Recent Posts

1

Games Discussion / Re: Oriental Empires

« Last post by Asid on Today at 04:45:42 PM »

Update 13/11/18

Lots of new stuff in the DLC update even if you haven't bought yet. After spending a lot of time on user content tools this year, it's nice to get back to adding new game features.

If you don't have the DLC you'll still get these improvements
•   New Horde feature allows herder factions to build mobile settlements.
•   New technologies and edicts for herder factions
•   New Terror feature allows cities to be intimidated into surrendering. Cities that have been surrounded and assaulted for a long time may also surrender. Most useful for herders, but farmer factions can scare cities with rockets.
•   Five new resources
•   Unit experience goes up to 5
•   6 New achievements, including 3 for the Warring States campaign.
•   Scenario editor localized to all languages.
•   Significant bug fixes to cavalry in combat.
•   Usual minor improvements and bug fixes.

If you have the Genghis DLC you'll also get
•   New "Life of Genghis Khan" scenarios with story elements that help you relive his life and conquests
•   New "Time of the Mongols" scenario that depicts the world around 1200. Play as one of 15 factions including new Islamic ones, on a new map stretching from the Pacific to the Caspian Sea.
•   Many many new units for the new factions.
•   Genghis Khan specific technologies
•   Special long distance trade route resources to simulate the silk road and other important trade routes.
•   New music for herder factions
•   6 Genghis specific achievements

2

Games Discussion / Re: Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)

« Last post by Asid on Today at 04:41:12 PM »

Visual Presentation
Posted Nov 13



Gen’l,

To-day’s Engineers Corps Log is all about visual presentation. We´ll take a look at where we are now, and what to expect in the future.

The Troops Look Thin, sir.

When we talk about graphics in Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865), we need to take a look at the game concepts and techniques first.

One of our main goals in the game is to show this conflict in the biggest possible scale. For the battles, this means hundreds of brigades with many thousands of single soldiers and hundreds of cannons. All at the same time, all connected in an AI matrix – and all in real-time!



Our original idea was to present this all in 3D and use low polygon models for the soldiers, horses, and artillery. Unfortunately, the first engine tests showed us the limitations. But because we still want to keep the epic scale, we decided to change our initial concept and replace the low poly models for soldiers and horses with sprites.

For this task, I created high polygon models for men and horse, with additional equipment and bone rigs for animations. Out of this, I created ~ 47 animations /stances for Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Others (Commanders, wounded, captured, &c.) split into three sprite sheets layers (Inf, Cav, Others). And because we wanted to have a fluid unit rotation, we “shot” every frame from 12 directions (12 cameras). This all limited the sprites to not more than 65 frames on one layer, meaning every animation or stance has limited amount of frames. On top of it, we split every sprite into 3 parts: jacket and hat/cape, trousers and all the rest. Why so? Because this allows us to color the different parts separately via code.

After all this work, the first results were rather disappointing: Blurred, low detailed and strange moving soldiers occupied our battlefields. But our daily work with the Unity engine taught us how to solve most of these issues and to-day we are quite happy with the results – not only because of the improved looks, but also due to the low impact in performance, compared to other techniques.



However, the balance between graphics and performance will always be a thine red line, and subject to improvements along the way. For those who get lost in this confusing technical part, the above title image shows a picture of all work steps and two different colored brigades.

Furthermore, we spend some time on performance optimization. This allowed us to improve the terrain as well, while improving the FPS. More objects, better LODs (level of detail), detail distance, light, camera, and more.Together with sound and smoke, we could create an intensive battlefield atmosphere, even with our very low resources.

And as always… work in progress! Testing, bug fixing and improving is ongoing all the time.

Ship Ahoy!

In the last months, we´ve implemented all our battlefield features and we move now with full steam ahead with the campaign map. Ilja writes the campaign concepts and Oliver integrates the basic terrain and first features, like troop movement on land, rail and water, as well as telegraph lines, as you are reading this. One of my first tasks here are the naval and land units.

Please keep in mind this is a very early phase of the campaign development and we have not yet finalized the final details.

However, the campaign game-play will have naval movement for troops, overseas trade, blockades, and naval engagements. You will command paddle-wheel steamers, battleships and ironclads, traders and blockade runners, as well as troop transports on open sea and major rivers like Mississippi.


Most of the units will have a unique model for each side, like the USS Monitor or Cairo for the Union


or the CSS Virginia for the Confederates.


All models will have smoke particles for engines and guns firing, plus other small nice features.

Even without a separate naval battle game-play layer (like in latest Total War -games), we´ll try to create a very exciting and important role for Naval Units and fleets. But we’ll discuss this in more detail in one of our future Engineers Corps Log!

Most Respy,

Gen’l. Peter Lebek,
Chief War Artist.

3

Games Discussion / Re: Oriental Empires

« Last post by Asid on Today at 03:23:00 PM »

The First Oriental Empires DLC: 'Genghis' is Available Now!
13 November - [ICE] Moonsugar   



Steam page

The Oriental Empires: Genghis DLC is finally here! This brand-new addition to the base game offers new maps, buildings, units, resources, technologies and characters and expands the campaign mode to follow Genghis Khan's life story: from a homeless outcast to the legendary Warrior King.

“Genghis Khan is probably the most famous Warrior King in history and his story is one of the most requested from the Oriental Empires community. It's been fascinating bringing the world of ancient Mongolia to life, and adding storytelling elements to the game. I hope players are as excited by this DLC as I am."

