Since the last update, we have made a series of hotfixes that are meant to repair some bugs, improve some of the games aspects such as interface info and also balance the games economy. Here are the details for each hotfix:
[h3]
Hotfix 3.1.3[/h3]

- updated Unity to 2020.2.3f1
- fixed prime materials value in Production Tax calculation being computed twice the actual value
- Vehicle Transport: fixed Stockpile, Carpentry & Blacksmith parking slots
- Market UI: added additional info (building origin, use, requirements & productivity) to manufactured products
- Blacksmith: updated Blacksmith's productivity to 2 Swords/hour
- Charcoal Kiln: updated Charcoalman's productivity to 5 charcoal Sacks/hour
- Iron Mine: updated Miner's productivity to 2 Iron Ore Sacks/hour
- Foundry: updated Smelter's productivity to 2 steel bars/hour
- Lumber Mill: updated Sawmiller's productivity to 22 square beams/hour, 27 Planks/hour, 30 Round Beams/hour
[h3]
Hotfix 3.1.2[/h3]

- Carpentry: fixed fps drop upon building selection
- Carpentry: Shield, Steel Rod & Steel can now be transported using Wooden Carts
- Carpentry: updated Carpenter's productivity to 2 Shields/hour
- Bakery: increased Flour requirements (from 0.25 to 0.5)
- Windmill: updated Miller's productivity to 12 Sacks/hour
- Thresher: updated Thresherman's productivity to 12 Sacks/hour
- Market: updated Steel Rod price to 15 gold
- Market: updated Steel Disc price to 15.5 gold
- Market: updated Sword price to 27 gold
- Market: updated Swordsman Shield price to 38.5 gold

[h3]Hotfix 3.1.1[/h3]

- fixed Miner's productivity error

The first update of 2021 in CaveToKingdom brings, along with some improvements, the following 3 new things:

[h2]Carpentry[/h2]

The Carpentry building and the job of Carpenter, with the purpose of making wooden products, such as Shields for Swordsmen. For now, only Shields will be available for production, but more will be added in future updates. Shields can be made from Steel Rods, Steel Discs and Planks. This is the first item from the army equipment that can be produced instead of being just bought from the Market.


[h2]Boat[/h2]

A new ship is available, smaller than the Galley and the Caravel, designed to cover smaller distances, such as the ones between islands or between neighboring coasts. It has a capacity of 10 soldiers and a range of 500 Km. For now, the Boat will be available at the Market, at a more affordable price than the other ships.

[h2]Help System[/h2]

We are introducing an integrated Help System that is easily accessible inside the game's windows, or from the button under the prince profile. It contains the most general rules of the game for now, after which it will be improved to cover more. This is meant to be a full game documentation that will shed light on most of the things necessary to know when you play CaveToKingdom: characters, jobs, buildings, armies, rules, strategies, etc.


[h3]Other improvements[/h3]

There will be fixed prices for items that are not actually produced yet by buildings in the game, such as the equipment for soldiers or the ships, and that are only available to buy at the Market. These products are already expensive and they would become even pricier because of inflation in the future, so we decided to freeze the prices at the current state until a building is released for them in the game. The chance of free Provinces to secede has been raised to 2% and a fee of 1% has been introduced for selling CaveCoins, in order to avoid exploits. The CaveCoin reward for mission 6 has been raised to 5000 Gold, to adapt to the new price of the coin and avoid situations in which users didn't have enough Gold for buying CaveCoin to finish the mission.




[h3]Release Notes for version 3.1[/h3]

- upgraded Unity to 2020.1.17f1

- added a help manual to the game
~ opens with "Help" button under the prince info panel to the top left
~ articles currently cover all the general rules of the game
~ added contextual help buttons to the following panels: battle results, taxes, city info, transport, research, city walls
~ in the future there will be separate articles for each building, character and market item
detailing their stats (like worker productivity)
- added a new small ship type "Boat"
~ it is oceanic, but much smaller (10 soldiers), has shorter range (500 Km)
and less life (168 hours) then the others
~ it is also much cheaper (2500 gold), intended to help regional interconnection of various islands,
like the British Islands, most of Oceania, etc., where islanders could not afford Caravels
~ price per soldier, per Km is still about twice that for Caravel, so larger, intercontinental
end-game invasions will still require the Caravel or the Galley
- added the carpentry building & job, where wood based products will be made
~ research costs 15 CaveCoin
~ currently only swordsman's shields can be produced, with a rate of 86 per hour
~ 1 plank + 1 steel rod + 1 steel disc => 1 shield
~ Steel Rods & Discs will be produced in the blacksmith in the future
- introduced new policy regarding incomplete production line products
~ products that don't have yet released their production building, will have fixed priced from now on,
until the corresponding building is released
~ affected items: Wooden Cart, Galley, Caravel, Boat, Wood Shingle, Steel Rod, Steel Disc;
Swordsman's Boots, Helmet, Gloves, Mail, and Breastplate;
Archer's Short Bow, Boots, Bow, Helmet, Gloves, Long Bow, Breastplate
~ prices for these items have been frozen to their current values and rounded down a bit
~ the purpose is to stop the "chocking" of the real economy due to these ever increasing prices
relative to the prices for the products that are actually made by players
- fixed overproduction for Iron Ore that has caused the price to plummet lately
~ reduced Miner's productivity to half (doubled time spent inside the Mine for 1 Ore Sack)
~ doubled Iron Ore consumption when making Steel Bars from Iron Ore and Charcoal in the Foundry
- doubled free province secession chance to 2% per day
- increased Gold reward to "Build House" mission to 5000, to match current CaveCoin price
- fixed new Kingdoms only including capital neighbor provinces when created, not all 5 provinces
- fixed unfinished barracks and archeries attempting to train soldiers as part of soldier targets
- added ~6 min slack to client side soldier deploy to avoid server errors caused by time drift
- pay a 1% market fee when selling CaveCoin
- fixed chat room joining errors when clicking quickly on many cities, with chat opened
- various fixes for Barracks involving props & animations

