3.0.3 Beta Now Available!

[rob]

To get the week started we're excited to announce that we've begun public testing for update 3. This is far and away our biggest update yet with significant engine improvements, a complete overhaul of the opening objectives as well as balance adjustments to pretty much every unit in the game.

It would take the couple of us weeks to test all of these changes so we're hoping you guys can help us out and let us know what you think. Note that some of the balance changes are pretty significant because that's one of the easiest ways to test the impact of a change but we are fully expecting to refine things as we continue to playtest.

Aside from dump files and script logs which are always helpful, one of the most useful things for us to get are saved games since this allows us to look behind the scenes at what's going on which is really useful for improving AI behaviours.

As usual, the update is available in the 'beta' branch accessible from the game's properties window and you're welcome to post feedback here or send it directly to [e-mail]

Despite all of the changes, the update is intended to be as backwards compatible as possible so if you run into problems loading a saved game please let us know.

Finally, this is the last week to grab the 20% off loyalty discount! So if you own Hegemony Rome or Gold and are still sitting on the fence about Hegemony III this is a great time to grab the discount and get in on the latest update.

cheers,
The Longbow Team

Change Log 3.0.3 Rev 36843

• Adjustments to wood production and wood costs
  
• Increased heavy cavalry charges
  
• Reduced upfront costs for markets and production upgrades
  
• Improved variety of prelude objectives
  
• Improved modding support for difficulty settings
  
• Fixed bug displaying AI group miniatures

Change Log 3.0.3 Beta 2 Rev 36827

• Stricter AI limits on the number of attacks in Casual and Normal difficulty
  
• Brigade morale now drops gradually when you're out of gold in proportion to your deficit. When morale hits zero a brigade may disband or defect.
  
• Prelude objectives can now be unlocked from the very beginning by visiting an independent city (no need to wait for the prompt).
  
• Defeated factions will now start abandoning farms, forts and bridges
  
• Fixed bug with building stone fortifications for bridges
  
• Updated more Illyric units (new helmets, Sica curved swords)
  
• Fixed script crash when the rescue volunteers are kiled
  
• Improved feedback when bridge construction is blocked by units
  
• Fixed bug that displayed 0 victory points after winning the game
  
• Fixed the faction for generals given in the raider invasion events
  
• Fixed script crash when 'Ancient Rival' breaks a truce
  
• Fixed bug with the search icon for raider rescue objective

Change Log 3.0.3 Beta 1 Rev 36799

Engine

• longer zoom range on the 3D map
  
• longer zoom range on strategy map before miniatures fade out
  
• map now streamed from drive in 32 bit mode to reduce memory usage
  
• high detail settings now available in 32 bit mode
  
• fixed late-game performance bug with very large empires

Map

• more city construction animations
  
• fixed multiple incorrectly blocked map regions

Graphics

• improvements to water shader
  
• improvements to strategy map transition
  
• new weapons for the Illyric units

Balance/Gameplay

• increased defenses for walled bridges, forts and cities
  
• adjusted units stats to increase difference between tiers i.e. spearmen to hoplite to legion
  
• standardized more unit sizes to make cost comparisons easier
  
• adjusted garrison size and defense stats for bridges, camps and cities
  
• battleline formations are now considered broken when a unit is out of food or crossing a ford
  
