other changes:

• change to Lord party AI thinking:
  * the lord where player is enlisted should now follow marshal orders more often (of course, if there is no campaign in progress he wont)
  * courting a lady is now lower priority than patrolling an alarmed center (it was already very low priority, but now its really the lowest)
  * information radius now depends on culture of kingdom: Romans have highest, while Germans/Brits have the default, which is lowest now. (i.e. range at which a marshal is considered to be too far away, one could think of it like range of messengers)
  
• changes to faction diplomacy AI:
  * actor and target factions consider now possible alliances of their enemies when doing strength calculation
  * if a faction is allied with tow other kingdoms which declare war on each other it will now stay neutral
  * strength calculation now considers size of parties to determine its value
  * allies will now only join wars if they border to the faction, otherwise they cant wage war effectively:
  It is still possible that, for instance, the Dumoni ally with Armenia if both are at war with Rome,
  though Domuni wont join wars of Armenia against Parthia for instance, it will only join wars against Rome (as they both border to Rome)
  In particular, with the "curb power war goal" enabled, large alliances against Rome can be more effective now
  
• the relationship penality with the town lord for enterprises is now -40, idea: governors really need to hate you before they violate the law to harm you
  
• added some Sporus interaction
  
• improved performance of horse archer AI trigger a bit
  
• default female body shows no longer nude boobs, though dancer still (I failed to make it an option)
  
• new maps for steppe terrain
  
• improved patrol spawn code: each town can now have 1 patrol, castles wont have a patrol, this improves performance as I could remove a daily loop over all parties (f*** diplomacy) and AI will now decide size of patrol depending on town wealth, with wealthier towns having larger patrols and the town has to pay for patrol at spawn.
  
• changed saga of Beowulf to poem 'shield of Heracles'
  
• AI patrols should now retreat to their home town if they wandered to far away or are very small and will also drop of prisoners
  
• bandits drop of prisoners whenever they reach their lair, i.e. sold to slave traders
  
• bandits with too many prisoners will return to lair to drop of their prisoners
  
• bandit parties too small will be removed whenever they reach lair
  
• changed steppe bandits to Alani and added them as bandit faction
  
• changed Roxoloani to Sarmatae
  
• added Bosporan kingdom which replaces Scythia, also renamed some lords
  
• added cult of Mithras in Rome (only available after secret quest is completed)
  
• added Hellenic arms merchant in Rome (only available after secret quest)
  
• added special Indian merchant in Ctesiphon’s town center
  
• added Indian mercenaries available in some Parthian towns
  
• new random events (thanks @BanDHMO)
  
• in Cnossus (walking around the castle) you can now find the entrance to the labyrinth. There is some treasure and surprise awaiting you
  
• added a cutscene at beginning of 'rags' start
  
• added a new track
  
• changed tariffs calculation a bit: having entry controls issued will now provide more tariffs from caravans entering town
  
• added wolf, lion and leopard hunts for minor factions
  
• added new minor faction in Ireland with two new troops which can also be hired as mercenaries
  
• added new minor faction in Denmark with two new troops which can also be hired as mercenaries
  
• added new minor faction in Eastern Poland with two new troops which can also be hired as mercenaries
  
• added event about Claudia Augusta's dead
  
• a new freelancer event for nonPraetorian line
  
• the march with the soldiers freelancer event is now skippable (just press tab), but you wont get any progress points if you skip
  
• during 'tournaments' in Roman towns, player can now watch beasts fights
  
• removed option to let AI always attack: if freelancing, AI will always attack to avoid both armies watching each other,
  otherwise AI can decide whether it wants to attack or not. Reason is because having AI always attack make it use their range troops worse
  
• lords can now also be goodnatured, goodnatured and quarrelsome is less likely (Kaeso is no longer the only goodnatured lord)
  
• farmers when fighting bandits are now based on culture rather then being generic farmers
  
• in tournaments in nonRoman towns the participants will spawn using their own weapons: the idea is to have those 'nonRoman tournaments' be like competition between the best warriors of the region
  
• gladiator equipment is now for sale in Roman shops
  
• weapons and armour merchants inventories are now based on culture of town rather than original faction
  
• Armenian kings wife is no longer mother to older kids
  
• merchants in Jerusalem temple will no longer sell pork
  
• changed a quest description
  
• some changes to lord ages and family relation for British and Germanic lords
  
• dismounted cavalry will now be assigned to infantry division
  
• archers can now also form ranks
  
• overhead thrust with spear is now faster
  
• gladii now have overhead thrust and a new unique thrust animation, left and right slash is now disabled by default, you need to press X to enable and switch to different weapon mode
  
• new stand idle animation
  
• in field battle, ammunition will be refilled each 7 minutes (during sieges its 4 minutes)
  
• during large field battles: reinforcements will now spawn more frequent but with less troops
  
• Thestia Domitia is now also marriable if player choses to keep her as companion
  
• bandits chosen for freelancer patrol mission will now depend more on current location
  
• Custom banners are now working like the normal once
  
• Special items are no longer accessible from find item cheat. HAHAHA
  
• Changed chest location on Pyramid scene

Again a special thanks to Oliver and Wlodowic from 457AD mod team for models and research.
Check out their mod on moddb if you haven’t done yet: https://www.moddb.com/mods/457ad

Great to see it's here! Especially looking forward to the routed agents and reinforcements changes.

"cult of Mithras in Rome (only available after secret quest is completed)"
*reads up on what this is* A gold mine of story content! A secret cult religion which you can lore however you like because: "No written narratives or theology from the religion survive; limited information can be derived". This is awesome! Looking forward to that secret quest.

that quest is not that huge, but I funny addition :D

yeah also a good starting point for more content of course

Maxi unreal work as usual, a great way to end my weekend seeing this new update! Cheers mate!