This time we’re here with a short tease of the upcoming Halloween Update for Glorious Companions. Aside from the Halloween-themed additions, we’ll also release a brand new gameplay mechanic - the Camping system.
Camping
Each company on the world map will receive their own energy meter (condition), which is used when moving across the continent and when engaging in combat. If the energy drops down to zero, the party will be forced to camp. For that reason, wise commanders should plan their camps ahead of time to avoid getting trapped in enemy territory.
Camping will open up new gameplay options for you to choose from. Now you’ll be able to delegate your people to hunt for food, heal the wounded companions or cook a tasty meal to boost the company’s morale. Each of your units will be more predisposed towards different responsibilities at the camp. For example agile units will yield better results when hunting, while strong companions will serve you better building fortifications.
Graphics Settings & Rebindable Controls
Yes, they’re finally coming. You’ve waited long enough for them.
New and revised quests
We’ve sat down to fix some of the old quests and add new ones. Discover what’s new for yourself!
Halloween stuff
While we’re on the topic of new quests, during the Halloween event you’ll have a unique chance to obtain limited items - the legendary Pumpkin Helmet and the Eternal Flame sword. Just raid some Spiders Nests, collect the Spider Eggs and cash them in for an epic reward! Beware though, the new Spider enemies will have a few special abilities up their hairy sleeves, so you’d better not let them surprise you.
The battle locations will also receive a time-limited Halloween-themed decor, make sure the check them out while they’re available.
Smaller changes and tweaks
In this update we will also address some of the concerns raised by the community; food amount problems, merchant money issues, the ability to discard items, the Berserk Rush bug to name a few.
Update 0.36 - Valrenay Abilities
Hello there, Companions!
Today we’re releasing a long awaited update that introduces special abilities for all Valrenay units. Now everyone will have at least a few to let them shine on the battlefield. It is by no means the complete selection of unit skills, we plan to have at least 10 special abilities to choose from for each unit.
If you have any questions or suggestions, head over to our Steam Forums or our official Discord Server.
Content:
6 new abilities for Valrenay Gunner: Steam Punch, Shield Bash, Watch Out, Taunt, Papa Bless, Power Knee Gong.
3 new abilities for Valrenay Engineer: Fixer Upper, Steam Release, Frag Grenade.
2 new abilities for Valrenay Blade Dancer: Hurricane Strike, Dance of Blades.
2 new abilities for Valrenay Trapper: Makeshift Weapon, Ancestral Equalizer.
Balance:
Reduced AoE of Baron’s Rain of Bullets from 3x3 to 2x2.
Changed the Battlepoints cost of most weapons and armor pieces.
Changed Valrenay Resource stats.
Changed the dead trees from half cover to full covers.
Balanced the resource / ap costs and cooldowns of Valrenay abilities.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug with playing two consecutive games in the online mode.
Fixed sorting and calculating MVP in post online battle window.
Fixed a double aura / stacking auras bug.
Fixed a bug with leveling up Construction company attribute even though it is disabled.
Fixed last enemy AI behaviour.
QoL improvements and tweaks:
Added quest giver’s name in the UI.
Added a small resource bar under units’ health bar in battle.
Implemented company’s First Aid attribute.
Added Resource bar under the HP bar in battle UI.
Optimized game save file size.
Changed how the permadeath chance is calculated and now your units may die even in a won battle if their wounds were grievous enough.
Added an option to level up the Resource attribute.
Added an orbiting camera rotation under LMB in battles.
Changed the movement on the world map to RMB for consistency.
Added camera scrolling under LMB on the world map.
As for the Scarres, we’re currently working on their armors and special abilities. Here’s an Acolyte in Fur Armor:
Update 0.35c Patch Notes
What's changed in the newest update:
Added increasing LP cost for leveling up attributes in Campaign.
Changed Battlecrew Builder's popup when switching a unit to be more intuitive.
Added turn time limits to Online battles.
Made unit battlepoints cost more intuitive in Battlecrew Builder.
Optimized Rain of Bullets' fx.
Fixed a bug where the game would detect a timeout in Online battles after the battle was already finished.
Added sound effects when someone joins an online lobby or sends a message.
Fixed a bug with lost battles in Campaign. (reported by Does)
Update 0.35b Patch Notes
Hello there, Companions!
