Mercenaries of the Kingdom News

Hi, Captains of Fortune!

Today, I bring you a juicy update!
The gameplay has been slightly changed, especially the final part, but you will notice it.
Lots of bug fixes and some quality-of-life improvements!
I hope you like it.

I recommend you read the entire text of the update, at least the first part.


[h2]CHANGES IN EARLY ACCESS 3.0:[/h2]

[h3]GAMEPLAY:[/h3]

- I have introduced a time limit to runs/battles so as not to make the games too boring.
The limit is approximately 20 minutes.
In reality, it is not a real limit, but it becomes one due to the difficulty the player will encounter; let me explain better.
In addition to increasing the traditional difficulty, these two events will occur:
- at the 17th minute, the dragons will appear, who are now much stronger.
- at minute 20, Death will also appear, more or less like in Vampire Survivors.
Both events will be reported to the player 30 seconds before, with the use of a sign and a horn.
At this point, I ask you: are 20 minutes too few, or are they too many?

- Dragons have now become end-run bosses, meaning they have been super-powered and made rarer.
In Story mode, it will be very profitable to kill them... if you succeed.

- Death has been introduced!
Death is the most powerful enemy in the game (at least for now), BUT he is NOT invincible!
I honestly don't know how many will manage to kill her, but in Story mode, she will have a very very interesting drop...;)

- Bosses (Great Dragons and Death) have a purple bar indicating their remaining health. This way, you'll know if your attacks are useful or if it's time to run like hell!

- I changed the spawn parameters of the enemies, so the hordes may be a little different in their approach.

- Giant Toads are faster and have greater attack range.
Just so you know: do toads disgust you too in real life?

- Previously, the formation automatically oriented itself depending on the direction of the player character.
Now, this function continues to exist, but it is not the starting option. The starting option includes a fixed formation, but it will be possible to make it orientable again by pressing the relevant button (look in Settings/Controls).

- Mounts have become even more important with the arrival of new bosses, so their price has also increased.



[h3]QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]

- Very important feature: I have introduced the ability to change the game speed!
This way, you can overcome the boring phases faster and slow down the game in the more dangerous phases!
The speeds now present are: x0, x0.5, x1, x1.5, x2.
Obviously, the higher the game speed, the worse your PC's performance will be.

- Special buttons have been added to change the speed of time easily. The basic keyboard commands are:
"R" to slow down
"T" for speed up
Obviously, in Settings/Controls, you can change these commands whenever you want.

- To include the features just described, I had to change some buttons on the controller.
Find the list in Settings/Controls.

- The camera is closer to the battlefield.
This is because I realized that with the minimum zoom level, the involvement of the battle was partially lost.

-When a mercenary dies, his equipment is now released in a different, more extensive manner. In this way, it will be easier to locate that place and regain possession of at least the objects.

- The possibility of seeing the quantity of goods has been introduced in shop windows (mainly in that of consumable goods).
This is because when a potion was put back, the game superimposed it on top of an existing one, and it seemed to the player that it had disappeared.



[h3]BUG FIX:[/h3]

- Fixed: Enemy ammo would not interact properly with mercenaries, making the game easier.

- Fixed: When manually giving a healing potion to a mercenary and, in the meantime, giving it automatically to a mercenary, a conflict was created on that item.

-Fixed: When a mercenary with a backpack dies, all items inside him disappear.
Now, when a mercenary with a backpack dies, he will drop the items it contains onto the ground.
I remember that the count of these objects starts from the final slots of the backpack, so it is good practice to place your objects in the highest slots of the inventory.

- Fixed: If the player kept the inventory open and picked up an item from a dead teammate, inventory items could disappear (visually only).
This error can still happen rarely, so I'll have to come back to it later.

- Fixed: There was an error when exiting a shop if one of the mercenaries had a status effect, like poisoning, for example.

- Fixed some graphical errors in the first map, but there will certainly be others due to the distraction and vastness of the map.
If you find them, report them, thanks.



I hope you enjoy this update.
Write your opinions in the comments, they will help me improve the game :)
See you in the next update.

FACE THE HORDE, GRAB THE LOOT, CROSS THE PORTAL.

Hi, Captains of Fortune!

Here I am back after the flood! :D
I want to fix the main bugs remaining in the battle so that we can move on to the development of the story mode soon.


