Northgard News

version: v3.3.27.37496-public-beta

Hello players!

Following the previous changes, this new patch adds some more changes going in the same general direction and iterations on those previous changes to ensure everything is balanced.



[h2]Clans[/h2]
After the previous patch's changes to collaborative actions among allies, now being rewarded with positive relations gains, we're also adding those gains to some specific collaborative actions, like the rat clan healing its allies or the bear clan using its production bonuses in their zones.

[expand][h3]Rat[/h3]

• When healing ally units, the rat clan improves their relations with this clan.
  
• Last Stand Shaman ability (Weapon Forge) effect is now capped to a maximum +300% Dmg increase.
  
• Burning a Sheep as Rat clan now provides 60 days of Purification Pyre (instead of 90 previously).

[h3]Bear[/h3]

• When Kaija and/or Borgild provide an ally zone with the Kindred Spirit production bonus (fame 200), they improve their relations with this clan.
  
• Winter Festival now reduces the clan units’ food consumption during winter by -30% instead of boosting food production.

[h3]Eagle[/h3]

• Feeding a Sheep to the Hawks now calls a maximum of 3 Hawks on the Boneyard (limiting the max amount of resources possible to obtain in this way).

[h3]Raven[/h3]
Following the nerfs made to the Raven raids, and especially the potential relic harass made with the previous patch, we're pretty happy with how tuned down the raid toxicity can now feel, but we're a bit worried about those changes we've also reduced a lot of the appeal, not necessarily of the raids themselves, but of the relic. With this patch, we're trying to balance those things by making the relic more of an assured return on investment for the Raven without making it at the detriment of the targeted clan.

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• Relic - new additional effect:
  Raids now collect resources from the zone when they arrive rather than when they leave (making sure to obtain the resources of the raid even if the whole raid dies).
  
• Raids
  • Silos now also count as a source of Food when the zone is raided.
    
  • Each mercenary killed during the raid increases the raid cooldown of the zone by +20 seconds (previously +30).

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[h2]Other[/h2]

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• Some of the Dwarf faction units now attack at distance.

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With this patch, the new Conquest Battles of the Owl Clan are now available to play in the beta!!

[h3]New Conquest Battles[/h3]

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• Titanomachy All clans start with a Guardian of Realms. If two guardians meet, they have to fight to the death. When a guardian dies, its clan is eliminated.
  Make yours the best and defeat the others before they become too strong.
  
  
• Age of Vampires Your warchief and the Erlking are the two last remaining nightwalkers. There can only be one left. Kill it before he gets to you.
  
  
• Battle for Midgard Yggdrasil is under attack from many realms. Portals are awakening and armies are coming to destroy it. Resist the assaults and close the portals to end this.

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• Kingdom - Fixed Town Hall tile with 4 slot instead of 5
  
• Squirrel - Fixed Mongering-Rumor not increasing meal relation
  
• Stoat - Fixed shared levy increasing relation with enemy
  
• Fixed Supply malus in team game
  
• Owl - Fixed UI of second Invasive fruit roots
  
• AI - now correctly uses its military units when defending a territory attacked by a player (no longer stuck when tyring to enter the tile)
  
• Pathfinding -Fixed an issue where a player units wrongfully decided to cross a zone with neutrals (or foes).

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• Month on the calendar are in Italian
  
• 1 ore unit missing on each deposit

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• The previous mystery is yet to be discovered. Go back to your first discovery and find the title
  
• Enjoy a rest for this week

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v3.3.25.37385-public-beta

Hello players!

Following your feedback, we’ve made a few new adjustments to the new foes and map generation. We also want to take this beta to introduce new balancing changes and tweaks to some clans and to the way you gain positive relations with ally clans.

[h2]Foes[/h2]
We’ve noticed many of you expressing disappointment at the fact that the Bear and Boar units are more or less equivalent, with the same overall power and behavior. We’ll try to address that by making the Boar a stronger and more aggressive unit than the Bear, so both represent different challenges.