In this update we introduce the possibility of escaping the confinement of your hometown's continent or island and expand overseas, by using military transport ships. The rules involving the previously underpowered rank of Count have been overhauled, and the taxation system has been redesigned in a bottom up fashion, for a more balanced game, such that more players can get involved as allies within the same Kingdom. Within the city, the stock targets system has been generalized to all buildings that need it, allowing fine control of production when a single worker can perform multiple crafting jobs.

[h2]Ships[/h2]

Cities that lie within a 10 km radius of some ocean connected sea are marked in blue on the map, and can be used as starting location or destination for embarked armies.

Two types of ships have been added as products that can be bought on the Market, with the ability of building and selling them being left for a future update. The Galley is a fast ship with limited range that can only travel along the coast, and therefore cannot reach to a different continent or island. The Caravel has increased range and transport capacity, and can also cross the ocean.

Like the carts in the city, ships spawn on the map automatically when issuing attack or relocate orders, and afterwards they take damage while moving, so they have a limited total sailing distance before being destroyed. Ships will only be used if the destination cannot be reached by land without crossing through unfriendly territory. The server will determine the necessary ship transport capacity when clicking on the "attack" or "relocate" buttons, and an error message will be displayed if not enough ships of the required type, range, health or location are available. If all is OK, the armies will embark, travel and disembark automatically, after which the battle is processed as before.

[h2]Colonies[/h2]

Until now, a Kingdom could only have one connected region. Kings can now expand their Kingdoms with up to 2 overseas colonies. If either the capital region or the colony loses sea access, the colony gets dismantled, like all disconnected regions before this update. When expanding, if the province capital of a coastal province is not itself on the coast, the King can firstly attack a coastal town inside that province, and later start a second attack over land to the capital.

Empires can span the globe and have no colony limit, but Emperors can only directly conquer overseas Kingdoms if their capital is on the coast. Otherwise, one of their Kings must first establish a colony there, after which the old neighboring Kingdom rule applies and the Emperor can attack the capital.

[h2]Counts & bottom up tax collection[/h2]

The rank of Count has been severely underpowered due to some technical limitation when it was first implemented. It was unattractive to players since, unlike all other ranks, including the Baron, the Count could not expand their domain other than by creating a Kingdom. But more importantly, the mere presence of a Count was already a threat to the current King, causing most Kings to include as part of their daily routine the removal of Counts from their Kingdom. This has a tendency to chase away many active players from the World Map, and leave behind large Kingdoms where a single player is politically active.

We are tackling this game balancing problem with an overhaul of the Count system, and the introduction of a bottom up tax collection rule.

Counts can now hold not just one, but up to 5, not necessarily connected, provinces from the same Kingdom. A new Kingdom is formed only when the 5th province is conquered, and only if all 5 are connected. In this way, a Count can signal their King that they do not intend to overthrow them or reduce their tax income, by conquering 2 distant provinces, such that the formation of a new Kingdom is not even possible. In such cases, if they change their mind, Counts must first abdicate and start over with connected provinces.

Moreover, we introduce a new tax distribution system that makes the presence of Barons and Counts necessary for the King. Taxes are now collected bottom up, meaning the Baron first collects all tax from their town, keeps their cut, and sends the rest upwards to the Count, but only if the position is filled, and so on to the top. For example, if a province is ruled by Traitors, the King will receive no tax from that province, with their cut being redirected to the "Gods" (Partner Funds).

Just like for kingless Kingdoms, Provinces will secede from their kingdom after 7 days of being ruled by traitors. We currently set a probability of 1% per day of this event happening (after the first 7 days), in order to prevent sudden border changes on the map, considering that most current large Kingdoms are composed of such lawless provinces, but we'll increase this chance in the following weeks.

[h2]Referral bonus[/h2]

We implemented a daily referral bonus of 100 gold for active referral, for the first 50 days after the referral's account being activated. Both receiver and referral must have been active within the last 48 hours.

[h2]Final remarks[/h2]

We are doing our best to make this game as enjoyable as possible. We hope these changes will bring more active players on the world map, considering this game has been conceived from the start as an economy focused multiplayer grand strategy game, and not just a base building single player simulation or RTS.

More details about this update can be found in the changelog. Enjoy the new freedom that you have now in the game and cross the seas to build your own Empire!


