• Multicast Panel: Toggle added to hide/show invalid targets for the current spell.
• Multicast Panel: Select All toggle added. Can be combined with the hide invalid option to quickly select all valid targets.
• Characters: Item descriptions now shown when giving items to characters.
• World Map: The color used for the 'territory' overlay on the world map can now be changed for each faction by right-clicking in the territory (when the mode is active) or on the faction card in the diplomacy screen.
• World Map: Automatic color shifting of faction 'territory' overlay color now happens during turn processing. If a faction is found to have a very similar color to an adjacent faction, the game will shift the color to avoid the clash. It will try to select a similar color and when deciding which faction to re-color it will prioritize keeping the color of the player faction and (secondarily) major non-player factions. The auto-recolor behavior can be disabled from the Game Settings.
• World Map: New army order action to have an army sleep this turn only (ie 'End Turn'). Especially useful when combined with the new cycle setting.
• World Map: You can now hold shift when the 'Next Turn' button is in prompt mode (cycling or other prompts), to skip directly to 'Next Turn'. This does not allow skipping prompts that must be handled (like some events).
• World Map: New main setting added which allows cycling ready armies (non-exhausted and non-sleeping) using the 'Next Turn' button.
• New Spell: Penumbral Torrent (Shadow/Water). Acts a damage or debuff spell depending on the traits of the target unit (debuff against Light/Dark units, damage against others)
• New Unit Weapons: Footman's Pick, Cavalry Pick, Spiked Club. The world generator logic for creating culture-specific unit types has been extended to include these new weapons as potential assignments.
• World Generator: Increased the variety of place and/or character names which can be generated for some cultures.
• Changed a number of spells which had permanent duration (despite being cheap and low-level) to be more in line with other similar spells.
• Fixed a bug where casting some spells multiple times on the same unit resulted in stacking buffs and/or weird behavior

[ 2023-03-17 17:12:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update took longer than I expected or wanted, but now it's finally here. I had originally intended for the next update to be a upgrade of the Unity engine version and some pending graphical improvements. However, due to the delay in bringing you this update, I want to put out at least one, maybe two, smaller updates on the heels of this one, before doing anything with even a small risk of delay. There is a decent backlog of QoL improvements and misc. requests that I will want to make sure are done in the not too distant future. I realize the updates have been sparse these last months, but there are things happening that should help me pick up the pace a little. I don't want to over-promise, but hopefully the next few weeks will feature game updates that show what I'm talking about. If things pan out as I hope they will, it should increase my development bandwidth a fair bit. Either way, I will keep you all informed on the forums.

• Overhauled character aging mechanics, allowing characters to die from old age and be affected by random events that force them to rest for a number of turns as they age.
• Added three game settings that allow players to control character aging: character life span, character age impact, and character age variation. These settings can be changed at the start of the game.
• Existing games will have the new character aging mechanics disabled, but for new games, the default settings are longer life spans, low impact, and normal variability.
• Adjusted recruitment costs of characters to account for their age, with older characters receiving a low to moderate discount on their base cost.
• Increased the chances of older characters starting with additional levels. Note that this makes them more expensive to recruit.
• Added a detailed battle log for attacks that provides in-depth information on stats and calculations concerning to-hit chance, to-wound, crit, fend, dodge, resistance, armor, armor penetration, secondary damage types, and more. It also tracks individual unit members for hit, wounded, and killed status.
• Access the detailed battle log information via the right-click context menu on a unit in the battle window.
• Hopebringer (Celestial spell, level 3): targets a non-Civic character, giving them the Influential trait, and treats them as a Civic class type in addition to their existing types.
• Lesser Longevity (Life spell, level 3): increases the expected lifespan of a non-Undead, non-Celestial, non-Demonic, non-Vampiric, non-Immortal Follower. The spell will have a reduced or no effect if the character already has a long expected lifespan.
• Greater Longevity (Life spell, level 7): greatly increases the expected lifespan of a non-Undead, non-Celestial, non-Demonic, non-Vampiric, non-Immortal Follower. The spell will have a reduced or no effect if the character already has a very long expected lifespan.
• Scion of Shadow (Shadow spell, level 4): the target character gains the Guileful and Stealthy traits, and Guileful characters are treated as having the Civic class type in addition to their existing class types. If only one trait can be gained due to existing traits or class type, the character is still a valid target and will gain the single trait. Also added a new button to set the dominant deity of a plane in the Mythos Editor.
• Added "Grant Character Trait: Strong" and "Remove Character Trait: Sickly" as possible favor rewards for the Strength domain when being granted Divine Boons.
• Added validation checks to ensure that a plane is selected before adding a new trait, and that at least one deity is assigned to a plane before setting the dominant deity.
• Display the currently ongoing construction project in the City Window.
• Implemented validation checks to ensure that at least one deity is assigned to a plane before setting the dominant deity.
• Added a display for the ongoing construction project in the City Window.
• Added the ability to cancel the ongoing construction project directly from the City Window.
• Added a display for free mana available for unit upkeep in the wizard info window. This shows the amount of free mana available for unit upkeep, as well as the amount of free mana currently being used for upkeep.
• Stoneskin and Diamondskin spells can no longer be cast on units with the "Metal" tag, in addition to the existing constraints of the "Elemental", "Spectral", and "Earth" tags.
• Iron Skin spell can no longer be cast on units with the "Metal" tag, in addition to the existing constraints of the "Elemental", "Spectral", "Air", and "Earth" tags.
• Implemented a new game setting that allows players to specify the number of rounds resolved in legacy battle resolution per step. This setting can be modified via the settings dialog, accessed via the in-game main menu.
• Added Siege Mechanics to the Encyclopedia window under the Mechanics group, providing a breakdown of the game mechanics involved in Siege resolution.
• Added Unit Mechanics to the Encyclopedia window under the Mechanics group, providing a breakdown of unit stats and their impact on gameplay.
• Added a check to the loading process to address an issue where starting Lore levels with bonuses were not being properly applied during game loading for older versions of the game.
• Improved handling of movement costs for armies with units possessing shore-only abilities.
• Building names now display " (under construction)" when appropriate in the Building List View.
• Grid-based battles are now enabled by default when installing the game. An update soon will probably feature a somewhat annoying prompt to switch to grid-based battles for existing players, as it was unintentionally made the non-default options for a while, and many players thus never discovered it.
• Fixed numerous (calculation-related) battle resolution bugs and issues.
• Fixed a bug in the Military Window that caused an incorrect tooltip to be displayed when the player attempted to recruit a unit that was not recruitable at the currently selected site. The tooltip now correctly displays the reason why the unit cannot be recruited, and also informs the player how many other sites have the unit available for recruitment.
• Fixed a bug that occurred when using Add Planar Trait in the Mythos Editor.
• Fixed a bug where removing a Deity in the Mythos Editor would not properly remove it from all internal data structures, which could potentially cause data corruption.
• Fixed a bug where army movement was incorrectly blocked when passing a fortress.
• Fixed a bug in the Blood Portal spell where the ownership of the new follower summoned by the spell was not set correctly.
• Fixed a bug where wizard template customization/cloning could result in a crash.

[ 2023-03-04 18:50:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

A somewhat small update this time, as I took some time off after the rather grueling effort of fixing a very nasty save game bug in the previous update. But still a few very requested features/tweaks that I'm happy to finally have had the time to do.

• Wizards with starting Lore levels are now able to gain 10 additional levels in these Lores, making it no longer a penalty in some regards. You still gain the benefits from the higher starting level, e.g. research unlocks.
• You can now change the Unit Icon for Custom Unit types from the Military Window unit list.
• You can now rename Custom unit types from the Military Window unit list.
• Encyclopedia now has a section with information on Equipment Trait mechanics.
• Character information display now includes item-derived bonuses to combat, death avoidance, injury avoidance and magic resistance. These are summed with tooltips breaking the sources.
• New Researchable Spell: Sharpen Blades. Artifice Mastery based with a few other requirements. +1 Armor Penetration and Damage to target unit melee attacks that originate from weapon equipment (not natural attacks, breath weapons, ranged weapons, etc).
• New Researchable Spell: Harden Armor. Artifice Mastery based with a few other requirements. +2 Armor. Requires the unit to have an armor type equipment.
• Wizard Template cloning now works. In the previous patch notes I had mixed up template editing and cloning, and mentioned the wrong one. Both are now possible.
• Fixed a crash bug.
• Fixed a couple of text update display bugs, where selection changes would not be reflected in a linked context display panel.

[ 2022-10-09 18:01:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Game settings now have a panel for modifying mechanics in the same manner as mods can do. This includes constants related to mana nodes, road building, character hire pool and more.
• Mods can still modify mechanics. The order of priority is 'Game Settings' > 'Mods' (by load order) > 'Built-in Defaults'.
• Export button available during setting to export currently overridden mechanics to a text file, which can then be used in a mod.
• Additional options for custom units, such as lances for cavalry (not taking up a weapon slot), holy warriors, fleet of foot, berserkers, unyielding, etc. Availability depends on cultural factors.
• Custom unit types that are not available to lacking city/fortress/tower upgrades are now listed when 'unavailable' is toggled in the recruitment panel.
• New special culture weapon variant: Hornbogi.
• New construct/golem material base templates: Copper, Crystal, Gold.
• Break Defense now has a wider and more smoothly scaling ability to reduce the effectiveness of defensive abilities/equipment
• Melee fend/parry chance is now impacted by additional equipment traits/abilities and unit abilities. This applies to source and target of an attack both (depending on abilities/traits).
• Crystal Deposits can now spawn from additional events
• Population alignment variation/overrides now affect grouping/description in various places. For example, instead of '2 Ogre Noble' where one is good and the other default neutral, the game can now show '1 Ogre Noble, 1 Ogre Noble (Good)'.
• Wizard Templates can now be cloned.
• More detailed unit round results can now be shown during grid battles on unit selection.
• New spells: Voltaic Blitz (Air), Chime The Bell of Unity (Celestial), Intractable Infection (Pestilence)
• New (unit) Mark type: Vampirism. Exists in Lesser/Normal/Greater versions as the other Marks.
• New custom unit special options: Shadow Warriors, Old Guard, Druidic Warriors. These are available based on cultural traits.
• New item: Ring of Futuresight.
• Added more Divine Favor Boon options for some domains.
• Some ranged attacks now have a minimum range (in addition to maximum) within which they are usable. This is to represent various arcing attacks or similar, that simply aren't usable at short range.
• Attack Reach now has a greater impact on battle resolution. Not quite as much as I'd like, but closer to that point.
• Mythos Editor can now import directly from a save game file, allowing a randomly generated mythos to be saved for reuse in another game - and modified (although not for the actual on-going save game) if desired.
• Added a filter toggle to the Spellbook panel to hide/show battle/world spells as relevant.
• New game setting options for Favored character mechanics and loyalty impact added. This range from free use of Favored characters to limited use - and from high loyalty impact to no impact.
• Fixed a bug causing custom unit type designs to not be deleteable under several circumstances.
• Fixed a bug sometimes causing save game corruption during autosave. It could range from inconsistent or missing data to creating completely unloadable save files.
• Fixed a bug causing empty dungeon expeditions to linger and cause various confusing messages and/or error prompts.
• Fixed a bug causing weapon variant tags to not apply correctly
• Fixed a bug causing equipment melee shock modifiers to sometimes not apply correctly
• Fixed a number of text/spelling errors
• Fixed a bug causing Set Defense to sometimes reduce defensive effectiveness rather than the opposite
• Fixed a bug causing custom unit types to sometimes not be recruitable at sites they should be.
• Fixed a bug causing multistrike to not be considered correctly in AI considerations of attacks and expected battle outcome.
• Fixed a bug causing battles to sometimes not end when they should due to a stalemate.
• Fixed a display bug related to city culture and effects.
• Fixed a crash bug involving custom unit design.
• Fixed a bug relating to a unit being affected to resistance and vulnerability to the same damage type (from effects, etc.) not always resulting in the correct combined outcome (ie +2 and -1 should yield +1).
• Fixed a number of bugs causing missile attack range to incorrectly calculated and allowing for attacks at outside the allowed distance, or sometimes not within the allowed distances.
• Fixed a number of attack resolution bugs that affected both auto and manual resolution making some units less effective than intended by not triggering some abilities and inherent attack bonuses.
• Fixed a bug causing faction alignment override to not always be applied as intended.
• Fixed a bug related to Wizard Tower upgrade slot unlocking.

It's available on the beta branch, and will be put on the main branch tomorrow. This includes some of the patch notes for the latest main branch update, but I got the notes messed up, so I have to merge them into a single update. The last update, which is thus included in this, took a lot longer to release than expected. Quite to an extreme degree, really. A very nasty save game corruption bug was discovered, and it took a long time to identify - and then an almost equally long time to fix. Hence these patch notes are also somewhat sparse. But save game corruption is a really horrible thing in a game such as this, so I didn't think there was any way around giving that particular issue my full attention until fixed - even if it was relatively uncommon to encounter the bug. Especially when it turned out the risk increased the longer the game had gone on and/or the large the game world you're playing in was. I'm really glad it is fixed now. I also spent the time creating new ways to debug and troubleshoot save game problems, which will help if/when future bugs occur related to save games. Although I really do hope nothing like this bug turns up soon - or even at all. It was quite a tribulation to identify the flaw in my save game code (for those interested in the technical details it was related to some thread synchronization problems when autosaving in the background, and one thread erroneously assuming the save was done and letting turn processing continue while the other thread was reading the game state).

[ 2022-09-06 18:04:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Map Search now has special keywords which can be used to perform a special search (not sensitive to casing): dungeon, wizard, warlord, major, minor, realm, independent, rebel, rebels. Free text search using these keywords is still possible, with exact matches sorting above the 'special result' and partial matches below. (major and minor refer to factions).
• Fixed a bug causing mana nodes and dungeons on the world map to have mutually exclusive visibility. If the node was selected, the dungeon was hidden, and vice versa. Both can now be displayed at the same time, as is the case for mana nodes and other sites.
• Fixed a bug causing a crash when accessing the Guide while not connected to Steam. An error dialog is now shown and the URL to the guide is copied to the clipboard for easy manual browsing.
• Fixed a bug causing the same behavior as above, but with planar portals and dungeons.
• Fixed a bug causing the tutorial to not auto-progress correctly in all cases.
• Fixed a bug causing the 'old' Military Window to display when closing the Custom Construct Window.
• Fixed a crash bug related to loading multiple different games (campaigns) in succession.
• Fixed a crash bug related to having multiple Fortress Upgrade in progress.

[ 2022-05-20 18:44:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

• City Leaders now gain XP from city population growth and building construction (up to Level 5 for characters that have none of: Civic, Artisan, Mercantile).
• Custom Unit Types now have access to weapon and armor variants (ie culture 'specials').
• Changed the Diplomacy Window display of Dungeon Factions to include more relevant information and to show the Dungeon site name as header.
• Faction Flags are now shown for major factions in the Diplomacy Window.
• Outliner now shows City Population next to the type moniker.
• Outliner now shows if an Outpost is in the process of upgrading to a City or Fortress.
• Fixed a bug causing the special ability availability logic for Custom Unit Types to use an inverted flag for cavalry status, leading to ability options not being as intended.
• Fixed a bug causing some special modifiers to damage to not be applied correctly when applied to ranged weapons.
• Fixed a bug causing Dungeon Factions based on Dungeons from custom map seeds to have the wrong name.
• Fixed a crash bug related to sieges by unaligned armies.

[ 2022-05-18 19:47:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Custom Unit Types: Wizards and Sovereign Warlords can now create custom unit types from a tab panel in the Military Window. This is done by specifying Culture, Mount, Weapons/Armor/Shield, Abilities and Weight. You can also choose Icon and Name for the unit type. The resulting unit will have a cost based on the options chosen. Additional options will be added in subsequent updates, as will some limitations on how freely this can be used (unlimited access at no cost will likely not remain for all Wizards) - but the latter will be come with a game setting for those players who prefer to be without such restrictions.
• When conquering a Fortress, leaders of minor faction will now cause an event / prompt similar to the one when conquering a City
• Conquering a Knightly Order Fortress now has special logic handling the leader (Master / Grandmaster) of the Fortress. When not slain during the assault, the leader may instead flee or be captured by the conquering faction.
• Shrine: Now require a Religious-type character of the correct religion to be assigned in order to generate Influence. Having an Arcane character assigned will yield an additional +1 Mana. These can be fulfilled by the a single character with both types or two different characters.
• Shrine: Construction can now fail if no Religious Leader assigned during construction (2% per turn). In addition it also carries a 50% risk of gaining 1-20 Divine Wrath per Turn. This is evaluated on a per-turn basis (ie unassignment/reassignment matters).
• Outliner: Now sorts most entries by type and/or name. Armies are sorted by size.
• Outliner: Now includes Fortress Upgrades as part of the Construction group.
• Divine Favor Boons: Added additional trait-giving boons to several domains, expanding the number of domains with access to 'treat-as-class' traits.
• World Generator will now be less likely to choose certain key traits when pruning traits from randomly generated cultures that end up with a very high number of traits.
• Tweaked the cost and stats of several types of armor.
• Added a soft cap to the cost calculation for some of the random events that have a (potential) cost component, and did not already have such logic.
• New City Building Type: Celestial Artificery. Industrial-type building for celestials and/or good-aligned wizards. Converts Industrial output to Mana.
• New City Building Types: Metalworks (Silver, Platinum, Mithril, Adamantite). Industrial-type buildings which convert Industrial output to the relevant metal. Requires access to the metal via adjacency or being the provincial capital of a province with the resource.
• New Spell: Gifts in the Snow (Frost Mastery). Enchantment which increases the output of resource sites in arctic terrain and buffs the stats of cities in arctic terrain.
• Improved logging of character ranged attacks during grid battles
• Mythos Editor: Workshop preview icon now be set from the UI
• Fixed a number of crash bugs related to cities and pop culture
• Fixed a bug where Ichor Vats produced the wrong resource
• Fixed an unintentional cooldown affecting the Flash of Insight spell.
• Fixed a bug causing the sorting on the Deities grid to be incorrect.
• Fixed a bug where City Leaders gained through conquest would sometimes not switch faction correctly if the conqueror was a Wizard.
• Fixed a number of bugs causing characters to be treated as being located at a site despite having a different actual location. Characters could even end up being located at multiple sites while also being in an army or in the wilderness.
• Fixed a battle crash bug involving the Quicken spell.

[ 2022-05-13 18:05:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bug fixes and single minor resource site tweak.

• Reduced the Food and Furs resource output from Hunter's Lodges by approx. 20%
• Fishing Villages built on a Spices hex special will now produce 1 Spice per turn (in addition to the existing resource production)
• If a Planar Invasion ends and any armies convert to unaligned marauder armies, any that share a hex will now be merged before this happens
• Deity Groups (if they exist) are now shown in the Encyclopedia when using a custom Mythos
• When deleting save games, the game will now properly delete any (game save data) sub-folders that become empty
• Fixed the tooltip for the Spices hex special to be more correct
• Fixed an AI bug sometimes causing Planar Invasions to stall and just accumulate armies at the Portal
• Fixed a bug related to site construction duration display
• Fixed flavor text missing from Details mode on the Deities Panel
• Fixed flavor text missing from Planes and Deities in the Encyclopedia
• Fixed missing text bugs in several Mythos Editor panels
• Fixed a crash bug in the Mythos Editor
• Fixed a bug where two (or more) provinces and/or oceans with the same name could be generated during random world generation
• Fixed the Gunpowder module being shown twice in the game settings dialog

[ 2022-03-23 20:28:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Work on custom 'mundane' unit types is still on-going, but here is an interim game update. You'll see some of the work on streamlining equipment mechanics and how they relate to unit types reflected below, but there is a lot of other stuff. In particular, I'm very happy about the custom deity icon/image feature for the mythos editor. I think this new way to add custom graphics without leaving the editor, thus not requiring manually linking image files with arcane script files, is much more user-friendly. This also ties in perfectly with custom unit types, culture editing and other in-progress features. Note that one of the new Celestial City Buildings, Hall of War, wasn't really supposed to be enabled yet, so it is missing a unit buff that it should have (and which will come in a future patch). But when I saw I had accidentally enabled it, I just kept it in, as it has Unrest reduction and that's something a lot of players have been asking for. Mechanics and Content

• The equipment aspect of the recruitment cost calculation (for dynamically generated units) has been reworked. This will generally lead to lower unit costs. It is part of the foundational work for custom unit types.
• New City Building: Celestial Hall of War. Requires Celestial Wizard Race and War Mastery 3+. Reduces Unrest, produces Mana and greatly increases Martial stat of city. Also affect a number of other city stats.
• New City Building: Celestial Hall of Justice. Requires Celestial Wizard Race and Order Mastery 3+. Greatly reduces Unrest, produces Mana, produces Influence and reduces Crime stat of city. Also affect a number of other city stats.
• New City Building: Workshops. Boosts Industry and adds a small amount of Squalor.
• New City Building: Toolmakers. Boosts Industry, produces Tools and adds a small amount of Squalor.
• New City Building: Windmills. Boosts Industry and Growth.
• New Unit Type: Twisted Marionettes. Research requires Artifice and Darkness Mastery. Melee construct with a very high number of attacks.
• New Unit Type: Vile Marionettes. Research requires Artifice and Darkness Mastery. Melee construct with a very high number of attacks and additional Darkness damage.
• New Tower Expansion: Halls of Divination. Grants random event luck, a research bonus and a reduced cost when recycling the 'hire followers' pool.
• New Spell: Rune of the Phoenix. Rune Mastery. Grants the Phoenix Rebirth ability and bonus stats.
• New Spell: Phantasmal Horde. Instantly heals a Phantasmal unit to full strength during a battle.
• New Spell: Blood Portal. Sacrifice a non-Demonic Follower to gain a Demonic Follower.
• New Spell Chain: Lesser Battlesight, Battlesight, Greater Battlesight. Divination Mastery. Cheap and reasonably strong unit stat battle enchantment.
• New City Industry Buildings: Metalworks (Bronze), Metalworks (Iron), Glassworks, Dyeworks, Charcoal Burners, Ichor Vats. These change the default city Industry output from tools to one or more other resources.
• Tower Expansion: Prison now generates influence whenever a Fortress or City is conquered.
• Tower Expansion: Enchanted Garden now produces more Herbs and also gives a reduction in cost to Plant tag units.
• City Building: Festering Lake now reduces Unrest and enables recruitment of Vile Slime units at the city.
• Divination Mastery 8 and 10 now give a +5%/+10% Research Progress bonus
• Changed the impact of Character Loyalty/Discontent on upkeep and personal income generation. The impact is now slightly greater (in both directions), and no longer has a confusing reversed multiplier to personal income generation.
• City Pop types now have a greater impact on City Resource Production/Output
• Rebalanced the cost of several magical/special unit types
• Slightly reduced the base price/value of Bronze
• Slightly reworked the calculation of Oricalchum Forge output based on Follower Assignment to make it more intuitive
• Buffed the impact of the Worker Entertainment Skill
• Improved and expanded multiple aspects of the random culture generator and increased the average variation from the template baseline
• Added new allied and cavalry unit types to the random culture unit generator
• The Learning and Spiritual stats of Cities will now yield a Research Project bonus for Wizards.
• Lesser Depravity, Depravity, Greater Depravity: These spells now yield a variable amount of Soul resources per turn to the caster. Each mortal pop in affected city has 2% / 4% / 6% (lesser/normal/greater) to yield 1 / (1 to 3) / / (1 to 5) Souls. These are evaluated per pop and the distribution isn't even, as (1 to 3) is D6-3 (min. 1) and (1 to 5) is D10-5 (min. 1). So a city of 20 mortal pops affected by Greater Depravity can yield from 0 to 100 (20 x 5) Souls per turn, but will on average yield 2.4 (0.06 x 2 x 20). Note that these spells can also be cast on Cities controlled by other Factions, and the caster will still be the recipient of the Souls - not the controller of the city.

Mythos Editor

• You can now set custom Icon and Image graphics for the various entities. This applies to Deities, Planes and Deity Groups. Currently this is only shown in the game UI for Deities (on the Details view and some tooltips), but it will be added to additional parts of the UI, including those relevant to Planes and Deity Groups.
• Icons are intended as an identifying sigil, depiction or similar - similar to the sigils of the various realms and factions. These should be square.
• Images are background images shown on relevant game dialogs and windows. They will be dimmed when text is displayed on top. Aspect ratio of the custom image is maintained when displaying it, with margins added above/below or to the sides depending on layout.
• Plane Layout can now be edited

User Interface and World Map

• Dungeon window now has tool tips for party members showing traits, class type(s) and level
• Encyclopedia now shows equipment cost values
• Added a new musical track to the playlist
• Improved the 'Details' view in the Deities Panel
• Added a toggle for Realm Names to the World Map. Hold shift when pressing the Province Name toggle to shift to Realm Name mode.
• Changed the 'Go To' functionality for factions and realms, so that they are zoom to the map location of the entity rather than open the diplomacy window.
• Normalized the range state for (ranged) attacks to use the same distance units in all places.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug related to 'empty' dungeon expeditions that lingered in the UI and game data
• Fixed a bug where references to the Dragon Worship religion would not save correctly and would create 'phantom' copies of the religion
• Fixed a bug causing unit equipment display to be incorrect
• Fixed a bug causing some world spells to not be castable
• Fixed a bug causing the Sabotage impact on Sieges to off by a factor 100
• Fixed a number of bugs related to AI having friendly/hostile switched around in a subroutine
• Fixed numerous text and tooltip bugs.
• Fixed some domains not showing in the Mythos Editor.
• Fixed a bug causing Allied Unit (from Culture traits) not being available in Cities.

[ 2022-03-19 18:47:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Mythos Editor has arrived! I am pretty excited about this, as it's the first part of the Editor support for custom world creation. I want to expand this to eventually cover everything the World Generator does, so that players can create and share their own fantasy worlds - from scratch or by modifying something created by the generator. There are still a few issues with the Editor - the UI is a bit rough, you can't specify custom Plane unit rosters, etc. I'm sure there are a few bugs in it, also. The next patch cycle is dedicated to Sovereigns and custom unit mechanics - but I will be giving some 'hypercare' attention to the Mythos Editor, and adding some things I didn't manage to squeeze in for this version (custom deity/plane icons and backgrounds in particular). This update cycle stretched a bit longer than I would have liked, so I will try to avoid large tasks for the next couple of cycles, in order to get the weekly / bi-weekly update schedule back on track. There is a good amount of smaller tasks pending and a slightly higher number of open bug reports than I normally have, but I expect to have those bugs stomped out during this week. So there will likely be one or more small hyper-care/QoL/bugfix patches before the Sovereign improvements are in a patch. But I am aiming for the first of those in the quite near future still. I had hoped to have Steam Cloud Saves in for this update, but I wanted to give it more internal testing. I am sure everyone can appreciate that save game integrity is important, so I am hesitant to rush this. Hopefully it will be available later this week, for those who wish to use it. Editor:

• The Mythos Editor has been added which allows creating custom Deities, Deity Groups and Planes - along with (optional) flavor text, this bundle of entities is known as a 'Mythos'. You can then use these in your own games (Custom Mythos setting) or share them via the Workshop. If you want to include a custom 'cover image' for a Mythos workshop item, you can place one next to the file prior to upload/update using the same method as for custom Maps.
• You can access the Mythos Editor via the Editor and a new button in the top editor menu.
• Data files now have meta-data on what type of data they contain. This is used by the File Dialog to avoid showing irrelevant files, as the different types of Editor content (Maps, Mythos) use the same file format. 'Old' map files do not have this meta-data so will show up in dialogs that they may not apply to. You can load and re-save a map file to add the meta-data automatically. A variety of planned editor/modding features will benefit from this addition.

General:

• Phantasmal ability given to the Phantasmal line of unit types. This ability allows replenishment to full strength anywhere in the world at the end of the turn. So these units are now quite powerful for conducting warfare far away from friendly territory as they just need to survive battles, and they're back at full strength.
• Inscribe Constructs: New Spellcraft. When researched, it allows adding the Mark line of unit modifiers when recruiting Construct (golem) units - contingent on an Arcane character being assigned to the recruitment.
• Cities can now be settled adjacent to other cities - if they are not part of the same province.
• Improved the Major Faction seeding algorithm to greatly reduce the risk of factions being placed adjacent to each other and generally increase the average distance between major factions (player and AI rivals).
• Enchanted Garden tower upgrade will now unlock scout infantry from relevant culture rosters.
• Academy tower upgrade will now unlock spellcaster infantry from relevant culture rosters, with a fallback to medium to high quality light infantry if these are not available (for a given culture).
• Divine Favor Boons to remove Insane and Depressed has been added to many domains.
• Wizards with Celestial, Demon or Faerie Race now have a very high chance to get the corresponding cult as religion on at least one of any mortal followers generated - with a priority given to Religion-type followers.
• Increased the variety of equipment generated for dynamic (culture) unit type rosters and added additional culture trait weights to the generation routines.
• Increased the range of possible variations for several culture templates, and reduced the chance of multiple weapon preference traits being generated for a culture.
• Increased the average number of culture traits generated for each culture.
• Improved the unit type naming routines to increase the flavor/coherence, range/variety and overall quality of roster unit type names.
• Added two new spells to Necromancy (Unliving Flesh, Eternal Servitude) which can be used to remove 'Cannot Replenish' (from Zombie and Level 5+ Undead, respectively) and give some other stat buffs.
• Added a new Priest character type which is Religious/Civic.
• Tweaked the culture-trait/attribute weights for some character types which had a chance that was too high or too low compared to the intent. This should improve the variety of character classes for many cultures.
• Sabotage against a besieged city will now progress the siege
• Added Greater Drain Soul, which is an improved version of the basic Drain Soul spell. (I still intend to add more ways to gain Souls).
• Special Rulers culture trait now affects character generator adding a chance for special character types to be generated with a context-sensitive weighting, so that leadership roles have a greater chance of these.
• Additional variants of the Special Rulers trait added.
• Expanded the number of Culture Templates which can roll the Special Rulers trait.
• Numerous special unit type templates added to the Culture generator.
• Eldritch Cultism is now included as a possible roll in the Character generator. It is extremely rare, although more likely to occur with the Insane trait, Cultist class and Enigmatic culture trait.
• Demon Worship and Cult of The Elements is now slightly more likely to be generated as Character religion for some character classes and/or cultures.
• Spellcaster units (when part of a culture roster) are now unlocked for cities if they have Learning 2+ and/or Spiritual 2+. For some unit types additional requirements (cavalry, heavy, etc) will apply, as per the existing logic.

Bugs:

• The icon for a blocked Outpost to City upgrade action is now shown with information on the reason, instead of being hidden.
• Fixed Fortification modifiers not being applied for City Buildings as intended and shown in the building description.
• Friendly city garrisons are now shown with unit count and proper tooltip for friendly sites.
• Fixed bugged requirements for Runic Warhammer. A condition was negated, causing strange availability results (positive and negative).
• Cult of the Elements is now listed in the Deity Panel.
• Fixed a crash bug related to world generation.
• Fixed a bug sometimes causing some of the Sovereign starting units to instead start as part of unaligned armies camped outside the intended starting site.
• Fixed cultural variant equipment not being omitted from unit equipment lists in some windows.
• Fixed gunpowder, sapper and chivalric units (when enabled via game settings) very often being excluded from available unit types regardless of unit type unlocks.
• Fixed chariot units not being available/unlocked as intended. They are now generally available based on the same rules as cavalry unit types.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed circumventing site construction hex validation rules.
• The intro window is no longer missing for Sovereign Warlords.
• Fixed AI Rival toggles (ie the number of opponents) not being registered correctly until another setting is changed. This could cause a preset to be saved without such changes or a game to start with the wrong number of opponents.
• Fixed a bug causing an AI rival to become undefeatable despite losing all sites and armies
• Fixed a missing unit type icon
• Fixed a number of text display bugs
• Fixed a number of bugs related to city building availability
• Fixed a bug causing custom map province names to be ignored even when specified. They can now be specified for some, none or all provinces, as intended. (Leaving the default 'Province N' name will make it be overriden).
• Fixed dodge logic not working as intended during battle resolution. Relative physical unit size was being applied inversely for units with the 'Melee Avoidance' ability.
• Fixed a number of battle resolution bugs, most of which were related to ranged attacks, cooldowns and ammo/charges.

[ 2022-02-07 19:57:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

First update of the year! I will try to keep a weekly update cycle, as I think that is the best cadence, but I hope you will forgive if it slips now and then. I'll count this one as a success, even if I didn't get as many things into this update as I would have liked. There are a few bugs still left open and I didn't manage to get any new Editor functionality in. The Allied Race bug turned out to be pretty severe, so I had to rip out most of the old code and write a new version. I'm pretty happy with the new one, though, as it has much more flexibility and potential. But it ate a significant amount of time. Still, I am happy with this first update of the year (and the 1.0.3 version). Next week, I should be able to find some time for a recap of 2021. But as always bugs take priority. Thank you to the many players who contribute feedback, ideas, bug reports, create mods and offer words of encouragement. I very much appreciate it, and I will do my best to put into these updates, as much as possible from that treasure trove of ideas and suggestions. Features:

• Hostile Armies now block Resource Site production
• Sovereign Warlord: Now gains +1 Pop on City Settlement. This Pop will have the faction primary culture. The other Pop will have culture based on the existing rules (ie overseer, worker and province culture).
• Sovereign Warlord: Sorting changed Culture selection list. It is now alphabetical 'core' cultures followed by alphabetical exotic cultures.
• Nomad Raiders: Will now pillage resource sites directly on the route towards a raid target
• Nomad Raiders: Will now sometimes only sack a resource site and not raze it
• Economy Window: Added a Buy All button. It buys the maximum amount available or the maxium amount the faction can afford. The tool tip for the button gives information on which of these is relevant and the total cost.
• Faction Window - Deities Page: Double-click to navigate to details
• Faction Window - Deities Page: Extended details including info otherwise only shown in Encyclopedia
• Grid Battles: Attack cooldown fractions carried over (e.g. .5 turn cooldown results in a turn of cooldown every other turn).
• Grid Battles: Characters no longer have unlimited range with ranged/magic attacks. This makes range-modifying traits useful during battles.
• Light Crossbow: Reload Delay 2 -> 1
• Crossbow: Damage 4 -> 6, slight cost reduction
• Heavy Crossbow: Damage 7 -> 8
• Arbalest: Reload Delay 3 -> 2
• World Generator: More cultures can now have allied races and a greater variety of these are possible. Some are monsters, some are from other cultures, some are from minority races of the same culture.
• World Generator: Slightly increased the number of traits that randomly generated (template-based or not) cultures have
• World Generator: Added some culture traits to the non-template culture generator which it could previously never roll (they were template only)
• World Generator: Cultures of Centauroid races have a very high chance for allied units to be cavalry units (so they can keep up)
• World Generator: Added a template-based version of the Stonemen culture generator
• World Generator: Subterranean cultures now have a greater chance for Cavalry unit types - and will usually have at least one (before it was very common for them to have none). They do actively wage war on the surface, and it makes the trait less terrible.
• Items: Can now have a 'singular' trait which means a character can have only one of these items (for example, no stacking Cornucopia trinkets for silly food bonuses from a single character).
• Wizard AI: Slightly improved ability to determine viability of a battle.
• Wizard AI: Improved logic to evaluate need/benefit of relieving a siege.
• Wizard AI: Will now be less likely to send only a single weak army to handle priority threats. If no sufficiently powerful army is available, it will try to send multiple armies to handle the threat.
• Fire-Infused Weapon: Can now affect any melee weapon. Previously only slashing weapons were valid.
• City Growth: Pops will now have alignment based on a random other pop in the city (of the same culture). This also prevents fully converted cities from gaining default alignment pops on growth.
• Gargantuan Apes: New powerful unit type, specializing in melee.
• Trolls and Vampire Trolls: +2 HP
• Random Races: Added more feature variety to completely randomly generated races.

Bugfixes:

• World Generator: Culture generation which is 'forced' from traits and settings will now properly respect the 'no-templating' setting.
• Hire Follower: Fixed missing culture-specific character dominating the hire pool (for factions with a main culture). Added a small chance for 'special' characters to appear (e.g. faeries, demons, celestials) for compatible factions.
• Encyclopedia: Fixed terrain-specific special abilities missing from unit tool tips
• Faction Window - Deities Page: Fixed a bug where the text would become blank and the navigation state corrupted
• Faction Window - Deities Page: Fixed a scroll focus bug (for the grid)
• Military Window: Equipment which were cultural variants were not displayed when inspecting a unit type.
• Pillage: Will now exhaust the army when initiated
• Character Traits: Demonic Corruption, Celestial Blessings, and similar 'cosmic alignment' traits were incorrectly blocked for almost all characters
• Several text errors fixed (spelling, formatting, etc.)
• Grid-Battles: Fixed a number of bugs related to Ranged weapon range calculations. An incorrect (and almost unlimited range) was sometimes used in various calculations.
• Grid-Battles: Fixed the Advance to Missile Range order not working as expected
• Grid-Battles: Fixed Attack cooldowns not working as intended. Such attacks either had no cooldown or could not be used at all.
• Equipment: Weapons with Reload Delay had a off-by-one error when determining the resulting attack cooldown
• Worker Training UI: Training time bonus "mentor" shown as "alignment clash"
• Recruitment pool: The Refugee event granting a city no longer breaks an existing specialized recruitment pool for that culture.
• Recruitment pool: Temporary recruits are now always added to a special pool if one exists. This also means that 'gather recruits' and diplomacy will add to this pool if you've used conversion actions to create it.
• Divine Offering: Fixed resource allocation window shown behind Follower Window
• Divine Offering: Fixed missing UI update after assignment
• Organize Worship: Fixed missing UI update after assignment
• Recruitment Cost / Upkeep Cost: Fixed several units that did not have a non-magical version of these, resulting in the magical version applying to Factions without Mana.
• Fire Elementals: Fixed the non-functional cooldown on Fiery Globs

[ 2022-01-09 17:55:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

New update to celebrate a new year - happy new year everyone! And thank you so much for a great year. The support and positivity from the player community has been truly amazing. You have provided me with ideas, beta branch testing, bug reports, words of encouragement, constructive criticism and more - I am grateful and I hope that the game will provide you with entertainment and enjoyment for years to come. It's been a little bit more than a year since version 1.0.0.1, and a lot has happened since then. I will try to get a post up with a summary of the changes and improvements made, highlighting the major milestones. I will also share my plans and ambitions for the coming months. I look forward to another year of work on this game and I'm excited to see how the game will grow and improve during this time, and interacting with the community, trying to get as many of those awesome ideas and suggestion into the game as possible.

• New Warlord Type: Sovereign
  • Can choose from any culture template, start as a random culture template or select from a list of cultures generated for the world
  • Has the same mechanics as AI Rival Warlords, which is unlike Tribal and more similar to Wizard (without magic).
  • Start with a full province usually containing a city, a village and a fortress - although this can vary considerably based on what the world generator produces (and the setting chosen).
  • Sometimes has one or more garrisons of higher tier units present at game start. These have free upkeep for 20 turns, but the Units are also locked to those garrisons for the same duration.
• Terrain-specific ability logic has been added. This allows units to have stat modifiers and/or movement modifiers applied only in certain terrain (or when not in certain terrain).
  • The following Unit Types have terrain-specific modifiers: Yetis, Medusae, Jotnar, Rime Trolls, Grendelkin, Giants, Frost Giants. More will be added in future patches.
  • Modding support has been extended to cover these ability types.
• Elephants and Mammoths cannot be Chariot mounts for most races
• Additional mount variance chance (based on size)
• Chariot-specific mount variance chances
• Beast Tamer culture trait: reduce cavalry/chariot mount attack modifier from -2 to -1
• Massively reduced the chance that Cultures are generated with no traits
• Greatly reduced the chance that Cultures are generated with only one trait
• If a unit cannot benefit from the Garrison upkeep reduction due to recent movement the upkeep tooltip will now state this
• Fortress Window: Summary of characters present now includes the Garrison
• Independent Realms no longer build mines in hexes without resource specials
• Encyclopedia: World entry now includes any seed used to generate it
• Prospectors: Geomancy, Subterranean, Wanderlust now increase chance for a culture to generate a character of this class.
• Independent Realms now have show info on hostile actions in the diplomacy relation log
• Roads can now be built with a destination which is controlled by allied and vassal factions. One end of the road (ie the origin) still has to be controlled.
• City: +5% Divine Offering value per level of Spiritual.
• Bugbear units now have +1 HP
• Adjusted the animation speed when resolving ranged attacks during grid battles. It will now adapt to the number of units, speeding up when there are many units/attacks.
• The numerical keys (1, 2, 3, etc) are now keyboard shortcuts for the corresponding top bar button. They can be used to quickly open the main windows: Magic, Military, Economy, Faction, etc.
• City Window: Added 'Show Unavailable' toggle. This also adds Requirements text to all relevant buildings.
• Added Monster Slayer character type
• Gunpowder weapons now do additional damage at short range (25%-)
• Many gunpowder weapons are less effective considerable at long range (50%+)
• Attack, Site and Unit Conditions can now utilize base Condition logic (and / or / not)
• Army Window: Units with (temporary) free Upkeep now have a tooltip showing what the cost would've been without the effect.
• AI Rivals will now use the same 'Easy' Scouting game setting as the player, with the exception of Very Easy (does not gain if player has) and Hard/Very Hard (gains even if player has not)
• Spell: Training Day now has a 4-turn Cooldown
• Many (mundane) unit types now have shorter training time. This mostly affects races which had very long training times.
• The list of constructed city buildings is now sorted alphabetically.
• Fixed a bug causing the majority of Bow units to have Poisoned attacks.
• Fixed a bug where diplomatic relations towards an independent realm could get stuck at the current level
• Fixed a bug where cultures where are an area of the map which was supposed to have a realm seeded was instead empty, and the culture not added to the world.
• Fixed a number of bugs/issues which could cause an AI Rival to become mostly passive
• Fixed bugs relating to Rename dialogs
• Fixed equipment stats not being applied when for encyclopedia tool tips
• Fixed being able to open the editor while having the new/load game window open
• Fixed administration center not giving +1 Influence
• Fixed unit battle leader stat bug. Retroactively fixes save games.
• Fixed outpost worker add bug (skill req)
• Fixed bug where effects checking if a unit was airborne instead evaluated if the unit was engaged in melee (even disregarding whether it can fly at all)
• Fixed a bug when assigning an item after completing the enchant item project. The item was either removed for the vault if a duplicate existed there or not given at all, depending on circumstances.
• Fixed incorrect requirements for Prison and Mercenary Sprawl buildings
• Fixed a bug causing lairs to block outpost construction for Warlords
• Fixed bug where unit type descriptions did not include stat modifiers from equipment in some cases (display bug only)
• Fixed some spelling errors and missing spaces/commas
• Fixed Warrior Monk characters almost never being generated
• Fixed unit type export omitting attack modifier target conditions
• Fixed city walls not being available after palisades
• Fixed inverted modifier to recruit follower success from not sharing a class type with the target
• Fixed a bug where city buildings could be constructed multiple times.

[ 2022-01-01 14:38:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Units now have an experience level icon displayed if they are level 1+. The tool tip for this icon will show what benefits the unit has gained from those experience levels.
• Unit experience level display also comes with modding support. See the Modding Guide for instructions on how to change the display with custom images and frames.
• Improved the unit strength display in most windows to be more readable, with larger and clearer font.
• Unit strength display now has a tooltip showing the max strength of the unit - and the default strength of the unit type, if a unit is understrength.
• Tribal Population Growth: Migration now provides a greater benefit to Population Growth.
• Tribal Camp: An action has been added which allows allocating Food from faction stores to a particular Camp. This will boost Population Growth and provide a buffer against starvation (through a local Food store increase), based on the amount of Food provided.
• Shrine Dedication: Religion-class followers now contribute to the pool of available dedications. The religion still has to be compatible with the faction, but in most cases this will be so.
• Influential: New character trait which acts as 'counts-as-class' for Civic.
• Divine Favor: Added additional domain-specific boons.
• Divine Favor: Most temporary boons now last 60% longer.
• Dungeon Expeditions: Increased the experience benefit from having a Mentor in the party. However, Mentors can now longer give other Mentors bonus experience.
• Character Experience: Overseeing construction of a site or the upgrade of an outpost (to city/fortress) will now yield Experience for the assigned character.
• Save games are now listed in chronological order - even for autosave files. Many players have expressed that always having autosave at the top does not add value, and increases the risk of accidentally loading the wrong game file.
• Workers Window: Settle City now includes in the query dialog whether a City has the blocking effect from recent settlement (including duration) and such options are now unselectable by default. Previously you would not be notified until you made a selection, and would have to reopen the window to select a new city.
• Transfer Units / Split Army: Double-clicking a unit is now a shortcut for to the 'create new army' button. This allows quickly creating a new army with a specific initial unit.
• "Give/Swap/Revoke Item" actions have been added to the Character Context Menu for Followers (when relevant).
• Made some visual improvements to the Battle Report window in how units are shown.
• Added notifications for the completion of City Settlement and Outpost Fortification projects.
• Fixed an army state corruption bug related to saving/loading games during migrations.
• Fixed a missing UI update trigger in the Dungeon Window.
• Fixed Follower text overflow in the Trainer part of the Military Window.
• Fixed Follower text overflow in the General/Officer panels of the Army Window.
• Fixed a number of crash bugs in the Transfer Units window.

[ 2021-11-13 19:13:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Road Construction can now terminate at Resource Sites (farms, mines, etc). For example: You can now build from a City to a Mine. You still cannot build from a Mine to a Farm (but you can link them with an Outpost as road nexus).
• Balance tweaks to Death Knights, Lesser Celestial Phoenixes, Maladonisai.
• Grid-based battles now have better logic for determining when a unit counts as charging. It requires the unit to have moved during the turn, and to have moved from a non-engaged position to the final position. This sounds more complicated than it is - if a unit moved into combat from non-combat (including combat -> non-combat -> combat) it counts, but 'sliding' along an already engaged battle line does not count.
• Set Defense now gives a Fend bonus against units which charge it. (de facto reduces to-hit).
• Set Defense now requires immobility to be active during melee resolution.
• Lances are now "Charge Only", but do much more damage.
• Workers will now be unassigned from a newly constructed site if they are no longer valid for assignment (requirements for assignment to construction and 'active' site work can differ).
• Added two new game settings for Recruitment Pools: Relaxed and Harsh. Relaxed will count the number of units for each culture/pool as two less for all purposes. Non-Harsh now has the upkeep penalty capped at +25%.
• Added a 'Summary' button to the Battle Report window. It allows you to see the final outcome of the battle without having to progress through every single round, or stopping when you've seen enough. You can shift-click it to close the window at the same time (tooltip also specifies this shortcut).
• Enrage Wildlife now has a 2-turn cooldown and a slightly higher mana cost. It also applies a province-wide effect for 8 turns. During this period re-casts may fail fully or partially (creating an understrength unit). A success will extend the duration, a partial success will extend it partially.
• New Spell: Greater Enrage Wildlife (Beasts 5). Summons a larger army and has a lower risk of failure when re-cast with a lingering effect than the basic version.
• New Spell: Survival of The Fittest (Beasts 3). Summons a small army of beasts to fight one of your own armies, which will gain additional experience from the battle.
• New Unit Type: Catoblepas. Poison-breathing and dark-gazing boar-bull monsters. Unlocked at Darkness Mastery 5 and can spawn in some unaligned armies.
• Fixed the missing spell descriptions in the multi-cast 'select spell' dialog.
• Fixed a bug where some battles did not register their location correctly and did not get the intended battle name.
• Fixed a bug where "Nearby Culture Override" was not saved/loaded as part of game setting presets.
• Fixed a bug where the message prompts in the military window did not close via the X button.
• Fixed a bug causing tooltips in spell result prompts to not work correctly.
• Fixed a bug where conversion-based recruitment pools did not interact correctly with the recruitment window - showing incorrect pool usage and not always giving the correct selection of available units.
• Fixed a bug causing character items with a battle effect not working as intended during grid-based battles.
• Fixed armor not importing/exporting as part of unit type mods.
• Fixed a bug where the context panel showed an incorrect selection.
• Fixed a text bug with the 'Compose Epic' event.
• Fixed a bug allowing some city stats being able to go negative against the intent (had very strange effects on some mechanics).
• Fixed characters not being unassigned from Army tasks if part of a garrison which becomes empty (and non-inspectable).
• Fixed "Charge Only" attacks being usable in every round - charge or not.
• Fixed "Set Defense" from weapons not always giving the unit this ability during battles.
• Fixed Units gaining special abilities from Experience - which they already have from their equipment. This will no longer happen.
• Fixed a bug where charges/ammunition for ranged attacks was being depleted much too quickly during battles.
• Fixed a bug where some tooltip links did not work as intended.
• Fixed a memory leak when loading/starting new games during an existing game session.

[ 2021-10-21 18:03:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Changed the scaling of Marauder/Undead/Monster Armies. In addition to the chosen game setting for the power level of these, there is now a time-based scaling applied during the early game to mid game - depending on game settings. This will remove the risk of unreasonably powerful event armies spawning near a player in the early game - especially when playing with default settings.
• After resolving a Battle the result dialog now has a button which opens the Battle Report. Previously you had to close the dialog and open the notification icon to see this report.
• Fortresses can now be upgraded to the next tier. This can only be done if there is no upgrade construction in progress and no hostile armies in the hex. The cost and time scales with the level of the fortress. If hostile armies enter the hex, the upgrade will halt temporarily.
• Fortresses can now be razed by their owner. The time taken scales with the level of the fortress. If hostile armies enter the hex, the razing will halt temporarily.
• Dismissed and deserting workers now enter the hire pool in most cases.
• You can now recycle the pool of recruitable characters. Free once per 10 turns, otherwise has a cost. The cost is a fixed amount of Gold and Influence in addition to 50% of total Influence. Cost and cooldown can be modded via mechanics modding using the following keys: CharacterHireRecycleCooldown, CharacterHireRecycleGoldCost, CharacterHireRecycleInfluenceCost, CharacterHireRecycleInfluenceCostFraction.
• In-window dialogs for the wizard and tribal recruitment windows, replacing the pop-up dialog. You can close these with escape, clicking on the unit list, or through the X icon.
• Spellfire Phoenixes got a small balance pass. Lesser ones nerfed (but lower upkeep), buffed movement for the regular and greater.
• Fixed a crash related to the character generator
• Fixed a crash related to the Battle Gate spell.
• Fixed some road-related rules keys not being loaded correctly for mods

[ 2021-10-06 19:23:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

• The Escape key can now be used to close additional windows, specificially most of the 'OK' info-style message windows. There are a few exceptions, one of which is the 'Missing Mods' info window on loading a game. (These will be given Escape shortcuts in a coming patch).
• Battle Window (Grid+Classic): The list of spells in the 'More Spells' dialog is now sorted alphabetically
• Battle Window (Grid): New Playback Speed option, 'Instant'. This skips all the attack pop-ups during the turn and plays the movement at maximum speed. Attacks are still shown in the log and you can still hover over units between turns to show attacks taken/dealt during the previous turn.
• Battle Window (Grid): 'Fast' is now the default Playback Speed.
• Units with bombs now have a +1 Siege Progress modifier. As before only the unit with the highest modifier in an army will contribute with bonus progress. Overview of possible bonuses: Sappers with bombs +4, sappers +3, burrowers with bombs +3, burrowers +2, other with bombs +1.
• Fixed a crash caused by the Mass Resurrection spell
• Fixed a bug causing irrelevant pre-battle dialogs being shown when choosing to auto-resolve battle
• Fixed a bug where the cursor would change to an X permanently when casting spells via 'More Spells...' during battles

[ 2021-09-20 19:17:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Bombs can now be generated as armament for units if the Gunpowder module is enabled. This is a possibility for cultures that have knowledge of Gunpowder or alchemy - and for special miner and sapper unit types. Note that Gunpowder is currently not a full Culture trait, so you'll only see it by inspecting unit types in the Encyclopedia. It will become a full Culture trait in a future update.
• Added four Bomb weapons with different stats: Crude Bombs, Bombs, Shrapnel Bombs and Fire Bombs.
• Unit weapons can now have non-Physical base damage. The first example of this is the Fire Bomb weapon.
• Increased the chance of Gunpowder weapons being enabled for a culture, when that module is enabled. The chance is still based on technological progress and cultural traits, but more factors are considered and the base chance is slightly higher. I'll continue tweaking carefully if necessary to avoid overshooting.
• Fixed a number of bugs relating to the Army Transfer/Split functionality and UI.
• Fixed some Fortress Upgrades not showing full details on requirements when unavailable.

[ 2021-09-19 18:56:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a small bugfix patch. The regular update patch is expected to be ready within the next couple of days.

• Fixed a number of crashes related to battle magic.
• Fixed a crash when inspecting Dungeon Expedition history.

[ 2021-09-17 19:10:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Gunpowder units can now be generated for cultures (chance based on their traits). This is not enabled by default, but can be done so by via a new Module, Gunpowder: Basic. It can thus not be applied retroactively to existing games. A new trait has been added to identify such units for the purpose of modding, and the guide updated accordingly.
• Dragon Summoning. A new Spellcraft has been added, with a progression of research projects to unlock summoning of Dragon units of increasing power.
• Hero for Hire tooltip now includes details on the Hero, so that the player can make an informed choice on whether to hire or not.
• Restarting the Tutorial is now possible via a button in the Settings window. This can be used if the tutorial was closed by accident, or if the player wants to show the tutorial and still wants to keep the tutorial disabled by default.
• Unit Battle Experience: +1 XP for units led by Character. +1 additional XP if Character has the Mentor trait. +25% to total XP gain if the Character is higher or equal level cunit.
• Wizard Tower: Each level upgrade now gives +50 Influence cap.
• Several City buildings now increase resource caps for Food and Influence.
• Thieves Guild changed: No longer reduces Unrest by 10, but increases by 10. Instead Influence gain doubled from 1 to 2. It now also increases the Faction Influence cap by 25.
• New Building: Prison (Harsh). Reduces Unrest and boosts Industry. Requires Evil, Autocracy, Lawful, and/or Slavery. Not available to Good and/or Chaotic cultures.
• New Building: Festival Grounds. Reduces Unrest, Industry and boosts Prosperity, Decadence. Requires Semi-Cultured, Culture or Highly Cultured.
• New Building: Sacred Grove. Reduces Unrest and boosts Spiritual. Cultures with at least one of Primitive, Savage, Barbarian, Druidic, Pact with Nature.
• New Building: Mercenary Sprawl. Unlocks Elite Units. Requires City Pop 10+. Cultural requirement: Chaotic and at least one of: Martial Honor, Philosophy: Conquest, Philosophy: War, Philosophy: Survival. Not available to Primitive or Savage cultures.

[ 2021-09-12 14:27:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Unit Transfer Window: You can now create new armies directly from this window.
• Unit Transfer Window: You can now rename armies from this window.
• The 'Split Army' and 'Transfer Units' actions have been merged into a single action. The new functionality in the Unit Transfer Window makes the dedicated split action redundant.
• Mana Nodes now have a different visual appearance on the map when drained. They will be dimmed and have a red border.
• Mana Node tool tip now includes the number of turns remaining as part of the 'Drained' status text. (So you don't have to select it and manually inspect the effect duration in the context panel).
• Expanded the dynamic unit type name generator with more culture/race-specific possibilities and templates.
• Vineyards now increase the Food cap when upgraded, like the other similar resource sites.
• Achievements: 2 new achievements have been added.

[ 2021-08-29 18:10:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Mods can now change the icons used by 'dynamic' unit types (ie the ones generated for the various cultures of the world). It is possible to specify graphics based on race, unit type template, unit type template traits - as well providing a priority to use when multiple criteria from the mod are fulfilled. In combination with template types and traits this can be used to create a hierarchical 'tree' of icon overrides. Built-in and custom icons both can be used as part of these. See the Mod Guide for full documentation. Also note that this will not remap the graphics of existing games - I may add functionality to do this in a later patch if there is demand for it.
• Draining a Mana Node may now result in Divine Favor or Wrath. This is based on the domains of deities - for example, a Deity of Order will applaud draining chaos nodes but will be angry if order nodes are drained. Deities of Greed and/or Thieves will slightly favor any drain action unless otherwise disposed against it. The magnitude of Favor gain/loss is based on the size of a node. So if you want to stay on good terms with the Deity of Fire, draining a Massive Fire Node will not help you towards that goal.
• The confirmation dialog for Drain Mana Node now has a tooltip for a defending army displaying the units and estimated power level of the defenders.
• Drain Mana Node no longer has a confirmation dialog if the node has no defenders (ie no battle will occur on draining it).
• The tooltip for unit types in the Culture entries of the Encyclopedia now include the unit icon. This is helpful to quickly validate if a unit graphics mod is working as intended.
• Fixed a bug where city building could not be demolished.

[ 2021-08-21 16:22:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Outpost levels have been removed as a mechanic. You no longer have to upgrade Outposts to Level 3 in order to upgrade them to a Fortress or City. Instead there is a 4 Turn cooldown after the Outpost is built, before these actions become valid. The levels were an annoying busywork after their cost was reduced, and while I do have plans for better Outpost growth mechanics, I have no desire to torment players with this annoying mechanic in the interim.
• Fixed a bug causing Divine Boons (targeting characters) to not always perform the intended follower religious conversion check (for example if the follower had no religion or had a Cult-type religion).
• Fixed a number of research project display bugs.

[ 2021-08-15 18:12:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Road building will now prefer to follow routes that stay within faction territory. If not possible, neutral territory is preferred to that controlled by other factions.
• Greatly optimized tool tip calculations when having a large army selected. This is particularly noticeable when hovering the cursor over ocean hexes.
• Fixed a crash bug when attacking and sieging towns/fortresses.
• Fixed a pathing bug which caused road building to some times pick silly routes.
• Fixed missing tool tips on some actions.

[ 2021-08-10 20:29:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Road Building (without spells) is now possible. The action is initiated by selecting a valid site. You can then choose a target site from a list, or switch to selecting it from the map.
• Road Building rules constants have been exposed to modding (default in parenthesis): BaseRoadGoldCost (500), BaseRoadBuildTime (4.0), RoadLengthBuildTimeFactor (0.5), RoadDifficultTerrainAdditionalCostFactor (1.0), RoadDifficultTerrainAdditionalBuildTimeFactor (1.0), RoadLengthBuildCostFactor (0.25).
• The Army Deployment Window (grid-based, from Army Window) has been aligned with the Battle Window in relation to Formation Assignment/Creation, click-to-deploy/move, shift-click to assign Formation and a few more things.
• Assign Task is now filtered away from Character Context Menu in the Dungeon Window.
• Some lingering unit effects (from expired army effects) are now cleaned up on loading a game. The bug causing the lingering effects has been fixed in a previous patch, but any effects already detached from the parent effect were not cleaned up. They are now.
• The City Window now shows the hitherto hidden Rebellion stats if the player controls the city, and has either the Master of Puppets trait or Unrest is less than 5.
• Independent Realm AI will no longer consider movement outside of the province it controls trespassing if adjacent to a site it controls. This should make diplomacy less frustrating when independent realms have sites on the borders of a province.
• The menu for Tower Upgrades for prismatic/white slots now utilize sub-menus to avoid screen overflow.
• Editor: Dungeon Seeds can now have theme and sub-themes set as part of the map/scenario.
• Editor: Province names can now be randomized. This can be done for the selected province by using the 'Dice' icon next to the name field, or for all provinces with a regular randomize all button.
• Editor: When changing terrain-type from water to land, a new province is generated if the action causes the previous hex province to be invalid.
• Reduced the cost for several research projects with Ectoplasm as part of the cost.
• Fixed research unit projects not showing base recruitment time, recruitment cost and upkeep cost.
• Fixed research projects not showing resource cost when invalid due to unmet requirements.
• Fixed the Burrow special ability not giving Siege progress as the tool-tip indicated it should.
• Fixed several instances of missing unit stats across different windows and panels.
• Fixed a bug causing unit type attacks to be missing in several summary-style panels.
• Fixed missing tooltips in a number of unit-related text panels.
• Fixed a display bug in relation to requirements for workers assigned to upgrading an Outpost to a Fortress. Two different requirements shown in different places - one not aligned with actual mechanics.
• Fixed a crash bug related to the Character Context Menu.
• Fixed a bug in the grid-based battle mode where the Formation panel could be locked in bad state during deployment.
• Fixed a crash bug related to setting/cancelling current construction in Cities.
• Fixed a bug where building Siege Engines/Towers did not update UI as intended - making it look like they were free.
• Fixed a crash bug when setting up default Army deployment.
• Fixed sub-menus being dimmed in most menus for no good reasons.
• Fixed rebellion risk being 100 times higher than intended for some combinations of modifiers.
• Fixed a number of tooltip bugs.
• Fixed a bug causing Loyalty/Discontent upkeep modifiers to be reversed.
• Fixed a crash bug when using 'Assign Task' from the Character Context Menu, but then cancelling when presented with options.
• Fixed missing inclusion of some Advisor-related effects when calculating expected future state, affecting the Info Panel, some AI logic and more.
• Fixed a number of editor bugs, including some very nasty 'province clean-up' bugs.
• Fixed a pathfinding bug which could lead to weird AI pathing and sometimes even AI armies freezing in place.

[ 2021-08-08 19:05:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Wasn't intending to release this one quite yet, as the Road Building feature isn't ready yet. But the number of bug fixes piling up on the beta branch made the decision for me. Road Building is still slated as the next feature and is progressing well, but it would be silly to hold back bug fixes longer than necessary. Hopefully there will not be enough bugs to warrant a new patch before Road Building can go out (and 'Accelerated Game Start').

