A Big Thank You to the Keepers of Our Server
First of all, a big thank you to all the keepers of our server - almost 100 players have purchased this cosmetic-only DLC. This would have been enough to cover the server costs for almost a year!
However, our hosting provider has raised the price by almost 300%. This would have been devastating, but the proceeds from the DLC have bought me a bit more time. I have to downgrade our server (by 3x) and get it running with far fewer resources.
I have done a lot of server optimization - 50% of the server has been completely rewritten to squeeze out the last bit of performance. The server is running mostly fine, with occasional spikes that might cause lag. But I guess it's a necessary compromise for the sustainability of the server.
Chat Improvement
One important server optimization is support for direct message routing. Previously, the server relied heavily on broadcasting, which is very expensive. As a byproduct of this optimization:
- You can now send direct messages in chat with the /dm command
- You can now block a player for the current game session in the UI
- Three new chat commands, /block, /unblock, and /blocklist, have been added to help manage blocked players
Direct messaging is very bare-bones - I don't expect it to be used much, so I will keep it simple.
Redesigned Rebirth History
- Time-series chart with different stats
- Tabular view with a fixed header
- Export and download data in CSV format
Great People Wiki and Birthdays
- Each Great Person now has a link to their Wikipedia page
- Great People's birthdays (if known) have been added to the game, and each Great Person gets a 2x effect on their birthday (only applies to building-boost Great People)
United Nations & Wall Street
- Both buildings now show the result of the previous vote, so the community can help watch for anything fishy going on
- Both buildings now show random Keepers of Our Server (similar to Hagia Sophia)
Trade Map Performance
- The Trade Map has been refactored to improve performance, especially when a tile changes
- When you zoom out, the map will hide details and highlight trade tile buildings. This should make panning much smoother
Other QoLs
- Increased Max Stockpile Input Capacity to 100x (from 20x). This can improve performance in the very late game
- Increased Max Stockpile to 1000x (from 100x, 0 is unlimited as before)
- Transport arrows with origins and destinations outside the viewport are culled before viewport-based culling
- Watched Tradeable Resources: similar to Watched Resources but for tradeable resources
- When transforming a wild card Great Person, you can now type the amount
- Remember Last Build Range: do not reset building range to 0 after batch building (Options -> Gameplay)
- Carry Over Watched Resources: carry over watched resources to the next run (Options -> Gameplay)
- Carry Over Watched Tradeable Resources: carry over watched tradeable resources to the next run (Options -> Gameplay)
- Added support for catbox.moe chat images
Bugfixes
- Forward/back mouse buttons no longer trigger browser navigation
- Copy & Paste (Command + C/V) now works on macOS
- Improved reconnection logic: it is now more robust and uses exponential backoff to reduce server load
Restitutor Progress Update
I have been busy working on Restitutor - adding historical narratives and provincial flavor content. I've just shipped the July milestone and if I manage to stay on schedule, the game should be ready for Early Access in September! If you want to know more, read the latest patch notes.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4431750/Restitutor_Empire_Restored/
Cheers,
FishPond
