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Hi Everybody!
Another week has passed since we started the Open Beta and the feedback is still streaming in. We’re happy to see that most of the recent changes have been well received and we can nail down some of the finer things. Before we get into the changes in today’s Update a reminder.
As mentioned last week, we’re finalizing the development of the Watcher Update. This means that:

We can't change text, so all future changes need to be as minimal as possible
We still have time to fix crashes, make balance changes and other tweaks
Bigger changes will need to wait until a future update

Current updates are mainly to fix the bugs and remaining minor balance issues that are identified. We still have one week before everything is locked so even if we cannot implement your suggestions now, we can still take them on board for future updates. Remember we have a subforum on Steam for Open Beta feedback.
Onto the update itself, the main talking point today is Diplomatic and World Map AI.

In our update last week we made several updates to the Threat system to adjust the pressure the AI puts on the player. This week we’ve continued that work by tweaking several modifiers to reduce the radical swings that could occur when they became active. We’re also working on an overarching system to better manage the Threat and Pressure from the AI.
On the World Map we’ve incorporated the Handicap System into the difficulty levels. AI Rulers set to Hard or Brutal will receive Minor or Major Advantage in Combat. We're hoping this means the higher difficulty AIs will now do a better job against Infestations and Ancient Wonders, which in turn should put them in a better position to pose a bigger challenge to you.

We’re still welcoming saves that highlight the AI launching attacks on the world map, but then running away instead of actually getting into combat. If you have a save game where, when you press end turn, the AI runs away when you feel it should attack, please can you email it to us at logs@triumphstudios.com.
Once again, thanks for all your feedback, the Watcher Update is shaping up nicely thanks to you all!
See Full Patch Notes here
Game Version: V1.004.0000.81627





Feudal
Hold the Line: Units can now only get steadfast from this spell once per combat.
Dragon Lords
Astral Aspect now grants +4 Resistance instead of +2
Renamed Publish to Build as it’s more fitting for the process that happens when you press this button.





Added a cooldown to the AI manually sending a call to war to wait at least 2 turns after the diplomatic state with the player they call into a war has changed.
Updated the AI aggression when calculating the army powers required to fight
Correctly added the AI mission army calculation when targeting independents
Implemented the combat advantage system for the AI per difficulty settings
Hard AI will get the normal advantage
Very Hard AI will get the large advantage
Implemented new free city expansion rules, when fully independent they will expand in a circular pattern, when they are a vassal they will default to pick the highest value again
Several tweaks have been made to the AI Threat system:

The impact of the “need a friend” and “need an ally” modifiers is reduced for warlord and isolationist AI players.
The “need an ally” modifier now only applies if either side of the relation has a war, to make sure the AI doesn’t radically shift opinion (to positive).
The system now takes Defensive Pacts into account more and no longer waits for a Full Alliance before applying certain factors.
Some AI players will now have a predisposition in their threat level towards higher / lower threat to make sure






The “All enemies have routed” dialog will now popup even if temporary summons and siege engines are not routing. This mirrors the rules for winning battle, which does not require those units to be killed.
Combat AI is now more likely to use guard breaking and retaliation canceling abilities.
Misfortune now applies 15% fumble chance instead of 10%





Declarations of Friendship will now automatically end if an Alliance or Defensive Pact ends / is broken.

The AI will now wait several turns before attempting a new declaration after a declaration has recently ended.
Automated Calls to War will now be sent if two of the Player’s allies go to war against each other.
Reduced the rising Imperium cost for releasing your owned cities as vassals to 25 per time it is performed instead of 75.
Reduced the maximum Imperium cost for releasing your owned cities as vassals to 100 instead of 300.





Amplifier Lenses damage bonus reduced to +10 from +20.
Nature Bolstering Matrix healing bonus reduced to +10 from +20.
Amplifier Lenses no longer require the Bolstering Matrix from the same affinity. Instead, they require any Bolstering Matrix, regardless of affinity.





