Update #09 - Clearing Skies

[p]Hello hello![/p][p][/p][p]It is about time to release our next update, Clearing Skies 🌥[/p][p][/p][p]We bring plenty of new elements and new QoL that will make your experience of the game even better! Let´s get down to business[/p][p][/p][p]\[Message to GamePass players > The update will arrive next week, as we are in the middle of the certification process][/p][p][/p][h3]New Main HUD[/h3][p]We know the UI is one of the key elements of any game, and we are committed to improving it after all your feedback! The team made some big changes to reduce the feelings of crampedness some players felt. We moved all the important icons from the "End Turn" to the left side (with all the major aspects to manage about your empire). Also, we remade the resources panel and included the science output into the top-right![/p][p]Last thing, we implemented by default the "AI Status" (the colored bubbles) that will indicate to you when the "AI has finished their turn".
[/p][p][/p][h3]Zone of Control (ZoC)[/h3][p]We do like that troops are agile and can move around the battleground BUT we hear that this was causing frustration to players ("they are just rushing my archers"). Therefore, we have implemented a light version of a ZoC. Now, units in melee will take +1 movement point in order to move around.
Give it a try and let us know how you feel about it![/p][p]At the moment, there is not much "visual feedback", but no worries as the team is working on that part.
[/p][h3]AI improvements[/h3][p]We have been making some improvements on the battle part on our latest update (Into Battle), and now we have enhanced how AI expands into more territories and also how they behave in regards victory conditions + quests.
[/p][h3]Tahuk Rebalance[/h3][p]Big thanks to Giotisfilopanos for helping us identify how Tahuk is getting big "Stonks". We made some changes to avoid having +4k science before turn 100 (I am sure you will find other ways to achieve that)[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][h3]What about Multiplayer 😱?[/h3][p]No worries, you will be able to play multiplayer, but not on the main branch! We wanted to take a bit of extra time to keep fixing desyncs before deploying it on the main branch.[/p][p]Players, at any time, can access the multiplayer directly on the Public Test Branch (PTB) > We will leave open the PTB for this purpose[/p][p]If you try the multiplayer, please share with us your experience, and if you encounter troubles, share the files with us![/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p]You will find below all the changes from the update 👇[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p]Did you notice Derek released the next State of the Game🔥 ??![/p][p]You can check it here [/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Derek is going into details of some of the changes in this update and also giving a sneak peek of the next update 👀 [/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Major Factions[/h2][h3]Kin of Sheredyn​[/h3]

• [p]Added an immersive notification when the player unlocks a new power [/p]
• [p]Improved feedback on the Chosen tooltip when you can’t build it [/p]

[h3]Tahuk​[/h3]

• [p]Observatory effect[/p]
  • [p]Reduced Observatory not in Monsoon effect from +10 to +4 Science [/p]
  • [p]Streamlined the Observatory Dust cost with the Burrow or Coral Spore Dust formula [/p]
• [p]Deciphering Stone technology
  [/p]
  • [p]Reduced Star Charts' effect from +5 to +2 Science on Observatories[/p]
• [p]Stargazing technology[/p]
  • [p]Moved the technology from Era 2 to Era 3 [/p]
  • [p]Updated its Celestial Guidance improvement to now provide +4 Food on Laboratories [/p]
  • [p]Added unlock of the Solar Strobe improvement [/p]
• [p]Tahuk Festival[/p]
  • [p]Updated the cost of Tahuk Festival to a minimum of 2 population [/p]
  • [p]Updated Tahuk Festival’s effect to now provide +20 Industry & -10 Approval[/p]
• [p]Stellar Astronomy technology[/p]
  • [p]Moved the technology from Era 4 to Era 5 [/p]
  • [p]Added unlock of the Crystallography School improvement that adds +2 Science on Glass tiles [/p]
• [p]Glass[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the terrain type effect from +5 to +3 Science[/p]
• [p]Eternal Sunshine[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the Eternal Sunshine effect to +50% FIDSI on Population Vocations & +5 Approval per Holy Oculum level[/p]
• [p]Council[/p]
  • [p]Added the Oracle trait on the hero given in the Faction Quest[/p]
• [p]Improved tooltips on political stance [/p]
• [p]Improved tooltips on empire actions [/p]
• [p]Added feedback in the city screen to display the % chance to spawn a rebel army when a city suffers from “Blind fanaticism” [/p]
• [p]Fixed the Science scaling of the 'Called Fury' effects on by applying a flat rate to the settlement instead (Thanks to Giotisfilopanos for spotting it!)
  [/p]

[h3]Last Lord​[/h3]

• [p]Improved feedback and tooltip on Marquis Galardi for the Last Lords quest [/p]
• [p]Fixed Honorary Knighting tooltip [/p]
• [p]Fixed Sacrifice for the Realm tooltip (thanks xaivous for the report!) [/p]

[h3]Aspect​[/h3]

• [p]Improved diplomacy feedback when playing with another Aspect empire[/p]
• [p]Reduced the base cost of the Force Truce to 2,000 influence, but it increases by 500 influence at each era
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where Aspects could win after being eliminated [/p]

