We continue working to improve the game and, our number one priority, to fix all the bugs and issues. Since the release They Are Billions has between 15,000 and 20,000 simultaneous players, and has been played for more than 2 million hours in the last week. Amazing! A billion thanks to all players!

Something pending to include for future versions is the counter for the total number of zombies killed by all TAB players, updated in real time on the game's menu screen. That could be very, very interesting :)

Now, let us run you through everything you can find in the new version, of course, we’ll continue listening to all your feedback:


We have detected that Steam Cloud was interfering with the game recording and the user's progress, so we have disabled it. As the game state is huge, They Are Billions uses file compression and it seems that Steam Cloud can affect the recording process when it synchronizes.

All the TAB user data (saves, settings, custom levels, screenshots ...) can be found in My Documents\My Games\They Are Billions, in case you need to move them to another computer.


From the game menu within the Dashboard of the campaign you’ll find a new option to record the current state of the campaign in a new slot. You can continue when you want using the Continue option in the main menu. (This is not available inside a mission, just in the campaign dashboard).

We have implemented it for two reasons: First and foremost, we do not want anyone to lose the progress of the campaign. In such a long game losing the advances due to an error or a disk problem can be a disaster.

This will also allow you to perform tests with the technology tree or try different levels of difficulty... in short, experimenting a bit more with the game.

In addition this new option will work very well together with the following new feature…




Now you can play missions that you have already completed, as many times as you want in the difficulty level you want. This functionality is just for fun, it will not affect any aspect of your campaign, nor the victory points or the defeats counter.


It seems that this mechanism is the one that has caused the most concern to the players and after analyzing the issue among the team we think we already know why.

This mechanic was designed to encourage exploration and reward progress little by little. We love when the hero opens a door, react to the situation, kills the enemies and then explore the room’s content, finding useful objects or research points, it is a good way to constantly reward the progress of the mission.

The testers knew that these bonuses are optional, so they explored the fortress, met the objectives and finished the mission, usually with 70-90% of the points earned. That's why the campaign was balanced to get that number of points on average. Those players that were more into exploring and observing could get extra points, and that’s phenomenal.



However, we realized that most players take it as if it was mandatory and in no case want to pass on any of the available points. So, when they achieve the mission objectives, they feel compelled to look everywhere for remaining objects, instead of leaving the mission and continue the Campaign. That of course is a boring and tedious job. It was a mistake to include in the interface the total available points in the mission because players will not finish the mission until they got them all. We didn’t take into account that most players want to complete and get everything that is available, and this mechanics would bother them too much.

To improve this mechanic, we have activated the flash for objects in all difficulties and increased their visibility. Now finding all the objects should not be a problem. The campaign has been balanced for an average get of 70% of the objects, so nothing happens if you have left any behind. In any case, we take good note for future campaigns!


Now the technologies that you have unlocked since the last mission can be modified if you fail in the new mission. That is, if you have chosen one or two technologies that have not worked well in a mission and you have lost, you can pick up others and play the mission again with the new technologies.
Once a mission is completed, the unlocked technologies become permanent as before.

We have also added the costs of unlocked units and structures in the help messages of the technologies, and solved the problem of the Veterans Snipers that did not receive the attack improvements of the normal Snipers.


It turns out that we missed a parameter in the Storm Cape mission swarm and the veteran community of TAB claimed that we were nerfing the game!?! Please calm down guys, wait until you hear the official voice of Numantian before drawing conclusions. TAB is an old-school and hardcore RTS, that's our hallmark and it will always be!

In recent patches we have improved the difficulty curve of the campaign to make it more accessible in the first missions of the game as they are where new players without previous experience learn the mechanics of the game. That is why we have added new tutorial messages to improve learning. The rest of the missions of the campaign (80%) remain the same as they were originally designed.

In addition, following the feedback of the most veteran players, we have increased the level of challenge of the modes Brutal and Nightmare between 20% and 50%. And, in case you think this is not enough,... please keep reading :)


Was Nightmare mode not enough for you? So get ready... the evil TAB developers have created a new way in which the infected are hungrier, more nervous and more billions than ever. We assigned one of our testers to try the Apocalypse Mode during the weekend and, when we returned to the office, we found him huddling in a corner crying and sobbing. Burbling again and again: "Why…? Why did we do it... ? " Guys, it was very disturbing...


