Greetings medievalists!
Update (0.22.1) is now live on the experimental branch. It is compatible with the old saves. Once it is properly tested, we will push it live in the official update! Here are the notes for what awaits you in this version:
Fire System
A fire system has been added to the game. Flames spread from thing to thing in the game and as the flame appears on that thing, it will take down its HP. If that HP is depleted and destroyed, so will the flame disappear (if nothing else exists on that tile to keep burning). A single flame starts small and grows slowly as it consumes the HP of the thing it's destroying.
Here are important notes about the fire system:
- Flammability is an attribute of all objects (e.g., grass, vegetation, buildings, people, animals, resources). It determines the likelihood of catching fire and how quickly the object loses HP while burning. For example, a pile of hay has high flammability, whereas a brick floor has zero flammability.
- Animals & humans can catch on fire (determined by the clothing and armor they are wearing). When on fire, they will slowly sustain burn wounds and spread the fire wherever they go.
- The wetness system in the game reduces flammability. The wetter an object is, the lower its flammability, making it impossible to catch fire.
- Fire emits significant heat, causing nearby vegetation to die, snow to melt, and wetness to evaporate.
- Fire can cause a heat-related health issue to the settlers where they faint.
- Rain and snow extinguish fires.
- Settlers will automatically extinguish fires if their "Firefight" job is enabled in their job panel. They can fight fire in two ways: For small flames nearby, they’ll stomp them out without needing additional resources. For larger flames, they will fetch water from any water source (or from a Well, a new structure—more on that later) and use it to extinguish the fire, leaving wetness behind. This method is more effective for larger fires.
- Buildings get damaged by high temperatures, so high temperatures will damage things like limestone walls and whatnot. The temperature threshold for damaging structures is low and not realistic, but in a gameplay sense, we chose to use these lower temperature thresholds to make fire a bit more dangerous. That means making structures out of different materials is not a full proof defense against fires.
Combat with fire
- Both enemies and your settlers can utilize fire in combat. Here is how:
- Fire arrows usage - Any flame source (e.g., braziers, torches) can enable the use of fire arrows. Drafted archers will see a "Use Fire Arrows" option next to the Attack command. Once activated, if they are standing near a flame source, a fire arrow icon will appear above them, indicating they can shoot fire arrows instead of regular ones.
- Fire arrows spawn a small flame at the point of impact.
- Fire arrows have lower precision and deal less damage than regular arrows.
- Only Short bow, Longbow, Warbow and Curved Bow can use fire arrows.
- Enemies can set structures on fire during their attacks, including furniture and production buildings. Raiders be evil like that!
- Fire traps release oil within a certain radius when triggered, which will also instantly ignite.
- Fire arrows landing on oil will ignite it.
Speaking of oil…
Flammable Oil
- Flammable oil is a resource that you can produce and use as a trap against enemies.
- Flammable oil is created in the Oil press (new building), with Coal and Oil Source (like tallow).
- You can order settlers to spill oil on tiles making them extremely flammable and when the oil is ignited (with a fire arrow) it will spread super fast from oil tile to oil tile making a nice stronghold-esque fire trap. ːsteamhappyː
- We also added a separate type of fire called Greek fire (at the moment it’s green in the game like the wildfire from Game of Thrones). This fire type can burn underwater and in the rain. It does not spread as Greek fire but spawns regular fire around it. It's just a stronger version of fire.
- Greek fire oil can also be created in the Oil press, but you will need Flammable Oil, Saltpeter and Quicklime (more on those later). Greek fire oil behaves the same as regular oil, but with the green fire that can't be extinguished easily.
Additional Fire Facts:
- Trees when burning can have the canopy burning.
- During summer heatwaves, bushes in the wild have a chance to catch fire randomly.
Water & Fire Management
As mentioned, settlers with a Firefighter job will go and extinguish the fire. For bigger flames, they’ll need water. Here is how that will go:
- Settlers can fetch water from rivers or lakes at any accessible point.
- You can construct a Well (a new structure) over a water source. Settlers will prioritize fetching water from the Well, giving you better control over water usage.
- Water can be stockpiled in barrels (new structures). There are two sizes: small and large. Barrels act as water sources during fires. Additionally, when barrels are exposed to fire, they have built-in rope and wax systems that melt and release the stored water, creating an automatic extinguishing mechanism.
Combat Changes
We’ve also added a lot of minor and major changes to the combat that will enrich the whole fighting experience, especially once the updates #15 and #16 come out. What you need to know now is:
Multiple Drafted Stances
Until now, settlers behaved quite simply when drafted. We’ve now introduced two stance types for players to choose from when drafting a settler for battle.
The new stances are Default and Hold Ground:
- Default: This is the same as before—settlers will engage in combat when an enemy enters their line of sight.
- Hold Ground: Settlers will ignore everything around them and engage in combat only when directly attacked.
Shield Changes
Shields have gone through a bit of a change to make fighting overall more interesting and dynamic.
- Shield cover percentage is now divided into ranged cover and melee cover, meaning shields differ in how much protection they offer against different types of attacks. For example, the buckler shield has a lower ranged cover than other shields but offers excellent melee cover.
- Shields now have a cover angle. Shooting a shielded enemy form behind will result in a direct hit.
- People with shields will automatically turn towards their attackers (even if they are receiving ranged attacks).
