Making History: The First World War News

The latest update is mostly focused on cleaning up the game in preparation for the transition to a final release. Since all the key gameplay coding is complete and the primary content is in game, we feel it is time for Making History: The First World War to exit Early Access. This does not mean the game is out of the development stage. There are still aspects that need improvement and we expect more bugs will be found as the game is exposed to a wider audience. But from a playability perspective, the game has received a lot of testing and we think it’s ready. Unless some issue alters our decision, Update #10 will likely be our final Early Access update for The First World War.

After we announce the official release version, we’ll continue looking at ways to further improve the game. While in this release we were able to squeeze in a few new UI features from the community generated Wishlist, there are more suggestions we’d like to implement. There’s also our own internal Wishlist for the game. All this needs to be quantified and weighed against other priorities but we promise there will be more updates post-release.



In addition to user feature requests, there are a number of content fixes and rebalancing in this update driven by reports from the community. One idea we’ve seen several times in both FWW & SWW is to give players the option to kick out members from an alliance. As designers, we’ve always resisted changing this rule since the concept of joining an alliance was meant to offer both risks and rewards. We decided to implement a compromise. The power to kick a nation from an alliance is limited to alliance leaders only.

There’s also some new UI enhancements like displaying the ship names on the Military Groups Ships list. And we added the ability to Mobilize/Demobilize Air and Artillery groups from the Groups panel in the same way Army groups operate. While doing this work we found and fixed a bug that prevented demobilization on this panel when your nation was at the highest readiness.



On the balancing side, combat and recruitment properties have been modified on several units. Starting armies, aircraft and ships were updated for all three scenarios. And national resources, money and relations received some attention. A detailed list of the changes can be found in the Release Notes #10 shown below. Let us know if you have any questions or comments on the update.



For those curious about what might be coming next, we’ve finally begun writing a manual for the game. This will contain instructional information on key features and hints for new players. If all goes according to plan, it should be made available within a week or two after the final release. Longer term plans will be announced sometime after the final release of The First World War. But I can say that work on Making History: The First World War will be a part of that future.

And now I would like to extend a very big thank you to the community. Buying a game before it is finished has inherent risks. We appreciate the faith and support the users have afforded us and the input provided to improve the game. As a very small developer, this relationship is critical to our ability to continue making games.

Thank you.


Update #10 Release Notes:

• Fixed logic error in Holy Sites of Islam Achievement
  
• Modified Holy Sites of Islam so Ottomans can’t gain this Achievement - they start with all 3 cities in 1912 and 1914
  
• Expanded Art background to extend for longer Decision Point UI
  
• Fixed UI frame and label misalignments on City Select Panel
  
• Increased some recruit times on Infantry & other military units
  
• Added Moldovan to Romanian nationality
  
• Gave Tank Prototype II a Military Mechanization research prerequisite
  
• Increased Offensive power of Tank units
  
• Rebalanced Cruiser Subs to have more offensive power than Sub Minelayers
  
• Added Feature Action to allow Alliance Leaders to kick members without breaking the Alliance
  
• Added missing title labels for some City building categories in Encyclopedia
  
• Added Add/Remove Claim functions to Government/Nationalities & Demographics tabs
  
• Added Readiness tooltips to main Government tab
  
• Implemented feature to turn on/off mobilization for Air and Artillery from Unit Group list in Military Reports
  
• Fixed bug in On/Off mobilization feature on Group List that disallowed Demobilization
  
• Removed phantom object from Military Unit Totals tab list
  
• Updated Tips/Tutorial UI
  
• Fixed Regional Resource content errors - Sweden Coal & Iron
  
• Updated Historic Ship names and starting naval units TBW, TJC
  
• Added Research Category Icon to encyclopedia project info
  
• Added Region name beneath City name to City Selection info
  
• Now display Mobilization properties for related Research projects in Encyclopedia
  
• Added Ship Names to ships on Ship List/Military Panel
  
• Included more Nation descriptions to the Lobby Select Nation UI
  
• Updated National Territorial Claims
  
• Added missing Air Bases in TBW, TJC
  
• Balanced military units in TBW, TJC & TRR
  
• Balanced starting Money & Resources TRR
  
• Revised and added missing Encyclopedia Descriptions
  
• Added Air Defenses to Western Europe in TRR
  

In this latest game update for the Making History: The First World War we are exposing the full set of Steam Achievements. Last release had just two. Now the game offers the total maximum allowed, 100. They’re mostly conquest milestones measured by taking control of a specified list of regions. Some are based on actual national goals like the Greek plans to retake Constantinople and the Anatolian coastal regions. Still others use ideas from alternative history to provide challenges to players that offer outcomes that might have been.



Most of the Achievements can be activated from any scenario but about 25% are limited to certain scenarios. You can see the associations by viewing the details on the stats page.



