With the assistance of our Ukrainian community, we have finally completed a Ukrainian language version of Making History: The First World War.

[ 2024-09-06 16:26:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Repaired broken strings in French release that prevented some unit order interactions. Also fixed errors in some City names.

[ 2023-04-11 13:29:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are very happy to announce that the Turkish language version of Making History: The First World War is now ready.
While we are calling this our Ottoman Release, all Lobby, Hud and Event text has been localized to contemporary the Turkish alphabet.
We will continue to offer new translations in the near future. Polish, Portuguese, Japanese, Bulgarian and Italian are high on our list. Feel free to make requests.

[ 2023-04-07 00:50:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have now completed translating a French language version of Making History: The First World War. Plus, we have included a Turkish language localization option that is currently still in being tested.

[ 2023-03-31 23:01:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have now implemented a Spanish version of Making History: The First World War.
All text content for both have been localized but there will likely be errors or poor translations in some places. Additionally, there are strings that do not fit well in the UI. We will over time address the problems that are fixable.
The next localization will be French. And as we stated before, we'd like to eventually add Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Japanese or Polish and others if possible.
We'll soon be turning our attention back to both gameplay & content for this game and The Second World War. Translations will be added to SWW in the near future.

[ 2023-03-16 23:57:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

For the last several months our focus has been on localizing The First World War into different languages. We released an early Chinese version a few weeks ago and now have a working build that adds both Russian and German. We've decided to make these imperfect translations available to all players while we continue to work on improvements.
All text content for both have been localized but it's very rough in many places. This includes poor translation and in some cases, strings that do not fit well in the UI. We have native speakers helping us cleanup the over 15,000 lines of text for each language.
There are also Spanish and French versions in progress and we intend to follow that up with possibly Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Japanese or Polish. Well be deciding that in the near future and the plan is to also make translations for The Second World War. Feedback is welcome.

[ 2023-03-05 22:23:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Quick patch to fix missing strings in The July Crisis scenario.

[ 2023-02-17 13:46:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Chinese language version of Making History: The First World War is now ready to share.
All Lobby, Hud and Event text has been localized to Simplified Chinese.
This is a large amount of text - over 10,000 lines of translations. The Events alone were over 7,000.
So there's a good chance we may have messed somewhere. Please let us know if you find issues and we'll try to fix them for the next build.
Coming up...
Russian Language translation release. This is currently being reviewed and tested. Should be ready for release in the very near future.

[ 2023-02-14 01:25:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

A Chinese version of Making History: The First World War has been requested by multiple community members. We just wanted to let our Chinese players know that a translation is being worked on. We've completed most of the UI and are beginning on the many events and units.
We will update you when the translation is ready.

[ 2022-07-23 20:25:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this update we fixed several user reported bugs and content errors. A few modifications were made to some Events which we believe is the source of a troublesome save bug that some users have experienced. There are not many changes to the game at this stage, however we are planning to begin releasing more content related updates since the overall game is mostly set. We received many suggestions over the months since we first released the game. These have been filed and well review them all. In the meantime, thanks for providing bug reports and game feedback.

Release Notes:

• Altered the MexicanTejano_PlanDeSanDiego event to prevent a game stall bug
• Changed Kiautschou Nationality to Northern Chinese, they now build German style hardware
• Fixed bug in content that allowed Koenigsberg to have more than 1 recruitment facility
• Fixed Marines Unit model display for several Nations
• Added new religions Taoism & Confucianism
• Added coal maintenance for Power Plants
• Fixed Coastal Defense Model Location for Kiautschou
• Fixed Coal Model Location for Phuoc Long
• Fixed Finish Civil War Event Text errors
• Altered the RussianRevolution_RedRevolution event to prevent save game errors

[ 2022-04-02 14:16:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this new update we focused on fixing some known bugs that were all reported by the community. One big issue involved the Editor. The bug prevented users from creating naval units in mods. This problem was resolved and should now be in working. Since the initial release of The First World War the game soundtrack has received its fair share of negative feedback. Thats not particularly surprising given that musical tastes are highly subjective. Still we understand that some music might be considered less appropriate, more annoying or highly monotonous et cetera, et cetera. Weve removed one song that stood out as a likely offender and added about 8 new tracks to dilute the repetitiveness. While we hope the soundtrack updates improve the in-game experience, for some players - maybe most, turning the music levels down is the best solution. Very often a community member will reach out to us wondering why a certain Achievement hasnt been awarded or what regions they need to get it. We typically will send out the region list associated with the achievement in question. Finally, we decided to use the Steam Guides section to provide a full accounting of all the region lists used in the Achievements.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/959150/guides/ We left out a few of the more obvious cases like Conquer Asia. Players can use the in-game map views that display continental groupings to cross reference conquest goals. There are still more unimplemented items on our improvements, fixes and content expansion lists for Making History: The First World War. Please feel free to offer your ideas and suggestions. Update #4 Release Notes: - Fixed Editor bug preventing the creation of Naval Units - Fixed data error in The Russian Revolution that had Kavala in E. Thrace instead of W. Macedonia - Fixed data error to move Thrace coastal Defense model to correct region - Modified Bulgarian-Allied Alliance deal to give Bulgarians the promised 20K - Added new Soundtrack files - Made change to prevent repeating Turkish Expulsion events - Fixed misspelling of Soviets in several peace notifications - Fixed German-Japanese Alliance agreement so Germany transfers promised Pacific colonies to Japan - Fixed multiple misspellings of Soviets in certain event notifications - Added MPU Cost display to Resource Expansion in Encyclopedia - More Achievement region lists on Steam Guide

[ 2021-10-29 18:32:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Minor update to the game lobby. The nation icons for the new scenario Clash of Continents have been added to the Select Nation panel.

