DerekPaxton DerekPaxton

Fallen Enchantress 0.98 Changelog

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Fallen Enchantress 0.98 Changelog

from Elemental Forums

 

 

 

Features

Added a bunch of new random events like "Return of the Titans", "The Lost Protector", "The Syndicate Responds", "Unearthed Treasures" and many more

Air Elementals and Crow Demons can fly (ie: they can pass over all terrain), a rare event may allow a player to gain this ability

If you fail a battle in a quest the monsters remain in that tile and you can return later to reattempt killing them and progress the quest

New Choose World and Choose Opponents screens with new options

Added the Governor's Office improvement- Town only, improves the production per material in all cities

Added the Despair spell (drains life from all enemies)

Added the Delin's Breath spell (shoots a fireball at all enemies)

Added the Coal Stones spell (shoots a lance of fire at all enemies)

Added the Propaganda city enchantment spell (air spell, increases gildar in the city)

Added the Oppresision city enchantment spell (death spell, reduces unrest)

Added 12 new achievements (winning with the different victory types, defeating various unique creatures, etc)

SpawnMonster's game modifier can now specify what groupingtype a given unit comes in (so an encounter can now specify a group of monsters)

ChangeWorld game modifier added that allows anything that uses a map based game modifier to change anything in elementaldefs.xml

ChangeMovementType game modifier added that allows things to change a unit's movement class (such as to flying)

Units given to player via a quest or event can now be given their own names (Like "Bob") instead of it having the unit type's display name.

The GiveItem modifier can now override the name of the item and the description.

Added the Summon Abomination spell (quest unlock)

Added the Titan's Imp spell (quest unlock)

Added a game option to disable moving in the tile in tactical combat (if its selected units won't move to the edge of the itle and back to attack/defend)

Added Prior and Next buttons to the build and train windows so you can jump through your cities from those menus.

The city levelup window shows the cities stats so you can make a more informed decision when picking your improvement.

All new tile designs for each of the city types at each level

Lots of new tactical arenas for quests (dungeons, temples, ruins, etc)

 

Fixes

Fixed an issue where units couldn’t be killed on the strategic map (if, for example, you did enough damage through a strategic spell)

Fixed an issue where you could pull up the WoM lorebook when you clicked on resources

Fixed bug where objects that were exposed but under fog were not being displayed on map after loading a saved game

Fixed crashes

Sacrifice now correctly gives 1 mana per population lost

Wall of Fire is now correctly listed as a city spell

Fixed an issue where hitting the space bar with your unit selected would not go to the next unit

On start of new turn, game will select the first available unit if possible

Fixed bug that caused stackable spells to not be able to be cast on a city (they don't care about essence)

A unit on auto pilot will now cancel their destination if they come within range of a threat

Fixed animation bug that caused monsters to run in place

Fixed the True Strike ability

Fixed a bug with the Impulsive trait and tactical battles, wherein the initiative list would display wrongly for the first turn of impulsive units.

Fixed a bug where rearranging the build queue could allow you to rush things at the old items cost

Fixed bug where improvements with player-wide modifiers (such as modifying faction-wide unrest with the prison) applied those modifiers twice on completing construction

Fixed bug where, when ZOC ownership changed and a life/death shrine was destroyed, the shard it was built on top of did not flip

Fixed a bug where pedestrians were shown on city walls under FoW

Fixed a bug where particle effects were showing up under the FoW

Removed gear from units in the Trade Proposal Window

Fixed an issue causing the health bars in tactical to not update

Fixed an issue with missing icons for empty lots

Fixed the Lucky faction ability

Fixed an issue with the Palace and Black Market medallions

Population tooltip won’t show an overflow number when growth has stopped (instead it says “Lack of food is preventing growth”)

Fixed bug where you could double-click a tactical spell entry in the spellbook in strategic mode and be allowed to cast the spell

Fixed an issue allowing all ai players to train Ironeer Pilgrims

Added a minimum cost to rush production to 25 (you can no long rush and get money back)

Fixed the icon for the Garrote Lair

Fixed some obsolete intro text on custom sovereigns

Fixed the Blacksmith

Removed references the finding "magical" items when the random item rolled may not be magical

Fixed an animation blend issue when zooming to cloth map mode (the infamous mire skath proctologist issue)

 

