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)
Rather than the "go there" button on the pop-up for destroyed resource improvements - why not have them show up as a notification on the right side of the screen and eliminate the pop-up altogether? Left click should move to the location just as for the "monsters in your territory" notification.
I think that is a more elegant solution.
On a similar note, the "found item" pop-up ought to be eliminated as well. I suggest that in stead, you display the stats of the looted items in the "Victory and experience" pop-up while adding a new item notification to the right side of the screen. The notification, when clicked, would zoom to the hero carrying the item.
Derek, is this problem on the list? Not real friendly to have to use task manager to close the game ...
Derek - three issues
1. freeze of the game on windows autolock
2. AI sovereigns starting with path of warrior/assassin at the start of the game
3. AI sovereigns not properly leveling up (warrior path developed for mage type sovereigns) and AI not properly equipping heroes (most specifically buing dozens of same leather piece)
So you can freeze your enemy each 2 turns. So enemy can't move forever. Overpowered if so.
Actually, I do
Regardless, you asked a question because you were not sure how the two statements offered by harmonius_ were related, and I offered an explanation. I wasn't making any statement of opinion in my comment. Let's keep things civil.
I'm not sure what to make of all this spell nerfing - I'm sensing a drift towards WoM where spells were pretty weak and didn't scale well. Damage spells are already weak on the higher difficulty settings and these changes will make them pretty much irrelevant
Here is one that I really would like to see before release:
Tremor and Freeze claim to immobilize an enemy army for two turns. In fact, (in .983) they only give you one turn of respite. Either change the description, or the effect.
Derek,
A few thoughts based on laying .983 and the changlog above. While I like the game a lot recently some concerns have been growing about the direction the patches are taking us:
1. The current plan for balance seems to be to nerf everthing. Now that the better magic items are harder to find (and they really are in .983!) when the player finds one it should be really good. Having items that are very rare and nerfed may take away the excitment and fun that comes from finding something really good.
2. Since the last couple of patches it takes way too long to build even simple regular units. This makes it even more important to rely on hero units to do everything. While I like the hero units I would like to use both them and the regular units. Unless we can build regular units in a reasonable amout of time that won't happen and the game risks being too one sided.
3. It appears that the number of individuals in some of the different unit sizes have been reduced. Researching a tech to go from 3 in a unit t 4 in a unit is not very impactful. However, even more important is the fact that this, once again, makes the playe have to use hero units for everything.
I appeciate all your hard work but for the first time I am becomming concerned about the end result.
Thanks.
Immobilize is a strategic only spell. In tactical they can still fight. The duration is off as Tuidjy suggests.
I disagree. All the numbers are finally starting to make sense. Before 90% of a hero's power came from getting a nice sword. I am much happier with the new consistency of weapons.
I agree about this. The labor costs seem to be made without taking into account the power or needed numbers of units. The goal for how long a decent unit should take to train needs to readdressed. Given 3 Materials and 3 tiers of general techs, it should take no more than 6 turns to train a single unit from a non-Fortress city. Right now it takes far too long. From there, production does scale slightly and so should labor costs of better units. Chainmail and sword units should take about 12 turns from that same city, assuming it had the same production. This kind of design balance should be possible now that we have a more stable overall balance.
There is an entire thread devoted to this change, but to summarize, it is how champions and heroes were balanced. There could never be a level playing field as long as units were getting massive power boosts from sheer troop numbers. Fewer troops in a unit is one way to get things on a more level playing field. It also solves the issue of people not training any units until later in the game, when they could train five in one unit. I agree that the balance does not feel complete while troops still cost so much time and wages seem high for the usefulness they provide.
That said, my solution was to make 5 the starting size of a unit and go up by 2 after that. It is combined with a slew of other balance changes though, that are in a totally different direction design wise.
[quote who="Derek Paxton" reply="24" id="3245487]
- 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...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).[/quote]
You won't be able to escape this fact.
Why not have one more to the list? Snaking to rivers and forests. Eventually the 'non-manual' placement players will do it aswell. Also it IS a single player game; what does it matter if the auto-placer doesn't know about the snaking fuction? He won't know about the other three reasons mentioned. At the very least, please make it a selectable option so that those who wish to play with it will have the option to. Thanks.
