- New Spell: Explode Person (Destruction 2). Cheap battle spell which auto-kills (if not resisted) a single humanoid with HP less than 7, and deals explosion damage to the unit based on its Armor value.
- New Spell: Wrecking Ball (Destruction 5). Adds 10% to 50% progress to a Siege.
- New Spell: Rend The Earth (Destruction 9). Turns a hex into Magma Plains and destroys any resource specials on it. May create a volcano if cast on a Mountain hex. May fail if the hex holds a mana node or has a level 3+ special condition (Enchanted, Hallowed, Primal, etc.)
- New Spell: Disintegrate (Destruction 10). Extremely powerful battle spell which instantly kills 125 HP worth of individuals (minimum 1).
- Mark of Sorcery: A line of Mark enchantments similar to the existing variants, but requiring Arcane Mastery and with buffs to Melee Arcane Damage, Ranged Skill and Blink (depending on rank of Mark)
- There is now a filter option to hide/show unavailable unit types (due to lack of recruits and similar)
- The non-special Wizard Racial Traits (Dwarf, Elf, Orc, Goblin) have had the cost reduced to 0, as intended. Having a beard, pointy ears or tusks, isn't really worth 2 template creation points.
- It is now possible to order an army which is in the same hex as one or more friendly armies to attack alone. This can be used to prevent the other armies from being exhausted by the battle.
- The Intro ('A Tale Begins...') can now be re-shown from the Encyclopedia Window. For save games prior to this version, tooltips will be missing for the intro when shown this way.
- Fixed the Outliner not respecting the option to hide sites
- Fixed Prospector discoveries not being shown on the map until reloading the game
- Fixed an issue causing all levels of Mark of Undeath not applying the unit effect correctly and not having a cost
- Fixed spellcasting keyboard shortcuts not working correctly
- Sieges can now be started by an exhausted army (e.g. which has fought a battle), if the army has not moved this turn
- Added a few more tweaks to plane and deity matching during world generation
Wizards and Warlords
Patch 1.0.0.4
Patch 1.0.0.3
- Workers with the Seafaring skill now give a +5% production bonus per skill level to coastal Resource sites.
- Workers with the Seafaring skill now produce a +25 gold per skill level if working at a coastal or riverine Wizard Tower.
- The Worker with the highest Entertainment skill now adds a +2% per skill level bonus modifier to all worker resource production at a Wizard Tower.
- Resource sites can now be renamed
- Special Culture trait added to indicate cultures with non-standard origin.
- Improved the layout of Diplomatic action icons
- Fixed a crashbug related to the 'Always Hits' ability.
- Fixed a crash bug caused by proselytizing characters being killed in the line of duty.
- Fixed a crash bug caused by various interactions with sites that have no or special main culture.
- Fixed the missing portrait for the Scarecrow line of units.
- Fixed characters being able to proselytize even when severely wounded and/or fatigued.
- Fixed a bug causing the output of Artisan workers to be off by a factor 10 in some cases.
- Fixed tooltips not being shown for the current selection in the Workers window.
- Fixed 'Gift Gold' having a reversed validity check, making usable when the faction has too little gold and unusable when the reverse is the case
- Fixed spell errors related to various resurrection effects and spells
- Fixed some incorrect plus/minus signs in various mechanics descriptions
- Fixed slow scroll speed on the Outliner
- Fixed Diplomatic action icons being clickable outside of their visible area
- Fixed recovering characters not being filtered correctly in the outliner if they are also idle
- Fixed incorrect tooltips being shown for spells in the multicasting panel
- Fixed an issue where the recruit character assignment would target a different character than the chosen target
- Fixed tooltips not being shown for the full area of major faction army emblems
- Fixed a bug where opening the Construct window and closing it (to return to the Military window) would cause mouse-scrolling to be captured by the map, and not passed to the Military window as intended
Patch 1.0.0.2
- Bodyguard Office: A passive Loyalty gain (with diminishing returns) has been added in addition to the usual Office Desire mechanics.
- Bodyguard Office: There is now a chance per turn (diminishing with character level) to gain experience. Bodyguard-class characters gain considerably more experience from this.
- Bodyguard Office: Now requires Martial and/or Rogue class.
- Advisor Office: Now gives varying bonuses based on character class. The possibilities include: Research Progress, Research Cost, Influence, Gold, Tribal Destiny, Veteran Warriors and Unit Recruitment Cost.
- Tribal Prestige modifiers to recruitment cost are now included in relevant tooltips/displays
- Improved the Deity <-> Plane matching routines
- The Office window tooltip now shows the effect from Advisor appointments.
- Tutorial Dialog: Tweaked the graphics to make it easier to distinguish against the background and other UI elements.
- Added a missing Back button to the Warlord Start Game flow.
