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Dev Diary #33 - Mystic Update Patch Notes



Dear Godir,

We are happy to share the list of changes and fixes that are coming in the Mystic Update. It was excessively long, so the whole list of changes is available on our Forum!




New Feature: Unknown Realms

When starting a new Game you can now choose to venture to an Unknown Realm. At the start of the game all Realm Traits are hidden and are gradually revealed throughout the session. Unknown Realm Traits can also be added to Custom Realms, these traits are automatically replaced with a random trait in-game and hidden until revealed.
  • Unknown Realms can be started from the Realm Selection
    • Specific Trait Slots can be filled with Unknown Realms manually
  • Unknown Realms/Traits are picked based on the chosen Complexity
  • Unknown Traits are revealed as the Game progresses
New Feature: Combat Takeover
With the Control AI Allies option enabled, a Player will automatically take over the units of any AI allied forces during Manual Combat that match the chosen settings. By default any manual combat including Vassals will give control to the Player.

The setting can be found in Advanced Setup > Combat > Control AI Allies
  • Default is Vassals Only
  • Players Control the AI Units in separate Turns, so First Yourself, then AI Allies, then the opposing side.
  • Spells from AI Allies can be cast if the Units belong to another Ruler
  • Spells from AI Allies cannot be case if they belong to a Vassal or Independent Side


When Multiplayer Takeover is enabled in multiplayer games, players are able to step in and take over AI controlled units in manual combat against other players. If multiple players agree to take over, the system picks one at random, prioritizing the players who have the worst diplomatic relationship with the human who’s already in the combat.
  • The setting can be found in Advanced Setup > Combat > Multiplayer AI Takeover
  • Default is On
  • This settings forces Observe Manual Combat to Always
  • Spells from AI Allies can be cast if the Units belong to another Ruler
  • Spells from AI Allies cannot be case if they belong to a Vassal or Independent Side


Culture Rework: Mystic
The Mystic Culture has been reworked and now supports three different Mystic Schools that specialize in particular aspects of spellcasting. The School of Attunement is the default Mystic subculture and is closest in function to the pre-existing Mystic Culture. The School of Potential specializes in experimentation and heavily favors spellcasting over conventional combat, while the School of Summoning instead relies on immensely powerful Astral Origin units to deliver them victory.

Astral Echoes
  • Changed from a Token to an resource Income
  • Astral Echoes are gained through pickups as before, but are also gained by completing research.
  • Astral Echoes are available to Mystic - School of Attunement and Mystic - School of Summoning, both schools use this resource in unique ways.


School of Attunement
  • World Map Gameplay “Echo Casting” - Use Astral Echoes to supplement casting points, letting you cast spells you lack the points for in tactical combat, and rush strategic spells as you would city production.
  • Combat Gameplay “Starblades” - Now grants damage based on the affinity of the triggering spell.
    • Order - Radiant
    • Chaos - Fire
    • Astral - Lightning
    • Materium - Physical
    • Nature - Blight
    • Shadow - Frost
  • New Hero Skill - “Overcharge Cast”
    • Replaces Combat Casting
    • Expert Battle Magic Skill
    • Grant your spells Overcharged for 1 turn
  • Unit “Spellbreaker”
    • Attuned Cast - Changed from an Active Ability to a Passive
  • New World Map Spell “Astral Divination”
    • Replaces “Cosmic Ablation”
    • Create & reveal new Astral Echoes in provinces near your Domain.
  • City Structure “Altar of the All Seers” - Changed from +20 Mana/Knowledge income per Astral Echoes to +10 Astral Echo income


School of Potential
  • World Map Gameplay “Arcane Inspiration” - Spells gain a Potential when first cast. This potential can be exploited once the spell has been used enough, locking it away for 10 turns.
    • Potential of Efficiency - Gain +10 x Spell Tier Mana per turn.
    • Potential of Advancement - Gain +10 x Spell Tier Knowledge per turn.
    • Potential of Gilding - Gain +10 x Spell Tier Gold per turn.
    • Potential of Manipulation - Gain +3 x Spell Tier Imperium per turn.
    • Potential of Growth - Gain +15 x Spell Tier Food in all cities per turn.
    • Potential of Control - Gain +10 x Spell Tier Stability in all cities.
    • Potential of Channeling - Gain +10 x Spell Tier Casting Points per turn.
    • Potential of Divination - Gain +3 x Spell Tier vision in all cities.
  • Combat Gameplay “Arcane Weavers” - During Combat Spells are overcharged until cast the first time. When a spell is overcharged it gains a boost to its effectiveness based on its type:
    • Damage spells - +25% Damage
    • Healing spells - +25% Healing
    • Buff Spells - +2 Bolstered Resistance
    • Debuff Spells - +2 Sundered Resistance
    • Enchantment Spells - May cast +1 additional spell this turn.
    • Summon Spells - Gains +2 Strengthened
  • Combat Gameplay “Dissonance” - Units inflict Dissonance with their attacks.
    • Deal 4 Lightning damage per stack when an overcharged spell is cast
    • Stacks up to 5 Times
  • New Damage Type “Rift Damage” - Lightning & Frost Damage
  • Unit “Spellshield” - Replaced Stunning Flash with Flash Freeze, inflicting Frost Damage and Frozen instead of Stunned.
  • New Unit “Spellweaver” - Tier 3 Battlemage
    • Replaces the Spellbreaker
    • This unit specializes in supporting spellcasting, providing an overchannel, inflicting Dissonance and granting additional casting points over time in combat.
  • New Hero Skills:
    • Sage Arcanist
      • Replaces “Resistance Training”
      • Novice Battle Magic Skill
      • Gain +10 Casting Points in combat
    • Ciphers of Dissonance
      • Replaces “Attunement: Star Blades”
      • Novice Battle Magic Skill
      • Base Magic attacks inflict Dissonance
    • Overcharge Cast
      • Replaces “Combat Casting”
      • Expert Battle Magic Skill
      • Grant your spells Overcharged for 1 turn
  • New Spells
    • World Map Spell “Arcane Studies”
      • Replaces “Magic Shield”
      • Contributes +1 inspiration to a random spell’s Potential each turn.
      • -50% structure production income
    • Unit Enchantment “Ciphers of Dissonance”
      • Replaces “Attunement: Starblades”
      • Attacks gain 90% chance to inflict Dissonance
  • New City Structure “Academy of Potential”
    • Replaces Altar of the All Seers
    • Grants +1 Inspiration to a random spell each turn
    • Recruited Battle Mage and Support units gain +1 Rank.
  • New Special Province Improvement “Spell Arcanist Library”
    • Replaces “Mystic Abbey”
    • 10 knowledge income
    • +3 knowledge per adjacent Conduit or Research Post.
    • Counts as a Research Post


