Version 0.12 brings two major new features, the last roadmap god, the Insect God (although secretly fungal in nature) and the first set of Steam Achievements.
The Cordyceps Hive Mind exists by infecting and infesting insects and humans alike. Using a system of pheromones, the mutated worker insects leave their hive to capture infected human prey, who are then fed to the larvae to grow into more insectine horrors. Eventually, vespid swarms can be summoned to eradicate humanity, both from the hives and by bursting directly out of the infected humans in their cities.
Ruins are also undergoing some improvements, with the introduction of a couple of unique dungeons with unique rewards and exploration chains. This comes along with a new mechanic `allure' which is used to set up a race to explore the ruins, as heroes try to reach the treasure on the lowest levels before you do. Adding danger to the ruins can keep them away, or kill those too greedy or reckless to fear the depths.
The first set of Steam Achievements are also added. These 21 are going to be used to test the waters, and if they go well, more can be added into the next version, bringing new challenges and ways to play.
Gameplay:
-Added Insect God
-Added first set of Steam Achievements
-Conclaves now don't fully cancel when a key figure is assassinated
-Habitability calculation changed to make population higher in medium-habitability areas
-You can now put minions in ruins to increase the danger
-Ruins now have an `allure' which causes heroes to explore them
-Exploration now has possibility of unique dungeons, which change the exploration formula
-Achievements now added (non-Steam only during the beta-branch)
-Rulers now hold 'festivals' if their gold is high enough (to burn off excess gold to keep the economy sane)
-Added new Item, Hood of Shadows
-Halve time needed for heroes to complete their level up challenge
-Alliance heroes start with enough XP to level up once
-New Alliance mode, which allows heroes to remove infiltration and assassinate enshadowed rulers
-Added `Giggler' minion to orc menagerie, which inflicts madness on attack
-Reduced cost of expanding orcs, from 35 to 30 per surrounding building
-War Axe nerf, might gain 3 -> 2
-Added new items: 'Page from Tome', 'Poison', 'Sacrificial Dagger', 'Sign of Unwarding'
Other:
-You can now add notes to units and locations
-If more than 4 cities are causing political instability, the messages are compressed to avoid spam
Bugfixes:
-The Ophanim power Swift of Foot should now work properly with a go-to-location task
-Armies won't get stuck if the location it is trying to capture is destroyed
-Fixed an issue with returning to main menu from map options screen allowing you to 'continue' a non-existent save, crashing the game
-Fixed bug in Organise Dissent causing it to cancel if unrest hits 0%
-Heroes won't try to influence a Holy Order if human influence is already at maximum
-Fixed a number of issues across the board for geomatic support not targetting dark units
-Fixed issue with infiltrating orc camps with subsettlements
-Fixed AI issue with intransigent faith and national action 'worsen relations'
-Fixed event allowing you to spend gold for smoker option without having the gold
-Fixed issue where monsters were still being given orders by human rulers