Hope you're enjoying Forestry Update so far! As you might've guessed, we didn't waste any time and already started working on the next one, but we'll keep releasing patches in-between with important fixes and improvements.

The biggest change in this patch is solving memory-related crashes after a few hours of playing, while loading the game, or seemingly for no reason at all for some players. If that sounds familiar, please let us know if the patch helped.

If you're still experiencing crashes, please reports them here: https://www.playbellwright.com/support

• Fixed memory-related crashes affecting some players with certain hardware combinations.
  
• Fixed performance hitches related to large quantity of top-up orders.
  
• Fixed performance hitches related to updating resources in huge settlements.
  
• Fixed crash related to cutting down a specific tree type in swamps.
  
• Fixed crash in co-op when player joins at the same time as the host starts sleeping.
  
• Optimized textures of some of the melee weapons.

• Fixed NPCs sometimes getting stuck when trying to harvest resources for construction.
  
• Fixed NPCs getting stuck while trying to run from an enemy within 40m that they can't see.
  
• Fixed Farnworth Expert Weaver being hirable; hiring higher skilled villagers will be available in the future.
  
• Fixed Medicinal Salve being visible in Tier 1 Research Desk and missing profession requirement for research.
  
• Fixed garlic growing time and input requirement at farms.
  
• Fixed tilling state of a farm not saving if nothing was planted there on the spot.
  
• Fixed some weapons missing materials on weapon racks.

• Fixed not being able to do other quests for Elders except liberation after reaching Protector trust level.
  
• Fixed Blackridgepool Elder dialogue issues caused by War and Peace quest.
  
• Fixed quests being stuck on old saves when required NPCs were dead. Affected quests: Packing Light, Creeping Death, On the Verge, Whodunit? and A Cut Above.
  
• Fixed hirable NPCs in Burning Stove quest having higher skills than their skill caps.
  
• Fixed trust being given for Crasmere instead of Blackridgepool in The Expecting Mother quest.
  
• Fixed description issues in Self-preservation and The Expecting Mother quests.

• Improved and fixed Polish, Ukrainian and Russian localization.

Forestry introduces a building where you can grow saplings and use them to replant nearby forests, allowing your settlements to have a sustainable source of wood instead of having to create new outposts deeper and deeper into Karvenia.

Staging Ground is another exciting feature - a gathering place to prepare your companions before journeying further. Companions assigned to it will automatically stock up on food, equipment, and arrows from nearby storages, significantly improving resource management.

Tier 3 buildings received plenty of tweaks and improvements as well. Notably, an overhaul for Windmill and Bakery, with the goal of creating a simple and consistent source of food for all of your workers.

Bakery will now be able to feed every one of your villagers with higher bread output, while Windmill and Thresher will produce significantly more flour and grains. On the other hand, new dishes added to the Inn provide useful status effects for players and soldiers like increased experience gain and higher combat attributes.

Many remaining gameplay issues have also been addressed. For example, many Tier 2 weapons, armors, and some buildings like Drying Rack will no longer require villagers with professions to research them. It was a common complaint that equipment needed to fight the brigands was only unlockable after liberation.

We considered different options like making brigands easier to kill, but ultimately decided that removing profession requirements from some of them would solve the issue without changing the rest of the gameplay.

Additionally, food items that don’t regrow including meat and cooked dishes had their spoilage times increased as many of you have suggested, and Villagers will finally be able to navigate properly around Tier 3 buildings, use ramps and walk on wooden platforms without issues.

Updated after Preview Branch

• Added Forester, where players and NPCs can grow saplings and replant forests.
  
• Added Tree Seeds that drop when harvesting saplings and young trees, and can be bought from herbalists.

• Added Staging Ground, where players can assign their companions to it; they will stock up on food, equipment, and arrows from nearby storages and await further orders at its location.
  
• Added food slider setting to squad menu to specify how much they should bring when commanded to Staging Ground.
  
• Added Food Bag, allowing players and NPCs to store food in a separate container instead of the inventory.

• Overhauled Bakery gameplay loop to allow for consistent bread production that feeds the town, requiring larger wheat fields to support it.
  
• Increased Bread output in Bakery from 1 to 8 per craft; all other recipes from 1 to 3.
  
• Changed Grains recipe in Thresher to 10 Wheat -> 30 Grains, effectively keeping the same balance, but reducing the time it takes for NPCs to carry resources.
  