[h2]UI/UX​[/h2]

• [p]Updated the look of the main HUD and the end turn button [/p]
• [p]Added a nested tooltip for “Territory” [/p]
• [p]Improved tooltips explanation for Natural Wonders [/p]
• [p]Displayed monsoon effects in the tooltips of the end turn button [/p]
• [p]Polished pins display and improved the underground-travel button pin [/p]
• [p]Improved other empires displayed in the diplomacy screen [/p]
• [p]Improved FX in heroes’ academy screen [/p]
• [p]Improved the bribe tooltip for minor factions[/p]
• [p]Added the clock in the HUD directly (use the setting to display it) [/p]
• [p]Finished polishing the new HUD (quest panel background, better shadows, better colors, etc.)[/p]
• [p]Activated by default the player status around the end turn button in solo so you’ll know when AI finishes their turn [/p]
• [p]Improved illustrations in technology tooltips [/p]
• [p]Added populations’ illustrations in their tooltips[/p]
• [p]Fixed drag and dropping elements in the construction queue when there is a lot of elements (thanks Zer0 for the report!) [/p]
• [p]Fixed end turn state showing “pending turn” when loading a save [/p]
• [p]Fixed unread notification red dot appearing for no apparent reason[/p]
• [p]Fixed disappeared pinned quest when loading a save[/p]
• [p]Fixed some hints appearing although they shouldn’t     [/p]
• [p]Fixed pins disappearing when pausing the game and when starting the game from a save [/p]
• [p]Fixed hints’ highlights in hero screen [/p]
• [p]Fixed all settlements screen staying open in front of the city view [/p]
• [p]Fixed too long texts in the Steam Deck’s UI [/p]
• [p]Fixed labels and texts shown broken when loading a save [/p]

[h2]Military​[/h2]

• [p]Added zone of control on all units and flying units ignore this rule [/p]
• [p]Added VFX to see the damaged buildings on the map during a siege [/p]
• [p]Improved the skill trees of some heroes gained through quests [/p]
• [p]Improved hero draws randomness [/p]
• [p]Improved equipment loot to favor it to be equipped by current heroes in empire [/p]
• [p]Improved feedback when spending a hero skill point [/p]
• [p]Improved skill tree display with new VFX and clearer states [/p]
• [p]Added an option to be able to instant resolve all battles in the new game settings (even forced manual battles) [/p]
• [p]Added rarity colors to looted items in the battle victory screen [/p]
• [p]Added a colored background in the equipment’s tooltip for rarity[/p]
• [p]Improved hire mercenary’s tooltip when it’s unavailable [/p]
• [p]Minor Factions can now spawn 2 armies instead of 1[/p]
• [p]Removed the left click outside of battle to exit a battle [/p]
• [p]Reduce the duration of the 'Remove Forest' army action from 3 turns to 1 turn[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue when defeating a unit while moving to the unit’s tile and the new friendly unit created would appear on the same tile, making it impossible to move[/p]
• [p]Fixed tooltips for negative status
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed skill tree unlocks displaying incorrectly[/p]
• [p]Fixed path displaying non-reachable tiles as reachable [/p]
• [p]Fixed heroes not shown on the map when adding into an army [/p]

[h2]Victory Conditions​[/h2]

• [p]Advanced the score victory (hence end of the game) to 275 turns instead of 300 [/p]
• [p]AI can now switch between different victory conditions [/p]
• [p]Improved the UI look of the victory conditions screen when the UI is scaled down to 80% [/p]
• [p]Delayed Victory Condition trigger [/p]
• [p]Scaled Villages, Fortresses and Territories required with map size and number of Major Empires [/p]
• [p]Increased Resources, Population and Natural Wonder thresholds [/p]

[h2]AI​[/h2]

• [p]Improved AI decision to buy foundations [/p]
• [p]Improved how AI handles the construction queue and the cancellation of the items [/p]
• [p]Improved AI focus on major faction’s quests [/p]
• [p]Improved AI decision to surrender although they are winning the war [/p]
• [p]Improved AI decision to claim new territory and expand[/p]
• [p]Improved minor factions’ choice to merge army, they will do it whenever they have the chance to[/p]
• [p]Applied an influence penalty to restrict the AI's expansion on the easiest difficulty levels [/p]
• [p]Increased AI bonuses for the most challenging difficulty levels[/p]
• [p]Fixed a technical issue with AI regrouping armies [/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where the AI would repeatedly try to cancel a "Buy-out Construction" Task  [/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue with improvement buy-out  [/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where the AI would repeatedly fail at following a path because it tries to use a ghost bridge  [/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where the AI would try to buy Technologies from a Tahuk without Library[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where AI could go bankrupt by itself by buying out too many units [/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where AI would cancel their construction for no apparent reason  [/p]
• [p]Fixed AI army management where they used too expensive units [/p]
• [p]Fixed AI army management where they would build new armies instead of promoting already existing ones[/p]
• [p]Fixed a rare issue where AI would never occupy a city after a successful siege  [/p]