[h3]Release Notes for version 3.0[/h3]

- introduced a sea crossing feature on the world map
~ cities residing within a ~ 10 km radius from the world ocean are marked as "coastal" and appear in blue on the world map
- this applies only to seas connected to the world ocean, so cities on the coast of the Caspian Sea or other lakes are not considered "coastal"
~ added 2 types of military transport ships that can be used to cross the sea between
2 coastal locations, with attacking or relocating armies
- Galley: can only move along the coast, so it cannot access another continent or island
- Caravel: it can cross the ocean
- ships can be bought from the market & in the future will be buildable in a special building
- ships take damage when moving, just like carts in the city
- ships have a speed, capacity (maximum number of soldiers) and a range (maximum distance in one go)
- bought ships will be spawned automatically when issuing attack or relocate commands, when the destination can only be accessed by sea
- when clicking on "attack" or "relocate" the server will check the total transport capacity at that location by considering all rules, including the ships having enough health for the trip (and a return trip for attacks), how many ships can be spawned & how many are spawned and located at that location, range, capacity, whether caravels are necessary, etc., and an error message is displayed if not enough capacity
- after that, armies are embarked automatically, and when arriving at the target armies are disembarked, and then the actual battle takes place as before
- the owner player can see their empty, anchored ships on the world map and as icons
in the bottom UI list, after the free battalions
- embarked moving armies are displayed on the map as animated 3D ships instead of soldiers, and when selected, the ships appear in the bottom UI list before the battalions
~ Kingdoms can have up to 3 connected components (before it was just 1), a main area including the Capital, and up to 2 colonies such that all 3 have sea access
- if sea connection to the Capital area is removed, a colony is considered disconnected and lost
- if the Province Capital is not coastal, the king must first attack a coastal town in that province after which they can attack the capital over the land
- Empires can span the globe and have no limit in number of connected components / colonies
- Emperors can directly conquer overseas Kingdoms, if the Capital is on the coast; otherwise one of their kings must first establish a colony there, and then the neighbor Kingdom rule applies as before
- a Baron can conquer overseas if they have a coastal Town under their rule
~ removed old rule allowing armies to be relocated to hometown regardless of current location
- armies cannot be moved to a destination if they must cross enemy / unfriendly territory, except for the direct neighbors, as before
- in such cases the error says that the destination can only be accessed by sea
- armies stuck behind enemy lines can get unstuck by attacking neighbor provinces, step by step
- in other words, an army can always attack the current and also the directly neighboring provinces
- updated taxation rules by introducing bottom up tax collection
~ city taxes are collected by the Baron, who keeps their cut & sends the rest upwards, and so on
~ if any position is unfilled ("Traitors"), all remaining taxes go to "Gods"
~ for example, a King will not collect any tax from a Province without a Count
- updated world map rules involving Counts & Barons
~ a player can be Count in up to 5 Provinces, not necessarily connected
~ a Kingdom is formed only when the 5th province is conquered & only if all 5 are connected
~ the Capital is the province which was conquered first, or the hometown, if conquered
~ only Provinces residing in the same Kingdom as the capital can be conquered by Counts, but currently-held provinces are not lost when incorporated into a different kingdom
~ when a Count conquers another Kingdom's capital, all Count titles are lost (just like for Barons)
~ just like for Kingdoms, a Province without a Count (ruled by "Traitors") for more than 7 days will secede from its Kingdom with a probability of 1% per day
- the probability above is low in order to prevent a sudden change of borders on the current map
- in the following weeks & months we will increase it so that not much longer after the 7 day interval such provinces will secede
~ Baron titles are limited to 25, but players that currently have more will keep what they have
- generalize the stock targets system
~ it can be used at any building where a worker can craft multiple items (Lumbermill, Thresher, Mill)
~ setting target to 0 will completely block production of that item (displays as red icon)
~ deleting the target value shows as "none" and means "no limit / target"
~ added arrow buttons to control priority
~ also updated soldier targets with these new features
~ stock targets work relative to the total quantity, not just that from the building
- receive a daily referral bonus of 100 gold * number of active (past 48 hours) referrals
~ bonus is received for 50 days after the activation of referral's account
~ receiver must himself / herself have been active for the past 48 hours
~ an alert is received in the game
- updated Unity to 2019.4.13f1
- added an outline effect when selecting characters and buildings
- battle results panel: updated arrows color (green) & text tip when multiple armies are involved
- battle results panel: made political results bottom info scrollable to fit all content
- fixed log appearing in Lumbermill's stack when quantity between 0 and 1
- improved character messages with additional info regarding required/produced items
- fixed client attempting to deploy from last 2 non Prince males, generating server error & quit
- fixed building placement green model pushing characters when intersecting
- moved / removed some props in archery lvl 2
- fixed wrong building upgrade materials quantities being displayed in alert
- fixed "training time" label not showing up in research UI
- fixed characters passing through Barracks & House lvl 2 fences
- fixed Swordsman showing activity alert when having no energy

In this update we launch upgrades for the House, Barracks & Archery, intended to help players that are relatively new to the world map, but also to put a serious military challenge to existing rulers.

