Against the Storm - Fantasy roguelite city builder

[Nirvash]

I'm just spamming rock/gray villages now, having copper and being able to make tools is so damn valuable.

Can i prepick/force cornerstones? The "upgrade all harvest buildings" is so damn good.

 

[jackofshadows]

No. That's rogue-like side for you. Moreover, you will unlock more cornerstones as you play so the pool will be even bigger. There's a similiar powerful for fertile soil too by the way.

And stacking certain harvesting bonuses is very strong play in general because it's simply increasing the output, while wasting the same amount of "charges". For this reason the copper +1 equals +100% output Kinda weird mechanic even tbh. +1 for every 25 stuff kind cornerstones are also pretty op for this reason. Then building Clan Hall on top of it and stacking doubling production chances... To the point when workers start to unload resources every goddamned time they do an extraction.

 

[Axioms]

The wild thing is that all the strategies you guys think are good I think are trash. Maybe they did an amazing balance job to cause that?

Only farm worth buying is Forester. Mining Copper is for n00bs.

Best Service buildings are Market and Guild.

The per 25 food boosts are indeed great, though.

Also the game is really just a way too long tutorial IMO before you finish the progression tree.

One complaint I have is that lots of mechanics are winmore. Like House upgrades. Sure the Beaver final upgrade is insane but I've already won before it actually pays off.

This game desparately needs a 25 Reputation to win mode. Even 18 for Prestige difficulties is too low.

 

[jackofshadows]

Depends on how long ago you've played, there was a lot of changes. Mining copper w/o perks is meh though, at least one needs to speed them all otherwise it's too inefficient.

Forester - yeah it's great but the choice to take it for me still depens on whether I have beavers/foxes and more importantly what is the situation with the food at the moment - I like farming grain primarly for porridge for example.

Guild is extremely strong, probably the best - I listed those others as examples for more stacking and like you said - they're rather win more buildings. Still love clan hall in marshlands for obvious reasons.

Regarding the tree - well as usual, they don't balance it for 1% of players who want to play on prestige 20 and are annoyed by the fact that w/o upgrades it's inadequately hard.

House upgrades are superfluous, no doubt here.

This game desparately needs a 25 Reputation to win mode. Even 18 for Prestige difficulties is too low.

Yeah like I was describing paradise achievement, games sometimes end too soon. To solve that, they introduced the ultimate mode which you haven't seen yet apparently so I won't spoil it. I think it's alright.

Edit: forgot to ask - why Market? What so powerful about it? 1 less body is nice but for logistics it's usually easier to build several more warehouses. Their mechannic is too simplified btw imo, especially now with possible auto-haulers per each.

 

[Axioms]

Depends on how long ago you've played, there was a lot of changes. Mining copper w/o perks is meh though, at least one needs to speed them all otherwise it's too inefficient.

Forester - yeah it's great but the choice to take it for me still depens on whether I have beavers/foxes and more importantly what is the situation with the food at the moment - I like farming grain primarly for porridge for example.

Guild is extremely strong, probably the best - I listed those others as examples for more stacking and like you said - they're rather win more buildings. Still love clan hall in marshlands for obvious reasons.

Regarding the tree - well as usual, they don't balance it for 1% of players who want to play on prestige 20 and are annoyed by the fact that w/o upgrades it's inadequately hard.

House upgrades are superfluous, no doubt here.

This game desparately needs a 25 Reputation to win mode. Even 18 for Prestige difficulties is too low.

Yeah like I was describing paradise achievement, games sometimes end too soon. To solve that, they introduced the ultimate mode which you haven't seen yet apparently so I won't spoil it. I think it's alright.

Edit: forgot to ask - why Market? What so powerful about it? 1 less body is nice but for logistics it's usually easier to build several more warehouses. Their mechannic is too simplified btw imo, especially now with possible auto-haulers per each.

Oh I just use it for the global carrying capacity.

 

[jackofshadows]

Tried the new ultimate mode and it's fucking brutal. You start w/o any upgrades and I forgot how bare it is. Set prestige 11 from the get go and it seemed unwinable. Not like totally hopeless, perhaps with some lucky recipes/orders/cornerstones it's doable but not on regular terms. Holy shit.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

and here i can't even win a simple veteran map... just too many (and useless and unusable) buildings, the only games i consider easy are those with dwarves+forester+tool production for mass chests sending home, and it almost never happens.

