v0.5.4 Update Notes
Hello, I'm the developer of Three Kingdoms: Alias.
This update improves officer management and true-name reveals, city administration and Reputation, mobility institutions and warfare, personnel and administrative usability, and a range of UI interactions.
Key Updates
- Ask for a True Name after an Interview After interviewing an unidentified officer, players can type in and ask for the officer's name. A correct answer reveals the true name.
- More Convenient Loyalty and Satisfaction Management Reward amounts can be set more conveniently, and the new [Banquet] action helps manage Loyalty and Satisfaction.
- Battles and Warfare AI rulers are more aggressive, are more likely to respond through field battles, and Archer balance has been adjusted.
- Administration, Personnel, and UI Usability Improvements Reputation gains from administration have been increased, alongside batch Encouragement, return management for absent office holders, and other usability improvements.
Update Details
New True-Name Questioning Feature
- Ask for a True Name after an Interview After interviewing an unidentified officer, the ruler can ask for their true name directly in the result window. A correct answer reveals the true name and raises Loyalty by 10, while an incorrect answer lowers Loyalty by 10. An officer's response varies by their Integrity and Ambition tendencies.
- Additional Officer Information Revealed Once an officer's true name is known, disposition stats such as Integrity, Ambition, and Reputation are revealed.
Loyalty and Satisfaction Management
- Reward Improvements Single and batch rewards can now pay 1 to 10 months of salary at once. A successful reward raises Satisfaction by three months' worth regardless of the number of months paid, and reward targets are listed from lowest Loyalty first.
- More Detailed Satisfaction States Officer Satisfaction represents an officer's emotional state and affects the rate at which Loyalty declines. Before this update, Satisfaction had four stages: Satisfied, Uneasy, Dissatisfied, and Enraged. It now has five: Satisfied, Normal, Uneasy, Dissatisfied, and Enraged. In the Normal state, which was the former Satisfied state, Loyalty naturally declines based on Affinity, and the decline grows as dissatisfaction worsens. In the new Satisfied state, Loyalty does not naturally decline. Temporarily increased Satisfaction gradually decays back toward Normal. Satisfaction can be raised through interviews, battle merit, rewards, and the banquets described below.
- Banquets Added Once you own at least three cities and have a Personnel Minister serving, you can hold a banquet in each city. Each city costs 15 AP, and all officers assigned to that city attend, gaining Satisfaction and Loyalty. Like the ruler's Mediation action, a banquet can ease Discord between attending officers who do not get along. The chance depends on the two officers' Satisfaction, while a Hated relationship can only be eased temporarily.
- Checking Satisfaction The City Information Level provided by the Inspector lets you check Satisfaction in detail. At City Information Level 0, only Enraged officers are detected; at Level 1, Dissatisfied and Enraged officers are detected; and at Level 2, all five states are detected. The reason for detected dissatisfaction can be checked regardless of Information Level. If Satisfaction is learned through an interview or banquet, it remains visible for that turn regardless of City Information Level.
- Mediation Adjustments Mediation now grants a Loyalty increase and has a higher chance of success. The chance for Discord to worsen after a failed Mediation has been lowered.
Battles and Warfare
- AI Aggression Adjustments AI rulers now make somewhat more aggressive decisions when deciding whether to deploy troops.
- AI Field Battle Deployments AI rulers that wish to avoid the administrative-stat penalties of a siege will choose a field battle instead when they have sufficient troops.
- Archer and Wall-Top Balance Adjustments The ground ranged-attack bonus for Archers on city walls has been lowered, and Archer production cost has increased from 2 to 2.5. Production costs are now Infantry/Archer/Cavalry = 1/2.5/3. Troop-type information in the deployment formation window now also displays each unit type's production cost.
- Improved Guidance When defending forces outnumber the enemy, guidance now explains that intercepting through a field battle may be more favorable for city administration than a siege.
- Transported Troop Handling Fixed an issue where transported troops could not join the siege when an enemy army and a friendly transport convoy arrived at a friendly city at the same time.
Administration and Reputation
- City Development Reputation Milestones Whenever a city's Commerce, Agriculture, or Public Order first reaches 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100, the ruler of the faction that owns that city gains 1 Reputation. Progress is recorded separately for each city. Previously, you gained 5 Reputation only when Public Order reached 100, so city administration can now yield more Reputation.
- Officer Reputation Reassessment Officer Reputation has been reassessed based on their historical standing and public reputation. The revised values apply from the start of a new game.
- Hidden Stats Displayed for Officers with Known True Names Once an officer's true name is known, their Integrity, Ambition, and Reputation values are displayed in the Officer Information popup.
- Other You can now select multiple categories for Encouragement at once. Domestic categories already at their cap are now excluded from Encouragement and Promotion targets. Added a guide explaining the cause and effects when Reputation falls for the first time. Rulers are grouped into recommended and other rulers for each starting year, and selecting a ruler with low Reputation now displays a difficulty warning.
Personnel and Offices
- Return Management for Absent Officers You can now see office holders who are absent in other friendly cities in the Turn Report and Office Assignment screen, then return them individually or in a batch.
- Improved Office Assignment Status Display The Office Assignment screen now makes it easier to see the status of office holders who are moving or deployed, as well as whether they have left their workplace.
UI and Usability
- Right-click and Back now close only the foremost window.
- New information results appear in front of existing windows, and repeated reward results update to the latest contents.
- Personnel and Office Assignment UI has been refined so sort order, selections, and scroll position are not reset.
- Auxiliary tab icons in the Officer Information and City Information windows are now larger for easier access. These include the [Memo] tab for entering an officer alias, the [Log] and [Merit] tabs for officer history, and the [Domestic] tab for detailed city administration history.
- The first time you enter the troop deployment window, information panels for leader/deputy roles and troop types are displayed once.
Other Fixes
- Ongoing institution research is no longer canceled when the ruler moves or leaves the capital.
- Post Station Development and Logistics Reform now extend to Level 3. After researching the highest level, personal movement and transport convoys can move up to 4 nodes per turn.
- Fixed an issue where imprisoned officers could be included in individual or batch relocation targets.
- Officers who have stepped down, like dismissed officers, cannot be recruited again by their former faction for 12 months.
- Removed the incorrect "Other City" label from recruitment targets.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the shortcut guide from opening through the System menu. You can now check shortcuts through the System menu's shortcut guide or by pressing F1.
We are aware that the battle simulator currently has many issues, but we were not able to address them in this update. We will explain this in more detail soon through a roadmap announcement that includes plans for a battle-system renewal.
I also read all discussion threads and reviews in the community. However, I believe that focusing on development and delivering updates even a day sooner serves players better than taking time to reply to each one, so I ask for your understanding for the time being.
We will continue improving the game based on your feedback. Thank you.