KCAccess 1.29.0

What's new in 1.29.0

This release follows the game's update of 10 November 2026 (version 124r3s) and a full test of the game with the mod, building by building.

Clipboard

• Ctrl+C copies what you are on, anywhere: a button, a text, a line of a list, a building in the build menu, the tile under the map cursor. On a text field or a share code only the text itself is copied ("Copied: T1003").
• Ctrl+Shift+C copies the whole screen, one item to a line. On the map it copies the tile and the survey of the area.
• Ctrl+V pastes into a text field, so a friend's Kingdom Share code no longer has to be typed.

Safer confirmations

• Every yes-or-no question of the game now starts on No or Cancel. On a slow computer "Permanently delete saved game?" could open on Yes, and Enter deleted the save. This also covers loading over unsaved changes, releasing a dragon and demolishing many buildings.

Water system (game 124r3s)

• The game changed how water spreads. The mod now works it out the way the game does, so the forecast while placing ("Water will reach it", "The water is too weak to reach it here", "no water wheel pumps") matches what the built piece gets.
• While a water wheel waits for workers, the game says "Not enough water power" of every pipe behind it. The mod gives the real reason: no water wheel pumps yet.
• A reservoir without water no longer says how many tiles it irrigates.
• No misleading "not connected" hint while you plan a line of pipes.

New announcements

• Training: Train and Cancel Pending Training now answer ("Training ordered, 2 squads in the queue"). Enter on a train button that is unavailable says what a squad costs and what is missing.
• Hazard pay says "Hazard pay starting, 65 percent" while it starts up, instead of a wrong reason.
• Twitch vote panel: the connection light, a colour only, is read as "Status: Connected".
• Map editor: Toggle Grid says "shown" or "hidden".
• V says "No building is being placed" when you hold no building.
• Settings: the question "Do you want to save your settings before exiting?" is now read.
• Fields you cannot change (the seed of a running map) are called "read-only text".

Fixed

• After Escape in the middle of an envoy's message, every panel said only its name for the rest of the session.
• Closing Mod settings or the key list when it was opened over the build menu said ", empty" and lost the build menu.
• An attack on an island an AI kingdom claimed later was called "foreign kingdom". It is now "an island of Halsbeck".
• "An army of Halsbeck landed" gave the place of vikings already on that island.
• M on a dragon that has not bonded said "Moving to" although the dragon ignores the order. The mod now says why, and also when a dragon is sent to the building it rests in.
• After changing the mod language, the open screen kept its title in the old language.
• An envoy's replies could be missed on a slow computer.
• Setup: Uninstall left KCAccess-Updater.exe in the game folder. It is removed now.

Speed

• The mod no longer searches every object of the game every 30 seconds, which took about a fifth of a second each time on an Extra Large map. Reading the keyboard costs less per frame.

Languages

• All 19 languages have every new text.
• The game's texts did not change in this update.

What was tested

Every line of the test plan on game 124r3s: setup program, every key, every building's panel and its controls, building states, scanner, routes, trade, diplomacy, training, settlers, water system, dragons, creative mode, map editor, Extra Large map, saving and loading, Kingdom Share, all settings, all languages, streaming features, controller, self-repair after a game update.

Tested in a simulated way:

• Kingdom Share ran against a private test server. The real server has no way to delete an upload, so nothing was uploaded to it.
• Controller: every button on every layer was simulated. No physical gamepad was used.
• Steam overlay: Steam did not open it on the test computer, so the mod's messages were tested by simulating Steam's report.
• Missed key fallback: the delivery of a key was tested, but not a real missed key.
• Twitch: votes and chat were simulated without a Twitch channel.

Not tested: the custom banner's "Upload to Workshop" window.

Install: run KCAccess-Setup-v1.29.0.exe, or KCAccess-Updater.exe in the game folder. If your antivirus blocks the setup, use the zip: KCAccess-v1.29.0-with-BepInEx.zip.

KCAccess 1.28.2

What's new in 1.28.2

This release comes from testing every line of the README on the new game. These problems were found and fixed.

Stuck or silent keys

• Escape stopped working after Ctrl+E on an open route. Pressing Ctrl+E while a ship's or cart's route was already open wiped the route, and Escape then did nothing until the game was restarted. The mod now closes the open route first.
• Escape now closes the "demolish more than 25 buildings" warning.
• After a button that disappears when pressed, you now hear where the keyboard went, instead of landing on another item in silence.
• Pressing Enter on a greyed button now says why it can't be used.

