Update #13 – Stability, Visuals & Gameplay

As promised, I’m back with a second major update since resuming work on Knights of the Crusades.

In this update, I’ve resolved the last remaining crash issues - so theoretically, and based on about seven hours of testing, the game should now be crash-free for the vast majority of players. All known crashes affecting both combat and level transitions should be resolved. You’ll also notice significantly better performance on both the world map and in RTS mode.

In addition, there are major visual improvements. Lighting has been reworked throughout the game, overall visual fidelity has been increased, and many scenes should no longer have the overly grey appearance seen previously. I’ve also reduced distance fog on both the world map and in RTS mode. This provides clearer views of the surrounding landscape and allows the improved lighting and environments to stand out more prominently.

Several important gameplay issues have also been addressed. A major bug that could cause players to instantly win or lose a battle immediately after entering it has been fixed. Call to Arms has received additional improvements and balancing, while retreating-unit behavior has been reworked. I’ve also resolved several campaign-specific issues involving the Seljuk Tripoli campaign and Yotvingia.

Thank you to everyone who continues to report problems and share feedback! If you have any ideas or issues that you’d like me to focus on next, please let me know here, on Discord, or on the forums.

With that said, let’s take a look at what the lucky 13th update has in store:

Stability and Performance

• Fixed one remaining cause of loading-screen crashes.

• Fixed a common combat crash that could occur while defending walls against attacking enemies.

• Fixed a rare combat crash involving projectiles.

• Improved performance throughout the game, with gains of approximately 10 FPS across many scenes.

Visual Improvements

• Improved world map lighting.

• Improved lighting in RTS mode.

• Improved overall visual fidelity.

• Greatly reduced the overly grey appearance of many scenes.

• Reduced distance fog on the world map.

• Reduced distance fog in RTS mode.

Gameplay Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed a major issue that could cause players to instantly win or lose a battle immediately after entering it.

• Made further improvements to Call to Arms.

• Increased the cost of issuing a Call to Arms.

• Reworked retreating-unit behavior.

• Fixed the Rival condition not working correctly in the Seljuk Tripoli campaign.

• Added a retroactive fix for the Seljuk campaign victory condition in campaigns already in progress.

• Fixed an issue that caused Yotvingia to declare war on the player in every campaign.