Latest update - A merry xmas to you all! 11 / 12 / 2017
Battle scene
- Wall damage pieces optimised when destroyed, improving performance.
- Fixed an issue when issuing orders against enemy walls before the enemy units have spawned.
- Slight optimization to firing arrows.
- Flaming arrows pooling system corrected. - flame is now removed.
- Flaming arrows slightly optimized.
- Siege engine resource amount properly reduced after firing.
- Tutorial battle scene start and retreat positions adjusted.
- Navigation has been improved/optimised in some battle maps.
- Hero units shields will now display faction colors and Coat of arms
- Dynamic rivers in some battle maps. This will diversify battle maps a bit more. More battle maps will come with the final build.
Armoury
- Leather kettle helm added.
- Small Shield added
- Heavy studded vest added.
- Pitchfork added.
- Pickaxe added.
- Ui reformat - this may result in some translations needing to be re-written in the armory. Armoury.xml and ArmouryHelperText.xml
- Equipment type selection icons replaced with images.
Main Menu
- Custom battle max siege equipment amount raised to 30 per equipment type.
- Mods toggle removed from the options panel. Enable mods on the mods menu.
Mod Support
- Village storage capacity was overwriting village cart capacity upgrades. Causing cart capacity upgrades to upgrade storage. This has been fixed.
- Armoury deleted and scene reloaded after mod confirmation. This resets all equipment available in the armory and clears unused data.
UI
- UI scroll panels have been adjusted to prevent movement in unintended directions.
Thank you all!
On behalf of Arrow Face games and Humble Sage Games, I would like to thank everyone for such an awesome year. You guys have made our dreams possible and kept us going.
Today's update will be the last of the year but know that we will continue to push VOC forward. Behind the scenes, we are working hard on new content that will truly improve the replayability of VOC, and improve the user experience. We are currently outlining the final improvements to make VOC feature complete, and after we can focus entirely on testing, balance, bug fixes and tightening the screws in general.
Stay merry, stay safe, and I look forward to working with you all next year!
Cheers
- Kerry
Mini patch 23 / 11 / 2017 - Language character support & minor fixes
Campaign map
- Auto-resolve battle bug fixed. The error would sometimes occur when a quest was involved.
- VOC starting conditions with towns will load town properly.
- Bribe cost amount heavily reduced.
- The issue with quest-related army retreating from battle not keeping its quest references has been fixed.
Custom language characters
We have added support for a range of non-latin characters.
Japanese - Hiragana, katakana, Kanji
Chinese - CJK unifed ideographs - CJK unified ideographs Extension A
Arabic
Cyrillic
Updated: 24 / 11 / 2017
Found an issue with resetting the world and starting a new game after fixing the starting conditions bug. This has been patched now.
If you are translating into a language with characters not listed, please let me know and I will do my best to support. Please note, some characters may still not work.
Cheers
- Kerry
Latest patch is live!!! This is a biggun! 13 / 11 / 2017
Campaign map
- New save/ load system. Much MUCH faster.
- Save message displayed once save is complete.
- Fixed a text error when displaying faction information.
- Reads localization text from .xml files.
- Seasonal influence - Each season will now influence village production in different ways.
- Retreated quest target no longer shows red arrow if objective complete after auto resolve battle.
- The player can now build siege equipment with gold cost of 0 if they have less than 0 gold.
- Weather now loaded after the season. This should prevent rain in winter.
- Village growth fixed - sometimes increment set below 0, taking longer to generate peasants.
- Easy quests max enemy army size reduced.
- Training grounds description altered.
- Inn description altered.
- Higher chance of hero units generating in towns for hire.
- Berserker requirements adjusted.
- Disbanding units while transferring units into an army no longer removes units placed into army. Units were never lost but were not displayed until the panel was closed.
- Clicking the ST and CH buttons when sorting units to train no longer creates duplicates.
- Purchase hero panel button text set to 'Hire'.
- Purchase hero panel re-arranged.
- Tier 3 and up units daily cost increased.
- Market income decreased.
- Treasury income decreased.
- All village production speed decreased significantly.
- All village output amount decreased/ Adjusted.
- Farms produce significantly less. Encouraging more care when setting consumed amounts.
- Major campaign map re-balance.