• Binding a Mana Node now applies a stabilization effect for X turns, which gives 90% resistance against size change events and actions. X depends on the size of the mana node and can be modded using the following keys: ManaNodeBindStabilizationDurationMinor, ManaNodeBindStabilizationDurationSmall, ManaNodeBindStabilizationDurationMedium, ManaNodeBindStabilizationDurationLarge, ManaNodeBindStabilizationDurationMassive. Default values are 12, 18, 24, 30, 36.
• Non-Aggression Pact diplomacy actions now have improved information on the effects of Independent Realm 'personality' where relevant.
• Slave Infantry units are now slightly worse, but have massively reduced upkeep.
• Encyclopedia now shows base recruitment cost, upkeep cost and recruitment time for culture units.
• Character Context Menu: Worker Training. It shows what skills the character can train and at what levels.
• Character Context Menu: Assign/Cancel Assignments. These are similar to the buttons in the Follower Window.
• Effects that cause units become Undead/Non-Living now set their Food upkeep to 0 as well.
• Fixed a bug where some army effects would have lingering effects after ending if the game was saved and loaded while the effect was active.
• Fixed a bug where validation was not being run for hiring characters when it was done from the Economy window.
• Fixed some Tribal quests triggering as completed constantly for several turns.
• Fixed a bug where Tribal camp upgrades unlocked units before construction was complete.
• Fixed worker upkeep not auto-buying missing resources in the same manner as army units.
• Fixed Slave Infantry template units not being named appropriately, making them effectively indistinguishable from other similar units.
• Fixed Tribal marriage so it also applies the gold cost, not merely checking it.
• Fixed a Tribal mysterious site event which had a reversed conditional on army size leading to options being wrong.
• Fixed a bug causing Camp Migrations to put the Camp Garrison in a bad state, where it could not have units transferred into it and armies merged with it.
• Fixed a bug where City Construction progress was shown incorrectly.
• Fixed a bug where Advisor Influence bonus was shown incorrectly.

[ 2021-07-13 20:11:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Added 3 new Tribal Warlord options for culture: Goblins, (Wild) Elves and Lizardmen.
• Added a toggle to (optionally) suppress the variation for the Tribal Warlord culture chosen.
• Added a new Elf culture template: Wild Elves. They're more martial and primitive than the magical and harmonious Wood Elf template. Depending on variation settings, both can of course deviate potentially a lot from this default.
• Warlords can now add one Culture Trait to their chosen culture pre-game. This is a first iteration of culture customization as part of game setup. It's not going to stay as a single, prompt-based, option forever.
• Improved character filter options with a toggle for recruitables and a toggle to control whether multiple selections of character types in the filter are treated as AND or OR. Note that shift-clicking the Followers window opens it in 'Browse' mode where you can filter all known characters.
• Fixed keyboard-based map panning causing stuttering and instability if an army was selected
• Fixed a performance issue related to zooming the map with the mousewheel
• Fixed a crash bug which could happen during auto-resolution and non-grid-based manual resolution of battles
• Fixed a crash bug when casting Conflagration of Souls during grid-based battles
• Fixed a number of clickable links not working as expected
• Fixed a bug causing the Dungeon Expedition window to glitch if re-opened after selecting a party, but not sending them, before closing it
• Fixed a few 'world leak' bugs (where the game world from a previous session could stay in memory after loading/starting a new game)

[ 2021-07-06 20:01:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Worker Skill mechanics, including what factors contribute to a character being able train workers skills (and to what levels), are now part of the Encyclopedia.
• Additional culture and character traits now impact Worker Skill training mechanics. For example, characters of a culture with the Geomancy trait have +2 max Prospecting skill level teachable.
• Worker roles are now properly tracked for Outposts upgrading to a City or Fortress. This allows adding workers after the fact to the specific roles (as per the initial project window). An action for each valid role is shown (e.g. 'Add Builders', 'Add Settlers', 'Add Pioneers').
• Independent Realm AI now considers estimated siege duration when deciding whether to sally forth against a siege. They are now much less likely to sally early and much more likely to sally when an assault is imminent.
• Cancelling a Nomad Camp upgrade before progressing the turn will now refund the cost.
• Fixed Nomad Camp upgrade cost not causing a UI refresh (and the cost thus not being visibly deducting until something else causes a refresh).
• Fixed a bug causing Nomad Camp upgrades to finishing construction instantly. They now take the indicated time to construct.
• Fixed a bug where Nomad Camp 'cancel upgrade' instead built a new upgrade. This made it possible to duplicate upgrades.
• Fixed a bug where Nomad Camp upgrades would provide most benefits even when not built yet, or when superseded by a higher-tier upgrade.

[ 2021-07-02 21:22:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

• New covert operation task for Wizards with Master of Puppets: Suppress Unrest. This allows one or more followers to reduce unrest in a city by succeeding at a Challenge. The amount and duration of suppression depends on the outcome of the Challenge. This operation yields experience and results in a bit of Fatigue. No risk of injury or fatality implemented yet, but it probably will in the future (as well as cranking up the effect to compensate).
• New Character Challenge Tag: Brutal. Existing traits and skills have been extended to handle this where relevant.
• Character Alignment now affects certain Challenge Tags. Evil characters are slightly better at Brutal and Dishonorable. Good characters are slightly better at Leadership and Honorable. Neutral characters have a slight edge at Social.
• World Market Prices and Quantities can now be changed during game setup (under the Rules section). You can move Buy and/or Sell further away from the base price (for player-only or for player+AI). You can also modify quantities available for basic and rare resources both. This allows you to make rare resources even more rare - or the opposite - or modify all resources equally.
• Spare Leader now gives -5 Unrest on Conquest instead of +5 Unrest.
• Spellcasting during grid-based battles now works by accumulating spellcasts up to an indicated max. For example, 1 per turn up to 5 stored. On casting a spell, one of these is used. The battle magic UI text has been tweaked accordingly, and a tooltip has been added showing the source of spellcasts (including missing bonuses from not having certain traits/upgrades).
• When closing a game during turn processing or one of the interruptible prompts, the game will now reset general state (a brief 'initializing game' screen will appear). This fixes a number of issues when a current game was shut down with complex UI and/or game state going on in the background.
• Fixed a number of bugs causing the UI to freeze/hang.
• Fixed a number of text display errors.
• Fixed a bug causing the Hat Trick achievement to not trigger as intended during grid-based battles.
• Fixed a bug causing a number of windows to not close automatically on 'Next Turn' as expected. This could lead to windows having stale data from the previous turn.

[ 2021-06-29 20:06:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Worship and Offering Tasks now give Follower XP contingent on a circumstances (duration, follower class, etc).
• Proselytize now gives Divine Favor with the target religion (based inversely on the current size of following at the location). If the action causes a religious shift reducing the following of another religion, Divine Wrath will result.
• Proselytize now yields Follower XP on success. The amount is based on the difficulty.
• Added Army Office effect tooltips to the Office Panel (General, Scout Captain, Champion, Quartermaster).
• Filters have been added to the Office Panel in the Faction Window. These can toggle army/site/faction/emissary offices and also "unfilled offices only". This helps reduce the otherwise sometimes very large list to something more manageable.
• Nether Gates now exhaust armies, and cannot be used by an exhausted army.
• Nether Gates are now shown when selecting a site (as an icon with the actions)
• Fixed a number of text formatting bugs.

[ 2021-06-25 19:15:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

• New Spell: Cold Blood (Frost). Powerful unit buff (Hardy, Fearless, +4 Discipline, +2 Toughness, +1 Melee Skill) with per-turn mana upkeep.
• New Spell: Nether Gate. Can be used to teleport armies between Death Mana Nodes, Dungeons (Undeath/Spirit type and/or sub-type), Cities with Mausoleum/Cemetery/etc, Ancient Pyramids, and similar sites connected to the netherworld. You cast the spell to create a gate at a site. Armies get a special action if at a site with a gate (and there are valid destination gates).
• Expanded the use of clickable links to cover more tool tips. Some of these link directly to the Encyclopedia.
• Mercenary units now tend to have higher starting Experience levels, and can potentially (but rarely) have very high Experience levels.
• Player Advisor will now suggest creating constructs.
• Demolishing a Temple now causes Divine Wrath.
• Building a Temple in a City or Fortress now grants Divine Favor.
• Followers Window: When in Inventory Mode, you can switch selection without the mode switching away.
• Fixed an issue where Independent Realms could build new sites in a rather obnoxious way that violated normal territory control mechanics.
• Succubus units now have Melee Avoidance - a new ability which grants a dodge roll against melee attacks.
• Advisor/Administrator/Elder class characters now give additional bonuses when assigned to the Advirsor Office.
• Deities Panel (Faction Window): Worship/Offering buttons are not active if there are no valid followers for the current selection.
• Divine Boon: Remove Trait added as a new category of possible rewards.
• FIxed missing text prompts during grid-based battles.
• FIxed the Diplomatic Overview not having tool tips for factions.
• FIxed some War Declaration and Vassal Independence bugs not having proper tool tips.
• FIxed missing mechanics on the Fortress Window upgrade display.
• Fixed a number of item exchange/revocation bugs.
• FIxed a number of bugs related to Divine Favor.
• Fixed a lingering text display issue with dialog prompts.
• FIxed a rare trait validation bug.
• FIxed several Death Mastery spell crash bugs (during battles).
• FIxed a crash bug related to effects applied pre-game start.

[ 2021-06-22 20:51:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a small bug fix patch.

• Dark Patron gift events (from the Dark Pact trait) now include a description, tooltip and/or go to link as relevant to the nature of the gift.
• The Show Idle Followers toggle no longer includes Followers that are Idle but recovering.
• Fixed a bug which allowed Worship / Offering (from the Deities page) to assign Wounded/Recovering followers to the task.
• Fixed some characters traits being incorrectly categorized in some situations during character generation (low number of traits specifically). This led to characters with too few traits being generated in some edge cases.
• Fixed a crash bug related to Divine Favor Boons. If a site is already affected by a boon, the duration will be extended (if possible), or at worst nothing will happen, rather than a crash.
• Fixed Dark Rituals discontent not being blocked by the Intimidating trait in one outcome branch.
• Fixed Pact of Nature not giving correct numerical bonus to some resource sites (there was a discrepancy between display value and actual value) when workers of a relevant culture were assigned.
• (1.0.2.24): Fixed Dark Patron gift event firing constantly.

[ 2021-06-16 20:27:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Major Lairs: New game setting. If enabled these will be generated according to world settings. Non-Warlord players (human and AI) cannot build in a province with an active major lair. You can clear them by moving an army to the lair and attacking it. Random monsters are generated based on terrain and world settings.
• Dungeons no longer block construction of a site in the same hex. Selection cycling will shift display of the active entity in the hex. This means that undiscovered dungeons will no longer block site construction, confusing new players and alerting seasoned players to the dungeon location.
• Custom construct unit types can now be deleted from the recruitment 'roster' (via the context menu).
• New monster: Bonnacons. Pestilence 5, Fire 5, Beasts 3. Reasonably cheap to research. Decent survival, but low for a monster-type unit. However, it has strong multi-damage type attacks at range and in melee.
• New monster: Wyverns. Bad-tempered lesser dragon-kin with poison stinger.
• Armies added to the new right-click context menu logic.
• Added sub-menu functionality to the context menu code to accommodate army actions (when multiple armies are in a hex, they will get an item each with an attached sub-menu, to save space).
• AoE attack resolution now considers physical size of target and attacker in a better way.
• Non-optional notifications (level up, some events) can now be postponed until later during the player turn. You can open the option dialog and then choose a 'postpone' option, and thus no longer be forced to make a choice once you've opened it.
• Cursor is now brightened when hovering over a link which can be clicked to navigate to the relevant object (ie a character or army). Hyperlinks really.
• New spell: Unstoppable Assault. Destruction 9. Progress siege of City or Fortress (not Wizard Tower) instantly to 100%. Any fortification-style buildings in a City are destroyed. Fortresses will be reduced to the lowest level (Fort).
• Added 'inspect' context menu item for Character Elements. Currently only active in Dungeon Window.
• Added Divine Favor to one branch of the Forbidden Tome dungeon reward event. (Burning it).
• Added tooltip to the 'Request Gift' diplomacy action where independent realms want stuff. Also added Capital City if you know it. Both of these are clickable links (allowing you to navigate to their respective UI).
• Editor now has a 'big brush' mode for Province hex add mode.
• Nerfed the incredibly overpowered Djinni (who were even more overpowered with the AoE fix).
• Fixed 'Back' button in the Followers window being unable to navigate Back to anything not an Army.
• Fixed Draconic Lore not properly considering the non-Spellcraft projects for discovery bonuses.
• Fixed Wizard Towers having a no-effect Leader Office.
• Fixed a bug causing the notification text replacing 'Next Turn' to go missing. These are the ones shown when a pending non-optional notification/choice is pending attention.
• Fixed a number of crash bugs related army deployment configuration.
• Fixed a crash bug related to merging units.
• Fixed a crash bug related to the Shatter spell.
• Fixed an issue causing world seeds to not be very stable across patches except for geography.
• Fixed targeting of Empowered Furnaces.
• Fixed AoE attacks usually not doing any AoE damage at all.

Save Game Management

• Rolling auto-saves: You can now choose to autosave more than the latest turn. By setting the number of files to something higher than 1, the auto-saves will store the last number of turns accordingly.
• Save file folder structure: Each 'campaign' now has a folder under a save folder within the main persistent data folder. Previously all save files were put in the same folder, which could lead to overwriting files by accident. It was also a mess when you needed to manually interact with files in the folder (bug reports, modding). Existing save files are migrated automatically to the new structure.
• Delete save group: You can now delete a full group of save files (ie all save files for a particular campaign). This makes cleaning up old save games much faster and less annoying.
• Confirm dialog on deleting files. A checkbox on each file dialog allows you to disable this if you need to delete a lot of files.

[ 2021-06-14 19:02:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Divine Favor: New type of Boon which adds a character trait/skill to a chosen follower. Religious-class followers are ineligible if the religion does not match. Other followers have a 50% to fail if the religion does not match - but on success, there is a 50% the follower changes religion. Alignment restrictions and deity acceptance are checked for each of these steps.
• Divine Favor: When requesting a Boon you can now choose to keep trying until you get one. This saves you from having to open the window and re-select Request Boon until you get a Boon. Instead the game will keep trying until you get one (with the chance shown per attempt) or you run out of Favor.
• Added Inspect and Select as replacement for Go To on the floating message dialog. One, both or none are shown as relevant to the context object.
• Added a 'Show Idle Only' toggle to the Workers Window.
• The basic Multiple Choice dialog will reposition to avoid any options being off-screen.
• Fixed Proselytize not checking character task validity
• Fixed a number of bugs related to Context Menu display.
• Fixed a number of bugs related to message and dialogs being shown when processing 'planned path' army movement after clicking next turn. If any such occur, the army is now selected and turn processing delayed (ie you click again after handling the event), as this movement is technically pre-turn resolution.
• Fixed several Offices not enforcing Task restrictions as intended.
• Fixed Mysterious Site events related to Recruits being rolled and silently failing when Recruitment Pools are disabled. Now a different event is chosen.
• Fixed Fortress Window not showing the cost to build upgrades.
• Fixed a bug where the Fortress Window was displaying incorrect estimated time to construct upgrades.
• Fixed a crash bug related to Tribal Talismans of Protection.
• Fixed a bug where Divine Offering was not deducting the offered resources and the Favor was being added every turn until task was cancelled.

[ 2021-06-07 16:18:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.0.2.16

• Wild Magic (Wizard Trait): Will now randomize the color of tower expansion slots, initial and on tower level-up both. This can include white (prismatic/all), which is the special slot color that counts as all others. One of the initial slots will always be white.
• Tweaked the cost of changing tower expansion color. It now costs more gold and less mana. Gold still scales geometrically with tower level, mana now scales linearly (in addition to the lower base cost).
• Site Context Menu: Right-clicking a Site on the World Map will now show a Context Menu with all available actions relating to the site. If you have an army selected, movement of that army is added to the context menu under a separate header.
• Wizard Tower Window: The expansion slots now use a context menu instead of opening a separate window. This saves a couple of clicks when building new expansions.
• Military Window (Wizard): Added a context menu to unit types which acts as a shortcut to the Recruit button. If there are multiple valid sites, these are shown in the menu instead of the plain Recruit action.
• Military Window (Wizard): Double-clicking a unit type is now equivalent to the Recruit button - if there is only one available for this unit type site.
• Military Window (Wizard): Double-clicking the site list is now equivalent to the Recruit button (ie recruiting the selected unit type at the indicated site).
• A notification is now created when Wizard Tower (level) upgrade is completed. It includes info on max workers increase and new expansion slots gained.
• Added a section explaining the Wizard Tower and some related mechanics to the Intro Window.
• Context Menu headers can now have tooltips.
• Improved a number of tooltips and text blocks to have neater formatting/colors.
• Workers now show as Training and not Idle (when Training)
• Fixed a crash bug in the World Generator related to Culture Mount assignment
• Fixed the Context Menu position logic to avoid drawing outside of the screen area.

1.0.2.17

• Fixed a crash bug when right-clicking rivers in the Editor.
• Fixed a crash bug when assigning workers to Outposts.

[ 2021-06-04 20:52:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Hire workers can be done from the Workers Window.
• Training Workers will now clear any on-going assignment. I know this is annoying when you want them to resume their previous task after being trained, and I will add that in patch soon, but allowing Workers to be trained while active was causing a number of bugs. There are still a few known issues with Workers being trained counting as Idle for UI purposes. I will fix those very soon (probably tomorrow).
• Characters with Wizard's Apprentice and Advisor offices can now train workers.
• Clicking worker units in outliner will now select the worker in the list on opening the worker window.
• Select Units Window (used for a few events and mechanics): Shift+click will now add/remove. Buttons have been added for Add All and Remove All. On Adding/Removing the next unit in the list is selected.
• Advisor and Wizard's Apprentice offices can now be assigned max once per turn.
• Mercantile Advisor now gives a -5% Gold Cost modifier to Research (stacks with Mercantile+Scholar/Arcane)
• Fixed a Mercantile+Scholar Advisor not giving the expected -5% Gold cost modifier (Arcane worked, Scholar didn't)
• Arrow keys will now navigate the Worker Window list
• Fixed Dungeon Expedition characters counting as having the tower/capital as location, which led to weird event results and ambient character activity.
• Color picker: Clicking outside the colors/slider will now cancel the selection. Previously you had to choose a color to close the picker, forcing you to override a previous selection.
• Fixed battle turn play-back jumping to the end of turn sometimes before beginning the playback, giving the appearance of weird glitchy grid movement.
• Fixed a crash fix in the map editor
• Fix the Next Army button sometimes being shown in the map editor
• Fixed a bug causing Tooltips to contain the text from another text block
• Fixed the 13th unit in an army disappearing after setting up default army deployment
• Fixed the Back button being broken in a number of windows
• Fixed the Custom Battle search function to not be case-sensitive.

[ 2021-06-03 21:15:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Zoom (World Map and Battle Grid): You can now use CTRL and PLUS/MINUS as well as CTRL and PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN as an alternative to the mouse wheel.
• Fixed the number of Veteran Warriors not being saved correctly for Tribal Chief factions.
• Fixed some battle effects, most notably 'Character Joined', lingering after the battle.
• Fixed a crash caused by trying use invalid filename characters when saving a game. The save button is now greyed out instead, with a tooltip indicating the offending character(s).
• Fixed a bug causing a very long delay sometimes being added between or after battle turns during grid-based battles, for no apparent reason and with nothing happening.

[ 2021-06-01 14:37:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

With a focus on Battles and Dungeon Expeditions this update is named 'Valor' as a reference to the courage of those delving into the dangers of haunted crypts and fiery depths, and the ranks of poor infantrymen who stand on the battlefield bravely receiving the charges of Phoenixes, Zombie hordes and Death Knights. Patch notes are below. I'll add a few more words to the update in a separate post on the forums later. If you're curious about what happened to my plans for cities or if the Golem update is next, those question should be answered there. I'll update this with a link when I've made that post. A big thanks to P. Casimir and Verroth for submitting an awesome amount of Dungeon flavor text. You can enjoy this in your game by enabling the new Lore Module. Optional Grid-Based Battles

• You can now enable a new Battle Resolution system from the Game Settings window. This allows you to enable and disable this option at any time before or during a game. There are still many planned improvements to the grid-based battle system, and it has not been made the default. That will probably happen in 1.0.3, or before, depending on player feedback and pace of development progress. There are no plans to remove the classic mode when the default mode changes.
• Custom Battles can be launched from the Main Menu completely separate from the 'normal' game mode. You select the roster for the two armies and can then fight it out against the AI.
• Custom Battles can be named and saved to a file. This allows you to replay battles and to store favorite rosters. The files can be shared manually between players - but workshop integration is planned along with more options for setting up battles, randomizing rosters and creating linked battles. The campaign mode will (of course) remain the focus of the game.
• If the Grid-Based system is enabled, you can set up default deployment, formations and orders for your armies by opening the Army Window (ie inspecting an Army), selecting Army Details and then clicking Army Deployment button.
• Units can be grouped into Formations, which you create and name during Deployment. Orders can be given at the Formation level, saving a lot of time. You can still give member Units separate orders. If the Unit order is more 'aggressive' than the Formation order, it will override it. But if you wish a Unit to Hold when the Formation is Advancing or Charging, it must leave the Formation.
• During Deployment, if the Formation panel is open and a Formation selected, shift-click will add units to that Formation. This is a quick way to setup Formations.
• After the Deployment phase, you can multi-select units by using shift-click.
• When right-clicking an enemy unit, you have the option to set it as ranged and/or melee target for the currently selected friendly unit(s). You can always clear the target. Depending on orders and opportunity the unit will attempt to follow this priority.
• Units are locked in melee with adjacent enemy units unless they have the Skirmish or Blink ability. Units with Skirmish can lock other Skirmishers in place. Blink units can always disengage.
• Resolution speed and turns per 'next' can be configured at any time during battles. You can also 'skip to end', but make sure the current unit orders are what you want before pressing this.
• Characters have a somewhat bigger impact on battles in the new mode, and the mechanics/bonuses are fully described/previewed when assigning characters and inspecting unit info.

Game Setup and World Settings

• The Game Setup Window has been overhauled and divided into four tabs.
• You can now name you Game World. If you do not choose a name, it will use the default name 'Mortal Plane'. You can also choose to use your name as the World Seed.
• The World Seed can now be a text string. It will still be converted to an integer via a hashing algorithm, so the underlying Seed system has not been changed. But you can now tell other players to check out CarrotWorld rather than an arbitrary integer.
• World and Rules settings have now been separated into two different tabs. A few settings could arguably belong in either, but separating the two makes for a less cluttered user interface.
• New Rule Setting: Recruitment Pools (Disabled or Normal). This allows you to disable the Recruitment Pool mechanic, which is a somewhat harsh mechanic that not all players enjoy. For new players it will be disabled by default.
• AI Rivals now have a separate panel, and you can choose up to 9 Rivals, rather than a maximum of 6 as before.
• Custom Presets can now be created and saved/loaded. With an increasing number of settings, it had become rather laborious to select the favorite setup every time when starting a new game. This new panel allows you to store the current set of settings and choices as a named preset. You can create any number of presets, and can also choose one of these as a default in place of the built-in default.
• Lore Modules is a new concept to manage optional and discrete content. The existing 'Silly Events' setting has been migrated to a Lore Module. A new collection of Dungeon Flavor text authored by two players (P. Casimir and Verroth) has been added as the other inaugural Lore Module. It has 52 unique Dungeon descriptions. Enabling Lore Modules function like the other three categories of settings and are stored as part of a preset.

Dungeons

• The Dungeon Window, used for forming and managing Dungeon Expeditions has been greatly reworked. No longer are expeditions sent immediately on selecting the party, which was a confusing departure from the UI in the rest of the game.
• A 'preview effects' panel has been added, which shows whether various party role requirements are fulfilled. Tooltips show the effects of meeting these (or failing to do so).
• Important Tags are now shown in the Dungeon Window making it a bit easier to pick followers based on the challenges posed by the specific Dungeon.
• The Expedition Log has been split into 'Recent Events' and a Log of previous turns. You see the recent events directly in the window, and the log can be inspected via a button.
• You can now inspect the Log(s) after an Expedition has been completed and/or a Dungeon cleared.
• Deities now have an interest in many Dungeons. Depending on the type of interest (Opposing or Protective) you will gain Divine Favor or Divine Wrath if you clear the Dungeon. Including a Religion-class character in the expedition affects this mechanic, allowing you to placate and/or champion specific deities for decreased/increased impact.
• Dungeon Flavor text. A very basic description has been added for each dungeon type. The new Lore Module describe above includes 52 unique descriptions applied based on Dungeon theme and danger level.
• Three new Dungeon Themes: Arcane, Eldritch and Fae. These have associated Tags

New Player Experience

• Wizard players now have an 'Advisor' action which will show a window with a number of suggestion on what to do. Clicking a suggestion will go to the relevant window and/or selection. The suggestions are based on the current game state and player resources/assets. I expect to expand the quality and range of suggestions with future patches.
• The Advisor action, the new default settings (e.g. disabled recruitment pools) and less cluttered game setup window are meant to make the game slightly less daunting to new players. I think the Advisor concept has potential to greatly help avoid the feeling of being lost, and perhaps in time also help expose to sub-systems and mechanics which are easy to miss.

Other Changes

• Continents are now named during World Generation.
• The Encyclopedia now includes World Info (name, continents, oceans, etc.)
• Map Hexes now have a tooltip which list Hex Conditions and Resource Specials.
• The tooltip for a selected entity on the world map will now list a summary of other relevant entities in the hex.
• In the Global Game Settings you can now disable 'Floating Tooltips'. This will lock tooltips to the location of the mouse when they're shown. If you dislike tooltips following the cursor after being shown, this gives a more classic style of tooltip displaay.
• Faerie Dust: The 20% sell price penalty has been raised to a 90% sell penalty. This greatly widens the gap between buy and sell price for this resource.
• Bow of Destruction: New magic item which gives +5 to Combat Challenges and +2 Siege Progress (does not stack on multiple owners for the same siege).

Bug Fixes

• Battle indicators on the world map are no longer lost when loading a game.
• Fixed a few bugs relating to Mysterious Sites.
• Fixed a number of spelling errors.
• Fixed a crash bug relating to unit recruitment.
• Fixed a crash bug relating to AI processing.

The aggregated patch notes for all minor updates and patches after 1.0.1 can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/567080/discussions/4/3092263995631246815/

[ 2021-05-30 16:51:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a small patch to fix some bugs and issues. A more solid update is getting closer, but needs a little bit more time in the oven.

• Arena (Wizard Tower Upgrade): Now unlock elite infantry units when the Tower reaches level 3. This is in conjunction with other upgrades, so Archery Range for ranged units, Armory for heavy units, etc.
• Tweaked the unit unlock logic for Wizard Tower Upgrades so they're guaranteed to unlock at least one unit. Most have also been given an additional unlock per culture - so depending on culture unit variety there can now sometimes be two or more unit types unlocked by an upgrade (on a per-culture basis).
• Fixed a crash bug related to the Dungeon Window.
• Fixed a bug where duplicate Tower Upgrade could be built for all types.
• Fixed a bug where the full Emissary character/target validation was not run for tasks assigned via character suggestions and free agent behavior.

[ 2021-05-24 21:02:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

• When generating a world with the 'Silly' game setting, centaurs will sometimes have one or two (awkward) cavalry unit types.
• Tweaked the unit type name generator to restrict use of the (relatively rare) Light/Heavy adjective. The range of base names it can be applied to is now smaller.
• Fixed a bug where generic unit mounts would not resolved correctly in some cases.
• Fixed a bug in the unit type name generator which could assign an empty name to units when resolving a name duplicate.
• Fixed a bug in the dynamic unit type generator which sometimes caused cavalry units to be created for centauroid or no-cavalry cultures/races.
• Fixed a crash in the world generator
• Fixed a crash caused by the Hunt Food ability when the unit was in an army with a quartermaster, but no general.

[ 2021-05-17 13:17:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Cavalry will now have the Unsettling, Noxious, Terror abilities if the mount type has it (and the unit doesn't have a superior ability from other factors, ie culture/race/unit template).
• Subterranean cultures are now much less likely to generate a wide variety of cavalry unit types. They will usually have 1 now - but sometimes none, and sometimes more.
• Some cultures now have a chance to generate chariot unit types even if they don't have the chariot trait. This is more likely to happen for primitive cultures.
• Cultures can now have multiple Mount traits. The Default/Primary Culture Mount is no longer linked to the Mount traits, which fixes a few bugs, and allows for a variety of Mounts.
• Flying creatures are now much less likely to be assigned as the 'Primary Culture Mount'. Instead when the generator rolls such a mount, it will usually be a (non-primary) Mount Trait, and thus assigned to specialized/elite units.
• Unit and unit type mounts are now specified (when relevant) in the Army and Military windows.
• Increased the number of Culture factors affecting Chariot Unit Type generation, creating a greater range of stats (based on the type of unit and culture). Added a chance for Chariot Units to have ranged weapon. Cultures with the Chariots trait will tend to have better Chariot units than those without it.
• Slightly reduced the average number of unit types created for cultures.
• Fixed a number of monsters not valid for unit mounts being in the pool for Default/Primary Culture Mounts and thus sometimes leading to weird situations when the game tried to resolve the stats for a non-existent unit type.
• Fixed chariot units not being generated by the dynamic unit generator.
• Fixed cavalry not being given the Flight, Limited Flight and Leap abilities from their mounts, if relevant.
• Fixed a bug causing some units to have generic Mounts even when there is one or more culture-specific mounts.
• Fixed a bug causing Custom Constructs (Golems) to be given a World Movement stat of 0. Existing games with this issue are retroactively fixed (by setting World Movement to Battle Movement) on loading the game.
• Fixed Custom Constructs not having a Skill rating for their ranged attacks.

[ 2021-05-15 15:49:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Unit Types

• Valkyries and Greater Valkyries now wield Runeglaives. Lesser Valkyries still have Runeblades.
• Heralds of Discord (Chaos 5): New unit type. Heavy Infantry with a chaos-imbued mallet dealing multiple types of damage (physical, arcane, lightning, true) and having a short-range sonic missile attack from banging their gong-shields.
• Gremlins (Chaos 2): New unit type. Fragile skirmish/ambush unit with weak attacks, one of which deals increased damage to construct/machine units. In other words, they're pesky little golem saboteurs.
• Spirit Ravens (Divination 3): New unit type. Weak unit but fast, flying and with a high scouting stat. Useful for exploration and scouting.
• Smilodons (Beast 5): New unit type. Giant cats with big teeth.
• Spirit units have been reworked slightly, to create a clean distinction between undead and shamanistic/animistic spirits. The former are now Spectral and Undead. The latter have the Spirit tag, and include the following unit types: Spirit Hounds, Spirit Wolves and the new Spirit Ravens. The unit types previously named Spirit Host and Ancient Spirit Host have been renamed Spectral Host and Ancient Spectral Host.
• Culture Unit Generator: When generating culture unit types, any Weapon Preference/Mastery traits are processed, and their inclusion guaranteed. Previously it only affected the weapon generation weights on a per-unit basis, which could often lead to the traits not being reflected in any unit type. There is now a culture-wide analysis step making sure this does not happen.
• Culture Unit Generator: Several Animal Affinity culture traits now have a chance to assign cavalry units a special unit.
• Culture Unit Generator: Elemental Affinity culture traits can now result in magical attacks or unit stats/abilities. Game settings for world prevalence of magic affects the chance of this. Elite units have a higher chance to roll these bonuses.

UI and Graphics

• The Split Army action now opens the Unit Transfer Window after creating the new army.
• Dungeons and Minor Sites now have a context-specific action to hide (and un-hide) them from the world map. This is useful to hide empty dungeons and burial sites. The hide/show filters will not override this per-site setting (ie hiding a minor site and then toggling the global minor site filter twice does not re-show that particular minor site).
• The Text Input Window used for renaming things now responds to the enter key as a short-cut for the OK button.
• Worker Window: Added a 'Go To' button which focuses on the assignment location.
• Worker Window: The name part of each element now has tool tip with extended info on culture, race and other relevant attributes not normally listed in the element.
• Worker Window: Workers can now be renamed via a button in this window. The new name is of course reflected in the outliner and anywhere else the worker is referenced.
• Unit Icons: Dynamically generated units for Dwarf cultures now have 5 different icons for infantry icons. I intend to expand the variety of 'mundane' unit icons in coming patches, gradually covering more races, and hopefully also finding a way to indicate armament as part of the icon.
• Character Window: Several prompts for selecting a follower/character are now sorted by Idle status and name (alphabetically). I haven't covered all prompts yet, so more will follow.

Modding

• Mods can now override unit icons again. Note that this is different than creating new mappings (eg adding a new image for Angels of Hope), it replaces a built-in icon (eg replacing the pikeman image does so for all units using it). The modding guide explains the usage of these two in more detail (UnitGfx vs UnitIcon).
• Fixed a number of unit type import bugs, where some attributes were not read correctly from the mod xml file.
• Unit Types which have a Culture and/or Race will no longer 'lose' these if the unit stats are modded.
• Playing with a Mod which changes unit stats will disable achievements (for the active game). In addition, on saving a game any such mod use will be written to the save file. So even if you disable the mod during subsequent turns, the campaign will still be invalid for achievements.

Misc. Mechanics

• Unpaid Unit upkeep will now prevent (non-regeneration/healing) replenishment for 1 turn. This also has the effect of fixing the issue where desertion was immediately replenished and made irrelevant.
• Grand Barracks: New city building which provides an additional progress path to unlock elite units. It is intended to cover the gap between War Academy and Inner Circle Warrior Lodge. Some cultures, even war-like ones, did not fulfill the requirements for either of these, which led to a weird lack of elite units.
• Beast Handler (Character Trait): New skill-type trait. Gives a stat bonus to beast/monster units when general or unit commander, may enable unit hunt food production. Gives additional beast mastery progress if Wizard's Apprentice.
• Hunt Food (Unit Special Ability): The food income part of this ability now requires beast 4+, life 7+, or beast handler (scout captain, level 5+ general, level 3+ quartermaster). The upkeep reduction does not have any such requirement.
• Hunt Food (Unit Special Ability): Being location in a Blighted hex now reduce food produced. A Primal hex increases it. Cities no longer block this ability if the city culture has the Pact with Nature trait.
• Forage Food (Unit Special Ability): Cities no longer block this ability if the city culture has the Pact with Nature trait.
• Scavenge Food (Unit Special Ability): If the owner is unable to pay upkeep and the missing upkeep is gold and food only, the unit will not suffer a debuff. If the unpaid upkeep is food only, the unit will not suffer desertion.
• Army General (Army-wide bonus): Undead units only get bonuses from an undead general or general with Necromancy.
• Army General (Army-wide bonus): Celestial units only get bonuses from a celestial general.
• Army General (Army-wide bonus): Demon units only get bonuses from a demon general or general with Occult Lore.
• Army General (Army-wide bonus): Fae units only get bonuses from a fae general.
• Army Champion (Army-wide bonus): Removed base +1 Courage, and replaced it with : +1 Courage if Level 6+, +1 Courage if Level 9+. (+1 Courage with Inspire Courage as before).
• Army General/Scout Captain/Champion: Army-wide unit bonuses no longer apply to mindless units, Train Troops now only affect warrior/soldier/regular units, Incite Frenzy doesn't affect unfeeling/monsters/extra-planar/magical, Inspire Courage doesn't affect unfeeling/monster/limited mind.

Bug Fixes and Tweaks

• Map Search window now responds to the Enter key. Selecting the chosen result if possible, and closing the search window and panel.
• 'Next Turn' is no longer triggered by pressing Enter while Map Search is active.
• Right-clicking an item in the outliner is now equivalent to double-clicking. The settings are only opened if right-clicking an outliner header.
• The minor sites filter is not shown when there are no minor sites on the map.
• Fixed a number of windows not responding to the Escape key as intended.
• Fixed the Reaper's Due spell hitting too many targets.
• Fixed some dynamically generated culture unit types not being assigned the intended main weapon defined by a template.
• Fixed a bug causing some character portraits to almost never be used.
• Fixed a bug causing missing text separation in a couple of UI elements.
• The map scrolling is now blocked when using shift/alt/ctrl. Some multi-key shortcuts were also scrolling the map which was not intended.
• Fixed a bug causing some achievements to not always be granted as intended. They would still be granted if the achievement evaluation logic was triggered by certain conditions and actions, but the per-turn evaluation was not being run.

Split Units

• Changed the mechanics regarding 'split units'. This is in preparation for making it a battle-only option, usable during the pre-battle phase and when creating army battle plan. For now, it is still used from the Army Window, but with a number of significant changes.
• Split unit are now automatically renamed with a Detachment postfix. They're also marked with an asterisk in most parts of the UI. The unit they were split from is considered their parent unit.
• Split units can no longer merge with any unit except their parent unit. A parent unit cannot be merged with any unit, until all split units have been merged back into the parent unit.
• Units which cannot replenish losses can no longer be split. They can still merge with any unit having the same unit type identity. A future patch will include the option to merge two sub-strength units into equally sized units (e.g. 90 + 50 currently gives 100 + 40, but the plan is to make 70 + 70 an option).
• Splitting a unit from an already split unit will now result in a unit which is considered a split of the original 'master' unit. E.g. Unit B is split from Unit A, then Unit C is split from Unit B - resulting in B and C both being considered split from Unit A.
• Split units no longer incur a special upkeep penalty. Their upkeep is now purely based on the numerical size of the unit.
• Split units can no longer be moved to a different army.

[ 2021-05-13 15:51:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Map terrain graphics can now be modded. The modding guide has a new section on how to use this.
• The modding guide now has sections on sigil modding and mechanics modding. Some of the other sections have been updated as well.
• Added a new Territory Overlay toggle, which shows a colored map overlay using the faction colors. This provides an easier way to quickly get an overview of faction province control.
• Research Projects now have a short name which is used in the list when browsing projects, removing a lot of repeated text when listing projects from the same category.
• Randomly generated cultures can now have weapon/shield/armor variants with different (usually better) stats than the basic version. These are given special names based on culture and language - and applied automatically to the unit types of the culture.
• Unit types generated as part of randomly generated cultures can now have magical weapons. The chance is based on the game settings for magic rarity. Elite and special unit types tend to have these more often. The name of the weapon and the stats/abilities given depend on cultural traits.
• New unit weapon: Glaive. It's a polearm and a pretty good one.
• Units with the Hunt special ability now generate Food if the army is not at a City or garrisoned.
• Units with the Forage and Hunt special abilities now consume less Food for upkeep based on the hex the army is located in.
• Undead Units now have lower upkeep in Blighted hexes.
• Darkened hexes now cause armies to have a higher upkeep while in the hex.
• Added Death Knight Lords, an improved version of Death Knights, at Necromancy 8, and moved Risen Champions to Necromancy 7.
• Buffed a number of Fae, Beast and Monster unit types by reducing their cost and/or improving their stats.
• Increased the variety of units Wizards can be given as starting army. These are tied to traits and terrain as usual, improving the chance of thematic starting army.
• Improved the algorithm which determines cost for randomly generated units so that it gives consideration to additional factors.
• Fixed a number of bugs where some (non-randomly generated) units did not have the weapons they were supposed, making them much weaking than intended, and in a few other cases not giving them the intended bonus stats. Using the new equipment variant system, these units now work as intended.
• Fixed a bug where the Encyclopedia did not properly reset when loading or starting a new game, using unnecessary memory until it was opened again and showing phantom pages from the previous game.
• Fixed a bug where character and army contributions to expected gold and resource income was not included in the info panel and in the economy ledger.
• Fixed a bug where weapon/attack stats were not always in sync in various windows.
• Fixed a crash bug relating to the nomad raider AI.
• Fixed a bug causing recruitment modifiers to not be selectable in many cases.
• Fixed Beacon of Elemental Frost targeting not working as intended.

[ 2021-05-08 17:26:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Wizard AI has learned to use Drain Mana Nodes, and will tend to research it early in the game.
• Wizard AI is now more biased towards recruiting magic units over mundane units - especially in situations where it has a low number of Fortresses/Cities.
• Wizard AI is now better at picking useful research projects.
• Independent Realms will now remember if given requested aid during a war, and tend to not declare war on the assisting faction due to aggressive expansion.
• Fixed a bug where AI armies would gather an increasingly large army at a Mana Node that could not be bound (due to lack of Mana).
• Fixed a text display bugs relating to unit special abilities.

[ 2021-05-03 21:13:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a small bug fix patch. A good amount of my time since the patch a few days went into the battle beta patch coming out later today. Bug Fixes / Tweaks

• Upgrade Outpost: The toggle to assign (or not) the Leader after construction is now respected.
• Acid Spray (Water Spell): Now deals the intended number of hits (10, up to unit size).
• Upgrade Resource Site: Progress display is now correct for Level 2+.
• Search Province: Fixed a number of issues related to joining a party with this task and re-starting the task with a party.
• Unit Type Display: Removed weird empty lines placed in the middle of unit type stats sometimes.
• Sorting: Changed a number of lists (in text and UI) to be sorted alphabetically.
• Icons: Blood Beasts and Abominations got a new unit icon image. Arcanosaurians now use a lizard icon image and not a sword.

[ 2021-05-02 20:33:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mechanics and Units

• World and Battle Movement has been separated into two separate stats for Units. This makes balancing the stat easier and it allows for units that are slow on the battlefield but not almost useless in a non-Garrison army. I have reviewed all units and adjusted the new stats, but I'm expecting to adjust further according to player feedback and my own findings with this new system.
• The Supply Depot and Forced March movement modifiers are now integrated into the effect system, making them less glitchy, and more visible in the relevant parts of the UI.
• Mana Nodes with garrisons can no longer be Bound or Drained without defeating the garrison.
• Most of the City stat modifiers applied during Leader interactions on conquest are now cleared when a subsequent conquest is resolved (and re-applied or not, depending on the outcome of new interaction).
• Reworked numerous 'baked modifiers' to City stats - mostly Unrest and Squalor. These would previously change the value permanently and without trackable source. They are now stat modifiers with durations and visibility in tool tips.
• City Pop role drift is now locked to max. 1 pop per turn to reduce jitter and role change spam.
• Spells cast during battles now count for purposes of Mastery Progress.
• New Unit Types: Greater Blood Beasts, Blood Abominations, Stormlings.
• Barghasts, Djinni and Efreeti are now unlocked through Mastery Progress rather than requiring a research project.
• Reduced the upkeep cost for most Demon unit types and buffed several of the unreasonably weak ones.
• Significantly reduced the resource cost of many research projects.
• Massively reduced the cost of the 'Mark' line of unit recruitment options. This goes for recruitment and upkeep modifiers both.
• Garrison army units no longer get an upkeep reduction if they have moved during the turn. This removes the ability to 'garrison-hop' as an unintended way to reduce unit upkeep.
• Increased Garrison upkeep reduction from 10% to 20% for Gold (Food is unchanged at 20%)
• Dedicated Garrison: New recruitment modifier. Max 2 per site. Unit will dedicated garrison of the chosen recruitment site. While garrisoned at this site the Food/Gold upkeep is reduced by 50%/75% respectively. If away from the site, the unit has increased Gold upkeep of +50%.

AI

• Independent Nomad AI and raid mechanics have been streamlined and improved. This includes the battle decision and raid movement logic on the AI side. On the mechanics side, the logic for raising new units, raid frequency, raid targets and raid sizes, has been changed. The game settings regarding marauders (frequency/power) will now have a greater impact on all of these.
• AI rivals will now declare war when attacking Player sites and/or armies. Previously the AI assumed the player would do so (as this happens for AI vs AI interactions). Apart from annoying many players, this could lead to odd situations where the AI forgot about the war if they player didn't declare it.
• Wizard AI now prioritizes units with low movement and (relative) upkeep for garrison duty and units with high movement for warfare/exploration.
• Wizard AI now considers resource site opportunities prioritized by the value of expected resource output and no longer tries to spread construction evenly across provinces.
• Wizard AI is now capable of using unit recruitment options.

Sieges

• Siege engines and towers can now be destroyed by defenders during a protracted siege. The chance is based on the number and power of defending units. Sappers, flyers and fire units contribute additional ability.
• Siege durations involving a random element (ie Siege Engines) now show the estimated duration as a range.
• The max number of Siege Towers is now limited by the number of sieging units.

Bug Fixes, UI and Misc

• Several events, notifications and entities have been given new icons replacing the prior generic ones.
• Army (Unit) Transfer Window: Now has tool tips for units and three different sorting options.
• The Select Character or Party prompt mode for the Followers window now has a context-specific 'selection' button label. Ie if a character with no party is selected the button will say 'Select Character' - if a character with a party is selected the button will say 'Select Party'.
• Recruitment Window: Now displays unit size.
• Improved the 'Plea for Help' prompt to have tool tips and Go To links for the relevant armies/sites.
• All resurrection and rebirth effects now modify the 'recent losses' value preventing multiple same-turn applications of such effects from resurrecting more than the number of fallen
• Recruitment (unit) options are now sorted by state and name.
• Fixed a research panel refund amount display bug.
• Fixed a bug where 'Create Army' would act weirdly when used on 1-unit garrisons.
• Fixed a recruitment options not having any relevant upkeep modifier applied (during preview or after recruitment).
• Fixed a bug where invalid recruitment options could be selected when recruiting multiple units in sequence.
• Fixed a bug with the Arcane Denial spell.
• Fixed a bug where retreating armies would not reveal adjacent fog of war hexes.
• Fixed a bug where estimated Siege duration was incorrectly calculated.
• Fixed a bug where armies would keep a Siege target after retreating to another hex. This allowed the faction to contribute to a Siege as a 3rd party and/or at a distance.
• Fixed a bug where the AI would mobilize armies to lift a siege and then just halt adjacent to the target hex.
• Fixed a bug where a Beacon of Elemental Water targeting criteria was inverted.
• Fixed a bug where some notifications were not created as intended.
• Fixed numerous bugs and inconsistencies with Character Task validation.
• Fixed a number of bugs with the Party/Character selection logic that allowed selection of invalid parties if they were partially valid.

[ 2021-04-29 12:56:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Added a toggle for the session-based 'Auto-Resolve All Battles' setting in the Settings Window. This allows reverting the option without re-starting the game. It can be found in a new 'Session' Tab.
• Rival Wizard AI: Improved the use of recruitment and research. It will now greatly prefer recruiting more powerful units when possible.
• Rival Wizard AI: Hard and Very Hard difficulty now get a slight reduction in unit recruitment cost. I know this is a kind of cheating, and I intend to make it optional and/or remove it (if the economic performance of the AI has improved enough) in the future.
• Divination 5 now allows a Wizard to determine the Mastery levels of other Wizards (use diplomacy window to inspect).
• City Building Tweaks: Sewer no longer reduces Fortification Value. Tavern no longer reduces Squalor.
• Beacon-type spells now cancel any magical recruitment if overriden with a different Beacon spell. A warning when targeting will list any on-going recruitment that will be canceled on cast.
• When a Wizard is defeated any formerly owned resource sites switching to unaligned ownership will now be given to the province owner, if any such exists. This is especially relevant for site along borders of provinces.
• When a Province changes ownership any resource sites with no owner will now be transferred to the new owner.
• Fixed an issue where armies/units with depleted movement could be 're-activated' by using a movement buff after the depleting event/action. Depletion of movement is now 'sticky' and cannot be counteracted in this manner. Note that this doesn't include movement allowance being reduced to 0 through spending movement points - this is only when a mechanic specifically depletes movement fully.
• Fixed a bug where Worker Training wouldn't complete on reaching the progress threshold, making the estimated duration off by 1 turn and showing a confusing 100% progress.
• Fixed a few bugs where task assignments were able to circumvent some of the validation criteria.
• Fixed a bug where the Emissary task category was aborting the UI flow from the Followers Window shortcut.
• Fixed a bug where the haunting army attacking a looter of an ancient battle site would have units each the size of the upper threshold for the size of the entire army.
• Fixed a bug where Spell Targeting Warnings were not shown when using the shortcut to cast spells valid for a selected site. These are now shown in the list of valid spells prepended to the spell description.
• Fixed a bug where the Join Party button was not disabled in all cases when it should be (despite the text indicating so).
• Fixed a bug causing merges between a Level 0 unit and a unit with a Level of 1+ to be blocked.
• Fixed a bug causing the AI to discard large amounts of gold and mana in the early game. This did not help its performance against the player.

[ 2021-04-21 12:21:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

• The 'No Upkeep' effect for Units now shows the projected normal upkeep in the tool tip.
• The Rival AI now tries to avoid border gore (ie isolated provinces and territorial bulges) when picking provinces for Outposts.
• The Rival AI is now better at utilizing Resource Site construction, and will consider it more often.
• The Rival AI will now consider Outposts in the primary pool of targets for aggression. Previously they would only be chosen under extremely specific circumstances where nothing else was relevant.
• The Rival AI will now avoid constructing Outposts in the vicinity of hostile armies. It is still a bit too optimistic about this, but much less stubborn and somewhat less reckless.
• When a Rival faction is defeated, sites under construction will now be destroyed and in-progress site upgrades cancelled (except for Cities and Fortresses).
• A number of lists now support arrow keys for up/down navigation. It's far from all lists in all windows, and some of them don't yet scroll to the new selection if it's out of view. I'll keep expanding the number of lists supporting keyboard navigation in successive patches now that I've added the foundational code for this.
• Added some missing text to the Assign Task flow. A number of categories had no text at all.
• Improved the formatting of Deity/Religion tool tips to make the Domains stand out more clearly at a glance.
• Fixed a number of bugs where selection on the world map would change when casting spells or resolving prompts.
• Fixed a bug where world map selection could have a partial state and actions/info not be aligned with the proper selection.
• Fixed a bug where the camera would not automatically zoom/pan to the selection as intended for a few specific cases of automatic selection change.
• Fixed a bug where the Battle Mana cap could be exceeded by using the 'More Spells' flow during battle resolution.
• Fixed a bug where some Factions paid full upkeep for units that should be free or reduced in cost.
• Fixed a bug where City Pop promotion and demotion would include invalid targets in the pool of candidates and thus produce nonsensical results.
• Fixed a bug where Character Discontent would accumulate silently and to an unreasonable extent due to Office desire. This Discontent would also never expire.
• Fixed a bug where some AI-controlled factions could not raze outposts.
• Fixed a number of bugs with the Undead Conquest resolution. Some options were available when they should not be. Options removing pops have been changed to always leave 1 pop. A few crash bugs have been fixed. There is just a bugfix pass and not the final changes to that mechanic.
• Fixed a crash bug related to world spell casting and selection changes.

[ 2021-04-18 13:46:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

• The 'Additional Resources' part of the Resource Info Panel now includes expected income/expenditure in the tool tip.
• Fixed a bug where level 0 Masteries could not be chosen as Focus.
• Fixed a bug present in several dialogs where the color of an invalid option would change after selecting it and the deselecting it.
• Fixed a few bugs where party mechanics could be used to circumvent some of the requirements of a task and/or send fatigued/wounded followers on a task.
• Fixed a bug where the Join Party button was active (and actually executed the action) despite requirements not being met.
• Fixed a bug where the City Income/Production display was incorrectly calculated and out of sync with the underlying mechanics.

[ 2021-04-15 16:25:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a small patch today. Didn't really plan for a patch today, but I thought the scaling fix should be released asap.

• When starting the game with a low resolution, the game will check against reference UI scaling values and prompt about possible issues and present the option to automatically change to a better scale.
• The Battle UI will now independently scale the UI if necessary for proper display - this is done independently of the general UI Scale setting.
• Warlord AI is now better at threat evaluation and army management.
• Warlord AI is now better at planning new site construction and hiring new workers.
• Warlord AI will now prefer higher-tier units, when possible.
• Wizard AI is now capable of picking a Focus mastery, which is more important now that there is a stacking bonus from keeping the same Focus for 10+ Turns. It also helps make them slightly more thematic in their progress.
• Fixed a bug where a resurgent Independent Realm (ie post-rebellion) would still have the dormant flag set. This messed with intra-AI diplomacy and a number of mechanics.
• Fixed a bug where the battle UI would have buttons and text panels placed outside of the visible area - even when using UI Scaling.
• Fixed a bug where tower expansions that do allow duplicates could be constructed in multiples anyway by doing this in parallel.
• Fixed a bug where an 'empty' Entangle effect would linger. The Stat modifier was being removed correctly. Now the parent effect is removed as expected.
• Fixed a bug where the AI would build copper quarries on marble deposits.

[ 2021-04-14 19:35:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Rebalanced Mine, Logging Camp, Vineyard, Fishing Village and Quarry resource output. Some have been buffed and some have been nerfed. Volcanoes now improve the output of adjacent hex mines. Fishing Villages now produce Trade Goods in addition to Food.
• Greatly increased the Lumber bonus from Primordial Trees.
• New Game Setting - Mine Output: You can choose half, normal or double output for mines and quarries (affects all factions).
• The E key can now be used to execute the planned movement order for a selected army.
• Level 0 Masteries can now be abandoned, returning them to the state of not being unlocked. They will have to be unlocked again. Click a Mastery in the Table or All view to do this.
• Not-yet-unlocked Masteries can now be blocked (and unblocked) from the Mastery Views.
• Wizard Research Projects are now sorted alphabetically.
• When unavailable Research Projects are toggled, already researched projects are no longer included.
• Wizard AI has been tweaked to be less relaxed about launching attacks against superior armies.
• Improved the diminishing return mechanism for Prospectors, making it much less likely that they will discover a steady flow of new resources.
• The Base Production shown when previewing hex build options is no longer rounded, but shows accurate amounts including decimals.
• Rebels will now sometimes execute leaders of cities they liberate.
• Mana Nodes now show their expected 'payout' time in turns and mastery progress per turn as part of the Bind tooltip.
• The last unit in an Army can now be disbanded.
• Beast Mastery now gains progress from Insect Hive specials in the realm of a Wizard.
• Life Mastery now gains progress from Primordial Trees specials in the realm of a Wizard.
• Dark Pact quests will now usually yield Mastery Progress on completion.
• Dwarf Units now have the Hardy ability and +1 Melee Shock.
• Vampire Units can now replenish and have been buffed.
• Added Celestial Phoenixes. The same three tiers exist as for the other types of Phoenixes.
• Fixed a bug where Champions and Quartermasters were not included in various mechanics that traversed all characters in an army.
• Fixed a bug where rebels liberating a city would interact weirdly with tolerated leaders and unrest.
• Fixed a bug where 1-distance army movement plans could not be created.
• Fixed a bug affecting Scales of Justices and targeting.
• Fixed a number of bugs where the movement history/plan line was not updated/cleared.

[ 2021-04-13 20:14:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Magic and Wizards

• Mastery Progress is now slower at level 3+. This has been done by incrementally increasing the progress needed per level at an increasing amount per level. The previous rate of progress can still be selected when starting a game by selecting the "Faster Mastery Progress" game option. Existing save games will use the old (fast) progression pace.
• Unlocking Mastery is now more expensive after unlocking 4 Masteries.
• Maintaining the same Mastery Focus for 10+ turns now gives a bonus to progress of +1% per 10 consecutive turns of focus. This is capped at +20% and resets on changing Focus. It applies to all sources of progress for the mastery.
• Lore Discovery: The chance to be granted Mastery unlocks now scales (in reverse) with the number of existing unlocks. Spamming Lore discovery simply to gain cheap and numerous unlocks is now less appealing. It also helps avoid a ton of unwanted Level 0 masteries piling up early in the game.
• Fire Mastery: Volcanoes in the Wizard's realm now grant increased Mastery progress.
• Water Mastery: Geysers in the Wizard's realm now grant increased Mastery progress.
• Incite Unrest (Chaos Spell): Now has a 3-turn cooldown and a higher mana cost.
• Dark Rituals (Darkness Spell): Some outcome branches can now change follower alignment. Additional discontent/loyalty modifiers added for several branches.
• Spirit Wolves: New Unit. Requires Spirit Summoning to research.
• Buffed a number of Spirit-type units and reduced the upkeep cost of the low tier ones.
• Added a research project to unlock Ancient Spirit Host
• Spirit Summoning spellcraft now unlocks Spirit Host immediately on research.

UI

• Spell Ready: The cooldown completion prompt now includes a button to re-cast the spell.
• A selection-specific 'Cast Spell' action is now available on the World Map when selecting an Army or Site (if any valid spells are available). This will open a list of valid spells to cast from.
• The Multicast panel in the Magic window now has a spell description panel, so you don't have to hover over the spell name to be reminded of the spell effects.
• Create Army (from Garrison): Will now only transfer 1 unit (not half), and will also immediately open the Transfer Units window.
• Outliner now has a Show Outposts toggle
• Outliner: Now shows number of idle armies and followers for those sections
• Outliner: Added a link to open the research panel if there is no active research project
• Outliner: Double-clicking an entry will act as pressing 'Inspect' in the context panel
• Resource Theft now shows additional information on resolution. Details on any challenge resolved and the discover/danger/success chances are shown.
• Added more information to the Worker Settlement action result, showing additional calculations/mechanics.
• City Window: Added tooltip to pops showing breakdown for each category. This is mostly relevant if multiple races/culture inhabit a city. Dedicated UI for inspecting Pops is still work-in-progress.

Misc. and Bug Fixes

• Bodyguard (office) Experience is now increased slightly for high-level followers.
• Advisors now gain Experience from holding the office.
• The Noxious unit ability now has the intended effect on enemy to-hit, morale and effectiveness during battles.
• Mysterious Site: The 'pick a unit' event will now apply the Free Upkeep effect for 12 turns.
• Worker Settlement (ie conversion to city pop) now has a cost. The cost is listed when selecting the action with a tooltip showing the mechanics/calculations behind it.
• Fixed a bug where attacking with multiple armies (when given the choice to coordinate or attack with a single army) didn't work, and an uncoordinated attack was launched instead.
• Fixed a bug where the construction project window would lose 'map zoom lock' on showing a nested window/dialog
• Fixed a bug where the Rend The Earth spell changed the hex terrain when a Volcano is created despite what the spell description says (Volcano *or* terrain change).
• Fixed a bug where unit modifiers would stick despite their source effect having expired (if expiring after being saved/loaded)
• Fixed the editor custom map thumbnail toggle not being interactable
• Fixed outliner settings not saving correctly
• Fixed a number of text errors

[ 2021-04-09 18:16:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Spell Cooldowns now result in a notification when they finish ticking down.
• Resource Overview Panel: If the player faction has more resource types than can be shown in the window, a line showing 'additional resources' is now shown. It has a tooltip giving a summary of these resource amounts.
• Character Inventory Panel: Non-enchanted items now have traits shown in their tooltip
• Followers Window: Free agent status is now shown.
• Followers Window: Character relations are now color-coded and grouped if numerous. This grouping will show how many of each type of relation the character has, with a tooltip showing the target characters.
• Train Workers: When assigning Trainers the skills now have their effects included in the tooltip.
• Characters can now be set as Free Agents via the 'Assign Task' interface in the Followers Window. The status can also be rescinded from here. Previously this could not be changed after the initial prompt from the Character.
• Free Agents and characters allowed to make suggestions will no longer get stuck in idle parties. They will leave an idle party and resume normal behavior for their task-mode.
• Dark Rituals (spell): Can now result in Loyalty or Discontent depending on outcome and character traits. Increased the cost and research time for the Ritual of Ascendancy project and similarly increased the time required for the Ritual action itself.
• Fixed illogical double-click behavior in the Character window, where it would interact with Party membership when this made no sense or open the 'Hire Characters' window in other cases
• Fixed a number of bugs preventing or allowing character items to be swapped (with a vault item) or given when validation should allow or prevent it
• Fixed amulets not being checked for multiples as intended when validating characer item assignment
• Fixed a crash bug related to dungeon expeditions
• Fixed a bug where some Special/World Spells failed silently if they were not valid for casting. The proper error feedback is now given in a prompt.
• Fixed missing estimated construction time display in several windows
• Fixed missing button update / UI synchronization in a number of windows
• Fixed cut-off text in some Diplomacy Window details history section

[ 2021-04-05 19:43:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Wizard AI is now less likely to overspend on research and city buildings. It will also spend more carefully for a time after being forced to disband units due to missing upkeep.
• Wizard AI is now better at spending early game resources on things with an immediate benefit.
• An effect is now applied to cities when a Worker is settled as a Pop, blocking repeat usage of this action (until expiry). Depending on the cultural fit and size of the city, this will cause a 'cooldown' period. Instantly 'pop-bombing' cities with a horde of accumulated workers is thus no longer possible.
• Recruit Notable: -5% Chance for Tribal Chiefs when hiring non-culture characters. Accept Outsiders and/or Horde Nation removes this penalty.
• Tribal Destiny (Horde Nation): Now gives +20% Recruit Notables and a Hire Horde Allies action (20 spoils, gain random unit with free upkeep for a while, small chance to get a special/magical unit, otherwise weighted by cultural traits).
• Tribal Diplomacy: Gift Spoils now also provides Influence gain in addition to Regard.
• Tribal Religious Festival: Now has a high change to provide an Enchanted Item. It can be assigned via the 'Give Item' button in the Followers Window.
• Fixed a bug where several Tribal Action checked the wrong cooldown counter
• Fixed bug causing unreasonable costs for Tribal Chiefs when recruiting notables.
• Fixed bug where Clan Emissary status would partially linger on reassignments, allowing the same character to be assigned over and over for stacking benefit
• Fixed bug where Tribal Camp Migration state was corrupted during game save/load. Existing games are retroactively fixed. In some rare cases the game will have to guess at which army and camp is linked, and it may not match pre-save state (this is only relevant for save games with corrupted state, not new saves).
• Fixed crash bug related to Martial Tests of Mettle
• Fixed Spoils (of War) not showing in the Resource panel
• Fixed an issue where AI Wizards would never upgrade their Tower Level

[ 2021-04-04 20:46:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Characters requesting Dungeon Expedition Tasks will now also request bringing some party members along. They will try to cover various party roles if possible when forming this AI-created party. Reckless characters may decide to go off on their own. Characters acting as Free Agents may bring along idle characters and other Free Agents. The Rival and NPC AI will also use this new Dungeon Party logic.
• Demonic-theme Dungeons now include Temptation as a Challenge Tag.
• Air/Earth/Fire/Water/Frost-Touched Characters now receive a preparation time bonus for relevant Dungeon themes.
• The Rival Wizard AI is now capable of prioritizing the resumption of the upgrade progress on Outposts that have seen progress halted. This should make them considerably better at expanding, as the inability to properly prioritize this was causing the AI to often end up with 'dead-end' provinces.
• The scaling Mercenary Costs for wealthy factions are now capped at (x200% + 500 gold).
• Fixed a bug where the AI would re-task followers before they finished their current task in order to maintain exploration efforts at all costs. Due to other constraints this could lead to per-turn reshuffling of several followers.
• Fixed a bug where the AI could not figure out what to do with Salt Deposits.
• Fixed a bug where pending 'On-End-Turn' Mastery Progress would not be saved (and thus loaded).
• Fixed a bug where Mercenary Units would increase in cost on re-selection in the Hire Dialog.

