Hello everyone, this is Dmitry.
We are also releasing this patch to the beta branch, since it contains many features that build on the previous update and require your attention and testing. Nevertheless, we plan to push it to the main branch this Friday (it will also include a few more things, such as the updated Wise Conversation system).
I also want to reassure you that work on level generation has not stopped, and I believe we will finally release it to beta before the end of the year.
As always, saves are compatible, and we need your reviews and feedback.
So, in this patch we reworked the unique cultural books, changed building and resource production recipes, added the rumor system, made many balance adjustments, and overall tried to make the game more enjoyable.
I believe all these changes have brought the game into good shape (as much as possible), and over the next couple of months we will focus on developing large features that truly change the gameplay experience.
Rumor System
You will now see a set of rumors in the daily global map report. They give you an idea of your opportunities in terms of intrigue. Somewhere a lord might be ready to be seduced, somewhere a politician has poor relations with their king and just needs a nudge to start a conspiracy, and so on. In general, you will better understand where to start and where you can apply pressure.
Politicians on the Map
Speaking of politicians, they are now more likely to rebel when the king changes (especially if they dislike the new one). Meanwhile, bribing them now initiates a conspiracy rather than a rebellion (otherwise it was too easy).
Reworked Global Map Conspiracies
We redesigned the conspiracy success formula. You can now send a helper lord who increases the success chance. This depends on their combat skill, so combining brains (the persuasion skill used for slander to turn a politician against their king) and brawn (the helper during the conspiracy) is especially effective.
New Books
In beta, the Scriptonic now brings new cultural books every time you upgrade your town level. We are moving toward a system where you will be able to buy only one of them (and next time he will bring different books). For now, we have reworked the sets, removed poorly used books, and added new useful ones. The Tanaya culture got especially lucky. I think they became particularly strong.
By the way, did you know that the Scriptonic buys books at double price? A good way to make money by selling him old books whose knowledge has already become common.
New Recipes
Many resources and buildings now require wooden blanks. This moves us away from the iron dictatorship and makes the game more varied.
By the way, we added iron to the mine on medium difficulty (150 per level), and when it depletes, it no longer completely stops producing iron. Its output drops by 70 percent, which gives around 10 units per day, still livable.
Building Storage Overflow
We discovered that many players do not realize that your peasants do not eat everything you give them. They consume one food per day, and all the excess is stored in the basements of their homes. We added a couple of notifications about this and will add more.
Rain Effect
Rain now increases crop yield for the day, but your residents may get their feet wet if they walk off-road, slowing them down a bit.
Balance
Overall, we continue working on making the early game easier and the late game harder. Vassal tribute has been reduced, and market expansion now happens only for alliances. On the other hand, we reduced annoyance from dealing with vassals. They now more reasonably assess your strength as suzerain and will not constantly spam you with demands to cancel tribute.
After being defeated, kings on the map now hire troops and recover noticeably slower, giving you more opportunities during military conflicts.
Unique guests will now appear more often. Previously, a bug caused their arrival to be blocked by the Scriptonic.
In fact, in the next roadmap we plan to revisit guests more thoroughly. I want to make them not passive bonuses, but active story agents your lords will interact with.
Crime System Adjustments
Another reason this patch is going to beta is that the new settlement level system disrupted crime balance, causing criminals to almost disappear. Previously they appeared due to excess unemployed people, but with migration control this has become easy to prevent.
So we added vagrants who arrive in your city when your neighbors are at war. You can generally stop them together with migration, but then you also lose regular migrants. Full elimination of crime is possible if you gain control over your neighbors and establish peace on all your borders.
UI Improvements
We made navigating and understanding the opportunities for intrigue in foreign kingdoms more convenient by placing all intrigue actions in a separate section.
In the relations menu we added a checkbox that lets you invert the direction of displayed relations from a character to others (as it worked before).
We also added a set of problems that help you understand when something is going wrong, and improved their triggering conditions.
