GAME ENGINE

• Updated the Unity engine to 2021.3.45f2 to address security vulnerabilities identified on October 3rd

• Improved engine stability and internal performance

TOOLTIPS & INTERFACE

• Updated the Global Map tooltip to better reflect its functionality

• Refined the Victory Condition button tooltip for clarity

• Standardized the naming of the Theater Map to match official terminology

• Improved various in-game tooltips to enhance player overview and onboarding

• Updated tooltips in the Main Menu for better navigation

VICTORY SCREEN & CONDITIONS

• Reworked the Victory Screen UI to better emphasize scores and results

• Updated victory condition text for Wargames 1-4

• Added custom victory texts to all Wargames

• Winning a Single Player scenario no longer displays incorrect Multiplayer ranks or conditions

• Disabled multiplayer-related victory dialogs when playing in Single Player

SCENARIOS

• Updated mission objectives across all Wargames for improved clarity

• Adjusted pacing in scenarios where key events could resolve too quickly for new players

• Base scenarios now clearly define victory as “Objective Complete” in Single Player

BUGS & TECHNICAL

• Fixed a rare Null Unit exception in AiActionUnits

• Added additional logging to improve debugging and issue tracking

• Applied a potential fix for the SetDesiredInterest() exception

• General cleanup and minor stability improvements

DECISIONS

• Fixed an issue where Dulles and McCarthy were incorrectly referenced causing an error to be shown

• Updated the Red Scare for the Balance of Power decisions

• Updated the Chinese Civil War for the Balance of Power decisions

OFF-MAP CHARACTERS

• Removed a-historical characters that did not provide plausible outcomes

AI

• Updated the AI to be more robust in it's gameplay

• Updated the way the AI launches policies

BUGS

• Fixed an issue that would sometimes incorrectly cause the AI to assist the player during multiplayer games with focus and policy selection

• Fixed an issue where the AI would not abort certain policies at game end

DECISIONS

• Fixed an issue where the Partition of the Middle East was not clear enough
  
• If you deny aid to Idi Amin for his secret police you will gain 1 ELITES
  
• Fixed an issue where Research and Intelligence decision would not trigger properly when recruiting Idi Amin
  
• Updated wording on blowback decisions for USSR linked to Idi Amin
  
• Fixed an issue where the decision A Fair Warning would incorrectly trigger when the USA had a higher influence than the USSR
  
• A Fair Warning now properly removes all of Idi Amin Dada's abilities if the ultimatum is rejected by the USSR
  
• Updated A Calamitous Request decision where East Turkestan's independence movement can be decapitated

OFF-MAP CHARACTERS

• Updated the UI to accommodate OFF-MAP CHARACTERS. They now show up in the same screen as Leaders but unlike Leaders they cannot be deployed to the map
  
• Updated the UI text for OFF-MAP CHARACTERS
  
• Removed a faulty character from the game

POLICIES

• NEW! The Rise of Idi Amin: Set GOVERNMENT interest to 5. Chance +20% for Religious Conflict (INFLUENCE set to 0 in one USA CONTROLLED region in Sub-Saharan Africa)
  Triggers:
  1) USA has DOMINATION in Region 156 OR
  2) Focus Type is Disarmament AND USA has CONTROL in Region 156 OR
  3) Flower Power Active
  
• Fixed an issue where deactivating the OIL FOR SECURITY by the STATE OF ISRAEL Policy would be displayed incorrectly

FOCUS

• USA - Political Realignment: Gain 1 FINANCE, 3 ELITES and 1 GOVERNMENT interest

BUGS

• Fixed a racing issue in BALANCE OF POWER scenario that would lead to the scenario being frozen on a USSR turn
  
• Fixed an issue where THE CHINA CARD scenario would incorrectly provide an error
  
• Fixed various other smaller bugs and issues

GAME ENGINE

• Updated tooltips for mismanagement warnings
  
• Fixed an issue in the "Balance of Power" scenario that could cause a small error

MAP

• Adjusted the positioning of the Western European map for better accuracy
  
• Refined borders along the North Atlantic Ridge in North America to better reflect economic and political realities
  
• Updated the Theater Map to accurately reflect changes in the North American map

POLICIES

• Fixed an issue where placing INFLUENCE from a policy did not display the Theater Map and incorrectly kept the player on the Policy Selection Screen

