Holdfast: Nations At War News

As the release of the upcoming major update featuring multiple gameplay mechanics to define, distinguish and characters the huge selection of classes looms on the horizon, we’ll be pushing forward yet another BETA.

Come join us for a swim or have a read of our blog post.


Here’s a list of some of the changes and additions that we have undergone during this update. The sooner we get the testing done, the faster our update release schedule goes so please do join us in the BETA!

Gameplay
• Swimming is no longer restricted to the naval and coastal scenarios. Multiple maps present on the army scenarios now sport this functionality as well. Arendan River, Sharpton and various other maps.
  
• Orders have been ordered to favour the ones used most. Here’s how it has all been sorted out.
  » Form Line, Make Ready, Fire, Fire At Will, Cease Fire, Charge, Break Rank & Follow, Reinforce
  
• Classes that don’t have the rank and file ability can no longer see line markers placed by infantry officers.
  
• You are now required to stand behind the line marker to gather a buff.
  
• Infantry Officers are now able to place a line marker over the one they have placed themselves. It’ll certainly come in handy when you’re looking at quickly wheeling the man in the ranks to face the enemy.
  
• Gentleman in the rank and file that are standing nearby a form line marker will see its colour change from grey to white. This will serve as an extra indication that the player is able to gather orders.
  
• Reinforce beacons are now visible by other classes in high command, the rank and file as well as surgeons and musicians.
  
• Players now receive score when healed. This is done to incentivise players to replenish their health by looking for a surgeon rather than respawning.
  
• Reduced the number of playable infantry officers to 6.
  
• Half-built gabions no longer provider cover from firearms.
  
• Reduced the run speed bonus gathered from light footed trait for the light infantry skirmisher class.
  
• Light infantryman now deals less damage with a bayonet.
  
• Light infantryman’s skirmishing ability now only applies when crouching.
  
• Increased the light infantryman’s firearm accuracy provided by the skirmishing trait.
  
• Reduced the firearm accuracy gathered from line infantryman when crouching and firing due to the rank discipline trait.
  
• Increased the pistol’s base damage from 80 to 85.
  
  User Interface
• Classes have been split into 6 distinctive roles. Command, Rank & File, Skirmisher, Artillery, Crewman and Support.
  
• Orders are now displayed separately in the Infantry Officer’s attributes window. Hover on them to see the buffs they gather.
  
• Redesigned the indicator visible on the line marker.
  
• Reordered the list of officer orders in the key binds menu to logically follow the new order stipulated above.
  
• Increased the size of the hotkeys visible on issue orders interface. We don’t want mini-map compass directions all over again now, do we? We’ll consider increasing this even further as we gather feedback from players with different resolutions.
  
• Rebinding an order to another key from the key bind’s menu will now have that change displayed on the hotkeys present on the issue orders interface.
  
• Various amendments to the text present on the hints next to the mini-map.
  
• The order interface no longer closes when you press ‘Enter’ to type in chat.
  
• Officer names are now displayed above the beacon when a reinforce order is issued.
  
• Golden borders now mark down the last issued order in the officer orders interface.
  
• Redesigned the received officer orders panel.
  
• Pressing the ‘Esc’ key no longer hides the officer orders action bar.
  
  Audio
• Lowered the audio feedback when clicking on a user interface element.
  
  Bug Fixes
• Solved an issue were the received officer order’s panel got stuck showing after respawn.
  
• Solved multiple issues with the reinforce beacons.
  
• Solved an issue with blurry icons present on the hints next to the mini-map.
  
• You are no longer able to heal enemy players with the surgeon class.
  
• Solved multiple issues with reloading.
  
• Solved a bug which enabled musicians to crouch and play tunes.
  
• Solved multiple issues with infantry stakes. Stakes placed by allied Sappers no longer deal friendly damage.
  
• Solved a bug which enabled players to ignite than carry an explosive.
  
