Today we are celebrating the 5th Birthday of Totem Tribe II: Jotun. It has been exactly 5 years since we launched the ALPHA 1 version of the game to the general public and now we are fully into BETA 1 Let's look back and reminisce about things that happened during these years.

The Year

So - what were the major milestones of the past year?

• Nuclear Warfare was added to the Information Age - Atom Bombs, Nuclear Missiles, Mutual Annihilation Defense - all of those unlock completely different strategy to warfare.

• Jet Planes were added to the Information Age - Jet Fighter, Stealth Fighter, and Stealth Bomber. Two of the later provide a whole different kinds of strategy due to their Stealth Capabilities, especially Stealth Bomber which can carry Atom Bombs.

• Treasure Maps were added - you can find treasure map pieces and finally unlock treasure location on your world map.

• Read More... »

It the recent update we have added mines that can be found inside your towns.

This way you can dig for purified ore and crystals without visiting the distant quest locations.

This update is one of the numerous features that were implemented after player's ideas. This particular one was suggested by Leto Atreides. You can say thanks to him/her about it.

Today we have added a new traveling NPC which can visit your town, tell you Stories of Wisdom and help you meditate.

Several updates ago we have split Church into two buildings - Church and Cathedral, making it impossible to reach level 50 in Medieval Age. Today's update fixes this issue. Travelling NPC called Mentor allows you to meditate without Altar, Temple, Church, or Cathedral. It still requires Figurines of Enlightenment and costs resources and may take more time, so use it only if you really need it. Additionally your hero can learn something from Stories of Wisdom this character can tell from time to time.

Let us know what you think about this character.

Today we have added Hovercraft unit which is an Industrial Age transport ship

It looked weird when brigantines carried modern tanks so we are adding proper transport ship to replace it for Industrial and Information Age.

Hovercraft has twice as much capacity as Brigantine and unlocked under Artillery tech. It is built in Military Port, so it will need sulphur to build that building in the first place.

Unlocking Hovercraft now locks out Brigantine and Wharf so think carefully about when to unlock it.

Some time earlier by popular demand we have added more Dungeons into the game and the people accepted them well. Now we are adding 3 more mines.

These new mines are not required to complete the Stakhanoff's quest, they are just adding places you can explore and earn some goodies from them.

Furthermore there are not enough content unlocked on higher levels of the game, so we are unlocking them on high levels. The new mines are:

• Closed Mine
• Depleted Mine
• Large Mine

Let us know if it was a welcome addition.

In last update we continue to make your towns more interesting and varied, therefore we have added Mercenary Camps and Treasure Stashes into your towns.

Those two area types can be found in new towns you settle after the latest update.

Mercenary Camps - these have a number of units which can join your army for a price

Treasure Stash - the legendary munchkin sir Fred is very hungry for loot, but he does not know what to do with it, so he hides it away and buries it under the ground. If you are lucky, you can find one of his stashes which has some valuable items buried, including Blueprints and Figurines of Enlightment!

Let us know if you have found any of these in your new towns and what do you think of it. Also let us know if you like these updates which add more variety into new towns - whether you like it or not. It will help us to understand better if it's worth adding more of these.

Today we have unlocked new continent Mujahidabad which is in the Equatorial Desert climate.

Unfortunately that means Jonberg and the Tundra are no longer available for settlement.

The new climate has various new stuff not available in other climates, for example:

• Coffee World Resource which boosts town defense by 20%
• Camels World Resource which increases traders speed by 10% but also allows to build Caravanserai and train Camel Archers - unique Medieval mounted units not available otherwise
• Lizard, Lion, Elephant - animals which can be found and tamed in your towns
• Bone Hand, Root Hand, Snake Hand, various types of scorpions - monsters that spawn in desert towns
• Peanuts, Flies - items that spawn only in desert towns.

By popular demand we are adding a constant source of figurines of enlightment for those who are unable to level up their heros because of the missing items.

The new building is unlocked in Renaissance Age under Enlightment tech and allows to craft items by the price of reduced resource income (resource corruption). Different items have different penalties and times to craft. Each new level of building reduces crafting time and unlocks one new item.

Here is the list of items you will be able to craft:

1. Microscope
2. Vernygora's Hand
3. Sextant
4. Truce Proclamation
5. Treatise
6. Figurine of Teaching
7. Arithmometer
8. Blueprint
9. Encyclopedia
10. Figurine of Enlightment

Each town can have this building so you can craft multiple items at the same time in different towns.

Let us know if this new building helps your level up block.

In today's update we have made two major additions - the ability to spawn more puzzles in second towns and the new earthquake area. Read on!

