Greetings everyone!

For the past few days, we have been gathering historical information both from historians and community members about the uniforms of factions presently playable in the game.

Today we present to you a glimpse of the new Wehrmacht & 1st Airborne 1944 version. This version will available as soon as all the new tweaks on the characters are not causing any potential gameplay related issues.


Here is a detailed list of the changes made to the 1944 Wehrmacht faction:

- Fixed off-centre legs and made officer trousers bigger
- Added correct trousers with gaiters to the enlisted.
- Added a rolled up sleeve tunic variant.
- Corrected positions of breadbag, canteen, tin can, gas canister and zeltbahn to fit a non-A-Frame loadout.
- Added arm and shoulder patches
- Added correct collar tabs to NCO's
- Added eagle (without swastika) to uniform
- Added new head meshes to characters and gave them a less baffled, more serious default look.
- Added more role-specific gear and insignias
- Changed canteen cover to fur instead of cloth (cloth was used post-1950)
- Gave uniforms a slightly more greenish tint to match historical references.
- Slightly tweaked the colors of various gear to match historical references.
- Added Iron cross ribbon to NCO's and Officers

Alongside the changes made to the German Wehrmacht faction, we have also been
working extensively on updating the British 1st Airborne and their uniforms to be up to par with the new Wehrmacht ones.

We have been looking at historical references in order to give them a more historically correct appearance and like the Wehrmacht, they’ll be available as soon as we’ve ensured they won’t cause any potential issues for players.



Here is a detailed list of the changes made to the 1944 1st Airborne faction:

- Adjusted the body proportions of the characters.
- Fixed legs being offset.
- Added correct Airborne patches.
- Added some randomized head meshes.
- Adjusted the Helmet netting texture.
- Added a few more helmet variations.
- Added the NCO rank arm patch.

We want to also mention that as of now the changes does not include the tanker uniforms for either faction, but they will also be getting a pass to make them fit in with the new uniforms.

And of course we have more to come…


Sincerely,
Periscope Games

Nine years later, Inside a Star-filled Sky still stands the test of time.

It wasn't, however, working all that well on modern, high-resolution displays. Back in the day, every monitor supported 640x480 and other 4:3 aspect ratios.

Once the resolution support was fixed, the mouse-speed mapping needed to be fixed along with it. People with big monitors actually have faster mice.

I'm pretty sure I've setup a good, automatic method for setting your mouse speed, but there's a chance it will be too fast or slow in some situations. It's an old game with no Settings screen, but it's not to hard to access the settings folder (browse local files on Steam) and adjust mouseSpeed.ini to your liking.

It's also time for a long overdue price-drop.

But even in its original form, people have still been playing this ancient gem. Just a few weeks ago, someone placed a record-setting flag way up on level 8947.

I've never been that high myself, but it's insanely hard up there....

"This game will never go on sale."

But, hey look, this game is on sale.

Is nothing sacred?

I've lost my moral compass. I've been besmirched. I've changed. I'm not the game developer that I used to be. I'm not the man you married. I'm not the son you fathered. I'm not the baby that you once suckled to your dewy bosom.

And if that last paragraph wasn't clear enough: I've lost my marbles. I'm off my rocker. I'm not playing with a full deck. The lights are on, but nobody's home. I've flown the coop. I've tweaked the weasel. Yes, you read that correctly:

THESE PRICES ARE INSANE!

Somebody stop me before I change my mind!

But why, Jason, after all these years?

The Castle Doctrine is one of my best games, and it stands the test of time. However, it has become price-prohibitive for anyone to play in recent years.

In my early forays into online multiplayer games, I made a big mistake: I designed games that depended on a critical mass of other people to play. This is borderline suicide for an indie game with a small and sporadic audience. (I rolled that lesson into One Hour One Life, which is perfectly playable even if you're the only person playing.)

The Castle Doctrine isn't actually the worst offender in this department, because interaction with other players is asynchronous. You can design a house, and then come back in a few hours to see what other players have been up to. You can rob other players when they're not home, and the content created by whoever has been playing over the past few days is available to you now, even if they're not actually online right now.

The Castle Doctrine doesn't require a huge critical mass of players to work, but it does require a steady trickle of fresh blood. This new, more-appropriate price will make that possible going forward.

And of course, we all remember the glory days when there were 800 active houses online. How can these slim pickings ever live up to that experience?

The game has actually been improved a bit recently to be more low-player-count-friendly, with "state owned" houses fleshing out the list when things get too sparse. There's always something to do, and you can never run out of houses to explore and rob.

But last I checked, a few living players were still hoarding all the paintings. So someone is still playing, and they're in for a big surprise this week, as the teeming masses come beat down their doors.

This is The Castle Doctrine revival.

See you on my security tapes.

Jason Rohrer
March 2020
Davis, California


PS: the Discord server for the game is here: https://discord.gg/HupVMC9

Hola posaderos!

Since today you will be able to play Crossroads Inn in Spanish!

What’s more, Adventurer’s quests are now even more profitable for innkeepers. Now, when you complete a given quest, they may come back with additional gold or surprising gossips! NOTE: This will work only on new quests though!

Important information for our Russian and Chinese friends. We would like to thank you for all your feedback. We are now working on translations for those 2 languages, but before implementing it into the game, we need to be sure, that there will be no translation or grammar errors. But you can expect them soon! :)

New Features:
- Added Spanish language. Rest assured that all of the other languages that we promised are on their way too, just not yet ready!
- Updated Adventurers to make sure that their missions are worth your time. After completing a quest, they will now bring either:
- gold
- gossips
- new piece of furniture
- increased influence in a nearby city
- a new recipe
- a "thank you" letter (which doesn't actually give you anything, but is a nice gesture!)

