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)
what about mages?
25% attack and defense doesnt prevent 2 mages from aoe shoting all the enemies
harpo
Units get a -25% to attack and defense when they are in enemy lands
Booo! This might seem like a clever fix to make attacking enemies harder (thereby making the game more difficult). In reality it is going to punish the AI as much as it punishes the player.
How about increasing armor levels of town garrisons when better armor has been researched instead?
StevenAus: Yeah, as far as I know, this has been suggested numerous times. They could have at least leather, maybe armor one level lower than current tech with some special building?
Armor upgrades for militia could be linked to special technology branch, building...many options would be suitable.
Much better than docking points when you go into enemy territory - which also makes it harder for AIs to take your OWN cities too. And it also has the benefit of making towns more resilient to monster attacks too.
2. Does it solve a problem? The tendency of designers, including myself, is to create too much. So once I'm beyond the base core of the game mechanics I have to force myself to ask if new ideas and mechanics solve any existing problems. If not, why add it?3. Does it solve multiple problems? It's usually easy to solve a specific problem. But as I mentioned above, in strategy games every piece affects every other piece. If all an idea does is fix one problem, then it's probably not worth the effort and I usually hold out waiting for a solution that fixes multiple issues at once.4. Does it have drool factor? (ie: if I tell a player about it will they be excited to try it). I'm less eager to spend development time on things that players won't be excited to try (or as a business guy would say, "doesn't sell copies"). Sometimes we need to spend time on the unexciting parts of the game design, cleaning up screens, polishing graphics, improving performance, fixing bugs, or adding fundamental tools which support gameplay but aren't sexy (I don't think anyone checed out FE and thought "A game with a tax slider?!? I love tax sliders! I'm buying this!").5. How difficult is it to implement? Now the producer part takes over. Even given all the above the implementation cost could be too high. I love the random maps in Fallen Enchantress, but I don't know if it was worth the considerable implementation time it took to create them. The game is definitely better for them, but we could have created 100 hand crafted maps in a fraction of the time and had all that extra time for other features.6. How will we provide feedback? A lot of gameplay is feedback. How will the players interact with this mechanic? Will they enjoy it? A lot of mechanics die because there isn't a good way to show the player they are doing it right or wrong.
For the -25% reduction in attack and defense, via Derek's own criteria for assessing ideas:
1. Maybe, maybe not.
2. Sort of, maybe not. Creates other problems.
3. No, creates problems.
4. Definitely not.
5. Easy.
6. No, I don't think gamers will enjoy it.
For increasing armor of garrison troops:
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes, solves at least two different problems, probably a lot more.
4. Yes, it does, because people will know that a town won't fall to one Ignys or only a moderate hero.
6. Yes, I think they will.
These are Derek's own criteria.
That is a very good idea, but the attack should be increased, too, because otherwise the garrison would not be able to kill armored enemies.
It's not about improving AI first and formost. It's to make defending better, wars more interesting and to increase the benefits of controlling land. It will be a little bit easier to defend home territory in war for both the human and the AI, and that's needed. It's both realistic and good for gameplay. Gameplaywise because a good garnison can now be more worthwhile investing in, and also because you now can dare to send more units out exploring and questing, making the mid game flow better. It's not so fun with blitzkriegs all the time, killing an enemy empire in very few turns with little strategy needed for a long drawned out war.
It's far too easy to be on the offensive right now, but spells that make damage needs to get the same maluses as ordinary attacks, magic is powerfull enough as it is. Monsters shouldn't be easier to kill inside your own territory I think, or maybe they should..... It would add an extra strategy to expanding your boarders.
The garrison is supposed to be just a basic defensive force, not an obstacle for a sovereign-led army. You can station additional units in a city to further defend it. I find garrisons satisfactory as they are in .983, and now they are a little bigger, which makes a lot of sense, because they're just armed peasants, they may be many, but are still weak units.
If anyone is strongly against this, they can easily mod it for themselves to fit their tastes. But overall, I find it fine as it is.
You would also have to increase magic resistance of defenders in towns to match increased defense against melee or you will bias towards town assaults based on magic damage as 0.984 will, unless that's intended.
Increased the amount of free city defenders at all levels - Yay
I'm a bit saddened to see the attack and defense penalty in hostile lands return. It feels completely artificial and, like StevenAus pointed out, doesn't really match Derek's own criteria for good game features.
It just shows that what this game realy needs is a propper siege mechanic. If not actual siege battles (with walls and siege engines) then at the very least a simple delay between starting a siege and fighting the battle (the length of the delay depending on factors like city walls, siege engines, casting offensive or defensive spells, etc). I know neither has ever been on the table for FE sadly enough, but I hope it is something that can be done in a future update/expansion.
But this value is manipulatable, I imagine. Can be altered besed on difficulty level, or a global reduction in AI penalty.
Agreed. This mechanic seems WAY too artificial.
As Wizard1200 recommended, more strategic spells should be made available to attack incoming forces.
If defense really needs an extra boost, than have entering an agressive ZoC end the movement (just like river tiles). This will guarentee AI have a chance to respond.
