Update Notes - v1.0.19584.7 (12 March 2021)

- Fixed a bug that applied the UI scaling setting to the help file
- Fixed the Qin Shi Huang end video playing incorrect Chinese speech
- Fixed the Toyotomi Hideyoshi start video playing incorrect French speech
- The manuals are also now available from the game installation folder as well as Steam (English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese)

Undocumented change for GOG:
- Map editor no longer crashes upon placing objects

Today the v1.0.19584.7 update became available in offline installers.

Update Notes - v1.1.19976 (24 March 2021)

(currently Galaxy only)

Updates

- Added Extreme! difficulty to both Skirmish and Campaign modes. Note: Extreme! difficulty in skirmish will give the AI an unfair gold advantage.
- Total troop limit in skirmish/multiplayer is increased. Example: troop limit in a 2 player game is increased from 200 to 300.
- Added 2 new large keeps, Mongol Yurt and Tribal
- Selecting alternative skins for player’s Lord model will also change their keep type
- Updated Japanese voice lines for barracks troops
- Added diplomacy points to overall resource settings in Skirmish lobbies
- Motion blur can now be disabled/enabled via a setting stored in options.xml (default is for it to be enabled)
- The minimap can now be configured to rotate/face North and scale to fit inside its box by default via new settings in options.xml
- Added a new 2 player skirmish map: Riverbend. Expect a tense push and pull battle as both players vie for control of the warlords guarding the path to their opponent's castle.

General Fixes

- Fix for saves crashing on Load due to incorrect refcounts (Note: Old corrupt saves will still crash on load, but new saves will now Load correctly)
- Fixed “Defending Our Lands” from the Genghis Khan campaign so that it correctly shows the build menu
- Fix for pathfinding obstacles sometimes not clearing after walls are destroyed. This addresses mortars sometimes not being able to path through destroyed walls in ‘The Battle of Yehuling’
- Changed ruins on ‘Heart of an Empire’ and ‘Fortunes’ in the Economic Campaign to fix blocked mission progress. Please note existing saves from these missions will use old ruins types.
- Fix for triangular wall pieces sometimes lingering around after adjacent square pieces have been destroyed
- Triangular wall pieces are now broken down more consistently to match the damage level of adjacent square walls (this has no effect on balance but gives a clearer impression of how damaged a section of wall is).
- Lord portraits now appear correctly for MP/Skirmish human player non-AI skins in various UI places
- Increased fade distance of buildings on fire
- Updated popularity report formatting to accommodate longer localization texts
- Overhauled the ninja pathfinding system to handle many map and building layouts that could not previously be navigated
- Fixed an issue that could cause groups of Mongolian Horsemen to jostle back and forth after moving to a position
- Fixes for a number of cases where troops could get stuck (especially in gates) and not be able to move again
- Ballistas can no longer attempt to attack defensive stone buildings
- Fixed an issue where troops could get stuck repeatedly failing to attack warlord workers in melee
- Fixed an issue where actors would hover briefly before landing during their knockback animation
- Fixed an issue where actors could get stuck just on the edge of unpathable terrain after being knocked back
- Troops in rabble formation are more reliable at moving to target enemy units on rooftops

Balance changes

- Halved warrior monk area attack damage to 500, doubled cooldown time to 60 seconds
- Adjusted the way splash damage is applied to walls from siege projectiles, to make overall damage more consistent across diagonal and non-diagonal walls.

Warlords

- Repair and Upgrade Castle edicts can no longer be used when the enemy is very close to the castle. If triggered before the enemy approaches, they will still finish if the enemy comes into range during the edict.
- Warlord shipments now only display messages on their first and last shipment, in which they report Current/Total goods sent
- Added an icon to the diplomacy map for ongoing instant attacks

AI Improvements

General
- AI Lords now use their own respective keeps in Skirmish games
- Added several new overlord taunts

Town
- Many improvements to AI town building, including smarter positioning of different building types, fixes for several cases where the building layout could result in stuck workers, and increased maximum distance that buildings can be placed from the keep
- Improved granary placement to be more central inside the castle, making it better protected from attacks
- Fixed several issues with turrets and engine platforms not attaching to walls correctly
- The AI is better at calculating how many of each type of work building it needs to build its economy and train an army
- Fixed a bug that could get the AI stuck trying to build an embassy when it already had the max amount allowed