- Fixed new spells not appearing in the Multicast panel until the game has been reloaded
- As an alternative to the world action icons, spells can now also be cast from the Spellbook by clicking the spell - (hover effects are missing, but will be added soon)
- Fixed the outliner not updating on Office assignments from the Faction window
- Fixed a crashbug related to the Fortress Window and non-World Generated Fortresses
- Fixed some Office assignments leaving the previous task as semi-active
- Character AI now considers active Office(s) when suggesting and/or choosing tasks
- Characters with an Office are no longer shown as Idle, but either include or display their Office name, depending on context
- Encyclopedia: Added more tooltips to Deity and Plane entries
- Encyclopedia: Added missing information on special home plane status for Deities where relevant
- Encyclopedia: Added missing information on deity hierarchy relationships
Patch 1.0.0.0
This is a niche game for sure, and perhaps not the most accessible of games, but I'm proud of what it has become, and I'm excited about what is to come. That being said, I want to keep focus on what the game is right now, and what is coming in the next 1-2 updates. Time permitting, I will share more of my thoughts regarding the future of the game, in a post on the Development sub-forum.
The release as a 'proper' title also underlines my commitment to fixing any issues players may encounter. I usually manage to fix any reported bugs during the same or next day - some bugs may be more stubborn, but that has been a rare occurrence so far.
Some may notice there is no special moniker for this update - I thought it fitting this one should stand on it's own. For the next update, there will once again be an update moniker.
User Interface and Graphics:
- Added more than 100 new unit icons.
- Unit tooltips during battles have been reformatted to make them more readable.
- Section orders during battles are now given via an expanding icon menu with tooltips rather than a strange tiny text button leading to a pop-up dialog.
- Added the option to use the 'classic' army emblem from before the new high-definition options were added
- Extended the tutorials to cover additional UI elements and game mechanics
- Added more information to War declaration prompts, to make it more apparent which factions are involved.
- Changed the unit colors during battles to green/red from blue/yellow, which should make it easier to read, and to determine the friendly faction at a quick glance.
- Improved feedback on unavailable/blocked unit recruitment modifiers.
New Features and Content:
- The following upgrades can now be built at Fortresses: Supply Depot, Marketplace, Barracks, Mustering Grounds, Administration Center, Shrine, Chapel, Temple. Some of these may require research, leader traits, specific fortress types and/or culture traits.
- Several new achievements have been added
- Hostile armies can now block income if they occupy the faction seat of power. The portion of income lost is based on the size/power/traits of the army in question. Highly mobile, non-monstrous, units have the highest ability to block income - low mobility, mindless/monstrous, units have the lowest ability to do so.
- Notables can now be recruited from conquered/controlled sites. This is done by assigning the task via the Follower Window and Assign Task. Possible target notables are ordered based on chance per turn to recruit. There may be a cost involved, which may be entirely skipped or lowered, if the character attempting the recruitment has a high chance to succeed.
- Added a Faerie-themed goody hut event.
- Added an additional Vampire character class (Youngblood), so they are not all nobles.
- New Spell: Sylvanize (Life 6). Target hex changes terrain type, as follows: Plains to Shrublands. Grassland/Shrublands to Forest. Marsh to Swamp. Hills to Forested Hills. Mountains to Forested Mountains. Arctic Plains to Arctic Forest. Cannot target a hex with a condition (Darkened, Blight, Enchanted, etc.) other than Primal. Cannot target a hex containing a Wizard Tower, Shrine, Temple, Fortress or City. If the hex contains a non-Life Mana Node the spell has a 50% risk to fail.
- New Spell: Greater Sylvanize (Life 9). Target hex changes terrain type, as follows: Desert to Arid. Arid Plains to Shrublands. Tundra/Plains/Grassland/Shrublands to Forest. Marsh/Swamp to Jungle. Hills to Forested Hills. Mountains to Forested Mountains. Arctic Plains to Arctic Forest. Cannot target a hex with the Blight condition. Cannot target a hex containing a Wizard Tower, Temple or City (Population 8+). If the hex contains a non-Life Mana Node the spell has a 50% risk to fail.
- New Spell: Deforestation (Destruction 8). Target hex changes terrain type, as follows: Grassland/Shrublands to Plains. Forest to Shrublands. Swamp to Marsh. Forested Hills to Hills. Forested Mountains to Mountains. Arctic Forest to Arctic Plains. Jungle to Forest. Cannot target a hex with condition Primal, Enchanted, Hallowed or Sanctuary. Cannot target a hex containing a Wizard Tower, Shrine, Temple, Fortress or City. If the hex contains a Life Mana Node the spell has an 90% risk to fail.
- New Spell: Rising Tides (Water 8). Target coastal or river hex changes terrain type, as follows: Tundra/Plains/Grasslands/Arid Plains to Marsh, Shrublands/Marsh to Swamp, Forest to Jungle. Cannot target a hex with condition Primal, Enchanted, Hallowed or Sanctuary. Cannot target a hex containing a Wizard Tower, Shrine, Temple, Fortress or City. If the hex contains a non-Water Mana Node the spell has an 90% risk to fail.
