Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim news & patch notes

Hello Goblinz, We have a lot of news lately, so we thought it would be really cool to give you a little summary here! As you probably know, Goblinz is focused on strategy and management games, and we strive to offer you high-quality games with our selection. We regularly offer demos so you can get hands-on experience before buying!

Synergy

Today, Synergy is being released, a beautiful city builder inspired by Pharaoh and Frostpunk. The game is developed by Leikir Studio and you will have 10% off the 2 first weeks! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/Synergy/?snr=1_1056_4_creator_1057&curator_clanid=33025551

The Executive

Last week, we announced a new game: The Executive, a Tycoon set in the film industry. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2315430/The_Executive__A_Movie_Industry_Tycoon/?snr=1_1056_4_creator_1057&curator_clanid=33025551

Sandwalkers

Sandwalkers will have a new prologue, this time focusing on gameplay rather than the story. It will be released on June 4th. And we can already announce that Sandwalkers will be available in Early Access before this summer. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2995230/Sandwalkers__Prologue/?snr=1_1056_ajaxgetfilteredrecommendations_creator_curator-tabs&curator_clanid=33025551

Mini Settlers

The demo of Mini Settlers is a huge hit with more than 80,000 players in the last three weeks! If you haven't tried it yet, you can find it here. Mini Settlers is an automation game similar to Factorio but much simpler, like Mini Metro. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2521630/Mini_Settlers/?snr=1_1056_ajaxgetfilteredrecommendations_creator_curator-tabs&curator_clanid=33025551 Last but not least, Fantastic Haven will be at the Steam Next Fest in June! If you want to join the private beta, head over to Discord: https://discord.gg/goblinzstudio Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2556470/Fantastic_Haven/?snr=1_1056_ajaxgetfilteredrecommendations_creator_curator-tabs&curator_clanid=33025551 Other minor news:

• The new update for Hero's Hour is currently in open beta
• A new update for Racine is coming
• Fantastic Haven will have a prologue too!

See you soon Goblinz!

Hello everyone, Exciting news! We're part of the Turn-Based Carnival happening from November 14 to 21, where you can enjoy a whole week of turn-based strategy games. Ozymandias, as well as other Goblinz games will be participating throughout all week! Join us for the Turn-Based Carnival! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim

v1.6.0.11 - Fixed two mistranslated trait descriptions in JP. - Removed outdated mention of 1 population cities being destroyed in FAQ.

All done now. Thanks for your patience folks.

We will have the multiplayer server fully operational again soon. Sorry for the interruption.

v1.6.0.8 - Fixed rare bug where your spending percentages were not saved properly. - Fixed multiplayer desync related to losing an army and then changing spending distributions as the timer runs out.

Hi everyone, Welcome to the final update in our season pass, which we’ve saved for Steam’s Strategy Fest. Our 6th DLC map takes you to the lofty peaks of the Andes and beyond to Amazonia. It presents some unique challenges with food hard to come by at first and no aggressive empires on the map. It should be popular in multiplayer as it’s fairly balanced. The free update, which accompanies this DLC release, is focused squarely on the AI. We’ve gone deep into Ozy’s brain and tinkered to improve a number different areas. Most notably, building and growing cities and when and how to wage war. Overall, we think the AI is a little tougher now so watch out! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2057782/Ozymandias__The_Andes/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/29272/Ozymandias__Complete_Edition/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32445/Goblinz_4X__DLCs/

Here is the full changelog for v1.6:

