Author Archives: Chris

Stellar Monarch version 1.23

Version 1.23 released

May version finishes the experimental Empress option (mostly added the alternative graphics) and moves it to regular features. In addition traditional bug fixes and interface improvements.

– [feature] Emperor’s sex moved from experimental to regular features.

– [interface] Added summary of courtiers to the Empire/Summary tab (technically not as important as officers/governors screen, but I suppose some players might find use for it, plus it’s kind of consistent to have all 3 groups of imperial officials listed).
– [interface] Added images for Empress option.

– [fix] Admiral reporting “retake planet” listing wrong planet name.
– [fix] One combat icon not being displayed (no one noticed or reported it because no one knew it should be there :D).

Stellar Monarch version 1.22

Version 1.22 released

April version focuses on alien armadas. Those got rebalanced and made more logical and dangerous. Especially their behaviour is both more logical and dangerous. Those changes should make armadas a non trivial threat. Also added new ironman mode “Superstrong Alien Armadas”.

– [feature] Added Ironman mode “Superstrong Alien Armadas” (Alien Armadas are much stronger (x3); No limit to number of armadas an alien race can send (cooldown still applies)).

– [balance] Alien armadas behaviour changed, now those stop to conquer a planet. This makes them much more dangerous!
– [balance] Alien armadas rebalanced, fewer ships per wave and reversed the waves strength (now the first wave is the strongest and the last one the weakest).

– [interface] Added image for Armada report.

Automobile Tycoon version 0.23

Version 0.23 released (BETA)

Balance adjustments and fixes. The car costs structure have been changed significantly but I tried to keep overall costs similar to previous versions, so now different car design strategies might be preferred but overall cars should cost the same. Still, if you have an old save and wanted to finish your game under the old rules you can downgrade to v0.22 which can be found under “legacy” Beta branch on Steam.

I would also like to thank all the people who report bugs. Especially the small trivial ones, which are very easy to fix and which exist only because I didn’t know of their existence. So a big thank you to all the people who take the time to report them! You are a great help.

– [translation] PL manual translated.

– [balance] Cars costs rebalanced (engines, chassis, body).
– [balance] Limousines and other luxury/big cars have significantly higher body cost now.

– [fix] Engine and chassis cost having no effect on car’s final cost.
– [fix] Last selected measurement system forgotten after restart.
– [fix] Company chosen colour ignored upon game start.

Stellar Monarch version 1.21

Version 1.21 released

March version is out! Introduced ironman modes to make the game harder for people who desire it so. For example “Surrounded by Idiots” ironnman mode makes all imperial officials less competent and harder to get rid of. All ironman modes are cumulative so you can choose any number of those and they all combine. In this version there are two ironman modes “Surrounded by Idiots” and “Surrounded by Thieves” and most likely there will be more in future. Also traditional interface improvements and one experimental feature.

– [feature] Ironman modes introduced (intended to make the game harder, can be enabled upon game start via Advanced Customization options).
– [feature] Added Ironman mode “Surrounded by idiots” (all imperial officials get 2 rolls for competence and the LOWER one is used; firing a courtier costs 6 PP instead of 3 PP).
– [feature] Added Ironman mode “Surrounded by thieves” (all courtiers and governors have a 75% chance to start with additional +2 Corruption; money lost due to corruption is increased by 1/3).
– [feature] Experimental feature “Emperor’s sex” which allows you to select if the ruler is male or female (enable experimental features in options to see it). It’s partially working, but it’s quite complete so most likely in the next version it will be moved to regular features.

– [interface] Added image for Prestige Loss report.
– [interface] Added image for Audience Day report.

Stellar Monarch version 1.20

Version 1.20 released

This update is intended to upgrade interface and art assets. The requested easier display of squadron bonuses on the screen where you decide on the squadron composition is done now, it shows only the most important core bonuses, for full bonuses use the old Analyze squadron composition button. Also a minor change to events.

– [balance] “Corruption goes rampart” event affects only civilians now (courtiers and governors).

– [interface] “Find Homeworld” button on intelligence screen.
– [interface] Displayed core planned bonuses (escort coverage, command bridge, communication) on Fleet shipyard & squadron screens (slightly more convenient since now you don’t need to click “analyze squadron composition” button to see those).
– [interface] New image for Empire/Intelligence screen.
– [interface] New image for Industry/Rare resources screen.

Automobile Tycoon version 0.22

Version 0.22 released (BETA)

A lot of stuff related mostly to translations also finished reports saving. FR translation ready.

