Finally time unlock the Naval Command Beta

TLDR:

Go to the Bulwark game properties in steam, and then to the betas tab and select the 'Beta Patch' branch. This will update the game to the new "Naval Command Beta". The beta is content complete but likely will get bugfixes and balancing updates the coming two weeks. Some voice acting is missing which is being recorded as we speak.

What's in this update:!

So this update is massive, I've tried to break down all the new stuff, but I guess it's just a matter of seeing rather than believing. Now for this beta your feedback is going to count. So keep it coming on all fronts.

With regards to balancing:
The new war mechanics need to be more fun and challenging but still fairly chill. With the total conquest mode offering a meatier resistance. So I do hope to hear from you as to your findings and feedback. Lets see what kind of balance you all prefer? More detailed feedback is always best as I can sometimes 1 for 1 implement it.

This update was made based on so much of your comments, user reviews and so forth and I am especially hopeful that some of you who took the effort to write a user review with valid criticisms give this beta a spin and see if I've been listening well enough to what you've been writing.

This is the big one I guess, the one where the game starts to move to another level. No fancy trailers, no screenshots, no witty remarks, this is the biggest beta update I've ever delivered, and I hope it hits the spot and improves the game to not just match my vision, but yours as well.

Cheers, Tomas

Technical warning: make a backup of your data in c:/users/username/appdata/locallow/wiredproductions/bulwark. you can use your older save in the beta, but cannot guarantee going back to the old game version will work with the newer saves.

Total Conquest Mode

• You start at war with the other factions except your starting faction and freehouse.
• You gain one officer and commander when starting total conquest.
• You gain the controllable surface flagship when starting total conquest.
• Hostile attacks are ramped up and scale up over time.
• No diplomacy.
• Survive.

  Commander Improvements

• Unit commanders now have three possible tactical groupings.
• Defensive grouping lets unit patrol around the command tower.
• Escort lets units follow the surveyor.
• Assault adds units to an assault group that can be given a target via the map or from the surveyor.
• Extra units can now be bought in the commander select screen.
• Extra units are capped to a fixed limit per type (3 for capital ships, 10 for small units).
• Extra units are also capped by the scale and size of a tower (build a bigger fatter tower to get a higher cap).

  Ancient Fortresses and Heavy Ordnance

• Ancient fortresses can be found in the world and purchased for splinters.
• Ancient fortresses require stone,iron and workers to expand.
• Ancient fortresses have either a giant missile dome or giant long range anti shipping artillery.
• Ancient fortresses can be expanded with a limited amount of smaller gun batteries.

  War Spawning and Combat Overhaul

• Spawning behavior for hostile factions improved.
• Attacking enemies will form in waves at a rally point until a force is formed and then attack in force.
• Attacking enemies will retreat back to the rally point after a few minutes and reform.
• Factions may spawn their own fortresses to defend their settlements.
• Wars will allow faction settlements that have a commander HQ to spawn appropriate units to attack you, size of the fleet is dependent on the war levels and your empire size.
• Different wallguns are spawned from different commanders.
• Wallguns aren’t spawned from empty command towers.
• Wallguns may be point defense, naval batteries or multi-role guns.
• Turrets now prefer their proper class of targets, point defense will hit warbirds and fighters, default guns will hit all, big guns and giant batteries will only hit airships, fixed turrets and surface vessels.
• Guns on naval vessels or airships have deadlier ordnance and longer range, with a preference for targeting gun batteries or other capital ships first.
• Naval vessels of other factions patrol the Ursee between faction settlements.
• Combat Healthbar and Victory conditions overhauled and more accurate.

  Control a Command Flagship and Escort Surface fleet

• An early Freehouse wonder will spawn, defeat the Giant crab and gain the Naval Command Harbor.
• A Command Flagship is summoned when you first build the Naval Command Harbor, or if you repair your fleet or if you rebuild the naval command harbor.
• Your Command Flagship comes with a long range anti shipping artillery gun, use it wisely.
• You can control your command flagship similarly to the surveyor
• you can switch to surveyor or command flagship via the map or via selecting it with the switch button when the cursor is nearby.
• You can assign two combat captains to your naval command to form a surface fleet.
• Surface fleet vessels will follow your command flagship.
• Surface fleet vessels shown on map.

  Economic Overhaul

• Splinters are earned in more ways.
• Population growth is your base splinter income, every new house spawned in your settlement gives you additional splinters.
• Harbor buildings add additional splinters when spawned.
• Craftsman built special flourish buildings including statues add additional splinters when spawned .
• Trade income is added for every vessel and every route.
• Trade income is much higher for traderoutes to other factions.
• Trade income is much higher for merchant princes on traderoutes to other factions.
• You may unlock a banking commander that will add a percentage buff to all income.

  New Building Options

• Added new stone curtain walls that spawn beneath skyways for stone towers.
• Added new metal curtain walls that spawn beneath skyways for command towers.
• Curtain walls can now spawn from any floor substantially below a skyway.

  New In-World Content

• 24 new locations added on the map where you may outright buy Outposts, ancient fortresses and unique buildings.
• Combat zone "the Hole" added , farm combat for splinters and xp, opposition scales with your assault force.
• Combat zone "the Stump" added , farm combat for splinters and xp, opposition scales with your assault force.
• Mosaurs may attack your trade routes.
• Mosaur Hunting Lodge unique building can be found in the world.
• Treewatchers unique location added.
• Several existing random encounters such as the lighthouse now have fixed locations on the map.
• Dynamic fishing boats spawn near settlements.
• Mongres mercenaries are joined by a mongres banker.
• Mongres commanders can only be acquired by traveling to New Nerevin.
• Mongres banker adds interest to any splinter earnings.
• Giant crab, massive damage!!

