Rising Lords News

While today's game update brings mostly a *TON* of gameplay improvements and quality-of-life features, we nonetheless have a bunch of amazing news for you!
Gamescom 2022 is happening! And we're part of it! More infos below!
And for the first time since we launched Rising Lords in Early Access, you can try the game before you buy - with the new Rising Lords demo version!
Then the next round of our Challenge Island Tournament is starting! Challenge Island Round 2 will go live today!
And finally: the results for the Builder Contest are in (with all of the contestants' maps being playable via Steam workshop)!

Rising Lords is part of Gamescom 2022! We're incredibly thrilled to show Rising Lords during the first in-person Gamescom since 2019! If you would like to visit us: you can find us at the Indie Arena Booth - Hall 10.2, Booth 8! If you're in Cologne and are visiting the convention, come and say Hi!
Additionally to commemorate the occasion, we released a demo version of Rising Lords for the first time! In it you can check out the story prologue and maybe even get a little something after you beat it! Grab it right off the Steam page and check it out if you like!

Challenge Island - our randomized combat-focused gameplay mode - heads into Round 2! That means starting today, previous leaderboards will be wiped and everyone starts with a completely clean slate again! Try to get the highest score and discuss your victories and your strategies with our community on Discord!


Our Builder Contest is over and we'd like to thank each and every one of you for taking part and just for being part of the community! All of your custom scenarios have been nothing short of amazing! You all did a great job! But: not everyone can be a winner and we'd like to congratulate our Top 3 contestants 🎉🎉🎉

🥇 1st: Timmy's Glorious Day by Toni 955 🥇
🥈 2nd: Ravnskjold by Erasin 🥈
🥉 3rd: Fornburg by Yes. 🥉

And: as promised, the "builder" and contest-exclusive❗ "bloody builder" skins are now available in-game! We had a great time playing your maps and we are proud to see the community can come up with such creative and engaging stories and maps!

...and that's it for today! As always, see the full changelog for this version below! And see you at Gamescom - or on our Discord!



[h2]0.16.1 (August 23rd)[/h2]

[h2]New:[/h2]

• bonus Lord skin "builder"
  
• new general outfits
  
• Added 10 loading screenshots
  
• roads auto-tile to connect to bridges correctly
  
• Added army morale penalty for losing a unit
  
• Multiplayer 'Custom Battle' displays map @ army selection
  
• Show unit bonuses for mercenaries on stats shield
  
• initial implementation of undo/redo in editor
  
• confirmation prompt to editor map reset
  
• Story Tree 'Limit radial menu'' node & updated tutorial
  
• story tree can now circle some GUI elements
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• removed sign from buff/debuff tile hint for better readability
  
• gave clickable tiles the ability to be clicked on while the player is not in the region
  
• bridge / traps change to yellow when placeable
  
• removed 'inspire' task from tutorial
  
• improved battlecam movement:
  
• Fixed clamping bounds inconsistency to be about 1.5 tiles out from valid slot
  
• Fixed jumpy zoom in/out in most cases
  
• Fixed full-zoom-out jitter in some cases / potential soft lock
  
• improved odd battle cam shift when zooming near borders
  
• updated some tutorial infos
  
• tutorial 'rebuild walls' prevents walls on other tiles
  
• tutorial task now expects exactl 20 sheep, not 20-40
  
• changed mission story + missions to be hidden during BattleSummary.
  
• Added battle summary to show multiple armies next to one another instead of on top of one another.
  
• tutorial prevents mill being built on wrong field
  
• Added zoom to battle will only include visible armies, so there are no more strange battle zoom ins.
  
• Added preventing editor hot keys from functioning while typing into input box.
  
• Fixed soft lock with right click radial battle menu when too close to the edge of the map.
  
• Changed the German language morale statement with allied armies.
  
• rearranged the skill tree to better match card strength
  
• performance optimisation FOW
  
• Modified helper cards to appear in the tutorial.
  
• attacking a unit that can't retaliate morale penalty increased to -6
  
• added delay to attack sounds to better match animation
  
• AI improvements
  
• changed battle-cam focuses on right-click target if on camera border
  
• shrunk tile cache surface (improved RAM usage)
  
• further minor performance improvements
  
• merchants now visit all player regions first to ensure a fair start
  
• bridges can now be placed on swamps
  
• Draw fishermen on harbour instead of nearby
  
• performance improvements
  
• bowmen balanced to now do a bit less damage against armored units and a bit more against peasants
  
• Modified English heritage bowmen to cost 50% more gold when mustering
  
• Modified battle summary text to have less words for units lost and killed when there are more than 2 players in the battle.
  
