The newest update for These Doomed Isles is now live, and there's new cards and mechanics to play with. 🏴☠️ Check the patch notes here
Thanks for playing the prologue!
Secondly, I'd like to let you know that we'll be saying farewell to the prologue next month. Thanks so much to everyone who has played, your feedback has been incredibly helpful with shaping our game. So much has changed and improved since the prologue went live and development time is focused on the next big update, so we're taking it down from Steam as we feel it doesn't really reflect the main game anymore.
More exciting additions are coming to These Doomed Isles very soon, and I can't wait to share more with you.
Our scene opens on a dark ocean as a crash of thunder rends the sky and lightning streaks like skeleton fingers.
Upon a craggy storm-wrecked cliff lies the imposing Fireshine Publishing Castle and Luxury Dungeons.
A shabby, rag-clad figure shuffles down a dimly-lit flagstone corridor to the room at the end where the developers sleep. He is the Custodian. The corridor echoes, but he moves silently, atop a pair of pristine running shoes.
Muttering to himself, he withdraws from his billows a large iron key and opens the door. A sliver of light fills the gloom. The room reeks of rotting food and is heavy with the stench of pestilence. Three lie prone in chains. In front of them a bucket, a scroll and ink. They have been here for a while.
The Custodian shuffles up to Tim - the Lead Developer. He takes out a small notebook, already full of arcane scratchings. He prods the sleeping man with a metal rod on his belt. Custodian: Tim…it’s time again.
Tim: (Groggily)...Oh God, no…I just can’t…
Custodian: IT’S IN THE CONTRACT (The walls shake).
Tim: Ok, Ok, what do you want to know?
Custodian: Tim, the people want to know, how did you come up with the idea for the Deadly Path?
Tim: If I do this…I want the first turn with the boil lance.
Custodian: Granted.
Tim: Sick Bastards.
You know…it wasn’t always like this. I used to make nice games. For nice people. Where did it all go wrong eh?
A few months ago, I had started playing games like Stacklands, Dome Keeper, Cultist Simulator - nasty games that kill you quickly and make you desperate to play again. It was then I had the thought ‘what about a game where you build a dungeon and protect it.’ You could have timers and cards, but also in real time. It would be like a boiled down RTS management game.
I wanted to make a game that was addictive but brutal - one where you got distracted by pretty things and then it kicked you in the teeth
Custodian: A Dungeon Keeping game…seems familiar.
Tim: I appreciate that. Dungeon Keeper was obviously a reference, both for setting and style. I’ve always loved dry British humour - Pratchett, Adams. In a way, I try to put it into everything I do…
Custodian: No Meta!
Tim: Ok! Unlike Dungeon Keeper, I wanted to have no simulations and boil things down to their root nature. Computers are great at simulating, but historically games - particularly board games - are abstracted. For instance Chess doesn’t have real horses in it. I didn’t want imps running around, I just wanted the *idea* of Imps. This is great for indie developers because it means we don’t need to make a thousand animations for one character - just a card and the players’ imagination will do.
Originally the game was still more complicated - you had building trees, upgrade trees and training wheels. However, these were quickly winnowed to just a few things.
1. You can excavate a tile 2. You can build on a tile 3. You can place workers in that building.
And that…is it. Everything else flows from this point - you want an upgrade, go up an era, train a servant - make a building and put something in it. It’s a very simple game!
Custodian: It is said that you sacrificed your first systems designer to appease the Dark Lords at the Games Developers Conference.
Tim: That is unproven. However, it’s a busy market out there and you need to get the edge somehow. And use it.
Custodian: Good, Goood…Right lets get you out of here.
Tim: Out?!
Custodian: Well, just for a while, we’re going to have you show the game at the Digital Tabletop Festival. Now remember, you’ve got an hour and then its straight back. And…er, don’t mention the boil lance.
We are back with another exciting tales & Tactics update! We have been working on some big things since our last update based on your feedback! Not only do we have a new exciting update, you will also be able to pick up Tales & Tactics with a 20% discount during Steam Digital Tabletop Fest, so don't forget to tell your friends and challenge them to the new PVP mode!
We are launching our Alpha PVP mode ahead of the full PVP mode in the 1.0 launch! To make sure this is as good as it can be we will iterating throughout the Early Access development based on your feedback. You will now be able to participate in unranked PVP where you will be able to face off against other players in asyncronous battles (no lobbies, no time limits). Custom lobbies and ranked play will be coming in future updates.
We have also been hard at work with creating new unlock system. This will help direct players with the meta progression of the game in a more linear path instead of the former free-form grid of unlocks. Existing players, be sure to skim through for some new unlock options!