- Everyone can play the new DLC map in multiplayer. If you don’t own it, you need someone who does to create the game. - The AI will not attack as soon as it has its first unit - not always anyway - it waits for the right moment. - The AI is better at deciding how many units is optimal to bring to an attack or defense. Overall, where exactly it should place its units is analysed a bit more. - The AI considers more factors when it chooses where and when to build and grow cities, particularly how this will affect the defense of its empire. - The AI now tries to avoid having only one city for too long, since it could be defeated if that city was rushed. - We’ve improved the AI’s systems for when and how to accrue crowns and, eventually, to rush for the last wonder it needs for victory. - Some rare edge cases, which led to multiplayer games breaking, have been fixed. - In Japanese, a few missing characters and text placeholders, which weren’t being replaced properly, have been fixed. - Some other minor localisation polish. ⚠️ As usual, multiplayer games from before the update will no longer appear in the lobby but can be played in a new compatibility branch in Steam (you need the old build to see these games). Sorry for the inconvenience, this is how we keep everyone in a game on the same build, to avoid desyncs. The branch is called v1.5.x.x-multiplayer-compatibility To switch to this branch, R-click Ozymandias in your library, select Properties > Betas and choose the branch from the drop-down. You may need to reboot Steam to make it update but usually it does it straight away. Any questions, let us know! Have fun! Click the banner below to join the merry band of 1000+ other Ozy players in our Discord :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41383612/497a697d05058374d3749f0a7e2a52f97ebd235c.gif

Hi everyone, Welcome to update 5 and the storied seas of the Aegean. The latest DLC map, Aegean Sea, is the first to have an empire with the new 'Impossible' difficulty rating. This empire is not for human consumption! Aegean Sea is intended as a 2 player Trojan War map (with a 'city state' for company). https://store.steampowered.com/app/2057780/Ozymandias__Aegean_Sea/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/29272/Ozymandias__Complete_Edition/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32445/Goblinz_4X__DLCs/

Full patch notes:

v1.5.0.6 - Aegean Sea is available to everyone in multiplayer if someone, who owns it, creates the game. - When the food overlay is open, you can now hover the food tab to see every tile’s food yield or, in the case of cities, their food consumption. You can also hover the knowledge/wealth tabs to see tiles' knowledge/wealth yield. - In the story campaign, Gertrude's speech bubbles now have a back button so you can look back at everything she's said. - You can now close the locket by clicking the speech bubble. - Improved AI decision-making when building and growing cities. - Multiplayer Steam notifications have been re-enabled. - Fix for opportunities with rewards to choose breaking when certain combinations are completed at once during the end turn sequence. - Minor localisation tweaks. - Also check out the changelogs from two recent updates for the full list of what's new since v1.4. As usual, multiplayer games from before the update will no longer appear in the lobby but can be played in a new compatibility branch in Steam (you need the old build to see these games). Sorry for the inconvenience, this is how we keep everyone in a game on the same build, to avoid desyncs. The branch is called v1.4.x.x-multiplayer-compatibility To switch to this branch, R-click Ozymandias in your library, select Properties > Betas and choose the branch from the drop-down. You may need to reboot Steam to make it update but usually it does it straight away. Any questions, let us know! Have fun! Click the banner below to join the merry band of 1000+ other Ozy players in our Discord :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41383612/497a697d05058374d3749f0a7e2a52f97ebd235c.gif

v1.4.0.37 - New 90s/turn timer in multiplayer - we see the most errors in 1 min/turn games (the fastest timer) so if you play these, consider if 90s/turn would work for you because it might be more stable. - Updated server code to better manage timers in multiplayer games with lots of players. - Fix for multiplayer games breaking if a player hard quit at the moment their timer expired. - Improved latency calculations to reduce possibility of desyncs. - New UI to explain when the server is shutting down for maintenance. - Attempted fix for rare bug where UI becomes unresponsive upon starting a new game. - The images in How To Play have been updated. - All resource amounts on UI panels are now localised. - Minor localisation issues on the loading screen have been fixed. - Berbers (Sahara Desert) difficulty from Hard to Medium - Tichitt (Sahara Desert) difficulty from Easy to Medium - Aksum (Sahara Desert) difficulty from Easy to Medium

v1.4.0.15 - Fix for certain combinations of opportunities causing bugs, when they completed at the same time. - Fix for opportunities sometimes appearing a second time after you completed them. - Fix for game window occasionally resetting itself to the default size. - Fix for multiplayer games that stall on 0s. - The AI log is no longer viewable in multiplayer.

