Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

[Funposter]

You're also dismissing the potential for modding to be used as a springboard into game dev, which is a well-documented practice. Not just in terms of game design or whatever, but also the people creating art assets such as 3D models and textures, scoring music or creating sound effects and even writing when it comes to creating quest mods for something like Skyrim.

It also gives you something for your portfolio, yeah. In my experience of working in IT, unless you're trying to get hired by a big corp, your portfolio matters hell of a lot more than having a degree or whatever. If you're newcomer to the industry and just send your CV, the first thing they're gonna ask you at the interview will be "So, what can you do? And can you show it to us?". Ideally, you'd send a showcase from your portfolio together with your CV, and assets you made for a game mod certainly qualify. In fact, if you're going for a job in game dev, they're probably the best thing you could possibly send, as it means you can not only model shit, but are also used to working with programmers who have certain requirements of you (usually with sockets on the model) for them to be able to actually put it into the game.

A portfolio is absolutely the only thing that anyone in gamedev gives a shit about. They need to know what you can do and whether or not you can meet deadlines. The only time that having a qualification really matters is if you're going to emigrate to the US to work for a company there, and not because the company cares, but because Immigration Services are more likely to approve your VISA if you have a qualification.

 

[puur prutswerk]

Even if you don't abuse smithing it's very easy to amass millions just by fighting wars. Typically in early game I'll do the trading thing for awhile and supplement that income with some quests and selling prisoners, that's enough to get you started and you'll be racking up gold in no time at all. You can start buying and selling trade goods from day 1 and easily make thousands and thousands of gold before you even do anything else. It's worth getting trade to 25 for the first perk that marks anything you can sell for profit with green numbers, that way you don't even have to think about it, if you see green, sell. You can still smith without abusing any exploits to make decent profit as well. Once you've chosen a faction to side with just get your workshops set up and start rolling over enemy armies, you'll have more gold than you know what to do with if you just play organically. I never really bother with caravans since they seem to just get destroyed the second a war breaks out, but I've heard letting a companion with decent tactics/scouting skill can help mitigate this. But for me it always gets to a point where I have so much spare cash that I couldn't give less of a shit about losing a workshop or caravan. Winning larger battles can easily get you 50k+ worth of loot to sell.

In my current game I wanted to try a mostly cav army, and I'm running around with like 70 cataphracts and 600k gold saved up and I haven't used any exploits, just playing the game normally. So even if I somehow lose all my fiefs I've got more than enough of a safety net to not have to worry about anything. It's basically impossible to not get rich unless you just lose every battle.

That said, sometimes it's more enjoyable to just craft a few 2h swords and start going to war, if you want to skip all the bullshit and just start conquering the heathens.

I want a net daily profit though. I lose about 4-5k to mostly garrison wages every day and that makes me anxious. I would need about 7 million to not be anxious about losses like that and while that is attainable with smiting and war it is a chore.

It just seems that currently there is no way in the game to generate enough passive income to feel comfy with your armies.

Or do you know how I can get these numbers up?

Spoiler

I had about 400k when I started playing today.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

had about 400k when I started playing today

Found your problem, next time start with 80k.

 

[Zariusz]

 

[deuxhero]

1.7.2 is now main. No new beta patch yet.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

1.7.2 is now main. No new beta patch yet.

Is there at least any rumor about what's supposed to be introduced in a next patch?

 

[deuxhero]

Aside from bug fixes and maybe coinciding with the earlier announced private servers? Not that I know of.

 

[Fedora Master]

1.7.2 is now main. No new beta patch yet.

 

[deuxhero]

Waiting for mod updates, but 1.7.2 Beta was reportedly a lot more optimized. That's significant

 

[Konjad]

Waiting for mod updates, but 1.7.2 Beta was reportedly a lot more optimized. That's significant

lmao.The new patch really fucked the game. Now it stutters like crazy in mp when there are many players on the server (and it's not GPU issue, setting everything on low does not change it at all). It's the same for many players. I have only 1060, but those with 3080 and new CPUs complain about it just the same (on low settings!).

They say (I didn't test) that SP is broken as well. All good and fun with 100+ FPS, but once more than a hundred NPCs start engaging each other then it's <10 FPS.

Also since 1.7.1 were new battle mode and maps in MP. Guess what, 1.7.2 broke it completely, all servers in this mode are frozen on the loading map forever.

Plenty of people on the steam forum say they can't start the game at all, SP or MP.


Just so you know it's not a joke... here are some examples
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247563108375
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247565030540/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247562473556/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247567165039/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247566697317/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247562707693/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247566702688/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247564918596/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/261550/discussions/17/3389534247565356160/
and so on...

The game is completely broken now. It stutters so much it's basically unplayable. No GPU driver update, OS update or playing with settings would help. I uninstalled it.

 

[Zanzoken]

It would probably be for the best if Taleworlds just stopped working on the game. Then modders could fix everything and implement all the stuff it should've had without worrying about new patches that break it all.

 

[Fedora Master]

Warriors of Calradia,

It is time to share another update on some of our current singleplayer related works with you.

Stability and performance will continue to be a top priority for us. Beyond that, you will find a number of our other efforts listed below. Please note that this includes both broad and specific, as well as, shorter and longer term items.

Near Hearth & Home

Cutscenes
Cutscenes or “Scene Notifications” were first teased in our future plans’ post. Since then we have created a number of these animations for different story and world events to add more weight to them. They presented a multi-disciplinary challenge (to Design, UI, Art & Animation, Engine, Campaign Gameplay, Audio and QA), but we are quite happy with how they have turned out so far.

Scenes
Over the course of development our focus shifted away from smaller locations and more towards ensuring greater variety and quality in core gameplay areas. As such, we have been working hard on creating the remaining town scenes, which will offer new siege challenges, as well as additional battle terrains to cover further regions of interest. Naturally, we also continue to improve our existing scenes.
As this concerns a particularly large body of work, it won’t all drop at once but there will be continuous updates.

Sieges
Sieges represent one of our most complex gameplay experiences and we continue to polish the many pieces that make up this puzzle. To give a recent example, we overhauled the way that both AI attackers and defenders use troop transfers (between formations) in sieges. This was done to reduce transfers at inconvenient times, in quick succession or with poor overall oversight, which could lead to large numbers of soldiers being transferred from opposite sites unnecessarily.

