The full story of Legendary Heroes is a long one, but it started with a promise. In November of 2010 War of Magic had shipped, it wasn't doing well and Brad promised to provide 2 free expansions to anyone who had purchased it. This is a very unusual thing for a company to do, but as an outsider it impressed me that Stardock was that committed to their games and their customers.
So I went to Michigan to meet with Brad and I accepted a job at Stardock making video games for a living.
Even though War of Magic released in August of 2010 the full team was working on it for support, balance and pacing issues until February of 2011. That's a long time to have the full team on a game after release, and at the end it was tough to step away from it (the temptation is always to spend a few more weeks to make it better, but it needed an overhaul).
I didn't mind spending November and December on support because it gave me time to work on the design for Fallen Enchantress. My wife went in for back surgery in December, and her mother sat with her during the day, and I stayed with her at night. Much of Fallen Enchantress was written at her bedside with occasional breaks as she drifted in and out of her medicated haze. That sounds a bit dreary but it wasn't life threatening, and I fondly remember working on design docs all night in the quiet hospital. Plus they gave me all the jello I could eat.
Fallen Enchantress was scheduled to take 9 months and come out about a year after War of Magic. There was a lot that I wanted to change so I broke the plan into two expansions. The first expansion was focused on everything outside of the player's empire, the world, tactical combat and magic. The second expansion was supposed to be focused on everything inside the player's empire, faction differentiation, the economy and cities.
We started on Fallen Enchantress late in February on 2011. By the first week of July we were feature complete with everything that was planned (ie: we were through implementation and into the iteration phase). We started playing the game and we gave it to our alpha testers. Everyone's response was the same. They liked the new stuff, but the game still felt too much like War of Magic. It was the death blow and the worst possible news I could hear (made even worse because I knew it was true).
So I went to Brad. The only solution I could figure out was to make both games as one, to redo everything, to double the time (and therefor the budget) to 18 months instead of 9. Remember, we were giving this game away for free to many, many people. We already knew there was a good chance the game wouldn't make any money even with a 9 month time frame, and that after we spent twice as long on the game we would still owe everyone another expansion. It was my worst day at Stardock, not because of anything anyone else did or said, but because my plan had failed. Brad and I talked and he agreed that we needed to double the time on the game.
So off we went. Faction differentiation, cities and the economic model got designed and we went back into implementation to get it all working. The economic model was the hardest, it may seem easy to design (I designed a few dozen of them) and they aren't noticeable if they are done right. But when they are wrong they sink the entire game. They went through 3 major iterations until we found one we liked (at one point Brad and I were sending a economic designs back and forth daily).
In October 2012, after 20 months of development time, Fallen Enchantress was released. We spent the next month on support before starting work on Legendary Heroes. Of course we kept patching FE throughout, but for the next 4 weeks after release the full team did nothing but fix bugs and balance on FE.
During the development of FE Brad and I both kept running lists of things we would like to do. When we sat down to start Legendary Heroes we compared lists and then started work. We also read comments and suggestions form the forums, from reviewers and from the team. As you know the focus was on integrating Champions into the empire game, making champion progression more fun and improving tactical combat. And we added lots of new content and options along the way.
At a personal level I also made a big step after Fallen Enchantress released by moving to Michigan. During the entire development of FE Brad was kind enough to allow me to stay at his house. Once FE was released my wife quit her job, got a new one in Michigan and moved. How many wives would leave a job of 15 years so their husband can follow his dream of being a game designer? She is a wonderful person and I wouldn't have any of these opportunities without her.
But back to the game. Expansions are a different animal than making new games (even though Fallen Enchantress is billed as an expansion to War of Magic, I don't consider it one). We know what we have, we get the chance to round off the rough edges and go deeper with the things we really enjoyed. It's an ambiscious expansion that changes a lot of things. It may have been safer to let it be FE with more content. But we couldn't pass up the opportunity to improve the game. Go big or go home continued to drive us.
We released the beta and all the feedback, both positive and critical has been appreciated. Some folks like Parrottmath supply fixes with their bug reports which is a dream come true to a game developer. But everyone who posts here, plays or talks about the game is a part of our community, and we make these games for you.
The following is an incomplete changelog of the changes from Fallen Enchantress to Legendary Heroes. The actual changelog is over 200 pages long. There are also lots of smaller tweaks and changes that simply don't get updated into the changelog. I may change something a dozen times while I'm trying to find a good balance, and going to update the changelog each time would slow me down.
Features
Swarm- All melee units get a bonus to accuracy and damage for every ally that surrounds the enemy they are attacking.
Fame- Clearing lairs, completing quests and building some improvements gains Fame for your faction. When enough Fame is earned champions will offer their services to you. Two champions are always offered and the player can only select one.
Champion level up system. Champion now have access to a trait tree that they can pick from when they level up.
Produce resources in your cities. Instead of constructing improvements and training units you can set your cities to produce additional wealth, research, growth or mana.
Huge Map type. Our biggest map size yet.
Steam Integration- Cloud saves of games, lots of new steam achievements and automatic patching.
