A new version of World of Vasnar is available for download. Not all I wanted is included (hence the 0.99 instead of 1.0) but I think people have waited long enough for a new release so here it is.
Notable additions of this versions are a new faction, map redisgn, an expanded questline and a rework for the Strumheif troop trees.
General Changelog:
Map Changes:
-Whole map has been recreated from scratch to include the faction of Proekylov. The new map keeps the general feeling of the old one with some minor changes here and there;
-Changed models for steppe trees on the main map;
-Bandit Hideouts should now correctly spawn;
-New location: Altar of the Deep, located in Strumheif territory. Here you can hire cultist units and Strumheif specific items and weapons;
-New location: Vodrak Keep, allowing recruitment of the new Vodrak Vampires. Location is hidden by default but always visible to those who start as Vodraks.
-Added new castles, towns and villages for the faction and a couple ones for existing ones.
Faction and Unit Changes:
-New faction, the Realm of Proekylov. Includes 2 troops trees, a commoner one available from towns and villages composed of 11 troops, and a noble one available from castles, including 4 troops. Also posses 2 new AOR Units: Proekylovian Kingsguard and Styrrin Rayters.
"Proekylovian Armor"
Strumheif Enlcaves;
-Major rework of their troop trees. Previously the Strumheif Enclaves were the weakest faction on the battlefield capable of losing even when vastly outnumbering their enemies. These changes aim to correct that:
-More shields and slighly higher stats for vampire units;
-Strumheif Syrens changed to summoners;
-Manor troop are better armored and have new equipment. Switched pike line for gunners, added a new unit armed with poleaxes.
-Commoner troop trees has slightly better armor, added the cultists of the deep, 4 units of mixed spearmen/archers including a new cavalry unit.
-Gargoyles added to some of their armies (Can be hired by players from the Sticher's Guild)
"New Strumheif Manor Guards"
Union of Ebenhof:
-Slight updates to the faithful units;
-Changed model for Witch Hunter Apprentices Armor;
-New look for the Ebenhof Sentinels AOR units, who now have much better armor;
-New Armor for the faction lord.
Archduchy of Weldhauf:
-Changed model for the Knight of the Lion chestplate.
Church of the Three:
-New AOR unit, Paladins of Heaven's Peak, recruited by the faction pretender;
-Cathedral Guards have new halberds and can now spawn with helmets instead of just hats;
-Changes to the Geistcallers: split into 3 units: novices who summon warriors and can upgrade to either a version that summons archers of mounted paladins.
Vampire Houses:
-Gargoyles added to some of their armies (Can be hired by players from the Sticher's Guild)
-Slight general changes to other faction troops;
-Changed Mercenary Pikeman armor;
-New hostile parties: Vodrak Vampires and Drowned Maidens. Allied to vampire players.
Character Creation:
-Added new starting options related to the new faction, including a new vampire bloodline, House Vodrak;
-Enabled 2 new hairstyles for females which were previously unused;
-Various small tweaks and changes to existing starting options;
-Increased Hiring Price for the Ghoulcallers.
Quests:
-Major overhaul to the Orimius White questline, overhauling the second quest and adding 2 new ones. Quest can still be started in Herengest at any time;
-Small changes to Cleric Donnel's quest;
-Due to their tendecy to wander around, Custom quest armies are now always visible to players so they can keep track of them and don't have to wander around for hours in the search.
Other Changes:
-Alchemist Rifles and Geistflame Ammunition can now be purchased from the Sticher's guild;
-Rare Weapons Merchant renamed to Rare Item Merchant. Sells hard to find armor, weapons and horses, including unique king/lord equipment;
-After many requets added some ingame lore pages. Can be consulted from the notes menu. (Note, me being not a native english speakeer means these are assured to be filled with spelling errors. Please report any you find);
-Some new models for certain magic items;
-Ability to change kingdom culture by speaking with the minister;
-Added a couple new music tracks;
-Fixed many bugged villages and castles;-Many other changes, tweaks and bug fixes I now cannot remember.
Currently Known bugs:
-In the destroy hideout quest, sometimes it might bug and instead of stating the bandit type, lords will say that a group of players have established an hideout in the area, locking the conversation. I'm still investigating on this, for now just be sure to save before asking kings for quests;
-Certain parties follow the player even when vastly outnumbered. Still investigating on the issue, could not replicate for now.
Regarding Black Textures/crashes.
While watching my beta testers play I noticed a frequent occurance of black textures and runtime errors (things reported in the past and due to the mod heavy size combined with warband limited memory) However while playing on my own these occured very rarely even after long battles and sieges.
So, depending on your setup, settings, phases of the moon, etc... the mod stability will change and you might be able to player four hours with little issues or have runtime errors every ten minutes and there is unfortunately very little I can do now.
All I can suggest is to decrease texture quality, turn down hdr and other settings. Enabling single threading might work as well.
The optimization method I attempted resulted in making the situation much worse and I had to quickly revert to an older version of the mod so if your previous version of the mod was running fine, this new one should as well.
I will try optimizing again in the future, once I have a clear mind.
Closing notes:
Another questlines was planned for this updated but unfortunately it has been cut for now as I was never satisfied with it. Most likely it will come in next patch which however might not come for a while.
I have been pretty burned out working on Vasnar and while I will certanly not abandon it, development will slow down as I will try to focus on another project which I wanted to try. Since I have no idea if this "new" idea will ever take form, I'll avoid mentioning what it is until I am sure I can release it as to not create false hype.
Thank you for all those who supported this project and as always please if you have bugs, suggestions or comments feel free to share them in the mod page comment section.