Items obtained by the Adventurers will now also have new icons.


UI:
- Fixed an issue that prevented storage capacity information from showing up.
- Recipe sale statistics will now update correctly.
- Selling a floor will no longer prevent building a new floor in that spot.
- Information about lore updates in the campaign will appear correctly.
- Deleting an item in a window will instantly remove it from the game.
- When you send someone to perform a task on the map, their portrait will be used as a location indicator.
- Small tweaks to the GUI.

WHAT: Mitoe v. Hazza54321 | ESOC Pro Finals
WHEN: Thursday, March 5 @ 18:00 GMT[/b] (10:00a PT / 1:00p ET)
WHERE: https://www.twitch.tv/ESOCTV

THE EVENT:

The time has come! This is the definitive battle between two Age of Empires III legends. This coming Thursday, Mitoe and Hazza54321 will face off in a best-of-nine bout to claim the coveted title of Winter Champion—as well as a cool slice of the $2250 prize pool pie.

Here's a recap of their journey to the pro finals:

• Both Hazza and Mitoe were expected to go far: clocking in as the third- and fourth-strongest players in the pre-tournament Power Rankings, respectively.
  
• Hazza knocked out No. 1 ranked Kaiserklein with a convincing 4-2 upset in the semifinals.
  
• Mitoe is hot off a 4-0 sweep of Lukas, who beat snowww and the indominable LordRaphael—who is sometimes regarded as the Greatest of All Time.

These two powerhouses belong to a newer time; gone (for now) are the days of iamgrunt, H2O, and BlackStar_OP of the World Cyber Games of 2007 and 2008. New competitors now stand on the shoulders of giants.

Mitoe made his ESO debut in early 2014 to the tune of Lt. Colonel: a humbling experience for a player who dominated the smaller Macintosh scene for years. He showed he was fit to dominate ESO, too, winning the 2017 Autumn Championship in a 5-2 series over Goongoon, and later, two weekend tournaments.

Hazza was a captain in 2016, and in one of the fastest “rags-to-riches” transformations, blew up to become Brigadier in less than two years. Now he's a Major General. Although ranked above Mitoe, Hazza has yet to win a Seasonal Major. He is well poised for his first.

Further, these players have a history of tournament meetings, introducing a psychological factor to this encounter. In the 2018 Autumn Championship, Hazza swept Mitoe 4-0, and again over-performed with a 4-1 victory in the ESOC Premier League. Mitoe was able to get his sweet revenge in the 2019 New World Championship qualifiers, vanquishing Hazza 3-2 in the Round of 16.

But with a Championship Title on the line—including more money and more prestige—which of these two players will rise to the occasion?

—Written by Guest Contributor: SirCallen

Hello I would like to give you a short insight into the new movement and combat system.
In the next phase I will integrate the air combat system and at the same time I will draw the first new opponent, so that Leonidon will be busy again as soon as possible...

What's new:
newly drawn Leonidon (main character)
newly drawn Rezonion (sword)
new basic movement system
new ground battle system



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGuotREF-70&list=PL_wXoiFyx_CMjqoLT9txkfuaLF0TGNVn2&index=12

Increased difficulty of the game. Your statistics as well as those of the monsters have not been changed!

AI :

• There are now patrol groups.
  
• The enemy runs faster.
  
• Monsters can ambush you.
  
• Patrols approaching a combat zone also arrive in combat.

Several statistics have been reviewed:

• The disturbance statistic has been revised, it is now called resistance to the disturbance. Each hit received greater than 5% of your total health points increases your disturbance. The amount depends on the total damage received as well as your resistance. Since accumulation is now possible, you are more likely to suffer the consequences. It’s harder than before to quickly disrupt enemies. The disturbance does not vary if you are already disturbed.
  
• The blocking value has been revised, the chances of blocking as well as the blocked value are greater, but you now have a time when no blocking will be available.

Change in item rewards:

• A statistic "chance to find magic items" has been added.
  
• Items you receive as quest rewards can have different levels of rarities.
  
• Items you receive as quest rewards may have improved rarity compared to the base rarity shown.
  
• Bosses have a 100% chance to give 3 to 5 items and no longer 54%.
  
• The odds of getting a good quality item are influenced by the rank of the boss.
  
• Chance to get an item when killing a monster has been reduced from 54% to 40%
  
• Chance of having rare item reduced from 10% to 8%
  
• Chances of having a magical item reduced from 34% to 20%
  
• The chance of having a white object increased from 52 to 69%.

Balancing:

• The end of the Granock Forest cave is level 7, as is the boss, instead of 6.
  
• Summons of the Skeleton Lord are 100% more powerful.

Bug fix:

• Fixed a bug that occurred when multiple groups of monsters were killed in one hit.

We are excited to announce that everyone of you who owns the Supporter Pack will soon own our official Felix the Reaper Artbook as well.

You don't have the Supporter Pack yet? - Why not?! We still have a special offer running, so now is the perfect timing!

If you don't like it, I can revert it back to what it was.

• New Bot Actions: Random Strafe + Jump, Random Strafe + Crouch, and Random Strafe + Jump + Crouch.
  
• Added "Mouse Invert" option in Game Settings.
  
• Minor bug fixes.