Greetings, warriors!

We've been collecting your feedback closely, trying to address the most persisting issues in the game. Let's see what this update has in store for everyone. We will preface it with a couple short announcements though:



We are sorry about that, the bug was introduced with the battle gear targeting change and only affected this particular Digger battle gear, it's fixed now and you can continue leading Grayback's clansmen to freedom!



As improving multiplayer experience be that PvAI or PvP is our main priority, we're bringing more exciting news.

Countless hours of patience and persistence have paid off - we've been hunting down the triggers for sync errors crawling inside the game, and we did eliminate several of them, which, according to our statistics, were at fault for most part of the desyncs.

Not all of them have been found yet, so we're still working on that, however you should be able to have smooth games in MP with your friends. We've tested all of that a lot under different circumstances and scenarios, and it's looking pretty good! Now... let's talk about how you can help us help you:


Having realized that the wretched desyncs are not as easy to fix as we had thought them to be, we had to bring countermeasures, and our go-to was NETLOGGING.

Netlogging is a feature in Battle Realms: Zen Edition that will log any multiplayer sessions in detail into a file. These files (logs) are stored in a dedicated folder called NetLogs.

When a synchronization error happens and players drop each other, the logs will vary and that will allow us to spot the differences between P1, P2, P3 etc. that triggered a desync. That's where we need your help!

If you experience a sync error with a player you know, you (and that player) need to grab the latest log file and send it to us so we could compare them. Let's go through the reporting process step by step:


You and your friends ran into a sync error, what to do?

• Step 1 - Try to remember what led to the sync error. Bonus points if you got a video prior to the desync ("Instant Replay" from NVIDIA GEFORCE EXPERIENCE or AMD ADRENALINE). We will need that information along with your netlog file.
  
  
• Step 2 - Navigate to your BR folder and find another folder called NetLogs
  
  
  
• Step 3 - Grab the Netlog that matches the date and time of your last game. Make sure the person you desynced with does the same.
  
  
• Step 4 - Send the Netlogs from players who dropped each other along with the description of the events that led to the drop to:
  
  
  • [PREFERRED]To the dedicated Discord channel on our server.
    
  • Our official support mail - longlivebr@gmail.com
  
  
  
• Step 5 - Receive our heartfelt thanks and feel proud because you've just provided some essential help to the developers.

This is not necessary, but if you want to help speed up the process of fixing the sync errors, please, do follow the guide above. Also remember- the Netlogs don't get deleted so you will have to do that manually if you need to preserve disk space.

With all that out of the way, let's go through the actual changelog!

1.57.2 Changelog:

• Version updated to 1.57.2.
  
• Fixed a number of bad sync values that triggered desyncs in Multiplayer.
  
• Fixed all FOV bugs (a.k.a black squares) in all game types.

• Fixed a bug that prevented Diggers from using their Digging Battle Gear in Grayback's Journey.
  
• Fixed a bug that made some units untargettable in Journeys.
  
• Restored rice/water shifting fix (had been previously removed for stability).
  
• Restored unengageable duration on units (it had previously made horses nearly unmountable when in combat).
  
• Wolf Ballistaman & Serpent Cannoneer won't lose their main behavior orders when reloading (such as Stand Ground or Passiveness).
  
• Improved the fix that prevents missile units from shooting while being engaged in melee (sometimes it didn't work).
  
• Fixed an issue with units not retaliating when engaged in melee while doing something else (building, constructing, attacking).
  
• Fixed an issue with peasants when their forced commands not being able to be cancelled (construct on fire, repair while being attacked melee, etc..).
  
• Units won't reset their attack animations when they stun the target (spearman, sledgers, etc.).
  
• Fixed an issue with stun not working properly on bots.
  
  
• [UnitAI] Run order will no longer make pack wolves retreat.
  
• [UnitAI] Instead, if any wolf unit with pack wolves issues the Guard order, their wolves will retreat to them.

• Granted Nightvol a new innate ability:
  

  Lord of the Horde: if Nightvol is under attack, hordelings will arise to aid him.

• Nightvol is now immune to Glass Sword of Serpent Swordsman.

• AI will no longer send Ronin to Necromancer's Throne if Necromancer is already summoned.
  
• AI will now reassign units when its warparty is severely reduced (no more war parties of 2/3 units or geishas only). AI will also retreat if it senses danger.
  
• AI will now water rice in a wiser way.
  
