Age of Wonders Eternal Lords: Elsa's Dead, Frodo's Family & LionO has a Dream

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Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

Speaking of sieges, I find that it's kind of boring that 95% of player vs. AI combat is offensive sieges. There's a lot of fun combat environments in the game, but you only ever see them against the same few groups of independents. I wish there was a way to make AI encounters happen elsewhere. Even a way to lure out the enemy hero stacks and have a siege where I'm the defender with my own hero stacks occasionally would be fun, but ideally, there'd be a way to have a big epic battle on a bridge or a structure with environmental effects or even over/in lava.

Other posters seem to have had more active AI, but I still have never seen two AI fight each other, even when someone is at war with two or three other AI at once. They'll trespass as freely on each other as they do on your land, and they will steal structures that are unguarded, but I've never seen them actually battle each other, even when you ally some of them, which means you'll get a message every time they fight a battle. When I declare war on an AI, it immediately retreats all its non-flying stacks to it's throne city and cities with stone walls, and just sits there while sending small packs of flying units to try to snipe any cities with a small or no garrison. I play with a mix of Lord and Knight AI, since some goons said that'd make them fight, but I haven't seen any infighting.

EDIT: Also, does anyone else wish the terraforming spells and that one druid spell gave more varied terrain? I was a bit disappointed when my blight druid would could only conjure those weedy-looking forests in blight and underground, when the starting Dense Vegetation is a nice mix of that and mushroom forests and dead trees and cool poo poo.

Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Apr 29, 2014

# ? Apr 29, 2014 16:06

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 17:38

Gerblyn: Apr 4, 2007; "TO BATTLE!"; Fun Shoe

I dunno how to feel about assassins losing pass wall. On the one hand, they were ludcriously OP with trail running. You could run around with 6 stacks of assassins and autocombat through most midgame armies with minimal losses. On the other hand, they were so cool to play with. Attacking a city, and just running over the walls to kill half the defenders in round 1 was great fun.

Another reason for the change was that a lot of the changes we'd made made it harder for other classes to get to tier 3. Assassins were so good that most other classes needed their T3s to compete, and the new research and building requirements created a big window where Rogue assassin rushes were pretty much uncontested.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 16:32

Corbeau: Sep 13, 2010; Jack of All Trades

I actually saw one Emperor AI murder another Emperor AI over the weekend. It's the second time I've seen AI-on-AI player elimination though, which really isn't that often.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 16:39

Carnalfex: Jul 18, 2007

Maybe just give the various rogue charms a resistance debuff on fail, so the next charm has a better chance of landing? That would play up their trickery and class specific flavor (charm) without giving them the same options as other races. That, or maybe look into their strategic spells like bandits and revolt, make them a bit more of a threat? Perhaps they could increase in threat over time (within limits), giving the person it was cast on a clear choice to deal with this or have a bigger problem on your hands. Have the bandits spawned by the spell not be hostile to the person that cast it?

The whole tricky feel of the rogue is cool and unique, simply giving them units that feel similar to other classes would be pretty lame. It would be ok to have mostly tricky/support units in your army and lack tanks if their abilities made up for it.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 16:43

Taear: Nov 26, 2004; Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

Kajeesus posted:

Other posters seem to have had more active AI, but I still have never seen two AI fight each other, even when someone is at war with two or three other AI at once.

I've had the AI eliminate another AI who was essentially just a roving army - they had no cities. I guess the AI does a lot of random combats with each other but isn't willing to attack cities, because AI stacks tend to generally be weaker than the gigantic pile of poo poo every AI has in their capital.

I've also seen them kill AI who are a lower difficulty level and that happened pretty quickly.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 16:44

madmac: Jun 22, 2010

Carnalfex posted:

Maybe just give the various rogue charms a resistance debuff on fail, so the next charm has a better chance of landing? That would play up their trickery and class specific flavor (charm) without giving them the same options as other races. That, or maybe look into their strategic spells like bandits and revolt, make them a bit more of a threat? Perhaps they could increase in threat over time (within limits), giving the person it was cast on a clear choice to deal with this or have a bigger problem on your hands. Have the bandits spawned by the spell not be hostile to the person that cast it?

The whole tricky feel of the rogue is cool and unique, simply giving them units that feel similar to other classes would be pretty lame. It would be ok to have mostly tricky/support units in your army and lack tanks if their abilities made up for it.

I like the tricky feel too, I think it just comes down to Assassins and later Shadow Stalkers being the only Rogue units that actually, like, kill things. Crows, Bards, Scoundrels and Succubus are all great scouting/support units, but they're basically unable to win fights by themselves except with Charm/Sabotage. You have to fill out your army with something.

quote:

Another reason for the change was that a lot of the changes we'd made made it harder for other classes to get to tier 3. Assassins were so good that most other classes needed their T3s to compete, and the new research and building requirements created a big window where Rogue assassin rushes were pretty much uncontested.

Maybe create a new tech to give Assassins back Passwall in the late game? Being able to slip through not just walls, but terrain obstacles in open battles made Assassins feel so slick and deadly. I'd hate to lose that feeling entirely.

madmac fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Apr 29, 2014

# ? Apr 29, 2014 17:06

TheOmegaWalrus: Feb 3, 2007; by Hand Knit

quote:

Change Log:

To prevent Players from rushing to and mass producing T4 units:

Add an additional city upgrades that act as prerequisites for class T3 and T4 unit production.

Also added additional city upgrades for classes without class specific T3 and T4 units that can be build in cities, to maintain cross class balance.