Wrong information

• The status list counted other kingdoms' people. K said "Population 5, 10 homeless", because the game's homeless list covers the whole map. It now counts your island only.
• Other kingdoms' troubles were reported as yours. "Problem: 4 starving" could point at an AI kingdom's island, and it was counted in K and in the Problems category. Only your own kingdom counts now.
• Cargo Ship is now called a cargo ship. The mod said "transport ship", which is the game's name for the troop ship. The word now matches the game's own word in every language.
• "- / -" is no longer read aloud on a mine without workers. You hear "none".

New announcements

• Route stops: each stop now says what it does: pick up, drop off, added or removed. Destroy Ship needs a second Enter.
• Saving failed is now said when the game can't create the save folder. Before, you heard nothing at all.
• Brush size is said when you press Increase Radius or Decrease Radius in the map editor.
• The envoy, settlers and troop ships now say "Going to", not "Attacking".

Game bugs fixed

• The main menu's Discord, Twitter and Twitch buttons did nothing since the game's November update. Enter opens the page again.

Languages

• All 19 languages have every new text, and the 11 new achievement names are translated.
• The game left three texts in English in its own 17 languages: the Envoys tab, the Siege Catapults tab and Extra Large. The mod now adds them to all 17.
• Nine more texts the game wrote straight into its windows are now said in your language.
• Game texts after a restart: with the game in another language, the game text files could be lost after a restart. That is fixed.

What was tested

Every line of the test plan, on the new game: setup program, every key, every building, scanner, routes, trade, diplomacy, gifts, research, witch, water system, dragons, creative mode, map editor, new game flow with custom banner, every map size, saving and loading, all settings, all languages, sound cues, self-repair after a game update.

Tested in a simulated way:

• Kingdom Share ran against a private test server. The real server has no way to delete an upload, so nothing was uploaded to it.
• Controller: every button was simulated. No physical gamepad was used.
• Steam overlay: Steam did not open it on the test computer, so the mod's messages were tested by simulating Steam's report.
• Missed key fallback: the delivery of a key was tested, but not a real missed key.
• Achievements were tested with a fake Steam, so none were unlocked.

Install: run KCAccess-Setup-v1.28.2.exe, or KCAccess-Updater.exe in the game folder. If your antivirus blocks the setup, use the zip: KCAccess-v1.28.2-with-BepInEx.zip.

KCAccess 1.28.1

What's new in 1.28.1

After 1.28.0 the mod was tested again on the new game, this time in real play. Most of it was fine. These problems were found and fixed.

Speech

• An envoy's first words were cut off. When an envoy's window opened, "paused" and the window's name interrupted the message, so you only heard the replies. The message is now read in full, and the rest waits behind it.
• The first reply in a conversation was never said. After "4 replies" the keyboard sat on the first reply in silence, so Down skipped it and Enter chose something you had not heard. The first reply is now read. The same fix went into three more lists that start after instructions: the price editor, the feast menu and the gift amounts.
• The Continue button is now said. After a line such as "We are building up a mighty invasion force!" nothing told you that Enter moves on, and Down skipped the button.
• Thai: the three new game texts are translated: the Extra Large map size and the Envoys and Catapults tabs.
• Spoken lines no longer have a full stop before a comma ("Not connected to a Noria., 0 houses in reach") or a space before one ("1 food , 1 charcoal").

Speed

• Working out which window is open cost 55 to 60 milliseconds on every frame on Extra Large maps, and it slowed smaller maps too. It now costs about 2.

Safety

• The parts that announce raids, fires, ships, water and other events now run separately. If a future game update breaks one of them, the others keep talking.

What was tested

All on the new game, in a test world:

• Every building in the game: selecting it, its details and its panel.
• Extra Large maps: making one, adding AI kingdoms, exploring, placing the keep, scanning, walking, saving and loading.
• Diplomacy: visits, envoys bringing a message, the price editor, feasts and gifts.
• Water: wheels, aqueducts, reservoirs and fountains, including water too weak to reach the end of a long chain.
• Merchants: answering a docked ship and buying from it.
• An exploration ship sailing to a new island and settling it with an outpost.
• Dragon roosts, research, taxes, the witch, level-up and survival windows, confirmations, the colour maps, bookmarks and help.

