FfH2 0.34 Change log

Kael

Deity
Joined
May 6, 2002
Messages
17,401
Location
Ohio
This the changelog for version 0.34. Expect changes as we go through the final week leading up to its release on October 10th. A special thanks to Marnok, Vehem and Xienwolf for all their amazing work that we incorporated into this version.

Fixes:
1. Mushrooms and Volcanoes will work correctly the 2nd time (PythonCallback functions will now trigger even if it isnt the first time the event triggered).
2. Fixed an issue that could cause global events to trigger twice.
3. Units produced by Warrens will have all the promotions/xp as if they had been built in the city.
4. Fixed an error if you rob a graveyard before you found a city and get a bonus tech.
5. Cities now retain their original city culture (of the building civ) instead of the last owning civ for assimilation.
6. Puppets cant get great comander promotions from their caster anymore.
7. Fixed an issue that could cause the AI to stop researching if some religions are disabled (since they are forced to research those techs).
8. Starting units won't be so spread out (they were using sprawling city distance instead of normal city distance).
9. Switched all instances of pPlayer.getNumCities range checks to PyPlayer(iPlayer).getCityList() (Sto noticed that getNumcities range checks aren't always updated).
10. Fixed an issue where the amount of events are hard coded in the SDK (set to the BtS event count of 176)?!?
11. Fixed an issue that could allow building requireing events to be selected even if the city doesnt have the building.
12. You can no longer steal great commanders with Mimics.
13. Fixed an issue that allowed AI civs to stick around after they were defeated because of lingering equipment (now their equipment becomes barbarian equipment).
14. Lightning Elementals are no longer permanent (they now spawn with their creating Air Elementals duration).
15. Fixed an issue that was causing mages/archmages/etc to get 2 promotions when they were upgraded to instead of one.
16. Units with a race upgrading/converting to a unit with a race will accept the upgrades race (so an orc becoming a drown turns into an undead).
17. Birds can't learn spells from Govannon.


