Apr 16, 2023

Robber Knight - Sartorian

After 9 months, we have a polished out plan to make a game you will all love. We have watched hundreds of hours, of streams, read all of your answers in our surveys. So it is time for a Road-map update. You don't have to compare it with the old one. I will mark, very thoroughly, what has changed.

But first what is coming in the next update on 16th may.

Premade buildings and AI Management

So in the medieval setup – most of you look for the experience of becoming a feudal lord or a Raubritter. But not many of you want a solo-survival. From what we have understood, you are more interested in ensuring the survival of your subjects. Not wandering alone through the woods.
With this update you will be able to build premade buildings, establish production workflows, hire AI, train them. But you will also have to care for them.

For now, it will work, like in Conan. So the AI will be sort of part of the building you will assign it too. When you tell us the economy is well-balanced we will move to make it into a full AI live – just as almost all of you wanted.

The AI will have 4 mastery levels. From peasant to master. The better the AI the faster he will work and less resources he will use to produce items for you.

Smaller castle parts

The building of castles, was for now a big misunderstanding. Some of you managed to build, impressive castles, but it was You vs the game. So a pleasant sight in the end, but watching you struggle was a real pain for us.

So we will change the whole system into smaller parts. Add also some wooden parts to it. So you can build a real medieval caste.

This time we start with stone castles and when you tell us the building is finally a pleasant experience we will add the different materials again and prepare the premade castles to rebuild as you wanted.
There will also be a lot of new parts, making it possible to build more than a square castle. In general, the main goal was to give you more freedom

So no more building village huts with the building plan. But premade buildings and full freedom with the castle building.

New skill system

For the leveling system, almost 80% of you picked a mix of level up by doing and points that are now. So we decided that every in game skill will have his level, and they will together work for a main level.
For example. By crafting swords you will become a better blacksmith and in the same time you could gain a main level, for which you will receive points, which you can convert into strength, dexterity, charisma, handcraft and endurance.

So both your decisions and what you will be doing in game will affect how your character evolves.

New Map system

I was thinking about how to make it the most medieval we can, keep the 60 fps running, make it beautiful, make it alive and at the same time do no take anything from you.

Thanks, God, 68% of you choose. Smaller locations but more options to have fun. Which made it easier for me. But I have an idea which will not completely remove a big open world from the game.

The game will start on Hamishes Land(In older versions he was teaching us the game), yes he is coming back, and he will be much better looking. So he will make fun of us, that we will be his vassals now but as taxes for his land he demands just to feed him (he eats like a bear).

We will fast discover that he might be a good warrior, but his lands are a complete ruin. Of course, he neglected tax to the main lord of the land, which will cost as a lot of work to repay. But at least we have a place to start our campaign against our treacherous brother (For newcomers there will be a movie at the beginning of the game explaining the story).

So the main map will be smaller. But thanks to it you will be able to Focus on managing the village, building, not on walking around through empty lands.

And the discovering, and the RPG part will take you around various locations. I will try to prepare a new bigger location at least every 3 months. The great part with organizing it like this – is, there will be no wipes required with adding new stuff to explore.

The caravans will be both in the open-world and travelling through your new land. Just like you wanted.
And we will be able to remove binding to the host in co-op. Only the more detailed locations to come, like Cracow will have it turned on (or will be disabled in co-op). We will see. How this new system performs.

The exploration map will come back with the next update (22 July). For this 2 months there will be, only the smaller one to test everything related to building and AI managing.

Community suggestions

This point, we are not 100% sure we will make it on time to 16th may. Because as you see, we are already trying to cover a lot of the roadmap in one point.

For sure, we hope for a new mineable system. Which means no more running around, looking for clay, iron etc. You will just to have find one spot and there perform the mining action. So no more waiting for iron respawn. You can work as much as you want.

New Animations and 3rd person. – We want to make the movement more natural, for now it feels a little bit like we would be on the moon. But it is a lot of work. So it is highly possible it will come with the update on 22 July. When we will want to celebrate our 1st birthday.

And many small things, like fog of war on map, more natural animal respawns etc.