- Fog reduced during certain weather types.
- Town walls visuals have had an upgrade. Now closer represent how they look in battle.
- All village upgrade costs increased significantly.
- Viewing units to train will no-longer show your other towns production. - This has probably been happening since day 1 :P
Armoury
- Read localization text from .xml files.
- Leather armor price reduced.
Battle scene
- Fixed issue where units would sometimes spawn in mid-air.
- Fixed issue in the map: Swamp1. retreat position is no longer underwater.
- Smoothed and optimised all unit movement animations.
- Read localization text from .xml files.
- Smoothed and optimised horse movements.
- Archer accuracy improved - Can now aim at moving targets properly.
- Arrows pooling optimised.
- Fixed terrain shadows. - Should no longer get big dark patches at dawn.
- Unit cards are now correctly removed when a unit withdraws/retreats.
- Fixed error with AI cavalry dismounting to climb a ladder.
- Caught error with dismounted units accessing its animator incorrectly.
- Slight optimisation of terrain shadows.
- Optimised ground blood.
- Optimised blood splatter particle.
- Now higher chance of larger blood splatter on the ground.
- Siege equipment accuracy fixed. - Much more deadly against units and moving targets now.
- Catapult boulders now correctly collide with units again.
- Now much easier to right click to attack units using siege equipment.
- Removed outhouse from outside castle walls in Wolfhall.
- Removed outhouse from outside castle walls in Wreckage point.
Main Menu
- Fixed error where the horse would appear on-screen when canceling starting a new Veil Of Crows game.
- Changes to mod support - New mod menu.
- Option to reset VOC world only added when starting a new VOC game.
- Old reset game button now only resets game settings.
- Savegame converter added to the main menu.
- Read localization text from .xml files.
Mod Support
- Can now select if banners overwrite existing banners, or add.
- Mods are now separated into folders, allowing for the player to select from a list of available mods.
- Custom weapons can now be loaded into the project. .obj files accepted.
- Custom shields can now be loaded into the project. .obj files accepted.
- Custom helmets can now be loaded into the project. .obj files accepted
Test Specific Fixes
- For those already using the test branch
- Food consumption times fixed.
- Tax times fixed.
- AI village upgrades fixed - caused by seasonal influence.
- Fixed issue with towns needing AI data after player has restarted a VOC game with an existing faction.
New save/load system
Finally it is here! It took months of bug testing, and player testing but It is finally ready. This brings us lightening fast saves, and much faster scene transition. This is the main reason the patch took so long to come out.
Save game converter
Although I can't 100% guarantee this will work, it has worked 100% of the time for me... if it doesnt work, you will need to start again. I apologise for this, but the new save system is not compatable.
New mods menu
This newe menu will allow you to have multiple mods eeasily accessable. To create a custom mod, you simply find the mods folder(Located in Veilofcrows_data/Resources)/copy the 'Default' folder, and rename it to your liking. Any change under your new mod folder will take effect when your mod is enabled.
Steam workshop is something I want to look into soon, will keep you posted.
Custom equipment mods
Custom weapons, shields and helmets can now be added to your collection. There are instructions under the mods folder as to how you can set them up, and an example helmet is available under the 'Default' mod.
Custom Localisation
Although the only official language is still English, you can now create custom translations for VOC. We do plan on having some official languages at a later date, but that wont be until the game content and text is final.
Thank you all for your patience! I am super excited to have this patch out today, and I hope it all runs smooth. I have never put so much testing into a patch before, so fingers crossed everything is gravy.
Thank you all!
- Kerry
Testing Branch! One more update. Patch hopefully next week!?! 7/11/2017
Test Specific Fixes
- Currently loaded mod text now properly displayed when opening the mod panel.
- Quitting to the menu during a battle will no longer result in old battle data being transferred to the next battle.
- Loading a battle after a tutorial playthrough will no longer cause a crash on battle load.
- Resources now correctly loading for use in battle/siege.
- Outhouse removed from outside Valehalls walls.
- Battle transient data now checked and destroyed on main menu load to avoid any crossover when quitting part way through a battle.
- Player faction index data manually set before every battle. This can prevent issues when loading a game after playing a custom battle.
- Terrain properly set due to the season.
