Hello! We remain hard at work on Strategos, always updating and improving based on feedback in the ongoing pre-alpha playtest.
For settings and UI, we've added settings to the in-game battlemap menu, banners are more readable in the woods and on elephants, we’ve fixed bugs that broke the combat log, added a UI size scaling option, draggable windows, on-hover over dropdown options that display unit details, various campaign UI updates like pagination, lasso size options, an improved pause functionality, an ammo UI bar to the unit banners and cards, a free look gamepad camera mode for cinematic shots, background music for the menu and in-combat (including randomization of tracks, all music from Tyler Cunningham: https://www.pond5.com/artist/tylercunningham), an FPS display settings option, new custom map image previews, a black lasso and unit placeholder UI visual for maps with white snow or sand background, some tutorial text updates, a toggle to disable text popups, and changes to popup size and font, and speed up zoom controls, and we no longer show unneeded idle or moving state icons. We also added a quality difficulty setting for all battle types (in addition to existing quantity setting), a display for shift modes on banners, fixes to map borders, edits to post processing and grass settings inputs, and we added a button for highlighting all player and (visible) enemy units at once.
We very significantly improved performance (>50%) with a total overhaul to the movement of men, the use of an update manager for soldier and projectile movement and animation, and improved unit coordinator code. We also removed unneeded components and gameobjects from soldiers after initializing, edited build settings, and changed pathfinding calculations to make them async in order to fix fps spikes on moving many units at once.
For maps, we've added a new map entirely for the battle of Issos, and overhauled the maps for Trebia and Raphia. We’ve also made large updates to the quality of the grass and its blending into the terrain, along with wind and shadow effects, map lighting and better color matching on existing maps.
For gameplay, we've slowed down the general pace of the game, including unit speed and especially the rate of unit rotation for more realistic movement, made some changes to early battle command and control, and rebalanced light horse pursuits and evades. You can now give queued up commands to un-commandable evaders, pursuers and recoilers so that once commandable again they execute the move. We’ve tweaked rally checks and made fixes to courier movement, and updated the deployment mode experience. Routing units now can't rally when overlapped, goading has been fixed to be less annoying in extreme cases (ie no goading repeatedly off the map altogether), and we’ve made many move-to-shoot fixes so that behavior is more intuitive. We’ve added the use of historical battle maps in custom battles, and made recoil fixes to integrate them better into gameplay. Ranged units now become “50% shooters” beyond 20 shots (with accompanying ammo bar).
The line shift modes have been substantially updated, and now units in mutual melee passive can rally check. Pushback mode units don’t go back into melee passive, and still push further, but suffer greater morale shock when losing, as do units in fallback mode. We also fixed some overlap bugs from line shift modes.
For the AI, we've improved cataphract, heavy infantry line, and elephant deployment. We’ve massively improved AI flanking maneuvers, and improved the AI's ability to skirmish and recover skirmishing positions after evading. Peltasts do a better job of standing and fighting sometimes, and bowmen and skirmish group moves have been improved. Fragmented AI seek out a commander to rally, and sparabara/bow line infantry are now better at taking nearby available auto drop flanks. The AI make better use of reserves, and are much better at navigating around combats and into flanking positions. We’ve also fixed bugs to AI hindrance on overlaps ending, and light/ranged cavalry who are out of ammo are now more likely to charge if available to do so.
For various visuals, we've updated the animation controller and soldier orientation on slopes for combats at steep angles. We’ve improved the smoothness of transitions between shooting animations, added dust particle effects, and improved idle animation randomness. Shooters face their targets better, and we’ve made improvements to animation visuals updating at long distances. Units are better at changing back to melee weapons after throwing javelins, and fixes have been made to pikemen coordinating while shifting in and out of combat. Deaths while dispersing, courier movement, soldiers moving out to meet flankers, and soldier scaling have all been improved. The initial offset position of projectiles is much better, and various new types of trees have been added.
For other content, we’ve added Syrian heavy bowmen, Machimoi pikemen, Machimoi swordsmen, and Germanic axemen, along with Aitolian and Dacian allies. We’ve updated the Ptolemaic, Seleucid and Marian and Polybian Roman lists to be more comprehensive and historically accurate. We’ve also added more battles to the existing Alexander campaign (Jaxartes and Chaeronea).
We’ve also fixed many combat and UI bugs, including to stopping multiple units at once, double clicking unit card movement to destroyed units, selection faction randomization, some return to menu buttons, and some issues with units stuck in place after combats in rare circumstances, as well as various other bugs which are always being squashed.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for future updates!