Alpha 5 patch 9 hotfix 43

Had to do some really boring work on code refactoring, especially for livestock management which has been a fertile ground for various kinds of bugs for quite a long time. But as I said earlier the main priority is to release a final version of the game, so polishing the fundamentals is just as important as adding new major features. Meanwhile some new features did slip in as a side effect of said refactoring.

Added/changed:

  • New fences will now replace previous ones if built over (no overlap)
  • Default animal feed stock values are now proportional to livestock size and consumption
  • Trade boats will now fold their sails while moored

  • Trade boats will now lower their mast to pass under a bridge

  • Stable can now have dedicated pasture

  • Horses can now also graze on a field
  • Horses now require both grain and hay (or grass) for optimal health
  • Stables/saltworks/wagon sheds in old saves will get certain amount of grain and hay for free if needed for transition to new mechanics
  • Stable now has “Livestock limit” slider
  • Can now change a field to fallow even if not all harvest stooks gathered yet
  • Animals with lower health produce less resources when slaughtered
  • Oxen in ploughs can now be combined if two ploughs with only one ox
  • Now visualizing connection to linked building on warehouses and cart parkings
  • Animals now have health property which depends on feed quality

  • Livestock buildings now have feed rationing setting for emergencies

  • Draft animals with lower health move slower
  • Milk and wool production also depends on animal health now
  • Updated help pages for buildings with new features
  • Added a notification if grass quality is low around a dryer
  • Added an option to allow forestry workers to plant trees
  • Added a notification on a wagon shed and farm if a draft animal replacement is needed
  • Clicking on wagon/boat/plough icon will now focus on it
  • Added a health bar for plough and wagon animals
  • If ploughing skipped on a field, but a plough arrived to farm, the field will now switch back to plouging if possible
  • Clicking on ordered cart/plough/etc. will focus on a building where it’s being built
  • Now the “Next” button in fields works even if ploughing started
  • Now showing notification if there’s no available cart to supply resources

  • A few slight optimizations

Fixed:

  • It was possible to remove fences from building by demolishing an adjacent building (only fixed for new builds)
  • Windmill didn’t function properly
  • Animals didn’t consume water when on pasture
  • Livestock feed consumption could depend on game speed and fps
  • Potentially fixed all the weird behaviors related to slaughtering and relocation of animals
  • Slaughtering from saltworks produced twice the amount of resources
  • Another case of wrongfully blocked buildings
  • Some UI overflow conditions
  • An incest loophole for widows and widowers
  • Bad performance when forestry is selected (on some machines)
  • Ploughing visuals were lagging behind the plough in some fields
  • Cowshed or stable manager could take the last animal required for breeding
  • Boatyard could show inaccessible orders in total count
  • “Optimize bulls livestock” could misbehave sometimes
  • Rowhouse lods didn’t have color variation