And finally we have given the game a fresh lick of paint and rebuilt the main menu UI from the ground up. This is not only a cosmetic change - we felt it was worth the time investment to give you all a much smoother experience for areas that have been identified as rough around the edges, such as the Unlocks screen, Difficulty selection, Community Codes, Draft selection, and more.
For those who are looking forward to the 1.0 launch we have a brand new Road Map outlining the improvements and new features coming very soon! Check out the Road Map here!
We hope you enjoy our latest update! Please consider joining the DISCORD community to provide feedback and stay up to date with the latest Tales & tactics news! You can also take part in our Community Design Challenges, where players can directly write content for the next game update.
We've got truly exciting news for fans of Endless Space 2 today: The Nakalim are reawakening thanks to a new patch! We had received a lot of feedback about the Awakening DLC, both about the new gameplay features it adds and the faction featured in it: Many players felt that the content of this DLC did not live up to its promise, so we knew big changes had to be made. While we were working on that, we also took the opportunity to overhaul the balance of space combat. Some of you may have already been testing this on a beta branch, but the patch is now ready for full release so all our players can enjoy the many changes.
Before we talk about the features of this patch, we want to take a moment to thank the people who helped us make this a reality. We contracted our VIPs Cyrob and CaptainCobbs to work on this patch, because we knew they understood the game at a deep level and were also familiar with the relevant community feedback. They in turn consulted ChaosWillRise and Frostgremlin for advice and help with the combat rebalance.
Now, what does this new update bring to the game and to the Awakening DLC? Let's briefly cover some of the highlights (but the full patch notes are available for the curious at the end of this post):
Combat Rebalance (base game)
Reading the strategy discussions and feedback in our community, we could see that only a few combat strategies were considered powerful by experienced players. We want our players to feel like they can experiment with different approached to combat and adapt to their enemies, so we have made extensive changes to the balance of ships and modules to encourage more varied tactics and fleet compositions as well as strategic counterplay. You can find an extensive list of changes in the full patch notes, but here's a short summary of important changes:
Weapon and Defense modules were rebalanced, including a significant buff to shield capacities
Flak and missile fire rates were adjusted for better interactions between them
Special weapons (e.g. Swarm Missiles, Railguns) have been rebalanced so they should fill specialized niches
Support module have been rebalanced, including modules that can only be mounted on Coordinators or can only affect each flotilla once
Rebalanced battle tactics including new powerful but specialized tactics as curiosity rewards
Academy Difficulty and Expansion (Awakening)
One common complaint about the Academy in the Awakening DLC was that they expand too quickly and interfere with your expansion by claiming systems and sieging yours. At the same time, their fleet was too powerful to pick a fight with them until later in the game. While many players disliked the impact this had on gameplay, some also felt it did not make narrative sense for Isyander's organization. With the Re-Awakening Update, we are introducing a few changes that should help players get their desired experience:
Academy fleets will no longer siege player systems while you are at neutral relations with them
The strength of Academy fleets now scaled with Academy level and starts much weaker than before
The Advanced Game Setup screen now includes a setting for how much the Academy will expand, from not at all to aggressively
The Academy Difficulty setting on the Advanced Game Setup screen has been expanded with an additional "Endless" level of difficulty
Academy Diplomacy (Awakening)
For those players who enjoy the added challenge of dealing with the Academy, or who like the idea of more actively supporting or opposing Isyander's plans, we have also expanded the ways to interact with the Academy and rebalanced some of the roles. The key features of this change are:
Added new interactions with the Academy accessed on a separate screen:
Earn favor with the Academy by donating during role assignment
Nakalim may also donate systems to gain a lot of favor
Spend favor to use various interactions, like requesting control of an Academy system
Each faction also has access to one unique action
The Master of Dust has become the Legate: Declare Crusades against other empires to let other players attack them freely
Expanded Nakalim Affinity (Awakening)
Given the feedback we have seen about the Nakalim, we realized that many players felt this faction was not living up to the promise of awakening an ancient empire. Dealing with their slow research was an uphill struggle, while the affinity did not provide many tools to compensate for this. To address this, we have expanded the Nakalim Affinity with new features that should improve the feeling of reclaiming old glory. Some of the core changes are:
The Last Empire: Nakalim now suffer a 50% penalty to planetary FIDS production by default, but this penalty can be removed by using relics to construct the Temple planetary improvement. With enough Temples, you will be able to construct Cathedrals of the Lost as system improvements, which give huge bonuses to the system and unlock Relic Slots for your empire that provide powerful boost.
