Anvil Empires Release Date

11 Sep 2026Developer post

Devblog 30 - Cargo Boat Update, Naval Industry, House Tags, Map Expansion & More

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development in pre-alpha and may change in the future. REVAMPED CARGO BOAT The Cargo Boat has been revamped and reintroduced to the game as naval transport will be critical with the map expansion (see bel

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development in pre-alpha and may change in the future.

REVAMPED CARGO BOAT

The Cargo Boat has been revamped and reintroduced to the game as naval transport will be critical with the map expansion (see below). This vessel has been updated to feature 2 rower seats and can now furl and unfurl its sails. Rowers can control a boat's forward and backward movement while the helmsman controls its direction, with the wind providing an additional source of propulsion through the ship's sails. All of these inputs are combined to determine the vehicle's final movement, creating a more dynamic and cooperative system for multi-crew vehicles. Finally, the ship system has been upgraded with a brand new physics engine that simulates proper buoyancy and other factors for a more realistic experience.

SHIPYARD

Shipyards are world structures where the Cargo Boat and future large ships are constructed. When a boat is constructed, it is automatically launched into the sea once a player takes the driver seat. Shipyards are found at most coastal Towns, making such Towns strategic locations moving forward.

SHIP DOCK

Ship Docks are a new structure that can be used by naval forces to securely store their vessels. It can be built at coastal Homesteads. When a Ship is docked, it cannot move and is safe from being completely destroyed although it can still be damaged and disabled. Ships must also now be docked at a Ship Dock to be repaired.

DEFAULT CLOTHING

Players now deploy with default clothing that do not provide any gameplay benefits but improves immersion. Default clothing designs are Empire specific. Ancient's clothes are wool tunics with simple leather elements. Pagans wear linen pants with a corded shirt and an embroidered cloak while Remnants dress with layered linen wraps and tunics.

HOUSE TAGS

Players have been requesting this feature for awhile now! Players can now set a tag for their House, which will display beside the names of all players that are part of the House.

NEW CLIFFS

A new set of cliff and rock assets have been added as part of the overworld map revamp that started several milestones back. The existing assets that these replace were created when the game featured much larger vertical spaces, making them feel out of place with the game’s current more tempered landscape.

MAP EXPANSION

As a continuation of the world revamp, the map of Calligo is expanding beyond the starting central islands. New continental landmasses are being added together with numerous islands, paving the way for naval gameplay in the near future.

To help expand the map while making the playable space appropriate with the scale of current tests, support has been added for disabled zones. Disabled zones are effectively parts of the map that can be "shut down" for a test, meaning they can't be built on and they don't count towards the Military win condition. This will allow the full world map to be developed incrementally while still being compatible with the current scale of tests.
The map image below is a concept for the full map layout. The actual map as implemented will differ slightly. Stay tuned for more details.

FARMING BALANCE

A balancing pass on Farming and Water systems has been done to reduce the amount of active maintenance required to sustain farms while preserving meaningful time and resource investment requirements. The goal isn't to speed up farming or make it more efficient, but to reduce the amount of active and tedious management involved.

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE REVAMP

As part of this pass, water infrastructure has also been given a design pass. Players can now integrate water infrastructure into their Wild Homesteads without sacrificing their defenses by using the new Canal Wall, which allows water to pass through their walls. In the same manner, the new Canal Fort module will allow water to pass through Fort Foundations and to enter Towns and Fortress interiors.

Aqueduct have also received upgrades. Those built outside of Homesteads or Towns will now have their decay prevented so long as they are connected to a sustained Homestead. Aqueducts have also been rebalanced to make them more accessible. They no longer require significant elevation changes to have constant waterflow.

The goal with these changes is to enable players to start building out shared water networks across the world.

CHIMNEY WALL

Homestead arch modules will no longer be used to ventilate smoke. Instead, the new Chimney Wall will provide ventilation for first floors in a two floor Homestead. The hope is that this will result in more visually pleasing builds.

INVENTORY BALANCE & BARRELLING

Previously, players could carry significantly larger quantities of small resources in their personal inventory than can be transported using Hand Carts or Resource Wagons. This has been changed so player inventory's no longer stack as many items, while Resource Stockpiles, Hand Carts and Resource Wagons have had their capacity increased, creating a stronger incentive to use dedicated logistics equipment when transporting resources in bulk.

Cabbage, Wheat, and Berries can now be stored and transported using Barrels on Carts and Handcarts.

RENTER INFORMATION

Homestead managers can now see a list of players currently renting access at their Homestead. The names of the renters will appear in a panel in the Keystone interface.

UPDATED SCORPION

The Scorpion now sits on top of a raised platform, allowing it to fire over parapets. It can also be pitched down further, giving it a more flexible field of fire. The model has also received a full visual overhaul.

There are many other Quality of Life improvements and bug fixes coming in the next update. Stay tuned for the release notes for the next test.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

07 Aug 2026Developer post

Devblog 29 - Territory Zones, New Siege Equipment, New Town Core Structures

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development in pre-alpha and may change in the future. TERRITORY ZONES AND MILITARY VICTORY The previous Territory system has been replaced with a new Zone system designed to make territorial control clea

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development in pre-alpha and may change in the future.

TERRITORY ZONES AND MILITARY VICTORY

The previous Territory system has been replaced with a new Zone system designed to make territorial control clearer, fairer, and more immersive overall. The map is now divided up into discreet Zones that have more sensible and natural borders. The borders will correctly stradle rivers, be bounded by the sea, and will conform more organically to the layout of the map. This will provides a clearer sense of frontline progress while also eliminating issues caused by the previous territory algorithm, such as territory claims erroneously bleeding across bodies of water.

Zones can exist in one of three states: Claimed, Contested, or Neutral, with each state affecting which side can build key structures like Homesteads, Keeps and Beacon Towers. To capture a Claimed Zone, an invading force must destroy all of the defending side's Keeps within it, which will turn the area into a Contested Zone. After a fixed period of time, the area will turn into a Neutral Zone, at which point the invader can build or capture a Keep to claim the Zone. Territories will each have a unique name (not shown in the image below).

The Military Win Condition is now tied to Territory Zone system, where a side must control a set number of Zones to achieve victory.

EARLY AGE SIEGE EQUIPMENT

There are two new pieces of siege equipment being added with the goal of enabling more sieges earlier in the Age. The Mantlet will be used to provide cover for ranged soldiers, helping an army hold ground as they advance towards their objective. It can be built using basic resources like Branches.

The second weapon will be the Makeshift Battering Ram, which is a much weaker version of the Battering Ram that can be built using Wood Planks. It will allow players to storm Fortresses before more advance resources become available.

BANDAGES & WOUNDED AVATARS

The wounded mechanic for Avatars has been redesigned. The goal is to give players more choice and options in preventing their Avatars from death. When a player's health reaches zero now, they will be put into a new wounded state where they will be able to crawl to a safe position and be treated by a friendly player. Wounded players are treated using Bandages which are widely available.

If players want to preserve their Avatars, it will be more important than ever for them to stick in close formation with allies during battle so they can be treated. An Avatar can be wounded up to 3 times in this manner, before they become incapacitated, at which point their incapacitated Avatar must be retrieved and stationed.

FORTRESS BOUNTY

There is a new bounty available for capturing enemy Fortress Keeps. Once captured, the bounty item will be dropped into the Keep Hold and can be looted along with any Silver. Certain Bounties like the Death-Writ and this new Fortress Bounty can now be completed at Fortress Keeps or Camps.

