Villages 2.0 Update

Bellwright

Establish and expand your own settlements, liberate the land and assist its villagers, and recruit others to your cause while learning more about a life you had to leave behind. Command your forces, prove your valor through combat, and cement yourself as the hero of your people.

Today's update marks a major milestone for the development of Bellwright. Up until now we've been largely focused on stabilization, polish, and adding critical QoL features. With the Autumn Update, we started laying the groundwork for making Bellwright a more dynamic world, where player choice is critical in the success of the Rebellion and future of Karvenia This Update expands on the idea of rebuilding the Karvenia stone by stone with the help of its liberator - You. With the oppressors gone, it's time to bring prosperity to the villages by expanding them and keeping them secure from unyielding forces of bandits and brigands alike. In turn, the ever-thankful villagers will reward you with access to their growing militia to help on your quest. [previewyoutube=9jOejfIwzkA;full][/previewyoutube] After testing and stabilizing on the preview branch for the last several weeks, The Autumn Update is finally here! One of the most important changes for gameplay introduced in this update is how you interact with villages after liberating them. Now, you have the ability to call militia from the village to your aid, which can be very useful in dealing with stronger enemies. Villages also have a prosperity level which will affect its population, strength of the militia and possibilities for expanding it. To allow villages to grow stronger you'll need to invest resources into them and protect the area around them against bandits. This goes hand in hand with a reworked bandit migration feature and new strategic map overlays. Another area that is significantly improved is town customization - buildable roads make your settlement feel more real, help with planning and logistics, while lots of new decorative structures allow you to give your town a unique flavor. Last but not least, there are plenty of highly requested quality of life improvements - ability to set up structure settings before their construction is finished, fast travel with your companions along the rivers with the help of new River Dock structure, finding location of specific item or structure in your settlement, relocating built structures and much, much more. This update will be compatible with old saves, but some minor issues may still happen (for example, expect forests cut down before to respawn anew), so just in case you prefer to play on an older version (or keep playing with old mods), we added the option as a separate steam beta branch called the august_update. The full list of changes can be found below. We’re looking forward to your opinions and feedback on this update! [h2]Key Features[/h2] [list] [*]Introduced a Village Prosperity bar, influencing Militia strength [*]Added ability to temporarily Call to Arms neutral village Militia [*]Introduced buildable roads that increase movement speed [*]Added Riverdock building for fast travel with Companions [*]Reworked bandit migration [*]Introduced strategic overlay to the map that now also displays threat of the regions [*]Added ability to switch main settlement [*]Added ability to relocate and disassemble structures without losing resources [*]Added item/building/npc finder that creates temporary markers on the map and on the screen [*]Deliver resources needed for Village Improvements automatically overnight instead of having to bring them manually [*]Added Village Info Screen containing useful information about the neutral village such as, for example, hireable NPCs [*]Added various buildable decorations for player settlement along with Village Improvements for neutral villages [*]Added ability to specify tools, equipment and their amount at structures [*]Made Companions self-bandage themselves when their HP is below a threshold [*]Made Companions also pick up the loot from bandit camp chests on loot command [*]Significantly boosted all the Swords to make them comparable with other weapons [*]Added ability to manage buildings before their construction is finished [*]Additional animations for vertical aiming for melee actions such as swinging a sword or chopping (now you can chop logs above or below you) [*]Added partial Xbox controller support [*]Added HDR support [/list] [h2]Patch Notes[/h2] [list] [h3]New Gameplay[/h3] [*]Tweaked the HQ hostility panel [*]Added new Village Improvements with specific benefits to prosperity, militia, and population. [list] [*]Moved Granary village improvement from Tier 3 to Tier 2. [*]Made Village House increase the population of medium and high-skilled villagers [/list] [*]Added new building “Scout’s Lookout” [*]Added many new settings to the options menu [*]Added new voice lines when interacting with workers and villagers [*]Added 