Ymir News

[h3]Networking[/h3]

This is a technical upgrade replacing the infamous built in networking of Gamemaker by my 'own' one for improved stability, speed, and to allow for easier future upgrades or debugging.

Many years ago when I started this project, as a complete beginner I chose to develop it on an engine called "Game Maker". As some of you know, it's been since then a major limitation to the growth of the project due to how inadequate to this project it turned out to be. Not only that but also buggy with no means to fix the issues as it is a rather "black box" engine.

But by then it was too late to change it, as it was and still is beyond my workforce capabilities to do so.
A more feasible plan was devised: offload as much mechanics as possible from the engine into an in-house DLL.
In that DLL, things could be designed my way, executed with much higher performances, and I'd finally have the ability to fix any potential issues or upgrade it in any way as I'd be in control of its actual code.

Today marks a first step of that plan: the migration of networking.
The gamemaker's networking has always been broken, causing constant disconnections for some users or total impossibility to connect at all.
Being a closed engine, all I could do at best was try to work around the bugs instead of being able to fix them.
Now with my own networking (based on the Darkrift 2 library) no more!

- Connection stability should be much better
- Significant decrease in loading times for some users, especially those who were before affected by the Gamemaker bugs.
- Supports upnp, making hosting servers much simpler for those with rooters that support it: no need for manual port forwarding.
- Distant user (ex SE asia) should now be more able to connect to the Official servers (in Europe).

It's noteworthy to add that In the short term, there will probably be more issues than before as new bugs are discovered with testing but unlike before, it will actually be possible to fix them.

The DLL is developed in collaboration with community member Penca53, so thanks to him as well are due!

[h3]Device ID[/h3]
This update also notably replaces the external program called "device_id" as it's now also been integrated into the DLL.
This small tool used to create regular issues with antiviruses flagging it or even deleting it, preventing the game to launch properly. So this shouldn't happen anymore.

[h3]Next upgrade[/h3]
After networking, the next planned DLL migration will be that of the pathfinding systems which should yield huge performance gains, especially for servers when managing larger battles.
I hope that thanks to this, i'll finally be able to see large battles in realtime without "pausing" between each battle turn.

Here are the changelogs of the multiple minor patches that have been applied since the last update.

The next update will be a purely technical one: finally changing the broken built-in networking of the engine by my "own" networking which should be more stable and fix the issues some people have with constant disconnections or failed loading.


[h3]Minor Patches[/h3]
v0.5.0.x
- always display free trader buy orders even if locked
- increased silver & gold ores production skill material bonus by +2% per level, decreased efficiency bonus by 5%
- fixed UI bug in building menu production summary
- decreased victory cycle reduction factors (server age & active players)
- fixed bug with social access quality not supporting decimal values
- added new state resource tag making state backing automatic for free services like administration or intimidation
- fixed bug of administration and state power state backing not working
- fixed bug of deer hunting spots being deletable
- removed primitive spawns on swamps
- reduced 1st brickworks efficiency and mudbricks workforce needs
- allowed bricks to be produced by 1st brickworks
- reduced difficulty triggering kiln tech idea
- removed need for prodskill lvl 1 for bricks and mudbricks
- monies cost of Aristocracy decreased from 100 to 40
- trade orders mmust now be of minimum 10 monies worth.
- fixed critical money exploit
- increased workforce per production of gold & silver to make foundry management easier
- fixed no-worker buildings (forum, wells...) from appearing as idle
- fixed issue of buildings becoming unprofitable when upgrading
- rebalanced difficulty scaling of innovation projects
- added research points reward to mission prior of sedentarity to prevent waiting
- lowered required work of metallurgy project
- fixed bug of 0% chance projects still suceeding sometimes
- fixed bug in supply/demand calculation for state backed productions when storage variation is negative
- removed need for doctor prodskill lvl1
- fixed UI bug in natural production sources in building menu
- lvl 1 market no longer needs axes or builders
- implemented option to for servers to auto-wipe & restart after victory
- fixed bug in treaties where being in debt prevented any treaty to be signed
- implemented territories auto-reverting to outpost if no longer meeting contiguous conditions
- fixed privileges wealth gains not being decimal
- added missing life quality influence in the UI of breeding rates
- added -30% basic breeding rates to regional territories
- Fixed UI bugs with "max subordinates" of other nation members preventing nation reorg
- techs council & tributes gives +1 subordinate. treaties reduced to +7.
- implemented territories auto-reverting to outpost if attached to overexpanded regional capitals deeply in administrative debt (-100)
- increased 'loot' from barbarian wolves and bears to 100% of killed animals.
- fixed bug where upgrading buildings in regions assumed you passed over the limit of production buildings
- rebalanced fisheries efficiency
- changed fishing boats project material from iron to bronze
- fix attempt of crashes caused by prospection data loss on some clients
- fixed bug where territories of occupied city are accessible to occupant
- fixed bug causing wrong prices in gift economy
- fixed UI bug with wrong available formation types in territories
- fixed UI bug in annexes
- fixed bug with Cultural level having an incorrect speed
- increased work cost for "village" project
- fixed bug not allowing to destroy ruins of unavailable buildings
- increased culture XP gain speed
- fixed bug of regional territories not providing full movement cost reduction like other settlements.
- fixed bug with inactivity timer being too low for newly created characters
- fixed issues with spawning close to another character through invite
- allow recruitement of settlers in territories
- fixed price issue: industrial market study can't be lower than 'minimum price'
- fixed bug with project haste action having no effect in some cases.
- added missing tax services as "state resource"
- reduced hunt action difficulty
- fixed hamlets missing possibility to get 1 territory