Added new Arch Druid city upgrade �Henge�. This city upgrade increases Mana Capacity by +100, allowing you to store more mana. This upgrade requires the Arch Druid�s Dolmen.
Added new Arch Druid city upgrade �Megalith�. This city upgrade increases Population by +100. This upgrade requires the Henge.
Added new Dreadnought city upgrade �Blast Furnace� which is needed to produce the Cannon unit. This city upgrade also gives an additional +5 production. This upgrade requires the Dreadnought�s Foundry.
Added new Dreadnought city upgrade �Juggernaut Factory� which is needed to produce the Juggernaut unit. This city upgrade also heals garrisoned machine units. This upgrade requires the Blast Furnace.
Added new Rogue city upgrade �Planar Gate� which is needed to produce the Shadow Stalker and Succubus units. This city upgrade generates an additional +5 mana. This upgrade requires the Rogue�s Palace.
Added new Rogue city upgrade �Shrouded Altar�. Monster units produced at this city gain an additional medal Rank. This upgrade requires the Planar Gate.
Added new Sorcerer city upgrade �Mana Vault�. This city upgrade increases Mana Capacity by +100, allowing you to store more mana. This upgrade requires the Sorcerer�s Conflux.
Added new Sorcerer city upgrade �Wizard�s Academy�. This city upgrade gives an additional +10 Knowledge. This upgrade requires the Mana Vault.
Added new Theocrat city upgrade �Celestial Chamber� which is needed to produce the Exalted units. This city upgrads also gives an additional +100 happiness. This upgrade requires the Theocrat�s Conclave.
Added new Theocrat city upgrade �Holy of Holies� which is needed to produce the Shrine of Smiting. Also increases Mana Capacity by +100, allowing you to store more mana. This upgrade requires the Celestial Chamber.
Added new Warlord city upgrade �Gladiator Pit� which is needed to produce the Blood Phalanx and Warbreed units. This city upgrade also gives an additional +100 happiness. This upgrade requires the Warlord�s Command.
Added new Warlord city upgrade �Manticore Lair� which is needed to produce the Manticore Rider unit. This city upgrade also gives an additional +5 Reasearch. This upgrade requires the Gladiator Pit.
Reduce the need to rush for T4.

Reduce AoE bust damage for T4 units and reduce protective abilities to make them easier to counter when used without support.

The Shrine of Smiting now has 20% Fire Weakness.
The Juggernaut�s Fire Mortar ability now starts on cool down, Fire Broadside now does 25 physical � was 30 � and Fire Mortar now does 18 physical, 18 fire � was 20 physical, 20 fire.
The Eldridge Horror now has Mind Control Immunity and 60% Spirit Protection, instead of Strong Will.
The Horned God now has 20% Blight Weakness and it�s Call Lightning ability starts on cool down, now has cool down of 1 � was 2 � is a Full action � was single action. The damage amount not being displayed in game was also fixed.
To prevent the AI Player from rushing to T4 units:

Changed research priorities to reduce AI rushing up the unit tech-tree.
To extend the duration of the mid game. I.e. the period focused on T2-3 unit production.

Reduce the city growth speed.

Changed population growth for cities to 250 � was 300.
Changed required population for a City to 12000 � was 10000.
Changed starting population for a City to 14000 � was 11000.
Changed rebel spawn population loss for a City to 3500 � was 2750.
Changed rebel spawn population requirement for a City to 7000 � was 5500.
Changed required population for a Metropolis to 22000 � was 18000.
Changed starting population for a Metropolis to 24000 � was 20000.
Changed rebel spawn population loss for a Metropolis to 6000 � was 5000.
Changed rebel spawn population requirement for a Metropolis to 11000 � was 10000.
Changed rebel spawn population requirement for a Metropolis to 11000 � was 10000.
Reduce city production.

Changed the production value of the Siege Workshop to 10 � was 20.
Changed the production value of the Master Guild to 15 � was 20.
Lower income where needed � focusing on Mana � to prevent surplus mana.

Reduce frequency of occurrence of mana generating structures on RMG maps as a factor of distance from Player�s starting positions.
Reduce mass City Founding.

Producing settlers now stagnates city growth, making it more of a choice in the early game.

Changed cost for the Pioneer: Gold cost 200 � was 150 � Population cost 2000 � was 750 � Recruit cost 400 � was 300.
Reduce surplus mana.

Tests in the office showed that play style was a large factor in the reported mana surplus issue. To prevent issues with superfluous mana, while not impacting players with a more exploration, expansion or magic based play style.

Players can now hold a limited amount of mana at once. A player can hold 500 mana, researching a casting point skill or building a great temple will increase mana cap by 100.
To increase the mana spend on spells we�ve reduced the casting cost of maintained spells � to make them more worthwhile to cast � while increasing the maintenance cost � to make which spells to maintain a more deliberate decision.

