[ACE] Pre-Release 0.9.6

[Vinicius_Resende]

I really enjoy playing ACE and i’ve been following the development for years now, thanks for the hard work! There’s an issue i always get when playing the game, my game keeps closing when i try to open it, i have to try many times to start the game (sometimes i have to open and close the game at least 10 times, so i can get passed the “radiant” screen), also i think the game runs very poorly in my system even though i use a 4070 super, 32gb of RAM and a ryzen 5 5600. Maybe these are known issues or somebody can give me some tips to prevent this freezing when starting the game.

Thanks a lot.

[paulthegreat]

Suddenly constant crashing and failure to launch

Hey, I have hundreds of hours in ACE and been a long time lurker on these forums. I’m aware of the openssl dlls for /64bit etc and had been using them with no problems for years. All a sudden, sometime in the last month (since i played last) the game no longer launches 9 times out of 10 and if it does lauch, will crash without feedback to desktop after a few mins. I’ve changed nothing on my computer, not updated any drivers, nor tinkered with stonehearth. The only thing I can see that’s chan…

[DaniAngione]

I’ve added the notes for a Sneaky Update at the end of the previous changelog, as usual, but I’d like to reply a quote to highlight this particular bit here:

@DaniAngione

• Some unnecessary client calls to get_all_catalog_data from the server have been removed, optimizing some stuff under the hood. This change alone has, in our testing, greatly improved the performance of the game when starting up, reducing the amount of crashes or bad starts significantly! Please note that this doesn’t apply to the overall game performance nor gameplay crashes (or crashes when loading big saves, for example); However it does mean that starting the game might go back to being a much more stable and straightforward activity than it has been recently! Please let us know if you perceive the improvement!
• The above improvement wouldn’t have been possible without the remarkable determination and dedication of one the most reputable members of our community, Findersword. They’ve downloaded several different versions of ACE through our Github repository and performerd extensive testing, starting up the game many dozens of times, registering the outcome of each attempt and ultimately tracking down the versions that started to cause instability, allowing our very own paulthegreat to pin down possible suspects and perform the above changes. So, due to the importance of this particular improvement and as an exception to the norm, we’ve decided to call out their name! And also…
• Statue of Mr. Muramasa, decoration. A new rare statue to be purchased from the Sculptor’s Guild merchant! Legend has it that Mr. Muramasa, the first Samurai, brought an end to an era of turmoil and instability!

Thank you very much to @Findersword for their commitment in pursuing this matter and tracking down possible timeframes for the issue and for @paulthegreat for pin-pointing the possible suspects and eliminating them!

Please let us know how it feels for you after the update, if you experience more stability when launching the game!

[STONEHEARTHplayer]

Dear Dani,I am glad to see that ACE has recently been fixed and updated.
After multiple tests, the game startup has become smoother than before, without encountering black screens or stuck in the logo interface. I believe all your efforts have been effective.
I will continue to play for a long time to check if there will be any errors or game crashes. If there are any problems, I will immediately give you feedback. On behalf of all Chinese players, thank you for your efforts.

[STONEHEARTHplayer]

Dear Dani, last night a player gave me feedback on a problem, and after testing it myself, I found that what he said was correct.

The specific content of the error is that when I want to place the item through the placement button on the business card in the bottom left corner, the placement interface almost immediately skips and causes it to be impossible to place, making it now only possible to place it from the placement menu. I hope you can also test it to see if this problem exists.
To prevent me from speaking too clearly, the following is a live video of the device.

Another recent issue I discovered is that when I am playing Northern Alliance, the golems will also trigger an escape when encountering hunting animals, causing it to not work. The specific real machine demonstration is as follows.

The last question is, I didn’t see 阿夜 on the community shrine.Thank you for your efforts, and I will continue to support you as always.

[DaniAngione]

Hey there! Thank you guys for your continued support

Now, about these issues…

@STONEHEARTHplayer

To prevent me from speaking too clearly, the following is a live video of the device

Yeah, we’ve had a report of that issue a while ago and failed to find what could be causing it, it wasn’t a bit issue since you can still place from the Place Menu as you’ve said but we’d love to fix it, of course! We’ll look into it again!

