v2.0 - The Provinces and Modding Update

Released 14 July 2026

The Provinces and Modding Update is the largest update to Fall of an Empire so far. Roughly a third of the game's total development work went into rebuilding the interface, opening the imperial provinces to players, making the game fully moddable and addressing the biggest sources of friction in the campaign.

Highlights

• Rebuilt the game around content packs that can extend scripts, data, assets, campaigns, localisation and the interface
• Added the World Editor for creating complete campaigns, including terrain, rivers, roads, settlements, factions, characters and military routes
• Added in-game Steam Workshop browsing and uploads
• Rebuilt every major campaign screen, sidebar, menu, tooltip, notification and map label
• Added playable imperial provinces, with new paths to adoption, succession, rebellion and the throne
• Extensively reworked the Tutorial, including provincial government, sieges, naval transport and the conquest of Kyrnos
• Expanded battles with melee, ranged and siege roles, terrain height, obstacles, withdrawal and dedicated siege ships
• Rebuilt the Grand Campaign map, terrain, geography, factions, settlements and routes
• Reduced major sources of stuttering in campaign loading, simulation, military movement and AI decisions
• Added an in-game Steam achievements screen
• Released a new 20-year demo and the Lords of Sicily mod campaign

Modding, World Editor and Steam Workshop

• Content packs can add or replace gameplay scripts, data, assets, campaigns, localisation and interface content
• Mods can add complete campaign maps and their own screens, sidebars, top-bar buttons, tooltips and campaign-map labels
• Mods can define government types, diplomacy options, war goals, court positions, governor missions, encyclopedia entries and character-title rules
• Rebuilt the campaign interface in TypeScript, JavaScript, TSX and CSS so mods can use the same technologies as the base game
• Added an in-game Steam Workshop browser
• Added in-game uploads for locally created Workshop mods
• Kept Workshop downloads separate from locally created mods
• Moved locally created mods to the player-writable Saved/Mods directory
• Added duplicate content-pack identifier detection
• Save games now explain when a required content pack is missing
• Rebuilt the World Editor around project-based campaign creation
• The World Editor can edit factions, characters, settlements, geography, terrain, rivers, roads and placed campaign objects
• The World Editor can export terrain, rivers, roads, army and sea routes, landing sites and faction-selection data
• World Editor builds now display their matching game version
• The modding kit now includes built-in AngelScript types and exported content-pack summaries

Complete Interface Rebuild

• Replaced the old campaign interface with a completely new one
• Rebuilt the main menu, pause menu, settings, save browser and campaign-selection screens
• Rebuilt the campaign HUD, resource bar, speed controls, map modes, notifications and warnings
• Rebuilt the faction, economy, diplomacy, military, character, religion, power-bloc, battle, ledger and encyclopedia screens
• Rebuilt settlement, military, character, faction and power-bloc sidebars
• Rebuilt construction queues, formation templates, family trees and Previous Rulers
• Rebuilt the victory, defeat and campaign-ending screens
• Rebuilt appointment windows for courtiers, clergy, heirs, commanders, governors, diplomats and spies
• Interface links now open the relevant character, faction, settlement, military or management screen directly
• Replaced flat panels with painted frames, buttons, tabs, warnings and interaction cards
• Reworked character portraits with cultural backgrounds, headgear, better lighting and clearer relationship information
• Added more unit portraits throughout the military and settlement interfaces
• Added a Steam achievements screen with requirements and progress
• Existing achievements now unlock correctly through Steam
• Added faction heraldry to the ledger and map modes to faction selection
• Added a separate size setting for campaign-map labels and icons
• Added confirmation before overwriting a save
• Added keybind search
• Candidate-selection windows can now be dragged
• Added notification history to the ledger

Tutorial Overhaul

• Extensively reworked the Tutorial campaign and its opening political situation in Histria
• Reworked the loyalist rebellion and Kyrnos storylines
• Expanded the military campaign to cover movement, sieges, settlement capture, naval transport, landings and further conquests
• Expanded the Tutorial's court, council, governor and provincial-government objectives
• Added clearer objectives, clickable event links, automatic map focus and interface highlights
• Added new mission artwork
• Updated the Tutorial map, factions, characters, settlements, routes and starting forces
• Extended several deadlines and streamlined the later stages of the campaign