City Count Penalty- You now get an Unrest penalty in all of your cities based on the number of cities in your empire (the more cities, the more unrest). This makes Unrest a bigger issue for larger empires and helps equalize the production and research of large empires vs small empires.
Food Growth Bonus- Cities with access to more unused food get a growth bonus. This way high Grain cities can not only grow to a larger size, they will get there faster than low grain cities.
Lots of new tactical arenas. In general enemy armies start a lot closer to each other so the battle can start immediately (and ranged units are in immediate trouble if you don't bring units to defend them).
Added a Production Pace slider to the game setup options. Player can now modify the research pace and the production pace seperately.
The World Difficulty slider now effects the level of monster in the world. Set it down to have monsters start out at a lower level than normal, or up to have them start out higher.
When you create a map with the map editor you can now play it immediately (you don't have to exit the game and reload first)
MaxTotalTileYield can now be set in ElementalDefs.xml (for modders)
New unit upgrade system so that they can be upgraded along specific weapon types
Added Kulan of Umber as a starting sovereign
Added General Carrodus of Capitar as a starting sovereign
Each faction has a special ability
Altarian- Rush ability allows them to use their attack to go again
Ironeer- Guarded Strike ability allows the unit to attack for half damage but puts the unit into a defending stance
Kraxis- Fortify ability increases the Dodge and Accuracy of units in fortified tiles (as it was in FE)
Mancer- Mancer units get +1 Movement and +1 accuracy per level
Pariden- Soul Spark does lightning damage at range, but costs mana
Quendar- Flame Tongue does fire damage to an enemy within 1 tile
Tarth- Double Strike allows the unit to attack twice at -30 to Accuracy
Trog- Berserk ability puts the unit under AI control , but the unit gets to go immediately and gets a bonus to attack and Initiative. Berserk units can't cast spells. Berserk doesn’t do damage per round anymore.
Urxen- Urxen units get double the normal swarm bonus
Wraith- Wraith Touch ability drains a small amount of life from an enemy within 1 tiles and gives it to the attacker
Weapon types have special abilities
Axes- Cleave ability allows the attacker to strike up to 3 enemies that are adjacent to him. Cleave damage can be modified by traits. (axes still backswing)
Spears- Impale ability allows the attacker to strike an enemy and an enemy on the opposite side. (spear still ignore a percentage of armor)
Club/Hammers- Crushing Blow ability does double normal damage, but the attacker loses their next action. Crushing Blow damage can be modified by traits. (blunt weapons still have a chance to knock victims prone)
Swords/Daggers- Swords and daggers allow the unit to counterattack when attacked (as in FE)
Shields- Any unit with a shield can shield bash an enemy, doing normal damage and knocking them back a tile
Added Crossbow class weapons. Crossbows are ranged weapons that are slightly slower than normal bows, but they allow a special attack called power shot that allows them to fire through multiple enemies in a straight line (the amount of enemies depends on the type of crossbow)
Spells/Abilities can now be dodgeable (if this tag is set on spells like Throwing Knives, Hurl Boulder and Spit Acid the caster must hit the victim for the effect to take place)
Added support for the Line range type- Spells and abilities can now target a line of tiles at a specified length
Added support for the Adjacent range type- Spells and abilities can now target a selection of units next to the caster but adjacent to each other
Added support for spells that are multiplied by the count of units in the casters stack- This is used by abilities like the Quendar's Flame Tongue ability so group of trained units can use spells.
New Monsters
Banshee- Undead ghost that is immune to physical damage and attacks with the Horrific Wail spell, which damages all enemies
Brood Hunter- These half spider creatures are fast and armed with a longbow. They are usually found with spiders than immobilize and weaken enemies so they can pick them off at range.
Brood Warden- Armored half spider creatures that are even better defenders to Brood Wardens and can quickly close with their pikes and high movement.
Cindercorpse- Burning undead corpse with the Inner Fire ability (ranged fire attack)
Hergon- Half wild boar, half brick wall. Hergons have high movement and everytime they attack a unit they knock it back a tile, messing with defense lines and attempts to control the battlefield.
Hergon Sow- A smaller version of the pushy male of her species.
Lich- Powerful undead spellcaster. As if dark wizards weren't bad enough, they get worse when they die.
Lightbringer- A strong Spirit equipped with an Angelic Longsword and the ability to use Soul Spark and Blinding Light
Skeleton (3 variations)- Skeletons are weak but they often come in large numbers and with dangerous weapons
Wisp- A weak Spirit able to use the Healing Light and Soul Spark abilities
Armored Sentinel- An animated suit of armor with immunity to poison, crits and swarm and the arching Shield Bash ability
New Champions- All the champions have been redone for Legendary Heroes to make them more unique. But the following champions are brand new and can be gained through quests or they may offer their services.
Raza the Wild- Wilding Shaman and powerful mage. He has access to the same Coal Stones ability as his wild kin.
Kasst- Fast Brood Warden warrior with an innate resistance to magic.
Tuatha- Troll hero with innate regeneration and a love for giant weapons.
