Management / Sim Warsim: The Realm of Aslona - procedurally generated kingdom management game with ASCII graphics

[Theodora]

Jesus, dude, you’re busy. Cool game, been having a blast with it so far.

Right? Eternally in awe of this mad (<3) lad.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Jesus, dude, you’re busy. Cool game, been having a blast with it so far.

Right? Eternally in awe of this mad (<3) lad.

Every single time I sit down and decide to start a new game this incredible guy releases another giant update! This man has a spirit and enthusiasm you don't find often, it's clear this game is his passion. Warsim already offered so much two years ago - but it gets better and better almost weekly. I encourage everybody to purchase this gem on all platforms it's available. Huw really deserves it.

 

[Wastelander404]

Ah thank you both so much, means a lot!

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone, so not the biggest update but still plenty of new stuff and important changes. I've not managed to log a ton of hours into programming recently but I'm trying my best. I hope everyone is doing as good as they can during this pandemic, without further ado... the update.

TROOP HIRE AND TRAINING CHANGES (8 features)

Videovillain suggested that when you have a Barracks or Grand Barracks you should be able to do the troop training the upgrade offers outside of the location itself and in the main troop menu, this makes perfect sense and should have been done way earlier so It's now in the game. While working on it I noticed several other things that needed changes and fixes so several other improvements have been made.

* Added having barracks or grand barracks also allows the training to happen directly from the hire menus disarm and convert submenu (credit u/videovillain)
* Reworked Barracks and training ground intro texts
* Added new indicator inside Barracks and training ground showing how many troops are trained each year
* Added upgrade screen with sfx when upgrading barracks/training ground from within the other buildings screen
* Added slave training pen indicator in disarm and convert menu
* Added new text introduction to disarm and convert menu
* Added new text introduction to hire troop menu
* Added new text introduction to sell troop menu

FIXING THE NEAR NORTH (15 features)

After doing a Playthrough and exploring the near north I noticed a few issues with area descriptions among some other bugs, I've tried to fix as many of these as possible!

* Rewrote slaver's fort intro text
* Reworked slaver's fort title on near north menu
* Reworked Near north intro text
* Reworked fort northwatch text and grammar
* Fixed brawlers pit grammar issue
* Fixed brawlers pit intro text blocked for ascii free version of warsim
* Fixed shallowrock mine intro grammar issue
* Added new screen for buying Shallowrock mine
* Fixed option to buy shallowrock not being blocked when you can't afford it
* Fixed text bugs in ruined cartographers guildhall
* Reworked cartographers guild main menu
* Reworked thickblood tavern main text
* Reworked thickblood tavern owned main text
* Fixed text bug in phase 1 of fort ruin restoration
* Fixed grammar bug in ruined fort

NEW NAME SUFFIXES (2 features)

These were mentioned in Charkiboi's awesome new Warsim youtube video so I had to put them in, check it out here if you haven't seen it yet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi4QXyItj5A)

* Added new name suffix 'the Rat-Squeezer' (-2 battlescore) (credit Charkiboi)
* Added new name suffix 'the Horse-Jerker' (-3 battlescore) (credit Charkiboi)

LOTS'O'AMULETS (5 features)

Was fixing a bug with the dwarvern amulet artifact and thought of 5 variants!

* Added 'fake dwarvern amulet' random loot artifact (worth 5 gold)
* Added 'broken dwarvern amulet' random loot artifact (worth 10 gold)
* Added 'ancient dwarvern amulet' random loot artifact (worth 155 gold)
* Added 'royal dwarvern amulet' random loot artifact (worth 160 gold)
* Added 'ancient royal dwarvern amulet' random loot artifact (worth 320 gold)

BUGFIXES (10 features)

A couple of fixes here, thanks VineFynn for the bug report I had this one noted from a while ago but finally got on top of it.

* Fixed Fort Kullak troops not appearing in troop count report (credit VineFynn)
* Fixed broken character used for a hero name prefix causing buggy character
* Fixed artifact market text bug
* Fixed ability to remove and invite non-existant staff to your staff meetings
* Fixed text bug with mystery box seller in artifact market
* Fixed dwarvern amulet artifact name bug
* Fixed scorpion pit intro text
* Fixed text split bug when arresting mystery slaver
* Fixed fort Gorthmek grammar bugs
* Fixed artifact market champion post taking 20% more gold than advertised

EVERYTHING ELSE (2 features)

Some changes made here and a change to the mystery slaver as 75 gold seems too steep.

* Temporarily removed ancient lands and ancient map from the game (as it's unfinished)
* Reduced mystery slaver cost to 50 gold

 

[Wastelander404]

BETTER FORTS (24 features)

DazaKiwi pointed out a very good thing that was totally missing from fortresses and that's the ability to install and remove troops! Now that and much more has been fixed. There's also a new outcome for buying Fort Kullak, if the bandit horde is active then the bandit garrison of the fort will head off and join them.

* Added ability to add troops to garrisons of forts (tethered to max based on commander skill and fort level)
* Added ability to remove troops for owned forts
* Fixed all 4 forts unupgrading if you demote the leaders
* Added demoting leader gives you all troops from the fort
* Added new screen for demoting leader from all forts
* Fixed upgraded fort graphic not showing for all screens
* Fixed option to buy fort Kullak still visible if you don't have the gold
* Added new screen for capturing fort Kullak from Gor the bastard
* Added Fort Kullak estimate of garrison
* Added new screen for buying fort Kullak
* Added garrison of Fort Kullak will join the bandit horde if active if you buy Kullak
* Fixed line split issue in setting rules of the fort (all forts)
* Fixed grammar issue in fort rules (some forts)
* Fixed troop report for fort sending you only one soldier text
* Fixed troop recruitment for forts able to go over max capacity one time
* Fixed typo in rules of fort text
* Added indicator of gold gained when capturing fort Gorthmek
* Fixed gorthmek unupgrading when bought from Yurik the oppresor if upgraded
* Added new screen for buying fort gorthmek for Yurik the oppresor
* Fixed option to buy fort gorthmek visible even if you don't have 50000 gold
* Fixed fort aslona new commander screen showing unupgraded fort
* Fixed fort aslona graphic heigh changing on different screens
* Fixed installing new leader of fort shows benefits of unupgraded fort even if fort upgraded
* Fixed option to upgrade fort not blocked out if you don't have the gold

QUEST ITEM GALORE (17 features)

Can never have too many quest items, now we've got another batch!

* Added 'red dragon crested gold shield' random loot artifact (worth 350 gold)
* Added 'a crude drawing of a goblin on some hide' random loot artifact (worth 3 gold)
* Added 'tankard made of demon bone' random loot artifact (worth 320 gold)
* Added 'chipped obsidian pot' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'finely decorated obsidian pot' random loot artifact (worth 199 gold)
* Added 'gold lined obsidian pot' random loot artifact (worth 290 gold)
* Added 'hat made of rat pelt' random loot artifact (worth 10 gold)
* Added 'golden toe' random loot artifact (worth 110 gold)
* Added 'bottle of purple mist' random loot artifact (worth 145 gold)
* Added 'bottle of red mist' random loot artifact (worth 125 gold)
* Added 'bottle of green mist' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'bottle of cyan mist' random loot artifact (worth 145 gold)
* Added 'bottle of old elven wine' random loot artifact (worth 30 gold)
* Added 'jar of sand' random loot artifact (worth 3 gold)
* Added 'set of dice made of diamond' random loot artifact (worth 400 gold)
* Added 'set of dice made of gold' random loot artifact (worth 160 gold)
* Added 'set of dice made of gold and encrusted with gems' random loot artifact (worth 360 gold)

CHAOTIC MONSTERS (6 features)

While thinking about extra uses for chaos orbs recently I thought it would be great if you could feed them to your monster pit monsters, now if you've got a chaos orb you have a new option when feeding your monsters to feed them an orb, be warned there's a 1/6 chance it will kill your pet beast but if it doesn't the orb will grant a +10 strength bonus (normal feeding gives +1) the orbs bonuses will also ignore the max strength cap of 20 meaning you can abuse the chaos orb system to create some seriously overpowered monsters!

* Added ability to feed chaos orb to monsters
* Added 5/6 chance of +10 strength for monster
* Added 1/6 chance of monster death
* Added special new sound effect for monster eating orb
* Added special new sound effect for monster eating orb and dying
* Fixed typo in monster pit feeding screen

BUGFIXES (4 features)

Couple of loose bugfixes, cheers Mithc for the reports!

* Fixed Akall fortress text bug (credit Mithc)
* Fixed text and grammar issues in the south coast
* Fixed mad king execution typo (credit Mithc)
* Fixed blackmarket troop indicator bug when installing troops

EVERYTHING ELSE (1 feature)

* Rewrote destroyed blackmarket text

SCREENSHOTS

* New Northwatch menu - https://i.imgur.com/khENN8Q.png
* New Troop screen in Northwatch - https://i.imgur.com/eqCFzC6.png
* New option in the monster feed screen - https://i.imgur.com/boPZYEm.png
* Monster Stronk now! - https://i.imgur.com/tWyiCLp.png

WHAT'S NEXT

Hey everyone, I'm doing a bit of spring cleaning of my Warsim to-do list recently clearing loose ideas collected over the years. My next update will be looking into Bandit gangs and the potential of new groups rising where others fall.

I hope everyone is doing good and staying as safe as they can!

 

[Theodora]

Decent impression for people who don't know what this is.

 

[Wastelander404]

Hello everyone,

So I've been working on this update for the past week or so after having something similar on my to-do list and having had the general idea suggested a few times by players.

The idea is that new minor bandit gangs should spring up as other falls, while still allowing players to completely wipe bandits out and prevent respawning. This idea gave birth to the general bandit level system.

The idea of a background general level of banditry is that a world with a big bandit problem would have plenty of groups quickly fill any power vacuums when older groups died off, however a world where bandits have been repeatedly killed off and given little chance to recover would only rarely see new groups rise up. And of course for those mass-murderin' completionists you can eradicate the bandit threat for good if you push hard enough.

Read more about the general bandit level below, or scroll further down to see a fully documented playtest in action (with screenshots) showing how I took a test world from completely infested with bandits to bandits being completely extinct.

-The General Bandit Level

The general bandit level is a number that represents the level of banditry in the realm. there are 10 different tiers it can be at;

* Completely Infested (90+)
* Infested (80+)
* Endemic (70+)
* Many-Hordes (60+)
* Horde-Like (50+)
* Emergent (40+)
* Minor (30+)
* Very Minor (20+)
* Petty (10+)
* Near-Extinct (1+)
* Extinct (0)

These levels effect several things in game, firstly they affect the number of troops bandit groups recruit each year. In realms where the bandit level is extremely high minor bandit gangs and Phenor's Bandit horde will get up to an extra 3x bonus in number of recruits, and at extremely low levels of banditry they get half of their average recruits.

The level also effects the odds of both the bandit level increasing each year and the likelihood of new bandit gangs popping up to fill the void of old dead bandit gangs. If a realm is infested you will see new gangs spring up almost instantly to take their place, but with each group of bandits killed and certain laws passed the bandit level will drop.

It is possible to play with this feature in a number of ways, you can take a hardline stance against the bandits and wipe out any minor gang the moment they rise, capture all bandit forts and put anti-bandit laws in place such as the Bandit Scourge. Over time you will see this bandit level drop with the ability to push them to extinction. You may also just keep the bandits level at bay, crushing disobedient hostile bandit groups but ignoring other more compliant ones. You may also wish to leave the bandits to their own devices, this is especially effective if rival factions have more hatrid for bandits as this will thin them out with the constant fighting.

-New Bandit Gangs

New bandit gangs don't just come out of thin air, there are 20 possible origins for these gangs, many of them only possible in certain scenarios. One bandit gang may be formed out of your own Bandit units, but this would only happen if you were a popular and kind ruler, if you were an evil and unpopular one the bandits wouldn't abandon you.

Another bandit gang could be formed of breakaways pulling directly from the Bandit Horde, the Blackmarket, the North Merc Post, Fort Northwatch, or any number of other bandit filled regions. Of course if those locations were destroyed or owned by you and missing their bandit garrisons, this wouldn't happen.

It's even possible for a mercenary group (as long as not under contract with you) turning to banditry, meaning they have the same leader and the same number of men, so keep an eye on those tough mercenary groups, and if you fill a mercenary group with 10'000 of your own soldiers and then fire the group, you'll bet there's a possibility that those 10'000 men could become nasty raiding bandits so be mindful.

-A Tale of a Playtest

https://i.imgur.com/er351Gt.png

I playtested setting the bandit level near it's max of 100 which is 'completely infested', from here I set out to completely wipe out the bandit population and reduce the bandit level to 0.

https://i.imgur.com/vYh0GVd.png

There were five minor bandit gangs at game start, two of them starting with a truce with me (that won't last). I went out and hired a tough mercenary group which had four attacks per year and very tough warriors with 120 battlescore each. I hired them and filled their ranks with all of my soldiers and then sent them to fight against the weakest minor bandits and invade their lands.

https://i.imgur.com/WJQIALt.png

One of the groups fell pretty early and the bandit level was dropped by 3. Not long afterwards that same turn a second group fell knocking the bandit level down by another 3.

https://i.imgur.com/LFLXCqr.png

At the end of that turn the bandit level rose by 1 naturally, and a new group arose in the place of one of the dead ones. This group was called the Burgling Sons and was made of old deserters and runaways. Meanwhile one of the kingdoms in my game defeated a third minor bandit gang knocking the level down by another -3.

https://i.imgur.com/o3lpr9c.png

Next turn I focused my efforts on crushing this new bandit group first, with their defeat and another -3 bandit level this took the total to 87, and dropped it from Completely Infested to Infested.

https://i.imgur.com/nei8q5h.png

With these many bandit gangs cut down I decided to focus my effort on the bandit horde and other bandit owned locations to reduce the total bandit level further.

https://i.imgur.com/bYb1WL8.png

After a lot of mercenary effort the bandit horde was on it's knees, with them gone the bandit level dropped a whopping 10 points as the bandit horde was a big and important part of bandit influence in the realm.

https://i.imgur.com/QJLOtM9.png

Now the problem has dropped down to being endemic, ended now are the times of huge recruitment bonuses for bandit factions, but the realm is still pretty bandit-filled, much more work to do.

https://i.imgur.com/KcgTMpL.png

https://i.imgur.com/fi8ywz9.png

The next turn the bandit level rose by 1, and two new bandit groups arose; one made up of hireable bandits from the Northern Merc Post (called the Unabashed Lobster Pillagers LOL), and the other a group of disgruntled peasants. I quickly set my sights on these newly spawned groups and looked to put them down.

https://i.imgur.com/kaDUg4M.png

With them both dead there were no active bandit gangs and the bandit level was reduced to 66, or 'Many Hordes'. We're getting somewhere but there's still work to be done.

https://i.imgur.com/0cjUKKp.png

I captured the Blackmarket knocking 3 more levels of banditry down, and captured Fort Northwatch for another 3 pointer.

https://i.imgur.com/07qvjaF.png

https://i.imgur.com/TACB36w.png

At the end of that turn the bandit level rose by 1, and two more bandit groups sprang up. They were a group of robbers and outlaws called 'Green Scouts', and a mutiny of every bandit in my whole army who formed a new group called the 'Tall Association' the Bastards. I prepared to attack, hitting the mutineers first.

https://i.imgur.com/OFgLoUb.png

Now the bandit level was at 55, Horde-Like. Finally the bandit problem was falling under control and no active group bar the garrison of Fort Kullak were filling the power vacuum... But of course more came.

https://i.imgur.com/EviwCRc.png

Opportunists from Fort Kullak split off and formed a new gang, weakening the garrison of the fort at the same time. There were only 115 of them and they were quickly cut down.

https://i.imgur.com/BoCJOcx.png

The next turn the bandit level rose again, and three new groups popped up to fill the void. One of these was a mercenary group called the Daylight Eagles who I'd contracted with in the past to fight against these bandit gangs... I trusted you.

https://i.imgur.com/9DDTmkP.png

These three new groups were quick to fall at the hands of my bulked up mercenary companies and soon the bandit level was looking even better at 45, now banditry was an emergent threat rather than a looming horde in the background.

https://i.imgur.com/eIphi2b.png

Waiting 2 years a new bandit group made up of sea raiders landed, they were the United Sons. I crushed them, but now will slower appearing bandit groups due to the lower level I set to new ways to reduce their number, Laws.

https://i.imgur.com/lwPMUdz.png

I declared a bandit scourge and offered 5 gold per head for any bandit captured, this instantly lowered the bandit level by 2 and will further drop it by 1 each turn from now on. I also enacted the rehabilitation law costing me 1k per turn but helping reform those who may have chosen the way of the bandit. This also dropped the bandit level by 2 and would further drop it by 1 each year. Now with these expensive laws I could help bleed the bandit level down as time goes on.

https://i.imgur.com/5PnrGpB.png

After a few years and one or two pop up gangs being crushed the bandit level was now 'Very Minor' at 28, the end is near!

https://i.imgur.com/Q9qO8Ja.png

Another 10 years and three new groups and the bandit level was down to 14, or 'Petty'. Once the bandit level goes below 10 no new bandit groups can spawn and the bandit level can't naturally increase so unless you cancel some anti-bandit laws and close down your prison once it goes beyond that point the bandits aren't likely to return.

https://i.imgur.com/tOzf32n.png

After another 5 years, one the year my anti-bandit laws dropped the bandit level to 9, 'Near-Extinct' would you believe it, two bandit gangs arise in the final moments. I put them down with my superior merc army and dropped the bandit level to

https://i.imgur.com/DOr2hcU.png

Now with all the groups dead and no chance of any new ones spawning I'm left with only one option to root out the very final remnants of the bandit scourge on my realm. Using my spymaster I gain a new option to 'Attempt to root out the last remnants of banditry'

https://i.imgur.com/0EyUKhO.png

It was a success and my spymaster was able to find the last vestage of banditry, a small hidden group called the Nightfall Virgil, 339 bandits strong... They were short work for my men!

https://i.imgur.com/8jFDuhy.png

And that's it, bandits Extinct. There's still a group of bandits up in Fort Kullak but they are isolated, banditry in the realm in general is over.