Well-founded: The Nakalim begin the game with knowledge of their entire constellation (or a large radius on single-constellation maps)
Slumbering Ruins: You can find "Slumbering Ruins" that will give new colonies a big boost if awakened by a Nakalim player
Beliefs not Breakthroughs: This trait now allows you to trade technologies with other empires at increased cost, but science gained from ship destruction after battles is reduced.
Rebalancing: Various adjustments to faction traits used by the Nakalim, Nakalim-specific system improvements and hero skills, and the spawn distribution of relics
Based on the feedback we got from our beta testers, we're confident that these changes will allow all our players to explore new battle tactics and fleet compositions, while enriching the experience of dealing with the Academy or restoring the ancient empire of the Nakalim.
To celebrate the release of this update, we are putting Endless Space 2, the Awakening DLC, and all other DLCs on sale! Now is a great time to round out your collection and explore these new options.
Endless Space 2 Re-Awakening Update: Version 1.5.60
Combat Changes (base game)
Weapon/Defense/Support Module related changes:
Defense module stats are rebalanced, and Shield Capacities are substantially buffed.
Weapon DPS values, fire rates, effective ranges, Weapon Hull & Shield penetration values are tweaked.
Strategic modules, EMP Weapons, Railguns, Swarm Missiles, Blast Effect Batteries, and Squadrons are adjusted in terms of their stats, effects, and use cases.
Support modules are balanced, some are reworked, and new ones are added. Flotilla-wide effects are expanded.
Ship Hull changes:
Ship Health, Hull weakness, and manpower capacities are adjusted. Carriers are significantly nerfed.
Coordinator and Protector ship bonuses are significantly buffed, and new effects are added.
Ship targeting priorities are changed and made visible in the ship design view under the ship "Role" UI.
New Attacker and Protector Ship Hull Upgrades are added to the tech tree, increasing their module multiplier to x1.25
Battle Tactics changes:
Battle Tactic effects, ranges, and tech stage placements are changed. Their UI is made to be more descriptive.
New situational but powerful battle tactics and upgraded versions of existing tactics are added to the curiosity rewards.
Squadron changes:
Squadron movement speeds are substantially buffed.
Fixed squadrons dealing significantly more damage than intended
Squadron stats are adjusted in line with new squadron roles: Light & Heavy Bombers, Interceptor & Strike Fighters.
Mechanics & Other Changes:
Flak damage, Flak fire rate, and projectile health values are adjusted. Flak targeting orders are adjusted. Swarm missile, BEB, EMP missile, and normal missile fire rates are aligned. UI is updated to provide more information.
Fixed Evasion: Evasion used to provide only half of the intended effect; now works correctly.
Ship level-up effects are adjusted.
Fixed ship experience on construction.
New tags for modules are added: "Only once per ship" "Only once per flotilla" "Can only be used on Medium Support Ships"
Curiosity rewards and drop rates have been rebalanced.
Re-added removed technology "Vacuum Protection", moved the following items onto it:
"Weapon Interference Beam" unlock with either Advanced Game Theory or Tensor Algorithms
"Shield Interference Missiles" unlock with either Advanced Fusion Power or Hyperium Magnetics
Cleaver module has had its damage and manpower damage increased to match its tier
Academy Changes (Awakening)
Reduced Academy Aggression
Academy fleets no longer siege player colonies and outposts while at neutral relations
Academy fleet power now scales with Academy level and starts much lower
Introduced "Endless" Difficulty setting for the Academy
Introduced "Academy Expansion" setting
Adjusted the speed at which the Academy gains levels to better align with players
Introduced Academy Diplomacy
Improve your relationship by donating during role assignment periods
Nakalim gain favor by donating systems to the Academy
Ask for favors at the cost of relations
Each faction has access to one unique favor
Adjusted Legate role (formerly Master of Dust): can declare a Crusade against a player, which allows any other empire to attack their fleets regardless of their diplomatic relation.
Each major faction now has its own preferred Academy roles
Academy ship equipment and fleet strength have been entirely reworked
Ships loaned from the Academy are now prohibited from invading
Nakalim Changes (Awakening)
Gameplay Affinity: The Last Empire
-50% Base FIDS on Planets by default
Can build Temples (Cost 1 Relic and 1 Turn), which remove the FIDS malus and convert Base Science into Influence.
