Update, 25th of June
I'm now setting V69 on the main branch on steam and other stores. The older builds are still available as betas on all stores, use them to continue old saves. I will now take it easy for a bit, then work on V70, which will be even smaller changes, and polish heavy. It will focus on battles. After that I will work on 1.0. At least that's the current plan. Have a good summer!
/Jake
Old event:
Hello!
This patch has mainly been about polish, very little juicy new things.
Both previous version 67 & 68 has not been fully released. This is because they've been my attempt to balance the game, and make it more of a challenge. Problem is, this generally creates more frustration, and if the game itself is frustrating in other ways, there's simply too much frustration, and people calling for my head.
But now, V69 has had a lot of that functional frustration fixed. I've also balanced the game to be easier in general, allowing for more freedom and creativity. My only vision has been a game that doesn't snowball with progress, because I want a game that you can learn from for as long as possible, not quit because of boredom. I might, and I might not have succeeded with that currently, we will see.
V69 have been alpha tested, and is now going live on the beta channel. You know the drill, go to preferences in steam, select EA69, play.
V69 is a bit easier than 1.0 will be. The nobles, which you can currently use, have no perpetual cost, and that's something 1.0 will address. But we will see what you guys think.
Also, apologies, but the 1.0 launch is delayed. There are a few more things I want to fix and tweak before its release. For those who own the game, this means nothing for you. For those waiting on 1.0, you're simply going to get a better product. If you don't want to wait, get the game now.
In the future, there's a few systems I want to fix up, and some polish overall. I also want to spend some time on battles, and balance those to a great state. It would be a shame not to.
I'm also in the process of moving into a run down farm. So I will be a bit swamped this summer. Have patience. I'll try to respond to everything on discord:
discord
Patch notes (I'm fully aware I can't spell)
Misc:
Overhauled the overlays. Moved a bunch to them to the tools that actually uses them for less clutter.
Unite is more expensive
Gifts are more generous.
Age death renamed to natural causes.
Armies can be supplied in any state, as long as they're in your territory. You get more artillery when fortified though.
Workload for farms, and in general fixed.
Rivalry returns after 8 years for vassals.
Admin and overhead fixes and UI.
Admin notification.
Admin special automate employees function.
Work-group UI enhancements
Colors added to tech tree.
Some missing techs added.
Service proximity is square rooted, so more generous.
Fixed factions suggestions for stance changes.
Grain farms yields less, but bakaries are better.
New events, bug fixes
Two new levels to smooth out the progression.
Changed the global boost buildings - the worker's guilds now multiply workforce, and the others have reduced effects and lower costs.
Raider adjustments
Difficulty settings enhanced. Now there is casual mode (default) selected.
Immigration rate increased. Has no effect on population growth.
Breeding limit of nurseries higher.
Ex-convict is no longer a type. Types are now native, immigrant and former slave.
Ex-convict is set when freed from punishment and will remain for a year.
native population gets a boost to fulfillment.
University rate doubled
Stocks, execution block, graveyards are no longer services. They will be visited on the subject's spare time.
Subjects will move around more and do fun stuff.
Water access combines sweet and salt water into one.
Clearing rocks is a lot faster.
Workers always go to their place of work initially, so that they don't go fetching raw materials in the wrong direction.
The convert tool for structures is instant
Auto replace button for noble death.
Rearranged levels, removed a lot of rooms into the tech tree. Spreading out innovation and nobles.
Nobles have titles for each rank.
Nobles boost 50 workers with +2, every rank the same amount of workers.
Dynamic boosting system for faction, royalties and regions.
Fixed alliance cost
Some fixes to global prices. Leather products stood out in V68.
Many title changes
Argonosh training speed set to 1
City hall tax removed
Regions buildings with global boosts changed to give multiplicative benefits
Shorter Dondorians
Garthimi dislike torches
Amevian tourists
Woodcutters, mines, and bakeries changed to use the correct (reduced) maintenance
Many new events
Recurring events that destroy things are disabled for now
Text fixes
Ingame wiki updated
Natural stone amount decreased.
Subjects can perform blocked off jobs.
City ore deposits richness has been retired. All deposits now have 100% efficiency.
World deposits is scrapped. Instead, now each region have prospects for all industries semi-randomly distributed amongst them. Terrain matters in this distribution. For the player city, the terrain matters as to what prospects you'll have in raw production.
Pushed natural deaths off a bit.
Decreased player trade caps and added some UI.
Decreased species boosts slightly. This and the above should encourage more generalisation.
AI factions can attack your allies
Betrayal for attacking after peace.
Many bugs / suggestions
Armies max amount of supplies changed from 24 days to 6 days.
Armies can be supplied everywhere at all times (unless your capital is closed).
Notifications for armies that have less than 1/2 supplies left.
Walls gives roughly half the fortification bonus.
Recruiting soldiers cost 6 days worth of health supplies up front.
Disbanding armies does not return health supplies.
Conscripts for the AI fix. The AI needs to wait for their conscript pool to regenerate before spawning armies.
Redid army supplies. Improved UI and mechanics. Added Sithilon supply to Dondorians only for bonus morale.
Foundation thing added. Gives you boost or malus to room maintenance depending on where they are built.
Pre-generated road is special. Does not require maintenance and can not be repaired, only removed. No weirdness with maintenance on account of it.
Degrade will become apparent sooner, from roughly 2 years to 8 days without janitors.
Disabled rooms degrade x4 as fast.
Logistics:
Transports changed into mini-freight trains. Basically you need at least 6 employees and a distance of 100 tiles to make them more effective than deliverymen, else you're running them at a loss.
Very effective transports that are fully staffed can be equal to 100-200 deliverymen.
Transports only deliver to transport stations automatically. The stations also require minimum workers.
Prioritized fetching. Enables warehouses and haulers to fetch from other warehouses without specific orders to do so. They fetch from those warehouses that are not prioritized.
Market, eatery restaurant and in have warehouse-wroker carry capacity.
Janitors also get warehouse-carry. Maintenance that require resources takes only one second to complete.
Workers in rooms gets a "free" distance to fetch resources. The time fetching is separated from proximity, and called "input".
Extensive copy-paste settings tool for logistics room.
Export depots have priority-fetch and a global fetch limit as in olden times. This is enabled by default at 25%.
Fertility:
4 soil types with different properties and nutrients for each map.
Ground has moisture.
Fertility = soil nutrients * moisture
Natural moist maps will need very little irrigation
Dry maps will depend on irrigation
Dry maps has more nutrient rich soil.
Moisture is essential to farms. You want 100% moisture for those, and perfect soil type. Pastures, orchards and woodcutters also needs moisture to some degree. Soil nutrients dictate density for these.
Canal placement has helpful overlay.
Canals radiate "stronger" fresh water.
Hovering a canal / pumps tells you the pressure of the whole system.
Pump changes. Different sizes, and easier to place.
Region farms's once per year harvest can not be exploited.
Tech
Libraries now use leather instead of paper.
Lab ratio halved. A quarter of innovation comes from your population itself (levels). Half comes from clay usage by the lab workers (clay tablets), which is then diminished to one quarter as you upgrade clay.
Experience bonus decreased from +1.5 to 1.0.
Max boost from tech increased from +5 to +6
All production techs use innovation, while almost all others use knowledge.
Laboratories produce twice the amount of innovation.
The hammer value now shows how much workforce you gain from the tech, including upgrades and tool levels.