Balance

Increased the dodge bonus on the cloak of shadows, darkling cloak, dancing boots and cloak of the night

Throwing knives require weaponry instead of weaponsmithing

Meditation spell is available to all sovereigns

Nerfed Obsession

Increased the attack on the Sindarian Staff and placed it on Weaponry

Arcane Weaponry requires Weapons of War

Arcane Armor requires Heavy Armor

Dark Wizards can cast Despair

Titan's can cast Delin's Breath and Despair

Wilding Shamans can cast Coal Stones

Heart of Fire's effect is reduced and made a Fire 1 spell

Sovereign's Call made into a Life 1 spell

Staff of the furnace enables the Coal Stones spell instead of Flame Dart

Raised bow damage slightly

Removed the production bonus on Mining

Removed the food and production bonus on Construction

1st level Shard shrine costs increased from 48 to 100

2nd level increased from 105 to 150

Apiary cost increased from 40 to 100

Barracks increases accuracy of units from 10 to 15 (was previously identical to training yard)

Brewery increases faction wide food benefit from 20 to 40

Butcher increases faction wide food benefit from 15 to 20

Darkling camp cost increased from 40 to 100

Asok camp increased from 88 to 120

Storm dragon camp increased from 40 to 100

Wilding camp cost increased from 40 to 100

Command post increases accuracy from 10 to 20 (10 was the same as the original training yard imp) and Training discount increased from 25% to 33% (25% was the same as the barracks)

Cost of building mines/farms increased from 40 to 100

Cost of higher level blds increased proportionately

Festival growth bonus increased from 1 to 2

Granary food benefit reduced from 60 to 40

Markets can only be constructed in towns (and no longer related to merchants)

MerchantCrossBazaar can now only be built in towns

Missionary Halls can now only be built in towns

Blocked Ogre's from being able to access eDisharmony, PlayGoblin and PentHut websites

Store house food benefit reduced from 30 to 20

Tax Offices can now only be built in towns

Tax Offices provide a 25% city income bonus

Theater faction prestige bonus increased from 2 to 4

Training Yards also now provide a 10% unit training discount

War College accuracy bonus increased from 10 to 25

War college training discount increased from 25% to 50% (was identical to barracks), training level bonus increased from 1 to 2 (was identical to command post) and Intiative to defenders increased from 2 to 4

Based production per material decreased from 6 to 5

Non contiguous unrest penalty increased from 10 to 15

Aura of Might requires earth 1

Enchanted Hammers gives +1 Material instead of +5 production per essence

Minimum cost to rush production is 25 gildar (you also can't get money back from rushing)

Rebalanced armor (made it weaker)

Increased the damage of high tier weapons slightly

Stoneskin reduced from 6+3 to 4+2

Strike Garrison becomes a level 3 fortress upgrade instead of level 4

Gallows becomes a level 4 fortress upgrade instead of level 3

Gallows negates the unrest penalty on production instead of reducing unrest by 10%

Watchtower provides the defending city with a free catapult

Infirmary improves growth by 1 instead of 0.5

Moved the Slave Pen and the Labor Guild to Logistics

Removed the Guilds tech (wasn't worth having a single 1 per faction improvement on it)

Reduced the Minimum turns to Construct or Train from 3 to 1

Reduced the research cost of construction

Switched the Guild Grocer from +1 hp per grain for units trained in that city to +10% hit points for all of your units

 

 

AI

Added IsTargetWorthy xml defined checks to spells for the AI.  So we (and modders) can define conditions where the AI won't want to cast a spell (ie: don’t cure a unit with less than 5 defense, don’t haste a unit with less than 10 hp, etc)

Modified the algorithms the AI uses with pioneers -- THANK YOU to players on the forums who post detailed AI analysis. Keep doing it please!

Changed the way units evaluate whether to target enemies based on whether enemy appears to be going after a city (AI units previously didn't generally attack an enemy unless they thought they could win or if they were part of a larger army group. This led to situations where a player could send a powerful army into the heart of enemy territory with AI units just standing around, afraid to attack rather than sacrificing themselves to wear down the player's mega stack) -- again, thank you forum users!

Fixed a monster AI bug where the monster AI player didn't "see" that a monster had units until the FOW code had activated it. This caused Lair monsters to just sit there sometimes until they entered a unit's FOW (player or AI).  Now, "hidden" monsters will do stuff off screen. Another report from the forums.