Provincial Government and Imperial Politics

• Added Bureaucratic Throughput and Bureaucratic Capacity for edicts, interactions, appointments and provincial administration
• Administrative actions can be rushed at the cost of temporary Bureaucratic Overload
• Added breakdowns for capacity, workload, overload and province-creation costs
• Added governor missions for pacification, unrest, corruption, revenue, treasury, staff and provincial capitals
• Added military governor missions for captures, blockades and campaign support
• Added a Governors tab for regional governor management
• Added automatic governor assignment, and AI factions now fill vacancies
• Governors can be recalled from the Governors screen
• Character sidebars now list every region governed by that character
• Political pressure now affects recalls, court politics and rebellion preparations
• Added Invite to Rebellion for recruiting governors and commanders before a revolt
• Added Join Rebellion for provincial rulers entering an active civil war
• Added Take Over Occupied Province during civil wars
• Added Request Succession Approval and Request Adoption
• Added Request Senate Seat, Undermine Rival and Study Statecraft
• Newly created provinces can become player-controlled when the campaign permits it
• Reworked government types and succession rules
• Reworked the presentation of provincial and imperial governments
• Appointment contests now update daily and enforce imperial eligibility rules
• Regional actions now include subject-held settlements
• Provinces can no longer raise levies instantly
• Fixed provinces being created or released while occupied
• Fixed newly created provinces sometimes having no capital

Battles and Military

• Formations now have melee, ranged or siege roles
• Added battlefield obstacles, hills and slopes that affect movement and combat
• Formations can withdraw across the battlefield
• Added naval siege formations, the Artillery Galley, Bombard Trireme and Siege Quinquereme
• Formation templates now receive names based on their units
• Added naval patrol and force-recovery orders
• Reworked the Military screen, chain of command and formation-template editing
• Reworked formation placement, movement, targeting, morale and retreat
• Reworked battle controls, statistics, attack lines and hover information
• Reworked the appearance of land and naval formations
• Reworked sieges, blockades, embarkation, docking, disembarkation and naval transport
• Improved movement around roads, hostile settlements, coastlines and mountains
• Battle results now retain detailed formation and unit losses
• After-action reports now show clearer participants, locations and links
• Saved battles now preserve morale, retreats, targets, waypoints, terrain height and obstacles
• Watched battles run in real time; unwatched battles follow campaign speed
• Battles now end when one side successfully retreats
• Siege formations must stop and deploy before firing
• Moving siege equipment is now separate from firing it
• Naval battles use smaller ship groups and larger battlefields
• Improved formation movement through narrow gaps
• Ranged formations keep their distance from the full area occupied by an enemy
• Manually selected targets remain selected until cleared
• Replenishment now requires the necessary gold and resources
• Armies cannot cross impassable mountains
• Navies follow valid sea routes and avoid islands and shallow coastal terrain
• Garrisoned armies can receive AI orders
• AI factions now use naval blockades and raiding expeditions
• AI armies make better use of roads and route around hostile settlements
• Levy reserves now count towards military-strength comparisons
• Updated ranged attack ranges, naval artwork and unit-type icons
• Selected armies now display faction heraldry
• Army and navy labels react on hover and mark hostile forces more clearly
• Duplicate formation-template names are numbered automatically
• Naval templates are hidden at settlements without ports
• Unit tooltips now include culture and religion
• Hovering over a battle formation shows its statistics
• Fixed armies failing to reinforce an active battle

Campaign Map Rebuild

• Rebuilt Grand Campaign terrain, geography, factions, settlements and army routes
• Campaigns can provide their own terrain, rivers, roads, forests, farmland, snow, sand, rock and swamps
• Reworked fog of war, shoreline waves, province colours and borders
• Campaigns can apply local colour and lighting effects to parts of the map
• Updated settlement positions and regional geography throughout the Grand Campaign
• Updated campaign previews and the faction-selection map
• Updated faction rosters, leaders, governors, families, bishops and religious assignments
• Corrected settlement ownership and added missing resource-producing settlements
• Minor factions now take their colour from their home region
• Expanded province, region, land and domain tooltips
• Rebuilt labels for settlements, ports, armies, navies, battles and convoys
• Map labels remain centred while the camera moves or zoom changes
• Settlement labels show ownership, occupation, sieges and construction more clearly
• Army and navy labels show faction, strength and hostility more clearly
• Convoy labels retain their cargo and route information
• Added a separate campaign-map label size setting
• Distant convoys on the same route are grouped together

