Interesting game; a couple questions.

[Mechthorian]

First off, I appreciate the candor from the dev team. It's not often we get this much communication and clarification on what a game actually is.

That said, I do have a few questions:

1: There isn't much lore info I could find, apart from the whole "alternate WWI" thing. I'd like to know more about what happened in the Kaiserpunk world to differentiate it from our own.

2: Is there a GOG release planned? I prefer to do my shopping there, to avoid DRM.

3: The devs have previously said battles take place in a separate world map, and you can't actually command units on a micro level. That's fair enough, but what happens if my own city is invaded by enemy forces? Do I get to command the defense, or just watch the show?

[Builder_of_Worlds]

We're really happy game got you interested! We've been ejnoying the process of creating it pretty much

Let me share some answers with you then:

1. We intentionally leave this pretty blank for now. The simple version of the backstory is that the Treaty of Versailles was never signed. The meeting was attacked and most participants were killed (assassinated to be more precise). Then the protracted war caused the old countries (monarchies, empires...) to crumble and split. Then the game starts and you're just one of the groups trying to find their place in the world and rebuild. The alternate 20th century is precisely this part: your story. What you're doing (and the other groups/factions). Hence, we can't tell you more on that. The players will create/tell the story. More backstory / lore / history will be told through playing, as continuations of the events that led to everything in the form of emerging stories, potentially triggered during playing. I say potentially, since it's not 100% guaranteed that an exact story / event will happen in your playthrough.

2. This is yet to be decided. It is unlikely that Kaiserpunk will release on Steam and other platforms at the exact same time. The final decision will depend on a number of factors. One small, but in our experience, crucial difference here is that on Steam we have full control of releasing updates (literally), while on GOG that is in some cases slower or out of our control (at least partially). Epic, in this regard, is the slowest. On Epic, they have to release each update. Sorry for the rant, just wanted to provide at least one of the reasons why this isn't decided on yet.

3. Both in a sense. RTS controls are a NO. Let's make that clear. But you do have some control of the situation through issuing commands. Let's imagine a large scale attack on your capital. An air raid, accompanied by ships bombarding from the sea and tanks + infantry rolling in from the outskirts. First of all, you'll see these events as cutscenes. You'll be able to then decide how to respond to each of these situations. Furthermore, each of these "events" can spawn further stories right away. Maybe you'll instruct your air defenses to focus on the bombers, while their fighters continue with the raid. You knock down the bombers, debris falling on your city, causing fires and further explosions. And since their fighters managed to continue with their raid, they wiped out half of your artillery. This made it more difficult to defend against the attack from the sea, which then in turn managed to cause much more damage than anticipated. The overall chaos that ensued made it possible for the attacking infantry to scatter around your capital and now you have a bunch of locations where they have dug in... I'm just rambling from my head at the moment, but I wanted to provide an example of how this will be made: not through direct controls, but through choices and commands. And usually (almost always actually) there is no this perfect choice will fix everything.

So, to provide a much shorter answer: Yes, you get to command the response of your defenses (not minute control) and you get to watch it as well.

[SlickJenny1999]

I was wondering some of the same things. Thanks devs for answering, particulary No.3