Hello everyone!
We’re bringing the two latest patches to the Main branch. This update mainly focuses on optimization, world map intrigues, the counter-intrigue system, and worldviews. It also includes dozens of interface improvements, QoL features, and fixes.
This release also brings a fresh set of fixes and QoL improvements in Patch 59.
Meanwhile, we’re continuing work on a major update to the game’s foundations. It will rework and expand combat, overhaul trade and knowledge, introduce changes to lords and barons, and add village management.
I also want to say that I understand some players’ frustration with our plans to move the knowledge system toward a more traditional approach. Ultimately, though, our goal is to make an engaging game, rather than an experimental one. When a new system falls short of a more traditional solution in terms of gameplay, we won’t hold on to it purely for the sake of novelty. We already have more novelty than we probably should, and the upcoming changes will only confirm that.
Our studio’s development culture and approach are still very much alive, and I think we have some surprises left for you!
In any case, internal testing of the revised gameplay is only due to begin next week, so we’ll see how everything works. We may end up rolling back some of the changes.
Thank you for understanding!
Here are the fixes for the current version, followed by the full combined changelog for the previous two patches.
Patch #59
Optimization and QoL
Added SMAA 1x anti-aliasing and an anti-aliasing method selector in the settings.
Updated FXAA to v3.11 (Quality).
Optimized texture sampling when rendering terrain.
Shadows now become more transparent underwater.
Fog now uses the depth buffer; fixed effects at map boundaries and character transparency.
Increased the precision of the color grading LUT to reduce posterization.
The camera can now move beyond the boundaries of both the local and world maps.
Added smooth camera acceleration and faster camera movement while holding Shift.
Fixes
Fixed a bug where demolishing a wall section to turn a T-junction into an L-shaped corner created an invisible gap at the junction. Characters could path through this gap until the game was saved and reloaded.
Fixed a bug where, after saving and reloading, burned-down gates were treated as impassable by enemies, who could no longer burn them down again.
Fixed a bug that prevented very old saves created before the introduction of 3D terrain from loading.
Fixed a bug where the altar statue cast a shadow before it was built.
Fixed a bug where a building could remain on fire even after the fire had been extinguished.
Fixed anti-aliasing being disabled when the censorship effect was enabled.
Patch #58.
Counter-Intrigues and Map Generation Optimization
Worldviews
All lords will receive a worldview when created. For regular lords, it will become active after they are appointed as a king or politician.
In the Family Editor, a worldview can be selected for any lord. The selected worldview is guaranteed to be assigned when the character becomes a ruler or politician.
The ruler or politician hint in the city menu will display their worldview, with its corresponding color and a separate tooltip.
The notification about a new politician will show their worldview and allow you to open their hint.
UI & QoL
Hints for residents, soldiers, slaves, and bandits will show their most common negative and positive thoughts.
Strength and weakness hints will be displayed in a compact framed row. Temporarily inactive weaknesses will show an icon and recovery time.
A character's strength and weakness will be displayed as separate entries in the "Conditions" section, with icons and detailed hints.
In strength and weakness hints, lists of vulnerable lords and lords with an advantage will also display the name of the corresponding opposite trait.
When selecting a performer for an action with a suitable "target weakness - performer strength" combination, up to three suitable lords from neighboring domains will be shown. They can be assigned after being invited to the city.
Weakness hints will show suitable invited guests and up to three available foreign lords with the corresponding opposite strength.
Fistfight Duel, Madness Poisoning, Weapon Sabotage, and Prepare Nectar will be placed in the "Countermeasures" subsection of the Intrigues section.
In the local map action menu, for lords who pose a threat, categories containing suitable counter-intrigues will be marked with a warning icon, while individual actions will display icons for the required strengths or weaknesses.
Hints for "Fistfight Duel," "Madness Poisoning," and "Weapon Sabotage" will warn you if the action would weaken the strength of a lord who poses a threat to the player.
A new advice notification will warn about a conspiracy, dark deed, politician action, or a revealed scheming guest, and will show the initiator's strength and weakness as well as their target's weakness.
The "Risk of Rutabaga Typhus" advice will appear if at least three susceptible residents have recently eaten Rutabaga, and will disappear once infected residents actually appear.
