Voor de Kroon cover
Voor de Kroon screenshot
Genre: Simulator, Strategy, Indie

Voor de Kroon

Patch notes September 22nd 2023

Changelog

  • Increase visibility of unit outlines during winter
  • Increase visibility of spawn bounds during winter
  • Change look of campaign map trees during winter
  • Show campaign name on campaign win screen
  • Improve look of round castle damage
  • Add fires to round castle when damaged
  • Enable all friendly damage when realistic player damage is enabled
  • Make demo army setup specific, remove randomization
  • Remove ability to attach unit to stormram
  • Allow player to surrender besieged settlement
  • Allow player to sally out from besieged settlement
  • Allow player to view besieged settlement and open battle dialog
  • Removed ability to wait for nightfall from demo
  • Tweak player stagger modifier when permanently damaged by arrows
  • Change campaign game-over text
  • Disable extreme violence in demo
  • Rename lumberyard to lumber camp
  • Fix first person frisian skirmisher colors
  • Fix horses not fleeing anymore when rider is killed
  • Fix settlement sieges not ending when making peace
  • Fix player not losing campaign if ruler is captured after battle
  • Fix skirmish siege defense army composition
  • Fix siege battles not failing when all breaching options are depleted
  • Fix player not losing campaign when surrendering settlement with ruler
  • Fix AI building mines in battle when wall is not breached
  • Fix attrition not affecting units
  • Fix not being able to rear horse with lance equipped
  • Fix player total strength not displaying on campaign win screen
  • Fix collision on gatehouse tower in round castle
  • Fix floating ladders on walls with destruction
  • Fix player still being able to give orders after battle
  • Fix player not dying from trebuchet impacts
  • Fix units still getting dismember when option is disabled

Hotfix - September 19th 2023

Changelog

  • Improve unit rotation behavior, prevent moonwalking units during sieges
  • Make defending units stack up behind sapped wall
  • Change West-Frisia heraldry to match Frisias
  • Change tournament arena to new fortification style
  • Change tower in tutorial area to new style
  • Fix crash happening when detaching formation from siege engine
  • Fix archers airwalking on ladders
  • Fix AI formations stuck too long in fighting state
  • Fix AI building all siege engines at once during campaign
  • Fix AI controller logic persisting after unit death
  • Fix units spawning on top of water well in square castle
  • Fix AI building advanced siege engines in early game

Patch Notes - September 19th 2023 - Let there be castles!

Hello everyone,

This time an exciting update introducting stone castles and extended sieging mechanics to the game. The update adds 2 new castle type and revamps the wooden castle by adding raised dirt mounds like the test version had.









Siege changes
Siege battles have been revamped and now feature 3 different types of castles. Each castle features 3 damage levels that occur when being sieged with a trebuchet during the camapign, this is also selectable from the quick battle menu, destruction levels will never fully breach the walls and only do visual damage.



Sapping is now a really strong option to bring down the front wall of the castle and charge in directly. This can be combined with ladders for an assault from all directions.




Campaign
Castles now have a central role in the campaign and will take time to besiege, forming an actual challenge to overcome. You first have to lay siege to a settlement which will take one season and costs 10 wood. This will take the settlement hostage and deplete their food storage every season. When the food storage is depleted attrition will kick in and units inside the settlement will slowly start to die. Choosing when and how to attack will have a big impact on how you charge into battle and if you will charge at all or just wait for them to starve enough to surrender.




Misc
This update also contains a lot of other changes like being able to rename officers and settlements and officers aging every year. The look of the campaign map has also improved and the map feels a lot larger now. You can find all the changes in the patch notes!

Full Changelog:

  • Add fortification: Square castle
  • Add fortification: Round castle
  • Improve design of wooden castle
  • Limit number of formations in castles to 4
  • Show siege camp on campaign map when settlement is under siege
  • Starting a siege costs 10 wood
  • If attacking player has no borders with sieged settlement the siege will be broken
  • Campaign damage propagates to castle building: level 1 75% health, level 2 50% health
  • Constructing a trebuchet will damage a castle each season
  • Add attrition icon to settlement flag when food is depleted
  • If food is depleted settlement garrison will start losing units
  • A settlement loses 1 food in storage per turn when under siege
  • When starting a siege the settlement food storage gets locked to the amount of food a player has
  • Can lay siege to castle settlements taking them hostage
  • Player builds siege engines on campaign map
  • Change Ten Bosche to swamp area
  • Units from attached formation replacedead units on siege engine
  • Change settlement info commander icon depending on ruler or not
  • Add missing control info about formation shape changing to formation UI
  • Add support for different water height levels during siege battles
  • Change ladder units to cheap militia
  • Add formation events for siege engines
  • Allow player to send units to ladders specifically
  • Allow player to select type of castle in quick battle menu
  • Allow palyer to attach formations to siege engines during battle
  • Add formation icons to siege engines
  • Add options for wall sapped to quick battles
  • Imrpove smoothness of a couple of campaign UI animations
  • Check if position is free before doing a finisher move
  • Add icon to sector flag if wall is sapped
  • Add info tooltip to realism mode buttons
  • Remove redundant formation orders from game
  • Improve foliage removal algorithm for siege battles
  • Add options to have permanent damage to player from arrow hits, default enabled with realism mode
  • Improve campaign watchtower icon
  • Improve burning unit particle effect
  • Adjust unit siege engine follow speed
  • Add more ambient sounds to forest areas
  • Change battle text to 'siege of' when castle is built in battle dialog
  • Add disable fire arrows menu options
  • Some units drop weapons before fleeing
  • Prefix settlement name with 'kasteel' when a castle is built
  • Improve on fire animation to die transition
  • Improve archer sidearm behavior
  • Add only use trebuchet during siege battles menu option
  • Add particle effect for fireless burn
  • Add option to toggle unit outlines
  • Add building types for new castles
  • Add snowy dust to buildings in winter
  • Add sharpening slider to options menu
  • Add random flag wear system
  • Add menu options to disable random flag wear
  • Add boiling water defense option: pour boiling water on attackers passing the gate
  • Add new campaign icons for castles
  • Add clouds of mist to forest and swamp areas on campaign map
  • Add new data structure for castle building types
  • Make sure units do pathfinding towards navigation areas during siege battles
  • Improve cavalry deaths
  • Add deploy defensive garrison option: Place archers behind castle arrow slits
  • Non armor penetrating arrows can break or bounce of heavy armor
  • AI only use fire arrows in cinematic mode
  • Add ambient sound to siege camp during battle
  • Add cut tree stumps around siege camp
  • Slightly reduce ambient lighting during spring and summer on realistic color mode
  • Allow player to rename officers in unit details screen
  • Allow player to rename settlements in settlement info bar
  • Add selection option for siege damage to quick battle menu
  • Incremental siege damage is visible on battlefield
  • Add ash particles to fire places
  • Add support for dynamic castle landscaping
  • Switch around breda attacker and defender spawns
  • Add new tactics for AI Cavalry armies
  • Remove defensive catapults from game
  • Improve siege trebuchet aiming
  • Make ladders interactable: press E to mount ladder when prompt is visible
  • Increment age of officers each year
  • Attacking formations can only flee the castle when gate is opened else they will fight to the death
  • Can't call horse when enemies are nearby
  • Change standard infantry unit size to 72 from 75
  • Add local screenshake to storm ram impacts
  • Increase follow distance when formation is attached to siege engine
  • Add missing wood production icon to settlement info bar
  • Increase negative public orde rmodifier from emergency taxes to -4 from -3
  • Add missing tooltip for sally out button
  • Improve siege pathfinding for AI
  • Frisians can only build wooden castles
  • Add crown icon to settlement flag indication wether ruler is in settlement
  • Removed number of owned settlements widget from settlement info bar
  • Change ladder units to the right army culture
  • Lower stormram movement penalty when damaged
  • Lower storm ram speed by 25%
  • Show construction icon on settlement flag when buildings are under construction
  • Randomize fleeing unit movement speed
  • Prevent rebelleion from starting when ruler is in settlement
  • Slightly increase kill chance on lance impact
  • Player will always perform finisher on officers and generals when context is right
  • Show unit 'health' on unit icons in campaign UI
  • Improve tournament notification sound
  • Decrease size and imrpove placement of campaign map trees
  • Fix crash related to missing component on unit death
  • Fix siege ram triggering destroyed gate behavior multiple times
  • Fix skirmish reinforcements having wrong commander culture
  • Fix player camera when climing a ladder
  • Fix 3d bounds showing when playing as siege defender
  • Fix dismounted cavalry still making horse noises during siege battles
  • Fix archers only using backisde of wooden castle tower
  • Fix Kennemerland dunes castle spawn position
  • Fix turn ending when you press leave alone in occupy screen
  • Fix player not spawning with formation when attacking during siege
  • Fix floating bodies during siege battles
  • Fix units climbing air sometimes instead of ladder
  • Fix formations changing shape when attached to siege engine
  • Fix siege defenders spawning formation banners
  • Fix AI unit focus when gate is destroyed
  • Fix defending units falling through floor during siege battles
  • Fix units using ladders after battle has ended
  • Fix units hit with fire airwalking in some situations
  • Fix units making grunting noises and taunting after battle has ended
  • Fix projectile impacts not making sound on siege engines
  • Fix weather controller not respecting 'increased sunny weather' option
  • Fix units still in combat pose after battle
  • Fix stormram operators not being hit by projectiles
  • Fix units running really fast under some circumstances
  • Fix backward walk animation of stormram
  • Fix some water calculations still running during winter
  • Fix some units not behaving properly after battle
  • Fix end battle cheer not triggering when enemy wins fight
  • Fix oorlogsbede policy not adding income to settlement
  • Fix formation not detaching from siege engine when moving
  • Fix archers not routing properly during siege battles
  • Fix fire arrow stuck in air when dropped
  • Fix date not displaying correctly during tournaments
  • Fix Pathfinding around stormram
  • FIx stormram collision
  • Fix arrows never being destroyed






