Hello folks,
After releasing the most recent update for Knight Estate, I thought I'd take you through what changed and what was improved, since I couldn’t fit it all into the previous post, which was only meant to be an announcement.
Monthly Gold
The economy was too annoying for veterans and too confusing for newbies due to fluctuating gold every month. I had added a feature that allowed players to see what they were earning each month, so I had two options. I could either let them see gold adding up in the background or make the gold stable enough so they did not feel the chaos of it. The chaos came from using approval as one of the main determinants of income. Approval changed a lot, which meant one month a player could earn 10 gold and the next only 3 gold. This was frustrating, so I removed approval as a factor.
Another thing that affected income was the steward’s skill. I didn’t remove this but gave it a polish. Steward skill now affects income in a way that is either very noticeable or barely at all. Having a bad steward is as good as having none, but having a great steward can even double your income. The steward also plays a role in managing monthly income, but I’ll get into that more in the segment below.
Monthly Expenses
Originally, the quality of buildings increased expenses. In hindsight, this made no sense, so I removed that part. It felt like unnecessary bloat. Buildings now only serve to improve approval, with some types like trade, production, and administration buildings also improving income.
The steward also affects expenses. If they are skilled enough, they can slash some of your monthly costs.
Since building expenses are gone, I’ve added war expenses. You will now incur financial loss while at war. However, if the war is offensive and you are winning, you will gain monthly income from plunder. If it’s an offensive war and you are losing, the opposite will happen. This should encourage players to either surrender or commit more resources to win, creating a better balance.
Reduced Penalties
In the previous version of the game, whenever a player lost a battle or tournament, they would lose close to a thousand gold. In hindsight, this was an unfair mechanic. I never took the time to extensively test these things out, as I was juggling many roles. Losing that much gold all at once, gold that could take you around a year to earn in-game, was a horrible experience.
I’ve now reduced such penalties to between 100 and 500 gold. Boss fight tournaments remain high risk and high reward, but even then, most now only take away your prestige in this update. This way, players will be less frustrated and can actually focus on the core gameplay instead of constantly trying to balance their accounts.
Conclusion
All of the changes above were part of an effort to give players what they wanted. Many were complaining about not knowing what was happening to their monthly income or how the mechanics worked. The challenge now is that everything is in the player's hands. If you recruit wisely and invest in developing the right buildings, you should be fine. If you spend wisely and avoid blowing all your gold on one part of the game, you’ll always have some saved up for a rainy day. Say, for instance, you're outnumbered and need to hire mercenaries.
That's it for today, folks. I’ll be writing the next blog to discuss how to maximize gold income in the game.