School of Summoning
  • World Map Gameplay “Echo Infusion” - Use Astral Echoes to empower your Magic Origin units. The cost of infusing a Magic Origin unit is based on the remaining XP required to rank up.
  • Combat Gameplay “Astral Resonance” - Magic Origin Units gain Attunement: Astral Resonance, healing and empowering them when spells are cast.
    • When a friendly spell is cast, gain:
      • +10 Temp HP healing
      • +1 Strengthened for 3 turns
    • Combat Gameplay “Astral Connection” - Friendly Magic Origin Units in combat gain +5 Morale.
    • Damage Type “Lightning Damage”
    • New Unit “Summoner” - Tier 3 Support
      • Replaces the Spellbreaker
      • This unit is an extremely powerful support unit for its Magic Origin allies and has the ability to summon more of them.
    • New Unit “Astral Ward”
      • A stationary pylon structure that connects to a target friendly unit takes damage in their stead.
    • New Hero Skills
      • Spirit Summoning
        • Replaces “Attunement: Star Blades”
        • Adept Support Skill
        • Summon an Elemental spirit on the target hex based on the last spell cast by owner
      • Conjure Astral Ward
        • Replaces “Combat Casting”
        • Adept Support Skill
        • Summon an Astral Ward adjacent to the target friendly unit
      • Master Summoner
        • Replaces “Resistance Training”
        • Master Support Skill
        • Magic Origin units in this hero’s army gain +10 HP, +10% Damage and -10% upkeep.
    • New Spells
      • World Map Spell “Astral Divination”
        • Replaces “Cosmic Ablation”
        • Create & reveal new Astral Echoes in provinces near your Domain.
      • Combat Spell “Conjure Astral Ward”
        • Replaces “Magic Shield”
        • Summon an Astral Ward adjacent to the target friendly unit
      • World Map Spell “Summon Summoning Rift”
        • Replaces “Attunement: Starblades”
        • Create a Summoning Rift at target hex. Summoning spells may always target the Rift or adjacent hexes.
    • City Structure “Altar of the All Seers” - Changed from +20 Mana/Knowledge income per 5 Astral Echoes to +10 Astral Echo income
    • New Special Province Improvement “Astral Manalith”
      • Replaces “Mystic Abby”
      • +10 Mana Income
      • +5 Mana per adjacent Conduit or Research Post
      • Counts as Conduit


Improvements: Unit Viability
We’ve done a review of Unit pacing and Culture Presence throughout the game and made several changes to improve Unit Viability and Culture Relevance. In its current iteration, there exists a pretty rigid tier system, which results in higher tier versions of a unit role always outclassing those of a lower tier. The changes we made aim to let Tier 1-2 (and to a slightly lesser extent T3) units be viable options for their roles in the mid/late game with the right investment.

  • Unit Recruitment is now tied to City Tier Structures.
    • Town Hall Tier 2 unlocks Tier 2 Units
    • Town Hall Tier 3 unlocks Tier 3 Units
    • Town Hall Tier 4 unlocks Tier 4/5 Units
  • Unit Summoning is now tied to Wizard Tower Structures
    • Wizard’s Tower Level One:
      • Now unlocks the ability to cast spells that summon Tier 2 units on the World Map
      • Increased Costs from 200 Production, 100 Gold and 100 Mana to 300/150/150
      • Can now be boosted by having 5 population
    • Wizard’s Tower Level Two:
      • Now unlocks the ability to cast spells that summon Tier 3 units on the World Map
      • Now grants Tier 1 Magic Origin Units +1 Rank
      • Increased Costs from 300 Production, 200 Gold, 200 Mana to 400/250/250
      • Can now be boosted by having 10 population
    • Wizard’s Tower Apex:
      • Now unlocks the ability to cast spells that summon Tier 4 and 5 units on the World Map
      • Now grants Tier 1 & Tier 2 Magic Origin Units +1 Rank
      • Increased Costs from 400 Production, 300 Gold, 300 Mana to 550/400/400
      • Can now be boosted by having 16 population
  • Unit Ranks have been reworked for all units. Units now obtain stats that make them competitive against units of higher tier as they gain ranks. At Elite and Legend rank units gain a stat boost that makes them equivalent to a unit that is a tier higher.
    • Soldier
      • +10 HP
    • Veteran
      • +10 HP
    • Elite
      • +10 HP
      • +10% Damage
      • +1 Armor
      • +1 Resist
    • Champion
      • +10 HP
      • Role passive (EG +1 Retaliation for Polearm)
    • Legend
      • +10 HP
      • +10% Damage
      • +1 Armor
      • +1 Resist
    • Evolve
      • Now requires Legendary rank
      • Units now require less XP to reach Legendary rank
      • The rank of recruited/summoned evolving units is now capped at Champion. It is therefore no longer possible to instantly evolve a new Unit.
    • Secondary summons have a separate Rank resource which means they gain +5 HP per rank
      • Astral Ward
      • War Hound
      • Flow Serpent
      • Fleshling
      • Splitterling
    • City Draft structures now grant bonus ranks to low tier units, reinforcing their relevance in the midgame.
      • City Structure “Mages’ Guild” - No longer gives +1 Rank to Support units.
      • City Structure “Blacksmith” - Now gives +1 Rank to Tier 1 units.
      • City Structure “Armory” - Now gives +1 Rank to Tier 1 and Tier 2 units.
      • City Structure “Smiths’ Guild” - Now gives +2 Ranks to Tier 1 and Tier 2 units.
    • Reviewed and Updated the Cost of recruiting units through the Rally of the Lieges
      • Tier II - Increased Cost from 75 to 80
      • Tier III - Increased Cost from 105 to 200
      • Tier IV - Increased Cost from 150 to 350
      • Tier V - Increased Cost from 225 to 600


New Content: Pantheon Update
Since launch we’ve expanded the Pantheon Tree with new thematic Items as well as an entirely separate tree of Item Forge Unlocks. With all this new content in mind we’ve done a review of the pace at which Pantheon Unlocks become available and the amount of XP/Points are awarded throughout a session.

