Roadmap / future

[Wasler]

Hi!

I am very interested in this game and watched also many game-videos.
But independent from the difficulty it looks like every "complete round" is nearly the same?
--> 5x the same with just random maps and afterwards the next cycle begins

How is this game long-term? (and I don't mean 20-30h until you get bored perhaps)

Is there anything different later beside those 5 random plays on the world map and then beginning the next cycle?

[Silberfuchs]

There are two things that change your experience up a good bit.
A) the more citadel exp and citadel ressources you gain, the more extras you unlock.
B) Higher difficulty levels get unlocked one win at a time, each one after viceroy adds another penalty.

You really need "A" to handle "B" after a while.

=> Difficulty related things are indeed the biggest thing that changes, the actual gameplay loop stays more or less the same.

[Kalisa]

as for play time, im up to 90 hours and still progressing through the difficulty levels (up to prestige 17) and still have not seen some of the map modifiers, so theres a reasonable amount of playtime you can get out of this depending on what your goals are.
I really enjoy the gameplay loop and finding solutions to each of the challanges each map throws at me, figure il get several hundred hours out of this game eventually as the updates roll out. But the core gameplay loop doesnt really change much, once you get into presitge difficulties though you do get the option to start upgrading your cornerstones in matches but those take citadel resources so not really something u probably want to do unless ur citadel is max level already.

[Cathulhu]

The official roadmap is available here:
https://eremitegames.com/ats-roadmap/

And as the devs are smart, they only list goals they want to achieve but not when they'll achieve them. Nothing is as fluid and dynamic as software development and when something is ready to be deployed. So, not promising a certain date is kinda refreshingly honest.

[Wasler]

I did not see it in your listed roadmap, but is there anything planned e.g. "story-mode"?
Something like 20 scripted maps, each with own/special difficulty or is everything sandbox in the future?

[Cryten]

No, the concept of the game is to capture the early era and early middle era puzzling and exploring of games like civilisation into a 1 session or bite sized package. As such it focuses on presenting you those new random worlds to explore. Therefore a fixed single player script goes against the concept of the random early civ puzzle experience it is designed to give people.

Still its possible they could pivot, but I doubt it. I suspect what your are aiming for in your desires is most suited to a different game then this.

[Silberfuchs]

Originally posted by Cryten:

No, the concept of the game is to capture the early era and early middle era puzzling and exploring of games like civilisation into a 1 session or bite sized package. As such it focuses on presenting you those new random worlds to explore. Therefore a fixed single player script goes against the concept of the random early civ puzzle experience it is designed to give people.

Still its possible they could pivot, but I doubt it. I suspect what your are aiming for in your desires is most suited to a different game then this.

Personally i would be happy to see something like missions or a campaign added to the game.

The thing is: it doesn't need to be added into the current type of play, it could be introduced as a seperate mode of play.

I believe quite a few players would love to see a feature like this, the only problem is: is it worth the effort? Because compaigns take boatloads of dev time to implement well, and a half-as*** campaign wouldn't fit a game like AtS that is otherwise really polished.

[Frag-ile]

Originally posted by Silberfuchs:

Originally posted by Cryten:

No, the concept of the game is to capture the early era and early middle era puzzling and exploring of games like civilisation into a 1 session or bite sized package. As such it focuses on presenting you those new random worlds to explore. Therefore a fixed single player script goes against the concept of the random early civ puzzle experience it is designed to give people.

Still its possible they could pivot, but I doubt it. I suspect what your are aiming for in your desires is most suited to a different game then this.

Personally i would be happy to see something like missions or a campaign added to the game.

The thing is: it doesn't need to be added into the current type of play, it could be introduced as a seperate mode of play.

I believe quite a few players would love to see a feature like this, the only problem is: is it worth the effort? Because compaigns take boatloads of dev time to implement well, and a half-as*** campaign wouldn't fit a game like AtS that is otherwise really polished.

What you're looking for is Anno 1701, well maybe the other anno games does similar things, but 1701 is the only one I've played.

In regads to what Op is asking, the game play loop doesn't change much. I would say you could compare it to a deck builder card game in many ways. You have a set of options to work with and each battle/map poses a random but finite number of different challenges in various combinations. If you don't enjoy figuring your way through the dilemma posed by your random draw of cards/buildings and random draw of oponent cards/map features and modifiers then the game wont have lasting appeal for you.

I would strongly suggest playing the demo, it will give you a good taste of what the game play loop is and what to expect in the long run. If after playing through a cycle or two you're kind of done with the experience then there's no need for your to put any money down on it. I spent 20h in the demo and then bought it on gog.

[Cryten]

Originally posted by Silberfuchs:

Originally posted by Cryten:

No, the concept of the game is to capture the early era and early middle era puzzling and exploring of games like civilisation into a 1 session or bite sized package. As such it focuses on presenting you those new random worlds to explore. Therefore a fixed single player script goes against the concept of the random early civ puzzle experience it is designed to give people.

Still its possible they could pivot, but I doubt it. I suspect what your are aiming for in your desires is most suited to a different game then this.

Personally i would be happy to see something like missions or a campaign added to the game.

The thing is: it doesn't need to be added into the current type of play, it could be introduced as a seperate mode of play.