Other items in this release include fixes on several bugs in the Notification system and events. It’s not certain that any of these errors caused fatal issues but it is always a possibility. We are continuing to modify the game data to get more balanced play. There’s also a few small improvements to the UI and additional scripting routines for those who wish to mod some events.

Moving ahead it looks like we may be 1 or 2 more updates away from a final release. This will depend on how quickly we can get through the remaining features and content enhancements. So roughly 2 to 4 weeks until we can declare an end to the Early Access stage. There will be further updates and improvements past the final release date. We are also planning to circle back to TGW and SWW. Both of these games have pending updates that have been stalled due to our overwhelming focus on FWW.

Feedback and suggestions from the community are appreciated especially as we begin to polish the gameplay. Thanks to everyone who has posted a positive review. This really makes a big difference for a small independent developer.


[h3]Update #9 Release Notes:[/h3]

• Fixed reference issue causing log Errors from Notification images
  
• Revised End screen to remove overlapping labels
  
• Improved Decision Point UI performance and resolved Display Error
  
• Widened Tax column on Region Infrastructure that could clip when level was too high
  
• Widened World Power points column on Region Infrastructure
  
• Fixed Nation Relations starting data in TRR
  
• Commented out debug message in Berlin to Baghdad event
  
• Fixed errors in Texas, Tejano and Mexican triggers that might be causing event bugs
  
• Fixed bad reference calls in TriggerMakeUnitsInRegions
  
• Removed South African Air Group from Anatolia region in TRR
  
• Added new triggers to support Achievement implementation
  
• Added full set of Achievements to game
  
• Added Achievement icon art to Steam game lobby
  
• Fixed some various small event errors
  
• Added a Found Saudi Arabia event
  
• Added code to support Zeppelin bombing order Achievement
  
• Upgraded Bombing Order Achievement code
  
• Colliers and Attack Transports can no longer be built in a single turn
  
• Created new event scripts: TriggerConditionCanalOpen, TriggerConditionLastTurn, TriggerConditionNationHasMaxResearchPoints, TriggerConditionNationIsPuppetOfPlayer,TriggerConditionCanalClosed, TriggerConditionCityIsPort
  
• Implemented some Achievements into game event scripts
  
• Updated scenario data
  
• Updated starting nation region claims data in TBW & TJC
  

In this update we unlock a 3rd scenario: The Russian Revolution. It starts in the weeks prior
to the collapse of the Central Powers. The early game is mostly focused on the surrender of the Bulgarians, Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians and ultimately the Germans. What follows is all the chaos that results from the disintegration of Austria-Hungary and partition of the Ottoman Empire.



The end of The Great War is just the beginning as suppressed nationalities rise up and fight to establish independent nations. In Russia, the Soviet Red Army goes on the offensive from Ukraine to Vladivostok spreading the doctrine of Communism and revolution. For the victorious Allies, dividing the spoils and redrawing the national borders of your defeated enemies could lead to more war and domestic unrest.



The Russian Revolution is likely our most orchestrated scenario in terms of creating a roughly historic experience. We’ve never focused so much on forcing the world to go to peace. To that end, the AI is less aggressive in terms of expansion and more concerned with preservation. And while the landscape becomes terribly broken, at some point a newly established order forms. Players can choose to allow more historical paths to set the course of the game, or attempt to counter the momentum of history.

Typically a Making History game is centered on Germany and the existential conflict the German nation instigates. In this scenario, there are multiple wars and subplots across the globe. In many cases, players can switch nations midgame to take on new challenges like founding Yugoslavia, leading the Turkish Nationals, or creating a Mongolian Empire with a White Russian led Army. Even though the German AI will likely surrender, players can always decide to reject peace demands and fight on and overcome the Allied advantage.



We look forward to hearing the player feedback on this scenario. It took a long time to create and it’s underlying scripts are complex. There are likely to be some rough edges to work out. The release notes are very minimal since most of the work since the pre-Christmas release was dedicated to the new scenario. Now that it’s basically finished, we’ll be turning our attention to making the final improvements that will mark the end of Early Access. These are mostly bugs, refinements and game balancing but there is also a list of feature requests and wish list items we will be considering as well.


[h3]Update #8 Release Notes:[/h3]

• New Scenario The Russian Revolution made playable
  
• Updated Mongolian Decal/Flag sets
  
• Revised Portuguese Authoritarian Flags
  
• Fixed Coal Resource position in Nyika, Nyasaland
  
• Added new notification images
  
• New Key bindings for Tilt Camera: Q & E
  

This release is a major update that offers several big feature activations. To begin with the Making History: The First World War Editor is now available. A starter mod scenario called Empty World has been included. This is basically a clean map with no assets or nations. We did leave the cities and demographic data on the regions but these can be removed and altered at will.

With the editor now active, we’ve enabled Steam Workshop so players can begin creating and sharing mods and other assets. We’ve held off on providing access to the editor since during Early Access, game updates have a higher chance of breaking compatibility. There is still a possibility that future updates could break saved games and mods but we think that is less likely going forward.



