DESKTOPIA: End of the Road (AppID: 2280100)

‘End of the Road’ is a FREE DLC (yes you read that right) which offers a new game mode separate from the existing level-based system. It is designed with a host of new features, and with an absolutely massive map along which you can now grow a truly bustling metropolis.

FEATURES:

• A huge, 122,880-pixel road compared to the average 27,000 of the base game.
  
• A corrupted village, with lizard overlords that need to be obliterated.
  
• Twelve strongholds positioned along the road at intervals, each with their own stronghold boss and troops.
  
• All three groves on a single map.
  
• The ability to build up to 195 buildings, compared to the 55 average of base game maps.
  
• New enemies and a new boss to deal with.
  
• New, ruined portions of the road which cannot be built on.

BASE GAME IMPROVEMENTS:

• A new autosave feature that can be toggled on and off.
  
• A system for levelling up your character, and new bonus effects from building to make you stronger.
  
• A new, personal stats menu.
  
• More control over the way your soldiers and heroes act.
  
• New buildings, new troops and a new hero.
  
• Better A.I and smoother gameplay on larger maps.
  
• More use for redundant buildings.

WHY A FREE DLC?

Instead of a direct update? Well, for a few reasons and not least because updating to this DLC will invalidate your current saves. This is because we’ve had to completely rewrite the eventing system to handle such a massive map. On the plus side, this will make the base game more stable once you’ve updated.

We’ve also done some pretty drastic restructuring of the base game, and having this update as a DLC will mean that if you don’t like the changes you can roll back easily by uninstalling the DLC.

WHY THIS DLC?

Originally we were working on a separate update, ‘Tyranny’, but our artist (part of our very small 3-person team) has had to step down due to a long-term medical condition, so we pivoted to ‘End of the Road,’

Interestingly, when we first sketched out the idea of Desktopia, we envisioned a single, massive road, along which the town would grow to completion. This turned out to be unworkable, due to limitations in our engine… limitations which we have since overcome. Although EotR is not true to that original vision it does offer a glimpse of what might have been.