@STONEHEARTHplayer

Another recent issue I discovered is that when I am playing Northern Alliance, the golems will also trigger an escape when encountering hunting animals, causing it to not work. The specific real machine demonstration is as follows.

Hah! That’s a funny one
Yeah, it happens because wild animals are tagged “hostile” to NA and golems will just try to flee from any hostile creatures they see
I’ll see what we can do about it, thank you for bringing it up

@STONEHEARTHplayer

The last question is, I didn’t see 阿夜 on the community shrine.Thank you for your efforts, and I will continue to support you as always.

Oh my, for a moment there I got scared I missed someone but I checked our Ko-fi page and apparently we’ve never received any support from 阿夜:

When we add names to the Community Shrine, the name we use is decided following this logic:

• Their Discord name if the account is linked.
• If the account is not linked, their Ko-fi account name.

So 阿夜 didn’t use that name when they made the Ko-fi account and probably ended up on the shrine as someone else! Who is they/what’s their Ko-fi name, can you find out? If so, I can change it for them
And if that’s you, your name is registered as 獭獭 on Ko-fi, and that’s the name I’ve used on the shrine (I’m basing myself on the profile picture to deduce that’s you ). Let me know if you want the name changed!

[STONEHEARTHplayer]

Thank you for your reply. Now let me tell you about 阿夜’s specific situation. As I mentioned before, PayPal is almost not used in China, including the ko-fi platform. 阿夜 really wanted to sponsor ACE at that time, but she didn’t know how to use VPN. So she tried to register an account on her own. Since she couldn’t pay with PayPal, she entrusted someone else to do the payment on her behalf. However, when she logged back into Ko-Fi to check, she found that she had to rename her account again. We don’t know what happened, so last time I sent you an order screenshot. The order screenshot was provided by the merchant who helped her pay on her behalf, and I also found that the sponsor’s name changed to ‘someone’ on Ko-Fi. Tomorrow I will contact 阿夜 to try logging into her account and find out where the problem lies.I don’t know if you can check based on the email address used by the user during registration. If necessary, I can provide her email address.
Please forgive us, using VPN to access ko-fi in China is not compliant, and using PayPal for sponsorship is not easy. However, we will continue to explore and do our best to make everyone fall in love with ACE and provide assistance.

[DaniAngione]

Ahh, alright!

I’ve identified it here, it was donated anonymously but with her name on a comment. I’ll add her to the shrine, please forward me my gratitude to their support!

[STONEHEARTHplayer]

Sorry Dani, my last question is that in May, I found out that my Chinese translation file had been added to the ACE file. I was very surprised and wanted to ask you where I can find the submit site to provide new Chinese translation file in the future. I’m sorry, I looked around but couldn’t find it.

[DaniAngione]

Heya!

ACE had a chinese translation file since very early on, actually, and it was being worked by Iviaca, but it has not been updated in 4 years as you can see here:

History for locales/zh-CN.json - StonehearthACE-team/stonehearth_ace

To be fair I didn’t remember it existed, and just assumed all chinese players were using the Workshop mod - which I think it’s yours?

I should probably remove the translation from ACE since it’s outdated and might be conflicting with the mod, which is more up-to-date, and leave only the mod… That way you only have to worry about updating it in one place, not two

(Edit: We also have a german translation which is also very outdated… I should probably remove both)

[STONEHEARTHplayer]

Yes, because I checked the Chinese translation files inside and found that most of the translations were the same as my current files, I consulted with the former members of the translation team. They told me that the name you mentioned is also from our translation team, but they are not currently involved in the Chinese translation work.

You are right, I am also responsible for updating the Simplified Chinese version of the Workshop on Steam. I am the only one left to maintain the translation of all mods, including ACE, since a long time ago.

I want to upload it to the ACE main file because there are many players who have not purchased genuine games, but they come back here or elsewhere to download ACE mods to play.

I am not worried about the translation of the main files of stonehearth, because now China is flooded with pirated stonehearth with different download paths that have moved our previous translation (although this behavior is not good, not everyone is willing to pay for legitimate games, and we are already guiding more players to purchase legitimate stonehearth, although the production team is no longer there.).

