Kaiserpunk News

[p][/p][p]Happy Anniversary Week, Kaiserpunk!

Almost a year ago, we launched Kaiserpunk. With its official birthday just a couple of days away, we’re kicking off celebration early with our One-Year Anniversary Update for all of you to enjoy![/p][p]
This update brings new content, features, balance improvements, and bug fixes.[/p][p]
Let’s dig into what’s new![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Monuments and Landmarks[/h3][p]We’re introducing a new category of buildings: Monuments and Landmarks.
In the aftermath of wars, it is common for nations to erect monuments and memorials to honor the fallen, celebrate victories, and mark significant events. These serve both as sites of remembrance and as symbols of collective history.

Monuments are a new building type that can be unlocked through various victories and sacrifices that help shape your empire. Inspired by real historical structures from around the world, these buildings serve as impressive centerpieces for your cities, perfect additions around parks and state buildings, while also providing thematic bonuses tied to the events that unlocked them.
[/p][p]For example, the Tomb of the Unmarked Soldier is unlocked after having taken a 1,000 combat casualties. Once built, it reduces the negative regional stability impact of combat in that region by 30%. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Alongside Monuments, we’ve also introduced Landmarks, iconic buildings you’ll recognize from nations around the globe. These can also be unlocked through events and milestones, but are primarily designed to let you recreate real-world locations or craft your own alternate history.[/p][p][/p][p]Perhaps London received the Statue of Liberty from France. Landmark buildings let you place iconic structures wherever you choose. They’re more symbolic than essential, so you may not want them in every city, but the choice is entirely yours.[/p][h3]
Other Major Changes[/h3][p]We’ve also added a new Photo Mode, giving you greater control over the camera and allowing you to capture your cities from any perspective you like. You can experiment with different styles, including black-and-white shots or even diorama-style photos. Photo Mode is accessible directly from the HUD, and we plan to expand its capabilities over time based on your feedback.[/p][p][/p][p]Another major change in this update is a redesign of the game’s info panels. All panels have now been converted to an accordion format, allowing every section to appear within a single window while still letting you expand or minimize sections as needed.
[/p][p]This is the first step in a broader improvement to these panels. With the new system, you can now see information update in real time, for example, viewing upkeep costs while applying building upgrades or getting a full overview of a citizen class’s needs without switching between multiple tabs.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Finally, in the spirit of the anniversary, we’ve added celebrations to your cities in the form of fireworks. These can be triggered manually from your Town Hall. [/p][p][/p][h3][/h3][h3]Other changes[/h3][p]As usual, we’ve gone through all the feedback you’ve shared with us and made a range of improvements to game balance and quality of life, while also squashing a number of bugs. Here are some of the highlights.[/p][p][/p][p]The main focus of this update is Regional Stability and the consequences of letting it fall too low. We’ve added several new notifications to better warn you when your stability is declining, so it should no longer come as a surprise. We’ve also done a balance pass on how stability is affected, making it a bit more forgiving, especially during wartime.[/p][p][/p][p]Military units stationed in regions that rebel will now retreat back to their military buildings, taking some damage in the process rather than being lost entirely.
[/p][p]Another important change affects your capital region. If its Regional Stability reaches 0, the game will no longer end immediately. Instead, riots will break out across your city, giving you a chance to regain control by restoring stability before the mobs reach your Town Hall.
[/p][p]Beyond stability changes, we’ve also made a number of additional improvements across the game. For example, notifications about global storage being full should now appear far less frequently thanks to a proper cooldown. You can now trade with other empires using cash if your relationship is strong enough, and trade deals now display a monetary value to help you better evaluate the resources being exchanged.
[/p][p]You can find all of these changes, along with many additional fixes and improvements, in the full changelog below.[/p][p][/p][p]As always we will continue to take note of your feedback, so please do keep it coming! [/p][p]
Here’s to another year, we look forward to continuing this journey with all of you! [/p][p][/p][p]- The Overseer Team[/p][p][/p][h3]Changelog - 1.02.001[/h3]

