SpellForce 3 Reforced - Patch #2 (Epic Signin optional, Bugfixes and Balancing Updates)

[MegalomaniacNG]

We have heard your concerns about our use of the Epic Online Services (EOS). While the use of Epic's services has always been entirely optional in SF3, we have decided to make it even more optional from now on.
By default, EOS will now be entirely disabled in the game. You can now opt into these via the options menu, by checking Options -> General -> Enable Epic Online Services.
Using the EOS will allow you to send invites to and receive invites from players playing the EGS version of SF3. Other game features are not affected.


Bugfixes:

- Fixed a possible crash when trying to start a co-op campaign with three players
- Fixed text input not working correctly for a lot of non-latin character sets
- Fixed post-match statistics not taking starting gold into account
- Fixed retreat mode being applied to uncompleted buildings
- Farlorn's Hope: Fixed an issue that could cause the AI to remain inactive at the start of the RTS
- Unknown Island: Fixed unobtainable loot.
- Aonir's Blade / Mulandir: Items "Lich's Demise" and "Dwarven Token" are now only purchasable once.
- Mulandir: Fixed some generic NPCs being visible.
- Fixed missing Domination crown sectors on a few skirmish maps
- Fixed Progress window not showing available faction technologies in Scenario: Old-Haalayash

Miscellaneous changes:
- Added a config option to disable use of Windows' multimedia timers, as they are causing crashes for some users.
If the game crashes for you during startup while displaying the initial logo screen, please try opening Documents\My Games\SpellForce 3\config_user.txt, looking for the value of |c4|UseBusySleep and setting it to true. This may slightly reduce performance, but should allow the game to run on your system.

Balancing changes:
We hear your feedback on gameplay and are looking forward to trying out a lot of changes that make the game more balanced and fun!
Below is a small list of changes aimed to address some of the most pressing issues, but we are already looking at various adjustments for all factions internally.
Stay tuned for more!

RTS Buildings
- Increased build time of "Fortified Outpost" and "Border Fortress" from 20s to 30s

Dark Elves
- (Missing from last Patch Notes) Hall of Pain: Adjusted cost from 12 Wood 8 Stone to 15 Wood 5 Stone. This is an experimental change that we want to try out!

RTS Units
All
- Temporarily adjusted the vision range of all scouting units to be the same in order to fix an issue with their vision. We will investigate the vision bug occuring and re-adjust the vision accordingly!

Skirmish Heroes
Humans
- Wulfguard Commander: "Beacon Of Immortality" now only affects units that are affected by her auras (maximum of 10)
- Wulfguard Commander: "Repleneshing Strikes" new healing progression: Lv1: 30 on Commander; Lv2: 30 on Commander, 30 on Allies. Lv3: 60 on Caster, 60 on Allies. No longer scales with power.
- Wulfguard Commander: "Shadow Strike" range reduced from 150 to 120
- Wulfguard Commander: "Shadow Strike" Lv2 impair duration reduced from 10s to 5s, impair intensity reduced from 30% to 20%

Elves
- Archdruid: "Crush Spirits": Increased channeling cost from 1 to 3
- Archdruid: "Crush Spirits": Reduced intensity of Weakness, Enfeebled and Impair from 50% to 40%
- Archdruid: "Crush Spirits": Now single-target effect
- Archdruid: "Obliterate": Both levels now have a cooldown of 15s (From 20 and 10)
- Archdruid: "Treant's Grasp", "Elen's Fire": Reduced area of effect radius from 120 to 100
- Archdruid: "Treant's Grasp", "Elen's Fire": All levels now have a duration of 15s (From 20 and 10)
- Archdruid: "Treant's Grasp", "Elen's Fire": All levels now have a cooldown of 15s (From 10)

[vrid]

"Network request failed(unknown error)" still persist - I can play only solo campaign.

[Fang]

Kindly try to make it so Spellforce 3 - Reforced is prioritized over the Versus edition in terms of the overlay.

Don't mind them both running for whatever reason, but its current implementation is far from ideal and hampers Steam integration.

[φιλα_δελφία]

Dear Devs!