• improved campaign token text alignment (e.g. numbers on token base)
  
• building cost increase in a region per building lowered from 20% to 15%
  
• cheaper and faster secondary castle buildings
  
• chapel morale boost from 15 to 20
  
• adjusted region overview tutorial wording
  
• small tutorial improvements
  

[h2]Fixes:[/h2]

• fixed bridge/trap hover not properly highlighting
  
• fixed resource consumption tooltip getting stuck on
  
• fixed region tile miss-align in editor
  
• fixed resign button not working correctly sometimes
  
• fixed horse growth rate bug w/ stables
  
• fixed morale explanation tutorial render bug
  
• fixed menu music fading when going to 'options'
  
• fixed missing player list 'background' for client in custom battle
  
• fixed broken tile 'grid lines' due to recent tile optimization
  
• fixed auto-govern merging your armies
  
• fixed auto-tile w/ connecting edges of bridges
  
• fixed miss-aligned 'enter code' box
  
• fixed bug w/ tutorial requiring 5 'random cards' instead of 3
  
• FixedMigration being inconsistent
  
• Fixed diplomacy staying visible when in screenshot mode.
  
• Fixed two crashes heading to multiplayer custom battle related to the helper cards.
  
• Fixed missing unit switch arrows / possible unit switch freezing
  
• Fixed clicking graphics > camera pan from toggling the battle speed.
  
• Fixed loading screen not freeing surface from memory, because it was being destroyed, but not exited, so it would recreate the surface.
  
• Fixed map_tile surfaces not being freed from memory with exit to title screen.
  
• Fixed map selection not freeing surface from memory, because play game never released it from memory.
  
• Fixed worker spine surfaces not being freed, except for fields.
  
• Fixed small memory leak w/ general avatars & in-battle cards
  
• Fixed right-click dismissing > 1 card at a time in scenarios
  
• Fixed campaign setup map surface not being freed when hitting back button.
  
• Fixed farm peasant surfaces not being freed when returning to the title screen, caused by their outline surfaces not being freed.
  
• Fixed clickable tile surfaces not being freed. They looked like construction sites.
  
• Fixed peasant surface mem-leak / slight reduction in peasant RAM usage
  
• Fixed disband buttons behind units
  
• Fixed potential freeze in 'mercenary menu' state
  
• Fixed skill-tree skill seams between background & icon
  
• Fixed 'region-switch' arrow placement after resolution change
  
• Fixed addressed some missed tile cache changes / highlight bugs
  
• fixed having an empty horse field killed all other horses
  
• fixed auto-tile in editor breaking swamp forest tiles
  
• fixed extra walls 'appearing' on tiles after wall attack visual bug
  
• fixed a number of token visibility issues
  
• fixed placing bridges not auto-tiling existing roads
  
• fixed tutorial army scrolls overlapping in some languages
  
• prevent wrong max. knob value in army menu which could cause bigger armies than allowed, and thus negative happiness.
  
• Fixed german language having ,,, at the end of new entries.
  

0.15.5 (July 20)
New:
- Added AWS SSH key for maintence server connection
- more logging data for crash reports
- 'resign' button to challenge mode (and story tree)
- Allow creating armies in end turn phase for the story tree
- color-pulse hint w/ tutorial skill-tree
- Added press P in the editor to toggle the grid index of numbers
- full auto-paging support for mission story

Fixes:
- Fixed skill_tree card scaling / right-click
- Fixed the maximum capacity of 9999999999 error.
- Fixed chapel + bathhouse morale issue
- Fixed garrison troop morale to assign morale to each unit rather than each army
- Fixed not going to battle, when mouse was not hovering over the window. Now the game has to have focus. If it doesn't, it causes other issues.
- Fixed tutorial general peeking over skill page
- Fixed tutorial battle 'retry' crash
- Fixed story tree custom buttons only adding first button
- Fixed ultra-wide soft-lock going to battle
- Fixed weird glowing tiles when placing for battle.
- Fixed obj_mission_story 'option' alignment / minor mouse detection bug

Changes:
- maps support dictionary look-ups for their names
- obj_mission_story dynamicall scales text / smaller text
- Adjusted human taking over AI role in story tree.
- Added back morale change at the start of each battle.
- Added battle map editor to require town halls on regions that players own.
- scaled down Japanese font in many areas to better match other fonts

New:
region overview tutorial cards

Fixes:
- prevent hard freeze on "sending emissary"
- fixed chinese victory condition scaling
- fixed] chinese event card alignment w/ some cards
- obj_field wasteland token blend difference
- fixed Strategic Area battle map crash.