• Increased Flour output in Windmill from 1 to 5 per craft.
  
• Increased Grain requirement per flour from 3 to 6, effectively making the recipe 30 Grains -> 5 Flour.
  
• Reduced Flour crafting time in Windmill from 5 min to 2.5 min.
  
• Changed Windmill worker job category from Cooking to Crafting.
  
• Changed Wheat category from Food Ration to Resource, so they don’t store it in Food Cellar.
  
• Changed Windmill to require a worker to reflect much higher crafting efficiency.
  
• Fixed various floating decorations in the Windmill.

• Added new unique recipes to Inn that have status effects useful for players.
  
• Increased Warehouse storage volume from 2500 to 6500.
  
• Increased Big House NPC capacity from 5 to 7.
  
• Added 4 Foraging Racks to Foraging Lodge.
  
• Moved Apiary from Tier 2 to Tier 3, as it can’t be researched this early and honey has no use before Tier 3.
  
• Increased Sage requirement in Honey from 3 to 5 to reflect the change in Apiary tiers.
  
• Replaced Cured Rope with Rope in Coal Burner recipe to fix a Resin deadlock.
  
• Removed smithing requirement when crafting at the Workshop to remove Iron Hammer deadlock.

• Fixed NPCs getting stuck on or trying to walk under wooden platforms and ramps of Tier 3 buildings.
  
• Fixed some NPC interactables in Tier 3 buildings not being accessible when a building is placed on extreme hills.
  
• Fixed various issues with decorations in Tier 3 buildings; wrong collision set up and locations, resulting in flying or clipping.
  
• Fixed fast travel in Town Hall spawning players on top of the roof.
  
• Fixed Mashed Potatoes and Beetroot Jam not being possible to craft by players.
  
• Fixed floating fences and flowers in Lodge.
  
• Fixed Lumbermill being possible to be built partially inside hills.
  
• Fixed Apiary map icon using meat.

• Increased spoilage time for food that doesn’t regrow; this includes meat, cooked dishes, and special raw food like Cloudberry.
  
• Removed and adjusted NPC profession requirements for researching Tier 2 equipment in Toolmaker and Weaver Hut.
  
• Changed metal helmets crafted in Weaver Hut to Toolmaker.
  
• Added stock up command for companions to be available on any single stockpile similarly to Staging Ground; they will only stock up from that stockpile.
  
• Made it possible to destroy saplings growing in forests by hitting them with a weapon.

• Fixed book reading and other status effects sometimes get stuck when loading the game after sleeping.
  
• Fixed Knowledge Book loot never dropping One Handed books; thank you to our modders for finding this issue.
  
• Fixed Rabbit Traps sometimes not being accessible by Trappers.

• Improved and extended the final quest after killing Lord Ashbourne.
  
• Added unique dialogues to Lord Ashbourne when meeting him before the battle.
  
• Removed incorrect lines from Lord Ashbourne outside of dialogue.
  
• Significantly improved NPC navigation in Headquarters, allowing for much smoother combat with big armies.
  
• Blocked unfinished areas that aren’t supposed to be accessible yet.
  
• Fixed some wooden walkways and the balcony not being accessible by NPCs.
  
• Fixed various other issues by spreading our or grouping closer together decorations.

• Added new down block animation for two handed weapons.
  
• Increased the size and duration of blood particles to make them more prominent.

• Added the word “Broken” to broken items when searching for deliveries and for storage management in stockpiles.
  
• Added warnings to the Research Desk screen to show missing requirements for research.
  
• Added new category to stockpile storage management for Knowledge Books, quest items, Old Coins, and animal trophies.
  
• Improved various alignments and positions of various screens and menus.
  
• Added words “Highest” and “Lowest” when selecting priorities to make it clearer.
  
• Made clicking on Specify Amount in storage management enable the associated item if it was disabled.
  
• Made disabling an item in a storage management also disable the associated amount rule.

• Updated all localization to new and changed text.
  
• Improved and fixed Ukrainian, Polish, and Russian localizations.
  
• Updated Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese localizations.

• Fixed wrong spelling of Bradford in some posters.
  
• Fixed wrong text being voiced by NPCs in some instances of dialogue.

• Fixed rare issue on save files in late progression that would load for 10 minutes or more.
  
• Fixed crash when Rabbit Traps would get assigned to a settlement twice.
  
