Empires and Tribes News

This patch improves unit recruitment, enables market trading, adds a new event in the lategame, and expands the music system.
Recruitment of combat units now requires free residents who are trained as fighters at the keep. By law, only male residents can be recruited into the army initially. However, this can be changed with enough convincing in the council meetings, whereupon you can raise larger armies on the one hand, but on the other hand you can expect significant discontent among the population. The units can, of course, be disbanded again, allowing the inhabitants to take on tasks in your city once more.

Furthermore, you can now trade with the merchants at the market and thus sell your old tools or buy new ones, for example. However, unless a special offer is active, the prices at the market are usually very expensive. We've also added a new animal species in the form of chickens, and have reworked the sheep models. In the Late Game, a new negative event is now triggered at very rare intervals: the Great Fire. Here really a lot of wells are advantageous, because already whole cities have fallen victim to the fire.

Furthermore, we have added a new piece of music and have gone new ways with it: The new piece is not simply played as before, but has a variety of parameters that randomly select different parts or instruments of the piece, combine them with each other and thus constantly create new soundscapes.

In addition to a variety of fixes, we have also added support for the Radeon RX 6000 series, which means that the shaders in the game now deliver the usual behavior again.

Your team from Empires and Tribes

Engine

Added:

- Recruitment revised:
- Residents are now recruited to train combat units
- Siege weapons need several inhabitants for recruitment
- Depending on the legislation either only men or men and women can be recruited
can be recruited
- Units can be disbanded - this frees up the residents to take on other jobs again

- New law added: Recruitment of women and men
- Tools and resources can now be traded with the merchants in the marketplace. The selection and quantity of the traders' offers depend on the size of the city.
- Added new event in the Late Game: Great Fire
- Added new animal species: Chickens
- Added new sheep model including new animations
- Local Avoidance (collision avoidance with units) can now be turned off
- Added sign in the building menu which indicates whether gates connect different areas such as two courtyards of castles or not
- The game is now lost if the player goes bankrupt
- In the menus, five workers or builders can now be assigned simultaneously when Shift is pressed
- Grass now grows back after roads are torn down
- Construction models for grain farm Lv1-Lv3 revised
- Added path randomizer: Residents' path finding is now subject to a slight randomizer, breaking up workers' lines a bit in the morning and evening
- Shader support for Radeon RX 6000 series added

Fixed:

- Fixed a bug that caused Pathfinder to overload after loading, resulting in a performance dip
- Fixed a bug that caused a performance drop after loading savegames when objects were spawned on the same position
- Fixed a bug that caused walls and wooden ramparts not to be displayed after loading in some cases
- Deer, rabbits and chickens now no longer run through houses when attacked
- Improved the algorithm for generating the AI's roads, which now allows the AI to safely open up mines and quarries even in more difficult terrains
- Fixed some bugs in the animator, causing residents to play incorrect animations, especially after loading savegames
- Added backup that ensures that builders can transport the missing resources to the construction site and complete the construction when constructing buildings
- Fixed a bug where some buildings were no longer colored red when selected for demolition
- The player can now run even if he is carrying a shield
- Fixed bug that caused units to move in circles after loading
- Fixed a bug that caused flickering textures in the Lv1 type 2 dwelling house
- Fixed a bug that caused the hunters to not play animation when carrying the blasphemy stone
- Fixed a bug that caused some residents to seek wrong sleeping positions in the dwellings when there was a famine beforehand
- Fixed a bug that caused the attack icon on the map not to be removed when the player was warned by the night watchman of an attack by the AI, but the AI canceled the attack
- Fixed a bug that occurred when the player talked to the engineers of the catapult


UI

Added:

- Added panel for trading at the marketplace
- Integration of the special offers of the traders into the new interface
- Added text in the interaction menu of the gates indicating whether gates connect different areas together
- Added message warning the player when he is about to go bankrupt
- Added panel in the building menu that shows the essential shortcuts
- When opening the recipe book, the page of the corresponding workshop is now automatically opened (for example, if the player is standing in front of the carpenter's workbench, the entry for the carpenter's workshop is opened)
- Added consumption of resources by crafts in the overview menu
- Food production in the overview menu broken down by farm (hunter and bakery)