Today we’re releasing a small update with the promised Baron’s special abilities and some QoL improvements / bug fixes.
Content:
5 new abilities for Valrenay Baron (Rain of Bullets, Knockback, Pierce Through, Way Out and Farewell).
Bug fixes:
Battlecrew Builder: fixed unit highlight that caused the game to crash and didn’t display correctly.
Battlecrew Builder: fixed quite a few bugs with abilities in unit customization.
XP gain no longer shows in Custom Battles.
Fixed spawning multiple obstacles at the same place.
Trapper’s Piercing Throw animation fixed.
Fixed a bug with some auras getting resolved at the wrong time.
Fixed sizes that some obstacles cover on the battlefields.
QoL improvements and tweaks:
Battlecrew Builder: added an option to unequip abilities.
Battlecrew Builder: added Tooltips.
Multiplayer Update Released & 33% Weeklong Deal!
Hello there, Companions!
This time we’ve prepared something for you that we actually thought will take us a few more months to roll out - online multiplayer! Coupled with it, we have also implemented the Battlecrew Builder and the Custom Battle mode where you’ll be able to play out various scenarios against AI, another local player (in a hot-seat mode) or via the online multiplayer.
Along with our grand update, we’ve got a brand new trailer video and a new Steam banner art. Let us know what you think of them!
[previewyoutube="FMzE7Y8MBNc;full"]
Thanks to the new game mode and the battlecrew management options, we’ll also be able to focus more on the game’s balance and we’ll gladly welcome any suggestions on this from the community.
Bear in mind that it’s merely the first iteration of the online functionality, so there might be some issues and lacking features here and there. We’d love to hear your feedback on how the multiplayer mode works, along with reports of any bugs or odd situations you’ve encountered during your playthroughs.You can either post those on the Steam forums or on our Discord server.
So, without further ado, let’s get to the changes in the game’s newest version.
Battlecrew Builder - experiment with various combinations freely
You’ll be able to prepare pre-set battle groups of custom units for various Custom Battle tiers. Each unit will have a pool of Learning Points (as if it were level 10) to spend on attribute upgrades and unlocking special abilities. All the skill upgrades, equipment elements and learned abilities add up to a total Battlepoints cost of the unit along with its base cost depending on the archetype tier (Baron is worth more points than a mere Trapper).
With your battlecrew setups you’ll have to fit into a chosen battle tier criteria. Those go as follows (they might be changed based on playtests though):
Quick Skirmish (400 Bpts max)
Medium Encounter ( 800 Bpts max)
Clash of Commanders (1200 Bpts max)
In the future we’ll add an option to import battlecrews from your Campaign mode save files.
Custom Battle mode - play vs AI, in old-school Hot-Seat or in the Online Multiplayer
Custom Battles will feature the option to play versus the AI, a hot-seated opponent as well as your friend in an Online Multiplayer match through Steam. When creating a Custom Battle match you’ll be able to pick a time per turn limit, battle tier, map as well as map seed.
Procedurally generated battlefields
We’re also working on a solution that should make the maps feel less same’y! We’ve created a tool that allows us to design a number of different obstacle layouts (so that they make sense tactics wise) and bundled it together with a new vegetation system that should a) improve rendering performance in battles b) randomize all the vegetation and background objects based on the seed value. In the future we’ll experiment with modifying the terrain mesh as well and make the battlefields resemble the part of the world map where the battle actually takes place.
Diplomacy Panel
We didn’t quite forgot about the main game mode, which is the campaign. From now on you’ll be able to follow your character’s relationship network with all the nobility, settlements, houses and factions via a handy panel. Keep in mind though that we haven’t focused on this aspect of the game yet as we’re waiting for the World Map 2.0 to put more work into it. So don’t get too worried if the relationship system doesn’t seem to have enough depth yet.
New Special Abilities for the Baron*
Took us more time than we expected to get to this, but we’re finally adding more special abilities for the Valrenay troops with even more coming in the next weeks.
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If you notice anything report-worthy please let us know about the issue by posting on the Bug Reports forum board.
Content:
Custom Battle mode with local and online multiplayer
Battlecrew Builder
Procedural generation for the battlefields
Diplomacy Panel
A few special abilities for the Baron:*
Way Out
Farewell
Rain of Bullets
Knockback
Pierce Through
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What’s ahead
We’re getting closer and closer to finishing the Scarres race, currently working on their armor sets. Though we’ll most likely wait with their release until we have their special resource and abilities ready to roll out as a fully playable race.