• Fixed Communication Breakdown quest failing if you kill bandits without talking to them first.
  
• Fixed working animations not playing for NPCs when using some Tier 2 buildings.
  
• Fixed hidden containers on NPCs when bags are equipped and items are stored, but not visible; was previously fixed, but required reequipping the bags. Now it's fixed automatically
  
• Fixed hidden containers on NPCs when bags are equipped and items are stored, but not visible. Previously required to reequip the bags, but is now automatic.
  
• Fixed shooting corpses giving Archery experience and lowering trust on mutilating animal corpses.

A preview of the first content update is now available as a separate branch on Steam. instructions for which you’ll find pinned in preview-branch channel of our Discord[discord.com]. This Preview Branch will be updated before most patches, allowing you to test new features and changes ahead of time.

A new Discord channel and forum tag are now available for Preview Branch discussions and issue reporting. Your feedback and bug reports will be very important to stabilize the updates, so please share any problems you encounter.

You can join the Preview Branch right now to help us test these features and provide your feedback before the patch. Stay tuned for updates on our Discord[discord.com], and thank you for your support!

• Added Forester, where players and NPCs can grow saplings and replant forests.
  
• Added Tree Seeds that drop when harvesting saplings.

• Added Staging Ground, where players can assign their companions to it; they will stock up on food from nearby storages and await further orders at its location.
  
• Added Food Bag, allowing players and NPCs to store food in a separate container instead of the inventory.

• Improved and extended the final quest after defeating Lord Ashbourne.
  
• Added unique dialogues to Lord Ashbourne when meeting him before the battle.
  
• Removed incorrect lines from Lord Ashbourne outside of dialogue.
  
• Significantly improved NPC navigation in Headquarters, allowing for much smoother combat with big armies.
  
• Blocked unfinished areas that aren’t supposed to be accessible yet.
  
• Fixed some wooden walkways and the balcony not being accessible by NPCs.
  
• Fixed various other issues by spreading our or grouping closer together decorations.

• Overhauled Bakery gameplay loop to allow for consistent bread production that feeds the town, requiring larger wheat fields to support it.
  
• Increased Bread output in Bakery from 1 to 8 per craft; all other recipes from 1 to 3.
  
• Increased Flour output in Windmill from 1 to 5 per craft.
  
• Increased Grain requirement per flour from 3 to 6, effectively making the recipe 30 Grains -> 5 Flour.
  
• Changed Windmill worker job category from Cooking to Crafting.
  
• Changed Wheat category from Food Ration to Resource, so they don’t store it in Food Cellar.
  
• Changed Windmill to require a worker to reflect much higher crafting efficiency.
  
• Fixed various floating decorations in the Windmill.

• Added new unique recipes to Inn that have status effects useful for players.
  
• Increased Warehouse storage volume from 2500 to 6500.
  
• Increased Big House NPC capacity from 5 to 7.
  
• Added 4 Foraging Racks to Foraging Lodge.
  
• Moved Apiary from Tier 2 to Tier 3, as it can’t be researched this early and honey has no use before Tier 3.
  
• Increased Sage requirement in Honey from 3 to 5 to reflect the change in Apiary tiers.
  
• Replaced Cured Rope with Rope in Coal Burner recipe to fix a Resin deadlock.
  
• Removed smithing requirement when crafting at the Workshop to remove Iron Hammer deadlock.
  
• Removed Fast Travel from Town Hall; it was an experimental feature that had broken functionality.
  
• Fixed various navigation issues in Tier 3 buildings, where NPCs would get stuck.
  
• Fixed some NPC interactables in Tier 3 buildings not being accessible when a building is placed on extreme hills.
  
• Fixed various issues with decorations in Tier 3 buildings; wrong collision set up and locations, resulting in flying or clipping.
  
• Fixed Mashed Potatoes and Beetroot Jam not being possible to craft by players.
  
• Fixed floating fences and flowers in Lodge.
  
• Fixed Lumbermill being possible to be built partially inside hills.
  
• Fixed Apiary map icon using meat.

• Increased spoilage time for food that doesn’t regrow; this includes meat, cooked dishes, and special raw food like Cloudberry.
  
• Removed and adjusted NPC profession requirements for researching Tier 2 equipment in Toolmaker and Weaver Hut.
  
• Changed metal helmets crafted in Weaver Hut to Toolmaker.
  
