Fortresses and Dungeons have gotten some attention this update, in addition to the some bug fixes, miscellaneous mechanics improvements and a few more battle spells. Full notes below.
- Added new Spellcraft research chain: "Battle Siphoning". This allows a Wizard to gain mana from defeated enemy units, if they have a magical origin. The percentage increases with progressive research: Minor (10%) -> Lesser (20%) ->Intermediate (33%) -> Greater (50%) -> Supreme (80%). The requirements progress from Arcane 1 and Binding 1 to higher levels of Arcane, Binding, Summoning and War (8/6/5/5 at Supreme).
- Clearing dungeons now has a chance of increasing knowledge of a lore randomly chosen based on the dungeon theme and sub-themes. The chance depends on the existing level of knowledge (becoming lower at higher levels) and the composition of the expedition (scholar, arcane, religious and insane followers give a bonus). Wizards with the Sage trait get +10% (and a guaranteed minimum success chance of 5%).
- Dungeon experience has gotten a boost and now scales with dungeon size (base is now 2 to 9, depending on dungeon size), but also reduced if dungeon is weakened and/or partially cleared. Critical success during combat will give characters +2 experience. Evading a trap mishap gives +1 experience. Finding a secret passage gives +2 experience.
- Dungeons now have a chance of increased loot based on their size.
- Non-friendly fortresses of type Fort, Castle and Citadel now block army movement out of the hex (except back to the hex the army entered from).
- The movement cost to enter a hex with a hostile fortress is now the maximum movement allowance of an army. If all units are flying, the army ignores this.
- Multi-turn movement queuing is no longer triggered by trying to move an army to an adjacent hex but not having sufficient movement left to do so.
- The Fortification attribute (and hence siege length) of Wizard Towers has been tripled.
- Cultures with the Subterranean trait gain +10 fortification to Fortresses.
- Cultures with the Feudal social structure gain +5 fortification to Fortresses.
- Besieging a site in Hill terrain now progresses at a 66% rate compared to the default.
- Besieging a site in Mountains terrain now progresses at a 25% rate compared to the default. Highly fortified mountain strongholds will now take a much longer to crack open.
- The Wizard Customization window will now be cleared if opened multiple times in one game session and not be filled with the previous custom template data.
- Iron Discipline can no longer target Mindless units.
- Brave The Darkness can no longer target units with the Dark tag.
- Demonic Strength now costs 25 Mana when cost as a world spell. Duration increased from 6 to 12 turns. It can now also be cast during battles, where it costs 4 Mana and lasts 6.6 seconds.
- Warrior Bond can now also be cast during battles, where it costs 2 Mana and lasts 5 seconds.
- Ephemereal Wings has be renamed to "Archaean Wings". It can now also be cast during battles, where it costs 8 Mana and lasts 24 seconds.
- Feral Strength is no longer permanent, but lasts 12 turns. It can now also be cast during battles, where it costs 4 Mana and lasts 5 seconds.
- The Fortification attribute is now shown for relevant sites when selected.
- Outpost level is now shown in selection information.
- Outposts can now be constructed in fully controlled provinces.
- Construction is no longer possible in hexes with unexplored adjacent hexes.
- Added code to prevent errors when loading custom Wizards from blocking Wizard selection completely.
- Added hex coordinates to the selection information
- Reduced the size of the placeholder map sprites used for resource sites.
- The "Personal Guard" and "Call For Heroes" actions now have a tool tip.
- Removed the "Create Spy Cell" action until it is implemented.
- Adjusted loot from battles to be lower than currently, but fixed an issue with some units giving extremely low loot. In general fantastic and monstrous creatures should give better loot now, but regular armies will yield less loot than previously.
- The Ruler section of the Quests & Objectives window now has a line showing the appointed Personal Guard if relevant.
- The Personal Guard unit modifier is now listed under unit effects and has a relevant tool tip.
- When selecting a research project in the Magic window, the relevant mechanics/description is now shown along with the cost and estimated time to research.
- When recruiting a new unit, trainers can now be assigned even if the recruitment site is not the seat of power. Note that the trainer will travel instantly to the training site and will instantly return to the seat of power. This is a temporary solution until some planned improvements to character location are implemented.
- The dungeon log now has the latest turn events at the top, and not appended.
- Steal Research missions can now yield a Lore increase if the target has any Lore at a higher level.
- Fixed an issue with dungeons never yielding magic items or dark tomes.
- Fixed issue with the "Gold" button during sigil selection being linked to red color and not the expected color.
- Fixed incorrect description of Celestial (Wizard Racial Trait). It now correctly lists the masteries which become unavailable.
- Fixed issue with spells (Iron Discipline, Swift Strike, Brave The Darkness, Warrior Bond) including already affected units as valid targets.
- Fixed issue with outpost and shrine sites being constructed instantly.
- Fixed issue with selected mana nodes not showing correct and/or full information in all cases.
- Fixed a bug causing world generation to fail in rare cases.
- Fixed a bug causing army sprites to be incorrectly placed on the map if the player initiates a new move while the previous move is being animated.
0.9.99.1 Hotfix
- Explore Province assignments are now cancelled on completion.
- Ranger's Gift can no longer target already affected units.
- Fixed a number of bugs with Mana Node and Resource / Hex Special icons.
- Shrine sites now produce 1 Influence and 1 Mana per turn.
- Build Shrine now has a tool tip indicating cost, construction time and expected production.
- Fixed an issue where the "Upgrade" button in the Wizard Tower window could disappear.
- Added a tooltip to the "Upgrade" button in the Wizard Tower window.
- Fixed an issue with the gold/resource display not updating when starting a Wizard Tower upgrade. The actual resource count was correct, but not updated visually until triggered by something else.