Increased Pantheon XP Gained from performing the following Actions:
  • Empire Allied from 50 to 100
  • Empire Vassalized from 50 to 100
  • Conquered City from 25 to 50
  • Gained level of Allegiance from 10 to 15
  • Vassalized Free City from 50 to 100
  • Cleared Ancient Wonder from 25 to 50
  • Victory Bonus from 200 to 250


Added new actions that reward Pantheon XP:
  • Forged an Item
    • Tier I - 15 XP
    • Tier II - 20 XP
    • Tier III - 25 XP
    • Tier IV - 30 XP
  • Completed a Bounty - 100 XP


Added 4 Eldritch Themed Hero Loadouts:
  • Lasher’s Sword and Shield
  • Umbral Warrior’s Greataxe
  • Umbral Direcaster’s Staff
  • Demonslayer’s Bow


Improvements: Quality of Life
For each Major Update we don’t just work on new Content, Balance Changes or Fixes. We always try to dedicate some time to improvements that make the game easier or more accessible to use. With the Mystic Update we have a brand new set of Quality of Life Improvements for you to enjoy.

Item Forge Blueprints
Blueprints make forging items easier than ever. Any Item you’ve forged during the session is remembered and can be easily accessed to forge again as long as you have the required Materials and Binding Essence. Do Note that this only applies to your current session.

Ruler Filter
Developed a vast library of Custom & Pantheon Heroes and do you struggle to find who you want to play with next? Ruler Filters allow you to find exactly the Ruler you want by offering a wide variety of Filter Options, including DLC, Form, Culture, Godir Origin and Personality.

Animation Speed Settings
Animation Speeds Settings have been reworked. Now you can select a Default Animation Speed individually for the World Map and Combat ranging from Off to Very Fast. These settings can be found in Settings > Main > World/Combat Map

Interface Updates
We’ve improved the UI that’s shown when Summoning or Resurrection/Raising Units. When Resurrecting/Raising Unit it will now show the Name of the Unit that is used/targeted. We’ve also added Multi-Select to the Load Game Screen to easily clear out your completed sessions and a handy “Do not show again” eases the flow when dismissing capture or raised units.




  • Improved AI Movement Logic to reduce Split Stacking of Units
  • Unit Composition Generator now understands how enchantments like “boon of the wolf” work.
  • Unit Composition Generator now picks random subcultures for stacks instead of always using the default one.


Difficulty
  • Hard AI
    • Changed additional Unit Ranks from +1 Rank for All Units to +1 Rank for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Units
  • Very Hard AI
    • Changed additional Unit Ranks from +3 for All Units to:
      • +3 Ranks for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Units
      • +2 Ranks for Tier 3 Units
      • +1 Rank for Tier 4 and Tier 5 Units
  • Independent Unit xp gain over gametime has been generally reduced, particularly for higher tiers.
    • Tier 1 - Reduced the chance per turn to gain XP from 66% to 60%
    • Tier 2
      • Increased the chance per turn to gain XP from 50% to 60%
      • Reduced the gained XP from 2 to 1
    • Tier 3
      • Reduced the chance per turn to gain XP from 66% to 65%
      • Reduced the gained XP from 2 to 1
    • Tier 4
      • Reduced the chance per turn to gain XP from 55% to 50%
      • Reduced the gained XP from 3 to 2
    • Tier 5
      • Increased the chance per turn to gain XP from 50% to 60%
      • Reduced the gained XP from 4 to 2


Combat AI
  • AI is now less likely to cause collateral damage to its own units with AoE’s.
  • AI will no longer stop using free buff/debuff abilities when it knows it’s losing.
  • Lowered AI value of Bolstered/Sundered Resistance/Defense to prevent overvaluing.




2D Art
  • Added Combat Enchantment icons for Lightning Storm, Astral Storm, and Spell Jammer
  • Updated Killing Momentum unit property & hero skill icons


Environment Art
  • Added a new transition piece for Rivers in all Climes
  • Added a new transition piece for when Astral Void is spawned next to ocean/rivers.
  • Improved various Environment sets used by:
    • Fey-Blessed Fields/Endless Fields
    • Astral Deserts/Barren Oceans
    • Frozen Realm
    • Stormwreathed Isles/Hostile seas
    • Magic Victory Spells
  • Tweaked the camera settings on the Hidden Wellspring Combat Map


Visual Effects
  • Improved the Lost Mage Ability VFX
  • Improved Weapon Enchantment VFX




  • Reworked music player to pick more relevant tracks based on:
    • Good / Evil Alignment
    • Early / Mid / Late Game Phase
    • War / Peace
    • Realm Traits
  • Reworked the SFX system to better support Province Terraforming




  • Archers can now destroy obstacles that have a new Flimsy tag.
  • Flying Units that land when not moving (Most big dragons and racial units with Flying transformations) will now get wet when moving over water markers.
  • If all your units die in battle, but your ally wins the battle, that will now be considered a victory instead of a defeat.
  • Buff “Static Charge” - Now grants a 30% chance to apply Electrified to enemies.
  • Debuff “Insanity” - Now prefers to target Allies




Dark
  • Unit Passive “Cull the Weak”
    • Now applies to all Dark non-scout Units
    • Now grants Ranged and Magic base attacks a 90% chance to inflict Weakened.
    • No longer gives a stack of Regeneration and instead grants 10 Temporary HP once per turn, when attacking a Weakened unit with a Melee attack.
  • Unit Enchantment “Brand of Wrath”
    • Now applies to Ranged, Battle Mage and Support Units as well