Huhrus- The Ogre from the FE quest, but now he is a champion so you can equip him and have him learn traits as he levels up.
Gallowman- An undead master of necromancy.
Nen Ratcatcher- A darkling shaman, master of death magic and with his brothers aptitude for Shrink spells.
Ascian- A great cat and former assassin for Lady Umber.
Mausolos- The tomb guardian, a massive stone golem and defender with the ability to cast Death Ward in battle.
Corinne the Archivist- A ghost champion
Pellion the Bright- A lightbringer champion
Warboar- Vicious creature, but if it is beaten it can be made into a mount
New Spells/Abilities
Blinding Light- Surrounding enemies must save or be blinded. Special ability of the Lightbringer.
Blink- Teleport to any location on the battlefield. Ability granted by the Flickering Ring.
Break- Assassin attack that does normal damage and removes the targets defense for 3 turns.
Call Lightning- Does lightning damage to all units within the radius.
Channel Lightning- Does the units attack as lightning damage.
Command- Commander ability that allows another unit to take a turn immediately.
Consume Spirit- Special ability of Gallowman, does damage and grants mana if it kills the unit.
Cure Plague- Used to complete a quest.
Death Ward- Tactical version of the strategic spell with a limited duration. Allows a unit to be reborn if he dies within 5 turns. This is a special ability of Ancient Grave Elementals and Mausolos.
Eviscerate- Assassin ability to attack an enemy for an automatic critical hit.
Guard- Defender ability to add a unit's defense to up to 3 adjacent allies and it puts the unit in the defensive stance.
Gust of Wind- Blows back up to 3 enemies that are adjacent to the caster.
Healing Light- heals all allies within 1 tile of the caster. Special ability of Wisps.
Inferno- Tactical version of the strategic spell that surrounds the caster with inferno tiles and damages anyone in them. Special ability of Fire Elementals.
Inner Fire- Does fire damage at range. Special ability of Cindercorpses.
Lightning Bolt- Does 10 lightning damage to all enemies in a 5 tile long line.
Lightning Form- Unit transforms into lighting, shooting through 5 tiles and damaging all enemies in those tiles. Unit ends the action at the end of that line. Special ability of Ascian and Bragni.
Rain of Arrows- Bow only attack that strikes all enemies within the effected radius.
Raise Skeletal Horde- Summon 9 different skeletons into battle.
Raise Skeleton- Summon a lowly skeleton. Raise Skeleton has no casting cost.
Rescue- Defender ability to switch places with an ally in tactical combat and take another action.
Riptide- Do damage to up to 3 adjacent enemies.
Shadowshift- Assassin ability to Switch places with an enemy and take another action.
Summon Air Elemental- Summons and Air Elemental, if used in Tactical it knocks back enemies around the elemental.
Summon Crag Spawn- Summons a Crag spawn and dumps stinking mud in all tiles around him, reducing movement of anyone in them.
Summon Delin- Summon Delin, the Pyre of Man for 3 actions.
Summon Grave Elemental- Summons a Grave Elemental, if used in tactical all surrounding allies receive Death Ward for 5 turns.
Summon Ignys- Summons an Ignys. If used in tactical all surrounding enemies take some fire damage.
Summon Lightbringer- Summons a Lightbringer. If used in tactical all surrounding enemies must save or be blinded.
Summon Wisp- Summons a Wisp. If used in tactical all surrounding allies are healed.
Wall of Fire- Added a tactical version of the Wall of Fire spell. It sets fire to a line of tiles 7 long.
Withstand- Defender ability that makes the unit immune to magic damage for until its next action.
Autumnal Equinox ability (heal all allies half of the units current hit points)
Vernal Equinox ability (poison damage to all enemies for half of the units current damage)
Tectonic Shift ability (teleport to any location on the battlefield, surrounding enemies take damage equal to half the units defense, and stinking mud surrounds the unit)
New Traits
Abjuration- Unlocks the Cloak of Thorns, Protection from Cold and Protection from Fire spells
Aeromancy- Unlocks the Gust of Wind, Lightning Bolt and Obscuring Fog spells
Armor Proficiency- Defender ability to carry additional weight
Axeman- Warrior ability to do increased damage with the Cleave ability
Bleed- Assassin ability to have damaged units take damage per turn, traits can modify the amount of damage done by bleeding.
Cautious- Allows this units army to escape from combat
Compassion- Mage ability that increases the amount healed with heal spells
Geomancy- Unlocks the Gift of Iron and Sunder spells
Ghost- ghosts take no damage from physical attacks
Greater Necromancy- Unlocks the Raise Skeletal Horde and Horrific Wail spells
Hydromancy- Unlocks the Gentle Rain, Frozen Bones and Riptide spells
Immune to Swarm- This unit is immune to its enemies swarm bonuses.
