Kingdoms News

VISUAL AND AUDIO
-New music themes added to main menu, settlement and exploration;
-Some sounds added to NPCs actions - chopping;
-NPC now wear weapons on their back - sword or bow, depend what is equipped.
-New weather type added - snow;
-Old rain particles were replaced in order to fix performance drops during rain;
-Seasons change added - snowcoverage depends on day and month;
-Lightning effect (with +500 variations) and more lightnings sounds added;
-Various sounds added to NPCs and Player actions;
-Added so visual effects to player actions like sparks by mining and chips by chopping;
-Added some additional thunder sounds;
-Change some old UI button textures;

GAMEPLAY
-Scaffolds build by player are now destroyable;
-Changed AI choises after landing to prevent huge population in the centre of the island;
-Fixing inventory message telling that you can't gather something with weapon in habd by full invenory;
-Horses added to wildlife;
-Taming and riding mechanics added;
-Horse loot added - meat and skin;
-Troops formation added, now they follow the player in straight lines;
-Various colors for horses added;
-Various horses breeds added;
-Cooking of horse meat added to all cooking tools;
-Craft speed changed to 256 when crafting;
-Saddle added - it can be crafted and put on the horse;
-Horse with saddle follows players position after whistle (Q);
-Amount of leather by crafting was changed to random (1-3);
-Troops can be equipped with bows and use them in battle;
-Bows added to start items of NPCs with archers perks;
-Local avoidance added to NPCs navigation in order them to simulate crowd and not to collide eachother;
-Snow now depend not on in-game month, but on players height + snow coverage height - eg. it will be snow in mountains even in summer.
-Starting year was changed to 1500 - to match declared historical period;
-4 formations types added to command menu;
-Adding gallopping sound to the horse;
-F1 was replaced by Backspace button in order not to conflict with formations commands.
-4 new Commanding perks added: Sergeant, Bannerrot, Captain, King - they defy the max amount of soldiers in the army;
-Keys settings now can be changed via launch screen;
-Guards and guards hiring mechanic added;
-Added more descriptions to notice board quests;
-Player now can build only own house or quest-houses;
-Guard now go to guard on watchtowers and common house, when hired;
-Horse animations now depend on speed in more wide way;
-Horse controls were changed as well as riding mechanics - W and S to control speed, A and D to move left or right;
-Hose with saddle now moves 1.5 times faster, default speed was decreased;
-Saddle bag inventory added;
-Balancing of leather-craft resources;
-Saddle is added as start item of Traveller perk;
-Storage added to small blacksmith, big blacksmith, woodworkers house and bakery;
-Added new army recruitment mechanics and payment system;
-AI building speed now can be set at worlds generation;
-Troops type now can be changed to melee, ranged and mounted;
-Players house or manufactory can be given to NPC;
-Items now can be crafted in stacks;
-Amount of arrows in one stack was changed to 50;
-Iron and steel axes craft added to smelt furnace;
-10 types of farmers added: depend on gathered food;
-Farmer AI start skills were changed to Gardener, Worker and Chopper;
-Farmer now grows food, gathers it, go to the town, sells there - can also visit a tavern;
-Sack added to the farmer when travelling;
-AI now can buy and eat any kind of food, not only berries;
-AI now can manage the shop - add money there if needed and take income;
-Player now can build or destroy houses belong to noone;
-Each soldier in the army can be called or released individually;
-Craft "flour >> four bag" and "flour bag >> flour" added to the bakery;
-NPC buy 3x more goods in shops when random visiting them;
-Animals now can use local avoidance when moving;
-Player now can take empty houses in the village;
-Reworking caves - making them more linear, adding new modules, removing some massive rocks;
-Berries parameters were lowered;
-Each NPC now has individual happyness parameter: it depends on food quality, taxes amount, house etc.
-Herbalist perk allows to gather 2 items from 1 plant;
-Alchemist perk added;
-New modules added to the caves;
-Chest with gold can be found in the caves;
-Max NPC number can be set to 2000;
-"Take all" and "Give all" buttons added to containers interface;
-Archers can use melee weapon when enemy is near by;

