Patch Live Now! + The Devils You Know: AI, Excom., Encyclopaedia Plans + More!

PLEASE NOTE: There was a server update needed for this Hotfix, so if you are experiencing any connection issues (like turn timers zeroing out or error messages) please just exit the client - do not forfeit/abandon your games! - download the update via Steam, and dive back in. You’ll see your sessional game in progress on the main menu.

Hello Archfriends!

We’re so excited that Solium Infernum has resonated in the hearts and minds (not soul, though, those have all been sold) of so many awesome folks! Seeing our community flourish and grow as you all megamind-backstab each other has been… Surprisingly wholesome. And a great honour, too.

Today we come bearing gifts of your first Patch!

Similar to our recent hotfixes, this patch is jam-packed full of bug fixes, adjustments to strings, quality of life tweaks, etc, but don’t let it fool you, the team have been working incomprehensibly hard to get this out the gate so rapidly after launch.

We do want to take a moment to note that we totally recognise there are bigger issues (see; The Devils You Know… section further into this post) that are going to require a bit more time, testing and polish than the Week 1 Patch! Trust us… We’re working on 'em!

And yes, AI performance is at the top of our list.

It’s worth stating, though, we’re very pleased with how the game and multiplayer has performed! While there are some obvious balancing passes and adjustments to be made in the future (which, again, we’ll get into later in this post), the heart of the game is truly alive and well within all of you. We’re absolutely delighted.

That’s not to say the game is perfect by any means – there are improvements we plan on making with our Singleplayer, most particularly the AI’s capabilities and competence. We recognise that there is a large portion of players out there whom solely enjoy singleplayer strategy games, and had hoped that the SI singleplayer would mimic the depth and Machiavellian nature of playing against humans. Whilst that is a goal we will never achieve, we know we can do a whole lot more to close that gap.

But before we get further into that, the Build Notes!

v1.0.1 Build Notes

Big Wins

A bunch of fixes and QoL improvements in this one, but most noticeably - UI Scaling is now functional in-game (thanks for your patience on that one!), there are a tonne (!!) of localisation fixes, and we’ve added a bunch of small but meaningful AI improvements - the first of many!

Platform

• An infernal newsfeed has appeared! This will allow us to message you all directly in-game when the need arises.
• The game would, at times, fail to launch. Happy to report the Gates of Hell now open more regularly!

Settings

• UI scaling is back! You can now scale the UI between 80-120% of its original size.
• Fixed the game ignoring Windowed Mode settings when booting up.
• Refresh rate and screen resolution can now be configured independently.

Gameplay

• Fixed Conclave Favourite being updated after choosing a victor, which would cause an incorrect player to be awarded the victory.
• Diplomatic action cooldowns are now reset on unsuccessful actions.
• User of Torment (Event) no longer gets to know the players that it affected by default (they must use Dark Augury).
• Fixed an issue where you could queue a vault transfer even if it was already queued.
• Fixed the Forged Orders ritual sequence killing the legion early (Belial has urged me to state his displeasure of this fix for the record, so here it is).
• Fixed Deafening Thrum (artifact) not affecting some abilities. The Thrum will now adequately deafen.
• Fixed Procured Honour ability not being correctly removed when ritual ends.
• Fixed terrain type targeting settings on all canton-targeting rituals.
• Fixed ritual masking settings not saving between turns in multiplayer. Let the cheeky rituals continue!
• Fixed the event 'Fury and Glory' multiplying by 4 rather than 3.

AI

• AI will no longer request Vassalage to try and advance its Vendettas.
• AI will no longer send all their legions on the Crusade.
• AI will now attempt to take captured Strongholds like any other Place of Power.
• AI will now prioritise tormenting their nemesis over opportunistic Diplomacy with other players.
• Improved Upkeep handling.
• Improved Titan utilisation.
• Improved board targeting and legion pathfinding.
• Improved constraint evaluation to prevent AI wasting actions.
• Improved late game performance of AI against winning candidates.
• Fixed an issue where AI would not use redeploy.
• Increased AI’s desire to upgrade Prophecy.
• Slight decrease to the AI’s chance to accept Demands.

Grand Events

• Removed orders for Event cards that are no longer selected.
• Invalidate event card orders for event cards you no longer control.
• Added option to remove a legion that was committed to the Great Unholy Crusade, so you can now chicken-out in style.
• Added no target strings to grand events that could not find a target.
• Fixed some occurred as a result of fullscreen takeovers for Grand Events.

UI (Fastball, here we go!)

