Beta Patch Notes e1.5.0

19 Aug 2020Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Beta

Versions
Native: e1.5.0
SandboxCore: e1.5.0
Sandbox: e1.5.0
Storymode: e1.5.0
CustomBattle: e1.5.0

Singleplayer

Crashes

Fixed a crash that could occur at the end of battles due to a missing check in a 'formation AI' behaviour.
Fixed a bug that caused Manual Laborers quest to crash.
Fixed a crash that occurred when annexation decisions were proposed by AI clans.

Performance

Improved performance of retreat and flee behaviour of battle formations.
Optimized AI ranged and melee target selection for performance and spike reduction.
GPU performance improvements for towns - Make shadow occlusion queries great again!

Save & Load

Refactored the save/load file paths so they won't include the Native folder.
Fixed a bug that caused Siege Battle to continue in Lords Hall if players exited to the main menu while climbing a ladder during a siege mission.
Fixed an issue that caused wrong prisoner numbers to be displayed in the load screen.

Art

Fixed navigation mesh issue in Mazhadan Castle.
Keep and arena menu images have been updated.
Fixed a few bugged siege ladders that prevented climbing.
Fixed castle gates physics issues.
Fixed clipping issues on some of the gloves.
Fixed visual glitches on some of the armours.
Added a new Sturgian light armour.
Improvements on Empire wall brick textures.
Improved Empire Dungeon and some garden meshes.
Fixed some parallax issues on Empire Buildings.
Fixed trader missing issues in Vlandia cities.
Fixed walkable area problem in some scenes.
Crafting Axe Pieces have been optimised for future updates.
Made some improvements (f.e. adding dynamic barriers and indestructible merlons) on the following scenes:
- sturgia_castle_003, aserai_castle_002, khuzait_castle_002, vlandia_castle_005a
Added 3 new hair types.
Added new Battanian chain mail armour.
Fixed visual issues on the male version of Northern Visored Cap.
Fixed getting teleported into the void on Empire Tavern scenes issue.
Improvements on some Aserai Villages.
Helmets with wrong beard-covering tag fixed.
Lords and Ladies facekeys revised for Sturgia.

Animations

Fixed many of the agent movement errors near wall and stair intersections.

Campaign Map

Fixed a bug which caused the raid particles to be invisible after a campaign save game was loaded.
Improved geometry in world map, improved texture detail, paths and roads are added, fixed various visual problems with settlements, improved pathfinding. Aserai lands are re-rendered. slight changes in settlements placements for balance reasons. Change in some village productions for balance and lore reasons.

Changes
- New Campaign Map Mobile Party Trackers:
  - Now players can see and track(keep inside their screen) mobile parties of their clans and armies of their kingdom on the campaign map, while they're not in the spotting range.
- Encyclopedia Favourites:
  - Now players can favourite encyclopedia items so these favourited items will be shown at the top of their respective lists.
- New Hideout Troop Management Screen:
  - New popup for hideout troop management before hideout battles that will decrease deadtime waiting for the party screen to load.
- Players can now input numbers directly in Custom Battle sliders (army size, troop type percentage).
- Added a tooltip to the execution notification ("Execute Him/Her" button) to show the player, who they'll lose relation with.
- Added new Game Menu images for each cultures' settlement keep and arena menus.
Fixes
- Fixed an issue that caused the inventory screen to close when the item preview popup is open. Now ESC closes the preview first.
- Fixed a bug that caused the governor selection panel to go out of bounds in some cases in town management popup.
- Fixed a bug that caused prisoners in party screen to show up with the main party's banner.