[ 2021-08-20 18:07:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Factus Games announces the release of a new scenario for The First World War called The Clash of Continents. It has a non-historical setting with sandbox style gameplay inspired by the classic board game Risk and its available free for all owners of the game.
There are 6 major factions each representing the continent where they begin the game. They start off controlling only a single region but receive significant advantages over the much larger minor factions that dominate the land masses. This allows for easy conquest early on against the mostly defenseless neighbors. The scenario immediately becomes a race to expand across the globe before the other major continental powers get their first.
Clash of Continents is meant to be a less serious endeavor. The aim for this scenario was to create something focused entirely on conquest that might be a better experience for multiplayer games. Its a more simplified version of Making History without any trade or diplomatic concerns. Resources are plentiful but like most of the world, undeveloped. The AI is warlike and is rarely interested in peace. Each factional power claims the entire map so players will be in a constant state of war.
There were design choices in the making of Clash of Continents which will have a large impact on how the game plays. For example, the decision to make the non-major nations begin with basically nothing. This was done to facilitate uninhibited conquest in the early stages of the game. We believe the interesting conflicts will emerge when these powers finally meet. It is still possible we will modify some of the gameplay as more players provide feedback on their experiences. More Making History: The First World War updates and content additions are in the works. The Second World War will also be receiving regular improvements and we may release Clash of Continents or something similar for that game.

Clash of Continents Release Notes:

• Added new scenario Clash of Continents
• Removed data entry error in Byzantine Nationality
• Fixed West Punjab Nationality
• Fixed West Sumatra Nationality
• Fixed Spelling Errors for Austro-Hungarian Empire in TRR

[ 2021-08-12 14:47:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Since the game's release back in March weve been collecting input from the community on bugs and feature improvements. Many of these have been addressed in this new update. There are still unfinished items on our task list but we felt it was time to offer what we have so far. Most of the changes are content related involving bugged events and simple misspellings. There was one potential crash bug resolved and some overall game balancing. In general, our goal is to get these minor game issues out of the way before making any new significant features or additional game content. Work on a 4th scenario has begun. Well have more information on that in a future post. Thanks for providing feedback and reports on game issues. We will continue making improvements and appreciate the support from the community. Update #2 Release Notes:

• Rebalanced some Naval Unit Combat properties
• Fix to changing dependent nationality that would sometimes cause a crash
• Revised Military Access tooltip that incorrectly claimed that allies automatically receive access
• Modified Mongolian/Transbaikal events involving Baron von Ungern's army to prevent unwanted annexations
• Removed Ottoman Artillery from Italian held Piedmont in The July Crisis scenario
• Added condition checks to Russian move capital event to stop invalid relocation attempts
• Moved Coastal Defense model location for Thrace... was showing in the adjacent region.
• Added scripting to fix Tejano / Mexican rebel bug in TBW
• Edited string error in Unrestricted Warfare notifications.
• Updated Bolivian event for Pacific War, Peru was declaring war on Bolivia instead of Chile
• Fixed event bug that gave independent Poland Orthodox rather than Catholic religion
• Edited Venetian event to no longer refer to Toulouse.
• Revised Long Ranged & Cruiser Sub Unit properties
• Fixed misspelling of word Hangar in various spots
• Fixed String errors in Capital Conquest events for generic city conquest that showed a specific enemy
• Removed some Nation String Errors
• Some basic scenario balancing across the game

[ 2021-05-28 11:48:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Factus Games announces the official release of Making History: The First World War. All the primary gameplay coding is finished and the main content has been added to the game. Leaving Early Access does not mean the game is no longer in development. There are still improvements planned and we expect bugs will be found as the game is exposed to a wider audience. Well continue to stay active on the forums and make changes to the game whenever necessary. Our first Post-Release Update includes a few small changes to the game and a few bug fixes. The UI now has a colorized graphical strip on the Main Menu associated with the nation you play. This is a minor UI embellishment that provides a little more distinction between playing different nations. Weve also begun revising some of the in-game sound FX that we were not too happy with. The game manual is currently in production. You can link to it from The First World War store page. Theres not a lot in there at the moment but we should be doing uploads of new content every few days. Below is a list of the items in the latest build. Update #1 Release Notes:

• Removed Early Access label from Main Menu Panel
• Added new Nation focused art element to Main Menu Panel
• Revised some in-game Sound FX
• Fixed Population Growth Rate Tool tip and Sort on Nationality Panel
• Added Missing Lobby Scenario Nation description strings
• Fixed bugged Empire Military Control button
• Relabeled Empire Colony Control button & Tooltip to be more accurate
• Altered balance between Heavy & Light Howitzers