NEW WORLD BRIDGES

A new set of world Bridges have been introduced into the world. They will allow for more deliberate gameplay implications and flexibility with world placement. There are now narrow and wide bridges which allow for the traversal of two Caravans side-by-side. These come in stone and wood variants, with some allowing for the traversal of small boats underneath and others not.

NEW TAVERN

As part of the ongoing effort to solidify Town core gameplay, the Tavern building has been reworked to unify gameplay loops around cooking. With a large interior, all food production in the Town area is now centralized here as firepits are no longer buildable in the vicinity of the central area. On top of that, Auxiliary Rations can be produced here and food items' Silver costs have been adjusted.

NEW TOWN WORKSHOP

The Town Workshop has also been updated to become the central hub for crafting within Town cores, replacing both the old Smithing Area and the previous Town Workshop. Basic equipment such as blades, weapons, armour, and tools are now produced at the Town Workshop using resources and Silver. At the same time, a selection of higher-tier equipment and other advanced items have been removed from Town core production, shifting them toward Homestead progression.

FOREST COVER

There are two important additions to forest gameplay. First of all, players will now be able to use forests as cover from enemy Beacon Towers. This will allow armies to setup ambushes and move under the cover of trees. The complement this feature, forests will now automatically regrow to their original shape (as visualized on the map). This will make forests important strategic elements on the world map.

MARKETPLACE & CRAFTING FILTERS

With the growing number of items in the game, it's become more and more difficult finding items in certain interfaces. The Marketplace, Town Workshop, and Crafting Table windows now have a filter to separate different item categories, adding some quality of life to these workflows.

There are other improvements and bug fixes coming in the next update. Stay tuned for the release notes for the next test.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

09 Jul 2026Developer post

Devblog 28 - World Map Revamp, Town Keeps, Combat System Changes & More

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development in pre-alpha and may change in the future. WORLD MAP REVAMP A lot was learned over the years in terms of what works and what doesn't for map design in Anvil Empires. There have been a lot of p

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development in pre-alpha and may change in the future.

WORLD MAP REVAMP

A lot was learned over the years in terms of what works and what doesn't for map design in Anvil Empires. There have been a lot of pain points, many centering around how much usable space there was in the world for sandbox gameplay as well as the issues that were caused by frequent and extreme changes in elevation. A point was reached where the decision was made to recreate the map from the ground up, taking all these lessons and current gameplay into account.

The map above represents just the center region of the world. In the future, the world will be expanded out from here. The new map features terrain that is overall more even and contains much more playable space for Homesteads, Fortresses, Bandit Bases, and areas for battles to take place in. As part of this revamp, the map screen has also been refreshed bringing the rendering of trees back onto the map.

TOWN KEEP REVAMP

The core town structures are being redesigned visually and with new layouts that better support current gameplay. The first structure to be redone is the Town Keep, which will now be distinct from the Fortress Keeps.

The new Town Keep consists of several parts, including built in Fort walls and Gates that provide additional protection during sieges. The Town Keep now has a larger interior for supporting more players and dedicated locations for Bounty Boards and the Avatar Recruitment Tables.

COMBAT SYSTEM CHANGES

Significant changes are being made to the combat system to add more agency and decision making to battles. First, players can now choose between three types of attacks which can be executed on the fly with different keystrokes. Each type of attack has it's own speed and hit patterns. Second, players must now choose when to raise their shields and when to lower them where each is now a meaningful decision that must be made during combat. Many other supporting changes have been made to make combat a bit more skill based and engaging overall.

SMOKE SYSTEM AND CHIMNEYS

Fuel burning structures now require proper ventilation when enclosed, producing harmful smoke if a nearby chimney is not available. Smoke can spread within a Homestead, dealing damage to players within. To support this system, new chimney roof pieces have been added for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Homesteads, allowing players to safely vent Fireplaces, Forges, Ovens, Hearts and Heating Vats.

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

ITEM EXCHANGE

Players can now securely transfer items between them through the new Item Exchange interface. Trade can be initiated through the interaction menu (Alt+LMB on a player).

NEW REPAIR SYSTEM

The Repair Bench interface has been redesigned with a more straightforward repair flow, allowing players to repair items directly from their inventories after entering the new Repair Mode. A new Repair All option also lets players restore all repairable items at once, automatically consuming the required amount of Copper Nails from the player's inventory. When using this function, the cost of Copper Nails can be shared across partial repairs for multiple items, improving overall efficiency.

RENTAL UI

Holding down a key now highlights which nearby structures can be accessed via rental, making it easier to know what facilities are available to renters.

USE NEARBY STRUCTURE

A new Use Nearby feature makes it easier to interact with important structures large like Keeps, Camps, and Homestead Keystones, even when they're in close proximity to other structures. When in range, a dedicated button appears at the bottom left of the screen which lets players access the structures directly. Alternatively, a shortcut can be used instead (default Shift + E).

There are many other quality of life improvements and bug fixes coming. Stay tuned for the release notes for the next test.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

29 May 2026Developer post

Devblog 27 - Bounties, New Creatures, Pagans, Longswords, Crossbows, & More

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development in pre-alpha and may change in the future. It's been a long while since a Devblog has been posted so this one will include both a summary of recent additions to the pre-alpha and features comi

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development in pre-alpha and may change in the future.

It's been a long while since a Devblog has been posted so this one will include both a summary of recent additions to the pre-alpha and features coming to future tests.

BOUNTIES

Bounties are the center of the new core game loop for acquiring Silver. Each player has a list of bounties to complete, with varying monetary rewards. Bounties involve hunting animals, killing outlaws known as Reavers, killing enemy players, and more. All bounties require an item to be returned to town for completion. For example, the bounty for Boar hunting requires a Boar Tusk to be turned in for Silver.

REAVERS

Reavers are world characters in the form of outlaws who live in camps and abandoned forts. Their forces include bowmen, knife-wielding bandits, and swordsmen. Facing a large group of Reavers requires higher end equipment and coordination with other players.

AVATAR RECRUITMENT

Avatars are now obtained through recruitment. This is done at the Recruitment Table in town. Players can choose from Avatars with varying strengths and starting attributes: Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master. This gives players more agency over the type of Avatars they wish to attain.

NEW UNDERWORLD

Following the initial prototype for the Underworld, a comprehensive review was done, as the moment-to-moment gameplay experience was not up to standard. There were issues with movement, visibility, and visual clarify among others. The team felt it was time to go back to first principles around the initial goals and take a fresh look.

Since the initial prototype, the project's internal tooling had been upgraded drastically, which brought about many workflow improvements. Iterating on the original prototype was a laborious process, as making even simple changes took much longer than it needed to, never mind adding cool or intriguing details to explore. The new tooling allowed the full power of Unreal Engine's level authoring tools to be used to construct the new Underworld, enabling designers to overcome the prior limitations and giving them greater control over level design, visual direction, and overall gameplay flow.

While it'll always be a dangerous place to traverse, the danger should be coming from its denizens, not the camera or wonky terrain. This new iteration of the Underworld is still very much a work in progress.

NEW CREATURES

New types of creatures have been added to the world of Anvil Empires. Bounties have been added to hunt such creatures, yielding larger amounts of Silver as a reward.

Mánadýr

Calligans have long whispered tales of a creature born of moonlight. Eternal Wanderer. Eoten of Wild Root. The Man-Deer. Ancient Calligan writings refer to it by a different name—the Mánadýr. Under the veil of a new moon, those who go scouring the forests at night are found impaled and eviscerated at wood’s edge by sunrise as an omen for would-be hunters.

