Renown News

[p]Hey, Renowners![/p][p]We're super excited to share that Renown officially enters Early Access on September 22 at 4pm BST / 11am EDT / 8am PDT for $24.99 USD with a 10% launch discount.[/p][p]Following our phenomenally successful crowdfunding campaigns and the awesome efforts from both our development team and you - our amazing community - we've finally reached this huge milestone. As a small studio often operating with just three core developers, this journey has tested us in every way imaginable, yet your support has made every challenge worthwhile.[/p][p]We take immense pride in what we've built together, and this is only the beginning of Renown's potential. While we know the game isn't flawless or as refined as our ultimate vision, we think we've crafted something special given our resources and tight-knit team. What we're delivering is not just genuinely entertaining, but a solid foundation that will evolve and flourish throughout the Early Access experience.[/p][p]Thank you for believing in us and being part of this adventure and do be sure to check out our latest community video below. [/p][p]/Jesse, Alex, Charlie & Kaz [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h2]Launch FAQ[/h2][h3]General Questions[/h3][p]Q: What is Early Access? A: Early Access allows players to purchase and play the game while it's still in development. You'll get to experience the core gameplay and provide feedback that helps shape the final 1.0 launch.[/p][p]Q: How much will the game cost in Early Access? A: $24.99 USD with a 10% launch discount. [/p][p]Q: How long will the game remain in Early Access? A: We estimate 12-18 months, but we're committed to taking the time needed to deliver a polished final product rather than rushing to meet arbitrary deadlines.[/p][h2]Technical & Platform Questions[/h2][p]Q: What platforms will be supported? A: At launch, PC (Steam!)[/p][p]Q: What are the minimum system requirements? A: We'd recommend[/p]

• [p]A 64-bit processor and operating system[/p]
• [p]OS: Windows 10[/p]
• [p]Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K / AMD Ryzen 5 1400[/p]
• [p]Memory: 16 GB RAM[/p]
• [p]Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 3070 or AMD equivalent[/p]
• [p]DirectX: Version 11[/p]
• [p]Network: Broadband Internet connection[/p]
• [p]Storage: 35 GB available space[/p]

[p]Q: Will there be controller support? A: We have minimal controller support at launch, this will work somewhat well for combat but not for the survival systems, full controller support coming soon.[/p][p]Q: Is there multiplayer/co-op support? A: Absolutely, Renown is a sandbox multiplayer experience similar to Rust meets Chivalry. You can absolutely play by yourself, but you'll encounter other real players.[/p][h2]Content & Features[/h2][p]Q: How much content is available at Early Access launch? A: All the foundational elements of a pvp survival game, Building, Raiding, Combat, Looting, PVP, PVE, Crafting, Researching, Progressing, Multiple Mixed Modes, Raid Mode, Voip, Community Server Hosting, Customization, Skins and much more. [/p][p]Q: What features are planned for future updates? A: Firstly polish all the existing features then we have a lot of systems we want to add, RP Items, Further Raiding Equipment, Transport (horses and carts), Boats, Instruments, Missions, Reputation, Leader boards and much more, check out our road map on our discord for more. [/p][p]Q: Will there be regular updates during Early Access? A: Yes! We plan to release updates as often as possible, with both content additions and bug fixes based on community feedback.[/p][p]Q: Can I provide feedback and suggestions? A: Absolutely! Player feedback is crucial to our development process. You can reach us through Discord or via Steam's forums.[/p][h2]Purchase & Access[/h2][p]Q: Where can I buy the Early Access version? A: The game will be available on Steam on September 22nd. [/p][p]Q: Do Kickstarter backers get Early Access included? A: Yes, all backers at will receive Early Access keys before the public launch.[/p][p]Q: Will there be regional pricing? A: Yes, we support regional pricing to make the game accessible to players worldwide.[/p][p]Q: Is there a refund policy? A: Standard platform refund policies apply.[/p][h2]Development & Community[/h2][p]Q: How can I report bugs? A: Please use our bug reporting system in game with detailed descriptions and screenshots when possible, or drop us a line on Discord.[/p][p]Q: Will you add features that weren't in the original plan? A: We're open to community suggestions that align with our vision, though we'll prioritize completing planned features first.[/p][p]Q: How often will you communicate updates? A: We'll provide development updates bi-weekly through Discord and Steam, plus immediate communication for any critical issues.[/p][p]Q: What if I don't like the direction the game is heading? A: We value all feedback and encourage open dialogue. While we can't accommodate every request, community input significantly influences our development priorities.

