Recorded on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and an RTX 4060ti
Further CPU optimizations have been implemented to demo build. The game can now handle up to 3,200 soldiers visible on screen at once, and testing has confirmed that battles with up to 5,000 soldiers can run when only a portion of them are visible from the middle of the battlefield.
With the increased number of troops, it has become difficult to command them effectively using the existing tactical system. Over the next few days, a pre-battle deployment mode and a new tactical command system will be added.
Future update logs will be posted below.
Update July 14th
Fixed a bug where soldiers would teleport to the ground when their horse or rider died.
Fixed an issue where a ragdoll's head could become detached from the rest of the body.
Fixed an issue where the player would not slow down due to friction while on foot.
Update July 15th
Added a pre-battle deployment mode. During deployment, you can drag to set both the width and facing direction of each formation.
Added the ability to split a unit of the same troop type into two or merge split units back together.
Formation layouts and spacing have been rebalanced to prevent shield walls from allowing enemies to pass through. With the exception of cavalry in wedge formation, units can no longer break through shield infantry of the same tier by simply ignoring them.
Enemies now use a wider variety of formations. Battlefield AI has been reworked, and enemies are much more aggressive about targeting ranged units.
Enemy tactical AI now aims for the front-center of each friendly formation.
Enemy armies now maintain their formations while moving at the average speed of the entire force.
Fixed an issue where enemy ranged units would advance into melee despite still having ammunition remaining.
Deployment area restrictions, artillery deployment, and improvements to unit controls while in TPS mode will be added in tomorrow's update.
Update July 16th
Cannonballs now continue traveling after breaking through shields instead of disappearing on impact.
Cavalry AI has been redesigned. If cavalry cannot break through an infantry line after a certain amount of time, they will fall back, build up speed, and charge again. If they successfully break through the enemy formation, they will regroup and launch another charge from the rear after a short delay.
Brace damage from infantry spear charges and barricades has been reduced.
Pike barricades are now significantly stronger, but pikes deal less damage in normal melee combat.
Volley fire from musketeers once again has the ability to stop cavalry charges.
Melee cavalry can now time their attacks correctly while charging at high speed, allowing them to hit their targets much more reliably.
Fixed an issue where nearby units would stop responding while waiting for a riderless enemy horse to be removed after its rider had died.
Ranged units now prioritize firing at soldiers in the closest enemy formation. If their line of fire is blocked, they will search for another target.
Tactical unit selection has been redesigned. Repeatedly pressing the same number key now cycles through all units of the corresponding troop type.
Fixed an issue where units in square and circular formations would move away from the enemy.
Improved the visibility of unit movement orders.
Update July 17th
Artillery pieces now move together with artillery units during the deployment phase. Once the battle begins, artillery can no longer be repositioned.
Only artillery units can operate cannons. Fixed a bug that allowed a single artilleryman to control multiple cannons at once.
Added deployment area limits to the pre-battle deployment mode.
Tree collision has been temporarily disabled.
The next update will include a complete redesign of the town system. Save file compatibility has not yet been determined.
Update July 18th
Fixed a rare issue where the camera could spawn underground at the start of a battle.
During heavy casualties, formations no longer shift sideways to fill gaps. Instead, soldiers from the rear ranks move forward to reinforce the front line.
Update July 21th
Town interiors have been redesigned with a CRPG-style isometric perspective.
Added the ability to wait inside towns.
AI lords will now return to friendly towns to replenish their forces if:
they have too many wounded soldiers,
their total troop count becomes too low, or
they are carrying too many prisoners.
Armies waiting inside a town will automatically join the defense if the town comes under siege.
Distributed the processing load of managing troops and prisoners for all world map parties and towns across multiple frames, reducing performance spikes.
Save files are not compatible with this update.
A large amount of code has been added to support special gameplay situations, making comprehensive testing difficult. Starting tomorrow, duplicate code will be removed and systems will be modularized. As a result, save files may become incompatible for several consecutive days during development.
Culture-specific background music now has a chance to play in some regions of Asia.
Units that become stuck on the world map will now move through terrain instead of being teleported.
Increased the death rate in auto battles to 25%.
The day count rollover now occurs at midnight instead of 6:00 PM.
Defeated lords will gradually recover their military strength in another town belonging to their clan or kingdom.
Update July 23th
The de jure system has been removed. Instead, territories of the same culture are now considered the primary targets for reconquest.
Matching a town's culture grants bonuses to public order and Influence gain.
Public Order and Garrison Size are now always displayed beneath each town.
All faction kings now receive +150 troop capacity.
World map movement speed now halves every 1,000 troops instead of every 500 troops.
The clan defection system has been reworked. Clan leaders who wish to defect will now remain in their target town for a period before defecting.
