Dev Diary #15 - Battle System Part 1

Dear nobles,

We’re back with a new Dev Diary. We know it’s been a while since we wrote anything, but we wanted to have something really big to share with you.

And so we decided that nothing would be better for this purpose than the battle system, the only big mechanic we’ve been trying to write as little as possible about, both here, on Steam, and our Discord server (that you can join here).

We did this not because we wanted to hide our plans, but to be relatively certain that we will deliver it in the way we described it.

Now that we are finishing the process of polishing the system we can tell you more about it.

Before the battle

Planning the battle will be crucial. The player’s character does not personally participate in the fight, but the decisions he makes have a direct impact on the course of the battle and the potential victory.

Who will lead the attack on the battlefield and how loyal they are to the player’s character, how experienced and well equipped the troops are and how numerous they are – all of those things will matter. When it comes to the city defence, there is also the matter of supplies, the state of fortifications and the available defence machines.

Those elements will be covered in a separate Dev Diary focused on combining the economy of the game and military.

Plan of the battle

Another, equally important thing, is the plan of the battle.

Striving for realism, we found the Lewis chessmen to be the perfect inspiration for the figurines that would be used for planning, although in terms of materials we decided to go for iron rather than walrus tusks. Oh and this and further graphics are still in-progress.

One may wonder, why we aren’t commanding by moving figurines on a big military map, as seen in numerous Hollywood films about the middle ages or fantasy productions imitating this setting.

And that is mainly because such maps were not used. The military did not feel the need to have them, apart from the fact that creating them would then be extremely difficult. Moreover, we have accounts dating back to the ancient times in which maps were rather an incomprehensible abstraction, something more obstructive than helpful.

Even though they were not dismissed outright, the information that we, contemporaries, would see on the maps the people acquired in different ways. A good source on the matter would be for example Vegetius’ De re militari, often called the military Bible of Europe.

However, since strategy fans and players in general have become used to this convenient method of planning, we decided to implement it, but in a form that fits the setting of Noble’s Life. Specifically, in a way that is possible and feasible for a small but very unusual 14th-century nobleman, in other words, the player character. However, expect that this method, like the estate map, although it will be a part of the game world, will be criticised by contemporaries in accordance with what we wrote above.

The plan shown in the screenshot is a visualisation of the offensive, more so – an ambush. Defence, for example, of the city, is based on a mock-up, which we also show in the first trailer of the game.

In this particular minor skirmish we decide the direction of the attacks and who will be commanding them, what forces will participate and who will be left in the reserve.

We have a limited number of different types of cavalry units at our disposal. It is also worth mentioning that in this aspect we also stick to a small scale, i.e. fights of several dozen to several hundred people, and not huge battles. With this established, conroi, a group of several well-trained and equipped knights, grows to the rank of a super weapon.

And what will the planning be based on? Terrain capabilities, more or less precisely determined enemy forces, and what our commanders advise. We will rarely have all the information, but that's simply how it was in the Middle Ages.

Combat

When the skirmish begins, it will be difficult to change much. This is not an RTS, where we have control over each unit.

We will watch the fight in real time, influencing it from the perspective of the commander, who observes it from afar.

Then, the simplest actions at our disposal include sending reinforcements, ordering a retreat, or, less drastically, retreating to a point determined before the battle. Different types of skirmishes will have different options available.

From the perspective of a commander observing the battle, the intense colours of tabards, banners and other such markings make a lot of sense, because they allow you to generally figure out what is happening.

Back to the topic of planning - it is also good to determine what you want to achieve. Inflict the greatest possible losses on the enemy, or maybe push them back with a minimum number of casualties on your own side? Obviously, achieving both things at once would be the best, but also the most difficult in reality.

Moving the release date

Even though it is in an advanced state, we do not hide the fact that the battle system took us a lot of time to make, more than we planned. Hence, the chance that we will release Noble's Life this year is very low. That is why we recently changed the date to Q1 2025. We will do everything we can to achieve it, but our priority is always to make the best game possible first.

Next steps

And when will we be able to see the battle system in action? The whole thing, of course, only in the full version of the game. However, in the upcoming (the fourth already!) sharing of Noble's Life fragment, you will be able to check how the battle system works based on a single skirmish, which will appear in the beginning of the game.

Of course, this is not the only new thing we want to share with you. A few months have passed since the demo was shown, so there will also be new locations and events to check out. We have improved and developed many things, fixed hundreds of bugs.

The enemies of the player character belong in the dungeon. It’s one of the new locations that will be available.

When can we expect this presentation? Quite soon, we will give the exact date in the near future, but definitely this year and it's rather a matter of weeks than months, although we can inform you right away that it won't be in September.

That's it, we're getting back to work. Finally, we would like to thank everyone who has been asking about the state and development of the game over these months. The fact that it continuously attracts such interest is very motivating for us!