The year turns
Setting out in March is no longer the same as setting out in October.
- Spring - meltwater. The rivers run high and the fords are slow.
- Summer - the desert costs half again as much water.
- Autumn - everyone travels. Fodder is cheap, the roads are full, prices are poor, and raiders know the columns are loaded.
- Winter - the passes close. No grass. Whoever travels now takes the long way and carries their own fodder - and is paid well for it, because nobody else came.
The winter road is built without a mountain leg at all, so the short way is
simply gone and the long way costs weeks. Every one of these is a factor on a
number the game already had - the pace, the free water, the free fodder, the
raid chance - which is why it all still adds up.
Waiting is now a decision
You can hold at Ötüken for up to thirty days to catch a better season. It is
not free: the animals and the people at home eat every one of those days, the
same arithmetic as always, only without the earnings.
Commissions
Houses and factions now ask for specific goods, delivered to a specific city,
by a specific day.
- Money up front, and more on delivery.
- A deadline that runs on the world calendar, not your travel days - leave late and it is still ticking.
- Miss it and it counts against you.
Your crew have names
The guard, the guide, the physician and the rest are no longer roles on a
list. They are people with names, and when the road takes one of them, it
takes a name you knew.
Other houses on the road
Dust a day old, a broken-down column, a rival hiring at the caravanserai, a
well someone reached first. Let a rival go ahead of you and they sell into
your market before you arrive - every house in front of you costs about a
tenth of your price.
Fixed
- An overloaded column could be wiped out in a single day. You cannot buy your way past your carrying capacity - but if an animal died while you were loaded near the limit, the load stayed and the rest of the column took the whole penalty at once. A full caravan that lost one camel lost every remaining animal the following morning, with nothing on screen to warn you and no way to shed cargo. Overloading now bites hard but gives you days to reach the next stop instead of ending the run outright.
Also
- A new page at the House for commissions and the turning year.
- New artwork for the seasons, the commissions and the road encounters.
- The controller reaches all eight House tabs. With that many, the labels get a smaller font and drop their icons rather than being cut off.
- All twelve languages carry the new wording - 2559 lines each, complete.