*- special abilities for Baron will be added in the next couple days.
Development Log: Teasing the upcoming update
Hello there, Companions!
(ui layout work in progress)
As we’ve mentioned in our last post we’re currently working on a bigger update that we plan to release in the second half of August. We’re also at the same time preparing for the next big update which will be the playable Scarres race.
In the meantime we wanted to show you some development progress and tell you more about what to expect from the upcoming patch for Glorious Companions.
So let’s start with the latter; the major new additions to the game will be:
Battlecrew Builder - experiment with various combinations freely
You’ll be able to prepare pre-set battle groups of custom units for various Custom Battle tiers. Each unit will have a pool of Learning Points (as if it were level 10) to spend on attribute upgrades and unlocking special abilities. All the skill upgrades, equipment elements and learned abilities add up to a total Battlepoints cost of the unit along with its base cost depending on the archetype tier (Baron is worth more points than a mere Trapper).
With your battlecrew setups you’ll have to fit into chosen battle tier criteria. Those go as follows (though might be changed based on playtests):
Quick Skirmish (400 Bpts max & 6 units total)
Medium Encounter ( 800 Bpts max & 10 units total)
Clash of Commanders (1200 Bpts max & 15 units total)
In the future we’ll add an option to import battlecrews from your Campaign mode save files.
Custom Battle mode - play vs AI, in old-school Hot-Seat or in the Online Multiplayer
Custom Battles will feature the option to play versus the AI, a hot-seated opponent as well as your friend in an Online Multiplayer match through Steam. When creating a Custom Battle match you’ll be able to pick a time per turn limit, battle tier, map as well as map seed.
More Random Maps
We’re also working on a solution that should make the maps feel less same’y! We’ve created a tool that allows us to design a number of different obstacle layouts (so that they make sense tactics wise) and bundled it together with a new vegetation system that should a) improve rendering performance in battles b) randomize all the vegetation and background objects based on the seed value. In the future we’ll experiment with modifying the terrain mesh as well.
New Valrenay Special Abilities
Took us more time than we expected to get to this but we’re finally adding more special abilities for the Valrenay troops with even more coming in the next month.
Diminishing returns on leveling up attributes
While working on the Battlecrew Builder we’ve decided that it’s finally time to contain the leveling balance at least a tad. From now on the LP cost for upgrading an ability will go up every couple upgrades which should also make the archetypes a little more oriented towards their own advantages instead of every unit being able to fulfill the same role too well.
To finish up this post let's take a look at our progress with the fully remade Scarres race:
Tier 3 Warlord
Tier 1 & 2 Armor Designs
Tier 5 Avenger
AI Rework Update Released!
Hello there, Companions!
We continue with improvements to the core aspects of Glorious Companions. We know that weird behaviors and actions taken by the computer-controlled opponents may instantly put you out of immersion and that’s why we’ve decided to focus on reworking the AI system early on.
We’d love to hear your feedback on how the new AI plays, along with reports of any bugs or odd situations you’ve encountered during your playthroughs. You can either post those on the Steam forums or on our Discord server.
So, without further ado let’s get to changes in the game’s newest version.
Reworked AI System
The biggest problem with our old approach was the behavior of the enemy captains, which is crucial for balanced and challenging gameplay - we wanted the captains to focus on surviving the battles. The AI will now move all its units in a tight formation and will no longer leave the poor slow Gunners behind right from the get-go. We’ve also spent a lot of time deciding how to value different actions in varied scenarios, for example enemy units shouldn’t decide as often to move out of melee combat zones (which in turn caused them to receive opportunity attacks) or rotate ‘randomly’. The AI has also learned how to utilize covers and will use them to safely reload their guns when needed.
We’ve also made a lot of groundwork for the AI to use abilities which should come in the near future.
Day & Night System in Battles
We’ve connected the world map clock with battles and thus you won’t have to play through whole battles at night time. Each turn will last an hour (of the game’s time) and you’ll see a smooth daytime transition at the beginning of your round.
This feature also allowed us to customize each battle location’s lighting settings more easily and give them a more distinct look.
