Patch notes for version EA 0.9.9 – July 9th, 2020

Build number: 604079

Hi all!

Before we can jump into our patch notes, here’s an important information, particularly for players who are playing multiplayer:

IMPORTANT: With EA 0.9.9 we updated the backend for the multiplayer mode of the game. The change to the new system should provide more stability than the previous one we used. That said, it’s really important that you update the game to the latest version in order to see lobbies of players already playing with the EA 0.9.9 version. For now, we’ll also keep the old backend online but will soon turn it off.

Get your name in game – follow this link!

It has been a while since patch EA 0.9.8 but rest assured, we have been very very busy getting our latest patch to the level of today. Let’s talk about what’s actually inside. Well, as you may have already read in one of our development diaries, we have been working on a completely new feature for the game: Dialogues. With the new version, you will be able to play the first iteration of the feature and content. In parallel, we were also working on integrating a new multiplayer library for the backend and some other changes to markets and the economy. If you are interested in the details, please check out our patch notes below.

New features

With the new version, citizens will engage in conversations with each other. They will chit chat with each other about all kinds of topics. Some of those conversations reveal how the citizens think of events happening in the game. In order to not cluster your screen, we introduced a level of detail for speech bubbles. If your camera is far away, you’ll only see a speech bubble icon. When you get closer, you will see the actual dialogue. As you may come “late” to an actual conversation, all the speech bubbles will be shown on the screen in chronological order. If a speech bubble gets too close to the border of your screen, it will get transparent.
You will also be able to actively engage in conversations by using certain actions (eg. romancing). Some conversations require you to select a dialogue line. To do so, an icon is shown above your character. Click on the icon in order to open the dialogue line options. Each option can be linked with one of your character’s attributes. Choose wisely what you select as your selection may be disliked by your conversation partner and therefore end in a failure of the action itself. Depending on the result, you’ll receive either a reward or a penalty.
You will also encounter NPCs on the map who would like to discuss a matter with your character. Those NPCs are showing an exclamation mark on top of them. To engage in a conversation with a NPC that wants to talk, select one of your characters and right click on the according NPC. If your character reaches the NPC in time, a conversation will be started.
Whenever you have to select a dialogue line, you will also receive a notification just in case you are somewhere else with your game camera.
We also added so-called “Point-of-interest-shout-outs”. NPCs will react to certain events like somebody is begging, fighting, boasting etc. What they are actually saying will depend on their social status, so expect some funny reactions.
With the new market UI, we realized that we also need to do a pass on what item categories we are actually providing. To simplify the way of understanding which item fulfills which need, we updated the item categories and needs in a way that they both represent the different item categories and needs at the same time.
In our last version we introduced the needs graphs to the market UI. With EA 0.9.9 we improved that UI. From now on the need graphs are shown per round and not per year.
Another adaptation we made to the market UI is that you will now see all markets in the markets list on the right side of the UI. You can also select different markets from the top pull down menu or cycle through them using the arrow button.
Since a while now, NPCs are buying from markets and front stores, but they were never really equipping an item they purchased. We implemented that now. So don’t be surprised if you see somebody passing by your character with a walking stick.
With EA 0.9.9 the surnames of dynasty members and other important characters are shown in the 3d world and in other UI elements, like the office tree. So when you see a character with his or her full name displayed, you can be certain that he or she is important!

Content & Balancing

All maps, except Vienna, have been updated to the new economy system, based on your feedback in the survey.
We extended our logging system for the AI in order to have an easier time evaluating the AI’s behavior and how to improve it.
The build times for resource provider items have been doubled in order to avoid overflowing markets.
The fulfillment of needs now affects the growth or shrink of a city’s population. The more needs are fulfilled the more the population of a certain social group will grow. If needs aren’t fulfilled the population of a group will shrink.

