MORTAL EMPIRES UPDATE

The first update for Total War: WARHAMMER II hits via Steam auto-update on 26/10/2017 and contains a host of changes, tweaks, improvements and fixes (please see below for details). Mortal Empires, the new grand-scale campaign encompassing the landmasses of the Old World and the New World, will become available as the update goes live. Download it for free here!

Mortal Empires requires ownership of both Total War: WARHAMMER and Total War: WARHAMMER II to play. Once downloaded, Mortal Empires will appear as a new playable campaign in the WARHAMMER II campaigns menu, alongside the Eye of the Vortex campaign.

Including all the core Races and Legendary Lords from both games, Mortal Empires also allows you to begin a campaign as any DLC or Free-LC Legendary Lord from the first game. Going forward, it will also encompass any DLC/FLC Legendary Lords that are subsequently released for WARHAMMER II.

The one exception is the Norsca Race Pack (Wulfrik the Wanderer and Throgg the Troll King). These have yet to be implemented and will become playable in a future update. The same update will also implement the 30th Anniversary Regiments of Renown, Old World Legendary Lords skill adjustments, and other changes and additions which first appeared in the Foundation Update for Total War: WARHAMMER 1.

INSTALL SIZES AND MORE

Due to the unique way Steam patches games – by backing up your existing installation, applying the freshly-downloaded data to the duplicate, then deleting the old installation, if you ever wondered – you may need to free up some hard drive space to install Mortal Empires. Here’s what you can expect:

Mortal Empires patch download size: ~4.5 GB Mortal Empires Campaign download size: ~713 MB WARHAMMER II pre-patch installation footprint: ~40.5 GB Total disk space required during update installation (includes 44.5 GB temporary files for installation process): ~85 GB WARHAMMER II post-patch installation footprint: ~42.5 GB

If you’ve limited space on your primary hard drive (for example, if you’re using an SSD with limited space as your primary drive, with a secondary mechanical drive for mass storage), a useful workaround we’ve found is to setup a secondary Steam Library folder on your storage drive. Provided you have enough space on your primary drive for the final installation (see ‘post-patch installation footprint’ above), Steam will automagically utilise any other registered Steam folders on other drives as a download location for the install process.

To set up a secondary Library folder in Steam, Click Steam->Settings->Downloads and click the Steam Library Folders button. From here you can create extra Library folders on any of your drives.

BLOOD & GORE

This update also introduces the Blood for the Blood God Effects Pack to Total War: WARHAMMER II. This is free for players who bought the pack for Warhammer 1. Players who own WARHAMMER II but not the first game, and therefore not the first Blood for the Blood God Pack, will need to purchase the pack to access its grisly effects.

Blood and gore effects can be toggled on and off in the advanced graphics options menu. Hail Hydra!

UPDATE NOTES (highlights)

This update comes with a number of tweaks, improvements, changes and fixes to many areas of the game, along with our first major balance-pass for the WARHAMMER II core races. We’ve also made some tweaks to the Free For All MP mode, added a host of new FFA maps, and introduced new buildings and dilemmas for the different Races.

Read on for the full details, but first off, here are some headline fixes we feel may be relevant to players’ interests:

FIXED cases of units dropping attack orders (and therefore not pursuing fleeing enemies)

FIXED units in guard mode stopping attacking if current melee enemy Rampages

CHANGED Morathi and Malekith’s skills to spread the owning faction’s corruption, instead of starting faction’s corruption. This means that if Mortahi is confederated to Malekith’s faction, she will not continue to spread Chaos corruption

FIXED multiple region borders that were preventing factions from being able to trade with one another, especially if their capital was on an island

FIXED Screaming Bell being incorrectly marked as a small unit. It is now correctly considered a large unit

CHANGED the difficulty of the final battle when initiated by the AI (by completing their fifth ritual). The battle will now feature an additional army led by the race’s other Legendary Lord

CHANGED Black Arks from being part of the army upkeep penalty. Black Arks now do not factor in to the Supply Lines modifier

FIXED Blessed Units not receiving the effects of certain Technologies, Skills or Astromancy stance

UPDATE NOTES (in full)

GENERAL

RELEASED Mortal Empires

RELEASED Blood for the Blood God for WARHAMMER II

FIXED multiple crashes

FIXED multiple MPC desyncs

FIXED multiple localisation issues in multiple languages

CAMPAIGN GAMEPLAY

ADDED Siege defence tower projectile upgrades for WH2 factions to defence buildings

