Jan 14, 2023

Battle Realms: Zen Edition - KoMiKoZa At Work

Greetings, Warriors!

Hope you've all had a good start of the year. We certainly have, as we are at a loss for words having looked at the statistics and reception for BR: ZE after the 1.58 update release.

For a niche strategy game that Battle Realms is nowadays, these numbers are impressive. We were able to beat the peak count of concurrent players from 3 years ago, when BR: ZE first released. It is certainly a small victory for us, that we couldn't have possibly achieved without your support, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for playing Battle Realms after all these years.

Of course, not everything went smoothly but we are already working on it. Please, remember that Battle Realms: Zen Edition is not a finished product, but an everchanging product in Early Access. This is just a note from us as the developers, we try to not let that happen to the best of our abilities, but things may break, and things will break. :)

Highlights:

• Campaign Troubles, Siege & Relentless AI

As many have noted, something unpleasant happened to the campaign. It is a fusion of things. To sum it up, the campaign functionality drastically changed with our additions:

- AI started bypassing previously set limitations in general.

- Nightvol AI, who is your opponent if you play the campaign on 'Hard' decided to be extra frisky.

- Changing difficulty from Hard to Normal or Easy didn't help.

- Siege, as a cherry on top, added a heap of tediousness to some of the campaign missions.

Mainly this happened due to some of the "last minute changes" that we desperately wanted to push into 1.58, as a result we haven't had enough time to test everything. Most of these things have already been addressed by the hotfixes, and this update will add a bit more to that. So, what you should see now in 1.58.1 is:

- Most of the original campaign functionality is brought back with its limitations intact.

- "Hard" difficulty of the campaign will be more forgiving.

- Changing difficulty to Normal or Easy works as it's meant to be.

- Necromancer's Spirit Warriors, Kenji and Otomo are Siege units to aid with the initial missions of Kenji's Journey. Siege overall is a tad more forgiving for non-siege units.

• Lotus Brothers, Heroes & Double-Click / Ctrl-Click

You can now select all heroes on the screen by double-clicking or ctrl-clicking on any hero! The same applies to Lotus Brothers.

• Siege & Non- Siege Tooltips

We have moved the "Siege" text straight to units' names in smart tooltips. Additionally, "Non-Siege" will also show there.

• Cannoneer Mines' Proper Functionality

Some of you might've noticed that since the legacy game, Serpent Cannoneer's Mines activated way earlier than they should.

This is because activation range of the mine was tied to its damage radius, meaning units that aren't even stepping on a mine may activate it from a distance.

We untied the mine activation and damage radius. Now units have to be almost stepping on the mine to activate it, however the damage radius will still be in-tact.

• Kenji II Becomes a Damage Dealer

For some reason, Second Form of Kenji (first time acquiring a gun) dealt incredibly small damage to just about anything. That is on top of having already weaker AM than the first form. We fixed all of that.

Technical & Gameplay:

Updated Skirmish [ZE] Maps (minor changes and lighting).
Fixed Kenji 2 and 3 Dragon and Serpent portrait variations (Dark Red portrait for "Evil Kenji", Light Yellow for "Good Kenji")
Fixed Lotus Channeler "Unit Selected/Ready Up" animation that never played since 2001 unless she had ravens with her.
Fixed a bug that prevented units from properly cycling their idle animations if a save game had been loaded. Previously they would loop the last animation they had used.
Fixed a bug that prevented missile units from properly cycling their animations after missile attacks. Previously they would loop the last animation they had used. You would often see a small stutter in the animations which meant the animation was prevented from being played. This prevented many units from properly utilizing their innate abilities (i.e., Chemist's Healing Herbs, Kabuki's Orb Juggling, Powder Keg's Salting the Ground).
Secondary projectiles emitted from primary projectiles (i.e. Pitch Slinger) will no longer take unit's base weapon damage and instead read their dedicated weapon entry.
Added 1280x800 resolution.
Restored most of campaign levels' former functionality.
Fixed certain battle gears applying damage multiple times to mounted units and horses.
Fixed wrong AI usage of Lotus Warlock's Stamina Siphon usage.
Fixed a visual bug that would have BGs shown as active whenever a unit with an active BG (like Sniper Scope) entered a WT and then exited.
Fixed a bug that had units occasionally stuck when trying to mount a horse in narrow spaces or map edges.
Zymeth will now cast lightning strikes on nearby enemies when activating his Battle Gear.
Fixed some buildings and other structures showing wrong VFX when they get destroyed.
UnitAI will exclude peasants from being prioritized over military units, this won't apply to easy AI profiles.
Improved player reveal algorithm: it will no longer reveal players under specific scenarios like in some of the campaign levels.
Units will now properly calculate range/direction when casting spells, they will also follow their targets if they reposition. For example, previously Lotus Brothers would proceed to cast their Dark Blessing even if their targets got out of range, they would also proceed to cast the spell while misplaced or facing wrong direction. This should work correctly now.
Fixed a bug that caused horse to rear up from damage sources that didn't actually affect them i.e., being shot while protected by Dark Canopy.
Fixed force repair cursor on neutral buildings not going opaque when it should.
Fixed UI showing some BGs as active when they weren't.
All Heroes and Lotus Brothers will be considered to be from the same "unit category" meaning double-clicking or ctrl-clicking on one hero will select all heroes.
Lotus Brothers' speed won't be considered in pathing groups therefore the overall group speed will not equalize to their speed when moving.
Game will no longer consider wild animals as allies/enemies on double-clicking or ctrl-clicking.
Added additional text to unit tooltips next to units' name, indicating whether a unit is siege or not.
Added a warning popup when setting or having already set the game difficulty to Hard.

Balance:

Siege Changes

- Non-Siege multiplier will be 0,33 instead of 0,25 (non-siege units will deal 1/3 (33%) of their base damage to buildings instead of 1/4 (25%)).

- Reduced hitpoints for WOTW Shale and Landslide buildings to make it less tedious initially.

- Added missing Siege value on kenji's Critical Strike weapon.
- - Fixe wrongly set weapon impact for his default and critical strike weapons.

Due to secondary projectiles emission fixes, Pitch Slinger and Chemist's Starburst BG needed rebalancing:

• Wolf Pitch Slinger Missile Attacks

- Pitch Slinger base projectile damage decreased.
- Pitch Slinger base projectile Firepoint value decreased.
- Pitch Slinger base projectile ProjectileEmittedInFlightRate increased.

- Pitch Slinger secondary projectile damage increased.
- Pitch Slinger secondary projectile Firepoint value decreased.
- Pitch Slinger secondary projectile siege decreased.

- Secondary projectile damage class changed from fire to explosive.
- Secondary projectile VFX changed from base pitch attack effect to additional fire effect.

• Dragon Chemist Starburst:

The Starburst Rocket explodes into 3 smaller rockets that are supposed to cover wider range. Due to how it had been previously implemented, it was near-impossible to see that, it looked like 1 rocket dealing huge damage.

Note: if the rocket impacts a building, all 4 rockets will immediately explode in it without flying off. The same applies to units.

- Remade the functionality so the smaller rockets can actually be seen now.
- Main rocket and cluster rockets damage, firepoint value and area of effect increased.
- Changed main rocket impact sound.
- Added main rocket trail VFX to cluster rockets.

- Starburst will be 1 charge only

General Unit Balancing

- Second form Kenji (first time acquiring a gun) damage increased.
- Second form Kenji Cutting AM decreased (takes less damage from cutting attacks).
- Second form Kenji Blunt AM decreased (takes less damage from blunt attacks).

- Third form Kenji Cutting AM decreased (takes less damage from cutting attacks).
- Third form Kenji Blunt AM decreased (takes less damage from blunt attacks).

- Dragon Spearman damage reduced.
- Dragon Spearman hit points reduced.
- [Dragon Archer] Fire Arrows will no longer require stamina. 15 charges instead.
- [Dragon Archer & Samurai] Zen Accuracy technique damage boost decreased.

- Serpent Bandit Looting will give 30 rice and 15 water instead of 50 rice and 25 water.

- Serpent Cannoneer's hit points reduced.
- Serpent Cannoneer's Cutting AM increased (takes more damage from cutting attacks).
- Serpent Cannoneer's missile damage reduced.
- Serpent Cannoneer's melee damage reduced
- [Serpent Cannoneer] Cannonball bounce dampening decreased
- [Serpent Cannoneer] Smoke Bombs charges decreased from 4 to 2.
- [Serpent Cannoneer] Mines damage increased.

