Improvements

• New Optional Tutorial for beginning players added to the start of the Elven Court Campaign.
• Tooltips for city upgrades will now list applicable income bonuses from Race Governance upgrades and skills (like Arcane Study)
• Added preview popups to inform the player when they’re about to move their unit over a hazard in tactical combat
• Cities now have 6 production slots, not 5
• The AI will now cancel summoning spells if you mind control the summoned unit
• If you select an engaged archer, and move the archer out of engagement, the system will automatically select the archer’s ranged ability once the unit has stoppped moving.
• TOW city upgrade pages now show racial variants of units this upgrade unlocks, as well as racial versions of the structures the upgrade leads to.
• Added sound effect when receiving chat message
• Added a new page in the ToW for the race governance for each race
• Helpful tips are now displayed in loading screens
• Implemented click to continue on the loading screen (people who want to read the tip have enough time to do so, and others can skip it to get to their game fast).
• Undead and Machine units under the control of more difficult AIs (Lord and above) will now regenerate a small number of hit points each turn on the world map, when the player isn’t watching.
• Added a color blind option to the graphics tab, which changes the tiles in TC
• Added a line to the damage preview to show when a unit is getting a ranged bonus from standing on a wall
• Added links to Grey Guard, Keeper and Shadowborn to the main Specialization tome of wonders page.
• You can now send message from diplomacy screen even when you have already made a trade this turn
• Independent heroes will now sometimes cast spells in battle

Random Map Generation

• Each player can now select on which map layer to start during the leader selection phase:
• • Default: Surface Layer for most races. 50% chance for Underground Layer for Dwarves and Goblins
  • Surface: Start on the Surface Layer.
  • Underground: Start on the Underground Layer.
  • Random: Start on either Surface Layer or Underground Layer (50% chance for either).
• Underground no longer contains independent cities that dislike or hate Subterannean. Exception: If a player chose a race that dislikes or hates Subterannean, then independent cities of the same race can still spawn in a limited area nearby that player.
• Underground structures and pickups amount and distribution is now more like that of the surface land type map.
• Underground no longer ‘shrinks’ by adding large amounts of Rock Cavern Walls.
• Underground now has Dirt Cavern Walls that are more likely to create a useful passage when dug through.
• Underground underwent various tweaks for improving overlay distribution (i.e. Dense Vegetation, Wetlands, Barrens, etc).
• Reduced size of underground pocket area that was generated around cave exits (especially noticeable in larger map sizes).
• Fixed bug in where the ‘Shrine of the Skull Lord’, ‘Trading Post’ and ‘Flowrock Quarry’ structures were sometimes locked in by cavern walls.
• Fixed bug where structures nearby the edge of the map were sometimes locked in by Cavern Walls.
• Fixed bug where structures nearby a river were sometimes locked in by Cavern Walls.
• Fixed bug where the spawn position for dwarves sometimes had too many adjacent Cavern Walls which did not leave space for spawning units.
• Fixed bug where underground players sometimes spawn very close-by/under another player on the surface.
• Fixed bug where random generated roads would sometimes lead to nowhere.
• Geography sliders should have a more significant effect on random generated maps of all map types.
• Water and lava rivers in random ganerated maps are more likely to be classified as badass.
• Underground maps are less likely to block corridors with structures (this is to help the AI, and to speed up underground scouting)
• Increased amount of global pick ups from 20 to 25 on Medium Size Default Settings, for larger maps this scales up accordingly.
• Increased the difference between ‘few’ and ‘many’ for the amount of resource sites being generated

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some issues that were causing the AI to be very passive with how it would try and acquire cities as vassals
• Fixed Seek Inspiration icon
• Fixed a rare issue where the interface let you trigger an ability that only affects the casting unit when the ability couldn’t affect the unit.
• Fixed an issue where units with pass wall could end up stuck on walls when using abilities that targeted corpses.
• Units can no longer be hit by attacks of opportunity when moving through obstacles (using pass wall or floating)
• Fixed an issue where phase, pounce and shadow step could take units out of the map
• Units can no longer pounce onto retreat zones
• Units can now flee combat by phasing/shadow stepping onto retreat zones
• Tome of Wonders was updated to reflect correctly that Tigrans hate blight (instead of dislike).
• Added note that the Item Forge cannot be built in campaigns.
• Fixed an issue where the ghoul rendering effect wouldn’t work on mounted heroes in the unit panel
• Added information to descriptions of some abiities and spells to indicate the units they won’t affect (Backstab, Life Steal, Life Drain, Webbing Touch, Greater Webbing Touch, Revitalize, Quick Dash)
• Fixed an issue where the trespass dialogue would cancel road building
• Tactical AI will no longer use touch abilities that paralyze a target (Stunning Touch, Webbing Wouch, etc) on units that are already paralyzed
• Fixed an issue where looping production would allow you to get multiple settlers at half price
• Fixed an issue that caused the tactical AI to never cast spells
• Fixed an issue that caused flying units to get stuck when flying through big clumps of units (like Eldirtch horrors) which could make tactical combat get stuck.
• Invoke Death will now properly reduce the hit points of embarked units
• Changed Deteriorated description to show it cannot be dispelled.
• Voluntary Union now affects the time needed for necromancer’s to absorb dead cities
• Fixed an issue where creating a map in the editor with multiple layers, and then rearranging the order of those layers could cause issues when the map was loaded in game.
• Fixed a rare bug that meant forts/cities that had been captured by independent players would have walls that remained damaged forever
• Fixed an issue where spells wouldn’t be canceled when a player was defeated
• Fixed an issue where units wouldn’t evolve when embarked
• Fixed an issue where upgrades that had been given to cities in the editor would be re-added to cities each time the game was loaded from a save game (so a user could sell a preplaced city upgrade, and then save/load to get it back for free)
• When starting with metropolises, necromancer cities will now have Embalmer’s Guilds instead of Store Houses.
• Fixed an issue where a resurging unit wouldn’t come back to life when its owner’s ally won the battle, but its owner lost all their own units
• Fixed an issue where Black Plague PFX wouldn’t play when the target was on a different level to the city receiving the population
• Fixed an issue that could lead to players getting no specializations as a reward for completing the All Knowing Quest
• Fixed an issue caused by a target unit dying via absorb pain as a unit moved down a path towards it to use an ability on it
• Cities affected by Seeds Of Distrust will no longer sometimes offer peace/vassalage voluntarily when you first meet them
• Shrines and Inns will no longer have defenders when placed in the domains of independent structures by the RMG
• Fixed non-english text for Halfling Military Upgrade 1
• Independent units (i.e. roaming units and indy/vassal city guards) no longer autodetect stealthed units. Due to a technical limitation, a stealthed unit will be revealed to ALL indy units if stands directly next to ANY indy unit.
• Unstable Transformation can no longer be cast on leaders
• Pledge Of Protection can no longer be dispelled (it was possible before to dispel the defence buff, but not the absorb pain link)
• Fixed an issue where terraforming would cause cloverfields to use the wrong model
• Fixed an issue that prevented terraforming magic working on forest cells that were being terraformed using the Terraformer skill.
• Fixed an issue where the web model for webbed units would disappear under the ground
• The words “Show Proposal” has been converted to translatable text, so it should properly appear in foreign languages once we complete translation
• Leaders will no longer suffer morale penalties from Dedicated To XXX abilities.
• Fixed an issue when disembarking juggernauts near forests on coasts
• Unit flags now disappear the instant a unit dies in tactical combat
• Fixed issue where the freeze achievement would only be triggered when Throw Iceball was used. Now triggers for other abilities too.
• When a player takes over a city, negative city spells/debuffs are cancelled if that player isn’t at war with you. (previously spells were cancelled only if that player has an alliance with you)
• Fixed an issue where a happiness event panel displayed the wrong text in the header.
• If there aren’t any available skills anymore, research breakthroughs won’t get triggered.
• Fixed issue where User Content would not show up for some players.
• Fixed crash when spam clicking done button in leader customization screen
• Fixed incorrect text on victory screen when opponent razed his throne city
• Leader colors which are in use are now correctly reset when the leader setup is cancelled
• fixed age of death causing quests to fail
• Fixed issue when absorbing a dead city, it would become living again.
• Added the correct population growth number in the city tooltip
• Fixed Healing Ability description
• Demolisher Ability no longer stacks in the Item Forge
• Armor of Divine Regeneration typo fixed
• Theocrat Armageddon now has correct English description
• Fixed an issue where units given as rewards from quests would sometimes spawn in diggable walls if they had tunneling.