Changed the cost of the Arch Druid�s �One with the Elements� to maintenance 10 � was maintenance 6.
Changed the cost of the Arch Druid�s �Fertile Domain� to cast 40, maintenance 20 � was cast 60, maintenance 9.
Changed the cost of the Arch Druid�s �Insect Plague� to cast 60, maintenance 20 � was cast 80, maintenance 9.
Changed the cost of the Arch Druid�s �Poison Domain� to cast 100, maintenance 30 � was cast 140, maintenance 16.
Changed the cost of the Arch Druid�s �Thorn Hedge Walls� to cast 120, maintenance 30 � was cast 180, maintenance 18.
Changed the cost of the Arch Druid�s �Nature�s Eyes� to cast 80, maintenance 40 � was cast 120, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Dreadnought�s �Suppress Nature� to cast 100, maintenance 40 � was cast 140, maintenance 16.
Changed the cost of the Dreadnought�s �Dragon Oil� to cast 120, maintenance 30 � was cast 180, maintenance 20.
Changed the cost of the Dreadnought�s �Great Mobilization� to maintenance 80 � was maintenance 64.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s �Poison Mastery� to cast 50, maintenance 20 � was cast 60, maintenance 8.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s �Iron Grip� to cast 40, maintenance 20 � was cast 70, maintenance 9.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s Treasure Raiding to cast 60 � was cast 80.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s �Incite Revolt� to cast 60, maintenance 40 � was cast 100, maintenance 15.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s �Corpse Looting� to cast 60, maintenance 15 � was cast 100, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s �Network of Scrying Eyes� to cast 60, maintenance 20 � was cast 100, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s �Spy Network� to cast 150, maintenance 50 � was cast 300, maintenance 36.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s �Night Wish� to cast 100, maintenance 20 � was cast 180, maintenance 18.
Changed the cost of the Rogue�s �Age of Deception� to maintenance 80 � was maintenance 64.
Changed the cost of the Sorcerer�s �Glyphs of Warding� to cast 40, maintenance 15 � was cast 60, maintenance 5.
Changed the cost of the Sorcerer�s �Dread Omen� to cast 60, maintenance 40 � was cast 90, maintenance 9.
Changed the cost of the Sorcerer�s �Dome of Protection� to cast 100, maintenance 20 � was cast 120, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Sorcerer�s �Enchanted Walls� to cast 120, maintenance 30 � was cast 180, maintenance 18.
Changed the cost of the Sorcerer�s �Summoner�s Aura� to cast 100, maintenance 20 � was cast 120, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Sorcerer�s �Age of magic� to maintenance 80 � was maintenance 64.
Changed the cost of the Theocrat�s �Beacon of Faith� to cast 50, maintenance 10 � was cast 90, maintenance 9.
Changed the cost of the Theocrat�s �Paid Absolution� to cast 80, maintenance 20 � was cast 100, maintenance 9.
Changed the cost of the Theocrat�s �Prayer for the Hurt� to cast 100, maintenance 30 � was cast 150, maintenance 15.
Changed the cost of the Theocrat�s �Sanctified Sites� to cast 100, maintenance 30 � was cast 160, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Theocrat�s �Denounce City� to maintenance 20 � was maintenance 16.
Changed the cost of the Theocrat�s �Hallowed Domain� to cast 100, maintenance 20 � was cast 120, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Theocrat�s �Great Purge� to cast 100, maintenance 40 � was cast 300, maintenance 32.
Changed the cost of the Theocrat�s �Armageddon� maintenance 64 � was maintenance 80.
Changed the cost of the Warlord�s �Authority of the Sword� to maintenance 5 � was maintenance 6.
Changed the cost of the Warlord�s �Dread Siege� to cast 60, maintenance 30 � was cast 80, maintenance 9.
Changed the cost of the Warlord�s �Inspire Loyalty� to maintenance 20 � was maintenance 15.
Changed the cost of the Warlord�s �The Draft� to cast 120, maintenance 30 � was cast 160, maintenance 18.
Changed the cost of the Warlord�s �Conqueror�s Feast� to cast 120, maintenance 40 � was cast 240, maintenance 24.
Changed the cost of the Warlord�s �Hero Slaying� to maintenance 30 � was maintenance 24.
Changed the cost of the Warlord�s �Global Assault� to maintenance 80 � was maintenance 64.
Changed the cost of the Air Adept�s �Domain of Winter� to cast 60, maintenance 20 � was cast 80, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Air Master�s �Arctic Empire� to cast 80, maintenance 40 � was cast 100, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Earth Adept�s �Domain of Earth� to cast 60, maintenance 20 � was cast 80, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Fire Adept�s �Domain of the Sun� to cast 60, maintenance 20 � was cast 80, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Fire Master�s �Tropical Empire� to cast 80, maintenance 40 � was cast 100, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Creation Adept�s �Domain of Life� to cast 60, maintenance 20 � was cast 80, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Creation Master�s �Temperate Empire� to cast 80, maintenance 40 � was cast 100, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Destruction Adept�s �Scorched Earth� to cast 40, maintenance 15 � was cast 60, maintenance 9.
Changed the cost of the Destruction Adept�s �Domain of Corruption� to cast 60, maintenance 20 � was cast 80, maintenance 12.
Changed the cost of the Destruction Master�s �Blight Empire� to cast 80, maintenance 40 � was cast 100, maintenance 12.

Reduce the period of unhindered early game expansion in Random Maps

The distance between player start positions now take into account the amount of players with regards to map size. Few players on a large map will result in a significant nearer distance. Likewise, many players on a smaller map will result in a slightly larger distance.
Made Random XL maps more closely follow the setup of other maps

XL map feature distribution now more closely resembles the smaller maps.
Other Balance Fixes

Berserkers: Removed Martial Arts as a level up reward, they now get the Tireless ability
Rogue Infiltration squad Hero Upgrade now filters on Machines
Rust Strike can now be used twice on same unit.
Order of Healing now gives correct Healing Ability
Suppress nature no longer negates the effects of Domain of � spells
Units can now attack an enemy after using Sprint.
Rogue Assassin now has Wall Climbing, Removed Pass Wall and Sprint Abilities.
Dwarf Hunter base hp 35 � was 40
Yeti now has Regeneration
Befriend Animal Ability now correctly displays its strength in the unit panel
The Explorer�s Skill Trail Running move bonus was changed to +8 � was +12
Theocrat Exalted hp set to 50 � was 55 � and no heal ability on levelling.
Sabotage is now a type �Touch� ability � was Melee
Dwarf first born now has Mind Control Immunity � was Strong Will
Heal Ability now has a Cooldown of 2 � was 1
Throw Curse now has a Cooldown of 1 turn � was 0
Sorcerer Chaos rift now costs 70 � was 50
Shrine of Smiting now has Ram (was Melee Strike)
ArchDruid Summon Beast Horde now summons Blight Tusk Boars, Bleak Wargs, Dread Spider Babies, Hunter Spider Babies, Vampire Spider Babies and Dire Penguins.
Sprint now has a cooldown of 3. Units may now attack after using sprint.
Trebuchet and Giant Hurl Boulder ability now requires 3 action points to use
Graphics
Fixed an issue where the Node Serpent�s death animation glitched when hit by �Huge� attacks, such as the Hellfire spell.
Fixed an issue where some structures � e.g. hasteberries � showed an incorrect state after loading a save game.
New Features

Improved VPN support to local multiplayer.
Added a new advanced game option to give all leaders and heroes Resurgence, this is disabled by default
Campaign: All heroes and leaders will have Resurgence, allowing them to return from the dead if their side wins the battle. This is disabled in �Hard� mode.
Campaign: Implemented named saves when a campaign scenario is won
Added tier level to unit info, allowing preview of the tier level in the city production panel in both the popup and the unit panel.
Added an overlay image for items being couriered
Added keyboard shortcuts for next/previous city. Defaults bindings are �;� and �,�.
Interface Fixes

