Hi everyone, this is Dmitry.
We're back after the winter break with the feature we've been working on since August — map generation. Besides that, in this update we've significantly improved public politics, added new buildings and resources, and overall made 259 improvements of various kinds.
There are a lot of changes, so it's better to start from the beginning. For the same reason, we're releasing the patch to the beta channel — some things might work strangely.
To switch to the beta branch, right-click the game name in your Steam library, select Properties, and choose the Betas tab.
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/41807986/28e4e35c5c2fa5ab0a93b5ee92897f7a14cd885a.png"][/img]
And as usual, we'll be glad to hear your feedback.
In the coming weeks we'll focus on developing character traits, the justice system, and climate.
Let's start with the biggest one.
Map Generation
Now you can start the game in any province of the global map. Each province has defined settings based on which the map will be generated. These settings include resources, biome type (it will matter later, once we implement climate), hilliness, and landscape complexity.
We've redrawn trees and bushes, fields, added rivers and fords with water lilies.
Before starting the game, you'll be able to inspect the map generated by the system (resources will be marked on it), and if you don't like it — regenerate it from scratch.
New Resources
Added Bloodberries — tasty food that can be gathered in the forest using the Herbalist.
From bloodberries you can brew Herbal Infusion (or maybe better to call it "berry" one?), which relieves pain. At the same time, we brought back receiving injuries during training so that growing free soldiers wouldn't be so easy.
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/41807986/684346c510bf478848ff145ceec6a1510405ebce.jpg"][/img]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/41807986/6e5dfd5bf2bffae7c415a411a3c6705290651663.png"][/img]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/41807986/d39966395bac88f526f1b625a9b47d485a1e65ca.jpg"][/img]
Public Politics
Lord-politicians will no longer spend money on bribing other lords (we'll develop a different mechanic for that), but they will spend money on sermons. On the other hand, their followers and unfriendly neighbors will regularly donate money to them.
They will distribute this money to listeners during the sermon, strengthening their influence among them. Internal trade has become even more relevant.
Gradually politicians will start putting forward various political demands, up to demanding to make them heir, and later to hand over the crown to them.
We also added organic sources of popularity among lords — for example, workers will become followers of the manager-lord.
Lords will improve their attitude toward those who have many followers among peasants and warriors, thus politicians' popularity will also become more organic.
Overall, there are many changes, but the main thing is that politicians will now really fight for influence, and when it equals the influence of your king — they will start demanding power.
Parishes
We removed the thoughts that were given to peasants depending on the distance to their workplaces. Instead, the organization of the city will now be built based on church parishes.
For residents (and prisoners) it will be important to live within the range of the temple (let's imagine it's the radius of hearing its bell), and only these residents will come to sermons.
At the same time, we increased the effect of these sermons, so if you need efficient loyalists in production, you'll have to fight for them.
If a politician decides to fight for the Bishop's loyalty, he will conduct sermons of faith.
By the way, we added a wooden temple, whose range of effect (and therefore parish) will be larger than that of the altar, and the stone temple (unlocked later) — larger than that of the wooden temple.
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/41807986/b3994e1a21c70f5196bf8fecf6c980c4bf5a1fb6.png"][/img]
Feedback Implementation
A lot of changes were made based on your feedback. From the most noticeable:
Lords on the global map now almost always possess special knowledge, which can be extracted through Wise Conversation.
Vassal armies can be sent on various tasks like protection from marauders, politician uprisings, etc.
When a unique guest-maniac sets buildings on fire, this is considered a crime and guards will react to it
Wolves will no longer finish off their opponents (incl. lords who failed on a hunt)
Social thought "Woman on the Throne" has been removed
Freed prisoner will become a loyalist
That's it, leaving you with the list of changes. New patches will come out more often (with this one we just waited a long time and debugged generation).
