Birthright News

This patch introduce Vertex Animated Textures on Horses, new super performant accurate melee collision and tons of bug fixes along new items and characters.

Also upgraded to UE 5.3 and hopefully next patch will bring 5.4.

[h3]VAT[/h3]

Vertex Animated Textures was added as a new feature in Unreal Engine 5 to support bigger crowds. It's the most used technique to handle big crowds of characters that normally use expensive Skeleton Meshes for animations.

Horses have completely been converted using VAT, which was a heavy performance cost late game with many mounted soldiers. They have a complex expensive Skeleton bone structure so this is a huge performance save late game and for bigger heavy armies.

Soldiers generally are not planned right now to be converted due to unable to have free movement mixed with torso making attacks.

However Undeads will most probably be converted using VAT because there it would be fine for more static attacks that are in place. But would make it possible to have larger zergs of undeads.
So this is something being looked at for coming patches.

This will also make it easier to make animated characters on World Map and still be very performant.

Since dedicated servers do not use GPU, Horses will run using their Skeleton Collision Asset when needed instead on server side. But this is very performant and still makes Horses extremely cheap, not only for Clients.

[h3]Melee Collision[/h3]

Finally we have a multi-threaded and super performant solution for all combat collision. Which scales way beyond the future needs. It is also very accurate even with high velocity like horse riding.

This system is now regarded as feature complete and production ready. A big important feature moving forward. The backbone of combat.

[h3]Dedicated Server / Multiplayer[/h3]

There has been a heavy focus on honing multiplayer and lots of bugs have been fixed. And the next step now will be to try test with much more players on server than 3-4 which has been the max so far.

Reconnection for Players in Combat should now work properly.

Performance in Combat with several players have been heavily refined and tuned with congestion control of resources (bandwith) when replicating larger battles and several players.

[h3]Other[/h3]

Some minor things to be mentioned:

• Character Dialogues has a new UI
  
• Settlement Extensions has a new UI design with new filter buttons
  
• Selling prisoners in Arena now correctly update UI widget prisoner counter
  
• Settlement Markets now show a Sell Junk (all) button for Players
  
• Tropical battle levels have had several fixes to the grass and water
  
• Spawns of all kinds on World Map have increased slightly for Players
  
• Added animation effect on new contracts in World HUD
  
• Fixed a naked neck issue on characters
  
• Player Horse when dismounted now stays around rather than start running
  
• Unreal Engine updated to v5.3
  

Plus too many changes/additions to be listed in Data (items/characters/missions/titles etc)

[h3]Dismemberment and Gore[/h3]

Mesh Merging is finilized this Patch by now also include Horses. At the same time several optimizations were done on Horses, and like Humans same equiped models share instances for best performance and memory footprint.

Now when we are done introducing Mesh Merging, Dismemberment of Limbs is back for more Gore! As of now only on Humans but will add for Horses and more in later Patches.

[h3]New Food System[/h3]

The food system has revamp all food and ingredients. Previously some complex food required 4-5 ingredients which is extremely hard to maintain for little benefit. And Bread was the king of foods to maintain your army.

Many ingredients now have been cut down to reduce the clutter (example only 2 types of fishes now exist + 1 very special, the Gold Eel). While making the cooked food easier to make it overal feels like there are much more Food options now compared to before.
To balance this one new ingredient were added: Salt. (Mines produce Salt in various degree depending on Upgrade).

Now each of the better cooked food require 2-3 ingredients only and each give a unique Buff to everyone eating it.

Beer Barrels also give a hefty combat Buff if Soldiers consume it with Food. But ifthere is no food, they will get a bad debuff because of drinking on empty stomach.

[h3]New Spawn Systems[/h3]

On World Map spawning was previously based on Pathing to Player which was not reliable enough for many scenarious. So now it strictly use placed areas on the World Map for all types of spawns to make sure it is controlled (example nothing can no longer spawn in the vicinity of The Citadel unless it's a special City POI's that should spawn there).

Combat Spawn is also heavily changed because the previous way could not handle the Chaos that errupts when you push to the extreme with several Lords/Players entering on both sides for Battles/Sieges. Or if anyones army is camping on spawn positions when Reserves spawn, eventually something would go wrong.
Now it will properly probe a grid of 100 possible spots simulating insertion of a Character + Horse to find a safe spot, for each character.

