Released 10/15/2012
Content
Added the Ignys Shortbow
Added the Twisted Ankle injury
Added the Twisted Knee injury
Added the Recruit Bandit spell (only sovereigns with the Bandit Lord profession can use it, converts a bandit to your side in tactical combat for 25 gildar)
Added the Revelation city enchantment (magic tree unlock, +1 research per essence)
Added the Arcane Forge city enchantment (magic tree unlock, +1 material per essence)
Added a pony
Fixes
Fixed an issue where magic immunity was making the units immune to special abilities
Fixed an issue keeping the Sacrifical Altar from being able to be built
Fixed catapults so they work in autoresolve
Fixed an issue keeping multiple word items from linking correctly to the Hiergamenon
Fixed an issue that could cause summoned creatures to lead armies
Disbanded units don't fall dead anymore
Fixed a String Not Found error on the world setup screen
Fixed an issue that can cause the action pane to not showup if autocast spells are used in a battle
Fixed a crash when disabling shadows
Fixed an issue that caused a troll to survive combat if his regen was enough to heal back from his death blow
Fixed the Scarred trait
Fixed an issue causing resources to be hidden under fow after loading a game
Fixed bug that caused units with moves left to not get to their destination (running in place)
Fixed deadlock related to updating cities
When an army without a champion gets loot, that loot goes to your sovereign (instead of being lost)
Fixed an issue with Death Demon animations that would cause missing damage numbers and other wonkiness
Fixed an animation issue with Ogres using the Hurl Boulder ability
Fixed an issue that could allow the AI to stack non-stackable enchantments on a unit
Fixed an issue that was keeping the spell damage displayed in tactical to not take abilities into account
Fixed an issue keeping city defenders showing up in their medallions on the city info screen
Fixed the Guile ability
Fixed a hang if you use Ctrl+Alt+Delete while playing
Fixed an issue that could cause black squares to show up on the cloth map
Fixed a bug keeping some consumables from give item popup (recall spell, etc)
Fixed floating waterfalls (despite tlc's recommendation our art director chased them all down)
Players and monsters no longer move during the same game phase
Fixed a bug where units would play their death animations twice (yes, we get it, you died. We aren't handing out oscars here, get on with it)
Fixed moonwalking units (I wonder if MoM ever had these issues)
Fixed a delay when Haunter's cast the Curse of Cyndrum spell
Curse spell now correctly removes Pierce defense
Fixed a crash when cycling through ai cities on the city info screen
Fixed an issue causing city defender icons to be empty
Fixed an issue allowing you to get special unit traits (juggernaut, iron golem, etc) on normal units
Fixed a bug where spells applied on melee attack or defense only applied the first modifier
Balance
You always have at least a 3% chance to hit a target
You always have at least a 3% chance to miss a target
You always have at least a 3% chance to resist a spell
You always have at least a 3% chance to fail to resist a spell
Reduced the research rate modifier on large maps from 1.6 to 1.5
Switched the bow form the escort noblewoman quest from the ignys longbow to the ignys shortbow
Lowered the gold reward on the escort noblewoman quest
Lowered the gold on the Rats in the ruins quest
Reduced Aura of Grace to +1 init per essence (instead of +2)
Reduced Aura of Might to +1 defense per essence (instead of +2)
Reduced Aura of Vitality to +1 hp per essence (instead of +2)
Reduced Blizzard to +2 per water shard (instead of +4)
Reduced Blood Rages casting cost from 250 to 100
Reduced Burning Blade to +1 per fire shard (instead of +2)
Reduced Burning Hands to +2 per fire shard (instead of +4)
The Cave Bear summoned by the Call Uteran spell is now at the level of the caster
Reduced Contagion damage slightly
Reduced the casting cost on Death Lash
Reduced Destiny’s Insight casting cost from 250 to 100
Reduced the Dirge of Ceresa spell damage slightly
Reduced Drain Life to 2 per death shard (instead of 4)
Reduced Falling Star damage to 3 per fire and air shard (instead of 18) and casting cost increased
Reduced Fireball to 4 per fire shard (instead of 6)
Dragon’s Fire Breath ability does double their attack in damage (instead of just their attack)