• [p]Added new Landmarks and Monuments, two new building types, with their own unique prerequisites to unlock instead of being unlocked through development: [/p]
  • [p]6 landmarks - Historical world wonders to give your cities some extra flair[/p]
  • [p]5 monuments - Highlighting your nations achievements and providing you with new bonuses[/p]
• [p]Firework celebrations added to the game that you can trigger from your Town Hall[/p]
• [p]Added a new Photo Mode with a couple of nifty options  [/p]
• [p]All info panels have been switched over to an accordion format making it possible for users to minimize or expand sections as per their preference  [/p]
• [p]Changed how region stability is impacted to give you more leeway and time to react: [/p]
  • [p]When a battle takes place in the region, the stability drop is reduced from -10 to -5[/p]
  • [p]Hostile armies in neighbouring regions now reduce stability by -0.15 instead of -0.25[/p]
  • [p]Battle in a neighbouring region now impacts stability by -0.25 instead of -0.5[/p]
  • [p]Positive impact from an army in the region is now increased from 0.5 to 1.5[/p]
  • [p]Positive impact from Propaganda bureau increased from 0.5 to 1.0[/p]
• [p]Resource output reduction that goes along with region (in)stability has been lowered: [/p]
  • [p]50% region stability and above = 100% resource output (unchanged)[/p]
  • [p]30% - 49% region stability = 70% resource output (previously 50%)[/p]
  • [p]10% - 29% region stability = 50% resource output (previously 25%)[/p]
  • [p]0 - 9% region stability = 25% resource gain (previously 10%)[/p]
• [p]If you lose a region due to instability, you no longer lose the entire army (if there was an army stationed in the region). [/p]
  • [p]The army will “undeploy”, and return to your base, but with casualties. [/p]
• [p]The game now warns you about region stability levels through notifications[/p]
  • [p]This happens when a regions stability goes below 50% and again at 30%[/p]
• [p]Changed what happens when your capital region hits 0% and now triggers severe riots instead of you getting a hard game over state [/p]
  • [p]Riots will continue and escalate until stability improves [/p]
  • [p]If you can keep the mobs from your Town Hall and improve region stability the riots will seize and you can recover[/p]
• [p]Added a special more prominent notification when one of your neighbouring regions gets conquered by another empire[/p]
• [p]You can now trade in Cash with other empires once your relationship with them has exceeded 30% [/p]
• [p]Added a combined cash value to both sides of the trade deal screen, so you can gauge the overall deal value more intuitively[/p]
• [p]"Global stock full" warning for EACH INDIVIDUAL RESOURCE (NOT warning type!) now has a cooldown period before it can get triggered again. The cooldown is now 3 in-game days. [/p]
  • [p]This does NOT persist through loading, meaning after loading a save game, the cooldowns are "reset" and the warning will appear again. [/p]
  • [p]This intervention is to prevent the "yo-yo" effect, where a resource teeters on the verge of crossing the threshold and constantly re-triggering the warning.[/p]
• [p]Fixed several bugs and edge cases that would in some instances cause science victory conditions to be blocked. [/p]
  • [p]We believe we’ve caught them all but if anyone still encounters any issues with the Science Victory, please let us know[/p]
• [p]Fixed an error where a diplomatic victory wouldn’t show the end game message wouldn’t show. [/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue that would result in navy and air units to have less than maximum health after loading a save game [/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that would, in certain situations, cause development level thresholds to get mixed up when loading a game, which could in turn cause levelling up some development branches to "get stuck" preventing you from developing further[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug that would stop the Utopia achievement from triggering. [/p]
  • [p]You should no longer have any issues fulfilling this achievement, at least from a technical standpoint…[/p]
• [p]Fixed the assigned blueprint material on several parks[/p]
• [p]Fixed several instances where wheels of a vehicle weren't being rendered and a few other situations where the wheels were not turning, most notable in the tutorial cutscenes  [/p]
• [p]Fixed an error in the traffic system that sometimes would spam the game log with the same error message, resulting in framerate drops and a massive log file [/p]
• [p]Added a small deadzone for the mouse cursor when placing buildings before camera panning starts which should make it easier and more natural to deselect things
  [/p]

