Hi everyone,
Dmitry here.
It's been quite a while since the last update, so there's a lot to cover.
Over the coming weeks and months, we'll be focusing on expanding the feudal system and villages, adding new buildings, continuing to develop combat (which we plan to keep improving for many months to come), working on the story generator, and reworking the knowledge system.
By the way, if you've been considering leaving us a review, now would be a great time. We'd really appreciate it!
Feedback on the beta version in our Discord would also be extremely helpful. To switch to the beta, use the Game Versions and Betas tab in the game's properties in your library.
So, the main topics of this patch are Optimization, Dark Politics, Worldviews, and Squad Formations.
Optimization
We've moved to a new version of the engine (which required us to fix a few bugs in the engine itself), worked on optimization, and significantly improved the game's performance.
This should allow you to build cities with roughly twice the population and field armies twice as large in battle. Video memory optimization should also improve performance on machines with weaker GPUs, such as laptops, and will allow us to draw more unique buildings.
Overall, in our tests with large, densely populated cities, average FPS increased by 60%, while video memory usage was cut in half.
We'll return to optimization again later, as there's still room for improvement.
Squad Formations
Squads now move and fight in organized formations and hold their ground during combat, so enemies can no longer simply move through them.
Unfortunately, the bonus for attacking from behind isn't quite ready yet, as this new system requires significant changes to the AI. However, you can expect regular combat updates from now on.
In particular, we're planning to rework the basic damage system soon to make weapon stats easier to understand, introduce different damage and armor types, and more.
City Interactions
We've reworked city actions on the world map. They're now organized differently and should be much easier to understand. Some actions have been removed, while others have been added or reworked.
For example, you can now kidnap children, causing their parents to develop a fear of your king.
Politicians and rulers on the world map now display their level of army support, and this support can be reduced through new intrigue actions. Characters with weaknesses that can be exploited by a particular action are now marked with the corresponding icon.
When a politician on the world map becomes dissatisfied and gains more support than the king, you can use new Dark Politics actions, such as forcing the ruler to attack one of your enemies on the world map.
On the local map, hostile rulers will also use dark deeds and intrigues much more frequently, since these actions no longer depend on having thugs in the city.
Worldviews
Rulers and politicians on the world map, including your own, now have Worldviews.
A character's worldview determines their initial prejudices and sympathies, as well as how they react to aggression and peace treaties. These reactions apply to rulers who share a border.
For example, a Religious ruler will favor the Matriarch's friends and dislike her enemies. A Predator will hate everyone, while a Traditionalist will favor rulers of their own culture and dislike rulers of other cultures.
This makes politics on the world map more complex and varied.
When a character receives a worldview at the start of the game, it is largely determined by their culture. Politicians, however, are likely to have a different worldview from their ruler.
If your ruler acts against their worldview, they will receive a negative thought. This means that aligning your playstyle with your ruler's worldview can become an important part of the game.
Other Improvements
We're in the process of reworking the relationship system. In the meantime, we're trying to tone down some of the frustrating mechanics that are difficult to control, reducing the amount of routine relationship maintenance required.
Specifically:
Rewarding a character with gold or rings now removes the "Envy of Gold" thought and prevents it from appearing again for 5 days
Characters in love no longer develop thoughts about romantic rivals
After having sex with the object of their love, a character receives a +50 Mood thought for 5 days, while the permanent Mood bonus from being in love has been reduced to +14
The effect of Beauty, Gray Hair, and Baldness traits on Interest has been halved
Being in love now lasts exactly 3 days
Full List of Changes
Worldviews
Added the new "Worldview" system
Completely removed the "King's Role" component
When setting up a new game, you can now choose the worldview of every ruler on the map, including your own
Politicians will receive a random worldview different from their ruler's and will personally react to aggression and agreements. This also applies to politicians in the player's city
Combat and Squad Controls
Squads now move in formations
Right-clicking a character that the selected squad cannot attack will now be treated as a move command to that location
Holding RMB can now only be used to set the squad's facing direction after it has stopped
Soldiers who are too far away to engage an enemy in melee will now remain in place and play a cheering animation
All soldiers in a formation move at the same speed, based on the average speed of all its members. If the squad leader is moving along a road, the entire squad will receive the speed bonus
When colliding with an enemy during a charge, the target may take a small amount of damage if the attacker is wearing armor or carrying a shield
Once a soldier enters combat, they will not surrender or flee for 10 minutes, even if their Morale is very low