Reduced Firestorm damage to 8 +4 per fire shard (instead of 10 +10 per fire shard)
Reduced Flame Dart to 2 per fire shard (instead of 4)
Reduced Flame Wave damage to 4 +2 per fire shard (instead of 8 +4 per fire shard)
Focus has a casting time of 1, and gives the caster +25% to attack and spell damage for the rest of the battle
Freeze no longer applies the move penalty, instead it immobilizes the target for 2 turns
Reduced Gift of Iron to 5 +2 per earth shard (instead of 6 +3)
Reduced Heal to +2 per life shard (instead of 4)
Reduced Hurl Boulder damage to +1 per earth shard (instead of 2) and dramatically reduced its casting cost
Increased Inspirations casting cost
Meditation no longer has a casting cost
Reduced Pillar of Flame damage to +2 per fire shard (instead of 4)
Reduced Shockwave to 10 +2 per earth shard damage (instead of 18 +4)
Reduced Soulburning to 12 +2 per death and fire shard damage (instead of 16 + 4)
Reduced Static Blast damage to +1 per level (instead of 2)
Reduced Storm damage to +4 per air shard (instead of +10)
Reduced the hp cost from summoning imps/familiars to 1 (instead of 3)
Tame doesn’t have a casting time anymore, but does have a mana cost
Reduced Touch of Entropy to +6 per death shard (instead of +12)
Reduced Vetrar’s Howl damage to +5 per water shard (instead of 12)
Reduced Wall of Fire damage to +3 per fire shard (instead of 5)
Reduced Wellspring healing to +4 per life shard (instead of 6)
Reduced Sculla’s Mace to 24 attack (from 32)
Reduced Ice Mace to 20 attack (instead of 24)
Reduced Frore Mace to 24 attack (instead of 32)
Reduced Vetrar’s Fist to 32 attack (instead of 48)
Reduced Burning Battle Axe to 15 attack (instead of 20)
Reduced Ignys Battle Axe to 25 attack (instead of 30)
Reduced Sarog’s Axe to 30 attack (instead of 45)
Reduced the Lightning Pike to +6 Lightning damage (instead of +1 per level)
Assassin’s Longsword gives +10 attack vs Champions
Reduced the Druss Blade to 18 attack (instead of 36)
Reduced the Pyre Brand to 27 attack (instead of 36)
Reduced the Heartseeker to 26 attack (instead of 30)
Reduced the Sword of the Sun and Moon to 36 attack (instead of 54)
Reduced the Heart of the Glacier to 42 attack (instead of 63)
Reduced the Sythe of the Void to 42 attack (instead of 63)
Reduced the Brutal Longbow to 22 attack (instead of 33)
Reduced the Perfect Yew Bow to 18 attack (instead of 22)
Agriculture doesn’t give a food bonus anymore
Removed the metal costs form magical weapons and armor (crystal costs remain)
Reduced the material costs on the forge of the overlord towers
Reduced the default players on Large and Medium maps (more areas to explore)
Cloak of Fear is a tactical spell now with a 5 turn duration
Increased the default Accuracy to 70 (from 60)
Increased the default Spell Power to 70 (from 60)
Accuracy per level reduced to 1 (from 2)
Spell Power per level reduced to 1 (from 2)
Adventurer sovereign profession gives free champions, added the Experienced sovereign talent (+1 level), removed the Natural Leader trait (basically the free champions trait is a sovereign profession now and the +1 level is a talent)
Increased the Bandits given with the Bandit Lord ability to 3rd level (from 2nd)
The "To busy to talk.." responce will only come from the AI if you are at war with them. You are free to enter diplomacy as much as you want when you are not at war (this also fixes an issue where some players couldn't declare war until enough turns had passed)
Gladiator armor is now rare (instead of uncommon)
Warrior Temple grants +2 levels, +4 init to defending units and gives all trained units the Bloodthirsty trait
Attunement increased to +2 mana/season (from +1)
Increased the amount of free city defenders at all levels
Reduced the Black Market Unrest penalty to 5% (from 10%)
Rebalanced armor costs more closely to the amount of defense they provide
Haitan (quest hero) now starts at 4th level and with fire 3
Reduced the cost of Lower Land and Raise Land to 5 mana (from 50)
Iron Golems now use the best weapons and shields available
Reduced champion recruitment costs slightly
Increased Accessory slots to 4 (from 3)
As a’Zoth gains Path of the Warrior (instead of Mage)
Leadanna gains Merchant 2 and loses the Scarred trait
Lisbeth the Light starts with a Monk’s Staff
Courage cant be cast on trained units anymore