Battles and Sieges

Added automatic captain assignment to formations without a captain.
- To use this feature, assign a formation to a companion from the party screen.
- Once a battle starts the first companion/hero that is assigned to a formation is picked as the captain of the formation (this also works for AI parties).
- Captains provide formation-wide perk bonuses to their troops.
- If a captain dies or flees, the next living companion/hero (if there are any) within the same formation is picked as the new captain.
"Formation AI and Tactics overhaul"
- Troops with throwing weapons now have their own skirmisher category, they are no longer used as archers by the AI (which caused various problems).
- Horse archer formation behaviours improved to make them protect themselves and pull back better and not to get stuck between enemies.
- Archer formations moved around too much making AI armies far less effective than they could be, a lot of logic added to make them more stable.
- Army approaching enemy army to get in missile range logic overhauled to make it more effective and stable.
- AI now stops and lets its formations form up before continuing moving when it changes their arrangement such as to and from shield wall.
- AI Formations now recognise if most of their units have shields or not and accordingly chooses loose arrangement under missile fire instead of shield wall if they don't have shields.
- Chokepoints in battlefields are now used facing either side if it is appropriate.
- Various errors with the defensive ring tactic fixed, calculations improved, large circles are now being properly formed, square arrangement in the middle improved.
- Enemy army composition having more cavalry now confers a tactical advantage to defensiveness as attacking cavalry armies is more difficult.
- Single cavalry unit in a formation no longer messes up formation unit intervals and unit diameters which used to cause formations to stand with gaps regardless of arrangement.
- When a mixed unit formation is given a shield wall arrangement order, units with shields will move to the front ranks, switching places with soldiers without shields.
Agents who stopped retreating because their side won the battle were causing glitchy continuous playing of running away shout sounds is fixed.
Fixed friendly fire notification on the combat log.

Character Development System

Aserai "Joined the Skirmishers" character creation option now grants relatively cheaper javelins.
Some character creation choices were giving strong and expensive mid-tier armours. This is no longer the case.
Added 13 combat-related Athletics perks.
Added 10 campaign-related archery perks.
Added 8 campaign-related crossbow perks.
Characters' skills are generated from their traits when the character comes of age.

Clan and Party

Some nobles were not spawning in a new game and nobles without a party were not going to another settlement to join tournaments. These issues are fixed now.
Fixed a bug where fugitive family members could not be selected as a party leader.
Fixed problems related to death.
Companions teleported to a settlement of their culture when disbanded. They will now be teleported to a closer neutral or ally settlement if there are any nearby.
AI Lords' traits determine the equipment template allocated to their offsprings during coming-of-age. Only a few templates are now assigned - there will be more variation in the future.

Kingdoms and Diplomacy

Fixed the party size effect of Noble Retinues policy.
Passive influence gains are tweaked further for balance. Some policies have increased penalties to match their positive effects.
A miscalculation bug in Bailiff policy is fixed.
Fixed a bug that caused minor factions to join kingdoms as vassals instead of mercenaries.
Fixed a calculation error in kingdom tributes that lead to unintended tribute values.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)

If a player is inside a fortification and if that fortification's map faction declares war on that player, a new menu will be shown to inform the player that they escaped from the fortification. If a player gains a crime rating in a mission and it leads to war, they will also see the menu after the mission ends, if they are not disguised.
When players entered settlements sometimes it was auto-recruiting from notables. This was fixed.

Quests & Issues

New Issue Quest "Inn and Out" added.
Implemented the new Caravan Ambush quest.
Balanced deserter and defender party sizes for Extortion by deserters quest. Added extra quest requirements.
Fixed a bug that caused quest NPCs to not holster their weapons after the Family feud quest fight.
Village issues will now affect the bound settlement's properties (Loyalty, Security etc.).
Improvements were made to the issue and quest generation algorithm.
Some improvements about conspiracy progression.

Conversations & Encounters

Fixed a bug that caused wounded animations to not play while talking to an imprisoned lord.
Fixed a bug that caused the third-person camera to get stuck when players talked to an NPC from the UI.
Fixed siege parley dialogues. The trigger did not recognise that a parley was in process.

