Hi Everyone,

Before we get into the latest news I wanted to mention that we're far enough along that we have opened a public alpha branch. What does this mean?

The update is in 'alpha' and you can play it now (if you dare) and see everything we've been showing in these development update posts, but it'll be rough, a bit buggy, and unfinished. If you want a smoother and more stable experience, you'll want wait for beta or for the update's final release.

Here's how to access the latest alpha version:

• Right click on the game in the steam library
  
• Click properties, then choose betas
  
• Enter 'alphatester123' without quotes into the box, press enter
  
• Choose the newly available alpha-unstable branch

Please send all your bug reports to our email contact@lionshieldstudios.com or post them on our discord. We'll get them addressed as fast as we can. We'll be uploading new alpha builds as we fix and add things.

Now, on to more stuff we'll be still adding!

Since now you'll have the option of playing with other AI kingdoms, we've implemented a system to select a color for your kingdom. This can be changed at any time from your keep (even on old saves) and the original color palette is still available.


We're adding a minimap! It's a nice way to keep track of military units and ships, dragons, envoys, and more. The minimap you'll see in the alpha is a little different from this one but we'll be adding this newer rotating version soon as it helps with navigation.



Until next time,
-Pete & Michael

Hi Everyone,

Got some more news on the AI Kingdoms progress! Again huge thanks for your patience as we work on this big update. We know it's super hard to wait and we are also anxious to get it out there as fast as we can!

You'll be able to talk to the rulers of the AI Kingdoms, having conversations, making requests, forging alliances, and establishing trade relations. Here's a little preview of meeting an AI ruler for the first time and making them grumpy.


We'll also be adding a much requested feature: transport carts! They can transport resources over land from stockpiles, granaries, produce storages, butchers, and more. This should give you a way to make more types of city layouts viable. For example, cities with huge farming areas far from housing can now get the food into the housing districts much faster with transport carts.


You can set up their routes using draggable waypoints. As you add and drag them onto a storage building they will auto populate an entry in the cart UI where you can set desired resource amounts to pick up and drop off. It should be pretty quick and intuitive - it will use the same new system we've been implementing for the cargo ships.


Until next time,
-Pete & Michael

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to update you all on how the AI Kingdoms work is progressing. We really appreciate everyone's patience while waiting for this update. We're quite a small team and this is the biggest update we have ever released - it's turning into a bit of an expansion pack at this point!

Here's another look at some of what will be coming:

If you choose the path of war with the other kingdoms on your map you'll need some way to get through their walls. We'll be adding a siege workshop which can build catapults.



Catapults can be ordered around and loaded on to ships like any other military unit. They are very effective at attacking walls and buildings. The AI kingdom I'm invading here perhaps should have upgraded their walls to stone...



There's also a new happiness building on the way, the theater! Let your peasants enjoy a fine show, and if you are able to provide the theater with food they'll be extra delighted. The seats are populated with idle peasants.



More to come in the future!

Until next time,
- Pete & Michael

Hi everyone,

We wanted to share some more progress on AI Kingdoms update. There's still much to do but things are starting to come together and each day it gets more exciting. Here's what we've been working on lately:

City Building AI

The city building AI has come a long way - the city on the cover image for this update was built by the AI! It can reach the 1000 peasant mark in about 100-130 years with a happiness of about 75-80. This is a major milestone for the AI. It handles building all the things peasants need including bathhouses connected to aqueducts and noria. The AI also builds defensive walls and spins up archer towers quickly to protect against early attacks. Here's a timelapse of the AI growing its city:

Sea Gates

The AI Kingdoms update will also include new buildings, including the Sea Gate. You can use this to allow your ships and friendly ships to pass freely while blocking hostile ships from entering:



Until next time,
- Pete & Michael

Hi everyone,

We're still hard at work on the AI Kingdoms update. Currently we've been diving into expanding the city building AI and tying it into a diplomacy and trade system. Still mucking around in the guts of that so we'll have more to show there later, but we did want to show off a couple other things that'll be part of the update:

We've been working on a fog of war style visibility system. So far we're thinking you'll have full visibility on your own landmasses, but AI controlled landmasses will be hidden unless you have units to scout them. Here's a little demo of the effect where I walk my knights through an AI's kingdom. This looks a lot better at a normal frame rate (steam only allows gifs 3mb in size, so I had to reduce the frame count to fit).


