https://www.passtechgames.com

Follow the official Ravenswatch Twitter account: https://twitter.com/PlayRavenswatch

Follow Passtech Games on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PasstechGames

Join Ravenswatch’s subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ravenswatch

Watch us on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/passtechgames

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gaming/PasstechGames

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passtechgames


- The Passtech Team 🍉

Crew members! 🔥

For our next upcoming video, we're very excited to open the floor to questions from YOU about the world of Badlands Crew, with answers provided directly from the developers of the Crew games series, Runner Duck.

Jump on this amazing opportunity of getting first-hand answers directly from the makers of Badlands Crew, Bomber Crew, and Space Crew.

Comment to submit your question below related to the world of Badlands Crew, and we'll shortlist 15 questions for this first video.

We can't wait to see what you send through!

English
############Content################
[Sweet Dreams]Added a very unique boss fight. You can now finish the mission by force. It's one of the few boss fights you are free to escape or lose. Although, I have no idea how you can lose.
[Sweet Dreams]Added more dialogs on the violent path if you chose to do so.
[Wiki]Added a section about this unique boss fight on the quest's wiki page.
[Prefix]New generic prefix: Detox (+Resistance against poison)
[Prefix]New generic prefix: Sleepless (+Resistance against sleep)
[Prefix]New generic prefix: Sober (+Resistance against drunk)
###########System##################
Added a tag that disables a character's counterattack.
简体中文
############Content################
【甜蜜的梦】加入了一场独特的Boss战。你可以用武力来通关这个任务。这是少数的那种你可以随意逃跑或失败的Boss战。我甚至不知道你怎么可能在这场战斗中失败。
【甜蜜的梦】在暴力路线上加入了更多的台词。
【维基】在这个任务的维基页面上加上了这场特殊的Boss战的细节。
【前缀】新通用前缀：防毒的 +毒抗性
【前缀】新通用前缀：不眠的 +睡眠抗性
【前缀】新通用前缀：醒酒的 +酒醉抗性
###########System##################
加入了一个让角色不会反击的标签。

Latest news from Ukraine/乌克兰小剧场
https://controlc.com/f11074dd
{LINK REMOVED}https://pastelink.net/5qje6pru

Thank you for playing "DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme Venus Vacation!"

For more information, please check the "Update info" .

Thanks for your support, and please continue to enjoy “DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme Venus Vacation!”

Take your place on the starting grid for the next Pro Challenge in F1® World! From September 26, F1® 23 challenges you to beat Max Verstappen’s lightning lap time at Suzuka Circuit.

From September 26th to October 2nd, Travel to Japan and cross the line before Red Bull’s record-breaking driver and unlock new F1® World rewards, including Verstappen's Japanese Grand Prix helmet.

In-game Menu:

F1 World > Play > Solo & Multiplayer > Pro Challenge

Read more on what to expect later in September: https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/f1/f1-23/calendar

Play Now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2108330/F1_23/

The Civilization series is 32 years old this month! To mark the occasion, we've partnered with The Civ Show to host three Civ Creator Game Nights, the last of which will be live on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook on Tuesday. The creators joining us to wage war during Domination Week include the brilliant strategist Potato McWhiskey, renowned empire builder Ursa Ryan, armchair admiral Daltos, and cunning commander The Spiffing Brit!

Stream #3 - 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST, September 26
DOMINATION WEEK
Creators: Potato McWhiskey, Ursa Ryan, Daltos, The Spiffing Brit
Leaders: Shaka Zulu, Teddy Roosevelt (Rough Rider), Suleiman, John Curtin

In case you missed the previous streams, you can watch them via the links below:
Stream #2: INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION WEEK with Boesthius, SassyGamerLady, Tealful, and Paisley Trees
Stream #1: WONDER/CULTURE WEEK with OnSpotTV, Lumba3go, TheGameMechanic, and whiteandnerdytv