Hey everyone,

So another week of successful clearing through big backlogs as well as some more playtesting myself to find bugs and areas to improve. This update has many different improvements all around and lots of new features that I hope you all enjoy!

NEW WAY OF DOING DIFFICULTY (4 features)

Well it's actually the old way, before a background difficulty scale was added that made enemies recruit more and generally be stronger and larger the difficulty used to pretty much soley mean what your starting resources were and nothing more. On the suggestion of u/Ubercharge1 from our reddit community I've added new game difficulty choices for playing default difficulty but with the starting resources of each choice.

* Added new debug mode 23 - Normal mode resources but increased background difficulty off (credit u/Ubercharge1)
* Added new debug mode 24 - Hard mode resources but increased background difficulty off (credit u/Ubercharge1)
* Added new debug mode 25 - Solid mode resources but increased background difficulty off (credit u/Ubercharge1)
* Added new debug mode 26 - Insane mode resources but increased background difficulty off (credit u/Ubercharge1)

SLAVES RISE UP (2 features)

This has been suggested multiple times by people who wanted to start the game as a freer-of-slaves, well now you can. Choosing this origin starts you off destroying the slavers fort and leading your ex-slave army to forming a kingdom!

* Added new kingdom origin start 'Slaver revolt' Start with destroyed slaver fort, ex-slave freed army, +10 public opinion (credit Multiple suggesters)
* Added chance of slaver revolt kingdom origin when you choose random origin

THINK OF THE CHILDREN (24 features)

No matter how many children you drop out of trap doors, there are always more who visit your throne room asking for money. No matter how many you give money to the odds of more coming is low. Now there will be a background tracker keeping a note of this, if you are horrible to young folk visiting your throne room you will find a lot less of them or maybe never see them. Treat them well and more and more will come!

* Added youth relation figure tracking your background relation to the youth in throne room encounters
* Added having 75+ youth relation grants 4% bonus in throne room visitors
* Added having 50+ youth relation grants 3% bonus in throne room visitors
* Added having 25+ youth relation grants 2% bonus in throne room visitors
* Added having 0+ youth relation grants 1% bonus in throne room visitors
* Added having -25+ youth relation grants 1% drop in throne room visitors
* Added having -50+ youth relation grants 2% drop in throne room visitors
* Added having -75+ youth relation grants 3% drop in throne room visitors
* Added having lower than 75 youth relation grants 4% drop in throne room visitors
* Fixed text bug in young boy eats coin and chokes encounter
* Added -2 youth relation for young boy death in throne room encounter
* Added +1 youth relation for giving young boy a coin
* Added -1 youth relation for having no gold to give
* Added -10 youth relation for throwing young boy through trap door
* Added -5 youth relation for arresting young boy
* Added -1 youth relation for refusing to give gold to young boy
* Added +3 youth relation for giving young boy who asks for a single coin ten coins
* Added +6 youth relation for giving young boy who asks for a single coin 100 coins
* Made boy gives coin throne room encounter much more common if youth relation is high
* Made boy gives coin throne room encounter much less common if youth relation is low
* Fixed boy gives coin throne room encounter text bug
* Added -2 youth relation for snatching coin from boy and kicking him out
* Added paying Blackmarket pickpocket gang a coin each to disband gives +5 youth relation
* Added paying Blackmarket pickpocket gang 10 coins each to disband gives +10 youth relation

MERCENARY CONVERTS IMPROVED (5 features)

Defender pointed out that the ability to freely convert your 100 battlescore troops to be members of merc groups with 190 battlescore units is a little exploity, now I've added a system to at least provide some growing costs depending on how advanced the merc units are.

* Added new system of paying to convert soldiers into merc groups with much more powerful units (credit Defender)
* Merc groups with higher than 200 battlescore units cost 6 gold per unit to convert (credit Defender)
* Merc groups with higher than 150 battlescore units cost 4 gold per unit to convert (credit Defender)
* Merc groups with higher than 100 battlescore units cost 2 gold per unit to convert (credit Defender)
* Added marching sound effect when converting troops into mercenary company units

EXPLORATION ENCOUNTERS EXPANDED (4 features)

Omer suggested some new encounters when you explore the realm, finding a random hero or monster if you have a monster fight pit, thanks Omer!

* Added new exploration encounter of finding a lost champion who is willing to join you (credit Omer from Audiogames)
* Added sleeping monster explore encounter (credit Omer from Audiogames)
* Added trapped monster dead trappers explore encounter (credit Omer from Audiogames)
* Added docile monster explore encounter (credit Omer from Audiogames)

DRUNKEN CAT PETTING CONSEQUENCE (9 features)

In Darkdale there's a cat tavern, you can get drunk and pet cats. But logically the drunker you get the more likely you would be to irritate those cats. Well now it's a feature!

* Added being a bit drunk or more and trying to pet cats in the Darkdale Cat tavern has 1/3 chance of negative outcome (credit Defender)
* Added being very drunk or more and trying to pet cats in the Darkdale Cat tavern has 1/2 chance of negative outcome (credit Defender)
* Added irritated cat outcome with screen and sfx
* Added accidental poke cat outcome with screen and sfx
* Added slip and grab fur cat outcome with screen and sfx
* Added cat licks booze cat outcome with screen and sfx
* Added Catyr interaction over grab fur outcome
* Added Catyr interaction over accidental poke outcome
* Added if you get to drunk level Hammered or higher, Catyr the beautiful looks ugly

WHAT DO YOU DO? (9 features)

You now get a much more dynamic and helpful response when asking your diplomat what he can do, it will also show the nearest skill increase that can be gained.

