Next Update is coming!
Hi, Oreol team here, the time has finally come to share information about the upcoming update. The main theme of this update is the global political system, this effects economy, diplomacy, and ties in to a few other systems in the game (making it a huge feature in a quest to make KINGDOMS feel more alive). Alongside this update we will be introducing improvements to the AI systems in place, but first let's go over the political system in detail.
POLITICS
The Political sytem has two main aspects:
Territories and Diplomacy.
In a previous update we added traits, both positive and negative, to our AI system. Now these stats have direct influences on the political system. Each faction leader has a set of unique traits that defines his or her strategy, for example:
If an NPC has the trait "Conquer" his strategy will be more aggressive.
We've also changed the map, so now you can see all the faction settlements there:
Diplomacy also plays a very important role on how successful settlements will be, factions can trade with eachother (settlers will actually take goods from one settlement and sell it to a friendly one). Although if your neighbor wants war your settlements will need protection. This can be remedied by the new watch towers, watch towers are used to save your settlement from raids, and there are four types in the game:
Small Wooden Watch Tower
This is the most basic watch tower, although not great at defending settlements it provides a cheap way for you to spot invasions or raids.
Big Wooden Tower
Offering more protection to the surrounding area is the big wooden tower, it provides a moderate amout of defense while still being cheaper then the heavier towers.
Small Stone Tower
Offering higher defense then the big wooden tower, the small stone tower is a great way to defend your beautiful town from harm. Also of note, this building is the first in KINGDOMS to need stone.
Big Stone Tower
Final on the chain of towers is the king of defense, the big stone tower, although expensive, is a large stone structures providing a huge obstacle for the attacking army to overcome.
Towers also provide a few other benefits and mechanics such as:
Max number of towers will be 1-10 in each settlement, this will be dependent on architect skill, buildings, etc. (max number is not final yet, more balance tests will be needed to see how late game settlements fair against armies and vice versa.)
Towers must be captured in order for the enemy to capture your town, these provide defensive "choke points" for you to fill with soldiers that can slow the enemy down (higher level towers can station more soldiers and require more time to capture)
Soldiers can be stationed in towers to fire arrows, defend with melee weapons, and be used to slow the enemies down even further.
AI IMPROVEMENTS
There can be no doubt, in it's current state the AI is not perect. The AI likes to sleep on the ground, not do jobs, etc. You all know that, so in this update we wanted to improve the AI and make it deeper in all aspects. The first big thing that was done was animations in the houses, now NPCs can use their beds to sleep, tables to eat or read, shopkeepers now do their job at the vendors table, tavern keepers are serving customers, etc.
Also the buy/sell system was reworked, now NPCs are buying a lot more (not only the wood) so shops in game have much better functionality and a real influence on the economy.
VISUAL IMROVEMENTS
Previous versions of the game were made with Unity version 5.3.3, with this update we have updated Unity to 5.5.5 which allowed us to use new post effects by Unity Technologies. Which is really cool because:
1) Game looks much nicer
2) FPS count has +20% performance.
Just see the screenshots and judge for yourselves:
WHEN?
I know it looks like this update is ready but it isn't, there is still a lot of work in war balancing, animations, etc. This update should have been done by December but, we were finishing our side project News Tycoon and were busy with Greenlight and prelease stuff.
We thought that it would be honest, and fair, to compensate all the time we missed so, after full release of News Tycoon in 1 month (The game is practically ready), all KINGDOMS players will get it for free.
So, the following month we'll finish News Tycoon and get it done asap then after that release all this cool stuff you've read. So, this update can be expected in 4-5 weeks (this is an estimate).
Hope you enjoyed the news, have a nice play!
-Oreol team
POLITICS
The Political sytem has two main aspects:
Territories and Diplomacy.
In a previous update we added traits, both positive and negative, to our AI system. Now these stats have direct influences on the political system. Each faction leader has a set of unique traits that defines his or her strategy, for example:
If an NPC has the trait "Conquer" his strategy will be more aggressive.
We've also changed the map, so now you can see all the faction settlements there:
Diplomacy also plays a very important role on how successful settlements will be, factions can trade with eachother (settlers will actually take goods from one settlement and sell it to a friendly one). Although if your neighbor wants war your settlements will need protection. This can be remedied by the new watch towers, watch towers are used to save your settlement from raids, and there are four types in the game:
Small Wooden Watch Tower
This is the most basic watch tower, although not great at defending settlements it provides a cheap way for you to spot invasions or raids.
Big Wooden Tower
Offering more protection to the surrounding area is the big wooden tower, it provides a moderate amout of defense while still being cheaper then the heavier towers.
Small Stone Tower
Offering higher defense then the big wooden tower, the small stone tower is a great way to defend your beautiful town from harm. Also of note, this building is the first in KINGDOMS to need stone.
Big Stone Tower
Final on the chain of towers is the king of defense, the big stone tower, although expensive, is a large stone structures providing a huge obstacle for the attacking army to overcome.
Towers also provide a few other benefits and mechanics such as:
Max number of towers will be 1-10 in each settlement, this will be dependent on architect skill, buildings, etc. (max number is not final yet, more balance tests will be needed to see how late game settlements fair against armies and vice versa.)
Towers must be captured in order for the enemy to capture your town, these provide defensive "choke points" for you to fill with soldiers that can slow the enemy down (higher level towers can station more soldiers and require more time to capture)
Soldiers can be stationed in towers to fire arrows, defend with melee weapons, and be used to slow the enemies down even further.
AI IMPROVEMENTS
There can be no doubt, in it's current state the AI is not perect. The AI likes to sleep on the ground, not do jobs, etc. You all know that, so in this update we wanted to improve the AI and make it deeper in all aspects. The first big thing that was done was animations in the houses, now NPCs can use their beds to sleep, tables to eat or read, shopkeepers now do their job at the vendors table, tavern keepers are serving customers, etc.
Also the buy/sell system was reworked, now NPCs are buying a lot more (not only the wood) so shops in game have much better functionality and a real influence on the economy.
VISUAL IMROVEMENTS
Previous versions of the game were made with Unity version 5.3.3, with this update we have updated Unity to 5.5.5 which allowed us to use new post effects by Unity Technologies. Which is really cool because:
1) Game looks much nicer
2) FPS count has +20% performance.
Just see the screenshots and judge for yourselves:
WHEN?
I know it looks like this update is ready but it isn't, there is still a lot of work in war balancing, animations, etc. This update should have been done by December but, we were finishing our side project News Tycoon and were busy with Greenlight and prelease stuff.
We thought that it would be honest, and fair, to compensate all the time we missed so, after full release of News Tycoon in 1 month (The game is practically ready), all KINGDOMS players will get it for free.
So, the following month we'll finish News Tycoon and get it done asap then after that release all this cool stuff you've read. So, this update can be expected in 4-5 weeks (this is an estimate).
Hope you enjoyed the news, have a nice play!
-Oreol team