[h3]CHANGES IN EARLY ACCESS 2.8:[/h3]

- I modified the first map (the green one) because sometimes the shops were created at points that were unreachable to the player.
Now all the rock groups have been opened and the player is free to enter them.
It is also possible to exploit these small passages to carry out a sort of Thermopylae tactic, but enemy projectiles must be taken into account.

- The minimap of the previously mentioned map has been updated.

- I finally fixed the bug that didn't allow you to stack multiple consumable resources of the same type in the same slot!

- I added the functionality of being able to withdraw 3 different types of quantities from a slot:
1) click - get everything
2) LeftAlt + click - pick up only one unit
3) LeftShift + click - takes only half of the present quantity (approximated by default).

- Fixed the bug that prevented the healing skill from being usable.
Now, the higher a mercenary's healing skill, the more he will heal his companions.

- I also finally solved the formation orientation problem in Formation Mode.
Now, you can build your formation taking into account that the front part will be the one towards the left.
Consequently, when you move into battle, the formation will automatically orient itself based on the direction of travel.
Remember that you can "block" the rotation of the formation by pressing the relevant button (there is a list of commands in Settings/Controls).

- I changed the background colors of Formation mode to have a more pleasant and intuitive perception.


I will still need at least 1-2 updates before moving on to developing the Story mode.

That's all from my humid studio :D
See you in the next update, my friends!

Hello, my friends!

Since I published the news about the flood I suffered, I have received more interest (likes and comments) than any update made in recent years!

This made me extremely happy and made me understand that in addition to the developer-player bond, there is a bit of love

For this reason, I want to work even harder to make sure that in the future, when you open one of my games, you will feel it more fun, warmer, and with the feeling that it was developed by one of you!



[h3]FLOOD REPORT:[/h3]

If you are interested in getting some images of what happened, search for "Campi Bisenzio flood 2023".

The situation has not yet returned to normal, but the water has receded from almost every area and most of the mud has been taken away to allow road transport, so the first conclusions of this disaster can be drawn.

Eight people have died, hundreds of families are currently homeless, and the damage is calculated in the order of hundreds of millions of euros.



[h3]HOW DID IT HAPPEN?[/h3]

When storm Ciaran hit Tuscany on November 2, 2023, the rain began to fall with rare violence.
I remember I was out with my dog, and I was talking to my mother on my cell phone when the rain started hitting the umbrella with such force that we couldn't hear each other anymore, not even screaming.

Statistics say that two months' worth of rain fell in just two hours...
I honestly don't know if it's true, but I guarantee you that a lot... a lot... has fallen.

Many towns in the Florence-Prato-Pistoia plain were flooded simultaneously and by different rivers, a sign that the quantity of water on the ground was truly unmanageable.

In my town, Campi Bisenzio, the rivers have both burst their banks and overflowed.
Many areas were inundated with more than 150 cm of water.
In the case of my house, the water did not exceed 50 cm, but it was the most affected by the mud, as an old wall broke in at least 3 points, completely letting the water flow out.

In my street, we found ourselves having to shovel like 30 cm of mud everywhere in the house, garden and street.
I'm not a thin guy, but I guarantee you that wet mud weighs a lot, especially if you don't sleep at night and if the humidity gets into your bones, day after day.



[h3]WHAT DID I SEE THAT I DIDN'T EXPECT TO SEE?[/h3]

I saw a lot of solidarity.
Honestly, with the way the world is going, I didn't expect to see so many people willing to roll up their sleeves to help other people from nearby countries.
We received the help of thousands of volunteers of all ages, who made themselves available to shovel the mud, to bring basic necessities and to finance these operations.

I also saw absurdly comical scenes like a group of volunteers trying to clear out an underground garage with buckets... without realizing that the water came back under their feet every time :D

Unfortunately, there have also been many episodes that make you lose all hope for the human race, such as the fact that there have been looting actions, that there have been thefts of food items intended for flood victims and that cars have been stolen pretending to be emergency units.



[h3]EFFECTS ON THE BODY?[/h3]

Talking with the other inhabitants of my area, I discovered these consequences, some obvious, others curious:
- common back pain due to moving weights.
- intense pain in hands and feet due to continuous contact with water; we are talking about at least 7 days.
- difficulty sleeping in the rain.
- feeling of nausea when you hear water flowing, whether it is a small stream or a high-pressure washer.

