The lead developer of Oriental Empires, R.T. ‘Bob’ Smith, is answering questions in an AMA on the r/Games subreddit right now!
If you want to know more about the game, its development, or what Bob’s favorite food is, be sure to join us here!
The AMA will run for a day, starting now, so get your questions in while you can!
Update 22 September 2017
Hi everyone,
Thank you for all your support during the Oriental Empires release, it is truly great to read all your feedback and comments. Today, we are happy to say that we are releasing the first in a series of post-release updates. The first one, is a small update that fixes a few issues that were found after release. The full changelog can be seen below.
- Surtur
Changelog:
Fixed bug in WS scenario where some cities couldn't be attacked if they didn't have a garrison
Fixed game freeze
Fixed graphics quality setting not working in non english versions
Fixed UI problem with list panel
Implemented compression sending saved game in MP. Should help with any issues reloading large games, as well as speeding up loading.
Fixed some little black triangles around settlements
Updated Polish text
Chokuno and guns increase firing rate of towers
Construction stalled message check moved to after point income has been collected. Stops players seeing construction stalled messages when they apparently have enough money for the building.
Corrected Yue capital name in Chinese
Untitled
GRAND STRATEGY GAME ORIENTAL EMPIRES AVAILABLE NOW
Publisher Iceberg Interactive announces the full release of their turn-based grand strategy title Oriental Empires. The game launches today, having spent a year in Steam’s Early Access program.
In Oriental Empires, players will step into the incredible world of ancient China and Mongolia from 1500 BC, and guide the destiny of their people across 3000 years of military, cultural and technological progress.
Play on a huge historical map of China, or on random maps in a custom campaign. Develop your land and cities, conduct trade and diplomacy, develop religions and philosophy. Master the art of peace and war to raise your armies, and use the terrain to plan your battles. Zoom in to watch the action unfold on the map. Challenge up to 15 friends in multiplayer mode, create a civilization and become the Emperor, in this turn-based strategy masterpiece.
Oriental Empires will be available on Steam and all major digital retailers at an SRP of $29.99. Iceberg Interactive are offering a discount of 20% during the week of launch.
The many thousands of players who supported the game in Early Access can discover what final additions have been made to the game, on the Steam forums.
The launch trailer showing off the latest gameplay additions for Early Access players, alongside the key features can be viewed through YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpGncxAQR04
“We're really happy to finally be able to launch Oriental Empires. Weaving the history of China into a 4X style game has been a long process, and we've had to invent many new mechanisms to do the subject matter justice; but the end result is a game with its own unique feel”, says Bob Smith, lead developer of the game. “Personally, I've learned a huge amount over the course of this project, and have become fascinated by the vast and rich history of China. I hope players will have fun playing the game, and maybe also gain an appreciation of a history that's little-covered in the West.”
Oriental Empires Release Update!
Hello everyone,
After nearly a year in Early Access, we are finally here, it is release day! In a bit, the game will officially leave Early Access and the full version will become available. For our great community that helped us through Early Access, we just pushed the release build out to Steam, giving them access to all the goodness that comes with it. This includes better language support, full multiplayer functionalities and the Warring States scenario with new factions and some unique units!
We want to thank all of you guys who helped shaping the game during the final stages of development and we want to stress that the support of the game does not end here by any means! We will continue to support, update and expand Oriental Empires well after release.
-Surtur
The full changelog can be found here:
September 14 Release Update Details. (Actually says September 12 on game). Many of these fixes have been in the beta build for some time, but I've included them here for people not using the beta.
Major New Features
Multiplayer Mode
New Warring States Scenario
4 New factions for custom games.
German, French, Russian and Polish language support.
and smaller fixes and improvements
UI
Right clicking or double tapping a unit card brings up a detailed stats display
Added tool tips on some unit card indicators
Added indicator on unit card to show when a unit can replenish
Added many new hotkeys and improved display of hot keys
1 -8 Set battle plans
Ctrl 1 - 4 Set Formation
,. and rotate stack
Keys for cancel move, delete, sleep and auto-explore
B to open construction panel
R To open recruitment panel
,. To cycle between settlements
F5 - F10 to open major game windows
,. To cycle between messages
Diplomatic offers from AI don't have to be decided immediately
Current number of settlements shown on authority tool tip
Added tool tip for why settlement can't be founded.
Increased range of settlement foundation locations shown
Extended tech card turn display to three digits
Added some more pieces of pop up advice.
Economy
Reduced upkeep for ports and shipyards
Level 2 shrine only produces level 1 piligrims
Copper increases value of bronze production
Reduced tech value boosts for ceramics trade
Reduced building upkeep for palaces temples and schools, foundry, weapon smith sword smith, bazaar, artillery workshop, cannon maker, silk weaver, granary,siege granary , bowyer and CB maker.
Added upkeep cost for cities and huge cities
Decreased trade value of copper, jade, ceramics, and silk
Increased trade value of bronze
Battle
Improved siege AI. Archers have better target priority, and assaulting units get into position sooner.
Implemented sword skill bonuses
Reduced effectiveness of land units against naval. Made naval skill bonus count against land.
Stacks with defensive battle plans can move adjacent to settlements
Battle plan defense modifiers don't count in settlements
Fixed some issues with dagger axe and halberd units [
}Added some nicer chariot textures for nobles and bodyguard.
