Hello Citizens!

Summer is fully here (or Winter time for y'all in Oceania which I am very jealous about I prefer Winter time)! That means it is time once more for yet another update! Part Three of the Nature update is live, bringing in a few changes such as Woolies out in the wild.

Gigantic thank you for everyone who has been playing and leaving their feedback, it's always so rad to bring some of your ideas to life! But as always, let's jump right on into things (´｡• ᵕ •｡`)

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PATCH NOTES

Content & Gameplay Additions

- NPC awareness of other entities has been reworked:

• Some factions are now neutral towards each other

  • Woolies and Tuskars are hostile towards each other, but neutral to all other factions

  • Kingdom and Travelers are neutral towards each other

  • Entities whose factions are neutral towards each other can still damage each other, but doing so will mark the attacker (including players) as temporarily hostile to the damaged entity’s entire faction

  • Some NPCs will warn neutral entities if they come within a certain range, and will mark them as temporarily hostile to their entire faction if they stay within that range for long enough

  • Some NPCs will mark neutral NPCs and players as temporarily hostile to their entire faction if they come within a certain range

• NPCs no longer require line of sight to be aware non-player entities, but still require it to be aware of players

• NPCs will come to aid allied NPCs in combat from a larger distance than the range they would otherwise enter combat within, quickly escalating battles between factions

• Field Mortar and Mortar Tower fire can attract hostile NPCs’ attention from a large range

• Certain NPCs are now stealthed, drastically reducing the distance within which other NPCs can be aware of them

• Hostile and neutral NPCs now track vision for all players simultaneously, rather than only focusing on one at a time, and can only be aware of a player once that player is fully visible to them

  • The “?” and “!” UI symbols above NPCs only reflect their vision of, or search for, the local player, or a reaction to a distraction unrelated to players (such as physics collision sounds)

  • For clarity, a dot will now appear persistently over NPCs that have fully detected the local player, as they might be aware of the player without targeting them for combat

• Civilians no longer take shelter when detecting a threat, and will fight with their fists instead

• Woolies now spawn as wild creatures. Wild Woolies can be tamed for a one-time Fodder cost, and will join the nearest vacant Woolie Barn if any is available

• Both Tuskars and Woolies have new, larger nests consisting of egg nests that spawn wild creatures, as well as various rock formations, some of which contain caves used by the creatures as shelters

• The second mid-air attack for all weapons is now a held, precise strike, rather than the previous repeating combo

  • Triggered by holding the attack button after using up the first mid-air attack (the uppercut)

  • Sends the player falling faster, dealing a large amount of damage to any enemy hit and bouncing off of them

  • Missing this attack, and hitting the ground or an inanimate object, will force the player into a long recovery

  • If held for long enough, the player will be locked into the attack and deal extra damage upon impact

Changes and Improvements

• Unemployment no longer gives citizens a Happiness penalty

• Lighting has been tweaked for each of the seasons separately, making them much more visually distinct

• Replaced various placeholder map icons with finalized versions

• Non-friendly NPCs will now look suspiciously in the direction of players that are being detected, but aren’t yet fully detected, if they’re central enough in the NPC’s vision

• Mortar Towers and Field Mortars will now target characters within range if there are no more structures for them to attack

• Mortar Tower and Field Mortar shells no longer terraform terrain

• Powder Keg explosions now terraform nearby terrain walls all the way down to the explosion’s height, rather than only lowering their height by a bit at a time

• Mortar Tower and Field Mortar range has been increased, and their reload time, damage, and the Mortar Tower’s Gunpowder cost have been decreased

• The stamina cost of sprinting and dolphin swimming has been greatly reduced

• Most player attacks are now interruptible at any point by dashing or jumping

• Slightly reduced the player throwing speed for entities of all sizes

• All entities will now change the terrain underneath their footprint to barren when uprooted, and never do so when rooted

• It is now possible to toggle crouching while in mid-air

• The loading screen has an updated look!

