While our first patches were all about fixing the bugs and optimizing the game (which is still an ongoing work), it’s time to implement some of the changes we decided to make based on your valuable feedback. In result we are about to release our biggest patch since the launch of Sacrifices.
What’s new exactly? Let’s take a look!
Hygiene system overhaul
Most of the feedback we have commonly received so far is related to our hygiene system. It is supposed to be simple: you need medicinal herbs to prevent diseases, and once followers are sick you need to take the same herbs to cure them. Unfortunately such a system leads to two extremes: either you have enough herbs and everyone is clean, or you’re a little low on supplies then the followers that get sick need even more herbs than you can already provide and everything goes to hell. It’s a little dark, but there is no in-between really.
To resolve this design flaw, the feature will now be split into two buildings:
- Herborists will keep harvesting medicinal herbs to prevent your followers from getting sick
- The healers camp (new building!) will now be responsible for treating diseases and injuries. This new building is unlocked at the beginning of the game and can be built for 300 units of wood. Healers will automatically take care of wounded or sick followers one by one. That being said, only the weak and serious injuries/diseases can be treated that way, meaning you’ll still have to use your powers to get rid of the worst ones.
Work-related injuries and diseases
Until now, even when you’re doing your best and your warehouses are full of medicinal herbs, your followers could get hurt or sick while working in the jungle. It makes things rather confusing since it’s tough to know who gets sick, why, and how to fix it.
In an effort to make these events more understandable we made a lot of balancing changes in our next patch:
- To put it simply, those events are now in the past. No more random events which effects were hidden in the detailed report of a character sheet.
- We converted all those events into new Godly advices (when your followers need you to make a decision for them). Meaning, if a follower gets hurt or sick as a result of your advice, you will be informed immediately. Fix your foolishness! It also means more rewards if you help them make a good choice.
- We’re introducing a new event: the epidemic. Despite your best efforts to keep your followers cleaner than ever, your village can now be the target of a terrible disease. A virus will spread and infect your followers. Your shiny new healers better be ready, they’ll have some work to do!
With all these changes we hope it will be easier to understand how everything works regarding the hygiene of your followers.
Improving the interface
As stated earlier in this post, we want the game to be more self-explanatory. A lot is happening in Sacrifices, and it’s not always easy to display that much content on a small screen. That being said, we’ve been working on some improvements for the interface and this update is the perfect opportunity to introduce them. Here are the highlights:
- New information regarding entities: Sometimes it’s tough to know who does what and for how long without going to the character sheet. It should now be easier! By selecting a follower you will have access to several important information right below their feet (gender, health, current activity and time until they complete it). It works the same way with buildings. Crazy!
- Several players pointed out that sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish men from women and children without zooming in. The gender of your follower is now displayed under their feet, in their character sheet, and in the forum.
- The credits are now accessible from the options. We needed some room to implement a newsfeed in the menu. You’ll have access to the latest news right in the menu, making sure you know exactly what is going on with Sacrifices.
- We reworked the way we display the options to make it easier to navigate. It was getting crowded!
The complete list of interface changes will be available when the patch is released, stay tuned!
Community-based translations
We recently launched our forum and community translation tools. This version of Sacrifices and subsequent ones will support translations proposed by the community, such as the one in Portuguese (Brazil) which has just started. If you’re interested in helping us translate the game, don’t hesitate to send us an email or offer your help on our forum! We’re right here if you need anything.
About performance
Patch after patch we’re optimizing the game so it requires less RAM and runs smoother on more smartphones and tablets. With this patch we’re introducing a new graphic option tied to image compression. While the impact of performance is very noticeable (between 30% to 60% less RAM depending of the phone), it drastically affects the visual quality of the game. While we’re working on other optimizations, this is a good one to consider if you’re experiencing important performance issues.
Bug fixing – we need you
Fixing bugs is still very much a priority for us, and this patch will bring a lot of fixes. With patch 11 we’re introducing a new way to help us in this difficult task: if your game files are corrupted you can email them to us directly from the game. This is very much optional, but it would be an invaluable help to fix the remaining bugs that haunt our nights.
Open beta
Finally, we will be testing the patch an entire week before release. The new hygiene system is likely to upset the balance of the game and we want to take the time to test it. If you’re interested in testing the new features, you’re welcome to do so (Android): https://play.google.com/apps/testing/net.spookygames.sacrifices Don’t forget to give us your feedback on our forum! Dear iOS user, you are not forgotten! If you too want to try the beta, please contact us directly or on the forum.
The beta is available right now! The patch is scheduled to go live on February 10th, 2018.
We’ll keep monitoring your feedback! Thank you!