We released v1.0.3, including the following fixes:
Furna: Combat freeze due to a NPC warrior has been fixed
Bruggia: Settlement can be accessed now
Sailing Events: We temporarily removed loot from sailing combat events to see if the problems some players have after combat are related to a full ship storage
AI: We improved the AI turn stability and added enhanced error logging
Known issues, which we are working on for the next patch - ETA Thursday:
Event Markers: For some players some event markers do not show - commonly in Nesse and Umgardh.
Story Issue: Hamma (Quest: Punishment) - we are reviewing the story to decide how to best fix this. Until then please take Einarr with you to Hamma, if you have forgiven him during winter.
Sailing: Black and blue screens
AI: Thinking marker and further AI turn performance
NPC enemy freezes in combat - we have identified the issue and are reworking some of the art assets.
Thank you for bearing with us, while we work to fix the remaining problems.
Hotfix v1.0.2: Combat Black Screen Fix and Bruggia Warning
Hi Everyone,
We have just released v1.0.2:
We have just released a fix for the black (and while on the whale road, blue) screens. The problem is camera related, and it took a while to reproduce - thanks for your patience. This isn't the final fix, but it is functional. You might notice the camera movement, when the camera goes off and tries to visit Valhalla and we have to drag it back.
Please do NOT enter Bruggia - which is an optional settlement that you can sail past. It has a bug, and you will be stuck on the loading screen. It can corrupt your save games, if the game saves at the same time as you force the game to quit. We will confirm once that is resolved.
Please let us know in case you encounter any other issues, or you should still experience the black screen in combat.
Patch v1.0.1
We have pushed a hotfix for issues players were experiencing.
The following fixes are included:
Fix for the camera issue during combat (black or blue screen)
Enemies no longer apply the shield break warcry on themselves
Fixed a bug, which caused the AI not to end its turn
We haven't been able to reproduce the camera issue on our end, so we will need your help to confirm that this is fixed. Please let us know on the community forum, if you encounter any problems.
Full Release!
Some battles are harder than others and today's full release was a tougher nut to crack than expected. But we have been victorious in the end.
Special thanks go to all our players, who have helped us form and mature The Great Whale Road since last summer. And we welcome all new players, who are starting their journey on the whale road now.
Features
Storyline about the Danes from Úlfarrsted, a village on a small North Sea island just off the coast from the Danish-Saxon borderland.
A story-driven campaign from the north of Denmark to the south of England
Character quests
Character progression
Equip characters with weapons and armour sets
Four combat classes and associated warcries
Land and sea combat environments
An event system which covers all areas of medieval life from farming to family feuds
Dynamic trade system
Ship and settlement upgrades
Steam trading cards
So what's next? We had to postpone Steam Achievements, and work on their implementation will commence next week. Work has also started on the next update - The Franks - while some of us will keep on eye on the current version and fix any issues that crop up.
Release Ahead: March 30th, 2017
Hello Everyone,
The Great Whale Road is getting ready for the next leg of its journey. We have been working on the game's concept since the beginning of 2015, and the first artists and developers joined the team in April that year. We weathered the odd storm or two and entered the Sea of Early Access eight months ago.
It has been an exciting few months and we are super grateful for the community's help and feedback. We are implementing some smaller features which we had postponed until now into the game and are busy polishing the rougher edges.
We have decided to leave Early Access on the 30th of March - this will include the full story of the Danes and all features we have been adding since 0.6.2. Among them a new combat camera, more warcries, development area upgrades, an enhanced ship upgrade system, new journal screen, trade screen enhancements, AI improvements and more. And yes, the game will be steamified, too! Enjoy the new release trailer.
https://youtu.be/WoxCrR2xWFE
In addition to English The Great Whale Road will be available in German, Spanish, and we hope Italian as well. The French version is a bit behind schedule, but we think we will have it ready for the first free update - fittingly the Frankish storyline in early May. We will post a few more updates over the coming week.
The storylines for the Franks and Frisians are written and translated, but we don't have the resources to test them in parallel with the Danes. Thus we give you the Danes first. We hope that this will also help us in view of the changes on Steam - you'll have noticed that the front page and game visibility have changed a lot over the last months.
After the Frisian storyline has been released at the beginning of June, we would love to add more storylines. Time will tell, and we will let you know before the summer if we get close to the targets we need to achieve to be able to do more work on The Great Whale Road.
Thank you!
We have set up a Thunderclap campaign to create a social media shout-out on release day. You can sign up with your Facebook and/or Twitter account to help us spread the word.
Update v0.6.2: Bug Hunting
Hello Everyone!
We have re-released patch v0.6.2, which slipped out the door last night. There were some small visual errors remaining that we had solved already.
One issue that still eludes us is the loading freeze that some players occasionaly experience after sea battles. We are working on it, but we haven't been able to reproduce it on the PCs at the studio.
If you experience any other issue, please share it in our forum’s support section.
Key Fixes:
Hunting dogs now increase both minimum and maximum food you can get from hunting.
