Note : I still want to run a few AI only tests before uploading the files and will be busy tomorrow, so you can expect a response 2-3 days from now.
This is a quite large update (in fact large enough that I'm considering to rename it 2.0 instead of 1.5) so if you are a veteran CoM player and want to help testing the update, let me know.
I'm especially looking for people willing to test the new modding features because there are plenty and I have no capacity to test those at all. There was also quite a bit of internal code refactoring to split up the UI and gameplay, so also keep an eye out for UI issues like a button having no effect, displayed information being wrong, or the game failing to process a spell effect or other action.
I plan to test the UI and gameplay changes myself and I'll probably wait for at least 2 months before the release to find any new bugs due to the large amount of updates.
This is planned to be the last major update that has new features for the time being, so if you feel I missed something very important that should be added as soon as possible, let me know.
The current changelog :
This is a quite large update (in fact large enough that I'm considering to rename it 2.0 instead of 1.5) so if you are a veteran CoM player and want to help testing the update, let me know.
I'm especially looking for people willing to test the new modding features because there are plenty and I have no capacity to test those at all. There was also quite a bit of internal code refactoring to split up the UI and gameplay, so also keep an eye out for UI issues like a button having no effect, displayed information being wrong, or the game failing to process a spell effect or other action.
I plan to test the UI and gameplay changes myself and I'll probably wait for at least 2 months before the release to find any new bugs due to the large amount of updates.
This is planned to be the last major update that has new features for the time being, so if you feel I missed something very important that should be added as soon as possible, let me know.
The current changelog :
Code:
1.5.0
Bug fixes, gameplay, general
-Fixed 1.4.7 bug : The No Healing ability had no effect on undead.
-Fixed bug : MaxEnchantAura was not read properly from UnitAura.ini.
-When a combat spell is countered, the game will show the "Spell Countered" window instead of a generic red message window.
-In the combat spellbook, when a spell is unavailable or too expensive, it will appear grey.
-Fixed 1.4.7 bug : Game crashes when a unit enchantment on a neutral unit is targeted by Dispel Magic.
-In Automatic Combat mode, when the army total stats are calculated, the stats will be weighted towards the stronger unit in the army based on the square root of the unit's power rating instead of the entire power rating. This should make results more realistic for armies with vastly uneven strength units such as one demigod hero and 8 spearmen.
-Fixed bug : Heroes lose their custom names when Resurrected.
-Fixed bug : Abundance fails to add the intended 7 maximal population for cities between 12 and 17 max population.
-Fixed bug : Web, Crack's Call failed to ignore Magic Immunity.
-Fixed bug : The NonMagic parameter in spells.ini had no effect.
-Fixed bug : Militarist treaty break message was missing the treaty name.
-Fixed bug : The item powers Egoism, Stealth, Amplify, Dark Force, Recharge had no effect on the item aura color
-The AI has a significantly reduced priority to chase after teleporting or merging targets with melee attackers that can't reach them within the turn.
-Experience gained in combat is now displayed on the combat result report.
-Pressing Ctrl+ 1-9 keys on the production screen will save the entire production queue into Queues.INI. Pressing Shift+the same key will clear and load the queue from the file. It does check for requirements and racial restrictions when loading, and only adds the valid items.
-Clicking on a hero portrait on the hero equipment screen allows renaming the hero.
-Wizard's Pact violations are no longer checked while Time Stop is active.
-Added click sound effects to UI buttons
-Fixed bug : AI secondary retort preference had no effect on dual realm wizards.
-Lowered AI primary retort preference chance to 50% from 60% on lower difficulty games. Expert and above was lowered to 65% from 75% chance.
-While a player is casting Spell of Mastery, AI priority to cast and target disjunction at their enchantments is increased.
-Fixed bug : when a unit changes planes, its previous move destination coordinates were not cleared. In rare circumstances this might lead to a crash.
-Power Link no longer counters Spell Blast and Drain Power
-Power Link can now store a maximal amount of 10000 power.
-Power Link now adds one third of the stored power as income each turn, the other 2/3 power carrying over to the stored amount next turn. This should make the income graph smoother.
-Added support for loading and unloading mods directly from the game's main menu. To develop mods, look at Mods\Readme.txt for more information. To use this feature, copy the mod files to the Mods subfolder then click the "Load Mod" button and type the mod name and press enter. This will install the mod and close the game. You have to restart the game after loading/unloading the mod files.
-Updated the effect of the 5 "conjunction" type random events to provide more strategic depth and become more uniform.
NATURE CONJUNCTION
The rising triad of green stars come together, reducing the cost of Nature and Summoning spells by 33%. All Fanatastic creatures gain +2 Attack, Defense and Resistance. Mana generated from power is doubled.
