Version 42555 Release Notes for Sins of a Dark Age February 4 2015

New QuickCast

Keybindings in the Cloud

Experimental Advanced Casting

Unit Targeting Modes

Modes Normal : This is the standard (classic) targeting mode, while active, your cursor doesn't filter out any unit types, and considers everything as potential valid targets.



: This is the standard (classic) targeting mode, while active, your cursor doesn't filter out any unit types, and considers everything as potential valid targets.

Target Non-Hero Units Only : When this targeting mode is active, your cursor will ignore any Heroes or Structures as potentially valid targets.



: When this targeting mode is active, your cursor will ignore any Heroes or Structures as potentially valid targets.

Target Heroes Only : When this targeting mode is active your cursor will only consider Heroes as potentially valid targets and will ignore structures and all other types of units.

: When this targeting mode is active your cursor will only consider Heroes as potentially valid targets and will ignore structures and all other types of units. Toggle Commands These commands will toggle the targeting modes on/off (making the targeting mode you pick, linger as long as you have it toggled on).





'Toggle Target Heroes Only' Command: Default Binding [Ctrl + H]





'Toggle Target Non-Hero Units Only' Command: Default Binding [Ctrl + G]

Hold Down Commands These commands are only active when you're holding down the bound key, and they override the current "active mode". The only exception to this is if you hold down the key for the currently active mode, it will revert the mode back to "Normal" while the key is held down.





'Target Heroes Only' Command: Default Binding [H]





'Target Non-Hero Units Only' Command: Default Binding [G]

New Vexie

No longer grants Vexie a stacking bonus to Mana Regeneration



Now if an ability affects at least one enemy unit, it refunds 30% of its Mana cost and grants Vexie 10% Movement Speed for 2 seconds

Mana cost reduced to 55 from 60/70/80/90



Cooldown increased to 12/11/10/9 from 8



Cast range reduced to 5.8 from 6.7



Friendly basic attack damage bonus changed to 12/20/28/36 from 18/24/30/36



Duration on allies reduced to 4 from 6



No longer grants movement speed to allies



No longer reduces enemy basic attack damage



Slow on enemies increased to 35/40/45/50% from 9/11/13/15%



Duration on enemies reduced to 2.5 from 6

Mana cost changed to 75/80/85/90 from 65/75/85/95



cast range reduced to 5.8 from 6.7



Shield reduced to 90/150/210/270 (+0.7 SP) from 140/200/260/320 (+0.5 SP)



Shield duration reduced to 4 from 5



When cast on enemies now deals 70/120/170/220 (+0.5 SP) Magic Damage over its duration in addition to the existing Silence.

No longer a unit targeted ability that healed allies for 80/145/210/275 (+0.8 SP) or dealt 80/145/210/275 (+0.8 SP) Magic Damage to enemies.



Vexie now fires a bolt of magic in the target direction, dealing 60/105/150/195 (+0.6 SP) Magic Damage to enemy units and marking them for 3 seconds as it passes through. Allied heroes who attack marked units will deal 20/35/50/65 (+0.2 SP) bonus Magic Damage and heal for 25/40/55/70 (+0.2 SP), consuming the mark in the process.



Mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85 from 80/95/110/125



Cooldown reduced to 8 from 9

Range reduced to 4.75 from 5.0



Radius reduced to 3 from 3.25



There is now a short delay between casting and when units within the target area will be lifted.



Max total Magic Damage increased to 160/230/300 (+0.6 SP) from 150/200/250 (+0.5 SP)



Cooldown increased to 180/160/140 from 120

Heroes

Some inter-Hero vocal interactions have been added for Drengar, Ermuk, Beroth, Grugg, Khagas, Lassidar, Lithoron, Slag, Torrace, Vallamere, Slivus and Ziri. More to come!

Fixed a bug that was causing the scalar damage component of Slivus's Tailwhip to deal far less damage than intended.



Adjusted Slivus's Tail Whip damage per missing % of target health reduced to 2.5/5.0/7.5 from 5.25/6.375/7.5 (This seems like a reduction but as Tailwhip was bugged, its actually an increase from the previous update. Click this link for the details.)

Basic attack range reduced to 5.6 from 5.8



Leaf Burst range reduced to 5.6 from 5.8



Seeds of Renewal lifetime reduced to 10 from 20

Updated the tooltip for Ziri's Ultimate.



