The time has finally come, all the patches, updates. fixes and improvements that you've been testing in the Public Beta during the weeks are finally entering the main build of Lords and Villeins. A lot of things have been changed / added, so we recommend going through the Change Log below, especially if you were not a part of the Public Beta testing.
For a short summary, we have redesigned nobility and royal taxation, extensively improved UI, put additional work into performance and added new ways for you to control the economy. As this patch is making significant updates to the internal data structures, you will not be able to continue playing your save files from the previous version, so if you are not ready to switch yet, we will keep the older version available in the "oldversion" branch for some time.
We are incredibly thankful for your help with the testing and for the overall support, we would not be able to get this far without you! And that's not all, more awesome things are on the way! For now, enjoy the current update and let us know what you think about it on our Discord server, here on Steam forum or feel free to write a review of the game.
Next on our roadmap is the promised Campaign update, so stay tuned for more info soon!
Change Log:
Performance Optimization
Path computed in one direction is now used in reverse order for opposite direction.
Pathfinding is now distributed over multiple frames and threads using a BurstCompile job system.
All visitors now share a common pathfinding map instead of each family calculating their own.
Prioritization of path search for NPC over animals and further limiting animals use of pathfinding in a single frame.
New option in the settings to serialize pathfinding data. It will increase save and load time, but prevents spike on reload.
Replaced Nobles with Artisans
Chapel is no longer used by artisans. They share the church with everybody else.
The Tavern was removed. Artisans arrive through the Inn.
Inn now also serves mead and wine.
Donations to clergy no longer reflect noble families. The clergy simply expects the player to donate a calculated amount of valuables over some time.
Theatre is now visited by everyone, including peasants.
Added a new class of Noble Houses
Noble houses are generated automatically at the start of the game.
Their growth is stimulated automatically outside of the map.
Noble houses can be viewed in the population book in a new Nobles tab.
Noble houses now accept ruling family marriage proposals instead of the previous artisan families.
New Quests and Deliveries
Noble houses and royalty offer optional delviery quests for extra rewards.
New Loading Site structure added that is used by villagers to prepare deliveries.
Players can also grant resources to noble houses or a royal family which is sent away through the delivery system.
Hosting at Villa
Players can now invite a noble house to be hosted at their villa.
The noble house will spend a certain amount of days and consume the meals of the player.
After they leave, the relationship with the player will change based on how satisfied they are with the quality.
Combat Power
Villagers in the military regiments now display their combat power.
Combat power is a function of their equipment, age, health, training, skills, blessings, and other buffs and bonuses.
Total combat power of a regiment is used when delivering military as a royal tax.
Combat power is now displayed in the population book.
Royal Taxes Updated
Royalty now only expresses their demand in terms of the gold value of delivered resources and the total combat power of delivered soldiers.
Players can complete the taxes through deliveries or sending regiments to war at any time during the year.
The Tax Evasion mechanic was removed. Instead, having a Master of Coin appointed will boost the rewards and contributions made through deliveries.
Royalty also offers optional quests that provide extra money and favor points.
Royalty also offers a list of bonus equipment, which boosts the combat power a certain regiment contributes with.
Changes to professions
Ropemakers can now utilize Loom to create a new Carpet resource. This resource can be used to build new floor-type carpets. Five different carpet patterns are added.
Alchemists no longer make health, magic or stamina potions. Instead, they make love potions that peasants consume to boost their pregnancy chance, exotic mixtures which can be used as a cooking ingredient or transmuted gold, which can be minted into gold coins or granted to nobles as a valuable gift.
Glassmakers nwo also produce glass bottles, which are required to make potions.
New options to manage priorities
Priority screen is updated and shows more detailed information.
Player can update how much material a family is stocking for production.
Player can also limit production if a family has stock over a certain amount.
Player can also restrict tax-deductible options, to prevent villagers from consuming taxed resources to produce other taxed resources.
New cooking management options
The accounting management screen has a new cooking tab.
Players can set custom targets for cooking meals and toggle if families are allowed to supplement high-quality targets with a lower quality meals.
Logic for cooking was also updated so that families will continue cooking higher quality meals even if they have plenty of lower quality meals.
Logic for cooking was also updated so that families will continue cooking higher quality meals evn if they have plenty of lower quality meals, to meet their targets.
It is possible that families go over their target if multiple people start cooking at the same time.
