Apologies for the long update cycle this time around. Tasks related to the new battle resolution taking longer than estimated is the primary reason for the delay. This also means it is in a quite basic state of progress, has a lot of bugs and missing features, and placeholder graphics. Make sure to save before trying it out.
There are also a good number of other improvements with a more immediate effect on game play. See the patch notes below for the details.
The next update will probably be focused on bug fixing and stability, with a smattering of misc. improvements. After that the plan is another iteration of progress on battle resolution, with world content and mechanics being worked on in parallel.
The map graphics overhaul has left the concept stage, with several terrain types finished, and the artist delivering more at an impressive pace. Integrating these graphics and polishing the map shaders will also take some time in the coming updates.
Patch Notes
User Interface:
- The Army Window now shows tool tips for unit equipment.
- The Army Window now shows Culture (with tool tip) for relevant units.
- The Army Window now has a drop down for section (main/scout/vanguard/reserves) assignment from the Unit Details. From the management view, double-clicking a unit in one of the non-main section will remove from the section (ie assign it to the main force).
- Changed the display of unit attributes to more clearly indicate the breakdown of current, base and bonus/penalty values.
- Shift+right-click will now copy the text from most text areas, panels, etc. to the clipboard. Ctrl+right-click will copy the clicked word and not the entire text. This can be used for bug reports, pasting into a translation tool, etc.
- Cleared dungeons are now marked as such on the map and in the Dungeon window.
Battles:
- A new optional battle resolution mode has been added, where the armies move and fight in real-time. This is a quite basic first version, and a lot of features are yet to be added. The pace is very slow, the AI not very bright, and the graphics are placeholders.
- Reworked the "Melee Damage" attribute of Units. It was previously a combination of default attack damage and physical strength, and didn't interact very well with the attacks granted by weapons. The attribute is now "Strength" and if lower than 5 gives a penalty to damage with weapon attacks; if higher a bonus is applied. In the future it will also be used (in combination with size) to determine the allowable weight of weapons for a unit and whether two hands are needed. In most parts of the UI it will still be displayed as Melee Damage but based upon (Strength - 5). Damage bonuses for values above 10 are doubled.
Misc.:
- Nomad Camp Sites can now be assaulted. If the attacker is victorious, the camp is removed from the map and an army representing the migrating remnants will appear. They will try to find a new place to settle.
- Tweaked the stats of Lesser Vampires.
- Added Unit Type: Vampires. Requires Necromancy 5, Blood 4 to research raising them and Necromancy 6, Darkness 5 to research summoning them.
- Added Unit Type: Elder Vampires. Requires Necromancy 7,Darkness 6 to research summoning them.
Cities:
- New Building: Gardens. Requires Semi-Cultured or higher. --Squalor, -Unrest, +Decadence. Cheap, but takes a very long time to construct.
- New Building: Granary. Requires Primitive or higher. +Population Growth.
- New Building: Shipyards. Requires Barbarian or higher and coastal location. ++Prosperity, +Industry.
- New Building: Aqueduct. Requires Cultured or Highly Cultured. --Squalor, +Population Growth, +Industry. Has a maintenance cost as the first building type (reduces city gold output by 50). This will be expanded to other relevant buildings later.
- New Building: Festering Lake. Requires Pestilence Mastery 3+ and temperate or warmer climate. +30 Squalor, +learning, +decadence, +industry, ---population growth, --prosperity, +research, +unrest.
- Tweaked the Unrest contributions of a few city buildings.
- Reduced the Squalor contributions of a few city buildings.
Magic:
- Order Mastery progress is increased by a value derived from the controlled city with the lowest combined Squalor and Unrest, and a value derived from the number of controlled cities with low combined Squalor and Unrest (contributions scaling with how low the combined score is). This bonus is capped at 4 + (Order Mastery Level).
- Chaos Mastery progress is increased by a value derived from the controlled city with the highest Unrest, and a value derived from the total Unrest values of controlled cities with Unrest of at least 25. This bonus is capped at 4 + (Chaos Mastery Level).
- Shadow Mastery progress is now increased by ½ for each follower on a covert mission (Espionage, Counter Espionage, Sabotage, Theft, etc.), doubled for followers who have the Arcane type. This bonus is capped at ½+ (Shadow Mastery Level / 2).
- War Mastery progress is now increased by a value derived from the highest Martial attribute of any controlled cities and by a value derived from the combined Martial levels of owned cities with Martial levels higher than 3.
- City Squalor now contributes to Pestilence Mastery progress. A value from ½ to (Pestilence Level+1) is contributed by the city with the highest Squalor, and a value from ½ to 4 is contributed by the sum of Squalor in all cities with > 25 Squalor.
- Active Research Projects now show the contribution of various factors to progress during the previous turn as a tool tip. lower.
