Glorious Companions News

Hello there, Companions!



This time we’ve prepared something for you that we actually thought will take us a few more months to roll out - online multiplayer! Coupled with it, we have also implemented the Battlecrew Builder and the Custom Battle mode where you’ll be able to play out various scenarios against AI, another local player (in a hot-seat mode) or via the online multiplayer.

Along with our grand update, we’ve got a brand new trailer video and a new Steam banner art. Let us know what you think of them!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thanks to the new game mode and the battlecrew management options, we’ll also be able to focus more on the game’s balance and we’ll gladly welcome any suggestions on this from the community.

Bear in mind that it’s merely the first iteration of the online functionality, so there might be some issues and lacking features here and there. We’d love to hear your feedback on how the multiplayer mode works, along with reports of any bugs or odd situations you’ve encountered during your playthroughs.You can either post those on the Steam forums or on our Discord server.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the changes in the game’s newest version.





You’ll be able to prepare pre-set battle groups of custom units for various Custom Battle tiers. Each unit will have a pool of Learning Points (as if it were level 10) to spend on attribute upgrades and unlocking special abilities. All the skill upgrades, equipment elements and learned abilities add up to a total Battlepoints cost of the unit along with its base cost depending on the archetype tier (Baron is worth more points than a mere Trapper).

With your battlecrew setups you’ll have to fit into a chosen battle tier criteria. Those go as follows (they might be changed based on playtests though):

• Quick Skirmish (400 Bpts max)
  
• Medium Encounter ( 800 Bpts max)
  
• Clash of Commanders (1200 Bpts max)
  

In the future we’ll add an option to import battlecrews from your Campaign mode save files.





Custom Battles will feature the option to play versus the AI, a hot-seated opponent as well as your friend in an Online Multiplayer match through Steam. When creating a Custom Battle match you’ll be able to pick a time per turn limit, battle tier, map as well as map seed.





We’re also working on a solution that should make the maps feel less same’y! We’ve created a tool that allows us to design a number of different obstacle layouts (so that they make sense tactics wise) and bundled it together with a new vegetation system that should a) improve rendering performance in battles b) randomize all the vegetation and background objects based on the seed value. In the future we’ll experiment with modifying the terrain mesh as well and make the battlefields resemble the part of the world map where the battle actually takes place.





We didn’t quite forgot about the main game mode, which is the campaign. From now on you’ll be able to follow your character’s relationship network with all the nobility, settlements, houses and factions via a handy panel. Keep in mind though that we haven’t focused on this aspect of the game yet as we’re waiting for the World Map 2.0 to put more work into it. So don’t get too worried if the relationship system doesn’t seem to have enough depth yet.


Took us more time than we expected to get to this, but we’re finally adding more special abilities for the Valrenay troops with even more coming in the next weeks.

__

If you notice anything report-worthy please let us know about the issue by posting on the Bug Reports forum board.

• Custom Battle mode with local and online multiplayer
  
• Battlecrew Builder
  
• Procedural generation for the battlefields
  
• Diplomacy Panel
  
• A few special abilities for the Baron:*
  
• Way Out
  
• Farewell
  
• Rain of Bullets
  
• Knockback
  
• Pierce Through
  

__


We’re getting closer and closer to finishing the Scarres race, currently working on their armor sets. Though we’ll most likely wait with their release until we have their special resource and abilities ready to roll out as a fully playable race.



*- special abilities for Baron will be added in the next couple days.

Hello there, Companions!

(ui layout work in progress)

As we’ve mentioned in our last post we’re currently working on a bigger update that we plan to release in the second half of August. We’re also at the same time preparing for the next big update which will be the playable Scarres race.

In the meantime we wanted to show you some development progress and tell you more about what to expect from the upcoming patch for Glorious Companions.

So let’s start with the latter; the major new additions to the game will be:


You’ll be able to prepare pre-set battle groups of custom units for various Custom Battle tiers. Each unit will have a pool of Learning Points (as if it were level 10) to spend on attribute upgrades and unlocking special abilities. All the skill upgrades, equipment elements and learned abilities add up to a total Battlepoints cost of the unit along with its base cost depending on the archetype tier (Baron is worth more points than a mere Trapper).

With your battlecrew setups you’ll have to fit into chosen battle tier criteria. Those go as follows (though might be changed based on playtests):

• Quick Skirmish (400 Bpts max & 6 units total)
  
• Medium Encounter ( 800 Bpts max & 10 units total)
  
• Clash of Commanders (1200 Bpts max & 15 units total)
  

In the future we’ll add an option to import battlecrews from your Campaign mode save files.


