Finally, we can proudly share our first new update to The Fertile Crescent in 2020!

Showing unit upgrades visually on the battlefield
This feature makes us very excited, since one of our favourite features in RTS games from playing them in our childhood, was to see upgrades take place visually in the game-world. Other than the cool factor, there is also an advantage in that you don't have to click on individual enemy units anymore to see if they've upgraded this or that. Now you will visually and immediately get an impression of how your enemy has upgraded their army with the various equipment available in the Furnace (and if they've researched Composite Bow). This streamlines the game further.

Apothecary
We added a new technology that increases health regeneration by 100%. This takes the number of technologies in the game to 11. Be aware that health regeneration without this technology has been decreased by 50%.

Replaced Weavery with Militia
Weavery didn't really make sense given that this technology was already common long before the The Fertile Crescent's setting, and even so, we suspect most villagers working the fields would prefer less clothing in the hot Mediterranean, African, and Middle Eastern sun. This technology has therefore been replaced by Militia. Militia, like Weavery, gives Villager +10 health increase, but Villagers will in addition fight back with bows and arrows, which gives them a 33% increase in attack range as well.

Changed hotkey scheme
Hotkeys are now based on their position in the command panel (so grid-based), to make it easier to learn and remember all hotkeys for unit actions and constructing buildings. The top-left to top-right production buttons use 'QWERT,' the lines below use 'ASDFG', etc. 

Since 'T' is now taken by the top-right command slot, the new hotkey for opening the Technology Tree is 'SPACE'. 

We also added a second hotkey for toggling idle villagers, 'TAB'. 

This means you should be able to use all hotkeys with only one hand on the keyboard, which modernises the game. Especially if you've grown up typing with touch, you should be able to learn the hotkeys in no time now!

For those of you who have asked for WASD to control the camera, remember that there's currently four ways to move the camera:

1. Arrow keys (which is the main complaint, since this requires using two hands on the keyboard, but it's still optional).
2. Move mouse cursor to end of screen.
3. Hold down mouse scroll wheel.
4. Left-clicking (and dragging) a location on the mini map.

We will still consider adding custom hotkey schemes in the future, but we have no ETA for this.

Unity Analytics
We have enabled Unity Analytics to get a better understanding of our user base.

All the information we receive is anonymous and we'll be tracking the following:
- Number of active players and game sessions
- Number of completed single player games
- Number of completed multiplayer games
- Number of multiplayer games that have 2 players or have 3 or more players
- Which region people play multiplayer games in

Another advantage with Unity Analytics it that we'll receive a report anytime a game error happens for any players playing online, which is super useful for us to keep track of and be notified about. It's challenging and time-consuming to test for everything ourselves.

We have linked to Unity's privacy policy at the bottom of the main menu for those of you who want to know more about the data we collect.

Bug fixes and general improvements
We've taken great care to fix all the bugs we've encountered and that has been reported to us. We've fixed a considerably amount of bugs that previously caused game crashes, game freezes and weird unit behavior. Hopefully, this build will offer a great multiplayer gaming experience that is without any noticeable issues. And as always, we are continuing to make small changes and improvements here and there, like updating the Scout's idle animation so he's more distinguishable, or adding adding construct building foleys.

Let us know what you think
As always, we're grateful for all feedback we receive. Feel free to post what you think about these changes in the comment section on itch.io, or join our Discord to chat with us directly.

Change log 0.5.3

General Improvements
- Unit parts change art when you upgrade copper and bronze equipment in the Furnace
- Bowman's bow visually changes when you research Composite Bow 
- Unit equipment upgrades also show in ui portraits and buttons
- Added new technology Apothecary; all unit's health regeneration 100% faster
- Changed hot key scheme so it's easier to learn and remember hotkeys for buildings and unit actions; it's now grid-based
- Replaced Weavery with Militia: Villagers still get +10 hitpoints and now also gets 33% increased attack range, plus Villager attack animation changes to show Villager attacking with bow and arrow
- Added sound effects for constructing buildings
- Added option to use 'TAB' in addition to 'I' for toggling idle villagers
- AI defender will no longer start moving back to guard position if there are still enemy units nearby
- Updated Scout idle animation so it's easier to see the difference between Scout, Villager and Light Spearman
- Updated Javelinman idle animation so it's easier to see the difference between Javelinman and Light Spearman when both are idling
- Updated Slinger run animation so it's easier to see the difference between Slinger and Villager when they're both running
- Other minor changes to animations for most units
- Updated Scout production button image
- When you attack enemy tribe their offensive units will immediately and continue to go aggressive against you (instead of just hanging around in the middle of the map in certain cases like in the previous build)
- Improved team colour shader
- Updated tooltips for top ui elements (resources bar)
- Fixed typos

Analytics
- Enabled Unity Analytics so we can track basic player behavior (like number of multiplayer games completed, or what region players connect to), and to read error reports
- Added link to Unity privacy policy in the bottom of main menu screen for information regarding Unity Analytics and the data we collect

General changes
- Settlement renamed to Village Center

Balance
- Health regeneration is now 50% slower for all units (without Apothecary researched)

Bug fixes
- Fixed clay pit resource ui portrait
- Fixed error that could happen when deselecting a control group
- Fixed error that could happen when rapidly clicking multiple times on a slot to remove a unit from garrison slot in Watchtower
- Fixed several errors that could happen when an enemy unit died in single player
- Fixed other potential errors that could happen whilst a unit was generally in the process of dying
- Fixed a bug that would cause all units in a group to find a path to the bottom of the map instead of the target
- Placing building image shows correct team colors
- Fixed scaling of research icon in notification box
- Fixed and updated unit portraits for all multiple units selected portraits and buttons
- Fixed several bugs that could happen if a unit was in an enclosed area and tried to move to a tile outside of it
- Fixed a bug with group movement that could happen if target controller moved
- When moving in a group to attack an object all ranged units will now properly attack immediately when target is within attack range
- Fixed a case where a unit would move to a dead enemy position after it died and completely ignoring nearby enemies until reaching position
- Fixed a bug where a group of units would stop and idle if target controller was destroyed before group reached target
- If a group's target unit is killed then units will move to location in attack move instead of moving to dead units position before looking for nearby targets
- Watchtowers can no longer hit buildings across the map
- Watchtowers can no longer focus fire friendly units and buildings
- Watchtowers can no longer freeze the game by focus firing itself
- Fixed several bugs that was caused by trapping units with buildings (and/or resources) and trying to find paths outside the trapped zone
- Fixed a problem that would prevent enemy AI from sending offensive units to attack you
- Can no longer add more than max units in a control group by holding select
- Now showing correct upgraded Composite Bow attack range for Bowman in UI