- Spellcraft: Drain Mana Nodes added. When researched it enables draining Mana Nodes for a large instant mana gain (approx. 750% of the per turn production when bound). However, this makes the node inactive for 8-12 turns, during which it cannot be drained and provides no mana to the controller.
Wizard Towers:
- When choosing which Wizard Tower Expansion to build, the fluffy vague description of most expansion types has been replaced with a summary of the relevant mechanics.
- Shrine (Wizard Tower Expansion) now only applies a passive +1 xp bonus to non-recovering Religious followers of level 5 or lower. (previously only required Religious).
- Arena (Wizard Tower Expansion) now only applies a passive +1 xp bonus to non-recovering Martial followers of level 5 or lower. (previously only required Martial).
- Guest Chambers (Wizard Tower Expansion) now has a passive +1 xp bonus to non-recovering Civic followers of level 5 or lower.
- Bazaar (Wizard Tower Expansion) now has a 5% chance per non-recovering Mercantile follower at the tower to generate (follower level + D10)*25 gold, and an additional +1 xp for the follower. The existing passive +1 xp bonus now only applies to non-recovering Mercantile followers of level 5 or lower.
- Mystic Furnace (Wizard Tower Expansion) now gives a progress bonus to Enchant Item and Devise Construct projects of 5 research points + 1 per non-recovering Artisan follower (up to 5) at the tower. The passive +1 xp bonus now only applies to non-recovering Artisan followers of level 5 or lower.
- Academy (Wizard Tower Expansion) now gives a progress bonus to Research Lore projects of 5 research points + 1 per non-recovering Scholar follower (up to 5) at the tower. If any Scholars are present, there is a chance for non-Scholar followers (of level 5 or lower) to gain 1 xp. This chance is 5% + 5% per Scholar (up to 5) + 25% if one or more Scholars with the Mentor trait are present. The passive +1 xp bonus now only applies to non-recovering Scholar followers of level 5 or lower, and no longer applies to Civic followers (unless one of the other conditions apply).
- Arcane Laboratory (Wizard Tower Expansion) now gives a 5% each turn to add 25% progress to research projects of types: Greater Alchemy, Unlock Mastery, Research Spellcraft and Research Spell. It also modifies the progress by 1 research point for each non-recovering Arcane follower at the tower (with a maximum of 5 gained this way). The passive +1 xp bonus now only applies to non-recovering Arcane followers of level 5 or
- Wizard Tower expansions can now be demolished, recouping 25% of the construction cost (and freeing the slot for construction). This can be accessed from the "Demolish Expansion" button or by clicking the expansion icon (will give a yes/no prompt and list resource gain).
- Wizard Tower expansion construction can now be cancelled, recouping 50% of the construction cost. This can be done by clicking the expansion icon (will give a yes/no prompt and list resource gain).
- Wizard Tower expansion construction now colors resources which are fully or partially missing. It also lists the cost to buy missing resources if applicable, and auto-buys them if the player chooses the expansion type for construction.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue with calculating the possibility of purchasing missing resources which made the AI take incorrect decisions and sometimes
- Fixed the outliner and info/resource panel not updating after taking actions in the Wizard Tower window.
- Fixed the dialog with Wizard Tower expansions having OK enabled for invalid options, resulting in a confusing lack of feedback when it was clicked.
- Army icons were being minimized on the map even if selected when progressing the turn and in many other cases. They now stay in front until a new selection is made.
- Fixed duration not ticking on some City stats (e.g. Squalor).
- Fixed city building construction progress being incorrect in the Outliner.
- Fixed shrine sites not saving patron deity. For old save games, the fix will try to find the deity based on the description text of the shrine, which should work in the vast majority of cases.
- The Dark Tome event was not interacting properly with the new research system.
- Fixed an issue with unit types being created without correct tags and attacks if copied internally from a template or another unit type.
- During world generation Dungeons are no longer populated with bosses that have unimplemented character or monster types.
- Fixed issue with melee damage modifiers due to spells and effects not being applied to unit attacks not based on equipment/items.
- Fixed issue with army destruction/disbanding sometimes not being processed correctly, leading to weird character assignment, "dangling" effects, etc.
- Unit commanders are no longer lost when a merging a non-commanded unit with a commanded unit.
- Fixed a crash bug which sometimes happened when opening the Hire Follower window.
0.9.89.1 Addendum:
- Fixed issue with "Save" button being disabled incorrectly on the File Dialog.
- Added "Retreat" option for the new battle mode. It will force your units to retreat. Units with low discipline or frenzied units (in melee) may ignore this. Any refusal will be explained in the in-battle log.
- During battles, the Inspire ability now grants friendly units a courage boost as long as the inspiring unit is on the battlefield and not retreating.
- During battles, the Unsettling and Terror abilities now affect the morale of enemy units. Fearless, Terror and Construct grants immunity to these effects.