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[p]Happy September, Renowners, Mr. Z speaking here. Release is extremely close now and we'd like to keep everyone updated on our latest exploits.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Last week we did a huge stress test with our crowdfund backers to see how well the servers would hold up for launch. We'll also be discussing some of the work we'll be doing to prepare for launch.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]During our stress test we tried to see how well the game would hold up with the most players we've ever had on a single server. We're pleased to announce that the game held up convincingly at 80 players, but we were able to reach even higher to 100 with some instability. [/p][p]The goal was to discover all the performance and stability issues we could to fix things before release. We discovered a few key things, mainly that buildings are still a large source of performance degradation, but also there were many minor pieces of the code that became incredibly expensive with so many players online at once, as well inefficiencies in the way our save system functions that could only have been seen with lots of player activity.[/p][p] We had to keep a strict building limit for performance reasons, but even with that included, we had over 25 thousand building pieces in the server.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Its important to note that the goal of this stress test was to see if the game could hold up under load, that being said we learned a few gameplay problems that we'll be addressing in the next few weeks. We really appreciate all the bug reporting and feedback we've been getting lately, its helping us tremendously to improve the state of the game. With that said, we will be holding another stress test soon, although this next one will be focused more on improving the gameplay experience.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We have a few things coming soon, for the game, namely; New melee animations are on the way, Backer rewards, gameplay balancing, bug fixes and improvements to the melee combat. We'll keep you updated as they get completed, but for example we've already begun optimizing some of the performance issues we recorded and have started work on a 1 hand sword animation set that will feel like a tremendous improvement.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Thank you so much to all the backers that participated in the stress test and everyone who has contributed towards our crowdfunding campaign. Your support means everything to us, because of you we have been able to stay independent this whole time, without a publisher conflicting with our creative vision for the game. [/p][p][/p][p]We hope to see you on early access launch very soon. Stay tuned for our next announcement.[/p]

[p]Mr. Z here, we've got a bit of news to go through for this update so lets get right into it. We've had a few breakthroughs development-wise, we've been quiet lately on the community front but also very busy behind the scenes as release approaches.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]To begin we'll be discussing the final pass on Combat mechanics. Currently we're overhauling the combat system, by tweaking and adding new mechanics so the combat feels release ready. Additionally, the Longsword combat animations are receiving a full update as the last pass didn't meet our combat standards. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Once the Longsword animations are completed we'll begin combat testing again immediately so we can fine tune all the values and see what other changes are needed to improve the combat feel. Shields and ranged combat will also be receiving a pass. As well, the One Handed sword and Shield variant will be getting an animation pass as we feel they also don't quite meet our standards for combat.[/p][p][/p][p]We're currently in the middle of doing a localization pass on all the text in game. We currently support the following languages.[/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We hope to get this in by the next patch and we'll be requesting community assistance with improving the localization.[/p][p][/p][p]We’ve added a new music system to really enhance the immersion of the game, with a variety of tracks that play and change over time. This keeps the soundtrack feeling fresh throughout your play sessions and adds an extra layer of atmosphere to the world.[/p][p][/p][p]We have a server queue now, you will no longer have to compete for the single open slot on a server while joining.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]KZ has been busy doing many art fixes this month, as well as improving the performance of the survival map.

 World Polish & Fixes
KZ here, I’ve been combing through the maps, cleaning up and refining hundreds of small details to make everything feel sharper and more immersive:[/p]

• [p]Fixed foliage clipping into rocks and adjusted foliage placement across the board for more natural landscapes.
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• [p]Addressed LOD issues and made smoother transitions to reduce visual popping.
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• [p]Cleaned up dozens of clipping issues and performed general map touch-ups.
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• [p]Gave the UI a round of polish passes to make it feel more consistent.
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• [p]Fixed asset-related crashes, corrected broken rotations, and resolved collision issues.
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• [p]Fixed blood mask issues across characters.
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• [p]Corrected loot spawns that weren’t working as intended.
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• [p]Adjusted animal spawn placements for better gameplay balance.
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[p] AI & Level Design Updates[/p]

