As I am sure some of you will have noticed by now, we have made some major changes to Lord of Ultima today, not least of which is the move from Closed to Open Beta! If you have any friends who haven't been able to gain access to Lord of Ultima yet, let them know they should be good to go now!
One of the major changes is the introduction of the Shop! You will now be able to purchase Diamonds and use them to obtain Artifacts and hire Ministers! As we mentioned yesterday, we will not be wiping the servers once the game moves out of Beta, so there is no need to worry about purchasing an item now and losing it once the game launches. Don't forget we will also be sending codes for Diamonds to anyone that has opted in to receive our Newsletter! We will also be distributing some codes via Twitter, Facebook, and the Forum.
To add further enjoyment and longevity to the game Quests have been introduced. These will give you alternate goals to try and complete as opposed to the day to day running of your empire. Should you successfully complete a Quest you will be rewarded handsomely!
There are many many new features, buildings and bug fixes. In fact there are too many for me to continue to wax lyrical about, so without further ado, I present to you the patch notes! For those of you who would prefer to read the notes in German, you can go here  .
Features:
- Towers
- Overview:
- New Towers are introduced to the game.
- The amount of slots for towers has been reduced to 24
- You can no longer build or upgrade the "old" Towers.
- The old Towers still work, see "Transition" below.
- There are now 9 types of buildings for tower slots in 2 categories: Defence Towers and Trap Towers.
- Defence Towers:
- Defence Towers exist for Rangers, Guardians, Templars, Ballistaes and Scouts.
- They will double the defence value of a certain amount of units. With each level, the amount of units protected increases.
- The Defence Towers will strengthen both the local defender and supporters for as many slots as available.
- If there are more slots available than units of this type, city guards will be able to take those.
- Trap Towers:
- Additionally, there are towers against attackers ("traps") against infantry, cavalry, magic and artillery attacks.
- Those towers can only be placed in the outer ring of the City Wall (16 locations overall).
- A Trap Tower neutralizes a certain amount of attacking units. With each level, the amount of units neutralized increases.
- It is not possible to neutralize more than 50% of the attackers of each type.
Example: You have infantry traps versus 200 units. If 1000 attack, 200 will be neutralized. If 100 attack, 50 will be neutralized.
- Transition from old towers:
- Old towers stay functional for at least 10 days, we will keep you updated in upcoming patch notes.
- You can no longer build or upgrade the old tower types.
- You can no longer build towers in the 20 outdated tower slots which are no longer valid. Those towers stay functional for now, though.
- Even though Ballista Tower and Lookout Tower have the same name as the old towers, they need to be replaced since they have different functionality.
- We will refund resources for the old towers as you downgrade them. As this is not yet in the game we will keep you updated in upcoming patch notes.
- Note: If you decide to downgrade those towers now, there is no refund!The time to downgrade the old towers has been reduced to seconds. Please keep an eye on the next patch notes about towers.
- Shop
- You are now able to acquire certain items and features for Diamonds.
- The Shop can be opened by selecting the "Shop" button in the UI on top of the screen.
- Under the tab "Minister" you are able to hire Ministers for a certain period of time.
- Building Minister:
- The Building Minister extends the building queue by 10 slots to 16 in total.
- The Minister can take construction orders even if you lack the resources to build and can carry them out while you are absent.
- - The Minister's order will be placed in the queue as usual and can also be sorted.
- - As soon as the Minister's order reaches the top of the queue, he will spend the necessary resources, if they are available.
- - If there are insufficient resources available , the next order will be verified and executed unless you chose the option to keep a fixed order.
- - At any point, you can convert a Minister's order into a normal one.
- Defence Minister:
- The Defence Minister will automatically alert members of your alliance of any impending attack.
- - Anyone online and in your alliance will be if a fellow member faces attack.
- - Everyone in your alliance will be able to see which of your cities is under attack, at what time, and by whom.
- The Minister extends your recruitment queue by 12 slots to 16 in total.
- The Minister can take orders for units even if you lack the necessary resources to recruit and can carry them out while you are absent.
- - The Minister's order will be placed in the queue as usual.
- - As soon as the Minister's order reaches the top of the queue, he will carry it out, if the necessary resources are available.
- - If resources are still lacking, but 100 troop units can be recruited, the order will be automatically split and executed.
- - If there are insufficient resources available, the next order will be verified and executed, unless you chose the option to keep a fixed order.
- - At any point, you can convert a Minister's order into a normal one.
- Artifacts:
- Under the tab "Economic Artifacts" you are able to acquire certain Artifact items with different conditions.