I don't understand how you are comparing the -25% to ATK/DEF to an alternative of raising DEF (possibly ATK) of garrison troops.
First of all, Garrison troops would need to present in huge numbers and be pretty much God mode to be more than a speed bump for any (even AI) soverein's army.
Secondly, this actually REMOVES control and interaction for the player, as you just have to research a few things here, raise a town level there, and voila! They just exist.
I am FAR MORE interested in having to make decisions about making choices about how many troops to send in to invade, versus how many to keep in defense. If you have the initiative/momentum and can create armies to attack, do it. If you have a reasonable army, but perhaps not enough to fully attack, you can harrass the fringes or try to get them to attack, wear down their force through attrition and then counterattack.
Lastly, in an indirect way, it might make people consider other forms of winning the game.
Like I said, it is a manipulatable number I am sure, so they can balance or make changes where needed in the future.
edit: I will agree that the above poster that using less movement and/or initiative is another viable options. I am curious how people feel about the two different mothods.
Another vote against hostile lands penalty. I'm not sold on simply slapping armor on militia as a fix either, but I would prefer it over the hostile lands penalty by far.
Please rethink this one, Derek!
Maybe instead of a -25% attack and defense penalty, how about accuracy and dodge penalty instead? I still don't like it, but it seems less crushing. Or maybe just in enemy cities.
Yep a - 10 penalty to Accuracy, Dodge, Spell Mastery and Spell Resistance would be a great compromise.
Huzzah! Those waterfalls have been fully chased into submission.
More huzzah! No more ear bleeding.
Will this penalty show up as an effect/spell on the units? And is that true in both enemy AI and unconquered regions like the Wildlands?
This certainly gives a buff to ZoC and makes it function beyond being able to see the map better and gather resources. -25% does seem a bit harsh.
Decreasing initiative makes more sense than atk and def.
You would expect troops moving through enemy territory to be more cautious, so a slightly reduced initiative makes sense.
Totally agree. And it also seems to be more realistic, in that it would act like sort of a moral penalty: I always think that defending a city is a more commited and determined deed because you're fighting for your home and "family", than attacking.
I still think that increasing the number of defending units would not do much because, for what I've experienced, they are just wimpy enough that they go down quite fast. Then again, after reading all the damage decrease in weapons and spells, would have to test this again.
Have we heard anything about a today release by the way?
I was going for more of an earned city defense. I will of course play today and test it out, but the -25% has scaling problems and takes no effort by the defender. It also makes the AI easily gamed on tight border disputes, unless you can teach the AI to never enter my territory, unless it is B-lining for a city. Most AI armies spend lots of turns attacking my outposts before going after a city. That means I get several attacks before they reach a city with this new penalty. I will just rush the city, so they don't get the same advantage. Again, need to play to be sure, just an opinion on a Thursday morning.
My goal was to stop early rushes. More units in cities will do that. After the rush is no longer possible, we are mostly talking about how hard sieging should be. The ZoC advantage makes all levels of defense easier. I actually thought the open land battles were pretty well balanced. This new change makes some sense given that campaigns in foreign territory would weaken an army in certain situations. I can guess that your logic is to prevent defense from having a positive effect on troops. I see why that would be a design consideration. I still think that besides the early rush prevention, a progressively earned defense is the way to go.
The earned part should be going up the economically barren Warfare tree to get those defenders to scale with the velocity of hero and troop power. It's a simple fix to me to get armor and weapons for defenders. It is earned, it isn't too powerful, since these units have a low level and spawnrating. In my tests (read as mod) I still easily walk through cities with a full army because I have well leveled troops and fireballs a plenty. There is no danger of making cities too strong, as long as the game has a few ways to counter city defense. That should be the goal for balancing strategic conquest. City defense strategies and ways to counter them. The counter to a ZoC penalty is to be stronger. Really you would need to bring many more troops to combat how easily they will die. There is a little nuance in how a player will deal with the penalty. But I am guessing the AI will not handle it well in many situations where the player is relying on it to ambush more powerful units. The penalty may cause problems for the AI.
I want to be clear that I am happy that you listened to my suggestion and I applaud your prompt response and thoughtful changes. I was the one that wanted a better defense and now I have it. I will do these changes some justice and play with them. Thanks for listening.
One thing is clear, however it's done, defending home territory needs to be improved if we want grand scale wars to feel more epic.
The suggestions I've heard here that I like the least are more defensive spells in home territory, making spells and magic even more powerfull and the only right way to go. This is also a potential AI crippler of dimensions.
Sieges are the best, but this is a new feature for an expansion pack.
The alternatives we are left with is this 25% attack and defence malus, or we could use intiative too perhaps, but I think players would find that more frustrating, being slaughtered on the battlefield and never get the chance too move..... I really hope it will work out good.
We could also add slower healing speed in enemy lands, but that's not enough, just a little supplement.
Like Sean here I'm also abit worried about potential exploitation of the AI, for instance letting them attack you and bleed out before you go on a counterattack to their land. Hopefully it will work out. I can't wait to test it.
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