I believe quite a few players would love to see a feature like this, the only problem is: is it worth the effort? Because compaigns take boatloads of dev time to implement well, and a half-as*** campaign wouldn't fit a game like AtS that is otherwise really polished.

I respect the point, it is just that I feel like it would need to be exceptionally good. Why I say that is that it will have to compete with other dedicated story experiences. A simple tacked on story experience is generally received negatively.

I draw upon the rather negatively received mini campaigns from Total War Warhammer 1 and the single player campaigns of They Are Billions. Which got large amounts of complaints since it could not compare to the likes of Starcraft and other high level honed experiences. On the Warhammer side CA learned to, instead of make custom camapaign experiences, integrate dlc into the existing game as races with their own mechanics. Basicly functioning as a regular game without the story but a few world objectives to interact with the rest of the normal game.

[Narandia]

in terms of the cycle progress, there isn't very much that sets them apart at the moment, yes. The total amount of settlements can vary depending on how quickly you finish each, and each cycle reshuffles the map modifiers. And of course you'll get access to some upgrades that directly affect what you can do on the map over time.

You do eventually unlock other factions settling on the world map and you compete with them for bonus rewards at the end of each cycle, but there isn't a huge amount of direct interaction with them once everyone starts exploring further away from the center (since neither you or them can settle outside that center region without a previous owned settlement nearby to embark from).

I definitely would like to see the game to be expanded a bit on that front eventually, though I wouldn't say its a huge priority right now. Could be something for future updates after the EA phase is complete, though.

[Alexander]

There used to be a sort of rudimentary "campaign" long ago. By completing deeds you advanced the world, cycle by cycle. The first cycle you started from was named "Cycle of Sleekshell", if I'm not mistaken, and it had certain deeds associated to it. Once you completed roughly 2/3 of these deeds, after the next storm you advanced to the next cycle, and so on. The last cycle was named "Cycle of The Sealed Ones", and there was nowhere to advance after it. If I remember correctly, the cycles affected what map modifiers would spawn, maybe something else.

At some point developers decided that this system outlived its purpose, along with the system that scaled hostility gain in a settlement with the distance from the City. The latter one was replaced with the difficulty dropdown, but the cycle progression was gone completely.

Although the old cycle system didn't do that much, I kinda hope that developers will get it back one day, bigger, better and more meaningful. And we finally see for ourselves what are those Sealed Ones. I'm pretty sure that's who prestigeous viceroys worship in that temple.

[Earth Dragon]

Originally posted by Silberfuchs:

Originally posted by Cryten:

No, the concept of the game is to capture the early era and early middle era puzzling and exploring of games like civilisation into a 1 session or bite sized package. As such it focuses on presenting you those new random worlds to explore. Therefore a fixed single player script goes against the concept of the random early civ puzzle experience it is designed to give people.

Still its possible they could pivot, but I doubt it. I suspect what your are aiming for in your desires is most suited to a different game then this.

Personally i would be happy to see something like missions or a campaign added to the game.

The thing is: it doesn't need to be added into the current type of play, it could be introduced as a seperate mode of play.

I believe quite a few players would love to see a feature like this, the only problem is: is it worth the effort? Because compaigns take boatloads of dev time to implement well, and a half-as*** campaign wouldn't fit a game like AtS that is otherwise really polished.

Yeah, the idea that a campaign of sorts would somehow dramatically change the gameplay is a foolish.

You are basically just adding another "mission" layer on top of the ones we already have. 75%+ of the games could still be untouched as to what they are currently

[Silberfuchs]

Originally posted by Earth Dragon:

You are basically just adding another "mission" layer on top of the ones we already have. 75%+ of the games could still be untouched as to what they are currently

I believe you misunderstood what i said:
I was talking about a seperate gamemode, basically unrelated to our current save game.

Hence the question if such a big feature would even be worth the effort.
Something i'm not convinced about myself.

A campaign wouldn't affect our current gameplay, and that is kind of the point of >>>additional<<< gamemodes. It would be stranger if different gamemodes would interact a lot with each other.

[bradigorMHG]

Love the new update. It makes me want a daily settlement mode. Everyone gets the same map, same resources, etc and they have to get the best score on that single settlement. Including daily leaderboards. I know still in early access, but it would be awesome at some point after the 1.0 release.

Also for the record. I play this exclusively on Deck and have no issues. It feels and runs great

[Narandia]

Originally posted by bradigorMHG:

Love the new update. It makes me want a daily settlement mode. Everyone gets the same map, same resources, etc and they have to get the best score on that single settlement. Including daily leaderboards. I know still in early access, but it would be awesome at some point after the 1.0 release.

Yeah I thought the daily expedition was going to be something along those lines. Right now they feel a little underdeveloped.

[Alexander]

Originally posted by bradigorMHG:

Love the new update. It makes me want a daily settlement mode. Everyone gets the same map, same resources, etc and they have to get the best score on that single settlement. Including daily leaderboards. I know still in early access, but it would be awesome at some point after the 1.0 release.

Also for the record. I play this exclusively on Deck and have no issues. It feels and runs great

Developers planned to make a leaderboard once, then they decided not to. The main issue was how to prevent cheating.