- Artifacts exist in different qualities. To use advanced Artifacts, you need to raise your title first.
- Amulets: Instantly completes any recruitment orders for a certain period of time.
- Axes: Adds a certain amount of wood to your current city.
- Chests: Adds a certain amount of gold to your account.
- Hammers: Adds a certain number of stone to your current city.
- Medallions: Instantly completes any construction orders for a certain period of time.
- Pikes: Adds a certain number of iron to your current city.
- Sickles: Adds a certain number of food to your current city.
- Toolkits: Adds a certain number of wood, stone, iron and food to your current city.
- Titles
- Depending on the amount of Moonstones you own you can now earn new titles.
- You start as "Sir",and you will become Knight, Baron, Earl, Marquess, Duke, Prince, King and Emperor as you advance through the game.
- Advancing your title will not only allow you to control more cities, but also enable you to use more powerful Artifacts and earn Mana quicker.
- Items
- You are able to use the Artifact items purchased in the Shop by clicking on the "Items" button in the UI on top of the screen.
- In the Items window you can filter the Artifacts by title.
- If you select an Artifact by clicking on it this item will be marked. You need a certain amount of Mana to use an item.
- If you then click on the button "Use Item" you use this Artifact for your currently selected city.
- The impact of the used item is immediately shown in the UI (e.g. your wood counter has increased).
- Quests
- You can now solve different Quests.
- A Quest Overview of the currently available Quests is shown when the "Quest" button in UI on top of the screen is selected.
- By clicking on a certain Quest a more detailed description of the Quest Details is displayed. This describes what needs to be done to solve the Quest and displays the progress and the Quest Reward to expect.
- Once a Quest is resolved the Quest Reward can be collected.
- If you have been playing in the Beta for a while now, you may notice that you have already completed a number of quests. If this is the case, then the rewards should be available for you to collect immediately.
- Social
- You can now connect to your friends.
- An overview of your friends and invitations is displayed when you select the "Social" button in the UI on top of the screen.
- The Friends tab allows you to get an overview about your friends you are already connected to.
- On the Invitations tab you are able to see your received and sent invitations. You are also able to send friend requests to other players.
Balancing:
- Units
- The defense value of the sloop has been increased.
- Catapults will now only deal their full damage to buildings if the attacking force is at least 4 times bigger than the defending force.
- Rams will now only deal their full damage to buildings if the attacking force is 2 times bigger than the defending force.
- If the attacking force is less dominant, building damage will be reduced depending on the ratio.
- The same rule applies to the building and fortification damage of War Galleons.
- Example: If attackers and defenders have the same troop strength, Rams will deal 50% of their fortification damage and Catapults will deal 25% of their building damage.
- Buildings:
The upgrade costs for buildings to level 8, 9 and 10 have been reduced by up to 15%.
- Most Level 1 buildings build faster.
- Most building upgrades level 9 and 10 take up to 15% longer.
- Costs of the Townhouse have been reworked.
- Costs for the Harbor have been increased.
- Score:
- Buildings now grant different amount of score depending on their resources and build time.
- The "old" towers will not grant score anymore.
Various:
- Building Queue
- The amount of default slots in the Building Queue has been reduced to 6.
- Recruitment Queue
- The amount of default slots in the Recruitment Queue has been reduced to 4.
- Building a Castle
- A warning box pops up once you intend to build a Castle. It's telling you that you are now able to assault, siege and plunder other cities. But in return this can happen to you as well.
- Notification Markers
- When a new report, mail or friends invitation is available this is shown by a marker and the number of updates in brackets in the relevant UI button on top of the screen ("Reports", "Mail", "Social").
- Options Link
- This link opens the Options screen where you can turn off the animations and adjust the server time.
- Forum Link
- When you click on this link at the bottom of the screen you will be routed to the Lord of Ultima forum (in a separate browser window).
- Help Link
- When you click on this link at the bottom of the screen you will be routed to the Lord of Ultima wiki (in a separate browser window).
- Time and Date
- The local time and date is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
- Newbie Protection
- There is no Newbie Protection for player founded cities any longer.
- If someone loses all his cities his new free city will get newbie protection.
- Timing Issues
- Several time display issues around trade, ships and settle have been resolved.
- Starving of support troops
- Support troops won't starve any longer if the supported City is not under siege.
- Gold Income
- The gold income issue has been resolved.
- Bugfixes
We hope you will enjoy all of these wonderful new features, I know I certainly will  .
Silvanoshi
(This post was last modified: 03-29-2010 07:15 PM by Ophidian.)
|
Silvanoshi 
Go to next important person...
