Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles News

The world’s longest-running video game award, the Golden Joystick Awards has opened its voting for 2023, and we are delighted to see that Bukwark: Falconeer Chronicles has received a nomination in the 'Most Wanted Game' category.

We feel honoured to be joining such an illustrious list of nominations.

You can vote
[h2]HERE[/h2]



This comes after Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles picked up the 'Best Community Game' at Gamescom and won the 'Grand Prize' at Game Connection.

The GJAs are held in special regard because they are voted for by the people who buy and play games. Every year, millions of fans support their favourite games, developers, publishers, and people over the last 12 months.

Before the first vote is cast, the Golden Joysticks judging panel meets to compile their shortlist of nominees. The judges' initial long list is combined with publisher nominations collated through an online form. This year’s judging was more ferociously debated than ever, resulting in one of our most comprehensive and diverse shortlists yet.

Now in its 41st year, the Golden Joystick Awards Powered by Intel will be returning as an in-person live show at Royal Lancaster London on November 10, 2023.

If you haven't played the Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles demo. Now is the perfect time. Remember to hit that wishlist and vote.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/290100/Bulwark_Falconeer_Chronicles/

So the few feedbacks I've had recently on the controls were all regarding the need for the camera to move or pan on WASD rather than rotate.

Now I find myself mostly using the scrollwheel down to orbit and rotate, so I thought why not give it a spin with WADS being reserved for camera pannning left/right forward/backward and Q and E reserved for rotating left and right.

It actually doesn't take anything away from your lefthand, rotate left and right is right there under Q and E. Admittedly that loses you the up/down rotation, but there is the drag orbit to alleviate that.

So both control schemes for mouse keyboard now default panning to wasd.
You can still get the old rotating on WASD , just set it in the control screen.

This update should not change your personal saved settings (I hope).

kinda curious if this alleviates the final feedback people consistently had. ;)
cheerio tomas

So those that have played the latest version of the demo might have been able to interact with some of the NPC/ Faction settlements dotted around.

Well that addition and mostly the addition of easily being able to start a war from the settlement dialogue led to a lot of content needed updating, so that got done today. And to celebrate here's a cool new wallpaper

[h2]A lot of bugfixes and a bunch of new content.[/h2]

As an example captains that are now with a faction you are at war with needed appropriate responses, that also goes for random encounters and much more.

Basically leaders were also kinda wonky in the past, they are now clearer. They sail up to assist you in a fight against a common enemy. When you then install them they will attract higher tier units and random encounters. Basically if you pick a fight with pirates, the Imperium for instance might want to aid you and send you their war leader. This will make the Imperium much more influential in your settlement and poof before you know it you are aligned.

[h2]Changelist[/h2]

• Reworked settlement war logic
  
• Fixed bugs with displaying and spawning hostile settlements
  
• Reworked random encounters
  
• Reworked random captains
  
• Reworked war leaders
  
• Gathering your troops from a command tower is now easier
  
• Troops now re spawn near you if you fast travel.
  
• Switching from air to ground is longer possible if your are too far away (qol to prevent accidental
  switches)
  
• Changed the text of the boot screen controller choice to show clearly the option for "WADS moves camera"
  
• Added a ore extractor the the ForgeMaster event
  
• Added the stabler as a world event if you play without doing the tutorial
  
• Imperial capital ship commander added to main game
  
• 2 Imperial capital ship captains added to main game
  
• 2 Mancer capital ship captains added to main game
  
• 2 Pirate capital ship captains returned to main game
  
• Pirate nimble airship commander added to main game
  
• Tons of other small bugifxes and QoL improvements
  

If this all sound a bit ..huh ? what? Don't worry once you play and get into sampling a few of the settlement interactions or even start a war, suddenly things will now feel a bit more logical and expected.

I hope ;)

As always this might raise new issues and bugs, so report all you see.
Will ask the publisher to perhaps leave the demo on for a few more days.
Cheerio,
Tomas

Hello residents of The Great Ursee!
We hope you've been enjoying your time with the Demo lately and the most recent updates for polish and balancing that went out over the weekend - today we want to share a little more information with you about what's to come, drop a brand new trailer, and say thank you for those that came to join us at WASD.

[h2]Breaking The Cycle[/h2]

As well as the incoming updates, we're celebrating the introduction of these new landmarks with a brand new trailer that shows off some locations that will be familiar to long time fans of The Falconeer universe, and some of the sprawling settlements within the world - all made in game!

It's a bit of an epic compared to some of our pure gameplay trailers, and really helps set the scale and tone of Bulwark, so please give it a watch and share it far and wide with anyone that has even passively looked at a lego brick in their lives!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Speaking of The Falconeer, some of you may already be familiar with the architecture, landmarks and factions of The Great Ursee - though by the time Bulwark begins, the very nature of their existence in the world has changed quite drastically following the cataclysmic events at the end of The Falconeer.

In the upcoming weeks we'll take a look at each of the factions, share their past and impact on 'The Path' and what their motivations and state is as we move into Bulwark - which should serve as a nice refresher for those that have already soured the Ursee skies, and a bit of an education into the deep lore of the game for new players to the series - if you have any burning questions you wanted answered - let us know in the comments!

