The EA2 Beta branch has been updated again, this time to Build 1156. If you are already using this branch, steam will update you automatically.
If you are not using the Beta version, and would like to try it out, the instructions are here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/312430/discussions/0/405690850608282178/
This is a big patch, containing a considerable number of user experience improvements and fixes - especially in tactical battles.
As well as all of the fixes and minor improvements, this patch also brings you 3 new units:
Bloodhounds: If you can sate the bloodlust of Von Telvich (Ladvia unique unit), he will reward you by letting you use some of his pets in battle.
Cataphracts: Help the Boruvian Empire to take back their rightful lands from the upstarts of Berany, and you will be able to field this fearsome heavy cavalry unit
Hospitallers: As the Boruvian Empire, crush the rebels of Galeni and you will be rewarded with a new knightly order.
Complete list of all changes in this build:
Fixed incorrect pathing allowing attacks from harbours to landlocked provinces
Fixed crash when clicking delete on load game screen with no save selected
Fixed crashes when packing/unpacking units under some conditions
Fixed crash when fearsome unit dies while attacking
Fixed Info toggle in tactical battle not working
Increased animation speed of Hero cards in battle
Increased text size on Hero cards
When AI asks you to join allied war, it will now actually declare war
Fixed tactical battle speed setting
Fixed unique units appearing as if you have one already when it is dead
Improved ownership flags in tactical battle
Fixed broken Anti-Aliasing settings
Fixed Recon unit ability not granting additional move
Fixed missing attack/move indicators in tactical battle
Code of War restriction no longer applies when counter-attacking your own province
Improved various on-map icons, especially with regards to mouseovers not working
Bottom area in battle now reacts to mouseovers and clicks
Enemy units in battle can now be selected, allowing inspection of their stats and abilities
Select Previous/Next unit buttons no longer reset every time no unit is selected
Economy mode button is now below the minimap (like the old upgrade button)
Provinces can be upgraded from the Provinces List
Provinces can be upgraded from thei info cards
All province upgrade icons/buttons now have tooltips
Reduced default audio volume
Audio volume setting now works in 1% increments
Fixed crash on exit caused by sound system
Increased text size on "select your realm" list
Realm select screen no longer fades out the realm names when zoomed in
Deploying Units by clicking directly on the target army now works
Increased text size on most of the pull-out panels
Fixed placement issues on purchase screen when large UI scale is used
Increased text size in event message (top-left area)
Enemy units in tactical battle no longer visible during deployment stage
Terrain in tactical battle now has tooltips
, and . keys (< and >) are now shortcuts for prev/next unit in battle
Mouseovers and clicks now work properly in tactical deployment
Moved menu button in tactical battle to better location
Tactical battle camera now centers on selected unit
Tactical battle camera now centers on units which fight
Fixed a number of missing or incorrect texts
Fixed crash when AI attempts to use Siren's Song spell
Fixed possible crash when unit is disbanded
Fixed text renderer crash when blank text is vertically centred
No longer possible to save while pre or post battle report is on screen (creates bugs on reload)
Fixed possible crash when casting the Ranger hero card
Fixed crash in battle caused by displaying the stats of a dead unit
Fixed crash using Sea Dog or Guild Insider with 20 units already in the army
Siege units can now fire immediately when they unpack
Adjusted Odenheim campaign to make mrymont more likely to declare war
Defensive units in tactical battle now deploy closer to the VPs
Name Ironman Save dialog now accepts return key
Increased margins on info card descriptions
Clicking minimap now animates camera instead of insta-travel
Player realm appears bold and a different shade in ranking lists
New Unit: Satisfy the bloodlust of Von Telvich to get Bloodhounds
New Unit: Help the Empire to reclaim Berany to get Cataphracts
New Unit: Help the Empire to reclaim Galeni to get Hospitallers
Fixed morale not working properly in tactical battles
Fixed Odenheim campaign related crash
Fixed Error send dialog issues when large fonts are enabled
Irregular units no longer try to Hit and Run when making ranged attacks
Increased margin on rankings list
Fixed AI only calling realms to war if they have Mutual Defence (and not Alliance)
Units on a bridge in tactical battle no longer have disorder
Fixed bridging units not being able to use bridges
Defending AI will no longer try to cross rivers to meet attacker
Added warning message is you are disbanding the last unit in a Hero-led army
Wagons (packed siege) now move slower over rough terrain
EA2 Build 1125
The EA2 beta branch has been updated to build 1125, this is a minor bugfix update, mainly to address the text render issues in the last build. If you are not in the beta and would like to join (anyone who owns the game can do so) the instructions are here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/312430/discussions/0/405690850608282178/
Patch notes:
Fixed text render errors on at least some computers
Game no longer crashes if trying to set an impossible full screen resolution (falls back to windowed)
Fixed possible crash when closing settings screen
Fixed possible crash in Jara Doom
Fixed crash caused by realm name rendering
Sovereignty EA2 Public Beta build
After much testing internally, we have now made EA2 available as a public beta, so anyone who wants to try it out may do so.
Instructions are here if you want to opt-in and try it out: http://steamcommunity.com/app/312430/discussions/0/405690850608282178/
EA2 Beta
We are currently running a closed beta of EA2, this will be running over the holidays into the new year.
Anyone who is interested (if you already own the game), check out this discussion thread for details:
After last weeks non-update, we return to normal service today.
