Greetings Commanders! As we approach the dog days of summer, we are coming in hot with some updates! Much like the weather, things continue to heat up with brand new content. Let’s talk about some of it, shall we?

It’s midnight, and the unthinkable has happened. Global Thermonuclear War. Maybe you scratched out a victory, but at what cost to humankind? We wanted to highlight even further the sheer devastation actions could cause to the citizens of our shared beautiful blue marble.

Terminal Conflict now comes equipped with a regional population system. This allows us to open up a world of future possibilities. The regional populations grow realistically with each shift of the timeline. We add together these numbers to form the world’s population.

Now you will see the devastation of the apocalypse that you have brought on has caused. The numbers here will include immediate deaths, may they rest in peace.

The rest of the population system plans are eyes only for now, but we would love to hear your suggestions on what you would like to see. Speaking of which, if you haven’t checked out the Eyes Only intelligence DLC for Terminal Conflict, created by the Hearts of Iron 4: Road to 56' team, we’ve provided a link here.

So I buried the lead ... A small change with some big ramifications as we wanted to strengthen the strategies you can play towards influencing your opponents’ domestic interests with your Focus Selection.

We have added an indicator for the enemy focuses that displays the enemy domestic interest holder of that focus. This choice deepens the strategies during the selection of focuses because we all know that information is power.

Has your opponent over-invested with military alignment, take the opportunity and favor the same domestic enemy power-brokers. Then sit back and watch as they take power away from your opponent and their country becomes paralyzed by mismanagement. Faints? Countermoves? It’s what the Cold War was about.

I am very excited to hear about how you like the system and what moves you’ve pulled off. Grab us on the Terminal Conflict Discord Server[discord.gg] or the Steam discussions and let us know.

What a treat to kick off the summer. Keep a nice pitcher of tea close by and reach out with feedback, questions, or even conversations on strategy games. I am, after all, The Strategy Informer.

/Seth out.
*********************************************************

I) NEW USSR Policies for Sub-Saharan Africa
II) Update of USA mismanagement events
III) Design of a teaching module for use of Terminal Conflict in schools


GAME

• NEW Regional Population and pop growth data & implementation
  
• Reduced pop growth random variation from +-25% to +-5%
  
• Population shown in tooltip also in non-debug mode
  
• NEW Death calculator implemented for Nuclear Apocalypse
  
• Updated Nuclear targeting that would sometimes cause an out of sync
  
• NukeMiniSimulation() considers all nuke-capable units again with every new round
  
• Fixed an issue where launching a Nuclear Apocalypse would incorrectly disconnect the opponent
  
• NEW Activated the domestic interest marker to be shown for enemy focuses at focus selection to deepen
  
• the type of strategies that can be played when selecting enemy focuses
  
• Removed space from theater influence text in Focus card
  
• Fixed an issue where multiplayer games could incorrectly end mid-game and disconnect
  
• Updated Excel file for MIEA UN Partition Plan
  
• Fixed a bug when launching a False Flag operation in Carpathian-Ukrainian Zone an Invalid Operation exception occurs
  
• Fixed a bug where disarming did not properly update the Global Map
  
• Fixed an issue where when attacking a reorganizing enemy naval unit from the arctic in an enemy controlled region, instead of a war zone being declared the enemy unit is incorrectly set to withdrawal.
  
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes wrongly display the policies with the enemy coloring
  
• Unity upgrade to 2021.3.1f1

FOCUSES

• Fixed an issue where Sud-Afrikaanse Weermag would incorrectly add influence to ALL regions with Soviet Control or Domination instead of ONE

POLICIES

• Fixed an issue where the Warsaw Pact effects would incorrectly overflow the notification field when implemented.

DECISIONS

• Operation Balak has have it's option upgraded to:
  
• Option 1 - Provide arms covertly vi Czechoslovakia (+1 Power to DAVID BEN-GURION, -1 Military, +1 Government)
  
• Option 2 - Openly defy the embargo (+2 Power to DAVID BEN-GURION, +2 Finance, -1 Military, +1 Doomsday Clock)
  
• Option 3 - Provide a cultural exchange instead (-1 USSR Influence in Levantian Zone, +2 People)
  
• Fixed a few typos in the Western European Wirtschaftswunder decision chains
  
• Fixed an issue where the US decision Enemy Activity would incorrectly show up as to have a hidden bonus.

