Total War: ARENA Changelog

What's new in Total War: ARENA 3.1.15.1 Open Beta

Nov 22, 2018

These changes have been made with ARENA sunsetting in mind, so that matches are as balanced as possible with a lower population.
Changelist:
Functionality to purchase in-game with real money has been disabled and the Wargaming Premium Shop is empty.
We have reduced the stat differences between tiers, our estimates show that the statistical differences between your units and units of the tier above are 20% less.
We have reduced the number of matchmaking tier bands from 6 to 4. The following tier bands are now in effect: 3-4, 5-6, 6-8, 9-10
With the changes to the statistical differences, a slightly larger tier difference should not feel as severe as it used to.
Bug fixes:
Live Replays will now load correctly and show units.
Fixed an issue with High-Tier Ability Selection that allowed too many abilities on one unit

New in Total War: ARENA 3.1.15 Open Beta (Nov 8, 2018)

POINTS UPDATE:
In past iterations of the points systems we have always attempted to balance points you earn based on the worth of the action. Killing a unit awarded you the same points as killing any other unit, winning the game by capture earned you (on a personal basis) equal points to winning the game by killing everyone, etc. However we have found that this causes an unsatisfying experience, as it ignores the effort put into the action. As such, points awarded for some sub-categories will increase, while some others will decrease.
CAPTURE POINTS:
Reduced capture points from 3000 to 2000 (for both capture and decapture)
Reduced capturing completed points from 200 to 100 (bonus per unit that is in the enemy base when the base is captured)
This means the total amount of capture points you can receive in one battle is 4300. (2000 capture, 2000 decapture and 300 for bonus capture points per unit); previously this was 6600
Leaving the enemy base whilst capturing will lose you all of your current capture points (you will keep your capture points if decapped by an enemy whilst in the base)
To be clear, if you get decapped while standing in the base and then leave the base, you will still lose all of your capture points
This was to eliminate situations where players constantly run in and out of the enemy base in order to get as many capture points as possible
We'll be keeping a close eye on the effect this has, and will take further steps if necessary if it begins to affect player behaviour negatively
MORALE BUFF POINTS:
Increased the amount of morale buff points you receive by 10 times
We found that on average, the players who did the most morale buffing earned ~3 points per battle
Previously we encountered issues with this sub-category, it's original introduction resulted in certain Commanders/Units etc able to get an extraordinarily large amount of support points, at which point we nerfed it into the ground (hence 3 points per battle)
Given this past experience, we're taking baby steps and increasing it in relatively small increments
It's worth noting again that we've adjusted the rewards values so you will still receive next to nothing for this point category, and it will stay this way until we are confident that the points earnings are stable
MISSILE BLOCK POINTS:
We have received a large amount of feedback (and data) that shows Missile Block points are being over-awarded and are too easy to gain massive amount of them. To this end, we have:
Reduced the amount of points you get per missile blocked
Implemented a soft cap for Missile Block points at 1500 - once this number is reached, you will receive an ever decreasing amount of points for subsequently blocked missiles
Implemented a hard cap for Missile Block points at 3000 - once this number is reached you will not earn any more points for blocking missiles
Bear in mind that reaching 3000 Missile Block points will take a considerably longer amount of time than previously due to the diminishing returns
SPOTTING POINTS:
Reduced the amount of points you earn per unit spotted for the first time from 100 to 50
Elephants
POINTS FOR FIGHTING ELEPHANTS:
We agree that taking down an elephant feels unrewarding for the effort required. This was partly caused by a significant proportion of the points for eliminating units are given for killing entities/soldiers, which in the case of elephants is a single entity, meaning one player got all the points for killing the elephant, rather than being spread out amongst all those who fought the beast. To remedy this we:-
Doubled the amount of damage points that units will receive from damaging elephants
Reduced the amount of kill points that killing elephants rewards
Overall, this is a +70% increase to the points available for eliminating an elephant unit
Hopefully this should spread the points out more evenly amongst the players involved in the fight
SHATTER POINTS:
Previously when a unit was shattered the remaining points left available for the health and kills of the entities left running away were lost, we have changed this!
