Kaiserpunk News

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Kaiserpunk. The name alone doesn’t really give you a clear idea of what it’s about, and I can’t help but feel like some people just put the word “punk” on the end of anything to make it sound cooler. But thankfully, my foray into the 4X genre had primed me to dive straight into the world of Kaiserpunk, and I was pretty pleased with the excursion.

If anything, I’d argue that Kaiserpunk is a little less than punk since it doesn’t really circumvent the rules of the 4X genre, but it does possess enough of its own individual identity to stand out amongst other well-known entries. It manages to create an experience that balances strategy with a certain level of creativity that can get pretty engaging.

Like many of these types of games, Kaiserpunk doesn’t have a narrative per se, but it does have something of a story to form the underlying basis for the gameplay. Players take on the role of a former Military commander in the early 1900s,... Read more

Greetings commanders!

Release day tomorrow! We’re in full swing, getting everything ready for tomorrow. Until then, here is another dev diary you can dig into while waiting! Today, we’ll cover the less confrontational aspects of a grand city builder, such as diplomacy, politics, and trade, and how they all fit together.

Conquest is of course fun, and a lot (if not most) of us will go down that route at one point or another, but there are other ways you can spread your influence around the globe and that is forming alliances. Creating an alliance takes time and effort (and a nice sizable industry too) and there are numerous factors contributing to how fast your diplomatic relationship will evolve with another empire.

• Heritage - Certain heritage(s) influence this directly, by simply awarding you more "points" for your actions. Careful though, the points go both into the positive and the negative ;)
  
• Political alignment - Choosing social pillars as your city grows (and levels up) changes the political alignment of your city-state. Other empires may look upon your alignment favorably, while others won't. It mainly depends on their alignment.
  
• Actions - Actions taken directly on the world stage will have consequences. Staging your armies on the border with another empire is generally not looked upon fondly, especially by that empire. One might say they could consider that a threat ;)

But we mentioned earlier that your industry is important in diplomacy. In fact, it plays a vital role. Almost everything in Kaiserpunk is in some way related to the production of goods. Diplomacy is no exception. Exchanging resources with another empire impacts your relationship the most.

Let's take one step back for a moment and consider the trade buildings that you can construct in your capital. These include the market, the tradeport and the airport. All three are used for trading, but not with other city-states. These local buildings are used for trading with passing merchants and smugglers. This can absolutely be utilized nicely and to your benefit, but in comparison with real trade, this is, as they say, peanuts. "Real" trading is done by signing trade deals with other empires. Trade deals are precise in what is traded, in what quantity and over what length of time. Arranging a trade deal can be initiated either by you directly or by another empire and you always have some leeway to negotiate better terms.

And now we circle back to diplomacy. Signing and executing trade deals increase your standing with the empire in question. The more you trade, the better the standing, until it reaches a point where you officially sign a trade union. This brings 2 benefits:

• You've entered a trade union, fulfilling one of three prerequisites to become allies
  
• The other side now accepts your currency in trading. You no longer need to exchange goods exclusively

I noted it's one of three prerequisites. The second one is your military relationship. Military resources, like weapons, ammunition, military vehicles etc. are NOT exchanged via a trade deal. These are specific goods and trading them carries with it a special set of potential consequences.

• First: Military convoys carrying these goods (after a military trade deal has been signed), can be intercepted and pillaged. Both your routes and the AIs.
  
• Second: Unlike trade deals in which goods are exchanged on a daily basis for the duration of the deal, military trade is concluded only once the convoy reaches its destination
  
• Third: Successfully finishing a military deal increases your military relationship.

Be careful though. Selling or giving another state military resources could easily be considered by third parties as a threat. And in addition to that, be really REALLY sure that you can trust the empire that you want to trade military goods with. You are in essence boosting their military capabilities. Are you 'that' certain that they won't turn against you?

And finally, the third prerequisite for an alliance is technological development. If, for example, you have a surplus of development points in the agriculture branch, you can exchange those for the points of another development branch by going into scientific cooperation with another empire. It's a simple exchange of 'points', but once you've "maxed" that out too, you're nicely on your way to making an ally.

Once you've signed treaties in all three segments, you've officially formed an alliance with another empire. To make things simple, the other empire, your ally, is incorporated into your territory, but not entirely. You can be sure that not every region of that empire is pleased with such an accommodation. Some regions will break off and become 'neutral players' on the global stage. But hey, at the very least, you can then conquer just conquer them if you wish.

That concludes today’s dev diary and tomorrow you’ll actually be able to play Kaiserpunk. It’s difficult to imagine after such a long time of development. We’re beyond excited for it and we hope you share our excitement. If you haven’t already, give us a follow on our social channels or join our Discord and Reddit where we get a chance to interact with you more.

Until tomorrow - Stay well everyone!
Overseer Games

Hello everyone!

Only two more days until release! We can’t believe we’re almost here, and we’re very grateful for your patience as we extended the timeline. Everyone is really busy wrapping up the last bits before we lock down the game for release, but we still want to continue sharing more in-depth info about the game we’ve been working so hard on.