Stonwulfe

The wolves of Calligo are a menace. All true-born Mirrish sing songs teaching the dangers of veering off well-trodden roads. A popular children’s game has a group singing one of these songs louder and louder until one of them braves their way down into a cavernous hole. "Stonwulfe, Stonwulfe…" Every so often, one will venture too deep, leaving behind only the memory of their screams bellowing out from the Underworld.

LONGSWORDS

A new class of melee weapons are being added, two-handed Longswords. These weapons deal higher damage and a good range, but require their user to expose themselves without a shield.

They will also serve the specific role of countering Heavy Armour in the game. Heavy armour is being upgraded with new capabilities, such as deflecting arrows, so having a dedicated counter will be an important part of the balance of combat in the game.

CROSSBOWS

Crossbows are also being added as the ranged counter to Heavy Armour in the game. Unlike Shortbows and Longbows, they will have to be reloaded as a separate step and use Bolts instead of Arrows.

RETURN OF PAGANS

The Pagans faction will be returning to the pre-alpha finally and will be here to stay this time. They will be enabled in the upcoming test, bringing a three way conflict back into the game.

Fleeing the storm-plagued islands at the heart of the Wayward Sea, the Aranic Pagans find a new home on the shores of Calligo. Reworked from the ground up, we’re finally reintroducing the Pagan alliance. A seafaring culture; salt flows through their veins. Clad in loose, lightweight garb, they adorn their ships and armour with colourful, patterned fabric to boldly announce their arrival.

Some of the earliest concepts for the Pagans were more traditional Nordic/Dane-inspired, but those initial explorations weren’t quite there yet. The world of Anvil Empires features a tapestry comprised of many cultures, religions, backgrounds, and traditions. It’s always been important that each primary alliance feels like they have their own cultural perspective. The Aranic Pagans adopted their name to mock adversaries who sought to paint their gods as false idols.

“Pagan” represents a badge of honour, a name that now strikes dread into the hearts of unlucky souls who spot their iconic green sails crawling over the horizon. All who travel the Wayward Sea know the Pagans are most comfortable riding the waves, going so far as adorning themselves in ropes and knots. Their queen, Pyri, now rules over the Humberweald from a newly established colony, Harodiga. Meanwhile, the “Pagan Prince” Isa raids port towns across the southern Calligan coastline, leaving only devastation in his wake.

BARRELING CHANGES

Barrels are a legacy mechanic developed when the game's logistics model and balance was very different. A recent effort has been made to bring Barrels up to speed in terms of gameplay and overall balance.

The current purpose of Barrels is to provide a way to efficiently transport loose items like food, weapons, and armour on a Cart or Hand Cart. For that goal, Barrels can now be packed and unpacked at Keeps, Camps and Homesteads, no longer requiring a Barreling Station. The interface for packing Barrels has been improved such that items can be packed by simply dragging and dropping item stacks onto the Barrels that are in the packing slot. Barrels can now also be partially filled and do not require a full stack.

VEHICLE & HORSE TRADING

Vehicles can now be bought and sold at the Marketplace. This includes Horses, Carts, Handcarts, and Caravans. Horses and Donkeys require a small Livery Fee and must also be well fed in order to be put on sale. Players can also place orders for vehicles, allowing players that operate farming Homesteads to fulfil those orders, earning them additional Silver.

HOMESTEAD RENTING

Homestead owners can now rent access to their facilities in exchange for Silver. This will especially important in towns, where other players will rely on using Blacksmiths, Furnaces, Hearths, and other structures available only at Homesteads. This in turn might help Homestead operators with ongoing Upkeep costs.

AVATAR ATTRIBUTE CHANGES

The existing implementation of Avatar's Melee and Ranged Combat attributes caused readability issues in PvP situations since they're hidden from other players: threat assessment was difficult as players had no way of knowing how strong an enemy Avatar was by just looking at them.

With this in mind, Combat attributes have been changed such that they no longer influence damage dealt in PvP combat. Instead, weapons and equipment of increasing power levels require higher attributes to equipment. Additional tiers of certain weapons have been added to support this change. If a player has higher attributes and is wielding a more powerful weapon, this will be observable by other players.

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

Harvesting an animal now puts its contents into an interactable inventory, allowing the individual resources to be retrieved from one interface. Previously, some items would drop on the ground, some would drop in a stash, and others would be transferred to the player directly. This change puts such loot into a single unified interface. In addition, walking away will now automatically close this (and any other UI window), reducing the amount of repetitive actions needed for frequently actions such as this.

The compass is now larger, displays all cardinal directions, and has contextual icons that guide players towards nearby locations, key structures, cave entrances and their own corpses

There are many other quality of life improvements coming. Stay tuned for the release notes for the next test.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

07 Feb 2026Developer post

Devblog 26 - Avatar Characters

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future. The main focus of development at the moment is fleshing out the new Avatar system and tuning gameplay to support a more Avatar centric game. Homesteads will still

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future.

The main focus of development at the moment is fleshing out the new Avatar system and tuning gameplay to support a more Avatar centric game. Homesteads will still be a vital component of Anvil, but are no longer something that every player is expected to build for themselves. Instead, their progression will be tied to the Avatars under their or their House's control.

AVATAR CHARACTERS

One of the goals behind Avatars is to simulate individual citizens within each empire. To facilitate this, Avatars will now have varying visuals, including different skintones, hair styles, facial hair, and sexes. When a new Avatar is generated, their visual characteristics will be determined randomly. You can set preferences to influence these characteristics for Avatars that are generated for you, but there is still a random element to it to ensure that the overall population of Avatars is representative of a real society.

To support these new visuals and all the new character features like clothing and new types of wearable armour, the character system was completely rearchitected. While most of this work is under the hood, the complexity and effort that went into this cannot be understated. The skeleton, base character mesh, and animation system was completely overhauled from the ground up using tech that was specifically available in the latest version of the Unreal Engine. This was in part why we upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.6 last fall. Another reason for redoing the character system was to optimize it for rendering hundreds of players on screen at once. Previously, the character system was using parts that were ported over from Foxhole, a game that had a different set of requirements.

AVATAR EQUIPMENT

Named Avatars are intended to be persistent characters in the world that can be upgraded over time through better gear and attributes. To support this gameplay, the breadth of items that can be equipped on an Avatar has been expanded with new slots: Two clothing slots, an extra legs armour slot, and a dedicated ammo slot. As an Avatar is progressed, it can be customized with better gear in all of these slots, improving it's overall effectiveness in the persistent conflict.

NEW CLOTHING SYSTEM

There are two new slots for clothing: body and legs. For now, clothing will keep Avatars warm during winter seasons and snow storms, and will offer a small amount of extra protection in combat. Each side will have their own set of clothing

NEW ARMOUR SETS

The previous sets of armour in the game were always meant as temporary stand-ins for pre-alpha. Late last year, work began on redesigning proper lore appropriate armour for each side. As part of this, four sets of armour were created.

Auxiliaries will now spawn with their own dedicated set of armour, which will be low in effectiveness. Another purpose replace the visual of "naked" characters in frontline battles with properly armoured soldiers. On top of that, each side will have three classes of armour: light, medium, and heavy. Light armour will be appropriate for using ranged weapons like bows while medium and heavy armour are appropriate for frontline melee engagements.

SUPERIOR WEAPONS

A new tier of Superior weapons have been introduced, including a new Sword, Spear, Bow, and Shield. Players will need to traverse deeper into the Underworld to find resources to craft such items.

