Kingdom Wars 4 News

Hey Everyone,

We are happy to bring you the next Plagues update. This update changes the gameplay dramatically as we looked to streamline the world map and war economy, as well as to open up new strategies. This update also changes the flow of battles, making them faster and smoother.

We continue with our 7th update as early as next week - as some of the bigger projects that we have been working are nearing completion.

We will also have a major announcement about the future of The Plague on November 25th (spoiler - it`s a very big move, that ends up in a muuuuch bigger and better game for all our fans)

Meanwhile, lets take a look at Update # 6 (v0.21)

[h2]Changes and Additions[/h2]

• Major revision of economy - units no longer required food to create, only silver and wood
  
• Units consume food a lot faster no, making strong food economy essential to sustaining an army
  
• Units are cheaper to recruit now, allowing strategy of quickly creating and then dissolving an army
  
• Rebalanced cavalry - they are a lot stronger now, and truly dominate the battlefield
  
• Cavalry units require food resources up-front to train them, for horses
  
• Combat is much faster now, about 30% faster fights between melee battalions
  
• Fixed issues in naval combat where units will keep on fighting for a very long time
  
• Reduced the protection bonus to units that are on walls, speeds up the sieges a little bit
  
• Range units now do a lot less damage, and are less OP - all ranged armies will no longer work
  
• Siege weapons can now survive a bit longer vs ranged fire, making sieges less dead locked
  
• All unit hitpoints reduced by about 30% that rebalances melee battles together with other changes
  
• Balancing for piked units to perform better in many stations
  
• Rebalanced horse carts and other economy unit prices and functionality
  
• Fixed rare crash when returning to the main menu
  

Hey Everyone,

Today we have a major update for The Plague. As work still continues on the Undead armies and Dead Rising DLC, we have made a lot of progress in other areas.

Today`s update greatly advances the world map presentation - with a lot of new details and visual improvements. Performance was also improved in this update. Starting from quicker loading times to much better FPS both on the world map and battles.

And finally we have started the big push towards rebalancing the gameplay. Once this project is complete in the next update, we`ll have a much faster and evolving game, where it`s easy to quickly build up and expand, but same time, mistakes can cost dearly through the survival aspects of the game.

Our next update can be expected by October 25th

And so, lets take a look at Update # 5 (v0.20)

[h2]World Map Redesigned[/h2]

• Reworked appearance of clouds on the world map - a lot thicker and higher altitude
  
• Added various birds including eagles, seagulls etc flying at different altitudes
  
• Trade-ships will now sale between different port cities
  
• Hamlets on world map now show various tiny towns instead of just farmland
  
• Decreased world map loading time by 25%-30%
  
• Removed thousands of objects from the world map for a much cleaner look
  
• Improved FPS on the World map on average by 40%
  

[h2]Major Gameplay Changes [/h2]

• Campaign gameplay difficulty overall increased by up to 25%
  
• New approach to personal time, it`s greatly limited now, especially on harder settings, getting player to prioritize when to use it
  
• Military and town buildings are a lot more expensive now, up to 3 times more
  
• AI attacks player faster during the start of the campaign, with hard difficulty even right away
  
• Plague doesn`t start spreading uncontrollably unto 1349
  
• Reworked how the plague spreads in the first two years - it`s historical now
  
• Plague starts by spreading along naval trade routes and according to the quest notifications
  

[h2]Performance and Presentation[/h2]

• Player color is now green, and AI players changed from green to shades of white and grey
  
• Fixed various issues with flags not being well visible
  
• Fixed issues with part of the edge of the battle map being cut off
  
• New combat epic and performance cameras - bring much better performance
  
• Lower quality of unit models for combat units - much better performance on all settings
  
• Increase game speed up during town build up mode from x1.5 to max x3
  
• All URDs for armies now play, before only 3 played out of 6
  
• URDs are good deal quitter for armies and units
  
• Faster zoom in and scrolling on the world map
  
• Better GUI scaling and various GUI improvements
  

[h2]Fixes and Additions [/h2]

• Fixed Personal time being added more on hard settings then on easy or medium settings
  
• Temporary removing Slav campaign army lines, they weren`t working well
  
• Fixed presentation of campaign quest windows - no lag, and audio que
  
• Call to Arms now only activated with middle mouse button and no longer double click
  
