Feudums cover
Feudums screenshot
Steam
Genre: Simulator, Strategy, Indie

Feudums

Pretender Wars

Dear Ladies and Lords of the Realm,



If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. There you can subscribe to topics you’re interested in through self-assignable roles.

Alternatively, sign up for the newsletter - I only send a mail about milestone community polls or major game updates.




Hey everyone! New Pretender Wars round is up - and "unranked" games are also constantly being hosted!

The Age of Pretenders - Update



While there were some timid attempts, it seems that no one managed to challenge the pretender in the first game, so House Elliott remains the pretender to the throne. The next Pretender Wars round has just started, giving you another chance to defeat them and restore order in the realm!

To make the reward a bit more enticing, if someone manages to win one of the Pretender Wars games, they'll not only receive unique heraldry elements but it'll be packed into a "Pretender Bloodline" achievement that will appear on their player profile. Additionally, the active Pretender will always receive a special, highlighted role on our discord server (if they are present there).

You can find a few starting tips in a new, bite-size steam guide here on Steam:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3353070835

Bannerlords and ladies, to Arms!



Demo Games



We also keep hosting demo games to fine-tune the existing rulebook settings, as well as to explore different scenarios (remember, all game rules are moddable!) based on community feedback and ideas. For everyone aspiring to defeat the pretender, or just wanting to check the game, it is a great place to practice or explore the game's basics!

Since the last demo update, there have been significant changes in both the economic and warfare settings - such as more pronounced differences between levies and mercenary (career soldier) units - and victory conditions for alliances have also been added, among a host of other changes.

Generally speaking, it’s worth checking these games weekly or bi-weekly to see what’s changed and, if you like, provide feedback on them even if the client doesn’t receive an update! Especially if you're a new player or returning after a break, sharing your experience would be a huge help. We're raffling off heraldry elements among those who provide feedback on our discord!

That's it for now, thank you for your time and I hope that you appreciate the news. See you in Feudums!


Join the Noble Houses! ⬣ newsletter | discord | patreon

Devlog: Status Update & More

Dear Ladies and Lords of the Realm,



First thing first, I apologize for the slower pace of updates recently, I've mentioned the reasons for this earlier. If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, please consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. There you can subscribe to topics you’re interested in through self-assignable roles.

Alternatively, sign up for the newsletter - I only send a mail about milestone community polls or major game updates.




Hey everyone! I know I’ve been a bit quieter than last year, but no worries - development is still going strong! We've got some exciting stuff coming up, so let’s dive into what you can look forward to in the next few weeks!

Demo Games


Although the demo doesn’t get updated every time, we keep hosting demo games to fine-tune the existing rulebook settings, as well as to explore different scenarios (remember, all game rules are moddable!) based on community feedback and ideas.

Since the last demo update, there have been significant changes in both the economic and warfare settings - such as more pronounced differences between levies and mercenary (career soldier) units - and victory conditions for alliances have also been added, among a host of other changes.

So it’s worth checking in every few weeks to see what’s changed and, if you like, provide feedback on them even if the client doesn’t receive an update!

The Age of Pretenders



Additionally, starting today, we're launching games where winning the game (and thus defeating the house representing the previous winner (or us) - starting with our community manager in today's freshly started week long game - will earn the victors limited heraldic items. You can win solo, or alongside with someone in an alliance, it's up to you! But remember, you don't only compete with the pretender house...!

These games will be called "Pretender Wars" for now, but you can always check the description of the games for details or keep an eye on our discord. To arms!



...and next update when?



Alright, yes, I'm also planning to update the demo build in early November... or when it's ready™ (I'd rather provide a good experience rather than rushing a deadline, but I'll do my best to deliver without delay).

The update will focus equally on Quality of Life improvements (both bugfixes and UX changes) and on adding new content and features for the economy (including the introduction of rogues in your lands), team play / diplomacy (including ways for more efficient options to fend off raiders and invasions) and warfare... but wait, I don't want to spoil everything. Stay tuned! :)



Community Poll Results


This year, we had two important community polls, and I haven’t shared the results (here) yet. But before we dive into that, a big thank you to everyone for participating!