Battles
While combat is certainly one of the game’s strong points, there are always things to be improved upon - and one of them is the way in which reinforcements enter the battlefield. Specifically, we have been working on means to prevent cases of “spawn camping” and troops suddenly appearing in the middle of an active fight.

Armor Effectiveness
This has been a topic of passionate discussion and we are happy to let you know that we are close to releasing an adjustment aimed at making armor more effective. This will not adopt the warband system, but it will go towards stronger protection.

Main Hero Battle Death
Given all the extra armor, it may be time to raise the stakes.

Spoiler
Yes, it's optional.

Combat Mechanic Improvements
We have gone over the combat mechanics for knock down, dismounting and push back and removed the random factor to allow for a more reliable and predictable experience for players. Among other things, we also introduced a new resistance variable that is derived from character skills. This allows us to make some troops and heroes less vulnerable to these mechanics and will allow players to develop their characters to become less vulnerable as well.

Army AI Improvements
In recent months, we spent quite a bit of time reviewing, adjusting and testing the army AI. In essence, we set out to address the following items:
Less Patrolling, More Sieging
Less Starving, More Sieging
Less Recruiting, More Sieging
Better Cohesion Management, More Sieging
Other trickery to the same end
We also don’t like peacetime armies.

“Party Templates”
The idea of parties that reflect their leader’s preferences has gone through some iterations since we originally shared it. Nonetheless, we still intend to pursue the approach that weighs recruitment and upgrading according to this preference. The initial, releasable implementation is close to completion and we hope to soon evaluate it further based on player feedback.

Disorganized State
We have gone over the conditions and effects of the disorganized state, which temporarily weakens parties and armies after a recent challenge, to make it more meaningful and consistent.

Item variety
What's a warrior without their weapon? In an effort to increase the general variety of equipment, we have been working on a number of new crafting pieces as well as making some of the existing pieces available across additional weapon types.

Crafting Unlock Overhaul
With this broader pool of crafting pieces, we also had another look at how crafting works. We don’t really like that all crafting pieces are unlocked from the same source. Instead, we want to provide more of a sense of specialization. Thus, future smiths will, for example, need to craft axes to unlock axe pieces.

Simulation Health

Economy
While this has always been a point of importance to us, we set out to review and address two issues in particular in recent months. For one, some items were too profitable in general while others didn’t have enough regional price distinction. This made trade much less engaging than we would like it to be. Similarly, due to the same market dynamics, workshops were suffering as well. If you bought the right one, there was little reason to engage with it again and more often than not “the right one” came down to the same small set of options. The changes we made to supply and demand have had promising results so far.

Recruit balance
Calradians have seemingly always been happy to join a good fight. However, recruits are not just plentiful but oftentimes overly powerful. This has been raised in the community before and we also recognize it as an issue and have made according adjustments to the way notables develop their troops.

AI Prisoner Management
It is not just recruits that are plentiful but also prisoners. So much so that calradian dungeons would overflow as time passed. We have been looking into a solution for this and will likely share it with you soon.

Child generation
Despite our previous adjustments to the adult population, there was still a problem with an initial generational gap. To address this, we will likely generate additional children with different ages at the start of the game for any clans that fall under a given member limit. As an extra, this should also make such clans more viable.

Character Respeccing
With the multitude of perks that the game offers, it can be difficult to find the character setup that is just right for you. Fortunately, it will soon no longer be required to wait for your heir to take over or to start a new game to try out another character build. Instead, you will be able to change the perks of your characters and clan members as you play.

Skill experience gains
Character development is an important aspect of the game that follows the principle of learning by doing. While this generally works, we feel that some skills don’t yet offer an adequate progression. Fortunately, the aforementioned economy changes should help with trade. Additionally, we have also been working on more tailored adjustments for all combat skills, leadership, roguery and engineering. We look forward to your feedback on this.

Immersion & Quality of Life
There are many adjustments that relate to this category in some way. Below you will find a few of the ones we thought interesting.

Additional AI Offers
We were quite happy with the reception and impact of AI ransom and peace offers to the player. These new notifications make the world feel more alive and we want to build upon them. For this purpose, we are exploring marriage, mercenary and vassalage offers.

Encyclopedia Information
The all knowing encyclopedia is not just a challenge to immersion, but also inconsistent with our scouting mechanic. To address this, we are working on similar limitations to the encyclopedia that will create a form of “Fog of War ” for those that are outside the reach of the player or their agents.

Party Management Options
Clan members can, at times, be a hassle to track down and manage. To address this, we have been exploring new options to send, recall and exchange them.

Civilian Scenes
Our towns and castles have a range of NPC characters that can partake in numerous activities to give the location life. However, castles, in particular, were still a bit underpopulated. This should be improved in future versions of the game as we increased the population and their use of animation points in a number of settlements.
World Map & Associated Visuals
Much like scenes, the world map can make or break immersion. We therefore decided to allocate some time towards resolving issues with party teleporting, floating and rotating among a number of other tweaks. Of course, we also always continue to polish the actual map.

Audio

Improved UI sounds
We added new sounds all around the UI and revised some existing ones for coherence. To provide an example, you will now be able to hear audio feedback when a persuasion attempt goes awry or pleasant.

Horse sound revisions
As a constant request, we have been working on improving the audibility of approaching horses and fixed some bugs in the occlusion system that prevented some sounds from being played. This is an ongoing work, and more improvements will arrive as time passes.
We improved horse physics sounds to make it more impactful when they die.

Ambient upgrades
Quad ambiences were another topic in our future plans post. They are a great means to make scenes sound more believable and our work on them is ongoing. A few of the ambients have been updated to Quads, and we fixed some crucial spatialization bugs while we were at it.

Localization
The localization effort also continues. Even though we have now released translations for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish (Latin American) and Russian that does not mean that we are at the end of their journey. We greatly appreciate all the feedback that we have received on this front and are working with our partners to process it. We are also happy to say that German is close to being shared as well.


A ways ahead

As the attentive reader will surely have noticed, there are some topics that we haven’t covered yet. In our future plans, we spoke about Banner Bearers, Claimant Quests, Sally Outs and Vocalization. These are all areas that we are still pursuing, but they will require some time yet. Once we have made more progress on them and other topics, we will be happy to share further details.


