FAQ

[Gamatron]

Feel free to ask questions directed at the developer here, and if they're frequent enough, I'll add them below.

WHAT KIND OF GAME IS IT
It's a city builder to put it blunt. It looks a lot like Rimworld and Dwarf fortress, but that is mostly where the likeness ends. There are probably many players of said games that will also enjoy Songs of Syx, but the game is aimed at city builder fans that likes, who do not mind, retro graphics and feel.

GET INVOLVED
The best place to get involved with the game is at the discord:
https://discord.gg/eacfCuE
The developer is there almost every day, and lots of ideas and bugs are being discussed.
There's also a dedicated forum here on steam if you wish to discuss something directly with the developer.

HOW DO YOU PLAY THE GAME?
There is not so much to it, build a bunch of buildings and they will come. Here is the official WIKI that we try to keep up to date. There's also an in-game wiki.
https://songsofsyx.com/wiki
And a tread to discuss the wiki
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1162750/discussions/0/3037102935217254483/

MODDING
The game is very moddable at its core. Now also featuring code modding. Here is some additional information:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1162750/discussions/0/3168820451532921219/

DEMO VS FULL GAME?
The demo is the full game a few updates back. Each update add something new, and a couple of bug fixes. The game has been playable for many years though, and the demo is 6 months behind tops. You're going to get a good feel for the game.

TRANSLATIONS
Translations for the game is done by helpful community members over at:
https://crowdin.com/project/songs-of-syx
Any language can be added, as long as they're written left to right, top to bottom.
These translations are packaged and shipped with the game whenever there is a new version. Not all translations are complete, and it will say the level of completeness in the game launcher.

SALES?
There are no plans about putting the game on sale. You have plenty of options figuring out if it's worth the current price for you. If you're in a place and time in your life where $25 is a lot for you, but you really want the live version, don't hesitate to reach out and maybe something can be done about it. Buy it if you can afford it and feel its worth it.

Z-LEVELS?
No, there is more than enough 2d space to go around, and trouble enough keeping up with it.

MULTIPLAYER?
Not in a traditional sense. Possibly, future uploading of player cities and player profiles will populate the AI factions.

MULTIPLE CITIES?
Not live ones. The ability to leave your city (save the current state) and settle somewhere else is a slight possibility. Your old city would then be run as an AI city, and you can return to it by loading it. Lots of obvious challenges are in the way. The dev is under the impression that this is suggestion is mostly raised by new players, and the desire fade as the player learns more about the game.

RULER AVATAR?
The coding cost of having a ruler sitting on the throne, doing royal stuff is very high. And the result will not add much substance to the game. So, the answer is no for now.

NEXT UPDATE?
Major updates happen in intervals (1-4 months). These updates always break saves, unless explicitly stated otherwise. All updates comes with an announcement. Release notes can be found in the in-game launcher by clicking the version number.
To continue on old saves, the previous version is always available to be checked out in the steam client. Right click the game -> preferences -> betas.
Here is the rough roadmap:
https://trello.com/b/wF5RYqdF/songs-of-syx

WILL THERE BE CAVALRY?
Cavalry would be a nightmare. Imagine, you need the proper amount of cavalry, which needs to be alive and well kept, and simulated while in use. The riders must, on muster, go fetch a horse. If some are missing, which will be very common, the division will be half mounted, half unmounted. It will simply not work as a division. In battle, the mounts might also die, causing the same situation. Therefore, there will be no mounts. It is very possible though to create races that are like cavalry. In fact, some are very similar to light/heavy cavalry.

WILL THERE BE BOATS?
Possibly, but after 1.0

WHO IS MAKING THE GAME?
Name's Jake, master and commander of Gamatron AB. I'm Swedish, born 1985, live in a house with 2 kids and a female companion. Pronouns: his/your grace.
I'm not a game designer, nor a big gamer, I'm just an ordinary smuck, stubbornly working my ass of at this undertaking. Passion comes from games I played in my youth, like pharaoh, Caesar, dungeon keeper and Rome total war.
I believe in pushing the boundaries of what a city builder is. I've seen a lot of polish and graphics design go into new games, but they still more or less play like they did 20 years ago. My goal is to fuse genres. I want all my favourite games packed into a single one, to get all my fixes taken care of at once. Whether this will fail miserably, or be a success, or ignored remains to be seen.
Lucky for you, I'm more vain than I am greedy, and maintaining a good reputation is more important than milking you all for cash. If I ever make a DLC, it will be like an expansion. I won't do "colorful hats" DLC for $3.99.
I very much enjoy communicating with you all, and doing so has improved the game immensely during the years. Sadly my time is getting more and more limited, and I can't read interact with everyone anymore. Don't take it as an insult if a post somewhere gets ignored, it's not my intention.

[SMEEMPY PEEMPUS]

Will Trade ever become more intricate, with treaties and contracts, building your own shipping boats with ports, creating your own shipping company, etc?

Also thanks for the game, you're great.

[heres johnny3112]

Will the game go a direction of having generated world history. Which I think boils down into 2 camps - history before the game started, so generating what kingdoms are where and why. Then there's logging the history after the game has started with world events being logged as the game is played. For example having the player controlling a family or government rather than 1 ruler that lives forever. So say having a dynasty with family history - and possibly having a world history of what rulers have owned what countries, timelines of major events such as battles or world events etc.

