Administrators, assemble!

To kick-off the new year, we will be rolling out a second Playtest on February 10th at 6pm GMT. Like the November’s Playtest, you will be able to play a new version of Sintopia for about a week, discovering new features we added for the occasion.

The annoying reminder: the Playtest build is English only (translation is ongoing), and your progression from previous Playtest will be reset. Now that it’s out of the way, let’s discuss the new stuff you’ll be able to try out!

Sintopia Playtest app should be in your Steam library to update and play on February 10th at 6pm GMT.

1. Head to the Sintopia Steam Store Page 

2. Click 'Request Access' 

3. Check your Steam Notifications and/or Email for access instructions 

4. Install the 'Sintopia Playtest' in your Steam Library

This new system threatens administrators with intensive trials in late-game. In the Overworld, you will find Pillars of Atonement which slowly fills as sin is generated anywhere (which can be controlled to an extent, but never prevented). When a pillar is filled up to its maximum capacity, it fires an apocalyptic Atonement Crisis which has devastating effects for the Humus. There are 4 of them chosen at random, and each one taps into existing systems: Zhumbie Apocalypse, Guaca Uprising, Demonic Invasion and Call of the Void. They last for a few days, during which you have to survive without losing your Temple.

When receiving an alert that a Pillar is near its maximum power, you better prepare, as Atonement crises are designed to test your Administration to its core. The good news is, surviving a crisis rewards you with a ton of chests… but getting there is no easy feat.

When facing Demons in the Overworld and defeating them, you can now choose to either banish them and earn Hearos (which removes them from the game like before), or to spend Hearos to hire them instead.

This adds them to your workforce and comes with a daily Hearos Upkeep. You’ll then be able to assign them to buildings in Hell like you would do with Imployees. Demons boost buildings with powerful, unique effects, sometimes drastically changing the way they work. They don’t replace the Imp, it’s a layer on top. Demons are expensive, and will unleash again if you can’t pay their Upkeep cost, but the effects should be worth the investment. For example, assigning a Maw Tyrant to a Humunitarian Foundation gives a chance to drop reward chests in stockpiles in addition to the generated resources!

This feature also comes with a new UI when selecting Demons, names, voicelines for some of them (we’re in the process of recording the rest), a new system where they enrage and attack the Temple if they get below 50% while defending their node… In short: Demons overhaul upgraded Mk II over 9000!

In the last Playtest, you discovered Ozhumandias, Archduke of Envy. We’re adding two new Role Models for you to try: The Singularity and Gabriel.

The Singularity is Administration incarnate. It’s focused on the sin of Sloth, and will reward inefficiency: Imp Failures, Strikes, even long roads which require Imps and Souls to walk a lot! Beware that we reworked Sloth in this playtest, making it so that all lifepaths generate it while idling / waiting for a task (instead of just Citizens), so plan your Slothologists accordingly!

On the other hand, Gabriel is the virtuous one, the only Role Model that does not encourage sin but focuses on purity and Saints instead. With his Boons, holy administrations become viable, allowing you to generate Hearos when Humus turn into Saints and even punishing Saints in Hell Buildings like you would regular Souls.

To help advanced players plan which Boons to use and combine together, we’ve added a detailed UI panel when clicking on a Boon, where we can be more verbose than before and provide all the information and variables for each effect. Similar to the previous Playtest, you will have enough Prestige Points at start to unlock and test everything!

No new build would be complete without some new toys to play with. You will be able to unlock two new Hell Buildings: Total Hell Recall (upgrade for the Hellpet Show) and the 7D Omnisin Doctor (upgrade for the Omnisin Doctor).

You also get Soulblast as a new Spell which consumes Souls from the Cemetery to be used as ammo, which effects depend on the Soul’s type. This is an advanced Spell, requiring you to invest a lot of Hearos, but its effects range from manually reducing sins to giving Humus direct orders, filling up stockpiles, enraging characters so they attack each other and much more!

Speaking of Spells, you will find new random gameplay elements scattered on maps, including Power Shrines which provide you free Spells to use and may contain one you can’t find otherwise: Rockalicious! This is just a big rock to toss around, really, but it’s free (and you get 3 of them per Shrine).

The content above is far from everything new in this playtest. Since November, we implemented new quality of life features, some being popular player requests, other just being fun additions! Here’s a list of the main ones, we let you discover the rest on your own:

• Magmine is not affected by the wind anymore, making it easier to aim more consistently.

• Guaca Shamans now display their magic-resistance aura when selected, so it’s less obscure which units are affected.

• All enemies now have a “on-death” VFX, making it clearer when they’re done for good.

• Guacas now fight with Wargs on their way to the Temple during a raid, instead of ignoring them (and they’re extra powerful against them, RIP Wargs).

• Wooden logs can be found in the Overworld and Force Pushed around to inflict Damage.

• Improved Rangers squad behavior so members are less prone to waiting for each other, like when they’re buffed with Zap!

• Priests don’t change the Sin they reduce mid-cycle anymore, preventing frequent personality swap when Rulers had Sins with similar levels.

• Cultists Offensive Blackguards activity now keeps them in Cultist mode until they complete their mission, preventing them from resuming their daily routine before reaching their objective.

• Cultists now participate in Birth Rate at night without the need to shaboink, except when other rules should forbid them to (ex: hunger or disease).

• Humus will now favor building houses around remote Resource Nodes to reduce travel time while working far away from town.

• Humus military will better react to Guaca raids and gather to defend the town.

• Imployees “Work Timer” now only decreases while the Imp is working. It’s frozen if the Imp is waiting for a Soul.

• Corruptiles Fields now exist in all 7 Sins variants.

• Upgrading a Waiting Booth now keeps the Souls in the line instead of teleporting them all to Hell Plaza.

• Added an “Influence” rule in the Souls Dispatcher to sort Souls more precisely based on Influence.

• You can manually control the evaluation order of Souls Dispatcher exits.

• Hell Gameplay elements (Corruptiles, Abducting Pits, etc.) now have more information in the over-head UI badge.

• Heavy re-balancing pass, to target longer games and higher Humus count. Forget everything you knew about difficulty, pacing and economy, it’s a fresh take! Keep in mind that balancing is a neverending process, and that this new take won’t be perfect, but we’ll refine it before launch.

• More screens have been added to the “Stats” menu (Souls in Hell / Cemetery).

• Added tooltips everywhere in the Stats menu.

• Objective number is now visible for secondary objectives on the map selection screen.

• Some Tutorials sections have been simplified / made clearer.

• Rewrite pass for most tooltips and gameplay text.

• The worldwide Sin Vulnerability given by the Ruler is now displayed on their crown in the HUD.

Our final word: like last time, we’ll have a small survey available in-game to collect your opinions on what you see. Such feedback is priceless to us, as it allows us to shape Sintopia into a great game for launch. Feel free to fill it in again if you already filled it in during our last Playtest.

Thank you for reading, Administrators. Now, brace yourselves for the flow of Souls coming your way on February 10th!

We post these sneak peeks early, every week, on our community Discord. You can join us 👉 HERE[discord.gg] 👈 for instant updates, direct access to devs and more.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2213700/Sintopia/