Roads and the transport network
Workers can now construct roads on valid map tiles. Completed roads remain part of the match and reduce movement costs for land units travelling through them, allowing armies, workers and other units to move across the map more efficiently.
The road network works consistently in single-player and multiplayer, and it is preserved in saved games and replays.
This is the first version of the infrastructure system. The core construction and movement mechanics are now in place, providing a foundation for further infrastructure improvements in future updates.
New camera focus and tracking options
Camera behaviour during unit movement can now be configured in much greater detail.
Instead of using one general camera setting, you can independently decide how the camera should react to the movement of your own units and enemy units.
The following options are now available:
Focus the camera on your unit before it begins moving.
Continuously track your unit while it moves across the map.
Focus the camera on visible enemy unit movement.
Continuously track visible enemy units while they move.
Enable the Cinematic Camera option for a more presentation-focused map view.
This makes several camera styles possible. You can keep the camera almost completely manual, use focus-only behaviour, follow every movement, or configure different rules for your units and enemy units.
When the camera follows enemy movement, it returns to your active selection after the movement has finished. Fortified-unit threat notifications also no longer unnecessarily pull the camera away when the fortified unit remains in place.
The settings are saved, so your preferred camera behaviour remains active between game sessions.
Clearer combat feedback
Combat targeting and presentation have been improved so that battles are easier to understand at a glance.
Attackable hexes are now highlighted more clearly.
Attacks display animated trajectories between the attacker and defender.
Attacker, defender and fortification markers remain attached to the correct units.
Retreat markers now correctly follow retreating units and finish on their actual destination tiles.
These changes should make combat easier to follow, particularly when several units and visual markers are present at the same time.
Better performance in larger matches
The update includes improvements to late-game turn processing, map rendering, combat presentation and marker synchronization.
The biggest difference should be noticeable in larger matches, where the game needs to process more units, cities and map elements during each turn.
Camera movement rendering has also been optimized so that moving or zooming around larger maps should remain smoother.
Stability and internal improvements
A significant amount of work has also been completed behind the scenes. Several large gameplay, renderer, HUD, editor, AI, reporting and multiplayer components have been divided into smaller and more focused modules.
Release checks have also been expanded with an automated single-player test covering the end of a turn, saving the game and loading it again in a fresh session.
These internal changes are not always directly visible during normal gameplay, but they should help prevent regressions and make future updates safer to release.
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for all the feedback, bug reports and suggestions. They continue to help me decide which parts of Age of New Worlds should be improved first.
I'll keep you updated on upcoming updates in this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/4833240/discussions/0/592937761422683427/
AoNW is still being actively developed, and community feedback has already influenced a lot of the changes I'm working on, so feel free to share which of these systems you'd like to see first, or how you would approach them differently.
Thank you for playing Age of New Worlds!