Patch notes August 24st 2023

Changelog

  • Allow player to stay on battlefield after battle, end battle by pressing escape/special right
  • Some militia units will scavenge the battlefield after battle
  • Formations will return to start after the battle has ended for a while
  • Add info about battle to pause menu
  • Add option menu to pause menu
  • Randomize militia colors from heraldry
  • Highlight selected formation with outline
  • Unit highlight color depends on color mode
  • Deploy bounds color depends on color mode
  • Add new material to 3d deploy bounds
  • Add small chance of spawning dying breathing sounds on eliminated units when intact
  • Raise speed needed for horse to be killed by stake
  • Don't extinguish fires after battle ended
  • Make AI controlled archers fire more recklessly in cinematic mode
  • Normalize ranged unit speed after drawing sidearm
  • Set correct uniforms for feudal flag units
  • Tweak number of banners in infantry formations
  • TWeak egmond and brederode areas
  • Make brederode heraldry orange again >> might revisit later
  • Add fire sound to fire sources
  • Tweak enemy formation icon
  • Fix skirmisher unit range during siegebattles
  • Fix kills by spear brace not being counted by formation
  • Fix dropped items still showing unit outlines
  • Fix unit outlines persisting after some death situations
  • Fix fire effects ending abruptly
  • Fix jittery flicker on unit outlines
  • Fix mount horse in control list showing wrong keybind
  • Fix stakes still showing when not having units that can deploy them
  • Fix key prompt only flashing once in prebattle widget


Patch Notes - August 21st 2023 - Cavalry Update

Hello Everyone!

This time an exciting update addressing cavalry movement and behaviors during battle. Horses have received a huge upgrade to their movement and don't stop and turn in place anymore during battles. The cavalry movement still has some bugs and odd behaviors that will be ironed out over the next updates, but overall it's a huge improvement.



This update also contains a lot of fixes and quality of life improvements. Polearm infantry has received a big upgrade making them able to decimate the most elite cavalry units when the conditions are right. Friendly units are outlined during the deployment phase and when the formation interface is opened. Units are made slightly more generic to deceive your eyes more, making the armies feel less cloned.



You can now also cycle formation shapes when having a formation selected in the same way as during deployment by using the spacebar/left trigger. You can confirm the new space by moving the formation.

Thank you for all the support so far! I am excited to show what I am working on for the next updates.


Full Changelog

  • Implement new cavalry movement
  • Tweak AI Cavalry combat logic
  • Improve AI Horse animations
  • Highlight friendly units during deployment
  • Highlight friendly units when formation interface is open
  • Revert tree leaves not being shown
  • Change deploy bounds to 3d mesh
  • allow player to cycle formation shapes the same way as during deployment by pressing space/left trigger when formation is selected
  • Add 5th formation to demo battle to prevent confusion about battle size
  • Make formations bracing spears break less quickly
  • Decrease time interval to check whether formations should brace spears
  • Increase baseline of formation disorganisation to prevent perfect lines
  • Add new unit icon for crossbow militia
  • Add missing controls to pause menu
  • Prevent player from calling horse during siege battles
  • Add enemy lord back to quick battles
  • Add breath particles to horse gallop sounds in cinematic mode
  • Make units more generic and indistinguishable
  • Add missing player action prompts
  • Imrpove crossbow reload animations
  • Improve block animation for round shields
  • Add horse icon to fleeing player horse
  • Reduce chance of instant kill on lance impact
  • Make main menu camera FPS independent
  • Tweak cinematic player damage values
  • Only show battles defenses when you have formations that can use them
  • Increase chance of polearm units rearing hit horse
  • Reduce damage from cavalry knockdowns
  • Temporarily disable problematic clipping commander models
  • Fix gamepad controls in tournament menu
  • Fix gamepad controls in reinforcement menu
  • Fix formation shape cycling with gamepad during deployment
  • Fix deployment gamepad control list
  • Fix cavalry commanders using on foot attacks with sidearm
  • Fix crash when enemy is hit right after dying
  • Fix commander mounting horse spawning wrong class
  • Fix flags not showing stats after capturing settlement
  • Fix not being able to attack from dordrecht to Breda
  • Fix heraldry colors on first person arms
  • Fix heraldry colors on mounted commanders
  • Fix blood levels on mounted commanders
  • Fix disabling unit shadows when setting is off
  • Fix gamepad possess button triggering when not having formation interface open
  • Fix potential crash while mounting horse

