Sorry for the late update. The patch notes below cover most of the changes, but I will update them over the next few days as I iron out a few of the bugs I'm bound to have missed in the final round of testing.
There's more in-progress changes than I'd like in this update (also some not mentioned in the notes), but I really wanted the update out now, as it was way overdue and had some critical bug fixes. I will do my best to keep a better cadence for the next update.
For the next week or so I expect to release daily bug fix patches for this update. After that I will focus on UI for fortress upgrades, the new province control mechanics and making battles more fun. If all goes well that means an update out in two-three weeks time (after the stabilization week).
I know the new border graphics are not pretty, but they're still an improvement over not having any faction-specific color to the provinces at all - and I hope to improve them sooner rather than later into something at least passable. Then they will be upgraded to a proper aesthetic in a few months time (alongside rivers). That's the plan, at least.
Thanks to everyone who supplied invaluable feedback and bug reports, lately - and in the past. I know this build is probably a bit more messy than usual and might even be rather buggy pending a week of patches or so. However, I am confident the mess will be worth it and I'm really happy with where the province system is going.
Anyway, time to get some rest before the bug fixing frenzy. Looking forward to delivering more updates after that. It's a pleasure to work on this game, and I'm so grateful for the valuable feedback, ideas, support and constructive criticism coming from you all.
Battles
- Rebalanced Battle Magic spellcraft. The increase in mana expenditure cap is cumulative, so researching higher levels would lead to very high caps. This has been toned down significantly (Minor from +10 to +5. Lesser from +20 to +10. Intermediate from +35 to +15. Greater from +50 to +15. Supreme from +100 to +20.)
- A maximum of 1 spell can now be cast per Battle Turn. +2 if the battle is at the Wizard Tower. +1 if the army is led by Arcane-class General.
- Battle retreat mechanics have gone through of combination of bug fixes and improvements. Unit stats and abilities now have a greater effect on the ability to flee/pursue during and after battles. These are essentially "under-the-hood" changes in battle engine.
- Reserves can now rotate with retreating units without being restricted to the reinforcing the flanks only.
- After retreating from a battle an army can now suffer losses from desertion, environmental factors, pursuers, etc. The stats and abilities of units on both sides affect whether this happens and to what extent. High mobility, toughness and discipline helps avoid losses. High mobility, scouting and courage helps during pursuit. The characters, if any, involved, will also affect the outcome.
- Rebalanced damage values and attacking timings to make combat more decisive and avoid overly drawn-out battles.
- Damage which is high, but not enough to cause death, can now cause incapacitation for some unit types. This is counted as a casualty during the battle, but not after - unless the battle is lost or the army retreats. Incapacitated individuals can also be healed (but not ressurected).
- Right-clicking a unit element will now show detailed info on the unit.
World and Magic
- Province control is now determined through ownership of the provincial capital. This is usually a city or fortress. Selecting any hex in a province will show the owner and capital in the lower-left info panel. Control changes immediately on the turn after capturing a capital.
- Provinces without a capital can get one through the construction of an outpost and upgrading it into a fortress. This allows securing full control of unaligned/wilderness provinces.
- Sites can now be built in a controlled province. This replaces the previous territorial control system. Outposts still have special mechanics, but are somewhat in a limbo between the two mechanics. This (outpost build mechanics) will be improved by an incremental game update in the near future.
- Integrated the various 'special' character classes and races (demons, faeries, undead, celestials, etc.) so that they integrate with the culture and attitude system seamlessly.
- Resource sites can now be converted. For now this is restricted to Quarries <=> Mines, but this will be expanded to cover other relevant transitions (e.g. Farms <=> Vineyards).
- Resource sites can now be abandoned, making it possible to build something else in the hex.
- Fortress sites can now have various upgrades. Currently there is no UI for players to actually make use of this. Non-player factions can use this to gain access to recruitment options and province-wide bonuses. UI will be added for this at the earliest opportunity as it is not intended as AI-only.
- Expanded the city/place/region name generators with additional variety/flavor/depth for several culture templates.
- Expanded the culture generators to have additional variety/flavor/depth when generating titles and dynamic unit types.
- Insect Hives now grant additional resources to Fae Gardens (Ichor + Chitin).
- Primordial Trees now grant additional resources to Fae Gardens (Lumber).
- Rebalanced the output of Hunters Lodge sites to include additional resource types and have a higher output in most cases.
- Fixed a number of economy engine bugs which resulted in incorrect price calculations. There is at least one bug remaining (which causes a price change loop out of sync with market supply/demand). I will try to fix it tomorrow (and delete this note).
- A rework of the landmass and terrain generation is underway. It is currently a work-in-progress and not used in the regular game mode. It is however used in the Editor when generating a random landmass. The new generator has more consistent province sizes and can more easily be configured to generate various kinds of worlds. The arguments cannot be changed in the UI yet and as mentioned the system is not finished yet, so the generated landmasses will not feature rivers, and the biome-assignment has not been integrated with the new system yet. So explore if curious, but don't expect usable randomly generated maps in the editor with this patch (you can rollback via Steam if you need the old one for some reason). Once finished, the new and old world generators will be available for use. The old one will not be removed permanently.
- New Earth spells: Boulderstorm, Stalagmite Ambush and Diamondskin. Two battle spells and a very strong unit enchantment.
- Spells can now have an upkeep cost. Diamondskin is the first spell to utilize this.
Bug Fixes and UI
- Improved the tool tips and guide text when selecting parties and/or followers for tasks flexible between a party and an individual.
- Fixed a few tasks which should accept parties but didn't.
- Rebalanced the smuggler event to be less extreme in the amount of gold lost.
- Fixed a number of tribal events that were stopping abruptly with info or resolution after choosing an action.
- Fixed a bug causing conversion tasks to sometimes target the wrong alignment and do nothing.
- Fixed a bug causing music to not play.
- Fixed a number of crash bugs during world generation.
- Fixed a bug which would cause some save games to not load. This should be fixed retroactively (allowing those save to load with the latest version).
- Fixed a bug which would cause some character injuries to not be applied.
- Fixed a bug causing incorrect display of battle results during battles (wounded, dead, etc.) The unit cards were correct, and the post-battle report correct, but the log was incorrect.
- Improved the labels on some buttons which were misleading in their purpose.
- Improved tool tips when a map hex contains multiple selectables. The next selection to cycle to is shown, as is the presence of other selectables. As before, the lower part of the screen has an clickable icon for each selectable entity.
- Province borders now have a colored tint corresponding to the owning faction (if any)
- Improved the tool tips for conversion tasks and made invalid selection greyed out earlier in the task set-up process.