AI
AI will construct roads
Improved AI for choosing settlement locations [^]Improved AI force composition, particularly in mid to late game.
Harder to get AI to recognize you as emperor. Harder to just buy SOH victory [
}AI can sack and destroy captured settlements.
AI won't overbuild infrastructure in peacetime such that it can't afford an army.
A few minor AI diplomacy tweaks. Less offensive alliance spam.
Misc
Roads on gentle hills allowed
Added edict to move capital
Added edict to cancel disaster effects
No bandits generated in first 5 turns, or on map edges
Increased time to act on offensive alliance to 7 turns
Added some faction special units for some factions.
Some Chinese text improvements
Noble units on foot can longer be recruited in Imperial Era, as it's grossly unhistorical. Must issue "Gentlemen Ride Horses" edict to get nobles in this era.
Reduced suppression effect of cavalry and chariots. No longer greater than infantry units.
Significant Bug Fixes <*>Fixed bug that breaks UI when a loaded game has units on ships <*>Fixed occasional freeze in AI during diplomacy <*>Fixed freeze due to units with withdraw orders in attacked settlement <*>Fixed an issue triggering a battle when moving adjacent to settlement with a stack that had moved in earlier in the turn <*>Fixed bug that reopened trade routes when at war or embargoed <*>Fixed issue with units not being available to defend breaches if settlement attacked twice in same turn <*>Fixed various issues related to roads and trade routes when upgrading settlements
It’s been quite the journey… Oriental Empires will be leaving Early Access on the 14th. The full release features the multiplayer mode, supporting up to 15 players in one campaign, and we’ve arranged a special little something to show it to you.
This Tuesday, some of Iceberg Interactive’s employees will be battling alongside with some of our favorite content creators (Cringer63, the Prussian Prince, Haxo the Hunter and Meswannjr) in the Oriental Empires Showdown!
This event will be livestreamed on the Iceberg Interactive Twitch channel and their own channels. That’s not all… We will be dropping some Oriental Empires keys in our Twitch chat in case you don’t own the game yet or want to play with friends!
Who will be victorious once the dust settles, and who will bow down to their new overlord? Tune in this Tuesday at 8 PM CEST / 11 AM PDT to find out!
Give us a follow so you won't miss a thing: https://www.twitch.tv/iceberg_int
Oriental Empires to Launch 14 September 2017
Game launches in a month from today so be sure take advantage of this week’s 25% off.
After an interesting period of 1 year, Oriental Empires will be leaving Steam Early Access soon! What can you expect to see at full release? Aside from many improvements, fixes and updates, we will launch the game with multiplayer, more supported languages and a brand new historical campaign!
During Early Access we have regularly patched and updated Oriental Empires. We’ve added new languages, new diplomacy options and the battles and AI have been vastly improved upon. In addition, we made many other tweaks and changes to enhance the user experience and help first time players to find their way.
Upon release, we will present you with a major update. This update will bring all the latest tweaks and changes from the beta branches, as well as the multiplayer mode and a brand new scenario focused on the infamous Warring States Era. With this scenario, players will be able to jump directly into a populated map as one of several new factions. The Warring States scenario brings a completely new experience to the game, where factions have already established themselves and war might break out during the very first turn.
The final release of the game will by no means mean the end of development. We will continue to update and support the game, so keep your feedback coming!
Oriental Empires Multiplayer Test and Stream!
Hi everyone,
We are back with another series of multiplayer test runs and will be playing the next four Fridays at 15:00 CEST, kicking off the first session this Friday (the 7th). We are looking for 4-6 volunteers who can join me and help us out. If more people show up, we can easily have more games running in parallel.
In order to improve communications compared to last week, we set up a Discord channel. Click here to join the server.
We will be streaming these upcoming four sessions on our Twitch channel to share our sessions with the community. Give us a follow to stay up to date: Twitch
We will start playing at 15:00 CEST until around 17:00 CEST or longer, depending on how the game is progressing.
Pro tip: If we spawn close to each other, build walls!
Cheers,
Surtur
The Multiplayer Mode is Ready to be Tested!
Hi Everybody
Multiplayer is finally here. We apologize for the long delay, it's taken much more work than was originally anticipated, but we hope you'll find it worth the wait.
It's not quite ready for final release, but a beta build is now publicly available. To use a beta branch, right click the game in your Steam client, select properties, then betas, then select mp_beta. Steam will automatically update your game to this version.
We suggest that you start off playing small custom maps with not too many players. You can select the Grand Campaign, but it probably won't be a great MP experience.
It is a beta build, and there are still some issues to work out. In particular, the game desyncs a bit too often, and while resyncing is automatic, it may affect your experience. If you get persistent desyncs, try quitting and reloading. Please provide us as much feedback as you can when you encounter such issues.
Hope you have fun with it, and we look forward to hearing about your experiences.
Help us finalize the translations!
Hi Everybody,
Apologies to those of you who've been waiting for translations, but a beta supporting German, French and Russian languages is now publicly available.
To use a beta build, right click on the game in the Steam client, select properties, and then the beta tab. Select the language_beta_fgr from the list of available betas.
Please remember that this is the first beta build, so there will be some mistakes in the text, funny sounding translations, and places where the text doesn't fit. If you find any of these, please post them in this thread. If you can suggest a correction, we'll love you even more.