Towns with higher Public Order now refresh more trade goods.
The Kingdom Public Order system has been removed.
Lords whose Influence exceeds the king's now lose Loyalty much more quickly.
The rebellion formula has been completely reworked. Only lords or players whose Influence exceeds the king's can start a rebellion. A lord's chance to join a rebellion now scales from 0% at 50 Loyalty to 100% at 0 Loyalty. Players cannot be invited to rebellions started by AI lords.
Defeated clan lose 30% of their current Influence.
The rebellion UI now displays the probability of each lord joining your rebellion.
Influence gained from victories has been rebalanced.
Landless lords with low Loyalty will defect to another kingdom.
Towns that share the player's culture provide double recruitment capacity.
Horse Archer AI has been replaced with the Cantabrian Circle tactic. Horse archers now circle counterclockwise until they run out of ammunition. Against infantry, horse archers can kite indefinitely, avoiding all melee attacks while firing continuously. They can also evade cavalry charges and keep maneuvering, although they may lose to light cavalry. Because they circle around the nearest enemy formation, horse archers can become trapped on crowded battlefields where multiple formations overlap.
Horse archers are decisively defeated by an equal-sized force of ranged infantry.
Horse archers have received overall improvements to accuracy and range.
Gun cavalry are now stronger against melee cavalry and heavily armored infantry thanks to their ability to stop cavalry charges, but are weaker in ranged firefights against other missile units.
Fixed a bug where horses could become stuck on top of rocks.
Update July 24th
Fixed a critical bug that prevented cavalry from attacking enemies while off-screen.
Units using the Cantabrian Circle tactic no longer rotate on their own axis while circling.
In auto-resolved siege battles, cavalry and artillery now contribute combat power equal to only 1 population.
Fixed an issue in Deployment Mode where dragging units onto lower ground caused them to descend from the sky.
Update July 25th
Eastern European and Ottoman units now equip Bardiches instead of Poleaxes.
Replaced the models for several weapons.
Adjusted the hit detection for Barricades and Spear Charge.
Fixed an issue where spear charge attacks had no hit detection during infantry charges. Spear charges against stationary targets deal relatively modest damage, but when two charging units collide head-on, the high relative impact speed can result in an instant kill.
Infantry now take significantly less damage from barricades due to their lower charge speed.
Automatic blocking during a charge now activates only when a unit is equipped with a shield.
Shielded cavalry riders can now block incoming pikes several times with their shields.
Sword cavalry now lower their swords to infantry head height while charging.
In Custom Battles, the player now uses randomized equipment.
Fixed an issue where pikemen's lower bodies did not properly face nearby enemies during melee combat.
Fixed an issue where horse animation playback speed did not scale correctly with camera distance.
The next update will focus on escape condition changes.
After that, development will move on to the Guild System and Diplomacy System. Since the detailed design for these features has not yet been finalized, development is expected to take longer than usual.
Update July 28th
Ranged units now have a chance to target enemies that are not only the closest, but also those at a moderate distance.
Shield cavalry that are dismounted can no longer block attacks with their shields. Two-handed swords now guard the front while charging.
Reduced the damage of all cannons except the Urban Great Bombard by 40%. Fixed an issue where cannonball hitboxes were twice as thick as their visible size.
Low-tier Scottish infantry now use thrown weapons.
Increased the minimum movement speed of all Japanese units, including pikemen, to at least 480. Increased the damage of Japanese pikemen.
The world boundary wall is now revealed when approaching the edge of the battlefield. The player can no longer move beyond the world map's XY limits.
Backpedaling movement speed has been reduced to 50%.
Pikemen's turning speed has been reduced to one-third.
Reduced the player's horse reverse speed.
Hits on the shaft of a weapon now apply only 50% of the normal blade impact.
Increased the base impact force pike formations. Heavily armored shock infantry taking little damage when charging into a pike formation, get the impact that can stop their charge.
Fixed an issue where pikemen's upper and lower body would face different directions during melee combat.
Fixed an issue where weapon guard reactions were missing. They now play correctly again.
Update August 4th
Added the Mercenary Guild.
Increasing your Mercenary Guild level raises your maximum troop capacity.
If you are a lord and ignore Bandit Suppression missions, your Public Order will decrease.
An option has been added to automatically complete these missions by paying a fee.
Mission cancellation penalties, Caravan Escort missions, and missions for the Criminal Guild and Adventurers' Guild will be implemented after the Eastern European faction is added.
You must now have at least 100 troops to join a faction.
Reduced the number of outlaws on the World Map.
Although many new features and code changes have been added, long-term World Map gameplay has not yet been fully tested and may be unstable.
The next update will add the Eastern European faction, two-handed weapon animations, and improvements to the sound system. Save files will not be compatible with the next update.