Changes:
- performance optimizations
- challenge mode: notifications when army is too small
- 'unlock cards' order in tutorial map

New:
- story tree editor: Validate player start region in server mod node
- story tree editor: Autocheck for AI if human player dont exist

Fixes:
- Fixed loading and saving not working properly for some language settings
- Fixed broken load/save page navigation
- Fixed general switching / skill card reset bug
- Fixed the AI usage of bridges
- Fixed pasting large amounts of text into input box freezing the game
- Fixed wall costs being different from what is deducted
- Fixed skill tree card hover inconsistent audio
- Fixed fixed tile seams due to sprite changes
- Fixed AI rapid cycling card bug
- Fixed stretched application surface w/ some resolutions
- Fixed bottom GUI text misalignment.
- Fixed obj_army crash mid-game
- Fixed Inn only allowing 2 peasants
- Fixed broken easy quick battle deck stacking
- Fixed general icon pulling incorrect team color
- Fixed a number of small button / menu graphical bugs
- Fixed a few rare crashes

Changes:
- Changed improved colored battle scroll text readability
- Modified debug card number for enemy cards so they have less of a chance to run together
- Changed spectate button text and position
- Modified defaultRegion of editor from 52 to 0
- Modified 110 region maximum in the editor to 100 to prevent future issues

It is time for another major update for Rising Lords: the Scenario Editor Update! The new and improved Scenario Editor gives you all the tools you need to not only create new multiplayer maps like before, but finally also to create your own storylines, with their own custom balancing, goals and much, much more! The new editor actually gives you most of the same tools and options we're using for crafting Rising Lords' story campaign! This will also mark a small change we will be doing in some of the game's naming conventions in a future patch: every map that has a story connected to it will be playable in Scenario Mode, while basic free-for-all maps will fall under the new Skirmish Mode umbrella!

This is a very community-focused update and a love letter to the amazing community who helped (and are still continuing to help) shaping Rising Lords to what it has become so far. Thank you all so very much! 💖

As such, we will have a special contest starting *right now* on our Community Discord server, where interested map creators can not only win cash prizes and Steam keys, but also the paid opportunity to help shape the actual story campaign of Rising Lords! More infos down below!

And in addition to that: Rising Lords is also part of the Steam Summer Sale, so if you haven't grabbed the game yet, you can do so right now at a 20% discount!


Unleash your creativity and tell your own story in the new Scenario Editor! With this new tool you can finally add custom storylines, balancing, goals and much, much more to your maps and share them with everyone via the Steam Workshop!
To help you get started with all the new tools, we prepared a short overview video for you, giving you the basics of handling the editor. You can watch it right here!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

And if you'd like a deeper dive into the editor, you can find the full documentation right here: SCENARIO EDITOR DOCUMENTATION


To celebrate the launch of this new update and our amazing community, we are also starting a special contest *right now* until July 15th, 2022 on our Community Discord!
The goal is... to create a new scenario using the new Scenario Editor! From all submissions, three winners will be chosen who will be eligible for the following prizes:

• 1st place: 100$ cash prize + a selection of Deck13 Steam Keys
  
• 2nd place: 50$ cash prize + a selection of Deck13 Steam Keys
  
• 3rd place: 25$ cash prize + a selection of Deck13 Steam Keys
  

In addition to that, everyone who is partaking in the contest will get access to a special outfit your character can wear in game. The three winners will even get a very special "bloody" variant of that same outfit!
And, as a GRAND SPECIAL PRICE: the 1st place winner of the contest will be eligible for the paid(!) opportunity to actively help build and shape the Story Campaign of Rising Lords!

To join the contest:

• Create your very own scenario using the Scenario Editor
  
• Upload the map to the Steam Workshop and put "Builder Contest" either in the title or description
  
• Join our Discord and post your creation to the #modding-and-maps channel
  

We wish all contestants the best of luck! We can't wait to see your creations!

This competition is in memory of Gwizz41, who sadly passed away on 01/03/2022.
He spent over 800 hours modding Rising Lords and the cosmetic item you can win is dedicated to him.



[h2]0.15.2 (June 24th) - RISING LORDS: SCENARIO EDITOR UPDATE[/h2]

[h2]New:[/h2]

• Added scenario editor for the public that allows creating complete custom maps with story, adjusted values, goals etc
  
• Added language updates for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (WIP)
  
• Show the X when holding peasants in another region if there is no arrow to drop peasants at a nearby workplace in that peasant's region.
  
• Added tutorial 'rebuild dwelling' circle hint
  
• Clients can see and adjust custom starting positions
  
• Added a castle building mode showing castle icons on tiles that can have castles on them
  
• Added siege camps when an attacking army has come into a region, but not taken its castle.
  
• Added revolt modifiers to region unhappines graphics to show a more accurate revolt icon.
  
• Added terrain bonuses w/ mouse hover as requested by the community
  
• Added a tool tip to explain why the player can't drop a peasant into a region they do not belong.
  
• Added swamp forest tiles (currently working as normal swamps)
  
• Added more language support to some places that didn't have it.
  
• Added tutorial task explaining tutorial usage
  
• Tutorial explains missing units on muster
  
• Added a warning to prevent imported maps crashing the test map system in the editor.
  
