Gen’l,
While the Grand Tactician’s Early Access is coming to an end, and the game will be released in Full on September 24, 2021, the game’s development will not stop there. During the Early Access a lot of new feature ideas arose, and we want to improve the game further, adding many of these new features in the game, for free!
Once released in Full, we will of course continue supporting the game with steady flow of bug fixing patches. But in addition we have already decided to add new features in the game, that will further expand the game play experience. Here are the first planned features:
Rare Weapons.
The Civil War saw a number of innovative new weapon types entering service, though in limited numbers. While their use did not change the course of the war in any way, these rare weapon types paved the way for further innovations in weapons technology. The weapon types that will be added are Gatling and Coffee Mill Gun, which were early machineguns, and a small caliber, fast firing Confederate 1-pounder Williams Gun. A few other weapon types may be added to this list later.
Building Options.
Players will be allowed to construct their government subsidized buildings on the campaign map. This allows more control over the location of these industries. In addition new building types will become available, among these a hospital, which will allow better treatment of the wounded soldiers, decreasing mortality rates, and a Prisoners of War (POW) camp, which allows sending captured soldiers to be held prisoners instead of paroling them on the spot, with many returning to their former units to fight another day.
New Maps.
What can be said? There’s never enough new maps!
Avatar & Commander Update.
One of the most requested features has been the ability to add oneself in the game as a commander. We will create an avatar system, where players can add themselves as commanders in the game, using their own photo, and assigning the commander attributes of their choosing. This commander will then appear in the campaign game and can be managed just like any other commander, maybe gaining unheard of fame and achieving great victories, or maybe feuding with the superiors and getting killed in a desperate charge against the enemy’s works.
In addition, some further commander related features will be added, among these the ability to randomize commanders’ attributes at the start of the scenario. This way one will see different commanders than historically rise to fame and fortune.
Visual Improvements.
The game was never created with spectacular looks in mind, but there is a lot of room for improvements here. Especially in the way we handle the soldiers in battles. Improved visuals will increase immersion for sure, but we will also improve troop customization options further. For this reason further changes in the current customization system will not be added. Instead, we overhaul it. These upgrades may also bring performance improvements, like the new smoke engine did earlier.
We will release more information about each new feature when we start creating them in the game.
Most Respy,
Gen’l. Ilja Varha,
Chief Designer, &c.,
The Grand Tactician -Team
Comments
Zack #
This game will be a masterpiece, if it isn’t already! Congratulations on the 1.0 release date.
Kaill #
I’m not sure if this is already been suggested or put in but if not there should be unique maps for Washington DC, Richmond, and Montgomery for capital city battles.
iv (Author) #
Kaill,
There are maps for D.C. and Richmond, that are historical ones for each. Washington D.C. map is the area where Battle of Ft. Stevens was fought, just north of the city. Richmond is just SW of the Cold Harbor map. We do not plan on adding urban maps of any major cities, as the game engine (nor the armies of the time) could not handle that well.
Big Bird #
Looking forward to the full release. The campaign has become much more polished in the last few months, and single battles are fantastic.
Any plans to add more single battles at some point? Fredericksburg would be a great addition.Thanks!
Stuart Bryant #
Have really enjoyed the latest changes and am very excited for what’s on the way. Great job
iv (Author) #
Bird,
At some point down the road, yes, but not for v 1.0.
Orkin #
A bunch of pet peeves with this great game: Could the guide book not pop up before every single battle? Could there be a clickable link in messages about arriving armies that would take you to their location? Could the tabs be closed by ESC or by clicking outside of them? Could the units with the defamed officers be marked in the army menu and possibly redeemed? Could we make custom formations, so that we wouldn’t have to move every division separately every time we want the cannons to stay behind the infantry for example? The fact that those are all I can think of at this point speaks for itself. I hope you venture on to the Napoleonic wars in the future!
iv (Author) #
Orkin,
When messages about arriving armies are received, double clicking the message icon (“letter”) left side of screen takes you to the location. In next patch ESC will close panels, and there is also Windows-type “X” in the top right corner for closing.
