Welcome to another first Saturday update post! Just a few quick topics this time.
News
I'm tentatively planning to release on May 13th. There are some external deadlines in play, but that's not surprising for a project that's gone on as long as Arbitology: Dei Gratia Rex has. I'm crunching to make this, but if it slips then I'm planning at the least to enter early access at that point.
I'm a bit leery of early access if I'm honest. Lots of games I've followed entered early access only to remain there for years and never release; I absolutely want to avoid that fate. I'd much rather do a full release and be judged on what is available at that point, and then support the game with free content patches going forward. I'm definitely interested in opinions on this, though: would you rather buy a game in early access, or a full release that will be getting free content patches?
In other news, I'm pleased to announce that the soundtrack is coming along nicely! Last month, in a bit of serendipity, I found a composer who understood what I had in mind for the project. The music is principally based on existing works — but with some variations and flourishes — and recorded on a real lute. Several tracks are done and more are coming; I can't wait to share more on this!
Pitched battles, part deux
I finished the melee section I mentioned last time. There's not a lot more to say here, so here are some screenshots of new stuff instead:
Once I got morale calculations pinned down, I went back and added an optional pre-battle speech. This is of course mutually exclusive with the surprise charge tactic, and in any case you can skip it if you're not an especially talky king. This one was a fun way to get some effects from lots of skills. If you've not read some of the earlier updates, a quick guide: the redder the option, the riskier it is (in this case, the risk coming from your associated skill). Also the stricken options can still, usually, be chosen, but to do so you must spend willpower, a terribly limited resource. Forcing through a choice in this manner also usually affects your personality.
Balancing
It took a fair bit of time to get the numbers balanced for battles, and maybe there's still some to do there. I'm hoping to play through a few more entire wars to see how it goes. As mentioned earlier though: pitched battles in this era were rare. Unless one side or the other has a marked advantage, battles like this may not even happen at all in a given war.
Also I did some very early play testing with other people. A few missing things were added and some confusing text was changed. It also made me aware of some things that the game did not communicate well enough. I hope to do some more of this in the coming months!
More to come next time. After that post, I'll likely deviate from the monthly schedule though. With any luck, there will be more things to talk about!