World Map Travelling Speed
You might also notice that your party will move slower through rough terrain from now on. Keep that in mind while traversing mountains or water. In the future (with World Map 2.0 update) this will get more sophisticated but it’ll do as it is for now.
New Scale and Plate Armors
The previous Scale and Plate armors weren’t on par with the other ones and so we’ve decided to remake them from scratch. Check out the new Valrenay looks below:
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If you notice anything report-worthy please let us know about the issue in the Bug Reports forums board.
Content:
Remade Scale and Plate Armors.
Added dynamic lighting (day & night system) in battle maps.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug with the party size not updating in the world map tooltips.
Fixed a bug with recruited Gunners displaying the beard/hair from the playable character’s customizable options.
QoL improvements and tweaks:
Battle AI: AI will now move in a formation instead of leaving the slowest units behind.
Battle AI: AI will react to flanking.
Battle AI: AI Captain will now play much safer, will try to stay in the second line of formation.
Battle AI: AI will favor positions behind covers when their enemy has a lot of ranged units.
Battle AI: Ranged units will no longer favor walking into the enemy melee range.
Battle AI: Fixed AI doing random rotations.
Cities will value different item types differently from now on. (small tweak before the fully fledged resource / region based system)
Movement speed on the world map will now depend on the terrain you’re traversing.
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What’s ahead
We’re working on a pretty big update that might take us some time to finish (don’t expect it to arrive in 2 weeks time) but we’re really excited for it. You might need a friend to play through it, if you catch our drift ;) Along with the new update we plan to release a new (and much better) trailer for the game. So… stay tuned for what’s coming!
Also here’s a couple of work in progress images from the upcoming Scarre race:
The Captain Update is here!
Hello there, Companions!
We’re back with the first content update for Glorious Companions - the Captain Update. We’ve mostly focused on strengthening the game’s core mechanic and the main goal of the battle, which is to kill the enemy team’s captain before yours dies.
IMPORTANT: Save files from the previous version won’t work on the newest update. Unfortunately you’ll have to start a new playthrough, although the changes we’ve made would impact the game’s beginning and its balance so it’d be wise to start with a new company anyhow.
Captain’s Calls
We’ve always wanted the captains to feel like something more than just ordinary soldiers, and thus each captain will now possess a special ability that’ll improve their survivability (as long as your allies are still alive) as well as provide an active skill enabling some clutch plays. Keep in mind though that using your Captain’s Call’s active part will make you vulnerable afterwards, as the passive part won’t work while the ability is on cooldown.
New neutral enemies
At last you won’t have to decide between only fighting bandits or wolves, as we’ve added a bunch of new neutral opponents for you to challenge and, most importantly, have some easier targets to chase in the early game. We’ve also changed the Wolf model so say goodbye to the good ol’ low-poly one.
In the future updates you can expect the neutral parties to gain their own cool Captain Calls to differentiate them even more.
Firearms
We’ve added the first batch of firearms, weapons mainly utilized by the Valrenay men and women, although their technology has already spread throughout the continent and a sight of a Scarre Raider with a musket in his hand isn’t exactly that shocking to the common folk. In the future the Valrenay units will gain even more abilities that can utilize these weapons to their fullest potential, but you can already give it a try in a regular battle.
Company Overview panel
Based on the feedback we’ve received from the community we decided to add a new panel window where you’ll be able to find grouped information on all your units, how much do you have to pay them and how much food they eat. It’ll also come in handy when you can’t recall in which city you’ve left one of your companions to train a new ability.
Food System & Companion Happiness
The food system is finally here and you may now stress about your companions starving to death (or more likely leaving the company as it’ll get them quite unhappy). Coupled with this change we’ve also added Happiness meters to your companions so you can closely monitor their mood.
Extremely content companions will gain additional EXP boosts while the unhappy companions will suffer adequate penalties.
Hair options for the Player Characters
The character customization got a little more interesting with the addition of different hair options for the player characters. As mentioned on launch, the customization system is something that we’ll keep expanding on incrementally as we progress with the Early Access.
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If you notice anything report-worthy please let us know about the issue in the Bug Reports forums board.
Content:
Added a new type of abilities available only for the Captain units, the so called Captain Calls:
Last Stand - Engineer / Wise,
Berserk Rush - Mercenary / Wise,
Covering Fire - Gunner / Tough.
Added new neutral enemies:
Bears and Bear Cubs,
Stags and Does,
Foxes,
Boars,
New Wolf models.
