Development Info Sovereignty: Crown of Kings

[Burning Bridges]

Tags: Sovereignty: Crown of Kings; The Lordz Games Studios

The Lordz Games Studios (Battle Academy, Panzer Corps, and more) are offering a sneak peak at their upcoming Sovereignty: Crown of Kings, coming in Q4 2012 - Q1 2013.

Take up the mantle of power and rule your realm. The victor writes History. May the promise of glory and immortality go to you, sovereign. Long may you reign…

Sovereignty is being developed by The Lordz Games Studio and Gothic Labs.

The Game in 5 Words or Less: Risk meets Master of Magic.

Sovereignty: Crown of Kings is a turn-based fantasy strategy game for the PC. It offers a intuitive yet deep province system, allowing you to raise armies, conduct diplomacy, scout enemy battle lines, rally heroes to your banner, send them on quests, cast spells and go to war.

In Sovereignty, the player chooses one of 35 Realms in a bid for dominance of the map. Play is conducted in a series of turns as a single player game.

Though the game is rich and complex under the hood, it has an approachable and intuitive user interface. The core design has concentrated on streamlining the design and automating “the details”, allowing the player to focus on making the “big decisions”.

Each Realm has a unique culture and history, which translates directly into different play-styles. Each realm has its own mix of unit types and spell trees. Their diplomatic relations, economies and histories vary. A player may choose a new realm and experience the game in a very different way. Fantasy heroes, troops, races and spells complement the rise to power.

If you are a fan of fantasy worlds and stories like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, you will love the magical world of Sovereignty: Crown of Kings!

There is also this ambitious sounding set of features.

- Map-view grand strategy game (province system)
- Take on the role of ruler in one of 35 Realms, each with its own flavor, culture and play style
- Multiple Races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Undead
- Recruit Heroes, lead mighty armies and a navy to rules the seas
- Resources, Trade Routes and Landmarks enrich the basic Economy of a Realm.
- Research and cast powerful Realm Magic with 100+ Spells
- Conduct Diplomacy
- PBEM Multiplayer
- Highly automated micro management
- Battle Cards
- Research magic and cast spells over your enemies
- 100+ unit types, 70+ combat modifiers…

With the proven track record of the Lordz this sounds like it could become a big hit at our beloved tacticularcancer.com.

Unfortunately, no screenshots to show yet.

 

[Burning Bridges]

inb4 skyway

 

[mondblut]

I thought this game is called Dominions?

ah, 100 units rather than 2000+, 100 spells rather than about 1000...nevermind, my mistake.

 

[laclongquan]

Battle Academy, Panzer Corps? Never heard of them. Well, PC was mentioned here a bit , but it's not attracted a huge followings, or a particular vocal one, either.

 

[Burning Bridges]

On which planet are you living?

I have reviewed Panzer Corps for tcancer: http://www.tacticularcancer.com/content.php?id=73
It's a very good game, devoid of much originality of course. Only Skyway hates it, because he thinks Steel Panthers should have been remade first, a sentiment which I kind of agree with.

Battle Academy is a simple turn based game with a focus on slick, fast flowing gameplay. Not my cup of tea, but I think the production values are very high, as with all games by TLGS.

They are also working on Commander the Great War, a WW1 game: http://www.thelordzgamesstudio.com/site/games/commander-the-great-war/
I think the release is imminent.

 

[Malakal]

Never heard of their previous games (sorry BB) but this seems quite ambitious. Of course seems like a very early development since they dont even have any screenshots so its hard to tell anything.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Which isn't so bad in this case because until now they have built a reputation for very rapid development.
Panzer Corps for example took less than a year from first announcement to release (I guess at least another year was spent before that), so it is rather likely they will not vastly exceed their Q1 2013 release target.
And none of their games I have seen feels rushed either. They are a perfect example that indie developers can create quality games in 1-2 years.

The Lordz are one of the good indie studios. If you don't want to believe you should try one of their previous games.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Do they really count as indie developers? Wikipedia (heh) tells me that indie games are created without financial support from video game publishers.

They co-developed Battle Academy with Slitherine. Slitherine is a publisher and presumably Slitherine gave them money for this co-development. And Battle Acadamy was heavily promoted by Slitherine.

And Slitherine merged with Matrix games a while ago. Ick.

