Release notes below. A brief update on development status can be found after the notes.
User Interface and Steam Integration:
- Achievements have been implemented and integrated with Steam. These trigger upon reaching the conditions described in each. There is a forum post for sharing suggestions on additional achievements. The current ones are just the beginning.
- Custom Maps can now be uploaded to the Steam Workshop from a button during Editor mode. If you have trouble getting this to work correctly, check that you have accepted the Steam Workshop agreement. This should be prompted in-game, but if it doesn't, check the Workshop section of the Steam client.
- Mods can now be uploaded to the Steam Workshop via the Mods window.
- Subscribed Workshop Maps/Mods are integrated and included in the relevant windows.
- The details panel in the Diplomacy Window now has a Go To button which will focus the world map on the relevant faction.
- Office Request notifications can now be dismissed permanently or for the next 10 turns.
- Characters can now be renamed by clicking their name on the main panel in the Followers Window. A tooltip indicates this.
- The Outliner now has Character Portraits in the tooltips.
- The free-text map search now also searches factions and will zoom to the map location of chosen search result if it's a faction.
- There is a now a Details button on the Followers window which allows access to special panels for display of Office Desires, Character Opinions/Relationships and History overview, for the selected character.
General:
- Conquest of sites belonging to a specific culture can now result in warnings and declarations of war. This can be done by a coalition of factions belonging to this culture, or any number of single factions. Factions which do not have the relevant culture are less likely to react. The risk and type of response is based on the percentage of sites conquered of the total number belonging to this culture, and the diplomatic relations between the conqueror and possible responders. This is the first iteration of an 'aggressive expansion' mechanic and will undergo further refinement.
- Characters now have their history tracked. This will show their participation in battles, assignments carried out, interactions with other characters, offices taken and lost, etc. This can be shown in the new Details mode of the Followers Window.
- Added character traits for elemental influence: Air-Touched, Earth-Touched, Fire-Touched, Water-Touched, Frost-Touched. In addition to the flavor/narrative element, these add a small combat challenge bonus until further effects can be implemented.
- Improved the Character opinion system to support non-static opinion modifiers. This allows incremental changes in character relations, temporary opinion modifiers and decreases the number of calculations needed per turn.
- Characters will now be jealous of another character holding an office they greatly desire. This applies a negative opinion modifier based on the level of desire for the relevant office.
- Further expanded the world generation when it comes to notable characters and creatures of the various special cultures.
- Added additional Lore Research avenues to unlock insight into the notables and dynamic aspects of the special cultures and races.
- Improved how the world generation handles custom starting points on a map when it seeds cultures and independent realms.
- Tweaked the gold and resource output of cities. Highly developed cities have been toned down.
- Tweaked the gold and resource output of special city pop units. Highly developed cities have been toned down. Less technologically developed cities now give less gold and additional basic resources.
- Improved the impact of leaders on city gold income and production. It is now handled on a per-resource basis rather than as flat modifiers.
- Expanded the range of names for some of the language/theme templates which had a low range of possibility and thus a high risk of repetitions.
- Expanded the range of Fortress names.
- Lore-based recruitment modifiers can now impact Upkeep costs.
- Added numerous new Lore Research discovery outcomes.
- Ascendancy Victory now requires discovery of Draconic Ascendancy instead of Draconic Lore Level 10.
- Ambient Character Activity: Armsmasters will now sometimes train other characters at their location, potentially giving a bonus skill and a positive opinion change.
- Ambient Character Activity: Idle Rogues can now decide to go for a bit of an adventure, and may even lure other available characters to join. This is not likely to result in serious harm, but can leave followers fatigued/recovering and unable to perform other duties for a while.
- Ambient Character Activity: Having multiple Nobles (and equivalent character types) at the same location (including being in a party, performing the same tasks, joining the same army, etc.) can result in a rivalry forming with significant negative opinion modifiers applied.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed missing Starting Point label visibility. There is still a known issue where zooming out can disable the label (can be worked around by using the map label toggles).
- Fixed a broken filter on the Deities Panel.
- Fixed Culture traits being placed incorrectly in the Encyclopedia hierarchy.
- Fixed some Culture traits having no display text in the Encyclopedia.
- Fixed several bugs relating to starting games on Maps with custom starting points.
- Fixed a bug causing names to go missing for some building types when loading a previous save.
Additions in 0.9.142.1:
- Fixed an Achievement ('the wand is mightier than the sword') not triggering as intended.
- Fixed the default description for Mods, so it is no longer the file system path.
- The map editor now supports updating a workshop item.
- The Load File dialog now shows ''Workshop Item'' in the summary when browsing maps.
- Fixed a number of text formatting and display bugs in the Camp, City and Fortress Windows.
- Fixed stat formatting bugs in a couple of windows.
- Added Portraits to Character tool tips in the Camp, City and Fortress Windows.
- Fixed an additional zoom issue when working with Custom Starting Points in the Editor.
Additions in 0.9.142.2:
- Fixed a crash related to upgrading Outposts.
- Rogues going on an adventure due to boredom will now sometimes gain a bit gold for themselves and any followers they lured into joining.
- Fixed the Intro Window being skipped if the Tutorial has been disabled.
Development Status:
This update was originally intended to focus on battles and warfare, but achievements, Steam Workshop integration and various bug fixes on the 'active' game version took up a bit more time than expected.
So the improved battle experience and warfare game play has been postponed to the next update. Still there are some game play and user interface improvements in this update, mostly concerning characters and improving depth and visibility of follower simulation and ambient factors.
Thanks to the players who provided me with bug reports, ideas and feedback, in this development cycle and the previous. You make a difference and I am very grateful for your efforts. Please note that the integration of Steam functionality may result in more bugs than usual. I will try to fix any such issues with utmost haste.
I've created a Basic Guide to help navigate the User Interface and get new players started. It can be found in the Guide section of the Community Hub and from a link in the General Discussion sub forum. An interim Road Map can be found in the Development Update sub forum, to give an idea of current priorities and plans.