Instructions to opt into the beta/experimental branch:

1. Within the Steam library list, right click 'Dead Monarchy", then select "Properties".
2. Towards the top of the window that pops up, click the "Betas" tab.
3. A dropdown menu list will then appear, select "experimental - Experimental branch".
4. The game should then automatically download and update to this build.
5. Once you have booted up the game, if you see "Build 4" in the main menu, then you are good to go.

Build 6 is the largest update to date as it introduces the world map and player avatar systems to Dead Monarchy. To celebrate, Dead Monarchy is 25% off!

The world map drastically alters Dead Monarchy on many levels and due to real life commitments, I have not actually done much testing. As such, the plan is to keep these next few builds in the experimental branch for a couple weeks before moving it to the live build. Despite being in early access, I am reluctant to go straight to the live build as it may cast the wrong impression on players that are just discovering the game now.

I highly recommend starting a new game with this build, especially if it has been a couple months since you played as previous updates added things like difficulty levels and the perks system.

The rest of this text is almost structured like a tutorial. The tutorial is something I actually need to overhaul as the world map has changed a lot of things, so if you are interested in trying out this latest build (experimental branch), I would keep on reading.

There are now 5 large maps that can be fully traversed, each map represents a biome. You will always start in Bretony (forest biome) and from there, you can travel to other lands via boats.





The player base now has a physical presence on the map as well and it is something you need to actively defend. Any characters that are garrisoned within the base will partake in base assault missions while the main party is out in the world. If you enter the base a day before the siege commences, when you end the day and the siege triggers the day after, your active party can partake in the siege instead. If you are wandering the world and you have no garrison in the base when it is attacked, then you will lose 25% Company Morale and any upgraded buildings will be reduced by 1 level.



Since the player base has a physical presence in the world that also makes exploring the distant lands/maps harder as you can no longer heal (Condition) and repair equipment as easily. As such, two new items have been introduced to all marketplaces in the towns (Herbs and Tools) that can be used to repair and heal condition on characters. To use those items, select the character and drag the item over the portrait or right click to use the item. Healing and repairing within the base will always be cheaper, but it is something the player needs to plan for when traveling beyond Bretony as you no longer have a base of operations.



Some buildings have been taken out the base, but in the future I will consider adding new ones. The buildings that have been taken out (camp, marketplace, headquarters) have been assigned to the towns that populate the maps. Each map has 10 towns and the towns have various vendors.





Different vendors sell different weapons and armor. I have to mention again that this is the first pass of the world map, the armor will feel a bit skewed but that is the next update I am working on. Lots of things still need to be added to the world map or tweaked, in order for it to feel as streamlined as the game did before the world map was added.



Monarchs now also have a physical presence on the world map, each map will have a lair that contains a Monarch. The Monarchs will move around the map though and will not always be present at their own bases. If a Monarch is present, the icon for it will appear on the map, if there is no icon it means the Monarch is elsewhere meaning it will show up on a contract. As of now, the game still revolves around hunting down and killing the 5 Monarchs.



Contracts for now are the main way the player will sustain their company. Contracts replace the old UI system that was used to distribute missions. The missions themselves have not changed, it is just how they are distributed that has changed. There are three difficulty levels for contracts (easy, medium, hard) and the old difficulty levels have been assigned to those three levels. IE, the old mission difficulty level 1-4 is now all considered as easy level contracts.



Every town has a single contract at any time that will be easy, medium or hard. As the days progress, the contracts will expire and new ones will be replaced if the player does not accept them. The player can only ever have one active contract. If the player accepts the contract, the player is asked to go to a marked location, complete the contract and then return to town. Again as of now, I am still tweaking the values and rewards, there are still things left over from the old builds that need to be tweaked for the world map.

A new quest/contract UI will appear in the top left hand corner whenever the player is on an active contract and you can cancel the contract by pressing the X button. If the player does cancel a contract or completes the contract, there will not be another contract immediately available at the same town, the player will have to wait for some time before a new contract is assigned to it or to just travel to another town. Sometimes though, a new contract may appear soon after the previous one was completed/canceled if a new day begins shortly after.



The way time progresses has been completely changed as well, although it is also subject to tweaking. When the player is out in the world, time progresses based on movement. So there are 24 hours in a day and the hours will increment based on player movement. When a new day is triggered, daily wages and food are distributed, contracts roll for renewal, shops are restocked, Monarchs are shifted around etc etc, so a bit of strain is naturally placed on the CPU and as such, it will take a few seconds to finish. At this point, it is kind of like ending your turn in a Total War game. I will try to look for better solutions for optimization though in the future.



