Patch 1.04

Hey everyone!

This is our first major F&M patch. While this patch does not address every major issue everything that's been reported, it does tackle a few annoyances players have been having. Keep in mind that our development team accomplished all of this in just a day, so we are quick at work in addressing all of your concerns with balance, bugs, UI, content, and optimization. Stay tuned for a small update this Friday.

Balance Changes:

• Quick match timer changed to 90 seconds from 45 seconds.

Fixes:

• 2v2s reenabled and working again.
• Quick match connection massively improved.
• Getting permanently stuck in the Quick Match queue should now be fixed.
• The charge button would flash all neighboring tiles and fade, now the chargeable tiles remain clearly indicated to the player.
• Players who already owned the ACW DLC were being taken to the store page when clicking on these nations.
• 2v2 maps are now listed exclusively under the 2v2 category.
• Players no longer earn merits/xp from games they abandon.
• Collisions on the bridges on Williamsburg were turned off, now they're on.
• Soldier sprites were invisible when loading into the game until the player moved their camera close to that unit, this is fixed.
• The "heights" map resolution is now HD.
• Union/Confederate nation icons on the main menu have gold frames instead of losing the golden frames when unlocked.
• XP was set to the wrong speed and now moves quicker when ending a match.
• The Overland Campaign description had a historical error and is fixed.
• Clicking and hovering sounds weren't playing when clicking on factions and hovering over the home, learn, quick match, custom, nations, and store tabs.
• Merits weren't earnable in singleplayer on launch which was fixed.
• Players were only starting with 10,000 merits instead of 15,000 so they could only get 2 factions instead of 3, this has been updated for all players.

Quality of Life:

• New movement system update which automatically indicates the direction and path a unit will take before the player has right clicked to confirm the order. This new movement system will see some improvements on Friday, but it's a step in the right direction. We will also be implementing a system that highlights all tiles a unit has access to when selected to make movement even clearer. (Gif preview here: https://imgur.com/EbHVN4K)
• Some new hotkeys added:
  1. Tapping F allows you to quickly fire on units.
  2. Tapping C allows you to quickly charge units.
  3. Tapping Space allows you to open and close your order window.
• A preview of XP earned now appears in a feint green when leveling up.
• An information tab has been added to the armory explaining how to equip weapons.
• Enemy units who are given an attack order are highlighted in red so the player knows which enemies have been targeted.
• The "Melee-only" icon has been changed to a closeup of a sabre instead of an image of a sabre with a hand which was harder to read from far away.
• Weapons in the armory are now placed in order of category (infantry or cavalry weapon), then price within that category.
• There is a clear "unlock faction" button above faction icons instead of needing to click the icon several times before an unlock menu appears.
• Merit rate was doubled so that unlocking new factions does not feel like a grind.

Content:

• Brand new "Rumanian Rurals" 2v2 map!
• Added the intro tutorial mission to be replayable under the "learn" tab. There is an issue however where this scenario will not load if the player has played a game prior to replaying the tutorial scenario. Restart your game if this happens to you. On Friday we will put out an update to fix this immediately.

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Known Issues to be Addressed Soon:

• The game's UI is unclear in many places. A brand new nested tooltip system will overhaul our current tooltip system allowing players to clearly understand every mechanic in the game. This is the current "tooltip" system.

This is the new nested tooltip system.

• Time of day isn't progressing and so each battle retains an early morning lighting.
• Damage for units in hard cover (buildings) is not being properly applied.
• There are known issues where some players can't launch into a game despite all players being readied up.
• AI in the campaign system currently can't recruit individual soldiers which needs to be fixed.
• Some settings aren't getting applied from the main menu.
• Small pips on cards need to be added telling the player how many orders they can continue issuing certain units.
• Cavalry carbines are not applying damage correctly in some cases.
• Union/Confederate eagles aren't animating.
• Players can't add more than 1 AI in a match, or play against AI with a friend.
• Arrows not displaying on hills/cliffs.
• Tiles not highlighting where a unit is able to move to.
• The hotkeys aren't listed under the options menu.
• Z should undo your last order.
• Alt should slow down camera movement.
• T, G, and V will be plugged in as hotkeys for reserves, movement, and formation changes.
• The number keys will automatically select numbered units.
• Ready button UI is ugly and is being remade and put in a better position.
• Players who spend a long time on the choose nations screen have their mouse duplicated infinite times.
• If a player hovers over another player's animal avatar that player's name should appear.
• Reserve swapping isn't working as intended.
• The advanced settings menu isn't accessible in battles which it should be.
• A dynamic game speed mode which makes the first few turns quick and then slows down when combat happens should get added soon so that playing on larger maps don't feel tedious.
• Some players experience fighting invisible units, which is a desync error on the client end when a unit isn't being properly killed during a melee.
• If a player doesn't have any factions unlocked he shouldn't be able to play quick match or custom match.
• Units crossing bridges need to be in a column to cross but right now any formation can cross.

There are plenty more bugs we are aware of. I personally read through every single review and comment made on our Discord and Discussion tab and recorded over 15 pages of issues. We will work every day until every one of these issues has been addressed. We are also looking into ways we can make artillery feel more powerful so that bombardments feel more impactful instead of the enemy just instantly regaining its cohesion after being shot.

Thank you, Griffin