  New QoL Features:

• A list of your forces is displayed in your inventory.
• Friendly units are tracked on the map, different groupings have different colors.
• Enemy patrolling ships are tracked on the map.
• Map shows the level of a settlement (from colony to capitol).
• Map shows unique building locations, buyable outposts and fortresses on the map.
• You can fast travel to tradeships on your trade routes.
• You can select both the end or start harbor of a route on the map.
• You can edit the captains of a route from the start or end.
• Cycling through captains and clicking on the little portraits is now double click.
• You can open up the captain selection on an endpoint harbor without it teleporting.
• A red outline on the little captain portraits shows when a click will un-assign them.
• Turned on available action prompts on map.
• Wood industry can spawn on hills and rock.
• Factions will only surrender to vassal state if they have lost the majority of their settlements.
• When selecting a trade route from a harbor if the cursor is closer to a building it will select that and de-snap.
• Captains and commanders from pacified factions don't protest who is in charge and still spawn.
• Industry population buildings don't get demolished in an attempt to upgrade.
• The next nearest tower building indicator has the height of the buildline UI.
• Splinters are now calculated and shown in the resource flow mode.
• Building near volcanoes less janky.
• Scenario screen shows populations of your save.
• Scenario screen shows flames if total conquest mode.
• Range of shown resources and points of interest increased on the map.
• Range of surveyors HQ on the map increased to unlock the entire map.
• Removed some advisor messages if your save file is already progressed.
• The camera can be tilted lower when controlling vessels.
• Added expanded commander menu tutorial texts.
• Tutorial end texts have been improved.
• Camera sensitivity when zoomed in reduced.
• Cursor made visible when selecting the root tower (in mkb mode)

  Visual Improvements:

• Improved the colors of low hanging mist.
• Made the low hanging mist variable.
• Volcanoes improved.
• Added red and green storms.
• Gun turrets reset to default position .
• Gun turrets start scanning when enemies are near but not yet in range.
• Reduced jitters on ship buoyancy.
• Captain and commander select screen has been positioned off center so players can see the hq or harbor.
• Particle fx for splashes and gun impacts improved.
• Explosion fx improved.
• On the map all harbors are shown with a harbor icon,
• Made impact of dead enemies on the water more epic.

  Balance:

• Cannot build floors without resource access.
• Top tier housing cannot spawn close to resource locations, except on foundations.
• Harbor population building spaced out more.
• Harbor population buildings earn more splinters.
• Defending units on faction settlements mostly spawn beyond visual range.
• Defending units on faction settlements only re-spawn after being defeated after 5 minutes.
• Defending units on faction settlements remain guarding even after you attack them. Making escape easier and conquest more consistent as you whittle down their forces.
• Depletion is no longer default in any scenario.
• Trade profits from all ships increased.
• Raised total unit cap from 30 -50.
• Population of the soul-tree raised to 5000.
• Population will build top tier houses only when the worker access is high enough.
• Old raids are removed.
• Requirements for spawning the lighthouse reduced.
• The amount of guns the Mancer gunner can spawn on a tower is 6, he does spawn special wall guns now.
• Removed captains giving splinters upon rejection.
• Anytime a business appears from a craftsman you get additional splinters.
• Trade route raids start further out.. giving more time before units attack and more space to respond.
• Ordnance doesn't get triggered when hitting friendlies or settlement.

  Fixes

• Button prompts for upgrading un-upgradable objects removed.
• Prevented audio flanging on buttons that scale.
• Prevented audio flanging in scenario selector.
• Removed endless repeating requests for tribute from vassals.
• Imperial wonder quest has the correct title.
• Fixed captains not appearing if you went hostile against the other major factions.
• Fixed that unique craftsman house events get properly saved..
• Fixed that after resetting a scenario you might lose track of the surveyor on the map.
• Fixed sluggish photo mode camera controls at high fps.
• Reduced amount of building instructions for wonders.
• The commander selector won't jump back to the first commander sometimes after you already scrolled to another.
• Mines don't animate back to reset mode when resetting a scenario or all saves.
• The circle cursor around the active tower will be red if it cannot upgrade.
• Buzzing sound from razorbeetles toned down.
• Floating items don't bounce when unpausing.
• Camera cannot go below the waves.
• Prevented unfriendly captains from delaying the spawn of friendly captains.
• Optimized the resource calculations, though it may still have inefficient outcomes at massive scales (Where multiple routes are possible for supplying resources, it might not find the optimal).
• Sometimes warbirds would fire at targets beyond the horizon.
• Improved map scrolling snappiness.
• Iccon for sentry tower changed to separate from fortresses.
• Turrets that were prevented from firing cuz they were obscured ignore any colliders that is part of their vehicle or building.
• Camera shouldn't be dragging on low fps.
• Unit xp now correct in all scenario.
• Turrets that were prevented from firing cuz, rescan for enemies twice as fast.
• Resource flow output prioritization, biggest extractors calculated first and dominant.
• Prevented ghost harbor walkways from being saved and loaded.
• Prevented nullref in dumbfire projectiles.
• Fixed unbuildable seatrees.
• Prevented fixed locations from spawning if you already own the commander they contain.
• Prevented fixed locations from spawning if you already own the unique building they contain.
• Attemp to make any remaining turrets on a wonder stop firing in the wonder quest event after you have won).
• Removed the splinter gained or lost message from regular purchases ,only after combat, after finding a cache or after an anomaly you get the message.
• Fixed defending forces despawning leaving a settlement undefended.

Alright what does that all amount too? A heap of problems most likely, but also some amazing new capabilities, check out this naval siege I recorded, to give you a taste of what's possible now.

See you all on the forums and discord...

forums : https://steamcommunity.com/app/290100/discussions/12/