Additions/Removals:
1. Added the Frostling Archer unit.
2. Added the Frostling Wolf Rider unit.
3. Added the Mokka unit (frostling hero).
4. Added The Illians as a playable civilization.
5. Added the Samhain ritual (Illian only, spawns barbarian frostlings, frostling archers, frostling wolf riders and Mokka).
6. Added the Ice I, II and III promotions.
7. Added the Slow spell (Ice 1, -1 movement, resistable, 30% chance to wear off each turn).
8. Added Ice mana resource (unlike other mana types raw mana cannot be converted to Ice mana, it is only provided by the Illian palace and Letum Frigus).
9. Added the Blizzard feature (non-winterborn units take cold damage when passing through it).
10. Added the Priest of Winter unit.
11. Added the Call Blizzard spell (Priest of Winter only, moves a blizzard from a neighboring tile into the casters tile, turns the casters tile into tundra from grass, plains or desert).
12. Added the Stasis spell (Illian world spell, all other players have production and research disabled for 20 turns modified by game speed).
13. Added The White Hand ritual (Illian only, spawns 3 disciples of mulcarn).
14. Added The Deepening ritual (Illian only, freezes the map temporarily and spawns blizzards around the map).
15. Added the Whiteout spell (Illian assassins only, allows them to become invisible in snow tiles).
16. Added the Ice Elemental unit (increased strength on snow/tundra tiles, cant enter desert or burning sands tiles).
17. Added the Summon Ice Elemental spell (Ice 2 summon).
18. Added the Snowfall spell (Ice 3, cold damage at range 1, temporarily transforms surrounding tiles to snow tiles).
19. Added the Temple of the Hand building (Illian Pagan Temple replacement, converts all surrounding tiles to snow tiles).
20. Added the High Priest of Winter unit (upgradeable from the Priest of Winter at level 6).
21. Added the Stir from Slumber ritual (Illian only, the player must kill another player before this ritual becomes available, summons Drifa the White Dragon).
22. Added The Draw ritual (Illians only, causes you to declare war on all players in the game, halves the population of all your cities, does damage to all your units, keeps you from being able to enter diplomacy with civs you are at war with for the rest of the game).
23. Added the Auric Ascended unit (biggest unit in the game, has an enhanced version of the Snowfall spell, can fly, magic immune, and huge amounts of strength and cold damage, if he dies the player loses all his traits).
24. Added the Ascension ritual (Illians only, requires The Draw ritual to be complete, summons the Auric Ascended unit, upgrades all priests of winter to high priests of winter).
25. Removed the Adventure event.
26. Added explorable lairs mechanic (idea and many many implementation steps by Marnok!).
27. Added a Ship Wreck improvement (water based, can be explored, but doesn't spawn units).
28. Added a Dungeon improvement (can be explored, but doesn't spawn units).
29. Added the Treasure Chest unit (one of the explorable lairs outcomes spawns it in the world to be hunted down and opened up).
30. Added Scorpion Clan goblin units (archer, goblin, chariot, wolf rider) with art by seZereth and +1 poison strength over comparable Clan of Embers goblins.
31. Added the Goblin Fort (can be explored, spawns Scorpion Clan goblins, goblins wont go out exploring until there are at least 3 defenders in the fort, starts with a free scorpion clan archer).
32. Barbarian allied players can hire Scorpion Clan goblins, archer, chariots and wolf riders at Goblin Forts.
33. Added the Timor Mask equipment (causes fear, makes the wearing unit immune to fear, explore lair reward).
34. Added the Potion of Invisibility (one time use, makes the unit invisible, explore lair reward).
35. Added the Potion of Restoration (one time use, restores the units ability to cast, explore lair reward).
36. Removed Barbatos.
37. Added the Dungeon event (opportunity to buy a map to a hidden dungeon).
38. Added the Treasure event (opportunity to buy a map to a distant treasure).
39. Added the Held promotion (unit is permanently immobile).
40. Added the Cage improvement (holds all units inside it until another unit comes to free them).
41. Added the Aifon Isle unique feature.
42. Added the Bradelines Well unique feature (art by Psychic Llamas).
43. The Broken Sepulcher, Bradelines Well, Aifon Isle and the Pyre of the Seraphic are epic dungeons (they only spawn rare good or rare bad results from exploration).
