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Hey All,
Today we’re putting the next Update for Age of Wonders 4 into Open Beta. With this Update we’re looking to address the most critical feedback on the Hero Rework. Considering the time we’ve had this Update is incredibly jampacked with the separation of Hero Class and Hero Loadout, two new hybrid Hero Classes and 3 new Skirmisher Weapons/Loadouts.
Our hope is to be able to release this update fully before the Holiday Season, however that planning may change based on your Feedback. If you want to provide your feedback you can do so by making a Discussion Thread in the Open Beta Discussions.
May your pantheons thrive,
Getting into the Beta - What you need to know
If you want to take part in the beta there are a few important things you need to know!

This Beta is only available on Steam, owners on Console, Epic or Gog will receive this update later when it fully releases.
If a save has been made in Open Beta, there’s no going back! Moving into the Open Beta will transition all your Custom Rulers, once this has occurred you cannot switch back to 1.2. If you do so all your Rulers will invalidate and no longer be accessible. Only participate if you want to try the new Hero Changes, if you want to join for specific fixes we recommend you don’t !!!
Only use this in multiplayer if all participants agree. Make sure you do not use the beta in multiplayer without checking with the other players first, once a multiplayer game session has been updated to use the open beta, you cannot go back to previous versions!

That being said, to access the beta you will need to do the following:
To switch to a custom branch in the Steam client, right-click on the game from the library page and select "Properties".



Among the available tabs will be the "BETAS" tab.



The Tiger Beta should be listed in the dropdown menu under "Select the beta you would like to opt into:" A restart of your Steam Client may be needed if the Branch isn’t visible.
Game Version: 1.009.004.100853




Hero Class Updates
We’ve essentially overhauled the underlying Hero System once again to split up Loadouts i.e. Hero Background Traits into Hero Class and Hero Weapon. This change brings with it a lot of risk for existing Rulers as well as mods changing Hero Classes/Loadouts.

Separated Hero Class and Weapon loadouts. Class and Loadout can be picked individually based on the expected weapon restrictions.
Added new Hero Class: Death Knight - A Hero Class that specializes in high damage Melee attacks, backed up by Debuffs and summoned Undead units.

Can equip:
Great Weapons
One Handed Weapons
Shields
Fist Weapons
Polearm Weapons
Added new Hero Class: Spellblade - A Hero Class that uses both Melee and Magic attacks to deal magic damage from a distance and physical damage when the enemy gets close.

Can equip:
Great Weapons
One Handed Weapons
Shields
Fist Weapons
Polearm Weapons
Added new Icons to Hero Classes
Even More Skirmisher Weapons & Loadout Updates

Added 3 new Skirmisher Weapons

Javelin
Melee Strike - 12 Base Damage +2 per Item Tier
Javelin - 22 Base Damage +4 per Item Tier
Cannot be Mounted
Sword & Net

Melee Strike - 14 Base Damage +2 per Item Tier
Throw Net

18 Base Damage +4 per Item Tier
90% Base Chance to Immobilize
Cannot be Mounted
Sword & Throwing Dagger (Ways of War Only)

Melee Strike - 14 Base Damage +2 per Item Tier
Dagger Throw - 22 Base Damage +4 per Item Tier
Cannot be Mounted
Updated Culture Loadouts

Barbarian

Added Javelin Loadout
Added Sword and Net Loadout
Dark

Added Sword and Net Loadout
Feudal

Added Javelin Loadout
Added Sword and Net Loadout
Industrious

Added Sword and Net Loadout
Reaver

Added Sword and Net Loadout
Added Fire Orb Loadout
Added Reaver Staff Loadout
Primal

Added Javelin Loadout to all Primal Animals (except Spider)
Added Sword and Net Loadout to Primal Spider
Oathsworn

Added Sword and Throwing Dagger Loadout
Wizard Kings can now use Orbs & Staves of all Base Damage Types
Hero Balance
General

Reduced Base Hero Stats

Reduced HP from 90 to 80
Reduced Defense from 3 to 2
Reduced Resistance from 3 to 2
Reduced Base Dragon Lord Stats

Reduced HP from 100 to 80
Reduced Defense from 4 to 3
Reduced Resistance from 4 to 3
The Command and Channeling Ritual abilities can no longer have their cooldowns reset
Eldritch Sovereign: Enthralling Truth now correctly lasts until the end of combat
Dragon Lords are now allowed to change their Class & Dragon Claw after Ascension
Warrior
Generally reduced their solo survivability