Patch notes August 16th 2023

Hello Everyone!

This patch contains a host of fixes and improvements to the game. It is now possible to call your horse again after dismounting. This is by default bound to C/Gamepad special right. This greatly enhances player mobility and makes dismounting a less weighted choice.

During your campaign you can now transfer units when you have occupied a new settlement. This allows you to keep a couple of units behind if you wish.

Full changelog

  • Allow player to call horse after dismounting, by default bound to C/Gamepad special left
  • Show watchtower on campaign map if built
  • Fix aggressive cavalry archer stack strategy wrong AI deployment
  • Fix banner unit generation for formations
  • Hide tree leaves while deploying units for better clarity
  • Fix ranged units getting stuck in volley on battle ended
  • Decrease navigation generation time
  • Add transfer screen after occupying a new settlement allowing you to select wich officers will take up the new garrison
  • Apply recommended settings automatically at first startup based on user hardware
  • Decrease melee unit weapon reach
  • Increase polearm unit weapon reach
  • Add unit attribute for 'can use fire arrows'
  • Only show fire arrow button during deployment when player has units that can use fire arrows
  • Decrease unit size for Skirmishers and Vlaminc to 36
  • Player can select enemy faction in quick battle menu: alternate clicks select enemy or player faction
  • Tweak colors on conifer trees to blend in more with landscape
  • Improve sutfen area map
  • Improvements to brabant area map (Ten bosche/nijmegen)
  • Improve utrecht area map
  • Add landscape footsteps to mounted player in normal battles
  • Change holy roman empire heraldry to one headed eagle
  • Remove shields from militia infantry, give cavalry damage bonus and spear bracing
  • Fix gamepad controls in demo prologue menu
  • Add a chance of clear weather occuring during winter
  • Improve sword and shield block animation
  • Player always performs a finishing move on fleeing enemies
  • Fix game starting in borderless window causing mouse problems for some users
  • Fix close cavalry camera being enabled by standard
  • Fix officer/commander spawning
  • Fix officers spawning in ranged formations wielding melee weapons

Check out the free demo!

Hey everyone,

I am excited to anounce you can now download a free demo of the game on the steam page.

It serves as a prologue to the main game and contains the battle of Hoogwoud in 1258. The battle where the Frisians killed King Willem II and changed the history of the low countries was made. You can play as both sides and choose between a cinematic variant of the battle in a thunder storm and a replica of the actual battle in harsh winter conditions.

The demo also contains a new type of weather, clear winter weather will also be added to the main game in the next patch.



I encourage you to try out the game!

If you have questions or comments let me know in the discussions.

Thank you for all the support!

Updated game roadmap for 2023

Hello everyone!

I want to present the updated roadmap for the remainder of 2023. The game has come a long way already thanks to your support!



Extended customization options


The game will steer towards a user content driven ecosystem. This allows players to customize their experience and create campaigns and factions. Want to create a custom campaign set in france? Done.

Stone castles


Currently there are 2 tiers of fortifications, both with wooden walls. Stone castles are planned and currently worked on and will have you siege actual medieval fortresses using ladders, trebuchets and stormrams.

Gameplay and interface work


The game will receive continues updates to the gameplay and UX. The game has already improved a LOT since launch and will continue to do so.

New pricing model


part of the more defined new direction will be a new pricing model. Currently the game is 30$ (with regional price differences) and that is a tough price point to compete as an indie. I have decided to split the base game into three seperate parts allowing new players to start playing the game by spending less money.