[h2]Is That A Dreadnot In Your Pocket?[/h2]

Those with sharp eyes will have spotted that the end of the trailer reveals a brand new unit that will be added to the game on launch as a 'thank you' to those who have wishlisted and picked up the game during the launch window!



The Pocket Dreadnot is a mighty naval unit with destructive power to spare should your attempts at diplomacy take a turn for the worst (or if you just want to flex that naval might to your neighbouring settlements!)

We'll be sharing more information on the new commander and some footage of this unit in a future blog where we take a look at each of the benefits provided by captains and commanders you can discover in the world - so keep your eyes on these blogs, and be sure to wishlist and hit follow so you can get the updates as they come out as well as Tomas's frequent patch updates!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/290100/Bulwark_Falconeer_Chronicles/

[h2]The Settlements Update and Faction Interactions[/h2]

Last week Tomas shared a blog with you detailing the addition of settlements to the game, and explaining some of the ways you can interact with them ( If you missed it, the previous blog - can be found here).

As with all things initially added to the demo this is a super early first iteration of a brand new feature that adds an extra layer of mechanical depth and new way to interact with the inhabitants of the Great Ursee, helping to bring more choice and consequence to the decisions you make and attempting to give you agency over how conflicts start and play out as you spread your influence over the world.



We've already had some great feedback regarding the addition of this lite diplomacy, both on a conceptual level and of course, the initial bugs that have been discovered in this early form. We're aiming to provide a couple more updates very shortly that should alleviate some of the rough edges around the settlements and how you interact with them based on your feedback - but as always, keep playing and let us know if anything feels off or wonky - this is a very new and exciting addition to Bulwark and we can't wait to see where it ends up, but your feedback is vital in helping shape it!

If you don't have time to play (we get it, life happens) Tomas has a couple of 'early test' videos up on his Youtube channel which you can view here in his dev diaries :

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]A Post WASD World[/h2]

Finally, It's been a week since we brought the Ursee to London and got to watch a whole new host of builders and creators get their hands on Bulwark and begin crafting their legacies within The Ursee - we also were fortunate to catch a couple of interviews whilst we were there, sharing some discussion about Bulwark, The Falconeer, Tomas, and yes - the burning question - Unity.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you managed to make it over to WASD and spend time with us, thank you - we hope we were able to be a small part of a great weekend for you, if you were unable to make the trip then fear not! We're going to leave the Evolving Demo up for a while whilst we gather more feedback and testing on the settlements and diplomacy features.



[h2]What's next?[/h2]

Phew, that was a pretty sizable update! But then again, between Gamescom, WASD, New updates and more, it has been a super busy couple of months so what lies on the horizon?

• We'll be sharing some previews and interviews with you all very soon.
  
• We'll be continuing to refine and update the settlements and diplomacy.
  
• We'll be sharing some more about the factions, world, lore and units within with you.
  
• If you're eager for more physical event presences - stay tuned, the year isn't over yet and we may very well be turning up at an event near you soon with some pretty exciting news to announce...
  

In the meantime, continue to play, to give us feedback, and please share your streams, screenshots, creations and opinions with us on socials and Discord - we love to see what you all make and share them with the world!

And as always, every wishlist and bit of hype around these announcement helps Tomas continue to do what he does best so get that trailer out there, hit that wishlist - and keep an eye on all your socials of choice below to get excited with us as he continues to Build that Bulwark!

Have a great week!

- Gary from Wired Productions

Wired Facebook | Wired Twitter | Wired Youtube | Wired Discord | Wired Instagram | Wired Twitch | Wired Tiktok | Wired Instagram

Hi everyone,

Now that the demo is live and at least for today during the WASD event in London, it feels like a good time to finally add some fresh content!.

Faction Settlements and diplomacy.
So when you play the demo, a chief difference is that you only have 1 extractor of each type. One woodmill, one stonequarry, and one Iron Ore Extractor.

To expand , you will need more, and you will have to either convince some nearby faction settlements to join you, or conquer them. And that is some major new content now playable.

So unlike a random encounter these locations are fixed and have their own flavour text and entirely new menu:


As you can see there are some new elements here. First of there are a nr of fixed options.
Some are dependent on if you are at war or peace (You cannot declare war when at war, fairly basic).

Others are dependent on alignment, you cannot invite a settlement to join you if your are not aligned. Meaning if you are a very pirate aligned settlement other pirates might join you without a fight.

On the left there are also two bars that show how aligned this settlement is with yours and if they are intimidated, intimidation might make a settlement surrender if you are at war with them. intimidation is dependent on your military force.

It's a reasonably simple system and hopefully fairly chill. You get to decide if you want to go to war and how you want to expand, friendly or hostile. Bulwark isn't about presenting a deep challenge but rather making your settlement come alive and going to war and seeing epic battle's erupt across your settlement is just another expression of that.

The demo has a small selection of faction settlements, running south west of the tutorial area. They aren't marked on the map, but that will be in a future update.

Enjoy and this is a fairly fresh feature so let me know if any weirdness occurs.

Also here's a little video of how this all works :
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Cheerio,
Tomas