Tuesday, February 3, 2009

v0.98, v0.98b, and v0.98c Changelogs

Changelog for v0.98

Gameplay:
- each player (even those not playing) now have a Circle of Power at the start of the game
- made secret shops much more visible, moved their starting locations a bits
- renovated much of the terrain; most paths are now significantly narrower
- removed spawn creeps' Heal and Slow abilities
- made Crush and Stratoblast unable to knock units over cliffs or through major obstacles
- changed the way the Mind Control Orb operates; the controlled unit now follows the Orb by a short distance, the Orb is confined by collision, and the leash range is removed
- Conjurer's Orbs now grant vision of a small area when the hero dies
- allowed Blind Rage to work with Amulet of Spell Shield; if the Amulet triggers, the attack speed bonus will be kept but the miss chance will be blocked
- the affected unit is now selected automatically after Chomp finishes
- added buffs for Blazing Agility, Corruption, Curse of Agony, and Moonfire
- changed Spirit abilities to be unable to affect structures; shortened their cooldowns significantly; increased Rain of Fire damage slightly (30 to 35 per wave)
- increased hero base attack damage by 10 globally
- reimplemented a 5 second team cooldown for base-to-lane teleporters
- added a gold price to using teleporters: lane-to-base teleports now passively cost 2x % missing hp (e.g. teleport with full hp costs zero; half hp, 100 gold; 10% hp, 180 gold)
- reduced amount of gold given by Faceless and Magnataur creep camps by about 33%
- reduced Blue Dragon's slow duration to 2 seconds
- reduced Super Creeps mode creep hp bonus to 500 and armor bonus to 5
- reduced Observatory sight range to 4000
- increased Outpost tower hitpoints to 1250 and regeneration to 3 hitpoints per second, decreased armor to 10
- decreased non-Outpost tower hp, armor, and regeneration rates significantly
- lowered non-Outpost tower damage to 70/90/110/130/150
- decreased barrack structure hp to 2000, armor to 20, and regeneration to 1 hp/sec
- cut Demonic Portal and Well of Eternity hp in half
- reworked item combination triggers to run much more smoothly and to allow for buying recipes with full inventory
- added "-clear" command to clear screen of text messages
- changed Nuclear Launch ping to allies only

Fixes:
- fixed Allrandom mode glitch for player 12
- fixed Crown of Kings disappearance glitch
- fixed mode combining bug
- fixed a glitch from teleporting that occurred in replays
- fixed Nerve Poison movespeed glitch
- fixed Mending Wave crash glitch
- fixed Undeath to work correctly
- fixed Corruption and Curse of Agony to deal the correct damage
- fixed Lich King's Pact healing glitches
- fixed respawning heroes to have correct altitude after being killed by Vortex
- fixed Tree Goddess bounty amount
- fixed Demon Hunter game end score screen icon if he was morphed
- fixed Nuclear Launch glitch
- fixed Drench to have the correct slow factor
- fixed Fire Aura damage range
- fixed Coagulation, Forgotten Prophecy, and Pummel to level correctly
- fixed Cannibalize cast range glitch
- fixed Skinkapult to be unable to throw corpses
- fixed Silk Trail graphic bug
- fixed Storm Crow buff
- fixed Lethal Injection to display the correct damage
- fixed Illusionist typos
- fixed Hyperdimensional Warp, Nuclear Launch, Scare, and Vindication tooltip typos
- fixed a typo on Wind Boots