Other Changes
Rework the internal system for generating new families.
The notification system was reworked to allow more flexible data transition. As a result, several notifications were updated to provide more information about their context.
Storage management screen now has copy/paste option.
CTRL+Select when clicking on a buildable object will now select that object from the build menu.
A number of UI screens was improved for performance.
Multiple churches are now possible. Secondary churches hold Sunday massby villagers assigned to the monk order.
Inns can now be toggled in the context menu to prevent selling beds and meals to locals.
Small UI changes
Notifications now distinguish between source and target. Players can click separate buttons to move the camera to them.
Zone context menu was reworked to separate the quick-build menu into structures, furniture and storage. Buttons to switch between tiered collections were added to quickly access different quality furniture and storage.
New option in the settings to display a contrasted version of the HUD.
Another Update For The Public Beta Is Here
Greetings, lords and ladies,
This time we'll make it quick, a small update v 1.2.16 has just made it's way to the Public Beta, and it brings few small but important fixes! Check out the whole list below.
If you're still not a part of the Public Beta and you wish to be, entering it is incredibly easy! All you have to do is right click on the game in your Steam library, select Properties, Betas and find the "artisanbeta" branch. If you encounter any bugs or have any feedback to share, we would love to hear from you! Share them here on Steam forums, or come join our dedicated Discord server.
Change Log:
Redesigned removal tools with a new filtering submenu
Fixed issue with pending deliveries sometimes not immediately taking a free loading site
Fixed issue with bonus equipment not persisting after reload
Fixed issue with inaccessible structure notification triggered falsely
Fixed issue with Mint not using golden ingots to make coins
Fixed issue in the accounting UI where the sorting toggles would not work
Fixed issue that impacted production capacity of tailors, bowmakers and limited number of other professions. It also prevented caravans from storing all of their goods.
Fixed issue with villagers ignoring chairs to eat on
A New Update Has Just Entered The Public Beta!
We greet you Lords and Ladies,
a new update to the public beta v.1.2.14 was just published and is available to play on the beta branch! We have fixed some game breaking issues and added few quality of life and balancing touches. We continue to polish and fix this version, to make it ready for a live branch as soon as possible. And once that is done, we will refocus on a new update, adding a small campaign mode, so stay tuned!
If you wish to join the Public Beta and get your hands on the updates before they are added to the full game, all you have to do is right click on the game in your Steam library, select Properties, Betas and find the "artisanbeta" branch. If you encounter any bugs or have any feedback to share, we would love to hear from you! Share them here on Steam forums, or come join our dedicated Discord server.
Change Log:
Fixed crash duplicating noble family members when they were proposed to marriage while they were visiting in villa
Fixed issue preventing brick production in a scenario where family did not have household and firewood
Fixed issue that corrupted save files when quest giver family no longer existed
Fixed broken animation in the AM/PM animation in the clock
Reduced cost of visiting theatre from 200 to 50
Added default equipment preference for starting soldiers to prevent them taking off plate armor when the game begins
Removed "Until taxed" toggle in the warehouse book trading page (it was not doing anything and should have been hidden)
Fixed problem with using invalid characters in new templates not being loaded after restart
Fixed issue with fishing profession not leveling up
Fixed foragers not getting XP for cutting trees
Lowered default priority class for roofs, so they get built after walls
ixed issue with prioritization of blueprints to not lock resources if the blueprint is unbuildable (i.e. no wall support for roof)
Fixed soil quality view not refreshing after reload, until the game is un-paused
Fixed tooltips on public celebration dropdown elements when they are disabled
Updated description of the "Aggressive Animals" module and modified its functionality. It can now be turned off to prevent animals to jump over fences when hunting.
Fixed villagers not consuming love potions
Increased probability of domesticated animals to become pregnant
Added a new option in the settings to turn off the weather effect
Fixed a bug in the pathfinding that may have been responsible for misfiring of inaccessible structure notifications
Fixed inverted scrollbar in the animals tab of the market price UI
Patch 1.2.11 Is Entering The Public Beta
Greetings, Lords and Ladies,
There is a new update entering the Public Beta, that being Patch 1.2.11. It has brought multiple fixes, some QoL improvements and many more! Feel free to check out the whole Change Log below.
How can I join the Public Beta, you ask? It's easy! Just right click on the game in your Steam library, select Properties, Betas and find the "artisanbeta" branch. If you encounter any bugs or have any feedback to share, we would love to hear from you! Share them here on Steam forums, or come join our dedicated Discord server.
