[p]Hi everyone,[/p][p][/p][p]Huge thank you to everyone for all the thoughts and feedback so far on the experimental Beta release! The dev team has been hard at work incorporating your feedback, squashing bugs, and generally getting the next version ready for you. We're getting very close, but in the meantime, Greg and I (that is, I'm Tim, CEO of the publisher Hooded Horse) have been talking and thinking together on how to keep all of you informed of what's going on, by sharing interim updates like this one between versions talking a bit about what is being worked on and coming with the next version. This is the first of many such regular posts, to share frequent news of what the dev team is doing on an ongoing basis.[/p][p][/p][p]We'd love your feedback on this as we implement this process - some of what we'll be sharing will be minor stuff, like about how this or that bug is being worked on, so if you end up feeling we're giving you too much detail let us know, but if you like getting that kind of detailed frequent updates, let us know as well! This is a bit different than before, where we'd sort of wait to have big new features to show you, so we do want to make sure you enjoy these much more frequent updates on all the aspects of development.[/p][p][/p][p]The approach we're going to try is this - Greg has let us into his internal development team server and planning board, so we can directly see him and his growing team working on everything, see what they are doing and saying about this and that bug or new feature or balance tweak, the current task lists, basically everything as it happens. I'm staring at the board and discussions now, and Greg and his growing team have a lot going on we can talk about. We're then going to report on all that to you, and convey some examples and details on what the dev team is doing. That way, Greg can keep his full focus on managing his team and getting the updates ready as fast as possible, while we focus on giving you regular reports on what is coming by observing the team working directly.[/p][p][/p][p]Ok then, diving in to this one! So I'll be writing this one myself, since we just got into the development server and board today and it's a Saturday, and I'd rather ask myself to work on a weekend than have someone else on our team do so, but I didn't want to wait any longer to give you some news - but I'm kind of a useless CEO at this point and can ramble a bit. But for future updates, you'll usually have one of our great community team writing this, and they are much better than me. But let me give it a try![/p][p][/p][p]Balance Changes[/p][p]A lot of the changes the team has been doing as they prepare the next release are focused here. Yields of things like goats and orchards have been adjusted, the costs of many buildings modified, consumption of garments and footwear has been reduced, export values changed, and so forth. I'm seeing dozens upon dozens of balance changes in the dev records, many informed by the feedback players have been giving, touching so many aspects of the game - thank you to everyone who has been giving all the feedback on the experimental version![/p][p][/p][p]Gameplay Tweaks[/p][p]Here the dev team has been doing a lot to improve the experience and functioning. For example, workplace animals are now being assigned a home as close as possible to the workplace. When workers debranch a tree, they always pick the one closest to them now, and likewise, when they cut down a tree, they pick the nearest one - unless it's too far away from the logging camp. Worker families assigned to a building being upgraded now participate in construction, and oxen transporting timber now better select where to get the logs. There are tons of examples like that, a lot of focus on making things work smoothly across many aspects of the game, that should add up to a better experience. Again, all your feedback has been essential to this process.[/p][p][/p][p]AI Improvements[/p][p]Making the AI function more intelligently has been a major focus of the work. The AI is now constructing buildings much more efficiently, and generally managing its economy better. For example, it will no longer buy an Animal Pen, Vegetable Garden, or Orchard backyard extension unless it can afford to properly use them, and will no longer sell tools until it can properly estimate its own need. The AI will now plan out better regarding things like harvesting seasonal goods, understanding sick families when redistributing workers, and prepare more housing to meet incoming population. A ton of bugs related to AI behavior have been fixed as well. Over 50 AI changes to improve functioning logged so far.[/p][p][/p][p]UI and Text[/p][p]A lot has been done to enhance quality of life here. More accurate wiki economy section, improved "people" list styling, and rye bread now has reserves and production limits in inventory UI. Broken mercenary companies no longer display in the company panel, and quest finished messages no longer popup for mercenary company payments. Like AI improvements, there are so many little quality of life and experience items here, it's hard to summarize them as it's more just tons of little things all over the place, but that should make the version coming soon a nicer experience.[/p][p][/p][p]Bug Fixes[/p][p]This is probably the biggest category, squashing bugs has been the team's priority. I'm counting 130 bug fixes so far since the beta release. They are all individual and hard to summarize, fixes for how the lime kiln functions or how praying people use churches and on and on. However, I did notice one bug fix, "Fixed hounds following people around when they shouldn't", and as the owner of a beagle, I can't help but feel something has been lost.[/p][p][/p][p]Crashfixes[/p][p]A ton has been done to make the game more stable, including fixes for crashes in manor placement, growth of foliage, family members emigrating, placing bridges, and many others across the game. [/p][p][/p][p]Optimization[/p][p]Lots of work here to help performance, including fixing a way that inventory panel and log entries could cause a framerate drop, a map performance optimization, optimization around animations, closing some memory leaks, optimizing how market supply distribution could cause a lag spike, and many many more.[/p][p][/p][p]Ok, so that's been this first of these new frequent development reports! Again, thanks for bearing with me as I fill in for the community team on this Saturday, I just wanted to make sure you got this news update right away. And please do let us know what you think, and whether you enjoy these updates - if everyone feels like this is interesting, we'll be doing these regularly going forward, and give you frequent reports on all the stuff going on behind the curtain with the dev team. Let us know what you think, all feedback is very appreciated![/p][p][/p][p]Tim[/p][p]CEO, Hooded Horse[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]