Innovation- Commander trait that gives the player an immediate +100 research
Missing Finger- Injury that reduces the amount of accessories this unit can equip
Necromancy- Unlocks the Raise Skeleton spell
Pack Tactics- Monsters with this trait get double the normal swarm bonus (typically this goes to wolves)
Pyromancy- Unlocks the Soulburning and Incinerate City spells
Reap- Unit gains life whenever he damages enemies, traits can modify the amount of life received
Revenge- Unit gets +1 attack each time it is struck in battle
Savant- Mage ability that reduces casting times by 1
Spirit- spirits take half damage from physical attacks
Tinker- Unit can equip an additional accessory
Volcanic Rites- Mage trait which increases the amount of damage from fire spells
Wealth- Commander trait that gives an additional 500 gildar when selected
Calloused Hide- +1 Defense per level
New Items
Amethyst Collar- Can be used to tame a twisted unit to your control.
Angelic Longsword- Longsword that does additional damage vs Undead.
Bacco's Hammer- A very crude hammer, but it gets better as the wearer levels.
Blessed Hammer- Hammer that does additional damage vs Undead.
Brood Cuirass- A spider curiass that retains some of its makers spell resistance.
Brood Vambrace- A sharpened vambrace that improves the units attack.
Butcher's Axe- Heals the wielders life each time it strikes an enemy.
Crossbow- Ranged weapon with a special attack that fires through up to 3 enemies.
Dagger of the Leech- Heals the wielders life each time it strikes an enemy.
Flickering Ring- Allows the unit to cast blink once per battle.
Guardian Blade- Short sword that does double the normal counterattack damage.
Heavy Crossbow- Ranged weapon with a special attack that fires through up to 5 enemies.
Padded Vest- A very cheap vest, better than nothing, but not by much.
Perfect Crossbow- Enchanted crossbow with increased initiative and attack.
Ring of Ash- Increases fire damage of the wearer's spells.
Ring of Calling- Increases the level of the wearer's summons.
Ring of Restoration- Increases the potency of the wearer's healing spells.
Ruined Chain Shirt- Still being worn by the skeletons of elementals, and starting sovereigns.
Pendulum Axe- Late game axe that does bonus cleave damage.
Soldier's Boots- +1 Initiative, available for unit design
Soldier's Gloves- +5 Accuracy, available for unit design
Soldier's Cloak- +10 Magic resist, available for unit design
Scaled Cloak- +25% Fire Resistance, available for unit design
First Aid Kit-2 Hit Points and +1 Healing Rate, available for unit design
Rations- +3 Hit Points, available for unit design
Equinox- Longsword granted from killing Morian, +20 hit points, enables the Autumnal Equinox ability, enables the Vernal Equinox ability
Sunderer- Great axe granted from killing Abeix, each strike reduces the targets defense by half for 5 turns
Tectonic Bulwark- Tower shield granted by killing Torax, unit is immune to swarm, enables the Tectonic Shift ability
Delin's Ember- Accessory granted from killing Delin, +12 fire attack, +50% fire spell damage, +100 fire resistance
New Quests
Random events are more common in Legendary Heroes including several large game effecting events.
Ascian- You discover ancient tomes about Lady Umbers assassin, you can follow the trail, but it's a dangerous path.
Bacco the Beggar- A drunk challenges you to single combat.
The Banshee- A necromancer attempts to save his wife form dying. But the life his magic gives her is worse than death.
The Mausoleum- A recent storm has opened up a crypt that has been long closed.
Ongr the Unbound- An abomination has been loosed in the world. Although armies would do well to avoid him, the one that kills him can claim his sword.
The Riddle- Mimbly is back, and he isn't any less insulting.
Night of Haunted Dreams- On the night of Shirayn's resurrection the veil between this world and the next is drawn back and the dead flood into the world.
The Plague- A plague has spread across your empire. Will you deal with it by finding a spell to sure it, separating the diseased or burning them alive. Each option offers its own challenges.
New Scenario
Relias returns from the East to find that the invasion of the fallen hordes has already begun. General Carrodus can't stand against the threat alone and Lord Markin has withdrawn behind the Northern Fence. Found cities and raise an army or the Kingdoms will fall.
Balance
Physical attack types (Blunt/Cutting/Pierce) consolidated just to Attack
Removed Influence
Sovereigns all start with a party of Militia and a party of Spearman
XP formula is completely new to not be as influenced by combat rating. Previously if you beat something that the game thought was tougher than you, then you would get exponentially more xp. Now that rating modifies the amount of xp (you still get more if you are fighting tougher things), but not are severely.
Governor path changed to the Commander path (it has the prior upgrades for improving your empire as well as upgrades to improve your army)
Stinking Mud converted from a spell to a Crag Spawn ability
Arcane Veil is now a Defender ability
Aura of Grace moved from Air 1 to Air 2
Battle Cry is now a Commander ability
Broken Loyalties now costs gold instead of influence
Burning Hands now has an adjacent range (it can hit 3 adjacent units)
Moved Contagion to the Black Quire tech
Crushing Blow damage can be modified by traits
Most cooldowns moved to 5 turns instead of 3
Flame Wave moved to Fire 5
Moved Mantle of Oceans to Water 3
Switched Noble Legacy to boosting Dodge instead of Hit Points
Reduced the damage from Shadowbolt (the amount of resistance dropped is now based on the casters level instead of the damage)
When an Earth Elemental is summoned in battle he automatically shockwaves all surrounding enemies
When a Fire Elemental is summoned in battle it is surrounded by Inferno tiles
Familiars and Imps gain the Spirit trait
Flying now negates any move modifier from forests, jungles, etc
Counterattacks default to only doing 50% of the casters normal damage
Swordsman traits increase the amount of damage done when counterattacking
Companies reduced to a size of 6 instead of 7.
