[Ogre Update] Open Beta Patch Notes

[fangirlcrazily]

Welcome to the Ogre Open Beta! Please refer to the recent announcement here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1669000/view/802308936293156937 for instructions on how to join the beta.

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Highlights

Visual Improvements

• Added City Sprawl to all Culture Cities and City Tier Levels
  
• Added Mountain Visuals for Arctic and Desolate Themes
  
• Separated the Underground into 3 Distinct Themes
  
  • Underground
    
  • Lava Caves
    
  • Ice Caves
• Added Colouring to Portal Visual based on Portal Image

New Combat Maps
We’re introducing new Combat Map Variations for locations that have frequently seen the sight of combat. When engaging in battle the game will randomly pick from the available Maps.

Nature Maps

• Natural Rocky
  
• Natural Grasslands
  
• Natural Forest

Node Maps

• Pasture Node
  
• Gold Vein
  
• Mana Node
  
• Iron Deposit
  
• Fish Node

Location Maps

• Small/Large Monster Infestation & Great Bird Nest
  
• Beacon of Unity

New Ancient Wonder Adventures
All base game Ancient Wonders that did not already have 3 or more Adventure Sets have received new adventures to experience.

• The Fairy Court - Encountered in Hidden Wellsprings with the names Fayfount, Nixwell and Covert Court.
  
• The Silver Realm - Encountered in Crystal Forests with the names Silverdell, Argent Weald and Knight’s Rest
  
• The Wan - Encountered in Magma Forges with the names Anvil of Doom, Spiritsap Smithy and Blackhammer Furnace
  
• The Sleeper in Shadow - Encountered in Lost Tombs with the names Silent Tomb, Sleeper’s Sanctuary and Whispering Graves
  
• Order of the Glutton - Encountered in Secret Temples with the names House of Unger, Altar of Devoration and Glutton’s Fane.
  
• Thundered Timber - Encountered in World Trees with the names Crackling Tree, Thundered Trunk, Stormbound Maple
  
• Forlorn Puppeteer - Encountered in Fallen Towers with the names Chanting Tower, Willtaker’s Needle and Vacant Steeple
  
• Prima Materia - Encountered in Golden Ziggurats with the names Vault of Transmutation, Artificer’s Altar and Temple of Constructs.

Form Filtering & Save Improvements
We’ve added more tools to Realm Creation for you to be able to create the experience you want. Whether those are Jungle Realms filled with furry forms or your typical Tolkienesque Story. Changes to Realm Content will be saved to the Realm, if you choose to do so while Game Settings will be remembered for Single & Multiplayer separately.

• Implemented Faction Filtering. These settings can be found in the new Realm Content Tab in the Advanced Settings.
  
  • You can now control which Forms appear on a Realm during Realm Creation. This affects Rulers, Free Cities, Infestations and Inhabitants
    
  • You can now control which Cultures are allowed to be used by Players and Free Cities.
    
  • You can now control the desired presence of Godir Origins.
• All settings under the Realm Setup, Realm Factions and Realm Content tabs are now stored in the Realm Template. When selecting your Custom Realm, these settings will be loaded in from the Realm.
  
• Players will now be asked whether they want their custom realm saved or not. If the player is editing an existing custom realm, they can also choose to overwrite it.
  
• All settings under the Game Flow and Combat tabs will remember your choices from the last game you set up. Choices are stored separately for Singleplayer and Multiplayer.

Faction Creation Updates

• Added custom Horse Visuals - These visuals are available to the default Horse Mount and can be adjusted separately for (Mortal/Godir) Rulers and Army units. The first tick functions as a random option.
  
• Added Voice (emote-) Overrides - T can be adjusted separately for both (mortal/godir)rulers and army units.
  
• Added a Lighting button - This setting alternates the Lighting while customizing your appearance to showcase what your Ruler/Race looks like in different environments.
  
• Expanded Body Customization Options
  
  • Added Body Shape selector
    
  • Added Head Size Slider
    
  • Added Hand Size Slider
• Expanded Banner Customization Options
  
  • Added more Primary Player Colours
    
  • Added more Primary Armor Colours
    
  • Added 6 new basegame banner icons
    
    • Materium category: Digger, Excavator, Forger
      
    • Nature category: Lilypad, Toad
      
    • Shadow category: Snowflake
      
    • Astral category: Lightning

Pantheon Update
Added 13 new Pantheon Rewards to unlock.

• Added 2 Mounts for your Race & Ruler
  
  • Cavernbear Mount
    
  • Crystalrunner Mount
• Added 6 Hero Starting Loadouts
  
  • Magma Orb
    
  • Goldseeker Pickaxe
    
  • Giantslayer Spear
    
  • Titan’s Greatbow
    
  • Lithorite Orbs
    
  • Shatterblades
• Added 4 Banner Icons
  
  • Rock Clan icon
    
  • Storm Clan icon
    
  • Frost Clan icon
    
  • Fire Clan icon
• Added 1 Society Trait - Subterranean Society [Materium]

New Realm Creation Traits

• Number of misc trait slots increased to 8
  
• Added Misc. Trait: Surface Start - When chosen, all empires, even those with Underground adaptation, will start on the Surface.
  
• Added Misc. Trait: Unearthed Realm - When chosen all Diggable Earth is blocked from appearing in the realm.
  
• Added Misc. Trait: Subdued Infestations - When chosen, the realm will have a reduced amount of Infestations.

Features

Feudal Authority
The Feudal Culture has been updated and now supports two different forms of Authority. Feudal Monarchy is the default Feudal Subculture and provides the most direct system of control, the Ruler is undisputed and grants powerful benefits to their accompanying force. Feudal Aristocracy must maintain a balance of power disseminated between the player’s cities, in doing so each house can field their own army effectively and exceptionally cheaply as long as the units in that army belong to that house.

Global Updates

• Added a new World Map Summon Spell “Call Militia”
  
  • Summon 2 Militia in target owned City
    
  • Replaces Call to Glory as the Feudal Starting Spell
    
  • Replaces Signet of Knighthood
• Combat Spell “Call to Glory”
  
  • No longer grants 5 Morale and 1 Strengthed to units in a 1hex Radius.
    
  • Now grants all units +5 Morale at the start of your turn, for 3 Turns
    
  • Now is a Combat Enchantment
• Unit “Peasant Pikeman”
  
  • Renamed to Militia
    
  • No longer recruitable
• Unit “Defender”
  
  • Changed from a Tier 2 Unit to a Tier 1 Unit
    
  • Stats were adjusted accordingly
• Unit “Archer”
  
  • Shoot Bow - Now has a 30% chance to inflict Sundered Defense
• Unit “Bannerman”
  
  • Now has Optional Cavalry
    
  • Now has War Banner
    
    • A Passive ability that grants +1 Defense and +1 Resistance to adjacent friendly units.
      
    • This replaces the Active Ability “Bulwark Standard”
  • Soothing Standard
    
    • Increased Temporary Hit Points from +20 to +25
      
    • Enters Defense Mode after use
      
    • Changed from Radius around the Cater to a Single Target Ability
      
    • Can now be used while inside a Zone of Control
• Added new Unit “Aspirant Knight”
  
  • Tier 2, Cavalry, Shock Unit
    
  • Aspirant: Knight - When this unit reaches Legendary Rank, it is promoted into a Knight. Requires a Feudal Tier 4 Town Hall to be built in the Empire.
    
  • Isolation Slayer - This unit deals -6 Physical Damage if another enemy is adjacent to the target.
• Unit “Knight”
  
  • Changed from a Tier 3 to a Tier 4 Unit
    
  • Stats were adjusted accordingly
    
  • Now has Graceful Charge
• Special Province Improvement “Levy Camp”
  
  • Renamed to Farmstead
    
  • No longer functions as a Unit Deployment Location

Feudal Monarchy
Affinities: Order + Materium
Theme: Ruler and Throne city above all else

World Map Gameplay
The Feudal Monarchy subculture is about stability and draft, preferring a tight, consolidated empire led by a Monarch.

• Passive “Monarch’s Dominion”
  
  • In combat, activates For the Monarch on Friendly Units
    
  • While Army Leader, all units in the army with For the Monarch have no Unit Upkeep.
• City Structure “Militia Barracks”
  
  • Replaces Workshop
    
  • +10 Production Income
    
  • +5 Draft Income
    
  • +5 Stability
• City Structure “Royal Smith”
  
  • Replaces Blacksmith
    
  • +20 Draft Income
    
  • +1 Rank for Tier 1 units built in city
    
  • +10 Stability
• City Structure “Retainer's Estate”
  
  • Requires Tier 3
    
  • While this city's domain connects to the Throne city gain:
    
    • +10 Stability
      
    • +10 Gold Income
      
    • +20 Food Income

Combat Gameplay

• For the Monarch - Units gain a powerful boost when in combat in their own Domain or alongside their Ruler. This replaced Stand Together.
  
  • +1 Defense
    
  • +1 Resistance
    
  • +10% damage
    
  • +10 Morale
• Combat Spell “Monarch Decree”
  
  • Replaces “Hold the Line”
    
  • For 2 Turns, all friendly units gain the benefit from “For the Monarch” as though the Monarch were present.

