Summary

Hello everyone! Patch 1.3 is here. First of all, Happy Halloween! I hope you are all having a wonderful time. I want to celebrate the fact that A Better Tomorrow is close to the 700-player mark. Thank you 700 hundred times!

This new patch brings a new Halloween-themed game mode, a new theme, new music, new trophies, and more for you to enjoy. Additionally, the gas plant has been completely reworked, and several UI improvements have been made.

New Features

[NEW] Spooky Season Challenge

Challenge description: Legend has it that the sun disappeared the last week of October, plunging the world into an endless night. A ghostly fog covered the place on Halloween, spreading panic among the citizens. Can you last the week when the darkness never fades?

Challenge features:

• Never-ending night (sorry, solar panel gang).
  
• Pumpkins!
  
• Two new weathers.
  
• New theme, unlocked after beating the challenge.
  
• New custom-made song by Marco Ambite (TDP)
  
• Four challenge-related trophies.
  

New weathers:

• Full moon: During this weather, the moonlight is so intense that the Solar Panels can produce energy despite being nighttime. Chance:
  
• Ghostly Fog: As a final challenge, a new exclusive weather will roll on Sunday. Good luck with that!
  

How Pumpkins work:

Pumpkins are a new structure that will block a tile until you accept either trick or treat. When the game starts, five pumpkins will spawn. An additional pumpkin will spawn each day.

If you choose Treat, the pumpkin will leave but take some energy. Keep in mind that the pumpkin ALWAYS takes its part. This means you could end up with negative energy. Ouch!

The energy amount is a random value between 200 and 400. This makes choosing Treat extremely punishing in the earlier days but more manageable as the week progresses.

If you choose Trick, the pumpkin will leave but apply a curse. There are three possible curses:

• Your generators stop working for 10 seconds
  
• Your citizens demand more energy for 10 seconds
  
• A random generator gets destroyed.
  

These curses are easier to handle in the earlier days when the enemy demand is lower but become extremely punishing later. Imagine getting your nuclear plant destroyed!

If a pumpkin cannot find a tile to spawn, it will apply a curse directly.

[NEW] Better UI

Some UI elements have been redistributed for better UX. When a theme is selected, UI buttons change color to match.

[REWORK] Gas plants

Many users found no reason to use gas plants in their games. This new iteration proposes an entirely new mechanic to differentiate it from other generators: a super fast and quite cheap building that consumes environmental health.

[REWORK] Instead of producing a significant amount of energy in large intervals, gas plants now produce small bursts of energy in quick intervals, providing a constant stream of energy.

[NEW] Now decreases environmental health by 0.5 each time they produce energy. If the environmental health is below 10, gas plants stop producing.

• Gas Plant energy cost 300 -> 260
  
• Gas Plant environmental impact 30 -> 20
  
• Gas Plant production rate 25 -> 5
  
• Gas Plant energy produced 150 -> 40 (energy per second 6 -> 8)
  
• Favorable weather multiplier 3 -> 1.25 (energy per second while enhanced 18 -> 10)
  

Additional notes:
A day lasts for 96 seconds; therefore, a gas plant harms the environment for ~10% of your maximum environmental health each day.
Although the weather multiplier decrease may seem like a massive nerf, it's just there to prevent your gas plants from instantly burning through (pun intended) your environmental health. This is only relevant in the winter challenge.

Balance changes:

Solar Panel

As discussed in the previous post, solar panels were too cheap and too efficient under the sun, allowing players to stockpile extreme amounts of energy on the very first days. Solar panels have been nerfed better to match their intended design of an early game generator.

[NERF] Cost increased, favorable weather multiplier decreased.

• Solar panel cost 20 -> 30
  
• Solar panel favorable weather multiplier 2 -> 1.33 (energy per second while enhanced 3.33 -> 2.22)
  

Windmill

This one is for my r/WindmillMains gang.

[BUFF] Energy produced increased

• Windmill energy produced: 10 -> 12 (energy per second: 1.25 -> 1.5)
  

Dams

Players reported mixed feelings about dams. They have been adjusted to feel more reliable and better to build despite the current weather.

[BUFF] Production rate and energy produced increased. Favorable weather multiplier slightly decreased.

• Dam production rate 20 -> 18
  
• Dam energy produced 50 -> 60 (energy per second 2.5 -> 3.33)
  
• Dam favorable weather multiplier 3 -> 2.1 (energy per second while enhanced 7.5 -> 6.99)
  

Nuclear plant

Building a Nuclear plant is usually GG, so let’s slightly tune it down.

[NERF] Cost increased

• Nuclear plant cost 550 -> 600