Strategy
- The AI now takes the number of players on their team into account when choosing whether to target an enemy player or warlord, allowing them to prioritise enemy players earlier in free-for-all games.
- The AI is now more likely to target the warlord closest to them over other warlords
- The AI no longer attempts to influence warlords on Easy difficulty
- There’s now a minimum time before the AI will attack any target, which varies by difficulty
- Harder AIs now better at picking Warlord Edicts and issue them more often
- When at very high gold levels, the AI will now aim for triple its normal popularity to get peasants spawning faster

Castle
- Defensive troops, turrets and engine platforms are now positioned more intelligently based on the direction to the closest enemy player
- Fixed an issue that could cause castles not to build when spawn points are rotated
- Fix for defensive troops on Genghis’ castle walls sometimes getting stuck
- Tweaked the tower positions in Hideyoshi’s castle
- Defensive troops now spend less time running back and forth between different positions on the walls
- On Easy difficulty the AI now only builds a single layer of castle walls

Armies
- The AI is now more willing to buy weapons to train troops when needed, to preserve the desired unit composition of their army
- Improved the balance of Barracks and Academy troops the AI will train, whether or not they have weapons available
- Fewer troops are now kept in reserve, allowing the AI to attack faster and with larger numbers when up to their troop limit
- Improved the distribution of different troop types in the types of armies sent out
- After capturing a warlord, armies will now sometimes guard the warlord for a period of time before moving to attack a new target
- Armies that encounter an enemy keep on route to their target will now switch targets rather than continuing to their original target
- Armies are better at navigating through allied estates to reach their target
- Fixes for several cases where armies could get stuck while moving to their target or reforming
- The AI will now more reliably start attacking with siege armies based on the number of attacks already made and their own economic development
- Armies are better at tracking enemy lords who have moved away from their keeps
- Fixed an issue that could stop attacks being launched once the AI reached their troop limit
- Fixed several issues with the placement of forward siege camps in Warlord estates
- Improved the AI’s ability to coincide Warlord attack edicts with their own attacks
- Expensive troops such as Generals and Samurai are no longer held back to guard siege weapons
- Fire oxen and rocket launchers no longer target warlord town buildings
- Armies made up of horse archers and other cavalry now have a strong preference to tail other armies when they can, given they tend to be ineffective against enemy warlords by themselves.
- If individual troops in an AI army are unable to join the rest of the army for too long, they’ll now suicide in order to avoid the whole army getting stuck
- Improved AI handling of rocket launchers, to avoid firing in areas that may set the ground under their own troops on fire
- Genghis now sieges with more mortars and fewer rocket launchers

Map Editor

- Added support for WASD/arrow key camera movement (with ctrl for faster movement) and Q/E keys to rotate the camera
- The camera can now pitch closer to zero/ninety degrees, for easier editing
- Increased the render distance
- Spawn points now move up/down if the landscape tool is used underneath them

Notes

- We have set the achievement ‘Thucing Phantastic’ to hidden for now as it is not tracking correctly. This will be addressed in a future update.
- While we have fixed the issue that was corrupting saves, old save games that were previously crashing on load will still crash. Saves made in newly started missions are fixed.

Today the v1.1.19976 update became available in offline installers.

Update Notes - no build number change (7 April 2021; currently Steam and Galaxy only)

Added a new map 'Wide Open Plains' - a rework of Open Plains with 4 larger player estates and 1 Warlord

Today the updated version with the new map is available in offline installers.