The game will be split into:
- Voor de kroon (Base game with battle engine and faction customization)
- Voor de kroon - The Conquests (Campaign framework)
- Voor de kroon - Honor and Steel (Tournaments)

The price of the seperate parts will amount to approximately the same price the game is now.
No one will get the short end of the stick.

All players that have already bought the game will have all the content added to their account for free.

I am looking forward to improving the game and adding features and content. The road to 1.0 is long, but I am excited to be on this path with you.

If you have questions or something to share let me know in the comments!

Thank you!

Kevin

Patch notes August 7th 2023

Changelog:

  • Add new heraldry icons for custom lords
  • Player starts on foot during sally out in sieges
  • Tweak wetness of objects in rainy weather
  • Attacking archers move away from castle when defender sallies out
  • Set default fire mode for units in cinematic mode to forced fire
  • Fix some units falling through landscape when spawning during siege
  • Fix stormram starting move sound when sally out battle has ended
  • Fix formations not reacting to commands correctly when sallying out
  • Fix crash occuring when formations haven't spawned properly

Patch Notes - August 3rd 2023 - Tournaments Alpha


Hello Everyone!

This update integrates tournaments into the game that are available as quick battles and randomly occur during the campaign. It also includes new weather wetness and wind effects and various fixes and improvements.




There are also two new units added to the game. 'Vlaminc' which are flemish mercenaries equipped with a crossbow and a goededag as sidearm. They have the same properties are skirmishers and are excellent melee fighters and won't route easily. Another new unit is the elite knight on foot, they fight with 1.5 handers and are a force to be reckoned with.



You can play jousting and melee tournaments in quick battles and select how you want to play. You can play a small tournament or a single battle and choose the weapons you want to use. In the campaign tournaments can randomly popup as a game event if you are playing as a feudal lord(non frisian) and you can choose to join the tournament allowing you to earn reputation with the ohers lords. On realism mode tournaments only popup during summer and spring with sunny weather, on cinematic mode they can popup in all seasons and weather types.


So is it all doom and gloom? No, not at all. The new patch contains way brigther summer and spring colors for realism mode really bringing out the summer feel. This patch improves the look and feel of all weather types overall.


I hope you enjoy it. For suggestions, comments or problems: drop a post in the discussions.

Thank you!

Full Changelog:

  • Fix random quick battle map option not actually giving a random map
  • Can't attack with garrison when commander is not available for attack
  • Mustering units can now defend settlements and are only blocked for attack
  • Fix bug causing settlement to have no commander after firing current commander
  • Add stakes to all frisian infantry
  • Add attribute generation based on unit attributes (New campaign only)
  • Rename perks to attributes
  • Fix militie using two handed strafing locomotion
  • Prevent matchups between brederode and other hollandic factions in quick battles
  • Fix barter offers not appearing when no game events have taken place
  • Winning a tournament unblocks diplomacy with other lords
  • Winning a tournament gains +2 favor with all other lords
  • Participating in a tournament gets you +1 with all other lords
  • Tournaments in campaign are random events: Can start during warm sunny weather or when cinematic color mode is on during any season and weather.
  • Only feudal lords can participate in tournaments
  • Remove prologue lord Willem II from random quick battle lords
  • General work and tweaks on all battle maps
  • Add wind effects during bad weather to foliage and physics
  • Remove dead horse sliding dust in rainy weather
  • Add a bit of directional lighting during bad weather
  • Add landscape wetness when it's raining
  • Lower frequency of slowmotion effect occuring when breaking lance
  • Fix battle UI max health displaying wrong
  • Add short window of damage resistance to lance hits when player starts rushing on horse
  • Add close mounted camera distance menu option
  • Add flemish mercenary unit, a heavily armed crossbow unit with a goedendag as sidearm. Can stand their ground in melee like skirmishers
  • Add elite knights on foot unit with 1.5 handers
  • Change two handed ground finisher attack
  • Make weapon and unit blood only appear when chainmail is damaged enough
  • Change sound effects for ground finisher, chainmail deflect
  • Add tournament game mode
  • Fix player T posing when hit by trebuchet projectile
  • Fix cavalry commander sword scabbard placement
  • Change two handed blocking to parry, instead of holding down you can press block once to parry.
  • Change spring and summer sunny weather lighting for realistic mode
  • Improve sky sun positioning logic
  • Add failsafe to charging logic to prevent formation from being pushed back too much
  • Fix player targeting logic for AI
  • Fix most unit idling during battle problems
  • Tweak unit combat targeting range
  • Add small counter when having more than 3 reinforcements in battle dialog
  • Fix missing unit icons on reinforcement cards
  • Fix crash when ruler dies in campaign battle