Kingmakers base building

Building is the strategy half of Kingmakers. You take land in hostile territory, put up farms, lumber mills and houses to run an economy, build barracks to train troops, and wall the place in, because English barons and nobles send armies against your settlements. Buildings go up from the strategy view, and the developers say every one is a real place you can walk into and destroy.

The loop, in the order the Deep Dive shows it

1. Claim territory in hostile land
2. Build an economy farms, lumber, housing
3. Train soldiers barracks, then better troops
4. Fortify walls and defences
5. Hold it against sieges

“When establishing a new settlement in hostile territory, you’re responsible for building farms, lumber mills, and other structures to get your economy up and running.”

Redemption Road. Said in the tinyBuildGAMES video: Kingmakers - Gameplay Deep Dive

“To sustain a settlement, you’ll need to house your peasants, establish farms on fertile soil, and harvest lumber from nearby forests.”

Redemption Road. Said in the tinyBuildGAMES video: Kingmakers - Gameplay Deep Dive

Resources are partly luck of the land: the narration adds that silver or iron deposits may be within reach. The silver and gold you loot on foot are the other half of the economy, sent back to the present to buy weapons, as set out on Kingmakers gameplay explained.

What you can build

The structures the developers have named, and where. It is a list of what has been mentioned, not the full building menu. Roads were shown in Paul Fisch's update on the strategy interface and buildable roads, Steam discussions

The barracks is where recruiting starts. Poorly trained peasants come first and better troops follow as the settlement grows; who those troops are is on Kingmakers units and officers.

“With the barracks built, you can train soldiers.”

Redemption Road. Said in the tinyBuildGAMES video: Kingmakers - Gameplay Deep Dive

Buildings are real places

The studio makes this point in both the Deep Dive and the letter that delayed the game:

“Every structure you build is true to life in scale, fully furnished, navigable, and destructible.”

Redemption Road. Said in the tinyBuildGAMES video: Kingmakers - Gameplay Deep Dive

“We currently have tens of thousands of soldiers, each with AI and pathfinding that rivals what you’d expect from a AAA third person shooter. When you walk away from a battle, it continues to play out. Nothing is faked. We have giant 6 story castles where every room can be entered and every wall, floor, and ceiling destroyed. When you build a Lumbermill, it’s a real place that can be entered, or, in an enemy invasion, turned into a combat arena.”

Redemption Road. From Steam announcement: A Message From the Developers

So a raid on your settlement can become a fight through your own buildings on foot. Why holding that level of detail at a steady frame rate delayed the game is on why Kingmakers was delayed.

Walls, and the armies that come for them

The narration also says a settlement’s walls have to keep up as it grows. What you can call in from the present, and what can be driven, is on Kingmakers weapons and vehicles. In co-op each player commands a separate army, covered on Kingmakers co-op and multiplayer.

Building from the strategy view

The building interface has already been rebuilt once. After playtests, the game director described the change to the strategy screen:

The same reply noted the old system did not suit game pads; what that means for controllers is on Kingmakers controller support.

Still being worked on

In one progress update on the forum, the director listed what the team was busy with. The building side featured heavily:

Building also was not part of the one public playable build: the reporter who played it at BiliBili World was told it exists but could not try it, as described on the Kingmakers BiliBili World demo.