The Protectors version 0.9 Feature Rundown news

Discover some of the biggest and most exciting changes in The Protectors version 0.9 in this early preview video! Please note that not all changes are covered in this video - there are so many that it would be impossible to go through each and every one! For more information about the changes made in 0.9, check out the changelog linked below.

Key Changes

Campaigns

• New WBC2-style Conquest campaign with configurable AI heroes, unique items, secrets and interactable events.
• New zoom feature for world maps.
• New scout feature for campaigns that gives battlefield intel, such as the map layout and diplomatic relations.
• Keep research system starts at tier 3 (instead of 1).

Combat

• Overhauled combat stat, damage, armor and resistance so each is easier to understand (e.g 10 combat means 10% chance to crit/dodge, whereas the resistances to damage types have replaced the armor stat so that 10% slashing resistance means a 10% reduction in slashing damage).
• The resistance stat now only affects a unit's resistance to afflictions (the percentage damage reduction, or rather new armor, handles all damage reduction). Resistance also now resists both psychological afflictions and physical afflictions in the same manner (if any affliction fails to inflict the target, the target gets 'Endurance' (which has been renamed from Courage)).
• Decreased RNG by removing deathblows/misses, by removing the proportional comparison in the combat stat for melee attacks, and by giving the damage stat a small variation.
• The combat stat now works the same way for both melee and missile units (all units deal direct damage instead of only melee units having to roll).
• Crit effects have been re-evaluated so that they are more balanced with one another.
• The effectiveness of damage types is not as extreme.
• New rock-paper-scissors style unit type system (spearmen are more effective against cavalry and cavalry are more effective against archers etc).
• The bias that certain races had against others has been minimised (whether that bias was as a result of the race's theme or damage types etc).
• Complete rebalancing of all unit stats, building stats and abilities (they are now much more thematic and more in-line with their appearance).
• Most units now have new thematic abilities.
• Multiple new afflictions such as confusion, silence and ghoulplague.
• New psych affliction attacks and physical affliction auras.

Terrain

• Cover bonuses are now stronger and are applied to all units equally (large/huge units now receive bonuses).
• Terrain types like snow, ice, swamp and desert slow land movement speeds and some also give negative cover and can't be built on.
• Terrain height now provides a specific and similar bonus for melee units, missile units and buildings (instead of a bonus which scaled with terrain height, units/buildings which are higher up than others get a specific bonus). The bonus provided is also more substantial.

Resources & Costs

• Each resource type has been given a unique role (gold is used for everything, metal is used for advanced productions, stone is used for buildings and crystal is used for unit/building abilities and researches).
• Redesigned costs for all units, buildings and researches (and notably lesser costs for spellcaster units, some of the costs of which have been transferred to their spells).
• Some of the income generated from ore mines, quarries and crystal mines has been transferred to gold.

Races

• Races have unique themes and economies (such as necromancy and necromantic conduits for the undead or cover and altars of couatl for the ssrathi).
• Poison/disease cures and similar answers to common playstyles are now available to every race.
• Trade is now available to every race.
• Races have different efficiencies at each keep tier level, meaning that they now have early/mid/late game advantages (such as lower unit costs and more/better research).

Micro/macromanagement

• Rally points can now be queued.
• Rally points now check whether or not a mine is full before producing a miner.
• Using the crtl key, a player can set all their rally points.
• New ability auto-cast system (when an ability is left-clicked, one unit uses it. When an ability is right-clicked, all selected units with that ability use it. Middle-clicking an ability toggles autocast for the selected units. Middle-clicking a unit image opens the ability manager, which changes whether or not to autocast certain abilities by default).
• Automatic proximity conversion (it's much faster, multiple converters stack, and conversion orders can be issued and queued).

Unit Level Ups & XP

• Unit level ups now give percentile bonuses instead of linear ones, and are much stronger.
• Unit XP gains are based on the killed enemy (it no longer divides the XP gained by the unit's power level).
• Level up requirements are based on the unit's power level (so a swordsman requires less XP to get to level 2 and a tyrannosaurus rex requires more).
• ASP costs are fairer.

