i want multiplayer, because fighting AI gets boring. they just keep getting to predictable

Agreed!

There's a game called The Seven Years War (1756-1763) on Steam. It's from the same developers as Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865). It's a fun game, if a bit rough around the edges.

Does total war empire ring a bell?

That's what we're aiming for Duncanlai!

no way... keeping a company you've taken an interest in to see it grow and change through battles? i gotta buy this game

We definitely want players to feel really attached to the army they've been campaigning with, not just having disposable armies.

Ultimate general: civil war did a great job of this. It looks like they are somewhat modeling their game after this (in some ways), which I am excited about as Ultimate General: Civil War is quite old and has some very annoying bugs, and sometimes the gameplay just doesn’t make sense.

@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046I think guys like Offically Devin made me realize that some units are indeed expendable. That being said a part of that I think is that we rarely get named units in your usual strategy games, and even if we do, they’re elite units. You don’t get a chance to get attached to them because they’re a generic battle unit.

It was first game after all, Man gonna learn on his mistakes so this game probably gonna be better

It's really a shame. I dedicated 2-3 years of my life working on that game and made so many mistakes, I learned a lot. Unfortunately, releasing Fire & Maneuver as a free-to-play title meant that we didn't earn any profit on the project. Becuase of that, there was nothing to fund development to actually work on the game further.

@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046 Learning from projects (success and failure both) and striving to do a little better next time is all that should be asked of you. Very few if any first projects work out fully as intended. Frederick himself didn't start off all that great a general as Mollwitz proved, but he got there and a similar story can happen with game design.

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Makes complete sense, I hope we can prove it to you when this game releases! F&M unfortunately can't be worked on any further, we had no funds (by virtue of it being free-to-play) and some of the people who worked on it no longer are part of the team.

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Defintely a source of inspiration in some ways!

Thanks!

That's the goal! :)

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I know this is like half of my dream strategy game

Glad you're excited! I don't want to set your expectations too high though- I wouldn't necessarily classify this game as "Grand Strategy" on the level of a Paradox or Total War-style game. A big part of this project is keeping the scope reasonable and making sure the game is focused and polished.

@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046 I can't describe how happy just the first reveal made me. I've had an idea for an "ideal strategy game" in my head for quite some time now, and this game delivered on at least half of it, which is still great! I am content with waiting as long as it's necessary, if not to play the game, at least to see it played and enjoyed.

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It honestly isn't hard adding factions, but I really want to be careful expanding the scope too much. If the game goes well, and we have the time to do it, then I'd like to.

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House of History is great, I've spoken with him about this project. His series is awesome.

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That's the plan, going to take things steadily and keep the scope smaller!

Definitely similar!

Great point Pioneer, that's something that we're taking really seriously. We want to get that right.

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Unfortunately so. The free-to-play model didn't allow us to work on the game long enough for it to come out the way we had envisioned it. 1% of players spent money on the game, so it just made development incredibly strained and we ultimately had to move on...

Hey Rob! Unfortunately, it's not going to be that type of game. All of those things sound really exciting: being able to fight battles, AND have populations, production, resources, trade, diplomacy, technology, nation management, etc. But each one of those features you add really expands the scope out. As a small indie team, we're really trying to keep our scope focused for this project and create something really polished. If we try and add all that in, we're going to end up looking at a game that promises a lot but fails to deliver. What you described though is definitely an aspiration of ours for a future project :)

@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046 Thanks for replying! Yeah, I totally get it! It's just I've been a strategy player for like 23 years and I always wanted a "perfect" strategy game, you know? But there was none so far and I guess there will never be :( I wish I could a part of a development team and share my vision, but I'm just a doctor. Anyway, I'm looking forward to see your game and I hope it'll be a success which would promote future games!

Right now I really want to keep the scope tight and not take on too much. If we have the extra time before release, then we can look into adding more. Alternatively, if the game does well, we can add some DLC or free updates.

Ok, thanks for the response

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Agreed!

Probably winter or next year if the first gameplay showcase will be released in the summer

Likely end of the year, or early Summer. And Krum (the other commenter in this thread) is right about a gameplay reveal this Summer.

@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046 Please do take your time to make sure the game comes out as good as it can be! There are no second launches! PS: As a f2p my heart sank when I heard that the game would probably be 20-30$. Will the game be on sale for holidays or other events?

@@krum1703 We will definitely run sales that'll make it more affordable!

Right now I think we'd be biting off more than we can chew by taking on mod support on top of everything else. We'll keep you posted though!

@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046 Alright, thank you for the quick response and I wish you good luck in your endeavour!

Yeah what you've seen is just an early preview. We're actually going to let players control their spacing between a rigid line formation and open order formation.

Nothing confirmed yet, but we're currently thinking between the $20-30 USD range. Definitely will be included in sales though!

Totally possible in this game!

Similar art style for sure, just a lot more fluid and a tighter scope to ensure it's polished!

I think that the customisation will be good enough so that you can max out the artillery in the game

Prussia will focus on quality over quantity, so they'll definitely be powerful but fewer in number!

Hanover/Britain are on hold at the moment, although we may consider adding them if we have extra time left before release. Alternatively, they'll be included in some kind of DLC or free update post-launch.

Unfortunately, we had to suspend development for F&M. The free-to-play model just didn't pan out for us, and there was no way we could afford to continue working on it.

I would honestly consider the campaign system we're making to be a bit of a sandbox. If you mean an "endless mode," that's something we've considered, but haven't decided on including just yet.

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We've learned so much from mistakes on F&M; we're committed to making an excellent game.

You will be able to!

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No Irish regiments or really any foreign volunteers are planned as of now. But there's nothing stopping you from giving green facings/flag to a regiment and nicknaming them "Irish Volunteers." Custom battle mode will be in if we have enough time, still figuring that out currently.

@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046 Awesome. A little bit of imagination won't go astray! Keep up the great work!

Will the game allow for creative thinking with strategies and tactics? And can you use any kind of tactics that you want to in battle?​@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046

Naturlich! Es wird auch lokalisiert.

It's funny you mention that because we had a conversation about players encountering supply convoys or depots along the campaign trail while they're headed toward the main HQ, and how knocking out one of those convoys/depots could affect the main enemy force.

We had to cut support for F&M. It was a free-to-play title and couldn't generate any revenue for us. This meant we just didn't have any of the funds/resources that we needed to continue development. It was a giant passion project of mine, but unfortunately it wasn't possible to continue.

Question,will there be a navy

Since it's focused on 7 years war Prussia, Austria and Russia probably not.​@@Cosmo-hw1cd

Sticking the landing is the hardest part! We're going in with a much tighter scope, and this project has been moving along far smoother than the early development days of F&M...

It's tough to say what we'd cover next, but I'd love to make more "Master of Command" style games in the future if people like it!

No siege battles, unfortunately. We are trying to keep the scope/scale of the game really focused and don't want to bite off more than we can chew. So expect polished land battles, but no siege battles!

We are actually having it so players can encounter smaller enemy forces on the campaign map, but the main enemy HQ is just so that the player has a set goal and can't just wander around the map forever.

No problem- I will say though that we let players pause or actually play on slow-motion so you can really take your time to plan things out in battle. You might just like it!

@@armchairhistoryinteractive2046 Thanks for the reply. If there is a demo, I will definitely give it a try.

We're going to take on a style reminiscent to our KZfaq videos, using a lot of the same artists who work on our team. This means we're going for a more stylized approach, but it's not going to be overly cartoony.