• The research timer now additionally displays the total time remaining to complete all items in the research queue if more than one research is queued

• The Population menu, its hotkey icon, and the counters next to the clock are now hidden until the Town Hall has been built for the first time in a playthrough

• The Resources menu, its hotkey icon, and the resources display below the clock are now hidden until a player has gathered a resource for the first time in a playthrough

• Info feed messages are now shown when unlocking the Town Hall, Sawmill, Forager’s Hut, and Townhouse as part of the “Establish a Settlement” objective, and yellow exclamation marks will mark them in the build menu, matching other buildings that are unlocked through research

• The “Recruiting should not exceed jobs” check box in the Citizens tab of the Population menu is now unchecked by default

• The line below the clock and above the resources display is now only visible when resources are shown

• Updated the earth shattering VFX for the unarmed ground slam (charged mid-air attack) and the 4th grounded Greathammer combo attack

• Oak and Fir Sapling visuals have been updated, along with new seasonal and biome variations

• All berry bushes now match their look to the current season

• Added VFX and sounds to the Soaper’s Workshop

• Added VFX and sounds to the Washhouse

• The Stress icon next to the clock is now greyed out if Stress is at 0%

• The counters for Citizens and Soldiers next to the clock are greyed out if they are at 0

• The counters for Citizens, Civilian Jobs, Soldier Jobs, Unemployed, and Woolies in the Population tab are now greyed out if they are at 0

Optimization & Fixes

• Optimized fog of war calculations

• Optimized occlusion culling

• Removed some unused code and systems, which had slight performance costs

• Fixed being unable to get past the initial loading screen and reach the main menu if the config file becomes corrupted, and it will now be reset to default values instead

• Fixed NPCs being able to become either completely invisible or stretched out randomly over the entire world, depending on the hardware, under some circumstances (mostly impacting saves containing many NPCs of the same type)

• Fixed NPCs sometimes walking a few steps back to their employing building while working outdoors, before going back to work

• Fixed NPCs walking away from combat for a few steps every once in a while, before resuming combat

• Fixed ranged NPC attacks being interrupted when the player jumps out of reach

• Fixed NPCs running to a nearby point or standing in place and looking in a strange direction when the player jumps out of reach

• Fixed Thugs interrupting a Fire Bomb throw if their target becomes reachable again

• Fixed Thugs not consistently throwing Fire Bombs at targets that are out of reach

• Fixed some issues with NPCs targeting a player for combat while the player is standing on an object

• Fixed Mortar Towers and Field Mortars sometimes firing shells horizontally with 0 speed, causing them to explode at the base of the mortar

• Fixed non-host clients being unable to see Ore Vein icons in map mode

• Fixed mirrored objects setting the terrain underneath them to Barren using their unmirrored footprint when uprooted

• Fixed terrain height no longer being changeable once it reaches the minimum or maximum possible heights

• Fixed non-host clients seeing NPCs that are already indoor when they connect as if they’re outdoor

• Added proper crouching animations when the Shovel is equipped

• Fixed Shovel pogo (aerial dig/fill) follow through animations being interruptible by releasing the attack input after a hit

• Fixed Powder Kegs disappearing noticeably when moving away from them

• Fixed water ripple VFX clipping into the water while sprinting over it

• Fixed speed line VFX on the edges of the screen not being properly shown while sprinting

• Fixed Forest dirt terrain tiles having a green border

• Improved the visuals for far away Oak and Fir trees in the Steppe biome

• Fixed Shovel and Seed Bag target tile previews being shown while lifting an object and while in map mode

• Fixed Musketeers and Poachers sometimes not playing a sound when shooting their muskets

• Fixed Powder Kegs playing their defuse sound when built

• Fixed Mutant Tuskars making regular Tuskar sounds when thrown

• Fixed Mortar Towers being rendered twice in some cases

• Fixed the Mutant Woolies’ name translation to German

That's it for now! Stay tuned in a few days for the June Devlog where we'll be showing off everything we have been working on for the month of June. (°)#))<<