You listened to the EOS concerns! THX! - Could you please make it, so the standalone Versions can be launched from the Main Game - like intended - as this is not possible on the GOG Version as of yet.

All the best!

phil

[Legowarrior]

Dear Devs,
I feel like you have made a mistake here. Since I own Fallen God on Epic and Soul Harvest/Reforced on Steam, I will probably see far fewer games available to me on MP when I want to play as the Trolls on MP. All because a minority of players made an absolute overblown cry about using a free to use service that allows cross play between Epic, Steam and GoG players.

I am fearful that the end result, because of these elitist spreaders of false hoods is that we'll see the community silo'd between those on Steam and those on Epic, instead of what we had originally, the ability to play with each other, regardless of whether the game was purchased on Steam or Epic.

There will be a few, like myself, that will jump through the extra hoops and turn on EOS on our steam versions, because excluding people is not cool, but many will not know how, or won't bother with the process (see Tyranny of the Default).

I hope I am wrong and that people will actively turn on EOS and get the full experience.

[NeoX]

Thank you for these changes. I know a lot of people who only allow steam games to be steam depending and avoid games that need 3rd party api's where they don't agree with the EULA there or dislike the data protection policy that is mostly lacking there. Thank you so much! This gives green light to so many player who now will switch the game from the wishlist, to their purchases, thank you!

[Legowarrior]

Originally posted by NeoX:

Thank you for these changes. I know a lot of people who only allow steam games to be steam depending and avoid games that need 3rd party api's where they don't agree with the EULA there or dislike the data protection policy that is mostly lacking there. Thank you so much! This gives green light to so many player who now will switch the game from the wishlist, to their purchases, thank you!

Since there are virtually no differences between the EULA from Steam and Epic, I'm not sure why anyone would be put off by allowing a free service connect to people across different stores.

[Lametta]

Originally posted by Legowarrior:

Originally posted by NeoX:

Thank you for these changes. I know a lot of people who only allow steam games to be steam depending and avoid games that need 3rd party api's where they don't agree with the EULA there or dislike the data protection policy that is mostly lacking there. Thank you so much! This gives green light to so many player who now will switch the game from the wishlist, to their purchases, thank you!

Since there are virtually no differences between the EULA from Steam and Epic, I'm not sure why anyone would be put off by allowing a free service connect to people across different stores.

because epic is shady. epic did at some point access your steamfriends list and more without your or steams knowledge etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/b15k8g/epic_games_launcher_appears_to_collect_your_steam/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

god knows what else they d collect if you somehow give them access. give a finger and they ll take your hand.

[Legowarrior]

Originally posted by Lametta:

Originally posted by Legowarrior:

Since there are virtually no differences between the EULA from Steam and Epic, I'm not sure why anyone would be put off by allowing a free service connect to people across different stores.

because epic is shady. epic did at some point access your steamfriends list and more without your or steams knowledge etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/b15k8g/epic_games_launcher_appears_to_collect_your_steam/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

god knows what else they d collect if you somehow give them access. give a finger and they ll take your hand.

I read the Reddit post, but as with all things on Reddit, you should read the origin Ars Technica Article it's based on. Reddit users like to sensationalize titles for those sweet sweet sweet internet points.

Yeah, they made a copy of your steam friends list.... And then asked your permission to use it.

And then they walked it back.

Here is more details on it.
https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/5/18295833/epic-games-store-controversy-explained

"The situation is well documented at Ars Technica, which narrows in on a Reddit thread titled “Epic Games Store, Spyware, Tracking, and You!” Some point out that the store client creates a file named “tracking.js.” But, says Epic’s vice president of engineering Daniel Vogel, that data is simply used to track the revenue-sharing that pays game asset and content creators, a feature that’s been part of the Unreal Engine suite for years."

"More concerning to some, however, is the fact that the Epic Games Store client makes a local copy of Steam files without first asking the user’s permission. Sweeney himself stepped into the Reddit thread to say that’s not OK, even if that data is only shared with Epic when users opt in."

But, they have been around for over 2 years so far, considering how quickly Reddit goes after them, you think they would have uncovered something new, something else to be worried about. And so far, nothing, except complaints about exclusives and the lack of features on their store.

