At this point, instead of a usual Dev Diary (yes, we haven't had one for a long time), a few brief comments about 2.1.4 and what comes after.


We have retained most, but not all, of the content from Rise of the Publishing Industry, but have expanded on many things.

Things we removed:
- Journalists as POPs. In our opinion, the loss of performance does not justify the resulting play value. Also because balancing POP needs is an art in itself.
- Multiple print products. We have combined the various printed products into one. Here too, this decision was made based on the alignment of POP needs. We're happy to see it working somewhat now after Paradox heavily adjusted the values in recent patches.
- As a result, we have abolished some production methods and a journal entry.
- We have also not included the author descriptions in Vicky, otherwise this would make the many concepts that are important for the player confusing.

What we have changed and expanded significantly:
- Newspaper Novel and Transoceanic Cable are available not only in Objectives mode, but also in free play.
- The Transoceanic Cable is initially just a Transatlantic Cable (but there is the possibility of expanding/changing this later). Transatlantic Cable has been upgraded to its own scientific expedition, with additional events and the addition of Morgenröte content: for example, you can send a naturalist or an engineer along.
- Coincidence used to play a major role in the laying of the transatlantic cable. The engineer can counteract misfortunes.
- Naturalists can conduct marine research and become marine biologists.
- In some cases, a clue to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is possible if a scientist is on board. This feature will have greater significance later when geology is added.
- There are now different publishers and new publishing events. Scientists, artists and special events can be the starting point for a publisher to specialize, such as science publishing or art publishing.
- Gone are the days when a historical book was triggering because it was simply that time. Historical books now trigger dynamically when a historical writer writes a bestseller.

What we have done completely new:
- Addition of writers and synergies between our writer system and Rise of the Publishing Industry.
- Foreign licenses for authors instead of static distribution of bestsellers abroad. Later, the flavor section of the foreign licensing events will contain descriptions of the foreign bestsellers.

What else we need to add:
- Companies.
- Missing Authors and Missing Bestseller Events.

What we will add at an unknown date, but definitely planned:
- Journalists as their own characters (such as artists and academics) who represent a newspaper with their own interactions.


The writer system is still not completely rounded and will be adjusted until “Sphere of Influence” is published, where it has not worked so far. We are now concentrating on fixing and balancing. This also includes better economic efficiency of cultural buildings. There are also still many authors and their works missing that need to be included.

In a further step, we will make it possible to research all three cultural techs, although the later this happens, the more expensive they become. Example: If you research Art Nouveau first, the cost of Expressionism and Impressionism will require 25 percent more of the respective Cultural Tradition (in the case of Impressionism: 1250 Music Tradition instead of 1000 Music Tradition). If you research Expressionism next, Impressionism will become even more expensive (1500 Music Tradition instead of the original 1000).

This will also make some cultural PMs obsolete, which is why the total of six cultural techs (Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Impressionism, Neoclassicism, Expressionism, New Objectivity) unlock a specific production method in one of the three cultural production buildings (Opera, Art Academy, Publishing Industry) to improve the throughput or output.

In principle, we will use the time until June 24th to get the cultural sector into better shape. The version that will be released together with 1.7.0 will logically be 2.2.0.


Also until the release of 1.7.0, some features from Curtiss will be revised. Many things that have now changed need to be adjusted. This includes the generation as well as the deployment and promotion of pilots. Military operations in war and test or record flights are planned. In this context, the aeronautical engineer will finally be integrated in the way he was intended and will also play a significant role in the construction of giant zeppelins and giant aircraft. The airlines are also being overhauled.


You may have noticed some areas that have been added but not yet expanded. This includes everything related to physics and geology, such as uranium and volcanoes. We have already integrated these features to avoid future updates that destroy your savegame. Everything that is related to modern physics and comes after it can still be considered WIP. Physics and geology are two topics we would like to tackle after 2.2, but some foundations have already been laid.


With update 2.2, which is planned to coincide with the release of 1.7, we will put an end to the large topic of the culture update for the time being. Composers, writers and painters are then completely integrated and have a similar importance to our academics. This would achieve our goal of making artists as good as academics already are. Of course, that doesn't mean that we wouldn't pick up the topic again later - but Morgenröte would then be in a very well-rounded state, which is what we've been hoping for for over a year.

Of course, none of this excludes the possibility that there will be additional hotfixes in the coming weeks. ;)