We have re-enabled the feature that allows that the new version changes can be consulted from the main menu. We had taken it away because translation to so many languages could take many days, something we can’t afford when they are so urgent. So we have implemented a self-translation system using Google Translator to translate them from English. Apologies if the translation is not very good or results in something totally crazy!

- We have fixed the anti over-kill feature that made sometimes the units to waste shots when targeting enemies.

- Mine traps works now as expected according to the delay time set by the player.

- Also, dwelling without colonists (waiting the train arrival) no longer spam zombies when they have been infected.

The list of all changes can be also found here on Steam forums.

And this is all for now... we’ll keep on working on improving the game while you continue to reconquer the World after the zombie apocalypse. Good luck and see you soon!

The launch week is becoming really intense. We never thought that version 1.0 would generate so much interest, opinions and feedback. That’s a sign that They Are Billions is becoming a very popular game and, as such, generates intense debate.

First of all, thank you very much to all the constructive feedback that helps us to improve the game and to correct mistakes. Thank you very much for taking the time. You know that our team is always open to everything you want to say to us.

During the development of the Campaign we had a few dozens very different testers playing the campaign from start to finish using very different strategies, and always in Challenging difficulty.

Although we’ve worked hard to achieve the best quality, making it as challenging and with the widest range of strategic possibilities, with hundreds of thousands of people, playing the game there are many aspects that may require adjustments and improvements. That’s what we are here for, to improve it and give you the best possible experience.

We have to say that we are saddened to see that many players with hundreds of hours of play in Survival mode have written very negative reviews for the launch of the Campaign. We understand that there are people who prefer to play Survival and are not interested in the campaign, and prefer that development efforts be directed only to the Survival. That is totally legitimate, and we are delighted to hear that feedback and we will take it into account. But we've done an update with new free content, which we promised from the first day of the Early Access. And we’ve even improved the Survival with two new maps and the wandering Mutants. So, we ask for your patience as the advances in the development will come in order. The next big update will be for the Survival, but we are working on one thing at a time.


Here are the most important improvements:




Here we made a mistake when leaving the Challenging mode as the default difficulty level. In addition, many players haven’t noticed the small screen of difficulty level that appears on the Missions screen and are not aware that you can change the level of difficulty at any time.

Improvement 1: Now the default mode is Accessible, which maintains a good level of challenge and is more progressive than the Challenging. Also, now when playing the first mission you will see the difficulty window explaining this functionality.

Improvement 2: The general difficulty of the first missions has been lowered a bit so that it is something more accessible, especially for first-time players

Some missions have a time limit because the challenge lies in getting a colony of certain characteristics within that time frame. It seems that this limit has taken many people by surprise or is simply too short for less experienced players.

Improvement: So, we have removed the limit in the first missions and expanded generously in all the others. It should no longer be a problem, but we will continue to listen to your feedback and make further adjustments if necessary.


We understand that there are players who prefer to focus on the colony mode and are not that interested in tactical missions. We see them as bonus reward phases which our testers really enjoyed playing.
For those who are not very interested in these phases, we recommend playing them with the lowest level of difficulty. This will allow a quick walk through the fortresses.
While searching for objects, that for us it is something that enhances the exploratory nature of the game, it’s much easier if you zoom in. Also, they’re optional, it is not necessary to collect them all. Even so we have made some improvements:

Improvement: Now the bonus objects flash every so often, so it is very easy to identify them. The period of blinking changes according to the difficulty, the easier the more often they will blink. In Difficult, Brutal and Nightmare levels, they will never blink for those who enjoys a greater challenge.


Some players mentioned that if you don’t achieve certain advances you won’t be able to progress in the missions.
In our tests we have completed the entire campaign in Challenging with very different (and crazy) tree settings. We have even completed the campaign with only one unit: the soldier with all his improvements, without attack towers, and without any micromanaging, simply making hordes of soldiers and sending them to hunt. Also, using the Inn and its rewards without investigating any unit. And so many other situations and game styles just for fun.

