Frogboy Frogboy

War of Magic: v1.29 beta log

▼

War of Magic: v1.29 beta log

from JoeUser Forums

It’s looking possible that this week will see the first beta of War of Magic v1.3.  v1.3 is the most significant gameplay changes since the game launched.

We are anticipating having 3 beta phases of it. v1.29 (this build) will introduce most (though not all) the coding changes. v1.29a will being introducing the balance changes and the AI overhaul. And v1.29b and on will be polishing, bug fixing, and tweaking.

Here’s what is in the v1.29 build:

 

Brad

Elemental: War of Magic v1.29

Change Log

+ AI more reactive about updating strategy when a target city has been conquered / destroyed
+ Janusk has been removed.  Goodbye old friend. See you in the Fallen Enchantress tutorial...
+ AI now evaluates which player they care about the most with Dynasty ties being a big motivator. When a sovereign dies, it will give its kingdom to its heir.
+ Repeatable improvements now increase with cost as more are built.
+ World difficulty now sets the default AI player difficulty
+ Modders can set the base cost of repeatable improvements in the appropriate .xml file
+ Base unit CON reduced from 5 to 3
+ Special buildings now longer required to build special units. Instead, these buildings provide bonuses (i.e. no need for a command post to train groups)
+ Minimum number of units you can train has been increased to 4.
+ Trained units default HP reduced from 5 to 1
+ Trained unit groups that survive a battle will heal to full strength (i.e. If your group of 4 survives the battle with 1 guy left, it will be replenished to 4 over time). Hat tip to Konan.
+ Insufficient free tiles message added
+ Zone of control from improvements reduced
+ Tech costs increased
+ Number of starting quest locations increased
+ Pedastrians disabled (for now)
+ More aggressively freeing memory
+ Notable locations may now be explored regardless of your level.
+ Notable locations will be spawned NEAR you when you increase your exploration level (but now remember, your opponents can access them too so don't do it if you're surrounded)
+ Objects that have been marked as destroyed are now ignore by subsystems (performance improvement, stability improvement) This is throughout all game systems.
+ LOTS of code to handle the increasing costs in terms of people to run your improvements. If anyone thinks that getting highly talented people remains equally easy as you grow, ask google, microsot or apple about that. It's not.
+ Random events added (not many random events yet though)
+ Pioneers are still trained as individuals
+ Units move faster by default on the map (animation-wise)
+ Units move A LOT faster in tactical battle (let us know if it's too fast)
+ Minor factions removed. Sorry guys, they're just too lame to live for now.
+ New notable locations added to provide weapons, armor, and other "stuff"

IF it makes the window for this week, it will be Thursday evening EST. 

 

Update: We've staged the beta build but QA wants to give it more of a go so it won't be publicly available until tomorrow afternoon EST at the earliest.

Cheers!

173,835 views 89 replies
Reply #76 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting icen9ne, reply 74
1.2b Thoughts:
2) I also agree (as others have stated) that the citizens requirements for new buildings are too much.  I'll conquer a city and then have to wait 50+ turns before I can build anything else because I am at negative 300 citizens.

Are we sure we arent talking tactics here; I never have an issue with cities I conquer; heh I increase their pop cap when taking them but then again I spend a lot of resources in teching civ and just enough in military to defend myself then later on catch up and crash them with ease.

Reply #77 from Elemental Forums Top

I dunno man.  Something is seriously whack in 1.2b.  I can't build ANYTHING late game without my population going into RED. 

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #78 from Elemental Forums Top

Same here icen9ne. I don't mean to pontificate but this rationale:

"+ LOTS of code to handle the increasing costs in terms of people to run your improvements. If anyone thinks that getting highly talented people remains equally easy as you grow, ask google, microsot or apple about that. It's not."

While very true, doesn't necessarily make it a good game mechanic. Namely it makes the game more tedious and less fun to play. Ah well who am I kidding, I'm really just waiting for FE because of the tactical battle changes that I feel are more or less necessary anyways.

Reply #79 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting jlzignego, reply 78
Same here icen9ne. I don't mean to pontificate but this rationale:

"+ LOTS of code to handle the increasing costs in terms of people to run your improvements. If anyone thinks that getting highly talented people remains equally easy as you grow, ask google, microsot or apple about that. It's not."