SORCERY CONJUNCTION
The rising triad of blue stars come together, reducing the cost of Sorcery and Enchantment spells by 33%. All spells have double the normal resistance to being dispelled. SP generated from power is doubled.
CHAOS CONJUNCTION
The rising triad of red stars come together, reducing the cost of Chaos, Combat and Special spells by 33%. All single target combat attack spells are 33% more powerful. Research generated from power is doubled.
GOOD MOON
The power of light is peaking! Life and Unit Enchantment spells cost 33% less to cast. Citizens are overwhelmed by generosity, increasing city gold revenues by 50%. All normal units gain +1 Attack, Defense and Movement.
BAD MOON
The power of darkness is peaking! Death and City Enchantment spells cost 33% less to cast. Citizens are pushed to the limit by greed, increasing city production by 50%. All normal units lose 3 resistance in combat.
-The AI has increased probability to cast overland summoning spells during Nature conjunctions.
-The AI has reduced probability to cast Dispel Magic, Disillusionise, Disjunction or Dispelling Wave during Sorcery conjunctions.
-The AI has increased probability to cast City Buff spells during Bad Moon.
-The AI has increased probability to cast Unit Buff spells during Good Moon.
-The AI has increased probability to cast Global Enchantment spells during Sorcery Conjunction.
-The AI has increased priority to produce MP, RP, or SP during the appropriate conjunction.
-Spell Binding now has a uniform cooldown of 12 turns between each use instead of 12 turns on first use and 36 turns afterwards.
Modding
-Fixed bug : tile gold bonus was including the corner tiles of a city area.
-Added EarlyTresholdUncommon and EarlyTresholdRare parameters to Spells.INI
-Added parameter in Spells.INI to determine which tier of spells gives starting spells and which gives guaranteed spells.
-Large Shield can now be accessed by SetStat/GetStat.
-Added Item Aura colors and order to UnitAura.INI
-Fixed bug : Spell target variables in OLSpell.CAS AND CoSpell.CAS did not work.
-Fixed bug : Transmute and Nature's Cures have no effect when changed to be a different realm from Nature.
-Added AIRetort.INI which contains the preferred primary and secondary retort for each realm or realm pair.
-AIRetort.INI also contains AI primary and secondary retort pick probability in percentage. (Base amount, without difficulty modifier)
-Added RaiseVolcanoDestroyOres and RaiseVolcanoCreateOres to modding.ini.
-Added HeroNoRangePenalty and MagicNoRangePenalty to modding.ini.
-Added ScoutingRange parameter to buildings.ini
-Buildings declared as IsWall=1 in buildings.ini will display the city wall preview image.
-Added SETBUILDINGSTATE script command
-Added GAINEXP script command
-HP Bonus and HP Buff stats are now available for GetStat and Setstat
-Added SettlerMercenaries option to modding.ini
-Added TreeOfKnowledgeTurn to modding.ini
-Added scripts for Dispel and Disjunction roll formulas.
-The maximal amount of power stored by Power Link is in modding.ini
-The rate of gaining power from Power Link per turn is in modding.ini
-It can be changed what happens to the stored power when Power Link is dispelled in modding.ini
-Added Fortress and Outpost parameters to Buildings.INI.
-Added script function TerrainInRange() which returns how many tiles are a specific type of terrain in a city area.
-Added Nightshade and Wild Game probability to Ore.INI
-Added new unit stats "EoTHeal" and "EoTHealPerc". Set this value to non-zero in UnitCalc.CAS using SetStat to increase or decrease the amount of overland end of turn healing the unit receives. This can be a negative value to suppress or reduce natural healing, but the total amount healed will never go below 0.
-Added SETGLOBAL and SETCOMBATGLOBAL script commands
-Added COMBATHEAL and OVERLANDHEAL script commands
-Production cost modifiers for buildings and units is now in ProdCost.CAS instead of being hardcoded.
-Added SpellBindingMaxUses to modding.INI
-Game fonts are now loaded from data/fontx_xx.bmp files instead of the compressed LBX file. (use color $000013 for transparent pixels and $000000 to $000007 for visible pixels.)
-Added NodeOnTile script function
-Added GetNodeData script command
-Added PrimaryRealm script function
-Added DISInfo.CAS script to display combat info data (enchantments etc)
-Fixed bug : Attempting to use string variables in scripts caused the game to crash
-Added support for custom spell animations. Define animation data (images to load, etc) in anim.ini. Supported spell types : Combat Damage spell, Combat save or die spell, Combat unit curse.
-Custom projectile types and loading images for them is now supported in RangedType.INI
-Fixed bug : AI created items failed to obey mutual exclusivity assigned to item powers.