[ 2021-04-03 20:42:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Diplomatic Reputation can now be increased above 50 by honoring Non-Aggression Pacts. The required time to trigger this will increase and the rate of gain will slow on crossing this threshold.
• Diplomatic Reputation is now lost/gained from a number of Vassal-related interactions.
• Fixed a bug in the Military Recruitment Window causing units to be recruited at the wrong site on selecting a different unit from the initial section while in 'Site Mode'.
• Fixed a tutorial bug where the indicated button was in a hidden panel. UI changes had introduced an intermediary step to show it. A corresponding tutorial step has been added.

[ 2021-04-02 19:53:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Armies with a planned movement path are now placed at the end of the 'N' key army cycle.
• Fixed a bug where Battle Siphoning would not give the intended Mana for some unit types.
• Fixed a number of issues with incorrect selection state when units had multiple valid recruitment site options.
• Fixed a bug causing incorrect dimming of choices in the Military Recruitment Window.
• Fixed a crash bug caused by the Planar Invasion AI sometimes stubbornly trying to conquer sites that no longer exist.
• Fixed a crash bug when certain types of minor realms conquered a site held by unaligned forces.

[ 2021-03-31 19:02:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Armies with a planned path are no longer excluded from the Army Cycle (used by the 'N' button to cycle through player armies).
• Toggling the display of Handled/Dismissed notifications will now reset the scroll state of the notification list to the start of the list.
• Fixed a bug where discarding some notifications would cause them to not properly register as shown.
• Fixed a bug where workers stopping their training (because re-location or task cancel), would leave the trainer Character with a dangling task assignment.
• Fixed a bug causing some Divine Favor/Wroth effects not applying stat modifiers to the target.

[ 2021-03-30 08:20:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Added another batch of icons for notifications and events to make it easier to 'read' the notifications at a glance.
• Starting the Ritual of Ascendancy will now cause armies of cosmic forces to intervene. The number and power of these depend on game settings.
• Ascendancy Victory can no longer be achieved while the Wizard Tower is being sieged.
• Character traits now have more detailed tool tip info for ambivalent effects on challenge traits. Instead of the generic (and vague) +-, a breakdown is shown of factors which are buffed and which are penalized.
• The Encyclopedia entries for Character Traits now include more detailed information on the modifiers to challenges. Rather than the generic + and - from tooltips, the specific modifier type(s) and amount(s) are shown.
• Army tool tips now shown an approximate power-level. Note that this is an estimate based on individual units and does not consider match-ups against counters / countered unit types and other situation-specific factors.
• Siege progress is now affected by the relative size of defender and attacker armies. If attackers are outnumbered the penalty is from 66% to 33%. If the defenders are outnumbers by at least 2-to-1 the progress is modified by +2 to +4.
• Religion-class characters can no longer be tasked with worship/offering tasks involving a different Religion - except in a few specific cases involving cults and non-Deity religions.
• Conquering a rival Wizard Tower will now result in some gained Mastery progress/unlocks if the defeated rival had higher mastery level in some areas.
• When an Independent Realm requests an emissary, they will now share maps of their realm.
• Isolationist Enclaves will no longer request emissaries.
• Added proper confirmation/result dialogs to several targeted effects which were resolving 'silently'.
• When handling a multi-context notifications, the notification will remain in the list until the 'OK' choice has been made or all 'Go To' options have been exhausted.
• Fixed a bug where AI armies would erratically abandon sieges.
• Fixed a crash bug sometimes caused by player sites being lost.

[ 2021-03-29 18:24:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Added a few new notification icons.
• Added context-info tool tips to a couple of notifications.
• Added a new axe weapon (Hatchet) which sits between Hand Axe and Battle Axe.
• Added numerous domain-specific Divine Favor effects, reducing the number of domains that use the default favors. The power level of Favors has been tweaked slightly up to make them more worthwhile. I expect to buff them further (or reduce the cost) in future patches.
• Added an Adamantite Claws item project.
• Reduced the frequency of minor faction diplomacy events.
• Minor factions sending a warning due to aggressive expansion will now also incur Anger / Regard modifiers.
• The logic controlling warnings about conquest / expansion has been expanded (as part of fixing the warning-spam bug). Alignment and cultural attitudes now play a much greater role in whether a negative reaction happens. Geographical distance also matters now.
• Factions will no longer warn alliance partners about conquests, except in very special circumstances.
• Chariot-type units no longer count as Infantry.
• Fixed a bug causing city-targeted Divine Favor/Wroth effects to not execute after target selection.
• Fixed a bug causing Factions to spam warnings when conquering cities.
• Fixed a bug causing Transmutation targets to be locked if more than one is available.
• Fixed a bug in the Transmutation panel where the result preview would not update on all UI actions.
• Fixed a bug in the Transmutation panel where non-positive amounts did not block the action button.
• Fixed a bug in the resource selection dialog where the list of resources would be duplicated on re-opening the dialog, eventually making the list so long that it significantly hurt performance.

[ 2021-03-27 19:07:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Character items can now be revoked (unless magically bound or similar) and/or exchanged for other items from the vault. Click the item in the inventory to open a dialog with options.
• Added 8 more magical items, all of which can be created via projects. Mostly weapons and armor.
• Dungeon rewards now scale better with danger level.
• Dungeon expeditions can now yield a greater variety of magical items.
• Dungeon expedition party members will now sometimes take loot for themselves and sometimes bring it back to the vault. Character personality affects this. You can always take (non-bound) items, but this may cause discontent.
• Fixed a few bugs relating to assignment of items of the same category to characters.
• Fixed a bug where characters would sometimes have duplicate relations (animosity, friendship, etc.) towards other characters.
• Fixed a bug in the injury logic preventing injury and avoidance effects from stacking as intended.
• Fixed a bug where effects that downgrade death to injury would not process further injury mitigation mechanics.
• Fixed an entity duplication bug related to Demonic units and characters. Some of the shared data was duplicated leading to a bit of save game bloat and a few glitches in various mechanics.

[ 2021-03-25 21:35:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Enchant Item: When assigning an Enchanted Item on completion of the project, a button is now available to send it to the Vault for future assignment. The effects of the item are also shown in the details panel, for reference, which it wasn't previously.
• Enchant Item: Characters which are not valid targets for the assignment are no longer excluded from the window. Instead they are greyed-out/invalid and the reason for not being a valid target is shown on selection.
• Enchanted Items: 12 new Enchanted Items have been added. These are reached through Magic > Projects > Enchant Items. Most of these are taken from the suggestions made by players. I'll continue to add more items with patches and updates - from suggestions and my own creations both. There is a selection of item classes and power levels available, including some which greatly increase character survivability during dungeon expeditions.
• Army Selection: Previously the hex was highlighted as selected. Now the Army emblem has a selection halo to make it more clear that the Army has been selected and not the hex itself.
• Rename Units: These can now be renamed from the Army Window. This can be used to give flavor-relevant names to favorite units or to more easily distinguish units of the same type.
• Recruitment UI: An action has been added to open recruitment for the selected site - filtering available unit types automatically. This mode can also be enabled/disabled directly from the Military Window (picking a site from a dialog) by using a new 'Site Mode' button.
• Resource Info Panel: Caps are now shown in the tooltip and a * is shown to indicate if the cap has been reached.
• Fortress Upgrade: Golem Workshop. Enables the recruitment of Golem and Construct units at the Fortress. Requires Culture Trait: Golems or Artifice 4+.
• Beacon Spells: A number of spells have been added which enable the recruitment of various unit types at outposts, cities and/or fortresses (depending on Beacon). For example, Beacon of Elemental Air allows recruitment of Air-type units (that have been unlocked through research or other means) at the target site. Only one Beacon can be active at a site. This is a way to recruit magic units at other locations than the Tower or at Mana Nodes.
• Divine Boons: The selection of available effects was being unintentionally restricted. I fixed this, but even then, most Domains do not have custom boons. I've greatly expanded the Domain-specific boons, but there are still many which use the default boons. However, with the bug fixed there are twice as many of these. Also note that Hex Conditions can be modified using Divine Favor.
• Character Inventory: Item traits are now shown in the tool tip. As some categories allow only 1 or 2 items this is an important aspect.
• Follower Window: Traits granted by an Effect are now shown as such in the tool-tip. If a trait is granted by an effect and also inherent to the character, it will not show as caused by the effect (as it will remain if the effect ends).
• Places of Power (spell): Greatly increased the chance of success, but also increased the cooldown.
• Context Panel: Resource sites being upgraded now have a tool tip on the progress text which shows the reasons for the current rate of progress.
• Wizard Tower: Upgrade Slot colors can now be changed at a cost.
• Additional culture traits now affect worker upkeep.
• Faerie Wizards can now hire special Brownie workers.
• The map for the active game can now be exported as a custom map from the menu.
• When targeting sites additional feedback is now given in many cases regarding why a selection is not valid or and in a few whether there are relevant warnings.
• Several lists of sites now use the province as a qualifier for sites with the same name. This makes it easier to distinguish outposts and is useful in a number of other cases.
• Added a few new ambient character activity events regarding Banker-class characters.
• Editor now generates thumbnails for custom maps.
• Editor now allows the user to select which world terrain algorithm to use (classic or alternate).
• Fixed Bug: The Celestial Cynosure spell was not being unlocked as intended.
• Fixed Bug: Faerie Sub-Races were not saved correctly causing Entity duplication in save games.
• Fixed Bug: When cycling armies, ones which had moved partially were excluded unintentionally.
• Fixed Bug: Sites under construction incorrectly enabled recruitment of relevant unit types immediately. Construction has to be finished now before units can be recruited at the site.
• Fixed Bug: Units in Garrison armies did not have movement expenditure reset on turn processing and also were not included in a number of other per-turn effects.
• Fixed Bug: A few notifications showed a "Go To ?" instead of the correct link.
• Fixed Bug: Sometimes projected missing upkeep warnings were shown incorrectly.

[ 2021-03-23 21:21:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Bounty of the Sea: Cities now get +20 Food per adjacent such hex special
• Fertile Soil: Cities now get +10 Food per adjacent such hex special. Having at least one gives +1 Growth.
• Primordial Trees: Cities now get +5 Lumber per adjacent such hex special. Having at least one gives +1 Spiritual, -10 Unrest, if city has any of culture traits: Pact with Nature, Druidic, Shamanistic. Wizards get +5 Mana if the culture has trait Magic: Life or Magic: Primordial. These also give +0.5 Learning to the city.
• Fixed Bug: Worker Element text overflow
• Fixed Bug: Change sections for non-player armies
• Fixed Bug: General not transferred when merging with Garrison
• Fixed Bug: Some office assignments could fail partially making the character have the corresponding task without the office
• Fixed Bug: Apprentice followers not getting intended bonus from some magic-related culture traits

[ 2021-03-17 21:05:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

This path side tracked my work on the beta branch, but I think these are important fixes and changes, and absolutely worth postponing the beta branch update by a day or two. I will also add more options like the Golem Workshop in the coming days - for other types of Units. They may not all be buildings, but I want to add more ways to recruit magic units away from the Tower.

• New City Building: Golem Workshop. Allows recruiting Custom Constructs and units with the Golem tag in the City. Requires Artifice 4+ or the Golems trait in the city in order to build. Also gives +0.25 Learning and +0.5 Industry.
• Dragons have been significantly buffed with more Hit Points, Armor, Toughness and Resistance.
• Loss of Effectiveness during Battles has been tweaked and the mechanics expanded. Monsters and units with a low default unit size (members) have a cap on how much effectiveness can be reduced. If the battle drags on for a very long time, this cap will gradually disappear.
• Outnumbering now has less of an extreme effect on morale and effectiveness - especially for Monsters. All units will now be less likely to suffer morale checks based on outnumbering if they're not suffering a lot losses and are also not fatigued. Strong units were too likely to retreat even when winning if they were outnumbered.
• AoE attacks will now apply multiple hits based on their type and the size of the involved units. Breath Attacks will hit more targets based on attacker size. Line Attacks will hit more targets based on target unit depth/quantity. Circle Attacks will hit more targets based on target unit physical size.
• Physical Size has been specified for all Unit Types, as it is now important for an additional mechanic. It also fixed some issues with high-HP Units which did not have actual large physical size (HP was used as a fallback when size was not specified to estimate size).
• Fixed Flying not correctly giving units the ability to use melee attacks when pursuing (evasive) non-Flyers.
• Fixed a bug where expected income was not correctly considered when predicting if there will be unpaid upkeep. This led to annoying warnings, for example when having full resource caps.
• Fixed a bug where the number of attacks made when using ranged attacks at close range was incorrect (could be absurdly high for small units).
• Fixed a bug where the distance of ranged attacks was incorrectly calculated in some situations, leading to unintended to-hit penalties.

[ 2021-03-16 20:49:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Very small patch with more smooth map panning and a bit of bug fixing. I'll have an update to the Beta Branch tomorrow with more 'meaty' changes, and as soon possible after that a main branch update with a combination of select Beta Branch changes (Recruitment UI improvements mostly) and a number of other things (AI/Content/Misc).

• Map panning via mouse-drag is now scaled to pixel values to give a more smooth and consistent speed.
• Map panning speed can now be configured in the Settings window, decreasing or increasing the default (now) cursor-aligned speed.
• Fixed a display bug where expected sales of resources above caps/thresholds was not always shown.
• Fixed a bug where some sales of resources above caps/thresholds were not always executed (wasting them). This was a subset of the cases in the display bug.

[ 2021-03-14 20:36:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

These are the aggregated patch number from a successive series of minor patches. A larger patch and the Experimental Grid-Based Battle beta is coming soon.

• Battlefield Necromancy now has a more smooth power curve. The power of the raised forces is based on Necromancy and War mastery (weighted 3 to 1)
• Tweaked the cost of Liches to be significantly lower and increased the unit size to 5
• Increased the Hit Points of Vampire from 8 to 16 and the unit size from 32 to 40
• Fixed a number of text errors
• Fixed Breath of Life not being researchable
• Fixed the upkeep projection logic not correctly incorporating free upkeep effects
• Fixed a persistence bug affecting resource sites during upgrades
• Fixed some effects not having their duration ticks processed after saving and loading a game
• Fixed a bug where ressurection effects would bring the character back to life, only to have them die almost immediately after

[ 2021-02-26 11:54:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Didn't really plan to push this out yet, but I had some odds and ends that might as well piggy-back on the bugfix which was the reason for this patch.

• Divine Favor can now be used to add/cleanse Hex Conditions (Primal, Hallowed, Demon-Tainted, etc). The options for each Deity/Religion depends on the combination of Domains.
• When saving a Custom maps, a thumbnail image is created with the same name as the map. This will make it the preview image if uploading the map to workshop. You can toggle this export in the Export panel (enabled by default).
• Armies with an active Siege are now skipped when cycling idle armies (unless they can assault)
• Sorting improved for numerous character task target selection dialogs
• Added more info during target selection when assigning Site Leader tasks via the Follower Window
• Fixed minor faction Followers sometimes sticking around in conquered Sites when this made no sense
• Fixed an issue permitting assignment of Site Leader to invalid Sites when it was done via the Follower Window
• Fixed a crash bug when loading a save game with certain map filters enabled

[ 2021-02-17 20:37:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

• You can now choose to let the AI use custom templates. This is done in the template selection window on a per-template basis. So if you want to change it before starting up a Warlord game, you need to go into this window and modify settings accordingly, then exit it.
• New Spell: Lunar Blessing (Celestial 1). Unit buff which can only be cast on certain turns and with a limit on the number of active instances equal to the Celestial Mastery of the caster.
• Minotaurs now have a charge-only Gore attack (applies to new games only) Office Request notifications are now only shown for unheld Faction offices and Followers with high Discontent
• Multicast Panel: Click on a row now has the same effect as clicking on the toggle.
• Multicast Panel: The grid no is longer reset by every single UI action
• Added a warning when upkeep costs are expected to be unpaid
• Fixed a bug causing modded portraits to not be used by the portrait assignment logic
• Fixed a bug relating to resource display
• Fixed an issue causing characters with both of Bloodthirsty and Paranoid to not have any valid dungeon exploration stances
• Fixed a bug where minor faction could gift more resources than they had

[ 2021-02-15 14:04:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

• The World Generator now makes sure that there is a minimum amount of the various resource specials seeded across the map.
• New Construct Trait: Horns. These give a charge-only Gore attack.
• New Wizard Tower Expansion: Oricalchum Forge. The Forge produces Oricalchum every turn.
• New Spell: Shape Oricalchum. It creates Oricalchum while consuming Iron, Granite and Silver.
• Ancient Battle Sites can now be looted.
• Battle Siphoning (Spellcraft): Description is now more detailed and clear.
• Added tooltips to the Resource Info window showing the amounts with additional decimals
• Fixed a few display issues relating to Resource display
• Fixed an issue causing the World Generator to not be able to seed Mana Nodes of the Good and Evil types.
• Fixed a number of UI settings not being saved (auto-assign workers to tower, for example).
• Fixed a bug relating to saving and loading Faerie entities.

[ 2021-02-12 20:15:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

• New spell - Waking Nightmare (Illusion): Causes Unrest and Squalor in target City. Also slightly reduces Rebel WIsh and Civic Spirit.
• New spell - Grand Spectacle (Illusion): Reduces Unrest in target City. Also slightly reduces Rebel WIsh and increases Civic Spirit.
• Drained Mana Nodes now show the expected remaining time until they return to normal. It is shown as a range based on the initial 5 to 12 Turns. E.g. after 3 turns it will say 2 to 9 Turns, whereas after 7 turns it will say 1 to 5 Turns.
• Details on Spells, Masteries and Character Traits are now shown in the Encyclopedia.
• Improved a few tool tips to better explain the information in them.
• Fixed a Mastery Progress bug.
• Reduced the rather extreme Mastery Progress from having a Vivisectorium. It might need more nerfing, but I am doing some general mastery balance and testing, so will do further changes in that context.

[ 2021-02-09 20:10:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Fishing Villages can now be built on the coast. They're an alternative to Farms for producing Food. The more adjacent water hexes, the more food is produced.
• New Hex Special: Bounty of the Sea. Gives additional Food for Fishing Villages adjacent to it.
• Resource Sites can now be upgraded up to three times, thus having a Level from 1 to 4. Each level adds a worker slot and a base 5% resource production bonus. There is a cost in time and resources to upgrade - and each type of resource site has worker skill requirements as well.
• Quicksave has been implement. Press F5 to save to the quicksave file without having to click through save menus.
• Quickload has been implement. Press F6 to load the quicksave file. A prompt is shown to avoid accidentally losing your current game.
• Reworked mastery contribution from spells. The contribution is no longer solely based on mana cost, but is a combination of Spell Level and Mana Cost. The Mana component no longer contributes in a linear fashion. The weight of level and mana respectively has been exposed to modding (see below constants). The value is also
• Mastery contribution from spells that impact multiple masteries has been changed to more smoothly split the contribution across the primary and secondary masteries.
• Mastery contribution from spells now has a per-turn soft cap similar to that from units.
• Mastery contribution from bound Mana Nodes has been doubled.
• New constants exposed for modding (default value if unmodded): BaseManaCap (800), ChannelingManaCapBonus (250), MasteryProgressSpellWeight (1.0), MasteryProgressUnitWeight (1.0), MasteryProgressManaNodeWeight (1.0), MasteryProgressSpellManaWeight (0.5), MasteryProgressSpellLevelWeight (0.5).
• Fixed Mass Mutation and Mutation creating units at the wrong location (they were at the Wizard Tower and not the target city).
• Fixed building demolish orders not being saved as intended.
• Fixed the 'Cancel Demolish' button in the City Window not working.
• Fixed a number of actions not updating the UI (ie resource values).
• Fixed a crash bug.

[ 2021-02-07 21:25:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update is a hodge-podge of graphical upgrades, modding functionality, quality of life improvements, bug fixes and user requested content/features. It was never really my intent that 1.0.1 should arrive this late - and on the heels of more than 80 total main and beta patches. But I overworked myself somewhat in time immediately after 1.0, and after suffering a period of reduced productivity, I have now found a more sustainable pace. Those who have taken a break from the game may notice that some of the in-progress 1.0.1 work has been shelved. The explanation is too long-winded for this already long-winded post, but the important part is that I'll resume work on those shelved things after a brief period of hyper-care for this update. I haven't given up on the economy and city improvements. A beta branch for 1.0.2 should go up later this week. I have some catching up to do on the forums, but after that, the journey to 1.0.2 can begin. And I will try to keep the wait shorter this time. The beta for 1.0.1 was too long, and I will try avoid that in the future. I'm happy with the amount of 'stuff' in the continuous patches delivered to the beta during this time, but not too happy with the time which passed before it hit main. Thank you to those who reminded me about the need for a push to main. Finally, I would also like to extend thanks to everyone who submitted bug reports, ideas, feedback, encouragement and/or constructive criticism. You are too many to mention by name without the risk of forgetting someone, but you have my sincere thanks. User Interface and Graphics

• Quick cast / favorite spells. In the spellbook you can click an icon in the lower array of icons and then click a spell. This will "slot" the spell in that quickcast position. You can switch between battle and world spell favorites with a button.
• Sigils: You can now use a custom image as your sigil. No need for modding or editing text files. Just click the button and browse to the image file.
• Sigils: When starting a new game, you can now open a window to browse all Sigils. Previously you could only cycle through them one at a time.
• Portraits: You can now change the portrait of a Character from the Character Window.
• New Province Border graphics. The border tints are now shown only on the outer borders of a realm. Provinces with no capital have no border tint. Uncontrolled provinces have a dimmed tint. Minor realms have a pale grey tint.
• Improved the mini-map image quality to be sharper
• A warning notification is now issued when temporary units and free upkeep have four or less turns left
• Wizard Window: Pending mastery progress bonuses are now shown in the Mastery Table when an event or action gives Mastery Progress during the player's active phase
• Army Window: Units are now ordered by Experience
• Military Window: Mana Nodes now show the Province in the list, to make it easier to choose the right location when recruiting new units
• Military Window: Added tooltip to the Site list for recruitment options
• Military Window: Recruitment Unit List now has tooltips
• Wizard Tower Window: Worker Buttons in return to the Window after the Worker Selection dialog is closed.
• Diplomacy Window: Anger/Fear/Regard changes are now shown logged with reasons and shown in the relevant tooltip
• Worker Assignment description now includes nature of task (Construction, Excavation, Upgrading, Production, None)
• List Selection Window: The generic window used for a wide variety of prompts now has different colors for valid/invalid selections, allowing the player to quickly see what selections are valid without manually selecting all of them.
• Survey mode now has tooltip info displaying why a hex is invalid. Previously only Control issues were reported here. Now terrain and other reasons are as well.
• City Window: Now has tooltips on the Prev/Next buttons showing a short description of the relevant City
• City Window: "Recruit Follower" can now be initiated directly from the City Notables view
• City Window: A shortcut to the Diplomacy Window has been added when inspecting a City belonging to another faction
• Fortress Window: Now lists Upgrades in the summary text
• Fortress Window: Now has Prev/Next, Go To and Diplomacy buttons similar to the City Window
• Economy Window: The summary panel for the selected resource now includes faction/market amounts
• Character Window: Lack of Free Will or Limited Free Will is now shown correctly
• Realm/Quests Window: Captive characters are now listed in the Faction Panel

General

• New achievements have been added: All In (unlock all masteries), The All-Seeing Eye (explore the entire map), Flavor of the Month: Alchemist (as an Alchemist Wizard, win any victory against at least 4 rivals).
• Preset difficulty settings: Serene, Harsh, Nightmare. Selecting one of these will set a number of settings to match it. You can change other settings, but if you change one of the ones related to the preset - it will automatically reset to none.
• New Game Setting - Cycle Planned Moves: If there are armies with a planned movement path that have not moved this turn, the turn button will change to "Select Pending Army", when selecting such an army to "Execute Moves". This allows manually activating and seeing all such moves via the Turn Button.
• Unit upkeep priority is now randomized, which makes a difference if there are resources to pay upkeep for only a subset of units.
• Upkeep balance pass. The stats and equipment of randomly generated unit types for each culture will now be reflected in the cost and upkeep to a greater degree. Cultural traits also have a greater impact on upkeep costs.
• Unpaid worker upkeep now results in workers disbanding
• Workers with no skills no longer generated
• Workers with only 1 skill level are now less likely to be generated
• Tribal Destiny: Adventurers is no longer required to send Dungeon Expeditions as Tribal Chief. It is still required to use Exploration. It now gives 2 to 5 new Followers, depending on the number of Camps controlled.
• The bonus to coastal water movement from Flight now also applies to Limited Flight. This means that an army with a mixture of Flight and Limited Flight gain the movement reduction previously requiring an all-Flight army.
• When conquering a City, base Unrest is no longer changed. Instead a temporary +15 Unrest is applied (duration based on City population) and a context-specific permanent modifier is added. The latter is replaced whenever a new conquest occurs. It may be 0, in which case it removes any previous such modifier.
• The ability to ignore Fortress zone-of-control when moving out of the Fortress hex now applies to Limited Flight in addition to Flight.
• All-flying armies can now traverse water at the cost of 2 movement points, rather than full movement allowance. This is only used if there is not a better water-traversal effect available.
• Armies with a planned movement path are no longer included in the army cycle list
• Garrisons now have improved marauder/monster suppression.
• Fortress Stables now improved marauder/monster suppression from garrison cavalry.
• Wyrdstone has been rescaled. One of the previous units equals five of the new units. Costs, rewards, etc. have changed accordingly.
• Some resources now have supply/demand modifiers applied to one of the buy/sell sides. This means there will be a skewed price gap. For example Ambrosia has x2 buy price modifier. This allows resources to be expensive due to rarity/value, while making them less of a 'cash cow' when a regular flow is available.
• Tweaked dungeon danger stat description bands

Characters

• Followers with the 'No Free Will' trait no longer require Upkeep.
• Follower loyalty/discontent above/below 10 (in either direction) now affects character upkeep from -50% to 50%. The effect on the amount of gold kept from upkeep is the same as previously (loyal follower keeps less, discontent followers keep more).
• Loyal followers can sometimes gain XP from inspiration: Threshold loyalty value is (5 + character_level*12). Chance to gain XP (per turn roll) is (25 + loyalty / 2)%.
• Character upkeep is now processed prior to Unit upkeep
• Most Undead Characters no longer have free will
• Alignment of Characters joining due to events, lore discoveries and similar are now much less likely to clash with that of the faction

Modding

• Mod management overhaul. You now activate mods you have created or downloaded from the workshop from the mods window. You no longer choose a mod during game setup. This means you can load a save with a different set of mods active than when creating the game.
• You can now enable multiple mods. They will be applied in the order you choose in the mod manager. This is relevant if the mods modify the same data - for example if mod 1 changes 4 built-in portraits, and mod 2 changes 5 built-in portrait, with one "overlap" (ie same portrait modified by both mods), the order will decide which mod is used for that portrait. The other 8 modifications don't clash, so the order doesn't really matter for those.
• Unit icon modding. Create a UnitGfx folder similar to the Portraits folder for your mod. You link image files in the folder with units by adding a text file: info.txt (as with portraits). Each line can link one image to a unit. Format is: unit_id;image_filename.
• You can now mod game mechanics/rules by placing a mechanics.txt file in the root folder of a mod.
• If a mod does not have a toc.txt file, the game will create one and assign a unique id. This is not done if the mod is a workshop mod.
• You can now mod Mana Node bind cost and output values. The relevant keys to put in the mechanics.txt file are ManaNodeBindCostMinor, ManaNodeBindCostSmall, ManaNodeBindCostMedium, ManaNodeBindCostLarge, ManaNodeBindCostMassive, ManaNodeOutputMinor, ManaNodeOutputSmall, ManaNodeOutputMedium, ManaNodeOutputLarge, ManaNodeOutputMassive. As with customization points use : (colon) to separate keys and value. For example 'ManaNodeOutputMinor:10' on a line (without quotation marks) will set the Mana output of a Minor Mana Node to 10 Mana.
• You can now mod the number of points available when creating a custom template. The key to change this in the mechanics.txt file is WizardCustomizationPoints.
• Mods can now add additional Sigils, by placing .png files in a Sigil folder (similar to portraits)

Content and World Generator

• Death cultists. Undead Wizards can now recruit a special mortal unit which doesn't require recruitment pool, but which has a mana upkeep. It's based on a relevant generated world culture.
• Dual-wielding. Units with dual-wielding of melee weapons can now be generated. This is based on cultural traits and unit template traits. Generally light infantry and skirmishers are more likely to be dual-wielding than cavalry or heavy infantry.
• Better variety in culture unit equipment. Secondary weapons are now more common and cultures have a wider variety of possible weapons (ie potential during generation), but also a greater degree of consistency after weapons are assigned.
• Dynamically generated culture unit types now have the Dual Wielding ability if they have been generated with such equipment
• Added additional factors with a chance for Super Heavy unit types to be generated for cultures during world generation. A variety of traits, philosophies and social structures now affect this, making them more likely to be generated. Previously super heavy unit types were exceedingly rare. Now they're uncommon/rare.
• Cleavers are now less common when generating random unit types
• Improved unit type name generator to reflect culture and unit 'tier' to a greater degree
• Reworked Dynamic Unit "Short Descriptions" (Light Elite Infantry, Medium Cavalry, etc). These will now often include main weapon as part of the description, and some of the redundant/confusing/misleading words have been removed.
• Improved the calculation of Recruit Follower costs to be less arbitrary
• Added an alternate province generation algorithm. This can be chosen during game setup. It creates more evenly sized and shaped provinces, but does not try to align provinces with terrain types.
• Reduced the number of settled provinces when picking Sparse and Scattered Civilization options during game setup.
• Three new hex specials: Silkworms, Wyrdstone Deposits, Bone Fields. These add relevant resources to constructed resource sites.

Magic and Wizards

• New Construct Options. Shape: Drone Swarm, Shape: Incomprehensible, Trait: Blighted, Trait: Displacement Field, Trait: Illusion Projectors)
• Intimidation (Wizard Trait): Now gives a +1 Discipline bonus to all units which do not have any of: Mindless, Limited Mind, Beast, Monster, Non-Living. This will only take effect for new games.
• Undead (Wizard Trait): The Upkeep and Recruitment Cost reduction has been expanded to cover Undead, Ghoul and Raised units. This is much more intuitive than the previous more limited and complicated criteria.
• Shades and Greater Shades are now unlocked at Shadow Mastery 5 and 7, respectively.
• Breath of Life (New Spell): It can ressurect dead followers.
• Gift of Unlife (Spell): Necromancy mastery must now be higher than or equal to the level of the target character. The risk of catastrophic failure now scales from 5% to 0% depending on Necromancy mastery. Chance of full or partial domination also scales with Necromancy mastery.
• Soothe (Spell): No longer affects Courage, but makes the unit Fearless instead. It now also removes the Relentless Pursuit ability from a unit. Discipline bonus increased to 2. It now also has -4 Shock and -1 Movement.
• Rebalanced the duration of all Battle spells. They are generally x4 the original amount, with a few exceptions.
• Fae Gardens (Research): No longer available to Wizards with a special race trait (Undead, Demon, Celestial). Faerie Wizards still have automatic access to Fae Gardens.
• Faerie Binding (Research): No longer available to Wizards with a special race trait (Undead, Demon, Celestial). Faerie Wizards are granted it automatically.
• Demonic Summoning (Research): No longer available to Wizards with a special race trait (Undead, Faerie, Celestial). Demon Wizards are granted it automatically.
• Celestial Summoning (Research): No longer available to Wizards with a special race trait (Undead, Demon, Faerie). Celestial Wizards are granted it automatically.

Units

• Phoenix Units costs and upkeep increased by +50%
• Phoenix Rebirth now applies an effect with a duration of 2 Turns (including the current), which prevents rebirth equal to the number replenished as long as it is active. If an effect is already active, the number is added to the existing tally and duration extended to 2. Note that effect duration is checked at the end of the turn, so effectively one full turn of not suffering losses will end the effect. E.g. a unit of 40 suffers 10 losses during Turn 4 and all are rebirthed after combat, then suffers 40 losses during Turn 5 of which only 30 are rebirthed after combat. When Turn 6 ends the tally is reset. I haven't fully tested this change yet.
• Banshees: Increased upkeep from 1 to 2 Mana. Summoning cost from 20 to 35 Mana. Gained Immune to Terror and Relentless Pursuit.
• Greater Banshees: Increased upkeep from 4 to 5 Mana. Summoning cost from 90 to 100 Mana. Gained Terror and Relentless Pursuit. Reduced Greater Shriek Damage from 5 to 3. Gained an extra Arcane Missile attack.
• Death Knights: Reduced the Dark Aura Damage from 4 to 2. Gained Fearless.

Cities

• Marketplace: Crime 0.25 => 0.5, Income 0 Gold => 100 Gold
• Thieves Gold: Maintenance 500 Gold => 50 Gold
• Granary: Cost 100 Food, 500 Lumber => 50 Good, 250 Lumber, 250 Gold, Construction Time 2 => 8
• Farmers Market (new): Growth 0.5, Prosperity 0.5, Crime = 0.25, Squalor 2, Maintenance 10 Food, Income 50 Gold

Fixes

• The '50 Shades of Wizardry' Achievement now fires as intended. The requirements have also been relaxed so that one of True Grit and/or Lusty is enough.
• The 'Toppling The Tower' Achievement now fires as intended when defeating a Wizard as a Warlord. Previously 'The Wand Is Mightier Than the Sword' would fire instead.
• Moved 'Save Game' to a separate thread to improve performance. You cannot advance the Turn until the save thread is finished.
• Characters belonging to Faerie sub-races no longer have multiple race adjectives ("Faerie Brownie Ritualist"; etc.)
• Added code to prevent windows from 'hiding' when multiple windows are active, and a new window should be brought to the fore
• Events and actions that result in the creation of 'free' Units with recruitment type: "recruited" alignment will now change the Alignment of such Units to match the owner faction (if applicable).
• Spells and units which have been added to a Mastery as "auto-unlocks" are now applied retroactively when loading a save game, where they did not exist.
• Fixed several skill-gain events picking characters based on inverted criteria
• Fixed a bug causing the 'Next Turn' button to not update
• Fixed mods not loading correctly when multiple workshop (ie non-local) mods are active
• Fixed the Hero for Hire event getting unintentionally massive rebates from Charismatic and Call for Heroes
• Fixed a bug allowing eliminated Wizard rivals to buy a Dark Tome
• Fixed a bug where units during manual battle resolution would not update rank data, resulting in unit casualties not reducing attacks as intended and casualty assignment being increasingly incorrect as a unit was damaged.
• Fixed the master miner trait missing from multiple culture generator tables
• Fixed worker / trainer alignment clashes resulting in a bonus rather than a malus
• Fixed numerous event/action costs with scaling costs, so they are bounded in both directions and the scaling is more reasonable
• Fixed save game size being unreasonably large
• Fixed save / load being possible when the game was in a state where the results would not be as expected
• Fixed undiscovered factions contacting the player and requesting gifts or diplomatic actions
• Fixed an issue when a faction requests that another faction join a war against an undiscovered third faction. The war target faction will now be revealed.
• Fixed the mouse-wheel not working in the Multicast and Mastery Panels
• Fixed non-Spell effect being shown in the Multicast Panel
• Fixed the keyboard shortcut for Next Turn being available during battles.
• Fixed a crash bug relating to multiple mods with the same guid
• Fixed modded portrait images not being downsampled in sufficiently high-quality when relevant
• Fixed a crashbug caused by re-starting games
• Fixed a bug causing Seed stability to be wrong if re-starting during the same session
• Fixed a crash bug when browsing files.
• Fixed armies not executing multi-turn movement orders correctly (when 'cycle planned moves' is turned off).
• Fixed a number of placeholder texts which had incorrectly not been replaced, relating to Ancient Evil strings
• Fixed a number of Lore discoveries not displaying the intended text in the Lore panel of the Magic window
• Fixed a crash bug and a refresh bug related to Fortress Upgrade construction.
• Fixed a number of crash bugs related to worlds with very few cultures.
• Fixed a display bug in the Battle Window
• Fixed an instance of placeholder text accidentally not replaced by the intended text.
• Fixed a bug where the Magic Window would sometimes be completely empty.
• Fixed a crash bug related to resource stockpile questions
• Fixed followers not re-assigning to Party Assignment tasks if they change state from valid to invalid and back to valid
• Fixed the outliner showing Party Assignment for Idle followers which were not valid for the task
• Fixed mastery progress sometimes sitting at 100% and not triggering a new level until any amount of additional progress occurred.
• Fixed province highlights in the Editor not updating correctly on province selection changes, causing it to leave a 'shadow' of the previously selected province
• Fixed several memory leaks
• Fixed a bug causing Independent Realms to not always be shown in the Diplomacy Window despite being active.
• Fixed a bug blocking armies from exiting the a Fortress hex if they had no or a non-adjacent original location. This could happen when raising an army in the hex or using teleportation effects.
• Fixed bug where multiple active Rebel factions could be created for the same city
• Fixed a bug where first contact messages would be sent incorrectly from eliminated and distant factions
• Fixed eliminated and/or inactive factions being shown in the Diplomacy UI
• Fixed an issue where character elements would not always update to reflect recent state changes in the Follower / Select Character window
• Fixed Undead Marauders being generated with incorrect power levels (stronger/weaker both depending on circumstances).
• Fixed a bug where workers could be assigned despite not meeting the requirements stated.
• Fixed a few positive/negative text coloring bugs (ie red vs green)
• Fixed a battle crash bug when playing as Warlord.
• Fixed crash bug relating to evaluation of unit tags by global faction effects
• Fixed a large number of dynamic unit name generation issues
• Fixed a few tooltip bugs
• Fixed 'Request Character' not mapping character classes correctly for Dedicated Haven realms. You would get a different kind of character than you requested (and intended).
• Fixed a bug causing Faerie and other special units to require a non-existing recruitment pool.
• Fixed a number of inconsistencies and issues with Fools Gold. The 'remaining gold' is now calculated immediately on expenditure and not as an end-of-turn delta, making the spell much more intuitive to use.
• Fixed an issue where an Outpost upgrading to a Settlement could not be assigned a new Overseer.
• Fixed a crash bug when opening the Encyclopedia after loading a Save Game started with older game versions.
• Fixed a bug where the Escape button did not bring up the Menu after loading a game
• Fixed a number of issues with the Naval Commander trait not working as intended. I have also improved it slightly so that in addition to reducing the cost of the first movement into an Ocean hex to 1 - it also allows an additional hex of Ocean movement (relevant for non-aquatic/flying armies). In effect, it now allows 2 hexes of Ocean movement per turn, instead of 1. The previous bonus had a very limited scope for being useful.
• Fixed a bug where a number of unit effects were not ending as intended
• Fixed the color picker acting strangely when dragging the mouse outside its borders.
• Fixed an issue where captive characters were not tracked correctly. Many ways to capture characters would only change the status and location of the character, but not correctly register the captive with the capturing faction.

[ 2021-01-31 21:05:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

A small bug fix patch. These are not merged to the 1.0.1 Beta Branch yet but should be today or tomorrow.

• Randomly generated workers no longer always have Labor (1).
• Rebalanced the cost to hire workers. It is now generally lower, but will be higher for workers with a high sum of initial skill levels. The influence cost in particular has been greatly reduced for workers with a low sum of initial skill levels.
• Fixed an issue causing workers to be generated with no skills and/or negative upkeep.
• Fixed Warlords not being able to defeat Wizard rivals upon assaulting a Wizard Tower.
• Fixed Pre-Battle Event results not being shown to the player

[ 2021-01-04 11:07:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just another small bug fix patch, as the majority of attention is given to the 1.0.1 beta branch. All of these fixes have also been made on the beta branch alongside the various new developments.

• Fixed a bug where a number of unit effects were not ending as intended
• Fixed the color picker acting strangely when dragging the mouse outside its borders.
• Character upkeep is now processed prior to Unit upkeep
• Unpaid worker upkeep now results in workers disbanding
• Unit upkeep priority is now randomized, which makes a difference if there are resources to pay a subset of units.
• Workers with no skills no longer generated
• Workers with only 1 skill level are now less likely to be generated
• Fixed a bug where some units incorrectly required recruits. This included 'basic' Faeries and a few other special culture units.
• Fixed a bug where Request Character options were mapped incorrectly when dealing with Dedicated Haven realms.

[ 2020-12-22 19:58:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a small bug fix patch. I'll merge these over to the 1.0.1 beta branch later today as well.

• Fixed a number of issues with the Naval Commander trait not working as intended. I have also improved it slightly so that in addition to reducing the cost of the first movement into an Ocean hex to 1 - it also allows an additional hex of Ocean movement (relevant for non-aquatic/flying armies). In effect, it now allows 2 hexes of Ocean movement per turn, instead of 1. The previous bonus had a very limited scope for being useful.
• Events and actions that result in the creation of 'free' Units with recruitment type: "recruited" alignment will now change the Alignment of such Units to match the owner faction (if applicable).
• Fixed a number of inconsistencies and issues with Fools Gold. The 'remaining gold' is now calculated immediately on expenditure and not as an end-of-turn delta, making the spell much more intuitive to use.
• Fixed an issue where an Outpost upgrading to a Settlement could not be assigned a new Overseer.
• Fixed a crash bug when opening the Encyclopedia after loading a Save Game started with older game versions.
• Fixed a bug where the Escape button did not bring up the Menu after loading a game

[ 2020-12-15 22:06:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Independent realms no longer build enormous defensive armies. They had a tendency to do this previously, especially if the garrison had a lot of under-strength units.
• The 'Celestial Aberration' event now modifies Unrest for 8 turns, instead of permanently. Also fixed the consistent spelling error in the relevant text strings.
• Fixed several text and tool-tip issues involving Faction names.
• Fixed fortification values having inconsistent display rounding in the context panel.

[ 2020-12-11 18:17:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

• AI Rivals are now assigned colors from a fixed list of distinguishable colors instead of completely random colors.
• The Escape key now closes an open window in a manner which follows UI conventions. There is a single known case where it still doesn't work, but that should be fixed soon and hopefully no.one will notice (hint: it's during game setup).
• Wizard AI is now better at prioritizing armies against threats and opportunities by improved consideration of power levels.
• Wizard AI will now use larger armies for achieving objectives.
• Wizard AI is now more likely to prioritize rival capitals.
• Wizard AI is now less obsessed with taking over all unclaimed mana nodes.
• Wizard AI is now better at prioritizing conquest targets by distance and expected strength.
• Wizard AI is now less prone to retreating an army to friendly territory with only low to moderate losses.
• Workers which can't settle due to culture/special properties can no longer be assigned as Settlers
• Tomb Robber shenanigans can now result in a greater variety of angry monsters and creatures.
• Outposts can now be abandoned after construction as well.
• Dungeon difficulty now has a larger impact on dungeon expeditions
• Rewards from dungeons are now slightly better at the low end and much better for difficult dungeons (which are now more difficult than before at the high end)
• Character level and dungeon difficulty now impacts the risk of lethal trap events
• Rogues have a special saving throw vs traps in dungeons
• Tribal Chiefs can now raze fortresses after a successful siege.
• World spells which target units can no longer be cast on non-owned armies/units. This could be abused to spy on enemy armies and/or to apply dangerous effects (ie symbiotes).
• Fixed an exploit where Transmutation could be used despite not having the requisite resources.
• Fixed several UI issues with the Transmutation Panel.
• Fixed Mitalovivo units incorrectly having Limited Regeneration in addition to Regeneration. These don't stack, so Limited Regeneration has been removed.
• Fixed an issue with the Favorable Skies fix causing incorrect pathing calculation, allowing unlimited free movement during a single turn, instead of the one hex intended.
• Casting Rune of The Raven no longer applies Rune of Thunder instead.
• Fixed a crash bug relating to Wizard AI feeling very threatened. (crashing the game is an unfair cop-out).
• Fixed a number of bugs relating to text and the Craft Gift assignment.
• Fixed a bug causing Skirmishers to sometimes attack their own side.
• Fixed a bug causing: Void Tyrants, Void Gluttons and Void Fiends not be unlocked as intended.
• Fixed a bug causing some spell effects to persist after the target no longer existed (showing up in various lists).
• Fixed a crash bug involving peace offers.
• Fixed an issue with the Followers Window and the Back Button
• Fixed exploit allowing players to disband and/or split AI army units in some cases
• Fixed Advisor resource impact missing from next turn projections in the info window
• Fixed Outpost to City Pioneers skills (this was incorrectly fixed previously when the display and actual requirement where out of sync - the wrong one was fixed)
• Fixed a number of ways to circumvent the restrictions on Locked Leaders and their activity.
• Fixed equipment not factoring into upkeep costs as intended. Note that this greatly changes upkeep costs. I've done some minor rebalancing, but units are generally more expensive to upkeep now (in Gold).
• Fixed greatly incorrect upkeep display in Hire Mercenaries preview. The recruited unit would have a sometimes very different upkeep.
• Fixed some text display errors
• Fixed the Hire Mercenaries button obscuring part of the Military Window Filter Panel
• Fixed an issue causing AI armies to attack repeatedly when they should not be able to, either due to AI planning or mechanics restricting it.

[ 2020-12-10 10:39:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Tribal religious festival quests now show a dialog when completed rather than the (easy to miss) notification
• The Tribal Divine favor effect is now named Divine Blessing to avoid confusion with Divine Favor
• Tribal religious quests issued by a single deity now give +10 Divine Favor
• Fixed a bug where the Truesight spell did not allow army inspection as intended
• Fixed the 'army disbanded' spam when migrating a tribal camp
• Fixed a bug where some tribal quests would not complete as expected
• Fixed a bug where the tooltip on End Tribal Migration would not show
• Fixed the End Tribal Migration action not applying the reassembly cost for camp upgrades
• Fixed a bug where the Naval Commander skill would result in weird route-planning and incorrect multi-hex cost calculations
• Fixed a text formatting bug in the Train Workers UI flow.

[ 2020-11-14 18:53:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

This patch has living on the beta branch for some time now, and is somewhat overdue for being promoted to the main branch - I generally want to avoid long-lived beta branches unless it's to playtest a major change. My focus is still primarily on catching up on lost time in regards to the 1.0.1 update. Hopefully I'll have more to share on that one very soon. I'm generally keeping the roadmap updated, so you can always follow my plans for the near and medium-term future there. Thanks to everyone who provided bug and issue reports, feedback, ideas, and more. I still have a rather substantial back log of tasks - and this is just a bug fix / minor tweak patch, as I try hard to only do non-1.0.1 tasks/bugs if they are critical, have a very high cost-benefit ratio or I am already making changes to the code as part of one of the two previous cases.

• Skirmish harass mechanics changed for skirmish units which are not countered by enemy skirmishers. They can use ranged attacks without retribution, but melee attacks only if they have ambush or better flying than their target (ie flight vs limited flight vs no flight). Skirmishers with ranged attacks and no way to avoid retribution will stick to ranged attacks. Retribution attack suffer a penalty based on the movement speed difference of the units and the absolute movement speed of the skirmisher. The discipline stat determines how many retribution attacks can be made (scales from 10% to 90%)
• Units with Limited Flight or Flight can now Skirmish regardless of other stats
• Army Champion now gives +1 Courage to 'mundane' units, increased to +2 with the Inspire Courage skill.
• Made a slight balance adjustment to Brownies. Added Brownie Rangers. Faeries can recruit these if they have 1+ Brownie Units with min. 50% strength and XP Level 5+.
• Right-dragging the map is now possible
• Adjusted the penalty for having units with a base recruitment pool of 0. Previous formula was penalty = 0.5*N^2+1.5. New formula is penalty = 0.025*N^2 + 0.05*N + 1.2. (where N is the is the normalized number of units - ie the number of full units if all were merged). Soft cap is still applied at penalty >= 4, dampening the penalty greatly towards 4.
• Construct Blood Power Source: +5 Ichor cost, gain Limited Regeneration.
• Losing a Worker will now always clear related character tasks
• Divine Favor (50+) will now unlock otherwise unavailable religious dedication options - unless the Deity rejects the Faction (without Favor, acceptance is required)
• Divine Wroth (50+) will now lock otherwise available religious dedication options
• Improved Upkeep amount formatting to round away fractions (for display purposes) more gradually as amounts increase, and immediately at 1 and up. It's now 2 decimals until 100, then 1 decimals until 1000.
• Units gained from Lore Discovery now have No Upkeep for the duration
• Reduced costs on Lesser Shades, Lesser Valkyries and Valkyries
• Most Tower Expansions are now restricted to 1 per Tower
• Locked leaders can no longer be sent as emissaries or assigned an office
• Characters who have 'taken action this turn' are now shown as Exhausted rather than Idle
• Characters who have 'taken action this turn' are now prevented from being assigned most Offices
• Tweaked the Raze City logic to be less buggy and be instant when the army is large enough
• It is no longer possible to add new members to a party which is assigned to a dungeon expedition. The expedition must be recalled to expand the party.
• Outposts can now be Razed
• Gaining province control now grants visibility of all hexes in province and all hexes adjacent to the province
• There is now a warning in the tool tip when building a Quarry on hex more suited for another resource type.
• There is now a warning in the tool tip when building a Mine on hex more suited for another resource type.
• Changed the sell price cap from being exactly buy price to 95% of buy price - in addition to preventing the spread from becoming 0 when a faction accumulates numerous price modifier, it also prevents certain events which do not have a symmetrical price impact from creating this situation
• Greatly reduced rounding on calculation of buy/sell prices from the base market price, as this was causing low-value resources to have low, or no, spread
• Improved UI feedback and validation related to tasks and offices. Offices will now block tasks that are incompatible with the office, rather than relying on assignment cancelling the task. This is more robust and makes it more apparent to the player when task assignment will cause this. It also fixes a number of bugs where assignments could be made to circumvent this logic.
• Slightly nerfed Voidlings as the changes to Ambush made them too strong for their cost
• New Darkness Units: Void Gluttons, Void Fiends and Void Tyrants
• Air/Earth/Fire/Water/Frost-Touched Traits now impact Wizard's Apprentice mechanics.
• Added mechanics to the tooltip for Wizard's Apprentice during Office assignment.
• Added a 'Release Recruits' button to the Military Window. 1 influence is gained per 200 temporary recruits released.
• Added a Seasonal Pantheon Theme when generating the World/Cosmos.
• Wizard's Apprentice and Bodyguard Offices are no longer unavailable for Celestial, Demonic, Faerie and Undead Wizards.
• Tweaked Domain assignment for Elemental Theme Pantheons to avoid almost-elemental domains being assigned to the wrong elemental deity.
• Tweaked Quartermaster Office Desire values.
• Added tooltip to remove workers at resource sites and outposts
• Giant Lizards: -1 Move, -1 Melee Skill, +1 Armor, -2 HP, +2 Resist Poison/Disease, +5 Mana Cost, +3 Food Upkeep
• Nomad Camp: +5 Base Food Production
• Increased the cost of Lore Research.
• Tribal Great Hunt: Now yields a bit of Food when completed, in addition to existing effects.
• Fixed an issue with right-clicking on some Mac platforms
• Fixed incorrect starting armies and resources for AI Warlords at Easy and Normal Difficulty
• Fixed Upgrade Outpost allowing 3 to 4 upgrade despite what the tooltip says
• Fixed a number of crash bugs related to spell casting during battles
• Fixed incorrect follower outline display in some cases when in a party.
• Fixed Summon Skeleton Laborers and Fae Binding of Beasts having a worker limit off by one from the spell description
• Fixed Summon Demonic Wretches having a worker limit off by one from the spell description
• Fixed enroute player units cluttering the UI weirdly
• Fixed a battle crash bug
• Fixed editor crash bug when hovering outside map in river mode
• Fixed river hint sprites remaining visible after creating a new map or exiting the editor
• Fixed some errors with dungeon stance selection
• Fixed solar blast incorrectly causing numerous hits
• Fixed a number of issues with religious building dedication logic
• Fixed an issue with requirements display for researching Fae Binding, Demonic Summoning and Celestial Summoning
• Fixed empty armies being able to move (except when they're migrating camps)
• Fixed some upkeep modifiers not being shown in the tooltip when inspecting army units
• Fixed a crash bug which could occur during world generation
• Fixed a crash bug which could occur when starting a game with a custom map that has remnants of old corrupt data from previous versions of the editor
• Fixed Martial and Artisan Advisors increasing cost of their relevant recruitment types rather than decreasing
• Fixed Construct Creation not being consistent with other windows concerning fractional amounts
• Fixed Summon New Units step of Wizard Basic Quest not always triggering
• Fixed an issue with the Petrify attack special ability not working as intended
• Fixed a few issues with the Filter Panel in the Character UI
• Fixed the 'Remove' buttons on the Army Leaders panel circumventing some of the validation logic for unassignment
• Fixed worker training being able to progress if trainer assignment fails - previously the worker training would proceeed as if assignment had not failed
• Fixed golems not getting +1 skill when using only 1 Light Weapon as intended
• Fixed pyramids and ruins spawning in hexes with resources, making these impossible to access
• Fixed missing text on a few tooltips
• Fixed a bug where Modifiers for units in the recruitment queue were not being shown after saving/loading a game. They were still active, but not displayed.
• Fixed some of the ways to circumvent office assignment restrictions.
• Fixed a bug where Scout Captains could not be assigned during battles (even if the target was a scout unit).
• Fixed a missing tooltip in the battle resolution window.
• Fixed a crash related to not being able to assign a character portrait.
• Fixed a bug making vampire portraits invalid in too many cases
• Fixed a bug where Elemental Theme pantheons were not given a pre-game description text.
• Fixed a bug where some special Cultural Unit Types were generated based on the wrong templates, resulting strange unit types.
• Fixed worker training progress and target not being saved correctly - resulting in instant level up on loading a game (existing save games will be set to 0 of 4 turns).
• Fixed 'at-tower' offices not correctly blocking tasks in all intended situations.
• Fixed Outpost to City upgrade requiring Artisanship from Pioneers rather than Dometic as shown (and intended).
• Fixed a bug where splitting units would re-apply existing effects to the newly created 'sibling' unit. Some attacks would also be duplicated.
• Fixed a bug where the spell Places of Power would not properly discover sites.

[ 2020-11-11 18:56:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Silver Golem: +1 Arcane Damage, +1 Dark Resist
• All-flying armies can now enter coastal waters (from land) at cost 1
• Added relevant tags to Constructs
• Randomized resolution of starting position when multiple with the same priority are available
• Cavalry unit types are now less varied on average for Cultures without Nomadic or Master Riders
• Mercenary upkeep is now usually higher than the base upkeep for a similar unit
• Mercenary units will now sometimes start with higher experience
• Added tool tips with stats to Culture Units in the Encyclopedia
• Added Unit Type Info (Light Militia Cavalry, Heavy Elite Infantry, etc) to Culture Units in the Encyclopedia
• Added additional 'counts-as-class' traits: Numismatics (Mercantile), Arcane Spark (Arcane), Tinkering (Artisan)
• Mount attacks added to Cavalry. This has not been applied to Tribal Cavalry yet, as it needs some additional testing. But they're no weaker than before.
• Added additional races to the 'Force Nearby Culture' selection list
• Tweaked display of unit strength in the army window to make it more readable
• Skirmishers can no longer use melee attacks against ranged skirmishers with impunity
• Workers can now be trained by characters of any alignment. If there is opposed alignment, progress will be at 20% rate, but with a chance of converting alignment (base 20%, modified by multiple factors).
• Tweaked the cost and upkeep of Satyrs, Fauns and Faerie Cavalry to be more reasonable. Faerie Cavalry also got a decent buff.
• Fixed an issue in the Editor where hex coastal flags were not written. This will be retroactively applied when loading a map previously created (in editor or game).
• Fixed Naval Commander not giving a movement bonus on Water
• Fixed Rapid Reload not working at all
• Fixed Recruitment Pools not being processed until 'touched' by a modifier or task
• Fixed naming of Human cultures
• Fixed a bug causing Armor to be applied to damage with non-physical damage types
• Fixed a bug where dungeons could get stuck in a completed, but not cleared, state Fixed a bug where dungeons could get stuck in a completed, but not cleared, state
• Fixed two damage calculation bugs where resistance/vulnerability/armor was not applied as intended
• Fixed army window starting in strange state
• Fixed 'no replenishment' not being shown in the recruitment window
• Fixed a bug causing checks against class types to sometimes not include 'count-as' traits

[ 2020-10-25 18:08:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

General

• New game setting for automatic/easy scouting. This allows inspection of enemy armies without having a nearby observer, and disables the scouting logic limiting available information.
• The following Wizard Racial Traits now unlock city religious building dedications: Faerie, Celestial, Demon. The corresponding 'Worship' cult is available
• Corrupted province data in custom maps can now be fixed by loading and saving the maps in the editor
• Custom Map input field is now clickable
• Provinces are now highlighted when editing provinces in the Editor
• The tool tip on Favor/Wroth in the Deities panel is now limited to 10 lines of change history.

Magic, Research and Constructs

• Medium Mana Node now gives 6 Mana per Turn, and costs 450 Mana to Bind.
• Channeling nows give +1 to +5 Mana per Turn based on the size of the Mana Node.
• Animate Weapons can no longer be cast during the first turn of battle
• Shardstorm and Boulderstorm now log whether they applied the modifier or not (and were also tweaked slightly)
• Magma Elementals no longer have themselves as a requirement for research
• Added missing Mastery bonuses to the following Research: Ravenous Symbiote, Aquatic Symbiote
• Added Orb of Seeing Golem Trait - Scouting +2, +1 Ranged Attack Skill

Battles, Armies and Units

• Reworked the calculation and display of Melee and Ranged Skill for unit attacks.
• If all units in an Army have Flying, it ignores terrain type movement costs
• If all units in an Army have Flying or Limited Flying, it halves terrain type movement costs (but now below 1)
• Non-Major Faction AI no longer has the mysterious ability to attack already destroyed/disbanded armies
• Army roles now give passive XP to characters below level 3
• All Army offices now gain XP from battles (Quartermaster only on victory)

Dungeons and Characters

• Greatly increased XP from dungeon expeditions
• Increased base travel speed by 200% for purposes of dungeon expedition travel speed
• Character traits now affect expedition movement speed: Cautious -15%, Lazy -20%, Energetic 20%, Reckless 10%, Survival 25%, Tracking 50%, Rogue +25%
• Character movement speed is now based on race, but is minimum 4

Sites and Projects

• Excavation Projects now actually have an effect. Ruins have also been made more common so there is actually something to excavate. You can get some resources and/or research progress from excavations. There is a risk of angering Deities. If Sinister or Deadly wilderness is chosen there is also a chance of unleashing monsters.
• Workers are now unassigned on the conquest of a site
• Outpost into settlement upgrade now uses culture from workers if the overseer has a special culture. Special culture characters are no longer blocked from being overseers (they still need civic or survival)
• The sum of Religion power in a City can no longer add up to more than 100%
• Added a new cultural City building, Warrior Lodge: Inner Circle, which unlocks Elite units
• Added a new cultural City building, Grand Arena, which has a significant Unrest reduction (requires Arena)
• Added new cultural City buildings related to hunting: Hunting Lodges, Fur Market, Bone Carvers
• Tweaked a number of City building stats
• City religious buildings dedicated to Mysticism are now available if the Culture has the Mysticism trait
• City religious buildings dedicated to Eldritch Cultism are now available if the Culture has the Madness trait

Bug Fixes:

• Quick start options are now only shown when relevant (ie when quick start is enabled)
• Quick start: Removed 7 opponent option (as it was causing crashes)
• Fixed a number of bugs in religious building availability checks for Cities - it will now include those represented by unaligned and city-friendly Religious-type character, those with positive cultural affinity and those with 3%+ power in the city.
• Fixed an editor crash related to the river tool
• Fixed golem attribute calculation to handle temporary stats underflow/overflow
• Fixed custom golems being recruited with type: train and not type: create
• Fixed a number of units not contributing to mastery progress and a few new cases
• Fixed a crash related to battle spell casting
• Fixed emissary XP being incredibly strange and unfair
• Fixed skirmishers deploying strangely
• Fixed missing mouse wheel-scroll in the Mastery grid
• Fixed an issue with some custom maps (the editor could leave remnants of empty provinces)
• Fixed an issue with using Steam workshop mods when not having a mods folder
• Fixed "missing upkeep" spam messages
• Fixed Orichalcum-infused armor not applying effects correctly
• Fixed the Turn counter being shown in editor mode
• Fixed character clan affiliation not being saved correctly
• Fixed military window recruitment options not being shown correctly in Queue Mode
• Fixed Paving the Way and Veins of Civilization incorrectly calculating shortest path disregarding hypothetical future bridges
• Fixed an issue where emissaries could become "sticky" and keep the office even when assigned to another task
• Fixed an issue where two categories of conditional unit stat modifiers were not applied
• Fixed an Achievement not triggering if conquering the seat of power of a Warlord if it was a Fortress
• Fixed Conflagration of Souls not working properly
• Fixed recruitment modifiers having double cost, which gave some unexpected and incorrect "cannot afford this" prompts when recruiting
• Fixed a number of spelling errors and incorrect tooltips

[ 2020-10-21 15:05:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

• When using a non-special Wizard Race Trait and an Alignment Trait: The generated Culture will be forced to match the alignment of the wizard.
• Warlord AI difficulty settings now have a greater impact
• Wizard AI is now slightly less biased towards grabbing provinces at the expense of building up its economy
• Fixed recruitment time estimate being wrong for many unit types
• Fixed some recruitment cost modifiers not being applied correctly
• Faerie Wizard now start with access to Faerie Warriors and Brownies
• Ancient Evil research locked behind Divination 2 as intended (and shown in Divination)
• Faeries (Unit): Gained Bind Mana Node, Skirmish
• Brownies Unit): Gained Skirmish, no strength replenishment, much cheaper
• Redcaps (Unit): Gained Unsettling
• Celestial Mastery: Gain a 'free' follower at 4, 6, 8
• Demon Wizard: Starts with Demonic Summoning
• Faerie Wizard: Starts with Faerie Binding
• Celestial Wizard: Starts with Celestial Summoning
• Wizards with a special race (Demon, Faerie, Celestial, Undead) cannot research Demonic Summoning, Faerie Binding and Celestial Summoning if they do not start with them
• New Unit: Radiant Wisps
• Construct Power Source: Faerie Dust has reduced cost and upkeep
• Construct Power Source: Celestial Radiance
• Construct Weapon: Claws
• Changed a few Base Wizard Templates to have different masteries
• Mods can now be given a preview image by placing an image named preview.jpg or preview.png in the folder (in addition to the existing way of using the mod name)
• Prospector chance to find new resources now scales with level
• Fixed second-to-last battle spell opening the 'more spells' window
• Fixed an issue with Conflagration of Souls not being able to target anything
• Fixed missing display text for worship/offering tasks
• Worker window tooltip fix
• Dark Tome Event tooltip fix
• Fixed an issue blocking selection of units during battles after a spell had been cast
• Fixed lumber mills in arctic forest not producing anything
• Fixed a memory leak when using mods

[ 2020-10-15 14:08:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

A few more issues had to be fixed before I can dedicate my time more fully to 1.0.1 development. A few improvement snuck into the patch as well. I'll try to stick to fixing game-breaking / critical issues until the next proper Update is ready, but I will probably end up patching a couple of things which are either particularly annoying to players. It's been a hectic few weeks, and the bug fixing + stabilization + tweaking according to popular requests did take longer than expected, so it's cut into some of the time I had expected to use for 1.0.1 development. On the other hand I think these changes are really good, so it was definitely worth the one-to-two weeks it probably cost in relation to the City Update. When I read through the patch notes from 1.0.0.1 to this one, I'm pretty happy at what's been accomplished (a little bit exhausted too, maybe). Thank you so much everyone for your kind and encouraging words, constructive feedback, excellent ideas and detailed bug reports (+ logs/saves!). I am sorry to anyone I have not replied to yet or have only given cursory replies - or even worse, those whose posts I may have overlooked. As things cool down a bit I will try to find time to go through posts from the last few weeks and make sure I have not missed anything.