44. Added the Puppet race promotion (+20% to opponent resist chances, -10% to spell damage, -20% strength, all summons are also puppets).
45. Added a CivTrait mechanic (trait given to a leader based on his civ) Sprawling, Fallow, Dexterous, Guardsman, Sinister, Sundered and Horselord are now civ traits.
46. Removed the Ljosalfar Archery Range, Bannor Training Yard, Svartalfar Hunting Lodge, Sundered Sanctum and the Hippus Stables buildings (since the civ traits now grant these abilities).
47. Added War equipment (Buboes sword, +3 unholy strength and +1 to the AC for every living unit killed).
48. Added the Crown of Command (Stephanos's crown, 30% capture percent).
49. Removed the Guild of Hammers guild (though the wonder remains).
50. Removed the Aerons Bounty guild (now the Aeron's chosen promotion gives a significant bonus to the assassin that recieves it).
51. Removed the Cult of the Dragon guild.
52. Removed the Brotherhood of Wardens guild.
53. Removed the Guild of the Nine guild (now guild of the nine events are open to all players, though they are more rare).
54. Removed the Ratcatchers Guild guild.
55. Removed the Circle of Gaelen guild (though Gaelen is still a reward for the Circle of Gaelen event chain).
56. Dragons Roar ability now acts as a ranged fear effect.
57. Added the Athame equipment (Yersinia's dagger, +3 poison strength and spreads plague).
58. Added the Airship unit (flying Queen of the Line UU for the Kuriotates).
59. Added the Shaman unit (adept UU for the Doviello and the Clan of Embers that doesnt require a mage guild).
60. Removed the no_building bypass (exception for the doviello that counted a civ that was unable to build a building as having it for unit creation, so the doviello didnt have to have training yards to make axemen).
61. Added the Sons of Asena unit (Doviello UU that replaces the Axeman, doesnt require a Training Yard to build).
62. Added the Form Wolf Pack spell (Doviello only, allows them to sacrifice 2 wolves to form a wolf pack).
63. Added the Add to Wolf Pack spell (Doviello only, allows them to sacrifice a wolf to add an empower promotion to a wolf pack).
64. Added the Seven Pines unique feature (art by Psychic Llamas, can be used one time to force peace with all civs the player is at war with and halve the AC).
65. Added the Marsh terrain.
66. Added the Lizardman race (+10% in marshes, double move in marshes, amphibious and no penalty crossing rivers).
67. Added the Centaur race (able to use the sprint ability).
68. Added a DataStorage mechanic ("Trophy system") by Sto.
69. Added the Trophy screen.
70. Added the "Flexible Difficulty" game option (single player only, if the player is ranked in the top third the game difficulty increases, if the player is in the bottom third the game difficulty decreases).
71. Added the "Challenge: Final Five" game option (every 50 turns the lowest rank player is removed the game until there are only 5 players left).
72. Added the "Challenge: High to Low" game option (single player only, human player has to get to 1st place and is then takes control of the last place player, must take that player to 1st place, then you are switched to the last place player for the rest of the game).
73. Added the "Challenge: Increasing Difficulty" game option (every 50 turns the game difficulty increases by one until it hits deity).
74. Added a game option to disable level requirments for the AI (so the AI can build archmages and such directly).
75. Added the Divided Soul unit (Sidar only hunter replacement, idea by Verdian).
76. Added the Sever Soul ability (Divided Soul only, allows a Divided Soul to create a Severed Soul unit).
77. Added the Severed Soul unit (flying, invisible to all units).
78. Added the Call Form ability (Severed Soul only, allows a Severed Soul to teleport its summoner to itself).
79. Added the Frostling race (+1 cold damage, +25% on snow, +10% on tundra, -25% on deserts, immune to cold, -50% to fire).
80. Added the Avatar race (Immune to magic, fear, capture, -50% to victims magic resistance, always defends the stack).
81. Added the Godslayer equipment (+1000% vs Avatars).
82. Added the Guild of the Nine wonder (allows you to hire mercenaries in all your cities).
83. Added the Heron Throne wonder (+1 hammer in all sea tiles).
84. Added an updated Erebus mapscript from Cephalo.
85. Added the Shallows terrain (hell version of marsh).


