The development of Update 1.3 is finally complete. This ended up taking much longer than I'd hoped due to a variety of things but its finally done. 1.3 introduces all kinds of new features as well as a great number of improvements to the core gameplay. There are new items, enemy variants, map objects, buildings, challenges, secrets, and even a new leader character to discover and unlock! Take a look at the full patch notes below to get an idea of what this update has to offer.

Version 1.3 Update Notes

 New Content and Features

• A new leader character, unlockable through using a certain item in a specific place in new games.
• Salvageable objects are now scattered around maps, followers can be assigned to break these down over time and claim different resources from them.
• ”Aether Mine” buildable and upgrade added to Forgemaster
• ”Chapel Barracks” building added to Sage, allows the assignment of Paladins
• Sage upgrade "Take up arms!" replaced with new upgrade, “Advanced Tactics”
• Tips added to loading screen
• Improved and expandable minimap, points of interest will now remain marked on your map once you’ve seen them once, even if they’re out of view.
• Added severe weather: Thunderstorms and Blizzards
• Added Command that can designate rocks for destruction to clear space
• Added Command that cancels all Excavation work
• Item Catalog added to Codex menu, displays all previously collected items, their descriptions, and additional info
• Manually destroying unfinished buildings now refunds the building resources
• New Items added
• New Enemy Gear added
• Idol offering rewards added and modified
• Rare Follower Traits added
• Map type can now be manually selected from the new game menu
• Guide tab added to Info Log,  will give you suggested actions for the first few in game days.
• Reworked Hard Mode, 
• Removed faster threat scaling
• Added new enemy abilities
• Key rebinding added to options menu
• 4K display support(Untested)

Gameplay

• Sage charged attack will now auto fire when fully charged.
• Digging speed for haulable objects now scales based on its weight.
• Gather rate slowed for Harvesters and Auto-Harvesters
• Gatherers now move slower when carrying Materials
• Build speed slowed for most buildings
• Selecting a unit will now clear the ‘Panic’ effect
• Combat followers idle or assigned to a rally point will now much more effectively share their targets, this should stop units from charging out into groups of enemies on their own
• Combat followers idle or assigned to a rally point now have hard limit to how far they’ll go chasing a target before coming back.
• Selecting or calling a unit will now cancel fleeing behavior
• Units will now prioritize targets near the center of an attack order when its issued, ignoring enemies closer to them.
• Excavators will now automatically collect nearby haulable objects around the area they were assigned, this is marked with a flag.
• Healers will no longer wander far from their idle/rally point chasing heal targets
• Unit spawn speed for Forge buildings slowed significantly
• Aether costs for building upgrades raised
• Aether Spikes can no longer be repaired in combat unless ‘Aether Overcharge’ is active
• HP of upgraded Iron Troops increased significantly
• HP of upgraded Clay Soldiers increased
• Skirm Hound enemy attack animation slowed
• Skirm Hound enemy direct damage lowered
• Skirm Hound enemy will be stunned and slowed if they take damage while attacking
• Skirm Hound enemy can now only use 1 Firebomb per unit on Normal, down from 2
• Golems can now be repaired by Settlers and Gearchanters when out of combat
• Skeleton Archer’s arrows are now slightly less accurate
• Lowered chance of weather specific enemies spawning at low threat levels
• Map generation tuned to provide a more consistently stable starting point
• ’Lifeglass Cross’ item changed from consumable item to cooldown based item, existing versions of this item in save files will remain consumables.
• Added building cap to walls and gates
• When pathing to buildings followers will now check the closest side first, this should prevent cases where followers run outside the walls to repair them
• Item drop rate lowered for many basic enemies
• Idol dormant period removed
• Addon buildings now lose their functionality when disconnected from their corresponding building
• Shade spawn patterns improved

Graphics

• Skeleton walk animation updated
• Aether Spikes no longer emit smoke when damaged
• Shield buff visuals tweaked
• Snow map background altered for visibility
• Optimized ‘Adv Shadows’ Setting
• Certain animations now scale with speed/slow effects
• Resolution option added for game scaling with 4k displays (Untested)
• Resolution can now be manually changed in fullscreen mode, however this is not recommended for most users
• Particle density for smaller objects lowered, should help visibility and performance when many objects are on the field
• Improved consistency of weather effects while moving
• Added new title screens
• Other improvements

 UI

• Changed icon displayed over Harvest marker
• Harvestable materials are now highlighted when placing a Harvest marker or Material collection building
• When selecting the location for an addon building the nearest building it can be connected to is now outlined
• All Status Effects now display icons
• Status effect icons are now colored based on whether they are positive or negative, and whether they are applied to allies or enemies. 
• Added informational text when the mouse is hovering over an assignable object
• Items are now color coded based on rarity
• Gate rotate key changed to ‘V’ by default.
• All units that can not change jobs will now display a lock icon next to their job on the Follower Info menu
• Added a limited Options menu to pause screen, full options menu must be accessed from the title screen
• Other general improvements

Bugs

• Fixed ‘Jittering’ of some in-field UI elements
• Fixed several in-field UI elements being rendered incorrectly at night, improves visibility of some UI elements at night.
• General Optimizations
• Fixed issue where assignment reticle would not disappear when hovering over non-assignable buildings
• Fixed issue where Monster Den guards weren’t being loaded properly causing excess spawning when loading a game
• Fixed building job assignment bar showing when units following can not change jobs
• Fixed several buggy menu interactions when objects were selected for use
• Fixed issue where Skirm Hound enemy attack animation would complete instantly
• Fixed building outlines showing while a building destruction animation played
• Fixed incorrect text displaying if the the crystal was destroyed in certain events
• Fixed several objects generating outside map boundaries
• Fixed issue where boss enemies could become stuck
• Fixed Bishops assigning themselves to the wrong building if their home building is destroyed
• Fixed other minor issues