• Solved instances of missing icons for death by fires, infantry stakes and chavexaus de frise (s) in both the kill feed and the death screen.
  
• Solved an issue with animations while running with a 2H Axe.
  
• Solved an issue with incorrect weapon loadout order for flag bearers, artilleryman and sappers.
  
• Solved an issue with loaded artillery pieces not exploding.
  
• Solved an issue with pistols not finishing off an unfortunate fellow with a single shot to the head.
  

Would you like to have a go at what’s to come? Join us in the BETA! Hop in on our Community Discord to do so. You'll find all the details in the #announcements channel. It’s a great chance for you to provide us with feedback before the update sees a full release and help us make sure that everything is working as intended while you’re at it.

Everything present in this BETA is still a work in progress and bugs are to be expected. There’s an issue with melee combat inside confined spaces such as houses. We’ll make sure to fix this before it sees a full release.

https://discordapp.com/invite/holdfastgame



Once again, thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours.

You'll be hearing from us again soon.

- Anvil Game Studios

Yet another major update hits the BETA with more game-play focused content! Valiantly lead men into battle as you issue orders to the rank and file, a unique system composed of multiple traits and abilities to define, distinguish and characterise the relatively huge selection of classes and so much more.

Come have a read at our latest blog post. You can also perhaps gather a first-hand play through for this recent BETA release. There’s plenty of new additions to check out which are by no means limited to what has been mentioned above!


There wasn’t much that helped distinguish the great selection of classes that Holdfast: Nations At War features prior to this update. Officers, line infantryman, guards, grenadiers, musicians, rifleman, marines and indeed all of the classes in the game which make part of either the army, naval or coastal military branches are now assigned specific roles that distinguish them from the rest in the field of battle.

Take lead of others in the rank and file with the Infantry Officer class! Order those good men in the ranks to fire volleys while standing shoulder to shoulder or gloriously charge with bayonet equipped. Officers can request others in high-command to come to their aid which will certainly come of use while performing strategic manoeuvres or when suffering heavy losses in defence of pivotal positions.



If leadership isn’t your forte, heed your nation’s call and do your duty in the ranks! Line infantryman, grenadiers and guards receive additional bonuses by following an officer’s command. These range from benefits in firearm accuracy to improve your chances of hitting your intended target or increasing your melee damage.

Officers purchasing their commission for the sake of fame and glory at the cost of needless loss of life in the ranks due to strategic blunders was certainly of no shortage during those times. We’ve made sure to focus our design on allowing players to cease taking orders from these murdering officers. You are by no means required to follow the lead of an officer whilst playing with one of the classes in the rank and file but are rather encouraged to do so.

Not too keen on standing in ranks? Select one of the skirmishing classes. Riflemen excel at picking targets at longer ranges while light infantrymen move about faster on the battlefield and benefit from an increase in firearm accuracy thanks to one of their traits.



Speaking of traits, you’ll find over 17 different traits designed with the intent to further distinguish and characterise one class from the other. It’ll end up being a relatively long list to go through all the traits and we’re already exceeding what one would consider a brief rundown.



Support roles now gather score for their good deeds as they play an equally important role. You will receive points for healing other players with the surgeon class or assisting with the operation of artillery pieces.

There’s plenty more to check out in this update including a whole slew of new firearms and melee weapons to choose from! You’ll also find additional game-play features of which there’s no hint or mention of in this blog post. We’ll leave it up to those fellows participating in the BETA to discover them before the update sees a full release.




Would you like to have a go at what’s to come? Join us in the BETA! Hop in on our Community Discord to do so. You'll find all the details in the #announcements channel. It’s a great chance for you to provide us with feedback before the update sees a full release and help us make sure that everything is working as intended while you’re at it.

Everything present in this BETA is still a work in progress and bugs are to be expected. We’ll be undergoing balance changes as development progresses.

https://discordapp.com/invite/holdfastgame



Once again, thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours.

You'll be hearing from us again soon.