The problem was that even if the player had the required resources like weapons and food, it still took a very long time just to train the soldiers, during which food was consumed but the soldiers were not usable. The upgrades improve spawn & training speeds, and together with the training targets system it makes it easy to raise large armies without having to wait too much or perform too many actions in the game's UI.

The Research for these upgrades requires Knowledge, which can now be purchased as Books from the Market, in the "Goods" section. These Books will be created in the future by Monks.

The problem with getting financially blocked during the missions due to the need to purchase reed from the market has also been fixed by increasing the reed reward to the house mission.


[h3]Announcement[/h3]

The next update will be a major War update that will open up the seas by allowing players to embark their armies into coastal and oceanic transport ships. The sea will be crossable from a coastal City to another. A City is considered coastal if it's located less than ~10km from the coast. All coastal Cities are marked on the map in blue, starting with this build.

Another change in the next update will involve the taxation system, with the purpose of nerfing the anti-social strategy currently employed by Kings & Emperors: the forced removal from their realm of Counts and, to some degree, Barons, on account of them having no immediate use for the King, but being potential enemies. The new rule will ensure that taxes are collected by a Higher Rank player only from cities where all lower ranks are filled (not "Traitors"). For example a King will only collect taxes from cities located in his Kingdom, that have both Baron and Count. This will motivate high rank players to find collaborators among the active players from their realm to fill the lower ranks, in order for taxes to be collected.

More details about the sea crossing feature will be revealed at the time of the update.


Release Notes for current update, version 2.29:

- updated Unity to 2019.4.12f1
- Knowledge (Books) can also be bought (but not sold) from the Market, under "Goods"
~ in the future Books will also be created by Monks
- new market product `Wood Shingle`, needed for construction of some upgraded buildings
- added House Level 2 upgrade
~ research costs 7 Cave Coin & 7 Knowledge
~ same population (4), but spawn time reduced from 24 to 18 hours
~ it gets instantly rebuilt upon placement, as long as the needed construction materials are available
- added Barracks Level 2 upgrade
~ research costs 8 Cave Coin & 8 Knowledge
~ training capacity increased from 5 to 8, train time reduced from 10 to 6 hours
~ it gets instantly rebuilt upon placement
- added Archery Level 2 upgrade
~ Research costs 9 Cave Coin & 9 Knowledge
~ training capacity increased from 5 to 8, train time reduced from 10 to 6 hours
~ it gets instantly rebuilt upon placement
- reduced Archery Level 1 research cost from 17.5 to 9 Cave Coin
- display spawn & train info in buildings' upgrade research panel
- add 33 `Reed` reward after house mission to cover upcoming Fishery & Farm construction needs
~ new players could get stuck at the Fishery / Farm mission while waiting to collect Gold for the necessary Reed, since they may also run out of Food during this time
- give Citizen as reward if mission reward job is already filled
-added army product bundles to the market, for each type of Soldier
~they offer a more convenient way of buying all needed equipment for a type of Soldier
- fixed errors in Chat window caused by user actions initiated while async operations were undergoing
~ errors like "Already joined chat room", etc
- added "send private message" & "copy name to clipboard" buttons to Chat UI
- fixed layout, scrolling, reloading & other minor issues in Chat UI
- fixed Houses spawning Citizens when already full in online mode
- fixed Barracks & Archery attempting deploy from last 2 non Prince males in online mode
- new Citizens spawn inside the House
- added a particle effect when deploying Soldiers
- damaged vehicles appear damaged & added particle effect when destroyed
- fixed possibility of changing the job of the Prince & ensure all players have a Prince
- fixed parts of Miner's outfit appearing white
- fly to capital when clicking the name of an Empire or Kingdom in city info panel
~ if the Empire or Kingdom is one's own it opens rename dialog as before
- added a "Home" button in the search city panel on top of the world map
- show coastal cities in blue on the world map
~ coastal cities are within an ~10km radius from the coast
~ in the next update, they will be used as departure & arrival locations when crossing the sea

In this update we are introducing a new feature in the game: the Chat System of CaveToKingdom. Each player can access the Chat in the Map mode, from the information panel of every City.

We also fixed some bugs that used to cause server issues and other smaller problems related to citizens and soldiers.

Release Notes for Version 2.28

-added city & global chat system

~city chat rooms can be opened with the button attached to the left side of the city info panel
~users have default access rights to their hometown's chat room, as well as to the realm capitals their hometown belongs to (province, kingdom & empire capitals)
~barons also have default access to all realm capitals where they have towns under their rule
if the city has its gates opened, the city room becomes public (all users have default access)
~rulers have default access to all city rooms inside their ruled realm
~rulers act as admins to their realm capital chat room (barons admin all their ruled towns)
~admins can act as moderators and also can assign other moderators
~moderators can invite, uninvite, ban & unban specific users, overwriting any default access
~all users can report inappropriate messages
~moderators can also hide (& report) inappropriate messages
~reported users may be fined or banned from the game by a CtK moderator, if deemed necessary
~the above help info is available in the game by clicking the i buttons in the UI

-updated Unity to 2019.4.9f1
-fixed hungry citizens sometimes not eating after player buys food
-citizens are now spawned & soldiers are deployed also when the game is opened, not just in offline mode
-added deploy soldiers alert
-updated spawned citizen alert to only show the total number rather then 1 alert per citizen
-consistently display quantities with the proper number of decimals depending on product type
-fixed training timer for archery not updating
-added reed cutter & carrier behavior sounds
-fixed a nasty infinite loop inside a transaction on the SQL server that caused the server to be completely blocked for a couple of days, giving transaction deadlock errors

This update includes fixes for a number of small issues involving the reed cutter, carrier & the miners.

