Release Notes

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March 14, 2026

Production queue overhaul

The building production system received a major upgrade, making it much easier to plan your army ahead of time.

Queue units without gold: You can now add units to the production queue even when you don’t have enough gold. Gold is deducted when the unit actually spawns, not when you queue it. This lets you plan your build order in advance - queue up what you need now and your buildings will produce as your income flows in. If you still can’t afford a unit when it’s ready, production pauses until you can.

Reorder your queue: Production queues can now be reordered with up/down buttons. Changed your mind about what you need first? Move that tank ahead of the infantry with a tap. Items smoothly animate into their new positions so reordering is easy to follow, even when you have multiple units of the same type queued.

Accurate turn estimates: The queue now shows when each unit will actually be available, accounting for queue position. Previously all entries showed their raw build time, which was misleading when multiple units were queued at the same building. Now you’ll see “next turn”, “in 2 turns”, “in 3 turns” - reflecting that only one unit spawns per building per turn.

Access buildings under units: One of the biggest quality-of-life pain points is gone. When a unit is standing on a production building, you can now access that building’s queue in three ways:

• Right-click the tile (desktop)
• Long-press the tile (mobile)
• “Open Building Queue” button in the unit info panel when you select a unit sitting on a building

Previously there was no way to reach a building’s production menu while a unit occupied it.

Under the hood

• Fixed an issue where production queue indicators and building ”+” icons would temporarily disappear after certain actions (constructing, moving, attacking). The indicators now persist correctly across all game state updates.
• The building menu no longer allows clicking through to the game map underneath - game input is properly blocked while the menu is open.

March 13, 2026

Email opt-out and account deletion request

You can now control whether you receive emails from TinyGenerals and request account deletion directly from Settings. Two new options in the Email & Account section:

• Email notifications toggle — turn off turn notifications, game result emails, feature updates, and survey emails with a single switch. Welcome emails are still sent on registration.
• Request account deletion — flags your account for permanent removal. Once the full deletion system is built, flagged accounts will be processed first. You can cancel the request at any time before that.

Players page polish

Rankings table got a refresh: top three rows have subtle gold/silver/bronze accents, status sits next to names with a hover tooltip for “last seen,” and each row can expand to show extra stats (matches, W/L/D, performance). On mobile the list uses compact cards instead of a wide table. Rank icons are clearer (crown and award badges), and avatar borders were removed for profile pictures.

Under the hood

Consolidated combat execution code between player actions and AI into a single shared path. No gameplay changes - just cleaner internals ahead of upcoming combat features.

March 11, 2026

Room chat remembers where you left off

Room (lobby) chat unread badges now persist across page reloads and browser restarts - just like match and global chat already did. Come back to a long-running game and you’ll see exactly how many new lobby messages you missed.

March 8, 2026

In-app feedback form

You can now send feedback directly from inside the game at any time - no need to leave the page or open a separate link.

How to open it:

• Desktop: click the speech bubble icon (💬+) in the top-right header bar, next to the inbox and notification icons - or open your user menu (click your avatar) and select “Send Feedback”
• Mobile: tap the hamburger menu (☰) and select “Send Feedback”

Pick a category (Bug report, Feature request, General feedback, Match feedback, or Other), type your message, and hit Send. The form automatically captures which page you’re on, so bug reports include useful context without extra effort.

This is separate from the email survey we send to inactive players - that system continues unchanged. This new form is for active players who want to share thoughts on their own terms.

March 6, 2026

Road overlays in map previews

Roads now appear in map previews across the site - maps browser, map details, lobby, and room list. Previously, only base terrain was drawn in previews; the road overlay layer was silently skipped. Old maps that stored roads as a terrain type are automatically converted to the correct grass + road overlay format.

Map editor loading fix

Fixed a bug where the map editor would sometimes show a blank canvas when opening a second map without refreshing the page.

March 5, 2026

Mobile loading fix

Fixed a bug that caused the game to hang on the loading screen on older/slower mobile devices. The asset loader now handles slow connections gracefully with request timeouts, automatic retries, and throttled parallel downloads.

March 2, 2026

Inbox

Your inbox is live - a dedicated place for system notifications and future player-to-player messages. New players now receive a personal welcome note (the same one sent by email), unread counts show in the header, and new messages trigger a bell notification.

Real graphics in map previews

Map previews across the site (maps browser, game list, lobby, full map modal) now render with the actual terrain, building, and unit sprites instead of flat-colored hexagons. Spawn points show the representative unit for each role, and owned buildings display a player-color tint.

Map Editor redesign

The map editor sidebar has been rebuilt with a cleaner, design-tool-inspired layout - inline name editing, compact dimension inputs with real-time resize, a segmented mode control for terrain/buildings/overlays/spawns, and collapsible sections to keep things focused.

February 27, 2026

Spawn point archetypes

Maps no longer hardcode faction-specific unit types on spawn points. Instead, spawn points use role archetypes - INFANTRY, ARMOR, or RANGED - and the game resolves them to the correct unit for each player’s faction at match start.

• Role-based spawns: Map creators place generic roles (Infantry, Armor, Artillery) instead of specific units like “Militia” or “Trooper”
• Tier support: Each role supports tiers (T1, T2, T3) for advanced variants - e.g. INFANTRY tier 2 becomes a Shock Trooper for the Federation, while tier 1 becomes a standard Trooper
• Automatic fallback: If a faction doesn’t have a unit at the requested tier, the game falls back to the next lower tier
• Map editor UI: New role picker and tier selector in the spawn point palette - markers on the map now show both player and role (e.g. “P1 / I” or “P2 / R2”)
• Backward compatible: Existing maps with direct unit type IDs continue to work unchanged

This means a single map works correctly with any faction combination - no more faction-locked spawn points.

Chat remembers where you left off

Previously, unread chat badges would reset every time you refreshed the page. Now the game remembers what you’ve already read - so when you come back to a match after a few days, you’ll see exactly how many new messages were posted while you were away.

