Feudums News

[p]If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, or don't want to miss the updates on the single-player version, consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. Alternatively, we have a newsletter for milestone community polls and major game updates.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Dear Ladies and Lords,[/h3][p][/p][p]As mentioned on Discord and the relevant Steam forum (you can now also subscribe to a maintenance thread directly on Steam — though unlike Discord, it won’t notify you about upcoming games or their settings!), a small, but hopefully meaningful patch has been deployed after the active game ended. The game is now fully available again. No client update is required at this time.[/p][p]Please keep in mind that several core systems changed under the hood, and some settings are still being fine-tuned. If you notice anything unusual, don’t hesitate to report it. You can do so directly in-game: click the small yellow cloud icon in the bottom right, then select Bug Report in the panel that appears.[/p][p]You’ll find the change list at the end of this post 🙂[/p][p]Thanks again, and happy skirmishes![/p][p][/p][p]Caught off-guard.[/p][p][/p][h2]Patch Changelog[/h2][p][/p][h3]Gameplay & Vibe[/h3]

• [p]Garrison Block on Occupaton: The owner of a claimed tile — or an ally with Shared Logistics — can now block an enemy occupation command if a non-empty garrison covers the tile with its Area of Control. This is translated as a soft-fail on the command, so if the problem is "fixed" by the offender, the occupation can continue.[/p]

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

• [p]Updated starting resources and units[/p]
• [p]Adjusted claiming speeds and related factors[/p]
• [p]Slowed down occupation (war claims), tweaked related tactics[/p]
• [p]Starting resources slightly increased[/p]
• [p]Starting garrison now consists of a Scout (squad) and an Urban Militia (lance)[/p]
• [p]Flanked penalty increased by 25%[/p]
• [p]Tactics:[/p]
  • [p]Defensive, Recon, and Pacify tactics have been tweaked[/p]
  • [p]Pacify now provides the highest Tile Blocking (making it more suitable for Occupation) but also exposes the Company to attacks a bit more than before.[/p]
  • [p](Garrison tactics:) Town Patrol received +1 AoC[/p]
• [p]Claims:[/p]
  • [p]Every claim bid now takes 1 tick, regardless of the target region’s size[/p]
  • [p]Base bid power slightly decreased[/p]
  • [p]Bid multipliers are significantly increased[/p]
  • [p]Required total bid reduced from 9000 to 8000[/p]
  • [p]Bid limit increased from 1500 to 1600 (maximum bid claims can now resolve in 5 ticks, and bidding in general concludes slightly faster and can be boosted significantly easier)[/p]
• [p]War claims / Occupation:[/p]
  • [p]Occupation speed reduced by 66%[/p]
  • [p]Occupation cost increased to make it a more tactical decision[/p]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed an issue where "

[p][/p][p]Thank you for all the bug reports — they truly helped resolve these issues much faster! 🙂[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]As always, thanks for testing, reporting, and pushing the game forward with me.[/p][p][/p][p]- Mat[/p][p][/p][h3]Recap and Schedule[/h3][h3][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]Most Recent Releases[/h3][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p]Join the Noble Houses! ➻ ✉️ Newsletter | 💬 Community Discord | 💗Patreon[/p]

[p]If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, or don't want to miss the updates on the single-player version, consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. Alternatively, we have a newsletter for milestone community polls and major game updates.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Dear Ladies and Lords,[/h3][p][/p][p]Sorry for the unscheduled update. A patch has been deployed. The game is now fully available again, and the Steam client should update in any minute. Thank you for your patience.[/p][p]Please don't forget that since quite a few core systems changed under the hood, bugs are very much possible. Please don’t hesitate to report anything odd you run into. You can do this directly in-game: click the small yellow cloud icon in the bottom right, then hit the Bug Report button in the panel that pops up.[/p][p]Thanks again, and happy skirmishes![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Patch Changelog[/h2][h3]Gameplay & Vibe[/h3]

• [p]Various changes to the default Rulebook settings based on community feedback[/p]
• [p]Adjusted claiming costs, economic, warfare and diplomacy settings. For full details, please check the Rulebook changes on Discord.[/p]