[p]Dear players,
we want to take a moment to recognize you. Your feedback, patience and support have helped carry Kaiserpunk forward. You’ve both taken the time to share valuable insights, challenged our decisions, and stood with us throughout the long development of Kaiserpunk. 
[/p][p]We’re committed to keep improving Kaiserpunk, and with Valentine's Day around the corner, we want to show some community love by sharing more information about our upcoming major warfare rework. We’ve been hard at work on this overhaul, and it’s time to show more of what’s changing and how it will affect the way you wage war, Danijel will walk you through it. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is Danijel, the Lead designer of Kaiserpunk, and last time I talked about why we’re changing warfare and what we want to achieve with these changes. Today, I’d like to tell you more about what we’re changing and how.
[/p][p]By far the biggest change is that we’re getting rid of armies entirely. Instead, your focus shifts to frontlines. Frontlines are borders between two regions whose owners are hostile to each other. Military units - formerly “Army” units - are now assigned (transported) directly to a frontline, and you’re free to transfer units between active fronts, defend currently peaceful borders, or keep them in reserve, all of which serves a purpose.
[/p][p][/p][p]Producing and providing supplies to these frontlines is still key in order to successfully defend your region from attack or punch through a border to claim another region. This means that your city needs to consistently send reinforcements and resources to these frontlines to keep your troops in fighting shape. We’re also getting rid of “Outposts.” Overwhelmingly, feedback from you ladies and gentlemen has been negative - or neutral at best - when it came to this specific Region Upgrade. Most of you saw it as a nuisance, so who are we to decide otherwise?[/p][p][/p][p]Instead of moving individual armies at their cooldown pace, combat now takes on the familiar "heartbeat" of the rest of the game: the 12-hour cycle and the production cycle. Throughout this process, you’ll have all the information you need on how a frontline is progressing, what the projected outcome is in the next cycle, and more. This allows you to decide whether you’re happy with the current progress, want to push harder, or need to react to an enemy’s new commitment of resources to that front. 
[/p][p]Your goal is to collapse the frontline - to punch through it using a sustained push. Once a frontline collapses, the road is open to claim that region for yourself. If you’re able, it will also be possible to attack from multiple fronts at once for added benefits, making it more difficult for the defender as they’re spread thin and making a breakthrough more likely.[/p][p][/p][p]Now, if reading the above makes it seem like combat will become more passive, don’t worry. You won't be moving figurines representing armies around anymore, but you will make important decisions, and your strategy and tactics will directly impact the wars you fight. 
[/p][p]Unit composition on a frontline will become much more important due to unit synergies. Assigning infantry alongside artillery will make the artillery significantly more efficient. Pairing infantry with tanks you’ll give tanks a substantial defensive modifier, making them much more effective when trying to punch through a frontline.
[/p][p]Setting doctrines on the frontline is another key decision. For example, you can set a front to the ‘Aggressive Doctrine’. This means your units will output more attack power - they've been commanded to make a major push no matter the cost - But it comes with significantly higher casualties. That means you’d better make sure you have reinforcements ready on that front. [/p][p]
[/p][p]Or perhaps you decide to commit to the ‘Attrition Doctrine’ if you feel time is on your side. You’ll take less damage while increasing your enemy’s supply demand.