-121.5 Million New Bandit Graphics


https://i.imgur.com/UH0aRr1.png

While this is a fun little extra for the update, it's nothing game-changing. Now each bandit group will have their own troop image, a unique style for their troops. There are 121.5 million of these graphics in total so you'll never see the same one twice!

You can also play around with this in the extras and generators screen with a brand new random generation tool.

-What's Left?

So it's very close to being finished but I still have a number of things I need to test and a couple of other features to look at, hopefully this update will be released some time this week.

Thank you all and hope you're all doing good and staying safe

Cheers

Huw

 

[pakoito]

One week's worth of work for you is an AAA's full game.

 

[Wastelander404]

pakoito Thanks man, maybe it's the ease of working with the text-based code, or the extra time within the lockdown.

Appreciate the kind words though, these sort of comments are the best fuel for wanting to develop more

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your patience on this one, I'm proud to announce the 'Bandits of the Realm' update. This update completely reworks how minor bandits work and adds a sort of background population of bandits. It's now possible that a realm can become infested with bandits, where all bandit factions gain huge recruitment bonuses, and any defeated minor bandit gangs are quickly replaced with new ones. Of course the bandit level can be reduced by defeating these gangs and putting down any bandit influence in the realm as well as enacting policy.

My recent post about this update with a fully documented infested bandit playthrough can be seen here - https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/659540/view/2209525206376708977

BANDITS OF THE REALM (19 features)

I've tried to split the update into a few categories but most of the major stuff is here!

* Added new general bandit level system tracking the level of banditry in the realm
* Added randomisation for starting general bandit level based on current existing factions (ie if Bandit Horde exists)
* Added new bandits of the realm screen with 11 dynamic graphics and tiers
* Added tracker showing all active bandit groups in the realm
* Added ability to ask how you can reduce the bandit level
* Added ability to ask how you can increase the bandit level
* Added ability for new bandit groups to arise at the end of a turn if there are free slots (depending on how high the bandit level is)
* Added the ability to disable notifications of new bandit groups popping up
* Added ability to view the current effects of the bandit level
* Added 'secret' code 69 which if entered on bandits of the realm screen sets the bandit level to something random
* Removed diplomacy skill requirement to see minor bandit groups
* Renamed minor bandit groups section of diplomacy to bandit groups
* if game start with no minor bandit groups then bandit groups section is renamed to bandits of the realm and takes you directly to bandits of the realm assessment screen
* Added all minor bandit gangs get a custom and unique graphic for what their troops look like (121.5 million total)
* All newly spawned bandit groups get completely random relations with all factions in the game
* Added ability to choose a custom bandit level when playing a custom game (in the bandit scenario settings)
* Added new cheat code 450 (allows bandit level to be set to anything you wish)
* Reworked view minor bandit stats to show proper unit breakdown now
* Added if loading a save from pre-bandit update, bandit level will be randomised upon load

NEW BANDIT GANG FORMATION ORIGINS (21 features)

As the game progresses and some gangs fall, new ones will rise to take their place (if the bandit level isn't below 9). With each gang destroyed the bandit level will drop, keep chopping these gangs down and eventually your bandit problems will permanently disappear.

* Added outlaws and robbers bandit gang spawn origin
* Added landless marauders bandit gang spawn origin
* Added road robbers bandit gang spawn origin
* Added ravers bandit gang spawn origin
* Added landed sea raiders bandit gang spawn origin
* Added looters bandit gang spawn origin
* Added mountain bandits bandit gang spawn origin
* Added disgruntled villagers bandit gang spawn origin
* Added old deserters bandit gang spawn origin
* Added backwater village militia bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Blackmarket Garrison offshoot (which takes troops from the Blackmarket garrison) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Merc band turning bandit (only if group is not hired by the player) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Blackmarket Mercenaries (which takes troops from the Blackmarket mercs) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Northern Merc Post Offshot (which takes troops from the northern merc post) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Northern Merc Post Entire garrison (which takes all hireable bandits from northern merc post) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Fort Kullak Offshoot (which takes troops from Fort Kullak's garrison) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Bandit Horde units offshoot (which takes troops from the Bandit Horde faction) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Fort Northwatch Offshoot (which takes troops from the Fort Northwatch garrison) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added Your bandits offshoot (only if you have a decent number of bandit units and your public opinion is above 0) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added All of Your bandits offshoot (only if you have a decent number of bandit units and your public opinion is above 50) bandit gang spawn origin
* Added ability to request not to see bandit group formation notifications on the pop up windows at the end of turn

ROOTING OUT THE LAST REMNANTS OF BANDITRY (5 features)

Have you reduced banditry to the brink? struggling to find those final pesky bandit groups? Fear not, send your spymaster to root out the remnant bandits, if successful you'll find a new bandit group made up of the last remnants which if destroyed will push that tiny bandit level even lower, keep it up and they'll be extinct.

* Added ability to send spymaster to find last remnants of banditry (only if bandit level above 0 but below 9, and all minor bandit gangs are dead, and you have a spymaster)
* Added if spymaster skill under 50 then 1 in 5 odds of finding remnant bandits
* Added if spymaster skill under 100 then 1 in 3 odds of finding remnant bandits
* Added if spymaster skill under 150 then 1 in 2 odds of finding remnant bandits
* Added if spymaster skill higher than 150 then always find remnant bandits

BANDIT LEVEL MODIFIERS (23 features)

As you and other groups exist and interact with bandits in your world the bandit level will rise and fall, if big bandit groups die off then overall banditry goes down, but a prison break? some pro-bandit laws? maybe you free 3000 of your bandit units and let them loose, then you'll see the bandit level skyrocket, helpful if you've got some rivals who are always picking fights with bandits.

* Added bandit level drops by 2 if a minor bandit gang is assimilated by you as bandit king
* Added bandit level drops by 3 if a minor bandit gang is destroyed by you or someone else
* Added bandit level drops by 10 if the bandit horde is destroyed by you or someone else, or bribed by you
* Added bandit level drops by 2 if you enact bandit scourge law (and -2 each year)
* Added bandit level drops by 2 if you enact the rehab law (and -1 each year)
* Added bandit level drops by 3 if you capture the Blackmarket
* Added bandit level drops by 3 if the (unowned) Blackmarket is destroyed in world events
* Added bandit level drops by 3 if you capture fort Northwatch
* Added bandit level drops by 3 if you capture fort Kullak
* Added bandit level drops by 2 if you re-enforce unenforced laws
* Added bandit level drops by 2 if you re-open your closed prison
* Added bandit level drops by 3 if you cancel the evil pillaging law
* Added bandit level raises by 3 if you enact the evil pillaging law
* Added bandit level raises by 1 if there is a prison break
* Added bandit level raises by 3 if Phenor successfully pulls off a bandit truce between the horde and minor gangs
* Added bandit level raises by 3 if you close your prison
* Added bandit level raises by 1 for every 150 prisoners freed when closing your prison
* Added bandit level raises by 2 if you allow outlaws back into society
* Added bandit level raises by 3 if you lose Blackmarket to bandit rebels
* Added bandit level raises by 2 if you cancel or can't pay the rehab law
* Added bandit level raises by 2 if you cancel or can't pay the bandit scourge
* Added bandit level raises by 1 for every 150 of your bandit units that you disband from your army
* Added code to prevent bandit level increasing beyond 100 and below 0

BANDIT LEVEL EFFECTS (19 features)

The bandit level of the realm effects many things, mainly how quickly new gangs arise, how quickly the bandit level continues to grow, and the recruitment bonuses for bandit factions.

* Bandit level of 90+ gives bandit horde, bandit gangs, and player if bandit king origin 3x recruitment bonus
* Bandit level of 90+ allows new minor bandit groups to instantly replace dead ones at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 90+ grants 5/6 chance of bandit level increasing by +1 at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 80+ gives 50/50 chance any empty bandit gang slot will have a replacement gang take over at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 70+ grants 4/6 chance of bandit level increasing by +1 at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 70+ gives bandit horde, bandit gangs, and player if bandit king origin 2.5x recruitment bonus
* Bandit level of 60+ gives 25% chance any empty bandit gang slot will have a replacement gang take over at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 50+ grants 3/6 chance of bandit level increasing by +1 at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 50+ gives bandit horde, bandit gangs, and player if bandit king origin 2x recruitment bonus
* Bandit level of 40+ gives 1/6 chance any empty bandit gang slot will have a replacement gang take over at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 30+ gives 1/7 chance any empty bandit gang slot will have a replacement gang take over at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 20+ gives 1/8 chance any empty bandit gang slot will have a replacement gang take over at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 10+ gives 1/9 chance any empty bandit gang slot will have a replacement gang take over at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 25+ grants 2/6 chance of bandit level increasing by +1 at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 25+ gives bandit horde, bandit gangs, and player if bandit king origin 1.5x recruitment bonus
* Bandit level of 10+ grants 1/6 chance of bandit level increasing by +1 at the end of turn
* Bandit level of 9 or less theres no chance of bandit level naturally increasing
* Bandit level of 9 or less theres no chance of new bandit gangs spawning
* Bandit level of 9 or less gives bandit horde, bandit gangs, and player if bandit king origin half their normal bandit recruits

REWORKING BANDIT ASSIMILATION (7 features)

Bandit assimilation was a feature available to players who chose/or got the Bandit King origin story, with it players with under 20 public opinion are able to attempt to assimilate minor bandit gangs into their kingdom, previously this had a 100% success rate but has now been reworked and given a cooldown as well as several issues with it fixed.

* Made bandit king assimilating minor bandit gangs not 1 in 3 odds of success instead of 100% of the time
* Limited player to one attempt per year of assimilating each gang
* Removed irrelevant text from successful assimilation screen
* Fixed 0 gold gained being shown in assimilation screen
* Fixed 0 bandits gained being shown in assimilation screen
* Fixed 0 warlords gained being shown in assimilation screen
* Added new screen for failed assimilating attempt with 3 different dialogues

DEAD GANGS (4 features)

It's always been possible that bandit gangs end up with no men but still hold land, in that event visiting said gang in diplomacy will now show a different menu where the desperate gang leader will always be willing to buy new troops at an inflated rate.

* Added new minor bandit gang diplomacy screen variant if gang has no troops
* Added ability to sell troops to desperate troopless bandit for twice normal sell value (20 gold)
* Added new dialogue and sfx when trying to talk to bandit leader of troopless gang
* Added indicator on troop sell screen showing exactly how many they can afford to buy from you

CHEAT UPDATES (8 features)

Added a new cheat for the bandit system and ended up reworking several other cheat related features!

* Added new cheat code 450 (allows bandit level to be set to anything you wish)
* Reworked 111 cheat code list to include all cheat codes
* Reworked layout of 111 cheat code list
* Reworked order of cheats to be in numerical order on cheatlist
* Added text blurb for each cheat code to 111 cheat code list
* Reworked layout of 211 Debug code list
* Updated set your origin cheat to include new origins
* Reworked layout of set your origin cheat

NEW BANDIT GRAPHICS (5 features)

A new system built on a whim that has over 121.5 million possible unique bandit troop graphics!

* Added new proc gen bandit graphic system capable of producing 121.5 million unique troop images
* Added bandit troop graphic generator to extras and generators
* Added text section to the graphic generator explaining it's origin
* Added bandit troop graphic concept notes to Warsim extras folder
* Added if loading a save from pre-bandit update, bandit gangs with receive random troop graphics

INTEREST-ING (1 feature)

Quite a neat idea by NotFox, now you'll be able to see your expected interest when you have money in the bank.

* Added indication of expected bank interest (credit NotFox)

HUNGRY MONSTERS (1 feature)

A good point made by Odieman, you couldn't feed prisoners to your monsters, now you can!

* Added the ability to feed monsters your prisoners (Credit odieman222)

VICTORY SCREENS REWORKED (17 features)

The screens for defeating factions are a little outdated, now they've all been updated with a slightly new layout. Also defeating mercenaries and kingdoms grants new different rewards than before!

* Added new small group of imprisoned soldiers victory screen reward for defeating a kingdom
* Added new reserves and hopefuls victory screen reward for defeating a kingdom
* Added new peasant rally victory screen reward for defeating a kingdom
* Added new famed knights army victory screen reward for defeating a kingdom
* Added new outlaw group victory screen reward for defeating a kingdom
* Added new peasant prisoner group victory screen reward for defeating a kingdom
* Added new treasury looted victory screen reward for defeating a kingdom
* Made reward for defeating merc groups varied between 100-4100 instead of always 1000 gold
* Made new screen for Minor goblin tribe joining you event after Krut Defeat
* Reworked minor bandit defeat screen and merged it into one
* Reworked rebels victory screens and fixed layout and grammar bugs
* Reworked bandit horde victory screens and fixed layout and grammar bugs
* Reworked Krut Victory screens and fixed grammar and layout bugs
* Reworked Erak Victory screens and fixed grammar and layout bugs
* Reworked Mercenary victory screens and fixed grammar and layout bugs
* Reworked independent kingdom victory screens and fixed grammar and layout bugs
* Reworked sentinel kingdom victory screens

BUGFIXES (18 features)

Lots of bugfixes in this, thanks to everyone who reported their issues!

* Fixed necromancer kingdoms raising the undead still happening even if the kingdom is dead
* Fixed space kingdoms blasting off event happening even if they are dead
* Fixed space kingdoms blasting off event happening even if they've already blasted off
* Fixed grammar issue in vassal independence text
* Fixed gold incorrectly shown as deducted from you when merc attack cancelled and refunded
* Fixed Nario asking how the party has been so far repeatedly
* Fixed slave revolt diplomacy unskilled diplomat warning missing
* Fixed deserters diplomacy unskilled diplomat warning missing
* Fixed theme music choice at new game improperly/not showing (active) indicator if no music selected
* Fixed getting rid of a champion in training at combat academy invalidates the training slot (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Fixed buy fort gorthmek option appearing twice (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Fixed issues with layout and false option number for ancient scythe in artifact market (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Fixed impassioned speech throne room text bug (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Fixed closing the prison text split issue
* Fixed bug with scrawny race prefix having spacing issues
* Fixed layout and text bug for love cultist throne room encounter
* Fixed what are you orders text bug issuing orders to knightly order
* Fixed extra line appearing on battle screen if not playing a timed game

CLEAR CODE (7 features)

Been clearing out some areas of the game with unused code from systesm I've worked on historically, pretty much all of this has literally no bearing on the game at all but I'm putting it here anyway.