While very true, doesn't necessarily make it a good game mechanic. Namely it makes the game more tedious and less fun to play. Ah well who am I kidding, I'm really just waiting for FE because of the tactical battle changes that I feel are more or less necessary anyways.

It's beyond tedious haha.  I was really starting to enjoy this build until late game when I had to wait 50 to 100 turns (literally) to build anything at my larger cities.  The improvement says it'll only cost 15 citizens then suddenly I build it and I'm 600 in the RED. 

I finally quit out of boredom and went on to play something else.  *sigh

Reply #81 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, its a beta. Bugs are normal. But to be honest. I hadn´t expect this. This build was in QA and its not only a late game problem. Whatever the game says about needings for the next study, labor -> population, huts -> food, it doesn´t use it right from the beginning.

Reply #82 from Elemental Forums Top

All good except

"+ Notable locations will be spawned NEAR you when you increase your exploration level (but now remember, your opponents can access them too so don't do it if you're surrounded) "

 

I like a realistic explanation for things, that makes no sense. Because I increase my level, 3000 years ago a temple was built... right next to where I am now? Silly.

Reply #83 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Black-Knight, reply 82
All good except

"+ Notable locations will be spawned NEAR you when you increase your exploration level (but now remember, your opponents can access them too so don't do it if you're surrounded) "

 

I like a realistic explanation for things, that makes no sense. Because I increase my level, 3000 years ago a temple was built... right next to where I am now? Silly.

It wasnt' built near you. It was discovered near you. I'm still discovering things in my back yard. :)

Reply #84 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 83
It wasnt' built near you. It was discovered near you. I'm still discovering things in my back yard.
You find ancient temples in your back yard?  :O

 

:fox:

Reply #85 from Elemental Forums Top

i trimmed a couple of ferns back and found some wiffle balls in my backyard.

Reply #86 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Trojasmic, reply 85
i trimmed a couple of ferns back and found some wiffle balls in my backyard.

 

+1 Happiness for your offspring!

 

You sure they weren't dragon eggs?

Reply #87 from Elemental Forums Top

Great Build. But it takes too long to recruit units. Maybe half to one quarter of the time would be better. This is only a minor issue since I can change it myself. But it is bad to have a point in the beginning where I cant do anything because all my heroes are guarding my cities and it will take 30 turns to get a defender. I am sure you will agree when you play it some more.

Reply #89 from Elemental Forums Top

I haven't placed EWOM in some months, mostly due to (a) work demands, (b) the prior frequency of crashes and (c) various game design issues. But I happened to download the latest and greatest (1.29) last night and have spent a fair amount of time playing it. Some immediate observations:

-- I'm still getting crashes. Not as often, but given how many other games I have played for hours on end without crashes, it's a bit disconcerting how frequently EWOM crashes, given how long it's been out.

-- There seems to be some kind of bug with the "population needed/population available" figure. I will have enough surplus population to build, say, a study. I build it, and suddenly the game tells me that I'm short by 30, 40, 50, 100 people -- in other words, just by building a building, I'll go from, say, 330/334 to 400/334.  I thought maybe this was some strange game balance thing, though I had no clue why the game would work that way. Then -- and what prompted me to come here -- my game in progress jumped in one turn from (roughly) 435/415 (pop needed/pop available) to (roughly) 1300/550. Huh? Anyway, it makes building units and buildings very slow and tedious.

- I like the new starting conditions (Arcane Arrow/Teleport immediately available, weaker MOBs, etc.). It makes wandering around in the early part of the game more fun.

- Even when I build studies and have a library or two, the tech tree gets awfully tedious as the game progresses. Combined with the pop problem above, it led me to abandon several games as being just too boring to continue.

-- I don't see any improvements in overall strategic options. Neighbors ask to marry your kids, then say, "Why would I let my kids marry yours?" Neighbors ask for tribute -- you're only two options appear to be pay or go to war. Interactions with other kingdoms feel awfully shallow compared to GalCiv, Civ, FFH2, etc.

IMHO, YMMV.  ..bruce..