Currently, we are aware of an issue that corrupts save files if you attempt to marry a noble during a time when they are visiting your settlement in a hosted villa. We advise everyone to avoid this scenario to prevent this from happening. As a general practice, make sure to backup your save files and please be advised that the experience may be problematic as it is still a beta version.
We will be testing this build on the beta for a few more days and do our best to fix all problems so it can be published on the live branch as soon as possible.
Fixes
Fixed the issue where the previous version didn't create config.ini
Fixed market price list toggles being swapped for buy and sell behavior of caravans
Updated tooltips for buy and sell behavior of caravans
Added global switch for categories in market price list
Fixed leatherworkers not making horse saddles
Fixed missing locale for a Noble Influence game module
Fixed warehouse crash when switching to artisan category with no artisan families present
Fixed issue with librarians not teaching skills
Fixed tooltip in warehouse book not reflecting master of coin bonus
Fixed an issue that would occasionally trigger path not found notification when it was not supposed to (particularly during loading)
Fixed an issue with clergy donation values not being restored after load
Fixed an issue preventing soldiers to be sent to war outside of tutorial mode
Fixed an incorrect hint in blueprint context menu when supplied by a construction family that does not have required material
Fixed reference issue during unloading that could cause memory leaks
Fixed semi-random pathfinding crashes when families get removed
Reduced memory usage of music audio files
Removed functionality of partial pathfinding map refresh due to extensive memory consumption and bloating of save files. Correct solution for partial refresh requires more comprehensive solution that is now beyond the scope of this update.
Fixed hunters not buying and wearing leather armor
Fixed UI issue in the town hall request displaying relationship over 100% when a high council position is assigned to an artisan with good relationship
Improvement in AI pathfinding state machine to prevent random cases of misfiring Inaccessible Structure notification
Fixed caravan sell embargo not working
Fixed number of AI crashes involving clergy, hunters and military
Fixed bug with noble family being destroyed after it left the map after the villa invitation
Fixed bug with Ruler important role being assigned both to the head and their partner (the partner should have Ruler Partner role). This broke several features, including council meetings.
Improvements and Balance Changes
Expanded warehouse book send tab with sum of delivered value and indicator of free loading sites
Reduced probability that an elderly person will join clergy
Multiple churches running are now supported. Minister is still required, in other churches the service is held by monks
Meals, repair kits, sand, rags and firewood will no longer be requested in quests and can not be added to custom delivery
Increased priority of marriage request encounter in the town hall
Reduced frequency of observing art and visiting theatre
Reduced the speed of social need decline
Improved theatre logic to prevent people coming to the theatre and not have a chair to sit on
Open Beta for the Artisan Update Is Live!
Greetings lords and ladies!
We have exciting news today - the public beta for the awaited Artisan update goes live! All of you can get your hands on the patch right now and test all the great new additions to the game. Please be advised, that while this version went through extensive internal testing and a lengthy closed beta, there are still issues we are aware of and will be fixing them in the upcoming days so if you want to enjoy a smooth experience, please hold off your excitement just yet, until the update goes live on the main branch.
In order to join, right click on the game in your library, select Properties, Betas and find the "artisanbeta" branch. If you encounter any bugs or have any feedback to share, we would love to hear from you! Share them here on Steam forums, or come join our dedicated Discord server.
There is so much to get excited about with this new patch. With significant optimizations for the pathfinding that now runs natively on parallel cores and is managed more efficiently, there is a noticeable improvement in the frame-rate, especially on larger maps. New quest mechanic and redesigned royalty system is a lot of fun, and inviting nobles to host them at your villa adds a nice extra bit of immersion.
Thank you all who have been part of the closed beta, including our community members on our Discord and those participating in the Fulqrum Champions program. We can't wait to hear more feedback from all of you! So let's have a look what are all the changes introduced in this patch.
Performance Optimization
Path computed in one direction is now used in reverse order for opposite direction.
When world grid changes, only paths that are impacted by the change are recalculated.
Pathfinding is now distributed over multiple frames and threads using a BurstCompile job system.
All visitors now share a common pathfinding map instead of each family calculating their own.
Prioritization of path search for NPC over animals and further limiting animals use of pathfinding in a single frame.
