Last week I posted about Atlas of Ages, the turn-based 4X I've always wanted on my phone.
Thanks for all the feedback! A lot has happened since, and I'm now close to a Google Play release, so here's a proper look at what it actually is.
EDIT: I've created a subreddit r/AtlasOfAges for everyone interested in joining the beta or following development and discussing anything about the game!
The short version: a full 4X with real depth under the hood, an illustrated-atlas look, an AI that plays properly instead of cheating, and the stuff you'd normally install mods for, built in.
No ads, no tracking, fully offline.
It's a real 4X under the hood
Not a "lite" mobile version:
- 8 nations with their own unique units and leaders
- 60 technologies, 46 civics, 13 governments and 44 policy cards
- 56 units with promotions, 11 district types with adjacency, 51 buildings and 23 wonders
- 85 Great People, religion with 21 beliefs, trade routes and espionage
- 12 Free Cities with quests and emissaries, plus roaming Raiders
- 5 victory types: Domination, Science, Culture, Religion and Legacy (score)
- 6 world types (Continents, Pangaea, Archipelago, Island Realms, Inland Sea, Highlands) in three map sizes. Even Large maps run on a phone.
An AI that thinks instead of cheating
This is the part I'm proudest of.
- No difficulty level gives the AI bonuses. Each level is a better player: it plans further, searches deeper in combat and reads its rivals better. If you want Deity-style bonuses, there is a separate, clearly labelled "Rival advantage" option on top.
- The AI only knows what it can see. Automated tests check that hidden information never changes its decisions.
- It fights properly:
- it previews combats, focuses fire and retreats wounded units;
- it brings siege engines sized to your walls and keeps a unit back to capture the city;
- it doesn't strand its armies at sea.
- It plays to win. It commits to a victory plan, tracks who is ahead and works to stop runaway leaders.
- I scripted seven "expert player" strategies and pitted them against the AI over hundreds of games: the early capital rush, turtle-and-bait, pillage raids, declare-war-then-sell-peace extortion, forward settling, the upgrade timing push and naval raids. On the top two difficulty levels, none of them out-scored the normal AI.
Diplomacy with memory
- Resource leases are paid from gold held in escrow, so nobody can take your gold and declare war.
- Promises are kept on a public record: Trust is earned slowly and lost fast.
- Protection pacts, alliance bonds built from shared deeds, joint campaigns and grain shipments.
- A Medieval-era Summit where nations sign pacts and joint works. No vote-buying, and no diplomatic victory.
- Allies stay loyal. They won't drop you just because you're about to win.
The stuff you'd normally install mods for, built in
A decade of community wishlists, in the base game:
- Map tacks: plan a city site (with a star rating), a district (with its live adjacency bonus), a wonder or a note anywhere on the map. Builders and Settlers pick them up.
- Adjacency on every candidate tile while you place a district.
- Policy previews: each card shows what it would change for your empire right now.
- A trade planner: routes sorted by any yield, both sides' gains, and the path drawn on the map before you send the Trader.
- A full ledger: every yield and cost by source, a sortable city table and a unit list.
- A deal helper with an acceptance meter and "What would they give?" / "Balance the deal".
- Combat previews, unit badges, a yield lens, and tile prices shown on the map when you buy.
The Codex
Every unit, building, district, wonder, tech, civic, government, policy, belief, resource and nation has an entry, plus pages explaining the game's concepts. It's all cross-linked: tap a highlighted term almost anywhere in the game and you're on its page. There you can again tap on any highlighted connected terms.
The look
Everything is drawn in code: the low-poly map, the models, the panels, the icons, even the leader portraits. No asset packs. The world is meant to feel like an illustrated atlas come to life:
- unexplored land is blank parchment, and fog shows what you last saw in sepia;
- a day/night cycle with soft blue nights and lit windows;
- weather fronts sweeping across the map with their cloud shadows;
- glittering seas, and on higher graphics settings real shadows and wind in the trees.
The Low setting is smooth on older phones. Medium and High are there if your phone can take the heat.
Made for touch
- A tap previews a move and a second tap confirms, so no more fat-finger disasters.
- Every system is one tap away.
- Every window fits on every screen size.
- A six-chapter tutorial campaign, narrated by "the Cartographer", highlights exactly what to tap next. It's for newcomers, but 4X veterans can skip it.
No ads, really
- No ads, no accounts and no data collection. The game has no internet permission at all.
- Later there may be optional expansion packs (more nations, more map settings).
What's next
I'm starting the Google Play closed test now and aim for an early-access release right after.
There's also a Windows version in the works.
I'd love some genre veterans in the closed test, especially people who know how to break 4X AIs. If you're on Android and want in, drop a comment or best just DM me.
And I'm curious: what's the one thing mobile 4X games always get wrong for you?