- New Spell: Rune of Alacrity (Rune 1). +2 Movement, +1 Shock, +1 Melee Skill. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
- New Spell: Rune of Wisdom (Rune 2). +2 Discipline, +1 Melee Skill, +1 Scouting, Ability: Inspiring. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
- New Spell: Rune of Hunger (Rune 3). +1 Toughness, +1 Courage, -1 Discipline, Ability: Frenzy, Ability: Feast. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
- New Spell: Rune of Fortitude (Rune 4). +1 Toughness, +1 Armor, Ability: Hardy. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
- New Spell: Rune of Thunder (Rune 7). +1 Shock, +5 Lightning Damage (Melee Attacks), +3 Lightning Resistance. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
Improvements and Changes:
- Expanded the mechanics for unit 'trainers' to cover bind/raise/create recruitment types (previously trainers could only be assigned to training and summoning). Binding requires Arcane or Religious character class. Raise requires Undeath or Necromancy. Create has requirements depending on the nature of the unit (alchemy, golem, etc). The tooltip for the assignment button will show the details for a particular unit.
- Tweaked siege progress values
- Changed Ascendancy victory to happen via a research project unlocking a new actions
- The Ritual of Ascendancy will now reveal the entire map
- Reworked calculation and display of relevant factors for resolution of Non-Aggression Pact offers towards Nomadic Hordes.
- Improved Peace Deal acceptance AI. Several minor faction 'personalities' will now refuse being given ownership of Sites of different cultures.
- Conversion tasks now have a name based on the type of conversion: Redemption, Corruption, etc.
- Units recruited using 'converted' (ie alignment-change/demontaint/celestial/fae influence) recruitment pools will now have their alignment changed accordingly, and tags assigned if relevant.
- Temporary recruits are now removed immediately upon recruiting the unit, rather than when replenishing losses.
- The sum of base and temporary recruits most now be positive to recruit a unit. If the base recruitment pool size is 0, the temporary part must cover the full unit size. The Military window will give feedback on blocked recruitment due to these factors.
- Characters joining due to Lore discoveries are now given a History entry indicating this. Previously they would just mysteriously appear as new followers with no indication as to why.
- The following spells can now be used during battles: Ironskin, Necropotence, Iron Discipline.
- Battle Gate now allows an army to quickly retreat from a battle with greatly reduced losses from pursuit.
World Generation:
- Undead special character classes have now been mapped to corresponding mundane classes when resolving ambient character activity (e.g. a Spectal Sage can trigger similar activity events as a Historian). This does not preclude unique events due to their undead nature.
- Organization characters will now usually be given a location during world generation, making them notables and/or leaders at various sites.
- Added alignment tags to dynamically generated Faerie groups during world generation (when relevant). This is used to assign correct alignments to generated Fae notables and when matching character to groups during gameplay.
- Expanded the number and variety of character names. In particular, surnames are much common for many culture templates.
- Generation of base attitude to Demons for a specific Culture are now based on numerous additional factors and has a random component
- Faeries are now included in the culture attitude generation and mechanics.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a number of missing tooltips on the world map
- Fixed a number of missing tooltips in the context panel
- Fixed a number of missing tooltips for world actions
- Fixed incorrect text colors for Spells in some places
- Fixed the fortress map graphics scaling to cover multiple hexes for some fortress types
- Fixed a bug where the army emblem/sprite would disappear
- Fixed a bug causing trade offers to have very strange amounts
- Fixed several instances of incorrectly formatted amounts/stat values
- Fixed non-unit spells not working correctly during manual battle resolution
- Fixed a crashbug caused by an interaction between tooltip text generation and battle resolution
- Fixed a crashbug involving probing attacks
- Fixed a number of issues related to followers dying and not correctly being removed from tasks/factions
- Fixed unit tool tips during battles sometimes being placed partially off-screen
- Character alignment is now displayed as intended in the the Follower Window.
- Fixed a number of bugs related to faction-wide effects being corrupted/lost after saving/loading.
- Fixed Recruitment Pool data being shown in a much too small window, causing overflow.
Patch 0.9.145.1
- Fixed a bug causing character portraits to be incorrectly tinted on tooltips
- Fixed a crashbug related to calculating character travel requirements for some task assignments
- Fixed a bug where generals and officers of disbanded/destroyed armies would keep the no longer valid assignment until reassigned
- Unit experience now provides stat bonuses and special abilities (randomly chosen on advancement). They will advanced from level 0 to 10 as experience points pass the following thresholds: 10, 25, 50, 80, 125, 200, 300, 500, 750, 1000. Note that not all units are capable of gaining experience.
- Battles now provide unit experience based on the magnitude of losses suffered and casualties inflicted.
- Sieges now provide unit experience. Additional experience is gained if the siege is led by a General with Siege Master (amplified if the General has Train Troops or Mentor).
- Wizard Trait: Farsight now gives a world-level ability which explores a province, or finds one or more hidden sites (if such exist) if the province is already explored. This ability has a 16 turn cooldown.
Game Update (0.9.145): Standard Bearer
- A selection of 3 army emblems/banners have been added to replace the old shield icon used for player armies on the world map. The background and sigil are imprinted on this as with the previous shield, but there is now additional variety and higher visual quality.
- New River graphics have replaced the basic blue lines previously used.
- Faction flags have been added to Site tool tips.
- New Siege Window added which allows navigating quickly between all active sieges.
- Sieges can no longer be initiated if armies of the target site faction are in the same hex.
- Reworked the battle initiation actions to make it less confusing, and removed the generally useless 'lift siege' action.
- Assault can be ordered from the Siege Window.