Implemented the first few firearm weapons.
Implemented a Company Overview window panel.
Implemented the Food System.
Implemented Companion Happiness.
Added different hair options for Valrenay Player Characters.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug connected to having only captain in your company and the weekly upkeep window showing up.
Fixed the notification panel on the world map.
Fixed a bug where you could take back a companion after training even when you didn’t have space in your company.
Fixed Engineer’s shield socket position.
QoL improvements and tweaks:
Added keyboard shortcuts for controlling the game’s speed on the world map (1, 2 and 3)
Added an option to delete save files directly in game.
Added a popup window when a companion leaves your party.
Tweaked captain generation for the NPC parties.
We’re now displaying special status effects under the units’ HP bars.
Added a popup window after a companion died in battle.
Animals can no longer parry melee attacks. So can’t your fists.
Update 0.31b Patch Notes - More tweaks for the weekend
Hello there, Companions!
With the weekend in sight we’ve decided to hotfix a few other bugs that have been missed previously as well as implement another batch of QoL tweaks. Hopefully you’ll be able to play without any game breaking interruptions! Meanwhile we’re returning to work on the next week’s content update which you don’t want to miss. Stay tuned!
If you notice anything report-worthy please let us know about the issue in the Bug Reports forums board.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bunch of bugs with the unit equipment screen and item management.
Fixed a bug with the battle result screen, where switching to the loot tab quickly would cancel all the companion animations.
Fixed the incorrect battles won value in the “it’s time to pay your dues” interaction.
Fixed the equipment tab of the unit screen not refreshing on stat level up.
Fixed a bug with units not firing death animation when killed with the second hit of the Blade Furry ability.
QoL improvements and tweaks:
Added a popup message about a completed quest in the city screen
(NOTE: You might be getting some of them retroactively on your old save files - it’s not a bug).
Changed the name of a neutral creature “Wolf” to “Grey Wolf” for clarity.
Added Action Points icon in the equipment tab of the unit screen next to the armor’s AP penalty value for clarity.
Added Dodge/Block/Parry skill values to the equipment tab of the unit screen.
Made the Captain’s crown icon show above all other health bars.
Slightly increased the font size in the tutorial.
Added the number of units currently in training to the Manage button in character training facilities.
Update 0.31 Patch Notes and a Thank You
Hello there, Companions!
Today we’re pushing the very first update that should address all the game breaking bugs and issues you have reported so far. We’ve included a bunch of small QoL changes and we’ve already started working on a bigger update that should come next week.
We’d like to send a big Thank You to all the people who have already bought the game and are supporting us with positive feedback, suggestions and bug reports. We’re very aware that the game is still in an early stage of development and would like to say that it’s totally fine to wait with purchasing GC until it’s more fleshed out / a more complete experience. Nonetheless, we’re very happy to see that a number of players are already having fun with the game in its current state and believe in the final product we’ve envisioned.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug with the forever-alive tooltips.
Fixed a bug with battles not loading after teaching the Agile captain an ability.
Fixed a bug with not being able to select the captain unit in the unit panel.
Fixed a bug with swapping Unit Stash Right Hand item with the Right Hand item.
Fixed a bug with langs not loading in the character creation screen.
Fixed the lang NOQUESTS not showing properly.
Fixed long names overflowing in the Tavern screen.
Fixed a bug with Rotating costing AP even when rotating to the current direction.
Fixed a bug with NPC Lords sometimes giving you the same quest twice.
Fixed the level and exp UI elements in battles.
Fixed a rare bug with overlapping music from the world map in battle.
QoL improvements and tweaks:
Tweaked the world map HUD “hitboxes” to hopefully be less annoying when scrolling.
Disabled the camera following player projectiles.
Using all of your unit's AP will now switch to the next one.
Lords now acknowledge you’ve completed quests for them.
Tweaked the camera’s tilting in battle so it works smoothly when zooming in and out.
Added Volume options. (!)
Added a tutorial popup explaining Quests after the first one is taken.
We’ve disabled the auto update of the langs database feature at the game’s startup for now since a number of users have reported issues with missing strings (the large traffic at the release might’ve caused this). Instead all the strings will now be always included in the build itself.
Next update tease
Expanding on the Options menu with rebindable input settings and some graphical settings.
