Gen’l,
Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) was released in Early Access two months ago. On August 21 we marched straight into the Wilderness, and have been fighting ever since. After desperate fighting and even some repulses, the advance continues. The game is being improved all along, and recently we have started adding content that has been requested by the Early Access players!
Into the Wilderness.
After August 21, things have advanced with Grand Tactician. During the first weeks after the release we have been dealing with major bugs, crashing, corrupted save files and even a nasty memory leak. But we’re happy these major issues are already behind us, and even as there is still a lot to do, the game is stabilizing. Plugging the memory leak was one of the more tedious projects so far, but now we have been able to focus on game play, AI and balancing, and producing additional content – on our way towards the full release of the game.
We have received a huge amount of bug reports, save files and logs, as well as feature requests from our Early Access players along the way. We have logged and prioritized them and are working through the list to constantly improve the game. Development patches have come out every 2-3 days, while official patches have been released weekly, on average. While first patches were focused on technical issues and stability, lately the point of main effort has been in campaign and battle game play.
While the team uses 90% of available effort in bug fixing and balancing the game, we have also added in playable content. Early on the 1863 summer campaign scenario was added, with a bonus summer 1861 scenario released a bit later, and just now we also added one more historic battle in the mix – the 1864 Battle of Olustee in Florida. This is the second regimental level battle, along with Wilson’s Creek, and the battle preferences have also been re-balanced in these two battles to improve playability and AI performance.
At the same time we have started adding more maps in the game, integrating them in the campaign map as well. The recently added maps are the before mentioned Olustee (FL), along with Cumberland Gap (KY) and Honey Springs (Indian Territory, modern OK). More maps are in the making, and will be sneakily added in the game with the coming patches. And while I have been adding the maps with our paper map artist Wasel, Peter has added more commander portraits and soldier images. Though, it does not help in his task that more commanders have also been added, the number now standing at 1591.
Save the Nation!
After resolving the major crashing issues we have slightly diverted from our Early Access Roadmap due to player requests. We have already added a number of player requests, like moving Headquarters units only, saving of filter settings and most recently unlimited campaign saving option and (optional) reworked battle objective system. More subtle changes have also been made according to feedback, like some changes in the campaign map, some font changes, pause default settings or game balancing.
As per our EA Roadmap, the steps described are already being taken not one by one, but simultaneously. While the first new maps, along with bonus battles have been already added, the work on the 1864 campaign is also ongoing, as is the work on allowing mid-battle saving and loading. We are also happy to announce that the first tutorial videos are being worked on by a renown history enthusiast and wargame YouTuber. The manual is also being planned with an American author and editor, who is a huge Civil War enthusiast. Like said, while more content is being created, the main focus is still in bug fixing, balancing, AI and performance improvements.
There are a number of larger topics that the community has requested so far, like scalable UI, hotkeys, or further game play options. These we have stored on our list and will start implementing them once we have advanced further with bug fixing and adding playable content.
We believe it’s a good idea to work with the community this way, even if it means the full release of the game may move further into the future this way – the Early Access players have been very encouraging and patient towards us, providing great feedback and cool new ideas. At this point we want to thank all the Early Access buyers for the continued support! The march to victory continues, even if there has been some setbacks along the way.
Most Respy,
Gen’l. Ilja Varha,
Chief Designer.
Comments
Althar93 #
Great work! Can’t wait to see what else you guys have in store for us! This game is shaping up to become a staple of the genre and some more.
LexAl #
Hi,
i recently played the game and i must say i am absolutetly surprised. Thanks for developing such a detailed and challenging game!
One Question came to mind:
What is the ratio between “real” men in a unit and the represented soldiers on the battlemap and will this be adjustable in the final game?
Onward Dev-Team!
iv (Author) #
LexAl,
The ratio in game is currently set as 0.025 which means each sprite on map represents 40 actual soldiers. The values can be changed by player already, in file called unitprefs.txt in config folder of the game.
A few of the battles are in regimantal scale, and there each sprite represents fever soldiers.
LexAl #
Ahhh nice. Thanks for the hint! :)
Is it possible to break down brigades into regiments for flexibility? Or i i overseeing this feature too…
Captiva #
Please include the historical Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. This battle, followed a few days later at Nashville, put an end to Hood’s Army of Tennessee. The Battle of Franklin was called, Pickett’s charge of the west. Confederate Generals, Cleburne, Strahl, Granbury, Gist and Adams were all killed at Franklin. As of now, I don’t even see the town of Franklin on the Campaign map. Thank you.
Stephen L Clarke #
I have been playing now on early release for about a month. I have some comments for the development team on play
1- I am happy with the ideas you are running with generally. The few things in game which annoy me are:
A- There are some annoying specifics involving repetertive tasks like recruitment of units as individual operations.
which can make play slow.
B- When you create corps/armies etc you often get repetertive names….like Fort mostly being named Morgan and all new corps in an army are 1st. corps!
C- No control over recruitment location of initial Army HQ in states
D- There is no way to search for a particular commander by name, you have to order alphabetical!
The things which work well
E- Order delays are excelent although an estimated delivery time for the orders(based on the factors at the point sent) would be a nice prompt.
F- I don’t mind the naval combat system is abstract, but having some control of strategy the admiral should use would be nice
G- Likewise I don’t mind the construction of vessels is time consuming, however an estimated completion date would be a nice feature
iv (Author) #
Captiva,
Franklin is not on our to-do list for Early Access, but we keep on adding maps after release too. Let’s see if we’ll have Franklin at some point.
iv (Author) #
Stephen,
Thanks for the feedback! We’ll keep improving the game, including the mentioned topics. Search by name could probably be out of scope, though. But let’s see.
The order delay time is not shown during battles because it will change depending on unit movements, etc. Ship completion time is shown in the ship’s tooltip in the fleets panel.
Rachel Kloot #
Dear Grand Tactician
I hope you are doing well, I love your work on Civil War 1861-1865, and I am a fan. You are a success and Lion heart film works is with you I Guess; but I have 3 game ideas that’ll do you good. Number 1 “MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR 1846-1848.” This game is the exact same like civil war, and before I get to number 2 I suggest to make the game or games more Atmospheric in graphics and physics. Number 2 “MEXICAN REVOLUTION 1910-1920”, It is the 20th century and more modern weapons are used and Mexico is in a revolution, In the game you have no more line tactics but guerrilla warfare. Finally my NUMBER 1 is “EMPIRES 1820-1910.“The game is based in the colonial times of the 19th century and early 20th century. There is Empires, Nations, Natives and Kingdoms that you can play, and the map is earth and all the continents featured in the game is important except Antarctica. Trade with each other, make alliances and enemies, colonise lands, command armies, and lead the to VICTORY!
You are doing a great job Grand Tactician.
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