There are plans to improve commanders after the release. For example making defamed non-permanent.
If you want cannons to be left behind, you may detach them in battle. Detached units do not receive the group orders. For example, you have a division of 4 infantry brigades and an artillery unit. To move the infantry units only, when giving movement orders to the division HQ, click the artillery unit, and in commander orders menu click “detach”. There is order delay to this, but once detached, the command line from the HQ to this unit will show dotted -> unit is detached.
Orkin #
Thanks! As for the last point – I meant more like keeping the army formation when moving an entire army/corps forward. You don’t generaly want to order your army across the entire map when you don’t know the enemy’s position, so I tend to hop from crossroad to crossroad or something like that. A button “keep formation” (something like Total War’s “CTRL+G” functionality) would be helpful. That way we wouldn’t need to either move the entire army (mixing cavalry, guns and infantry on the front line) or do it division by division, but could just order the entire formation to unfold the way they were before. But really, it is just a minor thing that would fasten the phase of passive marching before the engagement.
Neil Fleming #
will this game run on my Mac? in the near future
iv (Author) #
Neil,
We will take a look at Mac version possibility after we have released v 1.0 for PC.
Neil Fleming #
Thanks! As for the information Looking forward to the full release.
Bruce Banner #
A customizable (save) formation to move armies across would be great! I love the game. Great job y’all! Love to see mods for this, too.
Steve H #
Just bought this game a couple days ago and immediately love it, really great work. A small and sorta specific change I’m hoping you can make somehow. When you minimize the game/switch to a different window, the player’s position on the in-game map automatically moves to the bottom corner. I take a lot of notes while playing this game on a Word doc, and it’s a pain every time I switch back to the game window to have to reposition myself on the map. Would it be possible to keep the camera stationary when the user is looking at a different window?
B.C. Milligan #
Just to make a nuisance of myself, I would like to say that I really hope you add a (two player, at least) multiplayer version of the game at some future date, as that is my favorite way to play games such as this.
Stephen #
I’m just waiting to see if it works under proton.
I so hope for that support or maybe in the future.
Sigizmund #
Sad that i don’t see “multiplayer” word at road map :(
Nats #
Maybe a Gamepass version and a console version could be considered? I dont know how you would control the game with a controller but I bet there are people who have consoles who wish there were more strategy games on them. And you can get a mouse for consoles, my son has one, and a keyboard.
Nick #
This game is great. I love it and have already sunk well over 100 hours into it. It reminds me (in a really good way) of games I loved when I was kid back in the 90s on the Amiga 500. Games like The Blue & The Grey amongst others. Keep up the good work, looking forward to continuing improvements!
One thing I’d love to see is the Brigades spreading more into Battalions/Regiments when deployed and maybe less Napoleonic style linear formations, especially when in cover or behind fences etc…not sure how do-able that would be but it’s something I think would add some realism to the combat :)
Davek #
I would buy this game over again if I could get multiplayer.
Andrew #
Haven’t seen a game like this since the Gettysburg classic and with a campaign. Just would be nice if AI was on the list of improvements as well. Be interesting to see if it is possible to train the system to act like it was in a chess game but within reason. Still, outflanked enemies could respond better and have better support. They often stand in place. Even with the few dumb things the AI does, the game has come a long way and is very commendable.
John Puryear #
Great work you have done designing this game! The amount of detail you have included is impressive and it’s obvious that you love your work. I hope that you will continue to work on improving the battle AI and find ways to make it more challenging. However, I realize that’s the toughest challenge you face in creating this game. Altogether good job!
Bullgod #
I want to enjoy this game, but I can’t. Its great on the surface and there’s lots of good reviews left by people who played for a little while. When it works it’s fantastic, but it rarely works well.
