Closing Statement

It is with great sadness that we must inform you that Of Kings and Men has been removed from sale on Steam and all other retailers and that further development of the game has ceased. Consequently, the official servers are no long active.

Despite the very best efforts of some wonderfully talented developers, Of Kings And Men has not attracted a large enough audience to sustain further development. We are grateful for each and every player who picked up a sword, polearm or crossbow in the game, who fought in conquest, who battled for chests in the Arena, or joined a clan in Militari. We salute you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and feedback.

So what now?

The good news is that the game will not simply disappear. Instead, we we are going to release one last update - the Community Edition Update. This will hand everything over to you, our community of fans. The Community Edition Update will deliver the following:

• Your game will continue to be available to download from Steam
  
• You will be able to host your own server and run any mode you want
  
• Control some of the settings of the game for players connected to that server
  
• A new map editor allowing you to edit existing maps, create new ones, run them on your own server or share them with others
  
• Deathmatch mode will also be turned back on, which was only previously available pre-release. This will enable you to fight against bots in a free-for-all environment.

Documentation on this will be provided in the final update notes.

The game's roots lie in its community driven efforts, being born from a mod and eventually transitioning to a full game, standing on its own. The community edition in some part will return the game to its heritage and the community, who can continue enjoying it even after the sun has set.

A small update to include a few changes a new Hold Your Ground system in addition to the last big patch. Defend the gates of the fortress or the evil raiders will get through and destroy it!


 
 

In order to make Hold Your Ground a little more exciting in the beginning and more challenging in later waves, there are a couple of quite big changes to the mode. Firstly, bots now have their own specific classes that have unique stats, equipment, and fighting skills. Peasants with their straw hats and cheap pikes are unlikely to provide resistance when fought one on one, but could become a trouble in a large group, and heavier enemies will certainly be challenging even to experienced players.

 

AI controlled raiders are now also attacking a castle instead of just going for the kills. Some of the previous tactics used by players included hiding under a bridge to avoid being hit or jumping on high stones, but now bots, knowing that they can win by raiding the castle, won't brainlessly try to reach a sneaky player. You will actually have to defend the gates if you want to win!

 

• Added bot classes to Hold Your Ground.
• Added a mechanics for bots to attack a castle in Hold Your Ground.

 
 



 
 
 

A small addition, but it will definitely come in handy in every battle! Now whether you're playing Conquest, Skirmish, or sieging a castle in a raid, killing multiple enemies without dying will increase your XP gain for every kill. Very skilled players will be able to get some sweet bonuses for being cautious instead of rushing into groups of enemies, but that's not the only change. Killing players that have active killstreaks will also give an increased XP bonus, making a hunt for the most dangerous enemies a good alternative to farming XP by killing inexperienced players.

 

• Added killstreaks to every PvP mode.

 



 
 

• Fixed Team kills/hit/blocks counting towards quest objectives.
• Fixed an issue where two players in no clan would get markers as if they were in the same clan.
• Fixed an issue where players would have to re-join arena twice after AFKing.
• Fixed spawning inside invisible walls in arena

The free weekend on Steam is coming to an end, so don’t waste the time and go play while you can! There are also some cool changes coming to Hold Your Ground before the holidays, and you can find out about them in the dev frame!

http://ofkingsandmen.net/2017/12/10/dev-frame-the-order-came/

Hello everyone!

We're pleased to announce that Of Kings And Men is going to be available for a Free Weekend from Thursday 7th December to Monday 11th December 2017!

The game will also be 66% off during that time on Steam.

The Long War Update came out recently, and included new maps, changes to De Re Militari, troop sharing and more. You can read the full patch notes here - http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/games/430440/announcements/detail/1460719316098251164

We look forward to seeing new players join the game. You can start forming clans with friends, or head over to the Discord[discordapp.com] to meet new and experience players!