The other way to progress time is to end the day while you are in the player base, ending your turn in the player base will add 24 hours though. So if it is the 6th hour on day 3, ending your day in the base will progress it to the 6th hour of day 4.



Changing how time scales has also changed the amount of time it takes to upgrade new buildings. Since resources are also tied to specific biomes and the biomes are tied to the maps which require physically walking there in most cases, the requirements for buildings have been tweaked to reflect these new changes. Again this is subject to community feedback.

As mentioned earlier, there is now a player avatar as well. The player will be able to name the avatar before starting a new game as well as the company and the name of the player base. The player avatar will most likely be your strongest character, as it has boosted stats and stat development. It also starts out with some decent armor. Player avatars also have unique portraits to make it easier to distinguish. The player avatar cannot be garrisoned within a base (IE put into reserves), it will always be in your active party as it is you. The player avatar will never leave you either even if Company Morale is at 0% but it is still subjected to Company Morale penalties. This means that the only way you can lose the game is if your player avatar dies. That also means that if your player character is participating in a siege battle, it is an extremely risky thing to do as you cannot retreat from a siege battle.





Lastly, I have added in some basic "filler terrain" which basically serves to hide map edges. In the future, I may add in some basic environmental props as well.







The world map adds another pillar to Dead Monarchy and represents a huge step forward. A couple years ago, I really did not think this was possible, especially for one guy. Not only is this now a reality but I ended up starting on the world map several months earlier than I had originally anticipated. I suppose the harsh reality is I had to compromise somewhere and that ended up being my health.

There is a lot more work to do, but I thank everyone for their support and especially patience. Thank you for understanding my own personal struggles, all the thoughtful comments really do help. If you wish to further your amazing support, please consider writing a review!











For the remainder of this year, I will be implementing some of the feedback that I have received on the forums. I am also sure that I will receive feedback on the world map update so I will be focusing on that as well as finally doing my own testing of the world map. Going into the new year, the next major content update will be the armor overhaul. I will be updating and adding new armor models, reworking how armor works and probably also start adding in some new weapon models. The plan for next year is to alternate between the world map and the perks system.

Here are some screenshots of the new weapon models that are currently in the works. At this point, I am leaning towards having both unique models and also having texture variations between each model. Researching and designing the weapons took a lot of work, ultimately I am keeping things grounded and more "realistic".







Also, here are a couple of new armor models that will replace some of the European armor sets. I wasn't too fond of the tabbards. These sets will probably be used by the noble houses that reside within Bretony when the human factions get added in. Previous tabbards were a bit too short and I wanted something modular that I could easily texture.







The changelog for this update does not really reflect the amount of work that has been done over the past few months, but it should sum up the major points.

- Added 5 maps to explore, each map has 10 towns. Entire systems have been overhauled to accommodate to the world map.

- Player avatar has been added. The player now has a character that represents the player. It has its own unique portrait and has boosted stats and stat growth. If the player avatar dies in combat, it is game over.

- New music tracks have been added to all 5 maps.

- The new combat animations have been temporarily removed, I need to rework them.

- Changed swamp ambient audio to something a little less intrusive.

- Added in basic filler environments for terrains that can be optionally enabled. This is basically if you do not want to play with a black void surrounding the battle maps. These environments will most likely be improved on in the future, I may add more environmental props.

- Updated the retreat zone highlights to something a little more visible. Moving onto a retreat tile will now cost your full turn (12 AP).

- The player base now has a physical presence on the map and can only be accessed while the player is in Bretony. There is now a garrison mechanic where if the base gets attacked, only the garrisoned members will fight, if no one is garrisoned the base buildings will be reduced by 1 level and Company Morale will be reduced.

- Going on expeditions is a lot harder now beyond Bretony as you do not have support from a base. New items (Herbs and Tools) have been added to marketplaces that will increase Condition by +5 and fully repair equipment.

- Monarchs now have a physical presence on the map. You can attack their bases just like they can attack yours, but Monarchs will not always be at their location either. If they are not in their bases, they will show up during contracts. So now, the player can take the fight directly to the Monarchs instead of just waiting for them to show up.

- The way missions are distributed has been completely reworked. Missions now dubbed as contracts, are given out by the various towns that you visit, there are 3 difficulties. Level scaling and loot still remains the same as of now and will need to be tweaked.