- Siege Towers can now be built during sieges. This reduces the progress needed to make an Assault possible.
- Siege Engines can now be built during sieges. These add a random amount of progress per turn of Siege (0-3 per engine, with a total upper limit per turn based on elapsed siege time and fortification value).
- Labor points are now generated during siege turns, with max 1 point carrying over to the turn. Army composition determines how many points are generated (0 to 3, can be fractional). Siege Towers and Engines require labor in addition to resources, in order to be built.
- Re-balanced siege progress and threshold values.
- Character Activity: Prospectors now have a chance to discover new mineral/ore deposits in the area they are located as part of their task.
- Planes now have randomly generated flavor text.
- Planes now have a randomly generated selection of 'native' units.
- Planes now have a wider variety of names.
- Increased the variety of province event undead army names and made army composition factor into the name generation.
- Nomadic tribes can now be hired as auxiliary mercenaries. The cost and chance decreases by increasing respect. This is done by winning battles and decreases over time. The tribes may decide to keep the bribes, and the units gained are temporary, but they are relatively cheap and fast to recruit. Attacking the nomads will cause any currently hired auxiliaries to desert.
- The AI is now better at merging armies and units. Especially when defending important sites. This greatly reduces the army spam that some faction types could cause when threatened for an extended period of time.
Magic, Research and Monsters:
- New Unit Type: Mutant Brutes. Powerful melee unit with a high Food upkeep.
- New Unit Type: Beithir. Powerful Monstrous dragon-like creature with poison and lightning attacks, and amphibious movement.
- New Unit Type: Djinni. Powerful Extra-Planar Elemental Air creatures with very small units.
- New Unit Type: Efreeti. Powerful Extra-Planar Elemental Fire creatures with very small units.
- New Unit Type: Barghests. Monstrous dogs which cause terror and are very resistant to Dark damage.
- New Culture Variation: Evil Leonids knows as Martichora. The base traits for this template are poison attacks, limited flying, heavy armor disdain, no cavalry units and evil alignment. They are an 'exotic' template for setting/world generation purposes.
- New Chaos Spell: Lesser Wild Summons. Summons a randomly chosen unit (from those available and within an effective power range of level 1 to 5) immediately at 25% to 125% of the normal cost.
- New Chaos Spell: Greater Wild Summons. Summons a randomly chosen unit (from those available and within an effective power range of level 4 to 8) immediately at 33% to 133% of the normal cost.
- New Chaos Spell: Planar Vortex. Teleports an army to a random hex in an adjacent province. There is a continuous 10% (until failed) chance that a further distant province is chosen as target.
- New Chaos Spell: Greater Mass Mutation. Transform a large percentage of the inhabitants of a city into Mutants and Mutant Brutes. This creates an instant, large, army at the cost of numerous pops and significant disorder/squaler to the city.
- Planar Lore can now grant discoveries related to the native units of a plane (upkeep/cost modifiers, temporary units, research progress).
Fixes:
- Fixed a number of display bugs related to unit attacks and modifiers
- Fixed a crash bug related to movement and tooltips
- Fixed a number of crash bugs related to battles
- Fixed tribal siege penalties being applied inversely
- Disabled legacy manual battle resolution
- Fixed a world generation freeze bug
- Fixed a graphical glitch which happened if numerous armies of differing factions were co-located
- Fixed research planar lore not being included in the research project list
Patch 0.9.144.1
- New Wizard Tower Expansion: Soul Forge. Building it enables an action where 100 Souls can be sacrificed to hasten an in-progress Unit recruitment by 50% of the time required. There is a 2 Turn cooldown on this action.
- Sigil and color selections are now persisted across games, so that the selection made in the previous game are the default for the next.
- Peace can now be negotiated with (non-Nomadic) Independent Realms using a new Peace Agreement UI.
- A shortcut to 'Hire Followers' has been added to the Followers window. This will access the same functionality as the one found in the Economy Window. It is only present when inspecting your own Followers via the top menu. Accessing it from 'prompt'-style display of characters would create a non-intended way to dismiss the prompt/question, which is why this limitation is present.
- A shortcut to 'Hire Mercenaries' has been added to the Military window. This will access the same functionality as the one found in the Economy Window. Culture and Race details have been added to the Mercenary Unit descriptions, as well as tooltips for equipment/special abilities.
- The quantity change of market resources is now affected by the magnitude of divergence from the equilibrium amount. This means that replenishment from 0 is faster than from very close to the equilibrium, and that reduction towards equilibrium is faster if the 'excess' is large.
- Reduced the upper bound on price drift due to full exhaustion of a resource on the market from 400% to 150%.
- Some non-tradable resources are now shown in the Economy Window for informational purposes: Souls, Greater Souls and Spoils.
- When casting a spell from the 'More Spells' list during battles, this spell will be swapped with the first spell in the dropdown. This allows swift repeat casting in the same manner as for the spells in the list by default.
- Cities now produce Tools based on their Industry attribute.
- Cities now produce additional Gold based on their Prosperity attribute.
- Fixed a bug where a N/A selection could appear in the 'Gather Recruits' dialog. Selecting it would cause a crash on the next turn.
- Fixed a bug where Domination Victory would trigger on Turn 2 if running a game with no rivals.