Removed the tech requirement on abilities (there wasnt a good way of displaying this info, they all unlocked so early that it wasnt worth spreading them out)
Reduced Leather armor from a total of 8 defense to 6
AI:
AI will reorder its queue if necessary to rush build an improvement or unit if it needs to
AI is more intelligent regarding when to look for places to build cities versus outposts
AI is more diligent about not building cities near monsters
AI is better about going on quests
AI more intelligent about expanding during mid and late game
AI is better at using tactical spells
AI has more dialog when conversing with players
AI has better dialog when discussing surrender options
AI surrender threshold modified to be less stubborn at normal levels when negotiating their defeat
AI vastly more stingy about trading influence
AI asks for less money up front on tribute treaties
Monsters that get freed from their lairs by ZOC no longer wander very fair into the distance
World difficulty determines monster behavior more stringently. Lower world difficulties mean monsters rarely, if ever, attack player cities. At high difficulty, monsters will attack player cities but will not necessarily attack AI cities as aggressively. At "normal" or "challenging" the monsters are equal opportunity killers.
More AI interaction
New, nastier AI algorithms at higher difficulty (for people want a bigger challenge)
AI less aggressive at lower difficulties (dumber)
AI at normal or below will roll to make a "mistake". The lower the difficulty the more likely it is to make a "mistake".
AI makes better use of tactical spells
More conversations added
UI:
Added cooldown information to spell tooltips in tactical combat
Stacked army icons dissapear at a far enough range
Mana Maintenance is now displayed of spell tooltips
Lots of Hiergamenon improvements and fixes
Capitals now have an icon indicator on the city pane and on the city info screen
Switched to using the more informative trait info tooltip anywhere traits are shown
Lots of normalized volume sfx
"Unit Movement Within Tile" now defaults to False (so my default units wont run to the edge of their tile and back when attacking)
Hot diggidy dawg! Saturday night change log.
I'm liking this... and this balance list is already scarey long Great work stardock!
Each change starts with "Reduced ...". What happened to "Go big or go home"?
The nerfs make sense. Magic was kinda OP. Falling Star in particular was ridiculous.
Agreed, it looks like they're doing a balance pass on the magic damage, and weapon damage (HP, armour, and some weapons have been previously done).
oh well, goodbye my lvl 15 crazy mage
Derek putting in ze overtime before release!
"Hurl Boulder is doing way too much damage! I spam it all the time!!!" - noone ever
Seriously, 22 mana for 8(+1 per earth shard) blunt damage?
nice balance pass, those weapons really needed a nerf, same as many spells
Looks as if they are going for it. Release is on the horizon.
Indeed some spells need to have their mana costs reduced.
Also:
- Please make the AI upgrade its altars and shrines etc. (This is crucial!) https://forums.stardock.com/432932
- Health bars don't update in combat when a unit receives Crushing Blow https://forums.stardock.com/433331
- There's a map glitch going on since .952 (at least for me) https://forums.stardock.com/430835/page/1/#3222945
Dear Stardock team:
As with previous betas, let me contribute my persistent nags that IMHO need to be fixed before final release, with a hope that some of them will be addressed in this version:
SMALL BUT ANNOYING GRAPHICAL GLITCHES:
- the floating waterfall issue mentioned by me and also parrotmath in https://forums.elementalgame.com/430026
- the issue with champions riding wargs becoming tiny in cloth map mode, see https://forums.elementalgame.com/433212
ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY UI / FUNCTIONALITY TWEAKS
- a "go there" button to transport the view to resource improvements that are destroyed
- an item vault, shop option or item teleport spell to move items between heroes (even at a gildar or mana cost)
- an "auto-resolve without mana" tactical option/button for easy battles (see also point 1 above)
- an "open/close borders" diplomatic option with appropriate influence bonuses or penalties
- an indicator in the empire tree for units that are in automovement (purple border?) or exploring (yellow border?)