• AI will now consider non-AI allies' rice fields when relocating/expanding.
  
• AI will now try to build wells near rice fields whenever possible.
  
• AI will now order Necromancer and healers to utilize 'Passiveness' when engaging in fights.

That's it for now! We had to delay the fixes for the high-poly Wolf Brawler/Berserker/Packmaster until the next big update, however some progress has certainly been made!



We will also leave some room for speculation regarding this particular screenshot... Any ideas what we're planning deep in our development cave? :)

Community & Discord:

Discord has proven to be a very helpful and fun program to use for us, so we're quite keen on maintaining it and have it as a bridge between us and the community. It's already populated by more than 3000 members!

If you're having issues, planning to report a bug or just want to learn something new about the game and communicate with others - we'd like to see you there, come around!

Miscellaneous info:

• Report any issues you experience in this topic.
  
  
• Complete Battle Realms Info Guide.
  
  
• Battle Realms on Facebook.
  
  
• Battle Realms on Reddit.
  
  
• Battle Realms Wiki

Stay tuned for more updates!

- The Battle Realms Team

Greetings, warriors!

Alas, getting rid of synchronization errors has proven to be even more difficult than getting rid of the Horde, we've underestimated our enemy one too many times. Fret not! We will be singling out every desync trigger left in the game.

Thank you for your support and feedback as always! Reading all the comments to Update 1.57 was a blast.

Update 1.57.1 is coming through with more fixes and improvements.

1.57.1 Changelog:

• Version updated to 1.57.1.
  
• Internal tweaks regarding Multiplayer stability.
  
• Minor lobby improvements.
  
• Synchronization errors (desyncs / player drops) will now play a sound and show a proper message .when they happen (we sincerely hope you won't get to see it often).
  
• Game speed limitation for Steam Multiplayer lobbies has been reverted.
  
• Lobby description will now change if user changes it in the lobby settings. This will be seen by everyone in the Steam Multiplayer lobby.
  
• Speed for multiplayer lobbies has been improved.
  
• Chat in the multiplayer lobby settings has been fixed: now it's also colored and you can send messages that would be seen by everyone in your lobby.
  
• Changing global settings (Main Menu -> Options) will be saved to current player's profile (such as in-game hotkeys).
  
• In-game hotkeys will no longer reset when updating/verifying the game through Steam.

• Increased difficulty for campaigns as AI there behaved in quite a bizarre way. It is almost the same as the one you encounter in Skirmish.
  
• Clan selection dropdown menu will no longer show the selected clan when picking "Random" in Multiplayer.
  
• In-game stun has been fixed (units will no longer run around stunned targets, engaging them instantly instead). Attackers will no longer disengage when stunned units are ordered to move/attack.
  
• Serpent Cannoneer smoke bomb (machinegunning) abuse has been finally fixed, Cannoneers finally shoot smoke bombs as they should- with a proper reload! Wolf Ballistaman Totem... We're coming for you next!
  
• Dragon Samurai Seppuku will no longer give any Yang points if no units are affected.
  
• Yin/yang multipliers regarding damage dealt are now fixed (no more 3 Yang points for Samurai Seppuku).
  
• Fixed the inability to gain any Yin/Yang in some in-game situations (thanks to user Blankname for providing a crucial report and a save file).
  
  
• [UnitAI] Healers and Necromancer will no longer respond aggressively to enemy attacks.
  
• [UnitAI] When putting out fires, Peasants will now take into consideration the nearest water source from the burning building instead of themselves.
  
• Destroyable battle gears can no longer be thrown on impassable terrain or buildings.
  
  
• [AI]: AI controlled units will now destroy enemy magic objects (Ballistaman's Totem, Unclean One's Sentry, Ronin's Cursed Swords etc.)
  
• [AI]: AI controlled units won't retaliate if a peasant was killed far away from his main base.
  
• [AI]: Necromancer pathing fix (no more walking/reposition loop).

More notes:

One change made in the Update 1.57 wasn't listed in the changelog, so we're listing it now.



The "Cinematic Level Of Detail (LOD)" with high poly models was once again moved, this time from 'Very High' to 'High' for a couple of reasons:

• Main reason is it being on 'Very High' removed some of the minor VisualFX for the (previous) vanilla 'Very High' setting, such as Serpent Cannonner's flag shimmering with blue or Kabuki Sword shimmering with pink.
  