Systems that have temples on all planets can build a Cathedral (Cost 1120 Industry, no Relics), which provide the following bonuses on their system:
+10% FIDSI
+30% Influence Radius
+5 Vision
5% Enemy Health damaged per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius
20% Friendly Health repaired per turn of Fleets in Influence Radius
Increases number of total empire relics that can be allocated (See below)
Cathedrals provide empire relic slots, which provide powerful empire-wide bonuses and require multiple relics to activate. Any bonus may be activated at any time, but only one per Cathedral may be active. These replace Food/Industry/Dust/Influence relics, and are toggleable on / off. Empire relics focus on increasing one of the innate strengths of the Nakalim, with one changing based off of leading political party
Exploration Slot - +25% Movement Point efficiency, +5 Vision Range on Fleets & Systems
Expansion Slot - +1 Colonization Threshold per Cathedral, No disapproval from planet type on planets with temples
Diplomacy Slot - provides a constant amount of minor faction relation and increased influence radius
Political Slot: Get bonuses for all elected parties, but government types with fewer political parties get more powerful bonuses
Industrialist - +50% Strategic Deposit Generation on Temples
Unassigned relics generate 50 science, can be upgraded via empire improvements
Adjusted relic spawning formulas to respawn them once they reach a certain threshold and to focus their spawning location on getting further and further, eventially stopping near the middle of the galaxy.
Trait: Beliefs not Breakthroughs
Planets do not generate science
Systems only produce half science
Science gained from battle rewards is halved
Technologies can be traded at higher than normal cost
Trait: Forgotten Lore
Technologies granted by Forgotten Lore now do not reduce the Sophon research bonus
Created a lower level version of Forgotten Lore that only unlocks tier 1 technologies
New Trait: Slumbering Ruins
Some systems will be marked as Slumbering Ruins per Nakalim player. These systems are marked to all Nakalim players, and retain their status even if colonized by another empire or obliterated (though, owned by another player it needs to first be conquered, or if obliterated it needs to be repaired).
The system can be awakened from its dormant state by colonizing it.
Awakening a Slumbering Ruin provides a small amount of Major Population, a few early game buildings (if not already constructed), and a temporary flat FIDSI bonus.
Once Awakened, a system cannot be reawakened by another Nakalim player, but all Nakalim players can see that it was reawakened.
New trait: Well Founded
Starts with the area around them revealed (Starting constellation on non-unique galaxies, radius of systems around them on unique galaxies)
Trait: Apathetic Colonists
Outposts generate 25% less food
Colonies ship 25% less food to outposts
Systems can now be gifted to the Academy as an invasion outcome
Added an "Align" Minor Faction interaction that allows "vassalizing" a minor faction
Nakalim heroes: Rebalanced most skills
Nakalim Population
+2 Approval (+1 Approval Spliced)
+2 FIDSI on Happy (+0.5 FIDSI Spliced)
Collection Bonuses
10 Population: Boosts Religious politics
20 Population: +10 Approval on systems with Nakalim
50 Population: Unlocks a new offensive and defensive ground battle strategy
Relics can now be collected while a fleet is cloaked
Nakalim now start with a colonizer and 2 explorers
Modding Changes
Adding new modifier operations, Minimum & Maximum
Increased the ability of modders to change Academy diplomacy, AI, ship spawns, etc.
Exposed multiple new formulas in the registry, along with the ability to revert the academy back to using "stress" instead of relying on academy levels
Other Changes
Slightly increased infantry health and damage
Unfallen now start with an additional vineship
Influence conversion unlock tech has been moved to T2 Empire Development
Explorer hull upgrade tech has been moved to T2 Science and Exploration
Reduced the military support requirement of the Sophons Quest "Chapter 2. Seeding the Cloud - Part 1" and the "Masters of the Arena" quests so that they were reasonably achievable
Changed screen placement of several T3 &T4 Military technologies (no gameplay changes)
Clarified some confusing tooltips
Dust Bonanza no longer has an upkeep cost
Denarque University industry cost reduced by 2/3
Improved AI from using some incorrect module combinations
Bugfixes
Battle Result Notifications no longer block the turn, while keeping the big stability improvement that originally caused this issue (Note: This fix works for Single Player and Multiplayer hosts only, but not Multiplayer clients, who will still need to dismiss the battle report notification to let the end turn progress)
The Academy's aggression & power level scaling has been fixed
Isolated systems are no longer blocked from being colonized by the quest Death Without a Corpse
Horatio's Main Quest: Chapter 2 (Industrialist) will no longer get stuck if another empire destroys the fleets (It will complete)
Relics gained from converting will always be 2, it is no longer scaled by gamespeed which resulted in 1.33 relics on slow