• The rival Wizard AI is now more capable, especially at expansion. It also has improved ability to consolidate armies and makes fewer suicidal attacks.
• Wizard AI: Very Difficult and Difficult now have higher starting resources and a flat bonus to income at the Wizard Tower.
• New graphics for Planar Portal
• New graphics for Mysterious Site
• New Construct Shapes: Serpentine and Arachnoid
• The Customize Construct Window (aka 'Golem Shop') has been given previews for various options and slightly improved UI in general
• Resource sites now change ownership when a province or adjacent site is conquered
• Slightly toned down the frequency of random events involving marauders and wandering monsters
• Improved the time scaling of the Ancient Evil activity triggers to make them more smooth (and less frequent in the late game)
• Improved the movement steps of the first 5 battle turns to be more smooth and not 4 tiny steps and 1 big step at the end
• Increased the amount of sylvan terrain when generating a world
• During world generation swamps are now sometimes counted as part of a contiguous forest entity (ie a swamp surrounded by forest will be part of the forest)
• Jungles now have unique names and are not just named the same as forests
• Expanded and improved the selection of starting followers for Wizard with Light/Celestial/Alignment: Good trait combination
• Improved the province generation algorithm to reduce the number of very small and very large provinces
• Improved the province naming algorithm to be better at matching names matching the races/cultures in or near the province
• Reduced the risk/chance of generating very long and strange province names
• Increased the output of Logging Camps by about 15%
• Tweaked what units can be summoned/bound at Mana Nodes (based on Unit Type vs Mana Node Type), increasing the number of such units and improving thematic matching
• Fixed an issue where some neutral fortresses were generated without garrison units
• Fixed a number of bugs and user-unfriendly defaults in the Construction Project Window
• Fixed a bug causing units to change sides during battles and attack their own sides
• Fixed a number of incorrect tool tips and guide texts
• Fixed a missing unit portrait
• Fixed Construct Breath Weapon attacks not working as intended
• Fixed a bug where the selections made in the Post-Battle Captives window were not being applied correctly
• Known Issue: A new spell which should not be able to create forests without an adjacent life mana node can do so anyway

[ 2020-10-13 19:21:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

After this round of fixes, I have a few high-priority bugs and tasks left. I will hopefully close those tomorrow and then I'll shift to dedicating a greater portion of my time on the 1.0.1 Update, which aims to bring improvements to City Mechanics, Battle UI and the new player experience. I will still fix game-breaking and serious bugs as soon as possible, but the less serious bugs and changes will be lumped in with 1.0.1 so that I can maintain some traction on getting a nice meaty update out for you with more than just fixes and tweaks. We'll see how next week plays out, but my intent is to prioritize slightly differently - circumstances allowing.

• Mods and maps can now be given a custom preview image when uploaded and/or updated. Place a png or jpg image with the same name as the mod or map in the folder. It will be picked up automatically when uploading/updating.
• Water Mastery now grants the ability to build coastal Outposts without meeting the usual requirements (an adjacent controlled province or an army containing a character with Construction)
  • Level 2: Coastal Hexes with a friendly army and in an unclaimed province
  • Level 4: Coastal Hexes in unclaimed provinces
  • Level 6: Coastal Hexes in unclaimed provinces and claimed provinces (if no adjacent unowned fortress or city)
• Added Human and Halfling Wizard Race Traits - not that Humans are still the 'average' and default race for Wizards without any Race Trait. Taking the Trait is a way to force a starting position and hiring pool with primarily Humans, whereas a 'generic' Wizard will have a more diverse selection of minions and available hires.
• Double-clicking the Selection Icon (bottom row) will now zoom the camera to the relevant entity (army, site, province, etc.)
• Refugees settling will now give some recruits to offset the recruitment pool penalty from their meagre garrison. The garrison will also have free upkeep for 10 turns.
• Map Filter Tooltips added
• Economy Window text width fix
• Wizards with a (non-special) race trait now have their hire options weighted towards a greater proportion of that race (followers: 80%, mercenaries: 75%, workers: 90%)
• Mercantile followers can make (or rarely lose) a bit of personal Gold at the Wizard Tower Bazaar
• Logging Camp: -50% base Lumber production
• Mine: -50% base production
• Quarry: -50% base production
• Higher-tier Mercenary Units will ask for more gold from wealthy factions
• Low-tier Mercenary Units are slightly cheaper
• Craft diplomatic gift can now take more than one turn - it has a 20% chance per turn to complete (increasing by cumulative 5% per turn up to 95%). It no longer causes Fatigue on completion and will now provide 2 XP on completion.
• Increased the variety and template-matching of the Wizard starting units
• Wizards with the Transmuter trait now start with an Alchemist follower
• Wizards now always start with at least one worker with the Construction skill
• Armies left over from halted/defeated Planar Invasions will now become marauders
• Armies now ordered by size and type when transferring units in a hex with multiple target armies (non-garrison armies first)
• Show Garrison action is no longer shown if there is no garrison
• Victory Monument sites can now be targeted by Raise Hero in a variety of circumstances
• The Battle Report notification now shows Quick Results immediately, saving a redundant button click
• Improved a number of tool tips
• Fixed an issue where Deities were duplicated in the Deities panel until sorted or filtered
• Fixed an issue with the Nomad Trade Post
• Fixed an issue with upload/update of mods to the Steam Workshop
• Fixed an issue with duplicate races in the character filter panel
• Fixed incorrect Clan assignment to numerous Tribal followers/notables
• Fixed Mana Nodes not changing their Bind Cost when shrinking or growing
• Fixed the missing effects of Arcane Denial, Banish Outsider and Scorched Earth
• Fixed the Create+Metal Transmutation options not appearing
• Fixed an exploit allowing players to build sites at no cost by having the gold amount in a very specific range depending on the situation
• Fixed the Duel event so it fires correctly and doesn't glitch out before the player can interact with it
• Fixed a bug where Characters were tracked using an incorrect location
• Fixed a bug where some Units were included twice in various calculations and UI elements
• Fixed a bug where a province could remain controlled by an in-active or defeated faction
• Fixed a bug where newly created custom Wizard Templates would not be saved if all existing custom templates were deleted immediately prior to creating one or more new ones in the same session
• Fixed missing tooltips on some recruitment modifiers
• Fixed a glitch caused when attrition to a Planar Invasion army eliminated a unit
• Fixed a crash bug related to the Disease event and improved display any effects on local player-controlled armies
• Fixed a number of bugs related to the Temporal Disturbance random event

[ 2020-10-10 19:35:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Improved the usability of the Custom Construct (Golem) Window
• Expected income is now displayed excluding result of stockpile transactions. Tooltips will show expected results of this.
• Wizards with the Faerie, Demon or Undead traits can now upgrade Outposts to settlements, like other Wizard types.
• Armies with 'Sleep' state set will now wake if moved
• Cities with locked leader offices will become unlocked if leader dies or otherwise stops holding the office
• Summoning mishaps that result in limitd duration can no longer reduce the limited duration to less than it would be otherwise (if applicable)
• Reduced the risk of summoning mishaps (base risk was 20%, new is 6%). Adjusted relevant modifiers from upgrades and traits accordingly to have the same relative value.
• Tribal military unit list no longer has 'sticky' selection making it annoying to recruit multiple units
• A Mercantile Character gained from choosing Tribal Destiny: Trade Stations now has the correct Clan (fixing the outrageous upkeep problem)
• Camp migration no longer destroys upgrades except those intended to be destroyed (palisades, watchtowers, etc.)
• Leader Character traits and classes now impact production as Resource Sites
• Refugee events will now cause depopulation in affected (source) realms
• Tweaked the outcome and text for one of the Dark Pact Quests (Mana Node Ritual)
• Added missing descriptions to a few spells
• Steam Workshop Mods can now be updated and not just uploaded as new items
• Dragon Knight Fortresses now have additional defenders, either Neophyte Dragon Knights or a culturally relevant Medium Infantry unit
• Dynamically generated Dragon Knights now have more interesting stats and a fire attack
• Fixed a bug where a Pop that changed Primary type would sometimes not correctly get the new Primary added, causing strange hybrid types
• Fixed a number of UI freeze issues in the Fortress Window
• Fixed a number of Warlord crash bugs and
• Fixed Warlord clan control not always causing camps to transfer as intended
• Fixed build actions disappearing if 'Filter' action used when a hex or province was selected
• Fixed a bug causing characters assigned as Army Champion from the Follower Window shortcut to be assigned as Scout Captain
• Fixed a bug allowing the assignment of injured and fatigued characters to several tasks
• Fixed the Faction Luck attribute not correctly impacting all intended random events types
• Fixed tribal migrations sometimes leaving an empty army for a turn
• Fixed a number of bugs related to being at maximum Mastery and Lore levels
• Fixed a number of bugs related to Custom Constructs and some choices not applying their effects
• Fixed a number of incorrect trait descriptions

[ 2020-10-07 22:03:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Outposts can now be upgraded into small cities. This is an interim way to gain new cities until the city-focused update, so it is not particularly advanced, and just follows the pattern from upgrading to a fortress
• Added a gold component to loot from Plunder Province
• Added information on why a specific Worker Skill is not valid for training when picking a trainer (red text and tooltip)
• Added Worker capacity to several site tooltips.
• Further tweaked province generation to give better province sizes.
• Added additional Dungeon info to the map tooltip.
• Raise Hero now works on a wider variety of sites.
• The Siege Window now lists the Defender army composition in detail with stats.
• City pop promotion now prefers to pick Rabble, Refugees and Settlers for conversion if no Generic pop is available
• Fixed a bug preventing the draining of mana nodes if the wizard could not afford to bind the node
• Fixed a bug allowing the upgrade of Outposts while they were being built
• Fixed a performance issue when an army was selected and dragging the map
• Fixed a crash in the character filter panel

[ 2020-10-05 21:15:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

This one is going out as a beta patch. I want to do a bit more testing on it before pushing it to the main release branch. If nothing horrible is found, it will probably be pushed to the main branch within a day. It should be pretty stable, so feel free to go ahead and try it out (make sure to keep a save game from before the patch). You can get it via the Properties > Beta tab as usual in Steam. It might take a short time from this post to the beta is shown in the Steam Client - as the servers need to synch up.

• Added a notification when a unit is lost due to the Limited Duration effect running out (for example units from units which last X turns)
• Added a notification when an army is disbanded due to having no more units
• Additional variety of crafted item names
• Wisps can now Bind Mana Nodes even without the research Spellcraft, but at +50% cost. They give -5% cost per XP level if the proper research has been done. Unit needs to be at 80% strength for this to work.
• Hungering Wisps can now Drain Mana Nodes even without the research Spellcraft, but at -50% gain. They give +5% gain per XP level if the proper research has been done. Unit needs to be at 80% strength for this to work.
• Slightly adjusted the stats of Wisps and Hungering Wisps to make them less overpriced.
• Added next/prev buttons to the City Window
• Added follower upkeep to the ledger in the Economy Window
• Aggregated units with same name in some places (rather repeating the same unit and strength). This means a tooltip for an army will say 'Mounted Death Knights (100) (x5)' rather than listing the same line 5 times.
• Adjusted province generation to reduce the chance of extremely large provinces. It can still occur, but much more rarely. Also adjusted some of the weights for merging/splitting during this processing to give better results.
• Workers and characters can now be assigned to Shrines during construction (making it possible to progress if those positions become empty)
• Provinces can now be renamed by the player
• Added a clear filter button to the wizard projects panel
• Added a 'show unavailable' toggle to the wizard projects view (same function as the one in the category mode)
• Removed the sneaky 'close' button on the wizard projects view that was easily mistaken for 'back'
• Added a filter for mundane/culture units to the Wizard Military window
• Added a filter for unavailable units to the Tribal Military window (useful to hide high-tier units not yet unlocked)
• Patrol Province now has tooltip text explaining what it does and some of the numbers involved
• Added a hint to the deployment screen that it is possible to change sections
• Fixed several text error and inconsistencies
• Reworked some text which was unclear on summoning being a type of recruitment
• Filter context actions now works better with hex and province selections
• Fixed a bug where characters with special culture were given incorrect character classes
• Fixed a bug where priests could not worship deities due to faction affiliation. It can still happen in some situations, but now has the correct error message.
• Fixed a race condition crash bug occuring when a battle ended as a tooltip was being generated
• Fixed a bug where army emblems would be minimized incorrectly when in the same hex as a 'mini-site'
• Fixed the filter panel on the wizard projects panel not being activated as intended
• Fixed a number of issues with Independent Realm AI
• Fixed a bug where the soft caps on marauder army spawning were not always working as intended when there are multiple existing marauders active in a province
• Fixed an issue where Non-Agression Pacts were being rejected incorrectly
• Fixed duplicate site names in tooltips on loading/starting a new game

[ 2020-10-03 22:04:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Alchemist (followers) will no longer mock Undead characters by gifting them Healing Potions. (Undead cannot use those, but they still stack up in their inventory).
• Fixed a tutorial-related crash bug
• Fixed a diplomacy window icon alignment error
• There is now a confirmation dialog before moving an army away from a siege to prevent accidentally losing siege progress
• Diplomacy Window icon offset fix
• Difficulty (Normal and lower) Wizard AI will not react to aggressive expansion
• Difficulty (Easy and lower) Warlord AI will not react to aggressive expansion
• Aggressive expansion is no longer increased by accepting refugee-founded settlements
• Aggressive expansion now takes into account cultural attitudes. Independent Realms will no longer care about conquests against their traditional enemies (Hostile+). For attitudes of Admire and worse, if the attitude towards the aggressor is better, the realm will also not care.
• Changed the descriptive wording of very positive regard from 'Ally' to 'Very Friendly' to avoid confusing it with an Alliance treaty
• Fixed the Friends in Low Places Achievement not counting Alliance treaties if the regard value was low
• Units can now be merged even if one or both have a potential max size already at the limit. This allow consolidation of units with losses. Units which are at max strength and with no losses cannot participate in merges.
• Merging units when the target unit is at full size will no longer reduce the max size of source unit. The actual increase in max size upon merging will be the deducted value.
• Fixed a crash bug related to Call for Heroes
• The info.txt file for portraits modding can now include comment lines (starting with # or //)
• Fixed a number of bugs related to the Great Hunt action
• Fixed a number of issues with the Crafting Task
• Crafted Items can now be viewed in the Inventory Panel
• Crafted Items can now be gifted to Followers for a Loyalty bonus
• Loyalty/Discontent is now shown in the Follower Window
• Starting units with the 'no replenishment' attribute will now have a special permanent buff countering this (e.g. making a starting Skeleton unit belonging to Wizard able to replenish)

[ 2020-10-01 22:00:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Fixed incorrect message on Ice Bridge and Veins of Civilization
• Fixed incorrect description on Rune of Thunder
• New Rune Spell: Rune of The Raven (Ability: Limited Flight, Ability: Ranged Avoidance, Tag: Avian, Tag: Shadow, +2 Dark Damage to melee attacks, +3 Dark Resistance)
• New Illusion Spell: Fools Gold. Grants temporary Gold based on Mastery of Illusion, Light and Creation. Any unspent Gold is lost at the beginning of the next turn (net income counts against this). Midas-Touched Wizards get 10% extra and can keep 50% of unspent Gold.
• Improved text coloring in a few places to make it easier to spot key word/stats
• Improved the tooltip on battle actions
• Battle actions now include unavailable actions (with a disabled button) to let the player know *why* they're not available (e.g. siege and assault)
• Fixed a crash in wizard customization panel
• Fixed a way to circumvent the 'locked leader' mechanic
• Fixed 'Go To' logic not moving the camera as intended in some cases
• Fixed 'Go To' logic not working correctly with non-player characters
• Fixed bug where Workers were not assigned any Culture and/or Race, impacting several events and effects which test against or read from these attribute
• Fixed all Illusion spells not being correctly added to the relevant data structures, making them effectively not in the game
• Fixed the secret travel time mechanics making follower assignments act unpredictably. Assignments/offices no longer have secret travel time state.

[ 2020-09-30 21:15:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Fixed the missing effect of the Circle of Protection spell. It now gives +20 Fortification Value (if relevant to the site). It adds a Spiritual buff to cities and prevents Mana Nodes from being drained.
• Ambient Character Activity: Added a couple of events for Advisors.
• Added a set of Notifications when Outpost upgrade into Fortress halts due to missing workers and/or overseer
• Added a number of new icons to make distinguishing actions easier
• When selecting workers the 'Show Only Unassigned' toggle is now the default unless there are no unassigned workers
• Raise Battlefield Spell: Increased the mana cost and added 2 turn cooldown. However it can now always ressurect Zombies even if the Wizard has not unlocked those (and there are valid targets on the battlefield). Zombie Beasts added to the list of possible unit types.
• Raise Battlefield: Can no longer gain Zombies if the battle happened more than 50 turns ago. Skeletons, spirits and ghosts only in that case.
• Several undead unit types now have the 'no replenishment' attribute
• No replenishment now also reduces the max size of a unit, making it possible to merge such units as expected
• Fixed an incorrect tooltip on Outpost upgrade
• Fixed various issues which could break an in-progress Outpost Upgrades
• Fixed the Lesser/Greater Wild Summon spells causing a crash
• Fixed Drain Mana Node not working.
• Fixed an issue causing Refugees to sometimes settle in unexplored territory when being allowed to create a city
• Fixed an issue with defeated Nomad Hordes
• Fixed an issue Nomad history strings being weird
• Fixed the Battle Defender and General being wrong in the Encyclopedia summary of a battle
• Fixed Raise Battlefield just saying it was cast successfully if no fallen available from a recent battlefield (and thus nothing happened)

[ 2020-09-29 20:45:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Improved the tooltips on many sites
• Search Province success chance tweaked so that low chances do not take extreme amounts of time to converge towards 100%
• Adjusted the volume and latency of some sound effects
• A number of windows (Load Game, New Game, Menu) now close automatically upon accessing one of the other windows
• It is not longer possible to use right-click on unexplored hexes to be shown the shortest path
• Added a few more faction-specific diplomacy text lines
• Further adjustments to deity and plane matching, including a bug fix
• Fixed an issue where some tooltips were not updating when a site was renamed
• Fixed a bug where multi-column tooltips would lose the second column when the same tooltip was shown twice (or more) in a row
• Fixed a bug where culture traits would have incorrect tooltips in the encyclopedia
• Fixed a bug causing the (preferred) Mount culture trait to be saved with incorrect mount type data
• Fixed a bug where some quest state was saved correctly leading to messages being re-shown when loading the game
• Fixed mastery effects from level 10 not being shown correctly in tooltips
• Fixed the mouse-scroll capture issue which was passing focus to map-zoom instead of the intended active window if a different window was closed
• Fixed a crash bug related to moving armies from hexes with armies from numerous faction

[ 2020-09-28 20:43:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

• New Spell: Explode Person (Destruction 2). Cheap battle spell which auto-kills (if not resisted) a single humanoid with HP less than 7, and deals explosion damage to the unit based on its Armor value.
• New Spell: Wrecking Ball (Destruction 5). Adds 10% to 50% progress to a Siege.
• New Spell: Rend The Earth (Destruction 9). Turns a hex into Magma Plains and destroys any resource specials on it. May create a volcano if cast on a Mountain hex. May fail if the hex holds a mana node or has a level 3+ special condition (Enchanted, Hallowed, Primal, etc.)
• New Spell: Disintegrate (Destruction 10). Extremely powerful battle spell which instantly kills 125 HP worth of individuals (minimum 1).
• Mark of Sorcery: A line of Mark enchantments similar to the existing variants, but requiring Arcane Mastery and with buffs to Melee Arcane Damage, Ranged Skill and Blink (depending on rank of Mark)
• There is now a filter option to hide/show unavailable unit types (due to lack of recruits and similar)
• The non-special Wizard Racial Traits (Dwarf, Elf, Orc, Goblin) have had the cost reduced to 0, as intended. Having a beard, pointy ears or tusks, isn't really worth 2 template creation points.
• It is now possible to order an army which is in the same hex as one or more friendly armies to attack alone. This can be used to prevent the other armies from being exhausted by the battle.
• The Intro ('A Tale Begins...') can now be re-shown from the Encyclopedia Window. For save games prior to this version, tooltips will be missing for the intro when shown this way.
• Fixed the Outliner not respecting the option to hide sites
• Fixed Prospector discoveries not being shown on the map until reloading the game
• Fixed an issue causing all levels of Mark of Undeath not applying the unit effect correctly and not having a cost
• Fixed spellcasting keyboard shortcuts not working correctly
• Sieges can now be started by an exhausted army (e.g. which has fought a battle), if the army has not moved this turn
• Added a few more tweaks to plane and deity matching during world generation

[ 2020-09-27 23:18:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Workers with the Seafaring skill now give a +5% production bonus per skill level to coastal Resource sites.
• Workers with the Seafaring skill now produce a +25 gold per skill level if working at a coastal or riverine Wizard Tower.
• The Worker with the highest Entertainment skill now adds a +2% per skill level bonus modifier to all worker resource production at a Wizard Tower.
• Resource sites can now be renamed
• Special Culture trait added to indicate cultures with non-standard origin.
• Improved the layout of Diplomatic action icons
• Fixed a crashbug related to the 'Always Hits' ability.
• Fixed a crash bug caused by proselytizing characters being killed in the line of duty.
• Fixed a crash bug caused by various interactions with sites that have no or special main culture.
• Fixed the missing portrait for the Scarecrow line of units.
• Fixed characters being able to proselytize even when severely wounded and/or fatigued.
• Fixed a bug causing the output of Artisan workers to be off by a factor 10 in some cases.
• Fixed tooltips not being shown for the current selection in the Workers window.
• Fixed 'Gift Gold' having a reversed validity check, making usable when the faction has too little gold and unusable when the reverse is the case
• Fixed spell errors related to various resurrection effects and spells
• Fixed some incorrect plus/minus signs in various mechanics descriptions
• Fixed slow scroll speed on the Outliner
• Fixed Diplomatic action icons being clickable outside of their visible area
• Fixed recovering characters not being filtered correctly in the outliner if they are also idle
• Fixed incorrect tooltips being shown for spells in the multicasting panel
• Fixed an issue where the recruit character assignment would target a different character than the chosen target
• Fixed tooltips not being shown for the full area of major faction army emblems
• Fixed a bug where opening the Construct window and closing it (to return to the Military window) would cause mouse-scrolling to be captured by the map, and not passed to the Military window as intended

[ 2020-09-26 22:39:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Bodyguard Office: A passive Loyalty gain (with diminishing returns) has been added in addition to the usual Office Desire mechanics.
• Bodyguard Office: There is now a chance per turn (diminishing with character level) to gain experience. Bodyguard-class characters gain considerably more experience from this.
• Bodyguard Office: Now requires Martial and/or Rogue class.
• Advisor Office: Now gives varying bonuses based on character class. The possibilities include: Research Progress, Research Cost, Influence, Gold, Tribal Destiny, Veteran Warriors and Unit Recruitment Cost.
• Tribal Prestige modifiers to recruitment cost are now included in relevant tooltips/displays
• Improved the Deity <-> Plane matching routines
• The Office window tooltip now shows the effect from Advisor appointments.
• Tutorial Dialog: Tweaked the graphics to make it easier to distinguish against the background and other UI elements.
• Added a missing Back button to the Warlord Start Game flow.
• Fixed new spells not appearing in the Multicast panel until the game has been reloaded
• As an alternative to the world action icons, spells can now also be cast from the Spellbook by clicking the spell - (hover effects are missing, but will be added soon)
• Fixed the outliner not updating on Office assignments from the Faction window
• Fixed a crashbug related to the Fortress Window and non-World Generated Fortresses
• Fixed some Office assignments leaving the previous task as semi-active
• Character AI now considers active Office(s) when suggesting and/or choosing tasks
• Characters with an Office are no longer shown as Idle, but either include or display their Office name, depending on context
• Encyclopedia: Added more tooltips to Deity and Plane entries
• Encyclopedia: Added missing information on special home plane status for Deities where relevant
• Encyclopedia: Added missing information on deity hierarchy relationships

[ 2020-09-26 15:25:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update marks the transition out of Early Access. Updates will continue as usual, but I think shedding the Early Access branding better reflects what this game is about: An actively evolving indie strategy game made by yours truly as an homage to the Fantasy genre and its numerous works, digital and analog. This is a niche game for sure, and perhaps not the most accessible of games, but I'm proud of what it has become, and I'm excited about what is to come. That being said, I want to keep focus on what the game is right now, and what is coming in the next 1-2 updates. Time permitting, I will share more of my thoughts regarding the future of the game, in a post on the Development sub-forum. The release as a 'proper' title also underlines my commitment to fixing any issues players may encounter. I usually manage to fix any reported bugs during the same or next day - some bugs may be more stubborn, but that has been a rare occurrence so far. Some may notice there is no special moniker for this update - I thought it fitting this one should stand on it's own. For the next update, there will once again be an update moniker. User Interface and Graphics:

• Added more than 100 new unit icons.
• Unit tooltips during battles have been reformatted to make them more readable.
• Section orders during battles are now given via an expanding icon menu with tooltips rather than a strange tiny text button leading to a pop-up dialog.
• Added the option to use the 'classic' army emblem from before the new high-definition options were added
• Extended the tutorials to cover additional UI elements and game mechanics
• Added more information to War declaration prompts, to make it more apparent which factions are involved.
• Changed the unit colors during battles to green/red from blue/yellow, which should make it easier to read, and to determine the friendly faction at a quick glance.
• Improved feedback on unavailable/blocked unit recruitment modifiers.

New Features and Content:

• The following upgrades can now be built at Fortresses: Supply Depot, Marketplace, Barracks, Mustering Grounds, Administration Center, Shrine, Chapel, Temple. Some of these may require research, leader traits, specific fortress types and/or culture traits.
• Several new achievements have been added
• Hostile armies can now block income if they occupy the faction seat of power. The portion of income lost is based on the size/power/traits of the army in question. Highly mobile, non-monstrous, units have the highest ability to block income - low mobility, mindless/monstrous, units have the lowest ability to do so.
• Notables can now be recruited from conquered/controlled sites. This is done by assigning the task via the Follower Window and Assign Task. Possible target notables are ordered based on chance per turn to recruit. There may be a cost involved, which may be entirely skipped or lowered, if the character attempting the recruitment has a high chance to succeed.
• Added a Faerie-themed goody hut event.
• Added an additional Vampire character class (Youngblood), so they are not all nobles.
• New Spell: Sylvanize (Life 6). Target hex changes terrain type, as follows: Plains to Shrublands. Grassland/Shrublands to Forest. Marsh to Swamp. Hills to Forested Hills. Mountains to Forested Mountains. Arctic Plains to Arctic Forest. Cannot target a hex with a condition (Darkened, Blight, Enchanted, etc.) other than Primal. Cannot target a hex containing a Wizard Tower, Shrine, Temple, Fortress or City. If the hex contains a non-Life Mana Node the spell has a 50% risk to fail.
• New Spell: Greater Sylvanize (Life 9). Target hex changes terrain type, as follows: Desert to Arid. Arid Plains to Shrublands. Tundra/Plains/Grassland/Shrublands to Forest. Marsh/Swamp to Jungle. Hills to Forested Hills. Mountains to Forested Mountains. Arctic Plains to Arctic Forest. Cannot target a hex with the Blight condition. Cannot target a hex containing a Wizard Tower, Temple or City (Population 8+). If the hex contains a non-Life Mana Node the spell has a 50% risk to fail.
• New Spell: Deforestation (Destruction 8). Target hex changes terrain type, as follows: Grassland/Shrublands to Plains. Forest to Shrublands. Swamp to Marsh. Forested Hills to Hills. Forested Mountains to Mountains. Arctic Forest to Arctic Plains. Jungle to Forest. Cannot target a hex with condition Primal, Enchanted, Hallowed or Sanctuary. Cannot target a hex containing a Wizard Tower, Shrine, Temple, Fortress or City. If the hex contains a Life Mana Node the spell has an 90% risk to fail.
• New Spell: Rising Tides (Water 8). Target coastal or river hex changes terrain type, as follows: Tundra/Plains/Grasslands/Arid Plains to Marsh, Shrublands/Marsh to Swamp, Forest to Jungle. Cannot target a hex with condition Primal, Enchanted, Hallowed or Sanctuary. Cannot target a hex containing a Wizard Tower, Shrine, Temple, Fortress or City. If the hex contains a non-Water Mana Node the spell has an 90% risk to fail.
• New Spell: Rune of Alacrity (Rune 1). +2 Movement, +1 Shock, +1 Melee Skill. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
• New Spell: Rune of Wisdom (Rune 2). +2 Discipline, +1 Melee Skill, +1 Scouting, Ability: Inspiring. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
• New Spell: Rune of Hunger (Rune 3). +1 Toughness, +1 Courage, -1 Discipline, Ability: Frenzy, Ability: Feast. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
• New Spell: Rune of Fortitude (Rune 4). +1 Toughness, +1 Armor, Ability: Hardy. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.
• New Spell: Rune of Thunder (Rune 7). +1 Shock, +5 Lightning Damage (Melee Attacks), +3 Lightning Resistance. Permanent. Has 7 turn global cooldown and can target only non-beast, non-monster, non-magical units. Only one Rune spell can be active on a particular unit. Cannot be cancelled, but can be dispelled.

Improvements and Changes:

• Expanded the mechanics for unit 'trainers' to cover bind/raise/create recruitment types (previously trainers could only be assigned to training and summoning). Binding requires Arcane or Religious character class. Raise requires Undeath or Necromancy. Create has requirements depending on the nature of the unit (alchemy, golem, etc). The tooltip for the assignment button will show the details for a particular unit.
• Tweaked siege progress values
• Changed Ascendancy victory to happen via a research project unlocking a new actions
• The Ritual of Ascendancy will now reveal the entire map
• Reworked calculation and display of relevant factors for resolution of Non-Aggression Pact offers towards Nomadic Hordes.
• Improved Peace Deal acceptance AI. Several minor faction 'personalities' will now refuse being given ownership of Sites of different cultures.
• Conversion tasks now have a name based on the type of conversion: Redemption, Corruption, etc.
• Units recruited using 'converted' (ie alignment-change/demontaint/celestial/fae influence) recruitment pools will now have their alignment changed accordingly, and tags assigned if relevant.
• Temporary recruits are now removed immediately upon recruiting the unit, rather than when replenishing losses.
• The sum of base and temporary recruits most now be positive to recruit a unit. If the base recruitment pool size is 0, the temporary part must cover the full unit size. The Military window will give feedback on blocked recruitment due to these factors.
• Characters joining due to Lore discoveries are now given a History entry indicating this. Previously they would just mysteriously appear as new followers with no indication as to why.
• The following spells can now be used during battles: Ironskin, Necropotence, Iron Discipline.
• Battle Gate now allows an army to quickly retreat from a battle with greatly reduced losses from pursuit.

World Generation:

• Undead special character classes have now been mapped to corresponding mundane classes when resolving ambient character activity (e.g. a Spectal Sage can trigger similar activity events as a Historian). This does not preclude unique events due to their undead nature.
• Organization characters will now usually be given a location during world generation, making them notables and/or leaders at various sites.
• Added alignment tags to dynamically generated Faerie groups during world generation (when relevant). This is used to assign correct alignments to generated Fae notables and when matching character to groups during gameplay.
• Expanded the number and variety of character names. In particular, surnames are much common for many culture templates.
• Generation of base attitude to Demons for a specific Culture are now based on numerous additional factors and has a random component
• Faeries are now included in the culture attitude generation and mechanics.

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a number of missing tooltips on the world map
• Fixed a number of missing tooltips in the context panel
• Fixed a number of missing tooltips for world actions
• Fixed incorrect text colors for Spells in some places
• Fixed the fortress map graphics scaling to cover multiple hexes for some fortress types
• Fixed a bug where the army emblem/sprite would disappear
• Fixed a bug causing trade offers to have very strange amounts
• Fixed several instances of incorrectly formatted amounts/stat values
• Fixed non-unit spells not working correctly during manual battle resolution
• Fixed a crashbug caused by an interaction between tooltip text generation and battle resolution
• Fixed a crashbug involving probing attacks
• Fixed a number of issues related to followers dying and not correctly being removed from tasks/factions
• Fixed unit tool tips during battles sometimes being placed partially off-screen
• Character alignment is now displayed as intended in the the Follower Window.
• Fixed a number of bugs related to faction-wide effects being corrupted/lost after saving/loading.
• Fixed Recruitment Pool data being shown in a much too small window, causing overflow.

[ 2020-09-25 17:22:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Fixed a bug causing character portraits to be incorrectly tinted on tooltips
• Fixed a crashbug related to calculating character travel requirements for some task assignments
• Fixed a bug where generals and officers of disbanded/destroyed armies would keep the no longer valid assignment until reassigned
• Unit experience now provides stat bonuses and special abilities (randomly chosen on advancement). They will advanced from level 0 to 10 as experience points pass the following thresholds: 10, 25, 50, 80, 125, 200, 300, 500, 750, 1000. Note that not all units are capable of gaining experience.
• Battles now provide unit experience based on the magnitude of losses suffered and casualties inflicted.
• Sieges now provide unit experience. Additional experience is gained if the siege is led by a General with Siege Master (amplified if the General has Train Troops or Mentor).
• Wizard Trait: Farsight now gives a world-level ability which explores a province, or finds one or more hidden sites (if such exist) if the province is already explored. This ability has a 16 turn cooldown.

[ 2020-09-09 10:57:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

General

• A selection of 3 army emblems/banners have been added to replace the old shield icon used for player armies on the world map. The background and sigil are imprinted on this as with the previous shield, but there is now additional variety and higher visual quality.
• New River graphics have replaced the basic blue lines previously used.
• Faction flags have been added to Site tool tips.
• New Siege Window added which allows navigating quickly between all active sieges.
• Sieges can no longer be initiated if armies of the target site faction are in the same hex.
• Reworked the battle initiation actions to make it less confusing, and removed the generally useless 'lift siege' action.
• Assault can be ordered from the Siege Window.
• Siege Towers can now be built during sieges. This reduces the progress needed to make an Assault possible.
• Siege Engines can now be built during sieges. These add a random amount of progress per turn of Siege (0-3 per engine, with a total upper limit per turn based on elapsed siege time and fortification value).
• Labor points are now generated during siege turns, with max 1 point carrying over to the turn. Army composition determines how many points are generated (0 to 3, can be fractional). Siege Towers and Engines require labor in addition to resources, in order to be built.
• Re-balanced siege progress and threshold values.
• Character Activity: Prospectors now have a chance to discover new mineral/ore deposits in the area they are located as part of their task.
• Planes now have randomly generated flavor text.
• Planes now have a randomly generated selection of 'native' units.
• Planes now have a wider variety of names.
• Increased the variety of province event undead army names and made army composition factor into the name generation.
• Nomadic tribes can now be hired as auxiliary mercenaries. The cost and chance decreases by increasing respect. This is done by winning battles and decreases over time. The tribes may decide to keep the bribes, and the units gained are temporary, but they are relatively cheap and fast to recruit. Attacking the nomads will cause any currently hired auxiliaries to desert.
• The AI is now better at merging armies and units. Especially when defending important sites. This greatly reduces the army spam that some faction types could cause when threatened for an extended period of time.

Magic, Research and Monsters:

• New Unit Type: Mutant Brutes. Powerful melee unit with a high Food upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Beithir. Powerful Monstrous dragon-like creature with poison and lightning attacks, and amphibious movement.
• New Unit Type: Djinni. Powerful Extra-Planar Elemental Air creatures with very small units.
• New Unit Type: Efreeti. Powerful Extra-Planar Elemental Fire creatures with very small units.
• New Unit Type: Barghests. Monstrous dogs which cause terror and are very resistant to Dark damage.
• New Culture Variation: Evil Leonids knows as Martichora. The base traits for this template are poison attacks, limited flying, heavy armor disdain, no cavalry units and evil alignment. They are an 'exotic' template for setting/world generation purposes.
• New Chaos Spell: Lesser Wild Summons. Summons a randomly chosen unit (from those available and within an effective power range of level 1 to 5) immediately at 25% to 125% of the normal cost.
• New Chaos Spell: Greater Wild Summons. Summons a randomly chosen unit (from those available and within an effective power range of level 4 to 8) immediately at 33% to 133% of the normal cost.
• New Chaos Spell: Planar Vortex. Teleports an army to a random hex in an adjacent province. There is a continuous 10% (until failed) chance that a further distant province is chosen as target.
• New Chaos Spell: Greater Mass Mutation. Transform a large percentage of the inhabitants of a city into Mutants and Mutant Brutes. This creates an instant, large, army at the cost of numerous pops and significant disorder/squaler to the city.
• Planar Lore can now grant discoveries related to the native units of a plane (upkeep/cost modifiers, temporary units, research progress).

Fixes:

• Fixed a number of display bugs related to unit attacks and modifiers
• Fixed a crash bug related to movement and tooltips
• Fixed a number of crash bugs related to battles
• Fixed tribal siege penalties being applied inversely
• Disabled legacy manual battle resolution
• Fixed a world generation freeze bug
• Fixed a graphical glitch which happened if numerous armies of differing factions were co-located
• Fixed research planar lore not being included in the research project list

[ 2020-09-07 19:46:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

• New Wizard Tower Expansion: Soul Forge. Building it enables an action where 100 Souls can be sacrificed to hasten an in-progress Unit recruitment by 50% of the time required. There is a 2 Turn cooldown on this action.
• Sigil and color selections are now persisted across games, so that the selection made in the previous game are the default for the next.
• Peace can now be negotiated with (non-Nomadic) Independent Realms using a new Peace Agreement UI.
• A shortcut to 'Hire Followers' has been added to the Followers window. This will access the same functionality as the one found in the Economy Window. It is only present when inspecting your own Followers via the top menu. Accessing it from 'prompt'-style display of characters would create a non-intended way to dismiss the prompt/question, which is why this limitation is present.
• A shortcut to 'Hire Mercenaries' has been added to the Military window. This will access the same functionality as the one found in the Economy Window. Culture and Race details have been added to the Mercenary Unit descriptions, as well as tooltips for equipment/special abilities.
• The quantity change of market resources is now affected by the magnitude of divergence from the equilibrium amount. This means that replenishment from 0 is faster than from very close to the equilibrium, and that reduction towards equilibrium is faster if the 'excess' is large.
• Reduced the upper bound on price drift due to full exhaustion of a resource on the market from 400% to 150%.
• Some non-tradable resources are now shown in the Economy Window for informational purposes: Souls, Greater Souls and Spoils.
• When casting a spell from the 'More Spells' list during battles, this spell will be swapped with the first spell in the dropdown. This allows swift repeat casting in the same manner as for the spells in the list by default.
• Cities now produce Tools based on their Industry attribute.
• Cities now produce additional Gold based on their Prosperity attribute.
• Fixed a bug where a N/A selection could appear in the 'Gather Recruits' dialog. Selecting it would cause a crash on the next turn.
• Fixed a bug where Domination Victory would trigger on Turn 2 if running a game with no rivals.
• Fixed a bug where the estimated amount change (in the Economy Window) was fluctuating and incorrect. It was shown with the random element used during actual processing rather than using the median of this in the estimate.
• Fixed missing spell description for Shrapnel and Training Day spells. They were showing as NYI despite actually being implemented.
• Fixed incorrect scaling of the new sigils.
• Fixed the 'Tools' resource being non-tradable.
• Fixed a bug causing Battle Stats 'hovertips' to be stuck for the rest of the game session if active when a unit is destroyed.

[ 2020-08-29 18:00:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Diplomacy:

• Expanded Diplomacy options for (non-Nomadic) Independent Realms.
• There is a limit of one diplomatic action per turn. Future updates will add ways to increase this limit.
• Some of the existing actions now have a greater integration with diplomatic stats (reputation, regard, anger, etc.)
• Assuage: Will improve relations with a realm and reduce their fear of you (note that fear can be beneficial in some situations).
• Insult: Will harm relations with a realm, but can improve relations with other realms that hold a negative view of the target.
• Threaten: Will harm relations with a realm and may increase fear (depending on their perception of your strength). It may also yield Influence points.
• Vassalage: With high relations you can try to vassalize a realm (high fear increases the chance of success). This will give you a significant portion of their income. You will also automatically declare war on any aggressor towards them. Failure to protect a vassal from attacks may result in a dissolution of the relationship. Vassalage also affects events and some diplomatic actions.
• Gift: Gold can be used to improve relations with specific realms.
• Request Character: Search for a Follower in the target realm. Culture will affect what character type categories are available to choose from. Gives you the option of hiring the follower - the choice will affect diplomatic relations. Realms with the 'Dedicated Haven' trait can provide special followers of supernatural or non-standard cultural origin.
• Most diplomatic actions will affect other realms based on their Attitude and cultural outlook. For example, a Warrior Nation will frown upon seeking out non-Martial followers.
• Minor realm traits will now affect diplomacy and events to a much greater degree.
• A search function has been added to the Diplomacy window, making it easier to find a faction as an increasing number of these are discovered and added to the window over the course of a game.

General

• 5 new Achievements added related mostly to Diplomacy.
• Right-clicking a (center) unit during battle deployment will mark it as Vanguard.
• Planewalker (Wizard Trait): New ability (affected by cooldown) which can be used to move an army near the Wizard Tower instantly to any known location on the map.
• Minor factions now have unique heraldry. This is a work-in-progress and the colors+sigils are not shown on their armies yet. Multi-color backgrounds are still pending. Cultural factors are considered when assigning sigils and balanced against seeking a variety of unique sigils in a particular world.
• Added numerous new sigils for faction heraldry.
• Added about 200 new character portraits, more than doubling the previous number of unique portraits. This includes portraits from some races which previously had no such (fx minotaurs) and a variety of human/non-human portraits for existing races. Undead, demonic and celestial characters in particular now have greater variety.
• Added new naming templates for culture-specific units.
• Elemental Cultism religion added.
• During character generation assignment of 'cosmic/special' religions now considers a greater variety of factors - and the pool of these religions drawn from has been expanded.
• Expanded character name pool for the 'generic' language.
• Defeating an enemy Wizard will now create a special Monument site.
• Rebalanced output of Mana Nodes. It is now generally lower, but the cost of binding has also been reduced (but to a lesser degreee, relatively).
• Rebalanced Unit Training experience to be more rewarding, but less exploitable.
• Captives can now be handled after battles with a variety of options. Some of the effects are only partially implemented, and there is a known issue where it is possible to begin resolving a new battle before handling captives from a previous battle. Doing this will result in the captives being ignored. A fix for this issue and implementation of all options will happen in a patch soon.
• Orb of Channeling (Enchant Item): Creates an item for a follower which increases mana usage limits during battles involving the follower.
• Amulet of Protection (Enchant Item): Creates an item for a follower which can protect the follower from a variety of dangers and magical threats.
• Healing Potion (Life Spell): Creates a (stackable) item for a follower which can save them from death in some circumstances and can be used to heal from injuries.
• Ambient Character Activity: A Bodyguard given more responsibility may change to a new class, depending on circumstances and culture.
• Ambient Character Activity: Alchemists can create Healing Potions for themselves and others.
• Ambient Character Activity: Apothecaries can now heal other characters from permanent or temporary injuries.
• Enchantment and Artifice mastery now affects the limit on concurrent Enchant Item projects.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed the debuff from unpaid upkeep not being applied to units in all intended situations.
• Fixed a number of missing tooltips on World Actions and spells
• Fixed a number of memory leaks
• Fixed a serious performance/stability issue affecting manual resolution of large battle
• Fixed notable characters not being generated for some sites during world generation.
• Fixed army icons glitching out when moving from certain coordinates. This has been a persistent and annoying bug for a long time, so it's good to finally have it fixed, as it looked very bad when it happened.
• Fixed garrison armies so they're again not part of the 'quick cycle army list', which made it annoying to use and sometimes break.
• Fixed various text errors where debug information was shown instead of the correct data.
• Fixed missing tool tips on the multicast grid.
• Fixed expected mana income/expenditure being calculated incorrectly in some cases (the upper-left panel)
• Fixed 2 enchantment spells not being unlocked at the correct mastery levels.
• Fixed some character traits being incorrectly categorized as personality traits, which meant the 'counts-as-class'' traits were sometimes assigned to characters who already had the class.
• Fixed some nomad camps not having notable characters.
• Fixed additional cases of recruitment not being cancelled when the recruitment location is lost.
• An army with a planned path extending beyond the current turn is no longer de-selected on turn end.

There are still some known issues and rough edges here and there, but after being delayed by an insufferable heat wave, I really wanted to get this out to keep up the release cadence. I will release a number of incremental patches to this update and append the changes to these patch notes.

[ 2020-08-27 10:41:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Release notes below. A brief update on development status can be found after the notes. Battle Resolution:

• Significant changes to battle resolution. The previous manual resolution is still available as an option until the new version is confirmed stable, free of bugs and with a bit more polish.
• The underlying mechanics are still the same, but the battle now has each side divided in 'sections', representing Skirmishers, Center, Flanks (Left/Right), Rear and off-map Reserves. Units can be dragged and dropped between these pre-battle. And moved between some of them during the battle.
• The pairing of combatants is based on the new sections, instead of the old line based match up. Units at the rear (and sometimes flanks) can also use ranged weapons for more of the battle.
• Each 'step' of the Battle resolution is 5 rounds, with a skip-to-end button.
• Units which are destroyed will fade out, and fleeing units are shown with an overlay effect. This should make it easier to see what is going on.
• Casualties taken/dealt are shown per unit in red/green and sums are shown in a summary window.
• The log has been reduced in size from the WIP screenshots, but has been kept somewhat larger than the intended final size, until all issues are ironed out and additional animations make it more clear what units are targeting/targeted by each other.
• Section Orders affect battle resolution, but mostly in regards to how quickly melee is joined and whether flanks try to fight the center or opposing flanks. There is still some work to do in this area.

Other Changes:

• Ambient training now much more likely if target is level 1
• Ambient training is now less likely if target is level 4+
• Worker unhappiness event can no longer be skipped by ignoring the notification
• Worker unhappiness event can no longer trigger for worker units without free will
• The notification 'resource purchased for upkeep' can now be dismissed for 10 turns
• Ambient Character Activity: Pugilists can now start fistfights with other characters or locals
• Ambient Character Activity: Archers can now train other characters in the Sniper skill
• Ambient Character Activity: Cultists can now train other characters in the Occult Lore skill
• Ambient Character Activity: Strategists can now train other characters in the Commander skill
• Ambient Character Activity: Faction Divine Wroth may cause characters to make a personal offering (if they can afford it), which has a chance to reduce Divine Wroth.
• Ambient Character Activity: Bards can praise their Faction, causing a gain of Influence. Discontent may sometimes cause the Bard to mock instead, causing a loss of Influence.
• Ambient Character Activity: Bards can improve the mood of other Followers and/or remove negative traits (Depressed, Broken).
• Ambient Character Activity: Historians can make breakthroughs giving a randomized Lore Level increases (usually Ancient History - with chance of some others). They can also very rarely risk uncover forbidden knowledge, causing insanity but granting a lot of experience points.
• Ambient Character Activity: Tomb Robbers can decide to raid a tomb/grave yielding a good chunk of Gold for the Faction and themselves, but at the risk of spawning Spirit Host marauders (unless settings specify no Marauders).
• Ambient Character Activity: Architects, Masons and Engineers may gain experience from being at a location being constructed, upgrading or having a site-specific construction/upgrade in progress. They may also speed up the progress of some projects.
• Characters can now react to their Faction having Divine Wroth with their personal Deity/Religion with increased discontent. Non-Heretic Religious-type classes will react more strongly and more often.
• Characters can now react to their Faction having Divine Favor with their personal Deity/Religion with increased loyalty. Religious-type classes will react more strongly and more often.
• Enchantment Spell: Shimmershift Weapons. Unlocked at Mastery Level 5. Can target non-Bound, non-Summoned, non-Raised Units with Melee Weapons. +2 Reach, +2 Armor Penetration, +2 Arcane Damage. 1 Mana/Turn upkeep if cast as non-Battle Spell.
• Enchantment Spell: Spellwoven Armor. Unlocked at Mastery Level 3. Can target non-Bound, non-Summoned, non-Raised Units with Armor Equipment. +1 Armor, +1 Toughness, +1 Magic Resistance. 1 Mana/Turn upkeep if cast as non-Battle Spell.
• New Achievement (No Stone Unturned): Fully search a province.
• Alphabetized traits and masteries when creating custom wizard templates
• Character stat 'Contentment' has been renamed 'Loyalty*. In other words the 'Discontent/Contentment' dual stat is now named 'Discontent/Loyalty'.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed uncommon crash bug when inspecting army units
• Fixed Mana upkeep of some spells not being correctly applied
• Fixed some continuous effects lingering in the Active Effects window even when no longer active
• Fixed a bug where Characters on many types of assignments were treated incorrectly as being located at the Faction capital for various mechanics and events

Development Status: This update brings changes to manual Battle Resolution, separating deployment and resolution more distinctly. The core battle resolution engine is the same, but the changes split opposing armies into sections, allows orders for those sections, and makes the section of a unit affect which attack can be used, how melee pairings are made, etc. There are also some improvements to the visual aspects: utilizing drag and drop for deployment, using highlighting better, adding fade animations when a unit is destroyed (it was rather confusing when they just disappeared due to destruction/flight), etc. I've postponed the post-battle changes (merging handling captives and post-battle necromancy into a unified feature/mechanic). The work on battle resolution took more time than expected, but I will try to catch up on the post-battle changes in the next few days. However, if a lot of issues appear with the update, I may have to push that feature further (to the next Update). I'll do my best to balance concerns. I will update the Road Map accordingly in the next day or two. The Battle Guide will also get an overhaul very soon, so that it reflects the new Battle Resolution options.

[ 2020-08-06 19:22:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update was originally intended to focus on battles and warfare, but achievements, Steam Workshop integration and various bug fixes on the 'active' game version took up a bit more time than expected. So the improved battle experience and warfare game play has been postponed to the next update. Still there are some game play and user interface improvements in this update, mostly concerning characters and improving depth and visibility of follower simulation and ambient factors. Thanks to the players who provided me with bug reports, ideas and feedback, in this development cycle and the previous. You make a difference and I am very grateful for your efforts. Please note that the integration of Steam functionality may result in more bugs than usual. I will try to fix any such issues with utmost haste. Also note that the Road Map will posted tomorrow, rather than alongside this update, as I need a bit more time before it's ready for posting. User Interface and Steam Integration:

• Achievements have been implemented and integrated with Steam. These trigger upon reaching the conditions described in each. There is a forum post for sharing suggestions on additional achievements. The current ones are just the beginning.
• Custom Maps can now be uploaded to the Steam Workshop from a button during Editor mode. If you have trouble getting this to work correctly, check that you have accepted the Steam Workshop agreement. This should be prompted in-game, but if it doesn't, check the Workshop section of the Steam client.
• Mods can now be uploaded to the Steam Workshop via the Mods window.
• Subscribed Workshop Maps/Mods are integrated and included in the relevant windows.
• The details panel in the Diplomacy Window now has a Go To button which will focus the world map on the relevant faction.
• Office Request notifications can now be dismissed permanently or for the next 10 turns.
• Characters can now be renamed by clicking their name on the main panel in the Followers Window. A tooltip indicates this.
• The Outliner now has Character Portraits in the tooltips.
• The free-text map search now also searches factions and will zoom to the map location of chosen search result if it's a faction.
• There is a now a Details button on the Followers window which allows access to special panels for display of Office Desires, Character Opinions/Relationships and History overview, for the selected character.

General:

• Conquest of sites belonging to a specific culture can now result in warnings and declarations of war. This can be done by a coalition of factions belonging to this culture, or any number of single factions. Factions which do not have the relevant culture are less likely to react. The risk and type of response is based on the percentage of sites conquered of the total number belonging to this culture, and the diplomatic relations between the conqueror and possible responders. This is the first iteration of an 'aggressive expansion' mechanic and will undergo further refinement.
• Characters now have their history tracked. This will show their participation in battles, assignments carried out, interactions with other characters, offices taken and lost, etc. This can be shown in the new Details mode of the Followers Window.
• Added character traits for elemental influence: Air-Touched, Earth-Touched, Fire-Touched, Water-Touched, Frost-Touched. In addition to the flavor/narrative element, these add a small combat challenge bonus until further effects can be implemented.
• Improved the Character opinion system to support non-static opinion modifiers. This allows incremental changes in character relations, temporary opinion modifiers and decreases the number of calculations needed per turn.
• Characters will now be jealous of another character holding an office they greatly desire. This applies a negative opinion modifier based on the level of desire for the relevant office.
• Further expanded the world generation when it comes to notable characters and creatures of the various special cultures.
• Added additional Lore Research avenues to unlock insight into the notables and dynamic aspects of the special cultures and races.
• Improved how the world generation handles custom starting points on a map when it seeds cultures and independent realms.
• Tweaked the gold and resource output of cities. Highly developed cities have been toned down.
• Tweaked the gold and resource output of special city pop units. Highly developed cities have been toned down. Less technologically developed cities now give less gold and additional basic resources.
• Improved the impact of leaders on city gold income and production. It is now handled on a per-resource basis rather than as flat modifiers.
• Expanded the range of names for some of the language/theme templates which had a low range of possibility and thus a high risk of repetitions.
• Expanded the range of Fortress names.
• Lore-based recruitment modifiers can now impact Upkeep costs.
• Added numerous new Lore Research discovery outcomes.
• Ascendancy Victory now requires discovery of Draconic Ascendancy instead of Draconic Lore Level 10.
• Ambient Character Activity: Armsmasters will now sometimes train other characters at their location, potentially giving a bonus skill and a positive opinion change.
• Ambient Character Activity: Idle Rogues can now decide to go for a bit of an adventure, and may even lure other available characters to join. This is not likely to result in serious harm, but can leave followers fatigued/recovering and unable to perform other duties for a while.
• Ambient Character Activity: Having multiple Nobles (and equivalent character types) at the same location (including being in a party, performing the same tasks, joining the same army, etc.) can result in a rivalry forming with significant negative opinion modifiers applied.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed missing Starting Point label visibility. There is still a known issue where zooming out can disable the label (can be worked around by using the map label toggles).
• Fixed a broken filter on the Deities Panel.
• Fixed Culture traits being placed incorrectly in the Encyclopedia hierarchy.
• Fixed some Culture traits having no display text in the Encyclopedia.
• Fixed several bugs relating to starting games on Maps with custom starting points.
• Fixed a bug causing names to go missing for some building types when loading a previous save.

Additions in 0.9.142.1:

• Fixed an Achievement ('the wand is mightier than the sword') not triggering as intended.
• Fixed the default description for Mods, so it is no longer the file system path.
• The map editor now supports updating a workshop item.
• The Load File dialog now shows ''Workshop Item'' in the summary when browsing maps.
• Fixed a number of text formatting and display bugs in the Camp, City and Fortress Windows.
• Fixed stat formatting bugs in a couple of windows.
• Added Portraits to Character tool tips in the Camp, City and Fortress Windows.
• Fixed an additional zoom issue when working with Custom Starting Points in the Editor.

[ 2020-07-27 20:30:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

General:

• Lore research has been substantially expanded with a discovery event being generated on every level increase in a particular lore.
• Lore Discovery Types: Mastery progress, Mastery unlocks, Research project progress, free Research project initiation, resource caches, unit battle modifiers (offensive/defensive), recruitment cost modifiers, Ancient Evil information.
• Custom Discoveries for many lores, to be expanded in the future. This means that lore research will yield discovery bonus related to the subject of that lore (Celestials, Demons, Ancient Evils, etc.).
• Nomadic raiders will now also consider the power of army units when determining whether to launch a new raid, and not merely the army size.
• Improved the generation of Knightly Orders to have better matching with generated cultures and races.
• World settings regarding marauders and world "danger" level is now considered in additional relevant events.
• Rebalanced some city building stat modifiers and resource output.
• City building availability is now predicated on a wider variety of cultural and factional (city-owner) traits and attributes. Alignment in particular is now relevant.
• New city building: Ancestral Shrine.
• New city building: Tannery.
• New city building: Leatherworkers' Guild.
• New city building: Tailors' Guild.
• Added generic Knight (Shadow/Chaos/Dragon) unit types, so that these are available for research, even when no chapter house or dynamically generated world org/faction exists for the Knights.
• Improved the Plane name generation routines.
• Substanstially expanded naming variety for Grim/Evil flavor characters, cultures and realms.
• Dynamic unit generation now includes more weapons in the range of potential options.
• New unit type: Tarrasque.
• New unit type: Basilisks.
• New unit type: Hungering Wisps.
• Randomly generated special characters and notables for Celestials and Demons, which can be discovered via lore research. They are also tied to the existing world generation hooks and themes. These will be given additional agency and player opportunity for interaction (e.g. recruitment) in future updates. Similar notables will be added for other special races.

User Interface and Graphics:

• Lore section added to the Wizard window making it easier to get a quick overview of lore progress, gained benefits/discoveries, and starting new lore research.
• The middle mouse button can now be used to drag-pan the map.
• Several entities (units, spells, etc.) now have a rarity attribute which will affect the display frames. The graphics are not final, and the rarities are in some cases related to power when they have not been categorized for actual rarity yet.
• Wizard Templates can now be filtered according to whether they are custom or premade.
• Wizard Templates are now ordered alphabetically.
• Optimized the map free-text search.
• The tutorial can now be permanently disabled from the settings window. Until re-enabled, it will no longer be launched on every new game start.
• Map border thickness can now be configured from the settings window.
• Shrines now have proper map graphics instead of a placeholder icon.
• Ruins now have proper map graphics instead of a placeholder icon.
• Selection prompts for sites, armies and units will now automatically include only the relevant type of entity when clicking on the map.
• Reworked the selection of battle spells when a large number of spells are available. This should now be more intuitive.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where the random number generator was re-seeded during world generation, in some cases leading to unintended repetition during parts of the generation process.
• Fixed several crash bugs related to interactions with some sites if they had no main culture (but could have).
• Fixed a memory leak related to map sprites.
• Fixed a display bug on the Projects tab of the Wizard window.
• Fixed a bug with AI army pathing, which could cause them to get stuck.
• Fixed a number of crash bugs related to character tasks and office assignments.
• Fixed the strange results (and occasional crash) caused when trying to generate mercenaries from cultures with a very limited selection of unit types. In the very rare case that no unit types exist, wolves will be used as a fallback.
• Fixed a bug in the resolution and generation of worker skill training options.
• Fixed several bugs related to blocking and calculation of block values during battles.
• Fixed a bug where pending recruitment was not correctly cancelled when the location was lost.
• Fixed some goody hut display bugs and messy display text parts.
• Fixed a number of bugs related to religious actions and sites.
• Fixed a bug causing message windows to be un-closable.
• Fixed a bug affecting the spell dropdown on the battle window.
• Fixed a bug related to site construction which could causes crashes or sometimes a 'lock/freeze'.
• Fixed a bug related to splitting armies.

Patch 0.9.141.1 Additions:

• Fixed issue with display name for pops with Noble as primary trait
• Changed the spell Endow Peerage to add Noble as a secondary trait instead of primary, making it possible to have Noble Warriors, Noble Merchants, etc.
• Fixed Rivers not saving correctly when created in the Map Editor
• Fixed some Research Projects reappearing as valid although already researched
• Fixed some Research Projects showing as "unavailable due to requirements" when they were actually already researched
• Added a helper graphics when creating rivers in the map editor, one highlighting the hex corner under the mouse and another showing the currently active river segment endpoint
• Added logic that makes it extremely unlikely that characters with duplicate names (among major factions) are created during world generation
• Fixed an issue where certain combination of character religion and shrine dedication options would result in automatic assignment of Mysticism
• Fixed a crash bugs related to potential random events being discarded (internally)

[ 2020-07-15 20:36:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mods

• Unit types can now be modded by putting a unitTypes.xml file in the mod folder. This allows changing the stats, costs, and all other details of existing unit types. Ways to add new unit types and integrate them with other game mechanics will be added in future updates.
• In the Mods window you can export a template uniTypes.xml file which has the current default data for all units.
• It is recommended to only put the unit types you want to change in the unitTypes.xml file. Any unit types not in the file will be left unchanged. Not putting unchanged unitTypes in the file reduces the risk of stability issues due to undiscovered bugs.
• The Mods window now has support for creating new mods via the UI (rather than solely through folder and file creation). There is also slightly improved error feedback.
• When loading a game, any mod used for the game is shown in the summary panel. If the mod is present it will be loaded along with the game.
• A toggle is a available to suppress the use of a mod when loading a game. This will load the game as if no mods had been used. Note that if you save the game after loading it this way, you cannot re-enable a mod.
• When starting a new game, you can choose from the mods available on your system.
• Integration with Steam Workshop (to more easily share mods) will be added soon. Hopefully in the next update.