BUGFIXING
-Fixed issue by building a campfire when more wood than needed were taken from your inventory;
-Fixing door into storage in stone house;
-Fixing the issue when small animals like rabbits or foxes could fly above ground;
-Fixing the issue when staying in "riding mode" after horse was killed;
-Animals save their positions after loading including tamed horses;
-Stamina now regenerates when sleeping;
-Fixing the bug when npc could consider players house as common one after loading;
-Fixed incorrect campfire position when building one.
-Tamed horses don't run from npcs;
-Tamed horses now won't disappear under player when riding into far distance;
-Fixing some glitchy textures on the ship;
-Fixing the issue when animals fly or run underground;
-Fixed map on horse;
-Fixed NPC jittering on board of the ship;
-Players horse now will follow the player correctly - remember though - it's not a magic horse, it won't suddenly teleport near by, if the distance is large, horse have to travel all this distance to reach the player.
-Fixing the issue with rotatig camera and moving horse when using inventory or pausing;
-Fixing the issue when text in storage, shop, notice board an coomand window could change allignment;
-Fixing the issue when Player can damage own horse;
-Tweaking NPCs shoot angle depending on distance to the enemy;
-Fixed the issue when players horse with saddle would follow the player after dismounting non-players horse.
-Fixed the issue when rain was active inside buildings;
-Fixing the issue when combat music continued to play after fight was over;
-Fixing the issue when NPC fall underground because of pathing error.
-Fixed crash issue caused by wrong material setting by some animals;
-Fixing the issue, when settlers on board of the ship were standing lower than deck;
-Fixing the issue when dead horse was unable to gather;
-Fixing the issue with teleporting from horse;
-Fixing some typos in dialogs and in-game text;
-Fixing the issue when settlement information wasn't displayed correct without having common house build;
-Fixing the issue with rain and snow inside cave;
-Tweaking local avoidance parameters to make NPCs movement more realistic;
-Fixing the bug with messed horse bod texture;
-Fixing the issue with missed saddle by some saddled horses;
-Fixing the issue "horse tame teleport";
-Fixing the issue, when campfire was active even if player was far away and caused performance drops;
-Fixing buggy animation places in big wooden tower;
-Fixing the issue when players house belongs to nobody after loading;
-Fixing incorrect scrolling in crafting window by 4:3 monitors;
-Fixing buggy messages when gathering something;
-Fixing buggy soldiers removing from troops;
-Button "Release an army" added to commanding script;
-Fixed buggy army payment calculation, when soldiers was in army, wasn't called but took payment;
-Chopper perk description was changed to more reliable to this perk.
-Changing the message, when players house is sold to AI to "Your house was sold to ";
-Fixing missed foundament in 2-level stone house;
-Fixing an error in AI animations scripts, that caused performance drops and crashes;
-Fixing script error, when NPC farmer could loop in the shop, when shop had no money;
-Fixing incorrect calculation of max army number;
-Buildings added to perks descriptions;
-Tweaking snow setting in order to fix snowing inside caves and some buildings with tall roof;
-Cave exit position has been raised in order to prevent falling under terrain;
-Trader perks description was changed;
-Tweaking archers shoot angle;
-Bakery foundament was raised in order to remove grass;
-Optimizing meshes static batching in order to increase peformance;
-Fixing the issue with broken saves, coused by houses scripts error;
-Tweaking the lights in the large smith;
-Fixing the issue when NPC could consider manufactory as a house leaving main house empty;
-Fixing the issue when player could chop the tree with the full inventory;
-Fixing the issue when player could gather ore or stone with full inventory;
-Player can enter the cave with weapon in hand;
-Fixing the issue, when player slipped on board of the ship;
-Fixing the issue with incorrect sword save in shops, which can cause shop interface bug;
-Fixing the issue when too large amount of aminals on the map caused performance drops;
-Prosperity info on the notice board now calculates correctly;
-Fixing npc_landing script, that could cause loop when landing and performance drops;
-Fixing the issue when npc stood near house entrance, when house is full;
-Farmers now can not only sell, but also buy needed goods in the village;
-Fixing the issue when windmill couldn't be build on players farm;
-Fixing the issue, when players couldn't build new buildings after loading;
-Objects around player now load right after player exits the cave;
-Fixing glitchy ship textures;
-Optimizing general AI script in order to increase performance;
-Optimizing rain and snow particles settings in order to increase performance;
-Fixing the ussue with bugged doors physics and low foundament in 4 th stone house;
-DoF won't be aplied to invisible walls in caves anymore;
-Fixing some glitchy testures and models in caves modules;
-Fixing trees physics calculation script that could cause crash after long play;
-Fixing bugged animation of 2 handed axe, when trying to unequip it while chopping or mining;
-Fixing animation speed with one-handed and two-handed weapon;
-Fixing various buggy left hand animations;
-Archers are now mortal;
-Fixing bugged archers rotation when aiming the enemy;
-Tweaking archers shooting angle;

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

Hey, Update 17.2 is finally there and here are some patchnotes for it:

1) Command menu


Being leader of settlement you can recruit your settlers using notice board in your settlement:

After gathering a group you can give them 3 types of orders: Follow you, Hold your current position and attack (Other settlers or animals)

Command menu can be activated by pressing F button:

You can manage your group using new tab in your journal, equip new armor and gear there and remove soldiers from your group:

You can also heal you soldiers using items from your inventory:

By attacking other settlement be careful because its settlers will try to defend themselves from your company!
Group also needs daily payment (At 12:00), that depends on your perks (Scholar-line) and settlers level. Don't forget to pay your settlers otherwise they'll leave your group:


2) Craft

As for new armor you can craft it using work-desks:

Also, smithing stuff was changed dramatically, bugs were fixed and for now on you can smith new sword types, sell and buy them in shops, with saving of unique look and parameters of the sword. Also, self-made swords can be given to your companions as well:

Besides, we've added cooking tables to all living houses, enjoy:)


3) Gameplay changes
Some of you asked about some parameter that can set pause between NPC spawn, that can be very useful for those player that care about free territories for their cities, so we've added it:

Also, by building you'll recive a confirmation before setting a house:


4) Visuals
This patch will also include some new visual settings like brightness, contrast and some pretty dynamic DoF effect:

Also, we saw some of you complained about fog and bright light in caves, so welcome to the world of dark caves in KINGDOMS:

And a final step is absolutely new animations for sword fights for our settlers, i'm sure you'll like it more than old ones:)


We really hope that you will like new features and try them as soon as possible:)
So, have a nice play, friends!

Oreol team

SALE
You can now buy KINGDOMS 40% off during the Halloween Sale on Steam!

PATCH
We have finally finished the work on patch 17.1! This update brings a nice set of bug fixes, the new town management window, and a few other changes to the game (including the return of Godmode!)
Please remember to start a new save when playing, do not load old saves as it can cause a lot of issues. Here is the full changelog:

GAMEPLAY CHANGES
-Can now set the number of animals during map generation
-There are now 4 armor slots- Head, Top, Bottom, and Shoes
-20 new clothing Items all wearable by the Player
-Defensive and Offensive stats now display on the inventory window
-New settlement management window - Change the name of the town, change the banner, and more options coming soon
-New interface message "Something discovered" when ruins or a city is discovered
-You can now see what you have equipped on your left and right arm ingame
-Settlements can now be taken by the player once the leader is killed, no need to reload
-Godmode is back (F11)

Visual and audio changes:
-Some tweaks for fog distance
-NPCs and animals now only appear at 100m (was 200m)
-General script optimization (~10-15% FPS increase)
-Pathfinding script tweaks
-Sounds for player steps were changed

BUG FIXES:
-Getting stuck at some windows when pausing
-Unfinished scaffold (by Player) randomly finishing
-Tons of inventory bugs fixed such as: wrong stackable items, disappearing items, etc.
-Flour making bug
-Hostile health bars not visible
-Archery doing no damage
-Inability to scroll in farm menu
-NPCs changing appearance on load of a save
-Common house banners changing after a load
-Blanks disappearing while smithing
-Looting corpses forever
-Settlements being visible from start on the map
-Infinite load after accepting a quest then the quest giver died

Have a nice play!

Hello everyone,

we are very excited to finally give you guys access to our newest update! We have a lot of new features for you which we are eager to talk to you about. So let's dive into it!


Villagers vs animals
Villagers and hostile animals will now fight eachother, so if you're getting chased down by a bear you can try to take shelter in a village (the villagers aren't too good at fighting animals though, so you might lose a few or even all of them).


Party system*
We already touched on this earlier, but here's the full deal: You can hire NPCs to help you in battles.

Hiring NPCs*
To hire NPCs you need to be the leader of your village, you can put up an ad on the noticeboard for up to 10 soldiers at the same time. Right now hiring NPCs is free, but later on we will introduce a cost.

Managing party members*
We have a party management window through which you can manage all aspects of your party, you can access this through your diary (hit Tab to bring it up). From here you can give out orders and manage the equipment of your party members, you can even send them back to the village they came from.


Wars* and NPC combat
Some NPC leaders will decide that ruling their own village isn't enough, so they will try to take over other villages by attacking them with their own party. If they manage to kill the leader of the village that is under attack they will become the new leader of that village as well, growing their "country".


Patrols* and village safety
You can tell NPCs to patrol around a village through the noticeboard, this will make an NPC walk around the village, warning the villagers if hostiles are inbound. Whenever a hostile is spotted the entire village will go into combat mode, with the armed NPCs attacking the hostile and the unarmed NPCs running for cover.


Managing your settlement - Went from missing to "partial" on the 24th.
Settlement management has been improved, you can now choose your banner and see a list of all NPCs in your village on the noticeboard.


Equipment* and clothing
You can customize your character with new clothing and craftable armor, allowing you to protect yourself from some of the incoming damage of those pesky bears! You will have 4 armor slots, for the head, body, legs and feet.


New character models (m/f)
You can now see both the new male and female character models, as well as their new faces! Both male and female characters have a variety of clothing they can pick from.


Optimization and bug fixes
We've done some more optimization and bug fixing, but since this will be a new update there will be plenty of new bugs (also called "undocumented features") to find, so keep up the awesome bug reporting!

* features with this star will be released in a few days, we encountered a bug with one of the scripts and since it is all intertwined we've disabled these features for now.

Also, for the people who have not yet bought Kingdoms who want to get the game now this update is out; Be patient, we'll go on sale in about a week!

Have a great week!
The Oreol team.