Lords and Villeins News

We greet you Lords and Ladies,

a new update to the public beta v.1.2.14 was just published and is available to play on the beta branch! We have fixed some game breaking issues and added few quality of life and balancing touches. We continue to polish and fix this version, to make it ready for a live branch as soon as possible. And once that is done, we will refocus on a new update, adding a small campaign mode, so stay tuned!

If you wish to join the Public Beta and get your hands on the updates before they are added to the full game, all you have to do is right click on the game in your Steam library, select Properties, Betas and find the "artisanbeta" branch. If you encounter any bugs or have any feedback to share, we would love to hear from you! Share them here on Steam forums, or come join our dedicated Discord server.

[h3]Change Log:[/h3]

• Fixed crash duplicating noble family members when they were proposed to marriage while they were visiting in villa
  
• Fixed issue preventing brick production in a scenario where family did not have household and firewood
  
• Fixed issue that corrupted save files when quest giver family no longer existed
  
• Fixed broken animation in the AM/PM animation in the clock
  
• Reduced cost of visiting theatre from 200 to 50
  
• Added default equipment preference for starting soldiers to prevent them taking off plate armor when the game begins
  
• Removed "Until taxed" toggle in the warehouse book trading page (it was not doing anything and should have been hidden)
  
• Fixed problem with using invalid characters in new templates not being loaded after restart
  
• Fixed issue with fishing profession not leveling up
  
• Fixed foragers not getting XP for cutting trees
  
• Lowered default priority class for roofs, so they get built after walls
  
• ixed issue with prioritization of blueprints to not lock resources if the blueprint is unbuildable (i.e. no wall support for roof)
  
• Fixed soil quality view not refreshing after reload, until the game is un-paused
  
• Fixed tooltips on public celebration dropdown elements when they are disabled
  
• Updated description of the "Aggressive Animals" module and modified its functionality. It can now be turned off to prevent animals to jump over fences when hunting.
  
• Fixed villagers not consuming love potions
  
• Increased probability of domesticated animals to become pregnant
  
• Added a new option in the settings to turn off the weather effect
  
• Fixed a bug in the pathfinding that may have been responsible for misfiring of inaccessible structure notifications
  
• Fixed inverted scrollbar in the animals tab of the market price UI
  

Greetings, Lords and Ladies,

There is a new update entering the Public Beta, that being Patch 1.2.11. It has brought multiple fixes, some QoL improvements and many more! Feel free to check out the whole Change Log below.

How can I join the Public Beta, you ask? It's easy! Just right click on the game in your Steam library, select Properties, Betas and find the "artisanbeta" branch. If you encounter any bugs or have any feedback to share, we would love to hear from you! Share them here on Steam forums, or come join our dedicated Discord server.

Currently, we are aware of an issue that corrupts save files if you attempt to marry a noble during a time when they are visiting your settlement in a hosted villa. We advise everyone to avoid this scenario to prevent this from happening. As a general practice, make sure to backup your save files and please be advised that the experience may be problematic as it is still a beta version.

We will be testing this build on the beta for a few more days and do our best to fix all problems so it can be published on the live branch as soon as possible.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed the issue where the previous version didn't create config.ini
  
• Fixed market price list toggles being swapped for buy and sell behavior of caravans
  
• Updated tooltips for buy and sell behavior of caravans
  
• Added global switch for categories in market price list
  
• Fixed leatherworkers not making horse saddles
  
• Fixed missing locale for a Noble Influence game module
  
• Fixed warehouse crash when switching to artisan category with no artisan families present
  
• Fixed issue with librarians not teaching skills
  
• Fixed tooltip in warehouse book not reflecting master of coin bonus
  
• Fixed an issue that would occasionally trigger path not found notification when it was not supposed to (particularly during loading)
  
• Fixed an issue with clergy donation values not being restored after load
  
• Fixed an issue preventing soldiers to be sent to war outside of tutorial mode
  
• Fixed an incorrect hint in blueprint context menu when supplied by a construction family that does not have required material
  
• Fixed reference issue during unloading that could cause memory leaks
  
• Fixed semi-random pathfinding crashes when families get removed
  
• Reduced memory usage of music audio files
  
• Removed functionality of partial pathfinding map refresh due to extensive memory consumption and bloating of save files. Correct solution for partial refresh requires more comprehensive solution that is now beyond the scope of this update.
  
