v0.21 - Units, Formations and Modular Characters

Had to push the planned Kings & Queens patch and instead did some Battle/Combat rework, new Units, new Formation system, completely modular Characters, and the new Horse model that also support advanced things such as Pegasus variations.

Modular Characters

Finally Humans are fully Modular as per Equipment items for Armor/Clothes. This also prepare for K&Q patch. And introduce several new Armor items and new equipment sets for Recruited soldier types.

Horse asset is completely changed to the final version we need. This makes it easier to commit to working more on Mounted Combat and needed melee animations. Dismemberment is still not added to horses but will soon come, where axes will have bonus damage to Horse legs.

Units

New system where any World Character can appoint Officers that control their own Units of Soldiers (Max 12 as default config). Players build their own Units in the Character Panel (new Tab). And currently are free to make as many as they can (any Soldier already in a Unit can't join another). Unit Name is auto-generated but can be changed for customization.

In Combat the Lord has control of the Army and Officers, but not directly Unit Soldiers. Instead the Lord can "select Unit 1" and command to attack from the side or take Hold Formation on a hillside.

When commanding Charge to Unit Officers they instead start Advancing, where the Officer now tries to carry out the Lords command. The Lord can place a Banner as Target Point used by the Officer to try advance toward enemy using a Path. Currently the placed visual Banner is the Lords, but in the future it could be special banners equipped on the Officer that can be found in Dungeons. These special Banners will give AoE Status Effects to nearby soldiers.

When giving Hold to Unit Officers they will hold the position, but if heavy fighting occurs the Officer might charge.

Officer/Soldier AI decision is based on Character Stats and Skills.

In the future we will add even more advanced Officer AI using more complex Environmental Query Data to make for example decisions based on Terrain. And we are very open to any kind of feedback and ideas how Units could be used :)

New Formation system

New system that is performant and easy to work with. External tools can visually create Formation structures and exported as local relative positions. This makes it very easy to manually create any kind of Formation and we added several new ones like Circle, Square, Column etc.

A new Radial Menu is added for selecting Formation. Both Charge and Hold command buttons can now be held to open menu and select what kind of Formation. If charge or hold are clicked they will use the current Formation you have with your Army.

Be aware that Unit Officers have their own Formations and you can set each Units preferred Formation, but Officers might change it during combat if deemed necessary.

Soldiers holding Formations, they might break out of it depending on what happens, but can most often be called back by the Formation Leader.

AI Lords/Officers will now actively use Formations as a strategy, while also disengaging to gather up the lines again.

Combat

New movement speed added, Sprint, that use Stamina in combat. It is between Walk and Run but can be used while holding weapons. (Players default keybinding is holding shift).

Player HUD now shows hit/recieve floating damage numbers around middle.

Armor is changed to be % based instead of fixed damage reduction. Normal Plate