• Canton capture tooltips now only show if you are in a diplomatic state that allows canton capture.
• Fixed some issues with card parallaxing.
• Fixed some issues with Bazaar tooltips.
• Fixed Archfiend filters flashing when you enter any targeting view.
• Fixed Conclave Favourite showing for excommunicated players.
• Fixed icons for ritual unlocks.
• Fixed ability icon for bonus voting power.
• Fixed display of enemy's tribute in vault in domain view.
• Fixed inconsistent behaviour of event cards in vault.
• Fixed game entity lists to have images correctly scaled within aspect ratios.
• Fixed Attachment tooltips not showing ritual modifiers.
• Fixed rank up button in the Domain view.
• Fixed Hell's Maw (Dark Art) icon.
• Fixed attachment slot visualisation for neutral entities.
• Fixed Masking Mirror Archfiend portraits.
• Increased speed of Masking Mirror animations.
• Fixed Scheme selected states not working correctly.
• Fixed various visual issues in the Conclave (Diplomacy) screen.
• Added order icon on slots for vault transfers.
• Added Code of Conduct button to Active Games list.
• Added Outcomes tooltip to Vile Calumny (Dark Art) UI.
• Added neutral sigil for neutral entities in the Legion Tray.
• Added ability icons for modifier-based abilities.
• Added ability icon for Adamant Flame (Defilers).
• Added ability icon for True Sight (Illuminatus).
• Added ability icon for Abyssal Irruption (Strider).
• Added ability icon for Unwavering (all Personal Guard legions).
• Added ability icon for Evil Sanctuary (Bowl of Abject Darkness).
• Improved formatting of the Objective tab.
• More consistency with Order tooltips.
• Updated header of the Seek Tribute result turn log from "Tribute" to "Seek Tribute" to clarify that it is the result of a Seek Tribute action, and not a Tribute Offering.
• Removed italic tags and line breaks from loading screens.
• Removed the exit button in Lure of Excess (Dark Art) dialogue.

Turn Logs

• Improved headings to make turn logs more readable.
• Improved turn log "read" status markers.
• Added turn log icons for all remaining turn log message groups.
• Regency Acquired turn log message will now display correctly when you don't receive an event card.
• Fixed Conclave Favourite showing for excommunicated players.
• Fixed incorrect wager values for diplomatic actions being presented in turn logs.
• Fixed missing parameters and incorrect strings in Lure of Excess (Dark Art) screens.
• Fixed missing parameters and incorrect strings in Draconic Razzia (Dark Art) screens.
• Improved feedback for the effects of event cards Wrath Of The Tyrant and Torment.

Localization

• Localized Achievements in Steam.
• Various language consistency improvements.
• Localized Cost in the encyclopaedia.
• Localized Praetor appointment required message.
• Localized Settings headings.
• Localized additional stats in Domain view.
• Localized Election Victory Chronicle objective.
• Localized Feedback heading on feedback screen.
• Localized "Choose" message in the extort action flow.
• Localized "Voting Power".
• Localized "You must choose a response" in the Diplomacy view.
• Localized "Prestige wager" in the Diplomacy view.
• Localized Invoke Manuscript on Praetor.
• Partial Fixes for long names in Battle Reports being truncated.
• Partial Fixes for Praetor equipping tooltips.
• Improved text fitting in Consolidation, and cannot afford Bazaar messaging.
• Improved text fitting in Code of Conduct.
• Improved text fitting in order actions.
• Improved text fitting in enemy Domain views.
• Fixed text overruns in 'you must perform an action' turn log entries.
• Fixed text overruns in Schemes private/public buttons.
• Fixed text overruns in level bars.
• Fixed text overruns in Ritual categories.
• Fixed text overruns in Throne Room screens.
• Fixed text overruns in Diplomacy screens.
• Fixed text overruns Attachment buttons descriptions.
• Fixed text overruns in Blood Feud initiate/response dialogues.
• Fixed all missing primary objectives in Polish.
• Fixed various strings in the Grand Arena (Praetor Duel screen).
• Fixed Vile Calumny target sigil being the incorrect size.
• Fixed 'OR' being localised in Ritual screen.
• Fixed some gender / plurals in private / public lobby title.
• Fixed text alignment in Rank Up screen.
• Fixed messages from players in a different languages not rendering correctly.
• Fixed missing Stratagem description.
• Fixed overlap in turn status profile widget.

Tutorial

• Disabled hotkeys for UI elements until said UI functions are meant to be available.
• Fix for previously completed tutorial steps not being marked complete when loading a tutorial save.

Chronicles

• Disabled the event card Paladin In Hell in some chronicles to prevent certain objectives from becoming impossible by the Paladin destroying objective-critical Artifacts. The Paladin has been escorted from Hell in these specific Chronicles.

Visualisation

• Fixed legion movement arrow not being updated correctly when closing/finishing movement input.
• Fixed wounded Abyss Leviathan animation. Don’t hurt our boy, our son!
• Fixed Titans not skipping to their position and animation when a player chooses to skip the combat sequence.
• Added damage VFX and Effects to Pandaemonium.

Optimization

• Optimised the displaying of tooltips.
• Removed unnecessary in-game cameras.
• Fixed a bug in entity cleanup.
• Improved audio file management.