– [feature] Translation related code (finished some strings and redone reports code to support translations).
– [feature] Reports are saved now (those were not saved in the previous version since those were unfinished and not compatible with translations).

– [translation] FR translation done (note that translation might be not fully complete, especially when a new version is introduced there might be a few texts missing). Manual not translated yet.
– [translation] RU manual translated.

– [interface] Language selector on the main menu (flags on the left).
– [interface] New end turn button (image instead of text).

Stellar Monarch version 1.19

Version 1.19 released

First update in 2018. That one focuses on graphical improvements. Courtiers, departments and events graphics improved. Also, statistics of governors (on Empire/Summary tab) which should give you a clear picture how many governors of what competence you have.

– [interface] Departments are color coded now. All courtiers portraits got collars colored by department they are assigned, department stats have bars to indicate the department and departments names on the court screen are color coded well. Overall, it’s much easier now to spot who belongs to what department.
– [interface] Added summary of governors/officers to the Empire/Summary tab. Basically, you have a lot of stats about competence/loyalty/corruption of various officials. With percentage bars 🙂
– [interface] Moved rebels to a separate sub summary to avoid clutter on the summary screen (especially since most of the info about rebels is on the top menu tooltip anyway).
– [interface] Added image for admiral report. Also admiral reports now have a Find button to track the target planet.
– [interface] Added image for industry (shipyard production) report.

– [fix] Admiral reporting “in warp” and “admiral orders reconquest of lost planet” bug.

Stellar Monarch development plans for 2018

It has been more than a year since the game has been released in December 2016. The game was received well and still sells quite good I would say. So, I have decided to maintain the development pace. In year 2018 there will be monthly updates similar to 2017 (of course in an unlikely scenario of serious bugs a much faster emergency update will be released, as usual).

Most likely those updates will be interface upgrades and graphics upgrades with occasional balance adjustments if needed. As usual I’m reading the Steam forum regularly and I’m open to various suggestions. So, if you have any, post.

Oh yes, one more thing, the expansion I promised a long time ago… 🙂 Well, I will start working on it around Q4 2018. So, it should be ready at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019.

Thanks for all the feedback and support so far!

Expansion packs/DLC policy

I was thinking about the promised expansion pack for Stellar Monarch and decided to write first my views on expansion packs/DLCs in general. It is intended for Stellar Monarch’s expansion but it should apply to all my games I suppose, maybe with some exceptions/differences. So here it is, my policy on expansion packs.

The premise of an expansion pack is to extend the base game, not to fix it or make it playable. The base game comes first, it must stand on its own and be complete. Once that’s achieved an expansion can be introduced.

Rules of an expansion pack:

expansion pack CAN NOT be a fix or balance related (it belongs to the base game)
expansion pack CAN NOT be about improving interface (it belongs to the base game)
it is possible for an expansion to introduce more complex mechanics for example concepts that I have decided to not include in the base game due to additional complexity (still it must be within reasonable limits, so the game with an expansions does not turn into a complex monster)
it is possible for an expansion to include new content (races, audience events, technologies, etc)

Automobile Tycoon version 0.21

Version 0.21 released (BETA)

The last version this year. First of all, change language was moved from experimental to regular options (can be accessed from quick menu). At the moment we have PL and RU translation ready, FR will be in the next version, DE probably within 2 months. In addition I have rebalanced some stuff (speed and acceleration) and cars base specs were adjusted depending on car type (for example sports cars are generally faster than pickups even in case of the same weight to power ratio since those are built for speed, limousines cars have heavy bodies and so on). And traditional interface improvements aimed to make more intuitive.

– [feature] Translation moved to regular options (also improved translation code, made the selection saveable, etc).
– [feature] Body weight, top speed and acceleration affected by car type.

– [translation] PL translation done (note that translation might be not fully complete, especially when a new version is introduced there might be a few texts missing. Manual not translated yet).
– [translation] RU translation done (note that translation might be not fully complete, especially when a new version is introduced there might be a few texts missing. Manual not translated yet).

– [balance] Easier to increase top speed for low speeds and harder for high speeds.
– [balance] Acceleration much harder to increase.

– [interface] Improved and fixed some tooltips.
– [interface] World screen show number of “virtual” sales offices due to strategy.
– [interface] World screen shows number of our cars sold in this region with a tooltip explaining how to enable distribution in this region.

– [fix] Various small fixes.

Also, I would like to send my Christmas wishes to all players, youtubers, press and fellow developers. May our Lord’s blessing be with you and your family this year, next year and always. Happy Christmas!
(to be clear, this wishes also apply to infidels, heretics and my atheist friends :))