In the end, what we want to say is that the fun comes from exploring and creating your own strategies with the resources at your disposal, to adapt and survive, that's what the game is all about. We hope you’ll agree.
Still, if you get stuck in a mission you have several options:
- There are always other missions to complete first, in which your technological configuration may have an advantage, and then you can return to the previous one with more progress made.
- If you are still stuck, lower the difficulty for a specific mission. The only change is that you win fewer victory points.

Improvement: We have made some adjustments in the tree to make the beginning more accessible.

We continue working hard to correct all reported issues. We have already fixed many and we’re still working on them.

We have fixed a memory leak problem related to sound that made the game consumes much more RAM than needed so it can lead to crashes and freezes. A thousand apologies for this! Now the game should be 100% stable while playing hours.

Another issue we’ve fixed is that the game counted a defeat in the event of a crash. It’s already been fixed, apologies for those who have suffered it.

EDIT: Also we are examining if there is any problem with the anti-overkill targets feature that it seems to work worse than in the last version.

To force the update just restart the Steam client. It should be now the 1.0.5.

We continue working to improve the game. Thank you very much for your support, we will continue to post the most important changes here.

Quintus is waiting for you... those wild lands are not going to reconquer themselves! See you soon!

At last, They Are Billions reaches version 1.0. We are leaving the Early Access and the great Campaign, The New Empire, will be available for all players.

Lead the campaign under the orders of Quintus Crane, ruler of the New Empire, and reconquer the lands devastated by the infected.

• 48 missions with more than 60 hours of gameplay.
  
• Build fortified colonies to survive in infected territories
  
• Destroy the swarms of infected with the Imperial Army.
  
• Make your colonies evolve with more than 90 available technologies.
  
• Explore the ancient human fortresses with your Hero.
  
• Discover the story behind the apocalypse... how did the pandemic start?

Don’t forget the new available maps for the Survival mode.
You can see this update for more info.




Along with the Campaign we will also launch a DLC that will contain the 22 themes of TAB soundtrack at the highest quality, and the digital book “The Art of They Are Billions”, for those of you curious about the sketches and illustrations of the most important elements of the game.

In the game main menu "More" you can find an option "Collector's Edition". Click there to open the content folder with these extra rewards. Hope you like them!

Of course the soundtrack can be player via the Steam Music Player.

The V.1.0 is the most stable, lots of issues have been solved and the performance is much better than in the old version. Also it has countless of improvements in all fronts.

Although we have tested the campaign to the fullest, we will be ready to quickly fix any bugs or solve any problem after the launch.

As you know, in this section of the forum you can report any issues you have with the game. Please, be patient, we promise to solve everything as fast as possible, as we have always done.

Thanks a lot for your support and feedback during the Early Access time. You have made They Are Billions possible as it stands today, and for that we will always be grateful. We really hope you’ll enjoy the Campaign.

That’s all for now, we don’t want to take much more of your time. Please go ahead and submerge yourselves in the New Empire Campaign. Just a friendly advice, don’t forget to eat and drink every few hours! (sleeping is optional)☺

See you on the other side of the Campaign!

There is only one day left until the launch of the They Are Billions Campaign that finally, after a year and a half in Early Access, will become version 1.0!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKRTQGHL3mc

During this time, and thanks to all your support, we have improved TAB in many aspects while developing the Campaign mode almost in secret. It will finally be released tomorrow and, as promised, it will be included for free for all existing TAB players.

TAB will be a fully finished game so it will leave the Early Access stage. Of course, we will continue to work on improving TAB, especially the Survival mode and the Editor, but all of that will some time later, first the priority is the campaign launch.

We wanted to share with you some details for all of you who have been eagerly waiting, as we know that nobody is going to read anything of tomorrow’s announcement and will jump directly into playing the Campaign :)




Along with the Campaign we will also launch a DLC that will contain the 22 themes of TAB soundtrack at the highest quality, and the digital book “The Art of They Are Billions”, for those of you curious about the sketches and illustrations of the most important elements of the game.


We will activate it between 9 and 10 AM Pacific Time. As there are many steps involved in publishing the new page (the DLC Soundtrack & Artbook, the announcement and so on), we do not know exactly what time it will be, but it will be in that range.