EDITOR

• Added hotseat support in debug menu
  
• Added a debug option to force the AI to always select a specific posture to make testing easier
  
• Footer divide is no longer active when the progress dialogue is active

Commanders!

Seth here. I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter and Passover break. Let’s get right to it cause I am as excited as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

It’s the end of April already and that really blows my mind, but things have been hot and furious in the land of the Cold War, with Terminal Conflict. I have been hinting at some things going on and today I get to let you in on some of these events. As you know, we continue to tune, improve and enhance the game from fix’s to new features and content to even improving underlying systems and AI. We are always keeping our ears to the ground to see what directions the community is interested in. We continue in 2022 to move forward with this path.

We are also expanding the Strategy Mill team! Today, with great pleasure, I get to announce that we are being joined by legendary game developer Yoshitomo Moriwaki (Tomo). He brings with him over 24 years of multiple discipline game development. Tomo, being the Lead Designer on Spiderman and the Creative Director on Spiderman 2 (he even designed the much-loved web-swinging system!) will make an excellent innovative addition to our strategic focus. We are excited for Tomo to be joining us in the design role, and bringing fresh eyes and ideas into the DNA of Strategy Mill.

Many will also recognize Tomo as the Creative Director of the award winning game Epic Tavern with his team at Hyperkinetic Studios, of which he is the co-founder. Epic Tavern, which Geek and Sundry calls “D&D meets the Sims” but it’s much more than that, it’s about storytelling with a tavern management layer on top. Epic Tavern is available in Steam Early Access now with the goal of a 2022 full release.

Having been a strategy gamer for many years he remembers the days of playing Steel Panthers and seeing tanks designations such as Sd.Kfz and then doing a deep dive to find out all the information of what is better known as the Panzer 3 and its stats and role during the war.

YouTube fans will also recognize him from the Game Wisdom podcasts. Check out our last episode on "Do Video Games Need Humanlike AI?" featuring Tomo, Seth, Gellert, and Josh Bycer. I will tease that the next episode in planning is about the educational applications of strategy gaming. We look to record in the first week of may.

If you want even more, come to our Discord and chat with him directly of course.

I still can’t give many details on that part, but in the following months, there is going to be lots of Terminal Conflict activity that I will engage you with and informing you about. One of those is the added death calculator that's being developed for the Nuclear Apocalypse. This also means population will now be implemented on a region basis and grow naturally and historically plausibly over time.

Also as promised, remember that the Soviets need to get their time in the blistering heat of Sub-Saharan Africa, so look for that update too soon.

Check the forums and chime in on things you wish to see improved and any strategy questions. I will start by pushing out information asked and collected in our Discord, so look out for these dispatches on our forums.

Also, remember we are running the AAR contest so get your entries into us. read more about the contest HERE for a chance at fame and glory and all the DLC+OST.

Now I am going to go introduce Bert the Turtle to Tomo, have a great time until we meet again.

/Seth Out...

Commanders...

Hey folks, we have some interesting things to mention for our update today regarding Easter! But first, would it be one of our holiday updates without an image from the cold-war presidential archives?

President and First Lady Carter are ready to board Marine One for an Easter at Camp David… There was a hop on the White House lawn!

The Strategy Mill bunnies have been out looking for eggs this past Easter week. I will look for the big eggs ones as I hear they carry MIRVs. Let us know what you found in your eggs! Terminal Thursday was thus postponed this past week and the team got some much-needed R&R.

We hope you and your family have also had a great time.

Don’t forget to come over to the Discord as it is the best way to reach us for direct feedback or questions. We also have our regularly scheduled Terminal Thursday games. Playing Terminal Conflict against a real live player is certainly an experience you do not want to miss.