We'll also be adding a jousting arena. If it's properly supplied with food and armaments, jousting matches can take place and spectators will arrive to watch - if you have idle peasants. This will be a late game happiness building with a very large effect radius. The system that places idle people in the crowd will also be used to let idle people visit statues, taverns, cemeteries and other buildings like that.


Until next time,
- Pete & Michael

Hi Everyone,

It’s our pleasure to announce official mod support for Kingdoms and Castles via Steam Workshop! You can subscribe to mods and banners created by other players from the community workshop. Once subscribed, they’ll download in the background. Then, restart the game and you’re off with mods!

Mod support has always been a hotly requested feature, so we're glad it's now live. While you're waiting for AI Kingdoms (we'll have more progress to show on this soon), take a look at some of the cool mods people are already making. Here's a few we'd like to spotlight:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1967437879
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1979042514
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2012687154
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2013600042
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2021178725

If you’re interested in developing mods for Kingdoms and Castles, start here.

This build also include some bug fixes (thanks for reporting everyone!):

• Fix key for speeding camera motion up not working
  
• Fix rare issue where vikings could on occasion not be targeted by defenses
  
• Fix rare pathing issue vikings/military troops
  
• Fix issue first time demolish warning ui pops up
  
• Fix memory leak on map editing
  
• Improve performance during map editing
  
• Improve performance on maps with lots of fish

Until next time,
-Pete & Michael

Hi Everyone,

We've been working hard on the upcoming AI Kingdoms update, here's what we've been up to:

Michael has been doing more great work on city building AI. It will now reinforce its walls in response to attacks, and it places towers in a natural and very functional way. Here's a screenshot of a town the AI was able to build and defend using the new tower placement algorithm:


Meanwhile I've been revamping the ship route UI to be more intuitive and streamlined. Now you'll be able to see the shipping routes visualized in the world and the UI on the right should read more clearly. You will also be able to drag and adjust the ship's path however you wish. It used to take more than 20 clicks to set up a route between two docks, now it will take less than six (I had to split this gif into 2 parts to get around steam's size limit):



Another reason we wanted to change the shipping route UI is to support player controlled merchant ships. You'll be able to build your own merchant ships and use them to sell your resource to AI controlled kingdoms. We're reworking the merchant ship models as well:

Until next time!
-Pete & Michael

P.S. We're also working on mod support. We'll have more to announce on this very soon!

Hi Everyone,

We’ve got a big new update for you that adds new buildings, food types, and mechanics. We had been planning to launch this all packaged together with the upcoming AI Rival Kingdoms update, but after chatting with the community, we decided to launch this early! We’ve been wanting to add all this stuff to the game for a long time. We’re glad we got to launch it sooner than later.

Why did this update take longer than usual to release? There are two reasons: first, it’s a pretty “meaty” update (pun intended); second, my (Pete) second daughter was born right after we launched the Warfare Update, so I took some time off. Thanks for your patience!

Now, onto what’s new!




We’ve added fish as a new food source. New maps now have areas where fish will spawn. Old maps will be automatically upgraded to have fishing grounds when loaded. Fish will spawn more fish, and can expand a little from their initial fishing grounds, but will mostly stay in the same region.






To catch the fish, build a fishing hut nearby. It comes with a little boat that will go out and catch fish, but will take shelter during storms. Be careful not to overfish; fishing grounds can become depleted if too many fishing huts are built nearby. Peasants can take fish directly from the fishing hut to eat.






This building takes fish from the fishing hut and prepares them for eating. Using 1 tool and 1 fish, the Fishmonger will output 3 fish. Fishmongers can store 75 fish. This building will be an important part of keeping fish supplied in your kingdom. Peasants won’t want to live too close to it though, due to the smell.





The new Produce Storage building can store 125 apples, and their workers can carry a double apple load. But why do we need this new building, when we can already store apples in the Granary? Previously, wheat and apples were treated as the same resource and apples would mysteriously transform into grain when placed in a Granary. We were never quite satisfied with that, so now apples are their own distinct resource type. Apples must now be stored in markets or in this new building. Peasants will need to eat apples along with the other food types for maximum health.






We’ve now added a 1x1 Market. It employs fewer people and stores less, but it should be easier to fit into some city layouts than the existing 2x2 Market. It also costs less to build.