UNDERWORLD LEVELS

The Underworld has been expanded upon. The animals residing in the Underworld have received new visuals to better distinguish them from their surface level equivalents. Players can now delve deeper into a second level where they might find never before seen threats. New resources can be procured at depths, allowing players to craft higher end gear like Heavy Armour and Superior Weapons. We are also in the development process of making further improvements to the Underworld, with a focus on robustness and quality of life.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

09 Oct 2025Developer post

Devblog 25 - Inventory Drag and Drop, Rendering Improvements, Unreal Engine 5.6

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future. INVENTORY DRAG AND DROP Players can now organize their inventories by dragging items both within and between personal and structure inventories. This feature work

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future.

INVENTORY DRAG AND DROP

Players can now organize their inventories by dragging items both within and between personal and structure inventories. This feature works hand in hand with the hotbar functionality, allowing users to sort their items and equipment more efficiently alongside the hotkeys.

Additionally, dragging an item outside the inventory screen now drops it on the ground, just like using Alt + Click. We'll continue working on improving inventory functionalities into the future.

VISIBILITY CULLING IMPROVEMENTS

Tall structures such as walls and foundations now use visibility culling, allowing players to see themselves when moving through Keep and Town areas. We hope this enhances the user experience when fighting in tight spaces surrounded by dense structures. Similar improvements have also been applied to cave assets, improving visibility while exploring the Underworld.

VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS

TORCH CLIPPING

In some cases, the light emitted from torches could clip into ceilings or walls, causing the light source to vanish and plunging the player into darkness. We’ve added a system that dynamically adjusts the torch’s light position when it comes into contact with surfaces, allowing players to use torches more reliably inside structures and caves.

CANAL RENDERING

We’ve also addressed some problematic interactions between canals and terrain that caused them to sink into or float above the ground unnaturally. To resolve this, we’re now using vertical wall extensions to cover gaps in the landscape instead of dirt piles. In theory, this approach can handle gaps of any height simply by adding a taller mesh.

Sloping sides were added to the extension pieces to make transitions between extension heights look nicer. In the picture above you can see the debug traces indicating which type of extension to spawn (green=no extension, yellow=low extension, orange=medium extension).

UNREAL ENGINE 5.6 UPGRADE

Anvil Empires now runs on Unreal Engine 5.6, bringing several useful features for future development. We’ll be taking advantage of the new character animation tools as we redesign how our characters function on both technical and visual levels - this is also part of our ongoing efforts to improve rendering performance when many players are on screen. The upgrade also resolves multiple GPU crashes that players experienced under Unreal 5.1.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

21 Aug 2025Developer post

Devblog 24 - Heavy Battering Ram, Structure Map Tooltips, QoL Improvements

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future. HEAVY BATTERING RAM This new siege equipment offers a slower but safer method of breaching enemy walls. It employs a torsion mechanism to prime and then activate

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future.

HEAVY BATTERING RAM

This new siege equipment offers a slower but safer method of breaching enemy walls. It employs a torsion mechanism to prime and then activate the ram, eliminating the need for operators to manually charge the vehicle toward its target.

It requires six players to push, compared to the regular ram's four, and features overhead protection against projectiles, offering players additional siege options in the late-age. These rams are more expensive than their lighter counterparts and deal less damage per hit.

The Heavy Battering Ram must be placed against its target and then operated by the crew. The right rear seat operates the hand crank to prime the ram mechanism, while the left rear seat releases the tension and triggers the ram strike.

STRUCTURE MAP TOOLTIPS

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve player experience and promote coordination, we're continuing to refine the map's readability and usability. In this update, we've added Structure Tooltips to the Map, allowing players to view the Stockpile contents of Town Centers, Keeps, and Large Camps.

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

NEW INVENTORY AND AUTO-EQUIP

We've updated the inventory HUD and its functionality to make it more intuitive and responsive. It now sits horizontally at the bottom of the screen and lets users auto-equip items by pressing their assigned hotkeys. This auto-equip feature can be toggled in the options menu.

ADDITIONAL CHANGES

Players are no longer blocked from performing actions when low on Stamina: instead, attack strength now scales down with remaining stamina, and damage is adjusted accordingly.

Additional quality-of-life improvements include the removal of the deployment requirement for Siege Towers, as players can now climb their ladders even while the tower is moving. Dropped items will also now remain on vehicle decks as they move.

Beyond these updates, the next build includes dozens of bug fixes and balance changes, such as resolving issues with in-door standing torches, unchoppable trees, and tweaks to horse charging mechanics.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

22 Jul 2025Developer post

Community Highlights #1

Hello people of Calligo, welcome to Anvil's first Community Highlights post! Here we will feature interesting community created content: This includes art, screenshots, videos, or anything else that the team finds worth sharing. We have been really impressed by the amount of high

Hello people of Calligo, welcome to Anvil's first Community Highlights post! Here we will feature interesting community created content: This includes art, screenshots, videos, or anything else that the team finds worth sharing. We have been really impressed by the amount of high quality content the community has been putting out in the last months, stellar stuff!

Note: We try our best to properly credit all community work, but once in a while we may make a mistake. Please let us know if anything is off and we'll make corrections as soon as possible.

ARTWORK

By: midnight.t

A wholesome piece celebrating the intense battles that thousands of players experienced during the Steam Next Fest Demo. The community welcomes all those who are new to the game with open arms and some questionable ale!
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By: Freerk

Lovely medieval vibes from this one! Hoping to see more art from Freerk, who's also a long time Foxhole content creator!
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By: reddonut | Commissioned by: Kallvin

Quite spooky art showcasing that ravens are indeed the three faction's number 1 nemesis.
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By: juniferhimeko

Those Remnants sure know how to make a proper testudo.
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By: Leshiy

This Remnant soldier looks like they've been through a lot. Lovely color pallet and shadows.
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By: maksknez

The Ancients rally against the Novan invaders. Powerful piece!
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By: Campbell

Some fine recruitment posters by Campbell- nice use of colors and text.
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By: Aengel.diamoundz

These Remnants mean business- I hope they watch out for the raven flying overhead, though.
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By: Aengel.diamoundz

Another amazing pixel-art GIF, of a cozy Pagan hideout. The firepit seems ready to cook some meat.

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By: midnight.t

This art goes back to last year but we couldn't miss praising it.
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By: fyibyas

Fyibyas made this Ancient shield stained glass piece and it looks amazing!

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VIDEOS

Watch on YouTube

By: BlueLaminate

Another Foxhole creator joins the fray with a very nice summary of the Siege Demo- fancy 3D animations included!
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Watch on YouTube

By: Nekron

Some high-octane gameplay from the IL clan showcasing a naval raid.
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Watch on YouTube

By: nova.noah1

Some nice siege footage from the previous Pre-Alpha test.
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Watch on YouTube

By: Slorgs

The team had a blast with this one- funny moments of carnage all around.
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And this is it for today! Keep producing nice content and posting them to the #anvil-creative channel on the Anvil Discord and it may be included in the next edition!

-Havoc

Original post

02 Jun 2025Developer post

Play Anvil Empires at Steam Next Fest!

MASSIVE BATTLE DEMO Join us at Steam Next Fest for an opportunity to try Anvil Empires for the first time! We will be releasing a limited time Massive Battle Demo that gives you the chance to participate in a large scale siege battle alongside hundreds of other players. This demo

21 Apr 2025Developer post

Devblog 23 - UI, Art, and Map Polish

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future. USER INTERFACE TIME & SEASON Previously, the map screen displayed the current time and season in a static plain text box. This has been upgraded into a new wi

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future.

USER INTERFACE

TIME & SEASON

Previously, the map screen displayed the current time and season in a static plain text box. This has been upgraded into a new widget that has visual elements and dynamically animates as time elapses.