Adventurer sovereign history gives bonus fame from completing quests.
Tower of Dominion provides Fame and negates the City Count Penalty in the city it is built in.
Adventurers Guild provides 1 fame per season
Almshouse provides 1 fame per season
Amethyst Vault provides 2 crystal per season (instead of 1)
Archivist provides +50% research when the city is producing research
Embassy’s negate the City Count Penalty in the city they are built in
Guild Grocer improves hp by 5% (instead of 10%)
Infirmary gives trained units the endurance trait (instead of +1 growth)
Mining Guild provides +2 metal per season (instead of 1)
Pyre of Anniellum provides +2 fire instead of +1 fire and +3 mana and it unlocks at level 5 (instead of 4)
Tenfall University moved to unlock at level 4(instead of 5)
Reduced the unrest penalty from Slums to 5% (instead of 10%)
Tower of Dominion allows the city to ignore the unrest penalty from the amount of cities in your empire
Warehouse gives +50% gildar when producing wealth
Wood Shield moved from Training to Leatherworking
Spearmen are now trainable from the start of the game
Henchmen now use the best available equipment.
Henchmen cost Fame to train.
Increased the cost of quest maps
Reduced the amount of research given by the lost library form 20 to 15
There are more creatures in almost all of the goodie huts (larger battles are more common now).
Increased the cost per labor to rush from 1 to 1.5.
Berserker weapons berserk the units wielding them (making them uncontroalble in tactical combat and blocking spellcasting)
Added the “None” option to monster lair placement
Lowered the amount of monsters around the starting location.
Apiaries reduce Unrest in your empire.
Pastures improve the hit points of units in your empire.
Ancient temples improve Research for your empire.
Reduced epic tech pacing form x4 to x3.
Relias starts with the Discipline trait instead of the Veteran trait.
Most world achievements grant Fame.
You can't build Stables (and start collecting Horses) unless you have Mounted Warfare.
You can't build Kennels (and start collecting Wargs) unless you have Warg riding.
Sand Golems can use the Crushing Blow ability.
Shadow Wargs can use the Rush ability.
Removed the min turns required to raze cities.
Reduced the Mace, Spear and Battle Axe damage slightly.
Removed casting time from all summons except the largest (death demon and delin).
Moved the summon spells out of the spell ranks and into the Mage tech tree so casters that want to specialize as summoners can spend their trait upgrades doing that. They will get access to lots of summons, but not to non-summon spells.
Reduced the Monk staff from 7 attack to 6.
Reduced the Crude Club from 6 attack to 5.
Reduced research from Conclave level 2 from 4 to 3.
Added a cooldown to the Wisp Healing Light ability
Mounts add additional training time to units trained with them
Reduced Wolves init slightly
Reduced Bragni's weapon to a Boar Spear
Add lots of new AI units
Reduced random event frequency
Reduced Flame Dart damage down to match the description
Lightbringer's blinding light ability when summoned is now resistable
Switched the Treasury vault to correctly give bonus gildar when Producing Wealth
Removed Dodge 3
Moved Rain of Arrows under Precision 3 instead of Charge
Removed the cast time from the Demonic Ally spell
Maul reduces accuracy by 15% per attack, instead of by 15 points
All tactical summons that effect surrounding enemies can now be cast anywhere (instead of just beside enemies)
Holhiarn Pike does bonus Impale damage instead of giving an accuracy bonus
Decreased starting point min distance from 12 to 10
Decreased min distance between improvements from 4 to 2
Now when you get a shield from a goodie hut it won't allow you to equip it form the item popup if you have a 2 handed weapon equipped (since it would leave you without a weapon)
Switched the Braided Belt from Blacksmithing to Armor
Attacks on prone units always hit
Prone units show their counterattack hit chance as 0%
Yithril's Great Axes faction ability (renamed to Axe Mastery) gives them dual wield versions of all the axes. They cost more to produce and buy but they have higher attack and init.