Reaver
  • Unit Passive “Focused Aggression”
    • Now grants only Ranged and Magic attacks +10% Damage per stack of Marked
    • Now grants Melee attacks a 60% chance to inflict Marked. Effects are increased for Single Attacks.
  • Unit “Magelock”
    • Fire Heavy Magelock
      • Changed from a Full Action to a Single Action
      • Reduced base accuracy from 90% to 60%
      • Reduced damage from 36 to 34
      • Now has Breaching
    • Take Aim
      • Changed from a Single Action to a Full Action Continue
      • No longer applies Marked, instead granting 80% accuracy for 1 Turn or on the next attack.
  • Unit “Magelock Cannon”
    • “Fire Cannon” - Now has Piercing and Breaching
  • Unit “Dragoon”
    • Harrying Shot
      • No longer has a cooldown
      • Now has Breaching


Primal
  • Improved generation of Spirit Dens
    • Better distribution of Spirit Dens when there are multiple Primal players on the map.
    • Better distribution of Spirit Dens to be closer to Gameplay Spaces
    • Better distribution of Spirit Dens to for players so players will encounter them more frequently and closer to their starting Position
  • Unit “Spirit Tracker”
    • Spirit Finder - Increased Sense Range bonus from +3 to +6 to help locate Spirit Dens
    • Spirit Finder - Can now sensed Spirit Dens through diggable earth
  • Unit “Animist”
    • Summon Primal Spirit - Now can only be used Once Per Battle




  • The vassalage trade option is now increased in value, but the underlying treaties gained from the vassalage no longer have any value so the AI will no longer ask for anything in return for those when becoming a vassal.
  • Bounties that fail because the player that made the bounty has made peace with the target player or city will now explain this in the bounty failed panel.
  • Added support for Bounties to target Infestations.




  • Rebalanced the Population Growth to better align with the intended speed/experience
  • City Structure “Farmers’ Guild” - Now also gives +30% Food income.
  • City Structure “Workers’ Guild” - Now also gives +30 Fortification Health.


Outposts
  • Global bonuses from Society Traits no longer apply
  • City Cap penalties no longer apply.
  • City Stability no longer affects Outposts.
  • The Gold bonus from Ascended Champion no longer applies.
  • The Mana bonus from Wizard Kings no longer applies




  • Chaos Skill “Impressment” - No longer reduces Unit Upkeep for Tier 1 Units, instead they gain +50% XP.
  • Materium Skill “Military Engineering” - No longer grants a free Work Camp, instead it reduces the turn duration of Outpost Upgrades by 1 Turn.
  • Order Skill “Career Soldiers” - Increased XP bonus from +20% to +30%.




  • Form Trait “Mount Masters” - Reduced cost from 2 to 1
  • Form Trait “Eagle Mounts” - Reduced cost from 4 to 3
  • Form Trait “Elephant Mounts” - Now grants units Large Target
  • Form Trait “Mammoth Mounts” - Now grants units Large Target.


Premade Rulers
  • Yaka - Changed the Race Mount from Horses to Lions
  • Nimue - Changed the Race Mount from Boars to Zebra’s
  • Wepwatep - Changed the Race Mount from Wolves to Panthers




  • Heroes defeated by World Map Spells now properly follow the Hero Defeated flow, adding them to the Prison/Crypt.
  • Hero Background Trait “Unstable” - No longer includes Frail


Signature Skills
  • Hero Signature Skill “Warding Bond” - Increased Damage reduction from 20% to 50%
  • Hero Signature Skill “Rallying Blessing”
    • Changed from a Full Action to a Single Action
    • Increased Bolstered Resistance/Defense from 1 to 2
  • Hero Signature Skill “Visions of Woe” - Changed from a Full Action to a Single Action
  • Hero Signature Skill “Reckless Rage” - Changed from only applying to Melee attacks to applying on all Attacks
  • Hero Signature Skill “Holy Retribution”
    • Increased Damage from 5 to 6
    • Now applies Condemned to the attacker




  • Added Item Forge Blueprints
  • Added two Peasant Polearm visualizations
  • Ordered all item forge items to make sense instead of being ordered randomly. The order is Base Game > DLC > Pantheon unlocks.
  • Slayer Infusions are now mutually exclusive.
  • Base Item “Polearm” - No longer has Cavalry and Large Target Slayer, instead they have a modifier named Polearm which combines the two.
  • Base Item “Pistol and Sword”
    • Pistol Shot - Now has Breaching
  • Base Item “Magelock”
    • No longer grants Quick Stab ability
    • Now grants the Take Aim Ability
    • Fire Heavy Magelock - Now has Breaching
  • Hero Item “The Magekiller”
    • No longer grants Quick Stab ability
    • Now grants the Take Aim Ability
    • Fire Heavy Magelock - Now has Breaching




  • Fixed an issue in the Realm Overview screen while getting kicked from a Multiplayer Session.
  • Fixed an issue where you could Save/Load a game during Multiplayer
  • Fixed an issue where advice or tutorials would show up, even though they were disabled in the settings.
  • Fixed an issue where Independent Turns would take a significant amount of time.
  • Fixed the Teams option not being applied when the game is launched.


Mod Handling
  • Fixed Mod list getting duplicated if multiple players joined after a update, before the updated state was saved
  • Fixed CRC checks passing Mod CRC into Game CRC resulting in CRC Conflicts between Client and Save
  • Fixed Mod Conflict Dialogue formatting


Soft Locks
  • Fixed an issue where a session could soft lock if a Quest got declined while the Event wasn’t handled.
  • Fixed an issue where a session could soft lock if a player was offline and attacked
  • Fixed an issue where automated manual combat would not continue after leaving and rejoining the session.