Balance Changes:
1. Raiders trait now gives commando to Adepts (as well as the previous other 5 unit combats) and no longer grants additional xp from combat (Nikis-Knight).
2. Aggresive trait gives Combat 1 to Adepts, Disciples, Recon and Archers (as well as the previous 2 unit combats) and doubles the production speed of siege workshops instead of stables (Nikis-Knight).
3. Taking a city with Loki's Disrupt ability gives a -4 attitude from the player that used to own the city.
4. The Illian palace provides Ice mana instead of Water mana.
5. Letum Frigus provides Ice mana.
6. Arcane Lacuna keeps all other players from being able to cast spells for 20 turns (modified by game speed) instead of reverting mana nodes to raw mana.
7. Ruins and Barrows are no longer destroyed when a unit enters the plot, instead they must be explored to be conquered (for good or bad).
8. Increased the tiles per spawn from 5 to 6 (to keep lairs from putting out as many units).
9. Doubled the tiles per spawn when dealing with animals (so bear and lion dens won't overrun areas as much).
10. Barbarian allied players can hire Scorpion Clan goblins, archer, chariots and wolf riders at Goblin Forts.
11. Barbarian skeletons will upgrade to spectres if they get to level 3 and wraiths if they get to level 5 (be very afraid).
12. Less Goody Huts are spawned on maps (from 1/40 tiles to 1/60 tiles).
13. Blasting Workshop building requires Sorcery instead of Elementalism.
14. Gifts of Nantosuelta world spell requires the Masonry tech.
15. Ars now has the Staff of Souls instead of Barbatos.
16. The Pyre of the Seraphic doesn't spawn fire elementals when pillaged anymore (and can't be pillaged directly).
17. Tower of Alteration gives your units +20% resistance to all spells and enemy units -20% resistance to all your spells.
18. Tower of the Elements summons a random permanent immobile Elemental guardian when built.
19. Armageddon events seperated out so they don't go so long without an event and then all strike at once:
[tab]30: Blight
[tab]40: Stephanos
[tab]50: Buboes
[tab]60: Yersinia
[tab]70: Ars Moriendi
[tab]80: Hellfire
[tab]90: The Avatar of Wrath
[tab]100: Apocalypse
20. Stephanos strength reduced from 30 to 24.
21. Barbarian animals won't guard non-animal lairs.
22. Non-animal barbarians won't guard animal lairs.
23. Charm Person won't effect neutral units anymore.
24. Barbarian autoraze units will destroy any cities they are in, all 4 riders auto raze (this way the riders don't camp out in a city).
25. Any player with the pieces of Barnaxus can rebuild Barnaxus in a Luchuirp city, Barnaxus is rebuilt as a Luchuirp unit but the player gets an attitude bonus with the Luchuirp for doing it.
26. Removed the tech penalty for multiple player teams (so players that summon the Mercurians don't suffer a research penalty).
27. Reduced the research bonus form having contact with a civ with that tech from +30% to +10% (so isolated civs arent punished as severly).
28. Lairs, Unique feature and Barbarian world placement rewritten.
29. Barbarian World game option moved until after plot normalization and player placement (so it can take account of player units to spread themselves out more fairly, thanks to Sto!).
30. Reduced the Pirate Harbor improvement from 1/1/4 to 1/1/3 (woodelf).
31. Reduced the Pirate Port improvement from 2/2/6 to 2/2/4 (woodelf).
32. Hyborem gets +4 Attitude towards his summoner.
33. Hyborem starts at war with every civ his summoner is at war with (except the barbarians).
34. Illians get +2 food from snow tiles.
35. Malakim get +1 trade from deserts.
36. The Consumption civic no longer gives -1 health.
37. Adjusted fear chances, it now takes the level of the attcaker and efender into account and always gives at least a 10% chance the unit will resist the fear.
38. The Sailors Dirge won't spawn until at least one of the players has sailing.
39. Defeating the Sailors Dirge earns the player a treasure map (Nikis-Knight).
40. Doviello Beastmen can upgrade to Sons of Asena for 40 gold once bronze working is known, they can upgrade anywhere.
41. Doviello Sons of Asena can upgrade to Battlemasters for 80 gold once iron working is known, they can upgrade anywhere.
42. Battlemasters can no longer upgrade Axemen in their tile (the ability isn't required).
43. Doviello Workers and Slaves can upgrade to Warriors 20 gold, they can upgrade anywhere.
44. Barbarians can't build/spawn Empyrean Disciples anymore.
45. No units start with Subdue Animals or Subdue Beasts anymore, they must always be learned at levelup (most strongly effects rangers).
46. Governors Manor gives 1 unhappiness.
47. Reduced the chance of burnt forests upgrading to new forests and forests upgrading ancient forests from 10% per turn to 3%.
48. Lunatic attack strength raised from 6 to 7 and given a small amount of collateral damage.
49. All ships and water monsters (kraken, leviathan, sea serpent, giant tortoise) strength raised by 2-4 points to make them more resistant to water walking creatures.
50. Goblin Wastes event can't occur in plots with roads (which includes city plots).
51. Hunters (and other units) don't have to be in cities to rebase hawks (and other birds).
52. Marksman ability won't target units of different domains than the attacker (naval or air units) or 0 defense units (workers, etc).
53. Guardsman promotion can be learned by melee units with Combat 3.
54. Eyes and Ears Network allows you to see what other players are researching.
55. The AI_unitUpdate python script will only run for barbarian units (for performance).
56. Gaelan can be upgraded to an Archmage.
57. AI gets free xp based on the difficulty level (starting at prince and up, loki).
58. Fallow trait leaders get 0 food from tiles (this allows governors and the ai to emphasize plots with other yields).
59. Beeri is now Industrious/Financial instead of Spiritual/Organized.
60. Varn is now Adaptive/Spiritual/Creative (with spiritual as the permanent trait) instead of Adaptive/Creative/Financial.
61. AI: The Barbarians are way more aggressive (Orthus will come for you rather than wandering around in the wilderness).
62. AI: the Ai is much less likely to research water based techs if it doesnt have any coastal cities.
63. Forbidden Place and Winter Palace now negates colony maintenance on the continent they are on.


