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Changelog 0.8.8a
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AI
*Skirmisher no longer affects melee units or those with a range of 2 or lower. In addition to that, the threat range for Skirmisher units is now half the missile unit’s range +1, with a minimum of 3 (was 5)
*Fixed bug where AI would morph only 1 Slime into 1 Ooze
Visual
*The selection images used for the Change Weather spell no longer have magenta corners
*Fixed bug where spells in the fbar would still be grayed when mana was enough
*Fixed bug where lightning storms wouldn’t cause lightning to appear when Fog of War was enabled
*Fixed bug where Invigorate, White Ward and Life Ward would not display any visual effects
*Fixed bug where the player loading box during multiplayer loading screens would be drawn off screen on high resolutions
*Spell level is now displayed on spell timers
*Item descriptions and set information no longer abruptly end, repeat the last few characters, or overflow past (and under) the control panel.
*Item descriptions now have less of an impact on frame-rate
*Skirmish drop-down options (Victory Conditions, Tech Level, etc.) no longer leave graphical glitches behind, and now appear in their correct place
*Arrows while under Ignore Armor spells now have silver FX
*Loading screen text no longer changes font midway through
*Fixed drawing error on the run-dry frame for the Rare Quarry
*Intoxication spell no longer shows club PFX
*Fixed crash when drawing effects in a game that had lighting effects set to none
Audio
*The starvation notification no longer loops when in starvation and with units having skills that can summon other units (like the Liche)
*Fixed bug where item drop sounds would be played when item was not dropped
Gameplay
*Imperial Archers now have the hotkey “a” (was “h”), also changed the hotkeys of the other Empire units to match their updated names
*Mana Leech no longer triggers on spell damage kills
*Fixed bug where resource-producing units would still produce resources when dead
*Fixed bug where No Mine Depletion game mode would cause issues with mines
*Fixed bug where Swamp Dragons would have the wrong projectile
*Fixed bug where Knight’s Quest would only consider allied evil units
*Knight’s Quest now chooses enemy evil units on the map for selection
*Fixed bug where harpies wouldn’t get bonus XP for spellcasters
*Rune Shops now have the correct armour rating of 35
*Ironbark is now resistant to magic only (was all damage)
*Decreased the ASP for the Empire’s 4 mages to 3 (from 9)
*Augurs now cost 110 stone and have a 36 second production times (was 40 stone and 31 seconds)
*Fixed bug where units would be randomly assigned poison and disease immunity
*Fixed bug where giving a group the “Stop” command would not stop all of its units
*Fixed bug where Woodcraft would activate on non-hero units
*Fixed bug where rain weather could stay on permanently if changed too fast
*Fixed bug where Homeguard would give threat priority and FX to mines, walls, towers and flags
*Mine fillers can now be queued to a non-owned mine, and will enter it if it is converted before they arrive (otherwise, they’ll just stand there)
*Wall of Thorns no longer has the same threat priority as a tower
*All non-hero units with maximum mana more than 0 are now considered as spellcasters, except: Warlord, Goblin Chief, Manticore, Moonguard, Treant, Ancient Treant, Bronze Golem, Imperial Sergeant, Chameleon, Devourer, Sol Dragon and Kaari. Husks and Engineers only considered spellcasters after their spellcasting researches
*The following hero classes are considered spellcasters: Alchemist, Archmage, Blightlord, Chronomancer, Deathknight, Daemonologist, Defiler, High Druid, Elementalist, Grand Oracle, IceMage, Illusionist, Lichelord, Necromancer, Pyromancer, Runemaster, Shaman, Venomancer, Warlock
*Blood Potion no longer requires a level 5 Dark Tower, but The Dark Order does (their descriptions stated this was the case anyway)
*Illusions no longer give souls, resources, spider eggs and zombies when killed, and now cost only half army points
*The placement grid (the red building-blocking grid) no longer lags on large maps, and can no longer be used to snoop mines and enemy positions
*Fixed bug where Bronze Golems wouldn’t have a correct auto-cast Scavenge radius
*Fixed crash where setting a large group of units on a very large map (like Gigantic) to scout would overflow the movement system
*Fixed bug where repeatedly clicking the wisp/slime merge button would drain resources even when the units were already merging
*Fixed crash when merging wisps/slimes that were in Guardian or Magic Guardian attitude
*Mine-fillers that are going to fill queued mines will now ignore any mines that are meanwhile filled, except the last one where they will congregate as usual
*Fixed bug where a unit would be teleported to the top-left map corner if Blink failed to find a suitable location
*Healing (III) research now correctly states it gives 250% regeneration (not 300%)
*Summoning (I) research now makes Harpies and FIrebats produce 99% faster and cost 30% more resources (was 90% faster Harpies and 70% faster Firebats)
*Summoning (II) research now makes daemons 15% cheaper (was 25%)
Story
*Fixed crash where selecting the Miasma of Malbec mission in the Custom Campaign would overflow the string for the crown cost.