Distracting Charge and Reckless Charge are now mutually exclusive
Reckless Rage and Critical Momentum are now mutually exclusive
Unyielding - No longer grants +2 Resistance
Graceful Charge - Reduced Grace granted from +2 to +1
Willbreaker - Increased radius from adjacent enemies to 3 hexes
Warseeker

Now only works on enemy units
Effect now lasts for 2 turns rather than until end of combat
Reduced max stacks from 5 to 3
Defender
Made Tireless Retaliator a bit more niche, shuffled damage bonus on fighting skills to make it a more interesting choice between survivability and damage.

Graceful Defence - Reduced Grace granted from +2 to +1
Tireless Retaliator - Now grants Tireless Retaliation while in Defense Mode
Resistant Vanguard - Reduced Status Resistance granted from +2 to +1
Fighting 1 - Reduced Damage increase to 10% instead of 15%
Fighting 2

Increased Damage increase to 20% instead of 15%
Now mutually exclusive with Greater Vigor
Renamed to "Greater Fighting"
Mage
Reduced leftover accuracy abundance, now Maximized magic is the primary source of accuracy while magecraft and arcane strength provide more damage to let mage keep up with other roles in damage better.

Magecraft 1 - Replaced +10% accuracy with +10% damage
Magecraft 2 - Replaced +10% accuracy with +10% damage
Arcane Strength - Replaced +10% accuracy with +10% damage
Lightning Evocation - Reduced Jumps from 3 to 2.
Maximized Magic - Critical Hit Chance reduced from 30% to 20%
Devastating Evocation - No longer incorrectly removes the chance to inflict burning from Fire Evocation
Wildfire renamed to Wildfire Strikes, reworked to inflict damage and spread burning to adjacent targets with basic attacks.
Displacement - Now only triggers from Melee attacks.
Ritualist
Astral bond retaliation count gain is reduced to make the benefit for melee or ranged targets more equal.

Astral Bond - Reduce Retaliation Attack bonus from +2 to +1 (This change also affects Mystic School of Summoning's Summoners)
Ranger
Reduced power of invigorating takedown slightly.

Invigorating Takedown - Reduced Strengthened granted from +2 to +1
Go for the Kill now works on all attacks, not just melee and physical ranged.
Scattershot now shoots at the center hex of the AoE
Snapshot now always faces the target when shooting
Fatal Strikes no longer shows up in the Unit Panel, only as an Ability Modifier.
Critical Skirmisher now shows up in the Unit Panel.
Critical Second Wind now shows up in the Unit Panel.
Knockback Retaliations now shows up in the Unit Panel.
Evasive Strikes now shows up as an Ability Modifier.
Signature Hero Skills

Souldraining Strikes - Now inflicts 2 remorse when attacking with a single action attack.




Added Ways of War Ruler Lore Entries to the Encyclopedia
Arcane Artisans - Reduced Mana gain from mines from 10 to 5
Added a horizontal scrollbar to our scripting dialog




Improved likelihood of AI casting Race Transformations

The issue was that the AI discount for research did not correctly apply.
increase AI value for racial transformations. and adjusted the research for the AI.
Combat AI

AI is now much less likely to move before using a free ability
AI understanding of the Command hero abilities has been improved
AI understanding of the Astral Ward ability has been improved
Melee units are now much less likely to move away from the frontline when using a ranged ability
Reduced threat projection range of melee units from 4 to 3 hexes (so ranged units don't feel like running as far away from them)
Lowered the importance of threat by 70% when victory is certain (so units aren't as skittish while winning)
Lowered the importance of threat by 90% when loss is certain (so ranged units don’t kite as much when they're going to lose anyway)




Changed the On Target Killed effect exclusion from Non-Vital to Friendly Units. This applies to the following:

Empire Tree - Rite of Possession - Balor: Power from Slaughter
Empire Tree - Knightly Order - Order of the Indomitable
Unit Enchantment - Bloodfury Weapons
Elder of Chaos - Fires of War
Order Paragon Skill - Lead by Example
Mage Hero Skill - Devouring Spell
Ranger Hero Skill - Invigorating Take Down
Ranger Hero Skill - Kill Shot
Ranger/Warrior Hero Skill - Grim Executioner
Warrior Hero Skill - Warseeker
Warrior Hero Skill - Willbreaker
Warrior Hero Skill - Killing Momentum (& Item Forge)
Gold Golem - Strike Gold
Ascended Warlord
Buffs/Debuffs