New option in the settings to serialize pathfinding data. It will increase save and load time, but prevents spike on reload.
Replaced Nobles with Artisans
Chapel is no longer used by artisans. They share the church with everybody else.
The Tavern was removed. Artisans arrive through the inn.
Inn now also serves mead and wine.
Donations to clergy no longer reflect noble families. The clergy simply expects the player to donate a calculated amount of valuables over some time.
Theatre is now visited by everyone, including peasants.
Added a New Class of Noble Houses
Nobles houses are generated automatically at the start of the game.
Their growth is stimulated automatically outside of the map.
Noble houses can be viewed in the population book in a new Nobles tab.
Noble houses now accept ruling family marriage proposals instead of the previous artisan families.
New Quests and Deliveries
Noble houses and royalty offers optional delivery quests for extra rewards.
New Loading Site structure added that is used by villagers to prepare deliveries.
Players can also grant resources to noble houses or a royal family which is sent away through the delivery system.
Hosting at Vila
Players can now invite a noble house to be hosted at their villa.
The noble house will spend a certain amount of days and consume the meals of the player.
After they leave, the relationship with the player will change based on how satisfied they are with the quality.
Combat Power
Villagers in the military regiments now display their combat power.
Combat power is a function of their equipment, age, health, training, skills, blessings, and other buffs and bonuses.
Total combat power of a regiment is used when delivering military as a royal tax.
Combat power is now displayed in the population book
Royal Taxes Updated
Royalty now only expresses their demand in terms of the gold value of delivered resources and the total combat power of delivered soldiers.
Players can complete the taxes through deliveries or sending regiments to war at any time during the year.
The Tax Evasion mechanic was removed. Instead, having a Master of Coin appointed will boost the rewards and contributions made through deliveries.
Royalty also offers optional quests that provide extra money and favor points.
Royalty also offers a list of bonus equipment, which boosts the combat power a certain regiment contributes with.
Changes to Professions
Ropemakers can now utilize Loom to create a new Carpet resource. This resource can be used to build new floor-type carpets. Five different carpet patterns are added.
Alchemists no longer make health, magic, or stamina potions. Instead, they make love potions that peasants consume to boost their pregnancy chance, exotic mixtures which can be used as a cooking ingredient, or transmuted gold, which can be minted into gold coins or granted to nobles as a valuable gift.
Glassmakers now also produce glass bottles, which are required to make potions. New options to manage priorities
Priority screen is updated and shows more detailed information.
The player can update how much material a family is stocking for production.
Player can also limit production if a family has stock over a certain amount.
Player can also restrict tax-deductible options, to prevent villagers from consuming taxed resources to produce other taxed resources
New Cooking Management Options
The accounting management screen has a new cooking tab.
Players can set custom targets for cooking meals and toggle if families are allowed to supplement high-quality targets with a lower quality meals.
Logic for cooking was also updated so that families will continue cooking higher quality meals even if they have plenty of lower quality meals, to meet their targets.
It is possible that families go over their target if multiple people start cooking at the same time.
Other Changes
Rework the internal system for generating new families.
The notification system was reworked to allow more flexible data transition. As a result, several notifications were updated to provide more information about their context.
Storage management screen now has copy/paste option.
CTRL+Select when clicking on a buildable object will now select that object from the build menu. "The number of UI screens was improved for performance.
Inns can now be toggled in the context menu to prevent selling beds and meals to locals Small UI changes
Notifications now distinguish between source and target. Players can click separate buttons to move the camera to them.
Zone context menu was reworked to separate the quick-build menu into structures, furniture, and storage. Buttons to switch between tiered collections were added to quickly access different quality furniture and storage.
New option in the settings to display a contrasted version of the HUD
Join the Closed Beta for an Upcoming Artisan Update!
Greetings Lords and Ladies,
we are very excited to announce, that the new Artisan update is close to release! This update is addressing a lot of concerns and feedback that you have been sharing with us in the past months and we can't wait for you to get your hands on it. Thank you very much for talking about our game, sharing your feedback and helping us improve Lords and Villeins!
If you want to be one of the few that try this new update early in the early beta stage before anyone else (and potentially many more, including even other games by Fulqrum Publishing), consider joining the Fulqrum's Champions program! Simply send an email to champions@fulqrumpublishing.com and we'll let you know all the details!
