Hey Everyone,
It`s time for a second major update this week, and once again it`s a good - greatly changing the way battles play out. Get ready for a number of new features - from units routing to all new formations, as well as brand new unit combat pathfinding. We also reworked a lot of things under the hood - from adding V-sync, to reworking a lot of our world map gameplay code. And of-course - the bug list is getting shorter by the day, with a few dozen issues resolved.
Please keep in mind that with update of this magnitude, there might be some follow up work needed, but we are here this weekend and will take care of any issues that might arise.
Also now that MKW is really starting taking shape ahead of next month`s release, we want to start increasing the player population. To this end we`ll be inviting all of our players back into the game next week. We also hope to see some new faces during the upcoming winter sale.
As always - we really appreciate your feedback, and forever grateful for your support!
And so presenting Update 68:
BIG CHANGES
- Added combat unit routing gameplay mechanic
- Routed units flee to the Manor building, and try to regroup there
- Completely redesigned Formation system
- Unique startup formation for each unit type
- Four unique formations for each unit class
- Added VSync option to fix screen tearing to the options menu
- Fixed resolution menu showing wrong resolution for players on laptops and some desktop systems
- Potential fix for a rare crash when returning to world map after battle
- AI on the world map redesigned to attack a lot less, but stronger
- Unit location during town defense battle is now saved, if these units are on walls
- Armies on the world map properly interact with towns or armies - resolves all problems with healing, adding units e.t.c
- Redesigned inviting armies to battle - now works properly, extending range, and always finding your army to invite
- Improved terrain graphics on most large towns during winter
- Corrected various localization errors, or empty text after the last update
PATHFINDING CHANGES
- Completely reworked combat pathfinding
- Fixed pathfinding problems when tasking archers on units, and they walked to their location instead
- Fixed pathfinding problems when taking melee unit on units, and units were not obeying orders
- Entire ranged battalion now properly lines up to fire at the enemy from safe distance
- Melee battalions now hold formation when advancing and attacking enemy units
- Major improvements to unit behavior on walls
- Units on wall will no longer try to climb into the towers
- KNOWN ISSUE: Melee sometimes refuses to attack buildings, to be fixed in 48 hours
FIXES AND ADDITIONS
- Fixed major issue with 2nd AI army taking no damage after being defeated by the player in town defense battle
- Fixed issue with Oil Pot often not auto triggering
- Added various gameplay messages and voice dialogues for routing
- Various improvements and fixes to siege weapons on towers
- Paris level fixed some building locations where town houses were too close to buildings
- Towns front gate now always properly close
- Fixed issue with players gates constantly closing when enemies are nearby
- Fixed various issue with World Map GUI remaining on screen when returning to the main menu
- Fixed various issues with world map GUI, or adviser windows being on screen when getting attacked by enemy army
- Fixed major issue with world map GUI sometimes appearing during a battle
- No longer have to reselect an army for option to Heal units to show up near a town
- Increased the delay before showing Back to the World Map button on victory, fixes various issues
- Fixed common issue with world map remaining paused after auto-resolving a battle
- Fixed major issue with players army sometimes switching sides to the AI
- Fixed view cutting of on player ships in naval combat and in naval combat tutorial
- Silver counter no longer shows decimal points
DIPLOMACY CHANGES
- World map icons that show war or peace status of towns now update on the world map in realtime
- Updated description for new King diplomacy abilities
- When you are King - attacking someone without declaring War will result in big diplomatic penalty
- Declaring War using Kings diplomacy - reduces standing within your Kingdom by -20
- White Peace doesn`t effect relations with other Kingoms, but reduces standing within your Kingdom by -20
- White Peace requires relations of at least -30
- Offering Terms is cheaper, but reducing diplomatic relations with all Kingdoms by -10
BALANCING
- World map upkeep for Higher level buildings increased significantly
- Even remote Kingdoms like Scotland or Ireland can now be attacked by far away nations from entire world map
- AI gets more time to conquer large player town - 30 minutes
- Wildfires damage to units greatly reduced, only kills lower tier units now
- Doubled the price in iron to start construction of stone walls
- Slightly increased the price in iron to start construction of palisade walls
- All melees and cavalry units are now much better vs archers in close combat
- Fixed issue with Mantlets taking melee units very long time to kill them
- Archers, and especially Crossbowman now do very little damage to Mantlets
- Mounted wall siege weapons are twice as expensive
- Happiness goes up or down twice as fast as before
- Techs that effect happiness going up or down faster/slower are 2X as effective
- Looted towns now have 30% smaller unhappiness penalty
- Captured towns from same nation, now have much smaller unhappiness of ~-60
- Captured towns from other nations, now have small unhappiness penalty of ~-90
- Soldiers inside the town increase happiness by 40% more.
- Pricier building upgrades do not affect world map as much
- Storehouse storage increased to +300, base storage increased to 500
- All buildings prices nearly doubled, doesn`t effect world map silver price as much
- Building level up price almost doubled, doesn’t effect world map silver price as much
- On the world map - units cost less silver