Universal Idle Realm (by Eat the Moon)

Actually, I have another question for you. Did you see the "Downloading Files" progress bar when it froze? If so, did it freeze on that download bar? Or did it download everything correctly and you were just staring at the normal loading screen?

 

I'm currently in the process of submitting 1.3 to the app store. This weekend was spent on another pass of testing and I found a few extra bugs that could cause a crash in specific situations, so hopefully the game will be even more solid with this update. The app review process could finish tomorrow, or be another day or two. As much as I want to release this ASAP, I am also trying to notify news outlets that might be interested in trying 1.3 via Test Flight before I push the build live. If this happens, or an Apple Feature appears on the horizon, I may delay the release of 1.3 to sync up with anything that might come up.

So, if anyone is interested in beta testing 1.3 and downloading it through Test Flight, this will be your way to jump in early and play. Hopefully invites will go out in a day or two, which is a month later than I originally planned for the beta for 1.3.

Ways to get in on the beta:

- Send me a private message with your email!

- Or, email [email protected] and just let me know.

Thanks again everyone!

 

Quick update: Beta testing is going well! We identified some layout issues with the new iPhone X, so I'll be resubmitting the app with the changes.

I have opted to turn on the iOS status bar for the game, so you'll always see the time, battery amount, wifi status, etc. while playing the game. The status bar will also have a black background, so the floating resource bar doesn't look strange. While most games want those extra 80 pixels at the top to show more of the game itself, for Idle Realm, I don't need it is required.

There's plenty of room for more beta testers, so if you want in, feel free to send me a private message or send me an email at [email protected]. All I need if your email address! Thanks all!

 

That is NOT intentional. I thought I set the Campaign Objectives to only reset when a campaign starts, not when an island starts. I'll check the code and make the change tonight. I thought I submitted the final build to Apple, but thankfully, I have another one to go! Thanks for that find!

I'm glad to hear it! Have you ended your campaign yet? Or you just pushing through as many Islands as you can?

 

Found those Campaign Objective bugs you pointed out and fixed up a few loose ends so that it all operates as expected. Will be pushing another Beta update in the next hour.

I actually added a bunch of information in the FAQ earlier today, which should update itself when you open the FAQ screen next time, that talks about Realm Progression and the Island Progression in-depth.

For a quick summary, you'll earn Victory Points. VP is used as a currency as well as an XP provider for leveling your Realm. As your Realm levels up, you'll get access to various Realm Features and Realm Bonuses that you can then unlock and level-up with the VP.

The bonuses typically add +X% to resource production, tapping, knowledge generation, troop damage ... that type of thing, so that when you start your next Campaign, you can progress faster and be stronger in general. That way you keep keep climbing higher in the Island numbers.

I think when you just start off with a Level 1 Realm, you might be able to reach and defeat Island 8 after a few days of playing. Island 9 might be too difficult and you will need to end the campaign and start a new one, but with the bonuses that you got, you might be able to start on Island 6 and work up to and past Island 8 in much less time, and then plateau again at Island 13 or 15, rinse, repeat.

By the time you reach Island 25, you will probably have witnessed all of the variations in island style and objectives (with lots of repetition), so level 26-50 will feel like a harder version, then 51-75, etc. Over time, I'll be adding more Hazards and Island Objectives to the game, to the point where, hopefully, the first 25 Islands will each feel unique with no repetition.

 

I submitted the final build to Apple on Friday, hopefully it will be accepted today! As soon as it is approved, I'll be releasing 1.3 and posting about it again here!

 

Idle Realm 1.3 is now live! It's been propagating to the App Store servers for the past few hours and should be available in most regions. As usual, it takes up to 24-hours for a new version to hit every App Store server, so if you still see version 1.2.2, just keep on checking back!

Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback and helped me push forward with this massive update! Future updates will probably be much smaller and won't take 3 months to produce

I'll be watching the 1.3 servers and will address any major bugs that might surface, but will be peeling off to another very small project for about 2 weeks to decompress and get a little bit of a break before I push on to the features I have planned for 1.4!

 

Yeah, some of the Campaign Objectives will be pretty hard to do, especially on Islands 1-5. The later Islands are bigger, plus you might have ended your Campaign a couple times and have bonuses, allowing you to store more stuff or produce more stuff. Think of the Campaign Objectives as bonus objectives to fulfill if you have the time or infrastructure for it.

Good job on completing it though!

I'll be adding more Campaign Objectives in the future, providing more variety and extra challenge. Also, right now, if you have all the Relic Collections completed, when you start a new Campaign, you have 6 extra things you can research and I don't know if I like seeing those on that list at the start. Especially if I add more Relic Collections and Campaign Objectives. I might add a button in the Campaign Objectives area to unlock or provide the research item needed to do the objective, so you can tackle it when you're ready instead of seeing giant research options that are useless at the start.

 

That is the special event to bring your 1.2.2 game into the 1.3 Campaign. In 1 hour, the zombies will make 6 moves. Each move will convert a 1 zombie tile into a 2 zombie tile, a 2 zombie tile into a 3 zombie tile, or take a 3 zombie tile and swarm it, expanding out to all adjacent tiles. This means that in 6 moves, they will expand two hex grids in all directions. The event only really affects players who's game has been going for maybe a day or two before they got the update, as most players will have the supplies to build the airship immediately.

