• 138.8 PATCH NOTES •

1 May 2008

Today's patch is a culmination of little fixes, medium fixes, crash fixes, a few balance changes to the flow of battle, and a lot of underlying improvements to the game engine and servers. Many of the changes aren't listed as they aren't things which affect players directly. However, we've managed to get a lot of little things hammered out as well as the underlying architecture changes. The following are the primary fixes and changes:

Each faction now has a combat god favor casting limit. Each faction limit increases each level. The breakdowns are as follows: Magic (base 100 + 10 per level), Nature (base 75 + 7 per level), Light/War/Machines (base 50 + 5 per level). God favor during the battle is increased as enemies are killed.

You can now multi-select units while in placement mode using shift.

When another player activates a unit (pvp or pve) it no longer deselects all of your units.

Unit level up icon no longer shows on units that have not levelled up.

Improved some guild related code which should help with the guild page loading more efficiently.

Units will no longer move backwards when they repath to an enemy unit or building.

Unit's formation buffs are updated properly when spells are applied and removed; preventing negative values when you use spells with high buff values.

Fixed some issues with team assignment when joining PvP battles.

Added proper flanking - units flanking an enemy now gain a bonus of +20% AR and +20% damage.

Ranged units are disadvantaged if they are being attacked by a melee unit suffering a -20% AR and DR.

Fix which will not allow stamina to go below zero.

It is now possible to ignore players from an opposing alliance.

Units will not stop on their way to a building they are to garrison if they are attacked.

A ranged units will not shoot way into space when the enemy they are targeting garrisons.

Projected textures are drawn in post draw; now they will draw onto the bridges.

Fixed a bug that was calculating happiness from food incorrectly.

Happiness from taxes is now calculated more intuitively.

Tax rate chooser displays more intuitive text.

Happiness displayed in Peasant Management now shows one decimal place. It also displays an arrow for which way each happiness effect is progressing. Each arrow has a tooltip showing the estimated change.

Emails with attachments now display a paper clip in the email list. This is to avoid scams where emails could be sent saying they have an attachment but really didn't.

Fixed various issues with the patcher which should help it be more robust in fixing issues for players itself.

Fix for very small negative values when resources are low and peasants perform repairs during a tick.

Fix for trades being returned when a trade expires that belongs to a deleted nation (they will only get back cards, booster packs, and event tickets... no resources!)

Fix for crash caused by surrendering a guild war.

Fix for email sent for performing burn food supply espionage (the burn food espionage would be successful, but tell you it was not)

Fixed a bug that considered all spy city/territory requests to be spy city requests.

When typing in help chat and pressing ESC, the chat window will now deactivate.

Espionage success rate is no longer editable. Cost now has a gold icon (editing didn't actually change the % chance).

Pressing ESC in Social screen now closes it.

Other minor market GUI fixes.

Stamina in now ONLY calculated on the server instead of both the server and client. There was no need to have it calculated on the client, because it was just overwritten when the units positions were updated anyway.

Ranged units will now face in the direction of their enemy, even if the enemy moves and is still withing range. This makes it so the flanking calculation is correct.

Peasant plunder in raids significantly reduced so you can't steal 80 peasants in one raid.

Friendly units, summons and spells will no longer show up on EoB combat screen.

Garrisoned units will properly show up on EoB combat screen.

PvPs should now have the correct glowie start/placement region.

Pressing +/- in the quest map will zoom.

Fixed a potential crash with using the guild page.

When selecting a unit from the tray in battle while a structure is selected, the building will now be deselected properly.

Fixed a bug that didn't draw projected textures properly in all situations.

Performance improvements added to the server and client regarding how packets are handled.

When a unit has not charged for 2.5 seconds, and then begins a charge, its stamina is lowered 20.

When selecting emails with the arrow keys, the view will scroll with the selection.

When getting attachments, the game will no only play the sound once, instead of for every email message.

Resources can no longer be set to < 0 from the results of a battle.

When group selecting using 0-9, a unit that is garrisoned will not be selected.

Fixed a display bug where reinforced inner and outer stone walls were being reported as regular stone walls rather than reinforced stone walls on the status page.

Melee units will now build a path to their enemy when the enemy moves away; not just move in a straight line toward them.

When a unit is pathing to an enemy, the distance the enemy has to move until we repath is no longer constant but dependent on how far the two units are from each other.

Added functionality to SAGA to help detect a users settings and setup their client for them.

Flanking, Charging, and Melee Vs Ranged bonuses are now displayed in the tooltip.

