Mid-Week Update – Active Combat

Hi Everyone,

We’re slowly getting closer to the finish line of Chapter 2 and this week I want to let you know of a new feature that I know a lot of people will be happy about: Active combat abilities.

Starting with Chapter 2 you will be able to use abilities in combat. You’ll be able to do things like enhance your next attack or heal your army and they’ll have a pretty big impact on the outcome of the fight, possibly even turning a losing battle around in your favor.  

However, these abilities will be quite expensive and aren’t meant to be used every single fight. They’re meant to turn around big and/or tough battles. They will also have their own tech-tree, but some abilities exclude others, so you’ll have to decide which one fits your playstyle better.

Moment to moment combat interactions aren’t the only parts of the combat system seeing improvements. I also wanted to improve the overarching strategical part of the game a little. When you conquer a territory very far from your homeland (e.g. on the new maps) you won′t be able to defend your town as easily due to the large distance between it and your capital. Instead of rendering your population helpless though, you’ll be able to station troops in a garrison which’ll guard your city at all times. However, garrisoned soldiers won′t be fighting with your during your conquests. This means you’ll have to decide whether you want to risk your city being overrun to have a stronger army, or to leave enough soldiers back to fend off attacks but be a bit more vulnerable during your conquest campaign.

Last but not least, I want to give a short update on the time plan for Chapter 2. I know it has been a very long time and I want to thank you all for your patience. I’m doing my best to deliver Chapter 2 as fast as possible but there is just sooo much to do and I don′t want to cut any important corners. My current estimate is that I can start a closed beta for a handful of people in the next one or two weeks, depending on their results I hope to release Chapter 2 a week later.

hw21