Fixed:

- Fixed a bug where the correct crafting workbench was no longer recognized in the menu if the player had previously opened the recipe book
- Scroll speed of the scrollbars increased
- The minimap is now zoomed out one level by default

This patch updates the rendering of the water, improves the attack behavior of the units on buildings and extends the batching system.
The rendering of the water is now much more realistic thanks to new shaders and a new underwater effect. The reflection characteristics of the water are linked to the graphical settings, which can be changed as always in the game settings menu in the main menu or directly in the game. The maximum setting allows full reflection of the terrain, while lower settings save render time by either partially calculating reflections or not calculating them at all. Units and siege weapons can now be controlled more precisely when attacking buildings by allowing individual buildings to be selected as attack targets via right-click in the birdeye battle mode. Btw: We were also able to fix a bug that could lead to a crash after loading in case of war. Furthermore, towers and gates are now automatically rotated towards the city center when placed. The latter can now also be manually rotated 180 degrees if they are to be placed on roads. Last but not least, we have now also reworked the AI's dwelling models and replaced them with the new Lv2 and Lv3 buildings.

Your team from Empires and Tribes

Engine

Added:

- Added the new water system
- The reflection characteristics of the water now depend on the graphical quality setting
maximum quality: full reflection
good and medium quality: only reflection of the skybox
simple quality: no reflection
- Added possibility to select enemy buildings directly as attack target of units
- Added a shader that indicates when enemy buildings are selected for attack
- Towers and gates are now automatically rotated when building over walls and roads, so that they point towards the city center or castle center
- Added the ability to rotate gates 180 degrees when building over walls or roads
- Added a new shader for the hair
- Added new apartment building models Lv2 and Lv3 for the AI

- Added static batching of the following objects:
- City Hall Lv1
- Pottery
- Grain farm
- Church and Cathedral
- Trading post
- Wooden tower
- Stone tower Lv1 - Lv4
- Residence Lv2 and Lv3 of the AI
- LOD levels and shadowcaster of these buildings

Fixed:

- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when the AI or player's units could not find enemy buildings (occurred especially after loading save games when the player was at war with the AI)
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when the enemy keep was demolished
- Fixed a bug that occurred when the AI's Lv2 tavern was destroyed
- Fixed a bug that caused units that were not organized into armies to not listen to movement orders when already engaged in combat
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when loading if the grain farm was fully expanded
- The fire icon is now removed from the map and compass when the Lv1 dwellings are burned down
- Grain growth height corrected and randomized
- Translucency of the grain now less luminous
- Optimization of unit algorithms: Raycasting is now replaced by Spatial Map searches



UI

Added:

- Added a tooltip for all AI buildings in build and battle menu

With this update you can expect a small Easteregg for Halloween.
In addition, we have been working intensively on optimizing the performance over the last few weeks and would like to share the first improvements with you.

Your team from Empires and Tribes

Engine

Added:

- Static Batching System added
- Static Batching of the following objects:
- Housing models Lv1 to Lv3
- Marketplaces
- Stone walls
- Wooden palisades
- Props (torches, lamps, boxes, vases)
- Objects of the environment (bridges and fences)
- All LOD levels and shadowcasters of these buildings and objects
- mesh-combining and static batching of trees at the map edge


Fixed:

- The audio controls now work again
- Texture of bridges and stone fences replaced

This version revises the shading of all objects, improves the day-night cycle and fixes some bugs.
We have reworked our standard shader, which means that all objects are now rendered in an improved way and better capture the current daytime mood. Among other things, this is reflected in the calculation of light reflection and the influence of ambient light. We have also fixed some bugs, especially in the animations of the villagers and in the combat between different units.