Hints for kidnapping, robbery, poisoning, deadly duels, and conspiracies will warn that the performer will be blinded on failure instead of showing the outdated consequences involving fear and loss of support.
The "High Opinion of the King" reason hint for the "Sermon of Hope" will show the required relations threshold of 25.
The pillaging threat hint will show that the ruler will respond in 1 day.
For reactions to actions on the World Map, the king's reaction is now displayed as the faction's reaction, while politicians' reactions are no longer shown.
Army information will include a section showing the total amount of weapons, armor, shields, and other equipment currently issued to soldiers.
The expanded or collapsed state of categories in the "Daily Economy" menu will persist between openings of the menu and after saving/loading the game.
Hints for items in the "Problems" menu will open to the right of the entire menu and will no longer cover the lord panel.
The screen event showing the results of Seduction will now appear after sex ends, and its hint will contain detailed information about the outcome.
Intrigues, Strengths and Weaknesses
Added the "Dissuade" action. If a threatening lord has relations of at least 0 with the performer, you can attempt to cancel their conspiracy, dark deed, rebellion, guest intrigue, or political strategy.
Added an action to sabotage a sleeping character's weapon. The performer will sneak into their house and prepare the weapon to break. It will then be destroyed the next time it strikes during an armed fight.
A character can now prepare Nectar from storage in advance. One unit will automatically be consumed the next time they enter combat.
A foreign lord can be invited from a friendly neighboring city to participate in local intrigues. The payment will be split between the lord and their ruler, while the player's puppet will come for free.
For World Map actions performed by a character from another city, the assignment will first be delivered by a messenger. While waiting, a Paper icon will appear on the action card.
When selecting a performer for a local action, a suitable lord from the World Map can be invited directly to the city. The hint will show the cost, and once the lord arrives, they will become available for assignment.
Fistfight Duel and Madness Poisoning can now target regular guests, while regular poison can be used against the player's own lords. Kidnapping guests has been moved from "Intrigues" to the general action list.
After being greeted by the king, guests with the "Schemer" and "Manipulator" roles will reveal their intentions and give the player 300 gold.
Prepared Nectar will be consumed when a regular poisoning attempt occurs and will reduce its success chance by 50%. A separate notification will appear when poison is neutralized. Nectar preparation will automatically be cleared if the character runs out of Nectar or their inventory is emptied.
"Seduction," "Make an Ally," and "Make a Puppet" now have a chance of success. Their activation thresholds have been lowered.
The "Chickenhearted" weakness will increase all received fear thoughts by 50%, while the "Brute" strength will increase fear caused by nighttime intimidation by 50%. Successful intimidation will also cancel the target's desire and political strategy.
The "Deep Sleeper" trait will become "Absent-Minded." Such a character has a 75% chance to leave their door unlocked, allowing someone to enter their house without breaking in or waking its residents. Its previous World Map effect will remain.
The automatic attempt to turn the target into a puppet has been removed from the Seduction action task.
Miscellaneous
After every regular sermon, the next eligible sermon by a politician or bishop with relations of at least 25 with the king will be a "Sermon of Hope."
Once every 12 hours, a bishop can comfort a friendly adult lord who is grieving the death of a loved one or a miscarriage, free of charge.
Hops have been added to the list of resources that can be ordered from a trader. The city will sell them in batches of 30 units.
When placing a building, trees, bushes, and berry bushes that will be removed by construction will be highlighted in red.
Four new options have been added to the set of faction banner symbols.
A local map generation settings menu has been added to the new game setup.
A text box for setting the map seed has been added to the local map generation menu.
Ctrl+V is now supported in the game's text boxes. Pasted text will replace the current text in the text box.
Balance
Puppets will choose dark deeds before receiving their evening investment and will no longer be able to immediately spend newly received money on a crime.
Followers of the king who are not puppets can no longer perform duels, slander, seduction, murder, or poisoning. These intrigues will require either the king or a puppet.
A blinded AI lord will cease to be a politician and will no longer be able to perform World Map actions. Failing a dark deed now blinds the performer instead of reducing support and causing fear, while a successful dark deed will no longer send the performer to the player.
Murder can no longer target a guest on the local map.
Local map kidnapping hints will show the ransom, fear, relations change, chance of waking up, and relevant strengths and weaknesses. Rulers can no longer be kidnapped.