Update August 6th
Standardized all weapon categories to feature a three-tier progression. Around 60 standard weapons and shields have been added, with most receiving unique models and icons. Soldiers' equipment pools have been updated to use the new weapon lineup.
Added several non-standard weapons while removing region-specific or historically inappropriate ones.
Swords now consume less stamina when blocking. Most two-handed weapons, with the exception of spears, can no longer be used while mounted.
Update August 18th
Culture groups and equipment have been added. — Kazakh, Tatar, Turani, and Italian.
Face textures have also been added — from West Slavic to Central Asian.
Factions and clans have been added: Kazakh Ulus, Qirim Yurt, Bukhara, Lega Santa, Vilāyat-i Khwārazm, Donskiye Kazaki, Yarkent Khanate.
The number of cities in Rus Tsardom, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ottoman Empire, Sibir, the Four Mongol Tumens, Jurchen, Ming, Joseon, and Safavid factions has roughly doubled.
The Sibir troop tree has been expanded. Overall, Sibir troops are strong in close-quarters combat and are immune to forests and snowstorms. AI generals also mix in Nogay mercenary horse archers.
Stradioti and German cavalry mercenary troop trees have been added. Cossacks have been changed to mounted firearms units.
Equipment setups for Holy Roman Empire and French soldiers have been changed. Cavalry fire several pistol shots before charging.
Maximilian-style armor and blackened plate armor variants have been added. Fixed a bug where horse archers would not charge after running out of arrows.
New voices added: Italian, Kazakh, Turani (Bukhara/Khiva), Crimean Tatar, Mongolian, and Sibir. Jurchen currently uses Mongolian as a temporary voice.
The number of cities has increased by more than double, which has slowed down save times and diplomacy processing. Optimization work to address this will be prioritized.
The next update will focus on replacing the sound system and animations.
Update August 29th
Save files from previous versions are not compatible with this update.
Save delays and save file sizes have been reduced to approximately one-fifteenth of their previous size.
Due to major changes to the internal structure, bugs may still occur despite extensive testing.
The attack input directions have been reversed. Left/right attack direction changes now take priority over up/down attack direction changes.
Horses have been adjusted so they no longer send characters flying when colliding from the side.
When clicking the mouse to queue the next attack before the current attack has finished, the next attack direction is now determined based on the direction at the moment of the click, rather than when the next attack actually begins.
Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where changing the attack direction while returning to the attack-ready stance during the preparation or early phase of an attack could cause the character to remain in an incorrect preparation animation. Once an attack-ready stance has been determined, it can no longer be canceled until the player guards or performs an attack.
Fixed several animations that caused unnatural shoulder twisting.
AI armies will no longer chase horse archers.
Diplomacy is now available with rulers who are resting in cities.
The next update will focus on the sound system.
Update September 1st
Battlefield sound system has been upgraded.
Fixed an issue where stamina was barely consumed while defending.
Upper-body IK now faces the correct direction when taking a hit.
Lance cavalry equipped with pistols will now fire their pistols just before charging.
Shock cavalry equipped with bows as secondary weapons will switch back to their bows after charging.
The next update will focus on improving the battle map graphics.
Update September 9th
The art and vegetation on the battle maps have been updated.
Trees can once again push characters away with their collision and block projectiles.
Fixed the position where arrows embed themselves.
Fixed an issue where footman navigation paths requiring more than two turns, including during sieges, were not being applied correctly.
Update September 10th
Backward movement speed is no longer reduced when not engaged in melee combat.
Movement speed is significantly reduced while aiming and reloading.
Non-hostile parties on the world map will now also trigger an autosave when you talk to them.
Impacts received by horses now accumulate, and they will come to a sudden stop once the accumulated impact exceeds a certain threshold. This means that archers can also disrupt a cavalry charge when they have overwhelming numbers.
Horse movement speed and charge speed have been reduced overall.
Crossbow accuracy has been reduced, while damage has been increased.
Bow accuracy has been increased, while damage and impact have been reduced.
Fixed an issue where Spearmen's brace would only apply collision on the first hit.
Fixed an issue where the reload sound would play instead of a grunt when being hit.
Gunners are now significantly stronger against cavalry but significantly weaker in ranged firefights. Archers are the opposite: they are very weak against cavalry and heavily armored units, but strong in long-range engagements. Crossbows fall somewhere in between.
Update September 11th
Fixed an issue where internal errors could accumulate when ending a battle while ranged units were firing.
Overhauled combat-related code across the board.
Rebalanced cavalry overall.
Added the Drill Instructor perk.
The next planned update will introduce companion perks related to world-map stats, culture-specific dungeons, and an Adventurer's Guild system. This update will not be compatible with existing save files.