Added new dialog for Atasha, Grugg, Skalla, Bataar, Serewyn, and Xeros.

Glyphs

Duration reduced to 8 seconds from 10

Heal from killing empowered large monster reduced to 100 (+6.67 per level) from 200 (+10 per level)



Mana recovered from killing empowered large monster reduced to 60 (+4 per level) from 120 (+6 per level)



Updated Offering Glyph spawn visual effects.

Heal over time reduced to 60 (+10 per level) from 75 (+15 per level)



Greater Heal upgrade's heal over time reduced to 72 (+12 per level) from 90 (+18 per level)



Radius Pulse upgrade's push back radius reduced to 2.5 from 3.0



Radius Pulse upgrade's push back speed increased to 5.0 from 4.5

Quests

Fixed bug with Veric Plague quest where picking up dropped pelts wouldn't win the quest when the pick up amount was greater than the remaining pelts needed (i.e. the quest wouldn't be won until at least one more Veric was killed).



Gryphon quest now shows minimap markers for critter spawn locations.



All quest units can now be targeted by pings.

Hero Gear

Skinning Knife now restores 8 Health and 8 Mana upon killing large neutral monsters and 2 Health and 2 Mana upon killing small neutral monsters instead of 10 (+1 per level) Health and 5 (+.5 per level) Mana upon killing any neutral monster.

Units

Siege units will no longer disengage from a tower even if a nearby friendly Hero shouts for help.

HUD and Additional User Interface

Primary Ability, Inventory, Glyph and Quest keybindings have been added to the top of the keybindings screen.



Keybinding screen now has tooltips for all keybindings.



Keybinding list now starts unexpanded.



Reorganized some keybindings.



Scrollwheel now works on the keybinding screen.



Updated many fonts in preparation for multiple languages. Not all areas are complete yet.



Shop Undo button now has tooltips.



Fixed where Options->Interface was referring to neutral monsters as creeps.



Added a new Rewards Indicator at the end of the match.



Fixed the rendering bug for the CooldownOverlayRendering when you reversed the direction it "swiped" (emptied/filled itself).



Mousewheel scrolling behavior improved in numerous locations.



All quest units can now be targeted by pinging.

FrontEnd

Fixed "account not in channel" bug.



Added framework for language selection. The actual translations are not yet complete.

Performance Options and Optimizations

Shadows Quality can now be controlled in Options->Graphics.



Water Quality can new be controlled in Options->Graphics.



Improved Particle Emitter Quality settings. (Better looking for cheaper cost).



Various server optimizations.

Misc

Fixed a bug where alt-tabbing from exclusive full screen, then alt-tabbing back will result in the cursor no longer being clipped within the main monitor.



Fixed bug when switching from exclusive fullscreen device to a virtual fullscreen device the virtual fullscreen window would be wrong size (not the desktop size!)



Fixed various matchmaking issues.



Tons of string clean up and clarification.



Can no longer send Fellowship Bundles to friends that have already logged into the game.



Eliminated various serious exploits including farming of Virtue, experience and reward points.

Warning 1

Players who find serious exploits and do not report them are at risk of being permanently banned and having their inventory wiped. By serious exploits we mean things like (but not limited to) reliably and deliberately crashing the game for a player's benefit or amusement, or farming post-game rewards in an automated, accelerated, unintended or artificial manner.



If you find an exploit please let us know at support@ironcladgames.com

Warning 2

We needed to do some server optimizations so we had to move a lot of information around. Unfortunately, everyone's client-side game history and hero kits are being wiped. Your game history is still stored (for matchmaking calculations etc) but Profile->Games will be empty until you play more games. This is a one time operation.

Warning 3

Keybindings will be reset. This should be the last time as keybindings are now stored in the cloud. After this update you should never have to set them back up again and they will automatically be applied no matter where you log in from.

Added an alternate form of QuickCast that is only activated on release of the button or key. This allows players to see the range indicator and to cancel by right clicking or hitting escape. This option can be toggled in Options->Gameplay.Keybindings are now stored in the cloud. After this update you should never have to set them back up again and they will automatically be applied no matter where you log in from.All Glyphs, Active Shop Items and Active Hero Abilities can now have a custom casting option. Choose between Normal, QuickCast and SmartCast. Further improvements are planned but we wanted to start collecting feedback on it early.Implemented "Target Heroes Only" and "Target Non-Hero units Only" unit targeting modes to control what type of units make it through the "under cursor" check.