Greetings time travelling merc,
Welcome back to another dev blog! This time we’re delving into your modern arsenal and the vehicles you’ll get to wreak havoc with in Kingmakers. With only about seven weeks to go before Early Access release, things are getting heated, but we can’t wait to know which weapons make you feel like an unstoppable force from the future.
Kingmakers started with a simple question that many of us have dreamed of in a game: "What would happen if you brought modern weapons into a medieval battlefield?" Could a single person with a modern arsenal obliterate a medieval army? That idea alone unlocked a ton of gameplay possibilities. But when you introduce guns and explosives into large-scale medieval battles with thousands of soldiers, the balance of things gets technically complex. And that’s the challenge our passionate dev team has been excited to tackle.
Real-Life Research and Armor Penetration
Just down the road from the office, we have a shooting range where we do hands-on testing and research. We fired various guns, from 9mm, .40, and even a .50 cal. We’ve also looked into how armor holds up against different types of ammo. In movies, you’ll often see arrows punch through steel plate, which is unrealistic, so in Kingmakers, a bow won’t get through a full plate of armor. We want the game to feel like a simulated medieval battlefield, so the balance between medieval armor against modern bullets is something we’ve been exploring a ton, which we touched on in our first dev blog when we talked about troops and their three tiers of armor from steel, hardened steel, and gold titanium alloy.
With that said, we want the guns to feel realistic too. So a 9mm handgun, for example, can go through wooden shields and steel armor, but to hit through hardened steel, you will need something stronger, like the .50 cal Desert Eagle.
While we can’t use real-world trademarks in the game, we’ve modeled the weapons to closely resemble their real-life counterparts, so for the purpose of this dev blog only, we might refer to some of them in here by those familiar names.
Weaponry
There’s a pretty big arsenal in Kingmakers, so we won’t list everything here, and part of the fun will be discovering it yourself when you play. But to give you an idea of some, you’ll have handguns like 9mm pistols, the .50 cal Desert Eagle, to 500 cal Magnums. On the rifle side, you’ll find AR-15s and AK-47s, to LMGs and non-automatic rifles like the BMG. Plus a range of submachine guns, shotguns, a minigun, stun gun to capture prisoners, a futuristic plasma gun, a grenade launcher, plenty of throwables and explosives, including calling down land mines, an airstrike, and a rocket turret. And finally, bows, crossbows, and the sledgehammer for melee that you’ll always have with you.
Melee and Bows
When it comes to melee, we originally had a sword and shield for you, but realistically, swinging a sword at full plate armor isn’t very effective; that’s why we swapped it with the big sledgehammer. It's heavy, blunt impact is much more practical, and can help you stagger the tougher officers you’ll face. You’ll still have a shield, but it’s a small buckler that stays on your arm while you handle a gun, letting you parry incoming attacks or arrows without being weighed down like a heater or kite shield would. As for the bow and crossbow, you’ll be given modern versions, such as a rapid-fire crossbow and a semi-automatic bow that reloads like a modern firearm.
Progression and Upgrades
When you start a mission, you’ll begin with lower tier weapons, like the bow, crossbow, or a basic handgun and a couple of grenades, and gradually unlock more powerful options as you progress.
In Kingmakers’ lore, the future is in rough shape and suffering from low resources, so requesting new guns isn’t that simple. You’ll need to loot in the past, gather resources like copper, gold, and hidden treasures, and send them back to the future. This will be your form of currency to buy new weapons and upgrades.
Upgrades make a real difference in gameplay. You can improve things like a weapon’s magazine capacity, its armor pen, or its accuracy at range. A basic version of a weapon may start weak against the high-tier armors, but fully upgrading it could allow it to match those elite opponents.
Vehicles
At Early Access launch, there will be three player driveable vehicles available: a motorcycle, a convertible car, and we’re hoping to get the tank in on time too. We went with the convertible over the pickup truck from the announcement trailer because it lets you shoot in 360 degrees (and look awesome while doing so). Whereas a closed roof would have limited you to fixed positions. That said, we’re not ruling the truck out completely. Early Access is all about feedback, so if the community wants it, then we will bring it back.
In co-op, you won’t be able to share vehicles with teammates yet; instead, you will each have your own. But that’s something we’re hoping to add later in post-Early Access.
For gameplay reasons, the motorcycle is indestructible for now, but the convertible isn’t, so smashing through soldiers or obstacles will damage the car, and it can eventually be destroyed.
And a little fun fact about the vehicles: you can pull off some cool stunts, like launching off hills or crashing into buildings to mow down enemies. We hope you’ll share your daredevil gameplay clips with us if you do!
Destruction and Physics
Every weapon in Kingmakers has a penetration rating and interacts with the destructible environment differently, whether it’s plaster, wood, or stone. High-caliber guns, like LMGs such as the Norma, can shoot through multiple walls and even take out several soldiers behind it with a single shot.
When it comes to destroying buildings, explosives, sledgehammers, and certain renown abilities will do the trick fast. Grenades and other explosives damage everything in their blast radius, regardless of armor, though the effect on enemies depends on their size and armor tier. Elite officers might stagger from an explosion, but regular soldiers will go flying or even have their body blow apart entirely.
Future Plans and Unique Weapons
Looking ahead, we’ll be working on adding some more unique weapons and features post Early Access launch. One of the bigger additions we’re excited about is a helicopter for you to pilot. We’re also exploring flamethrowers and incendiary bombs, which will allow you to set large areas on fire. And there’s a drone currently in the works that will follow you around, but it likely won’t make it in time for Early Access.
Thanks so much for checking out our deep dive into weapons and vehicles in Kingmakers! We hope this gives you a better idea of what’s waiting for you when Early Access drops on October 8th. We can’t wait to see how you experiment with your modern arsenal. Leave us a comment to let us know which weapons you’re most excited about!
Stay tuned for the next dev blog, and don’t forget to join the Discord to tell us what you want to see covered next!
The Kingmakers Team