The Feudal unit lineup has a strong divide between its lower classes and higher classes. Low tier units are on foot and cheap, while their important units are mounted or optionally mounted.

• T1 Militia (Polearm) - Not Recruitable, gained through the “Call Militia” Starting Skill
  
• T1 Defender (Shield)
  
• T1 Archer (Ranged) - Promotes into Longbows (If the Tier 3 Town Hall has been built in the empire)
  
• T2 Bannerman (Support)
  
• T2 Aspirant Knight (Shock) - Promotes into Knight (If the Tier 4 Town Hall has been built in the empire)
  
• T3 Longbows (Ranged) - New Unit, Promoted from Archers or recruited from a Tier 3 Feudal City.
  
  • Shoot Arrow
    
  • Longshot - Full Action, Always Hit, Range 6
    
  • Longbow - Abilities have +1 Range
• T4 Knight (Shock) - Not Recruitable, promoted from Aspirant Knights. A powerful, heavy mounted shock unit with Giant Slayer, Inspiring Killer and Graceful Charge

Feudal Aristocracy
Affinities: Order + Nature
Theme: Maintain strength balance between your cities to gain power

World Map Gameplay
The Feudal Aristocracy subculture cities each have a House to which the City, Governor and units built in that city belong. The House gains power as the Liege Lord (Governor) gains Renown.

• The player “creates” a new House when a Feudal City has a Governor assigned for the first time.
  
  • City Governors become the Liege Lord of that House
    
  • Units produced in a Feudal city gain that House’s Banner
    
  • Summoned Units gain the House’s Banner based on the following conditions:
    
    • If the unit spawns in a city’s domain, it takes the House of that city.
      
    • If the unit is not in a city’s domain, pick the House of the closest stack.
      
    • If multiple stacks are equidistant but only one has a hero, pick the House of the stack with a hero.
      
    • If multiple stacks are equidistant and have a hero, pick the House of the stack with the fewest units in it. This way the player can reinforce that stack with the new unit.
• Passive “Liege Lord”
  
  • The Liege Lord and Units in their Army Units have:
    
    • -10% upkeep
      
    • +5 World Map Regeneration
      
    • This bonus scales with Renown Level
  • Units gain XP whenever their House Liege gains Renown
    
  • In combat, activates For the Liege! on Friendly Units
• City Structure “House Hunting Grounds”
  
  • Replaces Store House
    
  • +10 Food Income
    
  • +5 Draft Income
• City Structure “Serf Quarters”
  
  • Replaces Granary
    
  • +20 Food Income
    
  • +10 Draft Income
• City Structure “Lord's Manor”
  
  • Requires Tier 3
    
  • For each level of Renown the Governor has, the city gains:
    
    • +10 Food Income
      
    • +10 Draft Income
      
    • +5 Stability

Combat Gameplay

• For the Liege! - Units gain a powerful boost when in combat as long as their Liege Lord is in the battle. This replaces Stand Together.
  
  • +10 HP per Level of Renown
    
  • +5 Morale per Level of Renown
• Combat Spell “Hold the Line”
  
  • No longer grants Steadfast in a 1-hex Radius
    
  • Now grants Defensive Masters & Charge Resistance in a 1-hex Radius

This lineup is similar to that of the Feudal Monarchy but features the Liege Guard on Tier 3 instead of the Longbow, which can be evolved into by the Defender.

• T1 Militia (Polearm) - Not Recruitable, gained through the “Call Militia” Starting Skill
  
• T1 Defender (Shield) - Promotes into Liege Guard (If the Tier 3 Town Hall has been built in empire)
  
• T1 Archer (Ranged)
  
• T2 Bannerman (Support)
  
• T2 Aspirant Knight (Shock) - Promotes into Knight (If the Tier 4 Town Hall has been built in empire)
  
• T3 Liege Guard (Shield) - New Unit, Promoted from Defenders or Recruited from a Tier 3 Feudal City.
  
  • Optional Mounted
    
  • Melee Strike
    
  • Sworn Bond - Link to target friendly Hero
    
    • Damage Sustained by the linked unit is transferred to this unit with a 50% reduction.
      
    • At the start of each turn, the linked unit gains Strengthened.
  • Heavy Shield
• T4 Knight (Shock) - Not Recruitable, promoted from Aspirant Knights. A powerful, heavy mounted shock unit with Giant Slayer, Inspiring Killer and Graceful Charge

Siege Update
The Siege System exists to ensure players cannot rush the conquest of cities and grants defending players time to assemble armies to defend. It was also designed to grant an epic conclusive battle to conquest in the form of a siege battle. Throughout the game’s life, the system has achieved its goal of stopping rushing, but has not achieved its goal of creating epic conclusions of conquest, and has been met with plenty of frustrations.

We’ve given Sieges a pass with the main aim to:

• Increase the amount of battles being fought on the city siege map with siege projects and defense effects active.
  
• Lower the average time sieges take.
  
• Reduce the max amounts of Fortification Health and Fortification Damage players can accumulate.

Core Updates

• Reworked the Sally Out logic:
  
  • A Sally Out Battle occurs when a besieged player attacks the besieger with units defending the city.
    
  • Sally Out battles take place on the Siege map, with all Siege Projects and Defensive Structure effects active.
    
  • If the sally out battle results in all units within the city being destroyed/routed. The Walls are immediately breached.
• Added Movement Restrictions to Units inside a besieged City.
  
  • Units in a Besieged City cannot leave the City
    
  • Units in a Besieged City can reorganize within the hexes of the City
    
  • Units in a Besieged City can instigate a Sally Out Combat
    
  • Units outside of the City can enter it to reinforce, but won’t be able to leave
    
  • Trying to move path out the city will show a warning
    
  • Units inside the city will have a Unit property that shows the Besieged state (this is currently not showing up in the Unit Panel)
• When continuing a Siege that was lifted this turn by either yourself or another player, the previously selected siege projects will remain assigned. If the siege projects slots were locked, they will remain locked.
  
• City Under Siege Penalty now only reduced Food Income by 50%
  
• Outposts can no longer upgrade their Palisade Walls to Stone Walls.
  
• Achievement “Impenetrable Fortress” - Reduced the Fortification Health required from 150 to 60.
  
• Ambition “Defender” - Reduced required Fortification Health of Governed City from 100 to 40.

Siege Projects

• Undermine Walls
  
  • No longer creates Additional Wall breaches during combat
    
  • Now all Wall Obstacles start damaged and 25% of Wall Obstacles are destroyed at the start of combat.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 3 to 0.
• Headlong Assault
  
  • Now Besieging units also gain Exhausted during siege combat.
• Construct Onagers
  
  • Reduced Cost from 250 Gold to 200 Gold
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 3 to 0.
• Break Battlements
  
  • Renamed to Burn Battlements.
    
  • No longer destroyed all Battlement Obstacles at the start of combat
    
  • Now Battlement Obstacles have a 50% to start On Fire for 3 turns at the start of combat.
    
  • Reduced Cost from 100 Mana to 80 Mana.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 2 to 0.
• Tower Bombardment
  
  • No longer destroys half of the Tower units at the start of combat
    
  • Now a random Tower unit is struck for 20 damage at the start of combat. This repeats 4 times.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 1 to 0.
• Removed Siege Project “Sabotage Support”
  
• Added New Siege Project “Raiding Party”
  
  • Upon breaching the walls, gain 75 Gold per tier of the besieged city.
• Wizard’s Bombardment
  
  • New effect: During combat, every time you cast a spell, a random enemy unit is struck by an astral comet. All units within 1 hex radius suffer 15 Cosmic damage, all obstacles within 1 hex radius are destroyed.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 15 to 0.
• Construct Bolt Repeaters
  
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 4 to 2.
• Construct Great Bombard
  
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 5 to 3.
• Construct Siege Guns
  
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 4 to 2.
• Arcane Maelstrom
  
  • Renamed to Arcane Accumulation
    
  • No longer removes Towers and no longer applies Electrified and Cosmic Damage
    
  • Now grants 50 Combat Casting Points at the start of combat and all enemy units suffer -1 Resistance.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 3 to 0.
• Create Earthshatter Engines
  
  • Now costs 200 Gold and 100 Mana
    
  • New effect: At the start of combat, all Wall obstacles are damaged by 50%.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 10 to 5.
• Sow Confusion
  
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 3 to 0.
• Incite Rebellion
  
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 6 to 0.
• Construct Devastator Spheres
  
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 8 to 3.
• Fumigation
  
  • No longer applies 2x Poisoned at the start of Combat.
    
  • Now applies 2x Weakened at the start of Combat.
• Dragon Attack
  
  • Increased Cost from 60 Mana to 100 Mana
    
  • Additional effect: At the start of combat, 75% of Battlement positions are On Fire for 3 turns.
• Construct Soul Siphons
  
  • Renamed to Soul Siphon Ritual
    
  • No longer grants a flat 40 Souls
    
  • Now grants 40 Souls per tier of the besieged city when the Walls are breached.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 3 to 0.
• Tremor Ritual
  
  • No longer removes Towers and Battlements, or creates additional Wall Breaches.
    
