Friday Updates

Good textures Herr Pepp...i like the Irish..The sword is very beautiful
And K&B refute nothing this week....don't remember of DieterMoreno?..who suggested playing the work of TFN in the trash.

Nice textures Pepp!

Yay! Mali units.
I really like to see african units in game, what would it be? Sofas? Kélé-koub tigi? Farima?
Various of them? Maybe none?

I'd really like to know, truth is,they interest me more than the irish ones...

It seems that the happiest guy here is The Dude

Not anymore at least...

Look at it the positive side, you brought Russia down with you...


peugeot407

I really like to see african units in game, what would it be? Sofas? Kélé-koub tigi? Farima?
Various of them? Maybe none?

Farimba, but I don't think so that the team (outside Matthew L.) will even like it to enter.

Looks great, guys! I'm not sure if I've posted at all yet, but I've been following the Friday Updates and reading the forums for about six or seven months. I'm really, really excited you're making progress quickly again, and in lieu of a Friday Update these past few weekends, I was wondering if we could get a really quick, concise progress update kind of thing. Just a few sentences about currently estimated release date of the Prologue, anything the K&B community can do to help out, and whatever hitches the collective might be able to grease for you developers. Or, you know, not, we'll love and appreciate you anyway.

Welcome to the forums!

Well, we have recently coded and textured the Middle Eastern buildingset and coded the Crusaders civ. Pepp has also textured almost all of our new Mercenaries! The AI is also getting done slowly, and Italian and Byzantine Homecity cards are pretty much done, same thing with Barbarians (natives) too. So, the release will definitely be this year, probably late summer or during autumn.

Note: Sorry for not having a update for a few weeks, but I hope Robert could show something, like some ME buildings...

A few short weeks ago, as I'm sure most of you know, we released the first ever Knights & Barbarians gameplay video. During it, you may have noticed The_Dude mentioning a new feature in the commentary, called Feudalism.Today it's our pleasure to showcase this feature, and explain the basics of how it works to you!


The Town Square is a new building we've created (thanks to peugeot407) that takes the place of the Chapter House and the Race Track for civilizations with neither, such as the Italians and the Byzantines.


At the Town Square, there will be three "techs" representing major cities and regions from each major civilization. By choosing one of them, you align your colony with a particular region of your civ in addition to the capital, or home city. This is what we call "Feudalism".I think of it as being the region from where your lords and peasants are actually immigrating from to the new colony being established, while the home city or capital provides you with support based on your strategic and political importance (ergo, the city phase of your new town).

Italy, for example, will have these three cities to form a relationship with:


Once that's completed, three techs will pop up in the Town Square menu. One of them will be available to every city in every civilization, and it will be a scaling Mercantilism-type technology, where every age a certain amount of gold may be exchanged for a greater amount of experience. The other two techs will change depending on the chosen city or region. As a sneak-peek, here are the decided technologies for the Italian city of Breschia.

~ Breschia, Lombard Stronghold
Age III - Guelphic Garrison: Motivated by fear of northern encroachment and adherence to Vatican interests, Breschia's staunch Guelph troops are willing to forgo some payment for the sake of Pope and Piazza. Lessens infantry recruitment cost.
Age IV - Colle Cidneo: Breschia's fortifications have long stood strong, well-tested, and resolute against the ambitions of Emperors and Ghibellines. Improved castles and walls.

In addition to these techs, peasants have the ability to mingle and trade when tasked on the Town Square, giving your colony a much-needed dose of culture and social life while generating XP!

These new technologies, and the ability to spark a Revolution, are our way of evening the playing field between civilizations like the Italians and the unique advantages of the Knightly Orders and Race Tracks of the crusading and muslim civs, not to mention that avenues for improved historical accuracy are a great reason for excitement and motivation here at K&B.


Today's quote comes from the head of our balancing department, iliander.

iliander wrote:This of course stays bad against ranged units because of the slow speed. So you would want to use this formation against an incoming army of solely melee units (preferably a smaller amount than the amount of your mystery units, which will mostly be the case with expensive cavalry units such as Knights).

Can you guess what the new combat formation we're so excited about is?


K&B salutes... The K&B team. They've been very welcoming and helpful while bringing the new team member (Synecdoche, the author of this Update) up to speed.
K&B refutes... The heat of midsummer, which seems to be fraying some of our nerves here at K&B. If any of you know how to do a good rain dance, we'd appreciate it.

This looks awesome. The Feudalism system and town square are great ideas. And is that a new model for the town square? I just think the town square texture could do with a bit of improvement, as some parts (like the statues and columns) are a little plain.

K&B refutes... The heat of midsummer, which seems to be fraying some of our nerves here at K&B. If any of you know how to do a good rain dance, we'd appreciate it.

Good thing I live in the Southern Hemisphere then!

ehm its not the ingame view . Ingame it looks better. It also has a player color/civ flag in the middle

What model it is indeed?


peugeot407

I know a rain dance, but it requires a firepit and a machi or two, so I believe you'll not be interested...

Not really, as almost the whole week is rainy here in Finland. I'm worried if I ever get to eat strawberries this year...

You think you've got it bad Matti. -.-
Let's just say up in Milton Keynes for the British Grand Prix, they've had about a month's rain in 24 hours, and qualifying was suspended as the rain was so bad. We've had similar weather in the south-east. What you have in Finland is nothing.
GO GBR!

We've now got a touch of Silverstonic rain in the Netherlands as well... "Torrential" does apply.


peugeot407

Funny, you guys get rain, and there’s a heat wave in Central Canada.

It seems like there's a heat wave in all of North America...

And then we have Melbourne having unseasonably cold nights (despite it being the middle of winter).
Hey guys, sorry for my massive leave of absence, school, family and good old social life distracted me not the point, but I will be more active on the forum from now on. I have just recently gone over the new releases and watched the gameplay video (very promising by the way), The Dude, good commenting by the way.

EDIT: I think I should properly say a bit more to make up for lost time. I am really blown away by the work that has gone on here. Amazing textures (Pepp can texture?!!), the ideas are very innovative and more and more I am seeing a greater focus on the little things and gimmicks that make the civs unique and fun. I have to say, it's good to be back, I've missed you guys.

Welcome back you crazed Emperor!

Thanks, as I said before, but I still feel the need to say it: Great to be back, I really have missed you guys

I took a look at all your Friday Updates and must say you have done great work! KnB should really be the best total conversion mod. The Team is doing great work! cant wait for it!

Well, that's not very difficult, as K&B is currently the only total conversion mod that's still alive.


peugeot407

Nevertheless, you and your team really deserve it. It actually deserves to be the number 1 total conversion. I am going to but your website on my related links page. Anything against that?

Regards,
Augustus Black

No problems with it what so ever, feel free to do so.