Salutations, Colonisers!
Happy Steam Medieval fest! Play the new demo for Coloniser and invite your friends as the demo will be live during the fest duration. Let’s push the capacity of players and persistence!
What Coloniser is about:
A survival-first multiplayer RTS set in massive, persistent worlds where early decisions determine long-term survival.
Secure a foothold before you expand - poor positioning and overexposure can mean total loss, even while offline.
Earn your colony through risk and strategy, then develop it across eras with new units, technologies, and tactics.
Persistent worlds shared by up to 30 players, where territory, resources, and alliances are constantly contested.
Large-scale RTS battles and sieges, where preparation and coordination matter more than raw numbers.
Dynamic diplomacy and conflict, allowing players to forge alliances, offer peace, or wage war.
A living world with regenerating resources, roaming wildlife, and NPC threats that shape each server’s evolution.
Defeat is not the end - adapt, relocate, rebuild, and return stronger in a world that remembers your failures.
You can play the demo on the main page here.
It’s been a while since the last time the demo was public and we are happy to report that we have some significant performance improvements and bug fixes this time. Here are some notable features that await you:
Garrisoning
Introducing Garrisoning - units can now occupy defensive buildings, increasing their effectiveness while defending and providing more strategic options.
Players can click on one of their buildings to see the currently garrisoned amount, and max capacity of that building in the UI.
By default, the buildings with this ability are:
Capitol / Homestead
Tower
Stronghold
All units except siege weapons can do garrisoning. Garrisoned units heal and that healing rate can be affected by technologies. Units are healed simultaneously.
If a building containing garrisoned units is destroyed, the units spill into the nearest tiles around that building.
It’s a great feature for protecting your units and colony while you are offline.
Raiding Parties
Raider Camps grow in unit count if not dealt with, and once they reach a certain number of units, a group will break off and become a raiding party that can trouble players in the early game.
When it comes to Gamphas, they’ll start to migrate to other nests once a certain unit number is reached for the original location.
All of these things should invite a more proactive playstyle.
Tenets
Tenets are objectives designed as a linear first time user experience. Completing one Tenet activates the next in the sequence, and each Tenet can only ever be earned once. These act as a way to give new players a set of goals that roughly cover a sequence from spawn to Stronghold.
And completing tenets will give you small valor boosts, so that is a nice deal.
We plan to introduce other objectives and rewards later in the development, but this seems like a good starting point.
High Table Upgrade
Since the last time you saw it, High Table (default V button on your keyboard) received some nifty quality of life improvements.
You can now ask for demands or offer tribute to other players. Be a bully! Or a kind person in a strange, hostile world. You can perform a maximum of 3 contracts (in relation to other players) at the same time.
It now shows Steam profile pictures of all registered players, including their status (online/offline).
It’s movable now.
Quality of Life Improvements
Added server filters for Asia and US West regions and dedicated servers for them.
All units and building costs and recruitment times, plus research costs and research times era have been changed/rebalanced.
Major balance overhaul: introduced the combat affinity system that allows a unit to have specific balance in relation to its enemy type.
Building constructions have shortcuts now (visible next to the building name).
Server selection UI now shows Steam friends registered on a server and their profile pictures, including their status (online/offline).
Buildings’ footprint is shown in full size now on the mini map. Previously they were all represented with 1px for all sizes.
Implemented new Gampha model and animations.
New Footman animations.
Introduced improved versions of Stronghold buildings and walls (both stone and wood version), including updated 5x1 tile gates.
New Bladeguard animations.
New Justiciar animations.
Added new unit icons for most units.
Minimap has been updated, including the ability to zoom out further than before.
Resource Bar (upper middle part of the screen) has a new icon distribution, icon for selecting Capitol/Homestead and displays Server Day info.
Chat should be clearer now and allow for easier communication.
The world map opacity was changed to hide more of the undiscovered terrain.
New loading screen layout.
The Main Menu is animated now.
Improved Objectives UI for a better clarity.
New Orthographic camera implemented.
Updated Wall Breaker model.
Added new technologies:
Enemy at the Gates - Increases the damage dealt by your Capitols defenses by 10%
Lead From the Front - Increases the Justiciar's attack by 2
Live by the Sword - Increases the Justiciar's attack by 2
Shoulder to the Wheel - Increases the Justiciar's gather speed by 25%
Man of the People - Increases the Justiciar's build rate by 25%
Last Line of Defense - Increases the Capitol attack by a further 10%
So Uncivilised - Units deal +2 bonus damage to Raiders
Bug fixes
Fixed several crash occurrences.
Fixed the issue where you would end up stuck on the loading screen while connecting to a session on which you were defeated after changing their Steam Username
Fixed the issue where resources regeneration would start appearing after just a few minutes.
Fixed the issue where the wishlist button in Esc menu opened multiple app store pages
Fixed the issue where some players would always have Peace status behavior among themselves.
Fixed the issue that prevented building placement on locations where resources were before their depletion.
Fixed the issue where the game wouldn’t remember your resolution/graphic settings next time it was started.
Fixed the issue that was causing players to end up stuck in the process of joining a server.
Fixed the issue where some players would get stuck in the Steam authentication screen after a failed attempt to connect to Steam API which required the game client to be closed and opened again.
Fixed the issue where notifications weren’t showing for players until they opened their Chat for the first time.
Fixed the issue that made you lose control of your Justiciar, after you’ve been defeated, then session was stopped and you tried to rejoin the game.
Fixed the issue where Stronghold would attack Wandering Bazaar when built close to it.
Fixed the issue where Gamphas would turn invisible after some time.
Fixed the issue where the repair function via right click did not work.
Fixed the issue that would cause certain buildings to have their health at 25% upon rejoining the server.
Let us know how the demo goes now and share your impressions in the comments and join our Discord server for the additional feedback and a chance to talk to the devs.
Don’t forget to wishlist the game and tell your friends about it.
Cantos Games