  • Now during combat, every 2 turns, a random enemy unit is struck by an earthquake. Enemy non-flying, non-floating units in a 2 hex radius suffer 10 Physical damage and have 90% chance to suffer Slowed for 3 turns. Obstacles in a 2 hex radius are destroyed.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 6 to 3.
• Ritual of Calamity
  
  • No longer removes Towers and Battlements
    
  • Now every turn during the siege a random province from the besieged city is pillaged and grants you the rewards.
    
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 5 to 0.
• All Fey Relic Evocation siege projects:
  
  • Reduced Fortification Damage from 5 to 2.

Fortification Structures

• All Tower units are now player controlled and no longer fire automatically.
  
• Stone Walls
  
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 40 to 30.
    
  • Cost reduced from 170 Gold and 450 Production to 85 Gold and 200 Production.
• Ballista Towers
  
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 10 to 0.
    
  • Increased Ballista Tower unit health from 35 to 60.
    
  • Increased Ballista Tower unit damage from 20 to 30.
• Catapult Towers
  
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 30 to 0.
    
  • Increased Catapult Damage from 15 to 20.
• Archer Battlements
  
  • Additional effect: Units standing in Archer Battlements also gain +40% accuracy on Physical ranged attacks.
    
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 5 to 0.
• Arcane Battlements
  
  • Additional effect: Units standing in Arcane Battlements also gain +40% accuracy on Magical ranged attacks.
    
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 5 to 0.
• Caltrop Stash
  
  • Additional effect: Polearm, Shield and Fighter units gain Deploy Caltrops. A free action once per battle ability to deploy Sharp and Slowing terrain on target hex within 4 hex range. If it targets an enemy unit, it inflicts Bleeding on the target unit.
    
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 5 to 0.
• Beacon of Valor
  
  • Additional effect: While under siege, the city gains +40 Draft income.
    
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 20 to 0.
• Throne of Mirror
  
  • Additional effect: Your Ruler gains 2 XP per turn (this can stack with multiple of this Upgrade in your empire)
    
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 40 to 0
• Artisan Fortification
  
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 20 to 0
    
  • Reduced Bolt Repeater Tower’s HP from 70 to 60
    
  • Increased Bolt Repeater Tower’s Defense and Resistance from 1 to 2.
    
  • Increased Bolt Repeater Tower’s Damage from its main attack from 10 to 12
• Fortified Crucible
  
  • Renamed to Crucible Battlements
    
  • Additional Effect: Battlements also grant +40% Accuracy and +1 Range to all ranged attacks and ignores Obscured.
    
  • Additional Effect: Units drafted in the city with this upgrade gain +1 Fire Damage on their base attacks (increased for non-repeating attacks)
    
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 40 to 0
• Healing Spires
  
  • Increased Healing Tower’s HP from 70 to 90
    
  • Increased Healing Tower’s Defense and Resistance from 1 to 2
• Necrotic Spires
  
  • No longer has Bolster Undead
    
  • Now has Resurrect Zombie: Resurrect target non-zombie unit as a Decaying Zombie, cooldown 3 turns after use. Starts on 1 turn cooldown.
    
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 15 to 0
• Temple of the Pyre
  
  • Guaranteed Condemned effect replaced with 90% chance to suffer Condemned.
    
  • In Siege Combat, hexes in front of the walls gain permanent Cleansing Fire markers.
    
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 10 to 0
• Bastion’s Barricade
  
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 20 to 10.
• Builder’s Guild
  
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 30 to 10.
• Fortress of Vines
  
  • Lowered Fortification Health from 10 to 0
    
  • No longer grants Fortification Health per Forest or Mushrooms Feature in the Domain
    
  • Now lowers all Movepoints of enemy units in the city’s domain to 32.
• Castle Ruins Ancient Wonder
  
  • Replaced +5 Fortification Health per Quarry with +2 Knowledge per Quarry
    
  • Replaced +20 Knowledge income with +20 Draft income

Lava Gameplay
We hinted at it when discussing the post-release Road Map back in 2023 but with this Update we’re introducing Lava Gameplay. We’ve worked out Traversal and Economic Exploitations for Lava Terrains in the World Map.

• Lava Walk is a new movement property that allows units to move in lava, the following units gain it:
  
  • Units transformed with Scions of Flame
    
  • Infernal Fiends
    
  • Giants
    
  • Gold Golem
    
  • Roving Furnace
    
  • Ironclad
    
  • Severing Golem
• Added Lava Roads (which are like stepping stones of solidified rock)
  
  • Units that Fly/Float/Can walk on Lava will be able to build this on Lava hexes.
    
  • Lava roads allow non-lava walking units to walk over it.
    
  • Annexing Lava Provinces will generate Lava Roads connecting adjacent improvements or cities.
• All factions can annex Habitable Lava Provinces as a Smelter Mine or Conduit Mine, but doing so incurs a -15 City Stability penalty (accumulative with the standard -5, bringing it to a total of -20 city stability per improvement).
  
  • Smelter Mine
    
    • +5 Gold Income
      
    • Counts as a Mine
  • Cinder Conduit
    
    • +5 Mana Income
      
    • Counts as a Conduit
  • Cities inhabited by Races with Demonkin Transformation or the Scions of Flame Transformation ignore the City Stability penalty from Lava and Lava Chasms in their domain.
    
  • Cities inhabited by races with Underground Adaptation, Desolate Adaptation, Primal Tunneling Spider and Primal Ashen Sabertooth ignore the City Stability penalty from Lava and Lava Chasms in their domain.
• New line of City Structures available in Cities with annexed Lava Provinces.
  
  • Lava Caster
    
    • +10 Production
      
    • Unlocked by having 1 province with Lava
  • Obsidian Altar
    
    • +15 Mana
      
    • Unlocked by having 2 provinces with Lava, Tier 2 City and Lava Caster
  • Refinery Kiln
    
    • +20 Gold
      
    • Unlocked by having 3 provinces with Lava, Tier 3 City and Obsidian Altar
  • Pyroclastic Guild
    
    • +3 Gold, +3 Production and +3 Mana per annexed province with Lava
      
    • Unlocked by having 4 provinces with Lava, Tier 4 City and Refinery Kiln
      
    • Mutually exclusive with other guilds
  • New Pickups to be found in Lava Provinces
    
    • Molten Weapons
      
      • Guarded Pickup
        
      • Grants Binding Essence & Fragments
    • Pyroclastic Shards
      
      • Unguarded Pickup
        
      • Grants Gold and Mana

Underground Generation
We’ve taken another look at the way the Underground is generated and determined that it wasn’t providing the desired gameplay experience. Originally the Underground Generation was to support two distinct fantasies: Underground Empires & Cave delving/exploration. Trying to support both fantasies with a single generation method resulted in an experience that didn’t truly fulfill either, so we’ve changed course.

• Default Underground Generation has been reworked with an Expansion Focus. This means:
  
  • Increased Cavern Sizes but Reduced Number of Caverns
    
  • Caverns are generated closer together
    
  • Tunnels connect all Caverns throughout the entire Underground
• Added the Explorative Underground realm trait, which has an Exploration Focus. This means:
  
  • Increased Number of Caverns but Reduced in Size
    
  • Increased Number of Pickups & Ancient Wonders
    
  • Increased Number of Provinces covered in Diggable Earth
    
  • Empire starting locations and Free City Caverns remain large enough to have space to grow.
• The amount of Resource Nodes in the Underground is now better curated.
  
• Improved placement of Underground Players compared to Free Cities on the Surface.
  
• Improved placement of Underground Passages compared to City placement.
  
• Removed Misc. Trait Massive Underground as this is now handled by the default generation.

Item Forge Update
Item forging has a few issues that impact the balance of the game. Chief among these is the ease of access for high tier items, particularly weapons which benefit significantly more from the tier increase due to gaining damage based on it. With this Item Forge Rebalance we’re addressing both the accessibility and the speed at which items can be crafted.

Crafting Changes

• Added Binding Fragments resource
  
  • Gained by disenchanting Tier 3 and 4 items
    
    • Tier 3 - 25
      
    • Tier 4 - 75
  • Used to create hero items of Tier 3 and 4
    
    • 4 points (Tier 3) 50
      
    • 5 points (Tier 4) 100
• Increased Binding Essence gained:
  
  • T1 - 40 to 50
    
  • T2 - 80 to 100
    
  • T3 - 120 to 150
    
  • T4 - 160 to 200
• Durations of crafting adjusted
  
  • Tier 1 Items are now crafted instantly
    
  • Tier 2 item crafting time reduced from 3 to 1
    
  • Tier 3 Item crafting time reduced from 3 to 2
    
  • Tier 4 Item crafting time reduced from 4 to 3
• Society Trait “Reclaimers” - Now grants Binding Fragments from its sources as well
  
  • Infestations - Now grant 25 Binding fragments
    
  • Razing Cities - Increased the Binding Essence gained per population from 20 to 40
    
  • Razing Cities - Now grants 20 Binding fragments per population
    
  • Pillaging Provinces - Now grants 5 binding fragments
    
  • Bronze Ancient wonders - Now grant 50 Binding Fragments
    
  • Silver Ancient wonders - Now grant 75 Binding Fragments
    
  • Gold Ancient wonders - Now grant 100 Binding Fragments

Hero Changes

• Increased the quality of equipment that AI controlled heroes use.
  