You can now build Swineherds, a 3x2 building that raises pigs. Pigs consume wheat and can be slaughtered for meat. If there is no wheat to feed the pigs, like peasants, they’ll get hungry and eventually die off.





Butchers will take tools and 1 unit of meat from Swineherds and turn it into 3 servings of meat. They function a lot like Fishmongers. They can store up to 150 meat. Peasants won’t want to live too close to the butcher either, due to the smell.





To incorporate all these new food types, we’ve added a new Health mechanic for your kingdom. Hovering over the Health number will explain all the factors impacting it. For maximum Health, peasants need a varied diet and enough Clinics and Hospitals open and operating. Peasants will want access to fish or pork, apples, and wheat or bread. You’ll be able to click the Health overlay to see which houses need better access to the food types.

As your kingdom grows, your peasants will care more about their Health and will want it to be better and better. Health will affect their happiness, the likelihood of a plague, plague virulence, and average life expectancy. If your kingdom is in poor Health for too long, peasants may die prematurely!

Note that for existing cities, you will get a 5 year grace period before your peasants become unhappy with their Health.



As mentioned in our previous development update, we have implemented some performance optimizations targeted at large cities with lots of resources. In our benchmark city, we were able to improve performance 30% from 17-18fps to 22-25fps, though results vary depending on city size/composition and your computer specs. Let us know if you see an improvement! More optimization is coming in future updates.

• Added configurable keyboard controls
  
• Added a confirmation dialog if you are demolishing more than 25 buildings
  
• Added a way to disband Troop Transport Ship
  
• Heads of household will limit their gathering to a 30 tile radius of their home. That means if their only source of wheat/bread is more than 30 tiles away, it will count as ‘too far away’ and they won’t go out to gather it
  
• Markets now collect apples, bread, wheat, fish, and ham
  
• Tavern has been re-tuned slightly and now consumes both wheat and apples but provides a little extra happiness if you can supply both
  
• Neighbor and road access happiness bonuses adjusted
  
• Houses too close to Iron Mines suffer a happiness debuff (the same as Quarries and Charcoal Makers)
  
• Large and manor houses too close to a Swineherd or Fishmonger also suffer a happiness debuff
  
• Added some in-game tips on picking a starting position for your Keep for first time players
  
• Field flooding now only happens within a few tiles of the shoreline. Chance to flood is displayed in the building UI when clicking on a Farm.
  
• Aqueducts can now be built over the top of Iron Mines, Quarries, and Charcoal Makers
  
• Stone Walls, Gates, and Bridges can replace Wooden Walls, Gates and Bridges without having first demolished them
  
• Rock removal now automatically removes the rock after construction has finished
  
• Attempted to fix bug where drag-to-demolish triggers erroneously
  
• Fixed an issue with gold income info not adding up correctly
  
• Fixed Twitch integration (twitch had changed their API since our last update)
  
• Fixed closed/unconnected Bathhouses from contributing to peasants’ Bathhouse satisfaction
  
• Fixed bug where ships were not using Moats to sail through when possible
  
• Fixed issue where you could not place a Dock adjacent to Moats

You’re probably asking, “Cool fish and everything but what’s up with the AI Rivals update? When is that coming out?” We’ve shown some of the work we’ve already done on the city building AI, but expect to see some news about siege weapons, trade routes, diplomacy, and more in the future.

Since AI Rivals is such a big addition to the game it will still take some time to finish and make sure everything meshes well together. We’ll be running a much longer and earlier beta period for AI Rivals than our other updates and we’ll post an announcement when it’s ready to test drive. Thanks for your patience!


VR is scheduled after AI Rival Kingdoms. We’ve done some proof of concept work already, we’ve posted it before but if you haven’t seen it, check it out here: https://streamable.com/86ler

Until next time,
-Pete & Michael

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're all having a good summer!

Here's a little preview of what we're currently working on for our upcoming updates:

We are running various design tests on how trading and diplomacy will work with the other kingdoms. At the same time we're continuing progress on the city building AI. The AI can now build and sustain a city of hundreds, including building food storage, happiness buildings, and defensive walls:

There's still much to do here but the foundation is solid and it's been very cool to see all the work on the city building AI come together to allow it to build thriving cities.