With those new changes, the bear becomes the more resistant tanky unit, requiring lots of damage to go down, while the Boar is the more aggressive unit, dealing heavy blows your units must tank long enough to kill the creature.

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Boar stats
• 15 Atk (12 previously)
  
• 110 Hp (100 previously)
  
• 8 Def (8.5 previously)
  
• 5 Moves Speed (3.5 previously)
  

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[h2]Map generation[/h2]
After the previous changes we made to the wild units spawned in the zones around the clan Town Halls, some of you have (rightfully) pointed out that having the same power spread across 3 zones or 4-5 zones did not result in equivalent starts in terms of difficulty. So, we adjusted the way the foes are spawned to take the number of zones available to the clan into account.

[expand][h3]Spawn hostility[/h3]

• The overall number of hostile units close to a clan’s Town Hall will now also depend on the number of zones in contact with the clan's starting zone.

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[h2]Balancing[/h2]

[h3]Diplomacy[/h3]
Those changes are based on feedback made during the previous balancing patch we discussed with players on Discord. However, we didn’t have the time to implement and test them properly before the previous patch's release, so we’re pushing them now.
The idea behind those changes is to reward actions that benefit ally clans with a gain of relations with them, especially for actions taken by support clans like Squirrel and Stoat.

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General

• When feasting for their team, a clan improves its relationship with all the affected ally clans. (Relation is passively enhanced for the entire length of the Feast)

Squirel

• Meals prepared by the Squirrel for their allies improve their relationship with the affected clans. (Passively increases while the Meal is ongoing)
  
  
• Rumor-Mongering now also increases all relation gains by +100%. (Offering Well, Trade-Routes, Gift-Routes, Rumor-Mongering passive effects, and Meals).
  
  
• Rumor-Mongering passive relation gains have been readjusted to remain identical to the previous value even when multiplied with this new effect.

Stoat

• When collecting a Levy for their team, the Stoat clan improves their relationship with all the affected clans. (Passively increases while the Levy is ongoing)

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[h3]Horse [/h3]
Yes, we’re making changes to the Horse clan. I know we said repeatedly we wouldn’t, but here we are. Do not expect anything too crazy, though. Our goal with those changes is mainly to reduce the gap between a good and a bad Horse start. We want to ensure the clan gets its warchiefs fast enough to avoid falling behind in a no-ruin, no-shipwreck situation. While not snowballing like crazy and becoming unstoppable in a situation with two ruins or more.

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• Both Warchiefs now cost only 100 Kröwns to recruit (150 previously).
  
• Horse clan when exploring Ruins and Shipwrecks will only get half of the Kröwns any other clan would get.
  
• But they also extract ore from those.
  
  • Exploring a Ruin provides +5 Stones.
  • Exploring a Shipwreck provides +5 Iron.

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[h3]Raven[/h3]
Since the previous changes on the Raven, we’ve seen many complaints about the toxicity of the “Giant spam” - a move consisting of building the Raven Relic and constantly sending raids of just 1 mercenary + 1 giant. Thus keeping the raid cooldown at its lowest while harassing and dealing massive blows to the targeted clan(s) economy.
We agree with this sentiment, and we want to make it less efficient while also allowing the targeted clans to punish the Raven by countering and fighting back against the raids.

[expand]

• Each mercenary killed during a raid increases the raid cooldown of the zone by +30 seconds.
  
  
• Sons of Hrymr (giants) power depends on the number of mercenaries sent with them.
  
  • Sent with a full raid of 6 mercenaries, their power will be the same as currently.
    
  • Sent with only 1 mercenary, they have only a fraction of their max resistance.
    
    • 50 HP (instead of 100 max)
      
    • 6 Def (instead of 12 max)
• Killing a Son of Hymir sent on a raid increases the raid cooldown of the zone by +120 seconds.

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[h3]Ox[/h3]
Not really a balancing change, but more of a quality-of-life tweak we forgot to allow for the City Building of the Ox.

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• After unlocking City Building, zones can be improved even if they do not contain the maximum number of buildings.