• Fixed hunters not buying and wearing leather armor
  
• Fixed UI issue in the town hall request displaying relationship over 100% when a high council position is assigned to an artisan with good relationship
  
• Improvement in AI pathfinding state machine to prevent random cases of misfiring Inaccessible Structure notification
  
• Fixed caravan sell embargo not working
  
• Fixed number of AI crashes involving clergy, hunters and military
  
• Fixed bug with noble family being destroyed after it left the map after the villa invitation
  
• Fixed bug with Ruler important role being assigned both to the head and their partner (the partner should have Ruler Partner role). This broke several features, including council meetings.
  

[h3]Improvements and Balance Changes[/h3]

• Expanded warehouse book send tab with sum of delivered value and indicator of free loading sites
  
• Reduced probability that an elderly person will join clergy
  
• Multiple churches running are now supported. Minister is still required, in other churches the service is held by monks
  
• Meals, repair kits, sand, rags and firewood will no longer be requested in quests and can not be added to custom delivery
  
• Increased priority of marriage request encounter in the town hall
  
• Reduced frequency of observing art and visiting theatre
  
• Reduced the speed of social need decline
  
• Improved theatre logic to prevent people coming to the theatre and not have a chair to sit on
  

Greetings lords and ladies!

We have exciting news today - the public beta for the awaited Artisan update goes live! All of you can get your hands on the patch right now and test all the great new additions to the game. Please be advised, that while this version went through extensive internal testing and a lengthy closed beta, there are still issues we are aware of and will be fixing them in the upcoming days so if you want to enjoy a smooth experience, please hold off your excitement just yet, until the update goes live on the main branch.

In order to join, right click on the game in your library, select Properties, Betas and find the "artisanbeta" branch. If you encounter any bugs or have any feedback to share, we would love to hear from you! Share them here on Steam forums, or come join our dedicated Discord server.

There is so much to get excited about with this new patch. With significant optimizations for the pathfinding that now runs natively on parallel cores and is managed more efficiently, there is a noticeable improvement in the frame-rate, especially on larger maps. New quest mechanic and redesigned royalty system is a lot of fun, and inviting nobles to host them at your villa adds a nice extra bit of immersion.

Thank you all who have been part of the closed beta, including our community members on our Discord and those participating in the Fulqrum Champions program. We can't wait to hear more feedback from all of you! So let's have a look what are all the changes introduced in this patch.

[h2]Performance Optimization[/h2]

• Path computed in one direction is now used in reverse order for opposite direction.
  
• When world grid changes, only paths that are impacted by the change are recalculated.
  
• Pathfinding is now distributed over multiple frames and threads using a BurstCompile job system.
  
• All visitors now share a common pathfinding map instead of each family calculating their own.
  
• Prioritization of path search for NPC over animals and further limiting animals use of pathfinding in a single frame.
  
• New option in the settings to serialize pathfinding data. It will increase save and load time, but prevents spike on reload.

[h2]Replaced Nobles with Artisans[/h2]

• Chapel is no longer used by artisans. They share the church with everybody else.
  
• The Tavern was removed. Artisans arrive through the inn.
  
• Inn now also serves mead and wine.
  
• Donations to clergy no longer reflect noble families. The clergy simply expects the player to donate a calculated amount of valuables over some time.
  
• Theatre is now visited by everyone, including peasants.

[h2]Added a New Class of Noble Houses[/h2]

• Nobles houses are generated automatically at the start of the game.
  
• Their growth is stimulated automatically outside of the map.
  
• Noble houses can be viewed in the population book in a new Nobles tab.
  
• Noble houses now accept ruling family marriage proposals instead of the previous artisan families.

[h2]New Quests and Deliveries[/h2]

• Noble houses and royalty offers optional delivery quests for extra rewards.
  
• New Loading Site structure added that is used by villagers to prepare deliveries.
  
• Players can also grant resources to noble houses or a royal family which is sent away through the delivery system.

[h2]Hosting at Vila[/h2]

• Players can now invite a noble house to be hosted at their villa.
  
• The noble house will spend a certain amount of days and consume the meals of the player.
  
