Sorry for the long wait! To make siege battles possible I had to rewrite how units collide and move around, but you can expect more regular updates again.
This updates include a tier 1 fortification siege battle in the skirmish mode. You can access it from the skirmish menu. It also includes, among other things, a level system, stat tracking and more permanence for lance sergeants. It also implements the first of many historically accurate assets to come, a 13th century romanesque church made by a talented 3d modeler.
Some heraldry emblems have, in advance to a big heraldry update, received a new look. A heraldic artist, that knows a lot about the 13th century low countries, has created new emblems for Holland and Gelre that are more in line with heraldry that was used during this era.
The tutorial campaign is disabled for now as the information given was starting to get behind pretty far on the actual developments on the game. I need to find a way to distribute gameplay information to new players in a way that grows more organically with the game.
Siege battles
This update lays the foundations for siege battles. You can create siege engines and attach formations to them to assault enemy castles and fortifications. When in a siege you win by eliminating all enemy formations. Damaging the castle itself will still give a morale penalty to the defenders.
Expect this to be a experimental gamemode for now. You will encounter bugs and odd behavior. Reporting this will always be appreciated!
Unit level system
Units now earn experience for kills and battles fought. When recruiting new units their placement will be sloppy and they won't fight optimally. When progressing towards level 5 they will start holding a tigther formation and fight better. Units now also save the amount of deaths they have suffered and will muster 10% of new recruits per season.
You can access unit details along with their level progress by right clicking a unit and selecting unit details. You can still transfer units from the unit detail screen.
Ranged unit sidearms Instead of fleeing, Ranged units will now draw a sidearm and stand their ground. When a ranged unit has their sidearm drawn they will behave as a melee formation.
Full changelog:
Implement fortified keep siege alpha
Disabled tutorial campaign
Show weather unit effects in prebattle interface
add triangular shield to chivalric units
Fix one handed melee stance
disable non chivalric sergeant models for custom factions
add court staff tab to throne room screen
scale unit minimum location disorganisation against unit level
Add Formation health info to unit details
Formations heal 10% every season
Formations retain their deaths after battle
scale food cost along with money cost modifier
Set formation sergeant as correct sergeant model
can disband and view unit details when unit is busy
Add historically accurate romanesque church
Show sergeants experience and level in afterbattle screen
Sergeant xp needed scales directly against monthly cost scaling
Change transfer unit to unit details screen with unit experience and commander info
Sergeants keep track of kills
Add level system to sergeants
Tweak mounted player animations
Fix some options not being saved properly
set new icon and description for trebuchet when siege defender
Formations now only make volley start sounds when actually targeting a formation
Fix player getting knocked down after dismounting horse
Fixed possession of melee units
Tweak formation charge behavior
add new saddle to horses
Fix bug causing player to be stuck when spawning a formation proxy fails
Add kletsies to Frisian troops
Add siege weapon for siege defenders
Fix arrow rotation on shields
Allow player to pick battle side, season, year and weather when starting skirmish battle
Only charge into other formation when direction to other formation is smaller than 50 degrees from the direction the formation was charging to another formation
Cycle formation shape during deployment with spacebar/left trigger
Prevent player from being thrown out of the level when dismounting horse
Fix proxy player spawning
Fix shield in hand placement for frisians
Fix spears clipping shields for all militia units
Fix hand placement of cavalry melee weapons on new unit models
Fix unique unit ID not generating from hired sergeants
Give ranged units a sidearm. They will draw a secondary weapon when attacked in melee. The formation will behave as a melee formation after this.
Add heraldry for Herman
Add new Heraldry for Holland
Add new Heraldry for Gelre
Fix prebattle unit placement bounds
Show a red area to indicate where you can't place formations
Can't place units in deep water during prebattle deployment
Fix bug causing archer stakes to float when placed on top of eachother
Set default screenmode to fullscreen
Fix bug causing saved movement mappings to not load on game startup
Optimise landscape grass
Add wheat in spring and summer to farmlands
Improve snow horse footstep particles
Rename and rebalance chivalric units
Remove elite crossbow unit
Add crowned helmet to custom lord options
add mitre to custom lord options
Add formationshape command, cycle between line, square and ranks
Add flank command, send unit to flank
Optimize unit pathfinding
Extend unit melee collision
Fix crashes when playing certain animations
Siege Battle Test update 30 January 2022
Hello everyone!