[h3]Changelog for 2.27.1[/h3]

• fixed reed cutter scheduling causing "cutting reed too fast" errors
  
• fixed reed cutter sometimes cutting the wrong crop
  
• increased reed growth rate & fixed reed crop idle animation upon regrowth
  
• fixed reed stack not showing up on first work cycle
  
• decreased ram usage & improved fps in the reed land plot area
  
• added missing reed cutter stage descriptions
  
• fixed vehicle related server errors occurring after demolishing a building
  
• fixed miner sometimes not resuming their job upon game start
  

In this update we added the Reed Cutting Building and job.

We also upgraded Unity & the URP rendering package to a new version that includes many stability fixes. For players that have experienced random crashes in the recent past we recommend trying out this version and see if the problem has been fixed.

[h3]Changelog for 2.27[/h3]

• updated Unity to version 2019.4.4f1
  
  
  
  • Unity claims numerous fixes for random crashes
    
  • players that have experienced game crashes in the recent past should try again and see if it's fixed now
    
  
  
• upgraded URP rendering engine to version 7.4.1
  
  
  
  • the "black circle in grass" Unity bug is fixed, so we reverted shadows quality settings to the original values (increased shadows draw distance, etc.)
    
  • fixed back face of tree leaves being black
    
  
  
• added reed cutting building and job
  
  
  
  • the reed cutter collects 1 reed in 3 IRL hours
    
  • the building can be built in a special location near the pond & costs 9 cave coin in research
    
  
  
• fixed transport issues involving charcoal building
  
• fixed carrier sometimes getting stuck when carrying square beams to stockpile
  
• fixed house construction stacks parking slots
  
• research ui: fixed some non productive buildings (like barracks) displaying production info
  
• fixed slow SQL query in abdicate
  

In this update we have resolved some of the technical issues and we also increased the food consumption to its final value, 500 grams per meal.

Release Notes for Version 2.26:

- increased food consumption to 500 grams per meal (from 400 grams per meal):

~ increased fisher's productivity from 5.6 to 7.5 to match consumption of 14 citizens;
~ this is the final increase.

- fixed some characters having glitchy idle animations, or their interactions cut short;
- fixed vehicle sometimes disappearing & carrier getting stuck afterwards;
- fixed vehicle stacks remaining full even if they are empty upon changing the carrier's job;
- made carried items visible in the carrier's selection camera;
- fixed carrier & builder being teleported and causing "moving too fast" errors;
- fixed carrier sometimes transporting too many materials to a construction site;
- potential fix for "cannot grow this seed type" error upon selecting seeds;
- fixed decorative trees on lower quality settings;
- validated army name when creating it, not just when renaming;
- added a 10 sec social distancing between miners (during the offline mode).

In this update, there were several fixes added for reported issues, as well as an increase to the food consumption demand and the productivity of the Fishery, as announced in a previous release.

Release Notes for Version 2.25:

- increased food consumption to 400g/meal (from 300g/meal):

~ increased the fisher's productivity from 4.2 to 5.6 in order to match the consumption of 14 citizens.

- fixed some job stages lasting longer than they should (regression);
- fixed units idling when they should be working;
- fixed carrier getting stuck when transporting construction materials to fishery;
- fixed reed stack scaling in vehicle;
- fixed carrier getting stuck when transporting products to/from thresher & cereal farm;
- fixed carrier having a long path when loading/unloading some products in the stockpile;
- fixed carrier choosing the first available vehicle, not the closest one;
- fixed carrier using the bridge when transporting fish;
- characters Interface: fixed "Work" button being sometimes not responsive;
- carrier Interface: fixed mounted vehicle sometimes not being visible in the selection camera;
- mine research Interface: fixed productivity not showing up.

The new mine will allow you to mine iron ore which can then be made into steel bars that are to be used by the Blacksmith to create weapons or sold in the Marketplace.

The mine can only be set in the predefined location, similar to the Fishery and you can have a maximum of 5 miners at one time.

The vehicles have also been added, they can be purchased from the Marketplace and used by the carrier to transport a higher number of materials.

Once purchased, the wood carts cannot be resold if they have been picked up by a carrier and they can be used for a total of 96 real hours.
The wooden cart capacity is of 8 logs, or 8 beams, 24 planks, 8 reed, 10 iron ore sacks, 4 sacks of charcoal, wheat, oat, corn, wheat flour, oat flour, corn flour, 32 wheat, 32 oat, 4 steel bars and it is currently limited to only these products.

The previously mentioned food consumption has also increased to 300 grams per meal for each citizen and soldier as it was promised.

