And once again, hello to you all, dear friends! The marathon of very accelerated development continues, and today we have: an interface overhaul, a new research branch, new buildings, and army improvements!
Honestly, this update was supposed to come out at the very best at the end of next week, but the popularity of the game, unexpected even for me, made me hurry up, and for that I really do thank you very much! You are the best!
OVERHAULED INTERFACE
Well, I think comments are unnecessary here. And I really like it! Now the game not only feels much more unique, but is also clearer, because at the top you can now see some variables, with explanations of what they affect. However, there are far too many variables in the game for all of them to fit there, so I will still think about what to add and what to remove. Also, all of the game's main menus have become taller, since the old top bar no longer gets in their way.
NEW PRODUCTION
This is probably the most important part of the update, although, to be honest, I haven't managed to finish everything yet. But the difference is easy to see: the game now has as many as four types of factories! Civilian (dual-use) factories produce clothing, engines, night vision goggles, various first aid kits, bags, and so on. Military factories produce rifles, shells, and armor, and electronics factories produce chips, which are needed for drone production. Please note that this mechanic remains a WIP. In the near future I really want to add some other functionality, in particular the signing of defense contracts, logistics between factories, and trade in products. This will also make it possible to add a system of various sanctions to the game, for example, when you ban the sale of military factory products but still sell your opponents, say, clothing. Also, in the future I want to add the creation of your own prototypes of vehicles and aircraft, but those are more distant plans for now.
IMPROVED GENERALS
Generals have received a much better interface that lets you change their color, offensive aggressiveness, whether they can launch local offensives on their own, widen the front or keep its width unchanged under any circumstances, and more! You can also now create your own offensive arrows, and your brigades will try to get exactly there, although this mechanic will also be improved in the future.
NEW BUILDINGS AND RESEARCH
For the new production, as you have already figured out, new buildings were added: the civilian factory (also known as the dual-use factory) and the electronics factory. But besides that, a new research branch was added, focused on bonuses for secondary production goods. By the way, the time remaining until the end of research and the next construction is now displayed! Also, the calculation of research points was reworked, thanks to which even poor countries can finally complete research in reasonable time.
IMPROVED OPTIMIZATION
Since some players still complain about performance, I worked in this direction too. And it seems it wasn't in vain! The gain during testing was very significant, especially on the CPU.
Below, you can see the full list of changes:
Completely reworked the game's main interface (top bar, date, and speed)
All menus, accordingly, have become taller
Updated the icons of notifications, the top bar, the political will menu, and others – they are now colored
Added a panel at the top of the screen with the main variables and handy tooltips for them
You now gain political will through bribes to the prime minister or the head of the office
Reworked the general menu
Added new general front line settings, including offensive aggressiveness, whether or not to allow local offensives, front widening or breakthrough, and others
Added the general's offensive “arrow”: you can now set the advance target for your army
You can now change the general's color
You can now click a brigade in the list to teleport the camera to it
Updated the brigade interface
Added a marker showing that a brigade is moving
The brigade interface now stays still until the brigade reaches the next province, making it easier to understand who is where
Reworked the brigade path visualization system
Production greatly improved: it is now divided into four types of factories, including secondary production, which uses the products of primary production
Added new equipment, such as special equipment, tanks, artillery, quad bikes, etc.
Added new buildings: civilian factories and electronics factories
Added a new research branch
Reworked countries' research speed – GDP now affects it as well
The time until completion is now shown in the research and construction menus
Optimized the script that generates country names on the map
At the start of the game, the camera now teleports to the player's country
Replaced the “grass” texture on the map
You can now create a front line by also selecting enemy provinces
Fixed a bug where troops did not receive a route when clicking on a province border
Substantial game performance optimization overall
Added various tooltips, including that creating a general requires political will
Fixed the “infographics menu” tooltip
Other improvements and fixes