Fixed armour not being properly swapped between characters.
Fixed a double click bug that would cause a character to attack twice in a row.
Fixed Winiwaldaham hunting icon opening the tavern.
Fixed side-effect icons in the combat.
Fixed combat info not staying visible after ending a turn.
Like one of our players said: Mo' Updates, Mo' Problems! Or as we German speakers on the team say, "Wo gehobelt wird, fallen Späne."
We’ve fixed multiple soft locks and bugs, which were introduced in version 0.6.0 and lower.
We also had previously disabled the population growth due to it being inconsistent with the rebalanced food production. But we forgot to take into account that it would impact the ship upgrade functionality.
To make matters worse, the population happiness was stuck at 40% which caused some player's villages to starve to death. A taste of the survival gameplay part of the game. ;) Both of those problems have been fixed.
If you have any other issues or feedback to share, please post it on the forum's support section.
Here's some of the changes:
Added a new growth formula for the settlement population.
Character Progression, Combat Changes: Update v0.6.0 has arrived!
Hello Everyone!
Please note that we recommend that you start a new game to get the best experience.
And with our final big Early Access update, we bring you Character Progression! Along with some combat tweaks, and more challenging battles for good measure.
Don’t be fooled by the version number, we’re getting close to the full release.
But we still have much to test and balance, and your feedback continues to be as valuable as ever. So if you have suggestions or issues, please jump on the forum.
We’ll continue with one eye on the community and the other on finishing the remaining game systems, such as an improved enemy AI, development areas, and the ship upgrade.
There are also plenty of new characters, equipment and warcries to be added. And yes, we’ll actually match weapon names correctly to their stats by then.
Storywise we have the two final chapters of the Danish campaign ready to be put into the game, and both Frisian and Frankish campaigns are complete. There are also a bunch of new character quests waiting to be implemented.
We still have a few surprises squirrelled away for the full release, but for now, here is what has changed in this update:
Character progression. Depending of your performance, your heroes can now rank up at the end of each summer, receiving stat increases and warcries to learn.
Waylay: a new combat ability that allows you to intercept enemies that come into your attack range. It replaces the defensive stance button.
Auto-defensive stance. You asked for it, and we had to move it to somewhere else anyway. :) So all your unplayed heroes assume the defensive stance automatically when you click the end turn button.
We changed how defence points work:
Now only some armour sets can regenerate defence points each turn.
If a character loses all their defence points, their shield is broken.
You can go into defensive stance to remove the broken shield.
The defensive stance also fully regenerates defence points.
Enemy leaders can call for reinforcements. You need to be quick, if you want to stop them.
Combat events lead to more varied battles.
Added weapon side-effects. Rejoice as you make your foes bleed, or shriek as they break your bones.
Please not that population growth has been disabled while we are balancing the formulas offline. We are aiming to enable population growth as quickly as possible again.
We are working hard on the last major update with character progression, new combat AI, management screen improvements, the ability to sell equipment at the blacksmith, a trade quest or two, and as always tweaks & fixes.
Full Release
We can confirm that we will be releasing this quarter, and we will post an announcement when we have locked in the exact date.
The Frankish and Frisian storylines are ready, and we are working hard to fill any art gaps we still have for these two. After next week's update our developers will have to upgrade the Unity version, add the remaining minor features, cloud saves, and last but not least implement Steam Achievements.
We have many other cultures and storylines on our wishlist - Picts, Northumbrians, Bretons, West Saxons, Mercians, Britons - to name just a few. It will depend on you, the players, if we will be able to tell their stories in The Great Whale Road.
Upcoming Price Increase
As we are getting closer to the full release we will be increasing the price of the game this Friday, the 20th of January. So this your chance to get The Great Whale Road at the early access price.
The Yuletide Patch: v0.5.1 Fixes and Balancing
Hi Everyone!
While working towards adding player progression to the game, we gathered all of your feedback on the new combat system and prepared a patch for the holidays. We increased the length of the battles in v0.5.0 as we expected the AI to behave as planned, but it was not ready in time. For now we’ve reduced the amount of enemies that you fight against, and the AI won’t be adding extra reinforcements past the middle of combat. This is subject to change once heroes are able to rank up and become more powerful.
We also made a couple of fixes, so if you encounter any problems, please do visit our forum’s support section.
Happy Holidays!
Óðinn-Claus
Highlights:
Added new visual feedback to battles, such as previewing the player’s attack range, which enemy is playing, who they are attacking, and more.
Reduced groups of enemies and balanced some battle events.
AI now starts with most of their warriors already placed in battle.
Loot screen after battle now pauses the sailing scenes.
Fixed turn duration on warcries that target enemies.
Fixed a bug that would block players from adding heroes to the battlefield.
Fixed a bug where hits wouldn't target health points after depleting defence points during the same attack.
Fixed a bug where the AI would try to play one of its dead warriors and wouldn't end its turn.
Fixed Hunting results.
Fixed a bug where equipment from newly unlocked heroes wouldn't be flagged as "equipped".