However, ACE, as a mod that is constantly updated and known to stonehearth players, I am very worried that they will not feel comfortable playing without translation. You don’t have to worry about conflicts, because it hasn’t happened before and everything is fine.

I really love ACE,I also want to contribute my humble efforts to ACE, and as long as you keep updating it, I will not stop translating it into Chinese, so that more Chinese players can enjoy ACE and feel this still vibrant stonehearth world!

I have already made modifications and submitted to the website you provided. I am not sure if it was successful. Could you please take a look? Thank you,Dani.

[DaniAngione]

Alright, I see and understand the reasons. In that case we’ll gladly keep the translation updated on the ACE file for as long as you want to provide it!

You can indeed submit changes to it through Github, and we’ll accept them Expect the updated file on the next update!

Thank you very much for the support and for always speaking on behalf of your community!

[STONEHEARTHplayer]

Dani, I’m here again. A few days ago, I started receiving reports from players that Carpenters and Masons don’t repair Training Dummies and other things.

Today, I received another report from Engineers that don’t repair Training Dummies and other things. After my testing, it was indeed true.

Perhaps you should check whether the repair functions of Carpenters, Masons, Potters, Blacksmiths, and Engineers are normal.

[DaniAngione]

This should be fixed now!

I’ve added the Sneaky Update’s notes to the bottom of the previous changelog, as usual!

Thank you very much for the report!

[DaniAngione]

Puebloan-inspired village, built by Delphi and posted on Steam

Spooky greetings, everyone!

It’s already October again - and you know what that means! It’s time for some… Candledark!
There are some small changes to the campaign for this year - and some new goodies as well!

Patch 0.9.6.18

CANDLEDARK IS HERE!

• The Candledark event returns with some changes and additions! As usual, it will run for more or less a month before we deactivate it. But remember, you can now continue enjoying it (or enjoy it at any time of the year, really!) by using the “[ACE Mod] Candledark”, available on Steam workshop!
• Even without the mod, starting the quest at any time within the next month will allow you to finish it even after the event is disabled.
• Your town needs to be Tier 2 (Hearth upgrade) to start the event! Look out for an old man…
• A bunch of new Candledark-themed items have been added. They can, as before, be crafted after learning their recipes!
• All Wards are now attackable and can be destroyed by enemies! Different Wards will have slightly different health values and threat levels. Enemies will really want to destroy Orange, Green or White wards, for example. Other Wards should be less attractive as long as there’s someone from your army as a better choice!
• There’s now a highly positive thought for enthralled hearthlings being cured.
• There are new achievable titles for slaying witches and vampires! Go, Buffy, go!
• The Candledark Wooden Casket Bed has been renamed and had its model slightly tweaked to better fit its collection.

Added

• Updated the Community Shrine! As always, thank you very much for your support!
  Want to see your own name there? Head to https://ko-fi.com/stonehearth_ace
• Rotten Mutton, uncategorized. For some reason Mutton was the only “big meat piece” without a rotten form. We’ve righted this ancient wrong, once and for all.
• (For Modders!) There’s now support for adding a thought through a buff after it is removed. Use the "thought_added_on_destroy" key for this.

Changed

• Added “Hearth Kibble” to supply containers’ filters.
• Banquet tables have all been slightly tweaked to be centered on a single-tile, similarly to how other tables/dining tables are also centered.
• The inventory filter for water buckets has been moved to the “Other Fluids” category within fluid containers.
• We have changed the priority of all the “Market Shelves” and “Display Counters” to be low instead of high. Now instead of prioritizing your market shelves and shop counters, which resulted in awkward behavior like your town selling resources it needs before it uses it for itself, they will only refill these selling containers after all other priority containers for these items have been supplied. For example, if you have a forge that uses coal, a supply basket for coal and wants to sell coal through a market shelf, they will now only restock it after the forge and the supply baskets are filled.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue where Engineers would go into wonky AI loops when trying to repair or reload a turret that doesn’t need repairing nor reloading.
• Finally (probably?) fixed the “football” issue that caused items to be “kicked around” by hearthlings with backpacks. Yay!
• Fixed a base game issue that somehow never got reported: Rabbit-folk were missing their going up/going down ladder animations!
• Fixed pet kibble bowls having the same priority as supply containers, which meant they rarely got refilled when storing kibble in these.
• Fixed some instances of the icon for the “Basket of Sugarbells” item that was still using the old, base game image.
• Fixed the material tags for “Corn Meal” so it can now be properly stored.

