In the THIRTEENTH Early Access Update, we undertake an enormous effort to prove that number 13 is not as bad as it seems. We also tackle a similarly broad endeavor of creating an entirely new, modern UI. Phew.
What’s new:
- New Interface
- Orders Rebalance
It might take a little getting used to, but we hope you’ll love it as much as we do!
P.S. We also updated the Demo.
DEVELOPER NOTES
This Update may feel a bit less packed when it comes to features, but behind the scenes, the entire team was working by the sweat of their brows. On top of that, we spent the whole last week on the paperwork, accounting, and legal work. Goodness gracious, making games feels like the easiest part of game development!
The main focus this time was the overhaul of the game’s UI. We know this isn’t really the most exciting change for many of you (especially for all the veterans who are eager for new things to do), but it has to be done. The old UI was pretty, but a bit unreadable in places, and not very well optimized, so we decided to take a completely new approach. This new style might not have as many elaborate ornaments as the old one, but will be a lot easier on your CPU, and we hope it’ll be a solid foundation for any future improvements to the user experience of Against the Storm.
Please keep in mind that there might still be some places where the new UI meshes with the old one, or places where some adjusting and fixing needs to happen. We will work on all these possible issues in the coming weeks.
But that’s not all! In this update, we also included some balance changes inspired by you, the community! The main focus was evening out the difficulty in some Orders (especially after the recent Species and Resolve changes), and adjusting some underutilized buildings and their recipes. To quickly sum up these changes:
- Orders requiring needs to be satisfied in a certain time frame were a bit too demanding. We decreased their numbers slightly and boosted their rewards.
- Orders based on exploration were too easy and too rewarding at times. That’s why most of them were nerfed.
- Orders with Resolve and population were too hard on higher difficulties. We reduced their requirements and boosted the rewards slightly.
When it comes to building balance, we found that there were certain workshops not chosen as often as others (I’m looking at you, Cooperage). To combat this, we increased their recipe rating, so now most of them now have one recipe of each grade (3 stars, 2 stars, 1 star). We also took a look at the Greenhouse and Clay Pit, and in our opinion, the gameplay of these buildings was overall a bit too boring. They took a very long time to produce things, and simply created goods out of thin air. So in this update, we tried something new - the Greenhouse and Clay Pit now require Sparkdew. Hope your Rain Collectors are ready!
Enjoy the new additions to Against the Storm, and as always, feel free to share your feedback on our Discord server or using the official feedback tool.
We also want to wish you a happy sunny Easter. We hope you’ll have some egg-stra relaxing time!
