Hello everyone,
Dmitry here.
Today we are releasing the Event Director to the beta branch.
This system, also known as the Storyteller in RimWorld, makes the game experience more balanced at every stage of a playthrough, as well as richer, more varied, and more rewarding.
Our testers now refuse to return to the previous version and say that playing without the Director feels painful and boring.
I hope you notice the same improvement to the gameplay experience that we did.
As usual, all save files are compatible.
You can switch to the beta branch through the game's menu in your Steam Library or directly from the game's main menu.
Event Director
The system is complex, but here is how it works in brief.
The Director controls almost every event in the game, while still taking its trigger conditions into account. For example, an uprising still requires dissatisfied characters and will not happen for no reason. It then distributes events across days based on the current phase: challenge or recovery.
In some ways, it resembles Resident Evil. First, tension builds, then you face a boss, and afterwards you find a relatively peaceful area with loot. If you suffered heavy losses, you have an incentive to search more carefully and find additional resources for recovery. The game does not secretly adjust the difficulty in your favor, but it gives you opportunities to recover, which still require effort to take advantage of. This makes the experience feel both balanced and fair.
To create pressure, we introduced a raid system, while recovery is supported by a system of opportunities. You can recognize them by the green event card in the important events banner.
On average, the Director has a 75% chance each day to create one of 60 different event types.
There are also differences between Easy, Hard, and Hardcore difficulty levels.
Raids
On average, once every 10 days during the challenge phase, a raid attacks the city. We added many different enemies, such as dog-headed barbarians who attack alongside tamed wolves, and gave each group different objectives that they reveal before the attack. For example, Unholy fanatics may want to burn down the temple, but they have no interest in your money.
Once a raid achieves its objectives, it leaves, so even defeat does not mean the end of the game.
Raids can also be seen as an opportunity to obtain valuable weapons and prisoners.
You can also disable raids in the initial game settings using a modifier.
Politics
We also reworked politics to make it less frustrating and more rewarding.
For example, politicians can now deliver a Sermon of Hope to their followers, providing a significant mood boost. This means that, if you maintain good relations with them, you can use their popularity to your advantage.
They also become less active when their relations with the king are positive.
We also reduced the Bishop's activity. Converting your population to the True Faith is now less aggressive and is accompanied by the distribution of gold.
Balance
We made substantial balance improvements, closing obvious loopholes involving resource overproduction, overly profitable trade multipliers, and imbalances in character actions.
The prices of books brought by the caravan now gradually increase with each new settlement development level, creating a more balanced gold economy in the mid and late game.
You can find the full list of changes below, but our work in this area is still ongoing.
In the near future, we will also focus on optimization, combat tactics, and economic development.
Once again, thank you all for your feedback and support!
Full List of Changes
Event Director
Added the Event Director, which regulates the flow of random events:
Attack on the player's city by the Faceless
Attack on the player's city or village by bandits from a camp
Attack on the player's city or village by a neighboring province, or an attempt to force the player into vassalage
Attack on the player's city by marauders
Prophecies
Arrival of unique guests
A politician's desire to change the ruler
Bribery of a politician
Conspiracies
Uprisings
Dark deeds on the local map
Raids on the player's city by neutral factions
Opportunities - special ongoing events that the player can use to recover
Tutorial and Interface
Added an image to the "Intrigues with Neighbors" encyclopedia article
Improved the "Intrigues with Neighbors" tutorial: it is now triggered by the puppet advice, and the target is selected through the seduction prompt
Added advice for having six or more unfilled jobs
When the player acquires knowledge that unlocks a new crop, a yellow marker will now appear on the field
Updated the battle tutorial with the Ragamuffins. It now uses the new raid system, and the Ragamuffins approach the player's city on the global map
Added a yellow marker to the soft tutorial task window to indicate that the hint has not yet been read