We will be adding the much requested fish food source. Eating fish will tie into a new villager 'health' mechanic. You'll be able to build Fishing Huts that will send boats out to catch them and Fish Mongers to store/distribute them:


We have also been digging very heavily into optimizations. We're currently testing some optimizations that improved the framerate on our test case city (a completely built out map with 100,000+ total resource stored) from 18fps to 25fps which is about a 30% performance boost (although results will vary based on system specs, city size and composition). We'll be continuing to go as far as we can down this road to try and get more gains.

Until next time,
-Pete & Michael

Hi Everyone,

Today we've got an update for you themed around Warfare! We've implemented lots of new system and features - all in support of our future AI Rivals update.

Any bugs, issues, or have any feedback? Let us know on discord or email contact@lionshieldstudios.com. Big thanks as always to all our beta testers and translators! Here's what’s new:

We have streamlined the military system. Barracks now produce a full 1 tile fully functional 16 footman unit complete with a general with one click (rather than the old way of having to separately train a general, then individually train and recruit units at the barracks). This should feel a little more like an RTS. If you have an old save with bigger armies it will be split up into individual units and we have removed the 3 unit cap. Additionally:

• Left click and drag will select multiple units, shift and ctrl click work as well.
  
• Chamber of War no longer recruits generals, instead it can activate a ‘Hazard Pay’ bonus which doubles all unit damage in exchange for higher soldier wages while active.
  
• Units can walk on walls and towers (more on this below)
  
• Units can be queued up at a barracks/archer school (like in an RTS)
  
• Units can be disbanded
  
• Partial strength units can ‘recuperate’ at the barracks to return to full strength
  
• Military units now need to be paid wages (previously only tower emplacements were paid wages) and will disband themselves if they aren’t paid for a few years.

We’ve added an archer school building that works just like the barracks except it produces archer units. They can attack enemies with their ranged attack but are very weak when engaged hand-to-hand. They also gain the same range bonus when stationed on walls that normal archer towers get. And on that note…



You can now build castle stairs which allow units access to walking on your castle walls and towers. We’ve completely revamped the pathfinding tech to make this work and set up little doors automatically when a tower meets a wall. One set of stairs will allow access to any contiguous piece of wall, but you’ll probably want multiple sets of stairs for quick access.



You can now build troop transport ships and use them to move your armies across deep water and on to other landmasses. Each ship can carry three units. To load units, select them and order them to move to a transport ship. To unload, select the transport ship and right click anywhere on land.



Viking thieves move faster and don’t start fires, but if they make it to your treasure room they will steal 100g. Make sure to kill them before they escape back to their ship to reclaim the gold!


Viking raids can now launch on multiple fronts and they can also leave on any viking boat, not just the boat that brought them. Viking boats are more reactive to picking up escaping vikings. Viking raid escalation tweaked to better adapt to player skill.

Note: if you are using an old save the next few raids will be weak until it catches up with your progress.




You can now click and drag to place multiple roads, farms, orchards, aqueduct, castle blocks, cemeteries, and piers. You'll be able to place up to 100 buildings per drag placement.



You can now click and drag to order peasants to chop multiple tiles of wood, rebuild large areas of rubble, or demolish lots of buildings at once.

We have flipped left and right mouse click. Instead of moving the camera on left click, now left click is used for select and drag select. Right click and drag moves the camera and issues troop orders. Middle click and drag is still camera rotate. If you hold down the alt key, the controls will revert back to functioning like the old version.

Note: If you’d prefer the old method permanently, you can toggle ‘legacy mouse controls’ in the options menu. In legacy mode click and drag selecting and placement require holding the alt key to start the drag.

• Rebuild now works as expected on castle towers and tiles with aqueducts
  
• Aqueducts can be built over hovels
  
• Fixed gates not visually closing when vikings were nearby
  
• Map generation tweaked to better guarantee viable amounts of stone and iron
  
• Fixed some load/save exploits with the witch
  
• Fixed cemetery orientation getting lost after a load/save
  
• Fixed generals not attacking ogres
  
• Reduced gravekeeper walk speed from 2x to 1.5x
  
• Military units get same speed bonuses on roads that villagers do
  
• Roads can be placed anywhere and do not need to be connected to other roads
  
• Other small fixes

Hope you enjoy! Remember, you can:

• Follow our developer page on Steam
  
• Chat with us on discord
  
• Follow on twitter

Until next time,
-Pete & Michael