• significantly increased cost of colonists
  
• added initial gold costs for building upgrades
  
• units in battleline stance now press forward more to attack the enemy
  
• fixed bug with hastati ranged fire
  
• removed field range from factions who don't have archers
  
• Added Military Reform skill to unlock Hastati and Velites earlier
  
• added ranged attacks for later Sabellic units
  
• capturing one bridgehead of a ford will now automatically capture both
  
• bridge construction can now be paused and resumed
  
• adjustments to hegemony achievements

Interface/GUI

• improved display of garrison stats
  
• cleaned up how miniatures are drawn for groups
  
• fixed bug with group direction after dragging group formations
  
• added more information to colonize button tooltip
  
• victory screen is no longer displayed again if the game is continued
  
• fixed issue selecting units near forts/bridges
  
• added objective target markers to the strategy map
  
• completed sub-tasks no longer appear in the objective tracker
  
• added cancel objective button to the objective tracker
  
• added more diplomacy and faction skill information to the faction pedia page

AI

• ai puts more emphasis on building unit upgrade buildings
  
• improved ai use of skill points
  
• adjustments to when the ai builds forts and bridges
  
• fixed a few ai resource management bugs
  
• fixed bug that caused ai to downgrade stone walls to wood
  
• more emphasis on per-faction AI behaviour

Objectives

• overhauled prelude objectives
  
• objectives are now triggered by visiting independent cities
  
• new Ancient Rivals objective chain
  
• new sandbox options to disable tutorials and start with all indie cities
  
• more general and unit rewards in the prelude

Bugs

• fixed bug causing overlapping dialog windows
  
• fixed issue connecting water trade routes
  
• fixed graphical bug with command wheel close button
  
• fixed bug resuming bridge construction when loading a savedgame
  
• fixed bug connecting supply lines to a bridgehead during construction
  
• fixed rare crash when the ai is make supply lines
  
• fixed crash with routing ai units
  
• fixed false 'out of food' messages when a unit leaves a fort/city
  
• fixed crash deleting upgrade when the asset list is open
  
• fixed movement bug when javelineers were engaged in melee combat
  
• fixed bug loading groups from saved games
  
• fixed bug with trees falling when a city comes into view

[FroBodine]

Wow! What a huge update! Thank you very much for continuing to improve this game.

[Ponicus]

Terrific. Looking forward to playing! Thanks for the greater zoom ranges!

[Atlas]

great work guys!

[Azrael de Baphuon]

Got ♥♥♥♥ed by the AI ... out of food out of recruits and out of gold .... ! Thats how I like it ! Tomorrow again !
Perfect guys, continue the work

[crowebird]

Nice, time to load up a game tonight!

[Mycalle]

Nice update, games really coming along!

[Avionauta]

going to play it :)

Just started and noticed a bug (?), the victory points are 0/0, then I've tried to reload another campaign and it was saying 10/0, is that by purpose to switch off victory conditions in beta?

[rob]

Originally posted by Avionauta:

going to play it :)

Just started and noticed a bug (?), the victory points are 0/0, then I've tried to reload another campaign and it was saying 10/0, is that by purpose to switch off victory conditions in beta?

Thanks for the report. It does look like there is a bug with the victory points when you win a game and then load an earlier game in the same session (without quitting). I don't think it has any lasting impact on the saved game (besides preventing you from winning again in that session), but we'll get it sorted out for the next update.

[vic_4]

I find much more difficult the beginning wiyh continuous attaks, likebefore the earlier patch.

[Galilei]

Tried a new game as Rome. Nice new objectives, but it gets frustating even on level normal. While I am struggling to get enough income without upgraded buildings, every neighbour and raider camp spawns a visiting horde from different directions :(

[pj_3]

OK... some parts are nicer, but after five "New Games" - I'm ready to revert back. At least I was beginning to make progress with the previous version, and was actualy enjoying winning... but this is .... no fun - and that's killing the game. On "Casual" it's too tough for me. I want to continue the game as it was, so how do I revert back to the previous patch level please?

Edit: OK - Answered my own question - use (game) ->Properties -> Beta (in Steam), and select " lastrelease - Revert to the last major release".

Thanks!

[Azrael de Baphuon]

Yeah the new patch is hard as ♥♥♥♥ ... But i like it ... Now i start getting settled with rome :)

[rob]

Thanks for the comments, that's just the kind of feedback we're looking for. I'm actually fairly glad to hear the comments about difficulty because it confirms our own testing and is already something we're working on adjusting. If there aren't any major surprises we're hoping to have another update out late today or tomorrow with some further refinements.

In the meantime, if you want to go back to 3.0.2 just go into the properties window and switch the beta to none. Even after 3.0.3 is officially released you'll still be able to revert by switching to the 'last release' branch.

[crowebird]

I like the new difficulty so far!

On expert:

First game I expanded too slow and got wiped out pretty easily.

Started another right away, built a sizable army, started to expand and was doing ok with positive income, but a wave came at me that interrupted my trade routes right as I was taking a neighboring province. At this point I was spread to thin and out of money, so my best unit defected. Another lesson learned :)

Looking forward to my third attempt tonight.

[Avionauta]

good idea to pay for colonists, but 1000 gold per each one sounds too steep, it's passed from colonization "wave" to too much expensive in my opinion, perhaps less initial cost and higher upkeep would also force to really think how you go colonizing.