Diplomacy and Power Blocs

• Rebuilt diplomacy and peace negotiations as full screens
• Reworked settlement selection during peace talks
• Divided diplomatic proposals into offers, requests and mutual agreements
• Mutual treaties are now presented and judged as agreements between both factions
• Tribute treaties now last ten years
• Direct war participants can negotiate peace
• Active peace offers can be accepted from their notification
• Foreign intrigue requires a spy with enough Cunning
• Spy candidates now come from the intended target faction
• Independent courts can invite characters to join them
• Patronage cannot be offered to a character who already has a patron
• Rebuilt the Power Blocs screen and sidebar
• Power-bloc demands now show objectives, deadlines, member influence and possible escalation
• Reworked power-bloc interactions and internal affairs involving provinces, foederati and governors
• Defeated rebellions now end sooner
• The Rephsian Empire now survives correctly after a rebel victory
• Rebel factions receive more varied names and preserve custom leader names
• Power blocs dissolve when their final member leaves
• Fixed patronage accepting invalid targets
• Fixed destroyed factions remaining available for interactions

Economy, Resources and Construction

• Added monthly resource histories for production, consumption and stockpile changes
• Added a detailed resource window showing sources, uses, shortages and historical values
• Construction queues can be reordered precisely
• Buildings can be downgraded directly
• Settlement labels now show construction progress
• Rebuilt the Economy screen
• Reworked treasury, income, expenses, resources, food, trade and settlement-economy presentation
• Reworked automatic buying and selling controls
• Income and expense breakdowns now include military command, replenishment and construction
• Reworked the realm-wide construction queue
• Building, unit and formation tooltips show complete resource requirements
• Dismantling, downgrading and queue actions are available directly from settlement building lists
• Settlement headers show capitals, occupation, sieges and blockades
• Reworked city layouts and visible building placement
• Reworked convoy and trade-route information
• Court luxury now appears as a faction expense
• The faction sidebar now shows levy strength
• Building tooltips separate current effects from the next level's effects
• Construction queues distinguish active work from waiting projects

Characters, Court and Religion

• Added quick interaction menus to character portraits
• Characters can receive temporary bonuses and penalties to their statistics
• Characters without an office or command can receive situational titles
• Rebuilt the character browser, character sidebar and family tree
• Character lists now show titles, liege realms, current activity, family and faction information
• Reworked court appointments and candidate suitability
• Commander, governor, bishop, diplomat and spy appointments now share a candidate screen
• Reworked heir selection and its political consequences
• Reworked character-interaction results
• Rebuilt the clergy and religion screens
• Religious conversion now explains costs, benefits and unrest more clearly
• Character and government titles now use culture-appropriate forms
• Foreign character lists can now be opened
• Character statistics show the effects that changed them
• Trait tooltips explain their effects
• Improved spouse and relationship presentation
• Constitution now affects mortality
• Corrected several birth dates, family relationships and starting appointments
• Fixed rulers being killed when they should have been deposed

Events and Campaign Presentation

• Rebuilt event windows with campaign artwork, effect icons and clearer choices
• Unavailable choices now explain why they cannot be selected
• Event effects have expanded tooltips and concept icons
• Event text can link directly to characters, factions, settlements and militaries
• Event chains can show earlier entries from the same story
• Added different starting events for playable factions
• Events can include more context around deaths and succession
• Improved ruler names, pronouns and grammar in generated events
• Improved generated names and reduced repeated alliteration
• Rare scripted events now occur less often
• Improved eligibility and threat checks
• Enemy at the Gates events now require a real active threat
• Improved the presentation of successful and failed interactions
• Added clearer campaign victory and defeat summaries

Performance

• Reduced stuttering when starting campaigns and loading saves
• Terrain and cities load with fewer long pauses
• Reduced daily and monthly simulation stuttering
• Reduced stuttering from characters, military routes, rebellions, power blocs, religion and disease
• Reduced stuttering while AI factions review military and political plans
• Reduced the cost of Senate interactions
• Reduced stuttering when changing map modes
• Reduced pauses when opening formation templates, peace talks, military sidebars and construction queues
• The map now updates only provinces that have changed
• Improved fog-of-war performance and reduced visual artefacts
• Reduced foliage density at Medium quality
• Improved interface performance and input responsiveness
• Improved road-route calculations

Localisation

• Localised the rebuilt menus, screens, sidebars, tooltips and shared controls
• Localised new government, building, achievement and interaction text
• Government names can change with culture
• Campaign titles, descriptions, character names and scripted text follow the selected language
• Improved support for regional language variants
• Added Traditional Chinese character-name data
• Improved Latin-script display in translated languages
• Updated translated encyclopedia articles
• Updated German, Polish, Russian, Turkish and Brazilian Portuguese text

Demo and Lords of Sicily

A new free demo is available on Steam. It covers 20 in-game years and lets players try the Tutorial or begin the Grand Campaign as the Western Rebels.

Lords of Sicily is also available as an official mod campaign built with the same World Editor and content-pack systems now available to players. Steam Workshop support is live for browsing, downloading and publishing mods from inside the game.