• [p]Improved AI placement and refined their pathing for more believable movement.
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• [p]Built an entirely new Training Map from the ground up.
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• [p]Revamped and rebalanced the Moss Map for better flow and visuals.[/p][p]
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• [p]Completed the Cathedral Credits Map, featuring backer statues and gravestones to honor supporters.[/p][p]
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• [p]I have Re done all the cliffs on the maps with better assets now collisions are more solid and they just generally look better[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p] Audio & Environmental Immersion[/p]

• [p]Enhanced river and waterfall sound effects for more depth.
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• [p]Tweaked wading sounds and adjusted movement speed when moving through water.
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• [p]Extended ocean ambience so waves can now be heard closer to the shore.
  
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[p]Performance & Optimization[/p]

• [p]Huge performance jump — from ~30 FPS in the last demo to 90–100 FPS in current tests this of course varies on different hardware but this is based off mid range pc results (still a work in progress). [/p]
• [p]Conducted extensive asset and texture optimization to keep performance smooth.
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• [p]Reworked beach blocking volumes for cleaner gameplay boundaries.
  
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[p]Ongoing & Upcoming Work[/p]

• [p]Finalizing hair physics (still to be implemented).
  
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• [p]Continuing work on tree LODs to make transitions even smoother.
  
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• [p]More Optimization
  
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• [p]More Polish across the board Generally trying to get a solid base for EA
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[p][/p][p][/p][p]Volker and Phanzor have been busy putting together an official Wiki for the game. We hope to populate the wiki with as much information as we can to help players get past the learning curve in the game more easily. If you would like to help out, please contact them directly as we need some volunteers to help maintain the wiki.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]https://rdbkstudios.fandom.com/wiki/Renown_Wiki[/p][p][/p][p]We are also pleased to announce that the dedicated server tool is now available on steam for everyone to download. You will not be required to own the game to host the server as it is available on the anonymous package for anyone to install. We also put together a guide for Linux server hosting on the wiki https://rdbkstudios.fandom.com/wiki/Community_Server_Hosting_-_Linux It is also possible to host on Windows though there is no documentation currently for that. We will be updating the server page as more features are added for server admins. For any large communities interested in testing the dedicated servers before launch, please get in contact with our Community Manager Volker so we can understand your needs better and possibly schedule some tests.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The customization system now supports new skins, including all the backer skins. Backers will be getting their skins on launch day. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We would like to thank our gracious backers for helping our team make it this far, its been through your support that we've been able to develop this game as a small independent team. Release is almost around the corner, its time to start getting your friends hyped up for launch and we hope to see you raiding each other on launch day.[/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello again renowners, its Mr. Z speaking here with an update on what we've been up to lately. KZ and I have prepared a short explanation of what we've been working on lately as launch approaches. KZ has been very hard at work preparing the art side of things for launch, specifically there's been an optimization pass, an external walls rework, and stability fixes. In his words:[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p]A big chunk of time has gone into optimizing the map. I’ve been tackling texture memory usage, cleaning up LODs, utilizing static mesh instances, and making sure key points of interest are running smoother across the board. [/p][p]The goal is to ensure we squeeze out every bit of performance without sacrificing visual fidelity, by using the tools the engine has provided us with.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The exterior castle walls are now fully functional and finalized. It’s been a long road getting them just right. However, they’re now in and working as intended. I'm just fixing up the last touches before another patch. We have a set of High walls and Low external walls now, each with their own advantages.[/p][p][/p][p]The Backer content is nearly ready! All the backer statues, headstones, and skins are being implemented and polished to ensure everything looks great and is in place for launch. Thanks again to everyone who supported the project — your in-game presence is coming to life. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]My main focus right now is getting the client stable and polished for launch. That includes art bug fixes, performance improvements, and making sure the experience is as smooth as possible for everyone on day one. [/p][p][/p][p]That’s all for now — back to the grind. Appreciate everyone’s support as we push through these final stages.[/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]As for my section I will be discussing a few things, Namely: The engine upgrade, code improvements, New animations, Combat overhauls, Localization, customization overhaul.