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)
I think the caltrops outpost improvement should unlock at a much lower tech level than it currently does.
I actually love the -25% land penalty. It gives meaning back to the visual indicator of the kingdom/empire lands, but more importantly I think it helps out tactics a lot more than just buffing defenders. Other than potential AI issues, the land penalty seems to come out as a clear winner in terms of depth of strategy.
It discourages city camping, and gets armies out on the field, which is where I fight almost all my battles anyways. On paper it seems to add a lot to outpost strategy. In the past betas, I'd always rather spend the time/ resources on 1 or 2 more units than on 4-6 outpost upgrades (total, generally across several outposts) to cover a city's perimeter with some moderate debuffs. Now that outposts will include an inherent debuff, assuming they stack with upgrades, those outposts suddenly become pretty strong defensive structures that can really change battles. It's more of a choice. It's going bigger on already existing features. I also like the idea of once you enter the enemy's lands, being whittled away by spells and enemy attacks rather than just walking through territory to a huge city and having a big siege there. Thematically, the sort of defenses you could build in a couple years time by a small handful of people isn't exactly Helm's Deep. Though that one is just how I imagine the world.
The one balance (theorycrafting still) that would need to be made offhand would be on the Paradin magic outpost spell. The last I looked it was 50 mana per outpost? Now that you could use the spell as an offensive spell, better than wither or freeze etc, plus have all the resource grabbing, expansion, etc options . .well I'd at least double the cost. Guess we'll find out how it plays out, but I know who my first faction to try will be.
Has the 25% penalty been removed? I don't see it on the list anymore.
yeah, i was about to ask the same question. ^^ Has it been removed?
Yea, Kael listened to our complaints and removed it! A just and mighty Dev, Kael.
after receipt of all types of injuries - the champion stop receiving them? or he will die? or at least will be tied forever to the city?
They do listen then. ^^
Yep, see here https://forums.elementalgame.com/433692
Well just so long as the city militia isn't so good that I never have to build a normal unit for regular defense. Then I just can rush my doom stack even faster since my cities are good at holding their own. Guess it depends on how good the AI is at actually defending their cities with all the balance changes to spells and such, or if a Dirge of Ceresa / fireball/ whatever wipes the AI stack regardless of its equipment still. Interested to see how it'll work out.
PS, if there is no more land bonus . .maybe tweak up the upgraded outpost benefits then? I was looking forwards to having some game changing external defenses rather than just sitting in my city to reserve my power and throwing militia out as meat shields. Just a thought.
If they just had a shield and chest piece to go with their club/mace/bow than that would make them sturdy enough.
I'm abit disapointed he listened to the mob. We'd never even got the chance to test it.
Edit: Doubblepost
@NorsemanViking,
The mob has already seen this game mechanic. I have a version of .87 you can play if you really want to try it out. The mod had solid logical arguments that Kael was persuaded by. Don't mistake fruitful communication for pandering. This was a good choice.
Well, well, it's not a gamebreaker to lose that malus, but it could have been a nice temporarily solution until we got sieges in an expansion pack...... Guess temporarily solutions are against the philosophy.
Edit: I'm not a bitter man, just skeptical and suspicious to the mob.....
I just don't like bonuses/penalties like that. They are powerful, you don't have to do anything to get them, and they seem arbitrary. On the surface you might be able to rationalise it as the attacking force is on unfamiliar ground, but what if you are retaking your capital city from an invader? It's technically their influence, but why would you have a penalty? It's your home, it''s your land and people you are fighting in. That penalty didn't make any sense and it was exacerbated by it's power, 25% is huge. I understand the idea and the goal, making cities easier to defend, but I would want a better mechanic in place to do it, like more/better guards, or at least have to build and research something that's giving me the benefit.
I'm going to give it a shot. You get the Quest of Candor whereupon you slay every troll in existence, rescue the maiden, and escort her to her father... and he gives you a pony.
All the reduced scaling on spells is awesome but I would still like to see the unit traits that boost spell damage like warlock nerfed as well.
DO NOT nerf spellcasting. It needs to be more powerful!
Seconded. Spellcasting still feels kind of weak at the moment, and there needs to be a good incentive for a spellcasting character to actually specialize as a mage. Nerf traits like evoker and warlock, and there will be no reason to specialize in magic damage, as it will simply not compare to mundane weaponry.
There is an option to set magic to 'Dense', allowing for better abuse of the shards.
As is, there is no reason to build troops because magic is too powerful. Is why they are nurfing it.
Indeed. I miss some of the more magical spells in other games like mass haste, mass slow, etc. that really make magic...magical. A lot of the spells I've used in my games have been rather ho-hum, giving a small bonus or being too cost prohibitive to use very often. Not that other spells late game aren't powerful, it's just that from my perspective the magical part of the game isn't as prevalent early to mid-game as other fantasy games, making it more of a gamble to try and use, especially now that a lot of it is being toned down. There's got to be a mid-ground between a presence of magic (for involvement/cool factor) and also not being too unbalanced/powerful.
Thirded. I love the game, but hate playing in such a way where Ceresa is a melee sovereign in order to have early-game effectiveness. Just aint right. A competent spellcasting sov should be as much a threat as a club o' doom wielding brawler. Just my two cents.
Good point. Will play around with this setting (I've left it alone for beta purposes at present)
Magical damage power should come from Path of the Mage, not from base damage. All the nerfs in the log indicate a more balanced approach to spells. Now that the base damage is lower, they can add some power and make spells cheaper for mages. I would also be in favor of preventing crits on spells, since it makes Path of the Assassin the best mage choice.
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