- When the player takes on a contract, a new UI will show up in the top right hand corner. There will be a quest marker (coin) on the map showing you the location you need to travel to. You can cancel the active contract by clicking the X button within the UI.

- A bug where if all your characters retreat but during the retreat, one of them dies and triggers an endless loop should have been fixed.

- Reworked the daily intake and wages UI to hopefully be clearer as to what is being deducted per day.

- Time is now progressed based on movement and is incremented in days not weeks anymore. As such, building upgrade times and resources have been tweaked, this is still subject to change.

- Tweaked some of the lighting, but more work needs to be done (when I get time).

Cheers,
Kevin.

Hey guys,

It has been a very busy month and I apologise for the lack of updates, but sometimes life just gets in the way of things especially when you are a solo developer. Earlier I've had to cope with the loss of a family member and all the procedures that follow after someones death like getting death certificates approved and contacting government services etc and in addition to that, I've had a few health issues myself. Recently gotten multiple blood tests and a CT scan, but so far the results are positive so I am very grateful for that.

That said, I have not been idle with development and I in fact have been pushing forward. The main reason for the delay is again tied to the world map. There is a 3rd party tool that I use that is related to the maps and there is currently an issue that I am waiting for to be patched out. So because of that, I cannot really move forward with an update. So I'm doing my best to work around it and wait until the new patch releases.

Earlier in the month I showed pictures of the forest biome map and I have mentioned on the forums that the upcoming update would only include the forest biome map but due to having to wait for this tool to update, I've actually gone ahead and sculpted the other 4 maps.

The buildings will eventually be overhauled, I still need to create the architecture for each biome, currently all buildings are just using one tileset, but the sculpting for the terrain has at least been finished.

It is honestly a lot of work and my doctor says I should be resting more, but I wanted to at least get this done before the end of the year and things look to be on track. The stressed peaked today when I locked myself out of my house, left my wallet inside with the keys/money and was refused by a medical clinic that I had waited over a month and a half to get a booking in. That said, you can't sweat the small stuff lol. For now, I am just hoping you guys can understand my current situation. I'll release a new update as soon as I can. ːsteamhappyː

These pictures were taken directly from the editor, so the proper lighting is not present.

Forest:



Wasteland (Plains):



Desert:



Swamp:



Tundra:



Cheers,
Kevin.

Hey guys,

I just wanted to make a quick announcement, there won't be any updates for a couple weeks as I've run into an issue with the world map implementation that requires my full attention. To keep it short, it is just a time consuming thing I need to work through, it isn't a funding issue or anything like that. In addition to that, I have started implementing the "player character" into the game and there is a laundry list of things I need to test and overhaul to make it work. The next update will be the world map + player character and it probably won't be out until the end of next month. Once these huge features are in, I'll resume the weekly updates again.

Also thanks to everyone for the recent feedback on the forums, I have read through it all and will be looking into implementing some of those suggestions. I am still looking for more feedback on Build 5.2 which is currently on the experimental beta branch (perks system), so if you have some free time please consider diving into that.

Cheers,
Kevin.

Hey guys,

So today I just wanted to talk a bit more about the world and show you all what I've been working on this past month. As the title suggests, it's the overworld map. This is part of the core gameplay and as such it will take probably at least a year before I am finished implementing everything I want to get in. That said, I want to release the overworld map in smaller chunks. I'll probably release the first overworld map update sometime next month, this is surprisingly several months ahead of schedule.

So as you know, in the world of Dead Monarchy, there is something known as "The Great Mistake" and for better or worse it has plunged the world into chaos. It's obviously not the first time an RPG has come up with this setting and it won't be the last, but for me it's a tool I use to craft the world I want and more specifically, the gameplay around it.

There was no great demon invasion but rather, a series of "natural" disasters that has reverted what you could consider a feudal society into something a bit more primal. The lands are not as safe to travel so what settlements remain both serve as protection and a hole to die in.

One of the natural disasters was a great flood that has essentially fractured the continent into several smaller landmasses which then further isolated the surviving communities.

This then plays into how I want to implement the overworld map. I've been thinking about this for a while and I've decided to split the landmass up into smaller chunks with the player being able to travel between these maps. This is obviously better for performance but it also allows me to easily add in more maps to explore in the future and the smaller landmasses makes it easier to sculpt.

I don't know how many maps I'll do at this point, but the actual terrain itself is 2km x 2km, with the island taking up about 75% of the actual terrain and the rest of the terrain being water.