DECISIONS

• Updated USSR decisions in Wargames for enhanced strategic options
  
• Fixed an error that occurred when displaying the USSR Weapons programs

UNITS

• Corrected animation positions for Submarine units in the Arctic region
  
• Improved positioning of Western European Submarine units in the Arctic to enhance readability
  
• Fixed an issue where reorganizing Bomber Commands, Fighter Commands, Submarine Fleets, and Carrier Fleets were incorrectly shown as participating in nuclear attacks during nuclear launch simulations

GAME EDITOR

• Updated the title menu to clearly indicate when you are editing a mod
  
• Fixed an issue where removing the Focus file in a mod caused an error message to be displayed in the Editor

GAME ENGINE
+ Engine updated to Unity 2021.3.44f1 for Long term support
+ Added and enhanced various visual aspects of the game
+ Enhanced tool-tips for USSR and USA mismanagement warning

DECISIONS
+ Updated USSR ELITES and PEOPLES decisions in Wargames

GAME EDITOR
+ Fixed an issue where the game editor was throwing an error when selecting a Leader referencing an ability that does not exist

AI
+ Fixed a bug where the AI would sometimes get stuck on savegame focus selection

• Fixed editor throwing an error when selecting a Leader referencing an ability that does not exist
  
• Fixed division by zero
  
• Logging data to help fix log report related to tutorial highlight not working with Reconnect the Department of Defense policy in The Big Picture
  
• Fixed exception due to focus management screen not updating focuses due to game progress (e.g. player A stays in focus mgmt screen, player B ends focus, player A selects expired focus -> exception)
  
• Using leader Resupply ability no longer causes an exception when the ability causes the leader to expire
  
• Fixed exploit caused by leader ability menu not closing after using leader ability that does not end turn (e.g. using Supply which kills the leader, and then using Consolidate)
  
• Fixed Supply leader ability not using the correct notification when used
  
• Steam initialization exception are now logged remotely
  
• Errors when clicking on a mod entry in the editor due to Steam checking upload feasibility now handled gracefully and logged remotely

Commanders, Seth here...

Has it really been since May since the last diary? Well, that does not mean that the Cold War engineers have not been working hard to bring more features, more fixes, and more design into Terminal Conflict.

If you heard the whistle, it’s because we are fully engaged to deliver even more updates and Dev Diaries. Announcing that production has started of Terminal Conflict version 1.2 with all hands on deck. We’ve also upgraded our equipment to deliver even better streams and content post-launch of version 1.2, when Terminal Thursday’s streams will return. We love our community and so keep engaging with us on Discord, and on the Steam forums as we appreciate and value hearing from you. Join our Discord here!

It’s easy to say now that both Soviet and US real life policies in Africa were tragic sparking proxy wars and massive conflicts.


The Soviet Union’s goals during the earlier years of the Cold War were to advance the economic system of socialism. Unreliable leaders in the Third World would cause major issues for both sides and eventually led to the Congo crisis, a proxy war where close to 100,000 people lost their lives and that devastated the region for decades to come. We can also announce that a brand new chain of decisions built around the US-backed leader Mobutu soon is in production.

While an independent and nonaligned Africa exists today it was not without paying a massive price.

I have been teasing this forever, and over the last few months we have been not so secretly dropping in various additions and balance into the policies of a Soviet Sub-Saharan Africa. Here are the new policies that have been implemented into the main game.


In order to be able to activate this decision you will need to have 10 USSR influence in Sub-Saharan Africa or Domination in one region in Sub-Saharan Africa and 1 FINANCE. It sets your ELITES to 1 and you gain 1 VP for each USSR FINANCE.


For each SOVIET-controlled region in Sub-Saharan Africa gain 3 VP

PLA Movement, Mau Mau Rebellion, and PAIGC Rebellion activates USSR Eastern Decolonization policy

Spend 3 ELITES. Gain 5 USSR INFLUENCE in SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.


Gain 1 INFLUENCE in all local WAR ZONES and trigger a new WAR ZONE in a USA-CONTROLLED region in SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.


Gain 3 USSR INFLUENCE in a SUB-SAHARA AFRICAN region with USSR PRESENCE.

