This major content update focuses on starting balance, new tier weapon research and crafting queue, and trading.
- Greatly reduced the cost of buildings but slightly increased the time required to build them. The goal is to allow players to construct more starting buildings to better manage their exact needs.
- In the previous implementation, any companion could speed up the building process, but Artisans did it better. Now, any companion can increase building speed, but the best speed-up is given by assigning the same worker type as the building. For example, an Artisan is better for building a workshop, but a Scientist is better for a laboratory, and a Worker is best for a farm.
- The Proficiency Hall has been slightly adjusted to remove deviation in companion professions. Now, companions may increase their profession up to a maximum of 1 (base) + 1 (5 x profession upgrades) + 1 (from attributes) = 3.
- Increased the duration for some researches to balance the progress of research with fortress buildings.
- A new grade of weapons has been added to the main game, which includes related research, new items, and recipes. These are designed with the assumption that a library has at least 2 scientists assigned.
- Reduced the time required to craft trading goods.
- Researches are now sorted by complexity. This can serve as a small tip to understand how complex a research topic is. Detailed info on research now shows speed-ups for the selected research.
- Added a dynamic Trading Tax: if a settlement already has certain goods, it buys them for up to 50% less, offering less money for these items. If a settlement has items for too long, it may sell them for up to 50% less.
- Reduced the basic trading extra charge from x3 to x2. Reputation now affects settlement prices.
- Most trading inventories finally support double-click and Shift + double-click to transfer items, in addition to drag-and-drop.
- Added new gathering spots nearby settlements. These are restricted, and collecting from them requires a friendly reputation with the owning faction. Gathering without the necessary reputation leads to a loss in reputation with the owning faction.
- Factions now specialize in specific resources (3 for each faction), so they always have their specialized resources available for trade and never miss them.