ADDED additional Dilemmas that will trigger when your Dark Elf or Skaven Lords are very high on loyalty. Also, added over a dozen magic items that are specific rewards for Dark Elf and Skaven high-loyalty dilemmas

ADDED functionality for tutorial notifications to respond to Esc key presses to dismiss/acknowledge them

ADDED multiple new buildings: Empire Castle Reikguard (Altdorf) Imperial Palace (Altdorf) Imperial Academy Roads and Toll Gates Greenskins Big Fort (Black Crag) Dork’s Rock (Black Crag) Chaos Troll Lair (Erengrad) Raiding Caches Vampire Counts Major reshuffle of recruitment buildings Terrorgheists and Wraith units have separate recruitment buildings Awakened Battlefield Blood Keep (Nuln) Fortress of Merovech (Mousillon) Drakenhof Court (Drakenhof) Dwarfs Karaz-a-Karak Airport (Karaz-a-Karak) Bugman’s Brewery (Karag Dromar) Grand Underway Junction (Karak Eight Peaks) Wood Elves Elven Court Elven Healer Ability to fully occupy Lothern Ability to construct a variant of the Everqueen’s Court in Gaean Vale Office-related buildings are now restricted to a specific Athel Loren settlement Most races Buildings to exploit the new resources Merged resource-based unit upgrade effects into resource exploitation buildings



CHANGED Morathi and Malekith’s skills to spread the owning faction’s corruption, instead of starting faction’s corruption. This means that if Morathi is confederated to Malekiths faction, she will not continue to spread Chaos corruption

FIXED multiple region borders that were preventing factions from being able to trade with one another, especially if their capital was on an island

CHANGED the difficulty of the final battle when initiated by the AI (by them completing their fifth ritual). The battle will now feature an additional army led by the race’s other Legendary Lord

CHANGED Black Arks from being part of the army upkeep penalty. Black Arks now do not factor in to the Supply Lines modifier

FIXED Blessed Units not receiving the effects of certain Technologies, Skills or Astromancy stance

IMPROVED – breaking treaties will now have a stronger immediate effect on affected relationships

IMPROVED campaign AI intervention army decision-making for which sites to siege. Now more likely choose the non-primary Ritual locations if closer to them

IMPROVED campaign AI logic for building up existing forces instead of creating new ones

IMPROVED campaign AI occupation decisions for main targets when temporarily distracted by other objectives

IMPROVED ambush help page information

IMPROVED behaviour of advice when a dilemma is triggered

IMPROVED calculated strength of Lords versus lower quality infantry. They were too strong before

CHANGED “Piracy” event to not trigger if player owns Sartosa region

CHANGED diplomacy to allow peace to be made between races in the Vortex ritual race after the campaign has been won

CHANGED max number of traits a character can hold to 30 from 20

FIXED a bug where entering a battle with heavily damaged units often resulted these units getting wiped out after autoresolving the battle even if they didn’t suffer any losses during the battle

FIXED a case where Rebel armies would assault a settlement repeatedly rather than making the decision to raze it

FIXED a soft lock which would occur when the player reached 10 turns left of the final ritual at the same time as another faction triggers the final battle

FIXED agent success chance modifiers sometimes being applied to own heroes as well as enemy

FIXED an issue in the diplomacy AI where the player’s treachery rating wasn’t considered correctly and this made some parts of diplomacy exploitable

FIXED an issue with the AI proposing peace right after entering a war with the player

FIXED cases where embedded Heroes would be selected at the end of the player’s turn and then immediately unselected

FIXED cases where followers would disappear after unequipping them from a character

FIXED cases where unique items could be awarded via random events (e.g. Encounters at Sea)

FIXED Cave In Achievement not unlocking when player completed requirement in game

FIXED Legacy of the Great Necromancer Achievement not unlocking when player completed requirement in game

FIXED Encounters at Sea sometimes spawning in unreachable locations

FIXED Lords recruited from Black Arks after achieving a Vortex Campaign victory not gaining any additional levels that should be granted

FIXED Mazdamundi AI skill selection to prefer his unique skills more

FIXED missing effects on some ancillaries/followers

FIXED missions being issued while the issuing character was not available

FIXED pre-battle camera scene not working correctly when the player was reinforcing an AI ally with their Garrison force

FIXED public order and tax exemption on fortress gate regions resetting when the region changes owner

FIXED Skaven tech to increase new Lords Loyalty not affecting Lords already in the selection pool