Changed the threshold for displaying the low population happiness alert from 40 to 30
The army panel at the bottom of the screen will now display enemy armies on the global map that are moving to attack the player's city
The summary will no longer report when someone makes a friend
Removed the rumor notification
The advice that the king does not have enough followers now has a new condition: there must be a politician in the player's faction
The Lord Feud tutorial scenario now points to the "Play Dice" action
The "Knowledge Will Soon Be Lost" advice now only takes knowledge from the "Economy" category into account
Removed the notification: "Lord: Bad Relations with the King"
Added a button to the load menu that refreshes the list of saved games
If another faction becomes an enemy while the player is under the protection of the Church, the notification will indicate that the player is protected by the Church
The knowledge acquisition event is no longer displayed for knowledge that is already known or permanent
Characters who have temporarily left the local map will now appear in the list of possible sermon performers. They will be unavailable, with the reason shown
When a character goes to intimidate a target, a notification about it will appear on the right
Added zoom support and camera movement inertia to the Dynasty menu
The quest to neutralize a lord will now appear above the target's city rather than the employer's city
Character Balance
Reduced the relationship bonuses from the "Impressionable Hunter" weakness and the "Flesh Wolf Hammer" strength from x2 to x1.5 and x1.3, respectively
Limited the maximum thought caused by relationship inversion during usurpation to between -20 and +20
Guests from neighboring provinces can now begin arriving from day 2 rather than after the player's city reaches 20 civilian population
Seduction can no longer be assigned against characters who are currently pregnant
Until there is a second politician in the city, the ruler will not create new political strategies, and advice about a politician having too few followers will not be displayed
The Bishop can now receive a thought indicating whether he likes or dislikes the current ruler
Political activity in the player's city will now begin at 40 population rather than 20
The "Emotionless Sex" thought received after seduction will now display the portrait of the character associated with the thought
A politician will only use seduction or order an ally to use it if the performer's mood is above 40, or if special traits prevent them from receiving negative thoughts from seduction. A politician will not use seduction if their relationship with the target is already above +50
Reduced the negative thought received by the performer of seduction from -30 to -20
Experience gained from inspections has been reduced by half
Desires to change the ruler will no longer give politicians a negative thought
Commanders will no longer gain followers after defeating a bandit camp
Increased the stake for playing dice from 100 to 300
The Bishop will deliver Sermons of Faith less frequently
The Sermon of Faith will now distribute 5 coins to each listener
After a politician disappears from the player's city, a new politician cannot appear for at least 10 days. The exception is when a politician seizes power through usurpation
The Manners skill level now affects the cost of the reward requested from the king
Politicians will select targets for gaining a new ally and undermining a rival less efficiently. The best target will be selected with a 53% chance, the second-best target with a 26% chance, the third-best with a 13% chance, and the fourth-best with an 8% chance
Added a 20% success bonus to the "Burglar" strength when kidnapping or killing a lord on the global map
A politician in the player's faction whose relationship with the player's ruler is above 0 will perform political actions and deliver sermons half as often
A politician in the player's faction can now independently seek absolution from the Bishop if their total sins exceed 15 and they have at least 200 coins
Politicians will occasionally deliver a Sermon of Doubt if the Bishop is an ally of the player's ruler
The strength of the "Addict" thought for characters with the "Hatred of Substances" trait has been changed from -20 to -10, and it will only be applied if the character does not personally have an addiction
Removed the mechanic that gave every character on the global map a 0.5% daily chance of losing their sight. Honestly, I have no idea why we ever added this
Reduced the chance of becoming an alcoholic by 1.5 times
Economy Balance
Added a comfort effect for residential buildings based on proximity to rivers and lakes
Temples now provide a separate comfort effect for residential buildings
Removed the comfort bonus from neighboring residential buildings
