April 07, 2016 Patch

*Release Version 1.4.0 - Shifters Expansion*

## Patch 1.4.0

### Additions (Shifters Content)

* Added Pearls of Auriga. *A pure outgrowth of Auriga, they distil the living essence of the planet. Both powerful and beautiful, the Pearls appear only during the Dark Season and can be put to many wondrous purposes, such as impacting the effects of the Dark Season or building beautiful new districts.*
* Added Allayi Faction. *To survive the horrors of the Dust Wars, the Allayi scattered themselves to the cold places of Auriga. Now that the Guardians have awakened they are coming together, hoping to save Auriga and rebuild the life they once had.*
* Added Altar of Auriga screen. *The Altar of Auriga is a sacred building to those who live upon her. It is a centre of ancient power from the times even before the Endless.*
* Added Blessings of Auriga. *By bringing Auriga's Pearls and unlocking the Altar's Blessings, powerful magical effects can be applied to a city, region, or empire.*
* Added a new season management and new Winter difficulties, available in the Advanced Settings of a new game (old system remains as a game choice)
* Added more Winter effects. Coastal water and lakes can be frozen during Winter, making them passable

### Changes and Additions

#### All Versions

**AI**

* Added governor penalty values to army hero items and vice versa, to further force heroes to use archetype-appropriate equipment
* Added a safe-guard to prevent AIs from evaluating terms positively when they want to propose a contradictory term
* Higher difficulty AI will be less cooperative in diplomacy
* Units now take into account terrain obstacles when attempting to deploy near one another
* Improved the AI awareness of approval. AI empires will ignore approval bonuses when approval is high and rush them if approval is low

**Balancing**

* Increased the Influence cost for "Truce" and "Force Truce"
* Some diplomatic abilities will have dependencies with each other: like disabling trade routes whenever either empire closes their borders. Commercial and Research agreements are now blocked by closed borders, just like trade
* Roving Clans Setseke unit is faster, has no upkeep, has sweep strike-back and ignores terrain movement penalties
* "Walls of Faith" trait now grants +100 Fortification instead of 160
* Decreased the strategic resource cost and upkeep of "Strength of the vault", increased its fortification bonus
* "Search Party" technology is more efficient: it also increases by 5% odds to find loot and 5% odds to find a quest, in addition to reduce by 10% odds to find nothing
* The cost of stockpiles no longer depends on the game speed
* Science stockpiles also now correctly provide 100/600/1100/1600 like the other stockpiles rather than 100/600/1000/1600

**GUI**

* Added a new army action: "Detach Leader"
* Added details on game session accessible from the Game Pause Screen
* Added a feedback on the Army label when an army has suffered from retaliation damage or has been healed by a tower
* Added a new panel on the loading and score screens introducing content provided by the host of a MP game
* Added a description to tooltips of the Battle Status Effects applied to a unit, explaining bonuses and penalties
* Added clarification on the impact of Unit Slots on the Army Upkeep
* Unified the display of Pillage Power/Siege Power/Fortification Point Loss variables. The value are displayed on the Army Content panel
* Replaced some text fields by text areas (Custom Faction, Mod Compilation, Mod Changes)
* Renamed Sisters of Mercy "Blessing" capacity to "Benediction"
* The Content Management panel has 3 tabs now: Add-ons, Expansions, Updates
* "Friendly Banner" Drakken hero skill unlocks now a unit ability (same name)

#### Shadows

* "Practiced Pillage" also reduces by 1 the Military Upkeep of army units
* "Spying" 1 to 4 hero abilities grant different Upkeep reduction when spying: +40%, +50%, +60%, +80% instead of +50% for everyone
* "What's Mine is Mine" technology grants +15 Security instead of +10
* "Caudata Sanctuary" also grants -30% spy action cost on Hero
* Reduced the Buyout cost of Technologies by 5%
* Added "Army Piercing Boost" to the native army leader capacities of Ziema
* Tweaked Forgotten trait costs in order to better fit with recent Faction balancing
* The detection range is displayed with the vision range on the Army Content panel

### Important Fixes

#### All Versions

* Fixed an issue where armies assigned to auto explore will stop exploring the map
* Fixed an issue where the auto explore has no functionality when activated in an explored region
* Fixed other issues with the auto-explore feature

