As part of our Early Access roadmap, our latest update is available now!
We also wanted to say a special thank you to the Thrive community in our Discord who have taken the time to be a part of our save and load build testing this week, and to everyone for your support throughout Early Access so far. Your time, and feedback has been truly invaluable in helping us bring our vision for the game to life.
Now is the perfect time for you and your friends to jump in and defend Nysamor together, and experience the quality of life improvements in Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown!
Added:
Hired militia units for early-game defense
Citizen revolts
Optimizations to the Save/Load system to reduce time taken for each action
Ability to hover on town to display town name
New road rendering system for better performance
Notification when the merchant arrives in town
Notification for when a player creates a trade route with a different team in multiplayer mode
Fixed:
The defeat screen allowing players to go back to main menu and can no longer continue the game
How happiness items are displayed in the UI
Edicts not activating correctly when loading a save
Missing translations for ‘progress’ text during construction of buildings
Benevolent Quarry graphics
Progress text on Construction module when translated
Units now face the proper direction when rioting, spread out more and move more as a group
Removed unreachable resources from territory borders so villagers can farm those resources.
Baked overworld road pathfinding to have more consistent shorter paths
Translations on Onboarding ‘One Off’ Item displays
Translations on Caravans ToolTip
Texture issues with the building ground decals
Improvements to overworld road pathfinding
Building loading system
Deleting Bridges not updating navigation map
Military unit names not appearing in tooltip on multi military unit UI
Military hotkey UI to show the proper hotkeys
Localisation of narrative event rewards
Localisation of secondary onboarding objective titles (such as the ones triggered by fires and disease)
Missing information from Bevevolent/Tyrannical classes in stats panel
Issues with Tome of Knowledge and Stats panel extending off-screen in 16:10 aspect ratio
Bug where a storage would display a negative amount
Caravan farmers no longer stuck at loading 9/10
'Caravans' info panel no longer fails to localize in any language in the 'Resource bar' in the top left UI
Cinematic Audio settings
Resource flag AOI and highlights
Z & X keys overriding modified squad controls
Onboarding objective display cut off in 16:10 aspect ratio
Caravan hot key buttons
Crash when host crashes/leaves and a client saves
Win/loss display, and scoreboard
Switching language from Chinese to English leaves blank boxes for revolt warning
Caravan or Military Hotkeys
'Ctrl+C' not functioning in-game correctly to deploy the 'Caravan'
Z & X Hotkeys Conflicting with each other
Dead units remaining as icons in Barracks
Thralls not using happiness goods
Issue when camera pans over mountains above the cloud height locking the camera above the clouds
Military units no longer get stuck in the center of the map
Revolts and Riots
If the Happiness level of a class of citizens is below a certain threshold for an extended period of time and they do not emigrate or die, the people will find ways to make their voices heard. If 20 or more individuals of the same class are discontent there is now a chance that they may begin to Revolt and eventually Riot.
Revolt Penalties (per citizen class) default: under 45 happiness
25% Penalty on Provincial Tax Income (cumulative, per-class)
Associated jobs of that citizen class are ‘Locked’ (citizen cannot be fired)
Locked job slots suffer a 50% Production penalty
Riot Penalties default: under 30 happiness All Revolt penalties plus:
Citizens of that class will take to the streets in a large crowd, yelling and waving torches and pitchforks
They will start outside the keep or a random building if there is no keep. After a short gathering period they will move on to start targeting specific buildings
There will be a chance to set targeted buildings on fire. Mainly production buildings and buildings of higher classes.
Thralls have a chance to spawn aggressive units(grimrot) that will attack structures.
Stopping a Revolt To stop a Revolt, the player can complete an event, or raise happiness back up to safe levels through the provision of Needs, structures, and other means. Once the Needs have been met, the raging population will be satisfied and life returns to normal.
Thrall Rebellions Unlike the other classes, the Thrall class under the heel of a Tyrant are ready and willing to resort to extreme violence to regain their freedom. When this class ends up in a Revolt they will begin to spawn hostile units that will attack structures, as well as your own military units. The only way to quell these groups is through direct force and fulfilling their needs.
Hired Militia
Before a player gains access to more reliable combat units, they have no way to protect themselves in the event of an attack. To tackle this problem, players are now able to temporarily hire citizens into a militia, aimed at dealing with the incursion.
Units will be hired through the keep in groups of “10” except for the scout as an individual. With a limit of 3 contracts out at time. There will be a 1 day delay in re-upping a contract if one is cancelled. Contracts will cost “x” amount of gold initially and will have a continuous fee per day to be active. If you run out of money and can't pay the contracts are cancelled. If units within the “10” die but not the entirety of the group then they will respawn slowly over time. If the group is wiped out completely the contract is cancelled. These units do not require food to sustain life.
