Closed beta testing continues...

* NEW - show snap points for current build piece, can be toggled on/off in the builder controls panel
* NEW - changes to build piece rotation
* All build pieces have the same rotation default and alternate values (15 and 1) when not snapping
* When snapping build pieces may have different values for default and alternate rotation
* New ability to override the preview piece rotation - turn on the override toggle, use the slider or input field to change the rotation. When not in override mode the slider and input fields will show you the current rotation value applied.
* Change snapping label to "Use Snapping", add tooltip
* Ensure defaults are on for use snapping and show snap points
* Fix issues getting certain UI components on gameplay start
* Configure layers for main camera culling mask
* Move snow button from build controls panel to weather panel
* Fix issues with tutorial dialogue
* Fix starter build pieces for sandbox mode to match tutorial expectations
* Fix issues with resolve not initializing in adventure mode
* Add additional footstep default audio for unmanaged mesh
* Show build version text by default, use smaller font, make more visible
* Change Rock Lights collision to not block player 20236-37, 20276-79, and add visual indicator when deleting
* Fix build piece popup not always closing
* Fix build piece preview rotating after letting go of SHIFT while changing vertical position
* Rename several prop build pieces to be more accurate (20XXX range), add descriptions to some
* Fix build pieces not allowing free placement (11000-11008, 15004, 15006, 30601-30610, 7026-7039)
* Fix issues with several build pieces with missing/bad colliders causing problems with deleting (eg. 2122)
* Fix cursor state not remembering properly when using in-game menu and other settings UI
* Add separate game settings toggle for Light Source shadows - affects things like torches, braziers, fire FX etc
* Change Shadows game setting to "All Shadows" to differentiate it from the new Light Source Shadows setting
* Fix animated people props not starting animation right away
* First pass animation fix on animated people to prevent root motion drift
* Fix issues with duplicate animation fix components on some build pieces
* Fix terrain not unloading properly when quitting to main menu
* Add snap points on limited selection of 6x5 roof pieces to test with - 7022, 7023, 7024, 7010, 7016, 7003

(0.403)

• Fix read/write on model for 20057 Large Merchant Ship
  
• Fix shader problem on 20218 Windmill and 20234 Lumbermill that caused model clipping under water surface
  
• Add “ship” and “docks” tags to ship props: 20057, 20058, 20059, 20060
  
• Fix placement collision rules to properly snap to water surface for ship props: 20057, 20058, 20059, 20060
  
• No longer forces showing cursor when you begin build piece placement (from hotbar or other)
  
• Fix build piece 7000 WoodLogRoofA_MiddleDoubleSideChimney6x5x3 not being placeable (renderers were disabled)
  
• Add tool for build piece tag replacement
  
• Change build piece tags
  
• “seige” to “siege”, affects build pieces 20054, 20055
  
• “small sone block” to “small stone block”, affects build pieces 3103, 3106
  
• Fix minor typos in UI
  
• Fix character name input during new game creation, limited to 40 characters, Name-based characters only, and nameplate now autosizes
  
• Build piece popup now shows tags as a list up to 3 lines, adjust other text fields to fit
  
• Build piece popup now shows the pieceID first in parentheses instead of on a separate line after the description
  
• Fix stone wall and floor build pieces that were missing a resource definition for flat shaped stone (5009)
  
• Add error handling around build plan resource tracking
  
• Bypass resource tracking for Creative Mode when working with Build Plans
  
• Fix error when setting camera default position when loading from save game
  
• Add new settings to hide certain build pieces from Creative mode, eg. Storage containers meant for Sandbox mode only
  
• Fix ability to delete build pieces 1535, 1536 Fortification Gates
  
• Fix build manager to allow detecting interactable build pieces for delete
  
• Fix doors and gates not opening/closing on player interaction
  
• Fix blueprint UI not clearing blueprint temp object when clicking cancel button

(0.4.01)

• Fix issue with audio breaking when starting adventures
  
• No resolve cost in Creative mode
  
• Add ability to lock down build into Creative Mode only
  
• Fix errors for horses that had health component but was missing other controllers
  
• Fix snow feature for Creative mode
  
• Fix time, weather, and quality drop downs in builder UI
  
• Disable special save manager flag for build pieces
  
• Update build pieces tools to control more global flag setting for things like require snapping, default rotation etc
  
• Set all build pieces to allow placement anywhere, and allow an alternate rotation
  
• Set default footstep audio fallback
  
• Fix 53 build pieces having the same default rotation as alternate rotation
  
• Remove broken water feature on build piece 30512 Castle Stone Pool
  
• Unity license changes and upgrades in progress, build shows Unity splash for now

As we head into the cold winter months (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere) we wanted to showcase a series of progress updates as they relate to different parts of the game. Here's what players can expect from the Early Access release in terms of:

Gameplay Loop

• New Land Arrival
  
• Basic Tutorial
  
• Village & Castle Building
  
• Villager Management & Tasks
  
• Basic Survival
  
• Early Adventuring & Combat
  
• Early Tech Tree
  
• Early Crafting & Upgrades

We have also begun a Closed Beta with our existing Discord members.

Join the Discord https://discord.gg/ytWgwkDghs
to stay up-to-date as we roll out more updates and a potential Open Beta ahead of the upcoming Steam Next Fest in the coming months!

For the Kingdom!

• Camera zoom is now disabled when other camera input is disabled
• Camera start position is now based on starting locations rather than character positions
• Get unstuck utility now uses the cached player starting spawn point rather than the default index 0 spawn point
• Fix camera starting/default rotation
• Auto snap spawn points to terrain with vertical offset
• Rebalance jolle boat audio for landing and oars in water
• Add built-in splash screen loader, game now starts with a black screen and quick fade to logo
• Set core to single instance
• update build icon
• Update footstep system to support various textures and surface type
• Add footstep audio clips for supported surface types
• Create tools for bulk editing audio clip rolloff curves
• Scale footstep audio based on movement speed
• Configure items, resources, and products to a suitable footstep surface type
• Configure all build pieces to be included for demo
• Build pieces list shows them as locked/disabled or unavailable and has wording on the popup about not being available in the demo, or needing to be unlocked via skills UI
• Skills UI shows them as locked/disabled, mouse over tooltip gives explanation
• Add new flags for build piece locked states
• Modify text fields on Build Piece popup to accommodate new text for “not in demo” pieces
• And reduce font size from 12 to 11
• Set values for scrollviews when they are loaded (fixes most scrollviews)
• scrolling speed to system value
• use clamped movement type when scenes load
• Fix issues with deadspace preventing scrolling in scrollviews
• Fix new game start jolle position when intro skipped
• Fix merchant manager/jolle spline controller start/end positions were reversed
• Turn off variable move speed in AI behaviour during new game intro sequence (NPC no longer run to their starting positions after disembarking)
• Changes to AI rigidbody/gravity
• Fix simple animation BT task to handle waiting for finish properly
• Fix and cleanup boat exit gravity/ground snapping
• Change timing of when the merchant turns to face the player during the opening cut scene
• Remove merchant opening line since the tutorial has its own opening line
• Add fixed position for opening main menu scene camera
• Main menu background scene changes:
• Remove chimney smoke on left house
• Change chimney smoke on right house
• Change skybox to match subscene
• Move lighting from subscene to main
• Lighten ambient color
• Add fixed position dialogue camera that is set when dialogue starts
• Cleanup camera transitions between new game cut scene ending, dialogue transitions etc
• Remove all other adventure scenes except for demo
• Cleanup starting parties for Creative Mode
• Remove unused objects in main gameplay scene
• Remove sandbox game mode objects when in Creative mode
• Configure 2 Creative Mode starting parties including descriptions, equipment, journal
• Update character customize postFX
• Major changes to core camera rig to facilitate transitions and blending
• Camera now auto positions when starting dialogue and returns to original position when dialogue ends
• Dialogue UI now fades in/out when start/end dialogue
• Clear main menu announcements panel to have placeholder text
• Remove backpack (10002) from starting equipment for Sandbox/The Lone Hero
• Add new onFinished events system for camera blends
• Remove bokeh effect from dialogue focus camera
• Add additional checks to block combat input when unwanted
• Fix missing dialogue icon for common action stage
• Clear action stage target after click when using player context menu
• Fix bug when calculating resolve cost to attack when there is no combo move
• Fix run by default
• Cleared out main menu announcements
• Improve camera starting position and control (should no longer start underwater/cursor enabled)
• Fix journal FOV due to camera changes
• Update build for prologue page
• Add button to Quit to Menu from in-game menu
• Reduce space between buttons on in-game menu
• Refactor/cleanup main menu start methods to support new Quit to Menu feature
• Restore Load Game button on main menu for trailer making
• Modify splash/bootstrap screen to facilitate reloading game to main menu
• Fix adventure spawns to allow using the default starting location for explicit spawn points
• Reduce splash screen minimum time to 1 second
• Fix adventures not loading when they don't have sky and weather systems enabled
• Add in-game Steam workshop search/browser with sub/unsub buttons
• Add steam username to Steam workshop UI
• Add button that opens Steam Workshop Agreement webpage
• Add simple system tooltips system for buttons etc
• Fix grammar in blueprint upload help text
• Remove background image for steam uploader UI
• Fix cursor not showing when using freecam mode
• Add ability to skip tutorial and still get journal
• Add new adventure definition requirements for previously completed adventures
• Add new ways to track in-game time
• Fix completed adventure causing dialogue error
• Add ability for adventures to be valid based on game time, weather events etc
• Add tools to fix/regenerate adventure IDs
• Add adventure triggers system to satisfy adventure objectives, eg. arriving at a location
• Add adventure definition, triggers, dialogue etc for missing crewman
• Add dialogue action to start/stop any audio clip
• Clear NPC dialogue abort states when ending dialogue with player as the related hints could interrupt other announcements
• Prevent new game sequence from running more than once
• Fix new game sequence issues when loading adventures from main gameplay
• Fix and cleanup starting adventures directly from dialogue in main builder gameplay
• Fix journal to have a custom camera FOV when open
• Add adventure completed reasons (success, failure, skipped) and related text stylesheet entries for journal
• Add flag and label in journal to allow optional adventure stages which have no effect on adventure completion reason
• Fix bug in right journal page detecting overflow text incorrectly
• Add adventure stage notes when completed, eg. player observations upon completing a stage
• Update popup manager to allow yes/no confirmation from player
• Update demo adventure to provide confirmation that the demo will end when adventure is completed when final adventure adventure stage is approached
• Adjust adventure 11 start position
• Adjust popup UI to allow more text, shrink background image border size
• Add demo notes intro and exit screens
• Popup manager now handles show/hide cursor and enable/disable player when showing modal windows
• Add demo exit screen music, fade out etc
• Skip character skills and equipment screens during new game setup for all game modes for demo
• Update starting demo party, replace teen Johana with adult Farahild, other tweaks to background stories, starting clothing, colorings
• Hide Load Game button in main menu screens
• Fix setting player community when loading adventure from main gameplay
• Add more validation when checking for valid combat targets
• Restore lighting in ritual chamber in adventure 11
• Add a few props to shore landing in adventure 11
• Increase detection radius on giant worms, raise detection offset to 2
• Change time settings in adventure 11, now have about 4 hours game time before nightfall (approx 1 hour realtime)
• Increase red crystal lighting
• Increase crystal material emission

Kinfolk!

On this, the twenty second day of the ninth month of the two thousandth and twenty fourth year of our lord and savior <insert your favorite deity here>, we present to you:



Note: I'm getting 60fps pretty steady now with the occasional spike.

• Optimization pass (+30fps) -- Mesh combine/cells/lighting for adventure 11, components and renderers on all character rigs
  
• Increase grass height distance on adventure 11
  
• Fix shields not equipping
  
• Adjust right hand offset for hand torch (1044)
  
• Change movement logic to allow crouching toggle when running
  
• Fix control mapping for HolsterAllItems (default G)
  
• update missing weights/volumes on all weapons/tools
  
• Fix errors with horse not having combat components
  
• Fix weapons/tools not auto-holstering on pickup when hands are full
  
• Fix items from not returning correct volume when checking inventory space
  
• Fix item pickup not failing properly when there was no room
  
• Fix auto-holstering on next weapon input wasn't accommodating shield slot
  
• Fix equip next weapon sometimes not equipping when existing item was using an override layer (eg. holding torch in left hand)
  
• Change giant worm alerted animation
  
• Add wall torch for overland entrance
  
• Fix overland entrance entry trigger to change lighting/ambient audio
  
• Clear grass on overland entrance
  
• Adjust giant worm eyes position
  
• Adjust giant worm combat behaviour to make them more likely to attack

Some of you have asked why I publish changelog updates to Steam when the game isn't even out yet. Fair question! The answer: I want you all to know not only what I'm working on in Dungeons & Kingdoms, but that it's being worked on proper. I know plenty of you are eager to play Dungeons & Kingdoms, but no one is more eager for its release than I am (at least, I think that's true. Who knows?).

Thank you all for your continued support as the team races towards Early Access release. Join the Discord[discord.gg] to stay more closely up to date with... well, updates. ;)

For the Kingdom!