Out of Syncs
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Income Resources.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Heroes with terrain depended abilities dying
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Units in Events
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to provinces not correctly checking if any player has vision on them and should therefore meet the owner of the province when they change sides.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to the trespassing state not refreshing correctly when the diplomatic state with a Free City drops or when the player has indirect open borders through an ally and either their relation with their ally or the ally’s relation with the free city changes.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to the AI gaining a new province through an Event such as “Clash of Claims”.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to quests that fail to spawn not being cleaned up correctly.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Siege Damage per turn.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to armies not being fully done refreshing their vision stats when refreshing their vision.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Free Cities not refreshing the trespassing status of armies in their domain when a player gains open borders with the city.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to the order in which armies are registered to a province. On reloading this order could change and cause different results to happen.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Heroes not refreshing their relations when the owning Ruler would gain/lose affinity points.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to independents taking over a player’s city
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to annexing a province with hostile stacks in it.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Units spawned on water not updating their Movement Points.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Rioting Cities being reloaded.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to Siege Breaker units leaving a Siege.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to occupying an Outpost that has a Work Camp build
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to income from Vassals not getting updated
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to the list of Bounty targets getting reordered on hotjoining. The list is now always ordered in the same way.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to failed/completed City quests getting removed on reloading the session.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to a Vassal City having updated its income.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to occupying another players vassal
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to an Independents Vassalage state
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to a besieged City not canceling its production.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to a newly created city not having all its combat spells.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to the player no longer affording their Magic Material Treaty with another player.
  • Fixed an Out of Sync that could occur due to armies that had been detected by another army’s true sight becoming concealed again and stop trespassing.


[h3]And that's not it! More fixes (both General and Multiplayer) are available on our Forum! [/h3]

Read the Full Patch Notes


[h2]Wishlist Eldritch Realms:[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/

Are you still here? Seriously? If you could read 30 pages of patch notes, you should follow our socials:

Dev Diary #32: The Art of Eldritch Realms



Sovereign greetings my Thrall kin, Art Director Rich Burgess here for another image-heavy thread of tentacles. Be warned of minor visual spoilers, don’t tread further if you want to go into the Abyss fresh!

For this Dev Diary I’d like to discuss the process of pulling this DLC out of the darkness of the Umbral Abyss and into the light. With some behind-the-scenes exploration and some technical processes.

Your Eldritch Sovereign Leader


I can't think of any games where you can customize your own monstrous Eldritch leader, so we had a lot of fun exploring what this could mean and look like. To start and hit the ground running we took the existing Lost Mage unit as a base and built on top of it.

Making sure the unit always floats and doesn't hold any weapons (albeit a Relic hovering in front) meant we were freed from many animation restraints and could really push the silhouettes and bodies of the leaders.

Tentacles are cool, but what other variations could we push? Folded moth wings instead of arms, a mermaid or sinew body, and insectoid legs, we tried to fulfill different eldritch fantasies. We started off with blue sky sketches exploring possibilities -



We split them into different categories so you could mix and match what you liked best. Do you want to be all about the tentacles, sure! Or if you want to lean into being a creepy mummy, we have you covered. Here we see some head and back piece explorations -



We then take those Photoshop 2D sketches into 3D using ZBrush and push the shapes further, here at the top left we see a head, back and body type all being worked on at once as part of an ‘obsidian set.’ We then split these into different sliders for you to play with. We also made sure it wasn’t all monstrous as that makes for a monotone look, you can also create beautiful monsters with merfolk bodies and petal motifs -



We never have a specific number of customization options in mind, we just keep going until we run out of time, much to the stress of our poor producers!

We then have a set of bodies that might move in different ways or have some unique hook. We spend some extra animation budget here leaning into those tropes to make sure the mermaid tail flows properly, the mummy cloth sways according to physics and the eyeballs look around and blink. On top of the customization assets we also added proportion sliders for head, arms, legs and wings. We also tried a different approach to skin colour by tinting it with 2 different colours that results in some really interesting combinations!



A few examples of what you can create, we can’t wait to see your beautiful monstrosities! -



On top of looks you can also choose a starting Relic or forge your own in the Item Forge, here we see the dodecahedron with our custom Rune font, seen throughout the game -



Or a gloopy flesh slimeball, notice how we really try to push effects and motion through our leaders and items. This really requires the whole team to pull off; a 3D artist, a tech artist, VFX artist and an animator -



As your Eldritch Rulder levels up, you can take them down different paths of your choosing. 3 things happen; firstly they scale up in size, a fully leveled up Eldritch Sovereign is comparable to a giant. Next they get new visuals, smokey PFX appear around their bodies with embers and eventually they gain a magical crown truly living up to their sovereign names. These visuals depend on the path you choose -



A magic Eldritch Leader wouldn’t be complete without new and powerful spells and hero abilities, here are a few examples -



The Umbral Abyss


For this fleshy DLC we wanted to lean into the heritage of Age of Wonders 2 Shadow Magic and bring back the much-beloved shadow realm, now known as the Umbral Abyss.

Your new realm layer is setup in the frontend and in-game can be accessed by none other than a tentacle entrance :) They are essentially portals to the other world layers or between other floating Umbral Islands. The icon above the portal shows you where it leads. Notice how the Umbral biome leaks through these portals, infecting other lands -



The floating islands of the Abyss contain a whole new biome to explore -



For this biome we created a new mountain set, mountains come with 3 different sizes and multiple mesh variation per size. Random rotation adds even more variation to the game world -



Other ambient details like eyeball bats spawn around forest tiles -



New Locations


We’ve added a lot of new locations to the Umbral Layer, from Visit Sites with fun visuals and properties, to powerful Nodes and a new Magic Material. We threw in some shiney Pickups to boot so the Umbral Abyss is a treasure trove of places ready to be looted. This gives the new layer a distinct feel and reason to enter.

Games are not a static medium, when creating new ideas we try to push visuals with the help of particle effects, shaders and animation. Motion is an added element that breathes life into otherwise static objects, and importantly helps with readability by drawing our attention to it. For instance see how we are adding motion to these new province improvements below -



Or here with the floating rocks, rising mists and runes of this new Monolith Node -



The cool thing about Visit Sites is we can have 2 states, active when you can go there, and cooldown after you’ve visited and taken whatever splendors it holds. It presents opportunities to add visual surprises like with the Quicksilver basin below -



The Umbral Illuminati are always watching… I wonder what happens when you visit this site…



Not only are there creepy things in the dark, but we made sure there are locations of safety that fight back against this darkness. This brings a visual contrast as you seek a heaven in the depths below -



Shield of light particle FX -



What other secrets are there? New visit sites, nodes and powerful pickups await.

