Hey everyone,

This update is me catching up on player reports and the result of some playtesting. We've got better village champion battles, slight tweaks to tournaments, tweaks to the stones of the realm, more loot, better fort demotion, a new system for kingdom names, improvements on a special event, a fix for some combat issues, and tons of other bugfixes and improvements.

VILLAGE CHAMPIONS IMPROVED (14 features)

The challenging village champions system was an afterthought, you send a champion to fight and kill the village champions if they win cool, if they lose you lose a champion... Boring. Now when you win you'll be shown the rival champion being burried and then will be awared a random item of loot from the village. While adding this in I also reworked and fixed several things in these villages champion challenge system and beyond.

* Added defeating village champion gives you a random item reward from the village
* Added new screen and sfx for defeated Rihhm champion being buried
* Reworked who shall challenge village champion screen and blocked empty champion slots
* Added 3 new random screens at start of smallhaven champion challenge
* Added new screen and sfx for defeated Smallhaven champion being buried
* Added new screen for Smallhaven new champion announcement
* Fixed Rihhm village champion doesn't want to talk to you text bug
* Fixed ransacked Smallhaven screen text bugs
* Fixed abandoned Smallhaven screen text bugs
* Fixed burned Smallhaven screen text bugs
* Fixed ransacked rihhm screen text bugs
* Fixed abandoned rihhm screen text bugs
* Fixed burned rihhm screen text bugs
* Fixed text bugs in Rihhms pre-champion challenge text

TOURNEY TWEAKS (5 features)

NotFox on steam noticed that his grand champions strength was changing after tournaments, this was due to bonus strength rewards granted to the champions but they weren't visibly shown, now there are indicators showing the change as well as a few other tweaks!

* Fixed grammar issues in many tournament screens
* Added indicator at end of 8 man tournament of +1 strength reward for winner
* Added indicator at end of 16 man tournament of +2 strength reward for winner
* Added indicator at end of 32 man tournament of +3 strength reward for winner
* Added indicator at end of grand tournament of +3 strength reward for winner

THE STONES OF THE REALM (15 features)

There are many (mainly northern) stones that can be touched and rubbed for various effects, in a playtest I realised some parts of these were lacking, now they've all been reworked!

* Added new sound effect for rubbing a stone
* Added new screen for rubbing the doomstone
* Added new screen for rubbing the explorers stone (with indicator of gained explore chance)
* Added new screen for rubbing the old stone
* Added new screen for ancient northern stone
* Added new screen with sfx for destroying ancient north stone
* Added destroying ancient north stone gives -2 public opinion
* Reworked ancient north stone secret screen
* Added new sound effect to ancient north stone secret screen
* Added new screen to rubbing the goblinstone
* Added new screen to rubbing the strengthstone
* Added new screen to rubbing the harveststone
* Fixed missing line in destroying strength stone screen
* Fixed ancient north stone secret skipping
* Fixed old stone undead horde event missing line

MOAR LOOT (20 features)

As always, seeing as a new loot reward system has been added I thought I'd broaded the loot list again!

* Added 'rare mispressed gold coin with two kissing heads' random loot artifact (worth 100 gold)
* Added 'shield made of troll hide' random loot artifact (worth 110 gold)
* Added 'statue of a peasant man' random loot artifact (worth 40 gold)
* Added 'demonic lute' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'rusty old spear' random loot artifact (worth 5 gold)
* Added 'broken orcish talisman' random loot artifact (worth 6 gold)
* Added 'fake orcish talisman' random loot artifact (worth 3 gold)
* Added 'ancient orcish talisman' random loot artifact (worth 125 gold)
* Added 'mysterious rainbow coloured coin' random loot artifact (worth 150 gold)
* Added 'crown of interlaced severed fingers' random loot artifact (worth 70 gold)
* Added 'statue of a goblin head made of goblin dung' random loot artifact (worth 5 gold)
* Added 'jar of gnome poo' random loot artifact (worth 4 gold)
* Added 'diamond claw' random loot artifact (worth 350 gold)
* Added 'green emerald claw' random loot artifact (worth 150 gold)
* Added 'blue sapphire claw' random loot artifact (worth 140 gold)
* Added 'topaz claw' random loot artifact (worth 130 gold)
* Added 'yellow amber claw' random loot artifact (worth 120 gold)
* Added 'green malachite claw' random loot artifact (worth 100 gold)
* Added 'red opal claw' random loot artifact (worth 90 gold)
* Added 'fire opal claw' random loot artifact (worth 115 gold)

CHAMPIONS RETURNED (4 features)

When you demoted champions from their positions running your fortresses for you they were gone forever, now if there is room for them they return as a champion and if not you are asked if you are sure you want to demote them as they'll be removed forever!

