Hello Elders! I just completed work on a new big change, which will be first tested on the experimental branch. Patch 1.0.1.003b on experimental is now up and brings several changes that mostly affects the second year of the game, and harder difficulties. Remember: these changes are all up for testing, so nothing is set in stone, I am looking for more player feedback.
Here are some highlights: Mini-Apocalypse events This mechanic adds four lower level simil-Omens to the Apocalypse. This will spice up the Apocalypse a bit, making it less of a simple set of checks, and more similar to Second Year balancing The second year of the game (past first winter) is now a bit faster, harsher, and filled with events. This should make the pacing of the game keep up with the players advancement, and also make runs a bit shorter (from 310 to 280 turns total). Please do send me feedback about how it feels! Hemp Rebalanced Hemp has been given a complete rebalance, making it more on par with wood-based buildings Difficulty Revision This affects only games in Hard or higher difficulty. Difficulty now scales more with each Threat Tier and each Research Tier, basically pushing the difficulty up at laster stages of the game to counteract the exponential growth of strategic players. Remember, these are not in the main game yet, as the changes are delicate and I am looking for feedback, but if you want to experience them right away, be my guest! Oh, yes, I also added a new hat for carpenters.
Have fun! - Michele V 1.0.1.003 b Balance: Flow

• Added mini Apocalypse events: they work like Omens that do not increase threat level, and they come at a reduced strength compared to the current threat
• Reduced second Autumn from 35 to 25 turns
• Reduced second winter duration from 45 to 35 turns
• Reduced Apocalypse duration from 30 to 25 turns
• Reduced total number of turns from 300 to 280
• Reduced multi-Omen safety net from 6 to 5
• Reduced pre-Omen safety net from 5 to 4
• Reduced post-Omen safety net from 10 to 6
• Reduced post-Boss Omen safety net from 5 to 4
• Reduced pre-Boss Omen safety net from "Boss Turns" to "Boss Turns - 2"
• Reduced third domain time start from 13% to 12%
• Reduced third domain time completion from 80% to 60%

• Fixed bugs with research slots changing during runs
• Fixed bug with Jester listing Books in the Agepedia
• Fixed bug with Agepedia not showing the output effects of tasks
• Fixed Captain showing an unreachable slot after Buoy
• Fixed threat generation algorithm
• Controller fixes and updates

• Refactored research container assignment logic to support multiple building variations
• Optimized dynamic trait save/loading

• Carpenters now have their own fancy hat

• Great Barbecue cooked Meat output from 10 to 12 (Fish unaltered)
• Large Campfire cooked Fish output from 10 to 12 (Meat unaltered)
• Reverted Plums to work on Spring and Summer
• Plums depletion rate from 10 to 8
• Strawberries depletion rate from 10 to 8
• Apples depletion rate from 20 to 12
• Onion output reduced from 7 to 4
• Papyrus Cutter water input reduced from 2 to 1
• Papyrus Cutter output increased from 3 to 4
• Scrub Pyre's Hemp cost reduced from 4 to 3
• Hemp Wood Maker max output increased from 8 to 10 Wood
• Hemp Wood Maker building cost increased by 4 Hemps
• Hemp Wood Maker trait bonus increased from 2 to 4
• Reduced Buoy's road distance from 3 to 2 (the new Large Buoy is unaltered)

• Increased Danger generation at Threat 7 from 45 to 50

• Mastery level now goes from 250% to 500%
• Maximum mastery level reduced from 10 to 6
• Difficulty scaling for Danger now affects only Threat generation
• Difficulty scaling for Danger tied to Threat is now intrinsic into the Threat generation value
• Difficulty scaling is now exponential based on the threat level and the current difficulty
• Research scaling is now exponential based on research tier and the current difficulty
• Easy and Relax mode are unaffected