[ 2021-03-12 22:56:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

The latest update is mostly focused on cleaning up the game in preparation for the transition to a final release. Since all the key gameplay coding is complete and the primary content is in game, we feel it is time for Making History: The First World War to exit Early Access. This does not mean the game is out of the development stage. There are still aspects that need improvement and we expect more bugs will be found as the game is exposed to a wider audience. But from a playability perspective, the game has received a lot of testing and we think its ready. Unless some issue alters our decision, Update #10 will likely be our final Early Access update for The First World War. After we announce the official release version, well continue looking at ways to further improve the game. While in this release we were able to squeeze in a few new UI features from the community generated Wishlist, there are more suggestions wed like to implement. Theres also our own internal Wishlist for the game. All this needs to be quantified and weighed against other priorities but we promise there will be more updates post-release.
In addition to user feature requests, there are a number of content fixes and rebalancing in this update driven by reports from the community. One idea weve seen several times in both FWW & SWW is to give players the option to kick out members from an alliance. As designers, weve always resisted changing this rule since the concept of joining an alliance was meant to offer both risks and rewards. We decided to implement a compromise. The power to kick a nation from an alliance is limited to alliance leaders only. Theres also some new UI enhancements like displaying the ship names on the Military Groups Ships list. And we added the ability to Mobilize/Demobilize Air and Artillery groups from the Groups panel in the same way Army groups operate. While doing this work we found and fixed a bug that prevented demobilization on this panel when your nation was at the highest readiness.
On the balancing side, combat and recruitment properties have been modified on several units. Starting armies, aircraft and ships were updated for all three scenarios. And national resources, money and relations received some attention. A detailed list of the changes can be found in the Release Notes #10 shown below. Let us know if you have any questions or comments on the update.
For those curious about what might be coming next, weve finally begun writing a manual for the game. This will contain instructional information on key features and hints for new players. If all goes according to plan, it should be made available within a week or two after the final release. Longer term plans will be announced sometime after the final release of The First World War. But I can say that work on Making History: The First World War will be a part of that future. And now I would like to extend a very big thank you to the community. Buying a game before it is finished has inherent risks. We appreciate the faith and support the users have afforded us and the input provided to improve the game. As a very small developer, this relationship is critical to our ability to continue making games. Thank you. Update #10 Release Notes:

• Fixed logic error in Holy Sites of Islam Achievement
• Modified Holy Sites of Islam so Ottomans cant gain this Achievement - they start with all 3 cities in 1912 and 1914
• Expanded Art background to extend for longer Decision Point UI
• Fixed UI frame and label misalignments on City Select Panel
• Increased some recruit times on Infantry & other military units
• Added Moldovan to Romanian nationality
• Gave Tank Prototype II a Military Mechanization research prerequisite
• Increased Offensive power of Tank units
• Rebalanced Cruiser Subs to have more offensive power than Sub Minelayers
• Added Feature Action to allow Alliance Leaders to kick members without breaking the Alliance
• Added missing title labels for some City building categories in Encyclopedia
• Added Add/Remove Claim functions to Government/Nationalities & Demographics tabs
• Added Readiness tooltips to main Government tab
• Implemented feature to turn on/off mobilization for Air and Artillery from Unit Group list in Military Reports
• Fixed bug in On/Off mobilization feature on Group List that disallowed Demobilization
• Removed phantom object from Military Unit Totals tab list
• Updated Tips/Tutorial UI
• Fixed Regional Resource content errors - Sweden Coal & Iron
• Updated Historic Ship names and starting naval units TBW, TJC
• Added Research Category Icon to encyclopedia project info
• Added Region name beneath City name to City Selection info
• Now display Mobilization properties for related Research projects in Encyclopedia
• Added Ship Names to ships on Ship List/Military Panel
• Included more Nation descriptions to the Lobby Select Nation UI
• Updated National Territorial Claims
• Added missing Air Bases in TBW, TJC
• Balanced military units in TBW, TJC & TRR
• Balanced starting Money & Resources TRR
• Revised and added missing Encyclopedia Descriptions
• Added Air Defenses to Western Europe in TRR

[ 2021-03-04 16:31:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this latest game update for the Making History: The First World War we are exposing the full set of Steam Achievements. Last release had just two. Now the game offers the total maximum allowed, 100. Theyre mostly conquest milestones measured by taking control of a specified list of regions. Some are based on actual national goals like the Greek plans to retake Constantinople and the Anatolian coastal regions. Still others use ideas from alternative history to provide challenges to players that offer outcomes that might have been.
Most of the Achievements can be activated from any scenario but about 25% are limited to certain scenarios. You can see the associations by viewing the details on the stats page.
Other items in this release include fixes on several bugs in the Notification system and events. Its not certain that any of these errors caused fatal issues but it is always a possibility. We are continuing to modify the game data to get more balanced play. Theres also a few small improvements to the UI and additional scripting routines for those who wish to mod some events. Moving ahead it looks like we may be 1 or 2 more updates away from a final release. This will depend on how quickly we can get through the remaining features and content enhancements. So roughly 2 to 4 weeks until we can declare an end to the Early Access stage. There will be further updates and improvements past the final release date. We are also planning to circle back to TGW and SWW. Both of these games have pending updates that have been stalled due to our overwhelming focus on FWW. Feedback and suggestions from the community are appreciated especially as we begin to polish the gameplay. Thanks to everyone who has posted a positive review. This really makes a big difference for a small independent developer.

Update #9 Release Notes:

• Fixed reference issue causing log Errors from Notification images
• Revised End screen to remove overlapping labels
• Improved Decision Point UI performance and resolved Display Error
• Widened Tax column on Region Infrastructure that could clip when level was too high
• Widened World Power points column on Region Infrastructure
• Fixed Nation Relations starting data in TRR
• Commented out debug message in Berlin to Baghdad event
• Fixed errors in Texas, Tejano and Mexican triggers that might be causing event bugs
• Fixed bad reference calls in TriggerMakeUnitsInRegions
• Removed South African Air Group from Anatolia region in TRR
• Added new triggers to support Achievement implementation
• Added full set of Achievements to game
• Added Achievement icon art to Steam game lobby
• Fixed some various small event errors
• Added a Found Saudi Arabia event
• Added code to support Zeppelin bombing order Achievement
• Upgraded Bombing Order Achievement code
• Colliers and Attack Transports can no longer be built in a single turn
• Created new event scripts: TriggerConditionCanalOpen, TriggerConditionLastTurn, TriggerConditionNationHasMaxResearchPoints, TriggerConditionNationIsPuppetOfPlayer,TriggerConditionCanalClosed, TriggerConditionCityIsPort
• Implemented some Achievements into game event scripts
• Updated scenario data
• Updated starting nation region claims data in TBW & TJC