[h3]Other fixes[/h3]

Fight Pit has been rebalanced to better increase the difficulty when joining the tryout quest. And with it the rewards are much greater
Arenas now pay more for sold Prisoners

• Initial Start Story has changed all Food the Player can get at start
  
• Changed minimum Spawn in combat from 5 to 20 regardless of Spawn Ratio
  
• Fixed MP server event when a Player joins the server to display Long Title
  
• Fixed rider immdeiately falling to ground when Horse is killed
  
• Fixed a bug in arena/fight pit where Player could loose army
  
• Fixed a bug when Player used Bow
  
• Fixed Weekly event Wheel of Fortunes spawn point in The Citadel
  
• Fixed MP fetching childrens families in Family Panel
  
• Fixed several issues with Siege Progress marker
  
• Fixed a spawn point issues in WestmarkVillage2 map
  
• Fixed several issues in Fight Pit/Arena thanks to reports from Rigo1
  
• Fixed Red Sea (Desert) Tax to be properly saved when changed
  
• Fixed Desert random Battle Maps does not include Village maps
  
• Fixed UI bug when talking to Follower from Character Panel
  

[h3]Promote Family[/h3]

You can now Promote family members (Family Panel), for a fee to Notarie, making the family member a full Lord operating on their own under your House.

Basic Commands can be given from afar using 1 Raven:

• Collect Taxes (House owned Settlements)
  
• Recruit (If enough Coins)
  
• Patrol
  
• Follow Me
  

You can Trade and Transfer soldiers to manage the Promoted Lords.
Food Collection will be done automatically with a growing Army. But it will take time for them to build up on food themselves.

They have same food and upkeep consumption as other Lords depending on Army size.

Keep in mind this is useful in Mid/End-Game and Early game it will be too hard to sustain the upkeep of several armies. And with no respectable army they will be easy prey for hostile Lords.
Without any particular order they will act on their own for the House just like any other Lord. With their own Personality based on their Tarot cards.

After your first Settlement it's a good time to Promote someone.

[h3]Mesh Merging & Optimization[/h3]

Modular Characters are now merged into a single mesh to increase performance in combat, effectively reducing the draw calls to 20% on the GPU. Each combination of equipment generate one single body that is shared among everyone with the same look. The memory footprint is therefore also minimal, compared to before. Especially when having big Battles/Sieges.

Combat system is still modular when calculating hit body parts.

This is same in SP and MP.

[h3]Combat[/h3]

MP replication in Combat has been heavily optimized. Makingit smoother on clients and reduced bandwidth.

• Combat Camera now defaults to 75 degrees FOV.
  
• Hit Sounds now have 5 new different sounds covering all Armor Types (before simplified into 3 light/medium/heavy).
  
• Ranged damage has been nerfed by 40% from Stat gains, not weapons damage
  
• Combat Camera Vertical/Horizontal position can now be adjusted in Options UI Settings
  
• Several Combat Animations have been changed
  
• Spawning logic for Characters in levels have been reworked
  
• Fixed a mounted character dying bug using animation to now use ragdoll instead
  
• Fixed several Wolf sounds
  
• Fixed several Undead sounds
  
• Fixed several Humanoid sounds
  
• Fixed Medium Armored Troll animations and ability to equip any 2-hander as 1-hander
  
• Fixed combat rotation for AI to now rely on Dexterity
  
• MP Fixed Combat Formation selection
  

[h3]World Map[/h3]

• World Map now has WASD Camera movement and Q/E rotation as default, Can be changed in Keybindings.
  
• LMB/RMB now both are same functionality
  
• New Character Preview in Character Panel
  
• New unique background images for all Extensions
  
• New Permanently Delete Button on Contracts
  
• Granaries now more properly calculate correct Food consumption of connected Settlement and try to stock up 5 days of food
  
• Settlements being taken over now send Raven message to Owner along with World Event
  
• Settlement Extensions UI remade and everyone got unique backgrounds
  
• Settlement Extension building time reduced by 50%
  
• Settlements now start with more Materials on New Game making first few days easier
  
• Birds have been simplified to only have Ravens now
  
• Added mouse panning in Lineage Tab in Family Panel to pan around freely
  
• Removed collision on all houses, only Walls have it now
  
• Removed 4 types of Berries reducing unnecessary complexity
  
• Undead Dialogues now got a new unique background
  
• Decreased radius World Extensions show their Widget
  
• Fixed several bugs around Ongoing Battle Marker simulating AI vs AI
  
• Fixed Settlement Crafting to show max Durability
  
• Fixed Settlement being taken over sometimes showed wrong State afterwards
  
• Fixed several bugs around Army Food Consumption
  
• Fixed Leandra Story when falling down breaking the leg it can be healed with sticks/bandages
  
• Fixed that sometimes the wrong Terrain was shown
  
• Fixed Event Filter buttons styling having rounded boxes after UE5 update
  
• Fixed several Character Templates stats to better balance them
  
• Fixed some wrong weapons in starter Equipment for Characters
  
• Fixed immigrants not targeting full Settlements as much
  
• Fixed Family Panel start text
  
• MP Trade Coins between Players now working
  
• MP Fixed Coins update when trading with other Lords
  

[h3]Next Patch[/h3]

Big thanks to Amarum & Co for helping out with testing MP and many players in battle!