- Anvil Game Studios

Vive L’Empereur! Fight for the glory of your Emperor with a musket in hand as Holdfast: Nations At War is now 60% off for the duration of Steam’s Summer Sale. Join the community and participate in weekly organised events.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

It would be great if you can help us spread the word around about the sale to bring this genre of Musket Warfare games that we all love in the limelight. We want to continue strengthening the following behind the game as it grows and develops.

Have a read of our blog post for a brief insight into what we’ve been up to.




Featuring content on both land and sea, Holdfast: Nations At War saw plenty of impactful additions during the past two months! With our focus set on bringing forth more game-play oriented features as we develop our way through the game’s eventual full release, you should also expect another update to hit its BETA soon but first, let’s talk about the recent major releases.

Construct well-placed defences, earthworks and artillery to turn the tide of battle in your favour with the new sapper class. Last week’s update also brought with it carriable explosives, repairable artillery pieces, player-built swivel guns and various destruction related mechanics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ultq6Imu_1s



Yet another major release placed one of the largest naval vessels to date on the seven seas - the 50-Gun Frigate. It also so the inclusion of rocketboats, coastal sieges, a ton of roleplay-oriented features, rowable rowboats, a complete redesign of the Naval Battlefield game mode and multiple other additions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEDO0Ter31w




More game-play focused content! Issue orders to the rank and file, a unique system composed of multiple traits and abilities to define, distinguish and characterise the relatively huge selection of classes. Here’s a first-hand look at one of the new firearms that’ll make it into the game with the upcoming update.




Looking for a good bunch of fellows to play the game with? Do join our Discord! Linebattle events where players are encouraged to play in formations relevant to the Napoleonic era are hosted by the community through the week.

Discord is also a great place to be to stay in touch with the game’s development. Feedback is always greatly welcomed. We look forward to seeing you there!

https://discordapp.com/invite/holdfastgame



That’s all for this blog post good folk. Once again, thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours.

We’re working on the next update.

- Anvil Game Studios

Holdfast: Nations At War has been updated! This patch brings with it multiple bug fixes after the release of a major update featuring the Sapper class during the previous week.

Here’s the full changelog.



Changelog 34 - Game Version 0.32.7114.28816

Bug Fixes
• Solved an issue that allowed players to place down defences with the Sapper class even after they met an unfortunate end.
  
• Solved an issue with moveable field guns and carriable swivel guns being present in an incorrect location or turning invisible while in spectate or free flight.
  
• Solved an issue with an error occurring on the client due to an incorrect hand pose.
  
• Solved multiple issues related to audio.
  
• Removed various debug logs.
  
  Game Balance
• Decreased the health points of the constructible palisade walls and platforms.
  

Thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours.

Feel free to join in on our Discord.

We’re working on the next update.

- Anvil Game Studios

Equip hammer in hand and fortify your position with the new sapper class! Construct well-placed defences, earthworks and artillery to turn the tide of battle in your favour. Carry explosives to breach the adversary’s strongholds, repair damaged artillery pieces and more.

Come check out our latest update release! There’s more to this update than what has been mentioned above but before you do so, have a look at the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ultq6Imu_1s

With our focus set on bringing forth more game-play oriented features as we develop our way through Holdfast: Nations At War’s eventual full release, this update brings with it a whole new slew of additions.

Sappers are now your go-to class to freely construct a multitude of defences, carriable swivel guns, fusible explosive barrels and repair damaged artillery pieces. It’ll surely become a favourite amongst those looking to play a support role! This class also comes equipped with a blunderbuss and sword.








But how to go about constructing these defences? Here are some of the steps you must go through to get things going. Be sure to spawn in with the Sapper class beforehand.

Equipping The Hammer - Stage 0
Similar to what needs to be done with the musicians, one must first press the ‘Q’ key to equip the hammer used to construct as well as repair player-built defences.



Selecting Your Construction - Stage 1
Once you have a hammer in hand, hold your ‘Right Click’ mouse button and you’ll be presented with a radial user interface allowing for quick navigation between different constructions. Constructions are split into two categories, artillery and defences.

