Patch notes for Version: EA 0.5.0 on June 5th, 2018

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Patch notes for Version: EA 0.5.0 on June 5th, 2018Steam version number: 2834431New Feature- We implemented a new camera system that allows you to quickly zoom to points of interest by zooming where the mouse cursor is pointed to. Additionally, the camera is rotating around a focus point, similar to classic RTS cameras. Now it should be more comfortable for you to switch between close-up investigations and getting back a nice overview.- As tastes are different, we provide you with an additional camera mode: the free camera! This mode allows you to freely rotate the camera on all axes.- You will be able to switch between the two camera modes via a button above the area map button.- To avoid creating the feeling of being stuck in the floor we added another smoothing feature to the camera. Now, the closer you get to the terrain the more the camera is inclining, similar to how it was done in The Guild 2.- The new camera system is now also independent from the frame rate, so frame rate drops should be less recognizable.Fixes- One of the major problems with the UI was tackled: some areas of the user interface, where invisible/disabled elements were located, were catching mouse input which lead to several bugs (e.g. characters couldn't be sent to locations on the edge of the view). A lot of changes have been done to the system, so now you should be able to click through UI elements that are hidden.- Another issue that was related to it is probably known by everybody too well: if the mouse-wheel was used to scroll in a window (e.g. the market menu), the game camera was also zooming. This shouldn't happen anymore due to our refactoring. Though if you want, you can move the cursor out of a window and be able to zoom.- Camera fixes: we added a very short delay window when you are trying to pan the camera with the right mouse button. This should fix the issue that if you wanted to move the character the camera was moved instead. Also, moving the cursor to the edge of the screen now pans the camera much smoother.- The process of loading a scenario map or a saved game now ends after the scenario is finally initialized and it is faster than before. The introductive narration and camera flight at the start of scenario maps will be reworked in one of the coming patches.- Beside dozens of minor bug fixes, we as well solved a large number of bugs with negative influence on the performance - the performance will still be one of our main focuses in question of bug fixes in the next patches!Art- To further tackle the performance issues additional level-of-details are created and added for buildings and props. You should barely be able to spot the difference but at a certain distance the number of polygons per building is reduced. The following models have already been changed:- all 4 farmers houses- smithy level 1 and 2- We took your feedback about the Depth of Field (distance blur) effect in the world view seriously and decided to change it. We are aware that shadow glitches are more prominent now and will remedy that in a future path. The field of view is clearer now and we think it fits much better than it was before.Known issuesBy refactoring the input system of the UI a small issue was introduced: in some cases if you are hovering a character portrait with the mouse pointer while another character is selected, the camera will focus on that character in the game world. We are currently on it to fix that.Important MessageAfter installing the latest patch, your old saved games will possibly no longer be shown in the menu due to the reason that the game recognizes them as "incompatible". If you have problems with loading or saving, then we recommend deleting all files from the folder named "Games", where all of your saved games are stored.It is possible that some of the issues that you encounter but other players not, are causes by missing or corrupt files. In this case it may help if you do the following: STEAM -> right click "The Guild 3" in your Steam library and then Properties - LOCAL FILES - VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILESWhat we plan to do for the next patch...- The basic character controls and management of all characters (incl. employees) in the dynasty: right now, we see that there are issues to keep an overview on the location of your characters and whether they have something to do or not. We want to introduce an easy access to the employees in your businesses and we will also introduce a feature that allows you to monitor and switch between your idling characters.- The general controls and feedback related to objects in the game world: right now, the feedback related to what can be selected and what can't is not enough. We want to introduce feedback directly on the objects in the 3D world so it's easier to see what can be interacted with.- The occlusion issues with characters in the world: currently the vegetation and general big structures are easily occluding characters. We are currently working on a system that increases the transparency of occluding buildings and props (i.e. trees). To avoid any bigger impact on the performance we may introduce an option in the options menu, which allows you to decide whether you want to use the feature or not.- More level-of-details: for possibly another 20 buildings the level-of-details will be done. This way the performance should also get better with every version.- More bug fixes.A brief outlook...In the near future we plan to jump on the topics "title and progression system" (more requirements for higher titles than just xp) and "better visualization of dynasty characters, employees and buildings" (with the dynastie's colors and/or crests) and "better visualization of employees" (with specific character models), so it will be easier to differentiate important characters and buildings from non-dynasty characters.**********Your feedback counts!If you can spare some time for the following little survey regarding the changes in patch EA 0.5 you would help us greately: Google Form Please note: we have no intents of collecting data other than your feedback - you stay totally anonymiouse. This survey ends on Sunday, June 17th 2018.