This update marks the transition out of Early Access. Updates will continue as usual, but I think shedding the Early Access branding better reflects what this game is about: An actively evolving indie strategy game made by yours truly as an homage to the Fantasy genre and its numerous works, digital and analog.
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.