• We didn't want to force the cinematic LoD on most users due to not yet fixed and overall inferior looking high poly wolf models.

High Poly Wolf models will be fixed in the next update, we can't exactly say to what degree as we're limited in our capabilities for now, but they'll look better and will have distinct Shale Armor. We'll talk about that one in one of the upcoming announcements, so keep an eye out for it!

Community & Discord:

Discord has proven to be a very helpful and fun program to use for us, so we're quite keen on maintaining it and have it as a bridge between us and the community. It's already populated by more than 3000 members!

If you're having issues, planning to report a bug or just want to learn something new about the game and communicate with others - we'd like to see you there, come around!

Miscellaneous info:

• Report any issues you experience in this topic.
  
  
• Complete Battle Realms Info Guide.
  
  
• Battle Realms on Facebook.
  
  
• Battle Realms on Reddit.
  
  
• Battle Realms Wiki

Stay tuned for more updates!

- The Battle Realms Team

Greetings everyone,

As of now, Steam is undergoing some sort of maintenance (which is weird as they normally hold it every Tuesday), which is obviously causing issues for the Multiplayer part of our game.



If you're constantly stuck with "Waiting for OK from host" popup, see an extremely low amount of lobbies or didn't see your friends' lobbies - Steam is at fault here.

We're monitoring the SteamSDK documentation and have already seen quick edits done to it:

Up to 50 results may be returned, but usually it's no more than a couple. The results are returned ordered by geographical distance and based on any near filters set. By default, we will not return lobbies that are already full, and the distance filter is set to k_ELobbyDistanceFilterDefault (nearby). To add filters, before you call RequestLobbyList you need to call one or more of the filtering functions.

There can only be one active lobby search at a time. The old request will be canceled if a new one is started. Depending on the users connection to the Steam back-end, this call can take from 300ms to 5 seconds to complete, and has a timeout of 20 seconds.

Basically they're trying to change the way Steam handles all lobbies. We'll fix and adjust anything as soon as Valve/Steam settle down with their changes.



Remember- even though the game uses P2P, it still depends on Steam as it's directly responsible for all the networking. So if Steam has issues, the lobbies will act unpredictably as well.

• Forced max game speed for Steam Multiplayer games.
  
• Disabled password input in game settings.
  
• Removed unnecessary popups that could occur when joining a lobby in Steam Multiplayer.

Greetings warriors! Starting the month (and the year) on a great note!

[...In order to skip storytime and get straight to the changelog, scroll right past the third picture...]

We're quite late on this, but... Happy New Year! We haven't come empty-handed however, we've come bearing gifts! Thank you for your patience, feedback and continuous support.

These have been trying times for everyone, and our team was no exception. We hit one too many walls over the course of development, desperately trying to fix the persisting issues and bring a better version of BR to everyone. We were brainstorming solutions, looking for the most effective ways to deal with a new update, but every time we tried to follow up on what seemed to be the right thing to do, one thing or another just didn't want to budge, ultimately resulting in us starting over and over again.



We even went so far as recovering the original BR code from the 00s, but we were unable to make it work with Steam as it is as ancient as the Dragon itself, thus refusing to compile under Steam's conditions. We were torn between two options: continuing to work on the current SteamBR code that was hated by probably everyone on the team or we could try looking for ways to use the original code and lay the groundwork for Zen Edition that way.

It was rightfully frustrating, but we were hell-bent on this particular goal of making things work one way or another, and we definitely weren't going to give up. It wasn't until one fateful night that our lead programmer (Nicolas- truly the limelight of this announcement. Please, show him some support!) was able to make a breakthrough by finding a proper way to compile the original code while maintaining the good parts from the SteamBR code.



This has been a literal game changer that allowed us to considerably stabilize the game and bring you what is probably the best version of Battle Realms there is.



Ladies and gentlemen, after continuous struggles, ups and downs, highs and lows, we're rolling out a massive update in hopes that it was worth the wait. Now, let's get down to details, shall we?



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• Drastically reduced the amount of Sync Errors in Multiplayer.
  
  
• Fixed flickering in Journey cinematics.
  
  
• Fixed the "Black Squares" bug related to the field of view. Normally you'd see black squares (unrendered terrain when changing FoV with mouse wheel).
  
  
• Fixed various UI bugs.
  
  
• Fixed chat messages (sometimes a certain combination of characters would crash the game, the famous "%a" as an example).
  