Shattering a unit will now award players with kill and damage points equivalent to the remaining health/entities in the unit as if they had killed each entity
In the cases where multiple players have contributed to the rout event, the points will be distributed amongst all of the players that were responsible
BACKGROUND IMPLEMENTATION: ABILITY BUFF/DEBUFF POINTS:
Ability buff/debuff points is a long requested feature, and one we have often steered clear of implementing due to the challenges in making it work satisfyingly without also being abusable (e.g. sitting in a corner buffing each other's speed instead of playing in the battle). We have implemented a version that we are confident will properly reward players for supporting one another, while also not being easily abusable.
However, these points categories have never been tracked before, and we have no basis on which to begin balancing their values. Due to the sheer complexity of the calculation method, we also don't have any data that can shine enough light on the very specific situations that generate these points. So, to combat this, we have included the calculation side of these points in the background, but they will not be displayed on the scoreboard nor will you receive any rewards for them. This is to allow us to collect lots of metrics data from which we can reach a suitable balance.
We may well need to make changes to the underlying mechanics/calculations that generate these points, so we're holding off on going into detail about how they work until we're ready to turn them on properly (but the details will come soon!)
BUGS:
Achievement bugs:
No longer able to Unlock "That Only Counts as One" achievement whilst there are no Ambiorix or Elephant players
"Aquilifer I" achievement will not be awarded in the 3d victory scene without being actually rewarded in the post-battle results
Corona Obsidionalis is no longer being given to a player when they should not have earned it
"Eliminated" Decoration now takes into account elephants killed
"Executed" Decoration now takes into account commanders with elephants
Ambiorix client-side achievements now work consistently
"Belgae's Revenge" client-side achievement now works consistently
"Prince vs. Princess" client-side achievement now works consistently
"That Makes Sixteen" client-side achievement now works consistently
Other fixes:
Minor Clipping in Caesar Skins in the frontend
Greek T9 + T10 Slingers have Rapid Shot which gets superseded by Cynane
Tier 8 Berserkers with Vercingetorix have Reckless Charge Superseded
Fixed a rare issue with selecting abilities
Community Bugs:
Fixed the unlimited Focus Fire bug (that also affected any abilities with that behaviour)
Implemented a fix for Replays not showing the battle correctly (units stopping moving or attacking the wrong unit). If you are still geting Replays out of synch, please let us know!

New in Total War: ARENA 3.1.13 Open Beta (Oct 24, 2018)

INCREASED LOADING TIMEOUT THRESHOLD:
We’ve increased the time limit on loading to help those who were finding themselves disconnected for a few seconds at the start of a battle while they were still loading in.
As always, when all players are loaded in, the timer will skip down to the last few seconds, so this shouldn’t have a huge effect on your overall loading times, but it should allow those players who just missed the initial load in time to not be flagged as AFK due to disconnect.
UNIT TIER SELECTION LIMITATION:
We’ve seen the frustrated posts from players when their ally has a T1 and a T9 unit, and that is now no longer possible.
To be eligible for matchmaking, you must now have a +1/-1 Tier range on the units selected in your current loadout.
OVERALL CHANGES:
NORMALIZED SPEED OF CERTAIN UNITS:
Certain units used to have their speed set to extreme levels, and these settings were creating too much of a power delta in competitive scenarios. We’ve taken the following measures to solve this:
Reduced speed differences between Greek and Barbarian archers.
Some Greek archers were too slow, and some Barbarian archers were too fast. See detailed unit list for exact changes.
Reduced speed deltas between Barbarian cavalry and other factions. See detailed unit list for exact changes.
PIKE PHALANX CHANGES:
Pike Phalanx will now generate Fatigue when attacking.
This will function in the same way as Fatigue on spears; once above 70% fatigue, only successful pike attacks (i.e. attacks that cause damage) will cause knock back.
As with spear phalanx, pikes will now be able to reduce their fatigue by moving backwards.
The width of the hit box for spears and pikes has been reduced slightly.
This will reduce the upper limit on their damage output, but slightly decrease their fatigue generation.
Some abilities (Phalanx Reposition, Pyknosis) will now affect Fatigue regeneration when active.
These changes are intended to add more nuanced gameplay to pikes, improving the experience of both pike players and players fighting them. Pikes will still be extremely tough from the front, but the pike player will know how have to manage their fatigue and Melee Attack to keep the opponent at bay. Pushing a Pike Phalanx into massed groups of enemies will result in fatigue rising extremely quickly, as will attempting to turn around to face enemies attacking from the rear or side. This will reward pike players who can keep the enemy at the tip of their pikes, while punishing those who let themselves get flanked.
Increased competitiveness of some specific units and abilities:
T10 Carthage elephant.
T10 Carthage javelin.
T9 Wardogs.
Leonidas: Bash.
Cynane: Hunt.
Ambiorix: From the Shadows.
Lowered damage output capacity of Roman Spears.
Reduced Shield armour on all Archers and Slingers by approx 25%.
Increased HP on all cavalry units by approx 12%, with some small exceptions. See detailed unit list for exact changes.
SPECIFIC STATS:
COMMANDERS:
Leonidas - Shield Bash:
Becomes a True Strike.
Will no longer roll melee attack vs. enemy defence.
Note that the damage vs. enemy armour roll still happens.
This change intends to allow Leonidas to scale better over tiers.
Cynane - Hunt:
Added -20 missile block on the base ability.
Increased base targeting range from 75 to 95.
Reworked targeting range talents to scale better over tiers.
Total Targeting Range now scales from 95 to 149 (used to be 75 to 139).
Ability can now be used by ALL units.
Ambiorix - From the Shadows:
Lowered the firing angle from 55% to 50%.
UNIT:
UNIT CHANGE:
Warg Warriors (IX, Barbarians):
Prowl has been replaced by Slam
Triarii (VII, Rome):
Melee Damage: 201-> 196
Auxilia Palatina (VII, Rome):
Melee Damage: 229 -> 219
Ambushers (VII, Barbarians):
Movement Speed: 4.44 -> 4.29
Shield Armour: 28 -> 21
Archer Warband (V, Barbarians) :
Shield Armour: 24 -> 19
Archers of Ullr (X, Barbarians) :
Movement Speed: 4.48 -> 4.33
Shield Armour: 33 -> 25
Blood Riders (VII, Barbarians) :
Bonus hit points: 449 -> 500
Movement Speed: 8.47 -> 8.18
Brigands (IV, Barbarians):
Bonus hit points: 384 -> 427
Cernunnos Hunters (X, Barbarians):
Shield Armour: 40 -> 31
Cimbri Archers (IV, Barbarians):
Shield Armour: 23 -> 18
Gungnir Chargers (VI, Barbarians):
Movement Speed: 8.63 -> 8.05
Missile Block Chance: 16 -> 31
Bonus hit points: 427 -> 475
Harbingers (IX, Barbarians):
Movement Speed: 8.7 -> 8.12
Missile Block Chance: 17 -> 34
Bonus hit points: 496 -> 551
Huntsmen (III, Barbarians) :
Shield Armour: 21 -> 16
Mounted Warband (V, Barbarians):
Movement Speed: 8.4 -> 8.1
Bonus hit points: 406 -> 451
Niflheim Riders (VIII, Barbarians):
Movement Speed: 8.47 -> 8.18
Bonus hit points: 471 -> 524
Night Hunters (VIII, Barbarians) :
Shield Armour: 29 -> 22
Noble Horse (X, Barbarians):
Bonus hit points: 520 -> 579
Belgae Archers (V, Barbarians) :
Movement Speed: 4.4 -> 4.26
Shield Armour: 29 -> 22
Cantabrian Cavalry (V, Barbarians):
Movement Speed: 8.86 -> 7.99
Bonus hit points: 418 -> 465
Celtic Slingers (V, Barbarians) :
Shield Armour: 30 -> 23
Eburones Marksmen (VIII, Barbarians):
Shield Armour: 38 -> 29
Getae Horsemen (III, Barbarians):
Bonus hit points: 362 -> 403
Heavy Horse (VII, Barbarians)
Bonus hit points: 461 -> 513
Iberian Royal Cavalry (VIII, Barbarians):
Bonus hit points: 471 -> 524
Proven Archers (VI, Barbarians) :
Shield Armour: 26 -> 20
Raiders (III, Barbarians) :
Bonus hit points: 362 -> 403
Riders (I, Barbarians) :
Bonus hit points: 331 -> 369
Scouts (II, Barbarians) :
Bonus hit points: 347 -> 386
Amazigh Tribesmen (V, Carthage):
Bonus hit points: 393 -> 438
Boii skirmishers (X, Carthage) :
Now have Caltrops consumable available to them
Movement Speed: 3.7 -> 3.85
Carthaginian Cavalry (VI, Carthage) :
Bonus hit points: 427 -> 475
Elite Hippeis (IX, Carthage) :
Bonus hit points: 508 -> 551
Mercenary Hippeis (VII, Carthage):
Bonus hit points: 449 -> 500
Numidian Cavalry (VIII, Carthage):
Bonus hit points: 458 -> 510
Numidian Vanguard (X, Carthage):
Bonus hit points: 520 -> 579
Iberian Skirmishers (IX, Carthage) :
Now have Caltrops consumable available to them
Balearic Slingers (VI, Carthage) :
Shield Armour: 32 -> 24
Gallic Cavalry (V, Carthage):
Bonus hit points: 406 -> 451
Lusitanian Guerrillas :
Movement Speed: 4.48 -> 4.18
Tanit (X, Carthage):
Replaced Bestial Defence with Stampede
Movement Speed: 3.74 -> 3.9
Agema Cavalry (VII, Greece):
Bonus hit points: 449 -> 500
Cimmerian Heavy Archers (IX, Greece) :
Movement Speed: 3.66 -> 3.81
Shield Armour: 35 -> 27
Citizen Cavalry (IV, Greece):
Bonus hit points: 384 -> 427
Companion Cavalry (V, Greece) :
Bonus hit points: 406 -> 451
Elite Companions (VI, Greece) :
Bonus hit points: 427 -> 475
Gymnitai (VII, Greece) :
Shield Armour: 29 -> 22
Hellenic Cataphracts (X, Greece) :
Bonus hit points: 520 -> 579
Helot Slingers (VIII, Greece) :
Shield Armour: 30 -> 23
Levy Slingers (VI, Greece) :
Shield Armour: 28 -> 21
Olympic Slingers (IX, Greece) :
Shield Armour: 34 -> 26
Attendant Archers :
Shield Armour: 13 -> 10
Dahae Archers (VIII, Greece):
Shield Armour: 29 -> 22
Machimoi Archers (V, Greece):
Movement Speed: 4.59 -> 4.14
Thracian Royal Cavalry (V, Greece):
Bonus hit points: 418 -> 465
Psiloi (V, Greece) :
Shield Armour: 26 -> 20
Rhodian Slingers (X, Greece):
Shield Armour: 34 -> 25
Royal Cavalry (IX, Greece) :
Bonus hit points: 496 -> 551
Scythian Archers (VII, Greece) :
Movement Speed: 3.66 -> 3.81
Somatophylakes (VII, Greece) :
Bonus hit points: 471 -> 524
Theban Cavalry (III, Greece) :
Bonus hit points: 362 -> 403
Celeres (V, Rome) :
Bonus hit points: 406 -> 451
Equites (VI, Rome) :
Bonus hit points: 427 -> 475
Italian Noble Cavalry (VIII, Rome) :
Bonus hit points: 471 -> 524
Legatus (X, Rome) :
Bonus hit points: 520 -> 579
Legionary Cavalry (VII, Rome):
Bonus hit points: 449 -> 500
Praetorian Cavalry (IX, Rome) :
Bonus hit points: 496 -> 551
Auxiliary Cavalry (IV, Rome):