Ok time for the road-map update.

Road map points update from 16 may will cover:

0.60 – become an innkeeper (tavern owner)
0.61 – Establish a mill and bakery
0.62 – Become a master blacksmith (Own a smithy)
0.63 – Tailor – maybe one day you will even dress the queen.
0.64 – Alchemist – look for the way to make artificial gold or the potion of immortality
0.65 – Mine owner – be carefull, that will make some people jealous.
0.66 – Bank owner – do not lend to the king, it might get you exiled.
0.68 – Brewerer – own your vineyard, honey-making hall or brewery
0.69 – Master Carpenter – sell your furnitures and bows to the whole kingdom
0.73 – Gems, Gold, Silver and a new map part
0.74 – Jewelry update
0.39 – AI companions - slaves or workers, knights and mentors to join your band
0.45 – Alchemy update – sand, glass, making bottles, different levels of potion strengths, special ingredients for special potions,
0.44 – Animal traps for rabbits, fishes, birds etc. + bird nests as feather source
0.58 - Craft guild update - (farmhand-> apprentice-> foreman-> master)
0.40 – Animal husbandry, Seasons/Crops/Herb Gardens update – This one is a big hope for the next update. And the Seasons for starters will only be a timer – without graphic visualization. We want to first make sure it is properly balanced.
0.35 – Added community suggestions like 3rd person, controller support, numbers on hot bars, turning off head bob etc.
0.34 – All found bugs fixed, Fast travel from certain places with carts, water buckets and wine skin to fill in the river, return of the bigger premade buildings.
0.99 – Surprise new items and Animals
0.91 – University update – Develop new technologies to upgrade your productions possibilities, fighting skills of your NPCs or item statistics.
0.49 – Dungeon update - Build your own dungeon, it will not be based on real-time terraforming.
0.79 – Lord of a city
0.36 – part about woman in game
0.80 – Economy system update (different prices, in different regions chancing over time and seasons) also your social status, trade skills and the amount you are buying will make a difference. + Negotiations.

Road map – we hope for end of Early access April 2025

We discovered bigger updates make most of you more happy. So we will release a update every 2-3 months. And hotfixes bi-weekly. Only for the last update with story will need from 6-12 months.

0.67 22 November 2023

Adding AI life routines, faction relations, Reputation system, and social rank added.
Raubritter or guards raids, depending on your reputation level/ wanted meter.
Upgrade weapons - add poison, sharpen the blade on a grindstone.
Weapon type update – Different type of arrows, bolts and special features for swords, blunt, axes or spears.
AI effects – Burn them with fire arrows, blind them with sand etc.
Throwing weapons knives, spears or your sword if you choose so.
Bows update with better physics
Improved combat with direction of blow related to mouse movement, Limbs severing
Formation update – you can lead your band as a medieval leader would.

0.79 22 Februry 2024

Thief Update – Pickpocketing, Lock picking, AI reactions to stealing, Prison, Legal system. Stealth . Many of the items that are only as details will be takeable.
Establish your thief's guild.
Catching NPCs for ransom
Various traps to attack caravans
Slave market
Gambling update, various fun games cards, dice etc.+ a little joke a Merchant called Frank that talks crap to you when you buy from him

0.85 may 2024

Character and crest creator
Photo mode
Horses/Carts/ update. Caravans with carts and carts for you to transport your resources.
Items placeable on shelves, tables etc. + decorating premade buildings.
player "built" roads, fences, and tags for chests
Holidays update – various Holidays with special events in game. Like trade day, Sunday mass etc.,
Random events(kings visit, Foreign raid etc.) and diseases outbreaks updates (Black Death, rabies, madness, flu etc.)
Fishing update – You will be able to fish yourself.
Animal companion Update – dog, cat, eagle or owl as your house pet.
Guest's update – NPCs will visit your castle with various quests

1 Between December 2024 and May 2025

The full story update + Steam achievements (language fixes for the previous texts) + map updates based on your feedback, Tavern where you can get special mercenary quests, robberies or move out on an expedition to a dungeon for special items
Tournaments
Spy update – you can send out spies to get information about special targets or how to proceed with a hostile family.
End game scenarios
Adding community suggestions gathered on the way.
Game premiere

Changed

0.34 – All found bugs fixed, Fast travel from certain places with carts, water buckets and wine skin to fill in the river, return of the bigger premade buildings.

