4.697-4.72 (Beta) - Counting/Guild Houses & More

Greeeeeeeeetings!

We are finally back with another update for The Guild 2: Renaissance.

To access this beta patch, you must opt‑in to the Beta branch by navigating to Steam Library > The Guild 2: Renaissance > Properties > Game Versions & Betas > patch_4.6.

For this release, the version shown on the main menu is "4.71".

Please, consider starting a new game, since this update changes and adds a lot and unexpected behaviours may occur in previous savefile.

Remember to start the game with the launcher to update your mods. As always, we made sure to update "Reforged (Official)" with the latest changes so please hit "SYNC" in the launcher to apply the new changes.

Improved Counting Houses & Guild Houses

In this patch, we have been working on a new system to make counting houses more interesting and less prone to easy money printing, while retaining the core legacy purpose of their gameplay mechanics. Effective today, you will now be able to interact with four different kingdoms when you open a counting house interface. Let's have a look into it!

Firstly, when you open the counting house interface, the first tab that is shown is "All Crowns". This lists all goods that all lordships offer to buy or sell. You might notice that most items do not have prices listed by default while some others do: you will need to obtain a trading license for each kingdom first and foremost to know more and to be able to interact with these trading routes at the guild house.

The only exception is for the items that a kingdom wishes to purchase, in the example above France and Flanders want some beef and they are ready to pay good money for these! Of course though, some offers might be more interesting than others, so watch out for what comes next... one kingdom might look for a set of weaponry or fancy cakes, which are known to make good money!

Once you've acquired your license, more information will be displayed in the counting house interface ; at least with the kingdom you elected to get a license for.

The trade license purchased in this example is that of Denmark's, but you are allowed to get multiple licenses at once. Now that we've obtained our license, we're able to see the prices of the different goods and actually buy those we like. Prices vary based on the settlements on the world, as well as other factors we'll get into shortly further down below in this patch note.

By default, most kingdoms will offer a set of random goods of a given category, and with prices that resemble those of the local markets. In effect, the Protective Cross is being offered for 1,531 coins here, while it is being sold for 1,636 - 1,868 in our markets. The price therefore can be interesting even at the start, though what prevails above all in this circumstance is the availability of the goods being offered since our local markets might simply not offer these items for sale just yet!

It is also possible that some trade routes will offer different Works of Art for sale. You'll recognise these from our previous patch notes, where we made it possible for craftsmen to create powerful armors or weapons. These are essentially quality-tier items, that require many more materials to make, and a set of luck, time and skills combined. The higher the quality of an item, the better its stats.

And so now, if you'd like to skip this crafting journey, you have a new option: buy them from trading partners directly. But be aware that these are somewhat rare, even rarer if they come in good quality ; and you will need to pay a very expensive price to get your hands on them...

Some more indications about the interface elements:

• The "red" bar shown above the items grid indicates how long remains until the goods for sale are restocked.

• The new crest textures, designed by [dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/id/vkodeks"][/dynamiclink], are unique to each kingdom and are shown on any of its special characters that may physically enter the world.

• The character shown on the left represents this crown's ruler (the name and other information can be seen when hovering over the portrait).

Let's continue.

So what influences the trade routes, then? Well, there are multiple systems for that! First and foremost, each kingdom's trade route has its own level that ranges from 1 to 5. A symbol on the top right corner of that character's portrait on the left indicates the current status of that trade route's level progression, which is tied to a gold counter shown on the bottom. In order for a trade route to level up, dynasties across the map will need to invest in it by purchasing items it offers for sale.

To reach level 2, a total of 8,000 coins will be required ; before unlocking the +20% goods bonus as shown in this tooltip above. The higher a trade route becomes in terms of level, the more goods and the more variety of goods it'll offer every time it restocks itself.

Above, you may see an example of a trade route set to level 5 (its maximum): more goods are showing, both in quantity and variety. That being said, this trade route is also "ratified", and this also brings its own set of important changes. We'll mention that further down below!

For a level to be achieved, a "state visit" will need to be accomplished by that partnering kingdom.

At the moment, this event is rather simple. It spawns a Royal Envoy at the richest settlement on the map who's protected by a few Royal Guards. The envoy looks around and fills a progress bar visible near his character model that indicates how much time remains before the new level is applied to that partner's trade route.

There are plans to make this better in the future ; however, it is also currently possible to plan an assassination attempt on that envoy should you wish to interfere with the plans of another player who might get too accustomed to trading in counting houses. If you manage to do so, that kingdom's reputation with yours will decrease -thus increasing odds of a war- and no other envoy will be sent before a few seasons pass... additionally, you might as well be sent a secret "thank you bribe" from another rival kingdom as a reward...

So the choice is yours, will you let trade prosper or will you get in the way? Be wary, for a kingdom at war will temporarily shut down its routes with you!

Anyway, that's not all, because we have to talk about the...

Guild Privileges

Directly linked to counting houses, these allow improving your trade routes with the different kingdoms... and some more.

Once you're elected as one of the four Guild Masters or as an Alderman at the Guild House, you will get access to this new interface right here. It is opened by clicking on the Guild House building, and selecting the measure "Guild Privileges". There you will see three different tabs, with their own sets of upgrades that will impact the economy in different ways.

Each upgrade is paid with the settlement's treasury directly. The "Privileges" tab will impact trade routes directly. For example, "Scriptorium" will increase the odds for a trade route to offer Works of Art as items you can acquire for them.

Something to be wary about: as a guild master, you can only enact certain upgrades that match those of your position. What this means: some upgrades can only be enacted by a Patron guild master, some others are reserved for Scholars, etc. But if you're the Alderman, then you can enact any upgrade that you desire.