• Made it possible to destroy saplings growing in forests by hitting them with a weapon.
  
• Fixed book reading and other status effects sometimes get stuck when loading the game after sleeping.
  
• Fixed Knowledge Book loot never dropping One Handed books; thank you to our modders for finding this issue.
  
• Fixed Rabbit Traps sometimes not being accessible by Trappers.

• Added new down block animation for two handed weapons.
  
• Increased the size and duration of blood particles to make them more prominent.

• Added the word “Broken” to broken items when searching for deliveries and for storage management in stockpiles.
  
• Added warnings to the Research Desk screen to show missing requirements for research.
  
• Added new category to stockpile storage management for Knowledge Books, quest items, Old Coins, and animal trophies.
  
• Improved various alignments and positions of various screens and menus.
  
• Added words “Highest” and “Lowest” when selecting priorities to make it clearer.
  
• Made items in storage management automatically enable when Specify Amount is clicked and disable when it's cleared.

• Updated all localization to new and changed text.
  
• Improved and fixed Ukrainian, Polish, and Russian localization.
  
• Updated Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese localization.
  
• Fixed wrong spelling of Bradford in some posters.
  
• Fixed wrong text being voiced by NPCs in some instances of dialogue.

• Fixed rare issue on save files in late progression that would load for 10 minutes or more.
  
• Fixed crash when Rabbit Traps would get assigned to a settlement twice.
  
• Fixed working animations not playing for NPCs when using some Tier 2 buildings.
  
• Fixed shooting corpses giving Archery experience and lowering trust on mutilating animal corpses.

The first content update is drawing ever so near, and you can expect a post about it as early as tomorrow. In this patch, we've focused on solving the remaining major issues with quests that you had reported, along with other fixes and improvements.

We've also added a new tool slot for your NPCs, so they don't have to unequip their weapons every time, allowing them to always be able to defend their livelihood. This change has been planned for the upcoming content update, but we wanted to introduce it sooner, as it's been highly requested by you.

• Added special tool slot for NPCs, so they don't drop weapons when equipping them.
  
• Made Well produce water during winter.
  
• Made refreshing a food slot with the same type of food move it to the last slot.
  
• Fixed reclamation parties from Headquarters sometimes getting stuck on castle gates.
  
• Fixed some Tier 2 equipment recipes requiring Steel, as it only becomes available in Tier 3.
  
• Fixed worker productivity turning negative when a worker had a slacker trait, low morale and winter debuff.
  
• Fixed crash when raiders try to steal more items than present in a settlement after moving stockpiles to outposts.
  
• Fixed quests breaking or crashing the game when a player outpost exists with the same name as a neutral village.
  
• Fixed Burning Stove quests getting stuck if camps were cleared out before the quests started.
  
• Fixed Expecting Mother quest sometimes not counting as completed.
  
• Fixed Packing Light: Part 2 missing an NPC required for it.
  
• Fixed Communication Breakdown getting stuck if quest NPC was killed before player talked to him.

We have quite a lot of fixes for you today from your reports! Major issues with quests have been fixed, so please let us know if the patch solved them for you. Hunters will also no longer stare at the sky when birds fly too high and will properly bring their loot back.

Localization had both major and minor improvements, especially for Japanese language. If you're playing in Japanese, we would really appreciate your feedback on our Discord[discord.com]

• Improved A Wife's Wrath quest not to seem bugged before taking it when talking to quest NPC.
  
• Improved various quest descriptions to make the goals more clear.
  
• Fixed prisoners turning hostile in Burning Stove quest line.
  
• Fixed Sleight of Hand quest NPC displaying wrong quest.
  
• Fixed Lost Sword quest not finishing, allowing to loop the reward talk.
  
• Fixed prisoner cages sometimes appearing in wrong locations in quests.
  
• Fixed quest NPCs sometimes appearing in wrong locations.

• Improved Japanese localization; working on further improvements.
  
• Fixed various issues in texts and all language localizations.
  
• Fixed hunters not being able to hit fast moving targets.
  
• Fixed hunters not bringing bird loot back.
  
• Fixed dead birds getting stuck in the air after dying in background (when player is far away).
  
• Fixed flight trajectory of Steel Arrows having a sudden drop.
  
• Fixed Iron Ingot being crafted instead of Steel when workers add items out of order.
  