The first thing you might have noticed if you've been following previous updates is that I've dropped the 2D tileset. I ended up running into a lot of issues with it and it didn't help that a few games have already been released on Steam with that tileset too. Placing 3D models for locations on a 2D background also looked a bit off, so I bit the bullet and decided to go for fully 3D overworld maps.



The biggest challenge for the world map was figuring out how to implement time. Time is a crucial thing as it plays into the company management gameplay. What I've decided to go with is having time increment as the player moves as opposed to always ticking away. This gives me more flexibility for future events when I add them in as it basically allows me to check a whole bunch of things directly tied to the player.

The other thing I've started implementing are all the scripts for defining different shop types for the cities. IE merchants that sell swords, shafted weapons, bows and different armor types. Each city has 2 of these merchant types, a camp to hire new recruits, general marketplace for supplies and 1 active contract that the player can take.



The player base will lose some buildings, like the marketplace and camp (recruitment) but it still retains its purpose and will be elaborated again in the future.

Again it is early days, but currently each city only offers one contract at a time, Contracts come in three difficulty levels but it is based off the old difficulty system. So a level 1 contract has enemies that scale between difficulty 1-4. There are no dialogue events right now, but I have set it up to allow for dialogues in the future. Also, the contracts themselves are still just extermination missions.

All in all, going 3D and finding the best way to create these landmasses was a very steep learning curve but it was still enjoyable. As this is my first game, it has been both a journey and a learning process.



I've learnt that there is a fundamental difference between a solo developer and even a team of 2 or 3, the difference is night and day with the main culprit being that the entire game rests on your shoulders. It became blatantly obvious to me as these past few weeks have been quite hard on me following the death of a family member but it has also made it even more clear to me that before I leave this world too, I'd like to create a world of my own.

Cutting to the chase, development has not been affected in a negative way, I've been keeping busy as a way to cope with the stress. I do find it funny though, as a player I have read similar updates regarding a loved one's passing but it never really hits you as you finish reading and carry on with your life. Yet there isn't anything expected of you either and knowing that you have read this is enough for me, as writing this is a way of moving on for me too.

Anyway, to end this on a cheery note, thanks to all the recent feedback and support on the forums, it's funny how that one seemingly innocent message you write brightens up my day. It is also nice to see that the community is nearing 2k members.



Cheers,
Kevin.

Still spending the majority of my time working on the world map systems, but I have also found the time to start implementing the custom animations that I've been working on.

EDIT: I've just realized that I didn't update the build number, I'll be uploading a new build with the proper build number shortly.

- The "Head Attack" for swords now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Head Attack" for axes now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Head Attack" for maces now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Head Attack" for greatswords now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Head Attack" for warhammers now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Head Attack" for greataxes now has its own unique combat animation.

- The idle animation for the warhammer has been fixed, it is now looping properly.

I am currently spending the majority of my time on implementing the world map systems. There is a plethora of things that I need to tick off but progress is steady. That said, I am still aiming to upload weekly builds, albeit they will be smaller for the time being.

- The "Body Attack" for swords now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Body Attack" for axes now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Body Attack" for maces now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Body Attack" for greatswords now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Body Attack" for warhammers now has its own unique combat animation.

- The "Body Attack" for greataxes now has its own unique combat animation.

- The bug in the battle loot UI, where pressing "all" will take all items instead of showing all item types has been fixed. The "take all" button still remains at the bottom, previously pressing either of these buttons would transfer all loot which was not intended.

- The issue of having multiple portraits highlighted when swapping between specific menus like vault, arena and temple has been fixed. From now on the last portrait that was highlighted will be used when swapping between vault, arena and temple menus.

Build 5 continues to expand upon the newly implemented "perks system". In total, there are now just under 300 individual perks (including weapon abilities) which are derived from the 10 "perk type effects". Internally, I classify "perk type effects" as something that is unique from a coding perspective, IE a perk to gain +5 Strength and a perk to gain +5 Focus belong to the same perk type effect but they are still two individual perks that both cost one PP each to acquire. I just wanted to clarify this as I still have more plans for the perks system. For now however, I would like to just gather feedback on it and tweak things based on community feedback as opposed to adding more perks.

The perks system has also revamped character progression tying it closer to the perks system and each warrior now has the ability to bring up to two weapon sets into combat provided they have the correct perks. So yes, weapon swapping is in and it will no doubt give the player more options in combat.