An in-depth look at the upcoming update can be found by clicking this link. To mention a few highlights, it will bring significant changes to Nobles, Royal Taxes were redesigned for more reward based approach centered around freedom of choice. You will also be able to send the taxes to the ruler anytime during the year. Professions will go through some changes as well, Ropemakers, Alchemists and Glassmakers will receive an update to make them more relevant to the economy!
The whole Change Log will be shared once the patch comes out. We expect to release it during the upcoming weeks.
Melodies Of Lords and Villeins
Lords and Ladies,
today, we would like to take the opportunity to celebrate the art of music, produced for Lords and villeins. Adam Bow, a talented composer from New Zealand, who we had the privilege to work with in 2021, contributed a unique palette of instruments and ideas, that shaped a truly beautiful score. So let's take a deeper dive into the creative process that went into producing it!
Lords and Villeins together with its soundtrack are a part of the Steam Spring Sale and they are available with a 30% discount. Buy them both in one bundle to increase the discount even more! The Sale ends on March 23.
Truly impactful scores for games achieve more than just a pleasant background to fill out the silence. They serve a very deliberate purpose narratively, thematically, and also emotionally. When thinking about what element of our game is best to breathe this sense of deeper purpose into our music, the seasons made a lot of sense.
Seasons in our game impact everything. The themes, gameplay, strategy, focus of the player, behavior of our AI, and different kinds of challenges and events that come with it. They also drive the inner rhythm of the game. Much like any music, while there is plenty of variety introduced, they are still predictable and happen in cycles. Players always know, which season is the next, and what to expect, while still recognizing, that each one is different.
So it made perfect sense, to tie our music to this very core element of the game. We've broken this approach down into three parts:
Adam utilized a unique set of Instruments that he thought would best convey the feel of each season, along with a primary instrument to play melodies. Flute in spring, violin is summer, accordion in autumn and mandolin in winter.
We also defined the contrast of two emotions for each season, that the harmonies are trying to highlight. In spring, we are waking up from slumber and explore beauty and curiosity, summer is all about festivities, and love, autumn is cozy, but also hard-working, and winter is magical but dangerous.
Finally, we give each element a description of gameplay. Spring is about planning and designing. Summer is a time of harvest and growth, autumn is focused on restructuring and optimization, and winter is focused on survival.
This approach also created a great opportunity, to compose a seasonal transition between every two seasons, slowly blending themes and instruments from one season to another. Each is triggered on a particular day as all vegetation begins to change and the color scheme shifts. This creates an audiovisual spectacle, which is one of our favorite parts of the game!
Music That Welcomes a New Day
Aside from the harmony, instruments, and melodies, we also had to consider the circumstances, in which the game will play a piece of music. There were many options - from looping the music endlessly, tying it to special events or just random timing. What made the most sense to us, was simply an event of passing a morning hour.
This way, the music serves as a reminder, that the player has progressed yet another day. It can signify an important milestone, as that is when our game also evaluates a lot of important things such as taxes or daily events. And since the night is often a time of waiting, it catches the attention of the player, to remain focused. Thematically, the music now also dictates a very specific tempo - each score is starting slow, adding up instruments and themes as it develops, and slowly fades into a regular ambiance, just enough to grab attention, but not too much to set expectations of heavy action. After all, there are many mornings in the course of one game, and one is not necessarily more special than any other.
There is of course also the main theme, which welcomes the player to the main menu. Here, we've let Adam have full creative freedom, to create an attention-grabbing tune, that is melodic and establishes a simple and memorable signature melody.
Inspirations
When creating the soundtrack, we also discussed the style and choice of instruments. While Lords and Villeins drives a lot of inspiration from history, we have always wanted to create our version of medieval times. One that is inspired by historic facts, but not bound to them when we want to prioritize aesthethics or gameplay. So our choice of instruments was rooted in history, but also not limited by it. In our art style, we have also taken a great deal of inspiration from old-school Zelda games and Stardew Valley. In the end, it made a lot of sense to look for similar inspirations also in our music. This led us to a selection of style and instruments, that is reminiscent of medieval tunes, but maintains the magical and mysterious feel of our inspirations. Since Adam incorporated these already into his own signature style, it seemed like a perfect fit to work together.
In the end, Adam created a wonderful soundtrack, one that we are very proud of and continue enjoying to this day!
Listen To It Anywhere!