Custom Battles will feature the option to play versus the AI, a hot-seated opponent as well as your friend in an Online Multiplayer match through Steam. When creating a Custom Battle match you’ll be able to pick a time per turn limit, battle tier, map as well as map seed.


We’re also working on a solution that should make the maps feel less same’y! We’ve created a tool that allows us to design a number of different obstacle layouts (so that they make sense tactics wise) and bundled it together with a new vegetation system that should a) improve rendering performance in battles b) randomize all the vegetation and background objects based on the seed value. In the future we’ll experiment with modifying the terrain mesh as well.


Took us more time than we expected to get to this but we’re finally adding more special abilities for the Valrenay troops with even more coming in the next month.


While working on the Battlecrew Builder we’ve decided that it’s finally time to contain the leveling balance at least a tad. From now on the LP cost for upgrading an ability will go up every couple upgrades which should also make the archetypes a little more oriented towards their own advantages instead of every unit being able to fulfill the same role too well.

To finish up this post let's take a look at our progress with the fully remade Scarres race:

Tier 3 Warlord

Tier 1 & 2 Armor Designs

Tier 5 Avenger

Hello there, Companions!



We continue with improvements to the core aspects of Glorious Companions. We know that weird behaviors and actions taken by the computer-controlled opponents may instantly put you out of immersion and that’s why we’ve decided to focus on reworking the AI system early on.

We’d love to hear your feedback on how the new AI plays, along with reports of any bugs or odd situations you’ve encountered during your playthroughs. You can either post those on the Steam forums or on our Discord server.

So, without further ado let’s get to changes in the game’s newest version.


The biggest problem with our old approach was the behavior of the enemy captains, which is crucial for balanced and challenging gameplay - we wanted the captains to focus on surviving the battles. The AI will now move all its units in a tight formation and will no longer leave the poor slow Gunners behind right from the get-go. We’ve also spent a lot of time deciding how to value different actions in varied scenarios, for example enemy units shouldn’t decide as often to move out of melee combat zones (which in turn caused them to receive opportunity attacks) or rotate ‘randomly’. The AI has also learned how to utilize covers and will use them to safely reload their guns when needed.

We’ve also made a lot of groundwork for the AI to use abilities which should come in the near future.


We’ve connected the world map clock with battles and thus you won’t have to play through whole battles at night time. Each turn will last an hour (of the game’s time) and you’ll see a smooth daytime transition at the beginning of your round.

This feature also allowed us to customize each battle location’s lighting settings more easily and give them a more distinct look.




You might also notice that your party will move slower through rough terrain from now on. Keep that in mind while traversing mountains or water. In the future (with World Map 2.0 update) this will get more sophisticated but it’ll do as it is for now.


The previous Scale and Plate armors weren’t on par with the other ones and so we’ve decided to remake them from scratch. Check out the new Valrenay looks below:



__

If you notice anything report-worthy please let us know about the issue in the Bug Reports forums board.

• Remade Scale and Plate Armors.
  
• Added dynamic lighting (day & night system) in battle maps.
  

• Fixed a bug with the party size not updating in the world map tooltips.
  
• Fixed a bug with recruited Gunners displaying the beard/hair from the playable character’s customizable options.
  

• Battle AI: AI will now move in a formation instead of leaving the slowest units behind.
  
• Battle AI: AI will react to flanking.
  
• Battle AI: AI Captain will now play much safer, will try to stay in the second line of formation.
  
• Battle AI: AI will favor positions behind covers when their enemy has a lot of ranged units.
  
• Battle AI: Ranged units will no longer favor walking into the enemy melee range.
  
• Battle AI: Fixed AI doing random rotations.
  
• Cities will value different item types differently from now on. (small tweak before the fully fledged resource / region based system)
  
• Movement speed on the world map will now depend on the terrain you’re traversing.
  

__


We’re working on a pretty big update that might take us some time to finish (don’t expect it to arrive in 2 weeks time) but we’re really excited for it. You might need a friend to play through it, if you catch our drift ;) Along with the new update we plan to release a new (and much better) trailer for the game. So… stay tuned for what’s coming!

Also here’s a couple of work in progress images from the upcoming Scarre race:

Hello there, Companions!



We’re back with the first content update for Glorious Companions - the Captain Update. We’ve mostly focused on strengthening the game’s core mechanic and the main goal of the battle, which is to kill the enemy team’s captain before yours dies.

IMPORTANT: Save files from the previous version won’t work on the newest update. Unfortunately you’ll have to start a new playthrough, although the changes we’ve made would impact the game’s beginning and its balance so it’d be wise to start with a new company anyhow.