Monster behavior now depends on their intelligence

Intelligent monsters more likely to attack and destroy pioneer improvements

World difficulty affects likelyhood of monsters attacking pioneer outposts

Monsters more likely to target unescorted pioneers

AI more picky about whose equipment they upgrade

AI generally more aggressive about upgrading cities

AI beahvior when determining what to build in cities is now heavily dependent on that AI's personality (War Monger vs. Civilized, etc.)

Diplomatic relations more affected by which AI personality it has

Fixed bug that kept AI from being able to cast certain enchantments on cities

Tactical AI significantly improved (lots of new APIs to determine behavior)

AI can now "see" unit abilities that are unit buffs

Lots of AI work on the prioritization of building improvements, units, etc. (XML based work)

AI Relation Modifier changes:

Close borders relations penalty: -2 to -1
You are far away so we like that: +2 to +1
You have more diplomatic capital than I do: +2 to +1
You have a crapload more dip than I do: +3 to +2
Sheesh, get a freaking life, your dip capital is just...offensive: +4 to +3
You're bribing me with money: +3 to +1

AI diplomatic relations now more sophisticated, uses more AI personality traits

Changed selection behavior to not automatically select units that have a destination

Fixed an issue keeping monsters from casting spells

AI will use strategic offensive spells against units

Attempt to fix issue where the AI will offer you tribute but the title of the dialog says "demand tribute"

Smarter evaluations on when to ask or demand tribute

 

 

Cosmetic

New font rendering system (I know this sounds boring, but it is so awesome, everything looks so much better)

Tile Yields show up in the explored FoW (so if you find a good location to found a city you can still see it even if you don't have a unit in line of sight)

Spells support particles going out to each enemy

New city hub medallions for each city level and color themed for city type (so it's easy to look at your empire tree and see how many fortress, town, villages and conclaves you have)

Shortened the city upgrade window text (it didn’t fit for large city names)

City type is designated on the cloth map city icon

Fixed a missing icon for the Garrote lair

Updated the Hiergamenon

Fixed some spell descriptions that didn't fit on the levelup tooltip

All trainable units show up in the research tree now

Lots of new sfx

Modified camera behavior so that the camera doesn't whip away when a unit goes into battle

UI more aggressively in showing hour glass when the game gets busier

Added a unique sound effect to the City conquered report notifier

New animations for Mites

Improved the Economy Ledger window

You can now see all your treaties with a player on the foreign relations screen and that treaties remaining duration

You can see your top bar when a treaty proposal comes up so you can see how much gildar, etc you have available

Added acceleration to camera snap back to prevent camera from round house kicking players in the face

Added on hit particle effects to all weapons that do elemental damage

Cliffs don’t lip with each other anymore (those little flickering glowy bits aren't magic cheese as we had previously claimed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

130,844 views 153 replies
Reply #76 from Elemental Forums Top

Hmm.   My understanding is that the 3 turn requirement isn't in Beta 5.  It was still in the Beta 4 series because we had just transitioned from the population model.  But in Beta 5, I think the only limit is that you can only build 1 unit/building per turn max (i.e. no MOO building of 742 ships per turn).

To balance that, the rush buying was tweaked a bit to reward players who pre-planned a strong production economy.  There's been a number of changes made to the tech tree that allow players to get their cities to produce a lot more, a lot faster so that there is a continuous moving forward in terms of production, research, etc.

Also, Beta 5 won't require an Internet connection. There won't be any more slipstream XML updates past Beta 5 (previously, we've been updating your XML every time you load the game as we tweak little things). 

Beta 5 isn't the last beta. It's simply the last beta series.  There won't be a Beta 6. But there will certainly be a Beta 5A.

Beta 5 is feature complete. It's then about bug fixing, balance, UI and AI improvements -- which on a selfish note, I hope you find the AI deceptively more challenging on harder levels and enjoyably more approachable on easier levels. In Beta 5, the AI now will roll to make mistakes. The lower the level, the more common these mistakes are. At Challenging or higher, those mistake rolls are eliminated. The tactical combat should be noticeably better too.

