New Spell: Unclaim
This is a new spell we’ve introduced to fill a very minor niche, while we don’t expect there are many scenarios where the player may wish to unclaim their own territory it can be very useful in 2 vs 2 multiplayer games to make way for your ally to claim an area.Available immediately as a baseline spellUnclaims tiles and walls that belong to the casting playerNo mana costCannot unclaim rooms or shrines
Map Editor Improvements
It is now possible to select any theme in the game for the Empire dungeon theme, regardless of whether you own the theme
UI Changes
Workers that are fortifying walls are now shown as idle on the unit panel, helping players assign important tasks in preference of low priority ones like fortificationUnits which are unable to level no longer show their level in their unit shieldUnit shields rotate what they are displaying faster – unit level is shown much more oftenFinished rituals can now be activated by clicking the ritual buttonThe replay button on the mission briefing screen now reads as “Repeat”
Gameplay and Balance Changes
Units which recently underwent corruption in a Torture Chamber will no longer seek pay instantlyWorkers that are automatically spawned by the Dungeon Core will now seek the whole map for tasks at equal priorityPreviously they would prioritise tasks based on distance and thus may have fortified walls when other more important tasks were available.Workers spawned by the Summon Worker spell are unaffected
AI Improvements
Units which try to avoid enemy threats, such as the worker, are now less frightened by smaller threatsWorkers now have less fear when combat is occurring nearby, provided they are in good health.As a result rescuing your own minions and imprisoning enemies from the middle of combat should be more efficiently handledIntroduced new dynamic variables to worker priorities:Priority for bringing piglets to the spit roast is now adjusted based on the current “ammo” remaining in the spit roastArtefacts, defence parts and gold piles now have different priorities for collection tasks, artefacts being highest and gold being lowestThe level of a unit will now be considered when rescuing or imprisoning unconscious units, the higher the level the higher their priorityClaim tasks now get a slight boost in priority for each additional tile or room that becomes claimable after claiming the target tileMining gold shrines now has a lower priority than mining gold and several other high value tasksSeveral small tweaks to worker behaviour and task priorities
Performance Optimization
Memory allocation in large combat has seen a reduction of up to 90%. This should reduce micro-stutter caused by code garbage collectionImproved overall performance when many units are clustered together by up to 25%.Rendering and AI processes are now better balanced, boosting the AI’s performance when rendering is requesting use of the entire CPU. May reduce FPS on lower end systems, but ensures that AI is always reliable and does not freeze in long games on large levels
Misc Changes
Multiplayer mode spectator camera has been improved
Bug Fixes
Fixed a critical issue where some units would suddenly stop moving when CPU load was too high, often on large maps with multiple players and unitsUnits will no longer perform certain actions slower when CPU load is highFixed a game freeze that could occur under specific conditions when a large room was claimed (often on custom maps)Fixed a long standing issue on level 8 in the campaign where it was not possible to defile all tombs due to ghoul limits on the Necromancer. Ghoul limits are now disabled on this levelFixed an issue where units that had created their bed before a save game would not be rescued after that game was loadedFixed an issue where unit beds would not be visible after loading a saved gameFixed an issue where the spit roast in the Tavern would no longer serve meals after loading a saved game in extremely particular circumstancesFeral ghouls will no longer be brain-deadFixed an issue with the Map Editor whereby maps with a colon in their name could not be savedFixed an issue with the Map Editor whereby maps with a colon in their name could not be importedFixed an issue with the Map Editor under which it was possible to create unclaimable tiles by painting claimed tiles over fortified walls, creating the greatly misunderstood but none the less beautiful fortified claimed tileThis has also been fixed in all existing mapsFixed an issue where it was impossible to place constructs on certain shrines in the Map Editor, if that shrine was not placed on claimed groundClients in multiplayer should now be correctly removed from Possession when their unit is knocked outFixed a crash which occurred after playing many multiplayer maps in a rowFixed an issue in multiplayer where clients could be desynced from the start and thus be unable to playFixed an issue for clients in multiplayer where rituals could sometimes lock the Sanctuary permanently, making further rituals unusableThe sound indicating that a player has joined your multiplayer lobby should now play correctly under all circumstancesFixed a visual issue with the corrupted skins of the Priestess and Bard Empire unitsFixed an issue where casting Blood Money upon a prisoner would cause their model to be left behind, even though they were correctly removed from the prisonFixed an issue that prevented the loading of a save game when an object in the player’s hand was destroyed directly before savingFixed a rare issue where unit shields could sometimes continue to be displayed even after a unit’s deathFixed an issue where the progress shield on Crypt pyres would show incorrect values after a ghoul had risenFixed a bug where the load and save menus were not correctly showing the “Sandbox & Scenarios” categoryFixed an issue where the Kickstarter and Founder’s themes were listed twice in the multiplayer and skirmish lobby