• Fix bug where seasoned achievements was unlock when hero reached level 5
• Fixed a rare glitch where the system would generate a “This unit needs move orders” event for units with no move points
• Fixed an issue where the AI wouldn’t cast certain spells, like Summon Banshee
• Fixed an issue where a unit would be able to charge multiple times per turn, if it used Killing Momentum, Quick Dash or a similar ability
• Fixed an issue where a unit would be able to attack while guarding, if it used Killing Momentum, Quick Dash or a similar ability after Pounce or Defensive Strike
• Fixed the icon for auto combat in TC
• Fixed missing painting tab for subterranean painting in the level editor
• Fixed unit backgrounds for units which are water based.
• Fixed checkbox for wait for gpu in the graphics options menu and for the launcher
• Fixed an issue where the well of souls wouldn’t give population while recharging
• Fixed an issue where the tooltip for a settler wouldn’t correctly display the city’s minimum population when playing on a different game speed
• Tweaked tactical AI to make it better at using the Sun Spear ability
• Fixed an issue where losing a leader or vital campaign hero in battle would cause you to lose the game, even though the unit had resurgence from the Phoenix Warrior spell
• Fixed an issue where necromancer players with the Phylactery spell couldn’t cast spells in combat whe their leaders were dead
• Fixed an issue where a heroes would have incorrect buffs/debuffs from city domains when they became archliches
• Founding a city on a fort now cancels upgrades to that fort and refunds spent gold
• It’s no longer possible to upgrade a fort while a city is being founded inside it
• Fixed a rare issue where a cadaver dying on a seal at the same moment new elementals spawned would put those elementals under the control of the cadaver’s owner
• Fixed a crash in PBEM caused by egg items hatching for any player apart from the first one
• Fixed an issue where immobilized units wouldn’t use melee attacks while under AI control
• Fixed an issue where leaders using DLC features would be permanently deleted if the DLC was disabled
• Fixed an issue where resurrecting a unit on a wall hex wouldn’t give the unit the “Standing on a wall” stat penalty
• Fixed missing shortcut (Ctrl + X) for disabling/enabling unit banners
• Fixed issue where the Free City Upgrade and Treasure Pickup Found event windows would get canceled when entering tactical combat. Now they’re displayed again after combat ends.
• Improved loading tip display time for long loading tips.
• Chat window doesn’t overlay loading tips in multiplayer loading screens
• The AI now pays less attention to the size of your armies when considering if it will accept an alliance (this should make it easier to get alliances on higher difficulties, where typically the AI will refuse alliances because it thinks you’re too weak)
• The AI is now more likely to offer an alliance to a player if its in trouble, even its relation with that player isn’t very good
• Fixed an issue where changing terrain with Path Of XXX abilities would sometimes leave sections of terrain untouched around the edges of each hex
• Castle of the Lich King selection sound now respects the ambient volume slider.
• Reduced the number of instances that can play simultaneously for magic and event audio to prevent sudden peaks in volume.
• Added missing flying audio for the draconian pikemen
• Removed code that stopped the Tactical AI using the Horned Gods summon ability if it was too outnumbered
• Fixed a glitch which allowed units to get charge bonuses after moving two hexes, instead of 3
• Fixed description of Charge to list 3 hexes, not 4.
• Fixed issue where meet messages was being shown for player who had been defeated this turn
• Fixed a crash when campaign save hero script was being used with map specified heroes
• Added missing drowning and incineration icons, so you now have a nice picture to look at after unequiping your mount at the wrong moment.
• Fixed an issue where you could cast Inspect Plague on another player’s city without triggering a war declaration
• Tigran Cities now give quests.
• Added support for the strategic AI to not cast city growth spells on metropolises
• Fixed issues where various damage bonuses weren’t affecting damage to obstacles, like walls and gates
• Fixed an issue where picking up a cartographers tent underground would reveal cities above ground, when below ground cities were closer
• Fixed an issue where creating a cadaver on a wall wouldn’t apply the wallclimbing penalty
• Spells/abilities that do not work in water battles, now do not work in lava battles either
• Stopped enemies in AI Raid and Brigand behavior targeting concealed units (should prevent roaming units sniping concealed scouts. Really this time!)