The "Hot-Tempered" and "Blinder" strength/weakness pair has been removed from the game. The hidden "Duelist" trait will no longer be automatically assigned to lords.
For a Fistfight Duel, both the target and performer must have a Combat skill of at least 4. The previous requirement based on the difference between their skills has been removed.
Seduction, nighttime intimidation, Madness Poisoning, and Fistfight Duels on the World Map will each cost the player 200 gold. The cost will be refunded if the action is canceled.
After a Fistfight Duel, interest in the winner and loser will change only among lords of the opposite sex who are currently in the same province.
A peace offer will automatically be canceled if the player performs an aggressive action against the faction that made the offer.
Guests will arrive with a random number of bodyguards from 1 to 3 instead of 2 to 3.
The "Light Armor" book will become a green, medium-difficulty book. On Peaceful and Normal difficulty, books will cost half as much, while an Ambitious AI's army will be limited to 160% of the player's army strength instead of 200%.
The thought from winning or losing a fistfight has been reduced from 20 to 10.
The "Holding a Hostage" thought has been removed when a lord is kidnapped.
Fixes
Fixed a bug where ceremonies could break after loading if the temple associated with them failed to load.
Fixed a crash when starting the tutorial caused by the new generation settings menu.
Optimized the local map generation process.
The squad creation tutorial will no longer access step data before that step begins, preventing a crash.
Fixed an error during break-ins that could occur if the reaction to the crime started a fight and destroyed the active break-in activity.
For sex, a suitable available house belonging to either participant will now be selected, rather than only a house belonging to the initiator.
A political threat will now be restored after the politician or the target of their strategy returns to the map.
Fixed a bug where the actual chance of winning at dice was lower than the chance shown in the action hint. On the local map, the initiator's actual chance of winning at dice was half the displayed value.
Fixed the position of icons above the hall storage.
Character descriptions will now be correctly inserted into hints together with their own context.
The inquisitor hint will now correctly display the group size.
Fixed a bug where moving the cursor from one strength/weakness badge to another on the appoint button could cause the appoint button's own hint to appear.
Nested hints inside custom hints, such as lord hints, can once again be hovered over.
Patch #57.
Optimization, Dark Politics, and Worldviews
Worldviews
Added the new "Worldview" system
Completely removed the "King's Role" component
When setting up a new game, you can now choose the worldview of every ruler on the map, including your own
Politicians will receive a random worldview different from their ruler's and will personally react to aggression and agreements. This also applies to politicians in the player's city
Combat and Squad Controls
Squads now move in formations
Right-clicking a character that the selected squad cannot attack will now be treated as a move command to that location
Holding RMB can now only be used to set the squad's facing direction after it has stopped
Soldiers who are too far away to engage an enemy in melee will now remain in place and play a cheering animation
All soldiers in a formation move at the same speed, based on the average speed of all its members. If the squad leader is moving along a road, the entire squad will receive the speed bonus
When colliding with an enemy during a charge, the target may take a small amount of damage if the attacker is wearing armor or carrying a shield
Once a soldier enters combat, they will not surrender or flee for 10 minutes, even if their Morale is very low
Characters knocked to the ground by a push can no longer dodge attacks
Interface and QoL
Added the ability to change the radius of a patrol flag while placing it using Q and E
Dogs will now only bark during attacks
Added on-screen events for the beginning and end of being in love
Strengths and weaknesses are now displayed for world map actions
When placing a building, the game will now display a list of factors contributing to its Comfort, and the Comfort area has been made more visible
Added a tip for characters suffering from Rutabaga Typhus
Added a line to the army dispatch hint warning when the player has no medicine
A guest's objective is now displayed in their menu
Updated the daily economy summary hint
Relationship changes from A to B will use a purple arrow instead of a green one when the relationship thought is based on fear
Buttons on the bottom panel can now be clicked in fullscreen mode even when the cursor is pushed all the way to the bottom edge of the screen
VSync is now enabled by default, and will be automatically enabled for all players after updating to this version
The "Borderless" setting has been renamed to "Fullscreen"
Added multi-monitor support, including monitor selection in the settings menu