• Persistent unread badges: Global chat and match chat unread counts now survive page reloads and browser restarts
• Works across sessions: Come back tomorrow and your unread count is still accurate
• Lobby chat stays ephemeral: Room lobby chat intentionally keeps session-only tracking since lobbies are short-lived

Help site improvements

• Fixed duplicate page titles across all help pages - the framework already renders the title from frontmatter, so the manual heading was showing it twice
• Updated Graphics & Asset Guide with accurate dimensions from the current codebase - hex tiles are 64×64px bounding boxes (not the old 32px radius), unit containers are 48×48px, and the guide now covers the full faction unit roster and all 8 player colors

February 25, 2026

Small fixes and prep work

Biggest change - I will be writing as “we” starting from now. Other than that: in game we mostly:

• Fixed Maps page - changed sorting, added filtering options
• Map editor - Added support for rivers and rail (not yet implemented)
• Some bugfixes and quality of life fixes

February 20, 2026

Login & Register page refresh

The login and register screens got a visual upgrade - the blank right panel is now a live unit showcase with all seven unit types floating in an animated diorama.

• Animated units: Militia, Troopers, Shock Troopers, Howitzers, Assault Tanks, Battle Tanks, and Rocket Launchers gently bob with individual timing so each one moves at its own pace
• SSO first: Social login buttons (Discord, Google, Steam) now sit at the top of both forms - one click and you’re in
• Register copy: Updated wording to better reflect where the game is - early access, small community, hands-on players who help shape what it becomes

February 17, 2026

In-App Notifications

Real-time notifications are here - no more refreshing to find out it’s your turn! In next iterations they will be merged with emails, user profiles and rest of the site.

• Bell icon is live: The notification bell in both the header and in-game top bar now shows real notifications instead of “Coming soon!”
• Turn alerts: Get notified instantly when it’s your turn
• Game results: Victory, defeat, and draw notifications with a direct link to the game
• Room activity: Know when a player joins your room or sends you a game invitation
• Real-time delivery: Notifications arrive via WebSocket - no polling, no refresh needed
• Unread badge: Unread count badge on the bell icon so you never miss an update

February 14, 2026

What a month!

There were so many big changes recently:

• Game is now much faster (and proven) on older mobile phones and more gentle on the battery usage for the new ones - a dedicated mobile version is also in the works
• AI is far more aggressive and a bit smarter - I rewrote 4k lines of code and implemented behavior tree. Did not change the AI per se but made debugging and improvements a bit easier
• Introduced “Overlays” to the maps - roads, railroads, rivers are not tiles but modifiers of terrain. Work in progress.
• Units have been rebalanced to better fit into the factions lore.

Check it out, more detailed description below!

Roads are now Overlays

Roads have been reworked from a standalone terrain type into an overlay that sits on top of existing terrain. This means a road can now cross grasslands, forests, and mountains - the terrain underneath stays visible with the road drawn on top.

What’s new:

• Overlay system: Roads (and future features like rails and rivers) are now painted on top of base terrain instead of replacing it
• Map Editor: New “Overlays” mode (press O) lets you paint roads onto any land tile - click to toggle on/off
• Random maps: Generated maps now place roads as overlays on natural terrain
• Movement bonus: Units moving along roads travel faster - roads reduce movement cost, so you can cover more ground per turn
• Visible in-game: Road overlays now appear on the map during gameplay, and the movement range highlight accounts for road speed bonuses

Backward compatible: Existing maps with the old road format continue to work without changes.

• Improvements and fixes: A problem with AI taking longer to process turns in a long game has been improved and should not happen anymore
• Fixed: Time restrained games: The system of limiting battles stopped working a while back. Fixed now.
• Changed: AI Hosts: It is now possible to give AI host permissions

February 12, 2026

Smarter AI: Behavior Tree Overhaul

The AI has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. The old monolithic decision system has been replaced with a modular Behavior Tree architecture, making bot opponents significantly smarter and more fun to play against.

AI Architecture

• The AI now thinks in structured phases: surrender check, expansion planning, combat, movement, and production - each handled by dedicated behavior tree nodes
• Move+Attack combo: melee units like tanks can now advance and strike in the same action, applying real pressure
• Expansion missions: capturers are now assigned to distant buildings early and stick to their mission

Smarter Combat & Movement

• Units use their full movement speed instead of creeping forward one tile at a time
• AI pushes into contested territory instead of hanging back - no more passive stalemates
• Better pathfinding when routes are blocked, with multi-step fallback logic
• Reduced over-cautious behavior: units take reasonable risks and fight alongside allies

Unit Production

• 12 distinct production strategies that adapt to the battlefield: counter-building, anti-ranged rushes, capturer spam, and more
• Production priorities shift based on income, enemy composition, and map control

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a pathfinding bug where faction-specific units (like Howitzers) could occasionally walk through impassable terrain
• Shallow water is now correctly passable for infantry
• Fixed terrain passability checks for all faction unit types

February 9, 2026

BigTiny Update!

It’s the biggest update yet - all in one push.

• New tile size: Standardized on 64x64px tiles with overlapping graphics-tall buildings naturally cover tiles behind them, creating a pseudo-3D look.
• Enhanced visuals: Forests, cities, factories, and bases have all been redrawn. Every unit is now represented in-game, along with new mountain, ocean, and other terrain graphics.
• Unit mirroring: Player units always face east, while opponent units always face west. You’ll never mix up whose is whose!
• Streamlined game setup: Beginning a new game is now quicker with a preselected map. Just invite a human player, select an AI if you wish, and jump right in.
• Updated battle interface for desktop and tablet: The battle screen puts your game front and center, offering more room for action.
• Refreshed map editor: The Map Editor now follows the new design system and features an improved, more intuitive layout and multiple quality of life improvements and bugfixes.

February 2, 2026

UI polish & animations

• Turn change indicator: New “Your turn / Player’s turn” banner with player colors and avatars.
• Animated gold counter: Gold now animates smoothly when it changes.
• Unit building menu improvements: The unit build UI has been modernized with better layout, clearer stats, and smoother transitions.

January 31, 2026

Mobile and Quality of Life changes

• Automatic camera panning disabled: Previously, the camera would automatically pan to the active unit. However, on small maps and with certain zoom levels, this feature caused more issues than benefits, so it has been turned off for now. It may return in the future with improvements.
• New mobile interface: The battle screen has been completely redesigned for mobile devices, providing more space for gameplay and reducing clutter.
• Behind the scene fixes: better artillery range indication - easier to see

January 27, 2026

UI Improvements & Bug Fixes

Building Capture:

• Fixed capture progress bar now showing immediately when unit lands on a building (displays 0/2 state)
• Fixed capturing unit properly disappearing after capture completes

Unit Information Panel:

• Replaced generic “ATK” stat with Soft Attack (vs infantry) and Hard Attack (vs vehicles)
• Added combat effectiveness indicators showing which targets each unit is strong/weak against
• More compact layout with better readability

January 26, 2026

In-Game Chat System (first release - might be buggy, feedback welcome!)