Please keep in mind that the items discussed here are neither all-encompassing nor set in stone, and we will adjust them if the need arises.

It only took them until now to even consider fixing the armor system. Good job.

 

[deuxhero]

"are close to releasing" suggests they've been working on it for a while.

 

[Zariusz]

 

[PanDupa]

Beta e1.8.0
Singleplayer
Crashes

• Fixed a crash that occurred on old saves.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when entering a village under raid.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when encountering an enemy after capturing a settlement with an allied army.
• Fixed several crashes that occurred in sieges and field battles.
• Fixed a crash that occurred after the hideout cutscene.
• Fixed a crash that occurred in sieges due to the player taking control of an agent that was waiting in a ladder queue.
• Fixed several crashes that occurred when using the column formation.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when loading the campaign map.
• Fixed a crash that occurred due to the Extortion By Deserters quest party trying to move beyond the edge of the map.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when talking to family members that are governers.
• Fixed a crash that occurred before starting the fight in the Noble Revolt quest.
• Fixed a crash that occurred due to prisoner heroes not being released correctly.
• Fixed a crash that occurred on the campaign map.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when upgrading troops.
• Fixed a crash that occurred due to a bug with the agent navigation system.
• Fixed a crash that occurred while loading and deleting corrupted save files.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when abdicating leadership.
• Fixed a crash that occurred while talking to a quest giver in your army during a raid.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when executing the last living member of a clan.
• Fixed AI agent targeting systems related crashes.
• Fixed a crash that occurred while having the Noble Revolt quest active.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when the game tried to save while saving.
• Fixed a crash that occurred after loading a save that has second phase quests active.
• Fixed a crash that occurred due to a bug in the food consumption formula if all of the related perks were unlocked.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when capturing the last enemy settlement in Unify The Empire quest.
• Fixed a crash that occurred while having the Disrupt Supply Lines quest active.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when joining a faction.
• Fixed a crash that occurred upon pressing Start on the Order of Battle screen.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when attempting to select formations after a battle was over.

Performance

• Fixed various lag spikes, especially in siege missions.
• Improved general siege CPU performance.
• Fixed CPU usage spikes that occurred in battles.
• Improved loading times.
• Optimised performance in sieges in regards to archers shooting from or at the walls.
• Optimised path-finding operations.
• Optimised performance of formation AI.
• Optimised performance of the dropped weapons system.
• Moved agent formation AI to another thread to improve frame rates.
• Optimised AI logic, caravan price data and settlement variables to improve general campaign performance.
• Optimised campaign fast forward mode.

Save & Load

• Changed the quick save system to utilise the last used save slot.

Localisation

• Added German localisation.
• Updated all localisations.
• Fixed various typos and grammar bugs.

Art

• Increased the number of agents using animation points in castle and town scenes.
• Added 4 new battle scenes.
• Added 6 new town scenes: Phycaon, Diathma, Saneopa, Syronea, Epicrotea, and Danustica.
• Added 7 new outer meshes to existing town scenes.
• Added 5 new Aserai shoulder pieces: Bronze Scale Shoulder Guards, Long Sleeved Bronze Scale Shoulder Guards, Bronze Scale Pauldrons, Decorated Bronze Scale Pauldrons, and Decorated Long Sleeve Bronze Scale Pauldrons.
• Added 6 new Vlandia shoulder pieces: Ornate Pauldrons, Ornate Pauldrons with Cape, Reinforced Ornate Pauldrons, Reinforced Ornate Pauldrons over Scale, Pauldrons with Cape, and Scale Shoulderguards.
• Added 6 new Aserai helmets: Brass Southern Closed Helmet, Brass Southern Closed Helmet with Turban, Brass Southern Helmet, Brass Southern Helmet with Turban, Brass Southern Helmet with Leather Flaps, and Brass Turbaned Helmet with Leather Flaps.
• Added 4 new Aserai body pieces: Southern Reinforced Mail Armor, Southern Reinforced Sleeveless Mail Armor, Southern Reinforced Mail Vest, and Southern Reinforced Short Mail Armor.
• Added 1 new Empire cape: Heavy Cloak.
• Added pommels to 16 existing maces.
• Fixed a visual issue with the Narrow Menavlon Head.
• Fixed a visual issue with Rhagaea's dress.
• Various fixes to all scenes.

Animations

• Fixed a bug with musician animations that occurred after starting a conversation.
• Fixed a bug that caused musicians to float in the air.
• Fixed a bug that caused multiple agents to sit on the same chair.
• Removed an incorrect campaign map character animation that played while helping a village that is being raided.

Campaign Map

• Improved performance.
• Improved some campaign camera behaviours.
• Fixed bugs in relation to party teleporting, floating and rotation.
• Improved the army leader and army member visual location algorithm. Army members will now converge when moving in narrow places.
• Party banners will now spawn near the settlement and castle walls once a party enters it.