Sorry for the long wait! To make siege battles possible I had to rewrite how units collide and move around, but you can expect more regular updates again.
This updates include a tier 1 fortification siege battle in the skirmish mode. You can access it from the skirmish menu. It also includes, among other things, a level system, stat tracking and more permanence for lance sergeants. It also implements the first of many historically accurate assets to come, a 13th century romanesque church made by a talented 3d modeler.
Some heraldry emblems have, in advance to a big heraldry update, received a new look. A heraldic artist, that knows a lot about the 13th century low countries, has created new emblems for Holland and Gelre that are more in line with heraldry that was used during this era.
The tutorial campaign is disabled for now as the information given was starting to get behind pretty far on the actual developments on the game. I need to find a way to distribute gameplay information to new players in a way that grows more organically with the game.
Siege battles
This update lays the foundations for siege battles. You can create siege engines and attach formations to them to assault enemy castles and fortifications. When in a siege you win by eliminating all enemy formations. Damaging the castle itself will still give a morale penalty to the defenders.
Expect this to be a experimental gamemode for now. You will encounter bugs and odd behavior. Reporting this will always be appreciated!
Unit level system
Units now earn experience for kills and battles fought. When recruiting new units their placement will be sloppy and they won't fight optimally. When progressing towards level 5 they will start holding a tigther formation and fight better. Units now also save the amount of deaths they have suffered and will muster 10% of new recruits per season.
You can access unit details along with their level progress by right clicking a unit and selecting unit details. You can still transfer units from the unit detail screen.
Ranged unit sidearms Instead of fleeing, Ranged units will now draw a sidearm and stand their ground. When a ranged unit has their sidearm drawn they will behave as a melee formation.
Full changelog:
Implement fortified keep siege alpha
Disabled tutorial campaign
Show weather unit effects in prebattle interface
add triangular shield to chivalric units
Fix one handed melee stance
disable non chivalric sergeant models for custom factions
add court staff tab to throne room screen
scale unit minimum location disorganisation against unit level
Add Formation health info to unit details
Formations heal 10% every season
Formations retain their deaths after battle
scale food cost along with money cost modifier
Set formation sergeant as correct sergeant model
can disband and view unit details when unit is busy
Add historically accurate romanesque church
Show sergeants experience and level in afterbattle screen
Sergeant xp needed scales directly against monthly cost scaling
Change transfer unit to unit details screen with unit experience and commander info
Sergeants keep track of kills
Add level system to sergeants
Tweak mounted player animations
Fix some options not being saved properly
set new icon and description for trebuchet when siege defender
Formations now only make volley start sounds when actually targeting a formation
Fix player getting knocked down after dismounting horse
Fixed possession of melee units
Tweak formation charge behavior
add new saddle to horses
Fix bug causing player to be stuck when spawning a formation proxy fails
Add kletsies to Frisian troops
Add siege weapon for siege defenders
Fix arrow rotation on shields
Allow player to pick battle side, season, year and weather when starting skirmish battle
Only charge into other formation when direction to other formation is smaller than 50 degrees from the direction the formation was charging to another formation
Cycle formation shape during deployment with spacebar/left trigger
Prevent player from being thrown out of the level when dismounting horse
Fix proxy player spawning
Fix shield in hand placement for frisians
Fix spears clipping shields for all militia units
Fix hand placement of cavalry melee weapons on new unit models
Fix unique unit ID not generating from hired sergeants
Give ranged units a sidearm. They will draw a secondary weapon when attacked in melee. The formation will behave as a melee formation after this.
