Hello (soon-to-be) world conquerors

Today, I would like to try to give you a better understanding of Entrotria's economy.

The ultimate goal is clear: producing more and stronger spaceships than your opponents in order to conquer them and win the game. But before we get to that, let me start this series on Entrotria's economy with something much more fundamental: the hexagonal structure.

Entrotria, like other games in the genre, uses a hexagonal structure. Each system consists of asteroids, nebulae, and, last but not least, planets. And this is where it gets exciting, because each planet type consists of unique tiles: on the planets, there are deserts and forests, oceans, auroras, and don't forget the squishy eel slime... (A more detailed overview of the different planet types will follow later). Each hexagon now offers a unique spectrum of resources that can be mined on it. The question that now arises for the player, however, is where to start.

I would say let's start with the fact that tiles must first be purchased before the player can do anything with them. With a few exceptions later in the game, two resources are needed for this: iron and titanium.

\[Titanium]

Titanium is essentially limited to the purchase of tiles in space and on lava worlds. The nice thing about this is that both types of tiles are now also the two most important sources of titanium (e.g., volcanoes). So if the player has a significant titanium production, it is easy for them to produce even more titanium, and more is certainly not too much in Entrotria!

\[Iron]

Iron, on the other hand, is more versatile, as it provides access to almost all other planets (rock, forest, desert, water, swamp, and ice worlds). High iron production is therefore desirable, as iron can be used to buy access to many tiles. And many tiles also mean great potential for further economic growth. And as with titanium, the largest iron deposits are found on tiles that can be purchased with iron (e.g., mountains). Iron also has another decisive advantage: it serves as the basis for one of the two most important economic buildings, the mine. (More on this in the next part of the economy overview!)

So does it make sense to produce titanium and iron in larger quantities? Absolutely. Titanium is always good, because in addition to accessing tiles, you can also use it to build spaceships and upgrade buildings. Iron, on the other hand, is the core of the economy and provides access to most tiles and the most important production facilities. In the early game, it therefore makes sense to produce more iron than titanium. In the late game, titanium production can then take over. However, the amount of different resources you need will increase rapidly, and you will also have to ensure their production is high enough.

So now that you have a tile, how can you get resources from it? Don't worry, the answer will come soon in part 2.

Until then, enjoy your day!

-a nervous Giratakel (Simon Alber)

THANK YOU for such an exciting few days following Ship Explorer's release. We've loved reading all your feedback and ideas. I wanted to address a couple of points and let you know what's coming next!

First of all - we've loved seeing all your screenshots in ⁠the community tab! We are planning on some contests soon - so be sure to join our community Discord (https://discord.gg/za2tmzyAjN),keep snapping and working on your camera skills and you'll be in the running to win future competitions!

Regarding interior spaces - we've seen a bit of discussion around the lack of these spaces in Ship Explorer and some disappointment. We do plan on adding some more spaces to ships like United States and will aim to include at least 2 or 3 interiors for future release. Just to be clear though; this is quite a bit more complex than most people might realize. The reason we decided to launch without many interior spaces is because, in my experience at least, you need to add a month or more of dev time per room you decide to add. They all need to be researched, modelled, textured, reviewed, fitted and bug-fixed from scratch. We were so keen to actually get something into your hands so you could actually play with the experience and explore it. Leave it to us to add more things with time and we plan on developing a road map to help with this over the coming weeks.

At the moment the team is entering bug-fixing mode! As always with a new release we are working to resolve the more persistent bugs. Some of you have reported glitches entering and exiting the Morro Castle's interiors, something we've been working on to iron out. The most egregious of these bugs should be ironed out within the next two or three weeks.

We're also working on some fun gameplay changes to make it easier to track your progress finding historical items - as well as adding some fun new interactable features.

Ship Explorer will be an experience we add to over time and we are gearing up to implement our first new addition to the fleet, the impressive battleship Bismarck. This had originally been slated for an August release but as the team is currently deep in bug fixing and improvement mode we may push her back to September to allow time for this. Future ships will be mostly added to the experience for free, save for vessels we make in collaboration with museums or foundations where we might charge a small token fee with proceeds to go towards assisting those foundations preserving their ships and history.

Many thanks for all your feedback and engagement and we hope you enjoy exploring further!ːsteamhappyː

Screenshot by Discord user Aidanslife2017.

"The Deed II" is currently 86% off until 15 August!

There are also big discounts running on some other Pilgrim Adventures titles, including:

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"Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 3" is currently 72% off until 15 August!

There are also big discounts running on some other Pilgrim Adventures titles, including:

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"A Sceptic's Guide to Magic" is currently 84% off until 15 August!

There are also big discounts running on some other Pilgrim Adventures titles, including:

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Enjoy our Summer Sale – Limited-Time Only! Grab it before it’s gone. Thank you for your continued support!

As promised, the content train keeps chugging along!

This time, we're *finally* replacing one of the oldest and most outdated pieces of kit in the game, the trusty Opel Blitz!

With the addition of the new model, we've also added many additional different skin variants. Have a look below!

This is another step in our long quest to upgrade the quality of all the content in the game to a higher standard.

• Updated Opel Blitz assets.

• Players can no longer fire guns (anti-tank guns, tank guns etc.) when the barrel is obstructed by solid geometry. This will stop exploits where AT guns with long barrels could shoot through solid walls.

• Downscaled and compressed a large number of textures that were needlessly large. This should reduce the incidence of VRAM related crashes that have been reported on the new Italy maps.

• Squad member numbers are now displayed next to the name of squadmates using using microphones.

• The local player's squad member number now overlays on the player's "self" icon on the map.

• Renamed "Dynamic Fog Distance" to "Dynamic View Distance" to improve clarity.

• Carentan Causeway has been reclassified as a "small" map. This should prevent it from being voted in on a full server.

• Fixed incorrect map icons for some guns and vehicles.

• Fixed a typo in the name of the Effetto Pronto shell name.

• Fixed missing localization for Soviet "Sniper" role name.

• Fixed camera clipping issues on some vehicles.

We've also been cooking up a new *counter-battery* system to add more depth to the on-map artillery (i.e., mortars, howitzers) system that will give more of an advantage to smart placement and use of mobile guns.

The technology to triangulate enemy heavy gun fire was developed during World War 1 and further improved in World War 2 with the use of networked listening stations. We considered adding listening stations as constructions that could increase the accuracy of counter-battery marks, but ultimately decided aginst it to keep things streamlined, since builders already have a lot on their plate.

The system is inspired by RTT games like Nival Interactive's Blitzkrieg series. When an enemy artillery gun fires, a *counter-battery mark* will indicate an approximate area that the gun fired from, with the accuracy of the mark dependent on the size of the gun (i.e., the larger the gun, the more accurate the mark).

If the enemy gun is stationary and fires enough rounds, a keen-eyed observer can develop an estimation of the gun's location and then mark it for counter-battery fire. This makes things like clumped-up mortar and howitzer batteries especially susceptible to counter-battery fire, especially when out-ranged by larger guns.

This should give more of an advantage to spreading out artillery guns and keeping them mobile when possible!

We will continue to refine and test the system, and will aim to roll it out later this month.

See you on the battlefield,

Darklight Games 🕷️