- R.T. Smith (Developer)

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Games Discussion / Re: Oriental Empires

« Last post by Asid on Today at 03:19:48 PM »

Experience the rise of Genghis Khan with Oriental Empires: Genghis, coming November 13.
9 November - [ICE] Moonsugar
 


We are proud to announce the first DLC for Oriental Empires. Participate in the extraordinary rise of Genghis Khan, in Oriental Empires: Genghis!

Begin as a homeless outcast and become the legendary warrior in a brand new campaign. New maps, buildings, units, resources, technologies and characters enrich and expand your quest to become a true Khan of Khans.



Train and grow a small band of warriors, cultivate alliances and pick your battles wisely to subdue the rival clans and unite the Mongol nation. Earn the title of the fearsome Genghis Khan and unleash an all-out war on the great powers of the Xi Xia, Khwarazm and Jin Dynasty era. Are you the builder of a bridge between East and West that changed the world forever? Claim your place in history as its greatest conqueror.

Guide humble Temuchin on his path to becoming the revered Genghis Khan, and experience important moments from his life in the new story campaign - or play a sandbox campaign set around the time of his birth. Genghis is set on a new map that extends from China in the East across the vast steppes of Mongolia, covering the great cities of the Silk Road, and reaching what was to become Afghanistan and Iran in the West. Stunning new building models bring the cities of the Silk Road and Islamic Central Asia to life. Discover new resources, technologies and characters as your quest unfolds.

KEY FEATURES
•   Become Genghis Khan in a brand new story campaign
•   Play as other new factions in the ‘Time of the Mongols’ sandbox campaign
•   A new map that extends from China in the East across the vast steppes of
•   Mongolia all the way to the Caspian Sea
•   Stunning new buildings
•   New roster of Mongol units
•   New units for the Turkish tribes and the Empire of Khwarazm
•   Many new resources, technologies and characters



Genghis is coming November 13. Wishlist the new DLC now!

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Games Discussion / Re: Oriental Empires

« Last post by Asid on Today at 03:16:45 PM »

A new chapter begins soon.
8 November - [ICE] Moonsugar   

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Games Discussion / Re: Order of Battle

« Last post by Asid on Today at 03:09:52 PM »

Victory or Death! Order of Battle: Endsieg is out!



The latest expansion for the Order of Battle saga is out!

Endsieg brings you to the last two frantic years of war, where you will fight on the German side.

The expansion is the third of a trilogy: you started the war in Blitzkrieg, and then fought against the Russian bear in Panzerkrieg. Now you can carry-over your core force to a new campaign and finish what you started.

It wlll be a desperate struggle to contain the Soviet advance in the east as well as the Allied offensive in the west, and you will need all your leadership and planning skill if you want to hold on your conquests.

Endsieg features a 16 scenarios long branching campaign - get ready for a few surprises! Will you be able to change history? It is a real must-have for all Order of Battle fans, also introducing new specialization options for Germany as well as over sixty new unit types!







Endsieg will be featured in today's stream by none other than general Agrippa Maxentius. Tune in at 6 pm GMT on our Twitch channel and stay with us!

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General Discussion / Re: Stan Lee, Marvel Comics visionary, R.I.P.

« Last post by Asid on Today at 03:04:36 PM »

Awesome Frankie 

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Games Discussion / Matrix/Slitherine Special Live Event on Monday, November 19th

« Last post by Asid on Today at 03:03:01 PM »

Matrix/Slitherine Special Live Event on Monday, November 19th

Parcere subiectis, debellare superbos (To show mercy to the conquered and to subdue the proud) – Virgil

Mark the day, as on Monday 19th we will have something special for you.

From the gorgeous Temple of Jupiter in the ancient city of Brixia in Northern Italy, we will be having a Twitch LIVE event, the content of which - we are sure - will amaze everyone.

We will be streaming directly from the inside of the Capitolium Museum, at the heart of the UNESCO Archeological site, From 6 PM BST onward on our official Twitch Channel

Stay tuned for further information!

9

World War II Europe 1939-1945 / Re: Printed manual

« Last post by bipman on Today at 03:02:59 PM »

I managed to get the manual printed in a paperback book version for around £30 ($39) here in the UK and some page examples here :- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y4xvzm3crp3lupg/AACawzcsEDeFvqBHQbCXPpGca?dl=0.  As you can tell, I'm not the best photographer but it gives you an idea.  I used doxdirect.com in the UK and the quality is pretty good.

Bipman

10

Games Discussion / Re: Kenshi

« Last post by Asid on Today at 02:54:18 PM »

Update 0.99.11 Out Now (Experimental)
Kenshi - Koomatzu


0.99.12
-Bandit squads used to "occupy" your town in spirit, even if they failed the assault, causing bugs and nuisances. Now they won't occupy the town if they are defeated first.
-Fixed a bug with unique characters that join the player getting incorrect world states, which could trigger the wrong dialogs and war campaigns.
-NPCs can no longer enslave, loot or butcher anyone while they themselves are playing dead
-NPCs on turrets will now also shoot anything attacking their fellow residents, sometimes they wouldn't help if they were different factions
-Fixed another random "not eating in town" bug
-Shrieking bandit relations can now deteriorate, so they don't stay neutral forever
-Lockpicking a slaves shackles now correctly counts as the crime of "slave freeing" rather than burglary
-Removed player hauling job from general storage
-Fixed carried characters disappearing when character edtor opened
-Fixed beard colour on character model for some hairstyle combinations
-Finished the ragdoll for the land bats
-Fixed crash moving characters to squads that were saved empty
-Items on buildings drop to the ground when the building is dismantled