Add heraldry for Herman
Add new Heraldry for Holland
Add new Heraldry for Gelre
Fix prebattle unit placement bounds
Show a red area to indicate where you can't place formations
Can't place units in deep water during prebattle deployment
Fix bug causing archer stakes to float when placed on top of eachother
Set default screenmode to fullscreen
Fix bug causing saved movement mappings to not load on game startup
Optimise landscape grass
Add wheat in spring and summer to farmlands
Improve snow horse footstep particles
Rename and rebalance chivalric units
Remove elite crossbow unit
Add crowned helmet to custom lord options
add mitre to custom lord options
Add formationshape command, cycle between line, square and ranks
Add flank command, send unit to flank
Optimize unit pathfinding
Extend unit melee collision
Fix crashes when playing certain animations
Patch notes 8 January 2023
In this patch I added the movement controls to the keybindings options, added a conquer all campaign and fixed some issues.
Changelog
Add movement controls to keybindings
Add conquer all campaign, play as any faction and conquer the entire map
Improve shield position on horseback, fix clipping
Fix persistance of last battle data in the next campaign when player died
Add Brederode and kennemers as a playable faction to conquer all campaign
Set unit possession cooldown time to 15 seconds (Was 20)
Fix pavise shield clipping unit helmet
Fix shield clipping ministerials hood
Fix issue prevent campaign data from saving correctly
Hotfix deluxe - 6 January 2023
This is a hotfix that unfortunately wipes your save one more time. I messed up with the save versioning system causing crashes related to custom factions being incompatible with previous versions.
Changelog
Add save versioning for level data and usersettings
Add save versioning for custom lords
Improve bardice textures
Improve infantry spear textures
Weapon texture optimization
Fix first person mesh for frisian and chivalric militia
Actually specify how long the campaign lasts and when the st lucia flood is
Fix low pitch slowmotion sound staying if giving orders while it ends
Scale move marker attack distance against distance from player
Fix move marker only displaying the first hovered enemy
Fix cavalry moving too far when charging other cavalry
Increase timeout of charge yelling
Fix bug causing victory screen to show all battles ever won by the player instead of this campaign
Add back colored hoods for archers / Light militia
Fix unit catching on to other formation when charging specific formation
Cosmetic and command update 4 January 2022
Hello everyone!
This time a rather big update again. First of all I hope that this update fixes the biggest battle issues that were present including vague or missing UI elements and morale not working correctly. Secondly this update features a host of cosmetic changes including new unit models and more natural animations.
The bad news: Save games and settings are unfortunately incompatible due to the volume of unit changes so your user settings will be reset completely when starting the game with the new update.
The new units
I was not happy with the way units looked until now and I wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible. I choose to dig in and create a 'between step' for the cosmetic side of the game to atleast give the units the right clothing for the era and take a step into the right direction of what I am aiming for with the game.
Animations Crossbows and archer units have received the biggest update. Crossbow now actually reload their crossbow and archers actually fire arrows and actually draw their bows.
I also updated the stance and locomotion animations of all melee units making them look way more natural. The last traces of the spinning sword attacks are also out.
Battle updates This update contains lots of fixes regarding the battle flow and commanding. Units now actually listen when you tell them to charge and morale is now more balanced fixing issues with instantly routing armies. The enemy lord will now only be wounded and flee the battlefield when enough damage is done, it was a bit strange decapitating a lord several times over several battles.
The interface now shows the unit positions when moving a unit and the unit you are about to attack when the marker is near an enemy formation. I also added a balance bar to the bottom of the screen indicating the general morale balance between the two armies.
For the next update I will focus on campaign mechanics, especially the sergeant/lance system.
Thank you for playing and all the support!
