No more meta progression?

[Chainlink]

I have all the city upgrades, my highest reforged seal is Gold and I've beat Prestige 3. Do any of the world events convey permanent bonuses or are they just for the duration of the blightstorm cycle? If not, I think that's unfortunate as I see no reason to keep playing the game, obviously I'd get better at it but I really like meta-progression in games.

I did one of the events, which I think was called "Hanged Viceroy", where it gave me 2 extra workers, but it seems it was only for the duration of the cycle. I would like if it were permanent. Obviously then your goal would be to keep doing events like this for meta-progression. And that would make the easier difficulties much easier, but thats what meta-progression is.

Also FWIW I quite like playing this game with minimal pauses, it feels more active and fast-paced. It feels good e.g. tearing a path through the woods to build the next Hearth, and seeing all my guys running around doing stuff in real-time, actually feels productive, or fulfilling or something.

[kory]

Once you are done the citadel, the permanent meta progression is done, there is only the ladder of challenge to climb.

[Strategic Sage]

There's always going to be a limit at some point.

[Samseng Yik]

Your citadel meta progression is actually design for higher difficulty.
Is up to you want to try harder difficulty to 20 adamantine seal

[Cryten]

I am in a similar boat in that I find I dislike the heightened difficulties. So after experiences the game for a while, it is time to move on. I was always more of the king player in civ, and enjoyed the difficulty free builders alot like sim city and surviving mars.

[Samseng Yik]

No problem, "typical city builder" has no place in ATS anyway

[HouseOfTheRat]

Originally posted by kory:

Once you are done the citadel, the permanent meta progression is done, there is only the ladder of challenge to climb.

Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is. - Ancient Roman inscription about roguelite games.

[Chainlink]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

No problem, "typical city builder" has no place in ATS anyway

I see this game as a roguelite RTS, not as a city-builder, and I've barely if ever played those games.

I think most people pause the game a lot more than me. I can see how the game is easier if you pause so much e.g. when picking Cornerstones and Blueprints.

[Chainlink]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

Your citadel meta progression is actually design for higher difficulty.
Is up to you want to try harder difficulty to 20 adamantine seal

It's interesting how people play this game differently, I think one of the big differences is that I think I play much more experimentally than others. I couldn't see myself as ever getting to P3 without maxing out the tree because I was experimenting so much and still am.

I saw this post on Reddit of a guy who was complaining about this game being too easy, while somehow getting to P20 without even maxxing out the tree. And he said he only lost
6 times. It's very weird to me. I think he was pausing a lot and thinking a lot about his choices rather than playing more "touch and go" so to speak.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Against_the_Storm/comments/ysx43h/my_thoughts_after_playing_against_the_storm/

This was a year ago though so I'm not sure how much the game has changed since then, though I've been playing for about a year I'd guess.

[Chainlink]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

Your citadel meta progression is actually design for higher difficulty.
Is up to you want to try harder difficulty to 20 adamantine seal

It says when you hover over the thing when you're on the part where you're picking caravans: "[prestige is] recommended for players who have mastered the game". I'm up to P11 now.

[pi73r]

Just play higher diffs. Meta-progression is the most dumb stuff in roguelike games anyway. The best games like spelunky never had or needed one.

[Chainlink]

Originally posted by pi73r:

Just play higher diffs. Meta-progression is the most dumb stuff in roguelike games anyway. The best games like spelunky never had or needed one.

I want more meta progression not a higher difficulty. That being said I'm up to P11 and the Cobalt (60 blue thingies, iirc) Seal, and I must've become pretty good at the game because it's relatively chill aside from the harder World Events.

[trm.valnas]

I think your missing the game. Presitge on it's own isn't that hard "to win". It's only hard if your pushing adamantine seal. I.E. There's no urgency unless you need 105 fragments. When you need that many fragments, you need to gamble. You have to choose to take on extra risk at various points (p16-p20) games, AND you need to beat lower prestige mods in 3-5 years to make it. That's the meta game, efficiency.

If you are playing it to just win individual city builds and make it back, your intentionally dodging the challenging part. Taking as much time as you need .... isn't what the game is about.

[Gen X Gal Gamer Skye]

Well if you only cleared P3, you still have 17 levels to go to beat the game. That said, all games eventually come to an end if they don't just repeat forever like on Atari or some early cyclical platformers. Games aren't meant to last forever.

[jeanphiklein]

Hello ! I have just beaten Adamantine seal (the hardest one at P20) without having unlocked all city upgrades. I have beaten all possible modifier and haven’t lost a single game so far. So it is still possible today.
To be fair, my games usually takes 5-6 hours IRL, which mean that I am on pause for more than 3/4 of my playtime. It is the way I like playing this game and I think the way it is meant to be played, at least for the hardest challenge. But I totally understand that it is not fun for you to do it this way. That’s said, I think you will have a lot of trouble winning consistently enough to beat the hardest sealed and Queen’s Hand without pausing quite a bit.
At least I hope it gives you some perspectives on another way to play the game :-)

[Spacesuit Spiff]

The metaprogression caps out so that the game can go "full roguelike" in the back half. It's not like Hades or Rogue Legacy where you can grind enough to breeze through the whole thing. P20 with everything unlocked is the "real game", everything before that is a long tutorial.

Finishing the seals is technically a meta-upgrade because it makes the cycles longer, though.