In the mean time, Tim did some good in the world back in 2019. Might sure if he is still doing it today.

https://www.thegamer.com/fortnite-creator-epic-founder-time-sweeney-spending-millions-buying-up-protecting-forests/

[Lametta]

they didnt ask permission afterall. tim sweeny is 1 person and not the whole company. doesnt matter to me if he spends millions for charity. only because he spends money on charity doesnt mean he wont do anything wrong. anyhow this doesnt only count for epic anyways. platforms like whatsapp instagram etc. getting alot of slack nowadays because they update their user agreement with shady stuff. so i guess many people feel its better to be cautious. its not the first time in gaming anyhow lets just think back at redshell that got put inside of games like injustice 2 and some others without the user being informed. i dont hate epic nor any other company but if someone does something shady i try to watch out the next time they release something.

[Legowarrior]

Originally posted by Lametta:

they didnt ask permission afterall. tim sweeny is 1 person and not the whole company. doesnt matter to me if he spends millions for charity. only because he spends money on charity doesnt mean he wont do anything wrong. anyhow this doesnt only count for epic anyways. platforms like whatsapp instagram etc. getting alot of slack nowadays because they update their user agreement with shady stuff. so i guess many people feel its better to be cautious. its not the first time in gaming anyhow lets just think back at redshell that got put inside of games like injustice 2 and some others without the user being informed. i dont hate epic nor any other company but if someone does something shady i try to watch out the next time they release something.

If you read the article, they did ask people to opt in before sending the data.

https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-steam-data-reddit/

"According to Vogel, the launcher does make an encrypted copy of your localconfig.vdf file from Steam, but only sends it to Epic if you opt to import your Steam friends list via the "add friend" menu in the Epic app, and then only sends hashed IDs of your friends."

Neither Polygon, Ars Technica, PCGamer or anyone note worthy disputes this.

So, yeah, bad move on them copying the data, but if you follow the actual news and evidence, you see that the information copied stayed on your local machine until you opted in.

[Troboba]

Thank you for disabling EOS by default. I will buy the game soon :)

[NeoX]

Originally posted by Troboba:

Thank you for disabling EOS by default. I will buy the game soon :)

+1

just in my friends list 6 people did buy the game when the news did spread.

[erich]

As of 12/15/21, the account creation on the steam version of SpellForce 3: Reforced fails to work. No confirmation email is sent and further attempts at logging in are not successful. In short, the account creation does not work.

[Mandellorian]

Originally posted by Legowarrior:

Dear Devs,
I feel like you have made a mistake here. Since I own Fallen God on Epic and Soul Harvest/Reforced on Steam, I will probably see far fewer games available to me on MP when I want to play as the Trolls on MP. All because a minority of players made an absolute overblown cry about using a free to use service that allows cross play between Epic, Steam and GoG players.

I am fearful that the end result, because of these elitist spreaders of false hoods is that we'll see the community silo'd between those on Steam and those on Epic, instead of what we had originally, the ability to play with each other, regardless of whether the game was purchased on Steam or Epic.

There will be a few, like myself, that will jump through the extra hoops and turn on EOS on our steam versions, because excluding people is not cool, but many will not know how, or won't bother with the process (see Tyranny of the Default).

I hope I am wrong and that people will actively turn on EOS and get the full experience.

They haven`t made a mistake, they have inconvenienced you but they are protecting themselves from the LAW. Multiple countries have quite strict laws on data protection that EOS frankly doesn`t obey and worse it was introduced without notification and ACTIVE acceptance into games..which is a huge legal problem for the companies using the software. Installing software that can track identifiable data without clear and active permission from the user...that is an extremely quick way to bankrupt a studio. Epic have an extremely bad track record when it comes to data protection and GPDR compliance.

[F2F01]

Originally posted by Fang:

Kindly try to make it so Spellforce 3 - Reforced is prioritized over the Versus edition in terms of the overlay.

Don't mind them both running for whatever reason, but its current implementation is far from ideal and hampers Steam integration.

I would like to second this.