This update is an overhaul of research and knowledge mechanics, adding the ability to speed-up projects with Research Points, innovation projects to trigger new ideas, diplomatic knowledge transfers (and not just ideas) and project setbacks when failing instead of having to repay & restart the project from zero.
This update also contains 2 other major features: Expansion points replacing State Power for territory maintenance, and an NPC automatic trader called the 'Free traders'.

[h2]Infallible projects[/h2]
This has been a common criticism of the game for a very long time: frustration from projects failing due to bad luck with RNG.
Now projects can no longer fail. Instead, if the success odds fail when completed, the project suffers a "set back", losing only research progress.
This means its finally no longer required to manually restart failed projects, or to repay materials and costs.
Additionally, suffering a setback now gives a special "experience bonus" increasing the odds of success on the next trial. The bonus is proportional to the initial success odds so that if you had the bad luck of failing a high 80% success rate, it will ensure the probability to fail again further decreased.
This should make research less of a hassle and reduce the frustration from RNG bad luck.

[h2]Research Points[/h2]
Population and research buildings now generate global Research Points which can be accumulated to a certain extent.
These Research Points can be used to 'Haste' ongoing projects at will, insta-finishing them.
The point of this mechanic is to offer a recourse when failing a critical project: now instead of having to wait another day for the second attempt to complete, you can use your stored points to finish it right away.
It also allows player to make better use of their gaming sessions: instead of having to launch the game just to start a critical project and then having to wait the next day to start using what it unlocks, its possible to insta-complete it and use it right away.
This should reduce "RNG" frustration and improve time efficiency of sessions.

[h2]Transferable Knowledges[/h2]
It is now possible to transfer not only ideas, but actual full Knowledges. However these require the sender to pay for the transfer in stored Research Points.
This should help player help out allies that are far behind with many cheap knowledges missing, or to 'sell' valuable knowledges to others.

[h2]Innovation projects[/h2]
A new kind of projects has been added as well to make technological progress more pro-active in mid/late game: innovation projects.
These projects allow you to target a global research domain and potentially earn a random new idea in that domain when successfully completed.
Most Innovation projects become available with the Academia knowledge.
Academies and other research buildings (like Libraries or Architects) now also help by generating extra Research Points, further allowing players to be pro-active in technological progress or knowledge reselling.

[h2]Expansion Points[/h2]
The 2nd major aspect of this update is that territorial statuses now cost "Expansion Points" instead of State Power.
The point of this new feature is to simplify the balancing of players expansion by having a stat dedicated only to it, separating it from State Power that is used for many other unrelated things.
Expansion Points are unlocked by Policies or by new knowledges.

The exceedingly binary balance of city-state + outpost-spam followed by unlimited expansion with "regional administration" policy was also rebalanced thanks to this new stat: Expansion points are now earned much more gradually as the game progresses.
It's possible to grow multiple regions in early game again while "Regional administrations" remains a critical policy unlocking the territorial statuses of towns and cities outside the capital.



[h2]Free Traders[/h2]
The 3rd major aspect of this update is the introduction of the "Free traders" NPC to improve trading by boosting liquidities on the markets.
This NPC trader serves as an expensive intermediary between sellers and buyers operating with very high slippage between buy price and resell price, but whose sell offers are available to everyone regardless of trading agreements.
This NPC trader only buys resources from players that are specialized in production at least to lvl3, and buys at a very low price based on the world average 'minimum price'. However, it's buys are unlimited.

The purpose of Free Traders is double: providing exporting players a guaranteed output for their specialized productions (reducing the hassle of spamming trading treaties to everyone), and populating the market with large stocks of resources available to everyone (thus at a high price) so that players are less likely to be completely locked out of critical resources.

The prices of the Free Traders are also affected by the amount of resources they have in 'stock', and these stocks naturally decay based on the total world population. This prevents excessive exploits of a overselling a unique resource type for infinite incomes.
The free traders also allow Solo players to profit from trade and specialization of productions.