That’s all for the Patch Notes, now to speak more on some of the big Devils You Know in current gameplay…

The Devils You Know…

Firstly, we wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has gone out of their way to provide us with feedback – whether that’s via the in-game bug reporter, or via our Steam/Discord/other Socials. Please know that we are reviewing and discussing each of the points made with great care, and we’ve got some future points of focus for us that we wanted to share here.

AI

We hear you. The AI, whilst it can shock and surprise from time to time, needs more work. This is getting our full attention and highest priority moving forward.

From the discussions you’ve all had online and the feedback you’ve delivered, we’ve found the biggest AI-related pain points are…

• The AI doesn’t focus on Prestige generation enough, and openly dumps Prestige at inopportune times, especially in the end-game, resulting in large Prestige disparities between humans and AI.
• The AI will often engage in clearly doomed combats, commonly failing Vendettas miserably.
• The AI spends their orders on low impact tasks, like spamming rituals or using Decoy Stratagems.
• The AI will merk itself by engaging in obviously-terrible-idea combats, or by moving in fruitless directions (like into lava).
• The AI doesn’t collaborate to pull others away from a clear Prestige lead.

There’s a tonne more feedback from you all, and this only captures a slither of the week+ long conversations the team have been having internally as a result, nor does it reflect the entirety of our plans for AI moving forward. The good news is that we feel we have a great grasp of the problems at hand and a fantastic base to work from!

Whilst we can’t make machines that will scheme and backstab as well as humans, we are committed to ensuring you all have AI opponents that are capable of presenting a far greater challenge. Iterating on the AI is something that takes a bit of time, and we're devoting a whole bunch of resources toward it!

Excommunication

Solium Infernum’s Event Cards and Edicts were designed to be able to shift the face of the battlemap and political landscape drastically – intended to be able to topple a breakaway lead, or bring an underdog to the forefront of victory. Their intention is to create a “Aha!”, or a “Ah, drats,” moment. They weren’t, however, designed to be un-fun, or to create disdain, or to sideline folks from the whole game, leaving them stranded with little to no options.

We also understand that Excommunication is not really feeling like the on-the-ropes nail biting experience it should, and whether by Ritual framing, Event, Edict or your own grand design, it needs some balancing.

So we’re taking Excommunication back to the drawing board and are going to discuss some adjustments and improvements for the future. This likely won’t land in our next Patch – it takes a surprising amount of balancing testing/finnicky testing – but will likely be closing in on the horizon afterward.

Encyclopaedia + Rules Clarity

Solium Infernum is a beast rife with edge cases and unique considerations. The more you understand SI, the less you are exposed to what a complete beginner’s experience might be like. This naturally can lead to a lot of what we call Comprehension Cracks in the game’s interface – rules that are known by the team, or haven’t even been experienced yet by the team, but are stumbling blocks for newer folks.

Some examples of common discrepancies:

• What determines Ritual Success/Ritual Resistance?
• What exactly happens in a Praetor Duel?

And smaller questions, like:

• What happens if a Melee First and Infernal First bestowed legion clash?

We’re committed to continuing to make this infernal grand design of a game as digestible and understandable as possible, and as we continue to iterate on Solium Infernum, your feedback really helps us to identify these vague areas of the rules. It means our team can work to add more clarity and consistency, improving the game for all!

And on Praetor Duelling…

We’ve received feedback not only on how vague the rules in Praetor Duelling are currently, but how the system could warrant some balance concerns. For example, the bribery mechanic potentially creating another tribute = victory loop, or it becoming another economy-related exploit where it is not about victory nor defeat in the arena as much as how disposable the Praetor is to the player. Because of this experience, as well as the XP/Praetor Training being not yet visible to the Player, it becomes quite hard to establish any emotional/roleplay-related attachment.

We’re having internal discussions about balancing, though – as it has been discussed on various Steam Threads – this system was quite hard to master even in the Original Solium Infernum! We’re confident we can come to a delightful experience, though you might not see it immediately in the next Patch!

Map Generation

We’ve also heard you with Map Generation! At times, while the goal was interesting asymmetry in layout, the current map generation can err on the extreme end of that asymmetry and create the perception that easy-breakaway-winners or isolated lone wolves out on the abyssal plains are an intention of our design. They are not. We’re on it!

Anyway, that's it for now! Enjoy the Patch, and feel free to return to your scheming and plotting as usual!

See you in Hell,

Chan + the LoG Squad <3

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If you've made it this far, thanks for following along. I intend to share more posts like this, detailing the development process as it unfolds and exploring the unique challenges the privilege of re-imagining a cult classic like Solium Infernum for new (and old!) audiences holds.

For now, you can join the League of Geeks Discord community for all the infernal news and discussion. You can also find the "looking for group" role, and a whole host of infernal folks to play with!

P.S. You can support us and our re-imagining of Vic's "diamond in the dark" by Purchasing Solium Infernum on Steam, or if you haven't already, giving us a positive review. It means a whole lot to us!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1893810/Solium_Infernum/