Egypt: Old Kingdom news & patch notes

After almost ten years of searching and experimenting, we’re happy to announce: Next Run has been released in its full version. This game is the result of a long journey - an attempt to rethink our experience and find a new foundation for universal gameplay. We wanted to show how different genres - strategy and RPG - can merge seamlessly within a single game while maintaining coherence and depth. With Next Run, we also address one of the oldest challenges in our previous projects - low replayability. Despite its new fantasy setting, Next Run is a direct evolution of the mechanics from our earlier games, taken to a deeper level. It marks an important milestone on Clarus Victoria’s path toward creating future games with more complex mechanics and living worlds. Join in, play, and share your impressions. Now, more than ever, your support matters - it will determine how ambitious our next projects can be. Including the continuation of Egypt: Old Kingdom.

More than eight years have passed since the release of Egypt: Old Kingdom. Many players have asked when there will be a continuation of the Egypt series. From a historical point of view, the periods of Ancient Egypt after the construction of the Great Pyramids were very different. The kingdom became more decentralized, the influence of the nobility increased, a middle class began to form, and governing the country became much more complex. When work on a sequel began in 2019, it became clear that the old mechanics of Old Kingdom no longer reflected the spirit of a new era. To capture the atmosphere of the Middle and New Kingdoms, a new gameplay foundation and design approach were needed. The search that began almost ten years ago led to the creation of our new game — Next Run. It is very different from a historical strategy, but it became an important step paving the way toward the continuation of Egypt: Old Kingdom. A new Blog section has appeared on our website: https://clarusvictoria.com/blog In the latest article, we explain how our historical strategies evolved into a fantasy RPG and how this experience will influence future history games.

Meet our new game — the free demo is already available: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3963920/Next_Run_Demo

The Clarus Victoria website has been updated: clarusvictoria.com

A new section — “Our History” — has been added. It presents the studio’s goals, our path in game development, and a detailed story of what happened after the release of Egypt: Old Kingdom.

We share the story of the projects and experiments from those years, the challenges we faced, and how this experience ultimately led to the creation of our new project — Next Run, a fantasy strategy RPG.

We are glad to share that the Clarus Victoria team is working on a new game — Next Run. It’s a fantasy strategy with RPG and roguelike elements. Every choice in the game matters: fight or bribe, craft or trade, build or cast spells.

This October the game will take part in Steam Next Fest, where a free demo will be available.

The Steam page is already open:

👉 Next Run on Steam

Thank you to everyone who supports and follows our projects — your support helps us create new games!

Athens - Diplomacy

Sparta - Military

Corinth - Trade

• We fully upgraded the art style.
• We improved design and balance.
• New content! To the original two cities - Athens and Sparta - we added Corinth!

• Fixed a critical issue, which upset the power balance of the rebel forces in the 5th trial.
• Balance adjustments. If the player is defeated by or skipped the battle with the Sea People, the amount of exterminated workers will increase by 1.
• Significantly optimized the opening of the menu of Technologies and the menu of Cults.
• Minor optimization of the game loading was made.
• As well as other minor optimizations.
• Fixed the bug which allowed to score more than 100% of chaos force in the event "The coming chaos".
• Fixed the bug where the wrong resources were blocked after the healing in the "Epidemic" trial.
• Fixed the rank of the maximum score (35/35).
• Fixed the bug when relationships didn't improve if the luxury level was too low;
• Fixed the bug when the task to build pyramids for the 4th dynasty disappeared after loading of a saved game.
• Fixed the soundtrack reproduction problem when players return to the main menu.
• Fixed the problem with tribes' attack during the 1st trial.
• Fixed a wrong answer in the exam (What was the oldest existing papyrus about?).
• Fixed a mistake in Chinese localization (Djedkare's reforms).

Balance changes

• Seker's cult bonus changed from 10% to 5%.
• Every cult can only be worshipped once per turn.
• Achievement "Broken bundle of sticks" is turned off.
• To get the "Capitalist" achievement you only need 50 points of luxury instead of 100.
• The achievement "Apostate" does not count in tasks from the "Capital relocation" trial and "King Khasekhemwy's constructions".
• During the last trial, the price of each worship of Ptah will increase by 35%.
• Endless techs: -prices are decreased to 8000 points. -endless techs become 30% more expensive with each discovery. -other techs become 10% more expensive with each discovery.

Bugs fixing

• The incorrect number of separatists during the 5th trial.
• Camera sometimes used to drift away from the battlefield.
• Swamps on the map of Egypt sometimes were cleared even though no workers were there.
• The final score window sometime could come up several times after multiple attempts to pass the test.
• For MacOS, fixed the logic of buttons leading to the DLC content.
• Learned technologies sometimes didn't count as learned when it was the technology from the 3rd column.
• Fixed the tribes' generation on the map of Egypt.