Full changelog:
Fix crossbow walk animation
Show the formation you are attacking when hovering over enemy formation
Lower attack distance when moving formations
Fix formations not charging when given orders
Fix archers sometimes not firing when not in view
Change supply route boat to realistic sail Ship
Add 1.5 handers to knights
Add 1.5 hander to enemy lord
Implement accurate frisian flag
Add new sound for buckler blocked hits
Implement blocking for two handed player
Set correct throne room unit from player army culture
Fix archers blocking infantry from moving past
Raise morale balance threshold to win battle to 10%
Fix bug causing infantry to drain morale stamina outside of battle
Balance infantry stamina behavior, drain morale slower while fighting
Move archer formation slightly out of the way when too close to eachother
Show unit markers when moving formation
Fix infantry wandering too far when formation broken
add disorganization modifier for unit positions for fanatics and conscripts
Increase ranged unit route and skirmish distance
Add tooltips specifying why sergeants can't be hired
add new unit icons for knights
Make enemy lord flee when health depleted instead of die
Tweak formation morale balance - start morale now purely based on unit count
Implement new frisian unit models
Correctly set unit animations when under fire at start of battle
Optimize unit asset loading
Fix misclassification of peasants as polearm infantry
Fix being able to send endless amount of units to settlement
Fix castle giving morale when no formations are present
Implement new militia unit models
Add realistic animation to archers
Add realistic movement for melee units
Add reload animation for crossbows
Fix control list in pause menu
Change default shieldbash/rear horse binding to left control instead of shift click
Increase arrows to 15 when possessing a ranged unit
Combat control update
Hello everyone!
The latest update revamps player movement. One of the most common heard complaints was a lot of players finding it difficult to control the player.
Player Control This new update contains massive control and gameplay improments both on horse and on foot. You now control your horse with your keyboard allowing you to freely look around with the mouse. Combat on foot is more tight but also more claustrophobic giving a tense feeling of close combat.
It's now also possible to switch to a two handed stance(1.5 handed technically) by pressing draw secondary while on foot. I increased the size of the hilt of the standard sword for now, but when the sword customization is implemented this will only be possible with 1.5 handed hilts.
Flags This update adds in a new 'extreme' flags option. It's heavy on the CPU, but it gives all knights flags.
Campaign All settlements now have a 3d mesh representing their fortification level. It's pretty basic for now, but it feels better than only having a floating shield.
It's now only possible to transfer units to connected settlements or through friendly territory. This changes the way you can move your army across the map.
The patch notes of 28 December contain the full list of changes from this update.
I hope you all had a good week! And I will see you next year.
Thank you for all the support so far!
Patch Notes 28 December 2022
This is a big update! A more detailed post is coming soon detailing all the changes.
Implement new realistic fighting for player on foot
Implement two handed stance for player on foot - Access by pressing draw secondary
Add temporary graphics to settlements
Implement alternate player horse movement scheme - Move with keyboard, look with mouse
Only transfer units to connected sectors or through friendly territory
Implement new max flags option: give all knights flags like in the trailer. - WARNING: CPU intensive
Fix player formations not charging when giving direct order
Implement random chance of AI doing a skirmishing phase when they have enough archers
Implement Player movement becoming sloppy when health is low. The lower your health, the more your character will slouch.
Fix player formations not charging when giving direct order
Increase fanatic infantry health
Fix formation status not showing breaking formations correctly
Melee infantry increase formation spacing when fighting
Increase target distance when specific moving formation
Give accurate helmet to Willem II
Lower Order camera
Fix clipping helmet on mounted player
Improve AI Infantry formation charge behavior
Set new camera position for player on foot
Slow down game when giving orders
Boost archer morale
Add camera swing to melee attacks
Add Camera swing while executing
zoom in camera while executing
Fix correct keybindings to order cards
change keybinding name for 'order wheel' to 'formation status'
Add new order controls to gamepad scheme
Port New controls to gamepad >> left stick movement >> right stick look
Give nearby snow a more detailed texture
Fix enemy lord walk speed
Improve reigns location in hand
Increase Frisian infantry base morale
Slightly lower trebuchet aim
Archers aim directly at enemies when they have a clear fire angle
Fix some AI formations staying idle
Add on screen controls to formation interface
Fix custom lord staying selected when selecting other lord for quick battle
Slightly increase AI pike hold distance
Hotfix 24 December 2022
Hotfix:
Fix savegames not saving new save version, this caused all savegames to be inaccessible
Patch Notes 23 December 2022 - Big user feedback update
Hello everyone!
