Hello, Diplomacy is Not an Option fans! As we always do, with the release of the update we tell you about the changes brought to the game.

New units

To begin with, there are new types of troops at player's disposal:

• Foot Knights - infantrymen in heavy armor, who will serve as an excellent rearguard thanks to their large health reserve.
  
• Axe warriors - another kind of infantry unit. They also wear heavy armor, but come in handy when attacking.
  
• Horse Archers - riders from Gorgoth Empire, excelling in the art of mounted archery. They move fast, shoot straight from saddle, however they need to stop to aim properly and attack.
  
• Mounted Knights - the heavy cavalry. Mostly they are the same as Foot Knights, except for they have warhorses. Meaning they are a bit faster and a little more powerful.
  
• The "Burrdam Chimera" is a wagon that explodes when the engineer driving this magnificent invention lights the fuse. All "Chimera" operators are given the title of hero (posthumously).

Stables

Since we added the new cavalry units, we had to establish a separate building for them: Stables. From now on, Horsemen also can be trained there. In Barracks of different levels only Infantrymen and Shooters are available for hire.

New skills

From the very first days of the development we claimed that Diplomacy is Not an Option has a lot of winning tactics. We also said that weaker troops can be useful in the late game. Experience has shown that Swordsmen and Archers can hardly compete with more expensive units. With the new infantrymen (and Horse archers) jumped in, it will become even harder for Tier 1 troops to be helpful. As a compensation we've given them active skills:

• Archer - can now temporarily increase attack speed
  
• Swordsman - can increase damage, movement speed and chance to dodge a single strike, all at once. However, after activating this skill Swordsmen die, of course, posthumously receiving the title of hero.

In addition, Spearman obtained a passive skill. From now on he deals triple damage to cavalry units. For a complete symmetry we gave the same skill to enemy warriors with spears and pikes.

New research tree

Naturally, with the appearance of troops (and new skills) the research tree has expanded. Some of the research improves your warriors' attributes, some of it unlocks skills. Yet completely different direction of scientific thought appeared - spell enhancement. We also designed research aimed at solving economics problems of the late game, but these were not included in the August update. We will definitely add them in the future.

Economics changes

Speaking of economics and late game, we have some good news. First, from now on, improving the Stone and Iron mines increases not only the amount of extracted resource per unit time, but also the total amount of resource that can be extracted from the mine. Secondly, we've improved Market interface a bit and completely removed its storage. If you have resources stored at Market in your saved games, they won't disappear with the update, you will still be able to manage them. At the same time, such resources will not take up space in storage. So, please do not be surprised if you have more resources than your storage can hold. Work on Market is still in progress, what we've done so far is not the final version.

Statistics panel

You can now see the detailed information about your settlement on the new, handy Statistics Panel.

Builders improvements

The logic of the behavior of citizens and builders is improved. Residents have become afraid of enemies and learned to run away for their lives. Builders now give preference to places of work nearby. And if there are any, they won't go to the other end of town looking for a job.

Details

Update 0.9.55

Features

• New Troops: "Burrdam Chimera", Horse Archer, Mounted Knight, Axe Warrior and Foot Knight;
  
• New Building: Stables, where you can hire all cavalry units (including Horsemen);
  
• Fully reworked Research tree. Some of research were rebalanced or changed their meaning, 14 new technologies to research (E.g. "Soul Steal" that allows you to obtain soul crystals from some enemy types), and 3 more postponed to upcoming updates (currently locked);
  
• New active and passive troop skills. From now on Skills can be activated even when a troop is placed on a Towers;
  
• Stone and Iron Mines of higher levels provide you with more resources for the potential extraction;
  
• Market's infinite Storage removed. So arrived Zeppelins need free space in your Storage to unload cargo;
  
• The brand new Statistics Panel will give you a detailed information about your settlement economics, including Job Priority, Resources income and waste;
  
• Unemployed citizens now fear enemies and run away from them.
  

Balance

• Rebalanced Challenge Modes according to community requests:
  Royal Army Strikes Back, Return of Lunatic Peasants, Outnumbered but not Outgunned became harder;
  Wooden Age, Against Royal Forces and Hulk Madness became easier:
  
• Multiple research rebalancing due to the full feature rework;
  
• It'll take 4 citizens to produce one Trebuchet. Trebuchet's food consumption is raised to 4 units per day. Catapult and Ballista each needs 2 free workers for production and their upkeep is 2 food per day;
  
• Generally we decreased buildings costs in wood, and to counterbalance that, we increased costs in stone/ iron for some buildings;
  
• Ballista now moves and attacks faster and has a larger target search range.
  

Improvements

• Improved logic of builders' behavior - now they are looking for a job nearby;
  
• From now on you can move troops directly from one defense structure to another (using 'Move Out' command);
  
• Order queue now works well with Hold, Attack Point, Move Out (from defense structures) and Move (onto defense structures) commands;
  
• Photo mode ([F11]) now hides all the UI elements (including indicators);
  
• Added [Backspace] hotkey to reset the camera to the default position;
  
• Added [Ctrl+L] hotkey for "Repeat last order" function;
  
• Activated skills now have sound and visual effects;
  
• Troop Action Grid has been reworked. Notable: Attack Priorities (Closest and Strongest) work as a switch and occupy the same interface button;
  
• During map generation, a pond nearby the Townhall may appear from any side, plus this pond always has some fish;
  
• Some visual improvements.
  

Bug Fixes

• Holding [Delete] hotkey works fine (As a mass troop dismiss or as a multiple buildings destroy);
  
• Fixed incorrect Patrol work for Healers with Auto-cast healing enabled;
  
• Bug with Auto-healing switch disabled during the cooldown;
  
• Bug with instant death from hunger for troops after their dismiss/hire cancellation if loading a save;
  
• Multiple UI and UX fixes and improvements;
  
• Multiple localization fixes.
  

Thank you for your attention! That's all we wanted to share with you today. Patch note with a full list of changes is attached below. See you soon!

Door 407 team