There are bugs. Some that are funny (ordered one fleet to leave port and make it to Atlantic, so it took the railway alongside the river to go in the opposite direction – ship was actually riding on tracks, making train noises- to finally get on river at a crossing and then finally to it’s destination), but some make campaign play frustrating or even impossible – like the one, where infrastructure points revert their ownership without any reason upon game load and I must conquer them again and again. One time it was only one town, next time it was everything I conquered.
Defeated armies choose weird directions to retreat – instead of actually retreating and running towards their supply network, they often march deeper into enemy territory, first going through enemy army. It sometimes looks like direction of retreat is chosen randomly at every crossroads.
Battles are simply no fun at all due to AI that is extremely passive. It sometimes makes weird placement decisions, f.ex. ignoring VP it’s supposed to defend – one time I just couldn’t find it for a whole battle day. The next day it finally moved to retake VPs it has lost and attacked through swamps with artillery. I mean… come on.
When attacking it tends to send one brigade at a time and often artillery is marching in front of the attacking force, allowing it to be destroyed in detail. When defending, if it happens to position itself properly, it just stands there, allowing itself to be flanked.
When playing Gettysburg scenario I won on the first day. I simply annihilated Ewell Corps with skirmishers deployed in front of my troops without actually doing much personally, because his whole Corps stopped in front of my line and just stood there, taking casualties and breaking one brigade after another. Aside from AI getting stuck, skirmishers are probably just too powerful.
Campaign game needs more maps as well, because every time there was a battle near a river, it was the same map over and over again in Virginia, Carolinas and Georgia (although it seems bridges and fords were randomly placed on that map). Gets boring really fast.
I really hope you guys will work on it, because it’s really frustrating to see such a gem of a game completely overshadowed by (rather serious) issues that suck the fun out of gameplay.
iv (Author) #
Bullgod,
We keep on working on the game, improving it, including bug fixes and AI improvements among other things.
JT #
I really like this game but echo the previous comments about needing to prioritize improving the AI in battle. And I don’t only mean the AI related to the AI opponent (which definitely needs to be improved /made less passive). I even found when giving orders to a unit in your own army that is located further away, if the situation changes in the time it takes for the order to get there, the unit will continue to follow out the same order until a new one arrives regardless if that initial order no longer makes sense. For example, I have ordered units forward only to have the enemy later occupy the area I ordered the unit. Unless a new order arrives in time, my unit will continue to walk right toward that enemy unit regardless of the tactical odds. I have had a numbers of units become routed simply because the AI won’t exercise some tactical common sense that any brigadier general leading his troops would independently exercise. There are also some nonsensical routing choices related to movement orders. I see from your comment above that you plan to do so, which is good.
Still, a very good game (the map zoom feature is awesome) but with an improved battle engine, it could truly be a legendary game. So please focus on fixing the fundamentals first before rolling out the “nice to have” bells and whistles.
John F Porten #
Would love to see some attention paid to improving the naval aspect of the game. Also maybe see some forts sieges available in the battle maps?
Griffin McLemore #
When will you all be adding POW camps and hospitals?
iv (Author) #
Griffin,
Currently working on it. This feature will be added in version 1.06, along with a other cool stuff. Due to the number of changes, it will take a while to get there.
Bruce #
Great work~!
btw, I just want to know if this game will have a diff. lang. vision, like CHI or JAP
iv (Author) #
Bruce,
There will not be localizations for this game. We do not have the resources (mainly time) to do it.
Wilhelm #
When can we expect 1.06? really looking forward to the next update as all the last ones added some really great features
iv (Author) #
Wilhelm,
The beta patch is out already. It still has issues with balancing, bugs, missing assets (images).
The full version will require a few weeks’ worth of work, plus updating the tutorial, field book and manual. So approx mid- or late-May.