And these options won’t just be available to you as a player… which brings us to the AI.
[/p][p]Since combat in Kaiserpunk is being completely reworked, that naturally means the existing AI is going bye-bye. The AI is also being rebuilt from the ground up, enabling us to deliver a much better overall experience. This will inevitably "drag" diplomacy with it as well, so while the primary focus is on warfare, other parts of the game will be affected. 
[/p][p]Kaiserpunk is a big game - a mind-boggling number of interconnected systems - so implementing these major changes will take time. All we can do is ask for some patience and assure you that we’ll keep you looped into the progress. 
[/p][p]Our goal is making the process of war feel like a continuous, gruesome, and bloody affair - not something resolved too quickly. We also want to move away from a rock-paper-scissors dynamic and make it more viable for you to shift gears when war breaks out, scaling up your capabilities during an ongoing conflict. 
[/p][p]We want to avoid scenarios where you get steamrolled because you didn’t have the right units available from the get-go. Instead, you should be able to resist an invasion and push back -  assuming your city and industrial complex can rise to the challenge and feed the war machine. 
[/p][p]Finally we’d like to share a small teaser for the next devlog: there will be changes to units themselves. We're moving towards a philosophy of “unit intended purpose" rather than "just like the previous tier, only beefier". We’re excited to share more of this with you! 
[/p][p]As always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback on these changes! What concerns or excites you? Let us know! [/p][h2]
Performance - Why is this difficult?[/h2][p]We also wanted to keep you abreast of other areas of Kaiserpunk where you can expect to see improvements. Of course, there’s the lingering topic of performance and optimization -  at least it’s very much lingering in our minds. [/p][p]While quite a lot has already been done in this area, we're not yet satisfied. We also want to start sharing more about how that work is progressing, especially for those of you who are understandably displeased with how the game may still be performing on your hardware. 
[/p][p]There's definitely more room for improvement - but with a caveat. To achieve the performance gains we're aiming for, we need to make much broader changes. For example,  faster pathfinding requires we dig deeper into how the grid is structurally organized. However, doing that while leaving the grid rendering as-is would simply create a new bottleneck. So logically, we also need to rework the grid rendering itself. 
[/p][p]And once that is done, we'll need to adjust how roads are rendered. Leaving that half-baked would create yet another bottleneck. The TLDR is: We can't change just one thing in isolation. The net needs to be cast much wider.
[/p][p]We've already made headway in some areas, and a great example is the aforementioned roads. Our new system renders the entire road network in a single render pass, regardless of how many road "pieces" you’ve placed. A single road piece or an entire map covered in road - it makes no difference. One draw call, and it’s done! [/p][p][/p][p]Fully implementing this, however, will take more time because of everything else in Kaiserpunk that relies on or is connected to roads. We will get there though![/p][p]
Next time, we’ll dive deeper into how the new front mechanics will work and how military units will change. We’re looking forward to sharing more details, and we’ll continue to provide insights into other parts of development too. 
[/p][p]With love. [/p][p]The Overseer Team
[/p]

[p]Greetings governors, [/p][p]As some of you have reported, there's been some issues around war weariness and peace negotiations where peace has been very difficult to reach with the AI in some cases. [/p][p][/p][p]We decided to look into this in particular and have made some changes to help improve this while we're still working on our long term warfare changes. We hope this helps as you'll be able to reach a peace agreement with the AI much easier and suffer a little less negative effects of war weariness. [/p][p][/p][p] - The Overseer Team [/p][p][/p][h3]Changelog 1.01.021[/h3]

• [p]Reduced the impact of war weariness on overall morale[/p]
• [p]Reduced the amount of resources needed to achieve a peace treaty in general[/p]
• [p]Baseline values for resources needed to achieve peace are gradually reduced over time, [/p]
  • [p]Simulates war weariness on the AI side. [/p]
• [p]There is no longer a minimum duration before the AI is willing to negotiate peace after a war has started. [/p]