[ 2021-02-20 21:53:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this update we unlock a 3rd scenario: The Russian Revolution. It starts in the weeks prior to the collapse of the Central Powers. The early game is mostly focused on the surrender of the Bulgarians, Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians and ultimately the Germans. What follows is all the chaos that results from the disintegration of Austria-Hungary and partition of the Ottoman Empire.
The end of The Great War is just the beginning as suppressed nationalities rise up and fight to establish independent nations. In Russia, the Soviet Red Army goes on the offensive from Ukraine to Vladivostok spreading the doctrine of Communism and revolution. For the victorious Allies, dividing the spoils and redrawing the national borders of your defeated enemies could lead to more war and domestic unrest.
The Russian Revolution is likely our most orchestrated scenario in terms of creating a roughly historic experience. Weve never focused so much on forcing the world to go to peace. To that end, the AI is less aggressive in terms of expansion and more concerned with preservation. And while the landscape becomes terribly broken, at some point a newly established order forms. Players can choose to allow more historical paths to set the course of the game, or attempt to counter the momentum of history. Typically a Making History game is centered on Germany and the existential conflict the German nation instigates. In this scenario, there are multiple wars and subplots across the globe. In many cases, players can switch nations midgame to take on new challenges like founding Yugoslavia, leading the Turkish Nationals, or creating a Mongolian Empire with a White Russian led Army. Even though the German AI will likely surrender, players can always decide to reject peace demands and fight on and overcome the Allied advantage.
We look forward to hearing the player feedback on this scenario. It took a long time to create and its underlying scripts are complex. There are likely to be some rough edges to work out. The release notes are very minimal since most of the work since the pre-Christmas release was dedicated to the new scenario. Now that its basically finished, well be turning our attention to making the final improvements that will mark the end of Early Access. These are mostly bugs, refinements and game balancing but there is also a list of feature requests and wish list items we will be considering as well.

Update #8 Release Notes:

• New Scenario The Russian Revolution made playable
• Updated Mongolian Decal/Flag sets
• Revised Portuguese Authoritarian Flags
• Fixed Coal Resource position in Nyika, Nyasaland
• Added new notification images
• New Key bindings for Tilt Camera: Q & E

[ 2021-02-01 17:24:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

This release is a major update that offers several big feature activations. To begin with the Making History: The First World War Editor is now available. A starter mod scenario called Empty World has been included. This is basically a clean map with no assets or nations. We did leave the cities and demographic data on the regions but these can be removed and altered at will. With the editor now active, weve enabled Steam Workshop so players can begin creating and sharing mods and other assets. Weve held off on providing access to the editor since during Early Access, game updates have a higher chance of breaking compatibility. There is still a possibility that future updates could break saved games and mods but we think that is less likely going forward.
Go here to access Making History: The First World War Steam Workshop https://steamcommunity.com/app/959150/workshop/ Achievements have been turned on. More will be added in the coming weeks. We hope to include at least 50. Many achievements will be integrated with the event system to represent specific goals to players within the game. The AI Difficulty levels are partially activated. As the systems become fully locked down, we plan to find more ways to make the hardest settings more challenging. A new feature makes canals income generators. The game tracks the volume of trade through each active canal and provides gold to the controllers. The income is not substantial but it does help offset the cost of supporting a standing army or for the British, a very large navy. Along with the work on the new features, progress on the next scenario The Russian Revolution has moved along quickly. We are about halfway through and are hoping to have it for the next update. There are a number of content fixes, data balancing and additional scripting options added in this release. Below is a list of the most important changes.

Update #7 Release Notes:

• Added Editor to allow custom scenario creation and modifications
• New scenario Empty World Scenario
• Enabled Steam Workshop
• Turned on Achievements and added two for testing
• Implemented AI Difficulty Level set in the Scenario options
• Add new income from trade through canals.
• Created a canal income Tooltip
• Set Reinforce unit group property to default to TRUE
• Deactivated Panama Canal at start of The Balkan Wars
• Added new event trigger to destroy a unit group from scripts
• New new event trigger to test if Unrest is not active
• New new event trigger that will clear a nations Sea Mines
• New new event trigger to cancel region project
• Revised Austrian Flag Set
• Fixed Unrest Notification that showed it starting when the revolt actually ended
• Balanced City production building outputs
• Revised Peace Treaty Decision Point Background
• Fixed Data errors in Unit Templates Marine Desert Terrain Modifier
• Balanced properties on Armored Train unit
• Swapped Armored Cruiser & Protected Cruiser properties
• Modified AI abandon border threshold to reduce holes in line
• New new event trigger to change unit controller in a region by unit branch
• New event trigger to demobilize unit group in specified region

[ 2020-12-11 20:52:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

The update this week unlocks the Multiplayer feature. Players can now Host & Join games in using The First World War game lobby. Well soon be adding Editor and Steam Workshop support. These two features are best left for the final stages since game changes can easily break mods. That means we are getting closer to a final release. But there is still quite a bit to do before we can say its done. Besides MP, this release has a number of bug fixes. One area we spent time on was trying to improve the historical flow to The Balkan War scenario. A lot of players have seen repetitive non-historical play from some AI nations, namely Bulgaria, Italy and to some degree France. As some here understand, the event code is quite dense and its very difficult to trackdown where things might be going wrong. On top of that there are two competing systems at work, the generic AI and the customized, nation specific AI. This forces us to be cautious about making really big changes that are difficult to test. I think weve made improvements but even if we fix all the obvious bugs, there are still subjective issues involving balance and how much weight we give to non-historical outcomes. The recently added mechanism to penalize over taxing has been adjusted. Weve reduced the ruse of Corruption penalties and added the potential for regional riots. This was our initial plan and we are interested in whether players prefer this method. Work continues on the next scenario, The Russian Revolution. We are spending a lot of effort dealing with the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Right now it feels more complex than even the Balkan Wars and significantly more in depth than The Red Army DLC for Making History: the Great War. Theres a chance the new scenario might be made available in the next update. That is the goal. Again, thanks for giving us feedback and pointing out the bugs. Update #6 Release Notes:

• Turned On Multiplayer feature
• Added Defensive strength to Armored Train unit
• Increased width of text area for Submarine Range to prevent property display clipping
• Revised Mobilization data for nation at game start
• Added ability to read Non-Aggression & Neutrality Pacts at game start rather than just events
• Added Player condition test to Break Triple Alliance - may have prevented Assassination event from firing
• Updated Game Map to fix a few borders not displaying in some regions
• Fixed Animation bug in French Heavy Siege Guns
• Fixed AirUnit Group Selection UI Graphic that was slightly offset
• Modified AI Recruitment Template to reduce building of Armored Trains
• Fixed Mountain Infantry Terrain Penalties error
• Reduced Over Taxation Penalty and increased chance of revolts if taxes are too high
• Added script trigger: TriggerConditionControllerNationIsNot
• Added Land Defense Penalties to Infantry units in the Encyclopedia
• Assigned WARJUSTIFICATION_AGGRESSION property to Italy against Ottomans
• Fixed text errors in various Events
• Modified BFW Scripts increase chance of historical decisions
• Fix to make Bulgaria more prone to join Central Powers
• Bulgaria should no longer automatically form alliances when player is human
• Fix to increase chance Italy joins Allies
• Remove Ottoman Balkan Claims if defeated in 1912

[ 2020-11-20 17:51:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

This release does not have many new changes since we are mainly spending our time working on the new scenario The Russian Revolution. There is a new Armored Train unit and this will receive better combat balancing by the next update. Besides fixing small content bugs, feedback on The Balkan Wars has led us to make some modifications to the nation AI to increase adherence to a more historical flow. Changes to the AI scripts are highly sensitive and can lead to unintended consequences. For that reason we try not to make drastic alterations. Oftentimes, odd AI behavior is caused by seemingly unrelated events. These are increasingly harder to track down as the game gets more content heavy and the deeper they occur in a playthrough. The Early Access community has been very helpful by providing both bug reports and actually saved games that we can investigate. Well continue to release an update every 2-3 weeks or sooner when possible. A list of all the significant changes in the latest version of Making History: The First World War Early are listed below. Update #5 Release Notes:

• Fixed errors in Italian and Austrian Mountain Infantry models
• Added new Armored Train Model and Unit to game
• Removed University from Cleveland TJC that prevented upgrades
• Revised Soviet Democratic flag set
• Modified AI Army Recruitment Templates
• Switched Auxiliary Cruisers name source to match Cruisers
• Fixed 0% Prospecting chance in TBW regions that had resource deposits
• Adjusted French AI to ignore Greek 1914 regions in 1912
• Added date constraint to Italian Albanian interference
• Fixed string error in Ottoman Naval triggers that made Turk mining fail
• Added Alliance Breaks to Balkan nations prior to declaring 2nd Balkan War
• Fixed multiple string errors in events
• Partial update of Historic Naval unit names
• Updated Resource objects in TBW regions
• Removed Building restrictions from Factory Outputs, prevented recruitments of units
• Fixed Typo in German-Argentina event
• Reduced chance of FRA, GER, ITA & RUS having Early war
• Stopped AI naval mining when at peace.

[ 2020-11-07 14:51:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

There is not an update this week since we do not have enough items completed to justify a new release. Our focus has been on content development for the next scenario: The Russian Revolution. This scenario will start players off in September 1918 just after the final German offensive fails and the Allied Hundred Days Offensive is in progress. As German, Bulgarian and Ottoman lines begin to collapse, fresh American forces join the fight. Internal instability further undermines the status of the Central Powers and they are ready to find a way out of the war. This is where the game gets interesting. The Central Power governments are losing control of their empires. Throughout Europe and the Middle East, long suppressed nationalists-minded populations are preparing to fight for their independence and conflicting claims. All this while Russia is torn asunder by a continent-wide civil war. An emerging Communist ideology is fighting to inherit the lands of the former Tsar against a divided and dysfunctional opposition. The event scripting for The Russian Revolution scenario is just beginning. We want to have a significant amount of that work done before releasing this to the community. For this scenario we were inspired to add a new unit to the game. Its an Armored Train based on the rail weapons used by the Czech Legion during their legendary campaign along the trans-Siberian railway. This unit will be in the next update.
Heres what we are planning to work on for the next few weeks:

• Scripting events for The Russian Revolution scenario
• Begin implementing Achievements
• Review Territorial Claims for all scenarios
• Explore adding an Always Expand/Prospect Order for Resources
• Implement an Add Claim mechanism to Nationalities Panel
• Stop AI mining Sea Regions when at peace
• Discourage France from declaring war on Ottomans to defend Greek Claims
• Add military units to The Russian Revolution

Partial list of items we will have left to finish before official release:

• Add possible 4th scenario focused on MP play
• Balance cities in all scenarios
• Rework Fleet and Air Content for TRR
• Improve Music
• Add Difficulty levels
• Turn On Editor
• Turn On Multiplayer
• Turn On Steam Workshop

The above lists are not comprehensive and they exclude a lot of non-feature work. We have wish-list items and features that may still find their way into the game. The next update will likely come out in a week and after that we hope to release The Russian Revolution.

