Greetings, warriors!
Thank you for your patience and continuous support we've received since the release. We are rolling out a new update for Battle Realms that is 1.55.1. Why not 1.56? Good question! So let's go through what all of this is about.
In the beginning, we'd like to address why updating the game has been taking so long. The current Battle Realms Development Team is a small team of die-hards loyal to one cause- making Battle Realms and its community flourish. We are not Liquid, Crave or Ubisoft in terms of power and opportunities. Things may take a while. Especially during the initial stages of the development. The team humbly requests for you to be patient and understanding. In the end, every single one of us is set on a goal to bring the best Battle Realms possible to you- the community.
The development is particularly difficult now because the Steam Multiplayer is, understandably, the main priority. It's unveiled quite a few unpleasant secrets for both the developers and the community, and we've been figuring them out with maximum precision. It's taking a lot of time and it has to be that way at the moment. Once we're done with that particular aspect, the development should be smoother.
COVID-19 has also taken its toll, but we are back in action now! We hope all of you are staying safe and healthy out there.
After continuous discussions within the team, we've come to a decision that is releasing an "interim" update for all the players out there in the face of 1.55.1. We're not yet able to eliminate all of the bugs within the Steam Multiplayer integration, and taking more time to release something would be unfair to all of you, so we think this update is the golden middle for everyone. It is supposed to keep you busy just enough until the update 1.56 actually comes. :)
With that being said, let's see what all the fuss is about:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
In regards to Steam Multiplayer: It is now fully playable, but only for 2 players maximum. All lobbies are now restricted to the maximum amount of 2 human players per 1 Steam Multiplayer Lobby. The chance of synchronization errors has been reduced to a minimum. Meaning, at this point in time, only 1vs1 and AI games are available via Steam Multiplayer. LAN and DirectIP games can be still played fine as before. The team is still hard at work.
Technical:
- Game version changed from 1.55 to 1.55.1.
- Fixed the DPI bug that occurred on Windows 10 in conjunction with 2K resolution monitors and higher, it resulted in extreme zooming-in of the in-game screen.
- Fixed occasional stuttering that occurred during Steam Multiplayer menus. Everything's smoother now.
- Fixed Steam MP random lobby joining. Previously one had a 50/50 chance to join a lobby different from the one they were going to join.
- Fixed interface bugs related to listing lobbies in Steam Multiplayer. Now all the information is displayed correctly (amount of lobbies and maximum players).
- Fixed unwarranted popups that happened during lobby listings.
- Fixed colors randomly swapping in game lobbies.
- Fixed in-game chat meaning all of the players can freely chat with each other during Steam Multiplayer games.
- Fixed a bug that only allowed creating classic BR games in Steam Multiplayer. WOTW games are now also available.
Gameplay:
- Fixed most of the synchronization errors that occurred during any Multiplayer games.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Technical:
- Removed the offline-check on game launch that forced users to always be online in order to play the game. It can be now be played in Offline mode provided the user is signed into Steam (you don't need an internet connection for that as long as you own a copy of the game on Steam and you're logged into its client app).
Gameplay:
- Unit stacking is temporarily restored in favor of game stability, but the collision radius between units has been reduced in order for them to navigate better.
- Ping system has been restored.
- Introduced a system for chat commands to be used during the game. The first test command is !time which will show you how long your Multiplayer match has been going on for.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- Updated Steam SDK.
- Introduced a base Rich Presence system for Steam and Discord.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
All maps have been restored to their 1.50q-WOTW condition in favor of game stability. Some saves may've been, once again, broken and we apologize for that. Don't delete them because we'll bring the modified maps later down the line!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
That's about it! Leaving some links in here that you may find useful:
- Report any issues you experience in this topic.
- Our BR Discord Server.
- Complete Battle Realms Info Chart.
- Battle Realms on Facebook.
- Battle Realms on Reddit.
- Battle Realms Wiki
That about sums it up. Stay safe everyone!
- The Battle Realms Team