Balancing:
- Abomination: lowered strength growth from 3.1 per level to 2.8 per level
- Abomination: nerfed Putrid Odor to slow movespeed only
- Afflictor: allowed Corruption to scale 1% bonus total damage for every 2 int
- Afflictor: allowed Curse of Agony to scale 1% bonus total damage for every 2 int
- Afflictor: Life Tap now grants 2/4/6/8/10 additional base intelligence for 60 seconds in addition to its original effect
- Afflictor: made Extend Suffering increase total damage of Corruption and Curse of Agony by 1/2/3/4x int; you may type "-spells" or "-damage" to check your current spell damage on Afflictor
- Alchemist: reduced gold given by Chain Reaction to 2/3/4/5 per particle
- Arcane Wizard: lowered Arcane Wave damage to 75/125/175/225/275; reduced mana cost to 100/115/130/145/160
- Bandit: reduced strength growth from 3.0 to 2.5 per level
- Bandit: improved Grappling Hook initial damage to 65/130/195/260/325, improved moving damage to 25% of distance moved, changed mana cost to 100/115/130/145/160
- Bandit: nerfed Avoid chance to 10/13/16/19/22%
- Bandit: changed Thief Rage acceleration to a constant 5% ms and 20% ias every 2 seconds; accelerates for 6/8/10/12 seconds, lasts 20/22/24/26 seconds; changed cooldown to 100/90/80/70
- Blood Fiend: improved Bloodthirst duration to 14/18/22/26
- Burning Archer: increased Burning Arrows bonus damage to 6/12/18/24/30 and damage per second to 4/8/12/16/20
- Burning Archer: reduced Exploding Arrow cooldown to 40
- Chaos Peon: reduced all tower armor by 5
- Conjurer: improved Detonation damage to 3x int + 0/50/100/150/200
- Conjurer: reduced Life Orb cooldown to 25, added a 25% of creep hp heal to the Conjurer when it is casted, changed the mana restoration to 25% as well
- Dark Ranger: buffed Last Reprisal attack speed bonus to 13/26/39/52%, reduced its target death range to 600
- Demolitionist: reduced agility growth from 1.9 to 1.4 per level
- Demolitionist: lowered Armor Rip armor effect to 3/6/9/12/15 armor lost/gained
- Demon Hunter: lowered Demon Form duration to 6 seconds, changed cooldown to 70/60/50/40/30
- Destroyer: nerfed Orb of Annihilation damage bonus to 15/30/45/60/75, reduced mana cost to 30/40/50/60/70
- Doom Guard: nerfed Infernal Flame damage per second to 5/10/15/20/25, reduced duration to 3 seconds
- Dragonhawk Rider: improved Lightning Fury cooldown to 90
- Dreadlord: reduced Vampiric Haste ias to 7/14/21/28/35%
- Druid of the Claw: allowed Battle Roar to affect the damage of Lacerate
- Druid of the Claw: improved Feral Form stats slightly overall: faster morph; more armor, damage, and regeneration; bonus armor
- Druid of the Claw: improved Natural Haste movespeed bonus to 3/6/9/12/15%
- Druid of the Claw: reduced Rejuvenation mana cost to 50/60/70/80/90 and reduced healing time to 6/7/8/9/10
- Druid of the Talon: reduced Faerie Fire duration to 25
- Druid of the Talon: nerfed Words of Wisdom damage to 50/100/150/200/250 + 1x int
- Dryad: nerfed Harmony mana regeneration to 33% of its hipoint regeneration
- Elven Ranger: improved Poison Arrows slow to 6/12/18/24/30%
- Elven Ranger: improved Speed Drain speed change to 8/16/24/32/40%
- Faceless Terror: increased Doom cooldown from 120 to 150 seconds
- Faerie Dragon: increased Energy Beam max range to 2000 but kept the scaling of 100/200/300/400/500 max damage
- Far Seer: improved Omniscience level 4 duration to 40 seconds
- Footman: reduced Rage mana cost to 15 per attack
- Giant: lowered Ring of Fire effect duration to 7.5 seconds, increased damage to 85/130/175/220
- Gnoll Assassin: reduced agility increment from 2.9 to 2.6 per level
- Gnoll Assassin: rebalanced Camoflauge slow to 30/24/18/12/6%, backstab damage to 60/90/120/150/180, duration to 20, and cooldown to 40/37/34/31/28
- Gnoll Assassin: decreased Stun Trap delay time to 1.5 seconds (from 2.25 seconds)
- Hematologist: reduced Coagulation armor bonus to 3/5/7/9/11, regen to 3/5/7/9/11 hp per second, mana cost to 50
- Hematologist: nerfed Hemorrhage initial damage to 4/8/12/16/20
- Hematologist: lowered Hyperventilate armor reduction to 10, increased cooldown to 10, mana cost to 100
- Holy Knight: changed Holy Blessing cooldown to 8/7/6/5/4; improved life regen bonus to 1/2/3/4/5 hp per second
- Holy Priest: changed Meditation Aura to provide both hp and mana boosts for 3/5/7/9/11 every 8 seconds; improved aura regen rate to .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 mana per second
- Holy Priest: nerfed Touch of God damage/heal base to 50/100/150/200/250
- Hydra Hatchling: improved Hydra Split's Hydra base attack time to 1.05
- Hypnotist: lowered Mesmerize max duration to 2/2.5/3/3.5/4 seconds
- Jungle Stalker: lowered strength growth from 3 per level to 2.7 per level
- Jungle Stalker: nerfed Leap damage to 55/110/165/220/275 and increased cooldown to 18
- Knight: decreased Charge cooldown to 13
- Knight: improved Rush damage increase to 8/16/24/32/40 per second
- Knight: improved Vindication hp check rate, resulting in more continous hp change
- Kodo Rider: nerfed strength growth to 18 + 1.9/level
- Kodo Rider: increased Chomp cooldown to 120, made it scale through damage rather than duration: constant 3 sec duration, 70/110/150/190 damage per second
- Kodo Rider: nerfed War Drum strength bonus to 2/4/6/8/10
- Master of the Hunt: reduced Bite slow amount to 8/16/24/32/40%
- Master of the Hunt: reduced Mangle damage per second to 3/6/9/12/15
- Meat Wagon: increased Overrun cooldown to 12 seconds
- Meat Wagon: nerfed Toss disease effect to 15 damage per second
- Medicine Man: nerfed Medicinal Aura to be a fixed hp regeneration of 1.2/2.4/3.6/4.8/6 hp per second
- Medicine Man: reduced Medicine Field damage and heal to 90/130/170/210
- Mistress of Pain: replaced Mana Leech with Mana Surge, an active spell that grants mana for a duration, releasing it as aoe damage after a short time
- Mountain King: allowed Avatar to increase the chance of Counter Slam by 4/8/12/16% for the duration; its bash bonus is reduced to 4/8/12/16%
- Mountain King: reduced Counter Slam aoe to 225
- Naga Sea Witch: improved Freezing Arrow movement slow to 8/16/24/32/40%; attack speed slow to 4/8/12/16/20%
- Ogre Fighter: nerfed Final Strength bonus strength to 9/18/27/36/45
- Ogre Fighter: lowered Force Slam initial aoe so it cannot deal that much damage up close; reduced slow to 30%
- Priestess of the Moon: changed agility and intelligence growth to 2.3 per level (instead of 2.6 and 2.0 respectively)
- Priestess of the Moon: increased Shooting Star damage to 190/250/310/370; lowered mana cost to 100/125/150/175
- Rifleman: decreased base agility to 22, improved int growth to 19 + 1.7/level
- Satyr Thundercaller: quickened Lightning Ball movespeed to 300
- Scarab Lord: improved Beetle armor to 5, damage to 15/22/29/36/43, attack cooldown to 1 second, decreased bounty to 25, increased movespeed to 370
- Scarab Lord: buffed Crypt Curse duration to 15 sec
- Shadow Lich: added Dark Impact base damage of 30/60/90/120/150; lowered stun slightly to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds
- Shadow Lich: increased Wisdom of the Dead duration to 120 seconds
- Shadow Lich: improved Winter's Bane damage to 7x int and slow to 50%
- Shadow Priest: improved intelligence to 25 + 2.7/level
- Shaman: improved Nature's Curse cast range to 900
- Skinkapulter: allowed Skinkapult's damage to scale with a 1% increase for every 50 hp the thrown unit had; made it have 350/550/750/950/1150 hp
- Sludge King: improved Gush cooldown to 45 and cast range to 800/1100/1400/1700
- Sludge King: improved Sludge Grip cooldown to 13
- Sludge King: increased Sludge Monstrosities mana cost to 100/125/150/175/200
- Spell Breaker: reimplemented Mana Freeze's freeze mechanic: gives the Spell Breaker a 25% chance to stun the target for 1 second if the target's mana is below 10%
- Spell Breaker: made Spirit Drain mana drain more continuous
- Spider: lowered Lay Egg cooldown to 20
- Spider: improved Inject Venom damage per second to 3/6/9/12/15
- Spider: allowed Silk Trail to grant a small area of sight in its path
- Sorceress: made Elemental Mastery increase the mana costs of the Sorceress's spells
- Sorceress: improved Nova base aoe to 400, becomes 500/600/700/800 with Elemental Mastery; its cooldown is improved by 1 second per Elemental Mastery level as well
- Spirit of Vengeance: nerfed Shard of Vengeance damage to 100/165/230/295/360
- Spirit of Vengeance: made Spirit Ferry life drain more continuous
- Spirit Watcher: reduced attack range to 100 (melee)
- Spirit Watcher: increased Reincarnation cooldown to 390/360/330/300/270
- Tree Goddess: reduced Treant Guard xp given to a normal creep, lowered bounty to 65
- Vampire: made Cannibalize scale better: it now heals in less time and has a better cooldown when leveled; reduced mana cost to 50
- War Golem: improved base stats to 20/16/16 (str/agi/int)
- Witch Doctor: nerfed Voodoo Ward max duration to 10 seconds