In addition to displaying the current time, it also visualizes the current season and weather. Hovering over the widget displays additional details about the current Age.

DAMAGE TYPE ICONS

With Damage Types becoming a more prominent feature, icons have been added to represent them in tooltips.

MAP & ENVIRONMENT

Back in June 2024, we announced the first phase of our “Natural Environment” updates. We revised the look of trees, grasses, foliage, ground scatter, etc., to give Calligo a more unified feel that aligned with our long-term vision for Anvil Empires. Today, we’re integrating the next part: improved water and rock formations. Please note: we’re still actively working on all of these elements, and parts may appear incomplete (such as splash effects for water/waterfalls), while some areas may not yet be integrated during upcoming tests.

One of the more challenging parts of constructing the world for Anvil Empires is integrating new features across such a large-scale landmass. We’re committed to delivering a high-quality, immersive world, and that means building smart tools and workflows that allow us to build something as handcrafted and organic as possible with the flexibility for adjustments as game design needs evolve. It may seem simple, but natural elements like rivers—particularly transitions into other bodies of water— can be quite labour-intensive, especially when working at such a large scale.

Rivers in Anvil are now a lot more dynamic and will naturally flow around riverbanks, rocks, bridges, etc. Flow speed, waterfalls, and rapids form based on verticality, and, in the future, there will be support for different categories of rivers, such as streams and brooks. Accompanying the river dynamics, lakes and oceans now feature improved dynamics themselves, such as cresting waves along shorelines and cliff faces. Oceans now feature interior waves that liven them up, rather than sailing on a sea of endless tiling.

Cliffs and rock formations are also being overhauled. Previously, all cliffs and large rock formations had been temporary to facilitate gameplay or level design needs. Testers will start to notice new, more detailed and varied rock formations replacing old ones cropping up in the natural environment. Some ground scatter rocks will also be updated in the future.

Updates to these elements of Calligo's natural environment were to not only improve fidelity and immersion but also to improve our own internal workflows, thus allowing us to build out each part of the map more rapidly and without as much overhead gunking things up. We hope you’re enjoying these visual updates; there’s more to come!

CART & CARAVAN MODEL UPDATE

The visuals on the Cart and Caravan assets were some of the oldest in the project. They have been refreshed with more detail and fidelity that is consistent with the rest of the game now.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

07 Mar 2025Developer post

Devblog 22 - Three Empire War Update

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future. This upcoming update and test will be a special one. The third side, the Pagans will finally be introduced into the game, which is expected to bring a new dynamic

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future.

This upcoming update and test will be a special one. The third side, the Pagans will finally be introduced into the game, which is expected to bring a new dynamic to the conflict. This update will also be adding several other foundational features like a trade economy (including new resources and equipment), new win conditions, the new Avatar system, and more!

The goal of this and the upcoming few updates is to get all remaining foundational features in for an Early Access release on Steam this year. Early Access for Anvil Empires won't be the end, but rather the beginning of a process to build out the vast and expansive vision we have for Anvil Empires. Similar to Foxhole, Anvil Empires won't be built over night and will require long stretches of testing and iteration in a real world setting, a process that will continue well into Early Access.

PAGANS

Anvil Empires was always designed to support multiple warring factions. The Pagan faction will finally be introduced into upcoming tests. For now, their visuals will be unique but their structures, weapons, and equipment will be equivalent to the other sides. Factions will gain unique gameplay elements during Early Access development.

Forged in the frigid southern waters of the Wayward Sea, we’ve tempered our souls within its shining jewels, our Aranic isles. Still, the gods demand new lands with rich soil fed with the lifeblood of our enemies. So, north we sailed. We will claim this new land, this Calligo, in their honour.

MULTIPLE WIN CONDITIONS

A proper win condition system has been implemented. Previously, win conditions were enforced in an ad hoc manner, but now there is a comprehensive system that tracks win condition information on the back end and displays it to players on the map screen.

With this new system, there will be multiple types of win conditions. The first win condition, Military Victory requires capturing a certain number of enemy Keeps. The second win condition, Cultural Victory requires building a certain number of Temples and holding them for a period of time. Building a Temple is only possible later in an Age and requires an immense amount of resources to be pooled together by the entire faction, including new Trade Resources (see below). Only one of the three empires can achieve any given Win Condition, but different Win Conditions can be achieved by different factions.

TRADE ECONOMY

Having a functioning trade economy has always been a major goal for Anvil Empires. The Town Marketplace was introduced several tests ago to allow players within the vicinity of a town to trade with other players. The next step is to begin enabling trade between players from different towns. To that end, new localized trade resources and equipment are being introduced.

TRADE RESOURCES

There will be three trade resources and they will only exist geographically in certain parts of the world. They will rotate to a random new location at the start of every in-game year. The three trade resources will be:

Flax Seeds - Dried into Linen
Lead - Smelted into Lead Ingots
Resin - Processed into Rosin (existing resource repurposed into a trade resource)

Since these resources are localized, the most efficient way to procure them will be by trading with other players at the Marketplace (or at least this is the goal). These resources will be required to produce specialized, but not essential weapons and equipment.

NEW WEAPONS & DAMAGE TYPES

While many existing specialized weapons and equipment will require trade resources, two additional new weapons will be added as well. The first is the Mace, which is a new melee weapon that deals Crushing Damage. This weapon will be the most effective at damaging enemy stability and knocking over targets. As a side note, The Combat Axe will also now require trade resources and has been repurposed to deal Cleaving Damage, making it the only melee weapon that can damage siege weapons like Battering Rams and Catapults.

The second new weapon is Burning Oil, which can be used by those manning the parapets of a Fort. Burning Oil can be thrown from the tops of Fort walls down at an attacking force, leaving a burning patch of fire on the ground that deals damage over time to any enemy that walks into it. Burning Oil also deals Burning Damage, directly damaging siege engines like Battering Rams on impact.

AVATAR SYSTEM

The Avatar system is based on some concepts that were explored very early in the project but didn't work out at the time. The goal behind the Avatar system is to provide a better framework for deployment resources, one that can eventually simulate the raising, movement, and upkeep of armies more accurately.

Instead of Food being the resource for deployment (or Soldier Supplies in Foxhole), Avatars will be required instead, each one representing a single soldier that can be deployed into an army. The production of Avatars are conceptually like the training of units in an RTS, except they are controlled and trained directly by players through in-game activities like gathering, building, and combat.

There will be different types of Avatars in the future, but in the first version there will be two: Apprentices and Soldiers. Players start out controlling an Apprentice Avatar and can train them into a Soldier. Trained Avatars can be stationed at Homesteads until they are shipped out via Caravan to reinforce a contested position like a Keep or Camp. Assembling a large army will require the mustering troops in the form of Avatars, from many Homesteads across a faction.

Avatars can also gain veterancy levels. When deploying at a Homestead, Town, or Camp, players must select an Avatar, taking control of that Avatar and gaining it's attributes and veterancy levels. Players can also switch their Avatar at any time to another one stationed at their Homestead. The shipping version of Avatars will be a basic building block that will be expanded upon in the future.

GRAIN MILL

The Grain Mill replaces the last of the legacy refinery structures in the game. This structure grinds raw ingredients into processed ingredients, turning Wheat into Flour, and various Seeds into animal feeds.

Players can manually operate the Grain Mill to grind ingredients or attach a Hand Crank Adapter that can be hooked into the power system for automation, much Trip Hammers or Saw Mills. The coarseness of ground ingredients can be controlled by pushing a lever at the side of the structure. The correct Coarseness determines the final quality of the outputted materials.