Update Notes - v1.2.20394 (13 April 2021)

(currently Galaxy only)

Updates

- Added Sun Tzu AI Lord
- Added the Freebuild panel, allowing players to do the following in Freebuild:
--- Launch invasions
--- Acquire free gold and diplomacy points
--- Turn on Events
- Added new Freebuild map ‘Hillside Fortress’
- Turrets and engine platforms can no longer be placed on walls standing on unpathable terrain
- Roads can now be connected through gatehouses when tiles are placed on both ends of the gatehouse.
--- Note: road pieces will not appear visibly underneath gates, we are working on this for the next update.
- Greatly improved the appearance of ponds

General fixes

- Fixed the landscape textures sometimes disappearing when task switching or changing resolution
- Fixed the Diplomacy Map not scaling properly on ultrawide resolutions
- Fixed a crash that could occur when weapon workshops were destroyed by fire
- Water is no longer visible off the edges of Open Plains and Wide Open Plains
- Added some missing pathing tiles on Jungle Clearing
- Walls, roads and gunpowder trails can no longer be placed in rivers, ponds or seas
- Fixed the wrong scribe speech sometimes being played when selecting work buildings with missing workers
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause troops in rabble formation move backwards when targeting enemies
- Fixed knocked back troops being able to move if given a command momentarily before the knockback began
- Fixed a case where ninjas could get stuck when jumping off/onto walls just on the edge of a cliff
- Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred due to gatehouse flags being removed
- Fix for the Keep roofs not hiding when Lords were atop them
- Vertical Sync is now On by default when first launching the game
- Added functionality to allow users to change keyboard input language while in-game
- Better support for languages that use non-Latin characters
- Player estates now show the relevant Lord’s name in campaign missions
- General and Lord units now use a pickaxe when destroying walls

Campaign

- Fixed a missing Qin Shi Huang line in Armies of Yan

AI Improvements

- Edicts are picked slightly more reliably on normal difficulty
- The AI now prioritises more expensive attack edicts when it has a high diplomacy point income
- The AI is better at steadily upgrading warlords as its own castle grows
- Fixed a bug that could let the AI block off the top of stairs with buildings
- The AI starts building weapons workshops slightly earlier
- AIs that do not use tea will now sell all their tea automatically
- Fixed a case where the AI could get stuck if it ran out of food and had no more workers on rice fields. The AI will now turn other work buildings to sleep if it needs workers on rice fields quickly.
- Fixed a case where attacking armies could get stuck moving to a warlord estate before a siege camp has been placed in it
- Fixed an issue with the AI not correctly detecting when it needs iron for troop weapons
- Weapons workshops are now placed in a layout which makes it harder for workers to get stuck due to the building layout
- Addressed some issues where troops in attacking armies could get stuck, in particular when caught on armoury roofs
- Fixed a case where armies could get stuck because they were trying to assemble at a target siege camp position on an enemy estate
- Fixed the "free gold per minute" parameter to correctly allow AIs to be modded to receive extra gold
- The amount of gold AIs receive on Extreme difficulty can now also be modded by a parameter called “extreme_free_gold_percentage”

Map Editor

- Fixed the keyboard keys moving the camera when the scenario editor is open
- Further increased the render distance
- The Dragon Gate left and right pieces can now be placed separately as individual objects
- New control icons

The aforementioned patch (somehow tagged as 1.2.20400.1 ????) is now available for offline installer fans.

Update notes - v1.3.20928 (18 May 2021)

(available on both Galaxy and offline installers)

These changes are unrelated to the Art of War DLC and apply to all owners!

Updates

- Added icon to diplomacy map showing progress of ongoing castle upgrade orders
- Icons above Warlords keeps now show active orders
- Roads now appear through gatehouses when connected
- Multiple troops can now be recruited with one-click
--- Hold SHIFT when recruiting to recruit up to 5 troops
--- Hold CTRL when recruiting to recruit the maximum number of available troops

- Added 3 new skirmish maps
--- Thunder Strikes - Thick jungle, heavy rain and dark skies await for two rivals to carve a path into the annals of history.
--- Flows Like Time - Troubled waters, past grievances and dissent among local lords paint a picture here. Will you side with old enemies to oppose larger foes, or take on all enemies with the aid of your subjects?
--- Lost Kingdoms - Nature has reclaimed this long forgotten land, where empires once stood and wars of the ages were fought.