More puzzles

In second and further towns now interesting things like puzzles can be spawned not only at the edges of the map, but also in the middle of it! (If the town is not on fertile soil and the center is not taken by extra food spots). Here is what can spawn in the middle of your town from now on:

1. Puzzle
2. Minigame (like garden, tesla, etc)
3. Maze with enemies
4. Pagan Circle
5. Railroad (was possible before the update)

Earthquakes

From now on sometimes your town can have unreachable section which can be accessbile when earthquake happens and the landscape changes. The earthquakes start to happen closer to the apocalypse.

Those changes will work for new towns.

Today we have seriously rebalanced Renaissance Age tech tree.

We have tried to make it more logical and streamlined. For example, we have moved Hussars below into new technology "Enlightment" because it was unlocked too soon after Knights.

Storage and income buildings moved similarily to what it is in Classical and Medieval ages to allow better progression.

Science building (Archive) has changed requirements similar to Classical and Medieval buildings too.

Tech prices in Renaissance Age were also increased to take into account progressively higher resource and science income.

Back in the day we added Zoryana's quests to guide new players into an alliance. We have now added some motivation for alliance leaders to take newbies into their alliances.

We added a special daily Alliance Package - a gift that the alliance leader can receive on a daily basis -depending on how many members the alliance has and how old they are.

Here are the key facts about it:

• Alliance leader can receive it as often as once per 20 hours.
• Alliance leader can either consume the package himself or pass it to any member of his alliance.
• Recruitment of any player into the alliance drops the package wait counter back to 20 hours.
• Package expires after 20 hours if not consumed or given.
• There are 10 different package levels with different value.
• The total value of items inside the package is calculated on members worth. You can see members worth contribution to the package in the members list.
• New heroes' worth is significantly more. A young hero can contribute 10x-30x more worth into the package than a seasoned player. The contribution decreases with the hero's age.
• Key info about the alliance package is displayed on Alliance Tab

Alliance leaders and recruiters now have a special tab which shows all young heroes who have their alliance building built but have not yet joined an alliance. They are sorted by their potential worth to the alliance. This should help find young players to join your alliance.

Hopefully, this will motivate seasoned players to take a step toward the newbies - to help them integrate into the game and its community. Let us know what you think about it.

We did a survey and it appeared that dungeons were one of the most favorite quest locations and most people are beating them all the time. Therefre we have decided to add 3 more dungeons into the game.

We have added:

• Dark Dungeon
• Devastated Dungeon
• Uncharted Dungeon

We have added a building which is aimed to address early game problem when Stone Age (and to a lesser extent Classical Age) does not have enough huts to compensate for population growth.

Limited number of huts in Stone Age makes building times go up handicaping progress. To address that we have added a special type of hut called Cabin - it is unlocked in the end of Stone Age and locked when you research Town Hall in Medieval. This building reduces building time just like regular Hut but more significantly.

Let us know if it becomes easier with your new heroes to progress at early ages.

We have added a new type of puzzle which you can find in your towns, called railroad. Even multiple ones in the same town can be found.

This puzzle will also be reset some time after solving so you will be able to solve and gather rewards multiple times.

In addition by popular demand we have redesigned existing puzzles to allow multiple plays. Now all puzzles start with first level and after solving some time later they are upgraded and you can solve them again, therefore now regular puzzles can be solved 6 times each instead on just 1 before the update. This will be working only for new towns though.

Let us know what you think about it.

Today we have released completely new items panel into the game. It's been a demanded feature for a long time and finally we have managed to implement it. It might be a little bit unusual at first, but you will love it eventually.

But this is just one of the features.

We have also added a selector for Places of Interest, thus you no longer need to scroll the map to find that one particular place - you can do it with just a couple of clicks.

Another major change is the ability to enter a quest location you have previously visited without actually bringing your hero! You won't be able to interact with anything unless you bring your hero - no clicking on anything, etc. However, this will allow you to check monster dens to see if the monsters are respawned already, review previously missed locations to recall what have you missed there, etc.

Also now player info screen has medals, prestige points and prestige levels, so those players who hunt for achievements and victories can be recognized.

Today after years of Alpha Test we are moving to Beta Test with Beta 1. The new version of the game not only has some new stuff like with every new launch, but also has some significant changes underneath.

We have announced some of them earlier, but let's go into details about everything.

Thornsville

After a long wait the story continues with addition of new quest location - Thornsville. Mysterious Mr. Thorn awaits you there. You will have to figure out who he truly is - an unexpected ally or someone who has his own goals in mind.

Random Mines

The Dungeons were highly praised addition to the game so we decided to add something similar due to popular demand. The Random Mines are a set of 9 side quest locations with randomized content - you will find new types of puzzles and activities in them. You will be able to return to them to mine purified ores and crystals just like you return to monster dens for experience. This is the first real work of our new level-designer so he will be very delighted to hear your feedback about mines.