Items:
- added four new recipe items: Blast Jar, Blade of the Monkey, Spirit Bottle, and Ice Crown
- added two new Orbs: Blood Sphere, Feral Soul
- changed Orb system: Blank Orb is now an info-only item; normal orbs are bought directly and cost 1400; over-limit orb refund to full price
- nerfed Paralysis Prism base bonus damage to 30 and base chance to 7%
- lowered Blazing Dynamo duration to 4 seconds
- added new icon for Sphere of Ignorance
- allowed Crown of Kings to combine normally if the buyer has all the required items, even if the player has sufficient gold to buy the item in one piece
- reduced Circlet of Nobility stat bonus to +4 to all stats, cost to 475 gold
- changed Gloves of Magic recipe to require Mindstaff, Pendant of Mana, and Cheese (since Blank Orb is now unbuyable)
- increased cost of Maul of Strength, Bloodfeather's Heart, and Ring of the Mind recipe combination costs to 300 (total costs to 900)
- changed Horn of Strength, Key of Agility, and Scepter of Intelligence, to require just one previous item and the recipe, increased price of recipe to 1500 (total to 2400)
- changed Crown of Kings II to require 1000 gold to combine (total cost of 8200)
- renamed Ironwood Branch to Emperor's Crown with new icon (total cost is now 11200 from changes above)
- changed Cloak of Evasion to be a non-secret item, changed combination cost to 500
- removed stock refresh time for Orbs as well as charged items (Healing Salve, Lesser Clarity Potion, Scroll of Town Portal, and Sentry Wards)