OTHER FEATURES

Other key changes coming in the next update are listed below. For even more changes, be on the lookout for the release notes when the dev branch drops.

Marketplace Improvements - Barrels of items can now be sold directly at the Marketplace
Siege Engines - Swords, Bows, and all hand held weapons other than Combat Axes and Burning Oil no longer damage to siege engines
New Build Interface - When building a structure, a new dedicated widget is displayed that shows both required and submitted materials
Homestead Area Changes - Homestead areas are now square and those built in Town areas snap to the building grid of the Town
Homestead Corridor and Bridge Pieces - Homesteads now have new Corridor and Bridge pieces to connect larger Homestead structures together
Cart and Caravan Visual Upgrade - The Cart, Hand Cart, and Caravans have had their models updated to more polished standards
Cart Passengers - Additional players can now sit at the back of Carts

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

03 Feb 2025Developer post

Devblog 21 - Communication Tools, Armour Racks, & Ore Processing

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.

MAP POSTS

A vital component of a persistent world war game is a robust communication system that enables players to coordinate on at a large scale. A Map Post system is being implemented that will allow players to share messages with their alliance directly on the map interface. Map Posts will be essential for warning allies about threats on the map, coordinating sieges, and other player driven objectives.

Similar to Foxhole's system, players will be able to upvote and downvote Map Posts to influence their level of visibility on the map. Each post also has a comment thread, allowing players to further interact with and add information to an existing Map Post.

SIGN POSTS

The other major communication tool being added is Sign Posts. Instead of the map interface, Sign Posts allow messages to be shared with others within the game world itself. This is useful for directing other new players, sharing resources, or warning allies of threats and dangers within the area.

Players can customize their signs by choosing from several model designs. Sign Posts can be upvoted and downvoted just like Map Posts, which extends or shortens their lifespan respectively.

ARMOUR RACKS

A proper storage structure for armour are being added in the form of Armour Racks. This is similar to the Weapon Rack, except it holds stacks of helmets, body armour, and shields. Each Armour Rack has one slot for each type of equipment, so multiple racks must be built to store different types of armour.

ORE PROCESSING

The gameplay for refining Stone and Ore is being updated to be more in line with other industrial processes like logging and blacksmithing in terms of mechanics and touch and feel. To refine Stone or Ore resources into usable materials, the Stone Cutter and Mineral Refinery will no longer be used.

Instead, such resources are processed using the Smashing Plate. Stone and Ore chunks are placed onto the Smashing Plate and are broken down manually with a Hammer. Stone and Iron Ore are crushed into fragments. In turn, Stone Fragments can be crushed into Gravel.

The smashing process can be further streamlined with a Stamp Mill, which crushes resources automatically and integrates with the existing Power system.

OTHER FEATURES

Other key changes coming in the next update are listed below. For even more changes, be on the lookout for the release notes when the dev branch drops later this week.

Hunting Transport - Raw Meat & Fish can now be transported on Carts and Handcarts
Custom Inventory Stack Limits - Arrows stack to a lower limit now, preventing players from taking too many items from public stockpiles
Vehicle Movement Improvements - Battering Rams and Horses move more smoothly over the landscape and are less likely to be impeded by small obstacles
Interior Drying Racks - Drying Racks can now be built indoors, allowing hides to be dried during Rainstorms, albeit at a much slower rate
Bed Upgrading Single Beds (of all types) now upgrade directly into Bunk Beds, removing the need to demolish and build them separately

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

03 Dec 2024Developer post

Devblog 20 - Homestead Keystone & Interior Workshops

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.

HOMESTEAD KEYSTONE

In the previous devblog, Modular Homesteads was introduced and they continue to be an area of heavy development. The next step was to integrate the Keystone structure into the modular system itself. The Keystone is the structure that the player interacts with to manage the Homestead's family and to store key supplies for the critical function of the Homestead.

The visual design was a challenge, as the structure had to look significant enough (as the most important structure in the Homestead), signify that it stored supplies, display the Family colours, and also integrate naturally with other modular Homestead segments. The concepts above show several designs that were considered and below is a screenshot of it's eventual model implementation in the game.

HOMESTEAD WORKSHOP SUPPORT

An ongoing goal is to migrate Smithing and other structures to modular Homesteads so players will need to build interior workshops rather than having such equipment scattered in outdoor environments.

To support modular workshop interiors, some new design problems had to be solved. First, there needed to be a way to route power from external sources like Water Wheels, Animal Mills, and Wind Mills to the interior.

Similarly, there needed to be a way to bring water from Canals into the workshop. To resolve both of these issues, special modular walls for routing power and water were designed for bringing these resources into Homestead interiors.

HOMESTEAD DETAILED CONCEPTS

The concept art below illustrates the various design possibilities explored when developing the visuals for each individual modular Homestead piece. Only one set of visuals was selected for implementation but we hope we can explore other options in the future for further customization.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

25 Oct 2024Developer post

Devblog 19 - Modular Homesteads and Bats

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

04 Oct 2024Developer post

Devblog 18 - Cargo Ship & Underworld Updates

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

17 Sep 2024Developer post

Devblog 17 - Underworld Generation, Mining Operations, Combat Stability System

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.

UNDERWORLD GENERATION

A basic version of the Underworld was introduced to Pre-Alpha several builds ago. It served as an initial test for the technical infrastructure needed to support this feature as it develops over the next few months.

In the next phase of development, the system will be expanded from small stand alone, subterranean caves scattered around the world to massive interconnected underground networks with multiple entrances to the surface. Such networks are maze like and require equipment like Torches and Firepits to navigate and survive in.

These networks will be randomly generated so their locations and layout will be unique in each instance. However, due to the limited amount of content developed there will be some feeling of repetition initially, but that should be reduced over time as the system and content evolves.

MINING OPERATIONS

The mining game is being completely overhauled for the Underworld, becoming a more involved and collaborative activity. Players will descend into caves and excavate through massive underground mines to procure minerals like Iron and Coal. Minable resources extend across cave walls and up to their ceilings.

Note that all visuals relating to the mining feature are highly work in progress.

To extract resources from elevated locations in a mine, special Mining Platforms must be constructed. As players dig deeper into a mine, they must place down Torches to ensure there is enough light to continue excavating. Due to size of such mines, it's recommended for players to collaborate in groups.

COMBAT STABILITY SYSTEM

In Devblog 15 and Devblog 16, new combat features were introduced in the form of attack chaining, secondary modes, equipment hotkeys, and a slew of new weapon features including a chance to penetrate guard, throwable Javelins from Horseback, and more.

The next combat feature being developed is the stability system. This system was developed to push further into group tactics and formations in large scale melee engagements. Players now have a stability stat that can go up or down depending on their equipment, the actions of other players around them, and other battlefield conditions.

There are a few basic rules to understand stability. Every player settles to a base stability value when idling. Being attacked by certain weapons or being charged at by an enemy (mounted or dismounted) also reduces stability. The amount reduced in such cases can be mitigated by wearing heavier armour. When a player's stability depletes to zero, they are knocked down and stunned for several moments.

Lastly, a new pushing mechanic is being introduced which heavily interacts with stability. Players can now push other players by holding down the C key. Pushing an enemy lowers their stability while pushing a friendly player reinforces it. Pushing from a higher position is stronger. All these rules work together to encourage natural and organic formations during melee battles. For example, fighting downhill is advantageous and player groups can use formations to distribute stability to areas most needed depending enemy army positioning and other battlefield factors.

