The first Moodboard & Designer Notes on the upcoming Republica expansion for Shadow Empire has been published. It discusses how a populist Faction is considering new ways to gain power. Hop over here to read it: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1154840/view/502823913043002810
My publisher announced the upcoming Republica DLC yesterday! Hop over here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3645760/Shadow_Empire_Republica/
More info will be shared over the coming months (I have prepared content for publisher’s marketing department) and I am working as hard as I can to get it to the finish line.
Note that I am also working on a as-yet non-disclosed new Decisive Campaigns game and sometimes my available development time feels spread thin. That being said progress is solid on both upcoming products. But I will not yet mention any release dates.
For those of you who are still waiting on Naval Units I think I can safely say they will be included in the next thing coming after Republica. So yes, I did not forget you. It is just that my time is limited and I really really wanted to model politics in one of my games for once. Once next DC title and Republica are done I’ll be able to fully focus on the next SE release.
Thanks to everybody for continued feedback! We’ll be back soon with more information.
Best wishes,
Vic
Yes this is really a premature question today… Note that I am first finishing Republica DLC (politics) before i’ll start on Militaria DLC which will the point where i’ll also attack the naval units. Note I am still not sure if those navy units will be included retroactively in Oceania DLC or will become part of Militaria DLC. Also note that any speculation on any future releases in always shrouded in some uncertainty.
Anyway, I have previously said much about implementing those navy units as actual units, with ship models designed and produced much as the other models, but them not being hex-based like all the other units in the game. They would be either moored in a specific port or active in a specific Sea Zone (hex agnostic, as a Sea Zone has maybe like 100-400 hexes).
Now there is much to be said to implement those navy units with Sea Zones. Because it can better simulate actual navy battle mechanics and movement. However I have this nagging doubt that it might be more fun to actually move your navy units around hex-by-hex as it gives more immersion as you actually move your units hex by hex and an increased sense of exploration, even if it would make the rules much less realistic (like reduced movement range compared to a more realistic implementation).
So when in doubt: time for a quick question to the actual Shadow Empire players. What do you prefer?
Loading ...Best wishes,
Vic
It’s been very quiet for a while, so I want to take the opportunity to communicate that I am still alive and kicking. Its been quite a busy year in my personal life with family enlargement taking much of my time and also buying a new house (and moving into it and selling the old one) was rather straining. However things are getting back to a semblance of order and work productivity is picking up again. We are at about 75% efficiency compared to 2023.
Shadow Empire work is continuing and we saw new beta updates during August as well as September, the latter adding Housing Assets. Note that this concerns special housing and if you don’t build any of these the Populace will improvise as they have always done. The rationale behind this new feature is to allow the player to make sure that either Workers or Population stay in a specific Zone as they have a real interest to so with either the apartments or social housing offered to them.
Development of the next Decisive Campaigns is getting more time allocated as well, which will cause temporary lower productivity for Shadow Empire. I hope in early 2025 we’ll be able to present the next title in the DC series.
As for the Shadow Empire future: I am working hard on advanced politics (and hopefully also advanced trade if I can squeeze that in) and some major upgrades of the core engine. To be released together somewhere in 2025, the politics part very probably as a paid DLC. And yes I decided to keep pushing Shadow Empire forward, instead of only doing smaller updates. So my current efforts are going into “Republica DLC” which will expand the politics in SE enormously, including stuff like votes on Laws and among others even the installation of a Syndic Computer. Once I get closer to testing we’ll reveal more.
So summing up, yes I am still working hard, its just there is less updates because I am working hard on two releases: next DC title and the SE Republica DLC.
Very best wishes, Vic
Hi guys,
This is a follow up to the previous post. Let me just say that I am the master of my own schedule, but none-the-less I would be interested to see what ratio exists between players prioritizing for better looks versus prioritizing deeper gameplay… Here’s a binary small poll.
Loading ...Yes i know I did not add the option “I want my naval units right now” or “work on the UI” or “get the AI play exactly the same rules”. But this way I can get a clean result from the poll for my short term planning. If you really don’t like both the options than I owe you a small apology. Next poll will have more scope, I promise. :)
Best wishes,
Vic
First of all thank you all for your continued feedback. I wish you all good health and happiness for 2024.
Last summer I shared my design plans for Shadow Empire. Last December the v1.25 Hardships & Hazards update has been released as the new mainline release version. So at least I stuck to part of my planning giving me a small increase on my Word score. That being said…
I gotta lot of stuff on my plate in 2024. Mostly personal: moving house and a family extension, but I also want to start finishing a next Decisive Campaigns title.
Now the family extension is going to play havoc with my work schedule and that’s the reason why I decided to scrap the DLC plans from the previous plan v1 and go for a bit of a different approach instead.
The idea behind this new approach is that I can work on more bite-sized chunks for a good while until things settle down for me. The downside is the ambition level is a little bit lower, but the upside is that there will be much more meaningful updates in the near future.
Now please do remember that I am sharing my plans with the community, but that you have to be aware these are plans and not promises. They are prone to change. I think we can set the likelihood of the plan above being executed, all the way to the end, without modification, is probably around 33%.
Best wishes and good gaming,
Vic
