Development Update: The Incoming Wonders

Greetings!
This is a quick update to talk a bit more about the development and incoming features for They Are Billions. It has been a long time since our last update because we have been working in parallel on different parts of the game, not only for the Campaign but also for the Survival Mode.

The Six Wonders

Six new buildings are coming… and they are the greatest ones! They are extremely expensive to research and build. Not many colonies will have the capacity to even build just one of them. After all, we are surviving in a zombie apocalypse so there is no place for such luxurious and opulent wonders… BUT, if your colony has plenty of resources or you want to take the risk to build one of them, they can grant you very special rewards. Your colony will be the envy of all. 🙂

One of them, the cheapest one, will be the Inn/Tavern we mentioned in old updates. Finally, we had to change its function as it was conflicting with other elements of the Campaign.

In the next update, we will show you all the Wonders and explain the special rewards. A quick look ahead on the Six Wonders, all of them will give you extra victory points if you win the game. The extra points will be very useful for the veteran players that try to get the highest score possible for the Survival or Community Challenge.

The Soundtrack Scored by the Bratislava Philharmonic Orchestra

Our composer, Nicolas Diteriks, is about to record the soundtrack of They Are Billions with the 60 musicians of the Bratislava Philharmonic Orchestra. This is going to be epic! In the next update, we will show you some videos. Stay tuned!

How is the final score computed?

Many people have asked us how the final game score is computed. This method could change in the future, especially with the new Wonders coming.

Right now, we use this formula:

– If the game is won the score is:
Score = 10,000 + 5.000 * (1 – 10 * Colonist Infected) + 5.000 * (1 -10 * Soldiers Died)

– If the game is lost then:
Score = 1.000 * (Number of Days Survived / Total Days to Win)

– Extra points for colonists:
Score += Max. Colony Population / 2

– Extra points for infected killed:
Score += Max. Infected Killed / 10

And then the final score is multiplied by the score factor.

For the Community Challenge, the score factor can be 100%, 115%, 135% or 155% depending on the map type.

The Campaign Development

There is much to do in the Campaign. We know the expectations are very high, so we want to create something really special. We are producing lots of new assets and implementing many more features.

As many of you already know, in the Campaign you will have to reconquest a huge territory from the infected under the orders of the New Empire. We want the campaign to be non-linear, so the player can decide if he or she prefers to explore an old human base in search of new technology or attack a huge swarm of 200K infected that is blocking a new territory to build a colony with their imperial army… Together with how the player progresses in the science and engineering tree, relation with the new empire, map reconquest strategy, and selection of objectives will make each campaign unique.

We want to add a lot of optional content so players that are stuck and cannot progress will more have more options to expand their army and advance in the technology trees.

Although this decision could change later, we would like to continue with the Ironman Mode for the missions, in the sense that you cannot reload old saves while playing a mission. Of course, if you lose you can repeat it again. Also, you can save freely when you are in the intermissions Campaign Dashboard.

And that’s all for the moment, see you in the next update!