Full List of Changes
Politics and Power
Conspiracies against lesser lords are now allowed
Fixed the marriage issue — it will now be checked when granting or revoking a title
Probability of neighbors bribing a politician increased from 25% to 50% per day
The player's politicians can now also be bribed by the player's vassals or suzerain if their relation is < 0
Unfriendly neighbors will bribe the player's politicians for 400 coins instead of 250
Importance of the event "New Political Demand" raised from normal to important
For determining the danger of a military conspiracy, the total % of loyal troops of the politician and his followers will be used, not just his personal one
When participating in riots, a resident will not attack residents loyal to the same politician (even if they are directly loyal to different lords, but those lords are under the influence of the same politician)
In the politician's menu, the % of population support will now be displayed taking into account follower-lords of this politician who “pass on” their % support to him; hints for population and soldier support will also show additional information about this
To politicians' sermons (Approval, Riots) will come residents who are loyal to a lord under this politician's influence (i.e. his follower); these same residents will participate in riots if organized by the politician; in the resident's menu near the portrait of the lord they are loyal to, the portrait of the politician who influenced that lord will be displayed
Fixed a bug due to which the player could cancel a politician's sermon by assigning that politician to another sermon in a different temple/altar, although canceling sermons that politicians assigned themselves should not be possible
In the politician's menu it will now display not the number of followers, but the total percentage of population and army support, including the support of his followers; in the followers hint the total army and residents support considering all followers will also be written
Politicians will no longer give money to their future follower-lords
The "Flattery" order has been removed, politicians will also no longer flatter followers
Fixed a bug due to which actors bribing politicians or bandits for dark deeds would immediately leave the player's city if their faction's relation to the player was -25 or lower
Fixed a bug due to which the message "New Political Demand" appeared together with "New Obsession"
Fixed a bug due to which the player's politician could try to force an already dead lord to donate money to him
Immediately after a neighbor bribes a politician, the politician will gain a desire to make peace with that politician if the conditions are met (-15 relations or lower)
Instead of the lord with the highest number of knowledges, a politician will become the lord with the highest level of the "Persuasion" skill (if above 6); such a politician can appear in the city if there are no other politicians in it except the player's king
The "Praise Neighbor" action on the global map has been replaced with "Gift from Neighbor", now you need to pay money and the price increases each time
The list of lords in the "WHO?" category in the orders "Praise", "Conciliatory Gift", "Slander" will be sorted by faction so that lords from the player's faction are displayed first
Political demands for change of power will have priority over other desires with high priority
A lord who has declared a political demand for change of power cannot be sent to the global map until the demand is fulfilled or ignored
If the target of the politician's uprising or the uprising conspirator leaves the player's faction, the uprising is canceled
If a soldier is loyal to a lord preparing an uprising, or to a politician of whom that lord is a follower, such a soldier or lord cannot be added to an army or dismissed
When ignoring or fulfilling a political demand for change of power, a screen event will be displayed; with each ignoring of such a demand the politician will behave more aggressively
Politicians have been given power change desires — “make me heir”, “make me king”
Changed the mechanics of donations to politicians from their followers — now followers on the local map daily give 20% of their money to the politician, leaving themselves a minimum of 150 coins
When performing the "Transfer the Crown" action, the line of succession will not change — the heir will remain the same
Fixed an error that occurred if a lord-follower of a politician was stripped of his title and made a knight
Added notification that a lord has ceased to be a politician's ally
Notification that someone has become a politician's ally is now displayed on the right, not at the top
Politicians no longer receive an experience bonus
The player can no longer conduct Sermon of Approval; the technology has been removed from the game
Fixed a bug due to which a message about a political follower could appear before politics was unlocked
Added political demand — offering to a king-ally of the politician, if that king has relation worse than 0 to the player's king
Added desire for the politician "Reward his ally"
New politician demand — remove vassal tax from his ally-vassal
Politicians will not be expelled from AI cities by a random event with 0.5% chance
Desire will first be received by the lord who has a possible desire with high priority
The heir will not become a politician, but if a politician became the heir, he does not stop being a politician
The politician will escalate the consequences of ignoring demands only if his relation to the ruler is < +25
A politician now requires 0.9x support instead of 1.2x to put forward power change demands
Religion and Sermons
Bishop's Persuasion and Teaching skill will be from 9 to 15
The "Diplomat" talent has been reworked, now it boosts the effect of Loyalty and Approval sermons by 50%
Only fanatics will receive the bad thought "King is cursed by the Matriarch" when relations with the Matriarch are bad