Today, we’re going to talk about some topics related to war that we didn’t manage to cover in much detail in Dev Diary #10, where we discussed warfare in greater depth.

Let's first emphasize a very important point here: To have an army, you need an army base. One army base = one army. Just so there's no confusion! ;)

And to expand on that a little:

• A land army, or a battalion, needs a military base.
  
• A navy fleet needs a naval base.
  
• An air force, or a squadron, needs an airbase.
  

OK? It's really as simple as that. Anything you need regarding an army, you can either select the army, or select that army's military base. The options and information are mostly the same. Naturally, to train new army units, it's always a good idea to do it through the military base interface, its info panel. As noted in the previous blogs, don't forget to deploy your army onto the world map ;) An army won't do much sitting on their hands or twiddling their thumbs 'back home'.

Once you deploy your “51st Freedom brigade”, your job isn't done. The army will do your bidding, but it needs supplies in return, likely plenty of them. All of those supplies you need to make sure you either produce or trade for. They will be automatically transported to your army, provided your army can be reached. If your adversaries manage to cut off your army so you don't have a territorial link to it... no supplies for them, so protect your supply lines. Over time, the supplies they have will dwindle and you can forget about that army being anywhere near efficient. They'll be used for target practice...

There is a way to counter that, even if only temporarily. Outposts, which you can build as region upgrades, serve as supply points. They actually hold the needed supplies (or what you've ordered them to store) and even if they’re cut off or encircled, your army can still use outposts to resupply. It won't last forever, but it can buy you some time at least, maybe just enough to break through the blockade.


The same rules are applied to fleets of ships and squadrons of airplanes. All of them need supplies and rely on you to provide both the resources and a clear supply path. Fleets move across the water, over naval points, and they get resupplied through those supply lines too. Meaning they can also get blocked, though logically, by other fleets. Naval blockades can be an extremely effective tool to harass your opponents.

Unlike fleets however, squadrons can only move between air bases on the world map which you build as region upgrades, so they can be easier to mess with. Keep in mind though that squadrons can attack across the distance of 2, making their attacks very problematic to deal with.

One thing we didn't talk about much however is what happens after a battle. Let's say one of your armies got decimated. It's not completely done yet, but it lost half of its units. What can you do about it? You can send reinforcements. To make it simple, even units that were killed in battle are still displayed in the units list of an army. This is just so you don't have to memorize the composition of your armies. You 'know' what units were in the army and you can then reinforce it, meaning training new units that will replace the lost ones. Simply click on a damaged or dead unit and a nifty little window will pop out with all the info and options that you need.


Even if all units in an army are killed, that's still not the end of it. The army general makes an escape (as one would...) to the safety of the military base. There you can rebuild the army and try again. The commanding general will retain all of their gained experience and traits. Traits are passive bonuses that you pick and choose for your general each time they level up. And trust me, you want to keep those traits...

That’s it for now! Very soon, the game will be in your hands, and we can’t wait! We do hope you enjoyed this more in-depth dev diary and if you have more questions on this topic or any other and would like to interact with us, feel free to join us on Discord or Reddit.

Until tomorrow - Stay well everyone!
Overseer Games

Greetings future Governors!

With Friday's release fast approaching, today we’ll highlight two aspects of the game: citizens and the research and development panel. For some of you who have followed us for a long time, the first part may feel familiar, as we covered the topic of morale last year. However, it’s an important aspect that’s definitely worth revisiting.

[h2]Your Citizens[/h2]
As with all city-builders, balancing the needs of your citizens is crucial. In Kaiserpunk, these needs are represented by morale, which can be influenced by both world events and conditions within the city. Each citizen type has different needs, with higher-class citizens demanding more. However, you'll need more educated citizen classes to enable advanced industries, so be prepared to meet these demands.


There are four tiers of citizens classes for you to manage:

• Laborers - Operating basic industries, farms and other menial labor
  
• Manufacturers - Primarily working in factories
  
• Technicians - Working in more advanced production and public service buildings
  
• Specialists - The highest and most educated class in your city, employed in only the most advanced roles
  

These four classes have their own unique needs and functions within your city.


Citizens pay taxes as long as their morale is high. The higher their morale, the greater the tax income:

• Basic needs - Simple food sources like vegetables, bread, meat etc.
  
• Luxury products - For example, newspapers, clothing, radio sets, or alcohol.
  
• Public services - Such as fire safety, education and health care.
  
• Employment rate - If you can't provide enough jobs, it will negatively impact morale.
  

Keeping all classes happy is key to success, give the people what they need, and they will pay taxes and support your wars. Fail to do so, and they will eventually riot, burning down your city center.


[h2]Research and Development Panel[/h2]
While building in Kaiserpunk, you’ll accumulate development points based on buildings from specific categories, such as agriculture, manufacturing, living, or military. Regions you’ve conquered will also add certain development points. The more points you accumulate in a given category, the more new buildings and upgrades you’ll unlock within that category. Additionally, all production and utility buildings in Kaiserpunk come with 6 upgrade slots, allowing you some options to steer them in certain directions depending on your goals.