• Palisade gate is now clearly visible and different from the wall
  
• Speed of ships on the world map increased by additional 30%
  
• Fixed town on Nablus not showing on the world map
  
• Fixed town of La Aquila not showing on the world map
  
• Fixed ships being unable to pass off the cost of Italy on the world map
  
• Adjusted monthly healing on the world map, both player and AI heal a bit less per month
  
• Less self damage to cavalry when running over units
  
• Changed “Time Limit” into sentence, telling player he`s out of personal time
  
• Larger citizen icon on the army window
  
• Paris and Desert Paris map removed Notre-dame and add houses
  
• Fixed some layout issues on new campaign screen
  

Hey Everyone,

Following the release of the 4th major update yesterday, we are starting the big sale drive today, with Plague on a 20% sale for the next two weeks.

In addition, we have created bundles that reward players who have already purchased Medieval Kingdom Wars, and can now get The Plague at additional 15% off, making it a 35% total discount.

Meanwhile work continues, as we are back to weekly updates, and with free Undead Rising DLC finally scheduled to unlock later on this month.

If you have missed details on yesterday`s update, you can find them here. We have redesigned the combat to address a lot of player complaints. Units now fight each other instead of swinging weapons in the air while standing meters apart.

This update also brings some solid improvements to GUI, improves various diplomacy issues, and also completes Spanish and Italian translation.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1300700/announcements/detail/2876066814677608567

Hey Everyone,

As the summer is nearly over we are back to active Early Access development on the Plague, with regular updates planned for every other week.

First of all - we have to apologize for the delays with release of the Dead Rising DLC. We hit a few snags and very busy August production schedule. Right now we are looking at finally releasing it later in September. And to confirm it will be automatically added to everyone who owns the game.

Now lets take a look at today`s large update. First and foremost we have finally redesigned the combat to address a lot of player complaints. Units now fight each other instead of swinging weapons in the air while standing meters apart.

This update also brings some solid improvements to GUI, improves various diplomacy issues, and also completes Spanish and Italian translation.

We also re-balanced the early game making it a lot easier to get started.

Meanwhile, lets take a look at Update # 4 (v0.19)

[h2]Additions and Changes[/h2]

• Major improvement to how units fight in melee
  
• Units will no longer slash into the air and do damage, but will fight close quarters
  
• Fixed major issue with Cavalry units fighting several meters apart from their target
  
• Various polish and improvement to interface and GUI scaling
  
• Fixed various bugs with too many remote nations declaring war
  
• It`s now easier to setup trade agreements with remote nations
  
• Fixed issue with all nations declaring war at certain point during campaign
  
• Fixed world map army narration using incorrect cultural set voice lines
  
• Fixed player not being always fully see his attacking army or city due to map view cutoff
  
• Earlier game is a lot faster and easier for build up now
  
• Wood income is improved for both lumber camp and sawmill
  
• Improved wood income from lumber camp and sawmill
  
• Rebalanced range damage by siege weapons they are not nearly as deadly and OP now
  
• Minor rework of fog of war, darker and hides things better
  
• Completed Spanish Translation
  
• Completed Italian Translation
  

Hey Everyone,

As we continue we have a great third EA update for you today. In today`s update we completely redesigned the scaling and presentation of the GUI. Everything has been redesign to be much smaller, sleeker yet still usable. Please let us know what you think, and what else should be improved.

In addition this update completes the major Hamlet expansion as well as reworks early game combat gameplay. AI will not always finish at least basic walls in it`s Level 1 hamlets, so need to have that Battering Ram handy. In the next update we`ll also make AI much better at defending the small hamlet walls (right now it`s lacking a little bit)

In the next update we`ll finally include Spanish and Italian localization, as well fixes for last noticeable bugs remaining across the board. And hopefully we`ll have Dead Rising free DLC done or nearly done.

Meanwhile, lets take a look at Update # 3 (v0.18)

[h2]Additions and Changes[/h2]

• Redesigned combat GUI with much smaller scale
  
• Updated and re-positioned campaign creation GUI
  
• Redesigned world map GUI with much smaller scale
  
• Additional GUI changes with smaller scale and/or positioning across the board
  
• Hamlets both for player and AI can now have full surround wall at level 1
  
• Early game gameplay evolved, with siege combat becoming a lot more important
  
• World Map AI will rush to upgrade hamlets with level 1 right at the start
  
• A number of small scale performance inprovement