Added the Revert Option to the In-Game Menu
Added an Automatic Reload that runs in specific instances
Addressed several Out-of-Syncs that could occur during the initial Map Setup
Addressed several Out-of-Syncs that result in broken Sessions
Addressed an issue where a Session would appear Frozen/Stuck





Amplification:

Amplified Arrows:

Damage reduced to +2 Shock and -1 Physical from +4 Shock and -2 Physical

Cryomancy:

Frost Arrows: Damage increased back to +4 Frost and -2 Physical






Ancient Wonders can no longer be released if this would lead to other provinces being disconnected from their city
Added a world map visual for when an underground passage is in an owned territory.
Excavatable provinces in the Underground now have a special FX to show that a structure or node is hidden underneath.




Combat

Taunted units can now correctly be dispelled of the effect.
Fixed an issue that meant Draconic Rage and Berserker’s Rage didn’t work in auto combat. This bug would also lead to an Out of Sync when watching the replay of the combat.
Fixed issue where Bolstered Resistance from the Industrious Bolstering Trait would not correctly remove Sundered Resistance

Interface

Fixed issue where the diplomatic state changed notification will not be invalidated if the diplomatic state had changed again.
Fixed teams not working in multiplayer when the setting is enabled after posting the session.

Spells

Dormant Enchantment (High Culture) was still giving the Awaken Ability to Battle Mages, this has been fixed.
Shadow Amplifier Lens no longer wrongly applies its debuff effect on direct damage spells.
Final Ultimatum is now an untyped Combat Spell instead of a debuff spell, to make it clear it cannot benefit from the Order Amplifier Lens.
Devolve is now an untyped Combat Spell instead of a debuff spell, to make it clear it cannot benefit from the Nature Amplifier Lens.
Exalted Champion is now a buff spell instead of a damage spell so it can benefit from the Order Bolstering Matrix and it will no longer be wrongly displayed that it will deal damage to the unit.
Rotting Explosion is now a Damage and Debuff Spell so it can benefit from both of the Shadow Amplifier Lens bonuses.
Ice Coffin is now correctly benefiting from being a Damage spell for the Amplifier Lens.
Devouring Void is now a Combat Enchantment instead of a Damage spell, so it is clear that it cannot benefit from the damage bonus of the Shadow Amplifier Lens.
Fulmination is now a Damage/Debuff spell so it benefits from both Astral Amplifier Lens bonuses.
Seismic Shock is now correctly displayed as a Damage/Debuff spell.
Crushing Earth is now correctly just a Damage spell so it no longer benefits from the Materium Amplifier Lens debuff bonus.
Parting Gifts is now a Combat Enchantment Spell, so it is clear it cannot benefit from the extra Healing of the Nature Bolstering Matrix.
Abducting Cyclone is now an untyped Combat Spell, to make it clear it cannot benefit from the debuff bonus from the Materium Amplifier Lens.
Awaken Instincts is now correctly a Nature Affinity spell, so it can benefit from the healing bonus of the Nature Bolstering Matrix.
Demonic Onslaught now correctly allows Extra Unit Effects so the Chaos Bolstering Matrix can apply its extra buffs.
Time Stop is no longer a Buff spell, so it does not display that it will give buffs to affected units from the Astral Bolstering Matrix.
Exhilarating Pollen now correctly heals allies and weakens enemies.
Disruption Wave now correctly only buffs allies and debuffs enemies.

Tomes

Fixed an issue where the Tome of Subjugation did not have the correct Affinity Requirements.

World Map

Fixed an issue where you would not lose Empire Affinity after unassigning a governor that gives Empire Affinity.
Fixed an issue where the Order Bolstering Matrix could not be built.
Fixed the Bolstering Matrixes and Amplifier lenses wrongly giving Imperium income when they were re-enabled.
Fixed the Bolstering Matrixes not correctly being mutually exclusive.
Fixed the Amplifier Lenses not correctly being mutually exclusive.
Fixed issue where Bolstered Resistance from the Industrious Bolstering Trait would not correctly remove Sundered Resistance
Fixed Bind Gold Ancient Wonder spell canceling if the outpost that the ancient wonder is annexed to is upgraded to a city.
Fixed an issue where units would be lost after attacking from the water, directly onto land.
Fixed an issue where excavations weren't interrupted when the leader was teleported away from the province.
Fixed crash when clicking on a starved sector that was getting replaced with another structure.
Fixed wrong hero count when a free city that has multiple heroes is integrated.
Fixed wrong hero count when a hero dies to a strategic spell.
Fixed potential crash in old saves that had an Age of Affinity spell running.
Fixed teleporters non-functional after repair.

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