UI
Changes

• Introduced new scene notifications to give more weight to events. They can open automatically or be triggered with a circle notification.
  • Generic: Newborn, Marriage, Heir coming of age, Death from old age, Main hero dies in battle, Clan member death (2 variations), Joined a kingdom, Kingdom created, Kingdom destroyed.
  • Main Storyline: Supported faction defeated, Finding banner pieces (3 variations), Pledge allegiance, Conspiracy (2 variations), Declaring dragon banner.
• Settlement values within the encyclopaedia are now restricted to settlements that you are near, that are within your kingdom, or that have a clan member inside.
• Introduced a new "Hero Deaths in Combat" difficulty option and moved "Enable Birth and Death" to a separate module.
  • 3 available options that can be changed during gameplay: "Disable All Battle Deaths", "Disable Battle Deaths Player Only" and "Enable All Battle Deaths".
  • "Enable Birth and Death" will now only be visible during character creation if the "Birth and Death Options" module is selected in the launcher. If the module doesn't exist, the default value is enabled.
• Order of Battle configurations are now saved separately for sieges and field battles.
• Organised Gameplay Options tab contents in the options screen. Gameplay options are now shown under Controls, Visuals, Camera, User Interface, and Campaign categories.
• Improved phrasing for clan members' current behaviour.
• While cheat mode is enabled, opening the default dismiss mode party screen will now show all the troops defined in the game on the left side roster.
• A black layer is now shown while the map scene is being prepared for render during transitions.
• Added a "Show on map" button next to names in the clan screen, members tab.
• Improvements to board game tutorial images and popup layout.
• Changed Level icon and label to tier icons on the party screen for non-hero troops.
• Removed unbuilt siege engines from deployment points in the siege deployment phase.
• Inventory trade rumours are now sorted by their sell/buy values.
• Troops tooltip in the army overlay now lists troops in the army by their type.
• Weapon tooltips in the inventory now show the "Can't reload on horseback" property of the weapon.
• Tavern keepers can now be seen with mission name markers (ALT).
• Added a label to conversation screens to show the player's gold.
• Added "Donate troops" button to the army overlay, party context popup.
• "Transfer all" commands in the party screen now prioritise heroes before troops.
• Improved influence cost visuals in the army management popup.
• Added quest icons to character portraits in the conversation screen.
• Changed "Propose" text to "Enact" in the Kingdom screen when there is only one clan in the player's kingdom.
• Added "Remove engine" behaviour to the right mouse and click on custom battle siege engine slots.
• Added missing collapse visual indicators to clan and quests screens.
• Encyclopaedia search results are now sorted by their relevance.
• Added explanation for why the player can not disband their army from the army management screen. Disabled the disband army button during a map event.
• Added a new crafting icon to represent an empty piece.
• Updated the canvas texture used in some UI elements.
• General layout improvements in the Party screen, Kingdom screen, Clan screen, mobile party markers, game menu and many more…
• Attack option is now greyed out instead of removed when the player is too wounded to attack.
• Improved tooltip information for pillaging decisions so that the information is displayed more clearly and in order of importance.
• Removed an unnecessary loading screen from execution scenes.

Fixes

• Fixed some minor Order of Battle issues.
• Fixed some inconsistencies with quest icons on game menu options, party nameplates etc.
• Fixed the common area mission marker visual not representing friendly common areas.
• Fixed a bug that prevented weapon orders from updating properly in the crafting screen.
• Fixed a bug that caused the background of the kingdom decisions panel to disappear.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the weapon piece filters from working properly in the crafting screen.
• Fixed a bug that caused the "You're dead" text to be visible when the player didn't take part in the battle.
• Fixed a bug that caused the gold value of the other item roster to be shown even when it's not relevant (loot inventory).
• Fixed a bug that caused self-inflicted damage to be shown in the personal feed in the mission HUD.
• Fixed a bug that caused the “Done” text to be missing in an unsuccessful save game deletion popup.
• Fixed a bug that caused the conversation screen to not show all the parties encountered before the conversation.
• Fixed a bug that caused wrong directions to be shown during the attack and defend tutorials.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to be able to donate troops over the other party's troop limit.
• Fixed a bug that prevented scoreboard texts from changing language if the language was changed during a battle.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to become stuck when opening the encyclopaedia just before a loading screen.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Order of Battle screen to pop up even if the player did not control any troops.
• Fixed a bug that caused settlement food tooltips to not show the building bonus.

Combat

• Armour Effectiveness Improvements:
  • Reduced the armor coefficient from 100 to 50. In translation, 1 armour now provides 2 health points against blunt attacks.
  • Reduced blunt damage's pure damage coefficient from 1 to 0.4.
  • Increased additional armour effectiveness against blunt damage from 0 to 0.25.
  • These changes increase the effectiveness of mid to late game armour against blunt damages to make it feel like a more meaningful investment.
• All combat mechanics effects (knockdown, knockback, dismount) are now decided using a standard and deterministic model:
  • All weapons that can apply these combat mechanics effects have the relevant flag (like "Can Knockdown”, “Can Dismount"). These flags are displayed on weapon tooltips.
  • To apply any of these effects, an attacker should now deal enough damage to exceed a threshold damage which is computed as the maximum hit points of the victim times its resistance percentage against the relevant effect.
  • Athletics skill now increases resistance percentage against knockdown and knockback effects.
  • Riding skill now increases resistance percentage against thrust dismount and hooked dismount effects.
  • Certain attacks might reduce these resistances by a penetration amount.
  • All perks which provide chance-based knockdown or knockback effects are replaced with those increasing penetration for the same effects.
• Added Light Crossbows (Simple, Light, Fine Crossbow). They can be set on the move and are also usable on mounts without a perk.
• Decreased the damage of blunt weapons by approximately 10%.
• Spiked clubs now deal piercing instead of blunt damage.
• Throwing axes now deal bonus damage to shields (when thrown and in melee).

Battles and Sieges

• Adjusted disorganised state penalties and the events which trigger this state. After a fight or when leaving an army, parties will be in a disorganised state for 6 hours. They will move 40% slower and have 20% less battle morale. In addition, if the player leaves some men behind in order to get away from a fight this will be applied to the opponent. Missions that do not involve the entire party (clearing hideouts or alleys, prison breaks) will not cause a disorganised state.

Battle

• Implemented an improved system for spawning reinforcements in battles:
  • Reinforcements will now always spawn near the deployment boundaries of the battle.
  • The initial wave of troops always spawns on the original path with respect to the position of the battle on the campaign map and the battle size. There are two new spawn paths that reinforcements can spawn on, one path counter-clockwise to the original path and one path clockwise to the original path.
  • Reinforcements will pick the safest spawn path of the three with the safest spawn path being the one furthest away from the enemy.
  • This improved system prevents the camping of spawn points by the enemy as well as the spawning of troops in the middle of an active fight.
  • Fixed a bug in reinforcement reserves computation which created various problems during reinforcement spawning.
• Changed the AI so that it now uses the formations' total power (including all unspawned troops) to decide battle tactics.
• Fixed a bug that prevented troop transfers between formations with troops that are closest to the target formation’s order position.
• Fixed a bug that caused the column arrangement to break after a few movement orders in the deployment phase.
• Fixed a bug that caused caravan objects to be seen as usable objects in caravan battles.

