Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles News

Hi Everyone

A user reported some weird visual stretching and incorrect resolution. I was able to fix his issue tonite but to do so had to upload a new build that also includes a number of untested and new changes.

So the first evolving demo update is a fact even tho with PAX east coming up wednesday I did not plan on it.

So if anything broke, I am sorry;)

here's the changelist

• changed to il2cpp
  
• changed to a 64 bit binary
  
• mouse more stable in surveyor mode
  
• mouse hickups removed
  
• resoultion stretching due to incorrect screensize detection fixed
  
• fading of ui between ground/air fixed
  
• pressing L in photomode respawns your settlement for very cool rebuild animation (this is super beta)
  
  

Please report any new bugs, and I hope some of these changes improve the experience for those suffering issues

Hey people,

This is a new stage in the life of Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles. An evolving demo!

Lots of work went into improving the game based on the previous round of feedback and your input will be as foundational for the rest of development, so enjoy the demo and be heard. Jump on our Bulwark Discord.

I got the chance to show off some of the demo during the Mix showcase. Check it out below.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you are around PAX East. Come on down to the Wired Indie Parlour (Stand 1807), Play the demo and say Hi!

Cheers
Tomas

PS Drop a wishlist on Bulwark. really helps with visibility.

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

PPS

The Falconeer is in the Steam Spring Sale. 65% off is a great deal.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135260/The_Falconeer/

Hi everyone,

this has been an eventful week, getting a game in front of players for the very first time is scary and exhilarating. Especially something as odd as Bulwark.

But where the rubber hits the road is where you get real feedback, positive and negative.
Much has been said on the controls and MKB especially and hope everybody who paid attention can tell from the 50 changes over a dozen or so updates that this area will keep getting the best of my attention, beyond the fairly massive changes done this week in this area.

And with the addition of the MMB mouse orbit option as some of you have pointed out, it is getting closer to other 3D sandbox and strategy games, which hopefully helps with some of the genre confusion.
Bulwark has aspects of city builders and colony sims, but at it's core it's a 3D sandbox, something I had not been able to articulate properly. I have changed the tags to put 3D sandbox up high to help future games classify the game that way for gamers.

As a little parting gift (and don't worry in not to long a new version of the demo will re-appear) I've uploaded a version with some experimental features. This will remain available for the rest of the day and evening.

• a worldmap (from the pause menu) , be lost no more!
  
• custom color trim, change the trim colors on your surveyor, ships an some buildings from the settings menu
  
• small bridges, those small bits of deep water that would block your progress and felt un-intuitive, they now spawn small bridges, so a negative made positive.
  

I'd like to thank everyone for a great pre-alpha test in this week+ long period. I hope you've seen the potential for the game and stick around to watch it develop.

Don't forget there's a discord and I regularly get people onboard for closed testing on the development version.

https://discord.com/invite/falconeer

Cheers and thanks
Tomas





[h2]Here is the final changelist for this week![/h2]

1. Camera inversion can now be set per axis (so vertical or horizontal control inversion)
   
2. edge scrolling setting moved to controller screen
   
3. edge scrolling is no longer affected by camera inversion
   
4. in multi-display mode the mouse cannot leave the game window when it has focus
   
5. when you alt-enter the mouse can leave in windowed mode
   
6. pressing the build button on a harbor will open the captain screen,
   
7. pressing on the build button on a end-harbor will open the captain screen, AND select the start harbor (move the camera there as well).
   
8. changed texts around harbors to indicate you need to switch to surveyor
   
9. added some text to the captain screen to clarify things
   
10. f you move away from a command tower with a commander it will update all the props (if you changed something). The bigger and more expansive a tower the more commander props it gets, this thus gets more updated if you changed something.
    
11. a few edge areas between the water and the rocks in the starting area had hidden 'depth's to them preventing easy building of walkways, but in some "stepping stones" to prevent issues
    
12. Added a beacon effect when you command your surveyor and made it urgent..
    
13. can no longer build a harbor where its nearest neighbour is also a harbor.. (prevents people building useless chains of harbors)
    
14. traderoutes are build only in the deep water, preventing them from hitting your settlements in the shallows
    
15. beacon also on building spot
    
16. captains for hire stop being active after 300 seconds , if it borks it will work again
    
17. surveyor doesn't pirouette when you stop
    
18. the compass homing beacon back to your base wasn't gold and blinking anymore
    
19. the sun was dipping too low
    
20. a worldmap (from the pause menu) , be lost no more!
    