• After they leave, the relationship with the player will change based on how satisfied they are with the quality.

[h2]Combat Power[/h2]

• Villagers in the military regiments now display their combat power.
  
• Combat power is a function of their equipment, age, health, training, skills, blessings, and other buffs and bonuses.
  
• Total combat power of a regiment is used when delivering military as a royal tax.
  
• Combat power is now displayed in the population book

[h2]Royal Taxes Updated[/h2]

• Royalty now only expresses their demand in terms of the gold value of delivered resources and the total combat power of delivered soldiers.
  
• Players can complete the taxes through deliveries or sending regiments to war at any time during the year.
  
• The Tax Evasion mechanic was removed. Instead, having a Master of Coin appointed will boost the rewards and contributions made through deliveries.
  
• Royalty also offers optional quests that provide extra money and favor points.
  
• Royalty also offers a list of bonus equipment, which boosts the combat power a certain regiment contributes with.

[h2]Changes to Professions[/h2]

• Ropemakers can now utilize Loom to create a new Carpet resource. This resource can be used to build new floor-type carpets. Five different carpet patterns are added.
  
• Alchemists no longer make health, magic, or stamina potions. Instead, they make love potions that peasants consume to boost their pregnancy chance, exotic mixtures which can be used as a cooking ingredient, or transmuted gold, which can be minted into gold coins or granted to nobles as a valuable gift.
  
• Glassmakers now also produce glass bottles, which are required to make potions.
  New options to manage priorities
  
• Priority screen is updated and shows more detailed information.
  
• The player can update how much material a family is stocking for production.
  
• Player can also limit production if a family has stock over a certain amount.
  
• Player can also restrict tax-deductible options, to prevent villagers from consuming taxed resources to produce other taxed resources

[h2]New Cooking Management Options[/h2]

• The accounting management screen has a new cooking tab.
  
• Players can set custom targets for cooking meals and toggle if families are allowed to supplement high-quality targets with a lower quality meals.
  
• Logic for cooking was also updated so that families will continue cooking higher quality meals even if they have plenty of lower quality meals, to meet their targets.
  
• It is possible that families go over their target if multiple people start cooking at the same time.

[h2]Other Changes[/h2]

• Rework the internal system for generating new families.
  
• The notification system was reworked to allow more flexible data transition. As a result, several notifications were updated to provide more information about their context.
  
• Storage management screen now has copy/paste option.
  
• CTRL+Select when clicking on a buildable object will now select that object from the build menu.
  "The number of UI screens was improved for performance.
  
• Inns can now be toggled in the context menu to prevent selling beds and meals to locals
  Small UI changes
  
• Notifications now distinguish between source and target. Players can click separate buttons to move the camera to them.
  
• Zone context menu was reworked to separate the quick-build menu into structures, furniture, and storage. Buttons to switch between tiered collections were added to quickly access different quality furniture and storage.
  
• New option in the settings to display a contrasted version of the HUD

Greetings Lords and Ladies,

we are very excited to announce, that the new Artisan update is close to release! This update is addressing a lot of concerns and feedback that you have been sharing with us in the past months and we can't wait for you to get your hands on it. Thank you very much for talking about our game, sharing your feedback and helping us improve Lords and Villeins!

If you want to be one of the few that try this new update early in the early beta stage before anyone else (and potentially many more, including even other games by Fulqrum Publishing), consider joining the Fulqrum's Champions program! Simply send an email to [email protected] and we'll let you know all the details!

An in-depth look at the upcoming update can be found by clicking this link. To mention a few highlights, it will bring significant changes to Nobles, Royal Taxes were redesigned for more reward based approach centered around freedom of choice. You will also be able to send the taxes to the ruler anytime during the year. Professions will go through some changes as well, Ropemakers, Alchemists and Glassmakers will receive an update to make them more relevant to the economy!

The whole Change Log will be shared once the patch comes out. We expect to release it during the upcoming weeks.

Lords and Ladies,

today, we would like to take the opportunity to celebrate the art of music, produced for Lords and villeins. Adam Bow, a talented composer from New Zealand, who we had the privilege to work with in 2021, contributed a unique palette of instruments and ideas, that shaped a truly beautiful score. So let's take a deeper dive into the creative process that went into producing it!