Siege

• Fixed a bug that caused the AI in siege to deploy an unnecessary number of men to defend the gate despite there being breaches elsewhere.
• Fixed a bug that caused troops to defend the wrong entry points in a siege, most commonly experienced in scenes where ladders and the siege tower have different wall segments to attack over.
• In sieges, defender troops wait in a safe location before going to fight off the attackers on the walls. Previously, this move didn’t happen fast enough. Now the defenders move to the position to be defended earlier.
• Fixed a bug that caused troops to try to raise and climb a non-existent ladder after being given a charge order.
• Fixed a bug that prevented defending troops from opening the castle gates after being given a charge order if there was no battering ram on the other side.
• Improved the system that picks troops for transfers between formations in sieges, reducing meaningless back and forth running.
• Fixed a bug that caused newly spawned attacking reinforcements to stand at their spawn.
• Improved behavior in siege battles with a small number of attackers. Instead of trying to operate several siege machines, they will focus on a single siege weapon or breach that they regard as their easiest entry point.
• Fixed a bug that caused the gate state to get stuck in “Open” if the defending formation lost all of its troops at the same time they closed the gate. This would cause attackers to stand behind the castle gate, unable to open it.
• Fixed a bug that caused the attacking AI to split formations and transfer troops as they were assaulting the walls, causing troops to walk between walls and the gate. Additionally, troops are no longer called from far away to use siege machines when they are in inconvenient locations.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the player from taking over command of formations in army sieges where the player is the general.
• The other ranged siege weapon operators now replace the pilot if the pilot dies or leaves.
• Fixed a bug that caused the player to be assigned to a detachment (like siege engines or archer positions) during the Order of Battle deployment screen.
• Agents no longer wield their weapons when going for ammo or when switching positions while using ranged siege weapons.
• After capturing a settlement with siege, besieger parties will now transfer garrison troops to the settlement evenly (excluding the player’s party).
• Fixed a bug that caused lords not to donate troops to garrison after capturing a settlement.
• Fixed a bug that allowed for the continuation of a siege even after receiving the settlement through other means.
• Fixed a bug which prevented sieges from ending due to the defending side awaiting reinforcements and the reinforcements not spawning.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the usage of the party engineer's skills while setting up the siege engines.

Character Development System

• You can now reset your character's and companion's perk assignments through the arena master for a suitable price. The generic tavern NPCs can also point this out as a tip.
• Overhauled the equipment selection system for born heroes so that it takes many parameters into account such as culture, traits, hero type, etc.
• Improved the way NPC child skill and trait levels are calculated. The child now receives skills and traits periodically instead of all at once when reaching adulthood.
• Balanced Scouting skill experience gains -- sustaining higher party speeds with larger parties will now grant more experience.
• Balanced Combat skill experience gains -- attacking higher tier troops will now provide more experience.
• Balanced the combat perks related to throwing and ranged weapons to improve the progression curve.
• Balanced the Athletics skill experience gains for on-foot attacks.
• Balanced the Riding skill experience gained from ranged attacks to provide more experience with high difficulty shots.
• Overhauled the Leadership skill experience gain method, instead of a passive increase, it is now tied directly to experience gained by the commanded troops.
• Overhauled the Roguery skill experience gain method, instead of a passive increase, it is now tied directly to experience gained by commanded bandit troops. Additionally, balanced the experience gained from looting caravans and villagers.
• Diversified and balanced the actions which provide Engineering skill experience. Destroying siege engines now provides Engineering skill experience.
• Fixed various bugs related to the following perks: Throwing Competitions, Metallurgy, In Bloom, Young and Respectful, Walk it Off, A good day's rest, Uncanny Insight, Strong, Good Lodging, Ultimate Leader, and Local Connection.
• Forest Kin perk: No longer cuts the Battanian forest bonus.
• Foragers perk: No longer reduces stewardship XP gain.
• Self-made Man perk: Barter penalty now works when selling too.
• Partners in Crime perk: Fixed a bug that prevented secondary bandit parties from joining the player when they surrender.
• Quick Draw perk: Now correctly improves drawing speed instead of readying speed.
• Full Speed perk: Now correctly improves the charge damage.
• The way of the Saddle perk: Now correctly improves charge damage and horse maneuvering.
• Fixed a bug that caused Trade skill experience to not be given correctly when selling items for profit.
• Fixed a bug that caused horses to stack during character creation when reverting already completed steps.

Clan and Party

• Improved clan management via the Clan screen:
  • You can now exchange the leader of a clan party.
  • You can assign a new party leader for a clan party if the party leader has died.
  • You can recall a clan member to your party if they are staying in a settlement.
  • You can send a clan member to stay at one of your towns or castles.
  • AI clans will also assign a party leader if the party leader has died and if there is one available. AI clans will change the party leaders if there is a better one available.
  • Heroes will be teleported with some delay according to their distance from the teleportation target.
• Introduced marriage offers which will be received via circle map notifications for single clan members (other than the main hero).
• Hero party leaders now have preferred troop types when upgrading.
• Rebalanced companion skill traits and updated some of their backstories. This should result in fewer scouts in particular.
• Improved the campaign party AI to prevent party zigzagging in the same spot.
• Improved the campaign party AI path selection decisions.
• Improved the logic that calculates initial spawn and target positions for parties.
• Fixed a bug that prevented parties from buying enough food for their troops.
• Fixed a bug that caused the player party to be non-responsive to player input on the campaign map.
• Fixed a bug that duplicated the main hero's equipment on succession.
• Fixed a bug that caused troop upgrade values to show incorrect and negative results at the end of battles.

Armies

• Improved the campaign map AI:
  • Adjusted the decision score calculation of patrol, defend, and besiege stances to increase the siege success rates and aggressiveness of AI armies.
  • AI armies can now target and besiege the same settlement simultaneously to aid each other.
  • Noble parties now buy and carry more food to provide enough food supply for their armies.
  • Increased the minimum party size requirement for parties to join armies from 40% to 60%.
  • Improved the cohesion boosting behaviour of armies. They now boost their cohesion when on important tasks like defending or besieging.
  • Armies with less than 30 cohesion disband themselves if they decide not to boost their cohesion or don't have enough influence to do so.
  • Armies disband themselves if all active wars of their faction are over.
  • The creation chance of an army decreases with each active army (the maximum a faction can have is 5). This is done so that there are fewer but bigger armies.
  • Armies now assemble near a friendly settlement that is closest to the target enemy settlement, reducing the travel time to the target enemy settlement.
• Inviting a party to an army is no longer possible if the party is besieging or raiding.
• Fixed a bug that caused armies to wait outside of the settlement instead of starting a siege if the player is in the settlement with a few troops.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the player to ask its clan’s caravan to join their army.