 

[jackofshadows]

Winning the game here is the easy part, I'd suggest focusing on the other side of things i.e. not to lose: securing food chains, finding a way to reduce hostility (although that's almost irrelevant before viceroy level), picking a source of fuel and only then (not as a rule but while you're learning the ropes) looking at services you need.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

either there's something i don't know or i do horribly wrong. on veteran after few days hostility is already out of control even if i sacrifice all the wood i can, while i'm still trying to build any kind of reliable chain. i'm level 12 goddamnit.

 

[jackofshadows]

I can say that even on high prestige levels there're quite rare instances where you need to sacrifice fuel at all. Depends slightly on one's playstyle I guess since you can prefer to raise population fast and that might lead to to resolve problems at storms (normally). You can hover over hostility meter in game and actually see what constitutes its level. Maybe you're unaware of the fact that additional hearths greatly reduce it, for example.

You can also post some screens if you like so we'd try to point out possible issues.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Maybe you're unaware of the fact that additional hearths greatly reduce it

that's the stuff i didn't try yet. i hope they're not too expensive.

meh, it didn't change much. yes, i finally won a veteran mission, but because no resource ever ran out and i got all the best perks.

 

[Kruyurk]

Maybe you're unaware of the fact that additional hearths greatly reduce it

that's the stuff i didn't try yet. i hope they're not too expensive.

meh, it didn't change much. yes, i finally won a veteran mission, but because no resource ever ran out and i got all the best perks.

I often unassign woodcutters during storms to reduce hostility. There is a little button for that next to the hostility meter, you can unassign them all in one click then reassign from the same button (you don't have to go to each woodcutter camp).

 

[Nirvash]

My god i HATE this stupid water stuff, failed silver seal cuz of "use a million water - complete 2 super danger fast - have a million morale(or was the stupid "do 10 16 gold trade", SIXTEEN GOLD TRADE????)
So damn useless, lol +25% production speed, oh wow +5 morale for the 2 idiots working.

Maybe you're unaware of the fact that additional hearths greatly reduce it

that's the stuff i didn't try yet. i hope they're not too expensive.

meh, it didn't change much. yes, i finally won a veteran mission, but because no resource ever ran out and i got all the best perks.

I often unassign woodcutters during storms to reduce hostility. There is a little button for that next to the hostility meter, you can unassign them all in one click then reassign from the same button (you don't have to go to each woodcutter camp).

Yeah, better start to micro that, in the late you don't even have spare wood to burn.

 

[Dickie]

Have failed twice making Paradise achievement. The problem is that once you fullfil everything, you win too quickly before every worker actually use every service they need and eat every snack they like. So I need to either have much less population at the point of turning everything on or start doing it earlier on reputation scale which isn't easy to have all the recipes for the needs, I think I'll try to just cheese it with trading: stack up shit and turn off right away. So the only necessary buildings are the service ones.

I wonder if this would be easier on a seal map, since you can't win by reputation. I know those maps are harder, but they do give you a lot more time.

 

[jackofshadows]

SIXTEEN GOLD TRADE????

What's so hard about it? Do 100 in one transaction though isn't easy with the prestige -50% debuff. You won't always get offers like this

Usually I was winning thouse seals by morale - that's not hard if actively trading and getting guildhouse. Or teahose while using complex food from early game.

I wonder if this would be easier on a seal map, since you can't win by reputation. I know those maps are harder, but they do give you a lot more time.

Yeah good thinking but I managed to do it on a regular map just by abusing -10 resolve for opening glade mod and turning everything on just before the storm.

 

[Nirvash]

Have failed twice making Paradise achievement. The problem is that once you fullfil everything, you win too quickly before every worker actually use every service they need and eat every snack they like. So I need to either have much less population at the point of turning everything on or start doing it earlier on reputation scale which isn't easy to have all the recipes for the needs, I think I'll try to just cheese it with trading: stack up shit and turn off right away. So the only necessary buildings are the service ones.

I wonder if this would be easier on a seal map, since you can't win by reputation. I know those maps are harder, but they do give you a lot more time.

No, once rep is capped getting more do not lower red bar anymore, you also can't do the "get x quest rep".
If you get unlucky curses then people leaving will kill you very fast.