Misc

• Battles now have a "skip-to-end" button during manual resolution. This can be used at any point after deployment to have the AI take over and resolve the rest of the battle. The rounds will be shown in the log as usual, allowing the player to inspect the results before closing the window.
• Search/filter functionality has been added to the Wizard research projects window. A number of toggles control what fields to free text search (name, mastery, etc.) One or more criteria can be chosen.
• Units which are disbanded (not destroyed) can now return their members to recruitment pools in cases where one is available.
• New unit types: Dire Hyenas, Gargantuan Wolves, Gargantuan Lizards, Gargantuan Spiders.
• Research projects which are cancelled during the same turn as they were started will have their cost refunded.
• Arcane Ward spells can now be cast during combat.
• Search functionality has been added to the Military window. This allows text-based filtering based on unit names, abilities, tags, etc.
• Passive Wizard Mastery progress with no focus assigned will now exclude masteries with level 0 (unlocked, but not mastered) and with level 10. This will avoid unlocked masteries, that the player is not interested in advancing, from "stealing" progress.

Bugs

• Fixed an issue where armies that should be disbanded due to events or faction defeat, were lingering in various states of error.
• Fixed an issue where units that were destroyed were immediately replenishing causing their strength to become positive and revert the unit destruction.
• Divine interventions causing damage to armies were not working as intended. This has been fixed.

[ 2020-05-14 20:59:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Features and Content:

• New Character Assignment: Divine Offering. Uses a new UI to allow the player to specify the offering (resources and amounts). Deities value resources based on their domains. Diminishing returns are applied for offerings above a certain amount. There is still some balance work pending with this assignment, as it is currently a bit too easy to gain Favor for some deities.
• New Character Assignment: Lead Worship. Requires a valid location and follower.
• When calculating the desire for an office, the number of character attributes (class, traits and culture) with an impact has been expanded
• When Training Workers the combined skill levels contributing to diminishing returns no longer include initial skill levels
• Additional ways to unlock Worker Skill Training option have been added:
  • Engineering - Scholar Trainer (Level 3+ or from sufficiently advanced culture), Worker Construction 3+
  • Entertainment - Worker Domestic 3+
  • Prospecting - Worker Mining 3+
  • Smithing - Worker Artisanship 3+
  • Construction - Worker Labor 3+
• Worker Training progress is now affected by the attitude of the workers (based on culture) towards the trainer, if any such exists. Examples: If Orcs hate Dwarves, a Dwarven trainer will require 250% of the normal time to train an Orcish Worker; if High Elves worship Celestials, a Celestial trainer will require 80% of the normal time to train a High Elven worker.
• New Unit Weapon: Massive Cleaver
• Added Piercing/Slashing traits to relevant Unit Weapons
• Added new Unit Recruitment Mods: Elemental Infusion (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Oricalchum). Some of these affect weapons and some affect armor.
• Increased the damage of Necrotite Weapons from +1 Dark to +2 Dark.
• Added a Deities panel to the "Quest, Faction, Victory Conditions" window. Worship and offerings can be started from this window. Deity details (including a faction-relevant summary) can also be inspected from here.
• Divine Favor implemented. Various activities contribute to gain and loss of Favor/Wroth. Factions can request a Boon if Favor is 10+. The chance of success is based on the Favor level. The possible boons granted are shown in the Deities panel. This is also where the player can request a boon.
• Added two random events which increase or decrease relations between realms with diplomatic contacts due to various random, unforeseen occurences. This makes the relations slightly less static and predictable.
• Shrines and (non-City) Temples can now be dedicated to a specific deity/religion.
• Fortresses can now be renamed.
• Cities now track if they were founded by refugee events. If additional refugee events occur while this city is a valid migration target, the option to found a new settlement will not be given unless the city has become very large. This cuts down on city-spam from refugees.
• Map Filters are now saved/loaded when saving/loading a game
• Added message text when multi-casting fails for one or more units
• Unavailable Tower Expansions are now listed when building a new expansion, making it easier to see what is potentially available and/or why something is unavailable
• Tower Expansion: Mystical Furnace is unlocked by Forging research in addition the existing ways to unlock it.
• New Spell: Celestial Cynosure - Celestial battle spell dealing damage to all (non-Celestial) enemy units based on the number (and strength) of Celestial units on the caster side of the battle. Reserve units contribute only 25%.
• New Spell: Ball Lightning - Air Battle spell dealing high Lightning damage to 4 individuals in target unit. Units wearing metal armor suffer additional hits and damage.
• New Spell: Wind Warrior - Air unit buff which increases Movement, Melee Skill, Melee Shock and granting Ranged Attack Avoidance.
• Logic has been implemented to handle the extent to which a Deity/Religion accepts and/or rejects followers with certain alignment/traits. This adds some variety and flavor, as some deities will be picky, some will be fine with having followers of all kinds and some will have a more balanced profile.
• Several grids in the user interface can now be sorted by clicking a header. This will cycle through ascending, descending and no sorting.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug relating to cycling selection of multiple entities in the same hex
• Fixed text bugs in the research project window
• Fixed a number of memory leaks
• Fixed a crash bug related to the creation of new settlements
• Fixed a bug allowing factions to raze sites which should not be valid targets for this
• Fixed an issue where unit numerical strength (from 0% to 100%) was in some cases mistakenly based on the default maximum for the unit type, and not the actual maximum of the particular unit. This caused a number of incorrect calculations for units resulting from the split of another unit into two (or more) smaller units.
• Fixed a crash bug related to Planar Invasions
• Fixed a bug allowing City attributes to reach very high values (or very low negative values). The range is now correctly constrained in all cases.
• Fixed a bug where unit recruitment was not correctly cancelled when conquering a city from some types of faction
• Fixed a bug where site visibility was not always correctly updated, making sites "invisible" to the player until the game was reloaded
• Fixed a bug where some ressurection spells interacted with routed units in unintended ways
• Fixed a number of bugs with the camp window - where buttons would go inactive or not update state as expected

[ 2020-04-19 15:34:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Workers

• Several new actions are available for worker units from within the Worker window, opened via the Economy window or by double-clicking a worker unit in the outliner.
• Workers can now be Trained by followers, giving them new skills or increasing skill levels. The available skills depend on the type and traits of the selected follower, and the list is shown when selecting the trainer. The number of turns needed depends on the number of skills already possessed by the worker unit, increasing greatly if the combined skill level is higher than 5.
• Some worker units can now be settled in a friendly City. This will convert the worker unit into a population unit, with attributes (race/culture/traits/type) based on the equivalent attributes of the original unit.
• Workers can now be dismissed. This will disband them, removing their upkeep cost and any other unwanted effects from having the unit.
• Workers can now gain skills through experience. There is a small chance each turn for this happen based on the number of existing skills, the unit has. If the unit has many skills the chance is extremely low. The specific skill gained or improved is based on the type of site, the worker unit is assigned to. If a character is leader of the site, the traits/class of this character will also affect the choice of skill.

Magic

• Multicasting spells is now possible from a new tab on the Wizard/Magic window. This page displays a list of all units under your control, with a bit of additional information. You can select a spell of the relevant type, which units to target and then press a button to carry out the action (if you have enough mana). This saves a lot of the drudgery involved in using unit enchantments, and makes it less likely to forget a unit.
• Rebalanced the resource amounts involved in the resource gathering Dark Pact quest.
• Added a few Arcane battle spells to round out the selection for that mastery.

World Generation

• The Encyclopedia now shows slightly more information for Planes and Deities, when relevant. For example, it is stated explicitly if a deity is also the ruler of its Plane of residence.
• The race/culture adjective used when generating the short description of a character (e.g. 'High Elven', 'Trollblood Human', 'Silvertooth Halfling') will now include certain major characters traits, such as undeath, demonic corruption, etc. A Dark Elf raised as an undead will thus display as 'Undead Dark Elf'.
• Deities and Planes matching based on Domains and Traits has been greatly improved, improving the consistency and flavor of random world/mythos generation. As always a random element is part of the process, so it is possible to see interesting/quirky/unexpected combinations, with a only a few being completely blocked from occuring. But many silly/weird combinations are now extremely unlikely.
• When generating a Plane based on a specific Deity it will now have a much better fit with the domains of the Deity.
• The power level of a Deity now greatly affects the chances involved when determining whether the Deity has residence, rulership, etc. of the assigned plane.
• Increased the variety and depth of the Plane name generator.
• A wider range of culture traits are now considered when generating the population type composition of Cities.
• Added a new language/toponym template inspired on the medieval Low Countries.

Characters

• When assigning a character as trainer during Recruitment/Summoning, it is now possible to toggle a "repeat" option. Using this will assign the character to the next unit in the queue, once the currently assigned unit is fully recruited. This avoids the micro-management of constantly reassigning a trainer, that you want to train multiple units in succession, or simply be permanently assigned to this role.
• The Undead trait will now cause Character physical age (young/old/venerable/etc) to be disregarded for various mechanics.
• A wider range of unit abilities now affect retreat/pursuit ability during battles.
• New character traits added which allow characters to be treated as having a class type they do not have. Erudite => Scholar. Martial Training => Martial. Guileful => Rogue. The character is still treated as having the actual class type(s). For example a Fighter-Mage with Erudite will be treated as being having three types: Martial, Arcane and Scholar.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug causing sieges to have nonsensical target/estimate durations - either negative or very large numbers.
• Fixed a bug involving sieges where the attacker is unable to progress (due to siege ability being too low compared to fortification level) causing crashes, strange siege durations and other unintended results.
• Fixed a bug where some user interface elements had 'unresponsive' areas, where clicking them did not select/de-select as expected.
• Fixed a number of crash bugs related to diplomacy.
• Fixed several bugs involving 'Mysterious Sites' (ie goody huts). These were of varying severity, from typos to crashes to unintended/missing effects.
• Fixed a number of dynamic text bugs during mythos generation.
• Fixed a bug causing some event data to 'leak' between games played in the same session.

[ 2020-02-11 20:34:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sorry for the late update. The patch notes below cover most of the changes, but I will update them over the next few days as I iron out a few of the bugs I'm bound to have missed in the final round of testing. There's more in-progress changes than I'd like in this update (also some not mentioned in the notes), but I really wanted the update out now, as it was way overdue and had some critical bug fixes. I will do my best to keep a better cadence for the next update. For the next week or so I expect to release daily bug fix patches for this update. After that I will focus on UI for fortress upgrades, the new province control mechanics and making battles more fun. If all goes well that means an update out in two-three weeks time (after the stabilization week). I know the new border graphics are not pretty, but they're still an improvement over not having any faction-specific color to the provinces at all - and I hope to improve them sooner rather than later into something at least passable. Then they will be upgraded to a proper aesthetic in a few months time (alongside rivers). That's the plan, at least. Thanks to everyone who supplied invaluable feedback and bug reports, lately - and in the past. I know this build is probably a bit more messy than usual and might even be rather buggy pending a week of patches or so. However, I am confident the mess will be worth it and I'm really happy with where the province system is going. Anyway, time to get some rest before the bug fixing frenzy. Looking forward to delivering more updates after that. It's a pleasure to work on this game, and I'm so grateful for the valuable feedback, ideas, support and constructive criticism coming from you all. Battles

• Rebalanced Battle Magic spellcraft. The increase in mana expenditure cap is cumulative, so researching higher levels would lead to very high caps. This has been toned down significantly (Minor from +10 to +5. Lesser from +20 to +10. Intermediate from +35 to +15. Greater from +50 to +15. Supreme from +100 to +20.)
• A maximum of 1 spell can now be cast per Battle Turn. +2 if the battle is at the Wizard Tower. +1 if the army is led by Arcane-class General.
• Battle retreat mechanics have gone through of combination of bug fixes and improvements. Unit stats and abilities now have a greater effect on the ability to flee/pursue during and after battles. These are essentially "under-the-hood" changes in battle engine.
• Reserves can now rotate with retreating units without being restricted to the reinforcing the flanks only.
• After retreating from a battle an army can now suffer losses from desertion, environmental factors, pursuers, etc. The stats and abilities of units on both sides affect whether this happens and to what extent. High mobility, toughness and discipline helps avoid losses. High mobility, scouting and courage helps during pursuit. The characters, if any, involved, will also affect the outcome.
• Rebalanced damage values and attacking timings to make combat more decisive and avoid overly drawn-out battles.
• Damage which is high, but not enough to cause death, can now cause incapacitation for some unit types. This is counted as a casualty during the battle, but not after - unless the battle is lost or the army retreats. Incapacitated individuals can also be healed (but not ressurected).
• Right-clicking a unit element will now show detailed info on the unit.

World and Magic

• Province control is now determined through ownership of the provincial capital. This is usually a city or fortress. Selecting any hex in a province will show the owner and capital in the lower-left info panel. Control changes immediately on the turn after capturing a capital.
• Provinces without a capital can get one through the construction of an outpost and upgrading it into a fortress. This allows securing full control of unaligned/wilderness provinces.
• Sites can now be built in a controlled province. This replaces the previous territorial control system. Outposts still have special mechanics, but are somewhat in a limbo between the two mechanics. This (outpost build mechanics) will be improved by an incremental game update in the near future.
• Integrated the various 'special' character classes and races (demons, faeries, undead, celestials, etc.) so that they integrate with the culture and attitude system seamlessly.
• Resource sites can now be converted. For now this is restricted to Quarries <=> Mines, but this will be expanded to cover other relevant transitions (e.g. Farms <=> Vineyards).
• Resource sites can now be abandoned, making it possible to build something else in the hex.
• Fortress sites can now have various upgrades. Currently there is no UI for players to actually make use of this. Non-player factions can use this to gain access to recruitment options and province-wide bonuses. UI will be added for this at the earliest opportunity as it is not intended as AI-only.
• Expanded the city/place/region name generators with additional variety/flavor/depth for several culture templates.
• Expanded the culture generators to have additional variety/flavor/depth when generating titles and dynamic unit types.
• Insect Hives now grant additional resources to Fae Gardens (Ichor + Chitin).
• Primordial Trees now grant additional resources to Fae Gardens (Lumber).
• Rebalanced the output of Hunters Lodge sites to include additional resource types and have a higher output in most cases.
• Fixed a number of economy engine bugs which resulted in incorrect price calculations. There is at least one bug remaining (which causes a price change loop out of sync with market supply/demand). I will try to fix it tomorrow (and delete this note).
• A rework of the landmass and terrain generation is underway. It is currently a work-in-progress and not used in the regular game mode. It is however used in the Editor when generating a random landmass. The new generator has more consistent province sizes and can more easily be configured to generate various kinds of worlds. The arguments cannot be changed in the UI yet and as mentioned the system is not finished yet, so the generated landmasses will not feature rivers, and the biome-assignment has not been integrated with the new system yet. So explore if curious, but don't expect usable randomly generated maps in the editor with this patch (you can rollback via Steam if you need the old one for some reason). Once finished, the new and old world generators will be available for use. The old one will not be removed permanently.
• New Earth spells: Boulderstorm, Stalagmite Ambush and Diamondskin. Two battle spells and a very strong unit enchantment.
• Spells can now have an upkeep cost. Diamondskin is the first spell to utilize this.

Bug Fixes and UI

• Improved the tool tips and guide text when selecting parties and/or followers for tasks flexible between a party and an individual.
• Fixed a few tasks which should accept parties but didn't.
• Rebalanced the smuggler event to be less extreme in the amount of gold lost.
• Fixed a number of tribal events that were stopping abruptly with info or resolution after choosing an action.
• Fixed a bug causing conversion tasks to sometimes target the wrong alignment and do nothing.
• Fixed a bug causing music to not play.
• Fixed a number of crash bugs during world generation.
• Fixed a bug which would cause some save games to not load. This should be fixed retroactively (allowing those save to load with the latest version).
• Fixed a bug which would cause some character injuries to not be applied.
• Fixed a bug causing incorrect display of battle results during battles (wounded, dead, etc.) The unit cards were correct, and the post-battle report correct, but the log was incorrect.
• Improved the labels on some buttons which were misleading in their purpose.
• Improved tool tips when a map hex contains multiple selectables. The next selection to cycle to is shown, as is the presence of other selectables. As before, the lower part of the screen has an clickable icon for each selectable entity.
• Province borders now have a colored tint corresponding to the owning faction (if any)
• Improved the tool tips for conversion tasks and made invalid selection greyed out earlier in the task set-up process.

[ 2020-01-05 22:04:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Two new Army assignments: Quartermaster and Champion. Similar to General and Scout Captain, these are optional, but provide a bonus to the army if filled. Note that these new roles are also available to garrison armies (the action to inspect them is shown when the relevant city/fortress is selected).
• Army Quartermaster: Assigning a character to this role, will reduce the upkeep of units in the army based on the culture, class, traits and skills of the character.
• Army Champion: A character assigned to this role has the option of joining a unit during battles. This will provide a bonus to the stats of the unit and allow the character to perform melee and/or ranged attacks during the battle. The exact nature of the bonus and the number/strength of the attacks are both determined by the culture, class, traits and skills of the Champion. There is a low, but not trivial, risk of suffering injuries during the battle. The risk is greater when fighting very dangerous enemies, such as large monsters - but these enemies are also where the Champion will do the most relative damage.
• The Army window has been slightly reworked to fit the new assignments and a new text field summarizing Army stats and any special effects.
• Minor Realms (e.g. the various city-states, petty kingdoms and similar) have been given a number of 'foreign policy'-style actions and events. These will trigger at semi-random intervals (ie the chance is essentially based on the time since the last event/action). The target faction is chosen based on diplomatic relations, proximity and relative strength. Chances for individual event/action types are weighted based on the culture of the Minor Realm and relations to the target.
• Minor Realm Event: Smugglers/Scoundrels. Has a negative economic impact on the target faction.
• Minor Realm Event: Request Gift. Target faction is given the opportuniy to gain improved relations by fulfilling a randomly generated resource/gold request.
• Minor Realm Event: Offer Gift. Target faction is given a randomly generated amount of resources/gold.
• Minor Realm Event: Offer Unit. Target faction is either given or offered to hire a relevant unit type from the minor realm.
• Minor Realm Event: Offer Recruits. Target faction is either given or offered to hire a recruits from the minor realm. These are added to recruitment pool of the target faction, making it possible and/or less expensive to recruit relevant units.
• Minor Realm Event: Offer Retainer. Target faction is either given or offered to hire a relevant randomly character.
• Minor Realm Event: Request to Join War. Target faction is asked to join an on-going war. There may or may not be bribes involved. The impact of refusing/accepting depends on the existing diplomatic relations.
• Minor Realm Event: Offer Trade. Target faction is given the option to make a trade for a fixed amount of resources/gold vs a fixed amount of resources/gold. This will usually, but not always, be at a price better than the market. The resouces involved are generated based on the economy and culture of the realm.
• Minor Realm Event: Raiders. Marauders will spawn and seek to attack the target faction. These are not considered part of the minor realm, so can attack without the factions being at war. Similarly, anyone can attack the marauders without triggering a war with the minor realm.
• Minor Realm Event: Share Maps. Unexplored territory will be revealed to the target faction.
• Minor Realm Event: Share Arcane Knowledge. Will provide culture-relevant boosts to mastery progress or research projects.
• Minor Realm Event: Refugees. Target faction is given a variety of options based on faction type. They can be given the opportunity to found a new city, be hired as workers or to join an existing city/camp - but some factions can also choose to enslave, sacrifice or turn them into undead minions. This depends on alignment, culture and traits.
• Added a "History" section to the Details mode of the Diplomacy window. This will show events, battles, lost/gained territory, etc for the chosen non-player faction.
• Diplomatic relations now have an element of "stickiness". When at the positive/negative limit, any changes in the relevant direction will instead cause stickiness, thus making it harder to move the relations away from the extreme position. This will make long-time allies less likely to quickly become antagonistic and long-time enemies more difficult to quickly sway to a positive opinion.
• Added a Culture Traits section to the Mechanics section of the Encylopedia.
• Greatly reduced the chance of events spawning from Dungeons which have been cleared.
• Further increased the variety and depth of deity domains / pantheon composition.
• If there are multiple units with the same name during a battle, they will given a roman numeral to distinguish them. This should make it easier to see what is going on during a battle. The decorated names are only active during the battle.
• Reserves can now enter the battle by replacing a retreating unit or by replacing a unit at either end of the line. Previously they would always enter from left/right depending on the side.
• Nerfed the effectiveness damage caused by skirmishers.
• Units which are below maximum size (for example by being split into multiple units) suffer a effectiveness loss. This penalty is reduced by having high discipline, special abilities (Sentry, Pathfinder, Beasts) and/or by having an active scout captain.
• Units can now have a maximum effectiveness during battles which is higher than the starting/base effectiveness (usually by 20%). This allows units affected by positive morale effects, spells, events, etc to fight with increased ability.
• Tweaked the office desire logic to remove some unreasonably extreme impact of class type.
• Fixed a bug related to unaligned/marauder armies getting stuck in a passive state.
• Fixed a bug causing a specific transition between injury levels (for a character) to sometimes not occur as intended.
• Fixed instances of missing color-coding in the battle log.
• Fixed the sorting in the Load Game window to put recent games at the top.
• The list of existing files in the Save Game window will no longer show files related to different campaigns.
• The Save Game window now fills out a suggested file name to save some hassle when saving regularly.
• Fixed a number of malfunctioning tooltips which were not appearing as intended.
• Fixed a bug related to AI usage of reserves during battles.

[ 2019-10-28 20:54:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Files are now grouped by 'game' in the load game window. This makes it much easier to find your save game if you have multiple saves per game. Saves from before this update are placed under 'unordered', before will be categorized correctly on re-saving. The data to retroactively fix save games is available, but for performance reasons this isn't done automatically. A button to resort old games may be added.
• Export feature added to the Encyclopedia Window. This will save to a text file the Encyclopedia entries for the randomly generated world (cultures, deities, planes, organizations, etc.) and a copy of the intro pages shown when the game started.
• A separate toggle for Inactive Armies has been added to the Outliner settings. This allows hiding armies that have been set to 'sleep' mode from the list. This helps keeps the list more readable in the mid to late game.
• The 'Cancel Task' button is no longer hidden when unavailable on the Followers window. Instead it is disabled, and a tooltip describes why the Task cannot be cancelled.
• New Illusion spell: See No Evil. Grants immunity to terror.
• New Illusion spell: Misdirection. Cast on armies to give them a chance to arrive in the wrong hex when moving or simply remain stationary.
• Improved generation of character names for increased variety.
• Further improved army and neutral minor flags.
• Anti-aliasing can now be disabled from the settings window. Full in-game configuration of display modes was intended to be in the patch, but this needs more testing and robustness before it is ready.
• Fixed a bug where Generic Crafting and Diplomatic Gift Crafting counted as 'action taken' every turn, making it impossible to cancel the task or assign a new one.
• Fixed a bug which made it possible to sneakily take almost full control of leaders from conquered cities that were allowed to remain in power. Task control for these characters has now been correctly limited in scope.
• Fixed a bug causing nomad raiders to choose the wrong destination and return path in many cases.
• Fixed several text formatting bugs causing garbled text and/or missing carriage-return/newline.
• Fixed a number of bugs related to city unrest/squalor/wealth/production/traits being round incorrectly and thus not increasing/decreasing at the intended rate.

[ 2019-09-17 21:02:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Characters now have opinions about each other in addition to being able to have various relationships (rival, friend, animosity, etc.)
• Character Opinions are based on several factors such as personality, alignments, factions, certain relationships/events and more. The values and the contributing factors can be inspected from the Followers window.
• World generation now has a wider variety of pantheons, mythos templates and deity domains. A slightly higher number of deities with a higher number of domains will also be generated, making for more interesting dynamic pantheons and cosmic forces.
• Expanded the specialized culture/religion/race logic for the major non-standard races: demonic/faerie/celestial/elementals. This will improve any mechanics interacting with these concepts for characters/units/factions belonging to the mentioned races.
• Added dynamic relationship events to character AI routines. This will allow friendship and rivalries to form. For now, the chances have been tuned low and the pool of considered characters restricted. This is to avoid performance issues and event spam. With future updates this will be tuned to more common, while not impacting performance too much.
• Characters now have desire values for various offices and tasks. This can result in character discontent depending on the strength of the preferences and character personality traits. Worst case, this can cause characters to leave a faction.
• Characters can now be Assigned Tasks directly from the follower window, opening up a window starting with categories and then drilling down to the specific available tasks.
• Fixed Warding mastery not giving correct resistance bonuses in some cases.
• Added Zombie Beasts unit type.
• Added Zombie Critters unit type.
• Research projects can spawn various quests. This is still a work-in-progress feature, so many of the quests may not function correctly or even be completeable. Research can still continue as normal, and the quests will made be fully functional as soon as possible.
• Completing Research will now increase Mastery progress in most cases. The masteries affected depend on the nature of the project, and the amount of progress is a function of the current mastery level and the project power level. An expensive and difficult project will give more progress and be useful at higher levels, while more basic project will mostly affect low levels of mastery and have strong diminishing returns at higher levels of mastery.
• Not being able to pay upkeep for characters will cause discontent, which can eventually make them leave.
• During world generation the grouping of deities will consider aspects/alignment to improve the theme and consistency of groups.
• Improved dynamic unit type generation with better variety and more naming templates.
• Added a few UI tweaks to spell casting during battles to make it more user-friendly.
• Fixed an update bug during battles where the magic section didn't update on all interactions.
• When starting a new game a random Wizard template is now chosen as the initial selection.
• Construct mechanics gained via Mastery progressions is now displayed in the relevant UI when inspecting Mastery types.
• Ressurection spell no longer has an unimplemented effect and will actually ressurect casualties during battle.
• Mass Ressurection spell no longer has an unimplemented effect and will actually ressurect many casualties during battle.
• Fresh Meat: New Necromancy spell which buffs and heals a Zombie unit by consuming corpses from the battlefield (which makes them unavailable for ressurection).
• Fixed a bug related to the Animated Weapons spell.
• Deity/Religion and Alignment interaction logic implemented to improve available options for proselytization, the resolution of various events and general mechanics regarding characters and religion.
• Deity group and relationship tracking improved to improve resolution of several cosmos/religion mechanics.
• Assignment of characters to city/camp leadership is now impacted by culture and tribal mechanics. In some cases assigning a character with the wrong culture will now be blocked.
• Improved dynamic text generation to better handle some aspects of grammar.
• Added numerous new tooltips and expanded the breakdown/descriptions of many mechanics and calculations.
• Fixed several crash/hang/savegame bugs.

[ 2019-08-22 18:50:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

General

• New "Active Effects" tab in the Magic window. Allows you to get an overview of active spell effects and cancel them (if applicable).
• Added a UI action to inspect the Garrison of a site.
• Improved the map generator and the pseudo-simulation of tectonics used to create the geography. This should give better-looking coastlines and more pleasing/interesting continent shapes overall.
• Ancient Evils of relevant types now also exist as a Deity/Religion entity.
• Salt added as a resource.
• Improved the allocation of specials to hexes during world generation to take additional climate and terrain factors into consideration.
• Improved the AI power estimation routine. This includes the ability to separately consider melee, ranged and combined power levels to a greater degree than previously.
• New Unit: Bears.
• New Unit: Hungering Wisps. A slightly stronger version of Wisps with a vampiric attack.
• New unit special ability: Stupid. This has the advantage of reduced impact of some psychological effects (positive and negative), but also a lack of ability to cope with several situation.
• Streamlined and unified the Character travel logic used by various events, actions and tasks. The same logic is now always applied.
• Site and Character Name generation improved with more variety.
• Units now have Alignment tracked on an individual basis, allowing it to diverge from the Unit Type / Cultural default.

Battles

• Improved the battle initiation UI. Instead of several "attack" buttons requiring mouse-over to see what army/site they affected, a single action button now opens a window with various options for initiating a battle.
• Battle initiation now includes special actions in some cases.
• Special Army Action: Plunder Outskirts. Can be used to plunder gold and spoils from cities without directly assaulting the defenders.
• Special Army Action: Probing Attack. Somewhat risky way to gain more information on the composition an enemy army or garrison. An alternative to creating a one-unit army and suiciding to reveal the enemy during the battle resolution.
• Added fatigue to battle resolution. This will impact some units and decrease their fighting capability and morale after extended active engagement in combat and/or use of ranged attacks.
• Slightly reduced the impact of Effectiveness.
• Reduced the default rate of Effectiveness loss during battles.
• Expanded Skirmish mechanics to include ranged attacks and fatigue. Not having a sufficient Skirmish screen can cause an army to suffer much greater casualties from ranged attacks and fatigue/effectiveness loss from skirmishers during the initial phases of the battle.

Characters

• Some characters now have an upkeep cost. Wizard traits and Clan/Tribal mechanics can modify this cost. The Trusted Retainers trait in particular has a potentially strong impact, reducing the cost by progressively more as the duration of service/employment increases.
• Characters can now accumulate private wealth through various events and actions. They will be saving up the cash for the patch which adds ways for them to spend it.
• Character item possession expanded to include more than the current "inventory" type items. For example, under certain circumstances artisans may create items for themselves rather than their faction.
• Added a couple of new personality traits: Brave, Craven, Patient.
• Added character traits to represent lack of free will and limited free will.
• Artisans now have a "generic" craft item task (in addition to the "diplomatic gift" task) which will result in some gold, and sometimes an exceptional item. This is currently not exposed in the UI and only usable by the AI, but this will be fixed in an incremental update very soon.
• Tribal Chief Prestige now affects character loot share (during plunder, pillage, etc.) High prestige increases the amount taken by characters, and negative prestige reduces it.
• New character types: Strategist, Poet, Lout, Storyteller, Administrator. These will be generated/assigned according to cultural traits.
• Improved the random character generator to take additional cultural characteristics into consideration and give more thematic results. Some hitherto extremely rare character types are now more common, and some of the overly common types have been reduced in frequency.

Spells

• True Sight. Divination spell which will destroy illusionary unit and reveal enemy units.
• Borrowed Sight: One randomly chosen unit in target army is affected by the Borrowed Sight effect for 7 turns. During this time the army containing this unit will grant vision and exploration. Level 3 Divination/Shadow.
• Locate Mana Node: Has a 25% chance to reveal a Mana Node (including ones in unexplored territory). If another Wizard has more mana nodes than the caster, the chance is increased by 20% times the difference in number. When randomizing the node to be discovered, ones closer to the Wizard's territory have a higher chance to be chosen. Level 4 Divination/Arcane.
• Scotosynthesis: Grants production bonuses to a farm, vineyard, fae garden or city. It must be located in a Darkened-affected hex. Can also be used on a unit with Slime, Plant or Fungus type. This will allow the unit to replenish in any hex with Darkened (regardless of supply lines, etc.), with a bonus depending on the level of the effect. Level 3 Darkness/Life/Enchantment.
• Depravity spell has been split into three variants.
• Lesser Depravity: Corresponds to the old Depravity spell (+1 Crime, +2 Decadence, -5 Unrest, 3 Turns).
• Depravity: +2 Crime, +3 Decadence, +1 Prosperity, -8 Unrest, +2 Squalor. 9 Turn duration. Level 3 Abyssal.
• Greater Depravity: +3 Crime, +4 Decadence, +2 Prosperity, +1 Martial, -12 Unrest, +5 Squalor. 15 Turn duration. Level 5 Abyssal.
• Chaotic Creation: Create a random batch of resources. Level 2 Creation/Chaos spell.
• Chimes of Harmony: Buff the discipline, courage and melee skill of a unit. Will disable the Frenzy ability if the unit has it. Level 3 Creation/Order spell.
• Conjure Fortress: Conjure a Fortress out of nothing. Level 7 Creation/Earth/Artifice spell.
• Ice Bridge: Now creates a 1-length road connecting two hexes bordering the same river (to represent the bridge).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a balance issue with dynamic market price calculations.
• Fixed a bug related to the Paving the Way and Veins of Civilization spells. Certain temporary sites could be chosen as targets which was not intended.
• Fixed a bug causing the battle log to omit many events and attacks.
• Fixed a bug relating to Planar Portals.
• Fixed a bug relating to Fortresses and incorrectly calculating siege duration.
• Fixed a bug relating to the Festering Wounds effect being applied to the attacker (and not the target) in some cases.
• Fixed several crash bugs.

[ 2019-07-05 18:53:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

A somewhat small update, as several in-development tasks are not complete yet. I expect an incremental patch will follow relatively soon with some other odds and ends. And hopefully the meatier tasks will be ready for the next update in a week or two.

• Added an Introduction window when starting a new game. It explains some core game mechanics and information on the randomly generated game world (deities, cultures).
• Expanded scouting mechanics to also cover site garrisons/defenders. A tooltip with details can be seen by hovering over the highlighted "Garrison: Yes" text in the context panel.
• Added unique attrition/desertion mechanics for defeated/conquered minor factions. Their armies will begin dispersing if they fail to retake a city or fortress within a few turns, with some units being lost and others becoming mercenaries. The courage/discipline attributes determine the rate of desertion and chance of becoming mercenaries.
• Expanded world generation to have a wider variety of deity/cosmos templates, including elemental-based pantheons and two/three competing deities/pantheons.
• Improved deity/mythos/cosmos generation engine in several different ways, including naming, grouping, consistent theming of deities, tweaking domain allocations to have better coverage, reducing illogical overlap, and more.
• Added a few more exotic polearms to the random culture-unit generator.
• New units: lesser/normal/greater acid elementals.
• New units: lesser/normal/greater magma elementals.
• New units: lesser/normal/greater mercury elementals.
• New units: lesser/normal/greater lightning elementals.
• New units: Magmagors, monster bull/serpent hybrids with high armor and fire damage.
• Tweaked the required research time for the core elemental unit types and a few other unit types.
• Fixed a crash bug related to planar portals.
• Fixed a bug relating to exploration tasks not being cancelled correctly when no longer valid.
• Fixed a bug relating to resolution of tribal events/actions involving non-clan characters.
• Fixed some missing faction flags not appearing correctly in the battle window.
• Fixed the character AI wanting to explore already-cleared dungeons
• Performance optimization of misc. battle calculations.

[ 2019-05-30 10:40:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Choice of Wizard Apprentice now impacts research (the exact numbers/masteries depending on character type and traits).
• Market Crisis (New Event): Prices are worse (when buying and selling both) for a period. Some resource stocks will also be heavily depleted.
• Food Shortages (New Event): Availability is greatly reduced for a period and prices increased. Also affects some food-related resources.
• Map Editor: The size of the map can now be chosen when creating custom maps. Note that resizing an existing map is not yet possible.
• Map Editor: A warning is now shown before executing an action which would discard a map with unsaved changes.
• World Generation: The terrain/geography generation algorithm has been improved to make sure a reasonable amount of land mass is always present.
• Craft diplomatic gift: New action which can be assigned to Artisan-type followers at a small cost. This will improve relations by varying amounts depending on existing relations. For flavor an artisan-type relevant item type/name is randomly generated and shown when resolving the action.
• Improved a few tooltips to show more accurate / detailed data for various entitiess.
• Improved the price drift algorithm for the world market. Very simplified, prices will increase faster than before when demand outstrips supply, and drift towards equilibrium at slower rate than previously.
• Fixed a crash bug sometimes occuring when interacting with elements in the diplomacy window.
• Fixed generals and scout captains sometimes being unassigned from armies.
• Fixed tooltips not being shown correctly on UI elements with pop-outs.
• Fixed a bug where price and/or resource availability got stuck on the world market.
• Fixed a crashbug sometimes happening when using the editor after ending a game session using a non-default map size.
• Fixed a bug where some data was not saved correctly causing "lost" tasks and relations between entities.

[ 2019-05-15 11:47:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

General

• Added research projects to unlock: Ravenous Zombies, Fetid Zombies, Zombie Stalkers, Succubi Neolates, Succibi Mutilators, Succubi Matrons, Incubi Neolates, Incubi Nightreavers, Incubi Stormcallers.
• New spell: Paving The Way. Creates a road between the tower and another site. Order Mastery 3.
• New spell: Veins of Civilization. Creates a road between a city and another site. Order Mastery 6.
• New unit: Fetid Zombies. Noxious, diseased and slightly less durable than regular zombies.
• Added two new levels of Armor Scraps (Light/Heavy). These have been used to give various Skeleton units a bit of armor.
• Fixed a bug where conditional unit effects would recursively test each other causing an infinite loop. Conditional unit effects are currently based on the world state without applying any other conditional effects.
• Fixed a bug causing empty recruitment pools to not always impact the cost/time of recruiting new units.
• Fixed a bug causing recruitment pool modifiers to not be saved correctly.
• Fixed a number of bugs causing unintended drift of recruitment pools towards 0.
• The Encyclopedia now shows the basic unit type for each race, including a tool with base level stats for the race.
• Fixed a bug preventing the assignment of unit trainers in some situations.
• Added a tooltip to the unit recruitment progress text, making it possible to see what is causing any modifications to the default recruitment time and/or progress.
• The map can be panned by using WASD and/or the Arrow keys.
• Added an action to replace the overseer of an outpost to fortress upgrade, making it possible to resume progress if the initial overseer was unassigned.
• Updated the map graphics for several types of sites, including farms, mines, quarries, logging camps, castles, citadels, pyramids, outposts, and more.
• Tweaked the Action Icon Buttons, adding a transparent black background, to make the text more visible.
• Added a few more culture-specific character titles to draw from during World Generation.
• Added a cap on faction food storage. This is based on the number/size of cities, fortresses, resource sites, tower upgrades, camps and some masteries. The mechanics are not currently displayed anywhere.

Battles

• Rebalanced the chance for shields to block ranged attacks. Previously the Discipline attribute was far more important than type of shields.
• Psychic attacks can no longer be blocked with shields.
• Shields can now block melee attacks. Whereas ranged block chance is affected by Discipline, melee block chance is affected by the Melee Skill of the attacker and blocker.
• The log window now shows the number of blocked attacks.
• Reworked the ranged phase: The armies will now close from long range to melee over several turns, displaying the current distance in the log. This makes the maximum range of attacks much more relevant, and potentially allows an army with longer range several additional rounds of ranged attacks.
• Fixed a bug where some attacks that should be blockable were treated as unblockable and vice versa.
• Fixed a bug causing units with multiple ranged attacks to use only one, and sometimes even failing completely to use any of them.

Editor

• New option to place Starting Positions on a map. These can be configured to only apply to certain factions: ai, player, wizard, warlord, tribal chief. Priority can be assigned to control the preference if there are more valid starting positions than major factions.
• Added "blob" brush which allows changing the terrain of 7 hexes at once (clicked hex and all adjacent).
• Map dragging can now be disabled via a toggle, which makes it possible to paint map terrain faster by holding these mouse. This was previously (and still is) supported by using left-shift. Adding a toggle should make it easier on your carpal tunnels to create custom maps.
• Fixed a crash bug related to starting a game on a custom map with partial province definitions.
• Fixed a bug causing river data to be drawn incorrectly in some situations.
• Fixed a bug causing river and/or river data to sometimes be corrupted when editing multiple maps in succession.

[ 2019-05-04 19:47:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sound effects and overhauled recruitment pool mechanics are the highlights of this update. As noted below some of the changes made are relatively "high-risk", and if you encounter any problems which may have slipped past testing, please contact the support email or make a post, and I will try to get a hotfix out asap.

• Updated the Unity version used to improve performance and stability, but maintaining existing compatibility towards older OS'es and graphics cards. There is a risk of compatibility issues slipping past testing, but I will endeavour to resolve those asap if they happen.
• Sound Effects: Some actions, events and UI elements now have associated sound effects. More will follow.
• Encyclopedia entries are now alphabetically sorted in most cases
• Deities/religions are now sorted by power, then by name, in the Encyclopedia
• World settings for Magic now affect character trait generation/availability. In a world with pervasive magic many non-Arcane characters will have some kind of magical ability/trait - whereas a world with very rare magic will have true magic restricted to very few, and almost exclusively Arcane-type, characters.
• Improved various dynamic text generation involving adjective and singular forms of races and cultures.
• Demon characters now have a specialized demon race, rather being treated as having no race.
• New subrace concept, which is a way to represent variants of a race who have significant difference in traits, but for many purposes are treated as the same race. This could be something as extreme as tiny pixies and large satyrs as subraces of the Faerie, or more subtle such as Hill and Mountain variants of a Dwarven races. This new concept is not yet implemented across all existing races/templates.
• New Demon subrace: Incubus. A default character type for this subrace has also been added, as a jack-of-all-trades Rogue/Martial/Arcane class.
• New Demon subrace: Imps. This covers the existing Imp character type and unit types.
• Improved adherence to World settings for race/culture variety and templating. In some cases this reduces the chance and frequency of completely randomly generated races. In other cases it adds additional non-templated generation of cultures. In general the races and cultures should be a much better match for the selected settings, and with more internal depth for the individual settings.
• Greatly improved the Fungoid, Crystalfolk, Demi-Satyr (renamed to Deuadai)
• Some cultures now disdain armor, despite having the technology needed to create it, due to either physical limitations or cultural traits. This is reflected in the unit types generated for such a culture.
• The culture traits Master Smiths and Master Miners now impact the quality of metal armor for generated unit types.
• Increased the starting number and variety of follower characters for Wizards.
• Fixed a bug where some culture templates were incorrectly limited in the range of possible technology levels.
• Improved several of the language templates used for name and toponym generation with more depth, variety and better elimination of awkward and implausible random results.
• Added several new Incubus and Succubus unit types. Research options have not yet been added.
• New unit types: Lesser Phoenixes, Phoenixes and Greater Phoenixes. Research to unlock these have increasing requirements as the power level increases.
• New unit types: Lesser Shadowflame Phoenixes, Shadowflame Phoenixes and Greater Shadowflame Phoenixes. These are Phoenixes with combined Fire and Dark damage, with some variation to the stats, abilities and attacks compared to the "standard" Phoenixes.
• New unit types: Lesser Spellfire Phoenixes, Spellfire Phoenixes and Greater Spellfire Phoenixes. These are Phoenixes with combined Fire and Arcane damage, with some variation to the stats, abilities and attacks compared to the "standard" Phoenixes.
• Rebalanced the army casualty replenishment mechanics to make it less possible to immediately replenish losses caused by spells and events.
• Improved the consolidation of races and cultures during world generation greatly reducing the risk of confusing duplicates occuring.
• Unified the mechanics for raising Undead from battlefields, so that post-battle necromancy and various spells/abilities have the same results and options for the same battlefield.
• New recruitment mechanics for Wizards. The recruitment pools are no longer pseudo-resources, but represent the number of troops which be recruited before suffering increased recruitment/upkeep costs. A temporary component also exists, which allows various events and actions to provide an extraordinary increase of this limit, at the downside of time and casualties depleting this value. The base pool size is based on the same mechanics as previously (cities, fortresses, characters, traits, etc.). Any sigificant changes to the value are applied "softly" over several turns.
• Mercenaries are exempt from the recruitment pool mechanics, which makes them a (possibly costly) alternative for Wizards who have stretched the available recruitment pools to, or beyond, their limits.
• Added more tooltips to the recruitment/military UI to allow inspection of various mechanics. This is especially useful for seeing the effect of various effects/traits on recruitment/upkeep costs.
• New unit type: Voidlings. Provides an early game unit for Darkness-mastery wizards.
• New unit type: Lesser Nether Shades. Provides an early game unit for Death-mastery wizards.
• New unit type: Blood Beasts. Provides an early game unit for Blood-mastery wizards.
• Wisps are now available at Arcane 1, to provide additional early game unit choices across wizard types.
• The Wizard AI is now better at not recruiting more units than it has economy to support.

[ 2019-04-23 10:23:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

In what has sadly become a habit as of late, here is yet another belated update. As mentioned before I have had some challenges and obstacles causing development to slow down (which is also why this patch is relatively small). I am sorry that the slowdown has lasted this long. Fortunately, things are clearing up and I will soon have the opportunity to pick up the pace again. I still have a few challenging weeks ahead of me, but I am looking forward to being able to provide more frequent and substantial updates. I have high hopes and ambitions for the coming months, and I will do my utmost to turn these into tangible content and gameplay for you. Especially those of you who been along for far longer than I anticipated this Early Access would last. Patch Notes:

• First part of new character assignment interface. Accessible through the Faction (aka 'Quests and Objectives') Window, the new Offices section lists available assignments for your characters. It does not include espionage/sabotage-type assignments yet.
• A rework of the recruitment pool system is underway (based on player feedback and ideas), but was not stable enough to be enabled yet.
• A prompt to open the new UI is now shown if the player has idle characters.
• The Military Window now lists the number of units in the recruitment queue when not in Queue mode. A confirmation is also shown after recruiting a new unit. Previously only failure to begin recruiting would show a dialog, which could make players unsure if anything happened in the case of everything being fine. The result of the action is now fully apparent.
• Additional Celestial-type character types: Eshim Mourner (Martial/Arcane), Starbinder (Artisan/Civic)
• The Magic prevalence game setting now has a much greater impact on character skill selection and advancement. Pervasive and Common adds a chance for magic-type skills and traits to be available for character types that do not normally have access to magic.
• Slightly expanded the Dungeon Generator with more possibilities and variety.
• Improved the Ancient Evil Generator with greater variety and better consistence.
• Improved Culture naming to create better patterns when resolving variants of the same race and/or culture.
• Improved name generation for oceans.
• Unique naming patterns for lakes.
• Improved name generation for provinces.
• Pantheon/deity generation is now much more tightly connected to cultures during world generation. Deity names will be more much likely to be drawn from the languages of cultures with high affinity for a deity.
• The generation of cultural affinity for deities has been greatly improved, taking into account how cultural traits/attributes relate to the specific domains of a deity. This is combined with randome elements and other considerations to create much more believable and interesting affinities.
• The game culture/race variance settings now have more opportunities to "mutate" the templates.
• New race/culture template: Gorgosi. Humanoids with serpentine features and a relation to Medusae and Gorgons.
• New race/culture template: Sylvan Gnomes. Tend to have traits relating to magic, nature and animals.
• New race/culture template: Sylvan Halflings. Tend to have traits relating to magic, nature and animals.
• New race/culture template: Shadow Halflings. A variant with more possibilities for magical, stealthy and evil/dark traits.
• Expanded race/culture template: Goblins. Added a sub-template resulting in a more feral and warlike version.
• Expanded race/culture template: Lizardmen. Added a sub-template resulting in an enigmatic and ancient civilization rather than the usual barbarian/warlike lizardmen.
• Expanded race/culture template: Orcs. Several sub-templates added resulting in a much greater variety of Orcish cultures, from ones based around noble shamanistic traditions to savage, bloodthirsty and industrialized ones.
• New unit: Celestial Lions. Powerful magical beasts belonging to the Celestial forces.
• New spell: Stampede (Beasts 3). Frenzy, +3 Shock and +2 Movement at the cost of -3 Discipline and -1 Skill. Can only affect non-flying Beasts.
• Fixed the labels on some world and context Actions, so that the full text is now readable (it was cut short previously)
• Added tooltips to several windows and icons.
• Misc. general improvements to the culture and language subsystems of the world generator.
• Expanded character assignment system enabling more interesting character assignments and offices. You may notice some new "offices" available as a type of assignment for characters. The bonuses and effects of these are not implemented yet, but the offices were still added and enabled for testing purposes, and I didn't want to waste time disabling them for this update, when the effects are being added soon.

[ 2019-03-18 21:58:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Very sorry for the delay on the update. I'll add some additional info to the notes later, but need a bit of rest now. User Interface

• Filter option added to the "Action" section allowing hiding/showing actions not related to the current selection. For example, if an army is selected this will hide the various Explore and Build actions that may be valid for the hex selection.
• Handled/dismissed notifications (for the current turn) can now be re-shown. They cannot be re-opened at the moment, but this will be added in a future update (as a read-only mode in cases with irrevocable choices).
• Improved tooltips and hint text for Tribal Destiny related UI.

Misc

• Improved the selection of character portraits for several races and cultures.
• Optimized several aspects of world generation.
• Added additional logic to prevent adjacent/very close starting positions for major factions (warlords, wizards). It can still happen but should be much less likely to occur.
• Improved the impact on character generation from cultural traits and attributes. Additional factors are now considered when resolving/choosing from variables during generation.
• Some unit types now have immunity to Terror and/or Unsettling.
• New Unit Type: Deep Ones. Eldritch aquatic fish people.
• New Unit Type: Zoanthralgea. Eldritch aquatic unit with poison attack and strong armor/toughness.
• New Unit Type: Psychopolyps. Eldritch aquatic unit with psychic attack and ability to cause terror.
• New Unit Type: Feral Ogres. Undisciplined and unarmored, but tough and with strong melee damage.
• New Unit Type: Jotnar. Giant-type unit that is slightly larger than Ogres. Limited regeneration and light infantry/scout abilities. Also capable of moderately damaging magic ranged attack.
• New Unit Type: Rime Trolls. Frost-themed trolls with slightly less physical power than "regular" trolls, but having a Cold damage breath attack.
• Various "generic" Ogre units can be generated independently from a specific culture for various events and factions.
• Fixed bug related to equipment bonuses being applied multiple times during some specific sequences of events.
• Fixed an issue where scrolling the Outliner would also scroll the world map.
• Fixed a number of crash and hang bugs.

Tribal Destiny

• Protective Talismans (Tradition): All Tribal units gain +1 Magic Resistance and an additional +1 Dark and Arcane Resistance.
• Slayer Legacy (Tradition): All Tribal units gain Monster Slayer and +50% damage against units which have the Monster ability or one of these tags: Abomination, Magic, Spirit. (Tier 2).
• Ancient Allies (Tradition): Allows the recruitment of one special unit. A choice between 3 different unit types is offered when this is unlocked. (Tier 2).
• Guerilla Tactics (Valor): Allows armies to avoid battle with a numerically superior foe (at least 25% more). The chance to succeed at this is 5% x Scouting (highest among all units in army), +15% if a Scout Captain is present, +5% if a General is present, +5% if at least one unit has Pathfinder, -5% if the opposing army has Relentless Pursuit. If the opposing army is 200%+ larger: +10%, 100%+ larger: +5%. Cavalry/flyer superiority -20% to +20%. If this succeeds the army is allowed to resolve 25% of ranged attacks and 10% of melee attacks. The casualties inflicted by this cannot exceed 25% of the opposing army. (Tier 2)
• Large Families (Vitality): +15% population growth for camps.
• Auto-resolve now uses the same mechanics and phase rules as manual resolution rather than a greatly modified variation.

Spells

• Photosynthesis: Research requires (Light 2, Life 2) OR (Light 1, Enchanted Garden). Battle Spell. Can only target units which have the Plant tag, and also do not have any of: Undead, Non-Living, Darkness. Heals all wounded members for damage equal to a percentage of the base hit point value of the unit. The percentage is (25% + 5% per level of Light Mastery). If the caster has Water Mastery Level 3+, the unit gains also gains Limited Regeneration for a duration equal to (Water Mastery - 1). If the caster has Air Mastery Level 3+, the unit also gains +1 Movement, +1 Melee Shock and +1 Melee Damage for a duration equal to (Air Mastery - 1). If the caster has Earth Mastery Level 3+, the unit also gains +1 Toughness, +1 Armor for a duration equal to (Earth Mastery - 1).\r\n";
• Solar Blast: Research requires (Celestial 4, Fire 3). Battle Spell. Deals 8 Fire damage to up to 8 targets in the target unit and 6 Radiant damage to up to 16 targets.
• Shatter (Destruction 1): Battle spell. Deals 4 Arcane damage to up to 10 targets in the target unit. +50% damage and target count against units with at least one of: Frost, Crystal, Bone, Skeleton, Chariot, Machine. Cannot target units with at least one of: Spectral, Slime, Water. For each kill inflicted by this spell an additional 0-3 hits for 4 Physical damage are dealt. If the target has any of: (Elemental, Magic, Demonic, Celestial, Fae) - the additional hits will be Arcane damage instead.
• Lesser Vulnerability (Destruction 4): Battle Spell. -2 Armor, Resistances: -1 Arcane, -2 Corrosive, -2 Fire. Duration 3 rounds.
• Greater Vulnerability (Destruction 6): Battle Spell. -4 Armor, Resistances: -2 Arcane, -3 Corrosive, -3 Fire, -1 Physical. Temporarily nullifies Hardy (Special Ability). Duration 3 rounds. Overrides Lesser Vulnerability.
• Power Word Unmake (Destruction 7): Battle Spell. Deals a number of hits equal to 25% of the Unit size (minimum 5 hits) for damage equal to (3 plus 75% of the Armor attribute of the unit). Deals double damage against Construct, Chariot and Machine targets. Deals half damage against Spectral targets. Deals True damage against targets which are at least one of: Magic, Elemental, Spectral; Otherwise deals Physical damage against targets with less than 4 Armor and Arcane damage against other targets.
• Coldsnap (Frost 2): Battle Spell. Deals 5 Cold damage to up to 18 targets in the target unit.
• Frost Armor (Frost 3): Cannot target units with any of tag/ability: Fire, Spectral, Semi-Corporeal. +1 Armor, Resistances: +1 Cold, +1 Corrosive, +1 Disease. Duration: 12 Turns. Battle Duration: 4 Rounds.
• Animate Weapons (War 5): Battle Spell. Target unit is attacked by animated weapons and ammunition littering the battlefield. These are chosen at random from those used by the casualties which have occured during the battle. These will be resolved at Skill 7 and with +1 Physical and +1 Arcane damage. The number of attacks is 20-40% of the casualty count, but not exceeding 10 x (War Mastery). Additionally 5-12 attacks will be made at 4 Physical. Successive casts of this spell during a battle will reduce the number of attacks by 5% (cumulative per cast, capped at -95%, applied to the numerical values, not the percentage).
• Wall of Swords (War 7): Battle Spell. Target unit suffers a number of hits dealing 7 Physical and 2 Arcane Damage. The base of number hits is 2 + (unit size (up to 25) x (1 to 4)), reduced by 3% per point of Melee Skill and 4% per point of Discipline. Cavalry and Chariots are dealt twice the number of attacks. If target unit is retreating or pursuing it suffers double the number of attacks. If the target unit is pursuing, the pursuit has 80% to be prevented for 2 turns. Units with Blink and/or Leap have 50% to suffer no damage, and suffer half the number of hits if affected.
• Demonbane (Celestial 2): Target must be at least one of: Demonic, Demon-Tainted. Deals 5 hits for 7 True damage. If at least one friendly Celestial unit is present on the battlefield, an additional hit is caused for each 14 individuals in the target unit.
• Celestial Choir (Celestial 3): Reduce the cost to recruit or summon Celestial units by 25% for 4 turns.
• Gotterdammerung (Celestial 6): Battlefield Enchantment, which must be cast pre-battle. Can only be cast if at least the equivalent of two default-size enemy units have at least one of: Darkness, Evil, Demonic, Eldritch. Effect on Both Sides: (Retreat is prevented. All units gain Immune to Terror. All units suffer one level of Vulnerability: Radiant and Vulnerability: Dark). Effect on Own Side: (All units gain +1 Melee Shock, +1 Toughness. Units with Flight or Limited Flight gain Inspire, +1 Melee Shock. Non-Celestial, living units with at least one of: (Radiant, Good), gain Frenzy, +1 Melee Skill). Effect on Other Side: (All units gain +1 Courage, +1 Discipline. Units with Flight or Limited Flight suffer -2 Melee Skill. Living units with at least one of: (Darkness, Evil, Demonic, Demonic-Taint, Eldritch), gain Frenzy, +1 Melee Skill).
• Aquatic Boon (Water 5): Cannot affect targets with the Fire tag. Gain Aquatic ability. Duration: 4 turns.

[ 2019-01-28 20:07:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

I don't have the game update ready just yet, but here's a belated New Year's status update on the game. Hopefully needless to say, I am still here and working hard to get an update ready. My apologies for another period of relative silence and the delay on the update. This does not mean work isn't progressing on a daily basis (apart from a short break for the holidays), but that there's been more challenges than expected. As I've mentioned before, I am exploring ways to remedy this problem by getting more resources, through various partnerships and initiatives. These are taking longer to pursue than expected. An actual game update should be released within a week or so. Meanwhile, I will try to be active and responsive here and on the other forums, but if I periodically fail to do so, and you have any issues - please do not hesitate to contact the support email. That brings it to my attention immediately, and I will always try to fix any serious issues with a hotfix. Thanks to everyone for your support - I give you my sincere promise to do my utmost to continually improve the game in 2019, hopefully with various initiatives and opportunities resulting in a more satisfactory pace of development, but either way, still working towards a finished and fun game.

[ 2019-01-08 19:07:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Raw first version of patch notes below. Will be expanded with more detailed information over the coming day or two.

• Tower Upgrade: Chirurgium. Grants additional Mastery progress. Chance to heal wounded followers.
• Tower Upgrade: Vivisectorium. Grants additional Mastery progress during turns when battles against living foes have been won.
• Spellcraft: Biomancy. Unlocks Symbiotes.
• Spellcraft: Symbiote Grafting. Reduces casualties from implanting symbiotes.
• Healing Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy.
• Demonic Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy.
• Arcane Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy.
• Eldritch Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy. Has a chance every turn to cause mutation into an Eldritch or Mutant unit type.
• Vile Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy.
• Mercurial Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy.
• Toxic Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy.
• Aquatic Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy.
• Ravenous Symbiotes. Requires Biomancy.
• Swarm of Claws. Necromancy. Battle spell.
• Ethereal Rack. Necromancy. Battle spell.
• Ray of Vitrification. Necromancy. Battle spell.
• Vile Mending. Necromancy. Battle spell.
• Conflagration of Souls. Necromancy. Battle spell.
• Greater Blight. Pestilence world spell.
• Spreading Blight. Pestilence world spell.
• Phytomyxean Infestation. Pestilence world spell. When it expires a Vile Slime unit is created.
• Brave the Darkness. Can now be used during battles.
• Several Wizard tower upgrades now have additional effects.
• Effectiveness mechanics during battle resolution reworked. This includes a regain check based on squared value of the unit's Discipline attribute and a regain chance based on whether the unit is currently on the winning side of the battle.
• Post-battle necromancy may now cause desertion - casualties from own units being raised into undeath may cause survivors to desert.
• Tweaked the contribution to Mastery progress from units
• Mana Node Bind/Drain actions are now shown both when the army and the mana node are selected, to make it easier to find.
• Province events are now less spammy as the game progresses.
• Fixed spell mastery progress impact persisting beyond the initial turn of casting, causing progress to be way too fast after casting several spells.
• Fixed mana income from some sources not being applied correctly.
• Fixed multi-character province searches causing strange assignment changes when completed.
• Fixed province search results not being saved correctly for minor sites.
• Fixed followers being able to leave parties during dungeon expeditions, without aborting the expedition, which caused strange results.
• Fixed not yet implemented battle spells not being usable in a very non-intuitive way.
• Fixed battle mana pools being incorrect when in proximity to the wizard tower.
• Fixed manual battle resolution getting the victory result reversed after exiting the battle window.
• Fixed some bugs in the post-battle necromancy UI.
• Fixed a crash bug related to cities, squalor and Pestilence research
• Fixed a crash bug related to AI army prioritization during threatening situations
• Fixed a bug where modifiers to unit upkeep costs not always being applied as intended
• Fixed a bug where merging units was not working as expected when unit sizes were non-default

[ 2018-12-10 22:17:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here is the latest update. As is usually the case, there is a mix of bug fixes, improvements and new content (still focused on Death/Necromancy). The biggest change in this update is that necromancers can now raise undead units directly from the fallen after a battle, through a dedicated UI appearing after battles. Full notes below. Thanks to everyone who made bug reports, sent in logs/save games, gave feedback, shared ideas, etc. Quite a few crash bugs were fixed in this cycle, and bug reports often save me a lot of time investigating and reproducing issues. Misc and Bug Fixes

• The Outpost upgrade action now has a tooltip explaining the benefit of upgrading it.
• Re-enabled the ability to upgrade an Outpost to a Fortress. It requires the Outpost to be Level 5 (was 3+) and is not available to Tribal Chiefs (at this time).
• An "unassigned" filter has been added to the various Worker selection dialogs.
• A "Go To" button has been added to the Battle notification. This pans the map to the location of the battle without closing the window.
• Selecting a site in the Military Window during the recruitment process will now center the map on the selected site. This makes it possible to distinguish between Mana Nodes with the same name, and thus to select the intended location for the new unit. It's not perfect, as it may require dragging the Military Window to see enough of the map. A better UI mechanism will be introduced later, but this fix is a useful work around until that time.
• Fixed a bug where extraordinary research progress (from events, etc.) completing a project would cause it to not correctly complete, but still be removed, making it impossible to ever complete the project.
• Fixed a bug where "Related Projects" was showing 0 for all masteries in the information tooltip.
• Fixed a crash bug related to dungeon expeditions.
• Fixed a crash bug related to saving/autosaving when a prebattle option is active and/or pending resolution.
• Fixed a bug where some mechanics based on post-battle loss tracking for manually resolved battles ended up using negated values.
• Fixed a crash bug related to characters with no religion or patron deity being assigned to gather recruits.
• Fixed a bug causing Trogolodytes to sometimes not have weapon attacks.
• Fixed an issue with the Diplomacy window where the Faction elements would not respond to clicks made in the mid-upper region.
• Fixed a crash bug caused by inspecting some special unit types in the Tribal Military window.
• New weapon type: Scythe. An agricultural implement which is not particularly suited to warfare, and only used in the most desperate of circumstances. It is more commonly used by various supernatural creatures.
• New weapon type: War Scythe. Either a modified agricultural implement or crafted as a dedicated weapon. It is similar to the bladed spear, but has slightly lower base damage (4 vs 5), better armor penetration (2 vs 1), better reach (6 vs 5), and anti-cavalry instead of versatile.

Spells and Magic

• Raising Undead units from Ancient Battle Sites now grant units based on the ones available to the Wizard. High Necromancy mastery thus increases the chance of better units being gained.
• Wizards with Necromancy mastery can now raise undead from the fallen after winning a battle. Each fallen unit may have one or more options - most units can become zombies, only archers can become skeletal archers, only cavalry can become skeletal cavalry, etc. Only living units are valid targets for this. To access this, view the battle report (either quick or full details).
• Purge Infection. Level 4 Death spell. Secondary mastery is Light. Unlocked by research which requires (Death 3 + Light 2) OR (Death 3 + Arcane 3 + Enchantment 3). Purges Blight and dispellable effects based on Pestilence magic. The total power of effects which can be dispelled is based on mastery levels: Death*3+Enchantment+Arcane+Light. Any Blight is prioritized and counts as (Blight level*3)/2 power. Effects are randomly chosen from valid ones on armies, units, sites, the hex itself or the province. The power for these is counted as (Level * 2)+1 power - with Province-based effects counting as triple this. Can also be used during battle to dispel all Pestilence-based effects from a Unit. During battle if the target has the Pestilence tag it suffers 10 hits at 5 Radiant Damage each. Cost is 8 Mana (as world or battle spell).
• Power Word: Doom. Level 8 Death spell. Battle spell only. Inflicts Greater Doom on the target unit, which lasts 7 rounds and cannot be dispelled. -2 Toughness, - 2 Courage, -1 Melee Skill, Vulnerability increased by 2 vs Physical/Arcane/Dark/Radiant, counters Hardy ability. Any active Doom effect is dispelled. Cost is 19 Mana.
• Doom cannot be cast on a target afflicted with Greater Doom.