Again this build is being uploaded to the experimental branch first, so I'd appreciate it if you guys played it and offered me some feedback. The main reason why I have opted to created two branches is to allow players to finish their older playthroughs before transitioning to the new perks system builds. In a couple weeks I will most likely be making these builds live.

Instructions to opt into the beta/experimental branch:

1. Within the Steam library list, right click 'Dead Monarchy", then select "Properties".
2. Towards the top of the window that pops up, click the "Betas" tab.
3. A dropdown menu list will then appear, select "experimental - Experimental branch".
4. The game should then automatically download and update to this build.
5. Once you have booted up the game, if you see "Build 4" in the main menu, then you are good to go.

- Added new combat idle animation for rapier.

- Added new combat idle animation for 2H greatsword.

- Added new combat idle animation for 2H warhammer.



- All melee abilities (unless not applicable) now have perks to allow for attacking on higher elevation.

- All melee abilities now have perks to reduce their Stamina/Focus use cost.

- All melee abilities (unless not applicable) now have perks to reduce their cooldown timers.

- All melee abilities (unless not applicable) now have perks to reduce their AP cost.

- There is now a set of perks that will increase the chance of gaining +1 for a specific stat on level up. There are 5 tiers, each tier adds +20%. So for example, +20% to gain +1 Strength, +40% to gain +1 Strength, +60% to gain +1 Strength, +80% to gain +1 Strength, +100% to gain +1 Strength. On a side note, not all perks will have tiers, some perks will be individual perks that have no other "upgraded versions".

- There is now a series of perks that can increase each primary stat in increments of +5 up to +25. These perks are found in the "Progression Perks" tab.

- There is now also a set of perks that will reduce the hit chance penalty that is applied when targeting the head. It is found in the "General Perks" tree. The highest tier perk is applied by default to all monsters/enemies.

- There are a series of "Reflection" perks, one for each primary stat. You gain half your combat level as a bonus to X primary stat. The changes are not retroactive, so it is important to decide when you want to take the perk. Waiting and taking this perk at a higher level does mean a bigger stat boost. These perks are found in the "Progression Perks" tree.

- Each character can now bring up to two sets of weapons into combat. For example Sword + Shield and Crossbow. When you swap weapons in combat, you do not receive the full bonus to primary stats that you would normally get if you equipped the weapon. For example you equip a Mace that gives +2 Stamina, you'll start combat with that bonus but if you swap to an Axe that gives +2 Resolve, your maximum Resolve will be increased by +2 but you will not gain the full amount. This is both a way to balance weapon swapping so that there is still a valid reason to just specialize in just one weapon but it is also necessary due to how the extra stat bonuses themselves are applied.



- A series of perks have been implemented for "weapon swapping". It is basically an ability that goes on your shortcut bar. By default, it costs 12 AP and you can eventually reduce it down to 0 AP.

- The implementation of all these new perks has resulted in a few abilities getting their cooldown timer, use cost and AP cost adjusted, this would be in the case of an ability that has yet to be improved by perks.

- Stat progression has been changed. At Veteran and Monarch difficulty, characters now only gain +1 in the two stats they are proficient in based on their backgrounds. At lower difficulties, characters gain +2 in their proficient stats. Characters no longer gain levels in stats that they are not proficient in. This then paves the way for stat boosting perks.

- Each warrior can now only acquire 6 active abilities from the perks tree.

- Attacking the "Head" with either Attack/Shoot Head or Break Helmet now has a -50% hit chance penalty. In other words, the bonus +50 that used to be added (hit chance formula) is now only added to attacks that target the body or weapon abilities. This only applies to basic attacks to the head, it does not affect abilities.

- "Fatigued" now applies when you have less than 5 Stamina (0-4) as opposed to 0 Stamina.

- All tiers of longbow weapons now only do +10 Break damage to Helmet/Armor values.

- Updated difficulty selection menu to reflect the changes to stat gains. Also increased the texture resolution of the choice buttons as they were starting to blur at larger resolutions.



- Fixed the issue of equipped weapon types not displaying properly in the "arena menu" and instead just showing up as "unarmed" despite having a weapon equipped.

- Due to the fact that I have added difficulty levels in now, you can now specify a specific amount within a stack to sell.

- Changed all references of the "claymore" weapon type to "greatsword".

- Changed all references of the "halberd" weapon type to "polearm".

- Changed all references of the "hatchet" weapon type to "axe".

- Changed all references of "rusty" weapons to "basic" weapons, as something like a "Rusty Longbow" doesn't really make sense.

- Added in a confirmation message when exiting the game with manual loading/saving enabled.