Terminal Conflict is in a great bundle with Gaming At Work’s 1920s grand strategy game Rise of the White Sun taking place in China. I put forth that this time period set in motion the events that lead to the communist movement during the Cold War. You can get both games at a brilliant discount. Check out the bundle here: The Balance of Power Bundle on Steam

Q4 is a very exciting time for Strategy Mill and Terminal Conflict as the game continues to be patched with fixes, additions, and new content. Looking forward to this fantastic journey in strategy gaming. If you know my work as The Strategy Informer, you also know that is my mission statement as well.

I am writing this on National Mental Health day. A cause we support and are deeply committed to. We love you guys!

Might Cheers! /Seth out
*********************************************************

I) Mobutu leader event chain
II) Terminal Conflict version 1.2

GAME

• NEW Trigger added for faction Region Domination (5 INFLUENCE)
  
• Fixed exception when moving unit from arctic to theater not bordering the Arctic
  
• Upgraded to Unity 2021.3.7
  
• Fixed ability to navigate to folders outside the wargame in the Editor
  
• Fixed name of editor image text sprite
  
• CPU optimization: update focus/policy text in theater com every 300ms instead of checking every frame
  
• When downloading mods from Steam, report attempt to register the same mod twice instead of throwing an error to the user.
  
• Attempting to fix an OOS occurring during apocalypse:
  
• Region scoring takes units into account
  
• Each faction calculates region scores for both factions, and the score is influenced by the units situated in the region
  
• When faction A estimates the score for a region targeted by faction B containing units owned by A, faction A will always take these units into account, because faction A is aware of all these units existing
  
• When faction B estimates the score for a region targeted by faction B containing units owned by A, faction B might not take the same units into account, because faction B's visibility for these units might be different
  
• This skews the simulation scores, leading to OOS
  
• The implemented solution is to keep track of unit visibility from the opponent's point of view as well and use that during the nuke simulation process.
  
• Fixed an issue where units that can do nuclear strikes can still incorrectly launch nukes despite being set to reorganize
  
• Fixed an issue where Panama had the wrong population numbers
  
• Fixed an issue where Honduras had incorrect population numbers

FOCUS

• NEW MPLA Movement, Mau Mau Rebellion and PAIGC Rebellion now activates USSR Eastern Decolonization policy
  
• NEW SWAPO Rebellion and Somali coup d'état now activates USSR People's Revolution policy
  
• Updated description for FRELIMO Movement to better reflect the gain of 2 Government

POLICIES

• NEW Added USSR Sub-Saharan Policy AFRICAN COMMAND ECONOMY: Set ELITES to 1. Gain 1 VP for each USSR FINANCE. Conditions: (1) USSR must have at least 10 INFLUENCE in Sub-Saharan Africa OR DOMINATION in at least one region in Sub-Saharan Africa AND (2) at least 1 FINANCE
  
• NEW EASTERN DECOLONIZATION: Spend 3 ELITES. Gain 5 USSR INFLUENCE in SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.
  
• NEW PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION: Gain 1 INFLUENCE in all local WAR ZONES and trigger a new WAR ZONE in a USA CONTROLLED region in SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.
  
• NEW COMECON AFRICA: Gain 3 USSR INFLUENCE in a SUB-SAHARA AFRICAN region with USSR PRESENCE.
  
• Fixed an issue where some policies where incorrectly activated
  
• Activated African Command Economy in Balance of Power Scenario

OTHER

• Fixed a Typo a the Design Dispute decision

Greetings Commanders! As we approach the dog days of summer, we are coming in hot with some updates! Much like the weather, things continue to heat up with brand new content. Let’s talk about some of it, shall we?

It’s midnight, and the unthinkable has happened. Global Thermonuclear War. Maybe you scratched out a victory, but at what cost to humankind? We wanted to highlight even further the sheer devastation actions could cause to the citizens of our shared beautiful blue marble.


Terminal Conflict now comes equipped with a regional population system. This allows us to open up a world of future possibilities. The regional populations grow realistically with each shift of the timeline. We add together these numbers to form the world’s population.


Now you will see the devastation of the apocalypse that you have brought on has caused. The numbers here will include immediate deaths, may they rest in peace.