  • Early Game - Level Range: 1/4 - Equipment Range: Tier 1/2
    
  • Mid Game - Level Range: 5/6 - Equipment Range: Tier 2/3
    
  • Late Game - Level Range: 7/10 - Equipment Range: Tier 2/4
    
  • End Game - Level Range: 11+ - Equipment Range: Tier 3/4
• When an enemy hero is killed in combat, the player is now given that hero’s best piece of equipment as a reward after the battle. The rest of the hero’s equipment is removed before the hero is transferred to the crypt or prison.
  
  • This does not apply to Heroes that are returned to their Owner’s Prison/Crypt.
    
  • When killing enemy heroes on mounts, there’s a chance that the mount will be added to the after battle reward, as well as the hero’s best equipment.
• Reduced the base time to Convert a Captured Hero from 3 to 2
  
• Increased the Gold gained from Selling a Hero Corpse from 20 +20 per level to 25 +25 per level.

General

• Player Mods are automatically disabled on the First Launch of this update.
  
• Custom Realms now are limited to 50 saved Custom Realms on Console Platforms.

AI

• Balanced the AI Economy around the new elements from the last few DLC
  
• Added support for the AI to focus more on the City Tier structures as per the new rules
  
• Added additional support to allow AI to understand that armies on the World Map have an inherited value to target
  
• Added support for the AI to have a better evaluation when it comes to Story Event battles
  
• Added support for the AI to have a better indication on story events that spawn new hostile armies (Toll of seasons)
  
• Added support for Free Cities to excavate Diggable Earth when expanding
  
• Updated the City Automation Manager to use the production queue when adding Special Province Improvements
  
• Updated the AI to randomize their Siege Project selection
  
• Updated the way the AI starts the Attack to always take the strongest army
  
• Adjusted the AI War Focus on Hard & Very Hard Difficulty to focus more on Human Players.

Combat AI

• Added new logic to prevent the Combat AI from trying to Stun/Freeze/Immobilize an already Stunned/Frozen /Immobilized unit.
  
• Deprioritized Stunned and Immobilized units for the Combat AI
  
• Ranged units are now less likely to stand next to enemy units (even if that unit is facing a different direction)

Art

• Added a new Event Background illustration for Underground Events
  
• Added a unique Expedition Leader status icon
  
• Changed Champion Medal icon to a more defined colouring
  
• Adjusted the size and strength of the units cloud mask used in Combat Maps for Overworld climes
  
• Adjusted the size and strength of the units cloud mask used in Combat Maps for Underground climes
  
• Adjusted the visuals of the Wightborn Transformation, changing the Eye Color to Black and adding Trail effects.

Combat

• Added a new Ability Tag “Single Shot” to Single Target, Non-Repeating Attacks.
  
• The Increased Effects system changed from non-repeating attacks to Single Shot attacks and now reads “Effects are increased for Single Shot attacks”
  
• The following Unit Enchantments and Unit Effects changed from applying only to Base Attacks to now work on all Attacks.
  
  • Unit Effects
    
    • Barbarian Passive Effect “Savage Strikes”
      
    • Dark Passive Effect “Cull the Weak”
      
    • High Passive Effect “Awakened” (Not Dormant Trait)
      
    • Mystic Attunement Passive Effect “Attunement: Star Blades”
      
    • Mystic Potential Passive Effect “Ciphers of Dissonance”
      
    • Primal Passive Effect “Spider Primal Communion”
      
    • Primal Passive Effect “Mammoth Primal Communion”
      
    • Primal Passive Effect “Crow Primal Communion”
      
    • Primal Passive Effect “Serpent Primal Communion”
      
    • Primal Passive Effect “Sabertooth Primal Communion”
      
    • Primal Passive Effect “Crocodile Primal Communion”
      
    • Primal Passive Effect “Wolf Primal Communion”
      
    • Oathsworn Righteousness Passive Effect “Nobility”
      
    • Oathsworn Strife Passive Effect “Warrior’s Soul”
      
    • Order Passive Effect “Zeal”
      
    • Shadow Passive Effect “Life Steal”
  • Enchantments
    
    • Astral Unit Enchantment “Lightning Focus”
      
    • Chaos Unit Enchantment “Mark of Misfortune”
      
    • Chaos Unit Enchantment “Focus of Devastation”
      
    • Chaos Unit Enchantment “Infernal Focus”
      
    • Nature Unit Enchantment “Force of Nature”
      
    • Order Unit Enchantment “Inquisitor’s Mark”*
      
    • Shadow Unit Enchantment “Soulbinders”
      
    • Materium/Shadow Unit Enchantment “Disrupting Blades”*
      
    • Order/Materium Unit Enchantment “Empowered Strikes”*
      
    • Chaos/Shadow Unit Enchantment “Accursed Projectiles”
• Units with negative armor or resistance will now take more damage from attacks.
  
• Debuff “Sundered Resistance” and Debuff “Sundered Defense” now stack up to 10 times instead of 5
  
• Mind Control Abilities and Spells no longer work on units that are Berserk, Routing or Insane (with the exception of the Final Ultimatum spell)

Cultures

Dark

• Unit “Warlock”
  
  • Sundering Curse
    
    • Now jumps to an additional target within 3 hexes
      
    • Reduced Base Frost Damage from 24 to 16
      
    • Reduced stacks Sundered Resistance inflicted from 2 to 1
      
    • Reduced stack of Sundered Defense inflicted from 2 to 1
      
    • Increased stacks of Weakened inflicted from 1 to 2

Industrious

• Unit “Arbalest”
  
  • Overdraw Crossbow - No longer blocked by Charge Resistance
    
  • Overdraw Crossbow - Increased Base Accuracy from 90% to 100%
    
  • Overdraw Crossbow - Increased Base Range from 4 to 5
    
  • Defense - Increased from 0 to 2
    
  • Resistance - Increased from 0 to 1

Mystic - Potential

• Reduced the duration of Spell Exploitation from 10 Turns to 5 Turns
  
• World Map Spell “Arcane Studies” - No longer reduces the Production of the affected City.
  
• Unit “Spellweaver” - “Weaver’s Overchannel” reworked to "Dissonant Weave"
  
  • Full Action, 6 Range, Always Hit
    
  • Target Unit sustains 16 Rift Damage. This effect then cascades to adjacent units and is repeated.

Reavers

• Unit “Harrier
  
  • Cast Net - Ability can now graze
• Unit “Magelock”
  
  • Fire Heavy Magelock - Increased Accuracy from 60% to 100%
    
  • Fire Heavy Magelock - Changed from a Single Action to a Full Action
    
  • Added Snapshot Heavy Magelock
    
    • Single Action, Range 4, 80% Accuracy
      
    • Inflicts 22 Physical Damage
      
    • Benefits from Piercing & Breaching
  • Removed Take Aim
    
  • Updated Hero/Item Forge Magelock Equipment to match these changes
• Unit “Overseer”
  
  • Increased HP from 60 to 70
    
  • Patch Up - Increased Temporary Hit Points from +40 to +45
    
  • Patch Up - Overseer enters Defense Mode after use
    
  • Patch Up - Can now be used while inside a Zone of Control

Primal

• Tunneling Spider - Now grants +1 Annexation range to Underground Cities similar to Underground Adaptation
  
• Unit “Primal Darter"
  
  • Shoot Blowgun - Increased Optimal Range from 2 to 3
• Unit “Primal Spider”
  
  • Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
    
  • Added Poison Web
    
    • Single Action, Range 1, 100% Accuracy
      
    • Inflicts 14 Blight Damage
      
    • Guaranteed to Inflict Slowed for 1 Turn
      
    • Has a 90% Chance to inflict Poisoned
      
    • Has a 60% Chance to inflict Immobilized
      
    • Has Life Steal now has a poison web ability
• Unit “Primal Sabertooth” - Increased Movement Speed from Fast to Very Fast Movement

Oathsworn - Strife

• Unit Passive “Warrior's Soul” - Now works by giving a buff that lasts until the end of combat, so it isn't removed once you start winning the fight.
  
• Unit “Sealbearer”
  
  • Fire Seal - Reduced Fire Damage from 36 to 20
    
  • Seal of Fire - Now explodes the target when it dies, dealing 20 Fire Damage to adjacent Units.
• Unit “Warbound”
  
  • Bulldoze - Now rotates 180 degrees after completing the action

Events

• Units gained through Events now receive special bonuses/effects to make them feel more special.
  
• Added an option to the “Heroic Proposition” Surrender Event that allows you to imprison the Hero of the stack
  
• Added a new variation on the Retreat Event when armies are outnumbered
  
• Ensured that items generated through events cannot generate ruler-specific weapons anymore (like eldritch relicts, dragon claws, etc), so the player is never rewarded with an unusable item.

