So it's been a while since the last Dev Diary and I thought it'd be a great time to update everyone about what's been going on and share some screenshots.

The game is progressing fine and I've mostly been tweaking and optimizing. One big feature that was completed recently is the Battle Simulator.
The simulator spawns random battles with random heroes against random enemies and will be covered in more detail in a later Dev Diary.
If you're just want to have some fun in a quick skirmish, the Battle Simulator is where to click.

As mentioned in the trailers, I've always wanted a HUGE fantasy world to explore and travel. After playing around with different sizes, I settled on a 2500 (50 x 50) hexagonal grid.
This gives me enough room to play with and doesn't bunch everything up. It also makes the game world feel bigger and more epic.

But the problem with having a world that large is performance. The more you put on the screen, the worse performance will be.
Many games solve this problem by limiting what's visible or being rendered at any one time. The content is restricted to one level, one town, one can only zoom so far, etc.

These optimizations I also implemented but wasn't too happy with them. I wanted the player to be able to zoom out and see the entire game world in all its glory.
I wanted to be able to put as many details on the screen without compromising on performance.

Previously this was not possible and the more that was rendered, the more the frame rate dropped. So with a lot of optimization, tweaking and caching, I set about improving performance.
That was the goal of the last few weeks and I think I may have achieved it. I've included some screenshots of the current look and feel of the game world.
Don't worry, no spoilers here. This is just a draft and does not represent the final map at all.

But I thought it important enough to share and I hope it will give potential players a better overview of what this game is about.

I also spent some time improving the game world look. Adding things like rivers, bridges and creating a more natural looking landscape.
Before the grid tiles looked too circular and artificial. With a little bit of adjustment, they now appear more real and natural.

All that being said, the entire game world can now be rendered and I consistently reach a FPS of 110 - 120 on normal graphic settings.
True, I am running this on a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 but I'm hoping even older cards will be able to achieve at least 60 FPS.

On a different note, I've also decided to rearrange the Chapters a bit and include three Chapters in the Early Access Game instead of two. This will expand the game play by about 10 - 20 hours.

As always, thanks for reading this far and more Dev Diaries will be coming shortly.

So how do your Heroes get around the game world?

Well, there are actually 2 ways, they can walk or they can travel in style as part of a Hero Party.

Walking is an old fashioned mode of transportation. It takes longer, is more tiring and your Hero is more prone to attack.
A walking Hero can only cover 1 map grid per turn. The physical strain keeps his health from recovering and saps his morale.
And if by chance he is attacked by wandering Goblins or other nasties, only other Heroes in the same map grid can help.

The preferred mode of transport for your Heroes is the Hero Party. Your Heroes travel the land in style in their Hero Party Wagon.

Not only is it faster and can travel 3 map grids per turn but it can also carry up to 6 Heroes.

Heroes in a party can rest and recover health. Morale also will not suffer. In case it's attacked, all Heroes in the party take part in the battle. Furthermore a Hero Party can carry Cargo such as Potions or other goods.


Hero Parties can be created from any town or castle. Since a Wagon is required, only these locations can create them.

Once a Hero Party is created though, the Wagon belongs to it and can be reused. If your Hero Party travels to a location the Wagon stays there while your party camps in the area.

The party can continue its travels once they are ready again. Only dissolving a Hero Party will destroy the Wagon.

You can think of the Hero Party as individual transport units. Once created, use them to transport your Heroes from location to location.

A quest needs to be completed, send a Hero Party. Famine in town, send a Hero Party. Goblin Raiders or a Golem need to be intercepted, Hero Party! And so on.

Hero Parties appear on the left side of the screen with the Avatar of the first Hero in that party. Hovering over it will reveal all the Heroes in that party.

Clicking on any of the Avatars will center the screen on the party.
And clicking on the parchment icon to the right of the avatars will open the Hero Party Settings.


The settings gives you a detail view of the party and allow you to manage it.

Here you can:

• Take a look at its Heroes and their Stats / Skills
  
• Transfer Cargo between the party, its current location and your Warehouse
  
• Transfer Heroes between the party and its current location
  
• Split the party up into a new one
  
• Merge it with other Hero Parties at that location
  
• Dissolve the party and return its Cargo and Heroes to the current location

In this screen you can take a look at all the Heroes in the party, their Stats and Skills

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In this screen you can transfer cargo between the Hero Party, the Market and your Warehouse at that location

If the location is a POI (Point of Interest) like a town or castle, Cargo can be bought or sold at the market.

You can also transfer Cargo to your Warehouse. You have a Warehouse at each POI in the game world which has unlimited capacity but the more you store, the more it costs per turn.

Unfriendly locations such as caves, tombs, dungeons etc. do not have Markets or a Warehouse.

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In this screen you can transfer Heroes between the party and its current location

Heroes can be transferred from the party to the location and as long as it has capacity, back to the Hero Party.

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Splitting and Merging a Hero Party are still being developed and might even be eventually removed (we'll see)

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And last, in this screen you can dissolve the Hero Party. Dissolving means all Heroes and Cargo will be transferred to the current location.

The Hero Party loses its Wagon and can no longer travel around the game world.

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In conclusion, thanks for reading this Dev Diary to the end. I hope it has given you a better understanding of the game mechanics.

My hope with this mechanic was to create a sense of adventure. You get a quest, pack your Heroes into their wagon and off they go!