[Dev Diary] Excelsior

Excelsior feature pack: New features, content and mechanics explained

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Dear Settlers,

Sonya Graham and her "Excelsior" are on their way to your islands! Already available on the test server for some time, the Excelsior feature pack was also introduced in detail on the gamescom. This Dev Diary will explain the new features around the Forge of Truth: Crystals, the new adventure type called "Venture", the new Epic Raid Venture campaign, daily quest and daily login bonus changes and many more enhancements and content.

Captain Sonya Graham is a well known explorer/inventor and the captain of the Excelsior.
Captain Graham's biggest achievement is the discovery of a way to use the ability of magical crystals to power industrial machinery.

The Excelsior is her legendary airship designed for research and exploration.
The airship is filled with ancient data and unique artefacts.

Captain Graham accompanies every player level 21 or higher throughout the whole content related to the Excelsior and Tutorial quests.

This is a brief overview of new features & content:

• The Excelsior: A floating airship that provides new game mechanics with the Forge of Truth.
• Crystals: Resources needed for the Forge of Truth.
• New type of adventure called Ventures combining Scenarios and military combat adventures.
• Venture campaign: "The Evil Queen" Fairy Tale Venture chain (5 Ventures)
  • Epic Farmyard: New Epic Workyard, reward for completing "The Evil Queen".
  • Completing a Venture of "The Evil Queen" always rewards the next one in the chain.
  • Completing the campaign for the first time rewards the Epic Farmyard and unlocks additional
    productions (Blueprints) on subsequent playthroughs.

Table of content

• #1 Excelsior Introduction
• #2 Forge of Truth & Crystals
• #3 Letters, Travel Guides, Fairy Tale books
• #4 New adventure kind: Ventures
• #5 Campaign: "The Evil Queen" & new single Ventures
• #6 New buildings
• #7 Misc

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Captain Graham's ship comes with a library and the technology to translate ancient and recent texts to unlock exclusive new quests and adventures! A new user interface opens when you click on the Excelsior. Spend a new resource called Crystals to try to generate text parts in the Forge of Truth.

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The Forge of Truth - Runs on Crystals and... Truth ;)

What do you have to do to use the Forge?
In order for the Forge to work, you need to use Crystals.

Crystals can be acquired by:

• Daily login bonus
  Starting with the second daily login bonus after reaching level 21, Crystals replace the daily login bonus (except for the gem rewards).
• Daily Quests
  Crystals are the new reward for all daily quests
• Gems
  You can also use gems in the Forge (29 gems equal one Crystal)

Select the desired parts at the top of Excelsior’s building menu and hit the purple button to fire up the Forge. You can also use the arrow buttons next to it to invest more Crystals and get more rewards. For each invested Crystal the dice will be rolled once and you will receive one of the shown rewards.

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Get one of these items (short letter) for each burned Crystal

Not every attempt will generate text parts, but you will always get something from the reward window on the right in return. Once you have earned enough identical parts, you can complete a text. Based on the type of the text you can acquire different rewards.

Read more about the texts you can produce in the Forge in post #3.

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The Forge of Truth produces snippets which can be used to compile texts.



We know three kind of texts:

• Letters: Reward a quest buff, which starts a challenging chain of quests.

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• Travel Guides: award Ventures, a new type of adventure that combines Scenarios and military combat adventures. Initially there will be 6 different Ventures (2 per difficulty level).

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• Fairytale Books: reward a campaign (adventure chain) consisting of multiple ventures.

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Letters and Travel Guides are available in three different difficulties.
One new Fairytale venture chain, "The Evil Queen" is available to be compiled by Fairy Tale book parts.

It's the same production procedure for every kind of text:

1. Choose a kind of text
2. Choose a difficulty grade / Fairytale
3. Invest Crystals until you've collected enough snippets
4. Complete the text

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Large Version (Click)

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Ventures are a combination of military adventures and scenarios.
You will need to send generals and armies to defeat bandit camps and also produce and apply buffs to complete your tasks.
With the release of the "Excelsior", six regular Ventures and a Fairy tale Venture campaign called "The Evil Queen" will become available.

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Camps on venture islands can contain enemy units (1) or elements that are defeated by applying buffs (2).
They can be distinguished by their frames and backgrounds.

The new (single) Ventures available with the Excelsior's launch:

El Chupacabra
The legendary monster “El Chupacabra” terrorizes a jungle-covered island. The worst part: It is spreading a "curse" that turns the native people into frenzied berserkers who attack on sight.

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Possible rewards:
Industrial Coal or Gold Mine, Jungle Residence, Refillers, Buffs, Decorations


Raid of the Nords
The Nords have raided an innocent island, destroying the natives' villages
and hunting the wildlife to the brink of extinction.

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Possible rewards:
Industrial Coal or Gold Mine, Buffs, Tipis (Residences), Refillers, Snowflakes


The Dragon's Roost
An island chain has been plagued by a dragon named Flafir 100 years ago but the beast was allegedly slain.
It turns out the dragon is immortal and was merely lying dormant while recovering from his wounds.
Defeat it again and craft a magic sword to slay him for good!

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Possible rewards:
Industrial Copper or Iron Mine, Buffs, Refillers, Dark Castle, Decorations


The Lost City
Sonya Graham is searching for the legendary City of Glory and has identified the adventure island as its most-likely location. Free the island from a bandit infection, unearth the ruins and interact with the magical altars to get access to the mystical city.