- Collected prisoners now applied correctly to army/town after battles.
- Resources now set correctly after the battle.
- Hero units no longer placed into the regular unit pool after winning a battle.
- Prisoners loaded after the battle.
- Voc mode working correctly after player dies.
- Armoury stats showing properly.
- Gold now collected into the party after bandit camp battles.
- Physics fixed for pooled arrows. Should no-longer get stuck when fired from pool.
- Multiple battle winners error fixed.
- Multiple battle winners remaining population now correctly set.
- MANY OTHER FIXES THAT WILL ALL BE MENTIONED IN THE NEXT OFFICIAL PATCH!
Official patch within sight!
Hello all!
I know it has been a couple of weeks since I thought it was ready, but between pax and some lengthy testing sessions, we are nearly there.
The last few days I have finally been able to do something I have not done for a long time... Play through the campaign of VOC! The new save/system seems to be almost ready, just a few little bugs and situations that need to be addressed, but I am working through them.
You would be happy to know my playthrough sessions have also uncovered a few smaller issues with the game, and I have been busy fixing them too.
My aim is for the next patch to launch next week, in the mean-time I will continue to play the game and uncover as many issues as possible. Exciting times ahead as I simply cannot wait to get this new patch in your hands.
If you are impatient, you may also opt for the testing branch and take a sneak peek at what is to come!
Thank you all for your patience. We are nearly there with this one.
Pax Australia
Just want to say a great big THANKYOU to all of the awesome people I met over the pax weekend, I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did.
I cannot wait until next year!
Cheers!
- Kerry
Testing Branch 20/10 /2017 - Final test build? Hopefully! New season influence!
Test Specific Fixes
- Hero units now correctly spawn in their army after retreating, instead of creating a new army.
- Retreating force now properly created when the player decided to "Let Live".
- Towns and villages generating retreating force.
- Town defeated forces are now killed.
- Non-faction retreating armies are now properly created.
- Hero units no longer added as regular units after a battle.
- Army population now showing correctly.
- Heros killed in battle no longer respawn.
Seasonal influences
Seasons will now influence your village production! During winter, food may be scarce so stock up!
You can see the influence in production per village on the village info panel.
More battle optimisations
Arrows, bolts, and blood are now loading more efficiently due to object pooling. Terrains shadows have also been fixed so they are slightly more optimised, but will no longer leave big patches of the battlefield dark during dusk and dawn.
Cleared new save system bugs
Fingers crossed, but I have cleared the bugs list for the new save system! It has taken around a month, but we are nearly there! I am still putting a lot of time testing and tweaking the game. Because I am away at pax next week, I will likely push to the official patch after in-case something goes horribly wrong and I am not around to fix it :).
If you would like to opt into the testing branch (that is now officially more stable and optimised than the default branch) you can do so via the games library on steam. Simply right-click on VOC, select properties/BETAS, and select 'testingBranch' from the drop-down.
Easy peezy squeeezy!
Pax Australia
Did I mention I am taking VOC to pax this year?? Come see me and say hello. I will be there with Brandon from Arrow Face Games, and my wonderful publisher at Humble Sage games/.
Can't wait to meet you!
All the best!
- Kerry
Testing branch - More save system bug fixes/Localisation testing 13 /10 /2017
Test Specific Fixes
- Secondary faction colors now saved/loaded correctly.
- Hero units with no beard sometimes not loading in battle bug has been fixed.
- Fixed issue with armies sometimes not loading AI script properly in the campaign map.
- Prevented possible error with hero units loading at wrong point during the battle.
- Invasion forces loading units properly. An error was occurring on game load when a castle was under siege.
- Hero armory data saved properly after load.
- Female heroes showing properly when selecting starting conditions.
- Custom battle data properly destroyed, preventing previous armies from showing during battle.
- Camp map battles properly destroyed when the player takes control over the battle.
Early localisation testing
We are testing out the new localization system! What does that mean? All text is now generated via a .xml file. This means we can not only provide localized language support, but we have enabled the ability to make your own custom translations!
Currently, only English is provided in the build. The main reason is we will not be providing any official translations until all game text is finalized. Because we still have a few more features up our sleeve, it is best to wait as it might cause issues.