Grace - Now stacks only up to 3 times down from 5
Vicious Killer now does 4 more morale damage, and correctly affects units 3 hexes away




Mystic School of Summoning

Unit “Summoner”

Astral Bond - Reduce Retaliation Attack bonus from +2 to +1
Combat Spell “Conjure Summoning Rift”

Now selects a valid empty hex in the province to be summoned on
Updated description to specify it summons on an empty hex in the target province.
Oathsworn

Harmony no longer loses devotion when vowing to destroy a Umbral Dwelling
Oathsworn Peacebringer

Line Shot - No longer a base ability
Line Shot - Increased damage from 20 to 24
Line Shot - Reduced Range from 4 to 3
Oathsworn Sealbearer

Reduced HP from 65 to 55
Reduced Defense from 2 to 1
Reduced Resistance from 2 to 1



Rulers

Changed Ambitions for rulers that can no longer have the Prospector Ambition. This will cover 5 rulers in total, over 3 DLCs:

Blint now has the Delver Ambition
Fangir now has the Explorer Ambition
Aerelazaliar now has the Teacher Ambition
Ydgaard now has the Collector Ambition
Ryc'turi now has the Imperialist Ambition
Society Traits

Keepers of Knowledge - Reduced knowledge income from Open Borders from 20 to 10
Cult of Personality

Units not in an army led by a hero suffer -20 morale now instead of 10
Heroes gain +20 gold upkeep per Renown level



Ambitions

Prospector “Artisan Equipment” - Upkeep changed to Hero Upkeep +50 instead of 10 per unit.
Steward now gives 40 renown for having a positive stability city for 5 turns





Added Oathsworn item skins that were missing from the item forge
Sword and Pistol “Fire Magelock” - Reduced Base Damage from 20 to 16
Sword and Crossbow “Shoot Crossbow” - Reduced Base Damage from 22 to 20



Materium

Tome of Alchemy

Combat Spell “Antimagic Tincture” - Now dispels 2 Negative Status Effects instead of all
Special Province Improvement “Alchemist’s Lab” - Increased costs from 120 production and 60 gold to 250 production and 100g
Order

Tome of Cleansing Flame

Unit “Pyre Templar”

Fire Cleave now correctly damages obstacles
Fire Cleave now has 90% chance to inflict burning to both primary and secondary targets and this shows up correctly in tooltips. (previously 60% to secondary targets)
Fire Cleave now correctly has 50% effectiveness on secondary targets on status effects as well.
Shadow

Tome of Severing

World Map Spell “Conjure Spellward”

Now selects a valid empty hex in the province to be summoned on
Updated description to specify it summons on an empty hex in the target province.




Added a new property called “Cannot be Displaced”. This is given to the following units:

All Tower Type units
All Siegecraft Type units
All T5 dragons
All T4 Giants
Dragon Ruler
Horned God
Earth Titan
Bone Dragon
Ironclad
Karagh
Displace effects from abilities previously sometimes worked against units with Large Target and sometimes did not. Now they consistently work on all units except units with Cannot be Displaced. This influences the following abilities:

Displace and Replace modifier on many charge attacks and the Item Forge
Push Back modifier on two Hero skills and the Item Forge
Cloud in a Bottle item ability
Water Spirit’s Tidal Wave
Thunder Bird’s Thunderclap
Ironclad’s Direct Fire
Mercenary’s Drive Back
Dragon Ruler’s Tail Bash
Dragon Ruler’s Astral Elder Stormcall
Wind Rager’s Whirlwind
The following effects are reworded from displaced to teleported because they still work on all units:

Direcaster’s Hysteria Storm
Wizard Tower’s Displacing Reality Combat Effect (Shared with Astral Dew Combat Effect)
Sow Confusion Siege Project
Increased the Magic Bolts damage of the following units by 2 damage:

Warlock
Awakener
Spellweaver
Banshee
Autumn Fairy
Winter Fairy
Watch
Pyromancer
Evoker
Transmuter
Ghost Ship

Wail of the Lost now applies 2 Remorse
Balor

Chaos Brand now correctly Berserks enemies until the end of combat




It is no longer possible to reduce the duration of pillage operations below 1 turn.
Added a new Raze Operation for Umbral Seeds





AI

Fixed a crash that could occur due to no Diplomatic state being found while processing if a stack would walk over a city district.