Cosmetic Changes:
1. New city art for all the civs (from Fall Further).
2. Mana Bar toggle option (from Fall Further).
3. All city names and great people names switched to TXT tags (to help translators, thanks to Doc for setting it up!).
4. Added a Races, Effects and Items pedia page (from Fall Further).
5. Fixed an issue that could cause promotions to show the same spell availability multiple times (such as showing ressurection twice when you mouseover life 3).
6. Added a Unique Feature pedia page.
7. New Grigori Scout model by seZereth.
8. New "Rust" theme by seZereth and Xienwolf.
9. Armageddon Count moved to the end turn button with mouse-over for true values.
10. Resources will now be displayed correctly in the pedia.
11. New Grigori Adept model by seZereth.
12. New Grigori Archer model by seZereth.
13. New Grigori Axeman model by seZereth.
14. New Grigori Chariot model by seZereth.
15. New Grigori Dragon Slayer model by seZereth.
16. New Grigori Horse Archer model by seZereth.
17. New Grigori Hunter model by seZereth.
18. New Grigori Longbowman model by seZereth.
19. New Grigori Mage model by seZereth.
20. New Grigori Warrior model by seZereth.
21. New Alazkan model by seZereth.
22. 4 new songs by Nox Arcana.
 
:wow::wow:uhhh:faint:
Well actually, now that I look at it, I do like a lot of it (Illians, Yeah!) but some that I don't really like. Not sure why. I liked the .33 changes more, actully.
 
Wow, that's a lot of awesome changes. The goblin fort idea is especially clever. Although you must have really hated Barbatos; he's removed at 36 and at 45.
 
Okay, now I've actually read the changelog. Good stuff, Kael! One question, though: with the removal of the existing guilds, what plans do you have on that front? Just wondering.
 
Removed Barbatos Twice. Slippery bastard isn't he?

You made WRAITHS a stronger summon (XP Feedback)? Why on earth did DEATH MANA need a boost?

Actually made the same tweak to Marksman myself about 5 minutes ago :) Except I said [same Domain + (0 Strength OR LimitedUnitclass)] so that Corlindale wasn't immune to being targetted by them.



Lots of nice changes. I anticipate a ton of work updating the manual for this one :)
 
Yeah, why did Barbatos and Guilds get the axe?

Don't get me wrong, I love the changelog and am psyched to play .34. But I will miss Barbatos, and I really think the Cult of the Dragon needs to be in the game in some form. If anything, I'd like to see it have gotten ~stronger~ than it was, as it would seriously help the Kuriotates out (such as having Cult of the Dragon cities randomly spawn units for the Kuriotates to help their horrible unit production rate). Also, the loss of the Guild of the Nine will seriously hurt the Hippus; Mounted Mercenaries generally form the backbone of my army when I play as them, and I will miss them horribly.

Still, over all I definately love. A lot of the things I love most are the small things, such as Hawks being able to field-rebase.

Um... but can you take a look at lines 40-43 and make sure there are no typos? They look a bit weird (Warriors upgrade to Beastmen?).

Also. Line 50. You REALLY like Wraiths, don't you, Mr. 11 death mana? :) Personally, I think this is an ability ALL summons, except maybe Fireball, should have.

PPS: PLEASE tell me the Illians can't use Seven Pines after completing the Draw. That would be a RIDICULOUS combo.
 
A few more quick questions/comments:

The Illians getting +2 food from snow sounds interesting, but I'll have to see how the Illians play in general before commenting on them.

I understand that the Malakim getting +1 trade in the desert is intended to be flavorful for them, but it's probably not going to be enough incentive for a Malakim player to keep desert terrain. Will have to see how it works during gameplay, but it'll probably be more profitable to upgrade the desert and either farm or cottage it. You did say to expect more changes, so maybe something else to come with this civ?

I like the Doviello changes, particularly the wolf pack spells, will fit nicely with their world spell. Any plans to do something with the Doviello and tundra, as part of the more changes to come in the final week?

@MaxAstro

I don't mind the existing guilds getting the axe, since they were really unbalanced -- Guild of the Nine and Guild of Hammers were the most worthwhile, and anyway the Guild of Hammers was really a wonder masquerading as a guild. I think we can hope for them to be replaced with some more interesting stuff.
 
Warriors upgrading to Beastmen does sound appropriate, since Workers can upgrade to Warriors. I would suspect that the Beastmen are still a warrior replacement for the Civ as what is buildable, but that Workers have to upgrade to a "lower level fighter" before they become a full Doviello field unit.
 