Hotfix 0.9.6.18b

• Fixed Candledark Wards not working… Oopsie

Sneaky Update 0.9.6.18c

• (Candledark) Fixed the missing feet on some Vampire Thrall costumes.
• (Candledark) Fix to Charmed Brooms being invulnerable to damage but still attracting the enemy’s attention. They should no longer attract them (but remain invulnerable).
• The CPU/Processing bar has been significantly improved and it will now display a real-time, short graph of the processing power usage, giving you a more advanced tool to better observe the behavior and performance of your game, hopefully assisting you in finding a sweeter spot. It also has some new features like filtering the data shown (by clicking the different categories);
• Improved the way recipes with broken ingredients (or ingredients with incorrect catalog data) is handled; They should no longer trigger an error although they will still show up on the game’s log.
• Fix for Hunting merchants that were bringing fish sometimes.
• We’ve fixed an issue that prevented animals from being able to eat from raw fish meat or kibble when these objects were on the ground and not in a container.
• HAPPY CANDLEDARK!

Sneaky Update 0.9.6.18d

• (Candledark) Candledark has now been disabled! Remember that if you have already started the event you may continue normally. Additionally, we have a mod on Steam Workshop that allows you to play Candledark whenever you want! You can find it here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3101043217
• (Candledark) The “Bitten” wound that turns a hearthling into a Vampire Thrall lasts a bit longer now (more than a day), giving the player a slightly larger window to save their citizen!
• (Candledark) Enemies can now drop “Bog Butter”, which means they can now drop all three ingredients for the medicine that treats vampire bites. Additionally, these ingredients have an increased chance to drop.
• You can now toggle certain objects that require manual lighting (firepits, fireplaces…) to not be lit automatically. This includes the Candledark Spirit Bonfires, so you may pause the quest at will now! Please note that some objects will not allow toggling, like the town’s Hearth.
• Fixed the completely underwhelming price on the “Hunk o’ Hard Coal Pile”.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the tooltips from certain weathers from being shown, like the “Titanstorm” or the “Under Siege” weathers.

As always, we hope you’ll all have a lot of fun and please make sure to report any issues or provide any feedback you want!

[STONEHEARTHplayer]

Hello Dani, it’s great to see the ACE update.

I have a game issue that I want to give you feedback on. It’s the problem with the pumpkin Wards. After the pumpkin Wards was made, it couldn’t be recognized in the inventory or placement menu, and there was no information on its item card.

I placed only a bunch of blue flames through the item business card.

I hope you can try if this problem exists.

[DaniAngione]

Oh my! That was definitely my fault, I’m sorry

I’ll patch this ASAP.

Edit
Fixed, sorry

[BEN_Studio]

thank you for things you did<3

[SEV3N_SIX]

I’m not sure if I’m crazy or not. I’ve been playing stoehearth for a long time. With the Candledark update on normal difficulty my town is getting smoked. It seems like the enemy does way more damage, or the armor doesn’t mitigate damage. I usually just breeze through enemies, with no worries.

[DaniAngione]

Are you using the Wards?

We’ve made it to be/feel like a Tower Defense game of sorts; That’s why enemies have fixed spawn points (the 3 bonfires), so that you have fixed paths they will take to your town. You can also, ideally, funnel these points into a main entrance.

Then use the wards! Wards can be really OP in weakening the enemies, damaging and debuffing them, not to mention that some of the Wards are essential like the Green one (to reduce the chance of vampire bites), the White one (to remove the otherwordly protection buff), etc. Without the Wards it is a lot more challenging and difficult.

When Witches start coming, aim at them first! They provide a super strong darkness cover to the other enemies and must be your first target.

If you need a respite, you can always block one of the bonfires with something like a lockable door or a rope ladder that you activate/retract. If not all 3 bonfires are lit, an attack will not come!