What could not be checked:

• Iron Mine and Large Iron Mine: the test world has no legal place for them, so only their placing hints were heard, not their finished panels.
• The 11 new achievements: their Steam names were checked, but none was unlocked, because that can't be undone on a Steam account. The game never gives them in creative mode, so their announcement was not heard for real.
• A long game on an Extra Large map.

Install: run KCAccess-Setup-v1.28.1.exe, or KCAccess-Updater.exe in the game folder. If your antivirus blocks the setup, use the zip: KCAccess-v1.28.1-with-BepInEx.zip if you don't have BepInEx yet, otherwise KCAccess-v1.28.1.zip.

KCAccess 1.28.0

What's new in 1.28.0

Kingdoms and Castles was updated on 6 November 2026 (game version 124r2s), and KCAccess 1.27.0 fell silent on it. This version works on the new game again, and a future game update should no longer lock you out.

Works with the new game

• Speech, keys and the map work again. The update changed how the game stores a basic kind of list, and that stopped almost every part of the mod at once.
• Trees on a tile, fish in the water and villagers on a tile are read from the game's new systems.
• Auto-walk routes use the game's new walking costs.
• Water buildings: since the update the game only marks a piece as connected as far as the water really reaches. Pieces next to each other would have been reported as "not connected". The mod now works out the link itself, so you still hear why a piece is dry: no water wheel pumps yet, or the water is too weak to reach it. A selected piece gives that reason too, instead of the game's "Not connected to a Noria".
• Extra Large maps: the new size can be chosen and is read in map setup. Generating one was tested, but a full game on one was not played.
• The 11 new achievements are said with their Steam names.
• Screens were compared with the old game, and the main menu, Mods and the new game screens were walked again.

When the game updates again

Tested by running the real, broken 1.27.0 repaired on the new game, without recompiling it: it spoke, loaded a kingdom and read the map.

• At every start KCAccess checks itself against the game. On the version it was tested with, it does nothing. On any other version it repairs a copy of itself in memory in about a second: what moved is used in its new place, and what is gone reads as zero or nothing. One lost fact costs that fact, not the whole mod. Nothing on disk changes.
• You are told: that the game was updated, how many things are not available, and that KCAccess-Updater.exe looks for a new version.
• One failing part cannot stop the rest. Speech, keyboard, menus and the map run separately. A list that stops answering closes instead of holding the keyboard.
• The mod's hooks cannot break the game. An error in a hook is kept away from the game's own code.
• If the game's screens can't be recognised at all, any window with buttons is read as a plain list, so you can still reach Load, Settings and Quit.

This keeps you playing, but it can't replace an update: new game features are only read properly after one, and if a game update changes how something behaves without renaming it, the mod can't notice. See "When the game updates" in the README.

Other

• The game removed the developer test behind the End key bug itself, so the mod's fix for it is gone.
• 38 new unit tests (432 in total), including a check that every hook still finds its game method.
• README updated.
• All 19 languages translated.

Install: run KCAccess-Setup-v1.28.0.exe, or KCAccess-Updater.exe in the game folder. If your antivirus blocks the setup, use the zip: KCAccess-v1.28.0-with-BepInEx.zip if you don't have BepInEx yet, otherwise KCAccess-v1.28.0.zip.

KCAccess 1.27.0

What's new in 1.27.0

Everything outside the game itself (main menu, new game, settings, load and save, Kingdom Share, mods) was checked screen by screen. These were the gaps, now fixed:

Text reader for long texts

• Press Enter on a long text to open it in the text reader:
  • Up and Down read one line at a time;
  • Page Up and Page Down jump between paragraphs;
  • Home and End go to the first and last line;
  • letters jump to a line starting with them;
  • Ctrl+R reads everything, and Escape returns.
• A very long text is no longer read all at once when you reach it. You hear its first line and its length: "Long text, 604 lines. Enter reads it line by line".
• The main menu's News (the game's patch notes, about 600 lines) can now be read this way.