- Fixed a bug where the estimated amount change (in the Economy Window) was fluctuating and incorrect. It was shown with the random element used during actual processing rather than using the median of this in the estimate.
- Fixed missing spell description for Shrapnel and Training Day spells. They were showing as NYI despite actually being implemented.
- Fixed incorrect scaling of the new sigils.
- Fixed the 'Tools' resource being non-tradable.
- Fixed a bug causing Battle Stats 'hovertips' to be stuck for the rest of the game session if active when a unit is destroyed.
Game Update (0.9.144): Emissary
- Expanded Diplomacy options for (non-Nomadic) Independent Realms.
- There is a limit of one diplomatic action per turn. Future updates will add ways to increase this limit.
- Some of the existing actions now have a greater integration with diplomatic stats (reputation, regard, anger, etc.)
- Assuage: Will improve relations with a realm and reduce their fear of you (note that fear can be beneficial in some situations).
- Insult: Will harm relations with a realm, but can improve relations with other realms that hold a negative view of the target.
- Threaten: Will harm relations with a realm and may increase fear (depending on their perception of your strength). It may also yield Influence points.
- Vassalage: With high relations you can try to vassalize a realm (high fear increases the chance of success). This will give you a significant portion of their income. You will also automatically declare war on any aggressor towards them. Failure to protect a vassal from attacks may result in a dissolution of the relationship. Vassalage also affects events and some diplomatic actions.
- Gift: Gold can be used to improve relations with specific realms.
- Request Character: Search for a Follower in the target realm. Culture will affect what character type categories are available to choose from. Gives you the option of hiring the follower - the choice will affect diplomatic relations. Realms with the 'Dedicated Haven' trait can provide special followers of supernatural or non-standard cultural origin.
- Most diplomatic actions will affect other realms based on their Attitude and cultural outlook. For example, a Warrior Nation will frown upon seeking out non-Martial followers.
- Minor realm traits will now affect diplomacy and events to a much greater degree.
- A search function has been added to the Diplomacy window, making it easier to find a faction as an increasing number of these are discovered and added to the window over the course of a game.
General
- 5 new Achievements added related mostly to Diplomacy.
- Right-clicking a (center) unit during battle deployment will mark it as Vanguard.
- Planewalker (Wizard Trait): New ability (affected by cooldown) which can be used to move an army near the Wizard Tower instantly to any known location on the map.
- Minor factions now have unique heraldry. This is a work-in-progress and the colors+sigils are not shown on their armies yet. Multi-color backgrounds are still pending. Cultural factors are considered when assigning sigils and balanced against seeking a variety of unique sigils in a particular world.
- Added numerous new sigils for faction heraldry.
- Added about 200 new character portraits, more than doubling the previous number of unique portraits. This includes portraits from some races which previously had no such (fx minotaurs) and a variety of human/non-human portraits for existing races. Undead, demonic and celestial characters in particular now have greater variety.
- Added new naming templates for culture-specific units.
- Elemental Cultism religion added.
- During character generation assignment of 'cosmic/special' religions now considers a greater variety of factors - and the pool of these religions drawn from has been expanded.
- Expanded character name pool for the 'generic' language.
- Defeating an enemy Wizard will now create a special Monument site.
- Rebalanced output of Mana Nodes. It is now generally lower, but the cost of binding has also been reduced (but to a lesser degreee, relatively).
- Rebalanced Unit Training experience to be more rewarding, but less exploitable.
- Captives can now be handled after battles with a variety of options. Some of the effects are only partially implemented, and there is a known issue where it is possible to begin resolving a new battle before handling captives from a previous battle. Doing this will result in the captives being ignored. A fix for this issue and implementation of all options will happen in a patch soon.
- Orb of Channeling (Enchant Item): Creates an item for a follower which increases mana usage limits during battles involving the follower.
- Amulet of Protection (Enchant Item): Creates an item for a follower which can protect the follower from a variety of dangers and magical threats.
- Healing Potion (Life Spell): Creates a (stackable) item for a follower which can save them from death in some circumstances and can be used to heal from injuries.
- Ambient Character Activity: A Bodyguard given more responsibility may change to a new class, depending on circumstances and culture.
- Ambient Character Activity: Alchemists can create Healing Potions for themselves and others.
- Ambient Character Activity: Apothecaries can now heal other characters from permanent or temporary injuries.
- Enchantment and Artifice mastery now affects the limit on concurrent Enchant Item projects.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed the debuff from unpaid upkeep not being applied to units in all intended situations.
- Fixed a number of missing tooltips on World Actions and spells
- Fixed a number of memory leaks
- Fixed a serious performance/stability issue affecting manual resolution of large battle
- Fixed notable characters not being generated for some sites during world generation.
- Fixed army icons glitching out when moving from certain coordinates. This has been a persistent and annoying bug for a long time, so it's good to finally have it fixed, as it looked very bad when it happened.
- Fixed garrison armies so they're again not part of the 'quick cycle army list', which made it annoying to use and sometimes break.
- Fixed various text errors where debug information was shown instead of the correct data.
- Fixed missing tool tips on the multicast grid.