The rest of the population system plans are eyes only for now, but we would love to hear your suggestions on what you would like to see. Speaking of which, if you haven’t checked out the Eyes Only intelligence DLC for Terminal Conflict, created by the Hearts of Iron 4: Road to 56' team, we’ve provided a link here.

So I buried the lead ... A small change with some big ramifications as we wanted to strengthen the strategies you can play towards influencing your opponents’ domestic interests with your Focus Selection.


We have added an indicator for the enemy focuses that displays the enemy domestic interest holder of that focus. This choice deepens the strategies during the selection of focuses because we all know that information is power.

Has your opponent over-invested with military alignment, take the opportunity and favor the same domestic enemy power-brokers. Then sit back and watch as they take power away from your opponent and their country becomes paralyzed by mismanagement. Faints? Countermoves? It’s what the Cold War was about.

I am very excited to hear about how you like the system and what moves you’ve pulled off. Grab us on the Terminal Conflict Discord Server or the Steam discussions and let us know.

What a treat to kick off the summer. Keep a nice pitcher of tea close by and reach out with feedback, questions, or even conversations on strategy games. I am, after all, The Strategy Informer.

/Seth out.
*********************************************************

I) NEW USSR Policies for Sub-Saharan Africa
II) Update of USA mismanagement events
III) Design of a teaching module for use of Terminal Conflict in schools


GAME

• NEW Regional Population and pop growth data & implementation
  
• Reduced pop growth random variation from +-25% to +-5%
  
• Population shown in tooltip also in non-debug mode
  
• NEW Death calculator implemented for Nuclear Apocalypse
  
• Updated Nuclear targeting that would sometimes cause an out of sync
  
• NukeMiniSimulation() considers all nuke-capable units again with every new round
  
• Fixed an issue where launching a Nuclear Apocalypse would incorrectly disconnect the opponent
  
• NEW Activated the domestic interest marker to be shown for enemy focuses at focus selection to deepen
  
• the type of strategies that can be played when selecting enemy focuses
  
• Removed space from theater influence text in Focus card
  
• Fixed an issue where multiplayer games could incorrectly end mid-game and disconnect
  
• Updated Excel file for MIEA UN Partition Plan
  
• Fixed a bug when launching a False Flag operation in Carpathian-Ukrainian Zone an Invalid Operation exception occurs
  
• Fixed a bug where disarming did not properly update the Global Map
  
• Fixed an issue where when attacking a reorganizing enemy naval unit from the arctic in an enemy controlled region, instead of a war zone being declared the enemy unit is incorrectly set to withdrawal.
  
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes wrongly display the policies with the enemy coloring
  
• Unity upgrade to 2021.3.1f1

FOCUSES

• Fixed an issue where Sud-Afrikaanse Weermag would incorrectly add influence to ALL regions with Soviet Control or Domination instead of ONE

POLICIES

• Fixed an issue where the Warsaw Pact effects would incorrectly overflow the notification field when implemented.

DECISIONS

• Operation Balak has have it's option upgraded to:
  
• Option 1 - Provide arms covertly vi Czechoslovakia (+1 Power to DAVID BEN-GURION, -1 Military, +1 Government)
  
• Option 2 - Openly defy the embargo (+2 Power to DAVID BEN-GURION, +2 Finance, -1 Military, +1 Doomsday Clock)
  
• Option 3 - Provide a cultural exchange instead (-1 USSR Influence in Levantian Zone, +2 People)
  
• Fixed a few typos in the Western European Wirtschaftswunder decision chains
  
• Fixed an issue where the US decision Enemy Activity would incorrectly show up as to have a hidden bonus.

EDITOR

• Added hotseat support in debug menu
  
• Added a debug option to force the AI to always select a specific posture to make testing easier
  
• Footer divide is no longer active when the progress dialogue is active

Commanders!

Seth here. I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter and Passover break. Let’s get right to it cause I am as excited as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

It’s the end of April already and that really blows my mind, but things have been hot and furious in the land of the Cold War, with Terminal Conflict. I have been hinting at some things going on and today I get to let you in on some of these events. As you know, we continue to tune, improve and enhance the game from fix’s to new features and content to even improving underlying systems and AI. We are always keeping our ears to the ground to see what directions the community is interested in. We continue in 2022 to move forward with this path.

