Against the Storm - "Rogue-like," TROPICO-like, Village Builder

[baelthazar]

I looked for a thread on this one and was surprised that we didn't have one. I've been playing this for a few months now, having stumbled upon it during the winter. It is in early access but is one of those pleasant surprises where this early access feels like a feature-complete game.

The premise is that you are a viceroy building resource-gathering villages for the queen in the Burning City. You see, every so often, a gigantic magical storm comes and wipes out everything in the land with the exception of a capital city protected by the Queen's ever burning magic. So you are tasked with sending folks out and building outposts to squeeze as much as you can from the land before the next storm (which serves as the "end" of a run).

Each outpost plays a little like a single level of a game like Majesty. You start from scratch and then attract citizens and build an infrastructure. What makes the game both more interesting and prevents it from being stale is that the Queen gives you choices of which buildings you are allowed to make and only offers more as you please her whims (by sending stuff back, clearing enemies, and other things). So you have to think about your production chains, what resources are available, and what your settlers need.

The settlers are another interesting piece - they are made up of fantasy races of anthropomorphic beaver men (good at woodcrafting, lumber gathering, and building), lizard people (meat ranchers and cooks), harpies (herbalism and magic focused), and humans (a bit in the middle but mostly good at farming). Recently the game added fox people but I haven't seen them yet. They all have slightly different but overlapping wants and needs (different foods, different goods, and stuff like religion, taverns, and brawling).

It is a LOT to take in at first but the game does hold your hand some. If you are a fan of The Settlers or the Anno series, you will find this both refreshing and familiar. Currently, it is on sale.

[GreenGoo]

I loved Majesty. I'll take a look.

Ok, not the parts of Majesty I liked the most, but still interesting.

FYI, I love autonomous ai units running around according to their whims and interests, and trying to manipulate them indirectly by managing everything else that affects them. Which it sounds like Against the Storm does, but I also like the fact that in Majesty they were adventurers and had classes and level'd up and even specialized.

I want more games like that.

[Skinypupy]

Oh man, I loved Majesty.

I don't do Early Access but will definitely put this on the list to check out on full release.

[baelthazar]

I don't do Early Access but will definitely put this on the list to check out on full release.

Honestly, at that price, you can't even tell. I have played a good 10-12 hours and it's as robust as any full release.

[naednek]

picked it up, played on my lunch break, pretty fun and confusing at the same time

[Baroquen]

I picked this up awhile back. It's nice enough, but I haven't been sucked in to give it significant time so far. It's currently stuck in "I'll get back to it" limbo. Never thought about the similarity to Majesty. I just found the rogue-like/village builder to be an interesting hook. Maybe I'll play some this weekend.

[dbt1949]

How is it "rogue-like"?

[GreenGoo]

How is it "rogue-like"?

Excellent question. I've been assuming bonuses gained at end of a run continue into the next run.

[Baroquen]

How is it "rogue-like"?

Excellent question. I've been assuming bonuses gained at end of a run continue into the next run.

Yeah, I think it's the incremental overall game progress achieved by completing rounds of village making. Not quite the usual play/die/upgrade cycle of traditional rogue-likes, but I think that's what they're trying to do.

I just started over replaying, and finished the first tutorial village a few minutes ago. So I haven't gotten re-introduced to the global scale upgrades yet.

I'm enjoying it right now. I'm a little apprehensive that I'll like it less as it continues to pile on more layers of complexity. (To me, that the Darkest Dungeon syndrome... a fun game, with lots of fun mechanics and details. Now let's make it very difficult. Just because.) But we'll see. Even my first playthrough back in January, I didn't get far enough to get a true feel on how difficult it ends up getting.

[Unagi]

How is it "rogue-like"?

Excellent question. I've been assuming bonuses gained at end of a run continue into the next run.

The developers mention this:

We put a lot of effort to make the game as replayable as possible and to make each playthrough feel a little different. Here are some of the things that support this vision:
Perks and synergies
Exploration and random content on glades
Deckbuilding
Procedural generation
Changing conditions
Choices and selections
Meta-progression with meta-resources and permanently upgradable hub
A typical 'run' takes around 2 hours. That's because we don't want you to build one endless city. Instead, we hope you'll build an endless number of cities.

I'm guessing the "Meta-progression with meta-resources and permanently upgradable hub" is the Rougelike element. You (I am guessing) earn stuff from the queen each time you 'make a run' - and that seems to contribute to the meta progression/resources you will have in subsequent runs.


Of course, a "rouge"' game always wanted to complete the dungeon... and the rouge gets better at it. In this game, it sounds like you will have your world removed 'no matter what'. That could be a spit in the eye of 'rouge like' - or if they do it right, could be a really cool take on it.