  
• Fixed the "Invisible Rendering" bug that occurred due to Wolf Pitch Slinger's attacks.
  
  
• Fixed random crashes when playing.
  
  
• Fixed crashes that occurred if the game had been minimized for too long.

• Peasants should not force repair/construct a building on fire.

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• Multiplayer stabilization: improved speed and performance for games with more than 2 players. That means you can close this changelog right now and flood the Steam Multiplayer to have some delightful games with other players or with our improved AI. :)
  
  
• By popular request, we restored the original camera zoom, but added extended rotation over new FoV: you will experience game's original zoom but adapted to new FoV, so evaluating terrain height will no longer be an issue. We hope this hybrid zoom will suit everyone.

We've introduced a couple Unit AI features that improve the default behavior patterns of certain units.

• Unit AI: Melee units now engage in combat in a wiser way: originally they rushed all-in to the weakest enemies they could find, now they will keep their priorities while preferring unengaged units as well.
  
  So, by default, units will essentially try to engage as many troops as they can, instead of just ganging on the weakest units.
  
  
• Unit AI: Healers will now walk on the battlefield aiding those in need. Normal walking if everything's OK and running if a unit is dying.
  
  
• Unit AI: Melee units with secondary weapons (Dragon Warrior, Kabuki Warrior, Samurai & Bandit) will prioritize their melee weapon over their secondary (missile) one.

Since we'd like to believe the Multiplayer is actually working this time, and after observing the community and seeing how many players just enjoy spending time in some AI (bot) rumbles, we might've changed some AI related things, hopefully for the better. Here they are:

• Reworked AI profiles and added a bunch more for the overall diversity.
  
  
• AI will now take profile parameters into consideration, if the Intelligence parameter is over 65, AI will be able to recover from blindness (Serpent Cannoneer's Smoke BG / Serpent Watchtower's Blinding Flash, etc..)
  
  
• Bots will now learn techniques in a much more efficient way instead of hoarding points for stronger upgrades and heroes.
  
  
• Bot controlled Necromancer now will focus on summoning Spirit Warriors and seeking unit corpses to revive zombies (beware!).
  
  
• Bot controlled units will destroy any magic objects that deal damage to their troops.
  
  
• Bot controlled healers now run to safety if threatened.
  
  
• Bot controlled healers are less likely to disband from war parties.
  
  
• Bot controlled healers will now run away if directly attacked (instead of running to enemy).
  
  
• Bot controlled Tao will use his BattleGear not only if many enemies engage him but also if he engages someone stronger than him.
  
  
• Bot controlled Issyl will use his BattleGear when engaging in combat rather than for movement purposes.
  
  
• Bot controlled Leaf Disciple won't use his BattleGear when in combat, he will use it for scouting and exploration.

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• In order to ensure maximum in-game stability, we had to revert some features that were on our suspect list: zoom-in and zoom-out feature (merged into hybrid zoom instead), quick unit response and the generation speed limitation for peasant huts we introduced earlier (it is, again, unlimited for the time being).

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This time it's a pretty big one! Here's a fun fact: Liquid Entertainment had many unused levels in their archives. We're bringing a part of them to you - have fun with whole 29 maps! More to come in the future updates. :)

• Checkmate (2).sam
  
• Deadlands (2).sam
  
• Death In The Mud (2).sam
  
• Duel at Dawn (2).sam
  
• Mountain Springs (2).sam
  
• Rolling Ridge (2).sam
  
• Serpent Island (2).sam
  
• Siren's Maw (2).sam
  
• The Dead Zone (2).sam
  
• The Pass (2).sam
  
• White Cliffs (2).sam

• Field of Abundance (3).sam
  
• Inspiration Point (3).sam
  
• Tatami (3).sam
  
• Zymeth Gorge(3).sam

• After the Deluge (4).sam
  
• Arborlake Ruins (4).sam
  
• Flathill Forest (4).sam
  
• Muckwater Bog (4).sam
  
• Peering Down (4).sam
  
• Quagmire (4).sam
  
• Rivercourse (4).sam
  
• Watering Hole (4).sam

• Exotic Sunset(5).sam
  
• Paranoia (5).sam

• Secluded Canyon (6).sam

• Old Hermit's Wetlands (8).sam
  
• Spider's Pile (8).sam
  
• Warlord's Camp(8).sam

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More to come! It's been a lot of hard work, we're immensely proud to release this. We sincerely hope you'll be able to have as much fun with this update as we had testing it.

