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[list]
- Specific Trait Slots can be filled with Unknown Realms manually
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. [list]
- Order - Radiant
- Chaos - Fire
- Astral - Lightning
- Materium - Physical
- Nature - Blight
- Shadow - Frost
- Replaces Combat Casting
- Expert Battle Magic Skill
- Grant your spells Overcharged for 1 turn
- Attuned Cast - Changed from an Active Ability to a Passive
- Replaces “Cosmic Ablation”
- Create & reveal new Astral Echoes in provinces near your Domain.
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.[list]
- 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.
- 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
- Deal 4 Lightning damage per stack when an overcharged spell is cast
- Stacks up to 5 Times
- Replaces the Spellbreaker
- This unit specializes in supporting spellcasting, providing an overchannel, inflicting Dissonance and granting additional casting points over time in combat.
- Sage Arcanist[list]
- Replaces “Resistance Training”
- Novice Battle Magic Skill
- Gain +10 Casting Points in combat
- Replaces “Attunement: Star Blades”
- Novice Battle Magic Skill
- Base Magic attacks inflict Dissonance
- Replaces “Combat Casting”
- Expert Battle Magic Skill
- Grant your spells Overcharged for 1 turn
[/list]
- World Map Spell “Arcane Studies”[list]
- Replaces “Magic Shield”
- Contributes +1 inspiration to a random spell’s Potential each turn.
- -50% structure production income
- Replaces “Attunement: Starblades”
- Attacks gain 90% chance to inflict Dissonance
[/list]
- Replaces Altar of the All Seers
- Grants +1 Inspiration to a random spell each turn
- Recruited Battle Mage and Support units gain +1 Rank.
- Replaces “Mystic Abbey”
- 10 knowledge income
- +3 knowledge per adjacent Conduit or Research Post.
- Counts as a Research Post
[/list]
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. [list]
- When a friendly spell is cast, gain: [list]
- +10 Temp HP healing
- +1 Strengthened for 3 turns
- 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.
- A stationary pylon structure that connects to a target friendly unit takes damage in their stead.
- Spirit Summoning[list]
- Replaces “Attunement: Star Blades”
- Adept Support Skill
- Summon an Elemental spirit on the target hex based on the last spell cast by owner
- Replaces “Combat Casting”
- Adept Support Skill
- Summon an Astral Ward adjacent to the target friendly unit
- Replaces “Resistance Training”
- Master Support Skill
- Magic Origin units in this hero’s army gain +10 HP, +10% Damage and -10% upkeep.
[/list]
- World Map Spell “Astral Divination”[list]
- Replaces “Cosmic Ablation”
- Create & reveal new Astral Echoes in provinces near your Domain.
- Replaces “Magic Shield”
- Summon an Astral Ward adjacent to the target friendly unit
- Replaces “Attunement: Starblades”
- Create a Summoning Rift at target hex. Summoning spells may always target the Rift or adjacent hexes.
[/list]
- 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.[list]
- 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
- Wizard’s Tower Level One:[list]
- 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
- 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
- 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
[/list]
- Soldier[list]
- +10 HP
- +10 HP
- +10 HP
- +10% Damage
- +1 Armor
- +1 Resist
- +10 HP
- Role passive (EG +1 Retaliation for Polearm)
- +10 HP
- +10% Damage
- +1 Armor
- +1 Resist
- 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.
- Astral Ward
- War Hound
- Flow Serpent
- Fleshling
- Splitterling
- 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.
- 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[list]
- Tier I - 15 XP
- Tier II - 20 XP
- Tier III - 25 XP
- Tier IV - 30 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[list]
- Changed additional Unit Ranks from +1 Rank for All Units to +1 Rank for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Units
- Changed additional Unit Ranks from +3 for All Units to:[list]
- +3 Ranks for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Units
- +2 Ranks for Tier 3 Units
- +1 Rank for Tier 4 and Tier 5 Units
[/list]
- Tier 1 - Reduced the chance per turn to gain XP from 66% to 60%
- Tier 2 [list]
- Increased the chance per turn to gain XP from 50% to 60%
- Reduced the gained XP from 2 to 1
- Reduced the chance per turn to gain XP from 66% to 65%
- Reduced the gained XP from 2 to 1
- Reduced the chance per turn to gain XP from 55% to 50%
- Reduced the gained XP from 3 to 2
- 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: [list]
- Fey-Blessed Fields/Endless Fields
- Astral Deserts/Barren Oceans
- Frozen Realm
- Stormwreathed Isles/Hostile seas
- Magic Victory Spells
Visual Effects
- Improved the Lost Mage Ability VFX
- Improved Weapon Enchantment VFX
- Reworked music player to pick more relevant tracks based on:[list]
- Good / Evil Alignment
- Early / Mid / Late Game Phase
- War / Peace
- Realm Traits
- 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”[list]
- 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.
- >
- Now applies to Ranged, Battle Mage and Support Units as well
Reaver
- Unit Passive “Focused Aggression”[list]
- 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.
- Fire Heavy Magelock[list]
- 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
- 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.
[/list]
- “Fire Cannon” - Now has Piercing and Breaching
- Harrying Shot [list]
- No longer has a cooldown
- Now has Breaching
Primal
- Improved generation of Spirit Dens [list]
- 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
- 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
- >
- 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” [list]
- Changed from a Full Action to a Single Action
- Increased Bolstered Resistance/Defense from 1 to 2
- Increased Damage from 5 to 6
- Now applies Condemned to the attacker
[/list]
- 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” [list]
- Pistol Shot - Now has Breaching
- No longer grants Quick Stab ability
- Now grants the Take Aim Ability
- Fire Heavy Magelock - Now has Breaching
- No longer grants Quick Stab ability
- Now grants the Take Aim Ability
- Fire Heavy Magelock - Now has Breaching
[/list]
- 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.
And that's not it! More fixes (both General and Multiplayer) are available on our Forum!
Read the Full Patch Notes
Wishlist Eldritch Realms:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/
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