*Fixed bug where the Olsen brothers in the Custom Campaign would not be male
*Fixed bug where suggestions about dead companions would be given in The Protectors Campaign
Quests
*Fixed crash involving quest boss spawning
*Quest characters may now offer to join your retinue
*Fixed bug where correctly answered riddles would sometimes be declared incorrect
*Fixed some typos
*Incorrect placement of a building given as a quest reward no longer denies the building
Editor
*Fixed bug where storm events wouldn’t trigger a lightning storm when set to
*Fixed crash when opening a NIS with a non-message command
*Fixed RemoveFeature NIS command bug not working properly
*Fixed Owner NIS command reviving units from the dead
Random Map Generator
*Smaller buildings can now be placed in tighter areas
*Fixed bug where large utility buildings could be placed overlapping others
*Unchecking “Random Start Locations” for a random map will now place players in a circle around the map’s center, with teams close together and no-team sides between teams. Towers are then placed in a 120-degree arc around starting locations, facing the map’s center
*Fixed bug where Gigantic maps would have a tile seam on the top border
Scenario
*Candescent Rift: Fixed bug where one of the Daemon Lairs was owned by side 4
*(Mission) Rituals: Fixed bug where the game would crash when exiting the map and fixed Minotaur units that were still 1 UV in size
Hero
*Bloodrite: The healing bonus now only triggers if the hero has a maximum mana amount greater than 0 and if he has lost 20HP or more. Now also displays aesthetics upon healing
*Experimentation: The Mana Flow bonus now only triggers if the hero has a maximum mana amount greater than 0 and if Mana Flow isn’t already in effect
*Fixed bug where the max mana bonus from Bloodrite / Experimentation would snuff out the hero’s RSB
*Tactician now has halved effects (+0.25 combat, +0.16 speed/damage, +0,5 armor/resistance)
*Assassination skill now displays the hp threshold in description
*Bloodrite and Experimentation now take mana discounts into consideration when calculating spell costs
*Fixed bug where heroes could have more mana than their max amount would allow for by removing items that increased their maximum mana amount or equipping items that would reduce it
*Fixed bug where the kill XP gains/losses from Extrovert/Introvert had an incorrect formula, and used the enemy hero’s proficiency and perks instead of your own
*Ranger’s Bow Mastery now works as intended
*Pillaging and Taming effects (from skills, spells and items) are now working
*Bloodrite skill now denies healing via spells and animal-eating
*Multiman heroes may no longer start matches with no other human players in the server
*Fixed bug where resource giving skills would not give starting resources
*Young but Weak/Old but Hardened perk tweaked
*Traditionalist/Experimentalist perk effect on casting chance now shows when levelling up spells
*Dragonslayer skill tweaked
*Fixed bug where Penetration skill would not work for ranged attacks
*Fixed bug where AI heroes were wrongly assigned or denied points in their ranged perk (Magery, Archery, Throwing)
*Fixed bug where resurrecting heroes before their carcass turned to bones would corrupt them
*Fixed bug where selecting phoenixes with a converting-proficiency hero would crash the game
*Extend skill now gives +5% spell range per point (was +10%)
*Fixed bug where skill points could be hoarded
*Energy effect on Mana Regeneration now taken into account when observing the Intelligence stat effect on Mana Regeneration
Spells
*Call of Oros: Mana cost changed to 15 (was 35) and now gives 1 additional unit every level (was 1 additional for every 3 levels)
*Homeguard: Decreased damage to 20 (was 30)
*Transform can no longer transform units into dragons or generals
*Empire RSB now working as intended, doubling mine production
*Blink now remembers your previous orders
*Fixed bug where Whispers of Madness would retain the attitude target
*Fixed bug where a dead hero would keep Ice Incarnate from its previous life, and return with a permanent version of it after being resurrected.