- Fixed expected mana income/expenditure being calculated incorrectly in some cases (the upper-left panel)
- Fixed 2 enchantment spells not being unlocked at the correct mastery levels.
- Fixed some character traits being incorrectly categorized as personality traits, which meant the 'counts-as-class'' traits were sometimes assigned to characters who already had the class.
- Fixed some nomad camps not having notable characters.
- Fixed additional cases of recruitment not being cancelled when the recruitment location is lost.
- An army with a planned path extending beyond the current turn is no longer de-selected on turn end.
There are still some known issues and rough edges here and there, but after being delayed by an insufferable heat wave, I really wanted to get this out to keep up the release cadence. I will release a number of incremental patches to this update and append the changes to these patch notes.
Game Update (0.9.143): Myrmidon
Battle Resolution:
- Significant changes to battle resolution. The previous manual resolution is still available as an option until the new version is confirmed stable, free of bugs and with a bit more polish.
- The underlying mechanics are still the same, but the battle now has each side divided in 'sections', representing Skirmishers, Center, Flanks (Left/Right), Rear and off-map Reserves. Units can be dragged and dropped between these pre-battle. And moved between some of them during the battle.
- The pairing of combatants is based on the new sections, instead of the old line based match up. Units at the rear (and sometimes flanks) can also use ranged weapons for more of the battle.
- Each 'step' of the Battle resolution is 5 rounds, with a skip-to-end button.
- Units which are destroyed will fade out, and fleeing units are shown with an overlay effect. This should make it easier to see what is going on.
- Casualties taken/dealt are shown per unit in red/green and sums are shown in a summary window.
- The log has been reduced in size from the WIP screenshots, but has been kept somewhat larger than the intended final size, until all issues are ironed out and additional animations make it more clear what units are targeting/targeted by each other.
- Section Orders affect battle resolution, but mostly in regards to how quickly melee is joined and whether flanks try to fight the center or opposing flanks. There is still some work to do in this area.
Other Changes:
- Ambient training now much more likely if target is level 1
- Ambient training is now less likely if target is level 4+
- Worker unhappiness event can no longer be skipped by ignoring the notification
- Worker unhappiness event can no longer trigger for worker units without free will
- The notification 'resource purchased for upkeep' can now be dismissed for 10 turns
- Ambient Character Activity: Pugilists can now start fistfights with other characters or locals
- Ambient Character Activity: Archers can now train other characters in the Sniper skill
- Ambient Character Activity: Cultists can now train other characters in the Occult Lore skill
- Ambient Character Activity: Strategists can now train other characters in the Commander skill
- Ambient Character Activity: Faction Divine Wroth may cause characters to make a personal offering (if they can afford it), which has a chance to reduce Divine Wroth.
- Ambient Character Activity: Bards can praise their Faction, causing a gain of Influence. Discontent may sometimes cause the Bard to mock instead, causing a loss of Influence.
- Ambient Character Activity: Bards can improve the mood of other Followers and/or remove negative traits (Depressed, Broken).
- Ambient Character Activity: Historians can make breakthroughs giving a randomized Lore Level increases (usually Ancient History - with chance of some others). They can also very rarely risk uncover forbidden knowledge, causing insanity but granting a lot of experience points.
- Ambient Character Activity: Tomb Robbers can decide to raid a tomb/grave yielding a good chunk of Gold for the Faction and themselves, but at the risk of spawning Spirit Host marauders (unless settings specify no Marauders).
- Ambient Character Activity: Architects, Masons and Engineers may gain experience from being at a location being constructed, upgrading or having a site-specific construction/upgrade in progress. They may also speed up the progress of some projects.
- Characters can now react to their Faction having Divine Wroth with their personal Deity/Religion with increased discontent. Non-Heretic Religious-type classes will react more strongly and more often.
- Characters can now react to their Faction having Divine Favor with their personal Deity/Religion with increased loyalty. Religious-type classes will react more strongly and more often.
- Enchantment Spell: Shimmershift Weapons. Unlocked at Mastery Level 5. Can target non-Bound, non-Summoned, non-Raised Units with Melee Weapons. +2 Reach, +2 Armor Penetration, +2 Arcane Damage. 1 Mana/Turn upkeep if cast as non-Battle Spell.
- Enchantment Spell: Spellwoven Armor. Unlocked at Mastery Level 3. Can target non-Bound, non-Summoned, non-Raised Units with Armor Equipment. +1 Armor, +1 Toughness, +1 Magic Resistance. 1 Mana/Turn upkeep if cast as non-Battle Spell.
- New Achievement (No Stone Unturned): Fully search a province.