Kingdoms and Diplomacy

• Introduced mercenary offers, which will be sent to the player by faction rulers. Mercenary offers can be accepted without talking to the faction ruler.
• Introduced vassalage offers which will be sent to the player by faction rulers. These notifications act as an invite to join the faction ruler for a discussion on potential vassalage.
• Fixed a bug that allowed eliminated clans to participate in decisions.
• Fixed a bug that caused no gold to be received when accepting a prisoner ransom offer.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the player to grant a fief which was part of an ongoing ownership vote.

Economy and Trade

• Adjusted the supply and demand of various trade goods. Improved the viability and longevity of trade gameplay. Made caravans and workshops more profitable as well as more risky investments.
• [Read more about the extensive economy and trade changes here]
• Added the Camel Ranch village type.
• Improved the target settlement selection algorithm of caravan parties.
• Fixed a bug that prevented caravans from differentiating between items with different modifiers.
• Fixed a bug that caused caravan parties to join sieges.

Crafting

• Separated the crafting piece unlocking experience into the respective weapon types. Crafting a weapon now collects experience for that weapon type only and any unlocked part will be available for that weapon type alone.
• Crafting parts are now unlocked gradually, Tier 1 parts first, followed by Tier 2 and so on.
• Made existing crafting pieces from weapon templates available across other weapon templates:
  • One-Handed Axe: 69 pommels
  • Two-Handed Axe: 69 pommels
  • Mace: 92 pommels
  • Two-Handed Mace: 69 pommels
• Added 14 new heads and 5 new handles which can be used for the creation of two-handed maces in the smithy. 10 two-handed maces, created out of these pieces have also been added to the marketplace and various troops (Bandits, Aserai Mameluke Guard, Aserai Mameluke Palace Guard, Sturgian Line Breaker).
• Adjusted the weight of Tier 2 mace heads and reduced their damage factor by 10%.
• Removed Heavy Wooden Blade, Wooden Blade, and Wooden Guard as crafting pieces.
• Fixed a bug that caused the customer of a crafting order to be displeased even though the order exceeded all expectations.

Settlement Actions (Town, Village, Castle and Hideout)

• Lowered the upgrade chance of recruits.
• You can now hire tavern mercenaries through the menu option even when your party is at its capacity.
• The "Ransom your prisoners” menu option no longer ransoms prisoners that are locked in the party screen.
• Notables in towns and villages are now fixed (number-wise). They were previously dependent on prosperity and hearth levels.
• The player’s clan now needs to be at least Tier 3 to request a meeting in castles and towns.
• Enabled playing board games with clan members and improved the board game logic.
• Improved the follow logic of clan members in missions.
• 10% of the prisoners in all settlements will now be sold daily to prevent dungeons from exceeding the prisoner limit.
• Fixed a bug that caused the garrison to starve even though there was food in the settlement.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the player to enter the enemy settlement without a disguise after entering the settlement in disguise and clearing an alley.
• Fixed a bug that caused the settlement's continuous projects to show incorrect bonus values.
• Fixed a bug that caused an incorrect banner to be displayed in castle meeting scenes.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to shoot the horse training area targets before the countdown.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the player from attacking a hideout.
• Fixed a bug that made the Konane board game extremely difficult to win.
• Fixed a bug that caused the prison break prisoner to spawn in an unreachable point.
• Fixed a bug that caused a tournament to be created after another tournament had just finished in the same town.

Quests & Issues

• Updated quest logs, alternative solution rewards, durations and/or requirements for various quests (Escort Merchant Caravan, Overpriced goods, Nearby Bandit Base, Rival Gang Moving in, Needs to Deliver a Herd, Can't sell product at a fair price, Needs access to village commons, Extortion by deserters, Needs Grain Seeds, Army of Poachers, Gang Leader Needs Weapons, Family Feud, Needs Garrison Troops, Lord Needs Horses, Lord Wants Rival Captured, The Spy party, Caravan Ambush, Inn and Out, Village Needs Tools, Needs Help with Brigands, Lord Needs A Tutor).
• Updated alternative solution ending logs for all issues.
• Moved the quest dialogue option to the top of the dialogue options.
• Updated some dialogues for the “Manual Laborers” quest.
• The quest bandit party will now turn to a normal bandit party (if it is active) after a quest ends.
• Players will now get their weapons back if the “Gangleader Needs Weapons” quest cancels.
• Added excl. marks to quest NPCs and quest menus in the “Spy Among Us” quest.
• Added excl. marks to the “Revenue Farming” related quest buttons.
• Added the missing companion solution log to the “Family Feud” quest.
• Improved some logic and conditions for the “Art of the Trade” and “Revenue Farming” quests.
• The main storyline now fails if you pledge your support to a faction and then leave that faction.
• Bandit parties that surrender to the player during the “Needs help with Brigands” quest now count towards the quest progress.
• Fixed a bug that caused the "Lord needs horses" quest to award an incorrect amount of gold.
• Fixed a bug that caused the “Caravan Ambush” quest to fail if the player hired the attacking bandit party (through the Partners in Crime perk) before engaging the caravan.
• Fixed a bug that caused the militia party to leave the village on the “Extortion by Deserters” quest battle start.
• Fixed a bug that caused the player's captivity to end automatically after failing the “Extortion by Deserters” quest battle.
• Fixed a bug that activated the battle encounter after talking to the quest giver noble in the “Conquest of the Settlement” quest.
• Fixed a bug that caused the “Family Feud” quest NPC to disappear after save/load.
• Fixed a bug that caused the “Escort Caravan” quest to end after visiting only one settlement.
• Fixed a bug that caused companions to die during alternative solutions to quests.
• Fixed a bug that caused the main party to starve during the tutorial phase.
• Fixed a bug that caused refugees to starve during the tutorial phase.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the main hero from talking with a noble about Neretzes' Folly while the noble was in a dungeon as a prisoner.
• Fixed a bug that caused another notable to spawn in the tutorial village during the tutorial phase.

Conversations & Encounters

• Improved the recognition of the player by NPCs in dialogues. If a player has high or low relations with an NPC but they are not famous, the NPC now still knows their name. For example, NPCs should know who has been attacking their villages/caravans.
• Improved the NPC comments in dialogues when the player becomes a mercenary.
• Improved the NPC conversations with workshop employers to flow more smoothly and provide more information.
• Fixed a bug that caused freezes while talking to lords.
• Fixed a bug that caused an encounter to open per party instead of together.