Let me let you guys in on a secret. We have some eggs hidden in the game! Actually quite a few, some give new terminal skins and some even give achievements. Look for bits of code in various menus and images and use your handy decryption table to decode them. After you get the correct cipher, you just check in your verification.

Yes it is that Falcon

We're giving away ALL of the DLC for the game:

• Eyes Only
  
• Supreme Commander
  
• Flower Power
  
• The Original Soundtrack

We will choose the winner from the best AAR (After Action Report) from either a single-player game or a multiplayer game. Tell us your story of the Cold War against the computer or a worth (or not we won’t judge) human opponent. Video or written entries are fair game, just leave a link in the comments below if it is a video.

Get creative and put your writing (or video) hat on, Commander. We are waiting to see your entry. The contest will run for 3 weeks and we will announce the winner on Terminal Thursday on May the 5th. Submitted AARs may also be featured in upcoming Dev Diary’s with approval from the writer, of course. We reserve the right to give out extra prizes for other non winning but excellent entries.

In closing, we will see you next this Thursday, the 21st of April, with another EXCITING announcement you don’t want to miss. Take care everyone and have a great week.

See you soon…

Oh, even though we are “off” we are, of course, around in the usual places like the Terminal Conflict discord and steam forums, so reach out!

/Seth

The bunnies and clowns are here for your safety!

Greetings commanders!

First off, we may develop strategy war games, but we wanted to make a statement regarding world events as we deplore the loss of any human life and feel saddened by the events of the Russo-Ukrainian War. We hope that strategy games can help humankind reflect on our shared humanity, especially in a conflict with the deadly combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons. We urge, therefore, for calm and for a swift return to peace and dialogue. - Gellert Keresztes.

Seth here and today we are going to talk about some recent additions that have gone into the game. The team is in very active development and there are some great additions lined up for Terminal Conflict in the coming months. We are also expanding the team, so follow our Twitter and look at the post on the Steam forums for all our other locations.

Click here to check out places to find us, get help or even sync up for a game or two, or find out what we are working on.

Second, as promised, we’ve been busy with updating the balance and ways the US can operate in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa played an important part in the Cold War, and both sides provided extensive military and economic aid on the continent. The US had the more dominant strategy while the Soviet Union was under informed of the needs and structures of the countries it supported initially. The Soviet Union made gains by the 60s and 70s, increasing the amount of proxy wars that compounded the threat of nuclear war.

Bert knows what we are talking about. Let’s take it away!

Spend 3 VP to Gain 6 USA INFLUENCE in Sub-Saharan Africa. - Now Activated by the Treaty of Lagos focus.

Bert The Turtles Secret Strategy: Losing VP seems counterintuitive but this can be a very positive thing as at we convert end game surviving INFLUENCE to VP for final scoring. If you find yourself ahead or you think you can make the VP back, you can sure make use of that 6 INFLUENCE, provided things don’t go nuclear. Since the faction with the lowest amount of VP goes first, each Timeline (USSR if tied), you can make use of this to lower your VP and be first to start the next timeline, so look out for that!

Reduces Military MILITARY ALIGNMENT by 1 to gain 8 VP. - Now Activated by FNLA Movement focuses.

Bert The Turtles Secret Strategy: This is excellent for the late mid-/end game when MILITARY ALIGNMENT is not as important for interest resource generation. 8 VP is a nice gain and could give you that push you need to surge ahead!

Spend 3 ELITES gain 5 USA INFLUENCE in Sub-Saharan Africa
Activated by UNITA Forces and Congo Crisis focuses.

Bert The Turtles Secret Strategy: This is a great way to prevent ELITES mismanagement of course and gain the INFLUENCE. Unlike some other policies, you do not get to place them. As in real life, supporting decolonization might yield results in unexpected regions, but it’s easy to enact, and 5 INFLUENCE is a considerable amount.

Spend 3 MILITARY to PLACE 4 INFLUENCE in Sub-Saharan Africa
Activated by African Base, Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag, and RENAMO Forces focuses.