Credits

• The game rolls the credits past and hides every line outside the visible window, so only the first four names could be read before.
• Now the whole credits open as a list as soon as the screen opens, about 5000 lines in 27 groups:
  • the team with their roles ("Peter Angstadt, Design, Programming, Art");
  • the translators by language ("German, 29 names");
  • every backer tier.
• Page Down jumps to the next title, and Escape returns to the main menu.

Banners

• Each banner is described with its emblem: "Banner 2 of 6, yellow, a black sword with two dragons".
• The two blue banners differ by banner 6's orange diagonal band.
• The kingdom name screen's banner button says which banner is chosen: "now banner 1, blue, a white crowned lion's head".

Mods

• Tested with a test local mod and a made-up Workshop subscription, both removed afterwards.
• A local mod's folder button is now "Open the folder of …". It was read as "Externallinkicon", and it now comes after the mod's name.
• A Workshop subscription's button is now "Unsubscribe from …". It was read as "Abort".
• A background button that does nothing ("Black BG") is hidden.
• Game bug fixed: with BepInEx installed, no mod of the game could load, neither local mods nor Steam Workshop subscriptions. The game's mod compiler refused two copies of the Harmony library. Your mods load again.

Other

• README updated.
• All 19 languages translated.

Install: run KCAccess-Setup-v1.27.0.exe, or KCAccess-Updater.exe in the game folder. If your antivirus blocks the setup, use the zip: KCAccess-v1.27.0-with-BepInEx.zip if you don't have BepInEx yet, otherwise KCAccess-v1.27.0.zip.

KCAccess 1.26.0

What's new in 1.26.0

Choose what you hear about kingdoms

Three new check boxes in the mod settings (Ctrl+Shift+O, Speech group). Each one switches only its own messages, and the notification history (L) keeps everything either way:

• Say which of your islands is attacked. Turn it off to hear only the game's banners ("Vikings are attacking!"), as before version 1.25.0.
• Announce attacks on other kingdoms: vikings, dragons and armies on the AI kingdoms' islands.
• Announce other events seen in other kingdoms: fires there, newly claimed islands, and wars, peace and alliances between two AI kingdoms.

New announcements

• Invasions: the game shows no banner when an AI kingdom at war lands an army: "An army of Halsbeck landed on Longvale, your island", later "The army of Halsbeck no longer attacks Longvale, your island".
• Wars, peace and alliances: the game changes these without a message. A sighted player only sees the ruler's face turn grumpy and the docks close. For example, an aggressive kingdom whose envoys you keep ignoring declares war on you. Now you hear "Halsbeck is now at war with you" (danger sound), "… is now at peace with you" or "… is now your ally".
• Fires in other kingdoms, on explored land only, since nobody sees a fire under the fog: "Fire in Halsbeck kingdom, at Farm".
• New islands: "Halsbeck claimed a new island", with the direction to it.
• Fires on your islands now name the island when you have more than one: "Fire at Hovel, Longvale, your island".

Fixes from a check against the whole game code

• An envoy waiting at your keep was announced as an army landing. Envoys and settlers no longer count, and an army counts only when its kingdom is at war with the island's owner.
• Water buildings now follow the game's own water rules. A pipe next to a Dragon Roost gets water through it, and the hints were checked against what the game actually connected.
• When a connected building has no water, the reason now comes from its own chain: either its water wheel lacks workers, or the water is too weak.
• A war is now announced before the landing it causes.

Other

• README updated.
• All 19 languages translated.

Install: run KCAccess-Setup-v1.26.0.exe, or KCAccess-Updater.exe in the game folder. If your antivirus blocks the setup, use the zip: KCAccess-v1.26.0-with-BepInEx.zip if you don't have BepInEx yet, otherwise KCAccess-v1.26.0.zip.

KCAccess 1.25.0

What's new in 1.25.0

Setup and updater

• When an update is available, a new window asks whether to install it. The release notes are in a read-only box, in full, so you can read them line by line with the arrow keys. The Yes and No buttons come right after it: Enter is Yes, Escape is No.

Attacks on each kingdom

• When the map has more than one kingdom (your islands and AI kingdoms), each island's attack is announced on its own, with its direction:
  • "Vikings landed on Halsbeck kingdom, 53 tiles west"
  • "Dragons are attacking Longvale, your island"
  • and when they are gone: "The vikings on Halsbeck kingdom are gone", "The dragons left Longvale, your island".
• Attacks on your own islands play the danger sound; attacks on AI kingdoms play the news sound. All are in the notification history (L).