Go here to access Making History: The First World War Steam Workshop https://steamcommunity.com/app/959150/workshop/

Achievements have been turned on. More will be added in the coming weeks. We hope to include at least 50. Many achievements will be integrated with the event system to represent specific goals to players within the game. The AI Difficulty levels are partially activated. As the systems become fully locked down, we plan to find more ways to make the hardest settings more challenging.

A new feature makes canals income generators. The game tracks the volume of trade through each active canal and provides gold to the controllers. The income is not substantial but it does help offset the cost of supporting a standing army or for the British, a very large navy.

Along with the work on the new features, progress on the next scenario The Russian Revolution has moved along quickly. We are about halfway through and are hoping to have it for the next update.

There are a number of content fixes, data balancing and additional scripting options added in this release. Below is a list of the most important changes.

[h3]Update #7 Release Notes:[/h3]

• Added Editor to allow custom scenario creation and modifications
  
• New scenario Empty World Scenario
  
• Enabled Steam Workshop
  
• Turned on Achievements and added two for testing
  
• Implemented AI Difficulty Level set in the Scenario options
  
• Add new income from trade through canals.
  
• Created a canal income Tooltip
  
• Set Reinforce unit group property to default to TRUE
  
• Deactivated Panama Canal at start of The Balkan Wars
  
• Added new event trigger to destroy a unit group from scripts
  
• New new event trigger to test if Unrest is not active
  
• New new event trigger that will clear a nation’s Sea Mines
  
• New new event trigger to cancel region project
  
• Revised Austrian Flag Set
  
• Fixed Unrest Notification that showed it starting when the revolt actually ended
  
• Balanced City production building outputs
  
• Revised Peace Treaty Decision Point Background
  
• Fixed Data errors in Unit Templates Marine Desert Terrain Modifier
  
• Balanced properties on Armored Train unit
  
• Swapped Armored Cruiser & Protected Cruiser properties
  
• Modified AI abandon border threshold to reduce holes in line
  
• New new event trigger to change unit controller in a region by unit branch
  
• New event trigger to demobilize unit group in specified region
  

The update this week unlocks the Multiplayer feature. Players can now Host & Join games in using The First World War game lobby. We’ll soon be adding Editor and Steam Workshop support. These two features are best left for the final stages since game changes can easily break mods. That means we are getting closer to a final release. But there is still quite a bit to do before we can say it’s done.

Besides MP, this release has a number of bug fixes. One area we spent time on was trying to improve the historical flow to The Balkan War scenario. A lot of players have seen repetitive non-historical play from some AI nations, namely Bulgaria, Italy and to some degree France. As some here understand, the event code is quite dense and it’s very difficult to trackdown where things might be going wrong. On top of that there are two competing systems at work, the generic AI and the customized, nation specific AI. This forces us to be cautious about making really big changes that are difficult to test. I think we’ve made improvements but even if we fix all the obvious bugs, there are still subjective issues involving balance and how much weight we give to non-historical outcomes.

The recently added mechanism to penalize over taxing has been adjusted. We’ve reduced the ruse of Corruption penalties and added the potential for regional riots. This was our initial plan and we are interested in whether players prefer this method.

Work continues on the next scenario, The Russian Revolution. We are spending a lot of effort dealing with the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Right now it feels more complex than even the Balkan Wars and significantly more in depth than The Red Army DLC for Making History: the Great War. There’s a chance the new scenario might be made available in the next update. That is the goal.

Again, thanks for giving us feedback and pointing out the bugs.


Update #6 Release Notes:

• Turned On Multiplayer feature
  
• Added Defensive strength to Armored Train unit
  
• Increased width of text area for Submarine Range to prevent property display clipping
  
• Revised Mobilization data for nation at game start
  
• Added ability to read Non-Aggression & Neutrality Pacts at game start rather than just events
  
• Added Player condition test to Break Triple Alliance - may have prevented Assassination event from firing
  
• Updated Game Map to fix a few borders not displaying in some regions
  
• Fixed Animation bug in French Heavy Siege Guns
  
• Fixed AirUnit Group Selection UI Graphic that was slightly offset
  
• Modified AI Recruitment Template to reduce building of Armored Trains
  
• Fixed Mountain Infantry Terrain Penalties error
  
• Reduced Over Taxation Penalty and increased chance of revolts if taxes are too high
  
• Added script trigger: TriggerConditionControllerNationIsNot
  
• Added Land Defense Penalties to Infantry units in the Encyclopedia
  
• Assigned WARJUSTIFICATION_AGGRESSION property to Italy against Ottomans
  
• Fixed text errors in various Events
  
• Modified BFW Scripts increase chance of historical decisions
  
• Fix to make Bulgaria more prone to join Central Powers
  
• Bulgaria should no longer automatically form alliances when player is human
  
• Fix to increase chance Italy joins Allies
  
• Remove Ottoman Balkan Claims if defeated in 1912