If you've not yet read about the general changes in the 1.4 beta line, now is a good time to do so. It's expected that we'll stay in beta for the 1.4 line until the week of July 29th, when we'll do an official release called 1.5. A lot is different here, so we want to make sure and give this time to mature before we put this out to everyone.
This one is the first release in a couple of weeks, which is uncharacteristic for us. Firstly, people seem pretty happy with the last beta version, so there were surprisingly few bug reports or requests for changes.
Given that, I've been putting most of my efforts into a combination of the upcoming Nihon no Mura expansion for Skyward, as well as our upcoming tactical roguelike Bionic Dues. Last week was also kind of a wash, too, because I had two unrelated deaths in the family and thus was hardly at work at all thanks to the funerals and related family events.
Anyway, about this new version: I think this is going to be a very exciting one! The visual look of it is vastly better thanks mainly to the new font, but also due to some other smaller additions. There are also two new difficulty modes, which should provide the experience that a number of players are looking for (either something between the old Medium and Hard, or something greater than the old Expert, respectively).
There are also a couple of really key balance changes in here. Lumber is no longer so incredibly scarce, and the Ally Camps no longer are something you can exploit (at least not in the same way; let us know if you think of something new).
This is probably the last release for a couple of weeks, unless something significant comes up today or tomorrow. I'm going to be unavailable this Friday and next week (boy this month is not good on that front). The week that I get back, the Nihon expansion will come out into beta. The 2.0 version of the game, plus that expansion, will officially release probably in the week of August 19th.
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have any version of the game. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time.
If you've not yet read about the general changes in the 1.4 beta line, now is a good time to do so. It's expected that we'll stay in beta for the new features until we release the 2.0 version of the game in late August, alongside the new Nihon no Mura expansion. A lot is different in the base game since 1.4, so we want to make sure and give this time to mature before we put this out to everyone.
This one has a bunch of updates that really improve the list of implemented features so far for the new expansion.
Previously, only a quarter of the Japanese god-related stuff was in the game, and all of the Japanese functionality was only semi-tested in general. We've now implemented every last aspect of the Japanese faction, and have done detail testing on all the units. This is a really crazy faction, in a fun way.
This release also adds the last three of the bandit-only mythological units, too. These are all... kind of crazy, really. One is a giant fish under the mud that thrashes around, knocking holes in the earth (even in buildings). Another is this kind of zombie infestation that you have to clean up before it gets too intense.
And the last is Onibaba, the "unstoppable demon-hag." She is unkillable via traditional means, but this is a case where things like the god powers can knock her out. Or you can do something clever like cordon her off just by smiting. Before anyone calls OP on her, just make sure you think a little sideways: she is tricky, but there can only be one of her at a time on the map, and she can definitely be dealt with. She also won't bother gods, mythologicals, or buildings, so her threat is only so much even if you can't deal with her properly.
There are also a number of bugfixes that should prove very welcome for the base game, even. Specifically, the "jumping over units" bug in particular.
In other news, work continues on the hamlets implementation. Nothing to share publicly on it yet, but we're a goodly way through the implementation and have discarded yet another model that this would work under. Not unexpected for even late prototyping phase. Josh and I came up with a revised model for the hamlets just an hour or so ago, one that learns from the mistakes in the prior models, and I think it's really strong. Once I've got it all implemented and am satisfied that it's ready for public testing, then we'll push that out. Hopefully tomorrow, but we'll see!