Politicians will conduct Approval sermon also in cases if they woke up Inspired or if the politician has good (25+) relation to the player's ruler and the player lost a battle somewhere on the global map or local map (for local map defeat it counts that the enemy attacked, achieved their goals and left the map)
Doubt sermon no longer requires technology research
In hints of sermons affected by the Orator talent (former Diplomat talent), the strength of received thoughts will be displayed already with the bonus
Joy, Doubt, Loyalty sermons now cost 100 more gold and this gold will be distributed among the sermon listeners
If a politician has > 1000 gold, the politician will conduct a Loyalty sermon 2 times more effective, distributing 350 gold to listeners instead of 100
Bishop will conduct Faith sermon even if his relation to the king >= 0, 100% chance if number of fanatics < 25%, otherwise 33% chance
Politicians and bishop will schedule sermons not at 8 AM, but at 10 AM and conduct them the next day
Loyalty sermon will distribute 150 gold to listeners, not 100
Politician will sometimes perform Faith sermon to gain the Bishop's favor. Bishop's relation to politician > 0, Bishop is not an ally of this politician, number of fanatics < 50%, 30% chance
If relations with Matriarch < 0, the player cannot conduct sermons
Player can now also conduct generous Loyalty sermon
If a character cannot walk, he cannot schedule sermons himself. If at the moment of sermon start the character is on the local map but cannot start the sermon (e.g. cannot walk), the sermon will be canceled provided that the player did not schedule this sermon himself
During temple/altar construction, the number of potential parishioners will be displayed
Politicians and Bishop will consider potential sermon effectiveness when choosing a building for the sermon. For example, for Loyalty sermon fanatics who cannot be converted to their loyalty will be taken into account, and for Faith sermon — the number of non-fanatics who no longer need conversion
Characters will go to pray only to the temple or altar whose radius covers their home. If a character has no home — to the nearest one. If the home falls into the radius of more than one temple or altar, a random one will be chosen
Bishop no longer has thoughts "Few Temples" and "No Temples"
New menu for altars and temples, now it displays the number of parishioners in the radius and their loyalty to lords
Altars now also have a resident-priest serving
When determining a temple or altar for a sermon, the lord will choose the building with the maximum number of possible listeners. If listeners < 5, the sermon will not be scheduled
Added calculation and display of the number of potential sermon listeners (residents of houses in the radius)
Fixed a bug due to which lords conducting a sermon did not go to someone else's sermon
Characters will not be distracted by beating characters in the pillory mask if busy with important activity (e.g. going to conduct a sermon)
In the temple/altar menu, the status line will display information about the start time of the scheduled sermon, the sermon button will have a sermon hint
Sermon effectiveness is now higher
Added cooldown for conducting sermons by politicians and bishop — no more than two in a row in the same place
Added technologies for building Temple and Stone Temple, resources changed
Added Small Temple building
Characters and Social Mechanics
Becoming a prisoner now clears thoughts about having money
Wolves will no longer finish off their opponents (including lords who failed on a hunt)
The strength of the social thought about being a bastard has been reduced to -5
Added thought for soldiers "Was on patrol" after working as a bodyguard
Message about a lord's death will now appear even if no one is grieving
Event about starting a relationship with a Loving Family will now last 1 day instead of 1 hour
Lords have been given a social thought "Population Loyalty" — it is given about other lords who have higher total loyalty of residents and soldiers; Politicians do not receive this thought; The larger the gap in total loyalty, the stronger the thought (up to +25 at 50% difference)
Social thought "Woman on the Throne" has been removed
Fixed a bug due to which the thought "Indecently Rich" appeared for a lord after 100 gold instead of 1000 gold
Thought "My Favorite Politician" weakened from +25 to +10, added thought "Rival of My Favorite Politician" -10, which attaches to all other politicians
Thought "Life Turned Out Great" has been removed
Thought "Spent the Night Together" can no longer go below -15
Freed prisoner will become a loyalist
Politicians will no longer receive new thoughts "Happy Under Rule", old thoughts will remain until they fully expire
If the criminal is caught, the victim of the crime will lose the thought that the criminal went unpunished
Thought "My Teacher" will now stack up to 5 times instead of 3
Added thought from eating berries, added berry sprite in characters' hands
Economy and Resources
The amount of money a lord needs to buy a ring from a caravan merchant increased from 250 to 500
When the player gives food to pilgrims, they now leave the city after 12 hours instead of 24
Changed the algorithm for residents buying goods directly from the caravan merchant — now they will first wait for resources that are given to them for free and resources that have not yet been brought to the market or tavern
Mercenaries will now receive the full hiring amount into their pocket instead of one-third
Information about the list of affected resources in prophecies about crop failure and rat invasion will be inserted via code, not localization (thus adding missing resources like carrots to the lists)
When marrying a lord on the global map, the bride will receive 250–400 coins in her inventory
Amount of money lords start with will be from 450 to 500, amount for the Bishop from 700 to 1000