What's so hard about it? Do 100 in one transaction though isn't easy with the prestige -50% debuff. You won't always get offers like this

yes dude, 18 min.
Tables sure are profitable but also got absurd trade cd.

 

[Axioms]

I think a lot of people here are trapped in ineffective strategies and they just can't get their mind out of the rut. Early on I spent lots of time on Tools and returning caches but these days I just ignore Tools altogether and loot the caches.

The way that you are going to win is 8 orders plus morale rep, generally. You want 3 woodcutters, a trade post, 2-4 gatherers typically, and you never want to deal with Coal or Copper and you never want to mine stuff. Mines are trash. You also basically never want to screw with Rainwater except for Orders or sometimes Greenhouses, which are the only good food option for fertile soil. Forester's Hut is superior to basically every farm but if you have a few patches of 11-12 fertile soil you can do Greenhouses. Forester's huts *typically* want 14 soil or more. Getting those special 23 soil patches is awesome as well.

You'll want to reroll Cornerstones often to get the good ones, reroll buildings sometimes especially with the free reroll and you want to call the first few traders with the Impatience button to get key resources and finish Orders fast.

I've never built a second Hearth, except when required by Orders or Events. Seems pretty useless IMO.

The key is to build 3 woodcutters and never more than that until you get into prestige missions. When choosing buildings you almost never want upgraded gatherers unless you have the stacking meat or mushroom cornerstone. Waste of a building option. Typically target Lumbermill, maybe Tinkerer, sometimes Weaver or Brickyard, especially if you have 3 Clothes races and you want to build a Clothier. The best Service buildings are Guild, then Monastery, then Market. Clan Hall is in b-tier with the crown chronicles building. Clan Hall can sometimes shift to S-tier with proper supports like stacking food boost cornerstones or other gathering boosts. You also typically want a Manufactury if possible or a Provisioner if not.

Also things change as you finish the meta progression tree and start doing prestige missions.

 

[jackofshadows]

I'm too drunk to properly reply rn but you're horribly wrong. That said, please elaborate why you think mines are trash, why forester's hut is that op(4 fucking worker spots) and comment this

I've never built a second Hearth

are you kidding me? Like sure if you play that archeo biome and got -hostility anyway but on any other? That's - a lot of hostility for fraction of fuel, very good deal.

 

[Axioms]

I'm too drunk to properly reply rn but you're horribly wrong. That said, please elaborate why you think mines are trash, why forester's hut is that op(4 fucking worker spots) and comment this

I've never built a second Hearth

are you kidding me? Like sure if you play that archeo biome and got -hostility anyway but on any other? That's - a lot of hostility for fraction of fuel, very good deal.

I mean my highest win is Prestige 10, but mostly cause the higher difficulty penalties are lame to me, so maybe on max difficulty there is an issue. But if you are building the Monastery you generally don't need to burn fuel except on Storm phases and timber production is no problem so who cares anyways?

Mines are dumb for many reasons. They take Parts, you get a limited amount of resources and you need to upgrade them multiple times, Copper needs both mining and smelting when Forester's Hut just lets you farm Crystalized Dew, and for missions or glade events you can turn on Resin which is useful. Forester's Hut with Beavers is amazing but it is fine without them. Farms, outside of Greenhouses for specific purposes, are super mid. I'm rarely worrying about food anyways. Usually selling ~10 Parts and ~100 of my starting food for stuff I need from Traders. I also sell my Wildfire to Traders, and you need that for Hearths. Also I'm usually stacking my pop in one Hearth to max the level, among other things. I also almost never build Warehouses except for Orders/Map Events.

 

[jackofshadows]

Yeah prestige 20 isn't that different from 10.

It's odd that you don't have to deal with hostility that much, seems as you prefer to keep population low.

Copper is nice for making roads by the way. And forester's hut uses precious fertile soil but you consider food farms mid, that's interesting. Infinite food is nice if you ask me to say the least.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Copper is whatever, can be useful with right buildings/cornerstones combinations, but crystalized dew is generally easier to get, so I'd never prioritize making a copper mine. Coal mines are great though, coal is so much more efficient than wood it's not even close, upgrading a mine to +50% mining speed is just some bricks/planks, which is basically nothing, if the game goes longer you then upgrade to reach more deposits and you have good fuel for the entire game from one mine. The auto mine cart upgrade can be good too if the mine is in a bad location. You also don't run the risk of running out of fuel if you had to stop woodcutting during the storm.
You can also get coal with buildings that have wood > coal recipes, and that can work too, but why not have both coal and wood? I had games on prestige difficulties where I'd just brute force through the storm while still woodcutting the whole time by manipulating coal/wood sacrifices as necessary.