In the army menu, mercenaries now have a yellow clock icon if their contract is about to expire, and a red one if it has already expired and needs renewal. When hiring warriors, icons on their portraits will quickly show what they are armed with.
Woodcutters camps now show the radius within which they efficiently cut trees, and when trees in this radius run out, you will receive a problem flag. It will be easier to monitor their efficiency.
Buildings prioritized for warriors now have an icon in the King’s Eye mode, so you can easily see who lives where.
All in all, there are many improvements and no fewer balance changes.
So play, share your thoughts, and report bugs. We are fixing them too, of course. Thank you to everyone who sends us emails.
Full Changelog (122 changes total)
New books
Varna
Special spice. Alcohol effect duration x2 in whole province
Good fame. New settler positive thought x2 duration
Land knowledge. +30% iron mining bonus
Tanaya
Church history. Bishop opinion req for teaching/sermons down to 0
Closed eyes. On dark deeds fail Matriarch upset much less
Approval sermon. Allows player-ordered approval sermons
Secret history. Dark deeds cost x0.5
Kaiden
Hunting traditions. All residents +7 combat skill vs wolf
Secret fire. Defensive structures burn damage +50%
Weapon glory. Victory thought x2 strength and duration for all residents
Makkha
Herb gathering. +30% forest herb gathering bonus
Interface and QoL
Improved display of the hint about knowledge that has become public
The technology hint label "The book is written in the language ..." will include a culture icon
Trade table capacity for exchanging in the caravan trader trade menu reduced from 9 to 7 goods
Added warrior icon in king view mode, displayed above residential buildings where warriors are prioritized for living
Added problem flag issue, ragged ones will attack soon
If the marriage quest disappears from the global map, the corresponding issue will also disappear
Changed "Prisoners are poorly guarded" issue, it will disappear if no prisoners have escaped recently
Added problem flag issue when lots of food accumulated in peasant houses
Added problem flag issue when many empty job slots
Added problem flag issue when woodcutters camps far from trees
Added number of homeless soldiers in the soldiers hint (top left)
"Enemy awaits the moment" advice will not display while the player is under Loving Family protection
In the "Seduction" order executor hint, current and required interest will be shown as numbers
In "Abduction" and "Assassination" action hints in dark deeds on the global map, Treasurer's name is added
Clicking on a lord's portrait in an AI city will open that lord's interaction menu nearby
Added "Political Intrigues" category in AI city menu orders, some actions moved there
If a soldier has rutabaga typhus, corresponding icon will show near the portrait
Scriptonik will have 100-200 coins
Technology names in caravan trade menu will wrap to multiple lines if long
Now can rehire a soldier with expired contract without waiting for him to return equipment to storage
Changed algorithm for forming list of possible resources for sale in caravan menu,
Added display of new rumors in "World Summary" hint, now can click faction name in hints to go to that faction's city
Added line to lord hint explaining why this lord is unavailable for interaction in "Lords" category selection menu on global map
Added rumor system hinting important city events, e.g. AI city politician has bad relations with king and it can be exploited
Added new modifier "Knowledge does not become public"
Mercenary cards show their weapon icon
Added context to approval sermon hints, sermon now available only to politicians, not bishop
Added job slot recalculation at 21:00
Woodcutters now show effective radius, issue displays if no trees inside
Updated advice on lord hatred when attaching/detaching thoughts
Added woodcatters camp radius display during construction
Fixed missing text in Matriarch's letter about inquisition attacking player
Soldier hint shows number needing medicine, not those with inflamed wounds
Added reverse relations mode toggle in relations menu
"Close" label appears when opening side menus in army menu
Building hints in construction menu pin on hover to view required resources
Red cross on peasant icon when migration disabled, hint shows hall menu button icon
"Buy dog" task starts instantly after assignment
Mercenary contract expired notification shows only if mercenary on local map, if on global - after return
Balance