Remade all the FE champions
You now have visibility for 1 tile outside of your borders
Increased the default players on the Huge map from 8 to 10
Administrator III trait lowers the unrest in all cities by 5% (instead of just the city the champion is in)
Increased the CityCountUnrestPenalty from 2 to 3
Golden Belt gives 25% Splash damage
A full suit of Chain Mail gives -2 init
A full suit of Plate mail gives -6 init
Warriors get an Endurance trait that increases their hit points
Spell Leech has a 5 turn cooldown to fix an infinite mana exploit
Broke magic staves in Fire and Cold staff categories for unit design
Eye of Abeix trophy increased to +50% growth and +5 init for defending units
Head of Amhah trophy increased to +50% growth and -50% unrest
Heart of Delin trophy increased to +50% growth, defending units are immune to fire and trained units get fire resistance
Heart of Morian trophy increased to +50 growth and +50% hit points for trained units
Horn of Sarog trophy increased to +50% growth and +1 fame per season
Head of Torax trophy increased to +50% growth and +3 attack and defense for defending units
Fist of Vetrar trophy increased to +50% growth, defending units are immune to cold and trained units start with Cold resistance
Storehouse increased from +40 food per grain to +50
Rusty Armor gets increased defense but becomes rarer
Aegis Robe Defense increased form 5 to 6 and it gains +5 Dodge
Increased the CombatRatingToExpMultiplier from .05 to .06 (ie: increased the amount of xp gained from combat)
Reduced Charge from +3 to +2 and instead the training cost
Scholar moved from a talent to a profession
Padded Breastpiece added as a designable equipment
Reduced Stables from from 1 horse per season to 0.5
Reduced Kennels from from 1 warg per season to 0.5
Moved the Adventurer’s Guild from Heroes to Breon’s Letters
Arctic Wolf Cloaks no longer require a tech
Removed the Resistance bonus form the ring of embers, of the glacier and storms
Increased the training cost of mounts
Removed the init bonus form the Athican longsword
Decreased the amount that increased production pace increases production
Increased the strength of the bandits from the Bandit Lord ability
Increased the Noble profession from -5 Unrest to -10
Increased the Scholar research bonus from +10% to +20%
Reduced Warlock from +50% spell damage to +25%
Reduced the Fame from quests from 20 to 15
Balance gives +10 to dodge and -1 to init instead of +5 to dodge and -1 to hit points
Charge gives +1 moves and +2 attack instead of +3 moves and +3 attack
Defender gives +10 defense when defending instead of +5
Impulsive gives +2 init instead of going first in battle
Muscle gives +1 to attack and -1 to init instead of just +1 to attack
Strength is no longer a unit design trait
Reduced base trained unit accuracy from 70 to 60
Reduced maces init from -3 to -4
Reduced Battle Axe attack from 15 to 12
Reduced Boar Spear attack from 11 to 10
Reduced Short Sword attack from 10 to 9
Reduced Pike attack from 16 to 15
Reduced Longsword attack from 18 to 14 and +2 init
Reduced Great Axe attack from 21 to 17
Reduced Maul attack from 25 to 22
Removed the Heroes tech
The amount of Fame quests grant has been changed to be per quest instead of a global value (so more difficult quests grant more fame)
The army that didn't attack starts in defensive stance in tactical combat
Kasst increased from 1 move to 3
Increased the xp given from combat slightly
Reduced the level and hit points on Hergon Sows
Increased the dragon level int he Ghost Helm quest from 7 to 12
Razing cities does slightly more damage to surrounding terrain
Increased Ascian to 4 moves
Reduced the training cost of the Fast trait form 20 to 15
Horses give +2 attack and Init for their first action in combat (warhorses gives +3 to both instead)
Increased all Sharp weapons form +1 crit chance to +5
Increased all Razor weapons from +2 crit chance to +10 crit chance
Reduced Bread to 8 healing
Reduced Healing Nectar to 20 healing
Reduced Mushrooms to 8 healing
Reduced Healing Potion to 30 healing
Reduced Iru Elixir to 40 healing
Reduced Salted Pork to 12 healing
Reduced Restoration Potion to 60 healing
Reduced Tilda Herbs to 12 healing
Increased the Aid spell to 8+2 healing instead of 4+2
Reduced the accuracy penalty on Double Strike from -30 to -20
Increased the Heal spell from 8+2 to 16+2 healing
Fixed an issue with the Leech Dagger and the Butcher’s Axe not stealing life
Increased Thunderstrike mana cost from 28 to 38
Thunderstrike damage increased form 5+2 to 10+2
Wellspring increased healing from 12+4 to 24+4
Removed the casting time from the Wither spell
Increased the damage on the bleed ability form 1/2/3 to 3/6/9
Increase Vital Strike critical hit chance form 1/2/3 to 5/10/15
Spectral Chain Shirt made uncommon instead of rare
Ophidian Scale Shirt made rare instead of ultrarare
Mirror Shield made uncommon instead of rare
Obsidian Shield made rare instead of unltrarare
Shrill Shield made rare instead of ultrarare
Champions Cuirass doesnt randomly drop anymore
Impenetrable Plate Cuirass made rare instead of ultrarare
Obsidian Helm made rare instead of ultrarare
Impenetrable Tower Shield made rare instead of ultrarare
Obsidian Tower Shield made rare instead of ultrarare
