Commanders,
Broken Crown v0.7.6 Alpha marks another major step forward in the development of the game.
With this update, we have not only focused on adding new content, but also on improving how the different systems interact during a real match. The AI is now more organized, factions can be completely eliminated, workers are more autonomous, pathfinding has been further improved, and a large part of the user interface has been completely redesigned.
And, of course, there is also a new battlefield waiting to be conquered.
A New Identity for Broken Crown
The interface of Broken Crown has received one of its most important redesigns since development began.
The main menu, in-game HUD, unit panels, building windows, mission interface, and many other elements now share a new visual identity inspired by the dark medieval atmosphere of the game.
The main menu also includes a new Last Save panel, allowing players to quickly continue their most recent game, together with a dedicated area for the latest Broken Crown news and updates.
The goal is not only to make the game look better, but also to improve readability while managing your settlement and commanding large armies.
A Much More Dangerous Enemy
The strategic AI has received a major evolution.
Enemy armies no longer simply produce troops and immediately send them toward the player.
The AI can now rally its forces, wait until the army has reached sufficient cohesion before launching an offensive, and keep part of its troops behind to defend the base.
During an attack, it can send additional waves of reinforcements, while cavalry may be detached from the main force to strike vulnerable economic targets.
And if the battle turns against them?
The army can retreat, regroup, and prepare to fight again.
The AI also remembers the last known positions of enemy forces and evaluates potential targets based on strategic value, distance, and the reliability of its information.
Enemy Bases Can Now Fortify Themselves
This time, the orcs will not simply wait for you to arrive.
The AI is now capable of planning and building proper defensive lines around its settlements, using walls, gates, and towers.
Before construction begins, the system evaluates terrain, available space, and the resources required. Fortifications are then built progressively without completely sacrificing the faction’s military and economic development.
Assaulting a developed enemy base will therefore require much more preparation.
The Death of a Leader Can Decide a War
Leaders now play an even more important role in Skirmish battles.
When the Leader of a faction is defeated, the entire faction is eliminated from the battle.
Its remaining troops, workers, and buildings are removed from the battlefield, allowing the surviving factions to continue fighting until only one side remains.
In multiplayer matches, the entire elimination process is handled authoritatively by the host and synchronized across all players.
Protect your Leader.
And when the opportunity comes, find theirs.
More Autonomous Workers
We have also spent a great deal of time improving one of the most important parts of any RTS economy: workers.
Workers are now better at recovering from problematic situations, can automatically search for a replacement node of the same type when a resource is exhausted, and remember the resource type previously assigned by the player.
They can also automatically deliver resources still carried in their inventory, report insufficient storage capacity, and repair damaged buildings on their own.
Worker recovery, path recalculation, and multiplayer synchronization of worker states have also been further improved.
Combat and Pathfinding Improvements
The combat system continues to receive further refinement.
Coordinated formation movement, target acquisition and replacement, defensive stances, running and stamina, veterancy, and the counter system have all been further consolidated.
Special attention has been given to unit behavior around buildings, walls, gates, and fortifications, reducing situations where armies were unable to correctly reach their targets.
Automatic recovery systems for blocked units have also been improved.
A New Front: The Frozen Pass
A new battle awaits the forces of humanity.
Between snow-covered mountains and dense forests lies a resource-rich mountain pass, but the entire region is infested with orcs.
Patrols and warriors may be hiding almost anywhere, and somewhere beyond the frozen wilderness, their Leader waits for the right moment to strike.
This time, the objective leaves no room for doubt:
eliminate every enemy force and defeat their Leader.
Securing this pass will give our armies a valuable strategic position and deal a severe blow to the orc forces.
Multiplayer, Stability, and Optimization
Many of the most important changes in v0.7.6 Alpha also happen behind the scenes.
The multiplayer system continues to rely on an authoritative host model, with batched commands, differential game-state synchronization, reliable message retries, and diagnostic systems designed to detect potential divergences between host and clients.
We have also continued reducing unnecessary scans, simultaneous updates, network traffic, and expensive runtime operations during longer matches.
These changes may be less visible than a new unit or a new map, but they are essential for allowing Broken Crown to support larger and more complex battles.
Broken Crown Continues to Grow
With v0.7.6 Alpha, many of the systems developed over the past months are beginning to work more and more like parts of a single, connected RTS experience.
Economy, combat, Leaders, AI, fortifications, multiplayer, and faction management are becoming increasingly interconnected.
But development continues.
Balancing, optimization, localization, stability, and polish remain at the center of our work as Broken Crown moves steadily toward its next stage.
The mountains are waiting.
The orcs are ready.
And this time, they have learned how to defend themselves.
Thank you all for continuing to follow and support the development of Broken Crown.
See you on the battlefield.