Star Dynasties MAJOR Update - Intrigue

Fellow Dukes,

We're very excited to release our first major post-launch update! This one focuses mainly on reworking the intrigue mechanics, such as secret discoveries, spy networks, and blackmail. It also fixes some issues with the Honor system, and adds beta German localization. More details below.

There may or may not also be an important update surrounding your canine companions.

Intrigue

In the last update, we spoke about some of the changes that this patch has in the area of intrigue. To recap;

• We’ve reworked secret discovery so that it is more intuitive

• We’ve associated secrets with a location, so that you can investigate suspicious events directly

• Spy Network now reveals more of the petty secrets of the characters in a location

• Spy Network can now be carried out on your home system and provides a defensive bonus against enemy spy networks

• Spy Network now gradually reveals the residents of the target location

I also want to describe two more changes that this patch will bring to Intrigue in Star Dynasties: the new “extort” mechanic, and spy events.

Extort

When you discover a secret related to a character, you can currently exploit it in one of two ways. First, if it is to your advantage to embarrass that character, you can simply reveal it, damaging their reputation. If the secret was about some kind of crime against you, or a character in your domain, that can also give you the opportunity to avenge yourself for the crime, justifying aggressive action against the character.

If that character is a ruler, you can also blackmail them. This comes up as a demand when you make a request of that character. For example, you can request allegiance from a foreign vassal baron, threatening to reveal their secret if they do not accept. However, because you can only make requests to rulers, this mechanism to exploit secrets can be somewhat limited.

Extort is a similar mechanism that applies to characters that aren’t rulers. Extort works similarly to blackmail, but there are a whole host of things that you can try to cajole out of characters. Some demands, such as money, will always be available, but some demands will depend on the character whose secret you have discovered. The Head of Military, for example, might be convinced to let you get your hands on the defense plans of the system, while the Head of Security could turn a blind eye to some of your intrigue on the system.

Because you never quite know whose secret you’ll discover, you’ll have to think on your feet about the best way to exploit it when your Spy Network hits paydirt.

Spy Events

Having a Spy Network on a system will also present you with decisions from time to time as your spies discover opportunities that can be exploited for your advantage. The events might complement your current plans on that system, or they may provide some kind of unexpected advantage with a ruler that is a tough nut to crack.

Honor

One of the mechanics of Star Dynasties that we are most proud of is the honor system. It’s a novel and realistic approach to modelling pro-social or anti-social behaviour that can create satisfying moments of emergent narrative. However, as with any game mechanic explored for the first time, there are some teething issues with it and it has also thrown up its fair share of frustrating moments and contradictions.

This patch makes some significant changes to this area to address those frustrations.

First off, we have removed the dreaded no-win scenario in combat. For those who have not experienced it yet, this is the situation where you were asked to join a combat, and both accepting OR refusing is dishonorable. Usually this happens because two opposing obligations are being tested. For example, you are asked by your feudal master to answer a call to arms in a battle against a ruler who is your kin (e.g. your brother). Now refusing to accept a call to arms is dishonorable. And attacking your kin is also dishonorable. However it is reasonable that when you are forced to choose between these two events, the court of public opinion would be somewhat more lenient in judging you as dishonorable. And the game now understands this and ensures that at least one of the options is a neutral choice.

Secondly, when you commit a bad act (a crime), someone other than you sometimes benefits. For example, if you decide to depose a ruler unfairly and replace them, the new ruler has benefitted from your crime. It has always felt unrealistic that that new ruler would 1) be equally horrified by your act as any other onlooker, and 2) get involved in punishing you for the act. With this patch, the beneficiaries of a crime will do neither.

Thirdly, the interface around requests for justice (charges) has been improved. When you are charged, the update now gives you more relevant information and allows you to immediately deal with the charge using the standard punishments if you wish. The Justice Panel also now provides a shortcut so that you can quickly resolve a charge using one of the standard punishments.

We’ve also added two standard punishments that make it easier to punish characters that have accumulated a lot of crime. The large fine is twice as punishing as a normal fine. And for members on your home system, you can now humiliate them (by condemning them to serf labour). To compensate, nerve whipping a character is now a harsher crime.

Lastly, rulers and nobles now resolve charges more consistently, reducing the unnecessary requests for justice because some other ruler has ignored their obligation to deliver justice.

More

The game now has a German beta localization. There are still some parts of the game that are not yet translated, where the text doesn’t quite fit correctly in the UI, or is very awkward. Please help us improve the translation by pointing out any issues you come across! You can switch to the German version from the top right of the main menu.

