Hey Everyone,
We are really excited to see such a growing interest and encouragement form our players. On our end we will continue overtime work to keep MKW as the fastest progressing Early Access title on Steam.
With nearly 40 updates since launch 5 months ago, we are done with the foundation of the game and can now concentrate on innovative and comprehensive features, like the Diplomacy system that was just released.
Featuring 64 Lords and Kings, and Feudal Hierarchy we hope to create one of the most intriguing and fun diplomacy systems in grand strategy games (well can`t compete with CK2, but sometimes streamlining is not such a bad thing)
With work on diplomacy continuing we are also happy to mention that the big Hamlet project has also been completed and added in game. With dozens of new designs these smaller towns will provide a lot of fun development and unique siege opportunities with dozens of new hamlet designs - from rivers and hills to mountains and coastal hamlets.
Now lets look into production plans for the rest of the end of December and January. We had couple of weeks of delay in November, but are quickly catching up with our work on a complex Diplomacy and Feudal Hierarchy systems.
DECEMBER & JANUARY DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP
Updated # 38
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ETA: Mid December
Diplomacy Part II - Minor Lord Actions and basic Diplomacy AI
As we continue to expand the diplomacy system, we are adding players Lord character to the Kingdom you are playing for. We are also adding first AI diplomatic actions - relations will improve or deteriorate with time, and AI will declare war on your kingdom (and in turn on you) or make peace going by the overall standing. You`ll also be able to effect the overall standing of your kingdom with other kingdoms by secondary actions (as a minor lord that`s all you can do) - sending gifts or plotting hostile intrigues vs other kingdom to lead your kingdom to declare war on them, or to make peace.
Battle Unit Balancing
A lot of unit stats and prices balancing to make combat more fun and balanced both in campaign and multiplayer.
Updated # 39
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ETA: Late December
Diplomacy Part III - Players starting Relations
As we continue to expand the diplomacy system, we`ll be adding starting conditions for the player. In most cases player holds one or two Hamlets, or a town within holdings of another AI Lord, who has bad relations with players King, and could be attacked by the player to take over this starting region (of up to 5 different hamlets). Same time player starting relations with other Kingdoms mirrors that of his King, so player will only get attacked and be able to freely wage war against factions that his King doesn`t consider as friends.
Expanding the Random Map
Right now most levels for Army vs Army or Hamlet attack look the same - just some Oaks, maybe a lake and a river there. This big projects will finally be complete around New Years, as we are greatly updating this system to include a lot of new terrain - from dense forests, to swamps.
Updated # 40
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ETA: Early January
Diplomacy Part IV - Position within Kingdom
Next we`ll focus on players position within his kingdom. Action that pleases the King and other lords, and action that can drive them to declare you an outlaw in the Kingdom, all the way to your kingdom outright declaring you enemy # 1, or you defecting to another Kingdom, or starting your own.
Campaign Welcome Quest
With basic diplomacy in, we are finally removing the current campaign intro about the lack of features, and instead adding a mini orientation tutorial, and few starting quests to help get new players into the game.
Updated # 41
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ETA: Mid January
Bug Fixes and Improvements
We`ll take a small break mid months to fix various known bugs, as well as whatever new diplomacy might bring.
Diplomacy Part V - Simple Treaties
Finally we get to the dynamic diplomacy. Player will be able to change his treaties with other Lords (both withing his Kingdom and other Kingdoms). We`ll start with simple Peace, War and Gifts
Updated # 42
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ETA: Mid January
Diplomacy Part VI - AI Fully Utilizing Diplomacy
Next up is getting AI to use the simple treaties, and for both Kingdom and various lords to conduct diplomatic actions.
New Town Levels
Town of Dublin added, a small size castle
Reworked Tutorial Campaign - This is a BIG one. We are completely redesigning and greatly expanding our prologue learning tutorial campaign. It will become a lot more entertaining and cinematic, and cover 8 scenarios instead of 3. New tutorial will cover majority of the world map features as well as plenty of combat features.
Updated # 43
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ETA: Late January
Diplomacy Part V - Complex Treaties
And finally the complex treaties are to be added as we conclude the system. These will include complicated offers like vassalage, various forms of alliances, casus belli requirements e.t.c
Core Resources Persistence - it`s about time to connect the RTS view and world map resources together. Now all the resources, including army resources will be persistent, they will continue to slowly gather while player is on the world map, and player could also exchange silver to purchase RTS resources for a particular town or army. In addition we will add a Silver Mine that will slowly produce silver while in RTS view.