Kingdom Crier #43: Performance, System Demands, Roadmap

19 Jun 2025Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Kingdom Crier #43 is here alongside Version v0.30.3 which brings improvements to Performance and decreased strain on System Resources.

Also, let's update the Roadmap!

Changes

Shadows

Shadows have been the most expensive thing to render in Noble Fates for a while now - our far view distances and the use of multiple cascades meant that most of the world was rendered multiple times each frame. Given Unity's architecture this meant that up to 1/2 of the CPU cost and GPU cost of Rendering was spent on Shadows!

We've reworked High to cut CPU and GPU cost in half by dropping to a single cascade and better utilizing the Shadow resolution. We've also retuned Shadows to minimize rendering artifacts (banding) and maximize quality.

In addition, we've added 2 new Shadow Settings. Very High will yield increased quality at the cost of System Resources. Medium strikes the middle ground between High and Low.

Portraits

Live Portraits are one of the cornerstones of the Noble Fates experience, but they have always been very expensive - coming in at ~5ms per-frame for 10. With this patch, we've been able to cut the cost by 75% - down to ~1.25ms!

To do this, we switched from rendering custom picture in picture cameras attached to rigs that follow your mortals around to batched rendering using a command buffer to capture only what we need without all of the extra overhead of Unity's camera rendering system.

In addition, this armed us to do a consistency pass across Portraits, meaning the lighting in Live Portraits and Headshots (the static Mortal images used everywhere else) now have a consistent appearance, regardless of the current lighting conditions in the world!

Footstep Decals

Footstep Decals clocked in at ~5ms on the CPU - with nearly half of this time spent re-rendering any objects that could receive Footstep Decals into a special buffer to identify the areas of the screen that could receive them.

We discovered some tricks we can play on Unity's rendering architecture to plumb through the identifying information we needed without an extra rendering step and in a more accurate way.

This allowed us to cut the cost of Footsteps in half and resolve the sorting artifacts that would occur before. In addition, this made it free to add Footsteps to Carpets!

Frame Rate Limit

Frame Rate Limits stop the Rendering side of Unity from abusing System Resources when CPU demand is low.

In our game, this can happen often - the demands on your CPU drop dramatically when the simulation is paused or when your on any one of a number of Fullscreen UI pages that continue to render the world below them. This can cause the framerate to spike unexpectedly and can cause a much greater than expected demands on the GPU.

Recently, we included the ability to set a Frame Rate Limit even when VSync was enabled. Now, we've set a default of 60fps. If you find the game asking too much of your GPU, you can drop it down to 30fps which will greatly limit the strain on your GPU.

Reachability CPU Resources

Finally, the arrival of the Reachability CPU thread increased the CPU demand of the game. That thread was allowed to run as fast as possible, exchanging CPU time for nearly no delay in updates to the Pathing System and Reachability.

This improvement took us from the 30s or so of latency prior to the Conquest Update to .25s or so (a 100x improvement!), but doubled the CPU's workload.

The reality, however, is that the sweet spot is something like a 25% increase in CPU workload in exchange for ~1s of Pathing latency (still a 30x improvement!), so we've set the default there.

This should result in imperceptible lag in Pathing updates, but if you find yourself with the occasional Unreachable error just after punching through a Wall, adding a new Bridge, or Terraforming - try cranking this setting up.

Summary

All in all, you should see a reasonable reduction in System Demands, improved FPS, and increased Quality!

As always, there's more to do here, and there's still another pass or two planned during EA.

Patch Notes

Noble Fates 0.30.3.6 Released
Minor Update
Shadows Cut cost of Shadows by 50% on High Tune existing Settings for Quality Add Very High Setting Add Medium Setting

Portraits Cut cost of rendering Live Portraits down by 75% (~3-4ms with 10) Make lighting consistent across Portraits

Footstep Decals Cut cost of Rendering Footstep Decals in half Fix bugs with Z-sorting with Footstep Decals Now appear on Carpet

Frame Rate Limit Default to 60fps Set to 30fps if you want to limit System Resource usage further

Add Reachability CPU Resources Graphics Option Additional CPU Resources to dedicate to minimizing Reachability update latency Generally, 0% results in 10s of latency 25% in 1s 100% in .25s Default is 25%

Post Process Effects Cut cost of rendering Post Process Effects by 15%

NPC Conquest Raids NPC Conquest Raids are no longer all or nothing NPC Kingdoms can Retreat (using a higher threshold) and live on to fight another day NPC Kingdoms will still dissolve if everyone is Captured or Killed Decrease Wealth Budget for Conquest Raids Iterate on Dialogue

Send Item Concessions Halve the effects of Item Type Opinion on Cost/Benefit Add Inconvenience Premium Game Option Requesting high numbers of low value Items is now considered Inconvenient NPC Kingdoms will raise Influence Costs for Inconvenient Requests Tunable using "Game -> AI Kingdom Inconvenience Premium" Default to 0.5x in Easy Default to 1.5x in Hard