Bert The Turtles Secret Strategy: This is powerful. If you find yourself flush with MILITARY interests, being able to place 4 INFLUENCE in Sub-Saharan Africa could indeed give you that upper hand where you need it the most! Remember those activation per-requisites!

I cant wait to see what the USSR update brings next.

Last week we ran a giveaway for the Original Sound Track. If you haven’t picked up the soundtrack yet, make sure to check it out as James’s work is excellent. For the contest, big congratulation to you Zeney for winning a copy of the coveted soundtrack!

I am also going to be preparing some strategy content with the community’s questions and answers from our top players. We are looking for your feedback! If you have questions about Terminal Conflict things you do not understand, things that you even think can be improved, please post them on the Steam forums or come to the Terminal Conflict Discord to let us know. Your feedback and questions are important for us.

I can’t stress enough how many exciting things are going on with Strategy Mill and Terminal Conflict. Along with all the new content, fixes, balancing based on player feedback.

Now it's time for me to disappear into a puff of smoke!
Be safe everyone.

Seth Out…
*********************************************************

I) NEW USSR Policies for Sub-Saharan Africa
II) Update of USA mismanagement events
III) Design of a teaching module for use of Terminal Conflict in schools

GAME

• Fixed an issue where nuclear war would sometime cause the opponent to incorrectly get a disconnect message instead of a victory message
  
• Improved the way targeting works for nuclear war
  
• Fixed an issue where nuclear targeting would sometimes cause an Out of Sync issue
  
• Nukes launched from the Arctic are always fired from the same special Arctic position to prevent OOS from client & master having differing sub positions
  
• Fixed policy enactment not updating UI in case of Interest mismanagement
  
• Fixed THE BIG PICTURE lacking a draw description text resulting in exception when quitting and saving
  
• Updated several issue to further improve performance on slower computers
  
• Fixed an issue where Disarming would sometimes not properly register on the Global Map
  
• Fixed an exploit where a player incorrectly could attack and then send a unit back to command reserve in the same turn

OPTIONS

• Added the ability to disable screen reflection seen on the Terminal in the options menu to improve performance on older GFX cards

FOCUSES

• Treaty of Lagos now activates SUB-SAHARAN SCRAMBLE policy
  
• FNLA Movement now activates AMERICAN CULTURALIZATION policy
  
• An African Base, Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag and RENAMO Forces now activate MERCHANTS OF LIBERTY policy
  
• UNITA Forces and Congo Crisis now activates Western Decolonization Policy

POLICIES

• Updated Policies for Balance of Power
  
• NEW Added MERCHANTS OF LIBERTY: Spend 3 MILITARY to place 4 USA INFLUENCE in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  
• NEW Added WESTERN DECOLONIZATION: Spend 3 ELITES. Gain 5 USA INFLUENCE in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  
• Fixed an issue where triggering Glasnost would sometimes not reward 10VP to the USSR
  
• Fixed an issue where the ASEAN Declaration did not show the correct Soviet effect

OTHERS

• Fixed a typo with the Chinese Civil War

Hey folks, it’s Seth here, and this is a very exciting day for the Terminal Conflict team. Not only do I get to (re)introduce you to a talented team member, but I also get to announce the release of our much requested original soundtrack. Here is a the legendary composer James Spence himself explaining the work process, for those that have missed it.

James captures the essence, ambiance and sounds of the Cold War in Terminal Conflict. Regional cues to the music of that area and even instruments are used, provide the flavor to the theaters of operation. The dark seriousness of certain theaters can give way to the regions that invoke a feeling of progress or devastation. Immersion is the key for the soundtrack and the words atmosphere and tension are not enough to do justice to his wonderful work.

A 12 year veteran in video game soundtrack production, James' path to fame started with his wonderful work creating music in the UK and later in Japan, where he has been based for many years. His soundtrack for Paradox Interactive and BI-Logic’s Hearts of Iron: East Vs. West game and recently the soundtrack for the GOTY contender Suzerain, has earned him many fans in the strategy and gaming community. We are proud to present to you his wonderful Original Soundtrack for Terminal Conflict both in high quality mp3 and lossless FLAC version.