Your Empires and Tribes Team

Engine

Added:

- Performance Optimization:
- Optimization of the movement algorithm of combat units
- Optimization of the movement algorithm of the inhabitants
- Complete overhaul and update of shaders and related graphical representation of all objects
- Added reflection of sunlight on the terrain
- New calculation of ambient light and its influence on buildings and terrain
- Improved light mood in the night scene and dusk


Fixed:

- Fixed a bug that could lead to a crash when bandits or thieves did not find their way
- Fixed a bug that could lead to a crash when attacking the AI
- Fixed a bug that could lead to a crash when defending the AI of your own castle
- Fixed a bug that could cause wrong animations of villagers to be triggered, or villagers to be frozen in place
- Fixed a bug that could cause villagers to run off the map after completing recreational activities
- Fixed a bug that caused units to fly after crossing bridges in some cases
- Fixed a bug that caused combat units to not be able to recognize each other
- Fixed a bug that caused AI attacks to stop prematurely and get stuck
- Fixed a bug that caused archers to detour when finding their position within armies, thus delaying the movement of armies
- Fixed a bug that caused AI residents to be unrecognized by the LOD system after loading in some cases
- Fixed a bug that caused the clothes of the AI inhabitants to be displayed only in white after loading game saves
- Fixed a bug in the cart manager that occurred when a player's save was destroyed by an opponent
- Fixed a bug in the minimap that occurred when a memory was demolished
- Fixed a bug that caused the wolves' attack sign on the map and in the compass not to be cleared when the wolves were defeated

UI

Added:


Fixed:

- Fixed incorrect display in the panel of the clay pit and quarry when they are fully expanded

It's been a little quiet around us and Empires and Tribes lately, but even an indie game studio needs to take a little vacation from time to time. We've been back for a while now and are working with full force on the further development of Empires and Tribes and can present you the first post-summer patch today!
This version adds the long-promised French translation, adds an autosave and quicksave feature, optimizes the saving algorithm and improves performance.
Our translators have left no stone unturned this time and have shown extraordinary attention to detail: All the first names and surnames are typical of early medieval France, Old Occitan troubadour songs were researched, and long linguistic discussions about feudalism and the system of estates were conducted. We think: it was more than worth it! The new autosave function now saves the current game state once per (in-game) day. For each new map you start, a new autosave file is created, so that your old autosave game saves from other maps are not overwritten. We were also able to improve the performance, especially on larger maps. We will continue to work on this with the next updates.

Your team from Empires and Tribes

Engine

Added:

- French language added
- Added autosave function always 0 o'clock in-game. The function can be turned off in the settings.
- Added Quicksave function by shortcut F5 (WIN) or L (OSX). Keybinding can be changed in the settings.
- Load/save algorithm optimized
- Smaller memory footprint due to optimized saving of map data, pathfinding data, AI data and splatmap data
- Faster saving of the game state

Fixed:

- Performance optimization:
- Optimization of the dynamic occlusion culling (effect is especially significant on large maps).
- Optimization of the unit movement algorithms
- The display of water on the map and minimap is displayed correctly again
- Fixed a bug that caused the buttons in the save and load panel to be placed incorrectly when deleting individual saves with a high number of saved saves
- When saving, the endings ...-2, ...-3, etc. are now only appended if the current savegame name is already taken
- Fixed a bug that in rare cases caused residents to run out of the map after finishing recreational activities
- Fixed a bug that caused residents to continue sleeping during the day
- Fixed a bug that caused the wake-up animation to be triggered for residents on the street during the day
- Fixed a bug that caused the old LOD levels of the church to be displayed when building the cathedral
- Field paths are now available in the combat tutorial to make it easier to build gates.


UI

Added:

- Added English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese translations for the decorative objects

Fixed:

- The language is now translated correctly in the load menu in the main screen as well
- Fixed some small translation errors in the main menu
- The tooltips of the help functions in the build menu are now displayed correctly
- Fixed wrong button placement in the settings menu