Hello everyone and welcome back to Devlog’s! Today we present you with Devlog #17 and news from the team. We know it’s been a while since the last Devlog but now is a perfect time to update you all on the current progress of upcoming updates and what we have been working on.

First, we would like to take a moment to thank everyone for their feedback on the recent updates. There have been a lot of changes to the game which we have been happy to see very positive feedback for. We are aware of some needed quality of life (QOL) improvements highlighted by the community, such as the sub-building flow which we are working on improving for the next update. Please do keep your feedback coming as it helps us improve the game as we continue development.

Fall Plan

With the now expanded team we are working on multiple updates concurrently. These are namely the upcoming 1.9.6 update which focuses on Housing Desirability & Beautification, the new Safety system and the Kingdom update. Let’s take a closer look at what we have been working on…

Upcoming update 1.9.6 (Desirability & Beautification)

Though not a major update, calling it a minor update doesn’t do it justice. Update 1.9.6 brings some significant changes that will pave the way for the Kingdom update. More on the Kingdom update in a moment.

This update will bring a change to the Desirability system. Where currently houses will be allowed to upgrade if a housing area is desirable enough based on a single factor, with the new system houses now have different requirements in order to upgrade to the next tier. Essentially, Beautification will be an additional and separate factor when it comes to housing upgrades.

With the new system, houses will only upgrade from low to medium quality if all of the following criteria are met:

• Desirable neighborhood – Build away from undesirable buildings
• Beautification – Build within a Beautification area
• At least one villager of Commoner status or higher looking for medium-quality housing

Note: Removing a house requirement will eventually result in the house being downgraded or its occupant moving away.

These changes will allow you to have better control over where you wish housing to upgrade as well as potentially downgrade housing.

Desirable Neighborhoods

Houses need to be built in pleasant neighborhoods, away from noise, bad smells and grime and hence undesirable environments. Some buildings will now have a clearly defined undesirable area based on the building’s footprint. These will include buildings such as the Lumber Camp, Sawmill, Gold Smelter and all types of Quarries. Medium-quality housing needs to be outside of this undesirable area.

Beautification

Beautification is now becoming a Desirability factor in its own right. For houses to upgrade they must be in an area of Beautification, i.e. within a clearly defined Beautification area created by decorations or buildings that provide Beautification.

The range of the Beautification area will be based on a decoration’s Beautification value combined with its footprint. The overall Beautification area will increase if placed next to another similar area.

Information Layers

In order to accommodate the above changes we will be updating the visibility layers.

• The Housing Desirability layer will now show residential areas, undesirable areas as well as any medium-quality housing areas.
• A new Beautification layer will show Beautification areas, items supplying Beautification and housing affected by Beautification.

Other Improvements

Update 1.9.6 will also come with more QOL improvements to the game as a whole including an improved Monument experience with improved sub-building flow and a new dedicated Monument tab in the Build menu, and more. You can check out the full changelog on release.

The 1.9.6 update is very close to an experimental deployment, so keep an eye out for further announcements if you would like to try it out before its full public release on the main branch.

Also In The Pipeline…

As mentioned earlier, we are working on multiple updates concurrently, so what else is in the pipeline?

Safety System

The Safety system will be a new way to control Housing Density via Patrols and Fortifications. The system itself requires a number of changes to integrate it into the game and work is progressing well. We will bring you more news on this in a future communication.

Walls

The current system for walls has always been a temporary measure and we are now working on incorporating walls into the construction flow. Walls will be integrated into Monuments with their own construction costs and visual building steps.

Kingdom Update

The Kingdom update is also being worked on and it is going to be huge! We won’t go into too much detail here but progress on this update is now well under way. The new Castle Monument is under construction (hype!) as well as a new system to create Companies and Battalions to send your Army off to war. Stay tuned for more news but we will leave you with this teaser…

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