Diplomacy is Not an Option News

Greetings, friends.
Today we continue the announcement of new units under Player's control. Previously we've already shared ideas about additional mounted troops. Today we're going to confirm that Diplomacy is Not an Option is going to have "fire ship" except for the 'ship' part. We don't have naval battles in our game, though the concept of a unit that blows up and makes significant damage is very tempting. So our game designers came up with a brilliant idea of creating the 'cart with surprise' unit. It's gonna be... a cart; but when it faces the enemy it explodes in a ludicrous way.
Perhaps, sometime later we'll even share some concept art. But for now, that's all we wanted to tell you. Stay tuned!

Salute, Diplomacy is Not an Option fans.

From the day one of development, we followed a policy of not making false promises. That's exactly why we are tight-lipped when it comes to future features of the game. Until we were 100% sure that everything we planned was going to happen, we preferred to keep quiet.

But now we're so excited and enthusiastic about the progress of development that we want to share some ideas about what we're going to add to Diplomacy is Not an Option in the near future.

To begin with, our Lord's forces lacks cavalry. This is a minor confusion we are already correcting. So, on their way to the player's roster: Mounted archer and Jousting knight (you can't go without one in the Middle Ages). Surely, we will make a special building to recruit new units.

Bug Fixes
- Crash while upgrading defense structures (very often one since 0.9.49);
- Crash caused by a corrupted leaderboard file;
- Fixed deselection of current selection and dead unit speaking after clicking on "dead bodies" indicator;
- Trees no longer cry while being hit by catapults or trebuchets;
- Bug with cancelling more than one unit in training order after single click on low fps;
- Few localization fixes.

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.

This year, from June 23 to July 7, you can get "Diplomacy is not an option" with a 20% discount.

It is time to put your strategist skills to the ultimate test. Become a medieval feudal lord, forced to hold the defense against countless hostile hordes. Gather resources, manage the economy, develop your city, and don't forget about your army. Because the enemy will come to destroy everything you've built for he knows no mercy. Your task is to survive at all costs.

Thank you for your time. Enjoy the Summer Sales!

Greetings!
For the last month and a half our team has been working on a major update, and today it finally saw the light of day. In this article we will briefly tell you what was added to the game, and what was improved and fixed. So, let's start!

Not everyone was satisfied with the Endless Mode, as no version of it could be completed. The game, one way or another, ended in defeat. For some of you, it didn't really matter whether it happened on the first or the hundredth day. Here comes the solution to the problem:

1. Meet the Challenge Mode.
   [previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
   Like in other game modes, you have to build a settlement and hold the defense against superior enemy forces. Except now you'll get a chance to win.
   
   We've prepared 13 new missions, divided into 4 thematic sections: 'Epic Battles', 'Marathon', 'Piece of Cake' and 'What the...'
   
   'Epic Battles' challenges you to repel a single, but very powerful enemy attack.
   
   'Marathon' section contains maps designed for long walkthroughs.
   
   'Piece of Cake' is designed specifically for beginners. Here you'll find challenges that you can pass without even trying. As a nice bonus - in one of the missions you can become an overpowered mage, single-handedly destroying crowds of enemies with spells.
   
   'What the...' - is an experimental section. It is not easy to say what exactly unites the challenges that fall into it. Perhaps the most correct would be to characterize these missions as unusual, requiring a special, unusual approach to completion.
   
   
2. Performance has increased significantly. We've improved the logic of the system of movement of troops and civilians (optimized algorithms for determining the path, finding targets, etc.). In other words, the game will be less demanding on computing power when processing the movement of crowds, both enemy, and player-controlled.
   
   
3. The long-awaited Photo Mode is here. If you like to make screenshots with picturesque medieval views from Diplomacy is Not an Option or make videos about battles of incredible scale - this is an innovation for you. All the UI elements can now be hidden by pressing the "F11" key.
   
   
4. Many of you have asked us to simplify micromanagement related to Marketplace. Thus, we've added a "Repeat the last order" button to the Marketplace interface. It will hopefully help you to manage your resources more efficiently and save you time and nerves as well.
   
   
5. By popular demand to simplify army micromanagement, we added the Mass recruitment option. Enter the barracks or engineers guild, press Shift, and select the troops you want. Voila - you're recruiting 5 units at a time, assuming you have enough resources.
   
   
6. We completely reworked the mechanics of the order queue. From now on you have the ability to queue up Move, Attack, and Patrol orders. However, we should warn you that the visual component of the order queue is temporarily disabled. We are working on it and will try to implement it in the game with the next update.
   
   
7. You have been complaining about the fact that it is difficult to aim ballistae or catapults at enemy siege machines. Well, it was a bug associated with the 'Attack the strongest target' priority. We fixed it. Now it will be much easier to shoot enemy catapults, even if they are covered from the front by numerous enemy infantry.
   
   
8. 'Mass Healing' spell strengthened. With the June update, it not only heals multiple friendly units, but also temporarily puts on them the effect of regeneration (for 25 seconds troops get a few health points).
   
   
9. 'Enhanced foundations' research now increases the durability of all buildings that share the 'Civilian building' armor type, not only the durability of Houses. This is done to provide more strategic value to the research.
   
   
10. Another innovation to save your time. If there is a problem with one of your buildings, which is informed by the indicator icon on the right side of the screen, clicking on this icon not only focuses the camera on the building, but also selects it.
    
    
11. A small, but, from our point of view, essential change was made in Endless mode. Now it will be even more interesting to compete with yourself, and the Personal record table will fill up faster. After the June update, you don't need to finish the game for your result to show up. The best attempt will appear automatically after each save, and in addition, updated every 24 hours.
    
    
12. When we added the ability to categorize buildings (such as "under construction", "damaged") to Group management, we missed something - buildings that are being upgraded. Thanks to your feedback, we've noticed this oversight, and in this update we've fixed it. The buildings that are being upgraded can now be grouped together.
    

Finally, about some of the lesser things. After reading your feedback, we found that not everyone understands why Diplomacy is Not an Option has a working radius for extractive buildings (like Lumbermilll). Since this is an important gameplay element, we've added a step to the Tutorial introducing you to working radius mechanics. We also worked on textures, which led to some visual improvements, and we fixed the 'Hold' order for siege machines under your control. In addition, artificial intelligence became smarter in some cases.

That's all for today. As always, a complete list of changes is attached below.

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Update 0.9.49

Features

• New Challenge Mode: 13 new different missions to complete;
  
• Photo mode that removes all the elements of the in-game UI. (We've also bound 'F11' hotkey for this action);
  
• Complete rework of the order queue mechanics. Now it works as designed (though it still lacks some visual polishing);
  
• Mass hiring feature: hire 5 troops of the same type at once by holding Shift and clicking on the troop's icon in the Barracks or in the Engineer guild;
  
• From now on clicking on some indicators at the right panel not only focuses the camera on the building but also selects it;
  
• 'Repeat the last order' option added to the Market's interface.
  

General

• Performance significantly increased;
  
• Additional Tutorial step;
  
• 'Mass healing' gives a temporary regeneration effect, apart from instant healing;
  
• 'Advanced foundation' research affects all the buildings with 'civilian building' armor type (not only Houses of all levels).
  

Improvements

• Personal records table of the Endless mode updates daily and after each save. The result appears automatically, players no longer need to lose the game to see their best attempts;
  
• Buildings that are being upgraded became a separate category that can be managed with Group control tools;
  
• 'Hold' order works perfectly for siege machines as well;
  
• Mouse click on the mini-map while having a spell-casting cursor now focuses camera instead of casting a spell;
  
• Significant AI improvement;
  
• Balance improvements (including some cost rebalancing);
  
• Multiple visual improvements (e.g. added animation for siege machines wheels).
  

Bug Fixes

• 'Attack the strongest target' priority for siege machines fixed. Targeting enemy siege machines using your ballistae or catapults became easier even when dealing with a large army;
  
• Bug that prevented homeless people from settling in even if there were free Houses;
  
• Incorrect work of 'Workers can't reach the building' indicating icon. In several cases the indicating icon appeared after the actual issue with builders had been already solved;
  
• Incorrect work of the 'Pause' indication icon (when dealing with the building that contains ill workers);
  
• Trebuchets' navigation bug that caused them to rotate after reaching a destination point instead of standing still;
  
• 'Population numbers go wild' bug. (sudden and unpredictable changes of your population on the stats panel);
  
• Bug that refunds the full cost of a damaged building after player destroyed it;
  
• Rare bug that caused enemy attacking wave to stuck;
  
• Bug that caused ill people to automatically become assigned to the Hospital in the Tutorial;
  
• Multiple UI and UX fixes and improvements;
  
• Multiple localization fixes.
  

[/expand]
We continue to work on Diplomacy is Not an Option. Thank you so much for being with us!

Door 407 Team