So it’s been a long an arduous 8 weeks here at Skatanic Studios as I’ve worked my arse off radically overhauling the quest system and a variety of other core mechanics to have a greater focus on your Heroes.
This update welcomes the new “Mastery” quest system that removes the old slot system for supplies and replaces them with a much more simplified system of picking and choosing what, or what not, to take with you on each quest. There’s a much larger focus on Heroes as they gain experience for undergoing different combinations of quests, settlements and focus’s so that you can really tailor the questing to whatever you prefer and get rewarded for it.
Similarly, a big change with this patch is the Kingdom AI which I’ve spoken briefly about in the past and up until now the other kingdoms haven’t had much of a presence. Now, however you are directly competing against them each year to be the best Kingdom in the land with a much greater comparison of stats at the end of each year, an ability to keep an eye on your competitors via the updated Kingdoms/Settlements screen and a whole bunch of new achievements that reward you for being better than those pesky other Kingdoms.
As well as this I’ve added a bit more polish as I’ve overhauled a variety of the Menu’s and UI”s to make them look a bit better, I’ve added some new transitions and animation states to the UI features and even introduced the ability to hide the UI completed with U on the keypad. (That’s how I’ve captured those sweet new screenshots on the store page!)
Finally, adventurers have been tweaked with better pathfinding (try blocking someone completely and watch them wait for you to free a path for them) and a new emote system to show you their needs / wants. Adventurers will remain in your Kingdom until they are unhappy, out of money or run out of new things to visit so the more that you build the longer they will continue to spend!
Thats just a few of the new systems in place and there’s plenty more mentioned below. I really feel like this update has brought many of the games systems together finally and I’m sure you’ll agree that we’re really starting to get somewhere now.
New Features
- New Tooltip System
- Ability to Custom Name Decorations
- White Glow Added to Info Box when locked/focused
- New Crate Decoration Added
- New Statue Decorations Added (Modular)
- Hide UI by pressing U on the Keyboard in-game.
- New Kingdoms / Settlements Menu
- Competing Kingdom AI Added
- Improved Villain System Added
- Improved Kingdom Inventory Menu
- New Item Types added to Kingdom Inventory
- Maintenance/expenses shown more easily each month
- Emote System Added
- Adventurer now have needs
- Improved the loading screen
- Made Pause Game more obvious
- New Supply / Mastery System for Quick Quests
- Camping Store Added
- Book Store Added
- Cafe Added
- Accessory Shop Added
- Clothing Shop Added
- New Research options available
- Bounties System Overhauled
- Made Pause Game more obvious
- New Animations in Main Menu
- New Quest Types Added
- Hero Stats now shown when selecting them for a Quest
- Equipment now has required levels
- Items Equipped to a Hero now shows in Info Box
- Tooltip Displays Comparison between items when equipping
- Epic Quest Level added / overhauled
- Previous Quest History Added
- Overhauled Build Menu
- Store Information / Levelling Now Available
- Confirmation now required before Deleting a Save
- Archway added to Kingdom Entrance
- Surrounding Fence upgrades to Walls when unlocked
- Fatigued Heros now move slower
- New Achievements Added
Optimisation
- Made Pause Game more obvious
- Improved active pathfinding & stuck states.
- Adventurer AI improved to remember previous buildings visited.
Balance
- Changed / Lowered how Settlements donate.
- Adventurers now spawn based on Kingdom Attractiveness. (Raised via Decorations)
- Heros now only go home to recover fatigue and wander the kingdom when idle.
- Equipment updated to work on percentage increase.
- Building costs increased.
- Building maintenance adjusted.
Bug Fixes
- Kingdom Expand limit now reset on New Game
- Kingdom Happiness now limited to 100%
- Build Mode now cancels when other menus are opened
- Better saving / loading
As always the Save Files will be completely useless with this update and will cause your game to crash. So starting a new game is advised.
I’m really pushing for 0.7 to be mainly focused on bringing new content into the later stages of the game as I think it’s really important to keep the game going once you reach the higher kingdom levels. There’s a few buildings I want to add that should also bring some new features as well as a variety of other improvements. I’ll also be improving the kingdom AI some more and diversifyng it a little bit, I’ll likely add more for the harder difficulty and variate them based on some kind of intensity level too. As there’s no real major overhaul work planned, I’m hoping it won’t take too long this time around!
Enjoy the new update.
All the best,
Matt
IF FOR ANY REASON YOU’D PREFER, YOU CAN ACCESS THE PREVIOUS MOST STABLE BUILD VIA THE “ROLLBACK” BETA IN THE BETA TABS OF THE RPG TYCOON PROPERTIES IN YOUR STEAM LIBRARY