You can find James's mentioned work here:

Terminal Conflict OST

Suzerian OST

https://soundcloud.com/jamoose/sets/east-vs-west-a-hearts-of-iron

Bandcamp Page[jamesspence.bandcamp.com]

We also have a surprise for you! We are going to give away a copy of the soundtrack to a lucky person. It’s going to be really easy to enter. Simply leave a comment to the development diary on Steam and we will enter you into the giveaway. The winner will be announced via the Strategy Mill Twitter channel and on Discord, by me on the 31st of March during Terminal Thursday. Make sure to add a follow to get more of or content directly delivered to you!

While you are there, get into a multiplayer game with the dev’s or the community. One of these days, I swear I will take you on, so come on in even if you are new! I look forward to our next diary where I will be talking about how the drums of war echo into night.

MIGHTY CHEERS!
-Seth

Happy Lunar New Year, as we exit the year of the ox and enter the year of the tiger, this would be a great chance to talk a little about Chinese pandas and the role they played in diplomacy during the Cold War. First, let us start off with some less furry topics!

What would a holiday be without a Steam Sale, and what would a community announcement be without a notice of a discount? Starting today January 27th at 10 AM PST and going on till February 3rd, you can get Terminal Conflict and all the DLC for 30% off. This is an excellent deal, especially if you want to buy a copy for your friend so you can show him who’s who on the grand geopolitical stage. Don’t have the fantastic Eyes Only DLC? Then this is the best time to get it.

Remember in a multiplayer game only one person has to have the DLC for it to be available to both players!

Here is a little tip, don’t tell anyone. Usually if there is a bundle deal, there is a discount beforehand and then you get the other discount for the sale. So look at the bundles as you can get some super savings this way.

After the communist party won at took control in China in 1949, America took on the policy of isolation and backed Taiwan as the then only legitimate government of China. The Korean war, of course, brought communist China into conflict with the US as the People Republic backed North Korea during the war. Communist China was also refused a seat at the U.N. during this time. As time passed, come 1969, it was not the US but the USSR and communist China that ended up essentially in open warfare on the Ussuri River. There were discussions about what would happen if the Soviets used nuclear weapons in that conflict and would Nixon come to communist China’s aid? Especially being strongly Anti-Communist.

Nixon on the other hand saw an opening into Asia right at Russia’s back door and famously sent Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Beijing on a secret meeting with China’s Zhou Enlai to secured an invitation for a visit to the People Republic.

In 1972, president Nixon took an 8 day historic trip as the first U.S. president to step foot in the P.R.C. after 25 years of no communications and no relations. During this trip, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai offered American first lady Patricia Nixon two pandas as a show of friendship. This trip was one of the most important diplomatic meetings of the cold war and a complete reversal of policy by the United States and Nixon. How devastating it must have felt in the halls of the Kremlin?

“Ling-ling” and “Xing-xing” became possibly the two most famous pandas in the world. During their stay at the U.S. National Zoo in Washington, DC, they were a major attraction, being seen by millions of people a year. They certainly lived up to opening relationships with opposing ideologies and being a symbol of peace. A lesson perhaps also echoing into our troubled times.

It is said that the year of the Tiger will bring rewards to people who are vigorous and ambitious, daring and courageous, enthusiastic and generous, self-confident with a sense of justice and a commitment to help others for the greater good. For strategies in how to handle the Chinese Civil war, be vigorous in deploying your forces both as the United States and the USSR. You never know when an opening might present itself. In particular as this update introduces the possibility to now also favor the historical character, General Lin Biao. A man full of surprises.

I really hoped you enjoyed this piece. I wanted to do something relating to China and luck and such and tie it into the cold war and this seemed absolutely perfect.

For information regarding panda conservation efforts please visit this link.[wwf.panda.org]

Let me know in the comments below what you thought and what goodies you got in the Lunar New Year’s Sale. Give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and come to our discord and chat with the team.

Don’t forget that you can play with the Terminal Development Conflict team on Terminal Thursdays every week.