Hi everyone, we just released our 4th major post-launch update with lots of improvements and a new DLC map: Sahara Desert. Please remember how it works with your multiplayer games, they are now in a branch in Steam so don't worry, they are not lost! See the info at the bottom of the changelog for how to find them. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2057781/Ozymandias__Sahara_Desert/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2226120/Ozymandias__Season_Pass/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/22670/Turn_Based_Mega_Pack/

Check out the full patch notes:

v1.4.0.8

• New DLC map: Sahara Desert. Everyone can play this in multiplayer, if someone who owns it creates the game.
• Loading screen added to the game with tips to improve your play (in 9 languages).
• AI empires now make better decisions about when to build cities.
• Rebalanced costs of growing cities in different terrain (FAQ entry updated to match)
• Great Lighthouse requires fewer hexes to complete.
• Pyramids requires more city population to complete at most levels
• Some other wonder levels slightly tweaked.
• Improved DE translations from community member, Dunkelziffer.
• Swords To Ploughshares now gives 120 food instead of 100 and may be offered slightly earlier in games.
• Legendary General now requires you to threaten 8 hexes instead of 10.
• Catastrophe now requires you to have 8 threatened hexes instead of 10.
• Java (Indonesia) difficulty from Hard to Medium.
• Maya (Mesoamerica) difficulty from Medium to Easy.
• Zapotec (Mesoamerica) difficulty from Hard to Medium.
• Zhou (World) difficulty from Medium to Easy.
• Inca (World) difficulty from Medium to Hard.
• Minor updates in the credits.

Multiplayer games from before the update will no longer appear in the lobby but can be played in a new compatibility branch in Steam (you need the old build to see these games). Sorry for the inconvenience, this is how we keep everyone in a game on the same build, to avoid desyncs. The branch is called v1.3.x.x-multiplayer-compatibility To switch to this branch, R-click Ozymandias in your library, select Properties > Betas and choose the branch from the drop-down. You may need to reboot Steam to make it update but usually it does it straight away. Any questions, let us know! Click the banner below to join the merry band of 1000+ other Ozy players in our Discord :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41383612/497a697d05058374d3749f0a7e2a52f97ebd235c.gif

Order restored and less painfully than first thought. During a routine server update 4h ago, the server decided to switch to a region which had outdated data. We switched back to the right region and the server is back online now and the issues are fixed. If you played multiplayer in the last 4 hours, you will have lost this progress, sorry for the inconvenience. I expect very few people will be badly affected but let me know if you are and we'll see what we can do.

A recent maintenance update to the server has caused a problem, where at least some players can no longer see their async multiplayer games. We are turning the server off temporarily, while we fix it. Your games should survive this change but it will cause a little weirdness. If anyone suffers a bad loss in treasure as a result, let us know, we can manually add your treasure back. I will post again, when this is resolved. For more detailed updates, see Discord: https://discord.gg/PkmuSmudKG

v1.3.0.10 - Fixed bugs resulting from two opportunities being completed in the same end turn sequence and one requiring a player choice but being stuck behind the other. - Fixed bugs resulting from an opportunity being chosen too quickly. - Fixed games of 1000+ turns not being loadable from save files. - Fixed city sprites sometimes being slightly blurred after resetting turn. - Fixed issues with the app icon on Mac OS.