Text that does not fit inside a dropdown list will now be truncated. Hovering over it will make the text scroll horizontally so it can be read in full
The "Ruler" section of the world map city menu now displays portraits of the ruler and politician along with their Support. The spouse and heir are no longer displayed there
The header of a lord's world map hint now displays their faction banner and faction name. Their name, age, and status are shown in a new layout
The world map city menu now displays the ruler's Worldview instead of their Culture. Culture has been moved to the header and is displayed as an icon with a hint
Newly opened Encyclopedia articles no longer form or save a queue. A new article will immediately replace the currently open one, and pop-up articles will no longer reopen after loading a save
The "Defender" trait hint now displays its combat bonus
Hints for already hired soldiers no longer display their hiring cost
Updated hints for being in love and romantic relationships
The "Old Grudges" mutation hint now displays its prejudice multiplier
Other Improvements
Consolation from the Bishop is now available after the loss of a child
Captured lords will now automatically take medicine from storage. An Incognito guest will arrive in the province carrying 1 medicine
The Director can now independently initiate politician bribery and Dark Deeds once they have been unlocked. A retaliatory Dark Deed can become available after aggression by the player
Added a button to the caravaner's appoint menu that allows you to request a change to the resource traded by one of your neighbors
Added the "Smeltery" technology book to the "Path of the Hammer" scenario
The "Family of Bastards" achievement can now be earned if all of the player's lords are bastards, regardless of whether their parents were lords or commoners
World Map City Interactions
The "Uprising" Dark Deed will now be considered successful only after the rebels win, rather than immediately after the uprising begins
The world map city menu now has a "Use of Force" section: Attack, Neutrality, Transfer the Crown, and Vassalization have been moved to "Threats," while Surprise Attacks have been moved to "Aggression"
The "Politics" section now contains forming and dissolving alliances, Reconciliation, Slander, Tribute, Peace, and Voluntary Vassalage. Reconciliation now costs gold, while a Debt of Honor can be used to peacefully turn a state into a vassal
"Invite as Guest" has been moved to the "Lords" section of the world map city menu. You can select a lord from a neighboring city; invitations are free for friendly factions and cost gold otherwise
"Wise Conversation" has been moved to the "Lords" section on the world map. The player selects a teacher, knowledge, and a suitable student. The conversation is free for friendly factions or characters with a Thirst for Knowledge
"Make a Puppet" is now a separate action in the "Lords" section of the world map. The player's ruler acts as the performer, and the hint displays the required relationship and the Puppeteer bonus
You can now kidnap children from other factions on the world map. Kidnapping a child causes twice as much fear in their ruler
Poisoning someone with madness on the world map is now a separate Dark Deed with a selectable target and performer, success chance, and cost. The performer must be a Poisoner
Reworked "Slander the Ruler," "Fistfight Duel," and "Madness Potion"
Removed the Cultural Gift, while the politician's desire now uses the Official Gift
World map Slander now uses "Naive" as a target weakness and "Serpent Tongue" as a performer strength
Added appropriate strength and weakness pairs for duels, kidnapping, murder, poisoning, and nighttime intimidation
Added nighttime intimidation to the world map at a cost of 300 gold. The break-in chance is 80%, or 100% for a Burglar. If the target wakes up, they will fight the intruder. A performer who gets caught will suffer an injury and pay up to 300 gold
Added new Dark Politics actions: forcing an attack on a neighbor and forcing a peace treaty
Holding a kidnapped lord captive will cause their ruler to fear the player's king. The better the ruler's relationship with the captive, the stronger the fear
Robbing a hall now costs 25% of the target's treasury and steals 50% of their gold, up to a maximum of 2,000. Success chance is 5% per Persuasion level. The base kidnapping chance is now 30%, Puppets no longer receive a guaranteed 90% chance, and a failed conspiracy worsens relations by 50
Added a paper cost for certain actions performed by Puppets
"Official Gift" now has a fixed cost in rings
Graphics
Arrows now rotate in flight and spawn dust particles when they hit the ground
Added an "underwater" effect for partially submerged characters, such as when crossing a ford or standing at the edge of a river or lake
Ground surfaces beneath buildings, such as individual stone flooring and paths, now fade out where they intersect with the terrain
Dialogue bubbles are now rendered above characters
Updated the Armorer building asset
The Altar, Temples, and Hall now have additional surrounding ground areas. The Weaponsmith's roof can now be hidden
Optimization
