Voor De Kroon News

Hello everyone!

This small(actually huge) patch contains a complete revamp of the battle engine I have been working on for some time. The behaviour should be pretty much the same, but with 10x the performance because the CPU usage has been optimized. It also allows for the implementation of increased AI commander awareness of the battlefield, which is essential for improving the AI.

It also contains some other small fixes and tweaks.

If you encounter bugs or crashes please report them in the discussions! This will help development a lot and help me improve the game.

Thank you!

Changelog

• Implement better performing unit management system
  
• Improve aggressiveness of all units
  
• Improve performance on modular officers by merging their meshes
  
• Optimize and refactor unit and cavalry movement
  
• Improve cavalry steering behavior
  
• Reduce desaturation on officer portraits
  
• Remove friendly outline from fleeing units
  
• Apply polearm cavalry damage to player
  
• Add wedge formation for cavalry
  
• Add circle formation for infantry
  
• Imrpove archer skirmish timing and distance
  
• Add officer level up and death widgets to container so they don't overlap
  
• Add unit type callouts when selecting a unit
  
• Add alternate player camera option for on foot
  
• Increase chance of militia during quick battles
  
• Adjust formation behavior before charging
  
• Change quick battle date range to 1265-1295
  
• Increase responsiveness of menu
  
• Remove hardcore mode for campaign
  
• Fix loading screen tips
  
• Fix AI cavalry cycle charge tactics
  
• Fix enemy cavalry cheapshotting your archers too much
  
• Fix faction leader dead having too high morale impact during battle
  

Changelog

• Add missing weapon selection widget to faction editor
  
• Clean up saving and loading part of customization interface
  
• Redirect user to workshop agreement when it's not accepted yet on upload
  
• Add emblem to ailettes
  
• Fix aillete brightness
  
• Fix crash in setting menu
  
• Fix missing audio clips in voice 2 charge commands
  
• Fix performance issues related to combined officer equipment
  
• Fix missing lods on new units causing heavy fps drops
  
• Fix heraldry colors not selected correctly when opening heraldry editor
  

Hello Everyone!

I am thrilled to roll out a significant update that brings a host of new features and improvements to "Voor de kroon". Dive in to discover the latest enhancements!

[h3]🛡 Faction Customization Overhaul:[/h3]

• Create and Customize: Design new factions from the ground up. From the appearance of your lord to the buildings your faction can erect – the choice is now yours!
  
• Heraldry Import: Take your faction personalization a step further by importing custom image assets for heraldry. For a step-by-step guide on how to seamlessly integrate your emblem textures, check out the Custom Heraldry Import Guide.
  
• Expanded Capabilities: Choose specific units for recruitment, replace any existing faction with a custom one, and enjoy an advanced character system for lords and officers with random equipment and appearance features.
  

[h3]🗣 Dynamic Voice System Enhancement:[/h3]

• Voice Sets Diversity: Introducing three distinct voice sets, elevating the in-game atmosphere. Players will find two Dutch and one English voice set for a richer auditory experience.
  
• Linguistic Fidelity: Officers now randomly draw from their faction's allowed voice sets. This allows factions to actually have different spoken languages on the battlefield!
  

[h3]🛡 New Armor & Models:[/h3]

• Historical Accuracy: All feudal armor is revamped to be era-appropriate, introducing a variety of new helmets, chainmail armor, and even painted helmets for units.
  

[h3]🌦 Additional Features & Enhancements:[/h3]

• Weather Dynamics: Experience battles under a semi-clouded sky.
  
• Ultra-Quality Lighting: For those seeking to burns their computer to the ground, there is now an ultra-quality lighting option.
  
• Loading Screen Wisdom: Tips have been updated to match the current gameplay mechanics.
  

[h3]🔧 Technical Improvements & Bug Fixes:[/h3]

• Faction Framework: A complete rewrite now supports full customization.
  
• Fixed Gameplay Issues: Several bugs and small improvements have been made.
  

Your feedback plays a crucial role in the development of Voor de Kroon.
Share your thoughts, feedback, or questions in the discussion section.

Thank you!