- a button/option to attack heroes instead of recruiting them, even if they are friendly, perhaps with a faction prestige penalty and/or a large increase in the cost of recruiting future heroes...
- the ability to build piers and logging camps (and their advanced versions) if a city reaches a river / forest by snaking (as in older betas) which is STILL NOT THERE...
Also, please make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the bug mentioned in https://forums.elementalgame.com/433204 has been addressed - there are some reports that it still persists (see parrotmath's post here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/433368) and if would ruin the game if it was not completely crushed...
Best, bendiwolf
BalanceYou always have at least a 3% chance to hit a targetYou always have at least a 3% chance to miss a targetYou always have at least a 3% chance to resist a spellYou always have at least a 3% chance to fail to resist a spell
3% is too small chance. Usually champion with 20 attack needs no more than 20 rounds to defeat drake.
i dont get how that is related
Minimum 3% to hit -> your high-dodge champ might not get hit in 20 rounds.
do you know what random means?
its not like 5% for 20 rounds means you surely get hit
also 1 hit in 20 rounds is very low anyway, a dragon should kill anyone but a full plated champion in 20 rounds
I think that the reduced shard scaling of the spells is great, but ...
- the base effect of many spells should be increased to make them useful for all heroes:
- Heal 8 -> 10
- Flame Wave 4 -> 6
- Burning Hands 8 -> 10
- ...
- the damage bonus of the Warlock profession should be reduced to 25 %
- the damage bonus of the Path of the Mage trait should be reduced to 25 %
- the damage bonus of the Evoker trait should be reduced to 15 % / 15 % / 20 %
- the damage scaling by level (Flame Dart, ...) should be removed, because it makes the spells too powerful
Magic rules, Muggles drool!
The one thing I totally don't get with magic weapons is that if you compare such and such longbow with such and such longbow, or mace or whatever there was a different BASE damage and a different element type damage.
Also interesting is that shard scaling went down, not up. Balance is a funny thing, can't wait to see how this plays.
Hate to see so many attack values get lowered but I tel myself majority of those weapons were magic weapons for champs only pretty much. I can live with that.
I'll re-tweet a couple of these for emphasis ... the others are less important to me.
yeah i agree, on the trait nerfs
flame dart isnt that op after you balance the traits, i think per lvl is ok, its the main fire spell after all
burning hands i agree need a smallish buff cause its melee, 10 dmg is perfect
Good balance stuff here. Nice yo see you working the weekend, but as the main balance man, I don't want you to get overworked. Make sure you are taking some time away so you have a fresh mind for next week.
Let's talk about endgame balance. I will probably make a proper thread about it, but some balance is needed on the Masterquest, Spell of Making, Tech Victory and Diplomatic Victory. Conquest is pretty simple, no changes needed. I have been specifically playing the Masterquest and I have to say, it is too easy. The game ending battle should be impossible. Losing it should beset the world with terrible monsters. It's not just too easy, losing doesn't seem to matter at any point. I would like some real consequences for losing the quest. Spell of Making is also too easy. This one lies in the AI though. They should all declare war on me and break alliances the second I start casting it. Each building should reduce relations a little as well. This needs to be more than a really long build queue and long spell. It should throw the world into turmoil. As a side note, casting the spell ends the game, but we have the option to play on. Please add some infinite power to the caster so that using the spell makes me a living god. It should be easy and will add that extra bit of flair to the game. I modded it in and just love smashing through the rest of the realm with godlike power. The tech victory is also lackluster. I would even argue it should be cut. But if you like it as an option, there needs to be something closer to Endless Space's take on a tech victory. Have the last tech cost insane amounts of research, but have a tech cost reducer at the end of the other two tech trees. This will incentivize players to get all possible techs and truly reflect a technologically superior faction. Otherwise you will get a very weak and boring nation, sitting in the corner somewhere, rushing to the last tech. It would be a nice increase in personality for technologists. Diplomatic Victory should play better as well. Currently we just ally with the weakest factions and then attack the strong ones. I would much more like some random diplomatic events add quests to the process, so that we can ally with former enemies if we complete some quests of intrigue. The goal here should be to make an alliance with all factions. Like what happened in Star Trek with the Klingons and Federation. Otherwise it is just group conquest.
