Peas, Fields and Hunting Improvements and Patch Notes #39

Hello everyone!

Hope you had a good week.
Here's what we've added for today's patch:

Peas and Field Improvements:

First we're adding a new crop: Peas!
Peas can be purchased from the trader, are a pretty good source of calories, last quite a bit when dry, act as a source of proteins and can restore nutrients to the soil.
Peas cannot be planted in garden plots as of now, but we'll be pushing a hotfix for this tomorrow. ;)

We've given a balance pass to all fields and made many tweaks to make crop rotations work properly now that we have enough different crops. Planting crops in the right order will reward you with better yields and health for your plants.
We've also made field crops a bit more robust and made their yields also get affected by seasons and nutrient levels.

Hunting Improvements and Rebalancing:

Animals now slowly heal their wounds over time, making the "death by a thousand cuts" tactic no longer viable.
In addition to this, animals will now also stop treading their usual paths when wounded.
This will change the dynamics of hunting large game making hunts more realistic. Ambushing and pursuing your wounded prey should now be the only viable way of hunting.

This new animal behaviour will only be available for the Doe for now, but we'll be pushing a hotfix tomorrow that will enable it for all other animals. (it's been a busy week!)

That said. We have introduced some things to make ambushes easier. In addition to the improvements to stealth from last week's patch, players can now further increase their stealth by building a new hideout structure which should make ambushes easier. We have also added some stealth bonuses to reed clothing and to applying mud to your skin.
Animals now also have some new behaviours when tired, which should make chasing them a bit easier, and give you more opportunities to strike at them.

Balancing Pass:

We're in the process of going through a big balance pass. We have been adding a lot of content over the last few months and we're trying to make a push to get things to a better place in terms of challenge and reward.

Some of the balance changes we have done this week are:
- Made wounds consume more calories.
- Made immune system enchantments a bit weaker.
- Made hunting large game more difficult.
- Made ambushing and pursuing easier.

We will be balancing things further over the following weeks, making things easier if they got too hard and vice versa.

What's Next:

We have been working on many new things lately and things have been coming along nicely,
Next week we'll be releasing metal casting, slag recycling and the first alloys along with a bit of new territory.

After that we'll start releasing swamp areas, improve the players physiological system (which is not in the best place at the moment), release an improved butchering system and the new system for storing food recipes.

And now let's get to the patch notes:

Version EA_0.44 + hotifxes since the last patch

- The construction menu system (for expanding the mudhut for example) has been improved.
- Added a button linking to the instructions of how to play the beta in the news announcement screen of the main branch.
- Added Peas.
- Tilled fields now start with maximum structure.
- Tilled fields now take longer to craft and longer to dissappear.
- Tilled and fallow fields now recover nutrients faster.
- All crops have received a balance pass and now increase or decrease structure and nutrients at different rates.
- Crops are now a bit more resistant but their yield is more sensitive to both nutrient levels and season.
- Some crops have become considerably more resistant to winter (clover, meadowgrass, heather).
- Added Hideout structure.
- Reed clothes now add a bit of cammouflage.
- Applying Mud to your body now improves your stealth profile.
- Does can now heal wounds and will no longer follow their usual path when wounded.
- Does have a new tired behaviour when they run out of stamina.
- Wound durations have been standarized and their calorie consumption has been adjusted to better match the current weight system.
- Tweaked and balanced some enchantments to make their less overpowered.
- Single portions of Billberry and Springberry Syrups used as seasoning no longer taste too sweet.
- Fixed a bug which caused boiling dried turnroot to increase spoilage instead of reducing it.
- Fixed a bug which caused dried turnroots and some other food items to not work as omnivorous bait for Boars in pit traps.
- HandStone, Saddle Quern, Rottary Quern and Stone Mortar and Pestle are now safe from floods.
- Copper items can now be enchanted with Spirits.
- Urine, Nettle Solution and Dyes can no longer be used for cleaning Wounds.
- Urine, Nettle Solution and Dyes are no longer considered a source for Fresh water for things like watering Crops.
- Urine, Nettle Solution and Dyes are no longer considered a source of Safe water for things like making a Dough or Fermenting items inside Fermentation bin.
- Fixed a bug which caused nettle stems to gain quality under the wrong conditions
- Knife bought from trader now has 50% quality but its also more expensive as a result.
- Removed the tanning water blueprint. Tanning water can be instead made by soaking bark in water and then waiting 24 hours or boiling it for 1 hour.
- Fixed some issues with foxes and badgers being caught in traps in the wrong locations.
- Updated card texts related to dyes to make the process more clear.
- Wood carving direct card interaction now receives a workplace bonus and dexterity penalties just like the blueprint does.
- Fixed Flavours for Rye Flatbread and Rye Bread Slice.
-Leather and Fur clothing now loses colour faster than Fiber clothing.
- Fixed a bug which made the Hackler blueprint invisible.
- Willow Bark can no longer be put inside a Garden Plot
- Hoe no longer drops Flint when it breaks.
- Fixed Wolfsbane description to match the Help Section.
- Malted and Malting Rye can now be properly placed in the Smokehouse.
- Fur Coat now properly offers protection from rain.
- Fixed fireroot, turnroot and fairyweed descriptions to match the Help Section.
- Added Knife fighting moves to Copper Knife.
- It is now possible to wet soap on the River, Pond, Ice hole, Flooded Tunnel location card and the Waterfall.
- Fixed a bug which caused blizzards to spawn "winds are too strong" events after the blizzard is over.
- Fixed a bug which was causing Ash Waternot to boil into Lye if the player wasn't present.
- Appleweed now properly lowers grain saturation.
- Actions which reduce tool usage now also reduce tool sharpness.
- Significantly reduced the usage and sharpness loss when working with softer materials.

That's all for now.
See you all for next week's patch!

Reminder: All fixes and new content are added to the public beta branch first.
If you want to access them you can find the instructions on the link below. Be warned though, things are less stable there and are likely to undergo balance changes quite frequently! :)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2868860/discussions/0/600774299444324511/