Lorenzo il Magnifico News

Howdy folks, Cody here.
In the last few hours we had some hardware problems on our Lorenzo server and I'm sorry to inform you that the games that were running at the time got lost.
Due to the fact that this was a destructive and unscheduled arrest, those of you who were involved in games might find that the Steam notifications for those games are still present. I'm working on a fix for it, server side.

Sorry for the inconvenience, have a nice day!
Cody

Buonasera fellow players,

as per title, the async multiplayer server of Lorenzo il Magnifico will be down approximately starting 8AM CET on Thursday april 14. Maintenance shouldn't take up more than a couple of days.

During maintenance, the multiplayer system will be offline, and all ongoing online games will unfortunately be terminated - so run to wrap up all games you have in progress!

Fear not though, as the system will be back soon, and more stable than ever.

Cheers,

Howdy!
With today's patch, we are finally bringing a major update to our beloved Florentine game.




That's right, with the extensive tests we were able to do (thanks to those who played on the experimental branch, your help has been invaluable

• The Async lobby will replace the current multiplayer system entirely, even on the stable branch of the game.
  
• Multiplayer can
• still* be played synchronously if all players are online and in-game at the same time.
  
• Steam Notifications will let players know when it's their turn, or when the game ends.
  

For those who don't remember, this new system basically allows players to close Lorenzo even mid-game, and to play their turns when their opponents are offline. Those games save their state and can be later resumed.

Needless to say, the server is up again. Now go get some VPs.


That's right. It took us a while, but finally it's possible to UNDO actions during single player games. A new button will appear next to the confirmation button every time you make an action - be it an actual Family member action, the choice of a bonus, the turn end, anything.
We hope you will appreciate it and put it to good use.

Older games *should* be compatible with this new update, but we encourage to start anew just to be sure.


Obviously it wouldn't be a significant update without some squish squash of other bugs around the game. Most notably, we finally figured out what was causing the AIs to get stuck from time to time; we hope this is the last time we need to address this issue. (If you still find a situation where the AI still soft locks the game, though, make sure to send a bug report through the game menu!)
For a complete list of all the bugs fixed, as usual, please refer to Lorenzo's roadmap.

[h2]If you have issues while launching the game:[/h2]
Some testers (especially on OSX platforms) have reported that after the update, Steam throws an error whenever the game is launched:
If this happens to you, simply uninstall and then reinstall the game. That should do the trick.
This is related to the game engine upgrade being unfriendly with Steam configuration files.



As usual, we'd like to thank our beloved players for keep on playing Lorenzo il Magnifico. You put fuel in our bones. And we appreciate your patience and support.

Howdy folks,

tomorrow we will bring down Lorenzo's Multiplayer Asynchronous server for maintenance for a few days.
This means, asynchronous multiplayer games on our Experimental branch will be unavailable, and any multiplayer game which is not yet ended will result in being deleted to ensure compatibility with the newer version.

The good news is, once this update is done, the game will use the Steam Async notification system, thus allowing players to know when it's their turn! We will also move everything to the stable branch, so more players will have access to it.

Server will stay down for approximately 15-20 days, during which all offline functionalities will obviously work as usual.

Many thanks, and see you on the other side!

Howdy folks,

lately we've been busy with a little something a lot of you were hoping for: asynchronous multiplayer!
As this feature is currently in its alpha stage, it is currently available only through the Experimental Branch; read the following information to see how it works and how to get access to it.



[h2]What are we talking about?[/h2]
This is a different approach to multiplayer. Unlike the current version where you have to stay online throughout the whole game (the "synchronous" multiplayer), in this new version you can exit the game whenever you see fit without losing any progress, just as it happens with offline games.

Another advantage of this new approach is when you create a match, if there is no one online in that moment, your "open game" will persist on the server and other players will be able to join later on. Once the adequate number of players is reached, the game will actually start.

[h2]Why is this an Alpha?[/h2]
We are still finalizing the core features and working out the last few bugs. Before we move on, we need to put the infrastructure through some good ol' stress test. Expect some minor inconveniences, and some occasional maintenance time.

As soon as the new system is solid enough, we will move everything to the main game branch.

PLEASE NOTE: we will need to take down the server from time to time. When this happens, to ensure consistency, all online games will be deleted.

[h2]Is the system complete, feature-wise?[/h2]
Not yet. The Async multiplayer is still missing some major features, such as timers and notifications. We'll keep you posted as soon as something new is available.

[h2]What if something goes wrong?[/h2]
You may encounter issues while playing with this new system. If that happens, or if you see something out of place, don't forget to send a Bug report (or a general feedback) through the gameplay menu. Every report helps!
Of course, we already have a list of minor bugs we are working on. We'll get there, one step at a time.

[h2]How to switch to "Experimental" branch[/h2]
From your Steam library, right-click onto Lorenzo il Magnifico and choose "Properties...".

You'll be prompted with a popup. Click on "Beta" tab, where you'll find a dropdown menu. From it, just choose "experimental".

The game should auto-update as usual, but if it doesn't, simply try restarting Steam.

If the procedure goes well, you should see v.1.2.0 on the top right corner of the main menu, once you open the game.

(If you ever want to get back to the current version, you can opt out with the same procedure by choosing "None" from the dropdown menu)

[h3]As usual, thank you for your invaluable support.[/h3]
If you need further assistance or wanna give us some feedback, don't forget to visit our Steam Community Page or peek around on BoardGameGeek!