* Removed bandit fort unused code
* Removed irrelevant code from monster fighting grand champion
* Removed uneeded code in independent messenger encounter
* Removed useless code from vampire bard guessing game
* Removed old useless remnant of custom game start code
* Removed loose useless code in game refresh phase
* Removed useless code for bards face colour

EVERYTHING ELSE (1 feature)

Noticed capturing fort northwatch didn't have it's own screen, now it does!

* Made new screen for capturing fort northwatch

SCREENSHOTS

* Infested realm - https://i.imgur.com/SpaIKGV.png
* Defeating the horde - https://i.imgur.com/Vr6h3qF.png
* New gang popping up - https://i.imgur.com/mNctuTY.png
* Almost all bandits gone - https://i.imgur.com/JDq1nY2.png
* Bandits gone - https://i.imgur.com/DtmOuoS.png
* New Bandit graphics - https://i.imgur.com/W5ziKAW.png

WHAT'S NEXT

I'm having a little break after this update and then I'm going to try and work through my backlog of bug reports and suggestions and look at some mercenary ideas from my to-do list.

Thank you for reading and hope you are all safe and well wherever you are!

Cheers

Huw

 

[thesecret1]

It's been nearly a year since I last played, so I decided to check out what had changed since by starting a new game on "Insane" difficulty. Sadly, the core issues with the game have remained mostly unchanged. I will try to outline them once more and with more focus on what's wrong and what consequences it causes.
Early game
The only difficult part of the game, in fact, mostly in that you're at the mercy of RNG if you picked one of the higher difficulties. Bandits tend to pocket literally all of your income every turn which can easily lead to a negative loop of desertion and defenselesness – even if you stored some of your money in the bank, where the bandits cannot reach it, your paymasters apparently cannot get in either, so all the wages will be left unpaid even if you have shitloads of wealth stashed away there. This effectively forces the player to either save scum, or, if he knows what's he's doing, to exploiting gambling.
Gambling is the best money source for both early and mid game and can carry you through early game no problem. You can usually make an educated guess on who will win based on his name (about 80% success rate no problem, many of the names are just dead giveaways – will you back someone named Frailback or whatever, or someone titled Champion of Ash?), but even if you lose your bet, you can just bet double and make it all back in the following bet. Or the one after that, etc. Basically, you literally cannot lose money in gambling if you have some sort of financial reserve to keep financing your double downs until eventually one succeeds, which is all you need to clean house. In the early early game, you do not have such a reserve, but you can get a loan from the bank which helps a lot, and you can explore north - there's blackmarket's fighter pit and the brawlpit where the stakes are lower (good for building financial reserve for the arena) and the naming conventions are even more braindead. Repeat every turn until late game where money is pointless. As for troops, just grab goblin slaves from the slaver and slave troops from slaver fort (also close up north) and you're basically unbeatable unless you're so unlucky as have some powerful asshole actually invade you on turn one or two or so (this is the part where RNG can actually snipe you).
Of course, I hear you say, if the system is so broken, then I'm just ruining the game for myself – shouldn't I just not use the exploit? Problem is, there is actually no other way to get any meaningful money in early game other than gambling – regular income is pitifully low and gets stolen by bandits all the time anyway, so it's just not an option. Regular income only becomes a thing after you reach midgame, where you have a fully staffed mine that throws you like 5k every turn, that's when regular income becomes somewhat relevant, but not before, and even then, you still earn much more through gambling, especially if you breed a really good arena champion for yourself.
Mid game
So you're fortified and no longer in danger of going bankrupt. What next? Next you conquer. Just spam those slave troops and goblins and you'll stand tall over any opponent, each land you conquer making your richer by boosting basically everything. Further boost it by some kingdom upgrades and... and the mid game is over. It's really short, the amount of turns it takes is the same as the amount of lands you wanna conquer, as you can only grab one per turn. You can kill every faction out there, but really, after you grab like 10 land or more, you're basically unstoppable.
Late game
You're the undisputed master of the land with no opposition. Now is probably the time you'll start exploring all those places on the map, etc., but it won't be much fun, because save for fluff, none of them are of any importance anymore. You have de facto infinite money and troops and that's basically the only resources in the game that matter. It's sad because a lot of the locations are very cool and interesting, but they just won't matter by the time you reach them; they cannot because early and mid game will be long behind you by then. There's some fun in touring all the places the first time, but the replay value of this entire segment becomes effectively zero.

tl;dr fix your damn economy, it's the single most massive issue with the game, even worse than the actual "war" part of "warsim" being extremely simplistic.

It doesn't matter how many trillions of faces your game has, it doesn't matter how many races and prefixes you include, it does not matter how much work you pour into making locations when core gameplay is this broken! People praise you everywhere across the thread over how much shit you get done in so little time (did they actually play the game, or do they just see a new update and write compliments? Why are there so many people kissing your ass but providing exactly zero feedback? Hell, the last person to actually give you any was me again, nearly a year ago!), but it's in fact all just decorations while the glaring issues have not been addressed whatsoever. I can barely tell I'm playing a different version of the game than I played last year because the actual core of the game is still the same and still as flawed. I realize this doesn't read easily, but dude, wake up.

 

[Wastelander404]

thesecret1

Hey,

Thanks for taking the time to write all of this, and firstly I'm sorry that after a year the various changes and additions haven't been noticable in the areas you were hoping for change.

What sort of measures do you think could be taken to make the economy different and better gameplay wise?

I totally agree that there aren't enough challenges and troubles late game that leave you basically supreme leader of the world once you get past a certain point. Open to ideas for this too!

As for the combat stuff I am still planning on doing a rework but have been cutting down my checklists of other features alongside it and definitely need to return and finish the combat soon.

Thanks again and looking forward to your response

Cheers

Huw

 

[pakoito]

Maybe some ragnarok/demon invasion/undead apocalypse or an opposing lord. Something that feels like a condensed Final Fantasy questline.

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone,

This update is me catching up on player reports and the result of some playtesting. We've got better village champion battles, slight tweaks to tournaments, tweaks to the stones of the realm, more loot, better fort demotion, a new system for kingdom names, improvements on a special event, a fix for some combat issues, and tons of other bugfixes and improvements.

VILLAGE CHAMPIONS IMPROVED (14 features)

The challenging village champions system was an afterthought, you send a champion to fight and kill the village champions if they win cool, if they lose you lose a champion... Boring. Now when you win you'll be shown the rival champion being burried and then will be awared a random item of loot from the village. While adding this in I also reworked and fixed several things in these villages champion challenge system and beyond.

* Added defeating village champion gives you a random item reward from the village
* Added new screen and sfx for defeated Rihhm champion being buried
* Reworked who shall challenge village champion screen and blocked empty champion slots
* Added 3 new random screens at start of smallhaven champion challenge
* Added new screen and sfx for defeated Smallhaven champion being buried
* Added new screen for Smallhaven new champion announcement
* Fixed Rihhm village champion doesn't want to talk to you text bug
* Fixed ransacked Smallhaven screen text bugs
* Fixed abandoned Smallhaven screen text bugs
* Fixed burned Smallhaven screen text bugs
* Fixed ransacked rihhm screen text bugs
* Fixed abandoned rihhm screen text bugs
* Fixed burned rihhm screen text bugs
* Fixed text bugs in Rihhms pre-champion challenge text

TOURNEY TWEAKS (5 features)

NotFox on steam noticed that his grand champions strength was changing after tournaments, this was due to bonus strength rewards granted to the champions but they weren't visibly shown, now there are indicators showing the change as well as a few other tweaks!

* Fixed grammar issues in many tournament screens
* Added indicator at end of 8 man tournament of +1 strength reward for winner
* Added indicator at end of 16 man tournament of +2 strength reward for winner
* Added indicator at end of 32 man tournament of +3 strength reward for winner
* Added indicator at end of grand tournament of +3 strength reward for winner

THE STONES OF THE REALM (15 features)

There are many (mainly northern) stones that can be touched and rubbed for various effects, in a playtest I realised some parts of these were lacking, now they've all been reworked!

* Added new sound effect for rubbing a stone
* Added new screen for rubbing the doomstone
* Added new screen for rubbing the explorers stone (with indicator of gained explore chance)
* Added new screen for rubbing the old stone
* Added new screen for ancient northern stone
* Added new screen with sfx for destroying ancient north stone
* Added destroying ancient north stone gives -2 public opinion
* Reworked ancient north stone secret screen
* Added new sound effect to ancient north stone secret screen
* Added new screen to rubbing the goblinstone
* Added new screen to rubbing the strengthstone
* Added new screen to rubbing the harveststone
* Fixed missing line in destroying strength stone screen
* Fixed ancient north stone secret skipping
* Fixed old stone undead horde event missing line

MOAR LOOT (20 features)

As always, seeing as a new loot reward system has been added I thought I'd broaded the loot list again!

* Added 'rare mispressed gold coin with two kissing heads' random loot artifact (worth 100 gold)
* Added 'shield made of troll hide' random loot artifact (worth 110 gold)
* Added 'statue of a peasant man' random loot artifact (worth 40 gold)
* Added 'demonic lute' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'rusty old spear' random loot artifact (worth 5 gold)
* Added 'broken orcish talisman' random loot artifact (worth 6 gold)
* Added 'fake orcish talisman' random loot artifact (worth 3 gold)
* Added 'ancient orcish talisman' random loot artifact (worth 125 gold)
* Added 'mysterious rainbow coloured coin' random loot artifact (worth 150 gold)
* Added 'crown of interlaced severed fingers' random loot artifact (worth 70 gold)
* Added 'statue of a goblin head made of goblin dung' random loot artifact (worth 5 gold)
* Added 'jar of gnome poo' random loot artifact (worth 4 gold)
* Added 'diamond claw' random loot artifact (worth 350 gold)
* Added 'green emerald claw' random loot artifact (worth 150 gold)
* Added 'blue sapphire claw' random loot artifact (worth 140 gold)
* Added 'topaz claw' random loot artifact (worth 130 gold)
* Added 'yellow amber claw' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'green malachite claw' random loot artifact (worth 100 gold)
* Added 'red opal claw' random loot artifact (worth 90 gold)
* Added 'fire opal claw' random loot artifact (worth 115 gold)

CHAMPIONS RETURNED (4 features)

When you demoted champions from their positions running your fortresses for you they were gone forever, now if there is room for them they return as a champion and if not you are asked if you are sure you want to demote them as they'll be removed forever!

* Added demoting leader of Northwatch allows for them to be returned as a champion (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Added demoting leader of Restored North fort allows for them to be returned as champion (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Added demoting leader of Gorthmek allows for them to be returned as a champion (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Added demoting leader of Kullak allows for them to be returned as a champion (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)

KINGDOM NAMES (2 features)

When asking for a random kingdom name I felt most of the random ones weren't satisfactory, now there's a huge mix of cool names for your kingdom if you don't fancy Aslona!

* Added new system when asking for a random kingdom name at game start with 2/3 chance to pool from new list of kingdom names
* Added 512 new kingdom names

INCREASED CIVILITY EVENT (4 features)

It's rare but theres always been 1 in 100 chance that a group with less than 3 civilisation level could gain 1 civ level in a special event, this event previously was a line of text in the end of turn report screen but now it has it's own pop up event so if it happens you don't miss it!

* Added new screen for when independent kingdom increases it's civility in random end of turn event
* Added special notification showing if they have increased to diplomatic and trade level
* Added special notification showing their strength bonus
* Made new sound effect for independent kingdom gaining civility (modelled a little after the monolith scene from 2001: a space odyssey)

MAJOR COMBAT FLAW (5 features)

Bay12 forum member EuchreJack pointed out that attacking minor bandits with mercenaries, even if the mercs lost any of the surviving minor bandits from the battle wouldn't return home. I checked this and found that it went way deeper and effected all factions and sometimes even non-merc attacks. The code involved would have been the same for years so this bug has existed for almost all of Warsims development and gone unnoticed. I always remember seeing situations where factions lost a bunch of troops post battle but I just assumed I'd not been paying attention and they'd been attacked by someone else in the meantime. Thanks EuchreJack for reporting it!

* Fixed minor bandit troop issue (credit EuchreJack)
* Fixed krut and erak troop issue (credit EuchreJack)
* Fixed bandit horde troop issue (credit EuchreJack)
* Fixed rebel troop issue (credit EuchreJack)
* Fixed independent kingdom issue (credit EuchreJack)

BUGFIXES (20 features)

* Fixed destroyed bandit group showing random troop graphic instead of their actual troop graphic
* Fixed darkdale kings having the sir title resulting in king sir whatever
* Fixed orc name 'Kashthullurtz' having broken character inside the name
* Fixed Darkdale fort graphic extra space breaking the graphic
* Fixed missing indicator you can tell jokes in Darkdale tavern
* Fixed two bandit spawn chance texts showing up by mistake
* Fixed sounds not resetting when paying fee to look at Karalds Trophy room in smallhaven
* Fixed sounds not resetting after laughing man of smallhaven
* Fixed demon summoning in Blackmarket has no screen
* Fixed songwood and wildwood partially explored not showing option to return to previous region
* Fixed bandit assimilation system cooldown not working
* Fixed 'yoi want us to be lapdogs' bandit rejection text bug
* Fixed mercs from north merc post forming gang even if north merc post is ruined (credit NotFox)
* Fixed extra line in capturing fort gorthmek gold
* Fixed no gold check when paying for peace with krut or erak (takes you to minus gold if you don't have it)
* Fixed fix up and lands text bug (credit TuGun Jr)
* Fixed peasants shown instead of soldiers on soldiers to knight training screen (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Fixed mine sounds playing if you have sounds disabled (credit u/internetfunnyman1000)
* Fixed rubbing doomstone doesn't give gameover screen, just closes game (credit u/Dalajnikon)
* Fixed game starting with no minor bandits but new ones spawning blocking you from seeing them (credit Omer)

EVERYTHING ELSE (7 features)

* Added new indicator of how many jokes attempts you have left in Darkdale taverns
* Added sound effect to smallhaven recruitment screen
* Added new indicators of gold lost for demon house in Blackmarket
* Reworked capturing fort gorthmek text
* Reworked game stats screen a bit
* Removed irrelevant bandit id code
* Reworked game over screen with missing line and colour

SCREENSHOTS

* Village champion reward - https://i.imgur.com/3boTXya.png
* Tournament winner - https://i.imgur.com/dZKqy9z.png
* Civilised - https://i.imgur.com/5mjpl0S.png
* Returned Commander - https://i.imgur.com/hFZJzI9.png

WHAT'S NEXT

I'm aiming to take a look at mercenaries and identify some possible improvements and changes as well as still clearing through a small backlog of bugreports and issues from players.

Cheers

Huw

 

[thesecret1]

What sort of measures do you think could be taken to make the economy different and better gameplay wise?

Well, when fixing economy, you need to simply break it down and list where the player gets income and where he parts with his money. Ideally, you'd want a situation where the money does not stack up in the player's pockets, ie. the output is the same or larger than the input. This makes player actually value money and makes him try to scrape up every coin. On the flipside, you do not want to starve the player so much as to force him to wait 20 turns to have spare change, nor to effectively kill his chances at survival. Right now, you have an issue in the input, which is gambling – the income from it is so massive that it trivializes the game even at insane difficulty as the player starts stacking up money at a rapid pace. You definitely should change that – gambling should be something extra to make on the side, not the player's main source of income.