Militia Unit Types
Militia Bowman (Sling or Bow) Capable of weak ranged attacks. They have a slightly lower range than a Bowman, and inflict a paltry amount of damage in comparison. Militia Spearman (Spear/Pitchfork) The standard rank-and-file militia, these fighters lack much of the punch of a higher quality spearmen, but should be able to at least hold off attackers for a brief time. Scout (Knife) The weakest overall combat unit, the Scout has a simple purpose: Move faster than anyone else, locate potential threats, and get back to safety. See below. The Scout The weakest overall combat unit, the Scout has a simple purpose: Move faster than anyone else, locate potential threats, and get back to safety.
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We will have more to share in the very near future, so stay tuned for exciting updates. You do not want to miss out! Now is your time. This is your land. Long may you reign, and long may you thrive.
Chat with us on Discord about your own journey as you play through the campaign! If you’d like to stay updated with all future developments, be sure to follow us on:
To learn more about Zugalu Entertainment, please visit its official website
Steam Winter Sale - 25% Off Now
Greetings rulers - and any travellers passing by that plan to visit the kingdoms of Nysamor!
For a limited time only, you can purchase Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown at 25% off in the Steam Winter Sale now until January 2nd 2025.
Immerse yourself in the lore behind Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown which is rich and full of mystery. The characters, the provinces and world bring depth into our medieval city builder, where every decision you make defines the rule of your kingdom. There is no wrong path, only your path, your rule.
Does a Benevolent leadership of goodwill, hope and prosperity call to you? Or perhaps as a Tyrannical ruler you’ll take pleasure in exploitation and torture. Will you rule alone, or with up to four friends?
Plus, if you’re looking for players to join a Co-Op or PvP game, join our Discord community and post in our LFG channels.
If you’d like to stay updated with all future developments, be sure to follow us on: Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown Website - Official Website X/Twitter - Follow us @thrivehltc Facebook - Like Our Facebook Page YouTube - Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel Find out more about PlaySide Publishing on its official website. To learn more about Zugalu Entertainment, please visit its official website.
December Update - Available Now!
Greetings fair Nysians,
From our entire team, we wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season! The year isn’t quite over yet - so we’re releasing a update packed with significant quality of life improvements, bug fixes and enhancements to Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown.
In your feedback across our Discord and Steam forums, you requested for us to add Edge Scrolling, to span across your provinces with ease. We're excited to confirm this is now available, as well as a complete rework of our vegetation system! Here are the details of everything we’ve released as part of our December update:
Added:
Edge Scrolling - Found in the setting and off by defaut
Vegetation System improvements (see comprehensive breakdown below)
Fixed:
Fixed hunters lodge workers trying to hunt outside their territory
Updated tutorial steps for a better experience
Fixed Wyramxa outpost units not targeting player units
Fixed military unit patrol order
Fixed issue with caravans bunching up or setting stuck in towns blocking trade routes
Updated battle report after destroying towns and outposts to be clearer
Fixed bug with wells that stop water production after being rebuilt
Changed:
Optimized unit pathfinding and terrain detection
Added estimated completion time to building production UI
Updated camera far clip plane to be based off zoom height
Optimized save data
Updated lighting systems
Vegetation System Overview As the ruler of Nysamor, your duty is to take care of your people. Each province within the kingdom has slightly different resource availability, but regardless of the type of leadership you choose to lead your civilians, providing them with access to the proper resources, open grassland and plains to ensure flat buildable land is ideal for agriculture that will sustain everyone.
Current New
Our team has been hard at work overhauling the vegetation within each of the biomes, and we're excited to highlight the significant improvements and enhancements that this change has had on game performance, frame rate, lighting, and visuals of Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown:
Improved Gameplay Performance
Smoother gameplay with most PCs seeing a 10-30% improvement in FPS over the old system, representing a notable percentage increase in performance.
Increased Grass and Vegetation Density
Significantly increased the density of grass and vegetation, enhancing visuals without impacting performance on both low- and high-end systems.
Road Building Enhancements
Roads now automatically remove grass when being built, improving the overall appearance and functionality.
Enhanced Lighting Effects
This update includes visual improvements to lighting for a more polished look.
Optimized Rendering Performance at 4K
Rendering performance is significantly improved, ensuring smoother visuals at higher resolutions.
Improved Vegetation Rendering
New vegetation assets have streamlined rendering code, paving the way for easier future improvements.
Ultra Shadows Upgrade
Ultra shadow settings now use 4K shadows, resulting in much cleaner and more detailed shadow rendering.
Better Visuals on Low-End PCs
Low-end PCs using lower graphics quality settings retain more visual fidelity, minimizing the trade-off between performance and quality.
