Version 0.13 final status

In the story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Tolstoy, a peasant's greed for more land leads to his demise, as he dies trying to claim more than he can use. When I approach the end of a version, I feel like Pahom, the story’s protagonist: only I’m not driven by greed, but by the desire to push more content into the version: Another scene. Another animation. Another dialog. 

Anyway, content wise, the version is near complete. All dialogs, images and animations will be ready tomorrow. What’s left are the somewhat less “shiny” tasks of adding gallery scenes, music and lewd sounds in lewd scenes, proofreading, playtesting, reviewing the tutorial etc. Additionally, since we have added a Codex, codex entries need to be added as well (though this might wait for a later date).

As I have written in earlier posts, the quest in this version is about Karder who visits the Pirate Clans in order to secure their cooperation when the Khan’s navy crosses the Sea of Knives. Additionally’ we’ll meet the Harsh Edge, his divine daughter and will “reunite” with his little sister, Alyn. 

I may be able to squeeze in a lewd scene with pregnant Jada, but that may or may not happen. 

But after finishing this version, Karder will be ready to cross the Sea of Knives. It’s happening.

Looking at the new features, there are a lots of new surprises:

• Codex. This is something which was requested many times in the past for various reasons, with the most popular being; how many children did Karder sire? And how do I know what bonus do my Council Wenches provide? So now the codex will provide statistics for this question, along with lore and information on all the Wenches, non-Wenches important characters, Deities, fiefdoms and more.

• Threat Level and Covert Ops screen. Since the first days of the game, enemy fiefdoms attacks were always completely random. As of version 0.13 each fiefdom will be assigned a Threat Level (based on the ruling Wench) which will increase gradually. In order to mitigate the threat, you’ll be able to bribe enemy generals (with gold), execute a Preemptive Strike (“spending” troops from the main army) or declare Martial Law in your adjacent fiefdoms, thus forcing the enemy to cancel their raid plans but losing Morale (= productiveness) in your adjacent fiefdoms. In other words: the metagame will be less random, allowing you to plan your khagante’s growth better.

• MK2 Combat formations. The Army Vs. Army MK2 combat, where you fight in 3 Vs 3 against the enemy will become the default option (can be changed in the game settings). In order to make it more interesting, the following “formations” were added.

• Berserk: if your unit (i.e. on screen soldier) is not adjacent to any other friendly unit, it does more damage.

• Shield Wall: if your unit is adjacent to another friendly unit (not diagonally), it receives a defence bonus.

• Flanking: if two of your units attack the same enemy unit, they receive a damage bonus.

Don’t worry, I’m not trying to compete with Total War, just make the army combat slightly more interesting and fun.

• Nicer nodes on the minimap in quests. Unfortunately there is no new minimap in version 0.13 so you’ll have to replay a quest to see this.

• Moving during a miniquest can now be controlled from the keyboard keys instead of clicking on the on-screen arrows.

That's it for now, now I'll go back to finish this adventure filled version. I’ll publish an ETA by the end of the week. Let’s fucking go!