Vapourware Evil Cult

[thesecret1]

Happy to be of help.

 

[infidel]

Evil Cult v6.1 released!

This is a maintenance release that adds some quality of life changes and bug fixes to the game. The main addition is that now the Linux platform is supported. Not only that, but the soundtrack is now available separately on Steam for free at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1311820/Evil_Cult_Soundtrack/.

The full changelog includes:

• Linux platform support (64-bit only)
  
• High scores table on the victory screen - top 3 records for best time/best turns per difficulty setting, and dates
  
• Map animations on node highlights (can be turned off in options)
  
• Log console (turned off by default in options)
  
• More fair generator spread
  
• Added images and more explanations to the tutorial
  
• Tutorial game will put the player origin in the outermost corner of the map
  
• Button to clear all messages from log panel
  
• Upgrade/ritual buttons are now always visible but disabled if the requirements are not met
  
• Smooth map zoom
  
• Added more information about success chance to follower tooltips
  
• Fixed multiplayer map sizes

 

[infidel]

So, I've finished the last thing on the menu yesterday, the save/load system... And I'm fucking savescumming already.
On a happier note, public betatest for v7.0 incoming real soon, one bug to fix and one small issue to resolve.

 

[infidel]

Once more I crave attention, distinguished gentlemen, like a Twitch thot baring parts of her flesh altered by second-rate chirurgeons, crawling on her abdo... ahem. No. No smut today. No smut at all, just more shovelware. My offering is for the owners of the game, I offer the participation in the beta test for the first expansion of Evil Cult, called the Artifacts of the Arcane.

To participate in the beta test, enable the test branch in the Steam like this:

• Right-click on Evil Cult in the library
• Select Properties
• Click on Betas tab
• Select "test" from the list

The game should now update to the test branch.

As you've likely guessed from the title, this expansion deals with the occult artifacts. When the expansion is enabled in the start new game menu, the adepts require such artifacts to be upgraded into priests. If no artifacts are in the cult's storage, then the upgrade is not possible. To acquire the artifact, you must first find it. The artifacts are searched for by your sects when they reach level 2. Searching is a task that will be activated by the sect AI when there are no other pressing matters or it can be forced in the usual way.

Once the artifact is found, it appears on the map as an icon with a blinking number indicating how many turns there are left until it disappears again. There are four unique artifacts, and others are randomly generated. Unique ones each have a special effect that activates once the artifact is bound with a priest. The random ones do not. Each artifact has a level from 1 to 3. That level indicates the artifact's power and is used in the ritual power calculation. Acquiring the artifact works just like acquiring a follower - the distance to your closest follower rules are applied, the resources are removed and the artifact is moved into the storage. After that, the upgrade adept button is activated. The upgrade ritual binds the priest to the artifact. If the priest is killed, then the artifact is lost, too.

The other big addition to the game is so-called game flags. The game start menu has been reworked to accommodate for this. There are three flags for now and they are all automatically enabled when you activate the Artifacts of the Arcane expansion. Basically, they're all there to offset the changes in the meta that the expansion brings. You can, of course, enable one or more of the flags without enabling the expansion if you desire to change your game.

The first flag is long rituals. This is to offset the increased power the priests bring to the rituals. When enabled, it will significantly increase the number of ritual points needed to complete the ritual. The second flag disables the blitz victory - when enabled, you can no longer use the strategy to paralyze the other cults to win.

The third flag is the most interesting. Since the expansion requires the level 2 sects to progress, the Devoted Sects flag enables the use of basic resources to buff their growth speed. When enabled, it shows a resource button in the sects list window near each sect. The particular resource is picked at sect creation. This button moves a resource point into the sect storage. Each turn, if there are enough resources, the sect becomes devoted. Devoted sect increases its growth speed, increases the generated task points but also raises minimum cult awareness (you cannot use adepts to lower the cult awareness below that minimum while any sect is devoted).

The full changelog is as follows:

• Artifacts of the Arcane expansion
• Gameplay flags: No blitz victory, Long rituals, Devoted sects
• Save/Load game are now fixed and re-enabled. In fact, since that immediately prompted me to save-scum, I'm thinking of adding a game flag to disable that functionality.
• AI reworked with the concept of "yummy targets" and can now stockpile and convert resources to acquire them (previously, the AI could not convert resources).
• On hard difficulty AI now plays on normal (it played on easy before)
• AI will now offer peace more often when someone else is performing the Final Ritual and honor it
• New game window added for difficulty selection, gameplay flags and expansion
• Additional flavor texts for victory/loss and sects. All flavor texts are reformatted in a unified way.
• Larger dots on the minimap for cult origins and artifacts
• Advanced mode zoom fixes
• Gaining enemy follower or losing yours will kill it, resetting their level, and name. Nationality, job and needed/generated resource types stay the same.
• Highscores are disabled if it's not the basic game
• Messages will be shown on investigators losing willpower or disappearing
• Options button moved to the main menu, cult-specific options are removed
• Balance tweaks to accommodate for AI changes and new meta

Spoiler

Free keys on a first-come, first-served basis:
NKTC2-8PRK2-33DGC
9G5D4-X83DD-MBKN5
08FYP-LJMC0-889KK

 

[thesecret1]

On hard difficulty AI now plays on normal (it played on easy before)

What does this mean?