Factions

Faction Adjustments

• Adjusted the main colours of many premade rulers to make use of the newly added banner colours, and diminish the duplicate occurrence of banner colours in-game.
  
• Added custom Throne City Names for:
  
  • Gloom Hooknail
    
  • Kruul Blightlord
    
  • Dafal Dea
    
  • Blint the Underdelver
    
  • Xetevaca Worldshaper
    
  • Raina the Golden
    
  • Meshara the Radiant
• Updated Premade Factions with new Hero Classes or Loadouts:
  
  • Yaka - Now is a Spellblade
    
  • Decimus the Unwavering - Now is a Spellblade
    
  • Karissa - Now is a Spellblade
    
  • Meandor - Now is a Death Knight
    
  • Fangir - Now is a Spellblade
    
  • Tephradenir - Now is a Spellblade
    
  • Arvik - Now is a Death Knight
    
  • Cantariel - Now is a Spellblade
    
  • Anura the Cold Blooded - Now is a Death Knight
    
  • Hunt-Herald Kyrma - Now is a Spellblade
    
  • Karavar the Willbreaker - Now is a Death Knight
    
  • Kralicavir the Collector - Now is a Death Knight
    
  • Soncevar the Radiant - Now is a Spellblade
    
  • Khir Uranon - Now uses a Lance
    
  • Artica - Now uses Frost Orbs
    
  • Nekron - Now uses Poison Orbs
    
  • Noctus - Now uses a Lightning Staff

Form Traits

• Tough
  
  • No longer gives a flat +2 Defense
    
  • Now gives +1 Defense and Resistance against Melee Attacks
• Resistant
  
  • No longer gives a flat +2 Resistance
    
  • Now gives +1 Defense and Resistance against Magic Attacks, spells and effects
• Dread Spider Mounts
  
  • Now also grants Swift
    
  • Web - Changed from a flat 16 Physical Damage to Base 12 damage increasing by 4 for each Unit Tier above 1 (so a tier 3 unit does 20 damage with web)

Society Traits

• Order Trait “Devotees of Good”
  
  • No longer grants +1 Rank to units at Pure Good alignment
    
  • Now grant units +2 XP per turn while at Pure Good alignment.
• Chaos Trait “Chosen Destroyers”
  
  • Now grants +40 Gold, Mana and Knowledge income for every 3 population the razed city had, with a minimum of 1.
• Astral Trait “Mana Addicts”
  
  • No longer grants +1 Rank to Battle Mage and Support Units
    
  • Now grants +10 Stability from Mana Nodes
• Astral Trait “Mana Channelers”
  
  • No longer grants +1 rank to Magic Origin units
    
  • Now grants +20% XP gain for Magic Origin units
• Materium Trait “Artifact Hoarders”
  
  • Renamed to Equipment Hoarders
    
  • Artefact Hoard has been renamed to Equipment Hoard
• Shadow Trait “Scions of Evil”
  
  • No longer grants +1 Rank to units at Pure Evil Alignment
    
  • Now grants 20% discount on Gold and Draft cost of units while at Pure Evil Alignment

Heroes

Hero Skills

• Affinity Skill “Chaos Empowerment” - Reduced Fire Damage done when attacks Crit from 5 to 3
  
• Ranger Skill “Scattershot” - Now has the Base Tag and copies their damage and some special effects from the hero’s main weapon
  
• Ranger Skill “True Shot” - Now has the Base Tag and copies their damage and some special effects from the hero’s main weapon
  
• Ranger Skill “Snap Shot” - Now has the Base Tag and copies their damage and some special effects from the hero’s main weapon
  
• Warrior Skill “Graceful Charge” - No longer triggers for retaliation and opportunity attacks
  
• Warrior Skill “Cleaving Sweep” - Now uses a more reliable method to copy damage out of the hero’s main weapon.
  
• Death Knight Skill “Sundering Sweep” - Now uses a more reliable method to copy damage out of the hero’s main weapon.

Godir Origins

• Wizard King
  
  • Now starts with +10 Casting Points
    
  • Removed Casting Point increase Hero Skills
• Eldritch Sovereign
  
  • Restructured the Eldritch Sovereign's Skill unlock paths
    
  • Eldritch Phase I - Increased range from 3 to 4
    
  • Added 2 new skills Eldritch Caster I and II, which give +5 World Map Casting Points and allow the Sovereign to ignore up to 1 Status Resistance.
    
  • Now unlocks Affinity Skills as it chooses Signatures Skills.

Governor Traits

• Added Trollkin Governor governance trait, using Foresters and Rivers for economy while letting the city recruit trolls and ogres as its governor gains renown.
  
• The Ruler’s Governance trait is no longer replaced with “Ascended Governor” when joining as a hero after ascending to the Pantheon.
  
• Each ruler type now has its own governance traits:
  
  • Champion Governor - High growth, population payoff and draft
    
  • Wizard Governor - Mana income, casting points
    
  • Dragon Governor - Gold income
    
  • Eldritch Governor - Stability and population exploitation
    
  • Giant Governor - Structure production and building payoff
• Recruiting Governor
  
  • Renown 3 now grants +1 rank to Tier 1 and 2 units (instead of all)
    
  • Renown 4 now grants +1 rank to Tier 3, 4 and 5 units (instead of all)

Item Forge

• New Infusion “Leap” - Can be applied to Cestus and Polearms.
  
• Infusion “Retaliator x%” - Reduced the Retaliated damage from 20/50/100% to 20/40/60%
  
• Infusion “Defensive Master” - Increased cost from 3 to 4 Points
  
• Weapon “Blowpipe”
  
  • Replaced the secondary ability “Quick Stab” with “Disengaging Shot”
    
  • Can no longer be equipped with Mounts
• Weapon Category “One Handed” - Increased Base Damage from 10 to 12
  
• Weapon Category “Magical Orbs” - Increased Base Damage from 10 to 12

Interface

• Added Content Identifiers to the Filters in the Create Faction Screen
  
• Added Pantheon Identifier to Hero Loadouts replacing Pantheon TML Tags
  
• Added Governor Type to the Godir Origin Summary in Faction Creation
  
• Added the ability to select any of your Cities when recruiting units from the Rally of Lieges.
  
• Added the ability to rename your Outposts.
  
• Spells that were paused automatically will now unpause automatically as well.

Notification Updates

• The system will now ensure you only ever have one "City needs a governor" event for a particular city at once
  
• If you set research, then the "Select New Research" button will be hidden in the "Research Completed" screen
  
• The "City has no production set" event will no longer appear in the notification area, so you'll only see a "City has built an X" event there
  
• When a spell is primed and ready to launch, a timer will delay the "You have spells ready to launch (1)" reminder for 4 turns, rather than that event appearing immediately and every turn after until the spell is cast.

Text & Descriptions

• The effect of the city’s current stability level is now shown directly in the tooltip.
  
• Special Province Improvement Research will now show the requirements for building the SPI.
  
• The text that displays the relations between a Free City and a Ruler now auto updates when you start a trade with them.
  
• Added the +3 Hit Points per Level for Heroes to the description to Draconic Vitality
  
• Added linked mind units explicitly to the description of Cascading Command: Reposition and Cascading Command: Defend.
  
• Classification fixes for spells:
  
  • Zealous Ignition is now a Buff + Debuff spell
    
  • Awaken Instincts, Healing Roots and Salvation are now Buff + Heal spells
    
  • Chain Lightning, Crushing Earth, Fan the Inferno, Ignite, Melt Armor and Necrotize are now Damage + Debuff spells

Modding

• Added the Story Region editor
  
• Added support for Enchantments to be applied through/filter on Tags as well as requisites
  
• Added support for Rushing Recruitment/Construction to be fully discounted.
  
• The “Player Property: Global Income” no longer allows adding income resources that it does not support.
  
• Deleting markers and decals no longer switched tabs in LevelEd once you’ve deleted the last one on the hex

Multiplayer

• Fixed a crash in combat caused by unit linking effects not properly refreshing during replays
  
• Fixed a missing unit crash that comes from an out of sync
  
• Fixed an Out of Sync that was related to Inhabitants
  
• Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Hidden Structures i.e. Primal Dens relying on the Client Player instead of the PlayerID
  
• Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Subjugating Raid's Siege Effect checking the Client Player instead of the PlayerID
  
• Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to the Property Sorting sorting algorithm not taking the value of FSkipTurn into account.
  
• Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to datastore units not getting updated when a trait is changed
  
• Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to merging a concealed unit onto a non-concealed unit which would not properly update vision.
  
• Fixed an Out of Sync that was related to losing a fight in an Ancient Wonder that would spawn units during that fight and stayed there for the next one.
  
• Fixed an issue on controller where you could accidentally accept combat results rather than retry the combat with a Combat Take Over active.