Art

We further optimized and improved materials on characters and props (focus on metal).
Mine, lumberyard and quarry now have a first version of work animations plus sounds.
Magdeburg: due to the closing of the bridge north-east of the village of Olvenstedt, the brushwood was not accessible anymore. So we moved the brushwood to the other side of the river.
We added more idle animations to workers who are idling in their production building.

Bug fixes

Fixed several crash bugs related to various topics.
Fixed crash that could occur if a character was to be thrown into jail but no valid path to the city was found.
Fixed a bug that caused the spouse to not appear in church during the ceremony…
Fixed a bug that caused automated employees to not resume their current task after being attacked.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to show the wrong reward information upon successfully breaking into a building.
Fixed a bug (MP only) that caused a trade mission to be successful even if the character dies of old age during the journey.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to force the player to finish all trade missions in order to unlock any far-trade market.
Several bugs related to storage rules and master AI have been fixed, especially for the warehouse, robber camp and some other businesses. Thanks to these fixes, the warehouses should work better now.
Fixed a bug that caused warehouse transporters to buy items for the warehouse.
Fixed a bug that caused warehouse transporters of rogue families to not get a route assigned upon being hired.
Fixed a bug that caused resource provider buildings to have multiple stacks of the same item in their frontstore at the beginning of a game.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to deduct the influence costs twice when applying for an office position.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to show the gallows (execution) icon if the player opens 2 verdict windows after another and the first one has had the execution sentence as an option and the second did not.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to mess up the slot reservation system in production buildings.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to show workers working even after their shift has ended.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to show the family members on the wrong side during a dynastic trade.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to not show the dynasty flag on the butchery building.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to not show animated workers and market stand people in multiplayer games.
Fixed several bugs in multiplayer games related to host migration.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to prevent a disconnected client from rejoining an active multiplayer game.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to not show the city guard circles on the client in multiplayer games.
Fixed a bug that prevented players from buying items at far-trade markets in multiplayer.
Fixed a bug that caused the game to have problems starting up after a second monitor has been connected with the computer.

Known issues

The likelihood of getting infected with diseases is currently very low. We’ll balance that with the next patch.

Important information

The game does not display/load save games from outdated patch versions as they have become incompatible due to the rework of core systems.
If you are experiencing difficulties with loading and saving the game, you may attempt to delete all files from the folder “%userprofile%\Saved Games\Guild3” (C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Saved Games\Guild3).
Multiplayer: If you have a restrictive firewall then you may have to manually open the following outgoing ports to be able to play in multiplayer: 61111 TCP & UDP, 36895 TCP & UDP, 36975 TCP & UDP. You can find this information as well in the FAQs Multiplayer on our webpage!
It is quite possible that some problems that you have in your game are caused by missing or corrupted files. In this case, the following might help:

STEAM -> right-click on “The Guild 3” in your Steam library, then Properties – LOCAL FILES – VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES…
GOG -> right-click on “The Guild 3” in your library, then Properties – “More” – Manage Installation – VERIFY/REPAIR

If you still have issues afterwards, then we recommend to uninstall the game and then manually delete the folder “%localappdata%\Guild3” (C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Guild3). Then re-install the game.
Crash dumps for bug reports can be found in “%localappdata%\Guild3\sentry\reports” (C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Guild3\sentry\reports) per default.
Join our official Discord server (https://discord.gg/CGnN2Vb) where you can meet us (that is, when we take a break from developing games) and other players to chat about the game.

What we are planning for the next patch

We are currently working on improving the AI and also on a pretty big overhaul of the production system and UI. This, plus multiplayer performance improvements can be expected to land with our next big patch.

A short outlook…

In the near future, we’ll start working on the renting of resource provider feature. Also, we’ll double down on the overall balancing of the game.

**********

We value your feedback!

If you have the time, we would appreciate it if you could fill out a short survey regarding the changes we made in patch EA 0.9.9: https://forms.gle/PZn8tNtW1JaqHiEDA
Please note: we do not collect any personal information other than your feedback – you will remain completely anonymous. This survey will end the day we release the next patch.