Empires and Tribes News

This update revises the combat system, improves the AI's behavior, adds a sandbox mode and two new maps.
The feedback during combat has been expanded by a few features. For example, on successful impact in melee combat, the player's animation is now slowed down, the opponent recoils a bit and the damage is displayed in the UI. The use of ranged weapons is now much more intuitive thanks to an interactive crosshair that shows the targeted enemy and the distance to it. In addition, all of our shields have been given a durability value that indicates how many hits a shield can take before it breaks and becomes useless.
The AI now reacts more actively to impending attacks by the player by complaining about inappropriate armament by the player, building defenses when it detects a threat in the behavior of one of the teammates, and attacking earlier when it has the resources to do so.
The two new maps "Falcon mountains" and " Mountains of the North" invite excessive castle building. Extensive mountain landscapes with narrow pinholes through the rock allow strategically advantageously located castles, city walls and outposts.
And last but not least, a sandbox mode now awaits you, where you can give free rein to your creative powers.

Have fun,

Your team from Empires and Tribes

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Engine

Added:

- New maps added:
- Falcon mountains [3x3]
- Mountains of the North [4x4]
- The starting position of the player and the AI are now displayed on the map when selecting a new map in the main menu
- New sandbox mode added: Construction costs are disabled, events can be disabled
- Behavior of the AI revised:
-defenses and castles are now built with priority when war is declared or one of the opponents rearms up
- AI opponents now accept a specific army strength of the player, depending on his title. If the size of the player's army exceeds this, the AI opponents will complain about the armament and declare war if necessary.
- Combat system revised:
- enemy units are knocked back a bit when hit by the player
- the impact particle systems are generated correctly at the impact location
- the player's animation is slightly delayed at the impact point if the impact is successful
- damage dealt and received is displayed in the HUD
- the shield is activated faster when blocking
- the player's movement speed is reduced during active blocking
- added new animation for archery
- the type of the targeted unit when using ranged weapons is displayed below the crosshairs
- the distance to the targeted unit when using ranged weapons is indicated by the size of the crosshairs opening
- Added durability value for shields
- New copper and wooden shield model added
- Arrow damage increased
- Attack power of wolves increased
- Player's stamina is now increased when constitution skill is increased


Fixed:

- Fixed bug in terrain altitude aging that caused graphical glitches in terrain at clay pits and quarries
- Fixed bug in AI castle building that caused AI castle gates not to close in a few cases
- Fixed a bug that caused the AI to miscalculate its own strength, making it too defensive in its attack behavior
- Fixed a bug in the pathfinding of the AI when searching for attack positions for the armies
- Fixed a bug in the AI attack behavior that occurred when wolves were near AI settlements without attacking them
- Shields are now no longer generated twice when loading if the player is holding a shield in the savegame
- The player color and crest are now also displayed on the player's shields
- The bow is now correctly generated in the player's hands
- Animals can now also be killed with the spear and the bow
- Fixed a bug where tools were generated twice in the player's hands if the bow was held in the hands during an interaction
- The bow is now directly drawn again if the mouse button was already pressed during the exit animation
- The spear throwing and bow animations are now correctly paused when a menu is opened
- Fixed a bug that occurred when wall pieces were built too close to the map edge
- Fixed a bug in the pathfinding of the inhabitants that caused them to run to the work farms during their free time
- The wolf attack icon on the map and in the compass is now removed when the wolves have been killed
- When mining clay inside the clay pit, the progress is now also displayed


UI

Added:

- Added button in battle menu to open or close all gates
- Added icons for all farms in the construction menu
- Privileges are now explained in more detail in the nobility menu via tooltip

With this patch, the building system and the balance system of Empires and Tribes will be revised and expanded.
You now have the option to build curved roads, giving your settlement a more individual and natural look. The road type selection tool now pops up when you want to build a new road and is located right above the road icon. We've also reworked the autoplacement feature for buildings on roads. Buildings are now placed and rotated to the next street in a more reliable and intuitive way.
Furthermore, we have expanded the balance system. All public buildings now have supply costs, which put pressure on the balance sheet and make the decision to expand the monastery, for example, a bit more difficult. The marketplace is an exception to this, as it generates income in return. We have also integrated all other income and expenses, for example from mendicants or city servants, into the balance system and now give you a precise overview of all finances in the overview menu. Finally, the tax collector becomes more and more important in the late game, for example to be able to continue financing the taxes to the king.
And last but not least: we have also added a new menu that informs you about the current city level, the newly unlocked buildings and the progress to the next level.


Your team from Empires and Tribes

Engine

Added:

- Balance system added: Tax revenues, expenses for salaries and mendicants, and maintenance of buildings are now accounted for consistently and displayed in both the HUD and the overview menu
- Added maintenance for public buildings
- Added round roads
- The area of influence of community buildings is now displayed in the building menu when they are clicked on


Fixed:

- Revised building placement function: buildings now place themselves more intuitively on the closest road when built
- Fixed bug where goods were not collected from farms if the store was placed too close to the farm
- The building menu at the town hall and the storehouse is now no longer opened if you accidentally press "e" after picking up logs
- The storage amount is no longer displayed in the building menus when the farm is still being built
- Performance improved when building roads

UI

Added:

- Added graphical representation of balance accounting by public buildings, taxes and other expenses in the overview menu
- Maintenance of public buildings is now displayed in the tooltips during construction and expansion
- Added menu showing current city level and newly available buildings and upgrades
- The missing resources at construction sites are now also displayed in the mouse-over panels in the construction menu
- The missing resources at construction sites are now also displayed in the main hud
- The building panel in the main hud can now be hidden
- Added reset button in the trade cart menu
- The amount of selected resources can now also be set with the scroll wheel in the menus

Fixed:

- the conditions for expanding the iron mine, iron smelter, iron weapon forge and church in the building interaction menu are now displayed correctly (100 citizens)
- The space in the trade cart is now displayed separately for buying and selling in the trade menu
- When selecting resources in the menus, the height of the mouse position in the icon now determines the number of initially selected resources

A small hotfix that fixes currently encountered problems.