Seth signing off, wishing you an amazing Year of the Tiger.
As we say… Mighty Cheers!

*********************************************************

I) Development starts for UI/UX update for focus Selection.
II) Policies are getting rolled out with each new patch - focus is on Sub-Saharan Africa


GAME

• Fixed an issue where rebasing a figher or bomber command outside the focus theater would not correctly require 1 people interests

DECISIONS

• Promoting Peng to Marshall now only requires 10 power
  
• Added US consulate siege decisions for Lin Biao
  
• Added Funeral decision for Lin Biao

UI

• Fixed an issue where the terminals would be stuck in Ultra Wide resolution
  
• Added updated set of Faction buttons
  
• Fixed a space race researched incorrect opponent faction icon color

OTHER

• Fixed various smaller bugs
  
• Fixed a few typos

In the season's spirit, we send you our sincerest appreciation for the support you have awarded us with brand new content. Ho ho ho!

It was all smoke and mirrors. They knew, now access the background of MIRVIN from the Main menu and find out how it all began. And what about the Soviets? Well... He might not reveal it all in the first conversation, but try a second time and you might find him more inclined.

Find secret codes hidden all over the game, and in this message, decrypt them with the key and the FALCON PAWNCH decoder and unlock game elements, and more.

GRAND CAMPAIGN: THE BIG PICTURE
If you’ve never played Terminal Conflict before, or you would like to learn more about how to use your terminal, this is where you should start. Discover new policies, decisions, and Cold War archive material, then duel to expand your sphere of influence over the globe.

With the in-game Encyclopedia further enhanced, explore buttons and functions in your terminal. When in doubt, contact MIRVIN by pressing the "i" button in-game! He can explain all the details about the game.

We have been busy with lots this last year and especially we wanted to highlight these five things:

• A lot of new content has gone into the game with over 16 new focuses, 30+ new policies and the creation of an in-game encyclopedia to name a few.
  
• We put in a multiplayer save system for when things are boiling over in real life and you need to take a break.
  
• The AI underwent a good deal of improvement and tuning.
  
• The mod system has and is undergoing improvements based on the wishes of the modding community.
  
• The game engine underwent a major update to bring it in line with newer hardware.

With all the magnificent content rolled out this year and our weekly Terminal Thursday live streams, our growing community passed 1500+ players. A remarkable year for our team, and we couldn’t have done it without you. We wish you all the best for the season!

Enjoy your festive holidays and we will see you back here on January 5th just in time for the first Terminal Thursday in 2022!

Thank you all and Mighty Cheers!
The Tinker Toy elves at Strategy Mill
*********************************************************

I) Updates to the Soviet Military interests system
II) Policies are getting rolled out with each new patch.

GAME

• Fixed an issue for MacOS where users would incorrectly be informed to run Terminal Conflict in 32 bit setup instead of the correct 64 bit
  
• Fixed an issue where booting up Terminal Conflict on MacOS would incorrectly give an error message regarding the Steam API library
  
• Can now easily switch between Full-screen and Windowed mode
  
• Screen resolution can now be adjusted in the Options menu in-game
  
• Added full graphical support for Wide XGA 1280 x 720 pixels, Full HD 1920 x 1080, UltraWide 2560 x 1080, and Ultra-Wide 4K 3840 x 1600 resolutions.
  
• Medium resolution (HD 1920 x 1080) is now defined as the default resolution

SEASONAL ELEMENT

• TOP SECRET - Season terminal elements - ENABLED

POSTURE SELECTION

• Suspended the 60 second timer when deploying influence after disarming

DLCs

• Updated several graphical elements in the Flower Power, Supreme Commander and Eyes Only DLCs.

UI

• Fixed an issue where the terminals would not be shown correctly in Ultra Wide resolution
  
• Fixed text in screen resolution button
  
• Added updated Faction buttons

OTHERS

• Fixed several typos and minor issues

Hello commanders, for today we have a really fun community announcement. Not only is it the Autumn Steam sale, but it is the American holiday of Thanksgiving. While you most likely already know that, let me hopefully delight you with some things you did not know. So let’s fire up our terminals before the American commanders put their turkeys in the oven. I am Seth and this is your Thanksgiving Community Announcement.