Public place bonuses no longer stack with each other
When enemies have the objective of stealing gold from the Hall, they will now steal exactly half of the gold instead of 30-50 coins per character
The caravan will no longer sell most weapons, except bows and clubs
Reduced the price multiplier for goods during the post-war state
Reduced the price multiplier during harsh seasons
Adjusted the balance of negative effects from eating rutabaga
Peasants and soldiers who consume Nectar will now receive "Energized"
The "Mines" book is now available to the player from the start
Reduced the chance of surrendering instead of fleeing from 30% to 20%. Reduced the chance of capturing soldiers who fled during a battle on the global map from 50% to 25%
Random caravan price increases for a specific good are now capped at x2 instead of x3
Recruiting prisoners into the army now costs money. Mercenaries now have a Combat skill level between 7 and 9
Mercenaries are now 30% more expensive
Seasonal effects no longer affect the prices of alcohol and hops
Reduced the fertility bonus from rain from +30% to +10%
Increased the resource price bonus in the resource sale opportunity quest from x2 to x3
Chancelleries are now limited to managing no more than 10 buildings. Connecting one Chancellery to another now costs 3 paper per day
Raiding villages now provides loot in gold
Changed the prices of technologies and textbooks
Changed the population thresholds at which knowledge is unlocked
Adjusted the cost of cultural knowledge
Increased the final settlement development threshold from 100 to 110
Miscellaneous
The "No Ragamuffins" game modifier has been replaced with "No Raids". This change will be applied automatically to old saves
Players can now attack AI villages that are not located on the borders of their territory
Reworked mercenary recruitment. Mercenaries now arrive 12 hours after being hired, at the start of a new hour. Recruitment can be cancelled and the money refunded during the first hour after hiring. For old save migration, mercenaries who were hired but have not yet arrived will appear at the start of the next hour
After looting a warehouse, enemies will set it on fire
Added cultural knowledge for improved hops and rutabaga efficiency to the Varns
The number of fertile rye and hops fields has been reduced by half
No more than four rebel squads will be created during a religious uprising
Pilgrims will now pay for the food given to them, at a price three times higher than selling the resource to the caravan
Fixes
Guaranteed a mine during map generation and fixed mine placement being offset when constructed
A stronger mood modifier from treasury operations will no longer be replaced by a weaker one
Fixed a tutorial scenario where problems could occur if the required lord had already been selected before the tutorial scenario began
Fixed a bug where a pursuit order could end several tiles before the squad reached the fleeing target
Fixed a bug where hostages carried by squads incorrectly handled terrain elevation
Fixed bugs in the ambush task involving the capture of prisoners; Residents will no longer wake up because an enemy squad is nearby
Fixed a bug where torches thrown by warriors could fly from the edge of the map instead of from their hands
A squad will now leave a burning building on its own, unless it is engaged in combat
When surrendering, the equipment destruction sound will only play if the character had equipment
A warrior in a squad will drop a carried prisoner if the prisoner catches fire or dies; Warriors in squads will no longer attempt to capture burning prisoners
Wolves in squads will no longer capture prisoners, untie allies, or bandage allies' wounds; In mixed human-wolf squads, a human will be prioritized as the squad commander
A puppet can now definitely no longer become a master
Fixed a bug where the order to give carrots to unique Pilgrim guests was only displayed for the Pilgrim leader; The "Expel Guest" button will now always be the last order in the list
Fixed a softlock in the Puppets tutorial scenario when another lord was selected and a tab other than the first one was open
Fixed a bug where rebelling prisoners simply disappeared after completing all uprising objectives instead of fleeing the map
Fixed a bug that prevented Farms from being built. When the relevant knowledge is learned, the yellow marker will now flash on all Farm variants
Fixed a bug in the Squad Creation tutorial scenario where, at the stage requiring the player to press the squad creation button, it was impossible to add a squad of soldiers or lords
Partially fixed a bug involving unclear padding in the tutorial window
Fixed movement time calculations for armies and characters on the global map
The player will now receive the full ransom amount for freeing an AI lord from bandit captivity