### Other Fixes

#### All Versions

**Cities**

* Fixed an issue where in case of debt recovery the first automatic step to counter negative dust income isn't to reassign workers to dust production

**Armies/Units**

* Fixed an issue where the army "Attack" action displays false information in its tooltip during the tutorial

**Battle**

* Fixed an issue where support units will not heal while in range of both friendly and enemy units when using the offensive combat strategy
* Fixed an issue where AI major factions do not order units to heal during battles
* Fixed an issue where support units would move when set to hold position
* Fixed an issue where Sister of mercy units and heroes prioritize using the "Benediction" capacity while having "offensive" strategy set
* Fixed an issue where Sister of mercy units and heroes move to apply the blessing capacity while having "hold position" strategy set
* Fixed an issue where units with a healing capacity will only heal themselves while having the hold position strategy set
* Fixed an issue where Cavalry units overvalued high-ground when choosing default targets
* Fixed an issue where units would ignore closer targets and so miss their turn sometimes
* Fixed an issue where similar units would all target the same unit

**AI**

* Fixed an issue where all automated AIs build Science stockpiles but never Industry or Food ones
* Fixed an issue where the AI queues Wonders in multiple cities
* Fixed an issue where AI under-evaluates Era 5 technologies in comparison to technology from other eras
* Fixed an issue where "Canal System" is evaluated as though it provided industry in both seasons
* Fixed an issue where the AI does not use the "Commercial agreement" diplomatic treaty
* Fixed an issue where the AI does not use the "Research agreement" diplomatic treaty
* Fixed an issue where AI factions will cancel alliance and peace treaties while they're still willing to sign the same treaty again
* Fixed an issue where AI factions declare closed borders immediately after accepting the open borders treaty
* Fixed an issue where changing diplomatic state from alliance to either peace, war or cold war does not cost influence
* Fixed an issue where AI was not able to retreat when being attacked while besieging
* Fixed an issue where AI do not remove reinforcements when the besieging army is attacked and will lose
* Fixed an issue with the unit attack percent empire bonus: it now counts all units, not just those in cities
* Fixed an issue where units are equipped with hero-tagged equipment by the AI

**Quests**

* Fixed an issue where players are not informed that the sixth chapter of the Vaulter questline becomes completed at the end turn validation
* Fixed an issue where the Drakken chapter 8.1 "Reprogrammed" does not become completed while being at truce with another faction
* Fixed an issue where "A question of proof" quest can be obtained when all watchtowers have already been built in the area