At 8pm UK time, we pushed a server update, which took about 30 minutes. In that time, nobody could log into multiplayer, sorry for the inconvenience. The aim was to improve mutliplayer stability as we've had issues this weekend (see previous post). The update took a little longer than usual due to it failing on the first deployment but we fixed it and now the game does appear to be performing better. We will continue monitoring it but, at the moment, we have ~130 people online and no issues. Since we're waiting to hear back from our server provider, Fly.io, we don't have a clear idea of what the issue was. They announced their own issues at the same time as our server was crashing but we can't be sure it's related without their input. We felt we should try some experimental changes in the meantime, chiefly turning off various logging functions and also multiplayer notifications. We will turn this stuff back on soon, one by one, and check what, if anything, is at fault. Predictably, turning stuff off has reduced load on the server so that probably explains the improved stability. We will be keeping a close eye on it. When we speak to Fly.io, we'll also ask about any hardware upgrades, which might help in future, if player numbers keep going up. Thanks for bearing with us!

Sorry to anyone who had trouble connecting to our multiplayer server this evening. At the moment, the server is fine but at various points over the last 4 hours, people have been booted out of multiplayer or been unable to connect to the lobby. We are not yet sure what the cause is but our provider, Fly.io, has reported ongoing issues at their end: https://status.flyio.net/ We haven't pushed new server code this week or had many issues recently so an external cause does seem likely. We will investigate more to be certain though. 99% of our connection issues since launch have been both short enough to not disrupt ongoing games (less than 5 mins downtime) and rare enough to not become a serious problem. This evening was different; it was hard to finish a multiplayer game without a problem occurring, which we know is maddening. We will solve this one way or another, if the problems continue, but hopefully, our provider sorts their issues out and everything returns to normal. If you experience connection issues, you should reboot the app and try logging in again. Failing that, please post in our Discord and we'll do what we can. You are welcome to @ Jeremy, one of the developers, for a quick reply (if he is awake).

Hi everyone, Our 3rd DLC map, The World, is on sale now and you should see it in your game already if you own the Season Pass. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2057784/Ozymandias__The_World/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2226120/Ozymandias__Season_Pass/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim/ Along with this latest map, we released a free update including multiplayer notifications! 🎉 Check out the full patch notes:

v1.3.0.3

• Our latest DLC map, The World, is now available to everyone in multiplayer. You need to own the map to create a game with it but then anyone can join.
• Steam multiplayer notifications will now alert you, when your multiplayer game is waiting for you. They will also let you know if you won or lost, if the game ended, when you were offline. Translations are coming soon for these.
• Two new opportunity cards, Invasion & Vengeance, will reward you for losing spaces on the map. Never waste a good crisis ;)
• Changed a river into an inland sea (lake) near Mayans in Mesoamerica.
• Adjusted a few empire difficulty ratings to better reflect how challenging players find them to win with.
• Fixed a mislabelled terrain under Java capital city.
• Fixed a typo in an empire description in FR.
• Fixed a missing full stop in Oxus description in EN.

⚠️ Multiplayer games from before the update will no longer appear in the lobby but can be played in a new compatibility branch in Steam (you need the old build to see these games). Sorry for the inconvenience, this is how we keep everyone in a game on the same build, to avoid desyncs. The branch is called v1.2.x.x-multiplayer-compatibility Have fun!

Hi folks, we’ve got a major update dropping early next week, along with our new DLC map. Each time we move from v1.1 to v1.2 and now v1.3, we have to keep everyone in a multiplayer game on the same version to avoid desyncs. When you get our v1.3 update, you will no longer be able to see you v1.2 games in the lobby. You can see these games by switching back to v1.2, via the multiplayer compatibility branches, which we explain here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1768280/discussions/0/3772364949840929839/ This should only affect people, who play 'asynchronous' multiplayer. Sorry for the inconvenience, especially for those, who didn't know last time, that this is how we do it. It's been our system for a long time but we didn't do a good enough job explaining it, outside of our Discord (do join! https://discord.gg/PkmuSmudKG ). In order to make the transition smoother, you may prefer to switch now to our multiplayer compatibility branch for the current build, which exists already to facilitate this, it's called: v1.2.x.x-multiplayer-compatibility You can switch back to the default branch any time - see how in the forum post linked above. Steam will update the app right away so it's easy to switch between them. Any questions, let us know!

v1.2.0.16 (same changes as v1.2.0.15 but without bugs) - Fix for rare opportunity bug, which could lead to a card appearing, when it shouldn't, in a number of ways. - Fix for multiplayer games being temporarily hidden, in the lobby, if you left/cancelled a game.