‘Twas the night before Black Friday… is that how the little song goes? No? Well, Black Friday and Cyber Monday usually give us some fantastic deals to open up the holidays. On Steam (and every other website and gaming platform) the sales have started. From the Nov 24 -Dec 1 Steam will do the annual Autumn Sale. We all know how much I love sales. I go M.A.D. for bargains!

Every Terminal is 30% off! Need to pick up Eyes Only well, it’s 30% off. Want to grab the base game for your best friend as multiplayer is caring! That would be 30% off as well. (Here is a secret the bundle deal with everything is -38%!) So tell everyone you know!. In Terminal Conflict only one player needs a copy of the DLC in a multiplayer game. I do highly recommend the Eyes Only DLC. I absolutely love the unique domestic programs that go into some of the stranger things that happened during the Cold War period. The same team that developed the fantastic Road To 56’ Mod for Hearts Of Iron IV developed this DLC.

The US had nine Presidents occupy the White House in the 12 presidential terms between the Cold War years of 1946 and 1991. These men had the job of preventing nuclear annihilation while still pursuing the goals and objectives that were set out before them. It’s fantastic to try on the weight of that office for a day. And boy, they must have built up a hearty appetite.

Since 1940, at the White House, prior to Thanksgiving, the president is presented with a giant Turkey. Usually of the Broad Breasted White variety, these birds were slaughtered and eaten. This would all change in 1989 as George H. Bush made the “Presidential Pardon” of the Turkey an official part of the event and usually accompanied a satire piece from the president that pokes fun at the scandals of the day.

The presidential turkey pardon itself, a brainchild of an earlier Cold War president, Ronald Reagan.

The press was hounding him over the Iran Contra scandal, asking if he would consider granting the indicted Oliver North a pardon. Reagan came up with the term of pardoning the turkey as a joke to deflect the question away from the question. But he wasn’t the only bird lover President.

In 1963, John F Kennedy, in a spontaneous moment, spared the turkey they presented him with. Weighing in at 55lb (25kg) the bird was wearing a sign that said “Good Eating, Mr. President”. Kennedy spared the bird, saying, “We’ll let this one grow” While the LA Times and the Washington Post called it a pardon, the president did not refer to it that way.

Richard Nixon was no less of a Turkey saver! Spared some turkeys over his two term presidency, sending them back to the petting zoo. A fate they shared with the Carter administrations turkeys. The First Lady Carter did not allow public turkey ceremonies and had the turkeys sent back to live out their lives.

Now you might think? What about Ike? … Well, maybe we don’t mention Eisenhower. He loved stuffing.

Nonetheless, every modern day president since 1989 has pardoned the bird. A gobbled up ceremony that has become a part of American tradition.

We wish you all the best and hope you enjoyed today’s community announcement. For all of you are in the States; I wish you a happy Black Fri.. err Thanksgiving! Don’t forget the discount and please do not blow the planet up. After all, nuclear weapons are supposed to be a deterrent. So this has been Seth, and you have been you and I am off to eat some Turkey!

Mighty Cheers
Seth

Comrades, today we have a treat for you. Fire up your terminals, I am Seth and this is your Development Diary for November 18.

The Strategy Mill team is interested in player feedback, and the community has motivated a lot of the work that has gone into Terminal Conflict since release. Presented last week as an update feature, hosted multiplayer (non-ranked) games can now be freely saved and resumed, on PC, Mac and Linux, regardless and independent of platforms.

A much requested feature, we felt the ability to save during a multiplayer match would add flexibility and even showcased it during last week’s Terminal Thursday. Make sure to check it out here:

As in any worthy strategy game, the modding system in Terminal Conflict allows you to do so much more. One of our testers created the Korean War decision chain and then implemented it into the full game. You can create new focuses, leaders, leader abilities, or why not edit decisions or change most values in the game? It truly is an all-encompassing mod system that we are continually expanding upon. Give us your feedback on what tools you would like implemented in the future.