Current New
Now is your time. This is your land. Your kingdom. Your war to win. Long may you reign, and long may you thrive.
Chat with us on Discord about your own journey as you play through the campaign! If you’d like to stay updated with all future developments, be sure to follow us on:
To learn more about Zugalu Entertainment, please visit its official website
Launch Roadmap Reveal
Greetings! We’ve loved seeing you all playing and taking over the world of Nysamor throughout our first month of Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown’s Early Access. As we continue to support the game post launch, we’ve crafted a development roadmap to guide you through what lies ahead.
Your feedback, suggestions and bug reports have been invaluable since we launched, and have helped us shape our plans on the road to full launch in just a few months’ time! We wanted to begin by expressing how grateful we are for your commitment to ensure your kingdom’s survival. The team has worked tirelessly to deliver the best possible experience in Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown and there is plenty to look forward to!
This week, our December update includes the ability to use edge scrolling to span across your provinces with ease - a highly requested feature from the community, and much more.
Amongst the list above, we’re most excited to deliver some major beats in the new year:
February:
Influence System
A new feature that limits the amount of provinces, alliances and military units from the start of a new game. This acts like a currency that is spent to acquire more of these items; but once they’re lost and destroyed, the currency returns. When a new game is started, you’ll begin the game with a small amount of influence, which scales with your province's population or upgrade level of your Keep. You’ll never lose influence bonuses even if your population decreases.
Militia
Before a player gains access to more reliable combat units, they have no way to protect themselves in the event of an attack. To tackle this problem, players should be able to temporarily hire citizens into a militia, aimed at dealing with the incursion. New unit types will include:
Bowman (sling or arrow)
Spearman (spear or pitchfork)
Scout (knife)
Riots
If the Happiness level of a class of citizens is below a certain threshold for an extended period of time and they do not emigrate or die, the people will find ways to make their voices heard. Immediately after a Revolt begins, citizens of that class will take to the streets in a large crowd, yelling and waving torches and pitchforks. Property damage and penalties on Provincial Tax Income can occur!
Decorative Buildings
Including the ability for players to decorate their cities in a unique way, regardless of what level you’re at - neutral, Benevolent or Tyrannical. Giving your structures a new look also combats pollution and improves the beautification of the province, which impacts civilian happiness and the bonus output of the structures themselves.
April:
Improved Wyrmaxa
Wyrmaxia are the hostile, antagonistic communities of Nysamor that want you off their land and focus on destroying your town. We’ve made tweaks to the intelligence of the patrols, attacks and defences during battle that will improve the combat with each encounter.
Wall Functionality
With every wall you place to defend your province in battle, you’ll be able to move them with ease, plus you’ll see an improved destruction animation each time the enemy damages them.
These releases are only a part of what's to come - alongside them, we’ll continuously work on hotfixes and improvements to the game. This is a journey we embarked on together and we couldn't have asked for better rulers to lead us to prosperity. From all of us, thank you for your ongoing support!
Trust your instincts, and there’s no doubt that you’ll Thrive.
If you’d like to stay updated with all future developments, be sure to follow us on:
Find out more about PlaySide Publishing on its official website.
To learn more about Zugalu Entertainment, please visit its official website.
General Fixes & Trade Route Improvements
Greetings fellow Nysians,
Patch 0.1.0181e is here! Thank you for your patience as we continue to work through our list of community reported bugs and issues. Here is all you need to know about our latest patch, available now:
Bug Fixes
Trade routes no longer lock resource slots when making changes to trade routes.
Resolved the potential of the fog of war appearing when loading autosaves
Building Texture updated
Roads now load correctly after becoming Benevolent or Tyrannical
Trade routes no longer disappear
Fixes to Caravans sometimes not deploying correctly
Adderbeast now despawns correctly
Fixed possible tutorial softlock during game saving or loading
Fixed possible crash during game loading (occurred while ALT-tabbing).
How to install a Patch on Steam: Click on Library to see your games list Click Downloads at the bottom of the Library window If the new build does not download automatically, click the Download Now button to manually download the new update.
For any players experiencing issues please keep in touch with us on Discord with as much detail as you can - whether reporting bugs, issues, or sharing your thoughts with our team that will help us to shape the future of Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown: https://discord.com/invite/thrivehltc
New Patch To Optimize Save Systems
Greetings fellow Nysians,
Patch 0.1.0181 is here! Since we launched two weeks ago, our focus has remained on responding to audience feedback on balance, optimization, performance and most importantly, resolving issues with some players save game files disappearing. We’re continuing our efforts to provide regular patches/hotfixes for the issues you’re reporting and soon, we’ll be sharing our plans for our future roadmap. The team could not be more excited for what’s ahead, and as always thank you for your ongoing support for Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown!