Fixed the description of the "Confiscation" order and now the money goes to the treasury, not to the king
Joy, Doubt, Loyalty sermons now cost 100 more gold and this gold will be distributed among the sermon listeners
Changed the mechanics of donations to politicians from their followers — now followers on the local map daily give 20% of their money to the politician, leaving themselves at least 150 coins
Removed distribution of resources to unemployed at game start
Fixed a bug due to which buying a dog was free
Added new resources — bloodberries (grow on bushes, can be eaten), herbal infusion (reduces pain thoughts)
In old saves, bushes with bloodberries will be added when loading the game
Loyalty sermon will distribute 150 gold to listeners instead of 100
Generous Loyalty sermon will distribute 300 coins to listeners instead of 350
Herbal infusion is now produced in the brewery. Added technology for production (unlocked at 20+ population)
Added technologies for building Temple and Stone Temple, resources for temple construction changed
War, Security and Events
Added problem (top flag) about marauder attack
When a unique guest-maniac sets buildings on fire, this is considered a crime and guards will react to it
A starving peasant when attempting to steal food will immediately become a bandit, not after successfully stealing the food. A notification will also be sent
Added ability to send vassal armies on quests to protect from forest bandits, marauders and politician uprisings
When marauders attack the player, the player will receive only one notification, not 3. Clicking the notification will open the global map and move the camera to the marauder squad. In the marauder attack hint it will say how much time until they reach the city. If the travel time would be less than 24 hours, the squad will stand in place for some time so that the travel time is at least 24 hours
Fixed a bug due to which Wise Conversation did not work on the global map
Fixed a bug due to which peasants from the player's village did not return to proxy after battle
When attacking the player's village, defender peasants will belong to a different faction from the player's. Thus peasants will form their own separate squad and the bug will be fixed where after attacking the player's village, the player got dead peasant souls
On loading, all lost due to bugs peasant souls in the player's city will be killed so they are not counted in resident statistics
If AI city has aid squads from other states and an enemy attacks the city, but not the one the aid was sent against, after battle the aid squads will not return home but will continue staying in the AI city
Death of Horde squad commander on local map will not trigger a funeral ceremony for that commander
If the player's city has aid squads from other states and an enemy attacks the city, but not the one the aid was sent against, after battle the aid squads will not return home but will continue staying in the player's city
Important local map events (yellow, no animation) will hide not after 1 hour, but after 3 hours
Fixed the issue with ragged men attack
Added problem "City Defenseless"
New settings in the training field menu; battles on the training field now again cause light injuries and pain
Redone the flag for problems about inflamed soldier wounds
Added flag for problem that soldiers are deserting
Victory in battle will no longer give loyalty to regular residents (will give only to soldiers)
In the unhappy cultures problem and possible cultural uprising problem, only peasants and bandits will be taken into account, not all residents
Fixed a bug due to which a fortification tower could be built so that builders could not reach it (if entrance from below and place tower right against gates from below or water)
Buildings, Construction and World
Fixed a bug due to which carrot and turnip farm showed "Fertility: 120%" instead of 100% in the building menu header
Fixed a bug due to which farms cost nothing, and farm names were not displayed in corresponding technologies
Added unique sound of work at the sawmill
Fixed crash when demolishing a farm
If a farm is depleted but its repair was not started, enabling "Auto-fertilization" option will start the repair
Lords without one eye and fully blind will have scars instead of eyes
Fixed a bug due to which a character could get stuck if the building under him was deleted or moved
Optimized rendering of construction grid during road laying, building and wall construction
Comfort effects from neighboring buildings now affect the prisoner barrack
Prisoner barrack now holds 6 prisoners instead of 10
Peasant and lord residential buildings get comfort debuff when not within temple range
Removed skill debuff when conducting sermon at altar
Fixed rendering of lines between buildings if they are on elevation
Fixed a bug due to which buildings on elevations had incorrect zone hiding characters when they were under the building roof
Walls can no longer be built over stone resource
Buildings (except patrol flags and walls) can no longer be built on river fords and rises between hill levels, as otherwise it can lead to sharp landscape leveling and its blocking
During building construction, inaccessible cells due to stone resource there will be highlighted yellow
Fixed a bug due to which a farm could become a decorative object
Building relocation cost increased from 5 to 10 wood
Updated soil color of northern lands biome
Interface, Hints and Notifications
Fixed pig farm hint, now it displays accurate information about the number of days for pig growth
Increased width of the "King's Ambitions" hint (top one)
Added color differentiation for resident mood value in population hints (top left)
Removed padding between cursor and typed text in the game save menu
When opening the global map to show some object (e.g. clicking on player's army in bottom panel), the camera will zoom in to disable politics mode, because in politics mode objects like armies are not displayed