Communicate with opponents and spectators in real-time with the new chat system:

Room & Battle Chat:

• Lobby Chat: Chat with other players while setting up your game
• In-Battle Chat: Continue the conversation during matches
• Chat History: All lobby messages carry over to the battle automatically
• Color-Coded Names: Player names appear in their battle slot colors for easy identification
• Clickable Profiles: Click any player’s name to view their profile

Global Chat:

• Server-Wide Channel: Chat with all online players from anywhere in the game
• General Tab: Access global chat from the Chat panel on any page
• Community Building: Find opponents, discuss strategies, or just hang out

Bot Personality:

• Classic Greetings: AI opponents introduce themselves with iconic RTS quotes when added to rooms
• “My liege?”, “Kirov reporting.”, “Wololo.” and 25+ more nostalgic references

January 24, 2026

Player Invitations

Invite friends directly from the game room lobby:

• Search by Username: Find registered players with autocomplete search, see online status
• Email Invitations: Send invites to anyone via email
• Batch Invitations: Add multiple people and send all invitations at once (press Enter after each entry)
• Any Player Can Invite: Not just the host, everyone in the room can invite others

Click “Invite Player” in any empty battle slot to get started.

January 23, 2026

Performance Optimization

Big under-the-hood upgrade to make battles feel smoother, especially on mobile:

• The map is now drawn in a more efficient way (fewer things to render each frame)
• Water animation was rewritten to be lighter on the CPU
• Removed a large chunk of old rendering/UI code that was no longer used (ca 1000 lines of code)

Result: better frame rates and lower memory usage. Feedback welcome!

January 20, 2026

Development blog

Did you know that we have a development blog where we share our progress and insights into the development of TinyGenerals? And join our Discord Server to have more influence over the game development!

Social Login with Discord, Google & Steam

First item from the January wishlist done: sign in faster and more securely with your existing accounts:

Quick Sign-In:

• One-Click Login: Use your Discord, Google, or Steam account instead of remembering another password
• Instant Registration: New players can create an account in seconds with social login
• Secure Authentication: Your credentials stay with the provider - we never see your password

Account Linking:

• Connect Multiple Accounts: Link Discord, Google, and Steam to the same TinyGenerals profile for flexible login options
• Settings Management: View and manage all connected accounts from your Settings page
• Safe Unlinking: Remove linked accounts anytime (as long as you have at least one way to sign in)

Smart Account Matching: If you already have a TinyGenerals account with the same verified email, your social login automatically connects to your existing profile - no duplicate accounts created!

Whether you prefer gaming platforms like Steam or productivity accounts like Google, you can now sign in the way that’s most convenient for you.

January 19, 2026

Lobby Waiting Room & Unified Chat

• Room lobbies now support an unlimited waiting room alongside the battle slots.
• Lobby chat now shows the standard welcome messages immediately, and also logs system messages when players join/leave or move between waiting room and battle slots.
• Lobby chat history is preserved into the battle, so you can see the full setup context after the match starts.

January 18, 2026

Profile Customization

Personalize your account with custom avatars and username changes:

Avatar System:

• Avatar Presets: Choose from 13 hand-drawn medieval character portraits
• Custom Upload: Upload your own avatar image (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP)
  • Maximum size: 2MB
  • Recommended: Square images work best (1:1 aspect ratio)
  • Suggested dimensions: 128×128 to 512×512 pixels
  • Images are displayed at various sizes (28px to 128px) throughout the app
  • Browser automatically scales your image to fit
• Clear Avatar: Remove your avatar to display initials instead
• Instant Updates: Avatar changes appear immediately in Header, Settings, Profile pages, and Player Rankings - no page refresh needed!

Username Changes:

• Availability Check: Real-time validation when typing new username
• Smart Suggestions: If taken, get alternative username suggestions
• Requirements: 3-50 characters, letters/numbers/underscores/hyphens only

Where Avatars Appear:

• User menu dropdown (top-right)
• Settings page
• Your profile page
• Public profile pages
• Player rankings/leaderboard
• Match player lists

All profile changes are saved instantly and synchronized across the entire app using a global event system.

January 15, 2026

Graphics & Animations Enhancement

Visual Polish:

• Zoom improvements: more fluid and more reliable zoom
• Deep Water Animation: Deep water tiles now feature a smooth 2-frame animation cycle combined with subtle perspective distortion effects
• Wave Simulation: Each deep water tile moves independently with randomized timing, creating natural, flowing wave patterns as if water is moving in depth
• Organic Movement: The combination of sprite animation and position/scale tweens creates a realistic undulation effect

This brings the ocean to life with more dynamic and immersive visuals!

User Settings Page

A new settings hub is now available in the user menu (top avatar button). It’s a first iteration with multiple placeholders

What Works Today:

• Theme Switcher (Light/Dark/System) - fully functional and persisted
• Account Status - View your Player ID badge and account info
• Quick Links - Profile, Players, Inbox, and Logout shortcuts

Coming Soon (Work in Progress): The settings page includes UI scaffolding for future features:

• Sound effects and notifications (backend integration pending)
• Battle reminders and notification frequency (awaiting notification service)
• Reduced motion and tooltip toggles (framework in place, not yet consumed by UI)
• Online status and match highlights toggles (server-side privacy controls planned)

All preferences are stored locally on your device. Server-side sync and full feature implementation coming in future releases.

Desktop & Mobile: Settings page is fully responsive and accessible from the user avatar in both desktop and mobile navigation menus.

