News Of The Realms - Almost There!
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:
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...
[h3]ā¢ State of the Update 1.58 š[/h3]
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.
[h3]ā¢ Preparing for the Release š¢[/h3]
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 [email protected] , 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! :)
[h3]ā¢ Sneak Peeks š[/h3]
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:
ā¢ 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.
ā¢ 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.
ā¢ 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!
ā¢ 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. :)
ā¢ 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.
ā¢ ...And More.
Much more, you may even see some lore-friendly content restored. :)
[h3]ā¢ Go Open Beta! ā ļø[/h3]
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. :)
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]ā¢ Final Words š¬[/h3]
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!
āā
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!
[h2]Battle Realms Fundraiser:[/h2]
[h2]Follow Battle Realms:[/h2]
[h3]Stay tuned for more updates!
- The Battle Realms Team[/h3]
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...
[h3]ā¢ State of the Update 1.58 š[/h3]
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.
[h3]ā¢ Preparing for the Release š¢[/h3]
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 [email protected] , 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! :)
[h3]ā¢ Sneak Peeks š[/h3]
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:
ā¢ 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.
ā¢ 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.
ā¢ 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!
ā¢ 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. :)
ā¢ 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.
ā¢ ...And More.
Much more, you may even see some lore-friendly content restored. :)
[h3]ā¢ Go Open Beta! ā ļø[/h3]
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. :)
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]ā¢ Final Words š¬[/h3]
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!
āā
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!
[h2]Battle Realms Fundraiser:[/h2]
[h2]Follow Battle Realms:[/h2]
[h3]Stay tuned for more updates!
- The Battle Realms Team[/h3]