Art

Fixed an issue where Rulers doesn't face the opponent in the diplomacy screen
Fixed an issue Non-Scout units with Pegasus mounts hold their reigns and weapons at the same time
Fixed an issue where Mount Masters + Blessed Dragon mount causes your ruler to become a triplet
Fixed an issue where the hero is not centered in the "Hero Panel" while having the "Blessed Dragon" mount equipped
Fixed the Pyre Templar’s Weapon being shown on Boats
Fixes for multiple units that weren’t visually embarking when going into water

Iron Golem, Accurssed Ogre, Accursed Blade
Animations

Fixed a Vertex Explosion occurring when using Sprint on a Warbreed
Fixed an issue where Unit mounted on the "Blessed Dragon" have a weird animation when they perform an attack
Fixed an issue where Units mounted on "Horned Bear" move their legs when using range, support and eating abilities
Fixed an issue where Hero's "Pushing Attack" ability has a wrong animation
Fixed an issue where Ogrekin Sunderer throws Javelin in a odd way
Fixed an issue "Sundering Sweep" ability has issues with its animation

Faction Creation

Fixed an issue where Eagle Mounts in Faction Creation + Oathsworn cultures causes one to lose their entire body
Fixed an issue where The "Herald of Glory" outfit does not hide the hair over the male "Halflings" feet
Fixed an issue where "Herald of Glory" helmet is not correctly attached on the male Simian and Ogrekin forms
Fixed a Simian race missing hair color option

Transformations

Fixed an issue where Ascended Rulers with Angelic Transformation would not show their Wings
Fixed an issue where Toadkin with Wightborn transformation had see through mouths
Fixed an issue where Peacebringer with Naga transformation causes the portrait to only show part of a Naga tail
Fixed an issue Insectoid units with helmet loses their eyes when applying certain Major Transformation
Fixed an issue where "Simian" form legs disappear from the knees down when the "Astral Attunement" transformation spell is used
Fixed an issue where The "Shield of Artica" has a very bright texture when the hero is affected by "Astral Attunement" transformation
Fixed an issue where Gloomstrider's tentacles have a few puffed spikes
Fixed an issue where Dragon Lord Order and Chaos' crown is placed around the neck

Combat

Fixed issue with Keeper’s Mark out of turn activation
Fixed issues where Ghostfire did not properly count as burning for multiple effects, like Immolate (extra damage if target is burning) and Curse Eater
Fixed a crash that could occur when apply the Combat Results
Fixed a crash that could occur on getting Unit Kill Rewards
Fixed an issue where Summon Auto Spells would run (infinitely) on Water Maps
Fixed an issue where the "Astral Dew" magic material doesn't provide a combat enchantment during combat

Culture

Mystic School of Potential

Fixed an issue where Arcane Inspiration picked spells that are already max inspiration
Diplomacy

Fixed an issue where the Demonic Warlord personality was allowed to respond to Improved Diplomatic State Events

Economy

Fixed an issue where the Bathhouse could be moved in front of the Tavern
Fixed an issue where Master Masons discounted SPI’s

Events

Fixed the following events not unfogging the quest location

Power Made Flesh
Profound Desire for {Unit}
Into the den of {Unit}
Fixed an Exploit with Profound Desire

The ranking up of the units now happens after the battle, upon quest completion (the units now actually have to fight in the battle to gain the additional experience)
Arcalot

Fixed an issue where Urrath's Grasp applying to Pantheon Heroes
Happenings
Cosmic

Fixed the signature hero skill Shield of Faith lacking an identifier for counting as Faithful so that the Dawn of the Lodestar can correctly recognize the Hero.
Fixed the signature hero skill Condemning Strikes lacking an identifier for counting as having Zeal so that the Dawn of the Lodestar can correctly recognize the Hero.