[ 2020-10-30 20:57:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this release we are introducing a new scenario called The Balkan Wars. The scenario covers the five critical conflicts that dominated the WW1 era. It begins in March of 1912 with the Italo-Turkish War over Libya where a weakened and unstable Ottoman Empire struggles against the expansionist minded Italians. Then the Balkan nations begin the first of two wars over the remnants of the Ottoman domains in Europe. These actions all lead up to the events surrounding the July Crisis. The assasination of the Austrian Archduke, followed by the outbreak of a cataclysmic conflict involving the world's great powers. And finally, war exposes a growing discontent in the Russian Empire causing a government collapse and a bloody civil war. As with all Making History games, The First World War does not seek to maintain a restrictive historical timeline. The AI is provided incentives to follow a historical path but oftentimes game actions alter AI decisions as the scenario progresses. Most playthroughs of The Balkan Wars should see the regional wars that precede WW1 and the rise of Soviet Russia. But there will be times that an early conflict might arise or maybe a delay in the start of the Great War due to the confrontation in the Balkans. Weve added some code to counteract a common financial exploit of maxing out the Tax Rate slider. Previously the consequences of putting your taxes up to 100% was almost nonexistent in many nations. Now when the Tax Rate is too high, theres an elevated chance of increased Corruption. The threshold for triggering the penalties is different based on Government Ideologies and the harshness of the penalties goes up with the rise of taxation. In general, Socialist nations tolerate higher taxes than others. Theres a similar modifier tied to Government Support. Now the national populations will gain radicalism if Government Support becomes too low. Again, the point at which the penalties kick in are different according to Government Ideologies. Authoritarian and Democratic governments are more susceptible to low Government Support. Both of these policy penalties should encourage players to be better government managers to avoid chronic instability. There are a few game balancing changes for this release. For one, weve added some build restrictions to hardware units like Artillery, Aircraft and Ships. This means some units are only available when a prerequisite Factory is present in the city where you are recruiting. For instance, if you recruit a Ship that requires a Level 3 Shipyard, you can build that unit in any city that has one. Even if you order the Ship in a Level 1 Shipyard, as long as theres a Level 3 in the same city, the option to build will be available. Since the major part of this update is the new scenario, weve put most of our focus toward preparing The Balkan Wars for release. Still there are some of the bugs and suggestions from our Early Access users addressed here. We thank everyone for pointing out the misspelling, content errors and general critiques. For a small team like ours, community feedback is a critical part of making the game better. Update #4 Release Notes: - New scenario The Balkan Wars made playable - Added length to delay AIs desire to cancel Trade & Money Transfers - Fixed Number Ordering in Research Topics - Revised Northern Chinese Democratic flag since it was the same as one in the Chinese set - Added function to remove mines when nations disappear - Added building restrictions to units based on infrastructure levels - Implemented constraint on High Tax Rates, increases Corruption penalty - Low Government Support now generates radicalism in owned regions - High Tax and Low Government Support penalties tied to Government Ideology - Increased nMaxRevoltRisk to make revolts a bit more likely - Expanded Population column width to prevent large values being clipped - Added more restrictions on seeing enemy Mobilization settings - Balanced The Balkan Wars nation data - Fixed West Virginia Demographic data errors - Changed Desert Movement for Wheeled units to 1 Per Turn from 0 - Fixed misspelled Strings in multiple events - Fixed incorrect Baghdad location

[ 2020-10-16 20:06:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new update to The First World War is now live. In this release weve continued improving the Naval Mining system. Mines will now sink enemy trade by destroying shipping capacity in the same fashion as regular trade interdiction. A successful hit also reduces the mine coverage % to represent detonation. The interdiction system has been modified to have some variance in strength to simulate a measure of luck inherent in navigating waters with mines present. Some UI features involving Unit Groups are now extended to the Groups List in the Military Panel. You can now toggle between Mobilize and Demobilize plus take command of your Colonial forces with one click on the list. Well be adding a method to stop nations from setting too many units to Mobilize when their Readiness is low. This will prevent the use of the mobilize buttons to ramp up unit strength without raising Military Readiness.
Colonial Empires can now take command of all their Colonies or Protectorates units using the Empire Military Command button. This is located on the Colony Government panel.
The German AI had a bug that was preventing it from employing tactical attacks on Belgium. This was sometimes leading to a Belgian victory and even invasions deep inside Germany. The changes may end up making Germany too strong in the early stages. We promise to keep testing to achieve a better balance in every area of the game. The feedback we receive from the community is a key element of Early Access development. User reports have alerted us to several bugs we have been able to fix for this release. Some were simple string edits, but others turned out to be important flaws. We had particular trouble resolving some movement bugs that were keeping some units from moving 1 region through Mountains and Deserts. Hopefully that issue is behind us now. A description of all the changes in the latest version of Making History: The First World War Early are listed below. Update #3 Release Notes: - Naval Mines are now destroyed after a successful hit - Naval Mines will interdict Trade and sink Shipping Capacity - Modified Naval Mines hit Probability & Power parameters - Created factor to Naval Mines hit Power mechanic in trade interdiction to vary losses - Altered AI to be more concerned with national threats - less likely to send units to Colonies - Fixed 1 region Artillery movement bug that did not account for Transportation Infrastructure - Added Mobilize/Demobilize feature to Military Groups List - Added Command feature to Military Groups List to take control of Colonial groups - Added button on Colony panel to take command of all units owned by the Colony. - Updated Canadian Nationalists Decal/Flag set - Fixed Notification image for Unrest and Revolt ending events - Added new French, British & Indian colonial forces - Modified German AI to use Schlieffen Plan - was skipping most deployments - Changed Relationship penalty to a bonus for French support of Russia event - Fixed relations notification reference string between Germany & Mexico event - Removed Desert movement restriction on Wheeled units - Suppressed ability to see if your enemies Unit Groups are set to Reinforce ON/OFF - Fixed sea region reference error in Ottoman Naval mining event - Fixed Errors in Belgian Liberation Events - Could lead to the UK becoming a Belgian nation