Interesting, I was wondering why I couldn't do this, I thought it was a bug.
I swear though, I snaked to a forest to try and get my logging camp, and I couldn't build it. But then I came back to the game later after a reload, and I could build the logging camp in that city. I'll have to give it another test...
Those are issues I am sure he would like to correct but can't currently. That doesn't mean he is going to give you vile serpents back your snaking. There will always be advantages of manual thought and design. The point of good choices is to force a choice between different attributes to add something to placement. Allow tile snaking negates this choice. I am glad the devs agree. Soon you will be able to mod it back in though.
The other problem with snaking is the AI needs to be able to do it and the AI is not having a good time with it, so I think it was easier to remove the mechanic. The build a building on a forest destroys chance for logging camp is the reason that I build the logging camp first, or as soon as I have access to it. (as in the forest diagonal to the city).
I have an issue with small and medium maps and the master quest. Many builds ago, I shut off the master quest victory condition because it makes a large part of the land unusable. I just turned it back on for a game and I was put in a corner below it and had little land mass to work with. My suggestion is that an equal amount of land be added as would be lost when turning the master quest on....
Seanw3,
Thanks for your comments on my post. On point one, I think our difference is based on what each of us sees as fun in the game. In my case, when I find a rare item I want it to be really, really good. Of course, if I find something like that too often it would cease to be rare or fun. Overall I worry about too many nerfs moving the game towards dull. However, I will wait and see how .984 really plays before I form a real opinion.
I missed the thread about the unit size nerf. Would you please post a link? Thanks.
Despair? Fucking Despair!!! Please say that Despair spell that the Dark Wizards cast got nerfed. It wipes out whole parties, troops and champions alike, often in one hit.
Derek cruelly named that spell appropriately. It's a rage quit spell right there.
Found another AI flaw- the AI doesn't knowwhat to do if you choke him off completely with Curgen's Volcano.
Tons of troops, butdidn't make a pathway for them and I was able to choke off half the map.
The AI needs to know how to use the lower land spell in order for that not to happen to them
That's forsure. I wacked him once, thinking he'd be an easy mark. Then he casts Despair and wipes out my entire army!! My eyes popped out.
The higher difficulty settings should not grant the AI more hit points, because this destroys the game balance (spells are less useful, poisons are less useful, ...).
I think the changes are great, because the traits should determine the power of a hero and not the level difference.
I pretty much disagree with everything you just said. Magic should NOT be just as useful to a brain-dead warrior as a sorcerer who has spent all her life studying the arcane arts. If anything, magical power needs to be dramatically increased for those who take the mage profession, especially for support magic (buffs, debuffs, summons, basically anything that is not direct damage). In general, magic doesn't feel nearly as powerful as more mundane methods of murder and mutilation, even if you dedicate every trait you can to improving your magical abilities. I want the feeble-looking, poorly-armed spellcaster hiding in the back of the map to inspire just as much terror to my enemies as an army of juggernauts. Right now, she does not.
This is how the spell Tremor currently works. In fact, other than the dodge loss provided by Tremor, they are the exact same spell. I liked Freeze because of how different it was from Tremor. You guys worked so hard to make each spell different, it's disappointing to see an admittedly incredibly powerful spell become a reskin of an earth spell.
Agreed. The problem is, the spell considers the turn it was cast to be the first turn, which is bad.
Magical power increases dramatically if you have the Path of the Mage:
+ 25 % spell damage from the Path of the Mage
- 25 % tactical spell cost from the Path of the Mage
+ 50 % spell damage from Evoker III
- 10 % tactical spell cost from Affinity (it should be - 15 % and Mantel of the Oceans should be - 25 %)
That means a Fireball without any shards inflicts 31 points of damage and costs 33 mana if the hero is a mage. If he has another path a Fireball inflicts only 18 points of damage and costs 50 mana.
I don't want objects I happen to find to be really, really good and a potentially game breaker. That's dull in my book. Those things you should have to bleed for.
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