[Unagi]

Additionally, it looks like you start a game with an Embark Location that is within view of "the center" of the world... Once you've embarked once - your second embark can be on lands that were not yet exposed - and you will see your first city and can trade with it, etc.

[baelthazar]

How is it "rogue-like"?

Excellent question. I've been assuming bonuses gained at end of a run continue into the next run.

Yes, and basically you get to a point where your progress in the world is reset but you keep the overall bonuses.

[LordMortis]

Not sure why I bought this or how it ended up sitting on my desktop. The sale must have been great when this thread was posted. So I started playing it yesterday, wondering why and when I bought it, and placed it prominenetly on my desktop. After the the first two missions, I was like, "so this game basically plays itself while you just plug in the pieces, what a waste." Then the second mission ended and I found out I was in a tutorial. Then, even on easy, I found myself lost in poor planning and decision making that buried me alive. It's sort of a shame that the game itself is so largely meta, where each run through is tracked and builds your experience, so actually learning the game is setting you up for a lot losses. The least they could do is track by graphs, so I could see progress because I'm going to get my ass handed to me a lot here at the outset, especially as biomes are a long way off from me really being able to plan for.

Still, after one day I assume I'm getting my ???? worth from it.

[coopasonic]

I'm guessing the "Meta-progression with meta-resources and permanently upgradable hub" is the Rougelike element. You (I am guessing) earn stuff from the queen each time you 'make a run' - and that seems to contribute to the meta progression/resources you will have in subsequent runs.


Of course, a "rouge"' game always wanted to complete the dungeon... and the rouge gets better at it. In this game, it sounds like you will have your world removed 'no matter what'. That could be a spit in the eye of 'rouge like' - or if they do it right, could be a really cool take on it.

Getting it wrong that many times and that consistently has to be intentional, right?

Right?

[Unagi]

I'm guessing the "Meta-progression with meta-resources and permanently upgradable hub" is the Rougelike element. You (I am guessing) earn stuff from the queen each time you 'make a run' - and that seems to contribute to the meta progression/resources you will have in subsequent runs.


Of course, a "rouge"' game always wanted to complete the dungeon... and the rouge gets better at it. In this game, it sounds like you will have your world removed 'no matter what'. That could be a spit in the eye of 'rouge like' - or if they do it right, could be a really cool take on it.

Getting it wrong that many times and that consistently has to be intentional, right?

Right?

I’m not sure I follow what you are saying here.

[TheMix]

Rogue. Rogue-lite.

Not 'rouge'.

He was commenting that you used 'rouge' instead of 'rogue' four times in your comment.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I tried searching for the classic "Rainbow Six: Rouge Spear" photoshop, but couldn't find it online anymore.

[coopasonic]

Rogue. Rogue-lite.

Not 'rouge'.

He was commenting that you used 'rouge' instead of 'rogue' four times in your comment.

Yeah, apologies for the vague attack. It's a pet peeve and a seemingly common typo, or common misunderstanding. I should have adapted the Anakin/Padme meme explicitly for clarity. Sadly, I am lazy.

[Unagi]

Ahh yes, - I am REALLY bad with that one, especially when I forget that I'm really bad with that one.

I will try and stay on top of that, going forward. Bare with me.

Spoiler:

Now I did that on purpose, but it is also another gap in my brain.

[baelthazar]

Rogue. Rogue-lite.

Not 'rouge'.

He was commenting that you used 'rouge' instead of 'rogue' four times in your comment.

Yeah, apologies for the vague attack. It's a pet peeve and a seemingly common typo, or common misunderstanding. I should have adapted the Anakin/Padme meme explicitly for clarity. Sadly, I am lazy.

My pet peeve is you waited two months to make a lame joke!

[LordMortis]

I have decided to move from settler difficulty to trying pioneer difficulty. Not sure if I'm jumping the gun too soon. I'll find out... I am at level 10 and theoretically have a fox race that I've never seen in addition to beaver, lizard, human, and fairy(?)

[Carpet_pissr]

$19.50 at GOG right now if anyone is interested (note that it has been $15 several time previously from different vendors)

[GreenGoo]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Carpet_pissr]

Yeah, I've been watching this since baelthazar said "If you like the Anno series, you should pick this up".

Still don't understand why that whole series has not gotten more love. It's AMAZING if you like those kinds of games. Top 5 easily.

[Carpet_pissr]

Just now realizing this has been added to PC Gamepass for those interested.

[Zarathud]

This is a really good game. Highly recommended.