- Alphabetized traits and masteries when creating custom wizard templates
- Character stat 'Contentment' has been renamed 'Loyalty*. In other words the 'Discontent/Contentment' dual stat is now named 'Discontent/Loyalty'.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed uncommon crash bug when inspecting army units
- Fixed Mana upkeep of some spells not being correctly applied
- Fixed some continuous effects lingering in the Active Effects window even when no longer active
- Fixed a bug where Characters on many types of assignments were treated incorrectly as being located at the Faction capital for various mechanics and events
Additions with 0.9.143.1:
- Tweaked the size of the Character Panel during the Deployment Phase to prevent important buttons from being inaccessible on some display resolutions
- Added Magic button to the Deployment Phase - no spells can currently be cast in this phase, but having access to the panel is useful to browse spells during deployment and makes the UI readily usable if / when deployment-phase spells are added
- Fixed incorrect tracking of wounded individuals during battles
- Fixed Vile Mending spell killing arbitrary other individuals than the ones it critically fails to heal
- Fixed armies with Reserve units sometimes resulting in default deployment setup with a missing center section
- Added details on wounded and incapacitated individuals to the Battle Summary Panel
- Added tooltips showing names of destroyed units to the Battle Summary Panel, and added a similar display of routed unit count (with names)
- Added character history records for additional relevant events
- Gaining the Undead trait will now in some cases (depending on method) remove one or more of the following physical traits: Attractive, Ugly, Scarred
- Fixed Gift of Undeath not correctly applying a Discontent modifier when this is rolled and described in the result text.
- Fixed an issue where post-siege assaults with no opposing forces were silently succesful, which was confusing despite resulting in the expected result. A dialog is now shown indicating the lack of a battle.
- Fixed a bug where the survivors of a defeated garrison would not be disbanded correctly.
- The battle resolution option dialog will now display information on factions and armies involved. This is especially useful when battle is initiated by AI factions.
- Fixed battle spell casting limits during the new battle resolution updating every 5 rounds. Now it is cumulative per round.
- Stopped the spell dropdown in the new battle resolution from resetting the selection when casting, as this made it very annoying to cast the same spell multiple times in a row.
- Added a tooltip to the new battle resolution magic panel explaining the spells per round number (ie showing ways to increase this number).
Additions with 0.9.143.2 and 0.9.143.3:
- Fixed a crash bug related to specific circumstances of spells ending
- Adamantite Forging now unlocks Adamantite Weapons, Adamantite Armor and Adamantite Shields as intended.
- Adamantite Forging now unlocks Adamantite Base for Constructs.
- Necrotite Forging now unlocks Necrotite Base for Constructs.
- Chitin Base added for Constructs (unlocked with Death/Necromancy and Beasts).
- A message dialog is now shown after an auto-resolved battle during the player turn - during AI processing, no message shown. Notifications are still created in both cases.
- Battle notifications are now shown at the top of the notification list.
- Fixed a bug where some unit modifiers where not applied and/or displayed correctly.
- Fixed a bug causing refugee events to use the wrong settlement for one of the options available.
- Fixed an issue where the event regarding how to handle the leader of a conquered non-Major faction settlement was not firing.
- Fixed a couple of bugs regarding sites changing owners.
Patch 0.9.143.4:
- Dungeons can now be seeded in the Map/Scenario Editor.
- Mods can now expand the number of character portraits and use hint/required keywords to control which characters they are used for.
- New Wizard traits for starting with followers/cultural environ: Dwarf, High Elf, Dark Elf, Orc, Goblin.
Patch 0.9.143.5:
- New Spell: Healing Potion. If the Wizard has the Alchemy trait it requires Life 1 to research. Otherwise it has more extensive requirements. This spell adds a potion item to the character which be used (from the inventory screen) to remove injuries. The character may also drink it at their own discretion if sufficiently threatened or wounded.
- Ambient Character Activity: Apothecaries can now only heal other followers from injuries, and sometimes even remove the Sickly trait.
- Read Magic: Now has a 12 turn cooldown. Advances a random research project by up to 50%.
Development Status:
This update brings changes to manual Battle Resolution, separating deployment and resolution more distinctly. The core battle resolution engine is the same, but the changes split opposing armies into sections, allows orders for those sections, and makes the section of a unit affect which attack can be used, how melee pairings are made, etc. There are also some improvements to the visual aspects: utilizing drag and drop for deployment, using highlighting better, adding fade animations when a unit is destroyed (it was rather confusing when they just disappeared due to destruction/flight), etc.
I've postponed the post-battle changes (merging handling captives and post-battle necromancy into a unified feature/mechanic). The work on battle resolution took more time than expected, but I will try to catch up on the post-battle changes in the next few days. However, if a lot of issues appear with the update, I may have to push that feature further (to the next Update). I'll do my best to balance concerns. I will update the Road Map accordingly in the next day or two.
The Battle Guide will also get an overhaul very soon, so that it reflects the new Battle Resolution options.
Game Update (0.9.142): Trailblazer
User Interface and Steam Integration:
- Achievements have been implemented and integrated with Steam. These trigger upon reaching the conditions described in each. There is a forum post for sharing suggestions on additional achievements. The current ones are just the beginning.
- Custom Maps can now be uploaded to the Steam Workshop from a button during Editor mode. If you have trouble getting this to work correctly, check that you have accepted the Steam Workshop agreement. This should be prompted in-game, but if it doesn't, check the Workshop section of the Steam client.
- Mods can now be uploaded to the Steam Workshop via the Mods window.
- Subscribed Workshop Maps/Mods are integrated and included in the relevant windows.
- The details panel in the Diplomacy Window now has a Go To button which will focus the world map on the relevant faction.
- Office Request notifications can now be dismissed permanently or for the next 10 turns.
