Dear friends! After thoroughly reading all your recommendations and ideas about improvement of the ranked mode in Cossacks 3, we made the necessary adjustments and numerous bug fixes to improve the overall quality of the mode. With the release bugs squashed, playing ranked both solo and with your friends is now a significantly better experience. We also have news for Mac and Linux users: the beta-testing will commence within a few days. We included the way to access the beta branches in the end of the patch notes. We thank Mark "Madgeek" Kandaurov for the screenshot. Patch Notes 31.03.17 (1.4.5.69.4993) General: 1. Reduced the amount of units sent to defend the buildings from 3 to 2. 2. Reduced the range at which units can capture buildings or defend them from being captured. 3. Now there's a mechanism that forces the game to continue after the re-host process is done, if some players failed to reconnect within 10 seconds after a new host has been found. 4. Removed the re-host process from finished sessions, when victors and losers are already decided. 5. The game has an anti-spam mechanism right now. 6. The resource nodes are now placed closer with more players on the map now. 7. Resource nodes are now placed more evenly across the map, making the start of the game more fair for all player. Errors: 1. Fixed an error that prevented the notifications about lack of resources for unit maintenance/construction of buildings and population slots from appearing on the players' screens. 2. Fixed an error, which allowed the player to make a foundation of a building, even if he lacked the necessary resources for its construction (it was impossible to finish the construction). 3. Fixed a number of errors, which prevented production of some units. Multiplayer: 1. Ranked games are now 1 v 1, they use the same map settings as before. This may change in the future, depending on the feedback from the community. 2. Changed the algorithm the game uses to define a host. Now the player with the most RAM is more likely to be chosen as a host. 3. Added a list of players queuing for a ranked match. 4. Added an icon that will appear near players that are queueing for a ranked match. 5. Added a timer that shows how much time has passed since you entered a ranked Queue. 6. Non-ranked games now count towards the amount of victories made by player. 7. The "Quick Play" button now displays the number of players queued for a ranked match. 8. Added counters of victories that are displayed next to the players' nicknames. 9. Fixed an error, when the game tried to add the player to an already started session. 10. Made some correction in the poit distribution formula. Now players will get even more points after winning against a more powerful opponent, while victory over opponents of lower rank will grant less points than before. Balance: Drummer 17c: - Reduced the defence upgrade bonuses from 20 to 12. Officer 17c: - Reduced the damage from 150 to 30. - Reduced the damage upgrade bonuses from 150 to 20. - Reduced the defence upgrade bonuses from 20 to 10. Officer 18c: - Reduced the damage from 150 to 50. - Reduced the damage upgrade bonuses from 150 to 100. Cannon: - Reduced the reload time of cannonballs from 14 seconds to 11 seconds the same way as in the original Cossacks) Players can now create formations with hired grenadiers and roundshiers as Ukraine, as it has no officers of its own. Exciting news for Mac and Linux users: The Linux and Mac versions shall enter an open beta phase of the game. Every Mac and Linux player will be able to launch the game on his/her system by following the steps bellow: 1. Go to your Steam library. 2. Right-click on Cossacks 3. 3. Select "Properties". 4. Select the "Betas" tab 5. Use "beta000multios" as a beta access code. 6. Now you can select an appropriate "Beta" from a drop-down menu above. 7. Now you can participate in the epic battles of 17th and 18th century Europe as well! Important! Due to nature of the Steam betas, Linux players will be able to play play only against players with the same version as them. So if you want to play against your friend who uses Windows, it's necessary for him to follow the steps above and switch to the "Linux beta" version as well.