Bug fix

• The mistake where the resources could grow infinitely on the easy and the middle level is fixed.
• Fixed the bug which happened with the combination of the "Big construction" mode and "Economic success" event.
• Fixed the tooltip's location above the last saves slots.

New possibilities

• A new menu of Alternative History settings (opens at the beginning of every new game).
• Unlimited events for the Alternative History mode.
• An endless game mode (you can continue to play the game after the main part of it is over).
• A new endless event Sea Peoples Invasion.
• New special actions for the endless mode (located near the panel of actions of your patron god).
• Unlimited technologies (you can learn is multiple times, increasing the final bonus).
• New random dynasties.
• Brief historical facts in the loading window of every new game.
• New button "Gallery" in the main menu (submenu "New Game").
• New button "Additional" in the main menu where you can check and acquire Artbook or Soundtrack DLC.
• A new origin of sources: Tombs Maintenance.
• The new order of save slots and new scroll position in the Save/Load menu.
• New music for the Main Menu.
• An explanation for saving slot tooltip's icons.

Balance improvements

• For many events, awards and fines are now calculated as a % of the current cost of workers/cult worshipping.
• Seker's cult now has a bonus for tombs maintenance.
• The updated balance of Ancestral Duty for the endless mode.
• Some dialogs will appear in a different order.
• Improved interaction with the workers' cards via the panel of special actions.
• Some pyramids models updated.
• The bonus of cemetery updated.
• The transition of the camera to the scene sped up.

Bug fixes

• Wadi is no longer available for raids.
• The warning about saving files incompatibility is updated.
• Fixed the animation of the workers at the seaside areas.
• Fixed the calculation of the raid effect for strategic sources.
• Various text mistakes fix.

Endless Game

Customizable micromanagement

Crazy Egypt

Bug fixes

• Updated localization of the Steam achievements.
• Fixed the bug where workers kept healing epidemic even after the end of the "Epidemic" event.
• Fixed the terms of achievement "Resources of Memphis".
• Fixed the terms of achievement "Saviour of the people".
• Fixed a few bugs when we load the saved game: - "New cereal crop" icon inactive; - When the fire was not visible, but it killed workers and it was impossible to distinguish it;
• Fixed the flickering of the exam dialog window after pressing the "Reply" button.
• Fixed the automatic receiving of tribute from the subjugated tribe on the map of Egypt.
• Fixed the terms of achievement "Writing Bull".
• Fixed the terms of achievement "Beast tamer".
• Fixed antelope's ability to migrate to a river.
• Fixed the description of the turn which is necessary to get the Bronze or Gold victory for the "Civil War" trial.
• Fixed the mistake regarding the save/load of the game and the prolongation of Worshipping Cult effect.
• Fixed the disappearance of the bonus "decrease construction time" after the "Architects" event.
• Fixed the bug when the enemy's army could fully restore to the maximum after loading the game.

Balance fixes and other improvements

• The Great Buildings: the maintenance of the buildings is decreased by 20% for all resources.
• Prologue bonus was increased: on the easiest level from 13% to 20%, on the middle level from 6.5% to 10%.
• The cost of "Consolidate the Horus" cult is changed: before the map of Egypt is open the price is 15 points of luxury, after the map of Egypt is open - 30 points of luxury.
• If during the "Separatism growth" the resistance will be suppressed, the player will get the Bronze victory for it and will not skip the trial.
• The size of enemies' armies are decreased by two.
• "Supply problems" penalty is increased, now it's 10%.
• The size of Upper Egypt's army during the "Unification of Egypt" and the "Civil War" is twice bigger than before.

New features:

• Steam achievements are now available;
• the cult of Osiris now reinforces other cults, and pyramids reinforce the cult of Osiris;
• the map of Egypt: more tasks are added (sands, cursed place, fish, pearls, Nile Cataracts, etc.);
• the map of Egypt: a remake of simple tasks, resources and improvements generation;
• the map of Egypt: Regional development is turned off;
• the map of Egypt: it is now possible to send expedition even to those are which is not under the player's control (but the relationship with a local tribe must be friendly);
• the map of Egypt: added new action applicable to tribes - Colonize;
• the map of Memphis: new tasks added (sands, Flat area, the spirit of Thoth);
• the map of Egypt: the generation and the mechanic of strategical resources is remade (it's not necessary to search for strategical resources);
• the map of Egypt: the construction of fortresses is turned off;
• the Sand Storm event can now place "Sand" debuff on an area;
• "Gifts of Hapi" can now happen on the map of Egypt;
• Dwellings of Senefru now give +30% to the resources od the area;
• the tutorial was updated with the step teaching to place workers' cards on the map.