Warriors upgrading to Beastmen does sound appropriate, since Workers can upgrade to Warriors. I would suspect that the Beastmen are still a warrior replacement for the Civ as what is buildable, but that Workers have to upgrade to a "lower level fighter" before they become a full Doviello field unit.

But then Beastmen upgrade to Battlemasters? o.O

EDIT: Lol, it was apparently ninja-edited. XD It was a typo, and is fixed now. That said, Battlemasters at Bronze Working sounds a bit scary.

EDIT2: LOL, looks like it was another typo. XD Iron working sounds much better. :)
 
illians look pretty sweet. ive always thought they were a pretty cool civ base don the lore anyway.
 
75. AI gets free xp based on the difficulty level (starting at prince and up).

uhhhhhhhhhh

How much XP? That... well, it'll keep those people who beat the higher difficulty levels with early brute force in check, that's for sure. Thankfully I rely on mid/lategame nukings from things like Chalid and Dwarven Druids to win by domination.
 
Oh, wow, the Illians are definately unique. Four unique Rituals? Granted, one of them is a punishment ritual, but still. Fun.

That World Spell of theirs is beefy, though... I hope it has a research requirement, otherwise use it turn 1 and get 20 turns of a head start on everyone.

One question... they get a Food bonus on Ice, but do they get anything from Tundra? Also, the Malakim get a pittance of Commerce from Desert, which is very nice - maybe not quite enough, but nice.

Lanun got nerfed. Again. Bannor are unchanged. Again. No Lamia, either - I'm looking forward to those guys. The Doviello got a nice little boost, though - and the Grigori are going to look sexy, I know it. Plus, the Sidar get another cool unit - I'm going to have to rewrite that damn strategy blurb for Xienwolf now. Kurio get a flying ship. Sweet. Arcane Lacuna gets a change too, that was unexpected.

No guilds anymore - they weren't that useful anyways, but how are Mercanaries run now?

Challenges look fun.

Aifon Isle? Hmmm.... wonder what kinds of things can come out of there.

And I'm with Nor'Easter; the guilds weren't all that useful, but they could've been changed. Why remove them all unless they're going to be used in a new way? Or was it just an unneccessary complication to get rid of?
 
One question... they get a Food bonus on Ice, but do they get anything from Tundra? Also, the Malakim get a pittance of Commerce from Desert, which is very nice - maybe not quite enough, but nice.

+1 hammer from tundra would probably be right; that way tundra are their version of plains, and snow their version of grassland.
 
8. Added Ice mana resource (unlike other mana types raw mana cannot be converted to Ice mana, it is only provided by the Illian palace and Letum Frigus).

What was the reasoning on this? It'll certainly make Letum Frigus a valuable commodity for anyone who's gotta catch 'em all.
 
What was the reasoning on this? It'll certainly make Letum Frigus a valuable commodity for anyone who's gotta catch 'em all.

Also, won't that make the Tower of the Elements CRAZY hard to build?
 
This is gonna be good... I take it the Tower of Elements needs no ice mana. Buboes' toy will be perfect for the Sheaim; a reason to raise the AC, to help raise the AC even more. As to the Godslayer? I was wondering how the hell we were supposed to take down a 60 strength unit. Nighty-night, Auric... unless the Illians manage to secure the Godslayer first. Then things will be getting messy
EDIT: Just noticed the Airship. At last, the Kurios can enjoy intercontinental warfare without a coastal mega-city.
EDIT 2: Heh, Avatars always defend. So much for hiding Auric behind a horde of guards to keep Kylorin impersonators from skewering him.
 
New Stuff, yay!

Um, though, did you seriously remove the Guild of the Nine? I mean, you can't just hire an army of mercs anymore? This makes me very very sad.

Do the hippus still have some synergy whatsoever with mercenaries? Would seem the random chance to get to pay for a single Mounted Mercenary is pretty silly.

Like most of the other changes. Seems a lot of the 'oh, I lose now' stuff is gone, which I'm a big fan of.

In regards to the Malakim change, perhaps +1 commerce, and +1 Food would be enough. If they were just basically tundra squares, that could get cottages, that would make them at least not useless.
 
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