January 13, 2026

Unit Healing Visual Feedback

Healing units now display beautiful particle effects:

Visual Polish:

• Healing Particles: When units heal, floating green ”+” symbols appear and fade upward with varied animation styles
• Dynamic Effects: Each particle has unique behavior - some brighten and fade quickly, others stay dim and fade slowly, creating organic visual variety
• Multiple Particles: 3 particles appear per heal event, distributed around the unit for better visibility
• Smooth Animation: Particles smoothly rise and fade with individual lifetimes for a polished, non-repetitive feel
• Glow Circle: A green circle expands and fades around the healing unit, anchored to its position

Why This Matters:

• Clear visual feedback that your units are recovering
• Reinforces the importance of healing mechanics in strategic play
• Makes the game feel more polished and responsive to unit actions

January 10, 2026

Room List Improvements

The game browser has been completely redesigned for a better browsing experience:

Visual Enhancements:

• Map Previews: See what battlefield you’ll be playing on before joining with thumbnail previews in the room list
• Clearer Status Badges: Status now shows meaningful information like “Looking for Players (2/4)”, “Battle in Progress” with turn count, and winner names with victory icons
• Two-Row Layout: Each room uses a compact two-row design with primary info (map, room name, status) above and details (created time, time limits) below for easier scanning
• Modern Design: Refreshed with professional shadcn components for a polished, consistent look
• Smooth Loading: Skeleton placeholders appear while rooms load, eliminating jarring content shifts

Better Bot Identification:

• Personality Names: AI opponents now show their generated names (like “Lord Attila” or “Commander Zephyr”) instead of generic identifiers
• Bot Icons: AI opponents are clearly marked with robot icons in both host names and victory announcements, so you always know who’s human and who’s AI

These improvements make it much easier to find and join games at a glance!

January 5, 2026

Mobile support

I fixed panning and zooming-in/out and changed the sequence of display - now on mobile devices the map is what displays first. With some other fixes the game is now playable on mobile devices. Feedback welcome. It’s not yet optimised for mobile though - this will come in some short-term future, possibly as a mobile app.

Map Editor & Rendering Fixes

More is more: The world is bigger now. It’s 16384 tiles big now. I just introduced support for maps of 128x128 tiles. For comparison: In Civilization 1 the largest maps were 4000 tiles (80x50) and 128x128 was introduced around Civilization 4.

New transitional graphics: Maps are now displayed with hand-drawn (still placeholder) tiles. In the next days I will update the tiles with desired sizes. There is an upcoming refactor of some terrains like buildings and roads before I try to draw graphics for the game.

Pixel-Perfect Tiles on High-DPI Displays: Fixed rendering gaps that appeared on MacOS and high-resolution displays (especially ultrawide monitors). Tiles now render cleanly at all zoom levels without visible seams or artifacts (crossed-fingers)

Map Editor Loading Fixed: Existing maps now load correctly when editing. Previously, maps would sometimes appear empty (all water) due to a timing issue during load.

Water Animation Polish: Water tiles (Deep water) now have a subtle “breathing” animation effect that works smoothly with the new pixel-perfect rendering.

Future-Proofing for Naval & Air Units

The terrain system now includes support for future unit types: air and naval units.

This groundwork means naval and air gameplay can be added without breaking existing maps and gameplay.

Under the Hood

Consolidated shared code between the game and map editor into reusable modules. This means bug fixes and improvements now apply consistently to both, and future features will be easier to build.

January 4, 2026

Shock Trooper Fix

Movement After Attack: Shock Troopers and similar units can now properly use their remaining movement points after attacking. Previously, these units would become inactive immediately after a move-and-attack action, even when they had movement points left. This fix makes hit-and-run tactics with mobile units work as intended.

Map Editor & Terrain System

EMPTY Terrain Type: New boundary terrain for creating custom map shapes. EMPTY tiles are impassable and render as dark gray, allowing map creators to define non-rectangular play areas. Available in the map editor terrain palette and fully supported by the map generator. Have fun.

I made some more progress on the rulesets and themes, removing the old terrain system and replacing it with a more flexible system.

In-Game UI & Map Experience

Modernized Game UI: The in-game interface has been refreshed to match the newer look and feel used across the rest of the app, with cleaner cards, buttons, and status panels.

More Screen Space for the Map: The side panel is now collapsible on desktop, so you can hide it when you want to focus on the battlefield.

Better Mobile Layout: On smaller screens, the info panel is placed after the map, keeping the battlefield front-and-center.

Improved Zoom & Camera Behavior: The map now opens consistently (aligned from the top-left), keeps your last zoom level, and supports quick keyboard zoom presets for faster navigation.

Theme-Aligned Map Background: The map/canvas background is now tied to the active light/dark theme so it blends with the UI.

Visual Polish: Removed the heavy map border/shadow for a cleaner, more integrated look.

January 2, 2026

Happy New Year!

Getting into the new year, I’ve been working on a few updates to the game and an important bugfix blocking starting games. I also removed guest accounts and broke as much as possible of the graphics to replace everything with crappy placeholders. You’re welcome.

But honestly: one of the core foundations of TG for me is to make it possible to modify the game to your liking. I want to make it easy for modders and regular players to create their own maps, factions, and game modes. That’s why I’ve introduced rulesets and themes. Rulesets have been working for a while, themes are a new addition. More info at some later point.

🚨⚠️ Bugfixes

Fixed: Starting the game without faction selected would not spawn the units and the game would identify as no units present, ending the game with Draw but not closing the room. I guess I spent so much time making sure that the factions work and I’ve been debugging them for weeks, that I forgot to test the most basic functionality of an attempt to start the game withou the faction selected.

Account System Changes

Guest Accounts Removed: Automatic guest account creation has been disabled. You can now browse games and spectate matches anonymously without creating an account. To create or join rooms, you’ll need to register or provide your email for invited player access. After some consideration my initial idea of guest accounts wouldn’t make sense.

Visual Quality Improvements

Pixel-Perfect Tile Rendering: Tiles now render crisp(ish) and sharp(ish) at default zoom. Hex dimensions adjusted to match tile assets exactly (110×128px at 0.5× scale), eliminating blur from fractional scaling.

Improved Zoom Controls: Smoother zoom with consistent 10% steps. Press 0 to instantly reset to 1× zoom (pixel-perfect view). Zoom indicator in bottom-right shows current level and highlights green at 1×.

Configurable Themes & Tile Animations: Terrain animations (like water waves) now load from theme configuration files, making animation speed and frame count fully customizable. Modders can adjust FPS values to create anything from subtle ambient effects to dramatic animations.

