Great news lords and ladies! after several months of hard work, our newest free update v1.5.6 is ready to enter the open beta! [b]This one is all about the Ease of Ruling![/b] In previous free updates we were focusing on adding gameplay systems, polishing the game design, improving features and then also enhancing the performance. In this update, we wanted to focus more on the UI experience and give more care to the balancing. You can access the build right now in the openbeta branch! Simply right-click on the game in your library, select Properties -> Betas and choose the openbeta in the Beta Participation dropdown. After you confirm the dialogue, let the game update and you are ready to play! [b]We strongly recommend backing up your save files before switching to open beta as there can be unforeseen issues that can corrupt them![/b] However, due to the scope of changes introduced as part of our re-balancing, the backwards compatibility on save files is not supported in this version and we recommend starting a new game to avoid potential bugs and issues. You can find your save files in the "C:\Users\USER\AppData\LocalLow\Honestly Games\Lords and Villeins\SaveData" folder. [i]There you will also find the ConfigData folder. If you are having issues launching the game after updating due to a bug, you can try deleting this folder and re-launching the game.[/i] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37633948/7cf44cec955c00f0694d1eff6706fcdfb1576c08.png[/img] We greatly appreciate if you report any bugs and issues either here on the Steam forums, in the comments of this article or better yet - [url=https://discord.lordsandvilleins.com/]in our Discord community![/url] Thank you all for participating in the beta, sharing your feedback and helping us polish the game to make it even better! And to celebrate the open beta release and the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/sale/fulqrumpublishersale2024]Fulqrum Publishing's Steam sale[/url], [b]we have an amazing 66% discount on the game[/b]! It is our highest discount to date, so this is a great time to pick it up and tell your friends about it! You can also find other great games by our publisher [url=https://store.steampowered.com/sale/fulqrumpublishersale2024]on their publisher sale page![/url] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1287530/Lords_and_Villeins/ [h2]So what are the changes introduced in 1.5.6?[/h2] [h3]New Statistics Report UI[/h3] [list] [*] Track a variety of data about resources, animals and your settlement as a whole [*] Filter data by family, zone or aggregate them over the whole settlement [*] View data in table view or as a graph with a history [*] Change between the granularity of aggregation between daily, seasonal and yearly datapoints [/list] [h3]Simplified Game Mechanics[/h3] [list] [*] Simplified the calculation algorithm of supply and demand [*] Simplified the algorithm of tax attribution on zones [*] Boredom is now also replenished by reading [*] New Way of Obtaining Profession [*] When family gets assigned a zone for a profession they do not have, they will have a goal to learn it [*] Learning happens in the library and requires an assistance of a Librarian (initiated monk) [*] Newly learned professions begin on level 1 [*] To compensate the value of professions obtained through the Inn, traveling families appear with a profession on a higher level than before [*] In combination with the above, the impact of profession level on the speed of task has also been doubled [/list] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37633948/cff49fd84a4ef6f1e77c6983118d8a8bea3c9397.png[/img] [h3]Quality of Life Changes[/h3] [list] [*]Assigning family to a tenure now brings up a new UI that provides a better overview of available families [*] Socage tax is now set per resource. This can be modified in the accounting report in the priority and soil tabs [*] Due to the individual taxation, certain resources that were not taxable before, can now be taxed (i.e. milk) [*] Graves now only take one space instead of two [*] The trading tab of the Warehouse book opens in a state that filters only resources in stock [*]Added the ability to consume bread and pies as a plain ingredient without cooking it into meals, when [*]Soil tab now displays icons of relevant seasons for each crop [*]Farmers now schedule planting of up to 5 fields in a row before they can be interrupted for a different activity [*]Goals to occupy and empty store, purchasing resources and taming and animal caretaking are now strictly allowed only to villagers with (automaticaly and secretely) assigned role. There can be only one store keeper, up to three shoppers and up to two animal caretakers. This helps to simplify the goal queue of farmers (who have by far the most goals) and improve their AI efficiency [/list] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37633948/639b340d86b5559c22f806f664b612b47d3d1c0f.png[/img] [h3]Campaign Changes[/h3] [list] [*] Campaign is now renamed to "Ruling Lessons" to better set expectations for new players [*] Settlement buffs previously tied to completing the campaign are now unlocked by default [*]Added goals in the mining colony mission to build loading station and recruit a servant [*]Added extra monk in the plague mission and added missing roofs over many households [*]Campaign missions are now unlocked from the beginning except for the final one which requires completing of all previous missions [*]The campaign screen now has completion indicator for each mission [/list] [h3]Balancing Changes[/h3] [list] [*] Modified yields and growth times of certain crops [*] Modified base price for almost all resources [*] Modified speed of tasks for almost all production [*] Modified frequency and inventory size of caravans [*] Slightly modified starting resources [*] Increased inventory capacity of Chests [*] Modified yields of hide and meat from certain animals [*] Modified yields of mountains from mining [*]Rebalanced pricing function of all animals [*]Reduced sensitivity of daily average produce counter from the season length to 7 days [*]Reduced amount of money demanded in the encounter from 1 gold per person to 5-10 silver per person [*]Increased the length of one horse riding session to be 1 - 2 hours [/list] [h3]Bugfixes[/h3] [list] [*]Fixed issue with farming incorrectly accounting number of planted crops [*]Fixed issue with market presence incorrectly rendering animal amounts and sex [*]Updated the algorithm of caravans to reflect their individual time of arrival in the algorithm of switching between the caravan phases of selling, purchasing and leaving [*]Fixed issue with farmers incorrectly reflecting remaining time leading to crops being planted even when they dont have enough time to finish growing before the next season [*]Fixed issue causing celebration bar being treated as a valid storage for player's money causing it to disappear from player inventory [*]Fixed issue allowing the paper mill being placed over a floor blueprint even when no water is present [*]Fixed bug in the warehouse book when offering animals for sale [*]A number of other crashes and errors [/list]