Battle Academy is also (arguably) the bad kind of turn based game, simplified, streamlined, suitable for play on larger "mobile devices". From what I've seen, the only real saving grace is the multiplayer system.

Panzer Corps is good but it's not exactly an impressive achievement to directly copy SSI's mechanics, make them slightly worse, add pretty graphics and then split WW2 into a huge number of DLCs.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Who cares if they are an indie or a tiny non-indie.

I agree about Battle Academy, I could never enjoy such a primitive games, but there seem to be a number of people who really love this. You cannot deny that the quality is high.

And you can say about Panzer Corps what you want but I played this for several weeks which is much more than I do with most new releases.

The DLCs have also turned out to be a huge irritant to me, selling 837kb updated (text) files in a 300MB file is audacious, but I do not need to buy them, do I.
I would wait until all DLCs are ready and they sell a version of the game with all campaigns.
Or just get the standard version and play that, after 1942 it will get repetitive anyway.
Or simply get one of the old, free versions and stop complaining.

 

[SerratedBiz]

It offers a intuitive yet deep province system,

Though the game is rich and complex under the hood, it has an approachable and intuitive user interface. The core design has concentrated on streamlining the design and automating “the details”, allowing the player to focus on making the “big decisions”.

Other than their press release being turd-like, I really do have high hopes for this game and hope it finally delivers the fantasy grand strategy experience I've been hoping for.

 

[oscar]

I imagine this to be a somewhat more flashy and streamlined, but less deep, Dominions. Art style also seems a bit more generic and high fantasy, while Dominions could get quite genuinely dark and sinister and drew a lot from myths and cultures you don't see very often in fantasy.

 

[PorkaMorka]

hope it finally delivers the fantasy grand strategy experience I've been hoping for.

The fantasy grand strategy experience I've been hoping for doesn't involve many similarities to the game Risk.

 

[SerratedBiz]

hope it finally delivers the fantasy grand strategy experience I've been hoping for.

The fantasy grand strategy experience I've been hoping for doesn't involve many similarities to the game Risk.

Maybe it's been too many years since I played Risk, but other than rolling dice and drawing cards to act, isn't it just about painting the map with your ever-growing legions? Paradox games always gave me strong feelings of Risk gameplay, what with its abstract battles and diplomacy. I don't know how much else there is to Risk, maybe you can tell me.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Maybe it's been too many years since I played Risk, but other than rolling dice and drawing cards to act, isn't it just about painting the map with your ever-growing legions? Paradox games always gave me strong feelings of Risk gameplay, what with its abstract battles and diplomacy. I don't know how much else there is to Risk, maybe you can tell me.

Well...

The Game in 5 Words or Less: Risk meets Master of Magic... The core design has concentrated on streamlining the design and automating “the details”, allowing the player to focus on making the “big decisions”.

The fantasy grand strategy experience that most people have been hoping for is an updated and improved Master of Magic.

But according to the developers this game is Master of Magic + Risk.

Master of Magic was a very high detail game, where you got to micromanage every individual city and every individual battle and where there were so many strategic options that it was impossible to balance them all and half the fun was finding the next way to break the game.

Risk is very different. It may or may not have a lot of deep strategy involved, I'm not qualified to say. But it has very simple mechanics compared to most computer games. Everything is very abstracted and handled at a high level. For example, there are not any different types of units, there are just armies. There are only a few different types of moves that the player is allowed to make, although he may have quite a few targets for those moves.

So what exactly does combining Risk and Master of Magic mean? It is a mystery.

But I'm thinking that it probably means a "casual strategy" version of Master of Magic, with simple mechanics, lots of abstraction, not much detail and a limited number of moves that the player can make.

 

[oscar]

Yeah can't say I like the sound of this Risk talk and 100 unique units for 35 civs.

I sort of see fantasy grand strategies on a

[hardcore] Dominions <- Master of Magic -> Heroes of Might and Magic [casual]

scale. Wonder where this game would fit in.

 

[Sranchammer]

EA 2.0 beta has been released

Patch EA 1.9 to 2.0 notes:

Spoiler

New Engine:
The game now runs on an OpenGL based rendering engine, in addition to the rendering changes, a great deal of the underlying engine code has been modified to create a more stable, smoother experience for everyone.