Nice change to tame, shoud make the beastmaster much more viable.
Yeah, this is on the list. Not a game breaker issue, but an improvement for sure.
No. The problem with this option is that incents "item sharing" (ie: give the item to hero 1, fight a battle, give it to hero 2). Or I use the sword when Im out exploring and I have some low level champion back in town, my town is about to be attacked so i transport all the high level goods back to him. Or I teleport all my best items to my best unit before a big battle. Its nearly impossible for the ai to deal with, and the side effects of the intended change (to be able to give an extra accessory that was just found to a remote hero) are worst than the benefit.
I know we could tie costs to it, balance on it, make sure their aren't items that are more suseptible to this kind of behavior. A whole list of stuff and work we could do. But in the end it isn't worth it for a relatively minor feature (and each of those limits that are put in place seem arbitrary).
Yeah, there is logic in place that keeps the autoresolve from using mana if it thinks it can win the fight. We talked about adding that option but worried that it would make autoresolve feel more random. For example, you play and choose to autoresolve without mana, expecting to win, but you lose. It doesnt feel fair since you could have won, do you reload and do it with mana? Do you accept the loss because your units went bravely to the grave rather than use up any of your precious mana? Adding this just adds a knob which doesnt feel fun to control.
I wouldn't mind this, but not for release. There are a lot of ai implications to it. In other games you may go to war with someone who cant reach you because they cant go through the countries between you. Which isnt ideal. We tend to have a lot more chokepoints than those games because the closer scale seems more rpgish (a mountain isnt a tile, its a vast range). Which would make it much worse for us. So instead we don't have closed borders.
Honestly if we did have it I would probably only have it be with the human players (so the ai always lets the ai pass through their lands). But it comes with a lot of pathfinding and gameplay overhead so we wont add it before release.
I hadn't considered that. I dont have a problem with it, but it would be very low priority issue for me, and I suspect 95% of players wouldnt notice or know why it was occuring.
I love that we are at a play in the development cycle where minor issues like these are what we are discussing (though I don't understand how they fall into "absolutely nessesary gameplay tweaks" territory, but to each their own). In this case I like that allied champions are a specific thing, recruit them or risk having someone else recruit them. Kill the other alliances champions before they can recruit them. I dont think we gain anything by being able to kill allied champions, and I dont think we are hurting for things to kill in the wilderness. Let allied champions be something special, not just another monster lair.
We dont want players to have to play with manual placement on. So we try not to support any mechanics that reward manual placement. So we dont allow you to get access to new improvements by snaking to them. As another benefit it makes your choice of city location that much more important. Placed by a river or forest typically doesnt have as much essence, but is better for food/gildar (river) or production (forest).
Thanks, Kael! Great feed-back and explanations in your Reply #24 above. Getting the rational for a number of your design choices is really interesting. I might have quibbles about some of the balance changes included in your long list in the OP; but I figure I have to reserve final judgement until I've had a chance to at least play the v0.983 update. And given how fast and furious the updates are coming, I am having trouble keeping up ... ... which is great.
Balance rules !
Derek I appreciate your answers, and while I may not agree with some of them I will accept your verdict on all of them
How about the floating waterfall at the end of rivers bug mentioned in my post and in this thread: https://forums.elementalgame.com/430026 - can you confirm that you've reproed this and that is on the list of bugs to fix before release please?
Many thanks, bendiwolf
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