Becastled News

Hey everyone, our biggest update to date is live!

It's a complete overhaul of combat system with new features and better performance. Thanks to everyone who participated in beta, it helped us to fix a lot of bugs and adjust how new mechanis work.

What's new:

• Improved combat with deeper combat mechanics
  
• Enemy towers: destroy them all to win a map. But be prepared - you’ll be attacked with greater force!
  
• Map editor, create and share your own maps
  
• Mini-bosses can spawn every 5th wave, make sure you are ready to meet them! Each is dangerous in it's own way
  
• New river map scenario
  
• You can call militia at night to help you fight
  
• New units leveling system
  
• Pikeman have really long spears now
  
• Swordsman have shields from the start and can cover from arrows
  
• Enemy paths, you can see how enemies will move across the map
  
• Hundreds of new sounds
  
• You can give banners with auras to your units or place banners on walls or towers
  
• Water will freez in winter creating new paths for enemies
  
• Sandbox mode
  
• Combat difficulty now adjusts to your wealth and army size, fights can be more challanging on higher difficulties
  
• Improved game performance
  

Let us know what do you think about new update in the comments!

Hey everyone, quick overview of what is new in this update:

• Improved combat with deeper combat mechanics
  
• Enemy towers: destroy them all to win a map. But be prepared - you’ll be attacked with greater force!
  
• Map editor, create and share your own maps
  
• New river map scenario
  
• New units leveling system
  
• Enemy paths, you can see how enemies will move across the map
  
• Mini-bosses, each is dangerous in it's own way
  
• You can call militia at night to help you fight
  
• Hundreds of new sounds
  
• Simplified mood system
  
• A lot of old bugs was fixed and hopefully not much new was created
  

Performance is greatly improved now, bigger cities and fights will run much more smoothly. Also game works pretty good on Steam Deck, give it a try if you have one.

There are still some bugs there that we want to fix before release on March 24, thought game should generally work fine. Let us know if you encounter any problems here or on discord.

How to join the open beta:

1. Right-click on Becastled in your Steam library.
   
2. Select Properties -> Betas.
   
3. Under Beta Participation, choose beta.
   
4. That’s it! You’ll just need to wait until March 13.
   

Hey everyone, we have some great news for you today: the Combat Update will be released on March 24! If you’d like to play it a bit earlier, you can join our public beta starting on March 13. See the end of this post for details on how to join.

Check out our updated game trailer, which showcases our new vision for the game:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Our goal was to focus on improving the combat aspect of the game. Everything has been built from scratch to deliver a deeper and more engaging combat simulation experience. Performance has also improved significantly.

You will be able to create and share your own maps with the upcoming update. Modify the terrain and place resources as you see fit. Share your map with the community or download maps created by others.

And there is also sandbox mode, build and fight without any restrictions.



We've added mini bosses with this update, they are bigger versions of regular units but they are much tougher. Killing one of them will give your units a lot of expirience.



If all of your troops fall in battle, you can summon a militia. Every villager will pick up a weapon and join the fight. However, be careful—this is your last line of defense.



To help you prepare for night battles, we’ve added a feature that shows enemy attack paths. This will be extremely useful when building walls and gates, allowing you to guide enemies into a deadly trap!



There are many other changes as well, and we’ll post a full list on the release date!

How to join the open beta:

1. Right-click on Becastled in your Steam library.
   
2. Select Properties -> Betas.
   
3. Under Beta Participation, choose beta.
   
4. That’s it! You’ll just need to wait until March 13.
   

That's it for today, see you soon!

Hey everyone, it's been a while, and we have some news on the progress of the upcoming combat update.

[h3]Map win condition[/h3]

Now you can win a map! There are 4 enemy towers on each side of the map, if you destroy all of them and survive the final enemy wave you win. You will still be able to play after that if you want to, but if you’re looking for a challenge, now you have it. Make sure you are ready to defend your castle, as a destroyed tower will summon a much bigger wave of enemies at night. And if you will destroy all towers you will have to defend against the final and strongest enemy wave.



[h3]Better unit roles[/h3]

Since the release, we've struggled to find a good balance between our units, but I think we've found a good solution.

Swordsmen will now have shields by default, and they can use them to protect themselves from arrows. Along with better armor, this allows them to take significant damage and still survive



Knights still wield a big two-handed sword that deals splash damage, making them the most dangerous unit in melee combat.



Pikemen now have long spears, which allow them to have greater attack range. By combining pikemen with knights or swordsmen, you can create a squad that fits your needs in terms of damage or defense



Archers are mostly unchanged, but they have almost no armor. So, leaving them alone in an open field at night might not be the best idea, as enemies also have units with shields.

[h3]New levels[/h3]

Levels make units more powerful than before, and you can easily see the unit level icon. Control and position your troops in a way that allows them to gain experience in each fight, and try not to lose too many of them.



[h3]Dead or injured[/h3]

Speaking of that, you will be able to see how many of your troops died during the fight. A skull icon represents a unit that died, and a cross represents a unit that can be healed in a hospital. The more skulls, the bloodier the fight was. You can hire more doctors to increase the chance that a unit will not die in a fight.



[h3]Banners[/h3]

Also we've added banners that you could give to any unit, each banner will have different aura that will affect your troops. So now you will have much more tools to create unique defence strategies.



[h3]Smarter enemies[/h3]

You’ll need to be more creative defending your castle, as there will be more enemies, and they will be smarter this time! Enemies will bring siege ladders and towers only when it makes sense, saving time to reach the castle keep. They will also use rams to break through gate doors now.



You will be able to see the possible enemy paths, which will help a lot when planning your defenses. The visuals are still a work in progress, but you can already see how enemy attack paths change when you place a wall. Enemies will choose to run around if it’s much faster than breaking down the wall, but if the detour is too far, they will try to break through the wall and might even use a siege ram to help them.



[h3]New map[/h3]

All these new combat mechanics need a better world to truly shine. That’s why we’re working on new map types, along with a map editor, so you’ll be able to create custom maps with interesting designs and challenges. If you’d like, you can also share them with others through the Steam Workshop later on.



[h3]When it's going to be released?[/h3]

We wanted to release it much earlier, but as usual, things grew out of scope. We want to ensure this release is the most polished yet and that we deliver the best possible experience with it. We still aim to release it in a few months.

Let us know what do you thinkg about the upcoming update in the comments!

Hello everyone,

We want to share some progress we have made on the combat update.



As we upgraded our AI, we discovered a cool way to make combat more dynamic. You can see in this clip how knights push archers while they fight. This creates more dynamic and interesting battles. You can feel that the knights overwhelm the archers so much that they push them back.



Check out how the troll pushes knights when moving. Cool, right?

This new technique will allow us to create enemies that cannot be stopped by regular troops. It's not just cool visuals, but also a way to create new combat challenges. Knowing that a troll will go through your troops no matter what forces you to come up with new strategies to handle this.



This technique also allows units to move much faster on walls and ladders.



These movement details bring more life to our simple characters, making them more realistic and alive.



We are focusing on significantly improving siege gameplay. Fights at gates, on walls, and with siege towers and ladders have been completely reimagined and improved. With these changes, we aim to create the best strategy siege simulation game out there.



We are also working on new units and combat content, along with rebalancing old mechanics. We will be ready to share more details next time. Our goal is to make combat more challenging and to bring more depth to this part of the game.

See you next time!