Upcoming version 1.05 Surprise, surprise. Decisions, decisions news

Hi people!

I can tell you that I work extremely hard on preparing patch and fixes for all bugs. There are several things that will be improved. I will try not to add new features, but to actually make work features that were in the mod, but didn't work properly.

For starters: FACTION TROOP TREES. Yes! I made it!

Thanks to Rubik's Forums.taleworlds.com [OSP][code] Perfect troop tree presentation Paradigm Worlds will have working perfectly Troop Trees.

This is one of the best things I've seen: all upgrades, links, idea behind composition of each faction in one place. Players will have better info, that's great.

Absolutely amazing is that this code is able to track every link, in every faction. You will even see your own custom troops tree.

That's huge improvement and I can only say how grateful I am for making this code osp, open for modders.

However I am in the middle of severe changes to the code so I can't upload new version. Not yet.

There is more:

- In the Faction Editor changing factions culture (reinforcements) will also affect lords. They will change their gear (armours and weapons) to fit in new culture. This is something I actually work on. I hope that it will improve Faction Editor immersion. So if faction will change itself to undead then all lords will thow out their old gear and will equip some of best quality stuff that new culture has to offer.

- Divided menu for scenario and player roles. What does it mean? Previously player could choose between playing as musketeer in 'Vanilla' scenario or play just New Scenario, with predefined classic start.

Now you will be able separately choose scenario (and I have a few good ideas for future stories), and additionally choose to play as given musketeer or let's say Cultist Leader, or Scoiatael Commander. This, I hope, will improve diversity.

- Weather system. For too long Paradigm Worlds were place without rain and ice storm. Clouds and fog will have impact on battlefield. Weather system is another thing I am working on. Weather will change accordingly to terrain (snow, steppe, forest etc.) and actual season. Yes. 12 month a years, 3 month season. Spring, summer, autumn and winter. However, I am not adding anything huge, like 3rd party osp mod. Just nice visual and tactical improvement in the game.

- using skills - there are several skills like tracking or tactics that we could say didn't really matter. I work on improving also that part. There is no more Tactics, now there is Warfare. It will have big impact on auto-tactics, paragraph running away (when you choose to sacrifice troops and try to run away), also it affects troop wages. Whenever less important skill is checked I tried to make this effect much stronger. I will try to add few nice thing, like special bonuses for having that skill. Detailed description will be given with version changelog.

- I can assure you that most common bugs, that have been reported are FIXED. I responded to almoust every comment from players to personally assure that I see what's wrong. Unwanted messages, Tournament CTD's - this is all done.

However, and here are bad news, new version will not be savegame compactible. I try to track each change so I can upload only small patch, this time it is impossible. Several modules, brf's - 3d object files and such were changed. Order, some names, and several new scripts. This is all done optimizing the game. Of course changes to the map, also need a new game. Some people reported issues with unpacking file so anyway I wanna prepare while new folder for mod. The good news is that after that I can give you quite a long time without any severe changes. So from that version game will be not only more stable, cleaner, more logic, but also more immersive and savegame compactible. Sounds like vacuum cleaner ad?

As you see, my friends, I tried not to add anything new, like new troops or items. Actually, I think that what should be done for now is rather... cleaning. With diversity of weapons, armours and other items came also moderate (or huge from other perspective) chaos. Yes. Is that a price that we have to pay for enourmous amounts of items? Maybe not.

I am thinking about... Let's name it OPTION ZERO. Changing stat of every item in the game, to make whole system more stable. To make armours with stats that are more similar to each other, closer to vanilla look. However it is important that vanilla had a lot less items, so they didn't look same to often. With quadrillions of different swords making their stats more normal, could be just boring. For play. Of course we can assume that let's say speed of any 1-handed weapon cannot be higher than 120.

I thought about lowering damage of all the weapons. So battles would last little longer. So the battlefield would not be so deadly. But, in the Paradigm Worlds battles aren't rare. Sometime, specially in mid and late game parties are huge and battles will last very long. They are even tiring to player, why would I make them even longer?

As you can clearly see the mod is in the stage, where even smallest change will bring a butterfly effect. Changes like I have suggested may have tragic impact on whole mod. For now, balance between bows, guns, throwing items, plasma guns etc. maybe isn't ideal. Of course the biggest difference is between XVII century firelock weaponry and morlokian 'red army' XX-century firearms. But things like that happened also in our world not so long ago. I am thinking about Mahdi rebellion, and Kitchener ultimately deadly response due too technological difference.

Don't worry I am not gonna do this big change to mod soon. First I want to add this missing features like troop trees. Then I will add new scenario (and I can assure you that IT WILL BE ANOTHER GAMECHANGER) and we will see what we have.

So these are doubts of developer. I wanted to show you some of inside mod, so you could tell me what do you think about those ideas?