- Serpent Swordsman damage increased.

- [Serpent Musketeer] Sniper Scope activation stamina cost decreased.
- Serpent Musketeer Blunt AM decreased (takes less damage from blunt attacks).

- Serpent Fan Geisha Fire AM increased (takes more damage from fire attacks).
- Serpent Fan Geisha Explosive AM increased (takes more damage from explosive attacks).
- Serpent Fan Geisha Magic AM increased (takes more damage from magic attacks).
- Serpent Fan Geisha movement speed increased.
- Serpent Fan Geisha will spend less stamina when running.
- [Serpent Fan Geisha] Pressure Points technique damage boost decreased.
- [Serpent Fan Geisha] Flexibility technique health boost decreased.

- Serpent Witch melee and missile damage class changed from Explosive to Magic.

- Wolf Brawler damage decreased.
- Wolf Ballistaman hit points decreased.
- Wolf Ballistaman Cutting AM increased (takes more damage from cutting attacks).
- Wolf Ballistaman Fire AM decreased (takes less damage from fire attacks).

- Werewolf Explosive AM increased (more damage received from explosive attacks).
- Werewolf Magic AM increased (more damage received from magic attacks).

- Wolf Hurler missile damage increased.
- Longtooth missile damage and BG damage increased.

- Mauler base damage reduced.
- Mauler's Miners Union technique is back to 1 Yang and increased damage boost. No siege bonuses.
- [Mauler] Wrecking Ball stamina drain rate increased.
- - Mauler will not be siege by default, but he can gain Siege capabilities with Wrecking Ball BG.

- Staff Adept hitpoints decreased.
- Staff Adept base damage decreased.

- Lotus Brothers movement speed increased.

- Master Warlock Soul Thresher becomes Siege.

- [Leaf Disciple] Leafbite technique damage boost reduced.

Final Words:

This would conclude the update 1.58.1. We haven't forgotten about certain resolution issues that came with the update 1.58, this is still being worked on, please, stay tuned.

In the meantime, we are thinking of creating either a large F.A.Q. or a Q&A Announcement. Please, ask your questions in the comments below and we will try to answer them there.

Thank you for your continuous support and interest in Battle Realms: Zen Edition, and the Battle Realms universe as a whole!

Join the official server for the game, the universe, and the community if you haven't. Discord has proven to be a very helpful and fun program to use for us (as developers), so we're quite keen on maintaining our server.

Populated by more than 4000 warriors, it is a solid communication bridge between us and all of you.
If you're having issues, planning to report a bug, or just want to learn something new about the game and communicate with other fans or even developers -- we'd like to see you there, come around!

Battle Realms Fundraiser:

{LINK REMOVED}.

Follow Battle Realms:

Stay tuned for more updates!

- The Battle Realms Team

Dec 15, 2022

Update 1.58 - The New Era Begins!

Battle Realms: Zen Edition - KoMiKoZa At Work

Welcome back, Warriors!

It sure has been a while., almost a full year since the latest update that was the Open Beta 1.57.9 launch in fact. It's been too long, and probably should have been better communicated with all of you, we apologize for that.

That being said, we're hoping to make up for what we lack in public relations with something absolutely amazing, which culminates with the release of the update 1.58, our Magnum Opus that is finally able to see the light of day.

This is where all the stars align, and a decisive turning point for the BR: ZE development is reached. With the update 1.58, the game receives a massive overhaul on every front.

This is going to be a big one, it's a year of almost non-stop work we are about to break down to you, so get comfortable, grab a drink, some snacks, and prepare for the good stuff.

• Updated Codebase | D3D Upgrade | Visual Updates

Codebase has been updated to modern standards. It has been cleaned, improved and overall provides better performance across the game.
D3D7 has been upgraded to D3D9, which eliminates most of the graphical issues you might have experienced before, most notably the glitchy mini- map, shadow bugs and other visual artifacts.
Proper support for AMD GPUs has been implemented. AMD videocard users will no longer experience any abnormal stutters or FPS issues simply caused by the game's dislike for AMD (most notably - extreme fps drops with buildings on fire).
All textures across the game have been updated with the help of neural upscaling technology with some of the additional fixes from our artists.
Support for a number of resolutions has been added, including 2K and 4K (alas, the UI remains stretched on any aspect ratio that isn't 4:3 or 5:4 as updating the game's UI in particular proves to be very difficult).