Other

Engraved Backsword can now be thrusted.
Stats of Expert Forester units have been fixed.
Seaxes can now be used with civilian equipment.
Battania Veteran Falxman unit has stats that benefit his weapon of choice now.
Aserai rural notables and peasant units no longer come with heavy armour.
Militia Equipment has been balanced and changed. Veteran militia units now use weaker armour and weaponry.
Fixed a bug that causes NPCs to remain hostile after player retreats from alley fight.
Fixed a bug that caused the wife/husband of the player to appear multiple times in missions.
Bandit parties' prisoners are recruitable now.
Minor refactor about recruitment and mercenaries
Fixed a tick problem which also causes skipping daily income in some cases.
Fixed an issue for the editor build deploy.
Editor problems about editing AI hint objects fixed.
Editor build deploy improvements.

Multiplayer

Crash

Fixed a crash that happened when a player picked up an item from the ground while it was fading out.

Art

Map Fixes:
- Fixed walking through from window to the roof with camel issue in Nord Town TDM map.
- Improved visibility in both interiors and ability to see outside from inside and vice versa in Trading Post Skirmish map.
- Fixed various positions for Trading Post and Town Outskirts Skirmish maps that allowed players to reach out of bound areas.
- Some physics improvements to Xauna Skirmish Map.
Two new skirmish maps:
- Name: Echerion Theme: Main visual features: Imperial City, Canals, Sea Side. The map is set in a grand imperial city, with canals running through the two contrasting districts, which serve as starting points for both teams. Players will fight for the main square with its construction sites, the city's pottery workshop and the elevated grand plaza.
- Name: Port at Omor Theme: Main theme is a fishing and trading village at the outskirts of an old and established city. While one team starts from the channel that divides the city from the village, the other team starts at the opposite end of the village. Players will battle amongst trade yards, shipyards, warehouses, taverns, and statues left behind by old inhabitants of the land.

Combat Changes
Melee Combat:

Defend speed has been increased drastically. (So blocking is a lot more responsive now.)
Ready speed has been increased. (So your weapon goes faster into the attack position.)
Release speed has been decreased. (So your weapon swing/thrusts is slower now.)
Quick attacks now skip more processes of the animation. (Removes some of the delay at the start of quick attacks.)
Adjusted the crush through formula:
- It will be easier to crush through with high force weapons now.
- Made it so that Two-Handed Mace crush through way more consistently than other types.
- Couch lance attacks can now crush through blocks. (Singleplayer Only)
Made defender stuns longer when being struck/hit.
Made defender stuns less dependent on weapon weights.
Removed stance bonuses to stuns.
Made attacker stuns shorter after blocked attacks.
Made attacker stuns shorter on bounces/glances.
Made attacker stuns shorter for swings + thrusts.
Hitting with a weapon now slows it down more, especially for thrusts.
Made it slightly easier to chamber block. (More changes to come since its still quite hard.)
Decreased the damage thresholds for pierce, cut and blunt attacks:
- Meaning attacks will not bounce/glance as easily.
- Made them consistent between the damage types.
Modified the damage curve for swing attacks:
- Swings will now deal damage more consistently.
- Swings will now deal damage earlier into their collision period.
- Note that the collision periods for all attacks have been updated (moved further back), check below.
Collision period adjustments (the time frame of attack animations that can collide / deal damage):
- One-Handed Left Swings collision starts slightly later.
- One-Handed Right Swings collision starts slightly later.
- One-Handed Lance Thrusts collision starts later.
- Two-Handed Left Swings collision starts slightly later.
- Two-Handed Right Swings collision starts slightly later.
- Polearm Right Swings collision starts earlier.
- Polearm Left Swings collision starts earlier.
- Polearms Thrusts damage starts later (collision stays the same).

