Last Alliance: TW - Merchants and Tribes Update Released! news

This is full version, you don't need previous version to play, but you don't have to remove previous version (e.g. if you want finish your started campaign). Don't run files from different version together!

If you have problems with mod, check firstly Installation Guide, Known bugs list and FAQ, links below.

Mod should be stable, but sometimes isn't. So I suggest to saving game often (and don't replace saves of course).

As I announced, this update is a preparation for the next major update (0.3.0), but this does not mean that it is a small update. On the contrary, in some ways the update contains more changes than I had planned. Thanks to Luiza Aris and Jawor for helping me plan all the changes ❤️
So let's take a look at what the new patch offers. If you want to support the project, check out my Patreon and my Ko-fi profile ^^

For some, the most important news will probably be that Dwarves have finally entered the battlefield! For now in the form of a small expedition (4 units), they are available for recruitment to the Elves and Númenorean Faithful in certain provinces in Eriador. They are also available to these factions in multiplayer battles.

Additionally, Orcs have received new units: a unit of Warg Riders (so they don't have to use Haradrim Riders anymore) and three local units (two from Lithlad and one from High Pass).

In addition, the battle balance has been extensively overhauled. Most significantly for the Haradrim, who are no longer as weak against other factions as before and can face them also in multiplayer battles. By the way, on our Discord server I posted suggested rules for multiplayer battles in Last Alliance ^^.

However, the campaign layer received the most changes, which in some aspects was added from scratch. In previous versions of the mod there was a notorious problem with building conversion system. I implemented it so that you could convert buildings belonging to other cultures to your own. However, it was an unreadable and confusing system for the players, and the AI had trouble using it, which caused the AI faction to become very weak after occupying areas outside of their own culture. For about a week, with literally almost no rest, I worked on reworking this system to make it simultaneously readable, AI-friendly and crash-free. However, the Shogun engine is capricious and in the end all attempts proved fruitless.

So I decided to remove all the building chains and add them from scratch. Now most of the buildings are common to all factions which will make the gameplay smoother. There are still a few exceptions though (e.g. Military Academy which is only available for Numenor, and Furnace which is available for Orcs and in the future for Dwarves). As a result, the effects of individual building types have also been reworked, which will probably still be improved later.

A side effect of this change is that I had to remove buildings from the technology trees. Instead, technologies give more faction bonuses and access to units. Additionally, I've made changes for the AI in terms of construction management. It should be better... I hope so ^^

You can find the exact changelog in the link above. Next update will most probably bring another map expansion and at least one dwarven faction ^^ You can also expect additional content for orcs, but I don't know when yet.