Before you do anything about that, however, you need to address the fact that without gambling, there is actually way too little input. Peasants net you zero at game start because even if you do have any, their revenue is tiny and they are the very first to be slaughtered should anyone attack you. I find that really stupid - why are my money makers placed in the first line of defense? I realize they are the cheapest unit (well, cheapest basic unit, anyway - there are much cheaper units out there), but I actually use them for something other than fighting, so I definitely do not want to have them wiped every time. Taxes alone also don't net too much, and they'd probably have to all be spent just on recruiting more troops to replace the losses from enemies raiding you. That is, if you actually had any money from taxes, because it will likely all get stolen by bandits. Really, the whole bandits thing is just a kick in the nuts for a starting player – they steal literally ALL of his income almost every turn so he cannot even pay the wages for his troops, much less recruit more of them or build kingdom upgrades. I do not think it is possible to actually survive early game on higher difficulties without gambling, at least not without insane amounts of save scumming.

What I'd suggest is reworking the way regular income is handled, because early game is not its only issue – after you get out of early game and pass midgame, it actually starts generating way too much, resulting in infinite money. It's just a bad system that only works the way you'd like during a very small time frame during midgame, otherwise it either nets way too little or way too much. Also do something about the bandits early game, seriously, it's ridiculous to start several turns in a row with zero money because of something you have no control over. It's not even a fight, it's just an event with high chance of happening until you build palisade upgrades (which you have no money for, because it all gets stolen).

What I think you should do first of all, however, is actually play your game. Play it on some higher difficulty and see if you can actually survive, see how much gambling gives you, etc. You will spot all of these issues very quickly yourself.

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey thanks again for taking the time.

I'm going to break my response down to sections because there's a lot of separate good points you made here.

FIXING ECONOMY

I totally see your point, rather than being advertised as a personal bank account it could be treated on the same page of the income and expenses showing how changes in policy and industry could reflect them changing. I have plans for commodity trade systems with different kingdoms having a supply of different items and so on. I suppose with the changing value of this stuff it could allow for big profits or losses for the player. This is going to be a tough one though and will take a lot of work.

GAMBLING BEING THE WAY

Yeah it is the easiest path to finding wealth you can use to help with other aspects of the game, I need to further balance it. I'm not sure what the best way is, to increase the difficulty of success or to lower the maximum that can be gained? both or even something else? Would love to hear your thoughts.

MAKING THE ECONOMY NOT MAKING YOU INFINITELY RICH ONCE YOU GET ON TOP OF THINGS LATE GAME

That's a fair point, there are definitely many ways that make the late game player end in an almost godmode situation where loss never happened and nothing can threaten you too much. I tried to remedy this by making new kingdoms spawn once the previous ones were crushed, Each set of 5 kingdoms crushed of subjugated the next ones are 10x bigger and 10x more populated. Growing to the point you'll be finding 100 land empires. After that it slows down because even with mercenaries at full pelt it takes longer to beat them turn by turn. I plan to change this a bit with the combat update with bigger kingdoms having more than one attack per turn, maximum 10 attacks or something like that excluding mercenaries.

What do you recommend for making the economy weaker or more logically flowing in late game. Random misfortune events or something like that? I'm interested in your thoughts on this one.

GETTING RAIDED AND PEASANTS BEING KILLED

That's a very very good point. I have thought about it before and I feel that peasants should be protectable. Someone complained that peasants getting slaughtered and all your gold getting robbed without your men fighting them doesn't make any sense. It's true, it needs to be reworked. It could be reworked with either an internal guard faction in your kingdom which could be drained or filled with troops.

Guards could have a captain who spoke for them, they would have a recommended level per land like 100, if you had 100 lands you'd need 10000 guards. But each time you take a new region you don't automatically have the guards so you'd need to turn soldiers into guards.

Having too few could mean rule of law is weaker and banditry grows less impeded. Events surrounding crime and robbery could be rolled against guard level for their success, bandits raiding your kingdom could be checked against it, a force of only 10 guards per land could have a 1/2 odds of getting successfully raided by any bandit gang, but one with 150 guards would have a 1/10 chance and would usually jail/murder any caught.

The killing of peasants would instead be fighting with guards. You could have patrols which increase the odds of caravans not being raided and stuff like that. All awesome ideas that will set us back a month or two but will probably greatly improve the gameplay loop.

PLAY THE GAME MYSELF ON THE HARDEST GAMEMODE

What I think you should do first of all, however, is actually play your game. Play it on some higher difficulty and see if you can actually survive, see how much gambling gives you, etc. You will spot all of these issues very quickly yourself.

Totally, I've done this many times and I'm aware that it's a case of, you're probably going to be ok but the RNG can cut your legs off super early game and it could be the end for you. Getting a random start where the kingdoms occupying your world are all very friendly, open to trade, or alternatively peaceful to you but violent enough to eachother that they become vassalisably weak is great, but sometimes they are all savages, or are at war with you and ruthlessly attack you while forming evil leagues with eachother, many scary risks. There are lots of traps that can kill your chances early on but getting lucky and micromanging the slither of visitors you get to the throne room, exploring and location based opportunity, squeezing pennies out of anything you can It is possible. But gambling is also a nice quick way to pull gold from a pretty crude system, I've tried to balance it but I feel I'm perhaps not there yet.

Cheers again for writing all you did, It's all genuinely good feedback!

Huw

 

[thesecret1]

GAMBLING BEING THE WAY

Yeah it is the easiest path to finding wealth you can use to help with other aspects of the game, I need to further balance it. I'm not sure what the best way is, to increase the difficulty of success or to lower the maximum that can be gained? both or even something else? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Personally, I'd significantly lower the amount the player can earn from it. Arena should be more about raising a great champion (wins in tournament and fights could do more than just increase his strength by one, for example - slowly raise the one man army RPG protagonist that you want to send to solo dangerous places) than about raking in big bucks on bets. As for other pits, I think I found things like the scorpion pit to be about alright - sure, let the player earn like 500gp per turn from it. That's something nice-yet-not-decisive for early game, and does not matter afterwards, which is sort of fitting - the pot of some brawling pit should not be a tantalizing way to balance the budget for a ruler of an entire kingdom. It is critically important, however, that you put in a bet ceiling so that the player cannot just double down forever, otherwise it stops being gambling and becomes free money.

That's a fair point, there are definitely many ways that make the late game player end in an almost godmode situation where loss never happened and nothing can threaten you too much. I tried to remedy this by making new kingdoms spawn once the previous ones were crushed, Each set of 5 kingdoms crushed of subjugated the next ones are 10x bigger and 10x more populated. Growing to the point you'll be finding 100 land empires. After that it slows down because even with mercenaries at full pelt it takes longer to beat them turn by turn. I plan to change this a bit with the combat update with bigger kingdoms having more than one attack per turn, maximum 10 attacks or something like that excluding mercenaries.

Honestly this sounds like a patchwork solution. The root of the issue is that the player attained godmode so easily, not that there are no more things to fight – ideally, it should be a serious challenge to defeat the first five kingdoms; they should be dangerous enemies rather than free real estate. First fix to that is again fixing the economy so that the player cannot field ridiculously huge armies all the time. Second fix is to make the enemies stop being so passive. From what I've seen, they decide by RNG whether to raid or invade someone that turn and that's basically all they do. In reality, they should be able to put concentrated pressure on someone they perceive as a dangerous enemy and focus on him every single turn, they should be able to replace their losses by recruiting just like you do, they shouldn't basically let themselves bleed to death as you spam skirmish on them. Making a kingdom 10x the size just means it'll bleed 10x longer before dropping dead, but that's not fixing the issue.

What do you recommend for making the economy weaker or more logically flowing in late game. Random misfortune events or something like that?

Absolutely not. Misfortune events may decimate your savings a little, but savings are not the problem, it's the money intake that allows you to make large savings in the first place. The only fix for this is to rework the economy from the ground up, you have to change the way income is generated so that a situation where the player sits on 10 million just doesn't happen. You seem to consistenly bring up patchwork solutions, probably because they are usually very easy to implement, but that's just not how you'll ever reach a good system. A good system does not need arbitrary misfortune events or sudden demon invasions or similar things. Events should be there to spice up the gameplay by something new, not to try plugging the holes in the system itself.

That's a very very good point. I have thought about it before and I feel that peasants should be protectable. Someone complained that peasants getting slaughtered and all your gold getting robbed without your men fighting them doesn't make any sense. It's true, it needs to be reworked. It could be reworked with either an internal guard faction in your kingdom which could be drained or filled with troops.

I mean the easiest fix to this would be to simply allow you to choose which troops go in the frontline, which ones go in the second, etc. or at least give you the option to hide peasants at the very back (which makes sense - no sensible nation sends its civilians at the front, they are always the ones being protected and only fight when the enemy is past the walls and they have no other option). Sure, let a desperate player levy his peasants and march them to their death if he wants to, but it shouldn't be the default, and I definitely should have an option not to do that.

On a related note, I'd appreciate a way to order my frontlines. For example, soldiers, which are expensive, get killed before goblin slaves do. But goblin slaves is exactly the kind of fodder I'd like at the front so as to protect the soldiers, not the other way around.

Having too few could mean rule of law is weaker and banditry grows less impeded. Events surrounding crime and robbery could be rolled against guard level for their success, bandits raiding your kingdom could be checked against it, a force of only 10 guards per land could have a 1/2 odds of getting successfully raided by any bandit gang, but one with 150 guards would have a 1/10 chance and would usually jail/murder any caught.

Remember that the bandits are only an issue in the early game. Once you get some sort of income going, they won't be much of a bother anymore because you can just suffer them taking 1k from you each turn without too much pain. What you describe again sounds like something that I could use to prevent bandit raids only at a time when I no longer care about bandit raids, just like the palisade – by the time I have the money to buy the palisade and its upgrades, I no longer care about bandits raiding me. Again, play your game (for example, try a run where you do not use gambling at all – you will quickly get a feel for what the issue of bandit raids is).

I've done this many times and I'm aware that it's a case of, you're probably going to be ok

You are going to be ok if you gamble. You will absolutely not be ok if you don't gamble because you will immediately go bankrupt. I think a rule of thumb for testing the balance of the game should be trying to play it without using gambling at all. Maybe not necessarily on Insane, since that difficulty should (at least by the name) require heroic effort to survive, but even the difficulties before it suffer from the same issues.

Seriously though, change how regular income is generated, you won't get anywhere without that.

 

[Wastelander404]

Personally, I'd significantly lower the amount the player can earn from it. Arena should be more about raising a great champion (wins in tournament and fights could do more than just increase his strength by one, for example - slowly raise the one man army RPG protagonist that you want to send to solo dangerous places) than about raking in big bucks on bets. As for other pits, I think I found things like the scorpion pit to be about alright - sure, let the player earn like 500gp per turn from it. That's something nice-yet-not-decisive for early game, and does not matter afterwards, which is sort of fitting - the pot of some brawling pit should not be a tantalizing way to balance the budget for a ruler of an entire kingdom. It is critically important, however, that you put in a bet ceiling so that the player cannot just double down forever, otherwise it stops being gambling and becomes free money.

I totally see your points here, and I'm glad you feel the Scorpion pit to be alright. Perhaps the Arena would be fine as is but more difficult to call or with an odds system. I've tried to add randomisation where the arena can be found a small fight pit with limited crowds and low betting limits, but can be upgraded to a huge colliseum which has a lot of gold. You can try to buy it, attack it, own it etc. I've tried to make it make sense how much gold you can win but I suppose if the leader was losing that money all the time something would happen. Something to think about anyway. Definitely need to find some solution to stop it being such an easy tool.

Honestly this sounds like a patchwork solution. The root of the issue is that the player attained godmode so easily, not that there are no more things to fight – ideally, it should be a serious challenge to defeat the first five kingdoms; they should be dangerous enemies rather than free real estate. First fix to that is again fixing the economy so that the player cannot field ridiculously huge armies all the time. Second fix is to make the enemies stop being so passive. From what I've seen, they decide by RNG whether to raid or invade someone that turn and that's basically all they do. In reality, they should be able to put concentrated pressure on someone they perceive as a dangerous enemy and focus on him every single turn, they should be able to replace their losses by recruiting just like you do, they shouldn't basically let themselves bleed to death as you spam skirmish on them. Making a kingdom 10x the size just means it'll bleed 10x longer before dropping dead, but that's not fixing the issue.

LOL love the free real estate reference. All pretty good and valid feedback regarding the aggression of the enemies. They check how healthy they are and decide whether to attack or not then identify who they hate the most on average. Then select an attack type.

A level where the enemies strength is considered and threat level is also considered is a great idea and something I will be noting down. I totally see your point about how in general the AI isnt sophisticated. Another thing that should help is with the coming combat changes the size of the army you can send will be limited to the skill of whomever commands the army, your general, a random knight, a champion etc. Meaning no more steamroll armies.

Also great analogy about 10x longer bleeding.

Absolutely not. Misfortune events may decimate your savings a little, but savings are not the problem, it's the money intake that allows you to make large savings in the first place. The only fix for this is to rework the economy from the ground up, you have to change the way income is generated so that a situation where the player sits on 10 million just doesn't happen. You seem to consistenly bring up patchwork solutions, probably because they are usually very easy to implement, but that's just not how you'll ever reach a good system. A good system does not need arbitrary misfortune events or sudden demon invasions or similar things. Events should be there to spice up the gameplay by something new, not to try plugging the holes in the system itself.

All fair points, thanks!

I mean the easiest fix to this would be to simply allow you to choose which troops go in the frontline, which ones go in the second, etc. or at least give you the option to hide peasants at the very back (which makes sense - no sensible nation sends its civilians at the front, they are always the ones being protected and only fight when the enemy is past the walls and they have no other option). Sure, let a desperate player levy his peasants and march them to their death if he wants to, but it shouldn't be the default, and I definitely should have an option not to do that.

Right, but the attacks that are killing the peasants are internal and not happening on the military front lines. Still will look at guard solution for a later date!

On a related note, I'd appreciate a way to order my frontlines. For example, soldiers, which are expensive, get killed before goblin slaves do. But goblin slaves is exactly the kind of fodder I'd like at the front so as to protect the soldiers, not the other way around.

Yep thought about this before, I made a small change to it a while ago as peasants once were attacked before soldiers, I agree it would be great to be able to set some kind of preffered order or have generals make sure to organise in ways that certain units are more exposed. Can't guarentee this system will go straight into the first roll out of the new combat system but it's something to note for sure.

Remember that the bandits are only an issue in the early game. Once you get some sort of income going, they won't be much of a bother anymore because you can just suffer them taking 1k from you each turn without too much pain. What you describe again sounds like something that I could use to prevent bandit raids only at a time when I no longer care about bandit raids, just like the palisade – by the time I have the money to buy the palisade and its upgrades, I no longer care about bandits raiding me. Again, play your game (for example, try a run where you do not use gambling at all – you will quickly get a feel for what the issue of bandit raids is).

It's definitely something I need to experiment with and look at.

You are going to be ok if you gamble. You will absolutely not be ok if you don't gamble because you will immediately go bankrupt. I think a rule of thumb for testing the balance of the game should be trying to play it without using gambling at all. Maybe not necessarily on Insane, since that difficulty should (at least by the name) require heroic effort to survive, but even the difficulties before it suffer from the same issues.

I don't know about that one, I thought I'd take up the challenge try playing insane mode and avoid all gambling in the playthrough, including Brawl Pit, Fighter's Pit, Arena, Scorpion Pit, etc (Although I did rob every travelling game master who came trying to bet with me in the throne room)

I figured It could go either way but I managed to pull myself from a hole pretty early and got myself some territory from a bandit gang that got pumelled by some other kingdom. I built myself up quickly took down the rebels and managed to get myself into a favourable position enough that I could destroy the other kingdoms. There was one kingdom that was a little trouble 'Cursed Cove Demigods', they were tough and had a high population, but luckily their 'Curse' was that they were doomed to die at a prophecised date. It was the year 156 and the Doomstone said they were to die in the year 176, so I waited and they bit the dust in the doom event.

Admittedly it could have gone either way, but was fully able to do it without gambling.

Seriously though, change how regular income is generated, you won't get anywhere without that.

Noted

Thanks again for taking the time to write this stuff, hope you're doing well!