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

• [p]Company and Garrison List is now ordered by coordinates (empty Garrisons listed at the end)[/p]
• [p]Claim Bid: [/p]
  • [p]Color coded values, extra warnings and additional tooltips were added for clarity. [/p]
  • [p]Claim Exceeding the Bid Value limit is no longer an error (Over-limit bids are auto-clamped)[/p]
  • [p]Bid Step setting is now properly enforced while adding extra resources to increase the Bid Value[/p]
  • [p]Added "Total Estimation" segment to show the total investment necessary to claim the tile under current factors / Bid Value.[/p]
• [p]Move dialog: “Jump To” button is no longer disabled in View Mode[/p]
• [p]Patrol:[/p]
  • [p]Now also visually marks the starting waypoint[/p]
  • [p]Back and Forth pattern: path lines now display arrows on both ends[/p]
  • [p]"Future path" now displays full command path, shows extra line to the next waypoint and next waypoint line also enabled for circular pattern (to show off-path deviations)[/p]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed company path rendering glitches[/p]
• [p]Move dialog cost display no longer shows “?” in certain cases[/p]
• [p]"Sneaking" state (trying to get past occupied tiles) is now properly cleared when a Company is destroyed[/p]
• [p]Fixed Company duplication when a traverse-edge (Mountain/Swamp Lore) unit was killed during an ongoing battle[/p]
• [p]"Sneaking" is now correctly cleared at end of tick for Companies set to sneaking after battle[/p]
• [p]Fixed Patrol and Patrol with back and forth pattern issues[/p]
• [p]Wasteground tiles can now be claimed correctly (previous diplomacy check failure fixed)[/p]
• [p]Claim progress: top contestant now updates correctly when outbid[/p]

[p][/p][p]Thank you for all the bug reports — they truly helped resolve these issues much faster! 🙂[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]As always, thanks for testing, reporting, and pushing the game forward with me.[/p][p][/p][p]- Mat[/p][p][/p][h3]Recap and Schedule[/h3][h3][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]Most Recent Releases[/h3][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p]Join the Noble Houses! ➻ ✉️ Newsletter | 💬 Community Discord | 💗Patreon[/p]

[p]If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, or don't want to miss the updates on the single-player version, consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. Alternatively, we have a newsletter for milestone community polls and major game updates.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Dear Ladies and Lords,[/h3][p][/p][p]This update follows the schedule outlined in the 2025 recap, and finally delivers exciting parts of the Major Milestone you voted for.[/p][p]Its main focus is the long-awaited Claim System overhaul and the foundations of Occupation mechanics, alongside several war-related improvements (focusing on Companies, "swarming" and pathfinding), plus a wide range of fixes and tweaks across other systems.[/p][p]Please don't forget that since quite a few core systems changed under the hood, bugs are very much possible. Please don’t hesitate to report anything odd you run into. You can do this directly in-game: click the small yellow cloud icon in the bottom right, then hit the Bug Report button in the panel that pops up.[/p][p]Thanks again, and happy skirmishes![/p][p][/p][p]\[Note: This post was originally published on February 7. While preparing the February 14 patch notes, I accidentally overwrote it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t revert the changes — so the original date is no longer accurate, and one paragraph has been lost.][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Changelog[/h2][h3]Gameplay & Vibe[/h3]

• [p]Async bidding for claims
  The old, simple command-based claiming is gone. Claims are now handled through a more flexible, semi-hidden bidding system where only the top contender's identity and progress is known. Tiles are contested over time: once a claim starts, bids are evaluated at the end of each tick, and the highest bid pushes the claim forward. Physical presence or adjacency is required to initiate a bid, but any house can join the contest. Active claims are now visible both on the map (as a token) and on the tile card (with a dedicated indicator).
  
  Bid strength depends on many factors (including adjacency bonuses for your already owned tiles) — don’t skip the tooltips and hover new layout elements for info![/p]
• [p]Occupation. 
  Lost a claim contest? No worries, you still have options! Occupation is a new command that lets Companies exert continuous pressure through military presence. In Cold War, it allows you to seize tiles in another house’s Wasteground (note: normal claims now also allow that!). In War, it also enables occupation of Feudum tiles.
  