The new update, being one of the biggest in the game to date, has been made available earlier this week! The second season of De Re Militari is now also live and welcomes all clan leaders and their members in new wars.

http://ofkingsandmen.net/2017/12/03/dev-frame-the-new-beginning/

 

 
Ambushes become available in the second season of De Re Militari, allowing clans to attack enemy armies on the map! No longer battles are limited to poor villages and strong castles. You're now free to ambush an army and have them fight either in an open field or a dark forest.

Since ambushes imply attacking passing armies, both friendly and hostile armies are now visible on the map, assuming your fog of war is lifted far enough. It will help create more advanced strategic plans, since capturing a distant fief will not only grant an additional troop gain, but will also provide a clan with visibility of distant lands.

Clans will be able to ambush an army at any time of their marching, as long as the attacked army isn't too close to their targeted fief. It means that when attacked, a marching army will be stalled on the map, delaying their traveling time. Because of the way the new feature is working, scheduling fief attacks got reworked as well. Instead of selecting a time slot as soon as selecting a target, an army now has to actually reach a fief before a commander is given an option of a time slot.

Overall, ambushes are designed to create many more interesting scenarios on the map by essentially providing a completely new way of combat and strategy in De Re Militari. 

 

• Added ambushes to De Re Militari to attack passing armies.
• Added 2 new maps for ambushes - open field and forest.
• Added armies visible on the map while moving.
• Changed the fief attack scheduling system to allow scheduling once an army has reached a fief.

 


 
Troop sharing has been requested by many experienced De Re Militari players in the first season, and it's now implemented in the game! While it's still technically possible to just get your own troops and attack something on the map, clans are strongly encouraged to create multiple regiments within one army.

Regiments are created by individual players, which basically means that multiple players are able to have their troops in the same army. It will allow to create armies much faster, since clan members combine their troops, but will lead to a smaller number of full armies available to clans, forcing them to care more about strategy and setting priorities.

A similar feature is also available for defence. Whenever an enemy army is marching to attack one of your fiefs, every clan member will be able to put their troops into that fief's garrison. Fiefs will continue to have a very small number of troops without any additional garrisons, but it will be hardly enough to withstand a proper attacking army. Make sure your fiefs always get troop support in battles! 
 

• Added a troop sharing option to include multiple regiments within one army.
• Added a requirement to garrison troops in attacked fiefs.

 
 
 

Personal upkeep wasn't a much liked feature of the first De Re Militari season, so the whole system was completely redesigned by switching to a clan based upkeep instead of forcing each clan member to pay their own taxes. Firstly, as mentioned, the upkeep system now requires a clan as a whole to have enough gold by the end of each week. Clan members can put gold into their clan treasury, helping to pay the upkeep.

The system will allow more active players to help out their less active clan members if they wish to do so, but that's not the only change. Instead of basing the upkeep on the number of clan members, it now calculates the upkeep depending on how successful a clan is on the map, meaning how many fiefs a clan owns.

Consequences of not paying an upkeep have also been completely changed. Previously, if at least a single clan member failed to pay their upkeep for two weeks, the whole clan was punished by having their stronghold destroyed. In the second season, however, a clan that fails to pay an upkeep for a week will have their abilities to attack fiefs and armies blocked for the whole following week.

• Added a new upkeep system with clan treasury.
• Replaced stronghold destruction with a week of attacking ban on upkeep paying fail.

 

 
 

Since the second season brings so many new changes to the game mode, it is only right to update the land of the map itself! All the territories have been regenerated with different settings to make sure De Re Militari's map feels fresh and interesting. Lighting on the map has also been tweaked to reflect the change of season. It's a dark and gloomy season without much sun after all!

The system of spawning fiefs on the map has been changed as well, creating 6 new fiefs with every stronghold spawned instead of 10 like it was in the first season. The reason for the change is to make the process of capturing neutral fiefs quicker and also to increase the value of each fief. Fewer fiefs on the map means that clans, by losing their fiefs, will suffer much greater troop gain losses and land protection than before. Make sure you commit to defending every fief you have! 

• Generated a new Militari map.
• Changed fiefs spawned with a stronghold from 10 to 6.
• Tweaked lighting on the Militari map.