Of single player



The decision here was clear: an overwhelming majority (85%) of you want to also see single-player content and almost everyone (92%) would pay for it, with about a third of them even willing to pay upfront (such as via crowdfunding). Although I’m a bit puzzled by that remaining 8%, as my friends and family shouldn't account for that many! ;), I'm extremely touched and grateful for the trust of the majority!

(There was also almost an equal split between those who preferred a DLC and those who favored a separate title, but a significantly larger portion of both groups said they didn't mind either option.)

So, single-player will happen!

I already have plans and potential collaborators lined up (some of whom you may recognize from other strategy games), but I can't promise a schedule just yet. Keep an eye on Feudums and community polls if you want to give single player a higher priority!

Of next Development MIlestone



The result for this was already posted on discord, but here's a short recap: the vote ended with a rather unexpected tie between Warfare II and Vassalage.

Since I don’t want you to wait twice as long for the next milestone update as last time, but also don’t want to make an arbitrary, exclusive decision between the two, I’ve decided to cherry-pick parts from both features that can fit into a regular-length milestone update. My plan is to also release some of these in smaller portions in our regular updates, so you don't have to wait too long for the related features. Some bits will already be included in the next regular update.



That's it for now, thank you for your time and I hope that you appreciate the news. See you in Feudums!


Join the Noble Houses! ⬣ newsletter | discord | patreon


Maintenance
Dear rulers and aspirants,

Unfortunately, it appears that with the latest update or the configuration changes executed simultaneously, we have caused a significant problem on the server, which has led to issues with the stability of game sessions. As a result, I need to suspend game launches for hopefully just a few days to investigate and resolve the issue.

I apologize for the inconvenience and I understand this is a disservice to our players - to you - but unfortunately, such accidents, and that it takes some time to realize and resolve these issues, are part of part-time indie game development and the pre-early access state. Fortunately, this is the first such instance since our Steam debut, and I don't intend to make a habit of it.

Therefore, I kindly ask for your understanding in this situation. We'll try to be as quick with a solution as possible.

As soon as it is over, alerts for new game sessions will be posted on our community discord.



Join the Noble Houses! | newsletter | discord | patreon



Free In-Development Demo updated!
Noble ladies and lords,

We have finished updating the ecosystem, our server and the clients. The latter should be now also available on Steam and a new game session will start shortly. Thank you for your patience!

As always, I invite you to play the early versions, join our discord to provide feedback and help to refine the game as we progress. Take advantage of our regularly updated demo as our transparent and interactive developer diary, provided for early collaboration with you to make Feudums the game we all want it to be!


Please find the changelog at the bottom of this post.

If you can afford it, you can support Feudums (and unlock nice perks) on Patreon, allowing me to dedicate more time and resources to the project. If you cannot - don't worry about it.

What else is on the horizon?


The latest community polls are now closed. I'll share the results in a few days on the Feudums Community discord, and development priorities will be set accordingly. Thank you for your votes!

Changelog


Notable Gameplay Changes


  • Unlocked game modes with more feudums.
  • Added the foundations for a host of new QoL features (these are still WIP / not yet enabled).

UX/UI Changes


  • Battle length estimations are now actual estimations instead of placeholders. Although they are still somewhat guesswork due to not knowing the settings of the opposing company, RNG in damages, and potential reinforcements, they should now be more reliable.
  • Lifted some of the Display Name restrictions (relevant for users logging in via Steam or Google) to reduce conflicts during updates (updated the relevant hints too).
  • Updated the "Welcome Message" upon joining a game with some extra functionalities and QoL enhancements. Added several new agendas that can fire in different scenarios.
  • Updated the countdown indicator on the Map scene.
  • The diplomacy badge's pending proposals counter now ignores proposals that were sent by the player.
  • Updated the bug reporter feature to include UIs on screenshots created for the bug report.

