Developer Update 2021/02/01

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Hello there Celeste players! We are back again with another Developer Update blog.

This time, we are going to spotlight a few of the important changes that are included in this patch, as well as what's on the horizon for Project Celeste in the coming months.

New Unit Stats Icons
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One of Age of Empires Online's biggest advantages over previous Age titles is the abundance of information available to players when looking at their Units' stats. You can clearly see information such as Gather Rates on your Villagers, the amount of Armor your units have alongside many other things. However, a few key stats were missing from this list which we have now added. See the graphic below for more information:

Unit_Stats_Icons.png


Readability Improvements
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Readability is an incredibly important feature, especially for beginners who aren't yet familiar with the game all that well. We have taken steps to improve this, as you can see below:

Age_Up_Messages.png

SelectionGrid.png

(PF2K's personal note: It's finally here!)
Tribute_UI_Before.png

Tribute_UI_After.png

(PF2K's personal note: I've added a bunch more small improvements to different UIs here and there, let me know if you notice any of them after the upcoming patch gets deployed!)



New Loading Screens
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One incredibly helpful way of conveying information to new (and old!) players is via Loading Screens. This is done in two ways:
  • Text-based one-liner tips
  • Full Screen Custom Loading Screens
We are working on adding more of both of these types of Loading Screens to the game. We asked you, the community, to help us with the text-based ones and you've surprised us with your great feedback so far!

And below you can see some of the upcoming full screen ones:

Loading_Screens_1.png

Loading_Screens_2.png

Loading_Screens_3.png


Improvements to the Spartan Forge
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The Spartan Forge is the very first completely new feature in Project Celeste. Built entirely from the ground up, this handy tool allows you to try and get better stats on your Legendary items. Something that was creating lots of confusion for people was the fact that you had to drag and drop your item to onto the interface, and it wouldn't work if you clicked on your item from your inventory and dropped it there. We finally managed to get rid of this and are happy to tell you that from next patch, you can put your items onto the Reforge UI in whatever way you'd like!

Additionally, since the Spartan Forge isn't technically a store, we updated the Minimap Icon for it so it's a bit easier to find once you arrive in Sparta. See below:

Reforge_Improvements.png


Update on the Romans
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Now the biggest question on your mind right now probably is "Where are the Romans? When are they getting released?!"

That is a difficult question to answer, but if you have been paying attention, we are only some weeks away from being able to release the Romans!

  • The Campaign for the Romans is almost completely done; with only Sidequests remaining to polish and finalize.
  • The Music for the Romans is nearly complete; only a handful of tracks remain.
  • The Voice Acting for the Romans is closer to completion than ever before.
  • The 3D work for the Romans is almost done, but we still have quite a few bits and pieces to iron out before we're happy with the results;
    • Things such as the Heroic Roman Vanity gear need to be updated on every single unit from existing civilizations individually, since Heroic Vanity sets have multiple types of Shields and Helmets.
    • We need to update Vanity Island to include the vanity from the Romans, including the Units Island that contains Capital City Vanity Units and Ships.
    • We need to iron out the details regarding all the new Stores that will be added to the game with the Romans, including those in Capua and in the City of Rome
  • We are also preparing a Video Trailer for the Romans, similar to existing civilizations' trailers, showcasing the Roman Civilization and preparing them for release. (Huge thanks to Mandy and Kire for being the main people working on this!)
RomansUpdate20210201.png

To close this blog out, we went and asked the three members of the triumvirate, Caesar, Pompey and Crassus if they knew anything about the Romans' release date. See for yourself below:

RomansReleaseDateTeaser.png

(PF2K's Personal Note: We are NOT giving you an exact date, but this should be a good hint. Winky winky)


All current and future content will stay 100% free and accessible to everyone.


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Thank you so much for reading, and we will see you all next time!

Project Celeste Development Team

What do you think about this blog? What would you like to see next? Let us know in the comments below!

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Missed the Roman Civilization's announcement? Find out about it HERE.

Project Celeste is completely free and always will be. However, we gladly accept donations for our overhead costs, which are larger than we have budgeted. If you want to support us, you can do so HERE.

Read every Romans related blog HERE.

Tell your friends! Join our Discord HERE.
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great work on everything guys keep it up, concerning the statistics when and if it will be possible to include the critic?
 
So you have all prepared for the romans announcement even the tourney ready so glad for Celeste. Best AOE game combines the fast pace of AOE 3 and the empire building catch of AOE 2. Can't wait for the romans
 
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Reactions: arkaram
All of this is beautiful! Thank you for everything!
I really like stats in the unit ui to better reflect our choices of gear, advisor and milestones. Would it get too bloated if more was added there like crit chance(mostly) and maybe cost modifier, construction speed bonus even if it can be deduced from the cost and build time?
Edit: I missed the answer about crit. That's awesome!
 
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It's almost there! I always said we can wait, just take your time to make it perfect.... But now I can't wait to finally play it! :grinning:
 
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Reactions: purpleganja
Awesome, very small details polished, but it does much for the game imo - very nice.

There are some attributes on military units I've missed, dunno if it's possible to add, but I'd assume it is:
1) Damage (One shot damage, instead of dps over time, don't need to exclude the later)
2) Rate of Fire (How long time between each hit/shot)
3) Aim&Fire delay (Like the Tox is really fast, Immortals really slow, but how fast/slow)

TY for the great work, REALLY looking forward to Romans also :D
 
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Reactions: dmtheripper
These color coded text messages are nice:-) it would be even better if the screen centered popup message was bigger. or maybe my monitor is just to small