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone,

This update is pretty much entirely the result of bugfixing and playtesting, I found a lot of these things needing improvement in a single playthrough.

STAFF TWEAKS (6 features)

Noticed staff training was just a single text notification at the bottom of the screen, now it's got it's own screen and is a little tidier.

* Added new screens for cancelling training for court staff
* Added new screens for starting training for court staff
* Added new screens for being unable to afford court staff training
* Added new screens for cancelling/starting/not affording to train monster trainer
* Added new screens for cancelling/starting/not affording to train game master
* Fixed 24 text anf grammar bugs with staff training text

BANKING IMPROVEMENTS (5 features)

It occured to me while playtesting how bland the bank withdraw and deposit screens are, so now I've made a much more dynamic system of screens.

* Added new screens with 23 different dynamic graphics depending on withdrawal size for bank withdrawals
* Added new screens with 23 different dynamic graphics depending on deposit size for bank deposits
* Added new screen for depositing or withdrawing 1 gold
* Added new screen if you have no gold to withdraw or deposit
* Added new screens if you try to withdrawl or deposit more than you have

DARKDALE TWEAKS (2 features)

A couple of things needing improvement in Darkdale!

* Added indicators of gold loss and troops gained in Darkdale merc post
* Added current gold bar visible when looking at buying darkdale properties

ASSURAK IMPROVED (6 features)

Found several bugs and things needing improving when attacking Camp Assurak!

* Fixed Assurak camp ruin rewards not having indicators showing what was gained
* Fixed small gold desposit Assurak reward giving you peasants instead of gold coins
* Fixed handful of gold Assurak reward not giving you any gold
* Fixed gold deposit Assurak reward not giving you any gold
* Added chance of finding bones instead of troops in Assurak
* Added new seperate screen for gold loot in Assurak

WILDWOOD SAVAGE IMPROVEMENTS (3 features)

Playtested and found that screens for destroying these places was pretty lackluster, now they've been fixed up!

* Added new screen to destroying old ruined outpost village in Wildwood (with sfx)
* Added new screen for destroying savage village in wildwood (with sfx)
* Added new loot chest discovered when destroying savage village in wildwood (with sfx)

LOSING IN A VILLAGE (4 features)

After last updates improvements on champion challenges I thought I'd further improve the event of losing against a village, it has previously been a single screen but now there's a bit more too it. Also to add insult to injury losing to a village champion will always dock you -1 public opinion!

* Added losing village champion challenge gives -1 public opinion
* Added new indicator post champion challenge loss explaining your champion is killed
* Added new cheering screen and sound effect if you lose against a village
* Added new memorial screen and sound effect for your defeated champion

MONFORT MINE IMPROVED (3 features)

Came across occupied monfort mine in a playthrough and realised capturing and freeing it was just a line of text and didn't even have a screen, now there's 4 new screens and a reward too!

* Added new screen for capturing monfort mine
* Added new screen for defeating foreign group occupying monfort mine
* Added miners reward you with random loot item for freeing them from occupiers

DOOMSTONE IMPROVED (3 features)

Viewing the doomstone was just a small bit of text telling you if any kingdom are doomed, now it's much better and more dynamic!

* Added new screen for viewing the doomstone with dynamic graphic based on if any dooms are listed
* Fixed 10 grammar bugs in doomstone viewing text
* Added sound effect for viewing doomstone if any dooms are listed

NORTHERN ANIMAL FIGHT PIT (10 features)

Another playtest sweep, found quite a few things needing improvement here.

* Fixed you pass by a the animal fight pit bug
* Reworked animal fight pit owned and unowned intros
* Fixed animal fight pit gold bar and added a new gold bar
* Reworked ruined animal fight pit text
* Fixed 17 text bugs in Animal pit fights
* Added indicator of gold spent watching animal pit fight
* Added coin sound effect to paying to watch animal fight
* Fixed text bug when destroying animal pit
* Added new screen and sfx for upgrading animal pit (shows what effect the upgrade has)
* Added new screen for capturing the animal pit

ARASUK SETTLEMENT IMPROVED (25 features)

A playtest took me to Arasuk where I found quite a few lacking areas, tried to improve and fix all I could!

* Added new option to ask to challenge Arasuk champion
* Added new option to ask Arasuk elder about the demon totems (2 responses depending on demons defeated or not)
* Added new option to ask Arasuk elder about the shrine of Xzefrak (2 responses depending on demons defeated or not)
* Added new option to ask Arasuk elder about the Seer's Hut (2 responses depending on demons defeated or not)
* Added new option to ask Arasuk elder about the Wall of Old Propehcy (2 responses depending on demons defeated or not)
* Added new option to ask Arasuk elder about the Local book shop
* Added new option to ask Arasuk elder about the Sandman Tavern
* Added new option to ask Arasuk elder about recruiting from Arasuk
* Fixed Arasuk bookshop text bug
* Added march sound effect to recruiting troops from Arasuk
* Fixed typo in Arasuk elder intro
* Fixed text issue with recruitment in Arasuk
* Added new alt dialogue when asking about Arasuk with elder post demon gate destruction
* Reworked asking about Arasuk question with village elder
* Added the sandman tavern owner doesn't answer questions and wears a cloak if demon gate is destroyed
* Fixed text bug with Arasuk elder options
* Fixed text and spacing bug for rules of sudden death in Arasuk sandman tavern
* Fixed 2 text bugs in Arasuk hostile action screen
* Fixed missing gold loot indicator for looting Arasuk
* Added 50/50 chance of looting random item from Arasuk
* Fixed text bug in Arasuk loot screen
* Fixed looting Arasuk giving double destruction screen
* Reworked destroyed Arasuk screen
* Added missing book page turn sound effects to Arasuk library
* Reworked layout of Arasuk library book screens

DRYLANDS NOMADS IMPROVED (7 features)

Noticed a few issues here, now the nomad camp is improved and actually offers a reward for destroying it too.

* Added 4 loot item reward trove when defeating nomad camp in any state
* Fixed grammar issues with demonic Koova dialogue
* Fixed 6 text bugs in demonic drylands nomad camp
* Fixed 16 text bugs in normal drylands nomad camp
* Fixed grammar and text issues with normal koova dialogues
* Added new indicators of troop loss and new location gain when trading troops with Koova
* Added new screen for defeating nomad camp

MORE LOOT... AGAIN (25 features)

As with the last update, with new areas offering more random loot I thought I'd add more loot to ensure it doesn't get too repetetive. This update we've got new areas like the freed mine, the nomad camp, Arasuk, and the savage village offering loot!

* Added 'unicorn horn fashioned into a cup' random loot artifact (worth 155 gold)
* Added 'painting of a crying gnome' random loot artifact (worth 95 gold)
* Added 'painting of a goblin on another's shoulder' random loot artifact (worth 90 gold)
* Added 'painting of two knights dueling' random loot artifact (worth 85 gold)
* Added 'painting of a troll on a bridge' random loot artifact (worth 70 gold)
* Added 'sword made of hardened mud' random loot artifact (worth 5 gold)
* Added 'model skull made from troll dung' random loot artifact (worth 2 gold)
* Added 'jewelled obsidian dagger' random loot artifact (worth 246 gold)
* Added 'golden hilted obsidian dagger' random loot artifact (worth 320 gold)
* Added 'ancient demonic idol' random loot artifact (worth 166 gold)
* Added 'demonic drum' random loot artifact (worth 130 gold)
* Added 'old wooden smoking pipe' random loot artifact (worth 3 gold)
* Added 'wizards old smoking pipe' random loot artifact (worth 50 gold)
* Added 'obsidian smoking pipe' random loot artifact (worth 100 gold)
* Added 'jewelled smoking pipe' random loot artifact (worth 150 gold)
* Added 'jewelled obsidian smoking pipe' random loot artifact (worth 200 gold)
* Added 'gold smoking pipe' random loot artifact (worth 250 gold)
* Added 'jewelled gold smoking pipe' random loot artifact (worth 350 gold)
* Added 'dictionary of rude gnome names' random loot artifact (worth 60 gold)
* Added 'jar of witch warts' random loot artifact (worth 15 gold)
* Added 'jar of orc lips' random loot artifact (worth 20 gold)
* Added 'jar of severed cthuul tentacles' random loot artifact (worth 50 gold)
* Added 'jar of centaur hooves' random loot artifact (worth 45 gold)
* Added 'jar of imp tongues' random loot artifact (worth 30 gold)
* Added 'rusty old shield' random loot artifact (worth 5 gold)

EXPLORATION EVENTS POLISHED (10 features)

Noticed a sound bug with an exploration event, ended up fixing some other issues and adding new sound effects where there weren't any!

* Fixed peasants and soldiers for hire explore event not resetting sounds
* Added sound effect to Wagon man explore encounter
* Fixed wagon man explore encounter being available even if you don't have a trade post
* Added new screen for wagon man encounter if you haven't got the trade post (with sfx)
* Added new screen for trying to sell knight to foreign king when you have none
* Fixed text bug when selling knight to foreign king
* Added marching sound effect to foreign king explore encounter
* Added sound effect for receiving gold from selling knight to foreign king
* Fixed typo in chaos orb exploration encounter
* Added new sound effect to finding chaos orb while exploring

BUGFIXES (16 features)

* Fixed random chance of dead darkdale leader replacement turning darkdale into a vassal of you
* Fixed failure to recruit smallhaven people still gives sound effect
* Fixed village sound played incorrectly after defeating smallhaven champion
* Fixed gold from bet indicator popping up randomly at end of turn
* Fixed gold from bet indicator popping up after some village champion fights
* Fixed 3 text bugs in burned village ruins in the south
* Fixed 18 text grammar and spacing bugs in first southern totem
* Fixed 18 text grammar and spacing bugs in second southern totem
* Fixed 18 text grammar and spacing bugs in third southern totem
* Fixed 18 text grammar and spacing bugs in fourth southern totem
* Fixed error with Arasuk village elders face graphic
* Fixed 13 text bugs in Oasis region of the south
* Fixed spacing bug when buying monfort mine in throne room encounter
* Fixed 12 text bugs with big red canyon text
* Fixed 10 text bugs in Drylands locations
* Fixed text spacing bug with independent doom event

EVERYTHING ELSE (1 feature)

* Added 50 new kingdom names

WHAT'S NEXT

At this point I've mentioned I'm going to be starting on merc stuff twice now in these what's next sections, but genuinely, planning on look into it from monday!

Cheers

Huw

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone,

So once again a few days of catching up on bugreports and testing the game has led to another 100+ new features and changes!

NEW RACE PACK (1 feature)

Thank you so much to Defender from Audiogames.net for actually creating this race pack as a mod for the game, it's perfect and will be part of Warsim. Choosing a race pack means that the races are still random but pool from a more specific set of races.

* Added new 'Greek Mythology' race pack (Dryads, Satyrs, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Harpies, Tritons, Men, Elders, Oracles, Godlings, Demigods, Half-Giants, Cyclopes, Giants) (Credit Defender)

FOREIGN MERCS IMPROVED (4 features)

After fixing a bug found by Luel I noticed that foreign mercs could have been showing their faces instead of just a sword graphic coloured the same as their skin, a new system has been added now that will show you the faces of the foreign creatures you are hiring. Also added some missing info about gold and troop changes.

* Added graphic of creature faces when hiring foriegn mercs from foreign merc hall or Darkdale
* Added missing gold loss and troop gain indicators when buying foreign mercs
* Added missing march sound effect to buying foriegn mercs
* Fixed bug being unable to hire troops from Darkdale if hired from foreign merc hall first (credit Luel)

BANDIT DEN IMPROVEMENTS (5 features)

I've added a bit more that happens when you destroy a bandit den in the Blackmarket, now if you destroy them you could find some good loot! or a pile of old news scrolls.

* Added new screen for destroying bandit den (with sfx)
* Added new system for finding loot in bandit den (1 chest, 2 chests, 3 chests, or a trove of lots) (with sfx)
* Fixed text bugs blackmarket bandit dens
* Added missing gold indicator for bribing bandit den for truce
* Reworked ask about the den section

LEAGUE OF EVIL AND GOOD IMPROVED (9 features)

So as some of you may know there's a 1 in 40 chance each year that if there are 2 or more factions that are aligned good or evil they will form a faction called the League of good, or the league of Darkness. It's a cool rare event but the notification of it happening is just a line in the turn report, well now it's been reworked to be a big main event with lots of new screens and new information shown to the player.

* Added new pop up end of turn window when league of evil is formed (with sfx)
* Added additional screens showing new members of the league of evil (with sfx)
* Added additional screen showing the citadel of darkness (with sfx)
* Added new pop up end of turn window when league of good is formed (with sfx)
* Added additional screens showing new members of the league of good (with sfx)
* Added additional screen showing the citadel of good (with sfx)
* Reworked league of goods citadel text
* Fixed 4 text bugs in good and evil league towers
* Added indicators showing new towers built and relation change for league members

BRAWLER CHAMPION TWEAKS (3 features)

Just a few things that I noticed could be improved with Brawler champions after playing around in the slum's Pit for a while.

* Added gold paid indicator when hiring a brawl winner as a champion
* Added sound effect for brawl winner refusing to be your champion
* Fixed sound restart issue if sounds disabled in Brawls

BLACKMARKET DEFENCE EVENTS IMPROVED (17 features)

So sometimes when you launch an attack on the Blackmarket it triggers one of many special events, I tested these and noticed some improvements that could be made!

* Added new sound effect to Necro army Blackmarket event
* Added new sound effect to Goblin army Blackmarket event
* Fixed text bugs in Necro army Blackmarket event
* Added new sound effect to Bandit army Blackmarket event
* Fixed text bug in game for the markets control event
* Added new sound effect to Local army Blackmarket event
* Fixed text and grammar bugs in local army Blackmarket event
* Added new sound effect to Horde army Blackmarket event
* Fixed text and grammar bugs in Horde army Blackmarket event
* Added new screen and sfx for accepting gold to not attack Blackmarket event
* Fixed accepting gold to not attack Blackmarket wasn't giving you gold nor taking it from Blackmarket
* Added indicator of Blackmarket gold loss when accepting gold
* Fixed layout of screen for taking gold to not attack market but still choosing to attack market
* Added indicator of gold spent and troops gained in Blackmarket defence merc hire event
* Added new sound effect to merc army Blackmarket event
* Added new screen and sfx for defeating undead Blackmarket defenders
* Added new screens for rps game with blackmarket leader

NEW LOOT (26 features)

As has been the rule for a while, new locations where loot can be found means new loot added!

* Added 'wedding ring' random loot artifact (worth 25 gold)
* Added 'gold wedding ring' random loot artifact (worth 150 gold)
* Added 'ancient jar of preserved honey' random loot artifact (worth 60 gold)
* Added 'finely crafted box of rare foreign spices' random loot artifact (worth 400 gold)
* Added 'rabbit foot necklace' random loot artifact (worth 35 gold)
* Added 'signet ring of an unknown noble house' random loot artifact (worth 110 gold)
* Added 'brass orb etched with strange runes' random loot artifact (worth 90 gold)
* Added 'obsidian and demon horn walking stick' random loot artifact (worth 370 gold)
* Added 'glowing translucent circlet' random loot artifact (worth 170 gold)
* Added 'pewter cube engraved with alchemical symbols' random loot artifact (worth 40 gold)
* Added 'pewter cube engraved in an unknown script' random loot artifact (worth 40 gold)
* Added 'pewter cube engraved with strange runes' random loot artifact (worth 40 gold)
* Added 'jar of rare foreign spices' random loot artifact (worth 380 gold)
* Added 'obsidian cup' random loot artifact (worth 80 gold)
* Added 'chipped obsidian cup' random loot artifact (worth 60 gold)
* Added 'finely decorated obsidian cup' random loot artifact (worth 99 gold)
* Added 'gold lined obsidian cup' random loot artifact (worth 145 gold)
* Added 'gold lined jewelled obsidian cup' random loot artifact (worth 180 gold)
* Added 'goblin's eye on a sharp stick' random loot artifact (worth 1 gold)
* Added 'small chunk of wood with a face carved into it' random loot artifact (worth 1 gold)
* Added 'small box of black pearls' random loot artifact (worth 190 gold)
* Added 'unicorn horn shield' random loot artifact (worth 210 gold)
* Added 'scroll with a crude sketch of a tree on it' random loot artifact (worth 6 gold)
* Added 'scroll with a crude sketch of a house on it' random loot artifact (worth 5 gold)
* Added 'scroll with a crude sketch of a sword on it' random loot artifact (worth 6 gold)
* Added 'amber amulet with a pre-historic fly encased inside it' random loot artifact (worth 110 gold)

SLUM DONATION IMPROVED (3 features)

Now if you go to the slums and donate to them you'll get a screen showing what has happened as a result of your donations.