Ranged Combat:

When defending (blocking with a shield) with a weapon in throwing mode in hand, you now also get bumped when enemies come close to you. (This is to make it risky to play for kick throws (but keeps it possible). Earlier it only happened when readying your throwing weapons.
Decreased accuracy of throwing weapons when released instantly.
Decreased accuracy of throwing weapons when held for a long time. (Similar to bows.)
Slightly increased the release time of throwing weapons.
Made bows a bit less accurate when released instantly (This won't affect AI too much. Will make it harder (but not impossible) for players to hit feet or around shields.)
Multiplayer Only:
- Made bows inaccurate earlier when drawn out for a time. (This will make it make the window of perfect accuracy smaller. Early Accuracy will be slightly better if the bow was readied before.)
- Made bows more inaccurate when moving.

Other Combat Changes

Made kick animation longer. (Gives the opponent more time to react. Also slightly reduced the stun.)
Increased collision resistance (makes it harder to push people):
- Increased minimum collision resistance (when moving fast).
- Increased maximum collision resistance (when moving slow).
- The collision resistance when standing still stayed the same.
- This will also make it harder to push through formations of AI.
Made Equip animations longer:
- This will increase the equip times slightly when changing weapons.
- Doesn't affect sheathing weapons.

Movement

Decreased movement speed during combat. (Will make it harder to move in and out of duels)
Increased maximum sprint speed.
Increased the time needed to reach 100% sprint speed.
Slightly increased when running backwards.
Slightly increased the time needed to accelerate out of combat speed.
Made it easier to turn with horses.

Mounted Combat + Movement

Couch lance engage animation is slightly longer now.
Couch lance angle to right side has been decreased.
Lowered speed and angle requirement for mounts to trigger the “hit object” animation.
Horses now rear up when riding into objects to hard.
Increased speed requirement for horses to charge characters. (This will make it harder to bump run over characters. There will be more bumps than run overs now. This will require better infantry coordination to take advantage of cavalry charges.)
Decreased the damage threshold for being able to rear mounts.
Mounts can now be reared from a wider angle by spears.
Multiplayer Only:
- Classes with lower riding skill will now perform worse on horseback (less manoeuvrability and less speed).

Other

Increased Fall Damage.
Fixed an issue when a picked-up weapon is dropped for the second time gets spawned far away from its original position.

Skirmish

Changed Max Gold to 380.

Weapon Changes

Adjusted all weapons in relation to new Combat Parameters. (Weapons will be fine-tuned if required as we monitor their performance.)
Slightly increased damage of Battania Axe.
Reduced damage of Vlandia Pickaxe.
Slightly reduced damage of Sturgia Axe.
Slightly increased damage of Pikes.
All Lance's damage increased to adjust for the new Couch Lance formula and price changes.
Sling:
- Increased Stack size is changed to 20.
- Increased Missile Speed from 40 to 45.
Javelin damage reduced.
Sturgia Harpoon damage reduced.
Billhook damage reduced.
Sturgia Throwing Axe stack count is reduced from 4 to 3.

Troop Changes

All Skirmishers and Shock Troop are slightly faster.
All Heavy Infantry start with a lighter, weaker tall shield.
All Horses hit points increased by 20.
All Heavy Cavalry and Barding perks armour reduced by 5.
All Shock Troops start with a small, and very weak shield. (Only planned for Skirmish for now. We will make adjustments after certain AI issues are fixed.)

Aserai

Skirmisher
- Price is increased from 100 to 120.
- Range Javelin perk is changed to Axe perk.
- Lighter Shield Weight value is changed from 3 to 2.
- Better Javelin perk stack count is reduced from 6 to 4.
Tribal Warrior
- Price is reduced from 120 to 100.
- Default armour value is reduced from 19 to 14.
- Heavy Mace perk is changed to Mace perk.
Guard
- Added Default Small Weak Shield (20 HP, Skirmish only).
- Sword perk is changed to Heavy Mace perk.
Veteran
- Price is increased from 150 to 160.
Beduin
- Move Speed value is increased from 74 to 77.
Mamluke
- Price is changed to 200.