Reply #77 from Elemental Forums Top


I know it's anathema to mention a WoM mechanic, but I think part of the production & 3 turn minimum build problem is that population is in no way tied to productivity. I think it's very poor design that 12 guys living in a 3/4/0 shanty town can out produce 400 living in a 5/2/0 metropolis.

 

EDIT: Well, trumped by the frog, I see. 1 turn builds it is.

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Reply #78 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 76
Hmm.   My understanding is that the 3 turn requirement isn't in Beta 5.  It was still in the Beta 4 series because we had just transitioned from the population model.  But in Beta 5, I think the only limit is that you can only build 1 unit/building per turn max (i.e. no MOO building of 742 ships per turn).

Beautiful!

Reply #79 from Elemental Forums Top

Nice.

 

I do think population needs to mean something more- but that can wait for 5A.

 

My idea there would be population would increase research  and gold production slightly, increase city militia effectivness significantly , and decrease rush costs.

 

Also, buffing buildings that require a higher city level would also buff population- but that's an inelegant solution that would encourage capping pop.

 

 

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 66
What do you want exactly? You can't please everyone with every feature. You need to understand that not every feature can be tailored exactly to what every player wants.

 

While it seems like the problem is going to be resolved/is getting resolved- and you're right that you can't please everyone with every feature, if a vast majority of hardcore folks dislike something (and forums skew to the hardcore) , there's usually a good reason for it (but not always).

 

 

Reply #80 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 76
In Beta 5, the AI now will roll to make mistakes. The lower the level, the more common these mistakes are. At Challenging or higher, those mistake rolls are eliminated.

 

:')

Beautiful.

Reply #81 from Elemental Forums Top

Note: I'm not the designer. Derek is.  So I'm jut giving my opinions here.

I think population should mean only as much to a city as XP means to a unit.

I think city leveling up needs to matter a lot more (and I think Kael agrees here).  I don't know how much more. But, for instance, you get no production bonus for leveling up right now.  Whereas, I think there should be a exponential increase in production per material for each level.

But, on the down side, I think money should be fully transitioned to city level and not take population into account at all.  Because what happens, currently, is that the system feels pretty good until level 4 cities at which point, money stops being an issue. It becomes a race condition and destabilizes everything else.

The other thing we'd like to look into is how to stop kiting from being so effective in tactical.  We have some ideas on that which will make their appearance in Beta 5A hopefully.

Reply #82 from Elemental Forums Top

Frogboy, please take a look at this list for UI improvements https://forums.elementalgame.com/430530

There are many other valid complaints as well, those are mine.

Reply #83 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 76
Beta 5 isn't the last beta. It's simply the last beta series. There won't be a Beta 6. But there will certainly be a Beta 5A.

I think everyone understood that already. It's why they are so concerned.

Reply #84 from Elemental Forums Top

Wish the 3 turn minimum was in the changelog, lol. I could have saved some page space on the internet. 

 

The problem with adding in city bonuses as research is now, is that the player gets no feedback. I would hope we get some clear indications in the UI about city level bonuses and which city specialization will add what per level. I have taken to adding the bonuses on the upgrade improvement instead of the cityhub so I can show the player what he is getting and allow each city level up choice to do something different. It's a pretty solid solution.

Reply #85 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 76
Hmm. My understanding is that the 3 turn requirement isn't in Beta 5. It was still in the Beta 4 series because we had just transitioned from the population model. But in Beta 5, I think the only limit is that you can only build 1 unit/building per turn

No offense intended, Frogboy, but may want to make sure of that.  You see, if there is no turn limit, there is no possibility to get money back, because nothing will ever appear in the queue once the full production cost has been covered.  Which makes this quote from the changlelog "Added a minimum cost to rush production to 25 (you can no long rush and get money back)" inexplicable unless there was a turn limit at the time of its posting.

So, given the nearly unanimous dislike of turn limits (inculding your own, yay!) please make sure they are out.

Reply #86 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 85
I have taken to adding the bonuses on the upgrade improvement instead of the cityhub so I can show the player what he is getting and allow each city level up choice to do something different. It's a pretty solid solution.

Yep and this makes the player choices in the game more important.

Reply #87 from Elemental Forums Top

Does the new AI cast buffs in strategic and tactical? Does it see and use abilities? 