Last, but not least, you can now pet the dog.

There are many other changes and fixes, so check out the full patch notes below. This is our first major update post-launch, and we're also working on some other content that we will reveal later down the line.

Patch Notes

Intrigue

• Secret discovery, both passively and via Spy Network, has been reworked

• Secrets now have an associated location, such that they can be passively discovered by the house of that location, or by a Spy Network on that location

• Spy Network now reveals more of the petty secrets of the members of the ruling house of the target location

• Spy Network can now be carried out on your home system and provides a defensive bonus against enemy spy networks

• Spy Network now generates opportunities for disruption and sabotage on the target location

• Spy Network now gradually reveals the residents of the target location, starting from the most important members of the ruling house

• You can now extort non-ruler characters when you know one of their secrets (you can already blackmail rulers)

• Added a suggestion listing the characters you can extort or blackmail

• The list of secrets now highlights those that cannot be revealed by you

• Secrets now have an icon which when hovered shows the expected honor consequences of revealing the secret

• The action to reveal a secret now shows the honor consequence to you from doing so

Honor

• When asked to join a side in combat, it is no longer possible for all choices to be dishonorable

• Beneficiaries of a crime no longer get negative opinion towards the actor, and cannot be charged to avenge it

• The charged update now tells you whether ignoring the charge has a moral penalty

• The charged update now explains by what right the character charged you, and (where appropriate) why they in turn had an obligation to do so

• When you are charged, you now get the opportunity to deal with the charge immediately

• The justice panel now provides a mechanism by which you can see the direct options you have to deal with a charge or grievance

• The justice panel now seperates the charges you are obliged to deal with from the ones you are not

• You can now offer to avenge a crime directly from the justice panel

• Added action to fine a ruler for a larger amount

• Added action to humiliate a noble on your system (1-sword crime/punishment). Nerve whipping is now a larger crime/punishment.

• Rulers and nobles now resolve charges more consistently

• It is now a smaller crime to fire someone from the council

General

• Beta German Localization! (you can change language in the top right of the main menu)

• You can now pet the dog

• Tweaked game generation so it is less likely for your initial vassal barons to immediately betray you

• You can now seduce characters that are part of your house

• The "House" prefix for a house name is now mandatory

• The star system summary now also shows unrest on system

• Reduced cost of Spread Dissent to 30

• Reduced per turn cost of Quell Unrest to 1

• Many minor tweaks to UI, tooltips, in-game text, story events

Fixes

• Fixed two rare causes of the end of turn soft-lock

• Fixed soft-lock when switching to the Vassals tab while appointing a ruler to a rebuilt colony

• Fixed bug where per turn cost of Quell Unrest was not being deducted from house finances

• You can no longer seduce characters in a faction with whom you are at war

• Fixed bug where the player was not being told when a romantic partner broke up with them

• It is no longer possible for a colony to have less than zero unrest

• Fixed issue where a character would push a claim to rule an unknown system or faction

• The "Cover Up" suggestion is no longer shown for secrets that are already being covered up, or which cannot be covered up

• Fixed issue where some secrets where not prompting the "Cover Up" suggestion

• Fixed issue where not all unmarried house members were showing up in the suggestion to marry off your house members

• Fixed bug where sometimes you would bring along your dead spouse to a feast

• Fixed issue where reputation and happiness bars in bottom toolbar where sometimes not drawn correctly

• Fixed issue where the game would still say a mod is enabled after it was manually removed from the Mods directory

Modding - Intrigue

• Added "Secrets Associated With" source

• Added "Can Be Revealed By" filter

• Added "Do Secret Cannot Reveal" effect

• Added Secret List Matcher

• Added Passed Secret Matcher

• Enabled secret properties in Branching outcome weight calculation

Modding - General

• It is now possible to hide decision choices in Creator, if their prerequisites are not met

• Added option to randomize results from a list matcher

• Added "Home System Of" filter

• Added "Is Resident Of" filter

• Added "Modify Skill Level Worst" effect

• Added "Modify Skill Level Best" effect

• Added "crIcon" text function that prints the money icon

• Added Passed Assignment Matcher

• Added "Effectiveness In Assignments Targetting This Character" flag effect

• Added "Sub Story Event List" effect

• Added "Matcher - Assignment Count" calculation

• Added Assignment List Matcher

• Added "Active Assignments" house property

• The "Do Divorce" effect now handles the scenario where the character has no spouse gracefully

• Added "domainOf" text function

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