Greetings warriors! Starting the month (and the year) on a great note!
[...In order to skip storytime and get straight to the changelog, scroll right past the third picture...]We're quite late on this, but... Happy New Year! We haven't come empty-handed however, we've come bearing gifts! Thank you for your patience, feedback and continuous support.
These have been trying times for everyone, and our team was no exception. We hit one too many walls over the course of development, desperately trying to fix the persisting issues and bring a better version of BR to everyone. We were brainstorming solutions, looking for the most effective ways to deal with a new update, but every time we tried to follow up on what seemed to be the right thing to do, one thing or another just didn't want to budge, ultimately resulting in us starting over and over again.
We even went so far as recovering the original BR code from the 00s, but we were unable to make it work with Steam as it is as ancient as the Dragon itself, thus refusing to compile under Steam's conditions. We were torn between two options: continuing to work on the current SteamBR code that was hated by probably everyone on the team or we could try looking for ways to use the original code and lay the groundwork for Zen Edition that way.
It was rightfully frustrating, but we were hell-bent on this particular goal of making things work one way or another, and we definitely weren't going to give up. It wasn't until one fateful night that our lead programmer (Nicolas- truly the limelight of this announcement. Please, show him some support!) was able to make a breakthrough by finding a proper way to compile the original code while maintaining the good parts from the SteamBR code.
This has been a literal game changer that allowed us to considerably stabilize the game and bring you what is probably the best version of Battle Realms there is.
Ladies and gentlemen, after continuous struggles, ups and downs, highs and lows, we're rolling out a massive update in hopes that it was worth the wait. Now, let's get down to details, shall we?
1.57 Changelog:
[h3]
Disclaimer: this is a new build of the game, meaning all SteamBR data mods and other modifications will no longer be compatible with it. We've been advising to refrain from modding BR due to these exact reasons.[/h3]
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[h3]Technical:[/h3]
- Drastically reduced the amount of Sync Errors in Multiplayer.
- Fixed flickering in Journey cinematics.
- Fixed the "Black Squares" bug related to the field of view. Normally you'd see black squares (unrendered terrain when changing FoV with mouse wheel).
- Fixed various UI bugs.
- Fixed chat messages (sometimes a certain combination of characters would crash the game, the famous "%a" as an example).
- Fixed the "Invisible Rendering" bug that occurred due to Wolf Pitch Slinger's attacks.
- Fixed random crashes when playing.
- Fixed crashes that occurred if the game had been minimized for too long.
[h3]Gameplay:[/h3]
- Peasants should not force repair/construct a building on fire.
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[h3]Technical:[/h3]
- Multiplayer stabilization: improved speed and performance for games with more than 2 players. That means you can close this changelog right now and flood the Steam Multiplayer to have some delightful games with other players or with our improved AI. :)
- By popular request, we restored the original camera zoom, but added extended rotation over new FoV: you will experience game's original zoom but adapted to new FoV, so evaluating terrain height will no longer be an issue. We hope this hybrid zoom will suit everyone.
[h3]Gameplay:[/h3]
We've introduced a couple Unit AI features that improve the default behavior patterns of certain units.
- Unit AI: Melee units now engage in combat in a wiser way: originally they rushed all-in to the weakest enemies they could find, now they will keep their priorities while preferring unengaged units as well.
So, by default, units will essentially try to engage as many troops as they can, instead of just ganging on the weakest units.
- Unit AI: Healers will now walk on the battlefield aiding those in need. Normal walking if everything's OK and running if a unit is dying.
- Unit AI: Melee units with secondary weapons (Dragon Warrior, Kabuki Warrior, Samurai & Bandit) will prioritize their melee weapon over their secondary (missile) one.
Since we'd like to believe the Multiplayer is actually working this time, and after observing the community and seeing how many players just enjoy spending time in some AI (bot) rumbles, we might've changed some AI related things, hopefully for the better. Here they are:
- Reworked AI profiles and added a bunch more for the overall diversity.
- AI will now take profile parameters into consideration, if the Intelligence parameter is over 65, AI will be able to recover from blindness (Serpent Cannoneer's Smoke BG / Serpent Watchtower's Blinding Flash, etc..)
- Bots will now learn techniques in a much more efficient way instead of hoarding points for stronger upgrades and heroes.
- Bot controlled Necromancer now will focus on summoning Spirit Warriors and seeking unit corpses to revive zombies (beware!).
- Bot controlled units will destroy any magic objects that deal damage to their troops.
- Bot controlled healers now run to safety if threatened.
- Bot controlled healers are less likely to disband from war parties.
- Bot controlled healers will now run away if directly attacked (instead of running to enemy).
- Bot controlled Tao will use his BattleGear not only if many enemies engage him but also if he engages someone stronger than him.
- Bot controlled Issyl will use his BattleGear when engaging in combat rather than for movement purposes.
- Bot controlled Leaf Disciple won't use his BattleGear when in combat, he will use it for scouting and exploration.
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[h3]Rollbacks:[/h3]
- In order to ensure maximum in-game stability, we had to revert some features that were on our suspect list: zoom-in and zoom-out feature (merged into hybrid zoom instead), quick unit response and the generation speed limitation for peasant huts we introduced earlier (it is, again, unlimited for the time being).
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This time it's a pretty big one!
Here's a fun fact: Liquid Entertainment had many unused levels in their archives. We're bringing a part of them to you - have fun with whole 29 maps! More to come in the future updates. :)
[h3]2 Player Maps:[/h3]
- Checkmate (2).sam
- Deadlands (2).sam
- Death In The Mud (2).sam
- Duel at Dawn (2).sam
- Mountain Springs (2).sam
- Rolling Ridge (2).sam
- Serpent Island (2).sam
- Siren's Maw (2).sam
- The Dead Zone (2).sam
- The Pass (2).sam
- White Cliffs (2).sam
[h3]3 Player Maps:[/h3]
- Field of Abundance (3).sam
- Inspiration Point (3).sam
- Tatami (3).sam
- Zymeth Gorge(3).sam
[h3]4 Player Maps:[/h3]
- After the Deluge (4).sam
- Arborlake Ruins (4).sam
- Flathill Forest (4).sam
- Muckwater Bog (4).sam
- Peering Down (4).sam
- Quagmire (4).sam
- Rivercourse (4).sam
- Watering Hole (4).sam
[h3]5 Player Maps:[/h3]
- Exotic Sunset(5).sam
- Paranoia (5).sam
[h3]6 Player Maps:[/h3]
[h3]8 Player Maps:[/h3]
- Old Hermit's Wetlands (8).sam
- Spider's Pile (8).sam
- Warlord's Camp(8).sam
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More to come! It's been a lot of hard work, we're immensely proud to release this. We sincerely hope you'll be able to have as much fun with this update as we had testing it.
Don't forget to tell your family and friends how cool this update is, share with everyone you know as well! That would help us a ton, for now we're inviting you to share your thoughts down in the comments.
Stay tuned for more updates!
- The Battle Realms Team