  Both use the same bidding logic and indicators, but here your Company generates ongoing bids, based on its Tile Blocking value as long as it maintains control.[/p]
• [p]Liberation
  If a tile that belongs to you or an ally is getting contested, other than indirectly helping by attacking the invaders, you can use the full scale of the bidding system to reclaim it — by mixing military presence or standard claiming.
  
  General tile blocking rules apply though: if an opponent maintains presence on the tile, it'll prevent you to execute commands on it. Successful liberation returns the tile to its original owner.
  
  Reclaim partially occupied tiles for their original owner — or, if you’re neither the original owner or an ally, exploit the chaos and take the tile for yourself.[/p]
• [p]Disconnected tiles now matter
  Tiles cut off from their Manor fall out of the Feudum (into Wasteground if there’s room, otherwise becoming abandoned). Strategic layout isn't just about garrisons and economy anymore.[/p]
• [p]Smarter labour policies
  Rulebooks now ship with several moddable default seasonal labour policies, just like in a classic 4X, each focusing on different production goals. You can switch built-in policies per Feudum with a single click.[/p]
• [p]As requested, policies can now also be copied/pasted via clipboard using a human-readable format— perfect for sharing with friends, the community - or me. :) Feel free to post your best setups on Discord![/p]
• [p]Gossips Everywhere! The existing Rumour & Gossip system now posts notable world events to the community Discord’s game-world forums. You can follow wars, regional growth, noble expansion, and market shifts even when you’re not logged in.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

• [p]The old Guard (Patrol) command is now integrated into movement, with more options and more than 2 waypoints possible, so you can fine-tune the patrol path. Movement itself has also received some more options (e.g. you can ask your Company to avoid trespassing or moving through garrisons if possible). You can now also rearrange waypoints in the order.[/p]
• [p]In the company command queue, company command slots now honor the command type (movements go into the 1st slot, management commands to the 2nd slot).[/p]
• [p]Hovering a movement command in the command queue now shows the next waypoint instead of the company. The "go to" button also moves to the next waypoint instead of the company.[/p]
• [p]Additional Rumours related to claim bids and territorial contests.[/p]
• [p]Military claims issued through the Pacify stance no longer has grace period when the company moves or changes tactics, but does not immediately fail when the company is in battle after the command has started.[/p]
• [p]Companies can now pass through multiple friendly Companies or Garrisons if they have enough AP. Requires the Shared Logistics / Free Passage diplomatic clause.[/p]
• [p]Post-Battle placement logic improved and made more consistent. After battles, the winners choose first in the order of maneuverability (descending}, then comes the losing side. On draw, it is defender then attacker order.[/p]
• [p]Treasury badges now show an auto-trade indicator when relevant—hover for details.[/p]
• [p]Labour Assignment UI readability improvements (still WIP, but better than before).[/p]
• [p]Foragers are now all-year, but still seasonal workers, with a bountiful main and a harsh alternate season.[/p]
• [p]Games from now on will either allow one more feudum or one more tile per feudum, so you can find new economic strategies, or can use the extra capacity to, well, annex tiles from others.[/p]
• [p]Several other tweaks to the default rulebook, from commands to labourers — the community Discord always has the up-to-date changes![/p]

[p][/p][h3]Fixes[/h3][p]The following bugs have been eliminated, so brand new ones can be deployed:[/p]

• [p]Fixed movement commands showing extra lines when 2 waypoints or waypoints and company position were on the same tile.[/p]
• [p]Fixed future paths sometimes rendering under past paths.[/p]
• [p]Fixed diplomacy commands getting stuck in queues in a specific case.[/p]
• [p]Fixed negative Company power values under extreme attrition.[/p]
• [p]Fixed damage modifier being ignored edge case for badly injured units.[/p]
• [p]Fixed morale regeneration edge cases related to edge handling (e.g. if the company regen + tactic regen would be 0 or negative, the edge can still offset it)[/p]
• [p]Fixed pathfinding for "Avoid" encounter strategy to correctly avoid the any known enemy AoC.[/p]
• [p]Fixed edge-only regeneration logic for morale.[/p]
• [p]Fixed traversal edge case: when the last terrain-enabling unit dies and the company is placed on a new tile at the end of movement, the new tile will be used for attrition, trespassing, labour blocking and other checks.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Company stat clamping with tactic modifiers.[/p]
• [p]Multiple fixes to communication-related issues.[/p]
• [p]Additional server-side and backend fixes.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]As always, thanks for testing, reporting, and pushing the game forward with me.[/p][p][/p][p]- Mat[/p][p][/p][h3]Recap and Schedule[/h3][h3][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]Most Recent Releases[/h3][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p]Join the Noble Houses! ➻ ✉️ Newsletter | 💬 Community Discord | 💗Patreon[/p]

