So confused and cant find any articles about it

[Crescents Number 1 Stan]

Im in the very start of learning this game and I'm having issues understanding it all. I just attacked a group of bandits on the world map, And I dont understand what it all means. Next to the bottom right of the picture it says 10x? What does this mean? Is that how many enemies Im fighting? And on the bottom left of my characters it says either 0 or 1. Im not sure how to understand this either. Can someone please explain

[Eventide]

10x over the bandit portrait means - 10 of those. Below this is a health bar with a number representing their combined health. In the panel on the right, it tells you their Attack and Health (per Bandit).

The lower left number over your Specialist's icon, is their action points remaining in this round. They probably don't have enough action points to do anything now. Time is stopped on the world map: go back to the colony map, time will advance, and Specialists will recover action points and carry out any attacks in progress. In the colony view, you can monitor your Specialist's status, and return to the world map to make your next move.

You can add more Specialists (if you have them) to the first one's attack, by selecting them one at a time and hovering mouse cursor over the target Bandit. The mouse cursor changes to crosshair / target symbol. Info at the bottom changes to tell you the outcome if the selected specialist is moved. (Balance of Power.) If you are close enough and have enough action points, right-click, and the Specialist will move to attack.

[Crescents Number 1 Stan]

Thank you so much. Can the specialists die of old age or is it just the battles?

[Eventide]

Good question - because colonists having a complete life cycle is a big part of the game. Specialists are... special, and won't "age out."

But it brings up a question for Iceflake: was some kind of aging considered for Specialists?

The phrase "I'm going to settle down in my old age" comes to mind. "What if" they had a very long lifecycle, at the end of which, tired of fighting battles for the player, they turn into a Settler - whether we like it, or not ;) It could work, now that we have new mechanics for obtaining Specialists. Put more pressure on late-game silver hoards. The cost to hire "now" could increase, based on # active Specialists.

[OldManRipper]

That sounds interesting, syntax.
Their ageing system as it is for colonists is pretty slow.
Something like 20ish days for kids to grow up.
40ish days for Adults to Elder and death.
I have never counted except for when I keep getting caravans of kids without Adult or Elder colonists and over half my people cannot work.

[Crescents Number 1 Stan]

You guys are awesome thanks for all the help.

[iceflake_joanna]

Hey all!

@Cynical Media - if you have any other questions or are wondering about any other game mechanic, please do not hesitate to ask. We will gladly explain any feature as well but this also tells us a lot about the possible issues in the game - what needs to be clearer etc. One thing I will mention though - Specialists can also die in the colony if they are fighting hostile animals for example and in the World Map some locations have hazards in them, which will damage the Specialist each turn they are scavenging - so while at the moment they will not die of old age, they can die from other causes as well :)

@basic.syntax - Thank you so much for taking the time to explain the mechanic on the World Map :) And for the idea of Specialists aging - quite a cool idea and would definitely make for an interesting "problem" to solve for our players. I'll pass it on, just no promises or guarantees! :)

Thanks for the post and comments and of course, thanks all for playing!

[Eventide]

♥