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[h2]Improvements[/h2]
Many optimizations made to betther the game fluidity

[h3]AI[/h3]
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• Improved the defense behavior.
  
• If the AI is attacked by a player, its military units stop whatever they are doing, and go defend right away.
  
• If the AI is attacked by foes, it use the right amount of civilian to defend itself.
  
• Improved a lot the Eagle AI : it stays on a recently cleaned zone to benefit from the boneyard heal + it can scout its treasures.

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[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]
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• Silos can be built on shores without problems.
  
• Norms can produce lore outside their territory
  
• Kingdom - Guardian’s military path send militia
  
• Mimirsbrunn - Loading a save after unlocking Mimirsbrunn will not allows to pick any lore
  
• Stoat - Fixed Peon not healing on the Town Hall
  
• Lynx - Caring Siblings doesn’t heal Lynx and Mielikki on enemy territory

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[h2]known issues[/h2]
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• Stoat - Relation grant with a levy give too much relation (should be +0.8 for a 30% levy)
  
• Squirrel - Rumor-mongering doesn’t increase relation granted with a meal
  
• Concede doesn’t kill a player

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[h2]Other[/h2]

• investing foes disappearances in strange rituals

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v3.4.20.37201

• Added log for 4v2 lobby
  
• Dragon - Fixed Dragonkin captured with negative life in conquest mission
  
• Fixed camera zoom after cinematics in campaign
  
• Fixed leave pop up premade spawning after leaving a premade
  
• Fixed skins in coop conquest

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]

• Crash in coop conquest (P2P/Server) if players use pause
  
• Some localization missing

Hello Vikings!

With the next update new animal foes will appear on your way through victory!
Those are long awaited faces so you’ll be able to face them in your games.

This new threat is already available in the public beta branch for you to test!

[h2]Fox and Boar[/h2]

The forests of Northgard are wild and untamed. While some of you might have crossed new foes during their conquest, it is time for the Fox and the Boar to spread around Northgard!

[h3]New map generation[/h3]

• New system for an equal confrontation with the foes around
  
• More foes types on the map!

Coming with this update, the map generation for the biomes will be reworked to ensure an equal confrontation with your environment, even in FFA. There will also be more diversity in term of foes on the map (bye to the all-draugr middle ground)!

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[h2]The Beta and the AI[/h2]

If you want to explore those new features, they are added to the public beta branch for you to experiment on and provide a concrete opinion on it!

The AI Behavior has been adjusted in this branch. It now has a better defense against the environment and is less lost when cut from its territory. It is only one part of the current rework, the AI behavior in Extreme and its aggressive potential will be addressed in another beta patch!

If you want to know more about the content added in the public beta branch, check the public beta patch notes

Beta patch notes

We hope you will enjoy this new content, remember that all of this is being worked with the new clan in mind!

See you soon for more info on the update and what could come next!

v3.3.21.37220-beta

Hello players!

Big changes are coming to the ecosystem of Northgard; new animals are appearing, and this is changing the world for everyone.
Here are the details:

[h2]Foxes and Boars[/h2]

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[h3]Foxes[/h3]
For some time, foxes have been confined to a Conquest battle. We’re finally adding them as a general animal of the base game that can be encountered in any game.

• Foxes are new animals. They have the same aggressive behavior as wolves, but they are less powerful, way faster, and attack in numerous groups. So keep an eye on them.
  
• Fox Burrow is a new building equivalent to the Wolf Den. It spawns new foxes that will attack the adjacent zones if left unchecked.
  
• Closing it will grant 25 Fame and 100 Kröwns.

[h3]Boars[/h3]
To join foxes, we’re also adding boars as a new animal you can encounter in any game.

• Boar is a new animal in Northgard. It has passive behavior similar to that of a bear but will defend itself and its territory fiercely if you attack it.

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[h2]Sheep[/h2]
Sheeps are NOT a new animal, but we’ve changed their spawn rules and reworked them to make them more useful, especially in later games, and to create new specific interactions with some clans. The idea is to make the sacrifice for food no longer the automatic and only use for sheep it is currently.
We also want sheep to spawn in further zones as an attractive later reward.