- Characters can now be renamed by clicking their name on the main panel in the Followers Window. A tooltip indicates this.
- The Outliner now has Character Portraits in the tooltips.
- The free-text map search now also searches factions and will zoom to the map location of chosen search result if it's a faction.
- There is a now a Details button on the Followers window which allows access to special panels for display of Office Desires, Character Opinions/Relationships and History overview, for the selected character.
General:
- Conquest of sites belonging to a specific culture can now result in warnings and declarations of war. This can be done by a coalition of factions belonging to this culture, or any number of single factions. Factions which do not have the relevant culture are less likely to react. The risk and type of response is based on the percentage of sites conquered of the total number belonging to this culture, and the diplomatic relations between the conqueror and possible responders. This is the first iteration of an 'aggressive expansion' mechanic and will undergo further refinement.
- Characters now have their history tracked. This will show their participation in battles, assignments carried out, interactions with other characters, offices taken and lost, etc. This can be shown in the new Details mode of the Followers Window.
- Added character traits for elemental influence: Air-Touched, Earth-Touched, Fire-Touched, Water-Touched, Frost-Touched. In addition to the flavor/narrative element, these add a small combat challenge bonus until further effects can be implemented.
- Improved the Character opinion system to support non-static opinion modifiers. This allows incremental changes in character relations, temporary opinion modifiers and decreases the number of calculations needed per turn.
- Characters will now be jealous of another character holding an office they greatly desire. This applies a negative opinion modifier based on the level of desire for the relevant office.
- Further expanded the world generation when it comes to notable characters and creatures of the various special cultures.
- Added additional Lore Research avenues to unlock insight into the notables and dynamic aspects of the special cultures and races.
- Improved how the world generation handles custom starting points on a map when it seeds cultures and independent realms.
- Tweaked the gold and resource output of cities. Highly developed cities have been toned down.
- Tweaked the gold and resource output of special city pop units. Highly developed cities have been toned down. Less technologically developed cities now give less gold and additional basic resources.
- Improved the impact of leaders on city gold income and production. It is now handled on a per-resource basis rather than as flat modifiers.
- Expanded the range of names for some of the language/theme templates which had a low range of possibility and thus a high risk of repetitions.
- Expanded the range of Fortress names.
- Lore-based recruitment modifiers can now impact Upkeep costs.
- Added numerous new Lore Research discovery outcomes.
- Ascendancy Victory now requires discovery of Draconic Ascendancy instead of Draconic Lore Level 10.
- Ambient Character Activity: Armsmasters will now sometimes train other characters at their location, potentially giving a bonus skill and a positive opinion change.
- Ambient Character Activity: Idle Rogues can now decide to go for a bit of an adventure, and may even lure other available characters to join. This is not likely to result in serious harm, but can leave followers fatigued/recovering and unable to perform other duties for a while.
- Ambient Character Activity: Having multiple Nobles (and equivalent character types) at the same location (including being in a party, performing the same tasks, joining the same army, etc.) can result in a rivalry forming with significant negative opinion modifiers applied.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed missing Starting Point label visibility. There is still a known issue where zooming out can disable the label (can be worked around by using the map label toggles).
- Fixed a broken filter on the Deities Panel.
- Fixed Culture traits being placed incorrectly in the Encyclopedia hierarchy.
- Fixed some Culture traits having no display text in the Encyclopedia.
- Fixed several bugs relating to starting games on Maps with custom starting points.
- Fixed a bug causing names to go missing for some building types when loading a previous save.
Additions in 0.9.142.1:
- Fixed an Achievement ('the wand is mightier than the sword') not triggering as intended.
- Fixed the default description for Mods, so it is no longer the file system path.
- The map editor now supports updating a workshop item.
- The Load File dialog now shows ''Workshop Item'' in the summary when browsing maps.
- Fixed a number of text formatting and display bugs in the Camp, City and Fortress Windows.
- Fixed stat formatting bugs in a couple of windows.
- Added Portraits to Character tool tips in the Camp, City and Fortress Windows.
- Fixed an additional zoom issue when working with Custom Starting Points in the Editor.
Additions in 0.9.142.2:
- Fixed a crash related to upgrading Outposts.
- Rogues going on an adventure due to boredom will now sometimes gain a bit gold for themselves and any followers they lured into joining.
- Fixed the Intro Window being skipped if the Tutorial has been disabled.
Development Status:
This update was originally intended to focus on battles and warfare, but achievements, Steam Workshop integration and various bug fixes on the 'active' game version took up a bit more time than expected.
So the improved battle experience and warfare game play has been postponed to the next update. Still there are some game play and user interface improvements in this update, mostly concerning characters and improving depth and visibility of follower simulation and ambient factors.
Thanks to the players who provided me with bug reports, ideas and feedback, in this development cycle and the previous. You make a difference and I am very grateful for your efforts. Please note that the integration of Steam functionality may result in more bugs than usual. I will try to fix any such issues with utmost haste.
I've created a Basic Guide to help navigate the User Interface and get new players started. It can be found in the Guide section of the Community Hub and from a link in the General Discussion sub forum. An interim Road Map can be found in the Development Update sub forum, to give an idea of current priorities and plans.