Update # 5 - UI Improvements

We have another solid update for you this week - focused mostly on UI improvements, especially on the world map.

The biggest part of this update is the reworked Trade Goods UI. The world map trade goods bar is now cleaner, easier to read, and shows more useful information, including monthly production and trade agreement consumption.

We`ve also reworked the Resources UI, with a major round of fixes to income and upkeep tracking. Tax income, base income, and happiness bonuses should now be shown much more clearly and accurately.

In addition, this update includes a lot of balancing work, especially around battle food drain, looting, naval combat, AI unit training, siege weapons, livestock, and mid to late game wood economy.

There are also several important bug fixes, including fixes for Home City recruitment, RTS wall defense construction, and world map building options, along with some new art polish for mounted unit portraits, Muslim stone towers, and campaign map terrain.

And once again - thank you so much for the reports, feedback, and support during Early Access!

And now, here are the full notes for Update #5:

Reworked Trade Goods UI

• World Map Trade Goods bar has been reworked to be cleaner and show a lot more information

• Shows how many trade goods are being produced monthly

• Mouse over a trade good to see city production and trade agreement consumption

• Trade goods text is now easier to read on the world map

• Trade Goods bar no longer shows 0 for goods the player does not have

Reworked Resources UI

• Major round of fixes to resource income and upkeep shown on the World Map Resources UI

• Tax income is now properly shown

• Fixed issue with how base income was added and tracked

• Fixed issue with tracked values increasing when a city or army is opened

• Added tracking for happiness bonuses to silver, food, wood, and stone production

Fixes and Additions

• Fixed major issue with armies being unable to recruit units from the Home City

• Fixed RTS wall defense construction - Ballista and Catapult could be built without research

• Level 3 trade buildings now have a Disable option on the world map

• In naval combat, ship catapults can now be targeted by melee units

• On the world map, hero portraits on hamlets are now much larger - players can no longer lose track of the hero

• Game speed is now much easier to see in both RTS mode and on the world map

Major Balance Changes

• Player can now loot during battle, with silver going over the cap

• Food drain in battles increased by 25% - more attention is now required to food during sieges

• In naval combat, the more siege weapons the player army has, the more siege catapults will spawn

• During combat, AI will train new units much faster

• During siege combat, progressing quickly and destroying AI buildings is now key to stopping them from training more units

Other Balancing Changes

• Swordsmen can no longer be trained by Western culture with just a Mustering Hall - Barracks are now required

• Livestock now generates 20% less food over time in RTS mode

• Corrected cost of some trade goods buildings to only require wood and stone, not silver

• Fixed issue with some trade goods building upgrade costs being extremely low

• Siege weapons now have higher wood upkeep, adding more pressure to the mid to late game wood economy

Art Updates

• Reworked and improved portraits of mounted Western units

• Mounted portraits no longer show low-poly horse models

• Improved the art of Muslim stone wall towers

• Polish to campaign map terrain