In this example, we’ll be constructing a palisade which makes for the strongest of all the available defences but takes longer to build and requires more materials to construct.



Placing Your Construction - Stage 2
Proceed to ‘Left Click’ on the palisade construction present in the radial user interface. A representation of the palisade indicating the position as to where the construction is to be placed will appear.

Once you find a suitable position to start constructing your defence, ‘Left Click’ once more. You can also rotate the defence by using your ’Scroll Wheel’ before placing it.



Building Your Construction - Stage 3
Now that your construction is in place, start hitting at the palisade with your hammer to begin its construction. In order to finalise the construction, you need to land enough hits on the palisade until the entirety of the circle UI representing the defence’s health fills up.



Other fellows playing with the Sapper class can also assist with building your defence. Once its construction has been completed, the circle UI will turn from an orange colour, indicating that the defence is under construction and therefore more easily destructible, to green.



Reinforcing Your Construction - Stage 3
Some player-built defences can be reinforced further bolstering their defence. Sandbags, for instance, can be placed atop earthworks providing for greater cover from enemy fire. A platform can also be attached to the palisade for players to shoot from.




Palisades, gabions, explosive barrels, earthworks, sandbags and the list continues. There’s a vast selection of defences, artillery and explosives to construct. Unique to each and every player-built object a set of materials or limit is applied.

Materials play a role within this new mechanic to restrict the number of constructible defences that can be present at any point in time during a match. Larger constructions such as the chaveauxs deplete more resources than their smaller counterparts.

Chairs now make part of the selection of constructible defences. Albeit not being as useful of a defence, it’ll certainly provide you with a neat resting place to view the ongoing onslaught as mayhem ensues.

Here’s a list to put things into perspective.

Defences
• Infantry Stakes
  
• Gabion
  
• Chaveux De Frise (L)
  
• Chaveux De Frise (S)
  
• Palisade
  
• Palisade Platform
  
• Chair
  
  Artillery
• Explosive Barrel
  
• Carriable Swivel Gun
  
• Ammobox
  
• Rocketstack
  
  Digging
• Earthworks
  
• Sandbags
  

In a constantly changing battleground, we ought to provide players with the capabilities to move defences elsewhere even after they have already been enacted. Deconstructing a defence will retain back its material points allowing sappers to make use of those materials to build the defence once more.

Open up the mode selector by holding the ‘F’ key and select either the option to ‘Deconstruct’ or ‘Undig’.




Contributing further to the strategic element that this update brings with it, destroying the enemy faction’s emplacements through the use of various artillery pieces, explosives or melee weapons will deplete materials from their pool and bring them into yours.

Sappers can then make use of these materials to further solidify your defensive positions. They can also be pretty effective at destroying enemy defence with their relatively bigger hammer whilst in ‘Deconstruct’ mode.



It’s ticking like a time bomb, the fuse is running short. There’s plenty of scenarios were the above-mentioned explosive barrels come into play. Construct, carry, set a fuse and make quick work of enemy emplacements.



Don’t break your jaw in aw just yet as you better watch out for enemy fire while carrying these volatile explosives or they’ll be sure to blow you to kingdom come.




Should a defence become damaged, sappers can equip their hammer and repair the emplacement back to its original state. Field guns, rocket launchers, mortars, swivel guns and long guns that have seen better light of day can similarly be repaired as well by the same class.

Artillery pieces that remain unrepaired on the battlefield, will respawn back to base after a set amount of time.




With this update’s release, the attackers whilst playing on the Army Siege or Coastal Siege game modes no longer gather instant access to a fortification by casually opening up a fort’s door. Instead, they must now topple them down using artillery, explosives or melee weapons.



Similarly, windows now shatter if hit by projectiles from firearms or stricken by a melee weapon. The destruction of doors and windows is not specifically restricted to the Siege game mode.