Battania

Wildling
- Extra Javelin perk stack count is reduced from 7 to 6.
Savage
- Added Default Small Weak Shield (20 HP, Skirmish only).
- Hit Points value is increased from 100 to 110.
Oathsworn
- Price is changed to 160.
- Lighter Shield perk is changed to Improved Armor perk.
- Range Javelins perk is changed to Stronger Shield perk.
- Strong Javelins perk is changed to Javelins perk.
- Spear perk is changed to Long Spear perk.
- Bastard Sword perk is changed to Heavy Mace perk.
Clan Warrior
- Spear perk is changed to Pike perk.
Mounted Warrior
- Move Speed value is increased from 75 to 78.

Empire

Menavlion Infantry
- Added Default Small Weak Shield (20 HP, Skirmish only).
- Hit Points value is increased from 100 to 110.
- Pilum perk stack count is reduced from 2 to 1.
Legionary
- Price is changed to 160.
- Lighter Shield perk is changed to Stronger Shield perk.
- Spear perk is changed to Long Spear perk.
- Move Speed value is increased from 76 to 77.
- Pilum perk stack count is reduced from 2 to 1.
Palatine Guard
- Price is increased from 150 to 160.
Courser
- Move Speed value is increased from 73 to 76.
Cataphract
- Price is changed to 200.
- Default Horse Maneuver value is reduced from 64 to 62.
- Agile Horse perk Charge Damage value is reduced from 12 to 10. And the perks additional HP value is decreased from 40 to 25.

Khuzait

Spear Infantry
- Price is changed to 130.
- Short Spear perk is changed to Spear perk.
- Move Speed value is increased from 76 to 77.
- Throwing Spear perk stack count is reduced from 2 to 1.
- Added default weapon, Shortsword.
Steppe Bow
- Fast Arrows perk is changed to Strong Arrows perk.
Nomad
- Default Horse Maneuver value is increased from 60 to 64, Speed value is increased from 37 to 39 and HP value is increased from -30 to -20.
- Tougher Horse perk Charge Damage value is reduced from 8 to 6. And the perks additional HP value is increased from 25 to 40.
- Charger Horse perk additional HP value is decreased from 15 to 0.
- Short Spear perk is changed to Spear perk.
- Move Speed value is increased from 74 to 76.
Lancer
- Price is changed to 200.
- Default Horse additional HP value is decreased from 25 to 0.
- Tougher Horse perk additional HP value is decreased from 38 to 45.
- Swapped Glaive and Tougher Horse perks. Glaive Perk now replaces Lance.
Mounted Archer
- Default Arrow count is increased from 25 to 32,
- Extra Arrows perk increased from 40 to 50.
- Default Horse Speed value is increased from 37 to 39, Maneuver is increased from 60 to 64 and additional HP value is increased from -30 to -20.
- Faster Horse perk Speed value is increased from 40 to 41.
- Tougher Horse perk Speed value is increased from 37 to 38, and additional HP value is increased from 0 to 5.

Sturgia

Berserker
- Added Default Small Weak Shield (20 HP, Skirmish only).
Varyag
- Price is changed to 160.
- Lighter Shield perk is changed to Mace perk.
- Spear perk is changed to Long Spear perk.
- Javelins perk is changed to Stronger Shield perk.
Hunter
- Armour value is increased from 6 to 10.
Raider
- Move Speed value is increased from 73 to 76.
Druzhinnik
- Price is changed to 200.
- Default Horse Charge Damage value is reduced from 11 to 8.
- Tougher Horse perk additional HP is increased from 43 to 50.

Vlandia

Peasant Levy
- Move Speed value is increased from 79 to 81.
- Price is reduced from 90 to 80.
- Removed Bonus Damage to Shields from Sickle and Pickaxe.
Voulgier
- Added Default Small Weak Shield (20 HP, Skirmish only).
- Armour value is increased from 10 to 16.
Sergeant
- Price is changed to 160.
- Spear perk is changed to Long Spear perk.
- Javelins perk is changed to Stronger Shield perk.
Sharpshooter
- Price is increased from 140 to 160.
Vanguard
- Agile Horse perk Maneuver value is increased from 68 to 70, Speed value increased from 45 to 47.
- Move Speed value is increased from 73 to 77.
Knight
- Price is changed to 200
- Default Horse Speed value is increased from 40 to 41, additional HP value is reduced from 35 to 10.
- Javelin perk is changed to Heavy Lance perk.

