We're at version 161 since a few hours ago:
A lot of changes across multiple areas of the game, and I'm thankful this is not yet a public Playtest as it can be difficult to experience so many changes at once.
IMPROVEMENTS
We updated the device in the middle of the table that allows you to assign resources to projects (both ways). It looked good in a situation where you had to assign N out of N, but it did not look so good when you encountered a mechanics such as "assign 2 out of these 3 resources to your own projects, 1 remaining resource – to your opponent", as showing "2 out of 3" was sub-optimal. Now it looks better: the electric grid lights up when you've done all that's required, while the resource that's not involved, is excluded from this grid.
A bunch of smaller adjustments happened in various corners of the UI, as a part of cleaning up: opponent's projects no longer have useless (to them) "reveal" button; action cards fit their slots better; extra shadows got removed from several situations; language selection is now possible from inside the current session; et cetera.
We rolled in the feature that enlarges the card in your hand, over which you hover. This allows you to "look up" a specific card in more detail, without changing the settings for the font size on each and every card. Helpful when you, like me, play with the font size that allows you to see all the rules at a glance, but find a larger font easier to read when you're encountering a new card.
Main menu is still "meh", and needs more work. I'm posting it here so that you can later appreciate the progress from this "first draft" to whatever we will start the Playtest with.
MECHANICS
This week we had a discussion on whether in duel sessions, when you have a rule that says, for example, "player with the most ːmaliceː loses 1 score point" and both players have equal ːmaliceː, we should still prompt player with "select target".
Removing the choice makes the session faster; and who would want to remove a score from themselves, anyways? But – but! – some veteran players may actually do this, as a combo, when they have, for example, another card that says "player with the highest score skips turn, loses score 2 points".
In the end, we decided to allow players to self-target with such negative consequences, even if this means the session takes longer – in order to allow greater flexibility in executing complex combinations.
IN THE WORK
The biggest problem with the current UI is that it's a bit too dark.
We have addressed this with the change of the space in the middle (from version 160 and onwards, it's now blue), and in the next build will update the backs of the cards as well. We have 3 designs to try and see, which works best.
Timer is one of the blockers that prevents us from starting the Playtest (we don't want anybody to get stuck when their duel opponent goes for a walk). In version 161, we already have the functional timer, and now we need to integrate it visually into the overall UI.
Multiplayer lobby is, for the moment, very basic – but already functional. You join, you are matched, the session starts. We need to deliver more feature there (list of current sessions in progress, among other things) before we're ready to invite the audience.
PLAYTEST
As of now, we have 1812 Playtest requests, which matches the year when Napoleon's Grande Armée crossed the border into the Russian Empire (I think he regretted it later, but I cannot be sure).
By language, the number one among the players is Russian (50%), followed by Simplified Chinese (20%), English (15%), Japanese (5%) and German (3%).
It bodes well that we will have large groups of people speaking the same language, trying this game out at the same time – this means that we will have a great opportunity to discuss your feedback here on Steam, and on the Discord server.
Thank you very much for your interest, and we continue working on the game in order to prepare it for your 'degustation'. It means the world to us, that you guy are interested in this digital card game.