Newly added resolutions: 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x960, 1366x768, 1600x900, 1600x1200 , 2048x1080, 2560x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160

• Reduced Input Lag | Controls Overhaul

• You've read it right - input lag has been drastically reduced, that essentially solves the notorious "BR Delay" that has been the bane of many BR players for years. Enjoy better unit responsiveness!

• Global Unit Control Changes:

Units will now force-move by default (won't be auto-aggressive during movement).
Units will now run by default instead of walking.
CTRL modifier key will make units attack-move (instead of force-move- its previous behavior.
ALT modifier key will make units walk (instead of making them run - its previous behavior).
CAPSLOCK key will display units' health bars.

To preface this - three of the most important control keys in the game can only be found within the original printed manuals of 2001/2002. Those keys are CTRL, ALT and SHIFT. Without them, unit control in BR will be quite a hassle for pretty much everyone. And if you ever found yourself bothered by unit disobedience and non-flexibility, that is one of the major reasons why.

In order to "force-move" units without them auto-attacking things in their way one had to hold the CTRL modifier key, and in order for units to run one had to hold the ALT modifier key (or double-right-click, which wasn't always reliable especially during lags in multiplayer).

As a QoL change, we've made those keys modify movement in the opposite way, closer to the traditional RTS games. That means by default all units will force-move and run instead of attack-moving and walking.

Now one will only need to press CTRL or ALT if they want their units to attack-move or walk respectively.

That will be the new control scheme by default. However, players who find that unnecessary will be able to go into Options and bring back the legacy control scheme for CTRL and ALT.

• BR attack-move becomes an actual attack- move. Previously, the default movement option in the game was... a hybrid of attack-move and force-move. It would preserve automatic unit aggression when moving but would become a force-move upon disengagement. Force-Move was initiated via CTRL.

It is now gone as we remade it into the attack-move that is in-line with the traditional RTS design. It will be 100% aggression on the move and will not break unit engagement like before.

Here's a description from the Starcraft Wiki:

Attack-Move causes the selected unit group to move to a location. If any enemies are encountered along the way, the group will attack that enemy until it is killed. They will repeat this until all encountered enemies are dead, then resume moving to their original destination.

However, there are incidents in which a player should use force move rather than attack move. Examples include rushing past base defenses to attack more important units and structures, retreating from a more powerful enemy army, and using units to serve as a distraction rather than a threat.

• Guard Command Improved

Previously, the Guard command was pretty much broken and was only useful to make units follow other units. Unit that was supposed to guard something or someone would still be auto-aggressive and attack anything losing the Guard order in the process.

• In 1.58 Guard command will no longer reset under any circumstances other than direct attack orders or behavior order switch.

• The order will not reset if the unit on Guard is attacked.

• Unit on Guard will guard a unit, building or terrain in a short radius. Whenever the unit is out of the radius, it will return back into the radius.

• Units on Guard will only scan for enemy units, they will not attack buildings.

• Behavior Control Orders Become Toggles

Behavior Control Orders are Stand Ground and Passiveness, which essentially tell units how to behave. These keys will now become ON/OFF toggles, which will allow units to retain those settings when necessary.

Previously Stand Ground, Passiveness and Guard orders would reset on every occasion. That meant players would have to reissue them almost all the time if they wanted to keep their units in check. Most notable examples would be units being attacked or simply moving (even a meter away), that would disable the orders making units auto-aggressive again.

Now, that these keys become toggles, units will retain those orders as long as they are toggled ON. These orders will only reset if they are toggled OFF or units are instructed to attack.

Passiveness/Stand Ground

Legacy Behavior

1.58 ZE Behavior (TOGGLE ON)

1.58 Notes

Resets when attacking

⠀⠀⠀⠀✓

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀✓

Stand Ground will not reset on ranged units ordered to attack

Resets when being attacked

⠀⠀⠀⠀✓

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀✖

If toggled on, unit will not reset the order

Resets when moving

⠀⠀⠀⠀✓

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀✖

If toggled on, unit will not reset the order

Resets when Stop hotkey is issued

⠀⠀⠀⠀✓

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀✓

Stop will clear all toggled orders

• As is with any toggles, if any behavior order is active, and you press the same key again, it's going to deactivate (toggle off) unless you have units in your selection that have no behavior orders.