The V.1.0 is the most stable, lots of issues have been solved and the performance is much better than in the old version. Also it has countless of improvements in all fronts.

Although we have tested the campaign to the fullest, we will be ready to quickly fix any bugs or solve any problem after the launch.

As you know, in this section of the forum you can report any issues you have with the game. Please, be patient, we promise to solve everything as fast as possible, as we have always done.



The Flat Mode is designed to help you when building and some element of the scenario impedes your vision. The Flat Mode is really ugly (compare the following images), and it's a shame that after working so hard to create this awesome scenarios, especially for the campaign mode, the game ends up showing up in videos in this way. Streamers, your audience will enjoy your videos much more if you play the game as it is.

Thank you very much in advance!


By default the Campaign is played in Challenging mode. At any time you can change the difficulty of the game from the campaign Dashboard. The difficulty level only impacts the final victory points. We recommend playing the game in Challenging mode and if you find it very hard drop it down little by little. Pro-players who are used to playing in Brutal or Nightmare in Survival mode, can also start the campaign at those levels. But we warn you, it will not be easy! ;) We hope that everyone, in one way or another, can reach the end of the game.

The last scenario: "The Goddess of Destiny" is really an epic experience, do not miss it!


The Campaign is full of amazing details and surprises, especially in the tactical missions. We recommend playing it without watching videos or knowing anything in advance. Enjoy playing in your own style, take your time to explore and experience everything.

The best strategies are those that you discover yourself!


Finally just check this amazing fan-art of our beloved Ranger Unit by Dennis Fröhlich.



And that's all for now, see you tomorrow!

At last! The highly anticipated They Are Billions Campaign will be available on June 18th. Here at Numantian, we recommend that you ask your boss for at least one month off. That’s because, and you are being warned, the campaign is addictive - really addictive. Check out the teaser trailer of The New Empire. We hope you enjoy it!

https://youtu.be/GKRTQGHL3mc

The campaign will, of course be included free with the current game, and also it will be available in the 12 languages currently supported by They Are Billions.


Along with the campaign, two new scenarios will be unlocked for the Survival mode: The Deep Forest and The Caustic Lands.

- As The Deep Forest is the most accessible, it will now be the first scenario available, so that new players’ first contact with They Are Billions is not so brutal.



- The Caustic Lands, on the contrary, will be the hardest of all the maps. The most dangerous infected live here and you’ll face the Doom Colony that can occupy up to 30% of the map. Scary!



In addition, the rest of the scenarios have been modified in the level of difficulty and include new dangers... No spoilers here! ;)

See you soon!

*EDIT: They Are Billions will leave Early Access when the campaign is launched (18th June).

Today we will talk about the heroes and tactic mission in They Are Billions.

The Campaign will finally have 48 missions, 23 of which are about building colonies, 15 about attacking swarms of infected and 10 will be tactical missions. As it happened to us with Lords of Xulima, the duration of the final game is much longer than we had anticipated as, according to our testers, it can take between 60 to 80 hours to complete it !?!

To finish the campaign it will only be necessary to build the 23 colonies. The rest of the missions are all optional, but surely you will need to play them to advance in the technology tree, and destroy the swarms that block the routes to new territories.

It is a long campaign but also very diverse, the tactical missions will specially bring a very different touch to the game. Testers’ recurring comment is that we could have created a completely new game just with them. We hope they’ll enrich the gameplay experience and will also help bring lore to the story behind They Are Billions. Something that testers also appreciate is that in these missions you can finally enjoy the graphics and animations of the zombies up close, compared to the zoomed out way you normally play in the colony mode.





At the beginning of the campaign you will have to choose between one of the two heroes. This is an important decision because the chosen hero will be accompanying you throughout the whole campaign and you won’t be able to change it. Although they have different game styles they are both very well balanced, so just choose the one you like the most. You can always play the campaign again with the other hero to enjoy a different game experience.

Heroes only play in tactical missions. If the hero dies the mission will fail.
At the end of a mission the heroes can go up one level and you can improve them by acquiring new perks. Each hero has a different perk tree. At the beginning you can choose between one of the 4 perks of the central part, from there you only acquire the perks adjacent to an already unlocked one. In the end, the hero will become a very powerful unit and you will clearly be able to feel his progression as you advance in the tactical missions.


