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Gods will be patched with Age of Wonders 3 v1.09

The first official patch for Age of Wonders 3 is live. Version 1.09 of Triumph Studios' recent release corrects hardware-specific issues, registration problems, optimizes game performance and tweaks AI behavior as well as adding critical balance fixes to the game.

Based on feedback, the developer has also added a few other features, such as an option for quick saving and native high resolution support up to 2560x1440 / 2560x1600. The patch is available as an automatic download via Steam or as a separate file via GOG.com.

Age of Wonders 3 is a strategic role-playing game Joystiq's Earnest Cavalli called "as glorious a resurrection as the series could have hoped for," in his glowing review.

Age of Wonders 3 v1.09 change log can be found after the break.

[Image: Triumph Studios]

V1.09 Change Log:

Compatibility

  • WQHD / QHD (up to 2560 x 1440 / 2560 *1600) native resolution display support (the Black & White boxes and blurry text should disappear). Fix has been verified to work up to and including a resolution of 2560×1660.

  • Fixed an issue for people using Intel HD Graphics – specifically for HD4000 and Surface 2 Pro – in combination with certain driver version, that caused a crash when opening interface screens – e.g. starting the game, opening options menu, skill book, etc.


Performance

  • Fixed frame drop when armies were selected.

  • Fixed decreasing frame rate occurring during extended play, particularly in longer battles.

  • Fixed a memory leak when Windows was locked.

  • Optimized a feature effecting maps with water, which should now show increased framerate.


AI Improvements

  • Fixed some cases where the tactical AI would come out from behind the walls of cities and fortresses too soon.

  • Stopped the AI spamming disjunction, so players can now use global magic more easily.

  • Fixed an issue where the tactical AI would cast a resurrection spell on an invalid target.

  • Made 'squire' AI easier to beat.

  • AI settings for players were changed to compensate for this change, to keep the same level of challenge on normal difficulty.

  • Using the 'restart' option in a campaign map now returns the player to the briefing, allowing map difficulty to be changed.


Scenario & Campaign

  • Campaign: Heroes being mind controlled no longer causes you to instantly lose a campaign map if you rescue them by the end of combat.

  • Campaign: Heroes which are protected by the 'resurgence' effect – e.g. the theocrat's 'rebirth' spell – can now die in tactical combat without causing you to lose the campaign map, as long as you win the battle that they die in.

  • Blightmouth Crater: Closed a gap in impassable mountains.

  • Blightmouth Crater: Removed two superfluous hearts of the blight.

  • Blightmouth Crater: Fixed the behavior of independent armies.

  • Elven Resurgence: Player 6 now starts with more gold mines, making the starting positions more balanced.

  • 4th Elven Court map: Independents no longer interfere with one of the starting quests.

  • 4th Commonwealth map: Fixed a message that missed an icon under specific circumstances.

  • 5th Commonwealth map: A 'defeat leader' quest no longer reveals that leader's position.

  • 5th Commonwealth map: Fixed a story message that had overlapping lines of text.

  • 6th Elven Court & Commonwealth maps: Prevented story characters from dying when you are victorious.

  • 6th Elven Court and Commonwealth maps: Added a few building upgrades to starting cities to give the player a better starting situation and more options.


Other Fixes

  • Fixed settings – e.g. graphics settings – not being saved when using the 'guest' profile.

  • Fixed an issue when logging in with usernames of two characters.

  • Fixed the stack confirm movement button being disabled in some situations when a stack was auto-moving.

  • Fixed a rare crash caused by a player razing a city with a heart of blight, tropics, etc in its domain

  • Fixed an issue where a backstab bonus wasn't being correctly applied. This led to situations where a unit could backstab a target without flanking it.

  • Fixed a crash triggered by clicking on a "You lost your throne city!" event.

  • Fixed a crash triggered by selecting a 'Egg has hatched' after loading the save game.

  • Fixed the 'Remove army from event list' shortcut key function so armies are properly removed from the list.

  • Fixed an issue where the 'Protect your leader and throne city' quest failed to complete on victory.

  • The game now ignores controller input, to prevent camera drift when a controller is plugged in.

  • 'Spring of life' now rewards units when explored.

  • When creating a new custom leader, the field for setting a name is now left empty by default.


Balance

  • 'Shrine of smiting' is no longer 'Devout', nerfing 'Shrine of smiting' doom stacks which relied on stacking 'Devout' bonuses for the 'Smiting prayer bolts'.

  • 'Shadow stalker' now does cold damage. This fixes an issue where rogues had limited options vs. blight immune troops.

  • Increased the research costs of skills to slow down progression through the skill tree.

  • Increased cost of racial tier 3 unit building to 300 gold and 100 mana.

  • Decreased the base production of cities.

  • Fixed issue with 'Libraries' and 'Observatories' generating too much knowledge.


Features

  • Added buttons on either side of the city name that cycle through cities owned by the player.

  • We added a quick save option, bound under CTRL+S by default.

  • Added extra text to the preview popup when attacking a city wall. Players can now see the hit points the wall have remaining as they plan their attack.