Cataclysm

Instead of global wipes of Alpha stages, in Beta wipes are individual so it is not punishing anymore to start later after launch, because you will have the same amount of time whenever you start. After start you will have 5 months of playtime in order to expand your country, reach significant place in the world, and reach one of the Victories. Otherwise, something evil, dangerous and seemingly unstoppable will come after you and destroy your whole country. You can learn more about cataclysm in the previous news post.

Apocalyptic Prophecy

All items that were purchased with Enkord Cash consumed from the 1st of February 2018 until the wipe will be returned at Beta 1 launch, regardless of when the launch actually happens.

So far we do not have an exact date for Beta 1 deployment, but it is getting closer and closer. So we would like to encourage players to be more active and have more fun with this items return.

Some details about upcoming Beta 1 were given in previous news post.

Next version of the game we are planning to launch will introduce some fundamental changes into the game so it is worth explaining it in advance.

Totem Tribe II: Jotun is reaching a more stable phase and we are going from Alpha 8 to Beta 1 with the next wipe. Exact wipe will be announced at least a week in advance, but you have at least 1 month from this moment until it will be launched.

There will be both new features and some deep underlying changes which may affect the way you play the game, so let's talk about our plans with a little bit more detail

New Content

We have plans to add the following next content for Beta 1:

• Thornsville - new quest location which moves the main storyline forward. You will meet mysterious Mr. Thorn and will spend a night in his legendary mansion wondering who he is and what his true goals are.
• New set of dungeon-like randomized locations with a quest which unites them - the dungeons received high acclaim from our users so we decided to add something similar. The monster dens were well-regarded for the fact that you can return to them multiple times so these locations will have something that you can return to later even if you have beaten the location.
• New minigame - now the quest won't have an associated character so you don't have to talk to anyone - let us know if it is a good decision or a bad one. Did you like minigame characters like the Gardener, Tesla, Steve Perfectionisto, and Billy Bonkas or you would rather have minigames without them?
• Movement Surprises - have to keep it secret, just going to tell you that World Map will become even more exciting.
• Zoryana's Diplomatic Advisor Quests - she will teach you how to get along with other players and eventually join an alliance. This should be helpful to those players who are not very aware of the multiplayer side of the game.

Changes

The global game sessions in Beta 1 will be different from what it was in Alphas:

• No longer are there going to be regular global wipes, the game would play like it has been planned initially - players will have their individual timers of around 5 month since the time they started their hero/kingdom
• This will put all players in fair condition, because right now when someone joins close to the wipe he is having less time to play versus those players who started in the beginning of the alpha. This is especially hurtful to attracting new players as it made no sense to do that right before the wipe. Hopefully it will allow the game to grow more.
• Close to the wipe time the particular player will start getting warnings at least 1 month in advance to urge him to reach one of the victory types or he will be destroyed by the cataclysm.
• The warnings and the individual wipe would be scripted like a coming doomsday with mad prophets preaching and other signs showing in your towns so it will be fun to experience story-wise in case you didn't make it.
• All items purchased with Enkord Cash and spent a month before the cataclysm will be returned if you decide to start anew to make your rush towards victory in front of impending doomsday less hurtful in case you fail to make it in time - you will use those items again in your fresh new start. That's in addition to all your unspent purchased items and Enkord Cash.
• To make it even better, you will be getting those items purchased with Enkord Cash back if you spent them a month before any kind of defeat, not just the one caused by cataclysm. Specifically in cases when you were wiped by other players.
• All those refunded items are in addition to the normal Second Wind and Loyalty packages you are usually getting.
• The positive outcome of this is after Beta 1 launch it won't be so crowded anymore like with each new alpha start.

Since the beginning of this alpha you have been hoarding treasure map pieces from floating bottles and some other places. They haven't been working... until now!

With today's update several treasure map pieces can be combined into treasure map which will show you the spot of the treasure chest. Visit the spot with your hero to dig up the chest with some valuable treasures, including so needed blueprints and figurines of enlightment!

Today we have unlocked some planes for the Information Age, notably - the Jet Fighter and the Stealth Fighter.

Jet Fighter - improved version of the Biplane from the Industrial Age, carries more load, does more damage, a little bit tougher to destroy.

Stealth Fighter - this is the ultimate aerial unit to do unexpected damage to catch your enemies unprepared. When you send attacks with these planes only, they are invisible on the world map until they actually hit the target town.

Stealth Bomber - not yet unlocked as we want to gather your feedback about Stealth Fighter first. This unit will allow to drop bombs unexpectedly (including Atom Bombs!) which means serious damage all of a sudden. So please go ahead, try out the Stealth Fighter and let us know, so we will be able to tweak and unlock Stealth Bomber accordingly.