The objective of the tactical missions is to recover some important technological artifacts that can be found inside the old human fortresses. These are the ten locations you can explore:

• The Last Bunker
  
• Alpha Communications Center
  
• The Weapons Factory
  
• The Foundry
  
• Hydra Power Plant
  
• The Prison
  
• Gamma Medical Center
  
• The Steel Fortress
  
• Omicron Laboratory
  
• Phoenix Project

While exploring the fort you will find valuable objects that will grant you research points (scientific material...) to progress in the technology improvements tree, and empire points (books, old paintings, statues...) that will please the New Empire and provide you with greater influence over the Imperial Army.



Valuable items appear in random places in each game, you can locate them using the mouse cursor. Any valuable object will light up and you can send your unit to pick it up. This objective is optional and it’s not necessary to find them all to complete the mission. You will also find useful objects such as hand-grenades and medical kits, and many interactive elements.



We recommend that you explore the fortresses, little by little, carefully checking everything out, and using the elements of the scenario to your advantage.






When a tactical mission is completed, you will also receive an old newspaper clip with a fragment of the history of the infection that ravaged the world. When completing all of them, you will finally find out where the "Billions" in "They Are Billions" came from.


(If you want to know what it says you'll have to explore the ancient fortresses)

And that's all for now. In the next update, we will publish the trailer of the campaign and announce the final release date.

See you soon!

As you probably know, before launching They Are Billions on Steam we had a presale campaign with special limited editions in which one of the rewards for supporting the development was to appear in the game credits.

As appreciation to all our awesome backers, we have produced a theme song for the game credits as a tribute to the more than 3,000 people who, through their support and collaboration, have help us to make this project a reality.

The theme song was composed and directed by our great composer Nicolás Diteriks, who also played the piano. Alice Dixit has lent us her amazing voice, and they are both joined by a wonderful group of talented performers: Lucas d'Angelo on the guitar, Igor de Ferran on the bass and Pablo Ramirez on the drums.

We hope you like it. On behalf of the entire team, thank you all very much for your support!

https://youtu.be/DZhhIAwu7Xs

Note: The new credits will be available in the game in the next version.


We are now very close to the final release of They Are Billions that includes the new Campaign mode, with more than 60 hours of play. From this week the base price of the game will no longer include the Early Access discount and its final price will be $ 29.99.

We are also working in the collector's edition, that will include the soundtrack album remastered to the highest quality and the digital book "The Art of They Are Billions", that contains hundreds of images with sketches, tests and final artwork of TAB. The Collector's Edition will come out as an extension (DLC) so anyone who wants to can upgrade from the basic edition. Its price will be: $6,99.

And that's all for now, see you soon in the next update: Tactic Missions and the Heroes!

*If you are a backer and can’t find yourself in the credits, please let us know at: gomez@numantiangames.com. We will be updating the credits in the game with every new version.

As we mentioned in the previous update, we hope to launch the final game with the Campaign in June. We are working very hard on all fronts in parallel: Missions of the Campaign, new interface for the Campaign, testing and balancing, cinematics, voices and sound effects, new units, translations, and some other surprises we have planned.

The name of the Campaign will finally be The New Empire, which we believe summarizes the goal of the campaign very well: to build the new human civilization, after the zombie apocalypse, under the leadership of the Great Emperor, Quintus Crane. In addition, this New Empire mimics the ancient human empires, especially The Roman Empire, both in its aesthetic and in its imperialistic and conquering behavior. And all of this mixed with a rudimentary steam-powered technology and a world devastated by zombies... What do you think?


We have almost finished the new interface for the campaign. There are still some icons missing - we are using provisional ones - but, we can show you the most important elements. We hope you like it. The interface has the same Steampunk touch as the rest of the game, but we also wanted to bring it closer to the New Empire, with its symbols and flags.



From the Dashboard you can access three sections using the large buttons on the top right: Campaign Map, Research Laboratory, and Hero Stats Screen.

On the Campaign Map, you’ll find the map that grows and unveils as you advance in the campaign. From there, you can consult the available missions and start playing them.