Reply #88 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Tuidjy, reply 86

Quoting Frogboy, reply 76Hmm. My understanding is that the 3 turn requirement isn't in Beta 5. It was still in the Beta 4 series because we had just transitioned from the population model. But in Beta 5, I think the only limit is that you can only build 1 unit/building per turn

No offense intended, Frogboy, but may want to make sure of that.  You see, if there is no turn limit, there is no possibility to get money back, because nothing will ever appear in the queue once the full production cost has been covered.  Which makes this quote from the changlelog "Added a minimum cost to rush production to 25 (you can no long rush and get money back)" inexplicable unless there was a turn limit at the time of its posting.

So, given the nearly unanimous dislike of turn limits (inculding your own, yay!) please make sure they are out.

 

Umm. wrong!

That minimum cost fix still makes sense even with the hated 3 Turn Limit disabled.


Example. Spend 10 turns building and 11 turn building. On the last turn rush it. You don't get money back and you have to pay at least 25 gold. Yay, a problem is fixed that has nothing to do with the 3 turn limit.

 

All I'm saying is that the 3 Turn Limit being killed (yay!), can live along side the 25 gold minimum rush cost fix (yay!).

Reply #89 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 82
The other thing we'd like to look into is how to stop kiting from being so effective in tactical.  We have some ideas on that which will make their appearance in Beta 5A hopefully.

Ideas to stop kiting from Age of Wonders:

- Tactical battle is limited to 25 rounds. If battle is not finished within 25 rounds, attacker loses all his moves in global map.

- Unit should have remaining moves to attack, use ability, cast spell, etc. So unit can't move at its maximum and attack in the same round.

Reply #90 from Elemental Forums Top

How about defining which units are easy to kite and giving them them more moves and ranges attacks as you see fit?

Reply #91 from Elemental Forums Top

Two quick suggestions to reduce effectiveness of kiting:

1) All monsters should have counter-attack

2) Using a ranged ability reduces Movement to 1 for the attacker in its next action

3) Ranged weapons give a multiplier reduction to initiative rather than a flat value (-25% initiative instead of -5 initiative)

Reply #92 from Elemental Forums Top

I gave all monsters that fight alone at least 5 moves and high initiative so that the player can almost never kite them. The most easily kited unit is the lone monster. 

Reply #93 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 92
Ranged weapons give a multiplier reduction to initiative rather than a flat value (-25% initiative instead of -5 initiative)

 

^This one.

Reply #94 from Elemental Forums Top

Range attack can have penalty to accuracy depending on distance to target.

Reply #95 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 76
...Beta 5 is feature complete. It's then about bug fixing, balance, UI and AI improvements...

Can you please define 'feature complete'. My understanding of that would mean not adding new functionality, rather just tweaking what is there.

When I saw that UI tweaks were under the category 'Cosmetic' it actually really scared me. Heavenfall has a great list of UI suggestions, and my list is here. Some of these are not just 'cosmetic' changes - they go beyond rearranging or redesigning and they are important.

I couldn't care less about stuff that can be tweaked in XML at this point like balance and 3 turn limits etc. I'm sure all of that will be good at release and then modders will keep tweaking and improving things. Not an urgent concern to me because that aspect is not going to hinder the game at its core. But if the UI annoyances aren't addressed then there is nothing modders can do about that.

Please Derek and Brad, reassure me. I've just got a really bad feeling about this if it isn't addressed. The game is fun to play but the UI (or lack of essential UI) gets in the way of the fun-factor. Reassure me you are going make a good game into a great game please.

Reply #96 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 92
All monsters should have counter-attack

Yeah. I like counter-attack mechanics in HoMM and Age of Wonders. In FE units without counter-attack are like cannon fodder.

Reply #97 from Elemental Forums Top

Is Beta 5 still coming out 9-20-2012?

Reply #98 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting FatNonFree, reply 98
Is Beta 5 still coming out 9-20-2012?

That's the plan.

Reply #99 from Elemental Forums Top

Must say I'm looking forward to this. I have a feeling the changes/fixes/improvements in this beta will work out fine! :) Look forward to test a more challenging AI on expert difficulty, and needing more units to protect my expansion vs a more dangerous world. I see alot of hard and interesting choices having to be made on what to build, and in what priority, in the early game. 

 

Reply #100 from Elemental Forums Top

This change log is looking really good! I have confidence that FE is going to be awesome. :)