A patch for the population cap bug has been pushed to Steam. The game should update automatically - you can check the version in the lower left of the start scene look for version 1.4.1 or greater. If the game does not update you may need to restart the Steam client.

The current patch only includes this fix as it was game breaking and needed to be fixed ASAP. Other "minor" bugs have been reported and will be fixed in future patches.

Thanks for all the feedback. Errors and bugs will get fixed as quickly as possible.

This includes a fix that could cause the game to crash when a player's last warehouse is destroyed.

This includes a fix that was preventing players from joining multiplayer games.

This includes a fix that was preventing watchtowers from targeting enemy balloons in multiplayer games. Also a fix for building flags showing the wrong color in multiplayer.

Almost exactly six months after the initial release Fracture the Flag is leaving Steam Early Access!

FTF has come a long way from that first buggy release back in June! A sincere thank you to all that gave feedback and helped shape FTF into a much better game. The goal of an Early Access release was to get feedback from a wide pool of testers. No game is ever complete or perfect and FTF is no exception. There is always more that could be added and details that could be polished, but there also needs to be a time to call a project “finished.”

Support for FTF will continue but will be focused on fixing bugs rather than adding content. I look forward to taking all that I learned over the last few years and applying it my next game...

With the new build comes a new multiplayer map plus more single player combat maps bringing the total to 5.

The new multiplayer map is a desert oasis with palm trees and cactus. The level is also playable as a single player.

The additional single player maps range from easy to finish in the “Skirmish” map to much longer experiences in “Desert Oasis” and “Islands in the Sky.”

No game is ever finished or ever perfect and Fracture the Flag certainly falls into that category, but the time for FTF to leave the nest has come.

FTF has come a long way from its first release. The number of bugs, improvements and added features is too hard to count. As a solo developer I have learned so much during the development and release of FTF - I’m more than excited to apply everything that I’ve learned to my next game. Support for the game will continue but will be mostly focused on addressing bugs and not content addition.

Fracture the Flag will likely leave Early Access in the next few days - any unforeseen bugs, issues or acts of God aside.

Version 1.4 while adding substantial content also addressed some bugs and improved some aspects of the game.

• AI attack delay timer no longer starts when the map is loaded, but waits until the player starts.
  
• Watchtower arrow’s damage was substantially reduced.
  
• Matchmaking should be more reliable - hopefully no more joining but being on the wrong map.
  
• Many of the particle effects will now be culled at distance - small performance boost.
  
• Single Player best times should now display properly for all challenges.
  
• The player ranking calculation has been retooled and simplified - the leader board was also reset.
  
• AI bomber behavior has been changed to send groups of bombers rather than individuals on higher difficulty settings.
  
• New combat achievements have been added including a “hard mode” achievement.
  
• Probably a few other bits as well...

A few more changes have been made to FTF for version 1.3.1.

• An error in physics based explosions has caused some re-rebalancing
  
• The option to remove walls has been added
  
• Error with the building selection menu changing buildings has been fixed
  
• Small changes to remove unneeded physics components - minor performance boost
  
• Balloons have a better and more fiery death!

There is a known issue with AI buildings burning down before all surrounding flags are gone. A fix to this will hopefully becoming soon.

With the new version comes two notable new features! Both should add gameplay and make FTF feel more complete.

Bomb Balloons are created at the bomb depot and drop 3 powerful bombs on a distant target. They are designed to be single use and will crash after dropping their bombs.

Defensive watchtowers fire flaming arrows at enemy workers, swordsman, bombers and siege weapons. Watchtowers are also capable of shooting down bomb balloons.

A short teaser of the new features.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-2NoMt4B4c
A few other changes have been made to FTF.

• A population cap of 50 workers has been put in place
  
• Lumber production has been increased
  
• Siege weapon menu has been removed - it was pretty useless
  
• When bombers die they now drop their bomb which explodes
  
• Ammo Depots now have a max amount of ammo - reduces resource drain by over filling
  
• The tech tree has been reduced in size and complexity
  
• The single player AI can now send bomb balloons and will have watchtower defenses

Further changes to the workers and siege weapon ammo scripts have been made to further reduce network traffic. This should help to further stabilize multiplayer connections.

Bricks (flags and brick walls) remain the last potential reduction in network traffic. However, accuracy with bricks is more important than with other objects in the game. So changes won’t be made unless there is clearly an issue.

Several small behind the scene changes have been made too. See the Change Log for more complete details

The biggest focus will be on creating more maps or levels. This will take the form of more single player combat options as well as a third multiplayer map. Finishing these new levels will be the final steps before FTF moves out of Early Access. The current hope is that FTF will leave Early Access by the end of the year, but it could be as late as February.

Before FTF leaves Early Access the game will see an increase in price. The final full price is likely to be near 5 USD. So if FTF has been sitting on your wishlist then buy it before the price increases!