This one will be changed into a permanent point – the bugs will be fixed with bi-weekly hotfixes during the whole EA.

So it will be merged with - 0.95 – The rest of the map + Fixing all the bugs found to this point and not fixed on the way

0.36 – Character and crest creator + Women in game
0.75 – Heir update – marry, have children, build up your dynasty. (Political marriages, education paths included)

Here it is not so much as a change, like an anticipation. We do not have enough resources to make a system that will adjust the story, dialogues and the heir system to the player's gender pick. So the Character creator will be about creating your male character.

We will try to enable picking a woman character in co-op. Because there, it is more about having fun together than going through the story.

0.49 – Dungeon update - Build your own dungeon, it will not be based on real-time terraforming.
0.82 - Limbs severing + Torture chamber

The limbs severing will be merged with a fighting update. The torture chamber and dungeon will come with the next update. Torture devices as „decorative” items. So it will be just a place to build. I hope that is enough.

The dungeon is a natural effect of the smaller castle meshes. Not only your imagination will be the limit.

1.Translation into other languages

This will happen on the way. As with the new model, it is now more about adding new content than about changing the current.

0.52 – Cathedral update (Construct a cathedral by your design)

This will be a premade building, changed into a small village church. Unfortunately Cathedrals are a massive hit for performance (they are very detailed) and in a player, co-op village full of AI life not optimize able.

So maybe we will add it in the end together with the free building mode

0.76 – New part of the map
0.57 – Tree planting, Map-update based on feedback and performance measures.
0.90 – Another part of the map unlocked

This three are replaced with the new location every 3 months. I told you about before. Tree planting will be about fruit trees.

0.59 – Beginning of the business update series all business come with a series of small partially repetitive quests - Own stall

This one will be changed with a premade building called the Trading Factory. There will be a big trading system inside. It will sort of work like in port royal or mount and blade.
In general, we are aiming for making a medieval lord simulator, cutting out all stuff which is more about being a medieval peasant or citizen. Of course, at the beginning, the game might force you to work the field yourself – because you start from almost nothing, and you have to build up your power.

0.50 – Tavern where you can get special mercenary quests, robberies or move out on an expedition to a dungeon for special items
0.77 – Carrier paths not related to building – 1. Guard
0.78 – Executioner

These three will be merged as side-stories into the story update.

0.92 – Difficulty modes –

The game will have a natural dificulty mode. To make the world more immersive. That is, if you don't want it hard you can work your fields, pay your taxes. If you want it harder you can stop paying to the king, raid your
neighbors etc. So your decisions will make the difficulty level not settings like 30000% + to hp and dmg of enemies.

Special Building mode with a special empty map where you will be able to build a lot bigger structures.
Moved to after the premiere

Deleted and why

Of course if many of you tells us this point is very important for you will look for a way to achieve it.

0.72 – Levels of quality for items.

We deleted this point because it made a mess of everything and in our opinion the quality ment as different material types is fun enough. How it made a mess? For example, with swords, there could be a situation that 1 item would take even 700 slots. In theory, you could have 100 different quality level, so 100 slots taken, overlaying it with different durability levels. Beautiful mess. The durability makes mess enough.

So, I hope you agree to that having to become a master blacksmith in order to craft steel weapons is fun enough. And Quality is not really needed. Especially that in medieval ages, the craft guild took care about the quality to be on one level. So later we can add for example full plate armors from Augsburg, because they were known to be the best in the whole Europe.

0.56 – Mini-games in crafting (for master levels)

Without the quality level, there is no point in making them. And judging by the survey, only 1/3 of you were interested in those anyway. There will be of course mini-games for thief skills.

Thank you for your time and see you on 16 may!

Your humble scribe and developer
Sartorian