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Possible rewards:
Industrial Titanium or Saltpetre Mine,
Codex Recipe (if not in possession already), Buffs, Refillers, Residences, Decorations


One Step Ahead
Pirates have raided allied kingdoms! Your navigators calculated that the pirates' treasure fleet's only option to replenish their supplies is this adventure island. Visit the island and ambush the ships - return the stolen treasure!

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Possible rewards:
Industrial Titanium or Saltpetre Mine, Codex Recipe (if not in possession already),
Buffs, Refillers, Harbor Tower (warehouse), Pirate Residence, Decorations


Valuable Intel
One of your spies was watching an island called Puerto Sombrío because something shady was going on there. The spy has not reported back in a while, obviously he has been captured! Free the spy and uncover a story of bribes, treasures and pirates!

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Possible rewards:
Industrial Copper or Iron Mine, Buffs, Refillers, Pirate Residence, Decorations

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We begin the fairy tale after the fisherman's wife has become crazy and evil, in her vile efforts to become godlike. The fisherman is begging for help. Maybe the flounder knows the right answer to bring his lovely wife Ilsebill back. The journey begins...

After successfully finishing one of the adventures below, the next campaign Venture is part of the reward.
The sixth one "Snow White" doesn't reward another adventure as it's the campaign's finale.
When cancelling or losing one of the Ventures, it will not be reimbursed and you have to start over.

Venture - The Fisherman and his Wife
The Fisherman's wife, blinded with power, has gone completely mad. With her newfound influence, she's seized control of this island and has devised plans to take even further lands. He laments that that's not the Ilsebille he married. We must stop her!

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Possible rewards:
Magic Beans, Grout, Refiller (Granite, Salpeter, Titanium Ore), Bone Church


Venture - Hansel and Gretel
The woodcutter is very worried about his children. He needs our help! We must be prepared for everything. Who knows what we will encounter in this dark forest?

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Possible rewards:
Magic Beans, Grout, Buffs (Machine Oil, Wilderwood Resin, Elixir)
Decorations (Red Trees, Cherry Trees)


Venture - The Pied Piper of Hamelin
We received a message informing that the Evil Queen is here causing trouble. However, the scouts I dispatched before have not seen her at all. No matter. This region is in trouble and is our duty to help them out!

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Possible rewards:
Magic Beans, Grout, Buffs (Machine Oil, Barazek, Chocolate Pralines),
Pirate Residence, Frozen Manor


Venture - Red Riding Hood
We caught wind that the Evil Queen Ilsebille has established herself on this island. Once again we must solve the situation to ensure her actions do not damage the inhabitants of this region.

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Possible rewards:
Magic Beans, Grout, Buffs (Machine Oil, Elixir, Wilderwood Resin)
Decorations (Angels Gate, Cherry Tree, Ancient Temple),
Black Castle, Frozen Manor


Venture - Snow White
The Queen has decreed that she wants to be considered the fairest maiden of the kingdom, and for that she wants to murder her beautiful, innocent step-daughter Snow White. It seems that Queen Ilsebille is not the only one who deserves the title of "Evil Queen". This will not be tolerated!

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Possible rewards: Magic Beans, Grout,

Recipe Tome: A recipe, which unlocks the tome production for the Rarity Provision House

Epic Farmyard: A building which can run wheat-related production chains at an increased efficiency.
Contains the first unlock of Epic Farmyard (Can only be obtained once)

Blueprints (Well, Silo, Farm, Mill, Bakery, Brewery, Stables) for the Epic Farmyard:
Unlock production chains in the Epic Farmyard

Buff: Chant of Focus

The "Possible rewards" include sure and chance items. Every campaign adventure rewards the next adventure until you completed the campaign with Snow White.

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A huge amount of new buildings and decorations will be available through the Ventures.
Let us introduce the new production buildings with the list below.


Epic Farmyard

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Description: Similar to the Epic Woodyard, this building provides seven wheat-related production chains of which 3 can run simultaneous, based on the available Blueprints.

Blueprints:

• Epic Farm (Wheat)
• Well (Water)
• Silo (Silo)
• Mill (Flour)
• Bakery (Bread)
• Brewery (Brew)
• Stables (Horse)

Blueprints and the Farmyard can be gathered as reward for completing the "The Evil Queen" venture campaign (see #5).

Industrial mines

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Available industrial mines:

• Industrial Copper Mine
• Industrial Iron Mine
• Industrial Coal Mine
• Industrial Gold Mine
• Industrial Titanium Mine
• Industrial Saltpetre Mine

The industrial mines are possible rewards of the single Ventures listed in #4.
They are working like a level 7 mine. They can deplete and will not reappear in the star menu.

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Along with the Excelsior Feature and it's content, there will also be smaller changes in some areas of the game. Even though we might have mentioned some of these in the posts above, we'd like to point out the changes to them again here:

• Daily login bonus
  Starting at level 21, Crystals replace the daily login bonus (except for the gem rewards).

• Daily Quests
  Starting at level 21, Crystals are the new reward for all daily quests

• Bookbinder Recipes
  The new Recipes can be part of a reward of the following tasks:
  
  • Codex Recipe for completing the Venture "The Lost City" or "One Step Ahead"
  • Tome Recipe for completing the Venture "Snow White"
  • Manuscript Recipe in the (Long Letter) quests:
    • The Lost Compass
    • A threat!?
    • Settlers & Bandits (Coal & Paper)

We hope you will enjoy the Excelsior as much as we do and will have much fun with it!

Happy Settling,
BB_Saqui

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