Release Notes for Version 2.24:


- updated Unity to 2019.3.15f1;
- new vehicle system & wooden cart vehicle:

~ vehicles can be bought from the market, and while in stockpile, they can be re-sold;
~ once the carrier mounts the vehicle for the first time, the vehicle begins to take damage and cannot be re-sold;
~ vehicles take damage only while moving (used by carrier);
~ wooden cart lasts 96 IRL hours of usage;
~ wooden cart capacity: 8 logs, or 8 beams, 24 planks, 8 reed, 10 iron ore sacks, 4 sacks of charcoal, wheat, oat, corn, wheat flour, oat flour, corn flour, 32 wheat, 32 oat, 4 steel bars; it will not get used for other items.

- added mine building & miner job:

~ the mine produces iron ore which can be used in the foundry to make steel bars;
~ up to 5 miner jobs available at level 1;
~ the mine is far away from the main city area and vehicles are needed for iron ore transportation, otherwise the miners produce more that the carrier can carry.

- increased food consumption to 300g/meal (from 200g/meal) :

~ increased fisher's productivity from 2.8 to 4.2 to match consumption of 14 citizens.

- bakery: fixed missing bread trough on low quality settings;
- missions: added buy seeds video tutorial;
- improve loading time of tax details window (added caching);
- server (30.04.2020): fixed battle processing bug when members of an alliance would attack each other if there were no defenders; refunds were sent to affected players;
- fixed knowledge acquired with invest packages not being reflected in the game.

Release Notes for Version 2.23:

In this update we have resolved some of the issues that appeared since the previous update, as well as adding new sounds for various jobs.

- added sounds to blacksmith, thresher, miller, archer, swordsman, carrier, fisherman, farmer, baker;
- sounds: fixed sounds still playing when sounds are off;
- auto quit game if no server communication for more than 1 minute:

~ sometimes, if game is left open for long periods, computer enters sleep or similar, and on reactivating the client data may be stale (server performs updates if the client is not live);
~ this was a major source for desynchronization errors.

- fixed rank stars not being rendered on the world map army flags;
- smelter: fixed coal & iron pile particles flickering;
- fixed error when selecting seed for vegetable farm after selecting seed for cereal farm;
- fixed forester waiting too long after cutting a tree;
- fixed forester, sawmiller & builder's tools not being visible in selection camera
- reverted pine materials shaders to speedtree:

~ speedtree shaders are buggy in URP (Universal Render Pipeline): shaded part of trees are rendered too dark;
~ we reverted to speedtree shaders anyway because otherwise it may cause crashes on some machines.

- fixed graphical glitch when using building's "move" action but then cancelling;
- fixed various visual glitches for the baker;
- replaced "lorem ipsum" account settings description;
- modified some materials to archer woman, archer pawns, thresher, barracks;
- fixed prerequisites validation for "build" action;
- transport interface fixes:

~ fixed list resetting to page 1 whenever you update a priority;
~ fixed priority input remaining selected when navigating pages;
~ fixed priority label not reverting to original value when cancelling priority change.

In this update we are adding the Foundry and the job of Smelter as well as several modifications regarding the missions, including the rewards which are to be used to purchase a vegetable seed.

In the Foundry, the smelter will process the iron ore along with charcoal to create Steel. The steel can be then used by the Blacksmith to create swords. To create 1 bar of steel you need to have 2 sacks of charcoal and 2 sacks of iron ore. Iron Ore can be purchased from the Market. To build the Foundry you must first research the technology behind it, from the Research, buildings menu.


The mission "Build your Farm" has been replaced by the mission "Build your Vegetable Farm" which is available to new and old players alike, and which will award 4.5 CaveCoins as a prize.

The vegetable seeds' price has been reduced to 4.5 CaveCoins and we have added the mission "Buy a seed for your farm".

The productivity for the Fishery has been halved, the rest of the needed food will be covered by the free farm. As a result, the players who finish all these missions will still have a significant secondary food excess compared to the previous situation.


In the next 2 months, we will gradually increase the consumption of food needed, first by 100 grams, up to 500 grams per meal. Along with this increase in the required food, we will also increase the Fishery production to cover the needs of up to 14 citizens and soldiers, as until now.

You can find more details of these changes in the release notes below.


Release Notes for Version 2.22:


- added foundry building & smelter job:

~ it converts 2 charcoal sacks & 2 iron ore sacks into 1 steel bar;
~ productivity is 8 steel bars per 1 in real life hour;
- upgraded whole project to Unity's new Universal Render Pipeline:

~ updated Unity to version 2019.3.8f1;
~ replaced water, foliage & other shaders with ones compatible with URP;
~ fixed roofs not casting any shadows;
~ added Depth of Field post-processing effect to cinematic & follow modes;
~ besides MSAA, SMAA anti-aliasing effect is used on Medium or higher;
~ all post-processing is disabled by default on Low, for improved performance on low-end machines;
~ toggling anti-aliasing & post-processing (from "Effects" slider) on Low, will activate fast FXAA;
~ known issues caused by current Unity URP bugs:

* shaded part of trees looks too black (no ambient light);
* reduced shadow draw distance & quality to hide a black circle that was visible in the grass at shadow cascade transitions.