Bugfixes / Optimizations


  • Alliance Victory Conditions did not display the player's own status if it matched that of the first-place player.
  • Fixed an NRE in ItemIdentity.
  • Fixed mines not being displayed on some desert tiles (and optimized related fallback strategies).
  • Fixed an NRE which could occur during the cleanup logic of the Guard/Patrol command.
  • Fixed seasonal visual glitches related to Woodcutters.
  • Fixed the Changelist button not working in the Menu.
  • Fixed a caching issue related to the Persona data (which sometimes prevented CoAs to appear correctly).


Until the next update... Enjoy Feudums!

newsletter | discord | patreon

Maintenance & Update
Dear rulers and aspirants,

We are applying an update, performing the migration of some elements of our ecosystem, and also performing several scheduled (and relatively slow) maintenance jobs, so there will be an extended downtime.

All systems will be down for up to a day. Once everything is back up, we'll have a new demo version and new games will kick off. Just a heads up, our site (and community polls) will experience prolonged downtime (1-2 weeks), but this won't affect the games or the server.

Thank you for your patience!

As always, I invite you to play the early versions, join our discord to provide feedback and help to refine the game as we progress.

Take advantage of our regularly updated demo as our transparent and interactive developer diary, provided for early collaboration with you to make Feudums the game we all want it to be!

If you can afford it, you can support Feudums (and unlock nice perks) on Patreon, allowing me to dedicate more time and resources to the project.

Demo patch + TurnBasedThursdayFest participation!
Noble ladies and lords,

We are happy to announce our participation in the #TurnBasedThursdayFest, which is bound to start in a couple hours!

To celebrate our participation, we have uploaded a small patch to the client. It should be auto-updated on Steam in a couple minutes. Please find the changelog at the bottom of this post.

As always, I invite you to play the early versions, join our discord to provide feedback and help to refine the game as we progress. Take advantage of our regularly updated demo as our transparent and interactive developer diary, provided for early collaboration with you to make Feudums the game we all want it to be!


If you can afford it, you can support Feudums (and unlock nice perks) on Patreon, allowing me to dedicate more time and resources to the project. If you cannot - don't worry about it.


Changelog


UX/UI Changes


  • Instead of opening the Guide if you haven't read it yet, you'll now encounter a summary (albeit with limited content for now). However, it'll brief you if you're at war, diplomatic decisions await, you have administrative reserves to spend, you haven't finished the Guide yet and in a couple other cases.

Bugfixes / Optimizations


  • Fixed: Cursor visibility in diplomatic notes.
  • Fixed: Incorrect default stance for paging in the Game Rules / Victories interface.
  • Various minor client-side improvements and background work.

There's more coming soon, so make sure you subscribed to our newsletter, clicked Follow on Steam and joined our discord to stay in the loop! And again, if you can afford it, please consider supporting Feudums' development (and unlock nice perks) on Patreon - thank you! :)


Until the next update... Enjoy Feudums and feel free to say "hi!" on discord if you have a moment!

Free In-Development Demo updated!
Noble ladies and lords,

We have almost finished updating both the servers and the client. The latter should be auto-updated on Steam in a couple minutes now and a new game session will start shortly. Thank you for your patience!

As always, I invite you to play the early versions, join our discord to provide feedback and help to refine the game as we progress. Take advantage of our regularly updated demo as our transparent and interactive developer diary, provided for early collaboration with you to make Feudums the game we all want it to be!


Please find the changelog at the bottom of this post.

If you can afford it, you can support Feudums (and unlock nice perks) on Patreon, allowing me to dedicate more time and resources to the project. If you cannot - don't worry about it.

What else is on the horizon?


In addition to the roadmap community poll, which is now active and is available both on our homepage and from the client, there are some smaller polls about fine-tuning and prioritizing player requested features and content planned for the next some updates. These polls happen on discord - everyone is hereby invited to participate!