Once more, this has been a time of bug fixing, along with some AI tweaking, here is a selection of this weeks updates and improvements:
Realm names update properly when provinces change hands
Political map mouseovers no longer highlight incorrectly
AI can no longer repair occupied provinces
Title screen video no longer allows clicking through to map
Fixed rebel occupation armies not annexing
AI now much less likely to move occupation forces until province is annexed
AI takes more note of provinces with 0 economy
Ai threshold for war declaration lowered
Jotland and Vessoi AI tweaked to make them fight over the totems
Fixed diplomacy buttons on map
Updated Foreign Relations UI to improve resources view
Added or fixed a large number of tooltips
Units in water now get Disorder
Units retreating a tile now get Disorder
Fixed incorrect display of Heal as damage
Can no longer upgrade economy of a province multiple times per turn
Fixed a number of crashes
Shield Wall, rough terrain and towns all now prevent cavalry charges
State of the Game - 17th Nov 2015
This week has been a week of solid bug fixing and UI tweaking. We're well on the way to having a working build ready for the first EA2 Beta.
A selection of this weeks updates:
Fixed bugs in the Event display
Fixed battle crashes related to units retreating and being captured
Improved hero retreat to reduce instances of heroes being lost
Fixed bug causing Agents to be used when they are still returning home
Objectives panel now opens when objectives complete or fail
Fixed bug causing campaign map to be visible in tactical battle on some resolutions
Forts and Shield wall immune to charge
Fixed being able to shoot your own forts
Fixed PRev/Next Unit buttons in tactical battle
Fixed diplomacy buttons (shown on-map in relations mode)
Fixed UI issue when changing realms while offering trade
Fixed some UI crashes in Foriegn Affairs
General tooltip pass - cleaned up and added some new ones
State of the Game - 9th Nov 2015
This week we finally completed the process of re-instating all of the campaigns - All 38 of them have been re-added and tested.
With that completed, we have now moved onto the final stage before releasing a beta build - we are going through our list of remaining bugs, UI tweaks, and gameplay tweaks - followed by some general testing of the game.
This week's tweaks and bugs include:
Code of War AI no longer able to attack on same turn as declaring war
Fixed missing visual feedback in autobattles
Fixed come scouted stacks appearing "ghosted"
Realms can no longer trade when at war
Fixed Garrison units being able to attack
Fixed a number of missing spells
Fixed some events appearing incorrectly
Fixed combat preview not accounting for Charge
Fixed water not causing Disorder in battle
Fixed some missing sounds
Fixed phantoms not ignoring terrain effects
Fixed settings screen not working mid-game
Fixed missing plunder when capturing objectives in battle
Fixed rare bug causing free hero to not appear when loading a saved game
Gameplay: Cavalry now slower over rough terrain
Gameplay: Cavalry charge no longer works in extreme terrains (Old Forest, Swamp, Mountain)
Gameplay: Heroes no longer able to move infinitely
Gameplay: Shield wall reduced to maximum +2 defence
Gameplay: Siege attacks apply Shatter after damage instead of before
State of the Game - Nov 2nd 2015
This week has been almost entirely focused on the campaigns - we now have around two thirds of them completed.
As well as working on the campaigns, we have fixed a number of (fairly minor) crash bugs, and also implemented some of the "flavour" events - Aevinwode's Choice, Galeni's Legitimacy, etc - which help to make the world feel a bit more alive as the politics of other realms go on around you.
That's pretty much all there is to it this week - the heavy focus on adding content means that we don't have any new images to show off or new features to discuss. Watch this space; the update will be coming soon.
State of the Game - Oct 26th 2015
This week has been almost entirely dedicated to adding and testing campaigns for each realm. We are currently about 1/3 of the way through this process.
The only other thing to report on this week is the unit promotions system.
Until now, units have gained promotions somewhat randomly - we are now looking at moving to an experience system instead, where units will gain experience for being in battles, for killing other units, for using their special abilties, etc.
Units will then gain medals based on the amount of XP they have gained - which will make it far easier to control which units gain medals.
This weeks image shows the unit promotion UI - at the start of your turn, you will get a list of all units which are ready for you to choose a promotion for them.
State of the Game - Oct 19th 2015
This week, we have been working on 2 specific things, rather than a lot of smaller tasks.
Firstly, we have completed the 4 generic campaigns (Rivalry, Last Man Standing, Conquest and Power Games), as well as started the process of restoring the individual realm campaigns - this process started out slowly (as we find and fix general problems in the campaign system), but will go much faster as things come together - hopefully we will have a full set by the next update.
Secondly, we have added support for playing video files to the game engine - for now, this means that we have replaced the static title screen background with an animated one, and it gives us some possible options for the future.
Of course, no update would be complete without a collection of bug fixes:
Fixed crash when increasing trade offer
Fixed crash caused by double-click
Fixed crash when starting game
Fixed crash when exiting game
Fixed various crashes related to loading saved games
We would love to share the awesome new title background, but a still image wouldn't really do it justice, so instead here's an image of autobattle. Note that units now line up in proper formations - they also fight in these formations during the main phase of the battle (in the skirmish and general melee phases, units are free to select targets to hit, and now they will choose targets based on their ability to actually deal damage rather than just basing it on attack/defence strengths).