- Arena UI has been further updated. There is a UI element in the bottom left corner that displays all the perks acquired on the currently selected warrior, this should make it easy to keep track of what each warrior has. There are now also two UI elements that display the equipped weapons from both set 1 and set 2 since you can now swap between two weapon sets. Tweaked minor UI element positions.

- The camp, barracks and battle placement UI have been updated to support the additional slots for weapon swapping (second set). The UI boxes for barracks and battle placement have scroll bars, whereas the camp UI box is just a static box. "Empty" slots have been made more clearer as well.

- For players that toggle their battle camera off "V", there used to be an issue where when you come back into a battle after previously toggling the camera off you had to press "V" twice. The issue has to do with how the camera is tracked. So now, after every battle the camera is automatically toggled back on. So basically, you just have to press "V" once to toggle it back off, but the end result is smoother as previously the UI elements were not correctly displaying whether the camera was actually toggled on and off after coming back into a battle.

- The dismiss button in the barracks menu will now automatically be highlighted when the mouse hovers over it. This should give the player more "feedback" when interacting with the UI.

- A tooltip for the dismiss button (in the barracks menu) has been added, this should help clarify what the button does.

- Tooltips for "items" have been updated. They now show the icon and the amount of the specific item that you are hovering over. This is only for "items" specifically, so not weapons or armor etc.

- Added a tooltip description for when hovering over EXP or Experience Points in any related menu.

- Tooltips in general now scale to the size of the text box. This basically means that tooltips will conform to the size of the text and won't take up unnecessary space on the screen.

- New icons have been added to all weapon related perk trees. For example, there shouldn't be any more duplicate icons in the crossbow and longbow perk trees that were added in the previous build.

- All weapon abilities have "ability" added after the ability name to distinguish that it is an active ability when interacting with the perks tree. Any "passive perk" that directly augments abilities is labelled as a perk within the tooltip description. Instead of +1, +2, +3, +4 to denote a perk that augments an ability, the words "Improved, Refined, Advanced and Perfected" are used instead. For example, Snap Shot +1 is now Improved Snap Shot. In cases where there are a series of 5 related passive perks, the first perk in the chain is called "Flawed xxx".



- The initial loading sequence when first booting up the game has been shortened.

- You can now rotate the camera while you are in town. This is just a nice little touch that gives the town a bit more perspective, taking away the feeling that you are looking at a flat image.

- Updated the text size and font of UI drag icons (ie x5, x10) when dragging and dropping items in various menus.

- Adjusted existing combat idle animation for 2H greataxe.

- Most instances of "feet sliding around" during combat animations should have been fixed.

- Tweaked some of the lighting settings for the player town/base.

- "Suicidal Vampire Archers" bug, should be fixed now. Vampire Archers will now only use this ability if they have at least 26 Strength, if they have anything less the ability will fail and they will default to basic attack AI.

- A rare issue where the hit chance UI box doesn't show up when swapping between abilities over a target you are currently hovering the mouse over, has been fixed.

- The issue of being able to initiate certain unwanted actions with the "right mouse button" should have been fixed. For example, closing a menu screen with the right mouse button or selecting an ability then initiating the ability/attack on a target with the right mouse button.

Again, I'd like to thank everyone for your support and most importantly your patience. After over a month of no updates (I was low-key stressing about this actually) I feel like things are back to normal now and I should be able to upload weekly builds again. The plan is to let the perks system "simmer" for a bit, there is still a lot more I want to add to it but I will now be switching my focus to the WORLD MAP. That's right you read correctly, I hadn't planned on starting on the world map until next year but I'm in a good position now to begin work on it.

Overall, the map is somewhat inspired by Fallout 1/2, with the grid overlay and real-time map movement. The map is comprised of individual 2D tiles which will give me finer control over things like random events. The player model and buildings are all 3D models but the camera will be fixed. While the bulk of my attention will be on the world map, I will also be releasing smaller weekly builds mainly based on any feedback I get on the new perks.



So there is still a lot more to look forward to in the future, so perhaps tell a friend about it! As always, I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys have, especially reviews as they do wonders and help motivate me!

Cheers,
Kevin.

Hey guys,

So things may seem quiet on the forums and last week I missed my weekly update, but things haven't slowed down at all. I mentioned in the "Upcoming Builds" thread that Build 5 was delayed and so I'll elaborate a bit more on that in this post.

