A new major update has dropped for Wyrmsun.
This patch implements a great number of changes. There have been substantial technical improvements done to the game's engine (such as parallel sound loading), as well as new additions to the game itself.
In order to improve playability under higher resolutions, there is now a 2x scaling option in the video options menu. The scaling primarily uses the xBRZ algorithm, which is specially made to upscale pixel art.
The game also supports using prescaled graphics instead, which is made use of, for instance, for the icon of the Eagle Eye ability:
The way player territories work has also undergone an overhaul. Whereas previously a player obtained territory as a range around their buildings, territories are now preassigned to a given settlement site, and when a player builds a town hall there they acquire the entirety of that territory (so that only they can build there).
A number of performance improvements and bugfixes have also been made.
Many of the scenarios set on Earth now make use of a new 384x384 map:
Which units and factions are applied to the map depends on the start date of each scenario. This map will also be used as the foundation of future Earth scenarios.
And there have been many more changes as well. For the full changelog, see below.
Please note that for the time being this update is only available under Windows on Steam.
Enjoy!
Merry Christmas to you all!
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- 4.0.0 Changelog
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* Abilities
- Added the Infusion ability for dwarven Runesmiths, Runemasters and Arcanisters. When used, this ability increases the arcane damage of the target unit by 4.
- Fixed the tooltip of the Barkskin ability to correctly reflect that it increases armor by 4.
- Improved the performance of autocasting.
- The hotkey for Inspire is now "p", as its previous hotkey ("i") was the same as that to open the inventory.
* Ages
- Norse players now require not only the Spatha upgrade, but also Sailing and either Shield Wall or Svinfylking to enter the Viking Age.
* AI
- The AI now goes to the aid of its attacked buildings, rather than only its units.
- The AI now purposefully builds units/buildings to complete its quests.
- The AI now only declares war during scenarios after 20 minutes of playing, so that main quests can proceed more smoothly.
* Buildings
- All Germanic buildings now have snowy variations.
- The Teutonic Mason's Shop now correctly uses its active animations.
- The Germanic Stables graphics now use semi-transparent shadows, as the other buildings do.
- Teuton buildings now have snowy variations.
- Copper, Silver, Gold, Iron, Mithril and Coal Deposits and Mines now have snowy variations.
- The Mercenary Camp, Settlement Site, Yale Cave and Yale Hunting Lodge buildings now have snowy variations.
- Added the Elven Town Hall, Stronghold, Farm and Barracks buildings.
- Added the Latin Dock building.
- The construction of town halls over settlement sites now possesses two additional (generic) construction frames.
- Added notes in the encyclopedia for deposit/mine buildings, describing their conversion rates to copper.
* Characters
- A character's father, mother and children are now delineated in their encyclopedia entry.
* Deities
- A deity's father, mother and children are now delineated in their encyclopedia entry.
* Editor
- Fixed crash which occurred when creating new cave and dungeon maps in the editor.
* Items
- Bows now have specific graphics for when they are on the ground.
- Added meat food item.
* Miscellaneous
- Reduced the time of day color effects, so that the graphics aren't too dark during night.
- Instead of tiles being owned by a player based on an influence range expanding from the player's buildings, tiles are now assigned to a settlement, and when the player builds a hall on the settlement site ownership of all its tiles are gained.
- Added 2x scaling option.
- Removed the "Use OpenGL" option, as OpenGL is now always used for rendering.
- Reworked the random number generator to provide better results.
- Improved the performance of resource gathering pathfinding.
* Modding
- Added instructions (in the game's "documents" subfolder) on how to create a mod in the game's new database format.
* Multiplayer
- Fixed possible source of desyncs related to hiring units at mercenary camps.
* Quests
- Quests can now be accepted in a sub-menu in the town hall interface.
- Added dozens of new side-quests for gathering resources, building structures, researching upgrades and hunting predators. These quests are available for the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Gothic, Norse, Suebi and Teutonic civilizations, and provide flavor based on each civilization's language.
- The quest pool is now updated each minute, instead of each half-minute, to give the player a bit more time to pick a quest before the pool changes.
- The Master of Metal quest no longer grants 2 Buras on completion, providing just the copper reward now.
- The House of Seven Fathers quest is now available only for the Norse civilization (previously it was also available for the Germanic civilization).
* Scenarios
- Other kobolds will no longer attack the Grafvitning Tribe, to prevent it from being destroyed too soon in the The First Dwarves scenario.
- The Nidavellir scenarios now take place in a single map layer. The underground portions of the map are now in the same layer as the surface portions, but retain their peculiar characteristics, e.g. cave walls being non-passable by air units and missiles.
- Reduced the size of the Aurvang and Joruvellir map templates.
- The Settlement of Scandinavia scenario now requires the player to build a Chieftain's Hall in Copenhagen instead of Leidre.
- The scenario screen now shows the year in which the scenario starts.
- Moved the start year of the The First Dwarves scenario from 3000 BC to 25000 BC.
- Made it so many Earth scenarios now take place on a new 384x384 map.
* Sounds
- The "work complete" sound now correctly plays when an upgrade has been researched.
- Sounds are now loaded in parallel, decreasing audio loading times.
* Terrain
- Units in underground terrain tiles (cave floor and rockbound cave floor) are now treated as if they are at night for sight range bonus purposes.
- Units in underground terrain tiles are now have the night-time color effect applied on them.
- Terrain feature tooltips now only appear after one second.
- Destroyed rocks and walls now disappear after some time.
* Units
- Dwarven axe infantry units now have +10 HP and -2 evasion.
- Dwarven spear infantry units now have +5 HP and -2 evasion (they already had a free +5 HP bonus before).
- Added Elven Worker unit.
- Dwarven Miners can no longer equip axes.
- Priest units now have a slower attack rate.
- Frogs and crows now have their own icons, and are selectable.
- A unit's type name will now have its civilization prefixed to it if the type's civilization is different than that of its owning player. For example: a goblin "Swordsman" which is recruited as a mercenary by a dwarven player will then be called a "Goblin Swordsman".
* User Interface
- Replaced the main menu background with a new one made by Jinn.
- Removed the "Larger Popup Font" option, as its purpose is largely fulfilled by the 2x scaling option.
- Added "Territories" minimap mode. Press TAB to toggle through the minimap modes.
- Added minimap mode with the territories of each settlement.
- Added support for zooming the minimap for maps with tile size larger than the pixel size of the minimap (e.g. 256x256 maps if the minimap is 128x128). Press Shift-TAB to zoom/unzoom the minimap.
- Simplified the appearance of terrain on the minimap. Each terrain type is now represented by a particular color (with seasonal variations).
- The player's population number can now be seen when hovering the food icon on the top bar. The number is based on the number of organic, non-fauna units the player possesses. The population number is for flavor only, and has no gameplay effect.
- The (human) player's name in the player list is now shown in green.