[p][/p][p]Season’s greetings, Governors! [/p][p]As mentioned in our latest dev log, we had one more update planned before the holidays - and here it is. While we continue work on the larger warfare updates, we’ve also managed to implement some significant optimizations. These should result in performance improvements across the board, with especially noticeable gains in larger cities and on higher-spec hardware. For players with lower spec hardware, the impact of lowering Texture Quality settings will now make a bigger difference and might also help prevent stability issues in some cases. 
[/p][p]There are also a number of additional fixes and changes included in this patch. Notable highlights include a new infoview filter that highlights buildings' condition showing if it’s damaged - something that’s been widely requested by the community. We’ve also reduced deployment times for all military units, as well as decreased the cooldown for naval units by 50%.
[/p][p]Finally, we’ve added new layout options for all basic utility buildings. These allow you to change where the entrance is located within the 2×2 footprint, making it easier to fit them snugly into your sprawling cities. [/p][p][/p][p]As the holiday is upon us we’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. To celebrate a little extra we’ve created our very own rendition of Silent Night to get you all in the holiday spirit and give you an alternative to the written changelog.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]We wish you all a happy Holiday! [/p][p]- The Overseer Team[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Changelog[/h3]

• [p]Multiple performance improvements[/p]
  • [p]Should be especially notable on higher spec machines[/p]
  • [p]Day/Night emissive lights on building windows reworked[/p]
  • [p]Lowering settings on Texture Quality now has a greater impact on GPU memory usage and should greatly improve experience for players with lower spec hardware[/p]
  • [p]Building retexturing and remodeling for improved performance and greater level of quality[/p]
  • [p]Reduced draw calls on buildings for reduced GPU workload[/p]
  • [p]Overhauled the number of individual (sub)objects each building is made of to reduce CPU workload[/p]
  • [p]Greatly optimized shadows rendering[/p]
  • [p]Multiple changes to terrain to improve performance[/p]
  • [p]Optimized water shader[/p]
  • [p]Rebalanced LOD levels for both better visuals and performance[/p]
  • [p]Assets in blueprint mode heavily optimized[/p]
  • [p]Improved the responsiveness when placing or copying buildings[/p]
• [p]Added a new infoview filter under Services named “Condition” that highlights inoperable buildings[/p]
• [p]Navy unit cooldown reduced by 50%[/p]
• [p]Base deployment time for all military units reduced by 50%[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiple minor tooltip issues[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where the Production Overview button wouldn’t register the first click and you’d need to click it again[/p]
• [p]Fixed a few cases of missing strings[/p]
• [p]Multiple translation fixes for all languages including a few cases where strings would show up in English instead of the language chosen.[/p]
• [p]Icons over buildings indicating building issues have been enlarged. [/p]
• [p]Road tooltips now show all cost and upkeep uniformly[/p]
• [p]Both Asphalt and Concrete roads now have a Cash cost in addition to their upkeep.[/p]
• [p]Camera move speed option can now be increased higher than +200%[/p]
• [p]Tooltip added to the Withdraw option in the Combat HUD[/p]
• [p]Additional layout options for basic utility buildings (alternating which side the entrance is on. This applies to the following buildings: [/p]
  • [p]Windmill[/p]
  • [p]Water Tower[/p]
  • [p]Large Water Tower[/p]
  • [p]Power Substation[/p]
  • [p]Large Power Station. [/p]
• [p]The Prison now requires 15m3 water to operate[/p]
• [p]The last button in the New Game flow now says “Start New Game” instead of “Continue” so players know that the game will load past this stage. [/p]
• [p]The full screen Stock Overview Panel is renamed to “Inventory” to help distinguish it from the small Resource Overview Panel accessed through the City Builder HUD. [/p]
• [p]UI can now be toggled on/off using the ‘F1’ key for the ability to capture scenic screenshots or videos[/p]
  • [p]While this has been tested, please use caution as it might still cause unexpected issues under potential edge cases[/p]