To work on your own mod, launch into the Mod Editor from the main menu and copy the base game data. This creates a fresh copy of the current version of the game in it’s base form. Once you have done that, you can load and edit that data as you wish.

Diving in by editing, a menu will be made available for you to access all the different areas of the game, even including new images and sounds.

Want to add your favorite Dune themed cold war characters? It certainly could be done… Duke Leto and the battle pug await!

Why not tell your own history, or the experiences of your parents or grand parents? Talking of which, the streamer team known as The Mug Club[www.twitch.tv], comprising the brilliant husband and wife team, Nordicmonkey and Hazzieandsof, shared some of their personal Cold War stories during an absolute of a blast of a co-op stream of Terminal Conflict. Playing as the US and a thriller from the start, what was on everyone’s lips was, would they survive for victory and would the Space Race finally be completed?

For those that are wondering, pencil in Tuesday Nov 23rd at noon PST for their Soviet play-through.

I am really excited about our upcoming community announcement where I talk about Cold War Turkey (not the country). You seriously don’t want to miss this one. Autumn Steam Sale, Thanksgiving Announcement and so much more coming up. On that note and as ever, stay safe and try not to cause tons of radioactive fallout before we meet again.

Mighty Cheers.
Seth
*********************************************************

I) Updates to the Soviet Military interests system
II) Policies are getting rolled out with each new patch.

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• Updated minimum recommended requariments to macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or better
  
• Currently Steamworks does not support integration with Apple M1

GAME

• Multiplayer save games - Single-player saves are shown in single player mode and multi-player saves are shown in challenge mode
  
• When multiplayer match is saved, game sets to draw for both players
  
• Game shows multiplayer challenge menu in case ended game is a multiplayer one
  
• Fixed faulty lingering connection issues after disconnection
  
• Savegame deleted if NO SAVE is pressed, but not if disconnection occurs
  
• Updated the Save Game and Surrender Game option for Quitting a game session
  
• Added updates to the Space Race Order of Battle
  
• Added an OOBSpaceRace.json to set starting OOB for the Space Race
  
• OOS checker hopefully generates fewer false positives
  
• OOS checker logs action that sparked the OOS
  
• Fixed Wargames showing wrong list when clicking on Host > Launch Mod > New Game

FOCUS

• Renamed The Latin American Reds to Ñancahuazú Guerrilla to better clarify the historical connection
  
• Removed an incorrect condition from The Return of the King that would falsely state that the player failed the Focus
  
• Updated the filters for The Return of the King to declare PEACE in Greece if the US gain at least 3 Influence in the region

POLICIES

• Replaced COMECON policies with three new COMECON policies with the following effect: Gain 3 USSR INFLUENCE in a WESTERN EUROPEAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN/SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN region with USSR PRESENCE.
  
• NEW COMECON WEST Triggers: 1) At least 1 region in WESTERN EUROPE with presence AND 2) USSR GOVERNMENT at least 5
  
• NEW COMECON EAST Triggers: 1) At least 1 region in EASTERN EUROPE with presence AND 2) GOVERNMENT at least 5 OR 3) ELITES at least 5 AND Supreme Commander DLC active
  
• NEW COMECON AFRICA: 1) At least 1 region in SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA with presence AND 2) USSR GOVERNMENT at least 5
  
• Updated Wargames with the latest Policy implementation

DECISIONS

• Fixed an issue where Unexpected Difficulties for the USSR would incorrectly cause an exception for missing imagery
  
• Fixed a typo in the USSR A Clean Bill of Health
  
• Updated the Soviet Decision The Tools of War with an improved second options to distribute the weapons

ENCYCLOPEDIA

• Updated text for Logistics Planning to contain information about Surface Fleets' convoying ability

UI

• Added an explanation to focus selection clarifying that each round of selection by your faction reduces remaining focuses by 3
  
• Uploaded a new screen for Save game Draw
  
• Savegame header UI display
  
• Fixed an issue where the wrong text padding was added to titles screens
  
• Fixed space race researched incorrect opponent faction icon color