Battle Realms- Complete F.A.Q. [Steam, GOG, BR2, Lair Of The Lotus, BRLegends]

Last updated: November 20, 2019 (Steam Release Announcement)

Battle Realms Steam page is up, people! Add it to your wishlist and spread the word!



http://store.steampowered.com/app/1025600



Here's a vid from us on the matter, all the info gathered in one video:

https://youtu.be/d1F-FLnm6dk

Introduction:

Creating a YouTube channel dedicated to the game.





Communicating with and helping out countless of BR fans.





Leading the BR wiki [battlerealms.wikia.com] - your best source of information about the game.





- your best source of information about the game. Administrating the Official Russian BR Community [vk.com] - This is where all the russian players get acquainted with BR.





- This is where all the russian players get acquainted with BR. Creating the BR Community Discord server [discordapp.com] - not sure if it's the only one, but it's basically official as well since Ed Del Castillo knows about it.





- not sure if it's the only one, but it's basically official as well since Ed Del Castillo knows about it. Cooperating with Liquid since 2013 and Ed Del Castillo himself since the beginning of 2014.





Playing semi-profesionally online on GameRanger [gameranger.com] since late 2010, ID: 1109221.

Important notes:

Originally posted by KoMiKoZa: Before you go further, read the official statement from Ed Del Castillo, dated September 2018. [vk.com]

As of June, 2018. Ed is no longer associated with Liquid, I guess that means Liquid Entertainment, as a company, is no more. Instead, welcome DCE consulting llc. that will take over all of the Liquid IPs.

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: If only I could find the funding to continue BR, I would in a heartbeat and would gladly devote the rest of my days to creating more games and other properties in that world. I still, very much, love the universe I created and never give up hope that someday it will rise again. :)

F.A.Q. - The future of BR on Steam

Why the hell is it taking so long? (FALL 2014 LOL)

Long story short: previous fails with hired devs, currently lack of funding.

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: I can tell you that every day someone is working on this game. I can tell you also that it seems like every day we find something new that holds the ship date. You see, Battle Realms was made a long time ago and that creates 2 problems. Problem 1 is that the code and the tools it was written with are old... 15 years old. Problem 2 is that because the code base is so old there is a shortage of talented people who can follow it.

What's the current progress?

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: So where are we today? The game code is complete and the trouble all resides in making it work with Steam. The people involved are just having a hard time getting it done, with numerous synch issues and utraced disconnects still present.



I don't want to release a de- synching game. So I won't. As of now, I have no new date for you. The last few times I gave you a date they were given to me from the people in the trenches that were supposed to know and they were wrong.

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: Putting something up on STEAM just isn’t going to happen. I put effort towards trying to get a new version of BR off the ground almost every week. I’m not sure when it will happen, but I never give up hope

What should be updated in this BR?

Will I get a free BR Steam key if I've already purchased original BR (GOG for example)

Why Liquid doesn't update us on here? The page looks abandonned.

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: We've also suffered from poor communications with you all. That's also my fault. I trusted these communications to a few people within our group and they utterly failed to keep you all up to date. The result being that I would write something whnever enough people emailed me that they needed to know what was going on. Ugh. Not the way I like to do things.

Why are you so sure Liquid still cares about BR?

Originally posted by KoMiKoZa: Mostly because there's no sense for Ed to give up on this now. Realize yourself how much of a blow it's gonna be to him and the company. It's like a final cross, if it fails. BRLegends is enough.



Too many people and resources have been brought up to just leave it be with "sorry, can't be done, tried my best". From Ed's words it's easy to understand that it's not the same Liquid working on the Battle Realms now, it's mostly hired programmers/managers, that's why it's hard to get it done. Innovative technologies and the code may be innovatively troublesome for those, who see it for the first time. Also understand, that it's not the same game (I suppose Ed's talking about the original game code being complete, but without fixes), but the one with bug fixes and other goodies.

• Ed's 'fresh' words in the beginning of this F.A.Q. • I have BetaBR on Steam, it's in my library. And the fact it's there fills me with determination. • It's Liquid's first and, mind you, the most succesful game out of all. Ed's shown countless times how dear the game, and the whole BR title is to him. • Ed is still replying to fanmail, concerning BR. • Ed is actually looking for ways to get the release on Steam done.

Battle Realms 2/Lair Of The Lotus/Battle Realms Legends

TL;DR: you can't.

I want to play BR2:Lair Of The Lotus! Where can I get it?

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo (October 15, 2014): Back in 2001, on the eve of the Battle Realms launch, I was asked what could be expected from a sequel to Battle Realms. My response was simple. “There will never be a Battle Realms 2. As long as fans are interested and supporting Battle Realms (1), we will continue to add to it and grow it. It will never be finished.” Some time after that point I think I was lulled away from that belief and towards the idea of a sequel, but I’ve come back to my original thinking. Battle Realms, to me, is a place; and places grow and change and evolve naturally. They have history and continuity. So, short of something very unexpected, when and if Lair of the Lotus happens, it will be an expansion to Battle Realms rather than a sequel.

