TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III
4.0 DEV UPDATE #4: AI & KISLEV IMPROVEMENTS
Greetings!
Welcome back to the last developer update for 4.0 before it drops on the 31st of August. Last time we looked at some of the changes coming to Grand Cathay in Update 4.0, and today we’re going to take a quick look at Kislev and some upcoming AI changes!
Remember, in between these updates, you can head over to the official Total War Discord server to share your thoughts with fellow Total War fans in the WARHAMMER discussion channel!
Let’s jump in...
AI CHANGES & IMPROVEMENTS
Now for something that influences the game as a whole. In our first update we touched upon new changes to the difficulty of the AI, of which there are more awaiting you in Update 4.0. This week, however, we'll discuss some of the sweeping changes coming to the AI in WARHAMMER III, in our continued efforts to make them more engaging to play against, while decreasing their bias against the player, making them more effective in the right places, and increasing their likelihood of making honest mistakes that can be capitalised upon. The full extent of this will be covered in the Update 4.0 patch notes, but until then, here's a sneak peek.
What are we doing?
The AI often deals in diplomacy against those that are out of its range, which can make them ineffective as they create deals that they cannot benefit from, or make threats against those that don’t threaten them. The distance at which the AI engages in diplomacy has been halved, which should reduce this issue considerably. The overall distance scaling, as in, which targets the AI focuses on as a whole, has also been increased to make them prioritise nearer foes.
Speaking of those warmongering AI’s, they will now be less likely to declare war when they themselves are in a bad situation, which should reduce the overall number of feeble war declarations.
Next, the player is often considered to be the main threat to the AI in any campaign – and why wouldn’t you be, you’re a master of strategy – but this has led to a lot of bias against the player as a result. To combat this, the AI will now take longer to identify who the main threat is, meaning they won’t target the player so soon, assuming the player is excelling on the campaign map. AI’s will also suffer a greater negative impact based on how many wars they’re in, further cutting down on unnecessary bloodshed.
Plus, the AI is receiving general improvements to make them more potent, they will now have faith in their own garrisons more to prevent retreats (garrisons are also being buffed in 4.0), and they are more willing to defend their final settlement until their dying breath, meaning they won’t try to escape and require you to chase them around just to finish them off.
KISLEV - DEVOTION
In our internal play tests, we noticed that it was difficult for Kislev to take the fight to Chaos.
When playing as Kislev, attacks from Chaos were frequent enough, but the Chaotic climate was enough to discourage the player from going into the Chaos Wastes at all. And, because Shadows of Change contains an update to Kislev, it made sense to update the feature now.
What are we doing?
We’ve added a new commandment to Katarin, Kostaltyn and Boris Ursus that is only available in the Chaos Wastes (i.e., all settlements that have the Chaotic climate.)
The commandment nullifies the climate penalties, but comes with a Devotion cost whilst it is active. As a result of this, we also made Devotion able to go into the negatives, so if left unchecked, it can be harder to restore after the fact.
This gives the player a reason to take the fight to Chaos, but comes with a risk, where they must keep fighting Chaos to earn Devotion to counteract the costs.
TOOLTIP IMPROVEMENTS
We were very pleased with both the implementation of the new sticky tooltip system in WARHAMMER III, as well as the responses it prompted. So, we’re continuing to iterate upon it.
What are we doing?
In Update 4.0, we’re adding the option to make Sticky Tooltips follow your mouse like standard tooltips do, which will be achieved by disabling the default 'Pin to element' checkbox in the Game Settings.
Plus, it will be possible for players to set-up a bind that instantly sticks a tooltip when pressed. Finally, you can now turn off the stick delay entirely by unchecking 'Auto Stick' in Game Settings. The only way you will be able to stick tooltips to inspect them in this mode will be to use the 'Stick Tooltip' shortcut.
We’re doing this so that you can have even more control over your UI in WARHAMMER III, and to avoid any potential frustration when Tooltips don’t act as you expect them to, as they serve as a very useful tool for new, returning, and veteran players alike.
Another update arriving in 4.0 will be a rework to many of the base Innate Traits present in WARHAMMER III that lag behind the other races in the game, including Grand Cathay, Kislev, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and others. The full details will be available when the 4.0 Patch Notes arrive in a few days.
And that wraps up this week’s developer update! Update 4.0 is just around the corner, with Shadows of Change dropping alongside it, and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on it.
Let us know how you’re feeling about these over on our social channels below, and we’ll see you on the battlefield!
—The Total War Team
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