Eldritch Dwelling


For this DLC we made the foundations of a new system that supports unique monsters as Dwelling Rulers. We might expand upon this system down the line allowing you to interact with wildlife Monsters like Giants, Ogres and more as they rule their own Dwelling or as recruitable heroes themselves.

The Eldritch Hive comes to life, with its own monstrous leader, what dark trades can be made here? Inspired by termite spires, and a nod to the Planetfall Kirko cities, the Umbral Dwellings act as the beating heart of the Abyss -



Eldritch Dwelling event and city background -



Umbral Tactical Layer


The biome also comes with its own flavour of vegetation, from trees to small plants. Shown here are some early concepts for trees, fleshy tendrils and twisted coral-like shapes. We have limitations so units can still stand around the base and use them for partial cover. You can see how the rough concepts got translated into 3D through iteration -



Here we see the vegetation in context of the game, with added motion through a combination of bone animation and shaders -



Obsidian is a material used in the game to communicate magic and power, from the Mystic weapons to the foundation of the Wizards Tower Ancient Wonder. By retexturing the rocks and cliffs to be obsidian, it really helped give the umbral layer its own flair. Here we see the Temperate Gold Node Map change into the Umbral Abyss, the textures, trees, rocks and lighting all swap out to place you in another world -



While some maps appear more natural others feel more dangerous with sharp insectoid shapes, the spawner and Dwelling maps for instance have additional sets -



Since we are a small team we have to think creatively to save time, this delights our producers! In this instance we had the idea to retexture roots using Substance Designer to be used as tentacles for map decoration -



As it’s a top down game the ground textures make up 90% of what you see at any given time. Spending extra effort here really helps the overall visual fidelity and mood. Here are some tests with torn tendril textures, we ended up toning it down as ultimately the readability of the units are the most important and they got lost in the noise created by this texture, but still makes for a very cool look and feel. We ended up making a whole host of tactical combat maps with these new creepy assets -



Your Forms


Fans of Age of Wonders past might recognise these 2 new forms; we brought back the fan favourite insectoid, and the Syron, albeit reimagined -

[h2]The Syron[/h2]

The game already has a lot of monstrous and gritty forms, with Eldritch Realms we wanted to introduce a counter to that with a beautiful form - the Syron. A race from previous game entries resembling elves. Instead of going down that road (since we already have elves) we decided to pivot them in a different direction. Initially, we leaned into something more aquatic with a squid-like form that would compliment the Eldritch leaders with strange tropical fish-like patterns or glowing deep-sea features that resembled stars -



Ultimately they felt too alien so we continued the exploration, maybe the tentacles were more like hair?
Let's try making them a bit more humanoid? -



Further exploration in 3D, pushing more beautiful features like large eyes and designed lashes, we also start playing with varied expressions to avoid a bland look. The pointy elf ears of the original Age of Wonders Syron were brought back as well as a few aquatic details and astral body patterns from earlier sketch directions. Lastly we played with emissive hair for an ethereal feel -



Since we don’t have the resources for facial rigs and animation we decided as part of the art direction to push expressions in the base heads as much as possible. This gives greater variation in the heads you can pick from and avoids the aforementioned bland expression look. This is not only apparent in forms, but you can see this below with some of the other creatures we made for the game -



[h2]Shadow Demons? Kir’ko? Insectoid![/h2]

Insectoid creatures have been a long-running feature in Age of Wonders, from the Shadow Demons of AoW:Shadow Magic, that inspired the Planetfall Kir’ko, we come full circle, bringing them back in Eldritch Realms. With this new Insectoid form you can use transformations to turn them into the original Shadow Demons, or angels, or undead etc. -



Your new Story Realms


We made 17 new illustrations for the 2 new story realms, really focussing on character-driven composition with vibrant colour design. Below is a sneak peek of 2, what do you think is happening here?



Your new events


To flavour the new Cosmic Happening events we ended up creating a new fullscreen UI. We leaned into the Empire Tree smokey tendrils as if everything is interconnected through its shadowy branches. Everything here is animated and moving from the stars and dark tendrils to the runes making the whole scene comes to life -



The happenings might give new interesting enchantment visuals -



Constellation particle FX -



Or new wildlife and maps -



Or temporarily change the lighting of the World Map -



Your Wildlife


You guessed it, MORE TENTACLES!

Since the Umbral Abyss is quite a dark place filled with gloom, we decided to make sure the wildlife were lighter in value - pale and fleshy with glowing hotpink kicks of colour. This way they would be readable on top of the new biome. Below we have a selection of some of the new creatures at different stages of production, through to an in-game model -





Early animation test trying to capture the feeling of a swarm, with stack scale and placement variations -



Throughout development the concept artists brainstorm many different ideas, the brain creature on the right is a self portrait of a concept artist doing just that. I thought it would be fun to take a peek down the road not traveled… There are many reasons some ideas don’t pan out, from design changes to technical limitations or simply having a better idea for something. So here’s a selection of creepy crawlies that didn’t make the cut -



Your Icons & Interface


I’d like to take some time here to highlight iconography and interface. What I find astounding is that every icon here represents a new gameplay concept with localized descriptive tooltips, and coded gameplay. There might also be additional animation or particle FX with bespoke audio -



Tome artworks, 3 new Eldritch Realms tomes and 3 representing the new Mystic subcultures as part of the free patch -



We couldn’t have an Eldritch DLC without having a reskin of the UI frame to match, you guessed it…even more tentacles -



Bonus


New Eldritch-themed Pantheon content to unlock…



And thank you to our brilliant community, we do all of this for you! Thank you Damndirtycat for this hilarious fan art!



That’s all folks! We really hope you enjoy Eldritch Realms as much as we enjoyed crafting it! If you’re hungry for more art please check out The Art of Age of Wonders 4 Dev Diary and The Art Of Primal Fury Dev Diary.

[h2]Wishlist Eldritch Realms:[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/


Send prayers for the image server, I think it became sentient for the sole purpose of strangling us after we fed it so many pictures

Dev Diary #31 - Eldritch Sovereign and Tomes



Hello everyone! My name is Luis and I am a designer here at Triumph Studios. This is the second dev diary for our Eldritch Realms expansion that is coming out on the 18th of June.