You can click on any upgrade's entry to display additional informations about them.

The "Trade Upgrades" also impact the trade routes directly, but they focus on the items more than anything. For example, you can enact "Consignment Slots" to let the trade route offer more item slots starting from the next refresh.

You can also enact other upgrades in this tab, that increase the quantity of goods (per slot) that a crown will list for sale depending on which are selected every time the goods refresh.

The "Supply" tab offers three different upgrades, that are an alternative supply market. This is one of our new solutions to make shortages in settlements less cumbersome. If you enact the "Enable Shipments" upgrade, the counting houses will send special characters to the local markets every now and then to refill them with some items that are lacking there.

Once again and just like all other upgrades, you can look into the details of that improvement by clicking the upgrade's entry on the interface.

A counting house agent will never deliver enough goods to fix all shortages in a local market, but it will certainly help a little ; especially if you upgrade it further with the "Shipment Volume" and "Shipment Variety" improvements!

Let's now focus on some special abilities of the Alderman...

The Alderman has a powerful ability that lets him select which trade route to give bonuses to every few rounds. In order to do so, the character must be inside of the guild house, and then start the "Seal Trade Charter" action inside of the new interior scene.

When a trade route is sealed, its goods keep flowing in the counting houses even when relations get worse (such as a war happening). But this also makes the goods cheaper to buy and better to sell to! If you combine this powerful ability with all the different upgrades and the levels of a trade route, then you can easily put your hands on some very interesting deals...

As the Alderman, you also have the option to freeze or unfreeze all trading with counting houses. A brutal decision, but very effective to halt the plans of one who relies on trade routes heavily...

Something isn't clear?

If you're lost on some details, perhaps the new Guide page will help you see clearer. It is accessible with the [?] button, on the header of the counting house interface.

Fixes & Changes

And here is even more!

Building Management - Priority Production

• Specified all To Counter and Keep default values for every workshop in the game , thus preventing an AI-managed building from getting rid of items it should not and allowing it a smarter items production logic.

• All settings in the Manage Building UI now apply directly when they're changed and no longer after hitting "OK" to close the window.

• Added a priority system for item production logic .

• Adjusted various elements on the Manage Building interface: styling, layout, size.

We are still implementing features for the Building Management and are closely monitoring possible issues and logic fixes for it. We will update the interface to make it more intuitive, and also improve the priority feature which is a bit rough right now.

Items Selector improvements - Keyboard detection

• Added keyboard support in order to easily specify quantities of an item you want to purchase in markets and counting houses: queue up one or multiple items as usual, then hit SHIFT to highlight any item you'd like and press numbers on your numpad to specify an amount you'd like to set that quantity to.

• Adjusted the layout of the items pinned to mouse.

• Pinned items to mouse now display their total gold values.

3D Interior Scene - Charter Room

• Added a new interior scene for Guild Houses. Right now, this room is used mainly by the alderman to seal trade routes bonuses. We've had to cut content temporarily to be able to update the game in time for today ; but in the future, this room will hold a brand new cutscene event similar to office meetings with their own little tweaks and interactions between all members of the guild house!

Blender limited viewport view.

Localization

• Updated French Localization.

• Updated Russian Localization ([dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/id/vkodeks"][/dynamiclink]).

• Updated Chinese Localization ([dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/id/BlackPainkiller"][/dynamiclink]).

Added Ukrainian Localization ([dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/id/sinegosa/"][/dynamiclink]).

Added Korean Localization (asiria7).

• Adjusted some Polish Localization files.

• Chinese Localization wraps to new lines better when a line ends with a number or unknown symbol.

Bugfixes

• Corrected an issue linked to the "magic circle effects" where the "tasks circles" shown on the terrain when assigning orders to units would remain stuck and would not disappear.

• Fixed some scrollbar thumbs not being interactible with the mouse.

• Updated GiTSE's editor.ini file to specify UI Scale to 100 as using a higher UI Scale option in GiTSE breaks the GUI editor.

• Fixed some UI errors breaking 2D elements on screen on UI Scales higher than 100%.

• Character Sheet should now display Works of Art special stats properly.

• Sneak crime rings do not trigger on animals anymore.

• Fixed some locator errors.

Minor Tweaks

• Adjusted the interface of the Guide feature.

• Adjusted the interface of the City Needs feature.

• Added an option in the game settings to hide or display the Sneak Vision rings when committing crimes.

• Implemented 's Lua tweaks for pickpockets.

• Adjusted a pool of names for cultures for kingdoms characters naming.

• The Inventory, Production and associated 2D panels now properly center on screen and are no longer offset.

• Improved GiTSE's Scene Viewer gyzmo for locators.

• Adjusted passer-bys reactions to crimes in certain conditions.

Other

• Added new game textures (3D and 2D) for the new interior scene and the Kingdom crests.

• Added new 2D GUI Shader effects.

• Added missing .NIF files in /wall/.

• Added new 3D interior scene in Guild Houses.

• Added GetDatabaseMaxID Lua Binding.

• The game now generates Lua constants for Professions and CharTemplates.

• Added a minor "Cloth" effect feature available for interior scenes to allow any mesh to simulate a gentle breeze and thus moving naturally.

• "Cloth" objects in interior scenes now have baked-in lightmaps support.

• The game is now able to define more than 64 total "Lua States" scripts.

• ** Added Anti-Aliasing settings in the Game Launcher settings page. **

Thank you so much for your patience! We hope you enjoy this update.

We will continue to provide more updates and Quality of Life additions, tweaks and bugfixes ; mod support, guides and more.

Have a great Sunday as always!