Nov 6, 2023

Cities: Skylines II - CO_Avanya

Another week, another patch! If you missed them then you can find the full patch notes here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/patch-notes-for-1-0-12f1-hotfix-steam.1606507/

The most discussed change in this patch was the removal of a radio ad after it was pointed out to us that it came off as offensive. We want Cities: Skylines II to be welcoming to all, so we decided to remove said radio ad. I was, however, surprised by the tone of the discussion. The best part of the Cities: Skylines community has been how helpful and kind its members are to each other, and we hope to see that continue with Cities: Skylines II. I would like everyone to keep that in mind when you join community discussions. I would urge everyone to leave constructive criticism and remember that if there’s an issue with the game it’s not appropriate to attack a fellow community member or single out a developer or a partner of Colossal Order. We are reading all the feedback and we are more inclined to take polite feedback (including criticism) back to the dev team. You can be a part of a positive community if you so choose.

This week we are really digging into Garbage. It looked like the Garbage feature in the game has bugs that affect the balance of it in an unwanted way. The work started earlier by identifying the following issues:
Garbage collection bug, that is caused by the garbage trucks just disappearing mid-journey.
Garbage accumulates too little and City Service buildings that process garbage are out of balance.
Garbage City service buildings which are just placed get their storages filled with garbage seemingly out of nowhere which then prevents them from collecting garbage from the city.

Now that these bugs are fixed we can look into the balance of the feature as the processing buildings don’t go through the garbage quickly enough and this causes issues with the export. If the city doesn’t handle the garbage internally, excess garbage is exported outside of the city. The downside of exporting is that it takes time and causes traffic leading to unhappy citizens, so it’s beneficial to process the garbage in the city for a faster outcome to please the crowds.

Another issue I mentioned last week was about stray dogs. In the next patch, the amount of them is fixed so that we don’t end up with an insane number of abandoned packs of dogs all over the city. Newlyweds should just welcome their partner’s dogs to the family and not leave them behind. Plans to fix this issue caused immediate debate if we should turn this bug into a feature. I for one would absolutely welcome the idea of an animal shelter DLC with a bunch of policies and all sorts of animals needing rescue in the city!

While on the topic of DLCs, we will not release new paid content for Cities: Skylines II before the outstanding performance issues are fixed to our standards. As a small team, we must focus on the task at hand to avoid spreading too thin. We are also very much looking forward to starting to go through your suggestions for Cities: Skylines II, such as adding some beloved quality-of-life improvements already familiar from the predecessor that were missed in the sequel due to priorities and time constraints.

My pledge to you is that Colossal Order will keep working on Cities: Skylines II so it will reach its full potential. To reach that potential we also need to talk about modding. Next week I’ll be focusing on the status of the Editor and what it will have when it’s ready for release. Check out the video below to get an idea of what’s coming!

Sincerely,
Mariina

Nov 6, 2023

Fish & Ships update and Water Garden Duo DLC out now!

Ship of Fools - JoeR247_T17

Developer Dan here to celebrate the official release of Ship of Fools’ brand new content update: Fish & Ships! Aaaaandd (drumroll) … the release of our brand new pack of Fools: the Water Garden Duo! Watch this trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxoao2beYRE

This new update brings a ton to the archipelago! Let’s go over some of the most notable new features.

Give the curious bell a jingle to meet your new gooey and tentacley best friend Otto, a shipwright with enough tools to repair your ships, but most importantly, mend the wounds of your broken heart.

You’ll first be introduced to Otto when you have beaten Tentacles twice or if you’ve completed a run at least once. Unlike his other fellow Krakens, Otto is more passionate about ship construction rather than their destruction.

The process is simple: after unlocking a new ship, interact with Otto using your character's secondary action to access the shipwright menu. From there, you have the freedom to switch between any unlocked ships at will. You can also monitor your progress towards unlocking new ships and achieving the brightness challenges for each one. I'm curious about the outcome when reaching brightness level 15 with a ship … I wonder what awaits?

Each ship grants access to 2 unique items, allowing you to craft run strategies with a refreshing sea breeze. To activate their abilities, every ship's unique artifact utilizes Tendrils.

Speaking of new ships, here is one of them! Meet the Siren’s Call, a vessel carved by the legendary Sirens from the same rocks that constitute their magical artifacts. With the Siren’s Call, you’ll have one less pedestal on deck, but have access to a miniature version of the recycling well to optimize your builds on the go!