Hope you have made your tributes to the elder gods because we will be talking about the new leader type, the Eldritch Sovereign. After that I will give a quick rundown of the new tomes you can unlock and some of their content.

Eldritch Sovereign




The Eldritch Sovereign is a new leader type you can play as in Eldritch Realms. When a Wizard is banished to the Astral Void they must endure the Torment of Shadows. Those who fail the trial are doomed to become Lost Wizards, husks of their former selves. But some manage to continue growing in power and regain a twisted sense of sanity. Eventually they manage to pierce the planar veil and find their way back from the Astral Void, where they enthrall whole populations to do their bidding in order to fulfill their corrupt ambitions.



At the start of the game you will pick what your Eldritch ruler looks like and what Relic they use in battle. Each Relic is tied to a concept for this leader, defines their starting damage type and gives one of the initial hero skills from their new Eldritch Sovereign skill tree.



The Eldritch Sovereign starts with 3 abilities:

  • Spike: This is a long range low damage ability that allows this ruler to stay at the back while their enthralled race protects it.
  • Rebuke: When an enemy gets too close, this magical rebuke is an excellent option. It deals decent damage and can finish off injured enemies.
  • Eldritch Mind Control: This allows the leader to mind control an enemy unit for 1 turn, turning an adversary into a temporary stepping stone to your victory in battle.


[h2]Thralls and Ritual Spells[/h2]



They also have another trick up their tentacles in the form of Ritual Spells and the new Thrall resource. As an Eldritch Sovereign ruled faction, battles will gradually gather Thralls to be used in ritual sacrifice to cast powerful and unique strategic spells. The Eldritch Sovereign doesn’t even need to be in those battles as their servants will gather the Thralls for them.

They can also harvest Thralls from their own population or vassalized Free Cities with the Spell Enthrall Population, which converts 1 Population into 3 Thralls.

Once you have the Thralls, ritual spells are easy to cast as they only require Thralls and Casting Points. Here’s some examples of ritual spells:

  • Clairvoyance Ritual: All Eldritch Sovereigns start with this one; it lets you sacrifice a Thrall to reveal the closest Infestation or Ancient Wonder.
  • Phantasmal Ritual: This spell deals 20% of an army's maximum Hit Points as damage as well as reducing their status resistance for the next battle.
  • Mage Bane Ritual: Summon a Mage Bane! This costs 10 Thralls to summon and comes after needing to unlock 2 other hero skills, but having a Mage Bane at your side is a very strong option for this leader.




Thralls can also be used (or sometimes gained!) in events. You can sacrifice thralls to permanently dominate an enemy, give a boost to relations to newly found Free Cities or bypass difficult options.

[h2]Signature Skills[/h2]



Signature Skills for the Eldritch Ruler come in two flavors.

  1. Specializations: These give a more defined role to your Eldritch Sovereign by giving new abilities and passives.
  2. Forgotten Tomes: Like Lost Wizards, they can get powerful abilities that have endless range in combat.

[h3]Specializations[/h3]

Minor Specialization



At level 4 the leader picks a Minor Specialization gaining a new active and passive ability. The Minor Specializations are:

  • Madcaster: Focus on spellcasting and random effects. They gain:
    • Chaos Pulse: Applies an effect to a group of enemies, from turning them to animals, making them Blind until the end of combat or, if you are unlucky, healing them. Each unit in the area of effect has a chance to roll one of these effects.
    • Expert Channeling: A passive that reduces the mana cost of certain spells.
  • Mindbreaker: This one focuses on mind status effects and damage. They gain:
    • Eldritch Truth: An ability that places the new Madness condition which, until the end of combat, makes the unit Insane while also sustaining damage each turn.
    • Eldritch Breach: A passive that bypasses up to 3 Status Resistance the target has.
  • Fleshweaver: The support specialization with a flesh modification theme. They gain:
    • Possession: Increases the damage of a unit by 40% for 2 turns. The affected unit dies when this effect expires but they come back with low hit points after combat if you win it.
    • Fleshweave: At combat start, summon 2 Fleshlings, slimy bomb monsters that can self destruct to deal damage as well as apply Bleed and Status Vulnerability.


Major Specialization



At level 12 the Eldritch Sovereign can pick between two signature skills based on their first specialization.


The Madcaster can pick:
  • Cosmic Caster:
    • Their Chaos Pulse changes to Cosmic Pulse, which reduces the randomness of Chaos Pulse to instead be more damage oriented, always rolling on dealing Fire, Frost or Lightning damage. The radius also increases from 1-hex to 2-hex.
    • Gain a new passive, Forgotten Tome Mastery that boosts the damage of the damaging abilities you can gain from the Forgotten Tome Signature skills.
  • Havoc Caster:
    • These Eldritch Sovereigns go all in on randomness and have their Chaos Pulse become Havoc Pulse. It functions like the original except it applies 2 effects to the affected units
    • Gain a new passive, Chaos Channeling. It adds a 90% chance to apply a random negative status effect to all damaging combat spells.

The Mindbreaker can pick:
  • Enthraller:
    • Their Eldritch Truth becomes Enrapturing Truth. This new ability now applies Dominated, Berserk and increases the target’s damage instead of driving them mad. Being Dominated means you can acquire the unit at the end of combat!
    • Gain a new passive, Manipulator, which makes some of your mind affecting skills like Eldritch Mind Control target an extra target within a certain range of the original target.
  • Mind Devourer:
    • Eldritch Truth becomes Mind Shattering Truth, which not only applies the Madness effect but also deals physical damage that ignores the target’s defenses.
    • The passive Mindrend: The Eldritch Sovereign deals +70% more damage to any unit that has a Negative Mental Status Effect (Berserk, Insanity, Madness, etc)

Finally, the Fleshweaver can pick:
  • Puppeteer:
    • Possession becomes Puppeteer’s Possession, which can now give the damage increase to 3 allies instead of just one.
    • Changes the Eldritch Mind Control to Puppeteer’s Domination, which changes the effect from Mind Control to Dominated, which means you can keep the unit after combat for a mana cost.
  • Fleshsculpter:
    • Possession becomes Greater Possession: The damage bonus is increased to 80% while also giving the unit Status Protection so they can rampage until they drop.
    • Fleshweave changes to Fleshsculpt. Fleshsculpt makes it so that instead of 2 Fleshlings you summon a more long lasting summon, the Flesh Abomination, a Tier 3 Fighter.