Don't forget to tell your family and friends how cool this update is, share with everyone you know as well! That would help us a ton, for now we're inviting you to share your thoughts down in the comments.

• Report any issues you experience in this topic.
  
  
• Our BR Discord Server.
  
  
• Complete Battle Realms Info Guide.
  
  
• Battle Realms on Facebook.
  
  
• Battle Realms on Reddit.
  
  
• Battle Realms Wiki

Stay tuned for more updates!

- The Battle Realms Team

We've been hard at work regarding the updates, the development of 'Zen Edition' is ongoing and we will be making sure the game is going to shine once again.

Today we're asking for a small favor. We would be honored if you nominated the game for the 'Labor Of Love' award in this year's 'Steam Awards' contest.

Battle Realms is a game with quite a backstory... The original (legacy version of Battle Realms, released in 2001, and its addon- Winter of the Wolf, released in 2002) title had 3 big studios involved into its creation. Being Liquid Entertainment's debut project, It had a lot of soul put into it, there was a vision of showing a 'different' Real Time Strategy, with something truly unique and innovative.

Perhaps it wasn't the right time, after the release its initial popularity quickly dwindled away. But it left everlasting impressions on those who had a chance to play it.

The game is still warmly remembered to this day by many, and that is the reason why we're here yet once again, 19 years later.



We are not those 3 big studios, not even 1, but we truly love this game and its universe, and we always looked into opportunities for it to make a return. We're here because Ed Del Castillo never gave up on his IP despite all the unfortunate events that he and his former teams had to face, we're here because there's a new capable team. We hope that our combined effort has proven that to you. Developing 'Zen Edition' is us paying tribute to all the amazing minds that originally worked on this title.

Here's a little blast from the past if you're curious on how it all originally started:

And a little something that dives deep into the core mechanics of Battle Realms:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1025600/announcements/detail/1703986621070754058

Our journey has only just begun, stick around for more of that Battle Realms goodness. :)

If you agree that this game, and our team, deserves this award, please, leave your vote and help us spread the word on social media.

Thank you for your attention!

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• Battle Realms Online Guide.
  
  
• Battle Realms on Facebook.
  
  
• Battle Realms on Reddit.
  
  
• Battle Realms Wiki

Stay tuned for more updates!

- The Battle Realms Team

• Improved lobby joining in Multiplayer, now players are much less likely to 'get stuck' and bug a lobby, and the joining process is generally faster.
  
  
• Overall Game Speed in Multiplayer has been improved.
  
  
• Targeting Magic Objects (such as Lotus' Unclean One's Death Sentry or Wolf Ballistaman's Totem) over other interactable objects such as rice/water has become significantly easier.
  
  
• Boulder SHIFT-pushing exploit fix has been improved. Queuing multiple times to push a boulder now will make a unit stop if the boulder is already rolling.

Happy Halloween, everybody! 🎃

- The Battle Realms Team

• Reduced input delay, thus increasing unit responsiveness.
  
  
• Reduced visual movement delay on the minimap.
  
  
• The stats screen is going to appear right after the game ends.
  
  
• Fixed a bug that rendered peasants unable to gather any tamed horses if the stables were not built.
  
  
• The queue key (SHIFT) no longer has any effect on pushing boulders.

• Fixed a bug that caused peasants to go idle after the stables were built even if the queue order to catch horses had been issued.
  
  
• Fixed a slot issue that caused player names to appear blank when they were joining.
  
  
• Restored units' responsiveness to its default values to double-check its relation to synchronization errors.

We've released a small update to address some of the issues brought with Update 1.56. The work is ongoing, so await more. ːlunar2020halodragonː

• Introduced a limitation that prevents users from joining already started games in the lobby. They will still show up so you can see how many people (and who) are playing.
  
  
• Fixed a UI bug that caused the player list in any lobby to display wrong information about players. Now it correctly shows data in real time.
  
  
• Fixed a bug that defaulted all lobby joiners into "New Player" and "Unnamed".
  
  
• Improved overall performance in Multiplayer.
  
  
• When the host leaves the lobby (and match hasn't started yet) everyone will be kicked showing a popup "The host has left the lobby".
  
  
• Monk's mask texture was fixed, they will no longer lose their texture and turn white.
  
  
• AI chooses better units to put on watchtowers.

Let us know what you think!

- The Battle Realms Team