- refactored farming missions & fisher's productivity:

~ replaced old "build a farm" mission with "build a vegetable farm" (reward: 4.5 CaveCoins);
~ reduced price of vegetable seeds to 4.5 CaveCoins;
~ added a "buy seeds for your farm" mission (reward: 1000 gold);
~ reduced fishery research price to 1 CaveCoins;
~ reduced "buy cave coin" reward to 500 gold (from 5 CaveCoins, to match new fishery research price);
~ reduced fishery productivity to half;
~ with these new settings, there will be a significant excess of non-basic food production that new players get from just following the quests, in reference to the 14 citizens you get at the end of missions;
~ we will increase food consumption in the next 2 months to match this increased production:

* in approximately 1 month we will increase consumption by 100 grams, then again in 2 weeks, and again, to a final 500 grams;
* fishery productivity will also be increased to match basic food consumption (for 14 citizens).

- temporarily removed server ping display in login form due to sometimes causing client crashes;
- allow re-settle in the same location (if you want to just change color/flag);
- fixed city wall health display (instead of health, damage was displayed);
- fixed stock quantities overflowing in mission panel;
- reduced send gift limit to 3 CaveCoins;
- replaced unit selector with a 3D one;
- updated code signing certificate (old one expires at 10.04.2020);
- fixed some types of client / server desynchronization errors, causing the game to close with errors such as "Carrier wants to pick up X but only Y on stock";
- added sounds to blacksmith & charcoal building;
- fixed female characters not making any work sounds;
- fixed bread not appearing in carrier's basket;
- fixed missing flour sack & sack material in bakery;
- fixed fish not being displayed correctly in buckets.

City Walls can be raised and repaired by using wood products, such as square beams, round beams, and planks, which will lead to an increase in demand for these products.

The City Wall can be raised, repaired and upgraded only by the Barons who own the city, and it will offer a defense boost for the army or armies that are defending the city (armies stationed in that location). To add to this advantage, when the wall is attacked, the first hit from the walls defenders will kill 5 soldiers from the attacking army.

The necessary materials to create, upgrade and repair the City Wall will increase depending on the rank of the city and the level of the wall.

If a city that already has a City Wall built is upgraded to a higher rank, the city wall will be demolished.

The defense wall will degrade only during battles, with 1 level for every 100 defenders killed.

We hope that these new modifications will help new and old players alike, and make it easier to manage your city and the territories owned.


Release Notes for Version 2.21:

- added city walls feature:

~interface panel can be opened by clicking on the city rank icon in the city info panel;
~ walls can be built & repaired only by their city's baron;
~ only the first 3 levels are released for now;
~ they give an army boost (30%, 60%, 90%) for the defending army;
~ in a city with walls the defenders always strike first, regardless of generals' skill;
~ before the walls being breached (first round), defenders kill 5 attackers with hot oil and stones;
~ building & repairing walls cost wood materials (square & round beams, planks);
~ wall prices depend on level and city rank (higher ranks cost twice then previous);
~ when the rank of the city increases, the wall gets demolished;
~ otherwise, walls take damage only in battles, with 1 level per 100 defenders killed.

- updated game settings panel:

~ added a "Shortcuts" tab;
~ added a "User Account" tab with account information, and the option to change the current password.

- fixed army/alliance tabs hover effect;
- fixed "Create Army" panel always opening when you have no army but free battalions:

~ the window auto opens only when the "Create Army" mission is active;
~ added a close button to the "Create Army" window.

- fixed army rank sprite in "Request Assistance" panel;
- check the selected army's owner & status before opening the request panel.

As we announced before, several modifications have taken place in order to further help with the balancing of new and old players' success rates and to even the playing field.

The food consumption has been doubled, the tax distribution percentages have been modified, and the Alliance system is now improved. Among others, you can now request military backup from lower ranks when needed.


- double food consumption:
~ a meal is now 200 grams instead of 100 grams as before.

- increased fisher's productivity to support 14 citizens:
~ it takes into account the increased consumption;
~ before it was set to only support 9 citizens;
~ 14 citizens: what a player would have after finishing all missions (includes 5 soldiers).

- ensure fishery is researched first:
~ to prevent users spending their mission received cave coins on something else (like stockpile level 2) before realizing how important the fishery is.

- updated tax distribution cuts:
~ before, all ranks received equal cuts of 7% from the total of 28%;
~ new values are: 5% for emperor & king, 9% for count & baron;
~ kings & emperors receive the baron (9%) cut from their capital.

- redesigned war actions panel:
~ split panel into 2 tabs: "Army" and "Alliance";
~ army tab contains create army, merge & split;
~ alliance tab contains options to join & leave alliance, and also to request assistance.

- added "auto join alliance" option to relocate window;
- added "request for assistance" war option:
~ can be used by all ranks other than Lord;
~ it sends a mass message to 1 or 2 ranks bellow (example: a king can send to counts & optionally to barons located in the kingdom);
~ the message is received in the inbox and can be replied to.

- added proper windows for "merge army" & "join alliance" war actions;
- reduced general & battalion skill boost by half:
~ new value is +50% instead of +100% of base power for maximum skill.

