Warbell v0.19.0

Warbell v0.19.0 — Archers & the First-Person Rework

Archers take the field, first-person grows a full weapon rework, the five landmarks come alive —
and a nasty periodic freeze is gone.

New

• Archers. A third of your militia now train as longbowmen — a real draw-and-loose animation and
  arcing arrows that can miss. Archer sentries man the keep roof, and the rival desert town fields
  its own bowmen.
• First-person weapon rework. Your sword, shield, and arms now sit correctly in frame (properly
  mirrored, hand on the grip), carry low out of combat, and draw up into guard only when a threat is
  near.
• Prisoner cages, rebuilt. Real captive peasants sit in a natural timber cage; the door swings
  open when you free them, and the rescued villagers speak up.
• The five landmarks come alive. Every world landmark is rebuilt as an animated set-piece with
  moving parts, not a static prop.
• A bigger island. The world scale grew — taller mountains, more breathing room, more river
  bridges, and taller one-sided coastal ridges.
• New start-menu backdrop — a golden-hour keep raked by god rays.
• Softer character models. Peasants and orks got rounder limbs, torsos, and bevels.

Combat & night

• Clearer night sieges. Horde torches, gate braziers, a hotter brazier flame, and a longer
  hurt-flash make the dark battles far easier to read.
• Ork torch-bearers now carry the war-torch in the shield hand instead of strapped to their back.
• New bow-shot and critical-hit sound effects.
• Sharper player attack-damage scaling.

Fixed

• Fixed the periodic multi-second freeze — an unindexed collision scan and an oversized
  pathfinding budget were stalling the whole game every so often.
• Fixed z-fighting flicker on the desert pyramid.

Under the hood

• Faster pathfinding with terrain-height caching.
• Distance-based level-of-detail for wildlife and ork AI, so far-off crowds cost far less.
• Miners and woodcutters spread their job searches so workers stop clumping on one tree or rock.
• Terrain far-LOD keeps the enlarged island smooth in the distance.

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The Windows installer is self-signed, so SmartScreen will warn "Unknown Publisher" — click
More info → Run anyway. A proper code-signing certificate is on the list.

What's Changed

• Night-combat readability: horde torches, gate braziers, longer hurt-flash, honest HITTEST by @miskibin in #48
• Cage rescue overhaul: real peasant captives, natural cage, animated door, freed-NPC comments by @miskibin in #50
• Smooth peasant + ork models: rounder limbs, torsos and bevels by @miskibin in #49
• FP viewmodel: full handedness mirror + combat-gated weapon raise by @miskibin in #51
• Town archers: longbow militia with draw-and-loose animation + ballistic arrows by @miskibin in #52
• Redesign website with real Ultra in-engine screenshots per feature by @miskibin in #53
• Add rival desert bowmen with ranged combat by @miskibin in #54
• Redesign menu backdrop: golden-hour keep with god rays by @miskibin in #56
• Landmark set-pieces overhaul: five animated biome monuments by @miskibin in #55

Full Changelog: v0.18.0...v0.19.0

What's Changed

• Night-combat readability: horde torches, gate braziers, longer hurt-flash, honest HITTEST by @miskibin in #48
• Cage rescue overhaul: real peasant captives, natural cage, animated door, freed-NPC comments by @miskibin in #50
• Smooth peasant + ork models: rounder limbs, torsos and bevels by @miskibin in #49
• FP viewmodel: full handedness mirror + combat-gated weapon raise by @miskibin in #51
• Town archers: longbow militia with draw-and-loose animation + ballistic arrows by @miskibin in #52
• Redesign website with real Ultra in-engine screenshots per feature by @miskibin in #53
• Add rival desert bowmen with ranged combat by @miskibin in #54
• Redesign menu backdrop: golden-hour keep with god rays by @miskibin in #56
• Landmark set-pieces overhaul: five animated biome monuments by @miskibin in #55

Full Changelog: v0.18.0...v0.19.0