General fixes

- Fixed a bug with the way the Tiger’s perk was being applied
- Buildings in warlord castles no longer build below ground if the warlord isn't placed on an exact plateau
- Fixed an issue with roads counting as connected between buildings when road tiles are diagonally adjacent
- Fixed a bug that would allow troops in invasions get stuck on the edge of unpathable areas after spawning
- Troops standing on keeps, walls and towers will no longer auto-attack enemy troops which are at the same height but on a different building
- Laddermen and siege towers can no longer dock at walls broken down to an unpathable level
- Troops ordered to target enemy docked ladders are much better at deciding whether push the ladder off the wall or attack it from the ground
- Fixed a bug that would allow troops to push ladders from walls even if they failed to reach the correct position on the wall
- Fixed an incorrect shader assignments with Bastions
- Fixed river and sea around map edges
- Fixed incorrect graphics on goods panel
- Fixed Japanese text to be left-aligned in several places
- Fixed saved games with wide character names not saving correctly
- Fixed a bug where siege equipment sounds would loop permanently
- Added handling for French-Canadian keyboard input
- Fixed a crash that could occur when a Warlord kneeled

AI Improvements

- Skirmish AI no longer gets stuck when using the West spawn point in Lord’s Peak
- Fixed a bug where cavalry and siege weapons in invasions could end up stuck on top of gatehouses if they spawned very close by
- Invasions moving to a target now look further ahead to see if there are obstacles in the way
- Invasions which spawn close to their form up marker will now immediately move to attack their final target
- Fixed some issues with AI armies sometimes not checking for nearby enemies correctly while travelling. We have further improvements in the pipeline here to make the AI more intelligent about how far to scan based on which units it has in its army.
- AI troops that are attacking walls will now consider re-targeting to other attack targets
- Fixed some issues where blocking walls would not always be picked up by AI armies during combat
- Melee troops in AI armies will now consider attacking more kinds of buildings in combat, reducing the likelihood they will have to wait for ranged or siege units to finish attacking. They will also no longer target enemy fire oxen, rocket launchers or any target where there’s a fire close by.
- If there are ladders or siege towers in an AI clan which are moving up to enemy walls to dock, foot soldiers will now move up to where they expect the walls to be docked rather than standing still
- Invasions with trebuchets are less liable to get stuck waiting for the trebuchet to finish attacking a target while the army is still a long way away from the enemy


Map Editor

- Scenario editor events are no longer capped at Day 100
- Added a new “Player has Lord” scenario condition
- Added a new “Purge Estates” scenario action. This removes all buildings and units belonging to the player, just as if the player had been defeated in a skirmish game.


Achievements

- We have set ‘Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn’ to hidden for now. This will be reworked and replaced with a different achievement in a future update.

Update notes - v1.3.20992 (21 May 2021)

(currently Galaxy only)

- Removed time limit from mission 1 and 5 of the Sun Tzu DLC campaign
- Fixed an issue where buffs were not applied to surrounding troops from save games or when pre-placed in maps.
--- Note: The healthbar indicator for buffs will not show when loading saves or if the General/Imperial Bannerman are pre-placed in maps, but the buffs are active. We will address the healthbar indicators in a future update.

Earlier today, version 1.3.21034 became available in offline installers. No idea what it changes, but it might be a build-bumped hotfix from 21 May if GOGDB timeline is to be believed: https://www.gogdb.org/product/1491012905#changelog

Update notes - v1.4.21570 (21 June 2021)

(currently Galaxy only)

Updates

- Added a new game mode; the Skirmish Trail.
--- A set of skirmishes against different foes across a range of maps. Each mission will present its own set of challenges as you strive to complete the trail.
- Added new unit; the Samurai Lancer
--- A fast, heavily armoured support unit with a light attack. Nearby mounted units will deal increased damage to enemies.
- Added 2 new Warlords; the Beetle and the Bear.
--- The Beetle is not to be underestimated. Although defense is his specialty, his healing skills and armor shipments make him a valuable component in any offensive strategy.
--- None can match the power of the Bear. His armies are expensive but you will be rewarded for your investment. Increases the range of Imperial Bannerman’s buff ability.
- Added new building; the Field Hospital
--- The Field Hospital can only be built by the Beetle Warlord. When the edict is activated, the Beetle Warlord will build a Field Hospital within his lands.
--- Any allied troops standing within the vicinity of the Field Hospital will be slowly healed over time. Upgrading the Beetle will increase the amount of healing given to troops.
- Added 2 new skirmish maps:
--- Guarded Crossings. While the northern player has plenty of land to build in, the other two players must keep a close eye on each other as they race to capture the surrounding Warlords.
--- Ascendance. Some lords are more equal than others. You may have been given similar lands but it will soon be obvious who truly has the favour of the sun.
- Added some missing pathing tiles to Down River
- Updates to Flows Like Time:
--- Added more details and decorations to the map
- Updates to Unfavourable Odds:
--- The southern player has more space in their estate and a small amount of stone
--- The northern player now has saltpetre in their estate
--- Added more details and decorations to the map
- Updates to Princes and Paupers:
--- Improved the free pathfinding area to better match the open ground in estates
--- Added saltpetre and iron to the north-eastern estate
--- Added saltpetre to the south-eastern and south-western estates