Next focus will be to start making Tutorials, something that have been asked for. As well as expand World AI and End Game even more.

• Added Target Attack Directions in UI
  
• Changed Combat Camera positioning
  
• Character Panel can now be opened on top of Settlement/Story Dialogues
  
• Food Item Description has been updated to not state ingredients as actual Cooked Food
  
• Apples & Fruits now count as Cooked Food for Soldiers as an early game option
  

• Fixed Horses turn rate should no longer depend on frame rate
  
• Fixed Keybindings for Attack Directions
  
• Fixed Lord Dialogues continuous offering Alliance
  
• Fixed broken Dialogue Condition to check if player owns Settlement
  
• Fixed Leandra Dialogue missing rejoin option after fallen in combat
  
• Fixed SnowyVillage1 map start positions and a static object in the sky
  
• Fixed Village3 map start positions
  
• Fixed Black Scorpions face direction
  
• Fixed Morning Update to lock Settlements that Players are visiting to avoid a crash that could happen if Player changed Data during this time
  

[h3]Combat Changes[/h3]

The previous way of handling Armor and Armor Penetration along with the balancing made it more step-wise meaning it often came down to Equipment vs Equipment.
Some items would feel like you grew a lot in power while others hardly at all.

Now there are several changes made how to calculate Damage and Armor/Penetration. Effectively making it more linear with stats counting a bit more than before.
Armor is generally 15% higher while Armor Penetration has been nerfed with about 50% on 1-hand/ranged weapons, and only about 15% on 2-hand weapons.

Stat contribution is now: 0.5 * Primary Stat + 0.25 * Secondary Stat
Melee/Ranged has Strength/Dexterity switched.

Sieges finally has Checkpoints that can be overtaken by Attackers over time if no Defender enters the area.

• Wolves has been buffed a bit but are still fairly easy early game.
  
• Troll hits now makes a Power skill check to determine if Target falls to the ground.
  
• Combat AI now has a different flow using Formations vs Charge.
  
• Combat AI also use more variation in Formations depending on their own category (infantry/ranged/polearm/mounted).
  

[h3]General[/h3]

Player death has always been a dear thing for us, but maybe not for all Players ;)
So over time in this project it has been slightly nerfed bit by bit until you could barely even die in Skirmishes.
Now with Spouses being easier than ever to get for Family we have removed most of these simplifications. But you can always change Hardcore settings in Options.

The 3 Game Modes now work as follows:
Hardcore - Default setting. Player dies in Skirmishes and Dungeons but not in Battles/Sieges.
Softcore - As Hardcore but Death only occur if Player has a Family and inheritance.
No Death - Softest of the softest.

There are still some Stories/Missions that will start Skirmishes where you can't die by design. But they should be at an absolute minimum now.

Other additions

• Increased starting coins effectively removing the worst outcomes where you are severely punished early game with almost nothing in the pockets.
  
• Stables Extension now gives the option for Characters with Horse to change horseshoes for a fee, granting a small speed buff.
  
• Church Extension now offer Player healing for free and Followers for a donation (Soldiers are not healed and mostly useful early game before you are set with healing items for the army).
  
• Combat HUD added mounted horse and Health bar.
  
• Settlement UI changed with Extensions in the middle more in focus and sorted the same way in Village/Castle/City (Tavern first).
  
• Added several new Event Sounds on World Map.
  

Minor fixes

• Fixed several spawn points in combat and a severe spawn issue in places where terrain and static meshes overlapped.
  
• Fixed several sounds in combat and on world map.
  
• Fixed repeating Faction Lord missions.
  
• Fixed mission failed/success UI cleanup in Multiplayer.
  
• Fixed filtering bug in Character Panel when you had soldiers with level up.
  
• Fixed your own children could show up as Spouses (We are not taking it that far yet ;)).
  
• Fixed children inheriting Titles correctly depending on Family Primogeniture.
  
• Fixed a bug in AI vs AI Battles cleanup.
  
• Fixed Desert Castle Road texture gone missing.
  
• Fixed transferring large search result of Spouses in Multiplayer to Client.
  
• Fixed World HUD showing regional name rather than Terrain Type.