Tomes

Astral

• Tome of Amplification
  
  • Unit Enchantment “Frenzied Focus” - Now also grants +1 Range to all base attacks
• Tome of the Archmage
  
  • Combat Spell “Disruption Wave”
    
    • Changed from a Guaranteed Chance to inflict Disrupted to a 120% Base Chance to inflict Disrupted
      
    • Reduced dispelled Buffs (Enemies) and Debuffs (Allies) from All to 2

Chaos

• Tome of Revelry
  
  • Unit Enchantment “Bloodfury Weapons” - Now only gives its damage bonus to Base attacks
• Tome of Evolution
  
  • Race Transformation “Draconic Vitality”
    
    • New Effect: Now grants +5 World Map Regeneration
      
    • Increased the cap on the +3 Hit Points per Hero Level from 5 to 10.
• Tome of Dragons
  
  • Unit Enchantment “Flamer Focus”
    
    • Fire Bomb - Now Ability Damage increases with the Unit Tier.
      
    • Fire Bomb - Increased the damage done to adjacent units from 50% to Full.
      
    • Fire Bomb - Changed from 90% Base chance to inflict Burning & Bleeding to a Guaranteed Chance to inflict Burning & Bleeding.

Materium

• Tome of Transmutation
  
  • Unit “Transmuter”
    
    • Shift Bolts - Replaced with Molten Bolts
      
      • Molten Bolts - Deals 7 Physical Damage and 7 Fire Damage.
        
      • Molten Bolts - Has a 30% Base Chance of inflicting Gilded.
    • Petrify - Replaced with Transmute
      
      • Transmute - Deals 12 Physical Damage and 12 Fire Damage in a 1-hex radius.
        
      • Transmute - Has a Guaranteed Chance of inflicting Sundered Defense
        
      • Transmute - If Successful, grant Bolstered Defense to all friendly units in a 2-hex radius around the caster.
• Tome of Terramancy
  
  • Added New Unit Enchantment “Ley Line Focus”
    
    • Applies to Battle Mages and Support Units
      
    • At the start of the turn this unit’s damage is increased by 30% and they gain +2 Resistance. This buff is removed if the unit moves.
  • Combat Spell “Seismic Shock” - Increased Damage from 25 to 30
    
  • Combat Spell “Crushing Earth” - Increased stacks of inflicted Sundered Defense from 3 to 4
    
  • World Map Spell “Summon Stone Spirit” - Replaced with World Map Spell “Summon Rock Giant”
    
  • World Map Spell “Earth Shatter”
    
    • Changed from targeting Any Province to targeting Provinces with Mountain, Stalagmites and Diggable Earth
      
    • New Effect: Summons a Stone Spirit on destroyed Mountain, Stalagmite or Diggable Earth Province
      
    • No longer deals damage
• Tome of the Crucible
  
  • Unit Enchantment “Meteor Arrows”
    
    • Renamed to Meteor Projectiles.
      
    • Now affects Battle Mages and Support units as well as Ranged and Skirmisher units
  • Combat Spell “Meteor Shower”
    
    • Reduced damage from 15 Fire and 15 Physical to 10 Fire and 10 Physical
      
    • Increased Duration from 3 Turns to 5 Turns.
      
    • Changed from Targetting hexes Adjacent to Enemy Units to Targetting Enemy Units.
      
    • Changed from damaging all Units in a 1-hex radius to only damaging Enemy Units in a 1-hex radius.
      
    • Reduced Casting Cost from 200 Mana/65 Casting Points to 150 Mana/50 Casting Points
• Tome of the Creator
  
  • Unit Enchantment “Eternal Earth”
    
    • Renamed to “Shaper’s Touch”
      
    • No longer grants Undying
      
    • Now grants Elementals and Constructs:
      
      • Natural Regeneration
        
      • +10 Hit Points
        
      • +2 Lightning Resistance
  • Unit “Earth Titan” - Now has Undying.

Nature

• Tome of Nature’s Wrath
  
  • Unit “Horned God”
    
    • Wild Eruption - Increased Range from 4 to 6
      
    • Animate Flora - Changed from a Single Action to a Free Action
• Tome of the Goddess of Nature
  
  • Unit Enchantment “Force of Nature” - Now applies to racial units with the Naga transformation as well
• Tome of the Stormborne
  
  • Unit “Stormbringer”
    
    • Reduced Defense from 4 to 3
      
    • Throw Storm Trident - Reduced Damage from 12 Lightning 12 Physical to 10 Lightning 10 Physical

Units

• Reduced the amount of XP that T4 and T5 units need to level up
  
• Ability “Heavy Charge Strike” - Increased the Damage per hex moved from 20% to 30%.

Unit Passives

• Unit Passive “Frenzy”
  
  • Now gives 2 stacks of Strengthened when used with single shot attacks
    
  • No longer stacks with itself
• Unit Passive “Fiery Rebirth” - Changed from damaging all Units in a 1-hex radius to damaging Enemy Units in a 1-hex radius.
  
• Unit Passive “Reinforced” - Now grants +3 Armor and Resistance against Physical Ranged attacks.
  
• Unit passive “Warded” - Now grants +3 Armor and Resistance against Magic attacks.

Unit Types

• Unit Type “Construct”
  
  • Gained +2 Spirit Resistance
• Unit Type “Ethereal”
  
  • Removed Lightning Weakness
    
  • Gained +4 Spirit Weakness
• Unit Type “Plant”
  
  • Removed Blight Weakness
    
  • Increased Lighting Resistance from 2 to 4
    
  • New Effect: Receive 20% extra healing in combat
• Unit Type “Elemental”
  
  • Removed Poison Immunity
    
  • Removed Disease Immunity
• Unit Type “Undead”
  
  • Removed Bleeding Immunity
    
  • Skeletons, Bone Wyvern, Bone Horror and Bone Dragon have inherent Bleed Immunity

Units

• Unit “Dread Spider Hatchling”
  
  • Increased HP from 55 to 60
    
  • Removed Blight Resistance
• Unit “Vampire Spider Hatchling”
  
  • Increased HP from 50 to 55
    
  • Removed Blight Resistance
• Unit “Hunter Spider”
  
  • Increased HP from 70 to 75
    
  • Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
    
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Web - Changed from applying to all Units in a 2-hex cone to applying to Enemy Units in a 2-hex cone.
• Unit “Ice Spider”
  
  • Increased HP from 70 to 75
    
  • Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
    
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Frozen Web - Changed from applying to all Units in a 2-hex cone to applying to Enemy Units in a 2-hex cone.
• Unit “Dread Spider Matriarch”
  
  • Increased HP from 90 to 95
    
  • Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
    
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Web - Changed from applying to all Units in a 2-hex cone to applying to Enemy Units in a 2-hex cone.
• Unit “Vampire Spider Matriarch”
  
  • Increased HP from 90 to 95
    
  • Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
    
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Barbed Web - Changed from applying to all Units in a 2-hex cone to applying to Enemy Units in a 2-hex cone.
• Unit “Hunter Spider Matriarch”
  
  • Increased HP from 110 to 115
    
  • Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
    
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Web - Changed from applying to all Units in a 2-hex cone to applying to Enemy Units in a 2-hex cone.
• Unit “Ice Spider Matriarch”
  
  • Increased HP from 110 to 115
    
  • Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
    
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Frozen Web - Changed from applying to all Units in a 2-hex cone to applying to Enemy Units in a 2-hex cone.
• Unit “Lesser Magma Spirit”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Lesser Snow Spirit”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Lesser Stone Spirit”
  
  • Removed Fire Resistance
    
  • Increased Blight Resistance from 3 to 6
• Unit “Lesser Storm Spirit”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Lesser Tide Spirit”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Wind Ranger”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Magma Spirit”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Snow Spirit”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Stone Spirit”
  
  • Removed Fire Resistance
    
  • Increased Blight Resistance from 3 to 6
• Unit “Storm Spirit”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Tide Spirit”
  
  • Removed Blight Resistance
    
  • Gained +3 Spirit Resistance
• Unit “Butcher Ogre” - Butcher Cut Rework
  
  • Now deals 25 Physical Damage
    
  • No longer has a chance to Kill the target
    
  • Now has a chance to inflict 3 Bleeding and 3 Sundered Defense when successful
• Unit “Fire Giant” - Changed Movement from Land to Amphibious.
  
• Unit “Stone Giant” - Changed Movement from Land to Amphibious.
  
• Unit “Storm Giant” - Changed Movement from Land to Amphibious.
  
• Unit “Umbral Tyrant” - Tyrant's Retinue now summons a Splitterling until the end of combat
  
• Unit “Bone Wyvern”
  
  • Changed from a Fighter Unit to a Skirmisher Unit
    
  • Now has the Magic Origin Identifier
    
  • New Ability: Poisonous Burst
    
    • 4 Range, 90% Accuracy
      
    • Deals 7 Physical 7 Blight Damage
      
    • 90% Base Chance of inflicting Poisoned
• Unit “Fire Wyvern”
  
  • Changed from a Fighter to a Skirmisher
    
  • New Ability: Burning Burst
    
    • 4 Range, 90% Accuracy
      
    • Deals 8 Physical 8 Fire Damage
      
    • Guaranteed Chance of inflicting Burning
• Unit “Gold Wyvern”
  
  • Changed from a Fighter to a Skirmisher
    
  • New Ability: Distracting Burst
    
    • 4 Range, 90% Accuracy
      
    • Deals 8 Physical 8 Spirit Damage
      
    • 90% Base Chance of inflicting Distracted
• Unit “Obsidian Wyverns”
  
  • Changed from a Fighter to a Skirmisher
    
  • New Ability: Electrified Burst
    
    • 4 Range, 90% Accuracy
      
    • Deals 8 Physical 8 Fire Damage
      
    • Guaranteed Chance of inflicting Electrified
• Unit “Giant Beetle” - Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
  
• Unit “Death Beetle” - Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement
  
• Unit “Goretusk Matriarch” - Increased Movement Speed from Normal to Fast Movement

Battlemage Updates
Battlemage Units now receive Improved Versions of their Secondary Abilities as they Rank Up. This is something we’re open to doing this for select other Units if needed, but only Units with a Secondary Ability that doesn’t scale well.