Lords and Villeins together with its soundtrack are a part of the Steam Spring Sale and they are available with a 30% discount. Buy them both in one bundle to increase the discount even more! The Sale ends on March 23.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/28876/Lords_and_Bards_bundle/

[h2]Seasonal Themes[/h2]
Truly impactful scores for games achieve more than just a pleasant background to fill out the silence. They serve a very deliberate purpose narratively, thematically, and also emotionally. When thinking about what element of our game is best to breathe this sense of deeper purpose into our music, the seasons made a lot of sense.

Seasons in our game impact everything. The themes, gameplay, strategy, focus of the player, behavior of our AI, and different kinds of challenges and events that come with it. They also drive the inner rhythm of the game. Much like any music, while there is plenty of variety introduced, they are still predictable and happen in cycles. Players always know, which season is the next, and what to expect, while still recognizing, that each one is different.

So it made perfect sense, to tie our music to this very core element of the game. We've broken this approach down into three parts:

• Adam utilized a unique set of Instruments that he thought would best convey the feel of each season, along with a primary instrument to play melodies. Flute in spring, violin is summer, accordion in autumn and mandolin in winter.
  
• We also defined the contrast of two emotions for each season, that the harmonies are trying to highlight. In spring, we are waking up from slumber and explore beauty and curiosity, summer is all about festivities, and love, autumn is cozy, but also hard-working, and winter is magical but dangerous.
  
• Finally, we give each element a description of gameplay. Spring is about planning and designing. Summer is a time of harvest and growth, autumn is focused on restructuring and optimization, and winter is focused on survival.

This approach also created a great opportunity, to compose a seasonal transition between every two seasons, slowly blending themes and instruments from one season to another. Each is triggered on a particular day as all vegetation begins to change and the color scheme shifts. This creates an audiovisual spectacle, which is one of our favorite parts of the game!

[h2]Music That Welcomes a New Day[/h2]
Aside from the harmony, instruments, and melodies, we also had to consider the circumstances, in which the game will play a piece of music. There were many options - from looping the music endlessly, tying it to special events or just random timing. What made the most sense to us, was simply an event of passing a morning hour.

This way, the music serves as a reminder, that the player has progressed yet another day. It can signify an important milestone, as that is when our game also evaluates a lot of important things such as taxes or daily events. And since the night is often a time of waiting, it catches the attention of the player, to remain focused. Thematically, the music now also dictates a very specific tempo - each score is starting slow, adding up instruments and themes as it develops, and slowly fades into a regular ambiance, just enough to grab attention, but not too much to set expectations of heavy action. After all, there are many mornings in the course of one game, and one is not necessarily more special than any other.

There is of course also the main theme, which welcomes the player to the main menu. Here, we've let Adam have full creative freedom, to create an attention-grabbing tune, that is melodic and establishes a simple and memorable signature melody.

[h2]Inspirations[/h2]
When creating the soundtrack, we also discussed the style and choice of instruments. While Lords and Villeins drives a lot of inspiration from history, we have always wanted to create our version of medieval times. One that is inspired by historic facts, but not bound to them when we want to prioritize aesthethics or gameplay. So our choice of instruments was rooted in history, but also not limited by it. In our art style, we have also taken a great deal of inspiration from old-school Zelda games and Stardew Valley. In the end, it made a lot of sense to look for similar inspirations also in our music. This led us to a selection of style and instruments, that is reminiscent of medieval tunes, but maintains the magical and mysterious feel of our inspirations. Since Adam incorporated these already into his own signature style, it seemed like a perfect fit to work together.

In the end, Adam created a wonderful soundtrack, one that we are very proud of and continue enjoying to this day!

[h2]Listen To It Anywhere![/h2]
If you share our enthusiasm and would like to enjoy the soundtrack even while not playing, we have great news! Not only you can buy it here on Steam and support the developers, it is now also available on Spotify and Bandcamp, where you can support Adam and his work directly!

Adam is very talented and hard-working and as an independent creator, he deserves a passionate audience of fans! In this way we would like to channel some extra support towards his creative endeavors so please, listen to it on Spotify, and check it out on Bandcamp! You can also follow him on Twitter for updates on his work.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2206190/Lords_and_Villeins_Soundtrack/