Hello everyone! As you migt have seen on the news/Forums, we have an open beta branch for the game! Here are the changes that have been done for this 2.0.7a update on the beta branch. [h1]v2.0.7a[/h1] [h3]CHANGES TO RESOLUTION, WINDOW/FULLSCREEN AND UI SCALING[/h3] [*] changed the way the game draws things in different resolutions [*] UI scale 100 is now default [*] UI scale 100 draws everything at a 1:1 scale for all resolutions [*] due to the new use for UI scaling, the arrows for UI scaling now change the scale by 10 points, and the buttons for "Reset Scale" and "Auto-Scale" have been removed [*] all common resolutions are now available as options for the size of the window mode [*] changed the way the game view updates when changing resolutions [*] the game should now support all aspect ratios without black bars [*] the game now remembers your window resolution and windowed/fullscreen settings [h3]FEATURES[/h3] [*] you can now toggle on and off mods within the game settings menu. Restart is still required [*] a new button in the game options menu now allows you to restart the game to instantly reload mods. Might lead to memory leak if used several times [*] uploading mods to steam workshop has been changed to be more user friendly and give better feedback [h3]SKILL BALANCE[/h3] [*] when units created via bodyguards die, they will now take some time to replenish (10% replenishment per day) [*] the champion statue now gives: [*] week 1-3: +1 bodyguards rank [*] week 4-6: +2 bodyguards rank [*] week 7-9: +3 bodyguards rank [*] armorer now gives 6% health increase (up from 5%) and 50% chance of projectile protection (up from 20%) [*] offense now gives 6% attack speed and movement speed increase (up from 5%) and 15% rage damage increase (up from 10%) [*] archery true-strike proc chance is now 4% + rank (down from 5% + rank) [*] hydromancy, aeromancy, terramancy and pyromancy now give +65% base spell effectiveness increase (up from +50%) [*] all spells now have a 6.667% longer cooldown [*] sorcery now gives 35% faster cooldowns and scales more predictably (up from 33% with diminishing returns) [*] scouting's diminishing returns from proccing often are less powerful (-25% per proc, down from -33% per proc) [*] diplomacy, necromancy and demonology now offers 5% more units, and at 10% less cost [*] diplomacy description has been updated with the v1.9 buff + the new buff [*] demonology procs are now less random [*] mysticism now gives +40% base spell effectiveness increase (up from +25%) [*] plunder now gives 10% more gold after combat [*] plunder now has a moderate chance of yielding artifacts after combat [*] First Aid tent now costs 2000g (up from 1000g), and Ballista now costs 1500g (down from 3000g) - since the total cost of both is now 3500g instead of 4000g this is considered a buff to Engineering [*] combat now gives +100 hp (up from 75) and +30% damage per rank (up from 25%) [*] midas touch now gives +65 hp (up from 50) and 20% proc chance (up from 15%) [*] bloodwarping now scales less strongly - rank I now and before are the same, but rank IV now will be only as strong as rank III was before [h3]FACTION BALANCE[/h3] [*] Counting House, Hostler, Conscription Centre and Gryphon Tower are now all available one town level earlier [*] the cost of using the Aether Forge now increases by 5% each time it is used [*] Banner of Champions now costs only 2 crystals (down from 5) [*] Sky Pillar is now available at town level 2, but also costs 5 ore [*] Pearl mechanic for Tide is now 50% more impactful [*] Pillars of Essence now costs 10% more resources to use [*] Recipes for the Pillars of Essence are now randomised each match [*] Pillars of Essence is now available one town level later [*] Tea House is now available one town level later [*] Enclave and Earthen have a buff scheduled for v2.1 [h3]CHANGES[/h3] [*] minor adjustment of the detailedness of the unit coloration surface in battles [*] the main menu battle now draws a black background [*] dragging the screen with middle mouse button now disables the auto camera the same way that scrolling or WASDing does [*] changed the way the UI for selecting the position of using an adventure map spell looks [*] Pillars of Essence unique building is now placed on the 4th row of the build grid [*] Tea House unique building is now placed on the 3rd row of the build grid [*] the hero window UI will now always show the hero page at the start instead of showing the spellbook if you had opened the spellbook last time [*] units with Rebirth active (phoenixes) will now be resurrected when combat is won [*] MODDING: the various ways of spelling the Windup and Projectile Prot abilities now all work [*] MODDING: Artifact mods can now give faction skills [*] Faction choice screen has been redesigned to better support various resolutions and extra modded factions [*] The Lexicon is now shown at 100% scale always, but players using lower resolution displays can scroll around it using WASD or holding the mouse at the edge of the window [*] The Achievements lexicon page no longer moves as you move the mouse [*] the AI will now choose the 2nd alternate unit instead of always picking the first [*] spell descriptions for Magic Arrow and Iceball are now more precise [*] island maps will no longer generate landmasses that reach the edge of the map, which fixes issues with unlucky placement of Docks [*] the game will now display the world scaled to 1x - 2x - 3x - 4x instead of 1x - 2x - 2*sqrt(2)x - 4x when zooming in and out [h3]BUG FIXES[/h3] [*] fixed Puzzle Master achievement not unlocking [*] fixed the previous balance changes to neutral units applying to the wrong units [*] fixed how adventure map building windows were placed on the screen to better support low resolution monitors [*] changed the position of the "Done" button in the town screen for low resolution monitors [*] changed the position of the Army Creation screen in the town screen for low resolution monitors [*] the position of the "Advanced" and the "Back" buttons in the map selection screen have been fixed for low resolution monitors [*] fixed the UI for selecting the position of an adventure map spell being weird in some resolutions [*] fixed a crash happening whenever you hired too many heroes as a modded faction [*] fixed a rare issue that could cause a crash in combat [*] fixed a rare crash that could happen when alt-tabbing from the game at the precise moment it opened [*] fixed an unexpected interaction between right clicking units in the army deployment tab and right clicking to split war groups on the battlefield, which could be used for unit duplication [*] Bodyguards units no longer die at the end of combat the way that summoned units do [*] fixed a bug that would make some of your units disappear if you exited an adventure map building UI by unconventional means [*] opening the lexicon in the main menu now pauses combat, improving performance while in the lexicon [*] fixed Resurrection spell resurrecting corpses of upgraded units as their base versions [*] fixed unit group mods breaking if more than 1 of them were loaded due to their names loading wrong [*] fixed (unused) the technical unit groupings being messed up when faction mods were loaded [*] fixed the Tooltip for Overgrown Gold Mines saying they give 5000 gold each week when they actually give 2500 [*] fixed the Overgrow Gold Mine? UI window saying they give 5000 gold each week when they actually give 2500 [*] fixed a building being able to spawn right at the diagonal lower left corner of a town, blocking paths to the left [*] fixed a bug that would unlock the Patience achievement when playing on a custom map [*] fixed a bug that would give a hero infinite XP gain if you continuously equipped and unequipped an artifact that gives Learning [*] fixed a rare crash that could happen when entering battle while tabbed out [*] fixed the tooltip of spellpower erronously saying it increases power by 5% when it actually increases it by 10% [*] fixed an issue that made the game hang when using certain cheats in debug mode