21. custom color trim, change the trim colors on your surveyor, ships an some buildings from the settings menu
    
22. small bridges, those small bits of deep water that would block your progress and felt un-intuitive, they now spawn small bridges, so a negative made positive.
    
23. removed some jitters from the airborne cursor, it's not getting every jitter and bump of the surveyor translated to itself. Should feel less bumpy.
    
24. Changed that the ground cursor is placed on the level of the ground , this makes it on top of any build line icon. And thus no depth or height difference when trying to select, you need only aim at one spot, sure to fix some mis-selections and mis-builds
    
25. turned on the resource numbers!! lets do it.. more clarity less fumbling..
    
26. tried to remove the captain encounter reset of the gui that would happen after a second sometimes
    
27. same for random encounters
    
28. after building from the surveyor the cursor will reset, so it doesn't randomly jump when done.
    
29. issues with encounter text being identical fixed
    
30. encounter buttons acting strangely fixes
    
31. surveyor hanging on harbor after building fixed
    
32. fortress harbor doesn't extend an auto walkway
    
33. first outpost in freemode does get autoswitch to ground to get you started
    
34. captains lost in campaign doesn't effect freemode captains
    
35. nullref fixed when you demolish harbors quickly in succession
    
36. increased draw distance to hide ugly horizon line
    
37. set voice over repeat interval from 20 seconds to 200 seconds ! (shut him up)
    
38. removed jank from scrollwheel zoom
    
39. added mouse orbit on MMB not the default (kept that to edge scrolling) change it in the controller screen
    
40. added auto connect, walkways on new towers are automatically built and connected.
    
41. fixed some things in the imperial outpost/citadel
    
42. fixed some collision issue with the freehouse big platform foundations
    
43. changed some texts
    
44. a worldmap (from the pause menu) , be lost no more!
    
45. custom color trim, change the trim colors on your surveyor, ships an some buildings from the settings menu
    
46. small bridges, those small bits of deep water that would block your progress and felt un-intuitive, they now spawn small bridges, so a negative made positive.
    
    

[h2]Auto walkway/wall building when you spawn a basic tower on the ground[/h2]
So I think one confusing aspect as reported is that you build a single tower on the ground and then what?
So I've added (this was suggested multiple times) an auto walkway that gets build when you build a tower. This is quite an experimental bit of code, so there might be strangeness. hence it's being tested out on Discord first.


[h2]Secondly mouse orbit on MMB[/h2]
Much has been said on what gets mapped to the WASD , in the end Bulwark is a game where you orbit the camera a lot. The camera is always fixed to a tower or your surveyor (later fleet of units).
But you can orbit/look around with the WASD. This I agree is unconventional.

One suggestion has been to add a regular MMB orbit mechanic, so WASD becomes a moot point as you won't ever have to use it (unless you prefer it). Hopefully saving some confusion and frustration.

The orbit on MMB cannot work in conjunction with edge scrolling, so I've renamed that mouse camera turning in the controller settings. and you can set it to orbit now. (it is the default for new users, so I can see if it helps).

For those wanting a free camera, once you see how the new tower/walkway construction works you will notice it's a different mechanic and quite fun in its own right. Fixing the camera to the tower there makes total sense I hope. And because I want the same mechanics in the air as on the ground, that means another reason why there cannot be a free camera when flying around.

Just to reiterate there is no limited map , it's 10 km square open world you need to explore. So edge scrolling or just flying through that would not be as great as say in a more conventional builder or colony sim.

[h2]Added some fun things[/h2]

• added mouse orbit on MMB not the default (kept that to edge scrolling) change it in the controller screen
  
• added auto connect, walkways on new towers are automatically built and connected.
  
• fixed some things in the imperial outpost/citadel
  
• fixed some collision issue with the freehouse big platform foundations
  
• changed some texts
  
• As a nice parting gif, you can now set your faction color in the setting, vehicle trim and flags will be set to it.
  