[h3]Forgotten Tomes[/h3]



At level 8 and 16 the Eldritch Sovereign picks from a list of Forgotten Tome Passives. The way these work is that at the start of combat, they give you one of 3 random abilities related to the Forgotten tome you picked and every 4 turns that ability gets randomized and its cooldown removed.

The special thing about these is that these abilities have unlimited range in combat, acting almost like Combat Spells (except that since they are abilities they cost no mana). For those who fought the Lost Wizard before, some of these abilities will be recognizable, but there’s a lot more new ones!



That’s all I want to say for now on the Eldritch Sovereign, and I am not even going over all the new Hero Skills unique to the Eldritch Sovereign. (Tentacled Escape, one of the master hero skills of the Eldritch Sovereign, has my favorite animation in the entire game so far!)

And we are not done yet, up next is the Tomes!


Tomes


[h2]Tome of Tentacles[/h2]



This is a Tier 1 tome focused on summoning and using Tentacles to restrain and damage your enemies. It has a new status effect, Constricted, which deals 10 Physical damage each turn while Immobilizing the target. A lot of the units from this tome apply this effect. You can also have your Mages and Support units apply it with their attacks with the Constricting Focus unit enchantment.



Conjure Tentacle and the hero skill Manifest Tentacle let you conjure an otherworldly Tentacle unit in combat which deals damage as well as attempting to Constrict your enemies. These are very good at early game control and protecting your more squishy units from melee trying to rush them.



Next I want to show you the aptly named Constrictor! This is a new and terrifying racial polearm unit that can use its long tentacle arms to pull units closer to them and constrict them in the process. (They give very good hugs).

[h2]Tome of Corruption[/h2]



The Tier 3 Tome of Corruption lets you unleash your inner Umbral Demon while also capitalizing on your enemy’s buffs, removing them and gaining something instead or just outright stealing them.



Gloom Strider lets your racial units become Umbral Demons as well as gaining floating movement. This makes your units immune to the Umbral Malady and gain a powerful passive in Curse Eater, which consumes a negative status effect on the unit and converts it into a heal.



This tome has a new Tier 4 unit in it called the Umbral Mistress, which can chain herself to an enemy and then use her Gratitude, Fury or Surrender abilities to cause different effects on the unit she is linked to. Additionally, while linked to an enchained unit, their Wrack ability can never miss, and since a lot of her skills are Free Actions, you can play with your enemy’s emotions and then Wrack them for damage on the same turn.



Corrupt Boon and the hero skill Boon Stealing both remove positive status effects from your enemies. The first by turning them to their opposite, so for example regeneration would turn into poison. And the second by giving your hero’s attacks the ability to steal them on hit.

[h2]Tome of Cleansing Fire[/h2]



To combat all this darkness, we have a tome that helps you purify it. Cleaning Flame is all about making your units Zealous while burning you enemies with the new Cleaning Flame hazard.



This hazard burns those who aren’t Faithful or Zealous while removing negative conditions from those who are. Additionally, Condemned units lose their positive effects when they are burned by the flames of righteousness.



The hero skill Cleansing Flameherald not only creates Cleansing Flames as your enemies dies, but any Burning hazard created in combat become a Cleaning Flame hazard instead, making it a powerful combo for those who picked the Tome of Pyromancy or have other abilities that place burning hazards.



The Pyre Templars not only look amazing but they are the Cleansing Flame come to life and were tailor made to fight the corruption of the abyss! This Tier 4 Polearm unit has a Fire Cleave that mows down enemies in a 1-hex cone, while the Pyre Cloak burns all adjacent enemies and creates Cleansing Flames all around them while putting the Templar in defense mode.



To let your other units in on the fun of purifying the darkness, Pureflame Staves and Flame Blessed Champions both allow your units to create Cleaning Flames hazards. In addition, the former allows your mages and support units to Condemn your enemies and the latter lets your melee units Burn them to a crisp!

There’s a lot of content to explore in this new expansion and I couldn’t go into detail on everything with this dev diary, but I hope you liked reading about it! The Eldritch Realms expansion comes out on the 18th of June, so make sure you don’t miss out on all this content!


[h2]Wishlist Eldritch Realms:[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/


I love you, you love me, we're all one Eldritch family~

Watch the Eldritch Realms First Look VOD + Next Stream this Thursday @ 2pm CEST!



Rulers!

In case you missed it, we've posted a full-length video giving you an in-depth look at what is coming in Eldritch Realms! Watch our devs build an Eldritch Sovereign, pick new tomes, and explore the brand new Umbral Abyss!

[h2]Watch the First Look Stream[/h2]

What's more, we will be having another stream this Thursday at 2pm CEST! If you missed our previous stream, this is your chance to experience some sneak peek content! You can expect more otherworldly gameplay, dev shenanigans and of course, tentacles~

To be notified when we go live, visit our YouTube! We hope to see you there.

[h2]Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel[/h2]

[h3]What time is the stream for me?[/h3]
  • PDT: 5am
  • MDT: 6am
  • CDT: 7am
  • EDT: 8am
  • GMT: 1pm
  • GMT+3: 3pm
  • GMT+7: 7pm
  • GMT+8: 8pm
  • GMT+9: 9pm
  • GMT+11: 11pm

[h2]Wishlist Eldritch Realms:[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/


Do in fact go gentle into that good night:

One of the decade's greatest strategy games gets new horror expansion

The critically acclaimed fantasy strategy game Age of Wonders 4 is getting another major expansion called Eldritch Realms. With a completely new map layer to discover, a fresh ruler type to play with, and more tomes of magic to try out, there's plenty to look forward to when the next DLC launches in June this year.


Read the rest of the story...


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