Build Notes Pre-release

Build Notes Pre-releasePre-release update to Release version notes
:The following update information is provided to summarize the changes and additions that occurred between the pre-release version and the final version for release day (August 16th).
== The Defense of Crete Booster Pack ==
(Appropriate for all level ranges)
:King Minos Needs You!
Pack up your army and head to Crete! King Minos needs your help to defend his island from invaders—and he’s sure to enrich your coffers if you succeed. Beat back waves of relentless Lelegan Mercenaries as you protect the sacred Minoan Wonders from being destroyed. For even more fun, invite a friend to team up against the barbarian attackers. Earn new gear and new rewards for successfully defending Crete!
Get a taste of the Defense of Crete gameplay by going on the Cretins on the Coast! demo quest for free. In Defense of Crete, battle more waves with increasingly difficult combat situations in 27 new quests, available from the Minoan quest giver and the Minoan War Council.
To access Crete, you must complete the Ambassador training quest, Have Ambassador, Will Travel, or you can purchase the Defense of Crete Booster Pack and complete the purchase reward quest. Both quests allow you to speak to your City Ambassador and accept the quest to visit Crete, called King Minos Needs You!
=== Defense of Crete features ===
* Customizable experience fully supports co-op questing
* Ten new maps, and 27 new quests with five difficulty settings
* More than 50 new pieces of gear
* Three Special Ability consumables with four rarities, for 12 abilities total
* Three Advisors with four rarities, for 12 new Advisors total
* Three exclusive Minoan Wonder decorations
* Three Minoan stores and the all-new Minoan War Council, located in Crete
== The Isle of Cyprus (New Shared Region) ==
(Free content update – appropriate for levels 29+)
:Conquer the 12 Kingdoms of Cyprus!
The crossroads of the Mediterranean, Cyprus is held at the mercy of 12 dangerous rulers. Strike a foothold in Salamis, and choose your methods and strategies wisely to topple each kingdom on their own turf. Or bring a friend along for these fully co-op-able high-challenge quests. To the victors go the spoils!
The isle of Cyprus is available to all players level 29 and higher. Speak to your city leader to be granted passage to Cyprus where Philadelphos of Arsinoe eagerly awaits your assistance. Aid Philadelphos in defending Arsinoe, Conquer the 12 kingdoms, defeat recurring rebellions, assist the local traders, and even battle pirates threatening nearby Egypt.
=== Cyprus features ===
* Fully supported co-op questing
* Twelve new maps, and 30 new quests with enhanced difficulty unlocks
* New stores with high-end gear
== Patch Notes ==
=== Quest Fixes ===
* Egypt: Push To the Pass: Added additional houses to the custom grouping for the quest to resolve issue with player unable to support starting population count
* Fix for abandoning a quest that gets returned to a friend's city while on said quest.
* Fix for abandoning a friend quest while in that quest.
=== General Balance ===
* A number of crafting recipes have been modified to have different material, sell costs and buy costs.
* Fixed Age 3 shared advisors that were intended to be civ specific, so they are now correctly Greek/Egyptian specific.
* A number of technologies on the Tech Tree have been fixed to buff only the specified units.
* Tech tree items that would apply buffs to units now only apply their buffs to the intended units.
Item Balance:
* Identified and fixed a few main issues with the current loot tables - mainly, too many unusable items were dropping at low levels. Frequency of Rare and Epic items increased a bit - although Epic items will still remain quite rare.
* All advisor units now start at Common level bonus stats, but Uncommon, Rare, and Epic verisons continue to increase in stats as your character level gets higher. Original bonus stats are reached at level 40. This change was done so that a lvl 10 player, who happens to get their hands on an epic advisor unit, doesn't dominate their opponents of similar level since Epic Advisor units essentially have lvl40 epic level gear.
* All Rare/Epic equipment that's purchased at a store for Empire Points or Faction Points are now untradeable.
* Uncommon, Rare, and Epic Advisor units now scale with player level.
* Blueprints for Crafting Schools are no longer tradable or sellable.
* Titan's Construction Shovel - Shortened gather rate gaps between all high-level tools. This is especially important since gear that affects economy has the greatest in impact on the game's pvp balance.
* Ancient Guard Chiton - Reduced bonus health to ~30% from ~50% to make up for the extra econ boost
* Noose Pole - Reduced Scout bonus damage to +150% from +235%
* Speculum Fragment - Reduced Scout bonus LOS to 35% from 57%
* Amun-Ra Scepter of the Kings - Reduced Empowered drop off bonus to ~8% from ~9%
* Ra-Atum Scepter of Divine Light - Reduced Empowered dropoff bonus to ~5% from ~7%
* Ares Training Manual - Train time reduction decreased so that the gap between it and the alternative isn't so large
* Osiran Embossed Boots - Fixed bug where Uncommon boots were better than Osirans, and Overall brought down high level movement speed (max 6.9% from 10.9%
* Legendary Constuction Blueprint - Overall slightly decreased building construction time reduction (max 9.4% from 13%)
* Heracles Practice Sword - Train time reduction decreased so that the gap between it and the alternative isn't so large
* Plato's Tool Selection - Overall decreased villager train time reduction to it and similar high level items. Villager train time is too big of a premium, since it has such a huge impact on economy (max 4.9% from 6.3%)
* Consumable Berry Bushes - Now 4 consumable rarity bushes with 400/600/800/1000 Berries, based on rarity.
=== Unit Balance ===
* Khopesh Swordsman - Train time reduced to 3.9 from 5.5
* Helepolis unit - Cost reduced to 350w/100g from 300w/255g, and Train time reduced to 20 from 25 seconds
* Somatophylax unit - Reduced cost to 35f/45g from 50f/45g, and Train time reduced to 4.45 from 6.3 seconds
* Hetairoi unit - Increased cost to 70f/100g from 80f/75go
== References ==
Category:Build Notes