UI Improvements

Join Room Page Redesign: The join room page now features a modern, centered layout optimized for pasting invite codes. Large input field with clear visual hierarchy makes it easier to join games quickly.

December 31, 2025

💬 Battle Chat System Messages

System messages now appear in battle chat for key game events (battle start, player eliminations, victories, surrenders). Player names are displayed in their faction colors and linked to profiles for registered players. Messages persist across refreshes as foundation for future player-to-player chat.

Visual Polish

Neutral buildings now display with a grey background and white text for clearer visual distinction from captured buildings, which show their owner’s color.

December 30, 2025

AI Combat Behavior Improvements

Fixed two critical AI decision-making bugs that caused bots to stop building units while hoarding gold:

• Production under pressure: Bots now correctly prioritize building reinforcements when threatened, rather than holding position with existing units. When gold is available, the AI will vacate production buildings to spawn fresh units (2 units beats 1 static defender).

• Strategic movement awareness: Fixed bug where bots would abandon production buildings during movement phase, then build units elsewhere, leaving critical bases exposed. Bots now stay on production buildings when they can afford to build, ensuring spawns happen before units reposition.

These fixes eliminate the “death spiral” behavior where threatened AI players would surrender with 800+ gold unspent.

Federation vs Alliance Units Rebalancing

In January I’ll likely take a short break from new features to focus on AI performance improvements.

Holiday update:

• Introducing Tiny Generals lore: Factions are designed to add strategic depth. Federation and Alliance are now sworn enemies with distinct unit compositions and tactical approaches.

• Enhanced faction differentiation: Federation features swift units with strong attacks but weak defense and vulnerability to counterattacks. When facing Alliance, Federation must gain early economic advantage and finish before mid-game, as Alliance troops - while slower - have larger HP pools and superior durability. Alliance players should maintain defensive lines and survive early pressure until their industry can outproduce opponents.

• Fixed Federation Shock Trooper: Restored the unit’s signature ability to retreat after attacking.

• Fixed income display: UI now correctly shows actual income (frontend was displaying outdated calculations from before the economy backend migration).

December 25, 2025

Community & Discovery Polish

A holiday update focused on community features and improved browsing:

• Enhanced Players Page: Advanced leaderboard with sorting and search to discover competitive opponents
• Public Map Browser: Browse community maps in the “All Maps” tab to find new designs and inspiration
• Improved Map Details: Better presentation of map information and statistics
• UI Refinements: Cleaner dialogs, better responsive design, and improved accessibility across pages

Keyboard Improvements:

• Q is now the primary unit cycle key (replacing SPACE brief-tap)
• SPACE now exclusively handles camera panning - no more accidental unit switches on touchpads!
• TAB remains available as an alternative unit cycle key

Game Settings:

• Fog of War now defaults to OFF when creating new rooms (easier for new players to learn)

December 20, 2025

AI Tuning & Hotfixes

A follow-up update to polish the new AI behaviors:

• Smarter Composition: Bots now maintain a better balance of units, ensuring artillery is always screened by a solid frontline of infantry and tanks.
• Combat Reliability: Fixed a critical bug where certain faction units (like Federation tanks) would deal no damage or fail to attack.
• Decisive Movement: Eliminated “hesitation” loops where AI units would move back and forth without committing to an attack.
• Match Stability: Fixed a setup issue that caused “ghost” units to appear in some bot matches.

More Competitive AI Bots (Beta)

Bots now play with a more strategic, human-like game plan focused on winning via economy and territory, not just unit trades:

• Spatial awareness: Bots evaluate local positional advantage and favor fights/captures where they are strong, while avoiding overextending into enemy-dominated zones.
• Smarter movement: Units spread out to reduce congestion and approach targets from multiple adjacent tiles (lightweight flanking) instead of forming single conga lines.
• Aggression scaling: When ahead, bots commit more of their army and press advantages; when in contact, they bias production toward combat power to sustain the frontline.
• Closing out games: When an opponent is nearly defeated, bots prioritize taking that opponent’s production buildings to prevent recovery.
• Aggressive turn order: Bots now move and attack first, then build units last. This prevents bots from “camping on bases” under pressure - units aggressively move out to capture/attack, then fresh units are spawned to occupy the vacated production buildings at turn end.
• Front-line production priority: Bots build from all available production buildings (if economy allows), prioritizing bases closest to enemies. This ensures maximum pressure at the front while still defending rear infrastructure.
• Dynamic counter system: Bots now understand soft/hard attack mechanics - Artillery with high soft attack automatically targets Infantry (SOFT), Vehicles with high hard attack target other armored units (HARD). System adapts to any ruleset without hardcoding unit names.
• Artillery-first attack doctrine: Ranged units (artillery, range > 1) now attack before direct combat units. This allows artillery to damage/soften enemies before the frontline engages, maximizing tactical advantage.
• Safe artillery positioning: Artillery units stay behind friendly lines when possible, using allies as a screen. Exposed artillery (no friendly units ahead) receives major penalty, encouraging proper combined-arms tactics.

More testing needed: These AI changes are still being tuned. Expect occasional odd decisions in edge cases - feedback from real matches against humans is especially valuable.

December 19, 2025

Facts and Factions 🎭

Major new feature: Choose your faction and customize your army! The game now supports multiple factions with unique units, abilities, and playstyles.

Two Launch Factions:

• Alliance - Well-rounded faction with balanced units and solid defensive capabilities

  • Infantry → Militia (M) - Reliable defensive units
  • Vehicle → Battle Tank (B) - Sturdy armor
  • Artillery → Howitzer (H) - Long-range fire support
  • Bonuses: Standard economy and balanced gameplay

• Federation - Fast-moving faction excelling at aggressive early-game strategies

  • Infantry → Trooper (T) - Mobile infantry
  • Shock Trooper (S) - Exclusive unit! Elite infantry that can move after attacking (3 MP, 8 HP, 180g)
  • Vehicle → Assault Tank (A) - Fast armor
  • Artillery → Heavy Artillery (H) - Powerful bombardment
  • Bonuses: -15% unit costs, +10% faster construction, +1 vision range, -10% income (high-risk/reward)

Faction Selection:

• Lobby Integration: Faction choice appears directly in player blocks alongside ready status
• Host Control: Hosts can set factions for AI bots to test different matchups
• Mirror Matches: Multiple players can choose the same faction
• Optional System: Factions can be left unselected for classic gameplay

Visual Differentiation:

• Unique Unit Names: Each faction’s units display with their faction-specific names (e.g., “Militia” vs “Trooper”)
• Distinct Symbols: Faction units show different letters on the map (M vs T for infantry)
• Proper Rendering: Units correctly display their owner’s faction customization

What’s Next:

More factions are coming! Each will bring unique mechanics, exclusive units, and distinct playstyles to master.

December 18, 2025

AI Bot Improvements & Auto-Start

AI-only matches are now fully supported with automatic game start:

Bot vs Bot Battles:

• Auto-Start System: When all players in a room are bots and ready, the game starts automatically
• Full AI Matches: Create rooms with multiple bots to watch AI strategies compete
• Utility-AI Architecture: Bots use a utility-based decision system with threat analysis, territory scoring, and tactical prioritization

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed critical bug where bots couldn’t capture the last enemy building when only vehicles were nearby
• Bots now correctly identify enemies with 0 units but remaining territories as “critically weak”
• Enemy buildings are now properly prioritized for capture during elimination phase

⚠️ Performance Warning: Bot-only games execute turns rapidly in sequence. Please be reasonable when testing - avoid creating dozens of simultaneous bot matches or games with 8 bots on huge maps, as this can cause server performance issues until optimization is complete. We’re working on rate limiting and turn throttling!

December 15, 2025

Room Lobby Enhancements

The room lobby has been significantly improved with better visual clarity and host controls:

Visual Improvements:

• Player Color Indicators: Each player now displays a colored badge next to their name matching their in-game color
• Starting Positions Legend: Shows which player has which color and number, or “Waiting…” for empty slots
• Modern Icons: Replaced all emoji icons across the app with professional Tabler icons for a cleaner, more consistent look
• Light Theme Support: Added light mode styling that properly toggles with dark mode - both themes now look great

Host Powers:

• Drag & Drop Reordering: Hosts can drag players to reorder them, changing spawn position assignments
• Host Promotion: Hosts can transfer host status to another player via crown icon in player list
• Real-Time Updates: All changes broadcast instantly via WebSocket to all players

Map Viewing:

• View Full Map Button: Opens a large, zoomable modal dialog to inspect map details
• Zoom Controls: Integrated zoom in/out/reset buttons on both preview and full map view

Email Notifications

Stay informed when players join your rooms:

• Player Joined Alerts: Hosts receive email notifications when someone joins their room
• Quick Access: Emails include room name, code, and joining player’s username
• Background Delivery: Notifications sent asynchronously without affecting game performance

December 13, 2025

Map Import/Export

Share and backup your maps with JSON export/import:

• Export Anywhere: Download any visible map as JSON from maps list or editor
• Import Options: Load maps in maps list (creates new) or editor (replaces current with confirmation)
• Community Sharing: Export community maps to remix and customize
• Quick Backups: Export work-in-progress directly from editor
• Format: Human-readable JSON with all terrain, buildings, and spawn points

Perfect for sharing map designs, creating templates, or backing up your work!

December 11, 2025

Streamlined Room Creation

Room creation is now instant with all configuration in the lobby:

What Changed:

• Direct Creation: “Create Room” button on homepage instantly creates a room and takes you to the lobby - no intermediate confirmation page
• Configure in Lobby: All settings (map, fog of war, time limits) are now set in the lobby instead of upfront
• Dynamic Map Selection: Host can change the map at any time before starting the game
• Flexible Settings: Time limits and other options can be adjusted right up until game start
• Real-Time Updates: All players see setting changes instantly via WebSocket
• Auto-Unready on Map Change: When host changes the map, all players are automatically unreadied to ensure everyone acknowledges the new map

Why This Matters:

• Faster Flow: Get your room code immediately and share it while you configure
• Less Pressure: No need to make all decisions upfront - experiment with settings as players join
• More Collaborative: Players can join and discuss settings before locking them in
• Better UX: Eliminated the redundant “Ready to play?” → “Yes, that’s why I clicked Create Room” step

Strategic Impact: The lobby is now the central hub for room setup, giving hosts full control while keeping the flow fast and intuitive. Perfect for quick pickup games or carefully planned matches with friends.

December 9, 2025

Unit Healing System

Units now passively heal when they remain inactive:

Healing Mechanics:

• +1 HP per turn for units that don’t move or attack
• Automatic: No player action required - just don’t use the unit
• Capped: Healing stops at maximum health
• Strategic Depth: Creates meaningful decisions between acting now or healing for later

Why this matters:

• Damaged units can recover instead of being replaced
• Defensive play is rewarded - hold positions while healing
• Economic efficiency - save gold by healing instead of building new units
• Tactical patience - sometimes waiting is the best move
• Resource management - veteran units become more valuable

Strategic Impact: Encourages creating defensive lines, pulling damaged units back to safety, and making careful decisions about when to engage vs. when to recover. Combined with the counter-attack system, this makes unit preservation more important than ever.

Combat & Economy Balance Overhaul

Major rebalancing of Artillery and building income to improve strategic depth:

Artillery Rebalance:

• Role Change: Now specializes in destroying Infantry (anti-soft) instead of anti-armor
• SoftAttack: 10 → 11 (devastating vs Infantry’s 10 HP)
• HardAttack: 14 → 5 (weak vs armored Vehicles)
• TargetType: HARD → SOFT (Artillery itself is fragile equipment)
• Cost: 250 → 275 gold (reflects specialized role)

Why the change? Artillery was too strong against everything. Now it excels at its historical role (destroying infantry formations) but is vulnerable to armored counter-attacks. This creates rock-paper-scissors balance: Infantry → swarmed by → Artillery → hunted by → Vehicles → swarmed by → Infantry.