* Added new extra screen when asking diplomat what he does (credit Defender)
* Added screen for having less than 50 diplomat score (with indicator of nearest skill upgrade)
* Added screen for having less than 75 diplomat score (with indicator of nearest skill upgrade)
* Added screen for having less than 100 diplomat score (with indicator of nearest skill upgrade)
* Added screen for having less than 150 diplomat score (with indicator of nearest skill upgrade)
* Added screen for having less than 200 diplomat score (with indicator of nearest skill upgrade)
* Added screen for having more than 200 diplomat score
* Reworked all 5 screens for asking spymaster what he can do
* Fixed demon spying ability mentioned by spymaster even if demons are dead

WHY THE RED FACE? (20 features)

If you play as a demonic ruler then all your advisors get a demonic red skin, however it seems this was only half implemented as many screens the skin colour reverted to normal. Thanks cultivahabas for letting me know about this one, now it's all patched!

* Fixed asking demonic diplomat to show kingdom relations changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed asking demonic diplomat what he does changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed asking demonic diplomat for advice changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed firing demonic diplomat changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed firing demonic spymaster changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed asking spymaster what he does doesn't have it's own screen
* Fixed firing demonic jester changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed firing demonic general changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed asking demonic steward what he does changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed firing demonic steward changes his colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed playing sudden death with demonic games master changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed asking about the rules of sudden death to demonic games master changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed playing coin flip game with demonic games master changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed firing demonic games master changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed playing rock paper scissors with demonic games master changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed playing caverns and cave trolls with demonic games master changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed firing demonic bard changes his skin colour (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed demonic general game intro skin colour not correctly set (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed demonic advisor tutorial rejection screen skin colour not correctly set (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed demonic advisor tutorial screens skin colour not correctly set (credit cultivahabas)

GAMBLING DEN IMPROVEMENTS (3 features)

There are definitely a bunch more improvements to be made here, but I've made a start and now added a special event that happens if you clear the den out of it's gold.

* Added new screen where gambling den applauds you if you can clear it out of it's gold
* Added new screen and sfx for gambling den shutting down due to having no gold
* Fixed Blackmarket guess the dice text broken

BUGFIXES (29 features)

A pile of bugs big enough to scare an ant-eater here... At least they are sorted now!

* Fixed text colour bug with old stone event
* Fixed text colour bug with old stone destruction screen
* Fixed mercenary companies cannot fight the undead
* Fixed 2 text bugs in not having enough goblin berserkers conversion screen
* FiXed 2 text bugs in not having gold to convert goblin berserkers screen
* Fixed issue with goblin berserker conversion incorrectly telling you that you don't have enough berserkers to convert (credit Matt1211)
* Fixed sacrificing peasants at demon totems changes totem text to show them destroyed (credit cultivahabas)
* Fixed mislabelled Blackmarket attack option
* Fixed 30 Blackmarket banners text bugs
* Fixed 2 ruined Blackmarket Banners text bugs
* Fixed 4 incorrectly sized Blackmarket banners
* Fixed text bug in can't afford invasion cost merc hire screen
* Fixed jesters son referring to the player as << YourLord <<
* Fixed 2 text bugs in monster fight victory screens
* Fixed text bug in bandits of the realm how to reduce bandit level text screen
* Fixed 3 text bugs in attacking independent kingdoms
* Fixed 3 text bugs in attacking bandit groups
* Fixed text bug in 'Miners fell into a chasm' Shallowrock throne room encounter
* Fixed 5 text bugs in 'Miners tried to rob you' Shallowrock throne room encounter 
* Fixed 2 text bugs in 'Miners discover chaos orbs' Shallowrock throne room encounter
* Fixed no gold indicator shown on throne room bard encore screen
* Fixed no gold indicator shown on bard asking for gold to play throne room screen
* Fixed 4 text bugs in Clan Thickblood Blade screens
* Fixed no gold indicator on fort ruin in Near north with rebuild option
* Fixed 6 text bugs in silver tongue throne room failure screens
* Fixed 6 text bugs in silver tongue throne room success screens
* Fixed text bug with goblin tribe throne room encounter
* Fixed incorrectly laid out indicators of gained goblin troops in goblin tribe joiner throne room encounter
* Fixed champion joiner extra line bug

EVERYTHING ELSE (8 features)

Plenty of good stuff here, now when Phenor rejects your peace it's way better, undead summoning event is improved, Blackmarket ruler statue is improved, and some great suggestions by Caccio, Defender, and Molovian!

* Added gold sound to paying silver tongue in throne room
* Reworked peace rejection from bandit horde screen
* Reworked Blackmarket leader statue to show if it was erected by the last Blackmarket ruler before you conquered the place
* Reworked undead summoning event to have new screen and sfx
* Reworked buying maps from cartographers guild options to clearly explain you are unlocking the region and not a single location (credit Caccio72 from audiogames)
* Added new indicator of total music relation when it changes (credit Molovian)
* Added background sound to smallhaven (credit Defender)
* Added special event where if rebel forces are dead but rebels still have lands they collapse at the end of the turn and flee into exile (credit DazaKiwi)

SCREENSHOTS

WHAT'S NEXT

Once again I've made great progress clearing through my backlogs. Still plenty more stuff to come before it's fully cleared though!

Cheers

Huw