Hearths are very important. Not just for the hostility reduction, but in every game you eventually want to establish a secondary hub (with a warehouse), probably in a cleared dangerous glade with large deposits / fertile soil / rebuilt ruins. The amount of time your workers will save on returning to the hearth to rest is huge. You probably want most if not all production and service buildings near your primary hearth for logistics, but woodcutting will be a lot faster from a new hearth / warehouse combo than from your primary hub after the first years, and you'll have easier access to more glades. If the game goes long enough and you have enough fuel and population a 3rd hearth is good too, but not necessarily required in most games.
The bonuses you get from upgrading the hearth for number of housed people / decorations? These stack for each hearth you have. 2nd level is a global resolve bonus, 3rd level is a global production speed bonus, you build houses anyway, might as well build them by the secondary hearth so it's just a minor investment of wood and planks for decorations for a significant bonus. Works very well with the safe haven cornerstone too.

I don't even know how you can function on viceroy difficulty or higher with just the main warehouse, small warehouses greatly improve your logistics/production times. I have at least one per hearth, multiple if there are mines or fertile soil in adjacent areas. Yes, they cost parts, but you should usually get some from orders or glade events, and you can always demolish a gathering camp that's no longer in use.

All fertile soil using buildings are good and you should have at least one in every game, I use the farm the most (for grain which goes for flour, oil or porridge, vegetables when food is needed) or plantation for berries (super efficient food source that never runs out, plant fiber when food is plentiful). Forester huts are great too for later in the game. I don't really like greenhouses that much because of the additional component of water, but if you have a geyser already, they're good. Herb garden is probably the worst, you can't eat herbs outside of using them in complex food production, and the roots production is less effective than berries on plantations, but it's better than nothing.

Water is a little annoying to deal with at first (blightrot worked differently when I played the game in early access earlier), but the bonuses are huge. Dealing with a rain collector is shitty and I don't do it unless it's needed for orders or events, but just one geyser with an automaton is enough to power 2-3 buildings of its type depending on how much water you use, and it gives a significant production time and bonus yield boost. A resolve bonus too, if you need it for an order or a temporary boost during a storm (in a pinch you can even cram some complaining harpies into a building they have nothing to do with and turn on the warm water in the pipes, so they sit out the storm and don't leave). Storm water is the most useful IMO because you always need industry, but they're all good with the right buildings.
I've never had issues with blightrot, the worst it can get is if you work on a glade event that gives additional cysts and get the prestige "spawn cysts every x years" at the same time, but even then you have plenty of time to prepare, it's just an inconvenience of spending some fuel and taking workers away from other tasks. From regular water usage from multiple geysers you might get a couple cysts each year, which is not a problem at all.

All service buildings are usable. Guild house and tavern are the most straightforward, monastery and temple with hostility reduction work well too, explorers' lodge can be completely broken, I had + ~10 resolve at one time, but it should be at least 2-3 in most games. Market is good for the carrying capacity increase. As for the services themselves in my experience tea and brawling are harder to provide consistently (training gear is weirdly slow and expensive to make and tea always needs dew/copper that is better spend elsewhere usually), but the rest are generally easy to acquire by the time you use service buildings.
Education is usually mediocre, but with the right combination of buildings and cornerstones it's the most broken thing in the game (even more so than a successful trade town), I once had a game with a +% bonus to production speed for each citizen with education need fulfilled and easy scroll production, the game just entered a spiral of super quick production of everything and everyone's resolve raising exponentially until I won by points from resolve.

For the prestige levels I think the biggest difference in difficulty was the one that increases building costs, it just slows you down so much in the early game when getting enough planks/bricks/cloth might be a problem that you're not as developed as you would normally be, and it scales for the whole game.

 

[cvv]

I think a lot of people here are trapped in ineffective strategies and they just can't get their mind out of the rut. Early on I spent lots of time on Tools and returning caches but these days I just ignore Tools altogether and loot the caches.