[p]Hi everyone,[/p][p]It’s been over half a year since the release of Kaiserpunk, and in that time we’ve released eight larger patches and updates, along with a throng of smaller ones. It all feels like it happened in the blink of an eye - and over a lifetime, all at once. While we’re continuing to work on the game, we wanted to share some of the bigger updates on the horizon. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is just the beginning for Kaiserpunk. As we’ve said many times before, we're fully committed to Kaiserpunk and its continued development. We’ve already been working on it for almost four years, and we want to make it the best it can possibly be. 
[/p][p]My name is Danijel Mihokovic, lead designer on Kaiserpunk, and today I want to walk you through some exciting things that are coming in the future. When developing Kaiserpunk, we drew  inspiration from both city builders and strategy games such as SimCity, Anno, Cities Skylines, Civilization and The Settlers to create an innovative blend that allows you to move seamlessly between city building and combat on the war map. Combined with the alternate-history setting, we feel we’ve managed to capture the essence of a grand city builder: one central capital to micromanage, complemented by a large world map - characteristic of the interbellum era.
[/p][p]However, after listening to your feedback, we realized we wanted to further evolve the warfare aspect. Certain design choices limited our ability to reflect how warfare would have been conducted during this era, so this has become an important priority for us - to ensure Kaiserpunk embodies our vision of a grand city builder even more strongly.[/p][p][/p][h3]Warfare[/h3][p]There are many reasons for improving warfare. We initially considered making numerous small adjustments across different areas - mostly based on your feedback - but it still didn’t feel quite right. So, we made the tough decision to redo large parts of the warfare system and do it properly.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The global view of warfare will remain. You'll still act as the “commander-in-chief,” giving large-scale orders, but one aspect of the era (or what we imagine would be an aspect in this alternate history) that we didn’t fully capture is the grueling nature and attrition of war. World War I was characterized by static battlefronts. World War II was less so, but the idea of battle lines and defense lines that shifted gradually - based on growing manpower and supplies - was still very present. Frontlines didn’t change overnight; they required preparation, time, and a well-thought-out strategy, not a gung-ho “let’s wing it” approach.[/p][p][/p][p]This means one of our priorities is to give you deeper insight into the actual battles and more ways to maximize the potential of the economies and industrial capacity you’ve built. In addition to the major changes coming to the warfare layer, we also plan to give you more direct control over organization and logistics within your capital cities. [/p][p][/p][p]While we’re already well underway, this work will take time. We want to complete it as soon as possible, but we also need to move carefully. These changes have several knock-on effects we must consider. Although warfare gameplay is our main focus, the updates will also impact other systems such as AI and Resource Management. Since Kaiserpunk is a highly systems-driven game, adjusting one part - like how Resource Management functions - can influence other aspects, such as logistical demands on your depots or access to raw ore on the city map. As you can imagine, this creates ripples across gameplay, leading to additional work and considerations. That’s why we need to map everything out thoroughly to ensure the entire game benefits from these updates. At the same time, we’re keeping the scope focused so that improvements reach you sooner rather than later.[/p][p]
[/p][p]What do you think about the ideas behind the updated warfare system? What are your thoughts and wishes? Your input is incredibly valuable and helps us strengthen the core fantasy of the game. We’ll be sharing more details about the upcoming changes as development continues, so you can expect more dev logs on this topic.[/p][h3]
Other Updates[/h3][p]Even though our main focus is shifting from frequent updates to longer-term improvements to the warfare system between releases, we still want to ensure other parts of the game continue to improve and that existing issues are addressed. This means we’ll keep releasing updates with QoL improvements, UI enhancements, and bugfixes, though their size and frequency may vary. But it certainly won’t be quiet on the update front, as you’ve already seen with the last two updates. 
[/p][p]We’ll be releasing another game update before the holidays, and we’ll continue sharing dev logs about our progress, revealing more details about what’s coming and what’s changing along the way. Until then, thank you for your continued support - we hope you’ll stay with us as we take these next exciting steps forward. 

All the best [/p][p]- The Overseer Team[/p]