The Princess & The Pig DLC and new patches

[Nigel 71]

The Princess & The Pig DLC came out yesterday along with a huge number of fixes and gameplay improvements.

Here are the patch notes posted by FireFly on the official fourm.

 

  Quote

20-3-15 - Version: 1.0.20907 - 315 MB: Today we released a patch featuring a shedload of gameplay and balancing changes and cupboard full of bug fixes.

 

FEATURES:

?Four new skirmish/multiplayer maps

 

?River's Kiss (4)

?Surrounded (5)

?Island Peril (6)

?Armour Harbour (2)

 

 

GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

?Most AI castles have been reworked, so they build up more efficiently and intelligently

?Changes to AI build orders and building limits to account for the new AI building system in place

?The AI has a completely reworked system for dividing up its gold intelligently between troops, buildings and resources

?AIs will now capture villages according to their individual frequencies

?The Sultana now uses assassins to attack other players in skirmish games

?Up and down arrow keys can now be used to scroll through maps in the skirmish lobby

?Tower Mantlet, Tower Ballista, and Tower Haybale Launchers are now limited to 5 of each type per estate

?The number of goods carried in each CartHorse load is now set individually for each good type, instead of per storage building

?Man trap balance changes:

? Duration reduced from 6 to 3 seconds

? Siege weapons no longer trigger the trap, but will receive damage if soldiers trigger it

? Passengers of vehicles (war wagons) no longer trigger or receive damage from man traps

 

?Whirling Dervish splash damage reduced by 25%

?Inns, Mosques, and Churches are now limited to one each per estate (Note that this does not apply to Sandbox mode)

?Capture points will no longer be contested by a capturing player's allies entering the capture radius. The player that first began capturing the flag will gain control of the estate or gatehouse normally unless contested by enemy troops.

?Allied AI lords now coordinate their capture of Village Estates more carefully, and can now call off or redirect the forces if appropriate.

?The Knights mounting horses system has been overhauled:

? Horses now appear directly at the knights' positions, rather than having to run in from long distances first

? Fixed a number of cases where mounting horses and knights could get stuck, including with legacy save games

? Improved the Speech and UI feedback from knights when mounting fails or succeeds

? Fixed knights not restoring their attack scans after mounting

 

?Added hotkey "V" to select the Market (double-tap to move the camera to it) (Existing hotkeys to go to individual market pages: SHIFT+G, SHIFT+H, SHIFT+J for the granary, stockpile, armoury market pages still functional)

 

FORMATIONS OVERHAUL

 

Troop control and formation movement have been overhauled to look and feel much better:

 

? A number of performance optimizations have been added to all troop movement and formation control

? Troops select form-up positions much more accurately

? Troops now hold their relative positions much better in all formations

? Formations turn more smoothly and adjust their heading while following moving targets

? When ordered to attack an enemy unit, all formations hold their shape better, and troops on the outskirts will engage other enemies as expected

? This greatly improves the interaction of large armies attacking each other in formations such as box & line

? This fixes an issue where nearby troops would wait idly by if the commanded attack target was already fully surrounded

? Box and line formation members will now stay together when ordered to attack enemy units, as expected

? An exception is made for units that have their sprint ability activated in this way-- they will sprint at full speed and leave the formation behind in this case

? Sprinting units include Macemen, Whirling Dervishes, and Sassanid Knights

 

? Rabble formation (default)

? Responds more quickly and holds its shape much better. Troops turn on the spot and move right away after initial form-up.

? Note that in this formation troops move at their own pace and don't wait for one another.

 

? Box formation

? This formation keeps all members together at the slowest member units' pace

? Missile units now attempt to stay in the center for protection.

? Pikemen are placed on the very outside if possible

? Now forms up much more accurately, starting off slower and accelerating so troops can reach their positions

? Now allows the slowest units to keep pace much better in most cases

? Addressed a number of cases where faster units would get ahead and turn around

? Now attempts to make course adjustments and rotate without swapping formation position slots

? When units are leaving combat, this formation will attempt to retreat a bit before re-forming

 

? Line formation

? Has had the same enhancements as Box Formation, except that the formation is spread out in a wider shape

 

 

BALANCE CHANGES:

?Knights now mount horses instantly, rather than waiting for the horse to run from its stables to the knight?s position in order to mount.

?Knights cost 200 gold, from 150.