Lance #
Could you fix the black smoke after raiding on the campaign map? It is too big and makes it very difficult to read important info on the map. A lot of raiding makes the map look more a nuclear war zone. Much smaller smoke plumes that disappear as you zoom in on cities to read their info would be a big improvement. Also prisons don’t appear to be working as designed. If you declare amnesty in one prison ALL of your prisons empty out. Seems no way to toggle it off. The game has made awesome improvements over the last six months. Thanks for all your dedication. It’s my favourite game on steam right now.
Malcolm #
So I think it would be awesome if at the end of the war there was a post-war cool down period that is parallel to the beginning of the Spring 1861 campaign with the pre-war build-up months where the focus would be reconstruction/ repairing the economy after the war to get a taste (or sense) of what either the north went through with a Union victory or a what if scenario of the south recovering and setting things up with a Confederate victory. It wouldn’t have to be anything too long; maybe like 6-12 months after the conclusion of the war to really see how things and people adjust to peace time again after having acclimated to war. Just an idea I thought would be cool.
Darren Laker #
Question: If you promote a political officer do you lose support if you replace him in his old command before putting him in the new? Observation: The battle AI still needs serious help. I have seen units out of range just sit there a take a beating from superior armed troops with the range. No reaction and no attempt to move in range. AI armies still bunch up too meaning multiple brigades take casualties and only 1 or 2 can return fire, it should try to form a line with the troops present. It also marches across your front taking flanking fire instead of maintaining front and moving sideways. There should be a command like “fallback” that shuffles sideways slowly imho.
Its possible “cheese” extra weapons by adding mixed musket armed troops to a whitfield armed brigade for example. Add 2,000 recruits to the 491 whitfield troops and you end up with 2,500 whitfields …
iv (Author) #
Darren,
Political officers only provide support bonus when they are assigned. When removed from command, they are no longer assigned = bonus lost.
Battle AI is getting more fixes in 1.07 patch, hope this will help.
Weapon topic noted, thanks!
iv (Author) #
Malcolm,
This is something we are not going to add to the game. If there was a reconstruction phase, it should be done properly, and this would require basically creating a “whole new” game layer.
LuckyLindy #
Very interesting game with a deep, immersive and grand strategy that has captivated me for many, many hours. A warm “Thank You.”
Is there a possibility of encoding a regemental system (with a default regimental tables)? Graphically, during the tactical battles, brigades could deploy their regiments in formations that can be seen at certain zoom levels and, likley, slightly widening the brigade’s front. While it was the early regimental system that made the brigades, brigades that made the divisions and so on, it could be in both the Army organization view and coresponding graphics that would show the impact of casualties taken since regiments were poorly reinforced during the war. As such, recruitment could be done at the regimental level to reiforced brigades.
These statements/feature requests are not intended to take away from a good strategic game. Just note the historical references to the regiments such as the 1st Mississippi Militia Regiment, or the “Mississippi Rifles” that has its origins as early as the War of 1812. They become the storied 155th Infantry Regiment of WW1 and WW2 and are now part of the Mississippi National Guard’s 155th Armor Brigade Combat Team. There are scores and scores of regiments across the U.S., both North and South, that have these rich origins and histories. I’d for one like to see it implemented.
Nik H. #
I love this game and it truly is the greatest ACW game of all time, bar none. With that said, I can’t get my avatar to show up in the game. I’ve got him saved on the avatar menu but no matter how many new games I start, he is never amoungst my officers. If it can be explained to me why this is happening, I would be forever greatful.
iv (Author) #
Hello Nik H.
There are a few things that could prevent the avatar from being shown:
1. is the avatar “checked” in the avatar menu (in main menu)? Only avatars that are activated here will appear in the campaign.
2. only avatars that were created (and activated) before a campaign was started appear in the campaign. If you created the avatar later, you will need to start a new campaign.
3. see the filters in commander selection screen during the campaign: are some set off?
4. officers from certain states are unavailable during the game: CSA officers from states that have not yet seceded are not available during the early campaign (before the war)
5. …you may also have found a bug, if points 1-4 do not explain the situation. In this case, please contact us via e-mail!
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