Automatic Gates, Interface Improvements and New Vehicle Destruction Effects

General

• Optimized performance in large battles with many units, effects and pieces of debris. Models and textures needed immediately now take priority when loading
• Gates can now be switched to automatic mode: they open when your units or allied units approach and close after they leave
• For abilities that require a target, pressing the ability button repeatedly sets the number of uses. You can then choose a shared target or location for all of those uses with a single click
• Selected units with long reload times now display a weapon readiness bar below their health bar, showing their progress toward the next shot

Interface

• Units assigned to number keys now have a control group panel showing unit icons and counts. Use it to select a group, add selected units to it or clear the group
• The F1 overview now shows resource income and spending per minute, the total number of combat units and their population cost, and the number of iron mines and quarries
• Added separate alerts with sound when your main building or an ally’s main building is attacked. Clicking an alert moves the camera to the building under attack
• In matches between two teams, players on the same team now receive similar colors, making it easier to tell allies from enemies
• The “Idle” alert now shows idle workers, fishing boats and tractors separately. Left-click the corresponding icon to select the next idle unit of that type, or right-click to select all idle units of that type
• The selected unit panel now displays icons for active effects, such as buffs or slowing effects. Tooltips explain what each effect does, and temporary effects show their remaining duration
• Added a panel for research nearing completion, showing progress and time remaining. Completed research stays in the list briefly. Clicking an entry moves the camera to the building where the research was carried out
• Deleting even a single transport carrying passengers now requires confirmation: the game warns that the units inside will also die
• When choosing a location for a tower or another armed building, its weapon range is now shown on the minimap
• When a main building is being upgraded to a Wonder, the upgrade progress is shown in the top panel
• A new chat setting lets you display message text in white while keeping player names in their assigned colors

Graphics

• Reworked the movement of debris from vehicles, ships and siege engines: falling and sliding now take each piece’s shape and the terrain into account
• Dead units’ bodies and debris now collide with buildings and vehicle wrecks. Large pieces of debris also collide with one another
• Falling aircraft now leave a smoke trail
• Updated ship wakes. Longboats now emit smoke from their chimneys while moving
• Graphics settings now let you choose the amount of debris and enable or disable debris collisions

Modding

• Mod authors can now define areas on the map and trigger events when units enter or leave them

Bug Fixes

• Recent match results and other account changes could disappear after logging in again
• In matches with spectators, a victory or defeat could be recorded for the wrong player, leaving a match participant without a result
• Some older saves were incorrectly treated as corrupted. Also fixed cases where trees, fish and some units disappeared after loading
• The game window could become unresponsive for a long time during startup
• Matchmaking could get stuck when a server response was delayed
• Fish could fail to appear on maps
• Damage upgrades could fail to affect weapons that only attack certain types of targets
• Units now aim closer to the center of their target, as far as their weapon range allows
• Tanks could crush or push elephants and mammoths
• After repeatedly adding units to the selection with Shift, this function could stop working
• The “We are under attack” alert and announcer could fail to trigger when the attack happened on screen
• A dead unit’s aura could become active again after research was completed
• Corrected the hit chance shown in tooltips: it now accounts more accurately for the target’s shape, the aiming point and shot spread
• Fixed an issue with map pings when joining a match already in progress
• The announcer repeated resource shortage warnings too frequently during construction
• Fixed a periodic stutter in the water animation

Balance

• “Deafening” from projectile hits now also reduces the target’s turning speed to 35% of its normal value
• Horsemen, camels, elephants, boars, mammoths and bears now take 80% of the original damage from bullets and arrows. Armor is subtracted after this reduction
• Ballista, Catapult and Onager now take 60% of the original damage from bullets and arrows. Armor is subtracted after this reduction
• Grenade launcher operator: material cost reduced from 300 to 260, production time reduced from 40 to 34 seconds, and damage to buildings reduced from 90 to 60
• Goliath operator can now transport up to 6 infantry units or workers
• Battleship: health increased from 1200 to 1400, ship size increased by 20%
• Dreadnought: health increased from 1500 to 1700, ship size increased by 20%
• Antitank hedgehog now takes 40% of the original damage from bullets and arrows. Armor is subtracted after this reduction
• Elephant house: average armor reduced from 6.8 to 6.0