Today marks the release of Wards & Wardens, and we hope you'll have plenty of fun wrangling unruly young rulers-to-be, managing your royal hostages, and visiting scholarly universities in the pursuit of knowledge! As always, we want to keep updating and improving the game alongside each release - this time we've especially honed in on multiplayer stability, something that was unfortunately lacking after the last update. We've spent a lot of time hunting down annoying out-of-syncs, and we've managed to squash all of them that we could find - bar one that'll be fixed in an upcoming update (but it's fortunately avoidable; don't select Pay Homage/Petition Liege and cancel it before setting out on travel!) Another change of note is that the AI will now purchase and manage Men-at-Arms more dynamically, especially later in the game - instead of all AIs wanting the exact same ratio of income-to-MaA. Warmonger Archetypes, powerful rulers, and strong mid-to-late-game economies will want to spend significantly more on having a powerful army, while Builder Archetypes make for excellent targets for conquests as they tend to favor buildings! Without further ado, here is the full changelog:

Expansion Features

• Over one hundred new events and event chains expanding upon childhood, guardianship, education, and more - both for young lords, parents, and knowledge-hungry rulers! Many game systems, both new and old, now have unique events and content to really strike home how it actually was to grow up during the middle ages!
  • Enjoy a more lively Childhood with a host of new events for both young rulers and parents, and see the choices made early in life echo far into adulthood!
  • New events for Courtly Education let you both educate and be educated in new and interesting ways, where young rulers can be led down a path of eccentricity!
  • Hostages at court will mingle with your own children, be homesick, get into trouble, or even give you opportunities for both lasting friendships and gaining a new type of Perpetual Hook!
  • Employing a Wet Nurse will aid the development of your heirs and increase the well-being of children at court, alongside a healthy dose of courtly drama!
  • slew of new events for Childhood Regencies sees a benevolent regent aid you as a young ruler by teaching you skills, giving you gifts, or stabilizing your realm - just beware less-than-scrupulous regents!
  • New events for the Meet Peers activity; play ball with your fellow children, hone your skills, or get up to hijinx!
  • Experience several rare story cycles which can see your young ruler aspire to become one of the greatest builders of all time, pursue a nebulous but enticing destiny, meet new friends of esoteric provenance, reform your realm in the image of former wardens, and more!
• New interactions and decisions allow you to take a more hands-on approach to the task of child-rearing!
  • Attempt to directly influence the Personality Traits of your Wards via a new interaction
  • Have your children pass through Coming of Age-trials in Tribal realms.
• As a ruler with a less-than-ideal education you will now want to visit Universities! This new Activity sees you travel to any holding with a University or Cathedral in search of higher studies.
  • Spend gold on books, mingle with students and teachers, and either study hard or live like a Goliard!
  • Being studious will reward you with lifestyle perk points and the potential for upgrading your education - and if youve studied REALLY hard you could even reach the new fifth-tier education!
• New mood music to enhance your game regardless of where you play.

Free Features

• A new system for rulers giving or trading Hostages brings a new side of historical medieval politics to life - Hostages are powerful tools for ensuring peace, as they can be executed during wars to make your enemy suffer a great blow to their morale and stability. Hostages can be identified by a new portrait icon.
  • They can be demanded, exchanged, or even used to bargain beneficial peace deals during wars!
  • Having Hostages of notable status will reward you with both prestige and renown.
  • While hostages are most often children, theres no guarantee that their warden will send them back as they come of age after all, they are great bargaining chips!
• The new Perpetual Hook type lies in-between Weak and Strong Hooks, acting like a Weak hook that can be re-used every few years.
• A new Adoption interaction allows certain rulers to bring in new members to their family and dynasty. Characters with the Compassionate trait or of a culture. with certain Traditions can Adopt, but the restrictions can also be tightened or removed via a new Game Rule!
• A new Eccentric personality trait allows characters with it to develop their Lifestyles with ease at the cost of public perception, as their methods might be seen as erratic and odd! Several new event options have been added for the trait, and some of the more out there events have been updated to require this trait to fire.
• Added 6 new events to the Pet Cat story Cycle.

Balance

• Builder AI's are now less concerned with buying MaA than before, and are slower to purchase up to their ideal amount
• Cautious AI's want to spend slightly more on MaA and are very inclined to purchase up to their comfortable minimum level
• Genghis Khan now starts as an Exalted Warlord rather than a Brilliant Strategist
• Spouse-Regents can now do both jobs at the same time
• The later into the game, and the more gold the AI earns, the more they will want to spend on MaA (previously AI's would always aim for spending 40% of their income on MaA maintenance, they can now go as high as 90% with the correct circumstances fulfilled)
• Warlike AI's will now want to spend more on MaA in general, and are much more inclined to purchase MaA over buildings than other archetypes
• You can now get more than three events per Meet Peers, especially if you are the Host (up to 6)
• playdate.3008, the event where another child drowns in Meet Peers, is now only available to the players/the host, and is now on a 3-year cooldown rather than 3 months.
• The hook gained in the playdate.3008 event is now also a strong 'saved my life'-hook.
• All Abrahamic faiths are now able to restore Rome, not just Christians.
• Either Italia, HRE, or Byzantium will become the "real" Rome depending on which one is your primary title upon reforming Rome.
• The Sultanate of Rum can now be formed by either Muslims or Turkic heritage characters, but not Christians.

Interface

• Events unlocked by Friends & Foes and Wards & Wardens are now decorated with special visuals that show from which Event Pack they originate; this feature can be disabled in the settings.