If there are units that have no behavior order in that selection, pressing the same key will toggle that order on for them first, and only then you will be able to disable the order (by pressing the same key, again).

• You can clear all behavior orders by pressing the Stop command (S by default) or by ordering units to attack (will not reset Stand Ground on ranged units).

• Unit portraits will now show what order unit has on.

• Pressing Stand Ground on Hybrid units (Kabuki Warrior, Dragon Warrior, Samurai and Bandit) will force them to use their ranged weapon, this is essentially a melee-to-ranged switch for this type of units.

• Hotkeys & Controls Reference Screen

Considering all the information stated above, we decided to add a hotkeys & control reference that will pop up whenever one presses the T hotkey (which is default for Tech Tree Tips). We are hoping this will help our players navigate around the game controls.

• Multiplayer | Networking

• Steam Multiplayer

The importance of Multiplayer in any game, and especially a game like BR, can't be overstated. Almost every single day of the 1.58 development was dedicated to ironing out all the MP issues, and with great confidence we can say it has been stabilized. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves just yet, so we will let you see for yourself. :)

Fixed numerous issues with hosting/joining lobbies.
Fixed a number of crashes that would occur when starting games.
Fixed all the possible desync triggers we could find. We are almost sure there are none left.
Redesigned the main lobby screen a bit.
Fixed an issue in the lobby listing that only displayed local lobbies. Now all lobbies from around the world will be displayed.
Ping will now display properly. It will also get colored according to its value (white is good, yellow is bearable, orange is suspicious, and red is downright awful).

• Database integrity check has been implemented for online lobbies. A new column called MOD will now be among the lobby filters.

This column will let you see whether the host uses a modified database file. You won't be able to join those lobbies if you don't have the exact same mod as the host. A special pop-up will let you know that.

That will also display in-game on the UI panel. Because of this integrity check, we now have no issues with people trying to modify the database file, so feel free to share your mods in our Discord server!

• LAN & Direct IP Removal

LAN and Direct IP Multiplayer modes have been removed from the game. Now, by clicking 'Multiplayer', the player will be taken directly to the Steam Lobbies.

There are 3 reasons for this:

Piracy concerns.
Ed Del Castillo's goal of centralizing the community.
Security issues that currently can't be resolved due to the game's age and Steam network not really properly supporting LAN.

Steam Multiplayer should by now be an overall better way to play online, but yes, it requires internet connection.

Steam Multiplayer in Battle Realms: Zen Edition uses Peer- to- Peer networking. There are no servers, only p2p hosted games. This method was chosen for a number of reasons, but essentially it means players will be able to host Multiplayer games for as long as Steam exists as a service.

• Balance Overhaul

A lot of time and thought has been put into the initial balance overhaul. We will highlight only major changes, but the complete changelog can be found below, it is 45 pages long, but we strongly recommend getting acquainted with it.

A good bunch of community suggestions can be found there. We are hoping to keep this up and improve the game for the better together with the help of our amazing community. :)

If you are willing to participate in this, please leave your feedback either in the Steam Discussions or our Discord Server (preferred way).

1.58 Update - Balance Changelog

• Unit Training Time

• Serpent Clan no longer has the 5 seconds advantage when it comes to training units

Previously, Serpent Clan trained units 5 seconds faster than the other 3 clans. Now all clans train units 5 seconds faster. Meaning that not only they are equal in training speed, but they also train troops faster than they do in the legacy game.

• The Siege System

Unit damage to buildings has been completely rebalanced, as there are now Siege and Non-Siege units. To sum it up- if you don't train Siege units, you won't be able to effectively destroy buildings.

• Unit Class will show as Siege in “Smart Tooltips” when selecting units.

Here's a list of all Siege units and their BGs for each clan:

Dragon

Chemist (default attacks), Chemist (Starburst Rockets BG), Powder Keg Cannoneer (default + all BGs), Archer (Fire Arrow BG), Dragon Warrior (Flame Sword BG), Teppo, Kazan, Otomo

Serpent

Raider, Musketeer (Blast Shot BG), Cannoneer (only after technique)

Wolf

Mauler (only after technique), Hurler (Lava Rock BG), Sledger (default attacks), Pitch Slinger (default attacks), Shale Lord, Grayback, Longtooth

Lotus

Staff Adept (only after technique), Unclean One, Warlock (Lythis' Dark Arson BG), Master Warlock (default attacks), Shadow Steed (Flame Breath BG)

• The Poison System

In the legacy game, Poison units would deal 50% of their initial base damage upfront and then 50% overtime. Base damage and poison were closely interconnected hence why Zen Masters like Shinja dealt very little damage.