Added:

- The tooltips of the buildings now show requirements that may not yet be fulfilled when upgrading
- The inhabitants no longer run in circles at the start of the game


Fixed:

- The buttons in the diplomacy menu work now
- The buttons in the writing room work now
- Fixed a bug in the pathfinding that could lead to a crash
- The scroll sensitivity of the resident menu is now higher
- The recruitment button in the overview menu is now activated when the keep is built

With this patch, we release a long-awaited feature with the resident menu, improve the expansion behavior of the AI and fix some bugs in the area of the pathfinding.
In the third panel of the overview menu (shortcut "1") you will now find a list of all residents, their work and their interests. All entries can be sorted here according to various priorities, such as work or happiness. So it's finally easy to find the one remaining dissatisfied construction worker and maybe give him a job in the weapon forge after all. In addition, we've added a way to select residents and mark them on the map, for example, to make it easier to find the quest giver again. We've also made some tweaks and bug fixes to the AI's behavior to ensure that your opponents don't remain at the peasant level, but instead continue to expand their cities into craftsman and townsman cities, which can pose a real threat to you. Additionally, we've fixed some bugs in the pathfinding of your inhabitants, which should make finding farms safer now.

Your Empires and Tribes Team


Engine


Added:

- Added different levels for the LOD system: Selecting the graphical quality in the settings now also affects the strength of the LOD system. As a result, the building models in the two highest quality levels are only replaced at greater distances, resulting in fewer graphical glitches.
- Added a menu where all residents are listed with their profession and interests
- Added a feature to assign jobs to residents in the new overview menu
- Added a feature that allows residents to be marked on the map
- The maximum amount of stock in the farms now increases with the expansion levels
- The AI will now buy missing trade goods if the production does not cover the needs of the inhabitants
- The player's stamina now regenerates faster when sleeping
- Permanent run function added by pressing "Capslock"
- The merchant's stock is now replenished every 12 hours
- Added a research that increases the area of influence of the marketplace

Fixed:

- Fixed a crash that could occur when building walls
- Terrain occlusion for units reworked -> units are now no longer accidentally deactivated on the horizon even though they are still visible
- Fixed a pathfinding problem that occurred when the destination or starting point was not covered by a road connection
- Fixed a pathfinding problem that occurred when units were assigned to and removed from a farm multiple times in a row
- When assigning new workers, the system no longer only searches for the worker with the best values, but also checks if the worker has recently failed to find the way to the farm. This avoids a pathfinding bottleneck when assigning workers.
- The storage can now also be extinguished by the player and the water carriers
- Fixed a bug that caused the AI to build large farming villages in some cases
- Fixed a bug in the work assignment of the AI inhabitants after loading
- Fixed a bug in the AI expansion queue that could cause the AI to stop constructing buildings
- Fixed a bug in the AI building site placement, which could cause a stop in the AI building process
- The court case and the city council meeting can now no longer be opened when the player is in the building menu
- The information panels of farms and buildings on the left side of the screen are no longer opened in the construction menu
- Events like fire or plagues are no longer triggered when pausing the game
- The king's messenger now always runs to the first built town hall when building several town halls
- The lamps in the quarry and in the hunting lodge are now generated at the correct position after loading
- When opening a menu while sprinting, stamina is now no longer consumed
Fixed a bug that occurred when the last available space in the inventory was occupied or emptied
- Screenshot mode can now also be exited by "Escape


UI

Added:

- The color of the robes of the inhabitants in the menu of the court cases now reflects their current professional status
- The current and the maximum stock quantity of the farms is now displayed in the menus
- The interaction menu of the buildings now also displays a tooltip if the building cannot be upgraded yet
- Added a message when the time to tasks of residents has expired
- Added an infopanel in the research menu explaining the possibility to scroll to the right

Fixed:

- Correct tooltips are now shown in the legislation panel in the overview menu
- The buttons in the building interaction menu are now also activated when the menu is opened and the farm is currently being expanded
- The market cart menu can now also be opened from the building interaction menu
- When expanding buildings from the building interaction menu, all required building materials are now also displayed
- If the player's inventory is full when trading with the merchant, the message that there is not enough money is no longer displayed

This hotfix fixes some recent bugs when selecting items, in the pathfinding and after the city council meetings. Additionally, we have added the ability to build roads and walls at 90 degree angles.

Your team from Empires and Tribes

Added:

- Added function to build rectangular roads and walls (press "Shift" while building the road/wall)
- Added new keyboard layout for rectangular roads

Fixed:

- The player's tools and hands now reappear in every case after the end of the city council meeting and the court case
- Fixed a bug that prevented objects from being picked up
- The blasphemy stone is now correctly removed when the punishment is over
- Plant fibers and branches are now generated slightly more often when chopping wood
- When visiting the inhabitants of the tavern, the blasphemy stone is no longer accidentally generated
- Fixed a pathfinding bug that could occur when leaving the inhabitants of the church

UI

Added:

- Added message explaining the spawning of plant fibers.
- Added message explaining the blocking of enemy attacks