Announcing new patch & plans for the future

Hello, ladies and fellas!
It's been a long time since I wrote a post on Steam - much was changing in my life, so I had time only to support the project and fix the bugs you found.
However, I'm in charge again, and I'm glad to announce some new features & mechanics for the next patch:

UPD: it's not out yet, this post is just an announce!

• First of all, money is finally going to appear in Life is Hard.
  A player will be able to construct a new building - market - that attracts merchants and caravans from all over the tiny world. They will buy goods from your minions and pay with gold!
  Hiring mercenaries, monks, jesters etc. will require money from now on. No more barter!
• Secondly, mages will stand by your side.
  You'll be able to hire new units at the mage's tower. Seems legit, doesn't it? Mages are equipped with light armor & wands. Soldiers will lose ability to use them.
  A "work in progress" mage's outfit
• To compensate for the loss, soldiers will be able to use shields.
  Shields have a chance to reflect hits/projectiles. The stronger the material is - the higher the chances are.
  I'm also considering giving secondary weapons to ranged units like archers, as using bow at close range seems illogical. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it in the comments.
  A wooden shield
• In this regard, i've changed weapons system, making weapon & armor types more balanced. Here's a small table:
  Weapon type
  Damage scale to unarmored units
  Damage scale to light-armored units
  Damage scale to medium-armored units
  Damage scale to heavy-armored units
  
  
  Firsts, fangs, horns etc.
  100%
  100%
  75%
  75%
  
  
  Cutting weapons
  125%
  100%
  75%
  75%
  
  
  Piercing weapons
  125%
  75%
  125%
  125%
  
  
  Blunt weapons
  125%
  100%
  75%
  50%
  
  
  Ranged weapons
  125%
  100%
  100%
  75%
  
  
  Magic
  125%
  100%
  100%
  125%
  I believe this system will make players to have a balanced army with light-armored bowmen and mages. I'm still working on it, so feel free to share your opinion.
• New mercenaries sprites have arrived to replace the old ones.
  Every one of them has unique attack & armor type according to the table above.
• The last updated mechanics in this patch is rations system.
  Players will be able to choose manually whether to use a resource in their minions' rations or to keep it for trading.That's all for now. There's still much work to do, but I hope to release this patch on New Year's holidays. As I already mentioned, I'd love to hear your opinion about the patch in the comments!Yours,
  Life is Hard dev