Fixed an interface dead state for the item forge by closing the interface when the city is deselected.
Fixed an interface dead state in the Tome of Wonders after combat was completed.
Fixed a glitch so spell icons now no longer go beyond the bounds of the overview panel.
Fixed a bug where the vision fog area on the mini-map did not match the actual vision fog area on the world map.
Fixed a bug where dwelling icons in the Tome of Wonders were not refreshing.
Added a �Save Game� and an �Exit Game� button in the player disconnect window.
Fixed an issue where the damage values in the abilities list would disappear after changing tabs.
Fixed a bug where the icons in the dragon dwelling text in the Tome of Wonders were clipped in-correctly.
Fixed the French tool-tip for �order of sacred support�.
Localized the report feedback button.
Fixed an issue where tooltips would remain visible in Tactical Combat
Improved the scrollbar: holding the mouse down on the buttons now keeps scrolling and the scrollbar in the tome of wonders now also support scrolling by clicking on the scrollbar background.
Enabled word cutoff for tabs, fixes an issue in polish where the custom leader tab would have text overflowing
Fixed an issue in the key binding screen where the entire row would receive input.
Fixed an issue that caused problems with the vertical alignment of the text on combo-boxes
Fixed a bug where multiline quest headers would be unreadable due to wrong vertical alignment
Enabled double clicking to confirm in the Lobby screens
Fixed an issue where the icons in the overview panel weren�t clipped correctly when opening the overview directly from diplomacy
Fixed the leader death glow � star night sky � in diplomacy
Fixed an issue where the small quest dialogs would use the large dialog hit boxes
Fixed an issue where the events would slide in again after a resize of the screen
Fixed an issue where the decorations on the hero join panel weren�t clipped correctly
Added a close button to the �item has arrived� event panel
Translated the close button on the refugee camp event panel
Fixed an issue where replacing selected text was impossible if the text was already at max length
Fixed an issue where the dwelling icon wouldn�t render in the Tome of Wonders
Enlarged the textfield of the target text to fix a bug in Russian where the text would be cut off.
Enlarge the textfield of the �Search local� text to fix a bug in Russian where the text would be cut off.
The save and load menu cannot be opened anymore when the new turn panel is opened. This fixed unresponsiveness of the game in this instance.
When the reward from a dwelling opened up and a battle interrupted this screen, the reward was lost. The reward screen now re-opens after the battle has finished.
Fixed an issue with the courier items screen: the hero icons would not show up when sending a second item right after sending the first.
Audio Fixes

Added multichannel (i.e. 5.1) audio support.
Fixed an issue preventing ambient sound from being enabled when leaving the diplomacy screen
Fixed an issue with event sounds being audible for all players.
Changed new turn sound trigger to new turn instead of end turn, allows players to hear when it�s their turn in hot seat.
Random Map Fixes

Fixed an issue where water structures were able to be generated on river hexes, thereby blocking ships
Fixed a bug in the �Land� type maps where the map edges were temperate fertile instead of the intended terrain
Mini-expansion player site which is generated for each player starting position has been moved from ~6 hex to ~8 hex distance from starting location.
Fixed a bug in underground where cave exits were only being generated near player spawn area, and never on a more global level.
Fixed a bug in the �Land� type random map where Monster Dens and Haunted Boneyards were never being generated.
Fixed a bug in the Underground where too many unit spawning structures were being generated.
Increased chances of Haunted Boneyards being created instead of Brigand Hideouts and Monster Dens
Fixed a clustering issue with unit spawning structures; they should be spaced out more now.
Slightly increased chances of Flow Rock Quarry and Trading Posts being generated at expansion sites, instead of tier 1 structures like gold mines and mana nodes.
Map Specific Fixes

Campaign: Fixed various issues with �capture� quests.
Campaign: Fixed a crash when retreating heroes and leaders from campaign battles.
Campaign: Fixed the level cap in the campaign maps.
4th Elven Court map: Fixed an issue where Bormac was set loose by AI.
4th Commonwealth map: Prevented a situation where you could kill Carishar without it triggering your victory.
One of the last Commonwealth map: Fixed the �Help the Dwarves� and �Slay the Frost Dragon� quests, they did not always trigger correctly.
The last Elven Court maps: Made sure fairies spawned correctly in one of the final Elven Court maps, provided you had done the necessary quest in an earlier scenario.
Taming of the Great Khan: Quests now give the intended rewards.
Elven Resurgence: Removed the defenders from player 2′s heart of blight.
Elven Resurgence: Reduced Player 1′s starting units, to match the strength of the other players.
Elven Resurgence: Increased the gold income for players 3, 5 and 6, , to match the income the other players.
General Fixes

The game doesn�t crash anymore when a hatched egg of a dead hero is selected.
The game doesn�t crash anymore when a game is loaded which was saved before patch v1.09 in which an egg had just hatched.
The game doesn�t crash anymore when an item is sent to a hero who just died.
Changed allied victory so only human players need an alliance to all other players
�Research Not Set� event is now also shown when research pickup is used or when vault of knowledge is cleared
Fixed issue where empire morale would not be used in TC
Fixed issue with throne tooltip showing incorrect owning player
Fixed a bug where seasoned achievement was not properly applied when a unit would gain a level in TC
Fixed treasure raider achievement
Fixed issue where structure�s random defender strength was not resolved during activation resulted in out of syncs on user made maps
Fixed issue where quest would not correctly have their rewards set
Fixed hot seat issue where an AI player would not correctly end turn when it had won/lost
Fixed auto combat crash
Fixed bug in AI trade analyzer code
Made cities way more valuable in trades
AI will no longer trade its throne city
AI will not trade accept cities from the other player when at war, because these are to easy to recapture
Fixed issue bug where quests were given when a player was at war with the city
Fixed players being able to build cities and fortress on top of map hazards, such as briar patches and cobwebs
Strategic AI will no longer build a settler if doing so would cause a city to become underpopulated.
Fixed issues where the the AI would wait behind city walls while player killed it with spells and long range weapons
Tactical AI will no longer spam dispel on abilities bestowed by structures on the world map
Fixed issue in classic turns which caused turn order to be handled incorrectly in some cases, when a player is defeated.
The AI will no longer target concealed stacks with damage spells on the strategic map
Fixed camera controls being affected by tactical battle speed up
Fixed certain structures still giving income to cities when occupied by enemy armies
Fixed a crash occurring when an item is traded and the item owner died before the trade was resolved.
Fixed an input control issue to allow 3rd party software to map gamepad button.
Fixed an issue where second player of classic turn MP game would get a new hero every time you load a save file.
Fixed an out of sync issue with the Freeze Water spell.
Fixed a bug where disabling the �Remember Password� check-box didn�t have any effect the next time the launcher was started.
Play as guest check-box is now remembered for the next time that the launcher is started. This also ensures initial settings � e.g. graphics settings � are taken from the Guest profile, preventing players that only played as �Guest� from having their settings be reverted to default settings..
Fixed minor issue for players with a �.� (dot) character as the final character of their account name.
When the profile data is corrupted then the user will be notified when launching the game.
Fixed a crash for players that are loading corrupted save games.
Player now gets a notification when the connection to the server is lost.
Fixed a mouse clipping issue that sometimes occurs when having multiple monitors.
Fixed issues with camera clipping through floor in tactical maps
Fixed issues with camera bounding area being to small or to large for tactical maps
Fixed various graphical issues in tactical maps
Fixed an issue where units could stand on hexes surrounded by blocking obstacles in tactical battles
Adjusted Line of Sight settings for various objects on tactical maps
Fixed an issue with auto-move which could cause the game to crash on pressing the end turn button.
Fixed an issue with custom hero names not showing up properly in the event that shows up when an egg hatches.
Fixed an exploit where concealed units in a visible stack could be found through the morale tooltip.
The statistic screen now shows data of the last turn � the one that�s selected � correctly.
Fixed an issue with the select next hero shortcut: the hero now gets selected instead of the city when the hero is standing on a city.
Fixed a bug with the cycling through the heroes when the player first selects a hero stack with the mouse.
Fixed issue with item bags not being rendered correctly when they spawned on top of mountains, which made it seem as if no reward would spawn.
That�s it! (� for this one)