From the Research Laboratory you can unlock new research that grants you access to improvements for your colonies. Click here for more information.



Finally, from the Hero Stats Screen you can see all the Hero related information including the tree of improvements. We will talk about this in the next update.

Also in the Dashboard, you will find the following elements:

• Progress of the Campaign (in the center at the bottom).
  
• User account screen where the current difficulty level and the button to change it appear at all times.
  
• Total Empire points that represent your power within the Empire, necessary to dispose of your army in swarm attack missions, and overall campaign score (both bottom right).

As the Campaign progresses, you will find swarms that will block the way of the expansion of the Empire. You will have to destroy them by placing the defense units and structures of the Imperial Army.

In these outdoor missions you will have to face a swarm of infected, which you will have to destroy while defending the Official Outpost located in the center. If the Outpost is destroyed or infected you will have lost the mission.

When you start the mission, the game will be paused while you use the Outpost to select the units and defenses to deploy. Rangers and wooden barriers will always be available, as well as all the units and defenses that you have unlocked from the research tree so far.



Each unit or defense costs a certain number of Empire points. Once they run out, you’ll be unable to deploy more defenses. When you have finished with the deployment, just press the Start button and the game will begin and the swarm will be unleashed.

Use the terrain as a natural defense, and plan which type of defense is the most advantageous, according to the size and types of the swarm. The attack missions are very fast, and a little crazy, and very easy to lose. :) In any case, we think they are great fun. May Fortune be on your side!



That's all for now!
In the next update we will tell you about heroes and tactical missions.
See you soon!

Today we’ll talk about the World Map and some other elements about the upcoming Campaign Mode of They Are Billions.


If you followed the development of our last game, the RPG Lords of Xulima, you should know that we love World Maps. They’re a great way to put the player directly into the context of the game while showing their progress. Every game should have one!

In They Are Billions, we’ve taken the integration of World Map with the game even further. For an RTS game, having a world map where you can design your own strategy is a must. As the World Map is unveiled as you progress in the Campaign we will just show a few pieces to not spoil anything. Also, sorry about they are still in Spanish.

Some words about the game setting: They Are Billions is set in the 23rd Century, two hundred years after civilization has collapsed from the pandemic that turned billions of humans into hungry, infected savages. In this lethal world, there’s just one city left standing, Empire City. Built by Empire Leader Quintus Crane, it has prospered and grown inside a huge meteor-impact crater. The Great Crater border serves as a massive natural barrier allowing humans to live safely from the infected.

Quintus wants to expand the Empire outside the Great Crater. Your role in the game, as a young general chosen by Quintus, is to command the reconquest of the wild territories where the infected roam free. And this is where the game starts. You have no knowledge of the world other than what you unveil by progressing in the campaign. In the first mission, called "The Hidden Valley", you’ll have to build the first colony using only the most rudimentary technology (tents, rangers and hunters).



Once a mission is successfully completed, the surrounding parts of the world map will then be revealed, granting you access to more missions.



After the first mission, you’ll have several options to choose from. Select a mission to see all the info: description, goals, rewards... Also the level (difficulty) of the mission will be displayed with red skulls, ranging from 1 (easiest) to 5 (hardest). The level of development of your colony (what technologies you have chosen to research), and your play style, will also impact the difficulty of the missions. Use all this info wisely to choose your next target in order to progress in the campaign.



Some missions are blocked by swarms of infected as you can see in the first screenshot. You’ll need to obliterate them before you can continue on that path. We’ll tell you more about the Swarm Attack Missions and the Empire Army in the next update.


In a few words: They Are Billions is They Are Billions, and not Starcraft, Supreme Commander, Age of Empires or any other game. They Are Billions has its own style and philosophy of play and we will always remain faithful to its essence. They Are Billions is about survival in a world devastated by billions of infected. It’s about letting players develop their strategy as best as they see fit, adapting to any adverse situation using their skills and resources.