Coupled with the same update, we’ll also be pushing forward changes aimed towards balancing gameplay on Coastal Siege scenario. Attackers will find it easier to disable the enemy’s guns and eventually land ashore.

All the specific changes we’ve undergone are detailed further down below in our changelog.




Looking for a good bunch of fellows to play the game with? Do join our Discord! Linebattle events were players are encouraged to play in formations relevant to the Napoleonic era are hosted by the community through the week.

Discord is a great place to be to stay in touch with the game’s development. Feedback is always greatly welcomed. We look forward to seeing you there!

https://discordapp.com/invite/holdfastgame



Here’s a changelog containing all the new features, quality of life additions and fixes you’ll find in this update.



Changelog 33 - Game Version 0.31.7109.30173

New Game Features
• A New Class. Sappers! Your go-to class to freely construct a multitude of defences, carriable swivel guns, fusible explosive barrels and repair damaged artillery pieces.
  
• Player-Built Defences. Fortify! A vast selection of defences, artillery and explosives to construct.
  » Defences: Infantry Stakes, Gabions, Chaveux De Frise (L), Chaveux De Frise (S), Palisades, Palisade Platforms & Chairs.
  » Artillery: Explosive Barrels, Carriable Swivel Guns, Ammoboxes & Rocketstacks.
  » Digging: Earthworks & Sandbags.
  
• Deconstructing Defences. Deconstructing a defence will retain back its material points allowing sappers to make use of those materials to build the defence once more.
  
• Destroying Defences. Destroying the enemy faction’s emplacements through the use of various artillery pieces, explosives or melee weapons will deplete materials from their pool and bring them into yours.
  
• Repairing. Should a defence become damaged, sappers can equip their hammer and repair the emplacement back to its original state. Field guns, rocket launchers, mortars, swivel guns and long guns that have seen better light of day can similarly be repaired as well by the same class.
  
• Fort Doors & Windows. Whilst playing on the Army Siege or Coastal Siege game modes, the attackers no longer gather instant access to a fortification by casually opening up a fort’s door. Instead, they must now topple them down using artillery, explosives or melee weapons.
  » Windows now shatter if hit by projectiles from firearms or stricken by a melee weapon.
  
• Target Dummies. Dummies present at the shooting range on the Training Grounds map now provide feedback when shot at. They can also be spawned using the spawn override commands.
  » Have a look at our Wiki for more on how to spawn this object.
  
  Gameplay Balance
• Reduced the health points of all coastal cannons. If you manage to land a single shot, the cannon will be no more.
  
• Reduced the coastal cannon’s range and projectile travel velocity.
  
• Increased the time it takes to reload coastal cannons by 2 seconds.
  
• Reduced the health points of Fort Imperial’s walls.
  
• Improved the effectiveness of the smaller variation of the grapeshot. This was done by increasing its effective range and shots it fires.
  
• Carpenters are now playable only on naval and coastal scenarios.
  
  Server Configuration
• Server administrators can configure limitations per buildable object as well as the starting material points.
  » Have a look at our Wiki for more on how to make use of this new functionality.
  
• Included a new model as part of the spawn able object selections that ships can collide with.
  » Have a look at our Wiki for more on how to make use of this new functionality.
  
  Bug Fixes & Tweaks
• Solved an issue which caused the map rotation to cease functioning if more than 250 objects are spawned using override commands.
  
• Solved an issue which caused a specific user interface element to remain on screen after interacting with a spawn-able firearm ammobox.
  
• Solved an issue that enabled players to clip inside one of the ruins present on Fort Schwarz.
  
• Solved an issue with a red-line showing underneath the water in naval scenarios.
  
• Solved an issue which caused swivel guns present on all coastal scenarios to be indestructible.
  
• Reduced the volume of specific destruction sounds.
  

Be sure to stay tuned! There’s more gameplay-oriented in the works.

Once again, thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours.

We’ll keep you updated.

- Anvil Game Studios