* Added new screen showing slums upgrading if you donate enough to the slums
* Added new indicators showing changes made to the slums by donation max
* Added new dynamic screen (8 total screens) with sfx showing new slum watchtower build if donation maxed

RICH BE THY HISTORY NERD (6 features)

A very good idea by Luel, getting the highest possible score on history guild exams should come with a reward, now you'll get a random reward if you ace the test and a new screen! It's pretty tough though, I made the damn game and I struggle to get full marks.

* Added reward for passing first year of history guild with 20/20 score (credit Luel)
* Added reward for passing second year of history guild with 20/20 score (credit Luel)
* Added reward for passing third year of history guild with 20/20 score (credit Luel)
* Added reward for passing final year of history guild with 10/10 score (credit Luel)
* Added new screen for enrolling with history guild (with sfx)
* Added new screen for not being able to afford enrolling in history guild

SEND THE VASSALS (7 features)

I've improved the single line response from ordering vassals to attack other factions, now there's a dynamic response depending on their personality.

* Added new indicator of relation change for vassals and the enemy you have sent them after
* Added 3 responses from strange leaders
* Added 3 responses from normal leaders
* Added 3 responses from stupid leaders
* Added 3 responses from merchant leaders
* Added 3 responses from hostile leaders
* Added 3 responses from friendly leaders

BUGFIXES (13 features)

* Fixed grand champions assassination event happening even if arena is destroyed
* Fixed incorrect reference to players gender in three blades inn dialogues (credit Luel)
* Fixed issue with extremely low skilled fort generals causing game crash (credit Damon)
* Fixed 4 text issues in smallhaven options
* Fixed depositing 1 gold gives you 3 gold bug
* Fixed doomed races not having correct death text in diplomacy after doom event
* Fixed Oasis region text bug (credit u/The_Real_Mr_House)
* Fixed bandit dialogue text bug
* Fixed gro'lok book text bug
* Fixed bug where peace offer chance with third independent kingdom is bugged and remains blocked after one turn (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Fixed text colour issue in playing rock paper scissors with your gamemaster
* Fixed layout and text bugs in rps with gamemaster
* Fixed Darkdale king being killed event happening even if Darkdale is destroyed

EVERYTHING ELSE (7 features)

* Added new patron name to Gro'loks stump in the west
* Added 24 new kingdom names
* Added 41 new human names
* Added gold indicator bar to Gohran's Discount artifacts
* Added current gold bar to slum gold collection screen
* Added current gold indicator to group of troops for hire throne room event
* Added new screens for rps results with gamemaster

WHAT'S NEXT

It's been a busy one again, still yet to get to my merc features but we'll get there... eventually. I've been doing way more playtesting in the last few weeks so have been finding lots of stuff that has been in need of improvement!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe

Cheers

Huw

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone, so this update once again is quite broad and covers a lot of areas. I've finally done the majority of my merc planned features and have also added a ton of new features and fixes from playtesting and player suggestion.

MERCENARY UPDATE (19 features)

As has been long promised, I've tried to clear through a bunch of notes I've had on mercenaries including majorly... the fact that mercs never charged anything after the initial cost, now they are paid yearly!

* Added merc companies cost gold each year (credit 71)
* Added merc contracts cancelled if you can't afford them
* Fixed ability to hire throne room mercs but then have them refuse to fight for you as a demon (Credit u/Buckzor122 && Xoren)
* Throne room merc company for hire now shows their unit strength
* Fixed 3 text bugs in hired merc group text
* Added new merc origin story 'Oathbreakers and deserters'
* Added new merc origin story 'Small gorge cave'
* Added new merc origin story 'sworn to a cunning giant'
* Added new merc origin story 'traders and guards'
* Added new merc origin story 'militia and army rejects'
* Added group cost indicator to merc screen
* Fixed missing lines in weak demon merc group assimilation
* Fixed missing lines in weak peasant merc group assimilation
* Fixed missing lines in weak soldier merc group assimilation
* Added new sfx to failing to assimilate group
* Fixed 15 text and grammar bugs in assimilation code
* Added new indicator of group quitting contract if assimilation attempt goes wrong
* Added new sfx to assimilating group
* Added new sfx to assimilating demon group

Merc wages at the end of the turn now! - https://i.imgur.com/6LTIxbO.png

The new merc cost indicated on the main merc screen - https://i.imgur.com/X9xZnQJ.png

And unrelated to the update but I had to share this. I encountered the most generically named mercenary company ever 'Mercenary Company' but at least they keep it simple. Sir Brom's not out here trying to get hired to paint fences.. unless its with blood - https://i.imgur.com/HApjOyv.png

MAJESTY: THE KINGDOM SIM INSPIRATION (30 features)

Recently picked up the Majesty Gold game on steam and it's a fascinating little gem from the past, it's also got some great character names that appear to be procedurally generated and some were really cool.

* Added 5 new kingdom names (Ardania/Gataria/Tullaria/Skyldale/Troth) (Ardania is the name of the Majesty main kingdom, the rest are derivitives of character names)
* Added new vampire name 'Luthiel'
* Added 26 new human names (inspired by the game)
* Added 3 new gnome names (Nugg/Mung/Fugg)
* Added new name suffix 'Heavystep' (+3 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'the Younger' (+2 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Splitstone' (+7 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'the Tracker' (+11 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Bigfists' (+9 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Skullslam' (+15 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Strongclub' (+12 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Hardswing' (+11 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Hardbrow' (+6 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Brightbeard' (+5 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Steelforge' (+6 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Scragglebeard' (+1 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'of Downstream' (+1 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Treefeller' (+5 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Gnash' (+11 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'of the Otherplace' (+13 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Daysbane' (+5 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Brightstreak' (+9 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Dusksprinter' (+6 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Briskstep' (+3 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'the Darter' (+10 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Quickmoon' (+8 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Sternwill' (+9 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Nightrush' (+11 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'the Observant' (+10 battlescore) (can have extra parts added to it randomly)
* Added new name suffix 'Headlopper' (+30 battlescore)

THRONE ROOM ENCOUNTERS (17 features)

Went through the throne room to fix issues with most of them not having the first letter of the text capitalised, ended up adding 10 new random encounters and making some tweaks and fixes!

* Fixed 585 capitalisation issues in the throne room
* Added new throne room encounter 'Stolen family heirloom'
* Added new throne room encounter 'The item that fell from the sky'
* Added new throne room encounter 'Behind the waterfall'
* Added new throne room encounter 'The Knights duel distraction'
* Added new throne room encounter 'Plague of the countryside'
* Added new throne room encounter 'Village vampire' (only if Wild vampires faction exists)
* Added new throne room encounter 'Village saviour' (only if wild vampires faction exists)
* Added new throne room encounter 'Some ale for the trouble' (only if wild vampires faction exists)
* Added new throne room encounter 'Door pisser'
* Added new throne room encounter 'Little trolls'
* Tweaked bandit joiners in throne room encounters to be avalable at 0 public op or below instead of 5 or below
* Fixed reference to title as king instead of custom title from bandit joiner in throne room
* Added new indicator of rebel gained soldier from rejected bonus-requesting soldier throne room encounter
* Added new indicator of horde gained warlord from rejected bonus-requesting soldier throne room encounter
* Added new indicator of merc group gained unit from rejected bonus-requesting soldier throne room encounter
* Fixed 12 text bugs with bonus requesting soldier throne room encounter

SLAVE FORT IMPROVEMENTS (14 features)

The owned slavers fort definitely had some issues, I've tried to fix as many as I could find and have now reorganised the slave fort management screen a bit.

* Fixed buying slaves dynamic 5 graphics not working
* Added new subscreen for owned slaver fort for buying and selling
* Added new screen with dynamic graphic for taking slaves from the fort (with sfx)
* Added new screen with dynamic graphic for taking slave soldiers from the fort (with sfx)
* Added new screen with dynamic graphic for selling slaves (with sfx)
* Added new screen with dynamic graphic for selling slave soldiers (with sfx)
* Added new screen for not having enough slaves to move
* Added new screen for not having enough slave soldiers to move
* Added new screen for trying to sell more slaves than you have
* Added new screen for trying to sell more slave soldiers than you have
* Added new screen for hiring slavers (with sfx)
* Added new screen for trying to hire more slavers than there are
* Added new screen for not having enough gold to hire slavers
* Fixed exploit to hire more slavers than the max (credit NotFox)

THE LAST KINGDOM INSPIRATION (2 features)

I have been binging the hell out of this series on Netflix and am really enjoying it, saw some great names that I thought could be great in Warsim!

* Added new name suffix 'the Arseling' (-2 battlescore)
* Added 52 new Last Kingdom themed human names (Rypere/Finan/Clapa/Odda/Ceowulf/Eadred/Uhtred/Skorpa/Ubba/Leofric etc)

CUSTOM GAMEMODE DEMON OPTION IMPROVEMENTS (2 features)

Now you can choose to start the game with an even bigger demon horde (2000 demons instead of the previous starting 1500 option) doesn't seem like a huge difference but it is, good luck!

* Reworked custom game demon choice screen
* Added new option to have demon horde start huge (credit u/Jean287)

DARKDALE REVISITED (4 features)

I returned to Darkdale in a playtest and found a few things to fix, will probably be returning here soon with more changes!

* Fixed text bug with Nario dialogue 'Ever so often' (should be every so often)
* Added gold indicator bar to goblin slap stall in Darkdale
* Added notification showing if ceremony of Ha'Hah is underway in cult temple (if town is ruled by cultist king)
* Added 3 alt dialogues for Mystic Myck if cult of Ha'Hah rules darkdale

BLACKMARKET GOLD INDICATOR (10 features)

Trawled through the Blackmarket and found a mountain of issues that needed resolving, first and foremost a lot of locations where you could buy stuff but couldn't see how much gold you have.

* Added current gold indicator to Blackmarket bluetrii stall
* Added current gold indicator to Elixir stall
* Added current gold indicator to orb stall
* Added current gold indicator to cheat seller stall
* Added current gold indicator to blessings stall
* Added current gold indicator to Book rental stall
* Added current gold indicator to mushroom stall
* Added current gold indicator to newspaper stall
* Added current gold indicator to wheel of wealth stall
* Added current gold indicator to key stall

A new stall with gold being shown - https://i.imgur.com/9Hxf5N8.png

BLACKMARKET FORTRESS (7 features)

I noticed some changed needed for the various possible Blackmarket Forts, these vary depending on the type of leader the market has.

* Added new screen for entering guarded Blackmarket fort
* Added new screen for entering goblin guarded Blackmarket fort
* Added new screen for entering bandit guarded Blackmarket fort
* Fixed 3 text bugs in Blackmarket leader dialogues
* Reworked Blackmarket owned by player main fort intro
* Reworked Blackmarket tax income breakdown screen
* Reworked layout of destroy Blackmarket when owned screen

GOBLIN HALL OF HEROES (4 features)

Goblin hall of heroes in Dockrow had a few issues, now resolved!

* Added new indicator of price discount in goblin hero hall for Blackmarket owners
* Added new indicator of gold spent entering goblin hall of heroes
* Added new sound effect when paying to enter goblin hall of heroes
* Fixed Orlak steel jaw text bug in goblin hall of heroes

THE QUEENS REVENGE (6 features)

Noticed this ship was a bit lackluster in Dockrow in the market during a playtest, also ended up finding out that the 'slaves' they sold were actually bluetrii fruits... weird bug.

* Added new screen with sfx for hiring slaves from queens revenge ship
* Fixed buying slaves from queens revenge gave you bluetrii instead
* Added screen for not having the gold to buy slaves from the queens revenge
* Added screen for trying to buy from empty queens revenge ship
* Added screen for expensive slave question to queens revenge
* Added screen for do I have to buy all question to queens revenge

OTHER BLACKMARKET CHANGES (20 features)

Everything else I fixed in the market, I tried to sweep through as much of the place as I could and found plenty to improve.

* Added new screen for re-establishing minor bandit groups from Blackmarket dens (with sfx)
* Added new screen and sound effect for eating mushrooms in mushroom stall in Blackmarket
* Reworked Blackmarket sudden death gold layout
* Fixed the rules of Northern sudden death in the Blackmarket
* Fixed grammar bug with Blackmarket gamemaster out of gold
* Fixed Wulf Thorenson text layout issues
* Added new screen for trying to pay for Wulf performance but not having the gold
* Fixed blackmarket stalls screen text bug
* Fixed 4 text bugs in Orb stall in Blackmarket
* Fixed 6 text bugs in blessings stall
* Added new screen for paying for blessings from blessing stall
* Fixed text bug in key stall
* Fixed 2 text bugs in Blackmarket Gallows
* Fixed 4 text bugs in asking for joiners in Blackmarket
* Reworked Blackmarket joiner screen
* Fixed 3 text bugs in 4th bandit den in Blackmarket
* Fixed 3 text bugs in 5th bandit den in Blackmarket
* Fixed Aerondiir blackmarket text bug
* Fixed 2 issues with Blackmarket graphics having 'A' banner of Aslona instead of whatever your kingdom symbol is
* Reworked Blackmarket conquest tour Dockrow description and textbug

BUGFIXES (7 features)

A bunch of loose bugs that didn't exactly fit anywhere else!

* Fixed grammar issue with foreign troop hire (credit GauRocks)
* Fixed slave freeing diplomacy crash bug
* Fixed 0 slave and 0 slave soldier hire screen bugs
* Fixed ruffian gang interaction text bug
* Fixed market slave seller in Ogloobs tavern still active even with 0 slaves
* Fixed Aslona reference in demon joke
* Fixed several arasuk elder dialogues not having a graphic

EVERYTHING ELSE (4 features)

A handful of loose things that couldn't fit anywhere else. And also a huge thank you tons to Warsim's new patron Nehoy the lord!

* Added new name suffix 'the Dreamless' (-2 battlescore) (credit Cat)
* Added new dwarf name 'Axtadar' (credit u/Axtadar)
* Added gold indicator to wishing well screen
* Added new patreon patron name to Gro'lok's stump (thank you Nehoy!)

WHAT'S NEXT

I've got a big list of stuff that still needs to be sorted through so I'm going to get straight onto that. Warsim is also nearing a very awesome milestone and I've got something up my sleeve planned for it!

Cheers

Huw

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone,

So the summer sale is here again finally!

I know many of you guys have Warsim, but if you don't have it yet or someone you think might like it doesn't have it yet now is definitely as good a time as ever.

Warsim is 60% off for the next two weeks (€2.59, £2.19, $3.19)

Check out the Steam page here - http://store.steampowered.com/app/659540/Warsim_The_Realm_of_Aslona/?beta=0

To all the people who've purchased the game so far, thank you so much for the immense support in these 3 years the games been on steam. We're immenently going to hit 20k total copies sold by the end of today which honestly when I think about it, as a Console window text based game in 2020 is pretty wild so thank you all for that.

I've got an update brewing which has no one specific theme but covers a lot of different areas. I'm aiming for 200 total features to commemorate hitting 20k copies sold. So far I've got 159 features done so the update will likely be out this week.

Thanks again and to any people who've newly discovered the game, Welcome!

Huw (Solo dev of Warsim)

ps. If any of you guys have ideas for other places I should share this or people who could be interested I'm always up for hearing them!