• In 1.58, we untied Poison from base damage and made it a separate "true" damage value that applies overtime.

• In addition to that change, Poison will now slow affected units' movement speed down by 40% and Geisha won't be able to heal poisoned units.

• On top of that, there are units that are immune to Poison:

- Nightvol, Hordeling, Spirit Warrior, Spirit Wolf, Shale Spider, Zombie, Shambler
- Last Stand Guardian
- Unclean, Infested, Diseased
- Necromancer, Shale Lord, The Three Brothers

• Geisha Overtime Healing System

In 1.58, we introduced "Overtime Healing" in order to encourage unit preservation and making combat less forgiving for players with Geishas. Now there’s a good chance that focused attacks will overpower geishas’ overtime heal, so if units stay in combat while being healed, they will most likely die.

• Geishas will no longer instantly heal units to full health
• Geisha will instantly heal 25% of units’ base health and will add a 75% base health overtime effect (3% per 25 ticks).
• Geishas won’t be able to cast another heal until the first heal stops.
• Once units reach full health, the effect stops.
• Once Geisha dies, her healing effect stops.

• Horses

In order to encourage "ground combat" and delay the "horse stage" we made a decision to lock Stables behind 3 combat buildings for each clan. It's not an ideal solution and we will come up with something better in the future.

• Explosive and Fire damage types become effective against horses (together with Piercing).

• In 1.58, horses no longer share a percentage of damage with riders. Melee units will always 100% damage horses, Missile units will always 100% damage riders. AoE damage will always damage both rider (100%) and horse (100%), 200% in total.

• Peasants with pack horses will have an icon over them so they can be found more easily. This is only visible to the players who own the peasants, not allies or enemies.

• Artificial Intelligence Redone

Many of our players have highlighted the increase in campaign/skirmish AI difficulty. That was only partially purposeful, there was a bunch of bugs that resurfaced with us restoring some of the AI features. This should be solved now.

• In 1.58, we taught AI how to actually play the game, more or less. It will micro units in combat, it will consider appropriate counter picks, it will retreat, it will cooperate with other AI, it will not be easily baited into an ambush, it will give you a hard time... if you are unfamiliar with the game.

We would like AI to be a sparring partner that will show you the core mechanics of the game rather than just a punching bag. Knowledge is power!

• Because of that, we removed all the cheats that AI had used since the legacy version (and there was a lot). When it comes to AI Skirmish battles, rest assured AI has no unfair advantage over you other than the basic AI things (reaction times mostly).

• Based on its profile parameters, you will see AI employ advanced tactics in various situations.

• Visual Updates

• All textures across the game have been upscaled/improved.

• Many visual effects have been fixed/remade/improved.

• Let us know how it looks!

1.58 Technical & Gameplay Changes list

There's a lot to digest here, so we had to pack it away in yet another google document. :)

1.58 Update - Technical & Gameplay Mechanics Changelog

• Would like to lend a hand, but unsure how? Spread the word! 📢

Simply share the news with your friends or leave a review on the store page of the game, that already helps us a ton! If there are content makers reading this, you can reach us at support@battlerealms.com , we might have a bunch of keys we would like to share with the people who are willing to review the game on YouTube, any streaming platforms or perhaps even their personal sites.

Thank you everyone for your support and attention. We shall soon meet again!

Battle Realms Fundraiser:

{LINK REMOVED}.

Follow Battle Realms:

Stay tuned for more updates!

- The Battle Realms Team

Jul 20, 2022

News Of The Realms - Almost There!

Battle Realms: Zen Edition - Also KoMiKoZa

Greetings, Warriors!

We are here, once again, to share the last pre-release note regarding the by now notorious update 1.58, our magnum opus in the making.

It's been 4 months since the last news, and almost a year since the open-beta release of the update 1.57.9. It's been a while indeed, but fret not, we are here to provide some insight into what's been happening with the development, and to reassure you that the work has indeed been going non-stop all this time, and it is soon to culminate.

