Faction Update - v0.3

Hello and thank you to everyone who has played the game so far, I apologise for the delay but I hope you can see why it took so long. To give you can overview, here are the most notable additions in this update:

• Combat Rework - Decisive Battles
• Combat Rework - Prolonged Sieges
• Religion Rework - Choose your playstyle
• The Mercenary Camp - A new threat on the Frontier
• Trade Goods - 13 unique strategic bonuses
• Improved UI - Tooltips + Casting
• Nomads, Explorers + Generals - Foreign Agents
• Factions - Government Type
• Lords, Tribes + Explorers - Starting Positions

I have created a video version of the dev diary here, where I play the new update and explain game mechanics:

Decisive Battles

Battles  have been significantly improved with this update. You now fight battles automatically, watching as your soldiers win or loose the battle. If things get too rough you can retreat after a while.

As-is there are over a dozen units in the game, each with their own unique stats that affect how they perform in battle. These units are divided into four categories with their own special trait:

• Infantry: Bonus defence in built-up terrain.
• Cavalry: Attacks that shatter entire units on open terrain.
• Skirmishers: Inflict passive damage without taking casualties.
• Siege: Efficiently destroy garrisons during sieges.

When you attack you gain the 'Fatigue' modifier which means you cannot initiate aggresive actions such as battles, sieges, plundering or capturing holdings. The effect lasts 30 days but can be reduced by half if you have access to the Herbal trade good.

Prolonged Sieges

Sieges have been optimised to align better with how battles unfold. Taking settlements in Heartland Frontier is not a quick affair, it requires you be adjacent to lay siege, destroying a town's garrison over weeks or months. 

• When sieged garrison does not replenish manpower monthly.
• When sieged settlement construction is frozen.
• Garrison Infantry gain bonus defence from built-up terrain.
• Must be adjacent to a settlement and not fatigued to lay siege.

During the siege your men will pick apart the garrison, targeting infantry first, then cavalry, skirmishers and finally siege units. Once all the garrison cohorts have been destroyed, you will have the option to occupy, sack or exterminate the settlement.

Religion Rework

The faith you choose at the start of the game will affect what religious events you receive. Each belief system has benefits with multiple options to choose from.

• Paganism: Balanced Focus: Resources & Tribal Warriors
• Sun Cult: Military Focus: Resources & Knights
• Moon Cult: Economic Focus: Construction & Garrison

Each faith has a separate playstyle, some are very strong in the early game allowing you to build up your power base. While others scale extremely well into the late-game. 

The Mercenary Camp

There are four Great Powers that border the Heartland. From each of these realms come mercenaries who enter the Frontier in search of pay and loot. You can hire these elite warriors to supplement your ranks.

With enough gold, mercenaries allow you to tip the balance of power in your favour. Mercenaries can be recruited to supplement your ranks  - or to avoid them joining with your enemies. 

• Cossacks: Nomadic cavalry that roam the northern steppes.
• Bombards: Siege weapons from the eastern workshops.
• Jannisaries: Skirmishers that guard the southern deserts.
• Legionaries: Infantry that fought in the western legions.

The Mercenary Camp will be available as long as there are soldiers for you or NPCs to hire. After a period of time the camp will move to another location within the Heartland and have additional men to recruit.

Trade Goods

Trade goods are resources that you produce gold with every month. In addition to generating gold from production, each trade good has a unique bonus that affects gameplay.

• Stone: -50% Construction Time
• Sulphur: +1 Food from Farmsteads
• Meat: Bonus Food
• Gold: Bonus Gold
• Gems: Bonus Influence
• Iron: -50% Recruitment Time
• Wine: +50% Morale Regeneration
• Cotton: +50% Manpower Regeneration
• Fur: -50% Colony Influence Cost
• Ivory: +1 Faction Members
• Horses: Enables Knight Recruitment
• Timber: Enables Trebuchet Recruitment
• Herbs: -50% Fatigue Penalty

Heartland Frontier is a game about creating your own strategies with what you have available to you. Not every trade good will be available to you at the start of the game, you will need to use what you have and exploit the weaknesses of your enmies.

Improved UI

There has been several changes to the UI in this update. The two areas I would like to discuss here are tooltips and casting. Every ability and effect now has a tooltip, simply hover over the button to read what the action does. 

