Hello everyone!

We are excited to announce that the 1.9.7 QOL update is now available!

1.9.7 is the first of our Quality of Life (QOL) updates as we work toward the game's Full Release. For more information on the recent change to our release plan, check out the link at the bottom of this announcement.

Your feedback is very important to us and we have looked to address some of the most requested QOL features in this update, as well as further improvements we have been planning. Let’s dive right in and take a look at what you will find in the 1.9.7 QOL update…

Interior Access

Previous to 1.9.7, some monument buildings required a separate door, which could limit creativity and also did not make sense for a monument as a whole. Now, with 1.9.7 buildings will check interior access to the whole building, meaning that a single door could be enough. For example, an entrance to your treasury could be part of an attached Great Hall.

Furthermore, so that you can check that your buildings are accessible, we have added a handy toggleable tool that will clearly show when your buildings have interior access, letting you know if they are fully navigable or not.

Buildings Function Status

Buildings now have a clear function status with feedback to the player that will indicate when they can no longer work if one of their construction requirements is missing. Restoring the condition will resume the workplace.

Ghost Construction Preview

Another much-requested feature was the ability to see your ongoing construction sites when placing new buildings. Now in 1.9.7, all other buildings under construction will show as ghost visualizations, making for much easier placement of new construction projects or when editing Monuments.

Improved Construction Flow

One issue frequently raised in the community centered around how builders were affecting the construction flow. Previously, builders would be sent to construction sites based on their proximity to a site. This could cause projects to be completed in an unexpected order making it hard to plan.

With 1.9.7, builders will now prioritize constructions based on the order in which they were started making it easier to plan your projects. We have also improved the algorithm so that builders will be dispatched more evenly between different types of construction projects so that all your builders don’t get tied up on any mega-projects.

Traveling and Work Time

We have now removed the villager's travel time from their overall work time, enabling your villagers to use their work time more effectively. For instance, crop yields and production cycles will be more consistent, despite any long distances your villagers may have to walk to get to work.

Villagers require to fulfill their needs of course, so efficiency can still be lost with large work-to-needs fulfillment distances.

Improved Map Generator

We have made some major improvements in 1.9.7 with an overhauled Map Generator. You’ll find improved visuals and shaders making it much easier to identify elevations on the Map Gen minimap.

Additionally, we have addressed a couple of bugs and implemented further improvements, so that you should no longer encounter any micro-territories or broken territories on your maps nor find any inaccessible mineral deposits.

Resource Favorites

This one has been at the top of many of your feature requests… It is now possible to choose your favorite resources to add to the Resource Bar! Mark as many favorites as you wish in the resource window of the Book.

The Monastic Emissary & Mandate Window

A new building function has been added to the Monastery! The Emissary Office will employ a Sister or Brother in the role of Emissary (similar to the Bailiff role), dealing with Clergy privileges and mandates. Consequently, we have also revamped the Mandate Window to take into account the new Emissary role.

Housing Upgrades/Downgrades

When a House is upgraded or downgraded, it would previously revert to its foundation construction stage and could easily be mistaken for a brand-new house. To remove this potential confusion, houses will downgrade or upgrade to a later construction step, making it more clear what tier of housing it is, as well as no longer looking like a fresh construction.

And More!

Indeed! There’s more! We have a bunch of bug fixes coming with the 1.9.7 QOL update. You can check out the full changelog below.

Changelog

New

• Added Interior Access visualization and construction toggle
• Players can now specify their favorite resources in the top resource bar
• Added a Bailiff option for the Monastery: The Monastic Emissary, a Brother/Sister working at the Emissary Office
• Ghosts of buildings under construction are now displayed when you are in Construction/Edit mode

Update

• Construction sites are now prioritized by start time, not by closest distance
• Workers should go to their workplace before starting their work time
• Display attach node only when snap mode is toggled or part needs to be mandatory attached
• The Market Monument has been turned into a building with parts instead of a Monument with sub-buildings.
• Moved the Clergy Privilege and Clergy Influence mandates to the Monastic Emissary
• Overall improvement of the Mandate window & tooltips
• Improvements to monument attach nodes
• House Upgrade/Downgrade transition improvements to show construction steps and not new build
• Tavern Kitchen - worker quantity now scales with building capacity
• Treasury - Gold coins are no longer lost when the maximum treasury limit is reduced
• Various UI improvements

Fix

• Soldiers - soldiers using the barracks as their houses could not fulfill their needs when the monument is being expanded.
• Bailiff - Changing the bailiff resulted in the edict "contractual wage" to not be applied until reload.
• Book - Logs - Newcomer notification was not updated "live"
• Monument Editing - Display all possible attach nodes when a part is being placed / moved.
• Cloister - Could not start construction if function was switched
• Monument Editing - Prevent parts from being attached to house attach nodes.
• Building Highlight - Sometimes, a building would remain highlighted even if the window is closed and the cursor is not on the part.
• Mandate Window - The window did not close when the Great Hall was destroyed.
• Deliver Wood Quest - Displayed requirement was 50 but required 100 to complete
• Unlockables - Show part's description when there is no building function
• Missing Unlockable descriptions on Candle & Commonware extension

Map generator

Update

• Improved elevation texture visuals

Fix

• It was possible to have a broken territory on specific generated map seeds
• Some territory regions were too small
• Some maps had unreachable village path exits
• Some setting changes could create unwanted bumps on islands

Modding

• Expose - COMP_BUILDING:getEditMode
• Expose - Mandates
• Territory Tooltip - Always shows "coins / week" even if resource is changed
• Support buying from trade routes with certain condition
• Updated modding wiki

We look forward to hearing any feedback and please let us know if you find any issues. Feedback and bugs can be posted on the Steam forums, or come and join us on our official Discord server.

Also, check out the recent announcement of a change to our release plan here.

The Polymorph Games Team