Shield of the Sentinel made uncommon instead of rare
Defeating Sarog rewards Sarog’s Axe
Defeating a War Boar grants a war boar mount
War board mounts give +3 to attack and init for the first action of combat
Ophidian from the Alchemists Offer quest starts at 3rd level
Fixed an issue raising burning hands for 8+2 per fire shard instead of 4+2
Regeneration heals all damage each season instead of fixed amount
Tweaked tactical unit battle placement
Increased the Lethal traits from +2/+3/+4 attack to +3/+4/+5
Added the Revenge trait to the Warrior tree
Removed the level prereqs from armor
Treasure chests always give uncommon items now (instead of having a chance to give uncommon or common)
Tax Office now gives +20% gildar when producing wealth instead of +25% gildar when the queue is empty
Increased the reward from the Ghost Helm quest to an Ivory Helm
Added the Calloused Hide trait to Tuatha
Generally increased the attack on champion only weapons
Generally decreased the level requirements on champion weapons
Commanders can learn Chain Mail proficiency
Shard Altars require Shard Harvesting (Shrines moved to Immortal Codex and Temples to Ereog's Journals)
Stables reduced from 1 horses per 2 seasons to 1 horse per 5 seasons (same with wargs)
Removed the Bonus Dodge and Bonus Dodge vs Ranged from Mounts
Reduced the amount of Warg and Horses resources in the world slightly
Decreased Pike to 14 attack
Decreased Boar Spear to 9 attack
Added the Incineration Staff and the Ice Staff to sovereign customization
Improved the defense of Rusty Armor (its just a little worse than normal plate mail now)
Panca Archers reduced to a Longbow instead of a Balanced Shortbow
Increased base champion accuracy from 75 to 80
Increased Sovereigns Call from +1 growth to +2 growth
Removed the level prereq from the Turtle Charm
Reduced pop required for city levelup from 50/200/400/800 to 50/150/300/600
Reduced the amount of unrest from levels above low on the tax slider
Higher level monsters now give more xp to keep leveling from slowing down at higher levels (if you are killing higher level stuff)
Removed the defense from monks robes and increased the dodge form +5 to +10 (this is mostly to get the monks robe out of the auto upgrades since it was making units require crystal)
Shrills are now more likely to be found in mixed groups (not 3 fire shrills but 2 fire shrills and an earth shrill, etc)
Removed the cooldown from the Fire Shrills Embers ability
Removed the cooldown from the Water Shrills Slow ability
Removed the cooldown from the Air Shrills Static Blast ability
Reduced the damage on Static Blast slightly
More variety of tactical maps in deserts
Units don’t start so scattered on desert maps
Pariden Monk special unit loses Armor Proficiency 2 and gains Lithe
Ward of Health increased to ++7 hp (from +5 hp)
Champion's Spear is now a Common drop (instead of Uncommon)
Ruined Chain Shirt Defense increased to 5 (from 3)
Removed the wage cost form Knights of Asok, Mercenaries (gained from the camp) and Hunters
Rain of Arrows can now be used if you have allies in range (though it won't hurt your allies)
Reduced the init of shrills slightly
Switched Crow Demons from Graceful to Stand Firm traits
Knights of Asok increased from a group of 3 to 4
Reduced the mana cost of the Confusion spell from 80 to 40
Propoganda reduced to +1 gildar per essence (instead of +2 gildar per essence)
All spears/boar spears/pikes reduced to 33% armor piercing (from 50%)
Dual Burning Axes is now Uncommon (instead of Common
Book Of Mastery moved to behind the Third Book of the Magi (from a 5th rank tech to a 7th rank tech)
Lightning Bolt damage increased to 8 (+2 per level) instead of a flat 10. Increased the casting cost from 20 to 25
Storm loses its casting time and its mana cost increased from 18 to 24
Increased the amount of darkling guards on Deorcynsse
Birth of Summer and Bloom of Twilight reduced to 200 mana casting cost (instead of 300) and moved up to Sorcery (instead of Third Book of the Magi)
Blindness reduces the victims dodge by 25% as well as accuracy
Burning Hands damage increased to 10+2 instead of 8+2
Curgen's Volcano mana cost reduced to 1200 (from 2000)
Casting time removed from Curse
Flame Wave casting time reduced to 1 turn (from 2 turns) and damage increased to 8+2 instead of 4+2
Guardian Wind mana cost reduced to 4 (form 9) and Dodge vs ranged bonus increased to 25+5 instead of 15+5
Nature's Call has its range removed
Storm casting time removed
Removed the Potential 2 and 3 traits
Moved Medic and First Aid form the Defender skill tree to the General skill tree
Increased Champion (and sovereign) base hp slightly
Dragons always drop rare items when defeated
Obsidian golems, forest drakes and dark wizards drop uncommon items when defeated
Hundreds of other changes.
AI
Overhaul of AI for use with Legendary Heroes
AI more flexible with its tax rate
AI does a better job of choosing its technologies based on world conditions
AI's focus on defending cities varies based on which player it is playing as
Fixed stupid bug that negated all the intelligence behind city upgrading (the order of the items in the vector is was choosing from got randomized by the function that gathered them resulting in random choices). This alone makes a huge improvement.