When a unit is garrisoned, their cool-down timer for special abilities is not effected on either the client or the server. This way when they are redeployed, the timer is the same on both.

Fixed the crossbow icon to actually be a crossbow instead of a bow.

QUEST NOTES

New Quests:

Destroy the Convoy (Both)

Fee Fi Fo Fum (Brotherhood)

Raibyn Hoode Chain (Order)

Feeding the Poor

Jon Lyttle

Clever Tricks (Order)

Clever Tricks (Brotherhood)

Lots of little tweaks and fixes.

BALANCE CHANGES/FIXES

We expect balance to shift a fair amount with this latest update. A few key things have been adjusted which will likely force most players to make some strategic adjustments on the battlefield. Due to this we scaled back on our adjustments for this patch. Once we see how players adjust and change their tactics and battle strategy we'll dig in deeper to the balancing of individual units again. With that in mind here are the following changes affecting balance in this patch:

Each faction now has a combat god favor casting limit. Each faction limit increases each level. The breakdowns are as follows: Magic (base 100 + 10 per level), Nature (base 75 + 7 per level), Light/War/Machines (base 50 + 5 per level). God favor during the battle is increased as enemies are killed at the rate of 1.5 GF per 100 experience gained. This should help eliminate some of the spell abuse that has affected gameplay in a negative way. Magic will retain a more dominant position in the spell casting sphere with Nature being the second most prolific casting force.

Ranged troops which are engaged by melee troops will suffer a -20% AR and DR debuff so long as they remain engaged.

Troops attacked from the rear 180 degree arc are considered flanked. Units flanking an enemy gain +20% AR and +20% damage.

When the initial charge is commanded a unit will lose a small amount of stamina (20 points). If a unit changes direction during a charge or charges again immediately at the end of a charge it should not again pay the stamina cost. Units also lose a small amount of stamina over time while fighting (they always have). Stamina is regained at 2 different rates: standing idle (very fast), walking (slow).

"HUMAN LIGHT INFANTRY" - "HOLD THE LINE - UNIT GAINS +30% DR FOR 30 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 120 SECONDS." > "HOLD THE LINE - UNIT GAINS +30% DR FOR 30 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 90 SECONDS."

"HUMAN SPEARMEN" - "CONFUSION - RANGED UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS SUFFER -2% AR, DR, AND MOVEMENT SPEED PER SPEARMAN FOR 15 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 90 SECONDS." > "CONFUSION - RANGED UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS SUFFER -2% AR, DR, AND MOVEMENT SPEED PER SPEARMAN FOR 30 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 90 SECONDS."

"HUMAN LIGHT CAVALRY" - "SACRIFICE - UNIT GAINS +50% AR, +100% DAMAGE, AND -25% DR FOR 15 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 120 SECONDS." > "DETERMINATION - UNIT GAINS +50% AR, +100% DAMAGE, AND -20% DR FOR 20 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 90 SECONDS."

"ELVEN WARRIORS" - DEFRATING 25 > 26

"OGRE MAGI" - Slow effect should now work.

"DWARVEN HUNTERS" - STAMINA 35 > 45

"DWARVEN FLAMETHROWERS" - STAMINA 25 > 45

"DWARVEN CROSSBOWMEN" - STAMINA 25 > 45

"DWARVEN BALLOONISTS" - ATTACKRATING 23 > 25

"DWARVEN ZEPPELIN" - ATTACKRATING 20 > 24, MAXDAMAGE 45 > 40

"SIEGE DRILL" - MINDAMAGE 15 > 35

"DAEMON" - HITPOINTS 4100 > 4200

"STONE GOLEM" - HITPOINTS 1050 > 1100

"BRONZE GOLEM" - "MAIM - GOLEM DOES AN ADDITIONAL +300% DAMAGE FOR 30 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 90." > "MAIM - GOLEM DOES AN ADDITIONAL +250% DAMAGE FOR 30 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 90."

