Full Release - Patch 1.0!

Greetings Knights,
as a student project, this patch marks a huge milestone for us. We have been busy at work for weeks developing this update and we were able to improve the game only thanks to the feedback you gave us here on Steam, on our Discord channel or on our social media.
This is the biggest update yet and contains a huge list of improvements and features.
First of all, we released a new game mode: Endless! Test your skills on the battlefield against a never-ending stream of Mongolian armies. Lots of new visuals have been added as well, including new models for the Keep, post-processing effects and much more.

For those Knights brave enough to get to the end, here is the full list of changes:

PATCH NOTES 1.0

New features:

• New game mode: Endless is now available to play!
• Added 25 unlockable achievements.
• Auto-alignment formations: when selecting different type of units, they will now automatically position themselves in the front or back row depending on their role (e.g. archers will always go in the back row, Man-at-arms on the front).
• Shiny new visuals to all the levels of the Keep.

User Interface & User Experience:

• Reworked context windows for all units and buildings.
• Updated UI rendering layer.
• Reworked text on the difficulty selection screen.
• Reworked tooltips layout and visuals.
• Added best score to each Skirmish map window.
• Added best score to Endless mode window.
• Added confirmation screen when quitting the game or going back to the Main Menu from the Pause Menu.
• Reworked buttons on the Pause menu.
• Uniformed all the text to only use two fonts.
• Added contextual text to the timer of Endless mode.
• Reworked Score Screen layout and visuals.
• Rebalanced points gained from military, economy and time scores.
• Made time score available only from Endless.
• Added description and stats on Mongolian units.
• Changed description of units available to the player.
• Rephrased partial score points to not be confused with actual numbers.
• Added Replay button to the Score Screen on Endless.
• Reworked Védelemopedia layout.
• Reworked Védelemopedia topics and their descriptions.
• Added videos for all the topics in the Védelemopedia.
• Adjusted layout of Keep and Armory tab.
• Moved “Garrison of Archers on the Keep” Upgrade to the Keep tab.
• Added new icon for Wooden Keep (Keep Level 2).
• Updated placeholder videos in the Védelemopedia with newer ones.
• Split Védelemopedia into BASICS and ADVANCED section.
• Added locks to the banners in the skirmish selection map for difficulty yet to be unlocked.
• Non-clickable icons, such as icon portraits, are now squared.
• Added new custom community icon for the game.
• Added visuals to the Options Menu.

Options & Usability:

• Added new graphical settings to the Options Menu:
• Ultra settings including volumetric light.
• Color blind modes.
• Terrain detail density.
• Framerate cap.
• Added 3 different color blind modes to the Options Menu:
  • Deuteranopia
  • Protanopia
  • Tritanopia

Visuals:

• Added different visuals for Wooden Keep, Stone Keep.
• Added Palisade to starting Keep and Wooden Keep.
• Added vegetation and landmarks to the terrain.
• Added transition from palisade to stone walls upon researching Stone Keep.
• Added different animated flags to Keep, palisades and walls.
• Added destruction animations to Stone Keep (Keep Level 3).
• Added defeat camera sequences.
• Added ruins of destroying buildings along the map.
• Added new icons for all the mastery upgrades.
• Added border meshes.
• Added terrain foliage optimization.
• Added several post-processing effects.
• Added volumetric light.
• Reworked pre-existing icons in the Keep menu.
• Reworked textures for the Sawmill.
• Reworked textures for the Military Camp.
• Reworked and improved Stone Keep and Stone walls textures.
• Reworked Iron visuals to be more readable.
• Reworked wheat field to pop-up more.
• Reworked and set-dressed top of the mountains.
• Reworked unit banners to look darker and more readable.
• Implemented a non-volumetric version of the Fog of War.
• Improved variety of trees in the starting tile.

Balance changes - UNITS: 

• Archers to Mongolian Infantry multiplier nerfed: 1.1 (down from 1.2).
• Archers stats nerfed:
  • Attack damage to 4 (down from 6).
  • Attack Speed to 2 (down from 3).
  • Cost to 120 wood and 100 food (up from 100 wood and 100 food).

• Elite Archers stats nerfed:
  • Attack damage to 6 (down from 8)
  • Attack Speed to 4 (down from 5)

• Men-at-arms nerfed
  • Hit Points to 190 (down from 200)
  • Cost to 100 food (up from 50 food)

• Elite Men-at-arms nerfed:
  • Hit Points to 250 (down from 260)

• Elite Spearmen nerfed:
  • Hit Points to 160 (down from 180)

• Wall Archers nerfed:
  • Hit Points to 130 (down from 150)
  • Attack Damage to 10 (down from 12)
  • Cost to 3 wood, 3 iron per unit (from 3 wood, 3 food)
  • Training time to 25 seconds (up from 22 seconds)

• Mongolian Horse Archers:
  • Hit Points to 100 (up from 60)

• Sword & Shield mastery 
  • Hit Points to 10 (up from  6)
  • Attack Speed to 10 (up from 6) 

• Arrow Mastery
  • Arrows area of damage to 2 (down from 4)

• Spear Mastery
  • Cost to 300 wood, 200 iron (up from 300 wood, 100 iron)

• Elite Archer upgrade
  • Cost to 300 wood, 150 iron (from 200 wood, 300 food)

• Elite Man-at-arms upgrade:
  • Cost to 300 food, 150 iron (up from 300 food)

• Elite Spearmen upgrade
  • Cost to 100 food, 200 iron (from 300 food, 200 iron)

• Spear Upgrade
  • Cost to 150 iron (down from 200 iron)

• Bow Upgrade
  • Cost to 150 iron (down from 250 iron)

• Adjusted difficulty curve and enemy spawn locations on all difficulty levels.
• Adjusted difficulty on Endless mode.
• Shortened duration of Tutorial and Easy mode.
• Easy mode is now unlocked from the start.

