DEV DIARY | Advanced Game Modes and the Timeline Debrief AAR

Today, in the twilight’s shadow dawn, the engineering department has the distinguished pleasure to announce the latest upgrade to all terminals, containing the following features.

1. NEW Advanced Game Modes

2. NEW Timeline Debrief After Action Report

3. UPDATED Victory Conditions screen

Keep a nice pitcher of tea close by. Let us get started!

NEW ADVANCED GAME MODES

Terminal Conflict has grown over the years. More systems, more scenario rules, more ways to play, more ways to win, and a few more ways to accidentally end the world. With that growth came a familiar challenge. Many of you asked for more control over how a campaign starts, but you also asked us not to bury the default experience under a mountain of switches. So we built Advanced Game Modes.

This is not meant to replace the standard setup. Think of it as a separate control panel. If you want the classic experience, you can ignore it entirely and start the game exactly as you always have. If you like experimenting, tightening the screws, or tailoring the run to a specific playstyle, your terminal now has the knobs. It works of course in single and multiplayer, but is unavailable in Ranked Play.

What can be configured

• Starting Timeline window: Select the 5 year start window. Now you decide how quickly the temperature rises.

• AddedTurn TimersFor those of you who want the clock ticking like a third superpower in the room. This supports pressure focused play and competitive pacing, and it also integrates properly with the new debrief flow. For those that love the role-playing part, we've also added a Government run mode that enhances or diminished your total turn time depending on how well you keep the interest of your Government.

• Space Race Victory: Adjust how Space Race completion behaves as a victory condition. Sometimes victory should land with a headline. Sometimes it should simply shift the balance and keep the timeline rolling. We wanted to give you more say in how decisive Space Race progress should be.

• Timeline Starting Decisions: Seed up to 3 decisions per timeline (default is 2). On paper it is a small lever. In practice it can set the tone of a timeline before the first focus is even selected.

• M.A.D. Mode: Start off with 30 nukes in your and your opponents Arsenal. Nough said!

NEW TIMELINE DEBRIEF AFTER ACTION REPORT

If Advanced Game Modes is the briefing, then the Timeline Debrief AAR is the debriefing.

We have all had that moment. The timeline ends and you know you did something important, but you are left piecing together the story from memory. Which turn shifted influence? Which focus mattered most? What did my opponent quietly pull off while I was busy elsewhere? We designed the Timeline Debrief AAR to answer those questions clearly.

It is a new end of timeline report built around an interactive world map, timeline highlights and a summary, Here is what the engineers have created:

• Influence gains are animated

• Highlights now have imagery

• Regions light up where influence was gained

• Doomsday Clock overview included

• With the Prev and Next buttons you can follow up on every turn.

UPDATED VICTORY CONDITIONS SCREEN

We saw how important it was for gameplay to keep checking every few turns the Victory Conditions, quietly, to make sure the master plan is still heading toward the future we think we are building.

We updated the Victory Conditions screen to make it clearer and more reliable with small changes, but this screen is opened often, so we know that reducing friction here matters.

IN CLOSING

Version 1080 is our return with greater substance. As always, we would love your feedback, especially on two questions.

1. We are working on a new set of summit decisions and would love to hear your thoughts on which ones you particularly prefer?

2. There are further improvement being worked on for the AI. What would you like to see the AI do more of?

Grab us on the Terminal Conflict Discord Server or the Steam discussions and let us know.

Mighty Cheers

Upcoming Development

I) More late game content, especially for 1980s II) Overhaul of the mismanagement system III) Continued UI readability passes across frequently used screens

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CHANGELOG v.1080

ADVANCED GAME MODES

• NEW Advanced Game Modes Added Timeline Debrief timer to properly be implemented by the turn timer

• Added a tooltip for Advanced Game Mode that demonstrates any changes in modes

• Added a button indicator to indicate when advanced selections have been made

• Updated the color palette for the Advanced Game Mode menu to make them darker

• Made Default options the left most option in every menu

• Updated the timeline ticker to match the timeline setup where the last timeline is displayed as 1991-

TIMELINE DEBRIEF AAR

• NEW Timeline Debrief AAR

• Added imagery to the highlights to showcase specific key events that happened that timeline

• Animated influence gain to better demonstrate changes in the world map World map now lights up relevant regions where influence was gained

• Switching between turns now shows which focus and turn each entry belongs to

• Implemented and updated timeline summary display

• Implemented an overview of Doomsday Clock in the summary

• Fixed issue where loading an OOB for alignment would incorrectly be included in the first timeline summary

• Fixed issues with timeline and turn comparison logic

• Fixed menu turn timer errors impacting Timeline Debrief Fixed Multiplayer bug that could cause debrief to finish incorrectly

VICTORY CONDITIONS

• Updated Victory Conditions to more clearly display the list of conditions

• Fixed Nuclear Apocalypse scoring formatting issue

• Fixed victory condition text visibility issues Fixed several typos

FOCUSES

• NEW Focus - Geneva Summit: USA gains 3 Influence in NORTH AMERICA and 2 VP. Set Government to 5. | USSR sets Government to 5.

OTHER

• Fixed smaller bugs and typos