**GUI**

* Fixed an issue where players receive a victory notification when there is actually a draw.
* Fixed an issue where a skippable assert was generated if the user selects a channelled army action and presses the "Esc" key at the same time
* Fixed an issue where the Alliance to Peace declaration has a negotiation icon instead of a declaration icon
* Fixed an issue where the first time the user selects a city and queues multiple units and buildings the scroll bar does now appear correctly
* Fixed an issue where scrollbar was invisible on first show for city lists
* Fixed an issue where the version number has reduced visibility on the Vaulter/Drakken outgame view or inside the in-game menu
* Fixed an issue where the position of the version text is modified after creating a mods playlist title of over 37 characters
* Fixed an issue where the Minor Faction Bonus information is incomplete
* Fixed an issue where experience values were not properly centred during manual combat
* Fixed an issue where the information displayed in tooltips for tiles with extractors/nodes is false when bonuses/penalties are applied
* Fixed an issue where the information displayed in the "Empire bonuses" regarding the faction techs is unclear
* Fixed an issue where the Cultists "We are legion" and "Destructive analysis" faction techs are not displayed in the "Empire summary" and in the "Empire bonuses"
* Fixed an issue where the Ardent Mages faction techs "Dust mechanics","Dust purifier", "Painosphere" and "Sacrificial amplifiers" are not displayed in the "Empire bonuses"
* Fixed an issue where Meritocratic Promotion and Signal Corps tooltips provide incomplete information
* Fixed an issue where the "Unskilled Labor" and "Organized Labor" technologies do not inform players about the FIDSI gain from stockpiles
* Fixed an issue where Luxury resources have incomplete tooltips inside the negotiation screen
* Fixed an issue where one of the filters inside the Faction editor screen has no functionality
* Fixed an issue where army capacity is not properly updated when disbanding units from an army
* Fixed an issue where units still have XP bars displayed once they reach level 10
* Fixed an issue where the tooltip information of the "Ice in the veins" hero skill displays false information
* Fixed an issue where the tooltip of the upkeep button displays false information when proliferator spawned units exceed the army size
* Fixed an issue where the tooltip of the Cultists "Conversion" trait does not inform the user that the trait also leeches strategic and luxury resources
* Fixed an issue where the author of the custom faction does not appear in the custom faction's "Description" box
* Fixed an issue where retrofit button uses the industry icon which implies the action costs industry
* Fixed an issue where the city list scroll bar overlaps the number of garrison units when the maximum value exceeds 10
* Fixed an issue where players are not informed that for converted villages to provide resources the necessary techs are needed
* Fixed an issue where players are not informed that cities need exploited forest tiles in order to construct the "Lumber Mill"
* Fixed an issue where players are not informed how detected armies are displayed on the adventure map with "The Sharing" trait
* Fixed an issue where players are not informed that XP is received by heroes which are assigned as governors when city improvements are built
* Fixed an issue where players are not informed that districts start at level 0 and will not grant any bonuses per level until they're upgraded
* Fixed an issue where players are not informed that the "Cull the herd" faction trait does not function for converted villages
* Fixed an issue where players are not informed about the effects gained by pillars with each level
* Fixed an issue where players are not informed of the bonuses gained for pacifying minor villages
* Fixed an issue where the AI victory notification title does not fit inside the detailed game notifications tab
* Fixed an issue where an inconsistency between the displayed unit difficulty modifiers and their in-game effects appears
* Fixed an issue where false information is displayed in the Join Lobby screen in the "Turns" tab when the host is in the loading screen
* Fixed several typos in localization files

**Miscellaneous**

* Fixed an issue where the Diplomatic points gain of "United Empires Council" is not working as intended
* Fixed an issue where relationship status can be changed by offering only one item no matter the value of the item offered as a gift. "Gift" attitude modifier is now correctly added ONLY when the empire receives technology/resources without giving anything in exchange, while "PostiveContract" is added in other cases. The multiplier is correctly set based on the value of the gift or positivity of the contract respectively
* Fixed an issue where the first encounter notification of the Mezari faction does not trigger a sound to be played

#### Guardians

* Fixed an issue where a "Division by zero" error can occur when building a Wonder
* Fixed an issue where the Era I "Wealth Harvester" legendary deed counter displays the incorrect number of boosters required
* Fixed research cost of Guardian of Water
* Fixed an issue where the number of "Scyther" units trained is not limited by the maximum number of garrisoned units

#### Shadows

* Fixed an issue where there the Forgotten do not play first encounter audio prompts
* Fixed an issue where there is no method of unlocking the Forgotten specific accessories introduced in the expansion
* Fixed an issue where regional buildings continue to be affected by pillage after hostile armies are removed with closed borders
* Fixed an issue where the last empire selection is not saved for Forgotten empires on the new game screen
* Fixed an issue where there is no graphic indicator in the Military Screen for Invisible armies
* Fixed an issue where the influence cost of the Declare War On treaty is not reduced by the Diplomatic Cost Reduction espionage action
* Fixed an issue where the counter for the Forgotten Chapter 8 Step 2 is modified when defenceless cities are captured

#### The Lost Tales

* Fixed an issue where a city built after Eyeless one lore quest has begun is not taken into account
* Fixed an issue where misleading information is displayed for the objective of the "Crystaline caverns" lore quest
* Fixed an issue where the "Marathon" quest's step one objective does not show the progress
* Fixed an issue where the 2nd step of the "Relocation of the Blind" quest does not have a show location button
* Fixed an issue where the quest counter in the "A Faith of Fire" step 2 does not function
* Fixed an issue where failing "Ancient Enmities" during step 1 will update the quest to step 2 before displaying it as failed
* Fixed an issue where failing "Fragile peace" during step 1 will update the quest to step 2 before displaying it as failed