Building Income Reduction:

• Base: 200 → 100 gold/turn (-50%)
• HQ: 500 → 200 gold/turn (-60%)
• City: 100 → 50 gold/turn (-50%)
• Factory: 300 → 150 gold/turn (-50%)

Why the change? Previous income values allowed spamming units every turn with just one building. New values force strategic choices:

• With 1 Base (100g/turn): Takes 1.5 turns to build Infantry, 4 turns for Vehicles
• Capturing territory is now critical to sustaining army production
• Must choose between building units now vs saving for better units later
• Economic warfare and territory denial become viable strategies

AI Bot Improvements:

• Bot now better understands Artillery’s strengths and weaknesses
• Improved unit composition decisions and counter-building
• More strategic economic planning and spending

Gameplay Impact:

• Games last longer with more strategic depth (less unit spam)
• Territory control is now the key to victory (denying income = denying armies)
• Clear counter-play: spot enemy composition and build appropriate counters
• Economic comebacks possible: keep buildings, rebuild army

December 8, 2025

Map Editor Improvements

Complete redesign of the map editor with a modern, professional interface inspired by design tools like Photoshop and Figma:

New UI Layout:

• Horizontal Top Toolbar: All modes, tools, and actions in one row for quick access
• Narrow Left Sidebar: Context-sensitive palette that changes based on what you’re editing (terrain, buildings, or spawns)
• Maximum Canvas Space: Map editor now uses 75%+ of screen for better visibility, especially on larger displays
• Floating Panels: Map info and generator appear as overlays only when needed, keeping the workspace clean
• Responsive Design: Optimized for screens 1440p and larger, including ultrawide monitors

New Editing Tools:

• Flood Fill Tool: Press F to fill connected tiles of the same terrain type - great for quickly painting water bodies or land masses
• Brush Size Options: Press 1, 2, or 3 to paint with 1, 3, or 7 hex brushes - speed up terrain painting significantly
• Auto-Save: Your work is automatically saved every 30 seconds to browser storage with restore prompt on reload

Random Map Generator: Generate playable maps with a single click featuring multiple map styles:

• Seed-based generation - share seeds to recreate exact maps
• 5 Map Styles: Archipelago, Continent, Lakes, Pangaea, and Channels for variety
• Configurable player count (2-8 players)
• Natural terrain using layered noise with randomized parameters
• Each player gets 2-3 Bases with spawn points
• Neutral Cities, Factories, and rare HQ scattered across the map

Spectator Tracking

Games now show who’s watching in real-time:

• Live Spectator Count: See how many people are viewing your match with a collapsible “Spectators (N)” panel
• Registered Viewers: Displays usernames of logged-in spectators with links to their profiles
• Anonymous Tracking: Shows count of anonymous viewers watching the game
• Real-Time Updates: Spectator list updates instantly via WebSocket as viewers join/leave
• Smart Filtering: Active players are excluded from the spectator list - only true watchers are shown

Enhanced Player Stats Panel

The in-game player panel now displays comprehensive statistics using modern Tabler icons:

• Territory Count: See how many buildings each player controls
• Unit Count: Track army sizes at a glance
• Army Strength: Weighted metric showing combined military power (attack × health)
• ELO & Win Rate: Human players display their skill rating and win percentage
• Visual Consistency: Replaced emojis with professional icon set for cleaner UI

December 5, 2025

Real-Time WebSocket Updates

Game and room updates are now delivered instantly via WebSocket:

• Instant Opponent Moves: See enemy actions immediately instead of waiting 2-3 seconds
• Live Room Lobby: Player joins, ready status, and bot changes appear instantly
• Real-Time Feedback: All game events (units moving, attacking, building) propagate instantly to all players
• Better Multiplayer Experience: True real-time gameplay with no artificial delays

Artillery Visual Effects

Artillery attacks now have polished, centered animations with dynamic lighting:

• Fixed Sliding Effects: Muzzle flash and explosions now stay properly centered instead of sliding toward the lower-right corner
• Local Lighting: Added additive blend mode lighting effects that brighten surrounding tiles during:
  • Muzzle Flash: Yellow-orange glow when the artillery fires
  • Impact Explosion: Bright flash at the target location on impact
• Improved Visual Feedback: The lighting effects create a more dramatic and realistic feel for ranged combat

December 3, 2025

Economy Rebalancing

We’ve adjusted unit costs to reduce unit spam and make strategic choices more impactful:

• Infantry Cost Increased: 100 → 150 Gold
• Vehicle Cost Increased: 300 → 400 Gold

Why the change? Previously, owning just a Base and one City allowed producing 3 Infantry every turn, leading to endless swarms of units. With the new costs, players must choose between quantity (2 Infantry) or saving for quality (Vehicles), making every unit production decision more meaningful.

December 2, 2025

Immediate Capture Progress

Territory capture now starts the moment your unit enters:

• Instant Feedback: Capture progress bar appears immediately when moving onto enemy or neutral buildings
• No More Waiting: Previously, capture only showed progress on the next turn - now it’s instant

Improved Construction UI

The unit build popup received a visual overhaul:

• Zoom-Independent: Build menu stays crisp and readable regardless of map zoom level
• Cleaner Layout: Redesigned card layout with icon, stats, and cost clearly separated
• Double-Click Prevention: Fixed bug where rapid clicking could build multiple units

Fog of War Fixes

• True Darkness: Unexplored areas are now fully opaque - no more seeing terrain outlines or building markers through the fog
• Proper Discovery: Buildings and terrain only reveal when your units can actually see them

Economy System Enforcement

Unit production now properly costs gold:

• Gold Validation: Building units deducts gold from your treasury - no more free armies!
• Construction Menu Prices: The build menu now shows unit costs and your current gold balance
• Affordability Check: Units you can’t afford are greyed out with a “Need X more gold” warning
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Pressing I or V to build will warn you if you lack funds

Technical Improvements

• Centralized Economy: All economy rules (unit costs, income) now come from the ruleset system
• Extensible Design: Different game modes can define custom unit costs and economy rules
• Bot Parity: AI opponents follow the exact same economy rules as human players

Room Lobby Redesign

The room lobby now prioritizes player actions above the fold:

• Start Button at Top: Host’s “Start Game” button is now prominently displayed at the top
• Two-Column Layout: Players and actions on the left, map preview on the right
• Compact Header: Room name and code share a single line instead of large hero section
• Inline Controls: Add Bot button moved next to Players header for quick access

November 30, 2025

UI Improvements

• Responsive Game Canvas: The game area now dynamically resizes to fill available screen space instead of a fixed 800×600 window
• Top Action Bar: New bar above the game showing your gold, income breakdown, turn number, and End Turn button for quicker access
• Compact Sidebar: Streamlined left panel with tighter spacing to maximize game visibility