Characters knocked to the ground by a push can no longer dodge attacks
Interface and QoL
Added the ability to change the radius of a patrol flag while placing it using Q and E
Dogs will now only bark during attacks
Added on-screen events for the beginning and end of being in love
Strengths and weaknesses are now displayed for world map actions
When placing a building, the game will now display a list of factors contributing to its Comfort, and the Comfort area has been made more visible
Added a tip for characters suffering from Rutabaga Typhus
Added a line to the army dispatch hint warning when the player has no medicine
A guest's objective is now displayed in their menu
Updated the daily economy summary hint
Relationship changes from A to B will use a purple arrow instead of a green one when the relationship thought is based on fear
Buttons on the bottom panel can now be clicked in fullscreen mode even when the cursor is pushed all the way to the bottom edge of the screen
VSync is now enabled by default, and will be automatically enabled for all players after updating to this version
The "Borderless" setting has been renamed to "Fullscreen"
Added multi-monitor support, including monitor selection in the settings menu
Text that does not fit inside a dropdown list will now be truncated. Hovering over it will make the text scroll horizontally so it can be read in full
The "Ruler" section of the world map city menu now displays portraits of the ruler and politician along with their Support. The spouse and heir are no longer displayed there
The header of a lord's world map hint now displays their faction banner and faction name. Their name, age, and status are shown in a new layout
The world map city menu now displays the ruler's Worldview instead of their Culture. Culture has been moved to the header and is displayed as an icon with a hint
Newly opened Encyclopedia articles no longer form or save a queue. A new article will immediately replace the currently open one, and pop-up articles will no longer reopen after loading a save
The "Defender" trait hint now displays its combat bonus
Hints for already hired soldiers no longer display their hiring cost
Updated hints for being in love and romantic relationships
The "Old Grudges" mutation hint now displays its prejudice multiplier
Other Improvements
Consolation from the Bishop is now available after the loss of a child
Captured lords will now automatically take medicine from storage. An Incognito guest will arrive in the province carrying 1 medicine
The Director can now independently initiate politician bribery and Dark Deeds once they have been unlocked. A retaliatory Dark Deed can become available after aggression by the player
Added a button to the caravaner's appoint menu that allows you to request a change to the resource traded by one of your neighbors
Added the "Smeltery" technology book to the "Path of the Hammer" scenario
The "Family of Bastards" achievement can now be earned if all of the player's lords are bastards, regardless of whether their parents were lords or commoners
World Map City Interactions
The "Uprising" Dark Deed will now be considered successful only after the rebels win, rather than immediately after the uprising begins
The world map city menu now has a "Use of Force" section: Attack, Neutrality, Transfer the Crown, and Vassalization have been moved to "Threats," while Surprise Attacks have been moved to "Aggression"
The "Politics" section now contains forming and dissolving alliances, Reconciliation, Slander, Tribute, Peace, and Voluntary Vassalage. Reconciliation now costs gold, while a Debt of Honor can be used to peacefully turn a state into a vassal
"Invite as Guest" has been moved to the "Lords" section of the world map city menu. You can select a lord from a neighboring city; invitations are free for friendly factions and cost gold otherwise
"Wise Conversation" has been moved to the "Lords" section on the world map. The player selects a teacher, knowledge, and a suitable student. The conversation is free for friendly factions or characters with a Thirst for Knowledge
"Make a Puppet" is now a separate action in the "Lords" section of the world map. The player's ruler acts as the performer, and the hint displays the required relationship and the Puppeteer bonus
You can now kidnap children from other factions on the world map. Kidnapping a child causes twice as much fear in their ruler
Poisoning someone with madness on the world map is now a separate Dark Deed with a selectable target and performer, success chance, and cost. The performer must be a Poisoner
Reworked "Slander the Ruler," "Fistfight Duel," and "Madness Potion"
Removed the Cultural Gift, while the politician's desire now uses the Official Gift
World map Slander now uses "Naive" as a target weakness and "Serpent Tongue" as a performer strength
Added appropriate strength and weakness pairs for duels, kidnapping, murder, poisoning, and nighttime intimidation
Added nighttime intimidation to the world map at a cost of 300 gold. The break-in chance is 80%, or 100% for a Burglar. If the target wakes up, they will fight the intruder. A performer who gets caught will suffer an injury and pay up to 300 gold
Added new Dark Politics actions: forcing an attack on a neighbor and forcing a peace treaty
Holding a kidnapped lord captive will cause their ruler to fear the player's king. The better the ruler's relationship with the captive, the stronger the fear
Robbing a hall now costs 25% of the target's treasury and steals 50% of their gold, up to a maximum of 2,000. Success chance is 5% per Persuasion level. The base kidnapping chance is now 30%, Puppets no longer receive a guaranteed 90% chance, and a failed conspiracy worsens relations by 50
Added a paper cost for certain actions performed by Puppets