Casting has also been improved, you will now see a visual tile for valid targets on the map, hopefully making your life easier.

Nomads, Explorers + Generals

Nomads are warriors led by a character who does not belong to a faction or own any settlements. Nomads typically roam the Heartland, plundering holdings and fighting lords who get in their way. They can enter the Frontier from the Great Powers or emerge organically within the Heartland itself.

Nomads do not benefit from a settlement's monthly recruitment or manpower regeneration. Instead they recruit additional warriors from plundering farmsteads and workshops. When they plunder a holding they will sometimes raise a cohort of tribesmen, bowmen or horsemen.

Explorers lead an expedition sent from one of the Great Powers. They come to the Heartland to colonise and increase the influence of their parent nation. Explorers command smaller armies but they are well organised and well resourced.

The first objective of an explorer is to colonise and build new towns on top of ancient ruins, if they cannot do this then it is likely they will use their forces to lay siege to a weaker settlement and expand their control that way.

Generals are some of the most powerful characters in Heartland. They are sent onto the Frontier to exterminate their enemies. They bring with them thousands of well-trained soldiers, siege engines and enough resources for a long campaign. 

If a Great Power feels threatened - or you are close to unifying the Frontier, they will send generals into your homeland to pacify the Heartland and destroy any resistance in their path.

Factions

You can create faction when you control more than 1 settlement. There are 2 ways you can expand your domain in Heartland Frontier, you can find ruins and use 10 influence to repopulate the area, converting it into a settlement. Or you can use your soldiers to siege down an enemy settlement and occupy it.

Once you found a faction you will be given the choice to choose its government:

• Monarchy: Tall playstyle
• Democracy: Wide playstyle
• Oligarchy: Mixed playstyle 

In a Monarchy the Faction Leader remains in charge until his death. Faction members belonging to a Duchy or Kingdom will benefit from feudal levies every year, allowing them to raise a unit of Knights if they have room in their army.

In a Democracy the Faction Leader remains in charge for 6 months, they will then need to win an election to remain in power. After each election settlements belonging to this faction will benefit from free enterprise, instantly constructing a holding nearby.

In an Oligarchy the Faction Leader remains in charge for 12 months, they will then need to win an election to remain in power. After each election  settlements belonging to this faction will benefit from meritocracy, allowing them to recruit a unit of Spearmen in each settlement controlled by the faction.

Lords, Tribes + Explorers

Your background determines what resources you have available at the start of the game. This mechanic has been expanded to allow you to choose how you want to approach your early game objectives.

Currently there are 3 available backgrounds:

• Feudal Lord: Economic focused
• Nomadic Tribe:  Military focused
• Exiled Explorer: Utilitarian focused

As a Feudal Lord you start the game ruling over a settlement. This allows you to recruit soldiers over time from the local population but you will have to secure holdings to maintain your forces and defend the area from attack.

When you start the game as a Nomadic Tribe you have limited resources and do not control a settlement, however you start the game with a large army capable of defending itself. You must plunder holdings to recruit additional soldiers and must eventually conquer a city to secure your position.

Starting the game as an Exiled Explorer will spawn on the edge of the map from 1 of the 4 Great Powers and you will have a small but high-quality army at your disposal. You also start the game with plenty of resources so you can choose to either colonise a ruin or adopt a more aggressive playstyle, plundering holdings to recruit additional soldiers.

Housekeeping

It has been several weeks since the last update to the game. The reason for this is that I have changed how I work. In the past I updated the game every Friday and I did this for around 6 months. I have now changed this, instead updates will be larger but more spread out.

There are several reasons for this change, and I might write a post here on itch to try and help other developers. The short answer is - during the early stages of a project's development, the weekly updates are good, features are small and it motivates you to continue because you have set a goal for yourself.

The longer a project goes on, smaller features become less relevant and larger, more nuanced changes require your time. Most of these cannot be done in 1 week and so for this reason I have decided to abandon my routine. This will give me time to add larger, more significant changes to the game.

From this point on I hope to update the game every couple of months - providing you with new content and features every time. I cannot guarantee I will keep this schedule but my goal is to provide real content and significant changes every time I update the game.