Quest "Forged in Battle" Now is 25-55 turns instead of 10-70 by galaxy size
System Trade Value no longer scales with Game Speed
The mining probe lifetime of multiple Behemoth modules is no longer additive, now taking the highest instead
Influence gained from Lumeris pop bonus is now shown in the Empire Influence tooltip
Unfallen Terraform Options (Hot types to Forest) now use the forest art (previously all were Savannah)
Optics Research Lab's yield is now shown in the System Science Tooltip
All Singularities now affect heroes as intended
The Diagnostics.xml file should no longer be filled with errors if the Nakalim main menu screen is displayed
Fixed Nakalim being after the Umbral Choir in the faction selection
Behemoths no longer shown under Faction Hulls for every faction
Capped many cost reductions from reaching 0%
GasWarm now has the Temperate tag
Fixed Custom Umbral Shadows not having GUI Elements
Fixed Influence Radius flickering and huge influence border growth projects
Fixed many slots on Academy ships not functioning properly
Fixed Behemoth Mining not properly transferring its FIDSI to your planets
Fixed some icons some icons appearing as much lower resolution than they should
Fixed malus for missing colonization tech not showing up in planet FIDSI breakdowns
Fixed some empire relic effects not toggling correctly
Fix miscellaneous tooltips from not showing up properly / being duplicated
Fixed starting Behemoth modules not unlocking when you research the Behemoth hull technology
Fixed Bait / Jammer modules not correctly applying movement effect
Added missing EmpireAttitude localization strings
Adding missing warning strings
Fixed many typos
Fixed Hero Skill GUI showing an incorrect amount of available relics
FIDSI per Population bonuses on Planets no longer appear as though they are giving you a large percentage
Fixed Aligning a minor faction not failing any assimilation quests associated with it
Fixing colonization module tooltip appearing in the incorrect category
Fixed some modules appearing as though they require a different strategic resource in the tech tree
Minor factions can no longer run out of quests to give
Fixed brainwashed faction still allowing their boosts to be used
Fixed terraformation not showing difference between planet FIDSI
Welcome to our exclusive look at the first boss you will encounter in Robobeat. Ray Punk - The Robotic Menace, focuses on the parry mechanic.
Do you have what it takes to beat him?
Sounds like something you want to get your hands on? Download our demo today, try out our custom music feature, and then share your cool clips in our Discord!
Don’t forget to wishlist Robobeat, and follow us at @RobobeatGame across social media for all of the juiciest updates 👀
We're thrilled to announce that Chessarama will be part of Digital Tabletop Fest! Let's celebrate all things related to digital tabletop games 🎲
From today through the 11th of March, you can save 25% on Chessarama! You'll also be able to experience some of the greatest digital tabletop-inspired and see what the future holds for the tabletop genre with the coming soon titles!
Super excited to share some awesome news – our game, SPELLCATS: AUTO CARD TACTICS, is diving into the Digital Tabletop Fest over on Steam! It's all about celebrating the cool tabletop games. Starting today till March 11th, you'll get to check out some of the freshest and most exciting digital tabletop games around. Plus, you'll get a sneak peek at what's coming next in the genre. Think deckbuilders, board games, and all sorts of games inspired by classic tabletop IPs.
Just wanted to jump on here and let you know that the newest update is now live, and there's new cards and mechanics to play with. 🏴☠️ Check the patch notes here
Secondly, we're part of Digital Tabletop Fest 4: Roll of the Dice! This Steam festival showcases loads of awesome tabletop-themed games, including These Doomed Isles.
From now until March 11th, there's heaps of games to discover, as well as discounts and panels. Check out the event here.
Thanks for playing the prologue!
Finally, I'd like to let you know that we'll be saying farewell to the prologue next month. Thanks so much to everyone who has played, your feedback has been incredibly helpful with shaping our game. So much has changed and improved since the prologue went live and development time is focused on the next big update, so we're taking it down from Steam as we feel it doesn't really reflect the main game anymore.
More exciting additions are coming to These Doomed Isles very soon, and I can't wait to share more with you.
We are thrilled to announce that Quilts and Cats of Calico will be part of Digital Tabletop Fest – the Steam festival celebrating all-things related to digital tabletop games.
From today through the 11th of March, you will be able to experience some of the latest and greatest digital tabletop-inspired titles and see what the future holds for the tabletop genre with coming soon games. The festival will feature deckbuilders, board games, and titles inspired by tabletop IPs.
Moreover, until the 19th of March, you can save 10% off Quilts and Cats of Calico.
Digital Tabletop Fest is a Steam festival hosted by Auroch Digital. This year’s festival will be the fourth iteration, after first taking place in 2020.