Hey Everyone, We’re back with another major update for RKW – and this time, we have a bit of a theme, as our focus was on reworking everything related to castles, sieges, and gunpowder to get it just right. There’s tons of brand-new art, visual improvements, completely reworked features, and some massive changes to gameplay. Some highlights: today’s update includes a complete overhaul of how large cities are fortified, with all large towns now starting with stone walls. These stone walls have been redesigned with all-new Renaissance-era art, making large towns truly look magnificent. You’ll also get all-new and reworked siege weapons and cannons to take these stone walls apart (cannons can absolutely devastate towns now). This is a true game-changer for how you approach defending and attacking these settlements, adding a lot of historical realism. We’ve also gone back to the drawing board with our gunpowder units, completely redesigning their look and feel. Of course, we didn’t stop there. There’s a host of art updates, balancing changes, performance improvements, and important bug fixes across the board. Thanks again for your continued feedback and support! We’re excited to see what you think of these changes, and we can’t wait to show you what we have in store for you next week (it’s totally awesome!). Now, onto the patch notes for [b]Update #8 (game version 0.42):[/b] [h3]MAJOR VISUAL UPDATES[/h3] [list] [*] Major change to unit appearance - all units now correctly scaled relative to buildings and environment [*] Units look much better when on top of walls [*] Totally redesigned the look of stone walls - they now have realistic renaissance designs [*] New art for all gatehouses, bastions, salients, towers, and more [*] All large town stone walls redesigned for a renaissance look [*] Reworked texture for all palisade walls with great improvements [*] All humanoid unit model quality greatly increased (actual units and not the animated portraits) [*] Greatly improved various terrain textures [*] Reworked textures for buildings that had super bright elements [*] Reworked textures for various terrain and environment elements that had super bright elements [*] Improved textures of various unit models all over the board - siege units, soldiers, economy units [*] Fixed multiple texture issues where winter, desert, or summer walls and buildings were appearing incorrectly (summer walls during winter, etc.) [*] Significant improvements to winter season graphics, including snow terrain, rivers, lakes, and water visuals [*] Improved all siege weapons' appearance and textures [/list] [h3]LARGE CITY REWORK[/h3] [list] [*] Large cities now start with fully built stone walls instead of wooden palisades (major change) [*] New stone tower, gatehouse, and bastion designs applied to all stone walls and updated in all levels [*] All large towns have received minor design updates for better siege functionality and other gameplay [*] Disabled wall building for large cities (still available for hamlets) [*] Coming soon - in large towns instead of constructing stone walls from palisades, players will upgrade the quality of stone walls [*] AI skirmish wall building now restricted to hamlets only [/list] [h3]GUNPOWDER UNIT REDESIGN[/h3] [list] [*] Completely redesigned humanoid gunpowder units [*] All new art and animation for Hand Cannoner, Arquebusier, and Musketeer units [*] Each gunpowder unit now has a unique weapon design - hand cannon, arquebus, musketeer [*] These units now have a very long reload time, allowing new tactics - like charging them as they reload [*] Complete rebalance of all stats with gunpowder units [/list] [h3]CANNON & SIEGE WEAPON IMPROVEMENTS[/h3] [list] [*] Cannons and other siege weapons now properly damage walls - a major rework of projectile physics [*] Cannons are the most effective siege weapons against walls [*] Cannons now require stone resources to fire (1 stone per shot per cannon) [*] Grape shot rebalanced - now very effective against infantry at close range [*] Reworked how cannon grape shot looks and works [*] Cannons updated with new scale, art, and correct horse and gun crew proportions [*] Catapults and trebuchets fire slower for balance [*] Fixed exploit allowing siege weapons to constantly fire with multiple clicks [*] Fixed siege weapons slowing down significantly when damaged [*] Siege weapons no longer display bad player colors [*] Fixed belfry not attaching correctly to stone wall bastions and salients [*] Trebuchets, catapults, and boiling oil wall upgrades now always properly line up on walls and towers [/list] [h3]PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY[/h3] [list] [*] One more round of visual memory optimization - should allow almost everyone to run the game on max settings [*] Lag from selecting multiple units has been greatly reduced [*] Rifled units now scripted as humanoid, which also greatly improves performance in combat [/list] [h3]VARIOUS BUG FIXES[/h3] [list] [*] Fixed major issue with units not leveling up properly with booster buildings in the city [*] Fixed large cities having extra building slots that caused disappearing buildings [*] World map units now have correct health levels when created and they stay in the red zone [*] Visual memory usage significantly reduced, improving performance and reducing crashes [*] Fixed several towns that didn’t have trees at the starting areas for peasants to chop down [*] Fixed issue with stone wall-mounted trebuchets and catapults firing overly bright projectiles [*] Fixed empty armies and cities not recruiting units correctly [*] Fixed exploit allowing players to make siege weapons fire constantly through repeated clicks [*] Fixed issue with horse carts not having proper winter textures [*] Fixed some towns in northern Mediterranean having desert environments [/list] [h3]BALANCING CHANGES[/h3] [list] [*] Rebalanced storage capacities across large towns and hamlets - storage is now a more significant part of early and mid-game [*] Horse carts now only add 200 storage instead of 300 [*] Fixed issue with town defense battles having incorrect storage limits (now properly scales for larger towns) [*] Self-healing for units disabled, reduced overall healing power [*] Livestock now produces more food on the world map, making it much more useful [*] Rebalanced all wall stats and ranged siege stats for better gameplay balance [*] Ranged siege units now more effective at realistically taking down walls [*] Food production and resource income from various buildings adjusted for balance on the world map [/list] [h3]OTHER VISUAL UPDATES[/h3] [list] [*] Improved winter day/night lighting cycle [*] Enhanced cannon textures with new masks, added snow textures for winter [*] Improved palisade gatehouse with new flags on top [*] Improved the art for armourer, gunsmith, and trade guild buildings [*] Polished world map army units and reduced visual memory for better performance and stability [*] Enhanced the look of horse carts on the world map [*] Reworked normal bump map textures for better performance [*] Improved the look of retreat flags and fixed shiny textures for unit weapons [*] Added visible smoke to chimneys of village and town houses [/list]