[p]If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, or don't want to miss the updates on the single-player version, consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. Alternatively, I have a newsletter for milestone community polls and major game updates.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]Dear Ladies and Lords,[/h3][p][/p][p]Once the currently running public game ends on Friday (likely within ~12 hours, depending on the contenders), there’ll be some downtime while the next update gets deployed, following the schedule from the previous post.[/p][p][/p][p]The downtime (which also includes maintenance tasks) may last 8-10 hours, and if the current game happens to end at a very unlucky time (read: I’m asleep), it could be a bit longer. [/p][p][/p][p]Thanks a lot for your patience![/p][p][/p][h2]📢 Downtime and Game Update this Friday, after current game ends![/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]A couple things you can expect:[/p]

• [p]a mandatory client update (but it'll happen automatically on Steam)[/p]
• [p]the core occupation mechanics, including the ability to place war claims on your enemies or steal tiles from their wasteground![/p]
• [p]several community-requested QoL improvements, including some new features for tweaking seasonal labour policies.[/p]
• [p]the debut of an exciting new Discord integration between game worlds and the community discord, to extend the experience,[/p]
• [p]and more![/p]

[p]I’ll post an update on Discord once it’s done, and new games will follow shortly after. If you don’t want to miss new games, don't forget to join the Discord and grab the “game alerts” role for pings on new games (and their per-world rulebook changes). As always, I'll also share the full change log here on Steam after the update.[/p][p][/p][p]See you in the next game session! :)[/p][p][/p][p]- Mat[/p][p][/p][p]2025 Recap and 2026 Q1 Schedule:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]Most Recent changelogs:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]

[p]♜ Join the Noble Houses! ➻ ✉️ Newsletter | 💬 Community Discord | 💗Patreon[/p]

[p]If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, or don't want to miss the updates on the single-player version, consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. Alternatively, I have a newsletter for milestone community polls and major game updates.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]Hoi everyone,[/h3][p][/p][p]First of all: happy 2026! I hope this year brings all of us plenty of pleasant, innovative indie strategy (or other) games.[/p][p]A few of you suggested (and you were right) that it’s time for a short recap of the last year, plus a look at what’s coming next. While plans rarely survive first contact with reality, but at least this gives us something solid to adapt from.[/p][p][/p][h2]Recap: 2025[/h2][p]Unfortunately, indie game development didn’t get any easier last year — quite the opposite. A non-trivial part of my time went into making sure neither my kids nor I starve... but development never stopped. We’ve survived worse.[/p][p]Over the year, 6 larger updates and many patches went live. [/p][p]These mostly prepared the community-voted major feature group (siege + advanced occupation mechanics and some vassalage basics), while also adding a lot of concrete improvements, including:[/p][p][/p][h3]For the warlords[/h3]

• [p]Added some new military units and a fully reworked military edges system, with roughly double the unique traits and new synergies![/p]
• [p]Implemented terrain categories that fundamentally affect combat values, enabling more tactical depth.[/p]
• [p]Enhanced traversability rules, making previously impassable terrain crossable with the right units, promoting new strategies[/p]
• [p]Expanded rules for winter troop movement further stress the seasonal nature of warfare.[/p]
• [p]Tile improvements and terrain now affect battles through not only flat modifiers, but they also alter battlefield widths per battle roster, promoting new tactics and more situational army builds.[/p]
• [p]Expanded virtue rewards for winning battles (e.g. separate rewards for repelling raiders)[/p]
• [p]Military companies can now claim regions that are not adjacent to your own territories.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]For economic masterminds[/h3]