Enjoy and reboot steam to force the update!

The first few days of the demo pre-alpha I worked on improving the game on your feedback. That phase is now coming to an end.

I wanted to thank everybody that took an effort to post their comments, issues and bugs.
When working solo on such a big project any first contact with actual gamers is going to be intense.
I choose to tackle that with a period of high speed updating and iterating. And your help in this was invaluable and appreciated.


To show the amount of changes here is the changelist of all that was achieved. Quite a good haul I'd say. I did make a few mistakes amongst which where the wrong mouse button bingings and for a period wednesday all the captains for hire had the same text (oops). I'm grateful for your patience, doing this can be messy. But i'm happy with the result, and I hope plenty of you get to enjoy the end product.

After monday the demo will go offline and when a new demo or testing period starts I want to assure everyone of a few features which are top of my list

• A map, yes this well be added asap
  
• An upgraded photomode perhaps even transformed into full free roam mode.
  
• Some sort of captain inventory or route overview is also under consideration
  
• More things to do in the open world
  

I hope to see you then and feel free to continue playing the demo, sharing screenshots and streams or join the discourse if you want to be involved in further alpha and beta tests.

https://discord.com/invite/falconeer

Cheers,
Tomas

the list of changes last few days:

• Camera inversion can now be set per axis (so vertical or horizontal control inversion)
  
• edge scrolling setting moved to controller screen
  
• edge scrolling is no longer affected by camera inversion
  
• in multi-display mode the mouse cannot leave the game window when it has focus
  
• when you alt-enter the mouse can leave in windowed mode
  
• pressing the build button on a harbor will open the captain screen,
  
• pressing on the build button on a end-harbor will open the captain screen, AND select the start harbor (move the camera there as well).
  
• changed texts around harbors to indicate you need to switch to surveyor
  
• added some text to the captain screen to clarify things
  
• f you move away from a command tower with a commander it will update all the props (if you changed something). The bigger and more expansive a tower the more commander props it gets, this thus gets more updated if you changed something.
  
• a few edge areas between the water and the rocks in the starting area had hidden 'depth's to them preventing easy building of walkways, but in some "stepping stones" to prevent issues
  
• Added a beacon effect when you command your surveyor and made it urgent..
  
• can no longer build a harbor where its nearest neighbour is also a harbor.. (prevents people building useless chains of harbors)
  
• traderoutes are build only in the deep water, preventing them from hitting your settlements in the shallows
  
• beacon also on building spot
  
• captains for hire stop being active after 300 seconds , if it borks it will work again
  
• surveyor doesn't pirouette when you stop
  
• the compass homing beacon back to your base wasn't gold and blinking anymore
  
• the sun was dipping too low
  
• removed some jitters from the airborne cursor, it's not getting every jitter and bump of the surveyor translated to itself. Should feel less bumpy.
  
• MLB and MRB switched
  
• No auto switching to ground after building
  
• An updated visual to indicate what tower will be selected with the cursor on the ground
  
• No selection when pressing select on a tower
  
• A harbour always makes its first wall automatically to connect it
  
• Space AND MMB switch between air and ground (space being the bound key now)
  
• Changed that the ground cursor is placed on the level of the ground , this makes it on top of any build line icon. And thus no depth or height difference when trying to select, you need only aim at one spot, sure to fix some mis-selections and mis-builds
  
• turned on the resource numbers!! lets do it.. more clarity less fumbling..
  
• tried to remove the captain encounter reset of the gui that would happen after a second sometimes
  
• same for random encounters
  
• after building from the surveyor the cursor will reset, so it doesn't randomly jump when done.
  
• issues with encounter text being identical fixed
  
• encounter buttons acting strangely fixes
  
• surveyor hanging on harbor after building fixed
  
• fortress harbor doesn't extend an auto walkway
  
• first outpost in freemode does get autoswitch to ground to get you started
  
• captains lost in campaign doesn't effect freemode captains
  
• nullref fixed when you demolish harbors quickly in succession
  
• increased draw distance to hide ugly horizon line
  
• set voice over repeat interval from 20 seconds to 200 seconds ! (shut him up)
  
• removed jank from scrollwheel zoom