FIXED some cases where the AI would repeatedly ask for almost the same deal

FIXED targeting intervention forces for missions requesting the player to make an alliance

FIXED units garrisoned in a settlement that is affected by Plague not receiving the Plague attrition

BATTLE GAMEPLAY

FIXED cases of units dropping attack orders (and therefore not pursuing fleeing enemies)

FIXED units in guard mode stopping attacking if current melee enemy Rampages

FIXED Screaming Bell being incorrectly marked as a small unit. It is now correctly considered a large unit

ADDED 7 new Free-for-All maps

IMPROVED Dragon breath targeting versus dispersed multiple entity units

IMPROVED battle AI usage of spells in many cases

IMPROVED flying unit ability to chase down routing units

IMPROVED the playable area and deployment zone sizes on Troll Country FFA

CHANGED Army losses morale penalty to not trigger in FFA battles. This change keeps players involved in the match for longer.

CHANGED Faction banner colour for enemy in Dwarf Gouger quest battle to improve readability

CHANGED Liber Bubonicus quest battle time limit. Added 3 minutes.

CHANGED unit spawning (e.g. Verminitide) behaviour. Stops cases where the spawned unit would swarm single entities and gain excessive attack frequency

FIXED a case of attacking Siege AI not properly attacking when there is no siege equipment

FIXED a corner wall piece in a Dark Elf city where siege towers would fail to dock

FIXED a scripting issue which would cause the AI enemy army in the Rod of Corruption quest battle to not correctly respond to artillery fire

FIXED a staircase in Lothern Siege battle map which would cause chariots to spontaneously combust

FIXED an exploit where you could cast some spells repeatedly for free if giving a move order during spell wind up. YUKANNADUZAT!

FIXED battle difficulty not applying correctly when chosen on campaign select screen

FIXED being able to bypass some Army Ability restrictions by casting on the Unit Cards

FIXED Bombardment spells not being counted correctly towards Free-for-All player scores

FIXED Bombardment spells sometimes not exploding on collision with certain terrain

FIXED defending siege AI reinforcements sometimes not being handled correctly by AI

FIXED enemy units sometimes rallying in intro battle when they shouldn’t

FIXED CA Cinematics Team’s obsession with slaying High Elves. May require further testing…

FIXED magic missile spells from bound items casting exploit if owner was a non-wizard Lord

FIXED Siege tower fire rates being too fast

FIXED some bound Vortex spells being able to be casted on walls when they should be restricted from doing so

FIXED some cases where defender reinforcements would not arrive in siege and minor settlement battles

FIXED some missing collision on obstacles in a few battle maps

FIXED rebirth effects not triggering properly if unit was routing

UI

FIXED hidden Skaven armies being visible by toggling on the Character names UI option

CHANGED UI for swapping between lores if your caster had multiple. This is to avoid overlap with army abilities.

ADDED spacing to Legendary Lord select images to denote races differentiation better

CHANGED Enemy Army colour in MP battles to be red rather than pink

CHANGED predicted public order overlay to work off only 3 colours which shows if public order is going up, down or remaining neutral

FIXED “Enemy siege lifted” event in event list missing icon

FIXED 3D banners sometimes being visible for garrisoned armies when in zoomed out strategic view

FIXED a case where MPC players had access to interventions when it was not their turn

FIXED a UI issue where only the Commandment button would be visible after closing the Rites panel if the Settlement panel was previously selected

FIXED adding skill points in some cases resetting the scroll back to the left

FIXED assembly kit downloaded map not being auto-selected in MP lobby

FIXED ‘can trade’ icon in Known Factions list displaying incorrectly if you could trade but currently were not with a faction

FIXED dilemmas sometimes appearing again after the player had already responded

FIXED double clicking a ruin in strategic view revealing Skaven presence by opening the faction diplomacy screen

FIXED error message that would show when trying to join a Multiplayer Campaign lobby for a save game you did not previously take part in

FIXED Event message not being generated when losing a Lord or Army during end turn

FIXED exiting out of diplomacy after offer an is rejected putting camera back in overview instead of where it was previously

FIXED incorrect reason given for not being able to perform rites when the player’s capital was not available

FIXED missing image in the Spells Browser for Skink Priest Avatar

FIXED Murderous Prowess UI not flashing for duration of ability active state

FIXED pressing the Home key during the post-battle camera scene allowing the camera to navigate away

FIXED Quick-save UI button being disabled in the pre-battle screen when the player is reinforcing an allied AI army attacking an enemy settlement

