At the Gates : tous les chemins ne mèneraient pas à Rome ?

Voici après un long parcours chaotique qui dura sept années que ce premier jeu du studio créé par le lead designer de Civilization V est disponible depuis ce milieu de semaine.

Les premiers échos font état d’un 4X qui serait en fait plutôt un 5X, en ajoutant donc un fort principe, osons le mot, eXpérimental. Le tout regroupant de bonnes idées (i.e. la rigueur de l’hiver contraignant à attendre), mais offrant un équilibre ludique précaire. Autrement dit un jeu au gameplay assez particulier. En partie du fait de la période (les invasions barbares) et de l’aspect aléatoire des cartes, en partie du fait de l’IA, et en partie par le choix d’une certaine lenteur, a priori, dans l’évolution d’une partie. La dimension asymétrique des factions et un gameplay saupoudré de style Roguelike devant aussi contribuer à une certaine difficulté à bien appréhender le jeu pour ce qu’il est. Tout au moins du point de vue de son concepteur.

Qui, en plus des difficultés personnelles qu’il a connu (voir cette brève), n’a de toutes façons pas les moyens via son jeune studio de réaliser un 4X équivalent à ceux d’autres éditeurs aux équipes plus nombreuses et aguerries.

Quoiqu’il en soit, renseignez-vous pour voir si ce 4X correspond à vos attentes, ou sinon, comme d’habitude, attendez les patchs (cf. le planning prévu ci-après).

Communiqué

Update Plan & Tasklist

Note that the plan below can and is likely to change but I’ll make sure to always post here when it does. Also, there will certainly be smaller incremental updates (e.g. v1.21) to fix bugs or make important-but-small additions. The bigger updates will take time, so I ask for your patience. With a small team and a complex game there’s a fair bit of testing that needs to go into each release, and simply programming as fast as I can and immediately uploading things is a recipe for adding more bugs than I fix.

Speaking of which, you can find an unstable WIP version of the game with the latest changes by switching to the ‘developer’ branch in Steam (this won’t start being updated until February). Note that in-game error messages are turned on for the developer version, so it might be a bit annoying to play unless you’re specifically interested in lending us a hand.

Here’s what’s on the agenda:

v1.01

The first major patch, mainly focused on fixing serious bugs and gameplay issues immediately after release. Target date: 1-2 weeks after release.

Improve Memory Usage (especially after loading a game from within another game)
BUG: Game doesn’t launch when OS language is Turkish
BUG: Borders incorrect after capturing a City or Structure
BUG: Title music doesn’t play in the main menu.
BUG: End turn gets stuck down after alt-tabbing out (appears as game hanging for a while and then ending up with lots of extra resources)
BUG: Sometimes fortifying the Settlement doesn’t increase its borders
BUG: Mac and Linux versions should default to ‘Fullscreen’ mode (rather than ‘Borderless Window’)
BUG: Victory screen appears every turn after winning
BUG: Can’t train Horse Archers as the Huns
BUG: Gifts from Rome not working
BUG: Unable to Repair Structures
BUG: Settlement can train clan and skip turn to generate Treasure
BUG: Clans disappear after being added to a captured Settlement
BUG: Long paths being calculated strangely (units want to move through water)
BUG: ?Can’t disable eating horses
BUG: Can sell Resources for more than they cost for infinite $
BUG: Vast Horse Pasture doesn’t grow
BUG: Upgrades remain on Clans who switch Professions
BUG: Weird number sometimes appears on Profession button
BUG: Can’t close tile tooltip sections from in-game once opened
BUG: Clan Traits conflict: ‘Loyal’ and ‘Aggressive’
BUG: Missing text description for ‘Happy’ Clan Mood
BUG: Missing text description for Nailsmith and Armorer Professions
BUG: Missing description text for ‘School of Fish’

v1.1

The second major patch, mainly focused on fixing serious gameplay issues and improving basic UI and UX. Target date: Mid-March.

BUG: Screen resolution is overridden in fullscreen and borderless window mode
Improve Options Screen (e.g. display options)
Add ability to change how often autosaves are created
Game Setup Options/Difficulty Levels
Improve Caravan Screen
Add Clan Management Screen
Improve AI
Display an Army’s supply needs
Improve Resource Production/Consumption Info
User Interface Scaling
Add tooltip to supply boxes on the map
Improve Text Colors
Notification when civilian unit captured.
Notification when unit suffers supply damage.
Right-clicking when besieging should besiege instead of attack.
Allow disabling of all conversion of specific resources (e.g. Cattle)
Allow clans inside structures to be punished
EXPLOIT: Livestock-to-caravan-and-back
BUG: Purchasing food from the caravan gives too much (immediately converted into turns)
BUG: Changing screen resolution doesn’t work
BUG: Approach showing up as ‘ERROR’ in Diplomacy Screen
BUG: Clans can start feuding the same turn someone shows up
BUG: Mismatch between the stated and actual move cost of streams
BUG: Can continue clicking ‘next page’ past the end of save files list

v1.2

The third major patch, mainly focused on gameplay balance, the user interface, and AI. Target date: Late May.

Improve AI
Improve Gameplay Balance – General
Improve User Interface – General
Improve camera movement when different Clans are selected
Add ability to play specific map seeds
Add setup option to skip intro maps
Mood penalty countdown after punishing? (instead of being permanent)
BALANCE: Lombards too hard to play at the very beginning
BALANCE: Caravan Prices

v1.3

The fourth major patch, mainly focused on diplomacy, the late-game, AI, and modding. Target date: Mid-September.

Add New Diplomatic Options
Improve Diplomacy AI
Improve Late-game Strategy and Balance
Improve AI
Full Mod Support
Europe Map