If anyone would like to test out different localisations, please get in contact with me as I would be happy to provide a poorly translated German version (auto translator), or you are free to attempt to translate the files yourself.
Simply make a copy of the 'English' folder, rename it to your selected language, and then translate the files within.
To select a language in-game just click on the new 'English' button in the main menu, to select your language.
Location of language files:
*Root folder*/Veilofcrows_data/Resources/Localisation/*Your language folder here*
Testing branch known issues
- Retreating forces are giving us a bit of grief.
- Hero units spawning outside of retreating army
- Towns/villages not generating retreating forces
- Hero units will load into campaign map even after they have been killed.
These seem to be the last few issues we know about, so if you have found anything else please let me know! This is the longest time between official patches, and I am anxious to get this next update out to you. It is a big one!
Pax Australia
On another note, if any of you fine people are heading to pax Australia I would be super excited if you would come say HI!. Brandon and I will be sharing an indie booth with my publisher Humble Sage Games.
Cheers everyone, and thank you for your awesome support!
- Kerry
Testing Branch - Updated Mod support, new save system fixes! - 2/10/2017
Hello all!
Today's testing branch update brings a lot of fixes and improvements to the previous build. This included a full merge with all of the updates expected into the next regular patch including the new mod support system.
The testing branch will now always be ahead of the regular build, so if you want a peek at new features, updates, and fixes. The testing branch is for you. Instructions below.
Test Specific Fixes
- Siege battle - Player defense army no longer starts outside walls.
- Gold and prisoners are correctly loaded after battles.
- New option to reset VOC mode when starting a new game.
- Towns and villages faction will change correctly after won battle.
- Hero battle leveling correctly showing in the campaign map.
Campaign map
- Save message displayed once save is complete. (Needed because on some systems people will not realize it is saving.)
Battle scene
- Fixed issue where units would sometimes spawn in mid-air.
- Fixed issue in the map: Swamp1. retreat position is no longer underwater.
Main Menu
- Fixed error where the horse would appear on the screen when canceling starting a new Veil Of Crows game.
- Changes to mod support - New mod menu.
- Option to reset VOC world only added when starting a new VOC game.
- Old reset game button now only resets game settings.
Mod Support
- Can now select if banners overwrite existing banners, or add to current banners.
- Mods are now separated into folders, allowing for the player to select from a list of available mods.
- Custom weapons can now be loaded into the project. .obj files accepted.
- Custom shields can now be loaded into the project. .obj files accepted.
- Custom helmets can now be loaded into the project. .obj files accepted.
Instructions
If you would like to opt into the testing branch and have access to these latest updates:
A) Right click on VOC in your steam library.
B) Select Preferences.
C) Select the BETAS tab.
D) Select 'testingbranch' from the drop-down menu.
Please be advised your old save games are not compatible with the new system.
It is my intention to make an official release of the new system once all of the bugs have been ironed out.
Thank you all for your ongoing support!
- Kerry
Testing Branch - New save load system testing. 21/09/2017
Greetings!
This has been a long time coming, but we are finally ready to test our new save/load system.
We are switching to a system called 'Flatbuffers' and it is significantly faster than the current system.
You will only receive this update if you have opted into the testing branch on steam.
Instructions: a) Right click on VOC in your steam library.
b) Select 'Preferences'.
c) Select the BETAS tab.
d) Select the 'testingBranch' from the drop-down.
No password is required.
This build is likely very buggy, so please be aware. We would like to run this branch for a couple of weeks to find and catch any bugs that have slipped through the cracks.
Known Issues - The prologue does not work after the 1st battle.
- After loading the campaign map some faction colours are loading incorrectly. (Apparently is only happening to me, not Brandon)
- You cannot currently reset Veil Of Crows game mode.
Your current save game is not compatible with this version, so if you would prefer to continue your game, you may opt out of the testing branch at any point.
I have set up a 'Testing Branch' forum on the steam forums for any issues relating to testing. Please post them there so I do not freak and think the main build is completely broken :)
Thank you all for your dedication to helping make VOC better and better.
Cheers!
- Kerry
Latest Update 14/09/2017 Game balance and modding updates.
Campaign map
- Militia and spearmen weakness set correctly.
- Village population growth adjusted.