If the zombies try to expand onto a tile that has a barricade, they will damage it instead of moving to the tile. After the barricade has been damaged 3 times, it goes away and then they can move into the tile. If they move onto any building tile, they will destroy it. If they move onto a house, they actually ravage it and parts of it will have broken off and will be bloodied. You also will lose those citizens.

If left alone, they will cover the map and destroy everything, ending your current Campaign and having you start a new one, much like some of the Hazards in the game that I added.

When I had the zombie event originally tossed in the game, it was for the Fall/Halloween update I had planned. Sadly, I couldn't get the update out in time and created the 1.3 update instead. The zombie event was something that would have spawned in the game and the player would have to survive it for 2 days, then it would have just gone away and the zombies would die out. There were a couple other things for the Halloween update as well that never came out

So, instead of letting them rot for another year, I tossed them in for this special event I needed something to force you to leave the island and start exploring new islands, this seemed to be a good fit.

I have a few ideas for how to bring them back in the future, besides the Halloween update.

Yeah, I love the forest tiles, both for the look of autumn and the fact that I know where the trees are, when the lumberjack huts are on them.

Thanks! Good luck and I look forward to any comments and criticism

 

Correct. For this event, they can't be killed and are meant to be an unstoppable force that you flee from. Your troops are terrified of them and they can't reasoned with, so Diplomacy also won't work. Barricades will block them, but that's it. You could build a barricade around them and they are effectively stuck for 30 minutes. You can also build barricades around your base.

Since they are only used for the 1.3 update event, I figured this would be fine. Especially since you'll just vacate the island anyway.

When I re-introduce them in the future, I'll try to figure out a reasonable way to fight against them. But the way combat works, even if you 100% stomp an enemy, you still lose some troops. It would make sense for those lost troops to be converted into zombies, and I thought that would be too harsh in the current state of the game.

 

I agree. Early game, troops are kinda pointless. Since the island difficulty ramps up as you progress to higher island numbers, the diplomacy cost will become incredibly difficult to deal with. Especially if you blow all your resources on one enemy, where with the soldiers, you might be able to handle 4-7 enemies at the same cost. Having to wait an hour or two before you can pacify another enemy will make things come to a crawl, if pacifism uses all of your resources. I do know that Island 20 and 25 REQUIRE soldiers, due to how those maps are handled.

There will be a combat and pacifism update in the future. I didn't tackle it with 1.3 because, holy cow, there was so many things to do! But there will be siege engines in the future that will be required for combat against bases, and diplomacy and taming will be revised to almost be a mini-game. The basic idea for pacifism will be that you need to read the enemy's mood and pick a diplomacy or taming option that that increases the enemy's trust. Once the trust is high enough, you can try to pacify them. You can fail pacifism in the future as well.

But, like the Docks from version 1.2.2, if it doesn't work out, I might cut Combat out and revisit it when it is relevant.

 

Sorry to hear about that experience. The zombie event, unfortunately, spawns fairly close to the town and doesn't take into account your resource production or empire size. Someone who started a new game and hadn't even built a second settlement would have little to no chance because they don't have paper production going and might not have enough production to build the zombie barricades either.

Upon reflection, this event is not very friendly for new games and I mistakenly balanced it to deal with games with 3-4 settlements and are in the mid or end game of the island. I should have thrown in an early game variant and I have definitely let my players down in that department.

Please know that it is a one-off for the 1.2.2 to 1.3 upgrade, to help you leave behind the old, HUGE island and push onto all the new, smaller islands and objectives. Also, building the airship and escaping or not, you'll still get the bonus Victory Points for the zombie event when your campaign ends, either by you ending it via the options menu or by the zombies destroying your base.

Other hazards that appear in the game will take a few days to actually destroy your base, if you are regularly checking in. Checking in once a day, it will probably take a 7-10 days. They are set up in a way where they provide plenty of time to tackle the island objective. However, there is a limit to how many times a hazard will trigger:

Hazards trigger once per 10 minutes. A max of 36 hazards can trigger, or 6 hours worth, if you are away. For the zombie event, the max is 18. I might tune that down to 2-3 hours worth (12-18 triggers) as well.

I still want there to be a sense of urgency when the Hazards are in effect (every 5 islands). The idea of a "Difficulty" setting when the island starts came up. Basically, choosing easy, medium, or hard will make the hazards trigger at different times, and with different max triggers per log-in, but the Victory Point rewards for that island would also scale, and other rewards could come of it. For example, easy might offer no rewards but will allow you to take a month to complete the island without worry, whereas hard might offer 5 days. I feel like this will let the player decide how much commitment they have, time wise, without feeling rushed.

The hazard levels should definitely offer better rewards or Victory Points when completed, since they are challenges. I'll definitely be tuning that next.

Also, most islands now could probably be completed in 3-6 hours, with checking in 2-4 times a day, whereas in the past, it would take 7-10 days.

I totally understand that there might be players who don't want to be punished for being away from the game and your feelings are important. I would love to hear your thoughts on the hazards that are on Island 5, 10, or 15. They are each different, but way more forgiving than the zombie event. If you are able to sample all three of those islands (might take 1-2 weeks of gameplay), let me know what you thought. If they are also difficult or felt punishing with your play style, I can tone them down, offer the difficulty settings, or maybe add a "no hazard" Campaign mode or option. Your input is important and I want to handle your play style as well!