9 months ago Gloria Victis came to Steam Early Access. Over these 9 months we were able to deploy 50 regular updates and likely 3 times more smaller fixes! It wasn’t easy to maintain such high momentum all the time, especially being a small independent studio, but the continuous support from our awesome Community keeps giving us the power boost we need. Let’s take a look at the progress done over the last 9 months of Gloria Victis’ development.
First of all, we have applied new character models! Not only do they now have 10 times more details than before, they also came with greatly expanded options of character customization, including tattoos and face painting, face details and much more! We have also reworked the entire character creation interface and added an optional ability to shape the background of the player’s character.
Besides looking much better, player characters also have many more places to visit, as over the last nine months we have been filling the breathtakingly open world of Gloria Victis with numerous new locations. They vary a lot – from bandit camps set in the wilderness and single watchtowers built atop of rocky hills, to charmful villages and guarded outposts, to entire settlements, such as greatly improved areas for new players and a castle controlled by robber knights. There are also dozens of new events, in which players can partake to affect the surrounding world and earn fame, as well as world events where players group in warbands to compete with the other nation, either for glory or for the spoils of war.
Speaking of PVP and locations, we have made huge improvements to territory control. There are new objects to be built and upgraded as well, including farms, lumberyards, crafting workstations and guardhouses, each giving either military or economic benefits to the nation controlling the given location. Moreover, Steam Update #50 has introduced an impressive towering castle keep which has been applied to 6 settlements. With strong stone walls, an enforced door, dozens of archer spots and functional machicolations allowing to melt enemies with boiling oil; it is a fortress itself, a castle keep each lord would be proud of - and now you can have one!
We have also greatly changed the design of existing towns and castles to increase their defense values – now even a greatly outnumbered group of defenders can hold the castle if they outmatch enemies with their own skill and ability to cooperate. We have also introduced new locations, which can be fought over by nations. Some of them may be captured and upgraded to gain benefits, while some have special purposes, like the Last Stand forts – even in the face of defeat, the dominated nation still has a ground to be hold and glory to earn. Gloria Victis!
Another important change was the introduction of the burning mechanics. Do you not feel strong enough to assault the enemy fort? Take a torch and distract them by setting their wooden walls on fire! What could make a warrior’s morning better than seeing an enemy tower set ablaze, with dense smoke covering the rising sun?
Tons of other changes have been made over last 9 months as well, like introduction of Glory system which allows players to compete in rank tables to earn fame and precious rewards, almost complete database migration – just migrating players inventories required us to move 4 million item stacks! – and many more. In short, these 9 months since Steam launch were a crazy ride for us – we have finally established an office after years of working remotely, expanded the development team and launched servers in likely every region of the world: Europe, North and South America, SEA and Australia and Oceania!
And there is no time to slow down – we are currently in the phase of polishing the long-awaited combat update! We are excited to finally see new motion capture animations in-game, as they are made by Jakub Kisiel, known for his amazing work in games like Gears of War and the Witcher 3, where he was animating Geralt himself! Moreover, animations are based on authentic medieval techniques, and the update itself will come with a greatly improved controller and synchronization. Another huge change to come soon will be the map expansion, which will add about 50% to the available landmass!
A lot is yet to be done but the progress we have made since Steam Early Access launch, and the awesome support we receive day by day from our Community, makes us proud of working on Gloria Victis.
See you in battle!