Greetings, dear players of Flame of Modern Europe! I am glad to announce that today update 0.7: "PLAYABLE!" has finally been released!
It contains many new and important changes, but the main goal of the update is to improve the playability of the project. In particular, through improved localization, basic in-game tooltips, deepening of existing mechanics, and so on.
The combat mechanics update includes the addition of a large number of new variables, such as modifiers for attack, defense, combat effectiveness, etc. This was made possible by adding a full-fledged template editor to the game! Now you can bring your craziest ideas to life: from a regiment of drones to a brigade of motorcyclists!
What? Drones? In 2013? No! Well, not exactly. Because now the game has production!
This is a fairly simple mechanic that allows you to use your military factories effectively: sew clothes, produce artillery shells, and even manufacture chips. By the way, it is the chips that are needed for drones.
The brigade's resource supply directly affects all its indicators, acting as a final modifier.
To further improve combat mechanics, a new research branch for the army has been added to the game! It allows you to progress, in particular, in drone technologies, gradually making them extremely powerful!
And finally, a new and very cool feature for generals has been added — defensive points! You can add and remove them dynamically, without following the "line" structure. Very useful not only for planning defense, but also when you need to quickly move your troops somewhere.
As you can see for yourself, the diplomacy window has been completely redesigned. Now it includes complete information about the state: from its government to the number of brigades and buildings.
Also, new diplomacy functionality has been added. In particular, influence, which allows you to promote your ideology in that country, or even issue ultimatums in which you can demand money, transfer of territories, or submission... By the way, interesting fact — you can also make concessions yourself, transferring your own funds and territories!
The peace treaties window has also been completely redesigned using a similar principle.
Along with the improvement of diplomacy, it was logical to improve the AI. Now states independently study their courses (which is why you can observe an amazing civil war in Germany while playing as Slovenia), conduct research, form a budget that depends on the situation in their country, and even engage in production.
Italy has become the main country of the update, as it received unique content that includes several course branches, characters, and many events.
Probably the biggest focus of the update was on the overall improvement of game quality.
First, a full-fledged tutorial has been implemented. But since it could be completed in any scenario for any country, I decided to integrate it directly into the regular game. And if you are already an expert, you can disable them in the settings. By the way, you can also disable autosaves in the same place. Also, I want to note the button tooltips in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Secondly, game loading has been drastically accelerated. Personally, it used to take me about a minute and a half, and now — only 20 seconds!
Thirdly, a rather complex system for localizing effects has been implemented. Now they have colorization that indicates whether this change is good or bad. In addition, many effects previously had numbers incomprehensible to players, for example "0.05". Well — now it will clearly say that it is 5%!
And finally: new buttons and cursors. Many buttons now have cool animations with size changes, which makes interacting with them much more pleasant. And cursors reflect your possible actions. In particular, when interacting with brigades or generals.
Below you can see the full list of changes:
Added unique content for Italy
Added in-game tooltips that fully take on the role of the game tutorial.
Added defensive points mechanic for generals
Added real-time visualization of the general's front line
Main game loading accelerated to 20 seconds (compared to 1.5 minutes in 0.6)
Brigades now retreat from neutral territories
Fixed bugs that prevented closing or opening various menus
Added production of primary components
Added many new brigade variables
Added display of brigade supply
Added detailed combat unit designer
Completely redesigned diplomacy menu
Added new diplomacy features
Completely redesigned peace treaties
Added ultimatum system
Added influence on different countries
Added new research branch
Regions now have a limit on the number of buildings depending on their population
AI now performs its own courses
AI now conducts research
AI now has its own characters and elections
AI now creates its own characters (president, prime minister, etc.)
Updated animations of various buttons — now they change their size!
Fixed most effect localizations and added colorization
Doubled the number of troops at the start of the game
Added various cursors for different situations
GDP and electricity are now set at the start of the game, not after a few days as before
Added new universal portraits for generals and characters
Added loading of portraits for generated characters
Fixed a bug where old events remained in the game after reloading
Now you can move events on the screen
Added a field to disable autosaves in settings
Updated game exit confirmation
Other fixes and minor changes