The way that you are going to win is 8 orders plus morale rep, generally. You want 3 woodcutters, a trade post, 2-4 gatherers typically, and you never want to deal with Coal or Copper and you never want to mine stuff. Mines are trash. You also basically never want to screw with Rainwater except for Orders or sometimes Greenhouses, which are the only good food option for fertile soil. Forester's Hut is superior to basically every farm but if you have a few patches of 11-12 fertile soil you can do Greenhouses. Forester's huts *typically* want 14 soil or more. Getting those special 23 soil patches is awesome as well.

You'll want to reroll Cornerstones often to get the good ones, reroll buildings sometimes especially with the free reroll and you want to call the first few traders with the Impatience button to get key resources and finish Orders fast.

I've never built a second Hearth, except when required by Orders or Events. Seems pretty useless IMO.

The key is to build 3 woodcutters and never more than that until you get into prestige missions. When choosing buildings you almost never want upgraded gatherers unless you have the stacking meat or mushroom cornerstone. Waste of a building option. Typically target Lumbermill, maybe Tinkerer, sometimes Weaver or Brickyard, especially if you have 3 Clothes races and you want to build a Clothier. The best Service buildings are Guild, then Monastery, then Market. Clan Hall is in b-tier with the crown chronicles building. Clan Hall can sometimes shift to S-tier with proper supports like stacking food boost cornerstones or other gathering boosts. You also typically want a Manufactury if possible or a Provisioner if not.

Also things change as you finish the meta progression tree and start doing prestige missions.

- 3 woodcutter huts are a huge amount of hostility plus 2 are almost always enough
- coal is amazing, way more efficient than wood, that's why kiln is so good, you get twice as much burn value for your wood
- mines aren't great without the upgrades, then you definitely want them; I suspect you don't like them coz they need a lot of people and you play low-pop games
- forester is good but why do you sound as if it's the only good thing in the game? I got "only" 40 hours in the game but AFAIK there is no single production building that's always good no matter what (maybe the kiln)
- why would you call early traders for impatience when you typically don't have anything to offer; I guess if you're not building more hearths you can sell of your orange thingies but that's about it
- I agree that returning caches for tools is dumb early on, unless you got a lot of tools for orders and the breaking loot is trash, but later on, when you're lacking those few finishing points they're a life saver
- how do you manage with just one hearth, your peeps must waste huge amounts of time walking from distant posts to the hub

 

[cvv]

As I said, about 40 hours in, playing mostly on Viceroy now, except for challenging modifiers. I think I got most strats down, still struggling with early services tho, usually can't build them before year 4-5. I chalk it up to randomness, when I can rarely line up my production and service building choices. Like getting ale or wine production but then never getting offered the Guildhouse or Tavern (or I do but there's something even more critical I want).

Also reading through this thread, how can people survive in Veteran and above WITHOUT recalling their woodcutters during the storm?

 

[Axioms]

I think a lot of people here are trapped in ineffective strategies and they just can't get their mind out of the rut. Early on I spent lots of time on Tools and returning caches but these days I just ignore Tools altogether and loot the caches.

The way that you are going to win is 8 orders plus morale rep, generally. You want 3 woodcutters, a trade post, 2-4 gatherers typically, and you never want to deal with Coal or Copper and you never want to mine stuff. Mines are trash. You also basically never want to screw with Rainwater except for Orders or sometimes Greenhouses, which are the only good food option for fertile soil. Forester's Hut is superior to basically every farm but if you have a few patches of 11-12 fertile soil you can do Greenhouses. Forester's huts *typically* want 14 soil or more. Getting those special 23 soil patches is awesome as well.

You'll want to reroll Cornerstones often to get the good ones, reroll buildings sometimes especially with the free reroll and you want to call the first few traders with the Impatience button to get key resources and finish Orders fast.

I've never built a second Hearth, except when required by Orders or Events. Seems pretty useless IMO.

