UPDATE 0.3 - SPIRIT OF A NATION

major update

Flames in Modern Europe · build 19621944 · published

On SteamNotes only · this build shipped before we watched the app

Greetings, dear players of Flames in Modern Europe! I’m glad to announce that the largest update so far has just been released – version 0.3: The Nation Code!

The focus of this update was on adding new mechanics and improving gameplay. It brings much larger and more significant changes compared to previous updates and touches on every aspect of the game in one way or another.

This update drastically changes the game, adding many new gameplay elements, mechanics, graphical improvements, and—very importantly—optimizations. Here I will briefly outline the main changes, and below you can read the full changelog.

Mentality Mechanic

The game now has a brand-new feature – the mentality mechanic. You can find it in the state menu by pressing the “Our Mentality” button.

Mentality traits mainly affect different modifiers, in particular the growth of stability, corruption, tax efficiency, and ruling party support.

All countries already have certain mentality traits at the start of the game, but they are not always positive. Fortunately, you can not only research new ones but also remove your existing ones. However, this process takes quite some time, since people cannot be changed overnight...

Regional Population

Back in the demo version you could already see the population of your country, and it was quite dynamic thanks to stability. However, it was calculated as one total number for the whole country, which caused problems when playing as, say, Transnistria or Luxembourg, since conquering new territories didn’t increase population.

Now, a huge file with the population of all regions has been filled in, and you can finally see the population of each region in its respective menu. This makes the gameplay much more engaging.

Wars Between AI Countries

Previously, the game world was rather static: the player could attack other states, but nothing much happened globally. Now, AI-controlled countries will declare wars on each other depending on the aggression level set at the start of a new game. AI will also create armies from the very beginning, and in case of war, it will mobilize and later demobilize. Incredible changes in the world are already waiting for you!

Graphics Improvements

This is probably a regular part of each update, but this time the graphics have improved significantly.

First, the map has become much more volumetric thanks to updated shader normals. This makes it more beautiful and even “tastier.”

Second, borders have been reworked. This applies to both their color (previously state borders were light, now they are dark) and their logic—they are now much more precise, fixing a bug with displaying borders of some provinces.

Smooth borders have also been greatly improved—you can now choose the degree of smoothing in the menu!

Optimization and Modding

The game engine has been updated to Unity 6.1 to improve performance and speed. A large number of scripts have also been rewritten to enhance optimization.

And the most exciting part of this section—players can now write their own localization for mods and add custom sprites!

Below you can see the full list of changes:

  • Added new mentality mechanic

  • Population transferred to regions

  • Ability to cancel planned construction

  • Wars between AI countries

  • Reworked “status quo” peace treaty, sped up this event dozens of times

  • Peace treaties between AI countries

  • AI countries can now demobilize after war

  • Reworked brigade-related scripts for significant optimization and improved combat logic

  • Ability to destroy encircled armies

  • Army destruction without manpower

  • Map border quality settings replacing old smooth borders

  • Highlighting of selected province on the map

  • New events, especially related to new functions in the game

  • Rebalanced stability changes from administrative expenses

  • Ability to mod localization

  • Ability to mod icons

  • Game engine updated to Unity 6.1

  • Added Mac OS support

  • Border highlighting replaced with darkening for a better map look

  • Added normal map texture for the world map, greatly improving its quality

  • Other shader improvements

  • Fixed textures of various 3D objects, including armored vehicles

  • GPU optimization

  • FPS cap settings

  • Changed main cursor

  • UI improvements, added beautiful glow effects in various places

  • Reworked state menu

  • Fixed bug where AI sometimes didn’t create brigades

  • Manpower now updates in real time to prevent exploits

  • Reworked map shader to increase border detection accuracy

  • Brigade models now spawn at different angles

  • Added clock to in-game menu

  • Fixed settings menu during gameplay

  • Reduced game size

  • Now you must both own and control a region to create troops

  • Fixed volume settings bug

  • Other bug fixes

  • Automatic language detection on first launch

  • Massive optimization of state and army scripts, greatly improving performance and reducing CPU load

  • And much more!

UPDATE 0.3 - SPIRIT OF A NATION · Flames in Modern Europe build 19621944 · SteamPeaks