Changelog


Notable Gameplay Changes


  • Alliances and Alliance Victory Conditions: Players who are in diplomatic alliance relation now automatically form an alliance. An alliance can have more than two members if each party is an ally of all others (and game rules allow for more than one ally to be accepted). We have introduced separate victory conditions for alliances; these victory conditions are all immediate win types and are displayed on a separate page on the Game Rules / Victory Conditions panel.
  • Diplomacy Treaty values are now tracked and accepting a proposal can fail because of exceeding the threshold. You can see the settings for the current game in the tooltip of the Diplomacy badge.
  • You can add to, or review a diplomatic note for any new diplomatic proposal, counter-proposal or statement. These can be shown by either opening the diplomatic entry or by hovering the appropriate icon on a diplomatic entry under the Diplomacy badge.
  • Command Refunds: depending on the rulebook settings, there may be partial refund for the command costs if those have already been initiated but subsequently repealed. The tooltip for the Repeal button has been updated accordingly, and a report is generated for the refund, which can be viewed in the Dominion Reports. This also applies to commands rejected by the server during execution with a Hard Fail, such as when the circumstances associated with the command have changed.
  • Administrative Reserves: depending on the rulebook settings (including both time interval and limit), players can accumulate "Administrative Reserve" during their offline time. If there is any, it is displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen after entering the game map. During the execution of player commands, these reserves directly reduce the execution time of the commands by 1 tick for each point. Note: This reserve cannot be used for certain commands, such as those already lasting for 1 tick or for company movements.

UX/UI Changes


  • Companies now take a default stance to attack weaker opponents. Garrisons are still defensive by default.
  • Company Move command now keeps the waypoints and records the starting position.
  • Battles now report all joining units as "reserve" before moving them to a battle roster.
  • Battle Reports / Animated Phases have received a (n almost) complete overhaul. Battle Reports have received explicit icons (and continue to be colored) to state the side they are linked to.
  • You can now subscribe to our newsletter by clicking on its button in the game menu.
  • Added color-coding and better formatting to most values in domain / feudum / company reports, also in victory conditions for additional clarity.
  • Major Needs layout has been updated on Feudum Card and received some extra tooltip content for better clarity.

Bugfixes / Optimizations


  • Fog of war has been tweaked not to include tiles in a feudum if the player has only seen the tile before the feudum was established (ie. players won't get an updated situation about these tiles).
  • Optimized tweening for FoW clouds to avoid some unnecessary changes.
  • Optimized our process for spritesheets handling (technical debt mitigation).
  • Optimized performance for command item lookups.
  • Optimized Chat/Diplomatic Note escaping. Normalize whitespace now includes spaces and formfeed.
  • Various server-side devops optimizations.
  • Changed how server connection certificates are validated.
  • Fixed: IngameNameValidator regex.
  • Fixed a bug where tresspassing was considered a diplomatic violation while at war.
  • Fixed tooltips for "Diplomatic Standing" categories on Diplomacy Dialog.
  • Fixed: misaligned Join the Community segment after Main Menu reload.
  • Fixed: Battle log: tick display is not updated when auto-progress to latest tick.
  • Fixed a bug where a player could not submit a new worldmarket auto-trade command in some cases (thanks for reporting!)
  • Fixed: Battle animation throws NRE in some cases when players attempt to replay. (thanks for reporting!)
  • Fixed: Battle animation missing units from past battle ticks for the animation. (thanks for reporting!)
  • Fixed: Battle animation: scroll is stuck in various cases. (thanks for reporting!)
  • Fixed: missing Battle animations. (thanks for reporting!)
  • Fixed: Battle animation throws error and is not properly reset when switching between battles. (thanks for reporting!)
  • Fixed: CreateFeudumCommand: units deleted when standing on manor. (thanks for reporting!)
  • Fixed a bug where a company (wages) shortage was reported as a wasteground shortage (thanks for reporting!)
  • Fixed a bug where Change Terrain would allow the player to deselect the terrain type (thanks for reporting!)