Water system: water wheel (Noria), aqueduct, reservoirs, bath house, fountains

• While placing one, every tile says what it would connect to and whether it has water, the way a farm says its soil: "can build, connects to Noria to the north, no water", or "not connected to the water system".
• V also says the nearest water building when nothing is next to it.
• A fountain says whether the land is irrigated.
• After construction finishes, you hear whether it works: it has water, the water wheel has no workers yet, the water is too weak, or it is not connected.

Other

• README updated (new "Water system" section).
• All 19 languages translated.

Install: run KCAccess-Setup-v1.25.0.exe, or KCAccess-Updater.exe in the game folder. If your antivirus blocks the setup, use the zip: KCAccess-v1.25.0-with-BepInEx.zip if you don't have BepInEx yet, otherwise KCAccess-v1.25.0.zip.

KCAccess 1.24.1

New in 1.24.1: the updated README (also installed as KCAccess-README.md in the game folder). No change to the mod itself.

• The overview lists what the newer versions added: what each building is for, what its panel and the map show, hearing the selected building work ("+2 stone"), the health of hurt units, loose resources on the ground, and the volume of each sound cue.
• Creative mode lists every brush the game has (envoys, settlers, villagers, siege catapults, elite vikings and ogres were missing).
• The sound cue table has all 21 sounds and says you can also play each one from its line in the mod settings.

If your antivirus blocks the setup program: Malwarebytes' machine-learning check can report the new, unsigned setup program as "MachineLearning/Anomalous". That is a guess about unknown programs, not a virus. Use KCAccess-v1.24.1.zip instead: unpack it into the game folder and allow it to replace the existing files.

Download KCAccess-Setup-v1.24.1.exe to install or update.

KCAccess 1.24.0

New in 1.24.0:

• Loose resources on the ground are announced when new piles appear on your islands: after demolishing a building that held stock ("Demolished Small Stockpile", then "On the ground: wood 38, at the cursor"), after rock removal takes away a stone or iron deposit ("On the ground: stone 100"), when soldiers disband, when bought goods have no room at the dock, or when storage is full. This stays quiet in normal play.
• Loose resources scanner category (Page Down) finds every pile ("stone 30, 4 tiles north"). Their tile says them ("wood 12 lying here"), and I adds that villagers carry them to storage that has room. You cannot pick piles up yourself; the workers of stockpiles, granaries, the dock and workshops do it, so build storage if piles stay.
• Tested in the game: a siege catapult's health ("your siege catapult, 30 percent health", spawned with the creative menu's catapult brush) and a sea gate opening for a ship ("Sea Gate, open for a ship").
• The two features no building uses are left-over game code, not DLC. The mod already labels them in case the game ever shows them.
• A place after a full sentence now starts with a capital ("…extract 100 stone. At the cursor"), which reads better in the on-screen captions.
• All new texts are in the 18 languages.

If your antivirus blocks the setup program: Malwarebytes' machine-learning check can report the new, unsigned setup program as "MachineLearning/Anomalous". That is a guess about unknown programs, not a virus. Use KCAccess-v1.24.0.zip instead: unpack it into the game folder and allow it to replace the existing files.

Download KCAccess-Setup-v1.24.0.exe to install or update.

KCAccess 1.23.1

New in 1.23.1:

• Fixed: harvested wheat and picked apples waiting on a farm or orchard were counted without the part a villager was already on the way to fetch, although it still lies there. The mod now says the whole pile you would see.
• Tested in the game: the health of a hurt troop ship, wild dragon and ogre ("your troop ship, 40 percent health"), a drawbridge raised by vikings next to it ("Drawbridge, raised"), a paused construction site ("construction paused, waiting for wood 8, stone 10"), a farm's harvest, and the 1.23 texts in Thai.

If your antivirus blocks the setup program: Malwarebytes' machine-learning check can report the new, unsigned setup program as "MachineLearning/Anomalous". That is a guess about unknown programs, not a virus. Use KCAccess-v1.23.1.zip instead: unpack it into the game folder and allow it to replace the existing files.

Download KCAccess-Setup-v1.23.1.exe to install or update.