Units

• Shadow Mastery 3 now unlocks Lesser Shades.
• New Unit: Hopefire Rune Wolves. Research project to unlock is available if the Wizard has (Good Alignment + Rune 1 + Beasts 1) OR (Rune 2 + Beasts 3 + Light 1). They deal +50% damage to Demons and Undead.
• New Unit: Wolves. Not yet available to any player factions, but can be utilized by various events and non-player factions.
• New Unit: Nether Shades. Unlocked by Death Mastery 3.
• New Unit: Lesser Nyxian Valkyries. Unlocked by Death Mastery 4. Similar to Lesser Valkyries, with worse base stats + equipment, lacking Inspiring, but having Relentless Pursuit, bonus Dark damage+resistance, +25% damage vs Undead and lower cost.
• New Unit: Nyxian Valkyries. Unlocked by Death Mastery 6. Similar to Valkyries, with worse base stats + equipment, lacking Inspiring, but having Relentless Pursuit, Unsettling, bonus Dark damage+resistance, +25% damage vs Undead and lower cost.
• New Unit: Greater Nyxian Valkyries. Unlocked by Death Mastery 8. Similar to Greater Valkyries, with worse base stats + equipment, lacking Inspiring, but having Terror, Unsettling, bonus Dark damage+resistance and +25% damage vs Undead.
• New Unit: War Dogs. Available to Tribal Chiefs from camps with the Beast Pens upgrade - or baseline if they have a culture with Animal Affinity: Dogs.
• New Unit: Armored War Dogs. Not yet available to any player factions, but can be utilized by various events and non-player factions.

[ 2018-11-11 21:39:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update is a mixture of bug fixes and progress on the Undead/Death/Necromancy theme. The next one can be expected to have a similar focus, but shifting a bit from Death mastery to Necromancy and improving the various unique mechanics related to those dark arts. Full patch notes below. Misc and Bug Fixes

• A failed sally forth by the defenders of a siege now has a 50% to progress the siege by 10-20 points. If a General was present to lead the siegers during the battle and was not killed, the chance is increased to 80%.
• Fixed Tribal Destiny: No Retreat not giving the expected Tribal Destiny and Prestige despite the battle report saying so.
• Fixed a crashbug related to AI exploration.
• Fixed a crashbug related to inspecting leader-less cities.
• Fixed a bug where the Character window in selection mode, would sometimes allow the selection of invalid characters (as indicated by tooltips and/or hint text).
• Fixed a bug where Undead Enslavement events would have no message text (showing a useless debug message instead).
• Fixed Ice Bridge showing up as an available spell (with no effect) during battles. It is no longer counted as a battle spell.
• Changed "Generic" pops to not display as "Generic", but as "Commoners" or the relevant sub-type, if any.
• Cities under Undead Enslavement are now unaffected by the regular population growth mechanics.

Spells

• Power Word: Death. Unlocked by Death Mastery 9. Powerful True damage spell that can only affect living targets. Cost is 20 Mana.
• Healer's Bane. Unlocked by Death Mastery 4 (secondary Mastery: Order). Battle spell which blocks healing spells and effects on target unit. Duration 4 rounds. Cost is 2 Mana.
• Entropic Blast. Unlocked by Death Mastery 5 (secondary Masteries: Time, Destruction). Battle spell which deals 16-30 hits of 3 Arcane Damage. Elder/Eldritch targets cannot be targeted by this spell. Target is afflicted with Entropy for 1 round, which blocks all healing spells and effects, and counters Vampiric, Feast, Limited Regeneration and/or Regeneration. If the target has the Plant and/or Life tags, True damage is inflicted instead of Arcane. Cost is 9 Mana.
• Rest in Peace. Unlocked by Death Mastery 2 (secondary Mastery: Warding). Hex enchantment which blocks spells from raising the dead from battlefields, burial sites, etc. Cannot target hexes with level 2+ of conditions: Blighted, Darkened, Demonic Taint. Duration is 9 turns. Cost is 10 Mana.
• Spectral Anchor. Unlocked by Death Mastery 3 (secondary Mastery: Shadow). While affected, target Unit loses Semi-Corporeal and resistance to Physical damage. Can only target Spectral and/or Semi-Corporeal units. Duration is 2 rounds. Cost is 3 Mana.
• Funeral Pyre. Unlocked by Death Mastery 7 (secondary Mastery: Fire). Battle spell which deals Fire damage to up to 50 individuals in the target unit. The damage is equal to the Hit Point attribute of the unit (on an individual level), but cannot exceed 12. Cannot target Elemental, Fire, Extra-Planar or Elder/Eldritch units. Gain 1 Mana for each individual slain by this spell. Cost is 32 Mana.
• Doom. Unlocked by Death Mastery 4. Battle spell which afflicts target unit with -1 Toughness, -1 Courage, +1 Vulnerability to Physical/Arcane/Darkness/Radiant. Duration is 7 rounds. Cost is 13 Mana.
• Anguish of the Fallen. Unlocked by Death Mastery 6. Battle spell. Can only be cast once at least 20 living individuals have been slain during the battle. Target unit suffers a number of hits equal to 50%-100% of the number of slain living individuals. If there are more than 20 individuals in the target unit, the number of hits cannot exceed this. Hits deal 9 Dark damage, if there are more casualties on the opposing side to the target unit; 6 Dark damage otherwise. Cost is 11 Mana.
• Reaper's Due can now be cast during battles.

Known Issue: Casting "Raise Battlefield" on a non-ancient battlefield will not yield any new units.

[ 2018-10-28 22:10:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

A patch has been deployed fixing the game-breaking issue reported by several players. A big thanks to everyone who reported the issue, provided logs and/or save games.

[ 2018-10-28 11:27:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here is the promised, and much delayed update and "state of the game". I dislike making excuses, and would rather let actual updates speak for my sincerity, but I think with this delay, I owe those of you who have been so very supportive a proper explanation. First off, I am truly sorry that I haven't been able to deliver updates and design diaries at the promised rate. This also goes double for the increased reponse time to posts and mails. These issues are not due to abandonment, technical problems, or lack of interest on my part. Rather, I've been increasingly struggling to keep the development funded out of the budget I had when early access launched, so I've been forced to divert time to secure my day-to-day costs, as well as various development expenses. I've also spent time on initiatives to secure more stable and significant infusions of resources. I am sorry that these diversion have been affecting my ability to keep up development progress and attention to community feedback and bug reports. Rest assured, I have still poured many hours into development and bugfixing, and a lot more has been done than can immediately be seen in these somewhat meagre patch notes. The goal is still the same awesome and deep game. Regardless of which of these initiatives bear fruit, I will still finish the game. I will still do my utmost to deliver as much content as swiftly and regularly as I can, and I will also try to return to the previous standard of responsiveness. I ask for your understanding that despite my intentions, at times I will fail at living up this. Hopefully the initiatives will result in this being moot, but I must consider all eventualities. As for the actual game update, it's focused on the Undead. I've wanted to give Necromancers and Undead some unique ways to recruit heroes and units. This includes searching the world for ancient tombs and raising the heroes of the past Eras. I didn't manage to finalize all aspects of this, so the next update will also feature the Undead. Implementing a few missing corners of Tribal/Clan mechanics also didn't manage to get done in time, but they're very close. In general, I am going to stick with the Undead until the Necromancy and Death masteries, as well as the related general game mechanics can be considered fully playable. There may be other unimplemented odds and ends fixed as well, but I really want to avoid spreading myself too thin, the current development challenges taken into account. Patch Notes:

• Basic World History is generated with various eras and notables. The various game settings (world age, civilization level, magic, etc.) are taken into account when doing this.
• Undead units can now be raised from historic Battle Sites with the Raise Battlefield spell. The number and size of units depends on Necromancy mastery level, Necromancy wards at the site (which may result in the spell failing if very high compared to mastery*10) and available fallen warriors.
• The notables are placed in burial sites around the world.
• Note that Battle Sites and Burial Sites do not require Search tasks to be revealed. This is temporary to make testing a bit easier, and will be changed in the next update.
• Risen Champions: New elite undead unit unlocked at high Necromancy mastery.
• Raise Hero: New Necromancy spell which can raise Undead heroes from burial sites. The class will be randomly chosen but heavily influenced by the type of historical character.
• Improved the logic handling age and death to handle tracking the life and unlife of Undead characters.
• Improved the logic handling cultures and races to handle undead and various other special cases better.
• Mercenary Units can no longer be hired by Wizard with special Race traits (Undead, Demon, Celestial, Faerie).
• Added more variety to savage/tribal generator.
• Added more title variety to the the culture generator.
• Fixed some bugs related to clan diplomacy.
• Fixed display issues on the economy window for tribal chiefs.
• Fixed a display bug for the Gift of Undeath spell.

[ 2018-10-22 21:10:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

I know updates have been sparse as of late, but as in the past when the intended schedule has faltered, progress does continue. Patch notes for the latest update below. I'll try to get a small general status update ready in the near future and attend to some of the questions/feedback that has been sitting for too long without a reply from my side. My sincere apologies for the period of quiet. I'm also working on various initiatives to improve the pace of progress. More on that in the coming status update.

• Faerie Character Variants have been added. Faerie Wizards start with a selection of these semi-randomly generated based on other selected traits.
• Undead Character Variants have been added. Undead Wizards start with a selection of these semi-randomly generated based on other selected traits. Wizards with Necromancy mastery also have a (much lower) chance to get these.
• New spell: Nether Bolts. Deals 6 Dark damage to up to 12 targets in the target unit. Targets of types Celestial, Life, and/or Living take an additional 4 Cold damage. Cannot target Undead units. Unlocked by Necromancy Mastery 4.
• New Spell: Places of Power. Gives the caster a chance to discover hidden sites (dungeons) in the (known hexes of) target province. The chance for discovery is 7% for each individual site, +6% for each level of Divination Mastery, +20% if a controlled army is in the province. After resolving this there is an equal chance the caster will learn if there are any undiscovered sites remaining. Unlocked by Divination Mastery 3.
• New Spell: Cosmic Wisdom.T he caster is given the choice of one of three (randomly chosen) Lores. Each will have a randomly chosen and displayed chance (from 10% to 100%) to increase the relevant Lore level of the Wizard. If the attempt fails, the Wizard will be refunded 50% of the mana cost.
• New spell: Mass Mutation. Transform 0-2 randomly chosen pops into 1-7 (1+D3 per pop) Mutant units. Can only target controlled cities. Unlocked by Chaos Mastery 5.
• Any non-special followers of Wizards with a race trait (Celestial, Demon, Faerie or Undead) now have a chance to be generated with the following traits (as relevant to the particular trait): Celestial Blessings, Celestial Splendor, Demonic Corruption, Demonic Taint, Fae Bound, Fae Touched, Undead, Necromancy.
• Wizards with Abyssal mastery now have a chance to start with one or more Demonic followers - even they do not have the Race: Demon trait.
• Wizards with Celestial mastery now have a chance to start with one or more Celestial followers - even they do not have the Race: Celestial trait.
• Undead Wizards now have special options when conquering a city. This is still not entirely stable, but the bugs will be fixed in hotfixes as soon as possible when reported and/or found internally.
• Wizard Tower Expansion: Library now gives +2-10 research points to Unlock Mastery and Lore Research. The bonus is calculated as 2 + the number of Ancient Tomes owned (up to 8). A passive +1 XP bonus is also granted to Scholar-type non-recovering followers of Level 5 and below, if they are at the Tower.
• Wizard Tower Expansion: Academy now grants a passive XP bonus to Civic-type followers instead of Scholar-type followers.
• Wizard Tower Expansion: Aviarium now reduces recruitment and upkeep costs by 10% for all units with the Avian tag.
• Wizard Towers are no longer seeded on hexes with resource specials.
• Added additional hints and improved tool tips to the military UI in regards to Recruitment Pools and their effects.
• Added more ways to start Recruitment missions to make them easier to find / more user-friendly to use.
• Fixed a bug with Recruitment missions not always functioning correctly / getting stuck.
• Fixed some UI elements not updating correctly after some Goody Hut events.
• Fixed a crash bug related to exploring Goody Huts.
• Fixed an unresponsive Proselytize action sometimes being shown for Cities.
• Fixed a bug where the positive effects of some Tower upgrades were kept even if they were destroyed or damaged.

[ 2018-09-24 21:03:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

• More than 50 new follower portraits, bringing the total number to about 155. Elves, Orcs and Dwarves in particular have much more variety now. Note that a side-effect of the increased variety is that races without custom portraits yet (e.g. Celestials) may have slightly odd portraits (Celestial which look like Ratmen, Gnolls which look like undead) - instead of always looking like humans. This will be fixed as more portraits are added.
• Two new events for Mysterious Sites, one of which has special options for Demon, Undead and Warlock Wizards.
• New Mechanic: Recruitment Pools. Wizards have a recruitment pool for each culture, from which they can recruit units. New units are taken from these pools, which replenish over time up to a target size. This target is increased by having fortresses and cities from the culture in question.
• Wizards with Good/Evil alignment can no longer recruit from cultures which have an opposing alignment, unless special circumstances apply. This is implemented via the recruitment pool mechanism.
• New Follower Task: Recruitment. Will increase the recruitment pool from a chosen culture. Characters of Martial types get a +50% bonus, and matching character and target culture will usually result in fewer recruits gained.
• New Follower Task: Conversion. This will allow Good/Evil/Demonic/Celestial wizards to attempt the redemption/corruption of cultures otherwise unavailable for recruitment. This is the first iteration of a somewhat complex mechanic, so it probably has some undiscovered bugs and needs a better UI to expose some options currently always set to default values.
• New unit type: Mitalovivo. Chaos-imbued bio-metallic humanoids. Research to unlock requires Chaos 3, Metal 2, Life 1.
• Planar Portal closing mechanics are partially implemented, and some options work as expected. Bugs are to be expected, so make to sure to only use this feature if you're curious about what direction it is going. Please wait with feedback until the next update.
• Sites (Cities, Fortresses, etc.) have been added as a category on the Outliner. Like the other categories, it can be toggled on/off in the settings.
• Claim Tribal Rulership now displays the cost calculation mechanics in the tooltip.
• Improved the variety of lizard/serpentine-themed names.
• Enchantment Mastery 6 now allows putting 2 Marks on units.
• Enchantment Mastery 1 is now required for Lesser Marks (unlocked by other masteries).
• Enchantment Mastery 2 is now required for (regular) Marks (unlocked by other masteries).
• Enchantment Mastery 4 is now required for Greater Marks (unlocked by other masteries).
• Added generator for a new language themed to suit Ogres and similar.
• Added text color in the City window to highlight that the Income and Religion text has tooltips showing the mechanics.
• Added tooltips for City Leader and Notables.
• Fixed the Wild Herd event having a blank description, making it rather confusing which option to choose.
• Fixed unrest-based modifiers not always being applied to City production/income.
• Fixed many site effects not ending on ownership changes when they are predicated on ownership.
• Fixed Cloak of Shadows not being able to target friendly units.
• Non-Living units are now immune to Poison and Disease damage.
• Rebalanced Rain of Fire. Large creatures are now much less likely to be "one-shot" and the overall damage is also significantly lower. However, cavalry take extra damage (still a bit less than the previous average, but twice as much as infantry).
• Fixed lore progress not saving correctly.
• Fixed a number of battle spells not having continous effects applied correctly.
• Fixed a memory leak which was triggered by battles occuring.
• The worker assignment window during construction will now shown all workers, even those without required traits or similar. This allows the player to see why workers are not available and fixes the issue where window is entirely empty.
• Hypnotism now has Illusion as secondary mastery.
• For battle spells all tooltip/spellbook references to seconds have been changed to turns, and the durations have been reworked to align properly with turns.
• During battles, Enter/Return is now a shortcut key for the Next/Turn button.
• The Military Window now has an improved tooltip when inspecting the recruitment queue making explicit which unit the refund details refer to, and that other units can be selected (if relevant).
• Fixed a bug making the Cancel button in the Military WIndow (Queue mode) always affect the first item in the list and not the selected.

[ 2018-08-28 20:21:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Some bug fixes and various odds and ends, including the requested improvement to dungeon exploration rewards. I have not abandoned the work on Planar Portal events mentioned in the previous update, but the bug fixes in this update meant I wanted it out sooner rather than later, and not delay it until the Planar Portal events were completed.

• Added two new outcomes when exploring Mysterious Sites (goody huts). One of these has multiple options for resolution.
• Fomorians have been added to the tables for generating random "Monstrous Humanoid" armies. They are very rare and tend to be found in Blight and Darkened regions.
• New Spellcraft: Fomorian Sorcery. Research unlocked by Mastery: Chaos 3 + Lore: Ancient History 2. Gives +5 Mana per turn and unlocks research of Fomorian unit types.
• New Unit: Fomorian Degenerates. Basic, relatively weak Fomorian infantry unit, which is very cheap and fast to research. Research to unlock requiresFomorian Sorcery and at least one of Mastery: Binding 2, Mastery: Beasts 1, Mastery: Blood 1.
• New Unit: Fomorian Brutes. Durable medium infantry. Research to unlock requiresFomorian Sorcery and Mastery: War 2.
• New Unit: Fomorian Nobles. Durable elite heavy infantry with strong melee attacks and decent short-range javelin attacks. Research to unlock requiresFomorian Sorcery, Lore: Ancient History 4 and either A) Mastery: Binding 5 or B) Mastery: Binding 3 + Mastery: Order 3.
• New Unit: Fomorian Elders. Durable elite medium infantry with powerful magic attacks. Research to unlock requires Fomorian Sorcery, Mastery: Darkess 3, Mastery: Time 2 and Lore: Ancient History 5.
• New Unit: Fomorian Blight Lords. Durable light infantry with very powerful magic attacks dealing combined Disease+Corrosive+Dark damage. Research to unlock requires Fomorian Sorcery, Mastery: Darkness 3, Mastery: Pestilence 3, Lore: Ancient History 5 and Lore: Ancient Evil 2.
• Research of Lore: Ancient Evil is now unlocked by one of the following A) Mastery: Darkness 4 + Mastery: Divination 2, B) Mastery: Abyssal 6 + Mastery: Divination 2, C) Lore: Ancient History 5 + Darkness 2, D) Lore: Ancient History 8.
• The Exotic Races game setting now has a greater impact, with Classic races/cultures being much less likely, Exotic being more likely. Any non-Exotic will also have a high amount of variety changes applied to the template.
• Dungeon Exploration can now gives better rewards more in line with risk posed to the expedition. The new special rewards have a small chance of occuring during exploration turns and a medium to very high chance (depending on dungeon size) to be awarded after clearing the dungeon. The possible rewards are Unit (with no upkeep for 20 turns), Map Reveal+influence, Wizard Research (random fully researched project) and Tribal Destiny.
• Greatly reduced the cost to research Lore.
• Lore research now shows the next level in the project name and the current level in the description.
• Fixed a bug where initial Lore levels from Wizard traits were not being set correctly.
• Fixed a bug causing Lore research to be unavailable after Level 1+ was reached.
• Fixed a bug where could abandoned sieges could cause issues when the site was sieged later.
• Fixed a crash bug related to assaulting after a siege.
• Fixed a bug causing Trade Posts to be under construction permanently. They also no longer generate income until after construction finishes.
• Fixed a crash bug related to conquering a site with units under recruitment.
• Fixed a corrupted save game crash bug. Saved games already suffering from this issue can now be loaded (the issue will be detected and fixed on load), and the corruption will no longer occur for new saves.
• Removing the Mercantile character from a Trade Post under construction will now give the player a notification that construction has been halted.

[ 2018-07-25 21:33:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update contains some important bugfixes, neutral army icon improvements and the usual miscellaneous content. Besides this work has been done on improved dungeon rewards and planar portal mechanics, but that's not quite ready yet, but should hopefully be so for the next update.

• Minor realms now have a non-ragged and differently colored flag for their armies (compared to marauders and unaligned armies). A shield and sword is currently placeholder for minor realm-specific symbols.
• Unaligned armies now have a variety of symbols shown on the army flag: paws for beasts, coffins for undead, a demonic horn for demons, etc. This should make it slightly more easy to differentiate between the various unaligned armies. When loading existing games an attempt will be made to set suitable icons for already existing unaligned armies, but there are some cases where it is not possible. The default skull will then be used.
• Increased variety of randomly generated Monstrous Humanoid and Monster armies.
• The composition of randomly generated Monster armies now considers the Magic world setting.
• Arcane Mastery now gives +1 to Spell Research at Mastery Level 3, +2 at Mastery Level 7.
• Blood Mastery now gives +1 to Spellcraft Research at Mastery Level 2, +2 at Mastery Level 5, +3 at Mastery Level 9.
• Divination Mastery now gives +1 to Lore Research at Mastery Level 4.
• Time Mastery now gives +1 to Lore Research at Mastery Level 4.
• Warding Mastery now gives +1 to Unlock Unit Research at Mastery Level 3, +2 at Mastery Level 7.
• New unit type: Grendelkin. Monstrous humanoids with very high armor, decent physical attacks and once-per-battle corrosive/poison attack, but low discipline and courage. Melee skill is also only average, despite otherwise being an elite heavy infantry unit. Research to unlock requires Binding 4, Darkness 2 and Lore: Ancient History 5.
• Divination Mastery tooltip now shows that research of Lore: Ancient Evil is unlocked at Mastery level 2.
• Fixed a crash bug related to skirmish phase resolution in battles.
• Fixed a bug where checking "Show Unavailable" in the Wizard Project panel would make available projects not show correctly/be available for research as intended.
• Fixed a bug related to armies having duplicate instances of the same unit. This would cause a crash in many situations.
• Fixed an issue with some garrison armies not having the correct faction owner.
• Fixed an issue with the AI chasing armies that have already been destroyed or disbanded.
• Fixed a bug where Phantasmal Horrors where substituted for Arcanosaurians and Arcanosaurian Hatchlings for summons, events, etc.

[ 2018-07-19 21:08:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

The highlights of this update are the first versions of Planar Invasions and "Goody Huts". There is also the usual mixture of bug fixes and misc. content/minor features. I am somewhat exhausted from the final testing of the build, so will leave you with the patch notes for now, and post a development update tomorrow.

• Planar Invasions have been added. If enabled in the game setup they will spawn at random intervals (based on the chosen setting) and send invading armies of increasing strength. Defeating their armies and closing their portals will reduce their momentum. If the invaders succeed in a current objective, the invasion has a chance to progress to a new stage and gain momentum. If momentum becomes negative, the invader armies will suffer attrition, and the entire invasion will eventually end. This is the first iteration of the invasions, so the rewards for defeating the invaders are very limited, and there are not yet mechanics to handle a succesful invasion transitioning into a permanent "regular" world faction.
• Planar Invaders are based on the cosmology generated for the world, and various planes have different army compositions. Some invaders are also more likely if certain alignments are dominating the world.
• Mysterious sites (aka 'Goody Huts') have been added. These will be explored by any major power army entering the hex. They can result in various events, which I won't spoil here, but some are good and some are bad. Having a Scout Captain in the army will increase the chance of a positive outcome in many cases. Some events have different effects for Wizards and Warlords respectively. The game settings will affect what kind of events occur at these sites - the "Magic" setting for the world in particular.
• Minor realms will now mobilize armies to handle threats near or in their territory. The AI will estimate the strength of the threat and recruit additional forces if required. 'Threats' include invading armies, wandering monsters, marauders, etc, but some types will only be attacked if at war/hostile.
• Implemented special battle mechanics for attacks with Poison primary damage type, a secondary Poison damage component or delivered by a unit with the Poison Attacks special ability. Depending on whether the target can be affected by Poison, the amount resistance/vulnerability, whether the attack penetrated (if non-primary), a hit unit member may become poisoned. This has a chance of killing it outright every round until resisted.
• Greatly reduced the chance of Marauder events in provinces with non-abandoned Fortresses.
• Fixed Marauder frequency setting not being applied to a specific source of Marauder events.
• Fimbul Winter event is now only valid for provinces with or adjacent to a province with arctic/ice terrain/climate/dungeons.
• Reduced the event chance impact of Massive Mana Nodes as they were causing other factors to be insignificant.
• Greatly increased the variety of units in event armies.
• Improved the event army generation code to better reflect intended power level (from game settings, event data, etc.)
• Independent non-tribal chief nomad faction names are now less generic.
• Fixed culture names being generated with realm-type suffixes.
• Fixed organizations and nomads not having tooltips for culture in the Diplomacy window faction overview.
• Fixed an issue where Tribal Chief Warlords were not always identified as major powers when relevant.
• Fixed the "Hero For Hire" event not updating the UI when a choice is made and a confirmation not being shown.
• Fixed a bug where some AI-controlled armies would get stuck unable to calculate a route to the intended destination hex.
• New Unit: Crystalfolk. Elemental humanoid infantry with physical ranged and melee attacks. Unlocked by Earth 3.
• New Unit: Stonepeople. Tough slow elemental humanoid infantry with physical melee attacks. Unlocked by Earth 4.
• New Unit: Arcanosaurian Hatchlings. Fast lizards with weak arcane and physical attacks, but strong magical resistance. Research to unlock summon requires Arcane 2, Beast 2.
• New Unit: Arcanosaurians. Swift lizards with somewhat weak arcane and physical attacks, but very strong magical resistance. Research to unlock summon requires Arcanosaurian Hatchlings, Arcane 3, Beast 3.
• New Unit: Eshim Mourners. Elite medium infantry with a powerful combined physical/fire/cold melee attack and a radiant/dark ranged attack.
• New Unit: Dream Leeches. Eldritch worms with feeble physical stats, but a moderately strong arcane/psychic attack which has the Weaken and Unsettling abilities. Research to unlock summon requires Illusion 2, Arcane 2, Blood 1, Eldritch Lore 2.
• New Unit: Reality Thieves. Semi-corporeal eldritch insectoids with relatively weak attacks: one physical and one true damage. They have decent defensive stats. Research to unlock summon requires Illusion 3, Darkness 1, Time 1, Eldritch Lore 3.
• New Unit: Fleshflects. Eldritch humanoid shapeshifters which can regenerate and have two attacks: a physical Flesh Weapon and a poison/corrosive Vile Vomit. Research to unlock summon requires Darkness 2, Transmutation 2, Blood 4, Eldritch Lore 4.
• New Unit: Eldritch Brachyurans. Gargantuan crab-like monsters with powerful defensive stats and several attacks, including a combined true/darkness damage ranged attack. Research to unlock summon requires Darkness 8, Arcane 6, Blood 3, Eldritch Lore 8.
• New Unit: Eldritch Gorgonoids. Huge monstrous quadraped beasts with strong attacks and high mobility. Research to unlock summon requires Darkness 7, Beasts 6, Blood 5, Eldritch Lore 8.
• New Unit: Umbral Satyr Guardians. Shadow melee infantry. Research to unlock summon requires Shadow 4, War 2, Race: Faerie OR Shadow 4, War 2, Binding 3, Spellcraft: Faerie Binding.
• New Unit: Penumbral Faun Raiders. Shadow light infantry. Research to unlock summon requires Shadow 3, War 1, Race: Faerie OR Shadow 3, War 1, Binding 2, Spellcraft: Faerie Binding.
• New Unit: Antumbral Giants. Giant hybrid dark/light infantry. Research to unlock summon requires Shadow 8, Summoning 4, Light 3, Darkness 3.
• New Unit: Feral Trolls. Heavy, tough, but unarmored monstrous humanoids with big clubs and some innate physical damage. Vulnerable to Fire and Radiant. Research to unlock summon requires Chaos 5, Beasts 2, Life 2, Binding 2.
• New Units: Lesser/(regular)/Greater Light Elementals. Research to unlock summon requires Light 2/5/8, Spellcraft: Elemental Summoning. Greater Elementals also require Lore: Elemental 4.
• New Units: Lesser/(regular)/Greater Void Elementals. Research to unlock summon requires Darkness 2/5/8, Spellcraft: Elemental Summoning. Greater Elementals also require Lore: Elemental 4.
• New Units: Lesser/(regular)/Greater Frost Elementals. Research to unlock summon requires Frost 2/5/8, Spellcraft: Elemental Summoning. Greater Elementals also require Lore: Elemental 4.
• Race: Faerie (Wizards) now gain special unit type unlocks from some Wizard Tower Expansions:
  • Enchanted Garden: Faun Avengers.
  • Barracks: Satyr Warriors.
  • Armory: Satyr Defenders.
  • Archery Range: Faun Archers.
  • Arena: Satyr Champions.
• Race: Celestial (Wizards) now unlock Eshim Host recruitment from the Bazaar (Wizard Tower Expansion).
• Summon Landsharks can now be researched. Requires Beasts 7, Earth 4, Water 1 and Tunnel Network (Wizard Tower Expansion).
• Default unit size of several units re-balanced: Grizzly Bears (100 -> 40), Polar Bears (100 -> 40), Dire Lions (100 -> 36), Giant Scorpions (50 -> 80), Giant Boars (100 -> 80), Dire Boars (100 -> 75), Dire Rhinos (20 -> 24), Gargantuan Rhinos (4 -> 8), Fire Lizards (50 -> 64), Giant Lizards (50 -> 75), Giant Frogs (50 -> 75), Giant Crabs (50 -> 75), Demonic Siege Beasts (10 -> 16), Greater Plague Demons (100 -> 64), Elder Spawn (80 -> 64), Greater Elder Spawn (60 -> 40), Greater Golems (100 -> 50), Treant Ancients (10 -> 16), Manticores (10 -> 16), Drakes (10 -> 12), Landsharks (100 -> 50), Gorgons (20 -> 25), Hydras (5 -> 8), Jabberwocks (10 -> 16), Cockatrices (10 -> 32), Uhlebeasts (40 -> 50), Medusae (50 -> 64), Yetis (100 -> 64), Greater Archons (50 -> 64), Archons of Unity (80 -> 100), Spirit Host (100 -> 64), Ancient Spirit Host (100 -> 32), Greater Ghouls (100 -> 75), Mummies (10 -> 36), Vampires (10 -> 32), Draugar (100 -> 75), Greater Banshees (100 -> 75).
• Dire Lions: Bite damage 6 -> 9, Swipe damage 7 -> 8, additional Swipe attack added, Leap ability added.
• Dire Bears: Bear Hug attack added.
• Giant Boars: Armor 0 -> 3.
• Giant Scorpions: Hit Points 6 -> 7.
• Giant Worms: Armor 0 -> 1, Bite secondary corrosive damage 1 -> 2.
• Boars: Armor 0 -> 2
• Dire Boars: Armor 2 -> 3, Melee Shock 1 -> 2, Movement 12 -> 11, Hardy ability added.
• Giant Lizards: Armor 3 -> 4, Claw damage 1 -> 2
• Giant Crabs: Pincer damage 9 -> 7
• Eshim Host: Movement 6 -> 7, Armor 2 -> 3, Discipline 9 -> 8
• Soulgorger Vultures: Summon time 1 -> 2, Vampiric ability removed, Unsettling ability added. Peck attack now has Disease 2 secondary damage. The charge-only swoop attack is no longer exclusive.
• Demonic Siege Beasts: Summon time 1 -> 3.
• Demonic Footsoldiers (Light/Medium/Missile): Renamed to Demonic Grunts (and appropriate subtype). Movement 5 -> 6, Shock 0 -> 1.
• Demonic Footsoldiers (Heavy/Superheavy): Renamed to Demonic Brutes (and appropriate subtype). Movement 5 -> 4, Toughness 6 -> 7, Shock 0 -> 2, Discipline 3 -> 2, Hit Points 5 -> 6.
• Imps: Summon time 1 -> 2.
• Greater Imps: Summon time 1 -> 3.
• Lesser Plague Demons: Summon time 1 -> 3.
• Greater Plague Demons: Summon time 1 -> 4. Hit points 6 -> 9.
• Lesser Elder Spawn: Summon time 1 -> 3. Armor 1 -> 2. Movement 3 -> 4. Lost 'Consume' attack. Feast ability added. 'Psychic Wail' attack added, 3 psychic damage, usable at range and in melee, cooldown 4.
• Elder Spawn: Summon time 1 -> 5. Hit points 9 -> 10. Lost 'Consume' attack. Feast ability added. 'Psychic Howl' attack added, 5 psychic damage, usable at range and in melee, cooldown 4.
• Greater Elder Spawn: Summon time 1 -> 7. Hit points 15 -> 16. Lost 'Consume' attack. Feast ability added. 'Psychic Scream' attack added, 7 psychic damage, usable at range and in melee, cooldown 4.
• Redcaps: Hardy and Ambush abilities added. Bite damage 3 -> 2, bonus vs unarmored 0 -> 2. Discipline 2 -> 4.
• Pixies: Movement 10 -> 12. Fay Bolts can now be used in melee.
• Dryads: Now have Amber Spear and Living Bow instead of puny natural attack. Vulnerability: Fire 0 -> 2.
• Mutants: Toughness 8 -> 7, Armor 3 -> 2, Courage 5 -> 6, Discipline 2 -> 3. Weapon damage 5 -> 4.
• Troglodytes: Toughness 7 -> 6, Limited Regeneration and Limited Mind abilities added.
• Lesser Golems: Discipline 3 -> 5.
• Golems: Discipline 3 -> 6.
• Greater Golems: Shock 2 -> 3, Discipline 4 -> 8.
• Lesser Ice Golems: Shock 0 -> 1, Discipline 3 -> 5, Time to build 5 -> 3. Impale attack 2 cold damage added to the 4 physical base damage.
• Lesser Shades: Essence Drain renamed to Shadow Strike and +2 cold damage as secondary damage, base damage 2 -> 3 dark damage.
• Wisps: Toughness 6 -> 5, Hit points 2 -> 3, Courage 5 -> 8, Discipline 8 -> 5. Arcane Charge attack no longer exclusive. Ambush and Limited Flight abilities added.
• Treant Saplings: Added Limited Regeneration ability. Smash damage 8 -> 4.
• Treants: Armor 2 -> 4, Shock 0 -> 2.
• Treant Ancients: Toughness 9 -> 10, Hit points 25 -> 32. Additional Smash attack added.
• Lesser Scarecrows: Shock 0 -> 1, Melee Skill 3 -> 4. Ambush ability added.
• Scarecrows: Shock 0 -> 1. Ambush ability added.
• Greater Scarecrows: Shock 0 -> 2. Toughness 9 -> 7. Ambush ability added. Scare attack +2 psychic damage as secondary damage. Physical resistance 1 -> 2.
• Grey Oozes: Hit points 2 -> 3, Movement 1 -> 2. Limited Regeneration ability added.
• Manticores: Armor 4 -> 3. Pounce attack removed. Unsettling ability added.
• Landsharks: Hit points 9 -> 10, Shock 2 -> 4.
• Hydras: Hit points 30 -> 32, Shock 1 -> 4, Discipline 5 -> 4. Number of Bite attacks increased from 4 to 5.
• Jabberwocks: Armor 6 -> 7, Toughness 7 -> 8. Disturbing Mewling damage changed from Dark/True to Psychic, and max usage of 1 removed.
• Swamp Horrors: Armor 0 -> 2. Plain natural attack replaced by Smash (Physical 8, Armor Penetration 2) and Swarm of Vermin (Physical 4, Bonus Dmg vs Unarmored 2, Poison 3, Cooldown 2).
• Yetis: Frenzy ability added.
• Greater Archons of Retribution: Shock 0 -> 4.
• Greater Archons of Unity: Hit points 7 -> 8, Shock 0 -> 1.
• Archons of Unity: Shock 0 -> 1.
• Mummies: Hit points 8 -> 9.
• Mudmen: Movement 3 -> 4, Time to summon 3 -> 2. Mana cost 40 -> 30. Mana upkeep 3 -> 2.

[ 2018-07-09 20:26:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here's the latest round of fixes and improvements. Planar Invasions are in progress, and quite close to being ready for inclusion. I also haven't forgotten about the tutorial videos, which are in progress, but proving to be somewhat a nemesis of mine. The somewhat meagre appearance of the patch notes is partly due to the new marauder/wandering monster settings. This was a very requested feature. It ended up taking more work tha initially planned, as I wanted the settings to be more than just a one-dimensional power slider. Instead, frequency, power and scaling can be customized. For example, you can have rare apperances of powerful forces, or the opposite, regular events spawning weak armies. You can even choose not to have any marauders at all or enable scaling to make the enemies stronger as the game progresses. As this update was sadly delayed quite bit, I would like to state that when delays such as this happen, it is by no means because the game has been abandoned. Circumstances, challenges and impediments can conspire to make it more difficult to keep schedules than anticipated. Nevertheless, I will work hard to make the next update happen sooner, but still be full of good things. Patch Notes

• Manticore: Bite damage up from 2 to 7, Rake from 6 to 7, Tail Stinger now has cooldown: 2 with poison damage up from 5 to 9, Spines now usable in melee, Toughness increased from 7 to 10.
• Quicken (Battle Spell) Implemented: +1 Discipline, +1 Movement, +1 Melee Skill. Reduces any pending cooldowns on target unit by 1.
• Water Breathing (World Spell) Added: Unlocked at Mastery 3. Target unit gains Amphibious for 4 turns. Cannot target units with the Fire tag.
• Added a few new faction greeting messages for added variety.
• Cultures from randomly generated races with the "Near Constant Rage" trait will now have appropriate philosophical orientations: War or Conquest - and not be Peace, Equilibrium, etc.
• Cultures from randomly generated races with the "Violent" trait are now very likely to have philosophical orientations: War or Conquest.
• Fixed some UI elements being aligned incorrectly causing flickering when scrolling the map.
• Fixed a crash bug related to destroying units with spells
• Fixed a crash bug related to skirmishers
• Fixed a crash bug related to emissaries sent to non-city sites
• Fixed a bug related to the army window not displaying units in the correct section on opening
• Fixed a bug related to province-related event chance
• The Sanctuary hex condition now reduces the chance of negative events in a province
• Improved the event army generation routines to be use a greater range of settings and world data when choosing units for the army.
• Added a setting to change Marauder/Monster frequency.
• Added a setting to change Marauder/Monster power.
• Added a setting to enable Marauder/Monster power scaling.
• New Unit Type: Barbed Horrors. Research requires Abyssal 1, Metal 1, Demonic Lore 4 and Demonic Summoning.
• Tribal Tests of Mettle with a Martial Focus now uses a unique resolution path, which considers martial skill, has the appropriate risk of injury, etc. Experience gain is higher to compensate.
• Fixed a bug related to save/load and some events/dungeons loading with default values for some character challenges used during resolution. This would make some events/challenge more or less likely to happen than intended.
• Fixed a bug where most game settings set to Random didn't correctly pick a random value.
• Numerous new unit types added of various extra-planar types. Most of these are not available for recruitment or added to all relevant tables apart from planar invasion army generation, but this will be done in the next patch.

[ 2018-06-11 20:55:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

This patch fixes some serious issues with loading games and a number of issues in the battle system. I'll compile the full patch notes within the next day or so and update this post, but wanted to get the patch out asap to fix the unloadable save games some players had. Edit: Patch Notes

• Added more "Mark" upgrades: There are now all three levels of Marks for Air, Darkness, Death, Fire, Ice, Light, Nature, Shadow, Stone, Thunder, Water.
• Tweaked the food mechanics for camps: All food from pops, upgrades and abilities are now added to a base production of 2 food. The first 50 mounts do not consume food. The threshold for high population penalties has been raised by 1.
• Fixed incorrect display of population growth mechanics on the Camp window.
• Fixed units not leaving the battlefield as intended when broken and retreating. If unpursued they now leave after 1 turn. If pursued they leave after 4 turns, but have a random chance to leave earlier unless any pursuer has the Relentless Pursuit ability.
• Unit "hit point" display is now scaled according to unit max size and not size at the start of the battle. So a unit with 15 individuals but a max size of 100, will now have a 15% filled bar (previously it would be 100%).
• Fixed a bug related to swapping reserves during deployment.
• Fixed a crash bug related to casting spells during battles.
• Fixed an issue where some save game files would not load.
• Unit recruitment of type Raise can now do be done at any controlled city or Mana Node (of type Shadow, Death or Evil). The Wizard Tower remains a valid site.
• Unit recruitment of type Summon can now do be done at any controlled fortress or Mana Node (of type Arcane or Chaos). (in addition to the Wizard Tower).
• Unit recruitment of type Bind can now do be done at any controlled outpost or Mana Node (of type Arcane, Life, Light, Order or Primordial). The Wizard Tower remains a valid site.
• Wizards now get a free amount of mana for unit upkeep equal to (10 x Tower Level). This amount, and the amount used is shown in the military window, the ledger and the economy log. Examples: A Wizard with a Level 1 Tower and units with a combined upkeep of 8 mana per turn will now pay 0 mana for them (but will not gain the 2 "unused"). A Wizard with a Level 2 Tower and units with a combined upkeep of 25 mana per turn will now pay 5 mana for them.
• There is now a cap on the number of units of type Train which can be recruited in parallel at a Wizard Tower. This is equal to (1+Tower Level), +1 for Barracks upgrade, +2 for Training Grounds upgrade. This does not affect other types of recruitment.
• New Tower Upgrade: Training Grounds. 500 gold. +2 Training cap. +25% recruitment speed if only one unit is being trained.

[ 2018-04-29 19:45:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another round of battle engine fixes and misc. changes.

• The various 'Mark' unit upgrades are back. They were disabled quite a few cycles ago during an overhaul of the magic system. The effects/costs have been lifted directly from the previous iteration of these upgrades, so they do need some balancing. Lesser Marks become available at mastery level 2, Marks at level 5 and Greater Marks at level 9. Tooltips for masteries indicate which Marks have been added so far.
• Wizard Tower Expansion: Summoning Circle now requires Summoning 1 and Warding 1.
• Wizard Tower Upgrade: Tunnel Network now requires Earth 2.
• Wizard Tower Upgrade: Mystical Furnace now requires Fire 2 and Artifice 1.
• Wizard Tower Upgrade: Aviarium now requires Air 1 and Beasts 1.
• Wizard Tower Upgrade: Enchanted Fountain now requires Enchantment 1 and Water 1.
• Wizard Tower Upgrade: Voltaic Coils now requires Arcane 2, Artifice 2 and Air 1.
• Wizard Tower Upgrade: Enchanted Garden now requires Life 2.
• The army movement line on the map now has different colors for history (red) and planned (yellow).
• Battle Resolution: Charge impact can now cause loss of Effectiveness (organization/formation strength).
• Battle Resolution: Reduced the hit malus applied by low Effectiveness.
• Battle Resolution: Having higher Effectiviness than a melee opponent now gives a bonus to hit.
• Battle Resolution: Chance to break is now affected by duration of the battle and unit Effectivness, and a "wavering" result has been added which does not cause a retreat, but instead reduces Effectiveness.
• Battle Resolution: Increased the number of active combatants in melee when there is only one opposing unit, and neither unit is charging. Previously the number of active combatants was lower if 2 x 100-member units were in melee (ie 1v1), than if two
• New Summoning Mishap: Instead of always reducing unit size, there is now a 20% chance (if the unit does not already have a limited duration), that the unit will be unsummoned after 8 to 28 turns.
• New Clan Trait: Unpredictable. Relation impact of many diplomatic actions is modified by a random factor from -50% to +50%, with a 2% of completely reversing the impact.
• New Clan Trait: Unforgiving. The negative relation impact of diplomacy, war, etc. will fade 50% slower.
• New Clan Trait: Forgiving. The negative relation impact of diplomacy, war, etc. will fade 25% faster.
• New Clan Trait: Short Memories. The negative and positive relation impact of diplomacy, war, etc. will fade 25% faster.
• New Clan Trait: Trusting. The positive relation impact of many diplomatic actions will fade 25% slower.
• Fixed a crash bug in the battle window
• Fixed damage stats incorrectly showing 0 when swapping units in and out of reserver
• Initial deployment of reserves now respects any assignments made in the army window
• Increased variety of region and province names
• New Unit Type: Giant Crabs. Unlocked through research requiring Beasts 3 + Water 3 OR Beasts 3 + Tower Upgrade: Underground Waterways.
• Fixed Giant Scorpions missing their poison stinger attack. Increased their HP from 4 to 6, reduced default unit size from 100 to 50.
• Fixed a display issue with Fortresses in the context panel.
• Fixed a bug where the context panel would sometimes show cities not being razed as "Being Razed: 0%".
• There is now a tooltip on the character window Favored Follower toggle showing current favored followers, the maximum available, and the mechanics resulting in this value.
• Fixed a crash bug related to some demonic units.
• Fixed tooltips and descriptions for unit effects having one or more melee damage bonus components not showing damage type.
• Rivers can now be deleted in the Map Editor.
• Hint text is now shown when editing Rivers in the Map Editor as the controls are not entirely intuitive.

[ 2018-04-17 19:26:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Rather small update mostly consisting of a number of important bug fixes, regarding battles, clans and Windows XP. Tribal Chiefs

• Tribal Chiefs now begin with full visibility of all provinces with a tribal camp.
• New Clan Trait: Master Cooks. +10% Food for controller.
• New Clan Trait: Keepers of the Vault. +10% Gold for controller.
• New Clan Trait: Quarrelsome. -5 relation penalty towards other clans for controller. Tribal Destiny: End Feuds removes this penalty.
• New Clan Trait: Respected. +5 relation bonus towards other clans for controller.

Bug Fixes

• Added OpenGL fallback for Windows to fix an issue with the game crashing on Windows XP / DX9 systems.
• Fixed a number of battle resolution crashes
• Gaining control of a Clan now grants visibility of all provinces where they have a presence. Combined with the initial visibility change, this fixes a number of crash issues related to Clans.

[ 2018-04-04 19:56:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update adds back Transmutation, available in a limited form to Alchemists in the very early days of Early Access. It's been given a major overhaul, including integration with the Mastery system (making it available to more than just Alchemists, with the right research). Quite a bit of work went into this specific feature, so the update is a bit smaller than usual, but there are also some other additions, most notably the first iteration of the Warlord tutorial and the option to use a numerical seed for the world generation. Full patch notes below: Wizards and Magic

• New unit: Giant Snakes. Unlocked by Beast Mastery 3.
• New unit: Giant Frogs. Unlocked through research requiring Beast Mastery 4 and Water Mastery 2.
• New unit: Radiant Soldiers. Unlocked through research requiring Artifice Mastery 6, Light Mastery 6 and War Mastery 3. High-damage, fragile construct unit, dealing mostly Radiant damage.
• Transmutation added. This is found in the Economy window and transmutes an amount of a resource into another (e.g. 100 Iron to 10 Mana). Depending on mastery of Earth, Metal, Transmutation, Creation, Death, Life, etc. different transmute become available. Increasing mastery of Transmutation and Creation will increase the max. amount transmuted per turn and the conversion rate. Transmutation caps will regenerate over time, at approximately 10 turns for the full amount, so that you don't have to micromanage transmutation on a per turn basis. Automation will still be added in a future update to allow for continous transmutation without micromanagement and repetitive UI tasks.
• Cleanse Necrotite spellcraft added. Researching this enables transmuting Necrotite into Silver.

General

• A basic tutorial for Tribal Chiefs has been added.
• Outpost sites can now be disbanded.
• A seed can be entered when generating the world (under the options shown for non-quick start games). Reusing a seed will give the same world geography (and usually the same cultures/races/mythos given the same settings for those). The option to only seed geography will be added in a later update (ie to reuse the same world without getting the same races/cultures).
• Reduced the chance of random events spawning marauders, roaming monsters, undead, if there is already one or more such armies active in a province (the reduction depends on the number of armies).
• Wizard Towers and Cities can now be renamed.
• Some of the map graphics are now exposed to modding - primarily sites (cities, fortresses, etc.). Documentation section on the forums has been updated with details on ids, etc. There is a link from the modding window in the game to this info.
• The generic icons are now exposed to modding. Documentation has not been updated with ids yet, but will be soon.
• Zombie bite damage reduced by 1. Toughness reduced from 7 to 6. Added the Noxious ability.
• Fixed a crash bug during combat resolution.
• Fixed a crash bug related to loading/saving games.

[ 2018-04-02 19:58:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here's the latest update, with a mix of new content and a new iteration of the battle resolution system with some pretty big changes. There are also bug fixes and various tweaks - thanks to everyone who reported issues, it is always very helpful and much appreciated.

Patch Notes

Battle Resolution

• New battle resolution engine. Based on the existing internal simulation and mechanics from the previous iteration, but taking a somewhat more abstract view of the battlefield. The armies are arrayed in lines of battle, and the abstraction of position and movement makes it possible to better implement the effects of reserves, flyers, skirmishers, etc. Casting spells and using other abilities is also easier to manage. It is also a more robust foundation to build on. Embedding narrative elements and more mechanics than simply taking turns at making attacks is still priority. The real-time AI-based resolution was certainly entertaining at times (admittedly often due to bugs or AI stupidity), but failed to give much traction to those stated goals.
• Deployment during battles can now be changed by the player. Enemy unit count will be shown, but the details hidden until after deployment.
• Some units can be deployed as skirmishers, which allows them to reduce the fighting ability of the enemy. Once the lines clash, the skirmishers will fight at reduced effectiveness themselves. Whether the enemy reduction is greater than the loss depends on skirmish ability (determined from attributes and abilities, the calculation is shown in a tool tip). In future updates skirmishing casualties and battle phase flow changes will be implemented.
• A maximum number of units can fight in the main battle line at once. The remainder are in reserve and will join the battle line if/when other units retreat or are destroyed. Future updates will expand on this and allow better control of when/how reserves join the fight.
• Unit effects are now shown as small icons on the unit panel. Hovering over an icon will show the effects in a tool tip.

Tribal Chiefs

• Tribal Destiny: Bravery changed from +3 Courage, +1 Shock (infantry) to +2 Courage, +1 Shock (infantry)
• Tribal Destiny: Thirst for War added to the Warfare path. It gives +1 Melee Skill, +1 Discipline and +50% Veteran Warrior gain from battles.
• Tribal Destiny: No Retreat added to the Valor path. It gives +3 Courage, prevents voluntary battle-wide retreat (individual units can still break and retreat), and is mutually exclusive with Feigned Retreat. Lost defensive battles with no survivors give +1 Tribal Destiny and +1 Prestige per three full units in the battle (up to +5).
• Tribal Destiny: Caravan Guards added to the Prosperity path. It gives 100 Gold per turn for each settlement located adjacent to or in a province where the chief has a camp. Negated if the settlement is besieged or the owner is hostile.
• Clan Trait: Wolf Packs added. One unit of Giant Wolves can be recruited from camps belonging to these clans. Only possible if culture has Beast Tamers, Pact with Nature or Animal Affinity: Wolves.
• Clan Trait: Ghoul Packs added. One unit of Ghouls can be recruited from camps belonging to these clans. Only possible if culture is not aligned towards good and has Necromancy. It can be generated in a few other rare cases.
• Clan Trait: Cavalry Slayers added. Infantry units from these clans have the Anti-Cavalry ability.
• Clan Trait: Monster Slayers added. Regular, scout and elite units from these clans have the Monster Slayers ability.
• Gaining control of a clan will now transfer control of their camps.
• Losing control of a clan will now cause control of their camps to be lost (to the new controller or the clan itself).
• If relations with a controlled clan drop below -5, control will be lost. If control was gained through conquest, relations cannot cause loss of control for the first 8 turns, with the chance of loss increasing by 5% cumulatively each turn thereafter.
• Clan traits are now color-coded to make it more obvious if they are positive (green), negative (red), diplomacy-related (yellow) or other/multiple (orange).
• Clans are now less likely to have multiple strictly positive traits.
• Clans are now more likely to have at least one strictly positive trait.

Wizards and Spells

• New Battle Spell: Cloak of Shadows. Prevents ranged attacks and use of the Inspiring ability, but provides Ranged Avoidance. Provides target unit with 85% protection against attacks while retreating during battle. Must be researched and requires (Shadow 3, War 1, Warding 1) or Shadow 5.
• Dispel Magic can now be used during battles. Cost is 5 mana, and it will remove a random dispellable non-negative effect from an enemy unit or a random dispellable non-positive effect from a friendly unit. It will not dispel multiple effects like the world version, but it will prefer strictly negative/positive effects before ambiguous ones.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Warriors. Unlocked by Illusion 2. Effective against high armor as they deal arcane+true damage, but vulnerable to radiant/dark damage. Resistance to physical attacks via semi-corporeal and ranged avoidance, but still quite fragile with no armor and low hit points. Abilities: Fearless, Mindless, Ambush. Cheap and fast to summon, but with high upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Riders. Unlocked by Illusion 3. Very fast and effective against high armor as they deal arcane+true damage. Vulnerable to radiant/dark damage. Resistance to physical attacks via semi-corporeal and ranged avoidance, but still quite fragile with no armor and low hit points. Abilities: Fearless, Mindless, Relentless Pursuit. Cheap and fast to summon, but with high upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Drakes. Unlocked by Illusion 4. Flying unit with several attacks dealing arcane+true damage. Vulnerable to radiant/dark damage. Resistance to physical attacks via semi-corporeal and ranged avoidance, less fragile than other phantasmal units, but still much less hardy than comparable monstrous creatures. Fearless and Mindless. Cheap and fast to summon, but with very high upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Champions. Research requires Illusion 5 and one of: Light 2 OR Order 2 + Light 1 OR War 2 + Light 1. Highly skilled infantry unit with high arcane+radiant+true damage. Vulnerable to dark damage. As other phantasms fragile with no armor and low hit points. Abilities: Fearless, Inspiring, Mindless. Cheap and fast to summon, but with very high upkeep.
• New Unit Type: Phantasmal Horrors. Research requires Illusion 5 and one of: Dark 2 OR Chaos 2 + Dark 1 OR Death 2 + Dark 1. Monstrous unit with high arcane+dark+true damage and a ranged attack. Vulnerable to radiant damage. Despite decent hit points and toughness, still mostly fragile with no armor. Abilities: Fearless, Unsettling, Mindless, Amphibious. Cheap and fast to summon, but with very high upkeep.

Modding

• Added a Mods option to the main menu.
• Mods are created by adding a folder in the /Mods/ folder.
• Unit icons can be replaced by putting replacements in a UnitIcon folder below the Mod folder. A list of valid icon ids can be found in the documentation (soon).
• The interface for managing, creating and editing mods will be improved.

General Improvements and Bug Fixes

• You can now choose to leave a city, and neither conquer/raze/sack it.
• Local defenders rallying to defend against pillaging can now include militia in addition to irregulars and mercenaries. The unit size of these militia and irregulars has been given a random component.
• Martial and Decadence will now affect the garrison size for neutral cities.
• Cities with Crime 2+ will field temporary defender units during assaults. The number and quality depends on culture and city Crime, Prosperity, Martial attributes.
• City defenders are now much less likely to include cavalry.
• Wizard AI now has a slightly stricter limit on how many units to queue up when it has a resource surplus.
• Warlord AI is now better at handling threats to it's sites.
• AI is now better at recognizing threats when friendly/hostile sites are within a few hexes.
• Zombies have been changed from having a default unarmed attack to having two attacks: Bite and Clumsy Pummel. They're relatively weak, so the mana cost has been lowered accordingly.
• Increased variety for the Tribe, Horde, Clan name generators.
• Custom Wizard templates can now be given a description.
• The Character/Followers window now has better color coding of tool tip enabled text.
• The Character/Followers window now shows details on aging/life cycle (if relevant) as a tool tip on the age attribute.
• Fixed tooltips not working correctly for some neutral/marauder armies.
• Fixed a number of issues, including a crash bug, caused by splitting units in the Army window.
• Fixed Dispel Magic always failing to target valid army targets, even if they have dispellable effects.
• Fixed Dispel Magic incorrectly being applied to all effects, instead of only exempting those indicated in the description (ie positive/negative based on target being friendly or not).
• Fixed buffs/debuffs of Faction luck not correctly being applied.
• Fixed display of site Fortification values in some places not including stat modifiers.
• Fixed the Incite Unrest spell sometimes incorrectly changing Unrest if stat modifiers are in place.
• Fixed an issue where neutral minor realms could build sites in hexes with no room for them.
• Fixed the invisible parts of the notification container blocking map input.
• Multiple weapon-based melee attacks can now only be used if the unit has the Dual Wield ability.
• Fixed armies not always minimizing correctly on the map when loading or starting a game.
• Fixed an army sigil overlap issue with multiple armies in the same hex.
• Fixed some unit templates resolving incorrectly during world generation.
• Trade Posts now show the correct income estimate.
• Fixed an issue preventing the AI from using many spells during battles.
• Fixed an issue with some tool tips for the outliner being overly verbose.

[ 2018-03-20 19:00:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Tribal Chiefs

• Prestige: This attribute begins at 0 and changes through various actions and events. Positive prestige reduces recruitment costs and diplomacy costs/thresholds, but increases the cost of giving gifts. Negative prestige has the opposite effect.
• Call Great Hunt (action): Summon the clans to participate in a great hunt. Depending on prey chosen, a succesful hunt can yield gold, influence, followers, etc. while a failed one can result in injured or even dead followers and/or guests.
• Added various random events and quests to the Religious Festival action, the nature and outcome of which varies depending on the deity/religion chosen. These include: Good Omens (Unrest reduction), Portents of Doom (Unrest increase, Unit stat buffs), Ritual Combat, quests forbidding or demanding various actions, Demonic Possession, Gift of Undeath, Blessings, and more.
• Tribal Destiny: Abyssal Rites (Ambition). Reduces cost and cooldown of Religious Festival by 40%. Adds Summon Demons option to the Great Hunt action. Excludes and excluded by Tribal Destiny: Pact With Nature and Tribal Destiny: One With The Land.
• Clan Marriage: Now has a small gold cost representing dowries and/or bribes.
• Chieftain's Abode/Warlord's Abode/Warlord's Grand Abode/Tribal Palace/Grand Tribal Palace: These camp upgrades no longer increase influence per turn. Instead they give a one-time prestige bonus (which is lost on destruction/downgrade).
• Brewery: This camp upgrade now gives +1 influence per turn.
• Trophy Mounds: Cost changed from 2000 gold to 100 spoils. Also gives 5 prestige on construction.
• Beast Pens: Cost changed from 2500 gold to 1000 gold. Now gives +50% Prestige gain from nearby Great Hunts.
• Spoils distribution has been disabled until it has an actual effect.
• Clans can give quests to defeat marauders. This will improve relations and give some prestige if completed.

Editor

• Borders are now enabled when Province mode is entered.

Other

• Rival AI will prioritize recruitment much higher if all their armies have been defeated.
• Rival Wizard AI will now reserve a more reasonable amount of mana when there are unclaimed mana nodes.
• Armies can no longer engage in battle on ocean and lake hexes.
• Low-Life Recruits now reduces Unit cost by 15% (up to 500 gold) rather than 500 gold. This also prevents the cost from becoming negative.
• Cities can now be razed as an alternative to conquest or plunder. This requires a sufficiently large army relative to the city size, and will take 2-8 turns depending on the relative size of the army and city.
• Reduced the chance of marauders, pirates and similar events.
• Patrol province is no longer enabled by a site under siege.
• Slightly reduced save game size.
• Optimized many internal calculations. This will be especially noticeable on 32-bit systems.

Wizards and Magic

• New Spellcraft: Arcane Trinkets. Requires Arcane 1, Artifice 1, Enchantment 2. Unlocks Arcane Trinkets for new units, which costs 25 mana, 250 gold, 1 jewelry, and gives +1 Armor, +1 Courage, +2 Magical Resistance.
• New Unit Summon: Lesser Ghebborim. Requires research and Summoning 3, Chaos 2, War 1, Planar Lore 2. They are extra-planar shock infantry.
• New Unit Summon: Greater Ghebborim. Requires research and Summoning 4, Chaos 5, War 3, Planar Lore 4. They are extra-planar heavy shock infantry, fearless and well-suited to breaking defensive formations.
• Greater Arcane Ward had Magic Resist bonus reduced from +5 to +3.
• New armies now have more interesting default names.

User Interface and Graphics

• Marauders, monsters, pirates and other unaligned armies now have a distinct army sprite.
• When recruiting, missing resources no longer causes the "Recruit" button to be grayed out if the player can afford the missing resources. The missing resources and cost to purchase them, are shown in the tooltip for the recruit button, if applicable. This saves the player from closing the window, going to the market window, buying the resources, re-opening the military window and then navigating to the relevant unit type.
• Desertion/Attrition due to missing upkeep now includes a tooltip showing the upkeep of the relevant units.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Greater Archons having too few hit points.
• Fixed a bug where the AI "site attacked" logic was not being invoked if the assault failed.
• Fixed display of research project requirements sometimes being glitchy.
• Fixed a bug where army sprites would not correctly be minimized when another army or sprite was in front, at worst causing weird overlap, at best a missing minimized army.
• Battle time speed changes will no longer apply to animations in the rest of the game (ie the main map).
• Pressing space will no longer pause/unpause map animations.
• The army window now shows generic Magical Resistance.
• The military/recruitment window now shows includes modifiers to Resistance and Vulnerability preview.
• The military/recruitment window now shows generic Magical Resistance.
• Fixed a crash bug related to Tribal Destiny: Shamanism and the Spirit Warriors unit modifier.
• Tribal Destiny can no longer be overspent to acquire aspects with a cost higher than the available number of points.
• Text will no longer overflow on the Character/Follower windows when showing large amounts of information. A scrollbar has been added.
• Rival (Wizard/Warlord) AI no longer gets amnesia when saving and reloading. Only applies to new save games.
• Fixed Tribal Destiny: Swift Messengers not being correctly applied.