The Well
Insert a tendril to activate, once active, insert any item to recycle it into another of the same type.

Siren Scale
While this ammunition inflicts minimal damage, it applies a random effect with each hit! To unleash its full potential, you’ll need to harness every possible elemental synergy.

May this latest content update bring many more adventuring hours for you and your shipmate across the archipelago's waters! A heartfelt thank you to each member of the Fool community for your unwavering support throughout this inaugural year of Ship of Fools. Our game dev journey has been nothing short of wonderful, and we hope to keep sailing with you all for a long time! If you're inclined to support the dev team in a meaningful way, please consider diving into the all-new Pack of Fools, a creation inspired by the captivating charm of your local water garden.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2512030/Ship_of_Fools__Water_Garden_Duo/

v1.2.0 patch notes

Fish & Ships content and features

New NPC: Otto the Shipwright
Shipwright challenges to unlock ships
Brightness Shipwright challenges to unlock items
3 new ships to unlock
18 new items to unlock
Secret ship adornments to unlock
“A Whale of a Time” achievement
“Reduce Reuse Recycle” achievement
“Beast Tamer” achievement
“Festive Fleet” achievement

The Garden Duo DLC content

New Fool: Noh the cat fish
New Fool: Mikoi the koi fish
“Catrate Master” achievement (DLC)
“Belting Overseas” achievement (DLC)

Balance changes:

Gold bullet multiplier is now additive instead of multiplicative
Holy trident paddle size multiplier 2 → 1.75
The corkscrew trinket will now consider the Rancid Oil trinket as a bottle
Cluck

- Egg laying delay changed from 15 to 25 seconds → 10 to 15 seconds
- Chance of laying regular egg: 95%→ 50%
- Chance of laying special egg: 5% → 50%
- Add mamagull egg to special egg pool
Time delay between critical enemy projectiles in hard mode

- Solo 3 → 6 seconds
- Co-op 2 → 4 seconds
The Beacon artifact now starts in its active state

Miscellaneous:

Improve Darkness Cave Island visuals
Add French translation credits video
Add cancel defend and super charge action by pression roll button
Remove encounters containing falling standalone spider bombs
Prevent self-inflicted damage (damage from Mikoi’s ability and damage from payment at the carpentry) from breaking holy artifacts
Add NPC skins for Gertrude and Woody for each sector
Add ship visual variations for each sector

Optimizations:

Memory usage reduction during gameplay
Sector loading time reduction
Lag spike occurrences reduction when enemies spawn

Bug Fixes:

Fix All the Treasures of the Sea achievement not unlocking
Fix music composer Philippe Grant name misspelled in the credits (sorry Phil)
Fix Magic Hat ability not working for client player in an online game
Fix darkness cave island invisible for client player in an online game
Fix Max level grapeshot special bounce ability only applying to 1 projectile instead of all when fully charged
Fix enemy projectile damaging boat when a client performs a reflect that should have blocked it in an online game
Fix client only repairing one tile with a plank bundle in an online game
Fix Eye of The Storm warping animation not showing for client in an online game
Fix Lotte ability able to reload a cannon disabled by the Dark Cannon Curse (Thanks to discord user @ShadowKitsune for reporting)
Fix players not dying when purchasing an item at the carpentry while the Double Edge Sword artifact is equipped (Thanks to discord user @Terofale for reporting)
Fix Dark Cannon Curse not working correctly in an online game
Fix harpoon sound not fading out when off-screen (Thanks to discord user @PremiumPumpkin and @xSkyDiver for reporting)
and many more

Now that the Stormstrider is ready to sail into the Forgotten Waters make sure that you...

{LINK REMOVED}
Join the official {LINK REMOVED} to chat with your fellow fools and discuss all things about the game! 💬

Also Follow us on Twitter for more updates and info. 🐦

Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286580/Ship_of_Fools/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2512030/Ship_of_Fools__Water_Garden_Duo/

Nov 6, 2023

Devlog: Caravan Upgrades - Part I

Stoneshard - Wayfinder

Hello everyone!

This is the first post in the series of devlogs dedicated to the new features of the upcoming update, “Rags to Riches”, the release date of which will be revealed in the final entry. Today’s topic is the update’s most important addition and the last major system to be introduced to the game: the much-anticipated Caravan.