If you share our enthusiasm and would like to enjoy the soundtrack even while not playing, we have great news! Not only you can buy it here on Steam and support the developers, it is now also available on Spotify and Bandcamp, where you can support Adam and his work directly!
The Customization Update Leaves Beta and Goes Live!
Greetings, Lords and Ladies,
We are happy to tell you that the patch you've been testing in beta branch has just gone public! That means the update has become a part of the main game and is available to everyone. Big thanks to our community who helped us by playing the update and shared your feedback. And thanks to also those who have been patiently waiting for the update.
If you wish to keep helping with the testing of Lords and Villeins and other games, feel free to join our Champions program if you have not done so yet! All you have to do is get in touch with Fulqrum Publishing by sending an e-mail to champions@fulqrumpublishing.com.
Here we are posting the updated change log so you can see what is getting updated on the main stage. And if you missed our article for our future plans, make sure to read it here!.
The Initial Change Log:
New Features
Ability to customize difficulty
Ability to customize map creation in various degrees of detail
Ability to customize starting families
Ability to store difficulty and map presets as templates
Added new mountain ore distribution presets
Added new tropical climate, with a warm climate all-year round!
Ability to prioritize blueprints
New "Islands" preset and tweaked existing presets
Added x8 speed (Speed IV)
Added new x32 speed that is available between 10PM and 6AM
Improvements
Refactoring of mouse hover tooltip elements to provide more unified experience
Consolidated UI of priority screen and accounting report with extra bells and whistles.
New construction queue view in the accounting report
New blueprint context menu after clicking on it
Harsh weather module has been converted to harsh weather climate setting
Redesign of the new game menu screen flow
Removal tools are now permanently visible in HUD. This option can be turned off in the settings.
Updated Unity version to LFS 2021.3.17f1
Replaced old UI switches with new ON/OFF switches
Population book now displays specific age with a tooltip about when adulthood and elderly age is reached
Implemented algorithm for dynamic loading of scrollview content. This will be later expanded on all UI screens to greatly improve their performance.
Bugfixes
Fixed multiple bugs with noble marriages
Fixed alchemy not making stamina potions
Fixed alchemist workshop recommending Oven instead of Blast Furnace
Fixed starting resources not being added to generated families
UI Screens are now capped to scale down to fit within screen height if the UI scaling extends beyond the screen border
Fixed number of broken hover effects
Fixed issue with updating UI scaler when screen resolution changes
Fixed issue with animated UI elements for resources not being positioned correctly when UI scaling is changed
Fixed issue with river and sea type not being recognized in created maps
Added mechanism for hover tooltips to be restricted by screen border and automatically reposition
Number of other minor bugfixes
Changes Made Thanks To Our Awesome Community Testers
Fixing incorrect prompt for blueprints saying the family does not have resources even when it does.
Updated algorithm for selecting blueprints for construction and implemented caching. This should slightly boost performance and make behavior more aligned with the priority number assigned to each blueprint.
Fixed the critical error causing frequent freezing
Fixed hover element in population book when changing equipment
Replaced old toggles with new labeled switches in the royalty report screen
Fixed a minor UI issues with a switch in zone context menu starting in on state when it was initialized in the off state
Fixed issue with prioritizing blueprints for construction when higher priority structure that has missing resources would block all other blueprints that are lower in queue but otherwise possible
Blueprint context menu no longer appears when the blueprints layer is not visible
Fixed issue with probability for old people to join clergy being sometimes set to 100% after a reload
Fixed issue with hover element in priority queue on Supply % if the blueprint had no cost
Fixed bug with favor point cost for requested custom families being deducted twice
Fixed bug with population book locking the game when "New Family" request window pops up while the population book is open
Updated algorithm for choosing spawn points and departure points at the edge of the map. The game will now prevent spawns of any animals and NPCs if there is no valid entry point, and the game will automatically update to the nearest clay-terrain type terrain if the original spawnpoints are blocked
Fixed a bug with time to execute task difficulty multiplier working invertedly
Fixed a crash in accounting report screen when a zone is updated in the background
The Beta Patch Receives An Update, Public Release Is Getting Closer
Greetings, Lords and Ladies,
As you may have noticed, we have a patch in the oven that's currently available for you to test just before we release it publicly. More details, including ways of how to join the testing, can be found by clicking this link.
