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Songs of Conquest News

Sim-Battle testing and Random map Improvements!

Greetings Wielders!


It’s still officially January, which means we can get away with saying things like, “Hope the start of 2025 has been great for you!” For us at Lavapotion, the past few weeks have been about getting back into the swing of things and planning the year ahead.
Looking at our roadmap, we’re happy to say it’s still solid. There are a few TBDs that we’ll have more to share about soon, but one thing is certain—2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Songs of Conquest!

Click on it to make it bigger, a nifty trick!

And before we get to what lies ahead, let’s take a look at what we just did. We released a new faction! The Vanir hit the shores of Aerbor, and judging by the stats, you liked it. Our Viking and Nordic folklore-inspired addition to Songs of Conquest sold above expectations.
Of course, despite all the playtesting, some things might still need fine-tuning. That’s part of the process and the joy of making something new. We want to say thank you for your support, your love for our new units, and the appreciation you’ve shown us.

You’ve so far recruited over 1.6 million of these stabby little ravens, well done!

But let’s look ahead. One of the most frequent requests since early access has been Sim Battles or simultaneous battles. We already released Sim Turns, but only one battle can happen at a time, which slows down multiplayer games.

One of our developers, Niklas, spent his Christmas working on it, and we’re proud to say that it's now ready for testing. It’s not fully done yet, but it’s close. There might still be a few small hiccups, but internal playtesting has been very promising (and fun). Now, we’re opening it up on the Public Test Realm right now, for everyone to enjoy, and if you find bugs, let us know by using our in-game bug report tool.

It’s right there in the game properties, sim-battles, just a few clicks away!

We plan to test this for about a month before rolling out a major update to improve Songs of Conquest for everyone. We promised multiplayer updates on our Roadmap, and this is a big one.
But that’s not all we’ve been working on. We’ve also made improvements to our random maps—most notably, they now have elevation, something they didn’t have before! It’s more than just a visual upgrade, though that part matters too. We’ve also tweaked the gameplay in ways we think you’ll enjoy. We made sure that not just the terrain is more varied but that pick-ups, buildings, and artifacts are more varied.

It might be random, but its’ definitely planned!

All these random map changes and more, besides go live on PTR together with the sim-battle feature. This really is the biggest change to our Random Map Generator in a long time and our goal is to make them feel random but a lot more true to the beautiful game that we want to show and more similar in both look and feel to the maps that we created for Conquest maps.

More hills, more water! You should get in there and enjoy the randomness!

And of course, we have to mention Roots, Q2’s star and the main focus of the team right now. Roots will be our second faction DLC, introducing the strange creatures and beings of the Wyld forests in the Bleak East. Ancient, mysterious swamp-dwelling beasts, skeletons held together by roots, and living buildings. It’s going to be wild.

But there’s much more to say, and we’ll be sharing those details in a series of devlogs, starting with the launch of the Roots Steam page, which is just around the corner.
Suffice it to say, that 2025 is shaping up to be quite a year, and we haven’t even covered everything yet. There will be console updates, a secret project we’ve been keeping under wraps, and much more. So stay tuned!

For now, jump into that Public Test Realm, try Sim-battles with a friend, and surprise them with your latest Vanir strategy. One that, for some reason, just involves a lot of pigs.
What are you most looking forward to? Have any questions for the team? This is the perfect place to ask, we’re always happy to chat.

Thank you,

Anders & the Lavapotion team

Hotfix 1.4.13

  • Fixed broken/missing weather effects
  • Fixed Thigh Boots artifact not giving its gold income
  • Fixed tooltips lingering on screen when using gamepad

Hotfix 1.4.12

  • Fixed memory related crash to desktop issues
  • Fixed Chain Lightning effect being applied to the wrong targets
  • Fixed gamepad zoom level being reset every End Turn
  • Fixed ranged attacks triggered by Challenge ability not causing shooting troops to reload
  • Fixed yet another edge case issue with artifact trading causing AI softlock
  • Tweaked bloom values to counter the brightness of Vanir's snow biome during night
  • Fixed leaf particles being drawn to certain other special effects
  • Fixed gamepad lobby tooltips not updating properly when changing settings (and likely a bunch of similar issues)
  • Added Ranged troop status to Grym
  • Fixed Vanir Bracers not giving their bonus
  • Fixed Cauldron map entity movement buff being stackable
  • Repositioned a blocker in Steadfast map to allow access to a pile of stone
  • Slightly changed the terrain in Dividing Fjords to allow access to a sack of gold
  • Prevent loading of saves from “future” versions of the game (applicable when reverting to older versions of the game, such as our “console crossplay” beta)

Hotfix 1.4.11

  • Fixed issue with artifact trading causing AI softlock
  • Fixed rare edge case in "hunker down" behaviour causing AI softlock
  • Fixed not being able to re-join your Vanir team when loading online saves when the host doesn't own the Vanir DLC
  • Fixed Old Sword and Throwing Axe artifacts not giving their Offence bonuses
  • Fixed Bjorn not using the Shifter skill pool
  • Fixed sliders not refreshing properly in troop drafting menus when upgrading units before drafting them
  • Fixed Huskarls not switching to sword if throwing their spears because of a Skinshifter Challenge
  • Post-battle menu will no longer show information about enemy's Serimnaans returning to their recruitment pools
  • Make check mark behaviour for Challenge maps be consistent with Conquest maps and only show up after a win has been registered for that map (rather than just having started it at least once)
  • Minor balance fix for Clash in The Marsh map
  • Minor visual fix for Fardeeds Isle map
  • Translation fixes

Thank you for 2024!

As the year comes to a close, we at Lavapotion are trading our office shoes for snow boots and our morning coffee for something a little sweeter. It’s a time for reflection, a chance to reflect on 2024. This year has been filled with success, change, and challenges. What would life be without a bit of variation, right?

But as we wrap up the year, one emotion stands above the rest: pride.
We’re proud to have released Songs of Conquest, sharing our game with the world. We’re grateful for our amazing community, whose support, love, and feedback have helped us make the game even better.
We’re thrilled to have launched Songs of Conquest on consoles, allowing players to enjoy the game from the comfort of their couches like never before. And just now, we’ve capped off the year with the hugely successful release of our first Faction DLC, The Vanir.

Not bad for some silly little vikings!

As the holidays approach, things will slow down a bit at Lavapotion, but rest assured—we’ll be back in action come January! That’s when work resumes on our next faction, Roots, alongside exciting updates for multiplayer, more balance tweaks, and a few other surprises we’ve been quietly working on. Suffice it to say, 2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year, and we can’t wait to have you along for the ride.

There is no better way to stay connected and informed than our newsletter, and if you need more incentive why you should sign up for it, we are giving away some holiday gifts to some of our lucky subscribers, so join in and get a chance for some extra joy! The lucky winners will be contacted i January, when we are back from vacations!

Click the image above to sign up for our newsletter! (Also, Is it pure coincidence that one of the Vanir Wielders have such a jolly appearance?)

And speaking of holiday cheer, the Steam Winter Sale is in full swing! What better way to embrace the season’s coziness than with a friendly, family-style Hot-Seat strategy game? Whether it’s your grandmother, your dog, or anyone else looking to dive into some pixelated warfare and magic, now’s the perfect time—Songs of Conquest is a whopping 66% off right now!

Cozy darkness, and then a good game.

And with that, we wish you a happy season, regardless how you spend it. We’ll be back before you know it!

/Everyone at Lavapotion

RASCals the lot of them