Update # 6 - Reworked Tutorial

We have another update for you this week, focused on three main areas: the tutorial, world map visuals, and world map performance.

The biggest part of this update is a major rework of the tutorial. The prologue and first half hour of the game have been redesigned, a lot of dialogue has been shortened, voice acting has been re-recorded where needed, and the early Genoa and world map chapters have received a lot of improvements.

We`ve also made several visual improvements to the world map. The map should now look better overall, with improved distant rendering, better handling of town buildings, cleaner cinematics, and fixes for several visual issues around the horizon and edge of the screen.

Finally, this update includes another major world map performance pass. Winter and snow should now run much better, scrolling should feel smoother, and world map loading has been slightly improved.

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

And now, here are the full notes for this update:

Reworked Tutorial

• Major redesign of the tutorial prologue

• First half hour has been completely redesigned

• Tutorial no longer features the Acre sequence

• A lot of dialogue has been shortened

• All adjusted dialogue voice acting has been re-recorded

• A lot of improvements to the first World Map chapter

• A lot of improvements to the Building Up Genoa chapter

• Improved World Map level design of the Holy Land

• Fixed various issues with custom saves and resuming the tutorial

World Map Improvements

• Improved World Map appearance

• Disabled LODs for World Map trees for now

• Fixed issue with houses in towns changing appearance when scrolling

• Lowest zoom-in camera now looks better, with more visible far-distance rendering

• Fixed issue where the World Map horizon looked strange

• Fixed issue with World Map objects disappearing at the edge of the screen

• Campaign cinematics now end with correct shadows and max draw distance

• Better handling of World Map house LODs

Performance Improvements

• Finished major World Map performance improvement pass

• Snow on the World Map now lags a lot less

• Greatly improved World Map performance during winter

• Reduced World Map tree texture sizes to help with stability

• Improved scrolling lag on the World Map

• Small improvement to World Map loading speed