- Villages can now grow population where they have 0 population.
- Extortion gold amount has been heavily reduced.
- Chance of villagers peasants for hire has been increased.
- Population limits set for towns. This will not stop you from entering towns but will prevent AI villages from sending peasants, and town growth once you are at this limit.
- Fixed issue where the population would increase if town growth should have been in decline.
Battle scene
- Siege equipment movement speeds increased.
- Siege equipment attack range decreased.
- Tutorial window text scaling issue fixed.
- All units movement speed increased.
- All units aggro range decreased.
- All ranged units range decreased.
Main Menu
- Default VOC starting condition to be "Baron of Greywatch".
- Baron of Greywatch starting equipment changed.
- Refugee starting armour changed.
- New unit models available in the main menu for starting conditions.
EDIT: Female character creation fixed.
Mod Support
- Loading weapon attack damage fixed.
- Loading campfire population types fixed.
- Loading village cart capacity information fixed (Was saving storage info over cart capacity).
- Unit weaknesses now loaded from XML when mod support enabled.
- Starting conditions added to mod support. Players can now modify or create custom starting conditions.
Hey all!
A bit of a balance and 'battle feel' update today. Subtle enough notice battle feels a bit more fluid. Let me know what you think.
Custom starting conditions are now available for modification, you can even create extra ones if you like. Access these files by using the "StartingConditionsXML" in the resources folder. I am also going to look into arranging mods differently to allow for different content to be selected. We are in the early days but it is exciting.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have finally merged with the new save/load system. There are only a couple more bugs giving us some grief, but once we look like we are in the clear we will be setting up a build on the testing branch. Hoping for this to be ready VERY soon.
Another announcement is our very first user created content has started to flow in. You can check it out Here , or in the modding community forum.
Steam workshop is something I will look into once mod support has come further along.
As always, please remember to review Veil Of Crows on steam!
All the best!
- Kerry
Latest Update 04/09/2017 - Custom Coat of arms & Basic Mod Support!
Campaign map
- Fog of war removed entirely.
- Game hints, names etc now loaded from xml. - Faster.
- Camp map battle bug potential fix.
- Building data can be loaded from xml.
- Unit data can be loaded from xml.
- Campfire data can be loaded from xml.
- Quest tier data editable and loadable from xml.
- All units daily payment amount has been adjusted / increased.
Armoury
- Female 'peasant' model helmet position fixed.
- Horse upgrade buttons fixed.
- Female surcoat helmet position fixed.
- Armoury item data available to be edited.
Battle scene
- Lucerne unit shield flipped the correct way around.
- Unit data can be loaded from xml.
- Safety measures put in to prevent the player from giving attack orders to unreachable units (i.e Behind unbreached castlke walls). This could result in units becomming unresponsive.
Main Menu
- Fog of war option removed.
- Armoury component loaded and kept in memory. reducing level transition times.
- Custom coat of arms can now be added tp the resources folder.
- Allow mod support toggle added to options - allows loading of xml data from the resources folder. Does not need to be active to allow custom coat of arms.
HEY ALL!!
Today's update is an exciting and highly requested update.
Mod support is something that has been requested since the early days of development for VOC, and I am happy to announce I have been working on making this a reality.
Currently, you may only edit the attributes of the game, but I am working on an importer system to allow a deeper level of mod support.
You may ask why I have been focusing on this, and not on completing the game as it is. There are two main reasons...
1) Many of you have stated you would love to help improve the game, this is your chance. You may now tweak and balance the game as you like. This can help improve the game immensely.
2) Ideally, games are designed with mod support from the ground up, so the earlier I start supporting it, the better.
For your changes to take effect, you must enable mod support in the game menu. This 'may' increase load times, but not by much.
Location:*Rootfolder*/Veilofcrows_data/Resources/
Custom coat of arms is another highly requested addition. You may now add your own simply by placing them into the 'CustomCOA' folder in the game resources. These will now appear when setting you faction COA.
Location: *Rootfolder*/Veilofcrows_data/Resources/CustomCOA/*YourCOA.png*.
For best results...
512x512.
Black and white only.
Leave a bit of clear space around the edges.
.png format.
Thank you all, and as usual please remember to review VOC on steam.
