Hello everyone,

This time an exciting update introducting stone castles and extended sieging mechanics to the game. The update adds 2 new castle type and revamps the wooden castle by adding raised dirt mounds like the test version had.

Siege changes
Siege battles have been revamped and now feature 3 different types of castles. Each castle features 3 damage levels that occur when being sieged with a trebuchet during the camapign, this is also selectable from the quick battle menu, destruction levels will never fully breach the walls and only do visual damage.

Sapping is now a really strong option to bring down the front wall of the castle and charge in directly. This can be combined with ladders for an assault from all directions.

Campaign
Castles now have a central role in the campaign and will take time to besiege, forming an actual challenge to overcome. You first have to lay siege to a settlement which will take one season and costs 10 wood. This will take the settlement hostage and deplete their food storage every season. When the food storage is depleted attrition will kick in and units inside the settlement will slowly start to die. Choosing when and how to attack will have a big impact on how you charge into battle and if you will charge at all or just wait for them to starve enough to surrender.

Misc
This update also contains a lot of other changes like being able to rename officers and settlements and officers aging every year. The look of the campaign map has also improved and the map feels a lot larger now. You can find all the changes in the patch notes!

Full Changelog:

• Add fortification: Square castle

• Add fortification: Round castle

• Improve design of wooden castle

• Limit number of formations in castles to 4

• Show siege camp on campaign map when settlement is under siege

• Starting a siege costs 10 wood

• If attacking player has no borders with sieged settlement the siege will be broken

• Campaign damage propagates to castle building: level 1 75% health, level 2 50% health

• Constructing a trebuchet will damage a castle each season

• Add attrition icon to settlement flag when food is depleted

• If food is depleted settlement garrison will start losing units

• A settlement loses 1 food in storage per turn when under siege

• When starting a siege the settlement food storage gets locked to the amount of food a player has

• Can lay siege to castle settlements taking them hostage

• Player builds siege engines on campaign map

• Change Ten Bosche to swamp area

• Units from attached formation replacedead units on siege engine

• Change settlement info commander icon depending on ruler or not

• Add missing control info about formation shape changing to formation UI

• Add support for different water height levels during siege battles

• Change ladder units to cheap militia

• Add formation events for siege engines

• Allow player to send units to ladders specifically

• Allow player to select type of castle in quick battle menu

• Allow palyer to attach formations to siege engines during battle

• Add formation icons to siege engines

• Add options for wall sapped to quick battles

• Imrpove smoothness of a couple of campaign UI animations

• Check if position is free before doing a finisher move

• Add icon to sector flag if wall is sapped

• Add info tooltip to realism mode buttons

• Remove redundant formation orders from game

• Improve foliage removal algorithm for siege battles

• Add options to have permanent damage to player from arrow hits, default enabled with realism mode

• Improve campaign watchtower icon

• Improve burning unit particle effect

• Adjust unit siege engine follow speed

• Add more ambient sounds to forest areas

• Change battle text to 'siege of' when castle is built in battle dialog

• Add disable fire arrows menu options

• Some units drop weapons before fleeing

• Prefix settlement name with 'kasteel' when a castle is built

• Improve on fire animation to die transition

• Improve archer sidearm behavior

• Add only use trebuchet during siege battles menu option

• Add particle effect for fireless burn

• Add option to toggle unit outlines

• Add building types for new castles

• Add snowy dust to buildings in winter

• Add sharpening slider to options menu

• Add random flag wear system

• Add menu options to disable random flag wear

• Add boiling water defense option: pour boiling water on attackers passing the gate

• Add new campaign icons for castles

• Add clouds of mist to forest and swamp areas on campaign map

• Add new data structure for castle building types

• Make sure units do pathfinding towards navigation areas during siege battles

• Improve cavalry deaths

• Add deploy defensive garrison option: Place archers behind castle arrow slits

• Non armor penetrating arrows can break or bounce of heavy armor

• AI only use fire arrows in cinematic mode

• Add ambient sound to siege camp during battle

• Add cut tree stumps around siege camp

• Slightly reduce ambient lighting during spring and summer on realistic color mode

• Allow player to rename officers in unit details screen

• Allow player to rename settlements in settlement info bar

• Add selection option for siege damage to quick battle menu

• Incremental siege damage is visible on battlefield

• Add ash particles to fire places

• Add support for dynamic castle landscaping

• Switch around breda attacker and defender spawns

• Add new tactics for AI Cavalry armies

• Remove defensive catapults from game

• Improve siege trebuchet aiming

• Make ladders interactable: press E to mount ladder when prompt is visible

• Increment age of officers each year

• Attacking formations can only flee the castle when gate is opened else they will fight to the death

• Can't call horse when enemies are nearby

• Change standard infantry unit size to 72 from 75

• Add local screenshake to storm ram impacts

• Increase follow distance when formation is attached to siege engine

• Add missing wood production icon to settlement info bar

• Increase negative public orde rmodifier from emergency taxes to -4 from -3

• Add missing tooltip for sally out button

• Improve siege pathfinding for AI

• Frisians can only build wooden castles

• Add crown icon to settlement flag indication wether ruler is in settlement

• Removed number of owned settlements widget from settlement info bar

• Change ladder units to the right army culture

• Lower stormram movement penalty when damaged

• Lower storm ram speed by 25%

• Show construction icon on settlement flag when buildings are under construction

• Randomize fleeing unit movement speed

• Prevent rebelleion from starting when ruler is in settlement

• Slightly increase kill chance on lance impact

• Player will always perform finisher on officers and generals when context is right

• Show unit 'health' on unit icons in campaign UI

• Improve tournament notification sound

• Decrease size and imrpove placement of campaign map trees

• Fix crash related to missing component on unit death

• Fix siege ram triggering destroyed gate behavior multiple times

• Fix skirmish reinforcements having wrong commander culture

• Fix player camera when climing a ladder

• Fix 3d bounds showing when playing as siege defender

• Fix dismounted cavalry still making horse noises during siege battles

• Fix archers only using backisde of wooden castle tower

• Fix Kennemerland dunes castle spawn position

• Fix turn ending when you press leave alone in occupy screen

• Fix player not spawning with formation when attacking during siege

• Fix floating bodies during siege battles

• Fix units climbing air sometimes instead of ladder

• Fix formations changing shape when attached to siege engine

• Fix siege defenders spawning formation banners

• Fix AI unit focus when gate is destroyed

• Fix defending units falling through floor during siege battles

• Fix units using ladders after battle has ended

• Fix units hit with fire airwalking in some situations

• Fix units making grunting noises and taunting after battle has ended

• Fix projectile impacts not making sound on siege engines

• Fix weather controller not respecting 'increased sunny weather' option

• Fix units still in combat pose after battle

• Fix stormram operators not being hit by projectiles

• Fix units running really fast under some circumstances

• Fix backward walk animation of stormram

• Fix some water calculations still running during winter

• Fix some units not behaving properly after battle

• Fix end battle cheer not triggering when enemy wins fight

• Fix oorlogsbede policy not adding income to settlement

• Fix formation not detaching from siege engine when moving

• Fix archers not routing properly during siege battles

• Fix fire arrow stuck in air when dropped

• Fix date not displaying correctly during tournaments

• Fix Pathfinding around stormram

• FIx stormram collision

• Fix arrows never being destroyed