[ 2020-10-02 23:32:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

The 2nd update for Making History: The First World War Early Access version is now uploaded to Steam and ready to play. Our focus for this release was to get the AI to start deploying Naval Mines. This system is more content driven since there are very specific locations and choke points where nations historically created minefields. At this stage, Germany, Britain, Russia and the Ottoman Empire are engineered to be aggressive about mining the areas we have defined for them. The next steps will be to decouple mining decisions from the specific nations and tie it to the territory they control. Mining Zones can then be targeted by any nation that has a strategic advantage in that area. A significant amount of the work we have remaining to finish up in Early Access involves expanding content and game balancing. We received several helpful reports and suggestions from the users on missing elements and content errors. Everything goes into our database dedicated to tracking issues. Each update going forward should have a larger implementation improvement or addition, plus as many content fixes that we have time to complete before the next milestone. The next scenario, The Balkan Wars is scheduled for release in 2 weeks. Its probably ready to share now. Our reason to wait is to keep the focus on the 1914 scenario and limit the scale of possible content errors to a single source. Well update the community on our progress in next week's release notes and through the forums.

• Remove Large Decals from rendering underneath Airbases
• Modified Health Facilities Maintenance Costs
• Modified Research Facilities Construction Costs
• Modified Fishery Buildings Construction Costs
• Modified Food Producers Construction Costs
• Modified Energy Producers Construction Costs
• Modified Health Facilities Construction Costs
• Modified Health Facilities Construction Time
• Modified Recruitment Facilities Construction Costs
• Modified Shipyard Facilities Construction Costs
• Increased Most Land Unit Maintenance Costs by 1 Gold
• Fixed Medical Center Icon level display error, labeled as II instead of III
• Lowered chance of hitting a neutral nation Mine
• New event Trigger to confirm no enemy troops are in a specified region(s)
• Added Naval Mining AI scripts for UK, Germans, Russians, Ottomans
• Added missing Greek ships to The July Crisis scenario

[ 2020-09-18 16:23:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Its been a week since the beginning of Early Access and so far weve seen just a few minor issues reported. In this first update of Making History: The First World War weve fixed some bugs and turned on more features. The big addition is the Mobilization and Readiness actions are now functioning. These were not turned on for the initial release. Players will now see their unit group strengths tied to their Readiness level. Also, using the Mobilization action will auto-recruit a number of units at a faster pace using a national pool of Trained Reserves. These are both new systems for a typical Making History game and will likely need some adjusting to get right. The German and French version load crash has been fixed. We did not intend to release in multiple languages but we forgot to grey-out that option in the lobby. So we fixed the issue and French and German play is available however the translations are only partially complete. Until all the content is complete well just be supporting the English version but the others will be kept in working order. Even though this is a small update, our goal is to offer a new release every week. This will depend on if there are enough changes to justify the work needed to get a build out. Next week we are looking at implementing AI activity involving the new Naval Mining system. Hopefully most of that can be finished to the point we can share it with the user base. Thanks for being a part of the Early Access stage. We are keeping a close eye on all the comments, suggestions and bug reports. - Repaired movement logic that prevented Artillery and Armor from using their Default Move options - Updated movement rules that too harshly restricted units moving into certain terrains. - Soldiers using Road transportation now move 2 regions per turn. - Fixed exploit where players could cancel recruitment orders to gain free MPUs. - Fixed spelling error of sea region for Ajaccio kept it from building Shipyards. - Removed sea related buildings in Hanoi since it's not a port. - Commented out Nuclear Power Notification Options in Summary UI - Revised logic in independence events for Venetian Republic, Scandinavian Union & Siam to declare war on region controllers instead of owners since the owner may not control the region. - Replaced Fascist ideology string with Nationalist - Removed all Swastika flags from some nation flag sets due to era relevance. - Added a city in Bosnia and a Ukrainian region so Austria Hungary can recruit those nationalities. - Improved logic in Capital Conquest triggers prevent multiple notifications. - Updated localization files to Fix German/French versions from crashing on launch. - Fixed string error in French Mobilization event - Commented out developer informational notification in British event - Made Austria-Hungary skip the historical path events if they choose to not punish the Serbs. - Fix to prevent Greeks from moving capital back to Athens if they control Constantinople.

[ 2020-09-10 18:15:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Early Access version of the game is now uploaded to the Steam servers. We are waiting for the go ahead from Steam to begin offering the new Making History game to the community. For the next few months after the release, the team will be providing regular updates. Most of the remaining work is content related, like additional scenarios, models and events. Gameplay tuning and general support will continue to be addressed as we get feedback and suggestions from the user base. Thanks to those who have waiting patiently through the delays. And welcome to all the new members of the Making History Series.