The key is to build 3 woodcutters and never more than that until you get into prestige missions. When choosing buildings you almost never want upgraded gatherers unless you have the stacking meat or mushroom cornerstone. Waste of a building option. Typically target Lumbermill, maybe Tinkerer, sometimes Weaver or Brickyard, especially if you have 3 Clothes races and you want to build a Clothier. The best Service buildings are Guild, then Monastery, then Market. Clan Hall is in b-tier with the crown chronicles building. Clan Hall can sometimes shift to S-tier with proper supports like stacking food boost cornerstones or other gathering boosts. You also typically want a Manufactury if possible or a Provisioner if not.

Also things change as you finish the meta progression tree and start doing prestige missions.

- 3 woodcutter huts are a huge amount of hostility plus 2 are almost always enough
- coal is amazing, way more efficient than wood, that's why kiln is so good, you get twice as much burn value for your wood
- mines aren't great without the upgrades, then you definitely want them; I suspect you don't like them coz they need a lot of people and you play low-pop games
- forester is good but why do you sound as if it's the only good thing in the game? I got "only" 40 hours in the game but AFAIK there is no single production building that's always good no matter what (maybe the kiln)
- why would you call early traders for impatience when you typically don't have anything to offer; I guess if you're not building more hearths you can sell of your orange thingies but that's about it
- I agree that returning caches for tools is dumb early on, unless you got a lot of tools for orders and the breaking loot is trash, but later on, when you're lacking those few finishing points they're a life saver
- how do you manage with just one hearth, your peeps must waste huge amounts of time walking from distant posts to the hub

My population varies between 30 and 50 usually though I go higher if I get lots of camps or other events with populations.

I usually sell lots of parts, tools, wildfire, and 100 or so food to traders. Then I buy planks first, then cloth/bricks depending on buildings/races, and then I buy as many relevant perks/buildings/cornerstones as possible. My traders usually have 5-6 because I have completed the meta progression tree.

I almost never build roads, sometimes I will if I get the +10% speed road perks. Dirt roads aren't worth it and stone roads require you to have stone but I get clay so often and I use stone for glade events a lot.

Note that starting at Prestige 1 you get the Forbidden Altar building which gives you a choice of 3 supercharged cornerstones at 3/6/9 Rep. So you can take Flame Amulets but it gives +20% chance double resources and sets Woodcutter hostility to 0.
Also in Seal missions you get Hostility per tree chopped and not based on Woodcutter count.
And sometimes you get regular Flame Amulets and/or Silent Looting and/or Monastery so Hostility is naturally low. There's a couple other anti-Hostility cornerstones as well.

Also in some games you have the Temple and also Beavers with one or more Wood bonuses, so you can literally leave Wood sacking on 100% of the time and not care. I've had thousands of wood stored.

If you only care about Morale and not Hostility due to having unimportant forest penalties you can also get various +morale Cornerstones. I've had double the +5 morale cornerstone for instance.

The thing about the Kiln for me is that it takes up one of your limited building slots. If I get it for free from Orders or Glade Events or Traders I'll happily use it.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Also reading through this thread, how can people survive in Veteran and above WITHOUT recalling their woodcutters during the storm?

Sacrifice wood/coal, put people into buildings with their comfortable trait and/or water boosting resolve, put a lizard or a fox as the firekeeper for increased resolve or hostility reduction, hostility reducing cornerstones, hostility reducing buildings, favour one species (then stop). Also it's usually not an on/off thing, I only recall as many as I need and not one more, pause the game as the storm starts (or a second before if it has one of the "pay x each storm" modifiers and you'll trigger it otherwise) and see how many you have to recall. Even if some of your people will go into negative resolve for some time it's not the end of the world, nobody leaves immediately even on prestige, resolve takes time to drop and workers take time to leave, if you only drop hostility to a level of positive resolve 10 seconds before someone leaves it's still fine, unless you went significantly into negative resolve. Just be careful with triggering the modifiers that might kill people and you'll be fine woodcutting through some of the storm with some of your camps.

I think I got most strats down, still struggling with early services tho

IMO don't do services early, it's not necessary. You might want the building for its passive bonus if you got the blueprint or find a ruin in a glade, but providing services is for later stages of the game when you have a larger population and more production capacity.

- 3 woodcutter huts are a huge amount of hostility plus 2 are almost always enough

I usually start the game by building 2 woodcutters and add a 3rd one by the year 2-3, but they're not all occupied at all times, it's a good way to gather wood for the storm and buildings, clear area for building space and access/clear way for new glades when there are no more pressing matters for my workers.