Other

• [Changed many troops, items and item names]
• Renamed the Custom Battle hero Nylios to Nylia.
• Fixed a bug that gave the player horses after being captured.
• Improved the random name generation to avoid duplicate names.
• Advanced trainers on the training field can no longer be damaged during the countdown.
• Added age diversity to non-hero characters like the tavern keeper, shop worker, etc. which affects their appearance in scenes.
• Added new encyclopaedia entries for player siblings.
• Added new encyclopaedia entries explaining personality traits.

Multiplayer
Crashes

• Fixed bug that caused the game to freeze on the team selection screen.

Design & Balance

• Slightly increased accuracy for Javelins and Throwing Spears.

Map Related

• Fixed some physics issues with the Tsagaan Castle map.

Other - Miscellaneous

• Corrected the client-side prediction for thrust attacks that get stuck on the opponent's body.
• Players can no longer damage others when the round ends.
• Fixed a bug that caused the saved perk selection to reset.
• Fixed a bug that caused all the troops to look the same in Captain mode.

UI
Changes

• Added a new visual popup for cosmetic item acquisition.
• Improved feedback for changing arena preference during a duel.
• Added a "Reset Equipment" button to the MP Armory screen.
• The friend list now shows if a friend is in a party.
• Improved the general layout of the Lobby, after battle report popup, spectator HUD, objectives HUD, class loadout, lobby profile tab, scoreboard, player compass elements and many more.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused the visual representation of progress for conditional badges to not work properly.
• Fixed a bug that caused clan related info to stay on screen while clan features were disabled.
• Fixed a bug that caused the gold info to stay on screen while being in a game mode that doesn’t use gold.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from changing their keybinds in the MP Lobby options.
• Fixed a bug that caused wrong keybinds to be shown in the Armory tab.
• Fixed a bug that caused friend requests to not disappear.
• Fixed a bug that caused incorrect MVP badges to be shown if the player joined during an active match.
• Fixed a bug that caused an incorrect gold amount to be shown.
• Fixed a bug that caused incorrect values to be shown in the recent games tab in MP Lobby.

Both
Crashes

• Fixed a crash caused by the AI targeting system.
• Fixed a crash that occurred if the player paused a mission when an AI agent was in a specific state.

Art

• Improved the shadow effects of particles on low graphics settings.

Audio

• Added new UI sounds and updated some existing ones.
• Fixed a bug that caused the player not to hear the sound of agents hitting castle doors.
• Fixed a bug that caused the siege tower bridge landing sound to be distorted.

UI
Changes

• General performance and memory usage improvements for Gauntlet (UI).
• Enabled visual smoothing between visual states (Hovered, Selected etc.).
• Renamed the "Advance" order to "Engage".
• Added some missing Japanese characters to the Japanese font.
• Updated the Korean font to make it more readable.
• Added support for non-breaking space, narrow non-breaking space, and figure space characters.
• Added support for word joiner (U+2060) character.
• Disabled some graphics options if the player’s hardware doesn't support them. For example, the DLSS option is disabled if the player doesn't have an applicable graphics card. This is now conveyed with a tooltip on the disabled option.
• Added direction visuals to circle selectors (cheer, radial order etc.) to better convey the selection process.
• Order key visuals will now disappear if they're not relevant anymore. For example, the first set of orders' (Form, Movement, Toggle) key visuals will disappear when an order subset is selected (Form).

Fixes

• Fixed a bug related to camel troop portraits.
• Fixed a bug that caused some text fields to show paragraphs with additional spacing.
• Fixed a bug that caused SHIFT and CTRL selections to not work consistently.
• Fixed a bug that caused the wrong keybind to be shown for "Close chat" label in chatlog
• Fixed a bug that caused the interaction UI to show up when looking at a riderless mount while mounted.

Performance

• Optimised the feet inverse kinematics of humans.
• Optimised the agent animation system.
• Fixed a spike that was caused by the loading of physics of destructible entities.
• Fixed a spike that occurred when a destructible object was broken.

Animations

• Improved the camel idle animation to make bridles look better.

Combat

• Trees are no longer considered as obstacles while drawing the direction with the mouse when giving orders to formations.
• Improved the weapon reach calculations in terms of preciseness.
• Improved ranged agents' aiming system by fixing some position computation and target agent visibility issues.
• Perfect blocks no longer extend the attack ready duration.
• Improved the melee combat AI in interior scenes to prevent agents from constantly hitting walls, doors etc.
• Increased the aiming sensitivity with a ranged weapon for the controller.
• Reduced the speed of mounts while walking down steps.
• Fixed a bug that caused the attack and defend direction UI to show the wrong direction.
• Fixed a bug that caused ranged weapons to be able to hit a target behind them.
• Fixed a bug that caused the combat log to calculate the modified damage incorrectly for area damages.
• Fixed a bug that caused skirmishers to keep their shields up in situations where they should have preferred to draw their weapons.

Modding
[For further explanation and additional information on the modding changes check the following thread: e1.8.0 Modding Adjustments]