• Fixed a crash that occurred when accepting the surrender of an AI player
• Fixed an issue where a concealed unit wouldn’t be properly revealed on the world map when the terrain it was stood in changed
• Fixed Flame Tanks spawning for Frostlings in battle start maps (now you’ll get Frost Tanks)
• Fixed Golems spawning for Halflings in battle start maps (now you’ll get Party Robots)
• User content does not download automatically (from Steam Workshop) at start up of the Launcher anymore. Instead the an icon becomes visible to indicate an update is available, wherafter a button needs to be clicked to synchronize the local files with the files that are subscribed to on the Steam Workshop.
• Units that spawn to attack unit beacons now form clumps, rather than being scattered around the city (this prevents an error where half the units spawn on the wrong side of a river/lavaflow and can’t reach the city, breaking the AI).
• Fixed an issue where boats would always come before heroes in stacks
• Renamed Lich Aura to Archlich and hid the Archlich ability in the unit panel, so Archlich heroes wouldn’t have 3 separate abilities for the same thing in the unit panel
• Fixed buff spells being canceled when vassal city is absorbed
• Fixed spells like Glyphs Of Warding and Hallowed Domain affecting your units when they move through the domain of a vassal belonging to your ally
• Fixed the Free Unit Helper system still running in local hotseat games
• Changed (Dread Reaper) Faucheur terrible to Faucheuse in French
• Fixed an issue where your leader dying would cancel spells being cast even if the player had Phylactery researched
• Fixed bug in the random map generator where the starting city ‘Town’ had the wrong domain size.
• Fixed Music FadeIn/FadeOut in load screen
• Fixed incorrect button placement on end turn confirmation when an army still has movepoints
• Fixed Item Forge Fire Musket from displaying twice

Balance Changes

• Lesser Reanimate Dead and Greater Reanimate Dead are now short range (was melee range)
• Tigrans now no longer like Dense Vegetation (just Barrens).
• Frostlings now like Fertile Plains (instead of Barrens).
• Lost Library defenders now have more variety.
• Added Vampire Spider Baby and Tiger to Call Wild Animal.
• Added Polar Bear, Dire Panther, Mammoth and Dire Bear to Call Eldritch Animal, removed the Gold Wyvern and increased the chance for Gryphons a bit to compensate.
• Reduced the rewards from the Hall of the Forefathers a little bit.
• Frost Dragon now has Inflict Chilling.
• Gold Dragon now costs 50 gold more and Golden Dragon Inspiration no longer works on Dragons.
• Root Spears is now strength 12 physical (was 9 physical) and removes all move points (was 50%), leaving the target with a single action point, but unable to move.
• Root Spears now does 18 damage (was 20)
• Touch of Faith can now be dispelled.
• Blinded can now be dispelled, whatever the source of the status effect. (Previously, blind couldn’t be dispelled if it came from flashbang)
• Juggernaut is now armored (net defense remains the same).
• Cardinal Culling is now dispellable by Dispel and Cure Disease
• Shield of Dispassion should no longer affect units belonging to the caster’s allies
• Necromancer Heroes can now access Corpus Furia and Desecration at level 1 (was 3)
• Starting for Necromancers is now Corrupt the Source instead of Animate Ruins (you still start with Animate Ruins in map 1 of the campaign).
• Frostling Apprentices now have Frost Weapons.
• Corrupt the Source now costs 40 mana to cast (was 60).
• Mystic Archer’s Bane item is now epic (was legendary)
• Shining Shield of Reflection item is now legendary (was epic)
• Hunters now get +1 ranged damage from High Elf Military 1 race governance upgrade as well.
• Frostling Tier 4 Economic bonus is now actually 100 gold off Frost Castle and 25% off Ice Queen as listed (was 50 gold and 50%)
• Life Stealing can now stack through 4 tiers, Life Stealing (3-5 hp per hit), Greater Life Stealing (4-8), Life Drain (6-10), Greater Life Drain (8-12)
• Halflings now build Prototype Party Robots instead of Golems.
• Tigran Evangelists now cost 150 gold, 30 mana (like other Evangelists)
• Reduced the chance that Summon Gargantuan Animal summons a tier 4 a bit.