We are also expanding the Strategy Mill team! Today, with great pleasure, I get to announce that we are being joined by legendary game developer Yoshitomo Moriwaki (Tomo). He brings with him over 24 years of multiple discipline game development. Tomo, being the Lead Designer on Spiderman and the Creative Director on Spiderman 2 (he even designed the much-loved web-swinging system!) will make an excellent innovative addition to our strategic focus. We are excited for Tomo to be joining us in the design role, and bringing fresh eyes and ideas into the DNA of Strategy Mill.



Many will also recognize Tomo as the Creative Director of the award winning game Epic Tavern with his team at Hyperkinetic Studios, of which he is the co-founder. Epic Tavern, which Geek and Sundry calls “D&D meets the Sims” but it’s much more than that, it’s about storytelling with a tavern management layer on top. Epic Tavern is available in Steam Early Access now with the goal of a 2022 full release.

Having been a strategy gamer for many years he remembers the days of playing Steel Panthers and seeing tanks designations such as Sd.Kfz and then doing a deep dive to find out all the information of what is better known as the Panzer 3 and its stats and role during the war.

YouTube fans will also recognize him from the Game Wisdom podcasts. Check out our last episode on "Do Video Games Need Humanlike AI?" featuring Tomo, Seth, Gellert, and Josh Bycer. I will tease that the next episode in planning is about the educational applications of strategy gaming. We look to record in the first week of may.

If you want even more, come to our Discord and chat with him directly of course.

I still can’t give many details on that part, but in the following months, there is going to be lots of Terminal Conflict activity that I will engage you with and informing you about. One of those is the added death calculator that's being developed for the Nuclear Apocalypse. This also means population will now be implemented on a region basis and grow naturally and historically plausibly over time.

Also as promised, remember that the Soviets need to get their time in the blistering heat of Sub-Saharan Africa, so look for that update too soon.

Check the forums and chime in on things you wish to see improved and any strategy questions. I will start by pushing out information asked and collected in our Discord, so look out for these dispatches on our forums.

Also, remember we are running the AAR contest so get your entries into us. read more about the contest HERE for a chance at fame and glory and all the DLC+OST.

Now I am going to go introduce Bert the Turtle to Tomo, have a great time until we meet again.

/Seth Out...

Commanders...

Hey folks, we have some interesting things to mention for our update today regarding Easter! But first, would it be one of our holiday updates without an image from the cold-war presidential archives?


President and First Lady Carter are ready to board Marine One for an Easter at Camp David… There was a hop on the White House lawn!

The Strategy Mill bunnies have been out looking for eggs this past Easter week. I will look for the big eggs ones as I hear they carry MIRVs. Let us know what you found in your eggs! Terminal Thursday was thus postponed this past week and the team got some much-needed R&R.

We hope you and your family have also had a great time.

Don’t forget to come over to the Discord as it is the best way to reach us for direct feedback or questions. We also have our regularly scheduled Terminal Thursday games. Playing Terminal Conflict against a real live player is certainly an experience you do not want to miss.

Let me let you guys in on a secret. We have some eggs hidden in the game! Actually quite a few, some give new terminal skins and some even give achievements. Look for bits of code in various menus and images and use your handy decryption table to decode them. After you get the correct cipher, you just check in your verification.


Yes it is that Falcon

We're giving away ALL of the DLC for the game:

• Eyes Only
  
• Supreme Commander
  
• Flower Power
  
• The Original Soundtrack

We will choose the winner from the best AAR (After Action Report) from either a single-player game or a multiplayer game. Tell us your story of the Cold War against the computer or a worth (or not we won’t judge) human opponent. Video or written entries are fair game, just leave a link in the comments below if it is a video.

Get creative and put your writing (or video) hat on, Commander. We are waiting to see your entry. The contest will run for 3 weeks and we will announce the winner on Terminal Thursday on May the 5th. Submitted AARs may also be featured in upcoming Dev Diary’s with approval from the writer, of course. We reserve the right to give out extra prizes for other non winning but excellent entries.

In closing, we will see you next this Thursday, the 21st of April, with another EXCITING announcement you don’t want to miss. Take care everyone and have a great week.

See you soon…

Oh, even though we are “off” we are, of course, around in the usual places like the Terminal Conflict discord and steam forums, so reach out!

/Seth


The bunnies and clowns are here for your safety!