• Show up arrow when lifting peasants
  
• Added new region overview GUI icons to replace the old versions.
  
• Added dynamic font sizing for notification scrolls
  
• Added language updates for jp, ko, ch, and zh
  

[h2]Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed Steam features not working (workshop + challenge mode highscore upload)
  
• Fixed castles not giving extra general
  
• Fixed missing 'upgrade' option after watch-towers built
  
• Fixed battle cam state freeze leading to softlocks in rare cases
  
• Fixed army menu crash when changing unit types in some cases
  
• Fixed no 'victory' screens w/ 1-player game
  
• Fixed slow tile loading w/ huge resolutions
  
• Fixed several crashes and bugs with the select starting region.
  
• Fixed a lategame crash caused by not enough free generals
  
• Fixed bright-red color w/ white text / brightness formula
  
• Prevent sometimes picking up extra peasants, and always pick up when hovering right over peasant
  
• Fixed unresponsive skill unlock
  
• Fixed low-morale turn interruption bug
  
• Fixed avatar portraits always facign the same way
  
• Fixed enemy battle meter anchoring to wrong edge
  
• Fixed smithy not rendering fire fighters
  
• Fixed army-hover font for ants
  
• Fixed boat flicker bug on AI move
  
• Fixed dragging peasant rendering incorrectly
  
• Fixed static mercenary crash when loading a challange map in battle
  
• Fixed army unit selection left-arrow broken
  
• Fixed lord menu not displaying custom generals
  
• Fixed editor screenshot zoom incorrect
  
• Fixed avatar portrait crash
  
• Fixed potential crash w/ window min / tab-out
  
• Prevent mounted unit going through swamp when it can go around
  
• Fixed editor screenshot outline bug
  
• Fixed tutorial 'back' missaligned selected option
  
• Fixed a rare bug showing no tiles
  
• Fixed wooden castle walls in the middle of no where on Meath map.
  
• Fixed tutorial circle tip bug w/ merchant menu
  
• Fixed both Chinese languages missing data despite having the key.
  
• Fixed game sometimes crashing when starting Chinese due to missing region_translations.
  
• Fixed [chinese] text-wrap in tutorial book
  
• Fixed [chinese] tool-tip vertical align / hight align issues
  
• Fixed language support for skill card notifications having their name rather than translated name.
  
• Fixed other language support issues.
  
• Fixed other rare campaign, load game and multiplayer crashes
  
• Fixed custom battle fog / map tile bug
  
• Fixed text for ants on battle card presentation
  
• Prevent army tooltip stretching out so much when using Bree font
  
• Fixed missing village tiles
  
• Fixed battle timeline cut in half sometimes
  
• Fixed inconsistent battle card scale flicker
  
• Fixed 'hunt successful' incorrect graphic
  
• Fixed tutorial could bypass skill selection
  
• Fixed missing region names in editor
  
• Fixed "army already in conflict" bug
  
• Adjusted some graphics settings to properly trigger tile updates
  
• Fixed sword icon not displaying when attacking an obstacle
  
• Fixed region name being at the top of the screen.
  
• Fixed event cards not expanding correctly
  
• Fixed 'fake orders' tile highlight flicker
  
• Fixed inverted loading screen in some situations
  
• Remove garrison if story tree editor is set to take over a region in first turn.
  
• Fixed overview-switch peasants not rendering until zoom
  
• Fixed 'export game' not remove fullscreen properly
  
• Fixed tokenized elements behind region color
  
• Fixed unusual resolutions bottom-gap bug
  
• Fixed miss-aligned units on tablet w/ some resolutions
  
• Fixed '#' not being converted to "next line" in story book
  
• Fixed tutorial requiring exactly 0 of some units
  
• Fixed more battle-tile flicker / highlight not resetting bugs
  
• Fixed tool tip for radial menu not changing when hovering over something new.
  
• Fixed alt-tab not refreshing tiles
  
• Fixed card text overlapping in some situations
  

[h2]Changes:[/h2]

• Allow dropping peasants again with right mouse button
  
• Battle camera improvements
  
• Further end-turn stutter reduction
  
• Building walls disabled in challenge mode
  
• Modified mouse pan border from 1 pixel to 3, because south border wasn't panning.
  
• Army morales from previous victories do not show as + or - at the start of new battles.
  
• Cannot place units in water unless sea attack
  
• Armies placement during sieges
  
• Allow rapid-click inc/dec army unit count
  
• Added revolt_minimum = 5 to be revolts still happen if under the minimum no matter what the player characteristics.
  
• Strong AI now sends out early land grab armies
  
• QOL tutorial changes
  
• Brought rendering up to speed for
• Tutorial prevents invalid army creation
  
• Added ability to click end turn while in "scroll and zoom" state.