[h2]World Generation​[/h2]

• [p]Removed suggestion of tiles considered a bad placement when placing a settlement [/p]
• [p]Improved rifts generation into the world [/p]
• [p]Balanced resources spawn in the world [/p]
• [p]Fixed camps granted on a territory with a dungeon by quests [/p]
• [p]Fixed gates not showing when a road was passing through [/p]

[h2]City Construction / Economy​[/h2]

• [p]Reduced the Lithosphere Gallery improvement effect from 50 to 25 Dust [/p]
• [p]Reduced Blast Furnace improvement effect from 25 to 15 Industry [/p]

[h2]Doomwraiths​[/h2]

• [p]Added a cinematic when a tormented settles in a territory [/p]
• [p]Improved tormented army management [/p]
• [p]Changed the corruption application from territory based to settlement based [/p]
• [p]Fixed some tormented never spawned [/p]

[h2]Audio​[/h2]

• [p]Added missing sounds in main menu news buttons [/p]
• [p]Added sounds to fortresses [/p]
• [p]Added audio to bridges and dams’ constructions [/p]
• [p]Added audio on multiplayer features (timers, chat, ready in lobby) [/p]

[h2]Visual[/h2]

• [p]Improved VFX on end turn button[/p]
• [p]Fixed holes appearing in between tiles[/p]
• [p]Fixed rendering on AMD GPU with latest drivers (Thanks Amberhawk and Drunken Eagle for the reports!)[/p]

[h2]Tutorial[/h2]

• [p]Improved the quality of the intro cinematic of the tutorial [/p]
• [p]Improved tutorial asking to queue units [/p]
• [p]Updated the first tutorial battle to avoid softlocks[/p]
• [p]Fixed curiosities spawning on minor factions’ villages in tutorial [/p]
• [p]Fixed the splitting/merging tutorial hint [/p]
• [p]Fixed hints blocking each other in the hero screen [/p]
• [p]Fixed a softlock in the population tutorial (Thanks Lanfuest for the report!) [/p]

[h2]Quests, Events & Lore[/h2]

• [p]Removed some quests to improve immersion for some major factions [/p]
• [p]Improved objectives which use population count over several turns to be able to count multiple populations (for example, the divine population in the Kin’s quest)[/p]
• [p]Rebalanced “the Viper” quest [/p]
• [p]Activated back by default all quips (you can deactivate them in the settings) [/p]
• [p]Fixed the quest "A Matter of Memory" [/p]
• [p]Fixed no characters shown in specific cases [/p]
• [p]Fixed event repeating themselves [/p]

[h2]Misc[/h2]

• [p]Updated localization for multiplayer lobbies and settings[/p]
• [p]Updated the trait rewarded in the Unseeing Seers specific quest from dust to industry [/p]
• [p]Fixed “Music interval duration” audio setting’s description [/p]
• [p]Fixed “Game speed” setting’s description [/p]
• [p]Fixed missing localization for Tahuk’s leader diplomatic lines [/p]
• [p]Fixed Observatory tooltip’s text Fixed a technical issue in the diplomatic screen[/p]
• [p]Fixed the Councilor effect, Alchemical Genius, so that its +5 Science bonus now only applies to districts and not foundations (thanks Eggplant for the report!) [/p]
• [p]Fixed “Victory Score” setting’s description [/p]
• [p]Fixed a technical issue in a Last Lords’ hint [/p]
• [p]Fixed a technical issue in a specific reward’s tooltip [/p]
• [p]Fixed a technical issue in the rebellion UI in the city [/p]
• [p]Fixed a technical issue in when creating a world with Archipelago No Wrap settings[/p]
• [p]Fixed a technical issue in subjugation [/p]
• [p]Fixed 2 technical issues in quest dialog panels Updated localization[/p]
• [p]Fixed a trait’s tooltip in Aspect’s Empire window[/p]
• [p]Updated localization throughout the game    [/p]

[h2]Steam Deck​[/h2]

• [p]Fixed the council menu access from the radial menu [/p]
• [p]Fixed tooltip for cavalry ability [/p]

[h2]Localization ​[/h2]

• [p]Updated the localizations in all languages [/p]
• [p]Fixed localization in minor faction’s quests [/p]
• [p]Fixed localization in “Pending Diplomatic Choice” on end turn button [/p]
• [p]Fixed localization in "Corrupted Defenses" event [/p]
• [p]Fixed localization in "Something on the Shore" event [/p]
• [p]Fixed localization for Fighting Tormented passive skill [/p]
• [p]Fixed localization for rift teleportation [/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Your Feedback Matters: Reviews and Community[/h2][p]There’s a reason we are putting Endless Legend 2 into Early Access: We want to hear from you, our players. So if you’ve spent some time with the game, please let us know what you think! [/p][p]✋ HOLD ✋ If you read the entire blog until here, then it is time to leave a Steam review (it is a joke) and join the awesome community playing Endless Legend 2 (this part is not a joke 😂)[/p][p][/p][p]
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