There won't be missions be scripted such us "create exactly three units of this type; build seven structures in this place price; rescue four snipers that are in this position and then destroy this damn town while such a character is directed to... and if you do not do exactly that, the mission will fail... ". No thanks. That takes away the player's freedom, going against They Are Billions’ spirit. The campaign will be similar to the survival mode but on a grander scale. Of course each mission will have objectives, but they’ll be more like "Build a colony of 10,000 settlers on the "Poisonous Swamp", or "Get rid of all the Frozen Lake Giants". How you achieve that goal will be left entirely up to you.

It’s true that tactical missions will rely more on narrative and ambiance because they’re more about exploration. You’ll be able to roam freely inside the abandoned human strongholds where they take place.



At Numantian, we’ve never been big fans of game tutorials, especially when the tutorial is external to the game. We prefer the game to be as self-explanatory as possible, with all the necessary help integrated into the interface, becoming easily visible just by moving the mouse. We like to learn through experimentation and exploration instead of following a step-by-step guide. What could be more boring?! Having said that, the survival mode is quite brutal for inexperienced RTS players. That’s why, during the campaign, some game management basic-information messages will appear at the beginning. We’ll keep them to a minimum, so they won’t become a nuisance to the experienced players.

As in the campaign, you’ll start with very few buildings and units, but the learning curve will be much more progressive than in the survival mode. To be honest, They Are Billions was meant to be played in the campaign mode first, and only after that, in the survival mode, and not the other way around as it has been. :)



Another often controversial subject of They Are Billions is the Permadeath system that makes it more similar to rogue-like games. We’ve always thought this was the right way to go because it works perfectly for this type of game. It enhances the tension and fear that the colony will succumb to the infection. This way, the game is experienced much more realistically. Recording and loading would ruin the game experience because your decisions while playing in permadeath have real risks and consequences while if you are allowed to reload the game, your actions don't carry risk anymore as you can go back in time, so to speak, and redo it in another way.

The campaign has 50 missions, which total 40-60 hours of play. Obviously the permadeath system won’t apply to the whole campaign. It’d be tragic to have to start again after playing for 40 hours! :)
During the campaign, the permadeath system works as usual. You can exit the game and continue the same mission when you want, but you can’t reload an old game. If you fail the mission you’ll return to the campaign map and decide whether to start the same mission again or start a different one to gain some improvements by developing the research tree.
But be aware that this doesn’t mean that you can repeat the mission over and over again without consequence...

The campaign score, which will be equal to the sum of the scores of all completed missions, will be displayed in the campaign dashboard. Each mission has a maximum score based on the chosen difficulty chosen, and that you will earn when you successfully complete the mission. Watch out because each time you fail a mission, 10% of that score will be permanently deducted until you reach a minimum of 10% of the original score. By doing this, we’ll reward you for finishing each mission with the least possible attempts, and we’ll avoid metagaming situations like, “I start the mission and explore everything and with that information I start the mission again.”

Regarding the difficulty, we’ve implemented quite an original and effective system. Instead of selecting the difficulty level at the beginning of the campaign, and not being able to change it again, you can set it at any time from the campaign dashboard. That difficulty (accessible, challenging, brutal...) will only affect the mission you are about to play and, of course, the mission score (the score factor). This way, if a certain mission is too hard, you can always make it easier, but at the cost of losing victory points.

Unlike in the Survival mode, a mission score will only depend on its level and the selected difficulty, and not on the number of settlers, wonders, or lost units ... This is because we prefer not to encourage artificial game strategies devised only to increase the score. If you want to raise your score, select a higher difficulty level.

We believe this to be the fairest system. Focusing the game on getting the highest campaign score will encourage you to play with greater challenges, and also to replay the campaign at more difficult levels to reach a higher score that, by the way, we’ll publish on the Global Campaign Leaderboard. Game on!


We’re 100% focused on finishing the campaign so it can be released as soon as possible. If all goes according to plan, that will be June 2019. The gameplay will unquestionably be finished by then, as it’s almost at 75% right now, but other elements like the video cinematic, voices, translations, or other stuff may take us longer than expected.

Therefore, we’ve decided not to add new content to the survival mode until the full game with the campaign is released. Working on the campaign modifies everything in the game, while updating new content for the survival uses a lot the development resources, and we firmly believe that most players prefer to have the campaign sooner than having an updated Survival but with a more delayed Campaign.