- During a melee attack animation, ranged cover is briefly reduced—because who’s holding a perfect block mid-swing?
- Raised shields as an animation has been added. Now, people raise their shields when in combat or attacked.
- Any weapon can now act as a shield, with its own cover values. Yes, this means a melee fighter can block arrows with their weapon, and an archer can block melee strikes with their bow!
- We’ve added sparks and VFX when a shield receives a hit. Shield will also turn red and flash a bit when hit, thus indicating that the shield has taken damage and not the human.
Alternative Attack Mode
Each weapon can have an alternative animation, damage and ruleset depending if the combat is ranged or melee.
- If an archer is attacked he/she will use the bow as a staff and fight with it like that instead of using bare hands like they do now.
Training Settlers [Community Request]
This has been one of the most requested features after the water, and we thought that this is the perfect time to introduce it.
- Archery Range and Practice Dummy are new buildings where setters can level up their ranged and melee skills.
- Settlers have a new “Train” job that will make them go to those stations to get some sweet XP;
- To use the station, settlers will need to bring assets there - Practice Target to Archery Range and Dummy to Practice Dummy station. Once they bring it, the training (in a form of production) will start.
New Structures
- Oil Press (Oil Press in the Research window, appears in the Production category) - used for creating Flammable Oil and Flammable Greek Fire Oil.
- Oil Splash (Oil Press in the Research window, Appears in Warfare category) - these are created with flammable oil. Combine it with fire arrows for utter chaos.
- Fire Trap (Defensive Structures 4 in the Research window, appears in the Warfare category) - when activated, it spills oil and ignites it.
- Small & Large Water Barrel (Barrels in the Research window, appears in the Misc category) - used for placing water and controlling fire.
- Well (Appears in the Base building category) - used as a control point from where the water will be taken from.
- Saltpetre Work (Chemistry 2 in the Research window, appears in the Production category) - used for making saltpeter.
- Archery Range (Combat Training Equipment in the Research window, appears in the Leisure category) - used for improving Marksman skill of your settler.
- Practice Dummy (Combat Training Equipment in the Research window, appears in the Leisure category) - used for improving Melee skill of your settler.
New Items
- Flammable Oil (Created at the Oil Press) - can be used as a resource for various oil related things.
- Quicklime (Created at Kiln) - used as a resource for making Greek Fire.
- Saltpeter (Created at Saltpetre Works) - used as a resource for making Greek Fire.
- Greek Oil (Created at the Oil Press) - advanced version of the regular oil. More durable and stronger.
- Practice Target (Created at Woodwork Bench and/or Bowyer’s Table) - used as a resource for Archery Range.
- Dummy (Created at Sewing Station) - used as a resource for Practice Dummy.
- Quality of Life Improvements
- Ranged weapons now have different projectiles. Now, crossbows shoot bolts and not arrows (what a time to be alive).
- Projectiles now have an arc to them. It's just a visual thing (the projectile won't be stuck in the ceiling or anything) just gives some nice visual flavor. This also means that bolts have the smallest arc.
- Sweet fire visuals on arrows (note, all projectiles have the visuals. If you change the json files so that let's say a sling can use fire projectiles, it will work).
Known issues
- Fire spreading control has been added to custom options but it still doesn’t work.
- The temperature currently doesn't work as intended. Please note that rooms will not be heated as intended and this may create issues in gameplay. We will be fixing this ASAP, but be warned.
- Well has no indicator if it is working or not. You just don't know at the moment. It needs to have its middle part over water or in shallow water to be a viable source of water for filling barrels.
- Well has no visual indicator of the bucket going up and down.
- Barrels spill their water only when destroyed. It’s missing manual control.
- Barrels don't freeze in winter. We plan to implement that. :)
- Barrels don't fill faster when under the edges of the roof yet.
- Taking water out of a lake via a well (or by hand) will not cause that lake to lose its water mass.
- Burnt trees can be selected by clicking in the air above them.
- Underground water is planned on new game maps but is not yet implemented.
- Oil blob placement still needs some polish.
- Water is seen in barrels during barrel construction.
- Animals caught in fire and fire traps just stand there and never run out of the flames.
- If your settlers are experiencing weird animations with some actions, be sure to turn off V-sync and cap the game's FPS in the game's options. Cap it to 60fps. If the issue persists, cap it at 30.
- Assigned Pets don't sleep with owners.
- Some items are missing icons and localization values.
- Player-triggered events don't have sound effects
- Settlers will not refuel torches if there is no floor/ground beneath them.
- Settlers will not choose the closest production building (if there are more of the same type), but the one that has a production set first in the global list of productions.
Disable Mods if you have issues with loading the game
Please note: if you are using mods you might experience crashes or even an inability to start the game. If you are having these issues, turn the mods off before starting the game.
That’ll be all for the update notes. New patches and improvements will be deployed accordingly. As always, use F10 and/or the experimental bug subforum for reporting experimental issues. If you want more dynamic/direct communication - head over to our Discord server. Even though we might not reply, we are reading everything. Thank you!
DISCLAIMERS:
⚠️ We decided to keep Dev version of the game on the experimental branch, and that means that a Dev log with red text will appear from time to time. This will help us get more info from your side when crashes and bug reports occur.
⚠️ Also, at the moment, the experimental and the main branch are very different. You should not play saves from the experimental branch on the main one as it can cause various bugs - please avoid doing this.