Basically Unity, the engine I am developing on has 3 tiers a developer can develop on, "Personal", "Plus" and "Pro". If you subscribe to "Pro" along with all the added benefits, after your 2 year commitment, you can elect a version of Unity released within your subscription period and that version you own, does not require further subscriptions, you also still retain your unlimited revenue cap. "Personal" and "Plus" still have revenue caps. There was a few other issues that made me hesitant to develop on the free version temporarily when my subscribed version expired and that was basically compatibility issues going forward when my license was sorted out and I make the switch back. So basically I lost a few days as I waited to get confirmation on the differences between the versions.

Until this gets sorted, I can't export any new builds to upload, however development will continue as usual. If my update schedule was more sporadic then this wouldn't really even be an issue but I prefer weekly builds. I am already in contact with a representative and hopefully it'll be sorted out in a week or two at the latest.

For the actual details on Build 5, you can visit the thread but I'll summarize the major points so far.

1. Basic perks that improve abilities for all melee weapons have been implemented. It is a series of perks that are available for all melee abilities.

2. A series of perks that increase the chance of you gaining +1 in a specific primary stat by +20%, +40%, +60%, +80%, +100%. You no longer gain any stat gains in stats that your background is not proficient in. In Veteran and Monarch difficulties you gain +1 in proficient stats, in easier difficulties you gain +2.

3. Similar to #2, a series of perks that increase a primary stat in increments of +5 up to +25. These two "perk type effects" will give the player more direct control over their stat progression.

Including abilities, Build 5 will have 275 individual "perks", at least so far at this time of writing. That seems like a lot, but this is where I'll clarify things. These perks are derived from "perk type effects" that I have internally identified. I didn't intentionally try to bloat the numbers either, I just made it this way because I wanted more specialization. IE instead of one perk that decreases AP cost across all abilities of a specific weapon type, I made 5 perks that decreased AP cost for each ability. Not all perks will have several variations of it either, some perks will just be standalone effects. All in all though, it would have been easier for me to just implement one perk that decreased the AP cost of all weapon type abilities, but I wasn't satisfied with it. This was extremely time consuming as everything I had to do, I had to do 4 times over again. That said, I think it was worth it.

All the perks so far can be sorted into these perk type effects:

1. A perk that increases the chance of gaining +1 in a primary stat.
2. A perk that increases a primary stat by X.
3. A perk that decreases the AP cost of a melee ability.
4. A perk that decreases the Use Cost of a melee ability, IE Stamina.
5. A perk that decreases the cooldown period of a melee ability.
6. A perk that increases the ability range of a ranged ability.
7. A perk that increases the Use Count of a ranged ability, IE x1, x5.

However, the biggest thing I am working on is "weapons switching". This by itself is a huge feature and one that I honestly didn't think would even make it in. It affects a lot of systems but so far, the results are good.

Essentially each warrior has slots for a primary weapon + shield then a secondary weapon + shield, 4 slots in total. Bigger weapons would occupy two slots, so you could go into battle with a greatsword and a greataxe, or longbow and a sword + shield. This then of course opens a whole new world of opportunities for combining abilities within a single warrior. The switching itself will be done with an active ability, so again the player makes a conscious decision to create a hybrid build at the expense of perk points, ability slots and specialization of a specific weapon type.

I haven't done much testing of the abilities themselves because as you know I'm just one developer. However, I am very excited to get this into your hands. That said, Build 5 will still only be uploaded to the "experimental branch" rather than the main live build branch.

On top of all of that, I want to start working on the world map by the start of next month. So the rest of this month will be dedicated to the perks system, it doesn't mean it is finished though, but there should be enough to experiment on and to gather feedback on. With the implementation of weapon switching, it opens up more incentives to mix things up as prior to this, you had limited decisions to make when spending perk points.

So if all goes well, by September I will start to focus on the world map, but I will still be paying attention to your feedback on the perks system. Going forward then, I will alternate between both the perks system and the world map.

That's about it for now. As always, thanks again for all the support from the community. It is nice to see that the community is still growing and thanks again to those that have left reviews!

Cheers,
Kevin.

- Cooldowns for abilities are now displayed properly in ability tooltips.

- The use limits/charges of ranged abilities now show up in tooltips prior to acquiring the ability from the perks tree as opposed to only appearing when you have acquired the ability.

- Active abilities are now marked properly as "Active Abilities" in ability tooltips when viewing them within the perks tree.

- The cooldown UI fix is now also applied to abilities that you view on the shortcut bar during combat. So cooldowns will now show up properly in tooltips.