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone,

So this is an exciting time! We were just on the cusp of it before the summer sale but now Warsim has officially sold 20'000 copies! To celebrate I've made an update with 200 features in it. To each of you 20'000 people, I honestly can't thank you enough. Genuinely.

The update has no general direction but tons of sub categories of stuff, I hope you all enjoy

CAN I AFFORD THE BOOZE? (22 features)

I noticed that while in taverns where you can buy ale, you can't see how much gold you've got. This is because once upon a time taverns were just locations to see but drinking in them and spending gold wasn't do-able. After the 'let the people drink' update we've been able to buy ale but still you can't see how much gold you've got. Now every tavern in the realm has something that checks how much gold you've got first. I also fixed a handful of little tavern bugs noticed while updating them all.

* Added current gold indicator to Darkdale Tavern (Darkdale)
* Added current gold indicator to Gilded Crescent Tavern (Darkdale)
* Added current gold indicator to Darkdale Cat Tavern (Darkdale)
* Added current gold indicator to Dragons Kneecap Tavern (Blackmarket)
* Added current gold indicator to Blackrow Tavern (Blackmarket)
* Added current gold indicator to Pitside Tavern (Blackmarket)
* Added current gold indicator to Thickblood Tavern
* Added current gold indicator to Silver Staff Tavern (Artifact Market)
* Added current gold indicator to Three Blades Inn (Artifact Market)
* Added current gold indicator to Sandman Tavern (Arasuk)
* Added current gold indicator to Fight coastman tavern (Shaian)
* Added current gold indicator to Shaian Tavern (Shaian)
* Added current gold indicator to Ox Head Tavern (Smallhaven)
* Fixed text bug in Ox head tavern intro
* Added current gold indicator to Human's Toe Tavern (Goblinwood)
* Fixed text bug in Human's toe tavern intro
* Added current gold indicator to Rusty Dagger Inn (Goblinwood)
* Fixed text bug in Rusty dagger inn intro
* Added current gold indicator to Dirt Den Tavern (Blackmarket)
* Added current gold indicator to Ice Watch Tavern
* Added current gold indicator to Shades Bloom Tavern (Baiaa)
* Added current gold indicator to Golden Lily Pad tavern

Here's our good friend Ogloob in his tavern - https://i.imgur.com/XT7V2eJ.png

KNIGHT TO CHAMPION (5 features)

The knight to champion screens were a little lacking, it wasn't clear what happened to the knights sometimes so now you will be shown you've lost a knight, and if it's a brawl you'll not lose the knight even if he loses the fight... he'll just lose a bit of pride.

* Added screen for knight winning fight to become champion (credit u/Jean287)
* Added screen for knight failing fight to become champion (credit u/Jean287)
* Fixed knight losing champion fight is killed when he shouldn't be (credit u/Jean287)
* Added missing -1 knight indicator to losing knight climbing saaroth to become champion
* Added missing -1 knight indicator to losing knight on quest for an item to become champion

UPGRADING THE BLACKMARKET (8 features)

Previously upgrading the Blackmarket gave you no screen or notification, once done things automatically improved but the player would be clueless as to what had improved... I even had to research and remind myself all of the various upgrade improvements for this, but now when you upgrade the market there are a bunch of new screens showing exactly what's new and what to expect.

* Added new screen with sound effect when paying for Blackmarket upgrade
* Added new screen showing the 2 Slums improvements from Blackmarket upgrade
* Added new screen showing the 2 Dockrow improvements from Blackmarket upgrade
* Added new screen showing the Blackrow improvement from Blackmarket upgrade
* Added new screen showing the Guildrow improvement from Blackmarket upgrade
* Added new screen showing the 2 Fighter's District improvements from Blackmarket upgrade
* Added new screen showing the 7 Central District improvements from Blackmarket upgrade
* Added new screen showing the 3 general improvements/changes from Blackmarket upgrade

One of the new screens that show the changes to the upgraded Blackmarket - https://i.imgur.com/AIZS1V9.png

THE LAST STAND (5 features)

Noticed a few more issues and some things that could be improved for the last stand of Krut/Erak, and bandits.

* Added new laugh sound effect to Krut leader end battle
* Fixed final stand for bandit horde skipping a screen
* Fixed final stand for Krut skipping a screen
* Added new screen for Krut King being killed
* Fixed final stand for Erak skipping a screen

GNOME INSULT BATTLES EXPANDED (13 features)

Everyone's been asking for it so here it is, gnome battles have been expanded! Now there are 50% more insults, and a total rework of the gnome battle system full of new sound effects, a new layout and more!

Hear ye, hear ye! Gnome battles they be improvin' - https://i.imgur.com/KhjmncQ.jpg

* Added 10 new brutal gnome insults
* Added 10 new gnome sound effects
* Added one of 10 random sound effects play when gnome says insult
* Added one of 10 random sound effects play for introduction to each gnomish insult warrior
* Added notification of esteem points lost in gnome battle rounds
* Added rare chance the gnomes stop and make friends and skip away holding hands
* Added colour system to break down gnome esteem
* Added random trumpet sound to winning gnome screen
* Reworked Gnome battle self-esteem level to be words as well as numbers (very strong, strong, moderate, wavering, low, very low, ruined, devastated)
* Made gnome skin colour lighter (for non independent kingdom battles)
* Merged two separate instances of gnome insult battle code into one (Throne room entertainment/Gnome independent kingdom)
* Fixed 8 gnome insult battle reaction text grammar bugs
* Fixed 4 gnome insult battle victory/defeat text grammar bugs

Here's a comparison of old and new gnome battles - https://i.imgur.com/j7WXnV8.png

GOODBYE GUARDIANS (2 features)

Noticed this camp wasn't very rewarding to clear out and didn't have a screen, now we've got new screens and loot!

* Added new screen for destroying Guardian tree camp
* Added new loot chest for destroying guardian tree camp

THICKBLOOD IMPROVED (4 features)

Only just realised how lacking the capturing/buying screens for Thickblood tavern is, now it's been fixed.

* Added sfx for buying thickblood tavern
* Added new screen for having purchased thickblood tavern
* Added new screen for capturing thickblood tavern
* Added new screen with sfx of your flag being raised over thickblood tavern (once captured/bought)

DARKDALE TWEAKS (3 features)

A handful of changes in Darkdale

* Fixed sound not playing correctly when leaving mystic Mycks in Darkdale
* Fixed sound not playing correctly when leaving Jesters society
* Added option to ask Catyr owner of Darkdale Cat Tavern about Cult of Ha'Hah (Only if Darkdale King is Cultist)

LOOT GLORIOUS LOOT (24 features)

Another fat batch of misc junk for you to find in the world!

* Added 'finely crafted sword with an amber gem encrusted in it' random loot artifact (worth 160 gold)
* Added 'diamond wedding ring' random loot artifact (worth 300 gold)
* Added 'gnome foot with gems encrusted in its toenails' random loot artifact (worth 170 gold)
* Added 'skull with crystals growing on it' random loot artifact (worth 140 gold)
* Added 'red eye amulet' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'green eye amulet' random loot artifact (worth 110 gold)
* Added 'well-crafted but primitive axe' random loot artifact (worth 60 gold)
* Added 'bracer made of finely woven vines' random loot artifact (worth 20 gold)
* Added 'finely decorated gold dwarvern greathammer' random loot artifact (worth 320 gold)
* Added 'jar of angry-wasps' random loot artifact (worth 10 gold)
* Added 'black hand amulet' random loot artifact (worth 100 gold)
* Added 'red hand amulet' random loot artifact (worth 105 gold)
* Added 'jar of dead wasps' random loot artifact (worth 2 gold)
* Added 'crusty chamber pot' random loot artifact (worth 1 gold)
* Added 'purple eye amulet' random loot artifact (worth 130 gold)
* Added 'iron spike knuckled gauntlet' random loot artifact (worth 10 gold)
* Added 'finely decorated spike knuckled gauntlet' random loot artifact (worth 45 gold)
* Added 'gem encrusted spike knuckled gauntlet' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'gold plated spike knuckled gauntlet' random loot artifact (worth 140 gold)
* Added 'gem encrusted gold spike knuckled gauntlet' random loot artifact (worth 320 gold)
* Added 'gem encrusted goat horn' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'gem encrusted gold goat horn' random loot artifact (worth 290 gold)
* Added 'crudely carved wooden goblin idol' random loot artifact (worth 6 gold)
* Added 'crudely carved wooden dog idol' random loot artifact (worth 7 gold)

LAST KINGDOM INSPIRED NAMES (2 feature)

So I added most of the character names to the game but I'm still binging and enjoying this series so I added some new names based roughly on some names from the show.

* Added 10 new last kingdom inspired names made of previous names 'Skorik, Skyrk, Ulff, Ulaf, Wutgar, Auldhelm, Bjornhelm, Ceowald, Ceowulf, Ealdred'
* Added 83 new saxon-era themed names

WEIRD NAME SUFFIXES (12 features)

The word 'Weird' was floating in my head when I thought about name suffixes and got a bunch of ideas!

* Added new name suffix 'Weirdaxe' (+16 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Weirdblade' (+15 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Weirdshield' (+13 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Weirdhelm' (+17 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Weirdspear' (+15 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Weirdmace' (+16 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Oddaxe' (+15 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Oddblade' (+14 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Oddshield' (+12 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Oddhelm' (+16 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Oddspear' (+14 battlescore)
* Added new name suffix 'Oddmace' (+15 battlescore)

DEFENDER'S NAME SUFFIX REWORK (21 features)

Defender from Audiogames came forward with several issues with misspelt suffixes or suffixes that could stand to be a bit worse to the hero who got them!

* Fixed misspelt name suffix 'the Captuerer' (credit Defender)
* Fixed misspelt name suffix 'the Expreinced' (credit Defender)
* Fixed misspelt name suffix 'the Mathmatical' (credit Defender)
* Fixed misspelt name suffix 'the Talkitive' (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Weak-Hearted' suffix from -5 battlescore to -10 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Fainter' suffix from -3 battlescore to -7 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'Limp-Legged' suffix from -3 battlescore to -8 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Slow-Minded' suffix from -3 battlescore to -5 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Slow-Thinking' suffix from -3 battlescore to -5 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Crushed' suffix from -2 battlescore to -5 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'Wine-Guzzler' suffix from 1 battlescore to -2 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'Ale-Guzzler' suffix from 1 battlescore to -2 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Cutesy' suffix from 1 battlescore to -3 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Oafish' suffix from -3 battlescore to -6 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Timid' suffix from -1 battlescore to -2 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'Mild-Mannered' suffix from 3 battlescore to 0 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'Beatlebrained' suffix from -3 battlescore to -5 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Entangled' suffix from 5 battlescore to -5 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Ruined' suffix from -1 battlescore to -8 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Impaled' suffix from -3 battlescore to -6 (credit Defender)
* Changed 'the Useless' suffix from -3 battlescore to -10 (credit Defender)

LACK OF CIVILITY (2 features)

The text describing savage kingdoms has now been made a little more dynamic and varied depending on relation and the level of savagery instead of the same exact text for all.

* Added 2 variants for unable to speak to savages depending on how savage they are
* Added 7 extra variant texts for unable to speak to savages depending on relation with them

THRONE ROOM ENTERTAINMENT INTROS (38 features)

I realised that hiring throne room entertainers (in your upgraded throne room) is immensely lackey and is just a slither of text. Now there are screens for hiring them and the entertainment menus have been upgraded a bit.

* Added gold indicator to throne room entertainment screen
* Added screen to hiring Brawlers entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Scorpion breeder entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Axe throwers entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Monster tamer entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Juggler entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Acrobat entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Poet entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Rat racer entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Game master summon entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Gar Gallock entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Orcish grunter entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Luteplayer entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Gnome whistler entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Goblin drummer entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Clicker entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Chanter entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Blackmarket shanty singers entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring wulf thorenson entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring wild skalds entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring musical abomination entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring long serpent crew entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring gnome entertainers in throne room
* Added screen to hiring goblin dancer entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring comedian entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring farting abomination entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Sand talker entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Changeling entertainer in throne room
* Added screen to hiring Illusion Conjurer entertainer in throne room
* Fixed text bug in violent acts screen
* Fixed text bug in magic acts screen
* Fixed text bug in comedic acts screen
* Fixed text bug in every other act screen
* Fixed text bug in music acts screen
* Fixed text bug in love council
* Fixed typo with sand talker in throne room
* Removed 'you don't have the gold' notification for throne room entertainment
* Fixed throne room options not being x'ed out if you can't afford them

SONGWOOD IMPROVEMENTS (28 features)

Decided to have a look at every location in Songwood and make sure everything was up to date and working fine, I found plenty of things that needed improvement.

* Added new screen and text for viewing gravestones in songwood
* Fixed 6 text bugs in leader of love cult camp text
* Split leader of love cults large history dialogue option into 3 leaner screens instead of one bloated one
* Fixed 26 text bugs in Well-being booth in love cult camp
* Fixed 10 issues with text needing to be broken up in well-being booth dialogues
* Fixed graphic of destroyed love cult camp to match it's pre destruction size
* Added new indicator on love cult camp main screen if the cult is active in your lands or not
* Added new screen for hiring love cult from their camp
* Added new screen for trying to hire love cult from their camp but being broke
* Added new screen for cancling love cult help from their camp
* Fixed text bug with high trees of songwood
* Slightly rewrote love cult camp intro
* Slightly rewrote ruined musicians guild text
* Fixed typo in muscians guild intro screen
* Fixed 22 grammar bugs in muscians guild screens
* Added indicator of relation with musicians guild on main screen
* Added indicator of tribute taken from musicians guild
* Reworked several texts with musicians guildmaster
* Added new indicators of gold gain odds and relation change when taking tribute from the musicians guild
* Reworked all lyrics notes in music guild lyric vault to have better layout colour and page turn sfx
* Fixed guildmaster graphic not showing in intro to speaking to him screen
* Removed attempting to enter lyric vault screen
* Fixed double screen bug when destroying music guild
* Fixed grammar bug in grolok's stump first stump text
* Fixed double screen bug when destroying old cabin in songwood
* Fixed 15 text spacing issues in old cabin
* Fixed 2 grammar bugs in old cabin
* Fixed text bug in destroying ooh snake sanctuary screen

BUGFIXES (9 features)

* Fixed savage village destroying missing line bug
* Fixed Old Ruined Outpost explore screen text capitalisation issue
* Fixed no march sound effect recruiting men from hunters rest
* Fixed grammar issue with axe throwing intro text
* Fixed comeback missing space in thickblood text (credit M I N T Y)
* Fixed comeback missing space in slave fort ruler text (credit M I N T Y)
* Fixed 7 text bugs with animal descriptions (credit Defender)
* Fixed broken coin bag graphic in various places
* Fixed version number for warsim not visible on main screen in ascii disabled version of Warsim (credit Defender)

EVERYTHING ELSE (2 features)

* Added new patreon 'Defender' to the 3rd Stump of Gro'lok in the West (Thanks mate!)
* Added indicator of how much land you have in 'kingdom wants 1 land for peace agreement' diplomacy event

WHAT'S NEXT

To be honest right now I'm mainly focusing on trying to find new places to share Warsim and get it in front of people while it's on sale (open to any ideas). I'm also going to keep clearing through some loose bug reports and to-do features on my list.

Warsim is on sale - https://i.imgur.com/KIB0jcA.png

Cheers

Huw

 

[Wastelander404]

Warsim 0.8.1.1 (The Wild North Improved and more! 83 Features)

Hey everyone,

So to all those new people who are joining us having picked up the game during the summer sale, welcome!

This update is mostly fixes and improvements, I swept through the Wild North region and tried to fix and improve all I could. There are 10 new loot items. I've also added new opportunities for loot when ravaging the Wildermen settlements of the Wild North. The Black Bank has been improved and brought up to speed with the Royal Bank, and several other things have been improved and fixed.

HOW MUCH GOLD DO I HAVE (14 features)

A lot of in-game areas where the player could buy stuff/pay for stuff, doesn't show how much gold they have which can be cause for annoyance. I've cleared through a bunch more areas that were lacking on gold indication!