20+ new quests [*]Large rocks (boulders) can now be mined similar to tin/copper rocks [*]Added new gesture animation feature when conversing with villagers [*]Added new bridge Point of Interest to Karvenia. [*]Added waves to Karvenia's shores. [*]Added New Bandit Camps [*]Added and improved new look to waterfall [*]Added new display popups of what NPCs looted [*]Added new setting to remove interaction dots and functionality to display overhead icons and interaction dots on demand by holding the Left ALT button [*]Add possibility to copy structure settings from the settlement building screen for construction sites. [*]Added new sound effects for fast travel. [*]Enhanced sound effects for Belltower. [*]Added open and close sound effects to trading screen widget [*]Added warnings about reclamation parties coming to the sleep interaction [*]Added 4 new seed icons [h3]Improvements + Fixes[/h3] [*]Forbid neutral villagers from looting drop bags to avoid losing quest items. [*]Enabled Ragdoll for characters that die in background [*]Fixed Tinplate being locked behind Blacksmith, when it should be Workshop [*]Stopped buildings from storing water on Relocation/Disassembly [*]Removed water bag from appearing on ground when dropped including when dying with it in inventory. [*]Fixed move-jump cancelling interaction glitch [*]Fixed Strap technology description saying it can be made of iron [*]Changed Leather volume to 1:1 instead of 2:2; and fixed gigantic fur/hide/pelt/etc meshes when dropped on the ground/carried [*]Fixed some specific boar corpses only lasting for 3 seconds and replaced spawning bones lootable with actual corpse [*]Fixed Large-Headed Axe being attached in a wrong place when equipped on a belt [*]Fixed NPCs getting stuck trying to drop spoiled food [*]Liberation now is triggered by ringing the bell at the Belltower, automatically granting the player maximum trust and prompting Brigand’s garrison to actively pursue the player and their troops [*]Polished all landscape and foliage on map [*]Despawn unlooted camps after some time and drop all loot on the ground highlighted with icons on the map [*]Make villagers call nearby allies for help when they are attacked [*]Made patrolling bandits that have had camps destroyed fight back when retreating [*]Fixed sometimes appearing on the roof of a Cabin when respawning there [*]Split Armors and Clothing into Basic & Advanced similarly to weapons, tools, etc [list] [*]Removed Clothing and Tier 1 armors from Tier 3 Armourer, only kept T2-3 armors [*]Removed Tier 1 weapons from Blacksmith, only kept T2-3 [*]Removed armors that are crafted at Tanner's Hut from Armourer [/list] [*]Fixed grass not being removed when placing certain buildings. [*]Fixed arrows going to additional container instead of quiver if there is one equipped [*]Made sticks around construction sites more visible. [*]Adjusted tin and rock formations to have less overlap between rocks [*]Rearranged small rocks around the map. [*]Rearranged garlic around the map [*]Improved decorative visuals of forests, grass, waterfall, and various rock formations. [*]Fixed villagers sometimes being stuck on a wall in Crasmere. [*]Added more visual diversity to needles/roots in forests [*]Added more visual diversity to grass/stones in forests [*]Fixed landscape holes and road foliage in swamp [*]Fixed an issue of villagers approaching construction sites from a wrong direction [*]Improved stone fence compositions in Karvenia. [*]Shield Animation adjustments [list] [*]Improved shield animation while running [*]Adjustments to shield and weapons when climbing [*]Improved shield holding to no longer clip through or slide down the arm. Better placement of hand inside shield straps [/list] [*]Added other climbing animations [*]Adjusted camera shake for hits and blocks [*]Improved camera following and responsiveness [*]New sheathing/unsheathing animations [*]Improved carrying animations [*]Improved shoveling animations [*]Improved jogging animations [*]Improved 2h woodcutting animations [*]Improved all attack animations for 1h, 2h, and 2h+shield [*]New hit marker for arrows hitting shields [*]Improved hit reaction when being hit while bow is equipped [*]Overhauled hit reactions and removed any sliding. [*]Added new animations, particle effects, and sounds for Thresher [*]Added new animations, particle effects, and sounds for Pit Saw [*]Added new animation for picking up and putting down logs [*]Tweaked damage of 2h Battle axe and Sledgehammer [*]Improved visuals on male and female characters skin to look less plastic [*]Added postprocessing changes to brighten shadows and improve dark tones around the map [*]Fixed characters incorrectly turning towards movement direction in combat. [*]Fixed weapons sheathing when dismissing companions with Hold Ground during the fight [*]Added and improved various icons [*]Allow to copy settings between structures from different settlements [*]Improved the visual