Fixed a bug where armies on the global map were not displayed in the player's bottom army panel
Fixed a bug where Yellow Fanatics lost the Nectar Addiction trait at 08:00
Different enemy squads will no longer burn and loot the same building at the same time
Fixed a bug where the "Spend Time Together" action hint displayed a line granting +100 mood to the target when chatting
Fixed a bug where the puppets of lords who became politicians did not automatically become followers
Improved the algorithm for determining where roads and walls are constructed. They will now be placed exactly at the mouse coordinates instead of appearing higher because of terrain elevation
The target of seduction will no longer receive the "Spent the Night Together" thought
The initial setup of the player's city budget when starting a new game will no longer write data to statistics, which previously caused problems with the first economy report
Fixed a bug where a bandit camp could not spawn in Ken's province
Fixed a bug where a bandit camp could spawn with fewer than 3 bandits
Fixed a bug where two notifications appeared on the right when a lord surrendered at a bandit camp
Fixed a bug where the caravan trading action did not display the reason why the action could not be assigned
Changed the mechanics for assigning warriors to towers. Soldiers without ranged weapons will no longer go to towers
Fixed a bug where the "People Have Nowhere to Pray" and "Build a Library" problem flags repeatedly appeared and disappeared at the start of the game. These pieces of advice will now only appear if the advice about building houses for residents has been displayed and completed at least once
Fixed a bug where the dust effect spawned too low when buildings were constructed on elevated terrain
If a task assigned by a politician becomes invalid, for example if the politician wanted someone to be seduced but the target's interest in the performer decreased after the task was assigned, or the target became unavailable for another reason, the task will be cancelled at the start of the hour. Political activity takes place between hours 16 and 24
Fixed a bug where forcing a seduction task from the target's menu could result in ordinary sex
Fixed the "Intrigues with Neighbors" tutorial scenario. All windows now appear in the same location, and the correct buttons are highlighted regardless of the selected language
Fixed bugs in the rendering of character and squad movement paths on the global map
Fixed poisoning on the global map. Additional thoughts not listed in the action hint will no longer be applied
Nighttime intimidation by a politician will be cancelled if the politician loses a fight
The icon above a character indicating that they are squeezing between buildings will no longer appear while the character is in combat
Fixed a game crash that could occur during the "Prisoner Control" event
Fixed a bug where the caravan trader could claim that the price of a good might increase even though the caravan did not sell that good, such as coal
Fixed a bug where the most recent saves could fail to appear in the load menu. Save loading is now lazy-loaded, so having hundreds of saves no longer affects load menu performance
Fixed a bug where the "Poorly Hosted My Lord" thought was positive
Fixed a bug where the opportunity quest to ransom a neighboring lord from a bandit camp could disappear immediately after spawning because the lord's ruler ransomed them immediately after the kidnapping. The ruler will now never ransom such a lord if the lord was created as part of an opportunity quest
Fixed a NO error when cancelling squad changes after adding a new soldier and giving them a weapon
Fixed a bug where a hired unique Mountain Bandit guest continued waiting for a conversation after being hired
Resources will now ignore some map generation restrictions if there is not enough space for them. Added a safeguard with repeated generation attempts and a notification for the player
Fixed a bug where maps could generate without clay
Fixed the cooldown hint for the Sermon of Generosity, which is available to characters with the "Sacrificer" trait
If the target of nighttime intimidation wakes up because of the break-in, the intimidation attempt will now be cancelled
A politician will no longer attempt to intimidate at night a target with the "Anxious" trait, since such a target automatically wakes up during an intrusion and cannot be intimidated
Fixed the displayed operating cost of the Chancellery
Fixed a bug where an intimidation action task assigned by an AI politician was always deleted on the evening after assignment, even though the intimidation itself still began
A bandit camp created by the Event Director's opportunity system will no longer immediately grow again; A bandit camp will also no longer grow while an attack order has been assigned to it
