Kingdom Chess News

The game hasn't got a lot of new content, but it was very productive month.
A lot of work has gone into promotion and over 800 players joined Kingdom Chess last month.
Big welcome to all newcomers and bigger thanks to their friends for inviting them.

Features added last month:
- Playtest has been launched. It allows everyone to try Kingdom Chess for free without need to use any beta keys. That is very convenient for everyone, but it creates technical issue. Beta testers and playtesters can't connect with each other. Beta version will be no longer supported for everyone to join Playtest.
- Discord server has been created - https://discord.gg/M7TYPRDWGK. It's something new, so please join us and help improving by providing some feedback and suggestions.
- Markers has been added. Just hold down left control on your keyboard to start drawing arrows. Use left alt or middle mouse button to clear all the markers. This feature has been added to guide players through campaign tutorial and will be improved soon.
- Dialogue and quest interface has been created. At the moment it's only being used in the campaign tutorial.
- Campaign tutorial has finally arrived. Unfortunately it's not finished yet, but it's already available and new parts will be added very soon. Please check it out and provide some feedback.
- There were not many bugs reported. Most of it was related to new features and it was quite easy to fix. Thank you all for your fantastic help.

Over 250 keys given away last month and again lots of feedbacks received. Many players noticed potential in the campaign regardless of it's very early stage. It's very encouraging, so that area will be prioritized for the upcoming months. Massive thanks to everyone involved.

Features added last month:
- Further improvements to AI Level 4 and 5. It can defend better and now includes both capture the flag and domination modes. It still requires few adjustments, however those are minor issues relating to quality of AI decisions.
- Premoves are now available. It's automatically on, but players can switch it off in the settings if they wish so. Only one move can be premade, but that should speed up the game.
- Also character animations can be accelerated. It's accessible in the settings and affects only battle.
- Chat has been added, so players can communicate. "Chat" button now appears when in online mode, but you can just press "enter" to type your messages. Please behave!
- Most of the HUD elements have been visually improved. Only little touches, because it's not very important area at this stage of development. It came out more as side effect when adding new elements.
- Tooltip and context menu has been added. You can notice it in few places, however it's true potential will be used in campaign and tutorials.
- Campaign HUD has been redesigned. Priority was to locate it at bottom of the screen and free the space for chat messages. But it looks so much better now.
- Of course minor tweaks and bug fixes have been made, but there is no need to detail it here.

It's been a tough month. Working on AI brought a lot more obstacles then expected, but it's almost over.

Features added this month:
- New AI Level 5 has been brought in to challenge experienced players. Level 4 also has received massive improvements. However the AI isn't finished yet. It requires few finishing touches along with support for custom modes (CTF, domination & escape) and abilities (Queen of Ice & Jester). Of course it works in all the scenarios but it doesn't include the above things in the move evaluation yet. AI should be fully inclusive and properly tested this month.
- Outline shader brings a cartoony look to the game. It's been a refreshing break from heavy work on the AI. Seems it doesn't cost much GPU power, so it's expected to stay. Hopefully players like it as well.

Over 150 access keys given away last month.
Lot's of feedback and constructive opinions has been taken in.
Massive thanks to everyone involved!

Features added this month:
- Inventory system for campaign (it's just initial setup and will be redesign for visual improvement). Each weapon has a chess moveset assigned to it (Bow - bishop, sword - rook, greatsword - knight). Each character has 2 weapons slots and you can mix it as you want. For example if you place a greatsword into bishop's second slot, he'll move not only as bishop, bus as knight as well. Assassinating a NPC adds victim's items to your inventory. Changing shields and all armour doesn't affect gameplay yet.
- AI has been rebuild from scratch. It's only a tiny bit better then previous one, but still very simple (only 1 depth), It has been optimized and now works properly in all scenarios (including 3 and 4 player variants). Further improvements are expected this month.
- Variant description has been added. Each scenario in battle now has an information screen with the rules explained. It'll pop up as hint each time the scenario is loaded for first time. It's also accessible from menu / information. It's a first step to a proper hint system.
- Piece description has been added. Just right click on a piece to find out what it does. It uses inventory system and will be improved further with hint system.
- A lot of bugs has been fixed. I was ashamed to find out some core mechanics like castling or promotion didn't work properly in some situations. All major problems has been fixes with small improvements added in many places.
- "Play with dev" event will be taking place. More details will be provided on facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Kingdom-Chess-100371858527268

Happy New Year! Happy New Mode!

Start the campaign to check out basic mechanics of open world structure:
- Formation movement for your team (formation change, joining or separating form the group).
- NPC movement (patrolling, detection, chase, attack, check and retreat).
- Dynamic chessboard (size to match position of pieces and situation).
- Off board movement (pieces can step in or leave board to continue movement in the world).
- Assassination (killing NPC without getting spotted).
- View obstruction (hiding behind constructions or in fields).

There is lack of tutorial / information along with registered bugs.
Small patches are uploaded often few times a week.