There's more coming soon, so make sure you subscribed to our newsletter, clicked Follow on Steam and joined our discord to stay in the loop! And again, if you can afford it, please consider supporting Feudums' development (and unlock nice perks) on Patreon - thank you! :)



Until the next update... Enjoy Feudums and feel free to say "hi!" on discord if you have a moment!

Free Demo updated!
Noble ladies and lords,

We have successfully updated both the servers and the client, the latter should be auto-updated on Steam any minute now. Thank you for your patience!

As always, I invite you to play the early versions, join our discord to provide feedback and help to refine the game as we progress. Take advantage of our regularly updated demo as our transparent and interactive developer diary, provided for early collaboration with you to make Feudums the game you want it to be!


Please find the changelog at the bottom of this post.
If you can afford it, you can support Feudums (and unlock nice perks) on Patreon, allowing me to dedicate more time and resources to the project, but if you cannot - don't worry about it.

What else is on the horizon?



  1. The single player community poll will close at the end of February to make room for the next roadmap community poll about the next major feature milestone. Be sure to cast your vote while you can. It just takes 20 seconds to 2 minutes to complete it!
  2. In addition to the roadmap community poll, there will be some smaller polls about fine-tuning and prioritizing player requested features and content planned for the next some updates. These polls will happen on discord - everyone is hereby invited to participate!


Changelog


Notable Gameplay Changes


  • You can now join your allies in battle if your agreement is set to "Alliance" and you do not violate another existing agreement with a player on the other side of the battle (e.g.: Peace, Alliance or Non-aggression pact). The maximum number of companies that can join a battle on one side is now set in the rulebook.
  • Execution times for most commands - claims and constructions included - have been reduced.

UX/UI Changes


  • Changed how the rulebook defines the diplomacy violation costs and when the diplomacy violations are processed against other players with no agreements.
  • Changed how the diplomacy violations are reported. The reports now include the categories for both parties, not just the cost.
  • Total population is now reported in the footer of the Feudums list.
  • Finally added the long missing Company/Garrison list to the Companies badge, and the most important rulebook settings to the badge's tooltip. In addition, a small notification will automatically appear in the bottom right corner of the badge if there is a battle in which your companies or garrisons are involved (and fighting companies are marked in the list appropriately).
  • Garrisons and companies now show their Area of Control when selected, and feudum (or wasteground) tiles are marked when you click into one and you're in the Feudum scope (note: the visual effects for these highlights are not final)
  • Wastegrounds now have a slightly different border type for clarity.

Bugfixes / Optimizations


  • Fixed an issue where Border trespassing violations were not registered.
  • Fixed an issue where the diplomacy violations are not reported when the cost was 0.
  • Fixed an issue where the diplomacy Sight violations were not counted.
  • Fixed an issue where the diplomacy private state command did not update the "Sight" value for fog of war.
  • Fixed an issue where the world market trades could succeed if the rulebook limits were not set.
  • Fixed an issue where game notification messages were displayed in the wrong order.
  • Fixed an issue where the feudum freshwater sources were calculated wrong in some cases.
  • Fixed various bugs on the Backend Admin layouts
  • Slightly updated the Steam integration workflow.
  • Fixed Steam and Google login integration for https://www.feudums.com.
  • Prepared the game server for several upcoming features :)


There's more coming soon, so make sure you subscribed to our newsletter, clicked Follow on Steam and joined our discord to stay in the loop! :)



Until the next update... Enjoy Feudums and say "hi!" on discord if you have a moment!

February Update

Dear Feudums Community,


(including queens, kings, rulers, pretenders and other aspirants)

First thing first: for more consistent bite-size updates, please consider joining our discord — it's integrated with our game states, and you can choose the news you want to hear about. Alternatively, opt for the newsletter for notifications about community polls or game updates (we do not send mails about anything else). Rest assured, we never spam you on either platform, but unlike Steam posts, these can reliably keep you in the loop.

Alright, now let's quickly recap what you can expect in the coming weeks.

Community Polls


The single-player poll will close at the end of February to make room for the next community poll on the next major milestone. Be sure to cast your vote on the current topic while you can!