It's important to mention once again that these all of these new combat features are work in progress and are meant to work in tandem with one another once they are all complete. In the meantime, while they can be tested individually they might not feel as meaningful until they work together as a whole. Even then, it'll require a lot of real world testing and iteration to arrive at the intended gameplay.

KEEP AND FORT VISUAL COMPLETION

Finally, there is a quick update on Fort and Keep visuals. While much of the functionality for these features were completed earlier, a significant amount of art content was needed to bring them to visual completion. Below are some screenshots showcasing some of this work. Additional visual polish will continue to be added in future updates.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

16 Aug 2024Developer post

Devblog 16 - Keeps, World Expansion, and New Weapon Features

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.

KEEPS

The Keep will replace the Town Center as the core structure at the center of Towns moving forward. This change was made for two reasons. First, during playtests it was observed that players would surround their Town Center with Fort walls and structures which looked incredibly unnatural. Having the center structure be a Keep thematically and visually fits more organically.

Second, with the new Fort building system, there was an opportunity to integrate Forts with the core structure of the Town. To that end, Keeps can be attached to expanded upon using Fort modules. This means players can effectively design a larger custom Keep or heavily integrate them into their surrounding fortress layout.

There will be three tiers of Keeps as seen in the concept art above. In addition, Keeps have full interiors with several floors, making it implicitly useful for making a last stand during a siege.

WORLD EXPANSION

The world is finally being expanded to the scale that Anvil Empires is intended to be played at. The previous main island has been broken up and several other land masses have been added. This scale paves the way for not only longer term, persistent world gameplay but for systems like trade and naval to exist in the future.

While the size of current tests are not entirely appropriate for this scale, the foundation of the world needs to be built and tested as early as possible which is why this expansion is happening. In the initial rollout, the expanded parts of the world will be basic in terms of environmental features but detail will be added in over time.

NEW WEAPON FEATURES

As part of the current phase of development, many aspects of combat are being heavily worked on. In addition to the combat updates from the last Devblog, a new set of weapons and weapon features are being explored. Keep in mind that many of these features are designed to work within a larger framework of changes coming in future development.

First of all, every weapon now has a movement modifier and a chance to penetrate guard. For example, the Sword now has a Thrust as it's secondary attack mode, which has a higher chance to penetrate guard when compared to the primary Slash attack.

The Javelin is being introduced, as a lightweight version of the Spear. The Javelin can be throw in quick succession, can be carried with other primary weapons like Swords, and can also be thrown from horseback.

The Spear has also received several upgrades to make it more distinct from the Javelin. The Spear can now be used in tandem with a Shield and has distinct melee and throw modes of attack that can be toggled with the F key.

DEPLOYMENT FOOD

Some important changes are being made to deployment. Food items instead of Reinforcement Supplies are now required to deploy to a location. This will be required to deploy at all locations, including Homesteads and pledged Towns. If no food is available, then deployment won't be possible. This removes the ability to infinitely spawn at a location and enables future scenarios for "starving out" towns under siege.

When a specific type of food is selected to use for deployment, the player will spawn with the benefits of that food automatically applied. This includes health, stamina, and hunger replenishment.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

11 Jul 2024Developer post

Devblog 15 - Underworld, Catapult, and Combat Updates

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.

UNDERWORLD

This phase of development introduces the Underworld, the subterranean part of Anvil's persistent world. The Underworld is where new threats, resources, and a new mining game will reside in the future. Not only will the Underworld be a big part of gameplay in future, but it will play a key role in Anvil's lore and overall universe.

This next test will include an initial bare bones version of the Underworld in the form of underground caves that can be accessed from various entrances on the surface of Calligo. Entrance locations are randomized and will lead into small isolated underground areas containing Iron, Stone, Coal, as well as elite animal threats. The longer term plan is to build this initial version into a larger network of interconnected caves subterranean mines.

Small structures like Firepits and Storage Chests can be built underground. Some vehicles like Hand Carts can also be brought down to help transport resources. The Underworld is completely devoid of light, so carrying or building Torches is essential for traversing these areas.

CATAPULT

The Catapult will be the second siege weapon in the game. While the Battering Ram is a close quarters weapon, the Catapult will serve as ranged artillery when assaulting a Fort.

The Catapult will require four players to move. The reloading process is similar to the Scorpion, requiring a player to carry and place a projectile into the bucket. One player operates the crank for rearming, while another player operates the lever for firing. The Catapult fires at a fixed range and is relatively inaccurate, requiring multiple shots to successfully hit a target.

COMBAT UPDATES

The next steps towards improved combat are being taken in the form of attack chaining, weapon modes, equipment hotkeys, and other changes. Note that these are work in progress prototypes that on their own won't have a big impact, but are small steps towards a larger plan.

ATTACK CHAINING

Multiple distinct attacks can now be performed in sequence. Up to three attacks can be chained together in this manner, with each subsequent attack having a unique hit pattern and damage values. Initially, this will only be available on the Sword weapon.

WEAPON MODES

Support for alternate weapon modes has been implemented. Pressing the F key will change modes, which is a process that will take time and isn't instantaneous. Most weapons in the future will have a unique alternate mode. Initially, alternate modes will only be available for the Short Bow. Players will be able to switch between direct and indirect fire modes using this system.

EQUIPMENT HOTKEYS

With the constant need to equip items into the primary and secondary hand slots during gameplay, a new equipment hotkey system has been added. Number keys 0-9 will be used to swap an item in the inventory into it's associated hand slot. To assist in this, an abridged version of the inventory will be rendered on the HUD, indicating which keys correspond to which slot. Under this new system, the R key will now be used to arm primary weapons and CTRL-R will be used to arm secondary weapons.

OTHER EXPERIMENTS

There are a few other experimental changes being developed for combat. The melee system has been upgraded with more sophisticated hit patterns that are made up of multiple collision points that are triggered over time as a weapon moves through the air, as opposed to the previously basic system that used a single collision point triggered at one point in time. In addition, the speed of attacks scale with total stamina and Shield guard drops when attacking. Once again, these features are only implemented on some weapons and much of it is still in an experimental stage of development.

TERRITORY OWNERSHIP

The concept of friendly and enemy territory has been added. This was done to resolve several issues identified by players and to evolve the PvP game to the next stage of development. The map is now divided into territory based on Starting Deployment Points and Tier 3 Towns, with the latter having a stronger weighting. To expand into enemy territory, players must built Tier 3 Towns. Certain structures like Beacon Towers and Homesteads can only be built in friendly territory. This is to address the player feedback that Beacon Towers and Homesteads were being used offensively, which is against their intended roles. In addition, this addition should help make Towns more significant in general again. Expect the rules around Territory Ownership to be iterated on several times before it's working as expected so the team is eagerly looking forward to feedback on this one.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

20 Jun 2024Developer post

Devblog 14 - Natural Environment Visual Update, New Fort Building System

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.

Natural Environment Visual Update

We knew at some point we’d need to revisit the look and feel of the natural environment in Anvil Empires to match our atmospheric and thematic goals. While we’ve got a long way to go, here’s a first look at what’s coming.

While we’ve been generally happy with the look and feel of the game during our pre-alpha development, our initial approach came across a bit more Mediterranean in style and feels like a warmer climate. In contrast, we want Calligo to feel dangerous, mysterious, moderate and heavy. A lot of our core references and concept art evoke northern/western Europe: Romania, Britain, Germany. Re-examining our goals, we began development on a prototype to bring the endless valleys and gloomy forests we’d started with back into focus. Calligo hasn’t quite felt like the Calligo we’d imagined; now is the time to take the steps to really build this world we’ve been planning for years.