Full Changelog

• Add steamworkshop support for custom factions
  
• Add ability to import custom image assets for heraldry
  
• Allow player to select what buildings a faction can build
  
• Implement 3 new voices (Two Dutch, one English)
  
• Add voice pitch system
  
• Add dynamic voice system for officers and lords
  
• Allow player to specifically select what units a faction can recruit
  
• Allow player to replace any faction with a custom faction
  
• Add dynamic character system for lords and officers with random equipment and appearance
  
• Add advanced character customization
  
• Add updated feudal models
  
• Add semi clouded weather type
  
• Add ultra quality lighting option, disabled by default
  
• Update loading screen tips to current gameplay
  
• Rewrite Faction framework to support complete customization
  
• Fix rename boxes allowing special characters
  
• Fix proxy player getting frozen after hit by trebuchet projectile
  
• Fix AI building repair logic after siege
  
• Fix archer volley timing
  
• Fix AI upgrading buildings during a siege
  

Changelog

• Fix settlement list in unit details missing scrollbar
  
• Fix crash related to non existing player lookup in campaign
  

Changelog

• Lower foodcost of conscripts to 0
  
• Lower foodcost of Amstel retinue unit to 1
  
• Lower monthly upkeep of Amstel retinue unit to 50 Silver
  
• Add slightly more health to ladder units
  
• Increase chance of polearm units rearing a horse
  
• Recruiting units costs population
  
• Rdeduce round castle construction time to 6 turns
  
• Reduce square castle construction time to 8 turns
  
• Add under construction meshes to castles
  
• Change resource cart to wheat cart pulled by ox
  
• Increase range of ranged units targeting custom targets by 25%
  
• Remove mounted health bonus from light cavalry
  
• Redesign campaign stats interface
  
• Redesign recruitment window
  
• Increase border scroll threshold for screen edges during campaign
  
• Add helpful tooltips to campaign UI elements
  
• Add building tree browser to game
  
• Nerf manor farm silver income
  
• Improve user feedback on settlement send list
  
• Rebalance Frisian starting economy
  
• Change frisian heavy unit to sergeants with mail horses
  
• Add Frisian hunters unit
  
• Revamp Frisian banner carriers
  
• Revamp look of Frisian units
  
• Enable settlement specific heraldry for Frisian units
  
• Add more gameplay prompts to give feedback on why things can not be done
  
• Change battle dialog text of close button to close when opening siege defense
  
• Disallow archer AI skirmish phase for small armies to speed up early campaign combat
  
• SLightly increase stormram speed
  
• Add experiemental dynamic environment destruction
  
• Remove two front ladders from square castle when wall is breached
  
• Add reaction to nearby trebuchet impact to units
  
• Prevent important units like officers from manning siege equipment
  
• Add small fade to officer dead icon on after battle screen
  
• Don't show officer dead icon when unit is killed during battle
  
• Add user feedback when unpossessing a unit
  
• Remove sally out button during campaign siege battles
  
• Change around some Frisian town heraldry
  
• Rename church of St. Mary to Chapel of St. Mary
  
• Reduce desaturation of building images on cimematic color mode
  
• Hide lead charge option when the player army would instantly route on battle start
  
• Change algorithm to determine wehn AI player would surrender
  
• Unit level now slightly influences max morale
  
• Set archers use forced fire by default during siege battles
  
• Remove game ending on negative food resource
  
• Fix horse footprints during winter not showing
  
• Fix player blood when hit by arrow
  
• Fix stormram operating units having wrong rotation
  
• Fix attack direction for two handed commander weapons
  
• Fix knights not being knocked from horse during jousting
  
• Fix Player dying to explosions or fire when posessing a ranged unit
  
• Fix bug causing crash when looking up non existing faction name
  
• Fix AI quick battle siege engine build behavior
  
• Fix communal terp building not giving storage space
  
• Fix helmet plume not getting colored
  
• Fix AI not building siege engines during campaign sieges
  
• Fix reinforcements from campaign carrying over to quick battles
  
• Fix officer renaming
  
• Fix siege engine units still manning siege engine when sallying out
  
• Fix siege engines getting garbage collected
  
• Fix horses stacking on top of eachother in some cases