[ 2018-02-28 16:47:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

A belated patch focusing on Tribal Chiefs. The delay was due to a variety of unfortunate and unexpected circumstances, including illness. The plan is still to have weekly updates, so if there is a delay such as this one, by no means take it as indication of abandonment, loss of interest, critical development issues, or other such dire events. Even during delays, bug reports, feature requests and ideas are very welcome and will be looked at. Thanks to everyone who submitted feedback and crash logs for this update. Logs and save games are great tools in making bug fixing a much faster process. The patch notes can be found below, and consist of a somewhat even mix of new features/content, bugfixes and usability improvements. The next update will also focus mostly on Warlords, but I will do my best to add some incremental updates to the Wizard experience as well. It would seem unwise to neglect the arcane overlords for too long. Patch Notes:

• Faction flag/sigil graphics have been updated from the old placeholders. There are still more to come, but this is a much better selection than the placeholders used so far, many of which were somewhat silly.
• In addition to flag background color, the sigil color can now also be customized.
• Religious Festivals and Tests of Mettle can now be held by Tribal Chiefs to gain new followers, Tribal Destiny, Divine Favor (a positive effect varying based on deity/religion traits) and improve diplomatic relations with other clans.
• New Clan Trait: Poison Arrows. This adds a poison arrow modifier to archer infantry units recruited from this clan, giving +2 poison damage.
• New Clan Trait: Ambushers. This gives the Ambush ability to all light infantry units recruited from this clan.
• New Clan Trait: Berserkers. This allows recruitment of three tiers of special berserker units from camps of this clan.
• Tribal Chiefs can now send emissaries to other clans to improve relations.
• Plundering a province will now apply an effect to the province, preventing subsequent plunder for 4 turns and increasing city unrest by 10 for the duration.
• Plundering a province will now anger factions with affected sites.
• Plundering a province is no longer prevented by a fortress if it has been under siege for at least 1 turn.
• Plundering a province will now damage any affected resource sites by 5.
• Reduced the cost of the Weaponsmith camp upgrade. It is now required to recruit Tier 3 units.
• Reduced the cost of the Tanner camp upgrade. It is now required to recruit Tier 2+ Heavy units.
• Reduced the cost of the Fletcher camp upgrade. It is now required to recruit Tier 2+ Archer units.
• Noble tribal units are not affected by upgrade requirements.
• The Unrest modifier from Tribal Authority is now implemented (applies only to sites with same culture as the Tribal Chief).
• The Camp window now displays accumulated progress towards population change (expected food production affecting next turn in tool tip), and turns since last migration.
• Camp population can now change. Most of the food production is now used internally to determine the rate of population growth/decline. High population numbers will reduce food production per pop. Recent migration boosts food production, while remaining for 10 turns+ in the same place reduces it (at an increasing rate over time). If food is low, mount gain will cease, and if food is low for too long, available mounts will butchered for food. A high food surplus will increase the rate at which new mounts are gained. Faction stockpiles will be used to supply food to avoid population decline if available.
• Camps can no longer settle in a hex adjacent to a previous location.
• Clans will no longer accept marriage proposals if relations are too low.
• Clan relations for Tribal Chiefs now include additional information on sources of positive/negative relations.
• New unit option: Hardened Recruits. Available when recruiting units from cities with Martial 1+, Crime 1+ and at least one pop with the Rabble or Refugee trait. +250 gold to recruit, +1 courage, +1 melee skill.
• Tribal Chiefs can now subjugate a Clan by conquering their last camp.
• The "Ruler" tab in the Quests and Victory Window, is now named "Wizard" (for wizards) and "Faction" (others). Traits listed in this section are now highlighted to indicate that they have a tooltip.
• The Wizard/Faction Tab now lists Faction effects from events, spells, traits, etc. Duration (if any) is also listed, and the name is color-coded green or red (if the effect is positive or negative, respectively). Mechanics are shown in a tooltip.
• Improved consistency of camp names in various parts of the UI.
• Characters displayed in the context panel now list information on culture (with details in tooltip). A tooltip has been added to the character type listing the relevant supertypes (ie Martial, Religion, Arcane, Rogue, Artisan, etc.)
• Build actions not available due to player faction type will no longer be shown in "build" mode to avoid confusion.
• When raided by nomads, city-states and minor realms will no longer send pleas for help to a tribal chief of the same culture as the raiders.
• Two new Tribal Chief culture templates available to players: Leonids and Bugbears.
• Tribal Chief cultures will now always have the Nomadic trait.
• When selecting a new Warlord culture template during game setup the name fields will be randomized accordingly (removing an annoying click to get proper names for non-default cultures).
• Increased the size of the context side panel used in some choice/option dialogs.
• Increased the size of the floating message window. The font size for the text portion has been increased and a more crisp text rendition used.
• Fixed a bug causing charge impact effects to be incorrectly calculated for some pairs of units of differing size/weight.
• Fixed an issue with some non-standard sources of resource income/expenditure not being applied despite being shown in the UI.
• Fixed the "Ruler" tab (now named "Faction") not listing information for Tribal Chiefs.
• Fixed a crash bug triggered by several Army-related UI interactions.
• Fixed an issue with units not generated correctly for some knightly orders fortresses.
• Fixed an issue with loading equipment related data from < 0.9.105 versions. Unfortunately the fix will mess up loading these in a 0.9.105 save game. The effects are not too problematic, so no special code has been to fix save games form this particular version.
• Fixed Low-Life Recruits increasing unit cost by 500 gold instead of the intended reduction.
• Fixed redundant stockpile notifications appearing for tribal chiefs.
• Fixed an issue with the tribal military window not correctly navigating between camps.
• Fixed an issue with camp conquest.
• Fixed an issue with tool tips being temporarily broken sometimes if a window is displayed on top of a tool-tip enabled element.
• Fixed crash bug related to selection of a random unit type.
• Fixed a combat crash bug related to attack secondary damage.
• Fixed the Tribal Authority site effect description and resolution being that of Province Plundered, and Province Plundered not having the correct effect.
• Fixed an issue with (culture/race/religion/faction/etc) Hatred being treated as Neutral when calculating the difficulty and risk when proselytizing.
• Fixed an issue with some mechanics not correctly identifying religion/deity domains.

[ 2018-02-12 15:51:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first playable Warlord archetype is ready: Tribal Chief. Some of the work took a bit longer than expected, hence the delay. There's a nice variety of new mechanics defining this archetype and some relevant content, but there is also more to come. Especially in the area of diplomacy and interactions with other clans. In addition, there are new spells, units, characters, bug fixes and miscellaneous improvements. Full patch notes below. As always any bug reports are much appreciated, and I will try to get a fix out asap for any issues. Otherwise the next patch is expected in a week or so, and will be a mix of incremental improvements to Wizard and Warlord mechanics. As mentioned diplomacy and non-player factions is the next general focus area. Wizards

• Spells have been added to gain (additional) special workers. Some wizards would start with undead, faerie or demonic workers, but these were not available after the game has started.
• Spell Summon Demonic Wretches added. Summons special workers unit. Must be researched (requires: Demonic Summoning).
• Spell Raise Skeleton Laborers added. Summons special workers unit. Must be researched (requires: Necromancy 3 or Necromancy 2/Enchantment 1 or Necromancy 2/Artifice 1).
• Spell Fay Binding of Beasts added. Summons special workers unit. Must be researched (requires: Beasts 2, Binding 1 and Fay Lore 2).
• Some research projects now have a Lore requirement, in addition to existing requirements. Draugar (all) require Ancient History 1. Greater Elemental Summoning (all) require Elemental Lore 3.
• The Charismatic wizard trait now grants +1 Courage to all units which do not have trait/tag: Mindless, Limited Mind, Non-Living, Beasts and/or Monsters.
• New Battle Spell: Acid Spray (Water 4). Deals 12 Corrosive damage to up to 10 members of the target unit. Secondary mastery is Destruction.
• New Battle Spell: Poison Cloud (Darkness 3). Deals 3 Poison damage to 75% of the members of the target unit. Secondary mastery is Water.
• Uhlebeasts default unit size changed from 20 to 40.
• New World Spell: Lesser Planar Seal (Warding 8). Increases cost to summon extra planar units by +50% and increases mishap chance by 25%. Duration 4 turns. Secondary mastery: Order. Cooldown 20 turns.
• New World Spell: Greater Planar Seal (Warding 10). Prevents summoning of extra planar units completely. Duration 4 turns. Secondary mastery: Order. Cooldown 20 turns.
• Uhlebeasts can now be researched with requirements (Beasts 5, Blood 2), (Beasts 5, Darkness 2) or (Beasts 8).

Warlords

• Warlords are now playable. The Tribal Chief archetype is first available. This is a first iteration of the mechanics, and they will be expanded/improved.
• Tribal Chiefs have lower unit costs and upkeep, and immediate recruitment. However, base income is much lower.
• Some Tribal Warlord units have the "Noble" trait. The number of these is restricted by the number of Noble pops.
• A base military capacity is calculated for Tribal Warlords based on pops and camp upgrades. Going above this capacity will increase unit upkeep and recruitment costs.
• Tribal Warlords have a "Veteran Warriors" attribute which acts a pseudo-resource. It increases automatically over time, and from certain actions and events. The recruitment of most higher-tier units reduces this pool by the unit size.
• Tribal Warlords have a "Mounts" attribute which acts a pseudo-resource. It increases automatically over time, and from certain actions and events. The recruitment of most cavalry units reduces this pool by the unit size.
• Camp pops now belong to Clans, which affects various Tribal Chief mechanics and diplomacy.
• Camps can now migrate. After a period time dependent on labor needed to disassemble upgrades and available labor, this replaces the camp with a special army with very low movement. The army has a special action to settle and re-create the Camp. Some upgrades have a cost to reassemble, which if it cannot be paid will result in a downgrade. Some upgrades (e.g. fortifications) cannot be moved.
• The "Magic" button is removed for Warlords. Tribal Chiefs have a "Tribe" button instead.
• Tribal Chiefs have a Tribal Destiny mechanic which allows the purchase of various upgrades and abilities from 6 different paths.
• Clan Diplomacy allows Tribal Chiefs to take control of other clans. Clans have traits which impact diplomacy and can give abilities/bonuses if they are controlled. Gaining control of their camps is not yet implemented, but will be added very soon.
• Tribal Chiefs cannot build resource sites (Farms, Mines, etc.) Tribal Destiny can unlock the ability to build Trade Posts.
• Tribal armies can Plunder the country-side and minor sites of a province (unless a Fortress is guarding it). This will give a small amount of Spoils.
• Tribal armies cannot conquer sites, but will gain Spoils from sacking them.
• New resource, Spoils. Gained by Warlords by raiding, pillaging, battles, etc. Can be converted into Gold or used as "currency" for certain actions.

Other and Bug Fixes

• The world generator will now try to avoid placing players on landmasses with a low number of provinces.
• A specialized unit type generator is used for (Tribal Warlord) player cultures, to make sure a suitable spread of tiers and types are present.
• Unit effects are now color-coded in the Army Window, positive effects are green, negative effects are red, neutral/ambiguous effects are orange.
• City and camp production modifiers due to Unrest expanded to cover high and low values, and to have better granularity.
• City leaders now give a +5% production for each of the following traits they have: Civic, Artisan, Mercantile.
• Reduced installation size on windows by 30%-40%.
• Events which spawn monsters, undead and dire beasts are now more or less likely depending on the Magic game setting. Base chance modifier: Pervasive x300%, Common x200%, Rare x50%, VeryRare x50%-5%
• Events which spawn undead are now more likely if Wilderness game setting is Sinister: (base+5%)x200%.
• Events which spawn dire beasts now more likely if Wilderness game setting is Sinister: +5% or Primeval: (base+5%)x150%.
• Events which spawn bandits, marauders, monsters, etc. are now more or less likely depending on the Wilderness game setting. Tranquil x25%,Dangerous x150%, Deadly x150%+5%, Sinister +10%.
• Events which spawn bandits, marauders, monsters, etc. are now less likely in provinces with outposts, fortresses, and/or armies. The impact depends on fortress size, (civilized) army sizes, scout captain presence and whether any armies are patrolling the province.
• New Unit: Gargoyles (Darkness 4, Earth 1). Flying, tough, unsettling unit with high scout stat, but limited damage potential. Requires Aviarium to research.
• New Unit: Air Elementals (Air 5). Requires Lesser Air Elementals.
• New Unit: Earth Elementals (Earth 5). Requires Lesser Earth Elementals.
• New Unit: Fire Elementals (Fire 5). Requires Lesser Fire Elementals.
• New Unit: Water Elementals (Water 5). Requires Lesser Water Elementals.
• New Unit: Greater Air Elementals (Air 8). Requires Air Elementals.
• New Unit: Greater Earth Elementals (Earth 8). Requires Earth Elementals.
• New Unit: Greater Fire Elementals (Fire 8). Requires Fire Elementals.
• New Unit: Greater Water Elementals (Water 8). Requires Water Elementals.
• New Unit: Angels of Hope (Celestial 3, Light 3). Stronger, flying version of Lesser Angels of Hope.
• New Unit: Angels of War (Celestial 4, War 3). Versatile flying unit with strong defensive and ranged stats, decent offensive stats.
• New Unit: Angels of Justice (Celestial 5, Order 3). Powerful flying melee unit, but lacking somewhat in staying power and defensive stats.
• New Unit: Eshim. Celestial fire/frost based infantry unit with good magical damage and morale, but low survivability. Cannot be summoned or recruited, but implemented for events, city defenders, etc.
• The Patrol Province action now displays in the tooltip why is not usable if it is not.
• Exhausted armies can no longer use the Patrol Province action.
• When merging an army into another, the Scout Captain of the source army will now be assigned to a target army with no Scout Captain.
• Emissaries can now be sent to Camps.
• A number of upgrades are now available for Camps.
• Camps can now be inspected in the same way as Cities.
• Camps now use the same Pop system as Cities.
• Tweaked text alignment in the outliner to make it more readable.
• Added color to additional instances of tool tip-enabled text parts (e.g. cultures).
• Celestial and Faerie characters are now correctly matched with culture and faction attitudes when sending emissaries.
• Fixed incorrect culture adjectives for many randomly generated culture names.
• Fixed site defenders not being properly assigned a faction controller.
• Fixed some of randomly generated cultural unit types missing Cavalry and Infantry tags, and thus not always being included in when they should.
• Fixed the Emissary Duel event having an incorrectly positive influence reward for one of the negative outcomes (failed ambush with martial honor culture host) and an incorrectly negative reward for one of the positive outcomes (successful negotiation).
• Added a Log to the Economy Window Ledger. It shows all transactions for the current turn (ie turn processing + those taking effect during user interaction).
• Optimized performance of map drag and zoom.
• Optimized battle engine performance.
• Greatly optimized the "Reveal Map" cheat.
• Did a general graphics performance pass.
• Dungeons with Construct and Demon themes are now generated.
• Added a few character type templates (Seraph, Eshim, Illuminant and Heavenly Knight) for Celestial characters.
• Exceptions and errors now result in a dialog and the game being closed, in cases where it would previously cause a hang/freeze/broken gamestate.
• Changed the Military Window to always show the Trainer section. If no valid characters are available the reasons can be seen in the character selection window.
• When choosing participants for a Dungeon Expedition, ineligible characters are now included in the list, but are unselectable and have a note describing why.
• When no characters are available for a Dungeon Expedition, the button is no longer missing. Instead a tooltip hints that there are no valid characters, and the selection window has the details on each character.
• Changed damage calculations for attacks with secondary damage to merge secondary damage of the same damage type.
• Optimized calculation of site resource output during turn processing. For games with large maps / many sites, this will have a significant positive impact on turn processing waiting time.
• Fixed some instances of wizards not being given the correct starting armies due to not being able to find unit types similar enough to a specified template. Search criteria will be widened if nothing is found to avoid this.
• Fixed an issue with fortresses not being assigned to correct factions/realms during world generation.
• Fixed a bug causing some city production multipliers to apply to maintenance costs. E.g. a +10% modifier could raise the maintenance of a building from 100 to 110 gold.
• Fixed a bug causing "Sell All" to enabled in the Economy window for invalid resouces. Clicking would "sell" all applicable resources for a price of 0.
• Fixed the expected recruitment modifiers not being available for all units on the military screen.
• Fixed the display of recruitment modifier being incorrect for non-equipment affecting modifiers for stats other than cost.
• Fixed a bug where melee damage modifier buffs were not included during damage calculations.
• Fixed a bug which doubled secondary damage from attacks during some calculations.
• Fixed a bug where UI updates could be blocked by moving an army. This would persist until another army moved. In the meantime the resource summary, map icons, outliner and many other UI elements, would not correctly update.
• Fixed a bug allowing armies to assault camps when exhausted.
• Fixed a bug causing visual battle resolution issues if the player was attacking and had no battle spells.
• Fixed a bug causing the Patrol Province army action to be available when it shouldn't be.
• Fixed a (rare-ish) world generation crash bug.
• Fixed some inconsistencies with the Jade resource and Quarries/Mines. It is now a Mine resource. Tooltips and UI have been fixed to enforce this.
• Fixed Call For Heroes cooldown being decremented whenever the UI was updated. Also made the action always visible, but disabled with tooltip when on cooldown.
• Fixed Demonic characters sometimes being generated from an incorrect template, resulting in odd traits.
• Fixed several check boxes not toggling when clicking the associated text (only the 'box' registered clicks for these).
• Fixed a few incorrect worker tool tips relating to skills.
• Worker skills now impact Fae Garden production.
• Fixed the Domestic worker skill not impacting Farm production as expected.
• The volume slider has be de-linearized to make the volume changes more smooth to humans.

Hotfix 0.9.105.1

• Fixed an issue with non-quick start games ignoring warlord selection.

[ 2018-01-08 13:47:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here is an update on the progress of the first playable Warlord archetype. I had hoped it would be ready this week, but despite best efforts it's not quite there yet. To keep everyone in the loop, here's a dev diary on what you can expect from playing a Tribal Chief.
First off, you'll notice there are far fewer choices here than there is for Wizards. In fact, only one of these will be enabled by the next update. This is by design, with the intent that all core mechanics are implemented and a properly differentiated gameplay experience in-place, before it is made available. In hindsight it would have been better to add the various Wizard archetypes and traits one at time, instead of a the somewhat difficult navigate mix of wizard with features and content in various states of completion/design, or as placeholders. Now, adding the first Warlord does not mean development on Wizards has been abandoned. A lot of the mechanics, systems and content created for the Warlords can be reused for the Wizards.
Tribal Destiny is the mechanic allowing the player to develop the character and capabilities of the Tribal faction, in a somewhat similar way to Wizard Research. It is divided into 6 paths:
Ambition: Casting aside ancient taboos, embracing new ways, exploring the world and seeking power. Tradition: Maintaining tribal unity, power from shamanistic magic and mastering the traditional warrior ethos. Warfare: Organizing a powerful tribal army for defense and conquest, mastery of strategy and tactics and strength in numbers. Valor: Superior martial ability, powerful champions and focus on quality over quantity. Vitality: Abilities related to the harsh life of barbarians and nomads, connections to the primal powers and energies of the world, wilderness skills. Prosperity: Technological and economic progress, superior craftsmanship and making the most of available resources.
Spoils of war is another core mechanic. The tribal economy is simpler than the one currently used by Wizards. Spoils, food, influence and slaves are the core components - with gold representing misc. resources and trade goods. Choosing how spoils gained from conquest and warfare are divided among the various sub-factions is an important element in maintaining order and power. Units have very low base upkeep, but failing to provide sufficient spoils will result in desertion or even armed uprisings. Finally, Camp mechanics are have been expanded. They can now be upgraded, somewhat like cities, with various buildings/infrastructure. And more uniquely, they can be moved around the map at a cost in time and resources. Stay too long in one place and food+resources will deplete. The final mechanic I will mention are Clans. You being the game controlling one Clan, but other important Clans of the same Tribe have territory adjacent and/or close to yours. Subjugation of these clans, or integration through diplomacy and/or bribery, is a large part of the early game. As the game continues, these Clans will be harder to keep in line than the characters, population and military units of your primary Clan. That's it for now. Hopefully the update will ready soon, but rest assured I am working hard to get it you as soon as possible.

[ 2017-12-08 13:12:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

It is finally time for an update! As you may have noticed, it has been a bit longer than usual since the last update. In the future, if another long update cycle cannot be avoided, we will try hard to provide a design diary or similar, to keep the community involvement at the high level which is the reason for having an Early Access. Speaking of design diary, one should be forthcoming in the next couple of days, with information on the first playable Warlord, highlighting some of the key features, technical and design challenges, etc. If there is a delay (due to unexpected bugs, etc.), there will be a forum post declaring it, and not a "full" announcement, to minimize the notification spam. As was mentioned last time, translation work is a priority. However, as an indie developer, resources are limited, and this is a time and resource heavy area, so progress will seem slow at times. This update cycle work was done on tackling some technical issues related to handling language-specific tool tips. This went well, and a few tool tips were translated to verify the functionality. There is still work left to be done on handling dynamic text translation - and then the actual body of work getting everything translated. While the work on getting the first playable Warlord into the game progressed, a number of bug fixes, new spells and misc. features/improvements were done in parallel. Full patch notes can be found below.

• New resource site: Fae Gardens. These produce Faerie Dust, Herbs, and if the hex has a Spices special, Spices. Wizards with the Faerie racial trait can build them without research. Other Wizards need to research the ability as a Spellcraft project requiring Life 2 and Enchantment 2.
• Implemented the Berserker Rage battle spell. It confers Frenzy, +4 Courage, -4 Discipline, +1 Toughness, +1 Melee Shock for 4 seconds. Target must not have be Mindless or Unfeeling. On expiry the target takes (25% of unit size) hits for 2 true damage .
• The Hurricane spell can now be used during battles, where it will deal 4 damage to all members of flying units not engaged with a non-flying unit (limited flyers only damage if not stationary) and ground them for 10 seconds.
• The proselytize action will now ask which religion to proselytize and filter available followers accordingly. This will be skipped if only one choice is available.
• Workers for hire are now generated with a wider variety of skills. Before a "basic" worker for the relevant culture was always generated. Now there is a chance for different skillsets, with the randomziation affected by cultural traits and tech level.
• New Worker skill: Herbalism. This gives +1 Herb resource per skill level when the Workers are assigned to Farms/Logging Camp/Hunters Lodge/Fae Gardens.
• The font on the Game Settings Window improved to be more crisp and readable, especially in the drop down sections.
• Espionage and Search related assignments will now include invalid characters with an explanation of why they are unavailable.
• Added Ronin character type, relevant for cultures with the Bushido trait. This type can sometimes be generated as a dungeon boss.
• Samurai are no longer generated as dungeon bosses.
• Added a cheat action for disabling the battle mana cap.
• Cheat actions now have a separate "page" in the action hieararchy.
• Added 'C' as keyboard shortcut for casting the currently selected spell during battles.
• Added 'Ctrl+1-9' as keyboard shortcut for casting the first 9 spells in the dropdown during battles.
• Added a tooltip to the cast spell button during battles, displaying spell info (and a keyboard shortcut hint).
• Added tooltips to the custom game setting drop downs (world size/age, race/culture, magic, wilderness, etc.).
• Cultures with (fantasy) Slavic flavor will now have unique village, city and castle names, and not use the default language.
• Added additional variety to Elvish flavor character and place names.
• Fixed locations sometimes saving incorrectly for characters.
• Fixed some battle log lines having incorrect time stamps.
• Fixed unit damage vulnerability modifiers not saving correctly.
• Fixed a bug where Worker skills at level 0 were in some places treated as being -1, leading to very strange results in some calculations.
• Fixed a bug where the AI would often refuse to build on Geyser specials. In some cases considering such hexes would cause a crash.
• Fixed Fimbul Winter events not being saved, causing the event to not be processed after exiting and loading a game (with on-going events).
• Fixed the description of Vigor: Rain of Blood to show the actual effects.
• Fixed an issue where several option lists failed to register mouse clicks not directly on the option text, making them annoying to interact with.
• Fixed a bug causing battle tooltips to sometimes not update or update very slowly.
• Fixed a bug causing units to start battles with a facing out of sync between the simulation and state tracking. In some cases, this caused erratic movement/wheeling and failure to engage enemies.
• Fixed city building modifiers to Squalor and Unrest not showing in tool tips in the City Window. This is not retroactively fixed for already constructed buildings in existing save games.
• Fixed city building modifiers to Squalor and Unrest working slightly incorrectly if applied while the stat was at the upper or lower limit, and the building is later destroyed or upgraded.
• Fixed a bug where "Hide" filters for the Military Window were not being applied correctly when loading a game.
• Fixed a bug where some input fields were difficult to select/focus/edit.
• Fixed organization and secret society cells not being saved correctly.
• Fixed the (decadence related) secret society cell creation event treating knightly orders as cults.
• Added (German/Spanish/French) translations for top bar button tool tips.

[ 2017-11-19 21:25:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bug fixes, UI improvements and a bit balancing this time around, including a character search filter (with a special hidden way to access an in-progress feature ;)). Thanks to Tchey, Guteck and others who chipped in with ideas and issue reports for this patch. You should be able to recognize some of your input. There's also the usual odds and ends - a new spell, some AI work, and more. See below for the full notes. Finally, the requests for translation to spanish, russian and other languages have not gone unnoticed - the basic framework is in place, and it will be getting attention. I cannot promise much when it comes to the timing of this, but I will promise a bit of progress on translations for the next update. And plans are being made for getting all the way with this.

• Lesser Blight (World Spell, Pestilence 2) effects implemented. Blight (1) is applied permanently to the hex. It can target any non-Ocean hex not already affected by a Hex Condition. Hexes with a Wizard Tower, Temple or City are also invalid targets. Cooldown is 8 turns. Secondary Mastery is Necromancy.
• A "Player Armies" button has been added to the bottom part of UI. It toggles display of all player armies, color-coded to indicate their movement status: Red for no movement left, Blue for some movement left, Green for all movement left (ie not moved yet this turn).
• A filter option has been added to the Followers window, making it easier to find character with a specific type/culture/religion/race/etc.
• The Followers window can now be used to browse all known characters in the world. As this is still experimental and requires additional UI improvements, it is "hidden" and enabled by holding SHIFT while clicking the Followers window. No characters will be shown until a filter is applied, to avoid a suspected issue with too many characters in the list.
• A search window has been added. It can be opened with CTRL+F or via a button next to the minimap. It will search through sites and provinces and display results as a list, which be navigated with keyboard (up/down arrows, enter) or clicked with the mouse.
• Messages now usually have a "Go To" button which will focus/select the relevant province, character, site, hex, etc.
• The Outliner now has a scroll bar which is activated if it becomes too large, to avoid overlap with the notification area.
• Messages/notifications are now shown as lines of text with a smaller icon. There is also a scroll bar which is activated when many messages need to be shown and the available area is not large enough.
• Save game file format had some repeated info moved out of object records and into the header. This will yield slighty faster save/load times and reduce file size.
• Military Window filter settings are now included in save games.
• Additional unit names added to reduce chance of duplicates and add more cultural flavor.
• Improved the Resource Site: Mine production mechanics. Terrain types, hex conditions and specials now have a bigger impact. See documentation.
• Improved the Resource Site: Hunters' Lodge production mechanics. Terrain types, hex conditions and specials now have a bigger impact. See documentation. Also, Sanctuary modifiers higher than 1 now prevent construction.
• Improved the Resource Site: Farms production mechanics. Terrain types, hex conditions and specials now have a bigger impact. See documentation.
• Improved the Resource Site: Logging Camp production mechanics. Terrain types, hex conditions and specials now have a bigger impact. See documentation.
• Improved the Resource Site: Vineyard production mechanics. Terrain types, hex conditions and specials now have a bigger impact. See documentation. Previously only (Grassy) Hills were valid for constructing these. Arid Hills is now also valid (but has lower production). Grassland and Plains are valid locations if there are least 2 adjacent hexes with (any kind of) Mountain or Hill terrain.
• Improved the Resource Site: Quarry production mechanics. Terrain types, hex conditions and specials now have a bigger impact. See documentation.
• Hiring workers, mercenaries and followers will now trigger a UI update, fixing various issue of elements not updating immediately.
• New option when recruiting units: Low-Life Recruits. -500 gold cost, -1 discipline, -2 courage. Not available for Professional and Elite type units.
• Units with "-men" postfixes now have a race/gender relevant ending. Spearmen could be Speardwarves, Swordsmen could be Swordorcs, Axemen could be Axegnolls, Macemen could be Macewomen (for human amazons), Crossbowmen could be Crossbowtrolls, etc. The chance of generating units with these endings is lower for non-human races (ie Axers will be preferred over Axe-somethings, Phalanx over Spear-something, etc.)
• Sites under construction no longer project territorial control.
• Non-player characters now explicitly display their controlling faction.
• The message shown when resources are auto-purchased to pay upkeep now includes the amount of gold spent.
• The AI now has improved awareness of negative spells cast on controlled sites and these will affect hate/diplomacy.
• Fixed research projects being listed and startable even when already started.
• Fixed Dungeon Expeditions silently failing to start. The Dungeon Window will show any problems in the info window, and any blocked expeditions will generate a notification on advancing the turn. Blocked AI expeditions will be fixed by the AI and not stuck in perpetuity.
• Fixed the Trainer assignment in the military recruitment window not working correctly when multiple units are recruited.
• Fixed a bug which allowed the player to circumvent non-selectable status on characters by double-clicking the icon, when the select button is non-interactable.
• Fixed a bug where various site leader characters in the world were not assigned to the correct faction during world generation. This is fixed retroactively when loading old save games.
• Fixed a bug where player armies would animate weirdly when encountering new factions.
• Fixed a bug where the outliner settings were not loaded correctly.
• Updated to latest version of Unity (2017.2 from 2017.1).

[ 2017-10-23 20:05:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

A bit of a small update, as it's only been a few days since the last one. But some players encountered a serious load/save game bug, so pushing it early to get that fixed asap. Thanks to everyone who has chipped in with ideas and bug reports. I hope you can recognize some of your suggestions and feedback in this and the coming updates. (Note that the MacOS build is slightly delayed, and may not go up until tomorrow).

• Fixed a bug causing some save games to not load.
• The space bar key can now pause/unpause during battles.
• Casting spells will no longer unpause if the player has paused during battles.
• Zooming out will now switch on Province names. Zooming back in will turn them off again (unless they were toggled explicitly by the player).
• Province borders have been changed from pure black to a slightly thicker black line with an inner white line.
• Bonus damage when charging is now slightly higher in general.
• Bonus damage when charging was previously (Melee Shock)*(Movement Factor)*(Weight Factor)*(Defensive Factor). Weight was based on armor, and Defensive factor on Shield Wall and a fixed amount offset by the attacker's Break Defense stat. The calculation now also considers size difference, Attacker: (Courage, Frenzy), Defender: (Discipline, Unsettling, Terror). Mindless and Limited Mind play a role in offsetting the psychological effects as they do in general.
• Added more (cult/organization/martial order) titles to the world generator.
• Rain of Fire is now learned at Fire 5 (was 8), deals more damage, gives the caster feedback on how many casualties were inflicted, and also hits garrisons.
• Reaper's Due (Death 3) now also hits garrison armies. It also gives feedback when no undead could be affected or no damage was inflicted, instead of failing silently. When it does deal damage the information is now less specific about the damage dealt (making it less useful to spy on enemy armies).
• Wizard Tower expansions which give XP or trigger special events for followers no longer consider those sent on missions away from the tower or recuperating.
• Roaming Undead armies now have slightly better names.
• Fixed a bug where many unit types did not list attacks from equipment in the Military Window.
• Fixed a bug sometimes causing unit types to be generated without a name.

[ 2017-10-04 20:43:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

• The city window now has a tooltip for production which shows how the result was calculated (ie how much from pops, buildings, characters, etc.)
• Training and Summoning now gives followers xp equal to 1 + (base recruitment time / 4) ( + 2 if Summon).
• When summoning a unit, one Arcane class follower can be assigned (using the Trainer interface) giving a +10% summon progress bonus and a -5% risk of summoning mishaps.
• When recruiting a unit, having a trainer with a culture matching that of the unit now gives a +25% bonus to recruitment progress.
• When casting world spells of target type Unit or Army, the global message dialog will now display the reason if an army is not valid and the unit selection list dialog will do the same.
• The AI will now use spells during battles.
• Arcane Apocalypse (World Spell, Destruction Mastery 8) added. It costs 100 mana and destroys a mana node, any armies in the same hex and changes the terrain of the hex to Rocky Badlands. There is a 40 turn cooldown to cast it.
• Deconstruct (World Spell, Destruction Mastery 3) added. It costs 50 mana and destroys a city building.
• Durability (World Spell, Artifice Mastery 1) added. It reduces the Gold upkeep of a recruited or created unit by 25% for 10 turns.
• Hailstorm (Battle Spell, Frost Mastery 4) added. Deals up to 20 hits for 5 physical damage and up to 20 hits for 3 cold damage. Damaged units without cold resistance or the Hardy ability suffer -2 Movement and -2 Toughness for 6 seconds. Secondary mastery is Air.
• Fear (Battle Spell, Shadow Mastery 2) now implemented. Target suffers -3 Courage, -1 Discipline, disable Inspire for 5 seconds. Cannot target Mindless or Fearless targets.
• New Unit Type: Draugar. Hulking zombie warriors, which can be unlocked through research requiring Necromancy 3, War 4.
• New Unit Type: Draugar Berserkers. Unlocked through research requiring Necromancy 4, Beasts 3, War 2.
• New Unit Type: Banshees. Spell-casting, ranged ambushers. Unlocked through research requiring Necromancy 2, Arcane 1, Death 1.
• New Unit Type: Greater Banshees. Powerful magic/ranged unit. Unlocked through research requiring Necromancy 5, Arcane 1, Death 2, Darkness 2.
• Equipment mechanics reworked to fix various bugs and inconsistencies - as well as enable equipment materials, variants, etc.
• Bind Mana Node is no longer shown as an action if not researched yet.
• Drain Mana Node is no longer shown as an action if not researched yet.
• Improved the formatting of the tool tips and context panel text for armies.
• The "generic" Espionage task has been disabled as it had no effect.
• Garden (City upgrade) construction time reduced from 64 to 16 turns.
• All active recruitment in a site is now cancelled if it is conquered. If the owner is the player, a notification will be generated listing which units were cancelled.
• If the player is unable to change the leader of a site, the button is no longer missing, but disabled and has a tooltip indicating why.
• Changed the range on the Fireblast attack of Skeleton mages from 35 to 150.
• Province search tasks which end without finding a site now trigger a notification.
• All parties and characters searching a province now end their task on the same turn.
• Fixed an issue with Dark Rituals making it uncastable.
• Fixed a bug where the Rain of Blood event was healing relevant (sanguine, vampiric, etc.) units by an amount unaffected by unit size and max size values. Healing is now relative to unit sizes.
• Fixed a bug where the unit buff from the Rain of Blood event (granted to some units) was permanent instead of the intended duration of 3 turns.
• Fixed a bug where saving the game when an active Scarecrow event choice had been made would let the player duplicate the Scarecrow.
• Fixed a number of bugs related to event choices and corrupt game state
• Fixed a bug where the culture/race state of special/event followers led to corrupt games and crashes.
• Fixed a bug where the pause button would disappear from the battle window.
• Fixed a bug where units at 0 strength were making a very large number of attacks, effectively deadlocking combat.
• Added a hard battle end timer. If no attacks have been made for 120 seconds (affected by time speed and pause), the battle ends. This is primarily to avoid various bugs causing battles not to end, forcing the player to terminate the game process from the operating system, but it also provides a way to end battles where all units are immobilized or unable to attack (due to magic or other effects).
• Fixed a bug where destroyed units sometimes remained active during battles.
• Fixed empty space sometimes being added to the bottom of world map tool tips.
• Fixed a bug where monsters were counted as infantry for some mechanics.
• Fixed a bug where the display of remaining time on pending units recruitment/summoning/creation was incorrect.
• Fixed the Shardstorm debuff lasting for double the listed duration.
• Fixed a bug where the army transfer window was not updating buttons, making it possible to merge un-mergeable armies and/or crash the window.
• Fixed a bug where garrison armies would get a corrupt state during some merge operations.
• Fixed a bug causing unit movement modifiers applied during a battle to not take effect until the unit changed direction.
• Fixed a bug causing unit movement speed to be inconsistently calculated for some combinations of direction and behavior.
• Fixed a bug where stat display was incorrect (until a modifier was added/removed/changed) when loading a game if the stat had modifiers.
• Fixed a lot of scroll views where the scroll bar was "sticky" when changing content.
• Fixed a bug causing battle engine game hangs.
• Fixed a bug causing characters overseeing construction projects to be assigned to be sites with no valid leader assignment.
• Fixed destroyed buildings not removing city stat modifiers.
• Fixed sabotage missions and random events not properly destroying buildings, but just removing them from the city.

[ 2017-09-30 14:02:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update introduces healing magic and two related unit abilities: Vampiric and Feast. The first two research projects unlocking unit item upgrades have been added. There is also the usual mix of bug fixes, usability improvements, balance tweaks, and miscellaneous features and expanded mechanics. Full notes below: Magic and Research

• New Spellcraft: Necrotite Forging. It requires Necromancy 2, Metal 1, Artifice 1. Researching it enables the construction of a Necrotite Forge tower expansion. This expansion allows units to be outfitted with Necrotite armor, shields and weapons, giving various bonuses.
• New Spellcraft: Mithril Forging. It requires Metal 2, Artifice 1. Researching it enables Wizards with a Mystic Furnace expansion to outfit new units with Mithril weapons.
• New Battle Spell: Radiant Heal (Light 2). Heals every member of a unit for 1-3 points of damage. Cannot target units with the Undead, Demon, Demonic Taint, Dark or Shadow tags. Units with the Light or Celestial tag are healed for +2.
• New Battle Spell: Life Leech (Blood 4). Grants the Vampiric ability to the target unit for 8 seconds. Cannot target Celestial, Construct or Non-Living units. Secondary mastery affinity: Life, Darkness.
• New Battle Spell: Predator's Prize (Beast 5). Grants the Feast and Relentless Pursuit abilities to the target unit. When cast as world spell: 40 Mana, 8 turn duration. When cast as a battle spell: 15 Mana, 30 second duration. Cannot target Non-Living, Magical, Celestial, Construct or Spectral units. Secondary mastery affinity: Blood.
• Mana Nodes now contribute to Mastery progress. The contribution is to a Mastery determined by the Mana Node type (e.g. a Fire node contributes to Fire Mastery, a Primordium Node contributes to Creation Mastery, etc.). The contribution is shown in the tooltip for the Mastery in the Magic window.
• The base Mastery progress value has been increased from 4 to 5.
• The Mana output of bound Mana Nodes has been tweaked to be somewhat lower, especially for the larger node types. The old base values were (5/10/15/25/35) - the new ones are (5/8/10/15/20).
• Each point of Research now adds +0.25 to Mastery progress rate.

Battles

• A killing blow from an attack or unit with the Feast ability now heal the attacking unit member for 50% of the full hit points of the target (rounded up), unless the target is Non-Living, Spectral and/or Metal.
• Damage from attacks and units with the Vampiric ability now heal the attacking unit member for 50% of the damage dealt (rounded up), unless the target is Non-Living. Any damage beyond the full hit points of the target (ie "overkill") is not considered.
• Secondary damage from attacks is now processed on hit and not on the primary damage succeeding in damaging the target.
• There is now a ((11-Toughness)/4)% chance to suffer 1 grazing damage from an attack which hits, but fails in dealing damage. This will help represent smaller injuries, damaged armor, etc. - making it less likely that a unit will go through lengthy melee completely undamaged when fighting an enemy capable of landing hits. It also makes healing magic and effects more meaningful.
• Damage during battles is now applied and tracked for each member of a unit, instead treating the unit as a combined hit point pool. Unit members may become incapacitated before suffering mortal damage depending on their Toughness attribute.
• The weighting of physical damage absorption from Armor and Toughness is now is 90/10 (was 80/20). Toughness now has a role in determining incapacitation threshold, so can have less of an impact on actual damage suffered and still be a meaningful/useful attribute.

Mechanics

• Units can now be transferred between Armies and site garrisons.
• Armies can be created at a site if the site garrison has one more eligible units.
• When recruiting units the player can now choose to add them to a garrison instead of an existing/new army.
• The internal mechanics for unit equipment have been reworked to accomodate various item modifications, enhancements, materials, etc. Existing save games are upgraded to use these, and should work perfectly fine, but there may have been some yet undiscovered bugs introduced, so do keep your existing saves, if this turns out to be the case.

User Interface, Usability and Bug Fixes

• Outliner collapse state is now persisted as part of a save game.
• The Mastery table in the Magic window now has a tool tip showing mastery level progression results for the Level column.
• When casting world spells, a "More Spells" button has been added to avoid the spell icons overlapping. It will cycle through the available spells.
• Stockpile targets are now taken into account when calculating expected income/outcome in the resource info window.
• Dungeons now have a different appearance (with light replacing darkness) when cleared.
• The Wizard Tower window now shows the Research Contribution attribute.
• The Wizard Tower belonging to the player is no longer post-fixed with the name of the Wizard.
• The Barracks Wizard Tower upgrade now mentions the Personal Guard ability in the tooltip/description.
• Fixed a bug where the battle engine would consider a facing as the opposite facing, causing units to spin around and/or move extremely slow for no reason.
• Fixed the missing name/type display for selected Mana Nodes on the world map.
• Fixed a bug causing city building maintenance cost to incorrectly display construction cost (display-only bug, internal usage was correct).
• Fixed an issue where the display of expected Mastery progress was incorrect for non-Focus masteries if a Focus had been set.
• Fixed XP gain from dungeon clears being incorrectly reported. (2 XP was shown even if another amount was awarded).
• Fixed the display of workers' construction bonus incorrectly using Labor and not Construction as the base stat.
• Fixed a bug where stationary units when charged did not correctly enter melee state, causing them to continue using ranged attacks and sometimes glitching movement.
• Fixed a bug allowing armies to enter a hex with too high move cost if it is not the first hex entered this turn.
• Fixed Feral Strength being castable on invalid targets during battles.
• Fixed a bug blocking World Spell casting until exiting the game, if the player tries to cast a spell which fails due to missing mana, cooldown or resources.
• Fixed an issue where the AI would take an insane amount of time planning the turn, making the game seem like it was stalled and not progressing.

[ 2017-09-18 15:05:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fortresses and Dungeons have gotten some attention this update, in addition to the some bug fixes, miscellaneous mechanics improvements and a few more battle spells. Full notes below.

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

[ 2017-09-11 14:29:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another small update somewhat off-schedule. It fixes an issue with some save games not being able to load. Also included are world gen tweaks, user interface improvements and assorted bug fixes. General

• World Generator now places additional important on terrain type and climate when placing resources and specials.
• Logging Camp production now gets +50% from Fertile Soil.
• Vineyard production modifiers added: 50% (base) from Arid, 25% (base) from Desert, +50% from Fertile Soil, +30% from River adjancency
• Migrating nomads can no longer settle in a hex with a hostile army.
• Added unique icons for each category of Research Project.
• When loading a game the progress bar now works, giving a better idea what is happening.
• Added a Sell All button to the Economy Window.
• The Economy Window no longer shows market resource amounts with redundant decimals.
• The amount slider in the Economy Window now has a max which is determined by available to sell and what the player can afford to buy, rather than the entire market availability.
• The summary when browsing save games now includes Game Settings. This is only active for new save games.
• The Victory Conditions section of the Quests & Objectives Window now also shows a summary of game settings.
• Fixed a bug where the text window in some dialogs with selection lists would be offset if the text had been scrolled down in a previous selection.
• Fixed a bug causing save games with any "empty" objects not being able to load.
• Fixed an issue where migrating nomads could settle in a hex which already had a site incompatible with a nomad camp.
• Fixed a bug where disbandment of an army with attached characters could cause a hang.
• Fixed a bug where migrating nomads would decide to settle in an Ocean, got confused about how to execute this brilliant plan and then sat around forever.
• Fixed a bug causing the world market logic to run twice per turn.
• Fixed a bug related to the movement line and clicking on the army's current location.
• Fixed an issue making it impossible to assault nomad camps.
• Assault Camp now has an icon instead of a clear white background.

Battle Engine

• Fixed a bug causing abilities and attacks with a cooldown to only be usable once per battle.
• Fixed a bug causing units on the flanks to continue moving forwards and even off the map if the early battle consists of a ranged stand-off.

[ 2017-09-04 12:07:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

A somewhat small update since it's only been 2 days since the last one. There were some extremely annoying bugs that warranted releasing an out of band update. General:

• Added multi-turn movement. If you order an army to move to a hex not reachable with the movement available this turn, it will continue on the path automatically when pressing Next Turn. If ordered to sleep this will clear any pending movement, as will changing the movement. Holding down shift will prevent any movement from being queued up for next turn.
• Research projects are now shown in the Outliner. This can be toggled on/off in the settings.
• The AI will now prefer to explore land over ocean in most cases. Distance can change this, but there is now a weighting towards land exploration.
• Warlord AI will no longer be completely passive at Very Easy.
• Wizard AI will now prefer to target mana nodes which are unclaimed or claimed by an enemy.
• Wizard AI will now react more strongly to it's mana nodes being drained or bound by another faction.
• Improved the message when failing to bind or drain a mana node due to army exhaustion, so it accurately relay the reason.
• Changed the Wizard AI to prioritize mana node research much higher.
• Marauders triggered by Ancient Evils will no longer replenish casualties, putting them in line with unaligned marauders and rampaging monsters.
• Fixed a bug causing non-Wizard factions to not be able to recruit troops in cities.
• Fixed a bug causing resource values in various places to be modified instead of copied. This caused some costs to rise permanently over the cause of a game.
• Fixed a bug causing difficulty settings in non-quick start games to be ignored for Warlord rivals.
• Fixed issue with mana nodes being lost not creating a notification for the player.
• Fixed movement lines not appearing.
• Fixed an issue with the Wizard AI not purchasing resources missing for planned research, even though it could afford it.

Battle Engine:

• Units will now have a greater preference for attacking non-fleeing enemies.
• Relentless Pursuit ability grants +50% movement while chasing a fleeing enemy.
• Bonus movement when fleeing has been reduced from +50% to +35%.
• Each point of Discipline above 5 grants +10% angular motion speed when wheeling.
• Units will no longer try to engage or chase enemies that have left the field of battle.

[ 2017-08-31 12:10:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update focuses mostly on bug fixing, interface improvements and usability/quality of life issues. A good number of game breaking bugs have been fixed - thanks to everyone who supplied save games and bug reports, they are very helpful and much appreciated. From a game play point-of-view, there are some AI improvements, Wizard Trait improvements, battle loot, and a few odds and ends as listed below. I hope you enjoy it, and as always you are most welcome to share thoughts/ideas/wishes in the various forums and communities.

• Added a "Next Army" button to cycle through armies which have not moved or acted this turn. N is the keyboard shortcut for this. Armies can be put into "Sleep" mode to remove them from this cycle.
• Added keyboard shortcuts to the map filters. Toggle Filters: Shift+F. Toggle Borders: Shift+B. Toggle Sites: Shift+S. Toggle Armies: Shift+A. Toggle Province Name Mode: Shift+P.
• Added tool tips to various UI elements showing tool tips and/or other relevant information (ie how to open/close the Outliner).
• Improved the follower tooltips in the outliner to show assignment/recovery details.
• Winning a battle now grants some loot, considered to be gathered from arms and armor of the dead, body parts of monstrous creatures, the supply train of the vanquished, etc.
• Some of the roaming unaligned armies which cannot conquer cities will now loot gold from the cities. This includes . bandits, pirates, faeries, and more. It does not include rampaging monsters, dire beasts or the walking dead.
• Added bars showing numerical strength (and a visual indication of losses) to the unit lists in the military, army and transfer unit windows.
• The Merge Armies button in the transfer unit window has been split into two, allowing the user to choose which army to merge into.
• The transfer unit window now shows the name of an army's general.
• Updated the description of Wizard Traits to include numerical information where possible, and removed references to non-existing and deprecated mechanics.
• Changed the effects of the Aviarium tower expansion. It is now a requirement to research Giant Eagles and Soulgorger Vultures. The action to fly followers has been removed. When the character movement and/or location mechanics have been reworked (to better accommodate modifiers, special cases and more), it will return as a bonus in that context.
• Generals and Scout Captains can no longer be reassigned to another army or task if in army which has moved or been involved in a battle.
• The Wizard Trait Sage now gives 10% faster research progress, +2 to the base simultaneous project cap, +1 to the simultaneous lore project cap.
• The Wizard Trait Wild Magic now has a 50% chance to modify Mana Node production randomly by -20% to +20%, temporarily and on a per-turn basis.
• The Wizard Trait Channeling now gives +5 to Mana Node production (for non-depleted nodes), as indicated in the trait description.
• The Warlord AI will now act more rationally towards control of mana nodes.
• Independent realms will now build various city buildings if they can afford it.
• Fixed a bug where the city development mechanics would cause a hang due to failure to find a candidate pop to give a trait.
• Fixed an issue with mana display on the battle window showing too many decimals.
• Fixed a bug where ancient evils could cause turn processing to continue infinitely or crash the game.
• Fixed the incorrect cost of the Enchanted Fountain tower expansion (from 5 to 500 gold).
• Fixed a bug where a battle victory as defender showed incorrect loot in the post-battle message.
• Fixed a bug where the "always assign idle workers" functionality was a bit too eager and would immediately reassign any workers made idle, even if the player was in the process of re-assigning them.
• Fixed a bug where removing workers from the Wizard Tower was not possible.
• Fixed a bug with the roaming AI which would cause it to not attack armies/sites during certain points of a planned roaming path.
• Fixed a bug where tooltips had remnants of other tooltips.
• Fixed an issue where the transfer units dialog was not updating correctly when merging armies.
• Fixed a crash bug related to clicking on the edges of the screen.
• Fixed a performance issue caused by excessive logging in some very particular cases, mostly when zoomed fully in.
• Fixed exhausted armies being allowed to carry various actions (assault/siege/attack/etc) even though the user interface indicates it is not possible due. Players could ignore the messages and just do it anyway.
• Fixed the terribly broken Zone of Control logic, and the somewhat less broken display of valid build targets. You can now build sites in a hex where you either control the entire province (own all City/Fortress/Wizard Tower/Nomad Camp) or have an adjacent (City/Fortress/Wizard Tower/Outpost/Nomad Camp) and there is no enemy (City/Fortress/Wizard Tower/Nomad Camp). Note that Outposts do not block Zone of Control, but only extend it.

[ 2017-08-29 09:44:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Mega-Maps: The game engine now supports world maps of much larger sizes, removing the previous hard limit of 54x54 hexes. This change opens up a lot of possibilities for more granularity and detail in the generated worlds, with much more detailed kingdoms and continents that don't feel like islands.
• The default/medium world size has been increased from 30x30 to 44x44. The large and huge choices even more so. Huge now creates a world four times larger than before! Note that the larger worlds do take some time to generate on game startup - depending on size.
• City Pops now affect the resource/gold production. Farmers will produce food, artisans will produce trade goods, hunters will produce bone or fur etc. Cultural traits and tech level affect the composition and quantity of this production, as does pop traits such as Noble or Enslaved.
• Expanded the city growth and depopulation mechanics: Growth controls whether and how fast a city grows or depopulates, with smaller cities growing faster and being more resilient to depopulation, while the reverse holds for large cities.
• Expanded the mechanics for Pops gaining or losing traits (Noble, Rabble, Warrior, Hunter, Artisan, Farmer, Clergy, etc.) , to take into account additional cultural traits and city attributes.
• Updated to Unity 2017, which will improve performance, compatibility and stability.
• Units can no longer replenish any losses suffered during the preceding turn. Ie if a unit with a strength of 95 and a max size of 100 suffer 20 losses during battle (putting it at 75), it can replenish up 80 (10 - 20) during the following turn. Recent losses are cleared each turn. Units with Regeneration or Limited Regeneration are not subject to this. This makes it easier to whittle down a powerful army with attacks over multiple turns, makes it harder for a powerful army to blitz through weaker enemies, and makes garrisons slightly less powerful.
• Units with Regeneration will gain a bonus replenishment of 20% of the losses suffered during the turn. This is applied even if otherwise unable to reinforce due to logistics/distance.
• Implemented Reek (Battle Spell): Target unit gains the Noxious special ability for 10 seconds.
• Implemented Shard Storm (Battle Spell): Target unit suffers up to 20 hits for 5 physical damage. The number of hits cannot exceed the number of individuals in the unit. If the unit takes any damage a -2 penalty to Movement is applied for 10 seconds.
• Implemented Shadow Encumbrance (Battle Spell): Target unit suffers -3 to Movement and Melee Shock for 5 seconds. Cannot affect Semi-Corporeal, Spectral or Elemental targets.
• Implemented Chaos Bolt (Battle Spell): Inflicts 2 x (2 to 8) hits for 4 to 9 damage of two different types randomly chosen from: Arcane, Cold, Corrosive, Dark, Fire, Lightning, Radiant and Physical.
• Implemented Ice Bridge (World Spell): Creates a bridge across a river section (ie between two hexes divided by a river), allowing traversal as if there was no river.
• There is now a cap on how much Mana a wizard can spend on spells during a battle. The default value is 20, which can be increased through research, quests, events, etc. The current value is shown in the Ruler tab of the Quests and Victory Conditions window and during battles.
• The Wizard trait Channeling now gives +25% and Farsight trait gives +10% (these are additive and applied after any increases of the base value, e.g. due to research) to available Battle Magic.
• Wizards with Wild Magic have a randomized available mana pool during battle ranging from 50% to 150% of the normal value (including all modifiers). Note that the available mana is still constrained by the actual mana of the wizard.
• Increasing levels of Battle Magic (Minor/Lesser/Intermediate/Greater/Supreme) can now be researched as a spellcraft project. This will increase the battle magic cap introduced in this update.
• Battles fought at a Wizard Tower allow the Wizard to spend mana unconstrained by the battle mana cap.
• The Dark Sacrifice action (related to a Dark Pact quest) now allows choosing which specific Pop to sacrifice.
• Rebel factions are now much more picky about what diplomatic proposals they accept, and will reject any proposal from factions having active agreements (alliance, trade pact, non-aggression, etc.) with the faction the rebels are opposing.
• Technological progress and cultural traits are now considered when minor realms build resource sites. Savage and primitive civilizations are now much less likely to build Farms, and the 'Master Hunters' and 'Master Farmers' traits are now considered when choosing the resource site type.
• Optimized the AI strategic target selection algorithm (for raiding, conquest, war-planning, etc.) to make turn processing faster.
• Trade Good base quantities adjusted by a factor of 10 (and gold value adjusted accordingly). This allows for better granularity without resorting to (visible) fractional amounts.
• Fixed an issue where the population threshold for expansion for minor realm cities was tuned for the old population model (ie 25% of what it should be).
• Fixed an issue where some physical damage sources would cause a crash/hang during battles.
• Fixed garrisons and various defensive armies not replenishing losses correctly.
• Fixed an issue where Blood Sacrifice was never causing population loss. It has been changed to work like Dark Sacrifice, allowing the player to choose which pop to sacrifice.

[ 2017-08-22 20:22:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Changed City population to use a model where population is represented by so called "Pops" of various types (laborers, warriors, scholars, farmers, merchants, etc.). Each pop is equivalent to 1/4 of a populace level in the previous model. Currently the Pops are merely shown as a text line, but a future update will add proper visualization of pops, and make it possible to inspect their culture and traits.
• Reworked City mechanics. Martial/Crime/Learning/Spiritual/etc. no longer have levels, progress, growth levels and growth level modifiers, but are simply a numerical stat (which can have modifiers from spells and effects). These govern the transformation of pops into different types or gaining/losing traits, the chance of random events, etc. Combined with the pops this should be much easier to understand, manage and facilitate greater levels of player agency.
• The Populace stat has been replaced by a Growth stat, which needs to be positive for the city to grow in size. If growth is negative population levels will eventually decline.
• Implemented Stockpiles: You can now set a threshold for how many to keep of each resource type. The surplus is sold. You can also choose to stockpile all of a resource type. This is the first step towards making the economic/resource model more suited to having multiple layers of complexity and levels of micro-management, including having sub-variants of resources and a greater variety of resources without cluttering the UI.
• Bandits and Marauders are now named based on culture and/or relevant toponyms (e.g. 'Darkwood Marauders', "The Grim Despoilers", "Arakhul's Band").
• Friendly relations with a minor realm is now enough for basic recruitment from the unit pool of their culture (was previously Ally).
• Darkness and Demonic Taint can now spread from (active) dungeons with relevant themes.
• Disease and Blight can now spread from dungeons with the Vermin theme.
• Blight can now spread from (active) dungeons with the Pestilence theme.
• Disease can no longer spread to Hallowed hexes.
• Hex condition events no longer spread into ocean hexes.
• Captured and incapacitated characters can no longer function as 'watchers' in relation to notifications and events.
• Having a 'watcher' (army, character, site) in an hex bordering a province now provides information on events in the province in all cases.
• Cleansing Light: New spell which removes 1 level of Blight, Darkened or Demonic Taint from the target hex.
• Optimized the AI path finding code to speed up turn processing.
• Fixed an issue where inactive Pestilence-theme dungeons were spawning disease events.
• Fixed an issue where inactive Undead and Pestilence-themed dungeons were spawning Blight spread.
• Fixed an issue where Blight spread was orders of magnitude more likely than intended.
• Fixed an issue where players were not notified of all relevant events.
• Fixed an issue with hex tool tips being full of incorrect movement cost messages.
• Fixed an issue where some spells and events targeted at/happening in Arctic Forest would cause a crash/hang.
• Fixed an issue where the AI would consider too many options very thoroughly when choosing which hex to send an otherwise untasked army for exploration, causing turn processing to slow down.
• Fixed a bug where emissary events would cause turns to not process.
• Fixed a bug with high mastery values causing the game to hang.
• Fixed a bug where challenges with multiple tags did not handle correctly sources with the multiple applicable modifiers. E.g. a challenge with tags Magic and Combat being attempted by a character with a trait giving +5 to Magic and +10 Combat. In this case a +10 modifier should be applied, but previously the first modifier would always be applied (so either +5 or +10, depending on arbitrary circumstances). If contradictory modifiers exist, the strongest malus and strongest bonus will both be applied.

[ 2017-08-15 20:47:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

A stability-focused patch, but with a few new features: time speed slider for battles, faction greeting messages and the humble beginnings of a unique Soul mechanic/resource for Wizards using Dark and Demon magic. Also a few other minor odds and ends (full notes below).

• New Battle Spell: Drain Life. Deals 12 Dark damage hits on up to 8 targets in a unit. Each kill gives the caster 1 Soul resource.
• New Resources: Souls and Greater Souls. Have no effects yet, but will be part of Demon and Dark magic mechanics.
• Market can now handle resources which are not tradeable, either permanently or due to lack of prerequisites.
• If Rebels conquer a city, a leader will now be generated from the relevant culture and faction.
• Added greeting messages from newly encountered factions. These are phrased based on the attitude/traits/alignment of the player and non-player faction and give some hints as to the initial disposition in regards to diplomacy. Factions with a leader also show the name, portrait and (public) stats of the relevant character.
• Some character stats are now hidden when dealing with non-player characters (level, favored status, possibly others later).
• Added more tool tips to the City Window.
• Adjusted the hit points of Ogre (10), Ettin (14) and Cyclops (12) units to be more in line with their size. Previously they had basic humanoid hit point values.
• Added a time speed slider to the Battle Window, which lets the player speed up or slow down relative passage of time during the battle.
• Added tooltips to the spell ui in the Battle Window.
• When a battle starts, text will be shown indicating player/opposing forces, fading after some time. The color code legend is still permanent and lists colors and sides/faction.
• During game setup, events and traits related to romance and sexuality can now be enabled/disabled.
• A custom map without (or just one) defined provinces is now usable. The world generator will generate provinces as for random maps.
• Fixed a bug related to tooltip formatting which could cause instability and hangs.
• Fixed the mana display on the Battle Window to not show decimals.
• Fixed map labels not always being cleared without reloading when destroying sites.
• Fixed Mine construction requiring Earth mastery 3 and not 2 as shown in the tooltip.
• Fixed Quarry construction requiring Enchantment mastery instead of Earth mastery, as shown and intended.
• Fixed the Special Tax on cities giving way too much gold in some cases.
• Fixed City leaders not belonging to the correct faction for independent cities.
• Fixed glitch with road graphics at hex transitions.
• Fixed issue with text formatting for some random events.
• Fixed issue with battle log timestamp not being relative to the battle.
• Fixed a number of possible crash/hang scenarios during turn processing (ie world simulation and AI).
• Fixed Baleful Strength not being castable during battles.
• Fixed a world generation crash bug related to province analysis.
• Fixed a bug on the victory conditions tracking display where incorrect text would be appended.

[ 2017-08-05 21:04:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Graphics

• New world map graphics for all terrain types and some sites (3 sizes of 2 city variants and wizard towers). There are still aspects of the world map pending overhaul: armies, the remaining sites, province borders, rivers, coastlines, fog-of-war.

Battle Engine

• During battles hovering over a unit will display it's stats, attacks and abilities on a "unit card" panel. The display is sticky until hovering over a new unit, and has a minimize/maximize button.
• Spells can be cast during battles. Many battle spells do not have implemented effects yet and the ones that do, do not have any sound or visual effects yet.
• Added a pre-battle phase, where depending on the nature of the battle and opposing forces there may be one or more choices to make. These can affect the battle or even potentially avoid it (e.g. a successful retreat before battle occurs).
• Battles can now be paused.
• The Battle Window now stays open when a battle ends, allowing the player time to read the log and inspect the battlefield, until clicking the close button.
• The Battle Window log now appends messages to the top instead of the bottom.
• Reworked physical damage bonus due to strength to depend on weapon-specific values and be less advantageous to strong units
• Changed battle window side-specific unit and log colors to be more readable and accommodate color-blindness.
• The Battle Window log now includes a timestamp for each line.