Couple of bug fixes in there.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 18:09

Gwyrgyn Blood: Dec 17, 2002

Those being the v1.10 notes. Patch is up on GoG now too.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 19:18

victrix: Oct 30, 2007

Hey Gerblyn, is the loot bug still present? I know there was some issue where monster lairs weren't dropping the full range of loot.

I didn't see anything about it in the patch notes and it was mentioned awhile ago, wasn't sure if it was fixed yet or not - I'm still getting a lot of the same mounts from lairs in my current games :v:

# ? Apr 29, 2014 19:24

Gerblyn: Apr 4, 2007; "TO BATTLE!"; Fun Shoe

victrix posted:

Hey Gerblyn, is the loot bug still present? I know there was some issue where monster lairs weren't dropping the full range of loot.

I didn't see anything about it in the patch notes and it was mentioned awhile ago, wasn't sure if it was fixed yet or not - I'm still getting a lot of the same mounts from lairs in my current games

Sorry, we were looking at it today so I assume it will be in the next patch. We were testing it and I saw a bunch of items that I'd never seen before, there's an item that gives a hero a Swarm Darter's ranged attack, for example. I believe we have about 150 items defined, and at a guess only 30 or 40 or so were actually dropping.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 20:32

Ojetor: Aug 4, 2010; Return of the Sensei

Assassins seem pretty terrible now. They're just expensive T2 Infantry-equivalents with Assassin's Strike and Backstab, which hardly seems worth the price. Losing Pass Wall hurts quite a bit, since Wall Climbing is not very effective on a glass cannon unit like Assassins. Even Firstborn take significant damage if you attack them while they're climbing a wall, Assassins in that situation melt.

As for Sprint, maybe just revert the buff instead of removing it altogether? Or make Assassins Infantry instead of Irregulars so Trail Running does not apply to them.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 21:28

Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

Gerblyn posted:

Sorry, we were looking at it today so I assume it will be in the next patch. We were testing it and I saw a bunch of items that I'd never seen before, there's an item that gives a hero a Swarm Darter's ranged attack, for example. I believe we have about 150 items defined, and at a guess only 30 or 40 or so were actually dropping.

Funny, I just got that item in-game. It was a quest reward from an Archon Dwelling for fighting a stack of six Fey units. It was a dear-bought mosquito pipe.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 21:54

Carnalfex: Jul 18, 2007

madmac posted:

I like the tricky feel too, I think it just comes down to Assassins and later Shadow Stalkers being the only Rogue units that actually, like, kill things. Crows, Bards, Scoundrels and Succubus are all great scouting/support units, but they're basically unable to win fights by themselves except with Charm/Sabotage. You have to fill out your army with something.

That's just it though. Every class has a bit of a gimmick with their specialty units and generally doesn't want to fill a whole army with just them. Sorc units make decent tanks but you still need archers/priests/cavalry. Warlord untis tend to be melee powerhouses but again, you still want support/range units. Etc, etc. Rogue just don't have "core" army units, they specialize in support. If you can make an army of all one unit and win reliably then it is pretty OP. If rogues feel underpowered in combat, shouldn't their support and bags of tricks be improved instead of simply making their units better at every role?

How much more dangerous would a succubus be if a failed charm would still stun the unit, for example? Still a support unit but suddenly much more dangerous without losing the tricky feel, and still vulnerable to getting mashed by overwhelming force if not properly used.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 21:59

victrix: Oct 30, 2007

Yuck no, Charm is already really drat powerful, giving it a guaranteed disable if it fails to steal a unit would be insane.

I suppose it comes down to if, at any given stage in the game, will you take Rogue units in your 6 stacks, yes or no?

If no, why? And then look at the issue from that perspective, not 'can I fill a full army of rogue units and kill everything' (unless most of the other classes can I suppose :v:

)

# ? Apr 29, 2014 22:33

Gerblyn: Apr 4, 2007; "TO BATTLE!"; Fun Shoe

Ojetor posted:

Assassins seem pretty terrible now. They're just expensive T2 Infantry-equivalents with Assassin's Strike and Backstab, which hardly seems worth the price. Losing Pass Wall hurts quite a bit, since Wall Climbing is not very effective on a glass cannon unit like Assassins. Even Firstborn take significant damage if you attack them while they're climbing a wall, Assassins in that situation melt.

As for Sprint, maybe just revert the buff instead of removing it altogether? Or make Assassins Infantry instead of Irregulars so Trail Running does not apply to them.

To be fair, Assassins only seem terrible now because of how good they were before. In terms of stats and abilities, they're still arguably the best tier 2 unit in the game. In non-siege situations, assassins are just as powerful as they ever were. An assassin isn't even really a glass cannon, it has nice enough defense and 50 hit points, after all.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 22:44

victrix: Oct 30, 2007

Yeah I had a fair number of my units wrecked by enemy assassins in whatever map the orc sorcerer campaign level is. They hit really drat hard, and that no retaliation strike is a bitch. Tier 1 units get killed fast.

Gerblyn, I've been accumulating feedback/bugs/ui stuff in a google doc, should I make a big post here or on the official forums, or several smaller posts - what's easiest to parse for you guys?