Fliers & Diving

• When a flier attacks a ground unit, it dives (this reclassifies them as a floating unit for a short period of time. During this time, they still can fly above other units/buildings/obstacles as normal).
• Ground units can attack diving fliers (anything which can attack a floating unit can attack diving fliers, so both ground units and fliers can attack them. Diving fliers can still attack other fliers).

New Building System

• Buildings are either classified as base buildings or defense buildings (all buildings in the primary construction panel are considered base buildings, whereas all buildings in the secondary towers and walls construction panel are considered defense buildings).
• The first keep a player constructs creates their 'base radius'. Enemy players can't build any buildings within this radius.
• Base buildings, aside from the keep, must be built within the player's own or an allied keep's radius.
• Base buildings constructed outside of the 'base radius' cost additional resources and take more time to build based on the distance from the 'base radius'.
• Defense buildings can be constructed anywhere outside of an enemy's 'base radius' without additional cost (they also don't require to be within a player's own or allied keep's radius).
• Build queues from other builders are now visible when a building is being placed or if the shift key is held down.

Army Limit

• Army limit is now a preset option in scenario options (it scales with the highest level of keep a player has, so they start with less than the preset amount at keep level 1 all the way until they reach keep level 5, in which they get the preset amount). Any bonuses such as from morale, perks or researches, are added onto this number.

Editor

• Maps can have a preset army limit, a preset victory condition/gametype and sides can have a preset hero (which is fully customizable and can even be one of the player's own heroes).
• New terrain tiles such as extended ramps and clouds.
• Any terrain tile selected in the menu will display underneath the cursor when hovering over the map.
• Most lists are now alphabetized in a large, right-hand scrollbar.
• New event conditions and effects.
• Events are renamable.
• New advanced diplomacy window with configurable dispositions and a new 'neutral' disposition (for instance, there can now be a player which is allied with two others which are enemies with one another, or there can now be multiple sides on a map which are neither enemies or allies with other sides).

AI

• AI uses races and their abilities better, purposefully timing them for specific occasions.
• AI knows how to build heroes (such as which skills or perks to invest in, which ones to prioritise and which ones not to invest in).
• AI tactics are more advanced (they know how to produce specific types of units, how to predict danger, how to defend their bases or allied bases, how to protect or destroy mines, how to retreat armies, when to cast certain spells and more).

Heroes & Spellcasting

• There's no longer any spellcasting failure (spells are always successfully cast).
• Spells are unlockable (instead of being levelled up individually).
• Spell levels are based on the hero's ritual skill and intelligence stat.
• Higher-cost spells are more efficient than those with lower costs.
• Exploitable spells replaced or have new effects (such as intoxication and ymorgia's touch).
• Certain spells have new effects (such as home portal which summons a portal structure which can teleport units, or divine peace which prevents all units and buildings from being able to attack or use abilities within a specific radius for a duration of time).
• Hero traits (such as good, evil, experimentalist or traditionalist), now only affect the RPG side of gameplay (such as events, questlines and campaigns).
• Heroes from 0.8.9 onwards may now be imported into following versions (after they are imported, they are respec'd so the player can reinvest their skill points however they like).

Items

• New necklace and belt item slots, with plenty of new items.
• Items unlock spells instead of spell sphere bonuses (instead of giving +3 to Necromancy for example, an item might give access to the Vampirism spell). Any spells unlocked this way are cast as well as the hero casts any other spell (so a chronomancer could equip an item which gives access to summon imp and cast that spell as well as haste).
• Items are upgradeable and renamable (when an item is upgraded, the player gets 'skill points' which they can use to improve any positive bonuses provided by the item. When an item is fully upgraded (when it yields the same amount of skill point value as an artifact-level item), it can be named however the player wishes).

Handicapping

• Handicapping now levels up and gives a number of skill points to a weaker hero depending on how much weaker they are compared to the strongest hero in the game (when determining the strongest hero, items are included).

Producible/Resurrectable Retinue

• Retinue units can be purchased and resurrected at the keep (the cost of producing the unit is based on the race the unit belongs to, the race being led and the level of the unit).
• Retinue unit abilities are unlocked by default.

Changelog: Docs.google.com

Website: The-protectors.webs.com

Donations: Paypal.me

Discord: Discord.gg

Thanks for watching and for your continued support!

• The Protectors Team