[LordMortis]

I keep debating getting back to it and then I end up doing something else. There's still a shortcut on my desktop, though.

[Rumpy]

Looks interesting. But for someone not famililar with it, what's Majesty-like?

[GreenGoo]

This is a really good game. Highly recommended.

This is about the only game on my wishlist that had me thinking about spending more than I wanted to for it over the holidays. I *really* want this one, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet.

[Zarathud]

It’s a city builder with a neat mechanic that the world is reset with a storm periodically and you move on from a city after hitting goals. Each time you build up resources to buy more tech — so you can build bigger and do more before the reset. Keeps the game fresh.

Tech is persistent. But goals change, and achieving them releases temporary new buildings you can often later research. While a new tech to provide better shelter may not be an objective in the next city, it can help you build up to a different goal.

Very meditative “just one more goal” gameplay loop. The different goals and bonuses/penalties keep gameplay fresh. Good challenge, and initially you’ll hit some death spirals as you learn how to choose buildings with synergies. Often hard choices between techs that build from planks (improved wood), bricks (improved stone) and cloth (improved fibers). Especially with improved food, trade or luxury goods.

[LordMortis]

It's a very small city builder. You build a city in like under 30 minutes to please your queen and then you do it again on a hex based map, building small city after small city further and further out against a reset clock. Once the clock hits reset (a tempestuous wipe) your successful goals are counted to spend on a better start next time. As far as I know, there is no end game, unless it's changed. You just work through better (and harder) starts via tech tree. Steam says I put in 134 hours before I got distracted, so I that was about how long it took before it got to grindy without a point for me. They were still making a lot of changes, like every two weeks, when I stopped. So the game may be quite a bit different than I remember.

It has a dynamic where you release bad timed bad stuff as you chop through the forest into clearings and that was the most interesting factor for me. It was quite intimidating early in the game and then it quickly becomes the central focus for city planning.

[Carpet_pissr]

92 Metacritic.

I already installed and plan to sink my teeth into it later, but was unaware it was being called a “Majesty-like”.

If so, even more excited!

[GreenGoo]

but was unaware it was being called a “Majesty-like”.

If so, even more excited!

+1.

Rogue-likes with an interesting tech/skill tree is enough to get my interest, city builders can be fun, and add in the "majesty-like" and I'm seriously tempted at full price.

[Unagi]

I’d be curious what Z, LM or others may say, but I honestly don’t know how its ’Majesty-like’ in its game play.

I didn’t get that vibe.

[Zarathud]

You select the people in your town to go do work or tasks, and they go about their business. If you would call that Majesty-like, it’s very lite. I wouldn’t personally, but I think fans of Majesty would like the gameplay loop.

[LordMortis]

No heroes or combat. But you manage resources similar to Majesty, I guess. I don't see a lot of Majesty in it. If the trip word for you is Majestylike, I'd suggest looking for a Let's Play. If you have an itch for tech treadmill repeating mini city builder then this will scratch it well. If anything, I'd say it's more a Populouslike, then a Majestylike.

[GreenGoo]

No heroes or combat. But you manage resources similar to Majesty, I guess. I don't see a lot of Majesty in it. If the trip word for you is Majestylike, I'd suggest looking for a Let's Play. If you have an itch for tech treadmill repeating mini city builder then this will scratch it well. If anything, I'd say it's more a Populouslike, then a Majestylike.

Thanks. Most of the videos I've watched (or attempted to) have been on a small screen with lots of UI and not much explanation or decisions/strategy discussion.

The only thing I liked about Majesty (and I *really* liked it) was the autonomy of the heroes. No direct control, and ai deciding what to do, so you influence them indirectly. It wasn't perfect by any means, but I like that aspect. Oh, and the heroes level'd up in interesting ways. That always helps.

[hepcat]

No heroes or combat. But you manage resources similar to Majesty, I guess. I don't see a lot of Majesty in it. If the trip word for you is Majestylike, I'd suggest looking for a Let's Play. If you have an itch for tech treadmill repeating mini city builder then this will scratch it well. If anything, I'd say it's more a Populouslike, then a Majestylike.

This. I love Majesty. One of my all time favorite game series. I went into Against the Storm hoping it was going to give me that. But it doesn't. I can see why some make the comparison, but for me it's far more complicated and is more like a City Sim. I'm not saying it's a bad game, mind you. I do enjoy it. But my search for a Majesty type game still continues.

[naednek]

I think the only thing similar to this and a city builder is that you can build roads... I'm not seeing any other simularities. It's very much what Zarahud described, minus the city building part

[Zarathud]

You build roads, manufacturing and trade, housing, trade depots, and farms/gathering sites.