# ? Apr 29, 2014 22:48

Gerblyn: Apr 4, 2007; "TO BATTLE!"; Fun Shoe

I don't really mind, you could just post a link and I'll go through it in the morning? Thanks

# ? Apr 29, 2014 22:57

Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

I'm playing my first (non-campaign) rogue game, and assassins are pretty drat solid. The only tier II unit that's better in my experience is the flame tank. I still have no idea how to counter flame tanks behind stone walls beyond brute forcing it and eating losses.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 23:00

Ojetor: Aug 4, 2010; Return of the Sensei

Gerblyn posted:

To be fair, Assassins only seem terrible now because of how good they were before. In terms of stats and abilities, they're still arguably the best tier 2 unit in the game. In non-siege situations, assassins are just as powerful as they ever were. An assassin isn't even really a glass cannon, it has nice enough defense and 50 hit points, after all.

The problem is that nearly every engagement vs the AI is a siege battle, which exacerbates their new weaknesses. You're probably right that they are fairly sturdy for a T2, but as soon as you start facing melee T3s Assassins become glass cannons that blow their Assassin's Strike load and then get blown up themselves. Wall Climbing makes things significantly worse in that sense since you can no longer get the first hit against units inside cities.

# ? Apr 29, 2014 23:03

Carnalfex: Jul 18, 2007

victrix posted:

Yuck no, Charm is already really drat powerful, giving it a guaranteed disable if it fails to steal a unit would be insane.

I suppose it comes down to if, at any given stage in the game, will you take Rogue units in your 6 stacks, yes or no?

If no, why? And then look at the issue from that perspective, not 'can I fill a full army of rogue units and kill everything' (unless most of the other classes can I suppose )

Yeah, that is essentially what I was trying to say. Charm was perhaps not the best example other than the whole idea of strengthening the unique thing about a unit rather than blanket stat buffs (unless that is the special thing the unit does if it is a bruiser I guess).

# ? Apr 29, 2014 23:35

madmac: Jun 22, 2010

victrix posted:

Yuck no, Charm is already really drat powerful, giving it a guaranteed disable if it fails to steal a unit would be insane.

I suppose it comes down to if, at any given stage in the game, will you take Rogue units in your 6 stacks, yes or no?

If no, why? And then look at the issue from that perspective, not 'can I fill a full army of rogue units and kill everything' (unless most of the other classes can I suppose )

Honestly, most classes can get away with minimal use of racial units fairly quickly. Dreadnaughts and Warlords have an entire tech-tree that covers nearly all the bases. (Warlords have awesome ranged units, they only really miss out on Elemental Damage.) Druids and Sorcers are mostly summon reliant with a smattering of ranged/support, which they also can get from their class. Theocrats are a bit thin at any given point but overall all their units are well suited to bulking up their armies.

Rogues are...they have a good selection of units, and none of them are bad but there's also not a lot of reason to have a bunch of them for most of the game. Assassins are different, since they are really strong Tier 2 units overall and the reason they do tend to get massed. I just feel it dilutes their uniqueness if they have to lean too heavily on generic units to do heavy lifting. Exactly where that line should be drawn or where they stand currently, I'm not sure.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 00:24

Thyrork: Apr 21, 2010; "COME PLAY MECHS M'LANCER."

Or at least use Retrograde Mini's to make cool mechs and fantasy stuff.; Slippery Tilde

Returned after a week of no internet and what do we have but a wonderful sounding patch. You spoil me Triumph. :allears:

# ? Apr 30, 2014 00:33

Carnalfex: Jul 18, 2007

madmac posted:

Honestly, most classes can get away with minimal use of racial units fairly quickly. Dreadnaughts and Warlords have an entire tech-tree that covers nearly all the bases. (Warlords have awesome ranged units, they only really miss out on Elemental Damage.) Druids and Sorcers are mostly summon reliant with a smattering of ranged/support, which they also can get from their class. Theocrats are a bit thin at any given point but overall all their units are well suited to bulking up their armies.

Rogues are...they have a good selection of units, and none of them are bad but there's also not a lot of reason to have a bunch of them for most of the game. Assassins are different, since they are really strong Tier 2 units overall and the reason they do tend to get massed. I just feel it dilutes their uniqueness if they have to lean too heavily on generic units to do heavy lifting. Exactly where that line should be drawn or where they stand currently, I'm not sure.

Perhaps the real issue is that racial units are not interesting enough compared to class unit choices. Ideally any unit should be an attractive addition (if even only for efficiency vs cost) to an army. I know there has been some talk about making cities more specialized; a building that gives an additional racial benefit (or upkeep reduction?) to race units might make them more appealing?

# ? Apr 30, 2014 00:44

Captain Oblivious: Oct 12, 2007; I'm not like other posters

Unless I'm missing something, Theocrats seem better off ignoring their class units until Crusaders. Nothing about Martyrs or Cherubs struck me as particularly compelling.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 00:48

Carnalfex: Jul 18, 2007

Captain Oblivious posted:

Unless I'm missing something, Theocrats seem better off ignoring their class units until Crusaders. Nothing about Martyrs or Cherubs struck me as particularly compelling.

Cherubs make great scouts, almost all the initial summon class spells are designed to be cheap scouts to grab treasure and find out what is out there.

Edit: but yeah theocrats have some support units just like rogues in martyrs and evangelists. They need to lean on some racial troops too.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 00:55

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

That's mostly because Theocrats and Rogues can Charm snowball. And with the way the independents work, especially now that monster lairs appear on the surface, you can get a ton of good Tier 3 units stupidly easily. Or steal the evolving things like Shock Serpents, or Baby Spiders and feed them a bit of XP to get more Tier 3 or 4 units. And if you're lucky enough to be anywhere near Giants you can laugh your way to the bank.

If every single independent that spawns around you is Undead/Nightmares (why?)/Dragons/Berserkers/Manticores/Firstborn you're kinda screwed. But with how often I see Fey units/Ogres/Trolls/Yeti/Giants/Warbreed/Gryphon Riders/Fliers/Shocktroopers/Serpents/Sorcerer Summons I really never have an issue filling out my armies.

Plus you get to play around with cool units that way. Protip: If you have units with charm park weak scouts over 'Strong' adventuring sites. The rewards are usually kind of crap, but you can get evolving Spiders and a guarenteed Ogre/Troll/Yeti if you sweep through them later. You can also keep monster dens alive to Tier 3 spider farm because the AI almost never goes after them.

I really, really hope Befriend animal gets buffed to affect Monster units too at some point and Charm loses the ability to. Charm animal is almost totally useless since there really aren't any tier 3+ animals and Charm affects everything anyways. Being able to seduce spiders/snakes but not befriend them with the animal spell is weird as gently caress.