Game Modes

Siege Mode Improvements: Alongside many stability improvements, we are also adding objective-based gold gaining to Siege game mode. In addition to defeating enemies to gain gold, players will be able to gain gold by helping their team complete objectives. Attackers will gain extra gold for pushing the siege engines, breaking down doors and siege engines and breaching walls. While defenders gain gold by destroying siege engines and weapons. Each player will be compensated for their total contribution when the objective is achieved.

New Features

Clan System: Players now can create a clan with their party. Six player party is needed to create a clan. Players can create their clan from the Clan tab in the lobby with the “Create a Clan” button. This button then opens a popup. In this popup, the party leader can decide on the name, tag, faction and sigil of the clan. The name and the tag can be decided only once and it has to be unique, but the faction and the sigil can be changed any time by the leader of that clan. Upon pressing the create button, every other member of the party gets notified asking them if they want to join the clan. If all of them agree, a new clan is created. A clan can have a description and many announcements. These can be found on the clan’s home page. The clan leader can set a description for the clan. This description can be used to tell what that clan is all about. The leader can also post announcements or news for the entire clan. When members of the clan visit the clan tab in the lobby, they can get informed about the latest news and announcements about the clan.
Clan Matches: A party of six players all belonging to the same clan can create a game by selecting game type, map and factions. Other parties that satisfy the same conditions can see a list consisting of these games and select one to join. If the creator party accepts this join request, a server is allocated for them and they duke it out. After the match, winner teams clan gets 1 win, loser teams clan gets 1 loss added to their clan stats.
Clan Roster: In this page, members of the clan can see all the players that are in the same clan as them. They can then invite their clanmates to their party, add other clan members as friends and if they are the leader of the clan, they can also kick members from the clan or make them the new leader.
Clan Leaderboard: A score is calculated for each clan using their win and loss numbers. Then they are sorted based on this score. Any player belonging to a clan can visit the Leaderboard page in the clan tab to see the rankings of all clans in the game. As we improve the Clan System, a Rating system will be added to more accurately reflect clan strength and other types of Leaderboards will be introduced for Clans and their members.
Spear Bracing: Only possible with lances and pikes. Pressing ‘X’ key once while stopped, activates the bracing. Attacking, defending, crouching, jumping and running actions cancels the bracing. Players can only walk slowly while bracing is active. Please note that the damage values are still yet to be balanced.

Added some explanatory hints in the MP lobby.
Fixed an error at the context menu in the Recent Games tab.
Non-leader members of parties can now suggest their friends to their party leaders to be invited.

Announcement About Beta Servers

Beta servers do not share any data with Live servers. Which means no data will be transferred from Live to Beta or Beta to Live.
US, EU and EA will get all the usual servers and services.
There will be a single server on Oceania to allow players to test new combat changes.
Beta servers connect to a testing server and because of that Lobby servers will not use SSL connection.
Clans that are created WILL be carried over to main!

Both

Audio

Various walking sound problems are fixed.

Added a confirmation popup for character creation reset and reset all buttons.
"ShowCursor" key for scoreboards is now bindable.

Performance

Fixed many of the runtime spikes and invisible mesh issues by preloading the shaders.
Significantly improved performance of flora rendering.

Animations

Beautified animations related to mounting/dismounting horses, and falling from horses by blending the animations between switches and considering the scale differences of the horses.
Adjusted parameters of rotating in place animations, and made them slightly better.
Better shield hit inverse kinematics solving.
Falling animation problem when kicked down from high ground fixed.

Combat

Horses will now panic and run away properly when they are hit in battles.
The best accuracy moment of ranged weapons was moved further back, making quick shots a bit more inaccurate.

Other