Status Report


With my own reserves depleted and the game not yet monetized (remember that we're fully committed to avoiding any pay-to-win element!), I'll need to allocate time to other projects so I can pay the bills. This could mean fewer updates than in the past year, but I'm determined to spend as much time - and money - as I'm able to on Feudums. I also plan to stick to our continuously updated, interactive developer diary model to continue providing full transparency and early collaboration with you. If you can afford it, you can support Feudums (and unlock nice perks) on Patreon, allowing me to dedicate more time and resources to the project, but if you cannot - don't worry about it.

Despite the challenges this year might force upon us, we've weathered worse times since our start, and we're resilient to move forward.

Next Demo Update


We're planning to update the demo build next week, ideally right after the current game ends. Expect a couple of hours of downtime as we update both the game and server infrastructure. The new demo build will include several fixes and changes based on your feedback as well as new content.

Thanks for reading the news.
To arms!

Free Demo updated!
Noble ladies and lords,

I thought you would like if I'd release a quick update to the demo before Christmas, probably the last one this year. This one didn't require a game server update (we did do a minor update to other parts of the server before the current game started though), so it won't interrupt any game.

Thanks for being with us on our journey, and I hope you'll also stay with us in 2024!
To everyone who celebrates, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, on behalf of myself and every contributor! :)


Please find the changelog at the bottom of this post.

What else is on the horizon?



We're currently running an important poll on the possible single player content and it is super important that I understand what interests you most. So please, take the opportunity and participate in the dialogue, vote even if you don't care about single-player!

Link (Google Forms): Feudums: Single-Player Poll (https://forms.gle/PYYpqymkrsxYQK4r7)
Depending on your answers, it will take only 20 seconds to 3-4 minutes to complete.

As there have been questions about it, I would also like to clarify that a possible single player version would not be to the detriment of multiplayer, but to complement it - like I would prioritize features and contributors' works that can be used in both versions, and both would maintain their own unique features (and yes, of course single player would be turn-, and not async tick based! ;) ).

I was originally going to put out the poll on the next multiplayer milestone before Christmas, but unfortunately there have been fewer responses to the single-player poll than I'm comfortable with, so we'll have to wait a little longer - so if you haven't yet casted your vote on that topic, this is a perfect moment to do it!

As always, I invite you to play the early versions, join our discord and help to refine the game as we progress. Take advantage of this regularly updated demo, our transparent and interactive developer diary, provided for early collaboration with you to make Feudums the game you want it to be!



Changelog


Notable Gameplay Changes



  • Garrison tactics have been slightly rebalanced.
  • Expansion costs now follow a bit more of an exponential curve.
  • Diplomacy upkeep costs are reduced to make formal diplomatic relations more attractive.

UX/UI Changes



  • Major Needs: The "stockpile" of major needs has been moved from the labourers section to the feudal indicator section and now also shows the supply/demand balance of the last tick in addition to the stockpile. A detailed breakdown has been also added (in the expanded section of the tooltip).
  • Feudum indicator tooltips have also been updated.
  • Added better handling and visual clues for abandoned feudums.
  • Integration: You can now log in to our website using your Google or Steam account (authentication will be handled by the appropriate provider, just like in the client). This will become important for the community poll for the next multiplayer milestone.

Bugfixes / Optimizations



  • Fixed: several NREs on Feudum Card / Labourer section / Indicators when the player has unsubcribed
  • Fixed: Buttons weren't properly masked in the Dashboard/Settings scroll area.
  • Fixed: Terrain-based labour output was ignored for major needs tooltips (they were calculated and reported correctly, just not shown in the tooltip breakdowns)
  • Several smaller glitches / UX inconsistencies


There's more coming soon, so make sure you clicked Follow on Steam and joined our discord to stay in the loop! :)

If you can afford it, please consider supporting the development on patreon, so I can continue to devote my time and resources to the project and complete the remaining milestones in a shorter timeframe.

Until the next update and the next year... Enjoy Feudums!
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