Balance fixes and other improvements:

• original force of the cult of Ra is decreased by 50% (before it was 80%);
• the effect of purging the evil from the cursed place now doesn't disappear when the worker dies;
• changed the bonuses of some techs;
• changed the bonuses and consumption for some of the tombs;
• doubled the number of separatists who participate in the battles of the Civil War;
• Increased the bonus of raids on the map of Egypt by 5 times.

Bugs fix:

• fixed the fail of the 5th trial in case of the victory in the final battle;
• fixed the bug when workers returned to the player after Nubia's Rejection event;
• now it is possible to attack another tribe on the same turn after defeating Narmer;
• fixed the looting of the area by Narmer's army;
• fixed the bug when the player was attacked by another tribe after asking them for peace;
• fixed the constant growth of price for the construction of the main city temple;
• fixed the display of maat in the area with domesticated animals;
• fixed the boost of tombs construction by the architect 1 turn before the end of construction;
• fixed the overlap of the running away window during several battles in one turn;
• fixed the overlap of several attacks on Memphis during the Civil War;
• fixed the sudden appearance of pyramids on the map of Egypt;
• fixed the growth of resources coming from taxes during the construction when there are not enough resources;

• Fixed the fail of the 5th trial in case of the victory in the final battle;
• Fixed the mistake when Seth's sandstorm had no impact on Narmer's army;
• Fixed the bug when the reforms rejection chance could be increased over 100% during the 7th trial;
• Fixed the mixed up good effects during the simultaneous construction of a pyramid and King Khasekhemwy's constructions;
• Fixed the sound of construction completed during the loading of the game;
• Fixed the 8th trial, when another tribe attacked the player before the rebellion, which led to the cancellation of the attack;
• Fixed the rounding of reparation fees after the area was raided;
• The icon alerting about Hapi's blessing replaced with the icon used in the area;
• Fixed the possibility of raids near the river;
• The pop-up window alerting the player about the attack now can be closed by clicking on the top right corner button;
• Fixed the 1st trial bug, when two tribes could attack the player at the same time;
• Fixed the bug when AI raids already raided area;
• Fixed the bug when the player was attacked by the tribe he himself was trying to conquer during the same turn;
• Fixed the repetitive bonus for opening the map of Egypt completely;
• Fixed the bug, when the fire has already disappeared but the worker kept extinguishing it.
• Fixed the bug when the camera couldn't find the worker killed by fire;
• Fixed the display of food -0 during the locust invasion;
• Fixed the display of the number of troops in the tooltip of the 2nd trial;
• Fixed the bug when the unfinished pyramids of the previous dynasty kept constructing after the dynasty has changed;
• Fixed the display of selected worker's card frame;
• Fixed the bug when the worker was killed by lions before the Lions moved to the area with this worker;
• Fixed the bug when the menu of the area's tasks was accidentally closed when the cursor accidentally hit the icons of the next area;
• Fixed the display of separatists army in the Upper Egypt area during the 5th trial;
• Fixed the cancellation of the player's attack during the final of the 1st trial;
• Fixed the tutorial texts display bugs after said texts were canceled in the dialog;
• Fixed the spreading of the epidemy to the sea area;
• Fixed the size of tooltips in various areas
• Fixed the display of terrain when you zoom out the map.

• Trial No.8: - If you choose to play with Ptah as your patron god, pyramids will be 5% more effective; - When you cancel the upkeeping of your buildings, the power of Chaos increasing by 3%; - Ceasing the maintenance of buildings will decrease the price of maintenance by 1%;
• Trial No.7: - The progress of reforms begins with 0% regardless of the difficulty; - The price of titles creation changed from 40 points of food to 30 points of luxury; - The price of legal system rationalization decreased from 5% to 4%, the chance of reforms rejection increased from 5% to 10%; - When the chance of reforms rejection reach 100%, the buttons of title creation and reforms are blocked;
• When you flee from the battlefield for the 2nd time, "attack" and "defense" buttons become inactive;
• During the battle attack increases damage to 90% (before it was 80%);
• With Seth as the patron god the force of sandstorm sent by him decreased from 20% to 15%;
• During the "Separatism increasing" trial the army of separatists increases by 350 +10-12% out of those 350;
• "Hurry up the construction" button is not available when the construction takes 1 turn to finish;
• 6th dynasty: the reward for finishing the pyramid is increased from 10 to 20 maat per pyramid;
• Construction of the pyramid of Ibi gives a bonus of decreasing the force of chaos by 10% in the 8th trial;
• When playing for Seth the sandstorm effect will impact every community, not just the enemies;
• The terms of getting the reward for the 5th trial are updated. The silver victory is now given in 10 turns after the main trial, the golden victory - after 6 turns.
• If you conquer the tribe which is battling with another tribe, this another tribe will lose the war;
• When you scroll the list of authors, you can now stop and resume the scrolling.