Preaching Fix bug that blocked Preaching if Target Jumped Fix bug that blocked Preaching if Preacher Jumped

Transporting Prisoners Renamed from Imprison to Transport Prisoner Status updated from Capturing to Transporting

Cells Allow Generic Rooms to be marked as Cells Allow Bunk Rooms to be marked as Cells

Vassals under Attack Add Petition that notifies you when a Vassal is under Attack Allows you to intervene and Negotiate for Peace on their behalf

Add Invert Layer Navigation Control Option Add "Controls -> Invert Layer Navigation" to Invert Layer Navigation

Heavy Is The Crown Fix bug that allowed turning a Mortal into a Baby

Mercenaries Fix bugs with Ownership and Permission when a Merc arrives while you're with an Envoy

Localization Add Auto translated versions of most new strings
Restart the game and steam to pick it up!

Experimental

Updates like these arrive on the Experimental Branch first.

If you have the stomach for brief bouts of instability and want to help us out - switch to (or stay in) the Experimental Beta on Steam and participate in discussions here or on discord.

Expect occasional issues - but know that we appreciate you helping us make the game better!

Roadmap Update!

Let's take a moment to update the Roadmap and cross off a few boxes!

These days, there are 3 types of updates for Noble Fates - Hotfix Updates that address bugs and issues (including those that are listed on the Backlog and those that you Report in-game); Minor Updates that focus on reworking or expanding existing systems and filling them with additional content; and Feature Updates that add new features to the game expanding the overall breadth of what the game has to offer.

NOTE: We've replaced Content Updates with Minor Updates to better encompass the work that is being done to rework and expand on existing Systems during the march to 1.0.

Priority Progress

Progress against the Priority Fixes that we outlined in Fall 2024

We launched the Conquest Update that included expansions to Diplomacy, a number of Strategic Options, Ballistas, Save Compatibility, and also improved Reachability detection. Then we tackled Hauling and Performance with targeted updates.

Notable Changes

60 Crash Fixes - bringing total to 310+!

Save Migration Added Save Compatibility for future Updates

NPC Rulers Added Familiarity How familiar they are with your Ruler Added Influence How much influence your Ruler can leverage Added Diplomacy Options for Player Send Envoy Declare War Offer Peace Offer/Request/Sever/Break Allegiance Request Support Added Negotiations Earn and Spend Influence via Concessions Added Surrendering Surrender when Defeated during Raid Added Judgment Moment Decide the Surrendered Ruler's Fate

Diplomatic Relationships Introduced Vassals and Overlords

Overworld Added Might Tracking Derived from Kingdom Strength + Allies Added History Added Territory System to Overworld

Cloaks Introduced 4 Tiers of Craftable Cloaks

Mortals Improved Mortal Visuals

Crafting Rebalanced Crafting

Pathing Threaded Reachability Dropped Reachability latency from ~30s to ~1s

Fortresses Used to seed NPC bases from Player bases

Fog of War Improved the appearance and performance of Fog of War

NPC Kingdoms Simulate Wealth

Mercenaries Added Mercenaries

Petitions Iterated on Frequency Added Coin Rewards for Allies

Combat Added Ballistas Added Battering Rams Added Shield Toggle Added Friendly Fire Toggle Improved Ranged Behavior

Hauling Introduced Storage v2 All Items have a Store Command Added Storage Remaining UI Added Storage Icons Improved Prioritization

Injuries Added Self Treating Improved Micro Treatment capabilities

Training Improved Training Variety

Guided Experience Improved Flow

Fracture on Startup Limited time spent

Fire Decreased rate of Spread Improved Fire Fighting

Mercenaries Added Mercenaries

Kingdom Size Excluded Prisoners and Mercenaries

Babies No longer targeted by Non-Conquest Enemies

Escapee Moment Improved Flow

Relaxation Improved self preservation Improved behavior on Enemy Maps

Current Priorities

Some new entries here - including Fortress Mod support, Savable Mortal Presets, and allowing Buffs to exceed Skill Caps. We think these changes will better round out the whole experience as we head towards 1.0.

Feature Updates

Finally, we have the Feature Updates. As a reminder, 8 of these will arrive during Early Access. 7 have landed so far. The most recent was Feature Update 7.

Feature Update #7 - Noble Fates: Conquest!
View game page

Our biggest update to date, Noble Fates: Conquest greatly expanded on the mid to late game introducing the ability to Conquer your Island via Diplomacy or Warfare.

Feature Update #8 Status Update: In Progress

The 8th Feature Update is in progress, and we're excited to share more details soon.

Early Access Status

We're around 85% of the way through what we aim to accomplish with Early Access. Current estimates have us at 12 months or so from 1.0 with Major Update #8 landing somewhere in the middle.

We're in good shape for landing 1.0, due to your continued support. As always, you have our sincere gratitude!

Post 1.0 Plans

We plan to support the game with a series of Hotfixes and Minor Updates that ensure the game is well balanced, performs well, and has consistent usability.

From there, the game could see subsequent Major Updates in one form or another depending on where things sit when the dust settles.