User Interface:
Title screen is now animated
Placeholder art replaced
All lists and texts now support scrollbars when needed
New text rendering system
Improved on-map realm names
Political map view - now appears on the main map
Relations map view - now appears on the main map
Relations map view - now has on-map buttons to interact with realms
Added Economic map view (replaces upgrade mode)
All map modes now have instructions and a colour key
Improved realm selection - added list of realms
Improved realm selection - uses higher quality map
Improved realm selection - allows scrolling and zooming
Auto Battle - updated layout of armies
Auto Battle - made it clearer who is fighting whom
Info panels (armies, spells, etc) have all been cleaned up
Foreign Affairs - Improved resources list
Foreign Affairs - Improved "Current Trade" information
Promotions - promoted units now appear in a list
Campaign Objectives - all objectives now support numerical progress

AI Players:
The AI has been heavily modified, and realms should act more in line with their expected personalities now - for example, Jotland and Vessoi will actively attempt to obtain the totems to call the horde.

Auto Battle:
The auto battle changes are not just aesthetic, the armies are lined up in formation (infantry in front, archers/ranged behind, cavalry on the flanks). This affects how they fight as well as looking better.

In addition, the way targets are chosen in auto battle has been improved - the AI will no longer select targets based on only their combat stats, but will also consider the amount of damage which will be dealt.

Trading and Treaties:
The trade system has been overhauled - when a trade is offered, all negotiation is done instantly, no more waiting for your agent to travel across the world first. Once trade is negitiated, the deal is finalised immediately.

Agents still play a part, as they must transport the goods agreed in the trade, this means that while the deal is agreed on instantly, the actual goods may still take several turns to arrive - the progress of the agents can be seen in Foreign Affairs under the Current Trade tab.

Unit Promotions:
Unit promotions are no longer random. Units will instead gain XP as they participate in battles (visible on their unit info cards). When they have enough, they are promoted. It now takes longer to get 4 medals for a unit, but it is a more predictable system.

Balance:
A lot of small changes to game balance have been made, and the special class abilities have been tweaked somewhat, in particular, cavalry charge will now be less effective in rougher terrains, and shield wall is less powerful than it used to be.

Bugs and Crashes:
We have fixed a great number of the bugs and crashes which were present in 1.9, this should result in a much more stable experience. As always, if you do run into any bugs, let us know using the bug report tool or on the forums.


Fixes EA 2.0 upto version 1022:

Fixed graphical glitching on the map for some players
Changed trade table titles to be clearer
Unit deployment now allows deploying multiple units at once
Select All/None buttons removed from enemy stacks
Fixed being able to select/deselect units in enemy stacks
Updated treasury tooltip to include magic expenses
Clicking items in province/army list now selects and moves camera
Fixed missing scrollbar in province descriptions
Fixed possible crash when a unit which made a suicidal attack is selected during death animation
Fixed crash when unit retreats onto a tile which has a VP
Fixed random crash on quit
Fixed objectives vanishing when loading a saved game
Fixed crash if unit with OVerrun makes suicidal attack
Added more info to provinces list
Added economy upgrade buttons to provinces list
Updated resource cost on training page to also show your current stockpile
Fixed crash when checking ofr Auxiliary units
Fixed crash on province list when units are at sea
Fixed missing tooltips on hero promotions dialog
Fixed retreating attackers sometimes retreating to incorrect provinces
Fixed crash when removing Fell Mists if a unit died while under effect of the spell
Restored Terrain and Income to province description
All references to magoc XP should now be Research Points
Restored marketplace button to resources pull-out panel
Added interactive map buttons in Political mode
Fixed issues with button tooltips in political and relations modes
Added a list of your units held prisoner by other realms to the lists pull-out
Added province income to info panel and economy tooltip on map
Restored Disband Unit button to unit info card
Modified Wood Lore description to be clearer
Fixed bug allowing Wood Lore to be cast on non-forest provinces
Fixed missing owner flags on units in tactical battle
Desaturated green deployment zones in tactical battle
Fixed bug allowing AIs to rarely deploy too many elite, unique or auxiliary units
Fixed grammar issue - "Rebels is on the move!"
Fixed possible crash when AI attempts to cast Thievery
Fixed allied provinces being annexed by units passing through
Quitting tutorial no longer leaves parts of the UI unusable
Fixed issue causing units not to die when loading a game mid-battle
Fixed possible crash when AI deploys hero to stack in ally province
Fixed possible crash when disbanding units
Fixed rare crash in autobattle
Fixed crashes caused by AI trying to put too many units into a province
Fixed tutorial opening objectives panel with no objectives present
Fixed tutorial showing "Rivalry" popup message
Fixed tutorial showing same message twice
Fixed tutorial being blocked on foreign relations
Fixed battle crash when irregulrar hit by damage from sources other then units
Increased AI speed
Fixed crash when modifying province lust multiple times (dunmar campaign)
Fixed crashes when packing or unpacking units in battle
Fixed possible issue when using the Necropolis power with 20 units already on the field
Move camera objective in tutorial now updates when moving with arrow keys or edge scroll
Move camera objective in tutorial now updates text correctly
Move camera objective in tutorial requirement reduced
No longer possible to select/move/attack with units in tactical tutorial at the wrong time
Revolts no longer possible during tutorial
Highwatch now functional in tutorial
The Abyss now functional in tutorial
Shortcut keys 1-8 now toggle their respective panels correctly
Fixed formatting error in unit disband message
Added cost of upgrading tooltip to economy buttons on map in economy mode
Fixed bug causing crashes when quitting game/quitting to menu
Possible fix for tooltip text
Fixed incorrectly displayed Resources panel
Fixed bug causing flashing provinces to keep flashing after quit to menu
No longer possible to dismiss a choice dialog by clicking outside of it
Arrow key scrolling now working on battle map
No longer able to open locked panels in tutorial by clicking event messages
Fixed hero deploy mode persisting after quit to menu
Right click now deselects armies you do not own
Unit card correctly removed when unit is disbanded
No longer possible to disband units in tutorial
Fixed some missing highlights in tutorial
Fixed some incorrect highlights (round highlight on square button) in tutorial
Stack highlights now flash like others
Another possible fix for text blurring issues
Canceling an agent will now correctly update the rest of the Foreign Affairs screen
Fixed background scaling issue on marketplace form
Fixed duplicate unit icons appearing after quit to menu from battle
Fixed mouse getting stuck after camera move tutorial
Fixed crash if The Abyss kills the last unit in a stack
Prevented hero offer at location in tutorial which can block progression
Fixed crash caused by disposed UI elements
Prevented AI from using Hero cards in battle multiple times
Disabled menu button text readability improved
Added highlight to eligible armies when deploying hero in tutorial
No longer possible to use shortcut keys to break the tutorial
Fixed possible crash when attacking a 20-unit army in tutorial
Improved visibility of highlights on units in battle tutorial
Added additional checks to settings to reduce cases of corrupted data

 

[Stella Brando]

Sweet gamebook, bros.

 

[Mustawd]

This game is finally out of early access and 10% off steam.

Infinitron , FYI. Not sure if these things are newsworthy or not.


http://store.steampowered.com/app/312430/?snr=1_620_4_1401_46

 

[Mustawd]

Infinitron , FYI. Not sure if these things are newsworthy or not.

Infinitron , so you're just gonna put a nonsensical rating and ignore me? Why?

I mean I get it if you just don't wanna do it. But just say that at least.

 

[oscar]

Any thoughts on it?

 

[Malakal]

Any thoughts on it?

Didn't like it, felt really bare bones with nothing to do in peace time.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

no content, the video game

 

[Mortmal]

Its inspired heavily by birthright and it shows, the lore is good, the countries to chose from are interesting each with their own units and special abilities , spells etc .The campaign are well done that if no bug break them,with their own unique goals like making another country win , or raid neighbors and make some empires disappear . It never reach the levels of autism dominion 4 provides us alas, no games do that.
Would recommend it if it wasnt plagued with bugs. Its supposed to be release version now but i keep encountering "rare" bugs crashing the game.
20 euros is nothing for a strategy game like that,the devs are still working and fixing stuff but years later this is not finished and far too clunky.

 

[Burning Bridges]

OMG, to think that I started this thread 5 years ago

 

[Mortmal]

OMG, to think that I started this thread 5 years ago

Yes,i think we heard of that game in development way before 2012. I tried the last beta patch its playable now and worth getting., they took their sweet time.