*** RELEASED 11/13/2015 ***

New Features

Stamina

Most combat abilities require Stamina, normal ones require 3 (Impale, Howl), powerful ones require 7 (Trident Strike, Battle Cry). This keeps players from simply using abilities as soon as they become available, forces decisions about saving for special abilities and makes battles more dynamic. It also allows us to make special abilities more powerful since players can’t trigger them all first turn.

Starting Stamina is how much Stamina the unit starts the battle with, it defaults to 1

Stamina Growth is how much Stamina the unit gains per action in battle it defaults to 1, this is given at the end of the units action (to allow enemies to react to it before the unit can use it)

Defending gives the unit +1 Stamina (this gives a bonus Starting Stamina to defending armies since they start defending). This makes Defending more advantageous since it allows the unit to unlock special abilities faster.

Stamina is cleared at the end of battle (it doesn’t carry over from one battle to another)

Being knocked prone removes all Stamina

Many monsters have modifiers based on their stamina. Some get more powerful attacks, some unlock special abilities, some increase their defenses. As the battle goes on, they will increase in power, kill them, or use your abilities to take out their stamina.

Racial Abilities

Sovereigns and Champions have new abilities in their skill tree based on their race. So each unit’s available abilities to select when leveling up will be based on their class and race. Players may prefer Krax Defenders for their ability to stay in battle and knock down opponents Stamina, or Tarth Assassins who can make use of stored Stamina until they launch their powerful Assassin’s Strike. These racial abilities are also available in unit design so you can make your armies even more distinct.

Additions

Added the Hope spell: All allies gain 5 Stamina (Mage tree, unlocked by the Compassion skill)

Added the Hopelessness spell: All enemies Stamina is reduced to 0 unless they resist (Mage tree, unlocked by the Necromancy skill)

Added Assassin’s Strike ability: +3 Attack per Stamina, consumes all Stamina (Assassin tree)

Added Battle Fury passive ability: +1 Initiative per Stamina (Monster)

Added Ambush passive ability: +8 Initiative on the 1st round of combat (Altarian)

Added Dogpile passive ability: +8 Attack vs Prove units (Urxen)

Added Exhaust passive ability: Attacks also do 1 Stamina damage (Krax)

Added Macabre Pleasure passive ability: Killing an enemy provides 3 Stamina (Wraith)

Added Lament ability: Do 5 Stamina damage to all adjacent enemies (Wraith)

Added Trip ability: Knocks adjacent victim prone unless they resist (Urxen)

Added Fire Eater passive ability: Double damage from Flame Tongue (Quendar)

Added Halt ability: Stops Stamina growth for 3 turns (Altarian)

Added Furnaceborn ability: Does Fire damage to all adjacent enemies (Quendar)

Added Immune to Poison passive ability (Ironeer)

Added Momentum passive ability: +1 Stamina on a successful attack (Warrior tree)

Added Naja Dance passive ability: +2 Dodge for point of Stamina (Tarth)

Added Outrage passive ability: +1 Attack per Stamina (Monster)

Added Predator Stance passive ability: +3 Accuracy per Stamina (Tarth)

Added Preparations passive ability: +1 to the Army’s starting Stamina (Commander tree)

Added Rally ability: Allies gain +2 Stamina (Commander tree)

Added Rally II passive ability: Allies gain 3 Stamina instead of 2 when using Rally (Commander tree)

Added Rally III passive ability: Allies gain 4 Stamina instead of 3 when using Rally (Commander tree)

Added Readiness passive ability: +1 Starting Stamina (Mancer)

Added Recoil passive ability: +1 Stamina each time the unit is struck in battle (Defender tree)

Crushing Blow now is an attack with +1 per Stamina instead of double attack that costs a turn

Added Arcane Bond ability: Consume mana to gain 3 Stamina (Amarian)

Added Amarian Legacy passive ability: Soul Spark does double damage (Amarian)

Added Pommel ability: Melee attack that reduces the victims Stamina to 0 if it hits (Ironeer)

Added Second Wind ability: Heal 14 hit points for 7 Stamina (Mancer)

Added Take Aim ability: +4 Stamina (Assassin tree)

Added the Trident Strike ability: Launch 3 attacks for 7 Stamina (Krax)

Added Zephyr Boots: +1 Stamina Growth (item)

Added Necklace of Teeth: +1 Starting Stamina (item)

Added the Forge Guard unit, replaces the Quendar Defender unit, and starts with the Furnaceborn ability

Added the Nightwatch unit, replace the Tarth Defender unit, and starts with the Naja Dance ability

Balance

Clan of the Crow gain the Predator Stance ability

Knights of Calder gain the Readiness ability

Marrowguard gain the Dogpile ability

Redwatch gain the Ambush ability

Disciples gain the Arcane Bond ability

Carrion Men gain the Trip and Dogpile abilities and lose Rage

Tower Mage gain the Amarian Legacy ability

Platinum Knights gain the Second Wind ability

Witchriders gain the Lament and Macabre Pleasure abilities

Blades of Athica gain the Halt ability

Drolgard gain the Pommel ability

Karavox’s Honorguard gain the Exhaust ability

Fire Eater replaces the Quendar Scout unit, and starts with the Fire Eater ability

Cenotaph gain the Immune to Poison ability

Spikes of Krax gain the Trident Strike ability

Reduced level requirements for armor proficiency for commanders and assassins

Fervor ability now costs Stamina instead of “charges”