- Perks that improve active abilities are now marked properly as "Passive Perks" in ability tooltips.

Each character can gain up to 50 perk points, between level 1-50. Each perk/ability will cost 1 perk point. Each character can only select up to 6 active abilities (not implemented yet). I also plan to introduce global perk points for extremely OP perks. This means you can only have a certain amount of characters with that OP perk.

In the future, EXP will be updated again to make it so that levels past 50 are extremely hard to get, overall levels will be adjusted too, IE monster and equipment requirements. The idea is that anything above 50 is "veteran/champion" levels.

Progression within the perk trees is both vertical and horizontal. All weapon abilities have been transferred over to the perk trees. Most of the work is centered around longbow and crossbow in this update. The abilities are sorted into a column with each ability requiring a minimum level requirement. So the further you progress down the tree, the higher the level requirements will be. Future perks will do more specific things but for now, only the most basic perks have been added to longbow/crossbow sections.



As you can see from the image above, the root abilities all start on the furthermost left side. When you progress horizontally, there is no level requirements. The only prerequisite is the perk that came before it. For now only two "perk effect types" have been added. Perks that increase ability range and use count/charges and this only applies to ranged abilities.



As you progress horizontally as shown in the image above, you will gradually improve the ability. In the case of crossbow/longbows you are increasing the amount of times you can use the ability and the range of that ability.

So for example, if you are using a longbow and you want to acquire the infamous "Snap Shot" ability, then you need to be at least level 20. When you first get it, it will have a range of 4 and you can only use it once. As you upgrade it, you can upgrade the range to 6 and acquire 5 uses. So that means if you really want to, you can burst DPS and use all x5 Snap Shot uses in one turn. To get to that point, you would need to have 5 perk points and to be at least level 20.

To obtain the power of ranged combatants prior to Build 4, you would basically have to expend 25 perk points. Of course the beauty of it, is you can pick and choose your abilities now. There will also be perks that do more interesting things, for now I am just doing the most basic ones.


- Two "perk effect types" have been introduced. Those two effect types total up to 50 perks if you include the base abilities that have been reworked into the perk tree itself. For now I will focus on the basic ones. The main goal of this build is to balance ranged combat and to transfer the "raw power" over into the perks tree.



- Swords now have a new combat idle animation.

- Maces now have a new combat idle animation.

- Hatchets now have a new combat idle animation.


- New parameter for Veteran and Monarch difficulties. On Veteran you still gain x2 EXP but bonus EXP is also rewarded to the warrior that lands the killing blow.

- Similar to Veteran, Monarch difficulty rewards EXP to the warrior that lands the killing blow but that is now the ONLY way to gain EXP. So a warrior that doesn't land the killing blow, won't get any EXP. (Highly experimental, Monarch is a difficulty setting used for measuring perks.)

- On Monarch difficultly, the Monarchs or "biome bosses" will have less restrictions. They can now spawn right away but still cannot spawn in level 1 missions or when a party has 3 or less warriors.

- Ranged weapon abilities no longer have cooldowns but have a limited amount of uses. The amount of uses for each ability can be upgraded in the perk tree. Ranged weapon abilities now have a base range of 4 tiles and can be increased through perks.


- "Loot all" button has been implemented into the battle loot UI as requested by the community.

- All weapon abilities have been transferred to the perk trees. Equipping a weapon now only gives you the basic attacks. (Attack Body/Head, Break Helmet/Armor.)


- Fixed the issue of not being able to rotate or individually end a warrior's turn when unarmed. Doesn't really change anything since in most cases you wouldn't be unarmed anyway, but another bug squashed nonetheless.


With Build 3.1 released, I feel the game has become quite stable now. There has been no reports of crashes and the major FPS issues have been fixed. So now, I will turn my attention towards working on the major features.

As mentioned, I will continue working on the perks system. I need to create basic perks for melee abilities. These basic perks would be different to ranged ability perks. No doubt things will become unbalanced again but as you know, I am more than willing to work with the community.

Aside from direct development on the game, I am still working with the freelance animator and modeler. Things are still progressing slowly with the freelance modeler, we are still in the concept phase for the weapon models. I have also been spending a little bit of time on putting together a few more armor sets. There is still a lot more work that needs to be done before these sets are "game ready" but I thought I'd drop a teaser.



The community has nearly hit 1.5k members, so thanks again to everyone for their continued support! It would mean a lot if you guys could leave a review as it really does help motivate me. ːsteamhappyː

Cheers,
Kevin.