AI much better about choosing units to train (you should see a lot more mounted units)
AI now bases its economic / miltiary trade offs more based on what player it is playing as
AI bases whether to train pioneers versus letting a city upgrade to the next level on what player it is playing as
AI places more value on the perks a unit design has when deciding what unit to train
AI much better at differentiating the stats of a unit when picking what design to use based on what type a unit it is (i.e. archers / vs. melee, etc.)
AI unit design algorithm updated based on the tactical battle setups in LH
AI unit design algorithm now takes into consideration the personality of its sovereign
AI uses strategic spells more often (still not often enough, working on this)
Fixed AI bug where an AI player could bribe another AI player to declare war on a third player without taking non-aggression pacts into account
Fixed AI bug that made it hard for AI players to ever go to peace with one another
AI monsters more intelligent in tactical battles (no more webbing ranged units)
AI smarter in relations
AI smarter about when to ask for peace
Monster AI tweaks
Monster behavior improvements
Fixed AI bug that kept it from "seeing" enemy armies approaching its cities in certain cases
Fixed AI bug where AI would declare war soon after having made peace
Fixed AI bug in tactical where it would cast tangled web on a ranged unit (edge case)
Razing cities does slightly more damage to surrounding terrain
Fixed diplomacy bug where the AI would seemingly declare war on you for no reason (there was a reason but not the one given)
UI
New Battle results screen with animated xp bars that ding when you level up. This screen also shows any injuries or effects from the battle so that we don't need additional popups.
When you have a unit selected and mouse over another tile it shows you the path the unit would take to that tile as well as how many turns it would take.
The Faction Power window now displays the attitude of that player to you.
Added an Army management screen when multiple armies are on one tile.
Switched the minimap and removed the unnecessary features from it (forests, mountains and chasms) so that the relevant info is more clear.
The Turn button will now glow yellow if the player can end the turn, but has idle cities.
New Bear model and medallion.
New Bear Cub model and Medallion.
Adjusted the stats that show up in the unit info window to more usable ones (set these to be controllable form xml in case modders would like to change the ones displayed).
New Mountains. New texture, no more environmental creep onto mountains, no more mountaintop snow.
More defined terrain. Less animation blending makes the terrain of individual tiles easier to see and less muddy.
New lighting with less bloom for more crisp varied colors instead of the washed effect in FE.
All units are larger on the strategic map, so they are easier to see.
Reduced the amount of ground props to make the map more clear and to make game impacting terrain features more recognizable.
New Rivers. The banks have been removed, the flow speed has been halved and the surrounding vegetation and rocks have been dramatically reduced.
Removed the troop count from the spell selection window (In case you were wondering what those seemingly random numbers were at the bottom of the unit medallions).
New Leather armor designs for Tarth.
New Leather armor designs for Yithril.
Leather armor now supports cloth color (so they are all trimmed in the faction's cloth color).
Added dynamic shadows to units.
Fixed an issue where heavy black outlines would show up around grass and other textures with transparency.
The unit details wnd now plays the music theme of the owner of the subject unit, and doesn't change the music at all if accessed from a tactical battle.
The Kingdom victory screen now shows if some of the victory options are disabled in that game.
New ground decals for the goodie huts and lairs to distinguish them from the environment.
Changed U and C hotkeys to cycle through all units and cities respectively, regardless of if they are idle
When a city is selected, the 'R' hotkey now rushes production
Changed Tab hotkey to cycle through all idle units AND cities
Consolidated places where armor pieces are shown in the UI to just show one piece that represents the whole set (you can still design with specific pieces in the unit design window)
Switched the order of the appearance tabs in the create sovereign window to the order most players go through
New water, reflective, partially transparent, instant water! (just add water)
The city HUD now shows how many turns are left in constructing/training
The tile info window now shows the owner of owned terrain
In tactical combat the button for the spell or ability you are using remains highlighted
New selection tiles in tactical
Better looking river banks
Pedestrians are no loner displayed in tactical battles
Added Mountains back to minimaps
Steam notifications now popup in the upper left corner instead of over the turn button
Added a new quest completion window
Consolidated all the upgrade actions into a single upgrade button
Added a new unit upgrade screen
Added icon category icons to the train screen (so you can see what type of unit they are)
Double-clicking on perk or path entries in the two unit level up screen will select the perk and close the screen
New texture for Ongr the Unbound
The spellbook remembers the last strategic spell you cast and starts there when you reopen it
Battle window now states what city is being attacked, if a city is being attacked
The camera will no longer recenter on your unit at the beginning of each turn if that unit was already selected
Previously we hid units in the train window if you didnt have any of the materials needed to train them (but they were greyed out if oyu had at least 1). Now we display them greyed out all the time. This caused issues where oyu would unlock mages or juggernauts but not see them because you didnt have any crystal or metal.
Now all the goodie huts you get tresure form have treasure chests in them (color based on how valuable they are)
Curses are now displayed on the city details screen
The player is now notified when someone casts a curse on his cities
Started adding back some light props (you will need your amount of groundcover set above 'None' to see them)
Fixed an issue where resources could show redundant information in the info pane
Added a crest, faction name, and tint area to the conversation popup wnd for when a nation speaks to you