Thanks to your participation and feedback, we have been able to locate and address some of the issues already, meaning the beta patch is getting updated right now. Below you can find all the things that we've done so far. Since the list of changes is substantial, we decided to extend the public beta for a few more days. If we don't identify any other major issues, we will be releasing the patch publicly and updating the main build of the game soon. We want to share extensive appreciation and love to everyone of you for participating in the beta. By playing the game and sharing feedback, you are helping us to improve and polish Lords and Villeins above and beyond.
We are extremely grateful for your help! Feel free to join the testing by following the link above and don't forget to join our Discord as well.
Change Log:
Fixing incorrect prompt for blueprints saying the family does not have resources even when it does.
Updated algorithm for selecting blueprints for construction and implemented caching. This should slightly boost performance and make behavior more aligned with the priority number assigned to each blueprint.
Fixed the critical error causing frequent freezing
Fixed hover element in population book when changing equipment
Replaced old toggles with new labeled switches in the royalty report screen
Fixed a minor UI issues with a switch in zone context menu starting in on state when it was initialized in the off state
Fixed issue with prioritizing blueprints for construction when higher priority structure that has missing resources would block all other blueprints that are lower in queue but otherwise possible
Blueprint context menu no longer appears when the blueprints layer is not visible
Fixed issue with probability for old people to join clergy being sometimes set to 100% after a reload
Fixed issue with hover element in priority queue on Supply % if the blueprint had no cost
Fixed bug with favor point cost for requested custom families being deducted twice
Fixed bug with population book locking the game when "New Family" request window pops up while the population book is open
Updated algorithm for choosing spawn points and departure points at the edge of the map. The game will now prevent spawns of any animals and NPCs if there is no valid entry point, and the game will automatically update to the nearest clay-terrain type terrain if the original spawnpoints are blocked
Fixed a bug with time to execute task difficulty multiplier working invertedly
Fixed a crash in accounting report screen when a zone is updated in the background
Roadmap For Upcoming Updates
Dear Lords and Ladies,
Recently, we have delivered in Public Beta our first post-release free update, aimed at the Customization of gameplay. But let's not stop there! Right now, we have two additional updates in the works for you, so let's look at what they are going to bring!
Update #2 - The Artisan Update
In this update, our main focus is on the nobles. In their initial design, we thought of them as another class of peasants with few extra privileges and perks. In reality, we were receiving feedback often mentioning that the nobles are not delivering on their expectation, as they don't impact the gameplay enough. We realized two things here - first that calling the noble professions "noble" was a poor choice of a name. Second that the expectation of nobles having an impact is a core part of the appeal of Lords and Villeins and we need to deliver something more significant here.
Introducing Artisans
On the surface, Artisans are simply a new name for what you grew to recognize in our game as nobles. All noble professions are now artisan professions, families that are capable of performing them are part of the artisan social class and just like nobles before, they come with increased demands on a standard of living and retain many of their freedoms, such as their ability to leave the settlement. Only a few things will be removed from them, those that should be exclusively reserved for those of true noble heritage. They include:
Chapel is no longer used by artisans. They share the church with everybody else
Tavern as a zone will be removed. Artisans will arrive through the inn, and wine and higher-quality meals will be served at the inn as well.
Donations to clergy no longer reflect noble families. The clergy simply expects the player to donate a calculated amount of valuables over a period of time, to maintain their relationship.
Artisans are visiting the church with everyone else, instead of the chapel.
Theater is now visited by everyone, including peasants.
Artisans now live in households much like peasants. Villa is no longer used to be occupied by artisans and will serve a different purpose.
Artisans can not be proposed to (see later why).
As part of the Artisan overhaul, we will also take a look at the alchemist, ropemaking, and glassmaking professions, to give them more use in the economy.
Nobles are gone, say hello to nobles
With the change to artisans, we believe the game will get more clarity on what the intended purpose of these professions is and how they should interact with the game. However, we don't want to just remove a bunch of content from the game to address your criticism. So we are also adding a new class of Nobles.
These new noble families are generated at the start of the game. You can see them in the population book, but they are not present on the map. In fact, they live in their own settlements, in their own manor, ruling over their own land and their growth is simulated by the game. The potential for diplomacy now grows!
Use a villa to build a guest house at your manor! Then invite a noble family to spend time there. They will visit your settlement, spend money buying expensive goods, consume your meals, and use the Chapel to participate in Sunday Mass. After two weeks they will leave, and improve their relationship with you as their express gratitude for your hospitality.
