Hey everyone,
We have another big update for you this week - and the main focus is balancing.
This update makes major improvements to trade, diplomacy, AI attacks, research prices, unit upkeep, building upkeep, food consumption, loot rewards, and the overall campaign economy. Trade routes should now feel more rewarding, rare goods like Silk and Spice are more valuable in the right markets, and trade agreements have been improved across many nations.
Home City recruitment also received a major upgrade. Home Cities now offer many more world map recruitment options, can create hamlet units like Horse Carts and Livestock, and have updated unit rosters for Slavic, Muslim, and Western cultures.
We`ve also added several UI improvements, especially for RTS mode and the world map. Units and buildings now show more useful information, including upkeep, happiness, and bonuses, while trade and recruitment windows now pause the game outside of the tutorial.
In addition, this update includes stronger campaign pacing, revised building progression, better hamlet defenses, and several important Home City and world map fixes.
And once again - thank you so much for the reports, feedback, and support during Early Access!
And now, here are the full notes for Update #4:
Home City Unit Recruitment
Home City now gives a lot more world map unit recruitment options, up to 30
Home City can now also create hamlet units, like Horse Carts and Livestock
Changed the roster of units for Slavic, Muslim, and Western cultures
Added Siege Ram to world map recruitment for Western and Slavic factions
Town Hall units trained on the world map now use the Town Hall`s level
Other New Features
Increasing building level now reduces upkeep
Level 5 hamlets now allow outer stone wall construction in RTS and on the world map for non-Slavic nations
Newly created armies now start with more units: 2 Peasants, 2 Horse Carts, and 1 Cow
UI Improvements
In RTS mode, units now show upkeep when mousing over the unit portrait
In RTS mode, buildings now show upkeep, happiness, and other bonuses when mousing over a building icon
Trade windows on the world map now pause the game when opened, except during the tutorial
Recruit Units window on the world map now pauses the game when opened, except during the tutorial
Reworked happiness tooltip for world map town UI
Happiness tooltip now explains that happy citizens produce more resources, while unhappy citizens stop all work
Trade Balancing
Major rebalancing and polish to the city trade system
Major rebalancing and polish to city trade agreements
A lot more cities now pay great prices for Silk and Spice
Buying common goods in Western Europe and selling them in the Middle East is now a lot more profitable
Long-distance trade routes, like selling Silk and Spice in faraway English markets, are now a lot more profitable
A lot more variety in goods purchased and sold around cities in the Mediterranean
Reworked a lot of trade agreements for various nations - they now seek rare goods more often, like Spice and Silk
Trade agreements now generate up to 30% more income
Major trade goods production rebalance - building upkeep reduced by 30% on average
AI Balancing
Rebalanced the frequency of AI attacks on the player on the world map
Primary enemies like Pisa will attack the player about one third less often
Other nations that the player goes to war with will now attack more often
Other Balancing
Reduced silver upkeep for Swordsmen
Increased silver upkeep for Crossbowmen, Longbowmen, and Veteran Crossbowmen
Increased food consumption of basic infantry and ranged units
Revised research prices - they no longer require huge amounts of trade goods for late-game technologies
Increased RTS construction time for all trade goods buildings
Greatly reduced Renown income from churches, Herbalists, and other buildings
Reduced population upset from various buildings like Silver Mines, Lumber Camps, etc.
Looting corpses now generates mostly silver instead of silver and wood
Looting corpses now gives 3-5X more silver, depending on unit tier
Bug Fixes
Fixed various issues with disabled buildings on the world map
Added a lot more spawn markers for Home Cities in the worker category
Fixed a bug in Home City where workers could appear far away from the Town Hall on level load