Another week heads-down on Free Company. It was a big one, so here's what's been on the workbench. Some of it new, some of it still being hammered into shape.
A narrator for the chronicle
The thing I'm most excited about: the company's story is starting to be spoken. I've been building a voice layer around Cornelius, a grave late-tenth-century chronicler who reads the omens, the battles, and the small exchanges between your captains around the fire. This week the first recordings went in. Chronicle and arc lines, and the first hundred of the road-and-campfire stories are recorded and playing in my build.
I also did a pass so those conversations actually follow by ear. When two of your captains go back and forth, you can now tell who's speaking without reading a word. Which mattered more than I expected once I started listening instead of reading.
More to find on the road
There's more to stumble into out there now. New place-specific encounters tied to where you are, random events that put a real choice in front of you and then hold you to it, and a couple of multipart contracts that pay out in gear rather than silver. Including the hunt for a master's heavy arbalest and a Toledo smith's wootz blade. This is in development and under test, but the bones are in.
When the world won't wait its turn
Raids on ground you're being paid to hold, relief columns marching to break your siege, an ambush strung out along the road. These used to resolve in a line of text. Now they can pull you straight into a real battle, then and there. And I've tuned them so an ambush bleeds the company rather than ending it: a hard day, not a wipe.
Still on the bench
Full controller support and Steam Deck polish are the current grind. I spent a good chunk of this week wrestling Steam Input into place (it is every bit as fiddly as they say), alongside legibility and menu fixes for the Deck. Not finished yet — but it's a priority, and I'm close.
If you missed them, the new trailer and the "The Ones Who Lead" update are live on the page.
More narration to record, controllers to tame, and roads to fill. Thanks for riding along, the company keeps marching.