?Crusader Grand Towers cost 220 stone, from 180

?Whirling Dervish cost increased to 150 gold from 140, spin attack damage reduced to 15 from 20

?Catapult damage reduced to 850, from 950

?Warwolf damage reduced to 1600, from 1800

?Crossbowman damage reduced to 3600, from 4000

?A number of the original trails have been rebalanced to account for the improved AI

 

BUG FIXES:

?Fixed player Lord selection in Custom Skirmish and multiplayer lobbies to include all available Lord avatars.

?Fixed cost of diagonal walls being cheaper than those of straight walls

?Fixed an issue where ranged troops could sometimes shoot through diagonal walls

?Fixed village estate carter horses crossing bridges

?Fixed an issue where workers could not path through village estates during Peacetime.

?When patrolling, troops now reset formation form-up time to allow box/line to reform normally when reversing direction

?Fix for carter horses that were unable to deliver to a stockpile with one of it's entrance blocked off

?Fixed an issue where AI's mantlets would not leave the siege camp

?Small changes and fixes to several skirmish maps

?Fixed an issue where AI enemies would get stuck packing and unpacking trebuchets repeatedly

?Healers will no longer heal engine tower units

?Fixed an issue where players could place walls in captured village estates

?Fixed a bug where pitch ditches could linger and burn endlessly

?Fixed certain Lords entering a T-Pose occasionally when idling

?Fixed a crash that could occur in rare cases where AI attempted to place a workshop building off an estate

?Fixed Scribe settings for minimum interval on the emigrate speech

?Fixed multiple buildings being selectable when using shift+click or shift+marquee in certain ways

?Multiplayer lobby browser:

? The number of players x/y in a given game is now updated during gameplay to show "Alive Players" / "Starting Players" including AI

? Before the match, only humans and available human slots are shown, since the host can easily change the AI lords and they will not block humans from joining

 

?Fixed certain hotkeys functioning when the game was task switched in fullscreen modes

?Fixed the Apothecary unit using default unit rules instead of his own

?Fixed siege equipment requiring but not deducting multiple peasants when built

?Building and Unit build buttons no longer function if the game is paused, preventing issues with lingering building proxies and enqueued troops tying up peasants who have not yet arrived.

?Fixed the unit orders buttons' tooltips sometimes popping/sticking open if the button function was changed, even if the mouse had left the button

?Fixed an issue where the Lobby's Advanced Options menu would stay open if a prior game was started without closing it first

?Siege Equipment is now always in "Hold Ground" stance to match its behaviour

?Set VSync to always enable in the Map Editor to prevent excess rendering (Thanks to Marius Radich!)

?Fixed Greatest Lord screen being disabled upon loading a custom skirmish game from a story game

?Fixed area-of-effect indicator particles sometimes lingering in the world when their owner had died

?Fixed the building tooltip remaining open if cancelling a build via a hotkey

?Fixed potential crash problems with the invasion and siege controllers

?Various performance optimisations

?Added low water detail option

?Added a no shadows option

 

 

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Edited March 21, 2015 by Nigel

[Lord_Chris 251]

Featured. :)

[Andreas9541 3]

Likes: Knights can mount up anywhere instantly.

Dervishes are not ridiculously overpowered.

No mounting glitch.

The princess looks cool.

 

Doesn't Like:

Knights are more expensive.

The pig looks and sounds like a spoiled boy in comparison to the SHC1 Pig.

Still no proper watch tower.

Grand tower requires too much stone to build.

Dervishes not sprinting like mace men and instead do the stupid power walk (not the attack sprint)

[Micha! 27]

Alright, I finished the dlc campaign. I needed to restart 2 times on last mission because I became a bit rusty :D

Dervishs aren't overpowered anymore and feel like more balanced, I still don't like that range units always attack the same unit (overkill if you have like 30 crossbowman shooting at 1 spear man while there are like 20 around).

I like that The Pig is back but I think it is more like his son. The face/animation looks stupid in my opinion and sadly he doesn't have the cool taunts anymore.

 

I noticed that the ais got abit better but still there is some improvement needed. I didn't placed a gate in last misison instead I just let a space at a grand tower. Units always tried to go through there but a human player would have attacked a none defended side instead.

[LordPaultheDubious 37]

Look forward to trying it out, might have to hang on til the end of the month before buying though :)

 

Edit: just gone on Steam and realised how cheap it is :D

Edited March 22, 2015 by LordPaultheDubious