Bonus hit points: 384 -> 427
Masinissas Guard (VIII, Rome) :
Movement Speed: 8.05 -> 7.49
Bonus hit points: 471 -> 524
Sarmatian lancers (V, Rome):
Bonus hit points: 431 -> 451
UNIT ABILITIES:
ABILITY CHANGES:
Pike Phalanx Now generates fatigue
Melee attack bonus reduced from +100% to +15%
Phalanx Reposition Now freezes fatigue regeneration when active
Pyknosis Reduces rate of fatigue regeneration by 60% while active
Bestial Defence Can now be activated while in melee
Fenrirs Howl Now a ground targeted ability with a range of 40m and an Area of Effect of 10m
Cannae Chant Now a duration ability rather than a toggle
Usable while in melee
Roman Phalanx +5% Melee Damage buff removed
Rapid Throw Increased duration from 6s to 8s
Skirmish Tactics Decreased CD from 35s to 20s
Caltrops Removed the "break charge" behaviour
Increased speed debuff from -40% to -60%
Slow effect now affects ALL charges except Wardog charges.
To summarize: Caltrops will no longer stop charges but will slow them down
BUGS:
Graphical glitches during pre-deployment.
COMMUNITY BUG FIXES
Light Artillery no longer fires when all entities are dead.
Alt-tabbing and then clicking back into the game will no longer keep the ability state active and spam chat when using them.
Fixed graphical glitches during pre-deployment.
Heavy and Light Artillery unit have had the Engineering Experts Trait removed.
Slow Effects applied by caltrops will now slow charging cavalry units.
Slow Effects are now applied to a unit that is Charging.
Checkbox on consumables panel will no longer shrink when selecting+dragging Restock Consumables.
Increased the timeout on the 2 min loading timeout.

New in Total War: ARENA 3.1.1 (Apr 30, 2018)

Greetings commanders.
This patch is the first to be delivered through our new patching process. This process will allow us to react faster to your concerns while still creating great content. In this patch, we've addressed your concerns about an unintended buff to missile units, the changes to caltrops and we're introducing a new Dynamic Mixing system (alongside other audio improvements), which we've shared the details of below.
BALANCE CHANGES:
MISSILE UNITS
In the last patch, we increased the accuracy of missile units. Our goal was to give ranged players much more control over their missiles and reduce the amount of frustration caused by friendly fire. Our initial data shows that we have achieved this goal, reducing friendly fire damage at all tiers.
However, this, combined with other changes, resulted in an unintended shift in power for ranged units. Low-armoured units, particularly Barbarian infantry, were the most affected by this shift. This began to become apparent during the PTS stage, but the sheer number of changes in 3.1.0 meant that we needed a bit more time to sort through the consequences and come up with an appropriate solution.
We’ve made a series of three changes intended to rein back the power of long-range missiles, particularly against light infantry, while preserving the reduction in friendly fire.
Firstly and most importantly, we’ve reduced the overall missile damage of archers and slingers by around 10%. In practice, this results in a damage reduction against the most lightly-armoured infantry of around 20%.
However, in order to reduce missile damage enough to improve the situation for lightly-armoured infantry, we risked making missiles incapable of dealing damage to heavily armoured units, even when attacking their rear. This eliminated much of the incentive for missiles to flank and made shooting into melee from behind allies too viable a tactic. As a result, we have made a second set of changes:
The Missile Block of all melee infantry has been increased, with the target of reducing frontal missile damage taken by around 8%. As Missile Block scales exponentially in effectiveness, this also makes all consumables and equipment items that increase Missile Block slightly more powerful.
We’ve slightly increased (2-3 points) in the AP damage of archers and slingers.
These two changes will reduce the effectiveness of attacking from the front but will ensure that ranged units are rewarded for taking risky flanking manoeuvres.
This should make all units – particularly lightly-armoured units - more resistant to missile fire overall, while still allowing ranged units to deal fair damage if well-placed.
CALTROPS
In 3.1.0 we implemented some changes to make caltrops easier to use. As with ranged, we made several changes to counterbalance this: reducing their speed debuff, introducing a short wind-up time and reducing the degree to which they could linger on the battlefield.
However, your feedback has made it clear that this was insufficient, so we’re introducing another change:
Units will briefly stop when dropping caltrops
This change should make it easier for skilled pursuers to identify when caltrops are being deployed and react accordingly.
AUDIO CHANGES:
DYNAMIC MIXING SYSTEM
which elements of the game are contextually most important for you at any given time and makes room for them in the soundscape.
For example: when looking at your units, the sounds around them in the 3D space are lowered slightly in volume, so their actions cut through the battle mix more than enemy units of a similar type. Additional layers of emphasis are put in place when your unit is selected or has just received an order. This increases your connection to the units you're currently controlling. Additionally, the system identifies threats and creates space in the mix for the appropriate sounds.
In this first iteration, incoming enemy charges are identified and given different amounts of emphasis, depending on whether yourself or an ally is being charged.
Alongside this system, we have undergone a full...
AUDIO REMIX
This remix has been focused on cleaning up the soundscape while adding definition and clarity. HDR (high dynamic range) audio functionality has been introduced, which allows certain louder sounds (catapult impacts, elephant vocalisations and hits, …) to relatively lower the volume of quieter sounds instead of simply playing on top of the full mix. This creates a more consistent mix, making the listening experience more pleasant and less fatiguing, which is especially valuable during longer play sessions.
BUGLIST:
Fixed the problem when disconnecting while watching a live game will reach timeout and pause
The Commander link icon now appears when secondary selecting the first unit card
The delayed HP bar animation is no longer out of sync between the enemy unit in the world info panel and on the unit identifier
A selected units HP bar in the world info panel will now drop to 0 when it is killed
Enemy unit cards are no longer visible even when the unit itself is not or vice versa
Temporary ban system messages should now tell you how long the ban lasts and why it was given
Fixed a rare bug where teams did not have 10 players on each side
Fixed various issues around fetching battle results after booting into the game
Active Consumables that have charges now display that in the frontend
Two Greek Pike units were missing the Formed Movement icon in their 'Abilities and Attributes'
Carthage swords now have access to the Tusked Shield cosmetic
Flaming Snipe has been replaced with Snipe (cosmetic change only) so it doesn't deactivate when you select a target with Focus Fire
Focus Fire tooltip now mentions that it resets reload timers
Hovering over AOE abilities with more than one unit selected will only display the AOE ring around applicable units.
Fixed two grammatical issues with Tier 10 Barbarian units Archers of Ullr and Decebalus Guard
Webshop Premium Units have the correct colour channels on their units cards in the 'Congratulations' panel
Fixed a Replay Desync bug during cloud replays.
Changing any options in the Frontend will no longer automatically reset camera type to Classic
The units in your squad now update correctly in a private lobby
Custom battles can now be created straight after the completion of another custom battle
Custom battles no longer affect profile stats.
Custom games will no longer consume the daily commander victory bonus.
Drop caltrops can no longer be spammed, locking the units into the animation when unable to deploy caltrops
Dropping caltrops while break ranks is active now stops all entities from moving
If you wish to discuss these changes, head over to our Subreddit or Discord, and be sure to check out our bi-weekly Developer Newsletter for news about what's coming up.
Until next time Commanders, we'll see you on the battlefield.

New in Total War: ARENA 3.0.1 (Apr 23, 2018)

IMPROVED: PVE
You can now play PvE in a party!
PvE has now become the main mode for the early game, with PvP being moved to T3+, this is to help the matchmaking stay consistent without splitting new players (and those using a new unit type) into two queues.
Alongside this, you can now play PvE no matter what tier your commander is. While it is still only available for the first three Unit Tiers due to AI limitations, the ability to play PvE is now entirely based on Unit Tier instead of Commander Tier.
PvE with parties is only available for Unit Tiers I - III and PVP with parties is only available for Unit Tiers III - X, to play PvP, you must have at least one T3+ unit in your squad.
Please note:
We are currently tracking PvE and PvP winrates separately. Sometime down the road, we will display the two independently, but we’re not sure exactly when this will happen. There will be diminished PvE rewards for the following situations:
T4 Commanders will receive 50% less Free Exp and Silver
T5+ Commanders will receive no Free Exp or Silver
In both of the above situations, you will still gain Unit Exp as normal, so you'll be able to rank up your T1 units
parties
IMPROVED: PARTIES
The first and most requested addition is a party unit composition panel to the squad menu. You can now see what units and tiers your party is bringing and if they are in the correct tier bracket, if there are issues, those units will be highlighted in red.
It is now the responsibility of the party leader to choose the game mode, and this choice will also be displayed on the squad panel.
Re-worded the 'Play' button to display 'Ready' for party members (members can unready by clicking on the 'Cancel' button).
The leader is always considered as 'Ready' and will only be able to select 'Play' when the party's unit composition fulfils all party and game mode checks.
Game mode drop-down will be disabled for other members that join the party. Only the party leader can change the game mode to which all members will be notified and the interface updated to reflect the change.
BALANCING & CONTENT CHANGES:
We've been paying close attention to your feedback and observations about how the new Carthaginian units and abilities fit into the game. In conjunction with our own metrics, we’ve decided to tweak three abilities/consumables in this patch and to continue monitoring the faction's data carefully.
Consumable - Melqart horn:
Turn speed bonus reduced from 50% to 20%
Unit abilities:
Echo of Trebia:
The mobility bonuses offered were, generally speaking, too strong.
Speed bonus reduced from 40% to 20%
Turn speed bonus reduced from 60% to 20%
Shield Screen
The bonuses of the ability were not sufficient when compared to the negatives and the ability felt underpowered.
Charge Deflect bonus increased from 20% to 30%
Missile Block bonus increased from +20 to +35
Alongside these changes, we're making sure that we continue to track and adjust other factions and units to keep them in line with our designs.
As such, the following changes have been made to bring artillery, Roman cavalry and a couple of commander abilities closer to their intended power.
Units:
Some Roman cavalry units needed a minimal melee defence increase, the units were not performing well in melee combat, especially when considering Oath of Perseverance.
Celeres: melee defence increased from 56 to 59
Equites: melee defence increased from 59 to 61
Legionary Cavalry: melee defence increased from 62 to 65
Mounted Warband had a too high weapon damage for its tier bracket, and it was performing too well offensively in melee combat.
Base normal damage decreased from 192 to 186.
Artillery units were performing too well in offensive capacity vs normal units, but not well enough against elephants.
Bolt projectiles that high tier artillery has access to (though the T8+ ability) have had their normal to AP damage ratio changed so they penetrate heavily armoured units better and the reload has been reduced by one second to help improve damage per second output, especially when considering they shoot only one bolt at a time.
Non-bolt projectiles have had their AP and Normal damages decreased to bring their damage more in line with their design.
Note that these changes to artillery are just temporary fixes, and a more serious balance change is incoming in the near future.
Catapult
Missile AP damage reduced from 46 to 37
Missile Normal damage reduced from 417 to 334
Heavy Catapult
Missile AP damage reduced from 49 to 39
Missile Normal damage reduced from 441 to 353
Onager
Missile AP damage reduced from 51 to 40
Missile Normal damage reduced from 458 to 367
Heavy Onager
Missile AP damage reduced from 52 to 41
Missile Normal damage reduced from 465 to 373
Vitruvian Onager
Missile AP damage reduced from 52 to 41
Missile Normal damage reduced from 472 to 378
Ballista
Missile AP damage reduced from 54 to 43
Missile Normal damage reduced from 486 to 389
Bolt AP damage increased from 54 to 204
Bolt Normal damage reduced from 486 to 250
Bolt reload time reduced from 9 to 8 seconds
Heavy Ballista
Missile AP damage reduced from 57 to 45
Missile Normal damage reduced from 510 to 408
Bolt AP damage increased from 57 to 215
Bolt Normal damage reduced from 510 to 262
Bolt reload time reduced from 9 to 8 seconds
Vitruvian Ballista
Missile AP damage reduced from 60 to 47
Missile Normal damage reduced from 537 to 430
Bolt AP damage increased from 60 to 226
Bolt Normal damage reduced from 537 to 276
Bolt reload time reduced from 9 to 8 seconds
The damage multiplier vs elephants applied on heavy artillery projectiles has been increased from 5x to 10x.
With the current changes to heavy artillery projectiles, the damage vs elephants has to remain considerably strong, especially when comparing heavy artillery strength vs elephants and heavy artillery strength vs infantry.
Toxotai archers have had their Rapid Shot ability replaced with Rapid Fire.
This is meant to fix a logical inconsistency (bug fixing). The Rapid Fire unit ability was superseded by Barrage, but Barrage was unavailable to the unit because it's only tier 4. The result of this implementation meant that when Toxotai units were played with Cynane over tier 5, they would not have access to either Rapid Fire or Barrage. This is not the case anymore as Toxotai will have Rapid Shot.
Notice that Rapid Shot is identical in functionality to Rapid Fire.
Commanders:
Caesar:
Vidi: was providing too much target stability while moving the reticule in manual aim mode. This would, in turn, make artillery played with Caesar too accurate when switching targets.
Artillery expansion rate bonuses on talents reduced from a total of -100% to -50%.
Vercingetorix
Iron Discipline: The cooldown on this ability was too low, especially when considering the 40seconds duration. The opportunity cost for this ability was too low, making the ability too strong.
Total Cooldown has been increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds, this was done through:
Added 3 new talent slots decreasing Cooldown by an accumulated total of -30s.
Base cooldown increased from 60s to 120s.
Tooltip Fixes:
Elephants
have an invalid flag saying "Can't use when Knocked".
This was changed from "Can't use when Knocked" to "Can't use when Knocked back."
Two new achievements - awarded as part of meeting the Faction Campaign objectives. These are the 'March of Factions' and 'March of Factions (Upgraded)' (name withstanding).
'March of Factions' is awarded for fighting 60 battles as any faction using two commanders during the campaign. At least 15 battles must have been played with each commander and units must have been Tier V+
'March of Factions (Upgraded)' is awarded for fighting 150 battles. Same usage conditions as above.
BUG FIXES:
Fixed a crash caused when rapidly swapping units in the squad panel.
No longer able to exploit cavalry and melee infantry charges to take zero damage going through wooden stakes.
The balance of power interface will no longer show as '0' when there is still a few entities alive.
Fixed audio issues where the 'tension' style music would play throughout the entirety of a PvE battle.
Dragging a non-discounted unit will no longer show a random 0% discount banner briefly.
Silver discounts for adding units to the squad will now display correctly and does not require a purchase of the unit with XP beforehand.