 
 
 

Two major changes have been introduced that created a need to rebalance how troops are gained in the game. First change is the troop sharing, which allows clans to create armies using troops of multiple of their members, meaning that armies can be created significantly sooner even with fairly low troop numbers per member. Because of this, troop gain from all external sources like the First Win of the Day mechanic and loot chests has been reduced.

The second change that called for rebalancing is the lowered number of fiefs on the map. Troop gain from each single fief has been increased by quite a lot, which makes them much more valuable to capture and profit from.
 

• Rebalanced fief gains to maintain the original total gain.
• Reduced troop gain from chests and First Win of the Day due to the troop sharing feature.

 
 
 

As requested by many, troops assigned to defenders in battles will no longer be based on the number of players in the attacking team. Instead, both teams will have as many troops to their disposal as many players there are in their own teams. If you're thinking about attacking a fief or an army, make sure you have enough allies to support you in a battle! Otherwise, defenders might have superior forces on their side!

The last change in the second season of De Re Militari is how troop losses work for armies that get defeated in battles. Instead of safely returning troops that didn't join a battle, those troops are now getting lost as well, unless a fief battle is won.

It works slightly different for defenders in ambushes though, as they lose only the troops that actually died in a battle, and also a percentage of their troops based on how many attacking troops there are in the army. For example, if an attacking army has 500 troops and defenders have 1000, they would lose 50%.

 

• Changed troop count on defending side to be based on number of defenders.
• Changed troop losses on battle defeats.

 
 
 
 

In order to help new players get involved in the game and provide them with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different rewards, onboarding quest have been introduced in the new update. New players will receive a number of objectives that will guide them around the game, showing various game modes and fighting styles. Please note, all the loot chests in the game can be only obtained by playing, and can be opened by simply pressing a button in the menu.

To add a little more to the system, once onboarding quests are completed, a set of daily quests becomes available. You will receive a number of quests with multiple objectives, varying by general themes and difficulties. For example, an easy Polearm Master quest would only require to deal some damage to the enemies and get 15 assists or kills, while in order to complete a very hard Skirmisher quest, you would have to finish a whole Skirmish match without dying, kill 50 players, capture 3 flags, and also kill at least 5 players without dying.

 

• Added onboarding quests for new players.
• Added daily quests with multiple objectives.

 

 
 

Skirmish is one of the most competitive game modes currently in the game, since it provides a one-life pure combat without additional objectives. The maps available for the game mode haven't been updating for a while, so we decided to refresh the mode with some new areas to kill each other in!

You can check the maps and their own descriptions in the dev frame from the last week - http://ofkingsandmen.net/2017/11/26/dev-frame-the-rest-and-more/

• Added 4 new maps for Skirmish mode.
• Added a new location for Skirmish mode in one of the existing maps.

 

 
 

In addition to all other features, there is a new special items system, which has been kept a secret until now. There will be new special items added to the shop, which will cost much more than normal items. They will be available only for a very limited time though, so even if you're rich enough to afford one of those prestige equipment pieces, you won't be able to use them forever.

Once the trial period is finished in the shop, those items will be added the retirement rewards, and after some time of being items in royal chests, they will eventually be added normally to the shop. The first item, Kipchak Helmet, is now available for purchase for 600 gold! One more item will be added a week after, and the last item for this update will become available in two weeks.

 

• Added a system for special items.

 

 
 
 

Convenience for clans and their members is very important, since it dictates how efficient they can be in battles. The first change to improve it allows to see how many troops each clan member has by looking at the clan list. It will certainly help when planning attacks on the map, but also provide a general understanding of how successfully a clan is.

All clan members now also have unique markers under their names in every PvP mode, which allows to easily identify your friends on the battlefield and, possibly, use that to your advantage in Militari battles by being able to know where clan mates and all others are.

• Added troop numbers of every clan member to Clan menu list.
• Added a unique marker colour for clan members.

 

 
 

The winners of the first season have already been announced, and to make their honourable deeds remember forever, there is a new Hallf of Fame object in the lobby. To access it and see the winners and their stats in the first season, go the courtyard with Militari table and look for a shrine behind it.