Bit of a broad question but to relate it to something - would world building kind of similar to what Dwarf Fortress does where you can see the history of the world you've generated when you're putting a settlement down or have played the game a while be considered?

[johnnyk3886]

Is there a button or some kind of toggle to force prioritization of construction projects? I am frustrated when a single building only needs, say, 2 more Metal to get assembly started, and the odd-jobbers deliver 40+ pieces to other in process areas around town.

I did some googling but I haven't turned up anything.

Also, on my most recent save, I started a new city on a small-ish archipelago, and there has been 0 trade. No imports coming, no exports sent. Is this a function of smaller island-y maps being more difficult to caravan, or have I screwed something up without realizing it?

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by pls dont angry I HATE MR. SNERBS:

Will Trade ever become more intricate, with treaties and contracts, building your own shipping boats with ports, creating your own shipping company, etc?

Also thanks for the game, you're great.

Yes, in general. I can not promise specifics about ships and such, but there will be more flesh on the trade bones.

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by heres johnny3112:

Will the game go a direction of having generated world history. Which I think boils down into 2 camps - history before the game started, so generating what kingdoms are where and why. Then there's logging the history after the game has started with world events being logged as the game is played. For example having the player controlling a family or government rather than 1 ruler that lives forever. So say having a dynasty with family history - and possibly having a world history of what rulers have owned what countries, timelines of major events such as battles or world events etc.

Bit of a broad question but to relate it to something - would world building kind of similar to what Dwarf Fortress does where you can see the history of the world you've generated when you're putting a settlement down or have played the game a while be considered?

Yes, although I have not worked out the details. The player will most probably not have a king, but the other factions will have leaders, and their history will most probably be recorded. The single player campaign will be missions based on how you played previous missions, so it will be unique for each player. I can't promise the campaign will make it in, but it's the plan. Players will also be able to upload their cities and "personalities", and they will become AI factions in the game.

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by johnnyk3886:

Is there a button or some kind of toggle to force prioritization of construction projects? I am frustrated when a single building only needs, say, 2 more Metal to get assembly started, and the odd-jobbers deliver 40+ pieces to other in process areas around town.

I did some googling but I haven't turned up anything.

Also, on my most recent save, I started a new city on a small-ish archipelago, and there has been 0 trade. No imports coming, no exports sent. Is this a function of smaller island-y maps being more difficult to caravan, or have I screwed something up without realizing it?

You can put other jobs to sleep in the tool panel. A work camp should also prioritize the jobs closest to it.

I know that the custom maps can generate worlds without trade, it will be fixed.

[S1lenced7]

Are there any plans for a more "aesthetic" way to cross rivers than a land bridge?
Perhaps a wood/stone/grand bridge type that also doubles as "Awe" source?

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by S1lenced7:

Are there any plans for a more "aesthetic" way to cross rivers than a land bridge?
Perhaps a wood/stone/grand bridge type that also doubles as "Awe" source?

Yes, most probably there will be bridges as the only option to cross deep water instead of filling them in. Because boats would need deep water to navigate.

[adamator]

Will there be a way to have areas where you can have privatised businesses which attract people from outside the map, and perhaps even inside, who set up their own business and pays some sort of tax towards the liege? Then you could have sliders where you manage what tax and how heavy the tax is on private businesses

[PaleFire]

multyplayer?

[CptVodka]

Originally posted by Gamatron:

Originally posted by S1lenced7:

Are there any plans for a more "aesthetic" way to cross rivers than a land bridge?
Perhaps a wood/stone/grand bridge type that also doubles as "Awe" source?

Yes, most probably there will be bridges as the only option to cross deep water instead of filling them in. Because boats would need deep water to navigate.

An addition to that, which you may already have thought off: Building walls next to deep water automatically makes it into shallow water instead.
An option for that would also be nice so you could have a river running through your city without walling off the river.

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by adamator:

Will there be a way to have areas where you can have privatised businesses which attract people from outside the map, and perhaps even inside, who set up their own business and pays some sort of tax towards the liege? Then you could have sliders where you manage what tax and how heavy the tax is on private businesses

No, but there will be tourists that will be attracted to your city based on attractions. They will live in the city and buy some trinkets before they leave.

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by CptVodka:

Originally posted by Gamatron:

Yes, most probably there will be bridges as the only option to cross deep water instead of filling them in. Because boats would need deep water to navigate.

An addition to that, which you may already have thought off: Building walls next to deep water automatically makes it into shallow water instead.
An option for that would also be nice so you could have a river running through your city without walling off the river.

indeed.

[S1lenced7]

Do you think it's technically feasible to manage multiple cities in a single game?
Or will performance be an issue, and or memory? A city could go into a "low cost" simulation state when not in focus but due to the complexity of the game i'd think it would be hard to balance and could be prone to bugs/balance issues.

Still kinda curious about the idea

[Godmouth]

Any further plans on military - specifically thinking of cavalry, and different kinds of weapons, like being able to make crossbows, spears, or just in general a subsystem for choosing different weapons?

Also thank you for the excellent game, haven't had this much fun in years.