We’d like to begin by explaining our reasoning behind the system and what we plan to achieve with it. One of the most frequent player suggestions is to add some sort of permanent dwelling, a purchasable and customizable house in a village or city. However, Stoneshard is a game about a mercenary, a character who’s always on the move in search of contracts and glory, so anchoring them to a single location would go against the main theme. At the same time, we aren’t averse to the concept of home in a broader sense - and that’s where the Caravan System comes into play by adding a customizable mobile camp.

The Caravan’s main purpose is to allow for easier exploration, making it possible to travel large distances across the global map - with a few limitations.

Firstly, the Caravan can travel only to empty map tiles. You won’t be able to set up a camp right next to villages, dungeons, hunting grounds, or Point of Interest. Your destination must also not be shrouded in the fog of war - at the very least, you’ll need a rough outline of the terrain, obtainable through the use of paper maps.
Secondly, moving the Caravan will require a special resource, Fodder, the spending rate of which will scale with the distance and difficulty of your chosen route.
Thirdly, each journey will be followed by a cooldown, as both Verren and the horses will need some time to rest.

In general, the optimal strategy is to park the Caravan in a spot between multiple locations you want to visit (settlements, dungeons, Points of Interest, etc), conclude your business there, then return to the Caravan, which by that time should be ready for another journey.

At the moment, we’re still experimenting with the cooldown duration - currently the base value is a day and a half, which can be shortened to half a day through a series of upgrades.

This topic will be further expanded upon in a separate devlog about the Caravan travels and all the mechanics that come with them.

Now let’s talk about customization - this part of the Caravan System is represented by a dedicated upgrade tree. In total, there are 24 possible upgrades, not including the basic ones - all of them can be unlocked within a single playthrough. As for their effects, there’s quite a lot of variation: some upgrades will change your Caravan’s stats, others - introduce new options or modify pre-existing ones. Each upgrade will also change your camp’s appearance by adding new furniture and gear or altering some elements that are already there.

Upgrades can be accessed by interacting with Verren’s Ledger at the Caravan camp. Before you can go through with them, you’ll first need to have all the prerequisites in either your Inventory or the Caravan Storage: this includes unique items (purchasable from corresponding traders) and additional materials.

All upgrades can be thematically split into four categories: “Provision”, “Restoration”, “Traveling”, and “Communication”. This devlog only covers the first one, which revolves around introducing additional utility to your camp:

Provision

Firepit

Requirements: basic upgrade (available from the start).
Effect: adds a firepit to the camp that can be used to roast food and salt meat.

Cooking Spot

Requirements: Huge Cauldron, Coal Chunk (х4), Ladle (х1)
Effect: installs a cauldron on top of the camp’s firepit, allowing you to cook complex dishes.
Cooking at the camp replenishes a certain amount of Morale depending on the recipe’s rarity.

Special Spices

Requirements: Spice Box, Spearmint (х2), Rhubarb (х2), Ginger (х2), Leek (х2), Garlic (х2)
Effect: food spoils 75% slower while inside the Caravan Storage.
Cooking at the camp replenishes a certain amount of Sanity depending on the recipe’s rarity.

Workbench

Requirements: Toolbox, Nails (х2)
Effect: adds a Workbench to the camp that can be interacted with to craft moderately complex consumables.

Alchemy Station

Requirements: Alchemical Apparatus, Hourglass (х1), Coal Chunk (х1), Flask (х3)
Effect: adds an alchemical apparatus to the camp that can be used to brew potions (after Alchemy is fully implemented) and create some medical consumables (in “Rags to Riches”).

Foraging Supplies

Requirements: Foraging Supplies, Shovel (х1), Sickle (х1)
Effect: adds a foraging table to the camp, allowing Verren and Followers to capitalize on nature’s bounty while you’re busy adventuring. Once per day, it will generate a certain amount of herbs, berries, and mushrooms, their type depending on the currently occupied biome. Some of the gathered herbs can then be turned into Fodder to fuel your future travels, while mushrooms and berries can be used for cooking.

Mobile Coop

Requirements: Cage with Chickens, Bucket (х1), Sack of Grain (х1)
Effect: adds a few chickens to the camp. Once per day, they’ll lay eggs that can be used for cooking. There’s also an option to slaughter chickens for meat, but it’ll take some time for them to respawn - in the meantime, you’ll have to do without a steady supply of fresh eggs.

============================

As you might have already noticed, some of the upgrades are closely linked to Cooking and Crafting - the former will be the focus of our next devlog. And while you wait, here’s a small teaser of things to come:

Until next time!