[h2]Cost of Consumption traditions reduced by half[/h2]
The cost of consumption traditions has been reduced by half.
However, because costs of 0.5 wouldn't work, it's the earning speed of new Civpoints that had to be doubled as well as the cost of other traits.
This means cultural levels now cost half the XP (thus being gained twice as fast) and that production skills now cost 2 Civpoints per level instead of 1.
This makes adopting the consumption of new resources much cheaper than before.


The research overhaul update
v0.5.0.x
- lowered difficulty of Herbalism
- lowered difficulty of Metallurgy
- fixed bug can't reinforce units when techs of equipment are unknown
- added retroactive civpoints bonus to compensate for the update's effects
- blocked troop transfers when formation is encamped
- fixed bug of alcohol ideas triggering without needed materials
- upgrading townhall buildings now auto-changes the territory status as well
- it's now possible to upgrade townhall buildings instead of building a new one
- added passive decay of free traders stock based on global world population
- added free trader price variations based on current stocks
- added NPC faction of Free Traders
- "Free traders" resell goods at 200% world average retail price, available to everyone regardless of trading agreements.
- Resource prodskill lvl3+ unlocks NPC "free traders" purchasing offers at 80% of world average minimum price
- fixed various issues with walls & cliffs connections
- fixed bug of abandonning settlements still now properly cleaning population from houses
- added abandonned building visual effects
- cancelling building demolition no longer gives free rebuild unless only 1HP was lost.
- restauring building is free if building has only lost 1HP
- outposts no longer allow for industries
- town & city statuses only available for capital unless "regional governements" policy is active
- excluded State Power & admin buildings from insolvency auto-abandonments
- outposts now require "territorial patrols" tech
- regional territories & settlers are now available pre-leadership
- implemented "Expansion Points", replacing State Power as territory maintenance costs.
- doubled civpoints production + double prodskill costs = consumption traditions cost reduced by 50%
- fixed bug allowing to disband herds on the worldmap
- added possibility to transfer knowledges in treaties, costing Research Points to the sender.
- removed salaries from GDP
- temp reduction of the effect of treasury on monetary value
- added categories to knowledges & category filter in the UI
- added new type of project that has chances to give a new idea in a specific knowledge category when completed.
- agriculture unlocks agricultural innovation projects
- architecture unlocks contruction innovation projects
- academia unlocks innovation projects in society, sciences, economy and metallurgy
- added new "research" tab & UI to territory menu
- Elder circle, library, architect, and Academia services now generate extra Research Points.
- Failure of research projects now cause a progress setback instead of total failure.
- Failing a project gives an experience bonus increasing odds of success on the next trial.
- added bufferable "Research Points" that can be used to haste the completion of ongoing projects.
- improved project completion time prediction
- renammed "teacher" class as "wisepigs".
- libraries now employ wisepigs instead of officials.
- removing profitability rate variations when distributed directly or by merchant: setting everything to 50% rate to prevent profitability issues with state backed industries buying ony at wholesale price.

[h2]Wholesale prices[/h2]
This update introduces the wholesale price for resources: from now on, state buying is done at a 25% lower price than the normal 'retail' price of a good representing the 'wholesale' price at which producers would sell their production when there is no cut from merchants reselling.
This allows players to generate more profits when exporting goods on the market, as the cost of purchasing the goods from their local producers is now lower. It allows buyers to also potentially offset the 25% merchant cut when reselling imported goods, as prices on the market could decrease.

[h2]Military overhaul[/h2]
This update also contains a significant rebalance of combat calculations and stats.
- Heavy armored infantry like Hoplites are now much more powerful and useful. Hoplites (and to lower extent immortals) are much more likely to withstand heavy cavalry charges and defeat them (cataphracts).
- Axepigs as a very offensive unit is much stronger vs heavy spear infantry like Hoplites or immortals.
- 3 new units have been added for more equipment flexibility: light horsepigs and camelpigs, and snouts equiped with a wooden shield.
- Armor is no longer reduced by damage linearly: only damage above 5 starts to reduce the target's armor save odds. Armor is therefore much stronger overall.
- Armor has a small buff when deflecting ranged attacks, making armored infantry stronger in siege assaults.
- The recruitment menu has been cleaned up and improved to finally add some missing stats such as defensive melee skill and attack speeds.
- Unit strength score calculation has been rebalanced to better estimate the combat capabilities of the unit type.
- The effects of unit mass have been reduced and rebalanced to be less powerful, so that heavy infantry can still stand a chance vs cavalry.


The new recruitment menu with all unit stats.