Amhah gains the Battle Fury and Lament abilities

Ashwake, Clambercoil, Sarog, Storm and Fell Dragons gain the Readiness ability

Assassin Demon gains Assassin’s Strike ability and lose Immune to Counterattack

Banshees gain the Hopelessness ability

Coal Golems gain the Recoil ability

Coastal Skath and Silt Skath gain the Momentum ability

Earth Elementals gain the Recoil ability

Fire Elementals gain the Furnaceborn ability

Hergon and Hergon Sow gain the Exhaust ability

Timber, Ice and Shadow Wargs gain the Readiness ability

Ignys, Naja and Ophidian gain the Naja Dance ability

Lurk gain the Second Wind and Macabre Pleasure abilities and lose Cloak of Fear

Obsidian Legion gain the Recoil ability

Plaguestalkers and Stalkers gain the Predator Stance ability

River Slags and Slags gain the Outrage ability

Sand Golems gain the Exhaust ability

Cindercorpses gain the Vulnerable to Cold ability

Torax gains the Recoil and Invincible abilities

Umberdroths gain the Outrage ability and lose Overpower

Vetrar gains the Momentum ability

War Boars and Wilding Riders gain the Battle Fury ability

Killing Titans (including the Titan of Gold) now gives better loot

Fixes

Performance optimizations

Fixed crashes

Fixed the bug where Tactical AI Units could stand on the same tile as one another

Fixed a DX error that can show up if the computer goes to sleep (if you leave the game on while watching the Bachelor… okay that may just be me)

Optimization for billboard sorting to prevent unnecessary sorts if the camera has not moved

Fixed some usage of uninitialized variables to prevent crashes and/or unpredictable behavior

Fixed bug where SetTransform and GetTransform trickled through switch to other types of transforms (this is probably how Megatron was created)

When looping through your monitors, game will not complain about ones that do not meet the minimum resolution, unless they all don't meet it.

Fixed a crash in UpdateZOCSource() if passed in tile X/Y is out of bounds

Fixed a bug where 3d sfx would play even if sfx volume was set to 0

Addressed some situations with goodie hut guardians that caused invisible units

Added code so that auto-patrol units do not accidentally army-up with goodie hut guardians

Fix for invisible units (most commonly shown in enemies that became armies under the FOW)

Fixed issue where non-infocard tooltips would not obey the tooltip delay set by the user in the options wnd

Fixed an issue where once the highlight gfx in a text entry field were told to show up, a single mouse-click did not make it go away, such as it does in Windows.

Custom list box and entry usability tweaks

When clicking a listbox entry, listbox would first unselect the entry that is currently selected, and then select the new entry (if it was selectable). Now, it only unselects the first entry if the second one can be selected.

Added engine support for UI scaling

Fixed a logic issue in a debug message, where it would always say "Trying to access [buttonName] as a button but it's not a button", even if the control in question was actually a button

Commented out some output that was spamming the output Wnd of VS and/or the debug.err file

Improved performance of edge scrolling

Added code to run game in "high performance" mode (meaning do not use embedded gfx chip)

Fixed a bug in DxAtlasWin that prevented force regen of screens so screens could get garbed in some situations

Fixed a bug that caused particle effects not to play, under certain circumstances

Fixed an issue where the AI will use their ranged action before waiting for their move to end

Fixed bug where formatted description of spell entries in the spellbook would not show a caster-specific value when viewed from tactical battle.

Fixed bug in the context area of the spellbook in tactical, where spell damage was added to the listbox with an entry that was too wide

Fixed some typos

Fixed an issue keeping the AI from building some Sion’s

Fixed an issue blocking the AI from using some Trog units

Fixed the Thunderstrike ability on the Star Forged Greaves

Fixed the Mysterious Pit to not spawn 3 stacks of Naja

Fixed the Choking Breath so that it doesn’t do fire damage if resisted

Fixed the Mantle of Oceans to correctly lower mana costs by 40%

Fixed a bug where you couldn't build world achievement's in a 2nd game if they had built built in the 1st game and you hadn't restarted

Fixed an issue where enchantment count was displayed incorrectly in the ledger.

Fixed a crash from a missing string

Fixed an issue with the Dogpile ability

Fixed an issue with the Macabre Pleasure ability

Fixed an issue keeping the Fire Eater ability from correctly applying its bonus

Fixed an issue keeping the Rally upgrades from applying their bonuses

Fixed an issue keeping the Amarian Legacy ability from applying its bonus

Fixed an issue keeping Assassin's Strike from doing it's full damage

Fixed an issue where the AI was ignoring cooldown times (ie: Darkling Shamans would summon darklings each turn)

Fixed an issue keeping some unit design traits from correctly unlocking their abilities (Trident Strike, Trip, etc).

Fixed an issue causing the Dagger of the Leech (and other items using the Reap effect) to give the leeched hit points to their opponent instead of the wielder.

Fixed an issue causing the Imprison scroll to require stamina

Fixed the description on Rain of Arrows to the actual effect

Fixed an issue keeping Morian from showing up on the Asaq map

Fixed an issue causing Momentum and Recoil to give the stamina to the enemy instead of the user

More crash fixes

Fixed an issue causing some abilities to show up in the action list twice (once as an ability and once as a spell)

Fixed the Slow effect to correctly lower initiative by 5 (it was lowering by 3 instead)

UI

Added a blue bar under the hit point bar in tactical combat which shows how much Stamina a unit has

Lots of tooltip and help info on Stamina, entry about it in the Hiergamenon, it shows in the stat display in the battle queue in tactical, etc