TL;DR New build is up to 60% faster! FInd it on the Beta Branch.

Fracture the Flag’s game engine was just updated to the most current release state. With this new version comes better optimization for multi-core CPUs. Some of the load from the main thread is now (supposedly) off loaded to a second thread. In brief testing a 30% reduction in CPU time per frame was seen simply by upgrading the engine!

Furthermore, the precomputed lightmaps have been removed from each level. This cuts the build size of FTF nearly in half. This also seems to have the added benefit of of further reducing the CPU time per frame. You may notice a change in some of the lighting/coloring.

The two changes combined showed almost a 60% reduction in CPU time from the previous build. This build needs some more testing especially on a wide range of hardware.

Please leave feedback in the comments below.

Switching branches is easy!

• Right click “Fracture the Flag” in your steam library
  
• Click properties
  
• Go to the BETAS tab
  
• Select "beta_testers”
  
• Hit ok and run the update (you may need to restart Steam to force the update)

To switch back repeat the steps, but choose “none” to opt out of the beta.

The latest build on the main branch now includes basic single player combat. At the moment this is limited to one level, but will likely expand with feedback from players. Feedback on difficulty, fun factor and bugs are always helpful for the further development of FTF.

This build also includes the ability to self report on multiplayer disconnects. The game will be gathering data on the number of npcs, number of bricks (walls), and the ip address for location purposes. These three factors are the key suspects in causing the disconnects.

Development will now shift to solving or reducing the disconnects. This will be done by attempting to reduce the number of messages sent from player to player. Another option is to allow players to connect to more local servers - getting player locations will help to determine if this is a good solution.

Please report multiplayer disconnects on this thread the more info the quicker a solution can be found.

Changes have been made to the way the workers data is sent between players. This cuts the number of messages sent by each worker by a factor of 50 and seems to reduce the needed bandwidth as well. The hope is this will provide more stability and fewer disconnects.

Work on the single player combat has been moving along at a slow but steady pace. The basic pieces are in place and are now working well enough that they need more eyes to further refine and balance the game.

The latest build of FTF has been pushed up to the “Beta Testers” branch. No password is needed and can be tested by everyone!

The build includes one single player combat based challenge. More combat levels will follow once the bugs have been fixed.

The new build will also self report statistics for a multiplayer disconnect. Resolving or reducing the disconnects will be the next goal after the combat bits are dialed, but getting more data on the disconnects is crucial to solving the problem

Switching branches is easy!

• Right click “Fracture the Flag” in your steam library
  
• Click properties
  
• Go to the BETAS tab
  
• Select "beta_testers”
  
• Hit ok and run the update (you may need to restart Steam to force the update)

To switch back repeat the steps, but choose “none” to opt out of the beta.

Many scripts have been adapted from multiplayer to allow both single and multiplayer. This may cause some issues in multiplayer that would be unacceptable for a main branch release.

There are a few known issues...

• Not all AI siege weapons fire
  
• Menu shows a second level that does not exist (yet)
  
• White capsule in AI base - serves as a spawn point
  
• Best Times not showing correctly in single player menu
  
• No achievement implemented for combat level
  
• Ability to move swordsman and siege weapons broke - this is game breaking but not easily reproducible

Development on Fracture the Flag has slowed as real life gets hectic, but development does continue!

The current project is adding to the single player challenges with the addition of some basic combat oriented levels. The new levels will continue to be time based - how fast can you take out the AI base. It will not be a full blown single player campaign - as a solo dev it’s just not possible to pull that off so I won’t promise what I can’t deliver.

AI bases will have a functional economy to support their attacks on the player’s base. If there’s no ammo then the siege weapons will fall silent. If build points run dry the AI can’t recruit more workers or swordsman…

The AI will not be capable of adding new building or siege weapons. The AI base is largely static, once a player destroys a building, siege weapon, or flag it’s gone. However, workers and swordsman will be replaced.

The AI is capable of both offense and defense. Sending groups of swordsman to attack buildings and delivering bombs to the base of flags and other buildings. Defensively swordsman will patrol or stand and guard. Siege weapons will also fire if you get too close.

There are lots of little bugs and plenty of balancing to work on. So no promises on a release date. The first release will likely be on the beta channel as many scripts have been adapted to allow the AI which will then need testing to ensure multiplayer didn’t break…

After the combat AI is released and acceptably bug free my focus will shift to the network disconnect issue. While some disconnects may be the result of poor internet connections or lag to the servers (US based) many or even most are caused by a spike in network traffic which causes loss of information and the servers think there is a disconnect… The networking is done by a third party (Photon). The likely solution is to change how much information is sent. The biggest data hogs are the workers and potentially the brick walls.

After that… On to the stretch goals.

And then a full Steam Release. Goodbye Early Access.