Bug Fixes Save Systems Optimization & Fixes Balanced Building Overlap Negative Effects Well and Farm Production Changes & Production Fix Balance Update for Wheat Farms, Pig Ranch, Outfitter & Lumberyard Fix for Archers Being Invisible Forrester Hut Balance for More Efficient Planting & Harvesting Adjusted AOI Range for Logger Camp, Quarrier, & Miner Camp for Increased Efficiency Happiness Level Balancing for Late Game Housing Fix for Thrall Building Production & Efficiency Slowed Fire Spread NPC Town Trading Unlocked at Beginning of Play Curator Unlock Requirements Adjusted
How to install a Patch on Steam: Click on Library to see your games list Click Downloads at the bottom of the Library window If the new build does not download automatically, click the Download Now button to manually download the new update.
Keep an eye out for what’s in store as the game evolves with each update, bringing even more depth and enjoyment to our players.
For any players still experiencing issues please keep in touch with us on the Steam Discussions board or in Discord - whether reporting bugs, issues, or sharing your thoughts with our team that will help us to shape the future of Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown: https://discord.com/invite/thrivehltc
Save File Fix
Greetings, Nysians!
We have released a new update today that changes the ways save files are made.
The focus is fixing the issues people are having with singleplayer saves, as well as improving multiplayer’s save functionality.
When you now start a new game, you will be asked right away to name your save file at the province select screen, resulting in a save file being created as soon as you load into your chosen province. This new method of saving should prevent new save files from disappearing. We have also turned autosaving back on and these will be nested under newly created saves.
Thank you so much for your patience while we worked to solve these issues. Our dedicated team is continuing to work on other bugs and issues you have reported and we should have more news to share in the coming weeks.
Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown - Update on Autosaves
Greetings fellow Nysians,
Thanks for your ongoing support to help us diagnose the issues around the autosave bugs experienced by some players. It is greatly appreciated.
Today, we’ve rolled out a patch that disables autosaves for all players and another fix to potentially resolve disappearing saves. This is our highest priority and we continue to work on a permanent solution to resolve these issues.
We’re expecting to release a patch with a permanent solution in the coming days, and advise players to manually save their progress when they begin playing and before exiting the game in the meantime.
For affected players, any detail you can share with us on Discord would be much appreciated. Please note that lost saved data may not be possible to restore.
Keep in touch with us on the Steam Discussions board or in Discord - whether reporting bugs, issues, or sharing your thoughts with our team that will help us to share the future of Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown: https://discord.com/invite/thrivehltc
Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown - Our opening weekend of Early Access
Greetings fellow Nysians,
Thank you so much to everyone for taking the time to jump into Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown during our first few days in Early Access.
Watching players explore the land of Nysamor over the last few days has been incredible. Seeing our community grow, and those who have been here for a while sharing their journeys has been a truly humbling experience for all of us here on the Thrive team.
The feedback from the community has helped us to identify several issues affecting some players. Specifically, over the first few days of Early Access we’ve noticed save files becoming corrupted for some players. This is not something we’d picked up in internal testing ahead of our release, and has been very difficult to replicate and resolve.
The entire development team has been working tirelessly to identify the cause, and are in the process of working on fixes to address these issues. We’re expecting to release a patch in the coming days, and would like to advise players to manually save their progress when they begin playing and before exiting the game in the meantime.
For affected players, any detail you can share with us on Discord would be much appreciated. Please note that lost saved data may not be possible to restore.
We’re committed to improve the Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown experience for all of our players. Early Access is just the start of our journey, with lots of new content and improvements planned over the coming weeks and months that we can’t wait to share!
Your feedback is invaluable - whether reporting bugs, issues, or sharing your thoughts with our team that will help us to share the future of Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown: https://discord.com/invite/thrivehltc
Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown - Hotfix #1
Greetings fellow Nysians,
Thank you so much for your support of the Early Access launch for Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown. Though it has only been one day, we have been hard at work reading your feedback and working on bug fixes.
Below you can find the patch notes for our very first hotfix, which we have pushed out to all players. Simply jump into Steam to update your game, after which you should notice the build number “0.1.0179” on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Please let us know if you have any questions or other feedback!
Resolved issues with both disappearing saves and also resuming older saves
Path-finding around long obstacles
Fixes for wooden gates not properly blocking off edge tiles
Fixes for workers animation running in place
Added fail safe for houses requesting refill if it's below half, or less than, the current amount of occupants
Fixed issues with top HUD resources showing duplicates or changing based on other players' selection
Fixed fishing dock placement
Fixed loading revolt icons
To report a bug or provide feedback on the latest build, join our Discord community here: https://discord.com/invite/thrivehltc