After a couple of weeks of confusion, it seems the Unity situation has been resolved. They have changed their plans to only apply to the 2024 build of Unity (Shadows is built off the 2021 version), and have promised to cap the maximum invoice to a percentage of revenue. This fixes all the issues other than the somewhat concerning lack of warning about contractual changes.
What this means is that Shadows can continue development as planned. While this may become a problem in the future, there are no immediate concerns.
Version 1.1 is therefore going live today, after a little bugfix and adaptation to avoid it breaking save games from V1.0. Mods are another question, but hopefully none should be too badly affected, as the update mostly just adds a god and agent.
The god in question is the Broken Maker, which is something of a “god of newgame+”. When you win or lose with this god, humanity adapts. The world rebuilds while you sleep, and humanity gains buffs if you won, making the next rounder harder. You can also curse families and bury power, which gives you assets you can take from one round to the next, to help your future self. The god also borrows a couple of powers from other gods when it sleeps, giving you a randomised set of powers to play with each time.
The agent is The Aristocrat, who introduces a political game which tries to divide humanity, based on a conflict you've created. She simply turns up and calls for a vote on an issue, and lets human bickering and hostility do the rest. The better she can split the vote, the more damaging she can be. Her ultimate goal is to turn kingdoms against each other, and dukes against kings, leading to wars and civil wars. She also is naturally good at avoiding suspicion.
Gameplay:
-Added "Broken Maker" god
-Added "The Aristocrat" politics/crisis-exploitation agent
-Added "Panic increases over time" to game options
-Lingering Resentment drops to % when Unrest reaches maximum, to avoid "heads will roll" spam
Other:
-Incompatible mods are now loaded (or at least attempted to), and only give a warning
Bugfixes:
-Fix gamebreaking bug, where a civil war could crash the game and prevent game progression
-Fix major bug where the "Kill the Chosen One's mentor" questline would break when selecting "spare" option
-Fixed Eternity god powers not resetting after sleep
-Fixed Eternity god causing the "world panic increases with time" to hit 100% instantly after sleep
-Fixed name issue for Alliances which exist during Eternity sleep
-Insect god's Drone and Haematophage are now 'arthropod' species, not human
-Fixed outpost founder sometimes not being recognised as evil despite being an agent
Changed files in this update