• It's finally the Summer Sale time on Steam!
• Almost every game made by us is participating in the Summer Sale with a good discount.

Bugs fixed

• Fixed the game crash during the Great Age of Pyramids;
• The effect of decreasing the limit of the population after the fire now will be applied only once when the building is completely destroyed;
• Fixed the rare bug of overlapped tooltips;
• The early end of the Civil War does not count as a failure anymore.

Balance improvements

• The effect of pyramids buildings is added on the Egypt map;
• The trade bonuses on the map of Egypt is decreased by 30%;
• The Chinese localization is updated;
• The Italian and Turkish artbooks are added.

Bug fixes

• Fixed the bug when the game crashed at the beginning;
• Fixed the mistakes in the order of pyramids construction;
• Fixed the bug when the relationships with a tribe didn't improve despite having enough resources for it.
• Fixed the calculation of trading bonuses and its display in tooltips.
• Fixed the end of the 3rd trial, the conquering of Upper Egypt's capital manually;
• Fixed the end of the 5th trial, in the case of an early victory;
• When you're searching for your enemy, you'll automatically see the explored area of enemy's tribe;
• We improved the area of selecting a god in the Cults menu;
• Fixed the Enemy alliance with the tribe which is friendly to the player.
• Epidemic task completion now properly ends the effect of "Cure disease";
• Fixed the possibility to assimilate the tribe when the relationship between them hasn't reach 100%;
• Fixed the background of warriors during the attack on the city area;
• Fixed the completion of the task "Corruption";
• Fixed the calculation of bonuses for Domestication of Hyenas;
• Fixed the rare cases of flickering tooltips;
• Fixed the immediate creation of a pyramid from hurrying the construction and from the architect bonus to speed up construction;
• Fixed texts mistakes.

Balance fixes and improvements

• 5th trial: fixed the mechanic of separatism; added the option to end the trial early; a remake of trial's balance;
• 8th trial: it is now simplified; if the god of the city is Ptah, pyramids get +10% bonus of efficiency;
• 3rd trial: the effect from "Fortify" and "Bribe" is lowered from 5% to 3%;
• Improved the compatibility of saves between the different versions;
• Improved the scaling of tooltips on the map;
• The abandoned settlement now gives a random bonus of resources; it also can appear on the map of Egypt;
• Tooltips in the Battle window now will appear under the actions buttons;
• Game settings: new options "the speed of movements" and the dragging of the camera;
• The map of Egypt: the chance of war declaration now increasing for each explored tribe;
• The action of Seth to "Call a sandstorm" now costs 30 of luxury (before it was 20) and destroys 20% of enemy's troops (before it was 30%);
• Improved the visual side of the map uploading process;
• Splash screen of CESRAS added;
• Small improvements of balance during the battle with other tribes.

Thank you to all the players and volunteers who helped us with localizations and bug reports.

Shortcomings and bug fixes

• Flickering icons and tooltips;
• We can't fix the black screen problem, because it's Unity engine's problem, but there are a few ways to fix this bug;
• Now the Unification of Egypt can be launched without the discovery of Chiefdoms;
• Fixed the unintended press of some buttons off Spacebar;
• Fixed the maximum score count in the final window of the game;
• Numerous text mistakes fixed;
• Discoveries menu sound fixed;
• Fixed the bug of workers animation, when one animation overlayed another;
• Ancestral duty is now counted by the average value of 10 turns, not by the value of the last turn;
• On the map of Egypt we turned off Subjugation and Patronizing;
• Riots now can only happen in the area with workers;
• On the map of Egypt we fixed the tooltip for the "Capital" task;
• Fixed the scaling problem in the Stats texts;
• Buttons in the trials dialogs are now inactive if the player doesn't have enough sources;
• Fixed the camera rotation bug;
• Fixed the event of the Lower Egypt exploration.

Changes in the balance and gameplay

• More freedom of choice in the tutorial with the animals and societies;
• The final trial became easier;
• Change of the combat balance for different gods (Ptah: 5 turns, Horus: 2 simultaneous combats 4 turns each);
• The longevity of cults worshipping is increased by 1 turn;
• The cult of Ra is more effective;
• Expeditions now bring 25% fewer resources;
• Sacrifices during the royal crisis are now more expensive;
• Raids of the devastated areas now bring fewer resources.

Thank you to all the players and volunteers who helped us with localizations and bug reports.

• We fixed the exploit which allowed breaking the tutorial on turn 3 and 4; Added the option to turn off the tutorial in the tutorial dialog window about society;
• Fixed a bug in the Flood event;
• Fixed the window of decentralization unblocking;
• Fixed the bug when the uploading of the save file made on the 1st turn of the game was broken;
• Fixed a few bugs in the Conquests of Nubia and Egypt;
• Fixed a group of bugs in various events, connected with non-existent tribes.