*Fixed bug where using Ice Incarnate spell would leave behind all the other spell effects
*Fixed bug where leaving a battle while Ice Incarnate was active would leave behind the Ice Incarnate portrait and block the hero’s inventory
*Fixed bug where the hero would get stuck if it was walking just as the Ice Incarnate spell expired, and could only move again by casting another spell
*Fixed crash when firing Chaos Bolt
*Fixed bug where Firebreath wouldn’t affect melee units and wouldn’t maintain visual effects
*Arcana Curse’s effects are now correctly described
*Ssrathi RSB now has a proper description
*All of the enchantments from Ranger’s Woodcraft now work, and have spell tooltip descriptions
*Chronostutter can now be dispelled, saved and loaded, compounded by other Chronomancers casting it, and no longer keeps a multiplayer game permanently in the “Very Slow” game speed
*Ice Incarnate fixed, in the same vein as Chronostutter, and no longer crashes the game
*Fixed bug where some spells wouldn't start properly when loading a game
*Brew Potion can no longer be cast by Warlocks
*Units now remember their previous orders after using Blink if the location they’re warping to is closer than the location of their next order
*Conflagration now deals 6+1 damage per level, double damage to buildings (was 7+1 damage per level, triple damage to buildings) and may now be resisted, has a target cap of 10 and takes target fire resistance into consideration
Items
*Fixed the following items: Crown of Khalil, Grollo’s Storm Ring, Fey Harp, Cloak of Thyatis, Crown of Thyatis, Mageblade, Jewelled Dagger, Cloak of Aberration. All were missing one or more of their abilities
*Fixed crash with the items Athorn’s Trophy Rack and Archimer’s Faith
*Fixed bug involving item display when more than one item were present in a chest
*Fixed bug where bonus intelligence from items would not increase maximum hero mana
*Fixed bug where Merchant bonus from items was incorrectly displayed
*Fixed bug where items could be placed in the wrong slots
Misc
*Improved the Binding research text
*Choosing a side for your hero now defaults its race to the hero’s race.
*The mouse wheel now actually works in both directions.
*Increased the minimum delay between lightning strikes during a lightning storm
*Spawn and build cheats now work with units and buildings whose names have spaces in them
*Most cheats now accept optional arguments after the cheat code (but before unit and building names). Try them!
*Handicapping should work properly and/or decently now
*Unit footstep sounds no longer remain after pausing the game.
*The small info tooltip that appears when you unpause the game is back
*Perk sliders no longer grey out when all points are spent, which allows for players to remove the points they invested in the perk only during the current level-up
*Side race and team and hero race and class are now displayed in the statistics screen
*Fog of War save/load has been rewritten to take much less space
*Ctrl+V now works on text fields
Misc Bug fixes
*Fixed unit/building recycling storage, now when game reaches their limit in memory it starts to recycle freed up space
*Fixed typo on the Lightning Spire upgrade icon where it would incorrectly say Lightning Spire 2 could attack ground targets
*Fixed typo on Lore IX where it would incorrectly say it offered +35 XP when it should have been +25 XP
*Fixed typos on the Hive upgrades where they would say they required the wrong Dunekeep levels
*Fixed typo where the help box would say Slayer Knights had no abilities (it should have mentioned they emit Chaos)
*Fixed typo in a couple of loading screens
*Fixed typo in game options
*Fixed typo on Faerie Blade where it would incorrectly say it affected Sylphs
*Sergeants now correctly state they have the Encourage ability
*Fixed bug when sometimes ungarrisoning would teleport units in the corner of the map
*Fixed crash that happened during conversion
*Fixed crash involving dropdown lists
*Fixed crash on loading screens where AI heroes could sometimes be given a name longer than what’s allowed
*Fixed crash when trying to leave the battlefield during a lightning storm
*Fixed many instances of data corruption across the game
*Partial fix to units phasing in or out when stuck and crashing the game, especially neutral and patrolling units
*Potential fix to selection crash when empty map square was read instead of units. Most encountered during phoenix like unit selections
*Fixed bug where healing would cease to function, especially in multiplayer
*Fixed bug where sliding a perk slider from negative to positive or leaving the perk page with the slider’s cursor not on the hero’s current perk value would eat up or give extra points
*Fixed bug where system memory would be incorrectly read in systems with over 4GB of memory, and changed the memory unit to “MiB”
*Fixed bug where pre-placed plague piles would not count towards virulence
*Fixed crash caused by the construction animation of the Siege Workshop
Noice!
Nice work. :D