VR Designs

Over the last year(s) quite some new graphics were added. Like the new portrait graphics and some new Vidcom graphics, like recently done for the Danger events.

Above we see a few examples you might recognize from in-game. These are all used for the Danger events. And yes they are AI assisted images. I noticed some discussion about this in the various forums for SE… So: time for a poll!

Note there are 3 questions this time, so don’t forget to scroll down and to select an option and press vote for each individual poll.

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Thanks you for your time! Its appreciated. Just remember that VR takes serious note of community preferences but that final decisions are always based on more factors than solely majority sentiment :)

Best wishes,

Vic

The second Moodboard & Designer Notes on the upcoming Republica expansion for Shadow Empire has been published. It discusses how low Virtus makes a once bright democracy forget about the general interest. Hop over here to read it: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1154840/view/562497971311084603?l=dutch

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?

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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