* Added current gold bar to Arena upgrade screen
* Added current gold bar to goblin who wants 10'000 gold for excavation throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to 1000 gold for lots of ale throne room trader
* Added current gold bar to western explorer throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to southern explorer throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to northern explorer throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to magic fruit seller throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to fruit basket seller throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to wiseman selling advice throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to changeling throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to telescope seller throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to cloak seller throne room encounter
* Added current gold bar to throne room slave seller
* Slightly reworked gold indicator in Thickblood tavern gambler

WILD NORTH TESTING (28 features)

The latest location to get a sweep for bugs and things in need of tweaking was the wild north! Found plenty of things to improve upon.

* Added new screen for destroying Wildhome
* Added new trove of 3 chests gained when destroyed Wildhome
* Added new screen for destroying Wilderman village
* Added new loot gained for destroying wilderman village
* Added new screen and sfx for destroying Saaroth Wilderman camp
* Added new loot gained when destroying Saaroth wilderman camp
* Fixed 6 text bugs with mystic hut in the Wild North
* Fixed Wilderman village text length issue
* Fixed 2 Wilderman village intro text bugs
* Fixed misaligned layout of Wild North exploration screen text
* Added new text to shadow assassin hire screen
* Fixed missing exit option to choose no assassination with shadow assassins
* Fixed paying for shadow assassin text break bug
* Fixed missing gold spent notification when paying for shadow assassin
* Fixed text bug with assassin unable to be paid screen text
* Added current gold indicator to assassin hire screen
* Fixed attack the assassin text
* Fixed trying to assassinate dead faction screen text bugs
* Fixed 5 text bugs in empty Saaroth tower text
* Fixed text bug in Wildhome text
* Added new alt text for when Animal fighting pit is out of gold
* Fixed ability to bet on animal pit fights when pit is out of gold
* Added new indicator of entry fee gold being added to animal pit betting pool
* Reworked mercenary outpost gold indicator and arena name text layout
* Added new screen for flag rising over the captured animal fight pit
* Added current gold bar to owned but unupgraded animal fight pit
* Fixed Saaroth wilderman camp text length bug
* Fixed text bug with destroyed Wildhome text

WILDERMAN THEMED LOOT (10 features)

As 2 new wilderman locations lead to gaining new loot, I thought I'd add some wilderman themed loot.

* Added 'crudely made stone shovel' random loot artifact (worth 2 gold)
* Added 'crudely made stone pickaxe' random loot artifact (worth 3 gold)
* Added 'crudely made stone sword' random loot artifact (worth 2 gold)
* Added 'crudely made stone hammer' random loot artifact (worth 2 gold)
* Added 'crudely made stone axe' random loot artifact (worth 2 gold)
* Added 'finely crafted stone spear adorned with gems' random loot artifact (worth 95 gold)
* Added 'crudely made stone spear adorned with gems' random loot artifact (worth 60 gold)
* Added 'finely crafted stone spear' random loot artifact (worth 8 gold)
* Added 'dull spear made of wood and stone' random loot artifact (worth 4 gold)
* Added 'crudely woven doll made of flax' random loot artifact (worth 2 gold)

CAT WALL EXPANSION (2 features)

A little suggestion implemented, now the Cat Wall of Fame in the Darkdale Cat Tavern has more detail, and there's also a wall of shame!

* Reworked Cat wall of fame in Darkdale Cat Tavern (credit Cat)
* Added Cat wall of shame to Darkdale Cat Tavern (credit Cat)

BLACK BANK IMPROVED (9 features)

A while ago the royal bank got a facelift, but these upgrades never reached the Black Bank, now the Black Bank is improved in the same ways as the royal bank, but it also has had an improvement on it's loan system, previously Black Bank loans had to be repaid within the same year or you'd be killed, now they allow you up to 5 years. Which does make the Black Bank loan of 1 million gold, a bit more viable as a dangerous strategy.

* Reworked Black Bank loan section
* Added new 5 year repayment system for Black Bank loans
* Added new screens with 23 different dynamic graphics depending on withdrawal size for black bank withdrawals
* Added new screens with 23 different dynamic graphics depending on deposit size for black bank deposits
* Added new screen for depositing or withdrawing 1 gold from Black Bank
* Added new screen if you have no gold to withdraw or deposit from Black Bank
* Added new screens if you try to withdrawl or deposit more than you have from Black Bank
* Fixed scientific exponent number shown with big bank loans in Black bank
* Fixed infinite loop of being able to beg for mercy from Black Bank and avoid loan repayment

HLOK MINE IMPROVED (6 features)

I noticed some things needing improvement in Hlok mine to the Far North. Now it's much better than before!

* Fixed 2 text bugs in collapsed Hlok mine screen
* Fixed 3 text bugs in general Hlok mine screens
* Added new graphic for owned Hlok mine using player kingdoms flag symbol
* Added new screen for capturing Hlok mine
* Added new flag raise screen with sfx once Hlok mine is captured
* Fixed missing screen when collapsing Hlok mine without any workers inside

DEMON SUMMONING IMPROVEMENTS (3 features)

The demon summoning encounter in the Blackmarket was a bit off, now it's been improved.

* Added new sound effect for house marked X demon summon screen
* Added new screen for demon being summoned in Blackmarket
* Fixed missing screen break for Demonic king version of Demon summon screen

BUGFIXES (15 features)

Lots of bugfixes here, thanks to u/rakint, u/BuffPocketMidget, u/ColonelKepler, and Defender for their bugreports! It's immensely helpful and ensures the issues you guys face don't bother others so it's much appreciated.

* Fixed bug with demonic start option in origin choice screen (credit u/rakint)
* Fixed Thickblood tavern gambler text colour bug
* Fixed scientific exponent number shown with big bank loans in royal bank
* Fixed scientific exponent number shown with big arena wins (credit u/BuffPocketMidget)
* Fixed text bug in Sword from the stone origin description
* Fixed text layout bug in Diplomat wants payrise throne room encounter
* Fixed text layout bug in Spymaster wants payrise throne room encounter
* Fixed text layout bug in General wants payrise throne room encounter
* Fixed missing indicator of lost staff member to the staff payrise throne room encounters where you reject the payrise and the staff roll to leave your service
* Fixed text bug in variant no bank gambler king origin (credit u/ColonelKepler)
* Fixed 3 text bugs in Blackmarket main fort intro texts
* Fixed text bug in providing soldiers to vamp hunters text (credit Defender)
* Fixed text bug in successful goblin mining venture screen (credit Defender)
* Fixed text bug in Blacksmith design for helmet acceptance text (credit Defender)
* Fixed missing new kingdom money report from general for gambler king gold reserve variant (credit u/ColonelKepler)

EVERYTHING ELSE (4 features)

* Made all exploration region name titles white coloured instead of yellow
* Added indicator of active trade route on main screen with eastern trade post
* Added inidcator of active trade route on main screen with wagon man post
* Added new screen for capturing shallowrock mine from the greenskins

WHAT'S NEXT

I've been doing lots of playtesting myself recently and noting bugs and things to improve, that list has now over 100 things on it so I'm planning to get stuck in and clear the list and then move back on track with some more needed updates.

It's been a busy time with the steam sale, but I also just figured out how to get Morrowind on Andoid and lets just say, I forgot how great and immersive of a game Morrowind is.

Cheers

Huw

 

[Wastelander404]

Hey everyone,

So this update didn't have any particular direction, the main aim was to clear through bug reports and recent suggestions and to continue testing the exploration locations of the game world and make sure everything is working as intended.

What I ended up with was an update adding a new drinking competition, origins of tavern brawls, improvements on the northern fort, wheel of wealth, Ruined arena, South coast region, Magic theatre and way more. I hope you guys enjoy it!

DEALING WITH KAFF OF DARKDALE (5 features)

Defender from Audiogames mentioned that as ruler of Darkdale he'd love the ability to remove the scam-stall run by Kaff, now you can do so, with Kaff offering an interesting alternative, you beat her in a drinking competition and she leaves, else she stays. Are you up for it?

* Added ability to shut down Kaff's legitimate goods stall if you rule Darkdale
* Added Kaff challenging you to a drinking contest to settle your dispute (with dynamic text based on your previous interactions with her)
* Added Screen for allowing Kaff to go free
* Added screen and sfx for arresting Kaff (+1 prisoner, +random loot)
* Added ability to have a drinking contest against Kaff (if you win, +random loot)

TAVERN BRAWL ORIGINS (4 features)

Ever wondered why when you watch a tavern brawl, a fight occurs out of nowhere. Now there's a system that explains why those two are fighting and there's plenty of variety.

* Added new system for bar fight origins now you will be told a story as to why the people are fighting
* Added new screen for fight origin story
* Added 5 random intros to finding a fight
* Added 15 fight origin stories

NORTHERN FORT REPAIRED (2 features)

Had a report of a bug in the Northern fort and found a second one while testing, all fixed now though

* Fixed screen not resetting when installing commander of northern repaired fortress
* Fixed inability to add max troop number to northern repaired fortress (credit u/MorganFreecock <-LOL)

WHEEL OF WEALTH RESPUN (5 features)

Checked out the Wheel of Wealth in a recent playtest and fixed it up a bit with some new screens and sound effects.

* Added new gold gained indicator for Wheel of Wealth
* Fixed text colour issue with wheel of wealth victory text
* Fixed 12 text bugs in wheel of wealth screens
* Added new coin gain sound effect for winning wheel of wealth
* Added new special screen and sfx for winning grand prize on wheel of wealth

RUINED ARENA FIXES (4 features)

The ruined arena screens were pretty bad, noticed in a playtest and have fixed it!

* Fixed 3 text bugs in ruined arena screens
* Fixed broken layout in ruined arena screens
* Added gold indicator to ruined arena rebuild screen
* Added new screen for paying to rebuild arena

SOUTH COAST IMPROVEMENTS (9 features)

I did a sweep of the South Coast region to see if there was anything that could stand to be improved, found a few things!

* Fixed text bug in coast wall screen
* Added indicator of trade route with Nalli trade post if trading with them
* Fixed text bug in harbour master texts in Shaian
* Fixed text colour issues in swampy cup game in Shaian
* Added new sound effect to Swampy cup game in Shaian
* Reworked some of the coastal king dialogues in Shaian
* Fixed text colour issues in swampy cup game in Shaian tavern
* Added new sound effect to swampy cup game in Shaian tavern
* Added march sound effect to recruiting troops in Shaian

MAGIC THEATRE REWORKED (19 features)

The magic theatre was quite awful, I've tried to upgrade every aspect of it and improve it where possible especially when owned. There are now more screens and sound effects in every part of the system.

* Fixed 4 text bugs with Magic theatre intro text
* Reworked layout of gold indicator on unowned magic theatre screen
* Added gold indicator to owned but unupgraded magic theatre
* Added new graphic for magic theatre casting spell
* Added screen and sfx for paying for a performance at magic theatre
* Added new aftermath text for magic fish performance
* Added hiss sound effect to dialogue with magic theatre mage
* Added new aftermath text for arrow performance
* Added new aftermath text for decaying demon performance
* Added screen for buying the magic theatre from the mage
* Added screen for your flag rising above magic theatre once owned (with sfx)
* Added screen introducing apprentice mage when buying theatre (with sfx)
* Added new screen for owned magic theatre spell casting
* Added new aftermath text for dizzying star performance
* Added new aftermath text for bellowing start performance
* Added new aftermath text for drunken money performance
* Added ability to speak to apprentice mage and ask one of 7 questions (6 if the place is fully upgraded)
* Added new screen with sfx for paying for magic theatre upgrade
* Added new screen for upgrading magic theatre showing graphic change and all 4 new benefits and unlocks

ENTRY FEE! FOR ME? (3 features)

u/lordintype made a good suggestion a little while back, you should be able to plead with the leader of the Blackmarket not to charge you a toll as Mercantile leaders can slap a hefty 50 gold entry fee each time you enter.

* Added the ability to ask Blackmarket leaders not to charge you an entry fee (if mercantile leader) (credit u/lordintype)
* Added 3 random texts for asking for no toll from Blackmarket leader (credit u/lordintype)
* Added 3 random gate entrance texts for guard allowing you free entry after having the fee removed by Blackmarket Leader (credit u/lordintype)

GAR'GALLOCK IMPROVEMENTS (2 features)

Noticed two issues with him, now all sorted!

* Added gold indicator to GarGallock
* Fixed Blackmarket music not resetting after GarGallock advice

BLACKMARKET SCAM EVENT IMPROVED (3 features)

In a playthrough I noticed these could be done a little better, now some improvements have been made.

* Fixed 3 text bugs in Blackmarket scam event
* Reworked some text and layout of Blackmarket scam event
* Added new screen for ending of scam success event with laughing man

BRAWL PIT IMPROVEMENTS (2 features)

I noticed that champion fights and two pits battles as Brawl Pit owner didn't use the same system as normal pit fights to show you the gold you've earned, now they do!

* Added brawl pit champion fights and battle of two pit fights give you gold bag reward screen
* Added colour layout to the pit champion and two pits fight aftermath income screens

MORE GOLD INDICATORS (2 features)

Still some more places where it doesn't tell you how much gold you have when you need to see it, trying to remedy this as much as I can.

* Added new gold indicator to Blackmarket coin flipper
* Added new gold indicator to Blackmarket toll screen

BUGFIXES (15 features)

A ton of bugfixes this time, thanks Defender for your reports and bugfinds, and also to u/legalrick2!

* Fixed Long Serpent ship text layout issue
* Fixed minor bandit screen exiting bug
* Fixed Aslona reference in goblin and king joke (credit Defender)
* Fixed Aslona reference in royal bank joke (credit Defender)
* Fixed Aslona reference in mercenary stories (credit Defender)
* Fixed missing screen sometimes when assimilating mercs leader joins you as a knight
* Fixed Drumloop in battle sounds treated as a sound effect not music and not being blocked by music off option (credit u/legalrick2)
* Fixed 'Leather belt that smells of lavender' item name bug (credit Defender)
* Fixed text bug with heartbroken farmer's boy throne room encounter (credit Defender)
* Fixed missing text when gamemaster refuses to hand over gold in throne room (credit Defender)
* Fixed duplicate 'I' in text when game master says arrest me when asking to hand over gold in throne room (credit Defender)
* Fixed missing text when throwing game master out of court (credit Defender)
* Fixed text error showing 1000 gold cost to host party in Darkdale as only 100 gold in error message when gold lower than 1000
* Fixed not receiving gold prize purse for winning goblin drinking competition
* Fixed text bug in fully upgraded owned arena tourney text

EVERYTHING ELSE (6 features)

A few general things here, a new guide in Warsim's files for some of the visually impaired players who play Warsim without any ascii. A pretty big change in mercenary companies only having a single assimilation attempt per year, and several other features and changes!

* Added new guide to setting up ascii-less version of Warsim in Warsim files for Blind Players (Credit Defender)
* Added new system ensuring merc groups can only have one assimilation attempt per year (credit u/TheGamingDictator)
* Reworked two direction names in the Black tower of Baiaa (Credit Angel De'Haven)
* Made it 10x rarer to get lucky on last coin toss (but still luckier than normal) with wishing well (Credit LexTheMighty)
* Added the ability to talk to the wagon man in the wagon man's trade post in Denland (6 dialogues)
* Made random drunk events 3x rarer during drinking contests

SCREENSHOTS

* Upgrading the new and improved magic theatre - https://i.imgur.com/HCZtcxP.png
* The new mage apprentice who runs the magic theatre for you - https://i.imgur.com/XfsccNl.png
* The Wheel of Wealth improved - https://i.imgur.com/4Kehw7O.png
* A drinking contest you say? - https://i.imgur.com/bIV0kgc.png
* She's pretty good at Drinking - https://i.imgur.com/nRuV0BQ.png

WHAT'S NEXT

I still have a backlog of bug reports and feature suggestions to look into and then the next main focus will be reworking the games intro tutorial from being a wall of vaigue text to being a system a little more comprehensive and helpful.

Cheers

Huw