• Halfling Military 2 now gives +1 ranged damage to scoundrels
• Reverted changes that made defenders on Normal Mana Nodes tougher
• Horned God now has Entangling Strike Ability. No longer gets Entangling Touch on gold (we have a new thing planned to replace it, but we ran out of time for this update)
• Phantasm Warriors no longer have true sight
• High Elf Initiates now have 33hp (was 30)
• Draconian Hatchlings now have 33hp (was 30)
• The Horned God no longer has Inflict Crippling Wounds on Bronze.
• The Horned God now has Summon Erymanthian Boar on Gold medal.
• Tigran patron Military now gives 7 HP to Tigran Sun Guards and Sabretooth Chariots
• Tigran Military 2 Race Governance now gives the Prowler Hurl Net.
• Halfling Shaman now costs 140 gold and 30 mana (was 130 gold and 30 mana) to compensate for having Minor Bard Skills.
• Halfling Bards and Martyrs now cost 5 gold more to account for the Slingshot ability.
• Halfling Scoundrels now cost 55 gold instead of 45 to compensate for Slingshot.
• Pounce can now be blocked by obstacles like walls and trees
• Cheetahs now have melee strength 9 (was 10) and 35hp (was 38hp)
• Prowlers now cost 70g (was 80g)
• Tigran Berserkers now cost 85g 10m (was 90g 15m) due to pounce nerf.
• Allowed Elemental Slayer in the item forge
• Fixed Tigran Mystic level up upgrades to alternate between melee and ranged damage (like other support units have), instead of all ranged damage upgrades,
• Tigran Shamans no longer have Awaken Spirit
• Polar Bears and Dire Bears now have 32mp (was 36)
• Tiger now has resistance 8 (was 9)
• Dire Panther now has resistance 9 (was 10)
• Hurl Net is now affected by line of sight penalties (so it will have a lower proc chance if you shoot through a wall)
• Cardinal Culling is now Grey Guard Master (was Adept)
• Voluntary Union is now Grey Guard Adept (was Master)
• Voluntary Union is now Tier 3, 200 knowledge (was Tier 4, 350 knowledge
• Meditate now works automatically when battle starts, damage bonuses toned down a bit to compensate
• Berserkers now have Demolisher
• Draconian Monster Hunter now has Fire Spit instead of Shoot Light Crossbow
• Monster Hunters now have Elemental Slayer
• Base hitpoints of Berserker is now 57 (was 52) and base gold cost is now 65 (was 75)
• Dwarf Economic 1 now gives 4 gold per hex mined, not 8
• Tunneling now gives 3-5 gold per hex (was 2-5)
• Tigran Bard now has 7 melee strength like the other bards, instead of 8.
• The cost to do diplomacy with independent cities now goes up when they’re further from a certain distance from the nearest city you own (3% for every hex over a distance of 20)
• It now takes 4 turns to release a city as an ally if you do not actually own the city (i.e. it has not been absorbed or migrated), it still takes 2 turns if you do own the city
• Greater Life Stealing and Greater Life Drain are no longer available in the item forge
• Freezing Projectiles now correctly affects the undead, tooltip now correctly states that the freeze lasts 1 turn instead of 2
• Magic Fist now costs 10 mana (was 12)
• Static Sphere now costs 10 mana (was 15)
• Sorceror Heroes and Leaders can now learn Thunderstorm at level 13 for 10 points
• Divine Justicars now works on the undead
• Cardinal Culling is now tier 5, 600 knowledge (was tier 4, 400)
• Exalted now get Righteous Zeal on Gold instead of Stunning Touch (+3 fire/shock damage versus heretics)
• Evangelists now get the “Denounce Heretic” ability on Silver medal (a single target ranged ability that marks a unit in tactical combat as a Heretic)
• Draconian deity Economic for Necromancers now gives +20 production to cities with Great Temples instead of 200 Happiness.
• High Elf Horse Archers now cost 120 gold (was 110)
• Whispers Of The Fallen now costs 10 mana per turn (was 20)
• Ancestral Spirits now have the Shield ability like their figure suggests.
• Bone Collector now has 20% spirit resistance (was 40% weakness)
• Heroes no longer keep bonuses from hero upgrades when they transform using abilities like Werepanther