This patch contains updated in game post processing (More colors!), Better unit control and Graafschap Gelre is now a playable lord in the campaign. First the bad news, your key bindings will be reset and your campaign save is incompatible, now onto the good news!
I got a lot of feedback on the gray filter and the army command controls with keyboard an mouse. I have put a lot of work into fixing these and I think it's coming along nicely.
First up, the unit control interface:
With this new update you can control your army by directly selecting units with the 1 - 5 number keys and issue orders with the F1 to F6 keys. The TAB button now functions as a formation status lookup and shows all unit cards with their status when held.
This new system also brings the added benefit of greatly enhanced battlefield clarity. You can now see the type of unit, the amount of units alive, the morale status and what the formation is doing in real time. This way you can easily see if your plan is working out!
Second, the colors This is what an overcast day looks like in the new patch!
Second showcase shot, also showcasing the new mercenary units for Bisdom Utrecht.
Sunny day in autumn. (Ugh the clipping on the hoods :(, don't worry guys, the game isn't finished yet)
Graaf Reinoud I in his new outfit.
The light level is also boosted on rainy days providing more visual clarity. On top of this all I increased the chance of clear weather with 15%, because apparently some people can't get used to the dutch climate. ;)
Oh and I almost forgot. I started working on the tutorials, right now I've added a basic training tutorial. It's a short and sweet tutorial on how to operate your lord on the battlefield. An army commanding tutorial will be coming too.
Full change log:
Add 15% extra chance of clear weather
Fix typo in loading screen
Fix floating house in Alkmaar
Increase Frisian infantry strength against cavalry (now at 2.5x, was 1.5x, more on faction balance later! Tip for now, frisians are best at fighting on foot, you need to reverse the logic for their unit types)
Raise base flee threshold for fanatic cavalry
Change Kennemer army culture
add savefile versioning to check compatibility with new patches
Remove old global hold fire command
Fix unit rotation while issueing orders: units now maintain rotation except when charging and moving directly
Fix water plants dissapearing in winter
Fix crash notifying dead unit to non existing formation
Add basic training
Increase size of horses by ~5%
Enable arrow trails by standard
Fix player blood resetting on dismount
Fix scabbard staying on horse on dismount
Make post processing less desatured
Boost light levels
Add Brederode specific heraldry
Add Gelre specific heraldry
Add new lord model for Gelre
Fix player dismounting when issueing orders
Add decal to trebuchet impact
Fix rippling water on mounted attack
Add water ripple to arrow impact
Implement custom faction culture for Utrecht
Improve LOD's across all characters (CPU perf increase)
Add Gelre to playable lords in Campaign
Fix trebuchet water impact
For now, happy holidays everyone, see you next year!
Thank you for all the support so far.
Patch Notes 17 December 2022
This patch addresses various issues and adds in a hardcore mode, input remapping and water fixes.
Implement hardcore mode (Savefile will be deleted if you die.)
Implement basic input remapping
Fix player leaving battlefield didn't kill player
Fix trebuchet impact on water only triggering in winter
Fix game crash when player camera component can't be found
Fix water ripple effects
Add minimum hold time to Mounted attack
Add mounted attack progress bar
Add timeout of 20 seconds to possession mechanic
Player has limited arrows when possessing
Fix tooltips for disabled buttons
Fix battle deployables costing money after exiting campaign
Add obvious warning sign to enemy lords doing hostile things to you dialog in throne screen
fix player death related crashes
Fix campaign weather persisting from skirmish
Fix sword being stuck in character on spawn
Fix formations reinitializing on dismount
Deploy archer stakes further away from formation
Set correct retreat position for moved formations
Fix selection getting stuck when switching to night
Also add move markers to hold and advance
Keep in mind that due to the water ripples being fixed that toggling 'high quality water effects' on will have a greater performance impact than before.