We’ve always wanted the captains to feel like something more than just ordinary soldiers, and thus each captain will now possess a special ability that’ll improve their survivability (as long as your allies are still alive) as well as provide an active skill enabling some clutch plays. Keep in mind though that using your Captain’s Call’s active part will make you vulnerable afterwards, as the passive part won’t work while the ability is on cooldown.




At last you won’t have to decide between only fighting bandits or wolves, as we’ve added a bunch of new neutral opponents for you to challenge and, most importantly, have some easier targets to chase in the early game. We’ve also changed the Wolf model so say goodbye to the good ol’ low-poly one.
In the future updates you can expect the neutral parties to gain their own cool Captain Calls to differentiate them even more.




We’ve added the first batch of firearms, weapons mainly utilized by the Valrenay men and women, although their technology has already spread throughout the continent and a sight of a Scarre Raider with a musket in his hand isn’t exactly that shocking to the common folk. In the future the Valrenay units will gain even more abilities that can utilize these weapons to their fullest potential, but you can already give it a try in a regular battle.




Based on the feedback we’ve received from the community we decided to add a new panel window where you’ll be able to find grouped information on all your units, how much do you have to pay them and how much food they eat. It’ll also come in handy when you can’t recall in which city you’ve left one of your companions to train a new ability.




The food system is finally here and you may now stress about your companions starving to death (or more likely leaving the company as it’ll get them quite unhappy). Coupled with this change we’ve also added Happiness meters to your companions so you can closely monitor their mood.

Extremely content companions will gain additional EXP boosts while the unhappy companions will suffer adequate penalties.


The character customization got a little more interesting with the addition of different hair options for the player characters. As mentioned on launch, the customization system is something that we’ll keep expanding on incrementally as we progress with the Early Access.

__

If you notice anything report-worthy please let us know about the issue in the Bug Reports forums board.

• Added a new type of abilities available only for the Captain units, the so called Captain Calls:
  
• Last Stand - Engineer / Wise,
  
• Berserk Rush - Mercenary / Wise,
  
• Covering Fire - Gunner / Tough.
  
  
• Added new neutral enemies:
  
• Bears and Bear Cubs,
  
• Stags and Does,
  
• Foxes,
  
• Boars,
  
• New Wolf models.
  
  
• Implemented the first few firearm weapons.
  
• Implemented a Company Overview window panel.
  
• Implemented the Food System.
  
• Implemented Companion Happiness.
  
• Added different hair options for Valrenay Player Characters.
  

• Fixed a bug connected to having only captain in your company and the weekly upkeep window showing up.
  
• Fixed the notification panel on the world map.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could take back a companion after training even when you didn’t have space in your company.
  
• Fixed Engineer’s shield socket position.
  

• Added keyboard shortcuts for controlling the game’s speed on the world map (1, 2 and 3)
  
• Added an option to delete save files directly in game.
  
• Added a popup window when a companion leaves your party.
  
• Tweaked captain generation for the NPC parties.
  
• We’re now displaying special status effects under the units’ HP bars.
  
• Added a popup window after a companion died in battle.
  
• Animals can no longer parry melee attacks. So can’t your fists.
  

Hello there, Companions!



With the weekend in sight we’ve decided to hotfix a few other bugs that have been missed previously as well as implement another batch of QoL tweaks. Hopefully you’ll be able to play without any game breaking interruptions! Meanwhile we’re returning to work on the next week’s content update which you don’t want to miss. Stay tuned!

If you notice anything report-worthy please let us know about the issue in the Bug Reports forums board.

• Fixed a bunch of bugs with the unit equipment screen and item management.
  
• Fixed a bug with the battle result screen, where switching to the loot tab quickly would cancel all the companion animations.
  
• Fixed the incorrect battles won value in the “it’s time to pay your dues” interaction.
  
• Fixed the equipment tab of the unit screen not refreshing on stat level up.
  
• Fixed a bug with units not firing death animation when killed with the second hit of the Blade Furry ability.
  

• Added a popup message about a completed quest in the city screen
  (NOTE: You might be getting some of them retroactively on your old save files - it’s not a bug).
• Changed the name of a neutral creature “Wolf” to “Grey Wolf” for clarity.
  
• Added Action Points icon in the equipment tab of the unit screen next to the armor’s AP penalty value for clarity.
  
• Added Dodge/Block/Parry skill values to the equipment tab of the unit screen.
  
• Made the Captain’s crown icon show above all other health bars.
  
• Slightly increased the font size in the tutorial.
  
• Added the number of units currently in training to the Manage button in character training facilities.