Zore fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Apr 30, 2014

# ? Apr 30, 2014 01:23

madmac: Jun 22, 2010

Carnalfex posted:

Perhaps the real issue is that racial units are not interesting enough compared to class unit choices. Ideally any unit should be an attractive addition (if even only for efficiency vs cost) to an army. I know there has been some talk about making cities more specialized; a building that gives an additional racial benefit (or upkeep reduction?) to race units might make them more appealing?

Nah, I think Racial units are plenty interesting on their own merits.(Elves and Draconians for life!) But literally everyone gets racial units, class units are a huge part of what makes Classes feel unique and play differently from each other. I'm not saying racial units should be verboten, but if you're playing that class and mostly not using class units, that's a problem to me.

quote:

Unless I'm missing something, Theocrats seem better off ignoring their class units until Crusaders. Nothing about Martyrs or Cherubs struck me as particularly compelling.

Cherubs are fine scouts, but yes Martyrs are pretty much useless roadbumps on the highway to getting Crusaders and Evangelists, which both own. Crusaders are just really cheap cost-effective infantry with the all the useful keywords (Devout, Holy Champion) baked in. Evangelists are the best (and only ranged) converters in the game, plus healing and Tier 3 stats on a support unit. Their one weakness is not having a ranged attack.

I like the idea behind Martyrs, it's just in practice I'd rather devote an army slot to an actually good unit then a frail little damage absorber. I guess in theory you could use a mob of them to soak damage for a Hero or Shrine of Smiting, though.

Theocrats do benefit a lot from using Racial Support and Cavalry units, overall.

quote:

That's mostly because Theocrats and Rogues can Charm snowball. And with the way the independents work, especially now that monster lairs appear on the surface, you can get a ton of good Tier 3 units stupidly easily. Or steal the evolving things like Shock Serpents, or Baby Spiders and feed them a bit of XP to get more Tier 3 or 4 units. And if you're lucky enough to be anywhere near Giants you can laugh your way to the bank.

An all in conversion strategy is something I've not attempted and am really curious about. If you say it's viable, I'll believe you.

madmac fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Apr 30, 2014

# ? Apr 30, 2014 01:28

Taear: Nov 26, 2004; Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

Carnalfex posted:

That's just it though. Every class has a bit of a gimmick with their specialty units and generally doesn't want to fill a whole army with just them.

I think you're just wrong here. It's fine to have an army entirely of horned gods, an army entirely of Eldrich Horrors, of Manticore riders. In fact, it's preferred. I don't need archers or cavalry when I have them.

Rogue units are support and having a whole army of them doesn't really work.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 02:18

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

I used charm snowballs as orc theocrat it was almost a joke. Drop the -2 res city global then drop curse and you can steal large chunks of things that dare attempt attack.

I use martyrs quite a lot personally too. They die like flies but you can just have some minor city make an endless stream of them to replace the ones you lose. Martyrs allow a powerful and possibly buffed melee unit to charge and be healed (by healing their martyr) at long range. Only done it with orcs though and the hp bonus probably helps a lot.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 02:18

Carnalfex: Jul 18, 2007

Taear posted:

I think you're just wrong here. It's fine to have an army entirely of horned gods, an army entirely of Eldrich Horrors, of Manticore riders. In fact, it's preferred. I don't need archers or cavalry when I have them.

Rogue units are support and having a whole army of them doesn't really work.

You're talking about top tier super units. Units that cost as much to upkeep as a whole army by themselves. You can't really compare that to anything else. Saying you don't need infantry when you have godzilla is a bit silly. If you can afford field a full army of them then the game has been over for a long, long time. Either that or you have it on an absurdly huge map with every resource turned up to max, in which case any sort of balance has already been kinda thrown out the window.

Even in that scenario, though, you have to *get* to the point where you own a lot of real estate to be able to do that. Which means using early, cheap units for the majority of the game. It seems a bit silly to hand wave away everything that isn't top tech tier because it has lower stats as if it didn't matter.

Edit: Even in a situation with an abundance of resources it could easily be preferable to have 2-3 armies of lower tier units for the same cost. I'm not saying top tier units aren't good, just that lower tier stuff is generally all you need. Even facing horrors and giant and dragons if you are fielding the same *cost* worth of units you can definitely hold your own against them. This is mostly because of the action points and flanking mechanics.

Carnalfex fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Apr 30, 2014

# ? Apr 30, 2014 02:25

Taear: Nov 26, 2004; Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

Carnalfex posted:

You're talking about top tier super units. Units that cost as much to upkeep as a whole army by themselves. You can't really compare that to anything else. Saying you don't need infantry when you have godzilla is a bit silly. If you can afford field a full army of them then the game has been over for a long, long time.

I don't get this sort of response. So far most of my games end on turn 100 - 120. They're probably "over" by about 70. I play Medium maps, five AI, islands, with city spawning turned off. I also play Adventurer mode, which means not many cities and you don't start with a city.

I never, ever build T1 units. Ever. Or T2. There's just no need. Aside from Elvish Longbowmen sometimes to guard cities. And swarm darters! Your starting army is fine for the stuff you need until you can build your racial T3s and head out into the world.

I know this is different in the campaign but (pre-patch) you'd have to be playing some really small maps or expand really slowly in random maps to not be able to have 3 or 4 stacks of Racial and Class T4/3s by turn 40 or so.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 02:30

victrix: Oct 30, 2007

edit: ^^^ Of course there's no need for t1/t2 units when you start with T3 units :psyduck:

Martyrs are really nice for early game city sieges - they essentially give you double strength shield units for pushing the gates/walls, and give you double power from defensive buffs (seriously, slap +8 def on a martyred shield unit and watch it sponge up all incoming fire as it breaks down the doors).

And yeah, Cherubs and all other early cheapy fast flying units are purely for scouting and stealing all the resources and open cities on the map.

I think city stealing is really lame personally, one of the reasons I want see city garrisons become A Thing.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 02:32

Taear: Nov 26, 2004; Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

victrix posted:

edit: ^^^ Of course there's no need for t1/t2 units when you start with T3 units

You only get two at MAXIMUM. Even then the same applies to when you're not playing Adventurer.

In unrelated news - is the "Seasoned" achievement bugged? I've definitely had tonnes of Elite units and I've not got it. All it says is "promote a unit to gold".