Before we begin, we would like to share a reminder:

This is the most important update for BR:ZE, and thus it is the most complex to develop. We're working in multiple directions, but the majority of the dev time has been dedicated to ensuring that the D3D (DirectX) update goes smoothly.
For the longest time, we've been working with the outdated C++ '99 codebase of BR (which is indeed more or less updated to modern standards by now).
We're still a team of only 4 people learning to navigate the inner workings of BR in an agile manner.

These are the 3 main reasons why things have been taking as long as they have been taking. Alas, the development time has exceeded all our estimates and beyond, time and time again. At this point, we're operating on "when it's done" basis, no ETAs can be further provided by us.

That being said, we're not completely underwater and have always been open to communication with our players via our Discord server. We have also assembled a full YouTube playlist with all 1.58 Sneak Peeks so far (10 in total at the time of writing this).

Beyond all that, let's talk about what's in store...

• State of the Update 1.58 📊

Right now, the update is complete enough for us to release it soon. We're emphasizing "enough" because it is not as complete as we would like it to be, but the game hasn't seen any updates in a while and we must release as soon as possible, especially considering how different 1.58 is from the main game by now (in all the good ways).

In the end, we're cutting corners, not only there won't be D3D12 rendering on release (no DirectX 12), but D3D9 will also not be fully complete. D3D9 is mostly complete, about 90%, the other 10% revolve around minor polishes and figuring out engine-specific issues. We will resume the work on those features shortly after the update releases.

We've run extensive tests to deem the update "release ready", right now we have to figure some things out within the team and prepare ourselves for the release.

• Preparing for the Release 📢

About that... As 1.58 is our claim to fame, once it releases we will be running an extensive outreach campaign to garner as much attention as possible.

Would you like to lend us a hand? Simply share the news with your friends or leave a review on the store page of the game, that already helps us a ton! If there are content makers reading this, you can reach us at support@battlerealms.com , we might have a bunch of keys we would like to share with the people who are willing to review the game on YouTube, any streaming platforms or perhaps even their personal sites.

All and any help is appreciated! :)

• Sneak Peeks 👀

Those who are hunting for the juicy update intel, do we have a treat for you! We can't show much, but hopefully what we can show will pleasantly surprise you.

As has already been mentioned, we've been working on multiple fronts, doing various kinds of things, here are some of them:

• Texture Improvements

As previously mentioned, all textures in the game have been improved to look less pixelated due to the introduction of newer widescreen and ultra-widescreen resolutions, and also because we actually can.

Here's a comparison between the legacy Lotus Clan UI and ZE UI

And here's the Dragon one

Forest Temple (Wolf) Techniques. A bunch of things like this had to be redrawn for the update.

• Visual Effects Improvements

For 1.58 we just restored and improved a handful of effects where it was required, but in the future we will improve all VFX across the game.

For example, previously, the Kabuki Warrior from the Dragon Clan was missing the animation for Star Dust, one of his Battle Gears. He just stood still while the ability magically activated in the targeted spot.

The truth is, Kabuki was supposed to use the same animation he uses when casting Flash Powder (his other BG), and Star Dust itself was supposed to be a projectile. We fixed that and remade the FX, here's the end result:

The VFX editor, albeit dated and outclassed by most editors of today, is still very powerful. Liquid certainly knew what they were creating. This basically means we can experiment and create VFX that are a bit more modern, without being held back by hardware limitations.

• Gameplay Improvements

There has been a lot of work done in this field. New Poison and Siege systems, AI tweaks, unit behavior improvements, various QoLs... you name it.

For example, missile units can finally use projectile-based targetable Battle Gears mid-combat without needing to stand passive beforehand. It is now fixed once and for all!

• Balance Improvements

1.58 (next update) is bringing a lot of balance changes to the table. We would like to believe we're on the right track regarding balancing the game.

For example, Spreading Goo BG of Unclean One or Haste BG of Issyl will no longer have any effect on any other animations, but the movement ones.

We will be eagerly awaiting the community's feedback on the upcoming changes, so we can shape the game for the better together. :)

• Future Integrations

We've also been working on the Rich Presence feature in both Steam and Discord. Style points go to Discord in this one.

• ...And More.