General fixes

- Addressed multiple situations which may have resulted in the game crashing
- Fixed an issue that could cause warlord armies to become stuck when targeting a defeated player in campaign missions
- Fixed a bug that could cause troops in formations to run backwards when they were ahead of the rest of the formation
- When towers are destroyed, troops standing on them will now instantly fall to the ground rather than animating in mid-air first
- Siege weapons emerging from the siege camp will no longer move somewhere if it requires passing through a gate
- Walls with hoardings or turrets attached can no longer be docked by laddermen
- Troops in siege towers can no longer capture nearby gatehouses
- Fixed an issue that could make area target indicators visible when loading a save
- Fixed an issue that caused two siege towers to be briefly visible after a siege tower docked
- Troops in siege towers no longer judder about while the siege tower is moving and are much better at staying at their correct positions inside the tower
- Fixed an issue causing siege tower passengers to jump backwards a few meters when the tower is docked
- Siege projectiles (including diseased animals) are now able to hit troops standing on the top floor of keeps, rather than colliding with the keep roof
- Ranged units are now able to fire projectiles directly at barricades and now attack them at range when commanded to target them
- Fixed an issue that could cause new turrets to be placed when warlord castles repair, when the original turrets had not been destroyed
- Warlord Launch Attack and Request Relief Force edicts can no longer be triggered in peace time
- Fixed an issue that could cause troops defending warlord castles to move to the wrong positions after loading a save
- Fixed a bug that was preventing warlord castles being upgraded via edicts if they were assigned a level above zero in the map editor
- Fixed an issue where Warlord’s castles would have multiple instances of certain buildings placed on the same spot after upgrading/repairing
- Siege Camps placed via Warlords edicts are now destroyed when the Warlord changes owner
- Fixed the peace time remaining icon not showing correctly
- Added AI difficulty to Skirmish loading screens
- Stability improvements

AI Improvements

- Boosted the extra gold income for Extreme mode skirmish AI by 30% to provide more of a challenge
- Skirmish AI now wait for minimum intervals before upgrading captured warlords, based on the warlord rank
- AI armies are now more accurate at scanning for enemy units and buildings, based on the unit composition of the army
- AI armies are better at noticing when they can capture nearby warlords
- In skirmish games, AI Auxiliary Archers, Blowpipe Tribesmen and Fire Lancers will now attempt to retreat from enemy troops that get too close when on Hard or Extreme difficulty
- Fixed a case where the AI could get stuck unable to train enough troops to attack if it had run out of town space
- Fixed a bug where the AI would get stuck endlessly trying to place a silk chain building
- Fixed a bug that could prevent the AI from completing its castle if it has no stone in its estate

Map Editor

- Added a new toolbar option to toggle Shadows visibility, in the Options menu
- The Landscape brushes are now displayed in a grid
- Enabled the “Remove entities at origin” tool

Update notes - v1.4.21650 hotfix (24 June 2021)

- Added 'Casual' difficulty for the Skirmish Trail
- Fix for a crash that could occur when loading old saves/maps that had a General in them
- Actually added the 'Purge Entities at origin' tool to the Map Editor
- Fix for incorrect idle animations for pre-placed siege equipment in maps
- Fix for IME text input in some langauges
- Fixed missing voicelines for the Bear Warlord

Undocumented change: crash in the map editor when placing an object (which reappeared in the previous patch) has been resolved

Update notes - v1.4.21694 hotfix (25 June 2021)

- Fix for a crash in 'Siege of Odawara"

As of yesterday, the v1.4.21700 (likely a version-bumped 21694?) patch is available in offline installers.