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[h3]Sheep[/h3]

• Sheep now grants a 50% wood consumption reduction during winter in the zone it is in (-30% previously).
  
• When several sheep are in the same zone, this bonus increases, but multiplicatively.
  
  • 1 sheep will reduce the consumption in the zone by 50%.
    
  • 2 sheep will reduce it by 75%.
    
  • 3 sheep by 87,5%.
    
  • And so on…
• Sheep can now spawn in almost any zone of the map.

[h3]Lynx clan[/h3]

• The clan can choose to sacrifice a sheep to get 60 Trophies (but no Food).

[h3]Wolf Clan[/h3]

• When sacrificing a sheep for food, the clan will get 100 food out of it instead of 80.

[h3]Dragon Clan[/h3]

• The clan can send a sheep to the Sacrificial Pyre to gain 4 dragon essences (but no food).

[h3]Eagle Clan[/h3]

• The clan can sacrifice a sheep to trigger a boneyard in the zone, calling all its hawks (but granting no food).

[h3]Rat Clan[/h3]

• The clan can choose to sacrifice a sheep to light up the Purification Pyres for 90 days (but granting no food).

[h3]Owl Clan[/h3]

• Sheep reduce the food consumption in the zone by 35% (25% previously).
  
• This bonus also increases for each additional sheep in the same zone. Also multiplicatively.

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Following those changes, we’ve reworked the map generation more globally to account for the addition of those new animals and rules. We’ve also taken this opportunity to ensure more fair hostile foes repartition between clans and to adjust the difficulty.

[h2]Spawn Hostility[/h2]
Until now, it was possible for different clans to face huge differences in hostility at spawn. For example, one clan could start with 1 wolf in zones around its town hall, while another starts with 3 wolves.

[expand]

• All clans on a map will now start with the same level of hostility on adjacent zones (Meaning the overall power of hostile foes on adjacent tiles will be the same).
  
• However, this hostility might come in different animals and be split differently for each clan.
  
  • For example, clan A can start with 2 hostile zones adjacent to their town hall, containing 1 and 2 wolves.
    
  • Clan B can start with 3 hostile zones, containing respectively 1 fox, 1 fox, and 2 foxes.
    
  • The total hostility is the same for both clans, even if it materializes differently.

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[h2]Sheep spawn[/h2]

[expand]

• Sheep can spawn in any zone (except for neutral faction camps and special zones).
  
  • The fewer natural resources the zone contains, the higher the chance of spawning sheep.
    
  • The number of sheep spawned depends on the distance of the zone from the clans’ town halls (the further away a zone is, the more sheep it might contain).

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[h2]Difficulty[/h2]

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• Environment hostility (foes and hostile wild units presence) has been slightly reduced on easy maps.
  
• Environment hostility has been slightly increased on extreme maps.
  
• Normal and hard maps hostility should be the same as before.

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We know AI faces many difficulties right now, and we’re actively working on it! This patch will allow you to test a new batch of changes, and we will keep releasing new ones as we continue to work on it during the open beta.

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• AI Warband should not get stuck in a zone anymore.
  
• After decolonizing a player’s zone, in hard and extreme difficulty, the AI will continue pushing the assaults to the next zone until they reach the player’s town hall or are stopped.
  
• The AI will now use its civilian units to defend itself when attacked by foes.
  
• AI now handles its happiness correctly and will assign units to happiness production buildings.
  
• AI is now better at evaluating the outcome of a fight and how much strength it needs to win, so it should no longer send armies to die in fights against neutral factions.
  
• Raven clan AI no longer builds a harbor as its first building, but when needed.
  
• Dragon AI now correctly differentiates between thralls and villagers when assigning them.

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In parallel with AI, we also work to improve the game's performance and fix optimization issues.

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• Many optimizations.
  
• The game uses less CPU resources.

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• Dragon - The Gauge UI and the buy thrall button will not disappear if you keep watching a multiplayer game after being eliminated

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[expand][h2]Other[/h2]

• Boar Menders sealed away the past of their clan

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