A few examples:

• Your economy is struggling so you upgrade a few of your more upkeep heavy buildings with oversight offices that reduce their upkeep cost by 12% per upgrade to help lower costs.
  
• You’ve ended up in a situation where you can’t produce enough food to sustain your current population and you need to increase migration, so you upgrade your farms with both Irrigation that increases their output yield AND mechanized farming upgrades that also lowers the workforce need.
  
• You start struggling with the long distances your transportation trucks must cover to fetch yields from your farms. To solve this, you apply storage upgrades, allowing the farms to wait longer for the trucks to arrive. Additionally, you upgrade nearby depots with loading ramp upgrades to provide more trucks for that area.

That’s it for today's dev diary! Tomorrow, we’ll be back to talk more about your armies and military units so stay tuned for that.

Until tomorrow - Stay well everyone!
Overseer Games

Greetings Commanders!

Before we enter the topic of the day, we wanted to bring to your attention that we’re hosting an AMA over on Reddit today, at 6 PM CET / 9 AM PST. We would love to chat with you and cover any questions you might have, big or small so join in and ask us anything!

Now, let’s talk about the essentials of city building in Kaiserpunk. Everything starts with your initially humble Town Center, which serves as the heart of your new capital that eventually will become the capital of your entire Empire. This Town Center is where you both progress your city-state’s development and choose your social pillars, but more on that in another dev diary.

Once you’ve laid down your first road and built a few houses, immigrants will begin to arrive. This early in the game, they come with hope for a better future and are eager to settle in. Let’s hope you can keep that optimism alive! To ensure their well-being, make sure your people have access to food and the necessary luxuries. To achieve this, you'll need to establish your basic industries, which will require access to both water and electricity. Your choice of placed buildings and what you upgrade will determine what you unlock in the development tree. If you focus on industry, more industrial buildings will unlock; if you focus on agriculture or military, the corresponding categories will unlock faster.
As your city grows and you begin producing more advanced goods, you’ll need higher-educated citizens, who won't be satisfied with simple bread and fish. Your industries will therefore continue to grow to meet these new demands, and on top of that, you’ll likely want to remember to defend your people and the region you’ve worked so hard to establish. The world around you is changing; even if the world map appears still, things can shift quickly as new leaders rise, and you will eventually run out of resources…

This brings you to the next step: training soldiers, building tanks, airplanes and ships – each requiring its own set of production facilities and equipment. At this point, perhaps you might feel the urge to test your strength against some neutral neighbors, and so the world begins to react around you. There’s lots to do in Kaiserpunk, and city building is the heart of it all.


Going a little deeper into the actual city-building, roads, bridges and tunnels are the glue that holds your city together. They have an upkeep cost, and the distance between buildings plays a significant role. Roads also allow your transportation trucks to get around town, transporting resources and goods between depots and your production buildings. As your city develops and access to resources is enabled, you’ll be able to build better roads. While they come with a higher financial upkeep cost, they allow your trucks to move around faster, improving your production capacity. More advanced roads also give the city a more sophisticated and modern feel.

We’ve already dedicated our last dev diary to industries, so we wont repeat ourselves. It’s worth pointing out that, while you can, of course, build your city however you please, it might be a good idea to dedicate certain parts of the city to production and cluster production buildings together–such as grain, wheat, bakeries– while reserving other areas for housing your citizens. Why? Well, while your industrial sectors benefit from good access and structure to enable smooth production, your housing doesn’t really require efficiency or transportation. However, they do need access to public services like fire stations, education and healthcare. Ensuring your citizens' needs for these services are met is key to keeping morale high—and high morale is crucial for getting your citizens to pay taxes, which keeps your city's economy running smoothly. You’ll do an even better job if you plan your layout with this in mind!

It might be challenging to predict the requirements of your city’s infrastructure from the very beginning as the city expands. Therefore, there are several tools in the game to help you build faster and with more precision. Apart from demolishing, you can move an existing building if you find it’s been misplaced, copy buildings to quickly generate more of the same, or plan and create a temporary blueprint to set up exact copies of several buildings, parks and plazas with just a few clicks. In Kaiserpunk, the city can become massive, and with quays, you could even fill the whole ocean with buildings if you'd like.


Apart from the tools, there are also plenty of decorations! While these particular elements of your city have no real game mechanical function, we think they’re essential to give your capital that extra something. If you’re spending hours on your city, why not make it a bit aesthetically appealing? It’s supposed to be a world capital, after all. In addition to buildings and roads, you can create and decorate parks, plazas, flower fields, neatly arrayed hedge rows, fences, statues, and more. There are many options to make your city a nice place to live.


We can't wait for you to dive into the game and see the grand metropolises you'll create. The wait is almost over—just one more week! Stay tuned as we keep rolling out these diaries to keep you hooked in the meantime.

Until next time - Stay well everyone!
Overseer Games