Having said that, the exciting news is that with the big launch of the campaign, the survival mode will be updated with two more themes and features like new units and structures. If will be finally the 1.0 version!

Of course we’ll continue updating the game to fix bugs and other issues. And while you patiently wait, you can play the more than one thousand custom levels already available in the workshop. Indeed, the editor came much earlier than what we’d planned precisely to give more content to the players while giving us enough time to develop the campaign.

And that's all folks! In the next update we will talk more about the campaign and the swarm attack missions.

See you soon!

Today we would like to tell you a bit more about some of the upcoming features of the Campaign: The Train and the Research System


During The Campaign you will mostly have to deal with reconquering a big territory currently occupied by the infected. In this future world there is just one city standing: Empire City, where most remaining humans live. At the beginning of the game, the Emperor commands you with the task to expand the empire throughout the infected territory. You’ll have to build colonies that will be connected by a railway network.

In the campaign, the train will always play a role in the colony-type missions. In these maps the Command Center will be located next to the railway tracks that will run across the map.

The train convoy will arrive at the colony once a day with a payload of colonists from Empire City to populate the colony. Therefore, in the Campaign, houses will initially be empty and "disabled" until the colonist arrive.



As well as adding realism and coherence with the game story and the style (steampunk), the train enhances the gameplay mechanism:

Structures cannot be built on top railway tracks:
That's something obvious of course, but it presents a new challenge to both expanding and protecting the colony. Colonies will always have those open gaps for the infected to sneak in. Make sure you place your units and towers to defend them well.

The train can destroy the infected:
The train will destroy all infected units that cross paths with it! But don't worry, your units cannot be harmed. They will just be pulled apart and let the train pass. This feature can be used to your advantage.

The Train won't come to the colony while it is attacked by a swarm:
So the train will delay its arrival the next day.

Colonists just arrive to the colony once a day:
So you should take this into account when deciding when to build houses, or other buildings.

You can upgrade the train by researching specific perks in the Research Tree:
So when it comes to the colony it will bring not just colonists, but also resources and gold.


During the campaign you will have access to the Research Laboratory in between missions. There you can use the Research Points you have won by finishing missions, or found while exploring the Old Fortresses.

The Research system will have a really big impact in the gameplay. Consider that in the beginning of the Campaign you’ll start will a very low level of technology that will allow you just to build these elements: Tent, Wood Wall / Gate, Mill, Tesla Tower, Quarry, Sawmill, Fisherman and Hunter Cottages and the Ranger. And by contrast, at the end you may finish with highly sophisticated units and buildings that will allow you to develop much more powerful colonies than the current ones in the Survival Mode.

The Research Tree has more than 90 research perks. Some of them will allow the unlocking of new buildings or units. Others consist on upgrades for buildings / units, or general improvements for your colony. There will be a great variety of them, so every player can have a unique experience while deciding how to evolve their colony. It won't be possible to research all the perks in the tree, so make sure your research strategy matches your playing style!
But don't worry too much about whether you are choosing the right perks. The missions will be very open and can be played in different ways. As in the Survival mode, you will need to adapt your colony for every challenge. But also, you will always have several missions available so you can decide to play them in the order that better fits your technology level.

Here you have an preview image, sorry about it being in Spanish, we will translate the Campaign when is fully completed.



By the way, the current mayors system of the Survival Mode won't be available for the Campaign as their bonus and features interferes with the Research System that will be much more complex and deep and leave the Mayors system just for Survival and Custom Maps.


We have just updated the version, fixed some reported bugs and also added a few more elements, taken from the campaign, to enrich your custom levels gameplay and narrative.

Signs



You can place signs in the map to show more information (names, warnings...) about regions of different parts of the map. They are activated by units (with right click as any other interactive element).

Multi-purpose Machines: The Communicator and the Transmitter



You can place these machines in the map and set an script that will be executed when a unit interact with the machine (right click). These elements are useful when you need to trigger an event in an specific moment (instead of automatic events), and when a unit reaches that point in the map.
For example, you can now create more tactical maps where the player must reach and activate those landmarks to win the game.

And that's all for now. In the next update we will talk about the World Map and Missions!

See you soon!