Others:
- changed Arcane Wizard model and icon to those of the human Archmage (ladder version)
- added new models for Mega Bolt and Winter Bolt
- added new icons for Adaptation, Apparition, Blood Boil, Chaotic Power, Dagger Throw, Death and Decay, Death's Glance, Death Swarm, Divine Intervention, Elune's Grace, Energized Release, Ghost Form, Holy Blessing, Lightning Ball, Lower Resist, Medicine Blast, Meditation Aura, Metal Slam, Natural Affinity, Natural Concealment, Natural Haste, Phantom Scream, Raise Skeletons, Ranger's Blessing, Scare, Skeletal Mastery, Speed Drain, Steal, Strafe, Stratoblast, Tidal Maniuplation, Tracking, Voodoo Stab, Ultimate Swiftness, Undeath, Unholy Conversion, Vindication, War Cry, Water Bolt, and Wisdom of the Dead
- renamed Priestess of the Moon's Starlight Arrows to Moonlight Arrows, added a new icon
- renamed Mountain Giant (now Giant), Skeletal Mage (Reaper), Spirit Walker (Spirit Watcher), Elven Hunter (Elven Ranger), Crypt Lurker (Lurker), Rifleman (Marksman), Crypt Lord (Scarab Lord)
- renamed Scarab Lord's Infestation to Crypt Curse and added a new icon
- lowered scaling size of Giant a bit; changed proper name to Volcanus
- added new Goblin Sapper attack projectile
- renamed Frozen Armor to Chilling Armor, Hunter's Blessing to Ranger's Blessing, and Summon Sludge Monstrosities to Summon Monstrosities
- changed Paladin's proper name to Uther
- increased scaling size of Faceless Terror, Footman, Grunt, Holy Champion, Mutation, Void Walker, and Zergling slightly
- reduced summoned Zerglings' scaling size
- changed Hypnotist's attack animation to Spirit Watcher's old animation
- changed Counter Slam animation effects
- changed Faerie Fury faerie attack animation
- changed Corruption buff model on Afflictor
- added new effect for Infestation
- allowed Exploding Arrow to give vision of the area it explodes for a couple seconds
- changed Fire Wave missile
- changed Strafe missile to normal flaming arrow projectile
- replaced Flame Contraption's projectile with old Fire Wave missile
- changed Skink Companion and summoned Skinks' color so they different from the hero skink
- added wind immolation effect to Wind Cloak
- shortened lightning effect on Conductive Sphere slightly