Spells and Magic

• Fireball (battle spell). It deals 8 Fire damage to up to 10 targets in a unit.
• Power Word: Pain (battle spell). It deals 4 Dark damage to 20% of the targets in a unit. The unit suffers -1 Discipline, -1 Shock and -1 Melee Skill for 10 seconds if living and not mindless or hardy.
• Terrible Visage (battle spell). It gives the target unit the Terror special ability for 4 seconds. This ability reduces the effective courage of opposing units which are not mindless or terror-causing - and as such the spell can also be used to grant (temporary) immunity when faced with a terror-causing foe.
• Shrapnel (battle spell). It inflicts 25 + (25% of target unit size) hits for 4 Physical damage, increased to 6 if target unit has armor less than 3.
• Curse of Rust (battle spell). Reduces armor of a unit by 7 (down to 0). Can only target units with metal armor and/or the Metal tag.
• Hellfire (battle spell). It causes the target unit to suffer 2-10 hits for 3 Dire+ 3 Dark damage very 4 seconds for 16 seconds. While in effect, any Demons attacking the target gain a temporary buff "Vigor: Hellfire" which gives +2 Melee Skill, +2 Fire Damage and +3 Courage.
• Lightning Bolt (battle spell). It which deals up to 5 hits for 12 Lightning damage to the target. If the unit is wearing metal armor, the numbers of hits is doubled and the damage increased by 50%.
• Magic Missiles (battle spell). It causes 7-18 hits for 6 Arcane damage to the target.
• Blur (battle spell). It gives Ranged Avoidance to the target for the remainder of the battle (or until dispelled).
• Rapid Reload (battle spell). It halves the reload delay of a crossbow-using unit for 8 seconds. It is not auto-granted by mastery progression but needs to be researched (prerequisites are Artifice 3 and War 1).
• Boost Constructs (battle spell). Usable on Constructs, giving +1 Melee Skill, +1 Melee Power, +1 Melee Shock, +2 Movement for 5 seconds.
• Disassemble (battle spell). Usable on Constructs, causing 5-25 hits for 10 True damage, but with (5+Hit Points+Controller Artifice Mastery)% to resist. Each kill grants 1 Mana to the caster. The spell is not auto-granted by mastery progression but needs to be researched (prerequisites are Artifice 5 and Destruction 3).

General

• Compression is now used to reduce the size of save game files.
• Optimized the save game code. As the majority of turn processing is taken up by the auto-save, this has a significant impact on turn processing speed.
• Foundations for localization/translation added. The language can be changed in the Game Settings window. Currently only the main menu is translated. Also note the list of languages is not final, and may or may not reflect the order in which localization occurs.
• Extended the tutorial to cover the different parts of the Wizard/Magic window.
• Names are now generated for Oceans, Seas and Lakes.
• New terrain types: Arctic Hills, Arctic Mountains, Taiga (Arctic Forest), Arid Hills, Arid Mountains, Shrublands, Marsh, Forested Hills, Forested Mountains, Desert Hills, Desert Mountains. World generation will place these according to local climate and humidity.
• City-based rebels can now assault their origin city without sieging. This also fixes an issue where the rebel AI could not take back an undefended city due to a reluctance to commence a siege.

User Interface

• Wizard Project cost penalty text has been changed to be more clear.
• Added a fade-in effect for tooltips
• Changed tooltips for masteries to have 2 columns
• The City Window now has a button which switches between "Construction" and "Buildings" for player-controlled cities, so that you inspect the already constructed buildings.
• When a follower suggests a task, the dialog now has a side panel with portrait+info for the relevant follower.
• The (active) level up dialog now shows portrait+info for the relevant follower and has tool tips with trait/skill mechanics for the choices.
• The (passive) level up dialog now has tool tips for followers and traits/skills.
• The choice of what to do with the leader of a conquered city (depose/execute/exile/etc.) now includes portrait+info for the leader character.
• Added a button next to the minimap which toggles province borders on/off.
• Added a button next to the minimap which toggles army visibility on/off.
• Added a button next to the minimap which toggles site visibility on/off.
• Added a toggle to hide all the filter buttons.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with the text in the Wizard Project window being oddly aligned.
• Fixed issue with the text in the Construction Project window being oddly aligned.
• Fixed issue with army icons being minimized without reason.
• Fixed issue with charge status not being applied correctly during battles.
• Fixed issue with units being able to hit retreating enemies from a rather extreme distance with melee attacks
• Fixed issue with weird battle reports in the Encyclopedia for battles resolved via the new battle engine
• Fixed issue with the Demonic Strength spell being permanent instead of lasting 6 turns
• Fixed some difficult-to-click buttons in the game setup.
• Fixed some tooltip alignment issues (particularly visible when using UI scaling).
• Fixed issue with lengthy tooltips extending below the edge of the screen. These are now split into columns, trying to divide along paragraphs/sections.
• Fixed issue with the game setup windows disappearing and bugging the game setup flow.
• Fixed issue with province labels not being cleared when quitting a game until starting a new one.
• Fixed issue with corrupt save games making the load dialog unusable. They will now be marked as unloadable instead, allowing the player to delete them and/or load a non-corrupted save game.
• Fixed issue with unit/attack abilities: Anti-Cavalry, Anti-Monsters and Monster Slayers. These would cause crashes and hangs in the battle engine.
• Fixed issue with some map sprites being off-center.
• Fixed issue with AI factions conquering a player city not triggering a notification.

[ 2017-08-02 15:19:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a brief update on development and a small teaser of the upcoming graphical improvements. The next update will have the new art for tiles and wizard towers. This also includes new terrain types: marsh, shrub-lands, climate-specific mountains and hills, and quite a few more. There are also improvements to tool tips, the tutorial, more spells, bug fixes, and some other odds and ends. It should be ready during the next week or two, and with the summer coming to an end, should mark the resumption of more frequent updates.

[ 2017-07-23 20:00:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here's the latest update - delivered in a slightly different way than usual. Due to summer vacation, there will be little to no available developer support from now till July 18th. Until then, the update is an opt-in found via Properties->Beta in the Steam Client. Once the ability to respond quickly to support inquiries and push out hot fixes is restored, the build will be pushed to the main branch. Patch notes are as follows, a mix of battle system improvements and the (very early) beginnings of non-English language support.

• During battles hovering over a unit will display it's stats, attacks and abilities on a "unit card" panel. The display is sticky until hovering over a new unit, and has a minimize/maximize button.
• Spells can be cast during battles. Most battle spells do not have implemented effects yet and the ones that do, do not have any sound or visual effects yet.
• Implemented Fireball (battle spell). It deals 8 Fire damage to up to 10 targets in a unit.
• Implemented Power Word: Pain (battle spell). It deals 4 Dark damage to 20% of the targets in a unit. The unit suffers -1 Discipline, -1 Shock and -1 Melee Skill for 10 seconds if living and not mindless or hardy.
• Implemented Terrible Visage (battle spell). It gives the target unit the Terror special ability for 4 seconds. This ability reduces the effective courage of opposing units which are not mindless or terror-causing - and as such the spell can also be used to grant (temporary) immunity when faced with a terror-causing foe.
• Implemented Shrapnel (battle spell). It inflicts 25 + (25% of target unit size) hits for 4 Physical damage, increased to 6 if target unit has armor less than 3.
• Implemented Curse of Rust (battle spell). Reduces armor of a unit by 7 (down to 0). Can only target units with metal armor and/or the Metal tag.
• Added a pre-battle phase, where depending on the nature of the battle and opposing forces there may be one or more choices to make. These can affect the battle or even potentially avoid it (e.g. a successful retreat before battle occurs).
• Compression is now used to reduce the size of save game files.
• Optimized the save game code. As the majority of turn processing is taken up by the auto-save, this has a significant impact on turn processing speed.
• Battles can now be paused.
• Wizard Project cost penalty text has been changed to be more clear.
• The Battle Window now stays open when a battle ends, allowing the player time to read the log and inspect the battlefield, until clicking the close button.
• The Battle Window log now appends messages to the top instead of the bottom.
• Reworked physical damage bonus due to strength to depend on weapon-specific values and be less advantageous to strong units
• Changed battle window side-specific unit and log colors to be more readable and accommodate color-blindness.
• Foundations for localization/translation added. The language can be changed in the Game Settings window. Currently only the main menu is translated. Also note the list of languages is not final, and may or may not reflect the order in which localization occurs.
• Fixed issue with the text in the Wizard Project window being oddly aligned.
• Fixed issue with the text in the Construction Project window being oddly aligned.
• Fixed issue with army icons being minimized without reason.
• Fixed issue with charge status not being applied correctly during battles.
• Fixed issue with units being able to hit retreating enemies from a rather extreme distance with melee attacks
• Fixed issue with weird battle reports in the Encyclopedia for battles resolved via the new battle engine
• Fixed issue with the Demonic Strength spell being permanent instead of lasting 6 turns

[ 2017-07-09 22:40:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update is mostly bug fixes and some tweaks to the battle/unit ability mechanics. It is a little smaller than the updates usually are, but there a lots of interesting things in the pipeline, and the next couple of updates should have a lot more 'meat'. As mentioned, the graphical overhaul is being worked on in parallel. Here's a teaser of the new map graphics that the talented Max Heyder is currently working on:
The next update will focus on improving everything about the new combat resolution: graphics, army control, usability, and probably the first battle spells. There will also be the first steps towards localization (ie non-english languages), as there have been a lot of requests for this. Battle Mechanics:

• Units with the tag Demon or Demonic Taint now have a 5% higher chance of being affected by Radiant-type attacks and a 10% lower chance of being affected by Dark-type attacks.
• Units with the tag Angel or Celestial now have a 5% higher chance of being affected by Dark-type attacks and a 10% lower chance of being affected by Radiant-type attacks.
• Units with the Semi-Corporeal ability now have a 5% increased chance of being affected by Arcane-type attacks.
• New Attack Modifier: Aura. These attacks always hit (but can be still be resisted). The skill attribute of the attacker does not affect the resolution and the attack cannot be a critical or glancing hit.
• The formula for resolving the chance for shields blocking ranged attacks has been changed from (25 + 5*Discipline)% to (2X + X*Discipline)%. X is based on the block value of the shield (normally in the range of 1 to 5). The Shield Wall ability will add an additional 10% of blocking. Retreating units have the chance reduced to (½x*Discipline)%. If the attack is physical and (base damage+break defense) is greater than block value + 4 (8 with shieldwall), the shield block is skipped.
• Undead/Construct/Demonic removed as special abilities. Tags and other special abilities are now used to handle all effects previously linked to these.
• New Unit Ability: Mindless. Such units are unaffected by (positive and negative) morale effects and all spells/effects relating to thought and/or emotion (charm, mind-control, hypnotism, frenzy, etc.). It also confers a 2% reduced chance of being affected by Radiant and Dark-type attacks.
• New Unit Ability: Limited Mind. Similar to mindless but reduces rather than eliminates the mentioned effects.
• New Unit Ability: Unfeeling. Confers immunity to (positive and negative) morale effects and emotion-related spells/effects (charm, frenzy, berserk, etc.) but not thought-related effects (mind-control, hypnotism, etc.).

Misc.:

• Unit special abilities and attack special effects now have tool tips.
• Added a few more variations to the unit name generator.
• Currency name is now listed under culture details.
• Unit Ability: Amphibious now allows movement in coastal water hexes at no movement penalty.
• Unit Ability: Aquatic now allows movement in all water hexes at no movement penalty.
• New Unit Type: Liches. Can be researched with Necromancy 6, Arcane 3, and either Frost 3, Darkness 3 or Arcane 6. Can also be used as a template for dungeon bosses. Default unit size is very low, they are slow, and very difficult to damage with physical/mundane attacks. They have powerful frost-based attacks at medium range, a drain-type attack at short range, and a decent, but low skill, melee attack. They also cause terror and are fearless.
• New Unit Type: Mummies. Can be researched with Necromancy 4, Death 2, and Darkness 2. Can also be used as a template for dungeon bosses. They are slow, strong, extremely tough, but very vulnerable to fire.
• Death Knights: Now have an Aura attack with Dark damage 4.
• Tower Shield renamed to Pavise.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed the cursor being an X during battles taking place outside of the player's turn.
• Fixed wizard tower expansions under construction not being listed when clicking the "Demolish" button in the Wizard Tower window.
• Fixed issue with army general modifiers being applied multiple times.
• Fixed issue with shrines and temples causing the game to hang or end up in a corrupted state.
• Fixed issue with the "buy missing" toggle in the construction project window not working properly if the value was auto-filled and not set by the player.
• Fixed 'shore-only' units being able to venture anywhere. An army containing one or more of these units can no longer traverse fully land-locked terrain.
• Fixed issue with secondary damage not being applied properly during battle resolution.
• Fixed issue with armor penetration/resistance reduction not being applied properly in some cases during battle resolution.
• Fixed issue with line breaks in the text panels on the military window.

[ 2017-06-27 19:39:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Apologies for the long update cycle this time around. Tasks related to the new battle resolution taking longer than estimated is the primary reason for the delay. This also means it is in a quite basic state of progress, has a lot of bugs and missing features, and placeholder graphics. Make sure to save before trying it out. There are also a good number of other improvements with a more immediate effect on game play. See the patch notes below for the details. The next update will probably be focused on bug fixing and stability, with a smattering of misc. improvements. After that the plan is another iteration of progress on battle resolution, with world content and mechanics being worked on in parallel. The map graphics overhaul has left the concept stage, with several terrain types finished, and the artist delivering more at an impressive pace. Integrating these graphics and polishing the map shaders will also take some time in the coming updates. Patch Notes User Interface:

• The Army Window now shows tool tips for unit equipment.
• The Army Window now shows Culture (with tool tip) for relevant units.
• The Army Window now has a drop down for section (main/scout/vanguard/reserves) assignment from the Unit Details. From the management view, double-clicking a unit in one of the non-main section will remove from the section (ie assign it to the main force).
• Changed the display of unit attributes to more clearly indicate the breakdown of current, base and bonus/penalty values.
• Shift+right-click will now copy the text from most text areas, panels, etc. to the clipboard. Ctrl+right-click will copy the clicked word and not the entire text. This can be used for bug reports, pasting into a translation tool, etc.
• Cleared dungeons are now marked as such on the map and in the Dungeon window.

Battles:

• A new optional battle resolution mode has been added, where the armies move and fight in real-time. This is a quite basic first version, and a lot of features are yet to be added. The pace is very slow, the AI not very bright, and the graphics are placeholders.
• Reworked the "Melee Damage" attribute of Units. It was previously a combination of default attack damage and physical strength, and didn't interact very well with the attacks granted by weapons. The attribute is now "Strength" and if lower than 5 gives a penalty to damage with weapon attacks; if higher a bonus is applied. In the future it will also be used (in combination with size) to determine the allowable weight of weapons for a unit and whether two hands are needed. In most parts of the UI it will still be displayed as Melee Damage but based upon (Strength - 5). Damage bonuses for values above 10 are doubled.

Misc.:

• Nomad Camp Sites can now be assaulted. If the attacker is victorious, the camp is removed from the map and an army representing the migrating remnants will appear. They will try to find a new place to settle.
• Tweaked the stats of Lesser Vampires.
• Added Unit Type: Vampires. Requires Necromancy 5, Blood 4 to research raising them and Necromancy 6, Darkness 5 to research summoning them.
• Added Unit Type: Elder Vampires. Requires Necromancy 7,Darkness 6 to research summoning them.

Cities:

• New Building: Gardens. Requires Semi-Cultured or higher. --Squalor, -Unrest, +Decadence. Cheap, but takes a very long time to construct.
• New Building: Granary. Requires Primitive or higher. +Population Growth.
• New Building: Shipyards. Requires Barbarian or higher and coastal location. ++Prosperity, +Industry.
• New Building: Aqueduct. Requires Cultured or Highly Cultured. --Squalor, +Population Growth, +Industry. Has a maintenance cost as the first building type (reduces city gold output by 50). This will be expanded to other relevant buildings later.
• New Building: Festering Lake. Requires Pestilence Mastery 3+ and temperate or warmer climate. +30 Squalor, +learning, +decadence, +industry, ---population growth, --prosperity, +research, +unrest.
• Tweaked the Unrest contributions of a few city buildings.
• Reduced the Squalor contributions of a few city buildings.

Magic:

• Order Mastery progress is increased by a value derived from the controlled city with the lowest combined Squalor and Unrest, and a value derived from the number of controlled cities with low combined Squalor and Unrest (contributions scaling with how low the combined score is). This bonus is capped at 4 + (Order Mastery Level).
• Chaos Mastery progress is increased by a value derived from the controlled city with the highest Unrest, and a value derived from the total Unrest values of controlled cities with Unrest of at least 25. This bonus is capped at 4 + (Chaos Mastery Level).
• Shadow Mastery progress is now increased by ½ for each follower on a covert mission (Espionage, Counter Espionage, Sabotage, Theft, etc.), doubled for followers who have the Arcane type. This bonus is capped at ½+ (Shadow Mastery Level / 2).
• War Mastery progress is now increased by a value derived from the highest Martial attribute of any controlled cities and by a value derived from the combined Martial levels of owned cities with Martial levels higher than 3.
• City Squalor now contributes to Pestilence Mastery progress. A value from ½ to (Pestilence Level+1) is contributed by the city with the highest Squalor, and a value from ½ to 4 is contributed by the sum of Squalor in all cities with > 25 Squalor.
• Active Research Projects now show the contribution of various factors to progress during the previous turn as a tool tip. lower.
• Spellcraft: Drain Mana Nodes added. When researched it enables draining Mana Nodes for a large instant mana gain (approx. 750% of the per turn production when bound). However, this makes the node inactive for 8-12 turns, during which it cannot be drained and provides no mana to the controller.

Wizard Towers:

• When choosing which Wizard Tower Expansion to build, the fluffy vague description of most expansion types has been replaced with a summary of the relevant mechanics.
• Shrine (Wizard Tower Expansion) now only applies a passive +1 xp bonus to non-recovering Religious followers of level 5 or lower. (previously only required Religious).
• Arena (Wizard Tower Expansion) now only applies a passive +1 xp bonus to non-recovering Martial followers of level 5 or lower. (previously only required Martial).
• Guest Chambers (Wizard Tower Expansion) now has a passive +1 xp bonus to non-recovering Civic followers of level 5 or lower.
• Bazaar (Wizard Tower Expansion) now has a 5% chance per non-recovering Mercantile follower at the tower to generate (follower level + D10)*25 gold, and an additional +1 xp for the follower. The existing passive +1 xp bonus now only applies to non-recovering Mercantile followers of level 5 or lower.
• Mystic Furnace (Wizard Tower Expansion) now gives a progress bonus to Enchant Item and Devise Construct projects of 5 research points + 1 per non-recovering Artisan follower (up to 5) at the tower. The passive +1 xp bonus now only applies to non-recovering Artisan followers of level 5 or lower.
• Academy (Wizard Tower Expansion) now gives a progress bonus to Research Lore projects of 5 research points + 1 per non-recovering Scholar follower (up to 5) at the tower. If any Scholars are present, there is a chance for non-Scholar followers (of level 5 or lower) to gain 1 xp. This chance is 5% + 5% per Scholar (up to 5) + 25% if one or more Scholars with the Mentor trait are present. The passive +1 xp bonus now only applies to non-recovering Scholar followers of level 5 or lower, and no longer applies to Civic followers (unless one of the other conditions apply).
• Arcane Laboratory (Wizard Tower Expansion) now gives a 5% each turn to add 25% progress to research projects of types: Greater Alchemy, Unlock Mastery, Research Spellcraft and Research Spell. It also modifies the progress by 1 research point for each non-recovering Arcane follower at the tower (with a maximum of 5 gained this way). The passive +1 xp bonus now only applies to non-recovering Arcane followers of level 5 or
• Wizard Tower expansions can now be demolished, recouping 25% of the construction cost (and freeing the slot for construction). This can be accessed from the "Demolish Expansion" button or by clicking the expansion icon (will give a yes/no prompt and list resource gain).
• Wizard Tower expansion construction can now be cancelled, recouping 50% of the construction cost. This can be done by clicking the expansion icon (will give a yes/no prompt and list resource gain).
• Wizard Tower expansion construction now colors resources which are fully or partially missing. It also lists the cost to buy missing resources if applicable, and auto-buys them if the player chooses the expansion type for construction.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue with calculating the possibility of purchasing missing resources which made the AI take incorrect decisions and sometimes
• Fixed the outliner and info/resource panel not updating after taking actions in the Wizard Tower window.
• Fixed the dialog with Wizard Tower expansions having OK enabled for invalid options, resulting in a confusing lack of feedback when it was clicked.
• Army icons were being minimized on the map even if selected when progressing the turn and in many other cases. They now stay in front until a new selection is made.
• Fixed duration not ticking on some City stats (e.g. Squalor).
• Fixed city building construction progress being incorrect in the Outliner.
• Fixed shrine sites not saving patron deity. For old save games, the fix will try to find the deity based on the description text of the shrine, which should work in the vast majority of cases.
• The Dark Tome event was not interacting properly with the new research system.
• Fixed an issue with unit types being created without correct tags and attacks if copied internally from a template or another unit type.
• During world generation Dungeons are no longer populated with bosses that have unimplemented character or monster types.
• Fixed issue with melee damage modifiers due to spells and effects not being applied to unit attacks not based on equipment/items.
• Fixed issue with army destruction/disbanding sometimes not being processed correctly, leading to weird character assignment, "dangling" effects, etc.
• Unit commanders are no longer lost when a merging a non-commanded unit with a commanded unit.
• Fixed issue with "Save" button being disabled incorrectly sometimes on the File Dialog.
• Fixed a crash bug which sometimes happened when opening the Hire Follower window.

[ 2017-06-12 20:00:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a small interim update with some important bug fixes, but also a few new spells, mechanics, and user interface improvements. The next large update will focus on battle resolution and is expected to be ready within a week at most.

• Splash screen added to replace the black screen when the game is launched.
• Extended the "showing-all-characters-but-unavailable-ones-are-dimmed-out-and-have-text-explaining-why" functionality to cover all character selections.
• Conquering a settlement from an independent realm will give control of any adjacent resource sites, not adjacent to a fortress or other settlement of that independent realm.
• Added modifier tool tips to additional city stats: unrest, tyranny, squalor and fortification.
• Spell: Scales of Justice implemented. It decreases crime, unrest and decadence in a city.
• Spell: Depravity implemented. It increases crime and decadence in a city, but decreases unrest.
• Spell: Demonic Strength implemented. It gives a damage and toughness bonus to the affected unit.
• Bug fix: Non-blight hex conditions were being incorrectly saved.
• Bug fix: Multiple hex conditions in the same hex made save files unable to load.
• Bug fix: Lesser Mass Mutation gave no error message when trying to select an invalid worker.
• Bug fix: Beseech Dark Patron spell was unavailable.
• Bug fix: Spell cooldowns were not applied correctly.
• Bug fix: Modifiers could sometimes cause stats to violate minimum and maximum values (e.g. negative unrest).
• Bug fix: Spells targeting workers with no valid targets gave an empty window. A message is now shown instead.

[ 2017-05-18 21:30:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes UI

• The Ruler tab on the Quests and Objectives Window now shows any researched Spellcraft.
• The Wizard Tower window now lists effects affecting the site (with details and duration as tooltip).
• The City window now lists effects affecting the site (with details and duration as tooltip). For non-player cities, only effects caused by the player are visible.
• Improved Unit effect display in the Army window to include all relevant effects and details/duration in the tooltip.
• The selection info panel now shows effects if a player-controlled army or site is selected.
• When in selection mode on the map, left-click cycling will adapt to the selection type. For example, when prompted to select an army, sites will not be selected when clicking in a hex. This saves some unnecessary clicks cycling past irrelevant items.
• Cleaned up some more blurry text.
• Clicking on a unit in the Army Window list now acts as a shortcut to go to Unit Details.
• Tags are now shown under Unit Details in the Army Window and in the Military Window.
• Spells with not yet implemented effects are now clearly marked as such in the Spellbook.
• A mastery increase now gives a notification listing new spells, units, mechanics, etc.
• Spellbook now has icons for each spell. If there is no icon defined for a spell yet, the icon for the most relevant mastery will be used.
• The Mastery table now has tooltips. For the progress and usage columns the tooltip will show some mechanics info for these.
• All Masteries now have unique icons

Magic

• Air, Earth, Fire and Water Mastery now allows researching summoning of Elementals with the "Summon Elementals" spellcraft as a pre-requisite.
• There is now support for Wizard Research projects being enabled by multiple sets of prerequisites. Previously this required duplicate projects, which was confusing if several prerequisites were met, causing the duplicates to all be researchable. For example, "Spirit Hounds" requires the following masteries: Death 1 + Beasts 1 OR Necromancy 2 + Beasts 1. Thus a Wizard with Death 1, Beasts 1, Necromancy 2, would get two research "Spirit Hounds" options.
• Mastery now increases from casting spells and controlling units.
• Added more Unit Research projects: Lesser Elder Spawn, Demonic Siege Beasts, Lesser Angels of Hope, Lesser Angels of Unity, Hellhounds, Soulgorger Vultures, Skeleton Mages, Imps, Greater Imps.
• Abyssal Mastery now unlocks the following units at the indicated level: Tormented (1), Demonic Spearmen (2), Demonic Macemen (3), Demonic Crossbowmen (4), Demonic Armored Swordsmen (6), Demonic Armored Greatswords (8).

Magic (Spells)

• Added the Bad Moon spell, which doubles the chance of (negative) random events in a province for 4 turns. During the Bad Moon, the caster gains 25 mana for each such event which occurs.
• The Lesser Arcane Ward, Arcane Ward and Greater Arcane Ward spells are now mutually exclusive, but the latter two can replace a less powerful ward.
• The Empower Undead spell has been renamed to Necropotence. It can only target (friendly) Undead units and gives +2 Movement, +1 Melee Skill, +2 Melee Damage and +2 Toughness for 2 Turns, after which it has 50% to deal 1%-20% damage (of maximum unit strength) to the unit. It cannot be dispelled.
• The Iron Skin spell now grants the Metal type to a unit for it's duration (in addition to the other effects). It can now only target units which are not of type Spectral or Air.
• The Incite Unrest spell can now only target settlements with less than 75 Unrest, and cannot increase it beyond this value.
• The Barkskin spell now grants the Plant type to a unit for it's duration (in addition to the other effects). It can now only target Living and Non-Plant units.
• The Stoneskin spell now grants the Earth type to a unit for it's duration (in addition to the other effects). It can now only target units which are not of type Elemental, Spectral or Earth.
• Implemented the Flash of Insight spell. It can target friendly characters of level 4 or less. A character cannot be targeted more than once every 24 turns.
• Implemented the Feral Strength spell. It can now only target units which are Living and not Magical.
• implemented the Hurricane spell (reduce movement next to turn to 1, damages flying units on land/most units on water, 50% to blow fleets into an adjacent hex). Spectral units are immune. Aquatic and Water units are immune on water.
• Implemented the Rain of Fire spell. (it deals Fire damage to all armies in the Hex. Site damage part NYI).
• Implemented the Empowered Furnaces spell (Settlement Target: +2 Industry Growth. Any Target: -50% Recruitment Time (Armored Units).
• Implemented the Reaper's Due spell (damages Undead units in a hex).
• Implemented the Curse of Rot spell (gives -2 population growth, -2 prosperity, -1 industry, +1 sprituality and adds to squalor 5+10% of existing value, and destroys 25% of any stored food).
• Implemented the Dark Rituals spell (requires a follower to assist who will be fatigued, and may suffer death/injury/possession, gain 6D6 mana and 6D6 mastery progress).
• Implemented the Blood Sacrifice spell (sacrifice city population to gain 6D6 mana and 6D6 mastery progress).
• Implemented the Mend Constructs spell (it replenishes losses suffered by a Construct unit).
• Implemented the Dispel Magic spell (it removes magical effects from the target, potentially skipping positive/negative effects if a mix is present and as relevant if the target is friendly or non-friendly).
• Implemented the Entangle spell. It can be cast on an army in a Forest, Swamp or Jungle hex. It reduces the movement speed of non-Flying, non-Elemental, non-Spectral units to 1 during the next turn. Units with Pathfinder have a 25% chance to resist the effect, and if affected only suffer a 50% reduction in movement speed.
• Implemented the Call to Arms spell. It can target a Settlement, Fortress or Wizard Tower, and reduces the time needed to recruit/train new units by 25% (does not affect Bind, Summon, Create, etc.). Settlements also receive a +1 bonus to martial.
• The spell "Create Mongrel Men" is now "Lesser Mass Mutation", and the created unit is now "Mutants".

Units

• Added Nereids, an Ocean-based faerie similar to Dryads.
• Added Medusae, humanoids with serpentine features and a petrifying gaze.

Other

• Effects can now be marked as Positive, Negative, both or neither. This is relevant for various mechanics and the AI.
• Custom Constructs now have relevant material-related type tags assigned (Metal, Earth, Bone, etc), as well as the Construct type.
• Silk has been added as a resource type. It is tradable on the Market, but there are no production sources yet.
• Optimized some core text routines increasing world generation speed and turn processing speed.
• Optimized some of the core content generation code increasing world generation speed.
• Refactored the way pre-defined unit types are stores and accessed, improving performance and robustness.
• Wizard AI now makes use of research projects.

Events

• The Slave Uprising event can now occur in Cities with a Slave Market *or* a primary culture which has the Slavery trait (previously required both). Where it previously only gave Unrest, it now also has a chance to spawn an army of Escaped Slaves. In addition for 24 turns, the City suffers +2 Crime, -2 Industry, -2 Prosperity and -1 Populace.
• The Superstition event now gives a City +1 Spiritual and -1 Learning modifiers (for 12 turns) in addition to the Unrest.
• The "Theft" event now has the loss of gold capped at 2000 gold.
• The "Scarecrow Incident" event can now be triggered by all three levels of Scarecrow units, and not just Lesser Scarecrows.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issues with terrain analysis during world generation.
• Fixed an issue with some aspect ratios and resolutions having incorrect row layout in the Wizard Mastery table-view.
• Fixed Slave Uprising event sometimes being resolved as a Tournament.
• Disease events which only affected a City and not a Province had no effect. The effects are now aligned.
• Unit upkeep was calculated in two subtly different ways in the user interface and during turn processing. This has now been unified.
• Fixed issue with Unit upkeep and cost modifiers from Summoning and Binding mastery not being applied.
• Fixed an issue with negative time required to summon or bind some units.
• Fixed an issue with the Next/Prev buttons in the Spellbook panel.
• Fixed an issue with the No Upkeep unit effect never expiring.
• Fixed armor stat not being listed in the Army Window.
• Fixed wizard project list view retaining scroll offset when changing category, causing contents to be not visible in some cases.

Notes Building on the new magic system, a lot of spells have been implemented, mastery can now be increased (unlocking new spells/units) and more research options have been added (units, spellcraft). The update also has bug fixes (mostly related to the systems introduced in the last patch) and a couple of user interface improvements. In the coming week focus will be battle resolution and battle magic. The next update should also feature improved visualization of research options, being able to see what options are not yet unlocked and what the prerequisites are. Finally, being able to copy blocks of text to the clipboard (for translation, bug reports, taking notes, etc.) is also planned to be enabled for all text areas/windows. As previously mentioned a graphical overhaul of the map is also being worked on, but still in too early a stage for sharing. Please note that there have been large changes to fundamental systems during the last two updates, and despite heavy testing, it is highly likely that there are still bugs lurking. These will of course be fixed as soon as possible when they are reported and/or found internally.

[ 2017-05-13 16:34:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

This patch introduces a completely reworked magic and research system. Please note that there are still rough edges due to the extensive nature of the changes. The main one is that you cannot raise mastery levels in this build. That will be enabled in the next update, which is coming very shortly. Patch Notes:

• The magic and research system has been completely reworked. This includes a rewrite of many underlying systems, especially the "effect" system which handles buffs/debuffs/conditions/etc. Flexibility and extensibility have improved, which will allows a wider range of effects and makes it faster to add new spells and related content.
• Research has been replaced by Mastery, Lore, Spellcraft and Projects.
• Mastery is skill and power at a specific type of magic (e.g. Fire, Arcane, Abyssal, Life). It starts at level 1 once unlocked, and then improves over time by using magic from that mastery. A single mastery can be set as focus, which gives a passive increase in power. If no focus is set, the passive gain is spread over all unlocked masteries. Note: Raising mastery level is not currently enabled.
• Mastery levels unlock spells, units, projects and mechanics.
• Lore represents an area of knowledge. It currently has no effect, but in future updates it will affect unlocking of projects, events, give a bonus to fighting certain enemies, and more.
• Projects are a wide variety of arcane pursuits, for example researching new spells, units, designs for arcane constructs, unlocking masteries and spellcraft. Examples of spellcraft: "Summon Demons", "Bind Faeries". These control access to further projects and/or have inherent mechanics.
• Mana Nodes can be located once a requisite spellcraft ("Sense Mana Nodes") has been researched.
• Mana Nodes can be located once a requisite spellcraft ("Bind Mana Nodes") has been researched.
• Diplomacy actions are no longer limited by research for Wizards.
• The Bazaar wizard tower upgrade now has the positive market price modifiers previously held by the "Basic Commerce" research (which no longer exists).
• The Barracks wizard tower upgrade now grants the "Create Personal Guard" action previously granted by researching Leadership.
• More blurry text has been replaced.
• Layout of actions button has been changed to make text more readable and overlap less with the icon image.
• Construction projects now show missing resources with red text and the exact amount missing as a tooltip.
• Custom wizard templates are now persisted across sessions.
• Custom wizard templates can now be deleted.
• Army tool tips now show effects (ie buff/debuff/special condition). All effects on player-controlled armies are shown. On other armies only effects caused by the player are shown.
• Many spells have been changed, a few have been removed and a few have been added. Numerical values (cost, buff/damage values, etc.) have not received a balance pass yet. Some of the spells do not have implemented effects, this will be fixed over the coming days.
• Spirit Hound unit type added. Must be researched. Requires Death 1 or Necromancy 2, Beasts 1 and Spirit Summoning.
• Movement through water hexes now cost the full movement allowance of an army instead of 100. Has the same effect, but is less confusing and interacts better with various free movement mechanics.
• Game version is now written in the Save Game summary and shown on the Load dialog.
• Bugfix: Fixed path-finding algorithm not considering army special abilities when finding the shortest path.
• Bugfix: Armies which receive one or more moves at cost 0 are now also counted as having moved for the purpose of mechanics checking this. (prevents some unlimited move exploits and weird situations with sieging/pillaging/etc).
• Bugfix: Fixed (rare) issue with starting units for undead/necromancer wizards with beast magic.
• Bugfix: The Midas Touched trait interaction with market prices is now consistent.
• Bugfix: Buy and sell prices on the market did not always have the right modifiers applied. applied.
• Bugfix: Fixed an issue with tooltips flickering briefly when the mouse was moved quickly from one interface element to another (both having tool tips).
• Bugfix: Fixed missing scrollbars on the Army Window under Unit Details.
• Bugfix: Fixed an issue with tooltips missing on the selected hex.
• Bugfix: Fixed an issue with unit attacks using skill 0 instead of the default skill value, for some attacks with non-specific skill values.

[ 2017-05-02 21:34:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update is primarily a usability focused one: text quality improvements, more tool tips, collapsible headers in the encyclopedia, the foundations of a tutorial, and more. There are also a few mechanics changes and some bug fixes. The full patch notes are below. The next update is planned to focus on reworking the Research mechanics and user interface, which ties into the magic system as a whole. User Interface

• The settings window has a new "Info" section which shows the location of save game files and the log files. Each has a button which copies the path to the clipboard for pasting into a file explorer. This makes it easier to locate save and log files for error reporting.
• Tutorial dialog, hint arrows, and a very basic tutorial flow. Focus has been on getting the framework in place for the tutorial, so the content is very rough.
• The Next Turn button has been tidied up visually.
• Equipment on the Military window now has tool tips.
• Changed the colors of disabled buttons to make it more obvious that they are non-interactive.
• Text colors changed to adhere better to WCAG 2.0 standards of sufficient contrast.
• More blurry text has been fixed (but not all).
• Encyclopedia now has expandable/collapsible groups with headers, making it more similar to an explorer or tree view style UI element.
• Worker Skill Tooltips: Now have numerical values instead of descriptions and include effect when assigned to a Wizard Tower.
• Saturation slider added to Color Picker to make it easier to pick unsaturated colors.
• Worker production modifiers are now shown when assigning and removing workers, including the source of various modifiers (skill, culture, etc.)
• Settings (volume, auto save, etc.) are now persisted across game sessions.
• Trait Tool tips: Traits which affect the army bonus when the character is assigned as General now list the numerical mechanics, instead of a vague description. NYI traits are still vague.

Mechanics and AI

• Armies can now be assigned a General and/or Scout Captain who is not adjacent to the army. It may take some time for the character to travel to the army, which is shown when making the selection. The tool tips on the Army Window show if an assigned character is en route and the number of turns left.
• Wizard starting units now have a recruitment type (bind/recruit/create/raise/summon/etc) based on the default for that unit type. This will affect the upkeep cost for some units that were previously always treated as "recruited".
• The "No Upkeep" effect applied to all starting units now lasts 40 turns instead of 10 turns.
• The AI for rival Wizards will now consider building resource sites.
• Faerie, Celestial and Undead 'cultures' added (similar to Elemental and Demon), for smoother mechanics involving these races.
• Worker culture and race are now tracked, and certain traits of those can affect worker assignment effects. Not all worker units have a distinct culture or race. Existing save games will have existing workers treated this way on load.
• Dungeon exploration awards 1 xp per combat and 2 xp on successful completion.

Bug Fixes

• Bug Fix: Issue with tool tips on buy/sell buttons in the Economy window fixed.
• Bug Fix: Button alignment on General pane fixed
• Bug Fix: Diplomacy overview being full of buggy Gandalf factions has been fixed.
• Bug Fix: Margin was missing in several text areas
• Bug Fix: Tool tip not showing for entire area of General and Scout Captain portrait
• Bug Fix: Worker window elements were drawn on top of each other
• Bug Fix: Major and minor realms could sometimes get into a state where a war was declared, but the minor still kept a higher level of diplomatic relations open, allowing some nonsensical actions.
• Bug Fix: Demonic infantry units would not load properly.
• Bug Fix: Buttons which close the window they are in, no longer have "sticky" highlight state when the window is re-shown.
• Bug Fix: Fixed animation related crash when restarting games multiple times in a row without progressing the turn.
• Bug Fix: Minor realms will stop trying to declare war on factions which are not valid for diplomacy. They would sometimes try to declare war on all monsters and beasts in the world if a pack of wolves bothered their farmers.

[ 2017-04-17 21:05:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Reworked wizard templates to match point costs from customization
• Dungeon expedition code almost completely rewritten to facilitate more interesting mechanics. Expeditions are now given a stance (methodical, cautious, balance, bold or daring) and an approach (stealthy, balanced, direct). These affect risk, speed of progress, event chances, etc. A dungeon expedition is now longer than the previous one-turn affair with several turns of recuperating afterwards. It will progress through various phases, events will occur, and loot is not collected until the expedition returns. More detail and better UI needs to be added, but this is a much better foundation than the previous system.
• Made Overseers optional on all construction projects
• Improved text quality in many parts of the user interface
• General and Scout Captain assignments can now be cleared directly from the Army Window
• When choosing a General, the tentative bonus to the army is shown
• Tool tip added to the General showing the bonus give to the army
• Hunter's Lodge now has resource production affected by terrain
• New character traits have been added: Alchemy, Occult Lore. These currently only affect challenge resolution and dungeon mechanics.
• Bugfix: Worker requirements for assignment to an active resource site were applied to construction assignment, which meant that laborers couldn't build Hunter Lodges, etc.
• Bugfix: Text in the City Window panels no longer overflows, but has a scroll bar (if needed).
• Bugfix: Dead characters are now removed from parties automatically.
• Bugfix: Hero for Hire event no longer has extremely low gold cost

The next update is planned to contains additional improvements to text quality, the user interface, the beginnings of a tutorial and improvements to the new dungeon mechanics.

[ 2017-04-11 12:32:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

• When pillaging sites belonging to minor realms, the locals may send militia and/or mercenaries to attack the pillagers
• Improved selection and highlighting graphics. It is still not final, but has a much smoother look and the color pulses slightly to make it easier to spot.
• Improved interface for constructing new sites. Selecting "Build" and a site type will highlight valid hexes. Hovering the mouse will show the expected base production for each hex.
• Improved font/text quality on many windows.
• Improved labels on the map.
• Tooltip now indicates the reason for the increased movement cost when crossing rivers.
• Cleaned up tool tips and text on the research window.
• Desecrating shrines and holy sites will anger or please factions depending on their religious disposition.
• Desecrating shrines and holy sites can increase or reduce unrest in your cities depending on their religious disposition.
• Farms can no longer be built in desert and arctic terrain
• Vineyards can now only be built on hills
• Arcane research is no longer needed to build resource sites
• Bugfix: Rivers load in editor
• Bugfix: Rivers clear in editor on generating new
• Bugfix: Tooltip issue in customize wizard
• Bugfix: UI Scaling was off by one point when applying settings on some resolutions*
• Bugfix: Cities controlled by a defeated rival will become independent even if there is no on-going rebellion
• Bugfix: Sites under construction do not extend territorial control

This update is mostly usability improvements: Making text, labels and tool tips more readable and informative. There is also "Build Mode", a way to quickly identify valid locations for resource sites and estimate resource yields. On the feature side, pillaging armies will now encounter various levels of resistance from local forces. Usually just irregulars and militia, but sometimes mercenaries or professionals will arrive in time to fight the invaders. Desecration of shrines/temples now has repercussions on diplomacy and/or public order, with religious dispositions taken into account (a city which has a hostile attitude towards a certain religion will react positively, etc).

[ 2017-04-03 20:32:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Warfare

• Armies can now have a Scout Captain to improve the scouting/reconnaissance ability of the army.
• Basic scouting mechanics have been implemented.
• Resource sites (farms, mines, etc.) can now be pillaged and razed. The mechanics modifying the loot and damage are shown in the event dialog to help make the results more understandable.
• Armies from non-civilized/settled factions will carry the loot from any pillaging, and it can be recovered/gained by defeating those armies.
• Major faction units can only replenish losses if adjacent to an owned or allied city, fortress or wizard tower.
• Units now replenish losses at half rate if they have moved.

UI

• Army window now starts in overview mode.

AI

• Marauder AI is now capable of razing and pillaging resource sites.
• Wizard AI and Warlord AI now declare war on most aggressive actions taken against them, and will declare war themselves more often.

Misc

• The remnant armies of a defeated rival will no longer auto-disband. Instead each unit is either disbanded, becomes a marauder or joins the mercenary pool. The chance of each depends on the unit type. Only marauders stay on the map as army.
• Terrain type now affects food production of farms.
• All food values (production, costs, etc.) have been increased by a factor 20 to allow greater granularity of values.
• Independent settlements can now construct resource sites.
• In non quick-start games, the player can now force a certain race/culture to be generated in proximity to the player' starting location. The player will also tend to start with units of this kind.

Audio

• Several additional music tracks added.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed "Worker Make Demands" event text to show the correct gold value (it was off by a factor 100). Made the demands a bit more reasonable at the same time.
• Fixed a bug where terrain changes due to the machinations of an Ancient Evil were only partially propagated to the game state, causing instability and inconsistencies in the UI and map.
• Fimbul Winters can now end (much to the relief of the poor inhabitants of affected provinces).
• The auto-buy toggle on the construction window now works as intended.
• Fixed issue with button text in Army window not being refreshed when it was reopened.
• Fixed a bug causing units to have increased upkeep costs if they have suffered casualties or have been split into smaller detachments.
• Fixed a bug causing requirements for conditional unit unlocks to not be listed. E.g. Minor Water Magic unlocks Nymphs for Faerie Wizards only. The UI made it look like the unlock was for all wizards. (non-Faerie Wizards need Advanced Water Magic).
• Most special factions (Ancient Evils, Dungeons, Organization, Nomads, Marauders, etc.) no longer pay unit upkeep, as they don't have income and resources in the same way as Wizards and Warlords.
• Fixed a bug where new sites were not always discoverable by the player as expected.
• Fixed a bug where saving with an in-progress construction project in a City could break the game when loaded.
• Fixed a bug where units would not have their numerical strength capped properly, resulting in rather large numbers of monsters roaming the world.
• Fixed a bug where disbanded armies would end up in a bugged and non-interactive state, empty but still present in the world.
• Fixed units replenishing losses at a fixed rate instead of a portion of their max size, which led to small units instantly replenishing.

General Notes This update focuses on warfare. Two features in particular warrant a more detailed mention: Pillage allows armies to plunder and/or raze resource sites (farms, mines, vineyards, etc.) This will result in loot and damage to the site - or complete destruction in the case of razing the site. Damage reduces production output (and plunder) and is repaired over time, with any dedicated worker units improving the rate of repair. Plunder is handled differently depending on what type of faction the army belongs to: the player (and rivals) will get the plunder as additional resources; nomads and marauders will have the loot assigned to the army. If another faction defeats this army, the plunder can be reacquired or looted (if was from a third faction originally). This will need to be tweaked, as it is somewhat odd that rampaging manticores will grab and carry around slabs of granite from a quarry after they're done destroying and chasing off any workers. When the choice is given between plunder and raze - the mechanics behind the calculation of the effects are more explicitly stated than usual. This is part of the effort to make the game mechanics less opaque and make it easier to find bugs and imbalances. Scouting is still in an early stage. Each army has a scouting value and a visibility value generated, based on the army composition and command. (These are not displayed in the UI yet). In this build you only get information on armies where you have an adjacent observer. The amount of information depends the stats mentioned above and can range from no info, to numerical estimates, to a full unit listing including size, etc. The scouting mechanics will be expanded in future updates. The information is shown in tool tips and the context panel.

[ 2017-03-27 20:00:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes: Pushing this update early as it has a fix for an AI bug that makes the turn processing get stuck. The OS X and Linux builds are still being built so are slightly delayed, but will be pushed out very soon. User Interface

• Battle notifications now go away if read/dismissed. The results are also not 'spoilered' immediately, but a choice is given between quick results and a full battle report.
• In order to still be able to revisit battles, a battle history has been added to the Encyclopedia. This also allows replaying battles from previous turns, which was not possibly before. Note that existing save games may not have full data on historical battles.

Misc.

• Warlock Dark Pacts can generate basic events resulting from Favor (rewards) and Wrath (punishment). Chance to occur may need adjusting.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some races having negative lifespans and being generally buggy.
• Fixed the "Minotaur" race not being in plural form in one template, which could cause a duplicate race to be generated.
• Fixed a crash in the character AI.

[ 2017-03-21 22:26:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes: General

• Many event choices did not take effect until the following turn. This was very confusing. These events now take effect immediately upon making a choice in the dialog.
• Added autosave functionality. This can toggled from the settings dialog, and the number of turns between saves can be configured (default is save every turn).

Characters

• The character AI is now aware of the Proselytize action, and can consider it for use (if free agent or NPC) or suggest it (if idle).
• Followers can now be dismissed.

UI

• Added tool tips to the Workers window.
• Added tool tips to the Army window.
• Added a message pop-up when the player defeats a rival wizard or warlord.
• Victory conditions now also list the number of defeated rivals, not just the remaining number.
• When a new turn starts, if nothing is selected, the game will auto-select an army or the player realm seat of power.
• A province name toggle has been added (use Shift+P or the button on the minimap).
• Enter/Return is now a keyboard shortcut for the Turn button.
• The Mini Map now allows dragging of the view rectangle.
• Description text in wizard selection window looks better.
• Added ellipses and tool tip with full text to research items, instead of truncating them.
• Added confirmation dialog to unit and follower dismissal.
• More NYI (not-yet-implemented) or partially implemented mechanics have been marked as such, to make it easier to discern bugs from unimplemented features.
• Research window now shows the mechanics info and has the description in the tooltip.
• Tooltips have been added for many sites on the map. Cities will have their culture shown when hovered over.

World Generator

• World generator is better at avoiding adjacent wizard tower placements.
• World generator will avoid placing a player start position on a map edge.
• Character generation now takes cultural religious affinity into account when assigning patron deities.
• Nomad Camps now correctly use the adjective derived from their culture and not the primary race.
• New unit types: Elephants, Giant Lizards, Camels. (primarily used as the basis for mount stats)

Mechanics

• Resource sites now have a base production even with no workers assigned.
• Resource sites are no longer abandoned if there are no workers assigned to them for extended duration.
• Attitude and diplomatic relations are now considered when calculating the value of trade pacts.
• Independent realms to which a faction is allied/has very good relations are now considered when creating the pool of relevant units for recruitment.
• Mana cap has been increased for Wizards.
• Basic Commerce is now needed to create Trade Pacts.
• Basic Diplomacy is now needed to suggest Non-Aggression Pacts.

Bug Fixes

• Gold mine output was off by a factor 100.
• Quarry output was off by a factor 5.
• World generator will avoid placing a player start position on a map edge.
• Fixed a bug where save game with Faerie Archers or Faerie Cavalry would cause the game to break once loaded. These save games now work again.
• Fixed a bug related to Giant Lizards, Camels and Elephants missing as unit types (could cause a crash/hang).
• Fixed a bug related to defeating rival wizards.
• Defeated factions are no longer shown in the Diplomacy window.
• Fixed a bug where the number of remaining rivals was not updating correctly.
• Fixed a bug where the City window was not updating properly when character assignments changed (ie leader, emissary, etc.)
• Fixed Summoner trait not reducing summoning cost, upkeep and mishap chance.
• Fixed Undead trait not reducing cost and upkeep of relevant units.
• Fixed issue related to starting new game after winning or losing a game.
• Fixed blurred text in a number of places.
• Fixed a bug where culture adjective string were not saved (and became empty when the game was loaded). When loading a pre-bugfix save game the adjective will be set to the culture display name.

Comments: The option to choose a preferred starting race/culture for the vicinity of the Wizard Tower did not make in to this build, but is being worked and will be hopefully be in the next update.

[ 2017-03-19 19:11:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes: A bug fix focused updated quickly on the heels of the one earlier today, which is why it is a bit smaller than usual. However, the load game bug needed fixing asap, since it was extremely annoying when testing. Mechanics:

• The leader of a site being attacked will now take command of the defending armies, if no other general is present.
• Further balance tweaking of damage calculations. Ranged attacks are now slightly stronger, and damage has been increased for most weapons - especially against armored opponents.

UI:

• Destroyed or routed units are now removed from the unit list during battles to make it easier to identify the remaining combatants.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed Army General and Site Leader assignments not removing the character from their party.
• Fixed issue with < 0.9.76 save games not loading properly.
• Fixed some Ancient Evils being displayed without a space in their type in the Dark Pact summary.
• Fixed issue with Tyrannical taxes on a city sometimes giving less gold than intended.
• Fixed issue where conquering a city did not trigger the Conquest event/choice.
• Fixed issue where multiple battles in the same hex during a turn (and the previous for AI initiated battles), would be "stacked" in the same message, preventing the player from watching the battle report for any but the first.
• The text in the battle report window now moves to the top when clicking next round after scrolling the text of the current round.
• Fixed issue with battles where they sometimes continued past one side retreating, with the winning side having unit lose morale despite no opponents remaining and suffering no damage.
• Fixed next party button not reacting to clicks on the entire area of the button.
• Fixed selection of recruitment sites after the first not highlighting the selected site in the list (despite being selected).

[ 2017-03-14 21:50:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes: Features/Content/UI:

• Tooltip added for battles fought during the previous turn on the world map, with a brief display of the sides and the result.
• Dark Pact details added to the Ruler panel in the Quests and Victory Conditions window. It shows the name and nature of the dark benefactor and the current favor and wrath stats.
• Beseech Dark Patron now generates a quest that when completed gives favor and reduces wrath. The quest objective is randomized but based on the type of dark benefactor. (note that the effects of Favor and Wrath are not yet implemented, but will be in a coming build).
• New Cheat actions: gain 10k gold, gain maximum mana (up to cap).
• Units can now be disbanded.
• When researching Worship, the follower gained will have a religion which better fits the player faction traits: Demonic wizards will receive demon worshippers, warlocks with a religion-related dark pact will receive a follower of this religion.
• Distribution of religions in a city has been added. The break down can be seen on the City window, in the same panel as the Ruler and Notables are listed.
• Cultural affinity for various religions has been added. This is generated based on the cultural traits and spheres/power of the deity. These affinities are used when determining the religion of the inhabitants of a city and other relevant entities during world generation.
• Followers who have the Religious type can be sent to Proselytize their religion or cult in a city. The success chance (and risk of injury or worse) depends on the cultural affinity for the religion, various cultural traits and the attitude towards the character carrying out this task.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed issue where many unit types incorrectly had 1 hit point per member. This also required some rebalancing of damage calculation, with further balance passes to come.
• Fixed issue where cultural traits were not always being applied correctly to generated cultural unit types.
• Added Hit Point display to Army window. Previously only the Military window showed it.
• Fixed issue with flickering tool tips if the sources were very close.
• Fixed issue where predefined cultures and religions (ie demons, elementals, demons worship) were re-created on game load, causing them improperly be treated as randomly generated cultures/religions and not equal to the predefined ones. While schisms within demon worship would be a cool feature, having an automatic schism every time you load the game was unintended (and caused erratic event and task resolution).
• Added more context-specific tool tips.

[ 2017-03-14 10:47:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes: UI

• The Army window now allows renaming armies.
• Added tool tips showing movement cost for the selected army on hex mouse-over.

Misc

• Volunteer regiments generated by city events are now 25% of the default regiment strength.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with toggles on the Follower window
• Fixed issue with Dungeon window party sending, where you could get wounded or recovering followers to join if there was a valid party member.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to get the same party sent to multiple dungeons at once through clever shenanigans
• Fixed cycling through selectables by clicking on a hex multiple times being broken
• Fixed bind/recruitment time for Giant Albino Alligators to be 5 instead of -1
• Fixed an issue with worker unassignment not processing correctly
• Follower death now always gives a notificaton
• Fixed an issue with empty parties lingering in various parts of the game
• Fixed an issue where dungeon exploration always gave loot as if it was success. A failure can give loot, but it will be lower.
• Fixed an issue with context-specific data (e.g. hire cost) lingering in the character window
• Fixed an issue with destroyed Wizard Towers causing a hang of turn processing
• Fixed an issue where hired followers caused a hang when travel time was being calculated for them
• Fixed undead units using incorrect upkeep costs

[ 2017-03-08 22:05:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes: UI

• Custom filtering of units in the Military window has been added. Use "Hide/Unhide" on the units to control whether they are shown. If the "Hidden" filter is on, they are always shown (which allows you to unhide).
• A window has been added which allows transfering units been armies in the same hex. This is now also used to merge armies, replacing the previous action button. With a valid army selected, click the "Transfer Units" button on the world map to access this.
• Recruitment no longer resets and scrolls the list in the Military window.
• Improved the battle results message text. Instead of the verbose log-like text, a summary of casualties and kills per unit is now shown.
• First iteration of a Ledger added in the Economy window, which displays a breakdown of income and expenditure for each resource.

Mechanics

• Cultures and Factions now have Attitudes. These control how the entity feels about other cultures, races and important concepts. A faction will fall back to using the attitudes from it's main culture, if it has any. These attitude are generated based on cultural traits, alignment, social structure, philosophy, etc.
• Factions with Attitude: Hostile or worse towards the culture or race of an emissary will reject them.

Magic

• When casting a spell the results are no longer given in a notification that has to be clicked, but in the floating message window.
• A new spell, Gift of Unlife, has been added. It turns one of your followers into an Undead. But be careful, the ritual may result in the more permanent death or the beneficient may decide to flee your employ. If it does succeed, the follower is healed of all damage and gains some experience.

Misc.

• Enable Cheating is now disabled when restarting or loading a game.
• Wizard Tower upgrade cost tweaked.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with outposts not extending the control zone of a faction.
• Fixed resource site (farms, mines, etc.) graphics not appearing when loading a game.
• Fixed an issue with Temple building types being longer locked to the deities of the first game played in a session - which meant Temples to deities from a completely different game world could be built.
• Fixed an issue with Garrison armies fleeing and turning into super-fast ghost armies with no units if their city or fortress was conquered while they were absent.
• Fixed a world generation bug related to province generation.
• Fixed a few buggy costs that off by a factor 100.
• Fixed some overflowing text in the outliner.
• Added missing back and close buttons on Game Setup, Game Settings and Wizard Selection windows.
• Fixed an issue with filters in the Military Window not always being applied.

[ 2017-03-05 22:26:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes: UI

• Colors in drop downs tweaked to increase readability.
• Tool tips added to the economy window for extended info on buy/sell (reason for not being able, total price, etc).
• Slider added to the economy window amount field.
• The "activity" text in the outliner is now shorter, to avoid text overflowing.
• The message when construction cannot begin has been improved to more clearly describe why.
• The character window now has a "Cancel Task" button.

Misc

• An action to split an army into two has been added.
• Non-player armies can no longer be inspected.
• Improved faction start location seeding to greatly reduce the chance of adjacent start positions for major factions.
• Generals now receive XP when participating in battles.

Bug Fixes

• Parties on "resend mode" no longer create a new expedition on every revisit to a dungeon.
• Fixed issue related to cancelling a dungeon expedition.
• Fixed issue related to merging armies.
• Fixed issue related to the (resource) selection being invisibly lost in the economy window.
• Fixed issue preventing sale of resources if the total price was less than the faction treasury. Ie you could not sell anything worth more than your current amount of gold.
• Fixed outliner not updating recruitment progress for many unit types.
• Fixed world generation crash related to knightly orders and not being able to find suitable chapter house locations.
• Fixed world generation crash related to duplicate forest names.
• Fixed an issue where increasing the supply of a resource dramatically on the world market caused prices to become unstable and grow exponentially.
• Fixed inventory and character list tool tips being placed behind the window.
• Fixed issue with filters in the recruitment window not being applied.
• Fixed issue with construction times in the outliner being very incorrect.
• Fixed issue with wizard tower upgrades not unlocking new expansion slots.
• Fixed issue with Find Mana Node quest not progressing.
• Fixed Custom Construct Artillery weapons not being usable at range and being usable in melee.
• Fixed Custom Construct Beam weapons not being usable at range. They are now usable at range and in melee.
• Fixed outliner not updating on generals being appointed.
• Fixed clicks on actions in the left lower section not triggering on subsequent clicks until a different action had been clicked.
• Fixed issue with quest window showing completed quests as in progress.

[ 2017-03-02 22:18:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes: Diplomacy

• Declare War action added, and the state of being at war is tracked for all factions explicitly (was previously an aspect of the relations stat).
• Non-aggression Pact added. Violating this will have a negative impact on a faction's "global" diplomatic reputation, in addition to the usual bilateral diplomatic effects.
• Trade Pact added. This has an initial cost based on traits,research, and faction type. It gives a small constant (not necessarily equal) amount of income to both parties.
• You can no longer send emissaries to independent realms that you are at war with or who are hostile to you.
• Independent realms are now more consistent and immediate in declaring war on you if you attack them.
• A tab has been added to the Diplomacy Window which gives an overview of diplomatic stats and current agreements.
• Diplomatic reputation added as a faction stat. Breaking agreements will reduce it. Keeping agreements will improve it over time.
• Relations with minor factions will begin if an emissary is sent - even if the minor had no previous knowledge of the sending faction.
• The text for minor factions requesting an emissary for an extended stay has been adjusted to recognize if you have already sent the emissary.

Misc

• Pyramids now have a full-size map icon which is centered in the hex. (the previous icon was small and in the lower part of the hex, potentially overlapping any resource icon).
• Add unit cheat action added for testing purposes. It adds a random unit to the selected army.
• Non-player armies now have the owner shown in the tool tip.
• Mana Node icons are now aligned along the top of a hex (to avoid overlapping resource icons). Tool tips have also been added for them.

AI

• When the AI has moved an army to respond to an enemy siege, it will now immediately attack the besieging force, instead of sitting around waiting for an assault on the site.
• The AI no longer considers exhausted armies a valid asset for responding to attacks or executing offensive/expansion plans.
• Characters assigned to a party will offer suggestions for tasks or act independently.

UI

• Double-clicking in the Character window when in party-selection mode will now add a character to the open party.
• Idle Characters waiting for their party members to recover, meet up, or similar will show as 'Waiting for party' and not 'Idle'.
• A party which is recuperating is now shown as such in the Dungeon Window.

Bug Fixes

• Combobox dropdowns now close on clicks outside the list.
• Some AI and game state data structures were not properly cleared on closing a game (and loading/create another), causing certain things to pile up strangely. This has been fixed.
• Map tool tips no longer show through floating UI elements (ie windows).
• The "other factions" tab in the Diplomacy Window was showing organizations, not other, after being clicked more than once.
• Hidden sites no longer trigger discovery of other factions. Before you would discover factions if you explored territory where they had hidden sites. Discovering the site itself is now a requirement.
• Map animations are always on top of various map icons and sprites.
• Fixed a crash/hang related to wizard towers being destroyed.
• The label for a destroyed site no longer lingers on the map.
• Rival wizard towers can no longer be inspected.
• Fixed a bug where the party display in the dungeon window was empty in many cases and the resend toggle was not always properly reset.
• Automated resending of parties to dungeons now works again. It broke during the party mechanic revamp.

[ 2017-02-26 22:15:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new build has been deployed for beta testers, and the store page has been launched in anticipation of the coming Early Access. Patch Notes: AI

• Followers will now make suggestions for assignments if left idle.
• Followers can now be given the freedom to choose their assignments, if the player prefers not to micromanage them.

Map

• Tooltips added for hex specials and strategic resources.
• Tooltips added for armies.
• Map resource icons have had the shader code reworked to remove some glitches and make more of the icon visible inside the frame.

Parties

• You can now organize characters into parties in order to more easily and intuitively assign several characters to a task. This has been adapted from the dungeon expedition logic, and the dungeon window has changed accordingly. Characters can be grouped into a party via the relevant Party buttons on the right side of the Followers window, or by shift-clicking in the list of characters.

Misc

• There are now tooltips during wizard customization showing research prerequisites
• During wizard customization the trait/research description will change based on mouse over, rather than selection.
• Armies will now prefer retreating to the hex they moved from prior to a battle. If this is not possible, the most accessible and unoccupied hex will be chosen.
• You can now choose to keep playing after winning or losing the game. All victory and loss conditions will be ignored after this.
• There are now tooltips for the top row of buttons.
• In order for army to enter a hex which is fortified or settled, all units must be amphibious or flying, or the general must have the Amphibious Assault skill
• Social structure/government type Simple Feudal has been removed.

Bug Fixes

• After completing the training of a new unit, trainers no longer train imaginary troops until you give them a new task, but will instead return to a default/idle state.
• Battles where the attacking forces flee will no longer result in the defender fleeing instead.
• Deselecting research during customization now correctly deselects any research having it as a prerequisite. Previously the following sequence: select Minor Law Magic, select Lesser Law Magic, deselect Minor Law Magic, resulted in having Lesser Law Magic despite not having the prerequisite.

[ 2017-02-20 21:59:41 CET ] [ Original post ]