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]As many know, I've been working very hard towards upgrading the engine version to the latest version of Unreal. Unfortunately, the engine upgrade was not successful. We ran into many new unknown issues with the way the Steam SDK works with that version of Unreal. We also had many plugin incompatibilities that caused us to lose key functionality. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Every time we made progress with the engine upgrade we were met with new issues to resolve. Ultimately the new version of Unreal had too many fatal crashes and incompatibilities and so we had to roll back to 5.3. This means we'll be missing out on some useful optimizations we were going to take advantage of but, ultimately optimizations are not useful if the game no longer functions. [/p][p]This cost us a lot of time but now we're back to normal and updates will resume very shortly. Lately we've been backporting the work we had done on the newer version of Unreal and we've almost completely wrapped up recovering all that work.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]During the engine upgrade I spent a lot of time improving the code base of Renown. Many pieces of code have been optimized. Specifically a lot of the subsystems that run in Survival mode have been made to run much faster on the server which should help improve server stability. There has also been a lot of code clean up that should reduce the CPU time on the client as well.[/p][p]
One very highly anticipated thing that's been in the works is new combat animations. During our last demo we were short on time and released some new combat animations prematurely. [/p][p]Unfortunately the state of those animations worsened the combat feel quite noticeably and we humbly apologize for that. We have a new and improved set of animations on the way for 2 handed swords coming very soon. After that you can expect to see a new set for 1 handed weapons and their shielded variants.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]On a similar note, there has been much work done on overhauling the combat mechanics themselves as well. [/p][p]Animations and the combat systems are very tied together so they're being overhauled together. Specifically there's a new system for server side melee hit detection, this should noticeably improve parry responsiveness. The point of view of the defender will be more accurate essentially, which should lead to less missed parries that looked correct on their screen. [/p][p]Many players complained during our last demo, that the movement was too sluggish, so its now been made more snappy like it was in the past. Timings for attacks and parries are being fine tuned currently, so we will be starting combat playtests again to really nail down the timings for launch very soon. Finally, the way shields are used will be getting a final pass once the animations are completed.[/p][p][/p][p]Last but not least, the customization system has received full overhaul. The UI most importantly, has been redone to facilitate a much better user experience. You can now customize armor that is currently equipped and be able to visualize it accurately in the preview. [/p][p]There has been changes to differentiate between "skins" and "templates". Skins are essentially a raw version of a new model for an item, while templates are a skin with the additional customization saved locally for ease of use. In the future we'll make it possible to share "templates" with your friends so you can create and share matching clan outfits for example. [/p][p][/p][p]There was support added for Steam Item dependent skins, so all skins will no longer be unlocked by default. What this means is that the backer reward skins will be getting distributed very soon so keep an eye out for when we announce that. Of course backer rewards included weapon skins, so naturally, we now have support for weapon skins as well.[/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]With all that out of the way, you may be wondering whats coming next for Renown. We'll begin again to do internal playtests with our backers, to try to iron out all the issues we can before launch. Specifically we need help testing; combat mechanics, building mechanics, and a quality pass on the points of interest on the main map. We'll be announcing shortly some playtimes for when we'll be doing these tests so stay tuned for that. Our immediate goal is to get the game ready for a large survival playtest before launch.[/p]

Greetings and salutations, Mr. Z here with a small update on our progress currently.



We've been super busy behind the scenes preparing the game for launch, so we apologize if things have seemed quiet lately.

The biggest thing to report is that the engine upgrade has been completed and we're now on UE5.5. This version of unreal came with a lot of optimization improvements and stability fixes that we've been needing, as well as some new features we're making use of.

Generally speaking the engine just runs a little faster, but we'll be making use of some new features that will make the character rendering a bit more performant.



Unfortunately combat had to be put on hold to do this upgrade, which is why we haven't been seeing much progress on that front recently. It took a little longer to upgrade the engine than expected but we're back on track now.

In the last demo, we had a lot of complains about performance, and the combat gameplay. These two things are actually intrinsically tied, if the performance is bad, the combat noticeably suffers.

Going forwards to launch these 2 things are the top priority. I'm going to start putting out regular patches with combat tweaks, new animations and possibly new/overhauled combat mechanics.



If you would like to help test the combat mechanics before launch now is the time to jump in and start giving feedback. As soon as we've reached a good level of combat improvements we'll be getting ready for more large scale playtests.

We give our thanks to our backers, both new and old who have helped us get this far. Early access is only just the end of the beginning for us at RDBK, we still have a big journey ahead of us.