If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, or don't want to miss the updates on the single-player version, consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. Alternatively, we have a newsletter for milestone community polls and major game updates.
Ladies and Lords of the Realm,
We've updated both our servers and the client for our open alpha demo today — everything should now be back online and running smoothly!
The updated client will be rolling out on Steam any minute now. Thank you for your patience!
The Current Update
You’ll find a summary of key changes and improvements below. As always, I'm deeply grateful to have you with me on this - at times, pretty difficult - journey. Please remember that your feedback drives everything.
Of the two possible outcomes I mentioned in the previous update, the latter came true — I had to split my time between the project and, well, financial survival. :)
So this one turned out to be a regular update rather than the long-awaited Siege Update. Still, as promised, several important changes related to warfare make their debut here — including refinements to the battle logic (preparing the system for integrating the siege mechanics) and a significant expansion of the unit edge system.
The in-game chat also received new features, and the economic simulation continues to grow richer and more nuanced.
A Glimpse into the Future
Work on the single-player mode suffered a bit more from the time constraints — progress there has been slower, but it is continuing, step by step.
In the coming weeks, however, nearly all development energy will be focused on Siege and UX improvements.
As the project remains entirely self-funded and non-monetized, if you’d like to help speed up development, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter, even if just for a few months. With enough active patrons, progress could move forward much faster.
Pretender Wars!
As the dust of all these battle-related changes settles, it’s time again for a ranked community multiplayer clash! Will the Pretender manage to hold the throne this time? We will find out soon. Stay tuned, because glory (and tears and sweat) await.
Changelog
Gameplay & Vibe
Enhanced Unit Edge system: based on nearly two years of feedback and playtesting, the rules defining unit edges and how they’re evaluated have been reworked. They are now much more flexible, allowing for a wider range of interactions between units. To celebrate, the total number of available edges has nearly doubled! Enjoy discovering the new combos. :)
New units! Three new unit types have joined the roster (still using placeholder visuals, but otherwise fully functional).
Most of the existing units have also seen adjustments - many had their roles refined or rebalanced to fit the expanded edge system.
Terrain Categories: Terrain types are now classified into groups like Open or Difficult. These categories are mainly used by edge effects for now, but more systems will make use of them later. They can be checked in the tooltip of the Terrain Type on the Tile Cards.
Battle Location Logic: Battles now always take place on the defender’s tile. Consequently, garrisons can no longer lure raiders into their own spots. To compensate, garrisons now gain local terrain expertise bonuses not only on their tile but throughout their entire Area of Control, if they’re one of the original battle participants. The Battle Card indicators have been updated accordingly.
Traversing the Untraversable: Swamplands are now officially non-traversable - but <drumrolls> with the right edges even these (and mountains) can become passable. Be careful though: if a company loses all units that make a non-traversable tile accessible and doesn’t escape within a few ticks (which it will attempt automatically if possible), it may be wiped out entirely.
Crossing mountains and swamps is now possible... but dangerous.
Manage Unit Command: Commands are now blocked while a company is in battle. Previously, only unit transfers were blocked - now disbanding and other commands are also prevented during combat (so enemies cannot just disband their beaten armies if you're quick enough to engage).
Private Messaging: you no longer need to send notes through diplomatic proposals - the chat now supports private messages between players who have already discovered each other.
New Rumours! The world is now buzzing with more gossip about other players’ actions. Rumours are also intentionally a bit less precise now - they reveal general areas rather than exact locations, and many now reference nearby settlement or other geographic pointers for context.
Better Seasonal Warfare: during the harshest months, military companies will now lose morale whenever they move unless they are on friendly grounds (yes, diplomacy counts). Falling below the morale threshold will cause attrition to eat away at unit health. Tip: the Season Calendar tooltip lists all active seasonal effects, now including this one.
New Labourer Split: Based on community discussions, fishermen have been split into freshwater and marine variants. Their upkeep, yields, and seasonal patterns now differ. Several other labourers - like Foragers - have also been adjusted following player feedback.
In recent months, I’ve started reworking the early-game pacing in response to community feedback and related critiques. This also brought some changes to how resources behave. For example, upgrading towns and castles early on now puts a much heavier strain on your treasury, making their timing a more meaningful tactical choice. This process is still ongoing, so I’d love to hear any feedback you have. :)
Further Quality of Life Changes
Create Feudum now highlights relevant tiles when hovered over in the command’s tile list.
Allied Victory Conditions now come with a tooltip explaining how proportional allied goals work.
Rally Troops Command: Potential recruits are now properly sorted: first by type (lance or squad), then by tier. Don’t ask why this took so long - I already smacked the responsible dev’s hand. Unfortunately, that makes writing this changelog slower too.
Tile Card Improvements. Now includes more detailed tooltips for Movement Cost and Terrain, telling how they’re affected and how they affect other mechanics. Additional winter traversal costs are now also displayed here too (they were already visible on the Season Indicator).
Chat Improvements: The groundwork and logic for block and friend lists is now in place (though not yet active). You can, however, already report messages directly and discreetly, and the backend now includes full moderation support for these cases. Thankfully, I've never had to remove anyone from a game - but inappropriate behavior can now be stopped more easily.
Also, chat messages can now be slightly longer! :) Just don't make me regret it! ;)
Other minor UX tweaks and visual adjustments, mostly on the Map.
Bugfixes & Misc
Fixed an issue preventing the top-left tile (0,0) from being claimed. Yes. Lame.
Fixed a regression bug in the CoA editor.
Fixed a World Card infinitescroller initialization issue in a specific case.
Fixed ConditionEvaluator to correctly respect ClientMode again.
Fixed an issue where a Laborer icon wasn't correctly displayed.
Fixed flag animations ignoring wind direction when grumpy.
Added checks for report.coordinates usage.
Chart performance optimizations.
Added optimizations for message caching.
Updated to newer Discord SDK.
Fixed several pathfinding bugs. There are still a few left - but at this rate, we’ll have more unit tests than movement options, so they'll be eventually cornered.
(A host of backend fixes and improvements)
That’s all for now, thank you for your reports and support, and see you on the battlefield! :)
Previous Releases
View game pageView game pageView game pageView game pageView game page
Until the next update... Enjoy Feudums!
Join the Noble Houses! ➻ ✉️ Newsletter | 💬 Community Discord | 💗Patreon