In my case, having been the only one able to clean the house for many days, I now find myself with a fixed backache. I have no strength in my hands, and as soon as it becomes evening, I get constant pain inside the bones of my hands and feet, so much so that it is impossible for me to return to sports for at least another week.



[h3]WHAT HAPPENS NOW?[/h3]

I can finally go back to work most hours of the day now, even if it will take another week to finish the cleaning.



[h3]WHAT ARE THE ONGOING PROJECTS?[/h3]

Just to summarize, in addition to updating the games already released, there are 2 projects I'm currently working on:

- "Mercenaries of the Kingdom: First Blood" has already been released but is still in Early Access. In particular, I must add the Story mode, which enriches the gameplay and justifies the battles.

- A Battlefield-style game, but single-player, with both first-person and tactical components, as in BF2 and BF4.
I tell Home Wars lovers to follow this latest title (not yet available) in the future because, among the factions present, there will also be insects and perhaps even dinosaurs! Both as enemies and as fully playable units!
Furthermore, I will need this game to test some dynamics that I would like to introduce in HW2, such as physics and first-person in the invertebrate units.

In reality, I have a thousand other ideas, but being a single developer, it's very difficult to manage everything, so I'm forced to nip some very cool ideas in the bud, perhaps hoping to realize them in the future.



[h3]DO YOU WANT TO SUPPORT ME?[/h3]

Do you know those developers who managed to become millionaires with a single game (due to skill and luck)? ... well, it's not me! :D

If you want to support me, there are 3 ways:

- Check out my latest games and see if there's any you're interested in!
Please buy for your own pleasure and not out of compassion for what just happened to me. Ultimately, I received very little damage compared to other families affected by the flood.

- If you like one of my games, it would be great if you left a review to encourage other potential players to purchase!

- Good old word of mouth!
I certainly can't invest in advertising now, so good word of mouth would be very helpful to me at this moment


[h3]CONCLUSION:[/h3]

What doesn't kill you strengthens you... but it tires you out a lot... :D

I REALLY thank you from the bottom of my heart for being close to me at this moment, and I promise that I will try to reciprocate this love with healthy fun in the months/years to come!

Talk to you in the next updates, my dear keyboard friends!

My friends, yesterday my town suffered an incredible flood.

In just a few hours the rain managed to fill the rivers that descended from the nearby mountains; I have never seen so much water fall in such a short time (about 6 hours).
A riverbank near my house gave in to the force of the water and broke.

Unfortunately, there were victims and several people are still missing.
Many people risked drowning in their own homes.

I'm fine, but a lot of mud has entered my house (as well as those of my neighbors), so I have to roll up my sleeves and clean everything, saving what can be saved.

The hardware I work with is upstairs, so all my games are safe, but, as I imagine you will understand, all the development will have to come to a complete stop for a few days.
I will be able to continue to provide support in the Community Hub before bed.

When everything gets back to normal, I will be happy to resume the development of my games, including updates to already released ones.

I'm the first one to regret this temporary stop, sorry.

This planet probably no longer knows how to tell us that we must pollute it less and has resorted to the "hard ways".

I want to tell you this disaster hasn't affected my spirit as a game developer in the slightest, on the contrary, I've come up with some very "insane" ideas to include in games and maybe use this experience to make a game, who knows.

I greet you and see you when there is less mud around me :D

Hi, Captains of Fortune!


[h3]CHANGES IN EARLY ACCESS 2.7:[/h3]

- Finally, mercenaries will now be able to increase their skills!
When a mercenary uses a weapon, such as a sword, his sword skill will increase over time, regardless of the number of attacks he makes.
For now, it is not possible to exceed 100% of the value.
The health skill increases for all mercenaries equally, without having to do anything.
The speed skill cannot be increased.

- As you asked me, now each object shows the name of its category, so it is possible to immediately understand whether, for example, a sword is two-handed or not.
This is especially useful with the new skill system.

- Now, it is no longer possible to place mercenaries too close together in formation.
Formations are becoming increasingly important in gameplay.

- I added 4 new books.
In practice, they are the "Supreme" version of the existing ones and are gray.

- Defense books now increase all armor types; this is very useful.

- Fixed a bug related to the defense book.

- Increased the size of the skill and item info window.


Have a nice day, and see you next update! :)