Sorry folks, our hotfix earlier has introduced a new bug so we've had to roll back to the previous build. We will fix the new issue and update again soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!

v1.2.0.15 - Fix for rare opportunity bug, which could lead to a card appearing, when it shouldn't, in a number of ways. - Fix for multiplayer games being temporarily hidden, in the lobby, if you left/cancelled a game.

At about 8am GMT, we have to reboot the server, in order to add a beta version of our multiplayer notification system, which will be finished in the next update. Sorry if the downtime messes up your multiplayer games, it will only affect you if you are online at that time, it shouldn't be a problem for games with longer timers. On the plus side, the notifications should be mostly functional from tomo. They will only be in English and we may have some bugs to iron out but this is why we're getting them live well before the next update. Let us know if you see them misbehaving, thanks!

v1.2.0.6 - Fixed a bug where spending percentages could occasionally get saved incorrectly leading to various issues. - 'Double your yield' opportunities now check for completion whenever a city is built or grown.

Hi all, As you may know, the year of Rabbit is around the corner! Best regards and wishes to everyone for the new year ahead! Looking back on the past year, we'd like to thank all of our players for supporting “Ozymandias”. We're working hard now on new content hoping to deliver you the experience as best as we can. Stay tuned! Happy New Year everyone!

Hi everyone, welcome to Mesoamerica! Our new DLC map is on sale now and, if you have the Season Pass, you should see it in your game already. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2057783/Ozymandias__Mesoamerica/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2226120/Ozymandias__Season_Pass/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim/ We've also released a free update, which includes everything in our changelog below. We had to postpone multiplayer notifications in the end, we are working through some technical issues with Steam but we expect them to arrive in not too long. To replace them in this update, we swapped in the new units in cities art.

v1.2.0.2

• New DLC map available to everyone in multiplayer, if somebody, who owns the DLC/Season Pass, creates the game.
• Steam leaderboard added to show who has the most Treasure! https://steamcommunity.com//stats/1768280/leaderboards/8312573
• Added a Confirm step when you are resigning from multiplayer games to prevent people doing it by accident.
• New visuals for when armies and fleets are in cities. To prevent units obscuring the city (if it's a small one), they now display only their flag/sail and the city is clearly visible behind this.
• Increased the cost of growing cities with 5+ population (most noticeable with very large cities). This should improve the late-game combat balance and also delay (and thus prevent some) stalemates in Domination Mode.
• Sewer System (grow a city to size 8) opportunity buffed from -20% city yield tech prices to -50%.
• FAQ entry about city growth prices updated.
• Updated the timing of the combat phase of the end turn sequence to avoid scenarios where it feels like the results of the battles are not displayed for long enough.
• Fixed the Polynesian capital's underlying terrain being incorrect (when you need to own 3 city's on X terrain for opportunities).
• Fixed start of turn click mode transitions, which occasionally caused problems with opportunities.
• Fixed some minor translation issues.

⚠ Multiplayer games from before the update will no longer appear in the lobby but can be played in a new compatibility branch in Steam (you need the old build to see these games). Sorry for the inconvenience, this is how we keep everyone in a game on the same build, to avoid desyncs. The branch is called v1.1.x.x-multiplayer-compatibility. Have fun! ⚔

Hi everyone, The first Ozymandias DLC is out now and includes a new map: Indonesia! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2057785/Ozymandias__Indonesia/ Get access to released and upcoming Ozymandias DLCs at a lower cost with this Season Pass: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2226120/Ozymandias__Season_Pass/ Get an extra discount on our bundles: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/29271/Ozymandias__Deluxe_Edition/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/29272/Ozymandias__Complete_Edition/

⚔ Free Update: Domination Mode

Our two most popular requests, rolled into one new mode, in which you play to the death! You can choose this from the start or you can use the 'Keep Playing' button to switch to it if someone else wins. Read all about it and the other changes in the patch notes!