Controls

• Fixed Keyboard Shortcuts: SPACE (cycle units), ESC (deselect), and TAB now work reliably
• Space+Drag Panning: Hold SPACE and drag with left mouse button to pan the camera - alternative to middle-click for laptop users

Polish

• Winner Display: Player list now shows ”🏆 Winner” badge when game ends instead of confusing “Active” status
• Guest Banner: Guests now see a dismissible banner explaining account limitations (7-day session expiry, no ranking progress) with a link to register

November 29, 2025

Player Elimination System

The game now properly tracks when players are knocked out of the match:

• Clear Elimination: When you lose all your units AND all your production buildings (Bases, HQs, Factories), you’re officially eliminated from the game
• Visual Feedback: Eliminated players are now dimmed in the player list and marked with ”• Eliminated” so everyone knows who’s still in the fight
• Clean Turn Order: Eliminated players are automatically skipped in turn order - no more waiting for someone who can’t play
• Proper Victory: The game correctly ends when only one player remains standing

Time Limit Improvements

• Games with time limits now properly determine the winner when time runs out
• No more frozen “Time expired” screens - the game resolves and shows final rankings
• Rankings consider units, buildings, and gold when time expires

Smarter AI Opponents

AI opponents now play more strategically - they’re better at finishing games and won’t get stuck in endless stalemates anymore. Good for practice matches!

Coming Soon: Production Queues

Groundwork laid for a future production system where advanced units may take multiple turns to build. Stay tuned!

November 28, 2025

Combat System Overhaul

Major update to game combat rules for more strategic gameplay:

• Move OR Attack: Units can now only perform one action per turn - either move or attack, not both. This makes positioning much more important and adds tactical depth similar to Civilization-style games.

• Counter-Attack System: Combat is now more dynamic with counter-attacks:

  • When a unit attacks, it deals damage to the defender
  • If the defender survives, it counter-attacks and deals damage back to the attacker
  • The attacker can potentially be killed by the counter-attack!

• Health-Scaled Damage: Damaged units deal less damage. A unit at 50% health deals roughly 50% of its normal damage. This makes finishing off wounded units important.

Ambush Mechanics (Now Active!)

Ambush combat is now fully implemented when Fog of War is enabled:

• Hidden Enemy Attacks First: When you move into or next to a hidden enemy, they get a surprise attack before you can react
• +25% Terrain Bonus: Enemies ambushing from forests or mountains deal 25% extra damage
• Counter-Attack: If you survive the ambush, you automatically counter-attack
• Movement Stops: Your movement ends immediately when an ambush triggers
• Dramatic Animations: Visual effects show the ambush with attack lines, damage numbers, and terrain bonus indicators

Strategy Impact

• Think before attacking - weak units attacking strong defenders might die
• Health management matters more - damaged units are less effective
• Positioning is key - you can’t reposition and attack in the same turn
• Focus fire is important - concentrate attacks to eliminate threats
• Scout carefully in fog of war - hidden enemies can ambush you!

November 27, 2025

Features

• Multi-Player Support (2-8 players): Rooms now support 2-8 players based on map configuration

  • Maximum players determined automatically from map spawn points and building owners
  • Room UI dynamically shows available player slots
  • Games initialize with all joined players

• Buildings & Territory System: Strategic buildings with ownership and capture mechanics

  • Four building types: Base, HQ, City, Factory
  • Each building type has different income and production capabilities
  • Buildings can be player-owned or neutral
  • Infantry can capture enemy and neutral buildings (2 turns)

• Economy System: Gold and income added to gameplay

  • Players start with 100 gold
  • Buildings generate income at the start of each turn
  • Use gold to produce new units at production buildings
  • Infantry costs 100 gold, Vehicles cost 300 gold

• Map Editor Improvements:

  • New “Buildings” mode for placing buildings with ownership
  • Draw/Erase tool toggle (keyboard: D/E)
  • Support for up to 8 player spawn points
  • Building ownership assignment (Neutral or Player 1-8)
  • Improved cursor hit detection for accurate painting

Improvements

• Building Upgrades: Bases can be upgraded to HQ (costs 500 gold, takes 2 turns)
• Automatic Capture: Infantry automatically begin capturing when on enemy buildings
• Visual Feedback: Capture progress bars and upgrade indicators on buildings

November 26, 2025

Features

• Player Leaderboard: New /players page showing registered players ranked by ELO rating with stats (games played, wins, win rate). Accessible via “Players” link in header navigation.
• AI Opponent: Play against an AI bot for solo practice and testing!
  • Add AI when creating a room with “Add AI opponent” checkbox
  • Add/remove AI from the room lobby
  • AI gets a random fantasy name each game (e.g., “Lord Tyrion the Cunning”, “General Hannibal the Conqueror”)
  • AI automatically takes its turn - moves units, attacks when possible, and ends turn
  • Perfect for learning the game, testing maps, or quick solo sessions
  • Single shared bot account prevents database clutter

Improvements

• Bot Display Names: AI opponents show fun, randomized names inspired by fantasy literature, mythology, and historical commanders
• Game State: Player info now includes usernames for better identification

November 21, 2025

Features & Improvements

• Overall Improvements: Better UI for battle room, map editor
• Improved Map Editor: Right click now doesn’t trigger the browser menu, middle mouse button allows to pan around
• Turns Played Tracking: Added tracking for the total number of turns played across all battles. The home page statistics are now displayed in a clean table format including this new metric.
• Debug Panel Collapsible: The in-game debug panel is now collapsible to reduce screen clutter. The state is persisted across sessions.
• API Request Deduplication: Implemented a caching system for stats and health check endpoints to reduce server load and prevent duplicate requests, especially in development mode.

Fixes

• Frontend Package Updates: Updated various frontend dependencies.
• Game Stats Error Handling: Improved error handling for game statistics fetching.

November 20, 2025

Features

• Surrender Feature: Players can now surrender games.
• Tile-by-Tile Movement: Unit movement is now visualized tile-by-tile.
• Game Statistics: Initial implementation of game statistics tracking.

Infrastructure

• Database Migration Cleanup: Cleaned up and consolidated database migrations.
• Deployment Script: Updates to deployment scripts using PM2.