• Unit “Awakener” - Added Champion Exposing Light
  
  • Inflict +1 Stack of Sundered Resistance and Sundered Defense
• Unit “Spellbreaker” - Added Champion Star Purge
  
  • Increases Cosmic Damage from 18 to 27 Damage
• Unit “Spell Weaver” - Added Champion Dissonant Weave
  
  • Increases Rift Damage from from 16 to 20
    
  • Inflict +1 Stack of Dissonance
• Unit “Warlock” - Added Champion Sundering Curse
  
  • Inflict +1 Stack of Sundered Defense, Sundered Resistance and Weakened.
• Unit “Seal Bearer (Harmony)” - Added Champion Seal of Resonance
  
  • Increases additional Blight Damage from 4 to 6
• Unit “Seal Bearer (Righteousness)” - Added Champion Seal of Transference
  
  • Increases additional Temporary Hit Points from 5 to 8
• Unit “Seal Bearer (Strife)” - Added Champion Seal of Fire
  
  • Increases additional Fire Damage from 10 to 15
    
  • Increases additional On Death Fire Damage from 20 to 30
• Unit “Autumn Fairy” - Added Champion Blinding Gale
  
  • Increases Lightning Damage from 24 to 30
    
  • Increases base chance to inflict Blinded from 60% to 90%
• Unit “Winter Fairy” - Added Champion Hindering Blizzard
  
  • Gains 60% base chance to inflict Frozen
• Unit “Evoker” - Added Champion Electrifying Arc
  
  • Jumps to an additional 2 targets within 3 hexes
• Unit “Pyromancer” - Added Champion Flamestrike
  
  • Increases Fire Damage from 16 to 20
    
  • Increases base chance to inflict Burning from 90% to 120%
• Unit “White Witch” - Added Champion Freezing Blast
  
  • Increases Frost Damage from 14 to 20
    
  • Increases base chance to inflict Frozen from 90% to 120%
• Unit “Accursed Trickster’ - Added Champion Tricky Escape
  
  • Caster gains Astral Refuge for 1 Turn
• Unit “Banshee” - Added Champion Wail of the Banshee
  
  • Increases Frost Damage from 10 to 16
    
  • Increases base chance to Reduce Morale and inflict Weakened from 90% to 120%
• Unit “Chaos Eater” - Added Champion Consume Chaos
  
  • Enters Defense Mode after using Consume Chaos
    
  • Reduces the Cooldown from 1 to 0
• Unit “Entwined Scourge”
  
  • Entwine - Increased base chance to inflict from 90% to 120%
    
  • Added Champion Sap Strength - Increases the base chance to apply Weakened from 90% to 120%
• Unit “Magma Spirit” - Added Champion Incinerate
  
  • Increases Fire Damage from 20 to 27
    
  • Changes chance to inflict Burning from 90% to Guaranteed
• Unit “Swamp Troll” - Added Champion Plague Spores
  
  • Increases Blight Damage from 24 to 34
    
  • Increases base chance to inflict Diseased from 90% to 120%
• Unit “Thunderbird” - Added Champion Thunderclap
  
  • Increases radius from 1 to 2 hexes
• Unit “Watcher” - Added Champion Psychic Gaze
  
  • Increases the chance to inflict Stunned from 60% to 90%
    
  • Inflicts +1 Stack of Marked
• Unit “Lightbringer”
  
  • Convert - Now enters Defense Mode after use
    
  • Added Champion Convert
    
    • Increases the Range from from 3 to 4
      
    • Reduces Cooldown from 4 to 3
• Unit “Transmuter” - Added Champion Transmute
  
  • Gain 60% chance to inflict Gilded
• Unit “Direcaster” - Added Champion Hysteria Storm
  
  • Increases base chance to Teleport Target Unit and inflict Insanity from 60% to 90%

World Map

• Increased the time it takes to for Infestations to respawn patrolling stacks from 3 turns to 6 turns
  
• Slightly increased the amount of Desolate Theme on a default map.
  
• Changed Magic Material distribution slightly:
  
  • Ore magic materials can now appear in desolate
    
  • Liquid magic materials no longer appear in temperate, sub-tropical and desert, but can appear in underground ice caves.
• Updated the Forming Realm and Warping Wilds Realm traits to use spells instead of trigger effects.

Victory Conditions
Adjusted Magic Victory Balance

• Bind Ancient Wonder - Reduced Knowledge Cost from 4000 to 1500
  
• Age of {Affinity} - Reduced Knowledge Cost from 12000 to 3000
  
• Wonders Required - Reduced % from 40 to 33
  
• Min Wonders Required - Reduced to 1

Terraforming

• Added a new sub-category in General concepts in the Encyclopedia: Terrain
  
  • Added a concept for Terraforming, displaying the general rules for what terraforming does, what can be terraformed and what can’t be terraformed.
    
  • Added a concept for Province Feature, which explains what a Province Feature is and what it influences.
    
  • Added a concept for all Province Features that are in the base game.
• All Structures & Spells that have Terraforming effects, now display which Province Features they will add, and which ones they will remove.
  
• All Earthshape spells:
  
  • Now at least generate 1 hex of the overlays they say they will add
    
  • Are no longer blocked by their own clime or if any hex of water is present (despite there being land available to be terraformed).
• All Primal subculture Temple structures:
  
  • Now at least generate 1 hex of the overlays they say they will add.
• Marching Winter, Flash Freeze, Pyroclastic Eruption, Desecrate Land, Abyssal Flames and Restore the Land:
  
  • Now at least generate 1 hex of the overlays they say they will add.

---

Fixes

AI

• Fixed an issue where the vassal armies would try to get on the city after a siege while the city is now owned by the overlord
  
• Fixed an issue where the City Automation system didn’t understand uninhabitable provinces
  
• Fixed an issue where the AI could have a Personality that clashes with its Society Traits
  
• Fixed an issue where the AI could start a combat with armies inside a Siege while the City was not at Besieged
  
• Fixed an issue where Free Cities would take over stacks underneath Diggable Earth

Combat AI

• Fixed an issue where the Combat AI could not use Resurrection spells.
  
• Fixed an issue where Combat AI would sometimes choose the least favorable position for summoning a unit.

Combat

• Fixed inconsistencies in army power between different screens and systems

Combat Maps

• Fixed an issue where the Forest Combat Map did not properly randomize the sides and deployment zones being used, instead of always having the same deployment.
  
• Made the Presence of Growth, Presence of Gales and Presence of Sorrow effects from the Scourge Units non-stacking

Events

• Fixed several quests that were unable to spawn due to a change in Unit Compositions
  
• Fixed an issue where a Quest wasn’t able to create an Infestation on a different map layer than the quest giver.

Free City

• Free Cities now share magic materials from the Transmutation Circle with their owner

Happenings

• Fixed various things about Autumn Storm:
  
  • The “Wet until end of combat” effect is now correctly applied.
    
  • The Damage and Stun to all Wet units now correctly applies to all units instead of just 1.
    
  • The delayed effect now correctly takes place 5 turns later instead of 4.
    
  • The double % in the tooltip for inflicting stunned is now gone.
• Call Arctic Blizzards now has the correct Combat Property icon.
  
• Call Thunder Storm now correctly displays the turn duration in its combat property tooltip.
  
• Fixed an issue in the Reaper Intrigue Happening in which a Hero gained the wrong equipment and thus did not get a first name
  
• Fixed an issue with the ToS not scaling up when it starts in a later game phase.

Hero Skills

• Fixed an issue where the Chaos Empowerment Hero Skill did not work correctly on non-repeating weapons

Interface

• Fixed a crash that could occur in the cheat screen
  
• Fixed an issue regarding Copy-Pasting text into the Race Biography
  
• Fixed some localization text overflow issues
  
• Fixed an issue where the close button on the quest overview screen would be overlapped by ruler portraits when playing on largest interface scale
  
• Fixed an issue where the scrolling magic background in the headers of panels would have a tear in them
  
• Fixed an issue where the social buttons would cause an anti-virus popup on some systems.
  
• Fixed an issue where the “Magic Material Acquired” notification did not always appear
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when hovering over Draft in the City Overview
  
• Fixed an issue where selected unit abilities screen would not refresh when abilities change (Lost Tome, Ley Lines).
  