clarity of in-game rendered overhead icons [*]Changed the visual style of the Main Menu with more improvements to come [*]Improved the visuals for readable lore texts and notes. [*]Added various new settings in the options menu [*]Adjusted handheld item hiding to also hide carried items during interactions. [*]Adjusted "Switch Commanded Squad" hint visibility based on squad count. [*]Resolved several input issues, including potential building input crashes and binding clashes. [*]Updated localization for new features and content + Updated and improved all localizations. [*]Fixed various spelling and punctuation errors [*]Improved commanding marker to move smoothly. [*]Improved optimization of quest markers when they're too far away to be seen. [*]Fixed an issue causing characters that die far from the player not going into ragdoll [*]Fixed Tinplate description saying that it can be crafted at Blacksmith instead of Workshop [*]Added “Hold to Interact” property to some interactables including sleep and Relocate/Disassemble interaction [*]Added compatibility warning when trying to load too old or too new savegame [*]Fixed mistakes in Iron Ingot description [*]Added item tooltips to settlement storage list. [*]Fixed display of item names in settlement ledger list when they're too long. [*]Added more visual details to the A Father's Grief quest location. [*]Updated text in A Village In Need quest to better represent the objectives. [*]Removed grass that was covering some of the points of interest. [*]Fixed various quest titles in codex so they don't repeat. [*]Fixed some dialogues in Fowl Play Quest for Bernar Yewbridge [*]Added completion text to quests that were missing. [*]Fixed not having objectives on the quest “Safety First” specifically on old save games [*]Added a letter to Wolf Lair Point of Interest + codex entry [*]Fixed a reward exploit and wrong text in A cut from above quest [*]Fixed quest objectives being stuck and having wrong text in Head trauma quest. [*]Added thrust attack to pitchfork [*]Significantly increased renown gain for clearing out bandit camps [*]Added loot to the bandit camp related to Ex-bandit quest (Cave) [*]Made Villagers prefer food they didn't eat and don't have in inventory for stocking up [*]Added Book Merchants to the remaining villages [*]Forbid storing water in personal chests [*]Improved performance of water shaders [*]Reduced memory usage on some shaders [*]Adjusted LOD quality for structures [*]Improved cloth simulation [*]Improved performance related to grass. [*]Fixed various other issues that were causing stuttering. [*]Fixed bandage animation while moving [*]Fixed Villagers not waking up after sleeping on the ground [*]Fixed Sword mesh remaining after picking it up in Lost and Found quest [*]Made Ashbourne non-respawnable after being killed by the player or allied Companions [*]Rebalanced trust gain in Bradford quests to ensure the player can reach Friend level to continue the main quest [*]Corrected quest title in Blood and Gored quest [*]Fixed duplicate dialogue option in Safety First quest [*]Fixed not being able to complete Craftsman tools quest if it was discarded [*]Reworked “Burning Stove” Main quest [*]Fixed Bandits respawning on “Missing Villagers” quest [*]Fixed “Murder Mystery” NPC spawnpoint [*]Fixed incorrect difficulty icons over bandit camps [*]Fixed farm not blocking other structures from being built on it. [*]Fixed village Elder standing in a weird spot in Crasmere [*]Fixed straw hut not appearing on gear presets/storage rules [*]Fixed issues with incorrect naming of pois & camps on the map (eg. MidBanditCamp) [*]Fixed filter displayed for unexisting Tin rock resource in the stockpiles [*]Fixed copper and iron nails unlocking in codex and stockpile filters at the same time [*]Corrected description of Arrow Busket [*]Fixed incorrect rotation and increased max distance of Lumberjack placement [*]Fixed wrong crafting skill and job category on Forager Rack [*]Fixed not possible to sleep in Blackridgepool tavern [*]Fixed Npc spawning on top of each other on respawn [*]Fixed crash when trying to move 0 items between storages [*]Improved Tech tree readability and consistency [*]Improved collision on Tanning Rack [*]Fixed "Claim" interaction on bandit’s flag showing on client when already used by host [*]Prevented multiple Belltowers from being built if the Build menu was opened outside the village [*]Fixed talk interaction being displayed during combat on client in coop [*]Fixed FOV setting resetting to default after game restart [*]Fixed adding items via drag&drop to containers [*]Now correctly adjusts item durability for item who had their durability increased [*]Fix for npcs getting stuck in a battle against non-hostiles [*]Fixed cats (and other domestic animals) being valid targets for attack orders. [*]Fixed a crash related to village merchants. [*]Fixed giant bag size when items like salt/spices dropped on the ground [/list]