Development Notes:

The map size increased from 1754 kb to 1927 kb mainly from a vast number of new icons. (See this post for more icon details.) Several new model effects also contribute to the file size.

Six new items were added as well. Blood Sphere and Feral Soul are two new orbs that can cause exact life drain and silence enemies respectively. They can be stackable, just like the other orbs; in fact, Blood Sphere is the only orb to stack directly instead of having diminishing returns.

Of the other four new items, one is a secret shop item (speaking of which, the secret shop is now in a different location but is much easier to notice), while three others filled the Mystic Miscellany shop, with the Cloak of Evasion item moving to be a standard recipe. The Blade of the Monkey is an weapon that improves damage, agility, and attack speed. It also gives a chance to deal exact bonus damage on an attack based on agility, and can be potent in the late game as it cuts through armor.

The Blast Jar is an inexpensive utility item that grants bonus stats and a life regeneration aura. It also provides the Blast ability, dealing single target damage based on hero level. It is intended as an early game item, but some heroes, i.e. those who may lack direct damage spells, may find this useful throughout the game.

A Spirit Bottle upgrades the player's Spirit, making it invulnerable and improving the Finger of Death damage significantly. (As a side note, Spirits now cannot hit buildings with their spells.) It also allows the hero to restore actively a small portion of life and mana. Finally, the bottle also improves stats, max mana, and mana regeneration.

The new secret shop item, the Ice Crown, is the most powerful item in SMotA by far, as well as the most expensive. At a whopping total price of 21150 gold, it practically doubles the next most extravagant item. In fact, its ingredients are the Wind Boots and the Emperor's Crown (which used to be the Ironwood Branch), combined with of course the Cheese. It basically combines the powers of both items, which were powerful enough to start with.

Regarding items in general, it is now possible to combine recipes even when the hero has a full inventory. The Orb purchasing system is now easier to use; the Blank Orb has become obselete and only the Orb is required. Also, it is now possible to upgrade orbs with full inventory.

Some core gameplay mechanics were also renovated. Teleportation from outpost to base now has a dynamic gold cost that increases as the hero has less hp. Thus, teleporting back to buy items is free, but barely surviving a hero fight encounter will cost a small price (in fact, this price is simply 2 times % hp missing).

Along with teleportation, the game was made a little easier to finish. While Outpost towers are now stronger, almost everything else has been weakened. Observatories now have 4000 sight range, down from 5000 (the 1000 trusight range is unaffected). Lane towers are much weaker, barracks are easier to kill, as they now have 80% the hp, 50% the armor, and 20% the regeneration of the barracks in v0.97b, and the final structures' hitpoint counts were reduced by 50%.

Many fixes and balancing were made, and this version is intended as a stable version as no new heros or hero abilities were introduced. Note that it is still a beta. SMotA will become officially released as non-beta on version 1.00.

Changelog for v0.98b

- fixed a few typos and a particular spell damage glitch

Changelog for v0.98c

- Afflictor's Extend Suffering tooltip now states the spell damage check command
- fixed a major creep wave movement glitch
- fixed Demolitionist hero selection
- fixed Midas Touch and Forceful Strike abuses
- fixed Chilling Armor hotkey to be C
- fixed Chaotic Power typo
- fixed an abuse with Blade of the Monkey
- fixed a small Ice Crown typo

Just as a reminder, if you have any comments, suggestions, or criticism, please post it at our forum rather than on this blog. Thanks to all who helped or are currently helping with the beta test!

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