What's up with Battle Realms Legends then?

So it's only BR on Steam?

Why is there no KickStarter for SteamGOG_BR?

Komi: You say you got no money but there are already fans who are willing to back the kickstarter for Battle Realms Steam Integration. Ed: Ok, I’ll admit that I hadn’t thought of that. I will consider doing this. Understand that Kickstarters aren’t free. We spent more than $20,000 USD on the BRL Kickstarter once you calculate all the assets that where generated and all the salaries behind those assets. Add to that the salaries of all the people who were making active outreach efforts (reaching 5K fans is labor intensive), responding to emails, messages, etc.

Why are you writing all this? Does Liquid pay you?

Ed about piracy

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: Posting a free copy of BR - The answer to this question must always be “NO” if I am to protect my ownership of the title. BR was probably one of the most widely pirated games of its time and had all those people paid even half of wholesale for it. I would have been able to make Expansions and sequels for years. I’m happy that all those people got to play it, but the cost of all that piracy is that not enough money came back to Liquid to keep BR going. :(. In order to maintain my ownership of the Intellectual Property, and thus, my ongoing hope of making more with it, I have to say no to this request.

Ed about the code and releasing "Liquid tools" to BR modders (fans)

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: All the code is tucked away in a vault right now and I don’t have easy access to it. The tools were circa 2000AD so I’m pretty sure that they are obsolete now. That has been part of the problem with revisiting the uncompiled code.

Ed about fan feedback, BR and Blizzard Ent.

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: It’s this kind of discourse that I got into this business for, and why I put so much of myself into the game. Br was ahead of its time. In fact, several Blizzard employees have since told me that it was BR that delayed Warcraft 3. When they all played it. They admitted it was better and added the whole hero element and many other things. So, not only was BR a great game - it was instrumental in making other games great as well. I really couldn’t have asked for more on that front. Yes, it would have been great to have gotten the proper money for the game and thus be able to continue, but I’m not crying over that spilled milk.

Personal request

Originally posted by Ed Del Castillo: One programmer felt so bad about it that he agreed to continue on indefinitely and that person is the one who just left. Simply put, if I put any more of my money into it, I would have lost my home and my family would have suffered. I did everything I possibly could to make it work. The awful thing is that i’m STILL trying to get this done. I’m still trying to find the money and talent to make it happen. I’m still trying to make the Battle Realms fan happy. It just seems harder and harder every day. I often don’t understand why video game fans are so hurtful. Fans are supposed to be supportive. They’re supposed to help find answers, not attack the very people they claim to be fans of. I will never understand that part of this business.

Hello there. I'm Komi, a dedicated fan that loves this game to bits. I've got a long story connected to it so I'll just cut it short and say I have dedicated a good chunk of my life to it. It inspired me at some point and, to this day, is my favorite game of all time. I'd like more people to know about it and see past the "oh it's that cool kung fu RTS" image. Which is why I do a lot of stuff around it, like:There have already been cases when some programmers left Liquid in the middle of this all. Financial problems included. Many people left Liquid after the BRLegends kickstarter fail. The lack of people here influences on the project.: In fact, there are no people currently able to get the code done. That and the lack of funding are the two main reasons you are not seeing BR on Steam yet. It's not abandonned though, don't get your hopes down, don't get your hopes up.Basically "new and improved" as said by Liquid in the project description. We'll see the original BR:WotW with the principal improvements (such as Steam multiplayer, bugfixes, modern API allowing modern PCs to run BR without any issues). Ed said that future BR updates depend on how well it'll sell on Steam. So if BR is successful- you'll see the game blossoming.You won't as the two are different games. The overall income would suffer greatly if everyone who got the GOG version would just receive the new one for free. The BR you had purchased and the BR that's in works now are two different products.Ed's already said everything in the announcements and through some of the fans. Yes, maybe not coming online anymore and writing any kind of updates whatsoever is not a good idea, it is, in fact, a bad idea. On the other hand, what's the point in coming on and saying something when there's nothing to be said?Here's my additional list of reasons:Source: Battle Realms Legends Kickstarter. Update #11 BRLegends had been in works since.. around 2012. And was discontinued in 2014 due to the lack of fans' support (KickStarter fail: 50k$/100k$).Yep, BR on Steam and GOG.That's what Ed answered about me questioning him why there's no KickStarter for BR on Steam:I wish they did! :DI'm writing this because many people mislead others and trash the page. And many people keep asking the same questions over and over.Please, keep the greenlight page clean. Don't trash it.Peace! :)