• [p]Fully reworked early-game pacing[/p]
• [p]New labourers, continuous tweaking of existing economic rules and dynamics based on your feedback[/p]
• [p]Redesigned population dynamics (major needs, food rations, morale, stability)[/p]
• [p]Added charts to visualize feudum inputs and outputs, and a wider variety of economic reports.[/p]
• [p]Added the ability to cycle through past reports of any kind, making it much easier to track what happened while you were away.[/p]
• [p]Custom labour policies can finally be saved and reused across feudums — even across games (if the rulebook matches)[/p]

[p][/p][h3]For schemers and social nobles[/h3]

• [p]private messaging alongside public in-game channels (plus reporting — thankfully rarely needed so far) enables better scheming - or tactical discussions.[/p]
• [p]Added a gossips & rumours system, so you can learn about important events even outside your influence range. Fair warning: gossip can be inaccurate![/p]
• [p]Alliance victory conditions now scale with member count, allowing small but tight alliances to compete with large ones[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]For quality-of-life enjoyers[/h3]

• [p]Added various accessibility options (toggle flashing effects, depth of field, etc.)[/p]
• [p]Dozens of new animations, from WYSIWYG workers to chimney smoke and tower flags, plus updated weather effects[/p]
• [p]Multiple visual enhancements across the map and its UI.[/p]
• [p]Dozens of UX improvements (e.g. items in a command queue hovers their target, proper cycle-navigation for wasteground tiles, etc)[/p]
• [p]clearer and more informative tooltips, context-sensitive map highlights, and redesigned problematic commands (such as claiming, manage units, manage company, labour assignment)[/p]
• [p]200+ bug fixes[/p]

[p][/p][p]...and plenty of other improvements and additions (you can find the past year's changelog at the end of the post).[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]What Comes Next[/h2][p]Given the current circumstances, I’m not brave enough to publish long-term schedules — but the first quarter is fairly clear. Then I’ll most likely reassess and share plans for the next quarter once we get there.[/p][p]Realistically, I’ll still need to split my time between game development and projects that actually pay the bills. If that bothers you, any support through Patreon helps a lot — as requested, I’ll also look for options that don’t require another account and are ideally more EU-friendly, as soon as I have the bandwidth.[/p][p][/p][h3]Q1 Goals[/h3]

• [p]Early February: extended occupation mechanics, including the ability to annex other players’ territories and an updated version of the current claiming process with an open bidding.[/p]
• [p]Mid March: the new siege mechanics system, with its own phases, items and layouts, finally moving sieges away from the current "battle with some extra rules" resolution.[/p]
• [p](Plus pending UX/QoL features continuing on the side)[/p]

[p]These features are being developed together, but I want to roll them out step by step and test them with the community, rather than dropping everything at once.[/p][p]Once these are out, there are a few loose ends I’d still like to wrap up:[/p]

• [p]The basics of vassalage and enhanced war dynamics (e.g. "war scores")[/p]
• [p]Further UX improvements, with more focus on in-game tutoring and onboarding / first-time user experience, because these are still pretty rough[/p]
• [p]Setting up the language files and process for community translators[/p]
• [p]And then we'll have a new community vote to reprioritize the remaining major features[/p]

[p][/p][p]The story-heavy single-player mode will be slightly sidelined this quarter so I can focus on shipping these major systems properly. Around the voting period, I’ll switch focus to it — and there might be a small surprise as well, but too many things influence that right now to say more.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Okay, I’d like to wrap up this post with a final thought: please keep the feedback coming. Development is fully transparent — the playable builds show exactly where the game is right now and where it’s heading, and your feedback and votes genuinely shape it. I think there aren’t many projects built this collaboratively, but I couldn't imagine doing Feudums any other way. [/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for walking this road with me.[/p][p][/p][p]- Mat[/p][p][/p][p]Previous changelogs for the recap:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]

[p]♜ Join the Noble Houses! ➻ ✉️ Newsletter | 💬 Community Discord | 💗Patreon[/p]