* Added demoting leader of Northwatch allows for them to be returned as a champion (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Added demoting leader of Restored North fort allows for them to be returned as champion (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Added demoting leader of Gorthmek allows for them to be returned as a champion (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Added demoting leader of Kullak allows for them to be returned as a champion (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)

KINGDOM NAMES (2 features)

When asking for a random kingdom name I felt most of the random ones weren't satisfactory, now there's a huge mix of cool names for your kingdom if you don't fancy Aslona!

* Added new system when asking for a random kingdom name at game start with 2/3 chance to pool from new list of kingdom names
* Added 512 new kingdom names 

INCREASED CIVILITY EVENT (4 features)

It's rare but theres always been 1 in 100 chance that a group with less than 3 civilisation level could gain 1 civ level in a special event, this event previously was a line of text in the end of turn report screen but now it has it's own pop up event so if it happens you don't miss it!

* Added new screen for when independent kingdom increases it's civility in random end of turn event
* Added special notification showing if they have increased to diplomatic and trade level
* Added special notification showing their strength bonus
* Made new sound effect for independent kingdom gaining civility (modelled a little after the monolith scene from 2001: a space odyssey)

MAJOR COMBAT FLAW (5 features)

Bay12 forum member EuchreJack pointed out that attacking minor bandits with mercenaries, even if the mercs lost any of the surviving minor bandits from the battle wouldn't return home. I checked this and found that it went way deeper and effected all factions and sometimes even non-merc attacks. The code involved would have been the same for years so this bug has existed for almost all of Warsims development and gone unnoticed. I always remember seeing situations where factions lost a bunch of troops post battle but I just assumed I'd not been paying attention and they'd been attacked by someone else in the meantime. Thanks EuchreJack for reporting it!

* Fixed minor bandit troop issue (credit EuchreJack)
* Fixed krut and erak troop issue (credit EuchreJack)
* Fixed bandit horde troop issue (credit EuchreJack)
* Fixed rebel troop issue (credit EuchreJack)
* Fixed independent kingdom issue (credit EuchreJack)

BUGFIXES (20 features)

* Fixed destroyed bandit group showing random troop graphic instead of their actual troop graphic
* Fixed darkdale kings having the sir title resulting in king sir whatever
* Fixed orc name 'Kashthullurtz' having broken character inside the name
* Fixed Darkdale fort graphic extra space breaking the graphic
* Fixed missing indicator you can tell jokes in Darkdale tavern
* Fixed two bandit spawn chance texts showing up by mistake
* Fixed sounds not resetting when paying fee to look at Karalds Trophy room in smallhaven
* Fixed sounds not resetting after laughing man of smallhaven
* Fixed demon summoning in Blackmarket has no screen
* Fixed songwood and wildwood partially explored not showing option to return to previous region
* Fixed bandit assimilation system cooldown not working
* Fixed 'yoi want us to be lapdogs' bandit rejection text bug
* Fixed mercs from north merc post forming gang even if north merc post is ruined (credit NotFox)
* Fixed extra line in capturing fort gorthmek gold
* Fixed no gold check when paying for peace with krut or erak (takes you to minus gold if you don't have it)
* Fixed fix up and lands text bug (credit TuGun Jr)
* Fixed peasants shown instead of soldiers on soldiers to knight training screen (credit u/YetiRoadBurger)
* Fixed mine sounds playing if you have sounds disabled (credit u/internetfunnyman1000)
* Fixed rubbing doomstone doesn't give gameover screen, just closes game (credit u/Dalajnikon)
* Fixed game starting with no minor bandits but new ones spawning blocking you from seeing them (credit Omer)

EVERYTHING ELSE (7 features)

* Added new indicator of how many jokes attempts you have left in Darkdale taverns
* Added sound effect to smallhaven recruitment screen
* Added new indicators of gold lost for demon house in Blackmarket
* Reworked capturing fort gorthmek text
* Reworked game stats screen a bit
* Removed irrelevant bandit id code
* Reworked game over screen with missing line and colour

SCREENSHOTS

WHAT'S NEXT

I'm aiming to take a look at mercenaries and identify some possible improvements and changes as well as still clearing through a small backlog of bugreports and issues from players.

Cheers

Huw