"RELEASE THE HOUNDS" - COOLDOWN 360 > 300

"CALL THE HORDE" - COOLDOWN 360 > 300

"DAEMON LORD" - COOLDOWN 360 > 300

"DRAGON MASTER" - COOLDOWN 360 > 300

"CURSE" - GF COST 10 > 15

"DEATH RAY" - GF COST 10 > 25

"BLINDNESS" - GF COST 10 > 30

"MAGIC ARMOR" - GF COST 15 > 20

"BACK YOU DEVILS" - GF COST 25 > 30, COOLUP 0 > 35, COOLDOWN 60 > 120, "UNFRIENDLY UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS (20M) SUFFER -75% MOVEMENT SPEED AND -15% ATTACK SPEED FOR 30 SECONDS." > "UNFRIENDLY UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS (20M) SUFFER -75% MOVEMENT SPEED FOR 30 SECONDS.",

"CONVERT OR DIE" - GF COST 15 > 25

"RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION" - GF COST 15 > 20

"MAKE HASTE" - GF COST 5 > 15

"DIVINE RETRIBUTION" - GF COST 30 > 40

"NEUROTOXIN" - GF COST 15 > 35

"SUMMON ELEMENTAL" - GF COST 50 > 40, COOLDOWN 360 > 300

"SUMMON BEHEMOTH" - COOLDOWN 360 > 300

"SUMMON DRAGON" - COOLDOWN 360 > 300

"POISON MIST" - GF COST 25 > 35

"LIVING FOREST" - GF COST 10 > 25

"UNSTABLE FOOTING" - AREAEFFECT 20 > 10, GF COST 5 > 25, COOLUP 0 > 50 COOLDOWN 90 > 120, "UNFRIENDLY UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS (20M) GAIN -50% MOVEMENT FOR 30 SECONDS." > "UNFRIENDLY UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS (10M) GAIN -50% MOVEMENT FOR 30 SECONDS."

"EARTHQUAKE" - GF COST 15 > 25,

"GUIDING WINDS" - GF COST 10 > 20, "FRIENDLY UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS GAIN +50% MOVEMENT SPEED AND +15% ATTACK SPEED FOR 30 SECONDS." > "FRIENDLY UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS (15M) GAIN +50% MOVEMENT SPEED AND +15% ATTACK SPEED FOR 30 SECONDS."

"VICTORY OR DEATH" - DURATION 30 > 60, "ALL FRIENDLY UNITS GAIN +50% AR, -20% DR, +25% ATTACK SPEED, AND +100 MORALE FOR 30 SECONDS." > "ALL FRIENDLY UNITS GAIN +50% AR, -20% DR, +25% ATTACK SPEED, AND +100 MORALE FOR 60 SECONDS."

"TAKE NO PRISONERS" - DURATION 30 > 60, "ALL UNFRIENDLY UNITS SUFFER -25% DR FOR 30 SECONDS." > "ALL UNFRIENDLY UNITS SUFFER -25% DR FOR 60 SECONDS."

"RAGE" - GF COST 50 > 25

"MOVE YOU SLUGS" - GF COST 10 > 15

"LET THEM BURN" - COOLUP 120 > 90

"SCORCHED EARTH" -COOLUP 120 > 60

"LET FLY" - GF COST 15 > 20, DEFADJUST -25 > 0, "FRIENDLY, RANGED UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS (15M) GAIN +25% ATTACK SPEED AND -25% DR FOR 30 SECONDS." > "FRIENDLY, RANGED UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS (15M) GAIN +25% ATTACK SPEED FOR 30 SECONDS."

"HOLD FAST" - GF COST 10 > 20

"RALLY" - GF COST 10 > 15

"FLEET FOOT" - GF COST 5 > 15

"TAKE AIM!" - GF COST 10 > 25, DEFADJUST -5 > 0, MOVEMENT SPEED 0 > -25, "TARGETED FRIENDLY MISSILE UNIT GAINS +75% AR AND -20% DR FOR 20 SECONDS" > "TARGETED FRIENDLY MISSILE UNIT GAINS +75% AR AND -25% MOVEMENT SPEED FOR 20 SECONDS"

OTHER BALANCE CHANGES

Shrines have significantly increased DR and an have had their hitpoints adjusted from 8000 to 10000

TEXT ERRORS

"BALLISTA" - "GORE - TARGET UNIT SUFFERS -50% MOVEMENT SPEED FOR 20 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 30 SECONDS." > "GORE - UNITS IN TARGET RADIUS (10M) SUFFER -50% MOVEMENT SPEED FOR 20 SECONDS. COOLDOWN: 30 SECONDS."

"GREEN DRAGON" - "SPIT ACID - TARGETTED UNITS (20M) SUFFER 75-300 DAMAGE AND -10 MORALE. COOLDOWN: 120 SECONDS." > "SPIT ACID - TARGETED UNITS (20M) SUFFER 75-300 DAMAGE AND -10 MORALE. COOLDOWN: 120 SECONDS."

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