First, we built on the foundation of the main grass and terrain types that populate much of Calligo. In Anvil Empires, it’s imperative that players have the freedom to build towns nearly anywhere in the world and part of that is the ability to design fortresses that tower over iconic medieval landscapes. This means we need tons of variety without having visual assets that block or impede players’ vision.

The next building block comes in the form of forests—a vital part of Calligo’s atmosphere. When you enter a forest, it should feel as though you’ve entered a forest. Forests should communicate the type of encounters to expect inside, so tree and forest variety have become a huge focus going forward. Expect to see dense, spooky pine woods, young growth forests, and safer deciduous thickets.

We’ve implemented a system that allows us to fill the world with more scattered foliage, rocks and medium-scale details that won’t block players’ ability to build. This is important because, as a top-down game, parallax and layering are very important tools in our visual toolbox. On top of that, more variety across an environment that isn’t packed with landmarks helps with directional anchoring, making the space feel more alive and easy to traverse.

There’s lots of work to do, yet, and the first iteration may not include every feature discussed here in their final form. More large-scale details such as revamped and more prolific cliffs and rock formations are on the horizon as well. This new direction for Anvil Empires’ natural environment is much closer to our vision for Calligo, and we’re excited to welcome you onto its shores once again.

Fort Building System

Another system we've come back around on to refresh before the Early Access release is the Fort building system. The existing building system served as a good platform to test the initial ideas for what we wanted. The goal was a system that maximized creative agency, was visually consistent with the theme, and had a low chance of producing "goofy" looking builds. On that last point, we wanted an outcome where most builds looked like Castles and Keeps, rather than the haphazard designs you see in many survival games.

While we reached some of these goals with the initial system, the visuals were underdeveloped in terms of reflecting the game's theme and the system wasn't durable enough against those "goofy" designs. So the focus of the new system was to address these issues and at the same time make the system overall more robust. Balancing between creative freedom, immersion, and robustness is always challenging and is one of the key factors we had in mind when revamping the system.

This time we've worked on developing the visuals from the ground up starting with the concept phase. The concepts shown above are for the higher tier version of the Forts. In tandem, we started working on a new set of build rules, features, and structure pieces. The new system is slightly more rigid in terms of placement rules, but the benefit is that players will always be able to connect their Fort pieces to form complete structures no matter where each individual piece is built. To achieve this, every piece adapts it's size dynamically depending on it's orientation to "fit" into an existing build.

This new system will serve as a new platform to build on in Early Access and the plan is to add in additional tools and customization options in the future.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

27 May 2024Developer post

Devblog 13 - Tavern, Central Marketplace, and Major Town Changes

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here sh

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.

Tavern

One ongoing goal is to make Towns (previously called Settlements) more useful and integrated with player's core gameplay. Players should have more reasons to go into Town and moreover to interact with other players there. The Tavern is a structure inside Towns that provides an area for social activity and offers gameplay benefits as well.

Food items can be purchased at the Tavern like Bread and Pie, as well a new type of Food item: Mead. When Food or Drink is consumed at the Tavern together with others, players will receive a Rested Status which will boost Stamina regeneration rate for a period of time. The more players that are in the Tavern, the longer the Rested Status will last.

Central Marketplace

Another new Town structure is being added to facilitate trade between players more effectively. The Central Marketplace allows players to sell their items to other players. There are several key differences between the Central Marketplace and the Marketplace Shops from prior tests (which has been obsoleted and will be removed from the game).

First, items from all players in a Town are sold at the same location now meaning players looking to buy items can conveniently view and buy goods from one central location. Second, players selling items have finer control over their Sell Orders. They can sell different batches of items at different prices and earnings from each order can be withdrawn separately. Finally, all the details of the market can be viewed from the world map screen. Information on every order, including the Seller, Quantity, and Price are all visible right from the map. Beyond the initial version of this structure, additional functionality is being developed like the ability to place down Buy Orders to be fulfilled by other players in the future.

Town Changes

Other big changes are coming to Towns and in how they interact with Homesteads. Homesteads are no longer tied to any given Town and can be built completely independent of them. That is, Homesteads can be built anywhere in the world and don't need to be built within the vicinity of a Town. After looking at player feedback and reexamining the goals of Homestead, it was decided that a more organic relationship between Homesteads and Towns would be ideal, rather than a forced one. This required a big reworking of our core Town/Homestead code but we believe this is an important foundational change for the future.

The goal is for the Tavern and Central Marketplace to help build that natural relationship between Homesteads and Towns. To further push into this, two other structures are being added to Towns. First, there is the Town Workshop, which will be the Town variant of the Workbench/Advanced Workbench. As a natural byproduct of Homestead progression, players will accumulate resources that they can refine into useful materials at the Town Workshop during their trips into Town. For example, Ash is now used as an ingredient to produce Mortar and excess Malachite is used to produce Copper Nails. Second, the Merchant no longer spawns in the world and is now a structure that is built in the Town. Players making trips into towns can use their Silver to purchase materials like Wood Planks.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.

Original post

Updates & announcements

REVAMPED CARGO BOAT

SHIPYARD

SHIP DOCK

DEFAULT CLOTHING

HOUSE TAGS

NEW CLIFFS

MAP EXPANSION

FARMING BALANCE

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE REVAMP

CHIMNEY WALL

INVENTORY BALANCE & BARRELLING

RENTER INFORMATION

UPDATED SCORPION

TERRITORY ZONES AND MILITARY VICTORY

EARLY AGE SIEGE EQUIPMENT

BANDAGES & WOUNDED AVATARS

FORTRESS BOUNTY

NEW WORLD BRIDGES

NEW TAVERN

NEW TOWN WORKSHOP

FOREST COVER

MARKETPLACE & CRAFTING FILTERS

WORLD MAP REVAMP

TOWN KEEP REVAMP

COMBAT SYSTEM CHANGES

SMOKE SYSTEM AND CHIMNEYS

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

ITEM EXCHANGE

NEW REPAIR SYSTEM

RENTAL UI

USE NEARBY STRUCTURE

BOUNTIES

REAVERS

AVATAR RECRUITMENT

NEW UNDERWORLD

NEW CREATURES

Mánadýr

Stonwulfe

LONGSWORDS

CROSSBOWS

RETURN OF PAGANS

BARRELING CHANGES

VEHICLE & HORSE TRADING

HOMESTEAD RENTING

AVATAR ATTRIBUTE CHANGES

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

AVATAR CHARACTERS

AVATAR EQUIPMENT

NEW CLOTHING SYSTEM

NEW ARMOUR SETS

SUPERIOR WEAPONS

UNDERWORLD LEVELS

INVENTORY DRAG AND DROP

VISIBILITY CULLING IMPROVEMENTS

VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS

TORCH CLIPPING

CANAL RENDERING

UNREAL ENGINE 5.6 UPGRADE

HEAVY BATTERING RAM

STRUCTURE MAP TOOLTIPS

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

NEW INVENTORY AND AUTO-EQUIP

ADDITIONAL CHANGES

ARTWORK

VIDEOS

MASSIVE BATTLE DEMO

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

USER INTERFACE

TIME & SEASON

DAMAGE TYPE ICONS

MAP & ENVIRONMENT

CART & CARAVAN MODEL UPDATE

PAGANS

MULTIPLE WIN CONDITIONS

TRADE ECONOMY

TRADE RESOURCES

NEW WEAPONS & DAMAGE TYPES

AVATAR SYSTEM

GRAIN MILL