🐫 Roadmap

Here's what we have in store for you: 5 more DLCs and 5 more free updates! Buy the Season Pass now and get access to all DLCs on their release day. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41383612/323e9bc69e81059bb5cde7f0025990e0d67c213f.png Enjoy!

Hi folks, the big new feature in this update is Domination Mode, where you play until there is only one empire left. You enable it from the pre-game victory panel. In multiplayer, you can set the crown target to 0, when making a game, to turn it on. A related addition, requested by many, is a 'Keep Playing' button on the results screen, which switches your game into Domination Mode if someone else wins. Here's the rest... v1.1.0.5 - Opportunities that give you a crown are now disabled if you have a 4 crown wonder selected (also if your game is in Domination Mode). - Slightly increased duration of conquest phase of end turn sequence. - New DLC map, Indonesia, can be played by everyone in multiplayer (if someone who owns it creates a game on it). - New 72h/turn timer in multiplayer. - Fixed multiplayer edge case that could lead to a game getting stuck if someone left just before the turn ended. - New sounds in the run up to your multiplayer game starting. - Fixed incorrect terrain under some starting cities (affected a few opportunities). - Fixed some incorrect empire difficulty ratings, which we had overwritten in a recent patch. - Fixed some translation errors. ⚠️ Multiplayer games from before the update will no longer appear in the lobby but can be played in a new compatibility branch in Steam (you need the old build to see these games). Sorry for the inconvenience, this is how we keep everyone in a game on the same build, to avoid desyncs. The branch is called v1.0.3.x-multiplayer-compatibility

Hi everyone,

We are happy to announce more content is coming to Ozymandias with 6 free updates and 6 DLC maps, starting December 8th! 🎉

The first free update, first DLC, Season Pass and Soundtrack will be available on December 8th. The Season Pass will include 6 DLC maps. Buy it on December 8th and get all the DLCs at a lower price when they come out!

Wishlist Now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2226120/Ozymandias__Season_Pass/

🏆 Nominate Ozymandias

Please consider nominating Ozymandias for the Steam Awards through the game page! Whether you choose the "Best Game You Suck At" or "Better With Friends" category, your support means a lot. ♥ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim/

v1.0.3.18 - Threats adjusted to be easier to see in similarly coloured terrain. - Incorrect deep sea locations fixed in the map art. - Saving the game can no longer fail if you click Quit straight after. - Updates to multiplayer game list to prevent players from instantly resigning. - Fix for buttons in the lobby that could be double-clicked confusing the server. - The ‘Game Started’ sound will now only play if the local player is in the game in question. - After you end turn in multiplayer, the timer tooltip will now show the time remaining in the turn. - Timer tooltip now always shows the time remaining when you re-enter a multiplayer game. - If your game timer runs out in a multiplayer game, you will now be returned to the main menu. - Fixed long map names getting cut off in the game lobby. - Fixed player names flickering on multiplayer results screen. - Fixed a case where players with less Treasure didn’t get priority when empires were assigned. - Fixed bug where timer ticking would not be heard if you were still in the opportunity choice. - Fixed Holy City causing Harvest Festival to trigger erroneously. - Wonders, which have been turned off, will now never be visible on the victory panel. - You can no longer continue turning blank How To Play pages with arrow keys. - The month shown on the Load Game screen is now localised in all languages. - Minor translation fixes in FR & DE. - Fixed a few edge cases relating to players leaving in between turns in multiplayer. - Fixed an edge case in how players are ranked at the end of a multiplayer game. The final 2 changes will arrive with a server update in ~15 hours so there will be a short outage then. These server changes will not disrupt long-running multiplayer games but our compatibility branches remain open in Steam if you have very old games.