• Fixed an issue where the text description that appeared when hovering over a resource on the map would occasionally not be aligned properly.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Combat Retry button was enabled in the combat results of a battle where the player disabled all their stacks

Text & Descriptions

• High Stability gain from Good Morale now shows under Global rather than Domain
  
• Enthrall Population now correctly mentions that if used on a vassal's city, you lose relations with them
  
• Fixed the temporary Condemned Effect from Condemn Army showing as Positive
  
• Added Special Improvements Tag to Wyvern Earie and Alchemist lab so they show in the ToW
  
• Fixed string insert issues in the Temple of the Pyre
  
• Fixed an text issue where the Sword and Throwing Daggers Hero Equipment mentioned a mount that is not included
  
• Fixed an text issue where Critical Skirmisher did not mention the max stack count
  
• Fixed the modifier name string for Arcane Skirmisher
  
• Fixed the description of Willbreaker property to be clearer by using "within 3 hexes"
  
• Fixed an text issue where the allegiance benefit from Faithful Whispers was cut off
  
• Fixed the Reaver Overseer Subdue ability being marked as Support instead of Debuff

Item Forge

• Fixes to a lot of different issues in the item forge, including Dragon Claws not having certain infusions or the War Claw finding the wrong Life Steal and +1 Retaliation infusions.
  
• Armored Dragon Claws can now be given the Warded, Reinforced and Defensive Masters infusions in the item forge.

Pantheon

• Fixed an issue where the Ashen War Dragons would pick the wrong Signature Skills as they level up (this will only affect newly started games unfortunately)
  
• Fixed an issue where the “Ascended Warlord” Skill did not heal the Hero upon killing an enemy unit.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Necromancer's Staff Pantheon Hero Equipment was getting the wrong ability from its upgrade.

Spells

• Fixed an issue where the Infestations spawned from Umbral Incursion and Incite Revolt placed dormant Infestations. They will now be active and immediately start patrolling and expanding.

Tomes

• Fixed an issue where Summon Astral Reflection did not have a visual link from the clone to the original unit.
  
• Fixed an issue with the City Structure “Throne of Insidious Whispers” not moving when Transferring Throne City
  
• Fixed an issue with Cleansing Rain not properly giving Grace to units that don’t have something to dispel and doesn’t give grace to enemies.

Units

• Constricter’s “Pull” can no longer pull units that have the ‘cannot be displaced’ passive.
  
• Warbreed “Power Cleave” no longer incorrectly ignores Charge Resistance
  
• Fixed missing numbers from the Primal Fury’s Mammoths and Elephants as well as the Primal Spider Animist’s summon ability

World Map

• Fixed an issue where aggressive infestation attacks would lead to the guards to join the battle
  
• Fixed an issue where Philosopher Soldiers triggered when a unit is summoned or recruited with an increased starting rank.
  
• Fixed an issue where Water movement did not cost the correct amount of move points
  
• Fixed an issue where the Primal Crow Terraforming did not correctly force grasslands to certain terrains

[Zoggy]

Is this a typo in patch notes- is lighting damage not fire.
Unit “Obsidian Wyverns”
Changed from a Fighter to a Skirmisher
New Ability: Electrified Burst
4 Range, 90% Accuracy
Deals 8 Physical 8 Fire Damage
Guaranteed Chance of inflicting Electrified

[Aten]

Awesome to read, can I just ask, can we please get Vassal Cities colour shaded to match their owner on the world map and on the mini map to help us clearly see who owns who, instead of the brown for all. Please please (:

[SamogitianPaladin]

Very welcome changes... especially in real generation, feudal culture and ... of course - siege. I hated when enemy was walking forth and back from their city after I initiated the siege. However, I am little bit concern about one thing - Monarchy and Aristocracy. Ignoring units, buildings and spells, in Monarchy for Ruler's army units have no Upkeep, +1DEF/RES, + 10 % DMG, + 10 Morale. In Aristocracy, based on Renown level, hero's army gets -10% upkeep, +5 HP regeneration + "For the Liege" ( + 10HP and 5 Morale). In early game that does not sound a lot, but later, let's say around turn 40, you might have 3/4 heroes with 2-3 renown level, that's - 30% upkeep, +3 DEF/RES, + 10% DMG, + 30 Morale, + 30 HP and again 3 x 5 = 15 Morale and that's for each hero... that's a lot, very OP. Did I understand correctly?

[OneoftheLost]

Oof. Way to make mana channelers completely pointless.

"You can now control which Forms appear on a Realm during Realm Creation. This affects Rulers, Free Cities, Infestations and Inhabitants
You can now control which Cultures are allowed to be used by Players and Free Cities."

This however is pretty amazing. Less birds and moles, more interesting races.

[xKillerKellerx]

-sigh- alas, there is still NO fix for my Pantheon leaders names changing on me every time I load into the game

[Fenris]

Generally looks great. I welcome the addition of the Terraforming combinations and Province Features to the in-game encyclopedia, the battlemage updates, underground updates, and Shaper's Touch.

I really hope that the AI is able to operate in the underground a lot better now.

Still can't help but feel that Longbowmen and Liege Guard should be switched between the two Feudal subcultures, though. Liege Guard and a slightly higher subculture focus on cavalry makes a lot more sense to me under Monarchy with its focus on the Ruler than Aristocracy.

[TriumphJordi]

I've just pushed a quick hotfix to the Ogre_Beta. This fixes the Siege Refresh crash some players were having when loading in older saves.

[Badguy101]

First of all, this looks fantastic! Thanks so much for all the hard work on the game, Triumph! I can't wait to try it out.

Originally posted by Fenris:

Still can't help but feel that Longbowmen and Liege Guard should be switched between the two Feudal subcultures, though. Liege Guard and a slightly higher subculture focus on cavalry makes a lot more sense to me under Monarchy with its focus on the Ruler than Aristocracy.

Second, I agree with this. One is about the monarch, but doesn't have the Liege Guard. It's just odd.

[Inocybe]

I disagree, longbowmen should fight for the king ! T4 knight are the king's guard. The liege guard is feudal lord retinue.

[Akkadian]

""Society Traits
Order Trait “Devotees of Good”
No longer grants +1 Rank to units at Pure Good alignment
Now grant units +2 XP per turn while at Pure Good alignment.
Chaos Trait “Chosen Destroyers”
Now grants +40 Gold, Mana and Knowledge income for every 3 population the razed city had, with a minimum of 1.
Astral Trait “Mana Addicts”
No longer grants +1 Rank to Battle Mage and Support Units
Now grants +10 Stability from Mana Nodes
Astral Trait “Mana Channelers”
No longer grants +1 rank to Magic Origin units
Now grants +20% XP gain for Magic Origin units
Materium Trait “Artifact Hoarders”
Renamed to Equipment Hoarders
Artefact Hoard has been renamed to Equipment Hoard
Shadow Trait “Scions of Evil”
No longer grants +1 Rank to units at Pure Evil Alignment
Now grants 20% discount on Gold and Draft cost of units while at Pure Evil Alignment""

Most of the changes in these patch notes are awesome and very welcome.

However, why nerf society traits that added ranks? we don't care about 20% gold discount or 10 stability from mana nodes.

Chosen destroyers could use the buff, but most of the other traits are fun the way they are, these changes are literally taking the fun out of them and make them unimpactful.

Hope the team will review those changes and reconsider.

[Astronimo]

It was a general pass on nerfing free ranks.
To be fair, they wanted to remove all of them in Tiger patch, but did only partially.

[Fenris]

I wonder, would it be possible to update either the Terraforming or Province Feature encyclopedia entries to list the compatible and incompatible combinations of terrain types? It would be nice to have as a reference in one place instead of muddling through comparing different spells and traits.

[Evil4Zerggin]

Any chance the new Subterranean Society trait would get:

* Underground start?
* No stability penalty for lava provinces?

Or is it intended to be used with Underground Adaptation despite the redundant Excavation unlock?

[Evil4Zerggin]

Although, Subterranean Society may need to be nerfed a bit in other ways -- at the moment, it seems to *guarantee* an extra resource node on every excavation, which seems a little excessive. If I'm reading the script right, we're currently looking at a 10% chance of a Gold Vein, 27% chance of a Mana Node, and 63% chance of an Iron Deposit. Of course I would prefer one of the first two, but even an Iron Deposit is not bad at all!

[GiantFlyingHog]

Originally posted by SamogitianPaladin:

Very welcome changes... especially in real generation, feudal culture and ... of course - siege. I hated when enemy was walking forth and back from their city after I initiated the siege. However, I am little bit concern about one thing - Monarchy and Aristocracy. Ignoring units, buildings and spells, in Monarchy for Ruler's army units have no Upkeep, +1DEF/RES, + 10 % DMG, + 10 Morale. In Aristocracy, based on Renown level, hero's army gets -10% upkeep, +5 HP regeneration + "For the Liege" ( + 10HP and 5 Morale). In early game that does not sound a lot, but later, let's say around turn 40, you might have 3/4 heroes with 2-3 renown level, that's - 30% upkeep, +3 DEF/RES, + 10% DMG, + 30 Morale, + 30 HP and again 3 x 5 = 15 Morale and that's for each hero... that's a lot, very OP. Did I understand correctly?

The Monarchy bonuses don't increase with renown level as far as I can tell