Intrigue

Added mana cost to "Short-Lived Regency"
Removed location button from "Day of Judgement" event
Fixed an issue in the final event of the usurper intrigue (Return of the VictimPlayerLeader): Ensured the correct cities were used in the event.
Fixed an issue where the Reaper ruler that appears during the "Possession: Reaper" intrigue happening was not correctly centered in multiple screens
Fixed a crash that could occur when updating the Banner of a Intrigue Player
Fixed the ending of the Prisoner Happening when you assassinated the hero, which could soft-lock the ruler from being defeated.
Fixed a crash that could occur due to Intrigue Rulers with no names triggering Notifications for the Player

Heroes

Fixed an issues where not all Pantheon Heroes were eligible for Pantheon Recruitment
Fixed issue where Consolidating Push would damage or debuff the user
Fixed Still as Stone hero skill now works correctly when engaged
Fixed Rustbreath not removing status effects
Fixed Restore (Overflowing) granting 20 THP instead of 10 THP

Ambitions

Fixed an issue where completing an Ambition refreshed the City Income which completed the Ambition again.

Interface

Fixed a crash in the faction creation screen
Fixed an issue where The ability bar does not update when pressing the defence mode
Fixed Ways of War Ascension Skills having the wrong icon in the Skill Tree

Customization Interfaces

Fixed an issue where Panels with customization options remain displayed after switching to a different tab inside "Appearance" screen
Fixed an issue where The "Outfit" image change to an image of the shader's head instead of the shader's body when changing the body type
Fixed an issue where The "Halfling" shader images for the choices under the "Head" category are tiny
Fixed an issue where some items in the hero editor would not properly update their visuals
Fixed an issue where the picker would stay open when switching tabs in the appearance screen
Fixed an issue where The first two "Molekin" beards are impossible to view on the shader inside the "Beard" window
Controller

Fixed an issue where the right stick button on controller would not react properly to presses

Text & Descriptions

Bounties for capturing cities now also mention that vassalizing the city is an option for completing the bounty.
Forming Realm now mentions in its description that it disables free cities.
Primal Dispute now mentions the victory condition in its description.
Lightless Realm Unit property now correctly indicates -2 vision instead of -3.
Fixed a debug text being present in the tooltip of the "Necrotic Spires" city structure
Fixed incorrect description of Warrior’s Soul
Fixed an issue where quest objectives that were set through scripting could not always get the correct description.
Snow Spirits had Freeze Immunity but now it shows on their unit panel
Elusive Form Trait passive now has the correct value
Mistling Fey Trick now has the correct bleed chance value
Fixed Keepers of Knowledge not mentioning all aspects it gives.
Fixed description of Wizard Kings' Quickened Ritual
Fixed Swift Restoration skill description to say "reduced" cooldown instead of no cooldown.
Sundering Evocation fixed typo in sundered resistance string, now hyperlinks correctly.
Cascading Evocation no longer mentions it gives Fire Evocation +5 damage, because it didn’t.
Added the word “gain” to the Wildfire description.
Sundering Evocation now correctly states that Lightning Evocation is now ‘also’ a Debuff ability instead of becoming a Debuff ability.
Fixed a missing string insert in Willbreaker
Fixed Blood Trail not mentioning it inflicts Marked
Multiplayer

Fixed an issue where Combat would softlock after the Vassal Turn in Manual Combat if Control AI Allies was enabled.
Fixed an OoS that could occur due to the same Unit Upgrade being provided from multiple places.

Rulers

Fixed several Rulers who suddenly wore unintended capes
Removed any headgear from O'neron (Eldritch Realms) to show his bold bald personality again.
Fixed the loadout of Naz’ru (Eldritch Realms) so he correctly uses a barbarian weapon
Fixed an issue where the Pronouns of Dragon Lords & Eldritch Sovereigns would reset
Tomes

Tome of the Reaper

Greater Reanimation now correctly works to keep enemy undead after combat.
Tome of the Crucible

Meteor Arrows now correctly give +3 Damage instead of +4
Tome of the God Emperor

Was wrongly stacking condemned, now can no longer stack
Umbral Abyss

Fixed an issue where Umbral Tyrants heroes don't have the Umbral Demon tag
Fixed an issue where Free City AI with war coordination does not attack the Umbral Dwelling but instead roams around
World Map

Fixed an issue where moving an army onto a city or province base of a friendly vassalized city would not be handled correctly.
Fixed an issue where indirectly defeating an infestation, by attacking an army that is not on the infestation itself, would not complete bounties for clearing the infestation.
Fixed a crash that could occur due to a unit temporarily gaining more vision and triggering a meet while re-activating post combat, before their relation modifiers had been reactivated.
Fixed issues where Underground Terraforming doesn't work
Fixed issues with Primal Den Generation
Fixed an issue where battles inside owned Ancient Wonder's borders retained their special combat enchantments

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