In the hint of the political followers list, followers will now show not only soldier loyalty but also resident loyalty; Adjusted font style for army count of foreign followers; Foreign followers will have their faction indicated
Fixed a bug due to which in actions in AI cities the hint explaining impossibility to send a lord on some task was not displayed
In the king's resident and soldier loyalty hint, fixed the position of the loyalists block
Changed the right-side event display about lord inspiration — now it lists all inspired lords
Fixed possible crash when hovering over the icon of an assigned task in character menu that currently cannot be performed due to some conditions
Fixed army menu freeze if there was an unequipped soldier in the list of mercenaries
Fixed incorrect information in the hint about becoming a politician due to high persuasion skill
Fixed a bug due to which enemies of a character might not be displayed in the important personalities panel of the character menu
Added hint on the selected resource harvesting button in the herbalist building menu
Removed duplicate line from talent hint explaining how to unlock this talent
Fixed a bug due to which formatting might not work in the "Prophecy Will Soon Come True" hint (e.g. for "Xenophobia" prophecy)
Fixed a bug due to which some icons were rendered over video
Fixed a bug due to which a sermon assigned by an incognito guest did not disappear after the guest left the local map
In the temple/altar menu, the status line will display information about the start time of the scheduled sermon, the sermon button will have a sermon hint assigned
Added note in the pain hint that it can be reduced with Herbal Infusion
Removed the "DO NOT SELL" panel from the market menu
Added hint on the child birth event display
Removed event display about unemployed not receiving food
Added information about increased labor productivity in the loyalists hint
Start of Game and Generation
Added tooltip about hovering over capitals in the new game creation menu; New order of windows before starting the game; Warning about difference between lord family culture and starting region culture
Now every time family composition is generated, random lord appearances matching the selected culture will be generated anew
Added local map generation at the start of a new game
Now after starting a new game, you need to place the Hall, which will be placed instantly, and only after that all characters will be created. Pause cannot be unpaused until the Hall is placed
At the start of a new game a new menu appears with options to place the Hall, regenerate the map and return to new game settings
During the first Hall placement stage at new game start, resource locations will be highlighted
Added hint on resources when choosing a province for new game start
Now you can start the game in any province on the global map
Fixed generation of negative and positive traits for AI lords at new game start
Fixes and Balance
Fixed a bug where the "Loyalist" achievement could not be completed because bandits were counted as population
Fixed a possible bug where character bodies might not be carried if they died during binding
Loyalist-prisoner will be counted as a prisoner for the hiring system, not as a loyalist
Fixed the issue with ragged men attack
Fixed the functioning of the advice and problems menu
Fixed a possible crash when hovering over the icon of an assigned task in the character menu that currently cannot be performed due to some conditions
Fixed army menu freeze if there was an unequipped soldier in the list of mercenaries
Fixed a bug due to which a character could get stuck if the building under him was deleted or moved
Fixed a bug due to which a notification about not having enough paper to write a book could appear when the paper was already being carried to the library
Fixed a bug due to which rewriting and writing new books did not work
Fixed frequent appearance of the problem "Bishop in Rage"
Fixed a bug due to which sex was interrupted if there was an animal in the building — wolf or dog
Fixed a bug due to which buying a dog was free
Experience gained from completing work with knowledge reduced by half
Strength of thought from ignoring a political demand increased from -18 to -22
Fixed a bug due to which a resource production task was canceled if the knowledge about the resource was public but there were no specific lords who possessed that knowledge
Fixed a bug in the Bishop's "Conversion" order where relations were checked not with the player's ruler but with the conversion target
Fixed multiple appearances of the message about resolving the problem "Lord's relation to king is worsening"
If an AI city has knowledge but no carriers of that knowledge and no lords suitable by Intelligence level, the knowledge will be added to the lord with the highest Intelligence
Thought "My Teacher" will now stack up to 5 times instead of 3
Graphics, Sound and Assets
Updated character voice parameters
Replaced fertile soil assets
Added vegetation and stone assets for fords, updated bush and tree sprites
Removed old unused building sprites
Replaced fertile soil assets for hops
New bush assets with berries and flowers — each biome has its own bush appearance
Added unique sound of work at the sawmill
Miscellaneous
Added a line to the personality traits list of AI faction characters stating that he is the player's puppet, with the idol's name shown in the hint
Updated display of lord icons in AI cities. Lord backgrounds are now gray, and icons of selected special statuses (low loyalty, player's puppet, politician, merchant, not in city) are now displayed as a list
No more than 3 icons will be displayed on lord portraits in AI cities. The icon indicating that the lord is not in the city (world map icon) will always be displayed last
Added tester Sm1r to Credits