Art

• Several new Animations have been added:
  • Happy Teacher
  • Stressed Teacher
  • Eccentric
  • Manic
  • Go to your room!
  • Playing Peekaboo
  • Crying (children only)
  • Clutching Ball
  • Clutching Doll
  • Stick Horse
  • 6x Weapon Animation Variants with Wooden Swords
• Added several new Event Background Illustrations:
  • Nursery
  • Western University
  • Arabic University
  • Western Inner Courtyard
  • An Indian Garden Variant
  • An Indian Study Variant
  • An Arabic Tavern Variant
• Added possible longsword artifact icon and model variation to swords of Late Medieval Western cultures.
• Added Toy sword, Training sword, Toy Doll, Stick Horse.
• Added Carolingian commoner clothes variants to the barbershop.
• Cloaks in general are now a bit more common for Western and Northern European characters.
• Cloaks will now sometimes be used together with armor.
• Elegance of the Empire cloaks will now be used roughly as much as the regular western royalty cloak.
• Fixed a bug where some consorts would use clothing far below their status, for example the Byzantine Basilissa in the 867 start date.
• For players with Northern Lords, Norse cloaks will now be used by more culture groups than just the Norse.
• Made it so that western royalty always wear cloaks.
• Northern Lords crowns are now also used by other Northern cultures.
• Improved skinning and blendshapes on male wrestling pants.

Game Content

• Wards and Guardians will now use the Travel system to go to their respective courts to receive tutelage.
• Most Meet Peers events have been rebalanced and updated to use new backgrounds and animations.
• Activity log entries have been added to the Meet Peers activity.
• Memories have been added for Accolades.
• Added the Saura faith, a sun-worshipping branch of Hinduism, and added the faith to some characters and counties in both start dates.
• Added new outcomes to the Sun Trial event chain, in order to facilitate its deaths if you manage to end up worshipping the sun in an area without much sun.
• Developing a Crush in childhood now creates a memory.

User Modding

• Weak hooks can now be perpetual and used multiple times
• Add can_embrace_tradition trigger
• Add data binding macro CalculateScriptValue to calculate the named script value with designated character as root scope.
• Add data binding macro GetScriptValueBreakdown to break down the named script value with designated character as root scope.
• Add x_lifestyle_xp_gain_mult modifier that stacks with monthly xp modifiers.
• Adds new trigger for checking if a culture has more discovered innovations than another culture in a specified era.
• All trait triggers and effects can now use a trait scope as well as a database key.
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_CHANCE_EXPENSE_BELOW_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_chance_expense_below_ideal
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_CHANCE_EXPENSE_BELOW_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_chance_expense_below_min
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_ideal
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_MAX with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_max
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_EXPENSE_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_gold_min
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_IDEAL with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_ideal
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_MAX with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_max
• Replaced define MEN_AT_ARMS_PRESTIGE_EXPENSE_MIN with script value ai_men_at_arms_expense_prestige_min
• Add any/random/every_tradition scripted list for cultures.
• Add has_tradition_category trigger that works on culture traditions.
• Has_cultural_tradition trigger, add_culture_tradition, and remove_culture_tradition effects now can take tradition as scope.
• Add free_tradition_slot trigger to test if culture can have more traditions.
• Casus belli now has an option to allow or forbid hostage exchange.
• The chance to assign specific personality, education or childhood traits for generated characters can now be set by random_creation percent value.

Bugfixes

• Fixed an Out of Sync caused by expiring Memories
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync caused by players setting Decisions to notify me
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync relating to Accolade History
• Fixed an Out-of-Sync relating to Diarchs being updated out of order
• Fixed several rare Out-of-Syncs
• Fixed crash on succession with a landed character without any titles
• Fixed a crash that could happen when opening the war overview in certain large-scale wars
• Fixed the Character Search not remembering the selected Sort by filter between being closed/opened
• Fixed Accolade History being lost when loading the save
• Fixed Tournament event Hapless Knight option not removing jouster from contest
• Fixed animals captured on hunts not being saved properly
• Fixed crime for escaping from prison not being an imprisonable crime
• Fixed feuding house AI members being not aggressive enough
• Fixed issue with desc of war won memory
• Fixed issues with relation loc for fellow attendees of activities
• Fixed missing localization for memories of peasant and populist revolts
• Fixed missing scope loc in "lay with" effects for other characters
• Fixed relation loc for deceased spouses
• Improved presentation of Restore Carolingian Borders decision's effects
• Fix a rare case when childhood focus is invalidated
• Fix a rare case when childhood focus is invalidated and wrong education trait is given when coming of age
• Fixed "A vassal between friends" not accounting for the two involved friends being at war
• Fixed childhood personality events being largely blocked for traveling children, which resulted in some childhood personality events being way too common
• Fixed garrisons not refilling correctly after sieges
• Fixed many instances of Regents traveling with their lieges, especially during Hunts and Tournaments
• Improved tooltip why sometimes you cannot change intent during activities
• Increased maximum allowed years in activity passive phase (travel time) from 3 years to 10
• May now plan activities regardless of insufficient funds to start them
• Memory descriptions expect character memory as root scope
• Show correct regent when designated regent has been deposed by a scheme
• Characters are no longer intimidated by 0 dread
• Mercenaries and holy orders can now use MaA from culture traditions
• Swinging the scales of power will now tell you in which direction & towards whom they've swung
• Fixed unnecessarily large effect lists in Invasion casus belli wars
• Fixed bastards being born in faiths which had none
• The HRE title holder no longer needs to exist to establish the Carolingian Empire
• Champion the Faith of Country Basques decision now includes the new provinces added for Fate of Iberia
• Can now use "Grant to..." action in county view even if there's a leased out barony