• We released API documentation for Bannerlord. You can find it here: apidoc.bannerlord.com
• Modders can now define & add different races like Orcs, Elves,... through the skins.xml file. Custom skeleton support has been added for humanoid characters.
• Fixed various issues with the implementation of a modded world map, removed the hardcoded assumption that the world map is named "Main_map", fixed the hardcoded map size,...
• Enabled warning & assertion texts to help modders with common errors (the Modding Kit must be installed).
• The Atmosphere Curve Editor is now available through the Atmosphere Inspector. It allows you to change the visuals of an atmosphere.
• Added the Color Grade Manager script to the main map scene. It allows the dynamic color grade and atmosphere effects to be previewed within the editor. Color grade textures can be changed from worldmap_color_grades.xml file.
• Added exposure compensation to materials for glow effects.
• Changed the physics object colors of barriers that only players can pass through to green for clarity.
• Implemented a new method of using generated banner textures in item materials. A new channel called "TableauMaskMap" has been added to explicitly mark where the banner texture will be applied. This leaves the alpha channel on the original texture to be used for the item's own requirements for tassel etc. "use_tableau_mask_as_separate_texture" flag needs to be enabled for this to take effect.
• Language files are now referenced in language folders in the "language_data.xml" (they were previously automatically searched for and added).
• Added XSD for game texts, they are now added via SubModule.xml.
• Players can now override the TournamentModel.GetParticipantArmor to change the tournament participant armor.
• Changed the SettlementComponent list to single SettlementComponent in Settlement.cs. Settlements can no longer have multiple SettlementComponents.
• "NonSerializedObjectTypeRecords" were removed from MBObjectManager. There are now only ObjectTypeRecords and their appropriate functions.
• Removed XML support from game menus and moved related content to code (EncounterGameMenuBehavior.cs).
• Removed XML support from conversations and moved related content to code.
• Modders can now use the OnCrimeRatingChanged event for various purposes. This event will trigger with the change amount and the faction it is related with.
• Added IRandomOwner for easier random usages.
• Added a dev config option to show localization IDs of texts (relevant for translators).
• Enabled modders to go above the maximum tier cap for troop upgrades (above tier 6).
• Modders can now modify the voices of agents (via voice_definitions.xml).
• The skill leveling system is now fully moddable (Skill Leveling Manager).
• Removed the campaign cookie system.
• Refactored the Quest system to make every quest use only one dedicated menu instead of creating multiple menus per quest.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the navmesh grid generation on big scenes from working correctly.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when generating rivers.
• Fixed a bug that caused different instances of a model to use the same factor color.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the addition of custom troops to villager parties. Villager parties can now use different troop types.
• Fixed a bug that caused decals to discard season visibility settings.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when exiting editor scenes while retreating outside of the border.
• Fixed a freeze issue on the campaign map that was caused by modded troops not having any upgrades.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when clicking on the Leave edit mode button.
• Fixed a bug that caused the second editor window to freeze.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when placing decals on an empty editor scene.
• Fixed a bug that caused civilian battle sets (for troop spawn) placed in editor scenes to be processed wrongly.
• Improved the warning messages for incorrect battle set placement.
• Added an experimental search functionality to the inventory screen. It can be enabled with "ui.set_inventory_search_enabled [1/0]" while the inventory screen is open. We think modders can use this functionality to test and find their items in-game more easily.
• Extended the functionality of the UI debug mode. Added a new command ("ui.set_screen_debug_information_enabled [True/False]") to help modders find and examine GauntletLayers more easily. This new panel will show the currently loaded GauntletLayers, list included widgets, their visual properties and more in real time.
• Added the Core.FaceGen.UpdateDeformKeys boolean. Previously, all the sliders in the body generation screen were cleared and added again after gender change. Since we don't use different deform keys between genders, we've moved this functionality to this boolean. If your mod uses different deform keys between genders, your mod should set this value to true. If not done, some deform keys might not show up as sliders in the body generation screen. Can be toggled with "facegen.toggle_update_deform_keys" command.
• Added Scene.GetAllEntitiesWithScriptComponent method to gather all entities with the given script type.
• Introduced a "CustomScale" value to font properties, used by Gauntlet. This value is used to scale the whole font. It’s used especially for fonts that generally have bigger characters compared to other fonts used in the game. Modders can use this value to make their fonts bigger or smaller across the whole font.
• Added a new boolean to the Hero tooltip, isNear. It's used to hide tooltip entries of a hero tooltip that shouldn't be visible if the main hero is not near, like available quests by hero.
• Improved the spritesheet generator performance, especially for generating numerous sheets at the same time.
• Changed the banner editor layout to support more colors. Useful for mods expanding the available color set.
• Changed how we determine singleplayer and multiplayer modules in the SubModule.xml.
• <SingleplayerModule/> and <MultiplayerModule/> have been renamed to <ModuleCategory/>
• The correct usage is now <ModuleCategory value="Singleplayer"/> or <ModuleCategory value="Multiplayer"/>
• The default ModuleCategory is Singleplayer.
• Fixed a bug that prevented mods from overwriting already existing custom widgets in Gauntlet, consistently.

I wonder how it will improve mods

 

[Konjad]

90% of the fixes is for what they introduced with 1.7.2

 

[Fedora Master]

This doesn't actually look bad.

Noice

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[vota DC]

Fixed blunt (no more lethal stone throwing) but that means every melee weapon Is nerfed (they do partly blunt damage) while ranged attacks are still super lethal against armored people.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

View attachment 24962

Get the captivity events mod so you can impregnate captured female commanders.

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[deuxhero]

Video overview with footage of some of the new stuff in action.

 

[Jenkem]

I told you guys... 2022 is the Year of Bannerlord!!!

 

[Fedora Master]

I told you guys... 2022 is the Year of Bannerlord!!!

Decent patch (and the jury is still out on that one) =/= good game

 

[GhostCow]

Sad that a patch that just fixes a bunch of bugs is considered a good patch when a bunch of gameplay systems aren't even in place. It's been what, 2 years since this game launched on Steam? and you still can't even finish the main quest as far as I know. This game is utter shit and the devs are complete failures. I've never been so disappointed.

 

[Konjad]

Sad that a patch that just fixes a bunch of bugs is considered a good patch when a bunch of gameplay systems aren't even in place. It's been what, 2 years since this game launched on Steam? and you still can't even finish the main quest as far as I know. This game is utter shit and the devs are complete failures. I've never been so disappointed.

Well, Oblibion disappointed me more.

 

[Fedora Master]

So, skills and leveling is certainly better now. You can actually, you know, reach the higher skill levels.
There's horrible geometry morphing on the world map now.
Just had a crash trying to do stuff on the Heroes screen.
Looters are less annoying and stones don't do as much damage anymore.
AI seems to be improved slightly and doesn't herp and derp back and forth anymore during wars. It still can't pick its engagements though.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

The Khuzait have a few GILF fetishists. This guy

Spoiler

Married this granny

Spoiler

and now the Snowgoy are starting to become Empire fetishists with the Snowgoy lords starting to marry more and more empire ladies who are fairly fertile

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Except the younger GILFs of course

Spoiler

And look! A Yellow fever Snowgoy with his porcelain princess.

Spoiler

And a Snowgoy terrorist breeding shiksa fetishist!

Spoiler

I don't even have to do any propaganda or subversion to defeat the Snowgoy in this game since the children are of their mother's culture. They do it to themselves and I only have to exploit their markets.