- restrict buying access on shares market to verified users;
- fixed resettle validations:
~ check resettle timer (30 days) before others.

- fixes for name validations when renaming characters;
- fixed barracks & archery interface not showing the correct number of already trained soldiers until after the world map was opened;
- fixed world map dialogues (like create army) auto opening when changing province color mode;
- fixed mission 3 not finishing when logs were cut in offline mode;
- fixed producing more than it should while offline when the interval was less than 1 hour;
- fixed the wrong unity log file being opened with Ctrl+F6:
~ file name was changed by unity a while ago from output_log.txt to Player.log.

During the next 2 weeks, we will launch an update containing a series of changes designed to improve new players' experience with the war game and drastically reduce the monopolistic / pay-to-win end game mechanics.

Here is the list of changes, and below you can read a longer explanation.

- removed building "rush" placeholder button:

~ based on user feedback we decided against this or similar "rush" features.

- it is no longer possible to log into the game if your email has not been confirmed:

~ later on (next week), we will re-send the verification email to users that played the game without yet having their email verified.

- added email address validation at register time;
- fixed register button remaining clickable while waiting for the server to respond;
- worked on improving server stability under high traffic:

~ due to some issues encountered during this refactoring there was a period (16.01.20 15:00 to 17.01.20 11:06) during which offline mode processing was paused.

- added options to control province coloring mode on the world map:

~ "empire" mode works as before, using emperor's chosen color, if there is one;
~ "kingdom" mode is the new default, showing only up to king's color, to help visualize kingdoms that are part of an empire;
~ "province" mode will help identifying provinces that have counts;
~ the setting is persisted in local user configuration;
~ the buttons appear on the right side of the city search panel on the world map.

- fixed units sometimes being placed near the forest and not working;
- fixed carrier sometimes starting his work near the forest;
- made stocks prefer their original place in the stockpile;
- upgraded website to latest PHP version & major refactoring:
~ during last week various features of the website, including investments, did not work for some time.

There are communication problems with the e-mail domains of @web.de and in general @gmx, where the requested e-mail we send is being blocked. If possible please use another e-mail to register and make sure to whitelist the domain cavetokingdom.com

We hope to resolve this issue in the future but until then the addresses will be harder to use for registering.

Have a nice day!

- server: fixed in-game account registration process failing to send account confirmation emails:

~ the web site, including payments, did not work for those affected because the web user profile is only created at email confirmation time;
~ verification emails have been re-sent to all unconfirmed users that have logged into the game.

- fixed army mission (mission 10) that was unable to finalize;
- fixed missing citizens icons in demolish window;
- fixed overlapping list arrows in Barracks & archery interface panel.

Those who have not yet confirmed their account, please check your registered mail for the confirmation message, and click on the link.

Taking into consideration your feedback, we have decided to change the Verified Account option into the Send Gift option.

As a result of this change, the subscription fee will now be paid so you can use the Send Gift option, not influencing the Stockpile upgrading option anymore.

The upgrade of the Stockpile will be achievable only through the Research option for a price of 3 CaveCoins, therefore allowing you to have the advantage of a second carrier without the need for a subscription.

The Send Gift subscription will be used exclusively in order to protect the CaveToKingdom project and its users from the negative influence of clones and discouraging their creation.

Due to the fact that this change is important and influences those who previously purchased the Verification Packs, those who still have the Verified status will receive as a refund CaveCoins equivalent to the spent sum for the last verification, through the Send Gift option. They will also keep their status and the stockpile upgrade, and will be able to continue using the Send Gift option until the subscription expires.

CaveToKingdom greatly appreciates your input and opinions shares with us during the development of the project.

Thank you!

Release notes for version 2.17:

• "verified" subscription is now only used for giving access to the "send gift" action:
  - stockpile level 2 can now be researched normally, with a 3 CaveCoins price;
  - all current verified accounts will be refunded, but will keep both verified status and stockpile upgrade.
  
• fixed various windows' close buttons appearing too large.
  

• general performance improvements & optimizations;
  
• replaced existing water shaders with higher performance ones;
  
• units: optimized job loop & character messaging code;
  
• only load war data when opening world map for first time;
  
• fixed "change job" button not working after building a second farm;
  
• land plot interface: show "no farmer" alert only when the land plot has a seed assigned to it;
  
• missions interface: open market when clicking on required items icons;
  
• missions interface: fixed hint text overflow;
  
• interface: increased some buttons sizes for better responsiveness;
  
• selection interface: replaced follow button with click on mini camera;
  
• particles: enable / disable particles based on quality settings;
  
• fixed video settings sliders, other then the main one, not having any effect;
  
• fixed unfinished building demolish exploit.
  

CaveToKingdom is now available and can be played on Steam.

You can continue to use the original client in order to play CaveToKingdom, however the updates download faster through Steam, so if you encounter problems with the size and speed of the downloads, it might help playing through Steam.

In order to play, you need to create an account if you don't already have one. This can be done through the Login Screen. After the creation of the account, do not forget to confirm the new account from the e-mail address you registered with.

If you already have an account for the game, simply download CaveToKingdom on Steam and login normally from your Library.

Have fun!