The wholesale prices update
v0.4.4.x
- implemented "wholesale price" when state buying/exporting, lowering state purchasing prices by 25%
- Resource menu: cost of state backing production now calculated and displayed in the UI
- trade history UI: added balance average expressed per eco cycle to make budget management easier
- fixed bug with industries consumption in gift economy
- reworked unit recruitment menu to add missing stats and make it easier to read
- improved trade history capacity
- added merchant cut prediction on the trading orders UI
- irrigation tech now gives fields productivity +0.1
- fixed bug in market study "mean" average calculation causing market studies to be lowered than what they should be.
- combat: rebalanced melee mass factor
- combat: rebalanced all armor equipment stats
- combat: lowered "toughness" unit stat influence in saving from confirmed wounds from 15% per point to 12%
- combat: armor reduction from weapon damage now starting only from damage 5+ instead of 0.
- combat: armor base rate changed from 16% per point to 14%
- combat: armor base rate vs ranged attacks increased by +2 (16%)
- combat: reach bonus vs higher mass (ex spears vs cavalry) now also gives a damage bonus instead of just a skill bonus.
- combat: removed padded armor from infantry units that had 2 armor equipments
- new unit: light horsepig (no helmet, no shield)
- new unit: light camelpig
- new unit: shielded snout
- auto relocating formations belonging to a territory that cannot own formation types

[h2]Brute's hut[/h2]
The new primitive building called the "Brute's hut" acts as a proto-police building and represents powerful warriors whose loyalty to the chieftain is purchased with goods and who ensure nobody else in the tribe dares to show disloyalty.
The building consumes meat and goods (leather clothes, adornments or silver) to produce a "brute" service that gives significant authority (loyalty).
Meanwhile the authority effect of regular guard towers has been reduced: towers are now more for external defense while the brute's hut are for internal authority.

[h2]New policies[/h2]
Multiple new policies are introduce to keep helping balancing the early game:
- 'delegated forced labo'r & 'blood feuds' give additional oligarchy support at the cost of conflict or growth.
- 'bannishment' is a simple policy giving a flat bonus of -10 conflict

[h2]Price improvements[/h2]
- Arbitrage influence is now weighted in comparison to the local distribution: a single neighbor distributing only 1 of a resource that you are yourself selling 30 of will now have almost no arbitrage influence on you while his price will be fully influenced by yours.
- Arbitrage UI details now show which neighboring territory has the most arbitrage influence on yours, giving players someone to blame.
- Production cost calculations have been improved to prevent exploits: it now also calculates the average production cost of previously produced resources in stock to counter the exploit of producing with cheap materials and then switching to expensive ones to pump prices and resell.

[h2]Custom game speed settings[/h2]
It is now possible to customize various speed settings for server hosts.
A reference file called default_balance_settings.ini is available in the game's installation folder: renaming it by removing the "default_" prefix and placing it in a save's folder will trigger the overriding of the game mode default preset values with those contained in the file.
This allows to customize the overall speed of the game, such as economic cycles, demographic cycles, research speed, likelihood of new tech ideas... etc


The brute's hut update
v0.4.3.x
- new building "brute's hut" for authority source
- new policy: delegated forced labor, oligarchs support +10, conflict +10%
- new policy: blood feuds, oligarchs support +5, conflict -5%, murders +15%
- new policy: bannishement, reduces conflict by a flat rate of -10
- price arbitrage UI: add territory name and weight of the main foreign influence
- adding weighted influence to world price comparing neighbors production to local production
- adding average-production cost of resources in storage to prevent production cost manipulation exploits.
- fix issue of 0 production cost before any resource is produced.
- minimum profit margin of 30% on production costs is now always active.
- implemented custom balance settings .ini for servers
- added more population classes icons
- fixed client side logic display bug around platforms
- added forced labor tolerance policy effect
- currency and coinage policies decrease forced labor tolerance
- privileges tolerance -10% moved from currency to taxation policy
- added progressive forced labor inefficiency on higher income values
- fixed bug of food quality averages for sows, piglets and oldpigs being rounded
- added details to conlflict UI tabs
- removed coins cost of "state salaries" policy
- increased minimum price profit margin when distributed through merchants by 10%
- prod rate of guard service lowered from 1.5 to 1.
- Limit the price of goods to the first decimal, to avoid this gaming of prices. (the .01 also doesn't show in the UI, but the .1 does)
- restaured "state backed production" for free services.
- Fixed issue causing infinite battles on server.
- "copper age" mission: lower prod to +1 copper
- fixing more issues related to the forever server
- included policies upkeep in leader contributions
- increased barter mission coins reward to 500
- fixed bug receiving coins in succession spawn despite gift economy
- removed 5 coins cost of political bribes
- added doctors buildings animation
- nordic health bonus lowered to +3
- tropical health malus lowered to -3
- fixed bug with spawn auto-restauring ruined/abandonned buildings despite lack of required techs
- rebalanced work rate of pearls from 0.25 to 1.2
- easier privileges project
- aristocracy policy available earlier with 'council' tech
- nepotism: conflict 25 -> 20%, culture -10% -> -15%, state power -5 ->+5
- fixed problem of no oldpigs in early game