Greetings!
As you know, we are currently working on the development of the campaign of They Are Billions. As we have many (too many) interesting ideas to implement, we have a lot of work ahead of us: lots of new graphics assets, buildings, structures, environments, new features to program and much more. But don't worry, the development is progressing very well.
Let's talk a bit about the campaign
In our opinion, modern strategy games seem to belong to two big groups.
First, the ones that focus on survival, crafting, and simulation. In these games, one would play random or customized levels. Many times, they are without a specific goal so that the player can play them indefinitely. Games like Prison Architect, Civilization, Factorio... belong to this type. They Are Billions has its own survival mode that while being very addictive, is not the main goal of this game.
The other type is multiplayer RTS: competitive or cooperative. There are many games like this. They Are Billions won't have this mode - at least in the beginning. If the game turns to be very successful, we will consider implementing and include it in the game. Either way, multiplayer is our last priority right now.
Both game types are great. We enjoy both a lot, especially the first one. But it seems that all single player campaigns have almost disappeared or has been reduced to the minimal expression like a pack of single crafted levels to play in order. There are exceptions of course. And, They Are Billions will be one of them. :)
In the campaign, you will just have one goal, reconquest an infected region of the world by creating well-defended colonies connected by a train railways network. How will you achieve that? That's up to you! You can decide where to expand your territory, which missions to try, and even in where to focus your advancement. In every mission, you can choose several types of rewards:
- Engineering Points: you can use to research new structures and units. You have more than 60 to discover. It is impossible to get all in a single campaign. Therefore, you must decide which are the best for your gameplay style.
- Science Points: The science tree has more than 150 advances you can research to improve your units and buildings in many different ways. Again, it is impossible to research all of them. You will have to decide your own way: Are you a tactic military leader with elite units or massive armies of soldiers, or do you prefer to trust in automated machines to defend the colonies? Would you rather create big industrial colonies focusing in the resources production or getting rich to improve the relations with the empire?...
- Empire Points: They represent your reputation in the New Empire. We will talk about this more in a later update...
We will talk in the next updates about the campaign/world elements. Today, we will talk about the Old Human Fortress.
The Old Human Fortresses
After the infection devastated the big metropolis in the 22nd century, the humans decided to create an impregnable fortress to defend the remaining cities from the infected. But even with their advanced technology, they failed, and the fortress succumbed to the infection. What happened? No one knows what happened these days... You will have to play the campaign to find out the answers. The fortresses are now abandoned with the infected roaming around them. Their big ruined and rusted structures remain as a silent witness of the failure of the old humans had to contain the infection in the past.
And... if they failed to defend their cities with their high technology and tons of resources, how are you going to survive with steam machines, wood, stone walls, and crazy mercenaries?...
During the campaign, you will find these old fortresses and be able to use them to your advantage. Their walls and structures are indestructible, so they are terrific tactical places to contain the swarms. It is also worth it to explore them, as they frequently contain resources for the colony, useful items you can use against the infected (explosive barrels, oil...), and valuable documents about science and engineering you can use to advance in the technology trees.
And that's all for now. In the next update, we will talk more about the campaign and will show you a new interesting video!
See you soon!