 

• Added a Hall of Fame object to the lobby.

 

 
 

The previous end game screen at the end of Militari battles wasn't very informative. Basically, it only showed the scoreboard and some text with the number of rewarded chests. In order to make it clearer who won every battle and introduce some more interesting stats, the whole screen has been remade. In addition to things like battle names, results, and chests gained, total number of troops lost is shown a well.

Scoreboard at the end of a battle is now optional, and in order to open it, you have to click on the button at the top of the screen. Some of the visuals of the scoreboard like colour-coded rows have been slightly tweaked as well.

 

• Added a new information screen to the end of Militari battles.
• Improved scoreboard details and visuals.

 

 
 

Sounds in the game have been made pretty quiet in the previous update due to a requirement for fixing a bug with missing sound effects. In this update, all the sounds and music in the game have been completely remixed to make them sound as good as possible. Now footsteps can be easily heard, blocking sound can be distinguished in a heat of a battle, and all other things that produce sounds have been reworked.

• Mixed sounds and music to proper values.

 

 
 

Lighting in the game has been changing quite a bit in the past, but there are even more changes coming with the update! Previously, PvP modes had the same times of the day every time you join at a specific hour, but in order to keep it more interesting, the system has been made to randomize it a little bit, making sure you often see maps with different lighting. All the maps received brand new lighting setups too, so even those that were using the old system, now have completely redone lighting for them.

• Added new lighting to every used map
• Added a randomized time of day for PvP modes.

 

 
 

Equipment, in addition to the new special items system, received a little of tweaks as well. The first change, which has been requested by the community in the past, is that every player not wearing any body armour will now be instantly killed with any hit. It will greatly increase immersion and discourage trolls from running around naked.

Another small change, mostly to the shop system rather than equipment overall, is that Cloth and Padded sections have been removed not to clutter the UI. While there are no additional equipment pieces to buy of that type, it's not needed there, but will be readded once there is more light armour in the game.

The last change, also suggested by the community, is to remove linen coifs from the helmets and replace them with shiny mail coifs! They both provide a much better protection for all the helmets and look really cool!

 

• Added a mechanic to instantly kill characters without any body armour.
• Removed Cloth and Padded options from the menu until more equipment is added.
• Added mail coifs to all helmets.

 

 
 

The last new feature in this update was suggested by some of  the community members as well. It's special button that, while pressed, allows to scroll through the killfeed log. For example, it could be useful if you accidentally teamkilled someone and would like to apologize or to simply check who's that crazy warrior killing your whole team singlehandedly.

 

• Added a button to hold that allows scrolling through kill log (default L + arrow keys).

 

 
 

• Fixed WASD moving the map while putting in sign-up text.
• Fixed map moving after a battle.
• Fixed timer in Skirmish.
• Fixed chat fading out while being opened.
• Fixed Right Ctrl shortcut not working for quick emotes.
• Fixed projectiles not having sounds on terrain and object hits.
• Fixed flag recapturing on Skirmish.
• Fixed being able to parry from the back.
• Fixed one-handed stab not blocking two-handed stab correctly.
• Fixed spear stabs being blocked correctly by diagonal stances, while badly with stabs.

 

The nightly with all the features of the second season for De Re Militari is now available, while the live update is planned to be released later next week! We will appreciate all the feedback you have if you decide to check out the changes on the testing server, and will be fixing every major issue found.

http://ofkingsandmen.net/2017/11/26/dev-frame-the-rest-and-more/

Second season of De Re Militari is just around the corner with many new features and mechanics! Don’t forget that the winners of the first season will be announced on November 23rd and the next season will be starting shortly afterwards.

http://ofkingsandmen.net/2017/11/19/dev-frame-the-art-of-war/

New field map is introduced for De Re Militari ambushes, and multiple strategic choices for clans and their members are discussed in the dev frame! Also, Bizarre and Hideous contest is now over and the winner is revealed!

http://ofkingsandmen.net/2017/11/12/dev-frame-open-field/