Balance Changes - ECONOMY:

• All mastery upgrades now cost iron.
• All Elite Unit upgrades now cost iron.
• Garrison of archers on walls now cost iron instead of food.
• Rebalanced the number of upgrades unlockable behind each Keep level.
• Increased the cost of tiles starting from the 5th ring.
• All “increase capacity” upgrades now cost stone, except for stone capacity.
• Decreased farm loss of efficiency from resources and buildings.
• Increased cost of Keep level 2 cost.
• Increased farm loss of efficiency from other farms.

Audio:

• Added sound cues when selecting a unit.
• Added sound cues when giving orders to a unit.
• Added march sounds.
• Added Unit death sounds.
• Added horse sounds to Mongolian cavalry.
• Added Win theme when victory is achieved.
• Added Lose theme when defeated.

MISC:

• Moved spawn points away to be more difficult to reach.
• Endless now uses the same map as Skirmish.
• Changed Keep starting field of view.
• Adjusted field of views for all the other buildings.

FIXES:

• Sawmills’ smoke now blows always in the same direction.
• Health bar of buildings and units will now stay on if not at 100%.
• Fixed a game-breaking crash happening after a certain amount of time.
• Fixed a pathfinding crash.
• Fixed crash happening in alignment system.
• Fixed a game-breaking bug where enemy units would get stuck on the map preventing the game to be finished.
• Fixed bug where icons on production queue would not scale correctly. 
• Fixed some instances were an hovering over UI would trigger two audio cues at once.
• Fixed a bug where ranged units would get stuck in attack animation while not shooting any arrows.
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to research multiple elite upgrades from multiple military buildings.
• Fixed bug where trees on starting tile wouldn’t deplete.
• Fixed a bug where music would stop when going back to main menu from a confirmation screen.
• Fixed an issue where in-game theme would play for a second when starting up the game.
• Fixed a bug where In-game theme would keep playing after finishing a game and going back to the level select.
• Fixed a bug where pressing “back” on skirmish selection would not bring you back to game mode menu.
• Fixed a bug where tiles would spawn when they should not due to blocking volumes.
• Fixed a bug where buildings would block unit’s pathfinding.
• Fixed a visual issue where the wheat field would disappear when the camera is zoomed out
• Fixed a bug where you could replay the game after winning or losing by pressing pause button and then resume.
• Fixed a bug where stats on the context window are the same for all the units.
• Fixed old tooltips giving wrong information on research requirements.
• Fixed a bug that triggered win screen upon keep deletion.
• Fixed a bug where resources cost on tiles would be rendered underneath the terrain.
• Fixed a bug where the grid would generate underneath the terrain.
• Fixed a bug where Military & Economic Tab results are not correctly calculated and reflected in the final score.
• Fixed a bug where formations would get stuck on the river pass.
• Fixed a bug preventing to close the credits menu by pressing escape.
• Fixed a bug where melee formations would start attacking through walls.
• Fixed a bug that made impossible to access pause menu and Védelemopedia by pressing their corresponding icons.
• Fixed options menu not closing when pressing escape.
• Fixed an issue with health bars of buildings not rotating to the camera while the building is being constructed.
• Fixed invisible walls.
• Fixed size of the sawmill.
• Fixed an issue where destroying a house would remove population capacity.
• Fixed an issue where starting units were not counted towards population capacity.
• Fixed an issue with Military building not having repair and destroy building icons.
• Fixed an issue where cancelling a wall upgrade, would stop any future upgrades from being researched.
• Fixed a bug where friendly units could attack other friendly units.

KNOWN ISSUES:

• Cancelling units from the Military Building production queue does not always work.
• In-game UI is still interactable when Védelemopedia or Pause Menu are open.
• VFXs stockpile gunpowder charges while game is paused.
• Combat Audio doesn't play at the start when a formation performs an action.
• Not all units in an enemy ranged formation attack.
• Buildings start harvesting resources while they are under construction.
• The Combat Audio of the formations is still playing when you are on the Score Screen.

We are planning to further improve the game, here is a preview of what to expect with the next update:

A sneak peak of patch 1.1:

• New game Mode: Crazy Maps (now called Extra).
• Even more achievements!
• Destruction animations for Keep level 1 and 2.
• Bug fixes and performance improvements.
• New layout for Options Menu.
• Several small tweaks.

Thanks again everyone, we wouldn't be able to do this without you.
Feel free to join our Discord server if you want to reach out to the developers, give us any feedback or just share your best score on any Skirmish difficulty or the new Endless mode.