Having low relationships with nobles now may cause a loss of relationships with royals. When the relationship is low, there is a chance every day, that they will use their favor to damage your reputation with the royals!
When the relationship is high, the player can propose marriage to a member of a noble family. This game mechanic works in the same way as it did previously, but it is limited to the new type of Noble families instead.
New game mechanics of quests will cause noble families to give optional opportunities to deliver shipments of goods and material, to earn money, and royal favor, and improve their relationship.
Royal Tax Redesign
A common criticism of royal taxation was that it is not rewarding and too restrictive. Narratively, this setup made a lot of sense to us. Since the players are one to collect taxes from their peasants, it seems like a good fit that players themselves are taxed and expected to pay them to the royals. Not for an extra reward, but simply as a baseline expectation, since that's the rule of the society they immerse themselves in.
Over time however, this narrative element does not justify the restrictiveness of this challenge. The difficulty is also often unpredictable and either too easy or too hard to respond to. So we will be turning taxation into a more optional and reward-based system.
First, we will start calculating combat power for regiments. This is simply a combination of attack and defense properties of all soldiers in it, reflecting their equipment, age, stats, and training.
Second, the royal taxation will only demand a generic target - resources of the player's choosing, which add up to a certain market value, and regiments composed of any kind of soldiers, that add up to a certain combat power.
And lastly, much like nobles, royals will introduce their own quests - optional deliveries of specific resources and material, for an additional bonus favor.
Both taxes and quests can be sent away as deliveries at any time during the year, and as long as the target values have been delivered within the year, the taxes are considered successful.
New Ways To Control The Economy
We will also improve your ability to control the economy. This is a collection of tools and quality of life improvements, that should give you more control over the flow of goods and correct behavior of your villagers.
Adjust demand generated by families for the material they need to produce goods (i.e. manage their material reserves)
Limit stock of resources which triggers villagers to sell excess goods, with an option to stop producing excess goods if they reach the threshold.
Manage cooking strategies for families (i.e. limit used ingredients and stock targets).
Enact embargo on caravan resources to prevent caravans from buying or villagers from purchasing that specific resource from caravans.
Force families to produce an unprofitable resource.
Enact policy to prevent Inns to sell beds and meals to local villagers.
General Improvements
And finally, we will finalize a small number of performance optimizations and quality-of-life UI upgrades, as promised in our previous articles:
The prioritization UI will be redesigned to visualize its impact in better ways.
Add information in the animal limitations UI to communicate values about breeding strategies.
Allow copy and paste of storing priorities between different zones.
Intelligence Reports will be updated to provide more guidance on how to solve the issues.
New "color drop" tool (also switchable with key bind), that will let you select the object for construction by clicking on it on the map.
Accounting finance page will also list quantities sold and purchased.
Update #3 - Campaign Mode
In this update, we will focus on redesigning the tutorial experience. Common criticism stems from its length and that it only explains features on the surface - it tells players where to click, with very little explanation on when and how these tools should be utilized best. To cover these topics in the tutorial, we would only end up making it longer, so we decided on a new approach - a campaign mode.
In this campaign mode, we will take you through a set of designed scenarios. Each with a defined starting point, focusing on a new system or game module in bigger detail. As a baseline, this only breaks down the existing tutorial into multiple chapters, that you can play through. We will also incorporate small elements of storytelling, and add new challenges and quests, that aim to make the introduction and learning of the game even more friendly.
This campaign mode can be further expanded in the future, with challenge maps or even community mods!
That's it for the updates we have currently planned for the near future. We do not have any specific release dates ready to share at this moment, but they are fully prioritized by our team. And that's not all! We will continue working on Lords and Villeins even beyond these updates, and reveal more of our plans later when we are ready to announce them.
Thank you for supporting us throughout our journey and continuously enjoying our game, sharing your feedback, and allowing us to keep making Lords and Villeins better. We appreciate every one of you! If you want to support our work further, please share your excitement with your friends, and help our community to grow - even just leaving a review here on Steam helps a lot!
If you would like to help us more and in turn get a very early look on our future updates, consider joining the Champions program with Fulqrum Publishing. You would be among the very first people to get to test future Lords and Villeins updates as well as other games from our publisher if you'd like, and impact their development much more with your early feedback. Just send an e-mail to champions@fulqrumpublishing.com to find out more.