"Official Gift" now has a fixed cost in rings
Graphics
Arrows now rotate in flight and spawn dust particles when they hit the ground
Added an "underwater" effect for partially submerged characters, such as when crossing a ford or standing at the edge of a river or lake
Ground surfaces beneath buildings, such as individual stone flooring and paths, now fade out where they intersect with the terrain
Dialogue bubbles are now rendered above characters
Updated the Armorer building asset
The Altar, Temples, and Hall now have additional surrounding ground areas. The Weaponsmith's roof can now be hidden
Optimization
Significantly reduced video memory usage
Optimized game interface construction
Optimized particle rendering
Optimized building rendering in cities
Reduced the CPU and GPU impact of characters
Reworked the pathfinding library and eliminated a rare silent crash
Optimized the rendering of bloodstains on the ground
Balance
Berserkers now have a 20% chance to enter a rage after taking a hit, without having to exceed their pain threshold
Soldiers and bodyguards will no longer intervene in break-ins and related crimes committed by a character with the "Burglar" trait
When defending their home city, soldiers in a squad commanded by a Defender receive +5 Combat skill
Children can no longer activate actions granted by their talents
Peasants and prisoners lose up to 2 Combat skill experience points each day
Reworked recruitment cancellation and soldier dismissal with refunds. Weak recruits now receive "Fear of Death"
Mercenaries who are still on their way can now be dismissed at any time for a full refund
A lord with the "Forest Lord" talent will no longer damage relations with neighbors when bribing forest bandits at their camp
A Chancery managed by a lord with the "Precise Tongue" talent consumes 2 additional paper. The talent now explicitly provides a +5 building bonus to the maximum number of managed buildings
"Gifted" talent: effect reduced to 20%; added the "Torment of Genius" thought with −15 Mood
"Puppeteer" talent: the relationship threshold for creating a Puppet has been increased from 70 to 75. A lord with this talent receives a −10 thought toward their ruler
"Gift Giver" talent: effect reduced from 1.5 to 1.3, while the cost of the king's gift for such a lord has been doubled
"Duelist" talent: +4 Combat skill outside duels and +7 during duels
During an active inspection, an Overseer now increases prisoner productivity by 20% instead of 10%
Politicians will no longer automatically order Dark Deeds from bandits, poison enemies, or send Puppets into duels every evening
When a world map conspiracy fails, its initiator will no longer die. Instead, they will become afraid of their ruler and lose half of their political support
For a deadly duel on the world map, you can now only select a performer whose Combat skill is at least 2 levels higher than the target's
The Matriarch will only lower her opinion of the player's ruler over a bad duel if the duel was ordered by the player rather than a politician
Kidnapping a lord and robbing a hall on the world map no longer affect the Matriarch's opinion of the player's ruler
The AI can now select a dissatisfied politician belonging to the player who is currently on the local map as the performer of a Dark Deed without requiring them to be friends with the AI ruler. A negative relationship with the player's king is sufficient
The "Neglected Me" thought has been reduced from −6 to −3, and its duration from 4 days to 2
Removed the "Monogamous" trait and all related gameplay logic
Fistfights now affect the Support and Interest of witnesses, but no longer improve relations between the opponents
Fixes
Fixed an issue where game audio could disappear after changing the audio output device
The AI will now initiate a Dark Deed against the player only if the king and potential performers are on the local map. A deed canceled during initiation will now be removed correctly
The Chancery's building management limit is now recalculated immediately when its manager gains or loses the "Precise Tongue" trait, including for linked Chanceries
Conspiracies now correctly handle assistants who are no longer available
Fixed restoration of trait-related thoughts when loading older saves
Fixed an error when hovering over the hint for an unfinished Chancery
"Energy Surge" no longer prevents a student from gaining experience
Fixed potential bugs and crashes when demolishing a building underneath a squad
Fixed an issue where clicking the portrait of a mercenary who had not yet arrived while creating a new squad would remove that mercenary
Fixed an issue where building a fortification tower connected to an existing wall could create an invisible passage between the tower and wall until the next save/load
Fixed a potential softlock in the tutorial after defeating the bandit squad
Fixed an issue where a Bishop could arrive in the player's city with the "Envious" or "Greedy" trait
The shared 12-hour cooldown for resource orders now begins after an order is completed and correctly prevents the action from being repeated
Fixed an issue where the last item in a dropdown list could be cut off
Fixed the layout of the world map battle results modal
Updated the army equipment algorithm and fixed a visual issue that could duplicate equipment
Red and white flashes when taking damage once again play at the correct speed regardless of the character's render update frequency
Fixed flickering hints when they were repositioned over the buttons that triggered them
Fixed an issue where arrows stuck in the ground were not rendered
Fixed rendering artifacts affecting fire and smoke particles from dropped torches
Fixed the relationship level overlapping the ruler's portrait above cities in the political view of the world map