Much more, you may even see some lore-friendly content restored. :)

• Go Open Beta! ⚠️

Even though we don't miss on a chance to remind that Open Beta 1.57.9 exists, our statistics shows only 3.79% of the whole player base play on it. :(

Please, remember that open beta is the future public release version, you can always take part in that future by sharing your feedback with us. :)

• Final Words 💬

Trust us, it's coming. We want it released as much as all of you do. We have been working on the game this whole time, and this work will soon be released as the glorious Update 1.58. Until then... some final moments of patience. :)

Thank you everyone for your support and attention. We shall soon meet again!

Battle Realms Fundraiser:

{LINK REMOVED}.

Follow Battle Realms:

Stay tuned for more updates!

- The Battle Realms Team

Dec 25, 2021

News Of The Realms - What We've Been Up To...

Battle Realms: Zen Edition - Also KoMiKoZa

Greetings, warriors!

It's Christmas time, and the New Year is fast approaching... Yet there haven't been any proper updates from the Battle Realms Team for quite a while, let's find out the reason why together!

It is no secret that we've been developing a new update for perhaps too long, many of you are understandably becoming more and more impatient. We've stayed more or less silent in regards to the development, and it's becoming gradually more difficult to keep the exciting news within ourselves...

• What is this about?

We want to come forward and state that this is one of the most important updates for Battle Realms: Zen Edition and it needs more time to be fully ironed out. That being said, the release date for the update is set to be somewhere around mid-January, 2022.

We'd like to point out that you can already experience a fraction of the update by switching to 1.57.9 - Open Beta of Battle Realms within Steam. You could also help us improve certain aspects of the upcoming update by leaving feedback regarding the beta version, that would be greatly appreciated!

• More on the changes

The majority of the development time has been dedicated to updating the codebase to modern standards as well as switching from the ancient DirectX7 to its modern iterations (DirectX 9 and 12). This is the most important step as it allows us to completely fix any graphical glitches and serious rendering bugs, the performance of the game is greatly improved as well and is now smoother than ever. This also simplifies the process of including new features and integrations in the game, which is quite helpful.

Moving on... Battle Realms was never intended to work with widescreen resolutions, but would you look at that! 2K, QHD, and 4K are incoming! Those with keen eyes have probably already noticed the minor interface and background edits.

Improved textures accompany the higher resolutions: It's nothing too fancy, we've improved all game textures across the board with the help of neural upscaling technology. That has been in the works for quite a while and we're finally ready to unleash it.

Having trained and used multiple upscaling models for BR textures, we're ready to say that it looks good. Some of the more problematic textures, particularly interface-related, have been hand-edited by our artists.

Finishing our feature spotlight with a sweet sneak-peek of one of the upcoming new team colors. There are a lot more exciting changes to cover of course, but we will leave that until the actual release.

There's also talk on the team about refreshing many visual effects for the game for the sake of consistency, visual appeal, and overall gameplay. Possibly coming in the future!

• Streamlining the pipeline

All in all, we've been very busy. There has also been a lot of work and effort put into miscellaneous things related to the development of the game. For example, as we're now seriously considering multiple balance changes across the game, we've collected a lot of in-game information in one document to make the development cycle easier for every team member involved. It will help us tremendously in achieving the more or less balanced gameplay combined with the feedback from our players.

We don't stop there however, there's a number of places we have to frequent and documents we have to dig up to ensure our development goes smoothly. There's also always user feedback that we carefully review at all times.

For example, German and French localizations! We hear you, and trust us, we're looking into it, we're still seeking the best way to make it happen within Steam. The localizations will be included in the game!

We're also working on our official site, which has been left largely unmaintained since release (it's difficult to maintain everything as a small team!), and the youtube channel - Battle Realms Network. If you haven't yet, please watch Ed's recent video for the community:

Besides Ed's appearances, there's a lot more planned for the channel, we're talking tutorials, gameplay details, and, of course, dev blogs.

Lastly, we would like to thank you, the community, for sticking with us since the very release of the game on Steam (Early Access). Your patience, belief in us, continuously provided feedback, and wonderful stories have all been a huge inspiration for our team.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :)

Battle Realms Fundraiser:

{LINK REMOVED}.

Follow Battle Realms:

Stay tuned for more updates!

- The Battle Realms Team