[ 2020-09-04 18:01:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mass Mobilization

Weve just completed a new feature selected from our wish list of items weve wanted to add to Making History: The First World War. It involves the mobilization of national armies and the seemingly unstoppable momentum towards war. Since the mobilization decisions are so critical to the historical analysis of the conflict, we felt the gameplay should reflect that . With the mass mobilization order, a nation can quickly form a potentially large number of Infantry units in a fast as of 1 turn. This post will focus on how the system functions rather than the gameplay implications associated when using mobilization. At the onset of WWI, almost all industrialized nations, even small ones, had compulsory military conscription laws. The United Kingdom and the United States were rare exceptions. Germanys system was very advanced and infamously detailed. The mobilization feature is meant to simulate differences between a heavily militarized nation like Germany and nations unprepared for a national war effort like the United States was at that time. Both have massive potential but one can field troops fast due to policy decisions and infrastructure investments. Size matters, but in this case much less than structural quality.
Mobilization can speed up the positioning of unit groups along the front but the total process will take several turns to bring these new forces to full strength. Each unit will begin with reduced manpower and a lower strength value. This represents the condition of lightly trained recruits and the overall organizational challenge. These starter units will begin increasing in manpower and strength each successive turn using the reinforcement system.
There are 3 main inputs to determine the maximum number of units a nation can mass mobilize: available manpower, infrastructure and conscription policy. By multiplying these three properties, we calculate the amount of Trained Reserves. The UI provides a slider that allows players to adjust the mobilization level. A single Trained Reserve will form a separate unit group. Each recruitment facility adds to a capacity factor and indicates the type of unit that it will produce. More Barracks mean more trained manpower. And cities containing infrastructure that only recruit Militia will produce Militia units. The unit level will always be at the highest quality available to the recruiting nation based on the recruitment building. Another key modifier is transportation infrastructure. Historically, road and rail development contributed to the speed and efficiency of advanced mobilization systems. This factor is important to both mobilization and the pace at which Military Readiness increases - more on that below. Also since your mobilized units are formed at bases distributed nationwide, railways will be the fastest method to get these units to the front. A nation like Russia in 1914 has a lot of rail but many regions - at least half lacking any transportation infrastructure. This lowers their infrastructure modifier and ultimately decreases the number of Trained Reserves. Russia and even the United States have greater manpower than Germany but the latter has invested in the infrastructure and policies that maximizes their mobilization potential. Its important to note that the mobilization feature does not inhibit or restrict the normal recruitment system. Penalties associated with mass mobilization are solely associated with the specific feature. The last major factor is policy. At the moment, we have designed the national conscription policy to use the research system. Nations that have no policy will not be able to use the mobilization feature. This will likely be just a few small nations like Costa Rica. Even the lesser advanced nations should have the ability to raise militia forces. Mobilization is also not available to non-Independent nations although this feature could easily be extended to dependents. We will have to see what makes sense once more testing is done. The mobilization system has a lot of underlying complexity and this places certain limits on flexibility. Specialty units like Engineers and Mountain Infantry, Armor and other hardware types will not be mobilized as part of this feature - just regular Infantry and Militia. Additionally, players will not have tactical choices as to where specific units are raised and from which regions the manpower is recruited from.
These are considered gameplay constraints. Units will only form in cities with recruitment centers and the manpower will be drawn randomly from all available regions based as best we can on nationality. Essentially, your mobilization results should reflect your existing infrastructure. If you build a recruitment facility in Hawaii, there is a chance to mobilize forces there however it is not a guarantee. Military Readiness is a separate but essential aspect to both the mobilization system and to unit combat strength. In this case, a nation can only order a mass mobilization if they have set their national Military Readiness to General Mobilization. This action communicates to all nations to respond in kind if they feel threatened. A nation will not be able to hide a mass mobilization order.
Setting readiness to General Mobilization does not begin actual mobilization. This is a separate property representing the current investment in military readiness of your forces. If a nation has Low Readiness and then sets their readiness to General Mobilization - the highest level, the mobilization button will become active. Once the mobilization order has been given, the forces will deploy when Military Readiness has reached 100%. After a nation has completed mobilization, then Demobilization is possible. Demobilization is a reverse process of the mobilization system. All units that require MPUs will have their manpower reduced to 1 and reinforcements turned off. At the Unit Group level, groups set to mobilize will receive reinforcements and demobilized groups will not. Demobilized manpower is distributed to regions using a similar method that mobilization employs. The game will allow the player to mobilize or demobilize an army group individually as they see fit. There are currently limitations to when mass mobilizations can be ordered. At present, mass demobilization is not available if a nation is at war. Since the system is new, the game rules could still be adjusted and features extended. While there is a significant amount to say about strategies and how the AI interprets mobilization, we will save this topic for a future post. One of our projects for this release will be to offer a decent manual to describe gameplay features to new and even existing players to the Making History games. I plan to create more posts and include content created for the manual. On another front, a dedicated Making History community member has created a Discord server called the Making History: Official Discord. The goal is to have a location beyond Steam where fans of the gaming series can associate and organize MP games. It was just put up a few days ago and Factus Games plans to maintain a presence to help support and build the base. Please consider becoming a member. https://discord.gg/Aqw8nZt

[ 2020-05-24 00:09:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

The expected release date is at least two quarters beyond what was initially expected. This is in large part due to the amount of content work weve included in The First World War versus previous Making History titles. Another big reason for the delay has to do with important upgrades that are being added to the Making History game engine. For the last few months the main focus on the engineering side has been implementing 64 bit processor support that will vastly improve memory management. This in turn gives us freedom to expand the quality and quantity of content to the game while improving overall performance. Engine work of this magnitude can be a tedious process that takes a lot of time. Its also difficult to predict when the conversion will be finished. In the meantime, other areas of the game will continue to move towards completion.
Even without the engine improvements, Making History: The First World War is in a very playable condition. Almost all features are operating as planned and we have at one finished scenario with another thats fairly close to being done. While theres still more AI, game balancing and UI/graphical improvements to work on, overall we feel the game is ready to release to the community through Steams Early Access program. Releasing a game in Early Access helps set context for prospective customers and provides them with information about plans and goals before the final release. Those who choose to participate in Early Access provide feedback and insights on the game while we are still in development. As a small company, this stage is vital to the process since the more eyes we get on the game, the quicker we can find and solve possible issues.

[ 2020-04-02 13:25:35 CET ] [ Original post ]