Hello, ladies and fellas! It's been a long time since I wrote a post on Steam - much was changing in my life, so I had time only to support the project and fix the bugs you found. However, I'm in charge again, and I'm glad to announce some new features & mechanics for the next patch: [i]UPD: it's not out yet, this post is just an announce![/i] [list] [*][b]First of all, money is finally going to appear in Life is Hard.[/b] A player will be able to construct a new building - market - that attracts merchants and caravans from all over the tiny world. They will buy goods from your minions and pay with gold! [img]https://pp.userapi.com/c847018/v847018210/152120/HeCZnjuRKxU.jpg[/img] [i]Hiring mercenaries, monks, jesters etc. will require money from now on. No more barter![/i] [*][b]Secondly, mages will stand by your side.[/b] You'll be able to hire new units at the mage's tower. [strike] Seems legit, doesn't it?[/strike] Mages are equipped with light armor & wands. Soldiers will lose ability to use them. [img]https://pp.userapi.com/c847018/v847018210/152133/lRi6mDD7ojg.jpg[/img] [i]A "work in progress" mage's outfit[/i] [*][b]To compensate for the loss, soldiers will be able to use shields.[/b] Shields have a chance to reflect hits/projectiles. The stronger the material is - the higher the chances are. I'm also considering [u]giving secondary weapons[/u] to ranged units like archers, as using bow at close range seems illogical. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it in the comments. [img]https://pp.userapi.com/c852016/v852016420/66005/7R8XWDMa7o0.jpg[/img] [i]A wooden shield[/i] [*][b]In this regard, i've changed weapons system, making weapon & armor types more balanced. Here's a small table:[/b] [table] [tr] [th]Weapon type[/th] [th]Damage scale to unarmored units[/th] [th]Damage scale to light-armored units[/th] [th]Damage scale to medium-armored units[/th] [th]Damage scale to heavy-armored units[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Firsts, fangs, horns etc.[/td] [td]100%[/td] [td]100%[/td] [td]75%[/td] [td]75%[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Cutting weapons[/td] [td]125%[/td] [td]100%[/td] [td]75%[/td] [td]75%[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Piercing weapons[/td] [td]125%[/td] [td]75%[/td] [td]125%[/td] [td]125%[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Blunt weapons[/td] [td]125%[/td] [td]100%[/td] [td]75%[/td] [td]50%[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ranged weapons[/td] [td]125%[/td] [td]100%[/td] [td]100%[/td] [td]75%[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Magic[/td] [td]125%[/td] [td]100%[/td] [td]100%[/td] [td]125%[/td] [/tr] [/table] I believe this system will make players to have a balanced army with light-armored bowmen and mages. I'm still working on it, so feel free to share your opinion. [*][b]New mercenaries sprites have arrived to replace the old ones.[/b] Every one of them has unique attack & armor type according to the table above. [img]https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/10693494/56f34db641d6d92558a82c6e91da2ba766e29c59.png[/img] [*][b]The last updated mechanics in this patch is rations system.[/b] Players will be able to choose manually whether to use a resource in their minions' rations or to keep it for trading. [img]https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/10693494/859aafef2dfe88b119993c2cb05dcef0954256ed.png[/img] [u]That's all for now. There's still much work to do, but I hope to release this patch on New Year's holidays.[/u] As I already mentioned, [b]I'd love to hear your opinion about the patch in the comments![/b] [i]Yours, Life is Hard dev[/i] [/list]