• Fixed higher tier bows having wrong tool type; now all bows can be used for hunting.
  
• Fixed hunters getting confused and not doing anything when birds fly too high.
  
• Fixed not being able to loot one of the three chests in Wheat Fields.
  
• Fixed some bandit camps despawning before all chests are looted.
  
• Fixed crash when character or settlement name was longer than 256 characters.
  
• Fixed crash related to Smelter particles when crafting.

As we're working on the upcoming content update, we'd like to present another batch of fixes for you as well as a new structure - Tanning Rack.

It will allow you to craft Leather and Crude Wool similar to how structures like Bloomery and Cauldron work, where you or your workers add ingredients for tanning and won't need to stay there while it's crafting. It also has 2 slots! We've kept the original recipes in the Tanner's Hut for now, so you won't lose your progress if it's already crafting.

• Added Tanning Rack, allowing to craft Leather and Crude Wool without active workers.
  
• Fixed items getting lost in Lodge chest.
  
• Fixed some items not being marked as quest items and being tradeable, resulting in losing them.
  
• Fixed rare bug with villagers stuck in delivery role not doing anything; was caused by a specific combination of priorities.
  
• Added a filter to not show non-tradeable items in settlement trading.
  
• Fixed talk quests being marked as completed when exiting the dialogue too early.
  
• Fixed equipping bags on NPCs creating a hidden bag container, resulting in some items being hidden in their inventories; was the cause for missing tools. Please reequip the bags on your NPCs when loading the game after the patch.
  
• Fixed hunting radius resetting after reloading a save.
  
• Fixed rare crash when bandits send out parties from camps.

Releasing a game to you, the player, is terrifying. Really, genuinely, terrifying. After years of work there is always the fear that you completely missed the mark, or - possibly worse - that you graced the mark but missed anyway. Up to release, there is a constant lingering anxiety that we missed some minor detail that could have been fixed if spotted early enough, but was somehow missed.

Today, 12 days after release, over 150.000 of you have decided that Bellwright is a game worthy of your time and money, and it’s growing steadily every day. It is hard to explain just how much this means to us. You have taken away the anxiety and replaced it with motivation, encouragement and even trust. We understand what this means, and we will not disappoint you. The message is clear: Bellwright is ambitious and unique, but it’s also early, raw, and needs more work. And work, we will.

What I am personally thankful for is the community that is forming around the game. No matter where I look - Steam, Discord, Reddit, Twitch - people are friendly, respectful and helping each other out. You are all incredibly pleasant to talk to :)

One thing you may have noticed is that we have been somewhat reluctant to reveal what is planned for the future. This was a very deliberate decision: We wanted to avoid hyping you up about features that do not exist yet in the game. We feel very strongly that you should only buy Bellwright if you feel it is in a worthy state right now. On the other hand we get asked more and more often to share where we’re headed. There are actually a couple of features in the prototype stage that we could consider previewing. Please give me some advice here, do you prefer us to keep silent about features until they are ready, or would you like us to give you a sneak peek into features we’re working on?

Quality of life improvements as well as fixes for bugs reported by you are available now in the latest patch! If one of your buildings was stuck in a construction phase, this patch will solve the issue.

We've been gathering your feedback, wishes, and complaints about the game on Discord, Reddit, and Steam Forums, and are currently discussing them with the team. We'll have an announcement for you tomorrow regarding the next steps for Bellwright, as we strongly believe in keeping you in the loop of our development and progress.

• Added storage rules and filters for Food Cellar.
  
• Added visual technology unlock for Advanced Research Desk to suggest it's a part of the Village Hall; research did not change.
  
• Added Iron Nails to be craftable in Toolmaker as well as description suggests.
  
• Moved Iron Nail technology unlock to be unlocked after Iron Ingot.
  
• Made crows spawn in a more predictable way to help tracking them down.
  
• Changed Cottage research requirement from Craftsman to Engineer.
  
• Changed Salve research requirement from Herbalist to Healer.
  
• Fixed some structures getting stuck during building construction.
  
• Fixed collision of Windmill in Wheat Fields blocking movement and access to loot chests.
  
• Fixed Bandit's Bane achievement not triggering.
  
• Fixed Outhouse not destroying food when deposited.
  
• Fixed damaged items not being removed when sold via settlement trading.
  
• Fixed workers sometimes getting stuck when depositing items in Food Cellar.