Taear fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Apr 30, 2014

# ? Apr 30, 2014 02:42

Carnalfex: Jul 18, 2007

Just wanted to say that I would pay money for more hats/clothes/faces/poses/everything to play hero dressup. Also the ability to see custom made heroes show up to be hireable units (they already show up as AI players which is great!)

also: has anyone else noticed that the AI tends to ignore resource nodes around their cities? They don't seem to prioritize clearing the guards (so the city never benefits from the node)

Carnalfex fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Apr 30, 2014

# ? Apr 30, 2014 03:28

boredsatellite: Dec 7, 2013

Taear posted:

You only get two at MAXIMUM. Even then the same applies to when you're not playing Adventurer.

In unrelated news - is the "Seasoned" achievement bugged? I've definitely had tonnes of Elite units and I've not got it. All it says is "promote a unit to gold".

I got that achievement by having a unit promoted to gold through the place that upgrades the rank of your army when you walk through it

# ? Apr 30, 2014 04:13

Arrrthritis: May 31, 2007; I don't care if you're a star, the moon, or the whole damn sky, you need to come back down to earth and remember where you came from

Carnalfex posted:

Just wanted to say that I would pay money for more hats/clothes/faces/poses/everything to play hero dressup. Also the ability to see custom made heroes show up to be hireable units (they already show up as AI players which is great!)

also: has anyone else noticed that the AI tends to ignore resource nodes around their cities? They don't seem to prioritize clearing the guards (so the city never benefits from the node)

This! Also, totally inconsequential but the ability to write/view backstories for custom-made leaders would be cool too.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 06:33

Thyrork: Apr 21, 2010; "COME PLAY MECHS M'LANCER."

Or at least use Retrograde Mini's to make cool mechs and fantasy stuff.; Slippery Tilde

Arrrthritis posted:

This! Also, totally inconsequential but the ability to write/view backstories for custom-made leaders would be cool too.

I'd be fine with this too. :haw:

# ? Apr 30, 2014 10:40

victrix: Oct 30, 2007

Gerblyn, as requested, here's the doc, cleaned up a bit:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RJr_lHMl6nhuZisDoqhjwldFNnwQgbvV5bA8k776Pas/edit?usp=sharing

I randomly mashed the bold key in the hopes that it would make the wall of text a little more readable, and numbered everything to make referring to specific items easier if needed.

The first few are requests/features/suggestions, the rest is largely ui fiddliness, with some bugs and weirdness at the end.

edit: One thing I didn't list on there. Right click/drag to set a units facing is really loving important, and I can't for the life of me remember if its noted/emphasized anywhere in the game in combat. I don't have any brilliant suggestions for this, but it's something that new players need to know.

victrix fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Apr 30, 2014

# ? Apr 30, 2014 12:50

Delacroix: Dec 7, 2010

It looks like heroes who die and get resurrected via resurrect hero lose any leftover hero points they had. Also it seems mind controlling the independent heroes who spawn near cities gives you zero points to assign. I thought I'd steal a level 5 theocrat hero that just spawn on a AI's throne city to give a stack some army bonuses but he's useless.

# ? Apr 30, 2014 12:52

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 17:38

Kanos: Sep 6, 2006; was there a time when speedwagon didn't get trolled

To test the new beta patch, I've run through two full Lord AI games, 5 AI, large map, city founding off but everything else default. First game was Elf Theocrat and second game was Dwarf Sorcerer.

Game 1 was actually pretty touch and go for a while. I was hemmed in on three sides by some very quickly snowballing AI that cut my expansion pretty hard and was seriously in danger of being simply overwhelmed. Only some desperate bribery to hook two of them into an alliance gave me the breathing room required to smash my way free through the third one, and eating his empire finally gave me enough resources to launch a huge offensive on the other two AI with minor support from my allies for the win. Of note was that I was so pressured for the whole game that I never managed to get around to Shrines of Smiting despite the game hitting turn 114 or so before the win. I won mostly on the back of a flood of exalted and various dwelling T3s.

Game 2 was never in doubt at any point. I had a largely isolated start with all the room and neutral cities I could ever want, so I expanded kind of lazily and took my sweet time leveling up a doomstack of heroes. I already had four level 10+ heroes and node serpents almost done by the time I bumped into my first opponent, then Eldritch Horrors came online just in time for me to take it to the next one. It kind of snowballed from there; attacking a throne city with two full stacks of eldritch horrors, four level 15 heroes, and a stack and a half of miscellaneous apprentices and T3 units is quite a sight to see.

Observations:

Lord-level AI is strategically too passive. I should have honestly lost the first game due to pressure from too many angles but the AI is really timid about going on the offensive when they're not capable of sniping off a city or catching a stack completely pants-down. This means that it's too easy to bluff them off attacking altogether by simply positioning your troops right.
By a similar token, Lord-level AI is far too passive when defending sieges. I got away with murder on multiple occasions simply by rolling up to a heavily defended city with a couple of heroes with minimal support, dumping all of their spells a turn at a time, then retreating only to do it again next turn while the far superior defensive force simply hunkered down and got whittled away. The AI needs to be more willing to sally forth to fight you in these kind of situations or they end up way too easy to abuse.
The mana cap and mana income changes had precious little effect on my ability to cast whatever the gently caress I wanted past like turn 30. The problem comes down to there simply not being any good way to spend mana quickly. You're so constrained by both CP and one-spell-per-turn that even with full armies of summons you will never spend enough mana to really make a conceivable dent. In the Theocrat game I was literally fliffing hundreds of mana around just to buy open borders, alliances, and gold from AIs and not even noticing the cost because I could still spam all the spells I wanted.
On the flip side, gold and production is actually a pretty solid bottleneck for non-summon high tier units. I find myself valuing strong cavalry and good archers far more now that I'm actually composing armies out of them past turn 50 due to resource constraints instead of dropping them like deadweight in favor of T3 spam(which I now can't afford).
Jesus christ, please, give humans something. Anything. They're loving terrible compared to basically any other race. Lame archers, lame infantry, and the only units they have that are worth a drat are the priest and the knight. The knight is only worth a drat because it's a T3 and it's still shittier than basically any other T3 with the possible exception of the Big Beetle, and even that's up in the air because at least the Beetle has wall crushing.

Kanos fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Apr 30, 2014

# ? Apr 30, 2014 13:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Age of Wonders Eternal Lords: Elsa's Dead, Frodo's Family & LionO has a Dream

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