 

[infidel]

On hard difficulty AI now plays on normal (it played on easy before)

What does this mean?

A difficulty setting is mostly a set of constants that modify the random rolls in some way. AI and players play on different difficulty settings, so to speak, since the AI is not very smart and its goal is to provide challenge for the player. Before the change, the difficulty was set to easy for AI but now when I added the resource conversion and focus on the neutral generators, the AI is in much better shape when the player encounters it. Basically, I've only managed to win one game on hard out of four so I've changed it to return to the "correct" balance.

 

[Storyfag]

So any chances of getting this outside of Steam? Steam is cancer.

 

[infidel]

So any chances of getting this outside of Steam? Steam is cancer.

I've used the GoG web-form for project application on... May 26 and I haven't heard from them since apart from the automated message with the request ID. Checking it out, I can see how the request is marked as Solved with no feedback. I've submitted a request for details but I don't have any hopes. There are EGS and itch.io as options on the table, I guess
Itch is pretty much minuscule, I'm not sure it's worth the bother, to be honest, judging by my experience with Parasite (sold something like 3 copies, I think).

 

[infidel]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1237260/announcements/detail/2897460182574441844

(Due to me being a noob, the -25% sales offer will go up tomorrow)

Evil Cult v7.0 Artifacts of the Arcane

March 16, 20--

The coppery stench of my brothers’ blood floods my nose. Let it not be said that I was cruel; they were sleeping the sleep of the just when I slit their throats. No room in here for those old elaborate ritual suicides anyhow.

And yet I find myself wishing for those old days. Or even just one day. Yesterday would have been much more auspicious for sacrifices such as these, for reasons both obvious and eldritch. We thought we could move, could relocate the Mask, but there weren’t enough of us left to carry it safely. The Hiding was the best I could do, powered by the death of the willing, but I suspect it may be all for nothing. Literally a day late.

I still don’t know when They began tracking us. At first it seemed like nothing, a couple of brethren waylaid in the types of dark alleys where our tasks sometimes take us, a necessary risk of the calling. But it became clear that there was more to it, that our movements were being tracked, our behaviors monitored, our haunts surveilled. No one should even know we exist, much less where we congregate.

And yet.

The Mask is behind me, in its cradle of stone and iron; I can feel its pulse in my veins, beckoning. I have trained my entire life to ignore it, to protect it, to hide it. So have my brothers, those now breathless and lifeless, the gossamer threads of my working thick in the air as the stench, my final attempt to guard that which They must not find.

I can already feel the threads unraveling. It won’t be long before they are here, and I am but one man. How can I [illegible scribbling]

--unfinished journal entry found near the Mask of Many Faces

The first expansion for Evil Cult called the Artifacts of the Arcane is out! As you've likely guessed from the title and the short fiction, this expansion deals with the occult artifacts. When the expansion is enabled in the start new game menu, the gameplay changes - now your adepts require such artifacts to be upgraded into priests. The artifacts will appear on the map once your sects find them. There are four unique ones, and others are randomly generated. Once the artifact is bound to a priest, it stays with them until their death. You can find out more detailed information about the expansion in the game manual.

The other big addition to the game is so-called game flags. The game start menu has been reworked to accommodate for this. There are three flags for now and they are all automatically enabled when you activate the Artifacts of the Arcane expansion. You can, of course, enable one or more of the flags without enabling the expansion if you desire to change your game.

The first flag is called Long Rituals. When enabled, it will significantly increase the number of ritual points needed to complete the ritual. The second flag disables the blitz victory - when enabled, you can no longer use the strategy to paralyze the other cults to win. The third flag is the most interesting. The Devoted Sects flag enables the use of basic resources to buff the sects growth speed. While the sect is devoted, its various parameters are raised.

The full changelog is as follows:

• Artifacts of the Arcane expansion
• Gameplay flags: No blitz victory, Long rituals, Devoted sects
• Save/Load game menu items are now fixed and re-enabled.
• AI reworked with the concept of "yummy targets" and can now stockpile and convert resources to acquire them (previously, the AI could not convert resources).
• Adjusted the hard difficulty AI to make it easier for the player
• AI will now offer peace more often when someone else is performing the Final Ritual and honor it
• New game window added for difficulty selection, gameplay flags and expansion
• Additional flavor texts for victory/loss and sects. All flavor texts are reformatted in a unified way.
• Larger dots on the minimap for cult origins and artifacts
• Advanced mode zoom fixes
• Gaining enemy follower or losing yours will kill them, resetting their level, and name. Nationality, job and needed/generated resource types stay the same.
• Highscores are disabled if it's not the basic game
• Messages will be shown on investigators losing willpower or disappearing
• Options button moved to the main menu, cult-specific options are removed
• Balance tweaks to accommodate for AI changes and new meta