FIXED resource UI bar appearing during end turn after retreating from a battle

FIXED Settlement pre-battle options refresh for attacking player if another player is reinforcing them and selects a pre-battle option first

FIXED Softlock if opened rites panel whilst on the call-to-arms screen

FIXED the displayed upkeep value for units sometimes displaying incorrectly once recruited

FIXED Unit banners for flying units sometimes being missing when entering the tactical map mode in underground battles

VISUAL/GRAPHICS

ADDED the ability to disable post-process sharpen in Advanced graphics options

FIXED video playback having issues with High refresh rate monitors which would make the game unplayable when running at very high refresh rates (144+ Hz)

ADDED default graphics quality preset detection for AMD VEGA GPUs

CHANGED level of post-process sharpen effect to be weaker

CHANGED WH1 race ship models to all use larger variants like WH2 races

FIXED visual glitch that would occur with water if resolution scale was set below 100%

FIXED visual noise glitch in SSAO

FIXED cases of Lords in pre-battle scenes being too large and colliding with each other

FIXED multiple minor animation glitches

FIXED Spearmen unit in Tor Elithis Rogue army T-Posing

FIXED White Lions of Chrace models having black spots on fur when camera was further away from them

AUDIO

ADDED some new UI Sound Effects

FIXED Audio being muted during end turn sequence camera pans

FIXED Campaign music sometimes not blending between tracks correctly

FIXED Music slider not affecting campaign music

FIXED occurrences of campaign map audio not updating correctly when corruption took hold of a region

BATTLE BALANCING

General Balancing changes

Rampage tweaks (kicks in 5% of HP lost later, reduced duration by 10s, tweaked pause between repeated rampages)

Tweaks to rear attack melee defence modifier

Reduced MP cost of melee lords on foot and horses by -50

Skaven

Warpfire Throwers -50 cost, +5% reload speed

Night Runners (Slings) +1 dmg

Night Runners: reduction in accuracy

Night Runners (all) -5 hp, -5% physical resistance, -4 melee defence

Gutter Runner Slingers +1 dmg

Gutter Runners Slingers (Poison) +1 dmg

Gutter Runners: reduced projectile accuracy

Gutter Runners (Poison): reduced projectile accuracy

Gutter Runners (all) -5% physical resistance, -3 hp, -4 melee defence

Death Globe Bombardier +2 dmg, +4 AP dmg, +1 explosion dmg, +2 explosion AP dmg

Hellpit Abomination +5 BvsL, +3 MA, tweaks to attack animation preference

Warp Lightning Cannon – accuracy (minor tweak)

Doomwheel -100 HP

Plague Priest on Plague Furnace: +100 mp cost

Skavenslaves: more salt added to diet; now 25% more delicious

Lizardmen

Terradon with Fireleech Bolas +10 range, projectile tweaks

Horned Ones -100 cost, -5 armour, +14 HP

Kroq-Gar – Horned One: +5% HP

Slann Mage Priests and Mazdamundi on Palanquin +25% missile resistance

High Elves

Swordmasters -2 MD

Phoenix Guard -4 MA, -1 Speed, tweaks that will slightly reduce damage output

Silver Helms (all) +2 CB, +2 dmg

Tiranoc Chariot -2 missile dmg, +2 missile ap dmg

Dragon Princes -2 HP

Sun Dragon +4 MD, more breath attack damage

Moon Dragon +2 MD, slightly more breath attack damage

Black Dragon +2 MD

Lothern Sea Guards (all) +2 MA

Flamespyre Phoenix +2 MA, +3 leadership, +4 CB

Frostheart Phoenix +2 CB

Great Eagle +5 ground speed

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower -25 hp on artillery piece

Tyrion: +45% flame resistance

Tyrion – Malhandrir: increased mass to match heavier hero warhorses

Tyrion: +10 weapon strength, percentage of ap damage increased to 45%.

Tyrion: Added Foe Seeker ability for multiplayer

Dark Elves

Reaper Bolt Thrower -25 hp on artillery piece

Dark Riders Xbow +50 cost

Black Ark Corsairs Handbow -2 ammo, projectile tweaks (amounts to a minor nerf)

Black Ark Corsairs (all) -1 HP

Cold One Knights -0.1 attack interval

Executioners -2 MD, -10 armour

Black Guard -10 armour, tweaks that will slightly reduce dmg output

War Hydra +5 CB

Death Hag – Blood Cauldron: +100 MP cost

Special Abilities and Spells: