Version 0.9 launch info

[piranha]

Yesterday we launched version 0.9 and besides a couple of bugs found so far it seems to work pretty good. It's great that you provide bug reports in the forum so we can quickly fix the last things.
I saw one question about playing ladder game. In this version you will simply pick a ladder map and then be able to check the ladder checkbox in the game lobby. But we haven't set any maps to ladder status yet. As soon as it seems stable enough we will update the maps. Probably today or tomorrow.

One thing that would be good to see tested is the realtime game mode. We have played two games where we didn't encounter any problem but would be good with more testing. Especially melee games.

I've compiled a list with most of the new features and changes that are in version 0.9. I didn't list the bugs but we fixed all that had been found.
A big thanks to Hatchfactory who is helping out now. We've had some creative discussion going back and forth to improve the look of the game and I think the new and updated terrain looks great. He also provided some knowledge that helped us reduce the size of most of the art by around 50% without losing quality.

Map Editor
- Added new terraintypes: Wall
- Added new terraintypes: River
- New grassland and shore art
- Hill graphics updated to match the new grass.
- Added new mapsize: 75, 125
- Added option to make ruins respawnable or not
- Added mirror tool, to make it easier to create mirrormaps
- Added multiple hosting options
- Added a measure tool


Heroes
- New hero unit ranger
- New bonus ward and group ward protecting against ambush
- Hero can now be hired with level 1 - 5.
- Hero chance and purchase cost updated.
- Item bonus system updated to make it work with several different bonus combined.
- Luck is reduced a bit by decreasing the span of the hero offers you can get.
- Max cost for hero changed to 850 from 1200. New span is 400 - 850 gold.
- Heroes spawn with a possible max level. You will receive the highest level you can afford from that spawn.
Each level cost 250 gold.
Turn 6 - 12: 33% level 1, 66% level 2. (if enough gold)
Turn 13 - 18: 66% level 2, 33% level 3 (if enough gold)
Turn 19 - 24: 50% level 2, 25% level 3, 25% level 4 (if enough gold)
Turn 25+: 33% level 3, 33% level 4, 33% level 5 chance to receive a level 2 hero (if enough gold)
Cost span for ally units is also reduced to 100 - 200 spans instead of 250 - 400 spans.


Ruins
- Level 2 ruins no longer hold vampires
- The span of what you can get in gold from ruins is less and the max is a bit lower.


Items
- 9 new items
- More bonuses possible on items now.
- Several old items have been updated (check the wiki).


Community
- New graphic
- New shields art
- List showing all users online with a ability to open a realtime chat with anyone online
- Possibility to create chat groups
- [settings] Can show email to team members and friends
- [settings] Can remove maps from mapslots
- [settings] Full screen now opens the game in real full screen for extra immersion.
- Gamelobby updated to send less data.
- New hosting options.
- Gamelobby is now realtime updated when new players join.
- Single player is now a new menu option.
- Matchmaking
- First version of a moderator section that can help validating new maps.
- A statistics page with some interesting unit and map data (more will come)
- New payment gateway option WebMoney is implemented but still waiting to be accepted as a merchant.
- Maps now listed with the K-value.
- Information popup when setting away time if you will run out of credits.
- Improved admin system
- Support for languages with different characters


Realtime games
- Realtime games can be hosted.
- When a realtime game is available an icon/button is showing on the site on all pages.
- Realtime games are deleted after 1.5 hours if not started.
- Realtime games allow all players to move at the same time with turns that are 4+ minutes.
- Pause realtime mode and switch to simultaneous mode at any time in the game.
- Change back to realtime when all players of the game are online again at the same time.
- Can skip battle animation.
- Can set several paths and move all units with one move all button.
- After end turn you can still play until all players clicked end turn and the new turn is started.



Simultaneous games
- Simultaneous games can be hosted.
- In Sim games all players can do their turn at the same time.
- When the last player click end turn a per turn random amount of time will pass before the new turn is started to not give an advantage to being last.


New gold features
- Track enemy or/and allied movement (useful in realtime games)
- Can disable double click
- Battle history increased to 60 from 30
- Can view team heroes
- Tiny icons show on blessed units
- Can take part in more than one chat group


Hero balancing
- Paladin now maxes out at 10 in leadership
- Dread knight can now increase movement to 15, starts with 55 in pillage.
- Assassin now start with battle 20


Unit balancing
- Yeti now has ward 30%
- Mammoth have 10% group ward, increased battle from 20 to 22.
- Most flying units have increased movement by 2 to compensate lost road movement
- Orc is back at battle 10
- Crusader cost lowered from 650 to 600


Game
- When you've pressed end turn in team games you can still play until all players pressed end turn.
- Observer mode for teammates added.
- Can toggle allied portal information
- Army simulator to help new players test various army setups
- Attack and defend fight order.
- Button to open notes popup
- NAPs only mean that you can't attack cities, towers and resource buildings.
- Improved serversync code, client actively keeps the server up-2-date with small things like new path, new groups etc and warns if you try to leave the game without those having been saved.
- Many many bugs have been fixed.


Performance optimizations
- All minimaps are being run through png crush to reduce size.
- Most art is optimized around 50% in size.
- On several places we have been able to reduce the amount of data sent from the server to the client with good margin. Battle list, battles and warpedia should be significant faster.
- Minimap doesn't need to reload when opening popups any more.
- Water has been optimized but due to new water terrain it is similar to 0.8 in performance cost.

[KGB]

Piranha,

Impressive list!

- Orc is back at battle 10

Might be the most important change

A few things:

1) You mention the +2 moves for fliers due to road movement change. But you didn't specifically list what that change was (ie Fliers now always pay at least 2 movement on all terrain)
2) Much of the Wiki is still not updated (ie new formula for hero cost / chance / levels, ally costs etc). The new bonus's and how/when they stack/don't stack etc. The ruin section could use a list of rewards (ie what items/allies/gold you can get from L1, L2 and L3). Can you get those updated so that we aren't all asking for the new formula's over and over again.
3) When I looked in the wiki for the units / items all the icons are missing for the bonus's, items etc. All I see is text and numbers.

If you want some help with the wiki I'll be glad to edit and improve some areas in January when the holidays are over.

KGB

[piranha]

1. Flyers pay same as before except they pay move 2 where land units may pay 1. cities, roads, hill with dwarf. I don't know if they can still sleep on the deck of a ship or if they have to fly over it . Snotling should know.

Wiki:Help would be very much appreciated. Perhaps I should open a forum thread for that and we could go through each section because sometimes when I take time to update the wiki I'm not sure what I should update.

[Omen]

AWESOME stuff!

[smursh]

Lots of changes. I think the game will be even more interesting.

The change to the paladin will definately make me consider other heroes more, he is now more of a specialised ruin hunter than ever.

I look forward to some new games!

[jetigig]

Wiki:Help would be very much appreciated. Perhaps I should open a forum thread for that and we could go through each section because sometimes when I take time to update the wiki I'm not sure what I should update.

I would be willing to help.

[Chazar]

The change to the paladin will definately make me consider other heroes more, he is now more of a specialised ruin hunter than ever.

Actually, he is rather bad at that too: there are other heroes with +3 undead lore per point, which also have much better move points. I used to take assassins: they start with 2 points less, but they are a lot faster, which translates into faster levelling, which means they can make up for it easily. Now consider the ranger, if I remember correctly (it is really a pity that one cannot lookup the heroe's progression tables anywhere in the wiki), the ranger starts with +1 group move, 12 UL, and has also +3. They only thing that prevents the ranger from being an excellent ruin hunter would be low maximum undead lore, like the for the HorseLord, who would otherwise be a good choice.

[Jeremy]

Are you able to look at the frequency of which Heroes are selected?

If Paladins are selected much more than other heroes, then they should be weakened.

If there are only selected only slightly more than other heroes, they should be left alone. The reason for this is that the Paladin is the hero most likely be attract beginners, with it's balance and lack of downsides.

Jeremy

[smursh]

The main advantage the palidin always had vs many other leadership heroes was his high end strength which always is available. (HL limited to certain terrains, valk to attack, ect). I do tend to agree that other heroes can do well exploring ruins, particularly if you add a few UL units-scouts, wizards, ghosts, ect. The main disadvantage was always that you needed to reach a much higher level to get this advantage.(HL can reach 25 terrain specific leadership by level 4, paladin need to reach lv9 to max his skill)

I think 10 may be a little low here, perhaps capping the paladin at 13 would work better, still not so strong, but not completely weakened.

[Argammon]

Imo the Paladin was just about right before. With the change, I won't hire him anymore.

Great Archons now nullify his max bonus.