Significantly reduced video memory usage
Optimized game interface construction
Optimized particle rendering
Optimized building rendering in cities
Reduced the CPU and GPU impact of characters
Reworked the pathfinding library and eliminated a rare silent crash
Optimized the rendering of bloodstains on the ground
Balance
Berserkers now have a 20% chance to enter a rage after taking a hit, without having to exceed their pain threshold
Soldiers and bodyguards will no longer intervene in break-ins and related crimes committed by a character with the "Burglar" trait
When defending their home city, soldiers in a squad commanded by a Defender receive +5 Combat skill
Children can no longer activate actions granted by their talents
Peasants and prisoners lose up to 2 Combat skill experience points each day
Reworked recruitment cancellation and soldier dismissal with refunds. Weak recruits now receive "Fear of Death"
Mercenaries who are still on their way can now be dismissed at any time for a full refund
A lord with the "Forest Lord" talent will no longer damage relations with neighbors when bribing forest bandits at their camp
A Chancery managed by a lord with the "Precise Tongue" talent consumes 2 additional paper. The talent now explicitly provides a +5 building bonus to the maximum number of managed buildings
"Gifted" talent: effect reduced to 20%; added the "Torment of Genius" thought with −15 Mood
"Puppeteer" talent: the relationship threshold for creating a Puppet has been increased from 70 to 75. A lord with this talent receives a −10 thought toward their ruler
"Gift Giver" talent: effect reduced from 1.5 to 1.3, while the cost of the king's gift for such a lord has been doubled
"Duelist" talent: +4 Combat skill outside duels and +7 during duels
During an active inspection, an Overseer now increases prisoner productivity by 20% instead of 10%
Politicians will no longer automatically order Dark Deeds from bandits, poison enemies, or send Puppets into duels every evening
When a world map conspiracy fails, its initiator will no longer die. Instead, they will become afraid of their ruler and lose half of their political support
For a deadly duel on the world map, you can now only select a performer whose Combat skill is at least 2 levels higher than the target's
The Matriarch will only lower her opinion of the player's ruler over a bad duel if the duel was ordered by the player rather than a politician
Kidnapping a lord and robbing a hall on the world map no longer affect the Matriarch's opinion of the player's ruler
The AI can now select a dissatisfied politician belonging to the player who is currently on the local map as the performer of a Dark Deed without requiring them to be friends with the AI ruler. A negative relationship with the player's king is sufficient
The "Neglected Me" thought has been reduced from −6 to −3, and its duration from 4 days to 2
Removed the "Monogamous" trait and all related gameplay logic
Fistfights now affect the Support and Interest of witnesses, but no longer improve relations between the opponents
Fixes
Fixed an issue where game audio could disappear after changing the audio output device
The AI will now initiate a Dark Deed against the player only if the king and potential performers are on the local map. A deed canceled during initiation will now be removed correctly
The Chancery's building management limit is now recalculated immediately when its manager gains or loses the "Precise Tongue" trait, including for linked Chanceries
Conspiracies now correctly handle assistants who are no longer available
Fixed restoration of trait-related thoughts when loading older saves
Fixed an error when hovering over the hint for an unfinished Chancery
"Energy Surge" no longer prevents a student from gaining experience
Fixed potential bugs and crashes when demolishing a building underneath a squad
Fixed an issue where clicking the portrait of a mercenary who had not yet arrived while creating a new squad would remove that mercenary
Fixed an issue where building a fortification tower connected to an existing wall could create an invisible passage between the tower and wall until the next save/load
Fixed a potential softlock in the tutorial after defeating the bandit squad
Fixed an issue where a Bishop could arrive in the player's city with the "Envious" or "Greedy" trait
The shared 12-hour cooldown for resource orders now begins after an order is completed and correctly prevents the action from being repeated
Fixed an issue where the last item in a dropdown list could be cut off
Fixed the layout of the world map battle results modal
Updated the army equipment algorithm and fixed a visual issue that could duplicate equipment
Red and white flashes when taking damage once again play at the correct speed regardless of the character's render update frequency
Fixed flickering hints when they were repositioned over the buttons that triggered them
Fixed an issue where arrows stuck in the ground were not rendered
Fixed rendering artifacts affecting fire and smoke particles from dropped torches
Fixed the relationship level overlapping the ruler's portrait above cities in the political view of the world map