Tanaya culture will strengthen any prayer thought, not only in temple
Market volume for carrots increased
Joy sermon price reduced from 150 to 100 coins
In AI possible resources buyable from player at 0-, ale replaced with wooden blanks
AI army evaluation in city menu excludes lord-commander
Removed "Idol's death" thought
AI lord visit invitation now checks relations between that lord and executor, not kings
AI no longer counts forces twice in "Suzerain's army might" thought calc if vassal city has walls
Changed algorithm for lord money appearance and spending on global map, lords should have more money on average
AI spends less money on army
AI lords up to 90 residents in their city equip light armor with spear and shield
Residents won't buy ale and meat directly from caravan trader
Prisoner uprisings disabled
Iron amount in mine at medium difficulty increased from 100 to 150 per level
Changed thoughts attached after "Flattery" and "Slander" orders on local map
Changed light armor and shields production recipes
AI demands remove tribute only at -15 relations to suzerain or lower, not from 0
AI demands remove tribute only 5 turns after conquest, not 3
Some production buildings removed negative effect on neighboring residential houses
Rain wets feet of residents walking off roads and improves field fertility
Neighbor kings can't bribe non-politician lord with highest army support anymore
Changed unlock thresholds for some knowledge
Player's neighbors can now request help not only direct province neighbors but also empire neighbors
Changed bishop faith sermon thought strength and duration
Increased chance of unique guests arriving
Market volume increases only if player in city alliance, not vassal state
Vassal tribute halved
AI won't attack player territory bandit camp
Teacher XP for lesson and knowledge study XP halved
King gift amount increased from 150 to 300 coins, character poor and gift works better if money < 100
At game start and after lord aging, 0 to 500 coins
Slander strength reduced on local and global map, global praise strength reduced
War consequences happen even on successful defense by neighbors, increased vagrants from war consequence migrants
Global map conspiracy success chances now based on initiator and player lord total combat skills, on fail player lord captured not executed
Global map politician bribe now causes conspiracy not uprising
AI politician can rebel only after king change, rebel chance 50%, or 100% if <0 to new king, army support random 30-70%
Global map conspiracy can only be started by politician
Healing ointment produced from 2 flowers, not 1
Puppet on creation transfers 80% gold to master
Ring prices increased from 30/15 to 100/50
Removed market depth doubling on peaceful difficulty
Changed some building construction recipes
Removed "Learn new language" desire
Added rutabaga to resources AI can sell player on global map
Increased chance marauders target player city
Player can't attack other lords' vassals if peace treaty with their suzerain
For "Gift" order lord rich and reduces relation bonus only if >700 gold
Fixes
Fixed "Comfort" order unavailable hint due to bad bishop and player king relations
Fixed tutorial block at resource sale to caravan stage
Fixed bug where player army cost evaluated lower
Fixed bug where repairing some burned buildings didn't remove negative effect on neighboring residential
Faith sermon hint accounts for max total thought strength bishop can get
Fixed frequent "Culture residents unhappy" notification
Fixed bug where global map city couldn't be selected at max zoom out if army/character nearby
Fixed bug where global map "Gift" action returned money after execution but not on cancel
Fixed bug where politician rebellion aid send hint showed two honor debt messages
Fixed bug where mine depletion notification appeared every resource mine
Fixed bug where lord mood 25 had yellow portrait background not red
Fixed bug where global map city menu third tab missing order button and sprite transparency worked wrong
Fixed possible crash on popup messages
Fixed bug where player lords suddenly got heavy gear and peasants knives after 90 residents
Fixed error on showing article popup during tutorial
Fixed bug where mine depletion notifications reappeared on building upgrade
Fixed bug where Scriptonik set cooldown on unique guests arrival making them rarer
Fixed error on saving non-existent knowledge
Fixed crash when married lord tried seduce commoner to sex and targeted barrack prisoner
Fixed bug where low relations guest invite impossibility hint showed kings not lords
GUI memory optimization